Berlin: Mecca of culture, art and lifestyle

[Lear]

Taking the plunge
Monocle Magazine Video (6.00 min)

Swimming in the city got a boost this summer with the launch of inspiring new concepts in Berlin and London.
We took a dip and explored the pool experiences on offer.

[Lear]

Tech Companies Flock to Berlin
Wall Street Journal

Twenty-somethings from around Europe and the globe have streamed into neighborhoods like Kreuzberg, for years a working-class West Berlin district with a heavy Turkish immigrant population. Now it is rapidly gentrifying, filling with hip bars and restaurants. English—often with non-English accents—predominates in coffee shops and sandwich shops that have sprouted up in the bases of old brick warehouses. Startups have piled into the offices above.

“You get a lot of access to great talent—you have people all over the world who want to move here,” said Jakob Schreyer, chief executive of Orderbird AG, a 110-person restaurant industry software startup located above a courtyard in an old Kreuzberg warehouse.

[dc_denizen]

Berlin anti-TTIP trade deal protest attracts hundreds of thousands

Hundreds of thousands of people marched in Berlin on Saturday to oppose a planned free trade deal between the European Union and the United States that is claimed to be anti-democratic and to threaten food safety and environmental standards.

The environmental groups, charities and opposition parties that organised the protest claimed 250,000 people took part, while a police spokesman said 100,000 attended. Smaller protests were also held in other cities, including Amsterdam, with a rally due to be held in London on Saturday night at which shadow chancellor John McDonnell is scheduled to speak.

[mousquet]

This is nothing good. Not in the long-term strategic view.

Between ourselves, the question is not so much to know who's got the market shares, the current money, the proper ideology or whatsoever.

The only essential matter to us all here is to make people feel closer together, in every state and province of the Americas and Europe.

A common market is only some means, not the happier ending. Come on, we can make it, whatever the means.

I've always been in favor of federal Europe - even when the US nastily try to avoid it cause they kind of poop their pants at the idea of real united Europe - and a common US-Europe market. In the future, they might eventually go beyond a market and find a common federal capital, who knows? Whether in Brussels, DC or Buenos Aires, who cares for now? This is not the challenge of our time, but it's yet certainly our current responsibility as conscientious citizens.

[Lear]

Berlin burnishes its reputation for hedonism
USA Today

Germany's capital has long been associated with sexual liberty, hedonism and eroticism —
a permissive place where permissive people do permissive things.

Which is why Venus, an erotic trade and consumer fair that claims to be the world's largest of its kind, convenes here annually. This year's four-day event, which runs through Sunday, has drawn 30,000 attendees. "People come to Berlin for something a little bit special," said Walter Hasenclever, the show's publicity director.

Venus, in its eighth year, features a mix of sex products and erotic performances in a setting that combines the ambience of an airport terminal with a flea market. Hasenclever said most of Venus' consumer customers are couples who don't blush easily.

"This city allows you to explore who you are," said Camille Darroux, 26, a part-time freelance writer who visits Berlin sex clubs such as the KitKatClub with her boyfriend.

Darroux said she first came to Berlin from her native France because she was attracted to its burgeoning tech start-up scene, but another scene quickly took over.

"People in Berlin are less judgmental than in other places in Europe," Darroux said. "Things like sex parties are very normal in Berlin.

[Lear]

[MonkeyRonin]

Berlin, New Hampshire (I'm guessing it's that Berlin?) certainly is an interesting little place. It's one of the last (and largest) surviving Francophone communities in the US. Looks pretty too.



https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/F...Berlin,_NH.jpg

[Lear]

Urban Train bombed ….

[New Brisavoine]

Originally Posted by MonkeyRonin

Berlin, New Hampshire (I'm guessing it's that Berlin?) certainly is an interesting little place. It's one of the last (and largest) surviving Francophone communities in the US. Looks pretty too.

That's pretty outdated information. According to the 2013 US Community Survey, only 18% of the population in Berlin (New Hampshire) still speak French at home, and Berlin is far from being the largest Francophone community in the US.

The most Francophone community in the US is Madawaska (Maine), where 67% of the population still speak French at home, followed by Van Buren (Maine) where 61% speak French at home, and Fort Kent (Maine) where 56% speak French at home. These are the only 3 places left in the entire US where a majority of the population still speak French at home.

In Louisiana, the French language has declined so much (thanks in a large measure to the Roosevelt policies of the 1930s which forced children to go to English-language schools) that the most Francophone place in that state today, the small settlement of Choctaw (in the remote Baton Pilon bayou, near Thibodaux), has only 44% of its population speaking French at home. Thibodaux itself has only 4.5% of its population still speaking French at home.

If you're talking in terms of absolute numbers, then the largest Francophone community in the US is in... New York City (84,000 French speakers live there, to which could be added 110,000 French Creole speakers, mostly Haitians). In comparison Berlin (NH) has only 1,700 French speakers. North of Boston and south of Canada, the largest Francophone community is in Lewiston (Maine), where 4,800 people still spoke French at home in 2013, making up 14% of that city's population. In Madawaska they form 67% of the population but they are only 1,990, because Madawaska is smaller than Lewiston.

[streetscaper]

Originally Posted by New Brisavoine

If you're talking in terms of absolute numbers, then the largest Francophone community in the US is in... New York City (84,000 French speakers live there, to which could be added 110,000 French Creole speakers, mostly Haitians). In comparison Berlin (NH) has only 1,700 French speakers. North of Boston and south of Canada, the largest Francophone community is in Lewiston (Maine), where 4,800 people still spoke French at home in 2013, making up 14% of that city's population. In Madawaska they form 67% of the population but they are only 1,990, because Madawaska is smaller than Lewiston.

The majority of Haitians in the US (as in their native country) certainly don't speak [fluent] French.

Your overall point still stands though.

[Lear]

Batman: Europa #1

From the very beginning, you can feel this is a slightly different Batman story. We're used to seeing him pretty much mop the floor with everyone but when a fight with Killer Croc takes longer than it should, it's clear something is up. Discovering there's a virus (on a couple different fronts) leads Batman to Berlin.

[Lear]

Berlin: Seat of the Person of the Year

[MolsonExport]

Donald Trump with Angela Merkel's hair?

[Lear]

The 50 best films of 2015 in the UK: No 2 – Bridge of Spies
Guardian


The 50 best films of 2015 in Australia: No 1 – Bridge of Spies
Guardian

Steven Spielberg’s Cold War spy-swap drama Bridge of Spies is a movie of glorious craftsmanship, human sympathy and flair. It’s a consciously old-fashioned piece of Hollywood storytelling conceived in something like the heartfelt, ingenuous style of Frank Capra. Where once we had Mr Smith Goes To Washington — here we have Mr Hanks Goes To West Berlin.

The Best Television of 2015: TV in the Age of Terror
Wall Street Journal

In the reflections of reality department Showtime’s “Homeland” has no equal these days and never more obviously so than in its extraordinary fifth season. Settled in Berlin, Carrie has left the CIA to work as security chief for a German philanthropist, but not for long.. She’s soon back, however unofficially, with Saul Berenson ( Mandy Patinkin) and Peter Quinn ( Rupert Friend)—both, like her, at the center of a smashingly suspenseful saga of treachery and mistrust at CIA headquarters in Berlin.

[The North One]

Hmmm, Angela's hair makes Trump look like Gérard Depardieu.

[Lear]

Countdown for NYE….

• Video Link

[Lear]

David Bowie
Low (1977), Heroes (1977), Lodger (1979)
The "Berlin Trilogy"

R.I.P.

• Video Link

[Lear]

American graphic artist in Berlin …..

[Higher89]

Originally Posted by nature's calling

Ah, yes. Can't go wrong with the nightlife and restaurants in Berlin.

I know, right? Restaurants are many, nice, and cheap. And about the nighlife, no doubt it's the best electronic music scene in the world! Parties are affordable, long and clubs are the best quality.

It's also the fact that it's not a fancy environment where people go there to be seen, but more a relaxed, open and down to earth character that makes it unique.

After living in Berlin, I think partying in any other city is a bit of a dissappointment!

[Lear]

Berlin Fashion Designer Michalsky goes 3D print….