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The Even Older News:
(December 2004 to July 2002)

*December 31st, 2004 (New Year's Eve; photos of the Pictoplasma Conference and of Emily - maker of mermaid tail)*

*December 24th, 2004 (Christmas Eve; Christmas card; Pictoplasma Conference, a singing mermaid, Der Plan, Mutter)*

*July 15th, 2004 (Der Plan 4.0 album cover; Tabou Tiki Room opening July 20th - video-stills of the work-in-progress)*

*June 16th, 2004 (Der Plan 4.0 record release; the Tabou Tiki Room; Kay-Kay and Doodle #C33; eternal cosmic wisdom)*

*May 17th,2004 (ferret video for a fellow ferret fan; what to wear next Halloween)*

*April 13th, 2004 (Spring Greetings; mysterious website phenomena; a gig with the Salon Sisters; subtle site updates)*

*Feb.14th, 2004 (Happy Valentine's Day; Appleton & Treu WUNDERBRA! reviews; site update)*

*Jan.14th ,2004 (Best Wishes for 2004; site update; Rampant Raven Blog; recent headshots)*

*Dec.16th, 2003 (Kay-Kay video-clip; Mutter live at Bastard/Prater - Dec.26th; Two Zombies Later reminder; site update)*

*Nov.13th,2003 (Appleton+Treu live!; Der Plan at White Trash; Two Zombies Later compilation - downloadable until Feb.1st,2004)*

*Nov.5th,2003:Nov+Oct+May2003/July+Dec2002 (Appleton+Treu; backstage at White Trash; underwater wedding; video with Kay-Kay)*


December 31st, New Year's Eve, 2004;

And so 2004 prepares to come to an end... Time to dust off old intentions, clear some clutter, and declare some fresh new start or other...

...But for now, here's the first follow up to my Christmas Eve News bit...

Lots of photos of Pictoplasma's first-ever character-design conference have gone online in the meantime. Many of these can of course can be found at the Pictoplasma web-site - but rennaissance woman Love Ablan has now posted her conference photos as well. You can see all of them at her Love Ablan web-site obviously; but you can see a little preview of them here as well (by clicking the thumbnail below). In this little collage you will see a red-haired gal named Emily Black (with her sister Rilla Alexander - of Rinzen - and Peter Thaler - Pictoplasma-daddy). And I want you all to know who Emily is, because she was kind enough to help Laila Lei into this world by making use of her talented mermaid-tail making fingers:

(Emily + Pictoplasma)

More photos of Laila Lei herself and of the Grand Opening and Blessing of the Tabou Tiki Room on November 13th will be coming your way next year (tomorrow or the day after probably ;-)), along with more info about the Pictoplasmma conference and various interesting Pictoplasma-related links. - Not to mention the photos I promised of Der Plan v.4.0 performing at the Volksbuehne here in Berlin on December 14th, and Mutter performing at the RaststŠtte Gnadenbrot here in Berlin on December 16th.

Well then. I guess that's about it for this time around. So - all of my very best wishes for a Happy New Year to you and yours!!!!

Love and Peace to all of you! - L. (L.C. / LLV)

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December 24th, Christmas Eve, 2004;

In my last News offering on July 15th, I claimed that when mid-month begins creeping up on me I always start getting that News itch again. Hmmm. Looks as though I haven't been able to find the time to get around to my supposed Mid-Month News Itch at all since then...

....So I also didn't get around to announcing that I was closely involved with Pictoplasma's first-ever character-design conference back in October (an event that left me breathless with character-design euphoria) - or that my Yma-Sumac-and-exotica-tune singing tiki-mermaid alter ego, Laila Lei, had her Yma-Sumac-and-exotica-tune-singing debut performance at the Grand Opening and Blessing of The Tabou Tiki Room on November 13th - or that Der Plan v.4.0 had a performance at the VolksbŸhne on December 14th - or that I did a bit of backing-vocals guesting with Mutter ("Mother") when they played live at RaststŠtte Gnadenbrot on December 16th. Photos from all of these events will follow in my next News update - which should be coming at you before the dawning of the new year.

In the meantime, Merry Christmas to all of you. My greetings are indeed last-minute this time around, but at least they're not late (as they usually are ;-)).

(Christmas Card )

Loads of Holiday Love and Coziness to all of you!!! - L. (L.C. / LLV)

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July15th 2004;

As mid-month begins creeping up on me I always start getting that News itch again, so here we go...

The new Der Plan 4.0, DIE VERSCHW…RUNG was finally released on June 28th, and so I thought I'd go ahead and preview the CD album cover for those of you who have not yet rushed out (or online) to get a copy. ;-) (Please click the thumbnails below. ...The album is also available on vinyl by the way.)

(CD cover - outer sleeve)

(CD cover - inner sleeve)





And the The Tabou Tiki Room is coming along nicely. :-) April and Stefan Walz are planning to open their Tabou Tiki doors for the first time on the 20th of this month - next Tuesday evening in other words! So if you happen to live here in Berlin, come and join us there! =-D The place is full of authentic tropical details and original artwork. Southern California's own Tiki Diablo, for instance, flew over several months ago to carve the large wooden tikis that now hold up the bamboo and thatching in the front room. Moritz R. and yours truly are also among those who have been at work with paint and brushes (or pencils or chisels etc...). Kuenstler Treu came by for a visit last Saturday and captured some of the work-in-progress on video. Here are a few stills from that bit of footage. (Please click the thumbnails below.) By the way: only the front half of the The Tabou Tiki Room will be opening next Tuesday. The back half of the bar (which will include a stage for live music) is still under construction and should be finished for the Grand Opening sometime in late August or early September...

(front room - almost ready for July 20th!)

(back room - still under construction until late August)

(Moritz R. painting tikis)

(yours truly in the ladies' room)

(me and my mermaid)


Well then. Hope to see all you Berlin tiki, exotica, and cocktail fans at The Tabou Tiki Room (Maybachufer 39 / 12047 Berlin) next Tuesday evening!

Over and out! - L. (L.C. / LLV)

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June16th 2004;

Most recently I have been waylaid by an illness (effecting those organs associated with breathing and the production of pitch and tone) which thwarted my immediate commencement of a new creative venture. Now, finally healthy again, I find myself waylaid once again (hopefully only temporarily) by assorted necessary activities and by a general lack of focus. But in the meantime I also find that I have a couple of things I'd like to blab on about here....

One is that the new album by Der Plan 4.0, DIE VERSCHW…RUNG, is finally going to see the light of day. It's scheduled for release on the 28th of this month. Yipeeee!

(just 12 more days!)


Another nice bit of news is that a fabulous new tiki bar will be opening here in Berlin soon; The Tabou Tiki Room. :-) They're right here in the neighborhood, so I go by now and then to see how things are progressing. It's looking great! Finishing touches are being made - including tiki-art by none other then Der Plan 4.0's own Moritz R. - and it looks as though the grand opening may be happening within the next couple of weeks! The Tabou Tiki Room website should be up soon as well, so be sure to check in now and again. :-)



And a good way to get into the proper Tabou Tiki Room kinda vibe while we wait would be to listen to some nice exotica music - don't you think? ;-) The completely downloadable exotica compilation, TWO ZOMBIES LATER was originally scheduled to go off-line after Febuary1st, 2004; but a vote was taken and this downloadable double album extravaganza continues to be available indefinitely. :-) It features cover artwork by Moritz R. and tracks by Der Plan 4.0 and Kuenstler Treu - not to mention tracks by Don Tiki, Tipsy, Otis Fodder, and many, many others...




A couple of years ago today my bro Kay-Kay sent me a little birthday film featuring a 3D version of my own Creature Doodle #C33. :-) He's had it up on his site forever - and I've been meaning to add it to the Doodles section of this site forever; but today being the day it is, I've decided to add it here first. ;-) Please click the image below...


Doodle #C33 and Kay-Kay wish me a happy birthday - QuickTime movie, 1,4MB



And since I'm indulging myself by digging through various archives once again, I thought I'd share some ancient alien wisdom delivered to our friend Nico (and to the rest of us) many moons ago by the illustrious Herr Alien Treudoid. Please click the image below...


Eternal Cosmic Bullshit - QuickTime movie, 4.4MB



Okay - that's enough blabbing by me for this time around. It's time for me to go out now and have an unbelievably fabulous day!

Cheers! - L. (L.C. / LLV)

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May17th 2004;

I just met a fellow ferret fan named Maren at my friend Corinna's birthday party this past Saturday. We got to talking about our pet ferrets (may they rest in peace :-( - the little rascals) and I told Maren that I would put some video of our ferret Paddy Paws (Mausbaer) here in the News section for her to look at. And here it is; please click the images below...


waking up and emerging from her hammock - QuickTime movie, 3,8MB



yaaaaaawwwwwwwwn - QuickTime movie, 1.4MB



There's no audio on these two little video clips, by the way. I don't know why that is, but the audio wasn't important in this case anyway.

I have something else here for Maren too (for next Halloween ;-)). Please click the thumbnails below...

(Catwoman - publicity shot)

(Catwoman - movie still)

(Catwoman - publicity shot)


As for any news - well, there isn't any to speak of. I've just been working, working, working - and wishing somebody a Happy Birthday every time I turn around; everybody and their brother seems to have a May birthday... ;-)

Cheerio, L. (L.C./LLV)

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April13th 2004;

Just as I missed making timely Christmas and New Year's greeting here on my News page this (and last) year, I've now managed to miss being able to make timely Easter Greetings as well. So I'll just wish you a happy Sproing (errr, Spring, that is) instead. (:-( /i-P ;-) Please click the thumbnail below...

(an After-Easter Spring Greetings card)


...Speaking of Christmas Greetings, a couple of people have recently reported to me that my Christmas Flash animation is still up on the opening page in the Flash version of this site. This is very mysterious. I set my Flash animation back to the normal opening page animation right after New Year's, and when I take a look at my site from our own computers everything looks perfectly normal (no Christmas animation). Still, some people continue to see the Christmas animation when they visit my site. ???? If anyone out there thinks they might have an explanation for this, please let me know.

A couple of things I failed to mention in March were a couple of gigs I did. One was a LaLaLand gig - but it was for a private gala sort of thing so the general public wasn't invited anyway. :-/ The second March gig was with a band called Salon Sisters. I was the guest vocalist for their most recent Sister Lounge evening. This was open to the general public, but I didn't manage to get around to mentioning it here. Their Salon Sisters newsletter did the trick though and we had a good crowd. I think the boys recorded the performance that night. If these recordings turned out well, maybe I can talk them into letting me putting an mp3 of one of the tunes I sang with them here at this site. :-) We'll see...

On a closing note: various site-updates have been made here and there since Valentines Day. I've spruced up the Music section a bit, for example, and there's been some rearranging in the About Me and the Links sections as well...

And now it's time for me to go again. Best wishes, as always, until next time, L. (L.C./LLV)

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February14th 2004;

First of all, I'd like to wish you all a Happy Valentine's Day. Please click the thumbnail below... :-)

(Valentine's Day card)

And next? Well...

(album cover)

...I've done some hunting about and have tracked down assorted reviews of the current Appleton & Treu album, WUNDERBRA!: here I've included the reviews in English and German that I found. Those of you who haven't heard the album yet, and would like to read what various reviewers have had to say about it, might want to take a peek.

Now, of course, I could mention that there is, at long last (as you may already have noticed), something other than a "Coming Soon" image in the Shopette section. And other items (including smaller ones) will soon follow...

And last, but not necessarily (although perhaps possibly;-)) least, this link-happy loony has been adding yet more nice places to visit to her Links section, so do take a look if you like.

Best wishes to you all, once again. Over and out, L. (L.C./LLV)

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January14th 2004;

Happy New Year folks! I hope your holidays went well and that the new year has gotten off to a good start for you. I botched the Christmas Card bit this time around (although I'm usually such a fanatically organized and efficient person... er... ummm...), But I did manage to get some belated Happy 2004 greetings out to family and friends. If you'd like to share these well wishes, please click the thumbnail below...

(All the best for 2004...)

To get this new year started off with some positive vibes I did finally manage to get around to at least part of that darned Doodle Gallery update I've been meaning to get to forever. I still haven't added all those additional Doodles I've been meaning to add yet, but I have changed the look and organization somewhat, and added a bit of "why'd-ya-do-it?" info. Now that I've finally gotten around to figuring out how the whole business works, a completed update with new Doodles is surely just around the bend (without me having to bug Mike about it ;-)).

My brother Daniel (Charles Daniel, that is - "Occupation: Info Drone" ;-)) has being adding stuff to his Rampant Raven Blog again recently. Of the essays he's included so far, I think some of my favorites may be "Saturday, July 12, 2003 - The Left and Right Side of the Road", "Sunday, March 02, 2003 - Rock Can Get You Stoned?", or "Monday, February 17, 2003 - The Fantasy Frontier (intro)"...

And on a closing note; anyone interested in seeing Two Faces of Eve please click the following thumbnail...

(Who? Me?)

Tah! I'm off to see the Wizard. You take care now, you crazy internet kids!... L. (L.C./LLV)

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December 16th, 2003;

Hello out there. Greetings of a Seasonal Nature (as our buddy Fred Rubik always says). Kay-Kay is here for another visit (yipee!), and he's brought a fun little video clip with him. Take a look:


Kay-Kay on a smoky day - QuickTime movie, 1.3MB



It also bears mentioning that Kuenstler Treu (in addition to releasing an album with Jon Appleton and joining version 4.0 of Der Plan this year) recently began playing guitar for the underground Berlin band Mutter, and that Mutter ("Mother") will be playing live at Bastard (Prater) here in Berlin on the 26th of this month.

(Mutter - live at Bastard, Dec.26th - flyer)


And another little reminder about the downloadable exotica compilation TWO ZOMBIES LATER: it will be going off-line after Febuary1st , 2004, from what I understand - so get it while you can!




One more quick note before I go. We added an "Illustrations" section to this site a while back, but it's been graced only with a "Coming Soon" image until a couple of days ago. It remains far from full thus far, but I have added an introductory image and a nifty little Spy-Girl-paper-doll-Flash-animation thing-a-ma-jig for starters. Check it out (in the "Illustrations" section).

And I think that's about all from me for now...

Wishing you loads of loveliness for the holidays... Over and out - L. (L.C./LLV)

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November 13th, 2003;

Here are a couple of updates concerning the current events announced in my most recent (not to mention, first ever) News offering (Nov. 5th - i.e., Nov+Oct+May2003/July+Dec2002 )...

*
...Actually I was all prepared here to tell everybody to go and listen to Appleton and Treu online at Princeton's Listening in the Sound Kitchen 03 electro-acoustic music festival (via live-streaming) on the 15th (this Saturday - a 20 minute set, during the afternoon concert which starts at 2:30pm/14:30 US/Eastern time, 7:30pm/19:30 Central European Time). But now that I've taken another look at the litsk03 streaming site connected to this festival, it looks as though the panel discussions are scheduled to be streamed rather than the concerts. I s'pose this means you actually have to be in Princeton to take part in the music then. Hmmm. I'm going to be keeping my eye on it though. Whatever the case, the panel discussions are proving to be interesting as well.


(don't forget!: Princeton Nov.15th, and at the Tonic - NYC - Nov.17th)

*
And more light has now been shed on the mysterious tiki-god effigy-burning doings that occured at White Trash Fast Food last month. Apparently these tiki gods were none other than the most recent reincarnation of Der Plan! ;-) As promised in my last News offering, video footage of this crowded little blitz-event is now online for public viewing:


Der Plan at White Trash, Berlin, Germany - Oct.14th, 2003 - 5mb QuickTime movie


*
While I'm on the subject of tiki gods and Der Plan, I might as well go ahead and mention something that I really should have gone ahead and mentioned last time: TWO ZOMBIES LATER. And what, you may ask, is TWO ZOMBIES LATER? Well, according to their web-site it's, "Strange and unusual music from the Exotica Mailing List - Limited online release of 3 months : November 1, 2003 - February 1, 2004". All the tracks of this compilation can be downloaded; AND downloadable cover artwork is included as well. The TWO ZOMBIES LATER web-site also includes very nice little blurbs about Kuenstler Treu and the reincarnated line-up of Der Plan.

*
So, that's enough for now. - Hope you're enjoying November. :-)

Signing off! - L. (L.C./LLV) ...
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November 5th, 2003; October 14th, 2003; May 25th, 2003; early May, 2003; July and December 2002:

November 5th, 2003...
Hmmm. Well. It's simply taken me forever to ever get around to writing any news here, so what I'll do to finally get the ball rolling is fill you in on some current stuff and then catch up on a little bit of old news as well (in the form of photos, links, and video). It's constructed in true web-log style - newest news first and oldest news last. Here goes...

For starters, Kuenstler Treu will be flying off to the States soon to do a bit of performing with Jon Appleton. The first gig will be on Saturday, November 15th , during a three-day electroacoustic music festival at Princeton University. A short biography blurb was needed about K.T. for Princeton's web-site concerning this event, and I ended up being the one to write it. Here 'tis:

------------------------------------------

Kuenstler Treu was born in a small town somewhere in the highly civilized wilds of Southern Germany. His childhood was spent panicking his mother with grocery-store disappearances, pricking his ears to the various sounds echoing across the neighborhood, and listening to crackled Erik Satie, krautrock, and Balinese Gamelan music on a short-wave radio (under the covers, long past his bedtime). These echoes, waves, and crackles could soon be heard popping up their heads and weaving their ways through the wild and often humor-drenched audio chaos that he obsessively dedicated to tape during his teenage years. You could say perhaps that things haven't changed much - except that the waves and crackles (expanded by bleeps and blonks) are now dedicated to digital formats and that the chaos has become very precise indeed; a fine, fingertip placement of elements - intricate but never labored.

A couple of years ago his love of odd selections in vintage vinyl brought about an unexpected contact with the illustrious Mr. Jon Appleton. After hearing some of Kuenstler Treu's work Professor Appleton decided that it was high time they collaborated...

------------------------------------------

For any of you located near Princeton who are perhaps interested in viewing this event (LITSK 03 - Listening in the Sound Kitchen 03 - November 13 ~ 15, 2003 - A Three Day Festival of Electroacoustic Music), Princeton's still-in-transition info web-site about it can be found here. Kuenstler Treu and Jon Appleton will be performing a fairly free-form live interpretation of music from their newly released joint album, WUNDERBRA!. A very nice little Flash site dedicated to WUNDERBRA! can be found here. Appleton and Treu's separate, personal homepages can be found here (Kuenstler Treu) and here (Jon Appleton).

And hot on the heels of the Princeton gig, on Monday, November 17th, Appleton and Treu will be performing at the Tonic in NYC (avant garde, creative, and experimental music: Tonic / 107 Norfolk Street / New York, NY 10002) According to Tonic's website, it all begins at 8pm, and a fellow named Yury Spitsyn will be performing that evening as well.

(Appleton + Treu Live! - flyer)

*

Time to leave current events now and begin going back in time a bit - a couple of weeks, for starters, to Tuesday, October 14th: Mysterious doings at Berlin's own White Trash Fast Food. Three torch-bearing tiki gods burned masks of three highly irritating public figuares in effigy - right in the midst of a partially hat-and/or-wig-wearing, exotica-enthused, White Trash party public. Moritz R. (of Der Plan), J. J. Jones (of Fuzzy Love ), and Kuenstler Treu were all seen on the scene, but the exact connection between these three and the mysterious tiki gods is not yet known. Video footage of this event, however, is apparently intended for online display some time relatively soon. Until then, here are a couple of "backstage" photos of the artists in question.(Photos by Carola Wimmer. Click the thumbnails for a closer look.)

(J.J.Jones, Kuenstler Treu, + Moritz R. - with yours truly lurking in the background)

(Moritz R. + J.J.Jones preparing torches for the tiki gods)

(Moritz R. + J.J.Jones testing the torches for the tiki gods)

(Moritz R. + Mr. Match-Head)

(Moritz R. + President Bush)

*

...And now I feel the strong inclination to skip all the way from October 2003 back to May 2003...

My brother Bruce took the plunge back in May - literally. He and his betrothed, Jacky, pulled on their diving gear, jumped into the brine (with a photographer and a preacher), and tied the knot underwater. The wedding announcement read thus-ly:

"...Jacky Scheidt and Bruce Carleton were married On May 25th, 2003 at 156¡ 30' W longitude & 20¡ 38' N latitude at a depth of 50' (Molokini Crater, Hawaii)"

If you'd like to visit Bruce and Jacky's web-site and see more photos of this unusually wet wedding, please click the thumbnail below. (some of the pix on this site take a while to load for slow connections by the way)



*

Earlier this past May (a couple of weeks before Bruce's and Jacky's underwater wedding) we had a visit from my bro - Dutch 3D-animating guy, Kay-Kay. While he was here he made a nice little "film" of us with his newest toy - a digital camera that shoots internet-sized video. Take a look. :-)

"Where's the grill?" (please click image below to view the video)



*

And moving right along (backwards still)... Achim (Kuenstler Treu) went off to Dartmouth in the Summer of last year to work together with Jon Appleton on their afore-mentioned, recently released Appleton + Treu album WUNDERBRA!. Here's a nice photo of them interviewing each other (July 2002) on the back porch of Jon's home... (please click the thumbnail to see a larger image)

(Porch Interview - July 2002)

And later (not moving backwards in time this time, but forwards from July to December), while the album was still underway, Jon paid us a visit here in Berlin (December 2002) , and I finally got to meet him in person. That was a lot of fun. Jon is one of those people who bursts with adventurer's energy. He's a wonderful fellow. A great soul. If you'd like to see a couple of snapshots taken during his visit, please click the thumbnails below.

Snapshots of Jon and Achim (and me) - Berlin, Germany - December 2002:

(Professor Appleton and Kuenstler Treu in their element)

(Jon Appleton and Saint Nick)

(Seeing Jon off at the train station)

*

As for whatever else I've been up to, it's just been storyboard and other illustration work basically - plus various cooking-up activities for this or that project, which I don't feel particularly inclined to talk about online just yet. ;-) ...This being the case, I s'pose that's really about it for now. So until next time, a lovely November to you and happy browsing.

Signing off, L. (L.C./LLV) ...


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