Berlin: Capital of Bohemia, or Global 'Pitstop'?

New York Times art critic Michael Kimmelman recently published a thoughtful piece comparing SoHo in its artistic heyday to contemporary Berlin. On the other hand, and not to put too fine a point on it, Kimmelman compares 1970s SoHo--one neighborhood within the Big Apple--to contemporary Berlin. So it's not surprising that he is 'struck' by 'one obvious difference' between the two scenes:

SoHo then was a genuine community, a world within the art world, nested inside the larger world of the city. Berlin, for all its glories and advantages, has become, in terms of art, a pit stop on the global caravan. For better and worse, its cultural circles are in large part made up of transients who don’t necessarily speak the language and who live on top of the city. They’re there for the cheap rents, studio space, parties and one another.

Without denying that Kimmelman has a very good point, it nevertheless seems to me that there's a real lack of precision here. Why not compare 'SoHo then' to one of Berlin's arts clusters in, say, Friedrichshain, or Mitte, or Kreuzberg--especially when the differences between Berlin's different scenes can be rather intense? So what if there isn't a 'genuine community' that unites all of Berlin's art world? It's much more likely that one would find such community at the level of the neighborhood, or Kiez.

You're Never Too Old to Scuba Dive

A fascinating look at the unlikely suburban roots of Animal Collective's mysticism:

“Magic and childhood and music-making are three things that just have a way of coming together, at least for us,” Portner says. “The idea of magic to me is similar to how a child relates to the world, and what a child is capable of, using its imagination. I think anyone is capable of it, all through their life, mostly they just forget how to do it.”

“The first thing we did this morning was take a walk through the woods to where the salamanders are,” Weitz says, gesturing to a cluster of trees behind the tennis court.

“I think it’s a shame because I don’t think most people do it consciously,” Portner says. “They let the repetition of their daily lives get in the way.”

“Josh and I both like to scuba dive,” Weitz says. “It doesn’t matter what age you are. You see people who are 60 years old who still look so excited when they’re scuba diving.”