Dolphin Address 1
January 7th 2005
In the lee of a privet hedge I light my roll-your-own. A spotted birch tries to camouflage an apartment building. What will there be around the corner?
Along under the bridge the Teltow channel flows. Two swans are drawing a deep V. This is not the only piece of nature the district of Neukoelln has to offer. Last year still I saw a squirrel in the large fir-tree at Verena's inner court. A few days ago two jays were hopping over an adjacent balcony and yesterday a hawk was hiding in a tree bush from a litter of excited crows.
You'd better not look at the ground here, at cigarette buds or dog turds, for there it is a mess. Better to look up at the trees, they are in abundance. The streets seem narrow, as the houses go up to 4, 5 storeys, but are broader then you think because of the trees on either side. These don't care much about the light they are supposed to grow to. They branch out over the road and break the square shapes of the houses.
Balconies you see on each and every side, north, east, south, west and all in between. It looks like as if fresh air and the view go before sunlight. Now indeed they look more like a storage, but that must be the winter.
The sidewalk here is often an intarsia of square broken cobble-stones from the time you could buy three sticks of liquorice for half a pfennig and except by feet forgotten.
At parks and playgrounds you see an almost Irish excess of signposts that mainly tell you what not to do. With mixed feelings I also see some in Turkish.
The difference is not absolute, but when I pea in an electronically operated urinal, I have to think of the ridge in Irish urinals that make you stand as close to the pea-wall as possible.
Everywhere one is exposed to billboards. Not really different from Holland but more penetrating and massive. My medal of the week goes to Robby Williams who is taking of his shirt everywhere. Cool!
Jan Ploeg, Berlin, January 7th 2005
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