I promise this is the last post I’ll write this year on the Porsche Panamera. But for now I’d like to proudly present the Bright.tv item I made with the boys from Schwung Visuell. You can find it here: http://www.bright.tv/series/porsche-panamera

Thanks to PON and Porsche Centrum Gelderland I had a new Porsche Panamera 4S for 24 hours. The adrenaline rush is just starting to fade a little. Here’s the lowdown.

First off: I’ve made a grown man fall asleep, a woman nearly pee her pants and another grown man cry out like a girl. The Porsche Panamera is a limo and a rollercoaster rolled into one. So am I hurting now it’s gone? The annoying answer is ‘yes and no’. A car like this, with a €185k pricetag, a roaring V8 growl and a young face at the wheel makes the world a different place for the driver. Visiting a petrol station one of my passengers got chatted up by the attendant asking where she lives and what kind of car we had. Minutes later a woman walked by the car, turned her head and gave me a smile never reserved for me when driving my Subaru stationwagon. All good so far. Behind the wheel there’s no negatives either. You can cruise along with a subdued V8 rumble and barely making more than 1000 rpm, ever. But at the flick of a switch and a stab at the pedal your limo has transformed itself into a rocketship. First skidding to find solid ground under each tire and then leaping forward with a violent growl. Not a single passenger I had came away unimpressed.

And there’s where it starts going in the wrong direction. The car’s genius, it just turned me into a very unappealing version of myself. Driving by Audi Q7 drivers I couldn’t stop myself pointing and laughing. The beat-up-Golf drivers that were staring at the car were met with a confident smile. And every chance I got to take over 5 or 6 cars in a row, I jumped at.

So where does this leave me and the Panamera. The relationship wouldn’t last and I could literally tell the car: ‘It’s not you… it’s me’. In recent years I’ve discovered it’s the wanting itself that you should enjoy, because as soon as you get something the fun is mostly over. A bit of ascetism wouldn’t hurt anyone, me included. But that doesn’t mean I don’t need my fix of speed every now and then. So access to the Panamera, yes, please! But ownership? Not for me. Reassuringly there’s a €185000 price tag helping me stay a little less annoying.

Roger at Schwung Visuell was his nice self in offering to make a videoregistration of the Concept to Creation get-together we recently had at the Academy for Pop Culture. The Schwung Visuell intern made himself useful by cutting out the totally incomprehensible conversations where the microphone got lost in the process.

So enjoy:

Deel 1 Concept naar ontwerp from SchwungVisuell on Vimeo.

Deel 2 Concept naar ontwerp from SchwungVisuell on Vimeo.

Deel 3 Concept naar ontwerp from SchwungVisuell on Vimeo.

Deel 4 Concept naar ontwerp from SchwungVisuell on Vimeo.

While half the world was contemplating the worth of an iPhone that can’t make a call and is sized for the visually impaired, I was sitting at home, hoping our latest project would be well received. Agentschap Telecom’s director Marita Schreur is leaving her position on february the 1st. Now she has told me from the very first time we met that she did not want to be seen as merely the people that kick in doors of radio-amateurs that are illegally transmitting. Agentschap Telecom is a company with highly skilled people, that occupy themselves with satellite permits, 3G internet, and so on.

Now anyone who has ever heard pirate radio knows that Marita is about the best name you can have if you’re a radio pirate. ‘Radio Marita’ it just sounds right. So the running gag had been around for a while. No better time to reveal her real identity than at the goodbye party. Roger and Ronnie from Schwung Visuell and me made a movie about the rise and fall of Radio Marita. We’ll post some clips here shortly.

A big thank you goes out to Hein, Gernant and Hans at Agentschap Telecom for commissioning this daring project.

I can’t really talk about the project I’ve been working on with Roger Muskee and Ronnie Zeemering yesterday, but I promise all will be revealed next week. There was lipstick involved, crowbars and a pearl necklace officially went missing. Although that wasn’t part of the script.

2010 is starting off rather nicely. (You have a happy one too!). On New Year’s Day the introduction movies we made for CBK Groningen were used to great effect.

New Year Krause from Roger Muskee on Vimeo.

And currently I’m working on two treatments: one for a short film that’s highly classified until february. And one for a Bright.tv item on the Porsche Panamera being the ultimate parental vehicle. On the 20th I will host an event on “concept to product in music and design” at the Academie voor Popcultuur. And on the 22nd the snowplagued Floss evening in Leeuwarden will give it another go with me as the host. So february still looks months away.

Ingeborg Walinga of the CBK Groningen asked me to come up with an idea for introductions to interviewees. The 1st of january is traditionally the day of a big new years’ party organised by the Groningen city council. This year there will be a talkshow with 10 interviewees provided by Ingeborg’s CBK. Since there was precious little time, Roger Muskee and me came up with a technical concept instead of a narrative idea. And we’re pretty sure it will give an amazing effect. The shoot was yesterday. And as you can tell from the picture we’ve got some fantastic source material.

Krause

Picture courtesy of Ronnie Zeemering.

Het Groninger Forum schijnt echt gebouwd te worden. Het kost je een paar miljoen, maar dan wordt ook echt letterlijk alles mooier. Daarom nam ik samen met Nienke Maat, Roger Muskee, Admiraal Oosterbroek en Jurrie Meulman de gelegenheidsband Academie voor Popcultuur All Stars op. Met het geniale nummer “We gaan naar het Groninger Forum“.

Begin volgende week wordt het nummer uitgebracht. Donderdag wordt de clip voor het eerst geshowt tijdens het debat over datzelfde Forum in het Grand Theatre.

Sinds een aantal weken hou ik me meer dan normaal bezig met het begrip geluk. Samen met collega’s Cor Giesing en Roger Muskee hebben we dat namelijk als onderwerp aan onze bovenbouwstudenten op de Academie voor Popcultuur gevoerd. En daar komen mooie dingen. Terwijl twee singer-/songwriters elk 5 plekken met gelukkige en ongelukkige herinneringen opzoeken, gaan anderen proefondervindelijk uitvogelen waar ze gelukkig van worden. Dat we daarmee een gevoelige snaar hebben geraakt, blijkt uit deze post van een student.

Omdat we zelf natuurlijk ook het nodige moeten weten over geluk, willen we de studenten wat op weg helpen, lezen we wat boeken en luisteren we wat podcasts. Hoogtepunt uit dat onderzoek tot nog toe is Jeff Ferrell met “Happiness is a warm dumpster“. (iTunes link)

Samen met Reinout Tiekstra van TiekstraMedia, Roger Muskee van MuskeeMedia en Ronnie Zeemering van Zeemering Media (ziet u een trend?) werk ik (voortaan van Middendorp Media) aan een script voor een online demo. 31 december moet het allemaal af zijn. Hierboven een voorproefje, waardoor het allemaal in 1 keer helder zal worden.