a painterly rendering of berlin's s-bahn

in london, england you ride the tube, in toronto the subway, in paris the metro, and in berlin you ride the u-bahn and the s-bahn. rapid transit by any name is the most efficient means of moving people in and around cities. the underground world of cities is an extraordinary place that most people only visit when they are riding the subways underneath skyscrapers but it is when you occasionally and memorably burst out of a darkened tunnel into the relatively blinding light of day that the real advantage of inner-city rapid transit comes into being in my opinion - when you see the city from an entirely unique perspective.

the s-bahn in berlin (the name is an abbreviation for "stadtschnellbahn" or fast city train) is an above-ground system that is linked with the u-bahn or the primarily underground element of berlin’s rapid transit system.

here’s a typical s-bahn train . . .
now if you can’t see your way into getting over to berlin to check out the s-bahn for yourself, then you can at least visit their excellent home page, which has a comprehensive and fascinating photo gallery, links to 360 degree panoramas of berlin attractions, a feature on historical trains and lots of other very cool material!

david bowie and brian eno were residents of berlin some thirty two years ago. at that time they crafted the album "heroes" on which a beautiful track entitled "moss garden" can be found. an instrumental, “moss garden” features bowie plucking a japanese stringed instrument named a koto over a painterly wash of sound crafted by eno that contains elements of the wind, water, and even birds. the effect is soothing and evocative and conjures up images of marshland in the autumn.

it has been used to interesting effect in this film shot on the s-bahn. the film takes a painterly approach through its conscious blurring of the scenery that the camera is passing. the effect in combination with the music is in my view very lovely.