Dean Reed – Der Rote Elvis (Dokumentarfilm, 87 Min.)
(The red Elvis – Watch the complete documentary below – Language: German – English – Spanish with german Subs. Copy from German TV channel RBB)
Irgendwer hat den kompletten Film bei Youtube hochgeladen. Die Qualität ist nicht berauschend, aber wer den Film noch nicht gesehen hat…
Synopsis:
Am 17. Juni 1986 wird ein toter Mann aus einem See am Rande Ost-Berlins gezogen. Es ist der ame- rikanische Sänger und Schauspieler Dean Reed – eine der geheimnisvollsten Ikonen der Popkultur zu Zeiten des Kal- ten Krieges. Dean Reed war befreundet mit Salvador Allende und Yasser Arafat, protestierte auf der ganzen Welt gegen Militär-Regime und den Vietnamkrieg, drehte Spaghettiwestern in Italien, tourte als erster Amerikaner durch die Sowjetunion, sang Country-Schlager im DDR-Fernsehen und ließ sich mit Maschinengewehr im Libanon ablichten.
Aus einer Kleinstadt Colorados ging er nach Hollywood und produzierte eine handvoll Singles. „Our Summer Romance“ eroberte in Südamerika die Charts. Dean Reed war Cowboy und Entertainer, Teenie-Star und Frauenschwarm, Friedens- kämpfer und Rebell, der unermüdlich mit seiner Gitarre um den Erdball reiste und dabei nicht nur seine eigenen Grenzen, sondern auch die Einzugsbereiche der ideologischen Blöcke herausforderte. Als er 1972 in die DDR zieht, ist Dean Reed ein gefeierter Star des Sozialismus. Sein Mythos hat die Ära des Kalten Krieges überlebt.
Der Film basiert auf meinem Buch
Leopold Grün porträtiert den faszinierenden Quertreiber und balanciert dabei geschickt die Episoden aus. „Der Rote Elvis“ ist ein einfühlsamer und zugleich kritischer Dokumentarfilm über eine zeitgeschichtliche Ausnahmeerscheinung. Zwischen Erfolg und Tragik, zwischen politischem Engagement und Naivität hat Dean Reed für eine ganze Generation den Soundtrack ihres Lebens geschaffen. Die Filmmusik macht die Erinnerung an die Utopien des „Roten Elvis“ nicht nur greifbar, sondern zeigt sie auch in ihrer ganzen vibrierenden Lebendigkeit. Der Film basiert auf meinem Buch
Info & Presseheft (PDF) / DVD bei Goodmovies.de
Homepage: TheRedElvis.de
Neues Album von Sister Chain & Brother John
Meine lieben Freunde John und Chain stehen kurz vor der Veröffentlichung ihres zweiten Albums „The Androgyne Show“ und die ersten Hörproben machen gespannt. Das Geld für die Produktion hat das Duo sehr modern bei Fans im Internet eingesammelt. Als Label treten unsere dänischen Freunde von Sopa in Erscheinung und um den weltweiten Vertrieb kümmmert sich Pale Music aus Berlin.
Dazu passend habe ich gerade meinen Text aus der „Zitty“ von 2007 für das Presseinfo gefunden.
Info:
Looking like Victorian gentlefolk, wielding a distorted guitar and a tambourine, they relate stories of the wicked set and the lovelorn; of teenage daydreams and erotic nightmares, creating what can best be described as Parlour Punk or latter day chamber music.
The duo Sister Chain & Brother John formed in July 2005 when Berlin-based singer Sister Chain (Skin Blues, Spinster Sister) and Brother John Higgins (former frontman of London band Val’s Basement and fly by night producer) met in a mysterious bookshop.
Since that day, Sister Chain and Brother John have played over 250 concerts in churches, on boats, on street corners in war zones as well as the usual nightclubs, festivals and concert halls. They released their debut album „Darkness to Warm Your Heart“ in 2008 and toured in Denmark, Norway, Germany, UK, The Czech Republic, Israel and more. The duo’s second album „The Androgyne Show“ will be released soon.
FEB 24 2012: „The Androgyne Show“, release show, HeadQuarters, Aarhus, Denmark
Sister Chain & Brother John live in Århus, Denmark, 2010
Exberliner – Vintage Special
For those who haven’t seen it, I made it into the new issue of the „Exberliner’s“ Winter Vintage Special for some reason. Click on the image for a bigger version.
Aus irgendwelchen Gründen bin ich diesen Monat im Stadtmagazin „Exberliner“ abgebildet und halte dafür alte Comics vom Flohmarkt in die Kamera. Clicken Sie auf das Bild und eine größere, lesbare Version erscheint wie aus dem Nichts.
Germany’s Harz Mountains: From Nazi horror to alternative energy
A region scarred by history holds unique promise in Germany’s quest to go green.
Here’s a story I wrote for Global Post:
„BERLIN, Germany — The Harz mountains have a problem.
Located in central Germany, between Nuremberg and Hamburg, the region was once “famous for its industry, culture and nature,” said Florian Kroeckel, who grew up there. The range’s highest peak, the towering Brocken, was the fictional site of the witches’ spring festival celebration in Goethe’s „Faust.“
Then came World War II. Nazi missile manufacturers converted the Harz’s underground mines into forced labor concentration camps. Tens of thousands of inmates died there, under brutal conditions. And after the war, the mountains hosted Soviet spy facilities, with restricted access. Since then, the area has never recovered. Locals still struggle to find work.
The region “feels like the end of the world,” said Kroeckel. “It really needs the jobs as well as the cultural life to come back.”
Meanwhile, renewable energy has a problem as well.
Germany has invested many billions of dollars into wind and solar. But no amount of money can make the wind blow nor the sun shine consistently. And people can’t be asked only to run the heat or lights or computers when the weather cooperates.
Nonetheless, Germany is determined to have 35 percent of its electricity come from renewables by 2020, and 80 percent by 2050. It’s also phasing out nuclear, which currently forms a significant portion of the country’s power.
That means that somehow, green energy needs to become reliable.
But how?
Harz mountains, meet renewable energy.
German planners see a solution — at least in part — in the region’s abandoned underground shaft mines, which they say can be used to store energy produced by renewables.
The technology – called hydroelectric pump storage — is an elegant solution that deploys the energy potential of gravity.
When the wind is blowing or the sun is shining, excess electricity will be used to pump water upwards, into storage tanks within the mines. Then, when nature isn’t cooperating sufficiently to meet energy demands, that water is released down into the mines. As it descends, it turns turbines located down below, creating electricity.
The concept is similar to traditional hydro-electric, but without impact of huge dams and reservoirs.
“It’s the right time for such a project,” said Christian Budde, spokesman for the Economic Ministry of Lower Saxony. “And the question of energy storage is definitely one of the big problems we are facing over the next few years as we transition from the age of coal, gas and atomic energy to the age of renewables.”
While the project would initially only work with local wind parks, officials say it could later store energy generated by offshore wind turbines in the North Sea.
Marko Schmidt, an industrial engineer with the Energy Research Center of Lower Saxony in Goslar, came up with the idea after examining the success of placing small water power stations underground in the Harz Mountains.
These new water stations are placed between 174 meters (571 feet) and 220 meters (722 feet) below the surface. Schmidt foresees as many as 11 more wind energy storage facilities in the region. Up to 100 could be installed in various former mines across Germany.
The idea is good for Germany’s renewable goals, but also for the region.
“The industrial base in the Harz is not so large or well-developed, and the old mines could breathe new life into it,” he said. “It could bring jobs and economic revival.”
Being underground, the projects won’t suffer from the not-in-my-backyard problem that afflicts so many energy initiatives. Despite its haunted reputation, the region still draws tourists to its bucolic landscape and medieval villages.
Using the mines to produce clean energy would also help rehabilitate them from their own ghoulish past — a history that has an odd twist involving the US military.
In 1943, the Nazis set up more than 40 forced labor camps in the mines of nearby Nordhausen-Dora to build V-2 rockets. Over 20,000 inmates died in the underground factory in Dora alone. Wernher von Braun, an SS member who designed the V-2, visited the concentration camp twice in 1944 but later denied knowledge of the nightmarish conditions in the tunnels.
In April 1945, when the US army reached the Harz, the Nazis sent 40,000 camp survivors on a death march. Four weeks later, around 10,000 of them had perished. Later, the Americans brought von Braun to Alabama, where his files were cleaned up and he lived freely, helping to build rockets for the US military.
After the war ended, the Harz became part of communist East Germany, and home to the Soviets’ main western outpost. Riddled with surveillance and espionage technology, the range was off limits until the Berlin Wall fell in 1989. The last Soviet soldier finally left the mountains in March 1994. The region has struggled ever since, despite federal subsidies.
In recent years the “Initiative Future Harz” has collected proposals to develop the region, and the underground energy storage facility has garnered widespread support.
Backers hope to get approval for the estimated 200 million euro ($270 million) project within the next three years, and have it connected to the grid by 2018.
“We’ve already had more than a 100 meetings and interviews with entrepreneurs and potential investors from various sectors,” said Bernhard Reuter, district administrator of Osterode in the Harz. “And we could easily become Germany’s No. 1 storage facility. This project is not a utopian fantasy.“
From Global Post.
I do subtitles with Annotation Edit
I just did the English subtitles and a bit of translation for the film „Bleib ganz ruhig, da wird schon nichts sein“ (Stay Calm, I’m sure it’s Nothing) by Käthe Kruse (Ex-Tödliche Doris) for the cphdox festival in Copenhagen.
It’s a wonderful little film documenting the premiere of this performance with Käthe Kruse’s daughters supporting the artist with some music.
Working on this I was reminded how much I love working with Annotation Edit by Zeitanker which is worth every penny if you’re in this business. The software is fun to work with and I wouldn’t use anything else for professional subs. This has become one of my favorite programs by now.
Keyfeatures include:
– Easy to use tools, created with the user in mind.
– Precise controls for input and output.
– Tight integration with Apple’s video pro applications.
– Unlimited tracks per project.
– Video format independent editing and archiving.
Get the demo and give it a try.
African Masks / Afrikanische Masken
I’m working on a book about african masks for a russian collecor on the side right now and I’m looking for some real experts to help me out with some of the textwork. Please contact me if you think you can help out.
DEUTSCH:
Für einen neuen Auftrag redaktioneller Natur könnte ich derzeit Hilfe von Experten in Sachen afrikanischer Kunst gebrauchen.
Ein Sammler aus Russland möchte auf eigene Rechnung ein Buch über seine Sammlung afrikanischer Masken publizieren und dafür ist Hilfe an der Textfront gefragt. Ja, es gibt sogar ein wenig Geld.
Ernst gemeinte Bewerbungen aus dem akademischen oder journalistischen Bereich bitte an mich.
Portrait by Sebastian Krüger (1995)
Erste Skizze für ein Porträt in Farbe, welches meiner Frau Mutter an einem hohen Geburtstag überreicht wurde.
Ich war 25 und fand mich natürlich außerordentlich gut getroffen.
Vor allem, wenn man sich dann die anderen Arbeiten des Künstlers ansieht.
ENGLISH:
Original sketch for a portrait my mother got for her birthday in 1995. I’m still very proud of this one.
Mister Sebastian Krueger shares a studio with Mister Ron Wood. Check out his other works.
Visit the one and only Sebastian Krüger Homepage
Portrait of the Artist by Fly (New York, 2004)
Unfreiwillig komischer Beginn einer Serie von Porträts, die mehr oder weniger berühmte Künstler und Künstlerinnen von mir irgendwann mal angefertigt haben. Durch meinen Hintergrund im Comicbereich hat sich da im Keller so einiges an wunderlichen Dingen angefunden, die diesem Blog fortan nicht länger vorenthalten werden sollten.
ENGLISH: For some reason I have quite a few portraits of myself which were drawn by famous or not so famous artists. I also found a lot of original comic art by Peter Bagge, Dan Clowes, Gilbert Shelton, The Hernandez Brothers and some other folks under my bed.
I might as well scan all that stuff and share it before the house is on fire and everything gets lost.
Let’s start with this one. I was very flattered to be included in the book „PEOP(le)S“#3 by New York artist Fly. She did this quick portrait when I went to see her in Manhattan in 2004. John Zorn lived in the squat across and said hallo while we were chatting about Revolution Yoga, Milchschaum makers from Ikea, George W. Bush and other important things.
The portrait is part of an addition to the big book of PEOP(le)S published by Softskull.
Fly talks to the people while she is sketching them. There are no audio-recordings. No tricks! It’s all done on the spot until the page is full (which creates an interesting situation if you talk as much as I do when someone asks you for it….)
It’s an interview with live-lettering plus live-sketching in a way and the artist has collected a very impressive series of people she met.
Get PEOP(le)S as an introduction to the Lower Eastside of Manhattan, squatting, punk and all that. Some of these pages appeared in Maximum Rock’n’ Roll a long time ago already.
