So what

Romantic? You too?

I know I'm too romantic on this but I would have loved to live in the stone-age. Yesterday I visited with my kids this museum: http://www.historisch-openluchtmuseum-eindhoven.nl/. The kids loved the milling of grain. I was impressed by the smell of woodfire and ingenuity of timber joints.

It must have been a though time. Simple. Though! Minimal energy consumption and a modest attitude to nature. Our species not in the center of creation. A difference but no gap between our species and the other animals. 

Virgil (70-19 BC) 'The Eclogues' (Eclogues 1):

"Yet here, this night, you might repose with me,

On green leaves pillowed: apples ripe have I,

Soft chestnuts, and of curdled milk enow.

And, see, the farm-roof chimneys smoke afar,

And from the hills the shadows lengthening fall!"

I know I'm a dreamer. So what?

P.S. Picture is an impression of the Vlaardingencultuur 3500-2500 BC

Blip Nation Interview. Meet JeanD99

Me being interviewed by Pete Dulin for Blip Nation.

http://blip.fm/JeanD99

Blipper since: August 11, 2009

Pete Dulin: What part of the world do you live in? 
JeanD99: The Netherlands

Dulin: What artist or band would you most like to have dinner with? What's the first thing you'd ask?

JeanD99; Kate Bush. I would love to have dinner with Kate Bush. Look at her the way she drinks, talks and laughs. Look in her eyes. My first serious question would be "Is Your CD 'Aerial' an Invitation to be Nondualistic? Are You a Mystic?" More: http://jeand99.blogspot.com/2009/07/kate-bush-mystic-on-aerial-inventation.html

Dulin: Do you remember the first music you ever purchased? What was it? Format (record, tape, CD, mp3)? Why did you buy it? 

JeanD99: Record by Creedence Clearwater Revival/ Creedence Gold. I guess because I heard them on the radio back then.

Dulin: What music knowledge would you like to pass on to your children?

JeanD99: Just follow your heart. Open your ears. Keep your wonderment. Try every now and then to listen to music you're not attracted to directly. In others words: stay away from the button [Next] or [ New]. 

Dulin: What song reminds you of being in love? Of being heartbroken?

JeanD99:  

• The Style Council/ You're The Best Thing
• Kate Bush/ Feel It
• Maria Mena/ Just Hold Me
• Ana Carolina/ Mais Que Isso
• Cristina Branco/ A Uma Princesa Distante
• Adele/ Chasing Pavements

Dulin: Tell us about something you lost that was important to you. What would you give to have it back?

JeanD99: What I lost is something that can't be given back to me. For a long time music was just music for me. Nothing to do with politics and history. At the end of the '80 I realized in Jeruzalem that music is always connected to history. Music is never 'Just music'. More: http://jeand99.blogspot.com/2010/07/music-and-burden-of-history.html

Dulin: If you could blip one song that could reach everyone on the planet, what would you choose?

JeanD99: Ana Carolina/ Confesso. This song is so painfully honest and true. It remembers us that we all have our doubts and insecurities, tears and fears. It's about gaining love or may be losing it.

Dulin: If you could direct a video for an artist, who would it be? For what song? What style/type of video would it be conceptually?
JeanD99: Direct a video for Bruna Caram/ Cuide-se Bem. Bruna as a Teenager traveling around the world and every time (nearly) escaping from the dangers of life. Movie in black. Only Bruna in colour.

Dulin: If you lived apart from your family for a year in another country with no visits allowed, then what would you like to receive from them in a care package each month?

JeanD99: Books. A couple of books.

Dulin: If you were on a world tour as a Blip.FM DJ and ambassador, what three countries or cities would you visit first? What DJs would you like to meet?

JeanD99: @sedefic and @34SEB in Turkey

@accdias @abarbosa @danniaranda @Caco and @anjim in Brasil  

@adelou in Guatemala

Dulin: Imagine you are on a reality show where you must sing karaoke to an audience of friends and family. The prize is $1 million (US) that you can keep or donate to charity. What song would you sing?
JeanD99: Beatles/ Norwegian Wood

Dulin: If you could blip a song now, as if it were from the future, and it would be sent to yourself when you were a kid, then what song would you blip?

JeanD99: Sade/ Nothing Can Come Between Us. I discovered Sade last year. I knew a couple of her songs but in a way I missed her as a person and musician in the past. She is fantastic!

Dulin: Pick one song that encapsulates your personality, and explain why.

JeanD99: Kate Bush/ Symphony in Blue. It connects me as individual 'homo sapiens' with the rest of our species. 
Lyrics (quote) 

"I see myself suddenly
On the piano, as a melody.
My terrible fear of dying
No longer plays with me,
for now I know that I'm needed
For the symphony." 

Dulin: What artists/releases are you excited about for 2011?
JeanD99: I'm excited about the Director's Cut of old Kate Bush songs. Release in 2011?

Dulin: Think of another Blip.FM DJ. You don’t have to reveal who it is. What question would you most like to ask him or her?
JeanD99: Strange. I always ask to other BlipFM DJ what I want to ask. I've no secrets or hidden questions.

Dulin: What artists and/or songs would you want to hear on the soundtrack of your life?
JeanD99: 20 years ago I made a tape for my future funeral. Last year I had it in my hands again. It was so outdated. What I am trying to say is this: ask me again a couple of weeks before I die. It's a list that keeps on changing. Right now I want to "hear" only one song:

Spinvis/ Voor ik Vergeet. It's a song in Dutch about things "he" doesn't want to forget right now. Before it's definitively forgotten.   

Dulin: What influences your blip picks? Mood, nostalgia, new artist/song, social interaction, or other factors?
JeanD99: Biggest influence is Mood. Things I hear on radio while driving to and from work. Things I read in tweets, books and  papers. Music I hear on BlipFM, YouTube and Aweditorium. I don't care if the music is old or new, or hot or not. 
I love to listen to music my friends like. Stick to maximum 40-60  'Favorite DJs'. I like a quiet timeline and check their music out every now and then. I would not be able to listen and talk to them if I have more favorite DJs.

Dulin: What prompted you to join Blip.fm?
JeanD99: Via Twitter I joined BlipFM. I wanted to hear music I would not listen to otherwise. I wanted to meet people from other countries. Via BlipFM I discovered 'Música Popular Brasileira' (MPB). It opened a new world for me. So many beautiful artists and songs. I like easy listening music. Mellow. Lounge. A good voice with a piano or a guitar is enough for me. Keep it simple.  

Dulin: Any other thoughts to share?
JeanD99: I still buy CD's. I know I shouldn't have to but I like albums of artists as a total concept. An album is more than collection of 10-15 songs. I like to check out the lyrics, pictures and drawings of CD-booklets. Puzzling and wondering. And listening. Checking out what the music does to me.

List 'How To Treat Sour?' First draft

Lists. All of us are surrounded by lists. Or is it me? Public lists. Lists in our mind. List of dreams. List of fears. List of items that are important today. Other peoples lists. Lists of lists. A list where I wrote down "check out the name of the science that has 'lists' a it's subject".

The sweet in life is never a constraint. Or is it? Ever read Goldratt's 'Theory of constraints'? This morning I was thinking about the 'ways' (remember it's an image) we can treat the sour parts in our life. My list - first draft:

• Deny it
• Grow up! Treat it like stuff of kids
• Change point of view. It's not sour, it's sweet too
• Pick another image. It's not a constraint, it's a gift/ love/ challenge/ transition
• Face it
• After rain there will be sunshine. After sunshine rain
• Everything passes
• Ignore it
• Don't talk about it
• Get distracted when it pops up
• Share it. Communicate about it with others
• Online in a public blog
• Face-to-face with other(s)
• Talk about it with yourselves in a private diary
• Chew and ruminate/ puzzle on it
• ... - to be continued

Wikipedia I Love You

Or not? Wikipedia is the real revolution in our time and age. What do you think?

A few days ago I finished reading @JaneFriedman' 'The Future Of Publishing: Enigma Variations'. It's an ebook that made me smile. Lovely to read. I became quickly aware that I'm very, very fond of Wikipedia. According to me it's the real revolution of our digital era.

Revolutions connected to books:

• 3,000 BC species 'homo sapiens' learned writing [source]
• 800 BC Homer wrote down the stories of an oral tradition in a book [source]
• 15th century more efficient book printing [source]
• present time digital revolution [source]

I learned nothing new in Jane's book. (Although she gave me views on things I hadn't thought of before.) Not because I know everything ;) but because it seems a natural thing to me that the publishing business is changing. The power of writers, readers, publishers and critics is being shaken up. Remember this. Jobs come and go. When we look back in history we find out that jobs are like a river. The exact definition on what to do (and don't) is never the same. Never! Water floats and floats. The #farmer of today is not the same as the farmer 50, 100, 500 or 1,000 or  10,000 years ago. 

Books made it possible for us to transcend our oral tradition. It was a prerequisite for science. It made us smarter. Much smarter. It gave us doctors who can cure patients. It gave us TV and social media. It connected everyone of us on planet Earth 24/7. It made it possible that you can read these lines now.

What will the digital revolution bring us? Are we able to "see" that now? 

What I see now is this: books made it possible to remember what was said in the oral tradition. It made it possible to chew and ruminate on ideas and assumptions. It made us smarter. To be more exact: it made some of us smarter. Those who had access to books. 

The digital revolution will bring all our books online. It will bring all our information and knowledge online. Condensed in Wikipedia. The scholar of today is not a male who ruminated everything on a given subject. Today all of us are scholars. Partly scholars. Most of the time taking information. Only sometimes adding information on Wikipedia.

Wikipedia makes all of us smarter. Much smarter. To be more exact: it makes all of us smarter who have access to Wikipedia. I don't trust in GAAd. I trust on Wikipedia.

P.S. Real book reviews on Jane's book: eCapris and Christina Katz

Lost world: land as fuel and it's house as engine

Land. Country houses. Land as fuel and it's house as engine. This world is gone. Better: this world is gone in Western Europe.

I'm fascinated by country houses. I love to look at them. Just like I love to look at an old woman. The grey hair. Mysterious eyes. Wrinkles. Guess how she looked like in her twenties. Curious for her tears, fears, good and bad days, her personal history and her memories. Wondering what secrets she has and never will share with anyone. more

Quote - Mark Girouard, Life in the English country house (1978) p. 2-3:

"For many centuries the ownership of land was not just the main but the only sure basis of power. (...) From the Middle Ages until the nineteenth century anyone who had made money by any means, and was ambitious for himself and his family, automatically invested in a country estate.

Land, however, was little use without one or more houses on it. Land provided the fuel, a country house was the engine which made it effective. It archived this in a number of ways. It was the headquarters from which land was administered and power organized. It was a show-case, in which to exhibit and entertain supporters and good connections. In early days it contained a potential fighting force. It was an image-maker, which provided an aura of glamour, mystery or success around it's owner. It was visible evidence of his wealth. It showed his credentials - even if the credentials were sometimes faked. Trophies in the hall, coats of arms over the chimney-pieces, books in the library and temples in the park could suggest that he was discriminating, intelligent, bred to rule and brave."

These days country houses are the private seats of rich and famous people. No longer an engine. A place where families live their private life behind walls. Not open to the world and radiating it's power but show the world it's back.

P.s. My blog 'History of castles. Development in 4 pictures'.
P.s.s. Picture is from Belton House.