Dogs and Foxes

We went to Paradiso four times in the past two weeks. We saw the dog people, who were a joyous bunch but only half perfect. They did play 'She's Losing It', which was wonderful, naturally. They neglected to play 'Judy and the Dream of Horses' though, which was rather a shame. We also went to see the bands 'Dungen' and 'Xiu Xiu', who were both pretty good.

Last night, we saw the fox lady. She was truly amazing! Her voice is superb, she has chosen the finest musicians to accompany her, and her background vocalist was very cute (also an important factor). They had a nice selection of merchandise on sale.

Now, the most important difference between the dog people and the fox lady was the SMOKE. The dog people positively promoted it, proclaiming that it was such a relief that we could still do it while the Scottish have outlawed the whole thing. Subsequently asking the audience for a fag and a lighter, and beginning to puff on stage. This had the effect that all the people around us uttered primeval shrieks and started lighting fags as well, unfortunately for our lungs. The fox lady, on the other hand, had closed of the entrance doors of the small performance hall, and put signs on them (as well as at the bar) saying 'NO SMOKING'. Course, there were still some idiots puffing away, just like at the Tift concert, but in general, the air was CLEAR. Madam, I salute you!

(this on account of me being a promoter of the Clean Air Nederland citizens' initiative)

Third Reich

It's a bit late, because yesterday was liberation-day and the day before was remembrance-of-the-dead-day, but did you know that the Third Reich was great for the environment? Where they murdered millions of people, they also saved millions of trees. This all began with Tacitus, who with his Germania set a tradition of 'the German' as 'the noble wilderman', and the forest the native habitat, with the oak as symbol for that nation. He also said that the Germans were the least polluted, most pure race because as wild as they were, they didn't sleep around a lot. Course the Third Reich rulers loved this, and this wilderman nationalism was picked up by loads of writers at the end of the 19th century. Also, the minister of landschutz was Hermann Göring, big on hunting. So naturally, he wanted to protect the habitat of the creatures he hunted.
This valuable information I got from Landscape and Memory, that big book by the great historian Simon Schama. I started reading this because my dear dad pulled it out of his bookcase when I told him Anselm Kiefer was my new favourite modern artist. I've just come to the last part of the second chapter, where Schama'll begin talking about this wonderful artist. I saw a big show of his work in the modern art gallery in Montreal, and fell in love with it instantly. This is because this German artist, living in France, uses great materials from nature (like lead, earth and sunflower seeds) and, also, esoteric symbolism. I can't really show you his work and I would not advise anyone to go look at pictures on the web, for the real works, they are wall-sized and should be seen in their full magnitude. Here is, however, the poster child of the exhibition I saw: