08-08-08

What a date … other people marry or kill themselves … I felt more like making a Super 8 film. 8 seconds long of course. Just in front of the film center – Paolo filmed, I was the actress making that symbolic secret gesture >>> infinity turns to Super 8 <<< with beautiful LA traffic in the background – first coproduction Dagie-Echoparkfilmcenter, hooray!

Open Screening at Echo Park Film Center

They hold it 4 times a year. Tonight was like the reopening after summer break, everybody’s welcome to bring their own films and show them. All formats: Super 8, 16 mm, DVD, miniDV … Interesting mix! Where’s the border between private stuff and art, between boredom and give-it-a-chance and fresh beauty. I saw amazing scenes – cool animals in the LA Zoo, oldfashioned girls parading butterflies on leashes, flickering pieces of crispy color portraits on 16 mm, weird taxidermy trailers, snow sliding children … and much more … all embedded in Paolos welcoming way of presenting everybody … and food and drinks! And my Heisenberg-Pasta-Salad … (if you want the recipe, mail me). I enjoyed it. Californians are crazy. Feels like home. I have no fear walking home in the soft summer night. I’m inspired. Tomorrow’s a new day and I’m ready for the next episode.

Meet the heat

Only frozen Northeuropeans do that: walk around in the midday heat! I love it! I have to! I walk up and down the steep streets of Echo Park, feeling more and more at home. Familiar. Taking a break to say hello to the Lady of the Lake. Super8filming ducks and fountain water drops. Claiming my surroundings., walking, walking, watching.

The Lucky Dragon and the Lonely Banjo Girl from Oregon

Paolo took me for a wonderful bikeride through the city tonight: first stop just around the corner on a roof of a building, full 360 sight of the city – my beloved (musical!) palm tree line to the south, gigantic i-pod-ad to the east, lots of helicopters and some stars above us, downtown lights to the west, and north I don’t know because the band was starting, i-pod-generation unplugged, three guys/girls with weird electronic instruments (one we detected as an asian kind of tiny harp with metal tongues), inviting the audience to join and to touch stones and to move them over magical mysteries (like Theremin!), synapses connected, touching hands, feeling vibes, producing music. Very beautiful and melodic! Short and selfconscious. Their name is The Lucky Dragon.
What a ride in a warm night! Speeding down almost traffic-empty streets, heading Chinatown, ending up in a small club in the middle of small Chinatownroads smelling yummy fish from the day before (correct me Paolo if I get anything wrong:-) and finding ourselves there together with a quiet audience listening to a young singer with a banjo, dressed in an unfavorable scottish kilt, but good voice! What an unbeatible courage! Then came a solo drummer who drummed solo on his kit, he looked like Joerg Heitmann in his younger age but that image comes from organic beer that Paolo bought in a chinese shop just before the gig so I close down this blog for the night and leave you all with a heart full of warmth and variety.Love, Dagie   

good morning sunshine

now finally i got a computer at home and i am going to update my LA-blog every day, promised!My youth class workshop starts on Monday so I have plenty of time to stroll around my new neighborhood – Echo Park – and I already found mysterious things hidden in the sight of those tall palm trees that are so typical for LA and that I love so much … more info later, I can only say now, watch out for my new movie called „the palm tree song line“!!

the lung man

sorry for the delay :-)I landed!I had quite an interesting trip, 24 hours on the clouds, from Berlin to Los Angeles via Newark where we could not land because of bad weather condition so we made some funny circles around montreal only to hear 1 hour later that we had to land in syracuse, ny. Oh not to forget … the lung-man-story! There was an elder man seated in the row next to me who started to make funny noises shortly after take-off. The stewardess came to see whats happening and he asked for oxygene but he was denied „they are not allowed to give him his needed oxygene-bottle once in the air“ – o god i thought, please no emergency landing in glasgow now, i must go to la!! And then they asked, like they do in the movies:“is there a doctor on the plane specialized in lung problems?“ And like in the movies – there was. Long story, short typing: the man got his oxygen, everyone was smiling and i thought i love people, i love sky, i love earth.