Archive for July, 2003

Small steps.

Thursday, July 3rd, 2003

Yesterday and today I did some more research regarding the subjects train station and passenger terminals. Surprisingly, there doesn’t seem to be that available on the web, at least in German. There are many sites where you can read minor variations on the anti-surveillance-Foucault’s-Panoticon-exclusion-of-the-homeless theme – this is an important and central problem of contemporary cities and their public or semi-public spaces – however, this definitely doesn’t cover the intricacies and sublime effects of urban/spatial/technological design on social action. So, I’ll see what I will find in the texts that I ordered via internet at the libraries in Darmstadt. (I still can’t believe I managed to make those orders and start the real bibliographic work – a true burst of productivity!)

Still, I found one or two interesting things. Following, a few links (all of these sites are in German):
on urban space: stadtraum.org, transitraum
on train stations: diskus, Bahnhofsoffensive gegen Rassismus (derive), INNENSTADT-AG Frankfurt, Rund um den Bahnhof (Schweiz), TAZ Artikel 25.01.02, and a historic essay on train stations
on video surveillance: spotoff

The weekend.

Wednesday, July 2nd, 2003

The trip into the Brandenburgian province was worth it. We took a train to Chorin, rode our bicycles to the Parstein lake where you can find a great spot to swim and refresh yourself in the water. *aaahhhh* Then we raced down into the valley of the river Oder and rode on the dike through the southern parts of the Nationalpark Unteres Odertal. Getting somewhat tired and we wanted to go to the closest train station after that. We went to Oderberg. And found out pretty soon that the station has been shut down a while ago :-( Well, it was only a 12km ride to Bad Freienwalde…

There is one more thing to tell you about this weekend:
Olli had his first public gig! He sang the future chartbreaker Kastanienallee in a club called Bad Kleinen. Of course, it was a great success!>

Another movie highlight from Scandinavia.

Wednesday, July 2nd, 2003

Yesterday we saw Fucking Åmal. With a by now typical camera, we’re introduced into the adolescent life in a small Swedish town. It’s a high school movie. It’s a nice movie. I repeatedly found myself surprised by the way the story turned (or did not turn). The two main characters, Agnes and Elin, are portraied and played really well, and they create an enchanting story. No cheerleading though and (almost) no basketball… Mac geeks will be rewarded too.
Check out a fan page with links to different trailers, wallpapers etc. here.>