iPod

I forgot to bring my camera on my architecture walk through Mitte today. I did have my iPod, though. So in lieu of pictures, here’s the soundtrack.

**Edit - It is taking too long to upload these songs... plus I think it is probably a copyright infringement. So here's a link to an iTunes album recreating most of it, or you can wait till you see me next and request a copy of my mix tape, though who knows when that will be. Sigh... I guess you just had to be there.

1. Hitler’s Bunker – Francis Farmer Will Have Her Revenge on Seattle (Nirvana)

Almost was Into Your Arms by Nick Cave, but I got turned around coming out of the subway. The Nirvana song came on just as I was walking up to the sign marking the spot (the bunker is no more. A car park sits in its place). I thought it was just the right song to be listening to when reading about ol' Adolf's last days & when I discovered that my camera wasn't in the backpack I got the idea for this blog post. As you will see, most of the other songs on my mix were not really as fitting.

2. Stasi Exhibition – At the Other End of the Telescope (Aimee Mann)

Actually, this one kind of worked too. At this point I thought I was really onto something. You know, like if I was looking at you looking at me I could either be in love with you, or spying on you (or both, like in The Lives of Others). The exhibit itself was very cool, though unfortunately for me, entirely in German. Didn't really need to read the display explanations for things like a can of tomatoes that has a screw-off bottom containing microfilm, but the thoughtful timelines were an enigma.

3. British Embassy – Better Be Home Soon (Crowded House)

Well, Crowded House is an Australian band, and that's part of the Commonwealth, right? This is the coolest embassy in Berlin. It has a plain stone facade, but there are all these cool jutting shapes in purple and blue that are set back into a recess in the wall. From the profile you wouldn't see anything, but from the side it is very funky. Kind of like the English. Or not.

4. Pariser Platz – Changer (Stereolab)

Pariser Platz is the square next to the Brandenberg Gate, so named in celebration of the defeat of Napoleon. I could have called this one "Brandenberg Gate" instead, but that isn't French sounding. Stereolab isn't really French either (half-French, I think), though this (and many of their other) song(s) is (are) in French. Maybe someone who is a huge Stereolab fan could make a better blurb about why this song was appropriate... like their songs are anti-capitalist Marxist commentaries, ironic because Pariser Platz is in former East Berlin but is now the height of glamor and conspicuous consumption.

5. Dresdner Bank – I am the Resurrection (The Stone Roses)

I only peeked in the lobby here. Rough Guide says that the picture of Fredrick the Great is by Andy Warhol. Too bad I didn't put some Velvet Underground on this list. How about, "The Stone Roses enjoyed their 15 minutes of fame?"

6. DZ Bank – A Shot in the Arm

Um, at this point I was tired and needed a shot in the arm? No? Sorry. This conceit is growing tiresome. But the building, designed by Frank Ghery is very cool. The facade is just stone and rectangular windows (in compliance with the strict building codes for this historic plaza), but inside is all curving steel and glass.

7. Hotel Adlon – (stopped)

I turned my iPod off for this part, so as not to look like too much of a tourist. Too bad my backpack and t-shirt gave me away. The bellhop shooed me out after I wandered around the lobby for a few minutes.

8. Unter den Linden – What Deaner Was Talkin’ About (Ween)

No wash hanging out to dry on this grand boulevard. Unter den Linden means under the lime (lemon?) trees. Hitler replaced the trees with Nazi totem poles, but thankfully they were replanted after the war.

9. Russian Embassy – The Mayor of Simpleton (XTC)

... Cool song. Ugly building. That's all I got.

10. Friedrichstrasse/Dussmann – Autumn Sweater (Yo La Tengo), 3000 Flowers (Destroyer)

A bookish band and an erudite lyricist? Dussman is the bookstore I ducked into in search of an English-language guidebook to the Italian Riviera.

11. Staats-bibliothek – All the Wine (The National)

Beautiful ivy-colored courtyard where I sat and ate my Doner Kebap. Sadly I had packed water rather than wine.

12. Humboldt Universität – Heartbeats (Jose Gonzalez)

Moving along. Nothing to see here. Except for a very cool-looking Neoclassical edifice, originally built as a palace for Frederick the Great's brother. Alumni from this prestigious university include Karl Marx & Friedrich Engels. Albert Einstein taught here. Not sure where Jose Gonzalez went to school.

13. Neue Wache – Number One Son (Camera Obscura)

The Neue Wache was a guardhouse for the royal watch in the early 19th century. The East Germans dedicated it as a memorial for the victims of "Fascism and Militarism" and even had a goose-stepping changing of the guard out front (or so says The Rough Guide). Now it is a memorial for "The Victims of War and Tyranny". Camera Obscura probably walked by here the last time they played Berlin.

14. Zeughaus (Historiches Museum) – Swans (Islands)

The Zeughaus was the old Prussian arsenal. During revolutionary unrest in 1848, Berliners stormed the building looking for weapons but found none. In response the government banned democratic organizations. The Zeughaus housed Nazi propaganda on WWI, was the site of a failed assassination attempt against Hitler, and since 1953 has been home to The German History Museum. Wagner's most famous opera was about Swans. Maybe I should have gone to the Staatsoper across the street first.

15. IM Pei Bau – Your Fucking Sunny Day (Lambchop)

Today was not sunny at all. IM Pei designed this annex to the Historiches Museum. IM Pei was in Pulp Fiction, starring Samuel L. Jackson, who was also in Die Hard III with Bruce Willis. Bruce Willis was in The Sixth Sense with Toni Collette, who co-starred with Hugh Grant in About a Boy. Hugh Grant was Julia Roberts' love interest in Notting Hill. And Julia Roberts was also in Flatliners with Kevin Bacon!

16. Staatsoper – Oceans in the Hall (The Ladybug Transistor)

See # 14 above. Also, currently playing at the State's Opera is Fidelio.

17. Bebelplatz – The Latest Toughs (Okkervil River)

The Nazis were just the latest toughs when they came to power. Bebelplatz is home to The Empty Library, a memorial to the Büchverbrennung - Goebbels' book-fueled bonfire of 1933. It is just a room with barren bookshelves, sunk in the ground and covered with glass. Sounds cool, eh? I was very excited to see it. Too bad this is fashion week in Berlin - the whole square is covered in a giant white tent with Mercedes Benz logos and restricted to fashion industry-ites. You know what they say. "Where they start by burning books, they'll end by putting on a fashion show".

18. Alte Bibliothek – Secretarial (AC Newman)

The Alte Bibliothek is known as the Kommode, which is German for "Chest of Drawers." I bet you thought I was going to say "Toilet" didn't you? I'm not that crude. But I did stop here to use the restroom. I listened to Secretarial while I peed.

19. Gendarmenmarkt – Chicago (Sufjan Stevens)

Once Sufjan Stevens finishes writing the last album in his 50-state song cycle, maybe he'll move on to international capitols. I bet he'd write a cool one about the Gendarmenmarkt, a vast public square meant to mimic the Piazza del Popolo in Rome.

Whew! It was a long walk. Almost as long as it took me to write this fucking endless post. Next time I'm bringing my camera.