Berlin

NY Times ArtsBeat Blog: Stew in Africa: A Long Time Coming

Submitted by Leo Klein on Wed, 8/3/11 (3:18pm)

"Pathetic Eurocentric Negro!" That's how Stew, an old pal of mine from my Berlin days begins an account of his first trip ever to Africa. He's working as one of the creative advisers for a program in Kenya that coaches upcoming African theater people. He's also agreed to share his experiences by posting regularly on the New York Times' ArtsBeat Blog. Stew was the lead guitarist of a good-time band we had in Berlin called 'The Wonderful Guise'. Tony Millionaire was also a member of the group. Anyway, it's good to see Stew maintaining the spirit of those free-for-all wild times in passages like this:

The workshop I'm giving on Manda will probably consist of a song by song analysis of the Rolling Stones 1966 release "Between the Buttons" which I'll compare and contrast with "King Lear," even though I've never read "King Lear" and I'm almost certain absolutely no connection between the two works actually exists. But Sundance can handle this sort of thing.

You can read the whole post here...

Topic:

Wonderful Guise

Location:

Berlin

'Er Kommt' - Or My Short Stint as a False Prophet

Submitted by Leo Klein on Sun, 7/10/11 (11:07am)

Of the many encounters I had in Berlin recently, one of the more interesting was with a woman who I had never met before. It was at the Bauhof Anniversary Party and she came up and gave me a photo which she had taken over twenty years earlier.

The photo was of a poster of me with the words, 'Er Kommt' (i.e. 'He's coming'). She had seen the poster plastered all over the neighborhood and like a few others at the time, had interpreted it as the harbinger of some significant event.

Topic:

Lifestyle

Location:

Berlin

Berlin SO36

Submitted by Leo Klein on Fri, 7/1/11 (4:15am)

Popular tourist destination.

Location:

Berlin

Party in Berlin

Submitted by Leo Klein on Sat, 5/21/11 (1:40pm)

Don't want to miss this:

"Party in Berlin: Squatters' Ball. Dresscode: Evening Attire."

Topic:

Lifestyle

Location:

Berlin

Berlin, Oct. 3, 1990

Submitted by Leo Klein on Sun, 10/3/10 (1:17pm)

I remember the ceremony out in front of the Reichstag very well. The flag was raised and they played 'Deutschland, Deutschland'. It was the cumulation of events that had started a year earlier with the opening of the Berlin Wall (11/9/1989) and the upheaval all over Eastern Europe.

Topic:

Anniversary/Holiday

Location:

Berlin

In Berlin When the Wall Came Down

Submitted by Leo Klein on Mon, 11/9/09 (8:57am)

I was in Berlin when the Wall came down. In fact I had been living there since 1984.

I had just woken up from an early evening nap when one of the people from the Wohngemeinschaft where I was living told me the Wall had come down.

This seemed strange since it looked perfectly intact only an hour before when I had gone to sleep.

Topic:

Lifestyle

Photo Journal

Location:

Berlin

Old Friend Mark Stewart Up For Tony Award

Submitted by Leo Klein on Sun, 6/15/08 (7:57pm)

Finally someone I know is famous!

In the 80's in crazy Kreuzberg, West Berlin, a bunch of us belonged to this good-time group called the 'Wonderful Guise'. ~~Mark Stewart~~ Stew was one of the lead musicians.

Topic:

Wonderful Guise

Location:

Berlin

Berlin 1987: Summer of Hönkel

Submitted by Leo Klein on Sun, 6/3/07 (1:38pm)

With all the talk of anniversaries, I thought I'd mention the "Summer of Hönkel" which happened in West Berlin twenty years ago.

It was a hectic period of cultural ferment and turmoil. "Hönkel" -- which I think was a beer -- was supposed to represent this vast chaotic mix.

I was reminded of it most recently by this picture in Flickr. The picture is of a supermarket that went up in flames in the course of a riot on May 1 1987. My house was across the street from the supermarket.

Topic:

Location: