could it be that swiss journalist tom kummer has started to blog?

yes THE tom kummer, who was scapegoated as the “bad boy of german journalism” after some of his interviews with hollywood starts turned out to be creatively enhanced. the entries at tomkummer.be - school of borderline journalism are signed “Perry john” and “Fred”, but somehow we can’t shake the feeling that maybe tom kummer himself might be behind those pseudonyms. the suffix .be stands for domains stemming from belgium, but here it could be explained with the fact that tom kummer is originally from bern [short: be], switzerland, where this past sommer tom could be seen twice in what looked like a meeting with a certain blogger from bern…

könnte es sein, dass der bekannte schweizer journalist tom kummer einen blog angefangen hat?

ja, DER tom kummer, der als der “schlimmste journalist deutschlands” verschrien wurde nachdem einige seiner interviews mit stars sich als teilweise inszeniert herausgestellt hatten. die beiträge unter tomkummer.be - school of borderline journalism sind zwar mit “Perry john” und “Fred” gezeichnet, aber irgendwie wird man den verdacht nicht los, dass vielleicht tom kummer selber sich hinter diesen pseudonymen versteckt… das kürzel .be steht eigentlich für domains aus belgien, aber es liesse sich dadurch erklären, dass tom kummer ursprünglich aus bern in der schweiz stammt, wo er übrigens diesen sommer zweimal in einer gartenkneipe bei einem treffen mit einem gewissen berner blogger beobachtet werden konnte…

Der einzige Sinn und Nutzen journalistischen Kommunizierens kann heute also nur darin liegen, verschiedene Wirklichkeitsentwürfe zu produzieren.

und natürlich wäre ein blog das ideale werkzeug dazu…

Tags: blog, swiss, bern, german, journalist

rx has put up another great bush mashup on thepartyparty.com. this time dubya bush is doing white lines…

[sloppy shoppery by yours truely]

Tags: mashup, bush, rap

better late than never? via digital brainstorming newsletter

syn chron: zwischen Raumschiff und Klangraum

syn chron ist das bisher grösste und spektakulärste Werk des Berliner Künstlers Carsten Nicolai. Er hat für die Realisation dieser Installation mit Wissenschaftlern, Architekten und Lasertechnikern zusammengearbeitet. Entstanden ist dabei ein kristallförmiger und begehbarer Körper, dessen Ton- und Lichtspiele unweigerlich den Gedanken an eine unheimliche Begegnung der dritten Art aufkommen lassen.

29. September 2005, 20 Uhr

Hochschule der Künste Bern
Papiermühlestrasse 13, 3000 Bern 22
(Bus Nr. 10 bis Schönburg)

Tags: mediaart

my notes, retro-blogged:

arsenale: not much to say about arsenale. some very strong work - guerillagirls (= feminist art, very much from new york), semiha berksoy (= strong archetypal imagery from this female turkish artist, and i am amazed to find out that she is not a contemporary artist, but in fact she is already dead), cristina garcia rodero (= once the switch to photography is done, her art becomes outrageous), kimsooya (= video shows artist from back standing and looking in 6 different cities) - but as usual the location outdoes the art. simply amazing. some pieces only work because of the grandeur of the rooms they are in and to see them anywhere else later could turn out to be a huge dissapointment.

if you are still planing your trip to biennale, one hint: get to arsenale early, the doors open around 10:00, and head straight to the mariko mori installation. otherwise a line will form very quickly, that may represent up to an hour of wait. and then please report back here how it was, because obviously we did not do that one hour wait.

the art in the irish pavillion in the campo della confrerita is not as strong as last years [except for the bunnies, see img bellow], but the thai show next door at the old monastery chiostro del convento di san francesco della vigna shows some very inspiring, buddhist inspired sculptures by montien booma.

in the afternoon i go to san staë to sign the anti-censorship petition regarding the pipilotti rist show that got closed by the catholic priest. i am pleased to see that some 570 plus people have already signed the petition and also seem to think that this is indeed an act of censorship that needs to be protested.

Tags: art, venice, biennale, catholicchurch

my notes, retro-blogged:

giardini: as we stand in front of the interactive map of venice with the lightsies indicating all the smaller off-events and pavilions two mid-aged american ladies walk past.
one says: oh cool, let’s look at this map.
the other, nah.
the first, but it’s got cool little buttons to push.
the second: you can push cool little buttons later, let’s first go see the REAL stuff now.
from the gesture with her head it becomes clear that she means the big exhibit entitled “the experience of art” with the big name [f]artists, the bacons, the tapies, etc.
in my head i mutter, fucking americans. gotta be careful not to say this out loud these days.
a surprisingly blunt definition of how most americans are according to franziska [who does not usually do stereotypes]: fat, ignorant and very loud.

il gazettino (local newspaper) informs that some swiss office called UFC, an acronym that i never heard before, has protested the recent closure of the pipilotti rist video installation at the san staë church. they hope to re-open it in the next few days. after all there has never been an official statement issued by the catholic church, the exhibit was closed by the local priest. apparently on the door of the church a petition got posted that consequently was signed by tens of visitors protesting the censorship. gotta go see that if i have time.

giardini highlights/lowlights:

highlights:

belgian pavillion: honore d’o (= art can be fun, electrical tubing in unlikely, playful situations and free beer)

french pavillion: anette messager (= superdark, extremly powerful installations, as meditative as it is frightening)

the experience of art: candice breitz (= moviestars cut&pasted into hilarious dialogue)

somewhere else. artists from wales: laura ford (= archaic figures symbolizing the decline of western society) & paul granjon (= sexed robots. they did not have sex while we were there, but it was still brilliant to watch them. when i asked the lady at the desk she said (with one of those eyes up in the air expressions that only women can pull off), it’s totally random, sometimes they are at it all the time. here’s a movie)

lowlights:

swiss pavillion: an embarassement, especially the photographic series by whatever his name was. ugh.

german pavillion: can’t say much about the art because the attendants/performers doing their “this is so contemporary” routine irritated me too much to witness much of it.

american pavillion: ed ruscha (boring)

Tags: art, venice, biennale

oh. i almost forgot. awhile ago i started this list called mistakes by companies in my wiki.

it’s like this: we love the gadgets, but not always the companies that produce them. especially if they behave like apple has in recent years. however i am very forgetful and so i have not really updated the list as much as i would like.

please feel free to add your complaints and companies.

Tags: corportions, critique

[please ignore]

joia.it
INTER - FIORENTINA
la biennale di venezia
ristorante avogaria venezia

Tags: venice, milano,

art-tech-music-video-game-world

b.o.c.: the campfire headphase - i would have never felt so guilty for “finding” an album online and i would hereby promise promise promise that i would buy the vinyl, the cd and the dvd versions as soon as they hit the market. in october. 19th to be more precise. having said that since the album was leaked onto the glorious interweb the temptation may or may not have been simply too big. b.o.c. = TEH EXCELLENCE!!!!!!!!!1 *brainmelt*

the amazing huge pink bunny dropped on the mountaintop - that i first saw [via we-make-money]

eclectic method : we’re not vj’s - eclectic method create videos with a bootlegger feel and they just released their first dvd - available via ninjatune shop. [via beatmixed]

GROW CUBE ver.0 - is a rather cute puzzle game. [via 4rthur]

fingathing: time capsule - only becoz they are one of my favorite bands do i even feature this. but guys. it is so not time for a best-of album yet. keep em fresh tunes coming, monnn.

midaircondo: serenade - a stunning video by a stunning band. gustav comes to mind, but somehow also b.o.c.

ubuweb is back - i actually already linked to ubu this past week [the dj food: raiding the 20th century mix], but it was missie w.’s job to remind me that ubuweb was actually offline this whole summer. well, it’s back, redesigned, and all the great content like the 365 days project, the joseph beuys video we love and much more is available again.

highschool band plays dj shadow’s endtroducing - i love stuff like that. loop based, dj produced music gets picked up by a high school band to be played with like proper instruments and stuff. [via waxy]

papercasting - he he [via blog.ch]

crap - true. but your music is ok.

try^d: public - a new album released, you guessed it, into the public domaine. [via lessig]

and switzerland

pippilotti rist has to close her video installation @ biennale venice - ugh, one of the reasons we are going to the biennale this weekend! swiss video artist pipilotti rist has to close her installation in the san stae church because some catholics objected. this installation belongs to the swiss pavillion at this years biennale in venice.

tweakfest - a good festival is when you don’t understand a word in their concept? these guys want to start the swiss ars electronica. and they certainly already have the lingo down and know how to write pretentious descriptions that could mean anything. and who doesn’t…

tsr archives - tsr, swiss-french tv station, is picking up the lead from bbc creative archive and releasing loads of their material online. [via circle/urs]

Tags: linkdump, albums, art

pipilotti rist has to remove her video installation in the san staë church in venice which is a part of the swiss presence at this years biennale di venezia.
homo sapiens sapiens, the video installation in question, shows among other parts of naked skin a penis [not the image above], so in a way it does not come as such a surprise that these projections to a church ceiling are now contested by the catholic church. can’t have penis in church.

the question remains, why now? why after months of showing it to thousands of visitors?
at any rate the exhibit is now closed. a personal bummer because we are going to venice this coming monday and we would have really liked to see this piece. but as i said i am not really that surprised. i thought this was bound to happen when i first heard about the work.

so far so news.

what surprises me is that this event is totally absent from all the websites of all the envolved parties. there’s nothing online @ pipilottirist.net, BAK [bundesamt für kultur], Pro Helvetia or the biennale.

guys! when will you start using the internet as the medium it can be?
eg. to instantly post reactions, thoughts, explanations in events like this one?

when?????

i also wonder why art and censorship seem to become very much a permanent fixture these days in switzerland? did we suddenly slip back into the 50’s of the last century or sumink? golly gosh.

Tags: art, venice, biennale, catholicchurch, censorship

*** sorry to everyone who might be experiencing problems with my podcast. ***
my isp has started to block throughput for all .mp3 files. they still download, but at a ridiculous rate of 0.1 - 0.2 k/s. needless to say i have to find a new place to host all my older pieceocasts.
meanwhile only the mixes that are listed here are available at a decent bandwidth.
please contact me if you have any ideas on how i can trick my host into believing its not .mp3s where i can host. thanx to sis for offering me 100M!

listen:

download: pieceocast032.mp3
[5:26 | 5 MB | 128kbps]

bush don’t care about people - bush takes responsibility

music borrowed [with all due respect] from:

1. pieceocast intro: a loop from fingathing: reanimno, samples from deadwood s02 e03 and fred, the voice in my computer, says his bit, of course…
2. kayne west remixed: george bush dont like black people [also check:georgebushdontlikeblackpeople.com/

samples borrowed: kayne west, daily show, dubya

the pieceocast can be accessed here:

this will pick up all the mp3’s i link to from my blog.

earlier pieceocasts:

to find the earlier pieceocasts please check this list with links and stuff.

a word about copyleft: [more]

Tags: podcast, music, mp3, djmix