People with big dreams sometimes get lost

Two days after my much beloved friend oneup left this world behind, words still fail me.
Nevertheless I attempted a brief obituary on the hackerspaces.org blog the other day:

Dear all,

as of yesterday afternoon, our fellow hacker, amazingly talented game and graphic designer, and wonderful friend Florian Hufsky aka oneup (aka geeq, aka no_skill) is no longer with us.


Some of you might remember his beautiful game ideas for Super Mario War or Puit Universe, the 72 dpi Army, and Urban Takeover (later ClaimSpotting), but also the work for GRL Vienna and laser tagging, and Planet; or him being spokesperson of the Austrian Pirate Party, founding member of soup.io, just as well as an amazing graphic designer and comics artist,... and I could maybe continue this unordered braindump of a silly attempt to make a list of all the projects he'd been involved in for eternity and a day, but - never will I be able to embrace the sheer endlessness of his very original, both incredibly inspired and inspiring, geek-artistic output.

Metalab has lost one of its most creative hackers, and the world one of its most beautiful minds.

The one quote of his that came to my mind right after we heard the terrible news was, 'When in doubt, do it (you have no chance to survive, make your time)' - and that, I believe, is what held true for all his life.




R.I.P. Florian Hufsky | November 13th, 1986 – December 16th, 2009


While tears choke the words, I have to admit to fail at expressing my deepest sorrow.
Much love and sincerest condolences to all friends and relatives.

And we all go together if one falls down, we talk out loud like you’re still around; and we miss you.

/astera

However, what I probably in fact want to say, is how much I hate myself for missing out way too many opportunities to tell someone so very special how I felt, and what he meant to me, every other time I thought about it.
And if this tragic moment could teach me anything besides the ultimateness of all being, then it should be about awareness, frankness and honesty in all things emotional...

I spent just a very tiny while today on thinking about a little tribute to pay a friend I will be missing for such a long time to come; and maybe forever.

Oneup wrote on August 11th, 2009:

• plant a tree (seriously. plants humans coexist & need each other

And yes, we will. The idea I have is to plant (have planted) a horse chestnut tree, right across the street from Metalab in the smallish park on Friedrich-Schmidt-Platz, by next spring.
Let's make it happen.

The Norwegian Romancier

Let me just quickly share a few records of one of my all-time favorite electronic-avant-garde-experimental Ipecac artists, John Erik Kaada, whose first album I sorta re-rediscovered today, with you, dearest appreciator of fine art and music:

Thank You For Giving Me Your Valuable Time (2001)

Music for Moviebikers (2006)

...and a very, very special collaboration with musical genius Mike Patton,
Romances (2004)



And fortunately, Ipecac is selling all these albums! Give it a listen, go fall in love, and support an awesome label by buying the records [hint, hint]!

xoxox from a very excited
Yours Truly

Wolves of the dark, cold North

The Norwegian trio Ulver (Wolves), signed on Jester & The End Records, has made a long way since their first recorded demo in 1993.

Breaking away from their black metal roots around 2000 after being heavily inspired by Coil, Ulver covered genres like neofolk, avant-garde rock, even chamber music, and today is mostly renowned for experimental music and a handfull of soundtracks.


From the 'black metal era':
Bergtatt (1994)
Nattens Madrigal (1996)

More in an avant-garde direction, they start blending metal with electronic and ambient passages:
Themes from William Blake's The Marriage of Heaven And Hell (1998)

Even more experimental, heavily Coil-inspired, minimal, and first soundtracks:
Perdition City (2000)
Teachings In Silence (EP, consisting of the EPs Silence Teaches You How to Sing & Silencing the Singing; 2002)
Lyckantropen Themes (soundtrack; 2002)
1993-2003 1st Decade in the Machines (2003)

Second decade in the machines - more symphonic approaches and drone:
A Quick Fix of Melancholy (EP; 2003)
Svidd Neger (soundtrack; 2003)
Blood Inside (2005)
CUT WOODeD (a 15min track from Ulver's appearance on WHITEbox by Sunn O))); 2006)
Shadows Of The Sun (2007)

Ulver will be playing at the Mollafestival 2009.

Sir Tralala release show

"Gebt mir ein richtiges Studio und ich geb euch den Wahnsinn."
-- Sir Tralala


On the occasion of a most awesome gig of the amazing Sir Tralala (also to be found here) which, in fact, was his second release party, I acquired a delicious new album which I therefore now happen to have the honor to be able to share with you:

Sir Tralala - Escaping Dystopia (2009)

But since I may also call myself the proud owner of some older tunes of this Carinthian genius, I was tempted to let you have a little insight of his earlier works, and assembled a few additional mp3s to lay at your feet:

The Sir's early years collection

Of course, the only correct action to take at this point (that I expect from you, dearest reader) is to F*ING RUN OUT AND BUY THIS GORGEOUS RECORD!
Yes. Yours Truly said it. Pirates of this world, unite.




Picture on top: Sir Tralala at Fluc Wanne, 07|30|08 by davnull.

Pure breathtaking sorrow

After a blogging pause of almost exactly one full year (not counting my beloved soup, of course), out of a special request I'll add one more post to my music (upload) category, however for this one time not dealing with the new hot shit in terms of noisecore and consortia, but rather some more classic tunes.

YT's quick tip: The following mp3s are best savored alone with a bottle of delicious red wine.


Ludwig van Beethoven (1770 - 1827) - one of the most influential (German) composers of all time. The saddest and possibly most well-known fact about this outstanding character of the Classic - Romantic era is his tinnitus and resulting loss of his hearing during his 30ies. He died at the age of 56, leaving 138 (numbered) opi behind - the last one of these being published 20 full years before his death (besides this, 205 additional composings where discovered, not numbered by the composer).
Out of this wonderful spectrum of some of the best music ever written, surely the 2nd movement (Allegretto) of his Symphony No. 7 in A Major, op. 92 is simply heartbreaking.

Let me therefore provide you with this wonderful piece of art:
Beethoven's Symphony No. 7, performed by the New York Philharmonic, conducted by the great Leonard Bernstein
d/l from mediafire

Also, let me bring the 2nd part of this recording to your ears: his
Symphony No. 1 in C Major, op. 21
d/l from mediafire


Another work I'd consider one of the most important ones, or even more so, its composer who certainly was a main influence in his era and leader of the scene of Romantic composers and musicians, is Johannes Brahms (1833 - 1897) and his 'Ein deutsches Requiem' (A German Requiem) - unlike other missae pro defunctis written to texts from the Lutheran bible (in German), picked by Brahms himself. Of all the requiems I know and ever heard of, this *one* example does not pity the death of the deceased, but tries to alleviate the sorrow and buoy up the bereaved. It is not only from a musical standpoint, but also judging by its theological views, a true masterpiece.

So here it is, Brahms' Ein deutsches Requiem, Philharmonia Chorus & Orchestra, conducted by Otto Klemperer:
d/l from mediafire


In case none of these works made you turn off your stereo drowned in tears or choke by the sheer overwhelmingly breathtaking delight brought to your ears yet, I will now break my secret of the most depressing, eyewatering piece of music ever:
Gustav Mahler's (1860 - 1911) Adagietto (4th movement, 'Sehr langsam') from his arguably most famous piece, the Symphony No. 5 in C-sharp Minor.
If you have ever seen Death in Venice, the 1971 film adaption of Thomas Mann's homonymous book directed by Luchino Visconti, you know what I'm talking about.

Gustav Mahler, Symphony No. 5, New York Philharmonic, conducted (once again) by Leonard Bernstein (and please, please note his unequaled expressiveness in the Adagietto)
d/l from mediafire

If this wasn't all way too sad already, I would've stated I'd go listen to Linkin Park now.

LOL-CV

I just wrote my very own LOL-curriculum vitae today, after being asked to describe my person in one 'longer' sentence. Or what I'm actually doing. Or whatever.
WTF people? You talked to me any longer than 5 min and actually imagine I could describe my life in ONE fucking phrase? LOL. Srsly.


The 50 most relevant facts about Esther Schneeweisz, randomly ordered:

Fact #01: Also known as: Astera / tgfkae (the girl formerly known as Esther) / Miss Snowwhite / Marzipanreeh / esc / Okapi / sweets.
Fact #02: Berliner-by-choice. At least for 50% of the year.
Fact #03: Founder of Team Dirty Chai, a.k.a. TDC, hashtagged #tdcag on Twitter. Taking care of press coverage, story-building, and a Flickr appreciation group.
Fact #04: Creator of several not-so-very wide-spread internet memes, and explaining them by conversions to mathematical formulas.
Fact #05: Never tested biological weapons on fellow teammates. Pretty constantly rickrolling them though, partly by accident.
Fact #06: Industrial designer stuck at the University of Applied Arts Vienna.
Fact #07: Working about 16 hours a day as a troublemaker and -shooter in only one person.
Fact #08: Start-up marketing consultant.
Fact #09: Account manager at a young & dynamic advertising and design agency.
Fact #10: Working on the Soviet Unterzoegersdorf Sector II adventure game (and several other projects for Monochrom).
Fact #11: Addicted to design, tech and aesthetics in general.
Fact #12: Photoshop wizard.
Fact #13: Geeky games concept consultant.
Fact #14: The personified feedback.
Fact #15: Part of the Metalab documentation e1337e.
Fact #16: Part time stylist.
Fact #17: Part-of-part time blogger.
Fact #18: Obsessed with language.
Fact #19: The one and only Suicide Girl riding a golden single speed racer.
Fact #20: Giving vegan cupcake baking workshops.
Fact #21: Involved in waaay too many projects.
Fact #22: Former assistant at the UoAA, institute for design; and studio manager of Kabiljo, Inc.
Fact #23: Has worked on various talks, exhibitions and fashion shows.
Fact #24: Said to be 'the super human motivator. Without black magic'.
Fact #25: Heavy conference crasher.
Fact #26: Currently aiming to incorporate sex, sheepy fluffiness and heavy alcoholic drinks to a robot engineering project.
Fact #27: Still working on an Apple-z life hack. Asked to invent motivation-out-of-the-bottle right afterwards.
Fact #28: Ruby coding n00b.
Fact #29: Easily gathering fancrowds, as, for example, Bunnie the Chumby hacker guy.
Fact #30: Feels attracted by nerds and geeks. Naturally, that is.
Fact #31: Is dating via Twitter only.
Fact #32: Was trying hardest to make peeps think she's emo. Epically failed.
Fact #33: Insulting the one human being on earth she's officially not a fan of by perpetually calling him sensitive.
Fact #34: Addicted to caffeine, as to be found in Club Mate, straight coffee and dirty soy chai mainly.
Fact #35: Can make one hell of a dirty chai latte.
Fact #36: Claims not to have a sleeping disorder, but being trapped in the wrong time zone.
Fact #37: Just about to replace her soul with caffeine and become immortal.
Fact #38: Has found a way to actively dream of ninja games against morphing super-evil killers and fighting them while flying.
Fact #39: Loves lock picking as a substitute for dumbing down with television.
Fact #40: Vinyl collector & 'weird' music addict.
Fact #41: Collector of sick tattoo ideas.
Fact #42: Has the skin tone of Pantone 475 c.
Fact #43: Was told never to have babies. Wouldn't even think about that being an option, anyway.
Fact #44: Said to be a postmodernist. Not confirmed. Yet.
Fact #45: Funnily and/or oddly enough, she's proud of being a geek while getting most het up when being called an artist.
Fact #46: Little Miss cynic herself.
Fact #47: Extreme skills in being cryptic in terms of all communication matters.
Fact #48: Makes noises.
Fact #49: Definitely not able to put her life into one single phrase, no matter in how many characters.
Fact #50: Won the internet on March 10th, 2008 01:49 am.

OMG, meh wantz!!!

Since most of you may've already heard, the amazing Portishead are just about to release their 3rd studio album (finally!), called Third.

You can check out some of the most notable reviews via the album's Wikipedia page links, or google them on blogsearch, so there's not really a need for me to elaborate on it.

The only thing I'm saying is:
It's awesome. Seriously.
I heart it.

Therefore, I provide you with a Mediafire d/l-link to the album even prior to its release - of course not to pirate it, but to give the whole thing a listen & agree with me that Third is one of the best albums to be released (so far) this year!
So if you like it, go buy it.


Also, talking about going crazy for records: There's a preorder for the Third limited edition box set, yay!


If ever I wished to put something on a wishlist - this box would definitely be on the very top of it! <3
Unfortunately, my birthday's only in late October, so I may not find someone to give a present like that to me...

Besides, I posted the YouTube video of Machine Gun, the - already released - 12" single featured on Third, on my brand new soup.io account - with which I'm pretty much in love with (the song as well as soup, that is).


In other, completely unrelated news:
I just can't fuckin wait to go back to Berlin for the ph-neutral in May!
And I'm even more excited about going to Los Angeles in early September, hanging out with the most lovely folks/friends/geeks/nerds (who are just about building a new hacker space called LAspace, woohoo!), flying over to San Francisco for monochrom's Arse Elektronika at the end of the month.


Take care!