The Mostest Gibberishest - Tumblr Posts

It's been a little quiet, but a lot is on outside this fabulous network. Not to bore anyone, I just now got my head "back in the game", a little. I thankfully welcome all new followers. Some of you do not use the ask box, so consider yourselves greeted as of reading these lines. I've also decided to start writing. Nothing original, just stuff that's been lying around, thoughts and longer elaborations, for which I'll be setting up another blog, in time, or maybe not (since a lot is on), but most probably.

Some serenity above, "hope you dig".

Meet Mr Asphalts

Got a little roughed up this Tuesday when I had a little run in with the tarmac after breaking my bike chain in a futile attempt to accelerate past a yellow traffic light. I'll spare you the grizzly parts. The camera survived, but it'll be at least another week until I'll hobble to the lab for new film and/or developments, I guess. I, also, might miss a lot of your posts out there. Sorry for that. I'll try and catch up later.

Split IV

The end of the BW roll and one of my favourites. By now, some more people have decided to check out my attempts at photography and I, once more, would like to take the opportunity to thank all followers, new and old. I appreciate you taking time out of your life to look at some stuff a more or less obscure guy from the other end of the world puts online for no apparent reason. You make it worth my while.

Hm... mayhap a bit corny to reblog myself, but 'tis 'the season' and so far Bonn did not get any snow.

I guess what I'm doing here is wish everyone merry Christmas / happy holidays or whatever it is you kids do, nowadays... Chances are I'll be off until next year, so happy New Year's to those inclined to celebrate. I'll flee the country but hopefully be back with some nice pictures.

Catch you on the flipside! And for redundancy's sake:

We’ll be setting a westerly course, plunging into the wilderness. (Paul Auster)

(I hope by now you've figured out when to smile at these random lines of mine.)

[...] oh man, I keep on not posting, or logging in even.... I'm very sorry... I hope to catch on to all my favourites' posts soon. Might be a while, though, before I upload sth new. I have no idea. I just stopped one day and didn't feel the urge to continue as of yet.

I thank everyone that decided/s to stick it out or to even follow, especially in a 'tide of ebb', since there will be new pics up at some point, I think.

Have a blast!

Heya folks!

Skimming through the archive over here and I recognised that I used to write more gibberish in the past and that I might like to catch up with that habit. I never did vaguely hint at anything about the past months’ posting habits or rather lack thereof. Although the cards might have been laid out in plain sight. It’s a thoroughly established (and therefore annoyingly boring) narrative of time as a resource and compromises as to how to spend it. It actually took me getting sick with a summer flu to get me posting again. Money for film has also been short and, without meaning to get into any discussion about merits of different kind of media, I myself just can’t seem to conjure up the same enthusiasm for my digital output. The reason, that a lot of it surfaces here, might actually just be that the digital camera is really extraordinarily handy and I do shoot more (than I would film - only 12 shots to a roll in medium format) and, thus, have more to choose from, if that makes any sense. So things peter out... I strongly hope to keep up this now rediscovered affection for the photographs and whatnot, but as it is now it is expressive of nothing more than the inclination and the hope itself. I have, also, missed a lot of y’all’s posts. I did my best trying to catch up, but there’s a definite limit to my capabilities....

Boy, what a wreck of a post, I love it.

Let me also, real quick, just extend a welcome to everybody new to whatever I think I do here. 

In lieu of pictures...

So here's what I think of Bratislava [even though you were pretty sure you never asked this dude]. But because I haven't the money the rolls of film are sitting here overwhelmingly undeveloped. [The jpg above is the first InstaX try to photograph me at a wedding for an album of all the guests and symbolises the lack of images pretty accurately.]

Bratislava, anyhow, was surprisingly normal in the best way imaginable. Nice people, a lot of history, but ... let me back track a bit. I had half a day to spend in Vienna and made the mistake of not properly planning for that occasion. So I ended up in an uncontrollable mass of tourists and “in your face”, flashy sights, which, admittedly, was to much for me - no fun was to be had from drifting around the Hofburg area with my huge bike. And most people in shops were to hipster for me to discern whether they were actually nice or just “reverse capitalist zen guruing” you into buying their stuff. I want to positively mention the Radlager [the café I ended up spending my time at - only half café though, the other part being an actual bike shop] - saved me from the tourists and my bad mood! My time in Bratislava was longer, quieter, which gave me time to think about this, and even more time was to be had in the meantime: I actually enjoy that the town is a bit on the down low with its history [especially the soviet part]. Most houses look shabbier, not too tourist-attractiony. But this really got me to investigate, find interesting places and meet nice people. [Apart from the people I visited, whom I forever grateful to for their hospitality.] Starting with a place mainly for sheet music where I got not only a free espresso, basically as I walked in the door, but also recommendations for great Slovakian jazz. Or the museums for Arthur Fleischmann and Johann Nepumuk Hummel [I know - I also get giddy over how great their names are], which, though both admittedly very small, not only jointly cost all of 1,50€, but also had to be looked for thouroughly in back alleys, making their discovery something of value, already. I had the good mind [and experience from Vienna] to stay away from anything too touristy, which made the coffee not only cheap, but really good. Let me end on that note, abruptly.

   So here’s something everyone’s sure they did not ask for. I apologise for seizing a photo blog for this and everyone’s entitled to not do any reading or thinking on my behalf. But I'm often having these really weird thoughts and for a while I even had this other blog that no one ever read, ever. So be forewarned that this might not be for anyone... Here goes: Crude ideas relating to donald drumpf and his likes kneaded into sth even cruder. The tone is very conversational. I hope to no large distress.

I started watching Orphan Black and it’s full of scenes of characters playing other characters. Be it a clone impersonating another or even full frontal participating in a staging of some sort. Fully aware that this is by no means the first show to do sth like this it nevertheless got me thinking about impersonating. What might it require, include, entail, etc. And here a hypothesis comes in handy, namely that Drumpf is playing a role, obviously, as politicians often do. You need only look at Hillary to witness how some politicians fail at doing that. Her campaign, to me, often reeks of the ploys to make her seem as someone ‘authentic’ or close to a certain demographic. Let’s just call all of these hot sauce incidents. Her continuous talent to seem out of place, on the other hand, communicates a certain authenticity to me.

As always when confronted with the big stage, I turn to my “Gewährsmann” (to unnecessarily use a somewhat tainted German word for source of information) Stanislawski. Not to confuse anyone with long citations and to make my point a thoroughly vulnerable one, I shall paraphrase. He goes on at great lengths about what separates the ‘real’ from ‘common’, how an actor has to confront the ‘as if’ situations and, instead, really be in the moment. His nemesis is playing roles in an ‘as if’ manner. Playing suffering to impersonate someone that is suffering. Playing pleading for the sake of impersonating someone that is pleading. You get the picture?! In other words, their motivation to act out a certain thing is that it is written in the stage directions. This can be perfectly exemplified by Orphan Black and is a reason to congratulate Tatiana Maslany on her acting chops. Of course, she admits in interviews that certain mannerisms bleed over between clones, but they are distinct. And there is a near perfect opposition between the amateurism of one of the clones on stage in a musical, on one side, and the clones impersonating each other, on the other. Because the clones know, to a certain extend how they feel, because, as Stansislawski implores us you should, they feel it themselves, instead of just playing a role of someone in that situation. Make sense? You could go on at great lengths about this (and someone should, maybe.) How different scenes yield different ‘authenticities’ according to this Stanislawski driven hypthesis. (Use “Ralf Schneider: Grundriß zur kognitiven Theorie der Figurenrezeption am Beispiel des viktorianischen Romans.” as further insight, that’s your term paper right there...)

I hope, at this point, a pattern emerges. Or a question? Even I'm not sure. Well, lets put something more in the mix, still. Consider Steven Colbert’s ingenious pieces on truthiness and, more recently, trumpiness. Mix in John Oliver’s latest video on how the republicans under Drumpf have hijacked the realm of feelings. Actually, if you are indeed reading this (my heartfelt thanks and condolences), take a pause and treat yourself to those. Back? Thanks ;-) 

Could this contain a clue as to the presumed authenticity that Drumpf is supposed to communicate even though he is ... well, more in the spectrum of what the Americans like to call pants of fire? Or what does it tell us that this is perceived as ‘authentic’? Where is the disconnect? The prerequisite? Maybe the only takeaway from this is more bemoaning of what Colin Crouch has dubbed the Post-Democracy. Eventifying (I apologise if that’s not a word) has lead us to this present. All surface, no underneath... Or, maybe, I just shouldn't treat politicians as actors...

Aggravated by this? Calm your a**. ;-)

Now, feel free to tear apart or ignore....

Mishap

seriously, noone will care, but just to be thorough: I was so sure, that I had used the F50 on all the 2018 shots, but I recently came across a picture of myself distinctly holding the F301, so there that is... posts and tags have been updated

I could shout it from the rooftops: I LOVE MEDIUM FORMAT! And, boy!, eversince the Adox desintegrated before my eyes I have been feeling less drawn to pick up a camera at all.

BUT! But I have bought a Flexaret Automat and now even a scanner that does negatives ... so be forewarned, I might just make this posting stuff a steady habit again.

Without further ado: here’s the mostest fan-damn-tasticest shot I took with the Flexaret, right after attaching back to it an improvised lever with which to adjust exposure times. It’s of my parent’s cellar, where my dad keeps all the doodads and whatnots that help a buffoon like me repair a Flexaret. Heart emojis all around!

I keep driveling and I am sorry and, thus, concludes this post. Take care!!!

The dashboard algorithm is straight up weird. I see stuff I already saw several weeks ago, and liked. Where are the new posts of the blogs I’m following. Instead I get spammed with posts of blogs I dont’t follow.

So, if I’ve missed your post or anything ... well, yes I’m a bad tumblr friend and often forget to login and will miss stuff, but this does not help at all ...

I guess, nobody will see this and this is more therapeutic than helpful.

Rant over

[no love for my own shots, at the moment... so only poetry, for now]

I mina tankars flugsurr smyger jag kring med en tidning i handen klatsch! klatsch!

Ha sentimentalitet huru känns det att vara en våt fläck på tapeten? sprattla inte så med benen kärlekssorger klatsch! klatsch! En fet fluga surrar ut genom fönstret.

Henry Parland, ”I mina tankars flugsurr”, i samlingen ”Idealrealisation” (1929)

[In the hum/buzzing of the flight of my thoughts I sneak around with a newspaper in my hand clap! clap!

Ha sentimentality how does it feel to be a wet stain on the wall paper? don’t struggle that much with your legs troubles in love clap! clap! A fat fly buzzes out of my window.]