tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-184282952009-02-21T08:20:31.263+01:00No money stories and other experiences by Rinus van Alebeek...noreply@blogger.comBlogger33125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18428295.post-1148911737031439642006-05-29T16:03:00.000+02:002006-11-13T14:24:05.506+01:00

It all started with a toilet problem. John Morin of the Hub Collective communicated me this little inconvenience via mail. In my imagination I saw a rusty coloured yard full of old bicycles, cartires and the remains of a schoolbus and in a corner the concrete rests of what once was a toilet. The toilet problem got solved. Portable cabins had arrived. But soon another mail revealed another

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Before I knew that Bordeaux was synoniem to wine, it was a town where the Tour de France would pass every year. In Europe this great cycle tour de force is followed by millions. On television its reputation is so massive, that more millions stay two hours or more in front of the television. The nice summerdays can wait for a while. Last century Bordeaux had a name to be a Dutch city. Almost as a

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Txema and Josu belong to musica ex machina. The name proves that some time ago they must have encountered the illusionist's trick of the writer, who uses God to save his story. MEM organises concerts all through the year and a festival every december. Txema is involved in organising for twenty years now. Political recognition has brought the organisation yearly grants. Thanks to this support MEM

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In the year 2000 I lived for a period of four months in Barcelona. It were the last months of the year. It also felt as the very last days of the twentieth century. Streets were dark and shiny with rain. Sidewalks changed into urban wasteland every night. There was a smell of othercountryness. Illegal immigrants from African countries slept on the main square, under cardboard, side by side. Manu

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The last-days-of-our-lives atmosphere that I encountered in Madrid could be easily suppressed. Laws are like ghosts that suddenly take possession of people and places. They live in frowns and in future decisions. Spain is considered one of the loudest countries in the world. I experienced this when living in Malaga. Deep in the night the street cleaners came washing the streets with gallons of

...noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18428295.post-1142858416465480972006-03-20T13:37:00.000+01:002006-11-13T14:24:03.189+01:00

Trying to find a possibility to perform in Italy can be rather annoying. Programmers answer. "yes nice, fully booked, contact us again when you're around," and never answer again once you're around. It's a kind of natural selection. Those who answered offered me a warm welcome.Alessandro in Arezzo belongs to the association Fromscratch. He used to organise concerts in the centre of Arezzo. But

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Another month and I will be in Amsterdam. A month is a misleading unity. In this century the biggest revolution will abolish time. Einsteinian notion will become common knowledge: there is only space. Instead of a calendar we will read coordinates. These coordinates will tell us the exact position in the galaxies. These coordinates will change all the time: Everyone on earth will live in the

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My father listens to the same radio for more then forty years now; I mean the object, not the programme. The radio is a lampenradio. the Dutch gave it this name, not because 'lampen' means 'bulbs', but because of the short sausage shaped light bulbs in the body of the radio. The frequency scale is a piece of glass with the names of cities printed on it. There were quite a lot, of which I remember

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In the seventies and eighties some parts of Europe were flooded by illegal radio stations, so called pirates, that operated on a very local scale, and soon became very popular. In Germany the anti - culture became a sub - culture thanks to a decision on governmental level. Bürger radio was founded, citizen's radio.Bürger radio makers have little obligations and a lot of freedom. they are obliged

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First there is Milan and the entrance hall of the railway station. 30-feet flags hang down on you, reminiscent of black&white pictures of the fifties that show narrow streets with full washing lines above the passing scooter.Then there is a short glimpse outside, a wide stretch of asphalt, trees on it, and high office blocks at the other end greying away in dusty sunlight.The underground entrance

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When the radio bla bla turns Dutch, I open my ears. The three hour programme is called 'De Avonden' - The Evenings, after a novel by one of The Netherlands greatest writers Jerry Revvis. Its content is highly cultural: interviews - discussions - reports - visits - poems. Sometimes it results in radio at its best, when a reporter sends in his travelogue, or a phone call offers visions from another

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It's a few months now, since my pocket radio died. She had been my loyal travel companion for years, speaking silent words when I had breakfast. The last program I listened to was from Austrian radio. I put the volume so low that the voices were hardly audible; the sound transmitted the image of a Kaffeehaus in Vienna and the murmuring of its guests.Now that I'm in Italy, I hardly listen to FM

...noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18428295.post-1141299326182905852006-03-02T12:30:00.000+01:002006-11-13T14:24:01.201+01:00

Dear Mrs Lembi, dear Mr Guglielmi,Over the last fifteen years I have visited Bologna several times, without ever getting the complete picture. Last February I was there again, did four concerts in four days, of which three were found on the day of my arrival. The encounters I made in the house where I was hosted and on several locations, gave me some insight in the lives of the numerous young

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The funeral that leaves all of us without too much suffering is the one of domestic objects. Still it is one of those activities that bring about a feeling of new life. In a solemn ritual the almost dead object is judged for its last functional or decorative value. Ghosts step out of the cupboards and voices are heard behind non - existing doors. Then a force awakens within, the spirit of the

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When I lived in Amsterdam in the early nineties I derived some special joy spotting young Italian tourists. They were easy to recognize, because they walked in groups of eight - at least - along the streets of the old centre. All of them were too warmly dressed for the season, and all of them were caught in some marijuana vision.It might be easy to loose yourself in a crowd, but you're never

...noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18428295.post-1140191384870390382006-02-17T16:48:00.000+01:002006-11-13T14:24:00.522+01:00

For years and years kids were sent to Feinkost Lampe by their mothers. Hannover was struck by war. It took the city years to recover, the same years that Ferdinand Lampe took the shopping list and filled the paper bag with carrots and potatoes.Now the city of Hannover stands proud in the post-industrial age. All the windows shine like a jewel. Only on black and white photographs forgotten angles

...noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18428295.post-1138200554519667982006-01-25T15:37:00.000+01:002006-11-13T14:24:00.294+01:00

Leo never had a beard;when you sing, birds will nestle in his hat.On tombstones, fingers run over the namesand thenthe spirits run over your skin - weak sky -cover it with your mouth - now it rains -echoos come for shelter.Barefoot in the hills - sun is watchingnow runnow standsend your song to the clouds -the village is abandoned - stones areyellow - warm as bread.Dressed in whispers we walk

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Introduction :This is the story of a mistake, my mistake. The truth was only a few clicks away. I assumed that clubtransmediale was a part of transmediale. This is not so.Dr. Andreas Broeckmann, and Jan, programmer of CTM, were both very patient and respectfull in their answers.Club is run by hardworking people, who also put their own money. Another no-budget organisation doing the best they

...noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18428295.post-1137062389615157982006-01-12T11:35:00.000+01:002006-11-13T14:23:59.744+01:00

The trio is a quartet, but hardly anyone knows it. I join in from my kitchen with an old radio on my lap. it transmits a program from 'studio akustische kunst', that started its transmissions in the year of my birth: years will pass; the unlived memories form an interval of rooms with a view.Rembrandt is the oldest one. He was born four hundred years ago. Go to Amsterdam and visit his house.

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All the world is my guest on my little radio. Yesterday a man onItalian radio came to tell me a short story - I hardly listen toItalian radio, it makes me sad, but this time I resisted for half anhour.He told me that owners of warehouses in Austria had noticed a downfallin the spirits of their employees: over the last weeks they had heard a few jingle bells too many. The problem was not playing

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John Cage used radio's. He used them in his compositions. As a title he chose 'imaginary landscapes'. It's not important why he used this title. In the eighth and nineth century, and maybe also in later years, Sufi's described their visions: a world full of bliss; everything was drenched by the presence of The One. In fact, some scholars thought it was a portrait of The One, result of religious

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A grey beard, a hood to cover my head and the sickening illumination on the platform didn't do any good to my appearance: it was too severe. Arne, my host at Feinkostlampe, couldn't suppress a slight sense of fear that crawled over his face, when he saw me. When I arrived at the club I found out that it was not my resemblance to a prophet at the point to lay cities in ashes, that had impressed

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Dear Frau von Welck and dear Miss Young,We all know that life is beautiful, and that we are offered a great view from our place in this world. I visited Hamburg for the first time when winter came to Germany. It was cold and wet, nonetheless I liked the town. I didn't enter it from the rich side. Mine was rather modest, very modest from the financial point of view: Two concerts earned me 22

...noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18428295.post-1134058435502358542005-12-08T17:08:00.000+01:002006-11-13T14:23:57.823+01:00

When I saw Heiner Metzger for the first time, he was a shadow standing in front of a big glass box: a fish restaurant not far from the landing stage. Before that, he had been a pleasant voice in a telephone, and before that he was words in a mail, and before that he was a mailaddress. Shortly after introducing each other, he became my chauffeur. And then I understood from his words - and from his

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In these dark days before christmas it is hardly imaginable that a musician steps into a steaming bar, his coat shiny from the rain, water dripping from his nose, and asks the barkeeper if he could play some of his music, go around with a hat afterwards, and maybe get enough money to buy some peasoup with a big sausage.Well, he might have a chance if he carries along a guitar, or a violin, and a

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