buz-co

Ron Has Been Acting On Orders

2008-07-15T14:00:00.000-07:00

Ron looking the 'otherway' at Abu. Acting On Orders Mostly

Ron is on the move again

2008-02-05T14:47:00.000-08:00

After this late night meeting it seems that Ron is on the move again

Ron makes the call.

Ron meets at the drop off point where briefcases are swapped.

Ron blends in on the subway.

Ron checks in.

Ron catches up with some paperwork on the plane

The view from Ron's seat

And then Ron ate dinner and he felt unwell

Trouble in Uzbekistan

2008-01-16T14:05:00.000-08:00

I recently spent my birthday in Uzbekistan, following this pleasant break I had some business to conclude before heading off to India and Pakistan.

I always travel Uzbekistan Air when I am in the region, you can smoke even before the plane takes off. In fact the air-hostess will offer to light your cigarette for you. They have a self service buffet upfront and a bar at the back, with a dartboard and everything. Good old fashioned service.

Perhaps we should have our contacts the agreed price in the first place instead of trying to haggle

It's never any fun being peppered with AK 47 fire from four sides.

A couple of bullets in the engine block and the bonnet and lights and the trade-in value of this vehicle is drastically reduced.

We ordered this massive custom job from a supplier after our previous Gelandewagen was all shot up. Safe as houses, corners like a pig.

Istanbul Project

2007-12-07T05:33:00.000-08:00

Our light aircraft is essential for moving equipment and people around.

our boat for bringing in larger pieces of equipment that won't fit on the plane

our skipper Nikolai Zboromirsky

our HQ in the Istanbul Regent Star Hotel, one my favourites great coffee as always

A quiet meeting place, perfect for swapping out some seismic equipment and various hard to get chemical compounds

Father Jim is always helpful when we need to move a large amount of delicate equipment around the world at short notice, bless his heart.

A trial blast in the mountains is always advised before setting up a complicated urban blast.

New team of blast watchers (the Enflez Cousins)

Setting up the urban blasting project

Successful urban blasting test

quietly blending in at Istanbul bus station after urban blast test

our dedicated technical crew on their way to see Gert Handschrift and Die Zombieesser as a reward for their hard work and discretion.

Die Zombieesser were in town we never miss one of their gigs if we can help it.

New device

2007-11-12T06:06:00.000-08:00

A hard and software engineer from Croatia has developed this very useful device which has greatly accelerated our information retrieval process, we have now given up all the time intensive techniques such as 'long time standing' and 'water boarding' recently pioneered by some of our colleagues.

Missing Consultants

2007-11-09T05:09:00.001-08:00

Robert (Bob) Fullham
Ido A. Detras

Urgent unfinished business, Ido A. Detrás was working on an unnamed project of ours at the time he vanished. We suspect that he has been moved to an unspecific location, or worse. We know that he was being watched by an EU intelligence agency at the time but we assumed this was just a courtesy. Robert (Bob) Fullham was his direct contact person at the time Ido was taken and now he too has vanished. If you can help please contact the Programme D'Essai Nucléaire Civil directly or contact us on oneck@gmail.com

information retrieval

2007-11-02T07:20:00.000-07:00

A new client needs a range of discreet locations for an international security project they are engaged in. The project requires specific information from a number of individuals from different contexts that must be aquirred in a confidential manner. We have secured a range of locations that we believe would best facilitate this process.

a quiet building on the outskirts of town

a bare passage

an unused warehouse

a small yet useful room

a sound proof apartment

a comfortable resting place

a not so comfortable resting place

a discreet club in the city

a disused parking lot

a quiet building site

a place where off loading can happen quietly

Sergey is our general nominee agent but he has has no direct knowledge of the details of this project, just a list of needs. Further more it would be unfair asking the nominee about a program on which he's not been briefed, and beyond the clients wishes. Which are that no direct information is to be given to agents on the ground.

Car Trouble Middle East, Turn Left, Turn Left, Oh Shit

2007-11-01T13:18:00.001-07:00

This BMW was lent to us by my good friend Professor Orvosi Szolnoki from the department of meteorological studies in Budapest, we made it a short distance down the street before colliding with a lamppost.

We had to rent a car fast and all they had was this c-class mercedes which was comfortable while it lasted. We were rushing to Ferihegy International Airport in Budapest to catch our flight out to the middle east when this unfortunate accident happened to the driver Fehlender Gehirnmann and myself.

Rental car 200m from Damascus International Airport in Syria, minor damage according to our driver Fehlender Gehirnmann but we had switch rental companies at this stage.Rental car 200m from Damascus International Airport in Syria, minor damage according to our driver Fehlender Gehirnmann but we had switch rental companies at this stage.
This Nissan Suv took us another 70 kms before Fehlender Gehirnmann 'parked' it in this bus stop.

We rented this limo privately and made it as far as this wrong turn in Lebanon Mr Gehirnmann said that the road had been open the last time he had been here, clearly that is no longer the case.

More car troubles this time Fehlender blamed it on the rain, we are now black listed at Avis.

Amman Jordan Okay so we did swerve to avoid an animal (I didn't see it my self as by this stage I had a detached retina and a migrane)

Borrowed this vintage Cadillac in Madaba From Eugenio Barag, he was not happy, we are not on speaking terms anymore and we are short several vital pieces of equipment that you can't just buy from anybody.

Black Caddy Yes this was the one where we were all burnt by the hot coffee we had just picked up.

We managed to get this BMW from Eurpocar at very short notice, it was a bit flash but now it isn't

It started to become increasingly difficult to rent cars in Jordan for obvious reasons, but we found this small place that had a number of used but well looked after cars at good rates without, We borrowed this Lexus from them. The guy in the jeep was surprisingly not badly hurt, a couple of bruises and scratches, luckily he was traveling alone...

We then quite quickly went through these two large North American vehicles on our way to Saudi

Large Sedan 2 some pain and a burst ear drum. I started to feel that these North American cars are large and soft as opposed to their european counterparts which are smaller and harder.

3 more white sedans in Saudi Fehlender Gehirnmann's has concentration issues I think.

Luckly I was asleep in the back at the time but I decided it was time to let my driver go after this one.

We rented this Nissan Primera from Hertz in Riyadh, the new driver from The Munschk Centre Du Recherche Comprimée Avançée De Carbone, Nessun Vedere is not much better than Fehlender.

Hertz were quick to send out a replacement for the Nissan which lasted a few more hours... we called it bmw_3

This was the last car that we would break in the middle east it is another of those large softish US numbers.

Back Home, On the way back from the airport the mini-cab driver managed to miss his exit from this traffic circle. This one didn't hurt so much but I am through with road trips for a while.

I was greeted by these very friendly people when I had finaly got back to the office, which was nice.

Our recent seismic work has taken us to Siberia to try out a couple of deep crust blasting projects, mostly they went well

2007-10-09T02:30:00.000-07:00

Jango Board-Weaver was our initial contact for our Siberian operation. He was the one who secured us the deep crust blasting certificates and generally got our most ambitious project off to a good start. Later on however our relationship soured over some unpaid parking fines and it became necessary to distance ourselves from him.

Later Marco Croûte de Monsieur took over the role of fixer, he was in pretty good shape as you can see from this pic, he never seemed to wear a shirt and yet the petty bureaucrats we encountered along the way never seemed to bat an eyelid.

The renown father and son team of blast watchers Poulios and Petrus Enflez were oiled up and on duty 16 hours a day. They primarily use the Cropenberger technique of peripheral blast watching although Petrus being younger sometimes uses a mid-finger mounted giegernometer as well, you can see him winding it up in this shot.

Marsh pools are sometimes an unfortunate side effect to our blasting activities but they only have a half-life of 1000 years or so, we believe that somebody will make a lot of money cleaning them up for us in the distant future, this is one of the ways we are contributing towards a stable and economically viable system. We have sold off a number of waste and damage futures over time to support our activities.

Antwon Spastique is currently supplying us with geothermal imaging equipment from a small lab he runs in Hong Kong, he happened to be in Siberia at the time on a long overdue vacation so we met up to exchange pleasantries and so forth.

These are some shots of our outdoor office at Tiksi, it has all the mod cons, gym fridge, tv although we could only get some dodgy siberian musical nudie game shows and a 24 hour golfing channel. Petrus became hooked on betting on the Siberian handicapped golf championship, which took place on the banks of Lake Ozhogino every year at this time.

RV problems - the roads in this region are more theoretical than anything else and anyway our driver Fehlender Gehirnmann is a bit over excitable, I told him to go left but he gave me the middle finger and went right, I never could stand that jeep anyhow.

This is Fehlender Gehirnmann explaining to the insurance agent why he chose to sink the jeep.

First blast test - this is a light pyrotechnic affair just getting the impact measuring equipment warmed up. We put Fehlender Gehirnmann's suitcase next to the charge, you can see his trainers flying up into the left-hand corner of the image. He had to wear cheap russian clothes for the rest of the trip - they were all synthetic and made him itch but it serves him right the bastard.

The blast sights, we were very pleased with our blast craters this time we are getting a consistent and fairly massive crater each time now and the project is looking promising, the feedback we are getting from Bernard Trier and his colleagues at Munschk Centre Du Recherche Comprimée Avançée De Carbone is to go deeper and harder to try to trigger some larger seismic shifts.

This is a deepcrust crater from our last visit, we are particularly pleased with it's slow rate of collapse.

This is a new device that is in early stages of testing but could turn out to be quite productive in urban situations. We call it the filtre venu massif effect and it works primarily in conjunction with liquids, it needs a surprising small amount of equipment to produce these kinds of effects and we have managed to keep the side effects well concealed so we are hoping for a public license for it soon.

This is the sunset after the day of principal blasting had been completed, I thought this view across Lake Ozhogino was spectacular, probably enhanced but some unstable isotopes floating around in the atmosphere as a result of our activities, which fortunately there is no real way of measuring so it usually is not ascribed to our activities.

After a tough day in the field what better way to unwind than watching the masked wrestling guilds contests at the Tiksi community center and downing glass after glass of yellow cabbage wodka and nibbling on dried musk rat feet.

The Tiksi surroundings are pretty bleak they have winter for 280 days of the year and the rest of the time it is just cold. This is the Tiksi High street

This is a picture of the local cow eating some mud and shit.

This is the courtyard of our accommodation, if you look carefully you can see the chef with his shotgun looking for something to shoot and call dinner. Aside from a single cow and a few musk rats there is not much formal agriculture in Tiksi.
What ever we don't want or don't think is safe we just chuck in this rusty old drum and leave it behind for some one else to clear up.

Tahiti Working Holiday

2007-10-05T11:49:00.000-07:00

project tracking station

Our Hq Tahiti Harbour

Our Accomodation

lookout point

air based testing of secondary drop off point

Tribal dancing (nice for the tourists)

coastline

Post Drop Piscatore testing samples - (over ripe)

Autumn filter testing inland Tahiti

seismic testing zone

Switzerland, working holiday

2007-08-19T07:47:00.000-07:00

Rons Recent trip to switzerland, it was mostly neutral, with some high's and lows.

We stayed in Das Großartige Hotel on the Straße äußern Sie Unsinn, that was the usual two star affair with a metal band staying in the room above us, so we didn't get a wink of sleep.

I went upstairs to complain after the second tv set was thrown out the window at about 3H30 am, and was given this photo of Gert Handschrift the lead guitarist from the band Die Zombieesser, as an apology and the they invited me in, the next thing I remember it was 3 o'clock the next afternoon. I just had enough time order my regular hangover cure, the raw egg with equal parts Tabasco and Worcester sauce in a martini that my grandmother used take after she had been out dancing all night with the Russians.

Luckily I made it in time to meet with my swiss agent on the banks of Lake Geneva, from there we made it by yatch and on foot to our offices high up in the Swiss Alps

This is a pic of our HQ high up in the swiss alps.

While we were working on our plans that you can see here, our colleague Rodney was conducting reconnaissance missions to find a suitable site for our seismic experiments.

Rodney, incognito.

This is X a person who from time to time supplies us with some useful logistical equipment, he likes to meet us at night because he has a peculiar skin condition and can't ever go out in day light, otherwise he is quite charming.

Here is a picture of the results of our Swiss Seismic experiment, initially it appeared quite successful compared with our recent swiss ventures but, we are awaiting the results from our labs to confirm this, we hope to have them by early 2008.

This was a picture of some unfortunate side effects of these recent experiments, no body count this time so it seems like our methods are improving.

After all this hard work I took a break and had a look at some of the overwhelmingly beautiful swiss scenery and contemplate some of the more challenging mountains for some later projects

A few calm days drifting around Lake Geneva

The Eiger's Mount

The Matterhorn

Consulting, various locations, abroad

2007-08-19T07:33:00.000-07:00

I have just returned from a series of consulting field-trips for the Munschk Centre Du Recherche Comprimée Avançée De Carbone. Exploring a range of geothermal and polaric options in both hot and cold places. I was commissioned to do this research and to run my usual kinds of operations that I am no longer authorised to discuss. By Bernard Trier who is the chairperson of Munschk Centre Du Recherche Comprimée Avançée De Carbone and also affiliated to a non-specific global intelligence agency. The results were almost instantaneous and mostly positive although there was some flooding and eruptions as you can see.

Logistically in the field we usually have a Huey and a team of four, including an agency marksman for a number of reasons.

For some of the time we stayed at this very atmospheric hotel in Martinique

Myself towards the end of the stay at Ice Station Zebra

Some unfortunate flooding in our 'weather reorientation programme'

Some target zones

Some target zones - including mule

Our starting point on the banks of the Orizonicio River

The head quarters of the Munschk Centre Du Recherche Comprimée Avançée De Carbone

Bernard Trier who is the chairperson of Munschk Centre Du Recherche Comprimée Avançée De Carbone

Some unfortunate geothermal eruptions

Dark Time

2007-08-19T06:40:00.000-07:00

Ron had a lot of help through his dark time. But the person who stands out the most is my dear friend father Jim, pictured here. Also my brief trip to Japan over the weekend was just the kind of tonic an obliterated individual needs.

The Kind and Helpful Father Jim

In Tokyo with Tomiko

Noodles with Keiko

Keiko at Tomisha Fun Park

Road Works on the way to Osaka

Hotel Room Osaka

Tomiko in Osaka Hotel

Tomiko climbs tree - Osaka

Brown beach with Tomiko

All in all it was a good break after the identity theft issue.

Jack at the Beeb

2007-08-19T06:28:00.000-07:00

Following my legal troubles in the UK I felt it necessary to visit my man Jack at the Beeb, for some spin control, he was quite busy making a documentary about the Queen, but we were able to cobble a swift denial together.

My Man Wilson

2007-08-19T06:25:00.000-07:00

Wilson QC

Wilson is my QC he's a good man and as you can see by the pic he is always right. He has helped me out of a number of scrapes.

The Man Man

2007-08-19T06:21:00.001-07:00

The Man Man

This is the document drop off guy at the back of the parking lot, we call him The Man Man, he doesn't talk much.

Road Trip to meet the Halfman

2007-08-19T06:05:00.000-07:00

on the road train

still on the road train

on the road train

the half man

47 Hrs with only Pepsi and dry meat. But I found and photographed the masked half a man (see pic above)

Nigel

2007-08-19T06:01:00.000-07:00

Nigel

Nigel is new to our group, but not to this website. He has no access to it at all. I thought I would post Nigel's early efforts at identity integration, mostly for the sake of amusement.

Looking for the two bobs

2007-07-26T15:55:00.001-07:00

boss bob

bob 2

The location

Ron T Beck is looking for the two Bob's, he has it from a reliable source that they are operating from this location (see pic) if anyone on the ground has any information please put it in the diplomatic bag as soon as.

time spent with tomiko

2007-07-26T15:50:00.000-07:00

A while ago I spent some time in Tokyo with my friend Tomiko, who wrote on these images for me, so poetic

Busy at the bank

2007-07-26T15:48:00.001-07:00

Hoodies, they are so warm in the cold weather, and at the bank.

Package Proper

2007-07-26T15:38:00.001-07:00

Ron received a package the other day via Fed Ex. He doesn't know who it was from, but it had the letters U G on it which is suspicious. The box contained a black hound from hell in it, as seen in the photo. Now Ron has two dogs - please help with naming the beast.

In the end we called it Zoltan - so friendly, good with children

Package

2007-07-26T15:32:00.000-07:00

Business Trip to Martinique

2007-06-27T16:24:00.001-07:00

the outboard

arriving

offloading party

submerging

on dry land

I had some business to attend to in Martinique, the details of which I am not able to divulge, needless to say it was pleasant and productive, if you are ever there I can recommend a great secluded cove, which is well out of site of civilisation.

Me at a convention

2007-06-26T02:05:00.000-07:00

Me at a convention

I recently went to a convention, this is a photo of me there. It was interesting

Ron's House

2007-06-26T01:53:00.001-07:00

Ron's Driveway

Ron's House

Ron's dog Oskar

On a recent trip home I took these pictures. I hope you like them.

Ron T Beck

2007-06-15T16:01:00.000-07:00

Ron T Beck

My close associate and agent Ron T Beck (no relative of Ronbeck) has spent sometime putting up a website for me (www.buz-co.com). He works for the well known promotions company Buz-co but now and again does some promo work for me, he has been quite busy lately, that's why the site is incomplete. He also spends quite a bit of time on youtube, where he has uploaded some of my recent video works (www.youtube.com/Ronbeckinc). If you want to chat to him you can always find him on facebook. Don't be put off by his appearance he is very friendly and only slightly censored (he was banned in the 80's and the SAPS still hasn't got around unbanning him)

2007-06-07T04:22:00.000-07:00

I left town; Elvis had spoken to me he said

Huuunnnhhhhhh my son He had loads of reverb on his voice

You are lost my son, aho ho aho ho yeaaaah yeaaah and then he did that thing with his lips.

You are lost, I could help you with my encyclopedia of pharmaceuticals or even make you a deep fried peanut butter and banana sandwich, but these are temporary remedies and you are too far gone my son, you have lost your way.

You need to go into the desert for four days and four nights and only drink from the green bottle, one sip every hour on the hour he flicked his fingers with a flourish and the bottle appeared. He winked and faded out.

I woke up in a cold sweat, my heart pounding from the build up of toxins in my system, I had to leave immediately. I threw some things in overnight bag, grabbed the green bottle and headed off for the desert in the white whale ......

2007-05-28T08:30:00.000-07:00

the vibe like...

the view

the singers#1

the singers#2

Now and again I go out, now and again. Sometimes when I am there (out) strange people sing karaoke and such, otherwise I look at the view, this was one of those evenings. Darkish with digital distortion. You can buy these shots from me at $10 a pop if you want. They are kind of random.

2007-05-25T08:49:00.000-07:00

making veg stock#1

salad#4

dodgy dinner, with chips#18

I love the cooling mechanisms#675

This post is all eating food and keeping cool, all these shots are available from a series called life happens at a cost of $40.00 unframed or in singular form for $10 ea (a4 digital prints). Have a great weekend

x Ronbeck

2007-05-23T07:53:00.000-07:00

rc #7

white cube feedback #3

rc #43

rc #123

mess not art

crow tap altered

Okay so you were invited to my show but failed to pitch what a pity because you missed out on as cold stella as you could nick, chips and peanuts, red wine (with a screwtop) some good company and a whatever else. If you feel like you missed out, shame I'll buy you a beer next time you are in town. Here are some pics from the opening, they are availible in an eddition of 9 at a cost of $400.00 (unframed).

Read more about the opening here ArtHeat posted (Sunday 10 may) by that angel of the net Linda Lovelace

Cheers X Charles

buz-co

2007-05-22T02:21:00.000-07:00

Welcome to my blog, - hope your holiday was good

This was the invite to my recent show 'Prelude To Bitterness', which is up until 9 June and can be viewed in Salt River Cape Town, see map below.

Intro - Prelude to Bitterness consists of new video and print works by Charles Maggs. In the work Maggs explores distortions thrown up by the convenience society in which we all operate. Much as a disease manifests itself in a series of sometimes unrelated symptoms, the distortions that trigger the work manifest themselves in a series of states such as dislocation, detachment from time and space, logic interruptions and unexplained paranoia.

Here are some images from this show.

This is from 'Lis'

This still is from 'Spacial'

More Detail
‘Prelude to Bitterness’ extends some of the thoughts showcased in my previous body of work ‘Cirque du Pan’, focusing particularly on some of the distortions thrown up by the convenience society in which we all partake. At the centre is an exploration of effects that are incidental to those complex organised human systems which exist as part of our supermodern lives. While the work interrogates these systems in its own manner, it ultimately delights in the distortions they throw up.

The ‘Bitterness’ of the title refers not to disappointment, but rather to bitterness as one of the four primary taste sensations, and specifically to those bitter things for which we acquire a taste and which we learn to love as part of our supercharged lifestyles. These bitter things are often the rewards we grant ourselves for enduring our daily lives. Bitterness thus becomes an expectation, a state of mind, an acquired feeling, something complex, and something to consider and savour. Acquiring a taste for bitterness confirms our ability as humans to adapt to any number of circumstances.

The works on this show explore states thrown up by our relentless quest for convenience, states such as dislocation, detachment from the 'simulation' of the real, or a loss of spatial references when that which we understand to be our space becomes unrecognisable, unreal, unstable and unfamiliar - what Marc Auge refers to as ‘non-spaces’.

Before this I showed a body of work called Cirque du Pan/Panic Circuit At the AVA in Church street Cape Town.

These are stills from my video piece 'Right'