Tags archives: conversations

 

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Munich from the tower in Olympiapark

Bernd: When are you going to move back to Munich forever?

 

>Bad men

>This afternoon I was in a bookshop when one of my 2nd grade students came to say hello with her little brother while their mum was queuing at the till. The conversation went like this:

Little boy: My mum says there are lots of bad men.
Me: She speaks the truth.
(kid looks scared)
Big sister: She’s right.
Me: But I’m your sister’s teacher.
Little boy: That’s ok then. (sits next to me) So, what are you doing here? Buying a teaching book?

Their mother looked a bit concerned when she saw her kids sitting down next to a stranger and happily talking to her. The little boy was as adorable as his sister. When he left he said “I want you to be my teacher, but I already have one”.

 

>Halloween!

 

>John Giorno

>

Last night we went to see John Giorno. Showing the wonders of higher education, none of us had heard of him before except for Miguel, who studied him at LMU. It was my second ever live literature experience (the first one being the time I saw Nick Hornby) and my first poetry one. I must say I am not a big fan of poetry. I like some stuff, but when I feel like reading, I rarely choose it. I can’t help reading it with a stupid schoolboy-like intonation that completely ruins it.

That said, I really enjoyed last night. Hearing it from the author himself really was something else. It made me a lot more aware of the musicality of each word, of the rhythm and the flow of the verse. I guess reading poetry by yourself is like seeing a band playing a clumsy watered down cover of a great song that sounds nothing like it should.

Check out this video Miguel recorded!

The master and the masters.
Photo by Miguel. Genius photoshop work by me.
DEMON IN THE DETAILS
For William Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg, Brion Gysin and some others
Once upon a time,
these
friends
loved
each other
very much,
and they made a vow
to stay together
until they all
attained
Enlightenment,
and lifetime
after lifetime,
and endless
re-births,
and doing practice,
they all realized
the absolute
empty
true nature
of mind.
They were so
happy
and overjoyed,
they started
dancing,
and dancing,
and danced
and danced,
they were so happy,
in the shocked
recognition
of emptiness
and compassion,
they kept
on dancing,
dancing
and dancing,
and they danced away
all their flesh
and skin,
until there was
nothing
left
but their bones,
and they kept dancing
in their bones,
dancing
skeltons
dancing skeltons.

Smooth
skulls
and speeding
fingers,
smiling
teeth
and wide eyed
holes,
sliding
phymas
and cracking
shins,
spinning
and sparkling
spinal chords,
shouting
ribs
and singing
jaws,
sqwirming
pelvises,
shivering
bones
and shaking
bones;
I want to
jump
into your heart,
I’m gonna come
in your heart
from here.

When it gets to hot
for comfort
and you can’t get
ice cream cones,
taint
no sin,
to take off
your skin
and dance around
in your bones
taint no sin,
to take off your skin
and dance around
in your bones.

You generated
enough
compassion
to fill the world,
and now,
all of you,
resting in
great equanimity,
have accomplished
great clarity
and great bliss,
and the vast
empty
expanse
of Primordially pure
Wisdom Mind.

But our friends
were not
totally,
not completely
Englightened
beings;
and sometimes
a hundred thousand years
in one of the
fabulous
god worlds
or highest
heavens,
is one year
here
or a couple of years here
in ours,
so much
for that.

Now,
at this very moment,
their consciousnesses
are terrorized,
the bells
of hell
the bells of hell
the bells of hell,
they have
cut off
your head,
and are shitting
down
your throat,
the worst
is at this moment
happening,
the very worst,
is happening
now,
life
goes on.

Shakespeare #1: This man was really good friends with Andy Warhol.
Shakespeare #2: Wow! He’s friends with Amy Winehouse? Why?

 

>the view from the window

>

This is the view from my window at two different points today. Frankly, I am happy festivities are over. It feels strange to be pulled away from routine when you’re not even completely adjusted to it yet.

The highlight for me was staying home all day yesterday watching movies (West Side Story, The Three Faces of Eve, Auf der Anderen Seite) and reading books (Kafka on the Shore, De Profundis).

The only outdoor activity (ha!) I’ve done was going to Oktoberfest. It was my first time there since I lived in Munich and I have to say that I found it extremely disappointing that they only served 1 beer from Munich, and that was Franziskaner AND that they served weissbier in a Maß (1 litre beer jar – see photo). Plus when we got there they had run out of it and we drank BitBurger, which is sold at Plus in plastic bottles for a stupidly cheap price. It’s not like I expected to find Augustiner there, even Löwenbräu would have been nice. One thing I don’t get is why the waiters were wearing Spaten t-shirts when that brand wasn’t sold there.

So, there was no Bavarian beer, but at least the band was actually Bavarian.

We also had to wait for over 2 hours to get in. Way too long. It only made my disappointment at the lack of Bavarian beer worse. Ok, I will stop complaining. I had a good time and the little Bavarian flags made me feel warm inside. Besides, the waiting was made slightly better by some entertaining man who uttered gems like this:


“Wow man, this place great. The last time I came here I met someone from China and now a real German!”

“So like…where you live…are there hurricanes there? Because my cousin from Australia once complained that my flat is small because, you know, they live in houses there. So I said that at least here there are no hurricanes and there a little hurricane would make their house would fuck right off”

“I went to France once and there was a bridge that joined it with Germany. A bridge crossing a river. I swear it on my life! It was above a river!”



 

 

>It's like the army.

>

Here’s how Nick Hornby managed to give me the wisest advice about teaching I have ever received. In only 10 seconds!


Me: Nick, I have to ask you one thing. Did you like being a teacher?
Nick: Let’s say I prefer my life now.
Me: I study the same as you, and after spending 5 years saying I’m not going to be a teacher I am already one and I haven’t even finished my degree.
Nick: The thing with teaching is that it’s a bit like the army; before you notice you’re already there, but it’s only for a couple of years. It’s only a temporary solution, and I was very happy to get out.

I spent a long time wondering if I should wait for him to get out so I could have my book signed or not. He is one of my favourite writers, so I was scared of being disappointed. In a couple of years this story will have turned into a whole story where we went out for beers and exchanged myspace websites.

 

>On going to concerts

>

andrea: I’m on a compulsory concert break. I go to whatever, but im usually not very excited about it. I go just because. And i enjoy it but, you know, not in a crazy teenage “omg i saw kris roe” way.
Clemens: Haha. Maybe thats better.
andrea: NO! I wanna be like that again.
Clemens: Is there any band that would make you go like that now?
andrea: Yes, but they’ve broken up.
Clemens: Concert-mid-life-crisis

This conversation was motivated by the order in which I decided to stick concert tickets on the walls.