Monday, November 29, 2010

I dragged myself out into the freezing cold, went to the bank to be sure I had money to pay the gebuehren, trekked to the hospital, paid my 10 euro at the automat, waited for over an hour only to be told that this particular (enormous) hospital had no ears-nose-throat specialist on-hand to handle my runaway sinus infection which is killing me... thanks socialized medicine. I did see a guy who is probably going to die, though.
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Thursday, November 25, 2010

"the darkest thing Disney has done since shooting Bambi's mom."*
OR:
a 25-year history of why this boy is quite literally totally "stoked" for a thing like TRON LEGACY:
1985: staying home sick from school was pretty much the only time were allowed to rent videos, so at age 5 I went to the "Children's" section of the local videostore and grabbed Walt Disney"s TRON (which my monter approved because it WAS in the Children"s section). Result: watching the film as a feverish 5-year old was a wild ride thorugh boredom, terror and confusion. On the plus side: I was introduced to Jeff Bridges.

1993: I move to Germany. Electronis music is everywhere (MTV, radio, etc) and is SUCKS at this point in time (think DJ BOBO or Der Berg Ruft or Eins Zwei Polizei.

1995-1996: Soften up to electronic music, even though most of the stuff I still encounder is complete crap.

1997: On a school trip to London I buy the Daft Punk album "Homework" for 17,99 Pounds (like $40 at that time) on a whim - basically because I liked the name and the albm cover. (And big city like London just had a thousand times better record selection than our po-dunk German farming villages had to offer at the time.) I become obsessed with the album and a few months later I quite randomly see DAFT PUNK in a warehouse in Mannheim, Germany (thanks to a girlfriend who was way cooler than I was.) Result: a wild ride thorugh terror and confusion and pure amazement/infatuation with these wierdos and a newfound (now permanent) love for their music.

2001: I literally bump into Jeff Bridges in the restroom during intermission of. I put my arm around him adn he nods adn laughs nervously as I take him for a walk talking a mile a minute and making an ass out fo myself until I realize that I have dragged him to the top of a dead-end stairwell, what I am doing, politely excuse meself and feel bad about it to this day. Also, he is probably my favorite actor, -which is one of the only things my father and I can agree on.

2006: I see Daft Punk at Coachella, an amazing annual music festival way out in the California desert. In the past 9 years since I last saw them they have upped thier game and it is bascially, probably, maybe, literally: the best thing ever.

2010: So for the better part of my life I have been a huge fan of Daft Punk and Jeff Bridges, SOOO: With their powers combined I am officially totally stoked about Walt Fraking Disney's TRON: Legacy. Even if the film isn't amazing, the soundtrack will be.

from the *SPIN (print magazine version) of the new record review

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Monday, November 15, 2010

small world feeling... but on the internet
- so I am setting my radio alarm last night, trying to find a tolerable Berlin radio station to wake up to 3.5 hours later
(hard to project what they wil be playing at 6:06 am)
and I am positively captivated by a cover of Radiohead's IDIOTHEQUE. Waiting until the end I find out that it is sung by a girl named Amanda Palmer... and I say to myself "wait- I follow a girl named amanda palmer on twitter." I have followed her for years, she was one of the first round of random people I chose to follow when I joined in 2007- and have never known or bothered to know who she is, to me she is just a girl whose twitter messages havepopped up on my screen.
As it turns out (by finding a link to a SPIN article he´d wrote which was actually waiting in my email inbox oddly enough) she is singer of the Dresden Dolls and fiancè of Niel Gaiman, whose writing for the BATMAN comics I have grown to love (as well as Stardust)... and for a moment I had that small world feeling... but on the internet

anyhow, here is that amazing cover of idiotheque:

Amanda Palmer plays idiotheque on her magical ukelele

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Friday, November 12, 2010

innerhalb 5 minutenlive from S.I.N. bar
thouroughly unprofessional piano sessionswith Joao Diaz

me...

und Anka
kreuzberg, berlin, 12. nov. 2010

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TONIGHT:
Délire à deux (Frenziness for two) is a photographic/video installation documenting the preformance and fashion work of Kyrgyz artist Julia Bajanova as captured by German photographer Sebatian San and Ukranian photographer Konstantin Lunarine.

The collection of images catalogues the performer possessed in various states of disarray shedding normality and clothing during multiple shoots over the last several years.

The show also marks the opening of the new back room at
S.I.N. BAR
Schoenleinstrasse 6, (U8 Schoenleinstrasse)
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A letter from the Todd (with 2 d's)
After getting all of Todd Zuniga"s fantastic spam for the past 2 years I attended the Literary Death Martch in London at the end of August and it was both hilarious and great. Therefore I am willing to give up a bit of blog space to re-post his most recent noble plea:

Many couches, spare beds (two bunk beds!), and 12 amazing events/cities later, LDM and Opium had teamed to not only showcase 48 readers (representing 48 fantastically different literary entities) and 36 sharp-witted judges in only 27 days, but we put ourselves on the best possible track to publish our 10th issue: Opium100: A Century of Literary Humor.

For those that haven't been paying close or distant attention: in February, Opium Magazine was morphed into Opium for the Arts, a 501(c)3 nonprofit, during what has been a very difficult time financially for many of us. In the past, Opium issues worked like this: we'd anticipate having enough money to publish a print issue by the time it was ready to be printed, then when it came time to print we'd discover: Oh, shit, we need this much, and we only have this much.

Publish (somehow), rinse, repeat. Nine issues worth.

When we became a nonprofit in February, after an excruciating wait — it was a 14-month process — we were basically in a position where we'd need to fund the issue ourselves, again, only this time the this much we needed was way more than it had been in the past (our goal has been to make Opium100 supremely special, a must-have that you'll want on your shelves for eons).

So, we buckled down, partnering with the Literary Death Match to continue our push to pop-culturalize literature (and to make a few bucks) and along the way we were introduced to the work of literally hundreds of excellent, excellent writers. The thing we didn't do was to clearly communicate the position we were in because, to be honest, we didn't really know what position we were in. We were hoping some bag of money would come down from the heavens and make Opium100 a reality. We knew people who knew people who had the fiscal strength to make it happen, we did a pre-order push for Opium100 on the site, we continued to work with Literary Death Match which continued to aid the filling of our coffers, but there was the issue of time. Where did the time go? What we know is that it flew, and it's now November.

So, what's it all mean? It means there will be no Opium print issue this calendar year, and the reason is this: we could make it happen with the money we have, but it wouldn't be up to our standards. It would be very, very good (the writing and artwork we've already piled up for the issue will seriously impress even the snobbiest, mean-minded crabass). But (again), we want Opium100 to be very special, in part because it will announce who we are as a cultural non-profit entity going forward (like, how we'll hell/high water pay our contributors, no matter what). But in our future, we want Opium to do what it's done in the past, too: delivered, dazzled and promoted writers in a way that goes well beyond the norm.

In this way, it's like 2010 was a big reset button for us, as we've worked tirelessly behind the scenes to put ourselves into a position to wildly succeed in 2011. New subscribers will be presented, next year, with an issue that we think will be talked about for centuries, or at least one century. And then there will be Opium11 after that, also in 2011, which we already have an interview-and-story combo from a guy that you'll say: how did they pull that off?

Ultimately, we are stronger and smarter than ever, and we couldn't be more thankful for your patience. And if you are not patient, or you are angry, you can tell us/me that, too (todd@opiummagazine.com). We receive so many emails (!), but I will answer soon, I promise. Otherwise, know that we are pushing the accelerator on not only print issues, but a new web site (fundraising pending) that will, we think, change the landscape of literary magazines online. Man, we hope so. It's a lot of big talk, but we mean it. Our ideas are so grand! And we hope, soon, to show you once again that we can do so much with very little.

Which is the part when I say: please donate to Opium for the Arts. There are recommended donations listed on that link, but even a few dollars will do. It adds up fast, and one way it adds up is that we know that people out there are as excited about literature, and its brilliant value, as we are. Plus, it's a shot in the arm, the good kind, and its a motivator we don't take lightly.

2011, with your help, will be the year of Opium! And we're really, really passionate about making that statement come true.

Todd Zuniga
President & Founder
Opium for the Arts

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Thursday, November 11, 2010

spinning in the tornado of daily routine. much happening but not much that would be interesting to blog about. getting shit done. feeling a hardcore Big Chill come on. working, working, writing, and de-stressing with some Super Smash Bros. at the very tail-end of the day all is well.
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Tuesday, November 02, 2010

I went to the Yeasayer Berlin show at Maria am Ostbahnhof in full Heath Ledger Joker costume only to find that i was one of perhaps 3-4 people dressed up (like less than, uhm, 1% of the crowd... wich made it somewhere between awkward and awesome. Double-takes, photos, etc.)
However I did get a shout-out from the bassist before he left the stage at the end of the show. He pointed and said "Hey, there's Joker!" Kind of rad
I deliberated long and hard about doing this costume fot the third year in a row, but honestly my inner obsessiveness compelled me to do it again - as I just explained to a friend "mainly because I was so dissapointed with my costume last lear - it just wasn't what I wanted - but this year it was like 99% spot-on (as opposed to last year being about 65%). My make-up took over 3 hours to do and I even bought brown contact lenses... (yikes. you'd think I have better things to do with my time... and I do but I also
I just fraking love Halloween & Batman)" I do. and in Berlin it is hard to Have a great Halloween... I donät know why. Although the night before the Yeasayer concert we did go to the Peres Projects Halloween party (see: ZOMBIE BIKERS FROM MARS) and that was amazing. Decorations, music, costumes and a dance performance by a tiny dancer named
Helga Wretman... oh, and there was a 10-foot tall ninja girl (whoim I couldnät figure out if they'd hired or if she was just an amazing circus freak. I also befriended the German Kieth Richards, a saxophone teacher. If anyone has photos please contact me, I don't. note: Joker kostüm Kreuzberg neukölln berlin 2010.

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