Motor FM

Small post about the radio channel I tuned the radio on my apartment (which I am cleaning right now, leaving tomorrow...) to - Motor FM. Nothing groundbreaking but a good mix of the popular side of indie and alternative rock, and electro. Cool logo as well, Berlin sure does love its tower.
They manage to pronounce the english band and song names pretty well, it's funnier on French radio stations :-)

Berliner Philharmoniker

Last Friday I went to the Berliner Harmoniker for the concert of 8 pm. I don't know anything about classical music (except, of course, the utterly famous composers which are thought you in secondary school) but I do like it once in a while. And the Berliner Philharmoniker is a pretty famous concert hall as are the orchestra and the solo violin player of this evening, Janine Jansen. I had a pretty good place, which was at the backside of the orchestra but central and not too far away. The hall is very well designed though, and there isn't a single place where the view and music isn't excellent. That's why the cheapest ticket was 18 euro, as well. Despite the hefty price tag, the hall was packed, maybe five percent of the places were empty.

Not surprisingly, I was surrounded by other plain-clad tourists, while on the more expensive places in front of the orchestra one could spot gala dresses an lots of tuxedo black&white. Big bar at the entrance selling wine and champagne which I did want to check out, but the 5 euro price tag per glass quenched my thirst.

Funny detail: at the garderobe were big bowls of anti-cough pill samples and it was pretty strange to hear nobody making a noise when the orchestra was playing - until the break, when everybody coughed.

The music itself was exceptional with a great performance of the director and the violin soliste. I don't know anything about playing the violin, but the pieces she played did sound difficult enough, and she played it with much bravado. Shame though it lasted only for one hour and a quarter, only to be followed by a pretty ridiculous four or five return-rounds by the director and the soliste. The acoustics of the hall are great as well, the orchestra sounding like I was sitting right in front of it.

The music started with strings alone as the first piece was a string-only work, the rest of the orchestra together with the soliste came after the first break.

Berliner Philharmoniker
Daniel Harding Conductor
Janine Jansen Violin

Béla Bartók
Divertimento for string orchestra
Benjamin Britten
Violin Concerto
Richard Strauss
Death and Transfiguration

Tour 2 – From the Flak Towers to the Mounts of Debris

This afternoon at 13 o'clock I made my third and last Berliner Unterwelten tour, this time in the remains of the Flak Turm in Humboldthaim park, of which I wrote about in an earlier post.
The tour only explores a very small part of the building, which is the upper part of the northern part of the Turm.
There is another, more extensive ("Extrem") tour which explores a lot more and requires some decent climbing and flashlighting, but that tour is sold out for the rest of the year.

The tour of today explored the upper two levels, which were cleared of all the rubble and where stairs and railings have been restored or made. Some very impressive sights like deep stairwells (the building being 40 metres high, and we entering at top), enormous blocks of concrete thrown around by the force of the demolition explosions, huge concrete structures bent, moved, shifted - part of the wall actually moved outwards and is now a famous climbing wall on the outside. Lots of steel reinforcement visible as well, some rods at least 3 cm in diameter.
Loads of information about how the building was used and how it was built with many pictures. For some of the pictures on show in the tour and a lot of information (although in German), check out this article on the BU website.
Also check out the page on the Humboldthain-Extrem tour, which has some more pictures from deeper in the structure.

The guide was the same person as of the cold war bunker tour I took last week, and did a good job again, telling about the cleaning and restoration efforts in the flak tower as well.

The images are all property of Berliner Unterwelten again, as you are not allowed to take pictures inside. The last picture shows the pile of rubble which is beginning to form around the rest of the tower.

Funny detail: the tower is now a big wintersleep location for bats, so the tours are discontinued in the winter.

Deutsches Technikmuseum

This afternoon, after my Berliner Unterwelten tour of the flak tower in Humboldtshainpark (more on that later) I went to the Deutsches Technikmuseum close to Gleisdreieck U-bahn station. As you would expect, this museum is all about Technik, which means engines and machines as well as consumer goods and lots of history lessons, even some demonstrations of product manufacturing, like suitcases.
On this google earth image you clearly see the plane on top of one part of the museum, which is of course one of the eyecatchers of the museum on the outside. Many more eyecatchers inside as well.
The two oddly-shaped buildings south of the plane are part of the museum as well, they used to be parking space for train locomotives, and the disks you see right next to those buildings were rotating platforms which were used to "pick" a locomotive and put it in the railway system. You can see those from ground level on the first picture. There is a lot of other stuff outside as well, you can see a water tower (the ball-shaped object, which actually stands on a tall structure) and even a proper Dutch windmill (not on the picture)

The museum itself is awesome. Really. If you visit berlin, go there. In the morning, as you can easily spend a whole day there (there is a restaurant as well). I went there at about 3:30 pm and the museum closed at 5:30, so I had to rush some parts which is a shame.
The museum is separated in several areas, some of them interesting but not that impressive like a part with all kinds of fabrics, their industrial uses and a nice collection of old looms (some of them using a rudimentary form of programming with punched cards - actually, looms were the first "programmed" machines). Other areas deal with photography and video (the photography section having some cool 3D stuff as well, like a holographic laser-generated 3D face) or telecommunication. The most interesting areas however, were those about trains, aviation and shipping.

The train exhibition contained loads of very detailed scale models of trains and bridges and stations, and a lot of real deal locomotives (mainly steam) and train carriages. Check out the picture on the left, which is a "Preußische S 10" (the website of the museum has a detailed pdf list of all its locomotives) which dates back to 1911. Sure knew how to make impressive stuff then, as the thing weighs 51 tonnes empty and is 21 metres long.

A little while later I met this BEAST. It doesn't even fit on the picture. 24 metres long, 1817 kW of power (2430 bhp), max speed of 150 km/hour. The last one was actually in use until 1975.
Yeah, the picture doesn't do it justice, it is very impressive in real life.
Not all impressive and cool however, part of the exhibition was dedicated to the role of the Deutsche Bahn in the deportation of the jews, with a wooden transport carriage like the one used for jews on display as well.

Anyway, this place is a walhalla for train buffs, and might very well turn you into one :-)

I then moved to the new part of the museum, the part with the airplane on top. That area has been tailor-built (is that a real English expression?) for the collection of ships and airplanes, as the objects often span several floors and in this way offer a very immersing experience. Ship engines, detailed maquettes and even complete ships on display, next to navigation equipment, antique naval weapons, a video on the U-Boot war, old whale hunting harpoons and loads of other stuff. On the two floors above that airplanes and parts of airplanes are standing and hanging all around, from replicas of the very first one-person gliders over WW1 double-decker planes over WW2 fighter planes and V-bombs, early jet-engine planes up to a whole lufthansa transport airplane.

After all, a very interesting visit, and for only 4.5 euro a real bargain as well. There is a special kids area as well, and it's not all about looking alone: there are several objects where you can try things yourself. It can be interesting to just walk through in a couple of hours but also for those wanting more in-depth information as there are lots of computer monitors offering extensive information.

Bang Bang Club

It sounds like another kitkatclub with lots of, erm, banging, but it's a small indierock club right at Hackescher Markt. Actually, it's located under the rail tracks, so besides the drum and bass guitar vibrations, you often feel a deeper rumble coming from a train passing over your head. Picture on the left is the Hackescher Markt S-bhf from the outside, lights are probably because of the Festival of Lights, more on that at the end of this post.

As I checked last.fm again for inspiration for the evening, the most popular and interesting event seemed to be a shoegaze/dream pop gig with Malory, a german band. After checking out some songs online (which were pretty convincing), I decided to go and shelled out the 10 euro at the entrance (after walking around for ten minutes looking for the place).

Foreprogram was Come to Hannes, a young guy with his guitar and laptop and voice. Cool and everything well worked out, with the laptop taking care of whatever background instruments (drum, guitar, electronic beat) needed and he singing and playing his guitar live. Short rap performance by a friend of his as well, which was a nice diversion. Nice visuals as well.






Then came Malory, which was excellent with some proper hair-raising solid-guitar-soundwave climaxes, complete with projections. Cool stuff, and real "shoegazing" indeed with the band members staring at some indefinite point on the ground about two metres in front of them.

Small audience, about 50 people.






Berlin has since tonight or last night started its Festival of Lights, which means lots of famous landmarks are specially illuminated with projected texts, moving and colorshifting lights, lasers and spotlights... Even the Park Center shopping center close by has joined the festival, check out the picture. There will be special events as well, off course with "light" as central theme.
Damn, the more I come closer to leaving this city, the more it has to offer.

Fuck Buttons

Yesterday evening, before I went to the cinema to see Berlin Calling, I went to a concert in Kreuzberg Festsaal. As I wanted some inspiration for the evening, I checked last.fm and the most popular event was the concert of Fuck Buttons and HTRK, and the tag cloud of the former is like "noise, experimental, drone, electronic, post-rock". Can't possibly go wrong there :-)
Decided to check it out, and after arriving at about 9 pm and paying 13 euro (2.5 for a beer), the foreprogram started - which was HTRK. Cool group as well, consisting of two asian dudes and a cool deeply-cleavaged (although very un-smiling) chick. Most of the songs sounded pretty alike, but I liked it.
Then came Fuck Buttons, which was a mix of hard beats, distorted guitar, noise, low-fi voice effects (fisher-price radio!) and live percussion, all looped and mixed up on the fly. Very cool. Pop-drone?

The place itself was a regular small concert hall (200-300 people) but with an excellent sound system.
Kreuzberg is a strange place, the area around Kottbusser Tor U-bhf seemed to be filled with drunks, homeless people, crazies and young people.

Berlin Calling

It's a movie about a Berlin DJ (who is played by Paul Kalkbrenner, a famous techno producer) and it's about techno, drugs, love and everything in between. I had seen the movie before at home, but I just had to see in in Berlin itself. And what place would be better than some small movie theatre in Friedrichshain? I went to Tilsiter Lichtspiele, which basically consists of a bar, toilets and a movie theatre for about 50 people. The toilets were dirty, the projector just an off-the-shelf digital projector, the left front speaker had a bad contact... and I loved the place. 4.5 euro for a movie, 2.5 for a beer. You have to pay your cinema ticket at the bar, and the waiter is a nice guy who looks like Viggo Mortensen. 'nuff said.

I was the only one watching the movie, and they started it just for me :-) I'd like to watch Antichrist there as well, which is the 8pm movie. Oh, I got a stempelkarte, which gives me one free movie for two paid movies. Now that is a real bargain. Maybe if I watch Antichrist tomorrow, I can see another movie of their Lars von Trier Filmreihe for free. Have seen way too little of his movies anyway.
Actually.. none of them. That's bad.

Wochenende

Weekend! Sadly it's over now, though.
Friday evening I went to Berghain again, Sub:stance. Was looking forward to this a lot, although the music was kind of a desillusion. Have I grown out of dubstep? Has dubstep grown out of me? I guess I was just longing for the deep, relentless techno beat of berghain on the saturday night before. Maybe I just wasn't drunk enough. I stayed however, 10 euro entrance and one hour of waiting makes you think twice before you leave a place. The music wasn't all bad, however. And the panorama bar offered some variation.
The crowd was very different as well. Gone were the gay people and hello to short trousers and baseball caps.

Once the line-up in berghain itself stopped (8 am), I changed to Tresor. Located close to S-bahn station Jannowitzbrucke (yup, close to Kitkatclub) in an old electricity generation plant (hello Berghain) its friday evening was one of (industrial) hardcore. The Speed Freak had come that evening as well as other pretty famous industrial hardcore artists. I should have gone there instead of Berghain, perhaps. Anyway, cool place. Very gritty, dark, dirty. Feels like scraping your face over concrete, but in a good way. Some dude selling lollipops at the entrance - this was a pretty hardcore place. Only the main room was still open, with about 50 people. Main room has a big window in the side offering a view over the blue-lit insides of the factory.
Stayed there for about an hour, then switched to Golden Gate. I read about it, people describing it as a cool underground place. Which it is :) It is very, very small too, as the guy I met waiting in Ostkreuz told me (he was a Spanish person living in Berlin for about eight years. Oh, and he had studied physics - that was a first). Golden Gate is located in an old storage/maintenance room of an U-bahn station and the dance room is about as big as a decent living room in a house. 5 euro and a thorough pocket check got me in.
This is a place which draws mainly locals coming there to chill down from a night of clubbing. Felt like a pub where you go to to meet people you know, a place where you go often and know everyone. Very nice and cosy with lots of couches and low music volume. With nice and cosy I don't mean the place itself, which is pretty plain and worn, but the atmosphere. I liked it. Everyone was on some kind of upper - but knew how to handle it. Different from the kids in Berghain stumbling out of the toilet sweeping their nose at their sleeve.
But all nice things must end sometime so went home to crash in the couch at about 1 pm and to wake up again at 10 pm.

For saturday night I had planned a night of Arena Club, which was very close to my apartment- just a ten minute walk.
Very nice place, an old factory with lots of stairs, walkpaths and some old piping and machinery left. Even a small waiting line (ten people) and weird door policy (group of four perfectly normal girls turned down, as well as a couple of thirty-somethings - the porter saying people coming here are usually dressed up and they didn't fit) - but I got in without problem, dressed just plain. I don't know, maybe guys alone are considered good spenders. Coat and pocket check, asked if I had a photo camera (although I saw a couple of camera flashes during the night).

Besides the industrial look, there is some funny and trippy decoration as well, which gave the place a friendlier, tounge-in-cheek feel. Music was not bad but again pretty light-weight for my taste. Service was unfriendly, which is a shame. Is it so hard to smile when you hand me over my three-euro drink? This is one of the things where Berghain shines: even in the wee hours of the morning, staff are smiling and friendly.

After that I wanted to check out Maria am Ostbahnhof, but that weekend was a reservation-only weekend. Maybe I'll check that place out next friday, which will be my last night out (except if I would travel to Prague wasted). French electro with Yuksek live, hmm.

So today at monday I cleaned up the place a bit after idling all sunday afternoon in the couch watching movies (Lawrence of Arabia - Ponyo on the cliff. Excellent movies) and staying awake to reconfigure my biorhythm. After that I wanted to visit the dome on the Reichstag, which is free to visit and looks like a cool place with an impressive view. Turns out the dome is closed until wednesday for a cleaning operation, so ended up going to the Volkswagen Automobilforum at Unter den Linden, where there was a free exhibition of pictures of North-American nature, made by Pavel Sticha.
Some nice pictures, but most of them seemed to be just rocks in funny shapes. A duck-shaped rock. A foot-shaped rock. A hamburger-shaped rock. Nice, but not that special. But hey, it's free so kudos to Volkswagen and Skoda.

After that I went to Deutsche Guggenheim, which is close to the Automobilforum. Guggenheim huh, sounds impressive. And it had some very famous pieces indeed, although it contained only paintings (I like to see some three-dimensional stuff as well) and half of the collection were pictures of squares extensively commented by artsy people.
The most interesting one was one of Paul Klee (image on the left), who made awesome stuff like this and this and this. The Daimler exhibition I visited last week however, was more interesting and much more relaxed (at least three guards in the guggenheim exhibition and lots of people).

After that I went to see Pixars Up in the Cinestar cinema in the Sony Centre at Potsdamer Platz. That cinema shows mainly "OV" or OriginalVersion movies, which means they are in the original version, often without german subtitles, which is great. Brilliant movie as well, true pixar magic.
The cinema itself is nice, a pretty classy place with even free newspapers to read on the comfy couches while waiting and drinking your (3.6 euro for half a litre) beer. No digital projection, but bright image and excellent sound. Most of the cinema is actually underground, the main hall showing the underside of the fountain central in Sony Centre. Pretty cool, as that part of the fountain has a glass floor.

On my way out I found a stand with free Exberliner magazines, which is english-language and all about music, art and places to go to.