barbie and the beast

hallo alle :)

well, i have been planning to tell you all about my excursion to münich, but, frankly, i have far too much to say for one post and thus have decided to make this the first of three.

today i'll talk about general impressions, next time i'll talk about the design and architecture, and finally the art. i can't tell you how much i managed to pack in to such a short trip...and how much i enjoyed all of it!

since the train is so damn expensive and flying is such a hassle, we decided to drive, which takes about 5 hours at 160 kph (which, to a born-and-bred toronto girl, seems fast until you get used to it and then it feels totally normal - slow even, what with all the cars passing at 200 kph+). if you've never been on the highways in germany, there is no speed limit. there is a "suggested speed" (usually around 130 kph) but apparently you can go as fast as you want and not get a ticket.

i actually LOVE roadtrips, and the scenery was stunning. the sky was just perfect, and seemed so very high above me and the horizon was endless. all of which i found very inspiring.




It's spring here right now - the greens are so concentrated, and the newness of everything is really quite palpable. I guess I'm used to being in Toronto this time of year, where it goes from mush and parkas to patios and bikinis seemingly overnight. there's lots of rain here, but that only makes it seem even more beautiful when the sun comes out.





after a while i got bored and decided to have some fun with the beautiful light and take pictures of myself (oh, come on - a little vanity never hurt anyone).



when we got to munich, the first thing i noticed were the amazing colours everywhere. i mean, in toronto you never see turquoise pickup trucks:



or check out this building, with a brilliant facade constructed out of thin multi-coloured batons:



i also really enjoyed this ad for the state opera:



my parents were actually in münich for a conference and i got to spend some time with them, which was supernice. my mom and i went for a lovely walk to check out the scene downtown, and admired some of the totally over-the-top architecture:





and stumbled upon a house where wagner lived for about a year:



in the evening, we went to a philip glass opera called "die schöne und das biest" (beauty and the beast) which was absolutely incredible. the production was modeled on jean cocteau's film, and i just can't express how moving it was. not only was the singing, music, and choreography thoroughly exquisite, but i also found the story itself so utterly tragic...











the other thing that i found quite incredible was the number of kids there - i was actually sitting in the middle of a group of 12 year old buddies who were just, you know, hangin out at the philip glass opera on a thursday night. they were awesome and seemed to enjoy my blue wig.

if you would like to check out some of the music or video from the production, you can do so by clicking here. i wish you all could have been there - it really was wonderful.

anyway, i'll be back soon for the next installment of 'barbie braucht bavaria'...

xo blue horizon barbie

barbie comes to dinner

***
i thought that today i'd write a brief post about some of my culinary adventures over the past couple weeks.

as you've probably heard, berlin is not exactly known for its superiour cuisine. they do, however, have the 3 (4? 5? 6?) am post-partying snack food pretty much down (thanks to the ubiquitous street-corner imbisses that serve a wide variety of multi-ethnic foods).

but in terms of your average meal, the quality of food for the price (esp. with the euro being as ridiculously expensive as it is at the moment) is often disappointing.

there are, of course exceptions - as i mentioned before, grill royal is VERY good (but also very expensive), as is alpenstück. oh, and near the funny farm there´s a place called pratergarten that has awesome salads and superlecker goulash....

and while these particular venues are admittedly upscale and high in foodie points (veal cheeks, anyone?) berlin barbie is not a total food snob, and by no means is suggesting that the only good food in berlin will bankrupt you.

for example:

the burger at white trash is both reasonably priced and really good. it's also served rare, which is nice for all us north americans who are sick of eating glorified hockey pucks. (the fuck you fries are an added bonus):



white trash also has great music, a warm and relaxed atmosphere, and fascinating decor (thanks to the superawesome laura of funny farm fame).

in fact, we went there with laura just the other night - this is her in another unbelievable outfit, with helen, a very cool artist currently practicing here in berlin - and despite it being a sunday, the place was packed until 3 am by the most diverse crowd i've ever seen.



this should give you a better idea of the vibe of the place (with live music):



anyway -

while i've enjoyed many different kinds of food here in berlin, as i'm sure you've heard, germany is first and foremost the land of pork:



now, you can get your schwein in a million forms, including several kinds of würst, weiner schnitzel so large that it covers the whole table (of course, schnitzel can also be made veal...) and schweinebraten (roasted pork). it's also added to a wide range of dishes for extra piggy flavour. and i've also found that it's common here to use pork fat in other dishes - especially vegetables (which means that if you are vegetarian, salad is probably the way to go).

i had a really fun dinner of roast wild boar the other night at this place, called schlesisch blau:



the best part about this meal was that there was no menu (the only choice you get is between veg and carni) and we all got to serve ourselves soup from a large bubbling pot on the side of the cozy, bustling dining room. of course, what made it so special were the ultracool people we dined with:



right now is the time of year for spargel, the plumpest, sweetest, juiciest white asparagus i have ever tasted. these are very commonly served with hollandaise sauce and a "side" of wiener schnitzel or ham. purists among us eat them with butter and perhaps a sprinkling of crumbled hard-boiled egg.

but no matter which way you slice it, this truly is a german delicacy, and a big hit with my parents who were visiting this week:



(and for all you etiquette enthusiasts, asparagus is the only veg that you're allowed to eat with your hands, which makes it taste even better. )

one thing i find disturbing about this city, frankly, is the number of sushi restaurants considering how few asian people i've seen around. having once been hospitalized after being poisoned by a sushi restaurant in toronto, i am very discerning about where i get my raw fish, and have not had the desire to eat any since i've been in berlin.

the other night, however, i attended a most wonderful sushi(!) dinner hosted by the lovely erica claus, the canadian cultural ambassador here in berlin. the dinner was in honour of david silcox, president of sotheby's canada who just won a governor general's award. the guests were fascinating, and the conversation was truly memorable...



plus, erica lives at what might be my favourite intersection thus far...



finally, i would like to mention a truly unique individual who i was fortunate enough to meet the last time she was visiting from amsterdam, where she lives. her name is marije vogelzang, and she is an eating designer. no - NOT a food designer. she said eating designer. she owns two restaurants (which you can check out here) and, being the ONLY eating designer in the world, she regularly teaches and lectures about her work, her philosophy, etc. - which is really quite fascinating.

if you're curious about what an eating designer does, exactly, check out this short vid of her talking about it - marije is a very articulate, sensitive and interesting speaker. definitely worth a listen:



okay, on that note i'm off - just got in from münchen and very tired.

i will be back soon with a post full of wide horizons and superiour design...

xo bohemian bratwürst barbie

barbie does the hamburger bahnhof

***
why hello, my pretties...

back from another field trip - this time to the hamburger bahnoff: museum für gegenwart (lit: the museum for the present - or, the museum of contemporary art).

this incredible museum (which used to be a train station connecting berlin and hamburg) houses an incredible collection, including work by Cy Twombly, Robert Rauschenberg, Roy Lichtenstein, Anselm Kiefer, Joseph Beuys, and a stunning warhol collection immaculately displayed for ultimate visceral impact.

the building itself is quite epic - here it is from the outside:



but also, from the very outset it has a sense of humour:



when you enter you really do feel the full force of the space:



but the spaces are so clean and clear and focused that the building itself seamlessly passes from foreground to background, which, of course, prevents overstimulation and superficial glossing over work that one otherwise would have liked to meditate on.

for example, take this exhibit:



this is a piece by anselm kiefer:



close-up of one of his "books":



this piece by richard long (pictured here in the foreground) was really quite stunning - composed wholy of slabs of raw marble:



another view:



from here we moved into the warhol room:



the warhols are all owned by a man named erich marx who somehow had the foresight to buy them in the 60s, earning his current reputation of being a true collector-visionary, as at the time he would have no idea that he would ever be able to display the work...

goodness knows where he stored the camouflage painting before it was hung in the bahnhof - but i suppose that at the time, berlin had no shortage of large empty spaces...

coming out of the warhol room you enter this reading room:





ah, germany - the land of exquisite typography (sigh).

and then you can go upstairs and see a most unusual exhibition of staged photographs by anna and harold blume, of whom i had never heard prior to this visit (apparently, this is part of the bahnhof's mandate of "bringing to light relatively unexposed works in the state collections of 20th and 21st-century art, and making them accessible to a wide audience").

these photographs are thoroughly disquieting yet also quite humorous - an unusual but refreshing combination that reminds me a little of david lynch (esp. the 'mahlzeit' photo, below). their thesis, apparently is:

Before going out into the big, wide, world, one ought to thoroughly investigate “home sweet home” to see whether every conceivable form of misery is not present there already.

according to the bahnhof's offical site,

"this artistic couple stages temporal sequences within which they themselves act as protagonists. The scenes are often reduced, estranged, and above all odd: order and chaos seem to mutually condition one another, role–playing and convention inhere in each object, conditioning modes of behavior and provoking resistance. With their diagnoses of the contemporary condition, the works of Anna and Bernhard Blume always interweave performance, painting, and photography. Deformation and metaphor, subjective perception and collective conventions are thematized, thereby touching on the question of whether the boundaries of the visible also determine those of experience."

here are some examples of the work entitled "reine vernunft" (pure reason):







and these, from "kitchen frenzy":



i LOVE these plates - and they're actually going into production:











then there are these nutty photographs:







and finally this, which i found the most unsettling of them all:



and then you come back out into the main room:





beautiful, huh?

anyway, there you have it - a virtual tour of the hamburger bahnhof.

i will be back soon with a post about food, i think. until then, enjoy and be in touch :)

xo,
abstract contemporary barbie