letthedreamlifecommence

If, Then: (Die) Liberate Binary

2011-01-31T04:09:00.000-08:00

These are some shots of the installation I recently did at Galerie Auf Halb Acht. The entire thing is based on binary so that the piece is scalable to any size. Meaning that the feeding 'pipes' are based on a binary growth concept, ie. 2, 4, 8, 16, 32 mm and so on. This allows me to do this piece in any size space and have it redesign itself.

The entire thing is steeped in architecture, comics, art history, computer design, math, and robotics. Its like a big ass techno virus infiltrating spaces. Its sort of loosely based on the New Mutants character from the 80's called Warlock. I used to love the way the various artists drew him, but the Bill Sienkiewic version of Warlock is the one I tend to think of when I think of him.

As a drawing, I like the idea that it has a history. Meaning, during the process of drawing this piece, I scanned the various tiles as I drew them making it look like the drawing is somehow drawing itself. I think the end result allows the viewer to see the process as I made it instead of just seeing each piece in its final stage.

To me the process of art making is just as, or more, important than the final piece and I wanted to show the viewer how I got there in a physical sense.

These pictures of the work sort of suck, so I hope to get a better camera soon in order to shoot better documentation.

I have also included some photos of the framed pieces.

Anyway...

I want to give major props to Julia who again helped me out tremendously. Without her, there is no way I could do this. Her love, help and mental support is incredibly important to me.

I also wanna thank Marc from Halb Acht, Hayo and Rosi for DJing, Enno for being a trooper, and all of those who came out to see what I do.

Illuminati?

2010-11-23T04:18:00.000-08:00

My mind just popped. These people are dead.

One RCH off

2010-11-19T06:16:00.000-08:00

This is the piece I did in Pudel here in Hamburg. It is a total of 370 A4 pieces of paper. There are 11 individual drawings. Each one has several iterations making a total of 99 individual pieces that fit together like a puzzle. The piece itself is based on binary numbers and can be scaled to fit any size space.

I drew the whole thing by hand and made copies of the various stages along the way in order to make it appear as though the little parts are taking over the entire piece.

I have done similar pieces in the past, but none this involved and none where I was looking to the future like I did with this one.

As far as this piece is concerned, I think it was a mild success and a very good learning experience for the next time I install some version of it.

This is an example of one of the pieces as it grows.

Here are some installation and final pictures. Its unfortunately too hard to get a good full installation picture of this. So these will have to do...

Many many many thanks to Julia, Nane and the Die Reliktion crew. Also thanks a lot to the TDSVW crew from Stuttgart for making the opening party a real blast. Good times.

Random photos from the last months

2010-11-17T03:01:00.000-08:00

Terrible Eagle on the Horn at Dockville 2010

The Pizza Oven

Roman's piece next to Brad Downey's piece at Dockville 2010

Thumb!s Up Denmark tour Sept 2010

Check it out, check it out, check it out

Cat Blanket Burka

Loads of images

2010-07-30T03:19:00.000-07:00

DOCKVILLE

RECORDING STUDIO

JAMMIN WITH GNOD OUT AT DOCKVILLE

IMMO'S DOG

DOCKVILLE

KOSTNICE IN KUTNA HORA, CZ

RAINBOW OVER KUTNA HORA

BERLIN

DA FINK

TILL, MAX, TOBI, HANNES EXHIBTION IN WILHELMSBERG

JULIA'S KNIT POT

DISTORTION IN COPENHAGEN

US ON A ROCK OVERLOOKING GÖPPINGEN

KUTNA HORA, CZ

DOCKVILLE

DE PLANE, DE PLANE!

i love john cleese

2010-07-07T03:48:00.001-07:00

Texas trip

2010-06-11T06:22:00.000-07:00

Random photos from our Texas trip. It was Julia's first time in America and I think she had a good time kissing everything around...

Others got in on the act too

Ahem.

Here are some random pictures.

Some family photos of the Stoddarts and Hamblin's, respectively

Other random photos

This is Chris Shonka. He is a good old friend of mine. He used to come out to the ranch when we were like 13 years old. It was cool to see that guy after so long.

More random photos

And here are some Kerschen Family band photos

My Dad manhandling a deer.

A dragonfly.

A solemn goodbye to the ranch...

No Matter What

2010-06-10T02:07:00.000-07:00

From our show in Copenhagen on June 5th.

Between the Lines

2010-05-05T07:03:00.000-07:00

Given that this tour was the toughest thing I have endured, it was also an incredibly uplifting and rewarding experience. Here are some pictures in reverse chronological order, which I have noticed that blogspot likes to do...

Drive to Berlin

Prague

Bratislava

Trencin

Drive to Vienna

Vicenza

Carpi

Schio

Vicenza

Anghiari/San Sepolcro

Rome

Drive to Rome

Napoli

Drive to Napoli

Parma

Drive to Parma

Genova

Bad shit and more bad shit and some good shit

2010-04-26T06:11:00.000-07:00

When we left for Italy on our recent tour, we were all filled with joy, excitement and a terrible cold. The joy and excitement were replaced with horror and sadness when all of the gear we had was stolen from us in Napoli. The colds got worse, and were replaced with full fledged infections.

Now we are rebuilding. We set up a donations account and asked friends from all over the world to send what they could to help out, and you did. you have helped us so much that we have no way of repaying you except to offer our undying friendship in return for your kind acts. You are the reason we keep doing what we doing.

When the new record 'TE 393' comes out, everyone who gave us anything, will receive a copy. It is the absolute least we can do.

Even before this happened, we were very grateful to our friends, but now even more so (if that's possible...)

Here is the innersleeve of the record. You will see that we collaged a lot of people in this to show our appreciation for our friends. If we had a picture of you, you are in there...

You all rule me.

ciao,

Ken

Radio Interview

2010-03-22T07:52:00.001-07:00

A couple weeks back I was in Berlin for Product of Exchange and was asked by Glas Institute to do an interview for their radion show DIY Church.

Here it is- http://www.archive.org/details/011DIYChurch_LitchililithegenevieneTaps

The entire program is entirely weird... My interview comes at about the 23 minute mark in the program, but I HIGHLY recommend listening to the whole thing. Like I said, really really fucking weird.

nice article I just found

2010-03-16T10:55:00.000-07:00

Its funny, we felt the same way...

http://artrebels.blogspot.com/2010/02/terrible-eagle-at-drone-unexpected.html

Rewriting history

2010-03-15T05:21:00.000-07:00

Unbelievable that these guys think they can get with whatever they want. Wow.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/14/opinion/14rich.html?src=me&ref=general

I have to mention, this IS a monkey's car.

The Internet

2010-03-01T22:59:00.000-08:00

Michael's video documentation of his ChatRoulette Reflection. I think this sums it up pretty well.

Chatroulette Reflection @ Elektrohaus from Michael Schieben on Vimeo.

Family Unit

2010-02-28T07:03:00.000-08:00

For the last several weeks, I have been working on curating a show at Elektrohaus here in Hamburg. I called it Family Unit. It was a group show featuring artists from Hamburg (Francisco and Markus Schork, Michael Schieben), Berlin (Glas Institute), NYC (Wyatt Nash) and myself.

It also featured performances from Macaco Mau and Glas Institute, both groups live in Berlin. Brian (Macaco Mau) is from Copenhagen originally, and is part of the group that runs the Sudhaus (Alte Kindl Brauerei) where we often throw parties. Glas Institute consists of Markus, Maura, Jan and Lu who are all friends of mine that live in Berlin. You will see pictures of them on older blog posts.

RSS, a group from here in Hamburg, DJed along with Phoung Dan and Brandon.

All in all it was a very special night and I am very happy that it turned out better than I could have imagined. Thanks to Berndt and everyone who participated and to everyone who came.

I really want to thank Julia for being such a tremendous help. I couldn't have done it without you.

OK, here are a bunch of images from the installation of my piece (which is called Power Structure/Confusion), the individual installations, and the party itself.

The last images are of another piece I did, much smaller (like 70 x 40 cm), that will be in the show Product of Exchange in Berlin next week. Its pre is pretty indicative of the scale and type of drawings I am doing at the moment.

For my piece, I drew 3 individual drawings at A4 size (29 x 20 cm) and made them fit together like a puzzle from any direction, then applied to them to the wall like wallpaper. It was a really hard thing to do and like I said, without Julia no way I could have done this. I covered a 8.5 m x 3 m wall and the DJ booth and the bar. To me it was an encompassing piece because I like to draw, I like to DJ and I like to party. I think that it was quite successful in the end.

It was really really hard to get a good overall shot of the piece because of the way the room is built. This is as close as I could get to a full shot. Maybe when I go back there tomorrow, I can get a better one, but I doubt it.

This is a still from Michael Scheiben's piece The Internet. It was so much fun fucking around with that piece. He made a program that mirrors the people so that they see themselves projected in the art space. He then made some tools that the people at the exhibition could use to play with the people, like fake glasses, a red dot, a toothbrush and allowed the exhibition visitors to make their own by supplying paper and a marker.

Wyatt Nash's piece. Essentially this made out of styrofoam and coated with some sort of rubber like substance and finished to have the texture of wood. Since I've know Wyatt his work has been about housing and southern white trash imagery. I love him and I love his work. It was really awesome that it worked out that he was here when I had this show. Nice to have him around.

This is the Glas Institute installation pre performance. During the exhibition, Glas Institute performed inside the installation, then when they were about done, they dropped the curtain revealing Jan holding up the mattress. He then cut the supports and did a flip onto the mattress. I thought I made a video of the performance ending, but instead I didn't hit record until after it was over when I thought I was hitting stop. Fuck.

Francisco and Markus Shork's piece. Its hard to see it in this image, but this is a 'dot matrix' drawing of 2 faces made from the two of them finger painting the image. It takes on an ornamental like form from certain angles and certain focus levels, then as you move around it the image reveals itself. Very Beautiful.

This is the drawing for Product of Exchange and some details of the drawing to show you the line work. I will actually be putting in 3 pieces, but this is only one I have pictures of at the moment.

Thanks a lot Hamburg. You guys really turned out and made the Family Unit.

Shitloads...

2010-02-14T13:30:00.000-08:00

Hey Ya'll!

I got a card reader for my camera and have a computer that I can use to upload these pictures. Cool.

These are a bunch of random pictures from the last couple months. I have to DJ tonight, so I will be brief about what and who you are looking at. Unfortunately they are in reverse chronological order for some reason. Nice upload...

Malmö, Sweden

We had no idea that SLUT meant 'closing' or 'Finished' and these signs were all over this one shopping area. Funny shit. The guy on guitar is Thomas from dd/mm/yyyy. We played with them at the DLTD Art night at Debaser in Malmö. DLTD is gonna put TE393 on vinyl in like May. Sweeeeettttt.

Copenhagen, Denmark

I ended up catching this snowball in the chest. We were on a river the day after we played DRONE club in Copenhagen. Great show. The people at the show went berserk.

Hamburg, Germany

This is the harbor as of like a week ago.

Berlin, Germany

The band is Strange Forces. Cool guys. We played with them on NYE at the Alte Kindl Brauerei. They're back in Oz, where they come from, until March, but then they'll be back in Berlin.

Hamburg, Germany

Those are all from a show we played with the Gallantiers at the Gängeviertel on Christmas night. See the Germans celebrate Christmas on the 24th, so a show on the 25th is completely acceptable. It was nice. The pics below are from Christmas at Elektrohaus, where I live.

This is on the wall at the Laundromat on Hein Hoyer Str. WTF? I never once forgot to pickle in my laundry. Why would I start now?

Man, this day was so fucking cold. But for some reason Till and I stood on the outside deck of the boat on our way back from Finkenwerder, where we have our practice space. I remember thinking my hands were gonna fall off...

Julia and I went for a walk one day before it got too cold and I got that nice shot of her and that pic of the moon over the Elb Tunnel Entrance.

Alright, I got no more to show ya'll. Hope shit is good for each and every one of you. So you know, we are going to tour to Italy and possibly into the Eastern European countries in April, then back up to Scandanavia for a few shows in June. More info on those things later.

Be good.

Whoa!

2010-01-12T23:20:00.000-08:00

General Giovanni Marks hipped me to these crazy idiots. I don't know, I'm thinking about going for purple...

Its been too long

2009-11-11T06:39:00.001-08:00

Here goes-
In the last months, I have been pretty busy. Sounds funny, but its true. I also don't have a computer any more. That really sucks. I do however have my own place here in Hamburg now. Its in a place called Elektrohaus. Nice little studio room in a gallery. We set up another studio room in Finkenwerder (just outside Hamburg) for music practice and recording. We have to take a boat to get there. Recently, Terrible Eagle has been down to Italy for a couple shows, played in Bielefeld and Munich, played with The Ex here in Hamburg and will play on the 22nd of November with a band from Rome called Underdog.

I haven't been making too many pictures lately, but here are some that I have made that I think are nice.

I'm not promising anything, but maybe I can get it together enough to post some fancy violent upgrades more often.

Until then, stay classy San Diego.

Terrible Eagle in Noale

2009-09-01T11:54:00.000-07:00

We played at a festival here in Italy the other night. These pictures are from Susi. The band above is called GI Joe from Bologna. They opened up for us. The place we played was wild. Its an old castle cemetery.

Dockville- It All Ends In Blood

2009-08-18T04:17:00.001-07:00

Again, long time without posting. BUT, I had good reason. I spent most of my days and nights out at Dockville sight building, teaching, playing, DJing, whatever else I felt like doing, and being on a computer was not something I generally felt like doing.

We played with this group of kids for a week. They wrote their own lyrics to a couple songs (one being We Will Rock You...) and then performed for their parents and others on that weekend.

Last Saturday, not this past one, but the one before that, we held a little party out there on hte horn and Terrible Eagle and the Gallantiers played to a small group of people.

The rest of these pics are from the festival proper.

The first couple are of people playing the instruments on the horn. I have to say this, it was amazing to see the reaction of the people. The festival had something like 15,000 people at it and I believe most of them passed through the horn at some point, and I would guess that most of those people beat on something for a couple seconds or minutes, or like the first guy in these, Max, spent most of their festival experience on the horn playing. It was magic to see all these people communicating without words. We gave them the tools and the place, and they gave us the music. Sure, it wasn't always good, but it was always fun.

On Friday night, I DJed on the horn. All of the above pictures are from that experience. Hundreds of people all dancing wildly and letting loose. AMAZING. I had a ball.

Spectrum played in the middle of the afternoon on Saturday and someone stole Pete's hash...

All in all, this has been the most magical experience of the last years of my life. I can not express how grateful I am to everyone who helped and jammed and made this possible. You've all been amazing.

Here are other links that I found in the last days, both from Tim (SPRDFKT)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sdfkt/3825550707/in/photostream/
the sound quality on this is pretty bad, but at the festival, it was really amazing. Thanks Toby.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBOIcS3EFzM

fashion or function?

2009-08-03T04:00:00.002-07:00

Hey- My Computer is working again and I have a few minutes while I wait for a call back from the American Embassy in Berlin concerning getting more pages for my passport.

In the last week or so, I've been pretty busy. I had my 34th birthday and spent the majority of my days out at Dockville, then went down to the south of Germany to play a festival in the Hollfeld area near Bayreuth and then drove back up here to Hamburg the next day on a spare tire in order to be around for last night's opening of theart portion of the Dockville Festival.

I did this entry in sections so as to not confuse. They aren't really cronological like normal, but this gives you a broad overview of the last days.

Section A- My Birthday at POW Gallery

Both Justin, from the Gallantiers, and I had our birthdays last week. Mine on Sunday and his this past Friday. We decided to throw a joint party at our favorite place in Hamburg, POW Gallery. Helena handled the cops quite nicely while we were playing and then handled the bar. Tim (AKA SUPRDFKT) DJed. It was a GREAT time. My cousin Melli even made an appearance with her friend Lotte that she brought to America some years back.

Section 2- Dockville Stage Build

This is the stage/horn/art installation we are building.

Section III- Dockville Instruments

On the stage are instruments that we built. Here is us building some.

These are a few "finished" pieces. Our marimba broke last night, so tomorrow, I fix it.

The thing above is like a turntable. The cards pluck the strings that are in the boxes above the turntables.

The dude playing is Clay, he's from Australia. Cool muthafukka.

Section d- Klangtherapie

These are the images us and the Gallantiers at the Klangtherapie Festival.

Section #5- Random Dockville

We decided to go swimming one day because it was wicked hot. The lake was real real real cold. We played chicked and Nathan and I are the world grand champions of the world. Long live the champs...

Sorry I don't have more time to write, but I gotta vamos and get this passport mess taken care of.

Tschuss ya'll!

sometimes i hate this thing

2009-08-03T04:00:00.001-07:00

why you no let me delete this post?

Bounce!

2009-07-22T03:15:00.000-07:00

More Dockville photos. Yesterday was great day. We made some instruments, built some things, then last night we had a party for Felix's Birthday complete with Bouncy Castle and BBQ. Great day indeed.

Responsible Parties.

DOCKVILLE

2009-07-20T13:53:00.000-07:00

First, my computer is very mysterious. It works one minute and the next it doesn't. I've realized it must be a short between the monitor and the video card that is the problem. Maybe this thing can be salvaged after all...

So today was the first day of work for everyone out there at Dockville, and I am wicked tired. My assumption is that it will get more intense on a daily basis. Last week was essentially getting ready for this.

This is Jonathan, he is the architect we worked with to design the horn/stage/living space we are building. He has been an amazing help. I hope he takes at least one soul before this is over.

These guys are both named Andy. The one in the dark shirt is Andy and the other one is Also Andy. When they introduced themselves to me, Andy said "I am Andy." then Also Andy said, "I am Also Andy." Also Andy works with sensors and things to make music/sound. He was telling me about a thing he is working on that loops the patterns created by his cello bow and Wii sensors.

Together they are working on a piece for Dockville. The piece is a sound/experiential piece that has a loud noise and punching bag. The harder you hit the punching bag, the softer the sound gets. When you get the sound/noise all the way down, you get a special prize. I wonder what that is...

This is Brandon and Robert. Robert is a carpenter from Austria. He will be building the horn with us. Today he built the tool that makes the curved "spine" we are using for the horn. Then he set about, in the rain or shine (cuz you know it rains here in Hamburg every fucking day), making each of the curved pieces. The guy is incredible.

Susi with helpers.

You don't like the Lighthouse? You suck!

Alright, ya'll, I need to sleep so I can get up do this again.

Loves to all!

4th of July and more

2009-07-19T04:07:00.000-07:00

Sup Ya'll?

So in the last few weeks a lot of shit has happened, not the least of which is my computer going bonkers... Suck.

Anyway, its working at the moment so I am taking advantage.

You can read about the 4th of July on the post before this one. I think Ana did a good job summing up the experience. It was live. We made a pool, had a flag making workshop, had some bands and weird live performances, some DJ action and dancing, then burnt all the flags. So fun.

Maura and Markus made this day one of the most special days in my life. Thanks so much to you both.

Jan made an "Anti-Warhol" flag and I caught him right as he was saying WARHOL. When I look at this picture its all I see him saying.

This is the Ice Machine and Swift (Graham and Nathan). They were touring around Germany together for a couple weeks then made it back up to Berlin to play this with us. It was jammin. Read Ana's review already...

Dan from Mahjongg showed up and helped us pop balloons and burn flags.

Brian played one of the most amazing sets I have seen in a long time. This guy straight rips it. I really love him for so many reasons, and I can't wait to see him again.

After that day, we got in a car and drove back up here to Hamburg, where I am currently. The night we got here, Ice Machine and Swift played at the Astrastube and I got the chance to meet one of the greatest people in the world. I meet a lot of people as I travel around this great place called Earth, but rarely do I meet someone who thoroughly blows me away on so many levels.

The next night Ice Machine and Swift played at Pudel for a Reliktion opening of Nathan, Esther Klaes and Melissa Hopson's art and Brandon and I DJed. As always it was a blast. A certain Giovanni Marks made a guest appearance in Hamburg on his way to NYC.

This is Melissa, she was blowing the bubbles Mr. Marks was sitting in.

It was a nice Hamburg day on Tuesday, but the wind was blowing pretty hard so we had to improvise and use Melissa's shawl for a blanket on our boat ride through the Harbor. Before we got on this boat, we got some fish and chips. With said fish and chips, we got the most useless tool in the world- a wooden fork with rounded tips. Why? You can't pick up anything with those things. Stupid.

This is Justin. He is from London. He lives with Sirdjan here in Hamburg and plays in a band with Sirdjan called the Gallantiers. We will play with them at POW Gallery on the 25th for a joint Birthday party for me and him. This dude is incredible. July 31st is his birthday and that also happens to be the day we are playing at Klangtherapie in the south of Germany. The coolest part is that we are playing with the Gallantiers that day as well. Fun times, ya'll.

Last Saturday, there was a party at the Fleet Street for Michael Jackson. It was a lot of fun. The dress code was MJ or Black Tie. Nathan is talking to Yuri. Yuri did a cool performance where he dangled a baby over the balcony and then dropped it, then got another and dropped that one and then repeated the process for a while. It was funny.

8am that morning on the way home.

We started work this past week out at the Dockville site. There are a lot of berry bushes out there that needed to be cleared so we can build the stage/installation piece we are building. The guy on the top picture is Felix. He runs the Luttville part of Dockville, which is the part where kids come out and work in the various art pieces and workshops. Nice dude.

Unfortunately, there was an accident and the weedeater cut off his legs... Now he's a nugget.

Alright ya'll, I gotta run. I know this isn't as much explaination as I would like to put, but time is money.

Great review in IMPOSE

2009-07-18T12:11:00.000-07:00

http://www.imposemagazine.com/independance-day-berlin-takes-an-american-original-hostage/21014/

Terrible Eagle
Anywhere Terrible Eagle plays in the world, El Topo is there. Or Holy Mountain. Or ghosts. These members of Indian Jewelry branched off to produce a killer shamanic beat driven cult-classic noise scape. No amount of beer, hash, or peyote can produce the sobering experience that is watching Brandon and Ken get into it side by side. Drone guitars, exasperated keyboard swells, and carefully constructed minimal beats were the mainstay during this set. Brandon’s melodies beside Ken’s keyboard architecture built up to the stratosphere. Dagger-like live electronics were clean and attentive, and amounted to the most spasmodic event of the night. They were a dead ringer for a good closing on this (semi) all-American event.

Carpenters needed!

2009-07-15T02:26:00.000-07:00

Dockville Schnack 2009
Baut mit am Riesenhorn: Bühne und Amphitheater mit 15m
Durchmesser!!
Liebe Gesellen,
fixe Schniegelei vom 13. Juli – 22. August 2009
Kunst- und Musikfestival Dockville aufbauen und abfeiern
Kost und Logis, Taschengeld und Eintrittskarte. UND Schmoren!
Kreatives Bauen mit traditionellen Holzverbindungen
Das Dockville - Festival für Musik und Kunst findet dieses Jahr nun schon zum dritten Mal vom 14. bis 16.08.2009 auf der schönen Elbinsel Wilhelmsburg in Hamburg statt.Auch dieses Jahr gibt es wieder eine feine Musikauswahl mit MGMT, Turbo Negro,The Whitest Boy Alive, Kettcar, Blumentopf, Extrawelt, Panteón Rococó u.v.m.,welche durch eine ebenso liebevolle Auswahl zahlreicher Werke bildender Künstler ergänzt wird. Das Ganze – wie gehabt – auf einer wild bewachsenen Wiese, direkt an der Elbe gelegen, vor einer traumhaft schönen Kulisse in industrieromantischerHafen

atmosphäre.Die super Erfahrungen mit dem Elite-Bauteam: Andi, Peter, Alex, Vince, Tillmann,Micha und Mirko hat uns dazu verleitet auch in diesem Jahr wieder Großes zu bauen.Neben der Restauration des Hüttendorfes aus dem letzten Jahr stehen in diesem Jahr Bauten für einen großen Musik- und Kunstspielplatz auf dem Plan:
eine Riesenschaukel und eine Musikwippe zum Beispiel. Das Highlight wird ein riesiges, begehbares Horn aus Holz, das Bühne und Amphitheater gleichzeitig wird.Für all diese großen Pläne brauchen wir natürlich auch tatkräftige Unterstützung von euch. Als Dankeschön gibt es von uns die volle Ladung zurück: neben Kost und Logis für die gesamte Zeit gibt’s ein Taschengeld, 500€, ein wildes Festival und natürlich was zum Schmoren.
Wenn ihr Lust habt, dann meldet euch unter

laura.raber@dockville.de
oder ruft
an: 0176-800 92 555.

oder ruft Susi
an: 01796898829

Wir freuen uns sehr auf eine neue, fixe Schniegeltruppe!

Dead Computer

2009-07-10T06:29:00.001-07:00

Bad news folks. Bad news indeed. Supposedly it can be fixed and I should have it in a couple days. I have my doubts...

Please send computer healing vibes my way.

2009-06-28T11:03:00.000-07:00

Apparently this was a real ad campaign at some point. Whoa! Primitive muppets.

This particular version of the blog is going to be pretty heavy on the videos.

First video is of the inside of one of the galleries in the brewery I keep talking about. They were preparing that gallery for the 48h Neukolln art festival they had there yesterday and today. I DJed and did an impromptu performance there yesterday with the Macaco Mau band, which was Brian Von Kuba on electronic stuff, Fritz at one point on keyboard, Erin Weber and Susanna on vocals, and Andreas Nachtmann on drums.

In the last post, I was telling you about the people I met that live in Neukolln that have been great friends to me. Markus and Maura are particularly good people that have introduced me to many people and have taken to me to lots of different places, either by association or by them inviting me to do things with them.

Recently Markus had his final examination for school. For this examination, he built an installation inside his studio at the UdK. It was really cool. For the opening party thing, he invited a few of his friends to do some performances in and around the installation. It was very cool of him to invite me to be one of the performers. Maura also performed while sitting on Jan's shoulders. Watch the video it will explain more.

The first guy made this guitar that had all kinds of things attached to it and he made some interesting noise stuff for about 10 minutes. The 2nd is of a guy called Kakawaka. He taped his eyes shut and walked around the studio doing that. I was told he also did that in the street one day to unsuspecting individuals. I wish I could have seen that.

The last thing in that video is of Fritz performing a song about a man who only loves this cat. He pets until there is only blond hair left on his hands. Weird.

Ciao Ya'll!

INDEPENDANCE DAY!

2009-06-26T06:45:00.001-07:00

R.I.P. Michael

travel talk

2009-06-24T01:59:00.000-07:00

In the last months I have been traveling around America, South America and Europe. During this stretch of time, I have been making lots of pictures of my adventures and have been introducing the readers of my blog to different people, places and things. I recently realized that maybe the pictures are not enough to tell the story of my adventures and in the future will try to tell better stories to accompany the pictures I have been making. I am a good story teller when I am talking to people, but for some reason I have a hard time telling the same story in text.

Currently I am sitting in the flat I have rented in Berlin. There is no internet here, so I will write this and take it to the internet shop around the corner and upload it when I get the chance. The flat is in Prinzlauerberg in east Berlin. This area was once home to the first punk movement after the fall of the wall here in Berlin. Now it is sort of like a mix between Soho and Williamsburg. Shops selling high end clothing, little cafes and art galleries sit next to old squats that are being turned in to Co-ops and left wing restaurants. Its an odd mixture of money and punk-yuppies.

I have found that like in most major cities, Berlin's "hot" neighborhoods are shaped by the artists and punks and then monetized by those who wish to develop a sense of cool in order to sell it to those that want to be cool. Not unlike the Lower East Side in NY or the Montrose in Houston. After Prinzlauerberg came Freidrichsein, then Mitte, then Kreuzberg and now Nuekolln. These places are at first a little off the beaten path, so the rent is cheap attracting artists and the like, then they become the beaten path and the rents go up so the people that made it cool move to the next place where the rent is cheaper.

I've found interesting places in every neighborhood I've gone in every city I've been in. I tend to attract a certain type of person and they in-turn show me the reasons that they love a place. I sometimes stumble upon a weird little place because I like to explore an area and see what little treasures I find.

Currently I am hanging around with a group of really great people that are showing me the beauties of Neukolln. That area is rife with cool spots that are in general very underutilized, attracting people who want to figure out what the building or area wants to be next. Take for example this brewery that my friend Brian from Coppenhagen is living in. It is a wild place that houses many people doing many things. Its about 40,000 square meters of awesomeness that sometimes gets used for big parties and other times is used as a paintball course or has a weird go-kart track or some artist studios or galleries in odd little spots. Its hard to describe the multitude of things that happen there, but I think you get the general idea...

The tank Nathan is standing in is one of the wildest places inside that brewery. You can stand at one end of the tank and whisper something and the person on the other end hears it like you are standing next to them talking into both ears.

I know I have posted pictures of Nathan on many occasions, but I have never adequately described him to those of you that do not know him.

I met Nathan here in Germany. He came to an Indian Jewelry show when we were on tour in October/November. I had heard about Nathan through Nane and Polly when they were visiting New York. They told of me of "these New York guys hanging around in Hamburg."

Nathan is an artist, musician, creative type like me. He was here going to The Universität der Künste Berlin as part of his graduate program at Hunter College in New York. He is a soft spoken man that happens to say alot, but some people just don't hear him. Like me, he has been living in New York for the last several years and is interested in seeing the world. Immediately upon meeting him, we became fast friends. He helped us with the exhibition we did at POW Gallery and performed as part of Terrible Eagle at that show and at the show we did at Glasslands in February in New York.

When I am with Nathan, we tend to get into loads of crazy situations because we are both very similar in our desire to meet new people and take risks.

This picture above is of Giovanni Marks (Gino AKA Subtitle) and Nathan at some random spot we found on our way home from the Glass Candy show the other night.

I met Gino in Geneva when we played with Anavan and Sword Heaven. He just randomly appeared and we immediately hit it off. He is truly one of the funniest men I know. At the time when we met he was living in France somewhere. Now he lives here in Berlin.

As per usual, I ran into him randomly. I was sitting here in this flat recording when I happened to look out my window and see him walking past. I jumped up and ran to the window and started hollering out his name and since then we've been hanging around together a bunch.

We went to this old squat here in Prinz called Gift Laden after said Glass Candy show. There we saw a cool little gypsy band and Gino was given a bag of raw meat. WTF?

The next day, Nathan and I went to a party down in Kreuzberg. It was a bit insane. We decided to take a bottle of whiskey to the party, which we proceeded to drink pretty much by ourselves. Nobody really wanted any of what we had.

This is the statement we made as we left.

After leaving there, on bikes, we decided it was a good idea to stop and get another bottle before going to the next party near Hermannplatz. There was a cool little exhibition going on and we met up with a bunch of our friends, and in quick fashion we finished the second bottle. Which was OK for a while. At some point though I looked over and saw this.

Right then I realized that it was time to split so I grabbed Nathan and we headed for our bikes.

Mind you the trip down to the first party, which is about 10 minutes from this party, took us 25 minutes to ride. And we even stopped once to take some pictures of some things, which I didn't post because they're kinda boring. Once we left the party, which ostensibly is 35 minutes from the flat, we decided to get a little something to eat in order to fuel our ride home, where we were planning on meeting Gino. And, like idiots, instead of getting water to go with our pizza, we got Augustiner.

OK, so now we're back on our bikes and headed home. 2 bottles of whiskey, 2 Augustiners, 1 pizza. We call Gino and tell him we'll be there in 45 minutes. But oh man, there's that cool bar we like whose name escapes me... Maybe we should stop in there and get another beer real quick. 2 bottles of whiskey, 2 Augustiners, 2 Astras, 1 pizza.

2 and half hours later, I realize I am falling off my bike in slow motion for the second time while stopping at a shop to get some beers to bring back to the flat to share with Gino, who has been waiting patiently for 2 drunk dudes that are totally lost somewhere in the city of Berlin clueless as to where they are. 2 bottles of whiskey, 4 Augustiners, 2 Astra, 1 pizza and 3 unopened Staropramen.

Finally home 3 hours later, Gino is there waiting. We bring in the beers and every thing is cool. We decide to go down to the Gift Laden where the police were supposed to come close down the spot. Seriously like a couple hundred black hoodies were there to meet the police when we arrived at 6:30.

In the end, nothing ended up happening. 2 police people and a fat guy came and then left after some short conversation with the people. It was pretty mobbin.

Later on that same day, after waking up, I went to Hamburg because on the following day I was flying from there to London for the weekend, but we'll get to that in a minute.

This is the tunnel that runs under the Elb River separating the two sides of Hamburg. Its a pretty interesting place, this tunnel. There are these strange ceramic tiles in the wall that have these weird little pictures of like fish and things. This one below is my favorite.

So the next morning I was hanging around in Susi's kitchen with Polly and Rimma. Polly has recently moved into Susi's room while Susi has been down in Bavaria for the last couple months.

Before taking off to the airport, that I have to take a bus to get to, we were listening to Falco and eating these awesome cookies that Rimma made. She was also baking a cheesecake when I got there and then made a quiche. That girl is an amazing cook. Love that drunken sleeping Russian...

Oh yeah and Polly had some cool ass fake tattoo on her breast. Why? keine Ahnung.

At the bus station I saw that there is a bus that leaves from Hamburg and goes to Czestochowa, which is the name of the little town in Texas where my ranch is. Obviously it was named after the city in Poland that this bus is bound for, but in the future, I am going to take that bus in order to see that place. Pretty excited about that idea.

So Friday night, after taking the bus to the airport, I got on a plane and went to London. Nice flight. No problems, then I get to the customs/passport check in London.

I am not going to tell the whole story, but essentially, the woman I initially talked to (who wrote down everything I said to her) did not like me. At some point during our conversation, she decided not to deal with me any more and pressed some button and had me go with two gentlemen dressed rather officiously to a white room where they interrogated me for 45 minutes. At some point, one of the guys, the one that was clearly in charge, looked at me told me he was going to deport me back to America and not let me in the UK.

At this point, I got irate. I couldn't fathom the ridiculousness that I was dealing with. I told them as much, then they got up and told me they would be right back. At that point, I was sure I was fucked. I was beginning to figure out where I would have them send me. Texas? New York? San Francisco? LA? New Orleans? Pensacola? Hell, I began to think I would be getting a cool thing out of this. I would get flown home for a couple days then get another cheap ass flight on Air Berlin and head back here. In fact, it gave me a good idea for getting home...

Anyway, they came back in the room with my passport and a stamp that says that I could be there for the duration of my stated stay time, then when I left I was not allowed to enter the UK for another 6 months. My plan for cheap return to America is coming together...

Saturday, I wandered around London with my friend Marta. I ran into this cool piece of graffiti.

Saturday night, Marta and I met up with her friends and we went to Shunt.

Because Sunday was the Summer Solstice, there was a great party there. We made some wishes and placed them into these little bags and then took them to the park in Shepherd's Bush and burned them.

(Notice the monster up there eating that pound...)

The girls of Giggle House are going to New York for a couple weeks, so on Monday they threw a little party. It was a complete blast. New York, look out for these young ladies. If you see them, take them where ever you are going. You'll have a ball.

The mask that Phil is wearing is Melinda Belinda turned inside out.

Alright, so there you have it. After not sleeping on Monday, I got on a train on Tuesday morning at 4am to catch my 6am plane then took the 1 hour bus to Hamburg and then the 3 hour bus to Berlin.

Now I'm done.

Please tell me if you like it better this way or the other way. If this is what you want, this is what you get.

Independence Day Festival

2009-06-15T03:31:00.000-07:00

This is the place where we are throwing our Independence Day Festival. It is an old brewery in Neukolln (East Berlin). July 4th in Germany gonna be dope, ya'll.

From the roof of the brewery. Magic I tell ya.

Munich/Hamburg/Berlin

2009-06-10T09:44:00.000-07:00

This statue is the Bavaria. It is really intense to view from below. You can go up in it, but I didn't do that. Don't know why, just didn't.

This is the Rathaus in Munich. The word RATHAUS means Mayor's House. Therefore in Germany, the mayors are rats... Funny how that works.

Please to be noticing the donkey playing the harp. WTF? The unicorn also happens to be on this house.There is also a statue of a kid riding a fish, sorta like Nathan in the pic a few up...

Simon, the guy on the bass, runs Lingg House. This is the gypsy band he plays with. They are really good.

This is Nachtmann. He is playing with sticks that have a bunch of sticks taped to the end. It was pretty cool. They played with us on Friday here in Berlin.

So in Hamburg there is a place called the Hafenklang. In the upstairs, there is a ping pong table that people walk around in a circle and try to hit the ball while the DJ plays really great punk rock. Good times.

Alright ya'll, eat a bag. Love you.

Toni´s Birthday e Munich Party

2009-06-02T03:33:00.000-07:00

On Saturday we had an "unbirthday" party for Toni. Seems she thought all year that she was 38, but in reality she was only 37. Mental health is a draggggggggg. Anyway, we got a few bottles of prosecco and juiced some fresh oranges and hung around in the yard all day. It was nice. Real nice.

Toni made an experimental buttermilk cake that was pretty incredible. Apparently Nolan thought it was good too.

On Sunday I came back up here to Munich to stay at Lingg House for a few days before heading up to Berlin.

We made polenta with veggies. Them shits was good.

The Express Brass Band was practicing in the studio. This place has a really awesome vibe. The band members are amazing people and truly incredible musicians.

Timo flipped 4 polenta pancakes at once, without a mishap. BRILLIANT!

This man with the megaphone is Etienne from Camaroon. He has been here in Munich for like 10 years. He raps in french and plays the drums at the same time. If you get sick watching this video, its Brandon´s fault. He decided it was cool to jump around while shooting. Silly boy.

Tschuss!

MICROMONDO

2009-05-28T01:01:00.000-07:00

OK, so apparently Gabriel got the message that I wanted you all to see the videos that happened from the MicroMondo project he did. If you've forgotten already, just scroll down a couple posts...

Here's the website. Check out the videos.

He wants to do this in other places, if you are interested in doing it in whatever city you live in, get at me, or him.

I really love this one-

Summertime Mix

2009-05-26T11:20:00.000-07:00

With my excess time, I decided to put together a mix of songs that I have been listening to lately. Some of these songs are old, some are new, all are fantastic. Its only up for 7 days so get it while you can.

Part one

Part two

Oh and I know one of the songs didn't make it. Not sure why, but High Places wouldn't compress... So instead of 27, there are only 26 songs.

Loves!

UPDATE- If this has a problem, let me know- kenconsumer @ gmail.com, I saw that there are already 65 downloads as of Tuesday night and they only allow 100, so if it don't work, email me and I'll repost. CIAO!

No More Prisons

2009-05-25T23:37:00.000-07:00

In America, we face over population in our prisons for any number of reasons, not the least of which is that we do not actually rehabilitate our prisoners, we just perpetuate the idea of being in prison as a safer place for habitual prisoners... The Netherlands with their lax drug laws and insistence on education and reformation have obviously been doing something right-

http://www.nrc.nl/international/article2246821.ece/Netherlands_to_close_prisons_for_lack_of_criminals

Netherlands to close prisons for lack of criminals

Published: 19 May 2009 16:31 | Changed: 20 May 2009 15:35

By our news desk

The Dutch justice ministry has announced it will close eight prisons and cut 1,200 jobs in the prison system. A decline in crime has left many cells empty.

During the 1990s the Netherlands faced a shortage of prison cells, but a decline in crime has since led to overcapacity in the prison system. The country now has capacity for 14,000 prisoners but only 12,000 detainees.

Deputy justice minister Nebahat Albayrak announced on Tuesday that eight prisons will be closed, resulting in the loss of 1,200 jobs. Natural redundancy and other measures should prevent any forced lay-offs, the minister said.

The overcapacity is a result of the declining crime rate, which the ministry's research department expects to continue for some time.

Belgian prisoners

Some reprieve might come from a deal with Belgium, which is facing overpopulation in its prisons. The two countries are working out an agreement to house Belgian prisoners in Dutch prisons. Some five-hundred Belgian prisoners could be transferred to the Tilburg prison by 2010.

The Netherlands would get 30 million euros in the deal, and it will allow the closing of the prisons in Rotterdam and Veenhuizen to be postponed until 2012.

Festivals

2009-05-25T08:40:00.000-07:00

As of this moment, Terrible Eagle will be playing 3 festivals this summer-

July 31 @ klangtherapie
Aug 14-16 @ Dockville
Aug 28 @ Rospi in Liberta

If you are around Germany or Italy then, come hang out.

More reasons to LOVE Veneto

2009-05-24T14:32:00.000-07:00

My friends here in Veneto are a part of a creative collective called Madcap Collective. They all do really cool stuff and the sense of community that they create is truly wonderful. Last Sunday they celebrated their 6th(?) birthday by throwing a party in Mestre at Villa Francin, the place I played the previous Sunday with Federico (who is part of the collective and is also the man behind Father Murphy, which is touring the US in June.) Chris, Nolan and I loaded up and rode out for the joyous occassion.

This is Gabrielle. He is a part of the collective and makes videos and does really cool video projects. He had a couple pieces, one that had me singing "Love Me Tender" to a statue and Federico as a young Hitler and another public video project. The public project was really great. He put a bunch of objects in a box and left them out in a place with some rules. Essentially, to be a part of the project, you had to a make a video using all the objects in the box and shoot it at the space where the box was. Some really really great videos came of this. I wish I had a way to show them to you, but alas I do not, so you are going to have to trust me. He is hoping to continue this project in places around the world. New York, Hamburg, Berlin- I'm lookng at you...

Blake/e/e/e playing. I think I may tour with them in October for a while. Real cool.

After the party was over, some pizzas were had. Ahh pizza...

On Saturday of this week, Paola brought me to a really killer spot. It took us about an hour or so to get there from Castelfranco, but it was totally worth it. What you are looking at below is the Veneto region from on top of a big hill/mountain. It was really magical.

The reason we came here was to see this (below).

Apparently, this guy lives/lived somewhere near this place. Rubbio possibly? Anyway, he did all this in like 1990. Shit is totally cool. We spent a couple hours just hanging around in it. Te top thing is called Cava Colorata, the one with the metal stuff, I have no idea. Both equally amazing.

Ciao Ya'll!

Its Been a While Since I Seen You Smile

2009-05-15T04:56:00.000-07:00

Dearest Friends,
I am sorry that I have not been updating this blog for a while. Sometimes, it slips my mind or I run into internet problems, or things just don't work out... Here is what I have been up to for the last month. I hope to be more regular, but maybe I won't. Who knows?

So, I was in Texas for a while. I got a chance to hang around at my Dad's ranch some and fish and stuff with him and my brother Jim.

Then back in Houston, I hung with Kyle at Big Star Bar while he DJed out of the back of his truck. Pretty fucking cool if you ask me.
After Texas I went back to New York and we had a party at the Firehouse.

This is Eli from Columbia. She had a poem written on her arms.

BuddyHollyCost played his unique brand of noise rawk on the roof.

The next day, the Psychic Ills were playing at Mercury with Spectrum.
After New York, I flew to Munich and took a train down to Vicenza, Italy to stay at Chris and Toni's place for a while. Erin from Hamburg flew in and we went to Treviso to play with Federico from Father Murphy in Mestre as Terrible Father.

On Friday and Saturday there was a noise (and I mean hardcore noise) festival in Fontanelle that Fede took us to out in an old Italian villa surrounded by grape vines. It was totally surreal.

Paolo after the Terrible Father show in Mestre at Villa Francin.

Federico back at his place in Treviso. I think he was pontificating on the importance of sobriety...
On Monday we came back here to Vicenza and went for a walk. The image below is of a statue on a church at the top of the hill. If you look at the statue, you can see that he has his skin slung over his shoulder like a cape or something. Fucking weird!

Vicenza from that hill (above) and the Church (below.)

I really like this little skull and crossbones thing they have near the train tracks.

Erin and I went over to Venice on Wednesday and Thursday. Below are a bunch of pics from there.

Look how angry this seagull looks. It was hilarious watching him run the pigeons off from the food.

These are all disposable razors. Looks like someone has been throwing them there for years. Weirdo.

This is from the Rialto at night. Breathtaking...

Neverstop video

2009-04-21T13:08:00.001-07:00

Random NY

2009-04-05T12:29:00.000-07:00

Some of the things I found interesting in NY these last couple days.

We DJed Friday at BSide. It was a blast as always.

Excepter at Bell House last night. If that place had a better sound system...

Little news item

2009-04-05T10:38:00.000-07:00

Remember this?

Entonces we are going to be working together again in Hamburg for a festival called Dockville that is an art/music/community building festival. We are working on the Luttville thing and might play at the festival as well. I'll fill you in with info and pictures as we make them.

Here are more images from the Advances in Archaeology installation on our new facebook page.

Assumptions

2009-04-02T07:30:00.001-07:00

Here are some pics of Bolivia. This is Andrea, Cristina, and Kathia.

This is the Terrible Eagle Bolivian Experience Featuring Charango (minus Allejo.) Julio, B, Me, Sebastian.

Sebastian and Ivo.

In the Performance at Diakonia, the students made these cubes and hung them from the ceiling. We projected through them and they looked amazing. See the video I posted the other day to get the effect.

This is the group we worked with down in Santa Cruz.

When I got back to NY, I went for a long walk and then played dominoes on the roof with Christy, Robert and Justin.

video of the performance from Bolivia

2009-03-30T07:33:00.000-07:00

On Friday March 27, 2009, the students from Diakonia in Santa Cruz, Bolivia gave their Enneagram performance. I will post more pictures when I get the chance.

Jungle Resort Bird Cage

2009-03-27T07:14:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday we went to a jungle resort thing just outside of town called Guembe. Birds, butterflies and shit. There is a real tall tower there called the Mirador that allows you to look really far in all directions. Its pretty cool. And so everyone knows, peacocks can fly. I had no idea.

These are more pictures of us hanging around the Trip with the people in the Bolivian version of Terrible Eagle, minus Allejo. The guy with the glasses is Julio, he plays guitar. The dude in the picture with Brandon is Sebastian, he plays synthesizers. The girl is Andee, she ran the projector when we played there Wednesday night. BTW, I will post some pics of that when the various people who took pictures bring them to me.

Also, New York and Texas, we'll be there soon...

Viva Libre

2009-03-22T08:46:00.000-07:00

Early in the night we went to La Plaza and watched Verty's band again. Man, they are so good.

After that, the madness began...

Some got it, some didn't...

Bolivianos

2009-03-21T12:07:00.001-07:00

This past week we have been working with the students of Diakonia, the Communications school here in Santa Cruz, on our Enneagram project. The students have already composed all 9 pieces and the visual team, comprised of about 8 students, have designed the set and have been working on the visual aspect of the performance with my guidance.
We are workin in the TV set at Diakonia which is pretty cool.

One of the drummers in the course, Ram, owns a bar in the center of town called the Trip that we have been hanging out at sometimes. Its a cool place and we have put together a version of Terrible Eagle with some of the musicians from the course, Allejo, Sebastian, y Julio and will play at the Trip on Wednesday night. Andrea, one of the visual students from the course, will run the projector for us. Fun times!

It was Gabe's, the guy on the right, birthday this past week so they celebrated by having a big party in an open area somewhere in town last night. DJ, light show, beer, B and me.

2009-03-16T10:24:00.000-07:00

Last night we went out and played pool at a weird roadside billiard place. The tables were bigger than any pool table we have seen and the pockets were tinier than any we had seen. They curved in instead of curving out, so you had to hit the ball *perfectly* to get it in the pocket. It made for a long game. Like an hour for one game. Not to mention that B and I suck at pool...

This morning we got up and were taken to a live TV show where we gave an interview. It was strange because we didn't really get to talk because our interpreter did all the speaking for us. I think I may have said 3 words and B probably said 10. Totally surreal.

When we went out the other night with Daniel, we saw one of the students performing in the Plaza area of old Santa Cruz. His name is Verty and this is his "dinero" band. He tells us that he makes other, more experimental, music as well.

First Day in Bolivia

2009-03-15T14:18:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was our first day in Santa Cruz, Bolivia. It was a pretty good day. We got up and went to the Diakonia, which is the communications/audio/visual school that is part of the Universidad de Catolica here. There we checked out the work of the first year students, listened to some critiques in Spanish (muy dificil) and talked to the group about the project we will be doing there in order to get them motivated to join us. Surprise!

Last night we went out with Daniel, one of the professors at Diakonia, and went to some bars and had some beers. Or Translator was unable to join us and Daniel does not speak English and we do not speak Spanish. Luckily, our comprehension of Spanish is relatively high and his comprehension of English is relatively high, so we were able to communicate all night. He taught us a lot about Santa Cruz, the school, the people, etc.

After taking us out in the old town of Santa Cruz, he took us to a Mexican bar that was decorated with images of El Santo all over the place. JAMMIN!

We have a TV interview tomorrow morning and then start our classes tomorrow afternoon at 3pm. Viva El Santo!

Send Cheney to Jail, Now!

2009-03-15T08:05:00.001-07:00

In general, I steer clear of making political commentary on my blog. But this guy needs to be sent to jail. Unbelievable that he thinks he can still make comments about anything. He is in no position of power and should never have been in the first place. He is evil and as Olberman says, is doing hte job of the terrorists for them.

Watch this-

Then read this-
http://edition.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/03/15/cheney.interview/

Send that bastard to jail!

2009-03-14T14:14:00.000-07:00

On Thursday March 13th, we had our inaugural performance of the Enneagram of Personality piece we are composing around the world with different groups of musicians from different walks of life. We give the basic outline of the concepts of the different archetypes and work with the performers to compose musical and visual pieces that, as a collaborative effort, the group believes encompasses the idea about each personality type. Obviously, we believe that each time the piece gets performed, it will be different due to the cultural and intellectual differences surrounding each group.

The first one was performed at the Universidade Catolica de Pernambuco in Recife, Brazil. These images are a combination of rehearsal and performance photos. Unfortunately, the entire group was not around at the end of the night to get a full group shot. Sorry to those who were not there when this picture was made.

Brandon and I want to thank every one of the performers, dancers, documenters, helpers, priests, instructors, translators, and audience members that were involved. You all made this a very magical experience. Can't wait to see you again!

The video below is a *very* quick, low quality, video of an interview with one of the performers mixed with some very low quality video from the performance. There is a lot of high quality footage that will be edited into a DVD soon enough.

2009-03-10T10:49:00.000-07:00

Last night we went out with a bunch of the performers from the course. It was a great time. We sat outside near the water at a bar in Olinda, which is a little town really close to Recife.

This video is of Babi, one of the singers in the course, singing what I guess is a traditional song because everyone we were with knew the words. She is using a toothpick holder as a shaker. Fucking great.

Brazil, Killin it!

2009-03-09T06:32:00.000-07:00

We've been spending time with lots of cool people here in Recife. Some of them are priests, some are students here at Catolica (the University we are teaching at), some are performers in the piece we are working on here, some are faculty, some are just people we've met. All of them are great. They've been taking us out around town and to the beach and we've even been lucky enough to get down to another beach town south of here called Porto De Galinhas, which literally means "Port of Chickens."

These pics come from the last several days in and around Recife and Porto De Galinhas.

This is Isabel and her cousin Renata. Renata lives in Buenos Aires, so now we have a friend that we can visit there. Hooray! They brought us to a bar called Boracho. HA!

We went out to Recife Antigo, the old town in Recife, with some of our friends. We got them all to paint their nails...

This is Tiago and his girlfriend. Tiago is our drum leader and is one of the greatest dudes we have ever met. Such a badass drummer too.

B on the beach at Boa Viagem.

Me and Isabel on the beach in Boa Viagem, which is the beach here in Recife.

This is from the back door of the beach house we spent the weekend at in Porto De Galinhas. You can't see it, but there is a pool there as well. Aww Yeah.

Romerita made a paperhat for B at the Creperie we ate at on Saturday night. Romerita is one of our students and she happened to be down in Porto when were. How fortuitous.

When were in Bezerros for the Papangu Carnaval, I made this short video of this truck. I wanted to post it last time, but youtube and I are not getting along so well here. Today we are, so you get this-

This one is from last night on the beach in Porto De Galinhas. I love how the lines move. I tried to make a longer video with better lighting, but it doesn't work so well. Guess I have come back here and do it all over again...

Oh yeah

2009-02-23T09:42:00.000-08:00

Here is a video that I made while in Europe. The quality is sorta bad, but you can get the gist.

CARNAVAL! CARNAVAL! CARNAVAL!

2009-02-23T08:35:00.000-08:00

Its been a while since I updated. My camera was in the shop getting fixed so I wasn't really making any pictures for a while.

I was in NY for a few weeks after leaving Germany. NY is cold. The first picture is from a performance that Alison did at a gallery. That's Nathan Bennett in the Roman Garb. The other picture is from a party that the Black Label Bike Club DJs did at the Autumn Bowl Skate Park on Valentine's Day. Kids were dancing in the skate bowl. And Porkchop was burning up the halfpipe in the other room.

These look like Jon Read drawings.

Currently we are in Recife, Brazil at Carnaval. WHOA. So intense. I have never seen anything like this ever. Mardi Gras pales in comparison. Its not like the Rio Carnaval either, because this version is like a popular Carnaval where everyone participates. Dancing in the streets to Maracatu, Samba, Frevo, crazy shit. The above images are from Galo which is the official first day of Carnaval, Saturday, though the night before the ceremonies began with Caetono Veloso playing on the main stage at Marco Zero. There were over 1.5 million people at Galo.

After Galo, we went to the beach for a few hours. Swam with sharks. There are signs that say there is a "better than average chance for shark attacks" in these waters.

Yesterday we went to a small village about an hour and a half from here to see the papangu. It is the tradition of this village in Pernambuco (the Brazillian state we are in) to wear these masks and clothing that cover their whole body. Some of these costumes were really elaborate, some not so much.

This is us with Padre Miguel. He is one of the priests here at the Jesuit house we are staying at in Recife. Which by the way is pronounced He C Fee.

This is us with Aldo, one of the Jesuits here. He has been like our tour guide. We go out with him every night to the Carnaval here in Recife. Great dude. The other night we saw Gogol Bordello, who we rode down here from NY with. It was raining so hard, but it was fun as hell. Eugen had everyone, myself included, jumping up and down and dancing all night. Great fun.

Off to see more weird. Ciao.

2009-02-13T12:34:00.000-08:00

This is the flyer we were sent today.

We leave for Brazil on Thursday 2/19 to work with an orchestra for a few weeks, then we head over to Bolivia on like the 12th of March or something.

So this is cool. We played in Anghiari in Dec. I found it today.

I'll explain later

2009-01-20T11:56:00.000-08:00

The installation we made at POW Gallery.

This is GOOD

2009-01-12T14:36:00.000-08:00

So we were at the gallery and Brandon wanted to put a "crack" in this little CRT screen we had there. Yeah, it cracked...

If I had a dollar, I'd have about 70 Euro cents...

2009-01-11T06:45:00.000-08:00

So I left Italy early on the morning of the 5th and went to visit my cousin Alex, his 2 year old son- Arthimis, and my Aunt Gertrude in Goppingen, which is close to Stuttgart in the south of Germany. I got there and it was like -10 degree Celsius and snowing. I think it must have snowed like 6 inches while I was there. Alex made me some of the hottest food I have eaten in years. He had these peppers from South America that were crazy hot. Maybe too much for me...

We went sledding the next day and Arthimis got so tired he fell asleep in the sled. Funny kid.

After spending a few days in Goppingen, Alex, Arthimis and I caught the train to Ulm where Alex lives. When we got there we went for a walk to the tallest Gothic Church in all of Germany. It was pretty bad ass.

Then on the 8th, I flew back up here to Hamburg. This is what I saw as we were approaching. So beautiful.

Hope everyone is good.

I said "What, what?"

2009-01-02T04:19:00.000-08:00

Nathan and Thomas came to visit here in Vicenza just after Christmas. We went to the oldest bar in Vicenza, Sartea and then walked home in the cold. On our way, we ran into some cops that "controlled" us and then we hung around in a Capoeira circle. It was a lot of fun.

For NYE I was in Faenza, Italy. I love that town. I love the people of that town, and I especially love my friends there. I made a bunch of videos and built a series of screens that I projected on in two rooms of the space. Early in the night, Alessandro's band performed in the window of Livia's record store, Casa Del Disco. They put the names of a bunch of songs on little cards and taped them to the window making the experience interactive. The people outside would flip a card over and the band would perform that song next. It was pretty awesome.

Later on we had a party in a place in the city center. They called the party 1mballo. Imballo means packing materials, like cardboard and bubblewrap, etc. They made furniture, the bar, the DJ booth, the VJ booth, everything out of cardboard. Totally killer. It also is a play on the Italian word for dance- ballo. It was loads of fun.

Morena rarely lets herself go. Late in the night, she finally succumbed to the pressure. We all danced together until about 8:30 or so.

Happy New Year people. May all your Hope Change and Stuff come true.

Merry Christmas!

2008-12-25T12:30:00.000-08:00

Italy!

2008-12-24T09:28:00.000-08:00

So the day we got here, Chris happened to burn up the washing machine on accident. It left a bunch of soot everywhere, and the fortunate side effect is this here cobweb covered in soot. So weird.

This is Federico from Father Murphy having dinner with Brandon. He made us food at our gig in Treviso, booked our Italian tour, let us sleep in his house, let us borrow his amp, gave us too much alcohol, has an uncle that makes the world's best proseco, and is one of the greatest people I have ever met.

Brandon and Andrea from Be Invisible Now.

On Thursday night we played in Anghiari (Tuscany) and ate at an amazing place in San Sepolcro. So incredible. Later that night we stayed in an old church that had been turned into a hostel.

Brandon jammed with these dudes in the practice room next to the room we played in.

This is the main street Anghiari, which is a midevil town. The drive is pretty steep...

We played in Faenza on Saturday at Morena's place, Il Clandestino. Such a badass group of people. We had a great time and I am going back there on the 29th to VJ a big NYE party. Its gonna be cool.

This is the best thing we saw in Bologna.

Well, Merry Christmas. I hope everyone that looks at this thing has a great time today and tomorrow.

some things I haven't posted

2008-12-16T14:08:00.000-08:00

One night a few weeks back we had a few people over to Susi's kitchen and we taught them all the BLOOD sign. It was pretty fun.

Nathan in Berlin at West Germany.

This is flying over the Alps on the way from Hamburg to Venice. Man, that shit was so cool.

Nolan put my sunglasses on and Chloe decided she needed to hold him up. Tonight we went to Chloe's dance recital and she was one of the snow flakes. She took it real seriously, and that was great. I have video of her entire performance, but the internet connection here is real bad.

So as you can see, we are currently in Vicenza about to start our tour of Northern Italy. Super excited. Here is the schedule-
Dec 17 - Treviso
Dec 18 - Arezzo
Dec 19 - Cesena (Triple Fuck with Passa!)
Dec 20 - Faenza
Dec 21 - Bologna

Then we are back here in Vicenza for Xmas with Chris, Toni, Chloe and Nolan. Susi is coming to visit as well. Brandon and Susi are leaving for Munich on the 26th and I am going to Venice to hang out with Nathan that day. Then Nathan is coming back with me here for the night on the 27th. I have a gig in Faenza again on the 31st for NYE then head up to Stuttgart (well actually Goepingen and Ulm) to see my aunt and cousin's children. Hopefully I'll update between now and then...

Berlin

2008-12-10T13:53:00.001-08:00

Dude is a ghost.

Terrible Eagle at Fleet Street in Hamburg

2008-12-08T02:18:00.000-08:00

So, I know I have been lacking in my updates. I have had little internet time.

A couple weeks back we played at a performance space here in Hamburg called The Fleet Street. Its a cool place. Nane has been running the projector for us and that's been great.

After we played, we DJed. I spun my down south sex rap set and people went apeshit. People who have never danced before acted like complete idiots and danced around all night. It was a blast.

We played in Lisbon on Friday night. These pics come from there.

London

2008-11-17T03:13:00.000-08:00

I am currently in Hamburg. We flew here yesterday morning really freaking early.

On Thursday night we played in London again. This time with our good friends, These Are Powers. They've been touring around Europe for as long as we have and man they've gotten great. Not that they weren't great before, but at this moment in time, they are amazing. Their new record is gonna kill you.

On Friday, the Giggle House had a birthday party for Girl Alex. She turned 21. Sophie and Hermione made her a wonderful jello mold, that unfortunately ended up all over the kitchen floor... Everyone was supposed to dress up like Alex for the party, and some did, but none were as good as Phil. That dude is funny.

On Saturday night we went to see TAP play again at a house party in Whitechapel. It was fun as hell. Sophie, worried that I was homeless, gave me a house of my own and the girls then made up some property for me. Complete with mountains and trees and the sun.

Italy

2008-11-08T08:32:00.000-08:00

I know its been a long time since I've had the opportunity to update this blog. Internet in Europe is hard to come by for any extended period of time and most of the time, its real slow.
We played in Rimini, Verona, Faenza, Geneva, and London since I've last posted. In order to get in and out of Italy we had to drive through the Alps. That was an amazing experience. The Alps are big. Real big. Lots of snow and waterfalls and donkeys.

When we woke up in Rimini, I went for a walk along the beach and got lost trying to find my way back to the hotel and they had to wait for me for like 30 minutes or so until I turned up... We then ate at an agritourism place for lunch with GianLuca outside of Forli. They made everything there. The wine, the pasta, the vegetables, the bread, everything. Amazing. I had a pasta that translates to "Hang the Priest" pasta. Like short fat spaghetti with sausage and cream tomatoes. It was pretty incredible.

I have no pics from Verona. We played at a place called Emporio Malkovich, which is some dude's parent's place, but it was cool. Toni came from Vicenza to hang with us. That was super bad ass. Its always nice to see a friend. I can't wait to go hang with her for a long period of time. It'll be a total blast.
We then played in Faenza which is outside of Bologna at a place called Clandestino. Again we were fed well and everyone had a great time. Morena is an excellent host.

Then we had to drive back through the Alps to get to Geneva where we played with Sword Heaven and Anavan. Holy Shit. Sword Heaven ruled me. I haven't been completely blown away by a band in many years and man... The video proves how incredible they were.

Last night we played White Heat in London. It was a total blast.

Off to Bristol.

Did I tell you?

2008-11-05T23:57:00.000-08:00

We left Berlin immediately following the show so I didn't really get a chance to see anything while there, but I did find this great piece of art.

We then drove all night to Paris. Again we got there in time to get into the club, set up, play then leave. I saw a lot of the inside of the van, so I decided to make a new video, which I projected on them in Paris for the first time. The picnic was in France and it was the first time we had seen teh sun in days. So nice.

The video below is the new animation projected on them in Lucern, which is a really lovely place on the edge of the Alps. These pics are from that place.

Many days...

2008-11-02T03:21:00.001-08:00

Again, the internet is hard to come by so these updates are going to be less frequent. Sorry. So this is Leuven above and below.

The above pic is Nijmegen. I got sick in Nijmegen and missed the show that night, which sucked. Maybe I'm still not better, but at least I don't feel like total shit...

Amsterdam is still a real nice place.

We played in Rostock Germany on Halloween. It was pretty amazing.

Last night I had a video exhibited and DJed an art party in Hamburg. I had a really great time. Everyone here is super fun. Off to Berlin.