Last weekend M and I went to Linz, Austria as part of the TourCon trip organized by some students at her University. We left Lüneburg on a bus on Friday night, got off at Passau, got on the MS Johann Strauss and went down the Danube river overnight to Linz. While M was enjoying conferences and seminars, I explored Linz.

I noticed that there were a lot of creepy dudes meandering about near the town center on this Sunday morning. I think they were party zombies left over from the previous evening’s events.

It being Sunday, all the shops were closed. My first stop was the ARS Electronica. If you are interested in the latest greatest forms of interactive input devices, check it out. They are currently renovating their permanent location which means the exhibits in their current location are kinda slapped together. A lot of the cool gadget things weren’t working. The things that were working were cool and interesting but trying to get any helpful information from the guides was pointless. There was a very cool music sequencer that was controlled by light and also a so called CAVE, both of which I would have liked to learn more about. Hardware? Software? “Um, something with Onyx I think.”

I also got to play with or in Gulliver’s World. It was a lot of fun.

Next stop was the Offenes Kulturhaus Oberösterreich. There was a cool exhibit by Luca Vitone and a really interesting audio exhibit audio Sam Auinger. My favorites were deep blue v.1.2 and mauerpark.

I could write more but I have become bored and don’t feel like it. Here are some pictures.

Sweet.

The immense, awe-inspiring, Überschwerer Kampfschreitpanzer (Superheavy Armored Walking Tank) is thought to be the brainchild of notorious Nazi (mad) scientist Doctor Siegfried Qual, who built the initial prototype as a gift to Adolph Hitler.

via.

I went to see Black Rebel Motorcycle Club play at the Markthalle* in Hamburg. Hi-res pics can be seen here. It was one of the best rocking concerts I have seen in a long time. The droning/searing guitars along with the light show helped create a very mellow groovy atmosphere.

If you are into early Verve, The Stooges, Spiritualized or Black Sabbath, you might like Black Rebel Motorcycle Club.

And if your kitchen table has a hole in it where a doorknob used to be, you might be a redneck or something.

*Look who else played at the Markthalle last month.

For lunch yesterday, I had a mutated banana that consisted of 2 bananas inside one peel. It was double delicious. Click for more pics.

Human Rights Panel Criticizes Blacklisting Methods

The Council of Europe’s legal committee urged an international overhaul of regulations for blacklisting individuals and groups to provide them access to evidence, rights to a fair trial or impartial review within a reasonable time, and compensation for wrongful designation as a terrorist.

Wow. This seems so common sense. Why would it seem so strange then if the US Supreme Court were to say the same thing at a press conference tomorrow? It’s pretty sad that it would be a complete surprise. A shock to some indeed.

I’m not sure yet what the implications of this may be, but maybe the EU could set a good example.

I’m going to bed.

ZZZzzz…_*

I don’t mean Elvis. I mean King Ludwig II of Bavaria. I was just kicking it at his crib a few weeks ago and was seriously doubting the suicide theory. I have no doubt he was crazy though. Seriously, a grotto inside the castle? Der Spiegel has an article about a new theory concerning his madness and death.

Was “Mad” King Ludwig Murdered?

For over a century, Crazy King Ludwig’s death has been ruled a suicide. But now, a new theory, based on a mysterious, bullet-ridden coat, has it that the Bavarian monarch, builder of Bavaria’s fairytale castles, was actually shot. And maybe he wasn’t insane after all.

Before I was making videos for JibJab, I was keeping it real on Soul Train back in the day. I’m the one with the ‘fro

A series of pictures depicting the differences between German and Chinaese cultures by artist Yang Lui.
This has been bouncing around the net for a few weeks. If you haven’t seen it, here you go.

Boo!
Halloween is getting more and more popular in Germany but it is not yet quite mainstream. Case in point: Halloween zombie mistaken for murder victim. That is so German in so many ways.

Anyway, we carved pumpkins last night and put them on the front bench when we were done (I won this year, hands down. Pictures are coming soon.) And then sadly…after we put out the jack-o-lanterns, we went on a twenty minute walk. When we came back, M’s pumpkin was gone. We found it smashed on the ground around the corner in front of a restaurant. Of course nobody saw anything. Those fuckers. They didn’t take my pumpkin because it probably scared the hell out of them. Yeah, it’s that good.

I bought candy but no kids came to the door except one little boy and his dad who I found checking out the pumpkin wondering why it looked so awesome. They were a bit unfamiliar with the Halloween concept. I schooled them on it. They got some candy but I’m not sure if they know why.

I didn’t dress up because, as the linked article demonstrates above, who knows what kind of trouble I could get into. Although my friend Bob has a pretty good costume. (don’t click if rubber dildos make you uncomfortable. Ummm, you know what I mean.)

Check out my photos of when my parent visited

Peace out.

These lobsters are tough.

Dozens of lobsters destined to be boiled alive made a successful getaway from an Asian supermarket in the German city of Stuttgart in the early hours of Sunday morning, police said.

Wait a minute. Haven’t I seen these lobsters some place before?