whatever love you can get and give,
whatever happiness
you can filch or provide,
every temporary measure of grace,
whatever works.(as long as you don’t hurt anybody)

I don’t  know where you stand on the I love/hate Woody Allen scala, but I cannot think anything better than this speech of Larry David for a new years resolution. It can also be used for birthday cards, graduations and (if nothing else works) wedding vows.

I asked Maria, Rachel, Sarie and myself to make two resolutions lists- one for themselves, one for the world.

Despina to Despina

1. Let go.
2. (Stop obsessing about what “let go” could mean or if it is already happening.) Stop obsessing in general.
3. Hurry. Not sure where to, but hurry.
4. Finish moving in my apartment, (where I started four years ago.)
5. Learn to surf. Dare to learn to surf. Alternatively just continue jogging.
6. Show up for gym classes not just talk about it.
7. Go out for dinner more. Cook more at home for friends. (Buy a third and forth chair and a fifth and sixth fork/spoon)
8. Start kick boxing to be able to realistically fantasize kicking the heads of snob/petty/lying/humorless idiots off. That will save me considerable time.
9. Meet the love of my life, whose love of his life I will also be. 
10. Write my first blog-text in German. (!)
11. Start writing the book “The joy of PR"
12. Regret nothing. 
     

Despina to the World

1. Pay the people who work for you.
2. At least feel guilty when you are not able to pay them, address the issue, offer compensation in some kind, plan to pay them in the future.
3. Don’t work for people who neither 1, nor 2. “Berlin style” is not sexy anymore.
4. Don’t do what everybody else is doing. It is boring and it will never bring anything new. Don’t show the artists everybody else is showing, don’t buy the art everybody else is buying, don’t do the art everybody else is doing. The times are scary, yes; but dare to differ, it is really your only shot at success.
5. Help your peers! It is a cruel cruel world, but you don’t have to be. If you like somebody’s work, promote it; If you hear a good idea, support it. If you think two people will benefit from each other, introduce them. There does not always have to be something in it for you. Of course as Easyjet says: Within Reason!
6. Don’t ask for help if you never offered yours. You are clearly an ungrateful bastard.
7. For collectors. If you buy a "blue chip" artist, ask the gallerist to throw in a young artist too (a black chip?); the few thousands more will not make a difference to you now, but they will to him and who knows… you might get millions in the future. (and/or a place in heaven)
8. Don’t “ride the wave of mediocrity” . Be spectacular. Be extreme. 
9. Being desperate is sometimes a good thing. As my wise sister once told me.
10. Enough with the Greek comments. Read independently, think independently –the crisis will get worse, before it gets any better, and the notion that it is Greece (or somebody’s fault) is as real as Zorba the Greek.
11. For (art) journalists. Maybe you want to actually visit the places you write about and not just get your information from eachothers texts. The truth is outthere...
12. I have heard an alarming amount of times this year the phrases “You can take it” or worse “You got balls”.  Appart from the dramatically misguided notion that masculinity has anything to do with courage…I assure you I can take it as much as the next one, not more not less. Stop looking what other people are doing. Woman up and play ball.  

Maria Santos-Resolutions

… that I made for myself

1. Check them on a regular basis, cross off when accomplished
2. Communicate more. Clearer and louder
3. Extra back up photographs, works and things that are important
4. Wear glasses, at least when working
5. Don't go from no smoking to chain smoking in just one evening
6. Make the most out of the BahnCard: travel farther
7. If I ever achieve nr. 4, read more theory... in German
8. Improve on traditional mailing
9. Spend this summer somewhere else, out of Berlin
10. Stop mystifying

… that I suggest to others (in Berlin/the world)

1. Be more precise
2. Go visit a friend abroad
3. Ask more questions, learn from the answers
4. Bury your smartphone and sing some mantra
5. Dance more, that's really revolutionary
6. Talk to strangers
7. Get the BVG controllers pissed off by slowly searching for your ticket, that might also help some ticketless one
8. When hesitating, let the Oblique Strategies help you
9. Learn/improve languages
10. Drink less, support printed media instead

Sarie Nijboer

The end of my period in Berlin as an intern is on its way. A To Do List is kind of a resolution, right? Here's an inside of my To Do List for the last month of my stay in this beautiful city. And also because I can only hold on to resolutions if it will last for just one month.

1. Take notebooks from Muji for the rest of the year.
2. Stop practicing German, it won't function.
3. Bring your camera to take more pictures.
4. Organize an exhibition before leaving.
5. Send application for curatorial/gallerist program 'de Appel' Amsterdam. 
6. Subscribe as a volunteer at Raw Art Fair Rotterdam and Supermarket Stockholm. 
7. Go and visit KW Institut, Me Collectors Room and Neue National Galerie
8. Read the texts at the exhibitions I am visiting instead of just watching them.
9. Go and get all things cheap (which are more expensive in Holland). 
10. Sell my unimportant stuff at a flea market before leaving. 
11. Buy goodbye presents.
12. Buy a ticket home.

Resolutions and do's or don'ts for people considering living in Berlin

1. Find an internship that will help you discover new spaces and people.
2. Get German lessons from the day you arrive.
3. Get lost.
4. Go every day by bike or buy a Monatkarte, make a decision. 
5. Don't be scared of being alone, strangers are your best friends.
6. Be nice and give money to street-musicians or vagabonds
7. Don't rent a room far away from the places you need to go to.
8. Act as a German and drink 0,5cl beers and eat sausages with bowels.
9. Go and dance at least once at Berghain.
10. Find your own favorite bar and become friends with the bartender.
11. Avoid touristic places such as Brandenburgertor, Reichstag or Berliner Mauer at Potsdamerplatz.
12. Go and visit exhibition openings as much as you can. 

pic by Maria Santos

Rachel Simkover:

"Hi Despina, 
Just got back from paradise last night, so here are my resolutions! Thanks for waiting. :)"

for myself:

-a Ritter Sport bar is NOT lunch
-turkish delights are NOT dinner
-verbessern mein Deutsch...
-stop getting caught without a ticket on public transportation (bought a month ticket today!)
-be less lazy
-make smart financial decisions (haha just kidding)
-exercise more...at Berghain

pic by Julie Simon

for Berlin/world:

-smoke less cigarettes
-wear more colors
-read more books
-no miserably cold weather (or miserably hot weather...)
-mass Facebook exodus
-urinate in the toilet, not in the train/on the sidewalk/all over the place
-be more punctual!