Hamburg has Germany’s biggest harbour. Some people love it so much, that they move into its rough and industrial environment and sometimes they do parties. They did so last Saturday afternoon. The “Brandshof” residential community together with MFOC organized it on a Piece of Land in between the two arms of a forked canal. So you could look straight down the canal under several steel-bridges, trains were passing by and on the backside there was motor-highway-traffic in front of a big business-hotel.

The musicians were standing next to a small shelter with a loop-hole. As I arrived they were doing music that sounded like electronic fried noise (a little like Pan Sonic) that gave a touch of the-end-is-near to the whole scene. The sun was unusually shining, so the people were relaxing in the sun sitting on steel-carriers and on a small hill having drinks and joints. The musical motto of the day was “Eigenbau” (Selfmade) which meant that all musicians were local dudes who presented unreleased material. I was surprised how good most of it was.

I was working behind the bar for some time and drank too many vodkas, so I can tell you only pieces of what happened in the evening. The crowd moved into the large living-rooms of the brandshof-people, who share two levels of a house next to a carrier’s business. I’m not sure whether it was the dancing people or my head that gave me the impression of shaking architecture…

A week before I explored the duty-free-zone of the harbour together on bikes with Daniel. First we had to cross the “Elbe”, that’s the river connecting Hamburg with the North Sea. We chose the old elb-tunnel where cars, bikes and pedestrians are lifted down by an elevator (!) and then can walk/drive to the other side. An artist did an installation down there. It was about diving up and down the sea. He covered all sources of light in the tunnel with colored foils, starting with soft blue and light pink going over to deep blue and purple as one reaches the end of the tunnel. Driving through the tunnel you really got an impression of increasing intensity and deepness.

On the other side we tried to explore the forbidden zones of a container terminal and found the ruins of a submarine-manufacturer from the second World War. We were sniffing around a little when suddenly a pit-bull terrier drove fear into our bones. In Germany, we shortly had two cases of people being beaten to death by pit-bulls, which got big play in the media. Now law forces the owners of pit-bulls to put a muzzle on their dogs. This dog was totally free so we disappeared slow but straight watching our lives pass before our eyes…