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U2 Concert at the Brandenburg Gate

* This is part of a series on the 20th Anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall – and my attempt to document the events of the weekend, where 20 years before, a peaceful revolution brought about a big change which helped to end the cold war, and bring about a new Europe. Many more of the events are in the full flickr set here. *

Two of 10,000
Me & Niall with 2 of the 10,000 free tickets that were gone in under 2 hours.

The U2 concert last night was brilliant. So much so that 7 songs left us screaming for more, and wishing that we had more time to hear, dance, and sing along with them more. I heard on the news this morning that pretty much everyone critic-wise thought that U2 stole the MTV European Awards show – even though they were not presenting – the 10,000 of us at the Brandenburg gate who got to see them live – well, let’s just say I think we all agree with the critics – even though I’ve not seen the “replay” of the awards show yet, though I did read that u2 won Best Live Act last night (well deserved if the 7 songs were any indication of a full length concert).

MTV EMAs Present U2 At The Brandenburg Gate
Thank you to Picapp for the above photo

Despite starting about 30 minutes late (due to rain and logistics issues) – the band was warmly welcomed on the stage. U2 opened with the song “One”, in celebration of the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Bono wished Berlin a very Happy Birthday, which was all the more poignant because over his head, we had been watching (on the Brandenburg Gate in lasers) the Gate “divided in 2” with the hammer and sickle on one side – and the stars on the other. Under it, on each of the columns of the Brandenburg Gate were covered in images of nuclear weapons – all of which faded into the words “ost” and “west” – and then into the words “one love” and “freedom”. For me, considering that we were standing on a spot where 20 years before, Freedom was still but an idea and a hope – it literally brought tears to my eyes. 20 Years ago – This WAS communist Germany…. how far life has come since then.

The rest of the songs were well fitting of the tone –

‘Magnificent’
‘Sunday, Bloody Sunday’
‘Get Up, Stand Up’ with Jay-Z
‘Beautiful Day’
‘Vertigo’
‘Moment Of Surrender’

MTV EMAs Present U2 At The Brandenburg Gate

Thank you to Picapp for the above photo

Despite the “advertised” 4 songs, we wound up with 7. In addition, at one point, Bono noted that he wanted to say hello, and introduce the “mayor” of NYC. Niall and I looked at each other and went WTF? Bloomberg? Why would Bloomberg show up to a U2 concert… and about that time, Jay-Z hopped on the stage and did a brief rap about how we couldn’t keep building “walls” and how because of walls, genocides in Europe, Serbia, Rowanda, and Darfur were continuing.

The parting words / last song – Moment of Surrender was great. Once again, Bono made a point to say that it’s time to remember that in many places, the fight for Freedom and Democracy is stll going on. Effectively, the point of the speech / song was that we support them, and that we can’t take what we have for granted.

FREEDOM!
Freedom on the Brandenburg Gate – Pariser Platz side – former “Soviet” owned territory.

For more of my photos from the night, you’re welcome to check out My Flickr Set.

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Jüterbog Day Trip

Ringed Town layout.
City Map (notice it’s round like the city walls)

June 6,2009 – I took a day trip to Jüterbog. It’s not too far from where I live but is a very cool place because it retains its full city walls from the middle ages. It turned out to be very gray and rainy in the afternoon, but it was a decent bike ride (after the train trip down) anyhow because it was a warm rain.
More information is at: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J%c3%bcterbog But the summary (interspursed with my pictures) is:

First mentioned around 1000 as a town, The town is surrounded by a medieval wall including three gateways and barbicans.

>Dammtor gateway Exterior

Dammtor gateway Exterior
Dammtor gateway Interior
Dammtor gateway Interior which would have been used as the militia rally/training point it was literally right outside the main city gate towers below:

Old City entrance watch towers (both)
Old Midevil city walls to the main city gate
The old city walls – about 8 feet high – looking back to the gate
Watch tower
Intact Watch tower along the city walls

Jüterbog encompasses two Protestant churches, of which Gothic St Nicholas’ (14th century) is remarkable for its three fine aisles and features a preserved coffer (chest) of Johann Tetzel, and original paintings.

St. Nicholas Church
St Nicholas’s Church – Juterbog was First mentioned in 1307, back then it was a Romanesque basilica. The church today is a gothic hall church – built in 3 stages which can be seen in the ground plan.
First stage – The long nave between the slanting outer pillars (1330 – in black)

Second stage – lengthening to the west, a cross beam, and the west end (1440 – grey)

Third stage – alteration of the alter apse and building of the ambulatory (1488 – light grey)

Central Nave, looking back to Organ
Inside – looking back toward organ

The building of the towers were not finished before the beginning of the 16th century. The different tops are due to the circumstances that the spire of the northern tower was knocked down by a thunderstorm in 1560. After that, the octagonal construction was built by taking the 30 unused altars of the catholic time as material to create room for the watch man. This baroque top was put on in the year 1617 and still adorns the northern tower.

The church survived the conflagration in 1478, The Thirty Years War, the occupation of the town by Prussia rom 1756 to 1763 in the Seven Years War, and the first and second world war almost unharmed – unlike the town and residents.

Inside, You will find a famed Madonna and Child from the 1500’s, and a statue of a black St. Maurice from the 1400’s.

Madonna and Child TrypticHand carved St. Maurice from 1500's
and a whole set of other states that are hand carved from the 16-1700’s

Hand carved wooden saints

Most Impressive, however, is the original side chapel – with original Painting (you need to go to flickr to see more of these) which are dark b/c of NO FLASH allowed:

1300's Side Chapel paintings 9
Tourquoise Roof With Angels
1300's Side Chapel paintings 8
Pilgrims to the Holy Land
1300's Side Chapel paintings 6
Saints

Jüterbog carries on weaving and spinning both of flax and wool, and trades in the produce of those manufactures and in cattle. Vines are cultivated in the neighborhood.

Rathaus Juterbog
Town Hall (built for the trading of flax, wool and coal).
Coat of Arms
Town Hall Ceiling
Ideal coat of arms
Town Hall Ceiling 2

That’s it from Jüterbog, but be sure to check out more of the set here.

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New Blog, Broken Links…

Well, here I am.  I’ve finally broken down and gotten a new website especially so I can try to get something set up to sell some of my artwork, photography and designs.  It’s been a long time coming, and I’m afraid that this is still a work in progress.  As a part of this, I’ve moved my blog off of the old My Space site and to my own personal site.

The problem?

As it imported, most of the photo links to my Flickr site appear to have broken.  They do, however still display (weird eh?).

So, I’ve tried to go through and update the actual links themselves to the flickr sets where available.  (Browse away – and remember – if you see something you like, check my store to purchase prints!)

Otherwise, if you hit some broken photo links from the old entries – I do apologize and hope to not have that problem going forward.

~ All the Best

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