Hund Welt

"Apnea" is finished

2011-11-22T00:38:00.005+01:00

My latest film project finally came to an end with the national premier at a cinema in Vienna. "Apnea" was three years in the making. It is the last part of Hund & Horn's "Living Space Series" which shows human life under awkward conditions.

"Strange World" in Budapest

2011-11-22T00:07:00.010+01:00

I am invited to make a solo show at the Austrian Cultural Forum Budapest. Last year I had a residency in Pécs, European Capital of Culture 2010 (one of three, that is). During my stay in Hungary I travelled through the country, photographing deserted factories and other buildings.

There is an infamous high-rise in Pécs which stands as a monument of failure. Apparently, tenants moved in at first, but due to static problems they had to abandon the building, leaving it empty for decades now.

Science Fiction vs. Reality...

More pics from the exhibition

2011-11-21T23:47:00.007+01:00

Besides photographs and a film, I show architecture models and replicas of high-rises.

Strange workings in Budapest

2011-11-21T23:00:00.000+01:00

London, March 2011

2011-11-21T13:33:00.015+01:00

At the beginning of March Hund & Horn are invited to participate in an exhibition in London. The show which is curated by artist and free curator Richard Ducker is called "Smoke on the water". It features our films "Tomatoheads" and "Dropping Furniture".

I take up the opportunity and visit London. The weather in early March is rather cold but it also sunny. I stroll around town and photograph buildings which catch my attention, as for example the Barbican:

Close to Tate Modern and next to a Brutalist hospital tower a skyscraper is going up...

while in the vicinity of Elephant & Castle a few inhabitants of the Heygate Estate defy eviction...

The Heygate, a social housing complex built in the early 70ies, consists of six huge blocks. At the time of writing it is being demolished. Remnants of the TV-era still remain on the facade...

Dropping Furniture on air now

2011-08-06T17:29:00.004+02:00

Upload trial: Unfortunately not available in a bigger version...

Hund & Horn @ Triennale Linz and Videospace Budapest

2010-08-28T13:29:00.004+02:00

We show three videos at a new art festival, called the Triennale, in Linz (Upper Austria): our new film MOUSE PALACE, the test shooting of APNEA (my underwater film project) and DROPPING FURNITURE. The three films are projected on three different levels at the OK (Offenes Kulturhaus) Linz, which is a great alternative space. The show started at the beginning of June, it runs until September 26, 2010.

In June we also have a solo show, called Mouse Palace, at Videospace Budapest.

Veeeery late New Year’s Eve Report

2010-03-02T00:15:00.002+01:00

I spend New Year’s eve at a friend’s in the 16th district of Vienna. Shortly before midnite we go downstairs to watch the fireworks at Yppenplatz (now a fashionable square in an immigrant district). There is a war going on in the streets. Hundreds of firecrackers get thrown around, fireworks blow up in the air.

We go down to Ottakringer Straße, which has been labelled Vienna’s most notorious street some years ago. Fireworks go up from in front of a Serbian joint. Young guys light up rockets which shoot up in the air with quite some noise. Beautiful blossoms of fire light up in the sky, their colours shine in the faces of the spectators.

Suddenly a street lamp catches fire. From the speed the lamp lights up and burns I can tell that that lamp is made of plastic (made in the 1960ies or so). The fire goes on for twenty minutes. Burning plastic drips down on the street.

Soon there is the sound of a fire engine blowing its horn, blue lights appear in front of us. A fire truck passes the burning plastic on the street, stops, goes into reverse and puts out the fire with its left back wheel like in a cool action flick. The truck turns around when a second fire truck stops. Just at the very moment when I think „typically overdone security à la Viennoise“ both drivers honk their horns in unison, the warning lights switched on, they put in the first gear and both fire trucks shoot off to a new mission in a stereo effect. I must respect the coolness of those guys!

South Africa

2010-01-17T14:38:00.002+01:00

A friend takes me to South Africa to work as the DOP for a documentary project which will be presented on the internet, starting with March 2010 (www.nameit.at > Kap Transmissions).
The project is kind of a behind the scenes of the soccer world cup 2010 and is intended to offer an alternative take on SA while soccer frenzy will be on the way next year.

We stay in Johannesburg and interview people in and around Jozi (synonym for Jo’burg). We meet school teachers, architects and city planners, a person responsible for art in public spaces in Jozi, technicians working in alternative energy, social workers, refugees and people expelled from areas which got demolished during the Apartheid era.

Jozi, as opposed to Cape Town and Pretoria (both white) is dominated by black people, while Durban (the third biggest city in South Africa) is dominated by Indians who started to migrate to South Africa in the 19th century. Mahatma Gandhi spent many years in SA (from 1895 to 1914) working as a lawyer defending the rights of his countrymen.

Hillbrow

2010-01-17T14:37:00.005+01:00

Hillbrow is a notorious district of Jozi, which, as the names indicates lies on a hill overlooking Joburg’s Central Business District (in short CBD). There is a TV-tower right in the middle of the district which appears in Jozi’s 2010 emblem.

Hillbrow, now close to being an urban slum, was a whites-only residential area that was fled by its inhabitants in the 1980ies as more underprivileged people moved in. Due to poor investment major buildings decayed and the district was labelled a no-go area affected by poverty and crime.

There are some high-rise buildings in Hillbrow which are in a pretty bad condition. Some of the buildings have most of their windows smashed and some have partly black facades due to fires.

The three of us are fascinated by the area, so we visit Hillbrow several times, once even for (cheap) shopping. The place has its own charm.

CBD

2010-01-17T14:36:00.012+01:00

Johannesburg’s Central Business District has a similar fate as Hillbrow, although effort is now being put into developing the area. Most of Jozi’s office blocks and high-rise buildings are to be found in CBD. There is also a lot of abandoned houses, some of which have been blocked with masonry on the first and second floor in order to prevent people from moving in.

Other buildings have been taken over by or rented out to refugees from other African countries. Those houses in CBD can be easily identified from outside as clothes hang outside the windows.

Accompanied by two social workers who work for Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) we visit a run-down art deco building which is inhabited by 1,200 refugees. We get up to the 3rd floor where we meet people whom we can interview.

We interview two people from Simbabwe (who make up the majority of refugees in South Africa) outside of their two room „apartment“. The first room of about 10 square meters serves as a kitchen and also has a bed for several people. In the second room of about 25 square meters there are several beds which are only separated with cloths. Six to eight people live in that room. No room for privacy.

The toilets which are to be found outside at the end of the hallway are in the worst condition imaginable but we get told that there are even worse buildings without any water nor electricity.

There is a pungent stench of waste and excrements. The fire escape stairs in the building are full of waste. Actually somebody is sweeping the stairs and all the waste comes flying down from the upper levels. We hear laughter from people on the floors above. At least house sweeping makes fun...

Soweto

2010-01-17T14:35:00.006+01:00

is short for South Western Townships, meaning that Soweto is an aggregation of different townships around Jo’burg. Black People in Jozi speak only with greatest pride of Soweto probably due to the fact that the uprisings against the apartheid regime in 1976 started there. Sowetans seem pretty well off like middle class people. Most of them live in proper houses with water and electricity as opposed to inhabitants of other townships which have to live in makeshift shacks.

On a Sunday afternoon we go to watch a concert at a place called Thesis Social Club. People in Soweto are proud and very friendly. There is also a special way of dressing up. Sowetans are quite stylish. At Thesis we meet musicians, graphic designers, filmmakers, graffiti artists and the like.

Hug me

2010-01-17T14:24:00.003+01:00

We go to visit Masimbambane School in Orange Farm which is a township located approx. 50 km south of Johannesburg in the Gauteng Province. Orange Farm is the largest informal settlement in South Africa, with most estimates giving a population of 350,000 people.

Masimbambane College, a private run school, is in part funded by the city of Vienna. We get a tour through the college by a staff member. As soon as the children see the woman they run up to her and hug her. We are taken to class rooms and to the kindergarden. The kids love to pose in front of the camera. Then they come close and give me a hug. As I do the same there is no holding back. More and more kids come running and hug me. What a different feel to meeting Europeans, it’s great!

Mamelodi

2010-01-17T14:23:00.002+01:00

is a township east of Pretoria which was set up on a former farm. In the 1960ies black people were forcefully removed out of one of the capital’s suburbs to different townships, one of them being Mamelodi. The name means Mother of Melodies after president’s Paul Kruger ability to imitate birds. The township is home to the Mamelodi Sundowns of SA’s Premier Soccer League.

We visit two schools which are part of the YDF (Youth Development through Football) program, a program organized by NGOs and German association GTZ (Gesellschaft für techn. Zusammenarbeit). The program is aimed at developing life skills of young members of underprivileged communities in leadership abilities, ecological awareness and HIV/AIDS prevention etc.

We accompany one of the pupils to her home in Mamelodi and get to know her mother and her siblings. We are allowed into their shack where we are struck by heat and the constrictions of an underprivileged life.

Coolest keyboarder on earth

2010-01-17T14:13:00.003+01:00

We go to see a live concert of Zubz, a rapper from Simbabwe, who seems to make it big in SA. There is also a gig of Black Dillinger, a rather classic reggae band. The lot of them seem quite old (around 40) and they look as if they had smoked too much dope in the past except for the singer, who seems younger and healthier.

On the keyboard appears a skinny and even older guy who does not speak a word. He just hits the keys emotionlessly which every now and then emanate strange reggae sound effects. The guy appears on stage wearing a suit and a pink rucksack which dangles from his shoulders like an old plastic bag.

As he plays he does neither take of his jacket nor his rucksack which only contains a book or two. After the gig the guy leaves the stage, puts his keyboard in a sack and walks off the scene, still without having a said a single word nor having taken off the pink rucksack. Cool, innit?

Battlefields

2010-01-17T14:12:00.002+01:00

After 10 days of work interviewing and filming people we head down south to the southeastern coast. We pass Battlefields, a high plain were the Zulus fighted the Boers in the 19th century. From the highway there is not much to see except for green pastures, cattle and the occasional shanty town. The landscape reminds us of Sweden as it is rather flat and has needle trees. The last 10 km before Durban the highway is winding downhill in direction of the city, but shortly before Durban we turn north to a place called Salt Rock.

Flora and Fauna on the coast

2010-01-17T14:12:00.001+01:00

Salt Rock is part of a suburban area which is north of Durban. Suburbia seems to have neither a beginning nor an end, it stretches over miles and miles along the beach. A coast road winds up and down through an endless number of hills. The sea is pretty rough, but its water fairly warm. On the beach we see hordes of crabs which hide under the rocks as soon as we spot them.

We watch a group of dolphins riding the waves like surfers do. They skillfully manage to swim on the rim of the waves. Every now and then one of the dolphins jumps out of the water and shows his grey body. The flora on the coast is lush (subtropical) with a great variety of trees including palm trees. There are colourful birds with long tails (makes them look like skites) and even monkeys.

Monkey Business

2010-01-17T14:11:00.002+01:00

We watch a monkey crossing a street. He looks both ways left and right before he crosses the road. The monkey then makes his way through a fence onto private property with an „armed response“ sign in front. Quite surprisingly he does not get shot. Apparently quite a few monkeys get hit by cars instead.

As I go jogging later I see another monkey sitting on a piece of lawn in front of a house. The monkey whose back is turned towards me munches quietly. As he gets aware of me he turns around his head to look at me without any emotion. Does he charge me?

I wonder if there is only one monkey in town which shows off to the tourists on different spots making them believe that there is great wildlife in town. I decide I have to take a picture of the monkey(s). Maybe then will I be able to tell one from the other, if there is any other at all. On my way back the bugger is gone...

At the beach

2010-01-17T14:10:00.002+01:00

Salt Rock is part of a tourist area with B&Bs, some hotels and holiday apartments. Although the Christmas (and summer) season has recently started there are not many tourists around.
It is apparent that all restaurants and B&Bs are run by white people and that the waiters and servants are black. That’s a bit different from Joburg.

On Sunday we go to a public beach close to Salt Rock. At first there are hardly any people but then more and more people show up. They arrive in their cars with the music pitched up to the max. Some of them have a barbecue party in the parking area of the beach. The place gets crowded and messed up, it's a bit chaotic and great.

A great last day in Joburg

2010-01-17T14:07:00.004+01:00

Tuesday Dec 15 is our last day in South Africa which we spend in Jozi. In the morning we take a minibus from Melville to the center. This is my first ride on an African cab as we used a rental car during most of our stay. The bus is in poor condition, it squeeches, actually it seems to fall apart every minute. The driver does not tell us where to get off, thus we go to a different spot than intended. We arrive in Newtown, a central district of Joburg which we like a lot. Newtown is about to develop into Jozi’s cultural center. There is the Market Theater, there are artisans stands and several places to go out. It is also close to Oriental Plaza, home to Joburg’s Indian community.

By accident we meet a new friend of ours, a graffiti artist, who takes us (in an allegedly stolen car) to Goodman Gallery in a different suburb. We visit the exhibition of a young South African artist and then wait to be picked up by another friend, a multimedia and film producer. That friend takes us out to lunch in a fancy neighbourhood.

After lunch he invites us home. We have a few beers and a swim in his pool. He changes cars and takes us in a big BMW to a little shopping center in Melville where we have an appointment with yet another friend. In the car he plays dark African House Music at full volume which makes us feel great and a little decadent after all what we have seen in this country.

A little later we walk back to our house in Melville. For the last time we pass single familiy houses with „armed response“ signs and electrical fences. That’s in stark contrast to the actually nice athmosphere in Melville and the warm air that we breathe.

Intermodem in Debrecen

2009-10-04T19:00:00.010+02:00

From September 13 to 20, I participate in an international video art workshop at Modem museum in Debrecen.

15 to 20 video artists from different European countries are invited to develop their projects within a week. Debrecen is situated in the far East of Hungary within 50 km of the Romanian border. The Modem is a big museum for contemporary art that was built 3 years ago. The museum and the square in front look like any other modern museum in the West would look like. Modern architecture in the former East now seems exactly the same like in the West.

A psychotic experience: On the train with David Lynch

2009-10-04T18:54:00.009+02:00

In order to reach Debrecen I travel by train from Vienna to Budapest and from there to the East. I change trains at Keleti station in Budapest and get a seat in a compartment with a young student who sits at the window. Except for that boy nobody on the train speaks English. We travel for hours and hours. As I don’t know when I have to get out I have to ask people for the whereabouts of the train at every station where we stop.

After some time a bald-headed guy enters the compartment. He barks at the young man in Hungarian and takes the seat right in front of him although 4 other places are available. The bald guy seems eerie and looks aggressive. Just some days before my trip I read in the newspaper of serial killings committed on Roma people in Debrecen. The far right in Hungary is getting stronger and stronger and the nationalist Fidesz party is constantly gaining votes.

With that story in mind I watch the bald guy. He just looks like a rightist extremist. The student looks scared, in one particular moment he even seems to cry. The bald guy soon falls asleep but wakes up every now and then. I watch both of the men and try to catch the student’s gaze which is reflected in the window but the young man continues to stare out of the window and does not react on the signs which I make. I just don’t know if the baldhead threatens him and he does not dare to get up.

I spend one hour being proccupied until I finally get an idea what to do, just as the train stops at another station. I open the door of the compartment and get out on the aisle. I leave the door open, a young woman comes inside and takes a seat. The baldhead gets up and leaves.

Late Reprise: Party of the year

2009-10-04T18:51:00.011+02:00

In July three women who work in fashion, have their birthday party in a tavern in the Viennese Prater. The place is special, it has a bar but also a miniature golf course. People play crazy golf in groups of up to 6 people. Boys are dressed up nicely in 70ies golf outfits according to the occasion, the girls wear mostly evening dresses. I arrive late but get the interesting view on the scene of an outsider. After the match there is music, some of the guests dance Lindy Hop to 30ies Swing music.

Two months earlier in May, at the opening evening of the Vienna (Art) Fair there is a great party on a meadow in the Prater (Vienna’s biggest park). People seem to congregate there accidentally, they seem to come out of nowhere. A dj plays a fine selection of records on a great soundsystem. Surrounded only by trees people dance into the dark.

Hamburg

2009-06-28T17:09:00.008+02:00

As a guest of this year's International Short Film Festival I visit friends in Hamburg. They live in an area called Schanzenviertel. That district has a long history of house-squatting like Hafenstrasse or Marktstrasse in St. Pauli. All of these areas are now great places to go out and they have numerous clothing shops, most of them in an alternative style. There is a completely different athmosphere compared to the bourgeois districts which cover a big part of Hamburg.

Hamburg is a city of cool people, lots of trees and lots of water, be it rivers or channels or steady rain fall. The short film festival called IKFF is a great festival to visit. It goes on for a week and shows short films in 5 different cinemas.

Hund in Hong Kong

2009-06-02T00:05:00.002+02:00

Around Easter DROPPING FURNITURE (the film version) is shown at the Hong Kong Int. Film Festival, which is said to be the equivalent of the Cannes festival in Asia. I am invited to go.
On my way from Hong Kong airport to Kowloon I get a first view of the city. With its skyscrapers Hong Kong resembles in some ways New York City, only that its parts are spread out further across mainland China and several islands all of which seem to have a green mountain backdrop against which the skyscrapers have been pushed. Kowloon (mainland) and Central (on Hong Kong Island) seem like the very compressed version of a city of high-rise buildings.

Neon

2009-06-02T00:00:00.000+02:00

In Kowloon the sky is full of neon signs which are lit by night and shut off during the day. Nevertheless the signs are colourful and still interesting to look at in daylight. I find the signs especially interesting in a part of Kowloon called Jordan. Later I will learn that Jordan is a red-light district which also has a great night market and a street with great seafood restaurants.

A quick visit to the Chungking building

2009-06-01T23:50:00.002+02:00

I decide to visit Chungking mansions which i have seen on film in a Wong Kar-Wai movie a long time ago. The Chungking building is on Nathan Road, one of the biggest streets which run through Kowloon. The building is a big block, probably built in the 60ies, it has numerous shops on the first floor.
There is not a trace of daylight on the ground floor. A number of merchants offer their goods, from electric appliances to money exchange.

There are several elevators and stairways which lead up to the other floors. Groups of immigrants wait in front of the elevators, ranging from Indian to black people, some of them in their traditional clothes. All of them are men. They wait to get on the elevator that brings them up to an endless number of guesthouses which cover all of the above floors. The African men look quite positive, there seems to be a future for them in Hong Kong (or at least a present).
I get out through a backdoor to a dark and narrow lane. Three guys squat on the floor. One of them has bad teeth, he flashes a rather dirty grin and offers me marihuana. Better get out of that place, it’s too dark and dirty in the backyard.

Mong Kok

2009-06-01T23:11:00.004+02:00

I continue my trip on the MTR to Mong Kok. I pass high-rise buildings and I walk through streets with a great number of neon signs and numerous bridges (for pedestrians and for vehicles) which cross the streets.
On the main street there is heavy traffic and a lot of noise. I go around the corner and as so often in Hong Kong there is a completely different picture: an open air food market. The air is full of smells, roasted chicken are chopped to pieces for take away. Hundreds of Chinese people visit the colourful market.

Young men on Temple Street

2009-06-01T23:10:00.000+02:00

The same afternoon I intend to go for late lunch in Jordan. I have a huge appetite for seafood but I must discover that almost all restaurants are closed. The only place which seems to have good food is a food stall on Temple Street. I decide to sit down next to the stall at a tiny table on a low stool made of plastic. I am cautious not to rest my elbows on the greasy table and try to forget the dirt on the stool. The meal is good, though.

Without intent I start watching several young men which are standing at the corner of the street where I am sitting. One of the boys wears jogging trousers, he seems to be on the street occasionally and wait for somebody.

Another guy wears a golden necklace and a shoulderbag which looks a little too female. He crosses the street and runs around busily. A third guy appears, who also wears a shoulderbag. That man is the youngest.

Only then I notice that those boys are hookers. The young one is the most daring, he walks up to passing men and talks to them. Most of the approached men won't listen nor talk back, they just continue their way.
I watch the hookers unnoticed. Whenever I think they look at me, I stare somewhere else. Finally the young boy approaches me and offers me a massage.

Jordan is a district of red light joints and saunas. Usually women offer their services to men. The male hookers are clearly news in a city which hasn't quite come to terms with homosexuality.

Goldfish Market

2009-06-01T22:53:00.004+02:00

On our last day in Hong Kong me and a friend make a visit to the bird market. Parrots, canaries and the like are offered in cages.
The bird market is close to Flower Street which only has flower stands. We continue our way to the Goldfish Market which has only aquarium shops.
Well actually it's more plastic bags filled tight with water which are put up in the street by the hundreds. The bags contain one or more fish, they are that taut that they almost seem to explode. Distortion gives a surrealistic look of the fish in the bags.

Hund @ Soundframe

2009-04-01T12:44:00.002+02:00

I take part in Soundframe (www.soundframe.at), which is a big exhibition about audiovision at the Künstlerhaus Vienna.
This year's topic is Evolution Remixed. My film ALL PEOPLE IS PLASTIC is chosen for the show (see http://kgp.co.at/index.php?option=com_moviedb&task=viewmovie&id=13&Itemid=84&lang=en for information and trailer of the film).

I also contribute a collage to UKO's Sista Sadie Life Show, which is a remix project of UKO's new album on all levels (music, video and photography).

Kosmoprolet in concert

2009-02-18T13:01:00.006+01:00

Dj Kosmoprolet aka Karl Kilian has expanded his live performance into a 3 people outfit called Kosmoprolet. Kosmoprolet speak Rrrrrrussian English, they play Trash Techno. Check out Kosmoprolet's great dance video Coalminestyle on Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8V68LS_gzOc and their music under: http://www.myspace.com/djkosmoprolet

Station 17 at Szene Wien

2009-02-18T12:45:00.004+01:00

German band Station 17 play a great gig in Vienna. The group consists in part of handicapped people and they rock! To keep it tautologic: Their sound sounds like Post-Rock.

Hund & Horn do Budapest

2009-02-02T20:17:00.006+01:00

We have a show which is set completely in the dark at Knoll Galéria in Budapest. The exhibit consists of video, photography and paintings. It is on until March 22, 2009.

I went to the moon and back

2009-01-11T20:38:00.004+01:00

Dropping Furniture on show

2008-12-29T18:26:00.008+01:00

In December 2008 our video installation DROPPING FURNITURE is shown in a group show called "Soot From the Funnel" at Lokaal 01 in Breda (Holland) and at the "Central European Art Festival" in Trnva (Slovakia).

The single-channel film version premiered at 2008's Austrian film festival VIENNALE and has been invited for ex. to this year's International Film Festival Rotterdam and the Hong Kong Int. Film Festival 2009. Yippiäh!

Pictures of an Exhibition

2008-12-02T22:49:00.018+01:00

Our show "Paul Horn & Harald Hund - Living Rooms" at Knoll Galerie (www.knollgalerie.at) in Vienna closed recently. It was about living spaces which we inhabit. Part of the show was our new video installation "Dropping Furniture" (picture above). On the other pictures you see two of my works called "Modernism for the Poor 1 and 2".

Street Art in Ljubljana (Slo)

2008-11-03T23:59:00.003+01:00

Banksy was in Ljubljana too

2008-11-03T23:56:00.007+01:00

and made a statement about the infamous Fritzl guy

MysistercookedZwetschkenkompottandleft

2008-11-03T23:49:00.003+01:00

Iforgottoeatit.

Back in Paris

2008-03-18T09:58:00.004+01:00

After a 4months residency in 2003 at the Cité des Arts and a one week stay in 2005 i get back to Paris. I visit an exhibition of Eija-Lisa Ahtila, a famous Finnish video artist at Jeu de Paume and the newly arranged collection of the Centre Pompidou. At friday night I go to the opening of Austrian arts collective gelitin.

gelitin at Musée d'Art Moderne Paris

2008-03-18T09:53:00.005+01:00

gelitin have mounted a huge show of trashy and caramelized cardbord objects, hundreds of plasticine pictures, many of them funny remakes of Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa, sculptures of stuffed animals and a big foot.

I make my way through the room of plasticine paintings and get close to the adjacent room. Suddenly there is a pungent stench of smelly feet. I look around me for sb who took his shoes off, only that I cannot find anyone. I look down on my feet: "that can’t be possible!" I think. As I enter the next room I see a huge foot which is about 4 meters long and which is made of ... cheese! It smells unbearable. Its stench comes absolutely close to smelly feet.

Party!

2008-03-17T15:14:00.004+01:00

After gelitin's opening there is an party which is held in the huge entrance hall of the museum. Several bands appear on stage, sometimes they mix with other bands and the sound is a big anarchistic mess. The museum gives out red wine for free, people drink from 8 to midnight and get superpissed. Some pass out, quite a few people smoke cigarettes in the hall which is absolutely forbidden in France since the beginning of 2008.

A guard catches me and a friend smoking. We have to leave the building. As we move towards the exit i look back and see that the guard is not following us. We go back and have another cigarette. One of the musicians has to pee urgently and decides to do that on the spot beside the stage. He pulls out his cock and waters the wall-to-wall carpet.

Minimetal

2008-03-17T14:36:00.004+01:00

A 2 people rock outfit called Minimetal play a gig at the Swiss Cultural Institute in Paris. A guy in a frock and a hood performs an ancient ritual beside a box on which a video of Minimetal is projected. The video shows the band playing in a tiny room. After a while the hooded guy opens the box from which music emanates. Smoke comes out of the box and slowly gives way to the band which is playing live inside the box.

Smoke in our eyes

2008-03-16T02:51:00.004+01:00

During the gelitin opening party a performance takes place in front of the Musée d'Art Moderne. A fire blower works his way through an ice sculpture. As we get out of the museum people throw out peaces of ice from the performance on the street.
We try to find a bar in the 16th district which is still open. We enter a restaurant, but have to leave soon, as the place closes. We find a shitty fancy bar close to the Champs Elysées and go inside. Bernhard, a friend of mine, smokes a cigarette in the back of the bar. That passes unnoticed.

He lights a second cigarette and smokes it half way as the bar manager comes running. That guy snatches the cigarette from Bernhard’s hand, barks at us and runs towards the exit door with the lit cigarette in his hand. Soon after that he comes back to our table and advises us that it’s forbidden to smoke indoors. 5 minutes later Bernhard lights another cigarette. He only manages to suck twice on that cigarette until the bar manager comes running up to us with a big bouncer. We get told to leave the place.
On our way out I notice that the bag which I had on me is gone.

A bike tour across town

2008-03-16T02:49:00.002+01:00

Next day, I remember that I had my digital camera in my bag and decide that I really have to go looking for it. I get on my racing bike and go down to boulevard La Chapelle which passes under Montmartre. I get to Barbès-Rochechouart, a quarter of mainly North African and Black African immigrants. There are fruit and vegetable markets in the open as well as flee markets. The place is a great colourful mess. I continue towards Pigalle and Étoile (Arc de Triomphe). As I see La Défense I decide that it’s about time to head south towards the Seine. Soon I get to the Place du Trocadéro which offers the best view on the Eiffel Tower as it is right in front of it.

It’s a beautiful and sunny day and despite the fear that I won’t get my camera back I really enjoy my trip. The Palais de Chaillot at Trocadéro is a great modernist building which was built for the world exhibition in 1937. It looks similar to the Palais de Tokyo which was erected for the same purpose and which I have to pass in order to get to the place where I forgot my bag. I am superoptimistic that I get it back and race my bike downhill towards that restaurant.

And – I really get it back. I have to pass a little exam about what the bag looks like and about its content. I wanna kiss the manager as he returns my bag to me...

Time left

2008-03-16T02:44:00.005+01:00

With my bag around my shoulders I head towards the Swiss Cultural Institute in the Marais, the former Jewish quarter of Paris. I am one hour late for a video performance of fashion duo Radic/Morger. As I arrive I am just in time for a second run of the performance which takes place in a small theatrical room with a screen and a motorbike on stage. Performance artist Djana Covich appears on stage dressed in Radic/Morger clothes. She also wears a motorbike helmet which is coated in fabric and has a long tail in the back. As she takes place on the black motorcycle a video starts.

The video is a ride through Paris with that same motorbike filmed by visual artist Stephan Lugbauer. Djana rides the bike on stage in front of that video projection. After a while the bike goes through a tunnel and Djana lies back on the seat to do one of her sleep performances. Then there are scenes of a motorbike performance where audiences which queue up for big fashion shows get „hijacked“. Djana performs in front of the people on that black motorcycle giving really gas.

Beavers attack Vienna!

2008-02-26T02:22:00.009+01:00

A horde of beavers have launched their attack on Vienna. They started out by killing a little forest on Danube Island. They felled mostly the big trees and spared only the little ones.

Once nearly extinct, now a protected species, the beavers are thirsty for revenge. Their hunger is unsatiable. Chop, chop, chop! the people hear them working during night. They must be building a big dam somewhere to flood Vienna! Nobody has discovered it yet. The Danube in the meantime has risen to an alarming degree.

Palast der Republik

2008-02-14T22:45:00.005+01:00

The remains of the famous palace on the corner of Karl-Liebknecht- Strasse. Almost demolished, now reduced to a skeleton, the palace appears in 2 parts which look like boxes with an empty space in between. Only the outermost parts on the left and the right side are left.

Berlin beautiful

2008-02-12T21:11:00.001+01:00

3-legged Cat

2008-01-22T21:30:00.000+01:00

I go up Montjuic, a mountain in Barcelona which is a place of excursion for Barcelonians and tourists alike. There is a big parc, the Museum of Catalonian Art, two stadiums and – a lot of cats. I notice that the cats mostly come in couples and that they are all grey and have black stripes. I observe several times that one of a couple limps. One back leg is stiff or cut off. I have to think of a social system among street cats, where one cat helps the other. Makes me ponder about a cat help system or even a cat welfare state...

Hijo de puta

2008-01-21T21:49:00.000+01:00

I go to Barcelona to visit my friend Moritz. I am invited to stay at his new appartment at the Barceloneta which has a direct view of the sea. Every morning the sun wakes us up.
On the fourth day I am on my way to the MACBA (Museum of Contemporary Art) and go through Raval. I get to a little square with many people, which seems stange at first sight.
There are young women who stand around alone or who are approached by men.
I pass a Japanese guy who talks to a prostitute. He keeps his head on the side, looks down on the floor and keeps fumbling around in his pocket. It must be the weight of bad consciousness.
As I continue further a Russion prostitute in red high heels stops me. She tries to take my hand, which I refuse.

Fucking? I suck you?
No, thank you.
Are you gay?
No.
Yes, you’re gay!

It’s not the first time that I hear of a woman who calls a guy gay, who does not want to have sex with her. Only, that it never happened to me before...

Semmering

2008-01-06T14:18:00.002+01:00

Ende dieser Woche bin ich wild entschlossen, der ewigen Finsternis und dem undurchdringlichen Grau in Wien zu entfliehen und fahre mit einem Freund zum Semmering.

In Wr. Neustadt wird es allmählich heller, in Gloggnitz erkennt man ein Himmelsphänomen, dass sich am Semmering endgültig offenbart. Zuerst sind wir nicht in der Lage das Phänomen zu benennen. Wir haben nur eine undeutliche Erinnerung, was dies sein könnte.
Langsam entringt sich uns das Wort SONNE!!!!

Symphonie des Grauens

2008-01-06T14:17:00.001+01:00

Seit gut 2,5 Monaten ist das Wetter in Wien beschissen, seit drei Wochen hat man hier nicht mehr Sonne gesehen. Kommt die Sonne mal kurz raus, wird sie auch schon wieder von Wolken oder Nebel verschluckt. Es ist zum sich Grämen und ganz und gar fürchterlich! Ich beschliesse Maßnahmen zu treffen...

Sun Wonder

2008-01-06T14:11:00.001+01:00

On 1 January 2008 for the first time in three weeks there is sunshine over Vienna! That comes like a miracle after a period of about two months during which the sky showed only different shades of grey. In 2007 the weather turned shitty already mid-october to stay like that until the end of the year. Now it’s almost unbelievable that the sunbeams really make it through the fog.

I rush out of my apt to go to the Vienna forest. As soon as I get out on the street I see clouds moving into the city from the west. Slowly - but with pleasure, it seems - the clouds devour the sun again. I am quite frustrated.

My mood gets better as soon as I get to a snowy area in the forest. At least the snow works well against the grey.

Dropping Furniture

2008-01-06T14:09:00.000+01:00

On 18 December 2007 me and my friend Paul Horn shoot our new project on film which will be both a video installation and a film in the end. From a height of around 7 meters we let furniture fall down on the floor so that everything breaks apart beautifully. We shoot with two 16mm highspeed film cameras from two different angles in order to get slow motion in the end. Eventually the work will be a 2 channel video projection projected on two walls.

Krautrock

2007-10-20T18:27:00.000+02:00

The Viennese electronic Krautrock outfit VILLALOG play a concert at FLUC (Vienna). It’s the release party of their second album „ZWEI“ which has just been put out on „Angelika Köhlermann“, a record label run by Electro musician Gerhard Potuznik (GD Luxxe).
Villalog consist of Marc Muncke (electronics, synths) and Michi Duscher (guitar). Bernhard Fleischmann appears on drums and Japanese musician Teppei Ozawa as singer. Villalog play a mesmerizing mantric sound which derives from 70ies Krautrock. B. Fleischmann hits the drums hard, Teppei Ozawa sings and shouts great. The music goes partly in loops, it’s live version comes quite hard and from time to time reaches the peak of ecstacy...... We happy......

Pigs

2007-07-08T23:31:00.000+02:00

I go to a party of Austrian artists Konstantin Luser and Christian Eisenberger which takes place in their Viennese studio. Christian has built an installation of cardboard pipes which covers an entire room. The pipes are held together with adhesive tape. There is another room with a dj and a buffet, a small kitchen and a yard. I guess around 100 people are there.

Around 2 in the morning I see a couple standing in the corridor of the house waiting for sth. From their appearance I can see that nothing good is on their minds. They are completely alien to the party. I guess they are waiting for the police which they have called – and I am right. Usually people who report a party to the police never show up, they always hide in their appartments, the lights probably turned off. But this couple is clearly different.

The police are out in the yard closing one room of the party . The couple is with them and I see the man getting aggressive. He gets close to both artists and the police, screaming. „These people are not artists, they are pigs! They piss in the stairway! Don’t you see that they make fools out of you (policemen)?“ One of the policemen tries to calm down the angry neighbour.

The music has to be turned low first and then off alltogether. The police are around for a while. Soon afterwards they leave. Somebody turns on the music again and people start to get into the room of the installation and start to jump against it. The cardboard pipes break one after the other. Christian, the artist, likes that and jumps against the installation, too. He encourages other people to do the same.

The music gets louder and people get back on the dancefloor. Christian and some other guy start to wrap adhesive tape around people. Groups of dancers get taped together as the guys circle around them.
It's extremely funny to watch the dancers stumble on the dancefloor tied together in groups.

Temperature plunge

2007-07-08T23:25:00.001+02:00

The evening before temperatures plunge by 15° celsius we get a striking sunset which looks like this...

Amanda

2007-06-26T13:33:00.001+02:00

On saturday May 25 the Life Ball (an Aids charity event) takes place in Vienna. Several stars are invited to the ball like Sharon Stone, Bill Clinton, the porn actress Jennna Jameson and transsexual Amanda Lepore from NYC. Newspapers have reports on the stars as well as pictures.

I discover a photograph of Amanda Lepore in the papers and recognize her from that Dj Hell inner sleeve i have written about in my weblog (At the MoMa). I guess I was totally wrong charging that woman 60 years old. There was something very odd about her looks what made me guess her age that wrong. She is a transsexual instead.

On a mountain

2007-06-26T13:30:00.002+02:00

We go to the Ötscher, a mountain in the province of Lower Austria, where i wanted to go for years but never made it there. Approaching the mountain area in a bus we pass beautiful, partly wooden houses, from the beginning of the 20th century. Charging from those houses I think that the area must have been very rich in the past and maybe still is...
The Ötscher itself stands alone and is situated in an extremely beautiful area of limestone mountains and rivers. It offers a spectacular view of the Alps in the West which seem to be endless.

On the second day of our stay we go down through the Ötschergräben, a steep river valley close to the Ötscher. The hike through the valley takes several hours, it almost seems endless.

We arrive at a cottage which serves as a restaurant. It is situated right over the river valley.
From there we leave the valley and walk to the Erlauf reservoir. The Erlauf is a river in that area. Even that reservoir is beautiful.

After that we get to a train station of the Mariazeller Bahn, which is a narrow gauge railway running from the famous place of pilgrimage called Mariazell. Even the pope comes there sometimes. The train ride is superscenic but takes 2,5 hrs for 85 km. The first 1,5 hrs the trip is beautiful. The train goes down from around 900 m altitude to around 250m.

Smells like chocolate

2007-05-31T00:50:00.000+02:00

I am on my way back from a public swimming pool in the 16th district of Vienna. Suddenly there is a heavy smell of chocolate in the air as i get close to the factory where the famous Viennese Manner waffles are produced. The scent of chocolate is incredibly strong and mixes very well with the summer air.

Good Bye New York

2007-05-10T09:28:00.000+02:00

Last view...

As I leave Bedford-Stuyvesant, the Brooklyn area where I stay during my trip to New York , a black guy, who sits on the sidewalk, waves at me in a really friendly way. This is very nice given that white people are sometimes not too welcome in this black neighbourhood (they usually cause rents to go up). I take it as a good-bye wish. I like Bed-Stuy.

Views of the city

2007-05-10T00:19:00.001+02:00

A visit to the MoMa

2007-05-09T23:31:00.001+02:00

I go to see a Jeff Wall exhibition at the MoMa. The show comprises 40 photographs made over 30 years.
The museum has an extensive collection of Picassos which I also get to see. A great painting from the blue period called „Two Acrobats with a Dog“ is on show as well as „Student with Pipe“ (1914, picture above) which amuses me a lot.

As I leave the MoMa I see a remarkable couple passing by. The guy who is in his late twenties is very handsome, the woman on his arm is kind of special. Her age is hard to guess, I reckon she is around 60 yrs old. She has been fully operated, charging from her nose and her upper lip.
I am sure I know this woman from Dj Hells last album „NY muscle“. There is a photograph of her on the record sleeve. I think she is a celebrity in certain circles...

Paradigm Shift

2007-05-09T23:30:00.002+02:00

As i walk into St. Mark’s Bookstore, a good book shop in the East Village, I notice that the attention has shifted from last year’s books about punk and post punk to books about art. Contempory art seems all the rave this year. Only that the music books came as paperbacks (had to buy a few) and the art books as hard covers (can’t really afford them). Most art books are exhibition catalogues.

Street Art

2007-05-09T23:27:00.001+02:00

Art in Chelsea

2007-05-09T23:23:00.000+02:00

Matthew Marks Gallery shows new works of German photographer Andreas Gursky. The new works comprise a big scale series of fomula one racing cars on their pit stop. The cars and their teams are bright and beautifully lit and set against a darker background. There is also a gargantuan print of an event at a North Korean stadium (poor people making up a pattern of flowers) as well as a landscape series of the Halong bay in northern Vietnam. The digital manipulation of those series is not so well done. It is just too obvious.

Rirkrit Tiravanija has a great installation at David Zwirner Gallery. He has built a big box which is set in what appears to be the garage of the gallery. You can enter the installation either through open rolling doors from the street or go through the gallery. That has the effect of entering a side spot like a garage. In the installation hot thai food awaits you which you can just take out of the pot. There is a nice social effect to it especially as that gallery is super up-market. You wander through the streets of Chelsea hungry and thirsty and suddenly there is this place you are allowed to (if you are not a bum, that is).

Sofa Surfers kick ass!!

2007-05-02T05:05:00.000+02:00

The Austrian electronics-mixed-with-live-instruments outfit Sofa Surfers play a gig at the Austrian Cultural Forum New York. Their sound is a mix of programmed beats and sounds, guitar and bass, live drumming and vocals of their Nigerian singer. They play an incredibly powerful gig. Once, during the concert I wonder how much louder you can play in a 40m2 room...
After the concert we head for the subway in midtown wondering that that had just happened in this surrounding of business and office buildings. Full moon shines down on us through glass towers...

Back in New York

2007-05-02T03:17:00.001+02:00

Last alternative spot in SoHo

I come to New York for the opening of „Happiness of Objects“, a group show at the Sculpture Center. Our film „Tomatoheads“, which is a co-production of my artist collegue Paul Horn and me, is shown. We manage to get one flight ticket from the Austrian Cultural Forum. Paul lets me go to do some networking.
There are many people at the opening and bunches of people watching our video. They laugh a lot. That's what the video is for...

4 cities in 4 days

2007-04-03T21:51:00.000+02:00

I take a flight to Brussels, Belgium to see my friend Lieven. I take a tour around town and visit the Atomium which was built for the world fair in 1958. The Atomium has been recently renovated and now looks all new and shiny.

I visit the Grand Place which is the old city center. There are some really beautiful buildings from the 16th century. There is a French touch to Brussels which is nice, too.

From Brussels I continue my trip to Antwerp. Belgium is in fact devided into a southern French and a northern Flemish part. The Flemish part is much richer than the French part. There are many people in that part who want their separate state...

In Antwerp I meet the people from Lokaal 01, an independent art space. After two nights in a great and cheap hotel I continue my trip to Utrecht, Holland to visit Impakt Festival (for film and video). One of my films is shown in the festival. Utrecht is a beautiful town of around 300,000 people. The old area consists of mostly little houses which are neatly arranged for example alongside a canal. Utrecht is a university town, thus you see lots of young people in the streets. They all ride bikes. The canal gives a great quality of life to the town.

I pass a coffee shop and see two huge guys standing outside. They look like bouncers, although i am 100% sure that they are just standing there. Between their massive bodies I get a glance at the people inside the coffee shop who look really pale and wasted.

Another old lady

2007-03-16T09:51:00.000+01:00

I am out on the corridor on the way to the toilet as I see another demented woman. That woman is hyperactive and always busy doing sth. She often comes to the nurses' desk which is right opposite of our room. She is very small, the expression of her face is without any emotion. If it wasn’t for her moving around constantly she seems like a figure in a museum of wax. This time she sits at a small table and has a cigarette in her hand. She sucks on the cigarette which is not lit. I have already passed her as I hear a nurse’s voice telling that Mrs. ... should put on her clothes. I turn around to see the old lady naked except for huge diapers which she wears.

A night at the hospital

2007-03-16T09:50:00.000+01:00

One night after my operation an old woman, who has cried „please, please...“ the night before, screams for help.
The nurses go to the lady’s room and take care of her. I reckon the old lady gets tranquilizers.
There is a second lady in another room who also starts to scream for help. That makes a kind of a weird stereo effect.
The second woman does not calm down. I am out on the ward passing by her room. I get a glimpse on an old woman who tries to get up from her bed to open a window and cry for help.
„Help, criminals, thugs... “ the demented lady screams.
Accidentally there is a strong wind that night which makes bizarre noises like in a horror movie.

Meniscus

2007-03-16T09:09:00.000+01:00

I have an operation of my right knee's meniscus one year after my injury in New York. Back then I could not get any medical treatment except for a physical therapy which helped and made me walk again.
This year in January I finally find the time to have my knee examined. An x-ray does not produce any result so I go to get a MRT. The result tells me a rupture of the meniscus.
My doctor sends me to a hospital to get some advice. Quite typically for a visit to the doctor's in Vienna I don't get any information but instead a date for an operation: 03/12/07.
One week before the operation I go to get blood tests. I also try to get some information whether an operation is necessary or not: i manage to get a doctor's opinion which is not clear.
Finally in the hospital I get to speak to a doctor when he visits our room on his ward round. It is one day before the operation. That doctor asks me why I get the operation and gives me some info in the most impolite tone possible.

Secession

2007-01-11T11:57:00.000+01:00

November 06: We install an exhibition of Stan Douglas at the Secession, which is a museum for contemporary art in Vienna. We have to erect about 200m2 of walls. There is only one big hall for the show which therefore has to be devided in 3 parts. The show comprises a video projection in the dark but also photographs which have to be shown in light.
The construction team of the Secession has developed a perfect way to erect perfect walls which in this case go from the floor to the ceiling (which is about 8m high).
This system of creating a perfectly white wall consists of 6 steps. First painting of the prefabricated and already erected wall panels, then closing the gaps between the panels with a spezial duct tape. Fill the gaps with spackle. Abrade redundant spackle. Put on a second layer of spackle as the walls are not yet perfectly white. Paint the walls again...

Berlin

2006-10-27T19:25:00.000+02:00

I go to Berlin to see my friend Nuno and to visit Art Forum, the official Berlin art fair. I get to see Berlin's best sides. The weather is warm and sunny, there is not only one art fair, but there are three. There are a lot of gallery openings and big museum shows. I also see "Kaprow City", a new play by Christoph Schlingensief at Volksbühne which is a great anarchistic mess. Quite a few of the actors seem to be retarded. Nevertheless it's interesting to watch them play.
The city is superinspiring and relaxed. The greatest thing about berlin is its liberalism which makes a lot of things happen.

A Photo Shooting

2006-10-26T18:27:00.000+02:00

I get a job as set designer for a photography campaign. A photo series is shot for a (female) hunters’ calendar. The concept is to make catwalks in nature, where the hunters get watched by stuffed animals. It is a huge production. We are around 15 people on the set.
The hunters are dressed in beautiful clothes by a fashion designer. The style is somewhere between the Habsburg Empire and Fellini. We shoot on various locations near the Ötscher in Lower Austria, on a mountain at 1800m altitude, by a waterfall in Styria and at Neusiedler See.
In two trucks we transport around 200 stuffed animals from bears and deer to birds. The whole setup of carrying around dead animals is rather bizarre and also interesting.
The photos turn out to be beautiful and surreal.

Mallorca

2006-10-26T18:05:00.000+02:00

I am invited to Mallorca to attend a friend’s wedding in Port d’Andratx near La Palma. The wedding takes place in a little church at the seaside. Then we are taken to the port of La Palma and have a three hours cruise on an old wooden ship.

In the evening we are invited to a beautiful finca in the mountains where the wedding party takes place.

The next days we rent a car and drive around the island. We discover beautiful landscapes of mountains, rocks, forests and a deep blue sea. I begin to understand why that many people either go on holidays to Mallorca or buy a house there. The climate is extremely pleasant, too.

Sinaia

2006-10-26T17:54:00.001+02:00

is a mountain resort in the middle range Karpats in Romania. We visit the Peles Castle, the summer residence of King Karl I., a member of the German Hohenzollern family. Karl I. was made the first king of Romania (1877-1914) after 400 years of Turkish occupation. He was called 1866 by the Romanians to unite the provinces of Wallachia and Moldova and then was declared king of Romania in 1877 after an independance war against the Ottoman Empire.

On the way to the castle we pass a blind bear which is held as a tourist attraction (want a picture?). We have lunch in a restaurant where we meet the Lover Cat. A Siamese cat approaches Ioana. She sits down on the floor in front of Ioana and watches her for two minutes, which is probably the time she needs to figure somebody out. Then she jumps onto her lap. Ioana caresses her and the Lover Cat slowly makes her way up towards Ioana's neck. She then starts to lick it and does so three times.

Fat Boy Slim

2006-10-26T17:54:00.000+02:00

We go to the Romanian seaside to a place near Constanta. Fat Boy Slim plays a dj-set in a resort called Mamaia. Some 10,000 people are expected to come.
He starts his set with the vocals of "Praise You" mixed with a music and beat different from the original. The gig takes place at the beach. The stage is huge, it has video projections and dancers.
Norman Cook grins like a Cheshire cat during his set. I very much suppose that he is on pills. He sometimes takes a break from dj-ing and sits down on the edge of the stage smiling at his audience.

Karaoke at Winnie's Bar

2006-07-29T17:05:00.000+02:00

Winnie's Bar is a great Karaoke joint on Bayard St (Chinatown). We have our farewell party from the ISCP NY. The guests love to sing and some of the them are great at it. There is a 50ish Italian guy with a tight shirt stretching over his big belly. He just looks like a mafia guy from Little Italy.
During certain songs the tension in the place rises pretty high, people laugh, sing and scream.

A burlesque show at the Slipper Room

2006-07-17T05:08:00.000+02:00

The burlesque show which is held in a bar on the Lower East Side is hosted by a crazy guy dressed in a bunny costume. It features absurd acts like a Russian ninja fighter who takes out candle flames with a whip, a transvestite stripper in a bird costume as well as two fat women playing bad strippers.
The blue bunny who leads through the show is a gay guy who is pretty hard on the audience. His voice oscillates between a high gay tone and ugly dark sounds. He sometimes screams at people, makes fun of them and he is awesome in general. The show is intense and great fun.

A bike trip to Rockaway Beach

2006-07-11T00:27:00.000+02:00

A friend of mine and me ride our bikes to Rockaway Island in a 3 hour trip. It takes 2 freaking hours to cross Brooklyn from Brooklyn Bridge to its Southern tip! Once we get there we cross a bridge which looks like from a Jules Verne book to finally get on the island in the Atlantic Ocean. An Italian girl rides her bike on the island's main road holding up a flag to celebrate Italy's victory in the World Championship.
We go through a deserted military area and reach a sand beach with only a few people. On the other side of the island we find a beach community with neat little wooden houses.

The Mermaid Parade at Coney Island

2006-07-06T20:53:00.000+02:00

Rock!

2006-06-19T05:26:00.000+02:00

The band Awesome Colour who have just been signed by Sonic Youth onto their label SYR play an energetic live gig at the Cake Shop. They consist of a guitar player who has figured out a very special way to play his Rickenbacker guitar fucking fast, a bass player and a young female drummer who bangs the drums like it was the last day on earth. They create an energy onstage which is breathtaking.

Far Rockaway Beach

2006-06-19T05:23:00.000+02:00

Take the subway out to JFK and continue with a shuttle train to the peninsula which lies south of Brooklyn and Queens in the Atlantic Ocean. Like Coney Island this place is a summer hangout for mostly lower class people. The beach is that long that you cannot make out either end of it. It seems like a city on its own stretched out along the ocean.
There is again skywriting but performed only by a single plain whose pilot seems to be drunk. In a shitty way he writes letters across the sky which make up the words „Who is KyleXY?“. This is far away from the perfection of the Fire Island skywriting, but also funnier.
We then cross the peninsula to the Nortwest side where we have dinner in a restaurant by the water. We watch a beautiful sunset behind green islands which look like birds’ paradise. In the background we see airplanes descending to JFK.

Eels are great, part 2

2006-06-19T05:22:00.000+02:00

The Eels play an open air live gig at the World Financial Center by the Hudson River.
They are dressed like freaks in a military-like outfit. Their rowdy appearance seems to shout out Fuck Bush! loud. There is a huge security guy onstage who watches the audience suspiciously. He then starts to perform Karate moves onstage and does other funny things. Latest by then you have realized that he belongs to the band. During the breaks he speaks to the audience things like „I am enjoying this!“ and then goes on to pick up different instruments and play with the band. It is an amazing live gig! After the concert their is a great sunset over the Hudson which is also for free.

Fire Island

2006-05-30T00:13:00.000+02:00

A friend takes me out to Fire Island, which is 1,5 hrs from NYC. As soon as we get off the highway there is a nice breeze from the sea which feels so very different from the heat and humidity you get in the city. The Island stretches out in the Atlantic Ocean over 30 miles and lies in front of Long Island. The water is still quite cold, nevertheless I have a good swim.
Lying idly in the sand I see little airplanes pass by with banners (ads) on their tails. I think, of course there is no place to escape advertising. After a while I discover 5 airplanes in the sky which do skywriting. They emit bits of gas which make up letters. It reads as follows:

Wes Anderson

2006-05-27T21:57:00.000+02:00

I see Wes Anderson (director of Royal Tennenbaums, Life Aquatic etc.) at an exhibition opening in the East Village. After getting advice from a friend of mine i go to talk to him. He is a very nice and quite a shy person. He looks like a 28 years old student. I really like his films, they are very funny and smart.

Fish in the window

2006-05-26T21:15:00.000+02:00

This is Fred. Fred looks at you when you look at him. If you enter the Chinese restaurant where he is forced to live his short life, you could point at him and they will cook him for you. But you don't wanna do that, do you? Instead you just watch this little monster in the shop window.

Modeselektor rock the Apt

2006-05-24T23:03:00.000+02:00

Went to a club called the Apt in the Meat Packing District yesterday. The evening is hosted by the New York record shop Other Music. There is a live gig of the Berlin based electro-techno outfit Modeselektor which is on Ellen Allien's BPitch Control label.
I have a great evening with friends dancing and drinking both intensely. Modeselektor rock the Apt's basement hard! Everybody is dancing. I am dancing and sometimes screaming. As we leave the club it's dawn. It is a nice feeling to be up at dawn after partying hard...

The Ramones Look

2006-05-22T07:30:00.000+02:00

is back in town. It’s tight black jeans (especially at the lower legs), a t-shirt and long black hair. Larry Clark uses the same look for his new film "Wassup Rockers", too.

American Blackout

2006-05-22T07:24:00.000+02:00

is a new documentary about the disfranchisement (Aberkennung des Wahlrechts) of black voters in Florida in 2000 and about the remarkable politician Cynthia McKinney (black female Democrat) of Georgia. The Republicans drove her out in past elections with a trick. They sent their voters to vote for a black Democratic candidate different from Cynthia McKinney instead for a Republican. But in the last elections she fought her way back. She speaks out about issues no-one else dares to and leaves Rumsfeld speechless in Congress.

Philip Seymour Hoffmann

2006-05-16T23:14:00.000+02:00

walks by under my window. I see him go around the corner on the other side of the street. He has a black bag on his shoulder which makes his walking look clumsy. He looks almost like a business guy.
I really like him as an actor. He played in good movies (Todd Solondz’s Happiness, in both P.T. Anderson’s great films Boogie Nights and Punch, Drunk, Love). He also played Capote (for which he won an Oscar) and he makes a good mark in MI3, too.

Four films in four days

2006-05-16T23:11:00.000+02:00

1. Art School Confidential by Terry Zwigoff: Set in an art college, meant to be fun but it’s just piling up stupid clichés. This is very annoying, given that Mr. Zwigoff used to be a good director who made the great comic book adaptation „Ghost World“ in 2001 with Thora Birtch, Scarlet Johansson and Steve Buscemi.
2. Mission Impossible (MI:3) by ... – I don’t remember. Well, it’s an action flic. After the opening scene where Mr. Cruise gets married there is a lot of action going on, the camera is moving constantly, a lot of explosions, shooting and fighting. It’s ok as an action movie.
3. Hard Candy: Quite a horrible film about a 14 years old girl who takes revenge on a pedophile who she deems responsible for the suicide of her friend.
4. The Preposition, after a screenplay by Nick Cave. The movie stars Guy Pearce as one of four brothers who form up a gang. It is set in late 19th century Australia. The scenes are populated with dirty and fucked up people which makes the movie a little different from its American counterparts. The music which was written by Nick Cave is very good. The film is good, too.

Transcontinental Damage

2006-05-16T23:05:00.000+02:00

List of items which broke down so far:
1. Portable CD-Player: breaks down due to a faulty CD.
2. My knees, but they are ok again.
3. My watch gets destroyed as I unintentionally expose it to water having a shower.
4. First pair of blue jeans: get a hole on the backside as I bow down. There is only a small hole at first which widens fast every time I do a similar move.
5. Second pair of jeans, due to a similar event.
6. Cell phone: my Motorola cannot charge the battery anymore.
6. Third pair of jeans, break as I get on my bike.

Trip around Manhattan

2006-05-16T22:44:00.000+02:00

On Sunday evening I take a bike trip at sunset. I ride on the west side along the Hudson to the southern tip of Manhattan. I have a look at the orange disc of the sun slowly going down behind skyscrapers. I head north on the other side of the peninsula along the East River. I pass quite a few ball parks with men playing baseball or other sports. I have a look at Williamsburg at sunset. I feel free and very happy on my bike, i don’t need a car, a bike does it.
I go all the way to the UN-Headquartes on 40th Street. The building looks beautiful in the dark. From the UN I continue West. I come through a little area of Victorian houses. One is a residential building which is called the Cloister. It was a real cloister which they turned into an appartment building. Close to that area superslim skyskrapers rise...

HiFi

2006-05-16T22:35:00.000+02:00

This is my new Hi-fi which looks like a bicycle. Well, it is a bicycle, but it’s a Panasonic. Until i found it, i did not know that Panasonic made bikes. Now i know. You know, too.

Happy Days

2006-04-25T06:13:00.000+02:00

Astoria, Queens

2006-04-25T06:12:00.000+02:00

Friends take us out to dinner in Astoria, which is an area in Queens. We get picked up by car and are driven to a Greek restaurant which is said to have good fish. On our arrival we are a bit disappointed about how basic the place looks like. While we are waiting for a table I have the opportunity to see big grilled fish on the guests’ plates. Yummi!
Our friends who have celebrated their marriage here order grilled calamari and sardines as appetizers and Peter’s fish (as I recall) as main course. I have the best food which I had in NYC so far.
After dinner we are taken to a riverside park in Queens. While we have a smoke we get a glimpse of the Manhattan Skyline in the dark. It looks great how the lights in the buildings make up an irregular pattern. I imagine that this pattern changes every day, as peoples’ lives variate (at least a little) from day to day.
We stand next to the beautiful Triboro Bridge which connects Queens, Manhattan and the Bronx.