Re: editorial ideas

One can imagine that living in Berlin during the long period in which city was bisected by two rival, globe-spanning uber-entities thereby serving as a symbol of something very wrong with the world, or perhaps something very fine and daring about it, but at any rate being a symbol of something very significant by any account was a very romantic manner in which to inhabit an uncertain world.. A wall makes for a fine metaphor, and machine gun nests need not make for a metaphor at all insomuch as that there is no more interesting thing for a machine gun nest to be other than that which it already is. It is also a fine and rare thing to have a large number of spies running around one's neighborhood, spying on each other. All of this would have been very agreeable to the sensibilities of the modern artist.

But twenty years ago the wall collapsed, thereby giving the world one final metaphor, this time a happy one. And Berlin, despite its other peculiarities, lost its spies and machine gun nests and thus something of its surrealism, and could thus begin the short march towards realism. This was good for mankind in general and the East Berliners in particular, which is to say that it was probably bad for art.

But to hell with art anyway; art thrives on despondency, contradictions, and uncertainty. The ascendancy of the innovative in the realm of art tends to mark some terrible new low in human affairs, which is why Soviet realism was so interesting and why '80s sitcoms were so terrible. And so it is that I am pleased to announced that there was very little innovation to be found at the final evening of 20 Years of Change: Berlin Days in New York City, which itself served as the kick-off event of the global festivities commemorating the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.

Now, Berlin is certainly a very creative place and Berliners are certainly a very creative people and many of the participants that were on hand Thursday evening are certainly doing very wonderful things and otherwise contributing to the grand march of the humanities, just not to any grand extent.

The evening's presentations were given in the format of the Pecha Kucha, which sounds like a Mayan temple city but is in fact a Tokyo-borne format by which presenters are asked to deliver their talks in twenty-second segments, each illustrated by one of twenty projector slides. Some of the presentations given thereby were very interesting even to those of us who are not readily interested in much other than self-aggrandizement. Benjamin Godsill, an American who serves as a curatorial associate at the New Museum (which, incidentally, is where this was all being held) gave a very admirable talk on the modern history of museums, particularly those of New York, as well as the ever-shifting artist enclaves of the sort that are always in search of cheap rent and which are consequently now doing much of their shifting in the direction of Bushwick. Another American artist (whose connection to Berlin I didn't quite catch) provided an account of some wacky mid-20^th century guru who professed a then-novel approach to energy and human will and whatnot and who founded an organic restaurant in California back in the '60s before eventually moving his followers to Hawaii, going broke, and falling off of a cliff into the ocean in the process of trying to fly to the moon or some such thing. Philip Utermoehl, an architect from a prestigious Berlin firm, showed off a very intriguing set of photos depicting organic-influenced office buildings of the sort that eschew straight lines in favor of curvy ones. And another American fellow from a performance art troupe that had recently toured Berlin took the stage in a university graduate gown and mortar board, talked a bit about what his performance art troupe does, hit himself in the face with a cherry pie, and then talked a bit more about what his performance art troupe does. Surprisingly, he came off as a pretty down-to-earth guy.

But there were also the inevitable instances of the done-to-death, the pseudointellectual, and the irritating. One German fellow had placed a piece of modern art in various parts of Berlin and photographed it, presumably in homage to the dozens of other people who did it first. And yet another American presented a story he had written, accompanied by various slides of an apple in various states of decay. My thought process went something like this:

Hmmm, the plot seems to have kind of a film noir kind of thing going on. Something about a robbery... Max and Rheinhold seem not to be getting along... someone falling in love with a prostitute... I'm finding this a bit hard to follow; perhaps it's because I'm busy taking notes... wait, the guy's arm was just amputated? Wasn't his amputated arm referenced earlier in the story? Wait, wait, wait the apple is getting less moldy with each new slide, isn't it... that must... OH GOD I UNDERSTAND NOW THE STORY IS BEING TOLD IN REVERSE CHRONOLOGICAL SEGMENTS I WISH I WAS DEAD OR SOMEWHERE ELSE.

After a while, the presentations came to a close, and we were led to the 7^th floor for a very swell little after-party with a DJ and free drinks. Also on hand were some very nice appetizers involving shrimp served on little bread things with cheese and spinach. I ate perhaps eight or nine of these and was very satisfied with the world and its workings.

On Fri, Apr 3, 2009 at 10:02 AM, Christopher Koulouris <christopher@scallywagandvagabond.com> wrote:

much obliged. Did u have a think about any of the editorial ideas i gave you?

-Chrstphr.

On Fri, Apr 3, 2009 at 9:59 AM, Barrett Brown <barriticus@gmail.com> wrote:

Howdy-

Went to the Berlin thingy last night, was pretty interesting. I'll send you a piece later today.

Thanks,

Barrett Brown
Brooklyn, NY
512-560-2302

On Wed, Apr 1, 2009 at 1:40 PM, Barrett Brown <barriticus@gmail.com> wrote:

Howdy-

Sorry for the delay, was unusually busy yesterday. I'm actually going tomorrow night; looked to be the most interesting of the three evenings. I'll look these over and get back to you a bit later today.

Thanks,

Barrett Brown
Brooklyn, NY
512-560-2302

On Tue, Mar 31, 2009 at 10:40 AM, Christopher Koulouris <christopher@scallywagandvagabond.com> wrote:

Good morning Barrett,

I trust you have smoked your requisite cigarettes, sipped on your cafe con leche and set about with the pontification of our current dialectics...as one is obliged.

Wanted you to ponder on one or two of the below editorial assignments below, let me know what best inspires you... I also believe you are going to the new museum tomorrow night to talk with Berlin film makers and to drink their wine. How civilized.

The curious affairs of psychotherapy...

A curious guide how to spend ones afternoon loitering and shopping

Now that I'm single but nearly (still) married what I intend to do about it?

The etiquette of paying for sex and getting away with it

A vagabonds guide to literature,( from Paris, F.Scott Fitzgerald and my afternoons in second hand book stores)

An extended morning with cafe and cigarettes.

The curious affairs of women who marry for money

The curious affairs of men who only date older women

Why girls now like to kiss each other on TV

The real reason you watch Gossip girl?

The sex and the city dilemma

The curious affairs of men who just don't meet each other in saunas

The etiquette of sleep over parties

The preferred gentleman's guide to affairs.

Why your cocaine dealer wishes he was you

Oh lord, where do I stop, I think you get the drift...let me know later today what you think,would love to feature you, and our Art dirtector , who is a complete fruit will come up with the most delightful accompanying images.

-cheers,

Christopher.