Berlin Park

City parks

Berlin is a never ending discovery, also before the (near) end of summer. We are lucky enough because since some weeks the weather stays nice, quite warm for us. So I take the time after to go for a swim and drinks at Weissensee. Time as well to discover new places like this beautiful outside bar, facing the lake : Wasserturm. Please check the opening days and hours because the place is often booked for private events. I understand, I thought about it. I like to pass by after the swim, It is not even a detour. It is also the only place I found in the city capable of serving a decent French Ricard. I also have the time to discover the parks and lakes. If you are interested, please check this list and in English. The other Saturday, having a bicycle tour with my man, as almost every week-end, we ended up here. We don’t go with the bike with any purpose. Sometimes I just need to check something in a shop or simply let go and the wheels drive us anywhere. This park is a complete surprise. It is hidden between the south train station, the motorway and a place where you find big stores like Ikea. And suddenly, after crossing the bridge, you find landscape, a big park, and this one for which you have to pay a fee. This is called a biotope. They leave plants go their way, that is why you don’t walk directly on the floor but on ways specially built. The park is built on old railways unused since years because of evolution of traffic and building of new tracks. So instead of leaving the whole thing dying without activity, this park saw the day. You walk between plants and forest and discovers old train garages, mechanical warehouses, old steam locomotives, and of course restaurant and cafés. Some people exhibit products from the land (Bio is a high matter here) and you carry on walking until the end. I wish you a good time.

Instantanés

Fantasy film festival

This week in Berlin, you can attend the fantasy film festival. We saw yesterday evening Amer, a modern-experimental giallo movie. If you don’t know what giallo is, I recommend this article, that explains you a little what It is. This evening, something completely different but can be fun : Rubber, the life of a tire of Its own. This one is French and I am proud because It shows that French cinema can also be something else than Catherine Deneuve, Juliette Binoche or Louis de Funès. The plot : Robert is an inanimate car tire that has been abandoned in the desert and suddenly and inexplicably comes to life. As Robert roams the bleak landscape, he discovers that he possesses telepathic powers that give him the ability to destroy anything he wishes without having to move. At first content to wreak havoc on small desert creatures and various lost items, his attention soon turns to humans. Director Quentin Dupieux, better known as Mr Oizo, is a French music producer and film director best known for his electro house music. Mr. Oizo’s first feature film, Steak, was released in France in 2007 and received some good reviews from critics.

Inner City Out

The Martin-Gropius-Bau exhibition hall in Berlin hosts the artwork of the well-known Danish artist Olafur Eliasson. "Innen Stadt Außen" is the first solo exhibition by the Danish-Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson in a Berlin institution. The exhibition’s central theme stems from Olafur Eliasson’s close relationship with Berlin, where he has lived and worked for many years. Berlin is also the city where he has set up his multi-faceted studio, combining the functions of research, production and teaching. Since 2009 he has held a chair at Berlin’s University of the Arts, where he heads the Institute for Spatial Experiments.

Instantanés

9

The Scientist created the B.R.A.I.N. (or the Fabrication Machine) for peaceful purposes. However, the "Leader of Mankind" took control of the machine and used it to wage war on other humans. Lacking a soul, the machine was corrupted and turned on mankind, wiping them out. The Scientist constructed nine rag doll-like homunculi, or "creations," in order to ensure some form of life would carry on, and created a Talisman which could be used to destroy the Fabrication Machine. The Scientist died animating his final creation, 9. 9 awakens at the start of the film, taking the Talisman with him. Outside, in the lifeless and devastated world, 9 meets 2, who gives him a vocal processor to speak. However, they are attacked by a machine called the "Cat Beast" and 2 is captured. 9 is saved by one-eyed 5 who takes him to Sanctuary, an abandoned cathedral, where surviving creations of the Scientist are led by 1 and his bodyguard 8. 9 decides to rescue 2 from an old factory, aided by 5. The two locate 2 and the "Cat Beast" is destroyed by 7, the only female creation and an expert fighter. 9 spots the dormant Fabrication Machine and connects the Talisman to its socket, it sucks out 2's life force, which awakens the Fabrication Machine. The survivors retreat to 3 and 4's hideout where they reveal the machine's origins: an artificial intelligence called B.R.A.I.N. which creates other machines in its own image, but then turned on humanity and took over. 9 realizes they need to remove the Talisman from the machine, and returns to Sanctuary where 6, who seems to have knowledge of the Talisman, urges them to "return to the source." Sanctuary is attacked by a bird-like robot, which is destroyed, as is the Sanctuary. A snake-like robot, the "Seamstress", uses 2's corpse as 'bait' and, generating a series of flashes through 2's eyes, hypnotizes 8 and 1. 7 tries to stop the robot, but is captured and taken back to the B.R.A.I.N., along with 8. 9 follows the "Seamstress" to the abandoned factory and witnesses the life force being sucked out of 8 by the Fabrication Machine, but rescues 7 before the remaining creations destroy the factory and, seemingly, the machine. The survivors celebrate, but the machine rises and sucks the life force 5. 6 warns 9 that the souls of the murdered creations are within the machine and it shouldn't be destroyed, they must "return to the source" in the Scientist's workshop where 9 awoke. Then the machine sucks out 6's life force. 9 goes to the workshop and finds a hologram addressed to him, which explains how the B.R.A.I.N. was born of his intellect and was intended for good but was captured by government agents and used as a weapon of war, it became corrupted because the scientists never gave it a "real" soul. In recompense, the Scientist designed and animated the nine creations, putting part of his soul into each of them, giving them his life. He explains how the Talisman can be used to destroy the B.R.A.I.N./Fabrication Machine by taking the intellect that he gave from the machine. 9 realizes that if he can take the machines "life force" then he can save the souls of his friends. As they battle the machine, 9 prepares to sacrifice himself, but 1 sacrifices himself instead to allow 9 to remove the Talisman and destroy the machine. However, 9 is seemingly crushed to death underneath the Machine. 7 and the twins find his lifeless form and believe he is dead, but, much to their relief, he is alive, regaining consciousness in 7's arms. The film ends with 9, 7, 3, and 4 releasing the souls of 1, 2, 5, 6, and 8, who, after briefly bidding them farewell, soar into the sky and cause it to rain. The raindrops contain a green liquid the same color as the departed souls, hinting that there is still hope for future life.

Instantanés

The Pale Blue Door

If you are in Berlin this week, It is for you the occasion to be part of an event that will only happen until this week-end. Opened August 12th and for 12 nights, the Pale Blue Door takes place in a garden in Kreuzberg : the Prinzessingarden. Artist and set-designer Tony Hornecker has become something of a staple on the alternative London restaurant scene, having set up a quirky Shoreditch supper club spread across different fairytale rooms of his home, and asked visitors to enjoy Christmas dinner with him in a cardboard village. Having previously taken the eatery to Buenos Aires, Santiago and Glastonbury, his latest project sees him planting himself on German soil with the rather whimsical-sounding ‘The Garden’, promising to ‘draw a dream amongst the leaves’. Apart from surprise guests and a burlesque show element, there will, of course, be food – the quintessentially English menu includes a garden salad, roast beef with horseradish crème-fraiche, and a crumble of fancy. A type of supper club that travels around the globe always building a magic space made of old wood and things they find or they are given to then open their pale blue door to their guests for just 12 nights during the course of 3 weeks. 3 incredibly delicious courses, half a bottle of wine and a delightful evening entertainment come to you for a very affordable €25. While the space looks different in every city, in Berlin there was a middle ground with tables surrounded by little huts providing cosy spaces for diners in large and small parties…. If you thought the magic of summer was over, a night at The Pale Blue Door might just reignite some of that Midsummer enchantment.

Instantanés

How to be arrogant like a French ?

«We all know how are the French, Platini is French, he believes he is better than anyone else » declared Maradona about the President of the UEFA during the world cup. Or General McChrystal who had non-ambiguous words about the French capital and its politicians, but who had to resign since. So It is no surprise : for the rest of the world, we are haughty and contemptuous, persuaded to be the best, and the performances and attitude of the French football team didn’t do anything to change this cliché.
Why are we considered as haughty and contemptuous ? The weight of the History : More the story of a country is long, more Its inhabitants have a tendency to look with a haughty way the events. This is logical, the old Europe has often this tendency, the English will never say the contrary. But, maybe more than any other country, France puts in front people who had a weird behavior, meaning the ones who refuse to accept authority, refusing to die for anything else than their ideas. And often, they opposed themselves to the English. And because those believed “objectively” being superior to ourselves, declaring ourselves equal to them reflected a haughty attitude, contemptuous, provocating. Napoleon and his marshals did a lot for this reputation. So if you follow the legend, Cambronne, surrounded by British General Colville in Waterloo, could have declared : “the guard dies but does not surrender”, then with the instigation of the British, “shit”. The Cambronne’s shit, a shit to the face of the world that says : “look at us, we have conquered Europe with our armies and our ideas. We lost but we stay for ever the heroes of our time”. «Misfortune to the heroe who is not dead of a heroic death », a judgement often applied literally by the French. The important is not to win with but to die with panache. Besides Cambronne, this discussion between Surcouf and one of his enemy after the war : “ But, Monsieur, admit that you, French, you fought for the money while us, English, we fought for the honor…” . And the French corsair, braggart, to answer : “ certainly, Monsieur, but each fights to acquire what he does not have”. Always the talent for repartee. Or d’Artagnan, not even pubescent but proud like a Gascon, ready to provoke in duel anyone, especially if they are men of the Cardinal or Albions. Or Jeanne d’Arc, virgin, who fights the English outside France. We like to celebrate the acts of panache, big phrases, the « we only will go out with the force of the baionette” more than merciless tactical device. So, by correlation, this tendency to remember only defeats. We never have enough to do again the Alesia Battle, Azincourt, Trafalgar, Waterloo, Fachoda or Seville but no one to be delighted of Hastings, Bouvines or Iéna. We declare ourselves son of Vercingétorix, this loser, rather than son of Cesar, who has done nevertheless much more for us. The historian Ernest Renan, already, in a speech in 1882, “what is a nation” explained that the national feeling comes from “an inheritance of glory” but also “regrets to share”. And as for us, they are numerous. Where from this incomprehension on behalf of the Anglo-Saxon who consider that only the victory is beautiful and must be celebrated. here are only the Scottish people and the Dutch football players to understand us. You can find this relationship with History in literature and sometimes in other arts, and so in the culture we spread. Take for example ALexandre Dumas, one of the bestseller French writer in the world. In “the three musketeers”, one of the most memorable scene is the take of the Saint Gervais’ bastion by the four accomplices. Following a bet, during the siege of La Rochelle, they go with food to the assault of this advanced tower and kill a good fifteen protestant soldiers during one hour, with the vivas of the crowd. Once the picnic over, they go back to their trench. It is useless, but It is a story that stays in everyone’s mind. Typically French. With this particular relationship with the History are added numerous cultural elements which allow to consolidate the daily common contempt. Crucial point which makes that the French will always disdain the Anglo-Saxon: gastronomy, obviously. Cliché : we eat badly on the other side of the Channel and of the Atlantic Ocean. Now, in life, it is the most important. Thus the Anglo-Saxon understood nothing in the pleasures of the life. Thus, it is necessary to disdain them : what is needed to say. When the uncultivated American laughs at stinky cheeses, the French throws him the haughty eyebrow of the Greek watching the barbarians tumbling down from the hill. With gastronomy are added the women, who are the most beautiful, obviously, because the most elegant and the thinest of the world. Cliché would you say also (although), so much that books in the United States go out confusedly to understand the secret of the Frenchwomen. The English journalists ask also regularly the question. And are we not the most romantic, the best in bed, those with the longest, etc., etc.? An excellent food, good wines, beautiful women (it is connected) and an immense variety of landscapes and architectures which can make legally proud. France is so the third nation of the world in terms of places and classified monuments to the UNESCO world heritage after Italy and China. All these elements - maybe not very useful, but more tangible to the everyday life than the variations of the stock exchange and the investment rates in R&D-urge the Frenchman to look at their belly button.
Imaginary dialog between an American and a French :
- the American : « look, I have the nicest house and a big Cadillac. I succeeded in life”
- the French : « But to live with whom ? go to eat where and what ? have sex when ?”
- the American : « You are contemptuous, you are incapable to greet the success of the others.
- the French, who already is not listening anymore, thinking with nostalgia at his previous love affairs.
So now, some advices to be as contemptuous as a Frenchman.
Once these truths established, here is some advices to our friends across the Atlantic to be contemptuous as us :
- please do not create : if you spend one year in Paris, absolutely do not start art or any project. Everything has been written, done, by others and better than you (and the critics could go back to the Bible and Homer if necessary). So if you dare presenting your work, everyone will laugh at you and at your presumptuousness to have dared to assert that there was there creation and thus novelty. Adopt the opposite attitude : go to vernissages and laugh at them.
- As a general rule, do not become too enthusiastic. Banish from your vocabulary the “Oh my God” and other “Awesome”. Adopt the “yes, not bad”. At the most, you can eventually become enthusiastic for a nice girl, dedicate her songs and poems. But for a week maximum. Before the next one.
- Do not go to the Café de Flore and Deux-Magots (Saint-Germain-des-Prés) unless you completely lost your accent. It is reserved to the French to laugh at Americans tourists who think they are in a cool place when It’s been 50 years that It is definitely not one anymore. Feel free to make critics at people around you and to spread rumours, even if you don’t know them. Do not have any remorse, the others do the same against you, but with more talent. In general, critic everything. It was better before, It will be better after, you are borna t the wrong time, etc.
- Absolutely do not do your diary of the contempt of any Hello Kitty notebook. By the way, you have no diary, you write the novel of your time (you tell the story of your life, to make it short) at the terrasse of a café, and on a Moleskine one.
Those few historical elements, cultural and the advices should allow you to spend one year, having only one activity : to look at the world around you with disdain and arrogance.

WORLD WIDE

WORLD WIDE

Instantanés

The photograph and Its refrigerator

The artist Stefan Gbureck did not do the easy way. For his favorite bar, he carried a fridge from Munich to Berlin. And while hitchhiking. His start: a rest stop on the A 9 in Eichinger, near Munich. His goal: the bar Wows! Ville in Kreuzberg. Five days should have taken the trip. Gbureck met Polish truckers, hippies in a VW bus, football fans - and again and again baffled police. He was given food and drink, Germany celebrated the victory over Argentina and awoke in the morning next to his refrigerator at the highway edge. His journey in pictures.

Instantanés

Sowjetisches Ehrenmal

The Soviet Memorial in Berlin's Treptow Park was designed by the sculptor Evgeny V. Vuchetich and the architect Yakov B. Bepolsky and erected in 1947-49. This is the central memorial to the Soviet soldiers who fell in the battle for Berlin in 1945. Most of the material used in its construction is Swedish granite with which the Nazis had intended to build a triumphal arch as a sign of victory. On the stone gateways at the entrances to the Memorial (in the road skirting Treptow Park and in Puschkinallee) are the words, in Russian and German: "Eternal glory to the heroes who fell for the freedom and independence of the socialist homeland." In the avenue leading to the entrance is a female figure, "Mutter Heimat" ("Mother Homeland"), carved from a 50-ton block of granite. A broad path lined by silver birches leads to the Ehrenhain (Grove of Honor), with two walls of red granite symbolizing flags lowered in mourning, on the ends of which are bronze figures of kneeling Red Army men. In the center of the Grove of Honor, the burial place of 5,000 Soviet soldiers, are five stretches of lawn, with five stone bases bearing bronze wreaths. On each side of the grove are eight stone sarcophagi. The central feature of the memorial is the Ehrenhügel (Hill of Honor), on which stands a cylindrical mausoleum bearing a huge figure of a Soviet soldier, 11.6 m/38ft high. In his left arm he holds a child, in his right hand the sword with which he has shattered the Nazi swastika. A flight of steps leads up to a domed chamber under the statue, which weighs 70 tons. The interior of the mausoleum is decorated with mosaics (by the Soviet painter Gorpenko) depicting representatives of the various Soviet Republics mourning their dead. On the ceiling is the Order of Victory of the Soviet Union. The total length of the memorial site is 500 m/550yd. There is a further Soviet Memorial in the Tiergarten.

RIP Bruno Cremer

Bruno Cremer went to Paris following high school. He always knew he was made to be an actor and his mother helped him. He was admitted to the Paris Conservatory. He rose to prominence in the theater playing in Shakespeare's "Pericles," Oscar Wilde's "An Ideal Husband" and Jean Anouilh's "Poor Bitos" and "Becket." He has appeared in dozens of films, including The 317th Platoon, Is Paris Burning?, William Friedkin's Sorcerer and Bertrand Blier's Ménage. Cremer also appeared in over fifty television movies as the popular Commissaire Jules Maigret. In 2000, he wrote his memoirs in "Un certain jeune homme". But I will remember Bruno Cremer with two roled he played with Charlotte Rampling. First in 1975 with the “flesh of the orchid” of Patrice Chereau and then in 2000 in “under the sand” of Francois Ozon.