A Few Photos From Feb…

(This is an old import from Myspace, so not all the links may work)

First off, I just want to wish everyone a very Happy Easter. I know
it’s been a long time since I posted, but since February, I’ve been
running just like I do every year in the first 3-4 months. It’s like
everything gets stored up for those first few months of the year and
almost every weekend has had something planned – from going out and
doing photography (pictures) with the photo group I’m helping organise
to seeing gallery exhibitions, to taking my birthday trip (more
pictures – this time of 3 countries), to having guests visit
(pictures), to taking another couple day trips (pictures).

In between all of this, the weather has warmed up, I’m biking to and from
work again and with the addition of the new “Teltow bypass” road, I’m
out walking the dog along an extended length of sidewalk that runs the
length of the town and all the way up to the Sbahn station (about 3km
or so from my house). It also goes about another 2 km in the other
direction. It’s nice to have when I’m walking / bike riding with the
dog – but the traffic on that street now is HELL. Too many cars, no
stop lights/stop signs and well, I guess them’s the tradeoffs.

The result, in short, is that I have a backlog of almost 1000 pictures that
need processing, am still taking photos (Had a day trip on Friday to
Cottbus, and maybe one Tomorrow if the weather holds) and am buying
more SD cards to keep the new stuff on until I can get the old stuff
processed.

If it tells you how far behind I am, I just
finally got up all the stuff from February – Valentine’s Day! Yep,
that means what – 2 months behind. UGH!!

Let’s start with the Photo set from Tacheles.

Tacheles is a living art colony in the center of Berlin. They’ve taken over a
huge former shopping complex (built around the end of the 1800’s/early
1900’s). It was badly damaged in WW2, but what survives of it is now
used by artists to create artwork – and it’s got a few random
nightclubs. It’s also covered in “moving” art – in that it’s
constantly being covered with graffiti and re-graffitied almost every
week. Crazy I know, but it’s actually encouraged. Here’s a few photos
from Valentine’s day around there:

The Back side of Tacheles

Almost every surface is covered in grafiti….Some is worse (above) than Others (below

Pedro the Cat

Whistful Beanie Girl

Penguin’s VW Van

Among the squatters and other artists at Tacheles – this one was my favorite
to photograph – the guy who welded into sculptures pieces of scrap
metal. Mostly because it was cool to photograph:

Robot TV Alien guy

Metal Wagon Wheel

The Flying (metal) Spaghetti Monster (chair)

From there, we went on to a Flash Mob at Alexanderplatz (photos here)
At 15:00 Sharp, about 3000 people froze in place – for 5 minutes. This
is one of the busiest train stations in Berlin – and people are
constantly walking through here. Getting between 3000 and 5000 people
in the freezing cold wind to pause for 5 minutes (with a beer bottle
sticking to their mouth, holding chalk while coloring on the cement, or
in my case, with a camera on, finger on the trigger facing the “moving
people coming in”) was no easy task. Still, the results were
stunning. I have some video that Scott took (not yet processed) but
here’s a few pictures:

The Panorama of the area – with people milling around before the event.

Some of the variety of people who showed up (some with props like the brilliant hair and bikes); others just being themselves.

The
best, however, was being able to catch some of the expressions – the
girl “chalk drawing” is frozen – check out the kid trying to get her to
move -and the looks of the people going “what the heck” below (even the
dog was confused as to why we were being living statues!)

Wha?

Nervous Laughter

Confused Dog

Like with all my posts, there’s plenty more up on my Flickr Site – and you can click the photos for larger sizes.

Until Next time, Enjoy!

** Remember, all photos on this page are copyright by me, and several do have prints for sale – Thanks!**

Interesting evening at the Movies

(This is a very old imported from my space blog. Not all of the links may work.)

The other night, Scott and I decided to go see the movie Benjamin
Button. Before the movie even got underway, it had started out to be a
strange evening. He was late, and I bought the tickets, finding
out that the ticket price had gone up by another 2 Euros. It’s now
10.00 per ticket – for the cheap seats on Fridays. OUCH.

Once
he arrived, we went, got popcorn and a drink and headed into the
theater. The advertisments commenced, and this is one of them that
came up on the screen – in German. I’ve put up the english
translation, but it busted me up laughing as I realized this would
NEVER ever be played in the US. Oh – and it’s much funnier in a
language you don’t understand…. Yet… scary too.

Not
long after the commercials started, a cinema employee came down the
stairs and hooked up a microphone. I didn’t think too much about it
because the Berlinale started on Monday, so I figured the setup was for
that.

Turns out, I was wrong. In between the previews and
the movie, an older chap came up with a musical instrument and started
singing a lovely song in Polish. What I could get of it was sort of
that it was a love song lamenting the loss of a friend. I turned to
Scott and said someone’s getting proposed to.

Sure enough, after the song ended, the gentleman a few rows behind me stood up, took the microphone and proposed.

Everyone clapped, and then waited breathlessly for her answer. She said yes, and everyone cheered again.

Fortunately,
I was fast with my camera. Unfortunately, I wasn’t fast enough to get
the settings switched around. *sigh* Oh well, at least it’s something,
and a sweet story at that.

Such is life on a random Friday Night in Berlin!

Happy New Year 2009

New Years for me
was pretty fun, but very cold. The temperatures outside were about -5
C (22-23 F). Because of that, I bundled up grabbed both cameras and
then headed out.

Traditionally, the 2 KM (1 mile) area between the Brandenburg gate
and the Victory column are blocked off for the biggest party of the
year. It gathers upwards of a million people packing into the area
(we’re talking you can’t move – even if you want to) to watch the
fireworks, drink champaigne, and ring in the New Year.

At the halfway point, there’s a ferris wheel set up –

and at either end are stages. There’s also plenty of
beer tents and other things. Jade and I met up at the Main Train
Station, and walked over, planning on seeing how everything went.
After pausing for a few photographs of the ferris wheel….

We headed into the crowds where we promptly became stuck in the crowd for about a half hour….

before we finally gave up and pushed our way
back out. Because when you go through security, they send you into a
“chute” and then block off the sections behind the crowds, once you’re
in you’re in. There’s not really a way to get out. This is done to
prevent stampedes and for safety – but the funny thing is once you’re
in – if you want out, you have to climb a fence. So, when we decided to
leave, we had to follow the few trying to get out of the section, climb
on an empty beer keg, over a fence, then back over another empty keg.
Ahh the joy of getting out of the crowd.

Thing is that once we
were out of the crowd, we were stuck in the 1 block radius between the
party and those waiting to get inside the party. Not bad – just
interesting. Why? Because from here, you could see all the spotlights
changing color:

We also could see the lovely Brandenburg Gate and the setup –

But
what was really cool was as we went to leave. As we walked past the
Jewish Holocaust memorial, it was a bit strange. The place was
deserted, surrounded by fences keeping the revellers inside and around
the Brandenburg gate, hopefuls waiting to get into the party – and the
barricade fences around the Embassy. We and the security people were
nearly the only ones, and I took a moment to reflect. It was then that
one of the buildings in the background (where there’s a night club and
apartments) started having fireworks shooting off from the rooftop. It
was beautiful and yet eerie to realize that despite the joy at the
coming new year, there are lots among us who never made it home.

From
there, we headed to Potsdamer Platz and caught the Sbahns over to
Alexanderplatz for dinner. We hung out over by the TV tower, watching
people shoot off their fireworks, and at 11:30 PM, headed over to the
Main Train Station. It’s a straight shot – and we couldn’t have timed
it more perfectly. By the time we went down the stairs, and walked
outside, it was midnight and the celebrations had begun:

We
lucked out – because Jade and I had the best of three worlds – space to
breathe and take photos, a great spot to watch all the fireworks (from
the Gate area and the parking lot) and a fast ride home since we could
see the crowds from the party swarming in our direction. So, from me to
all of you, I wish you have a very save and

And in the end, don’t forget about the CLEAN UP!!

Phoenix Rose's Blog

The Chronicles of a Girl, Her Dog, and a Lifelong Journey…

Parties & Concerts

A Few Photos From Feb…

Interesting evening at the Movies

Happy New Year 2009