Lately: all three novels of Roberto Bolano that were translated in Dutch: De Woeste Zoekers (in English: The Savage Detectives), Chileense Nocturne and Het Lichtend Kwaad. De Woeste Zoekers I read while being sick in bed. (Btw: this is a book for which one needs the public library: the translation came out in 2000, was not reprinted (I’m told it will be reprinted later this year), and is hardly available second-hand).

Finally: Laurence Sterne: A Sentimental Journey.

Maryanne Wolf: Proust and the Squid – from which, surprisingly, I enjoyed the chapters on dyslexia most.

Oh, yes, and two weeks ago: Flann O’Brien The Hard Life, in a Dutch translation (followed by a rereading of a few chapters from The Third Policeman also in a Dutch translation). I was laughing loud – quite something as I hardly laugh/smile while reading. It is so much easier to ‘get’ a book when you read it in your mother tongue – however easy it is to read in English – that even for a writer like Flann O’Brien, who works a lot with language jokes, accents, dialects, I sometimes prefer to read the translation for sheer reading pleasure….

(I just received this sad news from STEIM).

Michel Waisvisz died peacefully in his home on Wednesday June 18 after fighting the mean cells in his body for the last eight months.

Michel Waisvisz was born on the 8th of July 1949 and lead STEIM as Director for 27 years. He left us on a day when artists and friends from around the world gathered downstairs (at STEIM) to perform for a full-house season-closing concert.

Michel was a musician, visionary and occasional gardener - touched by sound and forever happy to be surprised. He was the source of an enormous surge of energy that continues to flow through STEIM into the world.

We will miss his touch, crackle, inspiration and constant improvisation of the now.

You can leave condolances at http://www.steim.org/michel/.

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It leaves me speechless and very sad. I often went (and go) to STEIM to hear new music and Michel Waisvisz simply has been a presence ever since I got interested in new electronic, improvised music. I wanted to be there on the 18th, but couldn’t. I was supposed to interview Michel for a book on STEIM one of these days. Since time was running out, it had to happen soon, as soon as possible. But he had to fight the ‘mean cells’. It was already too late. My thoughts are with his family, and all the people at STEIM.

Arjen Mulder & Joke Brouwer’s Interact or Die! has been awarded the media art research award of the Prix Ars Electronica: http://www.aec.at/de/prix/winners_lbi.asp. Nice. Congrats to Arjen and Joke. The descriptions of the artworks in the book were edited/assembled/written by yours truly. So I guess a tiny bit of the light of the award shines on me too…

I just finished reading Jan Boesman’s De vliegende neger en de kleine koningin – or, in english: “the flying negro and the little queen”. Below my impressions in Dutch - but for my non-Dutch readers, just know there’s an excellent book in Dutch on Major Taylor, the black cycling champion.

Juist gelezen: Jan Boesmans De vliegende neger en de kleine koningin, een boek dat centreert op de Europese toernees van die ene zwarte Amerikaanse wielrenner Marshall ‘Major’ Taylor. Niemand zat zo mooi op de fiets als hij, denk je, als je de foto’s van de zwarte kampioen ziet. Het boek is een zeer geslaagde reconstructie van een schakelmoment in de geschiedenis van het wielrennen, rond de eeuwwisseling, als baanwielrennen populair is en in Frankrijk de strijd wordt uitgevochten tussen twee sportkranten. Uiteindelijk wint L’Auto, die de Tour de France gaat organiseren, van Le Velo. (Het aristocratische baanwielrennen versus de dwangarbeiders van de weg).

Deel van die strijd is de komst van de mysterieuze zwarte sprinter Major Taylor naar Europa, die daar duels zal uitvechten tegen de Europese kampioenen. Major Taylor was een van de eerste, zo niet de eerste zwarte sport-super-ster – pas na hem komt Jack Johnson. Veel sociologische achtergrond, excellent onderzoekswerk, veel referenties, en een boek dat leest als een roman – al is de stijl soms wat al te inlevend en ‘hijgerig’ (Boesmans had – naar mijn smaak – iets langere zinnen mogen schrijven.) Sportgeschiedenis zoals sportgeschiedenis moet zijn: niet alleen de wedstrijdverslagen, maar een verslag van alles eromheen, de sociale en culturele economische context.

Wie zo voor de Tour verlegen zit om een goed boek over wielrennen… : http://www.wielersportboeken.be/B/boesman_jan/boesman.htm

Or, as the title of the article goes: “Is Google Making Us Stupid”. Nicholas Carr reflects on how ‘being online’ affects our reading and thinking behavior: http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200807/google.

Quote:

“We are not only what we read,” says Maryanne Wolf, a developmental psychologist at Tufts University and the author of Proust and the Squid: The Story and Science of the Reading Brain. “We are how we read.” Wolf worries that the style of reading promoted by the Net, a style that puts “efficiency” and “immediacy” above all else, may be weakening our capacity for the kind of deep reading that emerged when an earlier technology, the printing press, made long and complex works of prose commonplace. When we read online, she says, we tend to become “mere decoders of information.” Our ability to interpret text, to make the rich mental connections that form when we read deeply and without distraction, remains largely disengaged.

Gonzo Circus (http://www.gonzocircus.com) will publish my 700 words review of George Lewis’s A Power Stronger than Itself - a history of the AACM: http://www.press.uchicago.edu/etc. Nice!

Meanwhile I find excellent stuff at Steve Coleman’s new (?) M-Base site, uhm, all music available for free…: http://m-base.com/. That’ll keep me listening to his work for while. Also check out his blog-posts: http://mbase.wordpress.com/. That is, if you’d like a thorough explanation of his musical theories.

This friday, May 30th: We Love STEIM Party at the Mediamatic Garagebox. With performances of DJ Sniff, Toktek, music played by your DNK-deejays Andre, Harm and Koen, and much more: http://www.mediamatic.net/artefact-38024-en.html. Come and party to show how much we love STEIM.

Zaterdagmiddag, 20 graden, volop felle zon en een flinke noordoostenwind. Fantastisch fietsweer – zeker met de wind in de rug. Ik rij eerst richting Hoogmade, om daarna achterlangs naar Haarlem te rijden. Daar ga ik langs bij G., voor thee, de fiets showen (en zijn fiets bekijken, een mooie Trek) en bij te praten. Via de snelste weg terug naar Amsterdam. 12.00 - 18.00.

Marcusstraat - Amstel - Ouderkerk - Nes - Uithoorn - Vrouwenakker - Langeraarse Plassen - Bilderdam - Leimuiden - Rijnswaterswoude - Woubrugge - Hoogmade - Rijpwetering - Nieuwe Wetering - Huigsloot - Kagerweg - Lisserweg - Lisserbroek - Bennebroek - Manpad - Leiduin - Aerdenhout - Elswout - Haarlem - Raamgracht - [Flevoroute] - Lieoever - Notweg - Halfweg - Brettenzone - Slotermeer - Rembrandtpark - Vondelpark - Marcusstraat

Vrijdagmiddag na werk, felle zon, 20 graden, flinke noordoostenwind. Rondje Muiderberg – nog steeds meer zin om een uurtje wat te toeren, niet om een flinke tocht te maken.

Marcusstraat - Ringsijk - Diemerpark - Muiden - Muiderberg - Naardermeer - Vecht - Weesp - kanaal - Diem - Diemen - Weespertrekvaart - Marcusstraat

Donderdagmiddag. Moe en futloos na 3 dagen treinen en werk. Net als vorige week. 15.15 - 18.00. Heerlijk weer, zon, later werd het bewolkt. Idioot druk op de weg met grote auto’s op weg naar de bij Loosdrecht afgemeerde jacht - of zoiets.

Marcusstraat - Ringdijk - Diemerpark - Muiden - Vecht - Naardermeer - De Meent - ’s Gravenland - Hilversums Kanaal - Loosdrecht - Mijnden - Loenen - Vreeland - Loenersloot - Baambrugge - Indijkpad - Abcoude - AMC - Bijlmer - snelweg - Amstel - Marcusstraat

This is especially for those of you who enjoy new music and are interested in innovative electronic art: the famous laboratory STEIM in Amsterdam is in great danger. The advice of the most important national public funding body is to give STEIM zero euro’s. Yes: nothing.

For all of us who are interested in new and innovative art and music this is hard to understand.

To help you can send a letter of support:

http://www.steim.org/steim/funding_in_danger/

Zondagochtend: het eerste echte ritje op mijn nieuwe racefiets: een zwarte Ger. Heerlijk rijden. Minieme kans op een bui en eenmaal voelde ik een paar spetters, maar dat was alles. Vooral veel zon. Met de wind in de rug vloog ik. Maar ai, bij de voetgangersbrug bij Vrouwenakker deed ik voorzichtig, wipte niet al fietsend tussen de hekjes door, achter me een andere wielrenner, ik zeg tegen ‘m “pas op, ik neem even het zekere voor het onzekere, ik stap af”. Hij niet. Hij verliest zn evenwicht, komt niet uit zijn klikpedaal en valt tegen mijn achterwiel. “Je had gelijk.” Niks aan de hand. Hmm, wat later merk ik dat er een kleine slag in mn wiel zit. Dat hoort erbij zullen we maar zeggen, of het is een doop.

Het is een heerlijke fiets – iets korter dan mijn vorige (die nooit lekker zat), lichter, en wel, gewoon precies de fiets die ik wilde hebben: klassiek, heel strak en netjes op maat gemaakt aluminium frame (Columbus buizen), verder geen poespas (Shimano Ultegra), en met liefde gemaakt.

De reacties van anderen zijn wel grappig. Mijn broer J. had ‘t goed gezien: “Ah, gewoon een mooi frame met een stel wielen.” Anderen zetten grote ogen op als ze horen hoe duur ie was (niet zo duur dus, volgens mij, zeker niet als je het vergelijkt met het materiaal waar anderen op rijden).

Geen fietscomputertje. Dat heeft als grootste voordeel dat je niet de helft van de tijd op je stuur zit te kijken. En je kunt ook nog fijn je handen echt dicht tegen elkaar op het stuur zetten.

Toen ik donderdags bij Ger mn fiets kwam halen was hij juist bezig met de fiets “voor een andere schrijver”. Mijn wiel hing even in dat frame: de nieuwe fiets van Tim Krabbé.

Marcusstraat - Amstel - Ouderkerk - Nes - Uithoorn - Vrouwenakker - Noorden - Woerdense Verlaat - Geer - Donkereind - Vinkeveen - Botshol - Waver - Ouderkerk - Amstel - Marcusstraat

Just published: McLuhan Neu Lesen. Contains a text by your truly on the works of Esther Polak. Mind you: in German. More here: http://www.transcript-verlag.de.

Of waren het veel meer kilometers? Ik weet het niet, het ging erg lekker, en met een wind die draaide van oost naar noordoost bleef het lekker gaan. Warm, zomers, felle zon en alleen in de ochtend nog een beetje fris. Perfect fietsweer omdat de wind juist voor genoeg verkoeling zorgde. Wel insmeren met factor 20. 9.45 - 14.30. Prachtig tochtje: Purmer - Beemster - Schermer - Wormer. Twee pontjes.

Marcusstraat - Muiderpoort - Schellingwouderbrug - Durgerdam - Monnickendam - Purmerringvaart - Ilpendam - Purmerend - Kwadijk - Beemsterringvaart - Beets - Kathoek - Ursem - Otterleek - Stompetoren - Driehuizen - West-Graftdijk - Spijkerboor - Noord-Hollands kanaal - Wijde Wormer - Purmerland - Ilperveld - Ilpendam - Watergang - Schouw - Zwarte Gouw - Schellingwouderbrug - Marucsstraat

(Later met F. naar de Ouderkerkerplas gereden).

Warme zomeravond in mei, na werken in Rotterdam (thuis om 19.45), eten en koffie op het balkon (lezen in George Lewis’ geschiedenis van de AACM), snel een rondje voor donker, om nog even echt ‘buiten’ te zijn geweest. Zelfs in de avond nog ver boven de 20 graden, de zon zien ondergaan, 21.00 - 21.50.

Online exhibtion: http://www.clubinternet.org/. (Refreshing the page = new work). This first ‘issue’ is carefully curated by Harm van den Dorpel.

Or as they call it: prss-release, carefully collected RSS-feeds presented as PDF: http://www.prss-release.org. Might seem a superfluous thing to do at first thought, but it exactly gives those volatile blog-posts an extra ’substance’. I’d love to have a piece of software that would collect and design my rss-feeds into, well, what one can compare to a magazine… I dearly miss good typography and lay-out in my rss-feeds.

(And yes, I am one of those readers that does tinker with the fonts in the OSX-mailprogram to achieve better readability).

Reading matter: the new issue of De Gids, devoted to the Dutch writer/poet JJ Slauerhoff, who at the moment is probably best known for writing a bunch of poems (in the 1920s/30s) that were set to music by the popular Portugese singer Christina Branco – because she regarder them as a prime example of saudade. (The introduction mentions the popularity of Slauerhoff amongst punks in the 1980s, and the existence of a Dutch 1980s band ‘Slauerhoff, but strangely does not mention Christina Branco).

Many people read Slauerhoff early in their ‘literary reading career’. So did I. He has a romantic ‘image’ – travelled to and wrote a lot about China, identified more or less with Camoens. His Collected Prose amongst the first literary books I bought. This issue presents a very nice opportunity to dive into his work again.

And then I couldn’t resist buying the Raster (another literary magazine), because it’s about two German writers that I have never really read, two famous outsiders: Andreas Kluge and Wolfgang Koeppen. Kluge never appealed to me, not his movies, not his television-programs (very intellectually left-wing political, strangely enough transmitted by the commercial channel RTL in the nineties), not his theoretical work. Though I know people who are absolutely ‘fans’, and he is detected by my ‘radar’. Koeppen I simply never read until today, I guess because Arno Schmidt and Uwe Johnson were ‘higher’ on my list.

More reading matter: Mark Twain’s entertaining A Connecticut Yankee at King Arthur’s Court, and LP Boons pitch black Memoires van de Heer Daegeman – both cheaply acquired at the Queens Day freemarket. I was wondering if I might have read Twain’s book in a children’s version as a child, it seemed all so familiar…

Was at DNK yesterday night – where I heard some wonderful music again. The talks during the break touched on the topic of subsidy and money, maybe it was because it was on my mind, but it was on Robert van Heumen’s mind too, I guess (as he’s from STEIM), and I can imagine Thomas Peutz’ (of Smart) thoughts were going in that direction too (although I did not talk to him). (Btw: the subsidizing of V2_ – where I works 3 days a week – by the city of Rotterdam is part of a dirty political game between the town council and the advising committee).

The evening started with a composition by the young Spanish composer Angel Arranz, for cello and electronics – wonderfully played by Jan Willem Troost (cello) and the composer himself: Punto Intenso contra Remisso. The program text quotes Derrida on the pharmakon – probably because of the relationship between the electronic sounds and the acoustic cello. What I heard was a piece with a very good, clear, almost traditional compositional quality and with many well-stated musical ideas, and a smart interaction between the cello and the electronics. 23 minutes long, and not one dull moment. They received a well-deserved long applause.

After the break the duo of Keir Neuringer and Carlos Iturralde played 3 improvised pieces. The first was for alto saxophone and electric guitar, both ‘amplified’ with electronics as is usual nowadays. Hitting pretty much common and well-known ground, that is, if you know this type of music, they did play an enticing piece. After that both took place behind the knobs of assorted pedals, controllers and a small mixing deck for a well-structured, concentrated dialogue in noise. I don’ think it is necessary to state that they did not fall into the trap of just increasing the volume and go-go-go, as it’s normal to compose on the spot with different layers of noise, and they did it well. Only the last piece was a bit of a let-down. Keir Neuringer again was turning the knobs, Carlos Iturralde was triggering and playing with images (photographs of dictators: Hitler, Stalin, Sadam Hoessein), and not only where the images and the image-processing very clicheed, he seemed to struggle with it too. Musically the last piece did not come off the ground. In fact, that third piece was just bad. But well, that can happen (and I’ve seen worse elsewhere, in bigger venues).

It wasn’t looking very good w.r.t. the public funding of art in Amsterdam, but now that the definite decisions have been made for the allocation money by the arts council of Amsterdam – for the next 4 years – I am suprised about my own reaction. Browsing and reading through the evaluation at http://www.kunstraad.nl/ I slowly begin to feel sick and depressed.

Yes I know, not getting the money should never be the end of an organisation and one should look optimistically to the future. Yes I know, not every organisation will be so lucky to get the money. That’s the way it is.

But. Consider this. I love new, adventurous music, I love the forms of electro-acoustic improvised and composed that have been developed internationally somewhere between (classical) contemporary music, electronic music, laptop music (and noise). That is according to me the foremost, most important form of music. It is featured nowhere in Amsterdam, except at DNK.

DNK will receive no money. The written advice is extremely negative. It states that DNK operates too much on its own, is incrowd and is not ambitious. I am chairman of the board of DNK and apparently our subsidy request was not good enough, as we are extremely ambituous – but in order to achieve those ambitions more money is needed, as musicians and ensembles that we’d like to invite, and are not playing anywhere in Amsterdam, cost money. We are ambitiuous and that is why we recently moved to the larger space of Smart Project Space. We’d like to feature sound art too (do exhibtions). Incrowd? Is incrowd a synonym for a steady public? Every monday an audience of 30 to 120. And DNK does collaborate with other organisations (STEIM, Conservatory Amsterdam, Sonology The Hague, N-Collective etc.) – or is ‘working too much on one’s own’ a synonym for curatorial control?

I love music II. Another place I visit regularly for concert is the renowned STEIM. STEIM will get no money.

I love new music and art. Sonic Acts will receive no money. Again the advice is very negative. Curious is that it mentions the lack of a ‘chief curator’ in the organisation (’hoofdredacteur’), whereas this person is present: it’s Lucas van der Velden.

Again, it can happen that one’s plans are not well received, or that the committees have decided that those plans do not fit the current culture. It might not be my choice, but well, that’s the way it is.

What makes it so depressing is not only that almost all of the institutions for which I have a heart, that I visit, that I would give my money to, and/or for which I work will receive ZERO euro’s, it’s that overall the somewhat more ‘commercial’ (public friendly?) venues and initiatives do receive some money, and the more adventurous one’s don’t. We truly live in conservatives times.

Very depressing is also that a large part of what is erroneously called e-culture over here will not receive funding – though they are without doubt exactly in the centre of todays culture. I already mentioned STEIM, but also De Waag (asked for half a million) doesn’t receive anything. Mediamatic was lucky, after an initial negative advice, they will receive part of what they asked for. Phew.

The impression one gets is that 1. Amsterdam did not have enough money to fund its art. 2. Old-fashioned institutes with large buildings and organisations do get money – but receive a fair deal of criticism on their programming - which is not adventurous enough! 3. The arts council seems to be unable to allocate funding to truly contemporary culture, it tends to fund what has already a defined and safe place in culture.

Well, to be honest: 1. seems to be the most important issue.

In case you reader, say to me: “but haven’t you got a superb new building for new music?” I have to say: the programming of the big Nieuwe Muziekgebouw aan ‘t IJ is conservative. Nothing against a good Feldman-festival, nothing against nice mouth-harp-music, nothing against a good performance of some Nancarrow, but the current forms of (new innovative) music are not featured there. In terms of new music they have completely lost touch.

DNK fills that gap. But DNK is not funded.

Well. I am surprised that I wrote this, as I am surprised that it makes me feel sick. Of course all this does not signify the end of good art in Amsterdam, not the end of exciting new developments, not the end of laboratories where new art, technology, music is made. But this certainly does not help.

Writing this down though helps to make me feel better.

Ah well, and then the introduction to the advices reads: “Het is verheugend te constateren dat het stadsbestuur Amsterdam wil herpositioneren als een metropool van internationale allure. De stad wil zich een weg terug veroveren in de Top 5 van Europa.” [They are happy that the city wants to get back to the top 5 in Europe]. Ha, with this policy that aim will not be reached…

It’s a pity.

Ah well, let’s end on a positive note: PIPS:Lab, an artist collective that does new media arts and develops technology (they have a studio in the building where I live, Marci Panis) was lucky. They asked for 85.000, and will receive the amount they asked for. From all the advices I read, they are the only ones to get the amount they asked for.