Soundtrack of my life
.
Because of a copyright dilemma there is no longer any music on this site. As soon as this is sorted out, this blog will have a soundtrack again.
Benny Vreden
Published: 2010-02-08 21:23:55
One of the subjects in ”De muzikale verleiding” that Dolf Hell and I didn’t really worked out in the way we would liked to have done, is how things exactly went in soccer stadiums. We knew that Benny Vreden was the first to make records with advertisement songs especially for playing in soccer stadiums, but we could not find much information on this.
Last week Pim Reinders, the man who runs Reclame Arsenaal and who was the motor behind ”De muzikale verleiding””, announced that Reclame Arsenaal has now 75.000 pages from Dutch advertising magazines available on line. (Here.) I just spend an hour searching for things that interest me, but 75.000 pages is a lot and I need more time to get an idea of what these 75.000 pages have to offer for me.
Pim sent me an article that Frans van Lier has written in 1961 for ”Ariadne” about the advertisement records that Benny Vreden has made for soccer stadiums. It would have been nice if we had this info a year earlier, but I am happy to have it anyway.
Here is the Heineken song mentioned in the article.
Actually, there are six short songs on the record, all with the same melody but with different lyrics:
.
King
Published: 2010-02-07 21:20:39
Here is what arrived with the mail today:
Marthy Coumans sent it to me, saying that he was sure that nobody else on this planet who would appreciate this 45.
Well, he apparently has no idea what kind of people read this blog.
Herë is Marc Verhaegen with ”I feel me a king”:
.
Terence McKenna
Published: 2010-02-06 22:08:53
Terence McKenna has been of enormous influence on my thinking. But most of this happened long before I started writing this blog, so his name is rarely mentioned here. I have been trying to draw a portrait of him, but until yesterday, the results weren’t worth showing. Yesterday I got the idea to “write” his hair:
While doing a recent Net search on Terence McKenna (if there is ever a dead person going to show up as a digital ghost it will be Terence McKenna!) I found this real cool portrait drawn of him by Robert Venosa:
I still haven’t found the recordings of him reading his book “True Hallucinations”??. I once read that these recordings do exist.
Apart from his eloquence, his brilliant and original ideas, his dedication to his quest, I probably was most of all touched by his complete honesty. And when he knew he was going to die, he showed some rare courage. Here is an interview that was done with him just before he died:
.
Necropihila (part 2)
Published: 2010-02-05 21:43:29
For quite a while I have an interest in maps from an artistic viewpoint. I often small reproductions of maps in magazine or newspapers that appear to me as interesting abstract artworks. I have not yet an idea what to do with this, but is sure is on my list of things-to-do. Here are some examples of such images that I cut out of a magazine yesterday:
Although I have little to no interest in road maps (I prefer to get lost), I do have a fascination for imaginary maps and especially for of maps-of-the-mind. Today I have no time, but I will sure come back to this subject later!
Mark Reeve once sent me photocopies of a great article on a society that did explorations of cities using the maps of other cities. You can imagine how this works: it is a much better way to get to learn a city than using the right map. I couldn’t find the article, but I will post it when it shows up.
To prove that I try to keep my promises, is here is something else that I promised to post, the song about necrophilia, sung by Adele Bloemendaal and written by Hans Dorrestein, ”De kerkhofganger”. It from the LP ”Adele’s keus”, which is one of her best LP’s ever. I don’t think this song will have gotten a lot of air play:
.
iPad
Published: 2010-02-04 21:25:23
Some time ago I wrote about my disappointment with the e-readers that are on the market: for around 200 euros you get a machine that has no colour, can read no comics and no extra functions. So, when a few days ago Steve Jobs presented the iPad for Apple, I got several mails from people about this gadget.
I have no idea if this is what I want, but it sure looks much better than all the other e-readers I have seen so farso far. (Although Rob sent me a link to another e-reader that I would like to hold in my hand. I am afraid I cannot give you that link here and now, but I will come back to that later.)
Here is a portrait that I made of Steve Jobs:
Some years ago (six?) I got one of these white 30gb iPods as a present, for a painting job that I did for somebody. He bought it for me in New York, when these things were not yet available in Holland. I hardly used it, apart from using it as a external hard disc for the old computer that I used back then. I prefer a simple life, with as little as machines as possible. Before I buy an iPad or another e-reader, I must be sure that it can do what I would like to do with it. And basically I want to listen to podcasts, read blogs, e-zines and e-books while I am on a train. But i can very well do without, so I am not in a hurry.
Here is another 45 from the pile that Milan Hulsing sent me some weeks ago. It is a promo record for ”Tunnelvision”
“Tunnelvision” apparently was comedy movie, made in 1976. But considering what happened after 1976 this record sounds more like a prophecy:
More portraits
Published: 2010-02-03 21:41:38
I try to make one portrait each day. And since I have no time to write a long story, here are the three most recent ones:
Gurdijeff:
Van Gogh:
Leo Fuld:
Willem Frederik Hermans:
Gerard Depardieu:
I tend to make drawings of people that really mean something to me. But that makes it easy. It is far more difficult to make a loving portrait of somebody that I don’t like or that I have no interest in. If I would ever make portraits as a job, I should be able to do that. But I don’t think I want that. I did about six or seven portraits of people that I know personally and they all disliked the result. So, from now on I only draw people that are no longer alive or not part of my direct world.
Here are some portraits that I drew from pictures in newspapers or magazines:
I will not bother with my attempts to learn how to draw portraits for ever. But at this moment it is about all what I have to share with you.
Ray Kurzweil
Published: 2010-02-02 21:58:03
Tineke sent me a DVD with the interview that Raoul Heertje did with Ray Kurzweil for the television show “Wintergasten” about three weeks ago. I watched it a few days ago and still wonder what to think of it.
Ray Kurzweil frequently uses the word “transcendent” in the interview. He means the overcoming of physical limitations. He is apparently very good at this: he has done an incredible set of inventions: software and hardware that translates texts into speech, the flatbed scanner, a synthesizer and much more. But I cannot help thinking that his ideas about immortality are wrong. Luckily Raoul Heertje asked many of the questions that came to my mind, so it became clear that Ray Kurzweil really believes what he is saying. The absence of doubt always raises my own doubts.
It is interesting that the word “transcendence” is also uses in esoterics. But here it means overcoming psychological limitations. Basically the core message of esoterics is that there are no problems that have to be solved; the only real solution is to see that “problems”” are Life’s “solutions”. Ray Kurzweil seems to think that Life is hostile to humans, and I don’t see that. Many “problems” can be “solved” by stopping to create them ,or by taking away the causes. The idea that all solutions have to come from techniques and machines seems pretty weird to me. And especially when it comes to death and immortality I cannot help thinking that his ideas are fundamentally wrong. I have believed some of them for many years, but now I think that what I have already said: humans tend to want solutions for problems that are actually Life’s solutions to make Life possible at all.
It is always funny to hear myself argue with people like Ray Kurzweil. I mean, it is clear that we don’t really play in the same league. I have still some time left, but I don’t think I will ever invent anything like he did. So everything I say is said with high respect, let that be clear.
Red book
Published: 2010-02-01 12:53:38
At the moment I am reading this book:
It is an biography on Carl Gustav Jung, written by Barbara Hannah, who was a student of him.
I knew not very much of the life and work of Jung, and although I am only halfway, I was fascinated from the beginning of this book. Jung should be in my top ten, together with people like Gurdijeff, Ouspensky, Steiner, Crowley and McKenna.
In our culture the inner world is usually not regarded as real. And if people do see the inner realm as real, they usually don’t see it very clearly or translate their insights into words that seem nonsense to me. I have read hundreds of books on the inner realms and I think that only a few are worth remembering.
When I did a Google search on Carl Gustav Jung I found out that in 2009 a strange book was published, called ”The red book”. Until it was published last year only a handful of people had seen it, because the Jung family didn’t want to have this material published. I have only seen pages on the Net, and the book (published as a facsimile) costs 155 euro, which is a bit beyond my budget. (I guess that there will be a cheaper edition available in time and I am not in a hurry.) Jung himself called the manuscript ”Liber novus”. It is a alchemistic diary, an exploration of the deeper layers of his psyche. The same layers where many people, like Adolf Wolfli, got lost l and stuck.
Here are some of the over 200 pages of Jung’s ”Red book”:
For anybody who has ever explored the inner realms these pages will be very familiar, even if you don’t read the text.
As I see it, all art, all ideas, all inventions and all dreams are products of something that is Life itself. It lives both inside us and outside us: it literally is everything there is. What is called the ego or personality is actually a defense against the overload of Life, which is constantly flooding our system both from the inside and outside. Such a defense mechanism would not be a problem if there was no identification with this ego/prisonality. In our culture most people seem to think that they ARE their defense mechanism against Life, which obviously can never be true, of course.
But it is better to read Jung or Ouspensky on these matters, I am only trying to summarise what they say, and they say it much better.
Jung made notes of every single step along his way in getting to grips with his ego, Life and their relation. Obviously, these writings are full of guessings, wrong theories and wrong interpretations. But diaries like these are maps of the mind and extremely helpful for others like me, who try to find their way in the inner realms too. What good are the conclusions that people like Jung made at the end of his journey if I don’t know how he came at them?
As I understand it, Carl Gustav Jung tried to make a map of his own psyche, so that he could describe a way for everybody to find God within her/himself. Most of the people who tried this, came up with maps that look like the works of Adolf Wolfli. I don’t know how many people found God within themselves with the help of the work of Jung. There are unfortunately no statistics for this.
Adam Kurtz
Published: 2010-01-31 21:37:22
Adam Kurtz’ video of the song about ”wrought iron””, that I shared with you yesterday, had only 11 hits when I saw it. So, this is a way to find out how many people read this blog. Of course, I will twitter the results to all my Facebook friends!
In case the song becomes a big hit, I made a design for the gate of Adam Kurtz’ new house:
Adam Kurtz offers his CD ”Open road” for free on his Myspace page. If you have the time, please listen to
Sleep walking, that is from that CD. Great lyrics!
.
And finally, here is a portrait of the man:
Wrought iron
Published: 2010-01-30 14:48:17
I told Erk Willemsen that I still didn’t see much use for me to be active on Facebook. He is one of my most active Facebooks friends. He said that maybe I should post on Facebook what I write on my blog. I had to think about it before I burst out into laughter.
Let’s say that I would actually do that. After I finish the story that you are now reading, I write about it on Facebook. Something like: ” I just posted a story on Facebook my blog, that I wrote after I had a conversation about Facebook with Erk, etcetera.” Next I twitter that I have posted something on Facebook. And to be sure that I get attention, I sent out text messages to all my friends to check what I have just twittered.
It seems all to be about getting attention. I don’t know if I want that. I think that everybody who is interested in the subjects that I write about in this blog can easily find it. Why would I do extra efforts to get people to visit my blog? I cannot see what that would bring me. If there is anything that I would like to have, it is more peace of mind, more love for the people that I know, more clarity, more inspiration. That will not come from outside, and definitely not from anything I do on blogs or Facebook.
Anyway, here are some more ”wrought iron” designs, as some readers of this blog pointed me out. I have found an easy way to make them look a bit better.
Rina:
Geen fietsen plaatsen:
Love:
Rock and roll:
Fools gold:
Ron and Dorothy:
Po(ezen)Kra(nt):
Blissings:
Milan:
Kudos!:
On YouTube is a song by Adam Kurtz called ”Wrought iron”. And to my suprise it is a nice song:
Doodling
Published: 2010-01-29 14:36:28
While listening to sounds from the Ubuweb I did some drawing. Here is a logo for a television station of a school friend of our ten year old daughter:
I also made some portraits of people that I know. Here is Ron Kane:
And here is Loz as he somewhat looked in 1995:
And here is a text that I hand lettered because I liked it:
And here is random track form the Ubuweb: “Ode auf N” by Ernst Jandl:
Howard Storm
Published: 2010-01-29 04:37:20
Here is part 1 of an interview that Art Bell did with Howard Storm. There are 11 more parts of this interview on YouTube in case this is of your interest.
.
I will spare you my comments, because I wouldn’t share this information with you if I wasn’t at least for a large part down with it.
Appels
Published: 2010-01-27 17:17:05
As a soccer player I walked the same grass as the brother of Karel Appel. This must be at least 20 years ago, when mister Appel was referee in Amsterdam. I cannot remember that he ever was referee in a game for our team, but I do remember seeing him walking in the field. He was regarded a bit of an oddball and I remember that he walked as if he had a small handicap of some kind. Back then I had little to no interest in the art of his brother, but much later I realised that this is what Amsterdam is all about. And soccer. Karel Appel may be famous, but he has brother who was a referee for amateur soccer teams, and all he got was a cup of coffee and a lot of critique.
I was reminded of this when I stumbled upon Ubuweb, where I saw some great films, like the movie that Ed van der Elsken made of Karel Appel.
Here is a direct link. Part of the soundtrack of this music was used on the LP compilation ”Waterpipes and dykes”. For a long time his LP “Musique barbare” has been on my virtual want list, so i was very happy to discover that the LP is on Ubuweb. And so much more art related music! I downladed enough for one mp3 CD, but that is not a fraction of what there is to be heard.
I wonder how the copyrights are dealt with on this site. These sounds, interviews and music are of course not of interest for the organisations that make money out of music, but for people like me, this is an incredible treasure trove. For example: even the Salvador Dali record is in the archive.
And here are some other movies on Ubuweb that may be worth your attention:
Ken Nordine
Of course, I have not 1% of what is offered on Ubuweb, so if anybody has any tips, I would certainly not mind getting them.
Sex
Published: 2010-01-26 10:32:49
There are many important issues that have not been mentioned in this blog yet. The reason is not only that I tend to indulge in fringe topics, but also that I hesitate to write about certain subjects. Like sex for example.
I have been deeply interested in some ideas that I got from (books written by) Gurdijeff. He uses models that I have never seen anywhere else. There is quite some discussion going on on where he got these ideas from, but even if he made them all up, which I think, the fact is that they are very useful to understand how certain things work. A good example is the model of the different functions that we have.
Human beings have several functions, that can be seen as having a hierarchic order. All functions need energy to work. That is why dead people do not function very well. Energy is first used for instinct and internal body movements. If there is energy left, it is used for physical movement, which include talking. On the next level energy produces thoughts, and after that you get emotions. Healthy people have enough energy to function on all these levels, but often things go wrong in the proces.
The energy used for lower functions is not the same as the energy used for higher functions. Gurdijeff said that the energy has to be transformed before it can be used for a higher function. It would take too long to explain what this means or how it works, but it helps to see the bodymind as a machine. The machinery for producing emotions is more subtle than the machinery that makes us move, and so it uses finer energy. The word “fine” has these two meanings, so it doesn’t have to be expained any further.
People that have no idea how their system works, tend to use lower energy for higher functions. That causes the machinery of the higher functions to run amok. You cannot think straight with the crude energy that is meant for physical movement. Also, when you think too much, you have no energy left for emotions. It is that simple.
But a bigger problem is that there is one other function in the bodymind system, that is rather difficult to handle: the sex function. Everybody knows how difficult it is to think or feel straight when the system is sexed up. Most people use sex to get rid of this energy.
But the trick is that energy not used for a lower function can be transformed in energy for a higher function. The way this is done is by simply letting it happen, it is a natural proces. But letting the proces happen is not as easy as it sounds, as everybody will know from experience. If you don’t know how it works, the build up of energy will feel uncomfortable. If there is a surplus of energy, most people will start to move to get rid of it. And if that doesn’t work, masturbating, emotional outbursts and talking is the usual way to get rid of energy.
The model is not yet complete: the bodymind system has two more functions, which Gurdijeff called “higher emotions” and “higher thoughts”. But I would prefer to call them intuition and insight. If the energy is not wasted on lower functions and if one can stand the process of transformation, the two higher functions start to produce intuition and insights.
The five lower functions are personal, individual. The two higher centres are not: they are unpersonal, meaning that the intuition and insights cannot be said to come from you. Real Life begins when the two higher functions are operative. The five functions of the personality feel like a prison, they are not in touch with Real Life.
This is a very short version of very big idea. But there has been said, written and sung a lot about this idea. One of my favourite sings is one by Robbie Williams, who expresses the viewpoint of somebody who has serious difficulties transforming energy at the sex level:
Models are not how things really are, they only help to understand how things really are. So this model of the way bodymind systems work should not become a point of discussion. It is just an idea. I know that there many altenative ideas that deal with these matters. Kundalini, chakra’s, ascension, Jacob’s ladder, serpent power, praying, all these words are used to shed some light on the workings of the bodymind. But i think it is basically very simple, and you do not need all these words to describe it. Just listen to Robbie Williams! Here is a song in which he desribes the viewpoint of a bondymind in which two higher functions began running, but not yet in full effect.
Smeedijzer
Published: 2010-01-25 01:00:00
I have an interest in “smeedijzer” designs. (Sorry, I don’t know the English word.) When we were in Lissabon last summer, I have seen some very beautiful examples, but I was there only for a day and didn’t make any photo’s. I hoped to find a book about it, but I didn’t. But last week I found this book:
It is not the book that I hoped for, but there are some beautiful designs in it. Here is just one random example:
I wanted for a long time to do something with these designs, but apart from piles of useless sketches of possible patterns in the traditional style, no idea came to my mind. Until a few days ago, when I started to incorporate letters in the designs. Next I made designs with only letters.
Not all words drawn/written in this way are very well readable, like this ”Showcase”:
After a while I noticed that the designs look better when there is a frame around them.
Of course, the readability depends on the words used. This sentence is probably beyond communication:
This is one of my favourites:
Short names work out best:
Of course I made CD cover in this style (but there is no CD yet):
If anybody wants her or his name made into a “smeedijzer” fence design, just ask.
