->Grober Unfug, Zossener Str.32-33, Subway-Station: Mehringdamm
Probably the best store in Berlin and just a few steps away from Another Country. Large selection of comics, books, merchandising etc. from all over the world. A whole lot of small-press-stuff and weird shit. Located in the south-end of Kreuzberg. Loads of coffee-places, record stores and boutiques around the corner on Bergmannstraße.
There is a german-language-store on the street-level and an international store upstairs. The place also hosts a little art-gallery. Check the website for their current show.
Grober Unfug
There is another smaller store under the same name at subway-station Weinmeisterstr./exit Schönhauser. They don't have the whole selection, but they will help you with your basic-needs too.

->Modern Graphics, Oranienstr.22, Subway-Station: Kottbusser Tor
The other big store. Large selection of US-stuff and German Independents. They also have interesting signings every once in a while. Located in the heart of Kreuzberg. Lots of bars and book-stores on the same street.
or Bundesallee 83, Subway-Station: Friedrich-Wilhelm-Paltz
The other store they have is a little further out in the west.
Modern Graphics

->That place in the backyard of the cinema Central called staalplaat(?) or somethign like that
It's in the back of the house which hosts the Cafe Central on Rosenthaler Str., Subway-Station : Hackescher Markt. If you follow the movie-posters into the last courtyard, go straight ahead, open the big metal-door and the store will be on the first floor.
They have all the avantgarde-comics and -design as you might have expected it from the description. Totally worth a visit and one of the most interesting backyards to visit in this crowded tourist-area.

->Peter Skodzik
Large store specializing in German comics and Action Figures. He has them all. A toy-collectors' wet dream!
Subway-Station: Nollendorfplatz. The store is on Nollendorfplatz 5 next to the theatre. Good Hot Dog-Stand with a good selection of vino on the corner and Winterfeldplatz just a block away. You'll find the reggae-bar Slumberland and a few other restaurants around here. Lots of gay-bars.

->Black Dog Comics
Specializing in US-comics. Big selection of Underground, including nasty xxx-titles.
Rodenbergstr. 9
blackdog

worthwhile visiting as well:

Renate-Comic Library
Hang-out for the local scene every first monday of the month.

Monday 14-20.00h
Wednesday 14-20.00h
Friday 14-19.00h
Tucholskystr. 32, Subway-Station: : U8 Rosenthaler Platz

Renate

The legendary Mudd Club from New York City has reopened in Berlin at Große Hamburger Straße 17 around Hackescher Markt.

Nice sub-basement-place with the usual promoters putting up shows. Great mix of things that have been happening for quite awhile already, nothing actually new, rather a place for thirty-something-punks finally getting into some Coltrane and Gene Vincent.

Rock'n'Roll in all it's comic-incarnations from the dirty 60s, Russian Polka and a lot of weird and interesting shit going on.
Lots of stories about the old owner who seems to be kind of confused and doesn't really know what to make of the Berlin scene around that area.

Mudd Club Online

Since 1987 all new punk-, hardcore- and independent-releases can be found here. Great store which also sells tickets for shopws, t-shirts, 2nd Hand-punk-wardrobe and -records, badges or whatever else you need to compete with all the other punks on Oranienstraße. Too bad some records are sort of over-priced.

Coretex, Oranienstr.3, 10997 Berlin, Phone: 030-61280050, Fax 030-61280052, Subway-Station: Görlitzer Bahnhof

Open Mo-Fr 11 a.m-8 p.m. and Sa 11 a.m-4 p.m.

Coretex

Better and cheaper: VOPO RECORDS on Danziger Strasse 31 D-10435 Berlin The new place: MR. DEAD & MRS. FREE Bülowstrasse 5 D-10783 Berlin

Great collection of anything that is of any interest and it's also just around the corner of Another Country. One of the best stores in town. Lots of Soul, Funk, HipHop, Jazz, Worldmusic, and all the alternative pop-stuff. Well informed people working here and located right next to the comic-store Grober Unfug in southern Kreuzberg.

Scratch, Zossener Str.31, 10961 Berlin, Fon 030-69817591, Fax 030-6918704,Subway-Station: Mehringdamm

Open Mo-Fr 11 a.m-7 p.m. and Sa 11 a.m-4 p.m.

Soultrade

Specializing in Black Music of any kind and home of Jazzanova. Direct imports from all over the world and a great place to pick up flyers and find out what's going on. Any serious record-collector wouldn't wanna miss it.

Soultrade, Sanderstr.29, 12047 Berlin, Fon 030-6945257, Fax 030-6918701, Subway-Station: Schönleinstr.

Open Mo-Fr 11 a.m-7 p.m. and Sa 11 a.m-4 p.m.

Soultrade

Tonikum , Alte Schönhauser 39/40, 10437 Berlin, Fon: 030-51098572, Subway-Station: Schönhauser Allee

Excellent place to buy rap and talk to the owners who also run the Out Now Office for various acts and djs. Best place in town to buy records, mix-tapes and phillies.

Open Mo-Fr 12 a.m-7 p.m. and Sa 12 a.m-4 p.m.

Great little bar preferred by artists, writers, djs and musicians. Some sort of cultural event going on whenever they're open (check the site!) It's sort of a little bit away from everything else, but that's why it's well worth checking out.
They charge 50 cents membership per month! Kinski, Friedelstr.28, open wed/fr/sa from 9 p.m.
Kinski Online

Not too much left to see of the wall which divided the city of Berlin. The monster had been torn down right after the eastern revolution in 1989. But right next to the river at the Oberbaumbridge, there are 1.316 meters of 3,5 meters high concrete wall left. That's the East Side Gallery, which is also a collection of historical grafitti: 114 pieces of artwork produced by 118 artists from all over the world.

Website of the East Side Gallery, Mühlenstr.48-50

Swim in salty water and relax to the sounds of Berlin's hippest Djs. This public pool is one big temple of decadence, but it's worthwhile visiting if you really feel ike totally chilling out

Liquidrom , Möckernstr.10, Tel.:74737171, Mo-Thu. 10 a.m. -10 p.m., Fr.&Sa 10 a.m. 'til midnight (full moon 'til 2 a.m.!)

Small store on the way to the airport with vinyl only! Not really cheap, but with an extra-ordinary selection of any kind of music.

Platten Pedro, Tegeler Weg 100, Wedding, tel.3441875, Mo-Fr 10 a.m.-6 p.m., Sa 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Platten Pedro

See the forgotten subway-tunnels of Berlin and crawl around in the mud underneath the city. Great fun and a must for fans of subterranean worlds! Groups gather every saturday on the corner of bad- and Hochstraße in Gesundbrunnen. Berliner Unterwelten

Stressfaktor is your no.1-guide to all the leftie-activities in and around Berlin. They have a complete list of current political and subcultural events, addresses, marshes, soup kitchens, concerts, parties etc.

Cheapest haircuts in Berlin: The Happy Hour at No Name (you find them either on Görlitzer Str.68, Gneisenaustr. 83, Motzstr.52 or Grünberger Str. 77). From 8-11 a.m. every haircut is 5 Euro. Otherwise it's 10 and you get hip videos and a lot of goa-atmosphere while you wait. Better would be to find the guy at the Raw Temple. He cuts you hair for free and considers it an individual art-project. You never know what you will look like, but it's hip as fuck!

The Veganladen is a small place in the heart of Kreuzberg and it can help you out with all you vegan needs. They got food, cosmetics, shoes, books and flyers.

WGcompany.de is a nice little website with an English section for people looking for roomates or a place to stay in Berlin. WG means Wohngemeinschaft which is the term for sharing a place with people you're not having sex with (don't fuck at the factory!)

A while ago, a bunch of yanks took over a chinese restaurant with whacky interiors on Torstraße 201 in Mitte. They started to make burgers for their friends and put up some of the hottest artists and djs in the front. It didn't take the local hipsters too long to take over and by now it's one of the coolest spots in Berlin.

Check out the shedule and the menu on their website

When the wall came down, West-Berlin ceased to exist and Berlin was in the east again. Lots of people, who got used to the highly sanctioned standard of the cold war's most famous outpost, feel a little left out now.

Schöneberg aint hip anymore and nobody would ever want to go out in Tiergarten or Charlottenburg. Besides the occasional thing in Kreuzberg, the action is in the east now while the old west has faded. Now, some old folks have started to put up revival-events to remember the jolly days of living in a city surrounded by a wall and a mayor tabloid helps them out.

Like with those TV-shows bringing back East-Germany in a nice entertainment-format to forget about the gruesome details: German nostalgia is still a very weird thing.

Interesting exihibition of adivasi-art from Hazaribagh in India which was put together by Susanne Gupta, Another Country's expert on anything hot and spicy from India. Details at boell.de.

Darius James revamps his Creative Writing Workshop in Berlin. He also wrote a funny new piece for bookblitz.de called: The Return of Dr. Snakeskin's Home-Video Views: The Hulk (Not!)Check it out!