people in berlin :: phone booth boy

first, it's weird to see a phone booth since cell phones / mobiles / "handys" are so cheap and prevalent everywhere here. using a phone booth is really expensive.

it was sunday at noon, and he was dirty and wearing a fur vest and a kilt, he must have been freezing. his white legs showed between the knee high doc martens and the kilt, goosebumpy? but they were dirty, smudged with club dirt. when you have long, long legs, do they get cold more easily? i guess it's really awkward to go shopping for men's tights, even here in freak city berlin, but he could also have gone for long johns.

he had a very anxious look on his face, and he could have been either arguing or begging with someone on the phone. i mean, it's been so long since i've used a phone booth, but there's something really desperate about begging someone to do something from a phone booth.

these are places in public of last resort. phone booths are asking for it: you're ready to just cry in the middle of the street and push people away when they try to offer you tissues. is it really harder to let yourself cry in public if you are a man? it must be, right?

people in berlin :: asian waitress

usually the waitresses at japanese restaraunts are chinese, but at the thai restaraunt the waitress was japanese.

i like her because at other asian restaraunts they always ask me where i am from, what i am doing here, if i am married, if i am studying, if i want to have a baby, and what i think about German men.

she just gave me the food and a friendly smile. she probably also really has a great record collection, but who am i to guess?

people in berlin :: touf daddi

there's this scene in MAD MAX BEYOND THE THUNDERDOME where there is a midget who is attached to a big muscle guy named MASTER BLASTER. that's how babies are with these snarling hippie mommies and the construction worker daddies who are at home holding bottles of milk where bottles of beer usually go.

these sexy tough daddies are not to be messed with, but they often overbundle their babies, whose eyes are barely visible in the winter, gleaming with mischief. MASTER BLASTER. just pray that the baby is not having a bad day or touf daddi will be out for a beat down on the u bahn platform.

people in berlin :: s-bahn angel

some of the young girls on the train are so pretty in their new clothes and their make-up. she was tiny and bundled up in her pink pimkie jacket and knee-high boots radiating life on a gray day.

i like these small-boned girls that look a lot like all the other sweet girls. there's something comforting about how they all fit in with each other, like variations of a pattern repeating across the city.

people in berlin :: breakdancing boy

first drawing in the 1 berlin person a day set.

i forget your name? ahmed?

he taught me lots of good dance moves last weekend. but he was way more fit and good than me. i can at least do decent floorwork now. if only i were 18 years old again and had a perfect body and could do backspins while wearing fresh clothes and a cool gold chain without choking on it.

it's sweet how instead of being silly, young guys are often overly serious when showing people stuff, because you just know off the floor they are goofing off somewhere throwing balls of paper at the wall.

and even though i sometimes wish i were taller, dancing is one of those things where i like being small. somehow it feels like i can fly around and defy gravity more easily, or maybe that's just me being vain.