What is reality?

This is the question Bonn's students and thespians will be asking innocent passers-by this week. A series of quirky, ad-hoc performances called Reality Test will hit the streets of the city in an effort to challenge locals about their idea of reality. The whole thing is sponsored by Theater Bonn and the fringe ensemble.

The focus of the project is the "Test Centre" on Bonn's Market square. Each night up until July 2nd, live music, open-mic action and the much maligned poetry slams, are all on the programme here. Certainly the vernissage party thingo there went down well on Saturday night.

Sure... you could say this is another example of the fact that when you have a warm roof over your head and safe food on the table, you can worry about the more philosophical things in life. It's often the way here in Germany, hence the mountains of random euro stuff to have filled the pages at jse/Euroblog over the last five years. Sometimes it can be a bit lame, other times a bit too challenging: the main thing is, people are doing stuff. Living hand to mouth is just so out clearly. That's something only I do, I suspect.

Still, I'm a big fan of doing this sort of thing in Bonn. Especially if it makes old ladies - who would otherwise only go to Bonn market place to buy white asparagus - drop their groceries and FINALLY TAKE NOTICE OF THE CITY'S YOUTH!

Bon Bonn

We've received a lot of post this last week from people saying that we are being too mean to Bonn. That we are not giving the new location a decent chance. I accept that this may be the case. I will speak personally with the editors involved. Let's not forget though that "just so euro" is focused on coolness, and that therefore, on occasions, Bonn will come in for a slamming.

There are, of course, positive sides to Bonn - it's surprisingly international flair, it's wonderful outdoor lifestyle and "laast bat not leeest" (as the Germans would say) the wonderful Rhein. My way home from work runs right along the river, it's a real peach. Sometimes I just have to get off my bike and skim rocks at the freight ships. And take the odd photo as well.

You've got to pay that.

Street art, with training wheels

As I sat there on the balcony listening to my (grown adult) neighbours from the Bruderschaft singing along to Katy Perry, I got to thinking once again about the many differences between Bonn and my previous stomping ground, Berlin.

Of all the things that I miss the most from Berlin - from the cheeky radio stations to the tattooed mothers with biodegradable strollers - I would have to say that the lack of quality graffiti really is the biggest hole in my life right now. Take a look at the examples below:

Out of town sledge

This has been on the power box at the end of my street since I moved to Bonn. That's over a month! That is just not acceptable. You can't have people come to your turf and graffiti their love for a neighbouring city (and their football club, I presume) and then just let it stand.

If no-one tags over this in the next week, I'm going to have to take matters into my own hands and get the spray cans out.


Too much time on his hands

This really is quite a nice piece. It's colourful, it's got presence - you can see the vandal is at least making an effort. But what is the treble clef for? C'mon man - what were you thinking? That could be the uncoolest thing I have EVER seen.

And how did you think that the copyright symbol in the bottom right hand corner was going to help things? I used to scrawl that sort of thing on my pencil case at primary school. I suspect that this graffiti was done by the shop owner's son.

Pool-time blackout

Normally in Germany, the changing room walls at the local pool offer a good insight into a region's graffiti. In Berlin-Kreuzberg, there are tags in Turkish, in Schöneberg's pools you see "personal ads" of all sorts of shapes and sizes(!).

Bonn's changing rooms seem to be covered with cave-man like attempts at graffiti. It would be different if the walls were shiny and bare. But this is like watching a group of kindergarten kids fill out tax returns. This one definitely caught my eye: what a catchy look!

Yo, where's the party at?

Sundays in Bonn really do not get very busy from what I can see. I have been looking out the window for the last hour and have not seen anyone move - aside from one guy going through bins looking for beer bottles. As for flea market action, that classic sunday German pasttime, the closest we get to Berlin's Mauerpark bun fight is this:

Today's computer market was just awesome. Can't wait for next week's reptile exchange.

As I have mentioned before, German law demands that most shops stay shut on a Sunday. This means I wasn't even able to head to the supermarket today and debate further whether I should buy some cucumbers or tomatoes. (For those that are wondering: I'm sticking with tomatoes at the moment, but am giving cucumbers a miss.)