layout update but not much

With the Beatles playing in the background, the bathroom faucet dripping, my hunger increasing and my cough not giving up on me, I took on updating the blog's layout and studying its guts. It's really not that complicated, the results and necessary work depend a lot on which layout is chosen to start from.

Since the easy part is done, the next step is to include a better header/page picture and box the 3 different areas, content, title and sidebar... but I'll only work on that if I feel a terrible need for such eye-candy (ie. show off some amazing technical skills...).

Picture kudos to this external post. (I'm still working on implementing trackbacks, ok!)


Scenes of the next posts:

• a layout improvement?
• poi and how my neck hurts from too much practice
• how tonight's or tomorrow's Italian cooking with my most recent visitor, Rossella, tasted;
  
• whatever comes to my mind that is worth mentioning or just storing some stuff up here (the ethereal world of the www) for future reference...

I need to get out more...

n.-

after a little downtime

Berlin

Spending too much time at home in the undisciplined and brainless way I do can be so provocatively unproductive. I already knew that but really only noticed it on my way to Berlin.

After hosting those two brilliant girls living in that city, N&A, I accepted their invitation to spend some time 600km up north of mine, check out the start of the Berlin Contemporary Art Biannual and the city itself. The car share I found to ride up there was of prime quality, it felt like riding on a train (my favorite motorized travel mean), calmly sitting, had some leg space, people were not talking... well, it had all it needed to be a quiet and enjoyable ride. After a meditative two hour nap, I picked up my notebook, my camera and started writing, sketching and taking pictures just for the hell of it.


That was the crucial moment of enlightenment, it was just so damn cool and pleasant not to be distracted by TV, internet, e-mails...

Berlin... oh what a city! For a start, on the way into its center, I noticed how Munich, compared to it, is so small. I would like to express my impression of the city with (lots of) simple words, but it's quite hard, there's just so much to see, do and experience over there.

Tacheles, the most touristic squat (not sure if it is 100% a real one) where artists stay to create, express themselves, expose (and sell?). There are other similar and more underground places, the ones not everybody know about (and where tourists do NOT go to) and which I will have to check out another time. When N&A came to Munich, they asked if there was anything like that over here... I know there are (or singular, is...) but they're not as "open" as this one... in the end, the most direct answer would be: no, there is/are none!

That place is a revolution in the making but with a touch of civilization. Hell, there is a bar on the last floor with a view over the yard and the side wall of the nearby building where some movies/pictures are projected. Some of the exposed art pieces are plain and pure crap but there are some interesting items, people and projects blooming there.







Kreuzberg, the brilliant neighborhood. Susi lives there and I can now understand why. A CS meeting was held there on Friday - a great opportunity to meet the local community and the event organizers.

People of that neighborhood are so chilled, restaurants so good, prices quite low (compared to munich), streets so busy, night-life so active, bars so cool...

Gosh... might I be thinking about moving over there?:D:D:D






Who said walking a dog could not be interesting? Lemon, Susi's trusted white, coarse hair, barking partner loves a walk in the park. That dog is a little white alpha-bitch that just ignores every dog or human while walking and sniffing its way, posting some pee-mails to keep the messaging with the other canines up-to-date.

Dog breeds over there are as varied as the hats their owners wear! I am not bitching, but all I see over here in good old M to the u, n, i, c, h are Jack Russell Terriers (cool energetic dog) and Labradors (gentle family dog). I guess/know that this city is trendy in a very classical and boring way.



It is not a city devoid of problems. Going there from where I live makes my eyes and ears open themselves out wide. There are lots of punks but not all are problematic - in the end it is just an attitude, a way of living... but those living on the edge, extreme-right racists can be an issue. I was told that among punks, they can be spotted by their black army boots with white shoelaces. (Note: Punks are just an example community here) The most publicly official statement of that "danger" situation is a nice, large orange sticker on the front door of every tram - the first emergency entry I ever saw.
"We provide protection against racist attacks"



The second time I was in Berlin, we went to a cool italian restaurant and during the meal, this woman with a big package comes in , talks to the owner, takes her harp out of the bag and plays for the well-fed audience (I already wrote about this, didn't I?)
This time around, we went to the b-flat jazzbar, it was jam session night. While the musicians were playing, this guy in a white shirt and thin black tie, jumps on the stage and jam-tap-dances! Some sax players take a turn later on but they never topped the the tap-dancer's act (now quickly say those last words five times in a row...).

I learned a new expression about the city shortly before this travel, "Berliner Schnauze", entirely related to the local city people hospitality. The best verbal picture I could get: the butcher you know for the last two years, still treats you the same despicable way and despises you the same way he does everybody else. The best graphic picture I could put my digital Canon eye on:


For those shamefully not blessed with some vocabulary of this beautifully romantic and sensual germanic language, the sign gracefully reads: "Hey, for your money, you get: warm beer, cold coffee, shit schnaps, old sausage and a bad service, BUT, warm water to wash your hands". They might have a berlin snout, humor seems nonetheless to be definitely part of that expression.


I love cheap useful tricks

Today some friends and I went to Becks Cocoa (in Munich), a comfy and cool little bar specialized in... you got it, cocoa! All the year long, they supply on saturdays and sundays breakfast for free, only drinks have to be paid for - a brilliant concept if you ask me and my wallet:)

I am going to jump briefly to another item...
Recently, a (excellent) photographer friend of mine showed me the most useful camera DIY idea ever - a String Tripod.
As brilliant as my IXUS70 can be, it has no image stabilizer, plus, I hate to carry lots of stuff around (just like everybody else), this is a superb small gadget to have at reach - mainly now that my photographic self (not to mistake with my photogenic self) is blooming.

I am still looking for the fitting 1/4 inch screw and get started, but there I was at Cocoa, capturing some precious moments without it (life still goes on, right...), but still really eager to prooftest the accessory. You know what? It was actually very simple to test the string stabilizer technique, I just held the camera up and with my left hand, pulled the wrist strap down. This causes tension in 2 directions: one down with the strap and the other one holding the camera, up... which actually stabilizes the image pretty well. There you go... TADAAA!!!!

Other than that super simple easy-does-it tip, there are alternative ways to stabilize that picture, I tried one and it looks like I managed to make it happen... it does require quite some mental effort, just check out that needle hitting the red-line on the brainpower-o-meter... yeah baby yeah...



saturday (night) cheers from the evil hypnotizing Dr. No...

n.-

every little thing starts somewhere

I was about to go to bed. So I turned off my TV after watching bits of Leni Riefenstahl's Olympia 1 & 2 (Festival of the nations & Festival of beauty). It's the artistic documentary on the 1936 Olympic Games held in Germany - games used back then as nazi propaganda, but that is not the point of this post.

Some years ago, Rammstein covered Depeche Mode's Stripped (I love both versions) and the video is made out of footage from those documentaries.

My favorite part of the video, around 2/3rds of its run, is the diving competition and the way some of the jumps were filmed. The ones in reverse are particularly beautiful, they just look SOOOO GOOD - I thought back then that those were the video producer's work. But no, the whole video is 100% untouched footage of that 50+ year old docu.

I regret not having searched for more of Leni's work previously because I want to watch more of it now. She was supposedly not connected to the party, she just happened to be a very good artist whose qualities were then used for their purpose.

Munich, in its turn has the Olympiapark, where the 1972 Summer Olympics were held, games that became infamous after a Palestinian group took the Israeli olympic team hostage - Munich (2005) supposedly portraits the events, another movie I promised myself I would watch... 3 years ago:P

The structure still exists, it's a cob-web-like plexy-glass and steel structure. It's supposedly the olympic (infra-)structure surviving and being used the longest after its original purpose. Both Munich soccer teams (FC Bayern München and TSV 1860 München) had it as their home but were happy to get their own stadium (the actual Allianz Arena) as it was not the most comfortable sport arena when weather was not favorable. That also seems to reflect on every other activity to be held there, because they now do not know what to do with the structure and it is not generating income to keep its maintenance going.

My curiosity for these two specific Olympics started with an article about what is there to be done with the now so old Olympiapark, also called "Oly" by its friends.

The construction's design symbolizes lightness vs. the heavy monolithic arena of the 1936 games. Its shape harmonizes with the surrounding green hills and even the seats are in 2 or 3 shades of green, pushing the landscape integration another notch. It is a particular place to appreciate for its symbolism, architecture and engineering milestone!

It is just too bad that it's not the landmark it used to be - visitors now go to the Allianz Arena (the more modern architecture and sport icon - thanks to Herzog & de Meuron) and I can only predict that they will bring the structure down... one day... probably to build a carpark, office buildings or extend BMW's nearby factory:P

What goes around comes around. The Beijing Olympic Games are also proving to be a political issue, I mean, the incidents between China and Tibet are. Now the safe passage of the Olympic torch relay is not guaranteed in some places. So I read that the Olympic torch relay as we know it nowadays, initially based on an antic Greek myth, has actually been "fine-tuned" for the 1936 games.

What started as the appreciation of architecture and design, moved on to a history lesson and then to the further appreciation of photo and video art. As a matter a fact, I will be in Berlin to visit a friend of mine, a video installation artist. All of this is just the right inspiration and a good oportunity to take some good old film B&W shots.

n.-

P.S. While I host people, I supply information about the city and slowly all those little tidbits are included. Is that the career of a tour guide growing in me?... Naaaaaa, I don't think so! :) The truth is, I know more about this city than any other I ever lived in.

P.P.S. By the way, the Berlin Stadium still exists, it was renewed in 2004 according to this and was the stage of the 2006 World Cup final (besides other games too).