Of Berlin

Your correspondents were dispatched to Berlin this weekend. Nice town, Berlin. Apparently it has something of a troubled history -- you may have heard about it.

There are some sections of the wall still standing, as seen above and below. One of the remaining bits is entirely covered with murals of highly variable quality. These are pieces that are apparently 20 years old but were restored (or re-done) by the original artists in 1999, and then again on the 20th anniversary of the fall of the wall this year. Berlin is a pretty graffiti'd town, and a fair bit of it is pretty impressive. Most of the stuff on the wall was colorful and expressive and showed less attention to craft than some of the graffiti that is apparently applied furtively in the dark of night. But it did seem to speak to the times when it was originally created, so I suppose it succeeds on that level.

The above picture is taken from the "no-man's land" side of the wall, which you're still not allowed to walk around in. Below, the painted up side, with unidentified strangers.