Approximately 0.5 % of the Berlin population is infected with HIV. This number ranks Berlin on top of all German cities shortly followed by Hamburg. Due to effective medication nowadays you can live a long and healthy life even with an HIV infection. This has made the disease less frightening among younger generations which results in a rising number of new infections since the early 2000s.
Maybe these statistics are a good reason to take a closer look at the theater piece Aids Follies premiering today at Sophiensaele. This unusual Aids Musical takes you back to the story of Patient Zero, the first patient who was wrongly accused to have brought HIV to North America. With a collage of video documents, conspiracy theories and eclectic sound and dance performances the director Johannes Müller created a dark hybrid of different theater genres.
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by Claudio | Theater
photo: Berliner Stage Company e.V.
I think one of the most peculiar symptoms of this digital era of self-representation are flash mobs. It does not matter how talented in acting, dancing, and singing the performers are. From the moment on they are willing to sacrifice their last bit of integrity to perform to an involuntary audience we can not stop watching. It’s like being the spectator of an incredible stunt that could turn every moment into a horrible (and by horrible I mean horribly embarrassing) accident.
A favorite place for those public flash mobs (or flash tortures) is the Berlin subway or train stations. I guess the idea is to turn an everyday boring situation like a subway ride into a magical eye opening experience. Sometimes the results are close to that description. But it can also happen to be a deadly trap for the poor innocent Berlin souls who just wanted to have a chill ride to their workplace.
After the jump I collected some of the funniest and some of the weirdest U-Bahn flash mobs that you can find on Youtube for your amusement.
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by Claudio | Theater
photo: Oliver Rath
A public transport vehicle is designed by the “1/3 and 2/3 principle”. This means that at maximum load one third of the passengers can sit and two-thirds have to stand. This strange economy behind the seating system may reflect a hidden social order that is communicated to the passengers. Is this perhaps the reason why more and more people have lost the respect for the subway in Berlin? I guess so, because it seems a widespread desease I call Ubahntipathy is emerging in the population these days. Reflections on this new epidemic of urban mobility and a movie recommendation in the German Version of this article (click on “Weiterlesen”).
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by Claudio | Stories, Videos
Why does nobody ever talk about female masturbation? Is this one of the last remaining female secrets of our generation? Well, most girls I know claim that they never do it (for a guy this seems hard to believe). Actually I know just one girl – I could call a masturbation mistress. She knows how to come, where to come and when to come (mostly several times a day). Another quite popular lady of Berlin’s nightlife who does not seem to be ashamed of this particular hobby is our lovely Canadian rockstar Peaches. So if you don’t want to miss the details you should definetly visit her upcoming musical Peaches Does Herself. Dirty details and a synopsis after the jump.
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by Claudio | Kreuzberg, Music, Party, Theater
Who needs a gay Indianer if they can have a gay Hitler? Well, with all the gayness going on in this city there is one show that really stands out, and that not only because it is being advertised like madness: The Producers, an Austrian musical production based on the cult movie of the same name by Mel Brooks, is now playing at Admiralspalast. If you like musicals you will have a lot of fun with this one. Especially the Hitler musical within the musical is absolutely hilarious. More images after the jump.
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by Frank | Entertainment, Theater