photo: Notes of Berlin
Berlin’s meme accounts are at it again and so are we. We’ve covered them before and but today we’re discussing our cities best bits of quarantine comic relief in this winter slump. The weather seems to be reflecting our general mood these days, so today we’re rounding up Berlin’s best snow memes. Baby, it’s cold outside so cozy up with a cold club mate or steaming, hot Glühwein, and prepare to be entertained.
Advertisement.
After last year’s intriguing Canvas Bar event in an unused subway tunnel of Berlin, Bombay Sapphire gin is continuing their collaboration with the art world with an exciting new project that we want to introduce to you today: With their new pop-up art campaign, they decided to go BIG. In five German cities, they have claimed the biggest canvas they could get: the walls of buildings.
For four weeks in September, five stunning murals will grace a big wall in Düsseldorf, Köln, Hamburg, Leipzig and – of course – Berlin. For each of the murals they commissioned established local artists: Semor, Jana Wind, Martin Grohs, and Stefan Kunz. But for Berlin, they did something special.
No other city has so much diversity like Berlin. From the chic and decadent Charlottenburg West to the rough Neukölln South, the boho Friedrichshain East and the wild Wedding North the city is a wild S-Bahn ride through extreme contrasts.
But we are not the only ones who heart the opposites and contradictions of this beautiful city. Since several years, Joab from Notes of Berlin hunts for the funniest notes or analog messages hanging around town. We know each other for a while and share frequently our thoughts on work and blogging. But until now we never had the chance to work on a joined project even though we are both part of Blogfabrik.
The S-Bahn Berlin asked if they could feature both of us while exploring our favorite spots in Berlin. As part of their #Washastduvor project several bloggers and storytellers were asked to show their personal side of Berlin. On their website you can explore all kinds of useful Berlin-related articles. We used this project as an opportunity not only to have a crazy experience with the new film technology of 360° videos but also to dive into some serious conversations about urban development and how the city should change from our perspective. The final results will go online tomorrow on our Facebook page. But after the jump, you can already watch one short excerpt of the movie.
Those of you who understand German have surely at one point in their Berlin life laughed out loud about one of the hilarious notes from Notes of Berlin that normally spread like a wildfire on Facebook. If you haven’t heard of it yet, Notes of Berlin is a collection of the funniest notes that people hang somewhere in public to address their noisy neighbors, ignorant customers, bike thieves, subway flirts and other fellow citizens. It’s an interesting reflection of the sass and wit of Berliners, but also of their anger, rudeness and sometimes their bad grammar.
Some of the notes have more than just a complaint behind them, but a whole story attached to it that I very often wonder how it might continue once the person the note is addressed to actually reads it. I think quite a few fans of the site might feel like that and I think it’s this thought that triggered the idea of turning the website into a movie. After so many other blogs turned their websites into books, this one might actually be the first one that comes out as a movie. But how does that work? The team behind the film has selected some of the most interesting notes and wrote stories around them that will be put together like puzzle pieces. The result is going to be one hell of an anthology film with the craziest Berliners in it and I am very sure it will be at least as funny as the blog.
Right now a film lab has been started where people can discuss the notes and submit new ones and a big casting is going on to find the people who will play in the film. They can be actors, but also non-actors. And in typical Notes of Berlin style the casting calls are hung around the city as notes. After the jump you can see some of them, or maybe you will also find them somewhere in your neighborhood? Enjoy some of the notes after the jump.
UPDATE: On May 16th 2015 Notes of Berlin is throwing a fundraiser party for the movie at Klunkerkranich starting at 15h.