Caroline Engelhardt

Caroline Engelhardt in her bathtub having a cigarette. Frankfurt, Germany 1989

Recently, we decided to take over a dozen old point-and-shoot film cameras that we no longer had any idea what might be on them. We had considered dumping them, figuring that at over a dozen years old, and some may be more than 20 years since photos were put onto their film, what could possibly come out of them besides an expensive bill? Well, there were a few priceless photos of Caroline and me. Including this one taken in what was likely 1989. Caroline long ago quit smoking; the same can’t be said about bathing.

Our apartment back then was on Gluckstrasse 8 in Frankfurt, Germany. For the six years we lived together there, we never had heating. The landlord wanted to split the cost, and we didn’t want to afford it; that’s technically illegal as we were renters, and as such, we are not supposed to pay for things we cannot take when we move. Our bathtub was not part of the bathroom; it was in what would qualify as a doorless closet that was part of the living room. The toilet was in the hallway, while the tub had a great view of the TV, nice for watching a movie. Back then, if we were watching a movie, it was something along the lines of Desperate Living by John Waters – we could relate.

Optic Kiss

Klaus Singer, Caroline Engelhardt, Jo Lincke, and John Wise in Frankfurt, Germany

Here is an old photo from the time Caroline and I had a little graphic design business in Frankfurt, Germany called Optic Kiss, among other names. Our office was situated over the old “Music Hall” concert and dance venue. Over the years we saw David Lee Roth downstairs and backstage, Nine Inch Nails, Chris Isaak, and a bunch of other bands and parties that skip my mind right now. The place was a windowless dark, smoke-filled room where many a musician would stop by to see what was going on in Cyberspace. For most of this time, Caroline had a day job working on a film called Taxandria and doing animation and special effects for one of the Never Ending Stories movies. Needing some help and having some people interested in what we were trying to do, a couple of guys joined with us to learn some new skills. They were Klaus Singer and Jo Lincke – sadly we have fallen out of contact with these guys, probably because they hate me or something like that. Funny how this has happened more than once. Finally, yes, we are still fasting – Day 5.

Techno

Advertisement for old German clothing line and record store for techno music

One of our early careers was as graphic designers and wannabe artists. We did ok, creating the first commercially 3D rendered record cover in Europe (before that, 3D tools were primarily in the hands of large companies and universities). Our first record cover was for Casper Pound and his project The Hypnotist – the record entered the German charts! Initially, we worked on the Commodore Amiga with 32MB Ram and a 40GB harddrive – huge for the day. Our first 3D rendering and animation software was a product called Imagine. An acquaintance gave us an early beta of Windows 3.0 and we dumped the Amiga and grabbed Photostyler, which was eventually bought and disappeared by Adobe. Did a lot of work in Corel Draw. The ultimate was when we scored a free copy of 3D Studio from Autodesk while attending Cebit in Hannover, Germany – we’ll never forget your kindness, Bob Bennet.

Not Being a Pig

3D Pig

Third day on the fast, so far so good. The saltwater flush is no more fun today than the first day – yuck. I’m still not back in the mood for photography. I have actually been working intensively on menu planning and organizing my recipes. If I can’t eat food, I might as well think about it all the time. The image of the pig was created by Caroline in 3D Studio back in the early ’90s.

Dreamfish

Dreamfish

Happy New Year. Today’s image is from a record / CD cover Caroline and I created 15 years ago for a record called Dreamfish. Pete Namlook and Mixmaster Morris collaborated on this recording that was originally released on FAX Records and briefly features Terence McKenna. And for any of my visitors who probably never figured out why my site’s title says, Dreams, Moments, Travel – the clue is Terence McKenna. So put that in your pipe and smoke it.