Posts Tagged ‘concert’

Opera voice & post-industrial Berlin.

Tuesday, December 2nd, 2008

After some nagging by friends here in Berlin, I got my act together, wrapped myself into my at least 20 year old yellow tarpaulin cape and rode my bike through the wet streets of Berlin, entering the Berghain. This location, a former industrial building which shows huge amounts of concrete when you are inside, hosted the yellowlounge event: Patricia Petibon, who presented her debut album Amoureuses.
Everybody looked like we do: hovering around age 3X, not too stylish, not too mundane. A whole factory full of this kind of people. And in the middle of this peculiar crowd: a small stage with a Steinway & Sons piano. After more than an hour of recorded classical music tracks and light installations, the actual show began, split into two parts of about twenty to thirty minutes. I was quite enchanted by the way the soprano Patricia Petitbon presented her work (classical songs, some taken from operas, but mostly short songs written by composers dead and alive – most in French, many in English, and one or two in Italian). Good voice, of course, but also a charming performance that broke with some of the expectations that you might have about classical singing. I can definitely recommend the live performance – even if you have your doubts about people who can sing so loud that you (a) are vexed by the incongruence of bodily size and voice volume and (b) don’t understand what words they are supposed to sing.

Die Segnungen des DVB-T auf dem heimischen Laptop.

Tuesday, January 3rd, 2006

Der Weihnachtsmann hat neue technische Errungenschaften in den heimischen Haushalt befördert: der Miglia TVMini USB-2 Stick inklusive der Mac-Software EyeTV lag schön verpackt unterm Baum. Ausgepackt ist der Stick angenehm klein und wird entweder direkt oder über das mitgelieferte USB Kabel angeschlossen. Zusätzlich zu dem USB Ein/Ausgang des Sticks befindet sich auch ein Antenneneingang an dem Stick, an dem mittels des ebenfalls mitgelieferten Adapters normale Koaxialkabel von Antennen angeschlossen werden können, über die dann der Empfang der DVB-T Signals stattfindet. Wenn die – bedienungsfreundliche – Software installiert ist, startet selbige beim Einstecken des Sticks und zeigt auch gleich das Fernsehprogramm auf dem zuletzt eingestellten Kanal. Angenehm, denn so läuft die Chose schnell, wenn man sie braucht, weil zum Beispiel in wenigen Sekunden der Tatort beginnt.
Der Kabelkrams hält sich in Grenzen, die Installation ist einfach, der Empfang selbst mit der kleinen, mit Magnet versehenen mitgelieferten Stabantenne ordentlich und versorgt einen mit bewegten Bildern.
In Buchholz und in Kisdorf bei Kaltenkirchen (beides im Hamburger Umland) habe ich knapp 30 Programme empfangen, hier in Berlin sind es 29 Fernsehprogramme und dazu noch 32 Radioprogramme. Anfangs dachte ich, die Radioprogramme würden mich nicht weiter interessieren, habe dann aber gleich beim ersten Ausprobieren eine ganz besondere Perle erwischt: RadioEins hat am 30. Dezember nachts eine Aufzeichnung des Konzerts von der wirklich wunderbaren und fabelhaften Emiliana Torrini in der Berliner Passionskirche ausgestrahlt. Nachdem ich meinen vor Freude aufgeklappten Kiefer geschlossen und meine Hirnwindungen wieder in Schwung gebracht hatte musste ich bloss noch das Knöpfchen für Aufzeichnung drücken und bin nun glücklicher Besitzer eines Konzertmitschnitts meiner derzeitigen Lieblingssängerin. Allein dafür hat sich die Anschaffung schon gelohnt.
Aber auch die Fernsehübertragung ist super: man bekommt beim Umschalten immer den Titel und die Sendezeit der aktuellen und der folgenden Sendung angezeigt. Eine nützliche Angelegenheit. Die Qualität ist auch sehr gut, so dass es selbst mit der Winzantenne nur selten zu Bildruckeln kommt, das sich aber durch Veränderung der Antennenausrichtung beheben lässt. Erstklassige Sache das. Besonders nett ist das Zusammenspiel zwischen EyeTV und dem Fernsehen Widget.

Being a fan.

Sunday, March 13th, 2005

This weekend I had ample opportunity to hone my skills as a fan. The most challenging aspect of this endeavour was the difference between the acts that I was participating in: On Friday, a Ska-Punk concert; yesterday, Pop-Music at the German qualification for the European Song Contest.

The concert of the Skatoons took place in the Tommy Weissbecker Haus in Berlin Kreuzberg. An adequate location. There were quite a few kids there, and not few of the female population was inspired by Avril Lavigne-ness. The concert was great fun, even though several members of the Band were ill or still recovering from illness. Fast rythms, great ska-brass-blasting-sounds and a fun crew on the stage. I have to admit that my oldest friend Henning is part of the Band, along with others that I know like Inga, Tobe, and Holle, therefore I might have been slightly non-objective in my judgement. However, I had the opportunity to watch kids that knew the lyrics of the songs they played (not of the cover versions!), and they seemed to have a lot of fun, too. Buy their records, visit their website, dance to their music!

Change of subject; different scene altogether. A bunch of friends and yours truly are in the Arena in Berlin Treptow, entering the set for the European Song Contest qualification. We were cheering for Mia, a good friend of my apartment mate Olli. It was warm there too, though much less sweaty, and more heads with hair on top were present. We had excellent – the best, I would say – seats right at the side of the catwalk that belonged to the stage set, and enjoyed a perfect view on the performances. Which weren’t always that great, sadly. Nonetheless, we enjoyed the event immensely, cheered as much as we could every time Mia Aegerter was mentioned or visible on stage and hoped the best for her. Bad luck. Somebody else had more active fans voting for their star and Mia did not qualify… I liked her performance of the song Alive on stage – surely the vote has not a lot to do with her performance though. Reinhold Beckmann, the moderator, was terrible: neither funny nor clever nor sincere. The one shining light (hehe) for me was: Emma the former Spice Girl. The choreography of her dancing crew on stage was really funny, and really well done. I can’t recall much of the song, but the performace was great. What is even better: when she passed our seats I could not resist and hollered Emma!! and received a charming smile from a real, life Spice Girl! What a day…