Sointula

The boring thoughts-movement

Lets be honest: Most of the thoughts we daily think are boring and trivial. Normal thing. To imagine that we might think eaxtraordinary thoughts all the time is fearsome thing to behold (to quite quote Jane Austen´s Elizabeth Bennett). Lets face it: the best about great thoughts is that they pop up only every now and then. And then you light up like a bulb or like Wickie from children´s television series who emanates sparkling stars whenever he comes up with a clever idea. Whoa!

Every time you open your Facebook- or Twitter-account etc, they attack you like hungry wolves: The ideas, suggestions, insights other people seem to have. All the time. All the interesting links you are often misled to follow. This constant overkill of lose ends.

Its time to start a boring thoughts-movement. Because only 10.000 boring thoughts bear one great idea.

Male logic, or: Play dumb & let women do your work

Lets call him giant baby. He certainly is looking like one. Tall, muscled, sheep-faced. Kindly sheep-faced like Shaun the Sheep. Of course he is heavily into sports, this young dude. Giant baby is a rare species of a male who openly talks about how to avoid work and leave it to women. Strategies are easy and classic: Play dumb. And cheat.

"I share a flat and never have to do the laundry".
"How come?"
"Very easy. I flooded the kitchen the first time I did it. Now the women won´t allow me ever to touch the washing machine again".
"But you do your part of the cleaning, right?"
"Not really. I just take the vacuum cleaner into the living room, turn it on, and simply leave it running for an hour without even touching it. After that, I tell my room-mates that I worked really hard and wouldn´t they agree that the room looks superclean?"
"Ahaaa."

Giant baby is on the contrary very keen on working real hard with his own hands when it comes to his bed. So he says.
"I built my bed entirely out of empty green beer boxes. It was not easy. And I personally drank all the beer in the boxes. It were many".
"Hmmm".
"I think it is very cool. I even bought green bed linen so the colours match".
He is so taken with his idea that he even shows me photographs of his green bed on his iphone.
Whoa, now my knees are really trembling.

Female Logic

Buying a sweet cinnamon role in a bakery in a village called Hammelbach up there in Odenwald mountains. Reading main headline of German tabloid Bild Zeitung displayed on the counter, featuring the fact that Uber-Macho Rudi Assauer (66), formerly manager of prominent football club Schalke 04, has gotten married to a woman 21 years younger than himself. Blonde, of course.

"When I´m 60, I am going to marry a 30 year old guy, a good looking one, of course", I commented jokingly.

"No way. I would always opt for a man considerably older than myself", the bakery woman replied.

"Why is that so?"

"They die earlier".

Germany, a green spring fairytale

An evening of jaws dropping. Just coming home from communal election extravaganza. & mood in normally quiet town of Darmstadt is ravenous: Green party just won 37,5% of all votes. The Social Democrats, who have been ruling this orderly Southern Hessian town since 1945, are clearly retreating. There will be a second ballot in two weeks, but there remains little doubt that the green candidate, Jochen Partsch, will make it in the end. My dear provinicial city of Darmstadt will probably be the first major town in the Federal State of Hessia with a green mayor. Jaws dropping.

These are historical crossroads for Germany. The Christian Democrats, who ruled my native Federal State of Baden-Wuerttemberg for almost 60 years, have been voted out of office today. My hometown Freiburg, a traditional green stronghold, won two direct seats in parliament against the conservative biggies. Green vote in Freiburg. Almost 50%. ;)

There is a definitive change in the air. Much more people went voting than expected. People, so it seems, are fed up with things as they are. Are fed up with lies.

People in the Southwest of Germany, and above all my Badenian fellowcountrypersons, always had this rebellious streak: The peasant wars, revolution of 1848, the early green movement: People of Baden have been there, fighting. There was one big nuclear power plant planned there back in the 70ies, in a village close to Freiburg. It was never built, thanks to the stubborn resistance of locals. People just threw the president of federal state (an ex-Nazi) out of their village. He never dared to return. ;)

Some months ago I thought that maybe Iceland is one of the most interesting places to live right now, because of all the changes, the energy & new ideas. Maybe I am wrong. Maybe Germany is! ;)

A song for Mr. Guttenberg: Thanks, Jason Collett

There is one last thing we have not yet learned about fallen-from-grace ex German minister of defence  & Mr. greasy hairstyle Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg: He has inspired a song! Canadian singer-songwriter Jason Collett, prominent member of Toronto collective Broken Social Scene, is touring Germany these days and - as everybody else- could not escape the dominant Guttenberg soap opera on how the most popular young German politician fell over copy-pasting his doctoral thesis. Ouch. So Mr. Collett, on the last day of his tour in lovely Hafen2 in Offenbach, presented a new song inspired by Mr. zu Guttenberg, not really ready yet, but focussing on being untrue und lying. And the shallowness behind it all. Nicely done, Mr. Collett & your guitar!

Who also sipped red wine onstage and didn´t seem too happy about it. Approached him after gig & after passioneately disturbing performance of second band of the evening, wildsters Tu Fawning from Portland, Oregon. Collett still gingerly finishing his red wine. "Clubs usually don´t serve good red wine", he smilingly complained. Without even bothering to check where his wine came from. And breaking into a rant of praise for  Canadian wine. Canadian wine? "Yes, there is a warm spot close to Niagara, and the wines from there are spectacular!" Well thanks for the information, can´t  wait to taste my first Canadian burgundy! ;)

<p>Jason Collett- Bitch City (Wood & Wires Video Series) from Adrian Vieni (Wood & Wires) on Vimeo.</p>

Girls in Hawaii: Not Here

A very personal and decidedly artsy documentary of a tour. Bits, pieces, snapshots, fragments. Belgian band Girls in Hawaii travelling Europe with their new album "Plan Your Escape" in 2008.

The band & filmmaker Christopher Yates - who travelled with the guys - label the documentary as "Wake Up Calls, Video Games, Wide Landscapes, Frontiers, Boredom, Roads Too Many Roads, Kung-Fu, Sun, Football, Girls, Snowflakes, Moustaches, Beers On The Bus, Climbing Trees, Backstage, Stage, Applause, Sleep, Dreams...

I would like to add: Spectacular sunrises, bitching at each other, being friends, being silly, enjoying surreal feelings, sweating, being dirty, smoking too much, watching closely, falling out of time, observing routines, being happy.Coming home to a home that feels suddenly strange.

I would also add poetry. And hilarious moments like when singer Antoine Wielemans (who btw is looking like a butcher´s apprentice, but singing the most tender & intelligent pop songs) late at night confesses that he desperately wants to fall in love. A moment of piercing clarity & utter honesty.

"Comment c´est calme".

<p>Girls In Hawaii _ Not Here _ Official trailer from Viktor Asger on Vimeo.</p>

Electric Suicide Club, or: Alone in Offenbach

Imagine the scenery: Relentless rain, temperatures close to freezing, dark dark night. Plus the deserted, run-down area of Offenbach´s harbour district, where one of the finest locations in the whole area is located, lovely Hafen 2.

Obviously the perfect time & place to check out a promising young band from France, youngsters Electric Suicide Club. Who have a certain drive & sense of cool, so quite looking forward to the gig & some serious dancing.

But, alas! Possibly the worst thing that can happen to a fairly unknown band is that everything is ready, soundcheck done, merch stuff lovingly arranged - and nobody turns up. With the exception of the authoress writing these lines. Yuck.

Possibly the worst thing you can do in this situation is pitying the band, murmuring, "oh, that´s too bad, don´t know whats happening, I am so sorry" and other seemingly soothing remarks. The trio seemed deeply distressed, sitting in corners, head in hands. The tour manager guy, quite speechless. Oh my. Talking in my best schoolgirl French to the band, hailing from Rock City Strasbourg, just across the river from hometown. They offered to play a song for me. They gave me loads of band stickers to put on the rear front of my car. Oh my.

Dear Strasbourg rocksters, wishing you good luck for the rest of the tour. Hope the good people of Dortmund, Menden and Hamburg will treat you better then Offenbach! Bonne chance!

A total work of art is tiresome? Expressionism at Mathildenhöhe

A new look at German expressionism at Mathildenhöhe in Darmstadt. Artists striving to create a total work of art (Gesamtkunstwerk), by regarding painting, sculpture, dance, music, architecture, literature, theatre and, for the first time, film, as eqally important. And as being complementary.

The most interesting and challenging fact at the exhibition is that it is overwhelming the senses. As it was originally intended! A cacaphony of sounds, movie screenings, old filmed material from the theatre productions, from demonstrations...a whirl of pictures. To understand how talented and desperate the artists were, damaged by the horrors of the first world war, but still fighting and trying to find revolutionary new ways of art. 

Also learning that cocaine was legally mass-produced for the German user by Darmstadt pharmaceutical giant Merck in the 1920ies. Well I wonder!

An attack on the senses! No pristine quiet in the exhibition rooms. An elderly couple walking before me. The sound of a Schönberg-piece fills the room. The piece was specifically composed for a daring new exhibition hall, a model of which is also displayed. The woman complains whiningly "oh, all that noise, it it getting on my nerves, this is tiresome!" The husband is trying to get her cooling down a bit. "You see, this is because of the total work of art-concept, to get different forms of art together". Short silence, then snap. "I don´t care about this total work of art. This is a molestation!" Womans´s face looking like she has been eating five lemons in a row.

Expressionism is still shocking!

<p>Gesamtkunstwerk Expressionismus - Trailer from 2SPOT Hargus & Kühne on Vimeo.</p>

Generation Gutmensch

This youngster was ever so nice at small Reviergut design fair at lovely Bessunger Knabenschule around the corner. Having freshly finished his communication design studies, he started a small business called Kindern helfen (help children)  & buy a shirt. The main idea behind it: Let kindergarten children draw funny pictures, use the motives, print them by hand on a shirt & sell them.He bubbled ideas & babbled incessantly, but charmingly, his eyes shining with delight.

But thats not the whole business idea. The main idea behind the project is trying to be good. As much as possible. The t-shirts are of course from American Apparel and therefore 100% politically and ecologically correct. Part of the money earned with the project goes to charity and will be used for building a new sandbox for children in need. Making profits? Earning money? Don´t even mention it!

Maybe a new trend is developping here. Generation Gutmensch. None of the young designers at the fair seemed to be dreaming about making a million bucks and moving to California and buying three fancy cars and a Rolex. In a world where the main financial institutions have recently proven to be greedy, incompetent and utterly ruthless, the mood among youngsters in their early twenties seems to be swinging into a totally different direction: We want to be good. We want to create a working life  that makes sense & does not hurt us and others.

But is trying to be as good as possible not a tiny bit boring?

The Death Of Myspace

Sometimes things are simply in the air & develop into a trend. Like deleting myspace-accounts. Heard from several people recently they got rid of their accounts. I did so myself some three or four weeks ago. In a conscious effort.

The simple facts behind the decision: I have rarely logged into my myspace-account for the last two years. There was simply no need to. Ok, sometimes I listened to music by unknown bands on myspace, but less & less frequent. There is a plethora of alternatives from last.fm over blip.fm or soundcloud or bandcamp or vimeo or the sixtyone to specialized portals like the excellent gogoyoko for Icelandic music or clever fundraising sites for bands like PledgeMusic.

When I first started using myspace, it was a great place for making musical discoveries & showing my cool taste in music to the rest of the world. ;) That was a good thing five years ago. But times have changed. Myspace didn´t. Rupert Murdoch bought it for 580 Mio Dollars. & left things basically as they were. & in the meantime, facebook came up.The rest is history. These days, myspace is ridiculed everywhere & referred to as "the death sea scrolls of the internet".

What finally caused me to actively delete my mypace-account was the "forced new look" which makes every myspace-site basically look like 100.000 others. Lots of bands and artists were very angered that the pages they created individually were simply gone. myspace-sites today have a look like drag queens with too much makeup. No structure, no clarity, no simplicity. No idea, no concept, no design.

"May we ask why you are leaving myspace?", they asked.
"Its just not relevant anymore", I wrote back. And that was it.