One of the most beautiful advertising ever. Since we miss a bit Berlin in these days, I need a post to remind me of the strange beauty of the city. And at the time the ad was out, a bit of a spy-story on the Leibowitz photo hit the newspapers….
RBB, the Berlin Brandenburg television, is commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Berlin wall construction. The events took place on August 13th 1961. Have a look on the tv’s website, where witnesses of that era tell how their everyday lives changed in the space of one day.
It’s that time of the year. The mad rush to the Christmas season. Working hours get longer and heavier. It’s the second peak, in terms of intensity, after the Spring fairs season. The rush.
The weather gets muddy. Transportation in town gets nightmarish, Rome wasn’t built for the rain, and it shows. The gradually intensifying shopping sprees clog traffic. All this adds up to much longer hours both in the traffic and in the office. The desk becomes cozier. Wintry comfort food, be it fruit, carrot cakes or cinnamon tea, shows up besides phone and laptop. To rest my eyes from too much laptop I cast a glance over the balcony to check the river Tiber’s water level.
I can see St Peter’s skyline beyond the Tiber but in this time of the year there is a moment in which I stop and get on the balcony. It’s when the starlings, come sunset, do their mad rush and their bravado on the river. Sometimes they are a magnificent graphic representation of collective intelligence. Sometimes they are desperately fending off an attack from a hunter, a falcon zooming right in the heart of the starling cloud.