The Inevitable Fall

berlin, blind optimism, gigs

I spent half of September in Berlin. I found myself loving the constant presence of history all around me - being in a city where the past is so deeply embedded in the geography and the culture, it feels lived. The pace was reasonable and the people seemed healthy, made eye contact, smiled. I know I was viewing the world through vacation goggles but I couldn’t help make some stark comparisons to living in the states right now. As I watched the continuing crumbling of our democracy, free speech, and human rights from the vantage point of another country with its own layered past and troubled baggage I began to feel some optimism for what could potentially be after a total collapse. Germany saw the apocalypse with WW2 and rebuilt (albeit eating up generations in the meantime) a society who’s civic infrastructure, health system, and culture seem to thrive. Maybe the US is just at a different point in its evolution and the future could look something like this. I know Berlin is not perfect and Germany is facing its own share of radical right rise and poor handling of some really important global issues. I also know the circumstances are quite different and the likelihood of hegemonic powers coming to the aid of the US in its time of rebuild is next to none; I know its more likely the billionaires of this world will be the ones to shape the next phase of this country. But we need optimism and I found it surrounded by green spaces across the city, in the art and subculture that feels promoted and protected, in the dance routine of the roller disco ladies at Tempelhof at sunset, in the reflection of the sky in the mirrors at the Joan Jonas performance, in the banana-munching b2b DJ that looked like Edna Mode or your friend’s mom vibing so hard at the club, in the palpable air moving through the pipes of the organ in Sankt Hedgwid Kathedrale, in the hawk facing the wind, unmoving, outlasting me¹.

Books, music, films, moments of note:

1. I’ve been working through Mike Leigh’s film catalogue this past month. I mentioned this last post with Ali Smith’s books but once again I’ll say it: I love immersing myself in a voice - experiencing it from all angles and hearing it in dialogue with itself and the world as it changes throughout an artist’s career. Some favorites include Life Is Sweet, Meantime, and High Hopes.

2. The Importance of Being Iceland by Eileen Myles

3. Hagen by Titanic - the soundtrack to my Berlin bike rides and my favorite new music in a long time.

4. “Elegy for Solo Viola, K 072” by Igor Stravinsky

5. Stina Nordenstam’s cover of “Purple Rain”

6. Minor Detail by Adania Shibli

7. Turkish breakfast

8. being serious and goofy at the same time

9. walking to the beach from the CPH airport for an early morning dip between flights - if only every layover were like this one

10. ORGANS

Gigs:

10.2 - Sprat at St. Michael’s Church (99th & Broadway), 7pm

10.5 - Sprat at Threes Brewing (Gowanus), 8pm

10.22 - Trio w/ Simon Hanes & Matt Bent at Sisters, 8pm

10.24 - Gamelan Dharma Swara at Stone Circle Theatre (last gamelan show for now)

10.29 - ns songs band at Owl Music Parlor opening for Wilder Maker album release! 8pm

Sending love,

N