Day One for 60pages, in a way.

It was, in a way, day one. This is where it happened. So we went. To see and understand. Alexanderplatz, the place where the young Jonny K. was beaten to death, the place where the GDR had ice cream, the place where there used to be the gate, way back, and on the other side of the gate, where now is Alexanderplatz, the horses were sold. This is what book one is about: Alexanderplatz. And walking there along with a select group of people, the happy few that came, I realized that my text might be too harsh. That Alexanderplatz is great because it is stubborn, it is rough, it is demcratic. And this is what 60pages is about: Take reality and turn it into text, take text and turn it into reality. A constant flow. Like the rain that hovered over the Platz for the good our of our walk. And when we were ready for Monkey 47 and Thomas Hardy, it started to pour. So we had to take refuge.

We had walked in the drizzle, we had seen the Platz doing its thing, now we were at Neptunbrunnen on the other side of the square, facing the any-time from now to be finished castle (say 2040), waiting for the gin to arrive.

Maxim Biller was in a good mood. So was Jens-Christian Rabe who still owes us a book on love.

The people that Fetzo Müller had arranged to come were phantastic, super nice, the most polite barman you can imagine for example.

Still, no Monkey 47.

But then, when it finally came, the rain had ceased, it was a revelation.

Is this the taste of sicilian lemon?

Thank you, Sandra Bartoli, that you came, we are looking forward to your picks about Tiergarten.

Armen Avanessian, away from his desk?

Christopher Roth in Helmut Lang. And Murat Suner, who will be blogging soon.

Sam Chermayeff, the don.

And Johanna Meyer-Grohbrügge, his partner.

What you have to understand: They had a Gin Tonic Bike for us. And it followed us around, to the bookstore of Walther König around the corner, where Arno Brandlhuber, the architect, presented his new book.

It was also Sam*s birthday.

So everybody was happy.

Right, David?