Preview: NYC Tonight?
I was just flipping through all of the events in Berlin that interest me this week, when I realized hey! All these events have something in common... they're all about New York, somehow.
Even though he was a big hit in the techno scene, the Horrorist says that he also likes Goth nights and names Front 242, Nitzer Ebb and Depeche Mode among his influences. He's the perfect person to introduce you to club night in Berlin).
Starting Friday there is the Tattoo Circus in Kreuzberg - where else? This is a three-day event where tattoos, gigs, political workshops, films and prison tales all rub their inked-up biceps in a couple of venues in the gritty-but-green Mariennenplatz. One of the main venues for the event is the Rauch Haus squat in Kreuzberg. But guess what the second venue is? That's right, it's New Yorck at the Bethanien.
There is a ton of free stuff going on at Tattoo Circus, so you're bound to find something that you like there, especially if you read this blog regularly. Just check out the program on the event link. As the website says: "neither the tattooists, nor the piercers, the bands, performers or speakers will work for their own profit [...] the complete proceeds will get to those people who fight against the state and capitalism." By far the most intriguing event they've listed for this weekend, at least in my novelty-starved opinion, is the 'Clowns, Freaks, Queers and Criminals walk' from Bethanien to Rauch Haus. That's on Saturday September 20th. It'll be short, and anything but sweet.
Psychic TV's only German gig is also on Saturday the 20th of September at Gretchen. Psychic TV are legendary genre-benders of the eighties and nineties. They started their career in the UK but, after a Satanic Panic scandal that saw them falsely accused of ritual abuse by Britain's Channel 4, they moved to the U.S. Since 1996 the face of the band, Genesis P-Orridge, has been living in Brooklyn, which is in New York. Okay, so that connection is a bit of a stretch... but it gets better so read on!
If I could afford to go out clubbing on Saturday night myself, I'd go see Adam X playing at Stattbad Wedding. When reading Adam X's Resident Advisor biography I was surprised to learn that he is, 'one of the original techno DJ pioneers of the NYC techno scene.' Or maybe I should say that I was 'unsurprised' because by now, the whole NYC theme to the week was becoming kind of apparent to me. |
| Genesis P-Orridge says: "We should all be thinking as a species instead of as parts of the species as rivals." The singer's visual intensity is captured well in this line drawing by Gluki-Goroda of Deviant Art |
The final connection came when I was invited to a political party event that's happening during the day this Sunday. The Silent Climate Parade starts at 2 p.m. by Neptunbrunnen (that's the fountain with the mythical-looking dude holding a pitchfork in it) next to the TV tower (that's the really tall concrete pole with the giant disco ball on top of it). The reason why I'm being extra-clear in these descriptions is so that any New Yorkers who are reading this blog will know how to find them. Because, as everyone knows, the average American's knowledge of the world only extends as far as New York city itself... and maybe L.A. too*
At the start of the parade you can rent receiver-headphones and then, later, you can use them to listen to live DJ sets that will be broadcast over them as the parade wends its way through Berlin. Perhaps that's some kind of a commentary on how the climate change crisis has failed to raise a reaction from society as a whole, despite being on everyone's minds.
Also on Sunday, a "bike disco" critical mass ride gets rolling out of Kreuzberg at 2:30 p.m. It will end at Brandenburger Tor, where it meets up with the silent march. From 5 p.m. onward there will be a climate change demonstration-festival by the Tor. It's part of a globally coordinated series of actions that are intended to draw attention to the start of the U.N. climate change summit on September 23rd. And guess where that summit is taking place? That's right: in New York City.
There's a sign-making workshop before the demonstration, for anyone who knows exactly what they want to say to the status quo. It's on Friday at 6 p.m., at Werbellinstr. 50 Neukolln. More details about that event can be found here
Now that I'm at the end of this entry, I realize that all these events have something else in common: they are all being put on by people who want to shake up the status quo. But then again, that's pretty much a constant theme on my blog... and in Berlin. So I'll just wrap it up with some final words from George Monbiot:
"Humankind’s greatest crisis coincides with the rise of an ideology that makes it impossible to address. The self-hating state cannot act. Captured by interests that democracy is supposed to restrain, it can only sit on the road, ears pricked and whiskers twitching, as the truck thunders towards it. Confrontation is forbidden, action is a mortal sin. You may, perhaps, disperse some money for new energy; you may not legislate against the old." From Forbidden Planet.
*Just kidding, I know plenty of well-travelled Yanks... but just love winding them up!
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| Image from systemchangenotclimatechange.org |
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