back from berlin!

We’re just back from Berlin, after this fantastic long week-end dedicated to the fall of the wall. Our digital camera is in ER, so let’s hope that our reflex did a good job…photos in a few days, like in 1989!

The domino fall was fantastic, we were at Elizabeth Lueders Haus, opposite the Reichstagufer.

Actually, in the morning we were interviewed by RTL “What does Berlin mean for you?” “Were you here in 1989?”. Unfortunately not…that’s why we didn’t want to miss this 20th anniversary! In spite of an easyjet flight cancellation, wir waren dabei!!

Countdown to holidays…minus 3!!!

Three days to the kick-off of our holidays!! Pucci-style silk, Hawaianas, lots of bangles, a funky Fahrrad, lots of friends to meet…

Of course we are not heading to Ibiza, but for parties on the Spree!

(better bring an anorak too?).

source: Dr Oetker

BlogPalast!

One year ago BerlinRomExpress was born, on a hot Roman evening. Time goes by, many events have unfold since then. The Crisis. The total disappearance of the Palast der Republik in Berlin and the appearance of a big green meadow. The Macro opening postponement in Rome. And so on.

We took this picture 2 years ago, during our holiday in Berlin in August 2007. Would it be crazy, we thought, to consider Berlin like our home away from home?

Menkes sees green shoots in Berlin

It was a pleasure today to discover in the International Herald Tribune an article about Berlin, not covering politics, or elections, but…fashion. The occasion was the Bread and Butter fashion show at Tempelhof.

Suzy Menkes writes about Berlin. You’ve been warned! In the same page of the online newspaper “Haute faces uncertain times” and news on the Lacroix tears. The energetic, maybe confused, but definitely vital and vivid green shoots of a new era? Maybe some shoots are still very green…but Michael Sontag does things I’d love to wear tomorrow, between a meeting, a plane and an aperitivo at the Astor Lounge.

“How long will it be before Berlin comes up with designers whose creativity has a unique voice?” asks Menkes…probably a while according to Joop (“Berlin has good productions, good red carpets, good parties, better hangovers, but the fashion still needs some work.”). But maybe we’re at a turning point, and times are ripe to “distill that powerful German aesthetic”…

Berlin raw energy

• PermalinBBy SUZY MENKESBerlin raw energy

by Suzy Menkes

Published: July 6, 2009

BERLIN — Scattered slabs of concrete, still daubed with their original graffiti, are pertinent reminders that 2009 marks 20 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall. But the cultural revolution that came with the fusion of the city’s East and West is even more visible as arty photographs in smart spaces, music pulsating from abandoned government buildings and fashion that reflects this hot, hip and happening city.

back to fundamentals…yours, essentially

There has been quite a hot debate in the press lately on the concept of “most liveable city”. Mercer’s, the Economist Intelligence Unit, Tyler Brulé’s Monocle and Micheal Skapinker on the Financial Times (“There is more to city life than convenience”), everybody joins the fight.

The ranking is indeed tricky. In the 80s and early 90s I remember Triest being always ranked as “one of the wealthiest cities in Italy”. So why so many graduates were leaving the town? Maybe because Triest is an old town from a demographic point of view, and the number of empty nestlers who had T-bonds in the bank were a measure of wealth? Or because in Triest many people go to the theater(s)  on a regular basis and theater in Italy was considered elitarian? Italians are supposed to be fond of calcio, right?

I guess that focusing on what motivates a CEO to live in London or Shanghai is not representative of a city’s attractiveness. The possibility that kids, students, elderly, families, single women, with various levels of income can share a metropolitan micro-cosmos makes what is called “a city”. Using public transport, going to school, making use of parks and gardens, sharing the public space safely, job opportunities, careers in the public, private, no profit sector. Gateway of ideas, incentive to share them. Mix of different age groups. But also nationalities, orientations.

Definitely, opportunities matter. But opportunities are not only a better paid job. They may be also a good public education system. A reasonably priced real estate market. Transportation which is not clogging citizens in their cars for 2 hours every working day (and weekends). Opportunity means not only salary, but also the value for money that can be bought with that salary in a specific city.

So, among all rankings, I looked at my personal fundamentals and you know what? Monocle’s ranking makes sense to me. It is skewed towards environmental policies, and I guess this is becoming increasingly important going forward. After all, we breath the same air, regardless of our disposable income. Living in gated communities (by fences, like in Brazil, or by policies, like in London) is not my cup of tea. The problem is…too many cities are growing fences at the moment…

teasing you about Berlin (and Rome)

A very packed week, but filled with interesting meetings and impromptu social clips and plenty of food of thought beyond the bread and butter rat-race…witty discussions, clever views, that’s one of the pleasures of Rome in June: friends but also business partners flock to Rome and make it more exciting!

It’s  friday night. The Monocle copy is under my arm. This one is a gift by an Aficionado (or addicted, just like us) to both the magazine and Berlin. So even more appreciated! The weekend starts and a light breeze is mitigating the baking-oven heat. The groceries will be delivered on our doorstep by the e-shop. Jazzanova is spinning the records. Perfect…

We are going to take it easy in Rome, which is something quite unheard of for locals during the week. We morph in tourists for the weekend, and like them, we are not commuting to Tuscany in tight air-conditioned car-sauros wearing Tod’s loafers but rather seize the best of Rome in Birkenstock style. We’ll be spotting the first cinema en plein air venues, and we planned brunches in the shade for today and tomorrow.

Friends in Berlin and London: please send us a bit of proper rain showers and we’ll give you plenty of sun we can part with. Reading the morning papers in yet another good cappuccino place with the metallic smell of dust being moist by the first fat drops of rain is a pleasure in the summer.

And yes, we are reading this issue’s Editorial by Tyler Brulé, “Observation” with a connoisseur’s smile…in August we’ll be at our buen retiro in Berlin…can’t wait…

So here we are, teasing you with the preface and a nice illustration from the Editorial, tempting you to discover why Brulé is now observing “love at the second glance” Berlin…

“What would win your heart - an alluring first impression or a tempting parting glance? For Tyler Brûlé it was the latter that had him dreaming of relocating the Monocle team to Berlin and bagging a summer retreat”.

Source: picture and quote = Monocle

supporting evidence

The OECD’s recent study “Society at a Glance 2009″ sort of confirms some opinions we may have when observing society.

• Italians have less children than the French.
• Germans seem to have more time outside paid work for themselves and for the family, and don’t waste it watching TV.
• In Italy some people work too much and some other not enough.
• French take their time when they eat, and their pleasure too, and more than Italians. Obesity rates in Italy are among the lowest.
• Compulsive house-cleaning is, more than an italian obsession, an italian social distortion (see how different are detergent advertising campaign in Italy vs Rest of Europe).
• Italian students’ performance in science and maths ranks among the lowest in the OECD countries, after Mexico, Turkey and Greece.
• Japanese live longer than French (but the French live better, and sleep more).

So, nothing new under the italian sun or the berliner luft.

Italy is simply stuck, and is not progressing.

How are OECD societies progressing? How effective are their actions in promoting social progress? Society at a Glance provides a basis for addressing these twin questions. It offers a concise overview of quantitative social trends and policies across the OECD. This 2009 edition includes a wide range of information on social issues – such as demography and family characteristics, employment and unemployment, poverty and inequality, social and health care expenditure, and work and life satisfaction –as well as a guide to help readers understand the structure of OECD social indicators.

socialize this

There’s a lot of talk about the end of printed newspapers. While I hope this won’t be the case (for the good ones), German newspapers are tackling the issue by enriching their online editions with tools unavailable to the paper edition: interactive maps.

This spring the Morgenpost published the Social Atlas of Berlin. It’s interesting to visualize on these maps the demographic structure of each Berlin area. It’s fun to push the buttons and see what % of people under 14 or above 65 live in your same neighborhood. You may discover a thing or two you didn’t know!

Good to see tools more interesting than slide-shows or embedded youtube paraphernalia on online newspaper editions…I wonder when Repubblica will come up with a similar map for Rome!

ethics, c’est chic

The referendum in Berlin didn’t change the status quo. Ethics for everybody at school, as a common ground, and religion(s) on the side, only if you are interested. BerlinRomExpress celebrates with a post!

(source: Morgenpost)

glowing visions of a poor town

Last sunday I was browsing the newsstand at the now beautiful Zurich airport and I stumbled on Dummy, a perfect magazine.

I discovered in this month’s issue – dedicated to Berlin – the high-density impressions of Berlin by Edward B.Gordon. The landscapes, the details are so intense. No photos in the magazine, only paintings! In-depth reportages on the social dynamics (or statics) of the town. That’s what I call a perfect magazine. No lazy journalists’ rechauffe’ here.

I agree with Dummy, the image imaginaire of Berlin is somewhat flattened out by the typical travel-magazine photos. Sony Center, B.Tor, Reichstag, always the same images. Gordon manages to take out the sunny corner in the cafe’, the biker’s outfit colors ricocheting on the wet tarmac, a glimpse over the neighbour’s book in the U-bahn.

So, here’s a painter’s blog I will check up regularly and a clever magazine I will keep on buying (wonder if they can ship abroad with an Abo? I don’t fancy spending too much time at Zurich airport, after all…) .

Talking about contents, the articles about Berlin are super. Especially one, about Berlin’s dignified poverty.

Triest also belongs to the club of poor towns. It seems that past trade powerhouses, once very organized and buergerlich, somewhat retained their dignified posture also when trade winds of history stopped blessing them and disappeared. They became unterstuetzt, were fed chocolate and cigarettes by the Amis, grew spoilt if you want. Reality check followed suit, together with Arbeitsloesigkeit (unemployment) and decaying urban landscapes.

Still their border status conserved them in cosmopolitism, multikulti, multireligion and curiosity, untouched by “success” Poor towns like Berlin and Triest, learnt at a early age how to be thrifty. Maybe they will be better placed than others in the current environment…