Unscene Berlin

A few years ago, I did a post about the weird party names in Berlin. Things have obviously come full circle because now, I'm noticing names again but this time, it's business names. Today, I saw this place in Friedrichshain called "Sound & Cocktails". Like, how much more non-committal can you get? The only thing you know for sure about that place is that you'll have cocktails in a space that isn't a sonic vacuum.  Later, on my way home, I tried to list some even more non-committal names that these people could use for their next location: Sonic Frequencies And Fun Appliances And Atmosphere Dinner And Dimensional Space Liquids And Luminescence -  (because if you specify 'light', people might get their hopes up for nothing) Vibes & Vertebrates -  (because if you specify 'people', people might get their hopes up for nothing) Or, my personal favourite: Molecular Structures And Motion I can i...

Vote for the wrong party in this election and your party might be over - for good! If you live in Berlin, hail from the EU and are registered at your home address, you will have received a funny little orange and white voting form, recently. It's one of the little upsides of all the bureaucracy in this city: they remember to include you in things like the municipal elections without you having to beg for it. Lots has been written about the conventional party choices - SPD, CDU, Linke - so I won't be covering those in this piece.  Besides, it's not only fair but also kind of the mandate of this whole blog to talk about the counter-cultural and left wing issues that are facing Berlin voters this Sunday. So here are the key buzzwords to look out for, and what they mean: A100: Going Nowhere Fast. The A100 is a new highway that will run through Treptower Park, across the Molecule Man bridge, straight down Afterhours Alley (think Else, Magadalena, Wilden Renate ...

Credits as per photo, via R19 Facebook page Club R19 is closing. Another phenomenon of the Berlin party scene is vanishing, leaving us grappling to describe exactly what it is.  Or w as .    The problem with R19 is setting yourself apart from whatever is happening there for long enough to describe it.  Stop for a second and someone / something will grab you and drag you along for a ride. Usually, I just show the place to people and let them decide what they t hink it is .  Their reactions vary from wowed to wary but they're u sually closer to the 'wow' end of the spectrum . I’m a big believer in taking party photos ( taken responsibly and with permission ) but I’ve never had time to think about taking a pic in R19 .  T ime or space.  Anything that you do that isn't part of the present seems to leave a palpable vacuum that the people around you pick up on, zero in on a nd try to fi ll ....

Berlin's Thought Police in action You might have seen the footage on the news in the last few weeks of flack - jacketed cops milling around outside of one of Friedrichshain's playfully patchworked 'squats' (which aren't actually squats , anymore, although they once were). Y ou might have read a snippet of text or two, telling you about an attack on a passer -by in the street, and a raid o n a house.  The chances are very good, though , that you didn' t get the whole stor y of what actually happened in Rigaer Strasse.   I know I didn't.  So i n this po st, I'm going to share what I've learned about it so far.   According to the press, on January 13th , a police officer was a ttacked in   in Rigaer Strasse in North Friedrichshain .  Der Spiegel wrote that the injured officer in question " was overthrown, beaten and kicked to the ground" by four people who were " suspected" left wingers. "According to p...

Here in Berlin, Spree is the name of the river that runs through the city. But in English, the word spree is used in one of two senses: 1) to describe a mindless spending binge (as in 'shopping spree') or 2) to describe a bloodbath (as in 'killing spree'). With the Mediaspree development project, Berlin’s city council seems to have done the impossible: it's found a way to combine all three meanings.   City councillors may appear to accept Berlin's underground arts scene; indeed, some of them claim to support it. Nevertheless, that scene is being threatened by the commercial developments that the council has initiated. Until recently, the city of Berlin existed within a bubble of commercial neglect. Politically and economically unstable, it was deemed too risky for commercial investors to work with. Berlin has managed to turn its risky reputation into a virtue though, attracting tens of thousands of D.I.Y. artistic refugees from so...