KREUZBERG

We live in Kreuzberg – the East Village of Berlin.  I never lived in the East Village in NYC, never really wanted to, but I’m enjoying the goth/alt/graffiti/smokey vibe here for a few weeks.  All I knew previously dates back to the late 70s, when David Bowie smuggled Iggy Pop out of a NYC mental institution, and they left the country to live in Kreuzburg.  That escapade brought us Heroes, Logger, and Scary Monsters.  The ur-albums of 80’s techno-pop.

But I have not seen Bowie or Iggy, since I arrived.  They left a long time ago.  And the Wall came down.  So now it’s trendy graffiti grunge instead of industrial squatter chic.  Connan said, “if it wears black, doesn’t bathe, and smokes a pack a day, then it’s in Kreuzberg.”  It’s as if the entire student bodies of Wesleyan and Hampshire hopped a chartered jet and plopped down with their trust funds to slum it here for a few years before getting their corporate jobs.  But the food is cheap and the beer is excellent – so who’s complaining.

I’ve begun rehearsing SUMMER AND SMOKE, and the cast is on target.  Connan is doing the good work of home schooling, sightseeing, and helping the family adjust to its ever-changing cirumstances.

Tonight, after dinner and a visit to the indoor swimming pool across the street, we put Cal to bed and enlisted Declan to work as a babysitter for the first time.  Cal was asleep.  We went to the café across the street (visible from the apartment window) to have some adult time.  And Declan stayed in the apartment with one of our phones.  He texted us five times in one hour, and he did great!  This bodes well for the future.

- Blake