29 February 2008

28 February 2008

von der Berliner Abendblatt -- Friedrichshain

EXTRATAG FUER LITERATUR

Friedrichshain. Im Ambulatorium des RAW-Tempel an der Revaler Strasse 99 steigt am Freitag, 29. Februar, eine Launch-Party. An diesem Extratag erscheint erstmals das neue englischsprachige Literaturmagazin "the extra room". Herausgeber und Redakteure sind die Amerikaner Adam Collingsworth und Mara Goldwyn. Neben jeder Menge Lesestoff gibt's Live-Musik mit dbZwoVier, Lee Viajero und anderen. Los geht's um 20 Uhr. Der Eintritt frei - Spenden sind erwuenscht.

www.theextraroom.com

Buddy

I heard on the radio last night that drummer Buddy Miles died earlier this week.

I went home and put on the Ramsey Lewis version of Buddy's song "Them Changes," which he performed with Hendrix in "Band of Gypsys." I also found a nice tribute to Buddy Miles on the Funky16Corners site. They'd already posted a couple of tunes, with a nice vinyl crackle still intact.

Have a nice weekend/long live Buddy.

Eurofuchs (fuchseuro)

bargeldfuchs
The Euro climbed to over 1.50 against the dollar this week, making Europe just that much farther away than it was before. However, it does look like there will be a Wetzel brother living in Berlin this year. Though it's someone else this time.

Speaking of Bundeshauptstaedte, can anyone tell me what the photo I used to make the new blog banner is from? The first person to do so wins a 2 euro and 10 cent Koelsch.

More from me once we get Internet installed, which will hopefully be this week. The girl whose connection we were piggybacking on has left the building for good, so after 2 plus years of free 'net at the Aftons, it's time to pony-up.

See you later.

25 February 2008

Flatfile


For those of you who may have found the original art in my last post to be distasteful or simply uninspiring, do not despair. There is plenty of fantastic art on display at the Art Space building, located at the Northwest corner of 43rd and Walnut Streets just east of Main. This free show is called the Kansas City Flatfile and features the work of 171 area artists, ranging from students and beginners to professors and professionals. Most of the work is contained in portfolios in file drawers (hence the name flatfile), but there are also wall displays curated by the gallery's directors. The event is also unique in that all proceeds from the sales go directly to the artists.

The photo above was taken a year or two back of the Artspace's project wall by Jenn, who also has some stuff on display at the exhibit.

Another artist whose daily drawings I've been enjoying is T-Bit, who is completing/displaying a drawing for every day of 2008.

Back to the drawing board...

24 February 2008

Gnome alone


I walked outside this afternoon to see my mini garden gnome had taken a face plant into the leaf debris that feeds my artificial flowers. Draped by last years St. Patrick's Day beads; yellow plastic arms still carrying a traveler's suitcase. A sunny Sunday and I can't help but wonder how long he's been like this. I guess the important thing is someone finally found him, and perhaps after his rest he'll be ready to stand up and face the inevitable springtime.
New lens, new angles

21 February 2008

Seoul brothers come home (and other musical happenings)

If you've ever been abroad for a long spell, you know that once you return home, the most familiar things can take on a surreal character. Good pal Andrew Morgan described this splendidly in a recent blog post, which I'd like to quote from:

There are blue jays, cardinals, doves, and woodpeckers gathered around the patio birdfeeders, and the grass is half-covered with snow & dead leaves. I keep poking my head out the door to breathe in the crisp, clean air and get a look at the ever-changing sky. It's been eerie & incandescent at night, and a fast-moving assortment of transient metallic colors during the day. All of this seems a miracle to me after having been away.

Andrew's back in Kansas after quite a few months in Korea. He's got some new songs up on his MySpace page from his album, Three Months in Cook County, which will be out sometime this year. This is a picture of Andrew taken in Seoul by his Seoul-mate Kyle Hopkins.


Speaking of Kyle, he'll be coming back this week as well. If you haven't had a chance to read any of his posts about life in Korea, he's got a nice blog as well. A few of my favorite posts of his include this recollection of moments from the big city, a list of the seven words you can't say in Korea and other stories of cultural misunderstandings at their most amusing.

Here's a picture of Kyle with his students last Christmas. I can't tell you which one he is, though.


If you're in the Kansas City area this weekend, you should definitely stop by and check out Snuff Jazz at Jardine's around 11:00 or 11:30. Jardine's is a little jazz bar near 45th and Main. It's probably the exact opposite of the kind of jazz clubs that existed back when this town was rollicking its way through prohibition. It's not particularly smoky, the crowd is almost entirely white, the jazz is that of the dinner variety and if you get up and dance with anything less than the utmost restraint you'll be told it's a fire hazard (because of the candles) and asked to sit back down. So I'm excited to see what happens when Snuff comes to town.



If you're in the mood to hear some great local music but don't want to leave the comfort of your computer, then watch the most recent episode of the Turnpike, which features Suzannah Johannes. In this broadcast, the trio of Suzie, Josh and Dave perform at a retirement home (of all places), except for the last clip, which shows Suzie performing in front of a campfire with some kind of skeleton totem thing in the background. It's sweetly chilling. Or perhaps chillingly sweet.

And, as always, there's lots of great stuff for consumption at www.rangeliferecords.com. Though my favorite is probably still the video for the "Say My Name" remix of White Flight's "The Condition." In addition to being a great song, I have a soft spot for the video because I spent much of last summer in the same room where the guy locates the Space Kitty. I can only hope I absorbed some of that stardust.

Love,

LDHW

19 February 2008

Südgelände flashbacks


November 2006

I might try and scan some of Till's black and white shots from that day later tonight. In the meantime, here's some history of the Südgelände Naturpark and how it relates to the "Fourth Nature" concept of Berlin ecologist Ingo Kowarik, who edited the book, "Wild Urban Woodlands."

bahnsteigbaum

turm

18 February 2008

our national pasttime

"As far as I'm concerned, you could cross-breed Marion Jones with a wolf and that thing should still be allowed to play baseball."

-- Stevie D., making a case for allowing performance-enhancing technology in professional sports

14 February 2008

stories

Here's three quick slices of life from the past week. If you read through to the end, you'll find a nice little Valentines photo/postcard waiting for you.

Ursinister Sights at Brainblow Blvd.

A surreal last night while driving home: the gas station at 43rd and Brainblow Blvd, which shut down 3 years ago and has been boarded up since, reopened last week as a gift store selling nothing but stuffed white teddy-bears of all sizes and carnations by the dozen. It's creepy to sit there at the stoplight with all 2,000 of those bears staring at you, and I could tell that the motorist behind me was a bit weirded out as well. In a couple of days, these bears will probably be shipped back to an amusement park warehouse where they will hibernate for another year. I can't say I'll miss them.

"At Least He Wasn't Wearing Blackface"


I sang karaoke over the weekend for the first time in years. I couldn't find a suitable tune among the pop hits and ballads of the last century, so I opted instead for the old classic, "I've Been Workin' On The Railroad." My friends later told me that it went over fine and that everyone had clapped along, but from my vantage point the general reaction was very WTF? ("wasn't that fantastic?", in case you were wondering) To keep the tune interesting, karaokemeister Brodie manipulated the sound, looping the vocal into a whooshing soundswirl that gave the "Fee Fi Fiddley Eye Oh" breakdown a very trippy quality. So I didn't get booed off the stage or anything, but it might be a while before I show my face at McCoys again. Unless I go hear Paul deejay tomorrow night.

side notee: The whole thing was eerily similar to Monday's "Questionable Content." Yet another case of life imitating Web comics.

Cries In The Night


The other night at about 12:30 I stepped onto the back fire escape for a refreshing blast of cold air. I lit a cigarette and stared out into the fog, where the red lights of KU Med Center flickered like two dozen blinking beacons on a helicopter lighthouse. Everything was quiet. At least at first.

After a few moments I began to hear a faint shrieking sound. I dismissed it initially, not wishing to acknowledge a domestic spat unless it grew impossible to ignore. Pretty soon, though, the screaming got louder, originating from somewhere in the apartments a few buildings away. Just when I had resigned myself to dialing the authorities, someone turned the volume way up and I could hear not only the screams but the blast of an A chord on an electric guitar -- a jangly, cheap stratocaster by the sound of it. The screaming quickly distinguished itself as just another garage rocker caterwauling his way through the night, and before long a harmonica joined in the prerecorded fracas. I laughed and turned to head back inside, relieved to discover that what I was hearing was not a beat-down after all -- just an unexpected and much-needed blast of rock and roll on a cold February night.

Happy Valentines Day, from me and Clinton Lake.

your pal,

lkswtzl

13 February 2008

fogspot


A few Sundays ago Jenn and I took a walk in the fog, and after a few blocks we discovered that we'd wandered into a Caspar David Friedrich painting. The experience didn't last long -- maybe an hour or maybe five minutes, it's hard to say -- but we emerged with at least this one photograph.

More from me tomorrow. In the meantime, here's another recent photo of Jenn's and a painting by Friedrich to put you in the Valentines spirit.


07 February 2008

Black History Moth + music

In case you didn't know, February is Black History Month here in the United States of America. I'd like to celebrate this by reproducing this gem of a short story from the vaults here at Lucubrations.

This piece, called "Black History Moth," was written last year by the multi-talented Dave Coates. Wistful, evocative and educational, you won't want to miss it.

Alternatively, if you'd rather celebrate the occasion by listening to music and jumping around and dancing, check out some of the newer offerings available on thelukebox, which you can stream or add to your iTunes if you drag the RSS logo into the podcasts tab of your iTunes library.

As a starter, allow me to suggest Vibrations Part 1 and Part 2 by Joe Brown and the Soul Eldorados.

05 February 2008

Fat Tuesday with Wee Snuff



I actually got to see one of the shows last year where these guys played out jazz on tiny instruments. This clip features:

Mark Southerland - Stritch
Josh Adams - jr drums
Johnny Hammil - 1/8 bass
Ashley Miller - piicolophone/mic

Brambuya speaks

In a surprise turn of events, someone actually formulated a response to my question about how much e-mail woodchucks could check if they were able to check e-mail.

Mysterious Internet celebrity and blogging newcomer Brambuya's take on the issue can be read here.

Brambles -- a saxophonist/library scientist who also answers to aliases such as Rinky-Dink, BeepBeepMan and Moon-kick -- claims to be from Tinseltown, but I'm pretty sure he lives in Massachusetts.

I'd encourage you to check out his instructive essay, "Nice lick: jazz music for the uninitiated" and leave a comment or two. Brambuya is a hot new talent in the blogging world, and I want to do my best to encourage him.

pictures of horses





Just because.

02 February 2008

Groundhog Day


Punxatawney Phil saw his shadow today, so it looks like 2008 will continue being cold for a while. Fortunately I've stored away a few blog-bits that will keep this humble site operational until spring sets in with all of its distractions.

For now, just this picture from the great Groundhog Day party of 2002, held in Godesberg and photographed by A.B. Collingsworth.

And finally, a bonus question to ponder (or draw a cartoon of, a la Diesel Sweeties) during those six more weeks of winter:

How much e-mail could a woodchuck check if a woodchuck could check e-mail?

see you later.