Berlin diaries: days 21-31 (ENG)
The last part of our adventures in Berlin. Here is how we prepared for our first pop-up, and how it went, about our favorite Berlin street food and the shootings.
Since we spent half of Sunday in Berghain and returned home only on Monday, we woke up almost at lunchtime.
Vasilii: During this almost month in Berlin, I have found a favorite place - Sahara, where for 4.7 € you can eat Chicken halloumi sandwich in pita with peanut sauce. The dish is just bomb and will fill you up for half a day. Near the house where we live, there is just such a place, so we went there for a hangover lunch.
Masha: I couldn't afford a day off because we had a shoot scheduled for the next day. Perhaps that is why I did not even feel tired from lack of sleep and was riding somewhere all day - to collect clothes, to Ikea for trunks, to Anton for a steamer. I went to the studio of the designer Mark, who is running the upcycle brand search&destroy. It turned out that he is one of the founders of the ravemore brand, and they have their own store and office in Neukölln. The store reminded one of the versions of the Moscow Volchok during the collab with Euthanasia Sport, when all the walls were painted by our street artists friends. I can't say that ravemore is something close to me in spirit, but search&destroy definitely is. I really liked how Mark was talking about the items he create, it seems that he makes them with passion and great love. Some things do not seem to be something special at first glance, but the whole point is in the cut. Sweaters are cut to accentuate the waist and hips, oversized jackets have sleeves extended – “to make them really oversize for people like you and me,” explains Mark who is about two metres tall, noticing that I have the same problem. Some knitwear is knitted by hand by his mother, and he experiments on their basis. He made prints for some products together with the artists he likes, and printed himself on a rented machine. In short, search&destroy <3
In parallel with preparing for tomorrow's shooting, I check my phone all the time, because today in Moscow the guys are shooting a catalog, and although they cope brilliantly even without me, sometimes you need to suggest something.
Closer to midnight, I return home and pester Nastya with trying on the looks, and then we iron clothes together on the floor with an iron, because the new steamer refuses to work.
Vasilii: In the evening, I launched a pop-up meeting on Facebook, which seems to be not working at all anymore, and made posts about pop-up on our social networks.
Vasilii: In the morning we went to the park to shoot, where I personally acted as an assistant, and my task was, as soon as we shot the search&destroy stuff, to immediately take them back to the store, because a buyer was supposed to come to him.
The park, of course, is beautiful, but it was windy and cold.
Anton and Kaplya are filming a promo tonight. According to the plot, we put up posters, and also wanted to show the storefront of the store itself. But in fact the posters had not yet been printed, and on the window of the store that we were supposed to shoot, there was a pile of multi-colored fabric, illuminated by a lamp, and this did not fit into our scenario at all.
As a result, the guys improvised as best they could. They printed out a poster on A3 and ran around the city with it, pretending that there were a lot of them.
The posters finally arrived, the glue was purchased, and we began to wait for the sunset. We still don't know if it's legal or not. Once our friend was fined here for a sticker, and this added to fears. In total, we had 50 posters in A1 format, of which we left 20 pieces for the design of the store. Since the price per piece was about €3, we were quite responsible in choosing places and areas. We decided to start with Mitte. Gluing is generally fun. We blocked the posters only for those events whose dates had already passed, or for rappers' concerts. In parallel, I filmed everything, so that later I could also use it in promo.
Vasilii: In the morning I walked around Neukoln and glued ten posters in my favorite places - at Sahara, next to UY Studio, not far from the Voo Store. Then he went to the office.
We had one important thing to do - find the rail. I definitely didn't want it to be a rail from Ikea. But I also didn’t want to spend something too large and spend millions on transportation. And it’s not clear where to store it later, since we plan to move out of the current office soon.
I was advised with the one warehouse with the used furniture, where we saw a nice rail. We made a route and went to the bus stop. While we were waiting for the bus, we realized that we couldn't make it. We can't get used to the fact that almost everything closes super early.
Means no luck. Anton offered to assemble the rails from pipes, so we moved to the Bauhaus (local construction), which was not far from the office and worked for another hour.
Almost immediately we came across a cool set of black pipes. Figured out how to assemble, and bought. True, at first they wanted to attach it to a wall for some reason, to which nothing could be attached, and when they reached the office, they came up with a completely different plan. So I had a morning trip to another Bauhaus, and Anton had to return unnecessary parts., where we saw a nice rail. We made a route and moved to the bus stop. While we were waiting for the bus, we realized that we couldn't make it. We can't get used to the fact that almost everything closes super early.
Means no luck. Anton offered to assemble the rails from pipes, so we moved to the Bauhaus (local construction), which was not far from the office and worked for another hour.
Almost immediately we came across a cool set of black pipes. Figured out how to assemble, and bought. True, at first they wanted to attach it to a wall for some reason, to which nothing could be attached, and when they reached the office, they came up with a completely different plan. So I had a morning trip to another Bauhaus, and Anton had to return unnecessary parts.
Masha: Today I have been inviting people to our event all day. Vasya manually sent invitations to all subscribers of our Berlin account, and I kept up chats with them when they answered. Well, I tried to remember everyone, everyone I know, and invite them too. I studied the warehouse table a little more to remember our local assortment, because I had to work as a consultant and did not want to be slow. I negotiated a little more with the person Anton found about renting a DJ controller. Then I delved into the music, selecting what can I myself play at the event. Eather from stress or some longing, I ate a huge burger with potatoes alone. Felt better. As a result, I stayed at the office until the subway closed and then returned for a long time on three different buses. I liked it, but also felt a bit sorry to the guys for the late return.
Vasya: In the morning I went to the Bauhaus for the missing parts for the rail. The bus that showed the best route was 20 minutes late. I had to improvise, but because of the rush, I got on the wrong tram and ended up stomping a few extra kilometers. This Bauhaus was already huge and looked like a good old Leroy Merlin. I found a stand with the necessary details, but realized that again one was missing and I even had to unwind a display case for this. And I also took beautiful gray trays, which were ideally suited in height to build a DJ from them.
I quickly took a taxi to the premises and began to collect the rail. It all took about 15 minutes.
As usual, right in front of our entrance, the workers were engaged in laying communications. They dismantled the paving and dug a hole.
Masha: I woke up at 7, slowly got ready, drove to our store and was very happy with how cool it looks. The guys did a great job as always. I tried to steam the clothes, but the steamer did not work, so I went for a new one. In the fourth store, I finally found what I was looking for. It's strange, but Berlin really is not very digital. For example, if you need something, and you want to find out about the availability of this item in a particular store through its website, I doubt very much that you will succeed.
As soon as we returned, the store was filled with people. And in principle, it was like that all day, with short breaks. This was a pleasant surprise. Out of curiosity, I periodically asked people how they knew about us. There were those who saw the posters on the street, went to Instagram and became interested. There were those who knew us from the days when we were sold at the local Endayz, and those who got to know through the collaboration with some of the artists. There were even those who were in the know and respected for our activities in support of the queer community. Toward evening, everything was already drawn to a small party, people kept coming up, the prosecco was already drunk decently, so I thought it was good that there was a time frame. And that the bottles can be put away tomorrow morning.
Our friend Phil, who recorded a mix for our podcast some time ago, also stopped by and invited us to a party at the RSO that night. But we controlled ourselves and left not so late.
We got up early to have time to prepare everything for the second day. Clean up the warehouse, steam clothes, fix the layout, throw away a bunch of bottles and mop the floors.
The second day is always a little easier than the first. There are usually fewer people, and you already know what to expect from what is happening.
Today, an old friend Nika came to visit, talked about her Tiktok success and how she managed to get nervous and live a little in a squat before her first million views.
Slowly the customers started to come. The was one tattoo artist Jonathan who also runs his podcast, where he tattoos DJs and interviews them. Bought a long-sleeve and invited us to style the heroes of his next episodes. Of course, we are interested in such collaborations.
While there was a break, I was finally able to take pictures of our pop-up. We ended the day in a relaxed atmosphere, taking turns mixing music and drinking beer.
We quickly did the dismantling, put clothes down, which became much less, took back the deposit. We chatted with the owner madamezorro, thanked her and left home.
At home, despite being tired, we tried not to lose our enthusiasm. It's been a long day, but there's a party ahead again. Phil is playing tonight, and we don't want to miss his set. Until two in the morning we drank coffee, watched a documentary about techno Paris/Berlin: 20 years of underground techno. We got ourselves together and went to OXI, a club we haven't been to yet.
Once inside, we as usually drank shots of Jagermeister, took glasses with prosecco, and went to explore the space. There were two danceffloors. Hardcore was playing on one, and we never went inside, on the other - pumpy (as they call it, groovy) techno, where we would eventually spend the rest of the time.
Pretty quickly we found Phil, who was wearing our fleece hood from the TIRAN collection on a naked body, and went to chat with him and his friends.
We danced to his set, chatted a little more and left. The club was find, nothing out of the ordinary. People were also different, but mostly youngsters. I remember the fountain in the toilet, where one person must hold down a large button on top, while the rest pour bottles or wash their faces. You can help someone like that, and they will tell you for it - 'danke'.
And Masha lost her phone in the club. We called from mine, and it turned out that someone had taken it to the wardrobe. How cool is that.
Day 28. Sunday
Vasilii: We woke up in the middle of the day almost before sunset. We went in a spat for some wine and sat down to watch one of my favorite movies - "The 13th Warrior" in 1999 with Antonio Banderas.
Masha: Nothing else happened today.
Vasilii: In Germany, this day is a day off, everything is closed, and the whole city is outside. Even though I love our events and seeing people, after that I always feel empty and want to spend time alone. Masha went for a walk and wrote that it seemed that the whole city is there, except for me. Anton also sent photos from the park, then from the embankment and kept asking to join him and his friends, but I was steadfast in my decision to stay home.
Our last day has been a busy one. We decided to do everything possible. Record an interview for a vlog and shoot a lookbook.
Of course, we dedicated the vlog to our month in Berlin. Kaplya will edit everything, and with his love for fast editing style, it’s hard to imagine what will come out as a result.
We were looking for models for the lookbook among the subscribers of our Berlin account.
At first, when I saw Milena among my subscribers, I thought that she was from the locals. Then, when we met her on the pop-up, it turned out that she had known Volchok for a long time, and she even had our black card. Milena has been living in Berlin for a year now, she does tattoos, modeling and studies to be a graphic designer, and before that she lived in Finland for 4 years, where she moved from Russia.
I drew attention to Danya because of funny grills. I showed his profile to Masha, and she immediately wrote: “He's cool”.
Masha: Danya was born in Kazakhstan, but moved to Germany at a very young age, so he remembers Russian, but speaks with an accent that, in my opinion, sounds quite cool. It also turned out that he was a child psychotherapist, and when we were taking the subway, we met one of his former patients, who turned to him in a very formal way. He talked about his work. That he works also with the children who came from Ukraine and are undergoing rehabilitation, and knowledge of Russian helps him a lot. He tells some children that his task is to help them with their worries, and theirs is to help him improve his Russian. He also said that despite the fact that the work is psychologically difficult, they have a very healthy atmosphere in the team, because everyone knows how it feels and take care of each other. I thought that in our team, in general, it also works pretty fine.
Vasilii: We shot with our favorite 7 megapixel Canon. It gives a flat digital picture that we both really like. Before shooting, we decide how it should look on Instagram. Most often, we single out a row for one shooting, that is, three posts, several photos in each. We decided that it would be great to shoot everything at three locations. The first one is under the motorway nearby the office, another one is at the fence on Kotbusser and the third one is at the construction site at Warschauer Strasse.
We went to shoot, and then I found out that all our 4 batteries were dead, and the charge was left at home. At the first location, I heated the batteries in my palms and changed them in turn after each frame. Of the pluses - we almost shoot everything from the first take.
When we filmed at the first location, I decided to go home for the charger. I also realized that one hoodie that needs to be shot in the lookbook, we gave to Kaplya, and he washed it at night. It doesn't matter, we'll shoot it wet. On my way to the charger, I found out that Nastya had left to Ikea. No keys. I thought what to do. We remembered that Anton also had a similar camera. Anton went after it, at the same time we sent the hoodie from Kaplya to him to intercept. I changed the route and went to Kottbuser. I went one way, then the other. I thought whether I should buy a charger or batteries. Pointlessly winding a couple of kilometers back and forth, I went to eat a kebab near the metro.
I waited for the guys, I waited for Anton. Then everyone made it and we finished the shoot at exactly the planned time.
After the shooting, we went to Anton for clothes and suitcases. We wanted to have a farewell dinner and wrap-up meeting, but no one really wanted to eat, so we bought some wine and cheese. The meeting didn't go too well either, but rather reminiscing about the past and just chatting. On the way, we had a little fight with Masha, apparently due to general fatigue, nervousness before the plane and the fact that we spent this month together 24/7. Fortunately, already at Nastya's house we reconciled and laughed at the situation. But when we get home in Yerevan, I think we won't leave our rooms for a long time.
In the morning I was packing my suitcase and realized that I underestimated the number of stuff that we need to take with us. We decided to send the remnants of the RUSSIAN UNDEGROUND to Moscow, a MAYHEM T-shirt with the image of the Red Square and VOLCHOK X VOXNOX long-sleeves with the inscription BERLIN MOSCOW. I somehow weighed the suitcase on floor scales and thought that we would be forgiven for overweight in kilograms. But at the airport it turned out that the advantage was not one, but five kilos. I had to put on a jacket, tie a hoodie around my waist, and put the computer in a shopper. Then there was a meticulous inspection, a rather quick passport control, coffee with a croissant - and now, we are on the plane. While I am finishing these lines, sometimes looking out the window, it seems that this month was already in another life.