I've heard a rumour from Ground Control

Berlin layover June 13-18

The drive from Leipzig to Berlin was unremarkable. Mostly highway, little traffic. A smooth ride on the Autobahn. We did have to rush a bit packing up in our Noch Besser Leben rooms (*)…after coffee and bagels across the street, we came back to find the cleaning woman about to start breaking down the beds…she saw us and waved her hands and told us to start packing and go. So off we went.

In Berlin I stayed with a friend I know from SF, on the Kreuzberg/Mitte border, on a block where the Berlin Wall ran. Chad’s apartment is right where the border used to be. Now there’s a big pond, some greenery…it’s situated near Oranienstraße (a main shopping/restaurant street in Kreuzberg) but is on a quiet block. The best of both worlds. The rest of the band landed an Air BnB place in Friedrichshain, nearer to the club we were playing. My sister Louise and her friend Signe joined me there. Chad is an uber-mensch for putting us all up in his place.

I’d been to Berlin before, for a week back in June 2009. So I didn’t need to spend tons of time sightseeing. The only must-do on the agenda was the David Bowie exhibit at the Martin-Gropius Bau.

Louise & I went on Monday…a good choice. It wasn’t crowded, we didn’t need timed tickets, just walked right in.

...Stools, part of the Ai Wei Wei exhibit at Martin Gropius Bau

The exhibit was career-spanning, though in time-line mostly stopped the detail at the Berlin period of Heroes, Low and Lodger. Everything up to and including that era was presented in rich detail and context, so we see where his initial influences came from (the London singer-songwriter movement spurred on by the Beatles) to how he started to create personas and mold his music to the characters and situations he created. I’ve long been a Bowie fan; this exhibit deepened my appreciation for him. The Berlin era is my favorite, and that period received excellent treatment. We saw a few candid shots of Bowie, Iggy, the recording staff, recording space…you saw how the Berlin of the late 1970s affected the change in his music.

Beyond that, the time in Berlin for me was mostly about wandering. To get to the Bowie exhibit we walked from Chad’s apartment. To meet Scott the next day at Pergamon I walked.

....Miletus Market Gate at the Pergamon

Getting back to the apartment from Museum Island I walked along the Spree as far as I could on the river walk path. On Sunday, Chad, Signe and I walked through Charlottenburg, then into Tiergarten near the museum. We met up a bit later with another friend of Chad’s, watched football in a biergarten…generally meandered. We did finish the night at a somewhat fancy cocktail bar, the Green Door. Good drinks and great people watching form some regulars, friends of the bartenders. Including one guy wearing a white shirt, white pants with large black checker boxes, white belt and white shoes. French, of course. Takes a bold man to make that fashion choice work. Or maybe it helps being French.

Monday night was a big World Cup night. Germany-Portugal and the US-Ghana were the key matches. The Germany match started at 6pm Central Euro time, the US match at midnight. You didn’t need to be watching to know when Germany scored…the entire city seemed to yell at once. And they yelled 4 times in that match. The first half of the Germany match I watched at a cafe/bistro near Chad’s place, where a tv was set-up outside. Needless to say, just about every place with beer and/or food, had this kind of set up for the World Cup. I needed up watching much of the US match seated at a picnic bench on the sidewalk in front of a bodega-type shop. Bought a soda, sat with some other folks, we talked and made friends for an hour.

Berlin is one of those cities I appreciate but don’t connect with in any immediate way. Some of it might be because I grew up in Philadelphia, which is laid out mostly on a grid and on a numbering system that makes logical sense. Between that and some downtown landmarks visible from much of the area, it’s easy to figure out where you are. Berlin’s streets curve and angle. Some change names every few blocks. You can look up and see the tv tower, but because it’s mostly the same on all sides with nothing else as tall for reference, it’s not immediately obvious what direction to go unless you know the angle of the sun and shadows. I suppose being there longer I’d get to know which U-Bahn or S-Bahn stops are where and they could be location markers.

* Noch Besser Leben provides lodging for bands in a room or two down the hall from the music room. Meaning load-in is a 20 foot walk. Nice and easy.