Since I just started to put pictures on: I think I have to add this one. I took it on my first visit in LA in November 2000, more than five years ago. I know exactely the location. I pass there every morning. The neighborhood of the office where I am working these days.-
silverlake
Since I just started to put pictures on: I think I have to add this one. I took it on my first visit in LA in November 2000, more than five years ago. I know exactely the location. I pass there every morning. The neighborhood of the office where I am working these days. -
MELROSE AVENUEI went to the barber shop today – haircut. I was there once, last time, when I was shopping at Melrose. One of these things: you’ve heard of it in many ways and you just need to get a real live experience to have your own opinion. Because after all I thought it’s not me and doesn’t fit my usual attitude at all. From driving through so far all I was aware of Melrose are all these cafes and restaurants with crowds in front of them waiting for a seat. Not my world, I don’t need a place where it’s chic to wait because it’s on Melrose. Thinking of this now I was running for trends where everybody else does it who feels the desire to be on the spot. I was looking for a shirt, made the turn through some boutiques. And one of them really made it. He put all his charm in selling me a shirt for $90. I finally bought it. I never did that before. it’s out of my budget and imagination. But I have to admit: his arguments were very convincing and it’s by far my best clothing piece. And the best part: I know why. Though despite the outrages price a acknowledged the service very much. When I did all this shopping I passed by this barber shop. I was in need of a haircut, so I stepped in. I thought: well, since I am already here…So today I went back to this very barber at Melrose, an address I wouldn’t even think of normally. But, first it’s not that crazy expensive, kind of reasonable priced. And second, for the second time, I feel like I have a good hair cut. I am not a fashion person at all. So I have no idea what to do with my hairs. And just cut them off or keep them uncut to not worry about it seems to be an excuse. Normally when I went to a barber who is first of all cheap that’s exactly what happens: hairs are just shortened and it’s fine again. So at this shop on Melrose I feel like it’s not only just cut short, but the person who is doing the job puts some more attention to it. Little things, details, but they make the difference when you’re looking in the mirror. I noticed the woman who took care of it today used a special, unusual cutting style for example, one of these details. It just feels good. Someone really thinks about what he or she is doing, is serious about it. And I can be sure a good job was done when I leave this shop. I will go there again next time. Ask me where it is. -
-
Well – I enjoy myself after last working week-end. It’s different, definitely. Only a meeting with the client, but I was surprised about the amount of ambitious work but in that meeting and the professional seriousness about it all. It didn’t happen so often in previous offices, maybe in New York. Don’t assume at anytime about anything it would be easy. Just work hard and take it as serious as if it’s your last chance. Always. Without break. Sometimes it’s exhausting, but generally it’s more motivating and the achievements more satisfying. Expectations can kept high constantly and so the level of quality. I think that makes the difference for a place able to create projects more than average.
Good night, and good luck.
-
late nights
Since I was on my way home late night lately – and it’s an observation I generally made otherwise late nights on the streets of L.A.: you’re passing by places you wouldn’t recognize or notice during the day. Across the office is trader joe’s, a café/cheese shop, a sushi place I think and some other two or three businesses, and a night club. The night club I noticed only when I came out of the office at 2am or so on Wednesday. Before I didn’t know about it. During the day everything is busy, cars passing by, people around, traffic, open busy stores, nothing really interferes or interrupts this usual gentle flowing everyday cloud. So you don’t notice this one closed building in between everything. Late night, the scene changes completely: It’s quite, closed shops, no traffic, no noise…except: this one single location, loud music and voices can be heard from inside, group of people on the sidewalk either for entry or on their smoking break. It’s like an isolated event in the middle of nothing. And when you drive through a street late night: everything is closed, shut down, quite. Except these very few single places, popping up from their daytime cover to put dispersed spots on the scene, almost like incidents. I guess that’s what it characterizes: the diversity. It’s not a concentration somewhere centered, it’s spread all over the city. Like everything in L.A.
-
see time below
just came back from work –
good night, and good luck.
-
keith jarrett
Keith Jarrett – solo, Disney Concert Hall. It was planned a while ago with Susan. For reasons I can’t think about anymore she couldn’t come. So I went with a friend of mine. Although I should have stayed at work, still plenty to do. But I couldn’t resist, my bike with a flat tire and I was offered a ride home, so the evening passed…with amazing performance. Keith Jarrett, a name I had in mind but not much more, I didn’t really know about him except of his acclaimed solo performances. So I didn’t hesitate when I saw an add by chance. And now I know more about this artist. It really seems like all these jazz musicians have their unsteady, everything but straight biographies. Somehow like the music. So is he, Keith Jarrett. Very eccentric on the piano, he moved, got up from his seat, played upright almost dancing to the playing, hum along the music and tapped his foot to it, almost one-to-one with the piano. He never rested. Very intense, only to see his hand running across the keyboard. First half he broke up his improvisations with little pauses, the audience applauding. I felt this was disturbing to the rhythm, the context. Second half was better when he mostly left the breaks and just played, from one improvisation into the next (he mentioned before he started that it’s perfectly fine if someone wants to leave, pointing out the experimental character). I thought that was more expressive. Acclamation didn’t stop after he finished his set (it even started before he played a single note…), he played three extras. That’s when I started to release from current stress and I whished he would have played forever…
-
no time today – working very hard all week-end .
good night, and good luck.
-
Rodney called to say hello. He’s an actor, writer, director, one of all those coming to LA because of the industry. I lived at his house when I just came here. And he is from London with a European accentuated critical opinion, so we came along together pretty good. Just recently he made a movie, independent with no money. He wrote the script which I read. A first edition and revised final edition. I liked the language, very short and precise. And I was interested to see how the balance in the story shifted. It’s about Pete, an aspiring priest living with two roommates, one of them has a cousin, Michael, visiting from England. He’s suffering serious health problems from military service in the gulf war. Pete had a short relationship with a friend who is expecting a baby, Pete could be the father. This part of the story is on a second trail beside Michaels. In the later edition, Pete became more the focus, which I thought was better. The focus on Michael raised political questions which interfered with the other side of the story, the relationships between people. It was like a secondary or temporary issue was in the centre of the story. The final story, and I guess that was the intention, was more about this relationship with Michael’s problems only as part of the entity. Tomorrow, I have to write about the set experience. Now it’s late, I feel tired, working all week-end.
-
Midnight Cowboy
The Talent Given Us
Curb Your Enthusiasm: Season 3: Vol. 2 (2-Disc Series)
Pride and Prejudice
The Memory of a Killer
Where the Truth Lies
Happy Together
North Country
Twist of Faith
Domino
Twin Falls Idaho
The Hours
Chungking Express
Reel Paradise
Grizzly Man
The Best of Youth: Disc 1 (2-Disc Series)
The Best of Youth: Disc 2 (2-Disc Series)
Eros
Cold Mountain
The Good Thief
Secuestro Express
Derrida
The Order: From Cremaster 3
Man on the Train
The Aristocrats
Noi the Albino
Holy Smoke
Northfork
Asylum
Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price
Goodbye Dragon Inn
Into the Blue
Facing Windows
Red Eye
Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress
2046
Camp
I’m Not Scared
Sunset Boulevard
Dark Water
Caterina in the Big City
The Beautiful Country
Solaris
The Ninth Day
The Baxter
Wild at Heart
A Clockwork Orange
DiG!
Raising Victor Vargas
The Godfather
In Praise of Love
Lila Says
Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance
Mississippi Burning
Play Misty for Me
Knife in the Water
The Assassination of Richard Nixon
Happy Endings
Young Torless
Masculin Feminin
The Blair Witch Project
Yes
Unknown Pleasures
In the Mood for Love
Dr. Strangelove
Platform
Heights
Travellers and Magicians
Mad Hot Ballroom
Rize
My Summer of Love
Milwaukee, Minnesota
Modigliani
Me and You and Everyone We Know
The Pianist
Coffee and Cigarettes
Natural Born Killers
Lords of Dogtown
Assisted Living
The Woodsman
Yossi & Jagger
Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song
Broken Wings
L’Avventura
Secrets & Lies
A Talking Picture
Red Lights
My Life to Live
Before Sunset
Once Upon a Time in the Midlands
The River
The Corporation
The Piano
A Woman Is a Woman
The Trials of Henry Kissinger
Il Grido
Breathless
Blow Up
La Notte
Gerry
L’Eclisse
Contempt
Elephant
Downtown 81
Being Julia
Born Into Brothels
Band of Outsiders
Bad Guy
Dear Frankie
Paris, Texas
Fingers
