Afterwork party of thoughts

I am sitting in my flat on a chair and I am listening to Nouvelle Vague's Love will tear us apart for the 150iest time from my laptop on my lap. After coming home I just sat down here and turned on the computer and this song. I didn't even stand up to plug in the cable to my hi-fi, so it's only laptop-speaker quality. To my right stands a large case with my new printer sent over by my company. How long does it already stand there untouched? Today I got a parcel delivered to my neighbor when I was away during the day. The courier left a message for me where to pick it up. I was sure it is my new book, the rules of the game by Neill Strauss. After coming home I went to see my neighbor in the second floor, which I hadn't so far. She is a surprisingly nice girl in her twenties (not sure if I am still in my twenties) and instead of the book she handed me over the ink cartridges for my new printer. They weren't even hidden in a blank box but only wrapped together by a plastic cord. The old printer is still good, don't know why we must have this monster of a cubic meter in volume filling up precious space for used clothes, litter and stuff on my floor. Hey but it seems I can keep the old printer. Already written off. Best one I ever had. Hm, hard to say if I can stand up from here anymore. I am feeling quite comfortable, cozy chair, good music, large printer, what else do you want? All this time that I am sitting here should have been invested in preparation for tomorrow's working day. Every time the song ends and starts again, I think ok let's do something... no. But I rediscovered the blog of my friend Florian, whom I met in Vietnam. He was travelling and got stuck in Saigon, so we used to hang out a bit. We had an incredible night, joining a Vietnamese burial ceremony after coming home from the clubs. He is posting almost every day on his blog. That's why I thought I should write something to you.

A Dusty house

I live in a mess. I don't mean my messy way of life at the moment but literally the place, my parents' house is a big mess. The reason for all the mess is: Dusty, our Labrador dog. At two years of age, he feels himself the center of the world, which for him is our family. It is really hard to just sit on the couch in the living room and read because he thinks that's an invitation for a belly massage for him on the neighboring seat. My parents are still quite strict with his access to the couch but they have given in to most other demands from the dog. So he really does what he wants all day. The mess that I am talking about is not only from his hairs and the dirt he carries on his paws into the house from outside. Clever Dusty immediately realizes when someone has not shut the door to the kitchen entirely. So as soon as people are out of sight, he sneaks into the kitchen and has his very own private party in there with the waste paper and plastic packages, eventually spreading the party and the waste to the living room and beyond. I once managed to catch him red-handed with my cellphone camera.

Agrikulture clip

A brilliant idea for a video clip: reality TV. Put forward by Agrikulture from Jakarta/Indonesia, where else.

Baby-sitting for friends

Ratatat in Munich

Ratatat are not a rock band. They use guitars and they do rock but they couldn't be more different from who is regularly drawing crowds in indie-biased Munich. The crowd at 59:1 sported the usual tight legs and slim scarves and were most probably looking forward to what Wikipedia titles "pathetisch-verträumter elektronischer Glamrock". However, Ratatat's electronic element never reaches the hyper-complexity and is never used as purposeful to build emotional dreamscapes as in the works of electronic scientists like The Notwist. ("Es war dieses weinerliche Zeug, das mir nie richtig gefallen hat." Evan Mast about Dashboard Confessional). Nor do Ratatat display any of the understatement so dearly cultivated by modern indie rock bands, with their melodies reflecting the humble background of gray British industrial towns. Ratatat's music is driven by nothing else than a fat, old hip-hop beat. Curiously, they are much closer to hip-hop than any other genre although their songs consistently lack any vocals. Their affinity towards hip-hop has actually long been obvious, at the latest when they put out their free mixtape where they beefed up tracks by Biggie Smalls or Missy Elliot with "a little" more beat and bassline. Why does all this matter? Because we will dance to hip-hop beats next summer instead of indie rock. Ratatat are rappers in disguise and invite their audience to wear big and baggy again on the dancefloor, at least figuratively. And because they themselves look like indie rockers, people trust them and increasingly accept the invitation. In fact, rumors are that already on a large scale, "common people" from NYC to Frisco are having secret hip-hop jams in their living rooms. And I remember the old-school-parties thrown by my homies, äh friends Beanie-David and Hip-Hop-Steffen having the highest dancers-to-attendees-ratio of all parties in Passau. And to be honest being the most fun of all. Word.

The Brandals at 62,14 miles per hour

This is how we can save the world:

Bringing an end to the lives of cockroaches cruelly

I just came home after a lovely evening with friends bowling and drinking and found a big fat cockroach on my kitchen floor. These nasty little creatures regularly intrude my house, although my landlady already renewed the drainages in kitchen and bathrooms. Cockroaches will outlive us all anyway and then they can have my house and savor all the remaining food in the fridge, surf the net with my laptop and enjoy a bath in my bathtub. However, as long as I have not suffered death from Iran's inevitable nuclear strike (or the US's, the outcome will be equally consequential), I heavily claim the right to purge my home from these idiots. So whenever I see one of them, I immediately bring my RAID Multi-Insect Killer spray and an end to their lives. I have in fact never seen anything more cruel than killing cockroaches with RAID Multi-Insect Killer. It smells like chewing gum but is more poisonous to insects than anything else, killing them within minutes. I recently upgraded my arsenal to include the red RAID Multi-Insect Killer bottle. Before I only had the green one left over from the previous tenant and which is used to kill mosquitos. Its performance on cockroaches was acceptable. However, the red RAID Multi-Insect Killer kills ground insects much faster, in fact it kind of decomposes them. Instead of their legs spread from their body, the legs are now cramped together, like an embryo. Really scary! Sometimes, after coming back to the crime scene a little later, I can see that a leg or a whole part of the animal has fallen off the body, as a result of its last moves. I sometimes have the feeling that using this gas, especially in the kitchen, may not leave the human body unaffected, especially when used in surprisingly huge doses like in my house (but a lot helps a lot, right?). Oh, by the way, I started cooking regularly again. I often have a friend over now and I try to remember all the recipes for what I used to cook during university. If anyone's around, swing by, I treat you a healthy meal! And why not cook yourselves more often again and invite friends over? Nothing better than a good meal cooked by friends for friends. Yummy, Martin.

The Dorques in Saigon

It was still 2007 when the Dorques from Manila hit Saigon, made possible by Rupert/Tuung, who is bored from Vietnamese pop music and incredibly rich and therefore now and again flies in some of these fine underground rock bands that nowadays blossom all over Southeast Asia. Except Vietnam it seems. At any rate, the crowd at the venue was rather surprised that they could not sing along any of the Dorques songs, like they always do when their same band plays every same evening the same covers of the same songs. So I was pretty much the only one that screamed for the Dorques.

myspace.com/thedorques
myspace.com/tuung

Jakarta for me.

The Indo trip is already long over, but there is still one thing I want to share. One of my secret endeavours when I went to Jakarta this time was to find out what in hell it is that fascinates me so much about this city since I first lived there in 2005. After the trip it is now still not possible for me to list the exact formula of the drug Jakarta is to me. The impression is just too blurry. Instead of steam bubbling for pages about a vage idea, I publish this picture, taken from the blog of my good friend Dominik. This is the picture I have in my head when I think of Jakarta. Nothing less. Thanks so much, Dominik.

Bandung.. and Kemang

Yesterday I went to Bandung finally. I spent 100 $ more on clothes and things. Wandering through the streets, I took pictures of the houses I intend to buy when I am an old geezer.






It was quite a hassle in Bandung again browsing through shops and spending money although I found really funny things. Suddenly I felt very tired and I decided to visit my friend Chris' (not stargazer) family also to load off the Vietnamese fish sauce I have been carrying around since Saigon. Surprisingly the Indonesians did not like it so much (the sauce). A reason may be that the overall composition of their already flavoured, grilled or fried meat may be disrupted by the fish sauce's strong own flavour whereas the Vietnamese tenderly cooked, and thinly-sliced meat needs just that little salty extra-kick.


I took the last bus to Jakarta/Pondok Gede from where I took a motobike taxi to a party in Oishisha/Kemang. Tired as I was I just sat, drank Whiskey Soda and watched some dressed up people having fun. Although you could have the impression that everything was show for their cameras and especially for Kiki's camera from i_LOV3GLAM (myspace.com/iloveglam) who regularly publishes her party images online. Btw: The following is not the new coverage video you are all craving for. Merry Christmas!




PS: Oha, now I see that you can hardly see anything on the video. As soon as I am back I try to post a better version where you can see the Christmas tree on the right better.

Home, Tebet, Depok

I did not go to Bandung thanks to a ridiculous 1 1/2 hours delay of my Lufthansa flight from Singapur to Jakarta including the most horrible landing ever. I bet these people will never fly Lufthansa again. I went straight to the house of my friends where I arrived just in time to see their kids before they went to bed. Sitting in the cab I had the same strange feeling I had when I arrived in 2005 for my first longer stay. I have been idealizing this city/country/people so much in the past year that I am afraid of discovering now that all has only been steambubbles in my head.

I spent the first morning playing with the kids which made me forget this night's dream about desk calendars and invitations with incorrect logo and colours. I read from books while they worked together to inflate balloons.



In the afternoon I went to nanonine in Tebet to buy clothes. I spent 120 $ but decided to pick up the stuff tomorrow as I wanted to go on to see the Depok Indie Fest. On my way I decided to get off the cab and spent a lovely hour in Zoe Cafe, buying books and eating a salmon. Unfortunately I could not find the venue so I returned to the city (Depok is on the southern outskirts). In the end I spent three hours on transport for nothing, hungry and tired but satisfied that I can still do and support trips like this.

Please enlarge the picture and read.

Alles ist neu

I live in Saigon now. I was very busy lately so a long time no steambubbles and no coverage. I hope I did not loose contact too much with you, dear audience. Now bubbles start to form again in my head..

Together with stargazer and dottore, a pasta maniac from Venice, I live in lovely casa mille occi. My home is my castle, it was especially so during the first months here when I had some problems feeling comfortable in the new city again. The structure is perfect, allowing three people to easily live together without getting on each others nerves. Instead of going to the city, we most often chill out in the living room or one of the terrasses. These days we also have Pau from Barcelona sleeping on the couch. I found some treats in the streets, like the Honda and the watch. Anyone such a watch? I can easily find one for you in the streets here and send them to you. Only 30 USD! Ah come on, this watch is hot, we all used to wear it when we were kids. Believe me, you all need this watch!

What else? I iron dottore's shirts as he can not do it himself. And this as Dr. Ing.!

coverage guest house presents Sternenstauner

In the near future I will move into a house together with this man. He is a maestro of split screen special effects so he can make cool movies of crap material. He also has a blog named Generation on the move

coverage presents Skating Hanoi

On a very lazy Saturday I assembled the new coverage clip about some young skateboarders in Hanoi, among them someone named Toan. The material was already long lying around on my HD. Enjoy!

..How nice and clean it always looks when a new post is up.. Uuuaah, time to go to Saigon though..

Basic information

After seven weeks I have a daily routine. I get up at quarter to seven and have breakfast and a stroll through my quarter which is busy with people going to work, to school or work out. There is a lake and a temple and soft morning light. School starts at 8.30 but I ususally show up earlier and have tea with my teachers. The scene is dominated by the jovial and charismatic Dr Bảng who is supported by Mrs Hà, Mrs Thù Anh and Mr Bình. They all care much for me and they are very patient and dedicated when explaining me Vietnamese. Although progress is small, the language fascinates me. Learning a tonal language is like discovering the third dimension. They also show me how to worship at a temple and how to cook nêm spring rolls. Often we have lunch together at a cheap food stall. During noon the whole city sleeps. At two I get up and go exploring the city. Or I go swimming at a nearby pool, a shithole says my house mate Gary. Maybe twice a week I meet a girl from the neighbourhood to speak German and Vietnamese. The day gets exciting when my beer-thirsty friends Andreas, Ivo and Axel have finished work. When Axel has finally got permission from his wife, we usually go to a bia hơi beer garden where beers and time fly by so we will probably not go anywhere else that evening. Sometimes we go to a club or bar but most evenings do not end any later than 12 as the party police has still not relaxed their tight regime. Thursday is a highlight when we play football together with some expats and locals, organized by Teamchef Raimund and his Teamcheffin Klara.

Having a routine really helps to feel comfortable. Sometimes I still have to be upset about some flagrant Vietnamese manners but mostly I enjoy. I feel not like moving to Saigon in a month.

Today's lesson

motobike xe máy
stolen mất

Arrgh! Oí!
nervous breakdown đột qụi thần kinh
to curse chửi rủa

last night tôí qua
to forget quên
into vào
house nhà

to cry vi khóc
self-doubt hoài nghi
idiot ngơừi dần
stupid little boy em bè dần dộn
irresponsible vô trách nhiệm

to change sửa lại
lifestyle kiểu sống
less ít hơn
party di chơi
more hơn
responsibility trách nhiệm

to feel like thấy
smashed đàn áp
to ở trên
ground sần

evening buổi tôí
landlady chủ nhà
to bribe mua chuộc
police station sở công an
500.000 VND nam tram nhìn dồng
to bring back trả lại
motobike xe máy

utterly relieved giản đơn quá
bank ngân hàng
repay borrowed money trả tièn cho vay

to knock at door đập cưa
answer trả lời
unclear không hiểu dược
to open mở

landlady chu nhà
lingerie quàn áo lót
utterly embarrassed dau dón quá

5 min later vài phút nua
landlady chủ nhà
to give cho
sweetend yoghurt sữa chưa có đường
to smile cười

coverage video project

People like to have projects nowadays. I feel like starting this video project called coverage. There will be videos of anything worth covering. So no politicians, celebrities and other irritating folks. And you feel free to send in any material or links of videos you feel worth being covered. Thanks, and thank you Raphi for installing all this useful software on my pc. I only have to figure out how to use it hehe. Expect to see Robert de Niro on coverage soon... ah no celebs! Now please see the FIT - Crew stomp the ground in front of the Lenin statue in Hanoi. Maybe this is what we mean when we say credibility. Thanks and big up, FIT!

Breaking news, taken from Hanoi Today, Aug 6, 2007

26-year-old missing in Ba Vi national park

- HN - A 26 years old German is said to be missing in Ba Vi national park, Ha Tay province. His landlady in Hanoi says he left the house on Sunday morning for the hills and has not come back since. Police could only recover his photo camera on a little frequented trail in the forests of Ba Vi. Beside some pictures documenting an obviously fun motobike ride to the hills and stunning panoramas, there is also a videoclip on it.


The scene ressembles footage found in a recovered film camera in 1999 near the small town Blair/Maryland. It was supposedly taken by a group of teenagers who wanted to spot the ominous "Witch of Blair" and eventually disappeared in the forests. They have not reappeared since.

There have been regular reports of dissappearances in the woods around Ba Vi mountain. Locals believe the woods are roamed by the ghost of national hero Ho Chi Minh protecting them from over-curious tourists. They worship Mr Ho in a temple on the mountain top.

The head of the provincial police has ordered an intensive investigation in the forests of Ba Vi which are now closed to visitors due to the incident. The affair has revived talks in the capital about Mr Ho being still alive. Our news service will keep you in the loop about the issue. (MF)


Stunning panoramas during the motobike ride - into a "dead end"?


Mr Ho's temple on the mountain top - is he still out there?

Vietnamesischlehrstunde

Eigentlich sollte hier eine gnadenlose Abrechnung mit den Vietnamesen wie ich sie bisher größtenteils kennengelernt hab, kommen. Ich wollte über die dreist-asoziale Art mit der sie reichen Westlern begegnen und über ihre Geldfixiertheit schreiben. Überhaupt wäre festzustellen gewesen, dass sowas wie Solidarität oder soziales Gewissen, ach die Zivilgesellschaft in Vietnam überhaupt, fast nicht vorhanden sind. Die Leserschaft täuscht sich, wenn sie meint es würde jemand anhalten, wenn eine Schwangere mit Kleinkind auf dem Arm über die Strasse will. Bitte, danke und Hallo sind ungebräuchlich, weil fürs Geschäft unerheblich. Und so fort.


Dann hab ich gestern aber im Leninpark May, ein entzückendes 11 jähriges Mädchen, getroffen und die hat in mir wieder Hoffnung geweckt, dass Vietnamesen doch ganz cool sein können. Ich saß mit meinem Heft auf der Bank und hab mich neuen abartigen Tönen abgeplagt. Die hat sich dann von hinten angeschlichen und angefangen mich über die Schulter zu verbessern. Was für einen Blödsinn ich doch rede und dass man das doch so und so sagen müsse. Soso. Dann hat sie sich neben mich gesetzt und mir aus meinem Heft vorgelesen.


Irgendwann kam dann ein Kumpel von ihr und die beiden haben mich eingeladen, auf der Wiese nach Grashüpfern zu suchen. Man streicht dabei großräumig mit dem Fuß übers Gras und sieht dadurch, wo die Kameraden sind, und dann fängt man sie mit einem beherzten Schnapps, äh also Griff. Und dann entleert man die Hand voll Gras auf meinem aufgeschlagenen Heft und freut sich diebisch, wenn man tatsächlich ein Vieh erwischt hat.


Wahrscheinlich ist hier einfach alles anders aber eben nicht unbedingt schlechter. Man muss sich an die Vietnamesen und Vietnam eben auch erst gewöhnen und nimmt dadurch vieles erstmal sehr negativ war und übersieht die guten Seiten. Klingt zwar nach Binsenweisheit, muss man sich aber trotzdem immer wieder vorsagen. So und jetzt fahr ich ein paar Schwangere über den Haufen!