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Windows on the World

“The form of the city changes faster, alas, than the human heart” – Charles Baudelaire Berlin is a city of some 3.5 million people. But my day typically begins with just one. Stumbling bleary-eyed from the bedroom to the kitchen, I catch sight of our opposite neighbour puffing on a cigarette, his large bulk leaning out of the window of his fifth floor ‘Plattenbau’ – the apartment blocks of pre-fabricated concrete with the pebble-dashed exterior thrown up in the 1980s. His presence is a reassuring constant. Berlin, as a city, feels in a constant state of flux: a mass of new buildings, roadworks, pop-up shops and tourists. The man – whose name I do not know – is mostly still, calmly inhaling the street life below along with the tar and the nicotine in his cigarette. I imagine he has seen much change, enjoying a front row view on the transformation of the 'Scheunenviertel' (Barn Quarter) from a drab, lifeless district during the Cold War to the epicentre of the hipster...
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I'll tell you what I want what I really really want..

Yo I tell you what I want what I really really want sings Mel B in the opening lines of the Spice Girl’s first hit wannabe. This is promising. The age of Girl Power is dawning with a decisive woman. The suffragettes wanted the vote. Aretha wanted respect. Now it’s 1996 and a bunch of five feisty females are about to unleash their deepest desires on us. But they don’t seem so keen to get to the point. So tell me what you want, what you really, really want Geri echoes impatiently in response as Mel B tantalisingly repeats her first line. But, sure enough, following a brief interlude of guttural “huh – huh – huh ”-ing, Mel finally tells us what she’s after. It’s a ZIG A ZIG AH Zigazigah? I hear you cry. Zig-A-Zig-Ah? What the hell is a zigazigah? While hours have been spent debating the precise meaning of this set of incoherent syllables (and one can make a pretty good guess at what it might be), 13 years on this song has been playing on my mind. Mel wants something. She probably wants...
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If Benjamin had blogged

I've been in awe of Walter Benjamin ever since I stumbled across him in my 'Theories of Urban Culture' course as a second year undergraduate. Benjamin was fascinated with (brace yourself for a few long words) the social minutia and microscopy of everyday life . In layman's terms this means he wrote about seemingly superficial stuff -- the Arcades in Paris, photography, clothes -- and used these observations to come up with brilliant theories about culture. If Benjamin were around in 2009 I think he'd have been a blogger. Back in 1936 he wrote a seminal essay on the profound effects mechanical reproduction had on the art work; so no doubt he’d have a few thoughts on the digital age. He also introduced me to the figure of the flâneur –- an aimless wanderer who strolled through the city in order to experience it. I have very few similarities with Benjamin. I am not Jewish or German. Nor am I an academic (not even a failed one like Benjamin) or a Marxist. I am however...
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