TRAVEL DIARY

A weblog regularly updated by Jodi Rose.

Wednesday, May 11, 2005

2:15 PM
Posted by jodi rose

just when I was getting used to the upside down french keyboard, with the a in place of the q and m and w all over the shop, the numbers in CAPS and full stop mixed with semi colon, arrive in berlin and have to start all over again with a strangely placed z instead of y and all kinds of other vagaries.
having been swept into a state of constant disorientation, I can#t quite imagine getting stuck in a rut everz again at this point. but no doubt it will happen, eventuallz.
fragments of paris,
group of men plazing boule in the üpark outside my apartment every sunny afternoon
never ending traipse thru the metro - next time will have a bicycle
didn#t quite make it to the pompidou or louvre, too busy recording bridges and talking about concrete... but they will also be there next time.
now, about that tv synopsis... apparently there is a moment. things are shifting in french tv culture.
lucky as I only work with video artists and don#t think they have a really strong commercial sensibility... well, if they did they wouldn#t be working with me.
leaving all the mistakes in mz keyboard tzping todaz, gives a much more accurate sense of where mz head is at. now its't the time to be cleaning things up and trying to make them perfect and smooth, it is time to be raw and messy and honest.
doesn't go down too well in academia though, let me tell you. but there is a whole world out here, and slowly but surelz I am building lasting connectinos with people and places and feel that it is really starting to lead somewhere. guess I have such high expectations of myself too, sometimes forget to simply be a human being in the world. still kicking myself for being off duty last week, all kinds of contacts I didn't follow thru and have the sense that my radio work is the poorer for it. now need to try and repatch those momentary links, which gets far trikier when the moment has past.
watching people walk by on kastanienallee, just round the corner from frank's place on oderberger straße where I stayed 3 years ago, the first time I came to berlin. seamus tells me it's even more trendy here now, more fashion shops, more cafes, more bars....
have been working on the theory that no matter where you go in the world, everywhere was better 10 years ago.. but am disturbed to find now that it was also better even 3 years ago. unless you like increased rent and more trendy shops...