Week 05: And it was all Yellow

The ambience of cafe culture here is blasting 2000s-era Coldplay music.

Outside the Martin-Gropius Bau art gallery

Order Up

Look at the stars, look how they shine for you
And everything you do
Yeah, they were all yellow

— “Yellow” (2000)

Museumsinsel in Berlin

This week, I thought quite a lot about my first autumn in New England—how the walk from my first-year dormitory to the cozy, and later oh so familiar music building, was like diving into an amber pool. Where chapel chimes cut through the murkiness of my overwhelmed brain and the drowsy golden light would seep into the choir room and make everything, even our singing, shimmer.

However, I viscerally remember how much I hated the arrangement of “Yellow” by Coldplay that we had to sing. I admired how much Robbie our conductor liked it, but repeating the cheesy lyrics over and over spurred uncontrollable giggles from all sections of the choir. As I mentioned last time, Germans love their cold cuts and cheese and for some reason, 2000’s music that either is needlessly operatic or a weaker version of techno beats at a rave? My friend and I giggle uncontrollably at both.

I met three of my closest friends at Bowdoin either due to or in spite of, my nervous first-year self. One is now in Spain, one sent me postcards from the East Coast and art museums, and another from Seattle who has made the place so special for me. Going on long runs and walks makes me feel connected to all spaces and even more so, the people I miss. I have been sending batches of postcards—one to my music library supervisor and more to be sent and received. Until then, emails will have to do.

I have pulled out my Charlie Brown soundtrack piano book. Highly recommend listening to the Vince Guaraldi Trio’s version of “Autumn Leaves” while taking a walk.

The Bread

• Top slice: We headed out to Berlin on Tuesday and toured the city until Friday evening. So much to see…so much green and yellow…so much bread to eat. (p.s. the best bakery in the city was Albatross).

• Bottom Slice: My courses officially start tomorrow. Ack! I will sit in on around six or seven this week and finalize hopefully, by next Monday. Two art history courses, one Urban Studies course, and a German speaking course.

I am still completely convinced that the butts of bread are the best parts of the bread and I am proud to admit I ordered an entire baguette and ate it in one go.

The Filling

Berlin is apparently, famous for their bears and Berliner donuts. A Berliner Pfannkuchen is a golden nugget of goodness with a marmalade filling and this week was stuffed to the brim with art, music, and culture.

• The art scene in Berlin is dangerous for me. True to my word, I ended up visiting numerous art museums in the short span of time. In fact, I went to six different galleries and museums and was given a free catalogue of all the art exhibitions in Europe as of now which has convinced me I will be back. My budget is crying but the cathartic cry I had at the Donatello and Louise Bourgeois exhibitions—some of the best I have ever been to, were worth it.

  • Gemälde Galerie

  • Martin-Gropius Bau

  • Berlinische Galerie

  • Galerie Barbara Thumm

  • Galerie Barbara Weiss

  • Neue Nationalgalerie

The yellowing pages of Der Sturm magazine. A political for Dada and Expressionist art and edited by Bauhaus teacher Lothar Schreyer. Later went out of circulation due to rising Nazi propaganda and bans against modern art.

• Contrary to its translation, the Tiergarten in Berlin does not have random animals grazing about. Save that for Switzerland. It does, in fact, have incredible trees which naturally I need to talk about.

  • There are many ways to learn a space and feel part of a community rather than a tourist. One way is through hard histories—something discussed in my last post in regards to Hamburg’s little known histories with NS-camps, wealth as a direct product of extractive trade practices, and stolen cultural objects and artefacts in the collections of prominent museums. Yet in Berlin, it almost felt farcical to try and understand the cities complex history, even just in the last twenty years, through the eyes of a tourist. We took a two-hour walking trip through the city with a guide who grew up in West Berlin and brought an incredible amount of energy on a cloudy day, but observed how other tours engaged with loaded landmarks like the site of Hitler’s bunker (now a parking lot), the Denkmal für die ermordeten Juden Europas, and the Neue Wache, became spots to snap pictures for Instagram or Facebook rather than sit in stillness or repose. Of course photos are integral to capturing travels, but like so many things, romanticise trauma and reduce them to surface level meaning—tours that are Nazi architecture themed or stores that sell models of the Berlin Wall or "Checkpoint Charlie" gift shops where you can buy ‘pieces of the wall’ or ‘authentic’ suits of Allied or Soviet Union guards. I don’t want to diminish the hard work and intentionality of museums and scholars who handle these histories. However, the infamy of Hitler and the consequences of two world wars in Germany is fetishised by tourism and myths simply cannot be distilled when you snap a photo of something bright or shiny and then walk away without having read any of the signs or noticed any of the bullet holes on the side of the chocolate factory.

    

  • Another way to learn a space which has been most meaningful to me in Colorado, Maine, Washington (and hopefully Iowa?) has been through the flora and fauna. Walking in the cemetery again, the abundance of rhododendron reminded me of the bush outside my house senior year. The yellow leaves of the birch are akin to the Aspens in Colorado. The endless acorns scattering the sidewalk remind me of Iowa’s state tree, the Bur oak, and consequently, the state bird or yellow goldfinch that I have tattooed on my arm. I am realising, these specific trees for me have symoblised my different stages of life more than any season. I am hoping to find a naturalist group here as a way to connect with other community members and explore the city by finding the oldest and tallest trees in Hamburg.

The term Cambio, from the medieval Latin cambium meaning “change, ex-change,” refers to the cambial layer.

• A week filled with…music! Finally!

  • We went to the ballet “Giselle” in the Staatsoper Berlin with our program. It was lovely and talk about autumn—those peasants really loved their harvest festival and haunting men who broke their heart.

  • I love David Bowie. I love David Bowie. David Bowie loved Berlin and lived there for three years and produced three albums: his Berlin trilogy. I stumbled accidentally upon his old recording studio, Hansa Studios (also home to Brian Ino, Nick Cave, R.E.M., Iggy Pop) and his old apartment on Hauptstr. 155. I love David Bowie.

  • So many students at the Überseekolleg are studying music. Simon, who lives on my floor directly is a pianist and so we chat in German about his current repertoire. His entire concert last year was Bach.

The Sauce

• Bawk Bawk. Hast du Bock? I got food poisoning on top of a big a$$ rock.

  • “Hast du Bock” is slang for, do you have a desire to do XYZ? I have had cravings for pickles and boiled eggs specifically for more than six months. I indulged at our free breakfast at the hotel and snuck an egg out for a mid-day snack. We visited the glass dome at the top of the Reichstag (the German federal government building) and had to go through airport-like security where we had to set down our bags. They didn’t find my egg and I forgot about it and then once I re-discovered it, decided the yellow yolk looked so delicious I simply must eat it. I did and all you need to know is that later… “it” was all yellow.

. As a wise man in a wing singing and dancing in the musical 1776 said, “We’re waiting for the egg to hatch…in this Congressional incubator” but make it the German Parliament.

• Golden Slumbers

  • One of my all-time favourite songs by The Beatles. One of Isa’s favourite hobbies, I have found out, is taking photos of me sleeping during the day or on the train. She has collected, thus far, more than four separate occasions. My friend Neel too, found this hobby compelling in 2016 so the tradition continues and I will continue to refuse to post the evidence.

Mystery Meat

• I talked about the German stare last week and how I couldn’t understand it. I guess in retrospect, we really were welcoming it attempting headstands in the middle of the park. Emphasis on “attempting". I was incredibly unsuccessful and told to make a triangle but the only triangle I can think of is the illuminate which illumination which everything comes back to Coldplay, “Look at the stars, look how they shine for you, and they were all from Lily’s dense head after eating too much bread”