more thoughts on berlin
Last night I had the pleasure of hanging out with Adam Goldmann. He was telling me of a metaphor he had picked up for Beriln, how the city acts as a palimpsest. When he brought it up, I could only remember the word from the title of a Gore Vidal novel, but couldn't remember exactly what it meant. Thanks Google, because of you, I don't even need a memory. Palimpsest: a piece of writing material on which the original writing has been effaced to make room for later writing but of which traces remain. Which is exactly what Berlin is, a living city constantly rubbing out little bits of its historical scars, but never fully erasing them, trying to forget but afraid to at the same time. And within that process an incomparable ecological system of culture and art is currently thriving. I can only imagine that it is similar to what downtown New York must have been in the 70's. But without the crime and grit and with an urban infrastructure that seems to work nearly flawlessly. Now if only San Francisco would join the EU so that I might live here without all the visa hassle!