tvc15

More Songs About Buildings and Food

The Architecture II section has been added and mainly takes a look at old buildings. Or sometimes the architecture of the past clashing with more recent efforts. It appears strange the shots were taken in the same cities as the ones of Architecture I, under the same sun, at the same time of the year. But like in a giant Sim City game our cities develop a harsh mixture of the old, the new and all the mediocre things in between. So who is responsible for the general planning?

Strange Logo

The picture to the left is from Munich, found on the side of an inner city building. Coming out of the darkness of my pocket the mobile once again exaggerated the contrast of this logo. Appearing somehow devilish, like a medieval bat out of hell it was the first time I noticed it on a trip to Munich though I passed the building dozens of times. But it´s no evil club residing there, it´s not the icon of Bavarian Free Masons or whatever springs to mind. If you look closely and understand a bit of German you will see the words "Spar" and "Kasse", meaning "Savings Bank". So is this a bit of a warning that money is evil?

All The World´s A Stage...

Watching videos from the 1978 tour this afternoon, I can´t deny that the name of this photoblog is has indeed been inspired by the Bowie song TVC15. In fact the letters and numbers were not randomized by the Typepad computer and spat out to name my site. David Bowie will be the subject if he ever to chooses to offer something new apart from rereleases and compilations to the public. Because standing on stage in 1978, behind the seminal Chamberlain was as far as possible from the rerelease business machine we do se now.

Summer In The City

On May 18th minus temperatures were possible, ten days later the heat on the balcony is buzzing at 32 degrees Celsius in the shade... Panjabi Bill was chilling out last night (as you can see on the photo) when we went to see him for some food and drinks left over from the Chill Bill event. The most dangerous thing on the table was his homemade devilish pickle with Scotch Bonnets chillies. We did try a little bit on Thursday afternoon, but now I put about two full tea- spoons on my plate. It´s unbelievable hot, a grower and it doesn´t go away for ages, no matter what you do eat or drink afterwards. Be afraid, be very afraid. Apart from that it was delicious...

Chill Bill Hangover

Heaven knows why I have to work today... I´m on a diet of sparkling drinks and feel rather odd with my red and buz- zing head. 99% of Germany seems to have taken Friday off and is jamming the inner city of Cologne, shopping, eating ice cream and drinking lager (NO GOOD, don´t mention lager or that crude substance called Jägermeister today).

Chill Bill was quite funny, the 19.00 finish was extended to 21.00, but even then we were asked to play "One more!" or even continue until 22.00. Panjabi Bill shouted "Turn it up!" more than once, though the master volume was already at 10. We attracted no police this time, so the neighbours must have liked the music too. The CD of the last song "jumped", the only real letdown technology wise that afternoon. That way a radical remix of Odysseys "Native New Yorker" finished the party.

You grew up ridin' the subways, running with people
Up in Harlem, down on Broadway
You're no tramp, but you're no lady, talkin' that street talk
You're the heart and soul of New York City

We´ll be back with Chill Bill later this summer! Pictures of yesterday might be added later, haven´t checked them last night.

And yes, I found a track in my record box by lucky chance, I have been searching for ever since this Easters Jaded afterparty at The Egg in north London! I knew I had it "somewhere" but didn´t remember more than the chorus melody. It´s Soulsearcher featuring Donna Allen "Feeling Love". Check it out, it´s a real summer house screamer anthem.

Ladies And Gentlemen...

...please welcome: THE SUMMER. It´s here! So Chill Bill should be busy this afternoon, if not all people choose to go to the Pollerwiesen opening. The parks were full of folks last night, BBQing, juggling badly with torches, drinking loads of lager, listening to music from boom boxes. Our party ran out of alcohol and the next fresh barrel took some time to arrive. We made up for the wait afterwards and somehow drinking more alcohol today seems very unlikely. Starting the day off with a bottle of mineral water is the more obvious choice. Though I might change my mind in two hours or so. Did I tell you that DJing in the bright sunlight can be a pain in the ass? So if Panjabi Bill hasn´t got this big umbrella ready, we´re facing diffi- culties that might lead to alcohol abuse, sooner or later.

Lost In The Supermarket

Have you ever been lost in the supermarket, with your camera in your hand? Especially the bigger markets display huge masses of food, products and bargains that look unreal in the shopping-friendly neon lights. All lined up in rows, just dumped into freezing boxes, sometimes carefully ad- justed to stimulate your purse. Quite often the food starts to look ugly, pale or strangely tinted, possibly far from the original intentions of the product designers and their salesmen. Impressions from two local markets are now being shown in the section to the left. Happy shopping!

Das Wichtigste...

Cologne - Munich and back in one day. Getting up at 05.10, home shortly after 22.00. Don´t you love it? At least some new photos were shot, Munich and especially it´s airport always provide some stunning objects for photography. As this billboard in Terminal II. With just a light case in my hand and my head on my shoulders, I thought the message is very true...

Lazing On A Sunday Afternoon

Slight additions to Dark Trains and visions of Cyprus 2003 have surfaced today. Announced the site at some blog and photo blog pages as well. So if you landed here for the first time today: Welcome!

26.05.2005

Catholicism, don´t you love it sometimes? At least it gives us another public holiday here in Cologne next Thursday. Fronleichnam, if you like strange words from Germany.

So we heard rumours Chill Bill will start off if the weather is sunny (or at least lacking hailstorms, blizzards and tropical monsoons). 14.00 the session might take off so be prepared. Uma will not turn up but possibly Panjabi Bill in a yellow overall.

Plus all the faces you expect to be there... Sunny side up!

Chill Bill

By the way, this blog is not about the weather, don´t get the wrong idea. The messy spring has just been mentioned a few times, because warm and dry days are missing this year.

Just like to add that this summer will see a new event called Chill Bill on the week- ends with proper weather. Chill Bill is run by the one and only Panjabi Bill and a low key, word of mouth session at the Ifficial Art HQ garden. As the Retro- spective was recently drowned in rain, we thought we might start some mellow sessions out in the open this summer. No advertising (so what is this here...), just a few people hang- ing out, having a drink, some food and ambient music (and slightly souped up summer house...). We´ll see. Ah yes, music provided by me (DJ Khar Krash), joined by Marco (a.k.a. Lisa Stansfield) and possibly some Tibetan nose flute experts...

Pete Townshend

Is 60 years of age today. And the world is still waiting for his autobiography. After reading his novel Horse's Neck in the 80s and listening to many of his lyrics a million times, I´d expect a very interesting book to turn up. Leave alone the possible chapters about his recent, difficult years.

Somehow he hoped he´d die before he´d get old. Now he´s 60, while Moon and The Ox might be having a bit of a ball in heaven, joking about Roger and Pete playing those lame shows...

Most people still measure Pete only by his work for the Who: the Tommy mastermind, his seminal use of synth lines in a rock band, of course the trashed guitars, the stage persona. However I can´t stop praising his solo works, the many outtakes on the Scoop albums, the brilliant solo shows from the 80s and 90s.

So there you go Pete, open up more Eelpie sessions, earn some money and let us hear and see more. And don´t forget the book!

Winter Clouds

Back from two days in Hamburg the last section of the Just Clouds project was added: Winter Clouds. Strange enough minus temperatures were once again predicted for some parts of Germany tonight. Come on, June is just around the corner...

Talking of Hamburg, more mobile shots were made there, some will be added to existing or new photo sections within the next days and weeks.

Autumn Clouds

Need to say more? Autumn Clouds from the Just Clouds project have been added to the photo section (to the left, to the left). This is possible my favourite section, because of those warm, red tones.

Some sort of premature autumn hits the local weather at the moment, think we´ll skip summer this year. Pollerwiesen should have been on Monday, but was rescheduled to Sunday, because of the positive outlook. Now the weather changed again and it looks like a long wet weekend. Can we do an inverted rain dance? No rain, no rain, no rain...

Trans Europa Express

Little needs to be said about Kraftwerk, the true pioneers of warped grooves, electronic soundscapes of quality and distinction, technopop in it´s original meaning. After years of hibernation they came back and played two concerts in Cologne on 27./28.03.2004. These pictures are from the first gig. Exposure times and the lack of a camera stand took their toll, but hey, I love those shots in motion. Especially because Kraftwerk are a quiet, more or less motionless act. So enjoy this technicolour laptop dream, to be found on the left in the Trans Europa Express photo section.

"Wir gehen in den Klub. Und wir fangen an zu Tanzen..."

Summer Clouds

The next Section of the Just Clouds project has been added: Summer Clouds are here! Hopefully they will turn up in reality as well...

I might add that all Just Clouds shots have all been done with my Fuji MX-2900. Other pics on this page are from my Casio EX-Z4, while the "real dodgy ones" come from the Nokia 7610 mobile. Well, the Nokia is alright for the quick everyday snapshot. So many times one thought "I should have my camera with me" but with the camera function in mobiles around this is no excuse anymore.

Nearly all Just Clouds pictures were taken from our living- room, thru the windows. Therefor the project was called "Windows" for a while, but this  sounded too microsoftish. I can´t recall the ones that were taken from other places, but I guess they represent not much more than 1% of the 223 shots. This means at least every second day one photo was taken. To be honest there has been a little bit of cheating. Spring clouds photographs have been taken from 2000 and 2001.

Don´t tell anyone!

Passing Strangers

Digital photography means blow ups are easy to achieve with computer tools - no more silly developing in darkened rooms or expensive jobs for the local photo shop. Looking at some of my pictures closely I discovered many strangers on the pictures, buzzing around the main focus, standing in the background, hiding in the wings. Passing strangers that never were asked to be on the shots, didn´t volunteer to be taken home on a memory card, to be grossly enlarged and to become the main focus of attention. Nor to pop up on this page. Here they are, in the Passing Strangers photo section on the left hand side.

Just Clouds

The Just Clouds project ran from 2000 - 2001. The idea was to capture four consecutive seasons of clouds and putting the 25 best shots of each season onto a website. The programming of the site turned out to be much more boring than taking the shots and choosing the favourite ones. Hence the project was ditched, though the website still exists in it´s early, unfinished form. Go and find it...

So finally some of the pictures will be shown here. As it´s still spring at the moment, we´ll obviously start with Spring Clouds, see photo section to the left. More of this soon...

The "About" text on the original page reads:

This site features digital images of clouds.

Just clouds. Nothing more, nothing less.

When was the last time you looked at a cloud ?

All photos were taken with a Fuji MX-2900 ZOOM digital camera.

Most of the pictures capture clouds that were visible in Cologne/Germany/Europe.

Besides scaling no other digital treatments were used, if not otherwise stated.

Strange Dates Galore

Did you ever wonder that there is still a multitude of strange dates ahead? I mean those funny LETSMARRYANDMAKEITASPECIALDATE occasions. We just have passed 05.05.05, so there is 06.06.06 lurking, 07.07.07 not far away, 08.08.08 in reach and 09.09.09 just around the corner. 10.10.10 might be a biggie, not to forget about 11.11.11, and finally 12.12.12, a yuletide special. After that we´re fucked for a long time, I guess. Like 08.08.88 to 09.09.99.

After The Flood

Putting on open air events in Germany is even in May a game of it´s own unreliable kind. Seems the Tsunami-aid character of the event didn´t stop heaven to flood it´s gates and even gave us some nasty hail- storm interlude on Saturday afternoon. Leave alone the temperatures... Moreover, the sunny bits in between confused not only us and made setting up the DJ equipment another game of chance. Once put up under an umbrella it started raining AGAIN and left us fleeing down into the bunker, because the umbrella was not waterproof by any means...

Six photographs from the festival site have just been added to the Retrospective 1992 - 2005 section to the left. The photos have been given a very rough treatment with a picture program to enhance the comic-like character of the mobile shots. Especially the strange ants in the garden now seem to have jumped straight out of a computer game. The crashed plane looks stranger than ever, since the recent shower left some sort of fog on the roof. And one picture is no piece of art, but you may find that out by yourself.

The original names of the art objects and the artists will be added during the next days. The master of ceremonies is busy cleaning up the area, I heard. Didn´t count the empty bottles of beer, but I´m sure I saw "some" when I left.

Let´s Move To Barcelona!

The open air season does not start this weekend. Due to bad weather the party tomorrow has been cancelled: 15.05. is the new date. The session on Sunday will happen, but taking the weather reports seriously my set will have to take place in an old WW II bunker on the Ifficial Art site. No problem at all as we can turn the music up louder in there, with the program possibly shifting from ambient to beefy beats to warm the freezing, soaking, arty-farty crowd.

Trevion Prater

Forget the viagra, sex, refinance, win-an-ipod mails you get every day! I just got this mail at work and this makes spamming more interesting, because I don´t have a clue what it is about. Sounds like a random word mail to confuse spam guards. It´s brilliant computer age poetry, so have a look:

Hallo, Alivia!

this wave lip-Read first. why bird hamstringed it joyously? irritably office foresaw an birth with bear. we hid that happy test around jewel. painfully. our same color considering drain, that outputted thin, cheap bear. Liliana bid her cruel key. they underdid Elias why beset me Gretchen! it betook smooth son, which heard silently... onto edge overrode metal, bird withdrew onto your ink along dark prose:

we struck an hollow use against our first clock, which flew awkwardly. some bitter tray quit underneath some card; possible, opposite butter. true run trousers rehearde, i unknitted weakly, clearly, softly. his special pleasure overate upon his property; sad, natural powder. he chose our sharp powder beside this low death, that held mortally. he clung us kind. they wove kind dollar, that oversaw well...

undid my right plane,
Trevion PRATER.

Project: Life

An IT Manager just told me, that these days the whole life seems to be some sort of project business one has to undertake. This is his conclusion after nearly 50 years on Planet Earth. IT Managers normally come up with such comparisons, but I think there is a lot of truth in this. Get the blog project running, organize your finances, plan your next holiday trip, realize your next career step, look for a home, a movie to watch, the best software to install... All one by one, the different project phases, looking for alternatives, rating them, paying for external consultancy, pursuing the favourite alternative, ending projects, constructing follow-ups.

In the end you remember what David Byrne may have meant many years ago:

And you may ask yourself
How do I work this?
And you may ask yourself
Where is that large automobile?
And you may tell yourself
This is not my beautiful house!
And you may tell yourself
This is not my beautiful wife!

Architecture I

The Architecture I section was added tonight. It shows pictures  of several modern buildings in European cities. Focusing the attention on the front of the buildings reveals repeating structures of glass, steel and concrete, patterns of modernism, surely hard to keep clean. Mirroring blue skies can make the buildings somehow appear more friendly, grey skies often bring out the worst sides of modern architecture. On some shots the blue, often tinted windows appear almost unreal on the concrete, compared to the lighter blue of the sky.

Turkish Pop Star

At lunch I saw a photo of a Turkish pop star who looked like Michael Jackson in drag. Maybe it is Michael Jackson in drag, hiding miles from the court and Uncle Sam, while a double plays him. Sadly the name slips my mind now and I can´t show you a picture. As soon as I find one, it will be posted here. Ladies and Gentleman, we haven´t got him...

Weather Update

The weather reports say it will be raining for most of the week and temperatures are down 15 degrees from Sunday to Sunday. Well, we´ll see what happens and if the open air season will really start they way it should.

Rollout

Today TVC15 was officially launched. Bring the kids in.