[*** the list below is WIP so check back often = I might find some more cool stuff ***]
If you came here because you got one of them awesome 25th anniversary editions of “life goes on … and then it’s over!” CDs = hello & welcome!
Here are a few of the promised extra goodies (which I mostly found in the basement/attic but also on numerous harddrives including a ZIP drive!).
They are in no particular order of importance/significance/magnitude in relation to my oeuvre but the fact that I can write such a cringe sentence and hit save without hesitation? Goes to show you that when I will finally grow up I will most likely not give you a call but bathe in my glorious reflection inside the gold framed mirror inside … ok ENOUGH!
sorry …. my narcissism suppressants need to be refilled (I am calling the Doc right after I am done putting this page together, I promise).
So here we go with the goodies/extras:
1.) Lyrics booklet: the original CD which was published October 20th, 2000, contained a booklet with lyrics. This time around we opted for a downloadable PDF. Please do get it because I am proud of not only the music but the lyrical content still resonates it seems even with some fans who had very different experiences in their 20s. Maybe there is some universality in being utterly confused yet presenting as cockily confident at 27 y/o?
song #1 and #2 = not quite Sylvia Plath but not that bad either right?
2.) An old faded fax: The great German actress Martina Gedeck was my first choice for the music video to “Middle Aged Men” and a friend gave me her address and phone number (I never called, way too scared). I sent her an inquiry to play the love interest to actor Florian Martens (who does appear in the video alongside the fabulous Simone Thomalla) and Martina replied shortly thereafter via fax (remember what that is kids? yes/no? oh boy we are old …). I still have it, it is very faded but those are the valuable memories IMHO: items, objects, handwritten thingies that transport you back in time ….
Martina says toi-toi-toi which is kinda awesome!
3.) Props from the “Middle Aged Men” music video: such a blast it was to make this video back in 2001 and loads of credit has to go to Werner Peter (Director) and Hermann Sowieja (Director of Photography) but also Stefanie Rost who made a gazillion props that were seen sometimes only for a split second in the vid. I only found three in my basement and they are pictured below. The magazine features Markus Steffen, Florian Oestreicher and myself on the cover and some goofy headlines. In the vid actress Simone Thomalla reads it next to Florian Martens and I squeeze in between them to wipe the table. The fake book written by me (note the publishing company being “Calamus Self Help”) is of course just a slip cover but in the shop in Berlin where we shot the scene of me pretending to present the book by giving autographs to fans we dressed up an entire table with them. Lastly: the fake cosmetics brand “Middle Aged Visage” (for men AND women!!) = we produced stickers and dressed up an entire shelf in a beauty shop with those. That scene is just a few seconds at the end of the video. Damn, I wish I had what has been left on the cutting room floor. Anyways: if you want to have your VERY OWN book slip cover just email me and I send you one SIGNED!
4.) A few seconds of “Middle Aged Men” made it into a BIG romantic comedy for teenagers: 2008 was the year that ended my flirtation with the culture industry and in hindsight I am quite happy. I feel I dodged a bullet. At the time I was depressed that the next big commercial film was not offered to mean. But after a few months? A lightbulb went off: I was free at last!
I mean I could shut off my political conscience and ignore the damage that fluffy ideological entertainment in capitalism did and does (in both countries I reside in) and I could be making good bank writing film scores for the most atrocious garbage that keeps people distracted from living their life to the fullest, from engaging with true art, from building and fostering community, I could be contributing to ‘content’ (God help me, I hate that word) which is designed to make people forget that class warfare from the top exploits them day in day out. And yes, I am fully aware that when I started making media in Second Life my friends in the entertainment industry thought I was losing my mind by making mindless escapist ‘content’ for losers with no first life … ah well …
ANYWAYS: I am not saying that the movie “Sommer” is total crap, and indeed I am happy with the music I contributed and so was my bank account at the time. I am merely saying: I am NOT cut out to work in an industry that is primarily in the regurgitating-mainstream-tropes/pacification-of-the-working-masses-via-hollow-spectacle/distraction-so-capitalism-can-continue-unabated/bed-time-stories-for-adults-who-don’t-want-to-dig-too-deep business, whatever medium. Because art is always political. And apolitical art is the WORST political art because it is essentially a kind of Thatcherism tongue kissing Reaganomics packaged in shiny colors and slapped on to a canvas (THERE IS NO ALTERNATIVE SO SHUT UP AND KEEP WORKING YOU ALIENATED AND ISOLATED WAGE SLAVE!).
End of rant: enjoy a clip from the “Sommer” audio post production sessions at ARRI Studios in Munich, where a tune of mine seems to be accompanying a middle aged middle class nervous breakdown of sorts (is the guy realizing he has been screwed by the neoliberal takeover?)
5.) Found a small stack of “I ate chocolate and lost 20 pounds” and will give it away: if you have obtained the 25th anniversary edition of “life goes on … and then it’s over!” I congratulate you. Excellent music taste you have. Now last year I cleared out my dad’s house and I found a stack of the 2005 follow up album with the aforementioned title. Not sure why this title did not sell out years ago?
Please note: this also applies to folks who own the ORIGINAL 2000 release!!
BE FAST! EMAIL ME NOW!
And to pass the time between your email being transmitted and me opening it and packaging the CD please enjoy this homemade music video for “i will not desert you” (the refix version by the great encym).