kaspar könig

Dear Readers,

Many moments right here in NOLA, New Orleans Luisiana, are really amazing surreal. Like the moment, Simon, Michele and Klaas were picking me up from the airport. The 10×10->11 roady mobile home pulled up on the parkway and I made it into America. That was not easy after the intense border control I was obliged to.
The mobile home is a dream to have on tour. We went straight to drink something in the Bacchanal were they have all nights live music, like in many more places. Surreal due to the fact that there is “only” 350.000 inhabitants and such a lively musicians scene. In bacchanal, we met already Aurora Nealand, Simon Lot, Benjamin, Jonathan all into music and the musicians scene we’re looking for.

Our vision with 10×10->11 is, trying to use everyday another piece of waste and upcycle it into a musical instrument. Next to that we invited all musicians that would be interested to give it a try with us and our new instruments., The story of the waste is important and the fact that we take all day to have a look at it and try to convert it into something that sounds pretty. And all of this will be documented. Klaas is the soundman for the movie and he’s fully dressed for the job all the day. If you want check out
these videos, thanks to Carolyn Heneghan.
With Aurora Nealand:
//www.youtube.com/watch?v=IduTNU241V0
//www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmH8B8It_9w
//www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSuAKsL2xPQ
With Jeff Albert and Justin Peake:
//www.youtube.com/watch?v=v50f20M-6MI
//www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJnkLwPdOKA
With James Singleton:

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6fsFFQpkbk

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ahjncleyf0

The first day we went to “the green project” situated at the end of marais street.
Recycling from scratch, starting of with re-using half buckets of paint 14 years ago, they have now a hugh store full of second hand construction material. The original project “recycle for the Arts” has just stopped last month to fully concentrate on the re-purposing construction materials. At least 3 other companies followed their example and are all together in the area to service the needs to rebuild the houses in a more economical way. (http://www.thegreenproject.org/ ) Pure inspiration for the material-flow of ARM. (see also the model of the city made by wally warren)

We’ve got every morning the best breakfast in our little backyard in the Marais-street corner to spain. And just in front of the house, i found this ABC toy train that i was happily looking forward to circuit-bend. It took me almost the whole day to open it and tune it the way I wanted it to sound (twisted songs and speedpitched effects). And just before dinner I blew an important tiny resistor, which provoked a lot more trial and error, to find a fix for the problem i produced. Instead of a intact toy it was now making it worse…..
After dinner i decided to make that other thing i had in mind, a chair with strings.
As Bruce Golden came in at the Zeitgeist he just commented…. mmmh an electric chair! And yes it is~! I also call it chaizz , dedicated to washboard chazz who plays his washboard in the french quarter a lot. *(and good)

Inspiring in this city, where 30% of the population has left ever since the katharina-storms in 2005 are the many buildings hardly standing. A Chruch falling apart in a street named Flood. Brad Pitt rebuilding houses on a whole new green and affordable standard. And at the same time you still feel the way the city must of been abandoned and rough in that time or just after. With so much disorder/ trash / waste and differences in almost anything, 10×10 is situated in the best context for the project.

If you want to have an impression on the concert, watch the movie with James Singleton here:

The magic in New Orleans is not over yet. After the 10×10->11 project, there might even be a real SLOWBIKING contest coming up with the whole bicycle & musiscians scene in one place. I keep you posted!
e

Dear Family, Friends and Readers,

new stories from the upcoming world-power candidate or the peoples republic as you want. The story starts immediately at the airport where I found myself with 2 new experiences. First of all the Customs officer has a new machine in front of his desk. During the Passport check the machine starts to blink and asks you the question, “are you satisfied with this service?” 4 buttons I was offered to push during the check and since I hardly had to wait in front of the desk, my choice was sincere and I pressed the outer right button saying: I’m satisfied. I could of chosen the left button No, long waiting or No, unfriendly officer, or yes, friendly service, but since I couldn’t discover a smile on the face of the officer I think I’m satisfied was the right choice. I was happy that i could do something during the check, and who knows, maybe they have my fingerprint now. Anyhow the second experience was 5 minutes later at the baggage conveyer belt. A beagle dog was checking the incoming passengers and their fresh luggage. And shortly after, the beagle sniffed my backpack. Happily enough the beagle isn’t trained for the smell of cats otherwise this would of end differently. No, the neighbour at the belt was less lucky. His 2 apples in his bag where traced, so the fruit was confiscated. Then after one hour waiting, 3 students of the last years workshop took me to school. I was empty and full at the same time at 10:00  o’clock local time. I decided to teach that same day with my jet-lag, a modern excuse for everything so I couldn’t do anything wrong, i thought.
Waw, 13 girls and 2 boys where sitting and waiting for me and I was trying to introduce myself briefly. That didn’t really work, and I had again no idea if the students understood a word or not. (due to the group-dynamics, basically nobody shows a sign of comprehension or no comprehension). Next thing was a one 2 one conversation and that sorted out if the students were able to understand my English or not.

2 hours later we’re sitting in the restaurant next to school, and i just hoped my stomachpaper-folder was able to handle the other food culture as quickly as I wanted. After dinner, the cook and his wife (?) were coming to the table both with a paper-folder. They were doing a customer investigation in order to know if they could improve something. I thought, if this is going to happen every 2 hours with any upcoming action, it’ll be quit intense the feedback I ‘ll need to supply.
I think it might be the  eagerness to make the the one world, one dream to a perfect dream! It seems to be covering the whole city till any remote corner. I’m not dreaming!

I was definitely not dreaming when I saw the daybreak factory the very next day. The excursion was part of the school-programme and my last years students and this years students were mutually on this trip. We arrived after 2 hours of travelling in the dense city traffic to see the iso 9001 certified factory with hardly any workers protection or noise reduction measurements. We were divided in 2 groups and nobody was allowed to cross any yellow line. Not 10 metres later we all crossed the yellow line cause things were obstructing the way. I started to make photos and a sound recording I will be using for one of my next sound-pieces called ISO 9001. The Daybreak factory makes furniture on a low cost basis and I have a pretty good idea why. Not my dream.

Next day, to release the tension, we burried a biodegradable vegetable-bag I brought from c1000 in Holland. I think this will be the right ritual to prove that also a plastic bag can be easily a dream  as long as it feeds the earth.
to be continued…..
 

In my secondimpress 2 , the workshop sustainable design, the nightwatcher does got a friendly face, new FEbike and turtles dance!
So sometimes I think it is quite hopeless what I am doing… A sustainable / recycling workshop in the country where resources are utmost exploited. Whereas traditional chinese production has to do with sustainability in its purest form, recent wealth and economy-growth are known to be the reasons, as far as we see. I’m told that not even 20 years ago china was everywhere much much cleaner. But now even in the remote places, waste is being dumped basicly everywhere. So when I started my workshop in order to make awareness of the resources we throw away in our daily lifes, many “new” resources for our course where already available in close sight. And actually I started to make some paper to cardboard in different shapes. Also local industries are contacted to enrich our workshop. Many mis-printed KFC packaging is now being re-designed by fifteen very motivated students. I try to give you an impression of the first results. I hope the photos explain themselfs. (anyway I post a seperate article on the workshop once everything is done)

And tomorrow I’m looking forward to watch the turtles again in lee’s appartment who is a collegue and has two turtles I’ll be in charge with.
I had the honour already once and also this dancing turtle has become a friend. Wish I could understand their bodylanguage, and yes on the menu I’ve seen them several times now, but I refuse to order them. Now I prefer for my health a recycled bike (Yellow) this time. A foldable one which is quite small but lasts better then the other bikes. And again I got a smile from the brand name: FEbike. I made already some amazing trips with this little bike, quite easy to pack in a cab aswell if I underestimated the distance once again. To get from A to B in Beijing feels sometimes from A to Z actually. But you know me, without a bike i cannot think properly.

As you can see I found new patriotism in one of my busy phonecalls trying to get an original accordeon of a chinese brand (daishenze 798). Almost I found it in this beautiful shop. But with help of my friend LONGKING, i found an old accordeon specialist in the deepest inside of the biggest hutong i’ve ever been to.
Due to the olympic games this hutong is still alive, and actually it is renovated to leave some impression of the old beijing in sight for foreigners, but I wonder how many people will find this acordeon specialist. Amazing, 1 hour of one little street after the other, thanks to my new friend LONGKING (who is on the picture in another store not far from the hidden city). Next time i’ll add a photo of my secondhand ” baile” accordeon. Couldn’t listen to the PARROTS anymore so i give “baile” (spanish for dance) a real good new chance!

Daishenze 798 keeps on suprising me. Cause actually the newest art of asia is proudly presented in a very proffesional way. And I love the miniwigs in this object. As I’ve been impressed by other works not far from daishenze in the winefactorydistrict such as this Nike Bomb and the work of Shuyong. Hope you like it too :-)

Actually one of my favourit bars in my un-favourit bar-district street next to shanlunti, you can get a fine if you do shit. Recycle somewhere else is the message. Don’t hope the chinese wealth will provoke to export our and their waste back to us …

(PR of China in the sign of the olympics, Herzog and DeMeuron have made the “real” olympic mascotte)

dear family and friends,

a little earlier then last year the first freshimpress (part 2) of the peoples republic is being continued. Remember: my impressions and experiences in a country sofar from what I would call home…
This time: the new nightwatcher. Workshop where students start to recycle (again), carrefourcounters… how much mooncookies can one buy?

At the airport I got picked up by my friend and charming host mr. Tao Kai Zheng and 3 of his students. My plane landed a half hour earlier than sheduled and so I was suprized I was already awaited. We went inmediatly to the City Life Style Design Department of the School of City Design which is part of the CAFA (Central Academy of Fine Arts) This department though is a little further to the north-east. Not far (25min) from the airport. Luxury real- estates are rising and publicity on the fences happily anounce: extreme international life in airport city. It’s all next to Monet’s park and europe-ville and today I saw chateau de vie on my way to a shop.
This time I borrowed a bike which I probably occasionally need though riding to the center of the city won’t be my ambitious goal. No, I better get used to campus life soon. Anyway the guarded communities are expanding and I see more fences and cameras. After being introduced to my new dormitory, we said goodbye for this day, and I just went for a walk on the campus to get rid of my jetlag. And there it was, the first shock. A stiff guard standing in front of a side entrance of the dormitory watching closely every step.
I nodded friendly but couldn’t see him clear in the darkness. No move, no reaction, no smile as I ‘m used too. I was a little scared so I just quietly went back to bed in the hope i would get somehow another introduction to this guard. The next day I got up at 8 to go to an opening of a creative market and a new shop, one of the student had recommended it. A shop full of boxes, where young artists can rent a box and sales are done by the owners. Quite central and next to the biggest carrefour I’ve ever seen in the center of a city. Great stuff was made by the young creatives,
slightly different from things i’ve seen but quite a couple of new things too. Basicly funny japanese kind of manga diversications and later I bought a shirt with sound sensor that lightens up whenever the sensor gets a sound input. Also the carrefour was impressive with over 50 counters of course with long lanes and yes every counter had 3 till desks in a row. At least 150 places to pay and a many more people waiting to do so. O.k. the traditional harvest is celebrated. Or is it the mid-autumn-festival? Well if I believe the students it is the mooncookie festival, and everyone gives eachother many many cookies where the package counts even more than the cookie!

Now a little more to the reasons i’m staying here. I’m invited to do a 4 week workshop on recycling, sustainability and re-use, at the same CAFA. 15 students of the 3rd year of the city design school are participating. We are succeeding slowly in a consumptive world like this one. Although we’ve many many resources due to that. So mooncookie-packagerecycling is on top of the list….. or not? see/read for yourself in the next secondimpress 2.

Welcome (back) to the “fresh impress of the peoples republic”

Dear Familiy and FRIENDS,

this time:
the cabdriver who calls a friend,
the hidden three georges damm,
Shanghai’s (only?) solarpowered infopanel,
and pechakucha in beijing.

Arriving in chongqing, confusion was immediately on board of the bus. Some people exiting others stayed put..
where we at the right bus-station? 17 h o’clock.. we heard the boat was leaving at maybe 18h so we didn’t have much transfer time.
O.k. a woman kind of persuaded us to get out because, yes the boat is leaving and she can arrange it. Aha . we got out and no harbour in sight. So, yes the wrong station. Since we figured that out, we might aswell just have a look what other boot agencies were around. nothing in first sight. Only busses to the next distinations. Then we just catch a cab to bring us to the right station. No cabdriver understood our intention even not with the best intentions. to many cabdrivers wanted the job. then a mobile phone is passed to me by one of the drivers. On both sides of the line, two enormous loud urban soundscapes clashed and basicly no conversation was actually possible. I managed to yell railway station and was able to make me understood. Then the confused voice of a man was changed by the voice of a woman and she repeated: where? where?. Another time we said it was to loud to understand eachother, at least that’s what I understood. It was just the feeling, get us out of here please! The cabdriver said he had understood and so we agreed on 8 Yuan for the drive. Well we just passed the corner and the phone rang again.
the same voices told me that we should wait for them. they would arrive in 2 minutes. And indeed.

A white car stopped just in front of us on the very crowded roundabout.Then the driver told me to pay the cabdriver the fee and be his guest to find out where we were really going to. O.k. I hesitated for a moment. But at the same time I was wishing for it so we got a bit better impression and got in the car where we could talk. So this was the way we met David and his friend.
In the car we made new plans. the boat was gone by now so maybe a hotel and a new try tomorrow? We got acquainted and the dinner we spent together. also we found out that this city had boats coming and going at all times. Information is gold in a place you’ve never been, just after arrival.

in the end we decided to take another bus and drive a bit further around the 600 KM lake with its many gorges and get a boat in Wanxian.. now, it is time for some figures. chinese style:
worlds longest dam will float 140 towns 326 villages and will 672 squar kilometer of water. so no wonder that the impressive romantic gorges are now under 100 meters of water then the dam is nearly finish and will open in 2008 officially. Is it an olimpic dam i wonder? well if 1,2 million people have to move for it you might start to believe that. Also Chongqing becomes the first city on a lake which used to be a river. if you want to see more, visit

http://www.irn.org/img/threeg/3g_map_graphic.jpg

the trip on the boat was still worth it! The 8 people in our 6 bedroom 3rd class were getting allong well and the one child among us was a delight. The boat is photographed and attached as jpeg. Finally arriving to this dam, nothing was visible. An extra entrance-ticket needed to be bought to see this obvious doubtfull dam-migration project to generate it’s backland powersupply. Though most of the vertile farmland is flooted and the power will go to new industries. The indicators of the final waterlevel where still way up. Where some flats regardless transformed in shipping-docs? judge yourself see the photo.
deboarding and just traveling to yichang was the destination after 1 day and night on this yangtse-lake!

Shanghai is amazing as you might of heard already. If you’ve never been there just like me before this arrival, I couldn’t imagine that real shine of reflection in the skyscrapers changing all day and ending into an mass-energy consumptive lighthouse even before the beginning of the night. Help! If these shiny houses would be christmastrees, shanghai would be a densed healthy forrest!
A skyscraper functioned as a full size screen with colours The biggest screen I ever saw. A flower dia slideshow was on. The whole skin of the building was illuminated. I would love to have the remote control and switch around like a tv from the other side of this same yangtse that’s entering the yellow sea in shanghai! As a good energy example and awareness tool I could only discover solarpowered decibel city sound measurement infopanel! (see image)
Awareness in accoustic polution is a good thing! Though with so much soundpolution it is tough to start making actions for the ears of the citizens.
The first thing I would do (although I’m the forefighter of bicycle sound!), is stopping the polution of the electric bike! The high frequencies that emerge during braking are really mean! And definitly unpleasant for my ears. Would like to now your reactions if you know that sound! (if not. come and have a listen to one of my recordings when you’re around!) Never seen this contradictions between wealth for the rich and the reality of the poor! Strange disgusting and curious blend of communistic capitalism in its extreme extension. Don’t now how to explain, but it impressed me a lot.

When we arrived in beijing early in the morning, the softsleeper promised what it said. We slept sofly and crossed the eastcoast by night towards the north. Very nice to wake up with a kind of militairy discipline. A trainsteward opens softly the door and starts almost yelling at us. 7 sentences in mandarin where translated in : >arrive soon< ! aha.pechakucha in beijing

Sunday, we participated in something unique! The first pechakucha night in BEIJING was helt yesterday at KoKoMo. This is a creative ideas exchange platform, worldwide, that gives artist and related people and matters opportunitty to talk together in a presentationformat with 20 slides of 20 seconds showtime each. A popular thing cause on the first occasion there where already 150 peoples gathering and the place was crowded. The starting guest speaker was, you can guess, ME! Showing my works in beijing to the interested people was super, especially the Xiloseum Instrumentwork was admired! We finished this beautiful initiative from the good guys (florian, salome, andre and sebastian) with the movie 2PS from Maja G. and I think it was very succesful! On tuesday I’ll find my way once more back to the 2 kolegas, where i’ll struggle again with the computer and the new instruments to give a new sound to beijing! Hope to see you there! That’ll be the goodbye party too. because wednesday we’re leaving back west!

This was the last fresh impress for now. Thanks a lot for your reactions. I’ll publish the complete fresh impress (1 till 6 ) on the website soon. Also I’ll put you on the list for my next impressions mail I still don’t know when that’ll be! If you want to get off the list please write a small message! if not I assume that you agree!

best regards and the best wishes for 07 if I won’t be able to speak to you before!

this time in the freshimpress:

leaving CAFA for a travel to Chengdu (Sichuan, central china)
bus, train, cab and riksja travelling
Mount emei , mushrooms
& the recycled mob

This time no pictures in the mail, forgot the connectorcable. Also my mobile phone rests in beijing so it’ll be a read-only- fresh impress.

Maja arrived at beijing 10 days ago and we’ve been planning to travel around a little. Chengdu about 32 houres by “hard sleeper” direction south-east from beijing. Capital of the good food provence Sichuan. A city that has been capital in early days and is kind of “the little brother/sister” of beijng. There is a more friendly and playfull vibe in the chengdu. There is more attention to the historical part of the city. We’re staying in the dragon hostel now and there is a major contstruction site in the whole block that is aiming on rebuilding in the original way, the original houses(hutongs). The woodworkers wake us up and the fresh smell of wood is welcoming you in the street. It’s very divers this street especially now. Imagine a mudd street with a new drainage system in the middle that is leeking water and suprisingly it doen’s smell! It must be clear water.. Pavements are missing but the bricks are delivered. All stadia of the lifecircle of a house are represented in the street. A new “old” one, just across the street, a scaffolding next door, a ripped off one next to that, an empty space behind the hostal. The rest of the street is just like that in a big transition and in all different stades in between. incredibe. Workers sleep on the site, and restaurants use the wood of the site to burn the fire for the meat, that is hanging on the scaffolding of the site to dry. The foremen are playing cards under the only bulb, and the dark street is like a perfect BMX cross-circuit. Would love to be a child with such a bike now, but wonder how the elder people (mostly represented in this neighbourhood) get along with this extra dark and trickfull street.

Back to the hardsleeper. The hardsleeper sleeps quiet hard. Though the train is very comfortable. The mixture of people is curious but foreigners are rare. That makes the travel very adventures because our mandarin is still very poor and no help from outside. Communication is still depending on good will to understand and trying to speak, show, gesture and look. To get off at the right station was no problem. The tickets are taken in the beginning of the travel and you get a kind of waitingnumber instead. The tickets dissappear in a big book with the corresponding bed numbers and the waggon-stewardess folds the tickets exactly with the destination still visible. Every stop she opens the book to look for the travellers to get off at the next stop. She returns your ticket and we returned the number. There was a great waiting in between. Many beautiful sceneries, and sometimes a shaking shock due to some old tracks.

Our idea was visiting the mount Emei (shan) with a top of 3099 meter. Many buddhist tempels and monastaries, monkeys and even pandas are said to be lifely represented in this aerea. Well probably it could, would, should be, though we didn’t see any of it due to a blinding fogg that was overtaking our sight. To two houres climbing ride was in this thicky fogg and even at the top we could hardly see more then ten meters, so no wonder that we couldn’t shiver at the cliffs, where very fanatic monks have commited suicide after seeing a mysterical aura around their heads. It is occuring phenomenon in the mountains and there is a physilogical explaination for it. Nevertheless our promised wide-sight/view stayed undiscovered. Unfortunatly the whole setup of the mountain is like an attractionparc with a hugh amount of merchandise, cable cars, panoramamonorail and extra attractions , we also couldnn’t see, so again an advantage next to the bad luck weather!

We ate one of the breadiest mushrooms, we’ll ever eat. Imagine a toasted toast in a simple waterbased-sauce. Make slices like frecnch fries and add a little salt, put bitter bamboo to it and add someother very small red mushroom in it. et voila, you got the three specialities of mount emei.

The bus is taking us to our utmost of traffic tolerance. two lanes are three. Three are four and the loudest horn takes the privilige. Sometimes the bus tries to do what I did with the bike 3 weeks ago. Getting a second price in the slow-overtaking contest! Glad we rely on the jin an yan from time to time! Riksja nevertheless is my favourite sofar. Not for long distances but the best medicine for transportation during rush-hours, when bus, taxi and everything is stuck!

I’ll end this fresh impress with the catagory very interesting & upcoming products: the recycled mob! Although I couldn’t try the comfort of using it yet…it seems to work even in the muddy street of the dragon hostel. yes, a bamboo stick, (we don’t know if that was recycled or not, it is plastified and we cannot see its origine anymore), anyway on the end of the broomstick a collection of slices of old cotton clothes. All the collours/patterns qualities you can imagine coton clothes in. I even saw my piyama look-a-like mob! I bring that one home!

Thank you for your reactions and you’re welcome to forward this fresh impress as you like!

look forward to the NEXT fresh impress, with chuongqing and shanghai- stories and it also might be THE LAST FRESH IMPRESS!

take care, best regards

Dear Familiy and FRIENDS,

In order to stick with the topic first. My superbicycle, the one I won the second price with last week, has obtained the criteria to be exposed to a high level of maintainance skills.
To say it short… The chain broke! on my drive yesterday, in the last curve arriving late at my meeting, I heard something.

Since I used my speed to reach the platformchina(.org) I was desperatly looking for already since half an hour, i noticed the loss of the chain… The chain of the superbycicle in the middle of darkness, late for an appointment, gone. Happy enough it was enough speed to bring me exactly where i wanted to be, and I hadn’t noticed it before arrival. The chain was lost and I couldn’t even make a photo.
Now the meeting was a delight. And i try to forget the bicycle problem asmuch as I can. .. to be honest I can’t. it is magnificent to be on a bicycle in beijing. Limit your speed if you are used to drive a bicycle in holland but imagine you’re waiting in front of a red light or a traffic-attendend and suddenly it’s green, she flags and the bicycles start to move (slowly). It is like honey .. smooth…

Maybe for some readers it might still be a mystery what I”m actually doing in beijing besites biking. I try to lift a little the curtains. Basicly I’m meeting and interviewing people about their impression of what is going on and what is being said about beijing.
I’m very glad that I may meet these people (artists, architects, designers, organizers, students and many more)that take time to hear my story and truthfully telling me about living, doing and making here. That is the beginning for a new episode and I think it resemblance of what is being said generally about the city and even the country.
I haven’t had a long discussion yet about the effects from the cultural revolution and other political events.
Though the television is interesting. Many things are said by the setting. Besides the television I also try to
organize a longer stay in beijing next year, which was part of the plan before I came here.

Now I come close to talk about the disk. I mentioned the disk in the sink last two fresh impress, This magical thing about this disk is, even without the rubber it remains waterproof.That is in contradiction to the generall quality standard in which my superbicycle would match perfectly or the windows of my room.
I don’t know yet. Don’t let me judge to soon because I stay wondering day by day….

Dear Familiy and FRIENDS,
Late BRAKING news. Kaspar just won the 2 price in the slow bicycling contest. Aim is to bike as slow as posiible … as long as possible without crossing the lines of the runningcourd. The excitement was in the air as the selection of racers where moving their bicycles to the start. And within 1 minute or so the first bicyclist disturbed her balance and she had to give up her performance.

So after winning a first selection round, price one little tetrabrick full of milk from the taiwanese sponsor, I thought that was the whole contest till the moment I got a phonecall late in the night. That next day I should prepare for the final CUP ! And yes. The number 1 Yitzel the boy with the ferrari-baseballcap won the first price: 5 liters of milk.

Next day though we decided to have breakfast together, cause I won a package the nestle frosties. Chinese version. Slowly i’m really showing that I can hold up to the chinese tempo!

Though i had to bring th ebike twice to the bicycle repair shop., crank so pedal was loose, and sattle came down,
my super bicycle is still an object of adoration, as you can see when my kazachstanian coach is showing of with it!

Next time some more serious matters. I keep it short this time. also the photo’s of the disk are difficult to interpret. I’ll try to fix that for the next fresh impression. Thank you for the reactions, makes me feel making anotherone next week.

Dear Familiy and FRIENDS,

oh it took me a little longer to write the second impression on my stay in Beijing.
troubled by a computer that doesn’t understand mandarin.
It also catched a cold just like me…
The cold design of the CAFA (Central Academy of Fine Arts) building reflects itself also in the temperature.
The building is still not heated and in the office aswell as the dormitory temperatures won’t rise 15 degrees.
Many thinks are wondering me so i’ve got enough distraction to not be really bothered by it.
Like the bicylce. It is really true. I bought a new bike for the amount of 13 euro.
And the brand is very promissing. It is called superbicycle.
So i’m sure I bought the right one. Is it? well…..
The first stormy day was last sunday. A temperature drop of over 15 degrees (that might explain my cold)
and at the same time it was sunny and beautiful.
All bikes were blown to the earth or from the earth to anotherplace.
My superbicycle also chose a more aerodynamic position with the result that the brake broke.
it litterally had fallen of. The right handle had fallen of. Really completely.
So i went back to the bicycle shop to ask if there was any explanation for that.
Well I couldn’t get the complete essence of the story but with 30 yuan it would be fixed again.
I decided to let the man do the repair and he kindly suggested me to
go shopping meanwhile. I followed his advice and I got a lot of new clothes.
In the back of my head, i was wondering if the clothes can handle the same stormy
weather as good as the superbicycle, or if I should be more precautious and spend a bit more into what we call quality?

Imagine i get 1 year warranty on the superbicycle. I’m imagining how many times of
this one year would be spending at this bicylce shop, and how much the superbicycle
will cost me in the end….
Just take the superbicycle and use it till it is not super anymore is my strategy and
therefore I drove again across the whole city today. It is super!
Seeing the city in with this speed. Smelling the restaurants. Listening to the other
sounds of the city and be able to stop at any place you like.
Beijing amazes. How many building can be build at the same time? Who is going to move in and at what frequency…
Who is going to pay al these rents which are not fairly adopted to the average income….
Many wonders and many questions will remain and rise throughout the next weeks.

Housing was a topic this week. I was looking with the help of a. to find a great place to stay.
O.k. it is difficult to get a short term hudong house which I was invited to see in another occasion.
But fairly enough there are many appartments with great views! (due to the enormous amount of skyscrapers I understate..)
I decided to be resident at the CAFA dormitory afterall. That might has todo with the shortest way to the office.
It takes me 1,5 minutes to reach the office and that is really convinient, and I can concentrate on all the other things.

My first concert at the bar called “2 collegues” was a great succes!
The sound of my new braun sound shaver was smashing the audience.
They never saw somebody shaving his beard without any loss of hair! I’m still waiting for photos on that because
i couldn’t see what the audience saw and somebody from the bar was shooting it all!
Though actually compared to the lecture I was asked to do at the city school of design it was just a fart. (excuse me the word but it is popping up to me)
The lecture was hilarious. After 1.5 hours of translated talking about 150 students came up to me and wanted a signature at the same time!
I was overwellmed. Happily i had my signature with email and phonenumber on a self-inking-stamp so within 5 minutes the rush was over.
But waw it felt like a real rockstar! Hope I get a lot of visitors and costumers on my website now! (they asked where one could by my music, bags, etc)

Something else. I found a really interesting invention in almost every room with a sink. The way to stop water running out is a turnable stop.
It’s a metal little round disk that turns like a bearing. Imagine like the trackball in a computermouse. There is a rubber ring around that disk to really
tighten the sinkshole. This is a really interesting design. Even more astonishing: in my room the rubber is missing although the disk is made for it and all the other rooms have it too. Dispite of all my expectations it still is watertight. This is a miracle! I’m astonished! How can it be watertight dispite of the rubber ring. And really I tested it. I left a lot of water in it this night and in the morning it was still at the same level. (and I assure you that nobody came into my room to fill this up last night)
WAW that’s the only expression I have. I wish this example is blindly copied by my superbicycle. Like if the tyres are missing It still drives comfortable.

Amazing.
This time I’ll include the photos about the a real chicken in the supermarket,
a concert I incredibly enjoyed at daihansi 798 from a ethnic minority of minor asia.
they played in major by the way.
part of the audience before the lecture. a lot of fire
extinguishers that where first delivered and then taken away again. the inside
of a PDA i used for the concert and the plastic coffeecup holder,
some more skyscrapers,
One man risking his life double. (repairing the powernet and that on top of
a very busy road, respect…) and last but not least my SUPERBICYCLE.

If you have any comment on what I definitly should do, which artist I should meet
or thing you really would like me to bring back/send back , just give me a hint.
Looking forward to hear from you! take care and all the best , till the next freshimpress.

best regards and feel free to forward this newsletter if you like.
PS look forward to the next fresh impress with a photo of the disk I was discribing!

It is time to write about the first impressions of Beijing before it’ll be the second.
INDEED it is very impressive and I would like to share a couple of experiences.
like the fact that I arrived quiet easily to the second best fine art school of beijing
where my friend and proffesor Ming Leung has his office. The complex is brand new
and they are still “finishing” it. That means that the building is really finished though
essentials like furniture is still to be bought. The whole campus is build with a beautiful black brick and it offers 4000 students a permanent stay. So painters aswell as designers and architect are housed in this hugh complex. Logically the main building is called ” complex building”.
And the students supermarket got the name “educational supermarkt”.( for me it definitly is) This fits to the impression I got that the people here tend to play with the names of the objects.

Like Konka a very well done immitation of Nokia or does it lean on the english “to concur”? (like Ming suggested?) playing with the names and second meanings will become part of my new vocabulary, I hope. they are very creative with it.
A bicycle called FOREVER is very popular. There is something unlikely in that name, because one of the few things that might get stolen here is a bike. The rest seems to be very safe. I heard already about 3 people who happenend to buy a new bike for 20 euro. they could use it between 1 day and a week, before it got stolen.
Strange because the doors to basicly all the buildings are wide open 24 hours a day without guards.

If there is a guard you can bet he/she doesn’t speak english.
Yesterday night 2 guards came to ask if I was about to leave (it was 24h). One was 16 years old and was wearing a impressiv uniform.
I managed to convince him that I still wanted to work and I hope I can do that tonite again. There is still a hugh gap between the english and chinese understanding. I noticed. And I’ll try to be as communicative as possible. There is no way around it, i didn’t study mandarin enough yet.

And basicly I didn’t leave the campus yet. Except for the ride to IKEA to buy some furniture. Also the trip to arrange a mobile phone SIM card is quiet interesting. The newer business is much easier than the old business.
It’s much easier to get a new phone then to get a train ticket. Everything needs a stamp, preferably with red INK.

A stamp for dinner, a stamp on every reciept and 3 stamps for the mobile phone card. though this was quit easy to get as I mentioned. The first thing overall was the choice of a number. Which number do you want to have. I could make up my mind
out of 40 numbers. 20 numbers involved the number 8 and where trice as expensive as the numbers wihtout 8. Due to the luck number 8 brings. So after choosing one without a 8 I got almost the double amount of charge on my phone and
a whole 10-piece NAILCLEANING set for free. Clean fingers for clean phones? don’t know. So somehow i was suprised that the girl who attended me called me inmediatly after leaving the shop.
Suddenly she spoke quit well English and she said she made an
error in my advantage. She kindly requested If I could come back tomorrow and resettle it with her? Yes i was suprised. I told her that I would arrange it. And this morning Ming paid the rest of the charge. In the afternoon I got a sms if I please come to pay. So now I got a bit anoid and i said she could check the reciepts from around 10 o’clock so she could afirm that the rest was paid aswell. They kindly compensated it by opening my phone for international calls too so if you want to call me give it a try.

O.k. one of the reasons I came for is to get a view on all the products and designs I’ve never seen before and i might see in europe later. There are a lot of them. from a plastic bag to hold many hot coffees with one hand, to hypermodern cars that might never be exported to europe…..Not to mention the food that is everyday astonishing.
especially in the mensa, where prices are adapted to the student.. or not? it is really cheap and with a lot of variation. a beer costs more then a decent noodle/vegetable soup that fills you up.

By the way the guard just recognised me, and i think it is completly o.k. to stay longer tonite.. so I’ll finish this mail before I’ll get consumed by the city tomorow. I will have a bike(as long as I can have a hold on it) and my chinese map will guide me through the skycraper jungle it seems to be. jing.

I include some pictures mainly from the campus and the office I will work now.(you’ll see Ming) Also the forever bike is placed next to a longlife electrical bike. waitress of the mensa restaurant (completly in traditional clothes) and of course the 10 piece nailcleaningset!

If you have any comment on what I definitly should do, which artist I should meet
or thing I really would like , just give me a hint. Looking forward to hear from you!
take care and all the best , till the next freshimpress.

best regards and please forward this newsletter if you like.
KASPAR