Outsider’s Insights

I was totally flashed by yesterday’s performance “Extended Teenage Era” from Samir Akika, who is titled by the media the “Tarantino of contemporary dance directors”.

ETE is about growing up. Or just not growing up. And it’s shown with such lightness and ease, it’s bliss to watch. The dancers are great, their immensely different backgrounds - from b-boying aka breakdance over popping and locking to modern dance - blend in a wonderful way. By the way, the winner of the Battle of the Year 2007 and the german master of Electric Boogie are in the ensemble.

And there’s so much humour in it, I almost fell out of my chair several times. Really amazing. If you have the chance to watch it: Go for it.

There are 4 trailers on youtube, giving you a first impression about the play. The future gigs are listed there too. And as the crew says right at the beginning of the performance: they want you to bootleg the performance to put in on youtube, so we might get more than just trailers soon.

Usually a mixture of dance and acting is not my favourite choice. Either there is too little dance or the acting is crappy. But with ETE, it works great. Almost 2 hours without a break, and my concentration wavered just once (because of the boring reggae song they used at that moment). Speaking about music, besides this one reggae song they use a huge variety including The Cure, Schubert, New order, great powerful electronic stuff and a lot more. Seeing them b-boying to Schubert is so wonderful.

So here’s one of the trailers:

BTW: They are in Düsseldorf next January and I would like to see them again.

I’m just listening to the Mötley Crüe Album “Too fast for love”.

Still very nice, the music that is, because the cover and other pictures are just hilarious.

80’s Heavy Metal. The sound of my youth. ^^

I like the whole album “Comments Of The Inner Chorus”, but “Jenny Again” is my favourite song by Tunng. “Experimental folk electronic music” says (another horrible) Myspace-site. But in music you don’t seem to be able to do without one…

Autorennen auf den Punkt gebracht hat mal wieder die Titanic.

I can totally understand the Hollywood Writers, who are on strike now.

It’s all about the Internet. Maybe you’ve heard of it. We think we should get paid for when our work appears or is sold online - just like we do when it’s on the tube or in theaters. We’re up against conglomerates such as CBS, Disney and Fox, which have, after much searching in their souls (sic), determined they’d prefer not to pay us.

When I apply for a shoot, and the pay would be miserable, the usual excuse is: well, it’s just for the internet.
Just?
Well… let me see.
Okay, it’s not sure, how many people will watch it. But the same goes for television. And if somethings hits big on the internet, everybody will see it.

How about actors and writers getting an additional per-click-share instead of nothing.

Yeah, I know, highly realistic.

1. Brad Pitt
2. Peter Fonda
3. Matt Damon
4. David Bowie
5. Jon Bon Jovi
6. Hugh Grant
   and welcome the newest entry on no. 7
7. Kevin Costner
8. Bryan Adams (added in September 2008)