break down the educational blockades: school strike 13.9

on my way for a coffee i found myself surrounded by about 8000 students students striking against the degradating conditions of the educational system here in germany, most of them were still in their teens; they took over the streets of east berlin in a move to make their voices heard loud and clear by the several political parties running for the upcoming regional elections...

the reasons for the upheavel can be found in the recent financial cuts for education...a very unclever decision, especially in a country that could always vaunt a very high standard of education among its population...

who made the mistake will now have to sort it out!
after the example given by the french turmoil, the mood in germany seems shifting towards one of unrest and protest.

the students marched chanting passionately things like:


wir sind hier!
wir sind laut!
weil ihr uns die zukunft klaut! ....
(We are here, we are loud, ´coz you are stealing our future!)

or were holding banners with slogans like:


"education is everybody´s right, we are here an we will fight!"

"they might even cut down every flower
but they can´t prevent the spring to come!"

and then they say that youth isnt much politically involved...

check out this little diashow... just some easy snapshots capturing the atmosphere of the demo.

THE SINGAPORE MIRACLE

our artist-friend IEPE presents his miracle-tree at THE SINGAPORE BIENNALE, Sept. 1st - 12th of Nov. 2006

here his current e-mail + pictures:

"after three weeks of talking to an Angsana Tree in Singapore it started raining out of the crone just before the opening of the Singapore Biennale. It is said that the rain of the tree washes away sins, cures diseases and even makes us younger. So we took the test and had a shower last sunday.

This time I could bring the Miracle Team from Berlin with me to Singapore. They worked closely together with local specialists. And then of course there was the help of allround support from Tokyo by Michi 'KO' Ogura, who is an outstanding specialist on metaphysical issues.

Let's cut the crap. Enjoy the photos!

If you are in Singapore go to:

The Singapore Miracle
Angsana tree in front of the Asian Civilisations Museum
@ the Singapore River, Empress Place

best time to visit is between 17:00 and 23:00, you will have a 70% chance that it will rain twice an hour."

street artists caught up in a frenzy

So, if you cant sleep at night just do like the ong crew does in barcelona...meet your mates at a busy cross, but make sure it´s well beyond midnight, then just get it all out... seriously....painting some massive remarkably sinister creature in the middle of a crossroad will certainly do the job ....but when the cops show up dont even think....just run!






well everyone has got their own way to express their art, don´t they...look at banksy for instance, he probably felt his subversive nature calling him as well lately...sabotage is one of the best recipes when you feel in a prankish mood...in fact just a few days ago he posted a nice little video on the net for all of us to see...dedicated to all those paris hilton fans and victims, even though I have to say, I dont really know any of them...


talking about banksy...did you ever hear an interview with him? well, it´s about time.... there you go

soni riot at tentstaion

audiovisual live performance in Tentstation pool

Tentstation is a camping site in the midst of berlin standing for urban camping


Soni riot is revenge against popculture
a combination of visuals and modern electronic music as an answer to the high tech and beautiful world praised by the sphere of advertisement. she resists unrelentingly against the consolidation of institutional power within humanity and acts as pacemaker for the collapsing we-want-it-now generation.

Friday 0809206
starts: 22.00h

drinks will be served at the 5meter bar


audiovisuelle live-performance im
Tentstation pool

tentstation ist ein campingplatz mitten in berlin und
steht für urbanes campen

soni riot ist die rache an der popkultur.
eine kombination aus visuals und moderner electronikmusik als antwort auf die in der werbung angepriesene schöne neue high-tech welt. unbeugsam streubt sie sich gegen die gleichschaltung der menschheit und agiert als herzschrittmacher der kollabierten spaßgesellschaft.

freitag 0809206
Beginn: 22.00h

drinks an der 5meter bar

end of the summer concert...

many many thanks to all of you who helped me to organise my farewell party here in Platoon on sunday the 26th august....it was truly amazing to have you here....i know i was a bit too hectic, constantly jumping up and down, trying to tie up loose ends ...but that was all part of it. i mean, part of this holistic event, to which so many of you contributed, in the name of friendship and a cheerful love, was for playing music unconditionally, without following any scheme of retribution....




i find it important and all of you should know, that it wasn´t just my leaving party from Platoon, (i am in fact still here), it was also Ronny´s birthday, the terrific bela bartok´s mikrokosmos guitarist that, with Nadia (flute), completely spellbound the audience sitting under a gentle rain; we hope to see more of your eclectic duo in the future...















Ronny also had to improvise as the role of sound engineer for the rest of the bands, since the original one had hurt his back. How would we have done it without you, man?

































Bettina and Jessie´s leaving party from their berlin headquarters was also another good reason to throw a party... in fact they left straight after for the u.s and were then heading to salerno where they will be staying for a while - enjoy the amalfi coast my dears and cheers again for the good vibes. lets not forget Bettina´s burgers..they really hit the spot!





























well at this point i want to give a special thanks to Toby (drums) for understanding the profile and family-like atmosphere that we wanted to create for this event and for still playing despite getting soaked, along with his fantastic drum set, by the rain...hope you enjoyed the experience though!
your unconventional rhythm melted just perfectly into the Autonervous performance; as a first debut with this constellation i think you will be blowing up many a stage in the foreseeable future!

























the same goes for DISH, all of them came to rock the stage and you know wha´? they did!





















Holger (drums), Helge (bass) Celli (guitar) were just smiling all the way, groovy man, i saw more then one person in the audience playing their own air-guitars, and that says it all...














Espin (singer) was just getting out of control....he had been the most enthusiastic since i asked him to play....this man is a driving energy...follow him and you´ll get burnt.... after the concert he was so much on fire that he had to jump in our Platoon container-pool....and you all know how freezing it can be these days...i think I heard Tschhhhhh!!! at some point but maybe it was just a "mampe" side efffect!?!










we now have a very special gift from chin chin (street artist) on the Platoon courtyard....it´s such a great work of art! hey chin, Don´t forget to come to this part of town more often when going out for one of your „nightwalks"!
































thetape vs RQM (video)
what to say lads ?, you are just incredible; sometimes when i hear you play i get the shivers.... Luckazs (emcee) was having a rough day...there was a bit of pressure going on since both of them also had to perform at this very underground party (taking place in an actual subway am alex) later on that evening...but I found their performance fitted the whole atmosphere of the day perfectly...sit back ... it´s coffee time...
Robert (beat master) was sitting comfortably with his laptop playing at a mellow volume, creating a sort of cosy effect..lounge exotica..certainly not only music, the effect as a whole was kind of transgressing the boundaries of poetry.
we all very much appreciated you joining us for this occasion.....have fun at your next gig with Jahcoozi in malaysia !!!



















also Anna (soni riot) gave us some subversive flavour by stenciling my "grime barrel" which we used at the very end for the final jam session.
the instrument, which I created especially for the occasion in collaboration with Luis (conceptual artist) and Steffen (Platoon´s buildmaster), actually consists of a shell oil-barrel that i play with a metal scaffolding pipe...it produces low frequency infra waves that one can twist into grime beats, or whatever. it´s really more about the symbolism, for instance the pipe is supposed to be made of coltan....does it ring a bell anyone? It´s everywhere from our mobile phones to satellite antennas...and well, it´s one of the reasons for why there is an ongoing war in congo....






















anyway, the last performance was totally improvised, we jammed acoustic, like old pirates singing in circle around a barrel of rum...RQM rapping his way on a mental quest, Espin following with some very tribal chants, Holger playing a half cut Shell barrel like a possessed madman while Anna stenciled a gloomy "Platoon" on top of it...and me? well i was sweating while blowing beatz into that grimey barrel......cioe´dju know wha´i mean?














someone kept making crazy pictures and showing them to me at the same time...i'm not sure, but i think it was that drmotte dude, I'm really sorry for the lights man (I read your email and I apologies for the poor lighting on stage during the autonervous performance...but then again I think it was very much in tune with the music..mha? bollocks, they where just improvised). but to be totally honest, i was so much into making this thing happening at all that I forgot some of the basics....but you are always welcome to show us the way forward mate!.... we all know how sometimes you are able to throw some parties running fundamentally on love......and that is what we had last Sunday, no?... hope you people still got it...well if you do, keep it close 'coz we´ll exchange it again next time.... for sure...

Marcello

seyran ates. necla kelek.

after having read both books, the “voyage to fire” and “the foreign bride”, i first got a feeling of anger and then one of cluelessness; the perplexity of the intellectual. the allegation against both authors. both books deal with acquaintances with women in Islamic families. and what is most significant, within Turkish-islamic families here in germany. until now it seemed to me a bit like ridge hiking- are you active?, like for instance you talk about it, then it can sound slightly racist and also evoke racism. In this respect, the alibi of interfering with a foreign culture seemed to me as being credible.

so today im reading seyran ates- one of the two authors- who had to leave her job and her lawyer´s office, since the threats at her own person had massively exceeded the bearable.

from today i want to have the audacity to make my outrage public. and it will wipe off my concerns. then the contempt against human right infringements can never be racist.

i absolutely recommend you to read both books. one of them is somehow minted with berlin autobiographical facts, the other contains need-to-know self experiences about the values of islam.
somehow it is not acceptable that we are pushed (or push ourselves) out of this debate.



nachdem ich die beiden bücher die reise zum feuer und die fremde braut gelesen hatte, überkam mich erst wut und dann ratlosigkeit. die ratlosigkeit der intellektuellen. der vorwurf beider autorinnen. beide bücher handeln über den umgang mit frauen in der islamischen familie. und was das wesentlichste ist, in der türkisch-islamischen familie hier in deutschland.
es erschien mir bisher als gratwanderung -wirst du aktiv bzw. redest darüber, dann kann das so leicht rassistisch klingen und auch rassismus wecken. hinzu war mir die entschuldigung sich in eine fremde kultur einzumischen, glaubhaft.

heute nun lese ich dass seyran ates -eine der beiden autorinnen- ihren beruf und ihre anwaltskanzlei aufgegeben hat, da die drohungen an sie das erträgliche mass überschritten haben.

ab heute will ich den mut haben, meine empörung öffentlich zu machen. und sie wird meine bedenken wegwischen, denn die verachtung von menschenrechtsverletzungen kann niemals rassistisch sein.

ich empfehle unbedingt die beiden bücher zu lesen. das
eine ist berlin-autobiografisch geprägt, das andere enthält zu den eigenerfahrungen viel wissenswertes über die werte des islams.
es kann irgendwie nicht sein, dass wir uns vor dieser auseinandersetzung drücken.

marcello´s leaving party

Marcello: PLATOON agent 693, is finally leaving the weinmeister headquarters after 8 months of loyal service in the cultural development squad....all you people don´t want to miss out the opportunity to wish me good luck for my next mission....or at least I hope so....

for this special occasion PLATOON is glad to invite you for a wicked saturday afternoon filled with outrageous music.....





doors will be opening at 15:00 o´clock, weather permitting, and who still wishes to jump for a last time in our container-pool is very welcome to do so....(but dont forget to bring your own towel and an umbrella...just in case.)

entrance will be 2 EUR for members, (all the others will need to become members first) ...as usual we have a strict no dogs, no kids policy...but you know, its for obvious safety reasons.

From 15:00 till 16:30 we´ll be serving some very tasty food, and before the bands take over you might even just chill&chat at the pool side with your mates....




the line up for the day will be the following:


17:00- DISH - raw uplifting rock,


18:00 – theTape vs RQM - punk jazzy hip-hop and electronica


19:00 - Con-Go-On - acoustic grime maschine....Jam!


20:00 – Autonervous Bettina Koster & Jessie Evans with special drummer Toby Dammit...
...sexy electro mixed with a cabaret flavour







hope to see you there...we´re going to get smashed!!!

Marcello

** Well..since it was my leaving party and all of our guest were mostly friends, we decided to let everyone come in for free...so thank you all for staying despite the rain!

dish

"music is a dish best served raw" - coleridge

dish play uplifting rock, they have taste, and are here to satisfy your veracious appetites. a band of professional musicians who, more than anything, want to enjoy every second on stage as if it were their last.
they overflow with energy, bursting at the seams with positive power. they cook up stormy banquet of sounds, served from the heart and ready to be enjoyed. (video)


british singer, espin (the gecko), has lived in berlin since moving from italy in 2004. the band was masterminded and orchestrated by holger, the tight and powerful drummer. giving experience, body and flavour to the band are helge (bass) and celli "the jaguar" (guitar). the sound is original and innovative and at the same time familiar and catchy.