Ambient Techno is my Friend.

Artful Nostalgy

In 2003, at the age of 17, I took part in an exhibition at the Viennese MuseumsQuartier — the topic: logos and branding.

Quo Vadis Logo?!, exhibition and conference about branding and logos in various ways, was a success in my eyes. Even if only for myself — although I wouldn't call myself an artist, I have occasional creative outbursts that do have some depth to them.

Although one of my entries sucked really hard, I'm still quite happy with this one:

While the setting (for the blind: the Lacoste crocodile eating the Ralph Lauren horse, who's rider tries to hit the crocodile in return) was my idea, the actual vector graphic was done by Philipp Maan. All he got was credit! Alas, I didn't anything else either.

But Mister Drössler got something for life, he's promoting Ikea with a tattoo on his arm. Yes it's real.

monochrom now released a book about the exhibition and conference (German), and I can recommend it already even though I haven't even bought it yet.

π or Mathematical Coincidences

3.1415926535 8979323846 2643383279 5028841971 6939937510 5820974944 5923078164 0628620899 8628034825 3421170679 8214808651 3282306647 0938446095 5058223172 5359408128 4811174502 8410270193 8521105559 6446229489 5493038196 4428810975 6659334461 2847564823 3786783165 2712019091 4564856692 3460348610 4543266482 1339360726 0249141273 7245870066 0631558817 4881520920 9628292540 9171536436 7892590360 0113305305 4882046652 1384146951 9415116094 3305727036 5759591953 0921861173 8193261179 3105118548 0744623799 6274956735 1885752724 8912279381 830119491

Today I was watching π for the first time (*prods*), without realising it's π day. In fact I didn't even know it existed until today. For those that don't know, in an American date format, the month comes before the day, so the first 4 digits are interpreted as 14th of March. Some even celebrate the 159 as 1:59 PM — I did by staring at the clock for a minute, trying to catch the unimaginably tiny fraction of time is equivalent to this lovely number with my mind. No, not really.

This fun coincidence brought me to an idea that a lot of geeks seem to have gotten fond of already: I'll try to learn reciting π to say, 25 digits? Maybe more. I want to know how long it takes me.

Great side-effect of this entries description: see how text-align: justified; actually works.

What's Yours?

I got a postcard for an art project in Lithuania.

This card was handmade, you could make your own, I'm sure they'd appreciate more participants.

Sans Insel

I should obviously save up, and/or get a job.

Here, according to this.

• €19 Zu, Bohren & Der Club Of Gore, Taraf de Haïdouks, The Fantômas Melvins Big Band, Autechre
• €19 Stuart A. Staples, Mandarin Movie, zeitkratzer:songs!, Mogwai
• €19 Vladislav Delay, Dani Siciliano / Matthew Herbert
• €12,50 Faust, Uniform, Dresden Dolls, Clubnacht (Various Artists)
• €19 Wolf Eyes, Gang Gang Dance, Battles, Architecture In Helsinki
• €19 No-Neck Blues Band, Kammerflimmer Kollektief, Thee Silver Mt Zion Memorial Orchestra & Tra-La-La Band

Makes €107,50.

Sounding Orbs

Have you ever had your nostrils vibrate?

Yesterday evening Sunn O))), Earth and Pita filled the Szene Wien with sonic-droning of the finest.

I missed most of Pita, just caught two or three minutes, the Szene is always starting comparably early (how un-Viennese). What really surprised me is the people there, I didn't expect it to be that full, as I assumed none of the performers are very popular or hyped enough to be filling most of the hall.

Everything present, from Death-Metal T-Shirt wearing headbanging goths to 16 year old girls with backless tops (yes, seriously). The banging didn't really work as the pace of Earth's music (who was to play after Pita) hardly allows one to move to it (the drummer surely has to have an incredibly ability to concentrate, it was amazing to watch). The giggling of the girls was barely noticeable, thanks to the volume (I want more music that eliminates potentially annoying crowds).

Even though you can't really see it on my pictures, they used a trombone (here in use). Its sound really amazed me. Dark and rough, yet so nicely flowing. I found their performance very emotional, goosebump inducing more than most music I've seen live. Sadly, they only played for an hour and seemed really hurried to get off the stage. I wish they had played for at least another half an hour (plus An Inquest Concerning Teeth, my favourite track of their latest album).

After the stage was cleared of Earth's equipment, fog was blown on stage. Lots. You could barely see anything on stage, partially even nothing but fog. Press photographers weren't too happy, hehe. They started to play the intro of Báthory Erzsébet with its sublime bass, I started to laugh. This was going to be fun. 4 people in habits enter the stage, crowd starts to roar. Guitars start. Slowly it strikes me that this isn't going to stop for more than an hour, and they're presenting an accurate reflection of their new album. Black. Dark. This doesn't sound like Ambient Doom Metal anymore. This is Noise Doom Metal.

A vocalist joined them after about 40 minutes of public effect-pedal wanking - his painted face was hilarious, gotta love those Metal guys. Sounded very much like Cursed Realms (Of the Winterdemons) overall, but I'm not sure ;)

About a 3rd of the crowd gave up and went home, including the 16 year old girls (can you imagine, they stayed there for an hour!). Another 3rd seemed quite exhausted as the intensity is plain mad. I for one would've preferred a place to sit down, but apart from that, a smile was still gracing my face most of the time.

When they put their guitars in the air, finishing their ritual, I had hearing problems at first. Damn was that loud. I should probably take ear-plugs with me next time. It was overall a great experience, fun, intense, mad, and knee-liquifying. Yet, I still don't understand why so many people came. They must be mad.

Of course I put my photos online as always. And for those interested, there's a recording of Dylan Carlson (Earth) interviewed by Stephen O'Malley (Sunn O)))) on TouchRadio.

And finally I got rid of the last pounds I had from my London trip, they were kind enough to exchange them with one of these:

Now I'm all set for a Metal concert. NORSK ARYSK BLAK METAL! RAHH!!

Brilliance on Screens

I seem to have slipped in a kind of a movie addiction, or I want to anyway.

I've returned home without any scars, physical or psychological, but with a couple of DVD's I wanted to own for ages. A few of my favourite movies. If you haven't seen one of these, don't hesitate to ask me to borrow you the DVD, or get it from someone else if you don't live anywhere near me *nudge* *nudge*

Sadly the Director's Cut of Donnie Darko hasn't got the Theatrical version on it, which I expected for that price. I should've read the backside better, but I'm happy to finally own it anyway.

See, I've promised more personal entries that don't really matter in the future. Here we go!

If anyone wants to see Jarhead, Everything is Illuminated, Memories of a Geisha, The Producers, Elizabethtown, Fun with Dick and Jane, Brokeback Mountain, Heights (in case one of them plays anywhere in Vienna, preferably not dubbed) or anything that seems to be good, please leave me a message I want to go to the cinema, very soon.