June 22, 2006
Another suitcase
Yet another suitcase can be found at Tulse Luper Journey.
Investigate the 20th century through Tulse Lupers life (about).
Set against the background of 20th century history, Tulses journey through life reads as a personal, subjective history of events and developments that shaped the world as we know it.
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February 14, 2006
Oops
Hey wait a minute, is it really Valentine's today?
Oops.
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January 12, 2006
Give to radio paradise
Dear KG,
We received your contribution of $25.00 to Radio Paradise.
Thank you so much for your support of the station - we definitely appreciate it!
Our best...
Rebecca & Bill
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November 11, 2005
Deep throat
When the film 'Deep Throat' came out, I must confess that I was a little disappointed. I had collected up enough courage and finally went to see it with my SAE fraternity brothers pushing each other nervously like a bunch of macho twits. I even had my leather cowboy hat and sunglasses on as part of the erotic celebration of boys coming of age in the seventies. And don't forget the fifth of good old Jim Beam whose purpose was to make things better than they really were or seemed.
Like we really knew what we were going to see. Here we were a bunch of horny, innocent kids who for the most part were about to see for the first time the human sexual act in person. Well, on the screen that is, and surrounded by hundreds of other screaming students rooting loudly.
They referred to it not as pornography but rather 'porn chic' which sounded like a cultural event. Blown out of proportion (sorry about the pun). So you see, since it had to do with something cultural, it was alright for the university to sponsor the film during the weekly Sunday evening flicks in the Hoover Auditorium.
The quality was poor, the so-called humor was lousy, and the actual acts were not shocking but demeaning. During the whole film, while the crowd was ranting and raving like maniacs, I couldn't stop feeling sorry for Linda Lovelace. She seemed to me like such a nice person who had innocently been entrapped into such craziness.
She who by the way died in a traffic accident in 2002, not to be forgotten but remembered for something she really never wanted to be remebered by.
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September 6, 2005
Good-bye Gilligan
Can you belive that Gilligan passed away today? Poor Bob Denver was only seventy years old. As a kid I must have watched Gilligan's Island about a million times. Good-bye Gilligan, we will all miss you and look forward to the reruns.
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January 22, 2005
Communication is fruitless
Someone told me the other day in passing that the noble pursuit of perfect communication is in fact a fruitless endeavor.
Accepting the inherent limitations of verbal contact, one must realize that probably no more than thirty per cent of the original information arrives as intended. Usually the percentage is much less than this.
A much better approach would be to communicate as if communication is (almost) impossible. This is more realistic...
Maybe that is an exaggeration, but realizing that what you are saying is not necessarily what they are hearing is a healthy check on yourself.
I wonder how much of this message got across to the reader.
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December 25, 2004
Holiday spirit
Hey wait a minute. I shouldn't be sitting here behind the computer now.
Time to go downstairs again and be social. There's nothing better then fostering the holiday spirit. Besides, there are too many tasty treats down there just waiting for me to enjoy, not to mention those family members who deserve my attention and caring.
Whatever, I send a very merry Christmas greetings to all those who just might be reading this today.
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December 17, 2004
Ideal tree
If you have never seen a perfectly symmetrical cone of a Christmas tree, then perhaps you should drop by our house.
At first glance you would think it is a real tree, but I am telling you now that it is artificial.
Just measure the angle that the sloping side of the tree makes between the floor and the peak, and then compare this value to the angle on the other side.
They are exactly the same value.
In order to cover up this deception, we attempted to distribute the ornaments in a completely random way. This turned out so perfectly random that the casual observer might think that each and every item was placed at exactly the right position and orientation in relation to the other glittering objects.
The holiday season has become overly predictable in more ways than one. Human nature makes it that way but at the same time tries not to impose too much order.
From order comes chaos, and even the most random chaos portrays a predictable pattern in one way or other.
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October 16, 2004
Greetings and vegetables
In Holland it is traditional when parting that you tell the person you are leaving to give his family and friends your greetings.
In Dutch they say 'groeten' which means greetings. Doe maar de groeten...
For some reason, even after all these years, I still have the (subconscious) tendency to say instead 'groenten' which means vegetables. Doe maar de groenten...
Such a subtle variation (notice the extra letter 'e' that somehow got stuck in there) can make all the difference in the world.
It must be that overly gutteral and nearly impossible to pronounce 'g' immediately followed by the rolling 'r' which throws me off.
Vegetables, I mean greetings, to all.
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October 14, 2004
Educated folks
While rummaging through my Stanford class of 1979 book for the 25th reunion, I was surprised to discover how successful all these so-called graduates had become in life.
Everyone is smiling, they have raised wonderful families, and having travelled at least three times around the world is about the average.
Perhaps these educated folks still need an extra half lifetime ahead in order to realize that there is much more to life.
What it seems and what it is are two different matters.
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September 10, 2004
Figures in a dream-play
One of the reasons J.G. Ballard is one of my favorite authors is because of creative sentences like this:
"Together they seemed like figures in a dream-play, trying to remind me of memories I could never recover." - Cocaine Nights (chapter four)
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December 12, 2003
Kubrick 2001
This has to be one of the most impressive pieces of multimedia technology I've seen in a long time. It's impressive, dramatic and deeply philosophical.
Ever wondered what 2001 was "really" about?
If you have the latest Flash plugin and a relatively fast Internet connection, then check it out for yourself at: Kubrick 2001.
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November 12, 2003
Temple of longing
Sure it seems to represent a bunch of buildings of various shapes and configurations. Notice how the arrows seem to be pointing somewhere, but not really anywhere special. Various directions to the right and to the left but all of them aiming upwards. At the top of the drawing, the sun and the moon are prominent, but not overly so. Some might say that the tallness exudes some form of erotic motion, that being the longing part of the painting. But I am not so sure that I agree. It is not an exaggerated form of longing in the physical sense of things, but rather a slightly spiritual inclination. Maybe even a soft mixture of the body and the mind melting into each other. Note the yellowish and dreamy colors. That reddish fog smeared across the bottom of the scene. A longing in the religious manner which forms the platform, the structure, those pointing buildings, which define our very nature. In some ways not directly visible, but in a creative urge to attempt to define and/or describe that which does not lend itself very easily to such a process. Just a bunch of buildings around a temple and that's all.
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September 30, 2002
Upside down
There is this wonderful painting to which I have always felt a special intuitive attraction, and it has been hanging in our house since the first day we moved here. Everyone says the same thing the first time they see it. Politely, as if they are knowledgeable and I am a sorry ignoramus they tell me, "I think you hung that painting upside down." Whenever I try to explain to them that that is how it is supposed to be, that in fact the title of this famous work by Joan Miro is called "Upside Down Figures" they just shake their heads back and forth as if I am crazy. Strange how people often think that they know things better while at the same time they are being limited in their openness for new and creative ideas. Too bad for them. I will leave the painting just as it is and was always meant to be.
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