“I will be a poet or nothing at all” is the phrase which represented the great German writer Hermann Karl Hesse, but not the already established Nobel Literature Prize, but the spirit of the young man who wanted to be a writer is what these words uncover, the conviction that he had on his future and how much he gambled on it: all or nothing.

Hermann Hesse is a renown writer around the world for various of his works, although his biggest consecration came from the Nobel Literature Prize. They gave it to him in 1946 and that was used to diffuse even more his work, and motivate many newcomers to read his books. He was born in Germany and died in Switzerland, but his whole soul was always tied to the German people, especially when he had to live and bear the Great War.

Siddhartha is one of the most famous books by Hesse because, being short, it has a massive reach. The young readers feel attracted especially by this book because it inspires enthusiasm to live. By being so popular, it was translated into all the world’s languages.

Although this book was written in 1922, it achieved world relevance when the German won the great international literary award. Even so, Hesse’s words power enabled it so that today it’s one of the most-read and famous books and read in all universities around the world.

Hermann Hesse formed himself as a writer all of his life, although he didn’t know it. He lived tragic situations like the war, the death of two of his brothers, a suicide attempt and being locked in a mental hospital, among other things. He also had a heavy religious education which he then passed onto some of his work. On the other hand, he had clear literary influences since he was little. His mother’s father was the owner of an editorial of religious texts and, in his teenage years, Hesse began to work in a bookshop without knowing that it would be the cradle of all of his grandeur as a writer.

It was in 1895, at the age of 18, when he managed to get paid work which allowed him to live for himself and also to get involved in literary arts. The bookshop was called Heckenhauer, and it can still be visited in the city of Tübingen. There he read the most influencing writers to him, such as Goethe, Schiller and all the ones encompassed in Greek mythology. That’s how he created Siddhartha, the book which talks about Buddhism, of Oriental culture, of the importance of the “being as an individual”, and how that unique person relates with the whole world.

The word ‘Siddhartha’ expresses “that person who reached their goals” or “all wish which has been accomplished”, and it’s with those simple words that one understands the mind and soul of Hermann Hesse, an advanced intellectual who was always one step ahead in relation to the society of that time, in terms of art and literature.

Reading Siddhartha while you walk around the streets of Berlin will be an experience that you’ll remember forever and which will make you see the world in a different way.

d.b

If you rent apartments in Berlin you’ll be able to see a city which represents the old Germany very well. You’ll be able to see which influences this literary genius had to write his works and how his surroundings stimulated him to stand out from the crowd to be able to survive.

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Translated by: aleixgwilliam
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Noise rock history is already quite long, one should review it. Perhaps it could be reviewed in the experiments of people like Stockhausen and John Cage, as well as the whole Fluxus movement tradition of artists. However, within the noise rock, there is an album that is inevitable not to name, the wonderful “White Light / White Heat”, perhaps one of the most risky companies at that time. After the ” inevitable explosion”  of their first album, the Velvet could not help but create one of the most daring of all albums in rock history. With only 5 songs, “White Light / White Heat” has been the inspiration for hundreds of bands, from the whole punk scene of the 70′s, to all the action of Japanese noise rock experimentation spread and permeated all over the globe. Experimental noise is living in all parts of the globe. This is perhaps the confrontation with the sound settings for precious bands as Love Lies Crushing, or pop confrontation and high-decibel, as A Place To Bury Strangers.

Today, There are recording companies specialized in this genre. The extreme sound, or perhaps the “extermination” sounds is all over the planet. The case of Japanese artists such as Merzbow, who has taken the feedback of the sound textures of sizes never assembled before. But to continue quoting Japan, and the Underground Velvet, one would have to go back to the classics and Rallizes Rallizes Denudes, an experimental Japanese band that created jams of pure noise, punk and psychedelia in the late 60′s. Although less known, Rallizes are the best example of what the “White Light / White Heat” I think in many generations. It is also recalled cosmic noise projects such as Acid Mothers Temple, who with a voracious and wild psychedelia, reaching highs of white noise, where oscillators, guitar feedback and drums are mixed in a cosmos unexpected. Another of the best examples of “Japanoise” is in the Experimontags, in the Violent Onsen Geisha radical work who make extreme psychedelic remixes and edits, which is combined in a sarcastic and loud sounds from hip hop to jazz.

Experimontag is a session that occurs every Monday at the wonderful Madame Claude Berlin bar. Madame Claude is located in the popular district of Kreuzberg, and is one of the landmarks of this city in regard to good music, experimental, underground and alternative public environment. Some of the projects that have been in Madame Claude are BBBlood, Ben Butler & Mouse Pad, Christy & Emily, Embryo, Harry Merry, Justice Yeldham, Lucky Dragons, Novell, Paul Metzger, Sylvester Anfang II, Steve Gunn, Thavius Beck, Woog Riots among others. For more information on Experimontag and Madame Claude, please visit the following website: http://madameclaude.de/

Alexa Ray

Get apartments in Berlin and make sure to attend Experimontag, an event with the very best of sonic sound to disturb your senses. Berlin is one of the best places with the widest rage of alternatives when it comes to music and art, become part of this city that awaits you.

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Translated by: Hans
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Despite the prestige which they’re still enjoying from most part of the specialized musical press and of having reached the number one in the British charts, among the many good things which have been said about the Leeds band Kaiser Chiefs, who will play at Huxley’s Neue Welt on the 24th of November (http://www.huxleysneuewelt.com/events.html), there haven’t been many comments which praise their originality.

What is understandable in some way if we stop and think about a series of factors such as the fact that, on one hand, Kaiser Chiefs, whose name comes from the South African football team where the Leeds United local hero Lucas Radebe started his career, carry on a long English tradition of rock bands who are proud of being football fans (Rod Stewart, Bernard Summer from Joy Division and New Order, The Wedding Present, Oasis, Lily Allen, Jarvis Cocker from Blur and even Elton John, are just some of the most famous of the plenty examples which we could find), and, on the other hand, they’re one of those bands such as Franz Ferdinand, The Futureheads or Dogs Die In Hot Cars, which, in the first decade of the 21st century, have become flag bearers of that new post-punk wave of mods from the end of the 70s and beginning of the 80s, applying vigor and quality to what is really just another revival.

However, it’s difficult not to give them credit of innovating, in some way, what was the appearance of their fourth album by complete surprise, the last 3rd of July on their website, which is appropriately and prophetically called, not only what regards the eminent visual character of the transmission of contemporary culture but also in consideration with the politico-social drift of Western society while the new barbarians press on the borders, ‘The Future Is Medieval’, and it might go into rock history as the first album made to fit.

Yes, making the most form the phenomenon of the loss of the physical quality in discs caused by digital technology, Radiohead eliminated with ‘In Rainbows’ the need to put a fix price on an album, back in 2007. Kaiser Chiefs took another step forward in the re-invention of the way in which you acquire music by making the client choose ten songs in the order they wish, from a list of twenty, all of which you could listen to a sample of before choosing. On the other hand, once you’d chosen the ten songs, for which you paid a total of £7.50, each client was authorized to sell their own version of the album, winning £1 in royalties.

The album, which was a total of twelve songs, has been out for a few months in physical format and its songs constitute the heart of the concert that the band will play at Huxley’s Neue Welt.

Paul Oilzum

Although they’re essential a collection of singles, ‘The Future is Medieval’ contains, together with the usual joyful energy, songs which are a bit darker, melancholic and gloomy. You’ll be able to listen to all of them live if you rent apartments in Berlin at the same time as this highly awaited concert.

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Translated by: aleixgwilliam
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Bombay Bicycle Club is probably one of the indie bands that has gained most popularity in the recent times. The group took its first steps in 2005 when Jack Steadman, Jamie MacColl, and Suren de Saram along with Ed Nash got together to do what they liked the best: play music.

After winning a band contest  on England’s Channel 4 in London the band was invited to open the 2006 V Festival which is no less than one of the most important festivals in the European country. At that time their luck began to change, and soon, they were offered a contract  by a record label, so they started producing music and launched not only a series of EPs, but also their first LP in 2009, which included songs such as”I Had the Blues But I Shook Them Loose “, or hits like” Evening / Morning “,” Dust on the Ground “and” Always like This “among others.

But their real success came with “Flaws”, their second production which was released on July 2010 through Island Records. The record, contrary to what had been the first album, was completely acoustic. It both had covers of their own songs and other tunes bypopular artists like John Martyn or Joanna Newsom all in an acoustic format. The world’s leading magazine gave a thumbs up to this new album and the fans welcomed it with great enthusiasm.

Currently the group is also releasing new material , during late August, they presented “A Different Kind of Fix” returning the band to its roots and taking them far away from the acoustic format. In this production you can see how the band has matured with an album that has evolved lyrically and sound-wise  not only singing about love but also about  friendship and life. For now the only single they have released, is the incredibly catchy -currently being heard everywhere-, “Shuffle”.

http://www.c-club-berlin.de/events.html#TB_inline?height=500&width=800&inlineId=bombaybicycleclub

Lido: Columbiadamm 9-11, 10965 Berlín, Germany

MiLK

The band will play in Germany on November 22nd at the C-Club. So if you want to visit one of the most beautiful cities in the world and enjoy Bombay Bicycle Club all you need to do is rent apartments in Berlin

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Translated by: Marc
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Let’s see, let’s say things like they are: Berlin is the new Miami. And of course, it’s true. It’s enough to have a walk down its main streets and most visited places for us to realise that things aren’t like they used to be. It’s been a long time since the Wall, it’s also been long since Lou Reed, David Bowie and Iggy Pop in the 70s, and even longer since all the artistic political activism from the same decade. It’s a long time since vaudeville, prostitutes and the red light district of the 1920s. Berlin has a new clean face. Without thinking about it twice, a tour around Berlin makes us realise that the division that once was physical is still going on on many levels, be it cultural levels or on experience possibilities. And this is in the people’s stories, their comments, their dialogues and the way of understanding the city which was divided for so long with that pathetic Wall from the Cold War.

A good part of the area which was on the East side is, today, being devoured by foreign people, whether they’re artists, students and not even that, people with plenty of money who can get accomodation at comfortable prices and, in some cases, derisory. The situation is the following: the effervescence of a city like Berlin generates global interest and an urgency of wanting to carry on producing in the same way. The affluence of artists is desperate, there are too many artists in Berlin. But be aware that without the right contacts, without the right people from the adequate side, you won’t get too far. Yes, Berlin is the new Miami, but remember that now in Miami the cultural industry is growing, like it is everywhere else. The horror facing the accelerated growth and above, the configuration of landscapes and spaces which seem to tend to repeat themselves around Europe, doesn’t but generate discomfort among the oldest citizens of Berlin. Many people have seen the passing of time and the mutations which this cosmopolitan city has gone through and keeps on experiencing, yet if change is the surviving factor of any organism, in some cases, this doesn’t apply.

Kreuzberg is one of the oldest districts in Berlin with the biggest history when it comes to counterculture and punk attitude. If you go down any of its streets, you’ll find graffiti and painted areas everywhere, street visions which really encourage the soul. Before, Kreuzberg used to be an area of junkies, prostitutes, rockers and punks where they lived together in the best possible way, without bothering each other because nobody wanted any problems, nobody looked into each other’s life. However, today, Kreuzberg is being invaded by hipsters and people with money, who are capable of paying new rents and simply generating, since their ‘invasion’, that the people who lived in such an emblematic place have to leave.

Towards this, many of the people of Kreuzberg have responded by burning the cars of these unwanted people. This situation can be questioned in a hundred ways, as can stone-throwing to some tourists who are on a boat on the Spree. But it can’t be denied that we must resist the sorrows of gentrification and, if no drastic measures are taken, without anybody getting injured of course, there can be no awareness.

Alexa Ray

Get apartments in Berlin and enjoy one of the most interesting neighbourhoods in Europe. Get to know Berlin a bit more, walk down its streets and you’ll see that there’s still a lot to see.

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Translated by: aleixgwilliam
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In one of the most beautiful avenues in Berlin, the Unter den Linden Avenue, literally  Under the Willows Avenue, we find  the Berlin State Opera, or the Staatsoper building , a faithful witness of the vicissitudes suffered by the Germanic capital this past century.

Virtually abandoned after the construction of the Berlin Wall,  it recovered the splendor that it never should have lost with the reunification. Between these walls (which have withstood more than an occasional fire and bombing) lead directors such as Richard Strauss, Herbert von Karajan and even the Israeli-born Argentine Daniel Barenboim have performed. But  here we will dwell on the brilliant production of The Magic Flute, which opens today (November 15th) and will be running until January 8, 2012, at this temple, dedicated to the Muse Euterpe as well as to Polyhymnia, which has a very comprehensive and complete program, of such quality that it makes your head spin. So if the traveler misses this amazing production, there is still time to enjoy others, with other programming at the Staatsoper in Berlin and let your soul rubs shoulders with the gods of Olympus

But let’s get to our opera. Who has not heard the Papageno and Papagena duet from The Magic Flute? Or the aria of the Queen of the Night? Die Zauberflöte, as is its original title in German, this is one of the last works of Mozart. Critics have liked to see in this unique signspiel (an opera recited parts like a play) an allegory of the Masonic movement, which apparently, Amadeus joined shortly before becoming ill and dying. The fact is that the mighty dream symbolism of The Magic Flute is open to an interpretation of this type. The genius of this play premiered two months before his death is, according to the Operabase musical list , the most performed opera worldwide with all kinds of versions and adapted even for children.

The production of Mozart’s The Magic Flute by the Berlin Staatsoper flees away from any of these contemporary experiments in which operas are used for cutting-edge performances, in some cases of undoubted skill and taste. Julien Salemkour, artistic director, has opted for a colorful brilliant, magnificent and beautiful staging to recreate the dream world which the piece refers to and experiment with little concession to  theatrical decoration or costume. There are two programmings, so you must be attentive to timing, I post the link of the event http://www.staatsoper-berlin.de/en_EN/calendar/9175545 which offers all the practical information of this wonderful show in greater detail and precision than I can offer here.

Candela Vizcaíno

Remember before leaving, to reserve one of our great apartments in Berlin the best option for a fun evening is attending this particular staging of “The Magic Flute,” Mozart’s last opera divided in two acts.

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Translated by: Marc
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Germans are true pet lovers, to the extent that responsibility regulations have been issued for their owners, among which include taking your dog to school to teach it how to behave and learn the responsibilities for its behavior in public as well as having it wear a muzzle and a leash when in streets and parks.

With this in mind, some restaurants have taken up this concern by devising formulas for pets as to provide their owners a possibility of not having to  leave their canine companions outside the premises. We will explain a few solutions for your next trip to Berlin if you plan to travel  ith your pet, provided it retains the rules and good manners.

Grill Royal is a place where you can go and your pet will be handled smoothly . This restaurant is a nice place for dinner. Not cheap, but it offers the best grilled steaks of the city, along with fish, risotto, good snacks and fresh vegetable salads, which always provide good healthy company on trips. Wine is best choice to accompany dinner or just to enjoy this noble drink on its own,  so highly recommended for health issues (if not abused!).

Royal Grill dinner can cost between 80 and 100 euros per person. It is an ideal place for business dinner or group meetings. So if you plan to go with your pet to Berlin, this is absolutely recommended for its food, friendly service and quality.

Theodor Tucher is a pet-friendly restaurant known for its friendly atmosphere. Specializing in traditional foods of the region, it is located a few steps away from the Brandenburg Gate, where it has made reading and comfort its main ally to maintain that aura that appeals to those who visit for the first time becoming very fond of it. It is a great restaurant where you can enjoy reading in comfortable armchairs over coffee or waiting for lunch in the garden terrace. The price per person for a menu ranges between 23 and 44 euros.

Park Cafe is a diner located in Bakestrasse 15 and among its attributes is that it allows the entry of pets. This cafe restaurant has become a place of choice for dog lovers as for its regional modern cuisine and high quality. Prices per person range from 13 to 50 euros.

While it is true that all pets are welcomed at the Berlin cafes terraces , the truth is that very few publicize this, perhaps because it is already established as one of those unwritten rule that all cities have, that owners and pets are welcome.

You can also eat on the premises of Mauerpark, where pet owners enjoy the festive atmosphere along with good Turkish stews, goulash, pizza, soups, cakes and other fresh delicacies from around the world, at prices that no cafe or restaurant of Berlin can offer. You can also take advantage by walking through the streets with our best friend and checking out at some antiques while strolling peacefully,  but you must remember to have the dog leashed to avoid violating local regulations.

Nancy Guzman

This fall is a great time to rent apartments in Berlin and walk through the park accompanied by your”best friend”, buy Christmas gifts year and discover novelties in pet stores to spruce up your little companion

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Translated by: Marc
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A new tour from the Chicago guys, The Smashing Pumpkins, this time with a new CD  fresh out of  the oven  titled “Oceania,” which marks the return of this successful band playing all over the world’s best stages as part of a tour that will take them to Berlin in November .

The history of the Smashing Pumpkins starts in 1988, when Billy Corgan, Jimmy Chamberlin, James D’arcy Lha and Wretzky, of which now only Corgan remains join to form an alternative rock band, Corgan came from a  gothic rock band which was unsuccessful. The first concert of the band was only Billy Corgan and James Lha plus a drum machine  at a club in Chicago called Chicago 21. After this first gig D’arcy joins the band . Thus, barely a month after their first appearance as a duo, they play at a famous club in Chicago as a trio where,  as many musicians with luck and talent, the renowned owner of the premises at that time offered his help if they changed the drum machine for a real drummer,  Thus enters the fourth member of the band, releasing their first album in 1991 under the name Gish.

After this first album , “Siamese Dream” in 93, followed, then “Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness”, 95, “Adore” in 1998 and the last one before separating in 2000, “MACHINA / The machine of God “. In 2009 the band regrouped again and puts out a new album and today, after this first CD of the second wave of the Smashing Pumpkins , they re-release a new album with a world tour included. The concert given in Berlin is part of that tour, it is  scheduled for 20:00 hrs and will be held in the Tempodrom of the city . An excellent gig for next November 23rd.

For more information visit: http://www.tempodrom.de/

Luz Obscura

New album by the Smashing Pumpkins, a new tour, new songs that you hear before anyone else if you rent apartments in Berlin and attend the gig on November 23rd.

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Translated by: Marc
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When in 1961, with less than 18 years old, Steve Schapiro started working as a freelance photographer for some of the most important publications in the U.S. (over his long career he had the opportunity to work for prestigious magazines such as Vanity Fair, Time, Rolling Stone, Look, Life, Newsweek, Paris Match, or People, in which he took pride of showing his iconic cover photos) was nothing but a confirmation of an early vocation that began at the tender age of nine years old in a summer camp.

Fascinated by the urban photographs of Henri Cartier-Bresson, Schapiro, spent his adolescence photographing the city where he was born and raised, waiting patiently to find the perfect moment, that moment in which something (the expression that suddenly lands on a face, the likely composition full of meaning is not to be expected, an indefinable light as eclipse, a tension that can only give shockingly abrupt silence broken by the sound of the shutter of the camera…) created from scratch, the right circumstances for an extraordinary picture.

If we agree with Barthes that the bourgeois rule is pleased, among other things, of the signs making up the images, constantly confused and focused on nature and history of our present, giving a false view of reality, “not because, it is the one we live, it stops being absolutely historic, ” it should not seem strange for us that Schapiro has made, his splendid urban reports about places as diverse as the Haight Ashbury hippie, the situation of migrants in Arkansas or the culture of Harlem, a type of documentary photography that allows us to have a journey through some of the most iconic moments in the history of the sixties, from the great civil rights marches of the early to the presidential campaign of Robert Kennedy and the events following the assassination of Martin Luther King, and a gallery of portraits of iconic characters that have defined the Western mythology of the era, such as Andy Warhol and the Factory environment, Ray Charles , Samuel Beckett, Jackie Kennedy, Muhammad Ali, Sophia Loren and Truman Capote.

This latter aspect of his work, belonging to the series “Heroes” is what we can see until the next November 19 in Camera Work (http://www.camerawork.de/lang-en/photographen-cw-editor- 153/180.html), a very interesting gallery in Berlin, whose name pays tribute to the legendary Alfred Stieglitz magazine, founded in 1997 with the dual aim of showing the work of some of the most important photographers of the century and to inform young of the medium promises.

In the seventies Schapiro, in addition to made pop album covers, as seminal as Station to Station and Low by David Bowie, turned his attention to the film industry, producing publicity material, posters and still images for a series of such memorable films like The Godfather and Taxi Driver. The photos made during the filming of the latter two films round out this highly recommended show.

Paul Oilzum

: Schapiro´s point of view, considerably influenced by great photographers like his teacher Eugene W. Smith, the aforementioned Bresson, Robert Frank or Walker Evans, is always surprising and extremely original. Do not miss this show if you rent apartments in Berlin during those dates.

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Translated by: Hans
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From more than one point of view short films can be compared with literary stories. For a significant number of people this is where you find the true essence of their respective arts, forcing the authors  to eliminate everything that is accessory and irrelevant. Short Films and stories would be THE artifacts of absolute accuracy of its creators that would require a full exercise, such as a thorough and accurate knowledge of the craft, talent and abilities, a musical conception of the piece where everything has its place, time required to create the desired effect, the highest aesthetic demands of union between form and substance, the final domain of what is said and what is omitted, the silences, ellipses, dialogue and phrasings.

Maybe that’s why authors like Jorge Luis Borges despised novels written in prose rather than inquiries or philosophical ramblings and stories (which has not prevented him to go down in the history of literature as one of the most indisputable and revered geniuses of the last hundred years), which in authors such as Cortázar where the most admirable writings of the highest quality of his literary output are perhaps the stories, as is the case perhaps with Hemingway, Edgar Allen Poe and even Henry Melville to name just a few prominent examples.

Anyway the fact is that there is always something fascinating and overpowering in short film, a sort of calling to the other side which is even stronger than in long films, perhaps because, if film is essentially the art that comes closest to dreams they are remembered mostly as  short stories than long ones, regardless of their way of being which is more or less structured.

In Berlin, from the 15th  of November until the 20th the International Short Film Festival is celebrated in its twenty-seventh edition  (http://www.interfilm.de/en/festival2011/home.html), one of the most prestigious and important ones in Europe, which offers programming in more than 400 films in six cinemas (Volksbühne, Babylon, Passage Kinos, Central Kino, Roter Salon, Grüner Salon) and fifty programs.

Films from around the world compete for prizes in several different categories: best film, best story, best animation, best European talent, Best Cinematography, Best Documentary, Best Short film and Best Short child film plus a special award given to the two films ​​that best defend values against violence and intolerance. it also provide national and local awards for the best German and Berlin film respectively and two real curiosities: the Eject Prize to the most wonderful and rare film and an award for best political viral video that addresses issues related to climate change democracy or justice.

Paul Oilzum

It is a most peculiar festival which seeks to exhibit with considerable success the works of creative filmmakers from around the world and put them in touch in a framework to facilitate the exchange of ideas. Do not miss it if you rent apartments in Berlin at that time.

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Translated by: Marc
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