Boxhagener Platz Markets - Berlin

Boxhagener Platz
Friedrichshain
Berlin 

Very close to the nice & colorful Simon-Dach-Strasse you will find "Boxi Platz", a little green square where people like to chill out in the sun, play music or eat one of the delicious ice creams from around the corner. 
With the sunny days that have finally reached the german capital you will also love the week-end markets. 


On Saturdays, organic & fresh vegetables; cakes; snacks; local specialities and many other delightful things to try or to bring back home. 


On Sundays, it becomes an intimate flea market where you can always find a good book, a vinyl you were looking for, a vintage bag, an old school lamp, or a bike for a very reasonable price.  


Nice & cosy atmosphere with kids permanently running around and a wide choice of great brunches all around. 
What else do you want for a Sunday ? 


Bon dimanche ! 

HELMUT NEWTON POLAROIDS - BERLIN

Helmut Newton Foundation. 

Museum für fotografie 

Jebensstrasse 2 - Berlin

Today I went to see Newton's Polaroids exhibition, I stayed 2h, I loved it. 

First you can visit the permanent room where are exposed many magazine covers (the wall we all dream to have in our living room), Newton's personal belongings, reproduction of his office, awards he received, clothes, books, letters he sent, received and the ones his wife, June, received after his death (2004).  

In this room I also enjoyed, a lot, the amateur films that June Newton made during Helmut's photo shootings with Giorgio Armani, Pierre Cardin, Isabelle Huppert and many others. You have seen the pictures but seeing how they got to it, is something. 

Exhibition poster -

After, you can penetrate the temporary exhibition room and admire. 

There, you will find over 300 "imperfect" images based on the original Polaroids. 

You will immediately recognize his work but at a stage where it is "in a creation process".

The "creation process" looked already pretty extraordinary from my point of view. 

At the time, he used the Polaroid to have an immediate view of his work. 

"As he once described in an interview, this satisfied his impatient urge to want to know immediately how a certain situation would look as a photograph. 

In this context, the polaroid acted as an idea sketch in addition to testing the actual lighting situation and image composition." 

Those images were already available in Pola Woman, published in 1992.

This publication was not very well received  from all critics as some said the perfection of it was questionable. However he reacted saying that "that was exactly what was exciting – the spontaneity, the speed”. 

You will probably agree after seeing the exhibition. 

The small notes you sometimes can read on the sides of the pictures I thought made them so real and remind you the work behind those aesthetic, perfect, legendary photographs. 
You are nearly in Newton Helmut's studio.

Pola Woman by Helmut Newton 

Helmut Newton - Eva Herzigova, Monte Carlo, for Paris Match (1997)

 www.helmutnewton.com

FEMEN - TOPLESS UKRAINE

                       

Anna Hutsol created FEMEN in 2008 when she was 25 years old :

"I set up FEMEN because I realised that there was a lack of women activists in our society; Ukraine is male-oriented and women take a passive role."


In a country where Prime Minister, Mykola Azarov, is capable of saying :  ”conducting reforms is not women’s business” you surely need to find a way to make yourself heard as a young woman. 
Well, those young students between 18 and 25 years old did ! 
By their provocative topless protests during symbolic days or special events in Ukraine they managed to draw the attention from many news outlets around the world.


The goal of this Ukrainian protest group, which is based in Kiev, is "to shake women in Ukraine, making them socially active" as they say. The movement started denouncing sex tourists and prostitution in the country but then fought for various causes and women's rights. Last year they also protested against the case of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani who at the time after being convicted of adultery has been imprisoned with death sentence. 
Lately their target was the 2012 European Football Championship, that will take place in Ukraine and Poland, because of the sex tourism that will inevitably be associated to it. 


Of course some will say that nudity is not helping women to be more considerate, but at least they do something and it kind of works I guess if I and many others are talking about it. 


As a young independent student I can only agree with their aim : " developing leadership, intellectual and moral qualities of the young women in Ukraine". 

Here FEMEN site. 

Here FEMEN warnings about euro 2012 

Here support FEMEN on facebook. 

Here FEMEN blog 

Jim Morrison - 40 years ago

The Doors - "The Scene" New York - June 1967

Photo oedipusphinx — — — — theJWDban

Many years before I was even born the American lead singer of The Doors was found dead in his apartment in Paris. It was on July 3, 1971. 
Still he is on every Ipod and will be for many other generations.
The question comes out again on this anniversary day, what happened ? ! 
No official autopsy was made and this will forever leave us with many questions. 
The battle between Morrison's and Courson's parents over Morrison's heritage after Pamela Courson's death is also one of many other controversies around the legendary rocker. 

Check documentary about The Doors, When You're Strange by Tom DiCillo - 2009

Next to Jim Morrison's grave - Père Lachaise - Paris 

Photo _chance_

Here The Doors home page.

Roller skate in Berlin.

Berlin - S036 - Kreuzberg 

There are any kind of parties going on in Berlin and, especially, as a student you always experience a lot.

I however have to mention this one. 

When I first saw the poster I thought : great ! 80's music & rollers, perfect combination ! WE GO !

Then I started wondering, how can you possibly manage drinking, dancing and roller-skating at the same time ?!!

Well actually you can't. Some genius people did, but I suspect them of having a previous life as top sportsmen. For a, let's say, an average person like me it was not the same story. After 5 minutes I sprained my wrist thanks to a memorable fall. 

Anyway, you don't have to wear them all evening and it is an original experience. 

If you are in the neighborhood check the web site and see when the next one is on.

Roll on & Good Luck.

SO36

Oranienstr. 190

10999 Berlin

Infinite apology for very small word.

JUNE 30, 9:48 AM on MSNBC

The senior political analyst for Time magazine and MSNBC Mark Halperin used the four words "kind of a dick" when talking about President Barack Obama on MSNBC's weekday morning talk show Morning Joe.

Apparently Halperin was assured that they were on a seven-second delay that same morning before starting. 

After many apologies and respond of White House as an "inappropriate" comment, the political analyst has been indefinitely suspended from cable channel.

Now you at least know what happens when insulting the US President.

Here see the "dick video". 

"The Godfather" but not as in Coppola's masterpiece.

NO FICTION -

The Godfather - Francis Ford Coppola -1972

The Italian town Corleone, which has been made famous thanks to Coppola's movies, is since many years going through several criminal tragedies and extortions.
Today, in Sicily, Italian police has arrested Gaetano Riina who took over as head of Corleone after the arrest of his brother Toto Riina in 1993 in Palermo. 


Arrests during the past years have certainly weaken the Sicilian mob (still not close to disappear) but in the same time crime syndicates like the Camorra and the 'Ndrangheta have grown considerably. 


Here to read more about Italian mafia arrest.
Here to remember how great the movies were. 


Will Italian government one day succeed in total mafia extinction. 

"NOT GUILTY" ?!

Shame on WHO ? 

Photographer Abode of Chaos
We all remember the group of a least a hundred hotel maids yelling "shame on you" at DSK when arriving in front of the courthouse in NYC on June 6.
We also remember one of them saying publicly : "All of DSK's power and wealth will not keep the truth from getting out." 
Well, with all precaution it deserves, (the precaution that has been forgotten on this same day of early June and many others after) the housekeeper who accused the head of IMF seems to have lost all credibility.
Here you can find all details on latest news. The New York Times 
I am wondering who the shame is on now.I had nothing special regarding to Dominique Strauss-Kahn as a politician nor as a public figure but still thought something was wrong in the way he has been treated. 
The case is definitely not closed but will hopefully be approached with a little bit more caution. To remember next time.. because sadly there will be a next time, somewhere else with someone else.  

Hallelujah, the Pope has tweeted !

First blessed tweet ? 

"Dear Friends, I just launched News.va. Praised be our Lord Jesus Christ! With my prayers and blessings, Benedictus XVI," June 29

Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

Well, now that Pope Benedict XVI has an Ipad maybe he can use it to discover what is going on in the 21st century and update some of his principles.


I wonder how Steve Jobs sees that Ipad 2 promotion. 


Here, you will not find a link to Vatican portal.