dali.

Prague and all that...

Greeting friends and family!

this here is sierra and benjamin, we figured since we were going through somewhat the same experiences we might try a mass email together, so here it is...

so now we are in central europe, after a spur of the moment decision in the fully-booked world cup host city of frankfurt that we would head east. now we are in a crowded and lively hostel, surrounded by unfamiliar languages, bad music, kind souls, graffitied walls, beaten leather couches under a sun that never seems to completely go away, or completely come out. we will recount for you some of the events that have taken place in the past couple of weeks.

We ended our stay in barcelona shortly after going to a festival that is held every year called the sonar fest. the original purpose of the festival was to celebrate and explore the artist that is the dj, or to see the dj as a performer and musician instead of someone who simply plays records for people to dance to. though its not the type of thing you would normally find us at, it was really quite a good time, a
giant playground with a broad range of music, from terribly repetitive euro-robot music, to a living disco band still intact from the 70's, to a cluster of very good hip hop acts and a smaller portion of very bad ones. the festival was really ingenously designed, as the diversity of musics all complemented each other. for
example, the disco band, chic, are a group who more than anyone else had their music sampled from drumbeats and basslines during the early years of hip hop, so that the younger generations have only heard them through that. and here at the festival where the dj is king, they sample not just a bassline but the entire bloody band, living and well, in a building like an empty airplane hangar. We danced the night away to digable planets who put on a lovely performance and even after their eight year hiatus they still have the brilliant energy of a sunshiny morning. Sierra danced harder then Ben had ever seen her dance in her life. We shook it alongside drug-addled wide eyed barcelonians until the break of day.

After a swift recovery and little sleep we slipped down the rabbit hole into the world of the madhatter himself Salvador Dali by way of the theatro museu dali in figueres, his home town in a city not far from barcelona. sierra found a new respect for his entire body of work, which includes his mystical foray into the world of jewelry where we found ourselves admiring works made of gold and diamonds - a medium we found repelling up until that point- including a ruby heart that beats just like the real thang. his intention behind making jewelry was to redefine the medium from being elitist and flashy objects of desire to being actual works of art appreciable by all people from all countries and walks of life. he said that in viewing the piece, and understanding to different degrees the original idea of the artist, the viewer creates his own piece of artwork through his perception, and by taking part in this creation, becomes the artist himself. we found this to resonate with us completely, ellaborating upon recent conversations we have been having.

We left our international roomates and ants for a flight that we missedn yet again. we seem to be getting better at this. So we spent one night in Girona and took the next flight to Frankfurt, Germany where to ourn surprise a particularly climatic world cup match was being held between the Netherlands and Argentina. we fought our way through the surreal and circus like atmosphere, where ben mistook a pigeon for a bald eagle, sierra drank nasty applewine, florescent orange clad drunken hollanders raised a ruckus at even the slightest provacation, a slightly withered political protest made its way through the merryment alongside police forces in full body armour ready for war with the very unintimidating and unenthusiastic teenage protesters. these combined forces left us without a place to stay in frankfurt so we hoped on a midnight train for prague. our trip was accented by a meeting with some shmuck who gets paid a freaken salary to write a single song each month in nashville, sierra was stared at while the others slept by a strange man with a comb over, we both were rudely awoken repeatedly by the barking orders of terrifyingly authoritative german police who would intrerrupt our sleep like nightmares, demanding our tickets and passports more times than we remember. ben swears that at least one was actually a ghost.

However we do plan on returning to Germany once the world cup is over and we can find a place to stay. which brings us to this little basement in Prague where it is costing us a small fortune in travelers terms to type this email to you all. Not to mention our struggle with a czech keyboard where the y and z are switched and punctuation is virtuallz inaccessable. But we love you this much so.....

Prague is lovely and much different then anything that we have ever seen. It is a city that has seen some hards times but is enjoying a bit of a renaissance these days. Also after a trecherously long wait Sierra has recieved word from the infamous Glasgow School of Art. She has been accepted into the 3rd year Environmental Art program for the entirety of the 2006-07 school year.Which was not the program she applied for but happened to be the one she should have applied for because it coveres both video, photography and installation. These happen to be her focus already. We will celebrate tonight with the famous Czech Pilsner which is the geographic equivalant of champagne.

Well, that happens to be all that we could conjure up between the two of us for now.

We love zou all!!! §šý!íýé!!!!!!


èhééìéø§.

bìnýámín and §ierøa

absinthe

Absinthe (IPA English: [æbsinte] IPA French: is a distilled, highly alcoholic, anise-flavored spirit derived from herbs including the flowers and leaves of the medicinal plant Artemisia absinthium, also called wormwood. Although it is sometimes incorrectly called a liqueur, absinthe does not contain added sugar and is therefore classified as a liquor or spirit.[1]

Absinthe is often referred to as la Fée Verte ("The Green Fairy") because of its coloring — typically pale or emerald green, but sometimes clear. Due to its high proof and concentration of oils, absintheurs typically add three to five parts ice-cold water to a dose of absinthe, which causes the drink to turn cloudy (called "louching"); often the water is used to dissolve sugar to decrease bitterness. This preparation is considered an important part of the experience of drinking absinthe, so much so that it has become ritualized, complete with slotted absinthe spoons and other accoutrements. Absinthe's flavor is similar to anise-flavored liqueurs, with a light bitterness, and a more complex flavor imparted by multiple herbs.

Absinthe originated in Switzerland as an elixir, but is more well-known for its popularity in late 19th and early 20th century France, particularly among Parisian artists and writers whose romantic associations with the drink still linger in popular culture. In its heyday the most popular brand of absinthe worldwide was Pernod Fils. At the height of this popularity, absinthe was portrayed as a dangerously addictive, psychoactive drug; the chemical thujone was blamed for most of its deleterious effects. By 1915 it was banned in a number of European countries and the United States. Modern evidence shows it to be no more dangerous or psychoactive than ordinary alcohol. A modern-day absinthe revival began in the 1990s, as countries in the European Union began to reauthorize its manufacture and sale.




We tried this drink out of curiosity, since it is illegal in the states. It didn´t really do anything drastically different then other alcohol that I´ve tried in the past except that it kept all three of us up until around 6am the next morning, it was mellow and tasts very strong, when you swollow it you can feel it´s presense all throughout your throat and stomach. But we had a good night full of dancing and wonderful conversations.

you have to love slow shutter speeds on digital cameras.


my nose

ben in red

the club that we ended up in, played all the same stuff with the same beat over and over again except for a little bit of aphex twin which is always a pleasent surprise.

tilla

ben and i on the metro around 5am.

hair be gone

i decided that it was time, after six years of contemplation in a single night Ben snipped off almost a foot of my hair and I was liberated. This is a first for me, so i talked about it for two days straight. Now my neck is a little colder then usual and my head feels lighter.

reflection

Rainbow

Antoni Gaudi

La Sagrada Familia




up close






tha other side


the top


inside






ben and myself (making a funny face)

good ol´religious art.

some cathedrals

peckham and benjamin.

ben arrives from India.




all is well in the world.