Freeze Frame

Usually I don't recommend any movies. This time I do. I got reminded of one of my all-time-favorite movies. The film is called "Elizabethtown".
Actually it's only a small ordinary chick-flick movie: Surreal story and hopelessly romantic but I really really love it.

In this movie a girl called Claire (Kirsten Dunst) tries to capture important moments with a gesture like taking a photo. I call this gesture "Freeze Frame".
Since many years I think about how valuable it would be to have such a freeze frame gesture at hand. In one of those moments you want to remember for ever and ever you would just have to make your Freeze Frame move and the particular moment would be archived in your mind. The Freeze Frame would not only include what you see in that moment but also the smell of the air, the feeling of the wind on the hairs on arm, it would also save the noises around you and - most important - it would capture what you think and feel in this moment.
How does this sound?
When you feel bad or lonely or love sick or bored you could replay the Freeze Frame moment and it would be clear again that beside of all your worries there are wonderful situations and that it's worth going on until the next of those moments.

Click [ here ] to watch the trailer for Elizabethtown on YouTube.
By the way: The soundtrack is also very nice.

Step Out and Step On

Today was the official last day of my team and me in our current job because we leave the company.
I tried to capture the moment of stepping out of the building for the last time.

The moment wasn't as sad as it might sound because we had a lot of time for farewells during the last months and we spent a great summer together. The sad days lay back some months now.

I was amazed how tightly this team was tied together. We had a lot of fun together and created some really cool software.

Folks, you were the best team in the world and it was an honor and a pleasure to work with you. Does this sound pathetic? Yes? Good, because it has to. The Internet is a stage just big enough to announce that. You rock!
Wish you all the best for your future and I'm pretty sure you will make it.

I made a photo from exactly the same motive more than a year ago in March 2007. It's really strange how different the stories behind similar looking photos can be. [ Here is the photo from last year ].

God ToGo

 
The World is full of things I never expected.

Did you know that there are small "Prayer Boxes" for praying while on the road?
The box looks like a small one for pills and contains
- a rosary
- a cross
- an ampulla with holy water
- a paper with some important Christian prayers

You can order it from the Internet for two Euros.

Regardless from the fact whether one is religious or not it's remarkable to be able to compress the essentials of a religion into a small box, isn't it?

I Don't Wanna Grow Up

When I see the price that you pay
I don't wanna grow up
I don't ever want to be that way
I don't wanna grow up
Seems that folks turn into things
that they never want
The only thing to live for is today...

("I don't wanna grow up" - The Ramones)
[ listen on YouTube... ]

Thanks to you folks for helping me in postponing growing up as long as possible. You rule!

Found Pizza

Click on photo to view it in different sizes on my Flickr account

Yesterday I got a funny mail from a stranger.
A woman from USA (Arizona) contacted me and told me that she went to a Pizzeria in Chicago for a famous deep dish pizza.
The place is called "Gino's East" near the Water Tower in Chicago.
She said that she wants to create a page in her scrapbook with some memories of that particular evening including a receipt and a business card from Gino's. The only missing thing was a photo from the outside. She searched Flickr and found one of my geotagged photos I took in November 2007 and asked me whether she can use it for her scrapbook.
Of course it's ok for me and I'm already curious for the scan of her scrapbook page.

It's so damn amazing that a photo can connect the memories of two people that never met and never will.

Open Windows

Opening your window from time to time seems to be a good thing.
You feel fresh clean air streaming in and waking up your dizzy head. Suddenly you realize the noises from the outside. Yes, there's life outside your window - definitely. You completely forgot about it.
There's a little bit fear left because the light from your open window can be spotted by the life out there. I guess you hope to be discovered without knowing it.
Probably someone is walking by your open window and wonders who is at work at night.
It's likely that the stranger walks on after a second and disappears into the night without trace.
You know what - opening the window is a good start but as long as you don't stand by the window yelling a way description to your office it might be useless.

First Time Sights

 
I have to add an item to the things I consider as satisfying:
Inspire a friend to a sightseeing tour in his new city because he lives there for several months now and haven't seen anything yet. This works although I am only a tourist and he's not.

I guess he was impressed by his new city.

Grashalmsichten

 

Grüne Berge türmen sich
Wogen wie meditierende Mönche aus Chlorophyll
Mein Blick schweift durch Ozeane von Grün
Armeen von Halmen, die dennoch nicht auf Kreuzzug sind
Ihr Zittern im Wind ist ohne Angst
Nur Selbstzweck
Hinter dem Klee
Hinter tausend Gräserspitzen
Liegt ein Liebespaar
Grün kitzelt ihre Wangen
Die Halme flüstern ihnen Geheimnisse zu
Das Grün verschluckt die Welt um sie herum
Verloren, gefunden, geborgen
Grashalmliebe

-------

Green mountains pile up
Sweeping like meditating chlorophyll monks
My eyes wander through oceans of green
Armies of blades but without any crusade
The shivering is without fear
Only end in itself
Behind the clover
Behind thousand tips of weed
Two lovers lie in the grass
Green tickles their cheeks
The blades whisper them secrets
The green swallows the world around them
Lost, found, secured
Grass blade love

Bardentreffen, Day 3 - Sirqus Alfon

 

This time it was about four crazy guys from Sweden called "Sirqus Alfon". I had no idea what to expect and it turned out that their show was extremely funny.
It was a mixture of slapstick, acrobatic, pure nonsense and dance floor music of the late 1990s called "Euro Trash". The maniacs used a megaphone instead of a microphone and the drummer played on a children drum kit. Oh and I should mention the big mustaches that added a lot to their sexappeal.
Actually I wanted just to listen for a few minutes but stayed almost the whole concert while laughing my ass off.

Three days of Bardentreffen and although I visited the event on all days I only saw a small part of all artists on the official stages and of the numerous small bands that played on the streets.
It's a pity that it's only once a year.

If you want you can browse through some more of my photos from the Bardentreffen 2008 on my Flickr account [ here... ]



 

Bardentreffen, Day 2 - Che Sudaka

Oh my god, these boys rocked. The band was called "Che Sudaka" and the members have their roots in Colombia and Argentina.
The whole bunch jumped around on stage as if on rhythm-drugs.
It was really impossible to stand still while listening to the explosive sound of Latin-Punk, Ska and Ragga-Raggae. This is good in general but not if one tries to take photos. I messed up most of my pics with my little jumps. In the end I don't give a damn and concentrated on cheering and dancing instead of taking photos.
The energy Che Sudaka created was awesome and I don't see so much fun on stage very often. The crowd felt the same way and didn't stop cheering "otra otra" until the band performed 3 or 4 blocks of encores.

In parallel the "Leningrad Cowboys" played on the main stage. I had a quick look at their funny hairs and then walked on to the Che Sudaka. It was the best decision of my day.

[ Here ] are some audio samples of Che Sudaka. 

Bardentreffen 2008, Day 1 / Bobo

 
Click on photo to enlarge

On three days in August Nuremberg is full of music. Bands play everywhere in the inner city open air and for free. The event is called Bardentreffen and these particular weekends are highlights for me.
By the way: "Barde" is a German medieval name for a singer/musician.

Today I attended the concert of a singer from Berlin called "Bobo" in the ruin of an old church destroyed in WW2.
Bobo sang very old German folk songs only accompanied by a piano and a saxophone.
One has to know that German folk isn't popular in Germany at all. In general only very old folks listen to that kind of music. But this time it was different.
Boby arranged the old songs and German lyric poetry e.g. from Goethe or Eichendorff in a wonderful way and turned them into minimalistic Folk-Jazz-Pop-Experimental-Music. Her voice is really really beautiful.

Hard to believe that this is the same voice as in the Metal song "Engel" from Rammstein.

Compare yourself:
Bobo now: [ listen on Youtube... ]
Bobo with Rammstein 1997 [ listen on Youtube... ]

More of my photos from the Bardentreffen 2008 can be found [ here... ].

Child Carriers

"You don't ordered it? What do you mean? It's stated very clearly on my shipping order that these 20 babies have to be delivered to you. You are this kosmonautica-guy, aren't you? Yes? OK, then it's correct. My 19 colleagues are already in their approach for landing and will bring the other kids. No, I don't know who ordered the children, my job as a stork is just to deliver children and I'm damn good at my job. Have a nice day. Oh, by the way: You should feed them soon, they are already moaning."

I live in a region where a large flock of wild storks spend the summer months. The big birds (1,50 - 2,0 metres wing span) are rare in Germany and during the first 30 years of my life I saw only one or two. Since I moved to my current place I can spot the black-white guys several times in summer.

A few days ago a friend gave me a call saying that the storks are sitting on a meadow nearby and that I should fetch my camera and run there. I did and waded through very moist areas to get a glimpse at them. It was very impressive to have them flying right above my head. Because storks are rare it's not allowed to sneak closer. My 400mm lens helped a bit to shrink the distance.

I don't know whether it's a habit in other countries too but in Germany it's said that the storks bring the babies. I hope I will not come into baby troubles just by visiting the storks.