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Tuesday, May 27, 2003 13:00 Flavio sent me pictures of the room where I stay in his apartment in São Paulo. We both enjoy a lot being occasional roommates and always miss each other's company when the vacations are over. The lamp and the nude drawings are the things I stare at while laying lazily in Flavio's guest bedroom.![]() link | |
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Monday, May 26, 2003 23:59 Difficult day. Sunny, though. link | |
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Friday, May 23, 2003 13:21 La Grande Bibliothèque I am sitting at a terminal of the Bibliothèque François-Mitterrand waiting for some books to be delivered to my reserved place M-30. The libary has a large amount of books on bains publics, including a volume about Palestinian baths and a video documenting the bathing habits of Brazilian Kayatsu indians. If that wasn't enough, the building itself is once again making me walk around in awe, looking right and left, up and down, jaw-dropped like a farmer in the city. ![]() ![]() ![]() The main reason why I came to the library is to see – with my own hands – a little book called "Les Bains de Paris ou le Neptune des Dames", written by Paul Cuisin in 1822. It is a tiny, leather bound volume that functions as a guide to the public baths of Paris and other main cities 'of the four corners of the world'. Every chapter describes what could be experienced in each specific establishment and starts with a very interesting pararaph summarizing the properties of that place–a sort of subjective cluster of impressions. I have been wanting to work on a similar 'ID card' for the pools and baths I visit and found this loose, poetic format really good. Will rip off. BAINS DES HOMMES et des FEMMES, A QUATRE SOLS,The chapter about the Bains de Tivoli describes in detail the nuptial bath 'for the young man who wishes to give his dear spouse numerous proofs of his tenderness': Le bain dit nuptial à Tivoli, coûte ordinairement un louis. Il consiste, pour un jeune homme qui doit se marier le lendemain, et qui, voulant faire des prouesses et désirant donner à sa chère épouse des preuves nombreuses de sa tendresse, a recours à ces procédés ingénieux, il consiste, dis-je, à prendre d'abord un bain aromatisé par des vins étrangers d'une nature fortifiante, tels que le vin pectoral de l'Ermitage, la liqueur des vins d'Alicante cuite au foyer d'un soleil brûlant. Ces premiers préparatifs, accompagnés d'une collation nutritive et stimulante, telle que des truffes cuites dans un vin de Champagne, du sirop de bouillon de veau, du pain de fécule de farine et des émincées de gigot à la sauce tomate, étants terminés, le futur, électrisé par ces puissans véhicules, sort du bain, revêtu seulement d'un léger peignoir, et passe à la salle dite des cosmétiques et des macérations, où des garçons, munis d'éponges fines et de tampons en coton, ainsi que de morceaux de flanelle, le tatouent d'essences, d'huiles aphrodisiaques, d'esprit de musc, de suc de roses turc, lui font des lotions d'eau de Cologne combinée avec du baume du Pérou, d'extrait de girofle, de vanille, de canelle, d'ambre, de palmirène léger et de certain insecte pilé; et bref, le frottent et le massent, à force de bras, de la vertu enivrante de tous ces élixirs, au point que les émanations capiteuses de toutes ces compositions s'emparent bientôt des fibres du cerveau et de tous les sens, notre jeune marié sent circuler dans ses veines un feu dévorant, et se croit en état, dans son imagination brûlante, de surpasser en volupté, même les travaux du grand Alcide. Vous restez plus d'un an imprégné des feux de cette seconde vie, et le parfum que vous exhalez, joint aux qualités brillantes que vous développez, vous font idolâtrer d'une épouse que vous aime et vous respecte d'autant plus que vous lui avez prouvé, en comblant son bonheur, que la nature vous avait donné la force, qualité dont le beau sexe en général fait beaucoup de cas dans un mari.So! There! link | |
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Thursday, May 22, 2003 13:21 Relevant property ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() I am the owner of a hammock since April 8th, 2003 I am the owner of a pair of Hulk hands since May 15th, 2003 link | |
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Tuesday, May 20, 2003 16:41 last call to Sandra Brogioni ![]() Last night I had a dream in which I called – while laying in bed – my friend Sandra Brogioni in São Paulo. While we talked I noticed the view outside my window was shifting horizontally, which made me realize that the building was spinning, slowly at first but with increasing speed. A second later it became clear that the building was collapsing so I told Sandra what was happening and that it was probably my last call. I got up and pondered (yeah, I know) about ways of getting out of there and whether it would be worth venturing into the next room (I have no next room) to pick up my mobile phone before the total crash would finally hit me. It's the second such dream in less than a week. In the previous one there was no impending catastrophe but the feeling of solving a long existing dilemma about my housing situation in Amsterdam. My conversation partner in that paricular dream was Clarissa. I wrote it all down the moment I woke up (something I should do more often and the reason why I keep a notebook and a pen next to my bed). Later I could barely remember the overal feeling of that dream but when I read what I wrote I saw lots of small details and, even better, the associations that occurred to me just as I came back from it. link | |
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16:20 Last I had dinner and some hours of good conversation with Thomas, a friend who hosted me in Berlin in November 1994, just after my return from Asia. We hadn't met since then, only exchanged a few e-mails and, as usual in this kind of visit, he brought with him some interesting information about my own state of mind and interests at that time. link | |
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15:58 Contribution Eduardo Staszowski (aka Tatá) sent me some photos of the hammam he came across while visiting New Delhi's Red Fort some weeks ago. The place was being rebuilt so pictures could only be taken from the outside and through a glass. ![]() Eduardo also tells me of Alexia Brue's book Cathedrals of the Flesh: My Search of The Perfect Bath, which seems to be interesting and was added to my Amazon wish list. link | |
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14:59 Speech & debate exercise database A link recommended on a BBC program this morning, the speech & debate exercise database is a section of the International Debate Education Association (IDEA) web site. The exercises are meant as classroom activities to be proposed by teachers and are grouped in categories (hmm, we love categories) that include argument construction, logic and reasoning, cross-examination and concluding arguments. I wish I knew about this when I proposed the argumentation assignment to my HKA students back in 2001. The students had a lot of trouble organizing their ideas and, frankly speaking, so did I. link | |
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Monday, May 19, 2003 11:48 Swimming in Rome I'll be in Rome from May 28th to June 2nd and have been asking around for tips of swimming pools and thermal baths. In spite of all the ruins of roman baths it seems that not much, if anything, is still functioning. I just received the first tip and it does sound interesting: Rogerio, there exists only one bath in Rome which is a national monument. It was built during the fascist period and is called "Piscina Prensile". It is located along the river just in front of the Olympic stadion. It is currently in use to the Academy of Physical Education. Therefore it is not always accessible to public. link | |
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Thursday, May 15, 2003 18:07 Post As I arrived back from Maastricht I found in a pile of received mail an envelope with the word Telegram. My first reaction was of suspicion: a sneaky direct marketing company was claiming the name of a no-longer-among-us medium. The bastards. Richard suspected the same. To our surprise it was a telegram, sent from Rio de Janeiro by our friend Ulysses Cruz: CALL ME LOST YOUR NUMBER MY PHONES ###-######## OR ###-########. URGENT. ULYSSES. ![]() I called Ulysses back and was answered by his voice mail service. I left a message with my numbers. He called me back and left a message on my answering machine at home. It was only yesterday that we finally managed to talk. He has a couple of friends about to arrive in Amsterdam for the first time and wanted to ask me to take care of them. When I was in Rio a few weeks ago I tried finding a way of contacting Ulysses. His phone wasn't listed anywhere. According to Gabriëlle telegrams can no longer be sent from the Netherlands. I find they always had an aura of mystery and old-fashioned urgency to them, now even more so. A few months ago I received two bulging envelopes sent by my friend and former lover PB, who I haven't seen in many years. I was amazed when I opened them. Each envelope contained some 8-10 pages (handwritten on both sides) and together they formed a long letter written along several weeks and under different states of mind and alcohol consumption: he would mention pauses to get himself a drink and soon the effect of the whiskey was noticeable both in the writing itself and in the emotional content of the lines. Through the pages he asked questions that had remained unasked for almost fifteen years, some to himself and many to me. I felt honored by that letter, it was like a handwoven sweater, a difficult one. I knew it would take me forever to reply in writing and I didn't want to risk failing to do so. The urge was urgent. I called immediately and we had a very good, long conversation. End. link | |
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Saturday, May 10, 2003 23:59 Huishoudelijk – Added two very nice pool picture galleries that were semi-ready since last summer: the Gellért Hotel in Budapest and the Bellerive Plage in Lausanne (stunning outdoor pool complex by the lake) – Fixed the stylesheet problems that afflicted the pool galleries – Fixed a lot of bad code. Sure there's some more here and there – Still haven't gathered the energy to move the whole thing to movable type link | |
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23:42 This week's displacement map (III) A busy week it was. Richard finally went from Montréal to London-Brussels-Amsterdam. Dewald: London-Amsterdam-London. Dewald's parents: Johannesburg-London. Colin: Boston-Amsterdam. Fred Ross: Provincetown-Amsterdam. Joe: Boston-New York. Carl and Yan: Vienna-Amsterdam. Paul: Rotterdam-Maastricht. Rogério and Giselle: Amsterdam-Maastricht. Jouke: Moulin du Merle-Maastricht. Carly is in some Thai Island, I think, where probably no one knows how good her coffee is: hallo to all....i've reached an island of oasis, tranquility, serenity and sunshine, am right in the south of a small diving island near the malaysian border called Ko Lanta which is now in off season, so is ridiciously quiet and cheap...i have a small hatch bungalow on the beach in a place called the sanctuary, and no one much to bother me apart from the foreigners and locals that live here year round and the odd adventurous soul who braves the road to get here (i paid a local guide alot of money and just closed my eyes, held on tight all the way!)....i spend my time reading, walking, swimming, chatting, picking fleas off the lastest batch of new kittens and figuring out how to keep my room mosquito proof....challenge of the day.....this morning was a little different when all of a sudden out of nowhere come this hippyCarly is always the bearer of good news, one way or another, and this time she contributed with a nice eastern line on the map. link | |
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09:42 I am in Maastricht this weekend taking part in the Personal Publishing Pandemonium a symposium organised by the Jan van Eyck Academy and Marres. Today we'll have presentations by magazine publishers Geert Blonk (Butt), Jop van Benekom (Re) and Jeff Rian (Purple). Tomorrow the talk will concentrate on online publishing with Paul Perry (Alamut), Max Bruinsma (Deep Sites) and Giselle Oliveira (To publish or not to publish). I'll be talking about the late-night pool. link | |
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Monday, May 05, 2003 19:00 Late morning, dodging the tourists that daily occupy the bike path in the short ride between home and studio I suddenly recalled Roberta Sparrow's words: EVERY CREATURE ON THIS EARTH DIES ALONEI thought of myself, the ones I love, all of us. Fred Ross was supposed to arrive from Provincetown today so I went into his apartment and put some strawberries in the fridge and yellow tulips in his vase. Welcome gifts. No sign of him yet. The weather was strangely oppressing and we were all having trouble concentrating (a little more than normal). We ate spinach and rookworst. Grapes. link | |
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