sites/flux.vision/content/lpm-001-lost-highway.md

Title: LPM 001 - Lost Highway
Date: 2007-09-20 19:13
Category: blog
Author: Kiritan Flux
Slug: lpm-001-lost-highway
Tags: vjism, gonzo, festival, english

"The same procedure as every year..." the trip to the Live Performers
Meeting in Rome staarts with chaos...

...after Ryan Air had cancelled our flight tickets for some strange
reason, a meeting was scheduled at Café Gorki Park to discuss further
proceedings. A few cigarettes, debates, calculations and desperate
phone-calls later the decision was made to turn the LPM visit into a
transcontinental road trip...On the next day, all of us met to buy the
last essential gadgets for the planned visual narrative performance and
struggled with our tape-munching camcorder, peripheral work deadlines
and frustrations. Eventually, we managed to shoot some scenes and while
fRED spent a lot of time capturing, compositing and editing clips
afterwards, Bram and Flux returned to the desks to finish due freelance
work.

Wednesday afternoon, fRED and Flux finished filming some more clips and
crammed the Audi A4 with loads of cables, computers and the usual
nerdcore visualists equipment. Bram was picked up and we started our
trip towards West-Berlin, searching for some more environments to
capture final Berlin shots for our live-set.

![lpm\_ride.jpg](/library/lpm_ride.jpg "lpm_ride.jpg")

The Autobahn was hit around 6pm and the cruise-controlled Audi rolled
south. Although the roads were fairly clear, several construction sites
and a lot of trucks slowed us down a bit, and six hours later, we
finally arrived at Flux's parents home in Heidelberg to chill in front
of the TV, fill our stomaches and take a few hours of sleep.

The next morning started with a few more chaotic issues. Flux didn't
hear his alarm clock, and we got up an hour later than planned. The
shower was freezing cold, but refreshing (the heater didn't work for
some reason) and within only a few minutes, we found ourselves back in
the car. The morning sun was enjoyed (and filmed) on the garden terrace
of the famous Heidelberg castle, but soon, our hunger and caffeine
addiction forced us to continue to find a bakery and a supermarket to
hunt some breakfast and nurture to survive the upcoming passing of the
Alps. Our primary survival needs got satisfied very soon and we brought
our weels back on the freeway.

![lpm\_swyz.jpg](/library/lpm_swyz.jpg "lpm_swyz.jpg")

The ride to and through Switzerland was calm and quick and the huge
mountains and crystal clear lakes around us very imressive. After we
slipped through the pinhole of the Gotthard tunnel, holiday feelings
came up because it got warmer and the first palm and pine trees appeared
as we approached the Italian border. fRED safely drove us to the
beautiful refuge villa of his aunt and uncle in the idyllic mountainsite
where we were heartly welcomed and even spoilt with pasta, coffee, cake
and fresh grapes that grew above our heads on the terrace. It was hard,
having to leave the beautiful place again, but two hours later we
returned to the messy car seats to start the final stage of the
roadtrip.

![lpm\_varese.jpg](/library/lpm_varese.jpg "lpm_varese.jpg")

The last hours went by very quickly - the Audi dove through the night,
through a lot of construction sites, where workers crossed the road like
scared deer in the headlights, maniac drivers passed by with insane
speeds, and glowing bright pimped up trucks ruled the highway all the
way down to Roma. We fortunately found the right exit in Rome and
arrived rightaway at the Linux Club. The expected chaos surrounded us
when we walked in, recognizing known faces and totally flashed by the
loudness and bright video flickering. We were still in the driving mood
and not quite used to the sudden party atmosphere, so we waited outside
the club for Valeria and her friends who had organized a sleeping place
for us...