I ended up having more fun at the smaller festival Mutek because of the intimacy of the events. We were only there for the last two days of the festival. Saturday night we headed over to Metropolis for an amazing line up. I was excited to see Chloe live but for me the best act of the night was a debut dubby set by Code 9 and Space Ape. This normally isn’t even the kind of music I like but there was something really transcendent about their performance. After their set ended DJ Olive said “Wow that was like Sun Ra!”

The real highlight of the weekend was the outdoor Picnic Electronique with Mathias Kaden & Onur Özur djing together. We danced all day in the foggy wet light rain. No one seemed to be phased by the crappy weather because the music and the vibe was so unbelievably good. In their totally creative set Mathias Kaden & Onur Özur mixed strings and horns into techno tracks. Plus they were super cute to watch as they picked records to play and danced together.

Here is David Last’s amazing photo documentation of Mutek 2008 on Flickr

Me and my new fellow pink haired new artist friend Megan, we instantly became friends after I walked up to her. Photo by my dear friend David Last

We arrived at Metropolis right when the night started, the empty dance floor filled up soon thereafter. Photo by Seze

The visuals were gorgeous and totally different for each act. Photo by Seze

Bunker Bryan with Philip Sherburne, one of my favorite music writers and a super nice person as well. Genevieve & Matt (Portland Techno Promoters Kulture Szene) and Derek are behind them.
Stupid snapshot by Seze

How lucky we are! We danced under a Calder sculpture all day in the rain.
Photo by Seze

I love the pee pee dance logo by Picnic Eletronik
Photo by Seze

I spent the two long weekends at electronic music festivals. The first was the Detroit Electronic Music Festival (DEMF) and the following week I went to Montreal for Mutek. The line ups at both were excellent and though it was really exhausting I had an amazing time. I can barely sum up the weekends in words or pictures.

Here is a list of my favorite performances, moments, and memories from Detroit in no particular order, even though Alex Smoke was my favorite performer:

• Alex Smoke live
• DBX -live (even though his secret gig at Bunker was better)
• enjoying Derek Plaslaiko’s set with all my friends from NYC
• meeting Egyptian Lover in my hotel elevator
  (their shirts were so totally insane, I am so mad at myself for not taking their photo)
• hearing Heartthrob play live while laying on the grass outside
• feeling like I was at a goth club (age 19) while listening to Kill Memory Crash play live
• being blown away by Par Grindvik live
• melting at the beauty of Scott Pagano’s gorgeous visuals during Speedy J’s live set
• Mathias Kaden live
• John Selway‘s 45 surprise minute fill in DJ set
• The Accelerate After Party with Dan Bell, Zip and Sammy Dee
• Hanging out with Bruno Pronsato making bad jokes
  
• Dethlab’s amazing acid warehouse party:
  Too Far Gone… presented by Dethlab with Adult, Perspects, Dethlab, Cowboy Mark (tagteam DJ set), Motor (DJ set)
  No Way Back presented by Interdimensional Transmissions
  Derek Plaslaiko, Mike Servito, BMG of Ectomorph, Patrick Russell, Carlos Souffront
• meeting G.O.D. at the acid party
• Finally eating at Slow’s BBQ and not bing disappointed.
• And it was a true highlight to finally not stay at a crappy hotel.

My friend Andy wrote an excellent article on his experiences at Detroit based on the music and architecture: http://www.avclub.com/content/blog/detroit_electronic_music_festival

Random photos (not a faithful documentation of the weekend) by Seze

Detroit patches pants dude.

Kate Simko performing an excellent set

We may be getting older but we are still having fun!

My super stylish buddies Bethany & Doyle of Dethlab hosted the best party
of the weekend “Too Far Gone… No Way Back” at their warehouse studio space.

Phases of the moon wall at Slows BBQ outdoor seating area

Photographer Jason Tozer was asked to take some pictures of bubbles by Creative Review magazine, using the new Sony Alpha camera.
www.creativereview.co.uk/crblog/planet-tozer/

Wow this is amazing link

hey cat lovers,

This is a photo my brother took with his cellphone, of a cat sitting on a guy’s head! WTF! If I tried to get Konrad to sit on my head while I walked around the city, I am certain it would end in my untimely death by scratching.

xoxo
Zoh

Photo by Zoh’s brother

Here is a phone photo of me & Konrad taken while Bryan and I were babysitting him.

Last Friday The Bunker presented a Raster-Noton label showcase. Carsten, Frank, and Olaf performed separately, with their own accompanying projected images, and then together as Signal. Their visual and audio work has been a huge influence on me for over a decade and I was super excited to see them live. They exceeded my expectations and did not disappoint. Here are some of my favorite photos I took from the event:

photo by Seze Devres

photo by Seze Devres

photo by Seze Devres

photo by Seze Devres

Full gallery at The Bunker Site

Friday May 16 Beyond Booking Presents
Raster-Noton Showcase:
Signal (Raster-Noton | Berlin) live pa
Carsten Nicolai aka Alva Noto (Raster-Noton | Berlin) live pa
Frank Bretschneider aka Komet (Raster-Noton | Berlin) live pa
Olaf Bender aka Byetone (Raster-Noton | Berlin) live pa
with opening a/v set from:
Morgan Packard & Joshue Ott (Anticipate, Microcosm | NYC)

Bryan’s Press Release for his night:
We don’t think it is an understatement to say that Raster-Noton is one of the most important record labels in the world. Formed when Carsten Nikolai’s “noton.archiv für ton und nichtton” record label merged with Frank Bretschneider and Olaf Bender’s Raster Music label in 2000, it quickly gained international acclaim with the ARS Electronica award winning “20′ to 2000” series of 12 cds released monthly in 1999, featuring 20 minute sound pieces from electronic music heavyweights like Wolfgang Voigt, Ryoji Ikeda, Mika Vainio, and Thomas Brinkmann alongside the core R-N artists. They have gone on to release many dozens of amazing projects since then, building a core group of fans who pretty much buy everything they put out. The sound of the label is decidedly minimal, composed of micro-elements, glitches, bleeps, static, and electronic interference sounds. Their sound is extremely different than most of the music which has been called “minimal techno” (pretty much a completely meaningless term at this point) in the past 5 years or so. It is deep and experimental, but not without humor and funk.

We have been wanting to present a Raster-Noton label night at The Bunker ever since we saw the same line-up we have for this show in Mutek back in 2004, which completely floored us. For various reasons, we were never able to connect with the label and pull it off on their visits to the USA. Then, back in October, we were at a small Raster-Noton show for Bender and Kangding Ray and Bunker photographer Seze found a cell phone on the floor. She got a panicked call on the phone from the German guy who lost the phone and told him to come back to the venue and get it. He was extremely grateful and bought us a few drinks and started talking to us. He was in town for his opening at Pace Wildenstein Gallery (this is a blue chip gallery for those of you not familiar with the visual art world). We were in disbelief when we put 2 and 2 together and realized the cell phone guy was Carsten Nikolai, and quickly invited him and the rest of the crew to the Thomas Fehlmann show at The Bunker that week. Well, he showed up and had a great time, agreed to come back for a Raster-Noton showcase, and everything fell into place.

Robert Rauschenberg, Titan of American Art, Is Dead at 82

Robert Rauschenberg, “Solstice” 1968

www.stefan-rohner.net

…but the shoes are killing me.

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007)
Directed by Andrew Dominik

I watched this gorgeous film yesterday and the best treat was the stunning cinematography. Each scene was crafted like a carefully composed luminous photograph. Many shots were all about the way sunlight fills a room, or the way dust travels through air. I loved the use of blurry lens vignettes, an very Victorian effect that I rarely see anywhere anymore (other than in the timeless photographs of Sally Mann). The story was kind of slow but this beautiful film is well worth watching. The cast was amazing too. Highly recommended.

Sally Mann, Untitled from “The Motherland Series”

I had a chance to see the gorgeous Frida Kahlo exhibit at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Seeing the exhibit made me want to watch the beautiful film Frida (2002) starring Salma Hayek again. The film is based on “Frida: A Biography of Frida Kahlo” by Hayden Herrera (who also helped to curate the Philadelphia exhibition). I read about two thirds of the book but I had to put it down because her life was just too painful to keep reading about. Seeing the exhibit was great, I had a chance to see some old friends (paintings that I have loved since my teenage years) and I started some new friendships (with some rare photographs and paintings that were included in the show)

Frida Kahlo, Self Portrait with Monkeys, 1943 is one of my favorites

Randomly found on the internet.  But for some reason I can relate to this…

I absolutely love these digital paintings.

See also: www.lumicon.de
holgerlippmann.blogspot.com

www.spacecollective.org/gallery

New York Times Article

Photo by Michael Durham/Getty Images

My mom and I painted some eggs today and Pixie was curious about the results.

Photo by Seze Devres