schnoidlblog

sent a semi-pissy email to the manager where I DJ sometimes, and wasn’t sure if he’d tell me to fuck off, or if it would get his attention. Latter: he paid me ok for Friday, and gave me two slots for Sept and two more for October, which is one or two less than i had hoped for but at this point i am kind of over caring. I’d generally rather be playing than not, even if most people there don’t seem to give a shit. Free beer, free time to experiment with combinations of tracks.

will go to Berghain twice this weekend; my favorite DJ, Surgeon, is there for a rare appearance Friday, first I’ve seen him there, should be thrilling. Saturday I DJ, then go back again for a friend playing, one of the Berlin originals, should be fine.

looks like I might barely squeak past the August money dregs; am pretty broke right now but my clients are, hopefully, going to catch me before the edge. These quarterly insurance payments are rather the kidney stone, but I guess one big jump is better than a monthly crisis.

other than that, fuck, I got nothin. one foot in front of the other. local gym has a 20€ for 8 weeks special, so when the money lands I might go look in the mirror and see what happens. Several of my relatives are tanks, would be fun to buff up a bit.

oh wait, my set from Poland last week is up, turn that shit the fuck up LOUD. Hardly my most ambitious or original ever, but the crowd sure did enjoy it.

one small project led to another and another, and the day actually has something to show for itself. will post a movie once i get it compressed, but i made a long loop that looks like a thicker gooier version of one of my paintings. found another studio yesterday that does digital printing to canvas, and it was cheap and looks so great. why not. I do love my oil paint, but if there’s a way to bring the threshold down so tons of people can take them home, then that is just so fine. and a cool idea for an edition is to do like a 36 frame loop, and let people pick out any frame they like to print. plus they make good bases for taking further, go into the geometry by hand and make finer details.

out of town DJing the next two weekends, so tonight is coming up on the last Berlin summer Saturday of this year. what a lackluster summer for me so far, really pitiful. but here’s hoping for a smooth Monday at visa central, and two great sets the next two weekends…

just got word that the web educational show that i do all the animation for, LabTV, was recently tested a lot in schools, and everybody, teachers, kids, and check-signers, all really love my animation and graphics. Also the check signers say the quality of same just keeps steadily increasing. That makes me warm and fuzzy. The couple I work with has been so good to me, but even so, it’s often a struggle to balance quality with a limited budget. If I think it needs that something extra, I go ahead and do it anyway, and if it’s excessive, i ask for extra money after the fact, which I know comes out of their pocket but hey. The one episode I really went overboard on, Power Harvesting, with one big long 3D section that took forever to render here, got the biggest props. I done good.

and they said it’s gotten some good media too, gonna search out some of that and see if I can print up some copies for the visa folks, anything somebody other than me says is spiffy.

recent episodes have been getting 150,000+ hits. fun to think that many kids are seeing my work.

spent some time today editing the first half of my first visit to Chemnitz. It’s hardly the most polished ever, but it sure sounded good at the time. Give it a turn, and loud is your friend.

Live at Ndorphin, April 10, 2010: Part 1

walking out the house after, phone rings, it’s the accountant I emailed today, we talked about my stuff. apparently it’s not even necessary for visa action that i file German taxes, all i have to do is show him i made enough money last year, he’ll go over my info, and then write a letter to the visa office and sign it, and he says that’s generally enough. I’ll still have to file by the end of the year, but it’s not in the deadline bag for this round. And also, he’ll only charge me 50 for that letter, and sounded like he’d even just let it slide as long as bring him my other biz! Money in my pocket!!

my sister isn’t having any luck finding the folders with my receipts for 09 and 08 though. got half an idea that i should start watching for cheap fares, and try and duck in for a few days and look myself. hell, for what i’d save in postage, I could fill two big duffels and that would be half the airfare right there. could happen. Anybody want to meet for dranks at the steakhouse in Chesterfield Va? Yeah me neither but I don’t know where else to go.

so anyway, that put me in a major expansive mood, and I just went on a very random walk south, smiling like a happy dog. spend it while you got it. thought I would maybe check out this scifi bookstore fuckall downtown from here, but didn’t rush. and timed it perfectly, just as i get 15 feet from the door they’re locking up. meh.

so, go across the street to the corner place i used to go to when i had the first apartment here, and had a nice chat with the lovely I used to crush a-terrrble on, and she might come out to the lounge tomorrow night to check me out. she really wants to go back to Australia (she’s a Berlin native), but is struggling for money and stuff, and tomorrow i am gonna see if i can find her a feng shui frog, the little bit of brass on which i gladly blame most of my luck for pulling off this big chapter. He’s generally delivered for me so far, believe it or don’t. Hope it lights her up, and moreso, i hope it works for her. special people are rare, and I like when we get what we want.

tomorrow, print out all my bank statements, and try to collate them with my past income, and sort out some stuff. accountant goes on vacation on the 25th and if we aren’t done by then, we won’t be.

OMG, what a hilarious short short story

is one of the more annoying things an abstract painter can hear

but these guys just ran with it. starts slow, then has a blast.

and the studio that made that animation is in Germany, though in Stuttgart, not Berlin. gonna give them a hello.

i once promised myself i would become a VJ someday. saw a new friend spinning pixels the other week, and i realized, 10 frame pieces are totally usable, lots of fast edit stuff needs little more. oh to achieve a goal of making two of those a day…hell two a week would be better than I’m doing now. she’s going to teach me the VJ software she uses, Modul8, which I actually own, and I’m gonna teach her some After Effects. and one of these days i will take my laptop for a walk to the other side of the table and jock some video.

fingers crossed, there’s a quad-core mac for sale here on craigslist, which i almost have enough to buy. if my client will advance me something, which is likely, I will be SO in, man i need an upgrade. My cute little white macbook is faster than my old G5, but still, four or so times faster would sure be cool also as well. Plus, I really don’t like taking my only computer out into smoky wet drunk places.

if you haven’t listened to Pink Floyd’s “The Wall” lately, well, one of these days. It used to be my kind of homeopathic remedy for angst (ie exaggerate the symptom), just go in, get black, make a nice cyst of harsh cloudy, and then purge it all, hey, sunny day. I’m not going through it tonight, but i am teasing through it looking for samples for tomorrow, and it’s a little stunning how much genius there is in it. Boggles my mind that humans can wrestle such things out of the void, tru-ly epic.

“how can you have aeny puddeng if you daun’t eat yaer meeaat?!”

had three big jobs breathing down my neck, but all of them say enjoy your weekend, we’ll talk on Monday. off to Chemnitz tomorrow, to meet a ride to the party, in a little burg called Rochlitz, which on the map looks smaller than some shopping malls i’ve been to; here’s hoping all the kids come down from the hills for a good raging night. I play 3-4.30, which is such a sweet slot, everybody will be well ready for a good bangout. Would be nice to spend a little time on Sunday cruising out in the country somewhere, but I’ll probably just end up back on the train.

Hoping to get a trip up to a beach area called Ostsee, everyone seems to pick it as their favorite place to get away. I’m just slightly ahead on cash at the moment, and could easily piss it all away, but I really need a recharge. man do i ever.

met a woman a couple weeks ago, had a few drinks with her last night. she has a BF, so that’s off the table, but she’s great. she’s been DJing for ages, and knows a lot of the DJ world pretty well. I didn’t angle for connections, but her head seemed to keep clicking on things i could do to move my career along, so that is most welcome. We are talking about collaborating on a few tracks together, which i would really dig. Told her she can have the money, I just want to get some bookings and nudge this damn thing off the blocks already. She has a great laugh, mouth wide open, uninhibited, and a mischievous glint in her eye. Good people.

Still waiting on the big check from my other US client. It was promised to her many weeks ago, but the foundation is shuffling her around. She has contracts, they said they’d give it up, so hopefully they don’t try to dodge. Was kind of counting on it. Was also thinking of going to see her in France end of month/early June, would be a nice break, but that’s up in the air, she might not even get to go. She was hoping for a biggish inheritance from her prick dad, but it looks like he’ll be spending that on care for his miserable life, which might not be ending as soon as we’d hoped. She is a very warm and generous person, so kind, works hard and takes care of people around her, but the universe keeps playing with her, like a cat and yarn. That shit gets so old. CEO of BP ought to be roasting over burning blobs of oil, but he’s probably up to his neck in hookers. Meanwhile, good decent people have to cling hard to faint hope that their whole world won’t be swept away like so much dust.

And again I ask, who the fuck writes this shit.

People, send some golden light to Monique, half hour north of Baltimore, over by the reservoir, look for the horses. Maybe out in the nice garden she made.

new mix up, Bubbledune, hastily tossed together to court this lounge i want to spin at, mellow bubbly house, nice and breezy, 45 minutes.

go to Amazon, get the mp3 of “Hurt” from Johnny Cash’s American IV

put this in your speakers, my new dancefloor mix, nice and groovy. World, meet Swirlescent, 45 tracks in 64 minutes, waving like a thick flag in a big wind.

and i am off to DJ in an hour so, don’t go on until 4am, will be nice if there’s anyone there to play for. a couple people said they might just try to get to sleep early and go before work. What a great way to start your Tuesday work day that would be, hope somebody comes smiling through the door, ready to pump!!