Berlin was our city of choice to celebrate 2007!
New technology allowed for a second layer of visual experience
as we all took digital images, text-messaged friends, and shot video of the transition from 2006 into 2007. Being there is great, but even better when the images of real-time experience can be passed onto others.
Brandenburger Tor, (Brandenburg Gate,) previously the sign of separation and a divided city, was the meeting place for the Neues Jahr Celebration, full of energy, life and hope for the future.
All types of people -- thousands of them-- gathered to celebrate together, Berliners and foreigners as well -- even people with no heads.
"I Feel Like Dancin, Dancin!" No it wasn't a Communist Disco reunion, it was Scissor Sisters, the headline act ringing in the new year.
Thanks to the magic of the big screen, their performance was simultaneously live and on video.
We stayed in the former center of the former West Berlin, right off the Ku-Damm, near one of my favorite monuments: the Kaiser Wilhelm Kirche ruins, nearly destroyed in WWII.
Besides celebrating the New Year, visits to see art exhibitions were at the top of our list. How can one resist a museum with the name Hamburger? Be careful! Those florescent lights just may be art!
Which is an authentic work of art in a train station?
Swarovksi Cyrstals on a Tree in the Hauptbahnhof?
or Felix Gonzalez-Torres Candy in the Hamburger Bahnhof?
Is all that paper on the floor worth anything? The mad scramble for art-souvineer became frantic at closing time.
The party has finally come to an end.
Until the next visit, Berlin is again a memory.
