To be honest, this video isn’t unique because buskers and busking is absolutely normal and common in Berlin, especially in U-Bahn and S-Bahn trains, especially at night and on weekend when people are a little drunk and a little more willing to get caught up in the moment and drop a prized 2 Euro coin into the hat.

So, the timing was perfect on this one. I was trying out my Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX3 as a video camera in HD and I was farting about with it, seeing if I could get some nice video of the U1 train at night after getting pretty well lubricated myself with my buddy Frank Merfort of Limemachine fame, coming back from dinner and drinks at the best Mexican restaurant in Berlin, run by a proper Mexican, called Maria Peligro (Skalitzer Strasse 81, 10997 Berlin), part of the year-old Maria empire of awesome Mexican restaurants, starting with Maria Bonita, in Berlin. Next, opening next Wednesday, I think, at 6-8, is Santa Maria on Oranienstrasse. On Facebook you can become fans of Maria Peligro and Maria Bonita as well. However, I really should be posting this to a separate post about these two places, which I will do soon when I get the photos uploaded. Where I will talk more about the delicious food and what hot sauce to please beware of.

Metro has been Verizon’s bitch for as long as I have known.  I wonder if the following means that the DC WMATA is opening up the cell phone network to other networks — let me know if that is what it means.

There’s been talk of this for a while, but WMATA announced a little more of a timeline today: Twenty of the busiest stations will have cell phone service by the end of this year, and the entire system will have it by 2012.

While I certainly have no interest in listening to a train full of people shout to be heard over the tunnel noise, I look forward to actually being able to text and use Twitter from the train- many has been the time when the people I’ve been on my way to meet have tried to reach me, only to be thwarted by the Metro Cone of Silence. (Via We Love DC)

I have an AT&T and a T-Mobile handy right now and neither of them are Twitter-worthy when on the Metro, which is a drag.  I got completely used to being able to use my phone in any way I pleased while running around Berlin and the rest of Germany is the U-Bahn, deep under ground, in the S-Bahn, deep into the suburbs, and on the I.C.E. train hither and thither.

So, what’s the news here in Washington, DC?

Walking to Berlin Sony Center, originally uploaded by Chris Abraham.

I walk or bike everywhere, even though I have a monthly pass on public transport: city bus, S-Bahn, and U-Bahn. I am getting to know the city and I am trying to get some exercise. Of course, it was a pretty day with sun, blue sky, and sporadic snow. So, I was on the way to catch a film, Dan In Real Life, at the CineStar which lives under what looks like the tent at the lower left of the above photo. Couple abound. Also, what a cool building under construction to the right. Is it a yellow skeleton is a version of the Centre Pompidou?