My new ride...

... and my new pride =)

For past three years I've been wobbling my way around Basel with this very charming but ah so unpractical antique bicycle from some golden year of fiftie's. It has three gears, green color and lots of character but also very very warped body, so everytime I would pick up some speed it would start to shake and wobble. Not very safe. Somehow it seemed to get worse and worse, so now I decided it was time for a change.

In Ricardo.ch, the swiss online auction (like eBay), I saw this pretty basic bicycle whose name actually caught my eye. - Thought it would be cool to ride around with a "Postcard". And it had some yellow color. Happy bike.

My Postcard =)

So I bid on it and got it finally for 100chf. We went to pick it up the very day the auction ended. For these past couple of days I've been really happy about my investment. I didn't see or test it before I bought it, but somehow everything seems to work pretty much as good as possible. It runs very soft and smooth, and most importantly, straight and all the 21 gears click like a dream.

So, since it's springtime and the season of getting active and on the move again, I have finally the ride that brings me happily and more safe to my destination.

Boxeo

My last entry, with blooming flowers and all, was bit more romantic than this one =).

Anyhow, last weekend I had A brand new experience. I was was doing the light for Sound and Light Pool on a boxing event, Boxeo. The lobby of Airport Hotel Basel was jam-packed with nearly 500 spectators who were all cheering for the local heroes punching the opponents in the nose.

I've never experienced anything of such in real life before. Of course I've seen the Rocky movies and some Muhammed Ali stuff in tv, but this was in a way even more brutal than in the telly. I personally find it hard to imagine that someone would voluntarily climb up to the ring to get his/hers ass kicked, but then again, I guess the whole point actually rather is kicking someone else's butt. Doesn't always happen though, as I quite literally witnessed when, instead of hanging in there for scheduled 6 rounds, a boxer goes down in 2:25.

The last professional heavy-weight fight.

The popularity of the event somehow surprised me. It was already sold out well before the start. And the amount of finely dressed ladies in their diamond jewellery and sipping champagne actually blew me away the most. Perhaps boxing is after all a sport for the cream of the society. I rather enjoyed more the tricks of the magician who performed between the fights. But to live is to learn... =)

The Local Hero Arnold "The Cobra" Djergjaj
bringing it down for Hungarian Norbert Sallai

Spring flowers blooming again

It's amazingly beautiful again. No need to say more:

New projects to take up on

It seems that I have pretty much time to kill, unfortunately. It's gonna be relatively slow on the work front this month, or at least so it looks like, until now.

I do have also a 2000 pcs puzzle, but I think I'm going to save it still for later and grab my very first real novel written in German. - Because I don't count the the adventures of the little tiger and little bear in "Wie schön ist Panama" by Janosch to this category. Sorry J!

So the very first is this minuscule edition of "Die 13 1/2 leben des Käpt'n Blaubär" by Walter Moers, which was very warmly recommended to me. - Obviously some friends of mine have pretty high expectations of my language skills, but I'm gonna give it a go. Well, one doesn't know until one tries, right? Wish me luck though, when I plonge into the wonderful world of wolperinger, eh?

Updates on the progress follow =) =)

Easy to handle 703 pages...

You are in photos, Jason - Pictures of searching

A handful of photos from my latest production in Berlin.

"Keep on searching for a heart of gold"
by bigNOTWENDIGKEIT.

Breaking the illusion.


"Who is Medea?" Different definitions.


Medea the Paragon.


The ritual. Shamanism. Magié. Myth.


Beautiful in it's death.


"Du machst es gut, Jason!" Dark waters, sea scape.


"Why are the children looking at me in that strange way?"


"I'm your cancer, your misfortune, your downfall..."


The illusion. Magic. Birdie.

Keep on searching for a heart of gold in Berlin

I spent again some three weeks in Berlin. This was a final phase for bigNOTWENDIGKEIT's (BN) project revolving around Medea by Euripides.

It was really nice to work again with Anna and Katharina, the director-duo of BN, and Anna-Katharina and Esther, two actresses whom I also worked with before. I also made some new friends with this project; Sahar, a very nice actress bubbling with positive energy, and Wolfram; a real priceless go-doer in bringing the set elements to life. All in all it was very rewarding to work with this ensemble, somehow we hit it off pretty well. I'm looking forward to take the production to Zürich next month with them.

The approach to this classic text was very controversial. The main goal was not to present the story as such, but perhaps more to look into and study what Medea means or could represent to us and today's society. And the outcome was something more or less new. Like Stefan Rusconi, a jazz-musicial and cultural advisor, says in his cultural tips in "Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg"-tv:
"Es ist Dialog. Es ist Pop. Es ist Pantomime. Es hat Geschwindigkeit, aber auch Ruhe und das ist ein interessantes Potpourri. Ich denke das ist ein sehr sehenswertes Stück." (yeah, we made it to the telly=)

We performed on three evenings on the Hochzeitsaal in Sophiensaele and the audience was sort of plenty and quite appreciated our interpretation. All I heard afterwards was pretty positive. That's cool, since also I liked how it turned out to be. I'm quite happy about how my Medea looks at times very intimate, warm and golden, in contrast to all the horrible things they say about killing, hatred and revenge. And from the other angle, it opens up and shows all the building blocks and intestines of the production down to very last detail. - I'll post some photos later on for you to see.

Sophiensaele was a straightforward no-BS place to work and our designated technician Nicolina very nice. Technically the biggest downfall was the light console, the old war-horse MA Lightcommander 24, who had seriously seen better days, but in the end I managed to surpass the potholes of it's failing mechanics. To live is to learn, even if it's to trick the machine =)

If you missed us this time around, there will be chance to check our adaptation out in May in Fabrik Theater in Zürich (more info here). And in the end of June we'll be back in Berlin again, on stage at Theaterdiscounter on the last weekend of the month. Come to have a look if you're around!

I had also a chance to meet some friends in Berlin, which is always great. This was first time that sound designer and musician Niki Neecke participated in BN production. Niki is my old friend from Mnemopark era, so it was cool to collaborate with him again (and also to have a chance to crash on his couch fo the duration, thanx!). And once more, there was my dear friend Julia, with whom I overdosed on sushi couple of times. I also had a chance to attend to this great party thrown by a cool director Stefan Kaegi (the director of Mnemopark), where I made some new friends and met couple of ones that I hadn't seen in longest time.

It's funny how Berlin starts to feel somehow like home by now. I definately don't feel like tourist there anymore, no any kind of feeling of being compelled to run to see the Brandenburg gate or such. And I guess that I know more people in Berlin by now, than I do in Helsinki or Basel. I could definately picture myself living there. Why not...

So, Berlin, I'm glad that I visited and I'm always willing to come back to your groove! Though next time you could provide a bit better weather and exit 8-D! (Exit meaning the minor 5 hours delay with Easyjet on not so groovy Schönenfeld airport.)