Pretty Horny Flow

Just to see those guys walking down the sidewalk, it definitly has a pretty horny flow. But then they are musicians and they do have to tour a lot, especially in these times when royalties from album sales are dropping.

True Happiness

"...I'm also of the opinion that true happiness is impossible without idleness. My ideal is to be completely idle and love a fat girl. I'd like life to flash by brilliantly, because I know life is short. I'd like to sit on a boatdeck and pop bottles of champagne, and in the evenings, women. I'd like to go to Chicago and India and Constantinople, and so on and so forth..."

Are You There, Crocodile? Inventing Anton Chekhov by Michael Pennington. Now go and buy it or even better attend a performance! Or read  something about it on the official homepage. It used to be possible to book performances there.

Mercy

"'Justice!' This word, it radiates horror and joy. It intensifies the sufferings from the past, but at the same time points out their meaning. In my imagination I go back years and years to the days of my early youth and childhood. I view the whole way, overlook no stage, allow myself no turning away, no comforting veil, and above it all as though written with flaming letters, there glows the one word: 'Justice!' There is no suffering which, if I trace it back to its roots, is not self-inflicted. There is no misfortune which is not basically my own undoing. There is no collapse which was not grown from guilt. Justice everywhere, terrible, incorruptible, eternally wakeful justice! I repent, repent - and there is no hostile power that I could blame...How can I dare look at the messenger of justice? What else can he announce but that the sentence has been passed? Just then a faint trembling light seems to pass over the angel's darkened features and a smile to hover around his lips. A promise lies in this smile and a warning: 'Pay homage to justice, but do not forget that other word either...' I ask myself: what other word? Already it rings in my exulting heart: 'Mercy! Mercy!' Never has its light shone brighter than in those darkest hours of my life. Its hand gave me support, when my path led close along the precipice. I see how again and again when the need was the greatest I have been given time and chance to begin anew. I see how again and again love offered itself when right to love seemed to have been forfeited. Our knowledge extends to the thought on which justice is based. But no wisdom can fathom the secret of mercy. On ethereal wings it comes down as it pleases. There is no more weighing, there are no more claims, only submission and thankfulness. And both fill me so deeply in this hour, that I am now able to think of the future almost without anxiety."

Excerpt from Journey Into Chaos by Charles Wollf (Dr Karl Wollf). Karl Wollf here recounts a dream he had while being in custody in the south of France as a hostile alien during WW2. In fact he had been persecuted by the Nazis. Shortly afterwards he would work out a daring plan, which took him from Marseille to Spain, from Spain to Portugal and then to London.

Feeling Alive

JAKE BUGG TASTE IT from Asylum Films on Vimeo.

Strange Days

Something appears to be coming. These are always the days that make me wonder and anticipate a lot. "Is it the howl of the devil or a sound divine?!"


And yes the edges of reality ;)!

Just Drew It

Dreaming And Smiling

 For some spectacular reason mouths will be dreaming and eyes will be smiling.

The Genuine Smile

It's an interesting fact that it's not the mouth that is telling us, if a smile is genuine, but rather the eyes. If they are slightly closed the smile comes from within and is true. I revere those people who are able to keep this childlike and innocent attitude to truly smile from within. Like an African friend told me, I would never get old if I smile a lot.

"What am I? I am a clown who's forcing to smile!"

Well, St John's Eve has been recently, therefore "Jean Baptiste Is The Howling Wolf"

Even Closer

as far as I'm concerned ;)

Close enough?

To Recognise Someone

There are moments in my life I cherish very, very much and they are always linked to an instant of recognition. Mostly what I do recognise in some people, who sort of are my soulmates, is this insane drive to the adventurous, sometimes silly but never boring life. Like when Raimund Stecker commented that in my life I would appear to never be sure of anything. Like when one gets into one's car to drive home and never is really sure of reaching it, which resulted in us smiling at each other. It's Posthumus' odd resolution which heads this blog. He knows he's got some sort of destiny but is not yet sure of the destination, in fact his prospects are quite horrible at this moment and they are to get much darker even, before Shakespeare rescues and redeems him.
Or the instant when I get an LP signed - it was quite an uproar because it was not planned like this. People still wound up by the just finished concert, crying: "We love you!" - and the signee looks up while I'm leaving because I have to, me already on the move looking back, and there is this odd expression on his face, just a glance: "I kinda know you.Who are you?!"-"Well, thank you very much, I know you, too, and you are marvellous, my dear!"

Lollygagging

An Interview with Bert Ostyn

The seven deadly sins according to Bert Ostyn (Absynthe Minded)

A lot has happened since Absynthe Minded got in second best at Humo's Rock Rally in 2004. The band has made three gorgeous albums, but  were nevertheless dumped by Universal. But they did not give up, got for their untitled fourth and best album four MIAs (Belgian Music Industry Award), while "My Heriocs, Part One" was elected best song of the decade (2000-2010) by the listeners of StuBru (Studio Brussel, my favourite radio station, Daniela).

Read here some quotes by Bert Ostyn : "I can imagine becoming stinkingly rich with my music"

Ostyn: "A little bit of ego is necessary. After eight years of Absynthe Minded I am quite sure that I'm addicted to the stage. That I'm happier now than in the past has a lot to do with this."
" I've also very much believed in it quite contrary to my surroundings. I've just managed to pass the secondary school, got a lot of punishments at school because I couldn't keep my big mouth shut, often I ran with my head against the wall. It did not come as a shock, but if my former school now asks me to come and talk about my line of work - that has already happened - I say: No way, guys."

Ostyn: "Formerly I used to be the opposite of vain, sloppy, not interested in my clothing...It took a long time before I realised that it would do no harm if I look a little bit good on the stage. In addition I had to grow more expressive otherwise the picture would not be right. To be ambitious and to live in your own cocoon are two things that do not really match (pulls at the frissure of his vest's shoulder). Now we even got someone sponsoring our clothes: Matinique. I look at my picture in the mirror much oftener now than three years ago. What do you want: I'm at Werchter on Sunday."

Ostyn: "I'm not that competitive. To play a parlour game with me is for example not a good idea: I soon grow tired of it. Playstation for example: it makes me aggressive. I even did not actually want to take part in Rock Rally. Our manager thought that we had to:"It will give you a lot of attention." He was right. But I didn't feel that I had to win it."

Ostyn: "Women is something I cannot live without. I have three younger sisters, and I always had a lot of female friends (I'm not sure if he explicitely refers to girlfriends here, Daniela). I enjoy the attention of my female fans. If one of them wants to take a photograph with me: you're welcome. But that doesn't mean that I also want to dive into bed with them. I had a lot of short-term relationships, I always could satisfy my needs, but that doesn't mean that I was following my dick. In the meantime I've been together with my love for five years now and it has worked out pretty well."

Someone to Watch

over me ;)

Sometimes Body Language

drives me mad, because I recognise something in it, a move, a gesture that is so sublime. Yet getting that point and doing it with just a few irrevocable brush strokes requires a mind that is at the same time determined and light. I hope I did it ;)!

C'est vrai

Because water colours cannot easily be manipulated.

Art Is An Essential Need

"... I took refuge in this peasant's hut, by which time it was already light and there were golden tones in the sky and the heathcock was calling. I fell asleep for a time and dreamed of my own bed in my own room: I dreamed I was sitting at my own table and telling my friends how I was nearly killed by a carriage on the Siberian highway. Then I woke and realised where I was. I had a good look around: it's quite charming. The peasant and his wife have decorated their walls with sweet wrappers and vodka labels, and someone's painted a tree on the door growing out of a vase, and some red flowers, and birds that look more like fish. The demand for art is here, but the good Lord has sent no artists. How can a peasant think about art? For nine months of the year he can't even take off his mittens and straighten his fingers, and when the summer comes his back aches with labour.
My first visitor was grandpa, very interested in me.

-Are you from Russia, your Honour?

-Yes, that's right, from Russia.

.....

-It's a crying shame because a Siberian's a good man. He's soft-hearted and honest and he doesn't drink - he's a treasure, not a man, but his life is wasting, like a mosquito, shall we say, or a fly. What's he living for, your Honour?

-Well, I suppose he works and eats and clothes himself. What more does a man want?

-Your Honour. A human being is not a horse."

(from Michael Pennington's  one-man-show on Anton Chekhov taken from Are You There, Crocodile? - Inventing Anton Chekhov by Michael Pennington - If you ever have the opportunity to watch it, surely do it ;) )

At Second Glance

This wasn't so bad, at least it got the immediateness
of some rough sketch, I surely like.

I'm Far Too (Roman) Catholic For This

This is a translation of an earlier German post.
Already while I was studying I was quite appalled by this constant indifferent blah blah, according to which everything can mean everything and everything is freely and easily interchangeable. What this would have to do with tolerance after all, was a complete mystery to me?! Thus I opted for the view stated in the title whenever I had to endure this folderol. Because: How could somebody who does not know who he/she is and which cultural background he/she comes from, somebody who does not observe any culture, call himself/herself tolerant, for heaven's sake?!
The more we agree to differ the closer we will always feel!

The R-Word - It's All About Reputation, Baby

Sometimes, while I was still studying, I've come across people, who have been cherishing an idea, a concept, a work of art for  a long time and have told me about it, but then when it came to finally realising it, they sort of backed down. One might of course conclude that there were some financial aspects troubling these projects, but nothing was further from truth. So I discussed my findings with fellow students and they answered: "It is all very well for you as a student to try to realize these sometimes daring projects, but they are professors and artists they have a reputation to lose."
Later on exactly this word "reputation" was also featuring in a book on some daring theatrical project
I've benefitted from, for I was lucky enough to attend a performance: The ESC "The Wars of the Roses", a staging of the Shakespearean history plays from Richard II to Richard III, all done in a row and sometimes at just one weekend, which they toured around the world. Here the word "reputation" almost killed the whole project at the beginning because institutions that wanted to support this effort were reminded that this just might endanger their reputation.
Thus I've come to learn that this tiny word is the obstacle to many a wonderful and daring work of art, and yet again the true artist reveals himself in exactly this moment, for he or she would not bother about his or her reputation at all and just skip it.
So thanks to all you lovely artists who don't give a damn about their public image and just daringly do whatever they feel compelled to.