Post Titled: TAR ART RAT and death and punctuality.
I am in America, (first NYC and now D.C. area) hence the lack of posts lately. I have no internet and have been rototilling, fighting termite infestations, planting seeds, etc.) and actually had I been on-time meeting a friend the other day then there was an extremely good chance I would've been involved in a deadly Metro train crash, but fortunately I am a perpertually late person, and hence still living today to type this blog post. so: hooray for tardiness, and I plan on never being on time ever agin... (of course on the grand scheme of things i realize these things could work both ways...)
D.C. Metro Red Line Crash June 2009

 
KAMPFTERN POWERSHIFT... an accidental collage edit. tar art rat
been out in the city exploring on the bike, finding some amazing stuff these days, things that make this city ever-more strange and wonderful...

Post Titled: Opening Stanza from Choruses from "The Rock" by T.S. Elliot
my dad just sent me this at the bottom of an email:

The Eagle soars in the summit of Heaven,
The Hunter with his dogs pursues his circuit.

O perpetual revolution of configured stars,

O perpetual recurrence of determined seasons,

O world of spring and autumn, birth and dying

The endless cycle of idea and action,
Endless invention, endless experiment,
Brings knowledge of motion, but not of stillness;
Knowledge of speech, but not of silence;
Knowledge of words, and ignorance of the Word.
All our knowledge brings us nearer to our ignorance,
All our ignorance brings us nearer to death,
But nearness to death no nearer to GOD.
Where is the Life we have lost in living?
Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?
Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?
The cycles of Heaven in twenty centuries
Bring us farther from GOD and nearer to the Dust.

Post Titled: NON-FICTION: Just Your Friendly Neighborhood Singing Booze Fiend! (Viktoriapark, Berlin)
I Thought I'd actually lost this recording but I just found the USB stick (it was stored on in a sewing kit!)
A NOTE ON WHAT YOU ARE ABOUT TO HEAR: Quite randomly in the middle of an interview for an article, a worn-looking sort gentleman in a jogging suit came up to us and sang this song (recorded with his permission, of course) and then snatched one of our unopened beers and ran off with it! (ANOTHER NOTE: the first 50 seconds are fairly quiet, then it get louder so lookout)

Singing man sings lovely song before stealing our beer in Viktoriapark by tarARTrat

May 2009

Post Titled: facebook username claimed
http://www.facebook.com/tarartrat
not all that impresive, but what IS impressive is that I also claimed my real name as first.last which is a miracle since I have an extremely common name. tarartrat tar art rat post-google postgoogle.com painting drawing berlin seattle kreuzberg

 
hand scan with temporary animal tatoos
from OuBu TRIBAL TATOO bubble gum

 
videocamera das Parfum

 
Post Titled: WATCHING THE GREEN PEAS...

Post TItled: just became a member of VIMEO and immediately found a really nice modern dance short

BEATRICE AT THE MARKET from marzio on Vimeo.

Post Titled: DSM-V, the revised edition of the APA’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorder. The bible for the mental-health industry
"Internet Addiction
According to an article in the American Journal of Psychiatry, this is a disorder “that involves online and/or offline computer usage and consists of at least three subtypes: excessive gaming, sexual preoccupations, and email/text messaging.” It has several components, including excessive use, which is “often associated with a loss of sense of time or a neglect of basic drives”; withdrawal, which leads to “feelings of anger, tension, and/or depression when the computer is inaccessible”; tolerance, meaning “the need for better computer equipment, more software, or more hours of use”; and negative repercussions, “including arguments, lying, poor achievement, social isolation, and fatigue.”" found at THE DAILY BEAST

Post tITLED: NON-FICTION, 2 DAYS AGO: Hitting the ground running in search of BITTE ORCA at Berlin, Alexanderplatz.
Kind of a mini example of like exactly like what is wrong with everyting on a much larger scale... (oR a sampling of my place in the universe of man?)
I went to a few of the larger media stores at Alexanderplatz a few days ago looking for the new Dirty Projectors' album BITTE ORCA. Found nothing. Not even old DP albums. All I found was a place-holder for where their cds should've been.
Two days later paperpools emails me: "Did you see this? http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2009/jun/07/dave-longstreth"
link to the guardian, (which I hadn't seen yet because, unfortunately, I rarely read the guardian because I am 100% addicted to NPR) anyhow: that article informed me realized that the album came out on June 8th-

Just wanted to point out here: in the United States, (or in Seattle in-paricular) there would've been no question about where to find it. There were always at least 2 record stores within 15 minutes of my apartment no matter where I lived in the city, but for some reason in Berlin (which I'd otherwise consider to be one of -if not THEEE- major cultural capitals of the world at the moment- it is damn near impossible to find a good little record store.)

But still: Saturn, the HUGE new Saturn at Alexanderplatz, (one of the most popular shopping hubs in the center of one of Europe's largest
cities!) is carrying a mere 4 copies of the album tucked away in its "Independent" section- behind (ok, next-to) the Star Wars bobble-heads and Metallica Death Magnetic t-shirts in plastic bags. What the heck, guys?!? It isn't anywhere on (or even NEAR) the "Neuheiten" (New Releases) wall, which is overflowing with the likes of Depeche Mode (DISCLOSURE: I like DM) and about a dozen other completely crap pop acts.

Wow, folks... wow.
This is an obvious point, a point too obvious to even blog about- but too important to igore... the fact that the Dirty Projectors,
a truly great act producing wonderful music that sometimes sounds like pop, is nearly invisible and unplayed outside the indie-rock-o-sphere.
Honestly, I wasn't really even expecting to FIND the Bitte Orca there at all -I EXPECTED to leave the store empty-handed or simply with some old Erykah Badu album on sale for 4,99 (that happens).
but since the top No.3 slot the NEUHEITEN wall was empty I plopped BITTE ORCA in there in hopes that an employee might have an epiphany or some poor lost little German soul might happen across it...

I Saw the Dirty Projectors 4 times here in late 2007/early 2008 and it left a huge impression on me. I'd never seen anything like them on stage, as I have blogged and blogged again- in terms of pop-rock, they were like sitting in the cockpit of the Sonic Millennium Falcon at unsyncapated mathematical lightspeed. Their shows made my eyes cry, like people cry at weddings just because they were so damn beautiful.
Initially I happened upon them when they opened up for Beirut, and then again at Dave Shrigley's WORRIED NOODLES show in Festsaal Kreuzberg (went alone to that because no one would come out into the cold) then WEST GERMANY (dragged half a dozen people along that time and showed up 3 hours too early: ) and then at the Maximum Black Festival.
As I bought cds at shows encountering their recorded music was interesting at first because at the time all I wanted to hear were the goosebump-inducing RISE ABOVE tracks they'd played live (but that CD wasn
't out yet) so I fell in love with New Attitude, and over time the Getty Address has become a favorite... and I am not trying to listen to Bitte Orca in moderation so I don't burn-out on it simply by over-listening.

aiaiaiai, folks, aiaiaiaiaiaiaiiiiii....
today is a schizo-weather Wednesday... so so so:
TAR
FREE
ART
NOW
RAT

 
Post Titled: Due to fairly limited access to American media, I've once again gotta into the habit of watching LOST online while I draw or do the dishes.

 
Post Titled: ANTIQUES.

Post Titled:

Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers
by Love-in-the-City

fred astaire and ginger rogers rodgers

Post Tilted: Europawahlen 2009 ResultatenAfter being forced to look at these images for the past few weeks as Europe was apathetically dragged through another vague EU election, we bicycled around the city, armed with bullshit-piercing lenses freshly installed into the Post-Google Golden Goggles of Righteousness. Post-Google hit the streets wielding a camera and and an 8th-grade sense of humour to provide the ULTIMATE Post-EU Elections (local?) campaign poster wrap-up/round up commentary.
Our results!:
WINNER
Dr. Silvana Koch-Mehrin for so effectively using the Much sexier than the average sexy Librarian angle.

BIG FRAKING LOSER
Joacim Zeller for looking like a grumpy Disney vulture.

Not Pictured: Dagmar Vote for me because I'm your nice Aunt Smiley and kinda Ethnic and look like I'll make food for you Barths-whatever. (We like her, too.)
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
Post Titled:
nennt man sowas "pelzengraffiti"? yep: furry Graffiti in Berlin.
Found these on my way to Alexanderplatz. Not bad!

nennt man das pelzengraffiti?

 
 
Post TItled: the tiny blue car often parked out front...

 
Post Titled: Heart Stickers on Spraypaint background

 
Post Titled: perfekt denglish in magjic marker sagt "bank king ingwer rogers"

 
Post Titled: Ghost Painting...

 
the Hinterhof at Flo/Buck's

 
юлиа

 
Post Titled: Hmmm...
Did Fleet Foxes singer Robin Pecknold quit twitter? or is my internet connection just whack...?
If so I am kinda sad because I liked his updates. Argh.
TWO DAYS LATER: NOPE, STILL DOWN.

 
Post Titled: Ingrid.

 
Post Titled: Laura and Ingrid

Post Titled: day after d-day is day after b-day...
Post Subtitled: Day of healing becuase I Turned 29 yesterday.

 
 
 
 
Post Titled:
non-fiction, graefekiez fotos taken of young Turks and Salisburger "Sully" Morland jumping on a wall on the afternoon and night of June 1st, 2009

 
Arthur White & Mo by Clayton Ryan

post titled: shooting miss kitty zazu group 2