Berlin Wall - "Time Lapse"

Sunday I was briefly surfing the internet when I came across a photo in one of the Berlin groups I follow on Facebook.  I've reprinted it above, along with a shot I had taken earlier - the location is an observation platform that was built in the Neukolln District of Berlin.

At first glance, I thought someone had taken an old photo of mine and made it into a black and white shot.  However, the person who posted this one (they did not know who the photographer was) mentioned the date as 1986. My photo was taken in 1984 during my "Bowie Quest" outing - I've posted on the events of that day a few times, including here and here, or you can click the label below for more info on the quest.

It is fascinating to compare the two photos and consider the changes that had taken place, visible on the East Berlin side, over those two years.  First, there is the guard tower that had been constructed, then the tank traps and barricades had been removed, and finally, the old advertisement on the side of the nearest building was painted over.  Even so, it looks like most of the graffiti was left unchanged!

I never made it back to that section of the Wall during my time remaining in Berlin - I left in April 1986 - so I didn't get to check out the changes personally.  However, this internet thing is catching on - who knows when something from your past is going to show up and enlighten you.

Lou Reed (a tribute)

You can always play a Hank Williams song, you can always play a Beatles song, and you can always play a Lou Reed song. - Beck

It’s already been a full work week since we first had the news that Lou Reed had passed away of a liver ailment at 71.  Rock and Roll critics were the first to respond with obituaries – those began showing up on Monday morning and Tuesday, and I’ve paused to read them whenever I noticed them.  Then my friend Tom put up a Facebook status recounting the experience of meeting Reed in person twice at venues in New York city; by Thursday, personal tributes began to reach the media, including a post by Beck, and another – a letter to fans – by Laurie Anderson, Reed’s wife. 

My own first reaction was to think about when I first encountered Lou Reed as an artist.  That would have been when the song “Walk on the Wild Side” was a Top 40 hit – I wasn’t sure what the song was about, but we listened to that 45 over and over, singing along to “…and the colored girls sing ‘do-te-do, te-do, te-do, do-te-do…’” A few years later, when the meaning of life was all coming together for me, I would think about this song while walking to Faustos in Key West along Duval Street on the morning after Halloween, enjoying the stories about all the parades and parties that had taken place there.

The second thing I did after hearing the news was to head down to the basement for a look at my vinyl LP collection.  There I found seven Lou Reed records, some bought in Berlin, and some at a used record store in Tampa.  I figure I have a couple of CDs around, and I know that I made a cassette of VU that I used to play on the Walkman back in the day. 

Lou Reed was one of a group of artists who had a strong connection to Berlin while I was there in the 1980’s, which happened to be some formative years for my taste in music.  We looked for DavidBowie and Iggy Pop mementos (check out the label Bowie Quest at the end of this post as an example), and of course there was the Lou Reed album entitled “Berlin.” Among these thoughts was the trip into Kruezberg with Tony Orth to a record store I’d never found before so he could pick up a copy of the first Velvet Underground record – the one with Nico and the Warhol banana on the cover.

Since then I learned about all the artists who point to Lou Reed as an influence.  There was a quote by Brian Eno in the early obits about how the Velvets didn’t sell a lot of records in those first years, but everyone who bought the early pressings of the first record probably eventually bought a guitar and started a band.  Some artists that were listed in that Rolling Stone obit included David Bowie, Ric Ocasek, Chrissie Hynde, U2, Sonic Youth, and R.E.M. – I found that I have LPs or CDs by each one of these artists.

I listened to Lou Reed’s 1989 release “New York” over and over again – I kept the CD in the car and listened to it on my drive to work. When I made my first trek up to New York for a weekend, driving up the NJT with my friends Kelly and Mark, that was part of the soundtrack.  “Give me your tired, your poor – and I’ll piss on them!” we sang along.

It’s cliché to say it, but Lou Reed’s music is part of the pop culture fabric for someone my age.  He’d rank up there in the top 5 or so favorites if I was inclined to put together such a list.  I was sad to hear the news of his passing – but I have taken a few minutes here and there this week to find YouTube clips of his performances of favorite songs.  I found that clip of Perfect Day that I had never seen or heard before.  

So even though he's gone, I guess I still have a lot to discover about Lou Reed's influence.  

Post script.  After I wrote the original posts, I had a couple of other recollections I wanted to add.

Around the time of my trip to NYC, when we sang along with Dirty Boulevard, a few friends formed a band called the Despondent Astronauts and played local venues in Adams Morgan and the emerging U Street corridor.  They did a few VU covers, including Pale Blue Eyes and Femme Fatale as we followed them around back then.

During the U2 Zoo TV tour (in 1992, I think) - this is the stadium tour where they'd brought along all the East German Trabbie cars as part of the stage set - Bono sang a cover of Satellite of Love.  He was out on one of those islands they create to get the band closer to the crowd, and suspended above him was one of the trabbies.  He took a rope that was attached to it and gave it a spin - so the satellite above remained in orbit for the rest of the song.

Sitting in the Dschungel on Nurnberger Strasse

David Bowie has released a new single – apparently it’s his first commercially available music in ten years.  As I write this, I’ve embedded the video in the blog’s header, but a link is below if it’s not there anymore.

(Note: I was stationed in Berlin in the early '80's - during the time of David Bowie's emergence as a global pop star.  My friends and I were fans, especially liking Heroes, and we knew some of Bowie's history in Berlin.  So from time to time we might find something that combined something about Bowie and something about Berlin - the day we spent walking along the Wall in Neukolln, for example.  These posts are marked with the label "Bowie Quest" and you can find them by clicking on the label below.)

The song was released this month, January 2013, in celebration of Bowie’s 66^th birthday.  Much of it is reminiscing about Bowie’s time in Berlin, where he lived for a good portion of the 1970’s.  The title of this post is an early verse in the song.

Of course, I have a Berlin memory to share about this one.

There was a disco on Nurnberger Strasse that some friends and I used to go to from time to time, called The Sugar Shack (my Berlin years were 1981 to 1986).  In fact, that is the first place I ever heard Madonna’s “Holiday.” 

One time I was out with a friend on the way to The Sugar Shack.  Right around that time I had read something about Bono and the Edge hanging out in Berlin at "The Jungle," and then when we turned onto Nurnburger Strasse (about 2 blocks from KaDeWe).  We saw some very hip Berliners going into a building there, and we followed them in - we hung out for some drinks and then moved on to where we were headed.

It's a place I went back to a few times - there was a very good late night Trattoria across the street.  The video inspired a Wikipedia search, which says the Dschungel was at Nurnberger Strasse 53.  Clicking that address flies me to right where I remember the place.

From the looks of things, a lot of redevelopment has happened there on that street – the modern Ellington Hotel takes up a lot of the block. I suppose I’ll never know if I was really there at the Dschungel, that time and place, but I’ll go ahead and assume I was.

Here’s a link to the video:

http://youtu.be/QWtsV50_-p4

...and the guards shot above our heads...

Berlin Wall, Neukolln, October 1984, with a Solidarity logo.

I posted today's photos on the blog before, last August, during the 50th anniversary of the Berlin Wall's construction.  After seeing the exhibit at the Newseum the other night, I thought I might repost them.

First, an explanation of the title of the posts for yesterday and today.  These are phrases from the lyrics of David Bowie's song Heroes:

I can remember standing by the Wall
And the guards shot above our heads
And we kissed as though nothing could fall
And the shame was on the other side
Oh we can beat them
Forever and ever
Then we can be heroes
Just for one day

I took these photos on a Saturday in October 1984.  A friend of mine decided he would like to talk a walk along the Wall in the Neukolln and Kreuzberg districts of Berlin to see if there  was any graffiti left that might have indicated that David Bowie visited that spot - there were famous photos of him standing near his name painted on the Wall. We didn't find any of that graffiti, but the experience of wandering down those streets and alleys left a lasting memory.

The problem with talking a walk along the Wall in Berlin at the time is that the construction crossed so many property lines, and at any turn you might walk for some distance and come to a fence line you couldn't cross.  You'd have to go back and retrace your steps, and find another alley or street to get back to the line of the Wall.  This would turn a 10-mile hike into a 12-or 15-mile hike pretty quickly.  (That was an unpleasant finding a couple of times in 1983 when I was preparing for the Berlin Marathon, by the way, and my running partner wanted to spice up our routes with a run along the Wall!)

Berlin Wall, Neukolln, October 1984.  With an East German guard tower
and truck, and a view of the "Death Strip" or no man's land.

I have a couple of great memories from the walk that day.  The photo of the Wall above brings a couple to mind.  First, the logo for the Polish Solidarity movement is inscribed there - what some call the Polish crisis was the first geopolitical event to great me after my arrival in Berlin, so there was good context for the location this photo was taken from.  But also, the street we went down to get to the observation platform, and climbing the stairs themselves, was an interesting part of the day.

These districts in Berlin were known as art districts - there were subsidies for the residents, and the buildings were generally in a poor state of repair, and the environment attracted a good number of "edgy artists" to the area.  As we turned down the street that led to the platform, we encountered a group of people that were filming a little scene with a video camera and boom microphone.  The scene included a women getting into a car that was parked in the neighborhood there, and there were between six and eight people involved.

We strolled quietly through there, keeping to ourselves, but there was no hiding that we were American GIs passing through.  The little crowd glowered at our passing, and then one of them broke away and followed us up the stairs and stood nearby smoking on the platform.  I wasn't particularly afraid of them, they were obviously Germans and it was unlikely any of them were carrying weapons - and they'd be foolish to try to beat us up or rob us with all the expensive equipment they had at the shoot below.

Still, his presence up there was annoying, and a little threatening.  So we stayed up there about 10 minutes before moving on.

In this area, central as it was, we were encountering a lot of guard towers.  We'd see a head pop up in the observation cab, a camera with a telephoto lens pop out, and then all would disappear while we took our photos.  Soon it was like a game - as we approached, the head, then the camera, and then the disappearing act.

My colleague and I began to imagine the telephone calls between the towers:

"Yeah, two of them up on the platform now.  American GIs taking photos.  Nothing interesting.  They'll be at your tower area in 10 minutes."

Sure enough, the head would appear as soon as we got into the field of view for the next tower.

We walked along until we eventually reached the Hallesches Tor U-bahn stop, which luckily was only two stops from our Platz Der Luftbrucke home base at Tempelhof.

That second photo has a lot going for it, in my book.  It's one of the best Wall photos I took during my five years there, and I was very lucky to get one with a vehicle in it.  Of course, that view of the death strip in the Wall photo above isn't bad either.

As far as the memories of the day I took them, though, we'll those rank right up there too.

I Can Remember Standing by the Wall

Some of the readers here know that I was stationed in Berlin for five years when I was in the Air Force.  That was during the Cold War, and the Berlin Wall was an ever present and visible reminder of the conflicts in the world at that time.

Of course we have new and very real conflicts now, but from time to time I run into a reminder of the old days, as I did last night when Mary and I went to a party at the Newseum downtown.  There is a substantial exhibit on the Berlin Wall there,and today's post will share some photos - this may even run into a multi-parter on the topic.

The first photo here is a shot of the Wall section you see when you first arrive at the exhibit.  If you can imagine seeing this in real time, when it divided the city, you would have seen it stretch on off into the distance in front of you, and behind you as well, since the structure was more than 80 miles long.  From Wikipedia (link below), the slabs here are 12 feet tall and nearly four feet wide.  In the old days, they were topped by a round concrete conduit to make climbing over it that much more difficult.

The Newseum also obtained one of the old East German guard towers that stood at regular intervals along the Wall.   My recollection is that they were placed every kilometer or so along the border, and I clearly remember the one that was on a straight line about a kilometer away from the entry gate where I went to work every day.  I've got a few other memories associated with these towers; I may share them if I can find some old photos to put up here.

This tower is pretty complete; they've obtained the doorway, which you can see in the background of the Wall section photo, and you can go inside and have a look up.  You can't go up to the top and have a look at where the guards were stationed, however.

Now, the final photo here is of Mary and me in front of one of the old signs that were placed strategically around Berlin at border crossing points.  This became a sort of motif for my friends and I were there, we had it inscribed on all kinds of mementos, including our going away plaques, and other awards.


It was a great bit of nostalgia to see these artifacts.  I have to admit they gave me a chill - in the old days being this close to the Wall carried a sense of danger, because it was such a sinister construction.


And then, I always fall back on the memory of my friends who served with me there, and our mission.  In the end, that's what carries the day for me.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berlin_Wall

Playlist from the Archives circa 1985

Playlist: Another Near Miss

By:  Bob Boschen
16 March 1985
Maxell UD 90 (Tape missing)
Noise Reduction: Yes

Side A
High on Emotion – Chris DeBurgh
On the Pipe – Steve Morse Band
The Chant has Begun – Level 42
Blue Wind – Jeff Beck
Shadow on the Wall – Mike Oldfield
Zoolookologie – Jean Michel Jarre
Dancing with the Big Boys – David Bowie
Black Cat Shuffle – Al DiMeola
Afterimage – Rush
Hyper Gamma Spaces – Alan Parsons

Side B
Memories Can’t Wait – Talking Heads
Hammer Horror – Kate Bush
Dune Tune – Level 42
Date Stamp – ABC
Hawkeye – Alan Parsons
Trash – Roxy Music
Seen and Not Seen – Talking Heads
China Dance – Howard Johnson
Born, Never Asked – Laurie Anderson
The Song is Over – the Who

The Berlin Wall's 50th...

I came across an article that noted August 13, 2011 as the 50th anniversary of the Berlin Wall going up. It’s a subject and occasion that I can’t let pass without a moment to pause and reflect; I see over on Facebook that a few of my colleagues are also making note of the day.


In the MSNBC.com article I mentioned, Chris Rodell opens with the quote:

“Fifty years ago, the Soviet-controlled German Democratic Republic began to build what it euphemistically called its “Anti-Fascist Protection Rampart,” better known as the Berlin Wall.”

By the time I arrived in Berlin, as an Air Force Russian linguist, in October 1981, that structure was a concrete establishment, not just a symbol anymore, and not just propaganda anymore either, as so many had died by then trying to escape from East Germany by crossing it. My friends and I went to work every day at locations in full view of the Wall, and for those of us at the Air Force Marienfelde site, with two guard towers about a kilometer away with views of us coming and going from the security gate.

I’ve got a couple of photos here of the Wall – these were taken on a November day in the Nuekolln district (sorry, purists, no umlauts on my keyboard) when a friend and I set out to track down where David Bowie might have stood by the wall in the Heroes era. Also, some of my mementos, including a couple of pieces of the Wall, one given by a good friend and the other sent to me by my sister, who was there in the late ‘80’s, after my time had ended in April 1986.

Memories of Wall encounters are for another day – there are too many to recount in a blog post. But I do I share the sentiment that Rodell’s commenters offer - that Wall wasn’t something to celebrate. The fact that it is long down now, that is something to make a note of.

I’ve managed to get back to Berlin twice since the fall of the Wall and the reunification, once in 1996 and again in 2001; I’m sure I will get back again sometime, and hopefully more than once.

That’s because on my last visit, the sentiment that overwhelmed me is the same one that Burkard Kieker expresses in Rodell’s piece:

“What’s really astounding is today people from 180 nations live peacefully together in a formerly divided city,” he says. “The wall affected the fate of many Berliners but they found a unique way to cope with it. You see wall memorials on the one hand and colorful painted wall remains on the other. And this mixture attracts even more visitors, especially on occasions like the 50th anniversary of the building of the wall.”