Take a bite of this Berlin biscuit

A short peek into drawings and stories from my Berlin biscuit tin.

Listening to: Amyl and the Sniffers - Guided by Angels

Hihi to all of you freaky geeky weirdos and also to autumn,

Although greetings to autumn seem a bit unnecessary as I doubt autumn is reading this blog. If someone named Autumn is reading this, then you would be included in the first part, the “freaky geeky weirdos” part, and not the part about the season of autumn. And before all you seasonalists come after me, I know August is like technically autumn but it really is not autumn. I always think people are going to come after me but actually I think only like 2 people read these, but I guess 50% of those two (or even 100% if I’m unlucky) could be haters.

As promised, this post I’ll be sharing diary entries from our month in Berlin last September, where we had the very good fortune to housesit for a family friend (thanks Gerit!) I think, actually, it is quite poetic and timely to share these diaries precisely one year later. So calculated. And not in a threatening, malicious way like a serial killer. In a very thoughtful, intentional way. And definitely not in an accidental way.

My first visit to Berlin was with a group of friends when we were 17 and I’ve been back many times since, living there briefly in 2013. I know that’s so typisch of me, an alternative, being fond of Berlin, but allow a gal a touch of cliché. It’s the greenest city I’ve ever visited, streets lined with large mature trees and wild parks and so unpreciously beautiful with different communities on every corner. There are a lot of funnyweird stories from these visits and I’m trying to capture them, alongside these diary entries, into a longer zine. I am however, incapable of mapping out or visualising large projects so right now it’s all in this sketchbook and also my head. And another sketchbook I had in 2013 which is quite embarrassing, but isn’t that the essence of creativity? The mortifying capers into life drawing and autobiography. I wish I’d written more down actually.

When I was in Berlin last September I picked up Julie Doucet’s 365 Days comic, in which she draws everyday for a year. I tried to prolong my reading of it, dipping in and out over the last 12 months and I’ve only just finished it. It begins on the 1st November 2002 in Montreal and ends just after a residency in Berlin and a monthlong housesitting in Paris. She had lived in Berlin in 1995 (ish?) and in the book she complains about the same things we complain about now: the gentrification, changing of neighbourhoods, loss of artistic communities. And that was 2003!

I like that book. It’s mostly Doucet getting frustrated by her art, getting rejected for grants and talking on the phone to her friends. It really did make me pine for the days of a landline when you’d chat to your 11 year old pal for hours after just saying goodbye to them at school. None of this texting, this Whatsapping business, this instant messaging across multiple platforms malarky, no, there was only one platform. Back in those days you’d have to describe a photograph with your mouth into a receiver attached to the wall and someone miles away (because it was miles back then) would get the picture into their ear.

So, that’s all folks. I duno if you liked this but there might even be more if I get around to making that zine.