Time to plan the first of this winter’s film evenings

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A film on either Prime or Netflix is agreed on. I cook. We watch the film in the late afternoon and then we eat.

This might be the first dessert. Despite the icecream component this, to me, is definitely a winter dessert. Now I just need to find a main course which is not too heavy or rich.

Life is weird on all levels

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I have been in many bizarre constellations, settings, and situations in my life, but the most bizarre is now, and has to do with one of my hobbies.

Luckily, there are some “normal” and really nice people involved, whom I am really grateful and happy to have met, but among the rest, one craves attention by deliberately making as much noise as possible, one is always whining about this, that or the other, and making bitchy comments every time I open my mouth (which I now try to do as little as possible), and one is the worst misogynist I have ever met personally, lecturing me, shouting, whatever I do or do not do, in a tone which he would never use towards any of the men in the room. Oh, and a couple of them crave praise and do not seem to mind the teacher praising them in a tone as if they were eight-year-olds (despite the fact that they are around my age).

Why am I choosing to spend so many evenings in such a toxic environment? Good question. I must be a sucker for punishment.

Exhibitions to visit

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Purely as a reminder to myself, since Microsoft Word no longer synchronises documents edited on several different devices.

A whole new way of designing tables – it will take a while. One thing I don’t understand is why does it have to be narrow?

FromTillNameAddress and/or commentsOpening hours
     
14.09.24.11.Akad.der Künste Pariser Platz 
29.11.Kuckei+Kuckei
25.10.30.11.ep.contemporary
25.10.30.11.DiehlNiebuhrstr. 2
28.11.08.12.BBA Photography PrizeKühlhaus
14.09.08.12.Haus der Kulturen der Welt  
08.12,Stiftung Kunstforum Berliner Volksbank
Kaiserdamm 105, 14057 Berlin

Dienstag bis Sonntag 10 – 18 Uhr, Montag
 04.01.  Mianki  
 05.01.Zentrum für aktuelle KunstZitadelle 
 05.01.Das Minsk 
 05.01.Hamburger Bahnhof Di, Mi, Fr 10–18, Do 10–20, Sa/So 11–18 
 05.01.Albertinum DRESDEN  
29.11.06.01Dorothée Nilsson GalleryPotsdamer Straße
12.01.Gropius Bau  
19.01.Nordic Embassies
 22.01.c/o Berlin  
25.01.Galerie Springer
 14.02.Degussa NiederlassungFranzö Str. 48 
15.01.Late GDR in photography
https://ngbk.de/en/programm/programm/an-den-raendern-taumelt-das-glueck
 16.02.Palast der Republik, Humb.  
23.02.Clemens Sels Museum, NeußCombine with Art Karlsruhe a.o.
 28.02.ProfitopolisNeue Museum der Dinge 
  02.03.Lenbachhaus and MUCA Munich 
  02.03. Max Liebermann Haus, Pariser Platz Do-So: 11.00-18.00 Uhr
Mo-Mi: geschlossen
 
 10.03.Palais Populaire  
  16.03. Lipsius Dresden 
 08.03. 29.06. Albertinum
Wolfgang Tillmans, Dresden 
    
  
     
FromTillVenueAddressOpening hrs

Opportunities to play bridge in English in Berlin in the second half of 2024 and first half of 2025

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Last updated: 20 November AM. Will be changed and updated regularly.

BREAKING: I SEE THAT THERE ARE NEW MEMBERS IN BOTH THE GROUP ON NEBENAN AND IN THE FACEBOOK GROUP. PLEASE DO GET IN TOUCH IN CASE YOU ARE INTERESTED IN PLAYING BRIDGE OVER THE HOLIDAYS WHEN WE ARE ALL BETWEEN VHS COURSES. ESPECIALLY IF YOU ARE UNDECIDED WHETHER TO COMMIT TO ONE OF THE VHS COURSES, THIS WOULD BE A GREAT INTRODUCTION TO THE COURSES, TO THE TEACHER, AND TO THOSE OF US WHO HAVE BEEN PLAYING FOR A LITTLE WHILE.

This autumn’s VHS courses are running and coming to an end in a couple of weeks. Below is information on the opportunities to play privately during the holidays, as well as information on the VHS courses due to start in the middle of January:

WHEN VHS IS CLOSED, THERE IS STILL THE OPPORTUNITY TO PLAY AT MY PLACE, AND THE EARLIER I KNOW IF THERE IS INTEREST, THE BETTER:

Below is a week-by-week overview, including the weeks where for one reason or the other there is no bridge course at VHS. Where nothing else is stated, we aim at arrivals from 18.15, ready to start playing at 18.30, but for those who can only come later, that is also OK. We’ll start playing as soon as enough people have arrived.

The occasional opportunities to play bridge privately during autumn, in the weeks where VHS is closed, are marked with *** below.

Week 47: Wednesday 20 November VHS 8/10, and Friday 22 November VHS 7/10.

Week 48: Wednesday 27 November VHS 9/10, and Friday 29 November VHS 8/10.

Week 49: Wednesday 4 December VHS 10/10, and Friday 6 December VHS 9/10.

Week 50: Friday 13 December VHS 10/10.

***Week 51: At my place Tuesday 17, Thursday 19, or Friday 20 December.

What we know so far: Teresa is available on 17 December but NOT on 19 December.

***Week 52: For now, any time. I will be staying in Berlin and do not celebrate Christmas, so if you are interested in playing, please speak up and feel free to suggest dates.

What we know so far: Teresa and Rob are available most days.

***Week 1: 30 December to 5 January: For now, any time, as far as I’m concerned, except 4 and 5 January during the day.

***Week 2: 6 to 12 January: Thursday 9 or Friday 10 January.

2025 courses now online for registration:

Course starting Wednesday 15 January: https://www.vhsit.berlin.de/VHSKURSE/BusinessPages/CourseDetail.aspx?id=743390

Course starting Friday 17 January: https://www.vhsit.berlin.de/VHSKURSE/BusinessPages/CourseDetail.aspx?id=725702

The best ways to keep informed are

Comments? Questions? Attending but don’t know my address yet? E-mail me here. (For newcomers to the subject: please refer to the previous posts in this category for (almost) anything else you need to know).

“Adventures in Surrealist Photography”

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LAST UPDATED 14 November PM.

I signed up for this photography course which turned out to be a mistake. Partly because, as it turned out, it is more about paper and cutting and pasting and glue than about photography. Now, I don’t use the word hate lightly, but here it is: I hate paper and cutting and pasting and glue, for any other purpose than purely practical. And collages. They are too messy. And partly because I don’t have a creative, let alone artistic streak in me, and during the first class it became clear that those are required (although it is still not quite clear to me, what is expected of us, which is perhaps just another proof that I am out of my depth in this class).

However, I have always liked surrealist painting and sculpture and will try to dive into surrealist photography during the coming weeks. I did visit the Max Ernst exhibition in the photography museum, but came out totally uninspired, so he will not be on my list of favourite surrealist photographers :-).

Whether this post will turn out to be suitable for presentation in the class is doubtful, though.

Talking about collages, this, from 20222, is the closest I will ever get to making one:

Incidentally, going by some of the synonyms offered by the various dictionaries – “strange”, “dreamlike” – the above is from what I can safely say was the most surreal time of my life (described elsewhere on this site). Even surpassing the first Covid19 lockdown, AND 5 November 2024…..

I guess I have always found life, and the world, surreal (and not in a good way), and now more than ever. We are living surrealism, and humans – the most disagreeable species on earth – constitute surrealism personified.

In order to disperse all those dark thoughts (by the way, I was stunned to see how on 6 November, everyone else continued chirping and lah-di-dah-ing as if nothing had happened) I went to see the Sony World Photography exhibition, not looking for surrealist photography particularly, but to see if I could find something which I could juxtapose or otherwise use together with my own photos.

The first one is from the exhibition, the second one is my own (I call it “The Dingo ate the Baby”). But naah, they work better separately:

Having barely finished destroying Planet Earth, we are now looking for other planets to go and destroy, including, unfortunately, the moon (though strictly speaking not a planet, but we’ll still do what we can to ruin it). Personally, I prefer to enjoy it from afar with no signs of human interference. The first photo is from the Sony exhibition mentioned earlier – the second is a triptych I made of the setting full moon some time during summer 2024:

The day after, I went in search of some splashes of colour on a grey day, literally as well as metaphorically, and was also hoping for photos to illustrate the contrast between the abundance in this part of the world, compared to the abject deprivation in other parts. I have to say I was unprepared for so much distasteful ugliness, as well as the obscene food waste. But yes – the geese go well with pumpkin – in more ways than one.

On 9 November, Germany celebrated the 35th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. In Berlin, a wall of posters was put up along the trajectory of the wall from a little north of the central station to a little beyond Checkpoint Charlie. Impressions from the day are in a separate post. This is one poster that caught my eye with surrealism in mind – I don’t really understand what it is referring to, but the photo looks like it fits the category of surreal:

The next day – birdwatching (a bit of a joke in thick fog) on Tempelhofer Feld. There was definitely a dreamlike atmosphere and again – more photos in a separate post):

Earlier this autumn, I was experimenting with ICM to see if it might make already strange photos stranger, perhaps even creepier.

Sharp or with motion blur – what works best? :

Some more ICM:

Other previous attempts at making photographs look “surreal” – not sure how many of those actually work:

A couple of older triptychs. The first one is what can happen during a pandemic lockdown – the second while walking along a beach somewhere in my favourite part of the world: The Wattenmeer:

I am compiling a list of favourite surrealist photographers – to be added in due course.

Desperately trying to fit in a visit to this exhibition “Surrealism + Antifascism” in Lenbachhaus in Munich. Sounds to me like a must-see exhibition.

Birdwatching on Tempelhofer Feld Sunday 10 November

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With Merlin Schiel, Freilandlabor Britz, listed in Umweltkalender.

Woke up to thick fog but a weather app insisting it would lift at around 9.00 – the time of the start of the walk – which is why I attended. The fog did not lift, but there was a special atmosphere on Tempelhofer Feld (not least due to my fear of getting lost since I already have no orientation skills whatsoever), and also, a couple of kestrels let us get quite close, so I am glad I went.

And some on the way out, and some on the way home, and two from my home:

Pub quizzes and quiznights

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Last updated 11.11. AM

UNDER DEVELOPMENT, IN PROGRESS, AND WILL BE UPDATED AS NEEDED AND RELEVANT

Since communication in this country is so complicated and bothersome (except with newcomers and although it is easier than ever before in the rest of the world), in addition to the whatsapp group I have created, this is from now on the only place where information on the quizzes I attend can be found.

  1. Quiznight: Let’s get Quizical, advertised on Meetup here, on instagram here, and on Facebook here. Takes place mid-week at 19.30 in alternate weeks in James June, Karl-Marx Allee 93, and Sundays at 18.30 in alternate weeks in Alte Turnhalle, Holteistraße 6-9.

I have never, and probably never will, attend the mid-week quiznights in James June, but am trying to attend all the ones in Alte Turnhalle, and I assume the system is the same: reservations are done either individually or in groups, and up to now, walk-ins have been possible, but the quiz is getting popular and the hall fuller and fuller each time. The majority of tables are reserved for teams who register on meetup, and the rest are “mix-tables” where individuals can get together with walk-ins to form a team. A team is maximum six people.

In both cases, questions are asked in both English and German, the cost of attending is 3 euro per person, and in every other way it follows a classic pub quiz pattern.

NOTE: For the next Sunday quiz, on Sunday 01 December, we have AD, QL, and myself. I have reserved a table for six (team name “The Village Idiots” as usual) and we are thus looking for up to three more people to complete the team..

In addition to meetup and instagram, the next dates are also advertised at the end of each quiz. Should anyone want to attend a future quiz, please let me know in time to reserve a table.

Oh, and there is a bar with drinks and snacks. I have ever only tried their redwine – once, and never again, but reportedly, everything else is good.

2. The Castle Quiz

Takes place every Monday. It gets quite crowded and noisy and is more like a classic pub quiz. If I can get a team of at least four, max. six people together I will try to reserve a table. I would need to know this well before 10.00 on Monday morning, since tables are usually booked out at about 10.02 :-).

Just to repeat – if you would like to attend this quiz on any given Monday, please let me know in due time.

9 November – a day of remembrance in Germany for many reasons

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Here is the overview on Wikipedia.

I have never attended any events commemorating or celebrating any of those dates, not even the fall of the wall, thinking it was not my party to hijack, although it was of course of momentous importance far beyond Germany and even Europe.

I also know that many Germans see this latest 9 November event as a day of mourning since it paved the way to the reunification on 3 October 1990 (obviously not celebrated today, but the association is easy to see). Not that they supported the GDR regime, but because they had other dreams, hopes and visions for their country than being annexed by FRG in a process which they feel was bulldozed into being.

But back to today – the 35th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin wall. One of the ways it is being commemorated is with a path of posters and banners, old as well as new, marking the trajectory of the wall from just north of the central station to a little beyond Checkpoint Charlie.

With the promise of a sunny day, I posted a photowalk along that display in the photography group of InterNations.org, “Let’s celebrate freedom while we still have it”, starting at 14.00 hrs at the start of the route just north of the central station. A map of the route can be found here.

I was moved by the number of posters, and the number of people out to walk the route and celebrate. My impressions:

Video I

Video II

The home stretch after an overwhelming experience, on what was actually a bitterly cold day, survived thanks to good company, a cup of hot chocolate along the way, and the thought of a curry in my favourite restaurant, Sadhu on the corner of Ritterstraße and Lindenstraße, at the end:

Video III

And finally, the setting moon spotted towards the end of the walk:

A food-waste and ugliness orgy

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I read about one of the big pumpkin farms in Brandenburg that they exhibit about 100.000 pumpkins, 500 different kinds, some weighing only 35 grams. Some of them are for sale, and dishes with pumpkin can be sampled in a bakery, a café, and a restaurant, where goose raised on the premises can also be sampled. And with joyrides for children.

Spargelhof Klaistow, Glindower Straße 28, 14547, in case anyone wants to visit – this is the last weekend, but I am sure they will be back next year, and are in any case doing something similar during asparagus season. Easily reached on RE1 and bus 641 (but keep an eye on the schedule – the bus only runs hourly).

I thought that might add some welcome splashes of colour on a grey and misty day, and also provide some images I would need for a photography course, illustrating the abundance in this part of the world in contrast to the abject deprivation elsewhere, so off I went to Beelitz.

I was prepared for mountains of pumpkin – not for the way they had been built into tasteless figures and the sight of all that food simply rotting.

Events on InterNations and other activities

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Events on internations.org, in my whatsapp group for visiting wine bars and wine festivals, and playing bridge.

Breaking news (not InterNations related)

I have a Whatsapp group called Pub Quizzes in Berlin. If you are interested in attending pub quizzes, I think you can add yourself to it, or ask me by e-mailing me your phone number.

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Späth’sche Christmas Market 1 December

Pierre Boulez Saal 25 November

November 2024

25 November Classical Music from the 20th and 21st Century

10 November Birdwatching Tempelhofer Feld

9 November photowalk along poster exhibition 35 years fall of the wall

6 November opening of Christian Achenbach in Galerie König

3 November quiznight in Alte Turnhalle

2 November Hasenheide and Tempelhofer Feld with VHS

1 November gallery walk Potsdamer Straße

October 2024

27 October photowalk with InterNations photography group

26 October Six galleries and a movie

15 October three exhibitions

22 October Unerhörte Musik in BKA

September 2024

Three gallery walks during Berlin Art Week

Wilhelmhallen

August 2024

July 2024

June 2024

May 2024

2 May: Trio con Brio

10 May: Photo Tour with Go2know

16 May: Das Kleine Grosz Museum

April 2024

12 April: Affordable Art Fair

14 April: A play at Schaubühne

16 April: Unerhörte Musik, BKA

23 April: Caspar David Friedrich in Alte Nationalgalerie

24 to 28 April: Berlin Gallery Weekend – two gallery walks – see separate post

30 April afternoon: Academy Concert

30 April: Unerhörte Musik, BKA

March 2024

5 March Unerhörte Musik, BKA Theater

7 March Pierre Boulez Saal

12 March Maxim Gorki Theater

13 March A Jazz Concert in a Jazz Club

20 March Photo walk Döberitzer Heide

27 March: The Holdovers (organised by me), followed by Indian dinner (organised by Rakesh)

28 March afternoon: The Zone of Interest in my favourite cinema

29 March EITHER Bridge at my Place, OR a jazz concert in B-Flat

30 March organ concert Konzerthaus

31 March Birds (and more) photography walk

February 2024

4 February: Green Border

5 February: Another Film-maker who needs no introduction

11 February: Spring wine fair in Hamburg

18 February: Photowalk in Gropiusstadt (not organised by me. Photos will appear in a separate post)

19 February: A Berlinale film

20 February: A Berlinale film

21 February: Two Berlinale films

27 February: Unerhörte Musik, BKA Theater

January 2024

4 January 11.00: Art between politics and society

10 January 11.00: Two exhibitions and a short walk in Kreuzberg(Find the map of the walking route here).

18 January 18.00: Opening of a group exhibition in a relatively new exhibition space in Mitte

21 January: Photo-Pub (not organised by me)

CANCELLED: 25 January 14.00: Gallery Walk: 1. Galerie Dittrich & Schlechtriem, 2. Galerie Eigen & Art, 3. Galerie Weißer Elephant, 4. Alfred Ehrhard Stiftung, 5. ifa Galerie, and 6. Telegrafenamt, where Galerie König (Alexandrinenstraße) has opened a kind of satellite exhibition. Find a map of the route here.

30 January 11.00: Ken Loach’s latest masterpiece

31 January 12.30: Free lunch concert

LATEST NEWS

About playing bridge, and visiting wine bars and wine festivals in Berlin:

I was hoping to start one group on InterNations.org with the purpose of playing bridge, and another one with the purpose of visiting wine bars and wine festivals, but they would not let me do that (why am I not surprised?). The reason I was given was that those purposes are not specific enough. ??? don’t ask.

Consequently, if you are interested in playing bridge with an already existing small group of people, please find more information in this category.

If you are a wine enthusiast and interested in going out for a glass or two of good wine once or twice a month in a wine bar or at a wine festival, I have started a whatsapp group for the purpose. Please let me have your phone number on this email address if you would like to be added to that mailing list. Also see this post.

And finally, for opportunities for birdwatching and -photography, please see this post about bird-watching in English with VHS Volkshochschule and with NABU.

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By the way – is it a sign of the times (which Stephen Fry aptly calls The Age of Infantilism) that internations.org groups with silly titles such as “Berlin Good Vibes, Good Times Group”, and “Berlin Keep Calm I’m Just Offline Group” are considered specific enough (???) to be approved, but a group about playing bridge, and one about visiting wine bars and wine festivals are not specific enough to be approved? How the f… could “play bridge” be made any more specific? Or do they just hate me because I have been critical of them many times over the decades, and even left altogether a couple of times?

March 2024

7 March: Two world premieres in one of Berlin’s best concert halls.

December 2023

1 December 14.00: The annual pop-up mini art fair

5 December 16.00: Current Academy Students, Future Stars #1

5 December 20.00: New Music for Asian string quintet

13 December 16.00: Current Academy Students, Future Stars #2

November 2023

17 November 11.00: Same theme – two locations – #1

17 November 14.30: Same theme – two locations – #2

22 November 18:00: A meditative musical style

24 November 10.00: Breakfast and two photography exhibitions

28 November 20.00: New music for string quartet

October 2023

8 October: Guided tour of highlights of Pergamonmuseum: Photos to come in a separate post.

(Followed by “Vegan Sundays“, and a theatre performance suggested on internations but not posted as events).

10 October: Unerhörte Musik

12 October: Film in Human Rights Film Festival (not posted by me)

14 October: Gallery event organised by the photography group

If it does not rain, followed by:

14 October 17.00 hrs: IN THE WHATSAPP GROUP for Berlin Wine Enthusiasts: Winzerherbst Tempelhofer Hafen. For more information, e-mail me here.

20 October: Berlinische Galerie (Munch)

26 October: Art and Architecture on a day-trip to Wolfsburg. Städtische Galerie and Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg featuring works from Charkiwer Schule der Fotografie. FIND THE ROUTE HERE.

31 October: Unerhörte Musik.

September 2023

2 September: Museum der Bildenden Künste and Spinnerei Leipzig

6 September: Ephraim Palais

8 September: Guided tour before the official opening of Fotografiska

Interesting interior preserved (“unter Denkmalschutz”) from the Tacheles days, and promising, judging by the three opening exhibitions. Unfortunately, yet another new establishment designed to keep grown-ups out – with annoying “music” in most parts.

9 September: Wein- und Winzerfest am Dorfteich Lichtenrade

A good opportunity to sample wines from small regional, and beyond, wine producers in idyllic surroundings and a nice atmosphere. I had a most pleasant time with two other InterNations members who actually turned up on time (so I will probably do this again – despite a recurring issue which I could avoid by just going by myself):

When posting an event on internations.org, it is for some inscrutable reason obligatory to state not only a start time (obviously) but also an end time. Now, what to me, but since thinking has become so last century not to everybody, is blatantly obvious is that it is impossible to predict how long, or short, I or anyone else will want to stay in a place. Personally, I don’t like to stay anywhere for more than a couple of hours, max., but in some cases, I randomly allow for the possibility that others might when I state the obligatory end time.

Invariably, there are people who will arrive close to the end time, without having notified anybody that they will be late, and complain that there is no longer anybody there. If I allow too short a time span, others will complain that it is not worth it to go all that way for such a short time.

You can’t win.

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Berlin Art Week 13 to 17 September

See separate post here

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26 September: Willy Brandt Haus and Vietnamese restaurant

(Sign up for the dinner here).

The life of a Danish pensioner in Berlin