Berghain, Berlin’s most famous techno temple and house of the Panorama Bar, will open it’s gates on a friday night for the first time (usually it’s only Panorama Bar on fridays) to host probably the biggest Dubstep party on the European continent so far: Shackleton, Scuba, Appleblim, Skull disco, Mala, DJ Distance – find more about the artists, links and music at Grimetime.

Moreover, you have the chance to enjoy Berhain’s new sound system: Funktion One. Paulie at Dubstepforum says about it: “It’s got the best sound I’ve ever heard in a big club. Funktion 1 rigs all the way round… ”

There’s a great mix by Applebim in the series of Resident Advisor’s podcasts: “Housestep? Dubhouse? Whatever you want to call it, Appleblim’s got it on this edition of the RA podcast”

Videoakt
Videoakt is a video art festival hosted by the organization GlogauAIR, a non profit organization founded with the intention of creating a meeting point between different artistic disciplines, important is their Artist in Residence Programme, lots of international artists, e.g. from South America live and work there.

Me, Stylewalker, have the big honour to create a musical scape for the video art, together with Steve (remember the House party, almost three years ago?) and VJ Hitektrash from 11pm, at Glogauer 16.

Mediaspree

This is what it might look like along the river in Berlin, where you find now so many great places like Yaam, Bar 25 or Kiki Blofeld, if the plans of Mediaspree become reality:

Pretty boring, huh? Xbergers and Fhainers, go vote, to prevent this! I’ve written about Mediaspree versenken before, and you can read the whole text about what Berlin really needs, why it is unique and why we love living here so much at Sounds of Sirens: Auf zu neuen Ufern.

Tom14, “born in Brazil and based in Barcelona”, who “is a street artist in more than one way. He works on the streets, sometimes literally on the surface of the road, but besides this, his work is also deals with the rights on the street. It’s all about reclaiming the streets from real estate investors who make large profits from urban planning projects and do nothing about improving the situation for the local people.”

Check it out: Tom 14, Barcelona street artist interview

The next edition, called “Calor 08” will take place at the hotel “Chic & basic” in Calle Princesa 50, this Saturday, June 14th, from 11 AM to 9 PM. On the website you will find many slideshows with pictures from past shows.

Although I am not living there anymore, I can ensure that it’s still a very vibrant and creative city, especially in fashion. Not at last because of that it has become home of Bread&Butter..

Alles dies sind katalanische Köstlichkeiten, herrührend von der Verbbbindung der Macher nach Barcelona. Diese organisieren dort halbjährlich die Modemesse Bread&Butter und eröffnen zur Wintersaison einen Laden in Berlin, in der, genau, Schönhauser 13. Got it? Immer Dienstags, Donnerstags und Freitags zwischen 20h und 24h gibt es also Eklektisches vom Plattenteller und Eklektiker in den Sofas und an den Säulen lehnend. Diesen Dienstag (heute) gibt es Musik von Stylewalker (that’s me!) und Steve (somebody else!). Donnerstag den 24.04. auch (da geht es vielleicht auch ein bisschen länger)

Wer kommen will, sagt mir Bescheid, ich habe ein begrenztes Kontingent auf der Gästeliste und auch für alle anderen gibt es Rabatt. Bitte schreibt mir, ob ihr heute oder am Donnerstag kommen wollt, dann machen wir ne Flasche Cava auf und lassen sie in unsere Nabel perlen. Fins ara!

You can get there, taking the 55 bus and walk upwards to the castle, In summer, on weekend evenings it used to be open until 2am, now I assume they close a little earlier. Here is another little article about La Caseta del Migdia

The movie is done by Fritz Gnad who is (certainly amongts many other talents) a video artist and lives in Barcelona. He publishes hie videos and other obeservations in his blog feezen//freezen. [via Polylog/Wildpark]

Update: There’s a special midsommer celebration open air party going on for three days in a formy red army military base in Bernau, close to Berlin with many, many great electronic music acts organized by such infamous party crews like Pentagonik, Wir sind Park or Patentblau.: Check out the lineup, pictures and how to get there!

And here is a little impression of how it looks now: Michael Mayer on the beach for Sónar 2006

Do you need to know more to be sure he knows what he’s doing? Check out the two mixes at the bottom and another blogpost! This guy is on the rise and you could be part of it. He will be here september 21st (thursday) to sep 26th (tuesday), drop me a mail and we’ll talk about the details!

Mix 1 (may 2006):
Download audio file (marco_delvai_mix_may_2006.mp3)

Downloadlink

Mix 2 (july 2006) “The Key to Our Soul”
Download audio file (marco_delvai_keytooursoul_mix_072006.mp3)

Downloadlink

Foto from Wasabi-Blog

I am proud to present two of his mixes, he manages to combine the Barcelonian hedonism and the Berlin minimal sawtooth attacks. Very hypnotic, very danceable, very pushy, very cool. With his partner Jordi he forms “Wasabi experience“, they play in clubs like Lekasbah or City Hall and at the beach, of course.

Apparently, the last weeks have been full of experiences, Sonar, Sant Jordi, hot Spanish summers, who knows Barcelona, knows what I am talking about. So enjoy the first mix, produced before Sonar, which is a little more laid back, even shy and the second one, straight-forward, even a little distorted and much more adventorous.

Mix 1 (may 2006):
Download audio file (marco_delvai_mix_may_2006.mp3)

Downloadlink

Mix 2 (july 2006) “The Key to Our Soul”
Download audio file (marco_delvai_keytooursoul_mix_072006.mp3)

Downloadlink

Foto: Mario Barcelona

Foto: Adria Garcia

Now, Barcelona’s administration is going to control all the chiringuitos with checking devices who measure the decibels and send them via internet to a central. Whenever there is too much noise or sound at the wrong time, there will be fines or they close the bar right away.
(You can read the story in Catalan in “Controlan per internet els xiringuitos” in 20minutos (pdf, page 3)

I am telling this story without any valuation, it is just another example for how Barcelona’s adminstration tries to bring more control into the city and make it a more “civil” place. There has been much talking about “uncivil behaviour” such as peeing in the street, topless in the city, selling beer from bags and so on.. It’s difficult to manage a place with so many interests: The tourists (from rich to backpackers), the inhabitants, the tourism industry, the creative people, the conservatives.

But, despite all the new rules about street markets, prostitution, dodging public transportation’s fare, noise and litter in the streets, I think, Barcelona still is a very creative, chaotic and pleasant place. The beer thing did not work out, you can still get your can wherever for a Euro and the skaters still skate in front of the Macba. So, don’t panic, Barcelona stays young.

So, tonight, get ready for the battle of giants: AC Milan vs FC Barcelona.
Kaka vs Ronaldinho, Shevchenko vs Eto’o, Inzaghi vs Puyol..

To put you into the mood for great football, watch this video (Ronaldo – yes, actually used to be a good player – Maradona, Pelé and many more..)

By the way: I am really, really sorry for that cheesy hardrock-music. Who is that? Nickelback?! Just turn off the sound..

Nike already started a massive internet campaign with “Joga bonito” (Portuguese for “Play nice”). You’ll find many cool movies and a community: www.joga.com (the page with the fastest growing rate of attention lately, as per Alexa.com)

Talk about viral effects: The videos are little masterpieces about how to play beautiful football and the website makes it easy to share. Of course yu can send an email with link, but there’s also a code snippet, people can put into their websites. Here’s an example:

www.nikefootball.com

The spot is taken in Camp Nou, Barcelona and the perimeter advertisers have their little benefit as well.

While looking for Pian&Hase on Google (because they failed to give me their press information.. artists – you need an agent!) I found Mr. Case. He not only runs the stunning page barcelonastreetart.net, but also documents the works of urban decorators on Flickr and YouTube. Watch his movie about the short life of a street art object.

The animation on the right side is a processed picture of burning gas in a glass. He is also working with the (to me, until now, unknown) programming language Processing I recommend his highly entertaining website ricardmarxer.com.

I got to now him about a common friend who is an astrophysicist. Oh, it’s nice when the worlds blend..

There are more skatervideos in the video sharing community youtube, like these.

By the way – my article about Bread and BUTTER Barcelona is not only the longest I ever wrote in stylewalker.net but also one of the most popular!

Members pay 1,20€ an hour and get coffee or tee for free!
Click More for a map!

Anyway, this does not really lift my mood for going to a conncert. Even less, when it is like a journey with the metro, but I really want to see them. Their name is Catalounge and the reason I want to go basically is that I met one of the musicians at Bread and butter and we had very good time working the cables there..

Their concept is nice (and pretty fashionable as well, I must admit): “Electro mestizaje” – It’s a very broad and versatile mix of all sorts of lounge, drum’n’bass, down and breakbeat spheres with snippets of guitars and minimal vocals. I especially liked their track Encantador de serpientes.

Tonight they play in Hospitalet which is not exactly Barcelona, but I’ll still go. They better be good!! I wanted to go tomorrow but the police shut down the place where they were supposed to play. Man, Barcelona really is getting conservative..

Big sunglasses, baggy jeans that look vintage but cost a fortune, suits that do not look like suits and surprisingly similar haircuts are the visitors trademarks. Although those people deal with selected brands and individuality in general, they look astonishingly alike. It’s a very focused scene: There are the buyers for fashion stores and chains, independent designers who produce for their own little brands and also the big corporate machine players with their inescapable position terms like chief of marketing, brand manager or creative director. And they are all in the database..

This database and the way of treating the customers is one of Bread and butter’s key success factors. The other is the great commitment of its people, willing to work hard to create a unique event.

Looking back on the days I have been working here, I am glad to have learned so much: I spent the five first days in the IT-team, learning about IT-networks, how they manage 80 points of sale, including card payment systems, how to plug it all together and build this big network, connected to their business database with the clients information.

Then for two days, I worked with an electrician who showed me how to wire tents and how much power you can get out of a electric circuit. I took a look at the boothbuilder’s work and all their fancy materials. Now I am sitting in the back office, filling the mighty database with customer information from accreditation sheets the visitors had filled out at the entrance.

This information is not only used for the regular phonecalls and newsletters, so to say the communication between customers and the organizers but also in between the visitors and exhibitors.

It works like this: Exhibitors can rent little advices that scan the barcode which is printed on the trade show passes. Whenever somebody enters the booth, a hostess scans the pass. The information who entered the booth at what time is stored on the device’s memory.

When going home, the exhibitors have a complete file with the information of every single person they had contact with: Not only name and contact data but also their branch, position and interests. Pretty complex, huh?

Bread and butter not only is a very well organized trade show, these people are building a community. They enable communication in between their customers thus help to create a common identity.

People who work here also have a strong commitment to the Bread and butter. It is not a normal fair, it is a creative challenge to manage all the construction, organization and infrastructure. People like to work, they are paid relatively well and do not mind to work nightshifts. The day before the opening, I finished at 1 am attaching all the lose cables for security. The food is great, bosses are nice (a beer on the house after 8pm is a friendly gesture) and you really feel you are working on something special and interesting.

The parties are also part of building the fame. Last year they chartered a boat to go to Ibiza after the fashion show. Stories about this adventure differ, but apparently it was quite an excessive experience. One guy kept on spinning records for 24 hours, fell aspleep in the sand, woke up, did not know how to get home, went to the airport and bought a flight. You know.

This year, Bread and Butter had a big opening celebration in the Palau Nacional above the exposition area. It is an old, pompous and impressive building with stucco and marble and a huge hall. The upcoming stars Chikinki (very good, sounded like Oasis with synthesizers) played and my friend Suzi Wong had come from Berlin to make the people dance with her typical minimal techhouse style. All the drinks were free and people enjoyed the decadent atmosphere with cocktails.

Friday is the last day and I will return to my IT colleagues. We are going to disassemble all the cashiers and the corresponding machines and put them into cases. Soon they have to be in Berlin for the next Bread and butter tradeshow there. And so the circus goes on and on, bye, bye Barcelona. Bread and Butter returns to Barcelona in summer with a hole fashion week.

See more fotos on Stylewalker@Flickr!

The club is located in an old theatre and the guys, who also organize the excellent Primavera Sound Festival, invite fine and innovative DJs. I don’t know if I go out tonight, to the rather harsh electro DMX crew, but for sure I will enjoy the magnificent Dominik Eulberg january 21st.

You can apply to getting a card answering a few questions. If you are cool enough, like me, they’ll send it to you. The form is on their website, behind the little “plastic”-icon.

You can also download a 2:40 video in wmv (7,5Mb) and in mov (18Mb). (I have no idea why that one is so big, I just encoded it and do not have the time to make it any smaller right now.)

Right now I am sitting in the one in Raval, the Biblioteca Pública Sant Pau – Santa Creu in c/ Hospital. It is 15min before closing and they have the nice habit to turn on some music. In my case it’s Boby Dylan’s “Everybody must get stoned”.. Pleasent places, really.

A short description: ” illuminated neon-letters are spread all over several layers in the entry-hall space. viewed from one perspective they form the word OBSCURITAT (darkness) playing on the essential contradictional concepts of light and darkness important especially in wintertime. “. And again he made it to We make money not art..

Es gibt aufgrund der Siesta sehr viele “Fernsehkinder” in Spanien, die mit der Schule fertig sind, wenn ihre Eltern gerade wieder arbeiten gehen. Dann hängen sie bis neun allein vorm TV, bis die Alten wieder kommen. Das findet keiner gut hier. Auch nicht gut ist, dass die Weltwirtschaft sowas wie die Siesta nicht versteht und warum man hier nicht um 15h anrufen kann, um Business zu machen.
El presidente Zapatero hat zwar die Privatwirtschaft dazu angehalten, es dem öffentlichen Beispiel gleich zu tun, aber ich werde wohl weiter oft um 15h vor verschlossenen Türen stehen: Vor der Bibliothek, vor dem Supermarkt, vor der Reinigung, die meine weißen Businesshemden stärken..

Und noch etwas ändert sich in Spanien zum neuen Jahr: Die Rauchergesetze. Ich fand es schon immer etwas merkwürdig, wie selbstverständlich die Leute hier z.B. in Apotheken rauchten. Jetzt wird in öffentlichen Gebäuden nicht mehr geraucht, nicht in Fahrstühlen (wow!) und vielleicht auch nicht mehr in der Uni.

Ein ganz großes Plus ist die Küche: Supergemütlich, unwahrscheinlich ausgestattet. Das einzige, was fehlt, ist ein Messbecher und eine Pfeffermühle. Also stellt euch den Rest vor! Nach einer intensiven Putzsession (meine Mitbewohner sind da wohl nicht so megapingelig, aber wenn alles an meinen Händen klebt, muss etwas passieren) und dem vorsichtigen Dekorieren einer Wand, schreitet der Identifikationsprozess voran und ich “fühle” die Wohnung mehr, if you what I mean. Und jetzt habe ich auch kein schlechtes Gewissen mehr, den Fernseher einzuschalten. Ich wurde nämlich beim Vorstellungstreffen gefragt, ob ich gern fern sähe. Wusste gar nicht, was ich sagen sollte. “Naja, Kultur und tolle Filme und so” werde ich wohl gemurmelt haben, die faulen Stunden vor der Glotze meiner Vergangenheit unter den Teppich kehrend.

Jetzt ist mir das egal, ich putz die Bude, dann darf ich auch fernsehen, oder?! Aber die Leute sind nett, demnächst stelle ich sie mal hier vor, wenn sie das ok finden. Eine designende Italienerin, ein malender und gerade Architektur abschließender Andalusier und eine Madrilenin, mit deutschem Papa und Physikerfreunden. Also eine nette Truppe und mit der Lampe, die ich gerade gekauft habe, wird mein Zimmer auch gemütlicher. So, jetzt mal wieder weiter nomadieren, nach Gracia, dort treffe ich einen Schauspieler, der Unterricht gibt und vielleicht von mir eine Seite gebaut bekommt. Bald mehr Bilder, Interviews und all das.

Could it be the tape I had put around him? “Well, we gonna spend some time together,” I said (“quite close” I added in my thoughts) “don´t you want to get to know me a little?” But my friend, the mattress kept silent. So I took his beer too and decided to treat him like he obviously wanted to be treated – as a silent servant, ready to please, discrete and not calling for too much attention.

Schaue bei Albert über die Dächer, suche nach Netzen und finde zwei ungesicherte. In einem Kommentar wird mir eine Wohnung angeboten. Jetzt gleich in eine Bar, Barca gegen Athen anschauen. Fängt ganz gut an..