Awards and capitalism

Filed 16/3/2016 | ‍ ‍

The book has won an award! It was singled out for praise at the ITB BuchAwards 2016 last Friday, when I was presented with a heavy little trophy with a globe on top of it and a certificate to prove what a wonderful book the ITB jury thought it was.

A woman on stage said some nice things about it. “Beeindruckend” and stuff like that. They gave awards to various books in different categories and Verlassene Orte / Abandoned Berlin won in the Berlin category.

So that’s that. It’s nice when people say nice things. Now it’s time to move onto others…

You’ll soon be able to get different books about Berlin as well as fine art prints from the site. They’ll only be top quality, no crap. If you have any particular favorites let me know. I’ve decided to expand the shop a bit beyond the one core product. Yeah, I know, I’m leaving myself open to accusations of capitalism, profiteering, greed and evil. The simple truth is I have rent to pay, a kid to feed and a Späti across the road relying on me for continued support. These awards are nice but you can’t eat flattery.

To repel feelings of guilt, I promise to keep ignoring Betreten Verboten signs and uncovering the stories they try to conceal so they can be enjoyed at leisure by anyone who wants to for free here as always. Nobody has to buy anything. Ever.

The only truly useful things are things you cannot buy anyway – time, friendship, love, moments, happiness, watching Bayern Munich suffer… That’s all the news for now. There’ll be a new post soon. In the meantime you’ll just have to do your own explorin’.