greetings from berlin

Berlin_TV_Tower%281%29.jpg
I pulled this photo off the inter­net. The Ber­lin TV Tower is quite impres­sive in real life, espe­cially if you’re into Soviet, Sputnik-inspired archi­tec­ture. Futu­ris­tic on one hand, totally oppres­sive on the other.
Today’s my birth­day. Not really doing anything to cele­brate it.
I’m flying back to Lon­don tonight. Plane lea­ves at 7.45.
[Sun­day Update, 9.30pm:] Back in London.

Comments

  1. Happy Birth­day, Hugh! I wish you all the best in life and work. Thanks for the inte­res­ting things that you write and for kee­ping a tech­no­lo­gi­cally illi­te­rate girl like me upda­ted about what is going on in your advan­ced world of glo­bal com­mu­ni­ca­tion.
    So Buon Com­pleanno, as we say in Ita­lian.
    Barbara

  2. Happy Hugh, Suc­cess­man! Geez, am I really the first one to con­gra­tu­late you? Ama­zing. Kinda cool though.

  3. Well, i guess this is the first HAPPY BIRTHDAY com­ment… Enjoy

  4. happy birth­day.

  5. Maggie Leber says:

    Happy Birth­day, indeed.
    Yes­ter­day I found out that there’s a name for the style where things that look like that tower…
    It’s called “Goo­gie”. Likely every­body else knew that, but it’s new to me.
    thus:
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Googie_architecture
    “What is Goo­gie any­way? Just think of it as a collec­tion of design motifs that became popu­lar as the Space Age kic­ked into full gear in the early 1960s. Would the car­toon Jetsons have used it? If so, it’s pro­bably Goo­gie…
    Typi­cal Goo­gie design ele­ments:
    # Flying sau­cers
    # Cur­ved domes
    # Boo­me­rangs
    # Roc­ket ships
    # Sate­lli­tes
    # Amoeba sha­pes.
    # Star bursts
    # Tiki or Poly­ne­sian the­mes: a simul­ta­neous move­ment some­ti­mes lin­ked to Goo­gie
    # Steel beams with deco­ra­tive holes
    # Signs with indi­vi­dual let­ters in geo­me­tric sha­pes
    More such-like at
    http://paleo-future.blogspot.com/

  6. Hey, happy birth­day Hugh — can’t believe a whole year has gone again :)

  7. Just retur­ned from Ber­lin… the eas­tern half is full of such Soviet-era remains. It keeps giving me a fee­ling of riding some time machine to the fif­ties, only there’s a 19th cen­tury layer too, the grand buil­dings and bou­le­vards, and there is a gro­wing 21st cen­tury layer as well. Fas­ci­na­ting city!
    Happy birth­day, Hugh, keep on blogging!

  8. Ber­lin is a very inte­res­ting city for sure. East meets West, and makes it dull. P.J.O‘Rourke, who is no com­mu­nist, once sta­ted that com­mu­nism is the only sys­tem that could make poor Ger­mans, but having wor­ked with many Ossies in SAP, I have to say that they are impres­sive, edu­ca­ted, cri­ti­cal, and unbo­wed. “I speak twenty lan­gua­ges, but I am uncon­vin­ced by the pro­fit motive.”

  9. Happy birth­day from a com­plete stran­ger. :)

  10. Dave Armstrong says:

    Happy Birth­day. Tell ever­yone you meet in the next month that the day you are tal­king to them is your birth­day. It’s called the birth­day month. You will be spoi­led for a solid month and you might even get lucky here or there …
    Best Wishes,
    Dave

  11. Happy birth­day, Hugh. Keep up the good work as an inter­na­tio­nal jet-setter.

  12. Hey man,
    Happy Birth­day! I think laying low is the best way to deal with those anyway…

  13. Happy Birth­day

  14. happy birth­day

  15. Roger Wilks says:

    Happy Birth­day from an exile sasa­nach (sp) its also mine although i“m only some 50 – 40 years older the years only get bet­ter.
    roger

  16. Hey Hugh!
    Wish you a Very Happy Birth­day! :-)
    Raul

  17. Happy Birth­day from another com­plete stranger!

  18. thank you!

  19. Happy Birth­day Hugh. Gree­tings from India. As we say here in Hindi, Janam Din Muba­rak!
    It’s a delight to visit gaping­void every mor­ning. It’s my kicks­tar­ter for the day.
    Keep wri­ting good stuff. I’ll keep coming back.

  20. Happy Birth­day Man.
    Adore your art. Keep it up (-:

  21. Happy Birth­day. While nothing spe­cial to cele­brate, I hope you took the time to appre­ciate all you have. That is a cele­bra­tion in itself!

  22. Happy Birth­day!
    When in Ber­lin, I’ve heard the thing to do is have some horri­ble greasy brat­wurst, some exce­llent heavy bread, and of course, a stien or three. And maybe some cho­co­late in some form.

  23. Hey Hugh Happy Birthday

  24. Hey Hugh!!
    Happy Birth­day (bela­ted gree­tings). Now how many years is it? It doesnt mat­ter. Go out and enjoy. Live life to the fullest. What is the mood in the industry these days? Read about the mood at Intel — http://www.intellion.blogspot.com/
    pass this on to your rea­ders, if you want.

  25. Hey Hugh — HB my man and enjoy your day; I’ve been pas­sing your Cum­brian out­post a lot recently as ‘the kid’ is now at school twixt Ken­dal and the upper reaches of your river Eden. Back down there on Fiday (at the moment @work in SFran — weather varia­ble just like Cumbria) — James

  26. happy bday hugh! i catch up with your stuff now & again to clear the brain — seren­di­pity it is 2day. hear you are spea­king at a con­fe­rence in joburg soon — sadly will be at a strat ses­sion — but as/when you are in cape town with some time on your hands, a cap­puc­cino is on me!

  27. Happy Birth­day — Hugh. Can we expect a birth­day ins­pi­red cartoon?

  28. wow how did i miss this — Happy BDay!

  29. We’re both Libra’s! Happy B-day and Herz­lichen Gluckwunsch!

  30. Happy Birth­day! I hope you’re enjo­ying Berlin!

  31. Oh — bela­ted happy birth­day Hugh. We went to Ber­lin in the 1980’s and drove through Check­points Alpha (West Ger­many into East Ger­many) Bravo (East Ger­many into West Ber­lin) and of course Char­lie (West to East Ber­lin) scary times. Also had lunch in the res­tau­rant in the tower — is that still there?

  32. Great stuff so far and many many Happy Returns of the day!

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