Maybe only Sweden could produce a singer-songwriter as English-fluent and wryly liberal as Jens Lekman. His song (and Pitchfork’s no. 15 for 2007) is a modern day tale about good intentions gone wrong and a somehow not-untypical situation for someone who just “came to Berlin to have a little fun.” Short story shorter: guy falls [...]

Thanks to Sara for the title. I know this site has been languishing lately, but hey that means I’m out and about doing festive type things with nary a care for updating my blog. Right? Hope you all had a good Christmas in this most mild of winters. Things learned at various dinners: Germans take [...]

On the first day of this month the European Film Awards ceremony was held in Berlin, as it is every other year, this time somewhere in Kreuzberg at a location no amount of googling will reveal to me (what arena?). Revered director Jean-Luc Godard, who was given a lifetime achievement award, presented by EFA president [...]

Tonight in Kreuzberg 61 area (Gneisenaustr. 2a). A Joe Strummer memorial of some sort at a new bar called Clash. That is all.

This was a pretty good year for indie bands to play with electronic toys — LCD Soundsystem, Klaxons, Radiohead, etc. — even if indie in general sorta bit (as Christgau recently wrote, “Spoon? Meh.” And Spoon, like Modest Mouse, used to be sexy). Of course, Sonic Youth did a record for Starbucks, so the indie [...]

It’s not as odd as you’d think to notice the arrival of real bars at Kottbusser Tor. Sure, there are plenty around, but virtually none at — until recently. Berliner Zeitung and Zitty are calling this Kreuzberg’s emerging underground bar scene, though honestly I haven’t a clue as to what makes them underground (or comprising [...]

William Grimes (NYT) recently discovered the neue Deutsche Küche and its rebellion against a Europe dominated by French haute cuisine and the Michelin Guide, German Bio food in hand and a delirious “postnational” consciousness to the fore: Teutonic Plates - German Cuisine Breaks Loose. Grimes visits Germany’s futuristic restaurants like Silk in Frankfurt, Aqua in [...]

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Lou Reed opens his bleakest song on what many call the most depressing album ever made by crooning “In Berlin…”. With that reference alone, I was intrigued to see that the all-lady Brighton band Electrelane, according to Pfork, recently made a record in Berlin called No Shouts, No Calls. Guess what? They got influenced. And [...]

Yar mateys, dis be a groovy motorik thumper from Subway on Soul Jazz. Put it at about the 15:00 mark on your next mix tape, i.e. get a party hype.
Subway - Satellites

Here’s btw a good frikkadelle recipe.

Since I spotted this on a Russian photo blog, I still have no idea whatsoever why German Chancellor Angela Merkel would be speaking so urgently and so outstretchedly at a fishing conference, but I prefer to let my surrealist imagination linger on it until I do find out.

I’ve been assembling a list of links for Christmas markets in Berlin and, so far, this one looks like the best one from Tip magazine: Weihnachtsmärkte Berlin 2007. They even have the Wicked Weihnachtsmarkt. Word to the wise: I have to say that the one at Alex is particularly missable this year. Seriously, don’t even [...]

Carnegie Hall just wrapped up the 17-day music festival “Berlin in Lights.” Justin Davidson at New York magazine was at the kick-off,
The festivities began by evoking Act One of Berlin’s halcyon days, represented by Max Raabe and his Palast Orchester. Raabe, a willowy dandy who could make a burlap bag look bespoke, glided onstage in [...]

Deutsch-Amerikanische Freundschaft (via)

Speaking of which, Germany’s biggest gangsta rapper, Bushido, got kung-fu attacked at a show in Hannover this weekend by a dude from Iraq. The motivation isn’t entirely clear but Bushido has been in a long-standing feud with one-time Aggro labelmate and friend-turned-enemy Fler. Netzeitung says that since Bushido left Berlin-based Aggro in 2004 for the [...]

Brian Wilson is doing it and Iran finds it obscene and decadent. Ja, und?