what's that sound?

I've talked about it before. It's tricky to know what to do on Sundays in Germany. Things are always shut, and the weather generally isn't very good. In Berlin though, thankfully, there's always SOMETHING going on. Today for instance I was just moseying around my local area when I stumbled across a cheeky sound installation in an ex water reservoir ....as you do!

The project inside, from Belgian artist Pierre Berthet, was called "extended drops". Set up around the inner walls of a barely-lit, labyrinth-like water reservoir, the first thing I realised was: this was going to be spooky. In the end, after being bombarded with low rumbles and high-pitched twangs for 20 minutes, I was confused as to how the sounds were even being made. This is what the flyer said:"...steel wires cross the room and are attached to membranes on loudspeakers and special resonators on the reservoir walls. The anologue drops and the resulting electronic pulses create a wide rhythmic and sound spectrum - a seemingly timeless, atmospherically-rich combination of tones in space."

Yes, well... There was only one thing to do after all that ofcourse. Head outside into the sunshine for an ice cream.

Street art

Even my dad's into Berlin's street art. And he's "no supporter of vandalism". In fact, "he won't stand for it". But the thing is, street art in Berlin is just so crazy, that everyone just gets into it eventually.

At the moment, there's a new street art bandit in town who seems to have a real thing about drawing birds. For weeks now I've been spotting pictures of flying fauna of all shapes and sizes on walls in the east. Credit to the guy (or girl), he or she doesn't seem to have one particular bird. Each bird gets a look-in - keeping things very politically correct.

But I am struggling to find the meaning of this recurring badge to be honest. The classic, the yellow fist, always had a sense of rebellion about it. This street artist just seems to really like birds though. I feel like Jake in Eureka Street - wondering about the meaning of a street message, which maybe isn't meant to be understood.

But for me, you still can't go past this massive mural from Blu on the south side of the river, right where the old border between east and west used to run. It's political, historical AND a logistical masterpiece. It's a once off though - that's probably for the best because if he started doing this on every apartment building wall in Berlin he'd probably get into a spot of bother.