Kulturpark Plänterwald

Visit any abandoned theme park in North America and you'd face locked gates to prevent anyone from wandering in and twisting an ankle, Lawsuit bait right... Well that is the case here too but for some (great) reason in Berlin they just opened it up for a 3 day party with live music, surreal surroundings and a torched "Burn Out Man". Its sort of like Burning Man but in a forest.

  Great place which used to be spooky but was cleaned up a lot for this event so the crunched dinosaurs are no longer in long grass, there was do not cross tape everywhere and some areas were off limits. Guards were annoyingly good.

I had to wait till late Sunday to get a shot without people in it :(

As I understand it: The Kulturpark Plänterwald started in 1969 as a socialist project but was liquidated by the Senate in 1989, and privately re-opened as Spreepark but then closed again in 2001 after the operating company went bankrupt. Thus the era of amusement parks in the city came to an abrupt end. In the middle of Berlin this property lies idle.
 Apparently, in the good years the park got 1.5 million visits but by 2001 it was down to 400,000 so it closed. Here the story takes a slight detour from the usual. In 2002 the owner and his family moved to Lima, Peru to open a new themepark. They shipped six rides from Berlin to Lima. It wasn't a success in Lima so in 2004 they came back. At this point the owner was arrested and sentenced to seven years in jail for smuggling 180 kg cocaine back from Peru in one of the rides....

Managed to get this shot before the guards found me.

  The Ferris wheel was the highight as its out in the middle of a pond which made for great pictures. The pond of course being stagnant and full of weeds (and frogs).

Right behind it was a kinda Viking ship (bizarre theme to this theme park) but that area was fenced off so couldn't see it up close.

Bizarre cars that followed a track off into the woods.

Roller Coaster

This video has much more:
www.berliner-spreepark.de/40_jahre_rummel_im_plaenterwald_fuehrungen.html

Andy

This day had 48 hours

Berlin is big on techno music and clubs. That would be an understatement of colossal proportions. One of these clubs was converted out of a concrete industrial building giving it a distinct bunker like feel. Last night Club Maria had its final party to say goodbye to the end of an era. This bunker club is situated right on the banks of the Spree river so if you take a break from the pounding beat there's a terrace that looks out onto the river. Its another victim of developers buying up the land to put up hotels and condo's. A bit like False Creek and the downtown east side of Vancouver :(

More info here:
www.exberliner.com/articles/obituary-maria-am-ostbahnhof

Apparently the lease on the world was up on Saturday according to an American radio preacher so on Saturday night a group of us headed over there to dance to mind bending beats and techno insanity. This began my introduction to Berlin's club scene. Absolutely incredible, a warren of hallways and seating connecting 3 big stages with 3 DJ's all packed with the Berliner masses. We were at the main stage for most of the night, big room, massive speakers and amazing light rigs. Right in the middle of this room was a collection of small and large disco balls (about 10 I think) all spinning but no spotlight on them, so the affect was rather muted.

Not from the night but that's the Maria vibe.

From Peter's iphone. No where near as bright as that most of the time.

Peter's iphone and the trippy disco death star madness.

   It officially started about 23h (11PM) but we got there at 1h when things were starting to heat up. What followed was an hour of techno dance from one of the pioneers of Berlin techno, Thomas Fehlmann. Apparently in his 50's now and other than the lack of hair you'd never know it :) The next few blur together and weren't as good but then the local favourite, Modeselektor came up and it was infectious rapture personified. Time melted along with each thump of the beat, the room, jungle hot, muggy and smoky thanks to massive smoke machines pumping out giant clouds that enveloped you completely. One moment you're in a crowd and the next your floating in a vapor cloud, confetti descending, then disappearing like tears in the rain (heh, had to get that in there) the girl in front, now a stunning vaporous apparition, a misty silhouette amongst the strobe-lights. I was powered by beer that night, nothing else:) Sometime later I went outside to the terrace to cool down, get some fresh air and water, its at this point that I discover its 5 AM and the sun is up. Back in for another hour or two and then we made our way to the exit. Nothing like mind shattering beats to keep you awake and fully aware. I could've kept going but this party didn't officially end until 6pm Sunday afternoon and that seemed a bit much. As it is, my ears are ringing and calf's are talking dirty to me.

  So I got home about 8AM Sunday. My usual task for the last few weeks was to head over to Mauer park to visit the only guy selling bikes who doesn't look like a thief. I should have bought one a few weeks ago but I wasn't getting there early enough…. I got that covered this time! So headed out the door after a quick breakfast and wash to see what he had to offer. Made it to the bike guy and there it was, the bike. Perfect combination of age and extras like servo powered lights, rat trap, 14 gears and a rough enough look that hopefully won't attract the thieves. I have wheels!!

  So now I have a bike, its a sunny day and I have to get it home. Ride of course. So what followed was a very cautious ride meandering through Prenzlauerberg, Mitte and Kreuzberg. And as if on queue, just as I enter Mitte I'm stopped along with the traffic as there's a bike race on through the Berlin city streets. A few blocks later I pass under one of the arches of the above ground S-Bahn and I hear a familiar beat. It seems there's a techno club buried under one of the S-Bahn arches, the only clue is the music escaping through the ventilation system, cool city. I was navigating via memory, what felt right and metro station names and did quite well I think. Now I just have to figure out how the 4 way stop intersections work as I don't see many stop signs! Gotta watch for Tram tracks too. The women here will prove quite a distraction as well, keeping eyes on the road will be tricky. There was a stunning brunette that morning, unless that was another vaporous apparition...

Andy

An evening with the master of the surreal

  Thank you KW (Kunst Werke) in Berlin. Jodorowsky himself was in attendance to present El Topo and the start of a Jodorowsky film fest.

Thanks to Diane Vincent for the photo from that night.

www.kw-berlin.de

  Amazing evening. It was more than sold out so they opened up the second floor which overlooked the event stage. I got there to late to be on the main floor so was upstairs. There was room for one row of people to see down and everyone else had to improvise. So benches and chairs were moved so we could look over the first row of people and down to Jodo. What an amazing sight from up top, everyone was sitting on the floor in a semi circle around him with us up top in more of a hemi-spherical motif. He is a great speaker (in English no less) and although it was a little hard to hear everything, he was very entertaining.

  He was asked about his thoughts on Dali. He recalled how his mother hated the way his father ate. One time while they were having eggs and as he sat between them, she picked up her plate and threw it at him, he dodged it. The eggs hit the wall and he saw a Dali painting in the dribbling eggs on the wall. Something to that effect anyway:)

  I wish I had my camera, he was very animated and passionate in his speech, at one point posing in a crucifixion pose.

  The evening was full of anecdotes and humourous moments. At one point he had all the guys grunting and all the girls humming, separately and together.

Andy

Metropolis in the Metropolis

Pardon me a minute while I geek out. I just got back from seeing the recently restored version of Metropolis in Berlin in an East German era huge single screen theatre (the Kino International on Karl-Marx Allee). Title cards were in Deutsch but I could figure out the gist anyway as I kinda know the story:)

  The poster isn't bad but the film is great. There's a lot more footage showing the deeds of Joh Fredersen's assistant "The Thin Man". With this being a 35 mm print and on the big screen I was able to spot a few more details in some cityscapes. The eye composite was incredible, each eye was photographed with that unique close up light rig so each eye had a great circular reflection. There are STILL some scenes missing but this is far better than previous versions.

Andy

U-Bahn vs Skytrain

Was anyone else disappointed by the size of vancouvers new Skytrain line just in terms of the size of the trains and the stations? I thought the stations should at least be longer to meet future needs. Apparently the Berlin system thinks along those lines and has trains a touch longer than the Canada Line. Looking down the length of the train as it snakes through that roller coaster tube reminds me of the scene of Paris bending from Inception.

Andy

May 1st in Berlin

So I went from moving into my place one day to a massive street party the next day. May 1st in Berlin is amazing, not to be missed.

Oranienstrasse in the heart of TRUE Kreuzberg. This street is awesome, a great collection of bars, cafe's, turkish cafe's and clubs, what Bergmann used to be I think. Many streets around this whole sector were closed to traffic and turned into a huge outdoor club. The smoke is either kabap shops cooking on bbq's in the street or residents doing the same to make a few bucks or bars with smoke machines and pulsing beats.

These stages are setup on every other intersection with many different kinds of bands. These guys were very heavy death metal.

This bar/cafe was an awesome quiet spot to stop and enjoy a beer and doodle in the sketchbook just 2 days before. Today they have huge amps and speakers with a DJ spinning club beats to a crowd who were very much into it!

Right above all that action.

Pink elephants, unicorns its all good here, a bit crowded though.

  So, no this isn't the traditional May day riot event nor even anything to do with the meaning of the day. This massive street party was (apparently) cooked up by the local government and police, I think in an attempt to calm the streets from violent ideas and to make it a party instead. I heard many distant booms and bangs the night before and there were armies of police vans lining the streets EVERYWHERE on the way to this party. Clearly something happened somewhere but I didn't find it.

Andy

My haus in Berlin :)

I'm in my place and its amazing, perhaps a bit too posh but I'm not about to look the horse in the smacker etc. Its on the very popular Bergmannstrasse which is kind of like 4th Ave and Alma in Vancouver or Oak Bay village in Victoria. Except with renovated old European buildings loads of tourists in cafe's and bars and strolling musician's. As I write the same guy with the souped up bike and huge sound system has just ridden by with the thumping club tunes throbbing. Its best to get away from Bergmann and go back a few blocks. Around the corner there's an independent music shop next to that is a Great cafe with seating above and behind the counter and next to that is a great little comic shop. There's a wonderful neighbourhood bar with small things to eat. Today there was a musician playing an upright piano positioned in the middle of the seating area at a blocked off street. Glass of wine perched on top :)

The street from my window at about 18h (6pm).

180 view of the shared backyard from Jessica's (my roommate's) room and our balcony.

Jessica's room with the balcony

My room, that thing on the left is my dresser! Hey look, lots of room for friends to camp out if they're in town:) We have the couch although its difficult to sit on let alone sleep, though there is an extra mattress but its a single. Still, its a free place to sleep.

The Kitchen is very Turkish with a double boiler tea kettle and bench seating with tassel cushions on the wall. Very nice dishwasher will help keep the peace between us both I think.

The bathroom with our washing machine and shower/jacuzzi tub!

View down to the shared garden with a place to park the bike, BBQ and a sand box for the cats... or the kids.

So I have one room all to myself which is almost as big as my place in Vancouver and yet the rent is half as much for the use of a total apartment about four times that size. Vancouver you got a lot a splaining-to-do.

Andy