Blu

The dilapidated walls of Berlin,  kindle the surreal work of Italian street artist Blu.  His art seems so perfectly in tune with the energy of the city, that I assumed his work was a tale from the very streets it illuminates. 

It was in typical Berlin fashion I learnt of his origins, in the circus tent at bar 25. Hunched on a wet sofa at a time in the morning when although full daylight is an unavoidable clue, you don't want to look at your watch for fear of witnessing the destruction you have caused the rest of your weekend.

Sat sandwiched  between an Aussie -  who we later embarassingly realised was called Alex, not Shane,  and a German dude. Shane proceeded to show me and my equally inebriated visiting friends a video on his IPhone,  of the animated work Muto by Blu. It was created on the walls of Buenos Aires and the somewhat less intriguing sounding, and not to mention less fun to pronounce, Baden,  South Germany. 

Halfway through the video, which was drawing appreciative gurgles from its British viewers, the German dude piped in that he knew Blu. He then told us he would tell his "Blu Italiano friend," we watched the video for the first time "right herr' in zee circus tent baaa tventy five!"

That was the only funny thing the German dude said. I spent the next tventy minutes trying to get away as he discharged wank stories about his own art career and how he was also a DJ and really into "mixing African drums and crazy shits over Balkan beats." 

Now, enjoy the genius of Moto.

Both these clips are fantastic keyhole insights into a fervent, relentless imagination, that appears unquenchable until exhaustion.  Below are his creations scattered across the globe.

Sao Paulo,Brazil    

Kreuzberg, Berlin

Wroclaw, Poland

Tate Modern, London

Arhus, Denmark

Wroclaw, Poland

flickr/JackTwo

flickr/MichaelFromm

flickr/coincidentalimages

flickr/chrisjohnbeckett

flickr/iconsfornow

flickr/coincidentalimages

Where do I sign?

A room advertised on Craigslist.de. I have a feeling he won't be inundated with offers...

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EUR150 living room to rent out (trendiest part of berlin)

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Reply to: hous-2bwqq ^{[Errors when replying to ads?]}
Date: 2009-07-16, 2:12PM CEST

fold out couch available for E20 a night or E150 a month, no worries mates! There is a baby chihuahua that needs to be taken care of and basically there is a ton of other stuff but first come and check it out! 

• Location: trendiest part of berlin
• it's NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests

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...stomp, window, or toilet?

Fifteen-topping Spud in Turkish Berlin

A fifteen topping house speciality baked potato.  I knew on ordering it was going to be disgusting. But who could turn down a potato carrying tikka massala, raw mushrooms, jalapenos, coronation chicken, sweetcorn, tuna, red cabbage, sourcream, sauerkraut, olives, couscous,  aubergines.....three short. "Didn't he do well?"

Snippets from a trip back back home

Pleased to see my parent's Indian Bean tree has a) recovered b) not been nicked

A couple of amusing newspaper boards discovered on a mid-wedding walk in Ditchling. A wedding so perfect incidentally, that it should be the focus of this post and not the irrelevancies of these pics.

 

Deutsche Dogs

Europe plundering Vikings, the muddy yards of pig farms in the Bavarian highlands and the Grand Duke of Weimar have all contributed to an eclectic array of canines pawing the broken bottle confetti strewn streets of Berlin.

Boxer, Rottweiller, German Shepherd, Great Dane, Weimaraner, Doberman, Leonberger, Poodle (dubious, it HAS to be French), Schnauser, Pinscher, even the Hot Dog - all Germanic inventions. The mongrels here are equally impressive. I’m partial to the fact that with many you can distinguish a Leonberger as their long lost, great grandfather - it’s just detectable, like Ben Stiller’s Jewish ancestry.

Below you can find some of the aforementioned and additionally some dogs that have caught my eye during my time in the city so far. All these were captured on the somewhat inept - almost souvenir like rarity of Apple stepping a foot wrong - IPhone camera. 

The Great Dane of Gorlitzer Park

 A mongrel looking less than impressed with the seating arrangements on the U8

The "about-to-kick-off" dogs(Ha. I meant "Kick-off" as in  go loopy at a passing, just after I took the photo, at a heel-dragging Spanial. Now you, no I mention it, they do also look like they are about to kick off, and are waiting for the referee's whistle)

So, is it Francois or Franz? Either way, I'm liking his style, liking his style... 

A well attired U-bahn pooch enjoying the cold floor of Berlinerstrasse

                                   A wee Weimaraner dealing with an itch in the distance

      A Paul Scholes - Leonberger. Beautiful dog. Wish I'd got a 

better pic as it passed me on a rare jaunt to Mitte

A Dulux dog at the Brewbaker micro-brewery. Which is perfectly located just over the river Spree, a short walk - that includes the Bear bridge - from my offices

A funny, little greedy dog that hangs out at an excellent Cafe near my work.