Everyday I’m commuting to work. I’m hovering through the city while my thoughts are playing with the houses and the clouds. Sometimes I recognize that the houses try to interact with me, look at me too or just are standing there and wait – just like Treebeard.
Instead of me my friend Vidam converts his experiences and thoughts in his artworks. Since a while he focuses on houses in his environment and how they could cooperate with his creative output. As you might guess this output is definitely prettier than most of the buildings themself wherefore I’m happy to promote his upcoming exhibition at ReTramp Art Gallery.
‘The work in Vidam’s new exhibition “Houses” deals with various themes in the Berliner Artist’s direct environment. For one, it depicts the actual houses in his neighborhood: certain buildings jump out at him for different reasons during walks through town. May it be the individual history of the house itself, a certain tenant or simply the pleasing architecture. He has used isometrics for some time to depict the buildings and now combines that with the idea of create a picture within a picture; in this case murals on the walls of the illustrated houses. These murals have their own reasonings: spontaneous inspiration, graphically aesthetic forms, personal pop culture references or through the stories and surroundings of the house itself. 12 watercolor illustrations, one painting on wood and a screen print will be shown.’ 1
As he told me last week all artworks are hand-drawn and are created spontaneous. Although they look the same size on his images, they are all unique and different. There will also be a special one but therefore you have to attend the exhibition. Have fun and give him my best regards.
All images by Vidam. You can have a look at his instagram and facebook page too.
Although a lot of people still don’t know what an aeropress is and what difference it makes to brew your coffee with a french press, a v60, a bialetti or the beloved aeropress the German Aeropress Championship itself takes place since 2012 and a bunch of people attended the 2015th event at the Barn. The Barn owner and one half of the German championship organizers Ralf Rüller resumed ‘Amazing vibe at the German AeroPress Championship today. Totally enjoyed it. Very creative and full house. 120-150 visitors.’ 1 Kris Schackman, the owner of Five Elephant, and other half of the organizers won’t disagree.
Within each round four professional or passionate baristas had eight minutes to brew an aeropress coffee. They all had to use competition beans roasted by Five elephant coffee roastery Berlin. Besides that each competitor was allowed to use the official competition scale from Acaia, Mahlkönig EK43 coffee grinders and a Bunn Water Boiler. Additionally each participant could use their own scales, water or boiler. After each round Joanna Alm (Drop Coffee, Stockholm), Anne Lunell (Koppi, Helsingborg) and Anette Moldvaer (Square Mile, London) were fortunate to present one of the four with a ticket for the next knock-out round. After eight rounds and a semi-final with two contestants each four winners went into the final where the lucky champion was announced.
In december 2014 I got a bit upset that my non-existing drawing skills only occur in my sketchbook. Due to some other work I’ve not been able to draw on canvas for a long time. Beside that my taste of music and my befriended artists dibbled the idea of an own crew jacket into my mind. Because of the fact that I’m a huge friend of crazy ideas I decided to make a real job of it.
At first I had a look at several shops to find some heavy metal patches – amazon has a very good range of goods and the shipment is really fast. On boxing day I started with a KISS ARMY patch. Only a few days later I’ve been able to sew a Cologne, a STAR WARS and an Iron Maiden patch on my battle jacket. Meanwhile I created several patches on my own like the Death before Decaf patch.
All of my patches are drawn on thick white cotton wool. After the paint had been dry I ironed each patch on fluffy liner. Except for the backpiece I’d soaked all patches in strong black tea before I sewed them on my kutte. Sewing the patches had been hard as usual but the backpiece with several layers of paint and clear coat really sucked my fingers and my mind.
Yesterday I was finally able to call it a day and to put on the kutte for the first time. I’m really happy with the result and I’m already looking forward to my next project.
Usually I’m spending 9 hours per day at the office. When we assume that a song is between three and five minutes long than I’m listening to nearly 180/108 songs per day. Because I don’t want to be in a tight spot of listening to a few songs several times a day I own a soundcloud and a spotify premium account.
It goes without saying that these 180/108 can be counted as ambient noise instead of really listening to music. This kind of decadent music intake totally changes when I’m at home. Since I call a flat my own again I mostly listen to vinyls instead of digital music. A vinyl contains between two and about 12 songs. At least if you summarize the A and B side. Right on from the moment when the pick-up hits the vinyls I’m totally calmed down and listening to each scratch, note and even to a bass guitar solo. It’s just insane how much valence a vinyl puts into tunes and the habit of music consumption.
The problem with this again awakened love is the price and the offer. Local music stores understandably don’t count on vinyls anymore. The Saturn at Munich’s no. 1 shopping promenade has three shelves of vinyls wherefore their assortment is very manageable. Beside that my spotify accounts costs about 10€ per month whereas a vinyl costs between 17€ and 25€ each. Fortunately I had been tipped off to give the berlin based HHV store a try. Beside apparel hhv offers amongst others sound storage mediums vinyls and also used vinyls. Every vinyl has a detailed description, shows a cover and some even offer a preview player. The price is ok and they offered some vinyls I’ve not been able to buy on site wherefore I followed my friends hint. Fortunately the cross selling plugin showed me another soundtrack and after a short preview I bought this vinyl too. Cross-selling for the win dear marketers.
Only two days later I received my order and I’m still happy with it. The vinyls arrived safely packaged and also the used vinyl is in a good shape. Now my collection is expanded by the wonderful Whitesnake – Whitesnake, Friska Viljor – Remember our name, Maron OST (the cross-selling vinyl which perfectly suits a whisky-mood) and Tayler McFerrin – Early Riser lps. If you’re looking for some vinyls you should definitely give them a try too I surely will.
Although we all like our job we wouldn’t trade five minutes of spare-time for one hour of work. Leisure time is very important to me and I’m not into spending that time with being a couch-potato. Last friday I checked the forecast and the predictions had been very well for nearby skiing regions. So after a short night and a bloody fight with my snooze button I went to the skiing arena Spitzingsee Alpenbahnen.
It’s been my first time and I’m really stoked of the skiing region. The arena offers a lot of different tracks for beginners and expert winter sports person. Beside that the coniferous forest land is just wonderful for a forest freestyle session. Additionally the area has a nice cream topping aka the MINI Snowpark.
“The MINI Snowpark at the Spitzingsee ski area is a highlight for snowboarders and ranks among the top three snowparks in Germany.” 1 – and it’s for real a winter wonderland. Although my skills are a bit rusty cause of my last season I’m definitely looking forward to my next ride. Because of some to-dos on saturday afternoon I left Spitzingsee early in the afternoon.
On sunday we visited the monastery of Andechs near Ammersee. The “monastery is the oldest pilgrimage church in Bavaria and since 1850, an asset of the Benedictine monastery, St. Boniface, in Munich.” 2 The building itself isn’t huge but it was nevertheless worth to be visited. After that we drove to Herrsching to call it a day. The Ammersee is indeed really beatufil and I think it’s an amazing hot spot during summer.
The fact that one million electric cars should float on German streets in 2020 forms the basis of his article. He says that they’re too expensive (Tesla), their range would be too short or they just look ugly 1. Beside that their batteries would be too bad 2 and they aren’t as sustainable as advertised 3. Well, if you ignore his catchy lines Don at first glance isn’t totally wrong but as I already mentioned in my retweet “Every beginning is hard”.
I grew up near cologne in a region where the fox and the hare bid each other goodnight. We know subways from movies and there isn’t hardly any short-distance traffic after 10pm. At the age of sixteen I got my A1 driver’s licence (it’s a 125ccm motorcycle driver’s licence) and at the age of eighteen I got my B and A driver’s licence (car and the general motorcycle driver’s licence ((yes I have a motorcycle driver’s licence, that’s the reason why I felt comfortable at the Harley events)). Since my studies I was living in several big cities with a good short-distance traffic infrastructure and a good bicycle infrastructure wherefore I didn’t depend on a car as often as I was used too. Nevertheless I was glad to call one mine and to go on vacation like our 1week4countries trip (I think I miss Paris btw) or our camping trips to Denmark ( I definitely miss Denmark too) and the Bavarian Alps by car.
On my way to Solda last year I came across Garmisch and an electric car service station by Flinkster. Last weekend I found one near Tegernsee too. It’s not really the middle of nowhere but if you’re honest you might not expect them there. BMW sold their first BMW Active E already 2011 and Audi is proud of their hybrid flagship aka the A3 Sportback e-tron. Their slogan is Verändert die Welt. Nicht den Alltag. which means that it changes the world but not your daily life (like Neil Armstrong’s That’s one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind).
In july 2013 BMW released the i3 which is the replacement of the Active E. At the end of 2014 they additionally released the i8 as premium electric car and competitor to Tesla motors. And they can be bought and charged in the middle of Munich.
So I guess the car industry is playing the E-game very strong. They try to offer a good infrastructure, they offer products for a middle and high premium group of buyers and they try to build beautiful cars. Beside that the electric cars offer a range of 50km (Audi A3 e-tron electric motor only), 150km (Volkswagen e-Golf), 190km (BMW i3), 200km (Mercedes B-Class Electric Drive) + a bonus of 30km because gained braking energy boosts the battery and 334 km (Tesla S 60 kWh battery). And that is only the tip of the iceberg.
During the first month Mercedes sold 41 units of their Mercedes B-Class Electric Drive 4 and 280.000 electric and hybrid cars are currently registered in the United States. On january 1st 2014 12.156 electric cars and 85.575 hybrid cars have been registered in Germany 56. I’m not able to say if the low gasoline price is associated with peak oil or something but I’m certain that prices are likely to rise soon. And regarding to Don’s argument that electric cars aren’t as sustainable as advertised you have to keep in mind that the Well-to-tank equation partly includes the output which is produced during the production.
Last but not least I think that the future of electric cars goes hand in hand which the future of economy – the so called shared economy. As I already mentioned I stumpled upon an electric car service station at Garmisch. The service station belonged to Flinkster, the car sharing proposol of Deutsche Bahn. The carsharing venture with the most clients in Germany, DriveNow, offers sixty BMW Active E in Germany, twenty of them are based in Munich, and seventy Active E in San Francisco.
Maybe that’s not a lot but I think it’s a well done first step. Due to the fact that you use these cars only for short-distance trips the range doesn’t really matter. During the rush-hour large cities have to deal with high pollution – emission-free vehicles like bikes or electric cars can hereby solve such problems. And if you share such a car you don’t have to worry about high asset cost. The aim of one million electric cars in 2020 isn’t a reachable one but I think at least we have to look for and support sustainable means of transport.
During my trip to Planneralm a few weeks ago I’d stressed my beloved Völkl Jibbster very much wherefore I’ve decided to spent it a maintenance. Fortunately a very good sports outfitters is located in the heart of Munich so I headed quickly to Sport Schuster during the last week.
Luckily enough the service assistant is also a snowboarder and had shinning eyes when he saw my old Jibbster. A few days later I received my reconditioned board back and although the forecast wasn’t that got I decided to go shredding on saturday. I packed my stuff on friday and after a short night and about two hours of driving I found myself at the wonderful “Skijuwel” skiing arena at Alpbachtal Wildschönau.
Unfortunately the forecast was 100% true and most of the time I enjoyed a pea soup fog. Nevertheless it was a funny shredding day and I was glad to call sharpened edges mine – thanks again for the well done service. Whilst my return I had a break at my favourite Austrian grocery store Billa to buy Käsekrainer and the tasty red berries cereals (the Käsekrainer did not live to see sunday evening by the way). Later that evening I arrived back in Munich and fell dead into bed.
On sunday we decided to drive to Tegernsee to go out for a walk and to enjoy the bavarian winter wonderland. Although I haven’t been able to go swimming this time it was totally worth it. The Tegernsee area is really beautiful and is worth to visit the whole year. Unfortunately the weekend is yet over but we already have plans for the next one. Munich I love you. <3
