Thursday, March 22, 2007

When archives compete, you win.


Staabi Zeitungsabteilung

Cappuccino machine?
NO!

Cafeteria/place to eat lunch besides outside on the loading dock?
Of course not.

Located in a former Nazi army base?
Nope, but located next to the train tracks they used to deport Berlin's Jews.

Accursed, unfathomable microfilm?
Yes.

Yelled at by librarian?
Strongly spoken to; offenses included using a reader-printer machine for which I was not properly registered.

But, I have to thank her for the time when I was using the microfilm machine and the film was sideways, and I couldn't figure out how to turn it, so instead I turned my head sideways and read it like that for a while. Then came over and said that even though I seemed comfortable, did I know that it was possible to turn the film right side up?

Fun stuff to read?
Well. Newspaper articles. I mean, it's not un-fun. But it takes so long to order a film, spool it to the one article you need out of the whole half year of the paper, read the tiny, Gothic font, etc.

Most fun thing read so far?
I guess my favorite is an article from the early '30s about the Cameroonian/German actor Lewis Brody opening an theater revue in Berlin to showcase black and African history and combat negative stereotypes.

Special powers?
Did I mention it's on the edge of the city in a giant old harbor complex complete with ships and five-story-tall cranes and that, when darkness falls, lights up it's huge tower bright green for reasons inexplicable (unless it's to do with eeeeeevil).

6 comments:

Tom said...

I don't like this archive as much. I bet the staff would be nicer if they had an espresso machine.

But the pictures are better. I also think tilting your head sideways to read the machine is something Mr. Bean would do. The Germans better appreciate your comic stylings, otherwise... you know... they're jerks.

your small american said...

I tried to be impartial, but I don't like this archive either. It was hard to just present the facts.

Could-be-a-model said...

I too enjoyed the character of the photographs in this post. Rock on YSA!

And of course it's evil. They're freakin Nazis!

DSF said...

Way to encourage that socialist competition, comrade. As a devoted reader might I request some commentary on the adorably cute Knut and the man who wants to kill him?

your small american said...

Oh wow, a reader request! Fabulous. I will get right on it. Who is this Knut?

your small american said...

Hmm, ok, after some research (consisting of glancing at newsstands as I walk past), I have discovered that Knut is a now-famous baby bear who lives somewhere in Berlin (at the zoo, perhaps)? But someone wanted to kill him? Maybe the person only wanted to sterilize him.