docublog

Laundry List

Since I moved into my new house, in November, I've spent most time on the road, and the rest of the time I was preparing the production: Long hours on the computer and phone, day in and out. I barely know my neighborhood. For that matter, I barely know my neighbors! With one exception: my upstairs neighbor Richard, with his music studio in the backyard, across from our editing suite, who guards all tapes, drives, and the edit Mac when we're on the road. To get myself out of the house once in a while, I bought a bicycle today, my first bike in 12 years. Report from the first test drive: it's kind of mad to navigate Los Angeles traffic and bumpy asphalt on only two slim wheels, and that on a Saturday! So many SUVs, even at the $3.59 a gallon I paid for filling up my car.

Lots is to do in the next few weeks: I have to adjust to nine hours time difference, catch up with sleep, work through a pile of mail and bills, we have to capture the footage we filmed on the last trip, organize it on the editing system, and plan everything that comes next, above all, finding the right editor for the project. We will be filming for about 3 more weeks in July and early August, and I want to start-up the postproduction processes soon, and music, artwork, title treatment, so things are in a forward flow even when I'm on the road again. In the early stages, none of this is interesting enough to blog about it, but who knows what else will be happening. The laundry list goes on, and even includes unpacking those bags and doing the laundry…

24 hour plane people

And back to where Nick had just come from: Los Angeles. That's that - no airplanes, not even soccer ball nosed 747s, for at least a month. No hotel rooms, either. But… Saying good-bye to weeks of surprises at every turn, and hello to an office/editing routine will take a few days to get used to. For now, after hours and hours in the planes to Frankfurt and on to Los Angeles, I'm back home, with my spirits high and happy.

Nick

Our last interview on this trip was with Nick, in the city of Bolton, about half an hour outside of Manchester. We met Nick one day after his return from a short visit to (of all places) Los Angeles… Well, this could have been easier!

But meeting Nick, and spending time in his stylish design office and old town Bolton was absolutely worth the detour. We had our wrap meal in an Italian restaurant, and then proceeded to a smoky pub to meet some locals...

As always, a journal, stickers and postcards are at hand to distract people from the camera and to spread the word, but this time, I'm afraid I was the main attraction. It must have been years since a woman set her foot into this pub. This chap tried to sneak 20 quid into my hands -- I don't want to know which services he was expecting in return. 

Lähtevät

And once again checking out, dropping the car at the airport, sweet chitchat with the airline representative to avoid excess baggage fees, fasting seat belts and adjusting the headrest and tray tables to an upright position, landing and hoping all bags made it along and the bulbs of our film light didn't burst, getting another rental car, finding the hotel, checking in… The guy at the rental car counter was from Glasgow, Scotland, and made us giggle, ever so politely of course. He retaliated and upgraded our reservation to a gangster size black Mercedes limousine, apologizing for the automatic transmission, which actually came handy, given the left side traffic. And so we arrived in the city center of Manchester, UK, in the middle of Chinatown.

Breather

One last breather before the last stop on this trip. As both of us have never been to Finland, we thought an extra day to explore Helsinki would be cool, not really assuming it would be that cool, literally. I kept an eye on the cloud cover and left the hotel when the skies looked safe, but a hailstorm took me by surprise, nevertheless. It felt, smelled, and looked like icy snow. The city is more than ready for summer: there are plenty of street cafes, with outdoor chairs and tables piled up high, only for the time being, people run around in down jackets, or are underground, in a maze of shopping malls. Toward the end of the third week of this trip, I of course feel a bit exhausted. Still too pumped from all the impressions to just relax and sleep, I've been online half of the day, working, and then people watching, and reading more Japanese novels.

After I read "Kafka on the Shore," I picked up "Norwegian Wood" by Haruki Murakami  in Amsterdam, and then bought Taichi Yamada's "Strangers" here, the only Japanese novel I could find in English. The bookstores are full with Finnish translations which is absolutely amazing for a country of some 5 million people. Reading may just be part of life in this climate zone. Lots of other things point to the long Nordic winters: People appear to mind their own business, shoulders pulled up, head and face tucked in, they walk briskly from point A to B, to not be exposed too long to the elements. Even in springtime. The buildings are massive, with a few, small windows, and brushes in the entries to clean snow, ice and salt off the shoes…

Hanna

I must have fallen asleep at after 11:00 PM when it was still light outside, and woke up just before 5:00 AM to bright morning sun. Amazing! No wonder people have to drink quite a bit around here: either to get warm, or to knock themselves out to be able to sleep. The day started bright, clear, cold, and beautiful. As it was Mother's Day, flags were flying at every corner, and spring was in the air. But when we went to grab some lunch with Hanna, the day had turned stormy and wet, in a heartbeat.

It was moving to talk with Hanna about her entry into Journal 987, about the time when she received the journal, and what had happened in her life since. We surprised her with the journal, which is growing fatter and fatter. She brought it along to a café where she ran into a few friends…

Finland

We hit the roads from Braunschweig to Frankfurt airport at 8:30 AM, and despite some rain showers made it to our Helsinki flight with plenty of time to spare. Although I know by heart what to do with my seat belt, tray table, electronic equipment, and in case of loss of cabin pressure, the Finish version could have been Martian. In the land of Nokia, the road signs are plenty and cool. The only problem is: they are also in Swedish, the second official language. So, for us there's lots to read we don't understand. But at least we can do it in daylight, seemingly forever.

Braunschweig

Timbered houses, cobblestone streets, plenty of squares, passage ways, and small parks, plus a fantastic guide to show us around -- the time with Chris in Braunschweig was extremely pleasant. Chris hosts mail-art.de, a site that facilitates all sorts of mail art and related collaborative projects. Through his hands passed 3 of the 1000 Journals, among them Journal 558, which we got to see for the first time.

Chris passed the journal around his friends and colleagues, and we got to trace back some of the steps, first at geek central Neonaut, with twin brothers Heiner and Gerald, Kim, and Björn, then at Tatendrang Design, a studio and shop run by Anne-Luise, Tonia, Meike, and Eva, wonderfully  zesty women.

Zeche Zollverein

Speaking with Thomas in his office was great, but at least as interesting was to explore places around Essen that inspire him. Since we started to write each other, in 2004, he mentioned an old, shutdown coalmine and coking plant, Zeche Zollverein.

We snuck into this gigantic industrial structure, passed a sketching class from the Art Academy, and made our way through abandoned conveyor belts, ovens, barrels… Some parts looked like workers had dropped everything the minute the Zeche was shutdown: we saw slowly decaying gloves, rags and tools, and meanwhile, lots of green shrubbery growing over the brick stones and iron. Nature and Graffiti are taking back the place.

We went back to Thomas' office, but soon packed up and drove about 200 miles northeast, to Braunschweig. The autobahn was like a huge parking lot of trucks, bumper to bumper, taking over two of three lanes. We escaped twice: first, to check out the landscape, and the second time to have something to eat and wait out this crazy traffic.

And as I don't go anyplace without a journal, stickers and postcards, spreading the word…

{ths}

From the streets of Amsterdam to those of Essen, Germany…

This is the sight just down the street from Thomas' {ths} office, a tranquil, sweet neighborhood in the middle of the area called Ruhrpott. It was here where Thomas made the "Nothing Disappears Without A Trace" entry into Journal 698. While researching the whereabouts of the 999 journals, I looked up this page on the 1000 Journals website whenever I felt low, hopeless, and tired. So far, we couldn't find Journal 698 though, and man, did we try!

Thomas contributed the cover for Journals 691 to 700, and has orchestrated his own collaborative project, the Beast Magazine.