Torino Winter Olympics 2006

I've now traveled from Berlin to Torino, so for updates on the Olympic experience, see http://torinotraveler.blogspot.com

B for Berlin

I'm sitting in a bar in Berlin on my laptop, readying to attend my final screening of the Berlinale and head to Torino tomorrow. I'm feeling sad that the filmfest experience is about to end, even though I'm really looking forward to the Olympics.

I started out this morning at a screening of "Dave Chappelle's Block Party," a documentary about a concert Chappelle staged in Brooklyn that included Kanye West, Mos Def, The Fugees, Erykah Badu, Jill Scott and other rap/R&B performers. That's not my normal music, and the film makes an effort to reach out to people like me by showing others who are obviously unfamiliar with the music attending the concert, and I ended up really enjoying it. Chappelle is truly a funny guy, but there are glimpses of the "sad clown" that hint at his later experience with a mini-breakdown. He makes some interesting points about the juxtaposition between music and comedy. The film was extremely sparsely attended - I guess it wasn't highbrow enough for the Euro audience.

Afterward I met a Wake Forest film prof for an interview that I hope will be in Arts or Arts/Living or whatever the heck we're calling it this weekend. Then I managed to meet my friend Craig from Duke for lunch - he's all the way across Berlin and I'm getting mighty tired of hoofing my laptop to so many train platforms, an experience that will probably only get worse in Torino. Carrying it makes my shoulders so sore I have to do yoga stretches every morning just to get out of bed.

I made it back in time for a screening of "V for Vendetta," which opens in the U.S. soon. It stars Natalie Portman and a guy in a goofy-looking mask he never takes off (actually the baddie agent from "The Matrix.") It's a near-future sci-fi movie that sounds a loud warning about the threats to civil liberties our current anti-terrorism regime poses. I have a feeling the U.S. critics won't be kind and it may not make much money, but I'd recommend seeing it. I found it entertaining and thought-provoking in the vein of "Day After Tomorrow," which combined an environmental message with really cool special effects, only this one is more serious and more well-done. Then I headed to the press conference afterward, where I caught Portman and the rest of the cast from the front row (she shaves her head in the movie and still has really short hair, and just like Lindsey Lohan she faced questions about her hairstyle - she says she's always wanted to shave her head. Hmmm.)

Tonight I finally get to see Lohan's movie (oh yeah, Meryl Streep's in it too). I hope blog access remains predictable in Torino!

Starring Meryl Streep, Woody Harrelson and Lindsey Lohan's hair

Another good day today. My friend Robert from the Burns fellowship came in from Bremen to spend part of the day with me. We had lunch, took a long walk through the city (the sun was finally starting to peek out) and ended up with coffee back where the Berlinale is being held. After he had to head back home, I went into the Filmmuseum and took in the exhibit on the history of German film - the most interesting part was the Marlene Dietrich collection, which downplayed her lesbianism (presumably because European audiences care about it so much less than Americans).

My only screening of the day was "Quinceanera," which won two of the grand prizes at Sundance last month. Given its award history, I had high expectations but was a bit disappointed. The script was great, and it was a wonderful non-stereotypical window into the lives of Los Angeles Latino teens, but the problem was the acting of the lead girl - I found it gratingly bad. Still, the script had me feeling warm fuzzies and fighting back tears by the end.

Afterward I made my way to the press conference for Robert Altman's new film, "Prairie Home Companion." Altman was there along with Meryl Streep, Woody Harrelson and Lindsey Lohan. The photographers were the most obnoxious I've seen them here, even worse than they were for George Clooney, testament to Lohan's status as papparazzi bait (though they seemed fairly taken with Streep and Altman as well).

One of Lohan's deepest questions was about her hair, which resembles an Elvira fright wig at the moment - "I colored it" was her profound answer. A reporter put Streep on the spot by asking her to sing, as she evidently does in the movie, but she backed out. Harrelson said maybe two words, but gave no evidence of being stoned. I'm hoping to see that one tomorrow, my last full day before heading on to Torino.

Berlinale day 2

I feel I've got a much better grasp of the Berlinale now. This morning I started the day with a documentary called "Wide Awake" which was actually the filmmaker's study of his own insomnia - it had premiered last month at Sundance, and had a feel similar to "Super Size Me." It was an appropriate subject matter because my jetlag kept me up the night before. I caught the director in the lobby afterward and chitchatted - yes, he still has insomnia, and no, he hadn't slept the night before. The film was well-done and I believe it may have been picked up by HBO, so it's worth catching when it airs.

Then I caught a German premiere, "Elementary Particles," which features the stars of one of my faves, "Run Lola Run." I wasn't that crazy about the movie - it was about the deviant sex lives of two brothers with mommy issues, overlaid with a bunch of overblown philosophical thoughts. But the German audience loved it, and the press treated its stars as reverently as U.S. media would fawn over Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. Directly after that press conference was another presser with Sir Ian McKellan, a.k.a. Gandalf from Lord of the Rings and Magneto from X-men, and, oh yeah, the guy nominated for the Oscar for Gods and Monsters. I felt badly for him because most of the media cleared out after the German movie stars left and it was a paltry crowd asking him questions, but he put on a charming show.

I had a few hours to kill so I tried unsuccessfully to fix a problem with my mobile phone - I've fried my charger on German voltage so I'm in danger of being out of touch during my upcoming days in Torino. Then I caught a quick meal at a uniquely German snack stand - all they served was potatoes, in various incarnations (I had a potato pancake with sour cream and applesauce).

Next I had my first interviews of the festival: with Janusz Kaminski, the cinematographer who has worked on Steven Spielberg's last 10 films (he won Oscars for Saving Private Ryan and Schindler's List), and with Charlotte Rampling, a Brit actress who's a familiar face despite not many big-name films (one of her most recent was "Swimming Pool," and she's going to be in the upcoming "Basic Instinct 2" opposite Sharon Stone - I hope that one doesn't suck too bad). Both interviews went well - at one point a publicist interrupted my conversation with Kaminski and asked if he wanted to wrap it up, and he said he wanted to continue the interview because he was enjoying it. Hoping those will turn into freelance pieces.

And I wrapped up the evening with my hosts Christina and Peter, who joined me to watch an Israeli documentary called "News from Home," which tracked the former owners and subsequent occupants of a house in Israel that was seized in 1948 from a Palestinian family - overall interesting but a flawed film because the director put his own agenda into it too heavily. My hosts then took me to a classic German beer garden for a late supper.

A note on the people I've encountered: though the Germans persist in describing themselves as unfriendly, my experience has generally been the opposite. A random guy in the airport gave me a free day pass for the subway after spotting me with a confused look on my face in front of the fare machine, and all strangers I've asked have been unfailingly helpful in giving me directions. But this morning I had an exception to the positive experience - a group of four or five people ranging from late teens to early 20s surrounded me as I was walking to the S-bahn (train) early this morning with my laptop hanging over my shoulder. I thought I overheard them calling me a "computer clown" so I ignored them and just kept walking. Christina clued me in that in fact they were saying they wanted to steal my computer - "computer klauen" - so it was a blessing I didn't understand them because they were most likely just trying to provoke a reaction. But they grew bored with me quickly, and Christina reminds me that Berlin is generally a safe city and street thefts are rare.

Clooney in; Swedish transvestite out

It's taking me a little time to get acclimated to the Berlinale. At least the movie theaters sell beer here. The publicists are not very friendly - apparently all of the U.S. media folks have to get in line behind the Europeans, and there are thousands of their media outlets here. Screenings are harder to get into than my Sundance experience - my attempt to watch an obscure Swedish film about a transgendered girl (boy?) was thwarted this evening, and I saw others employing what I'm certain were back-door tricks to get in. I'll have to work on figuring those out. Oh, and even the gift shop kind of stinks - not many cool filmfest souvenirs.

I only managed to see one film today, and I'm embarrassed to admit it was "Syriana," which I of course could've seen at home - but haven't yet. I wanted to go because there was a press conference with George Clooney and others afterward and I figured I should've seen it for that. (The film played at the festival as a way of generating publicity for its European release). The Euro audience gave the film's anti-American sentiments a very warm reception.

And I learned that international media ask questions just as dumb as U.S. media - they asked George how he lost the weight he had gained for the part (lots of cocaine, he said)and whether Julia Roberts was really surprised to see him in a scene in Ocean's 12 or if she was just acting (yes, the question was really that stupid). Jeffrey Wright who played the corrupt investigator and Alexander Siddig who played the ill-fated prince were also there, along with director Stephen Gaghan who won the Oscar for "Traffic." Asked about his politics, George said he's proud to be an American because we lose our minds every 30 years or so, but we're really good at fixing our problems. He also predicted he will lose all three of his Oscar nominations to "Brokeback Mountain."

Hope I'll get into more screenings tomorrow.

Back in Berlin for the Berlinale

A grueling 18 hours of traveling, including several unexpected hours of layover due to a delayed connection in Frankfurt, brought me to Berlin yesterday. It was my first return since the fellowship, to attend the Berlinale film festival.

It's cold but not brutally so - the bigger problem is the snow, which is extremely wet, gray and gloomy. Berlin is a bit more complicated to navigate than Frankfurt, I'm finding. The Berlinale is being held at Potsdamer Platz, a glittering city square filled with brand-new high rises. (It's on a site that was formerly the "no man's land" between the walls separating east and west Berlin). I found my way to the press center but was too tired to stay for the opening screening of Sigourney Weaver's latest, "Snow Cake," or try to catch sight of the red carpet arrivals. Everyone was dressed up in evening dresses for the premiere - a big difference from Sundance, where people show up at screenings still dressed in whatever they went skiing in that day.

I'm staying in a lovely, enormous apartment on the eastern side of Berlin in an up-and-coming area filled with new restaurants of every imaginable variety - we went for Thai last night (I felt truly international while trying to decipher a Thai menu written in German). My hosts are Christina and Peter, who I met through one of the people I was on the Burns fellowship with. Christina works for the German Foreign Service as a diplomat in the cultural affairs area. Peter works for SAP and has been away on business so I haven't seen him yet.

I'm off now to catch my first screenings of the day!

Fellowship report

2005 Burns Fellowship Report

The background:
*My region, which includes parts of North and South Carolina, has an extremely high level of German business investment - actually one of the highest in the country. I was able to line up a number of stories, business-related and otherwise, to write for my paper well before I left. I also was proactive in selecting my placement. Frankfurt was a logical choice because it was close to the offices of several companies I knew I'd be writing about.

*I wanted to work for the Wall Street Journal's bureau and I contacted them independently, but an editor there turned me down because my German isn't fluent. However, he told me that if I worked for the Dow Jones bureau, I stood a good chance of getting a byline in the Wall Street Journal and/or the Wall Street Journal Europe. He was right.

The city:
*I thoroughly enjoyed Frankfurt. However, it's not very popular among Germans. Many seemed puzzled when they learned I'd requested a placement in Frankfurt, wondering why I would choose that over Berlin, Munich or Hamburg. The most positive comment I heard about the city during the fellowship was "It's not as bad as its reputation." I'm not sure I fully understand the reasons for the antipathy, but I believe it's related to the city's modernity. It has the tallest skyscrapers in Europe, and there are comparatively few historic structures because major parts of the city were not restored following World War II. One German told me he didn't like the way the city mixes old and modern structures adjacent to one another.

*But I found the city easy to explore and full of amenities. I loved the skyscrapers, the zoo and the view from the top of the Helaba tower. There are many friendly Burns alumni in the city who were happy to show me around. I found it similar to Charlotte in some ways - the cities have similar populations (though Frankfurt's metro area is larger); and both are business-oriented and national banking centers. I felt right at home.

*I was unable to find a roommate through e-mails to people in the Burns alumni network before I arrived, so I used the Mitwohnzentrale Web site to find a short-term apartment rental. It was expensive, especially considering its small size, but it was ideally located in the Innenstadt very close to two main S-bahn stops. I could easily stroll to the impressive museum district surrounding the Main river, and I was literally around the corner from a busy shopping boulevard where I could find anything I needed.

*I also greatly appreciated how Frankfurt's central location made travel everywhere else so easy. I traveled nearly every weekend and sometimes during the week for stories - to Friedrichschafen (plus Ravensburg and Lindau), Cologne, Heidelberg, Stuttgart, Munich, Berlin (twice), Aachen, Essen, Krefeld, Mainz, Hannover and more. All were reachable in anywhere from one to four hours by train. The train tickets were a bit more expensive than I expected - actually, everything was, given the unfortunate exchange rate - and I'd suggest that future fellows research Eurail and German Rail passes before they leave to make sure they get the best deals.

The work:
*Because I lined up so many stories for The Charlotte Observer before I left, I ended up doing more work for the Observer than for Dow Jones. Another reason for this is that the Dow Jones editors pretty much left me to my own initiative. Adam Najberg, who edits features, was helpful in going over ideas with me. I worked on three larger feature ideas. One, on the German film industry, made it as a Wall Street Journal Europe byline - helping me fulfill one of my major professional goals for the trip. The other two proved to be too nebulous to complete with all of the other work I was juggling. I wrote two small arts reviews for the Personal Journal Europe, which is filled almost entirely by freelancers. I received no wire assignments until I told the bureau's news editor, Klaus Brune, that I wanted to help cover the International Auto Show and the German national elections. He graciously obliged. And I wrote over a dozen articles for the Observer, the majority of which were planned before I left. The topics ranged from the German shoe business to the airline business to the Pope’s historic visit to Cologne – a two-hour wait behind barricades netted me a distant photo of Benedict riding by in the Popemobile.

*In one sense, I'm happy that I chose Dow Jones because it allowed me the freedom to pursue stories that I was interested in. I was reluctant to request a placement at a German newspaper because of my limited language skills. But I now wish I had done so because I believe I would have learned far more about the differences between U.S. and German journalism, and perhaps about the culture in general. Also, I had never worked at a wire service before, so I was a bit surprised by how rushed and harried everyone at Dow Jones was and by how little time they had to talk to me or go to lunch. (I do give the Dow Jones people credit for having a desk and e-mail account ready for me upon my arrival, and for sending out an e-mail explaining who I was so that I wasn't confused for an intern. They also wrote me a very nice, and unsolicited, letter of recommendation at the end).

*I would recommend this Dow Jones placement to future fellows under two circumstances: 1) If, like me, they are reporters with business backgrounds and believe it's important to seek exposure to Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones contacts and methods; and 2) If they are veteran reporters who are confident in using their own initiative to pursue stories and don't need to rely on assignments.

The overall experience:
*First, I'll add my voice to the chorus of previous fellows who have cautioned that it's important to learn as much German as possible before the trip. I definitely missed out by not knowing very much. In Frankfurt, nearly everyone speaks English, so I didn't have to improve my German to survive, but I almost wish I had. I did not always encounter English-speakers in my travels outside Frankfurt, or in some of the phone calls I made. So it made for some awkward exchanges. And I would have liked to have been able to participate in more conversations with my German friends and colleagues. I'm extremely grateful to Karen Hage in the Dow Jones office, who translated some press releases and e-mails for me.

*As far as the orientation goes, I thought it was a wonderful experience, but I wish there had been more events geared toward giving the Americans more background on current German events. The speakers focused more on educating the Germans about America, and I wish I'd had the opportunity to learn more background on the German elections before I'd arrived. But the events were well-organized, the chance to meet Henry Kissinger was priceless, and of course the time at Airlie was wonderful. I really enjoyed meeting the German Burns fellows and I wish there'd been a way to see them all together again.

*A few things I learned about technology that can ease the trip for future fellows: If you have a wireless laptop, a T-mobile account is advisable because T-mobile hotspots are plentiful (but watch those roaming charges); buy a cheap mobile phone with prepaid minutes once you arrive, and you'll save money if you rely on text-messaging; and get Skype for making Internet phone calls back home for 2 cents a minute.

*I was grateful for the opportunity to have a wrap-up meeting in Munich on the opening day of Oktoberfest - particularly for the lovely meal and convenient hotel. The visit was cut unfortunately short because the German elections were held the following day and nearly everyone in our group had assignments to help cover them. That meant that we really only had one afternoon to experience Oktoberfest, and a dinner meeting was not the most logical timing. I'd strongly suggest a lunch meeting for next year's group.

*Every person I met was wonderful - Burns alumni; the other American fellows; German journalists and non-journalists I was fortunate enough to meet; and a network of "friends of friends" who became my friends. However, future fellows should be warned that they shouldn't wait for the social invitations to roll in - sometimes it takes a bit of hinting that "I'm new in town and I need some help learning my way around."

*As an overall experience, it was every bit as eye-opening and life-changing as I'd hoped. My strong interest in Germany has deepened. It was the perfect time in my personal and professional life to have this adventure, and it has made me a more well-rounded journalist and person.

Wrap-up bylines

This is the wrap-up package that sums up the importance of Germany to the Charlotte region and basically gives the reasons why this fellowship made sense in the first place:
http://www.charlotte.com/mld/charlotte/business/13094796.htm
http://www.charlotte.com/mld/charlotte/business/13094944.htm

Netherlands - Maastricht, Amsterdam, Rotterdam

**I have packed so much traveling into the last few weeks that I was perhaps not able to give the Netherlands the attention it deserved. I was extremely happy to make it to Maastricht, a very picturesque town with great shopping, and meet up with Jen and Christian – another welcome connection to home. But when I took the train to Amsterdam for the day on Monday, it occurred to me that my desire to get to know yet another gorgeous European city has waned. It’s just simply too much to absorb at this point. Despite that, I’m still glad I got the opportunity to see the Van Gogh museum and the Anne Frank hideout – the latter deeply affected me. I would love to go back sometime when I have more time to really explore and soak up the city. (And no, I did not see the red light district – it would have been easy to stroll through it for a bit, and I suppose it would have been somewhat educational, but I just couldn’t stomach the idea of seeing all of those women turned into objects).

**Originally I had planned a day in Rotterdam for both work and fun – I have a freelance assignment to write about a new Charlie Chaplin exhibit at the art museum there, and I thought I would combine that with some other sightseeing. But by the time I got there I was just too pooped, so the art museum and a brief walk down a central street were all I could manage (at least the Chaplin exhibit was interesting). It’s a shame, because Rotterdam was dramatically different from most of the other cities I’ve seen during this time – it’s got modern skyscrapers like Frankfurt’s, combined with the canal and waterfront features that distinguish the Netherlands. Again, a place I will have to return to at a better time.

**And now I’m back in Frankfurt for two days before my final return to the U.S., enjoying a welcome respite from the pressure to sightsee. It will be good to spend some final time with some of the friends I’ve made here (especially the banker) and say goodbye to the city that was my home for two months.

More bylines

A few more bylines:
**Package on Lufthansa, reported from Frankfurt and Munich:
http://www.charlotte.com/mld/charlotte/business/12768881.htm
and sidebar: http://www.charlotte.com/mld/charlotte/business/12768889.htm

**And package on tire manufacturer Continental, reported in Hannover:
http://www.charlotte.com/mld/charlotte/business/12796732.htm
http://www.charlotte.com/mld/charlotte/business/12793599.htm
--I also had several Wall St. Journal Europe and Dow Jones bylines in the last couple of weeks but those aren't as easy to post.