Some are more equal than others

Justice in Germany, February 2009:

I. A woman who had worked for 30 years as cashier in a supermarket got fired without notice because she allegedly peculated two empty bottle vouchers, worth 1,30 Euros. She said that this is not true - she thinks the company simply wants to get rid of her because she had participated in a strike. A court confirmed yesterday that the company had the right to lay her off in a case like this even though they could not prove their accusation.
(Photo © Axel Schmidt/DDP)

II. The ex-boss of the German Post corporation allegedly peculated more than a million Euros. He confessed part of the sum and has to pay back one million Euros. It is suspected that he has peculated much more than that several years ago but this is already time barred. He was also sentenced to two years in jail but only on probation. He will now leave Germany and reside in the Lago di Garda castle that he bought 10 years ago.
(Photo © N24)

Memories of Bathsheba

It has taken 5 years but it was well worth the wait. Gruenrekorder, a German label specialized on field recordings and soundscapes, has just released my new CD "Field Recordings from Barbados" (please follow the link for more information and sound excerpts). Actually, these recordings had been lying around here for 4 years before I thought of publishing them.

When we went to Barbados in 2004, I took my DAT recorder with me, actually hoping for recording tropical jungle sounds. The island turned out to be somewhat different from what I had expected, but interesting nonetheless in many ways, and I managed to record some soundscapes that the folks from Gruenrekorder found worth listening to.

During our stay, we were glad that we had found Sea-U as our island base camp, a beautiful small hotel belonging to a very nice German woman, Uschi Wetzels. The hotel overlooks the small town Bathsheba that stretches along the wild coastline on the eastern part of the island - the ocean here is too wild to swim, even dangerous, so other than on the 'platinum' west coast, there are not many tourists and the days and nights are quiet. Well relatively quiet - the evening concerts of millions of tree frogs were quite impressive (they can be heard on the CD of course).

We found Barbados incredibly diverse, there were so many things to do ... such as ... feeding colorful fish with bananas while snorkeling in the coral reefs, walking through a jungle gorge or a tropical botanical garden, visiting a sugar factory, taking a trip with a submarine ... but one of my all-time favorite places of this planet remains the Sea-U garden above the Atlantic where I could often be found lying in the hammock, listening to a Jon Hassell record on my headphones.








Of course I took many more photos. Some of them are here

Flower Power

Rain on Karneval. Here's Sabine's almost rainproof carnival costume. The original design involved a crown consisting of small colorful artificial easter eggs and feathers but after a look at the weather, these plans had to be changed on short notice. I hope she'll have fun today, watching the carnival processions and after that, going to dance. I'll stay at home where it is warm and dry.

Another Grey World

if the world vanished completely, would there be anyone left to notice it?

One Of Those Weeks

a grey field under a grey sky with one single tree on the horizon - muddy shoes - slushy ice - a woman with a yellow jacket - a very old roof - the smell of fresh paint - a hundred and thirty old friends - the whole spectrum of human folly, stupidity, intelligence, and divinity - squeaking wooden floors - securing cables across a large room with gaffa tape - hanging transparent glass images from a baroque railing - floating on a field of love

feeling tired and sick - too much coffee - people going from tears of pain to tears of joy - the shouting of playing children reverberating in long monastery hallways - subtle intricacies of a moment - a pain that seems to be hundreds of years old - is that me? no - is that me? no - who are you? what are you? - a hundred people chanting hu for half an hour, a shimmering pure soft chord hanging in the air - polishing cutlery that is already clean - the sun shining directly into my face - coughing sneezing coughing


many people having breakfast in silence - gazing into each other's eyes for minutes (nobody seems to have eyes that are even and symmetric) - telling the truth ruthlessly - there's that large shimmering, vibrating ball of light between us - old weeds frozen and brown - a light snowfall - suffering that i created without even noticing

constructed identities held up by self objects - a bell in space - a warmth - a wondering - confusion and ecstasy - the simplicity of stopping - a roaring storm that shakes the forest and that makes my tears violently flow with its energy - my face is wet in the wind and ice cold but i enjoy it - an opportunity half missed - her understanding goes much deeper than i can grasp - a simple openness, everything coming and going freely without disturbance, without grasping, without rejecting, without wanting, evaluating, judging, objectifying

idealization transference - this cake is not made by the monastery bakery - business emails and a half-nice cd review - throwing away everything old, but then using something new in the old way - being dumbfounded, without ideas - "becoming the world's leading expert on myself has nothing to do with being fully present" - a break in the routine - talking over a coffee - little girls, cuteness overload - a meeting on a floor, a glance, a smile, a nod - an unexpected tender touch - what is overlooked vastly outweighs that what is noticed - faraway voices, a glance to the watch, twenty minutes left to the next appointment - breathing happens by itself, thinking happens by itself - understanding with an added "of course", what is it like without the "of course"? - an anonymous chocolate donator (but I think I know her) - new dates for 2011

"I do not care what others have said or experienced - I do not care what I have experienced in the past" - old stories, questions about horizontal and vertical development, fund raising committees - a cheese sandwich - recording, transferring, cutting, compressing, normalizing, naming, and tagging talks - a man who is passionately in love with life - talks about music and blogging - a look across the room - sensory overflow and boredom - just sitting without doing anything (not even thinking) - the ikea model of identity formation - thinking of my father - a hand touching my back - a survival fighter with tears - tulip petals of timeless beauty

a sunset behind old pear trees - an ancient jewish cemetary - talks about relationships while walking fast - very muddy shoes - cable problems - a brown river flowing fast - a downloaded Bach piece that refuses to play - a thin layer of fresh snow - hugs and waving goodbye - we won't see each other for a whole year - a last plate with warm food - he is already gone - back on the highway - the real world seems unreal