Eva Montauk

Lunch Time in Central

2012-01-27T14:51:00.000+08:00

Take Away Shows

2012-01-26T23:35:00.000+08:00

I saw some wonderful bands playing in Osaka last week, the Fleet Foxes, Beirut and Shugo Tokumaru. While searching around the web, I found these great videos called Take Away Shows. First of all here is a video of Shugo Tokumaru, who was opening for Beirut. He's amazing! There will be reviews coming up shortly on this blog

And the next one is J.Tillman, the former member of the Fleet Foxes (they just announced last week that he's leaving the band) playing a simple song with fellow Fleet Fox Casey Wescott.

And the last one will be Beirut. I love them. Enough said.

Deerhoof live in Hong Kong

2011-12-11T23:53:00.001+08:00

Deerhoof played live in Hong Kong for the first time thanks to Songs for Children.

A link to the concert review is coming soon including great photos!

In the meantime have a look at the music blog I've started with nohan http://schall-platten.blogspot.com/

The Fleet Foxes live in Japan 2012

2011-12-07T11:39:00.001+08:00

I've ordered tickets for the Fleet Foxes Concert in Osaka in January 2012.
I'm so excited. Now I only need a flight, a hotel and money!

Reading: Franz Kafka's diary

2011-11-10T10:10:00.000+08:00

26 (Dezember 1910) zwei 1/2 Tage war ich – allerdings nicht vollständig – allein und schon bin ich, wenn auch nicht verwandelt, so doch auf dem Wege. Das Alleinsein hat eine Kraft über mich, die nie versagt. Mein Inneres löst sich (vorläufig nur oberflächlich) und ist bereit Tieferes hervorzulassen. Eine kleine Ordnung meines Innern fängt an sich herzustellen und nichts brauche ich mehr, denn Unordnung bei kleinen Fähigkeiten ist das Ärgste.

26 December 1910. For two and a half days I was—though not completely—alone, and already I am, if not quite transformed, certainly on the way. Solitude has a power over me that never fails. My interior loosens (only superficially for now) and is ready to release what lies deeper. A small ordering of my interior begins to establish itself and I need nothing more, for disorder in small talents is the worst.

The thing I find strange in the translation is the word odering. Kafka wrote "Ordung", which mean order and is a noun, the opposite of chaos. Also he is not using the word solitude, which would be Einsamkeit in my opinion, but he says "being alone" also using it as a noun. So here is my crappy translation.

For two and a half days now I haven been - though not completely - alone and already I am, even though not yet changed, on the way. Being alone has a power over me that never fails. My interior dissolves (for now only temporarily) and is ready to let out what lies deeper. A little order of my interior starts to establish itself and I need nothing more, for disarray with little capabilities is the worst.

Kafka's work is in the public domain in most countries! Find more of his diary here or here

More Reading Max Frisch - Montauk

Wide Angle in Hong Kong

2011-11-08T14:40:00.000+08:00

Some more photos taken on Hong Kong Island with the 20mm. Me gusta.

Reading: World is what makes the love go round

2011-10-31T15:32:00.000+08:00

I picked up this trippy looking book at Flow - a second hand bookshop in Central for 33HK$ (4US$)

It's called "World is what makes the love go round". It's poetry from the sixties, obviously.

I like the cover art!

Here's a little random excerpt:

Día de los Muertos

2011-10-27T22:43:00.004+08:00

Happy Halloween

This is a sketch I did for Día de los Muertos, one more time in color.

Also this is my entry for this week's Illustration Friday - Scary

Here are some of my previous Illustration Friday entries

Soaked
Duet
Reverse
Phenomenon
Prehistoric
Savour

Hong Kong

2011-10-14T09:48:00.003+08:00

Graham Street Market

2011-10-11T10:18:00.010+08:00

Fruit stalls at Graham Street Market

The pictures are of Graham Street Market in Central. Graham Street Market is one of the oldest outdoor markets in Hong Kong.
It's been around for 160 years. Even before Hong Kong became a British colony there was a bazaar on this site selling provisions to the ships arriving in Hong Kong. Unfortunately the Urban Renewal Authority is planning to redevelop Graham Street and Peel Street. When they say redevelop they actually mean tearing down the old buildings and building higher, more profitable high rises instead. This will affect 37 building and 78 shops. It will start 2015 and be completed in 2021.

Dai Pai Dong close to Graham Street Market

The plan is to build a giant complex with two residential buildings, a 26-storey hotel, a 32-storey office building, a footbridge linking to the escalator and an underground car park (because we need more cars in Central for sure). They are also planning an "Old market street" an unauthentic, man-made tourist attraction, which will have nothing to do with reality and surely all the charm and authenticity of the market will be lost. They will be selling traditional products and handicrafts. Sounds like the Ngong Ping Old Town to me, a disney-esque tourist attraction on Lantau selling Babushka dolls and other kitsch to mainland tourists. I fail to see how "Old Shop Street" can be of any interest for a tourist wanting to experience the many sides of Hong Kong, as gritty and dirty as they can be. Graham Street Market may not be pretty at times, but it's GENUINE and vibrant and that is what tourists would like to see. The real Hong Kong, a real outdoor wet market, not the URA's version of it.

Flowers Shop at Graham Street Market

Instead of just renovating the buildings, like it is done in most places in the world the URA instead tears down most of the ones built in 50s and 60s, keeps the facade of the pre-war buildings and fills in the rest with hotels, luxurious apartments and other crap not catered to the existing residents of that area, but for richer class with more consumer power. Local residents are relocated and compensated.

Wing Woo Groceries

The corner house of Wellington Street and Peel Street was housing one of the oldest shops in that area selling eggs, groceries and dried goods called Wing Woo Groceries, which was in business for more than 80 years and closed in 2009. The URA offered the owner compensation and he retired due to old age. The shops interior will be preserved for a museum.

Different type of eggs at Wing Woo Groceries before it closed down

The property market rules Hong Kong. Graham Street Market will probably not survive much longer. Now is the time to visit this place while you still can.

Faces

2011-10-08T22:07:00.000+08:00

Playing around with watercolours.

Reading: Just Kids by Patti Smith

2011-10-03T10:05:00.000+08:00

Pattis Smith - Just Kids

It's nice to read about someone, who unlike other artists still had to find a medium and their own voice. It's nice to know that not every well-known artist has had a calling right from the start.

Nasca Ceramics

2011-09-27T11:00:00.000+08:00

These are ceramics made by Nasca Indians. Aren't they cool? You can see these in the Anthropological and Archaeological Museum in Lima. Some of them are like flutes or whistles, they were filled with water and tilted. When the water flows from one part to another a whistle will blow.

Before And After

2011-09-24T22:21:00.000+08:00

This is what it looked like about 3 months ago.

This is what it looks like now.

It will be the air vents for the six lane Central - Wanchai Bypass tunnel.

Reading: Montauk by Max Frisch - again

2011-08-20T22:23:00.001+08:00

I love this book by Max Frisch. The original translation says "elderly man", but that sounds weird to me. in German the word is älter, which just mean older. Elderly on the other hand sounds almost dead or senile.

He remembers her telling him once about an older man in Vienna she had seen but not spoken to - probably a Jew. They had understood each other, so it seemed to her, at at a glance, and she had fled from him as if from Fate.

See my first post here Max Frisch's Montauk

Break

2011-08-12T22:53:00.001+08:00

Only photos now. I have nothing interesting to say. It's sunny and incredibly hot and humid outside and I'd rather be in a Caspar David Friedrich painting right now, because I don't feel sunny.

Dia de los muertos

2011-08-04T17:26:00.000+08:00

Something from my sketchbook.

City

2011-08-03T10:41:00.000+08:00

It was your glorious hair that first made me love you

2011-07-19T11:06:00.003+08:00

drawing during my commute

Saint Gotthard

2011-07-14T10:01:00.000+08:00

On top of the Saint Gotthard Pass. Instead of the tunnel we took the scenic road on our way to Itlay. There is still some snow and ice, even in the summer.

Charts 1965

2011-07-04T01:07:00.000+08:00

Where have you been my darling young one?

2011-07-04T00:28:00.002+08:00

Oh, where have you been, my blue-eyed son ?
And where have you been my darling young one ?
I've stumbled on the side of twelve misty mountains
I've walked and I've crawled on six crooked highways
I've stepped in the middle of seven sad forests
I've been out in front of a dozen dead oceans
I've been ten thousand miles in the mouth of a graveyard
And it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard, and it's a hard
It's a hard rain's a-gonna fall.

Oh, what did you see, my blue eyed son ?
And what did you see, my darling young one ?
I saw a newborn baby with wild wolves all around it
I saw a highway of diamonds with nobody on it
I saw a black branch with blood that kept drippin'
I saw a room full of men with their hammers a-bleedin'
I saw a white ladder all covered with water
I saw ten thousand talkers whose tongues were all broken
I saw guns and sharp swords in the hands of young children
And it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard, and it's a hard
It's a hard rain's a-gonna fall.

And what did you hear, my blue-eyed son ?
And what did you hear, my darling young one ?
I heard the sound of a thunder, it roared out a warnin'
I heard the roar of a wave that could drown the whole world
I heard one hundred drummers whose hands were a-blazin'
I heard ten thousand whisperin' and nobody listenin'
I heard one person starve, I heard many people laughin'
Heard the song of a poet who died in the gutter
Heard the sound of a clown who cried in the alley
And it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard
And it's a hard rain's a-gonna fall.

Oh, who did you meet my blue-eyed son ?
Who did you meet, my darling young one ?
I met a young child beside a dead pony
I met a white man who walked a black dog
I met a young woman whose body was burning
I met a young girl, she gave me a rainbow
I met one man who was wounded in love
I met another man who was wounded in hatred
And it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard
And it's a hard rain's a-gonna fall.

And what'll you do now, my blue-eyed son ?
And what'll you do now my darling young one ?
I'm a-goin' back out 'fore the rain starts a-fallin'
I'll walk to the depths of the deepest black forest
Where the people are a many and their hands are all empty
Where the pellets of poison are flooding their waters
Where the home in the valley meets the damp dirty prison
Where the executioner's face is always well hidden
Where hunger is ugly, where souls are forgotten
Where black is the color, where none is the number
And I'll tell and think it and speak it and breathe it
And reflect it from the mountain so all souls can see it
Then I'll stand on the ocean until I start sinkin'
But I'll know my songs well before I start singin'
And it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard, and it's a hard
It's a hard rain's a-gonna fall.

Summer Holiday

2011-07-03T21:10:00.001+08:00

Some more photos from my short trip to northern Italy. I want to go back.

Reading: On the Road by Jack Kerouac

2011-06-29T11:38:00.000+08:00

From Jack Kerouac's notes

Holidays

2011-06-22T23:30:00.001+08:00

A bee in Germany

A boy eating ice-cream in Lenno, Lake Como, Italy

Duomo di Milano, Italy

Tasty cherries in Germany