Medieval cathedral of Strasbourg

        Strasbourg astronomical clock L'horloge de trois rois, was being build from 1352 till 1354

Trip to medieval Strasbourg and its cathedral of notre dam. Dark-amazing church art pieces in various stages of decay- prevention. Smoky-black-oppressive interior; on entering one feels time-machined into the 14th century.

Amsterdam airport urinal-art

Took off today on a 2 month trip to Europe. Fast flight to Amsterdam, strong jet stream, lots of turbulence. After cruising all the cheese displays during transit, connecting flight to Stuttgart Germany 2 hours later. See more urinals 

Nicopuncture

In the meantime I went to some acupuncture sessions targeted on quitting smoking.

It helped, it calmed me down and took my cravings. 

Physically I'm okay, mentally it's pretty often cold turkey.

It's a hell of an addiction. My mind still cries for nicotine pretty regularly.

I'm without Nicotine for a week now, my longest period in the past 20 years.

Many times I'm all edgy, nervous, unfocused; every other thought a cigarette. It stucks f..king deep.

Nicoquit

First day without nicotine, after the last attempt, which was about ten years ago.

This time it has to be a serious attempt...otherwise i'll be finally coughing out my lungs.

see u in heaven - in memory of Christoph de Temple

This is for you Christoph. Roof top installation of "see u in heaven"at Bush/Leavenworth in San Francisco. This piece is part of the   NIESATT outdoors project an ephemeral environmental interaction project.

" see u in heaven" (unvollendete Weissausmischung) is a series of 46 drawings in ink on lettersize paper. This series is dedicated to the sudden passing away of an old friend at the age of 46. We were very close in our twenties, went to the Roedel art school together in Mannheim and shared in the late 80's an art studio in Berlin, Germany. We did a lot of crazy stuff together.

for more information check out the "see u in heaven" memorial or 

Christoph de Temple Malerei

Sal Garcia talking Enrique Chagoya

Opening night of Enrique Chagoya's "Borderlandia" at the Berkeley art museum.

Artist Sal Garcia gave me a brief, personal statement about one of Chagoya's paintings, which are on view at the Berkeley art museum from February 13 to May 18, 2008. The first major museum retrospective of the work of Mexico-born, San Francisco based artist Enrique Chagoya. Chagoya’s subject matter draws on his personal history and reflects his abiding interest in the complex, overlapping cultural histories of Mexico and the United States.

Mickey Mouse meets Aztec gods....

Victor Martinez, Enrique Chagoya, Sal Garcia

Urban Hummers

Urban hummers

Living in downtown San Francisco an environment of bricks, concrete and asphalt one would not expect hummingbirds, bulleting fiercely through those manmade gorges up into the steel blue sky. Impressed by these little daredevils we decided to get a feeder maybe they show up at our house too.

My wife and I went to Brownies our local hardware store to see if they had feeders for the hummers. They did and we got one. We attached it on the ladder of the fire escape right in front of our living room window and waited and we waited.

We remained looking for them for three or four weeks until the first one showed up. We got a book on North American hummers, to find out what kind of Kolibris are visiting the feeder. Hmm, it wasn’t that easy and still we don’t know for sure, but we think it must be Anna’s. First they showed up kind of reluctantly, but once they new the feeder was reliable they came and are still coming. By now, especially when the weather is rough and rainy, we get a lot of traffic. I compare it to the German Autobahn, where people drive quite offensive as if they would be on a race track, assuming their are no speed limitations. Well, the airspace in front of our window has no limitations they speed up as much as they are capable of, they fight each other, chase each other, they flash, chip and shit ferociously defending the precious food source. It’s a thrill to watch those tiny tough guys fighting, feeding, humming and perching. What an uplifting experience to have them around in the urban jungle.

Calcutta

I recently got to see Louis Malle's 1968 documentary on Calcutta. This film is a side product of his documentary phantom india, a timeless masterpiece about our human species caught in an endless cycle of life and death. Watching it brought all those memories back, when I was traveling in India in the mid-eighties, always having this weird sensation as if death would grab my shoulders everywhere I went in a country of most extreme contrasts.