The Dynamitron Tandem Laboratorium

this entry is especially for those
who nudgenudged me
to enter something
even if there are matches between the old eyelids to keep them open
and the music playing is really disliked now..

well this was another vikend in boxum,
a really really nice ugly town at the border of
...you can see the dutch mountains
and really friendly people.

but the best thing is...
you dont have to see friendly people and mountains,
because you can walk for hours and hours and hours
without meeting someone....
walking without noticing where you actually are
it's perfection!
come to Bochum!
City of God!!

or...


no! don't come here!!
shhhht!
or..

come here, you chosen few, but dont tell anybody!
let's keep our litte secret
in those secret little boxes
and enjoy the forests and rivers and lakes and ponds
and the pond life, and the furnaces and bassins.
and of course
the Dynamitron Tandem Laboratorium

really -there is this sign, saying
"this way to the Dynamitron Tandem Laboratorium"
this utterly fascinated me as a child.

until this day, i havent found out what it actually is
i could do a noodle search, and find out.
but i won't.
and if someone would tell me, he won't live very long after
he won't live to tell the tale how another childhood mystery kicks the bucket

So the Fandorin enjoyed his little trip to Bochum
and for his arrival, the local soccer team destroyed some other team on Bochum lawn
and the sun was shining
and spring said hello
and it was warm, and the birches were scenting
and i suspected...
...it was all arranged especially for me..
and i felt a bit like Kim Jong Il, the ugly Northern Korean weirdo today.

everything in its place
just one piece missing in that improbably happy-day puzzle.

this is our contest -

if you can guess what was missing, you'll make a fortune
or not.

and i will go shleep, for i dont have much time!

technology fighting relevance

The Banquet Tears

Dug out Roger Shattuck's "Banquet Years", a terribly smart examination of that certain period we remember as the "Belle Epoque". Excess, ciggies, beautiful music, bearded men in striped swimsuits. Big moustaches. Weird inventions. Creepy bicycles. Wealthy sewing machine makers ordering harpsichord concertos for private puppet stages. As the 20th century grew colder, the moustaches, bikes, Hulots, hopelessly beautiful music went away, indignant, ironically, with a few raised eyebrows. We can find traces of these times on old records.

And just today I rediscovered some ancient songs by Edith Piaf

No, i won't mention "Je ne regrette rien" and other Big Pop Hits by this distinctive french singer (i honestly cannot stand them). Right now, I'm sitting in the semi-dark, it's one of these days when I'm terribly sad and I don't know why. I'm resisting to drown in a bottle of red wine. I'm just sitting, staring into the nothingness, while listening to early recordings of Edith Piaf.

It's jazz, very very blue jazz, combined with a hint of Belle Epoque funfair music. What is the opposite of funfair? sadfair? This music was recorded when Ravel was still alive, when WWII hadnt been unleashed.... and there is this song, "Mon Légionnaire", which happens to be the SADDEST song ever written, dramatic minor key, always tipping over to the major realm, thus tearing apart the soul of that lady.

she is singing about a one night stand with a soldier who "was small, beautiful and smelled wonderfully like the warm sand" ("sentait bon le sable chaud"), and she met him only once; in the second verse she is singing about the same soldier, who was "small beautiful, and they sent him under the warm sand" ("...mettait sous le sable chaud").

the first verse is a woman deeply in love, the second verse reflects relentless weeping, with resignation and dignity. and altogether, this is genius, and really moves me.

This is the one song that always makes me cry when I don't fight it. Tonight, I won't.