birdofpassage: 12.29.2011 the TV-turm, Motorad, Me Gallery/Collector's Room: My Paris

and again and again and again...

For some reason, we thought we had reservation tickets for the TV-Turm, the giant Sputnik TV tower next to Alexanderplatz. Turns out we didn't and had to wait two hours just to get to the observatory. They also have a revolving restaurant like the CN tower, but those reservations didn't pull through either. The observatory is small, but I guess Berlin is pretty tiny as well. From above, we spotted the stuff we wanted to see and then headed back down and out.

1. scan yourself in, 2. wait forever

they all look the same!

From the streets, Berlin is a really multicoloured city. Every façade is a different colour and style. But from above, I guess it all ends up looking the same.

The motorrad museum. Not very rad.

I've walked by this place many times and it always looked empty (and slightly boring), but we decided to check it out anyway. At least to say I've been there! There's not much inside, just a whole lot of bike models. You aren't allowed to touch the bikes but the place was so empty and the general interest level was decreasing, so we snapped a few pictures when no one was looking and quickly ran out of the museum.

*You have got that face that just says "Baby, I was made to break your heart"

"weeee"

This was a park we spotted from the TV tower. It's very simple, just a fat slide and a climbing structure, but it was worth checking out.

"Pew! Pew-pew!"

green basketball court

We also spotted an old shell of a church left behind from the war. It is now used as a park and sometimes for outdoor exhibitions. It was closed, but you could still see inside. I like it when things like these are left behind in the middle of a growing city. A great place to sit and read a book in the summer. (another reason to stay)

Keep the birds away

"Help!"

And here she sat, thinking about how Humpty-Dumpty sat on a wall, and Humpty-Dumpty had a great fall...

Me collector's room

We ended our evening at the Me Collector's Room Gallery. This is a space where people exhibit their private art collections. They also have an amazing cafe with super sandwiches. I finished mine before my friend could even take a picture. But believe me, they're delish!

Currently on display was the collection titled My Paris, from Antoine de Galbert. It was a view of Antoine de Galbert's collection of pieces of the French art scene coming out of artists working or living in Paris. Our favourite piece was the one with the birds and the guitars. We went inside the room and sat on the floor for a good twenty minutes listening to the birds chirping and waiting for them to play a few notes on the electric. We only got a few notes out of them, and when we left, they played more. I think it might have been our presence. Upstairs was a second, equally attractive collection presented by La Maison Rouge in Paris.

Can you tell what country that is? Made from unlit matches. How tempting.

"OK now! Quick! Lie down!!" I love cheese too.

1. shipping people, 2. doesn't fit

We weren't allowed to take pictures of the birds, but they were pretty. They were small, you could cup one one your hand like a baby chick and were dainty and plump with beautiful orange striped beaks. We walked into this white fabric walled room and had to stay on the path laid out around the birds and the guitars. We stood there for a really long time just watching them chat and eat and fly back and forth from one stoop to the next. We didn't understand why there were guitars in the room until we stepped out, and heard two distinct notes of an electric guitar...and then we went back in. The guitars were hooked to an amp so when the birds flew out from their nest and sometimes land on the guitar strings, it would pick up notes and scratches as they hopped from one fret to the next. Now imagine two, three, or a dozen birds on five guitars and some other ones pecking on drum cymbals while they eat. We never got to hear a fully orchestrated sound with birds on all the guitars, but I imagine it happens once in a while.

Upstairs, was Thomas Olbicht's collection from La Maison Rouge in Paris. This had all sorts of weird and creepy things like skulls, old ritual artefacts, and an electronic C3PO inside a deer's head... Things that real collectors collect.