By now I have almost seen the whole city (well, except for the suburbs). My days are a mixture of work (drawing, reading and writing), walking around and sitting down for hot tea and a snack every now and then.
Unfortunately the cold weather has hit Lisbon as well which makes it less fun to sit outside. 9 C doesn´t sound that cold but compared to the 15 C a week ago and keeping in mind that most places do not have heating, which means you can´t warm up after a day outside, makes this a rather unpleasant experience. (Still a lot better than snow, though! – Don´t get me wrong, I like snow, but not in the city and not the cold temperatures that come along with it and the grey sky and the tree skeletons – although they make nice drawings – basically that whole winter season in Berlin.) Also, cold in Lisbon doesn´t mean grey. The sun comes out at least once a day and makes up for the temperatures.
Yesterday I went to a show which took place in the roof of a store/gallery.
First Norberto Lobo, a young portuguese guitar player performed a few amazing songs. I have been told that he is one of the promising new young players in a long tradition of guitar music. (www.myspace.com/norbertolobo)
Then the band White Magic from New York performed. They also played a very nice concert, but had some technical difficulties which seemed to have reflected on their mood a bit. (www.myspace.com/whitemagicmusic)
2 Days ago I went to the Museu Colecção Berardo out in Belém. The museum has a nice collection of well known modern art and a lot of young portuguese art as well. Sadly it was terribly empty even though the entrance is always free.
Yesterday I started the day with a friend and his daughter and a long walk through Barrio Alto to check out some galleries. One show was exceptionally outstanding for it´s wonderful location and some nice pieces as well. The show at the temporary artspace “Carpe Diem Arte e Pesquisa” takes place in the old PALÁCIO POMBAL, a run down palace from the 18th century with a lot of old wall paintings, impressive stucco on the ceilings and marble on the floors. (www.carpediemartepesquisa.net)
Later that day I went to the opening of the annual Lisbon Art Fair which took place at the congress center in Alcantara. The show was very clean and small and well lit and the free wine was great but I didn´t really get into the works on display.
A little tipsy I went to visit a friend who works at the Poets hostel – a great place to stay in Lisbon. He took me to Lisbon´s asian part (I wouldn´t call it “China Town” because it includes not only chinese places and there is no gate and actually it´s only a handful of restaurants) – we had dinner at a nice indian place. Afterwards I had my first shot of Ginja at one of the traditional mini bars. Ginjinha is a famous portuguese cherry liquer which is sweet and full of alcohol. From there we went on to the great Stadium bar with a wonderful painting of a stadium inside and then to a place which has once been a fishing supply store and now is a bar but they kept the whole inventory from hooks to nets to fishing poles to cans of sardines and instead of old sailor songs Velvet Underground was coming out of the speakers providing the perfect soundtrack for a great night.
Friends took me across the Tejo river for a late sunday lunch outside of the city. It really is only a 10 min boat ride but the differences couldn´t be more obvious. A small almost deserted village in between gas silos and a rocky coastline with not much except for the ferry terminal, three restaurants, a café and an abondend hospital. Half of the houses were either for sale or in pretty bad condition and it really didn´t make any sense to me why this village was so neglected.
Apparently tourists make this trip in the summer time to eat, take a picture of Lisbon´s skyline and go back, but Lisboetas don´t take any notice of the south banks of the Tejo river and their potential for leisure trips and quality time just outside the city.
After a short stroll we had a superb meal in one of the restaurants that was specialized in table barbecuing. We then tried to hike a little along the coast but unfortunately both directions were closed because of the gas industry (maybe the reason for the neglection?). If it didn´t start to get dark already we could have walked land inwards but since we had no map and definitely didn´t want to miss the last ferry we decided to go back.
Later that day I went to a show at an alternative café and performance space called Bocalheiro. My friend Pedro played the guitar in a spoken word, jazz, blues, rock band – an interesting mixture that was.
There is a small part in Lisbon with a lot of empty and run down houses, some shady bars and a couple of designer stores waiting for the hype. It is an incredibly enchanting neighborhood which I declared my new favorite part of Lisbon. Some streets look like back drops or props of film sets – surreal, improvised, yet historic and somewhat charming. I want to try to stop by more often and promise to take a few pictures.
A couple of days ago I went up to the Castelo and found wonderful places overseeing the river Tejo and the city. On my way back down I passed the ´Feira da ladra´ – the fleamarket (which translates to ´thieves market´) and then checked out where Lisbon´s most prolific electronic music club LUX is located. Some say LUX is co-owned by John Malkovich, which I guess creates a lot of attraction… The club is right by the water and from the big line of windows on the second floor you must get a beautiful look at the sunrise, which I have to find out at some point.
Right next to LUX is a record shop called ´flur´ and it has a fantastic collection of electronic and experimental music. I couldn´t resist and bought a few albums i´ve been wanting to have for some weeks now. (www.flur.pt)
The guy at the shop also recommended a concert for last night which I ended up going to and didn´t regret at all.
The band GALA DROP from Lisbon celebrated the release of their new EP ´Overcoat Heat´. GALA DROP is more or less a Krautrock band with influences of Dub, Electronic and 70s Rock – it sounds like an odd mixture but it works amazingly well and I really enjoyed the show and highly recommend this band. (www.myspace.com/galadrop)
It is the rainy season in Portugal. Still around 15 degrees celsius and at least a little bit of sun every day but definitely a whole different experiences to see a southern town associated with heat and palm trees during it´s winter.
Some tourists still go out in t-shirts and shorts but the Lisboetas are dressed like it´s snowing already.
Yesterday I went to a show at the fantastic Zé dos bois and it very much reminded of those many many nights at the Electronic Church in Berlin.
some impressions:
The NATO is in town and it seems like the whole city is protesting / partying.
I just got back from an open air concert at the Praça Luís de Camões and I think I am hooked on portuguese Reggae now – what a show!
I guess it is a good sign when I don´t manage to update this blog for a while. I have been working a lot lately and just now started to slow down a bit, realizing that this year is on it´s last leg.
Heavy clouds seem to announce a cold and grey winter, german politicians announce the end and failure of multi-culture, people started to send explosives by mail, most businesses I have been working with lately seem to have forgotten what customer care is, my favorite part of Berlin and home for so many years got super gentrified and completely transformed, bolle is now called nahkauf, hubble gubble is called schilling and doesn´t play free jazz anymore, my studio got too small, my apartment as well (since we started to host homeless friends : ), my bike needs a make over, I don´t like the light of energy saving bulbs, heating your apartment is getting more and more expensive, the internet still scares me and so is darkness… perfect time to move south.
I just got back from my annual cycling trip around the lake Müritz (the largest german lake, about 2 hours north of Berlin).
It is only an 80km ride which takes about a few hours but it really is so incredibly beautiful to drive through so many different forests, fields and villages that it almost feels like a small international road trip.
It was sunny and warm, yet not burning heat. In the shadows of the trees it was actually still chilly and some parts of the roads, the ones that lead you through some sort of swamps were still wet and moist.
The Müritz itself has already become a famous tourist hot spot but since more than half of the way around it is either a protected national park or different kinds of forests under protection with a lot of unpaved roads and a little tricky terrain, it never feels crowded or too touristy. In fact sometimes you won´t see a soul for quite a while depending on the area and of course the time of the year.
Besides passing some of the most beautiful nature, like rivers full of water lilies, the most colorfull dragonflies and wild roses, one is witnessing an amazing sound collage along the way. Cicadas, birds, bees and other insects form a choir of sounds that feels like an ongoing modern composition, new and inspiring as well as entertaining and exciting at the same time.
The road won´t always go directly along the lake but when it does there are plenty of possibilities to go swimming and cool off for a little bit.
Full of people, full of art – mainly old art but really the best of the best: Goya, Velazquez, Tizian and Rubens… at the Prado Museum, a strange and kind of random but huge collection at the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, impressive modern works at the Reina Sofia and so on and on.
I am in love with Tapas at old the Madrid Bars, the Retiro, the cable car into nothingness. I like walking forever through narrow streets, 25 degrees in april, I love the architecture and life on the streets, I like the smell of spring and Vinho Tinto and markets and spanish night life. I like Madrid.
I also went to the the Arte Sonore Festival and saw some great shows and exciting installations and I wandered from book store to book store during La noche de los libres – what more can you ask for?
