SAME SUN SETS

Do people really visit blogs to look at pets, children, family holidays or kitchens?
I think not. Sunsets fall into the same category. No-one goes on the internet to look at sunsets - why should they? It's just a bloody sunset!

But think of this as an intermission. A little pause. You're here on my blog and while you're on your way to look at something else... "oh look! A lovely sunset!". Ah how nice.

This very bloody sunset took place on Frankfurter Allee two weeks ago. I like Frankfurter Allee a lot, but I think I may be in the minority. What makes this sunset important is that it marked THE END OF SUMMER. I've started wearing gloves.

schmalz? ... SCHMALZ!

Until very recently I had no idea that something actually called SCHMALZ even existed.
It's been lurking in the fridge for weeks. Looked innocent enough, but with huge potential for being hideous. In addition, none of The Germans could adequately describe what it really was, other than"it's Schmalz!".

So what's it like?
Not bad. Nice even.
It tastes like fried onions!
How about that then?

RINTI TIN

A very definite joy about moving abroad is the constant barrage from your new country's advertising agencies. Sometimes the message is clear (in Germany, it's difficult to misinterpret some ads, they're so blatant) and sometimes almost nothing makes sense and the feeling of confusion is hard on the brainbox.

So, here's a billboard that was pasted up last night on Behmstrasse.

WHAT HELL IS GOING ON HERE?
At first I assumed it was an Animal Rights charity, with the familiar red/white/black colours and strangely clinical atmosphere. But no, I THINK it's a genuine ad for dog food! It's very very sinister. The white tiled background - what's that, a kitchen? A slaughterhouse? A butcher's? The slaughterhouse/ butcher theme is pushed even harder with meathook device... the dog looks absolutely teased to distraction and you can just imagine the pool of drool on the slaughterhouse. All that's missing is dripping blood. Pretty clever.


I can't recall an ad for dog food that makes such intense use of base canine meat lust! Not cutesy-wutesy at all. The dog doesn't even look like a pet here... he's a predator!

Or is it a completely left-field clever clever postmodernistic parody thing that I'm just not getting?

PAULUS PILLKOPF!

Mind you, on the way to the fleamarket, we saw this shocking and blatantly genius window display in a pharmacy on Apostel Paulus Strasse.
Something in there for everyone!
Would you get this in the UK?
I think not.

The Flohmarkt That Wasn't.

Can you feel the level of excitement in this photograph?
Today we decided to head over to the WEST to check out the flohmarkt outside the Rathaus Schöneberg. Last time I'd been there was back in the meed-90s when the market was on Fehrbelliner Platz, and it was a good solid fleamarket with plenty of odd stuff on offer.
But now... this is a shabby fleamarket! Quite a lot of books, but nothing amazing, and the record situation was dire: only scratchy James Last, Demis Roussos, Culture Club, Leo Sayer - and even then, not the good stuff!

What I'm beginning to suspect is this: Fleamarkets in the West used to be better than the ones in the East, but slowly the whole system has totally reversed and now truly the best stuff has shifted to the East.
Oh well, I guess that's ok then, because that's where I live.
The search continues.
The theories get more tangled.
Will I ever find that elusive "Staff Carpenborg & Electric Corona" LP?
Not at this rate.
(... and I'm beginning to think every Can single ever pressed now lives abroad.)

BADGES IN BERLIN, BUTTONS IN BERLIN, PINS IN BERLIN.

In Britain we call them badges, in Germany they're called buttons, in the USA they call them pins, but they also like to say buttons as well.
Anyway I had a design emergency recently and neeeeded to make some badgebuttonpins here in Berlin. I tried several places but in the end I found the BEST.
His name is Patty, he makes 100% classic trad 25mm metal badges from the designs you give to him.
Wonderful stuff. Not expensive either.
There's something cool about badges that'll probably always be cool, and when you have a bag full of new ones they make a lovely jingling sound.
Here's Patty's website: www.maechtigeshaeuflein.de.vu

... thanks to Nils for the tip!

Wing Commander

To celebrate my arrival back in Berlin, I'm posting a photo of an unusual pigeon that I met at Schlesisches Tor U-Bahn station on my way to work this morning.
There are a lot of pigeons there.
Rumour has it, they have a fake ticket printing scam.
Want a cheap ticket? Ask a pigeon.
But ACT CASUAL (that's the pigeon rule, dontcha know)!

Wash Hands Before Eating.

I took this photo on my last full day in India, in a busy part of Delhi.
The yellow writing on the wall reads "TO BE DEMOLISHED".
Shortly afterwards, my stomach was demolished.
Didn't take any photographs of that happening though, so you'll have to take my word for it.

Now I'm back in Berlin, rebuilding my stomach with German bread and bananas. All bananas sold in Germany are grown in Dusseldorf, where banana farms cover miles and miles of countryside outside the main city, believe it or not!

BEAR BIN IN BUNDI

I encountered this bear-shaped bin in Bundi.
Is this normal?

JANTAR? MANTAR!

In Jaipur now.
Spent a day taking photos, under the scorching sun, but with an (Indian) umbrella, in this place built a couple of hundred years ago, full of giant Hindu sundials and other astronomical/ astrological instruments. They call them Jantar Mantar.

I call them Gigant Antfarm.
The ants here are HUGE.
(Hindi word for ant is "makora").
There, you just learnt something.
Imagine a Makora Pakora.