Dagies Blog

Swans sleep. Sun rises. Days are getting longer from now on!!

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

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 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.

This is how color processing chemicals look like in Germany: black – red – gold like in the flag 😉
I need colors now more than ever. Berlin winter greyness flattens everything: mood, energy, speed … So I spill a little color magic!
And my cat loves to nibble on the leftovers (super 8 film stripe) …

The floral absorption continues! (See posting from September 22.)
The cress is in bright orange flower now!
Will the bike surrender? What will happen when the nights get frosty?
To be continued!

One grey wet day in November, noon, Kottbusser Damm / Kreuzberg, finding shelter from devilishly pouring rain in a very small café whose owner braves all the shit coming from the heavens leaving some chairs and two tables outside. Luckily there’s also a canopy …
It’s simply called Coffee Corner, has no website, it’s on Kottbusser Damm # 1 opposite Ankerklause and Turkish Market, close to the bridge, half way to Kottbusser Tor or Hermannplatz.
Me and Khani we sat there drinking a fantastic cappuccino chiaro (a bit more milk than usual), contemplating raindrops and people, our backs inhaling the Italian warmth coming from inside. Mmh!
And something really sweet: you receive a bonus card with your first coffee there, 10 coffees crossed out you’ll get the 11th for free!

This is how you see things after twoandahalf days of intense film watching: (on my way back to Berlin in the train window) with spider webs around my square eyes – hoohoo spooky bloodred shadowy film hands 🙂

… and all about the sexiness of train stations … Another film festival! 3 concentrated days in a filmish bubble, I like it there, at the „Dokumentarfilm+Videofilmfestival“ and I found a new friend that hosted me for two nights, thank you Martina for your hospitality!

I banged myself with short films. Full speed ahead. The full monty. That’s what a filmmaker on a filmfestival trip usually does: check out what the others do! I enjoy it everytime and I can’t get enough until my eyes turn square. Full inspiration. Thanks festival crew for having invited me and for the good vibes that lingered around 😉

And then there’s this aftercinema party every evening, situated at the Hauptbahnhof, the more or less main station which is quite confusing because it’s not really a main station any more, it’s more like a side station, a cultural art station, check wiki … aaaaanyways, I loved and enjoyed to stroll around with my camera at three in the morning, a bit tipsy, the air full of promising winter-won’t-be-long-feelings, friendly blinking stars and a laser beam above and a peaceful feeling, god this really sounds hippiesque typing it down but … it was just good.

I’m sitting in my command center, stuck to my computer, listening to Sonic Youth, my favourite song of the day is “Hits Of Sunshine (For Alan Ginsberg)“, my eyes wandering around, scanning a little piece of paper with a picture that my little nephew drew for me: an octopus! With only 4 legs, he could not count further I guess at that time heehee. It hangs there and makes me smile. Sometimes life can be so simple and beautiful.

Geocaching time again! The well-tried gang (Bernd, David, Michi, Britta, Marlon and me) who had already solved different puzzles and found several crazily well hidden caches in the past did it again: Today: Teufelsberg (Devil’s Mountain); the former US listening station, quite vandalized by now but still absolutely fascinating to explore! Especially the cupola on top of one building. It is easy to access and when you’re inside you can hear wacky echoes, reverbs, feedbacks of yourself and the other weekend visitors … >> teufelsberg.mov

First snow in Berlin!
Fat wet flakes, quite ugly, bombing down ten minutes long and then they’re gone leaving the city even greyer and wetter. Yes, I’m in a bad mood, yes, I despise this month, yes, I miss colours and the sun!
Yes and I know how to hex my bad mood into a good mood: hold my camera up into the sky, kiss flakes, save grains and pixels 🙂

Dirndl?? Wiki says: A dirndl is a type of traditional dress worn in southern Germany, Liechtenstein and Austria, based on the historical costume of Alpine peasants.
Well. A Dirndl has always been the embodiment of Bavarian hillbilliness, white picket fenceness … for me. But somehow my world shifts and I’m totally in love with those dresses, especially in combination with cowboy boots. That’s it. I’ll bring that fashion to Kreuzberg. If it’s not already arrived there. Mmmh. I bought 3 Dirndls so far at ebay. Good Bavarian / Austrian quality and very very cuddly and warm on my body. Out of the box and over the fence 🙂

I took this photo using my favourite 15-seconds-exposure-thing!
Find my cat in the back!!

I love (short) film festivals. Especially the Independent Osnabrück one! This festival is a bucket of water in the desert, a gem in a haystack. I’ve been there several times and always felt warmheartedly welcome and … well, it is not too big, not confusingly widespread (I mean concerning distances).
During 3 days they show mostly feature long films and two short film programs. I enjoyed it a lot and I got lots of inspiration and talked to many lovely film freaks. And I happily walked back to my little hotel (wwwd = white wine walking distance! Yes, the Lagerhalle-Bar has good wine!), suddenly the night was warm, I pulled my camera trigger for 15 seconds and out came enlightened pictures, see below (the weird blurred thing is a light-spotted Jesus-cross on a church roof …) – one thing is very remarkable: there are churches almost at every corner. Stone old ones, medieval and waaayyy older. And the church bells ring like hell (heehee) at 8 in the morning on a peaceful Sunday …
Special hug to Birgit & Holger for the vibes! Keep on keeping on!!

The river that runs through the city is called “Hase“ (= rabbit) why so ever … I enjoyed a walk and a coffee and the flying ducks that greeted me quacking and I tweeted back.

“Traveling is damn necessary, says the old seagull!“ my film program is called. I’ll show lots of very old, medium old and new super 8 films, partly in original version on my Elmo projector and partly digitized via Beamer.
(if you don’t understand German, the text on the picture above translates like: About singable palm trees in Los Angeles, self healing bikes, winter-in-Berlin-survival-rituals, warmth seeking bug parasites, saltfrogs that reincarnate into trash bins, negative developed love goddesses, magic gold brandy … and lots more. Plus a world premiere: Get up, Jucy Lordan!)

Come into the Regenbogen-Kino at Lausitzer Strasse 22 in Berlin-Kreuzberg this coming Saturday at 8.30 pm!
I’ll bring some freshly baked super 8 cookies!

And here’s the complete film list! >>> regenbogenfilmliste.pdf

Recently I had a glass of champagne (instead of water or tea, as a matter of diversion ;-P) standing within my grasp beside my bed and I fell into contemplation … watching a string of tiny bubbles rising up in an exact interval, one after the other, endlessly. But every (about) 30th there came another on the passing lane … passing the row. Just one single one! In an exact interval … So beautiful, mathematics!

We did it again … geocaching … this is how aunt Wiki describes it: Geocaching is an outdoor activity in which the participants use a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver or other navigational techniques to hide and seek containers (called „geocaches“ or „caches“) anywhere in the world. A typical cache is a small waterproof container (usually a tupperware or ammo box) containing a logbook. Larger containers can also contain items for trading, usually toys or trinkets of little value. Geocaching is most often described as a „game of high-tech hide and seek“, sharing many aspects with orienteering, treasure-hunting, and waymarking.
We solved a puzzle, crawled above dusty ceilings, found beautiful Russian paintings on walls in hidden rooms … and found the treasure in the end. I don’t really know how to describe and explain the fascination, it must have something to do with childish remains, hide & seek, puzzle solving satisfaction etc … and a fresh way of looking at things / buildings / nature …

I can read and write Cyrillic and know some Russian words, but I don’t understand the words above, Russians, help! Sergey, are you reading my blog?? 😉

Geocaching time again! One of the most interesting spots in this rotten world is the Beelitzer Heilstätten (mentioned it before, see blog) near Potsdam.
Todays gang: me, my brother, his son, sons mother Michi. Trying to solve riddles and find hints … bad luck today, but found a handful of halfdead shimmering blue dung beetles …

… nephew David set them free in a sunny warm spot … my brother climbing on water reservoirs … all of us on stairs that ended in nowhereland … cool adventure day anyway …

… and later in the evening my brother managed to drag me with him to his girlfriend performing (Les Gosses!) in a small French Restaurant called „Garçon“ – singing Edith Piaf, making all of us soft. Love? Passion? Sad stories? Bad worries? Heartcracking coincidences? Tears? Trust? Huiui!

… Frederike illustrating the song about a sailor smelling of sun soaked sand …

Too cold for stargazing … I’m sitting nevertheless in my open window with a warming Morellino glass in my hand and … summer is over … I just can’t seem to get that through my head.
And what do I see? The beautiful moon rising with a little shining partner at its side! Checking … it’s Jupiter, the giant gas planet, my (sagittarius) helper, helping me tonight … well, whatever, can’t be bad anyway …
Cheers 🙂

Good morning everybody!
Today I needed some kind of hot spread on my bread, summer drifting away, leaves are turning yellow, it’s only natural 😉
I opened the glass and a smile came back.
Lovely weekend to all of you!

Harvest!

Those two weird looking fruit – no, not chestnuts, they are Russian tomatoes (thanks to Beate who gave me a seedling!) – totally delicious and juicy. Had them in my pasta with tomato sauce tonight.
I think I’ll try to breed the seeds next spring.

My back yard. A bike problem. More bikes than actual bike stands. Some bikes are dead – flat tyre, loneliness, whatever. Slowly nature is taking over. Sprouting, entwining tendrils around the spokes. Hilarious and absurd look.

Mmmh, summer just doesn’t really want to leave! I’m enjoying every single drop of warmth and colour …
One of my favourite bars / cafés in my street is called Goldmarie, I think I mentioned it before: quiet atmosphere, good not too expensive wines, delicious bagels with inventive spreads, peppermint tea with fresh leaves …
And when it gets cold and you still don’t want to go inside since the evening is so precious, wonderful, crispy: they give you Wolldecken – woolen rugs!

I’m a classical music nitwit.
But years ago my friend Andreas introduced me to Dmitri Shostakovich and some of his symphonies, I especially loved No. 7, Op. 60 ‚Leningrad‘; 1. Allegretto; from 7:39 on because, listening to it, I felt the joy of mathematics, I had a vision of cinematic numeral beauty.
Today thanks to my friend Frauke, she invited me to the Philharmonie of Berlin: Musikfest Berlin 09: Orchestra London, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Dmitri Shostakovich, Symphony No. 8.
It was so exciting to watch the musicians, we had a good seat above them all, enjoying, hearing them like a swarm, a flock … and I liked the mixture of old and very young ones. I loved the percussion section the most, so concentrated partly for just one single boooom 🙂

Here you see the conductor Vladimir Ashkenazy receiving a bunch of flowers at the end of the wonderful performance:

This is me and my brother (the best photographer in town!) checking our new magical device (see some blog earlier) …

… and these are two examples of what came out (a tiny version of course – the quality is gigantic in reality – grain beats pixel!!)

It was a too short pleasure to have had you here!

I bought this funny thing on Ebay: a kind of objective that fits on a camera and on top there is a window for one super 8 frame! Analog scan! (Because I’m feverishly trying to find the best highest resolution way to enlarge one tiny image to a … more or less giant poster. I want to bring some unseen beauties, stills, a 24th of a second, to light, to exhibition).
So I opened the parcel, checked the thing and the screw which immediately broke … aaarggh … a plastic screw! How stupid!
But for all accidents there is help: I recommend ASA 90, the best shop in town (Berlin-Neukölln, Fuldastrasse 55) for film and foto!
Fred, the owner, is the coolest helper ever and of course he and his two companions helped me fix that thing! Thank you!

This is Fred’s magic screw toolbox 🙂

It has been hot and beaming and shining for days, now suddenly the air changes and rain comes pouring down.
My opposite children can’t believe it and try to catch the drops 😉