You never know what to expect when the programme briefing of a festival involves watching a Boyz II Men track slowed down and warped, but Transmediale couldn't have come at a better time. The festival followed the arrest of German born Kim Dot Com (the founder of file sharing website Mega Upload) who is now being tried in the New Zealand High Court. Transmediale is a week long event engaging discussions between art, technology and culture. Transmediale is a transdisciplinary platform, a place for new artistic, academic, activist and everyday expressions.


Continue reading "Transmediale Berlin 2012 - by S.Lone & J.Brooking"

For a city, Berlin is a never ending discovery of new places and sites to see both old and new. A complicated history with one not needing to look too far to see constant reminders of what has passed. Small remembrance plaques on the side walk, remnants of the Berlin Wall, countless museums and old worn buildings with the occasional bullet mark.


Continue reading "Discoveries - Berlin"

It's always nice to be surprised, and I have been by what I hadn't expected to find in Germany. Born in '89, I didn't see the fall of the wall but being in Berlin the remnants are still visible. I had breakfast with a woman who grew up in the GDR, unable to travel or holiday then. My housemate wasn't able to go to the Prince concert in the GDR as a teenager because her visa to enter wasn't ready in time. I feel privileged to be able to move around and discover this fascinating city as I please.

Friends of friends have shown me some of their favourite places in Berlin. I've been to Madame Claudes; a bar with everything (including a kitchen sink) stuck to the ceiling, an old multi-leveled wallpapered bar, the best felafel place in Kreutzberg, Mauer Park markets and more. The markets rows with their rows like a maze that lead nowhere also have deckchairs in the sand. We ate a late lunch sitting in them around a fire. This was a fine cure for Seasonal Affective Disorder.


Continue reading "More musings and museums"

Invited to study on the other side of the world and learn a new language can send shivers through you, and I was no different. Though what I was unclear of along with many other things, is the extremeness of a European winter.
Continue reading "World Upside Down - Journeys to Berlin"

After a short trip in Tokyo, Jonathan and I arrived in Germany. With a few days to spare before starting the German language course at the Goethe-Institut Berlin, we began to find our bearings. Emails and messages from back home in Auckland suggested the New Zealand summer was over, while in Berlin we were waiting for a real winter to begin. Bring on the snow!

Fireworks went off throughout the day, leading up to New Year's Eve, with some even thrown out of apartment buildings. The Brandenburg gates, a popular place to watch the display, was packed so early in the night we lit our own fireworks with others on a bridge by the river. A man proposed to his partner after the countdown and she accepted as crowds cheered them on.


Continue reading "WINTER WINNERS"

'Naughty Holidays' Connan Mockasin

by Erwin Chong
Continue reading "Rites and Rituals- Kuala Lumpur"

Continue reading "Rites and Rituals - Auckland"

Even though I have lived in Jakarta for several years now, when December comes around, I am amazed by the massive christmas decorations put up inside the shopping malls, the many Santa Clauses that pop up here and there, the christmas carols playing in every department store, and the eager consumers that happily buy christmas gifts.
Continue reading "Family, Bingo and Other Christmas Tales from Jakarta"

I remember that my family usually buys about 20 chickens just for the 3 days of the Tet Holiday. Not just chickens—we buy mountains of meat, vegetables, rice, candy, beans... We prepare food like we’re feeding an army.


Continue reading "Rites and rituals—How does my city celebrate?"

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Video by Charlotte Noblet
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December. Blog theme: celebrations. Time to talk about Christmas. Wait a minute, stop. There is no Christmas here. At least not in Hanoi. December is not a month of celebration in Vietnam. This doesn’t mean that there are no Christmas decorations. There are a lot. The city is full of them. Probably a kind of universal December ornamentation. But real Christmas spirit appears rarely. And why should it? After all, the majority of Vietnamese are not Christians.

The big celebration takes place in January or February, as I wrote in my first blog entry. So this closes the circle. Tet is the main festival of the year. The festival that is the central event of the annual calendar. The festival during which the entire country falls into a deep sleep for at least a week. At least outwardly. Inside the homes there is plenty of time for family gatherings, food, family gatherings, food and more food. In my experience it is not unusual for families to buy bigger refrigerators before Tet, just to make sure that the frozen chickens will last for three weeks. Because it can take up to three weeks before the shops have reopened all over the city and holiday prices have returned to normal.


Continue reading "Hanoi: Christmas and Tet"

Continue reading "Bangkok- KomLoy- suitable for any event!"

December is a month of joy! Kids get a chance to ask for gifts. Schools prepare Christmas & New Year shows. Shoppers are excited about the seasonal sale. Workers plan to leave Bangkok for visiting their families in hometown while the others schedule their vacation trips. But most of all we’re just counting down to the most relax time of the year.


Continue reading "Goodbye is the new beginning! "

Continue reading "Prague"