There are only certain places that blossom in that certain way that creates Bohemia. Crumbling and eroding but more glistening and alive than filmed dreams. Some generations there isn’t one, they grow slowly until them bloom, only one exists in the world every 30-50 years. New York in 1974 was the last one. Though I am far away, I know today it is Berlin. I have written about my own Berlin desires before.
But fame and notoriety are knocking which is the Nero of Bohemia. When I read things like
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,2185464,00.html
and
http://imomus.livejournal.com/320945.html
and
even back in 2002 http://nymag.com/nymetro/travel/features/winter2002/n_7902/
you know it will only be so much longer before transmuting into Aspen.
Culture is quicker now. Perhaps the blogosphere is like Miracle Grow to those special creative epicenters, growing new ones quick and large, but add too much and the roots are burned. Maybe as soon as Brad Pitt starts a new global film festival there and the pedals begin to soften and sag, the next Bohemia will have started to bud.
I hope it is in my lifetime. Or maybe the Warhol moment has passed.
There seems to be more related at http://cultures.gadling.com/2007/08/14/bohemian-berlin-nearly-dead/ and http://www.gadling.com/2007/08/14/across-northern-europe-why-bother-going-to-berlin/
Related posts:
posted by Trout Monfalco