title, what title?

I went on exploring the West-End District. Byres Road is definitely the hip part of this district with many pubs restaurants and bars on the sides. However the hidden secret is definitely the Ashton Lane, which is parallel to byres road. In a distance of 500 meters I counted 3 clubs, 3 live music bars 4 restaurants and a cinema. I was there only on afternoon but I bet it is a very nice during the night. My other discovery on the West-End is the Kelvin River Walkway. A great way to experience West Glasgow would be starting out on the Kelvin Hall subway station, walking up the Byres road, eating on Ashton Lane, checking out if there is a chamber music concert in the Botanical Gardens at the intersection of Byres and Great Western, walking down River Kelvin Walkway, all the way down to Gibson Street which is full of student cafees, giving a break there, continue walking down the river to reach Kelvingrove Park, to "drink sangria in the park, and when it gets dark" not to go home...

I'm in Glasgow for a conference, and arrived on Friday to check out the nightlife in the second city of the empire. My impression after 2 days is very very positive. I must admit I've had the most friendliest clubbing experience in my life with everyone from the bouncers to the drunk guys on the street being extra polite. The music was not all that great, but the lovely Scottish girls compensate for that. In order not to forget the places I've been to and be helpful to those who might visit Glasgow (which is something I definitely recommend), I've decided to create a quick guide to Glasgow nightlife. All the locations mentioned in this guide are also shown on this Google Map I prepared. Basics: Timing: As far as I could observe Glasgownians start the night early in a pub around 6 (maybe earlier), move onto a restaurant/bar or restaurant/club about 8. The restaurants close on 10 pm sharp. They move on to clubs around 12. Types of Locations: Of course pubs. There are al...

Boca Juniors won their 17th international title yesterday after beating Gremio 2-0 in Porto Allegre, Brazil. The star of the game was surely Riquelme, who scored 2 goals. Not so surprisingly Martin Palermo missed a penalty... I could only find the video from the first leg. This title makes Boca the team with the most international trophies ahead of Milan with 17 and 16 titles . And here is a picture of me celebrating Boca's victory last week:

Pumped up with 280 million dollars by CBS my favorite music site last.fm is going into the "new artist promotion" territory occupied by myspace. Artists or labels can now upload video and audio to last.fm servers with its Promote Your Music program. Developed as a software to match music taste of users to new artists, I believe last.fm has a competetive advantage over myspace. It will be interesting to watch if this technological -and stylistic in my opinion- advantage will suffice last.fm to penetrate myspace territory.

Even though they have a hard image, associated with -perhaps self-imposed- homelessness, punk for me represents musical purity, amateur idealism, and naiveness. Especially the music of Ramones. Sometimes I wish the relation between men and women were as naive as their song "Girl I wanna Be Your Boyfriend": " Hey, little girl I wanna be your boyfriend Sweet little girl I wanna be your boyfriend Do you love me babe? What do you say? Do you love me babe? What can I say? Because I wanna be your boyfriend "

It's not physical sickness I mean- I am sick in that sense too, the weather pressure is alternating so rapidly that my sinuses are giving me a preview of hell. I am sick of the disgusting things that human beings can do... There is a song by Nick Cave and the Bas Seeds, about the Christian Saint Christina the Astonishing. Christina the Astonishing was a young lady from Belgium in Middle Ages. She is believed by modern doctors to be epileptic. She is struck by a such a strong seizure that people think she's dead, and put her in a coffin. During the prayer, she roses from her coffin and says shes been to purgatory and back. She spends her life running away from mankind by hiding in ovens, swimming in ice cold weather, and climbing trees. She cannot stand the stink of human sin, which she claims to smell after her trip to afterlife. I cried "The stink of human sin Is more that I can bear" like Christina after reading this gruesome news about a global pedophile ring tha...

End of 70s was definitely a great time in NYC, when African Americans, white nerds with weird glasses, and John Travolta type of disco kings could dance to the same funky rap tune on the same dance floor... Here comes the Sugar Hill Gang with the first-ever American Hip Hop Top 40 hit, Rappers Delight:

After almost 3 years Pearl Street Coop gang is still together. Over the weekend I was in Kühlsheim, a town close to Würzburg, where Kate kindly opened up a house belonging to her family to us. The countryside, the drinks, the football tournament that we ended up watching, lovely dog named Linda, the Italian Restaurant with angry waitress', the cold stream and most important of all the conversations with friends made it a weekend to remember... I thank... ...Ariani for beating me every single time during the drinking game, Bjoern for never leaving me alone in two of my favorite activities, singing and drinking, Edgar for the Universitario jersey, Julia for being the model for the beach shot Kate for choosing such a beautiful place and her hospitality, Marion for not getting angry at me when I revealed her bluffs during the drinking game, Micha for action shots and singing Michi for childish games that make the world a better place Regina showing me her beautiful home town Stefan fo...

My dear friend Thuan, who is the president of America David Hassellhof Fan Association, got my attention to these two great music videos from the 80s. I have to not down that the Germans, to this date, dance to the second tune in discos.

Avant Garde Project brings many great 20th Century Avant Garde Music that are out of print in flac format for followers of this great "genre" which is much too creative to be categorized into a genre. Direct downloads as well as torrent downloads are possible. For beginners there is a good section of editors picks . For opening flac (and almost all the audio) files I recommend Media Monkey . There is a also a large collection of Turkish Electronic Avant Garde Music Pioneer Ilhan Mimaroglu .

My Argentinan club Boca Juniors won their Copa Libertadores Semi-Final return game 3-0 against Cucuta of Colombia. They had lost their first game 3-1 and with this result they reach the final to play a Brazilan team. With 2 games to go they are 4 points behind the leaders San Lorenzo in the Argentinian closure championships. Here are the goals from the game:

June 26 and June 27 in Berlin this year will see two historic events for those interested in art-rock. On June 26 Lou Reed, who came to fame with Velvet Underground, will perform his most dark, and his best solo album Berlin - a fact I deny, my favorite is Metal Machine Music for its musical ingenuity and braveness - in Berlin with a large ensemble of musicians. For this album he worked with the eclectic producer Bob Ezrin, who is know best for his work with Pink Floyd in their Album "The Wall", and as a result the album was very symphonic. I don't wanna miss this album played in the lovely city that it was dedicated to. Here is a longer version of the title song, from Reed's first album: The next day, prominent noise-avantgarde rock band Sonic Youth will be performing their seminal album Daydream Nation . I have found a fan video to my favorite song of the album Providence, about which I had commented on my musical blog : The eerie telephone talk reminds me of God...

My institute is moving out to new offices. I had no internet and no mail for two days, I was almost paralyzed. This dependence on internet is not a good sign. I have lots of things to write about, but not much time. So I will go the lazy way, and post two youtube videos. I've been listening to pre-Blonde-on-Blonde Dylan records lately. My favorite's been It Ain't Me Babe from Another Side of Bob Dylan ('64). His best version I could find on Youtube is from 1974: I was not familiar with his style during 70s, he looks somehow funny. I don't like female vocals generally, but Joan Baez version might change my thoughts. I also like how she starts the show: "This is a protest song about marriage.... I guess I am anti-marriage"