am Samstag morgen

and der Samstag Morgen came along...
through my door i peek outside
and rays of sun and cheerful greens appear
inviting me of barefooted-ness and easy smiles



there's a festival at the corner of my house too!
here another year came along too
and time for the
The Adams Avenue Roots and Folk Festival
music music and food food
so here we go again and today...
breathing is easy when we are on

ein schöner Samstagmorgen
a beautiful Saturday morning
una hermosa mañana de sábado

(please note that in Spanish, unlike English and German
we do not capitalize the names of days, nor months)
[ich habe gesagt!]

visuelle Ode an das Bier

and i am liking the digital macro
of this canon-sita

the victim/model was a
Spaten Optimator
The classic German dark beer, bottom fermented 'Doppel Bock'.
Flavor profile: Full bodied with a deep dark color and rich roasted malt flavor.
Original gravity: 18, 2 %
Alcohol content: 7,2 %

sehr sehr gut!

Albert Hofmann dies

thanks to my friend
the fountain valley lounge lizard
who daily sends e-mails to a group
of friends, 'the dj-list' as we refer to it
packed with music news and music related
events, i found out today that
Albert Hofmann, the chemist who synthesized LSD
died yesterday at age 102

http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/04/lsd-inventor-al.html

and strangely enough just 2 weekends ago
i saw a documentary at the History Channel called
from Peyote to LSD: A Psychedelic Odyssey
where this scene was recreated:

{Edward's text}
"Hofmann was a synthetic chemist who worked for Sandoz Laboratories, now Novartis, in the 1930's when we began studying chemistry of ergot, the common name for a fungus that grows on rye, barley, and some other plants. Hofmann devised a technique, making a series of derivatives of lysergic acid and began looking for medically useful compounds. His 25th compound synthesized in 1938 was lysergic acid diethylamide.

On April 16, 1943 Hofmann would return to the 25th compound and began testing the compound on himself. Three days later on April 19th, he would ride home on his bicycle after an "extremely small dose" which left him to highly psychedelic experience. To this daysome celebrate April 19th as "Bicycle Day".
{end of Edward's text}

{from}
"I had to leave work for home because I was suddenly hit by a sudden feeling of unease and mild dizziness," he subsequently wrote in a memo to company bosses. "Everything I saw was distorted as in a warped mirror," he said, describing his bicycle ride home. "I had the impression I was rooted to the spot. But my assistant told me we were actually going very fast." Upon reaching home, Hofmann began experiencing what he called "wonderful visions." Three days later, Hofmann experimented with a larger dose. The result was the world's first scientifically documented bad trip. "The substance which I wanted to experiment with took over me. I was filled with an overwhelming fear that I would go crazy. I was transported to a different world, a different time," Hofmann wrote.
{end of from}

I think is worth mentioning that Hofmann was never
and advocate of the use of LSD as a recreational drug
he actually referred to LSD in his book as "his problem child"

but regardless of his intentions surely
the psychedelic area was product of hallucinogenics
the 60's came and tickled our perception
revealing some beautifully (and sometimes painful)
sensations, altering the conscience of humanity forever

i have never personally tried LSD... but
sure i have had one or two mild psychedelic experiences
and i am an advocate and approve of responsible and sensitive!!
experimentation, and of alternative methods for
psychiatry and mental health

and talking about experimentation
so here i experiment with my broken camera
an altered purple at the end
of my little canon who really is 'tripping'
into a limbo-ish state...

[purple]

and recommended reading on the 60's
some literary journalism mixed with
hysterical realism mister Tom Wolfe's
anecdotes "on the Bus"
The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test
my wrenched paperback

café tacvba rocked Coachella

one of the best performances of
Cafê Tacvba that i have ever seen in my life

Dejate caer
let yourself fall

check out the little dance
respect for los pinches Tacubos
they were great!



"our grandfathers and grandmothers, they said
that is not true that we come here to live,
we come just to dream
the best medicine,
the best medicine is a simple as

dejarse caer, let oneself fall"

and i recommend you to watch until the very end
you might even dance too...

ah, i still cannot believe i was right there
i remember these moments oh so well!

and here my own home-made version of
Las Flores, unfortunately i wasn't still
skilled enough with the movie features
and it's a trunked song, oh well
read above... the stupidity? ;)

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...