frei aber froh

no, my german has not improved at all.  it's got something to do with the music accompanying this letter (you'll have to play the music above).  johannes brahm's musical motto for this symphony Symphony No. 3 in F major, Op. 90  (3rd movement, poco allegreto) consisted of the notes F-A(flat)-F, the first letters of frei aber froh.  and no, i have not suddenly become a music expert either, i just read it somewhere else.  why frei "aber" froh (free "but" happy), you might ask, not frei "und" froh (free "and" happy)?  supposedly it's in response to the composer's friend's motto of frei aber einsam (free but lonely).

what about this music then?   not sure.  i think this is supposed to be meadows and creeks and flowers of spring, but somehow it gives me all sorts of feelings - at times confused and indecisive, bouts of resolve and brief periods of peace, sometimes hopeful but nothing more. it stops short of a conclusion, as if happiness or whatever resolution there is to be had lies after the last note.  i was listening to this when i was thinking of my last year in berlin and somehow it just fits and i couldn't get it out of my head.

i read somewhere that real happiness is that moment when you are faced with the promise of being happy.  i'm hoping the same is true about not being happy - that the worst one can feel is when one fears the possibility of not being happy - because if it's true, then the worst is over.

anyway, i should hear from my lawyer anytime soon. today is the court hearing for my divorce.


XXX

hoshi hoshi

© Joselito Briones

i had my hair cut today. i wanted to have it really really short, but chika decided to cut it little by little while asking if i really wanted it shorter. as always, she did a great job. the short length made my gray hairs more visible, which is fine. it's perfect for the summer.

photo above is of their poster in the hackescher markt s-bahn station, close to where their shop is.


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P.S.

i remember i did another post about having a haircut in their east village branch in new york... and waddaya know... it's the same haircut as i have now!

vapiano

© Joselito Briones

I so wanted to like this restaurant. It's so nicely located in Potsdamer Platz, and convenient after watching a movie because it's right by Sony Center. It's even recommended by a friend. The decor is decent and yet friendly. The staff is nice.

The concept is also interesting. It's basically self-service. Upon entering, you are given some sort of a credit card that you present to the staff who makes the food, then when you go out you give back the card and they'll see how much you've eaten. Inside, you grab a menu, take your pick, and give it to someone behind a counter who'd cook the dish right in front of you. Okay, that's kinda pretentious in a it's-so-fresh-and-you-know-exactly-what-goes-in-your-food kind because let's face it, everything is ready-made and portioned just-throw-'em-in-the-pan ready, but at least it's different. In Berlin if it's different enough people are bound to at least try it. So try we did. So hmmm... maybe self-service and waiting on the counter for your food may not be the best idea after all, especially when you can be sitting instead of standing and waiting in front of the cook watching him throw everything in the pan. But wait, the serving actually looks pretty! So hey, this can't be too bad, right?

Then of course time to sit (communal sitting downstairs, didn't bother to check out the sitting upstairs) and do away with the food. And this is where it all falls apart. For a restaurant that serves mainly pasta and pizza, and boasts of having their pasta always freshly made, their pasta is just plain yukky. It would've done them better if they bought the usual boil-em in a big pot ready-made pasta, any kind, because any kind would've been better. Theirs managed to be both soggy and gummy at the same time (I tried two kinds, just to be sure). No bite whatsoever and the thing sticks in your gums! Hahahaha! It's just horrible. You know how when you bake bread or anything with a dough and some part of the dough doesn't get cooked, so it's all like sticky and ewwwy? Well, soak that part in some water and you'll pretty much get the consistency of their pasta. It's so bad that I wasn't able to finish my small bowl of pizza dish. I can't remember when's the last time (must be years) I didn't finish my plate because I always eat a lot, so this gives you an idea of how bad it was.

Can't wait to try their pizza! Ha ha!


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donath

© Joselito Briones

it's becoming our regular thing to do dinner at donath cafe trattoria on a weekend. we like the place a lot. it's good home-style italian food, no frou frou, nothing fancy, the crowd is not the pretentious type, and the staff is very friendly. that it's a couple of minutes walk from where we live is a plus :)

the owner was also very nice to let me do a stock shoot there with another photographer a few weeks ago (photo, above, is from that shoot).


XXX

p.s. the people from tineye dropped me a thank you note note for what i said the other day. there's no goodie bag, but they were nice to allow me to invite some people (it's by invitation only for the meantime while still under development) who wants to try out their awesome image search engine. if you're curious to try it out, give me a holler and i'll send you an invite!

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Kastanienallee

© Joselito Briones

This is a waiting bench in Kastanienallee, the heart of the "happening" scene in Mitte, in Berlin. I've got an overflow of photos now, so you'll be seeing a lot more of less-than current images. I'll be going to the US pretty soon, so it'll really stack up even more.

I'm trying a new way of putting up the pictures, using automated scripts, because it's getting difficult to update my photo website due to the sheer number of photo. I got a freebie gallery template from the internet and used it for testing: click here for a compilation of all the photos I've uploaded so far. What do you think, go this way or stay with simple html?


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Knut Impressed

© Joselito Briones

Berlin's current biggest attraction, no doubt, is Knut the Eisbär. The baby polar bear born December, 2006 in the Berlin zoo is a superstar. He even has a website. His official showtime is limited only to 2 scheduled hour-long playtime with his caretakers. Nevertheless, people (and kids) from everywhere stood in long lines just to see him. People visit Berlin just to see him.

It was the perfect place and time to observe kids. I was particularly struck by the display of determination of the boy, who couldn't have been more than 10 years old, who was in line just before me. Discouraged by the long line for Knut (this was the second line, the first long line was outside, just to enter the zoo), the father tried all the tricks in the book to persuade him to leave the line and to just go with him, the younger brother, and the mom, to see something else (penguins!). When the father failed (to his credit, he was very patient with the boy, even as it was obvious he was also concerned about the younger son missing the other attractions), the mom tried too. Didn't work. She ended up handing the boy a cell phone, so they can walk around the zoo without him. What's most striking was, the boy stood his ground without being a brat about it. No tantrums. Whenever the parents tried to offer something new, he just nodded his head no. In his eyes you could see that he was being saddened everytime he had to say no, but he was firm about seeing Knut. Half an hour later, when it was already obvious that we were gonna make it after all to the last few minutes of Knut's appearance that day, the mom, impressed, rejoined the boy in the line. Then the younger brother did. The boy was obviously proud and excited, and just before we entered the gate to Knut's viewing gallery, he tried hard to persuade his father to join them to see the baby bear. Unfortunately it was the dad's turn to be proud, who stayed behind and watched from just outside the gallery.


XXX

P.S. No, pictured, top, is not the same kid described above.