Post Titled: the Spectrum of Music Idol Bulgaria,
the KEN LEE video of the woman singing Mariah Carey's version of "Without You" (under the title "Ken Lee" uhm-? "can't live"?) has been viewed millions upon millions of times... and I thought: gosh Music Idol Bulgaria must just be a painfully embarrassing pop slaughterfest (the Bulgarian fast food worker kid doing the Michael Jackson Billie Jean impression! Ouch.) THere are many videos to support that theory, including the one I found this monring where, of course there are just things that are bizarre as well, such as the Whitney Houston-meets-Beirut version of I will always love you)(whoa!)
So... there is laughter and cruelty, there are people being people in all their bizarre uniqueness even as they attempt to imitate the demi-gods of cool... I thought that it was just all mean fun, that Bulgarian Music Idol...
BUT THEN I found this video of Nevena Coneva (or Nevena Tzoneva?), which completely blew me away for the opposite reasons:

"Nevena, 20 year old girl from Nothern Bulgaria sings a folk song from Rhodope mountains after the ceremony when she was crowned as the first Bulgarian Music Idol ever!" Speaking of which, I should check back and see what the Bulgarian Women's Choir are up to these days... or is it Chorus?

Post Timed: this isn't internet video performance art, this is just how I start my day: same place, different arrangements, things move on their own...
As the Opera leaves the apartment, these videos were filemd 2 days apart in the same location
Monday:

apartment on 12seconds.tv
Wednesday:

quick ladder to nowhere on 12seconds.tv

Post Titled: a great guitar solo by Dan Mumm

Post Titled: SWINE FLU a la George Lucas

from the Mad Martigan, Sorscha, the brownies... everyone. Except Willow. Perhaps we can recruit him...

Post Google:
She Hate Me album, download it!

Post Titled: elephants on parade


dumbo still.

Psot Tlited: I lkie tihs aplhebat suop from Anne Marshall
...
p.s. WAAAHAHAHAH, the radio news woman just tripped on the word "Bundesgesundheitsministerin"
-fraking eat it!!!

Post Titled: WIRED interviews TRICKY.

Honestly it has been nearly 10 years since I have bought a Tricky album, but Maxinquaye did pretty much blow my mind when it came out in the same way that Portishead or Massive Attack did. I saw Tricky in 1998 as the whole trip-hop phenomenon was winding down, and at the time he seemed senselessly and aggressively stoned for the two or three somgs he actually played before someone spilled water on a piece of equipment and he threw a fit and left the stage completely, thus ending the show. Funny how the least active group from that era- Portishead- is the last man standing. Massive Attack still tours, still makes music, still sounds ok... but just seems a bit empty...

Post Titled:Der Trauriger Zwölfpfünder - A Booth & Morland Amalgamated Opera Works Inc. Production.
Der Trauiger Zwolffunder, a new theatrical and operatic work of grand proportion this coming weekend.
Performance Schedule as follows:
23.4.09 @ 11pm
25.4.09 @ 11pm
26.4.09 @ 8pm
For tickets/more information contact theblueaspic@gmail.com

yea, that is what happened to me today. (from stage): tar art rat tarartrat berlin artist painter art blog post-google postgoogle post google ear frakonomics caprica

Post Titled: headed north...

Post Titled: been fuggin like... rennovating this bastard.

Battlestar Galactica at the UN

I thought I dreamt this... no, apparently that was just my radio alarm planting ideas into my head.

5:51 am, home again. on 12seconds.tv

Post Titled:

non-fiction ...scan of more things one doesn't usually scan


.. such as cheese with a book about Moscow and a novel called the heart is a lonely hunter by carson mccullers with a book about the crown jewels which I bought on my first trip to England when I was 14... cheshire moscow..

Post Titled: non-fiction. easter eggs (both naturally and artificially dyed) scanned on an incline...

Post Titled: apparently there is lovely weather in berlin...

for some reason this only kind-of works the 2nd time around...

probably won't be posting today so happy easter on 12seconds.tv

Post Titled: Was zum Teufel?!Thanks a LOT (Fraking SPAM Robots!)
a message I recieved today from the one and only google, owners of such fine sites such as this one:

"Your blog is marked as spam

Blogger's spam-prevention robots have detected that your blog has characteristics of a spam blog. (What's a spam blog?) Since you're an actual person reading this, your blog is probably not a spam blog. Automated spam detection is inherently fuzzy, and we sincerely apologize for this false positive.

We received your unlock request on April 11, 2009. On behalf of the robots, we apologize for locking your non-spam blog. Please be patient while we take a look at your blog and verify that it is not spam.

Find out more about how Blogger is fighting spam blogs."

I'll have to admit that I am just a weeeee bit dissapionted here. I have been blogging for years now, and I would be very curious to know what and why this blog was tagged as a potential spam blog... grrr.

Post Titled: EMERGENCE opening
Featuring works by Zach Houston, Melissa Frost, Miguel Diaz de Lopez, Ernesto Ortiz, Shuan Owens-Agase & Tyler Peterson, Travis Robertson, Sumi Ink Club and Paul Tyree-Francis

Vernissage Friday 17, April 2009 19:00h-22:00h
Golden Parachutes 42E Kreuzberg Str 10965 Berlin
Tel: + 49 30 86 45 22 22
Mi-Sam 12:00-18:00
www.goldenparachutes.net

Golden Parachutes is pleased to announce its inaugural exhibition, Emergence, a group show of emerging American and Canadian artists. The exhibition’s title refers to the philosophical and scientific theory that complex systems and patterns arise out of a multiplicity of relatively simple interactions. The works on view mine cultural artifacts like poetry, comic books, tabloid photography, impossible data and film, as well as collective art practices, to articulate the distance between the result of action and action itself.

Golden Parachutes is located at Kreuzberg Straße 42E in the Kreuzberg section of Berlin. Gallery Hours are Wednesday through Saturday, 12:00-18:00. U7 (Yorckstraße or Mehringdamm)/ S1 + S2 (Yorckstraße)
NOTE: above image credit Shuan Owens-Agase & Tyler Peterson

Post Titled: MUSKEGON

View Larger Map
non-fiction, michigan:
Earlier today I opened up a magazine and there was an article about a young black physician in Muskegon... thinking: "gosh, Muskegon... where have I heard of that town before..." which induced a flashback (I can't remember if I blogged this and if I did, bear with me because this is how I remember it now) but on my way to a wedding in SF in Nov. 2008 I had about eight hours of downtime at the Detroit airport, so of course six of them were spent sitting at the bar at the FOX Sports Bar and Grill. At one point a girl somewhere in her 20s and actually somewhat attractive with a royal heaping nest of ringlet-ly permed platinum blonde hair sat next to me at the bar. For an hour we said nothing, just watching the four flatscreens mounted above the bar until she commented on what was going on on one of the court-TV shows:
"He did it, he cheated on her. He cheated on her. Yep." (nodding)
"He... that guy?" I gesture towards a normal looking guy on the screen sheepishly defending himself against the militant questioning of a angry overacting judge
"Yep. Seen it all before, he totally cheated on her. And that it his kid."
She goes on to imply her mistrust of Ellen DeGeneres for her lesbianism, and I just watch her profile as she chews gum while smoking endlessly (in one of the only airport bars in America where smoking is still allowed) as she plowed through her 2nd or 3rd mixed drink while never really looking me in the eye, never really even turning her head towards me as she talks, she just looks at the tv square-on.
"Flyin makes me nervous. Don't like to fly too sober, y'know? I... I have only done it... I have only flown on a plane 2 times before. It freaks me out." she states.
I try to talk her down. Use the typical "it is safer than driving" arguments, which kind of works.
After a lot of chatting she tells me that she is from Muskegon.
"Musk...skee?"
"Muskegon. It is a real small town. On the Lake Muskegon. But my mom lives outside Buffalo now with her boyfriend, that is who I'm goin to go visit."
Due to my own ingnorage of the geography of the Great Lake states I have to ask to confirm that that is in Michigan, which it is. It turns out that she is a hairdresser. With small periodic questions I try to figure out who and what this creature is, but don't get too far. For example:
"What do you guys usually do when you go to visit your mom?"
"Oh, not much. We talk, I do her hair, then we make dinner... not much really."
"What is Muskegon like?"
"Oh, it ain't much. I work a lot. I gotta car, so I can go out and do stuff. I talk to my girlfriends a lot. Not much, really."
When I tell her that i live in Berlin, Germany she seems genuinely disinterested, but I pick up later that that apparent disinterest might be masking complete and total ignorance. Later she asks: "Do they have toilet paper in Berlin?" and I calmly answer "yes, there are basically the same modern conveniences there as there are here in the United States..." but I kind of think that our conversation will make me want to visit Muskegon for the rest of my life, or at least every time I see the word.

Post Titled: Sweet, Sweet Jesus. (see below)
After over a decade Post-Google hath discovered the un-self-aware Holy Grail Fountain of Kitsch... to be honest, the website is no match for the print catalogue, but behold:

Oriental Trading! orientaltrading.com and this easter don't forget your child crown of thorns: "Realistic accessories make the Easter pageant authentic. This Crown Of Thorns headpiece is made of safe, lightweight nylon. 7" diameter."

Post Titled: say it 10 times fast
Thompson Times took a trip to Tefelsberg. Thompson Times took a trip to Tefelsberg Thompson Times took a trip to Tefelsberg. Thompson Times took a trip to Tefelsberg Thompson Times took a trip to Tefelsberg. Thompson Times took a trip to Tefelsberg. Thompson Times took a trip to Tefelsberg. Thompson Times took a trip to Tefelsberg. Thompson Times took a trip to Tefelsberg. Thompson Times took a trip to Tefelsberg... How'd she get up there?

Post Titled: drawings that have very little to do with drawing VS. lack of drawing drawings...







tar art rat tarartrat

Post Titled: non-fiction. camping in the the backyard

Post Titled: bad lipsync from a paperbag puppet

bad lipsync from a paperbag puppet on 12seconds.tv to
led zeppelin's whole lotta love

Post Titled: brain in German...
Last week I saw a woman on the subway in Berlin reading a book titled Die Israelis
which for a tiny split second my brain though- "damn, that is effed up!" by diana rosenthal

Post Titled: non-fiction "What HAS Spike Jonze been up to...?" oh, yea-

where the wild things are trailer footage live action

Post Titled: Austern Ohne Schale
I randomly saw this film while housesitting last year and was thouroughly charmed, and now:
Im KINO BABYLON am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz findet
im Rahmen des "Achtung Berlin Festivals"
im Wettbewerb
am Samstag, 18. April 2009, um 22.30 Uhr
die Premiere meines Spielfilms statt.
Austern Ohne Schale
mit Janet Sander, Melanie Golla ,Samuel Finzi, André Szymanski,
Jürgen Lehmann u.a.
Ich freue mich auf Euch!
Jette Miller
Der Ort der Premierenfeier wird im Anschluss an die Premiere bekannt gegeben!

Weitere Vorstellungen:
Mi., 22.04., 18.00h in Kino 3 Babylon Mitte
Di., 21.04., 22.00h in Kino 2 Passage Neukölln

Karten kann man im Kino in der Rosa-Luxemburg-Str. 30
erwerben oder vorbestellen: 030 24 25 969

Post Titled: Non-fiction (one could also dorkily say "true stories") the New Theatre, Oxford, Aug.9, 2009
after two days of driving around and not paying much attention to my email I get a text last night form J. "Hey, you and your parents are on the list for the show tonight!"
unfortunately this text arrived to my mother's cell which I had been using in London earlier in the week, but fortunately I was standing nearby when she read it aloud and dismissed it as a misguided text/wrong number since she never received texts and had forgotten that i had the phone in London to communicate with J.
Annnyhow, I quickly figured out that the text was from J. intended for me and within three hours we were sitting in very good seats for the David Byrne show on his Everything that Happens Will Happen Today tour. P. had mentioned that the dancers were weird, which I'll admit, they did take some getting used-to but they all really grew on me by the end, especially Lily Baldwin, who just had this awesome NeverEnding Story expression on her face the whole time.
There is a lot of random dancing on this tour, much different than the last time I saw him (Seattle and Portland for the Grown Backwards tour) nevertheless it is fun and colorful and unfortunately I spolier'd the Burning Down the House encore by reading John Moe's blog a month ago (or was it All Songs Considered?) I just didn't expect to see him on this tour, but if you wan to spolier it yourself- checkit HERE or see a video of the Benaroya Hall encore:

Post Titled: species previously thought to be extinct found alive, well and for sale...
Post Subtitled: the dicontinued Michael Phelps corn flakes cereal box and three other photos I took yesterday...
NOTE: look closely for hidden symbols and meanings (NOTE on the NOTE: this was a coincidence, CLUES included below)




CLUES!: Top photo is what my finger looks like without the camera lens; That Resteraunt should say "Little Chef" -do you know how hard it was to take this drive-by photo from the motorway?!?; the white flower on the red background is a sticker given to me on a train by a Georgian girl, it is a symbol of Georgian solidarity/revolution which is now stuck to the leather exterior of my "paper blog" (journal); as everyone knows he Phelps deal was cut from Kellogg's after he got caught photographed smoking out of a bong- but I found this display yesterday! and it wasn't at the Salvation Army!

Post Titled: afternoon abstract video in which I attempt to file a turtle's toenailsthis turtle is too moody to actually cut his long nail (which is actually really traumatic) so I have tried filing them down, BUT his nails actually seem to be harder than normal nails... so... now what?

Post Titled: non-fiction: bits of London.





shot at the Barbican Art Gallery and a bar called Lacy Valerie Phillips or (Philips?) in East London

Post Titled: Peggy Sue and the Pirates and Emma
It recently came to my attention (thanks Zora!) that our friend Emma plays violin on a lovely track called The Sea The Sea by Peggy Sue and the Pirates, do give a listen, really quite amazing.


p.s. I have been in transit, not blogging- but taking a few fotos. Was in London yesterday, now back in the near of Oxford.

Post Titled: Cleverly Grotesque and Ever-so dorky Tauntaun Sleeping Bag (thanks Patrick!)

Post Titled: Cut "is a documentary film by Eliyahu Ungar-Sargon which examines the subject of male circumcision from a religious, scientific and ethical perspective. Using cutting-edge research, in addition to interview footage of rabbis, philosophers, and scientists, Cut challenges the viewer to confront their biases by asking difficult questions about this long-standing practice..."