The Archeology of Values

Generosity

In a happy struggle is it necessary to utterly destroy your opponent?

Sometimes it's fun though.



Yet some theories may prove wrong and this to your disadvantage.

The Sublime is Now

Jacques Derrida's example for a sublime work of art: The Song of Songs, cf Jacques Derrida, The Truth in Painting

So Close But Worlds Apart

A sad story of flight, terror and fear


Wim Opbrouck was traveling on the TGV from Straßbourg to Paris vice versa there sat an Arabic looking man. When asked to show to show his passport this man couldn't produce anything just a piece of paper. The heavily armed policeman told him that he had to leave the train at the next station. When this man had some trouble putting on his coat everybody in the cabin stopped talking all of a sudden because everybody was afraid that he was a suicide bomber. All the while Wim was thinking he ought to say something to support this man. When they finally managed to leave the cabin everybody was relieved, when suddenly a woman yelled hysterically: "His bag, he has left his bag!" So the fear returned and the man had to return to fetch his bag. And Wim couldn't still find something heartening to say to this miserable man, this sad refugee, when he heard an old woman maybe in her eighties say:"Monsieur, bonne chance, monsieur!" as the man was leaving.



A spot by Belgian transportation company De Lijn

Conspiracy

The biggest secrets are those that are for all to be seen.

The empty secret is the best kept.

mysterious

When your mind plays tricks on you because it is out to see patterns in everything.

Translate it into Flemish and the pattern becomes a monster.

A Glimpse

from one practitioner to another

questions I guess only somebody with similar experiences would ask

true communion
 

Concrete

grasp it

"The Single Biggest Problem

...in communication is the illusion that is has taken place." attributed to Bernard Shaw

The single biggest problem with this quote is that it is complete rubbish. How do you hallucinate on either side that communication has taken place? And the second biggest problem is that it isn't by Bernard Shaw at all. So good for him.

Maybe something else is actually meant but expressed a little bit awkward. And this happens a lot!




So frankly, let's talk about it! For mostly there is no other way.

Just Don't

...be afraid of it.

Affection

There is a crisis, fight the horror vacui.

Affection - Infection

Esperance

en dieu


Hotspur

Esperance

The Great Minimum

It is something to have wept as we have wept, 

It is something to have done as we have done, 

It is something to have watched when all men slept,

And seen the stars which never see the sun. 

 

It is something to have smelt the mystic rose, 

Although it break and leave the thorny rods, 

It is something to have hungered once as those 

Must hunger who have ate the bread of gods.  

To have seen you and your unforgotten face, 

Brave as a blast of trumpets for the fray, 

Pure as white lilies in a watery space, 

It were something, though you went from me today.

 

To have known the things that from the weak are furled, 

Perilous ancient passions, strange and high; 

It is something to be wiser than the world, 

It is something to be older than the sky. 

 

In a time of sceptic moths and cynic rusts, 

And fattened lives that of their sweetness tire 

In a world of flying loves and fading lusts, 

It is something to be sure of a desire.

 

Lo, blessed are our ears for they have heard;

Yea, blessed are our eyes for they have seen:
Let the thunder break on man and beast and bird
And the lightning. It is something to have been.


G K Chesterton

Life is a great gift, maybe just because it isn't everlasting.

But A Dream Within A Dream

Walten

reigning in a slow, yet decisive and powerful manner

patience is a force

"We weren't Lovers Like That

...and besides it would still be alright."

Maybe my favourite Cohen song and its origin:

Redemption - Live And Deal With Others Better

Iachimo:
I am down again.
But now my heavy conscience sinks my knee,
As then your force did. Take that life, beseech you,
Which I so often owe: but your ring first;
And here the bracelet of the truest princess
That ever swore her faith.

Posthumus Leonatus:
Kneel not to me.
The power that I have on you, is to spare you;
The malice towards you to forgive you: live
And deal with others better.

Shakespeare, Cymbline, Act V Scene 5

To reach this serenity Posthumus himself had to go a long and painful way - and somehow he deserved it because his crime was the worst of all.

Surprise!

Inspection

Surprise

Years ago I listened to this one and what stayed in mind was Brook's insistance of the creative process and how powerful it is to take action.

Listening again the central message becomes more overwhelming - the "element of surprise" - and thinking about it, it is so true.

C'est la Différance

There is a difference between fact(s) and truth, and it goes like this: One day truth will hit you.

Il Faut Bien Manger

I'm baking brownies today.


The first time I ever ate brownies was in a classroom at Warren Travis White High School, Farmers Branch, Dallas, Texas. Most of the class was African American and the teacher was Hispanic. We had a wonderful time and boy, could those people rap!

Wisdom

BTW a lovely man to meet, any talk or public appearance is highly recommended!

Communion

In a lot of ways two people echoing each other, Jon Stewart and Tom Lanoye. Maybe because the troubles that their respective countries are facing are quite similar. Maybe the point is to go on, go this one step further - in the legacy of love!





PS: The three gifts of the Holy Spirit are knowledge, understanding and wisdom. The first point is certainly present in a lot of ways today, knowledge reigns supreme, but understanding is already something that baffles and wisdom we can but hope for.

Concept

A Flemish/ Dutch word for 'pattern' is 'monster', nevertheless it also means 'monster'.

So I've been asked for a 'monster' several times.

Canonization

Art could have an impact, it could be provocative, demanding and beautiful. Something to fight about.

In some way the best way to undermine this power is to canonize art. No more argument, no more mental struggle, just dull acceptance.

Monkey Business

"Are monkeys similar to humans because they are so smart; or are monkeys similar to humans because in some ways they are so dumb?"

Paradox

Be not, as is our fangled world, a garment
Nobler than that it covers; let thy effects
So follow, to be most unlike our courtiers,
As good as promise. - Shakespeare, Cymbeline, Act 5, Scene IV

A lot of people do not have any work at all while others are working themselves to death.

Shopping vs Drinking

If you are remaining sober and watch others devote themselves to their obsession I'd rather watch people getting drunk than them indulging in shopping for its own sake.

Decennia ago when I and my friends were not yet legally allowed to drink alcohol, some parents nevertheless provided some beer at a party. Since I was not interested I stayed sober and watched the others get pissed. The first thing I noticed were the intervals between my friends asking me to accompany them to the toilet upstairs were getting shorter. And the other hilarious effect the alcohol was having was that some people got pretty emotional. Especially two of them, a boy and his girlfriend, they were having the blues (German: heulendes Elend/ crying misery), constantly crying and confessing their love to each other.

So S.O.B.!

Depression

As a Rhenish person I surely have no inclination towards depression. Our motto is "Nothing is so bad that it may not be good for something". Yet I remember one instance I caught a definite glimpse of that feeling. A friend of mine made me go into a retail store on its opening day or rather she asked me to accompany her. We had an appointment but there was still some time left. So we went inside.

The place was overcrowded with people, the walls were decorated with mirrors giving the impression that there was an infinte number of goods and then my friend started buying as well. It felt like all the world, at least the part of it visible to me at that moment, was going insane, binge-shopping like there was no tomorrow. Ad nauseam. I felt the urge to scream and run.

Consumption

Why does consumption not satisfy but generate a constant need for more, like an addiction?



Why do we not feel sated/ satt?



I still believe education is the answer but not an education that focuses on the testing knowledge, but one that would encourage imagination and teach basic skills because this would enable one to be creative and there is a lot of satisfaction to be had here. Like imagining what wonderful food one may cook from these vegetables or what to knit, what to sew, what to timber.

Or write a song. "Satisfaction guaranteed."

Whatever

is the colour of your heart? 

And is it possible to think in the colour of your heart?

black and white manner or something else

Like Levinas pointed out two people/ positions are easy to reconcile, the trouble starts when a third person or party appears.

I'm Your Man

Chosen

Work a little more, dig a little deeper, try a little harder - the true elite.


"And best of all is finding a place to be/ in the early days of a better civilization" - Dennis Lee - Civil Elegies

An-mut - Grace

Mut = courage

Odd that these courageous words keep falling down on me at the moment, first Sanft-mut/ gentleness, now the long missed Anmut, which is mentioned by Roberto Calasso regarding Tiepolo's art. Furthermore odd that Giambattista Tiepolo, whom I count among the important painters ever since I first saw one of is paintings, is apparently commonly regarded as a mere vain aesthete. I believe to everybody truly interested in painting, this is a grave mistake.

Translation of an older post

Infatuation

Come and I lead you. I will try to make you see the facts, so that communication and community might become a possibility.

Yet my partner - though oddly stating the same things like me, that is that somebody was showing off - refused to listen to me and his own utterings; or even think about what he was saying. So the conversation remained quite pointless and ended by me stating: What a pity! And left him attacking people he doesn't even know clinging to a faint hope some con artist sold him.

Sorry!

Memories

my wedding dance

Slaap Zacht!

For the comfort so desperately needed in these times, the world has grown a little bit colder, yet "Slaap zacht/Sleep tight!".

Zu-fall - Coincidence

Der Zufall ist das, was mir zu-fällt, fällt wie Solness vom Turm in meinen Schoß, wenn ich es zu-lasse.

The Zufall/ coincidence/ fall-to is something that falls to me, falls like Solness from his tower into my lap, if I tolerate it...and yet it maybe floats in-between, in the co-incidence...or like the leaves from the mulberrytree in the garden.

 

Some interesting coincidences if you're open enough to let them be.

EXLIBRIS

First: The exlibris of Dr P(ieter) Endt, aka Ed Coenraads, fell to me contained in the cheapest copy of 'Der Leibgardist' by Franz Molnar I coud get a hold of. Copies of that play, especially from the 1920s, are very rare because Franz Molnar wasn't much in favour with the Nazis. This copy I got from a Dutch bookshop and it once belonged to Pieter Endt, who translated Nietzsche into Dutch, was an Cabaret artist and wrote a book that is set during the Munich Räterepublik (workers' republic) in 1919.

The second exlibris was even a bigger surprise, it was hidden behind a library card - something that alas left some traces on the item. It was inside a German copy of the play '2x2=5' by Gustav Wied I got from an American second-hand bookshop.

So apparently this book once belonged to Delia Austrian, namesake of the Delia Austrian Medal for the "most distinguished performance of an actor or an actress on the Broadway Stage".

Exlibris

Enim se ipse amor praemium dat

What's Reality Anyway

Or what is fiction in the times of (scripted) reality tv? And are we witnessing a shift in the perception of both?!

Though this whole phenomenon isn't that new, for example there was this German official, who being asked about the fact, that his  surroundings were reminiscient of an operetta, by a Danish journalist, answered: I'm already living in an operetta.

So it will continue to be exciting.

May you live in interesting times.

C'est La Différance

Either you can only love what you understand and/or your love enables you to understand.

Interest without interest.

Modern Art

According to Freddy Mercury one can best compare extravagant modern art to women: You cannot love a woman unless you've tried to understand her.

Me - a woman: I do not understand you and that's why I have to love you.

So Fat!

One of the stars of the 2016 edition of Pukkelpop, 76-year-old André Brasseur.

Communion

This very incredible moment when complete strangers become a community, even in the busy streets of Rome. When we, pilgrims, sing 'Laudato Si' and the Italian by-standers join in, in what is basically and most simply in a sublime sense a song about the beauty of creation.



our daily reminders

Traces

in their translucent quality

That's Punk

Now or Never! There Will Be No Next Time!

Value Is Not the Same as Cost

"As a human being I made a mistake. I ask forgiveness for the damage I've done in this area. For the damage I and thousand others have done. I ask for their forgiveness. I ask the future for forgiveness. Above all the future because it will take years for the forest to recuperate."


BACK TO UTOPIA fragment Alberto regrets from Fabio Wuytack on Vimeo.

I'd actually love to watch this mixture of documentary and fictional story "Back To Utopia" because from what I've seen so far it looks like it is likely to add some dimension to the word "globalisation".

Colour Me

By the Way

O holy Saint Thomas More


BACK TO UTOPIA fragment Fukushima from Fabio Wuytack on Vimeo.

Food For Thought

"Utopia, I know where it is or at least where it isn't."



BACK TO UTOPIA fragment Alex Dillen (Johan Lysen) from Fabio Wuytack on Vimeo.

Conviction

the inner landscape

"I know I can't go wrong...It's not over it's just begun...I never ever gonna let it go." - Hello Joe!

Figure of Speech

On the surface this is a song about a ghost but admittedly - and this was stated by the singer of the band, James de Malplaquet, in Aachen (I was present) - it is a song about "ghosts and"  - dramatic pause - "sex".

What Do I Care

Up to my belly in an early fog - a line I probably misheard but this way I like it much, much better

Essentially art is free as is imagination

Measuring

Het liefste wat ik heb

Het liefste wat ik heb is elf geworden.
Festje. Daarna ging het liefste wat ik heb
naar huis met het liefste wat ik had.
Het kleine meisje met het grote.
Ik met mezelf. Zo vrolijk.

Want het is goed om ooit
iets te hebben gehad.
Het is beter dan nooit
iets te hebben gehad.


The Dearest I Have

The dearest I have has turned eleven.
Party. Afterwards the dearest I have went
home with the dearest I had.
The little girl with the tall.
Me with myself. So happy.

Because it is good to ever
have had something.
It is better than to never
have had something.

Herman de Coninck

Poetry

I'm very grateful to have had the opportunity to see a live performance.

Some Dutch investors were touring what they entitled the 'Russian National Circus' in Germany and as a sort of test run it also stayed in my hometown, which some person who himself also lives near the Dutch border only recently entitled as "Holland South". Already when I got to the local bookstore to buy some tickets, the owner inquired:"So you are also wanting to see Popov?!"

What a poetic clown, just like Jacques Tati!

The True Viking

When choosing to become an actor Max Oppenheimer was compelled by his father, who feared for the family's reputation, to change his name. So as he was well advised to keep his initials Max Openheimer became Max Ophüls. Years later a man called at his house in Vienna, a lawyer from Düsseldorf with a long white beard and spectacles. And this man was utterly convinced that Max must be stemming from the Viking branch of his family, the family Ophüls, and,...

Max Ophüls

as Ophüls would later comment in his autobiography, inspite of his looks.