Aviation is to the dominance of western contemporary culture what roads were to the Romans. I recently read an article in the EasyJet magazine that discussed how the fall of communism at the end of the 80’s opened up the whole of Europe to low cost flying. It is one of those things you think you know but becomes much clearer when someone writes it down. In this case I am usually not a big fan of the EasyJet in flight magazine with the exception of the Pros and Cons article that provides opposing points of view about a controversial topic such as ’should public nudity be outlawed.’

While I do benefit from this current (VJ) EasyJet culture I don’t think I particularly fit into the demographic of their target reader. Each destination they highlight usually mentions the most hot to trot bistro and trendy night club. The photos of these places contain people I would not normally consort with, although I am sure they are quite lovely and we would probably have an exciting thread or two to share. Otherwise I tend to end up at dirty underground venue or obscure theater that I truly love for being just that. The in flight magazine also features ads for international business schools and real-estate. Yet another area I have very little to do with.

On April 16th, I was supposed to fly to Vienna to perform along with my comrades from the Mapping Festival. My flight from Geneva, where I had just spent the past two weeks, was to depart before theirs. Somehow these were booked separately and my flight had a brief layover in Dusseldorf. Theirs was direct to Vienna. The Dusseldorf airport was closed and my flight was canceled. My comrades made it to Vienna two hours before that airport was closed. I took a train back to Berlin the next morning knowing that, having missed the performance there was no point in trying to get to Vienna as that airport closed the same day.

I had not realized how much emotional stress would be incurred as a result of the eruption of Eyjafjallajokull. I was actually quite cheery about this whole thing. And I still am. But after I returned to the office from the airport I simply could not do anything constructive. I needed to know where I was going and what I would do. At that point I had a ticket for a 17h30 flight to Vienna but I had no firm confirmation if that airport was closed. Externally I was rather joyous about the drama of not having to go to Vienna for the gig.

But below this there was a sort of stress that I did not acknowledge until I had to call my bank (in the U.S.) to figure out why a card had not been operating properly. I started to experience chest pains and this strange and persistent pain in my right arm that I had been living with for the past month, a pain that had subsided somewhat in the past two weeks, regained its presence. It all calmed down once I figured everything out and booked a train from Geneva to Berlin. An 11 hour ride. The trains were not too crowded and this mode of transportation, after flying way too much, going through security, waiting to get on the plane, waiting to get off the plane, waiting for luggage, getting into the center of town. The difference between a 1 hour flight to 11 hour train ride is not much when you consider that the whole affair of getting on a plane actually takes up your whole day.

When I was a child, living in a New York state suburb, volcanoes were fascinating events, but something that happened in the past. And then, Mt. Saint. Helens erupted. But it was so far away that, while it made a big impression on me via the media of the time it really was more like ‘watching a movie.’ Later there was a feature about this event in an issue of National Geographic. For some reason the images in this issue about the event have stayed with me for a long time. One particular shot, it was actually two, was of a person standing on a another snow capped mountain with a view of Mt. Saint Helens, where there was only a bit of ash cloud coming out of it, and then in the 2nd shot the same person was on their ass with their hand to their head as the ash cloud filled the sky above. There was another part of the article with photos of the eruption from below that were taken by someone who was later found dead and the film processed posthumously.

An article notes that the last time Eyjafjallajokull erupted was in 1821, and it continued to do so for two years. Seeing as how there were no airlines back then the consequences were probably not as dire as they are now. But lets consider that point for a moment. In fact, this allows us to consider a range of things. The words ‘absolute necessity’ comes to mind. Endless combination’s of semi doomsday scenarios. Reams of blogs praising, ‘once again nature has proven who runs this show called planet earth.’ Instead of us polluting the air the earth itself has turned and stated very plainly how it too can make life slightly unbearable for us. But how unbearable is it in fact? The actual physical presence of this disaster, while it has caused floods in the immediate vicinity of its homeland, is in fact invisible in most of the areas that are affected with the flight ban. This is something akin to SARS. A rather muted disaster. Earths pillow fight?

Whatever happened to that can do all ingenuity? Can’t fly? Take the train. Can’t get food from far away? Eat something local? Need to have a meeting with someone? Use the internet. Part of me really wishes this would last two years. It would really put into question, in a force able way, how we have been going about things now. Trains in Europe are really quite good. But they could be even better. The model of Frances’ TGV is quite incredible that most people prefer to take the train for Geneva <-> Paris. In general within each state people take the train. But between countries this is still quite difficult. Train fair is still quite expensive compared to airfare at the moment. But if demand for it increased then it could come down.

The reality though is that this whole thing will probably end within a few days and other headlines will replace these. We will quickly forget about what has happened, airlines will go back to just breaking even, rail travel will continue to remain expensive and the problems of the environment will continue to be ignored, and the ’slow crisis’ will continue without any clear resolution.

How delightful.

Ani zocher ha col. Et koolam sh’e hayu krovim ve ketztat me aileh sh’e hayu rechokim. Mi sh’ani lo zocher, lo norah.

Ani chochev sh’e ani zocher et ha bachura ha zot. He oh sa dj’ing?

La’kach li shni-ya aval ani zocher sh’e haya bobcat ba kibbutz k’she samu et ha kvalim bishvil ha telefonim. Le’famim hayu notnim lany lirkav al ze k’she heeviru chol. Ratziti linhog et ze ki chashavti ze k’mo tank.

Ani lo yachol lir’ot otcha k’ orech din. Nidhamti ke’tzat she hitchalta. Meh ha yomim shelanu beyachad ani cho’shev sh’ani lo ya cholti l’damyen ma ratzita m’ ha chaim chutz mi ma sh’ ata. Ani lo yodeya im ze hegyoni ma sh’e katavti po aval lo norah.

Im yiihiyeh kesef bishvil seret sh’e chaver sheli rotza la’asot seret alay, chozer levaker a’chrei esrim shanah. Ani lo kol kach rotzeh lahasot et zeh. Ani lo ohev kol kach lachzor l’mekomot sh’ garti harbeh z’man. Aval Adi rotzah lahaa’sot et zeh ve ha chaverah sheli, Tinet, me’od rotzah levaker b’aretz as ani k’mo kelev tov. L’irot otcha od pa’am ani choshev ze y’hiyeh tov.

Ka sheh ke’tzat l’hazbir ma ani oseh achshav. Lef’amim ani b’koshi yodeha atzmi ma holech. Ani gar be Berlin ve lefamim yored le Geneva bishvil ha’avodah sh’ani oseh. Harbeh tisot m’ir l’ir, mishtatef im hotza’ot ve melamed ech la’haasot ma sh’ani oseh im a machshev ba hotza’ot ha eyleh.
Aval ba makor, ani mishtadel la’haasot ma sh’e ha lev omer li. Ze me’od kashe. Aval ani choshev sh’s ze mishtalem.

Moozar ma sh’karah im Oudi ve Neri. Tamid chashavti sh’e hem ahavu et ha chaim ba kibbutz. Lefachot ze ma sh’e hem amru li az. Sh’mati sh’ David gam gar b’Germania. Ma im zeh? Zeh tze’elonim bishvilcha.

I’ma katva sefer al ha y’aldut she’la ba mirchama:

http://www.miriamkatin.com/

Aba b’pensia.

Ach sh’eli oved bishvil eizah firma anakit shel orech di’nim. Hu m’chutan v’ein lahem yeladim. Ani lo medaber ito bichlal achshav. Hayu lanu ba’ayot v’ein li koach yoter bishvil zeh. K’mo sh’ha imah sh’eli ohevet l’haagid: ein davar.

Ani? Ein le yeladim ve’ Tinet v’ani lo metachnenim al zeh. Yesh l’anu et ha d’varim sh’anachnu rotzim la’haasot v’zeh harbeh. Metachnenim mtaishehu lagur me’ chutz la ir. Aval nir’eh. Oulai od chamesh shanim? Oulai yoter karov mi’ zeh.

Ani zocher:
Stalin
Bosmat
Concert Kaveret
Oni
Ha chaverah ha m’shugaat shel oni sh’ ratztah lishkav iti ve amarti la ‘lo.’
Ha bachura sh’shneinu hishkavnu. Atah zocher et zeh?

Lamadeti mashe’hu al atzmi ba zman ha zeh. Ani adayin mamshich lil’ mod me hazman ha zeh ve kol hazmanim lifnei v’acharei. Kol kach harbeh sipurim, v’lichtov achshav al zeh noten l’machshavot goof.

Ani m’kaveh sh’zeh lo yoter mi dai bishvil cha ma sh’ani kotev poh.

Ani m’vin lama atah lo rotzeh la’haazov et haaretz. Eifoh Zebrah? Lo shm’aati al hamakom ha’zeh lifnei oh achrei sh’dibarta al zeh al ha kasehtah sh’shalachta. Aaron v’ani hayinu machshivim l’zeh. Ani lo yodeha aifo zeh achshav.

Ani tzarich l’sayem achshav.

Chaverchah,
ilan bar yochanan

I recall a story by Robert Crumb about his days in San Francisco during the late 60s. At some point the concept of using LSD to open the mind and developing ones inner self turned into more of a horse race of how much of it one could take without self destructing.

This scenario reminds me a bit of how people in the VJ scene tend to focus on what kind of rig they are using as opposed to how they are using it. A quote similar to this one can be found on many of the VJ oriented forums:

“I gotta get me a MacPro with 4 outputs, Max ram, SSD hard drive and 4 TH2Go’s! Yeah baby!”

Around 2001 I attended a class about video broadcast technology at the Sony campus in San Jose, California. The gentleman who was teaching the class was a veteran of the Broadcast industry, responsible for bringing D1 to CBS. Another VJ friend of mine, Owen Bush, called people like him ‘The umpah loompahs of the broadcast industry.’ Their primary goal is getting the signal to the consumer as consistently as possible with the bandwidth available regardless of what is being broadcast.

This obsessiveness is commendable. When the material being presented requires it to remain consistent, no drop frames, no unexpected causes, a small glitch can really take a lot a way from the experience.

However it is said that the question never arises what it is that is being presented? In fact, this was a statement posed by our teacher at Sony. It was not a question. When he said it there was a pause. He stared at us. We stared back. And the lesson about whatever it was, some particular piece of the pie, continued.

About a month ago my friend Adi proposed that we make a short form piece with her friend Alice in her extended family inheritance Chateau in Switzerland. The basic outline was that Alice would be a ghost killer. After she sent me the first rough draft we started to evolve the plot a little and landed on a marble obsessed ghost that would be played by me. We shot the whole thing in less then two days.
It was all very energizing and inspiring. Only three of us, a camera, audio recorder and gorilla pod.

After the weekend we all met up together again in Berlin and met with our editing and sound person, Jenine. She knocked out a rough cut for us, practically over night. Her work revealed some structural problems with the ending. So we got the camera and shot new material. Budget? What budget?

The project is now in the loving hands of Jenine.

Our apartment has been having some problems with mold. This drives Tinet crazy. The door you see here connects our room to the rest of the apartment. In previous photos, specifically the one with Tinet wearing the tank hat, there was a very nice fabric that covered up the window panes. Somehow the mold got hold. After the clean up Tinet decided it was better to just paint them. And so we did. Tinet painted red wild piggies. In my usual bizarre fashion I painted a six eyed something with hairy legs.

The mold battle is also taking place in the bathroom and the main kitchen, dining area of the apartment. It looks like we’ll have to consider moving out sometime this year.

Was approached by VJ Kolouch (aka Jan Sramek) to do a video piece for a Cafe in Brno, Czech some months ago. Actually lost track of it was to be video or drawings or videos of drawings or none of them. Ideas floated around and then here comes the deadline. Around this time, maybe a week or so, Bleepstreet took an interest in having some existing drawings come together for some cover art for an upcoming maxi single release. I decided to combine the two. Any interesting shots from the video will end up being the cover art and then the single itself will be the unheard sound track of the video to be displayed in Brno. The result will be that on the interwebs there will be a video with the track that will match the cover art.

Video is due soon as it is supposed to go up on Feb. 14th. A pdf that is an online magazine for this project in Brno has been release today. The designer took a lot of liberties, changing the color of some of the drawings to orange, changing orientations. In short, I love it for several reasons. The use of color anticipates drawings I made last summer using color. Somehow the figure in the center looks like a fantastic prince with a dunce cap. Very inspiring.

Photo by Iwo Gospodinow at fashionfreaks. The link will take you to a nice shot of Raquel Meyers, Computadora of Bleepstreet and Claudia Peña De Silvestri.

Last weekend Tinet and I attended a party. The main reason was to see my good friends Meneo perform. Always good to see them. Rigo in his ever radiantly in the moment self, Raul always with a lovable wasted look. The event was actually an after party for the Bread & Butter Festival. Big fashion thing. It took place in an underground venue called Villa. Very much my kind of place. Graffed walls, crumbling ceilings. The invitation noted that people should dress to be interviewed and photographed. So I could not just go to see Meneo. I had to also see if I could make myself a spectacle. And so a plan was devised. I actually don’t know why I am so surprised with the outcome.

A photo of Rigo. There is some video as well that faithfully captures the energy that Meneo put on. The room was packed.

The stairwell to the second floor had some beautiful, illegible writing and the white light dots complimented them nicely.

was an impact that shook the ground under him, and then he heard a
noise like a huge ripping explosion. A dozen lofty geysers of snow
streamed up into the air, dazzling against the sun, misty at the edges
of each column, whose center was solid tons and tons of snow. Old pines
and spruces, their branches shaved away in the tumult of the slide, were
picked up and hurled like javelins over the cliff; a shower of fragments
beat on the body of Bull; and then the main mass of snow washed up over
the edge of the cliff in a great mound, and the slide was ended. He
crawled slowly back to his feet. Far up the mountainside, beginning in a
point, the track of the slide swept down in a broadening scar, black and
raw, across forest and snow. Far down the valley the last echoes of
thunder were passing away to a murmur, and the valley floor, beneath the
cliff, was a mass of snow and tree trunks. Bull took off the snowshoes
and climbed along the valley wall until he could descend to the clear
floor beneath him. Then he headed down toward Johnstown. It was well
past midday when he es

One week. And thoughts spill out through questions.

INFIDELITY CONSTANT v17 by decrepticon

Set list:
Listing:
The Brain (Steve Allen) [excerpt]
One Instance In Another (Anderegg)
Hot On The Heels of Love (Throbbing Gristle)
Shutout (The Walker Brothers)
Ashtray Heart (Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band)
I Feel Mysterious Today (Wire)
The Love Montage (Soundtrack for film ‘Images’) [excerpt] + something else with bongos
Missing (The Melvins)
Hiroshima Mon Amour (Ultravox)
Lumpy Gravy (The Mothers of Invention) [exerpt]
When Shade Was Shade Was Born (Harmonia)
The Light Pours Out Of Me (The Magazines)
Patron Saint of Troubled Men (Alexander Tucker)
Hotlegs [Found on lovefingers.org]
Bricked Thickly [Thick As A Brick extract dub]

<< Update. Changes were made and the track mix was removed from Sound Cloud. A new one has taken its place. >>