*I can't stop thinking about Berlin, and I think this is why.* **dog** I keep writing different posts for Vienna — on solitude, on open-mindedness, on human connection — but there's a really dope dog in the cafe I'm in, so I'll write about this guy instead. Dog (the extremely creative moniker I have imposed; dog speaks German so we haven't met properly yet) lives in Cafe Gagarin, where stickers calling for various political actions plaster the walls (defund the police, stop deportation, etc). Karl Marx is pointing at me as I write, flanked by old chairs and comfortable sofas that host patrons who are able to "pay as they wish". Dog was on the central green sofa when I walked in, as the place has gotten busier Dog has chosen a nomadic lifestyle. Dog is an unit: imagine your typical golden retriever but with a brown coat and extremely respectful behaviour. Dog doesn't do typical dog things, like attempt to eat patrons' food or bark. I suppose Dog is avant-garde without even knowing. Even so, Dog still sniffs people's bags on occasion, or runs away from humans to avoid a petting. How many of Dog's mannerisms are endogenous? A cafe is a cafe; Dog is a dog. At their core, beneath the layers, many things don't change with who you are — or change who you are, period. **music** I saw the Philharmonic play while here. As Mozart's *Piano Concerto No. 23* played in the background, I began looking around the audience. Well-cut dark suits and dresses were everywhere; intellectual osmosis from Raymond meant I even recognised some of the watches. One woman, seated on the left wing, wore a distinctly brilliant green dress paired with sumo wrestler earrings. These earrings' proportion to normal earrings was similar to a human being's proportion to a sumo wrestler; a charming fact I found fitting. This pairing, combined with the fact her eyes were often closed, swaying slightly to the sounds filling the golden hall, demarcated her — demarcation that perhaps didn't strike at first glance, for it all somehow fit perfectly; fit not in appearance, but in propriety. Suddenly, I was absolutely certain she was having the most fun in the audience; and that I was learning a lesson, one I thought I'd find in Berlin, one that ironically arrived instead in the gilded halls of an Austrian symphony.