Words Flew

I got the flu. Und nu? Yoohoo!
Make a new film, step on my balcony (again …), mix words, contemplate about entropy, about cats‘ furs, the black and the white in animals and puddings, escaping the grey, avoiding the wishy-washy and the mediocre. Wish me luck and you too!

The film will be called „Tigerlelle, the incorporated resistance against entropy“ and will be shown next Sunday at Kunstraum T27 in Berlin-Neukölln! [Tigerlelle is the name of my cat].

Later in the evening … Jesus is dead, bunnies are alive, winter is gone, spring’s not yet arrived, I feel a bit gaga and this gaganess is always good for processing a film (the one that I wrote about above!) so I poured the stuff into the Russian tank and poured some rosé wine into me (note: heart shaped ice cube for summer luck!) – results: yippieh 🙂

Black Beauty White Beauty

I’m in a black&white mood. I just processed a super 8 reversal film, so exciting, it means: 5 baths plus second exposure to light before second developer … mmh that’s really magic and it looks like everything’s alright, see picture below. For all those who are interested in the matter: buy Czech Foma processing kit R100. Available in Berlin at Foto-Impex. Cheap and good. Foto-Impex is the best photo shop (analog) in town and they are the only ones as far as I know that sell chemicals!!!

Orangenrahmfächer & A Secret Russian World

A funny word: Orangenrahmfächer! Roughly translated as orange-cream-fan. I was waiting for the subway to take me to my brother – another trip to a geocache! This time direction North, Templin and beyond to a lost place: a former secret Russian city in former Eastgermany, a city in the middle of the woods, built for thousands of Russian soldiers and their families, totally shielded from the environment. Decaying slowly. I felt like in a timewhirl! Found beautiful paintings, peeling off and then that’s it, all the balalaikas, Leninfaces, naive fruit – gone!

foto © www.berndbrundert.de 😉

The Most Beautiful Sound In The World

… is for me after a once again too long winter: a singing blackbird.
I just heard him. Sunset, rain, melting snow, grey air. I grabbed my sound recorder, ran to the balcony, opened the door, pressed the button … and the singing was already over. But what a good start! 20 seconds, he’ll come back, rehearse, modify and extend his song, I know.
Here’s one from last year 😉 >>>> cityamsel2.mp3

The Beam Machine

Subwaystation Moritzplatz today: An ATM with a pair of shoes neatly deposited in front. Maybe it’s not an ATM, maybe it’s a beam machine, a time machine, a summer machine, a travelator … something to escape with and leave shoes behind …

Winter continues, snow never ends, the longing for warmth and colors is immense.

Bottles, colors, sunbeams in my hallway.

Underground Panini & Smiling Bunnies

For the first time in maaany years I (I! The bike rider!) gave up and bought me a public transport ticket for February since it doesn’t look like winter’s going to end or tricky little ice hills on the bike lanes are going to melt. So I travel all through Berlins veins now, stopping at intersections, watching people … Fehrbelliner Platz is a croos station and it has a yummy mediterranean snack shop which I highly recommend – try a Panino Italiano for only 2 €: toasted bread with rucola (arugola), dried tomatoes and mozzarella inside! Mmh!

Later in a drugstore I found shimmering hope, smiling Easter bunnies, spring napkins, newborn colorful eggs, yippieh:

The Self-Healing Of My Camera

I was so stupid to drop my beautiful Lumix photocamera on New Years Eve, I was not even drunk, just squirrelly, careless. Broken. Release button no reaction, no nothing.
I knew it would be very expensive to have it repaired IF it had a chance … so today I sighed and went to Foto Braune, a shop in Berlin-Kreuzberg/Neukölln (Karl-Marx-Str. 7) specialized on photo and film (super8!), repairs, second hand etc.
And then the miracle happened … me: „I dropped my Lumix, help!“ – Braune-man laid his hand on it, checked it, said: „young woman, it’s healed, it’s ok!“ … and it was!
So here I bow down, flicker squirrellily with my wings and say THANK YOU!

In Bed With Madonna

I met my friends Dayna and Mountainman-Gert tonight at Madonna (Wiener Str. 22), a place that seems to exist like forever – my first wine universe in the eighties and my last in the fourties to come for sure. Wednesday! Live music! Dota die Kleingeldprinzessin oder so … sehr sehr schöne 1-Frau-1-Gitarre-Musik!! Unfortunately I dropped my camera on New Years Eve so I can’t provide you with good pictures, only awful mobile phone pictures like this on my way back home through the virgin snow:

For a short moment I caught THE Berlin glimpse: island. Winter. Grumpy but possible.
Explain? Almost impossible …

Massendemo gegen die Verhältnisse

… means something like Mass Demonstration Against The Situation or something wishy-washy-ish …
Seen on a bench at a bus stop. The thing on the right is a plastic bag containing a banana peel. The stain on the left … nobody wants to know what it is.
I was waiting for the bus close before my nose fell off, so cold, so freezing … mass demonstration against cold, pro banana. Verhäl-tnisse. Cool word. Tnisse! Shiver! Atchooo! Bless you! Gesundheit!

The Dresden Feeling

Wabisabi #4!

I held my fourth film workshop – at the Schmalfilmtage Dresden, one of the best short film festivals on earth (8 and 16 mm)! All about the power and beauty and techniques and tricks of Double Super 8 and black&white negative processing. The 8-members-gang was cool and enthusiastic, produced meters and meters of (partly double exposed) great film! Go to www.wabisabisuper8.com and find out more … soon …

This is Marie and Karin writing names in the deep frozen snow:

[and thank you thank you thank you dear festival jury for the prize for my film, yippieh!!! May nightlight shine lovely on you ;-]

Oh yes and by the way: I spent 3 nights in my favourite Hotel called Raskolnikoff which I can definitely recommend if you’re ever looking for a lovely spot to stay. In Dresden-Neustadt, not expensive at all, kitchen for free use, only 3 or 4 rooms, beautiful pictures hanging in them.
I felt well protected by the insect man!!


From One Universe To Another In Less Than 5 Hours With Tailwind

It’s only about 3.500 kms – from a midday plunge in the ocean to a midnight landing in deep ice and snow!

We almost missed our flight, got confused by weird announcings on the departure board (delayed flight because France is on strike, at least air-wise) but thanks to Airberlin’s spontaneity and the Captain who decided to wait for 2 desperately running chicas (if I got it right his name is Bernd Wedekind and I say Thank You again here to you!!) – well, I’m back in ice.

Who cares … got a couple of yellow butterflies inside >>> 2yellowbutterflies.MOV

Anaga Mountains

Dear Anaga Mountains … if you were on Facebook, I would ask you to be my friend.

Writing this, I’m still thrilled by the beauty of the most breathtaking mountains of Tenerife … again we wandered through barrancos and alongside steep sides, stone walls, up and down small goat paths and wider men and women paths.

Meeting butterflies, yellow flower fields, rarely another hiker thanks god, goat milkmen, dripping water falls, lazy doves sitting on a wire staring down 300 meters into the Atlantic, having a perfect lunch break at the only bar in Afur, a tiny town: fresh goat cheese and fresh baked bread and a glass of milk coffee.

Bellezza!

anoher bellezza is having an ice cold Dorada beer after a 9 hours hiking trip, sweating like camels, happy like doves on a wire!!

To be continued … here’s a trip on a small path: >>> enger-pfad.mov

Taganana

… is one of the oldest villages of the island of Tenerife. I love the name. We hit the road again, crawling barrancos, following goat paths almost indetectible, met Heidis Wandergruppe (an organized group of hikers), said hello and no thank you, we are antisocial today, won’t join you, but thanks, see you again at the Guagua stop!

So we fell into a kind of time and space twister, a weird feeling that, knowing that the last Guagua of the day will leave in 3 hours and we would have to climb over unknown Barrancos (Heidi promised it would be possible in 2 hours time) – seeing green mountain sides far or close, not sure, irreal blue ocean, high glittering clear sky, hearing echoes of chicken and a single bird and nothing really nothing else … well, we made it in time and had one of the most beautiful hiking experiences of our lives.

Gesine filmed the exploring of small private paths of Taganana starring half of the animal inhabitants —> taganana1.MOV

I Know Where It Begins …

I’ve always known … rainbows begin in the ocean!!

… and a good place to end is La Carta (Calle San Felipe 53; www.promocanarias.com/lacarta) – we had Tenerife White Wine and Salad tonight and it matched just perfect with our salted sunsoaked skin.

… a toilet. I don’t remember where it was, I think Bar Neptune. Light on, music on, light out, music continues —> klo.MOV

Levelshifting 2000 Meters

They have the highest vulcano mountain of Europe here – the Teide – looks like a breast with a little amount of snow or fog on top! Ten or twenty years ago there was a group of weirdos there waiting for a UFO to take them to a better planet but I don’t know if they ever got picked up or if they did it lemmingwise down the abyss or just got spirited away …

We hiked a nice circle around the breast top across huge lava fields, through magnificent stone cathedrals, frozen lava waves, moonlike sands …

… here’s a café where everyone’s waiting fort he one and only Guagua at 4 pm to take us back down again, after a long hike, steaming boots, having coffee and apple vanilla pie or like those two hardcore guys red wine …

… until we got picked up thanks god not by a UFO but by a Guagua taking us down through different vegetation levels like desert shrubs, foggy pine woods, dry smaller pine woods, down 2000 meters to level ocean with salty air and buzzing flowers again … beauty continues.

Dragon Blood, La Guagua, And A Laurel Jungle

Today the two famous Wanderwomen fell in love with the Tenerife public transport system aka bus aka Guagua – a net of green buses (www.titsa.com) with brave speedy drivers inside. Took a ride from Puerto de la Cruz via Icod de los Vinos (where we admired the 2.000 years old endemic Dragon Tree with a mystic history – read below) to a small town called Erjos where we started our jungle hiking trip.

Elvises mark the route!

About 20 kms through misty laurel woods through valleys called Barrancos and cactus fields and stony paths until we finally reached a tiny quiet town called El Palmera.
Next Guagua direction home? No way, we would have to wait 2 hours so we decided to continue hiking to the next big city (Buenavista) and after some kms a friendly farmer grandpa picked us up offering us a ride to the … Guagua station downtown! Thank you Tenerife señor!!

And then again Wuwei hit us in the face with lucky coincidence: the Guagua to Puerto de la Cruz was just about to leave!
We enjoyed the whole trip so much, tried to inhale as much beauty as we could!

Ready for another coincidence? We decided that we felt like craving for potatoes, a specialty called Papas Arugadas served with green and red Mojo, so we just walked around and incidentally stumbled on a Tapas Restaurant (Arcon Tapas, www.arcon-tapas.com) where we had the Papas of our lives! Plus something colorful lovely for the eyes, the park nearby decorated with lots of Christmas lights and symbols which I feel free to interpret as New Year wishes for me and her and him and you:
Red boot is for more travelling; star is for a wish come true; green tree is for nature; the bell is for good music!

Oh yes, the Dragon Tree … an endemism! More than 20 meters high, its „blood“ is red and was used as a curative and cosmetic potion, a subject of legends and symbolisms …

Hot Spot At God‘s Shop

Tegel Berlin Airport 8 in the morning, sun’s not yet up, sitting in a fat plane direction south, waiting fort the de-ice-machines to ride the wings and brush them with nicely stinking defrost chemicals while it snows and snows and snows and snows …

24 hours later I dive my corpse-pale feet in black glittering beach sand smiling like a Honigkuchenpferd (ginger bread horse? Does that make sense?) and the waves wave and the sun makes me feel alive again.

I’m on the isle of Tenerife!

For an internet addict like me there are not so many chances to spread my sprouts … there’s only one hotspot in the city of Puerto de la Cruz where I (and my friend Gesine) stay – McDonalds. But we soon found out: stepping outside with the laptop, across the place towards the church, 20 meters away, sitting down on a stone bench (which is still warm from the days sun mmmh) – the hot spot follows us like a shimmering duckling and we start to giggle and communicate.

Capodanno Rosso

2010 is close … I recommend you: wear red underwear this night and you will be lucky next year!!
Italians know and Auntie Wiki says: “Italians call New Year’s Eve Capodanno (the „head of the year“) or Notte di San Silvestro (the night of St. Silvestro). Traditionaly there are a set of rituals for the new year, such as wearing red underwear and getting rid of old or unused items by dropping them from the window.“

Travelling With My Sheep

I went to Gigant Photo, one of Berlins best high-end photo and framing and printing companies, to pick up my print of my Orwo-sheep (blown up from a super 8 still). I felt like baaing, travelling with my sheep, browsing on a nervous field with millions of x-mas-crazy contemporaries hunting for the ultimate gift … so I took a break at the Schwarzes Café to see my brother and his love for a relax coffee and some gigantic toasts.
The Schwarzes Café! About a quarter of a century back when I came to Berlin for the very first time it was exactly that place that I stepped in (open 24 hours) after a long hitch-hike ride. I’ll never forget: travelling with my friend, nice drivers (a white Citroën DS) who picked us up in dark Gütersloh when we were already half ready to give up after 1 hour of hopeless waiting … like in a dream the shimmering white car appeared and took us with them all the way to Berlin and spit us out at Zoologischer Garten, 2 o’clock in the morning, a warm glimmering August night, it was then when I fell in love with that city …
Anyway, nice to see that the café still exists!

Pling Pling Peace Attack

This morning I found ice flowers on my window!
And I really didn’t feel like riding my bike through the snowy frozen city today … so I took the U-Bahn / subway … looping a song in my ears that I love so much, it’s Peace Attack by Sonic Youth. And I realized: the first 2 notes of the song are exactly the same like the Ding-Dong of the station-announcing-voice! Watch the film – and listen (it’s coming at sec 13) 🙂 bingbing.MOV

Fighting Ice With Ice

Incredible, temperature falls down to minus 15 degrees (old-Berliners experienced that and more (minus 20!!!) 23 years ago, yeehaa, Kreuzberg-feeling, fumes of brown coal all around, the typical Berlin smell of the 80es …), so my friend Nadine and me we celebrated the ritual of fighting the devil with the devil or something like that: meeting at GOLDMARIE, drinking white wine with extra ice cubes.

Cheers to all survivors!!

2 Years On Vacation

2 JAHRE FERIEN (2 Years On Vacation) is the title of one of the most famous German TV productions of the 70es.
I remember. I was 12 years old. They broadcasted 4 episodes before Xmas – each Sunday, each one 80 minutes long, one each Sunday in Advent. Those days there were only 2 German Broadcasting stations as far as I remember, so it was an attraction all over …

Based on a story by Jules Verne, music by Hans Posegga, directed by Walter Ulbrich and Gilles Grangier and Sergiu Nicolaescu.

That’s where I planted the seed of men that I would love: rather silent then loud. Independent. Deckschrubbend. Deck swabbing. More brilliant than aaaaaaall others. Uncombed hair. Striped shirt. To be continued. (insert some more attractions later)

Couldn’t be more sexy: a group of high educated boys, wealthy background, good hearted though; a bunchful of brave and honest sailors, among them young Dick Sand, orphan, punk, blonde, intelligent, cooool, striped shirt 😉 – the highlight (what ever became of Franz Seidenschwan??) … Two villains, clever and malicious … A treasure map … the sea and the ship … no women 😉

I guess I fell in love for the first time then.