a woman, and some wandering stars under a desert sky

what i saw on saturday
and she just wants to be a woman...


thank you youtube users!
i have a complete version of the song too
but trapped on my hard drive...

and also the by-now infamous
plier-acoustic version of wandering star
the guitarist was playing the neck of his guitar
with a set of pliers, for a violin effect? amazing!
and dont' miss the ending of the song with
Beth's amazing voice... a night, i will never forget!



i cannot stop repeating
"i was there!, i was there!"

Coachella 2008

Coachella, was a great experience
i can still feel the electricity going thru my system
even if a long hot trip
it was all worth it
we got there around 1PM and saw the imponent
main stage, the Coachella stage


announcing its delights


i will try to get more into detail as i post
more photos and movies i took during the event
but for starters...
here some of the art displayed...





surely the main events of the day/night for me
(and i am suspicious for most of the Coachellos...)
were 3 the main events

during the hot afternoon
Café Tacvba!
they delivered a right on fun set
mixing Spanish and English while exploring
their mexican wittiness... the crowd was great!
specially when the singer called the event:
Mexi-Co-Chela



also great were the guys from Man Man
they sound a bit like older messy songs of Tom Waits

secondly, the german godfathers of electronic music
die Herren Kraftwerk
i have seen a complete Kraftwerk set at the Hollywood Bowl
a couple of years ago, so i was happy to see them again
delivering their computerized beauty and wonderful videos
and they were a great mood setter for what came next...
also i got to practice my German since they open the set
with a "hearthy machine-read" Guten Abend
and finish it with an Auf wiedersehen...



but truly the magic of the night was
Portishead!
a flawlessly delivered set
mixture of the old melancholic moody songs
like Glory Box or Wandering Star
(an acoustic version with just a guitar, some pliers
and wonderful Beth Gibbons voice...)
that mood of oldish spy noir film they deliver
battered in the new more noisy experimental album
borderlining sounds almost ala Autechre

they surely stole the night
Beth Gibbons puts her heart and soul in every single note
and so her band... i would drive many hours thru the desert
to see them again



surely, was magic at night in Coachella this past Saturday

and impressive was the set of mister Prince too!
back singers, horns sections and the party on!
unfortunately i didn't stay for his whole set
as we needed to drive back to San Diego, but i got a little taste
he really puts the party where he goes
also he puts corny silver hearts around the stage
but what an impressive set of musicians!

leaving for Coachella

the menace of an over heated desert
stands firm! 100° F (37.77777777777778° C) at the
Coachella Valley

but then, often happens that what appears
so threating, ends just as a soft memory
like this April's 15 sky... its threat faded
in some drops and moisture and now so dry
again... so



no fear! and in a couple of hours i head to the festival
and while i am gone
in this little meantime i leave you some music here
my friend perro (aka dj ix, aka my boss at work grrr)
has been writing and producing electronic music
for a while now, at least since i met him in 2001
listen here his latest song
and for some more, click on looprication

and now to sleep a couple of hours
before driving into the desert
the Coachella Valley that will be
a sizzling sea of desert full of adventurers
swimming among the sweet floating music

and shall i wear flowers on my head?
no! i am not that hippie...

Willkommen in Kalifornien!

ich freue mich auf diesen Sommer!
I look forward for this Summer
Espero con gusto este Verano

very happy today!
since i got confirmation
on two joyful Deutsche visitors
coming this Summer
hopefully they will have a great time
in San Diego
[here San Diego's Trolley at American Plaza station]



and i hope we can take over the rest of the
Golden California Republic!
from South to North, and back South
all the way to the North of México... ahhh



and why not? maybe even some
New Mexico and Arizona...

Welttag des Buches - World Book and Copyright Day

"Im Jahr 1995 hat die UNESCO den 23. April, den Todestag von Shakespeare und Cervantes, zum Welttag des Buches ausgerufen. Die Idee des Welttages geht auf eine alte Tradition in Katalonien zurück, wo an diesem Tag Buchstände auf den Straßen aufgebaut werden und rund um das Buch ein großes Fest gefeiert wird."
-from an article in Deutschlernen.net

"23 April: a symbolic date for world literature for on this date and in the same year of 1616, Cervantes, Shakespeare and Inca Garcilaso de la Vega all died. It is also the date of birth or death of other prominent authors such as Maurice Druon, K.Laxness, Vladimir Nabokov, Josep Pla and Manuel Mejía Vallejo. It was a natural choice for UNESCO's General Conference to pay a world-wide tribute to books and authors on this date, encouraging everyone, and in particular young people, to discover the pleasure of reading and gain a renewed respect for the irreplaceable contributions of those who have furthered the social and cultural progress of humanity."
-from the UNESCO page

and remember to always read!
if you can't get a hold of the best selections
read at least the back of the shampoo bottle
remember there is always rooms for improvement
and something new to learn
es gibt immer etwas zu lernen
just a year ago i had no idea how to say
the phrase above in german or anything in german
for that matter, but i started reading and going to class
and now in 8 months i can say
es gibt immer etwas zu lernen!!
dann lesen Sie bitte weiter!
please read something
and after a good read enjoy
das Bier des Tages
the beer of the day
la cerveza del día



this rather hoppy Czech Lager
Brou Czech Lager
ahhh! with some cheese and crackers
very ala Wallace & Gromit
mmm, cheese and crackers
and books... mmm, wunderbar!

another old story i wrote on 23: buildings

to photograph buildings

buildings are silent entities

but one day i seemed to hear one whispering close to my ear...

"... is OK for you to photograph us, because you look at us with eyes of love..."

they buildings were right. and since then my favorite photography is that of buildings

these are old pictures, from October 2005... and since many years before, this affair with buildings...

strange happenings/requiem for a camera

today i got a new little camera
a point-and-shot
Canon Powershot SD1100 IS

i had an older point-and-shot
Canon Powershot A310
my little companion for many
thousands of photos, many trips
and many friends and family

this past week
and because the lens of my alpha
is not working
i have been using the old little canon again

this past week i took a couple of photos with it
like this one from today, today's parking lot



and how little did i know when i took this picture!
just today around 5 pm (17 Uhr)
that would be one of the last photos i would be able
to take with it

but things happened
today when i came home with the new camera
i tried to take a picture of the new camera
(the battery charging) with the old camera

and like an omen or a curse
in that moment the old camera broke!
the image just went strange, very strange
on the lens as you can see below
it still takes pictures, but they look like this



the whole situation felt as it was not possible
to take a photo of a part of a canon powershot
with another canon powershot
strange!!

i just think is an extremely weird coincidence that one camera broke
just a couple of minutes before the new one was battery charged
and ready to go...

i have phases in my life when a lot of coincidences happen
i remember 2005 being a year full of strange happenings
then it stopped for a while

but today's coincidence is just the second one
of these past days: in a sort of unusual way
i came across a person that have lived in this
same apartment, details will follow soon...
but yes, it was also strange
oh well

hope tomorrow to go out for a couple of testing pix
happy to have a new little camera
but sad that the older one had to break...
i am so sentimentally attached to it...
i will still keep it, maybe the canon-fairy
who broke it, might fix it back as well
ehem, ehem... did you read that little fairy?

schönes Wochenende
have a lovely weekend
que tengas un bonito fin de semana

coachella

just 8 days for
Coachella
and i am getting excited!
this music festival will be
the Woodstock of my life
even if for me will be just
1 day of music & peace

i have seen many bands live before
but i don't remember ever going
to a properly called 'musical festival'



there are 22 bands playing on Saturday
but my main interests are

Portishead
Kraftwerk
Prince
[yep, this is his official site
a black page, ah! {smile}]
Café Tacuba
Sasha & John Digweed
Animal Collective
[i am really really curious to see
these animal collective, watch the video below
and you'll understand why, i really like that
little strange song, great dissonance!]
also
the Cold War Kids
and
Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks

there are various stages
so i am sure some of the bands i want to see
might play at the same time
a day of tough choices, high temperatures
dessert, and all the music you can take!

san diego radio sucks
has an 'almost-daily' follow up
and count-down with some
of the bands performing at coachella

here your dose of Grass
courtesy of Animal Collective



and about this sort of song
the village voice wrote:

If all this sounds strangely disjointed, consider the facts: The boys are always grinding, making music in combination with any given member or members, other random people, themselves. (The first official Animal Collective disc, Here Comes the Indian, was released in 2003, but various incarnations of the group, principally Dave and Noah, had already put out five albums.) And as of this past summer, none of them even lived in the same city—Dave was in Paris with his roommate, Black Dice's Eric Copeland, playing music of their own. (Brooklyn's Black Dice, it should be noted, began as one of those antagonistic bands, violently interacting with their audiences.) Although it would be cool if they were, Animal Collective aren't actually holed up in some woodsy commune in the far reaches of East Williamsburg.

People understandably jump to such conclusions when they hear drums and see clam diggers. Animal Collective do exist on the fringe of a pattern—call it crunch, because that sort of sounds like crunk—principally composed of fringes.

bere-nism of the day

think. think. think.
think. think. think.



well? nope!
nein, nein!!
better... d·e·t·a·c·h...
d · e · t · a · c · h !!
[like in sure NOOO obsessing over font sizes or word spacing nor font colors at 11 Uhr 43 Minuten, but hey! what are you gonna do?]



ahhh, better now? huhh?
if only one always could...

The Buddha made it clear that the detachment of a noble disciple (ariyasaavaka) — the detachment connected with the path — was not essentially a physical act of withdrawal, let alone austerity. Kaaya-viveka was valuable only if seen as a means to the inner purging and mental transformation connected with the destruction of craving. This is illustrated in the Udumbarika Siihanaada Sutta in which the Buddha claims that the asceticism of a recluse who clings to solitude could lead to pride, carelessness, attention-seeking, and hypocrisy, if not linked to the cultivation of moral virtues and the effort to gain insight through meditation.

or in my own very rough words
"don't crave too too much...
let it go, play it low,
and keep it cool! (wink, wink)"
-myself quoted here
now is the Buddhi-nice thought of the day

39

ich habe heute Geburtstag
today is my birthday
hoy es mi cumpleaños



and i know strange vibes been around
my life for the past days
but yet i wake up today
and i am thankful for being alive!
for having lived 39 years already
even if it doesn't really feel like 39...

i am thankful for having friends and family
for being alive
for having a very little house
a very little car and a job
also i have a very little but lovely red pet
all in my life is barely there and nothing is too big
not so flashing
all is modest but i am OK with what i have

and i am sure the ones that remember me
wish me well,
i might be remembered even
in other continents! eh! ahh!

so even with a broken camera
i do have a lot to be thankful for...

and yes! i make a lot of mistakes
but life is to live and to learn
so i hope i am growing personally every day
and ... yeah strange to be 39
but ready to keep on living
and bring on the next 39!

i hope you leave your little message here
to celebrate with me being around for 39 years
if you'd like to share this day with me!
even if just online

and i am not an expert on astrology
but the characteristics of my sign
Aries, sound a lot like me...
specially the stubborn part

and here how i looked age 38
just a couple of days ago
with my still OK alpha
ah sighs...



and here how my broken alpha
portraits 'the time'...