Cities – Page 3 – Commodity Fetishism

Ceciliengärten

I phoned my mum from Berlin (or Ber-leene as she says it). I spoke in a formal voice.‘Guten abend’‘Guten abend’ she replied. There was a pause.‘Wie geht es dir?‘Ja gut’.‘Ich bin in Berlin’.‘Ja….’‘It’s me….I’m in Berlin…’We laughed so much. People might not realise that there’s still an older Germany in existence. An older Germany thatContinue reading “Ceciliengärten”

A Short Ride on the U-Bahn

The apartment is just off the Kurfürstendamm, on the top floor of a building constructed around 1910. It is light and airy and quiet. It has a central location but there is no sound of motorism. The building is created around a courtyard which has large mature trees and a glorious spread of flowers andContinue reading “A Short Ride on the U-Bahn”

The revolution is magnificent; Everything else is nonsense

Rosa Luxemburg It’s possible that there will be a map of Berlin in the local branch of WH Smith. That’s what I really want. A large, fold-out, paper map of Berlin. Something that shows the edges of the city, and then the places beyond the edges of the city. The villages and forests and lakes.Continue reading “The revolution is magnificent; Everything else is nonsense”

A Map of London Before 1987

Sometimes one buys a book instinctively. There will be one sentence, a headline, a particular type face, an image. Perhaps just the title of the book itself. Or maybe it’s the particular quality of the book. Such was the purchase of: 50 YEARS OR RECUPERATION of the Situationist Internationalby McKenzie Wark When the book wasContinue reading “A Map of London Before 1987”

Vauxhall Bridge Road

It was by accident. I was standing at the corner of Victoria Street and Vauxhall Bridge Road taking photographs of the Nova Building. The lights changed to red. I was aware of the a woman standing to the right of me. She was wearing a lilac anorak and black trousers and lilac coloured shoes andContinue reading “Vauxhall Bridge Road”

A Latin Mass

London feels different on an early Saturday morning. There are few people around and the streets can be appreciated without the domination of motorism. To study Victoria and Pimlico in more depth I am walking up and down streets, exploring each road that leads off, looking behind the facades at the delivery areas, walking inContinue reading “A Latin Mass”

Corporate Culture

On the train late at night. The colour is washed out of everyone, the colour of their lives; the sparkling life of their souls is flat. Everyone is grey, lifeless, dead skin deadliness. The man in the seat on the opposite side of the aisle is slumped forward with this head squashed up against theContinue reading “Corporate Culture”

Street Level Camaraderie

A day out in London, mainly to visit Tate Britain to study the art of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. More of that later. I don’t why people say London’s not friendly. I didn’t get a a minute’s peace. It was early and the streets and the underground were quiet with that particularContinue reading “Street Level Camaraderie”

A Universe of Stone

We were in Norwich with plans. None of which involved the history of the city with it’s medieval churches and history of banking and insurance. Those must wait for other days. But we had to go into the town, and in the space of an hour managed to see a great deal. The city needsContinue reading “A Universe of Stone”

The Revolution could be televised

Does there need to be an explanation? I’m not sure myself how I came to be in St Pancras Way. There are of course factors. I had been to the office, had a ticket for a train, wanted a change of scene. On 99 out of 100 occasions when I arrive at St Pancras stationContinue reading “The Revolution could be televised”