sven väth 44

It was funny to see Sven Väth's mother having so much fun in Cocoon next to Sven while DJ-ing. Interesting side note - Sven Väth is married indeed - and his wife has a website under http://www.ninapeter.com/. The music I like ...

life backwards

Life would be much better lived backwards.

You'd start out dead and get it out of the way.

Then, wake up in an old peoples' home feeling better every day.

You get kicked out for being too healthy; go collect your pension, then, when you start work, you get a gold watch on your first day.

You work 40 years until you're young enough to enjoy your retirement.

At retirement - 18 years of age - you drive the sports car you can actually enjoy!

You eat what you want, you party... and you get ready to start school.

You go to primary school, you become a kid, you play, you have no responsibilities, you become a baby, and then ..........

You spend your last 9 months floating peacefully in luxury, in spa-like conditions; central heating, room service on tap, larger quarters every day...

And then, you finish off as an orgasm.

I rest my case.

(thanks, jack)

it's a free world @ sneak preview

ebay lesson 137

just realized that I haven't written for such a long time - not because I feel bad, actually pretty much it is the opposite, but I have been quite busy the last couple of weeks. First some weekend trips (long weekend in France, then Vienna) - and now since two weeks I am working in the UK which is great except that I am travelling, working or sleeping most of the time.

So now that I have to go back to the UK next week, I had to sell my precious Leonard Cohen Tickets via ebay (*sick) because I cannot make it to the concert. Although I managed to sell them, I am not so happy as I think I totally sold them for less than I invested. The reason is, that I made up a bad description. It turns out that I forgot to mention the name of the city in the title. So when you search for something like "Leonard Cohen", you get a million results including CDs, posters, and my auction - so basically you simply do not stumble over it. When you search for something like "Leonard Cohen Frankfurt" - you get 3 results of competing auctions. And all of them went higher than my badly advertised one. So next time I know. By the way - this piece of epxerience cost me only 70 Euros - a fair price I would say ...

The other thing going on for the last 4 weeks has been me being more or less vegetarian. Ok, some of you know, that in my case this includes eating fish. There is a simple explanation for that. My definition for vegetarianism is the following:

If it can cry out loud (so that I can hear it) when it is being killed, then I cannot eat it.

I think it is a very practical definition that pretty much goes along the line of the good old does a falling tree make a sound when noone is around dilemma. I am happy I didn't actually study biology so I can pretend this actually works ...

another motivational video from the fitness center

another bastos blunch

showing off

perfect day

seven hours to vienna

took the train to vienna. got angry when we stopped at südbahnhof cause I could have boarded it there also this saving more than half an hour of my very precious time. watched two dvd-s (logan's run and sky captain and the world of something. what a crappy movie!!!) and read a book. also interesting to note, that half of the westbahnhof is gone. they are renovating it as it seems ...

pineapple express @ sneak preview

time to go home after the crepes

vive la france

keyhole view

photowalking tours (the city)

chin chin versailles

bonsoir

Just a quick note before switching off the PC. I have now been vegetarian since Monday and since Tuesday even without fish. I also cooked asparagus for the first time in my life - it was pretty good. I mean it is soooo simple, I don't know why I am not doing it more often. It is a great meat-substitute. I am now off to France for the weekend so I will miss the POPSTARS episode this evening, which I really don't care any more. Here is a great ad for whatever ...

why? I mean why? I really don't get it

this could have been such a good movie. Could have ...

Paparazza @ Photokina

MURAKAMI in MMK

Just a quick note on one of the best exhibitions in Frankfurt. If you live here or just visit and miss this one, you are an idiot. That is idiota in Italian by the way. I really mean it!

vegetarian

the practice of a diet that excludes meat (including game and slaughter by-products), fish (including shellfish and other sea animals) and poultry.

So after a wonderful brunch with Alba at Bastos on Sunday and another wonderful dinner sponsored by Jasmina I decided to go vegetarian this week. It went pretty ok - until tonight. I made another important decision last weekend - to go out more. I researched all kinds of websites for Frankfurt institutions, even created a Google calendar (on the right) and so I went to 2 exhibition openings tonight. The first one was in the filmmuseum. A photographer with the coolest name ever - Jim Rakete - and his portraits shot with 1/8 sec using an analogue camera. Great pictures, boring opening. The second event was in the Kunstverein - the exhibition was, hmm how to descibe - special? We ended up at the bar with some Spanish food. That is when it happened. I went inside, saw the chorizo and went for it. Only with the first piece in my mouth have I realized that I wanted to be vegetarian this week. After some consideration I made another very important decision. Who cares? And so we had a wonderful evening drinking lots of wine, eating cheese, chorizo and olives.

Here are all the pictures. I also got some ideas for a costume for Halloween ...

Oh, another thing. I am very much looking forward to this weekend, going to Cologne for the Photokina. I was considering to buy the new Nikon D90, but recently it seems that either I have been betting on the wrong horse or Nikon is simply doing a shitty job at marketing. Or Canon is simply better. In any case it is worth checking out below movie.

Natalie!!! Cinderella!!!

I don't know what to say. Let's just say, there have been so many good movies at the sneak recently, that I can totally forgive this one. Well, on the other hand, it had its moments. ;-)

süß

u-o-l-y-i-e

Moni - Portrait

another fantastic photo course. Click on the pic to see the rest ...

back again

I created this wordle based on my blog. hmmm, interesting. I am too tired to play with the colors, but I might do it later.

dragonboating

just came home from the dragonboat race. we finished an amazing 4. place. I am now going to bed but got this before and thought I would share this with the world ...

60s brithdayparty - love you guys!!!

das wird teuer ...

Ahoo & Jan & Hamburg

a wonderful weekend full of celebrations, lots of eating, drinking, dancing, smiling. Plus an added bonus - Hamburg. Got to go back there some time!!!

lecsó

I am happy that I finally took the time to tell the world (or at least the ones who read the blog) about the art of cooking a great Hungarian dish called "lecsó". At my last visit to Budapest I managed to visit my grandma and took the opportunity to take some pictures and little movies of her cooking skills. So here we go:

We will need:

• 1-2 onions
  
• a hungarian sausage (best made with spicy ones, but you can take whatever you want)
  
• 3-4 tomatoes
  
• 3-4 paprikas (also known as capsicum but I don't care and will simply call it paprika)
  
• some paprika powder (the spice)
  
• a hungarian paste called "piros arany" - which means red gold. it is basically a salty paprika paste that can be quite spicy sometimes
  
• 2 eggs

1. we start by cutting the sausage - of course at this stage it is CRUCIAL that you try lot. I would say, as a general rule you should buy twice as much as you need. At least if you cook like I do. Also if you don't want to try yourself, just call me, I will gladly help at this stage.


2. cut the tomatoes into small pieces. also peel them if you like.


3. cut the paprika into small pieces


4. have the paprika spice ready


5. if you are very thorough - like my grandma - wash the eggs


6. and then put the egg in a cup so it can be quickly used later on


7. we are ready to start. heat the onions in a little oil until they "sweat" as they say


As this takes a while, we have time to take a picture of my grandma. We call her "Dadó" because that is what I called her when I was very young and couldn't really speak but tried anyway. Now everybody calls her like that.


8. when we are happy with the onions, we add a bit of paprika spice and the "piros arany"


9. now it's time to add the remaining sausages into the pan. This is your last chance to try them before they will be too hot to be eaten before the lecsó is finished!!!


10. when the sausages start jumping around and making that wonderful noise which makes you more hungry, it is time for the paprika to join the party. Of course we have to help the party a bit by stirring it up


11. we have to cover the pan at this stage so that the water from the paprika stays there


time for another picture of Dadó:


12. we can now add the tomatoes and stir them under the rest


13. if you didn't forget to put the lid back on, this is how it should look like after a while:


14. it's time to let it cook openly


15. mmmmmmm - looking good:


16. next the eggs join the rest to bind the sauce a little


17. ta-raa! This is how it should look like just before serving:


18. and this is how it will look like just a little later - call me if you need help to reach this stage!!!


it is best served with white bread which can be used also to "clean the pan". Of course I couldn't take any more pictures because I was busy eating and at this moment didn't really care any more ...

You can find all the pictures and videos on my flickr page

vacation

I am in Vienna and actually should already be in bed because in less than 6 hours I have to catch a bus to catch a train to ...

Aaaanyways - I took a day off on this historical day. Exactly 7 years ago, on August 15th I moved to Germany. I had a drink in the evening with my friends, went home with Claudia at around 1 in the morning, packed a couple of things and took a plane in the morning to Frankfurt. The rest is history as they say. The plan was to stay 2-3 years and then move on. The first 3 years I was working during the week and traveling to Vienna mostly on the weekends, only after we split up and I started spending more time in Frankfurt have I started liking Frankfurt and meeting people. I changed company once, changed jobs five times, am currently living in my third flat in Frankfurt (not counting the hotel I stayed the first 3 weeks of course) and using my 5. camera to take many many pictures of my life. Only recently am I beginning to get bored with the city but am still reluctant to move and start over somewhere else. Still I am slowly accepting the feeling inside me that there is some kind of a change coming. The feeling reminds me of the matrix movie when Leo asks the oracle about his decision to save trinity - really he is not looking for a decision but for the reason why he has made that particular decision. Ok, I am either overworked or high on some drug they mixed in my tomato juice on the plane - as normally I am not writing about this kind of stuff ...

The plan for tomorrow is to go to Budapest in the morning, have lunch with my grandma, who I haven't seen since February, then meet with an old friend and take the evening train to the lake to see my parents. I will either come back with them on Sunday to Vienna or stay a bit longer and come back only Tuesday. We will see. Then there is a dentist appointment on Wednesday to clean my mouth with sand and then I fly back to Frankfurt in the evening.

So what else is happening these days? Nothing much - expect the Olympics in China. The opening ceremony was fantastic; the rest is pretty boring to be honest. I used to like watching the swimming but recently it has become very boring due to the stupid speedo full body suits everybody is wearing - I mean they all look the same now. It's like throwing robots in the water and letting them swim. Plus they are breaking each and every record! It's like the swimming pool is too short and nobody is noticing or something. (I wonder how they are measuring it is really 100m? hmmm). Maybe the athletics part will be more exciting. I wonder when that is gonna start.

The other stuff is pretty boring too - the Chinese are winning everything. Only a few exciting things happened as a Chinese rower missed his race because he overslept, a Hungarian weightlifter broke his elbow while lifting - obviously - too much weight. Oh, yes. And the little girl singing at the opening ceremony wasn't really singing - her sole task was to look good as the one with the nice voice was apparently too ugly to be on TV.

However I am glad that beach volleyball became an official sport at the Olympic Games. At least this way Mr. Bush got a perfect photo opportunity - and look what happened. I mean can you imagine any other politician in the same situation? I don't think so.