blog.andy-coates.com

of interest…….

  • Post berlin……. 3D Disco, Romania, Cluj!

    Berlin seems like it was quite a while ago now, currently, 29th March 2012, since then, again, things have been busy! I was back home for a couple of days and then had to head off again helping out with the guys from Novak for a large scale job they had on. The gig was for Gillette which consisted of 7 VJ sets happening in several different cities at the same time Romania: Cluj, Iasi, Bucharest, Constanta, Timisoara, Bulgaria: Sophia, Serbia: Belgrade.

    I was at Obsession club in Cluj Romania, which at the time I had no idea what was in store. We met at Novak studios at 10.00 friday morning (16th march) and from there, we all pretty much, had around 12 hours worth of travelling to reach our destinations. My flights went, Newcastle Dusseldorf, – Dusseldorf  Munich, 6 hour wait for the next flight, gave me time to go over the content for the VJ set:

    Munich Cluj. I got picked up from the airport at 01.00 Romanian time and was in the hotel by 01.30, bit of a mad day travelling.  After an evening of vague broken sleep I woke about 09.00 and had a great view over Cluj from my room.

    After getting showered I called Andreea who was my point of contact for the gig, we met, had a walk around the town and grabbed some lunch. I can’t remember what I ordered but it was chicken wrapped in pickled cabbage fried then served with sour creme and yellow cheese onto, to was rather tasty!

    We later went to the venue to do video checks to make sure that all the kit was inlace and we could make a smooth transition from the house DJ to the 3D set. The venue wasn’t to big but it was cosy and already fully branded with the Gillette logo for that evening! Checks went well so we headed back to the hotel, I we weren’t due back to the venue till 01.00 so when we got back tot he hotel I spent a couple of hours wandering around the city! Cluj is a very old town with lots of character, in some places there were them many telephone wires dangling between the lamp posts the weight of them made them hang so low you could easy grab them!

    It soon got dark around 18.00 so I headed back tot he hotel, it’s a stance thing with gigs like this when your work starts late. You find yourself just waiting to go to work, finding ways to pass time, 2 hours of reading, 1 hour of emails then i decided to eat.  I met Andreea again and we chatted over dinner whist she kept getting calls as she was managing many other gigs that weekend.

    A couple of hours later after a quick, late night shower we met in the lobby at 12.30 to be taken to the venue. Cedric the DJ for the 3D part of the night and myself were due to start at 01.30, the club was quite busy when we went on, not full but around 80% capacity and a good atmosphere.

    I did over an hours VJ set, delivering Novak’s content using Modul8 cut and mixed to the tunes with almost the entire dance floor wearing the 3D glasses at one point which was quite fun! The time flew by and around 03.30 we travels back to the hotel where i had to pick up my suitcase and catch my flight boarding at 06.00. I made it to the airport in good time but had to wait ages in the cue to get through security. I eventually got through, sat at the departure gate for 15mins.

    we eventually got on the bus and were taken to the plane, it had been warm in Cluj during the day but now, at 05.30 in the morning it was fekking freezing! eventually we were boarding our tiny plane which was to take us to Munich.

    We landed in Munich, had an hour to kill then on another plane to Dussledorf, landing in Dusseldorf I had 6 hours to kill. I decided to leave the airport and hop on a train to visit Cologne, just over an hour trip there, a wander round the city on a kinda damp sunday then i was back on the s11 heading back to the airport. In hindsight I could have spent more time exploring the city but didn’t want to get stuck and miss my flight home!

    Eventually I was on my plane to take me home to Newcastle, had a nice chat form a girl from Bulgaria who was staying business in Newcastle and then fell asleep. More than likely i fell asleep in the most unflattering way, head back mouth open, catching flys! After landing in Newcastle I got the train to Sunderland where my mate James with his girlfriend Lesley had borrowed and looked after my car whilst I was away. Lesley knocked up a cracking Sunday teatime meal which was perfect after the madness of the weekend :-). I eventually drove home, said hello to my house again and proceeded to sleep for many hours. It had been a crazy weekend of travelling, and many thanks to Novak for getting me onboard for the gig, top times!

     

     

     

     

     

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  • Teufelsberg (Today is 6th March 2012 )

    Yesterday before the show, when I say yesterday thats only relevant now otherwise it has no reference of time.  I asked Giorgi, one of the lighting team about things to do on our few days off. He recommended a few things, but this one, possibly being the least touristy thing caught my attention.
    Teufelsberg (Devil’s Mountain) is an old cold war listening stain built onto of one of the largest man made hills in Berlin. Buried beneath the hill is an old Nazi technical college, which the americans tried to blow up with explosives after the war but because it was built so sturdy it was decided to bury it instead! Ontop of all of this was built a US listening station, I cannot find the exact dates when it was built but from various google sources (this one is quite interesting Dirk) it was occupied between the mid 50’s until 1991 when it was abandoned sand all radio equipment removed.

    I began my journey by getting the S5 from Alexander Plats to Westkreuz, then on the S75 getting off at Heerstrasse, it too about 40 mins but theres lots of interesting stuff to see along the route. After getting off at the station head South down Teufelsseechaussee for 1km until you see a car park on your left. turn left into here and there us a really obvious path which takes you straight up the hill to the site.

    I have heard they the site is to be opened up to tourists at some point this year for guided tours but currently the main gates are closed and there is a fence, sometimes double, sometimes triple around the perimeter. And of you walk around the fence perimeter there are some entrances into the site which appear as holes….ahem…..

     After going through this particular entrance you may find yourself between two fences, one interior and one exterior.

    If you continue down here in a clockwise fashion there is a second entrance which also looks like a hole in the fence which will take you into the main complex. continuing a further 100m there is a larger entrance and you don’t need to scramble up a short crumbly hill.

    Upon getting the first glance of the site on the other side of the fence up close the whole thing seems nuts, and it is. The entire area is covered in graffiti up to arms reach, and it feels completely desolate, that was until I heard noises coming front he main building. There were obviously other people there bit it just felt weird, I continued around the site exploring, circling the whole perimeter and venturing some erie dark corridors. Here was place which was what looked like office building with a pretty hefty save door, you can’t see it from the picture but their are some rather big deadbolts in this 4inch thick door.

    Behind me was a cul-de-sac which looked like office space, there was some amazing graffiti on the wall. Here I was in a room with only one way out admiring the graffiti it was bizarre, it was kind of a mixture 10% Uncertainty, 2% Fear, 3% Null, 2% Thirst, 73% Excitmenet & 10% Whatthefuckamidoinghere!

    I ventured back out of the offices area and continued clockwise around the perimeter, turning the owner I passed a girl sitting on the grass eating sandwiches and a couple of people with a camera and a tripod taking snaps. this was the first time seeing some other people inside the complex! Everyone smiled and replied to my half English, half German “Hallo”, it was the accent which came out at the time, I have no idea why!

    I had eventually done full circle and headed towards the steps which look alike they lead to the main tower/golfball. I got to the first floor and had a mooch around, both long sides of the building were open and gave an amazing view over berlin which was stunning on such a nice March day. Venturing up another couple of floor’s I eventually got the the main circle base of the tower which rose above the main building. Theres a central (disused) lift which runs up the main tower and a concrete staircase which goes around it opening up on each floor.

    On each floor of the main tower you can walk a whole panorama and take in every direction of Berlin. This particular day the weather was awesome and you could see for miles. On the third tower floor there were a couple sitting quietly just taking in the view, I said my obligatory German/English “Hallo” and they said hello back, they sounded Italian but if they were anything like me they were probably Welsh.

    I think it was the next floor, possibly the one before the golfball which is the following picture. To note, all of the sides of the structure are open, apart from rooftop areas there are no barriers to stop you falling off the edge, if you do visit this place before it becomes commercialised, or the rich “eat it”, be careful.

    I had noticed sounds before I approached the top of the main tower, a kind of symphony sound coming down the stairwell but impossible to tell where the sound was coming from. I slowly ventured up what was the last flight of stairs and into the golfball to find 3 people. One girl playing violin, (which I cannot remember the name of the tune),  one Polish girl who was brilliantly quirky and unintentionally funny, and a guy who didn’t say much, i think he was spanish?

    I spent a while in the golfball, just listening to the girl practicing and playing violin, it was so sureal but nice. Being in an almost completely enclosed parabolic structure meant that any noise you made is completely reflected back at the point of source. So, for example, when I spoke, my voice was louder to me than it was anyone else, and then when someone else replied their voice was slightly muffled to me but completely clear to them.  Its such an amazing space with one main opening which is a doorway of light and a sheer drop to the ground.

    This whole place is mad, surreal, steeped in so much crazy history, I’m so glad I got the chance to visit and on such a clear day. For now this is a great alternative tourism spot, although its probably inundated in the summer and will only become more and more popular.

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  • Concrete, History and all that Jazz…….

    Yesterday (05/03/10) I had the entire morning to myself in Berlin with a multitude of options, so i decided to head west and visit the old olympic stadium, quite easy to get to, a short trip on the U8 to Alexander Platz then the U2 to olympia Stadion. I had no idea what to expect apart from remembering someone saying if your looking for things to do you may as well visit this place. So after a 30 to 40 minute train ride I got off at the stain with no idea where to go so just followed the most obvious route.

    Its just a 2 minute walk up the hill away from the stain and your into the carper faced with this imposing Nazi architecture. Its crazy, it does look impressive and grand but its linked with so much bad history, to think on the tower where the isn’t a clock face once was a swastika is quite crazy to comprehend.

    It cost 5euros to get in which I didn’t think was unreasonable, and from entering the fenced stadium you are given a map and left to your own devices. I expect may other people have done the same as me and headed straight towards the innards to get a view of the oval. Once you go from the outer perimeter walls and get view of the expanse of the whole thing its quite amazing. Its reminiscent of images if seen of Rome’s Colosseum which i haven’t visited yet and discovered later that the controversial designer Werner March based some of the ideas on the Colosseum.

    I spent another hour wandering round the site reading the information boards and taking in the history of the place. There is no point in me typing what read hear as it would no way do it justice, wikipedia it, its all there.  I left the Stadion and headed back East towards work where we had a show that eve and i was amazed to find a slightly jaundice and box eyed Paul MCartney sat on my desk, Amazing!

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