The international Pride Month and the Berlin Pride Week are already behind us, but I’m still basking in the positive feeling especially its last weekend left in me. I did a couple of posts about it – it was a big weekend with lots of different events. I got a lot of love and of course also some comments and DMs to make me think. And I did.
It’s a new year, I just finished a colossal project and with all that new time at my hands I’m left to think about the future. After doing iHeartBerlin for 17 years now, I have this looming question over my head: What the hell we gonna do now? I’m not joking, I’m seriously asking: where do we go from here?
Are we going to turn iHeartBerlin into a fashion brand? Are we going to turn into a print magazine? Are we going to become an online city guide? Are we going to turn ourselves into a closed community? Are we going to change our name, logo, and concept – or keep going as we are? Or are we gonna switch off the lights from one day to the next?
Darkness has gently spread its gloomy coat over the roofs of the city. Berlin, once again, is captured in the hands of night owls. The ones that work and the ones that celebrate.
Berlin is two faced. Two faced it its finest way.
The city that never sleeps has to be Berlin after all. Anybody who visited the big apple realized, that this promising slogan only fits the noisy metropolis partly. But who needs New York when we have Berlin.
Berlin, Berlin, so wonderfully untamed in the middle of proper Germany.
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Whenever a new post by Alina Rudya a.k.a. rrrudya pops up in my social media feed my heart gets filled with warm thoughts about Berlin. Like no other photographer that I follow, Alina has a way of capturing the city in such a charming, beautiful, often tongue-in-cheek, and always authentic way – it makes me feel really connected, not just with the city, but with her as a fellow Berlin content creator.
For iHeartBerlin’s new feature series in collaboration with Squarespace – the iconic all-in-one website and commerce building platform – we get to meet some outstanding talents in Berlin showcasing the limitless creativity that the city harbors and the endless potential of a strong online presence.
For our interview I meet Alina in one of the most beloved places of the neighborhood we both live in: the famous Mauerpark. It’s a really popular spot to capture good Berlin vibes, but also a beautiful backdrop for portraits. Usually, it’s Alina behind the camera, but today it’s two photographers pointing their cameras at each other while chatting about the job in process.
Is everyone on a love diet now? Love is treated in a similarly small-minded way, like the pleasure of giving gifts, which has fallen into disrepute for years.
People are just as stingy with love as they are with everything else. The only exception is self-love. It seems one can’t be generous enough when it comes to this topic. Charity and romantic love are often left to starve. Everyone goes to therapy, but hardly anyone does voluntary work.
The year is young, relatively at least. We still have about three-quarters of the year left to implement what we set out to do a few months ago. According to Alain de Botton: “If you’re not ashamed of who you were last year, you’re probably not learning enough.”
New Year is used as an opportunity to reflect and admit that some things must change. Many of us take a tough but fair look at ourselves and conclude that we are not satisfied with how things are going. Time to break old patterns. Then there are also those who claim it is a cliché wanting to change once a year. Some even mock this opportunity to reflect.
photo: Vanessa Marino.
Aérea Negrot is a Berlin icon. The sad news of her death that reached us on Thursday will not change that. She was beloved far beyond Berlin’s queer nightlife, theater, and art world. She was a brilliant artist, performer, DJ. She was mother, she was diva, she was queen, she was everything and more.
It’s a first one for me, to write about someone from within our circles who passed. I’m honestly heartbroken, but I feel like I have so much to say.
You know Berlin like the inside of your pocket? No one can fool you when it comes to facts about the German capital? We dare to try and present you ten curious things that you might not have known at all. And with which you can shine during the next visit of non-Berliners. Whether it’s a historical event, statistics on animal excrement or genuine (and not so genuine) Berlin biographies – these items show that Berlin can still surprise us in 2023.
Crack open a bottle of champagne while cleaning and then stick with the drink – groom your mind rather than soulless furniture. Or get stuck in a traffic jam, but sing at the top of your lungs throughout; there are people who manage to turn dull, everyday situations into a party.
The gourmets of life are rarely those who impose themselves on others, rather, the loud-mouthed emptiness that does seem to be the constant shadow of those who manage to poison the most beautiful events with their sad and bitter opinions.
It is these people who rant over how ridiculous it is to spend savings on a single event, or what a waste it is to down that expensive wine on a regular Wednesday for no reason.
Just the other week, on July 22nd, we celebrated the Dyke* March in Berlin.
Yes, the parade is the ultimate paradise for lesbians but it’s also a demonstration to show the world that we exist and that we are here proudly celebrating who we are and the community that we have been building for decades from the shadow. “Look over here, look over there, lesbians are everywhere!”