Fußball ist ja überall Leidenschaft, Leiden, Euphorie, aber wohl nirgends so sehr wie in Südamerika und hier speziell in Argentinien. Das Foto oben ist aus Buenos Aires, als ich ein Spiel der Boca Juniors besucht habe. Das “Bomboniera” genannte Stadion ist beeindruckend, steile Ränge, Blick über die Stadt, fanatische Fans, eine irre Lautstärke, Choreografien, Gesänge. Jetzt habe ich via Markus Trapp eine Videodokumentation über den Club Quilmes entdeckt, der die Geschichte und die Bedeutung des Fußballs für die Menschen sehr schön, persönlich und ästhetisch erzählt. “Los Cerveceros de Quilmes – Die Bierbrauer aus Quilmes” heißt der Film von Andreas Geipel, Franz Sickinger und Shooresh Fezoni.

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

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

Stuttgart hat Jubiläum und Berlin fragt sich “Wer ist dieser Kennedy? Gib mir den Hennessy.”

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

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

Nach dem Klick: Kool Savas und Eko Fresh
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Here is a great video mix by Ben UFO which I am currently listening to, at 9pm on a friday, ready to let the week behind me. And the music is perfect for that, a bit discoish, a bit breaky, a bit dreamy, nicely mixed, the way I like to do it, too (and sometimes even succeed). Enjoy and have a great weekend!

BR# 68 Ben UFO from BOILER ROOM on Vimeo.

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

This video won this years animago awards “Sonderpreis der Jury. It’s DROPLETS by Simon Fiedler. Very skillful animation with drops, balls and shapes.

DROPLETS from Simon Fiedler on Vimeo.

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

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

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

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

Bester Kurzfilm:
Flamingo Pride von Tomer Eshed (Deutschland)

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

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

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

Bestes Still:
WC von Juan Siquier (Spanien)

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

Sonderpreis der Jury:
DROPLETS von Simon Fiedler (Deutschland)

Er ist ein fieser Zyniker, aber leider sehr komisch. Wenn Henryk M. Broder, polnischer Jude, zusammen mit Hamed Abdel-Samad, deutsch-ägyptischer Ex-Islamist mit einem bunten Auto durch Deutschland fährt, legen die beiden die Absurditäten unseres gut organisierten Landes frei. “Entweder Broder – die Deutschlandsafari” ist eine Reihe von Vor-Ort-Interviews, unterbrochen durch Reflektionen der beiden im Auto, hinter Wunderbaum und auf Leoparden-Sitzbezügen, die an den Stellen genauer hinschauen, an denen Menschen denken, sie hätten das Gute und Richtige verstanden.

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

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

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

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

Sbtrkt came out of nowhere and just like James Blake, Jamie Woon and Nicolas Jaar captured very fast a place in the area of bassy, dubby and abstract dance and pop music. All they did, they did well and everything seems planned and thought. Their debut record “Sbtrkt” is very complete and well done, they have a real hit on it to get radio plays (“Pharaos“), they remixed Radiohead and released mixtapes for RinseFM and Mary Ann Hobbs.
Here is the essential mix which starts very shattered but then rolls up to some real danceable dubsteppy and breaky floor monster. Click here for the tracklist. Firts of december they will be in Berlin at Lido

SBTRKT ESSENTIAL MIX by sbtrkt

Next friday I’ll be playing at an event with some legends from the 60ies Fluxus art movement. I am thrilled!

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

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

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

Ever more often lately, I stumble across 360 degree or panoramic video and photo ideas, tools and gadgets. Now I even have the great pleasure to work on a project with that kind of technology together withe the awesome company called Yellowbird from the Netherlands. They do amazing 360° videos which are embedable and follow the linear story of a video along a timeline, and whilst the film is moving you can change the viewpoint of the camera, like looking at the sky or behind you. Their most successful video certainly is the one from a snowboarders perspective which went pretty viral which is understandable, have a look:
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Even if I risk becoming a Native Instruments fanboy here, this is another great showcase of one of their products, presented by the even greater Jamie Lidell. NI released an iPhone app called iMaschine which according to the video is a little all-in-one sequencer, drum machine, synth and recorder to play around with and build little songs. As Jamie does impressively in this video, apparently without editing: building a beat, putting some bass groove on and some chorus and finally verse vocals on top of it, all lying comfortably in bed like on a sunday morning. Pretty amazing for 4,99 EUR in the app store. Let’s see if I get out of bed this weekend if I get this little toy right now.

Last saturday, the People in Beta festival took place at Beta house with lots of workshops, games like VC-developer speed datings, the beta pitch and the Awesome foundation grant ceremony at Beta breakfast. Unfortunately I couldn’t be there, the little video summary by Beatriz Barragan Horn looks really nice. And the third Awesome grant this year goes to Figurerunning, which is running with a GPS while producing figures on a map – awesome!

‎”I am a trader. We traders don’t care how you’re going to fix the economy. I dream about recession every night because you can make money in a recession.” This interview at BBC shocked viewers worldwide by its blatant openness and brutal honesty. It shows the total ignorance of financial market professionals towards the well being of the economy and its effect on the people. Alessio Rastani, a trader from London speaks about how they profit from worldwide recession and debt crisis of countries and what techniques can be used to strengthen the effect of a declining market allowing hedge funds to make money by placing bets on countries going bankrupt or crashing stock values.

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

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

The electronic music magazine Resident Advisor has started a new video series called “Real Scenes”. The third issue is about Berlin and its protagonists during the last 30 years. The film is great because it explains Berlins techno history in a very understandable way but also very well captures the feeling of getting lost and trying to escape from the pressure which always has and will be a motive for partying, especially in Berlin. The photography is nice with great scenes from Mauerpark, clandestine raves, clubs which have moved from underground to establishment like Watergate and Tresor and lots of squatted houses.

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

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

The all-in-one-sampler, sequenzer and drum machine Maschine by Native Instruments has a little brother, the Maschine Mikro. Here is a pretty impressive demonstration of what you can do with that little thingy.

I haven’t written a long, diary-like blogpost for quite some time and here is a nice opportunity to reflect on what I am doing right now and what are my plans in september.

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

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

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

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

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

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

German tv channel ZDF Neo is conducting an interesting experiment: On tvlab.zdfneo.de you can watch 10 shows and decide which one you would like to see as a regular on tv. We have a movie magazine, a puppet show, a stand up live format, a dating show, a very personal magazine and many other creative intents to create a contemporary tv show. Users can vote in different categories like innovation until the 3rd of september.

I am going to Denmarks capital tomorrow and I have some things to celebrate. So I need your help to give me some advice about where to go out, which areas, bars and clubs suit best for tomorrow night. And this is actually a little competition, sponsored by Defshop. They love Stylewalker and offered me a goodie to give away in a little quest, so all of you who help me to find some cool place to go, take part and can win this pants by the Danish brand Humör.

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

Das obligatrische Loriot-Video, eins, das zu Stylewalker passt

Danke Loriot.

Am 07.09. findet im HBC am Alexanderplatz die a2n Werkstatt statt, die sich an Musiker und Kreativarbeiter richtet und Wissen und Kontakte vermitteln will. Erfahrene Experten und Auskenner im Bereich Musik und Entertainment beurteilen Musikstücke und vermitteln anschließend in verschiedenen Workshops Wissen zu Lizenzierung, Versicherungen und Promotion. Ein tolles Angebot mit prima Leuten, das ich nur empfehlen kann.

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

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

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

Summer hit? Who needs a summer hit? We all do, to remember, to dance into the sunset, on the top a roof, above the big city, especially with such a shit summer we have this year in Berlin. So this easy, discoy, kind-of-familiar-sounding thing is exactly what I would play at an open air summer party and that’s the moment when everybody would get into the groove, when the nice conversations start over the second cocktail, when the relaxing kicks in after some hard days of work. This is the kind of summer song we want and we need. This is what it is all about. Enjoy Doctor Dru & Adana Twins – Juicy Fruit in this video which let’s you wish you’d be there. Ok, I admit, it’s a bit cheesy, but “I like it”

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

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

Was einst als Absicherung für Produzenten und Verarbeiter begann, ist inzwischen zu einem großen Spekulationsgeschäft geworden: Termingeschäfte (Futures und Forwards) auf Nahrungsmittel wie Weizen, Reis oder Soja. Das Volumen dieser Termingeschäfte ist in den letzten Jahren massiv gestiegen und inzwischen ein attraktiver Markt für reine Finanzgeschäfte. Der Wert der gehandelten Futures, Forwards und ihrer Derivate überstieg schon 2007 den Wert der real existierenden Nahrungsmittel um mehr als das 30fache. Bei den Geschäften geht es den Akteuren nicht mehr um die Absprache über einen zukünftigen Preis (z.B. für die Ernte im nächsten Jahr, was beiden Seiten Planungssicherheit gibt) sondern um Renditen aus Preisschwankungen der gehandelten Papiere.

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

Boiler Room is a regular livestream from a very small club in London. They do a good job bringing interesting people in like Four Tête, James Blake, Mount Kimbie, Martyn, Theo Parrish, Jamie XX or Little Dragon who play their favorites and edgy tracks. It is watched and discussed simultaneously online and they have a nice podcast running.

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

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

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

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

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

More videos coming soon, hope not to spend too much time on editing.

The second Awesome foundation grant this year goes to (drumroll..) Jay Cousins and his idea to build bird houses in the city! Here is a bit of his plan:

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

Awesome! We look forward to seeing this in action.

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