fake junk lemon drops : 읭

2008년 09월 23일

I was intrigued by your "1998" post of the other day. It got me wondering what is the stuff you think is great now but that in ten years' time you'll think is "so 2008"? Also, what will you do when Berlin is "over"? Have you set down enough roots there that it won't bother you? A lot of artist friends of mine are quite down on Berlin at the moment - work space costing double what it did five years ago, culture too "mono" etc... One friend of mine is talking excitedly of moving to Brussels - super cheap to rent there, super well-connected what with Eurostar & Thalys, burgeoning art scene... I'm wondering if it will be the new Berlin...

I read a Herald Tribune article about buying luxury condos in "funky" Berlin neighbourhoods - not a good sign. Berlin is still good, but its best days may be behind it. Brussels is good, but it's pretty small.

Sure, I got a sort of Berlin feeling from Brussels when I was therea year ago -- but I'd include the "threat" to the squat we were living and playing in. The threat of yuppification hung over Brussels as it does over Berlin. The good news is that the current financial crisis and the collapse of the property bubble means that this yuppification has suffered a serious setback.

I don't have much sympathy with people who focus on specific areas of Berlin -- Mitte and Prenzlauer Berg, usually -- and bemoan the fact that they aren't what they were ten years ago. For instance, people who think the imminent end of Tacheles means "the end of Berlin". For god's sake, get out of those areas! It's not all about them! Come to Neukolln, or -- if Tacheles is your thing -- go to Landsberger Allee 54 (the building in the second picture today), where there's something better than Tacheles, but very much in the same spirit.

A lot of this mentality ("Berlin is over") comes from Americans whose dollars are weaker than they were (to some extent this affects me, because some of my income is in dollars), and who find Berlin more expensive as a result. And a lot of it comes from people who want the boho spots to be where they were ten years ago. Get on yer bikes!

(http://imomus.livejournal.com/402078.html 어느 익명답글들과 답변)

다들 쑥덕쑥덕 난리고만.
이제 우리나라에도 베를린 여행책들이 한 두권나오기 시작했고.
누군가의 말에 의하면 요즘 예술계전반에서 아주 난리라고...
아 더 일찍 갔어야 재밌었겠다는 생각이.
음 브뤼셀 작년에 갔을때 분위기가 거기도 꽤 좋았지.
근데 거기는 구시가지 빼고는 뭐랄까 건물이랑 도로들이 너무 커서
서울의 강남같은 분위기가 나서 싫었다. 차도 더럽게 많았고.
(거기만 그랬는지 몰라도 완전 내 정신을 다 빼놓는 테헤란로랑 너무 흡사했음)
불어가 통한다는건 무척 편했지만.
내 기억을 더듬어보자면 베를린의 건물들은 대체적으로 '모던'하지만
다른 대도시들처럼 괴물같이 큰 덩치는 갖고있지 않았다.
아 약 백일 후면 베를린에 있겠구나.
...어서!!