http://www.luisagreenfield.com/tiergarten_video

“Even the most perfect reproduction of a work of art is lacking in one element: its presence in time and space, its unique existence at the place where it happens to be.”  (220)

“[T]hat which withers in the age of mechanical reproduction is the aura of the work of art.” (221)

“Mankind, which in Homer’s time, was an object of contemplation for the Olympic gods, now is one for itself.  Its self-alienation has reached such a degree that it can experience its own destruction as an aesthetic pleasure of the first order.  This is the situation of politics which Fascism is rendering aesthetic.”  (242)

http://hkw.de/en/programm/projekte/veranstaltung/p_126262.php#.VxH4Gl4MH3E.mailto

Please download and open this Word doc containing the options for your PsychicCity Procedures and Findings: PsychicCity MENU by the week Berlin 2016; remember, you will post the results every Thursday by 10 pm. Your options for tomorrow: “The Legible Erlebnis” or “‘Degenerate’ Art”. Next week: “Listening to Berlin” or “Alarms and Incursions.”  The week after that: “Gedächtnis” or “Fragen und Antworten.” Finally, unless we get a second late-but-worthy contribution, week 5 will be “Willst du mit mir Musik hören?” below!

Week 5 Thursday: 5. Mai So far, one option: “Willst du mit mir Musik Hören?”

WILLST DU MIT MIR MUSIK HöREN? Kristin Petroske.

Dearest Klassenkameraden, my PsychicCity is simple. I would like you to pick a German song YOU DON’T ALREADY KNOW and write about it. It must be in German.

I would like you to pay special attention to the song and after the first listen I would like you to write down what kind of feeling the song left you with: were you happy? Sad? Anxious? Eh? Confused? Don’t try to understand it just yet.

The second time you listen to it I would like you to try and understand what the song is about. Does that match the emotion you had when you first listened to the song? Write that down (it doesn’t matter if you’re right or not).

When all that is said and done, I’d like you to go look up the lyrics. How do the lyrics of the song match up with what you felt and think the song was about? Do you like the lyrics or do you think you were better off not understanding?

Post your findings and songs! Share the music!

Here is a place to start if you aren’t sure how to find any German songs:

http://www.goethe.de/ins/gb/lon/prj/pop/msc/enindex.htm

A good spot, for anyone wanting to look at a lot of interesting biological things, is the naturkundmuseum. The fee with a student ID is about 5 dollars, and is a good place to go if you have a free day to explore somewhere new.

I woke up this morning with a craving for getting some touches in. I had spent so much time trying to find other people to play with that I had not made time for myself. So I ate some breakfast and hopped on a bike and rode to the closest field I knew of, Lichterfelde. On a bike it is maybe ten minutes away. When I got there, there were relatively few people. Most of them were little kids with their parents. So I rode up to one of the goals, put my ball on the field and started lacing up my boots. As I did so, though, a group of kids ran onto the field I had ‘claimed’ and started playing around. My heart sank, I knew it, these kids had a game this morning and I wasn’t going to get to play at all. As I pondered what to do next, a man came up behind me. He immediately unloaded on me with a flurry of German, all I understood was ‘nichts’ and ‘fahrad’. I asked him if he spoke English and he said that I was not allowed to bring my bike on to the field, but also that I could still play there because the kids were going to move over on to the other side of the field. Oh thank god.

While I was warming up getting ready to get some touches in I took notice of the situation around me. On the other side of the field, the kids started doing shooting drills on their goal keeper, while they did this another group of kids who had playing on the other field came over and joined them on that’s idol the field, doing drill with their goalie as well. They were to be opponents in the coming match. The field they were playing on was half the size of a normal field and the played horizontally along it with the goals on the sidelines. Seeing as how they were probably only ten years old, this made sense. But then on the other field were the second group of kids had come from, there were two teams of men, probably between fourty and fifty years old, setting up another field the same way. This intrigued me. These men were well past their prime and playing on a full field would probably have been asking too much of them. So fields this size made sense. It was either 7v7 or 6v6 with goalies. I personally love playing on fields that size, as drills or practice maybe. Smaller fields means more shots.

So I admired the scenery and started playing. After maybe twenty or so minutes, a little kid came over with his small, soft, flat ball and started mimicking me. I thought great, there goes my chance for getting some shots in, now this kid’s in the way. At first I tried sort of maneuvering around him, but the entire time he seemed to be watching me. Eventually he started getting my ball for me after I shot it and kicking it back to me. This kid was younger than the others, maybe only 8 or so, so he really wasn’t very good, yet I still thought it was kind of entertaining to see him fetch the ball for me. As things played out, we started interacting more and more, nothing was said, we just played. He tried playing goalie and blocking my shots, I played goalie and tried blocking his shots,often letting them go in intentionally. He seemed to find everything I did very funny and entertaining. Sometimes I would pretend to dive for the ball and intentionally miss it and he would burst out laughing. Gee what a confidence booster, this guy thinks I’m hilarious. I may have been disappointed that I wasn’tgetting the touches in that I wanted, yet somehow I didn’t seem to mind. We kept this up for probably close to half an hour before I had had enough. I pointed to my watch and motioned to him that I had to leave. He immediately looked quite sad, yet I could tell he was also trying to hide it. He turned to pick up his ball and started walking away. In that moment I remembered what had happened at the bar a couple nights ago. I called to him and motioned him over. “Wie heissen Sie?” I asked. “Nieltz” he replied. “Ein photo?” He nodded. I took this picture, thanked him and we went our separate ways.

Now that I am in Berlin, I want to see some football matches! My original plan was to see a game for both Hertha and Union, however, much to my disappointment, there may have to be a change of plans. Of course I should have know that with such a big city like Berlin, it would have been hard to come by tickets. All of Hertha’s games for the rest of the season are sold out! I looked up tickets for Union matches, but I was unsuccessful every time. They are a partially fan owned team, which I think contributes to my confusion and difficulty in finding info on them and getting tickets. Every website I look at is in German too which can lead to misinterpretation. I have not given up on either of these teams. As I have done before in the past, you can always show up at the stadium and try to get tickets there, maybe a scalper, I don’t care. It will definitely be pricey but I have my eyes on the cup match against Dortmund on April 20th. If I can’t get in, I here/bet they will have community viewing on a jumbo screen outside the stadium. Olympiastadion is a world renowned venue and I would really love to get a chance to see a game in it. As for Union, I can try and do something similar. Showing up and trying to get in may be a little easier there. I have heard, maybe incorrectly, that they consistently pack 20,000 plus into a stadium built to hold 4,000, so I have hope.

In the mean while I will gather more info and see some lower level matches such as for the Berlin Liga and the Regional Liga. This weekend I will have the luxury of seeing the first and second place teams in the latter league duke it out in Berlin. BERLINER V ZWICKAU! Should be a great match! These matches for lower levels are more numerous and more often nearby. Plus their season extends a couple weeks past that of the top league, the Bundesliga. However, there are other factors that could contribute to things not going my way. For instance, if the teams I want to see aren’t the home team, then I am SOL. This may not be the case for the last game of the year in the Bundesliga. Our last day of CIEE class is on 5/13, the last games are on 5/14, if I am really determined, or desperate, I may book it out to either Nurnburg or Düsseldorf to catch a game. Another factor is the week earlier we are traveling out to Prague for a weekend conference as a class. As I am writing this, I am just now realizing the possibility of seeing a game there. A chill went down my spine. A chill of excitement. I’ll have to start researching.