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09/18/2004
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about this site
An archive of information about the Norwegian artist, musician and poet, Magne Furuholmen.
newsletters from magnef.org
A new commissioned work by Magne titled 'umsteiger' is unveiled thursday 29th of April at Friedrichstrasse 149 in Berlin. It will be inaugerated by the Norwegian ambassador to Germany, his excellency Sven Erik Svedman.
The work, which will be on permanent display, consists of approx. 100 square-metres of transcluscent foil on architectural glass, with a motif of English anagrams based on the German word 'umsteiger', translating rougly to 'in transit'.
This commission is done in collaboration with Anders Hofgaard and the graphic designers node Oslo / Berlin, and employs the (as of yet) unpublished typographical font U8, created in 1920 especially for the Berlin U-bahn.
See newsletter on the web04/23/2010 - Alpha Beta utstillingsåpning Nils Aas Kunstverksted
Magne Furuholmen alpha - beta
28. april - 24. mai 2010
Kjære venner og støttespillere.
Velkommen til utstillingsåpning onsdag 28. april kl 18.00
Sted: Nils Aas Kunstverksted
Soddjazzutstillingen:
Magne Furuholmen alpha - beta
28.04. - 24.05. 2010
Magne Furuholmen har arbeidet med billedkunst i over 20 år. Tekst og bokstaver har hele tiden vært sentralt som et billedskapende element i arbeidene hans. I serien alpha - beta kommer dette til en logisk konsekvens når han tar for seg hver enkelt bokstav i alfabetet. Vi viser 44 grafiske trykk og fire større malerier.
Magne Furuholmen er også kjent som musiker. Utstillingsåpningen sammenfaller med åpningskonserten til årets Soddjazz: Trygve Seim/Frode Haltli duo spiller i Nils Aas Kunstverksted kl. 19.00. Konserten er gratis, gitt av Trønder-Avisa. Se ellers www.soddjazz.no for mer informasjon.
VELKOMMEN!
See newsletter on the web02/21/2010 - Gallery Benoit, Boston, USA
Magne Furuholmen
March 5 - 28, 2010
Opening reception
Friday, March 5, 6-8
Gallery Benoit, 450 Harrison Avenue
Boston, MA 02118 | 617.309.7902
audra@gallerybenoit.com
www.gallerybenoit.com
Artist Talk by Magne F
February 17. 4.30-5.30pm
Edinburgh Printmakers
Magne F will be in discussion with Paul Stolper about the works in his exhibition. Tickets £8 each, available from office@edinburgh-printmakers.co.uk or phone 0131 557 2479. Please book early to avoid disappointment!
Reception with Magne F 6-8pm
Join Magne F for an exclusive reception to celebrate his exhibition.
See newsletter on the web
01/26/10 - Apparatjik performing in Berlin
Dear friends.
Apparatjik will be performing at the club transmediale 2010 in berlin on 01022010.
For info about performance:
http://www.clubtransmediale.de/ctm-festival/night-program/night-schedule/01/apparatjik.html
The apparatjik collective was founded by Magne F (a-ha), Guy Berryman (Coldplay), Jonas Bjerre (Mew), and London-based music producer Martin Terefe; Ute Meta Bauer joins them as artistic director for special projects. The project’s website was launched on 09.09.09.
www.apparatjik.com
See newsletter on the web
12/16/09 - Update on Sent Alpha Beta Prints
Most of you will finally receive your print and vinyl this coming week! The bulk of the prints are already in the post from the UK.
However, a very small number of prints are still in the process of being made. We apologize for this, and ask those who do not get prints to hold on for just a few more days.
As a token of our appreciation and in recognition of your patience, everyone who has purchased prints before the end of October, will receive an extra, custom made, vinyl of 'Wordsymphony no. 1'.
We will send you one purple and one very nice clear vinyl record to give away or keep as you please.
Merry Xmas.
Paul Stolper & Magne F
See newsletter on the web
11/17/09 - Alpha Beta Prints and Word Symphony Vinyl Discs
Due to delays in the printing process and with Magne F currently on tour with a-ha, the prints will now be signed end of November, a month late.
A technical error occurred at the pressing plant during production of the vinyls. This fault has been corrected and perfect vinyl discs are being now pressed.
The prints and vinyls will be sent out to you during first half of December, in due time before Xmas.
We apologize for this delay outside of our control, but believe this is worth waiting for.
Paul Stolper & Magne F
See newsletter on the web
11/02/09 - Paul Stolper - 2009 IFPDA Print Fair
Paul Stolper
Booth A18
2009 IFPDA Print Fair
Exhibiting works by:
Peter Blake
Keith Coventry
Magne F
Damien Hirst
Peter Saville
Gavin Turk
Ben Kelly and Morph
Fair Dates
5th - 8th November 2009
Location
The Park Avenue Armory
643 Park Avenue at 67th St.
New York, NY 10065
Paul Stolper
www.paulstolper.com
IFPDA
www.ifpda.org/printfair
See newsletter on the web
10/28/09 - Word Symphony and Alpha Beta Prints
The Word Symphony is now finished and currently in glorious purple vinyl-production. The print editions are also close to being done, and will be signed and shipped shortly.
Shortly, as in during the month of November.
Thank you for your patience.
mf
See newsletter on the web
10/28/09 - Magne F works at Gallery Benoit in Boston, USA
You are cordially invited to join us in celebrating the opening of Gallery Benoit on Friday, November 6th, 6-9pm at 450 Harrison Avenue, #63 Boston, MA 02118. Wine and hors d’oeuvres will be served.
Featuring works by: Magne Furuholmen, Tim Kent, Robert Merton, Wilson Parry, Madeleine Paternot and Mette Tronvoll.
Gallery Benoit 450 Harrison Avenue Boston, MA 02118 | 617.309.7902
ALPHA BETA
October 16th – 21st November 2009
The Paul Stolper Gallery, London
The new magne f portfolio ‘alpha-beta’ is published by Paul Stolper and consists of 30 prints - one for every letter in the alphabet, including the 3 norwegian characters; Æ, Ø, Å - and an exclamation mark!
The portfolio will be offered to collectors and institutions and presented in London and New York October/November 2009. The first 500 prints are sold individually, accompanied by a special collector’s item; a limited edition 12" coloured vinyl disc with a new magne f composition titled 'Word Symphony'.
CHOOSE YOUR LETTER(S) HERE. | See newsletter on the web
10/06/2009 - Magne F - Alpha Beta
October 16th – 21st November 2009
The Paul Stolper Gallery, London
AVAILABLE ON A FIRST-COME FIRST-SERVED BASIS AND FOR A LIMITED TIME ONLY
ORIGINAL MAGNE F PRINTS FROM THE NEW SERIES 'ALPHA-BETA' WITH A LIMITED EDITION 12” VINYL RECORD NOW AVAIlABLE AT THE REDUCED PRE-PUBLICATION PRICE OF £ 240 INCLUDING PACKING & SHIPPING.
The new magne f portfolio ‘alpha-beta’ is published by Paul Stolper and consists of 30 prints - one for every letter in the alphabet, including the 3 norwegian characters; Æ, Ø, Å - and an exclamation mark!
The portfolio will be offered to collectors and institutions and presented in London and New York October/November 2009.
The first 500 prints are sold individually, accompanied by a special collector’s item; a limited edition 12" coloured vinyl disc with a new magne f composition titled 'Word Symphony'.
This unique project is based on the vocals recorded for a-ha's highly acclaimed new album "Foot of the Mountain". Using the existing sound files as raw material, the artist deconstructs, stretches and reconfigures, taking them out of their melodic and linguistic context, creating a completely new piece of music in its place. In this experiment, the iconic voice of Morten Harket is pushed into territory far removed from how it was originally recorded. Much like the way magne f 's letters are re-constituted by the viewer, these vocals, already such a signature in people's minds, are re-sampled, contorted, and re-presented by the artist: “I see the ‘Word Symphony’ as a recycling exercise - taking apart something meticulously constructed and turning it into something else.”
THE FIRST 500 TO ORDER PRINTS FROM THE NEW ALPHA BETA SERIES WILL ALSO RECEIVE THIS EXCLUSIVE COLLECTOR’S ITEM, SIGNED AND NUMBERED BY THE ARTIST. THE EDITION OF EACH LETTER IS 46.
CHOOSE YOUR LETTER(S) HERE. | See newsletter on the web
MAGNE F ALPHA BETA
October 16th – 21st November 2009
The Paul Stolper Gallery, London
AN EXCLUSIVE OFFER AVAILABLE ON A FIRST-COME FIRST-SERVED BASIS AND FOR A LIMITED TIME ONLY:
AS PART OF A SELECT GROUP YOU CAN NOW PURCHASE AN ORIGINAL MAGNE F PRINT FROM THE NEW SERIES 'ALPHA-BETA' TOGETHER WITH A LIMITED EDITION 12” VINYL RECORD AT THE REDUCED PRE-PUBLICATION PRICE OF £ 240 INCLUDING PACKING & SHIPPING.
The new Magne F portfolio ‘Alpha-Beta’ is published by Paul Stolper and consists of 30 individual prints - one for every letter in the alphabet, including the 3 specifically Norwegian characters æ, ø, å, and an exclamation mark. The portfolio will be offered to collectors and institutions and presented in Oslo, London, and New York, October/November 2009.
The first 500 prints are sold individually accompanied by a special collector’s item: A limited edition 12" purple vinyl disc with a new Magne F composition, titled 'Word Symphony'.
This unique project is based on the vocals recorded for a-ha's highly acclaimed new album "Foot of the Mountain". Using the existing sound files as raw material, the artist deconstructs, stretches and reconfigures, taking them out of their melodic and linguistic context, creating a completely new piece of music in its place. In this experiment the iconic voice of Morten Harket is pushed into territory far removed from how it was originally recorded. Much like the way Magne F 's letters are reconstituted by the viewer, these vocals, already such a signature in people's minds, are re-sampled, contorted, and re-presented by the artist: “I see the ‘Word Symphony’ as a recycling exercise - taking apart something meticulously constructed and turning it into something else.”
THE FIRST 500 TO ORDER PRINTS FROM THE NEW ALPHA BETA SERIES WILL RECEIVE THIS EXCLUSIVE COLLECTOR’S ITEM, NUMBERED AND SIGNED BY THE ARTIST.
CHOOSE YOUR LETTER(S) HERE. | See newsletter on the web
magne f is showing new works at galleri trafo, norway from the 28th of february onwards. this is a 3-man show with distinguished english artist sir peter blake and danish artist john korner.
www.magnef.org | www.magnef.net
www.magnef.net/magneftube
enjoy
01/16/2008 - magne f new album
a dot of black in the blue of your bliss
the new magne f album is released as a 300 copy limited edition only.
there are no plans for a traditional release of the album, but the songs will be made available as a free download on myspace.
the limited edition is a 10 inch high-quality vinyl picture-disc, containing six new songs recorded in the south of france, june & september 2007.
each album cover is a hand-painted original, signed and numbered by magne f.
a painting-performance will take place at oslo city hall on the 23rd of january 2008.
you can watch the progress on http://www.magne-f.net/magneftube
with this picture disc you also get an enhanced cd with the six songs, a documentary of the performance, and a colour-poster of the entire painting.
price: 100 euros + shipping.
place your order on
http://www.magne-f.net/
subscribers of this mailinglist are given an exclusive pre-order period until the 23 of january.
climax:
large scale sculpture
aluminium industrial waste
commissioned by
the nobel peace center, oslo
2007
www.magnef.org
climax project
www.magnef.org/projects/climax
edition of 44
aluminium & black pigment on paper
2007
www.magnef.org/works/prints
monotype
aluminium & black pigment on paper
2007
www.magnef.org/works/prints/07-monotype
www.magnef.org
12/11/2007 - new project: climax cardgame
15 laser-engraved aluminium elox playing cards measures 174 mm x 125 mm x 1,5 mm edition 250.
a set of 15 aluminium cards as a self assembly house of cards, engraved with text on one side and images on the other. this edition coincides with climax, a 4 m high sculpture made from reclaimed aluminium, commissioned by the nobel peace centre in oslo, norway 2007, and unveiled on the 11th of december by honourable nobel peace prize winner al gore.
build the world your own way. world fate literally at your fingertips! for more info: www.paulstolper.com.
Dear friends,
I was once the proud owner of a rather impressive collection of beautifully hand-crafted, slightly eerie ’Mags-dolls’ back in the 80’s - chiefly produced by very talented and very dedicated Japanese a-ha fans.
After my kids have with time destroyed most of these (what kid growing up wouldn’t jump at the chance to rip his father’s head off on occasion), many years have passed before I now find myself missing these fabric(ated) versions of me. Hence I have decided to invite you all to participate in a new artpiece/installation to be shown at Sorlandets Kunstmuseum in Norway (www.skmu.no) come end of August 2007.
Just make a ’Mags-doll’ and send it to me!
Knit or sow to your hearts content; improve what needs to improving, fix what needs fixing straighten out my fashion-sense (kimono, or tacky norwegian knitted sweaters is a personal fave) finally get the hair right, enlarge the whatever parts that may need enlarging...
Make 80’s Mags, fat Mags, bearded Mags (ouch!) with or without instrument, whatever and however many ways you want! Basically, feel free to create me in your own image.
The only restrictions are that it must be a stuffed doll (made mainly from fabric) and with a maximum-size of 1:1. Large dolls are good, almost all sizes appreciated, but perhaps not extremely small - no smaller than a 'regular' doll.
This is definitely an offer which you can refuse. As the smarter ones among you no doubt have figured out, this is merely a clever ploy to make you all work for me for free. For those who would like to participate I promise to credit each doll-maker of the dolls that I use with name (or not, if you so wish) in appropriate relation to the work. I will also make a web gallery of the dolls you have sent with credits.
Other than that I assert the exclusive and all rights to use or not for artistic purposes, in any way that I see fit. This means you give it to me - period. If I decide to sell them for charity or profit or just keep them for myself, you accept.
To be considered for this project the dolls must be in my hands by the beginning of August. Please ensure that your package does not contain restricted or illegal material.
Clearly mark the shipment 'original artwork belonging to artist' and send your doll(s) by post to:
a-ha network AS
Brenneriveien 11
0182 Oslo
Norway
Imagine if you will a room full of Magses..now there’s something the world can do without!
Magne F works exhibited at
The London Original Print Fair
Royal Academy of Arts
Burlington Gardens, London W1
11 - 6PM
Wednesday 25 - Sunday 29 April
www.londonprintfair.com
PrintBasel
Monday, June 11 – Sunday, June 17, 2007
Opening on Sunday, June 10, 5 – 9 pm
Volkshaus hall at Claraplatz, Rebgasse 8
4058 Basel, Switzerland
www.printbasel.ch
Magne F sounds
New music section coming soon at www.magnef.org
newsletters from a-hamusic.co.uk
While sane people were (insanely) guzzling easter-eggs, a-ha have been spending time preparing for the massive onslaught of UK summer festivals (ahem...massive is a relative term, okay) in Easter boot-camp; self-hardening corporal exercises (be still dirty minds, I'm talking exposure to snow and cold wind) and a strict diet of wheat-free wheat, bread-free bread, chick-free chicken (cosy prison indeed...kosher prison, more like) - not to mention completely meet-free weeks apart in the presence of the only genius muse we acknowledge: Mnemosyne, Patron-Saint of Memory Loss.
Now - a week in the mountains will make a hermit out of anyone, but it's making a social animal out of me. Dan G (Fiction/Polydor office Toyboy) is forcing me to mention yet again (!) the release of 'Cosy Prisons' as a single, so there it is. And in case there are any first time users out there; Scandinavian melancholia is an altogether stronger, gene-manipulated kind of narcotic, advisably taken in small doses at first. Just say "No" to drugs. Fair warning given.
Lots of vitamins and minerals
magne f
03/30/2006 - 'Cosy Prisons' coming soon...
Wotcha!
Another bail-out, eh mail-out, that is from your favourite Norwegian(s);
'Cosy Prisons' - out soon as a UK single! Gluttons for punishment will look forward to yet another single-release by a-ha from this album, and the rest will just have to deal with the pain.
Whatever can be said to sell even more singles to those of you whose flats are already wallpapered with the covers from the spare 'Analogue' singles that you helped get into the charts? Not much, you're right. And I guess telling you about the upcoming promotion in UK:
the acoustic sessions, the interviews, the TV shows...the thought of another onslaught of a-ha classics in the media like Morten swearing on Radio One (although my personal favourite thing there was Morten claiming later that he did NOT swear on radio, he just said "F***"...eh, you work it out!), or the pearls of wisdom from my oily mouth, the altogether more eloquent silence from Paul...a week of a-ha infestation on British soil - is all just going to make it that much harder to get you going to the shops, innit?!
Oh, but there are some new things to tell: There's a hardcore post-rock-disco (!!) mix of this song (oh yeah) with the subtlety of a flying mallet, done by Keir at the very excellent Blacksmoke Organization - the only remix for ages that has done something for me/to me...check it out!
And then there's the video...eh, out now...doh!
Well, as good as it feels to have been back in the charts...as empty as it feels to be outside of it again. I don't want to sound needy, but please, please, please...one more fix, please, please, please! You have created a monster...
MF
02/27/2006 - The Dark Ness Monster
Sitting here in the southern hemisphere after a week at altitudes up to 4700 metres, you will forgive an old man for being sentimental (and if you don't, well sod off!) It's been about 24 hours since our (a-ha's) second gig in Chile in about 15 years (ok, so my memory is not exactly a hi-precision Glock pistol but rather a jamming Sten-gun, but, hey).
From the Chilean press-conference the other day: "What is the difference between making music today and 20 years ago?
Me: "Back then our hearing was fine, now it's gone" (partly true...)
Paul: "it takes the pain out of it" (true...)
Morten: "no difference, really" (false)
So, back in Chile, crew joke: "Where are the Andes?"
"At the end of the armses!" (humorists of the world, please forgive me!) After such a looooong break, people actually remember us here! Note to self: don't forget!
Personally I cleverly managed to make this a winter holiday - in local summertime, and a chance to see some of Chile's rather wonderful natural offerings (wash your dirty mouth - I'm here with family I'll have you know. And my kids will love me for it, because this time they came too!)
Oh, but, but, but, I digress: It's time for the 2nd single from the Analogue(s) album - and heaven knows we are asking too much; after all your splendid efforts of putting the Analogue single in the UK charts, you would be in the moral right to ask what kind of monsters would have you placed back in the shops for yet more watered out single-versions with tacky remixes blended with substandard demo material...?
You're absolutely right: WE would.
We have no shame - deal with it!
At least the single version on Cosy Prison is a bona fide remix - different from the one you already own.
So - call your friend (we know you've got one!), your family (we sympathise), and your loved ones (go on...make it both of them) and tell them the good news; a-ha is asking you for another favour. Ask not what this band can do for you, but what you can do for this band.
How could anyone resist? I'm damned if I know.
Peas(in a pod)
magne f
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
p.s
Thoughts on reading; You know how characters from books live on in you after you read about them? And how the edges between the characters from different books sometimes blur? I often start to mix these different characteristics in my head; let's say for example Graham Greene's Maurice Bendrix (The End of the Affair), mixed with Nabokov's Axel Rex (Laughter in the Dark) - thereby inventing a more cynical and sinister Bendrix (or an altogether more likeable Rex!).
Or fuse a little of one into the two others; Bendrix into both Rex and Albinus, creating two different hybrid characters of piquantely confusing morals...
Or I even give a combination-shot of Bendrix (it even sounds like a real vaccine!) to both Rex and Albinus to make a new more complex Maurice.
This is to me somehow analogue to (at least) my thought-processes (and when was plural ever more inappropriately used?) when working; you make your own unique mental 'tool-kit' from the things you read, see, or hear - and this specific combination of info put together forms a unique matrix of references.
I think perhaps artistic talent is mostly to simply pause for long enough at an interesting junction of these references so that they start to take hold, and get the time to display their need for being formulated. Or not as the case may be.
Merry Xmen!
01/30/2006 - Morten says: Thank you all
...for putting us back in the UK top ten.
As of today consider yourselves employed as fans on a full-time basis - and we are of course willing to renegotiate the terms.
This goes primarily for the longstanding believers out there.
Rookies just riding the new wave; we love you too
- but consider yourself freelance until further notice.
lotsalove
mags
01/27/2006 - Message from Magne
"Oh lift us up where we belong..." Well, by the looks of it, you've all done your bit this week!
I can't wait to come back and do some serious damage to our growing cult-status at the HMV store on Monday and at Shepherds Bush on the 2nd. Give us another week and all your efforts will be in vain ;-)
As much as it is against my nature and principles ("...against every instinct in my body..." to quote Richard Nixon upon being forced to leave The White House after Watergate) I really do feel that a thank you is in order, so; Thank you. There. Don't ever say we're a thankless bunch.
From Tour to Tourettes:
Thanks for your support on the Radio One blunder too (your bbc website postings), although I must say the not so very rockin' or glamorous, unradical, not even remotely provocative truth (truth often IS boring - that's why people lie) is that as Norwegians we are (sadly) used to any filthy thing being said on the radio, and so none of us were wise to the UK rules. (Plus; 'foul language' in our vocabulary means speaking to the birds - something Morten does regularly).
I mean, the poor guy never ever swears in the first place! ...how easily I could have done it - without batting an eyelid. One little anecdotal point that still has me in stitches is that 5 minutes before we went on air at Radio One Morten had a rare moment of self-congratulatory musings; "I'm feeling quite happy with how this week has gone..." and so forth then, *thump*... and the rest, as they say, is history.
Personally I feel more apologetic about the soggy version of Stay on these roads, but that's just me.
Oh well, diferences forgotten, all in the market together, and no need to mention the war..and if we're not back by ninehundred hours - you may have my egg.
Back to the reason I write; we now have a hit in the UK - thanks to y'all. Who would have thought! With fans like you....and so on. now roll out the download squad. An a-ha fan's work is never done!
See you at the circus
magne f
01/01/2006 - Happy New Year From A-ha
Hey newborn
young hope
in a long line of trials
the sprig-leaf
on the ancient family tree
today you are the future
tomorrow you're the past
make it matter
it all goes by so fast
time is for spending
it was never meant to last
welcome 06
your number's up
...
Sappy new year, everyone!
All the kissing and hugging done, and friends content to once again be reduced to a monthly sms..
Santa came late over here this year, no doubt sick of overfed, understimulated, ungrateful little rich brats (not my kids of course!) not able to formulate a single wish that is not merely a new version of something they already own two of.
That, or the lack of quality snow...even with this darn cold. The cold really is no good. We're eagerly awaiting global warming up here.
I hear rumours 2006 is going to be a rough ride for capitalism, but hey, don't take my word for it.
And anyway isn't it a bit like quitting smoking; if you really think about it, you know you've had the best cigarette already.
Oh, well just one thing to do - clear away the cutlery and dance ...and just to reiterate what we all knew already: charleston is the new rock! (click here to watch a clip).
mf
12/23/2005 - The last fan standing
(a personal journey)
Greetings, oh precious representative of fankind!
We have come to the end of the road, eh, for now, I guess - at least the last stop on this particular bus-route... time to go home and do a body count.
What exactly are the odds of anyone making a good first impression night after night? I wonder. And what do you do to take back the impressions once given? Who knows, and what on earth does this have to do with a mail-out to fans anyway?!
Bear with me, my mind always takes the long way around the moors on these self-conscious mail-outs.
Let me start somewhere else, so as to end up exactly where we were before: X will never compose the immortal music that would clash with the second-rate symphonies he has accustomed us to. Y will never commit murder. Under no circumstances can Z ever betray us. We have it all arranged in our minds, and the less often we see a particular person the more satisfying it is to check how obediently he conforms to our notion of him every time we hear of him. Any deviation in the fates we have ordained would strike us as not only anomalous, but unethical. We would prefer not to have known at all our neighbour, the retired hot-dog stand operator, if it turns out he has just produced the greatest book of poetry his age has seen.
Ok, I better own up; that last paragraph was taken from a rather brilliant book by Nabokov.
Oh rufus, I guess I might as well just do a list of all the books I read on this tour, so as to have the intellectual alibi buffed and ready for x-mas (rather cleverly omitting to mention the many hours of watching 'Little Britain' on the bus):
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
Lunar Park by Bret Easton Ellis
Dress your family in Corduroy and Denim by David Sedaris
Dynamic Psychiatry by Johan Cullberg
Innocent when you dream - Tom Waits Interviews
Dieter & Dorothy (correspondence between Dieter Roth and Dorothy Iannone) - and I have just recently started on 'Saturday' by Ian McEwan.
Now, if the shear volume of it doesn't impress you, I plain give up.
Asked to relay any remotely interesting or funny event happening on tour invariably serves to remind me of how completely uninteresting and uneventful life on the road really is. What most people don't get is that touring is just all about those TWO small hours a night...everything else is just transit. Just one fucken Starbucks after another.
(We have an actual agreement in the band to buy Starbucks just to keep Kenny G busy and away from making music).
The real transport happens in your head within those two hours, the rest is just the body catching up to make a sequential real-time narrative of it.
I mean, I could probably offer up a fanciful concoction containing things like drink, drugs, sex (masturbation is sex with someone you love), intravenous vitamin C injections, resident healers, kinky male masseurs, designer shopping sprees, naked fans in German uni-sex saunas, vomiting on stage, private jets, the dubious pleasure of seeing Mariah Carey up close, and so on - but then, that would just make our lives seem so...
well, just so ordinary. So boringly typical and popstarrish - and you wouldn't want that now, would you!?
Rest assured that if not exactly rewarded in a fiscal way, you are at least appreciated for your efforts of coming to see us play.
Without you we would feel, frankly, alone up there.
In the approximated words of Kipling:
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue (ouch!),
and almost learn the words to 'crying in the rain',
If neither foe nor loving friends divert you,
when you are stood outside a dressing-room in vain
If you survive the unforgiving minutes
of guitar-strings screeching as they twist and bend,
Yours is the band and everyone that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a fan, my friend!
Rock on (as our A&R guy Jochen said when we had just finished performing on Domino-Day (it's a real program, I swear!) feeling a lot like the puppet-show when headlining for Spinal Tap.
Merry Xmas and see ya in UK in January!
magne f
11/30/2005 - Greetings from the road
Hola,
Greetings from the road as they say, or, more accurately; die Autobahn - the perfect place for brief encounters (as opposed to encounters in briefs).
This e-mail is to announce the special mailing-list set up for the UK campaign by our new friends at Polydor. Don't hold me personally
responsible for any of it. As I have no knowledge whatsoever of what will be on here (content-wise), I plead innocence in the third degree (except anything insightful, funny or plain brilliant, for which I will of course take full credit).
Suffice to say the band is well chuffed about this chance to re-connect with our (ever growing?) UK audience - both on our tour of Blighty this month, and, not least, with our new record 'Analogue' (out on Polydor & in your shops now, folks!), and the single with the same name, which will released immediately after all white Xmas lies have been told, and turkey-stuffing is stuffing everyone but the turkey.
Autobahn means we are already out here - performing monkeys that we are - currently in a bus at the end of the German leg (Schank?) of a European tour. Touring...you gotta love this life - I mean where else do you get the chance for sociological experiments like this; to spend rather large amounts of time in confined spaces (planes, buses, dressing rooms) with people that you grew up with, engaging in all sorts of games of history abuse and group - introspection. I mean, come on; what other walks of life gives you the opportunity to re-visit again and again the pre-puberty social patterns formed between childhood friends? I dare you - how many of people you grew up with do you have to relate to on a daily basis!? Exactly. I thought so. People really have some kind of nerve asking us how we get along. Work in progress, my friends...screw the fatalists!
So what is the attraction then of doing all this for the umpteenth time? Success? Nah..Success is the designer straight-jacket you gladly accept to ease the frustration of creativity. No more, no less. We do it cuz it's great to get to play our songs to people, that's why. To be received as a friend by complete strangers in every town we go... who wouldn't give up their day job for this kind of validation? It's great to know you can roll into a town with the flea- circus, then roll out again the next day (oops, perhaps there's more of a sailor in me than I thought).
It is also interesting to make your then-thoughts connect with the now-life... like we do every night out on stage; marrying the early us with the brand new we, combining songs spanning almost 25 years of our lives. Forced to weld your adult-self to everyone that you have ever been like this, you take all the factors of differing personalities, ambitions, histories, lives, etc. and create your own little travelling microcosmos; a sort of Tumi-powered world in transit...
Disturbingly, I find myself wearing the one same sweater over and over as we progress on this tour - surely not only because of the rude inscription on the back (de puta madre) but perhaps because the rivets on the back and front all have claws (bad or good design, help me, I can't decide) which dig deep into my skin - a little like my own special 'cilice' right thurre...
Without a doubt an instinct Freud would have recognized - punishing myself for submitting myself to this young man's game.
So if you haven't fallen asleep yet with all this ranting of mine, I can pretty much guarantee you won't fall asleep during our show. Just answer me this: If music was food - what would be on the vegetarian menu?
Pecans & lard,
Mf
posts from magne on his guestbook on magne-f.net
Thanks for all the nice words in here.
All I want is to be you, and to have what I cannot have, and a few things more, when all I REALLY need is this stainless steel thermos (like the jerk I am - hey, that's MISTER Jerk to you, Miss!) plus days, months, years...
Time to forget to remember - or was it; remember to forget..? I forget.
And, oh, on the other hand there are fingers... (sorry, got sidetracked there for a second),
who knows what, when, where and if - at least I promise you all ONE thing: I will never do this again and again. Here's what I'm trying to say:
We are 90% water, and still we're thirsty.
Ok, I know - I am a wordjunkie (habitual truth abuser, more like, don't even go there!) even worse is I've disovered a couple of typos on the album-sleeve...jeez, what can you do, except give yourself a black eye and a kick in the balls. Anyway, I've given up trying to be cool and collected, so it's hot & bothered from now on, and in everything I do I will try to be personal about all the universal things.. - universonal, I guess.
Lastly, I just want to say that everybody thinks they know who I am, but no one gets me but you!
Saturday, September 18, 2004 - at home (everywhere)
To my horror I was just recently made aware that a San Franciscan poet released a book of poems titled Past Perfect Future Tense back in 2002!
The nerve of some people, huh!!
I mean, he stole my title - most probably even before I had the chance to come up with it!
Well, I actually had it in my notebooks ever since the Minor Earth Major Sky title
(same idea just different – geddit?), which was, uh, when exactly…2001? Something like that.
Even so, for this guy to get the line from my notebooks suggests a deeper conspiracy than even my sick mind is prepared to accept, involving everyone I know basically.
So, the preffered conclusion must be that it is a title of such mind-blowing proportions - such staggering genius and epic importance to humankind, that it simply had to be discovered more or less simultaneously by more than one person - synchronicity, entanglement – whatever fancy schmanzy theory works best here.
And so as of now, I will have to follow this guy’s work, obviously...chances are we’ll have to meet somewhere at some point and shake our heads in jolly jest and mutual admiration, and ponder the way fate has intertwined us in its mysterious way (silkworms we are)
But what if we don’t even like each other?
What if he’s a real dufus?
What if he can’t even stand my work...
and it fucks up the title for us both?
“What if , what when and where…no answers, only questions here..” as they say (or, more precisely as I said - in a poem somewhere. Unless, of course he said it first...which makes it all even more bizarre - a kind of ‘Being John Malkovich’ kind of head-trip.)
Well, that’s art – isn’t it. Or perhaps not, but then again
perfect mimickery wins every time. As one of my patients
once said; ”back then we really had a future, folks.”
I’ll just have to sue myself.
January 20, 2005