U n i K a s s e l - A p r i l 0 9 - w w w . b l a n k p a p e r.

d e

<blank>
students have interesting thoughts

Edmund
Lowman
Formerly of Rosebud and
The Redjumpsuit Apparatus
Performing at <blank>fest
May 7th

Heiler,
Clark
to perform at
<blank>fest
on May 7

at the <blank>fest
philosophy slam
poetry slam
improv
music
art
 Content
<blank>fest is coming up. On May 07, the University of Kassel turns into a
cultural marvel when musicians, poets & artists present their works. Around
the Cafe Desasta and K19 there will be bands, solo music, improv theatre, a
philosophy slam, poetry slam and works of art. Thus, our table of contents
gave way to, that’s right, content. Bastin and Sabine present their works on
this and the following page, and the rest of this issue informs you in detail
about whats going to be going on at our <blank>fest.
With that, we wish you the best possible start of the new semesters.

Yours in 10pt BellMT, justified by a refreshingly large line space and having
moved all the movable types at our dispossal for a fresh start into the summer,

The Editors
www.blankpaper.de

2 <creative_department>
 A modern Our Father
a editorial by Bastin Hess

Our Father who art in heaven,

Hollowed be thy name.

Our kingdom come.

Our will be done, on earth as is in China.

Give us this day their daily bread.

And forgive them their depts,

As we give our credits.

And do not lead us into temporary inflation,

But deliver us from the evil stock.

For ours is the kingdom, and the power, we are gory, for ever and ever.

Damn 'em!

(inspired by Hagen Rether)

When it’s Dark

by Sabine Krause
I drink blood and kill,
I live in a castle on a hill.
I haunt humans on the streets
and they taste like sweets.
My next victim might be you
and you won’t make it through.
But don’t be aghast,
I’ll slay you fast.
I am strong and immortal,
and will succeed because I’m brutal.
Next century I will rule an empire,
as a creature of the night, a vampire.
photo by Flickr user _tomanthony, under cc
<editorial / creative_writing> 3
 <blank>fest 7th may
On May 07, the University of Kassel turns into a cultural marvel when musicians, poets and artists present their works.
<more at www.blankpaper.de> [Band Descriptions: Marc Motyka and Franz Mutschler]

Edmund Lowman
His name should ring a bell if you are a fan of
Rosebud, Start Trouble or The Red Jumpsuit Ap-
paratus who enjoy a huge popularity in the USA
and Canada. Now on a solo
mission, singer Edmund
Spring
Lowman sets out to impress This 4 piece Ind
his audience with songs about Gießen was fou
everlasting topics such as love been playing
and break-ups. The versatility amount of gig
of his voice adds power to his The 4 guys ar
songs and makes the girls fall matter of fact
for him. A feature of his lyrics the K19 Line-U
are autobiographical traits. have to attend
Edmund’s show is, in a sense, „Not very Rock’n’Roll“ you say? Just you wait!
an intimate meeting with a Their music reminds me of the 2nd album by Man
musician who transforms in-your-face songs with a great sense of melody. A
life into music. Get ready for awesome, super-energetic, super-tight live band. So
acoustic rock on May 7. dancing, Springfield is coming to <blankfest> and
www.myspace.com/rosebud www.myspace.com/springfieldhome

Hybrid Hybrid is a Frankfurt-based Indie-

lofi-garage-rock-lets-kick-each-other-
in-the-balls Punk Band with the most
amazing stage performance I’ve seen
in Kassel so far. The band has been
around for 8 years now and heavily
influenced by classic punk and indie
rock, as their website says “we’re do-
Atlas The curre
young mu

ing “Guided by Voices”-Covers, Pixies

hommages, plain old high speed punk,
and an occasional 60’s kind a thing.
as long as were having fun.” If you
caught them at the battle of the bands
last semester you wouldn’t doubt that
statement. The band goes all out on
stage and draws the crowd into their
performance.

www.hybrid-music.com

4 <blank>fest
 Lars Heiler
Last Year, he opened the Battle of the Bands
with a collection of covers ranging from clas-
sic Irish folk songs to Johnny Cash to the Beat-
les. This year he will have a bit more time to
impress you with his vocals and acoustic gui-
tar. His influences range from folk music to
rock, and, if we are lucky, he will play some of
his original tunes. An intimate acoustic session
accompanied by some anecdotes that is not to
be missed.
Gudrun Hahn and
David Wenderoth
<blank>’s own writer Gudrun completes the “trio
infernale“ of the acoustic line-up at the Cafe De-
sasta. Some guitar, some bass, some voice, some
songs, some lyrics, some melodies and a lot of
heart. Just sit down and enjoy – seriously!

gfield
die-Rock Combo from Nadine Fingerhut
unded in 2007 and has
a pretty impressive
gs in the meantime.
re still pretty young,
we had to reschedule
Up because Springfield
school the day after –

ndo Diao, cool, upbeat,

nd man!- they are one Along with Lars Heiler, Nadine Fingerhut will add to the mellow chill-
o get up and start the out athmosphere of the Cafe Desasta, the only place of peace during the
you’re gonna love it! mayham that’s gonna be <blankfest>. With a mixture of german and
english songs, a wonderful voice and Soul, this Lady is something to look
out for when your feet get tired. - www.myspace.com/nadinefingerhut

ent teen generation is boring? Not in this case! The relatively
usicians of Atlas are the counter-example and proove that cre-
ativity and musical innovation is still
possible among musical newcomers.
Take a look at their website, myspace.
com/atlasmusik, and you will see that
these guys have had more gigs than
birthdays. And rightly so! Last year,
they rocked the stage at <blank>’s Bat-
tle of the Bands and promised to come
back. The new Atlas EP is on the verge
of being released and they will contin-
ue their way of success at the <blank-
fest> with thoughtful indie-rock!
Oceans
and
Elephants
The band formerly known as 7-Car-Pile-Up
has not only changed its name. With a new
bass player on board, their musical direction
is ready for a change. Oceans and Elephants
seamlessly integrate odd rhythms and com-
plex harmonical structures into their songs
while sounding very natural at the same time.
Besides the remarkable musical talent, Oceans
and Elephants have the ability to create an
outworldy atmosphere with their unique
sound. Be prepared for hard-to-categorize al-
ternative rock at the <blankfest> and check
out their MySpace page at myspace.com/sev-
encarmusic!

<blank>fest 5
 <blank>fest

improv
„So, children, please take out your homework!“
“Homework?? We had homework?? Oh S.H.I.T I
forgot and now my paper is <blank>! Uhmm.. I…
I couldn’t do them, because…. Uhmm.. because I
had something more important to do! Yeah.. My
.. my father had to go to China because of an un-
foreseeable business transaction and my mother
was kidnapped by Aliens and couldn’t drive him to
the airport. The only one able to do that was me,
because of my pimped motor scooter with extra
kerosene application which can drive ten times as
fast as every taxi in town. So, I drove him to the
airport and on my way back the engine created a
subatomic vortex which made it possible for me to
drive through the fabric of the time-space contin-
uum to rescue my mother before she would be kid-
napped, by this I created a temporal causality field
which sent my mother and me through time just
soon enough so that I could attend this course….
That’s my story and I’m sticking to it!”
You want to know what Improv is all about? It is
as simple as the little story you just read. It is the
ability to create stories or situations on the spot.
Think back to your time in school or the one time
last month where you had to give your professor
a valid excuse for postponing the deadline of your
term paper. Every day we can get into situations
which require a spontaneous reaction. This is ba-
sically what Improvisational theater is about.
The moment you step onto the stage, you are alone
with your fellow actors with no help whatsoever
of a script or the director. You deliver your lines
and hope that you won’t forget the most impor-
tant lines. But at least you have lines to remember.
On an improve-stage, all you have is the audience
and your ability to spontaneously react to key-
words. Thus, an improv-show is never the same
and contrary to the play, where the audience is a
mere recipient, you get into a dialogue between
audience and actors.
At <blank>fest you will have the possibility to
be an important part of such a show and with-
out you, the improv-show won’t even take place.
The Red Brick Company, the Campus’ very-own
English Drama Group, will provide some of its
actors to get into a dialogue with you. Of course,
it is impossible to say what will happen, but rest
assured it will be a blast and I guarantee you, you
won’t regret it.
Dennis Wienert

What’s art? This is of course a rhetorical ques-
tion. This is mostly due to the fact that art can
be everything, be it picture, photo, sculpture or
even a person. In a city like Kassel, the famous
documenta shows us every time how fuzzy and
undefined the term ‘art’ really is. At <blank> fest
we will try to give you a glimpse of what some
of the students at this university consider their
definition of art. Not much can be said about the
exhibition you will see, but it is certain that you
will see things you have never seen before. Unique
sculptures and strange otherworldly contraptions
side by side with pictures and photographs ac-
art
companied by people who consider themselves a
piece of art for this evening. You will experience
a glance at a time that never was when walking
around a room full of Neo-Victorian devices, some
usable, some appearing to be usable, some pretty,
some strange and some even to be afraid of. This
should be all for the moment as you have to expe-
rience this yourself and it is not the intention of
this article to spoil this experience. You will have
to find your own definition of art, if you do not
already have one. In this case however be advised
that there is more to art than meets the eye.
Dennis Wienert

6 <blank>fest

Blank Fest 2009 is coming up, and I am excited to
tell you that, aside from music and art, there will
also be a poetic and philosophical competition.
Poetry slams have been a part of American culture
for over 25 years, and their popularity has been
spreading all over the globe ever since. Today,
many German cities are regularly holding poetry
slams, and there is even a national competition.
The idea of a philosophy slam, however, is some-
thing new and was, at least as far as I know,
thought of first by one of our very own professors
right here in Kassel. Therefore, I feel it necessary
to credit Dr. Dirk Stederoth of the philosophy
department. As a side note, they (the philosophy
department) are actually holding a philosophy
slam of their own on the 17th of April, so if after
reading this article you are still unsure of what to
expect, you should definitely go there and see it
for yourself.
As far as the procedure is concerned, this will
somewhat depend on the number of interested
participants and the feedback we get from them.
We are looking to get 8 participants for each the
poetry and the philosophy slam, so sign up quick-
ly! As it stands, you will probably be able to do it in
German or English – like I mentioned before, this
depends on the competitors themselves. If you are
philosophy slam
photo by Flickr user surrealmuse, under cc
interested in participating, please also tell us what
language you are looking to do it in.
There will be two rounds of competition. We
would like two do one round of prepared read-
ings – that is, you prepare a text at home and read
it at the competition – and a final round where you
are given a topic and have a certain amount of
time (probably along the lines of 10-15 minutes)
to prepare a reading. The readings should last 2-5
minutes. This is fairly self-explanatory as far as
poetry is concerned. For philosophy, it is pretty
much the same thing – just pick a topic (current or
historical) and write down your thoughts.
However, I strongly urge interested competi-
tors to tell us whether they are okay with this or
whether they would prefer to read their prepared
texts only.
The audience will judge your performance, and
prizes will be awarded to the top performers in
each segment. The poetry and philosophy slam
is taking place on the 7th of May, 19:00, Arnold-
Bode-Strasse 8.
If you are interested in participating, please send
an e-mail to m.sezi@gmx.de. If you do not want
to participate, I hope you will come anyway to
cheer on the competitors!
Murat Sezi
<blank>fest 7
 - Anzeigen / Sponsoren -

Impressum
<blank>fest Presale information
Zeitung der Studierenden der Anglistik / Amerikanistik des
Fachbereiches 02 der Universität Kassel,
Georg-Forster-Str. 3, 34109 Kassel Telefon: 0561 804 3380 Presale at GFS3, R0254 & 0247
eMail: dlowman@uni-kassel.de
„Arnold Bode Str.8 / Cafe Desasta” 18 Uhr
K19 Studentisches Kulturzentrum 20 Uhr
V..i.S.d.P.: Don Lowman

Redaktion: Don Lowman, Pieter Coetzee

Staff/Writers: Sabine Krause, Murat Sezi, Marc Motyka, Dennis

Wienert, Karin Kolb, Don Lowman, Pieter Coetzee, Sabrine
Lohmann, Franz Mutschler, Gudrun Hahn, Lilia Brestel, Daniel Aschenbrenner, Bastin
Heß, Alastair Purves, Alan Cordell, Concetta Mugavero

Layout: Peter Carqueville

Druck: Nordlicht

Bilder: „under cc“ bedeutet, dass jenes Bild unter der Creative Commons Lizens bei Flickr
vom benannten User veröffentlicht wurde und unter Namensnennung und nicht-kommer-
ziell weiterverwendet werden darf, siehe z.B. Mustervertrag http://creativecommons.org/
licenses/by/2.0/deed.de

8 <sponsors> / impressum