subway signs

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series, signage, train station

the train station signs in berlin tend to be be beautiful, though not uniform. i grew up in d.c. where each train station has the same helvetica typography on a brown placard. it certainly makes the system unified, and i see the beauty in the vignelli way. but for my commuting needs, i’ll take the variety of berlin’s subway any day.

i think that subway signs will be my first series that i post. [i’m working on another series of eddie’s hair and famous art objects, but so far, he won’t consent to them being posted. i’m working on it.]

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same train station, different tiling! i like this one the best. it really speaks to the “no mans land” that potsdamer platz once was.

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#5 not technically a train station any longer, the colors and lettering are beautiful. 

not lettering at all, the lonely orange, dropped by a little girl who was being rushed onto a train by her frantic mom. sad orange.

fertig.

heaven might actually be a place on earth

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berlin, turkish market

specifically, the turkish market. it’s all my little heart could ask for. it’s got the chaos of a middle eastern market, and the cleanliness of germany. *le sigh*

a couple of weeks ago i was wandering around looking for a shared sewing space in kreuzburg. the space is beautiful, but insanely expensive. i’m talking 12€ an hour or 38€ a day to sew there. what??!!?!?!?!?!?!!!??? but the owner did me a solid. i asked her where she was buying all the jersey that her shirts were made of, and she looked at me like i was a troglodyte, “the turkish markt of course.” “huh?” i responded. and that’s when she changed my life. no more 28€ a yard fabrics for this girl, at the turkish market, 3€-6€ per yard of fabric. hello!

also, the food is delicious. good luck getting me out of kreutzburg.

fertig

schlagen

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berlin, ping pong

ping pong. the german past time. all around berlin are cast concrete ping pong tables. while mostly in parks, there are indoor ping-pong arenas. they’re as big as bowling alleys. it would seem that german’s really really love it. often times when you arrive in a park to play, there will be a wait, so you pull a beverage out of your bag, plop on a bench and wait your turn. please don’t imagine that just because there’s a wait that people will play less games or hustle along. oh no. you could be waiting a mighty long time.
we have a night time ritual. eat dinner, pile the dishes in the sink, jump on our bikes [with no helmuts, we rebel against the american system. but only when literally crossing our street into the park. gasp], go to play some post-dinner ping pong. we stay out till the mice crawl out of sewer grates. then, i’m. out. really fast.

today, i finally won a game. it was late afternoon, and the wind picked up. finally, i have the advantage of the unexpected landing… eddie was watching the ooooominous clouds to north, i was watching the ball. this is marcus. his advice is “play with your heart. not your hands.” fertig.