Tuesday, May 28, 2002

20:24 It's been exactly two weeks since I lost all my keys... my bike is still now locked at the same spot across Amsterdam Centraal Station. I enjoyed walking for a while but six days ago I decided I needed a temporary solution and rented a bike from a nearby shop. At that time I learned that no locksmith would help me with opening up my old locks - I'd have to rent a (battery-powered) circular saw or something and do the dirty job myself. You can imagine why I've been postponing the task for the last week. Today as I arrived back from Arnhem I thought 'ok - it's now or never'. Well, a second later I thought, nah, later, and went home to cook and rest a bit before resuming my work at the studio. So I get home, open the mail box and find a thick padded envelope from NS, the Dutch railways. My keys were found and matched with the lost property form I filled in Utrecht some 10 days ago. End of the story.

h a , h a , h a.



Along with the keys I received an invoice for EUR 7,00.
Pretty fair deal.
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Sunday, May 26, 2002

03:02 Two things I like: cloves and horseradish. In Holland you can find cheese with cloves (Nagelkaas, literally 'nail cheese') and at the nearby oriental shop I found these delicious horseradish chips, horseradish peas and a most interesting horseradish nougat. It's green and exquisite.

I'm saying all this because I just came home after a few birthday beers with Oskar (aha) and ate a nagelkaas-tomato sandwich.

Bed time now.

Oh and meanwhile my computer is toiling away and lots of video will be rendered when I wake up tomorrow. For once technology is spending her time with me and not otherwise.
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02:50 If I ever have a daughter she will be called Belle. If I ever have a son, he will be called Oskar.
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Sunday, May 19, 2002

13:37

Sara Goldfarb (Ellen Burstyn) is taking too many pills and hoping to be on TV

I'm somebody now, Harry. Everybody likes me. Soon, millions of people will see me and they'll all like me. I'll tell them about you, and your father, how good he was to us. Remember? It's a reason to get up in the morning. It's a reason to lose weight, to fit in the red dress. It's a reason to smile. It makes tomorrow all right. What have I got Harry, hm? Why should I even make the bed, or wash the dishes? I do them, but why should I? I'm alone. Your father's gone, you're gone. I got no one to care for. What have I got, Harry? I'm lonely. I'm old.

Last night we watched Aronofski's Requiem for a Dream. Heavy. If you have an old mom who is lonely and if you watched the film you know what I mean. It's sad, sad, sad.
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Friday, May 17, 2002

14:34 It was Sebastian, a Danish friend who lives in Amsterdam, who told me that Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas is the designer commissioned by the EU to design a new European 'logo' to eventually replace the current twelve-starred flag.


This is it.

It is a beautiful thing, it does convey the European diversity and it's definitely a flag unlike all the others. Still, the inevitable bar code association is really something that I find should not end up in a flag - even (or especially) if intended as an irony or cynicism.
What do you think?
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10:36 My brother Cássio has his birthday today; my sister Valéria had hers yesterday. They're turning 45 and 44. I'm the baby and was born 8-9 years after they did.

Valéria is tiny (still now). She taught me how to read and write my first words when I was four. Cássio was the official family bully and his favourite and most memorable technique consisted of covering me with hugs and kisses almost to the point of suffocation. The technique was named 'beijocada' (something like a 'kiss attack') and had a similar effect to that of tickling. I loved it and I hated it.

A few months ago I was biking through the Damrak and saw (or thought I saw), for a second, a father doing the same to his son (who was maybe 5 or 6 years old). The boy was laughing hysterically and had a panic/pleasure expression that brought me straight back to those long forgotten family moments. I also realized how good all that touching really was and how much it still reflects on how I relate to other people.

Guess who else is all for the touching? Bootrah. In all his generous wisdom, he made public the precise instructions for some of his procedures, including 'tiny baby' and 'small package'. Remember: it's never too late to start.
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00:52 Review:

0050 Trying to reach my sister in Brazil. All lines are busy or something: unable to complete the call.

1930 Dan Bodner came for dinner. I cooked. It was nice.

1700 Got my desk organized and prepared video compositions to be rendered in my absence.

1600 A call: a printer is having problems with the paper chosen for printing something I designed. One more call and a solution is found.

1400 Saw 'videoshow' at the Centraal Museum in Utrecht. I had been told that a pool was set up inside the museum and that visitors were asked to undress and float in it while watching videos. The pool was excellent in size, depth and temperature. The rest was not: the videos were far from well chosen and poorly displayed, the sound was barely audible when floating (no underwater speakers... what a missed opportunity). Considering the great weather the shower cabin placed outside in the museum garden was a nice touch and I did not resist drying up in the sun before slipping back into the bath robe (provided). The museum employee in charge of the changing room was reading the Koran.

The pool room was the reason I came to see the exhibition: the idea overlaps with many of my current plans but I realize I would have approached it differently. I plan to have a talk with the curator anyhow to hear more about his/her original plan.

1100 I met Roy Villevoye for his portrait and spent some time at his studio. He told me some more about his work on how Papuan natives relate to cloth / clothing / t-shirts and gave me a book about it. I read it on my way to (and from) Utrecht. Very interesting.
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Wednesday, May 15, 2002

23:48 I don't remember being this unable to write since the beginning of the late-night pool. Will it pass, will it end? Did it end just now?

I lost all my keys yesterday. They probably fell out of my coat pocket in one of the four trains I took, somewhere between Amsterdam, Arnhem, Utrecht and Rotterdam. I got home almost two in the morning and only then realized the keys were missing. I had to wake up a friend who lives some blocks away and he gave me my emergency copies. There are no extra bike keys though and I foresee a lot of hassle to have mine unlocked from its current position on a bridge across Centraal Station.

Today I had many appointments and things to do and since there was no bike I got it all done by foot and under warm, steady sunshine. Today has also been the Dutch election day and my first time voting in the Netherlands. The ballots are huge, huge. I did take pictures.

After voting I had a short lunch with Julia, a former school friend I hadn't seen in a long time. I then had an appointment at the Amsterdam department of urban planning. There I saw a very interesting poster annoucing a series of interesting lectures. The insiitute organising the lectures was just a block away so I passed by and got myself the nice poster and some information. All these things – the walking pace, the fair weather, the nature of the crowds – caused me to have moment of great appreciation for the free, interesting, tranquil (in spite of myself) life I have here.

Meanwhile all the other voters were voting and now it seems the results of the elections are likely to be surreal: the (non-)party of the late Pim Fortuyn is expected to come in second confirming the worries of 'elections as a condolence book'. The aftermath of his murder makes me think of how Brazilians took to worshipping Ayrton Senna after his death... embarassing, to say the least. Something like that makes a lot of sense in South America but none at all in a country like the Netherlands. Or so I thought.
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Monday, May 13, 2002

11:35 Bom dia Zézinho,

é quase hora do almoço e eu queria te contar sobre o sol
porque hoje tem sol cobrindo e envolvendo toda a cidade
tem tambem um ventinho interessante que estimula tudo quando passa
e eriça os pelos da minha pele e os pelos da pele dos outros

Muita alegria e expectativa pelo ar – vindas do sol
lembei agora nasci pra viver com os braços pra fora

um beijo de sol e de vento

Rogério
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Monday, May 06, 2002

20:50 Controversial Dutch politician Pim Fortuyn is dead. He was shot while leaving a Hilversum radio station after an interview. Fortuyn dies nine days before the national elections – it's the kind of news that does not fit in the Netherlands. After hearing the news a friend from Boston said to me on the phone: "welcome to America".

How does all this instability enter the planet? It is clearly a propagating wave, isn't it?. Will it eventually pass through (where to?), end or recede? Will that happen smoothly, unclearly, the same way it started?
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Sunday, May 05, 2002

19:05 Did you know that all notes are to myself?
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Saturday, May 04, 2002

16:36 Since you asked the question:
You need not whisper.
The only way to find one is to be one.
It is still in your future.
Recall your everlasting goals.
Channel excess energies into rejuvenation.
Now is a good time to start.
You will acheive it through service.
Ingenuity stands high on the list.
Realize you are being too hasty.
Be direct and accomplish more.
There is a true and sincere friendship between you two.
Mind shall make body rich.
Plant and prosper.
A remarkable power is not being used.
Explore the backroads to the north.
Forgive everything, understand everything.
You think it's a secret but it isn't.
You are now in a party where strange customs prevail.
You will go very far and then you will come back.
There is still time to take a different path.
You would make an excellent critic.
You need not worry.
Pack your bags.
A single kind word will keep one warm for years.
You knew this all along.
You are soon going to change your present line of work.
You can always turn chance into good fortune.
Pay attention: the seeds have already blossomed
You cannot demonstrate it or prove it.
Yes.
Speak Chinese and be sociable.
You need a sympathetic wife.
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12:23 Last night : walking home : simultaneous track limit
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Friday, May 03, 2002

21:04 I studied in a Montessori school when I was little.
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Wednesday, May 01, 2002

02:33 Thinking of vines and octopuses and other many-limbed things. Things with limbs that curl around.

Something else: an excerpt from Lewis Carroll's symbolic logic:

(1) None of the unnoticed things, met with at sea, are mermaids;

(2) Things entered in the log, as met with at sea, are sure to be worth remembering;

(3) I have never met with anything worth remembering, when on a voyage;

(4) Things met with at sea, that are noticed, are sure to be recorded in the log.

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