Havana
January first, arrival in Havana. Smell of frying fat and auto gas. 25°C, streets full of people, strolling, hanging out or trying to get a hitchhike. We arrived late so we had to wake up our first host family. They took it with charme in pyjamas. Sleep after a long flight.

Breakfast, long walk from Vedado, our neighborhood (best in Havana imho) to the centre, through the newer one (Centro Habana) to the old (Habana Vieja). Havana has beautiful colonial villas, mixed with 70s and 80s skyscrapers and small simple family houses, but hardly any new buildings. Many of them are run down, but some in good shape. Some are actually falling apart. The vanishing beauty has a certain kind of melancholy to it.

Cuba is one of the last countries with a socialist political system. Only a few months ago it became possible for people to sell and buy real estate. Shortly before, one-person businesses were made legal. Internet is very expensive and rare, there is only one newspaper which consists of 10 pages each day. There is no product advertising since every product exists only once. On public displays you will instead read life instructions like to defend socialism, watch out for enemies and to enforce the revolution within yourself everyday, illustrated by numerous paintings of Che and Fidel. Travelling is only possible for a few people.

There are two currencies: the “moneda nacional” to buy local products, pay for electricity etc. All imported products are paid in CUC, or “convertibles”. If you pay in local money, it is very cheap, but most things for tourists (hostels, gasoline, food at the families) are in CUC and pretty expensive. The money families make with hosting tourists goes to a big part to the government as tax. Still, it is a good way for Cubans to earn something extra.

People don’t have much and they have to get around many difficulties, like public transport, fixing things over and over again and having “more time than life”, as a Cuban saying goes. But somehow, most seem to get along with it somehow, in a stoic, relaxed and ironic way. Maybe socialism works better on a Caribbean island than in Siberia. You don’t want to wait for a hitchhike for hours in Siberia. But let’s go back to Havana.

We strolled around in el centro for a little bit, looking at empty shelves in stores and beginning to feel the relaxed buzz of the city. Somebody offered us to be his driver, because he knew his way around plus we could drink all the time. He seemed more of the kind that we had to take care of later so we said no. Finally, we had a glas of 15 year old rum, which was good but shockingly expensive. My advice for rum: 5 years is old enough, it’s good but it does not get much better.

We took a cab home and experienced a highlight: the kick with the boys from the block on the streets, thanks to Andi, the son of the family who took us there.

Havana was fine, but it was time to get on the road. Next day we were about to meet our car. I was relieved we actually got it (we had paid for it in advance) but there it was, a brand new Geely.

We called her Margarita. She had a tough time with us on the Cuban streets with potholes big like bathtubs which turn to mudways all of a sudden sometimes. But we always spared a caring clap and a “sorry” after painful bumps and so she took us all the way around Cuba from the far west to Santa Clara in the middle.

Our road trip started with travelling to Viñales via La Teraza, a beautiful region with many tobacco fields. We picked up a hitchhiker on the way who showed us the cigar production he works for. We learned all about different shapes and leaves and how to roll them. It looked easy. But only because the man had 15 years of experience, I guess.

Next day we somehow got lured into a horse ride. Sitting on a horse called Moreno I got carried around the valley. We visited a cave inside a very peculiar hill which looked like it had fallen directly there from space. But next time I prefer to walk, it felt like sitting on a pony at a fun fair.

Still, sun in the face, surrounded by landscape, holiday started to kick in on Moreno’s back. Pretty place, but we had to get back on the road. So we left Viñales after only a day to go to the west where we ended up in a little town called Sandino.

Sandino consists almost entirely of run down socialist buildings from the 60ies which give the city a very Eastern European look. There is only one house where tourists can stay and the owner already waited for us, waving in the street. The house’s food was far more than generous, and featured a tasty chicken and rice. The sunset was amazing and bathed the blocks in a fruity, violet golden glow.

Next day we went to see the lonely beach towards Maria La Gorda and it certainly was very lonely and virgin and end of-the-world like. Our first Cuban beach. Flipping stones. Reading Cuban short stories. Great.

Holiday kicked in a little more with a bit of excitement. And we left in the afternoon to go towards Santa Clara.

The big mistake was to believe we could actually take a detour and avoid the motorway which by far is the fastest way to go towards Cuba. But we had gone there already and wanted to see something else. Only that we ended up in a totally lost spider web of sandy paths while the sun was going down.

On the map it looked like this were actual streets, in reality you would need a traktor. There was no way to go any further so the only alternative was going north to San Antonio, a small town, influenced by the military force which has barracks and an airport there. Listening to the jets start and land above our heads was kind of creepy. But also kind of cool. The room we stayed in was funny, I like the suggestion of a wall between bath and room there.

Santa Clara
Next day we arrived in Santa Clara, a university town and place of Che Guevara’s decisive winning battle during the revolution. After asking around, we were lucky to get to know Jorge, our host for the next four days. In his place we felt very comfortable, the food was great and Jorge had very good advice about what kind of things to do. After all that car and horse riding it was like coming down and being home.

We watched baseball and an American movie on tv. A mistery I could not solve: how did this very badly scripted and even worse acted Californian business thriller end up on Cuban tv? Anyhow, bed, tv, relax, diner, we recharged. Then it was time go out. It was friday night and the town full of young people, we asked Jorge for advice and he sent us to “El bosque”.
A place which was going to be called “muy problematico” by anybody we would ask later.

But what a place! Open air, heavy Cubaton (listen above) from a massive soundsystem, dancers on stage, filled with well dressed party hungry people. The air seemed somewhat loaded with energy but hard to tell where that energy was going to. All eyes on us, the only Westeners around. Smiles, curiosity, hellos, almost a bit intimidating.

Until we knew what to do, we had a guy on our side who looked like Mike Tyson and would not let us alone for the rest of the evening. He was clearly a “jinetero”, trying to get drinks, trying to make friends, trying to make business. Friendly until the point we tried to get away. He was very annoying and intentionally scared everybody away who would come near to us, like we were “his victims”. That kind of spoiled the evening. We should have just been unfriendlier probably or even threat him with the security or police as we were told later by Jorge.

That’s a side of Cuban culture you have to accept as a fact also: there will always be somebody who will try to make business with you, get you a house, cigars, a horse ride, a girl. It’s annoying because you don’t know if a person is really interested or just wants to make a dime and you cannot really ask for advice since everybody will always know “the best place” which surprisingly is the one which grants him a commission. Anyhow, we had to learn how to live with it and became quite good in ignoring people in the end. The first line always is “where you from?” so in the end we had a little challenge who would come up with the best place. “Ucraine.” “Hell.” Mars.”

Our basecamp Santa Clara is in the middle of Cuba between north and south coast, so it was perfect to make trips in any direction. The first one took us to Cayo Las brujas which has some famous beaches which were not easy to find and are very stony, but also very lonely. And it also has some infamous tourist resorts. We took the chance to walk around in one of them which looked like a total fake colonial town and had all the wonderful things you would expect: Pools with water ballet, all inclusive buffet, volley ball, a beach crowded with people wearing wristbands. And who probably won’t see anything else of Cuba.

What a contrast to the rest we had seen, it made me feel like being in a zoo. We were happy to get out. On the way back to Santa Clara we we passed the very old and quiet, almost deserted town of Caibarien whilst enjoying another of this magical sunsets all red and intense.

Back home, we had some drinks in the street with guitar playing students. That fortunately rebuilt our trust after the Mike Tyson episode.

Next day we went south to see Hanabanilla, Cuba’s biggest storage lake and took a long hike around its coast.

The highlight was finding a wild orange tree loaded with fruit. Eating it was quite a disappointment, hours later it still felt like I had had a drink of pure acid. Hey, that’s nature! Another highlight was seeing these little fellas:

(in case you don’t see it: It is actually a socialist robot army, ready to fight back at any time.)

Back in the house we overheard baseball on the radio. It was live and it was in Santa Clara so we went straight there to see a game of Cuba’s most popular sport. The game was not very good, hardly any batter hit the ball and Santa Clara won the game with only three points in total. But the whole atmosphere was cool and the sandwiches with ham were amazing. Here, all was paid in pesos nacional, the baseball ticket equalled 8cents, the sandwich 20. And we won!

Next day we left Santa Clara for good and went to the south coast to Trinidad, one of Cubas oldest colonial towns and touristic pearls. We took this sleepy dude along on the way there:

Trinidad has some very nice beaches around and it was time for some swimming and beach fun. Like reading, getting a tan, snorkeling, swimming in the warm Caribbean water. It could have been perfect. But no heaven without hell, in the nicest of moments I stepped into a nasty sea urchin and had a massive sting in my foot. I can tell you, that hurts! Good thing, the pain goes away quite fast, next evening it was gone. But I’m quite sure I still have a piece of that urchin in my foot. Don’t know what to make of that yet. Did I say the sunsets are amazing?

Our day trip on the next day took us to Sendero Vegas Grande which ends at a huge waterfall with very, very, very cold water so no way to swim over and get a natural water massage. But very cool for a hike. The afternoon was long enough for more beach action and after that the party could begin.

Downtown we met Julian, a guy we had given a hitch hike the day before. He is a wrestling coach, greek roman style and lives in Budapest. He actually did train some olympic medal winners and was in Cuba to see his family. He took us around in the town, we had drinks, met his friends, bought some music and street food.

Finally, we ended up in a club which is built in a cave, called “La cueva” or Discoteca Ayala where you walk down many stairs and dance around in between stalactites covered by a high ceiling of stone.

After some sort of acrobatic show with fire and chairs (I can’t quite remember) the people were ready to dance and so were we. The lady in the centre of the show certainly has a good time also:

Good mix of Cubans and tourists and after the last rum we took the most impossible taxi home.

The next day was the day we had to go back to Havana via Cienfuegos. Another famous colonial quite well refurbished town but somehow it lacks the charme of the other morbid and half broken cities. But to be fair: with the hangover from the day before we were not so into sightseeing, did not really give it a chance and decided for another beach to enjoy one last of these amazing.. ah you know.

And that’s about it almost. All of a sudden this trip was going to end, just in the moment we started to understand things. It took us half a day to get out of Havana in the beginning because we did not know the streets or the map. On the way back we went straight to our house like it was nothing. We had passed many tests. We were ready for the next level!

To sum it up: I have definitely not seen enough of Cuba. It is a country which you have to learn to deal with and which has a lot to offer. I have only seen small bits of it and it seems like there is way more to discover. We had to give Margarita away the next day which made us feel pretty sad and incomplete. Then spend another last day in Havana with museums and surprisingly good food. And then: back home..

Drop me a comment if you want to know more details.

Quilmes heißt nicht nur der Heimatort des Clubs in der Nähe von Buenos Aires sondern auch ein Bier, das ich in Argentinien sehr gern getrunken habe. Aus Ein-Liter-Flaschen, wie es dort üblich ist.

Na, wer erkennt diesen sympathischen dicken Nerd? Dieses Video geht sein ein paar Tagen über meine Social Networks, ein bepulloverter mittelalter Mann bastelt an einem Fußtritt-Sampler und ein paar Synthies rum und entwickelt bei aller peinlichen Niedlichkeit eine gehörige Portion Soul. Lach- und Spaßseiten verulken den Kauz, aber dahinter steckt ein nicht ganz unbekannter Musiker. Auflösung bald.

(Achtung, nicht alle in dem Video können rappen, aber darum geht’s hier glaub ich gar nicht)
15 Jahre 0711, alles Gute!

Berlin bleibt deutlich, schön prollig, “Die Stadt überhaupt” von KD Supier, Megaloh, Said, Silla und Sera Finale. Sera hebt sich schön smart ab, ist eine “guter Orthopäde, der den Yuppies Beine macht” und der Rest ist ordentlich böse und schlecht gelaunt und manchmal auch witzig.

Nach dem Klick: Kool Savas und Eko Fresh


“.. dass du wirklich ein Künstler ist, Rap ist lediglich das was dein Hartzerstatus begünstigt” der Teaser zum Album “Aura”, ein Hit fehlt diesmal auch nicht, SAV in Stiefeln am Meer und in der Steppe, Orchester: “ihr könnt mir alles nehmen, aber diese Flamme nicht löschen”: Aura.
Von Johann Lafer gibt’s auch einen Shout Out. Neue Zielgruppen!

Und wer hätte das gedacht, Eko Fresh ist zurück. Flowen kann er ja schon, aber so eine richtige Hookline findet man nicht, “500 Bars” mixtapemäßige Action auf verschiedenen Beats.

Wo die herkommen, könnten sie ruhig mal sagen. Schön auch dieser Kommentar von YouTube, richtig ausgewogen, ist ja nicht unbedingt zu erwarten auf Rapvideos bei YT:

BR# 68 Ben UFO from BOILER ROOM on Vimeo.

In case you don’t know what Boilerroom TV, the club meets web live music experience is, I wrote about it before, so check it out here.

DROPLETS from Simon Fiedler on Vimeo.

Here’s the rest, the winner list (sorry, no links this time), I watched a few and thought Droplets was nicest, too. Overall I have the impression, that last years videos were a bit more interesting.

Beste Postproduktion:
Assassin’s Creed: Revelations, Digic Pictures (Ungarn)

Bestes Character-Design:
Nuts & Robbers von ToonBox Entertainment (Kanada)

Bestes Game-Design:
L.A. Noire von Rockstar Games

Bester Kurzfilm:
Flamingo Pride von Tomer Eshed (Deutschland)

Beste Visualisierung:
Bacon, Anyone? von Florian Köhne/Hannes Hoepfner (Deutschland)

Beste Werbeproduktion:
SUBARU “The Car Parts”, INFECTED Postproduction (Deutschland)

Beste interaktive Produktion:
~sedna touch Touch Image von ~sedna (Deutschland)

Bestes Still:
WC von Juan Siquier (Spanien)

Beste Stereo-3D-Produktion:
Luigis’ Pizzaride 3D von Florian Werzinski (Deutschland)

Sonderpreis der Jury:
DROPLETS von Simon Fiedler (Deutschland)

Es gibt zwei Staffeln, das Video unten ist die allererste Folge. Ich habe noch nicht alle Folgen der ersten Staffel gesehen, aber die zweite scheint mir etwas feinsinniger zu sein, in der ersten zieht Broder noch als Stele verkleidet los, um sich unter die Geburtstagsfeier des Holocaust-Mahnmals zu mischen. Aber es ist eben auch sehr komisch.

Die Interviews sind gut, die beiden schaffen es, die Menschen frei zum sprechen zu bringen und dabei die kleinen und großen Merkwürdigkeiten von Nazis, Verschwörungstheoretikern, Weltrettern und Armutsbekämpfern zu Tage zu bringen. In er zweiten Staffel treffen wir einen Berufsdemonstranten, besuchen UFO- und Klimakongresse, Claudia Roth beim Shoppen, einen Hartz4-Anwalt, der Geld vom Staat bekommt, egal ob er verliert oder gewinnt, einen Zauberer, der sehr strenge Auflagen für sein Kaninchen bekommt und schauen einer gymnasialen Klima-AG zu. Wenn die Kinder dann freudestrahlend erklären, dass sie unangemeldete Besuche in den Klassen machen und aufschreiben wer nicht richtig lüftet, wird einem doch etwas mulmig zumute. Mulmig wird es auch schon in der erstem Folge, bei diesem, im Video zu sehenden Cafe-Betreiber, der sehr eigen zwischen dem Muslim-sein für Männer und der Ansprüche an Frauen unterscheidet: “bei der Frau geht dann eben die Ehe, Charakter, äh, wie heißt das, äh, der Ruf kaputt”. Kein Sex vor der Ehe für die Frauen, aber Sex für die Männer, ja wie soll das denn rein logisch überhaupt gehen?

Das ganze geschieht jedoch eigentlich nicht ohne Herz und Menschenliebe, die vorgestellten Personen kommen fast allesamt ganz gut weg, eine Abreibung bekommen dabei die dahinter steckenden Menschenbilder und Weltanschauungen, sowie die Bürokratie, das System, das sich dadurch am Laufen hält. Heimlicher Held der vier aktuellen Folgen, die es zur Zeit in der Mediathek zu sehen gibt, ist Gunther Gabriel, Schlagersänger und Aufstehmännchen, der erzählt, was er alles gemacht hat um über die Runden zu kommen, ohne den Glauben an sich zu verlieren. Diesen Self-Made-Man findet Broder natürlich klasse: “Das ist wie eine Therapiestunde, man geht rein und kommt gut gelaunt wieder raus”. Tatsächlich finde auch ich Gabriels hemdsärmeligen Unternehmungsgeist durchaus inspirierend.

Man kann von Broder halten was man will, er provoziert gerne, ist öffentlichen Personen gegenüber rücksichtslos, kommt nie ohne Nazi-Vergleich aus, ist radikal liberal bis hin zur Toleranz der Intoleranz bzw. umgekehrt, leugnet den Klimawandel leidenschaftlich und hat äußerst selten konstruktive Vorschläge für die Gesellschaft, die er permanent seziert und kritisiert. Aber mit diesen spöttische Autopsien bringt er zumindest mich an einen Punkt, an dem ich erst zusammen zucke, mich dann aber doch dafür entscheide zu lachen. Und zu lachen, und vor allem über sich zu lachen, macht die Welt sicher auch nicht schlechter. Und Broder schließlich doch noch zum Weltverbesserer.

SBTRKT ESSENTIAL MIX by sbtrkt

Come around to see Ben Patterson, one of the Fluxus founders, Iput, Eric Andersen and Willem de Ridder at the Schau Fenster Gallery at Lobeckstr.30, from 8pm. A good way to end the week and start the friday night!

The opening party is part of the “Fluxus Today” conference by the Akademie der Künste and the exhibition “The lunatics are on the loose“.

Pretty cool to see my name in such an arty environment. Let alone the question: What am I supposed to play?! Well, I have some days to think left, I guess. Suggestions for songs are welcome in the comments.

Ever more often lately, I stumble across 360 degree or panoramic video and photo ideas, tools and gadgets. Now I even have the great pleasure to work on a project with that kind of technology together withe the awesome company called Yellowbird from the Netherlands. They do amazing 360° videos which are embedable and follow the linear story of a video along a timeline, and whilst the film is moving you can change the viewpoint of the camera, like looking at the sky or behind you. Their most successful video certainly is the one from a snowboarders perspective which went pretty viral which is understandable, have a look:

I first stumbled across them when I saw a 360° degree video which was embedded into Dorito’s YouTube channel and you could follow a guy into an underground club and watch it again and again to see what was going on behind you, e.g. Sadly, it’s not online anymore.

Today, I discovered a “throwable panoramic ball camera” which is filled with cameras and takes pictures once it’s up in the air. You download the pictures then and put them together with a software, the result is a clickable, zoomable and rotatable panoramic image. Nice! Find out more on Jonas Pfeil’s page and watch a demo video here:

It’s ironic that BBC reporter Robert Peston shortly believed that they were set up by satirical cultural jamming group Yes Men because nobody would believe a trader would be so open about his views of the world. Shortly later, he confirmed that this interview was actually legit and Forbes just published an interview with Rastani, stating him “I trade the momentum”. Right now his Facebook wall is full of hate, as you can see below but to be honest: Rastani does not really say something new. Everybody knows that there is a lot of money to make if you push the right buttons in a crisis. Rastani is a freelance trader, he works from home and actually he is only one in thousands of people who move money in the market. But he gives the anonymous and abstract thing “financial markets” a face.

People cannot understand what these markets are and why they have such a great influence on their jobs, their pensions, the news and politicians everyday. It’s a conglomerate of people, institutions, robots who all act according to different rules and nobody understands the motivations or mechanisms fully. Whenever a person pops up, the boss of a bank, a hedge fund manager or a freelancer trader who speaks his mind people get furious. But Rastani is only a small piece a big system, so don’t shoot the messenger. On the contrary, you actually have to pay the guy some respect for his honesty and transparency. In the Forbes interview is surprised by the attention he gets and says: “I think it’s overblown. I have no idea why I’m getting this attention. I don’t think it was news. For someone to say what I said, I thought everybody already knew this kind of stuff. The big players of funds rule the world, I don’t think that was news.” And sad but true, he is probably right.

We hear people like Michael Hain (Hardwax), Tobias Rapp (author and Spiegel journalist), Dixon, Dimitri Hegemann (Tresor founder), Bene and Tom (Renate club), Sascha (Apparat) or Daniel Meteo from Shitkatapult. The protagonists explain the history of the openness of Berlin after the wall came down with lots of space and lack of rules. And also its transition from being a German underground city to a internationally known hotspot with all the good and bad this development brings.

You can find more “real scenes” documentaries about Bristol and Detroit.

It all started with a weekend trip to Copenhagen, to see the exhibition opening of my friend Robert McNally. We had a great time, his gallery owner David showed us around and made us feel really welcome. The next day was strolling around in the center, the harbor, next to the opera, seeing Christiania and the sunday a trip to the famous Louisiana, museum of modern art with a beautiful sculpture garden. So lots of culture, impressions and great weather even!

This week will all about preparing new business for P3000 which I still enjoy working for every day. I am also helping to organize the main event of Social Media Week 2011, we are going to have a conference with the motto “Everything is amazing and nobody is happy”.

Next weekend I will work at Berlin festival, taking care of artists just like at Melt festival. I have amongst others Public Enemy, DJ Hell, Mr Oizo, Feadz, A Trak, Diplo, Kruder & Dorfmeister, Skrillex. Wow!

The week after will be Amsterdam at Picnic festival. I went there last year already and had a good time, here is the video from 2010.

I already have some interesting appointments in Amsterdam, obviously the idea of “The box” a european network of independent social media agencies does provoke some interest.

The week after will be Social Media week with the main event on tuesday and an app circus on thursday which I will take part in. Originally I planned to go to Cologne to Demexco too but I guess that’ll be too much frankly. Looking forward to seeing you on some of these events!

So please, post hints to the best bars and clubs in Copenhagen in the comments, thanks!

Es geht los mit dem „Public Coaching“: Hier diskutieren Booker, Labelbetreiber und Musik-Journalisten zusammen mit den Musikern die eingereichten Songs. Ihr oder eure Musiker-Freunde können sich dafür ab sofort mit einem Song bewerben, den ihr in die a2n Dropbox schmeißt. Die “Werkstatt-Jury” wählt dann die Tracks aus, die live und vor dem geneigten Berlin Music Week-Publikum besprochen werden. Als Coaches sind illustre Menschen wie Sascha “Bleed” Kösch von der de:bug, Tim Renner von Motor Music oder Stephan Szillus von der Juice am Start.

Die anschließenden Workshops widmen sich Fragen wie: Wie funktioniert die Künstlersozialkasse? Gibt es Alternativen zur Gema? Wie geht Promotion im Netz? Was ist Crowdfunding? Wie lizensiere ich meine Musik für Filme?

Um Antworten bemüht sich ein ganzes Heer von Musik-Experten, darunter Stephan Benn, Rechtsanwalt und VUT-Vorstand, Artur Schock, Booker bei Audiolith, Tino Hanekamp vom Uebel + Gefährlich in Hamburg, oder Matthias Krebs von der UdK Berlin.
Checkt das gesamte Workshopprogramm.

Buy the Vinyl on Juno or buy the Mp3 at Beatport or on itunes

The song is out on Exploited, my old buddy Shir Khan’s label. And here you can listen to what it would be like when the party goes on:
SHIR KHAN presents BLACK JUKEBOX 01 (trax by Homework, Doctor Dru&Adana Twins) by Exploited

Der “Nebeneffekt” dieses Handels: steigende Preise für Weizen, Reis und andere Grundnahrungsmittel. Während wir in westlichen Ländern ca. 10% unseres Einkommens für essen ausgeben, sind es in Entwicklungsländern im Durchschnitt mehr als 60%. Steigende Preise für Lebensmittel sind also sofort und direkt existenzbedrohend. Der Film der NGO Weed (World Economy, Ecology and Development) erklärt diesen Zusammenhang sehr nüchtern und anschaulich.

I tuned into today’s (tuesday, 19/02/2011) show to listen into the Black Acre session with @bluedaisytwit, @FM_Fox and @Hyetalmusic. To sum it up: Interesting new sounds, I especially liked the Fantastic Mr Fox, cool to watch the musicians editing plus I really got this live feeling: seeing some people dancing in the background, watching the musicians, with a twitter stream, facebook and ustream chat boxes all around the video and people constantly writing stuff.

Mostly people write that they are there watching it, but sometimes also commenting the music, sharing links, tweeting to the bands. Who, and this makes the concept interesting, are mostly also on Twitter and get linked to by the boomboxtv account or by one of the founders and organizers Thristian Richards. But while most performers have accounts, only a few of them would check the discussion while doing music, I assume.

To be honest, there was no real discussion it was more the feeling to be watching the same stuff at the same time that made the experience interesting. And of course, the intimacy of being somehow at a living room party, like you can see in this video, Hudson Mohawke playing a 90ies classics Hip Hop set.

In a Time Out magazine article, Blaise Bellville, the other cofounder, talks about up to 25k viewers when James Blake was on, in this video interview Thristian Richards talks about the concept behind it. Richards is also a dj and Belville used to run “Platform”, a web magazine. It’s offline now, pointing to a new project called Leisure only but I found a nice readplatform.com snapshot from the Wayback machine.

The club is now located at Corsica studios, a small venue inside of railway arches near Elephant & Castle, maybe on their Facebook there is a chance to be invited to the actual performances.

“Make a little birdhouse in your Keats” will show people how to make bird houses from trash and then place them in public spaces – trees, lamp-posts, street signs and buildings. This process will educate people about waste, and engage them directly in improving directly their urban environment. The birdhouses themselves will create a provocation, bring birdsong to the streets and make the keat’s just that little bit nicer for everyone in it. The project would manifest in workshops – street actions and documented online with a how to replicate in your own keats.

Awesome! We look forward to seeing this in action.

Stuxnet: Anatomy of a Computer Virus from Patrick Clair on Vimeo.

If this is possible, think about all the electronically managed systems: stock exchange, train systems, traffic, telecommunication.. It’s creepy.

On Monday 6/20 “Dirty Old Town” will premiere at the legendary Kino Babylon in Berlin with other engagements to follow. In addition my first film “Captured” will also be released theatrically at Kino Babylon in Berlin. Starts at 20:30!

DIRTY OLD TOWN: OFFICIAL PROMO – SPRING 2011 from Dirty Old Town on Vimeo.

I like the trailer because it looks like a very strange movie with lots of interesting characters. Don’t miss the chance to see it!

Leider weiß ich nicht was der Beitrag uns sagen will. Dass wir alle Angst haben sollen vor den bösen Datensammlern, dem Staat und Stalkern? Dass alle Druck verspüren sollen, mitzumachen im Social Web, weil das erwartet wird, obwohl es doch gleichzeitig so gefährlich ist? Dass Facebook, Google und der Staat morgen in meinem Schlafzimmer stehen? Ehrlich, die Einzigen, die mich je gestalkt haben, sind das ZDF.

Was nicht klar wird, ist meine Haltung: Wir haben die Wahl und natürlich muss man damit umgehen können. Ich bin mir sehr bewusst, was ich wo poste und welche Information ich mit wem teile. Facebook zum Beispiel erlaubt einem sehr granulare Einstellungen, wer was von einem sehen darf. Zwar habe ich mein Profil der Redakteurin Sabrina Hermsen frei gegeben, Hendrik Speck aber nicht. Dass Sabrina meine Daten mit ihm teilt, ist vielleicht Teil des Experiments, aber keinesfalls von mir erlaubt worden. Und da trifft wieder der Spruch: Die größte Bedrohung für deine Privatsphäre sind deine Freunde. Waren sie aber schon immer.

Wenn ich bei Foursquare sage, wo ich bin, hoffe ich auf Begegnungen mit denen, die mir dort folgen. Wenn ich auf Twitter mit jemandem diskutiere, hoffe ich, dass alle, die dort zuhören, etwas von der Unterhaltung haben. Wenn ich erfahre, dass ein Freund auch gerade in Kolumbien ist und ich den dann nach Jahren treffen kann: Finde ich das fantastisch. Diese ganze Öffentlichkeit um meine Aktivitäten im Netz haben mir schon so viel Ideen, Feedback, spontane Treffen, Verbindungen gebracht, dass es absolut ABSURD ist, Angst zu haben.

Schade um die Zeit im ZDF, die hätte man besser verwenden können, um den Zuschauern zu zeigen, was sie konkret tun können, als Gruselszenen mit Verfolgungen in der U-Bahn zu drehen. Schade auch, dass ich mitgemacht habe, das Gefühl hinterher war kein besonders Gutes. Nicht die Kontrolle darüber zu haben, wie man in der Öffentlichkeit dargestellt wird, fühlt sich scheiße an. Und darum sollte es doch gehen wenn einem Privatsphäre am Herzen liegt, oder nicht?

Der Beitrag ist inzwischen unter den meist gesehenen in der ZDF Mediathek und der Blogspost hier hat bisher mehrere tausend Leser. Ich bin froh, mit meinem Blog eine Plattform zu haben, auf der ich meine Perspektive auf die Geschichte darstellen kann. Ich bin auch schwer angetan von der Qualität der Kommentare. Und so hat diese Geschichte doch zumindest eines ausgelöst: Eine lebhafte Diskussion über die eigene Verantwortung für die eigene Privatsphäre und die seiner Freunde.

Die Tweets zur Sendung.
Beitrag von Caschy: “Angst wird geschürt”
Beitrag von Christian, der meinen Satz mit den Freunden zitiert.

(Disclaimer: Für meine Zeit bei den Dreharbeiten habe ich vom ZDF 500 EUR erhalten)

Hop behind the dj booth when there is a free space. You can search for tracks in a database and select it to your playlist. The djs play on from left to right and when you’re on, the song from top of your playlist is played next. Everybody in the room can click “awesome” and the avatar starts dancing. If enough people push “lame”, the next dj is on. Simple idea, well done, playful interface, like I said: great fun!

And there was this great moment also when one of he founders Seth Goldstein entered the room to see if everything was ok. We clapped his shoulder, congrats to turntable.fm, made some wishes (export playlist, real mixing) and let him step up to play one song. “Soldier” by DJ Cadim it was. Good luck, Seth and turntable.fm!

Thank you for showing me some music in a great session with Barbnerdy, Saetchmo, Silke, Fakir Ayonto, Uwe and others!

Of course, the talks and encounters are the most important thing at such an event and it was really a shame I did not have time to talk and chat more with people. Station is a good location, the lectures where in different rooms that all left from a central hall that had the feel of a marketplace and also served as restaurant and party area.

Too bad also I did not take any pictures, the official Flickr does not have images that capture the atmosphere either. The photo is from t3n, who have many more pictures from next11.

The panels where diverse, the curators did a great job in my opinion this year. To my mind stuck the AKQA showcase with Ian Crocombe who e.g. talked about the Fiat Eco Drive, a car which comes with a software that analyzes the driving and suggests ways to consume less energy. Or Andrew Zolty by BreakfastNY with his twittering oven and the blimb who checks in to Foursquare automatically.

Vincent Schmidlin by Scholz & Friends talked about archetypical heroes in human narrations and how brands can be seen in such a way (Slideshare in German). And of course I enjoyed to see my friends Bastian by Jovoto who showcased the Betacup case and David from Soundcloud who had many examples of user love like this one:
Soundclouder of the day – Thankyou song by David Philips.

Here is David’s talk on Soundcloud.

Nextweb has a nice interview with the Startup pitch winner wahwah.fm and on Techcrunch Angry birds announce 200 Mio downloads. The videos from the conference should be up soon I guess. Thank you, next team! Here are all articles related to Next conference.

I know, it’s just a funny video, but it so needs to be on the Stylewalker blog. Thanks @herm for putting it on my wall.

And I really did have some good conversations, everybody was really interested but somehow I had the feeling that there still are a lot of cultural differences between the advertising and the social media world. I’ll explain that in another post. What I actually did not expect so much was to be inspired, I don’t know why, but that actually happened to my joy and surprise. The exhibition was full of nice small and big design and advertising stuff: photos from magazines, print poster campaigns, even some good online stuff and I it was cool to stroll around and let the eye get caught by the vast variety. You can take a look at all the winners here and watch some picture after the break.

Next event I will be attending: Next 2011 I am particularly interested in Peter’s Social track and Nico’s branding day, to bad it’s simultaneous, so I’ll be hopping back and forth supposedly.

The first screen is the standard screen while a match is running. Before you have to logon, connect your social media accounts if you like and chose a match. If you think a goal is near you can push the bar at the bottom and gain lots of points if they really score within 30 seconds. The image to the right shows one of several questions that pop up during the game.

Corners and free kicks give you an extra chance to score (no screen unfortunately): Players decide whether it will be a goal, cleared, missed or caught by the keeper. At the end of the match of course you can share the result with your social media friends.

The impressive thing about the app is the real time factor. Not only must there be somebody to push in the live events like corners or goals but the technology must also be able to push these events to the players and collect inputs correctly, e.g. know if the player really selected a goal before it happened. The app was built by AKQA, the impact is evaluated by Blauw Research. Well done!

Starplayer App at iTunes

Wow, that’s a lot of XLR8R stuff, but the podcast is really good

The video has a very slim format and is shot entirely on the Canon EOS 550D which gives the whole thing a warm, photographic feel. Shooting with a Canon EOS comes into fashion now, the other day I was interviewed by a tv station team that used that technology, too. The music is easy, good for a summer evening.

Thanks for the tip, Deep88!

But there are a lot of conflicts in this subject and unsolved problems, especially on the lines between organizations and individuals and the private and the public. Of course human related data can be especially interesting and valuable, like locations, relations, actions. But the question is: who does the data belong to? Is it my data because I caused it or is it somebody else’s because they recorded it? It’s an old problem of property when talking about relations. Is it my mail because I wrote and sent it to you or is it your mail because it was meant for you?

Most companies yet have no idea what to do with their data, I must assume. Apple, e.g. stores your locations in a file on the iPhone, nobody knows e.g. why. It just does. Because one day there could be a way to turn this data into a business model. Governments store an immense information about their citizens and would like to use it to prevent crimes, predict the future, plan better. Most people would have the opinion that despite all the data, governments pretty much fail in predicting the future and planning right.

So that’s the conflict line: Individuals feel uncomfortable knowing that a lot of information about them is stored somewhere, often under not especially secure circumstances and often to ends nobody knows yet. Is that a reason to avoid data and minimize the amount of data stored in general? That’s a principle privacy activists often claim to be the best way against surveillance and fraud, just don’t store any data at all. All the data lovers certainly won’t like this idea.

The truth, as always, will probably be in the middle. Most people would agree they like advertising that suits them better, products that have special features tailored to them or that just work better. On the other hand, people will get excluded from products and services, e.g. by location, gender, race. Is it fair to let somebody pay more for a health insurance e.g. because he is living in a poor neighborhood and has been proven not to leave that neighborhood often either, based on location tracking? It’s based on data, there’s a correlation, bad neighborhood, bad living habits, often sick, higher risk, it’s statistically proven, but is it fair? We think we know people by their data, but I think we don’t. Still, it’s a development, nobody will stop.

So, just scratching on the surface of this subject, I am looking forward to discussing this further, hearing about ideas about how to love data, what useful stuff to do with it. See you at Next 2011, hopefully!

Also I think I missed quite some input this year. I heard great stuff about bedroom programmers building maps to help disaster helpers, egyptian bloggers and of course the infamous Guten Tag Team (which apparently did a show so full of copyright infringements it will never be put online). Two great videos are already online and according to what’s been said, they are true #rp11 highlights. Sascha Lobo hilariously insulting the audience and the entire internet and the very nerdy and witty Guenter Dueck talking about the Internet as operating system.

Sascha Lobo – Trollforschung from Christian Cordes on Vimeo.

All linked content is in German, but I write in English, don’t know why, I guess I’m still in the mood.

As for the party: I’m sorry, I did not play good. I was not well prepared and did not really harmonize with Nilzenburgers hits. I should have just played some electro classics. Next year!!

I had the pleasure to see all of these different nature environments, look for are only two of my Peru sets on Flickr.

My judgement is not based on nature alone, that would be unfair, since Ecuador and Colombia also have an incredible variety I unfortunately did not have the time to explore to the fullest. But what I also liked about Peru is the culture awareness and pride you find everywhere. Being the heart of the Inca Empire with Cusco as Inca capital and the cradle for many Indigenous cultures in Latin America, like the Moche and Nasca and many still vivid groups like Quechua, Aymara or Urus, Peru seems to have found a way of being proud of that heritage without feeling too bitter about the colonial history and the tragic destruction of heritage during the Spanish reign. And somehow it feels that the country is internally not as separated as it seems in Bolivia or Ecuador, where politicians, entrepreneurs and tv presenters are mainly white but the street population is mainly indigenous so you feel like you would still be in a colonized country. There seems to be a growing middle class consisting of Indigenous and mestizo people and the next president might be the leftist nationalist Ollanta Humala whose father is of Indigenous origin.

Third reason are the people. Most tend to be really friendly and helpful, and, as a paradox, gave me a lot of warnings about other ill-meaning Peruvians, including taxi drivers who repeatedly warned me about taxi drivers. I also had very educated and savy guides who did not only knew about sites and history but also recommended really great places to eat. Which leads me to the next reason to love Peru: The food.

Food in Peru has an incredible variety of ingredients and recipes, edging to a new cuisine which fuses traditional dishes with Asian (mixed with Chinese, the food is called “Chifa” e.g.) or European cooking. I was happy to have a lot of dishes from Ceviche, which is marinated fresh fish with onion and lemon, Anticuchos, which are grilled beef hearts, Rocoto Relleno, which are stuffed peppers or delicious soups. You can even have guinea pig which is a bit complicated since there is little meat and lots of bone. Typical dessert is sweet rice and a very interesting drink based on some kind of jelly served with lime and herbs, feels really good after eating a lot. And it’s not necessarily expensive, of course you have upscale restaurants but you can eat very very good for 3 EUR as a normal economic menu during the day.

So, I will try to sum up some more conclusions about my travel as my head feels filled with impressions and images and I hope some consistent stories about countries, people and little events might come out.

If it rains heavily in La Paz, whole neighborhoods slide down.

In Potosi, several million people died in one single mine. Millions of black slaves were imported to Bolivia. They worked in the mines. Today, you hardly see any black person in the street.

Today, the mines do not look much different. Stuff is carried out in sacks in the back. If people are lucky, they have a trolley. The stone is cut by hand with a hammer. Many young men work here, 14, 15 years. They chew Coca all day so they don’t feel hunger, nor tiredness. They work hard and they are very proud but all want to quit some time. No miner lives long.

In Bolivian tv, evervbody looks European. On Bolivian streets, everbody looks indigenous. People shout the destinations of the buses, just like in other countries in South America. In Bolivia though, it sounds like they are crying. In Bolivia, there are fake police men. It’s a crazy country.

Du sitzt in der Sonne auf einer Bank. Die Wärme tut gut. Du streckst dich aus. Du legst dich hin, machst die Augen zu. Du willst einschlafen. Du darfst nicht einschlafen. Du bist so müde. Du atmest ein, du atmest aus.

Du liegst mit geschlossenen Augen in der Sonne, die Sonne tut gut. Sie wird dich verbrennen. Du stehst auf, alles dreht sich. Das Blut pocht in deinen Schläfen. Es gibt etwas in deinem Kopf. Du atmest ein, du atmest aus.

Deine Glieder tun weh. Deine Knie tun weh. Dein Rücken tun weh. Deine Fingernägel tun weh. Du gehst weiter. Du hast keinen Durst. Du kaufst eine Flasche Wasser. Du trinkst sie aus, in einem Zug. Deine Lippen sind zerrissen. Du atmest ein, du atmest aus.

Du setzt dich auf die Kante eines Brunnens. Du setzt dich hinunter, vor der Brunnen. Dein Nacken tut weh, deine Haare tun weh. Du gehst in ein Bistro, kaufst einen Kaffee und legst deinen Kopf auf den Tisch. Du unterhälst dich ein bisschen, mit trockener Zunge. Du atmest ein, du atmest aus.

Du musst gehen. Dein Körper hat noch etwas Adrenalin übrig. Es ist schön. Du bist euphorisch, alles geht einfach, auf einmal. Du musst lachen, du musst gehen, du beobachtest dich, wie von aussen. Dein Rucksack ist ganz leicht, du nimmst noch einen, von jemandem, dem es nicht gut geht. Ihr steigt in den Bus. Du setzt dich hin. Du atmest aus. Und schläfst sofort ein.

Natürlich war New York auch wieder schnell, aufregend, wuselig, aufgekratzt. Ich war dieses mal fast nur in Brooklyn, wo ich, wie beschrieben, bei Anna wohnen und einige ihrer Freunde kennen lernen durfte. Einen Abend habe ich ein Risotto gekocht, das gut ankam, anschließend waren wir Bier trinken in der Tip Top Bar, die, wie ich erfuhr, schon seit vielen Jahren existiert und in regelmäßigen Abständen den besten James Brown Impersonator zu Gast hat. Die Bude platzt dann aus allen Nähten, es ist legendär. An jenem Donnerstag abend waren wir aber die einzigen, nichtsdestotrotz konnte man die Patina des Ortes spüren, Aaron bediente die Jukebox und wir trafen einen Nachbarn. Ein richtig normaler, gemütlicher Brooklyn Abend also.
Während Anna tagsüber Modeshows von hinten shootete, fuhr ich nach Manhatten um das geschlossene Guggenheim zu bewundern. Donnerstag ist das Museum zu und auch kein Presseausweis konnte daran etwas ändern. Mist. Wieder was gelernt: du sollst immer vorher checken, ob der Ort deiner Wahl auch bereit ist, dich zu empfangen. Sehr unglücklich, und da ich Metropolitan und Moma schon kannte, ging ich ins jüdische Musem, das gelinde gesagt, ziemlich langweilig ist, in Berlin ist es besser, nur der Houdini Ausstellung konnte ich einges abgewinnen. Was nicht zuletzt an der Gruppe Kunststudentinnen lag, die sich dort für die Plakate des ersten globalen Magierstars interessierten. Ich konnte einige pikante, erfundene Details aus der deutschen Perzeptions Houdinis beisteuern.

Weiterhin erstand ich in Manhattan bei einem netten Pakistaner ein Netbook, auf dem ich nun pflicht- und auch etwas schuldbewusst tippe, denn nur für Facebook und Fotos hochladen sollte ich diese schöne Gerät nicht erstanden haben, was bisher allerdings die Hauptaufgaben dieser kleinen Wunderkiste waren. Die Vision sind natürlich ausgedehnte, blumige Texte, in Hostels und auf Busfahrten fieberhaft getippt und also sitze ich und tue nun mein Bestes. Dann hing ich noch viel in einem Café namens Outpost herum, stand früh auf, denn die Sonne schien mir ins Gesicht, wie überhaupt bisher jeden Tag in unanständiger Regelmäßigkeit die Sonne scheint, im kalten New Yorker, wie im heissen argentinischen Himmel. In Salta, meiner zweiten Station in Argentinien, soll es im Übrigen noch heißer sein, aber keine voreiligen Sprünge, sondern zurück nach New York. Dort ließ ich mir außerdem in einem Staples noch Visitenkarten drucken mit meinem Namen drauf, damit man sich erinnern soll und für „das Foto musst du mir unbedingts schicken!“-Augenblicke und beriet eine junge Unternehmerin, die sich ebenfalls gerade Karten machen ließ über die richtige Nischenstrategie im Social Media Marketing Bereich. Was man eben so tut in New York. Schließlich verfasste ich noch meine Darauf-muss-ich-beim-Reisen-Achten-Liste, die zu befolgen mir bisher gut zu Gesicht steht, denn, und ich klopf auf Holz, bisher ist nichts passiert. Bis auf das mit dem Fahrrad.

I wrote this in German since it kind of flew out of my fingers until now. Maybe I am going to write a text or two in English, we’ll see.

Inhaltsverzeichnis

New York

1. Most important, but always done wrong: Don’t take more with you than absolutely necessary. You have to carry all the shit around and a shirt more or less can make a difference.

2. Put your stuff always in the same pockets so you know where to find it. And that something’s wrong when it’s not there.

3. Never put all the valuable stuff in one place so if get stolen or robbed, it’s not gone altogether. Always keep a dollar in your pocket, for tips and robbers.

4. Remember key features of your environment like shops or houses.

5. When riding a bus or the train, make sure you’re going in the right direction and you get off at the right station. Sounds easy. It’s not.

6. When entering a store or coffee shop, make sure which direction you came from so you know where to continue.

7. Turn around once in a while to see what the way looks like you came
from so you’ll recognize it coming from the other direction.

8. Information in emails is fine but useless when you cannot access it. Write the important stuff like telephone numbers, flight dates or addresses on paper.

9. When in need for some advice for the right way, ask women who could be your mum. In terms of age I mean. They will help you.

10. With all the caution it’s also ok to trust. Trust yourself, trust trustworthy people, trust your luck and fate.