Week 6
The monotony of the solid grey, misty, very cold weather, and most pavements still iced over, is starting to get on my nerves, but not enough to make me risk longer walks, though I am itching to get out with my camera and also need to start doing my homework for the current Blende2-Hamburg webinar.
Plans so far this week are an academy concert in Pierre Boulez Saal this afternoon. Students of the Barenboim-Said Academy are presented to the audience. There is always a very nice atmosphere, an interesting programme, and of course the pleasure of being in one of the world’s best venues for chamber music. Before it was conceived, created and brought into life by Daniel Barenboim, Berlin did not know it needed such a venue, but they know now.
Desperate to see the sea I am hoping to make a daytrip to Warnemünde, which would probably be really stupid with the weather forecast promising up to -10 C and relatively strong winds. I am trying to convince myself that I am old and might die of exposure even if I do manage not to fall and break a hip or something.
Saturday 7 February two gallery openings in the neighbourhood – Persons Projects and Buchmann Gallery, both photography, which I have posted as an event on InterNations.org.
And hoping for a miracle turn in the temperatures or some other miracle to get rid of all the ice. I now realise that the responsible Berlin authorities are going to do f…-all about it.
Tuesday we suddenly had sunshine for a couple of hours – a nice change from weeks and weeks of monotonous, grey and misty, so I did take my camera out for a walk. I noticed the layer of ice on the walkways starting to wear a bit thin in places, but then it snowed again during the night and on Wednesday morning, so not to worry – the ice is being maintained and refreshed, and the emergency wards and hospitals are complaining louder than ever, and as usual, only the roads are cleared – not the pavements. Berlin authorities are pathetic.
Also squeezed in the Raoul Hausmann exhibition at Berlinische Galerie.
As usual, as long as Berlin’s much-worshipped cars and their drivers are not too inconvenienced, all is well. Pedestrians, especially elderly, which are clearly not welcome here at the best of times, can just stay indoors, week in, week out.
One good thing about this “not-going-out-much” weather is the time to get things done at home. In my quest to boycott US goods and services, I had been thinking of dropping Adobe (in my case Lightroom and – less often – Photoshop), and dreading the thought of learning new software. But then DxO Photolab started to pop up here there and everywhere as a realistic, Europe-based alternative first marketed in 2025. I finally plucked up the courage to install their 30 day trial version, and now I am hooked and will never look back.
Daytrip to Warnemünde 9 February
On 11 March during an unexpected, almost sunny, hour or two – a rare sighting of a Wren/Zaunkönig, and for me the first on my local cemetery.
And it is Berlinale time. With 277 films shown an average of three to four times during the festival, the programme is so overwhelming that when trying to pick five to ten films I would like to see, I got so confused I nearly ended up in the foetal position :-). But I did manage to pick eight films, and even get tickets for them. That has definitely become more difficult. I am not sure why that is.
I love the Berlinale for so many reasons. It does not pander to Hollywood mainstream and glitz and glamour but has a strong focus on films with political and social themes, and arthouse and independent films, in other words films from which you might learn something, and also a section with emerging filmmakers. And it is accessible to the public (if you are quick enough ….) and the audience is there to actually watch the film and not to behave as if they were at home in their own living room, i.e. no eating, drinking or yacking or feet on the seat in front, and no sign of phones or other electronic devices anywhere, so it is blissfully quiet, even in a large cinema like Delphi Film Palast, and even if the film is more than three hours long.
In between, I continued to take photos for the above mentioned photography webinar.
Also ventured out to Tierpark on a grey day (of course the day after was much brighter) (18 February):
Saw a total of eight Berlinale films. Was annoyed at the staff in Urania – kept walking around all over the place, communicating in their whatever devices they had which also lit up at regular intervals. Also in Urania, contrary to Berllinale rules, they kept letting people in long after the film had started. All very distracting. Another venue I would avoid from now on is the Academy of Art, Hanseatenweg. I noticed a very unpleasant smell already when entering, and later found out it came from the toilets in the basement. I nearly threw up when I had to use them before leaving after the film. Disgusting.
When on 21 February I got up to wet, dark, grey, drizzly, windy weather, going birdwatching relatively early was not at the top of my wish list, but it started at U Reinickendorfer Straße, so not very far away, and was led by NABU’s Frank Wissing – one of Berlin’s most knowledgeable ornithologists. I am so glad I did manage to drag myself out. The weather brightened up during the morning, and it was a very enjoyable three hours. We saw many different birds, including Fieldfare/Wacholder Drossel, Pochard/Tafelente and Grey Wagtail/Gebirgsstelze – a first for me. As well as two racoons/Waschbär :-).
Bonus tip: If you are near U Osloer Straße looking for sustenance, tiny Café Utopia has great coffee and equally great service.
Light conditions were obviously not ideal, so the photos are not great.
That week ended with a real treat, as it always is to visit NaNum. This time, it was under the auspices of “eat! Berlin”, and an interesting event.
The last week included a walk across my local cemetery in relative sunshine, finally, and the lovely sight of a flock – I believe it is actually called a charm – of Goldfinches, visits to Alfred Ehrhardt Stiftung, Robert Morat Galerie, and Sprüth Magers with fellow birdwatcher and bridge player Agata, a daytrip to Gespensterwald which had been on my list for a long time, the start of a new Blende2-Hamburg webinar – which I always look forward to, an aborted makro photography course in Biosphäre Potsdam (too sauna-like for me, which I guess I should have known), and hopes to photograph the moonrise and -set. Oh, and making plans for this year’s trip to Zingst. Last year was my first time and such a nice experience that I am going again. So many workshops to choose from. Horizonte Zingst Foto Festival.
