TRAVEL DIARY

A weblog regularly updated by Jodi Rose.

Sunday, November 4, 2007

1:46 PM
Posted by jodi rose

...where was I??

unraveling, untangling words threads moments.

into something... more finite, composed?

too many ellipses.

today is my day off. really.
sometimes even artists have them you know ;)
well, that's the plan. but here I am again, typing.

It goes like this:
......... ~~~~~~~ ...... ~~~~ ........... ~~~~~ ..~~ .~ ...... ~~~~

That's the particle | wave dance for you.

Spontaneously invented by the very wonderful Tautvydas at the Pixelache opening party for our Particle | Wave radio playground at Muu Bar in Helsinki a few years ago. Sophea and I - rapid deployment disco dance activists from way back - looked at each other in amazement before joining in: 'you do the particle .... you do the wave ~~~' and dragging half the bar up with us.

So, this is all part of the strategy. One of my new friends - and there are so many of them these days, I'm so not German. Apparently the phrase for 'making friends' auf deutsche is to 'win friends' and it's a serious endeavour, not to be taken lightly, best restricted to only one or two people in a lifetime. Unlike my profligate attitude to friendship, where the warmth and care of a vast banquet of people is deeply reciprocated and tendered, across time and oceans, evolving into whatever form and shape most suits the flow of energy between us.

Anyway, as I was saying before going off on that little tangent - Paul suggested an ingenious way of tackling all the material from this extensive travel archive, and creating a red line through it by a. not going off on tangents all the time. ie: focusing. which I am evidently terrible at, see above. and b. rewriting each bridge trip and experience with the perspective and hindsight of where I am now, to create an engaging narrative for people who might get lost in all the wafty minutiae of the jodi freeform experience. that could be a great band name. next gig.

He said, there's magic here, don't let it slip away.

So, in between dreaming of compositions in the gold leaves still fluttering on the sparse branches outside my window, and immersing myself in every strange sound that ventures across my ears... now I am trying to find some measure of measure of cohesion to all this. Past and present. Wrap it all our strenght and sweetness up into a ball and tear our pleasures with rough strife...

Yes, sometimes the metaphysical poets are where it's at.

Anyway, last night's activities included a visit to Gordon Monahan's Fuzzy Farm, after years on that mailing list I finally was in the right place at the right time to experience the kooky kitschy insanity of this decadent hideaway at the back of the Prater Beergarden (the oldest in Berlin, since 1857 or thereabouts). Complete with world-famous Theremin player, Miss Dorit Chrysler who did a gorgeous smoky lounge singer act along with her playing. Still one of my favourite instruments, although hard to see more than a brief flicker of her wrist above the craning heads of so many retro-stylin' hipsters scrambling into the tiny area in front of the stage to get a better view. That was preceded by a trip to the United Nations Plaza for a discussion about radio practice that never really took flight, the many participants being all a little tongue-tied and somewhat disengaged with the questioning style of the facilitator, so it wasn't really ever a conversation. All of which made me realise what a spectacular moment sophea and I managed to achieve with our wonderful 25 radio makers in Helsinki in 2005, creating space and time for people to engage and interact together, which led to richly varied spontaneous events - radio and otherwise. Calling in with vignettes from the streets around the railway station; deconstructing the radio studio; broadcasting live from the artist's party on suomenlinna island - while cooking for 100 people - and retiring to the listening lounge at Laasipalaatsi in between. The self-organised picnic at the Sibelius monument is one of my favourite memories from that weekend, all the official program completed, everyone relaxed, chatting and devising new projects while sticking their heads into the 2-10 foot carved metal pipes on the cliff, to hear the wind play them.

So, now, where was I going with all this? No idea.

Two of my favourite people in the world are here right now - well not in the room, but in the city - Mari and Mika, who I met on my first trip to Helsinki in 2002. Through the extremely inspiring and dedicated global media networker, John Hopkins, who is also in town and made up our quartet for the fuzzy love experience last night. Which isn't nearly as debauched as it sounds, really ;) Anyway, it's so delicious having them here, there is something incredibly inspiring and grounding about spending time with people who have such a great perspective on life, and unique mix of thoughtful and joyful worldview.
Who also turn up on your door at midday with champagne! Almost time to meet again for our sortie around Treptower Park market, and then maybe Kulturhaus Bethanien.

Time to coalesce my thoughts into some form of art propaganda now.
Listening to Leafcutter John, The Forest and the Sea on high rotation. Something about his voice helps me drift off into that lovely abstract space I need to find for creatively word formations. Sentences. See what I mean. 'Slow down, you're always moving way to fast.' Mmmm.