January 14th/15th, 2010

As you may, Thursdays and Fridays are my weekend, and naturally these are the days I sleep in late getting back all that rest I miss out out on my working days, when I usually don't sleep more than 4-5 hours per night.

I finally managed to listen to some more of Ulli's cds. I found Phil Shoenfelt and Southern Cross very good. Phil sounds a lot like Nick Cave, but he's been around a bit longer than Nick, I remember hearing about his punk band Khmer Rouge, but never did buy an album. I'll need to check them out, though.



Lay Low is a more country-oriented band with a good songs and a great female singer, but not too spectacular.

As usual on my weekends I did our weekly shopping, and since Ursula is quite ill with a cold, I did some errands for her as well. During these duties I had 2 blasts from the past. At one shopping store I bumped into a heavy-set middle-aged guy, who greeted me from afar. I recognized his face, but couldn't quite recollect who he was, there was just an instinctive feeling that I wanted to avoid talking to him, which I did manage to do. Then he came to me: he's a manic collector of cinema collectibles who every so often visited my cinema, wanted to see all our movie posters and photos (thousands of them!) and then wanted the rarest stuff for a ridiculous price. I can't remember his name, but he was one who took up a lot of your time.

On another errand in the evening, when it was already dark I passed by a pub. Although its windows were of colored translucent glass I was able to see into their guests rooms and noticed one big table with 8-10 people seated which looked very much like a meeting. Instantly I was reminded of the meetings my old film club used to have every month, and while thinking this I noticed a familiar face. It actually was a meeting of my film club! For more than 10 years the club had been the center of my life, and I have many recollections of the ups and downs of that time which I was so much part of. I gradually departed from it, when I founded my own private cinema. Nevertheless it was a strange feeling to see that meeting as if the times had never really changed. To be honest I fear the club itself hasn't changed all that much and hasn't really adjusted to modern times. But that has always been the problem with the club, or more more precise: with most of its members.

January 13th, 2009

It must be a sign that your leading a monotonous life, when your days repeat themselves even with the same coincidental circumstances. This day it was, as the day before: overslept, left for work without any breakfast/coffee, and a workday where the overhours were mercifully called off again. I'm not complaining, though, I just find it amazing. After all, Wednesday is my last day of work before my weekends, so it's accompanied with a feeling of relief.

And every Wednesday night I meet my pal Gerhard at the pub, a tradition that's almost 20 years old by now, so it's a grand way to end a working week. This time our friend Ralf joined us, and we had several hours talking about cinema and music.

The topics this time were John Coltrane and Ornette Coleman, Merzbow's early works, a new Pere Ubu album, which is a live album of old concerts, but in a rarely documented lime-up, and the death of Rowland S. Howard, best known as the guitarist of Nick Cave's Bad Seeds.

We also talked about Inglourious Basterds, made our jokes about the new Joseph Vilsmaier's new movie Nanga Parbat and the death of Eric Rohmer. All in all a great evening as usual.