Music of the Spheres

A beautiful think link from the Arlington Institute.


Astronomers say that one millisecond before a giant star dies in a spectacular explosion, it hums a note around middle C. More. In some combination of cosmic space the bassline to Come As You Are is being busted out. Ah, nevermind.

Old Timey Snow

This morning it's snowing just like it used to in 1642.

Photo from Monty Taylor's Project Amsterdam Snow.

Not an Anchor, but a Mast

"Have you peace, the quiet urge that reveals your power? Have you remembrances, the glimmering arches that span the summits of the mind? Have you beauty, that leads the heart from things fashioned of wood and stone to the holy mountain? Tell me, have you these in your houses?" K.B.

Soon Kahlil, soon. After 3 months the struggle is over. I have finally chanced upon an incredible apartment, and chance has been most kind. I will be living in a corner of the world I considered impossible. A wonderland of old Amsterdam, canals and cafe's, lying between the Jordaan and the Grachtengordel (the canal ring). Wars have been fought for less.

I'm bursting with happiness and the anticipation of the months ahead of writing and reflecting, learning and living in this place and time. "Not an anchor, but a mast".

Take a walk around my place, or what will be as of this Wednesday.

In Alexandria the value of a cafe was measured in the number of flamingos in residence, in Amsterdam it's all about the number of bridges. Brothers and sisters, its Grachten time.

Unspeakable thanks go out to Reuben, Ilona, Emily, Amelia and any other people and forces who conspired to make this possible.

"And though of magnificence and splendor, your house shall not hold your secret nor shelter your longing. For that which is boundless in you abides in the mansion of the sky, whose door is the morning mist, and whose windows are the songs and the silences of night."

The Straight Dope

This millennium has seen Wikipedia become humanity's repository for common truth, bringing facts into oceans of opinion. However, there are several other tools that focus specifically on shining the cold light of reason and observation into the warped world of rumor.

Snopes.com, the Urban Legend Reference Page, does wonders in resolving "common fallacies, misinformation, old wives' tales, strange news stories, rumors, celebrity gossip, and similar items". For example, the claim that; "Iraqi militant web site displays image of action figure toy identified as a captured American soldier", turns out to be true. Whereas one finds that "Winston Churchill was born in a ladies' room during a dance", is indeed false.

My favorite site for unraveling the knotted, specific and complex is The Straight Dope. A popular question and answer column it is published and syndicated in North American newsprint and available online under the banner "Fighting Ignorance since 1973". But why tell you this now?

The entry for the 23rd of September, 2005, reads "Did a mob of angry Dutch kill and eat their prime minister?". Oh do go on, Sir.

"I'd better give a little context for this bizarre story, not that it's going to help much.
The article you refer to, which appeared in the Times on August 21, 2005, discusses the views of Yale economist Robert Shiller, who believes that "housing prices may drop sharply, as they did 300 years ago on the Herengracht [canal] in Amsterdam." The article cites the work of Piet Eichholtz, a Dutch economist and evidently an admirer of Shiller's, who charted housing prices on the prestigious waterway over a 400-year span. The passage about the unfortunate prime minister reads in its entirety as follows:

"On the Herengracht, [economic] returns have often been fantastic for 25 or even 50 years at a time. Home prices soared in the first half of the 17th century, around the time of the tulip mania. But they came crashing down in the 1670's, when the prime minister was killed, and partially eaten, by a mob of angry Dutch, and the country nearly disintegrated. Prices lagged inflation during the Napoleonic wars but surged after William became king in 1814 and the country industrialized."
No further details are provided. The reader seeking guidance about the housing market can only conclude: If people are eating government officials in your neighborhood, it's time to sell.
So much for the Times. Now for the straight dope..."

Read on for the truth as revealed by Cecil.

The Struggle Continues

Once again Rage Against the Machine said it best,

"Out of the debt of the most wild, the most poor
Came a just arm struggle for democracy, justice, and liberty"

Some interpret these words as a rallying call against the incumbent Partido Revolucionario Institucional by the modern Zapatista's of southern Mexico and a promise of sweeping agrarian and social reform. And without undermining or devaluing what are the very real currents of systemic change in Mesoamerica, it is clear that Zack de la Rocha's words actually refer to my struggle: the struggle to find housing in central Amsterdam.

Amsterdam; 742,951 inhabitants lining the banks of the IJ bay and the Amstel River. The focal point of the 17th century Golden Age of the Netherlands. One of the largest historic city centres in Europe, a modern day "Bohemia" of culture, diversity and individuality. Living there on a trainee salary? Almost impossible.

But it tempts you. Tempts you with the rare Kamer (room) in een luxe appartement in het centrum (in a nice apartment in the centre), not too mention the gezellige huisgenoten. You chance upon such a pearl, send the notifications, call the landlords.. and in for a few brief hours you dream, what if it should be the One? What if I should number part of the select few who call this Centrum home?

And then you find out that the room has a ladder in it to a dutch student who is trying to use his corridor (your room) to subsidize his rent, or the landlord wants a thousand euro in cash then and there for a tiny closet at the back of her shop and off the bat refuses to put anything in writing.

Dreams are dashed upon the very cobblestones that line this sellers market, but once again I have lit the candle of hope. Once again I drift away for a few hours believing that tonight, it will be the One. For at least 50 more minutes I shall believe that tonight I shall find my place in the sun.

"Satellites and, pair of mirrors and, and a man without a home"
- Zack de la Roch, RATM

Morning Newsje

This newsje* caught my eye this morning. Out of the whitewater of hype and backlash from the Danish "Mohammedan" pictures (including my favorite "IRAN RENAMES DANISH PASTRIES") googlenews' mathematics had picked an article about tolerant Islam as the lead story on the topic. Wonderful, I thought until I noticed the attached picture of a man wearing a pig nose- a juxtaposition that appeared clearly anti-islamic. Upon quick investigation I found that in fact the picture came from an article "AP Protests Use of Photo in Controversy", and googlenews has it feeding the fire it's trying to address.

"This August 14, 2005, file photo shows a costumed competitor in a French pig-squealing contest at an agricultural fair. It was circulated this week in a pamphlet purporting to show images offensive to Islam. The photo has no connection with Islam or the caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad published in a Danish newspaper in September. The Associated Press has protested this misleading usage and is demanding that distributors stop circulating it."
(AP Photo/Bob Edme, Files)

I vow to write no more entries about google news juxtaposition.

* arthurdutch for little piece of news

While Walking, Write

"Actually, for some time now I have given some thought to opening a film school. But if I did start one up you would only be allowed to fill out an application form after you have walked alone on foot, let's say from Madrid to Kiev, a distance of about five thousand kilometres. While walking, write. Write about your experiences and give me your notebooks. I would be able to tell who had really walked the distance and who had not. While you are walking you would learn much more about filmmaking and what it truly involves than you ever would sitting in a classroom. During your voyage you will learn more about what your future holds than in five years at film school. Your experiences would be the very opposite of academic knowledge, for academia is the death of cinema. It is the very opposite of passion."

And thus Walter Herzog ushers my blog into a seasonable start for 2006. Herzog himself walked on foot from Munich to Paris to visit an ailing friend, critic Lotte Eisner. Furthermore, he once ate his own shoe after losing a bet to fellow filmmaker Errol Morris. Morris was interested in making a film about a pet cemetery (Gates of Heaven) and Werner believed Morris was not ambitious enough to make the film. This story was the subject of a documentary by Les Blank called Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe.

Below are stills from his 1992 film Lessons of Darkness, which comprises destructively beautiful footage of the Kuwaiti oil feels after the first Gulf War.