Rise of the Dreamers, Caligari Passover in Berlin
I had only been back in Berlin for an afternoon.
And we were off to a show, Caroline on a panel.
It was a strange few days before Passover.
Everything seemed to lead us there.
The preparation, the food, the art, the late nights, the stories, the memories of past springs, the old guests, strangers who became family, from an old photo, now in parts unknown.
The lighting of the candles, recalling.
The cups for the prophets, the open door for Elijah, the eternal stranger, returning as a beggar generation after generation, to greet us and test us.
Would we welcome the stranger, the refugee, the outsider.
This was the question facing Passover, as well as Europe.
Would we offer him a home?
Would we offer him wine?
After all, there are times when all of us are running from the desert, away from a Pharaoh, on our own exodus from Egypt, escaping bonds, searching for liberation, wherever we can find it.
“Exodus, all right! movement of jah people.”
Who will welcome us?
Marc put a glass of wine outside for Elijah.
Can we have reconciliation in Berlin?
Can we atone for our sins?
Can we greet the stranger?
Micah reminded us:
“Today is Holy Saturday, that quiet liminal moment when those in the Christian tradition remember the mysterious day between Jesus' Friday execution at the hands of the Roman Empire and the Sunday on which it is said that his tomb was found empty.
A PRAYER FOR THE IN-BETWEEN TIME
Have you yet realized that this is an actual place?
Have you asked it to open for you?
Have you invited it to be nothing more than it is?
Past the trauma and prior to rebirth,
There is a laboratory.
It looks like a labyrinth, but enter it anyway.
Inside, you will become an inventor.”
And the week opened.
Snapshots and journals along the road as we all moved along new paths.
Wednesday
"Hashish?" asked the guy selling something as we walked out of the subway at Kottbussertor.
"Nah, trying to cut down," I said. He smiled. On we walked to the opening, with @seashipsailing commenting on the battles against amnesia and forgotten history, in the everyday struggles against women at Magaly Vega's open studio tonight.
Caroline’s Berlin crew welcomed us.
Thursday
Wondrous night of theater and opera and recital of old Kurt Weill songs at the opera... And with Tomorrow You Can Me. Eerie strange moments between songs about crime and addiction and violence, a little sex on the side... Really the only topics. https://www.komische-oper-berlin.de/.../und-mit-morgen.../
Friday
Funny night out at Georgian art show, that was just the beginning.
Some nights we make it home early. Last night was not one of them. Mishaps on trains, loud Americans pontificating at our favorite Polish place, a funny art show with Georgian wine, an oddball night at the pub, and then a trip to SO36, where it seems to always be oldies night, the kids rocking it to the Pitch Perfect soundtrack till 3 am, before thankfully, we get a cab home.
Saturday,
Fantastic rainey day off to do interviews and then off to a social solidarity party...with techno and electro punk, live bands, sweaty bodies, lots of conversations...the line was down the street when I got there... Even longer when I left at 330 am.
SA.1. Apr. 202322:00 Uhr
“Have a dance and resist skyrocketing rent!
Our biggest soliparty yet with performances, interventions and banging music!!
++fashion show// live bands// DJs // Merch-Stand +++
Put on your dancing shoes and let's give GroKo the boot!
The CDU government will be over eventually, but we’ll stay till it’s bright out!
Every donation supports the Deutsche Wohnen & co Enteignen campaign and brings us closer to expropriation. We celebrate our freedom
Berlin will remain our home!
Lineup:ĀBNAMĀ Artwife Dj Nahmo DJ STRAIGHT GIRL Djevicted insecurity guards (DJ) keanu_raves Pigeonswarm ft Pleasure Politics Pleasure Politics Skankstasy LECKEN Super rush kimchi cora Systemabsturz Taffee”
Sunday
I did what I always do on Sundays here, go dancing, usually to Berghain, if I get in, or somewhere nearby. I snapped a shot outside on the way out, writing a caption. Well, there it is, the hardest club to get into in Berlin. Says Time Out, " When it comes to Berghain, forget everything you know about clubbing and go with an open mind. The queue can last for hours, the door staff can be intimidating, and the general attitude is bolshy, but brave it all and you’re in for the night (and morning) of your life. This dystopian legend is a techno temple. Don’t show up too drunk or be disheartened if you’re turned away: the club is immensely popular, and the bouncers limit how many partygoers are allowed to comply with fire safety regulations. There’s no shortage of excellent clubs nearby, either." I've been going most Sundays when I'm in town. Didn't get it last time. Today, the guys in front got turned away after a 45 minute wait. It's nerve wracking, but once inside, a bouncer puts a wristband with the words “what are you dreaming of…” the feeling, the lights, the sense of things is intriguing, disco on the top floor, techno on the middle, wild bars, nooks and crannies everywhere else, people half dressed in harnesses, fetish gear, and underwear, strobe lights, fog machines, drinks, long lines to the back of the bathrooms, labyrinths of passages between floors. After a few hours it was too much. I went outside to join Federico is the cold crisp bright day along Holtzmarket, taking in the gorgeous Sunday before dinner.
Monday
Yoga as holy week began with memories of the dead.
Charles recalled Keith, my old harm reduction buddy, 19 years gone:
“Today is the 19th anniversary of Keith Cylar’s death. Not a day goes by that I don’t miss him. Whether laughing, arguing, making love or sharing our dreams for Housing Works, every day he made me feel complete. We had talked about buying a small finca in Puerto Rico or somewhere else in the Caribbean when we got old, dreaming of sitting on rocking chairs together on the porch, surrounded by mango trees.Keith would be so proud of all that Housing Works has accomplished since he left us.”
And Tartarski posted a note about another drug user:
Anthony Bourdain said: "Eat at a local restaurant tonight. Get the cream sauce. Have a cold pint at 4 o’clock in a mostly empty bar. Go somewhere you’ve never been. Listen to someone you think may have nothing in common with you. Order the steak rare. Eat an oyster. Have a negroni. Have two. Be open to a world where you may not understand or agree with the person next to you, but have a drink with them anyways. Eat slowly. Tip your server. Check in on your friends. Check in on yourself. Enjoy the ride."
One of my long time heros! Kitchen Confidential changed my life. Currently in Laos retracing some of Tony's steps and creating my own
Love him. But he was not one to take life advice from..he let a whole lot of us down, particularly his kid... Advice from Tony seems to ring hollow. Best life and that's how he ends it????
Benjamin Heim Shepard What do you find hollow about his life advice? In my opinion, thinking he let people down is the selfishness and pain that the living carry when someone chooses to end their life and go out on their own terms. Many would rather have the people they love here and suffering, rather than allow them to move on and leave us with the suffering. As you said, Tony had the best life, the best job in history (for me), access to the highest quality physical and mental healthcare as well as psychedelic therapy. A strong network of friends and devoted fans. Yet he still suffered deeply and openly, talking about suicide on multiple occasions and chose to go out on his terms. We can all learn a great deal from people like Tony, HST, Robin Williams, etc. They all lived incredible lives while suffering deeply until they made the bravest choice to no longer suffer.
Benjamin Heim Shepard
John Torsch i hear you john... as Camus puts it, the question about living and dying, to be or not be, to kill one's self or not, that's the ultimate question. i have had a lot of suicides in my life. lost a lot of friends, like everyone. i have seen the impact that these premature departures have on families are hard to reconcile with hey, fuck it, have another negroni. kids suffer. i'm sure his kid sufferred and suffers. he let his whole team down. he let all of us down. i appreciate chappelle walked away from tv for a decade to chill out. and regroup. Tony could have done the same. he left a lot of wounds. my two cents worth. for the record, i still watch all his shows, on hulu ... even the early crappy shows before his polished parts un known. i traveled to vietnam on his tip and had a blast. love him. sad he's fucking gone. and i'm not the only one. i had a godfather who in 1975 came to visit and we hung out ... i was a kid. i will never forget my parents inviting me into the room a week later to tell me he was gone. he had chosen to leave early. i still remember that. it still hurts. i can sent you pictures of him at my christening. that was his choice. fine. those remaining are allowed to feel what we feel, regardless if they are right or not right. two cents worth early in the morning in berlin... cheers.
And the memories of the living and the dead continued, writing about friends, recalling them all.
Watching Trump indicted, Julie Barlett recalled Mel and Tim:
“I wish my Mel and my Tim where here to celebrate with us. Does anyone remember Mel's landline message "Trump lies, people die." I have been too sad to follow up with the memorial or anything. (Mel is on the far left - this is on the board to the Statue of Liberty on the infamous july 4th). I wish I were with my peeps to celebrate. Everyone fought so hard. This would not have happened without Rise and Resist - our countless protests, poster making, arguing, debating, hugging, summers in the piping hot church, countless hours and hours and work and friendship. Tim and Mel are somewhere laughing.”
Some days, the city offers us everything.
Others, it repulses us.
Monday was one of those nights.
I guess I am a sentimental fool. But I kindov thought when @seashipsailing said we had tickets to see a dance performance of the divine comedy, that it might include some poetry, maybe a few ruminations on estrangement, the feeling of being lost, of exile, which make the work a piece of world genius. I wasn't expecting a live masturbation show, with vibrator, squirting, or all nude shitting on stage, or naked hurdles and sprinting, over and over. But hey, this is Berlin... We forgot to read the viewer discretion warning at the end. https://www.volksbuehne.berlin/...
Other days we talked about Berlin, NYC past as prologue, gentrification following.
Without Kotti l, there is no,Berlin...read the sign on the wall at the coffee shop.
The hyper capitalism steamrolling the landscape.
THe past reminding us.
Thursday
And Frederico met me at Babylon Berlin for Caligari.
“THE CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI is back on the programme for the first time since the pandemic.
A gruesome dance
1920! 103 years later!
Dr. Caligari! The murderer in the white coat. He seeks his medium who obeys. He is old and IT is young.
IT desires for him, IT murders for him, IT dies for him.
But it is only a bad nightmare. In truth, He wants to help us all. Because we all need his help. "I love you all!"
Our ancestors perform an eerie dance, they gesticulate and warn, but we cannot hear them...they are all mute! But the orchestra, but the orchestra...
Welcome, welcome...Cesare tells you the future.
The Babylon Orchester Berlin
will bring CESARE and The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari back to life!”
All asleep, Caligari is guiding, pulling, enticing, hypnotizing us sleepwalkers, who kill, for the lunatic, running the asylum.
Visiting my favorite places of Berlin, black and white movies and orchestra at Babylon, chatting with the teenager, saying hi to Shannon in the sun, listening to a friend play some music, @sedlmeir_sedlmeir with @hewson.f dancing late at https://schokoladen-mitte.de/ trying out my dance moves, laughing all the way. Once in a lifetime played when the dancefloor was empty. First one dancer, then another, myself. Then blue monday, and more of us, showing off our moves, one song after another, the smell of berlin, dry ice, sweat, perfume and cigarette smoke.
All those dancing bodies taking us into a wild and beautiful Passover Seder...thinking of all the people trying to get away from Pharaoh's, trying to get out of deserts, out of exile... Lighting candles for Elijah, next year in Central Park West. Gratitude for the exiles, the searchers, the storytellers, the rememberers, taking us along the tram across town to the dinner in the far away factory.
By Saturday, seashipsailing was having a serious glow up on the way to dinner and dancing tonight at https://sisyphos-berlin.net/
Quite a weekend, Friday a poetic Passover Seder among expats, Saturday dancing at Sisyphos Nightclub, bouncing from the techno to the disco rooms, and the bonfire outside with friends from Istanbul, and Sunday Rise of the Dreamers Easter rave at Renate, rituals and breathing and trance and meditation and dance all afternoon, the sun shining outside as we converged in the garden for dance breaks. I missed the big bonfire at the end ... Had to get home and take it all in from our patio.
Sunday Party at Renate
Rise of the Dreamers* Easter Rave + Open Air with Madmotormiquel
On Sunday afternoon, Alvin Collantes and the Pyramid Party will ceremoniously get in the mood for the gathering with a movement meditation.
❃ Ready for the devotion, the high clergy from @yokosquad and have gathered and preach the hypnotic gospel of Amapiano music.
❃ The pastors of Crepite throw themselves into their most magnificent robes and call for a council to abolish the traditional separation of pious and heretical dance styles.
shares
genres
downtempo
Amapiano
Happy Easter, dear community!
Rebellion of the Dreamers* invites you to the Easter Sunday procession into the consecrated halls of Renate to receive the Urbi et Orbi blessing there together. As we do every year around this time, we want to celebrate the resurrection of our critical thinking and freedom from meaningless regulations and rigid dogmatism. So let's lift the Lenten cloth together from the altar of carelessness and the beautiful life! We want to break the unfairly hoarded power of interpretation and distribute it among ourselves by indulging in unbridled joie de vivre, lust and daydreaming.
Place: Renate, Alt-Stralau
Time: Easter Sunday 13.00 - Easter Monday ~ 12.00
Tickets:
TBA
Please respect the boundaries of others and be mindful of your own. People who discriminate against others because of their origin, their appearance, their sexual orientation, their gender or anything else are not welcome.
If you feel uncomfortable in a situation, contact our experienced awareness team at any time - we are happy to support you
20€
Thanks for the ever inspiring artwork by Pacaya-Design
Back home, the little one and I talked on the balcony, taking in the sunshine, listening to Woody Guthrie songs, thinking about the riffs he learned from Leadbelly, that Ramblin’ Jack Elliot borrowed from him in Washington Square Park, that Pete played, throughout the years, into the night.
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