going to Berlin - what do I do? IHM, decide my fate

[habit]

beloved ihm'ers: i'm going to find myself in Berlin in about two weeks, to stay for a month as part of a college semester-long program in germany. i know you are a wise bunch, so i ask you, please, tell me what to do there!

[jon abbey]

strange first post, but welcome. keep an eye here:

http://www.echtzeitmusik.de/index.php?page=calendar

[Daniel Jones]

There's a couple of Helena Gough gigs you might be able to make it to...

She's doing a solo set at Staalplaat on the 30 September and a trio with Rhodri Davies and Andrea Neumann on 31 October.

More info here: http://www.helenagough.net/current.html

[horaflora]

There's a couple of Helena Gough gigs you might be able to make it to...

She's doing a solo set at Staalplaat on the 30 September and a trio with Rhodri Davies and Andrea Neumann on 31 October.

More info here: http://www.helenagough.net/current.html

and as an added bonus, you get to see Davies and Neumann while you're at it!

[Daniel Jones]

Ha, yes! I Suppose that could be seen as a strange way to suggest those shows...!

I just noticed that Antipop Consortium are playing somewhere called the WMF club (?) on the 29 September too. I'd quite like to catch them in London but I don't think I've got anyone to go with...

[horaflora]

yeah, I thought that was pretty funny, but I'm not familiar with Helena Gough, so thought, hey, maybe she's the big attraction after all! Heh heh heh...

I think that club is a mainstay of the berlin minimal techno scene, with APC's electro-ey direction they're allegedly going in, I think it may be a great spot to see 'em...

[negative potential]

If you're inquiring regarding the sort of music that gets discussed frequently on this board, Jon already posted the essential link in the second post.

In particular, I'd like to point the following concert out (looks like Cor Fuhler has been added, a rather nice last-minute addition):

11. 09. 09
Sophienstraße 18 10178 Berlin

ERASE & RESET 2009
a 12 hours nonstop marathon of electronic experimental music

ADAM BOHMAN (UK) - amplified objects
JOHN DUNCAN (USA) - cd players, electronics
COR FUHLER (NL) - ems synth
GÜNTER MÜLLER (CH) - ipod, electronics
TOSHI NAKAMURA (JAP) - no input mixer
JEROME NOETINGER (FR) - live electronics, revox
IGNAZ SCHICK (D) - turntable, objects, looper
MARCEL TÜRKOWSKY (D) - modified walkmen

ERASE & RESET is a 12 hour marathon concert involving 8 musicians. the continuos flow of music will start at 21:00 and not end until the next morning at 09:00. The event will present each musician in a short solo set and will then proceed to a marathon of all possible duo combinations.

For the third time, Erase & Reset 2006 reunites an international line-up of electronic experimental musicians who have been working for years on furthering developments in electronic music and, at the same time, managed to avoid the trapdoors of fashionable genres.

The audience is welcome to stay over at the Sophiensaele. Bring your sleeping bag and make yourself comfortable!

a production of zangimsuic.de with the financial support of Initiative Neue Musik Berlin e.V. & Deutscher Musikrat

[jon abbey]

the Toshi/Cor and Toshi/Noetinger combos would be the ones I'd make sure not to miss.

[Daniel Jones]

11. 09. 09
Sophienstraße 18 10178 Berlin

ERASE & RESET 2009
a 12 hours nonstop marathon of electronic experimental music

ADAM BOHMAN (UK) - amplified objects
JOHN DUNCAN (USA) - cd players, electronics
COR FUHLER (NL) - ems synth
GÜNTER MÜLLER (CH) - ipod, electronics
TOSHI NAKAMURA (JAP) - no input mixer
JEROME NOETINGER (FR) - live electronics, revox
IGNAZ SCHICK (D) - turntable, objects, looper
MARCEL TÜRKOWSKY (D) - modified walkmen

ERASE & RESET is a 12 hour marathon concert involving 8 musicians. the continuos flow of music will start at 21:00 and not end until the next morning at 09:00. The event will present each musician in a short solo set and will then proceed to a marathon of all possible duo combinations.

Wow, that does look nice!

[negative potential]

....other than that,

- avoid the S-Bahn for the time being. Berlin has two commuter train systems: The U-Bahn, run by the local BVG, and the S-Bahn system, run by the Deutsche Bahn. The later has been having massive logistically problems since early in the year when maintenance and safety problems were discovered on most of the train stock. At the moment the system is running at only 1/3 of capacity, trains absolutely full most of the time, people attacking S-Bahn employees, and other chaos. A taste of things to come if the public offering of the Deutsche Bahn should actually come to pass in the next five years.

- The districts of Mitte and Prenzlauer Berg are irredeemably gentrified yuppie hell-holes and tourist traps to boot; to catch good improv shows you'll eventually have to go there, otherwise, avoid as much as possible. Friedrichshain is not much better, but still has rugged charm in some areas. Kreuzberg is still good after all the years, Neukölln is a fascinating case study of not-yet-consummated gentrification in progress: along the canal an increase in trendy pubs and students, but south of the city hall still very much an ethnic ghetto. Definitely the most interesting district if you want to get your fix of Late-70s-No-Future-Iggy-and-Bowie-rundown modernism-West Berlin. The rest of the city: West districts: Charlottenburg, Steglitz, Schoeneberg are all staid, pleasant, boring. Tempelhof is close enough to Neukoelln to be indistinguishable. East districts: Marzahn, Lichtenberg, outer reaches of Friedrichshain, beware of Nazi street gangs.

- Learning German (if you haven't already): avoid Goethe Institut, overpriced and you'll be stuck with other English-speakers. Go to a Volkshochschule instead, you'll pay a lot less and rub shoulders with real people from all over the world.

- The Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung offers excellent seasonal seminars on Marx's _Capital_ given by the estimable Sabine Nuss and Anne Steckner.

- The bookstore Dussmann on the Friedrichstrasse is a good place to sit and read English-language books and comics for hours.

[Wombatz]

Wedding's the new Prenzlberg! Don't buy a book at Dussmann's though, they're the devil, steal it.

[negative potential]

A friend of mine used to live in Wedding until recently moving to Neukoelln.

While he lived in Wedding, we used to ask him if we has considering moving back to Berlin.

[WCrap]

some record stores:
Gelbe Musik, in Charlottenburg - http://www.kulturbox.de/galerien/berlin ... _0BR1CJ4I5
(for artist-records, modern composers)
Rumpsti Pumsti, in Kreuzberg - http://laden.tochnit-aleph.com/
(noise, electro-acustic, composers)
Pandora's Box, in Friedenau - http://www.progrock-sb.de/
(progrock, krautrock)
Musik Unter Den Gleisen, in Mitte - http://musikdrehscheibe.de/
(from abba to zz top, big 2nd hand cellar)

the Pathological Museum is 'fun' if you want to look a cyclob eye to eye, or see sirens, or gigantic livers
http://www.bmm.charite.de/museumtranspa ... seum_e.htm

the Ethnological Museum is good imo, especially the african section
http://www.smb.spk-berlin.de/smb/sammlu ... n&objID=56

and what about some 'gruselaction'?
http://www.gruselkabinett-berlin.de/home_e.html

[habit]

Many thanks, all. i will definitely be in attendance at Helena Gough and the APC. i wish i'd been able to see Erase&Reset, but i won't even be arriving until Saturday. Keeping a keen eye on echzeitmusik too. negative potential, your advice on districts is much appreciated. Something else: i'm considering a tattoo. Can anyone recommend artists/shops?

[WCrap]

Something else: i'm considering a tattoo. Can anyone recommend artists/shops?

http://www.blutundeisen.de - the best!

[vegetable mind]

berghain panorama bar bar25 watergate club der visionaire tresor !!!!!!!!

[bkudler]

So it looks like I am going to be living in Berlin for the summer. I know there is a vibrant scene there, with lots of great musicians and such living there and putting on stuff. I was wondering if people could give me some suggestions on how to get the haps on all this: venues, records shops, show listing websites, spaces etc... It would also be cool if people talked about where the good/cool areas to live, good restaurants, other good things to do there, people to look out for and general advice on living there.

[Wombatz]

There's http://www.echtzeitmusik.de, but your avatar keeps distracting me. Do you need a room to stay? (If you're well-behaved, and I'm not sure whether the situation is still how I left it. But then your avatar keeps distracting me.)

Oh and edit: Walk around a lot. It's still an awkward city, that's what I like about it most. Drop into places, don't just plan your moves around the "Galerienstrich" (how would one attempt to translate that? Red light gallery district?) or other obvious areas.

[negative potential]

It would also be cool if people talked about where the good/cool areas to live

Good rule of thumb:

If it is common to hear English, Spanish, or French spoken on the street, it's a shitty neighborhood.

If it's common to hear Turkish, Serbo-Croation, or Arabic spoken on the street, it's a good neighborhood.

Yeah, I know, that's glib, but it's a good way to distinguish the gentrified tourist traps from "real" Berlin. That sounds like an authenticity fetish, but really, I think a real neighborhood is characterized by laundromats, corner shops, and cheap lunch counters, and not art galleries, head shops or shitty record stores.

Exceptions: much of the far-out Eastern districts, like Marzahn or Treptow. You won't hear anything but German spoken here. These are still "real" Berlin, though. Also, some of the more well-to-do sections of the old West Berlin (parts of Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf, Gruenewald).

But what I say holds true for the city center.

[O'Grady]

I have been living in Berlin for a few months now but can only really speak as an auslander, I feel like this thread has already covered a lot and I can stand behind a lot of the comments but I'll throw in some of my own observations. I lived in Treptow for a short time and I liked it, it is quite far from the centre but I don't go there often (though a few of the music venues reside near the centre). I now live in Kreuzberg and it's a little different, Kreuzberg, Neukölln and Friedrichshain seem to be the hip spots, but these districts are big and vary. You might be interested in reading about gentrification, which has been touched upon in this thread, I came here on an artist residency program and it's something I think about quite a lot since it is so present, the role that artists and students take in a place like this, it's hard to describe the feeling exactly. Here is an article to begin with: http://einstellung.so36.net/en/ps/524.

It's a fairly big city, you should probably think about getting yourself a bike whilst you are here unless you plan on using the public transport all the time. learn at least some German if you haven't already, people appreciate it.

This place feels like a big revolving door at times, I'm not sure how long I'll be here, I finished the work I was doing here and jobs are scarce.

Anyway, hope you enjoy it as much as I have.