slave to the keyboard

I think must be the longest work bender I have ever done. And ptuiii! I have had it. I know she'll(the thesis) be comin' around the mountain when she comes, but boy I would like to hit fastforward and watch that horse's legs do triple-time all the way to the graduate school to hand this sucker in. I allowed myself a beer last night--the only one I have had since I returned from traveling and I nearly lost it. I was near euphoric. But then I had to reign it in because I am nowhere near done. Tomorrow I send off a draft to my advisors (Hi Thaisa and Nancy!) who have kindly allowed me to extend my deadline a few days and then I can go back to doing 9-5. That will be a relief.

Enough ranting. Here's a rave. I got cherries in this bag in Berlin and I thought it was very sweet. Obst means fruit in German. Check out that cute drawing.

This is a demolition site of a housing block in Leipzig (Grünau).

And I swear, Norway posts are coming soon!

ships passing by again

i did finally fix the "i like to watch ships passing by" woven card and i want to post it again so you can see it in in all of it's finished glory. the other picture is my sketchbook where i schemed and calculated how to get the darn thing to fit on that tiny card. sometimes sketches and drafts are so much more interesting.

i am still knee deep in thesis production, some writing, some graphics-making. i made this graphic last night comparing a small planted area as calculated by Seattle Green Factor with that of Berlin's version, Green Area Ratio. something about it reminded me of that sketchbook page, so i thought it would make a good addition to this post.

this one's for grandma

i haven't been able to get into a dark room to develop all the film pictures i have taken (and it's soooo expensive at the photo store) and so, first, all summer i will be posting pictures from the trip that are held in the silver gelatins of my tiny film canisters. i sure wish i could see them now. but second, the most urgent consequence of not printing real pictures is that my grandma doesn't use the internet, as far as i know, so i haven't been able to show her what i am seeing. so, i found a cheap old polaroid at a flea market in berlin full of exposures and with a new cartridge of exposures. the film that was in the camera must be old, but the effect is kind of pretty. these are my two most recent polaroids and one is the beginning of posts about norway. the color striping only happened when i scanned it. they really are almost exclusively orange and yellow. click the photos to see them at full size.

flee market find + still working

got this little set of mini postcards about SYLT, an island in the North Sea, and this the darlingest cover illustration. when i was an au pair in Bremen, everyone up there talked about Sylt like a summer heaven in a mythical, dreamy way. the postcards prove that they are right. sand dunes and long stretches of tall yellow grass. the beaches are dotted with little striped tents and dingies. delicious. this edition is pocket-sized measuring about 3.5 x 2.5 and makes it easy to take the magic wherever you go.

i am making lots of progress, but still worrying about completing everything i want to make my thesis really great. i made a set of postcards entitled "worry" to purge myself of the worries. this is one of the series. the answer to my question is a resounding: YES!

alles jute

:: GOODBYE BERLIN ::



i took off from berlin, but not after spending some time at the Badeschiff(a floating swimming pool on the Spree River complete with sandy beach, sunbathing decks and a bar) and seeing Jamie Liddel play. and wow, definitely makes it into the TOP 5 of all shows, ever! he was incredible. he has a bit of a Jerry Lewis / Soul Singer / Church Revival schtick and boy, does it work wonders. i was spellbound by his movements, not to mention his incredible singing voice and creative power which he excercised in beat box loops and layers to create a musical army of himself which he then sang over. in short, if hasn't played in Seattle yet and there are still tickets, run, don't walk to get these. i also want to mention, in further support of JL that going to a show by yourself can be a downer, as many of you know, but i didn't even notice that i was by myself. FANTASTISK!




does anyone agree with this statement?


break
now i am in Leipzig, a town in the former East Germany with Owen and it feels really nice to slow down a bit. Owen is a lovely host and has bee treating me like a princess. he borrowed a bike for me to ride, has been cooking and inviting me to meet all of his darling and wonderful friends. the pictures are just shots from around town. there are still parts of the city that look pretty run down, though much of it has been renovated. the differences in texture between the new and old buildings, even new ones built during the DDR is astounding. yesterday was a holiday and owen took me to a barrbecue where i got to have a long conversation with a couple who were 19 and 23 at the time the wall fell and had grown up in East Germany. they were eager to share stories about their lives then, the wall-falling and what it has been like since. i can tell you all about that stuff when i get home.
tomorrow i head to olso via berlin. i am a bit travel weary, but excited to check out oslo.

a thing for libraries

been spending a bit of time at the library of the Technical University and i believe i have a fetish. the rows of books on shelves with beautiful colors really get me.

and i found this hilarious shop called "HotDogs and Juice". what a crack up!

thesis update: found the dissertation i needed and went through all the hoops to get photocopies, but have not been able to connect with the originator of the code. he just returned from a trip, so i am going to see if i can get into berlin before my oslo flight on wednesday in order to meet with him.

i've finally succumbed to being a tourist

so, i hate to say it, but i am going to pander a bit and for the next week or so, this blog is going to look more like vacation slides than my dorky everyday updates. this is a long one, so make yourself comfortable.

met up with Owen and it is so nice to hang out with a old friend. we had beers at the Prater Garden in my neighborhood and yes all your comments about the temperature are true. it is already summer in berlin.

i couldn't resist coercing Owen's buddy, John, into letting me have a photo-op with his wurst (we have left the land of the Pølse and now it's just WURST!) on the condition that he got to be in the photo. and i did have a few nibbles of this delicious german brat. it's a totally different beast than that the danish dogs. and if i had to choose to only eat one for the rest of my life, i think i would choose a german bratwurst. they are hard to beat.

yesterday we headed out to the Staatliche Museum für Kunst which is housed in the former Hauptbahnhof and has turned out to be an excellent, spacious exhibition space where extremely large works like Richard Long's "Berlin Circle" can be shown and in a proper way.

there were even works by Owen's former proferssor, Thomas Ruff

and an enormous exhibit showing what is probably only a fraction of Wolfgang Tillman's many works. i like this one for it's simplicity.

then we made our way to the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe which was pretty thrilling for me to see in person because I wrote my undergraduate thesis on this piece while it was still in the planning phase and have not yet experienced it myself. the space is incredible and effective despite the tawdry row of tourist shops that have cropped up on one side. there is very little specificity in it's form. the gray steles, though varying in height, spread out like a piece of dark cloth, disappearing into swells and fashioned in such precise order that if it weren't for the different heights creating unexpected plays of light and shadow on the quadratic surfaces, it would seem like they go on forever in perfect symmetry. the memorial doesn't tell you what to think, and it seemed, by wandering ourselves and watching others, that those who visited were having physical interactions with the site that made them curious and want to know more. i didn't go into the information center below ground because i am still a bit saturated with Holocaust information so i can't say anything about that part. to say the least, i was impressed.

then, Potsdamer Platz
where I was sorely disappointed. I have read, heard and seen so much hype about Atelier Dreiseitl's design for the site and it was really nothing special. the waterways were loaded with algae bloom, it was dark and dull and the context of Potsdamer Platz is pretty miserable. the details of the site that i had seen in photos looked so lack-lustre and tired in person and the ponds had a typical stench of water that is not taken care of. i took one picture and then wondered if i had come to the wrong place by accident. honestly, it left me feeling a bit duped about Dreiseitl and everyone who has been praising that project. Maybe when it was first built it was really lovely and worked well but it doesn't now, and i think i will be much less likely to use precedents that i haven't visited myself.

the disappointment of Potsdamer Platz passed quickly when we came upon just one of so many amazing public spaces in Berlin. this one is right on the River Spree and you can see the Parliament buildings in the background. lovely.

interview dog flight interview

i have to say, i love copenhagen, but it is a relief to be somewhere where i speak the language. i feel so much more a part of things. the meeting in malmö with the former city ecologist went great. i got lots of good information and...


i lugged my rolly bag all over malmö and got to berlin with no trouble. i am becoming a regular jet-setter. i even have sensible shoes. the place i am staying is lovely. if you ever come here, ask me for the email of this guy. it is kind of like a guest house and the rooms have high cielings, are very clean, there is a shared kitchen, bathroom and it looks out onto a really nice courtyard.


a few blocks away, i spent my morning at cafe Liebling, literally darling. i started with breakfast while i worked and then continued right onto lunch! below is a little vid i made about how today went.

today i am rolling out with owen to mess around town and see stuff. he knows berlin a bit so he is going to be my ambassador here.

need your help!

starting to get some berlin plans lined up. i wanted to ask all of you if you have ideas about buildings, sustainbility driven projects that might be good. also, do you have friends in berlin that might want to go to art events at night. it just so happens that the Berlin Biennial is happening while I am in town and I can make it to several cool art events in the evenings. I am tickled.
Also, I have just emailed Olafur Eliason to see if I may come on a studio visit since his workshop is right in town. Cross your fingers. I have an appointment at the City Planning Agency, but haven't been able to get any designers to meet. At present, that is the major hole in my visit.

So, here is a concise list of requests for you:
1. Does anyone know of landscape//architects in Berlin that would be good to meet/interview or have studios worth visiting?
2. Ideas about buildings, landscapes, parks, boulevards, tiny and big interventions in the city that I can learn from or enjoy
3. Friends of yours who might want to go to art events in the evenings

all your help is welcome. you can add comments directly to this posting without logging in or having a blogger account. just click on the "COMMENTS" link below the post.