this blog is a visual notebook of inspirations for a group of bandit bloggers. we post things we see and like. our lives don’t revolve around singular topics and neither does our blog. sorry! nothing is in-or-out of context here. enjoy xx
julian assange documentary by DW which is the german public broadcast service
good one to watch. for some he’s a hero. for the U.S. government, he was public enemy number one. certainly, his revelations challenged U.S. power. this film follows the wikileaks founder’s extraordinary life story. with the publication of thousands of secret us military and diplomatic documents in 2010, wikileaks ushered in a new information age.
suddenly, thanks to founder julian assange, state secrets were out in the open — and under scrutiny. for many journalists and activists, assange was a pioneer who used new technologies to evade both censorship and reprisals. for others, he symbolized an openness that could bring both nation states and multinational corporations to their knees.
if wars can be started by lies… peace can be started by he truth… – julian assange
for seven years, assange sought refuge in the ecuadorian embassy in london. after that, he spent five years in a british high-security prison facing us charges of espionage carrying a potential sentence of 175 years. following a deal with the U.S. department of justice, he was finally released in the summer of 2024. the film tells the story of julian assange and asks the question: in a world of radical change, what remains of the fight for truth?’ what more on edward snowden –by dd
amon düül began in 1967 as a munich-based, radical political art commune. a group of artists calling themselves, in part, after the egyptian sun god amon… and the second word düül was originally based on… well it had no intended meaning at all. they released four official albums during their active run, plus a fifth posthumous release. i guess if you the like the can or ye (or as werner herzog once called him; kenya east) you gotta kinda know these guys. by bb
also look for original 1971 documentary “veruschka – poetry of a woman”
veruschka (born vera gottliebe anna von lehndorff) was one of the defining supermodels of the 1960s, standing around 6 ft 3 in (190 cm)—an extraordinary height for a fashion model at the time. born into a prussian aristocratic family, her father was executed by the nazis in 1944 after being linked to the plot to assassinate adolf hitler, a tragedy that profoundly shaped her life. she became famous for her chameleon-like ability to transform her appearance, often using dramatic makeup and body paint to disappear into characters rather than simply model clothes. she also made a memorable cameo in michelangelo antonioni’s materpiece BLOW UP, the iconic 1966 film that captured the era’s fashion scene. in the 1980s, after falling out of fashion’s spotlight, with editors demanding younger and younger models, she reinvented herself as a performance artist, collaborating with photographers on elaborate art photography. along with nico from the velvet underground she was the other tall german “cool girl” in NY. by xy
maaaan, i wish i could do that! well done… cover of dead man theme, an amazing film by jim jarmusch, with this hypnotic soundtrack by neil young covered here by the dirty diary. support all musicians. by dd
“adam curtis cancels the future” – frieze magazine
we are living through strange days. across britain, europe and america, societies have become split and polarised. there is anger at the inequality and the ever growing corruption – and a widespread distrust of the elites.
but despite the chaos, there is a paralysis – a sense that no one knows how to escape from this. “can’t get you out of my head” tells how we got to this place. and why both those in power – and we – find it so difficult to move on.
at its heart is the strange story of what happened when people’s inner feelings got mixed up with power in the age of individualism. how the hopes and dreams and uncertainties inside people’s minds met the decaying forces of old power in britain, america, russia and china. what resulted was a block not just in the society – but also inside our own heads – that stops us imagining anything else than this.
the primary thesis in adam curtis’s film: can’t get you out of my head, seems to be that individualism has failed us. across eight hours, curtis focuses on different revolutionary figures and those proximate to power and how we have been offered and fed today:
“just another version of you had yesterday… and never a different tomorrow”.
he explores psychology theory and “the psyche of isolation that festers in the suburbs to create a dizzying picture of how we have arrived at such a narcissistic moment in time. curtis suggests that the future has been cancelled because political leaders no longer have ideas for what’s next. instead, he argues, they run campaigns of perception management – a term originated by the us military to describe the manipulation and distribution of selected information into foreign countries.
these control systems move us from states of hysteria and fear to apathy, indignance and then back again. an event back in 2012 like r/wallstreetbets – in which online reddit traders challenged wall street elites at their rigged financial system – is an example of a shock that was momentarily all-consuming then almost forgotten in our minds.
soon, the next shitstorm arrives, and the cycle repeats, but the underlying power structures remain intact. put another way: curtis claims that society today simply reinforces itself, and everything reworks the past – not least the filmmaker himself.” by bb
in film news i just saw koln75 by ido fluk a young german/american director – terrific film about the young woman who organized the famous koln concert by keith jarrett in 1975 and kick started his solo concert career. beautifully done chamber piece for a small cast. by jp
bodies: carol lynley (1942–2019) was an american actress and child model. she is best remembered for her starring role as the ship’s singer in the 1972 disaster classic the poseidon adventure and for her groundbreaking performance in the controversial 1959 film blue denim.
nastasia kinski aka nastassja kinski born january 24, 1961 is a celebrated german actress and former model who gained international fame in the late 1970s and 1980s. the daughter of the notoriously intense actor klaus kinski, she has appeared in over 60 european and american films.
ah yes roman was a favorite of ours…. but you had to go and fuck things up didn’t you? roman unfortunately liked them very young too. i actually think he was not as nasty as harvey weinstein and jeffrey epstein but then there are degrees in hell or so we are told. the point is you can be talented but not a good person. that was the case with harvey and roman… jeffery on the other hand was just an ass hole – he is def in the deepest dens of that hell that doesn’t exist. by dd
dead man: a film by jim jarmusch featuring johnny depp music by neil young…
english poet, painter, print maker, william blake (1757–1827). largely unappreciated in his own lifetime, he is now celebrated as a visionary genius of the romantic era. apparently big with the ravers in the uk… who knew…
nobody tending to johnny depp in dead man,,,
below: interview with jim jarmusch Q&A dead man lincoln center NY.
below: neil young score – genius 10 out of 10… cinematography by robby müller… id give it 7 out of 10 – robby… comparing it to your other work. excellent film non the less.
below interview with “nobody”
dead man interview with jim jarmusch and also gary farmer “nobody”. if you’ve seen the film watch this Q&A… if not, watch the film, then watch this Q&A… and tim, you are william blake in this film my boy… by uh
ok kanye had to go and fuck up another of my german favorites… first it was the interview with werner herzog (see our post here) and now holger czukay – whom ever is feeding him this shit, and tado ando, and sugimoto, can you please stop? geeeeeez!
2026 ye (kanye west) losing your mind… (is that considered dead naming?)
1973 the can – vitamin c
i was never a kanye fan, a never ye-er you could say – but as a fan of the CAN i must say i do love this song and this is a good edit – def influenced by british docu director adam curtis and a bit of zeitgeist the movie. its summing up everything going on in our heads…. and apparently @sneako s head… although i understand he is supposed to be a “bad guy“… or so the algorithm says…
now i don’t have much to say about ye, but jordan potter (farout) has this bit to say about the CAN, and the original song they ripped…
“although some people talk about krautrock as if it is a genre in itself, the only thing its leading proponents had in common was an experimental edge. while kraftwerk toyed with synthesisers and vocoders and tangerine dream pioneered experimental ambient music, can brought funky grooves to propulsive psych-rock jams. following a formative spell fronted by malcolm mooney in the late 1960s, the cologne-born band enlisted its most famous vocalist, damo suzuki.
suzuki’s influence on the band was profound. his lyrical vignettes and unique delivery style, which ranged from mumbling cadence to hair-raising shrieks, adorned the band’s finest trio of albums from tago mago to future days. often with a disregard for radio-friendly track durations, these releases also benefitted hugely from the virtuosic percussion of jaki liebezeit. he received particular praise for his contributions to the 18.5-minute tago mago classic ‘halleluhwah’.
in between tago mago and the comparatively sedate future days was ege bamyasi, can’s most accessible and widely-appreciated album. the record’s iconic sleeve, which features a colourful can of ege bamyasi (turkish for aegean okra), has since become the bad’s most recognisable symbol. okra is incidentally rich in vitamin c, the album’s most enduring ingredient.
as one of can’s more conventional compositions, the second single, ‘vitamin c’, hits the airtime sweet spot at three minutes and 32 seconds in length. like the album’s other highlights, ‘i’m so green’ and ‘one more night’, the song leads with percussive urgency, which reflects the true urgency with which the band recorded the record. according to guitarist michael karoli, suzuki and keyboardist irmin schmidt wasted much of their allotted recording time playing heated games of chess.
despite stringent time pressures, can delivered a true masterpiece and ‘vitamin c’ was the cherry on top. while suzuki’s famous chorus refrain, “hey you! / you’re losing, you’re losing, you’re losing, you’re losing your vitamin c,” is easy enough to digest, the mumbled verses are a little harder to decipher.
though you may not have heard it as such, the first verse introduces a female character who is ostensibly going off the rails: “her daddy got a big aeroplane / her mommy holds all the family cash / a beautiful rose is standing at the corner / she is living in and out of tune”. later in the song, suzuki further establishes this idea of social descent with the couplet, “a monster press machine is on her body / while she is stepping on the quicksand”.
as david bowie had a year prior on hunky dory, suzuki used quicksand as a metaphor for the snares of modern life. though he never explained definitively, the song is about a young woman who has grown up in an affluent and sheltered environment. with newfound independence, she is clearly struggling, living “in and out of tune” and losing her vitamin c. the latter could be a hint that she’s not feeding herself properly (not enough ege bamtyasi — you need to look up the LP cover to understand). alternatively, suzuki could have used the expression to outline the woman’s detached state as “lost at sea” like the scurvy-ridden sailors of yore.
suzuki left his oblique lyrics open to the listener’s interpretation and maybe never had a particularly clear image in his head. either way, the song, along with the other bulletproof material in can’s early 1970s catalogue, continues to capture the imagination of artists around the world today. famously, mark e. smith of the fall released the song ‘i am damo suzuki’ as a tribute to ‘vitamin c’ and its iconic singer in 1985. “what have you got in that paper bag?” he sang. “is it a dose of vitamin c?” peace. by dd
actor renaud verley and actress nathalie delon (yes the wife of alain delon)
and the main actress : a gold 1967 lamborghini miura P400
1968 french drama directed by michel boisrond following a teenage boy who begins an affair with an older woman in paris.
la leçon particulière is the kind of film that politely knocks on the door of scandal and then lets itself in anyway, wearing a perfectly tailored suit. what starts as a seemingly innocent arrangement—private lessons for a young man—quickly turns into a masterclass in awkward tension, moral gray zones, and the art of raising eyebrows without saying a word. the teacher, elegant and composed, handles the situation with the calm precision of someone ordering coffee, while the student oscillates between curiosity and the realization that this is definitely not in the standard curriculum. it’s all very french: a little provocative, a little philosophical, and somehow both serious and absurd at the same time—like discussing ethics while dramatically staring out a window for no practical reason. by dd
abby martin (born 1984 or 1985) is an american journalist, television presenter, and activist known for her independent, anti-imperialist, and investigative reporting. she is the creator and host of the empire files, an independent documentary and interview series, and is known for her vocal criticism of US foreign policy, militarism, and the israel-palestine conflict. by xy
a visual collective outlet of inspiration
