überlin

The new compilation from Berlin-based DJ/production team Pan-Pot comes complete with an hour-long documentary… HEY, WAKE UP! The film skips over the usual pitfalls of melodrama (Berlin Calling), hysteria (It’s All Gone Pete Tong) and tediousness (everything else about dance music, ever), mainly because its protagonists are so likeable.

The duo, who take their name from a piece of studio tech, infect the viewer with their endless enthusiasm for their work and the places it takes them. The fact that one of them overcame a crippling fear of flying to appear at global bookings, that they still get nerves (especially just before a gig supporting permatanned technosaur Sven Väth in Ibiza), and that they never fail to be delighted by things like the giant fireworks display that accompanied their (indoor!) NYE date, makes Pan-Pot an endearing and enthralling subject. The compilation’s not bad either!

mobilee back to back – Pan-Pot “The Documentary” Trailer from mobilee records on Vimeo.

Mobilee Back to Back Vol. Six, Presented by Pan-Pot (including “The Documentary”), is out on Monday 26th March on Mobilee Records.

What a difference a bit of sun makes! This weekend the temperature topped 20°C, and the Berlin we’ve been cursing through the winter months, was finally transformed into the city we all know and love. If you’re one of those weirdos who (like us!) decide to move to Berlin during winter, then the most important advice you’re likely to receive from anyone, is to make sure you stick it out until summer. They claim you haven’t seen the REAL Berlin unless you’ve enjoyed idyllic walks along the canal and cold beers in the sun, surrounded by smiling happy Berliners… AND THEY’RE RIGHT!!

Today was the first time this year we’ve been able to sit in the sun and brunch at Café Matilda, one of our fav haunts, and it felt goooood. As depressing as winter can be here (-20°C anyone??), it’s the thought of Berlin in the summer that keeps you holding on and stops you running to the hills. How long this recent hike in temperatures will last, no one knows, or cares… as most importantly it’s a taste of things to come!

We loved last week’s ITB Berlin travel trade show, not least because of the venue. We may not have blagged free flights to New Zealand, but we did come away with photos of the Internationales Congress Centrum (ICC) – which rivals Berlin’s TV Tower for retro-futuristic awesomeness. Check it out!

[EDIT: This competition is now closed. Congratulations to imaginary_lines, who suggested we travel to Dubrovnik, Croatia, and won themselves a €75 voucher to redeem against their next Wimdu booking. You can browse all of the competition entries on our Pinterest page.]

Wimdu, a website for booking private accommodation all over the world, have given us a voucher worth €75 to redeem against your next booking with them. All you have to do  is tell us where to go!

With Wimdu, you can find the perfect place to stay in one of over 50,000 properties worldwide, or you can earn money by renting out your own property. This makes it a great place to find holiday apartments in Berlin, or in other destinations, if – like us – you’re trying to get out of the city!

One of our New Year’s resolutions was to “get out of Berlin more”. We kicked off the year with a trip to Stockholm and Copenhagen, but we’re looking for ideas about where to visit next. To be in with a chance to win, just tell us where to go!

Some additional requirements to make your job a little harder:

• We love cities, but only if they offer something special. Because we live in what we think is the best city in Europe, if not the world, we are no longer impressed by expensive, boring, capital cities. Required: awesomeness!
• We like beaches, but we get bored easily. Beautiful white sands are great, but our perfect destination would offer more to do than just lying on a beach towel. And, unlike other Brits abroad, we don’t count drinking as an activity!
• We don’t want to revisit anywhere we’ve been to recently. Check out the new Travel section of our blog to find out where we’ve been, and suggest somewhere else, bitte!

Enter the competition by leaving a comment below, with your suggestion of where we should visit next, and your reasons why. The deadline for the competition is March 31st 2012, when we’ll pick our favourite entry and inform the winner.

Good luck!

We stumbled across Big Stu when @awesomedonald from The Bird posted this video to Twitter, a rap tribute to the legendary Hühnerhaus at Görlitzer Park. Hip Huhn Hooray!

I got in touch with Stu, currently waiting out winter in balmy… er, Dublin, and he was kind enough to share his inspiring rags-to-shellsuit story:

Having moved to Berlin in the summer of 2007 to pursue a career in finance (yes, finance), Stu quickly realised that this path was not for him and so after a year, he quit and started to pursue the bohemian Berlin dream. He was drifting along nicely, taking up whatever work he could find, when one day a friend took him to a roadside chicken shack called the Hühnerhaus. He got half a chicken. He fell in love with the chicken. He put this love into rhyme which became song, which became and award winning video and since then the newly christened ‘Big Stu’ has never looked back. Now he already has 30 videos to his name and 2012 he feels is the year he’s ready to step it up a gear. Thus, it is no lie or exaggeration to say that fried chicken gives life to dreams.

Having watched most of those 30 videos, I can recommend two more Berlin-themed bangers: The Turkish Market, about the twice-weekly veg market along the Landwehrkanal, and the even more self-explanatory Kottbusser Tor. For rhyming recipes like Ghetto Lasagne and Whitney’s Pesto, check out Stu’s Tumblr, The Rapping Cook. In the meantime, enjoy some more hilarious Berlin bombz!

Not only is Berlin the startup capital of Europe, it’s fast becoming its App-icentre. Developers and netrepreneurs are coming up with mobile solutions for problems you never knew existed, in the hopes of earning geek points and investment from Ashton Kutcher. Whether you want to explore Berlin, buy your buddy a beer or just make sure that you’re never alone again, if there isn’t already an app for that, there soon will be. überlin thought it was time to halt the march towards App-igeddon, and to come up with five apps that Berlin really needs.

Summerfy
Berlin winters getting you down? Can’t bear another miserable grey sky? We have the perfect solution with our Summerfy app! Using augmented reality our app can turn the most depressing of scenes into a beautiful summer’s day. Simply point your mobile device at whatever is bumming you out and see it transformed instantly. Berlin – and Berliners – never looked so good!

iProtest
Berliners’ favourite pastime just got social! Now you can earn badges, as well as bragging rights, when you attend the city’s countless demonstrations. Stick it to The Man and be crowned Green God/dess, Nuclear Reactor, Nazi Hunter or Baby Bugger-Off-er. One day you could be the proud owner of the coveted WTF?! badge, issued when everyone is rallied together to protest, but no one seems to know why.

Buskamatic
This app recreates the Berlin busker experience in all its horror. Bursting with over 100 badly-sung songs, played poorly on outmoded instruments, Buskamatic will annoy your fellow commuters just like the real deal! With styles like “Atonal Accordion”, “Ballad Bollocks” and “Fuck off Folk”, you’ll blend seamlessly with your busker buddies, and wonder how you ever lived – and paid the rent – without this mobile music maker.

Find-a-Pfand
The Berlin streets aren’t exactly paved with gold, but every other bin contains treasure – bottles that can be returned for a deposit, or Pfand. Find-a-Pfand hacks Google Maps to show the location of the bottle banks and trash cans that are overflowing with glass goodies, and the closest place to collect your cents. The bottle icons glow red when collection time approaches – get there fast to pick up your pay day!

Angry Berliners
Sick of dealing with German bureacracy? Why not take out your frustrations on this classic strategy game?! Fire your Angry Berliner through webs of red tape, topple over mountains of paperwork, and repeatedly bang his head against brick walls,  in order to defeat the pencil-pushing Office Pigs. With over 200 levels available in the App Store, you’ll really be getting somewhere – unlike in real life. Angry Berliner soft toys coming soon!

What Berlin apps would you like to see? Drop us a comment below.

Jacket: Zara | Scarf: Handmade by the lovely Liz Wood | Top: Second Female | Jeans: Acne | Shoes: L’autre Chose | Necklace: Stolen Girlfriends Club