The Ex – State of Shock (90s song by Anarcho-Dutch group)
Two days ago marked the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.
I just happened to have a few pen pals in Berlin when the Wall came down. They sent me bits of the broken wall as mementos. Pieces with graffiti were more desirable so some entrepreneurs decided to start spray painting parts of clean walls and then breaking off chunks so that they could be sold internationally for a higher price. Strange. I bet Eduardo Galeano could re-write this paragraph and make it profound.
I have photos somewhere of the Wall being torn down sent to me by a pen pal. I should find and post them.
East Berlin is now gentrified. The modern architecture lovers were turned on by all that boxy Soviet construction. Funny world we live in.
In Los Angeles, we don’t need walls. We have freeways, bridges and a big concrete river to keep us apart.
Found the photos! Please click to see a much larger image.
My Berliner pen pal who I met once when he visited Los Angeles. I don’t remember his name.
I was talking to a friend of mine who was living in Berlin and she said that they didn’t even know about the wall coming down until 2 days later. Apparently it wasn’t covered by the local newspapers or TV like it was in the US.
I liked that ex song a lot. The voice reminded me of crass or conflict. The music was much better than those two bands.
matt