Berlin - Day 8 + Movement Weekend in Detroit
No photos from this day, I want to treat this post as I’ve normally been doing, to make some artifact of memory for myself, but also as a way to reflect on my past weekend in Detroit for Movement.
Our day began late, we rode for maybe a half an hour to RSO.Berlin for an outdoor, 100 hour non-stop rave. The mood was so good, in this sprawling industrial complex was a massive stage which brought out a huge crowd that afternoon even at a pretty off time like 3:00pm. The music was upbeat clubby/house stuff. We ate burgers for dinner in a dungeon like maze of seating before heading over to Cake, a perfect bar recommended by my friend Darby when he was in Berlin just a week or so before us. What I really love about places like Cake is just how effortless it is, no fussy branding or overly thought out vibe, just a bunch of old shit spread across the sidewalk that is perfectly fine to sit on and talk. I think these two places, RSO.Berlin and Cake have the characteristic of why Berlin, and I’ll extend to the city’s American friend, Detroit, continue to have a grasp on us. In short, these cities allow for spaces which encourage a mutual agency: over the environment, body, and mind.
Movement weekend is that time of year to make the pilgrimage to return to a major source of creative and developmental inspiration for myself growing up, as well as the ground zero of a beating sound that reminds each of us of the warm cave in which we were forced from at birth. In Detroit, the heart of America thumps and drones like the ever-present mother of nature which undermines our reality. Showing her pervasive demeanor, the crumbling buildings are filled with life once more, just as the ancient Mid-west parries bud new grasses after the periodical fires. The news cycle has been dwelling on the city’s rise for as long as I can remember and I believe should be ignored. To plot these places, Berlin and Detroit, on a timeline of progress breeds nostalgia that creates shells of the past. I believe that Mother Nature will never leave these places, she permeates the soil until all that is built on venture capital collapses once more.
Staying in Hamtramck for the weekend, we were pretty close by to a lot going on. Saturday we had Yemen Cafe before heading oversto Paramita, Submerge, then Wall of Sound into Sunday morning. Sunday we had lunch at Trinosophes before resting up for Zagc’s set and Control VI. Best set was probably Richie Hawtin at Russell Industrial Center. Never heard a sound system and space working so well together.
I’m running out of steam with this post and I’m failing to remember how I was going to tie everything together (interrupted by work). I’ve been imagining the photos to be most important to these re-caps so focusing on writing like this is totally new and potentially cringe-worthy for future me, regardless, I’ll continue.
Berlin - Day 7
We returned to our beloved Café Bonpland before setting out to find some more rental bikes since the last ones came with our last Airbnb. Another gorgeous day, the whole time we were there it was beautiful. Not too hot, not too cold. The perfect weather for strolling and lounging in the park. This day we chilled and waited for the bike shop owner to respond at Boxhagener Platz. Middle of the day and this place was packed with so much energy, the crowd was a crazy mix. We peaked in a couple stores, one particularly good antique store with some beautiful candle holders.
Once we got our rental bikes we rode them to Prater Beer Garden where we had some of the best food of the entire trip. Yes it was a little touristy but after a long ride, we were starving and the pork knuckle and a tall wheat beer hit so hard.
We walked up the hill at Mauerpark at laid there for a while with the rest of the layabouts enjoying a smoke and soaking up the beautiful weather. I kept saying this but really the entire city feels like festival grounds and I love it.
Berlin - Day 6
Tuesday we needed to leave our first Airbnb and check-in at our second in Friedrichshain, just northwest of us. We had some time to kill after packing and after making it to the area, we stumbled across this super chic café called Café Bonpland for a coffee and then read in the nearby park. One thing we noticed about Berlin is just the amount of playgrounds there are, and playgrounds that actually look fun. A lot seem to be made of raw and natural materials like plain lumber and dirt.
Just checking-out and checking-in took up most of our afternoon, we made pasta dinner at the new place which was a lofted studio with a little private patio in the building’s courtyard.
The area we were in now had a much more “neighborhood” feeling to it, with smaller streets, plenty of bakeries, parks, and apartments. That night was lovely to walk around and hear the streets still. We got a drink at Minimal Bar before grabbing a bottle of wine to take home. Sitting on the patio drinking and smoking, that night we talked early into the next morning.
Berlin - Day 5
We knew we wanted Monday to be slower than our first days in the city. When we first arrived, the focus motor on the camera I had brought with me broke and I was pretty determined to find some sort of better replacement than my phone. Luckily there was a film store close by to Pro qm, a bookstore we wanted to visit. I picked up two of those Ilford HP5 Plus disposable cameras which the rest of the trip’s photos were taken on.
Pro qm was great, a massive collection of art, design, and architecture books, magazines, and zines. Although we certainly could have seen a lot Of these books in bookstores in any big city, I really enjoy picking up something to read on a trip outside of Camille Paglia’s Sexual Personae, the behemoth I decided to bring with me to chip away at during our down time on this trip. I picked up two books, “Open Form: Space, Interaction, and the tradition of Oskar Hansen” and “Self Study: Notes on the Schizoid Condition”.
Afterwards we rode to the Berlinische Galerie. I think for both Emily and I, this is were things started to click for us in terms of why the city is the way that it is. I think up until this point, we approached the city with an understanding of what it has to offer, albeit, an understanding of outsiders. I’m writing these blog posts retrospectively after our return to Chicago and this past weekend Emily and I met Faulkner and Nat at the first Humboldt Arboreal Society event of the summer. There we happened to come across Tyler on his way to Yoga, and having just returned from a ten day meditation retreat an hour or so west of the city. Deep in overgrown flowering grass and the crowd of people all setting up temporary retreats for themselves, feeling the thump of House music coming through the dirt, we reported back on the trip, similarly to what I’m doing now. We talked about the people, the clubs, the wall, etc. but one point seemed most pertinent that Emily had mentioned, that the city kills your ego. A place with such a mystic grasp on many, promising fulfillment of your deepest desires, but only once you’ve earned it.
Tyler mentioned a conversation he had in Berlin with a woman who had lived through the extreme, pagan debauchery of old Berlin in a bunker deep underground just after the wall had fallen. I can only try to understand what the collective feeling must’ve been like, its been rehashed countless times and far more nuanced than I could ever, but throughout history there are these perfect moments in which a perfect shift occurs in the perfect location which creates seismic waves felt decades later. Just the night before Emily, Nat and I went a Dirty Truths party on Chicago’s southwest side. It was a true celebration of Chicago’s House music in all regards, a time capsule giving us just a glimpse of the excitement that must’ve been felt hearing such a fresh and novel take on Disco that possessed you to dance until sunrise. No average party goer could have ever imagined the lasting effects that Chicago’s thriving gay scene in an extreme time of civil unrest would have the endlessly iterated upon phenomena of House music born from the insides of converted warehouses. The fall of the Berlin wall must’ve been a moment in which the collectives floodgates were released in an already lush artistic community that gave rise to some of the most iconic and darkest music, style, design, art, and mindsets the world has seen. The Berlinische Galerie archives this and more. Following the chronological loop around the second floor, it covers works made in Berlin from the 1870s to today. Piece after piece it’s easy to see how unstable living situations give rise to some of history’s endlessly studied works of the avant-guard. Larger than life works that reminded me that I am nothing and deserve nothing from this place.
That night we read our books and smoked on the River Spree. Enjoying some time to reflect, we peered into the house boats dotting the water with a pair of binoculars.
Berlin - Day 4
Recessed from the street in a large complex with two floors of dancing, we started the morning at Tresor for Tresor meets Dave Clarke. Deeper still, the basement level had the air of what you’d expect from concrete pillars and metal bars dividing space. The basement level maze held the main floor with a heavy night of Detroit stuff. I couldn’t tell you about the larger techno scene’s consensus of the “new” Tresor, probably something like it’s not what it used to be, but it felt legit outside of the some of the crowd which really was a mix of those in for a slow burn and those more explosive.
Leaving around 5:00am, we made our way to ://about blank for Warning: a Rave Odyssey, a couple day long fest that went from that Friday to Monday. Sun just starting to come up, the ride there was probably one of the highlights of the trip, seeing the city in that dewy light, chasing more and more with the rest of the zombies was perfect.
Kind of a side note but the Photoautomat booths across Berlin are everywhere and honestly so cool. It’s corny to have a nostalgic appreciation for this old tech when in reality, its a format that just produces such a beautiful result it’s a shame we don’t see chemical photobooths in America that much.
Funny interaction with the bouncer when she was trying to gauge if we were wasted, I think she was surprised these Americans had pre-purchased tickets. A pretty thinned out crowd by this point but still a lively dance floor spinning some sparkly trance. Best part was the outside, a pretty big area winding with trails, nooks to lay, and Jurassic period plants now in full bloom. We spent a good chunk of this part just sipping beers and yapping. Super playful and welcoming event.
Feeling pretty good and being in the area, we decided to try our luck with Berghain around 9:00am. Without much surprise, we didn’t make it in. In full daylight by this point, the behemoth of a building is really something to see. This goes to say about other venues in the city, but just walking by and hearing the faint thumping within is such an exciting feeling. Knowing the crowds inside completely unaware of time or at least ignoring it. The way clubbing is done in Berlin with such an extreme and hedonistic release of the self deep in the belly of the city really feels so unique from the puritan way we “play” in America. Pretty basic observation but I think there’s something to learn about protecting and creating more spaces in which the chthonian can be freely expressed and experienced on the weekly. Something about exploring these sides of ourselves more frequently and in varying amounts to become familiar with the ways it bubbles up in our daily lives whether with family, friends, co-workers, or strangers. From an outsider looking in, it feels like Berliners just have a more innate grasp on dealing with and expressing these things. I’ll get into this more with the next post but with the past this city has gone through, it makes sense.
Getting some sleep in, we woke up around 17:00 and left for Schnitzel in Friedrichshain. Sunset pouring down, the streets were so lively and full it was a beautiful mosaic of just more so-muchness.
Not many pics from this day (love that they sticker over phone cameras at the clubs).
Berlin - Day 3
Our first day in Berlin was pretty stacked with sight seeing and impromptu clothing shopping as at the time, we weren’t really sure whether we’d get our lost luggage back or not. It started with meeting Martin, the architect and our host at out first Airbnb. Located just off the river in Friedrichshain at an old prison turned mini neighborhood. The pavilion was a narrow studio with doors on either end which let a cross breeze through. Letting the outside in, the area was criss-crossed with paths between the converted red brick buildings amongst perfectly unkept gardens.
After picking up our bikes and a stop at Aldi, we rode through Kreuzberg around Görlitzer Park. Some clothing stores were what we set out to see but ended up going through a street market along the river, and an impromptu stop in at a furniture warehouse sale.
We had plans to go out that night so after checking out as much as we physically could, we made it back to the pavilion to nap before the night. Waking up feeling semi-rested, a quick stop for Doner where huge groups of people were hanging out. We got ourselves ready and and left around 2:00am. More to come.
Berlin - Days 1 & 2
The itch for seeing Berlin has been a pestering one for some time, probably coming from my first introduction to techno history and the city’s fabled similarity to Detroit, a city close to where I grew up. Lucky enough to have found someone down to share the experience with, my girlfriend Emily and I figured now is a better time than ever to both take some time off from work and see Europe for our first times.
Unsure how to approach a city that seems, and almost prides itself on, a certain impenetrability—whether that’s a product of a horrific history of fascistic dominance or a learned appreciation for selective discrimination to retain itself as a guarder of its culture and attitude, we’re appreciative of Tyler who was kind enough to meet us for coffee on one of the coldest days I’ve ever experienced for coffee to give us some advice. Sharing plenty of good recommendations on places to go and forewarnings on what to expect, he gave as a great document a friend of his wrote for first-timers.
Download the Berlin Everything List.
The first two days were spent traveling from Chicago to Frankfurt, dealing with a flight cancelation leading to a 10 hour layover, and eventually landing in Berlin around 21:00. Lost luggage was one last blow once we got to our first Airbnb, but thankfully it was shipped to us a day or so later.
Most of what I can say about these two days other than the expected feeling of exhaustion was how cold, metallic, and for a lack of a better word, strong the Frankfurt airport felt. Impressive in how cohesive these feelings stood across interior design, signage, and employees, I got the immediate impression of how much Germans appreciate hardware and industrial design.
A lot of our time was spent sleeping in empty terminals across bench seats, reading, and walking around.