ohhhh markus ….

so there is this Digital & Video Art Fair, 10 shipping containers displaying video art throughout the streets of Chelsea and we decided to give it a try today.

Well, it was rather disappointing, there was only one piece that had an interesting concept by Adad Hannah, recording a setup “freezeframe” of carefully selected scenarios.

the most boring & unprofessional one maybe was from another guy, showing 9-11 video footage interrupted by gay porn every couple of seconds, but without a real plot line. so what?

this is even more depressing due to the fact that a little browsing of myspace reveals truly amazing and talented video artists. for example, check out this guy, a 24year old french who does an amazing job.

well, after this disappointment we had of course immediately go to an extended brunch in a nice french restaurant, with a real nice desert menu. I ordered The Hooker of course, and what can I say, it was great!

After the brunch we went to some kind of real fancy shopping mall (see pictures below), where to my surprise some dancing was going on.

AND there was of course other fancy stuff. most ridiculous and questionable maybe this naked “gay” Jesus porcelain figure, including the crown of thorns and the blood marks. imagine trying to put that kind of figure in a shop window, showing a certain prophet ….

and last not least a super cute dog and a “Rainbow Station” with an unlimited supply of toys for a colorful live …

so today is presidents day, which means looong sleeping and waking up fully recovered

while being in the bathroom/shower I noticed something rather interesting. there are six towels right now for 5 people total and each of them has a different color. so what? well, the average towel color is mostly white, sometimes there is a second color you have, but that 5 people can manage to have 6 different colors is a little funny I guess and tells maybe a lot :). and now you can guess which color is mine

after the shower Attie and Ivor surprised me by having REAL European style bread. I was totally blown away. tasted like home, and the nice thing is, the bakery where its from is just around the corner! of course I HAD to take a picture immediately

Later on I discovered in one of the shops nearby one of the maybe most ridiculous packaging’s ever made. A box full of (very slightly) larger tic tacs and each single one wrapped like a candy, making a LOT of waste. guys, what are thinking by launching a product like this?

so I went to my (more or less) daily Taekwondo training, not really motivated since I was really tired by work. but guess what, after getting my ass kicked (technical wise) by another female high yellow belt my motivation rised to a new level

training is much more fun if you have goal (even if it is as questionable as this one). so training, here I come!

just lost a filling. what a glorious way to end a day.

(and if anyone out there can recommend a good dentist in manhattan let me know)

yeah, thats the name of a karaoke thing going on for the last four years here in a very lovely club, “house of Pianos”, the closest thing to the “flex” in Vienna I have seen so far. We had quite some fun, I can tell enjoy the video with the performance of two of the main people behind karaoke killed the cat.

So let me tell you a little bit about my roommates. There is Ivor, a 3D artist who was an architect before but got bored by it (and did assistant planing of buildings like the Apple Store on Fifth Avenue, which is world famous), his girlfriend Attie, working in fashion and Stephane, a french architect.

just coming back from a 13 month Beijing trip, where he was the project designer for one of the most expensive and tallest construction projects of the world, to be finished in 2008. He was the lead architect for the hotel next to the new media building for the Olympic games 2008 in Beijing, which is the front building on the picture. in fact the two buildings are that extraordinary that there is an exhibition in the MoMa (Museum of Modern Art) which we visited today. And this guy just turned 28, quite impressive, eh?

The funny thing about this exhibition is, that Stephane has never seen it, because on the opening day, he was all the time with Ivor at the buffet, enjoying talks and wine and when he wanted to have a look, the room was already closed. quite congenial guy, eh?

Anyhow, here you can see him in front of the models of the two buildings.

And the guy on the next picture with the irresistible smile is Ivor :)  and afterwards we had of course a very nice something at the MoMa and maybe the best fried rice in town at Sapporo.

This Saturday was quite interesting. Went with Ivor and Attie, my two Asian roommates (born in Hong Kong, moved to Canada when they were little) to a very traditional Dim sum Chinatown place.

And I was blown away. The place was HUGE, with a terrific interior (it’s used for weddings and celebrations, too) and an incredible amount of people. You get an impression on the picture, but in real this place was two times that big, almost as big as a couple of tennis courts.

Dim sum restaurants are places where you are served many small dishes and usually you stay there quite a while, tasting a lot of stuff, like some kind of brunch.

There is a really efficient system in place. Servants with food carts are moving in the area, and if you want something you just stop them, take what you want and get a stamp on your card (the pic shows our card after two hours of tasting frenzy ).

Ivor told me, when big families in Hong Kong are going to a Dim Sum place, they almost need two cards, because they have so many stamps. Sitting there, having a look around with very large families around me, about 95% chinese, I didn’t have any doubt about that.

As for the food itself, it was very very unusual for me, very different from the chinese places I am used to back in europe. The most strange thing I’ve tasted were roasted chicken feet, guess it will take some time, before I give them a second try ;).

The sweet stuff was really good, on the picture you can see a fake carrot, but there was LOTS of other stuff, too.

ok, I have to admit it, I am some kind of wuss when it comes to fighting. I never had any fights with other boys when I was young so sparring class today was a real first timer.

having all this protective gear (helmet, shoes, protectors for your hands) I was chased around like a goldfish by a shark (but sometimes I managed to be the shark, too ;). results: 2 times I got kicked so badly in the stomach that I almost immediately hit the ground and needed to lay there for a couple of minutes before I could stand up again. guess that’s the hard way to learn not to forget your cover ….

sooo I didn’t really like it that much, but its a terrific training for your skills and your technique, so I will continue. next time will be better, I guess

I know I know, there were not THAT many updates in the last time, but I tell you guys, NY is crazy, working, coming home, running to takewondo, enjoying the rest of the day with my fabulous roommates, there is always so much going on.

Yesterday I successfully passed my belt test, having now officially the high yellow belt, which enables me to enter sparring class with real hands on fighting and training. totally looking forward to it!

the following picture was taken a couple of weeks ago on my way to work (when it wasn’t THAT fuc*ing cold outside). this picture is especially dedicated to you, dad, because I know you love the “hogs”

and here are the promised pictures of the music video next to my flat: