back home

Hello

I am back home in Berlin now.
I wanted to show you 2 links about the journey in case you can´t get
enough:

http://blog.bosch-stiftung.de/laptoporchester/

http://vimeo.com/user1539715

all the best

central & eastern europe 17

Ruse in Bulgaria was the last city we played at on our journey.
Again everyone was super helpful and supportive throughout those 4
days of rehearsals and intense song writing.
The concert took place on thursday at the Canetti Haus - an old
building owned by the Canetti family. The space was very rough and
really cold. It was probably the smallest place we performed at
during the last 4 weeks but it was also something special and much
more exciting than a normal club.
About 50 people came to the show - a very mixed audience - 13 year
old music students and over 60 year olds who came out of curiosity
standing side by side listening to our one and a half hour set.
We had to learn four new pieces on this tour which we all performed
that night + 2 older pieces from our repertoire. For the first time
it really was quite stressful recalling all the things from the
compositions and I realized that I should have taken more notes
during rehearsals. We did some mistakes - a computer crashed, a cell
phone rang, someone started the wrong piece at the wrong time, a
mixer broke... but the audience was very friendly and we all had a
few laughs during the set and looking back now it actually was a
pretty good concert.
Afterwards we all went out for dinner and drinks and of course to
celebrate.

The next day was an official off day which some of us (including me)
used to rent a car to get out of Ruse and explore some more of Bulgaria.
We went to a wonderful monastery in the mountains, some ancient ruins
and a great little town called Veliko Tarnovo. We did some really
touristy stuff, had a fantastic lunch on a balcony overlooking the
whole city and walked and walked and walked.
On saturday our taxi from the future took us back to Bucarest from
where we took a plane back to Berlin.

Thanks to everyone who made this journey possible, thanks to the
Laptop Boys and thank you for following this little diary.

talk soon - Stephane

(in the photos: the old house surrounded by trees is not the venue
but the monastery)

central & eastern europe 16

South Romania from the train.
It´s not that I am particularly fond of mountains, I just haven´t
seen them in quite a while.

central & eastern europe 15

hello everyone

I am sorry for the delay but the last few days were pretty busy and I
was too tired to blog.
The concert in Sibiu at the GONG theatre was probably our best so far
- hopefully we haven´t reached our peak on this tour now...
One more concert left and we are all very excited but also tired and
anxious to get back home again.

Sibiu was a beautiful city - unexpectedly pretty. On sunday we
finally had a day off and Olli and me went to an open air museum
about Romanian history and to the zoo next door. It felt good to
break our daily routine of rehearsing, eating and sleeping or sitting
in the bus for hours.
On monday we took the train to Bucarest. Unfortunately we didn´t get
the chance to take a look at the city. The very scenic train ride
took more than 6 hours and when we arrived it was already dark. We
were picked up by two Bulgarians in their future taxi bus. They had a
2000 watt bass system in the back, blue light underneath, a tv,
cameras on the back bumper, navigation system and other fancy things
they liked to show off. It was kind of strange to drive in such a
well equiped car and then take roads that hardly deserve to be called
a road. As soon as you leave the cities the standards change
drastically. The gap between rich and poor seems so much bigger than
I have ever seen before....
2 hours later, after crossing over the mighty Donau river we arrived
in Ruse, Bulgaria.
We checked in at the city art hotel, a quite luxurary hotel in the
middle of the center. Ruse is not that big (160 000 people) but has
everything you need except for food after 12pm.
On tuesday we started rehearsing right away. We still had to do some
work with the Romanian piece and we had to prepare ourselves for the
Bulgarian composition.
We rehearsed at the concert venue - the Canetti house - an old
building that belonged or still belongs to Canettis family. It is
empty and in bad shape now but the Bosch institut is allowed to use
it for cultural events.
Eventhough it is a very warm spring here the building was super cold
so that today we moved to a different rehearsal space.

I am not sure if we can do better than the 150 people in Sibiu but
everyone is trying their best.

- first pic was our hotel in Sibiu - next pics are impressions

central & eastern europe 14

here are a few random pics from Ollis camera
they sum up the trip so far

pictures from Sibiu follow soon

central & eastern europe 13

more pictures:

- our driver
- Romania
- first night in Sibiu

central & eastern europe 12

While we were sleeping our great hungarian driver Gabor took care of
the bus.
With a 2 hour delay we left Timisoara to go straight to Sibiu. We
have been warned before that it would be a long and bumpy trip
eventhough it is only 300km.
To be honest we all didn´t think that it would take us over 7 hours
to get to Sibiu. Sometimes there wasn´t even a real road and most of
the time only one lane was open so that we had to wait and wait and
wait. We did get to see a lot of landscape though and in the end even
snow covered mountains. We also drove through very authentic romanian
villages, industrial areas and beautiful nature while listening to
great romanian folk music.
When we reached the venue in Sibiu, the theatre GONG it was passed
6pm and a lot of press and other people were anxiously waiting for
us. We set up as fast as possible, did the shortest soundcheck ever,
gave a few interviews and then the show started at 7.30pm sharp.
The theatre was packed - Sophie from the Bosch institut in Sibiu has
done a great job promoting the event. Eventhough we practically
played without soundcheck and lightcheck it turned out to be a great
show. Everyone was happy and after over 1 hour of playing it was
definitely time for a drink.
We packed our stuff and went to the hotel to unpack the bus and then
we were invited to a very classy restaurant with original romanian food.
We said our good byes to our driver - THANK YOU very much Gabor - and
then went to bed to sleep a long and deep sleep.

The pictures are impressions from the road, the venue in Timisoara
and Timisoara by night - Sibiu follows soon.

central & eastern europe 11

Yesterday we drove all day. From Croatia back to Hungary and then
further east to Romania.
And while the landscape changed and became more and more southern we
got a feeling for the size of Europe.
With country music turned up to the max we crossed a tiny little
border into Romania and all of the sudden things rapidly changed.
The villages looked older, more run down, the roads were bumpy and in
desperate need of repair, some of the farms reminded me of the farm
in Nick Cave´s novel ´And the Ass saw the Angel´.
For the first time this felt kind of like what we expected from
Romania. Although some of the houses were freshly painted in the most
extrem colours possible I could see that we have found what we were
looking for - a real clash of cultures. Well, things didn´t stay like
this. When we reached the suburbs of Timisoara modern factories
started to grow out of the flat land - Cola, Metro, DHL ... - I was
disappointed.
Timisoara itself is also a very modern and lively city. The
architecture is old and beautiful but the shops, the peoples clothes,
the banks, the cars looked just like everywhere else we have been so
far.
We only had time for a quick meal and then rushed to the venue - a
club with a very powerful PA system in an old factory building
surrounded by more factories.
We soundchecked, went to the hotel, lay down for a second and then
went back to the club. There was a shortfilm screening before our
show which was very modern and up to date and by 9 PM we went on
stage to play a bit unsatisfying show because from where the stage
was we couldn´t really hear what was happening on the PA. Our
soundcheck was too fast and we had to pay the price for it. About 50
people showed up which was good but the club had capacity for a 150
more people.

After the show we quickly wanted to go back to the hotel because
today we are playing in Sibiu and it is a 6 hour drive there.
But our bus broke down. We hung out at the club for hours. People on
phones, everyone stressed out, we had no idea what to do. Around 1AM
we decided to go eat in a fast food places somewhere in the middle of
the student dorms not too far from the club. We walked through an
adventurous area and it seemed like our nightmares and not our dreams
became true.
Thanks to wonderful hosts and guides we had a great night and even
made it back to the hotel at about 3 in the morning. Thank you very
much you wonderful people who helped with the club and the car and
everything else.
Right now I am sitting in the hotel waiting for our bus to come back
from the repair place our hungarian driver took it to.
It is 9.30AM - I am tired - the tension between the musicians is
getting worse but the sky has a wonderful light blue, the sun warmth
my neck and I am pretty sure that this trip will not end here.

bye

central & eastern europe 10

So all the guys in my band (orchestra) gave their girlfriends or
wifes a link to my blog which means I have to leave out all the dirty
stories and details now : )
Just kidding. We are actually so busy with rehearsing, preparing for
the shows, fighting over pieces and ideas, photosessions and
interviews that our lifes seems somehow limited to the basics:
sleeping, waiting, working, eating (if we get something) and that is
all we do - no stories.
As you can see we are still eating super healthy and only local meat
- Croatians love meat.

Yesterday was our big night here in Osijek. It took all day to
soundcheck and to get our computers in sync that shortly before the show
we got so tired and our ears were so overloaded that we were scared
to fail.
It would be really awful to mess up one of those concerts - there are
so many people involved (a huge thank you to everyone) in our journey
and everyone works very hard.
For yesterdays show we had an amazing brand new soundsystem and a
super cool projection canvas - the room sounded fantastic and the
visual artists from Pécs we invited to project abstract paintings
onto our venue and the surrounding made this a very special night - a
real multimedia event.
About 60 people came to see us (every seat was taken) and the applaus
was one of the best we got so far - thank you very very much.
The area around the venue was full of these old rooms build into
little hills (old storage garages). Inside they were very disgusting
because the locals go there to have sex and then just throw their
condoms out of the car window but with the light show they looked pretty
mysterious. One of the rooms was cleaned out and turned into a bar.
The night ended with us dancing like crazy again (not me because I
still have a cold).

central & eastern europe 9

We continued the day with a walk through Osijek and took a brief look
at our venue for the concert on monday.
It is a really cool and big old barn right next to the river.
While wondering through town Nic found a funny sculpture and everyone took embarassing pictures.
Later that day we came across more signs of the war.
It is kind of scary to see all the holes even though they look old
and I still remember war damages on buildings in Berlin but somehow
history feels more alive here.

I have a real cold now which is why I am updating my blog while the
others are out checking the bar scene around our hotel on a sunday
night.
I hope to be in better shape tomorrow.

central & eastern europe 8

Today we took the bus from Pécs in Hungary to Osijek in Croatia.
It was only a 2 hour trip which passed by pretty fast.
At the border of Croatia the border patrol made us wait for a little
bit because they needed an official invitation paper from Osijek
which we had but not printed out. After a few phone calls we were
alowed to pass with a new stamp in our passports but I would have
never thought that it is still so difficult to get into certain
countries.
It didn´t take long until we saw the first signs of the war between
Croatia and Serbia in 1991-1995.
The hotel we moved into is the most fancy we had so far. I have a
very spacious room and a huge bed and my view is fantastic, too.
The hotel is situated in a very old part of the town - a town within
the town.
From the outside the place looks pretty run down but on the inside
it is perfectly fixed up.

central & eastern europe 7

more pictures

1) Pécs city center
2) love logs - we found walls covered with those logs - the logs have
the names of just married couples engraved - a symbol for there
everlasting relationship - my friend Leas and his wife have log like
this somewhere on an canarien island, too
3) our personal camerman doing what he does best : )
4) our manager took us out for dinner to a star restaurant - there
wasn´t much food on the plates and didn´t taste like much - I don´t
know what it is about all those exquisit restaurants and their fancy
cooks...
5) the venue during soundcheck
6) Nic and Olli happy after the show

central & eastern europe 6

Here are a few pics from Hungary:

1) in our little tour bus
2) somehow everywhere I go it looks like the USA
3) we ate them
4) this is the famous fish soup and beet salad
5) our room at the Lenau Haus
6) the Lenau Haus - german culture center in Pécs

central & eastern europe 5

Last wednesday we took the earliest plane possible to Budapest in
Hungary. There we met up with our driver and tourbus to go to Pecs -
a wonderful town about 3 hours away from Budapest. Pécs is going to
be one of the cultural capitals in 2010 which is one reason why we
are invited to play show here at the local art center.
We were driving along the river Donau and had a fantastic meal in one
of the famous fish restaurants - fish soup and fresh beet salad - yummy.
From the moment we arrived in Pécs until today we were rushed from
one meeting to the next, from rehearsal to soundcheck, from
interviews to press conferences.
Yesterday we met our local composer who presented us a very minimal
piece of piano music which we are practicing right now and we also
met some of the people who are responsible for the whole tour - our
booker and temporary manager who I haven´t met in real life before.
It´s difficult to be a promoter of german culture or culture in
general. I am never really sure how to behave - no, I mean what
people expect from me (I behave the best I can of course) - and I
have no idea what german culture is... we do drink beer and eat
sausages whenever we can but is our sound really german?
Today we played our show at the center of the arts. A bit boring room
with a lot of seats and a small sound system but I think we managed
to create a cool atmosphere with video projections and made the small
PA system sound like a big one. A lot of people showed up again -
thank you sooo much for coming!
Here is what some people said: "Sometimes I felt like a plane is
landing right in front of me.", "I didn´t know that I could go from
heaven to hell without creating a collapse in the middle.", "Bravo!"
- and we had to give our first autograph ever - yes.
I am not 100 percent convinced yet that our pieces really deserve so
much attention but I think most of our guests have never heard such a
weird mixture between experimental, electronic, field recording and
techno music ever - I haven´t - and maybe that is a fun thing to go
to and deffinetely something to talk about. We also have very loud
parts that make your seats shake and I think this also ads to the
experience...

We have 2 more days in Pécs to rehearse the minimal piece and then we
move on to Croatia.

I will post some pics tomorrow.

Lots of love from wonderful Hungary which has been treating us so
very nice.

central & eastern europe 4

The show on monday was absolutely fabulous.
Thanks to everyone who came out to see us and thanks to all the
helpers and organisers in Ústí nad Labem for making this the best
tour start ever.

In the afternoon we weren´t so sure if people would come to our
concert. The venue: Amarturka is in the industrial area of the town -
it belongs to the local design school but we had no idea how much
advertising was going on and if the people would go out on a monday
night - it turns out they do.
Before the show a lot of preparation had to be done - installing a
huge canvas for video projections, cleaning out the room, set up a
PA, a stage and some stage light.
By the time soundcheck started we were all super nervous.
Marek had to do some more interviews with a TV station from Prague,
Hagen (our film guy) and me argued about the light situation, Oli and
Nic had trouble with their stomachs (too many knydliky for lunch).
Around 8 PM the first act started - Victor - an experimental musician
from Bilbao who we invited spontaneously. Slowly the room started to
fill up and by the time we went on stage over a hundred people had
showed up.
We played for about an hour and then left. We had to ignore the
"encore" screams because we hadn´t prepared more pieces.
After us there was a DJ set + visuals by prof. Neutrino (the musician
we worked with the days before) and after that we had 2 local drum´n
´bass DJ´s + visuals to turn this night into one big party.
We all danced like crazy until the police came and then went home
exhausted and wasted.

We have a few off days now which we have to use for more rehearsals
and recordings.

This blog will take a short break and then continue with part 2 of
our journey around april 15th.

central & eastern europe 3

We spent another long long day at the rehearsal chateau.
During lunch break Nic and Marek did an interview with a local TV
station while we ordered pizza, not yet knowing that this would
almost be the last meal of the day.
After the sessions we rewarded ourselves by taking the number 11 bus
to the very last stop and right into Ústís largest supermarket, open
every day until 12pm - one of the biggest attractions around. We
walked through aisles and aisles of food, bought new tooth brushes
and some beer for the long way back into town. We didn´t bother to
get any food because we were longing for a proper czech meal in a
nice little restaurant.
Around 9.30pm we made it back into the city center and started our
quest for a restaurant that would serve us something to eat.
Absolutely impossible - not even cookies or some chips - nothing. We
slowly started to fade and decided to have more and more beer to
forget how hungry we were. We really are so spoiled and had to laugh
at ourselves realizing how panicy we became after just a few hours
without food. Shintaro actually almost freaked out - luckily he had
some sausages stored away from the day before.
The night ended at a student cocktail bar where we got some warmed up
hot wings and more beer while listening to a "concert" by DJ Tiesto -
apparently the worlds most famous Eurodance DJ.

Today is the day of our big concert. I have to leave for the
soundcheck now. Let´s hope some people show up - the city seems
unbelievably empty after the sun goes down...

central & eastern europe 2

Today we spent the whole day at a rehearsal studio to work on our
pieces and the piece by Prof. Neutrino.
The studio was set up at the recording studio of the local radio
station which happens to be situated in the most beautiful mansion /
villa of the city.
A gorgeous house with a fantastic garden, wood covered floors, walls
and ceilings.
The house is up on a hill and overlooks the whole city - a wonderful
place to work on music.
After the studio we to took a walk through Ústì nad Labem by night.
The socialist architecture reminds me of home. A great mixture
between an outdated socialist and a very futuristic look, except that
most of it really is quite old and run down and only pretty by night.
We ended up in a local bar called circus and had a few beer listening
to hard tance and acid music straight from the 90s.
On our way home Shintaro and me had sausages which seem to be very
popular over here. We even got sausages (Wiener Würstchen) for
breakfast. It was either that or awfully sweet jam and cardboard bread.

central & eastern Europe 1

Today I took off to go on a journey through middle and eastern Europe.
I am with the Endlichen Automaten - Laptop Orchester Berlin (http://
endliche-automaten.de/) and we are going to visit 6 or 7 cities in 5
countries to meet up with local musicians and composers to write a
composition or a develop a piece of music together. In each city we
will stay for a couple of days to rehearse the piece, then we play a
concert performing the pieces we have learned so far and then we move
on to the next city with a new composition in our repertoire.
This tour is sponsored by various cultural institutions (otherwise I
couldn´t afford to take a whole month off from Berlin) which is why
our journey takes us to small and medium sized towns - the places our
sponsors have some sort of involvement with... I guess cities like
Prague or Budapest also already have enough going on and maybe even
their own Laptop Orchestras.

Our first stop is Ústí nad Labem in the Czech Republic. A wonderful
small town right behind the german border.
We didn´t do a lot today except for checking out the venue - an old
factory on the outskirts, had a typical czech lunch and walked for a
couple of hours to find a nice cafe somewhere along the river Elbe
(Labem), which was impossible... I guess they just don´t like to sit
by the river and have a cool beer (pivo) in the warm spring sun.
Tomorrow we are going to meet our local musician - Prof. Neutrino - a
hip hop producer and then rehearse for 2 days in a row.
The concert will be on monday.

Stay tuned - I will try to keep you posted as often as possible.

movement

I have been absent for some time now.
The days just pass so fast when you are caught up in work and live a
life outside of the internet.

Here are some impressions from Leipzig.
The book fair, a museum for printing machines which I love very much
(especially the sounds they make), a couple of nature shots from
south of Leipzig and a small collage by a very good friend of mine.

I will be on tour very soon - so expect more frequent updates to come!

Vernissage / opening > Ubiquitous oscillations

Here are a few pictures from the opening of the show "Ubiquitous oscillations".
A very nice group show about sound related art.
I have 4 pieces in that show: 2 photocopy drawings, a film and a 6 CD player sound piece.
The show is still open - go check it out if you get a chance.

General Public, Schönhauser Allee 167c, 10435 Berlin (U-Bhf Senefelder Platz)
open until January 16th - daily from 2pm - 6.30pm
http://ubiquitous-oscillations.com

Vernissage

A few photos from the opening at the Museum Weserburg in Bremen.

(thanks to Herwig for the pictures)

Museum Weserburg

This is me shortly before the opening of my show at the Museum Weserburg in Bremen.
In the middle pictures I am doing an interview with a local TV station. You can see my 3 channel video / sound installation in the back.
Thanks to Aram Bartholl who took these funny pictures.
(more pictures soon)

OWSUM

Here are a few pictures from my last opening at the Owsum Gallery /
Artshop in Groningen, Netherlands.
I had a wonderful time during my annual visit to Groningen.
I played a show at Vera - a legendary music club and I got to show a
few of my drawings in a small exhibition.

At the moment I am preparing the videos for my little show at the
Weserburg in Bremen.
The opening will be on december 5th - please stop by when you are in
the neighbourhood.

Berlin got cold - luckily my new apartment is warm.

ha ha

Dear readers,

for those of you who do not understand geman I will explain real quick what happens here.
Marcel Reich Ranicki - a polish Holocaust surviver who has been living in Germany for over 50 years is supposed to get the German Television Award but rejects it.
Reich Ranicki is one of the sharpest literature, media and politics critic in Germany. He is also a well known writer himself and he used to have a show on tv where he is dicussing books and more together with 3 other critics.
He is probably not the easiest person to get along with and his critiques are sometimes so sharp and on point that he maybe hurts people but I think it is about time that someone speaks up about the loss of quality in television.
I don´t own a tv anymore - I threw it out a few years ago. It made me angry and frustrated and ashamed and that is exactly what Reich Ranicki sais in his speech in front of all the german tv idiots.

(I can highly recommend his autobiography. I read it many years ago but his life story coming from the ghetto in Warsaw until becomming the most famous german literature critic is truely touching and really interesting.)

sorry I am lazy

Spain pt.4

The night after I posted my last entry my brother and me decided to
have dinner in front of his tiny little tv on the top floor of his
tiny little house. I haven´t watched tv in a while and I was curious
what Spain has to offer. We switched it on and there it was, a new
show I have never seen before or even heard about called: Identity.
12 people standing on little platforms looking awfully bored, a
showmaster, a contestant, 2 family members of the contestant as some
sort of back up, 3 super bored independent experts functioning as a
joker and an audience. As far as I understood the show the contestant
is confronted with several things that people have done or what
people are, like: won a flamenco dance competition or works as a
dentist or hates green monsters... and the contestant has to guess
who of the 12 people could this statement belong to. Various facts
will be revealed about the 12 people in the course of the show which
he needs to remember in order to make all the right guesses. His 2
friends (in my show the contestant was a guy and one of the back up
helper was his girlfriend and the other was his best buddy) can help
him to memorise all these little hints and facts. Also the show
starts with the 12 people making a certain pantomimic gesture that is
supposed to describe their job.
But most of the time the contestant is just staring at the 12 people
and the camera goes very close and shows us close ups of their legs,
hips and breasts, clothes, face and hair so that it might be easier
to guess who plays soccer and who is the hairstylist.
A show based on the outer appearance of a person suggesting that this
is all we need to look at in order to win the jackpot. Wow.
I can´t wait until this show comes to Germany - I guess I am going to
need a tv again in order learn to judge a book by its cover and then
make the real big money.

In the new book I just started to read the main character Toru Okada
is also dealing with the same questions: Will we ever be able to
completely understand someone else? How far can we go or come to
actually get to know something of importance? ...
It is a book by Haruki Murakami called "Mister Aufziehvogel" (which I
really cannot translate into english) but the original title is
"Nejimaki-dori Kuronikuru" and it was first published in Japan in
1994. I am not exactly a big fan of Mister Murakami but it was the
only book lying around which I haven´t read, yet. It has 765 pages
and I hope it is going to last me a bit longer than the last books.
Murakami´s stories always seem to be a little over ambitious. There
is everything in his books: explicit sex scenes, horror, anxiety, a
bit of philosophy, fantasy, adventure and so on... I do like his kind
of naive writing style and how easy one can float through his stories
but like I said sometimes it is almost too much.
The last super thick book I really enjoyed reading without getting
bored at all was "The Corrections" by Jonathan Franzen. A book sharp
and to the point and really detailed full of little side stories all
connected to one monster story. I can really recommend this to you.
At the moment I am waiting for the movie "Possibiltiy of an Island"
after the book by Michel Houellebecq. He wrote the screenplay and
directed the movie himself. I loved the book and I am always thrilled
by his writing genius and now I am excited to see if he is also a
good director. I saw a few screenshots on the internet a while ago
and it looked a bit like a low budget production but we will see - my
expectations are not too high - I am just curious.

Spain pt.3

This morning I got a temporary passport from a subdivision of the
german embassy which was, lucky me, situated not too far away from
where I am staying here in Spain.
Me and my brother took his car out there to get some kind of ID for
me and a new drivers license and some other papers for him.
Unfortunately we only got my temporary ID, all the stuff my brother
needs has to be applied for in Germany which is really stupid because
he lives in Spain and even has a spanish ID but since his license is
german... anyway welcome to the European Union... and of course it
costed us money - everything costs money when it comes to bureaucracy.
My brother was functioning as some kind of witness for my
identification but I never found out what happens if you don´t have a
brother to come along with you and no money to pay for the papers - I
just didn´t dare to ask more questions than necessary, something that
always happens to me at government offices. I guess the fear of the
power these people have makes me speechless and feel small. I don´t
think they would have denied my ID but I think they could have made
me run around for additional papers, copies of stuff from Germany or
even make me go to Madrid if they don´t like the way I act...
The trouble is not over yet, it will continue in Berlin but at least
I can leave the country again - by plane.

Lately and even before that incident I started thinking more and more
about identification. I mean who or what are we? and what or who
proves or determines these "facts" about our persona? I know this is
deep but basic philosophy and a really crucial question and I am not
going into further detail now but just stop for a second and look
into your passport and at those 2 lines on the back of the ID card -
height and colour of eyes. Do these 2 information along with a
completely unnatural and outdated photograph and maybe an easy to
fake fingerprint say anything about you or even prove who you are?
The colour of my eyes for example changes every season so my passport
sais: brown-green which is of course totally random... just like my
photograph which doesn´t really look like me at all anymore.
Thinking about identification also made me think about prejudices and
how we judge people based on their looks. Automatically I am myself
usually built up a pretty complete picture of a person at first
sight. I do leave room for surprises and I am of course able to
change that picture but deep down inside I know that this first idea
of someone manipulates and controls how we are going to interact with
each other and what kind of relationship develops beween us. I know
it is sad but I can´t help it. I could play dumb and try to look
through people but then it would look like I am not interested which
again could be understood as a judgement. So I am trying to cover up
this picture inside and patiently wait for the person to show me who
she or he is and I try not to judge because who am I to judge anyway?
I like reading people. It is actually fun to come up with theories of
their past and future and then learn during a conversation that you
have been completely wrong or even right in some rare cases. It is
like a hobby of mine and it passes the time when waiting for a train
and more important it doesn´t hurt anyone.
When it comes to me I kind of try to stay under the radar. I mostly
wear no name clothes or at least without visible brand names and I
change my style just like my mood changes. Sometimes my pants are
baggy and my shirts are tight and the next day it is the opposite. I
like to dress up one day and look like a hobo the next one. I have
always changed into some neutral clothes when leaving the painting
studio or put on a suit when moving out of apartments so I won´t look
like the things I am doing. I don´t wear a watch, no rings, no
necklaces and my phone is always in my pocket, mostly on vibration
because nowadays people judge you by your ringtone. I do have a few
tatoos visible sometimes but that was a conscious choice and I could
still cover them up if I really wanted to. A few month ago I grew a
full beard which often seems like a small wall to hide behind because
it covers up a lot of expressions. I am not sure if I am going to
keep it but I kind of like it and the different things it could stand
for which may or may not show my character. For the last few years I
always had a more or less normal haircut because at some point I told
myself that I don´t need a mohawk to be a punk.
I just shaved it all of. It seemed pretencious at some point and I
needed a change. I don´t know what´s next, all I know is that I am
not a big fan of all those signs and materialised traits of
character. These considerations, rules and expectations can be really
tiring when it comes to meeting people.
This past weekend I went to a music festival: Espantapita - a salsa,
reggae, rock, punk, electro mixture kind of thing. I wasn´t
interested in the music really I just wanted to camp on the beach
along and inbetween the spanish hippy punks. I really enjoyed being
there and eventhough I had no dreadlocks, no dog and no torn up
clothes I felt home and relaxed because I guess there is still a part
of me that wants to live their kind of life.

I am not sure if it was a coincidence but a couple of weeks ago I
started reading T.C. Boyle´s most recent book ´Talk Talk´ which I
finished 2 days before all my stuff got stolen. The book is about
identity theft and while I was reading I could feel the fear and rage
of the main characters and now I cannot only feel it - it is there
standing right in front of me laughing me in the face - it is real...
I want to finish with a quote from the book I am reading now: Yann
Martel - Schiffbruch mit Tiger (Shipwrecked with a tiger) - I have to
translate it from german into english, so please excuse all of my
mistakes : )
"... It is not easy to put these things into words. Because real
fear, the one that moves deeply, the kind of fear that we feel when
staring into the eye of death, nests into our memory like a rotten
gangrene: It rottens everything, even the words we are using when
speaking about it. One has to fight for these words. One has to fight
to pull this cancer into the light of words. Because if you don´t do
this, if you leave your fear in the wordless darkness or even manage
to forget about it, you open up for new attacks of the fear because
you never really wrestled / fought that enemy that once overcame
you." (end of Kapitel 56)

Spain pt.2

The wonderful Ferria festival as talked about in my last blog entry
also has a downside.
Due to a lot of drinking and an overall relaxed atmosphere crime goes
up during this one week celebration.
Crooks, thiefs, burglars ... take an advantage of locals and tourists
who are a bit too careless when the whole city is one big party.
So 2 days ago it happened to me and my brother. Our bag got stolen
and we weren´t even drunk... We were on a crowded beach just going
for a quick swim between work and tapas and suddenly it was gone.
Noone saw anything or anyone - fast and effective and extremely
painful for us because in this bag we had everything from cell phones
to wallets, my passport, keys, cash, creditcards, mp3 player,
glasses, both of our wonderful digital cameras (mine almost
brandnew) and my lovely summer hat which I bought in Coney Island, NY
earlier this year. We thought we would be super smart by putting my
brothers smaller bag into my bag so we don´t have all those bags
laying around...
Fucked up situation. No cash and no identification. At this point I
have no idea how I am going to leave the country again... I thought
about walking or hitch hiking since there is no real border patrol
between european countries anymore - but I guess this is going to
take forever. On monday I have to contact the german embassy and
maybe they can give me some papers I can use to board the plane. To
be honest I really hope that they have some sort of electronic file
about me so that I can prove my identity, maybe even something that
has pictures of me or little notes about my tatoos and scars and all
that. It must have been wild loosing your identification 50 years
ago. I can´t even imagine how it worked back then.
Luckily my brother still had the keys to his apartment as well as an
extra phone in his pocket. In the course of the night we managed to
cancel all of our cards, went to the police to file a denuncia and
got a friend to give us some money for food. Some time after midnight
we were finished with reducing the damage so we went out and had a
few drinks and tapas and only then I realised that I hadn´t eaten in
over 12 hours... what a day.
If the thiefs were not too smart our bank accounts should be fine.
Also my brother has an extra lock on the apartment door so I guess we
are safe. What hurts me or us the most are the digital cameras and
the other stuff which is real money that is gone forever. Considering
the fact that I am so broke I shouldn´t even be here I really got
beaten down.
No camera - no photos - sorry.
Off for better days.

Spain

I didn´t really expected southern Spain to be that hot. 40 degrees
Celsius, blue skies every day, a light breeze from the ocean.
The beach is not too crowded since Almeria is not exactly a tourist
town. A lot of locals and a few students.
It is Ferria time in Almeria and there is a huge fun fair which is
open 24/7, a lot of outdoor discos, drinking in the streets and
partying all day long.
The Ferria is a one week celebration which is happening in almost
every spanish city spread over spring, summer and fall so that you
could actually travel from Ferria to Ferria and get legally shit-
faced in every spanish town. The fun fair and the disco tents are for
the Ferria de la noche and the streets with the bars and clubs in the
city center which are closed during the day so that people can drink
and eat tapas everywhere are called Ferria del medio dia.
Between drunk teenagers who have their first ice cold red wine mixed
with sprite around 2 in the afternoon when people stop working, shops
close and siesta starts, woman and little girls are dressed up in
colourful flamenco dresses which are new every year never to wear the
same dress 2 years in a row and little boys dressed up as bull fighters.
The outdoor bars usually have a fine fabric stretched out between
houses to block the sun and a sprinkler system along with a bunch of
strong fans installed so you always have a cooling moist wind while
nipping on your drinks and nibble on your tapa. After a few tintos
and/or beer plus tapas which vary from a tiny piece of meat on white
bread to whole schnitzels and fries depending on the place you go to,
the party continues in a "real" bar or dance club who have the shades
down to simulate night, incredibly loud music pumping out of the
speakers and an air con that cools the place down to 20 degrees. And
if you thought germans can drink a lot you should go to Spain and try
to drink along a spanish dude during Ferria and I bet you will go
down after the first few drinks in the heat of the midday sun.
In the bar people keep drinking beer or calimocho - a wine and cola
mix or or a rum cola from 1 liter plastic cups. Usually those drinks
are passed around in a group which always puts a little pressure on
you and so you end up drinking more and faster than you normally
would. People leave those places when it is still day light to go
back to one of the tapas bars to refill on food and more drinks until
they finally take a short break and relax at the beach around the
time when the sun goes down and the shops open up again before
hitting the Ferria de la noche, riding roller coasters, driving
bumper cars, eating gigantic baked potatos, drink more alcohol and
finish the night in one of the many party tents.
I did the complete tour ones and ended up on a bench in the middle of
the Rambla (main street) at 6 in the morning until a security guard
woke me up and send me home. I could hardly remember my name the next
day but I woke up in a bed which seemed to be mine and I didn´t leave
it for the next 24 hours.
I like Spain. The atmosphere is great and relaxed, people are
friendly and seemed to have understood what is important in life:
family, friends and not working like crazy to buy fancy cars you don
´t really need or huge houses or center park vacation which you also
don´t need when you have a beach and the ocean just outside your door.

unlucky us

From Sweden I went straight back to Oslo.
It was hot - around 30 degress Celsius - not necessarily normal for
Norway.
On the weekend we took the ferry to one of the small islands just
outside of Oslo in the Oslo fjord. Obviously we weren´t the only ones
trying to cool down a bit.
Although Oslo seems quite empty in the summer the islands were packed
with familys, teenagers, young and old couples, dark and light
people, swimmers, divers and single sunbathers.
We didn´t stay very long. It is impossible to relax under a violently
burning sun among masses of people who don´t seemed to mind getting
lobster red.
The islands are absolutely beautiful. Small forests, a few houses and
a rocky coast with a lot of small bays and platforms to dive from
directly into the salty ocean water.
One thing I didn´t know was that norwegians love to BBQ. Almost
everyone had one of those one-time-only usable grills that has the
coal and the firestarter already inside. Most people cook hotdogs
which they buy at one of the 3 supermarket chains in Norway who just
kicked the german supercheap, super awful company Lidl out of the
country again. The hotdogs and drinks and mustard and ketchup and all
that stuff comes in a lot of plastic bags and when the sun is going
down over the Oslo fjord around 11.30pm and the last ferry has left
the island this is what stays behind.
I was shocked to witness that Norwegians litter their beautiful
country with the supermarket plastic bags and the used grills.
In the city a lot of people live of collecting cans and bottles and
thereby contribute to a relatively clean feeling. More trashcans also
seem to make it more easy to get rid of your garbage whereas on the
islands each and everyone needs to proof that they are responsible
and take their trash back home...
Back in Bremen crashing at my friends old trainstation for a few days
I became a witness of how incredibly customer unfriendly and
burocratic to a point that it hurts Germany can be. My friends
telephone and internet stopped working almost 2 weeks ago and there
is nothing they can do about it. They call the callcenters and
hotlines everyday complaining to someone who couldn´t care less. It
takes days to get a hold of a human who seems to be at least a real
employee of the telephone company. Still it seems impossible to solve
the problem because the telephone net is owned by the Telekom but the
provider is someone else who needs to cooperate with the Telekom who
seems to be pissed off that they are losing more and more
customers... but what the hell do my friends care?
This world is getting more and more automatised and there will be
less and less room for individual thoughts and ideas. I can see it
very clearly - we are heading straight into a virtual world where
your choices are controlled by a few people in charge.
The largest companies in Germany used to be under state control:
post, telecommunication, gas, electricity and public transportation.
The government financed train tracks, post offices, electricity
poles, pipelines and telephone lines. A few years ago the government
started selling parts of their companies to private companies to
"open the market" which was supposed to keep prices for the customers
low, the equipment always up to date, the market more transparent,
more lively and of course the government costs low -