Shanghai start old jumbo

The captain is Albert Fuchs and the cockpit also manned by heiko brockmann, henrik blabusch oder so.
The 747-400 is old, almost as old as they get.

Parting comment to The City of Shanghai:
Molto grazie, again, as predictable near-certainty, the jet is 22 years old (google D-ABTE 747 8UILT ludthansa ), i am sitting next to a chubby chinese girl in the last row - she speaks no english' and no seat entertainment, as usual in these lufthansa cattle class dinos.
There are maybe 2 seats left in economy, people cough and sneeze all around me, but no babies crying.

Hah! Just now we are a few minutes late, no pushback yet, so much for german punctuality. The captain said something like we have to wait for an overflight? Ah, right now one engine is starting, oh no, now they are revving it down again. Maybe they are bored an fiddle nervously with knobs ... Ah!!! now push-back, keep well, all the best, over and out for now, ciao Shanghai.

We taxi on T4 past the vast Pudong Airport lot of Terminals (PVG), it is a sunny day, warm and blue sky. Well it is gray blue, a little worse than in Germany, and incomparable to New Zealand's deep blue heavens.
Now we turned right into T3, going north, alongside the runway, leaving the control tower behind, right hand side. T3 turned into B, 5508 miles to destination, around 100 tons of fuel on board, holding for runway, a long long wait; now we have performed the comete 180 degree u-turn, and we are ready for take-off. No rabbits or birds to be seen a very noisy baby cries in the front somewhere. 13h46 take-off!, half an hour late.

We take off direction south towards the east china sea (ostchinesisches meer).
At 1950 meters altitude we experience quite heavy turbulence. Inversion layer.

Turning northwest towards Nanjing 11000 feet altitude, amazingly still inside the airpollution haze.

16000 feet, the inversion layer is now below us, the smog-strata now has a sharper demarkation. Seat-belt signs off.
Now the blue sky is kiwi colour,

It turns out my seat neighbour is cherry-red hair italian-chinese, so our prego, pollo, pasta, germania conversation is not too bad. She has some chinese dried beef jerky and offers it to me, it beats the dusty lufthansa pretzels hands down. Next she offers thin, red matchstick-like nibbles, and says: "pikante". Very nice, too, very chinese, polenta or something.

Then the lufthansa midday menu arrives, chicken or beef. The beef is not good, the carrots and rice are edible. But Air New Zealand it is not. Not even close.
The "dark chocolate mousse" is a joke, but the coffee is german. That is to means "proper". Just like grandmother used to make it, not weak and with the built-in taste of condensed mik.
The tiny TV 7 meters away shows bundesliga, one can't see the ball.
My italo-chinese girl's name is eva, she must be 15 or so, and very cool. She sleeps like a doll. She only ate the rice, nothing else. She probably had a full bag of beef jerky in her, as i got the last bit.
She watches werewolve films o her super sized laptop, I try to sleep but can't, lufthansa show walt disney Rapunzel, a usa-acrion drama with violence and chases, a few musical bits and really really good for poisoning childrens minds. Rapunzel however has a speaking part and does show sexy garments and leg, just like the USA-today article ... Google nazi hellmich annenberg school stacy smith usc mrac choueiti sexualization of girls sexual objecta male directors. Then watch "happiness" solondz 1988 ... We all live in america, sometimes war, wonderbra. (rammstein)
We are just crossing the Ural, 3:30 to go, it is cold inside the cabin, now there is "Golden Girls" on the "entertainment systen". Grannie jokes.
The Financial Times writes the usual neoliberal doctrinal garbage, more privatisation, no regulation. The international herald tribune (aka New York Times) pyts the best spin on today's wikileak guantana,o GTMO torture and murder revelations. Yes, people died under suspicious circumstances and no investigation was done, only the usual whitewash. The coverage is somewhat adequate, what can we expecr from a judith miller pro war PROPAGANDA corporate mouthpiece.
They don't even mention rhe word WIKILEAKS once (buried on page 4), how dishonest.

6pm euro time, one hour to go. The whole trip we were in front of the day/night terminator, flying past nowosibirsk, moscow, minsk, warsaw and straight over Cotbus.

We landed, Tired, very tired.

Stumble It!

Shanghai 2 TRAVEL DIARY

I met a bored shitless 17 year old german from Oberhausen, exchange student sitting on the lawn in people's square park, nervously smoking. I told him to stop smoking and in return he told me a lot of useful things, like
- it is a myth that all chinese can cook (his guest family's chicken feet need a good sauce)
- chinese believe everything that foreigners say (i can see great practical-joke opportunities)
- some are fond of hitler (not knowing anything, of course)
- chinese need a visa to LEAVE their country
- girls are not very catholic (though he only had second hand info)
- shanghai-nese is a different language, and it sounds better than mandarin
- they study all day and night - and think germans work hard (haha)
- "tai hao le" (wunderbar, "too good")

5pm and nurishment requirements call for a second noodle-mushroom spicy soup. You get a plastic bowl, go to an open fridge and pick your favourite soup ingredients, pay (14.50rmb/1.80eur/3.40nzd), and it is handed to the cook, who boils it. I ask the girls at my table if they could give me a nod when my number is called. "no problem". - My number is called she says, i eat. She asks me if the soup "is delicious" ... Yes, very. The other girls says i have sparkly eyes. I say "tai hao le" and they both almost jump up and say "no, no, no".
After a while they leave and one of them nervously runs into a metal supporting pole, oh oh dear.I thought only men do that.
Across the kitchen is a beautiful girl with TEAM PINK written on her green jumper.

6pm off to the "french concession", my host called, first we went out to a new malaysian restaurant then to DR WINE for a 150rmb bottle of watery frech white, then to the "woodenboc" for a concert of Lindi on the pipa and her french boyfriend jeremy playing an amazing gypsy guitar.

EasterSunday
Eggs for breakfast, very nice baguette, marmelade, coffee ... What a good 21st century retro style all round. I took the dog "Einstein" (a "Spitz") for a walk, that slowed me down, thankfully. Stop everywhere and leave scent markers. One time Einstein decided that he needed longer to investigate a smell and when i gently pulled the leash, he had freed himself from the collar. If he was able to do that all the time, he was really just using me as a "seeing dog" to navigate the traffic and carry him on escalators.
A really nosy scientist, a great character.

Then off to see The Bund, took a long-bar-photo in the walldorf-astoria, then scored a free wine by talking to the manager at element fresh (about sun visibility on their roof terrace). The marketing ploy about marrketing. The devil's work, you know.
Later we went out to dr wine, 3 us americans from taiwan and me, quaffing two bottles of red. Political talk but only two views of the post 911 world, mine and the doctrine. Good "the brownies die" american plutonium humor. The world is bad, we are badder. Excellent evening, no really. There is no more real talk than the one about power and the misconceptions about it.

Monday 25th
Today is a day for aimlessly wandering about and try to understand chinese life. I find myself getting away from westerners talking loudly about their stereotypical topics in the typical "bragging" style. I have acuasms (acoustic hallucinations) chinese words in the midst of the chatter are in german.
My host tells me that the shamghainese have a loving word for experienced males: Loule which means the very same in my german hometown Au Banan.
A while of sitting in the pedestrian zone reveals the various shady characters, and a elaborate scam targeting very young rich girls, they are surrounded by a group of teenagers in smart attire, and talked into following them to some side alley, to fleece them. I give almost every beggar a yuan, and observe the crowds. Most are happy and carefree, but 100 per cent of the westerners look grumpy and most are sort of bizarrely maskeraded compared to the many prettily dressed chinese.
A destitute recycling collector fishes for plastic drink bottles (1 Mao=a tenth of a yuan reward) he is nearly blind, he only hear me placing a coin on the rubbish bin..

Of course a photo of the "sunset in the muck" is a must, so impersonating a hotel guest and zooming up to the 47 th floor of the Radisson, is done, and works fabulously. And yes, the sun did set - on a "clear, cloudless" day inside the air-pollution layer. About two fingers wide above the true horizon.

Dinner is ALL YOU CAN EAT AND DRINK.
I looove Sashimi, my eyes water from wasabi, oolong tea, sake, sashimi, tea, sake, sashimi....
Tepanyaki; the sake flows endlessly and a goddess of a cook, a tall benevolent shiva with 8 arms, prepares the 20 or so dishes that we ordered. Cod, beef, prawns, mushrooms, langusta aubergine, finalized with Banana flambee, all for 180 rmb, After this feast we see a 3-piece Gypsy band called Wayne's Basement, with E J Parker on double-bass (contrabass), jay jeremy lasry and etienne
Jeanne the two acoustic guitars. Very virtuoso trio, fun and original repertoire.
Tomorrow airport. Shame, really.

Stumble It!

West Art - German TV programme

Elliott Erwitt

Er ist ein Meister visueller Wortspiele und wurde durch seine Hundefotos bekannt, die mit subtilem Humor und Augenzwinkern den liebsten Freund des Menschen porträtieren. Eine schier endlose Aneinanderreihung von Kalauern. Dabei gehört der 1928 als Sohn russischer Eltern in Paris geborene und in New York lebende Elliott Erwitt zur Elite der Magnum Fotografen der ersten Stunde und kann auch ganz anders: Seine Fotografien haben die visuelle Geschichte des 20. Jahrhunderts geprägt, sind oftmals ausgestellt und ediert worden. Er hat für die bekanntesten Zeitschriften der Welt gearbeitet, für die Werbebranche, hat Filme gedreht, Dokumentarfilme über den Schönheitswahn etwa, über Konsumterror und über Nudisten in Deutschland. Er hat dem Esprit und dem Flair von Metropolen nachgespürt: New York, Rom Paris. Hoch über dem Central Park hat west.art Elliott Erwitt ganz privat getroffen. Ab 8. Mai präsentiert die Ludwiggalerie Schloss Oberhausen unter dem Titel "I am serious about not beeing serious" sein Oeuvre.

http://www.wdr.de/tv/westart/dienstag/sendungsbeitraege/2011/0503/erwitt.jsp

how to download rtsp rtmp wdr  mediathek video download  

rtmpdump -r rtmp://gffstream.fcod.llnwd.net/a792/e2/mediendb/westart_do/video/2011/0503/110503_erwitt_web-m.mp4 -o outfile.mp4

Malerfürst trifft Malerfürst: Markus Lüpertz (r) und Max Liebermann (Selbstporträt 1909/10)

Markus Lüpertz über Max Liebermann


    * SendeterminDienstag, 03. Mai 2011, 22.30 - 23.10 Uhr .
    * WiederholungsterminMontag, 09. Mai 2011, 10.50 - 11.30 Uhr (Wdh.).

Video: Markus Lüpertz über Max Liebermann Malerfürst trifft Malerfürst (6:10), west.art, 03.05.2011

Malerfürst trifft Malerfürst: Markus Lüpertz (r) und Max Liebermann (Selbstporträt 1909/10); Rechte: akg-images; Henning Kaiser/ddp (r)

Dem Geschmack des Gründerzeitpublikums hat er nicht entsprochen, unterlief dessen Faible nach Historienszenen in altmeisterlicher Manier und war als Apostel der Hässlichkeit eher berüchtigt als berühmt: Max Liebermann, deutscher Impressionist und konsequenter Wegbereiter der Moderne. Die Bonner Kunst- und Ausstellungshalle begleitet mit rund 100 Gemälden Liebermanns künstlerischen Weg zwischen Berlin und Paris, Holland und Nordseestrand. Die gerade eröffnete opulente Liebermann-Retrospektive setzt auf neue Akzente in der Werkrezeption und hat den berühmten Liebermann-Park am Wannsee auf dem Museumsdach arrangiert. west.art hat mit Malerfürst Markus Lüpertz die Ausstellung besucht.

http://www.wdr.de/tv/westart/dienstag/sendungsbeitraege/2011/0503/liebermann.jsp

video download mitschnitt runterladen rtmp://gffstream.fcod.llnwd.net/a792/e2/mediendb/westart_do/video/2011/0503/110503_liebermann_web-m.mp4

Stumble It!