Some myths of rock are made to last. lets say, the best, the founding myths so to speak. Back in 1969, Iggy and the Stooges were a machine of destruction and Rock N Roll never seen before, a phenomenon of Western culture, the ideological founders of MC5 who would later become PUNK, with capital letters. Those would be years of extreme excesses for Iggy, drugs of all kinds and extreme nights among the people of Andy Warhol’s Factory where he met Nico, with whom who he had an affair. Heroin went into Iggy veins of and did not want to leave them. It was  said then that the grandfather of punk could hardly contain his fluids. Part legend, and part excess. The truth is that there would be an angel  to come and  save him from out of the darkness and the vices: Enter The White Duke.

Before this, you should re-think Ziggy Stardust, ie the great Bowie was never a fool when it came to public relations. What happened in the case of Lou Reed’s transformation for example was a perfect played marketing concept, of style and positioning within the rock scene in the early 70′s. Of course, Bowie had been nurtured by the Velvet Underground, Lou Reed and Andy Warhol to create his  sound, image with the cross-dressing and androgyny, a powerful cocktail for the music market back then.  When Lou Reed worked  with Bowie and Mick Ronson, he achieved commercial success that he would probably not have achieved on his own. Reed’s Transformation is a special case, and say served to consolidate David Bowie in the traditions of New York streets of the 70′s, as he fled from cocaine and excesses, and become a producer known for his coolness

Thus, the encounter with Iggy Pop was inevitable. It has been documented in the fictitiously film Velvet Goldmine. But surely nothing better than the song “Nightclubbing” by Iggy to portray the times: “we are nightclubbing, we are what’s happening”. Legend has it that Bowie would take cocaine to Iggy Pop while in rehab in Los Angeles. Finally, he would say: Let’s go to Berlin? why not? The plan was to clean both of all substance, make music, be anonymous, to create together. Certainly they didnt not clean out from all of the drugs, but surely composed some of the most important albums of the 70′s. Iggy’s, classic “The Idiot” and “Lust for Life”. For Bowie, it was his trilogy as well as joining other postmodern genius, Brian Eno and Robert Fripp and to write the great: “Low,” “Heroes” and “Lodger.” Now that there was “physical romance” between Iggy and Ziggy, that  enters the obvious and imaginable. It was the 70′s, it was Berlin, it was Rock N Roll, a missing dimension from which the trail is becoming increasingly lighter.

Alexa Ray

Berlin has always been a destination for artists of all kind and of enthusiasts of transgression. Therefore, rent apartments in Berlin and take possession of its beautiful aura.

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Translated by: Marc
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It’s not a fashion, it’s a daily performance, a way of living feminine sensuality and aesthetics that today relives glamour and beauty from decades ago. Young women inspired by fashion icons, actresses and dancers from the 50s mainly, that today stand out from some urban subcultures. They’re the Pin Up girls and this is their story.

Pin Up girls were renown for their suggestive poses, clothing and make up, which highlighted their great beauty. From the 20s until the 60s and especially in the 50s, they stood out in different artistic areas and they marked an era. Among this select group of women you can find Veronica Lake, Sophia Loren, Bette Davis, Brigitte Bardot, Ingrid Bergman, Marlene Dietrich, Marilyn Monroe and, the greatest Pin Up modeling icon, Betty Page, among many others that I won’t name because I don’t have enough lines to finish the story. These women are those that, each with their own beauty and character, who marked a revolution of sensuality and transformed feminine eroticism into a powerful weapon. They are the ones that form the basis of what we today know as Pin Up, a name that was born in the 40s, to be exact, and it broadly refers to the photographic modeling and the work of some artists on beautiful and sexy women of the time.

Famous are the photographs of girls in suggestive attitudes that brightened up the soldiers in different wars. I must clarify that this movement was born in Paris, to be accurate with this story, with the first photoengravings of girls in the 19th century and it developed mainly in the USA subsequently, from the 20s onwards. The name is a synonym of ‘copy’ and ‘paste’ that they use to do to the photographs of the beautiful daring girls, in men’s lockers, cars and garages. It’s also associated to the popular phrase “she’s better than a cheesecake”.

Pin Up, in simple terms, is the attitude and aesthetics of women in the years previously stated, which became popular for the first time thanks to photographs and paintings, and afterwards by famous actresses and models. This expression of what’s feminine comes back today thanks to rock and roll, with the rockabilly movement and its derivates and, on the other hand, with a burlesque revival that takes elements from Pin Up and mixes it with different urban subcultures. That way, the new Pin Up girls are moved by aesthetic and performance of seduction and beauty of past times mixed with modern elements.

Pin Up girls from around the world associate with urban tribes, burlesque, photographic modeling and music, an engine that feeds the spirit and attitude of a beautiful trend that was reborn in the 90s and extended itself on a world scale. If you’re interested in Pin Up modeling, I recommend the work of Bernie Dexter and Dita Von Teese, two of the most famous Pin Ups in the world today.

A seductive feminine trend, Pin Up is reborn and I hope that it’s with us for a long time.

Luz Obscura

Beauty and seduction, two powerful weapons. Rent apartments in Berlin and let yourself be taken away by the charm of the best clubs in the world with Pin Up and Burlesque shows.

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Translated by: aleixgwilliam
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Since 1997, these cultural highlights are not only organized in Berlin but across Europe also, there are similar events in Paris, Rome, Amsterdam, London, Copenhagen, Zurich, St. Petersburg and other cities. In Berlin there are more than 100 museums in the event. Some of these include the Bode – Museum, the Pergamon Museum, Charlottenburg Palace, the Old Museum, the Anne Frank Center, the Berlin Cathedral, the DDR Museum, German Historical Museum, etc. There are volumes on the moths away in the museum with announcements and train sounds in a modern techno-Trancemix throughout the hall.

During the event tourists get a chance to visit various places of culture scattered throughout Berlin, with an option to participate in musical events, city tours at the museums with additional animations. The 29th Long night will entwine them around the theme of music. Many museums offer guided tours to various thematic, musical and literary programs.

In addition, there are a wide variety of readings, concerts and plays. The Night of Museums, will open this year with the light installation by Andrea Hilger, at the Square of the Kulturforum, with a motto, “The body meets the soul” which is based on annual health theme. This will be the 28th edition of the Long Night of Museums which will held on 27 August, 2011 from 18:00 pm to 2 am.

Berlin is a big city and visiting more than one museum here at night can be difficult. For this reason, there is an area Kulturforum Potsdamer Platz where one can receive all the information dedicated to the event. In addition it is precisely here that the shuttles (a kind of bus service) depart and run all night on six routes throughout the city which will take you to places you want to visit. The shuttle service’s cost is included in the ticket price of the Long Night of Museums, which costs only 15 euros (10 euros for the reduced rate) and allows to visit all the museums participating in the operation, children under 12 are admitted free. Moreover the event is not restricted to entry in the places of culture, but provides a variety of other alternatives such as concerts, literary events and initiatives for children.

Overall The Long Night of Museums 2011, Berlin provides a unique atmosphere and a spectacular experience for every tourist who stroll the place. This is one of the fantastic events of Berlin which guarantees a great night. Berlin is a versatile, dynamic and modern city which offers visitors many reasons to visit.

Address:Center of the Long Night
Lustgarten
10178 Berlin

Date and Time: On Saturday, 27 August 2011, 18.00 to 2.00 clock
The exact program of individual events can be found on the official website:www.lange-nacht-der-museen.de

John

Just to relax yourself and want to enjoy something different, then this one will be the right festival for you. Rent apartments in Berlin and get started immediately.

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Some say that it’s another of the new age products without any real scientific basis, that it’s based only on superstitions by a group of people that see transcendental things where there aren’t any. Others say that it’s an actual technology that helps in a quick and effective way to overcome these states of mind and psychological problems through trance provoked by transmitted sounds and images. What’s true is that acoustic technology of activation is a new subject that’s worth getting to know, both for skeptics and believers.

It’s about a new technology that transmits in certain frequencies, which is said to alter or modify the mind according to what one wants. For example, if you want to stop smoking via meditation, acoustic technology will provoke profound states of meditation in very short periods of time, which can produce, after a good use of these, the conscious reprogramming or our habits. This way you can overcome insomnia, weight loss or depression, in the most complex of cases. It’s the use of sound frequencies that stimulate the brain, the waves used are those called Theta, Solfeggio frequency and others depending on the finality. According to those who have tried it, the effects on the brain are remarkable and you can even get to altered conscious states just by concentrating on images and sounds or music.

On the other hand, the frequencies by which the sounds are made of of this so called acoustic technology, can be reproduced on MP3 format without any special reproduction equipment, which makes its use much easier.

Without doubt, it’s an interesting subject which is worth knowing more about.

Luz Obscura

If you’d like to know more about acoustic information, rent apartments in Berlin Here you’ll be able to visit some of the most famous meditation centres that use this new technology.

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Translated by: aleixgwilliam
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With the plethora of summer activities on offer this year, there remains very few unknown things to choose from. The summer turns into a whole other world; a perhaps dangerous one, which everybody risks in order to travel, go out, and get lost in the labyrinth of sweaty clothing, in order to spend their five minutes under the sun. Summer destinations, in general, tend to stay the same – likewise the choices the people make about what to do once they’re there. What you need to do is use your imagination a bit, and realise that sometimes, you don’t need to go that far afield for a good time – there is plenty of pleasure to be had without having to sweat so much; by staying in your city, when everyone has left, and it has become somewhat deserted.

But what’s summer really like in the city when you’re not going anywhere? Maybe there are less familiar faces to bump into in the street – and hoards of tourists everywhere you look, in search of filling the void of boredom left by a year of work. People travel in families, in couples, alone, same-sex couples, couples of all sexes; separated, divorced – all in the name of freeing themselves from the stresses and strains of home. However, these days, even the process of choosing which travel offers to go for can be a stressful one; from the cost of the flights, transport, food budgets, accommodation. Going from one place to another, trying to make the most of the time, without anybody noticing you are also a tourist, also trying to do it a bit differently, “get away from it all”, being a free, footloose traveller. Sometimes, all of this is just too confusing – sometimes, travelling just isn’t worth it.

Perhaps the best thing would be a holiday totally disconnected from the consumer overload – one which is inexpensive, worry-free and plain sailing. If Berlin is your kind of place for example, maybe you’d have no choice but to consume away to your hearts content – or maybe you could just wander the streets aimlessly, without paying much attention to what is or isn’t happening. Berlin is brimming with a potent sense of history. We won’t get caught up in the details, as it’s not the moment for a history lesson, but make no mistake: for over five years now, it has been the cultural nucleus for artists from all round the world, who have fled to Berlin in the hope of making it their New York, like Iggy Pop, or David Bowie – in search of making that perfect record, or writing that seminal book.

So if you are into dance, Tamz im August festival will leave you satisfied. Berlin is a truly lovely city, which is far removed from the chaotic hum of tourism, and a place of dreams and possibility, where you can forget all the troubles of the year. Highly recommended – for more information, visit the festival website: http://www.tanzimaugust.de/index3.html

Alexa Ray

Let yourself be swept away by the best international dance has to offer; rent apartments in Berlin feel young again, and bring out your inner dancer. Come and experience dance in Berlin.

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Translated by: Poppy
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Dark music lovers have a new appointment at the famous M`era Luna festival, which will be the last summer gothic festival in Germany.

Germans really know how to organize festivals, the ones who have been there enjoying great music, good beer and a tasty steak, know it very well. Year after year the organizers of gothic festivals offer the best service while the public and bands deliver the best show.

The 2011 version of the M`era Luna festival keeps the expected high quality, as you could see in the more than 40 confirmed bands that will perform during the two days of the festival. Some of the bands include: Withim Temptation, Hurts, Project Pitchfork, ASP, Blutengel, Tanzwutz, My Dying Bride, Tiamat, Gothmisnister, Qntal, Tying Tiffany, The beauty of gemina  and  VNV Nation.

The festival is held in the town of Hildesheim, which is located, more or less 200 kilometers north Berlin. This charming town has an excellent access via motorways and high-speed trains. The venue of the festival is a former British military base (Flugplatz Hildesheim Drispenstedt) and has two stages: one big space outdoors and another inside a hangar. Besides this, the festival offers camping facilities, which are included with the 79 Euros ticket called Combiticket.

This is an excellent opportunity to visit Berlin in the summer, a tour that could end up on the 14^th of August at the festival, or perhaps start in Hildesheim and end in Berlin. Either way, in any path you choose, this holiday will be unforgettable. Prepare your luggage and come to M`era Luna!

For more information visit: http://www.fkpscorpio.com/meraluna/

Luz Obscura

Music, beer and beautiful people are waiting for you at M`era Luna 2011. Rent apartments in Berlin this is a perfect opportunity to enjoy a summer in Germany.

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Translated by: Hans
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Body art is an artistic trend derived from conceptual art, born and developed almost simultaneously in Europe and the United States in the early ’60s. Conceptual artists, reacting against the excessive commercialization of art, and inspired by Duchamp, reconstructed the idea of the artist and observer, giving birth to body art. It is based on the concept that a work of art is not only a painting or sculpture, and that the body can become the new canvas and means of artistic expression.

Artists such as Michel Journiac in France, and Vito Acconci, Bruce Naumam, Chris Burden and Dennis Oppenheim in the U.S., pioneered the movement. In France during the ’60s and ’70s, body art developed as a social critique, an attempt to expose society’s ills and protest against an enslaving world. In the United States, unlike the European movement, body art was related to minimalist and conceptual art, thus marking a different path in the evolution of the movement in later decades.

The European movement in the ’80s relates to drama, as well as masochistic and sadomasochistic tendencies, clearly influenced by the reading of Freud. Thus, the body becomes “the place and the image” of issues like exercise, cosmetics, sexuality, genetic manipulation, pleasure, disease, naturality and artificiality, both from a critical perspective and with regards the appearance of the body. This latter aspect was the work of the practitioners of body modification – piercings and tattoos. A Western urban form of artistic expression, this was largely inspired by different cultures from ancient times, who developed these practices for religious, spiritual, social status or simply aesthetic purposes; among these cultures could be counted Maori, Rapa Nui, Celtic, Cherokee, Japanese, Inca, and Moll, each of which attributed different meanings to these practices according to their cultures. In the West, body modification and tattoos now form part of the tastes and practices related to some urban subcultures, like those of masochism and sadomasochism, as mentioned above, or they simply represent a culture of body aesthetics.

From a deeply critical perspective, the body is the instrument of a society dominated by images, computers and genetics and thus, since the mid-90s, Body art has dealt with issues of gender and sexual identity. One of the most famous exhibitions to explore this tendency was “Féminin-Masculin, le Sexe de l’art”, held in Paris in the mid ’90s.

The fragmented body is now at the centre of body art’s performance; the body represents a society in which the rights of reproduction, new forms of social relationship and sexual identity are central to contemporary debates.

Luz Obscura

For a wide variety of different identities related to body art come and visit Berlin. Rent apartments in Berlin and discover body art.

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Translated by: Ben Palmer
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The decline of sex life is almost a metaphor of people’s everyday reality. In spite of that, people are not really doing anything to improve their sexual life from a healthy perspective. Completely caught up in market networks, we sell sex as a commodified product; it is not surprising that our natural instincts and senses get lost, so our sexual energy dissipates. Modern life stresses that it dismantled the hammer of our cores for all the rest to be fortified, while the external miasma lose most of its substance, which makes a mass that devours the individual, makes him small and put him to the corner without source or will, or quality of life.

For the market, your sex life is not important at all. The “Big Brother” just wants you to go to bed as many times as possible, to wear a condom or not is not really important as long as you bring more meat to the mill. Wars are the deepest, ancestral sex machinery. The balance that wars generate, within the capitalist machine, is to be preceded by an urgent production of new human beings, something like the “Baby Boomers” some decades ago. It was that generation the one enabled to undertake drastic changes in the 60′s and then wearing the tie, and so on. The potential of sex as a producer of energy and wisdom moves, and this has nothing to do with mysticisms, they are real, physical processes, no religion behind.

Sexuality is a very important part of being human condition. Everyday we are trapped with pornography and external stimulation; the media did not cease to keep us away from true knowledge within us. It is time to open our eyes, seek change, and join the real world that we are being forbidden, hidden, even though it is right in our spirit.

Sasha Cobra is a famous therapist in the world of sex therapy. She organizes workshops about how to realign the sexual energy of men and women. Cobra also travels around the world giving lectures and conferences, and sharing her sex wisdom. She is a disciple of Shantam nityam, a Tantric Master who has developed his own technique of physical therapy of hands, which seeks to revitalize the inner sexual energy and lead to high levels of awareness through this. Sasha practices these techniques, and it’s really amazing to see the results of her therapy. For more information, visit the Cobra’s website http://www.sashacobra.com/ and Shantam nityam’s website http://www.nityama.com/. Sasha will be in Berlin on the 8^th of August, you can register by writing to the following email srehfeldt@hotmail.de or call +49 173 977 5363.

Alexa Ray

So, rent apartments in Berlin and do not miss the opportunity to return to your inner sexual energy, it can radically change your life. Fully guaranteed.

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Translated by: Hans
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In August, the city of Berlin awakes. People hanging out in parks, taking advantage of the sun and heat that comes to town one month per year, welcome a number of cultural festivals, concerts and activities to enjoy the outdoors spaces of the city, before the freezing cold comes back.

Among so many artistic and cultural proposal, there is a festival that is probably not well known, but it will be worth seeing, especially for “alternative” Rock lovers, in the sense of bands that are still considered emerging and have not entered the circuit of mainstream music market. This festival is called “Set Us On Fire” and, if it is true what the name suggests, these two days promise to be a magnificent experience with the most varied forms of rock: ska, punk, indie rock and newest math rock, plus an unknown number of similar genres: electric guitars, powerful rhythms and desire to have fun.

Among the bands that will perform are: 4LYN (rap rock and new metal from Hamburg), Royal Republic (Swedish rock band, formed in Malmö in 2007), One Fine Day (Hamburg), Mutabor (rock, folk, punk from Berlin) as well as less known bands like Samavayo, My New Zoo (indie rock), The Core (Martin Kesici), 4Backwoods, Crutch, Siva, Use Your Fucking Headphones, Stumblings Pins, Tide Riders, for No One, Steaming Satellites Under the Tongue (from Australia), Low Pressure Area, Stefany June, Shirley Holmes, Ratatöska, Stoop (from Italy), Deville and The Soulshake Express. These rock bands have very different proposals and a common energy that will drag us to dance with the German sun (Hopefully!).

Tickets can be booked only on the Web page www.setusonfire.tickets.de . Prices are:  25 Euros for one day and 38 Euros for the whole festival, which will be held from the 12th to the 14th of August in Spreepark in Berlin.

Another reason for which is worth going to this festival, is the venue itself: Spreepark is an abandoned amusement park, home to a giant plastic dinosaur dumped to the ground, gondolas and boats scattered on the foliage, as if a tornado had sucked them up and spit them out on the surroundings. This park, which was the meeting point for thousands of visitors for over 30 years, was closed in 2001 due to economic difficulties. Today artists and filmmakers often use the park. During the days of “Set Us on Fire”, the park becomes a carnival of non-famous bands, from an international environment that will make this festival a memorable event!

menschauser

So, if you feel like going to listen to rock in an abandoned amusement park in the middle of one of the most beautiful cities in Europe, we suggest you to rent apartments in Berlin and go to “Set Us On Fire”. It will be worth!

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Translated by: Hans
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Within the framework of Festsaal Kreuzberg festival, which will take place in Skalitzer Strasse 130 (Berlin), the famous indie-rock band Sebadoh will perform the best of their music.

This band was initially founded in Northampton (Massachusetts), when Lou Barlow – leader, bassist and band founder of the historic Dinosaur Jr. – decided to leave his group and start a new project with Eric Gaffney, who was, at that time a DJ at WOZQ radio station. The two artists began to compose and record new music that was very appreciated and by the Homestead label. Under this label they released the albums “The Freed Man” (1989) and “Weed Forestin” the following year.

A new member joined in the summer of 1989, Jason Loewenstein, who participated for the first time as a musician on the single “Gimme Indie Rock”. In 1989-90 Sebadoh performed live only 10 times; they played between Boston, New York and Western Mass, all that just before the release of their third album, entitled Sebados III. This release came with a tour along with the band Firehose indir. A year later Sebadoh signed with the label Sub Pop, which released two albums: “Rockin’ the Forest” and “Sebadoh vs. Helmet.” Their fifth album, “Bubble and Scrape” was recorded in the summer of 1992 and launched in April 1993, which sold over 10,000 copies in its first week, an event that make them as one of the most popular indie rock bands in the world.

Sebadoh were pioneers of rock “lo fi” along with Pavement and Guided by Voices. This is a recording style characterized by the use of techniques of very low fidelity, and often uses multitrack recordings. Sebadoh’s early albums are very representative of this technique.

In 1993, Gaffney left Sebadoh and was replaced by Bob Fay, who was in the band until 1999 and participated in “Bakesale” in 1994 and “Harmacy” in 1996. In the year of his abandonment, 1999, he was replaced by Russ Pollard, with whom the band recorded their latest work “The Sebadoh” with a long promotional tour in Europe and the USA. But at the end of this tour, in spite of being very committed to their project, the band seemed to have been sanded a little, as its only permanent member (Lou Barlow) was concentrated in his side project (another indie band called Folk Implosion) and Loewenstein composing new songs for his solo debut in 2002.

After years of no music, now they have come back stronger than ever. We will see them on stage at the Festsaal Kreuzberg on Monday the 8^th of August, for at least an hour of delirious indie rock sound. Not to miss!

menschauser

If you want to attend this important event, we recommend you to rent apartments in Berlin and come to enjoy a day of music with Sebadoh and other rock bands.

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Translated by: Hans
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