ohhhh markus ….

so I have been to the famous Madison Square Garden for the current Bjork concert. which was quite good. at the end. after letting us wait for 2 hours, wasting our time with two terrible bands. One thing catched my eye during the performance. An interactive touchscreen based soundgenerator, known as ReacTable. Was quite fascinating to watch, especially the generated sound was really bizarre. good job on this one.

oh and Madison Square Garden stinks as a concert venue. Terrible acoustics. This thing was clearly built for sports, thats for sure.

you know you are in NY when you are invited to an Austrian place by three people from Hong Kong ….

usually I refuse to engage in austrian activities, food and friends, because, hey, I am in NY, babe,  so much  other interesting stuff to do. therefore I never set foot in an austrian restaurant till now. but today one of my roommates wanted to go to an austrian/german place (”its octoberfest, lets have some beer!”) and so I joined them. The food was rather strange and not really authentic. e.g. if you serve this kind of Gulasch in an austrian place you will get very surprised looks. Also the spaetzle were, hmm, like uncooked noodles and kinda strange. Probably the biggest surprise was the Jaegerschnitzel, which was served as a Wiener Schnitzel with an extra can of mushroom sauce (if you are familiar with Austrian cuisine you are now allowed to twitch in pain). But they had at least good beer (so I have been told, don’t drink beer, nonono)

… go to a chemical brothers concert. amazing. terrific. thrilling, brilliant. totally overwhelming. the best visuals I have ever seen. by far. If you ever have the chance to go do it! I rest my case. and my brain.

so there is now the (end of) fashion week and you can see more models on the street than cheap shrimp in Chinatown. Went out with my roommate to have a drink a club nearby but unfortunately they were closed for a private party. ok, so lets seek another destination. this time they didn’t let us in because we had no girls at our side (clever strategy to fill the clubs. unfortunate for us).

next destination prada store / soho. there was a HUGE VIP party going on and just standing outside was spectactular (inside it might have been too loud anyhow, you could here the bass drums three(!) blocks away through traffic). Its hard even in NY to spot THAT many trophy wives and models (in most cases the same) at one single spot. Anyone who dared to appear there in a size 4 dress looked kinda fat there compared to the rest. So I stood there, enjoyed the view and after watching some drama and lots of air kisses (”cu in milan”) went on to continue our walk, without a real destination in mind.

Until we passed an After Party and this time it was fuc*ing showtime. It was like being in the middle of the movie Zoolander. I am used to quite some stuff, but they just blew me away with their outfits and (perfect) gender play. After watching some drama with the security (”Don’t let anyone in, no matter what, its too packed” - “but they are my friends” - “I don’t care”) we managed to sneak in somehow when the security look away. And had quite a nice time

After a while we decided to sit down on a bench between a couple of girls and I started to have a written conversation after seconds. Written? yes, because to my surprise the girls next to me could only “speak” sign language so I had my first real “live chat” in a club

We talked for quite a while (about 10 pages or so), the nicest line probably the one where she asked if she doesn’t take away too much time from my date. date? yeah with the guy next to me. what a compliment

anyhow after a while the girl next to stephane said they are going to her place and if we want to join for a drink. and guess what….

… they are super nice people. She is musician, with a passport that FULL of stamps she had to get a new one (and no, she wasn’t bragging about it. uhh. the old one was laying on her kitchen table next to a bunch of stuff.).

but the real coincidence is, they are living across our street approx. 40feet away. guess who is having BBQ next week? ….

One of the reason NY is quite interesting are the many performance taking place here all the time. This time I had the opportunity to witness something rather unusual - Japanese “Rakugo”, a form of storytelling that is over 400 years old and only performed in Japan (in japanese). This version was a translated show, done by a Rakugo Master who performed in over 31 countries. And there was more, too, like Taiko (”drumming”), SHishimai (”Lion Dance”), Daikagura (”Traditional Clowning”, parts of it jawdroping juggling) and Shamisen Mandan (”Musical Storytelling”). The last one was kinda hart to listen to, but judge yourself. Here are some videos ….

Rakugo (”Sit-Down Comedy”):

Daikagura (”Traditional Clowning”):

Shamisan Mandan (”Musical Storytelling”)

Take two guys in the office talking about things they want to do, shake it, add some energy and balls to it and bingo! you have some nice action going on. in this case we organized a tandem-skydive at Skydive the Ranch for a small group of people. Of course some chipped out last minute but others joined instead, so we were a total of 7 guys(&gals) jumping. Since it was Labour day weekend, we decided to leave extra early with the result that we were almost 2 hours too early! What to do? hmmm, great idea! we have a BIG breakfast before the tandem jump. yeah! Well, after several heavy dishes and other stuff we weren’t quite that sure that that was a fabulous idea, but hey, we are young (and stupid).

The skydive itself was quite an experience with 60 seconds of freefall. Unfortunately the battery of my SLR died, so there aren’t that many pics of the event (and I even got a spare one charged. but forgot it at home. guess I have to hit my head with a (rubber) hammer (again). Thou shall not forgot a spare battery.)

Luckily Jason and Dexter took terrific pics. Just click on their names to view them.

Luckily, too, you could buy a video of your jump. In this case an additional camera guy jumps with you, takes stills and video footage of your jump and you can get your DVD about 20 minutes after your landing. good workflow :).

But there is a drawback. The quality of the video depends strongly on who your camera guy is and who edits the video (some had a really crappy video and others quite magnificent ones. I was kinda lucky. And I have a nose the size of a melon when I skydive.). But enough said. Enjoy!

here is the more extreme and RAW version. taken with my wristcam during jump, has quite a unique look, love it!