This mosque can be the ultimate slap in the face to Islamic terrorists. It says, ‘No! We do not accept your declaration of war. Instead, we will take the result of your destructive actions and use it to make a more tolerant future. We will welcome and integrate Muslims into our society and culture and dissolve your extremism from the inside out. We will teach Muslims that western society is a positive tool for growth and not an adversary to Islamic tradition.’

Terribly however, the Republicans, lead by Christian extremists such as Sarah Palin, want to do just the opposite. These radical islamophobes say that Islam and terrorism are the same thing (an error even George Bush didn’t make). They want to shun peaceful Mosque goers from our society and declare war on the 1.5 billion individuals in the world who call themselves Muslim.

It is a conflict which has excited the country, but in this moment of defining our principals, our glorious president has gone limp-dicked. The man who wishes not to displease anyone has completely failed to explain the importance of allowing this mosque to be built. After a statement on the importance of equal rights for Muslims, he fell back from his supposed position. “I was not commenting, and I will not comment, on the wisdom of making the decision to put a mosque there.” In other words, ‘Yeh, maybe it’s a bad idea to allow anything Muslim there because the terrorists were Muslim.’ All of this ignores the fact that on 9/11, Muslim Americans were killed working at ground zero, including police and firefighters trying to save people.

Shame on you, Obama. You are a multicultural man who understands global cultural dynamics better than any president in a long time. Actions like the building of this mosque with do far more to build a tolerant future and reduce terrorism than any war you care to fight in the Middle East. These actions will encourage young and angry Islamic boys to find advisors in liberal Muslim communities and not in cave-dwelling elders who are filled with hate. They will create an environment in which young Islamic women remove their headscarves only because they wish to and Muslims of all sorts form friendships and bonds with non-Islamic Americans.

New York is the most tolerant place in the US because so many different kinds of people have had to live so closely together for a long time. The initiative to build the mosque comes from a mixed group of New Yorkers with the sincere intention of building a more tolerant and integrated future. Like the lessons we take from the epic Golf oil spill, our choices now regarding tolerance will strongly shape the future for America and the world over the next decades.

Berliners too need to ask themselves the same questions. With the largest Turkish community outside Turkey, finding a way to live together is a necessity. Berlin may have 6,000 Nazis, but it also has as much capacity for tolerance as New York, as well as the potential for building cultural bridges. Berliners should recognize the need to encourage the tolerance of liberal Muslims because that is the only way to settle the violent conflict that has erupted from the great divide between Islam and our western cultures.

Info about the history of Arabs in New York:

http://www.gothamgazette.com/commentary/107.history_arab.shtml

But here in Lichtenberg, there are even worse. Jocks, unsatisfied with their appearance from a strict diet of rice cakes and power powder, steroids and tanning booths, now resort to injecting oil into their muscles in order to simulate the appearance of strength.

Skinheads drive around in pimped out GDR and sports cars and buy every product and service from their Vietnamese and Turkish overlords. The Turks, as teenagers move around the city in their wanna-be gangster uniforms with their hysterically loud girls. As adults, they open up slot-machine casinos and call them Sheesha bars.

Every American sounds the same when you talk with them. It is a repulsively repetitive conversation that always proves to be a bigger waste of time than an M. Knight Shyamalan movie.

Prenzlaurbergers have destroyed art and have turned their bezirk into a huge nursery. Kreuzbergers are not alternative. They are wasted on the pleasures of capitalism and exist in a fantasy world, essentially dreaming they are their Manhattan counterparts. Kreuzköllners are just university students posing as artists in order to feel sexy and interesting.

But the fashion marches on. And the vanity overcomes the city’s three million attention seekers until there are only two things to do: Strut your stuff through a café riddled neighborhood, or order that caramel-glazed iced mocha latte you’ve been picturing yourself drinking and watch others strut to your heart’s content.

Are your sunglasses big enough?

Outside of the Nil, I exchanged a few words with Walid, the warm and friendly owner. The Nil's interesting website tells his story:

"It has always been important and a joy for me to create my own dishes instead of just copying other dishes and restaurants. Quality has to be earned; it has to be worked at. That is what makes Nil-Imbiss unique, and I am delighted that we have so many customers who have remained faithful to us over the years.

I financed my education with cooking. It all started in 1991 with a Falafel evening every Tuesday in the dormitory where I lived. Encouraged by the success of these evenings I started offering my food at local music events at the Tempodrom, YAAM and street festivals. Since in those days we didn’t have a car, I was often to be seen driving around the neighborhood on my bicycle with a trailer attached.

In 2000 our son Nil was born and in 2001 I finally received my diploma as a horticulturist. My wife Gisela and I took the big leap into entrepreneurship and opened our own Imbiss on Gruenberger Strasse in Friedrichshain; and then in 2006 added a second Imbiss in Kreuzberg (Oppelner Str. 4)."

The Nil doesn't just have great food, but also excellent service (especially if you like to chat in English). As a reporter, I almost hesitate to alert people to this tasty shop, as it may become too popular, but alas I sincerely hope to see many more spots around the city to enjoy such delicious Sudanese cuisine.

http://www.nil-imbiss.de/en/index.html

 A couple of weeks ago, early in the morning, I was half way through the footbridge when I heard a ruckus and two bulky policemen in well ironed blue shirts and black pants sneakily got off the elevator right where “Smokey” was standing. The floor was shaking, footsteps echoing in the tunnel and loud shouting made all heads turn (and might I add that what they shouted was not suited for kids or teenagers).

I´m happy to report that they didn´t get him. If they would have I´m sure they would have hurt him. Why do I support illegal trade? Because many benefit from it. And don´t think that some of the cops are not buying from one of the “Smokeys” on their day off. Addiction is a bitch and cigarettes are getting more expensive every year. So if you don´t have a high income it is a welcome deal and “Smokey” can feed his family. Plus if he is one of many illegal immigrants who came here via trafficking he can pay his debts. It costs up to 30,000 euro to get from Vietnam (over Russia) to your desired destination. There are estimated 15-20 smuggler clans in Berlin and an illegal immigrant can be arrested 3 times before he gets deported. And I tell you what: I’d rather have adult illegal immigrants selling cigarettes than 12 year old boys selling heroin (not making that up!).

(Info found in the Berliner Zeitung, 23.6.2010)

The 14 billion Deutsche Mark project is scheduled to take four years to complete, and will require the expertise of more than a dozen engineering specialists who will be brought in from around Europe and North America. “It will be a feat unlike any attempted before” said project coordinator Lutz Wulff.

The plan, set to begin construction next March, will create a duel-method power plant with highly efficient solar panels which will be supplemented by the world’s first, and very unique, bicycle power system. Connected bicycles will stand on a massive circular track around a continuously-spinning centrifuge.

The bicycles will be free to access by any Berliner (and tourist who wishes to experience this world wonder) seeking to earn a little supplementary income, get some relaxing exercise, or just kill some time in a soothing environment.

“Germany has, for a long time, been a world leader in wind and solar power. We have been developing ever better technologies for a long time, but have never before developed such a solution for the irregularity of these power sources. By connecting both bicycles and solar panels to the centrifuge, these irregular power sources will blend into a steady and continuous source of power for the city of Berlin” stated Franz Werner Schelling at a recent press meeting.

The project has been made somewhat controversial due to its historic costs, but Lutz Wulff is not worried. “…[it] will pay for itself in five years. Of this we have no doubt. Current systems are extensively wasteful, and we are hardly considering the extent of the environmental toll they are having on our city.”

For more information about the project, and to find out what you can do to show your support, visit:

http://berlinbikepower.blogspot.com/

Born in Castleford, West Yorkshire, Moore decided to become a sculptor when he was eleven after learning about Michelangelo's achievements. In 1932, Moore took up a post as the Head of the Department of Sculpture at the Chelsea School of Art in London. During the war, Moore was commissioned as a war artist, producing powerful drawings of Londoners sleeping in the London Underground while sheltering from the blitz.

The “Butterfly” is a solid horizontal form, highly abstracted and symmetrical in the sense of a three-dimensional inkblot test. According to henry-moore.org, "The title is a subtle misnomer, allocated to the piece by the artist applying the intellectual association to the idea of a central diurnal body section and two rounded ends reminiscent of the wings of an insect about to unfurl. The viewer’s perception of the sculpture as a butterfly is created by means of semantics and form - title and visual presence - put into effect by Moore’s complex understanding of three-dimensionality. By means of this combination, and despite the sculpture’s size, volume and weight, the piece appears lofty, and the viewer’s visual association with a butterfly is gratified."

In Moore’s own words about his various works, “ . . . My sculpture has a force, is a strength, is a life, a vitality from inside it, so that you have a sense that the form is pressing from inside trying to burst or trying to give off the strength from inside itself, rather than having something which is just shaped from outside and stopped. It’s as though you have something trying to make itself come to a shape from inside itself . . .
I think it should not be obvious exactly what a work of art is on the very first view. If it is obvious then, one tends to look at something, recognize it and then turn away, knowing what it is.’

“Butterfly” was initially a loan to the city of West Berlin in 1986, having been placed in front of the Congress Hall as part of Berlin’s 750th anniversary in 1987. At the time the city council wanted the sculpture permanently and wrote to Moore asking if he would donate it. But the letter arrived just before his death and was never answered. It was sold by the Henry Moore Foundation in 1988 for nearly $2.6 million, at the time a huge price for a public sculpture.

http://www.henry-moore.org/

His voice is exactly like a heavy metal fan would wish it do be: a deeeeep growl. And in this manner he even participated in the display of spitting and snotting. I enjoyed myself to death. The primates that were looking at us in aw, through the big gallery window front, with hanging jawbones and indignant whispers. They were afraid to come in (I saw it in their doe eyes), but to fascinated to leave and go back to ,he fancy pants bar to celebrate themselves. For them, the Mitte creatures, we were an outrage, a weird misplaced species. To me they were pretentious shells, very, very expensive shells, and not tasteful ones. Mitte men´s clothing makes even cross dressers weep. Pointy black shoes, blue jeans (so far so good), a red/white poke a dot shirt, a light brown beret and a mustache worthy of a porno king. A fancy cancer with twinkly lights. After the concert I almost ran to the train home, running away from the slimy, deadly zombies.

http://www.myspace.com/monsieurmarcaille

http://zoubroff.blogspot.com/

Iban is the cute Mexican guy with red dreads. He is amazing in all he does. My friend Penny Traction told me about him, and how he has improved over the last years to become one of the best tattoo guys in this city.

Edith is the female force in the shop. She is as beautiful and skilled as she is fierce. Corinna is the new addition to the shop. The nicest smile you have ever seen!! I haven´t seen much of her work, but with her unique personality it must be awesome.

Chandler did the piercings for some years and he did it perfectly, but decided to follow his passion for tattooing. If he´s not working with ink he is working with hooks: “Superfly” is a group of people hanging people up on hooks, which is called suspension and can be traced back to native American traditions. He looks intimidating, but he is in fact a very nice person..... no, wait: he´s a dirty old horn dog. But if you have a bad day and want to smoke some &%$$ and talk about pussy, he is the right person to turn to. Promise.

Phil is now in charge of piercings. A handsome guy from Australia. He will not only attend to your piercing needs, but is also a good guy to lend you an ear for all kinds of problems. He has a warm positive attitude and takes time for your wishes and piercing needs.

Für Immer, Revalerstr. 11, Friedrichshain

www.fuerimmertattoo.de

Robert Grant is BeatStreets founder, curator and resident beatnik. He and his work have appeared in journals, magazines and stages all across the world. On the night he will be joined on stage by members of Melville, reforming some of his unusual thoughts.

Mike Haeflinger is a poet, educator, and organizer from Dayton , OH .  His work has appeared most recently in the tall-lighthouse anthology, newleaf, and BlazeVOX. He runs numerous shows, events and festivals establishing his reputation as one of the best poets working in Berlin today. His intelligent poetry is simply brilliant, there aren’t many better!

Melville has vast musical experience which translates into focused, well-crafted folk/rock influenced music. Band members Ryan T Jacobs (Vocals, Guitar), Kasper Soderlund (Lead guitar), Stephan Nico (Bass), Kirill Mussinski (Drums), Lazy Gus (Tambourine, trumpet) have appeared on stages together for some time now and are gearing up for their first European tour.

Kill Bambi is: Cera Impala, one of the founding members and banjoist of The New Prohibition band. A prolific songwriter and lyricist she is currently recording her fourth album. And: Jovanka v. Wilsdorf, best known as the head and voice of the Indi-electro-band Quarks, with whom she toured Europe and released four albums for Sony. She is also in the band *SCHEINING* and is a music producer for the Popschutz Studios Berlin.

Well there you are…It’s going to be a great final show and a great end to three years of events. In doing Beatstreet I’ve picked up some really great friends and have worked with the best Berlin has to offer. I think it’s fitting that Mike and I are the last two poets to read on a Beatstreet stage considering our history. It’s going to be an emotional night, but for once…for all the right reasons!

Speak soon...Rob x

Come see the talk on the town

 
Location: Steglitz, not Mitte.

Related links:
Tate Modern Street Art: www.tate.org.uk/modern/exhibitions/streetart

ARTotale: www.artotale.com

Flying Förtress: www.flying-fortress.de

Where:
Huxley's New World
Hasenheide 107-113
10967 Berlin
U-Bahn station Hermannplatz