BLAINE'S MUNDO
20/11/02
Hi gang.
well, uncle guido has been putterin' around with his site agin. shore would
gimmee a kick if y'all would mosey 'round and just look at what I done put up
there.
First off, I warned you that I had started to give myself flash lessons. I put a
lovely flash animation on the opening page, the mundoblaineo page and the
tuxedomoon page. check it out.
FAB NEW FLASH ANIMATION
http://www.mundoblaineo.com
http://www.mundoblaineo.com/tuxmopage.html
I have also posted some most entertaining photos of my lovely son and straw
boss, Ian. The last week or so I have been doing highly artistic tasks like
toasting home made muesli, running around the playground here in mytilini ("the
office" as I call it) and playing elephant to my son's Maharajah (carrying him
by the sea front on my shoulders. "Heavy! Heavy!" he cries, referring to my
oft-repeated lament "You're HEAVY, kid!" I also purchased a DVD of Toy Story
which I play on this here computer for his amusement. "DVDV!" he will cry. I
comply.
FAMILY ALBUM
http://www.mundoblaineo.com/family-album.htm
I also bought a CD of kinder music which is promoted endlessly on the only
station here which has anything resembling children's programming. (programming
is the key word in this case.) The CD features the hit "Konos" a touching ballad
about a cone from the geometry series released by this company. Other songs
include "pyramida" and "Kyklos" (circle). This is nominally educational seeing
the crying need for Euclidean geometry in today's world.
that is all. I will write again when I have something artistic to say.
your pal
blaine
*****The latest from mundoblaineo.com.******
The site that would be a man, this man.
AVANT POP MANIFESTO
Greetings ladies and germs. Forgive me if I am preaching to the converted here,
and/or boldly going where everyone has been before, but it seems like my
conscious mind is finally catching up with the instinctive, butt-sniffin' dog
that is my artistic neandearthal self. I have been just diggin' in to arty
endeavor pretty much my whole life and puttin' my pinky up to the wind, followin'
my nose and not exactly knowing why. "what the hell are you on about?" I hear
you say.
Surf, sample, manipulate. surf, sample, manipulate. sounds good to me. I have
been taking xmas carols from a MIDI file site. I want to play Christmas songs
with some other cyboid geeks and destroy them. Why? Because I HATE CHRISTMAS
THAT'S WHY!!! HE HE HE HE.
Not really. I love christmas.
I am lying.
everything i say is a lie. including the previous sentence. not really. maybe.
stop.
(p.s. you may have noticed my failure to capitalize words. sometimes i don't,
then my inner grammar school teacher
steps in and I must do as I am tole. i am ee cummings. no i'm not.)
I went online to find some kind of post mo manifesto, found one, some wordy geek
named uh...let's see
Mark America. Lives in Boulder as it happens. seems like this guy has been
thinking as I have all this time, what with my notion of Joeboy the Electronic
Ghost and all of that. We are what are known as "bricoleurs". this is claude
levi-strauss' word for those who cobble together 'texts' in whatever medium. It
seems that a text in this sense is different from what our print-driven minds
would suppose. anything can be a text. a website is a text. a song is a text. a
text is a text.
none of this is new. this is that whole semiotic/structuralist/postmodernist
thing that has been kicking around for some time, especially among the more
intellectual types who have haunted the new wave punko part of the cultural
spectrum.
it's just that I have come to realize that there is and has been a method to my
madness. my webbing and bricolage over the years are an integral part, not a
side effect of this exciting epistemology. my last coupla shows have been a
vindication of sorts. yes, virginia, i do have a new direction. yes, it is
cynical as hell. "let's download midi files of christmas songs and pictures of
car crashes and give the proles what for!" yeah. viva la revolucion.
oh yes. i forgot. "Americans don't do irony."
innarestin' thing about irony is that those on the receiving end of the ironical
must believe, along with the ironizer, that the ironizer is better, smarter,
wiser and more moral than his material. americans are not used to coming into a
discussion with any kind of preparation, thus often find themselves in the dark.
everything must be dished up on a plate for americans. to expect someone in the
audience to actually KNOW SOMETHING a priori is asking too much.
oh yes oh yes oh yes.
I found some wonderfully terrible midi files of xmas songs online. I also found
a place, not a porn site, where on the first of every month a group of people
(somewhere in california) have a sort of orgy onlines and the online audience,
connected via chat and video interface are asked to masturbate along. the
purveyors of this event, called 'globalgasm' profess to want everyone to orgasm
in synch in order to raise the planetary consciousness. well, I know where I
will be on January 1st.
the whole goddam thing is just too damn excitin'.
The small music theatre of athens presents Blaine L. Reininger's Christmas
Deconstruction Site. We will deconstruct a series of well-known Christmas songs,
mostly from the American-English tradition which has declared itself world
culture thanks to mass-media. Greek songs will not be immune, however.
Participating will be Blaine L. Reininger on violin, vocals, guitar, FM radio,
found objects and visual heresy,Christopher Silvey on trumpet, video, and DJ,
and Pan Pirakos on keyboards, didgeridoo and hair-do.
yoren
blaze
mark america
http://amerika.newmediacentre.com/
globalgasm
http://www.globalgasm.com/inside.htm
Home of the avant poppies
http://www.altx.com
MUNDOBLAINEO BULLETING NUMERO [_+"/|?><
Elvis past life readings,Xmas gig, Pacman
21/12/2002
Greetings. You have 4 of your earth shopppping days until the festival of your
deity, Santa Christ. My sources inform me that you must burn all of the paper
entropy symbols for which you strive so earnestly the rest of the year in order
to keep the howling void at bay for another orbit. I have made similar
preparations and shall be burning my EURO "coins" with my quantum spin
cancelling pistol in my usual sacrifical locus, MacDonald's. Merry New Year.
Be advisled that Blaine will play with two of his buddies at the admirable
Athens establishment known as "To Mikro Theatro Musikon" or "The Small Musical
Theatre". This place is renowned for being:
a. small
b. a musical theatre
I will be destroying a series of seasonal ditties in the company of two of my
Athens chums, Christopher Silvey and Pan Pirakos. The show will begin at 22:30
on Sunday, December 22, 2002. Be there or be rhomboid.
I would like to welcome new members on board. You know who you are. Don't you?
SITE NEWS!
PACMAN!
I'd like to, like, hip you dudes to new additionizations sitewise. First, we got
a new additionization to Elvis' much-loved game zone
PACMAN! Of course, I wanted to 'theme' the game to fit in with the (pretty
flimsy) Elvis flavor of the region, but it's just pacman.
Pretend you are in 1982 in your favorite disreputable dive, pumping quarters
(and/or francs, pfennigs, yen) into a flickering radiation-emitting color tv
attached to a 5hz CPU. As David Boweed has said "In space it's always 1982".
Ain't it the truth? Don't you wish you'd said that?
chuck it out, dodes.
http://www.mundoblaineo.com/PacMan.zip/EPacMan.html
MORE ELVIS!
After the smash hit of my ASK ELVIS section, the King has agreed to sit in for
PAST LIFE CONSULTATIONS, right here on Mundoblaineo.
ain't that wonderful.
http://www.mundoblaineo.com/index2.html#pastlife
No one remembers Lucas Samaras. When I began taking photos of myself all over
the damn place with the auto-timer function on my camera, I used to say "This
reminds me of Lucas Samaras" and people would say "WHO?" or "WHUT?" Well,
there's a picture of this seemingly forgotten man up on my site now. People will
still say "whut?" but they can't say I didn't try. He used to do SX70 art. "SX
70? Whut that? A new Palmtop?"
http://www.mundoblaineo.com/autophotos.html
And that's about it for today, gang.
byeeee
blaine
Oh yes, if I don't speak with you before then
MERRY HAPPY EX-MASS FROM THE STAFF AT MUNDOBLAINEO. LET'S PRAY FOR A
FASCIST-FREE NEW YEAR, TOO.
January 31, 2002
SRI SWAMI PASTANANDA GWEE DOH RINPOCHE'S NEW YEAR MESSAGE
Greetings, my little chickadees. Here we are again at the same point in our
solar orbit as last year, poised to begin yet another headlong swing around the
hellish unquenchable flames of our nearest stellar neighbor. The new year is
almost upon us, in other works. Even as we speak, an eternal loop of Guy
Lombardo's band playing "Auld Lang Syne" fills the air here in Mundoblaineo.
Hephestus, my vulcanologist and Clothilde, the chief eunuch must work overtime
to keep the bubble machine topped up with rare and costly perfumes from the
mystic east. (This would be the east of Athens where the noble fragrance "Axe"
may be had for two dinari the hogshead. Ah, heady days!)
I have completed two holiday greeting Flash movies and now must rest, having
posted them in the sanctum sanctorum of Mundoblaineo, the holy of holies, the
website. Hie thee hence, gentle reader and partake of their soul's nectar!
http://www.mundoblaineo.com/new-years.htm
and
http://www.mundoblaineo.com/xmas-card.htm
Those deluded fools amongst you who swallow the rabid dog drool that is chinese
astrology may be curious to know that 2003 will be the year of the goat, and/or
the sheep. sheep sounds about right as dubya saunters lazily into war, just for
the hell of it and the u.s. congress and the american public just bend over,
grease themselves up and show him which part of their collective anatomy will
pleasure him up most.
And far in the East, Typhon doth crack he cheeks for to blow a turrible tempest
upon ye infidel slugs! Woe! Guai! Guai! Fie! Pi r squaRED! and so on....
Apropos of pretty much nothing, I came upon two bons mots about art while
reading Kurt Vonnegut the other day. (Yes, Kurt still alive, occasionally worth
reading.)
"I say in speeches that a plausible mission of artists is to make people
appreciate being alive at least a little bit. I am then asked if I know of any
artists who pulled that off. I reply 'The Beatles did.'"
and
"Artists are people who say, 'I can't fix my country or my state or my city, or
even my marriage. But..I can make this square of canvas, or this piece of paper,
or this lump of clay, or these twelve bars of music, exactly what they OUGHT to
be!'"
So, in conclusion, my steaming love dumplings, let all of us in the dirigible
moored on Mount Olympus which is Mundoblaineo Galactic Headquarters wish you and
yours the best time possible as we observe the coming of 2003. Be reassured that
even Scientific American now tells us that "Time is...probably an illusion." God
rest ye merry, Mary, with Nietzsche's notion of eternal re-occurrence, be good
because you JUST MIGHT HAVE TO GO THROUGH ALL OF THIS CRAP AGAIN!
blessings upon ye
sri guido
Mundoblaineo bulletin
12 January, 2003
Greetings poppists. First, I would like to welcome new victims to the list. You
will have a place in heaven 'cause y'all spent yore time in hell.
I have put some listenable tuneful tunes from my own and related archives up on
a free web host discovered in Italy. I say, ain't nothin' beats free stuff
unless you are being paid. The only catch here, pilgrims, is that they don't
allow no mp3's up there. I have opted for two streaming formats, WMA and rm,
real audio. If you have a mac, well tough.
Go there and check it out.
http://members.xoom.it/blaine
I shall keep posting things up there until I run out of space (50 mb fo' free).
Come the end of this month, your working boy will be heading up to Cologne for a
spell, where I will be living and working on a piece of theatre with the
renowned bad boy of German theatre, Albrecht Hirche. The piece will nominally be
titled "The Ten Greatest Rock Songs of All Time" and will feature yours ruly
actin' and a playin' git tar. This is the guy who brought you "Das Lied vom Tod"
an avant pop musical version of "Once Upon a Time in the West" in which I played
Henry Fonda. This guy is a hoot.
Tuxmoon intends to play Paris, Brussels, possibly Greece this year. Summer seems
likely. Stay tuned to this station.
For now, I return control of you inboxes to you.
steaming dollops of frangipani-flavored amore served from a milkmaid's knee
blaine
SALAMI COLOGNEY
01/02/2003
Greetings, sports fans. Your loyal working boy finds he butt in the cold
northern wastes of Cologne, Deutschland. It be snowing even as I write this. I
just arrived here to begin rehearsing "The 10 Greatest Rock Songs in History"
with German director Albrecht Hirche. Things are moving along swimmingly. As
things stand now, I am working on a radio show with several other strange types.
In the course of the first scene, I play "Lucille" by Little Richard on the
guitar, complete with SOLO! Before the night is through, I play Nirvanas "Teenspirit"
as well. Many other fab tunes are to be heard as well.
I will keep you posted with the thrilling details. We will premiere this piece
at the Stadt Theater of Köln mmmmm March 1st or so. Will clue you all in.
Just wanted to poke my pointy haid into yalls lives for a spell. Its snowing
even now. I am wearing "thermal pants" which I bought for 10 euros at one of the
plentiful outlets for Chinese consumer goods which clutter the german landscape.
They say theyre having economic troubles. I say a german recession is hard to
tell from the glorious golden age in many less fortunate countries, like my poor
backward Greece. Somehow I cant see the Greeks understanding, using and
maintaining something like the touch sensitive color display in every tram which
dispenses tickets. I cant see the greeks happily bussing their own tables at
macdonalds either.
not that my world is made up of trams and macdonalds. oh well.
gotta go now. eat my chinese take out in my happy little cologne apt.
laters
blaine
Hi gang. I am sitting in an internet cafe in coldogne waiting for my laundry to
finish in the laundromat next door. How simply magnificent! They have
laundromats (laundrettes) in Germany. You may laugh, but there are about two in
the whole city of Athens, a city of 4 million. The Greeks just take their
laundry to mom. This is doubtless caused by the church. I won't tell you why I
think so. Here in the god forsaken pagan wastes of protestantism people stand on
their own two feet, having dispensed with mom forever! They take their laundry
wherever they damn please! Vive l'anarchie.
SOMETHING BIG
4/02/2003
As I may have told youse, I am performing in a theatre piece for the Cologne
Stadt Theatre called "The Ten Greatest Rock Songs of All Time". Today I
discovered that I will read lists of various peoples' candidates for this list
during the course of the show. IF YOU SEND ME A LIST OF YOUR TEN GREATEST ROCK
SONGS OF ALL TIME I WILL READ IT IN THE SHOW AND MENTION YOUR NAME INTO THE
BARGAIN!!!!! Can't beat that now can you folks! Let's get writing. I'm waiting.
That's it for today. I think my laundry is finished.
blaine
GERMANS ON PARADE
Saturday March 8, 2003
Greetings sports fans. Blaine here, writing from cologne where I am engaged in a
longish residency in the theatuh, dahlings. If you were unaware of this because
you have neglected to memorize my last site bulletin, you will be in for some
harsh penalties, but that is a task for my minions and not subject to discussion
here. Even now, I am tabling a UN resolution to this effect, but I will give
inbox inspections time to take hold.
You will all be relieved to know that carnival is over and it is once again safe
to walk the streets. If you were uncertain, cologne-ians take carnival very
seriously and life itself ceases for a week while the citizens assert their
right to wear day-glo orange afro wigs and cow suits not only in their places of
employment, but also while riding the tram or sleeping, in short, everywhere.
Millions of germans have voted with their mouths and urinary tracts to retain
beer as the national beverage and the right to festoon public places with
decorative vomit has once again been upheld. I myself was privileged to watch as
a candle-light procession burned the um…german word…scapegoat in effigy, sang a
few songs and then buggered off home because they had to work in the morning.
And that was the end of that.
If I have neglected to keep you all informed about the other petty details of my
life, it is only because I have had the devil’s own time connecting to the
internet from my friendly little Sudstadt pad. I spent long hours trying a
George Bush style frontal assault on the system in order to download my latest
spam to no avail. It seems that the German telephone system is incompatible on
several levels with my (regrettably) American hardware and I have been forced to
do a survey of available hardware in order to rectify this. Unfortunately, the
survey was conducted by buying several boxes of circuit boards from consumer
outlets and handing over largish amounts of my hard-earned Eurodollars in
return. I was then free to try the objects out in various configurations until
one worked. I have at last found a winning combination, no thanks to the advice
of anyone working for the newly-privatized deutsche telecom or any of its fellow
mammon worshipers.
Regrettably, it also seems that prerequisites to working in a German consumer
electronics store are:
a. a deep and abiding hatred and suspicion of anyone who would dare to enter any
shop seeking to purchase any item (thus disturbing the catatonic trance of the
employee) and
b. a profound ignorance verging upon clinical death of anything regarding the
behavior of electrons in a circuit of any sort.
If you throw a nasty case of acne into the bargain you may begin to understand
the landscape which presents itself to would-be clients of german ‘service’
enterprises
There you go. Wa wa wa. Poor me. I’m okay now, though. If you ever want to know
the difference between the German dialing protocols and those of the rest of the
world, I am your man. As is often the case whenever a gnarly system problem
presents itself on my Microsoft-equipped computing device, I have learned more
than I ever wanted to know about the subject. The truth is out there, folks, in
the immortal words of fox mulder, a fictional character who will soon no longer
exist outside of the memories of ancient and ignored people.
Oh, old blaine, he do go on, don’t he?
I will tell you, before you attempt suicide from boredom, that the play in which
I strut and fret will soon premiere on the stage here in cologne. “The 10
greatest rock songs in world history” will premiere on March 28 at the Halle
Kalk, Cologne. The estimable director, Albrecht Hirche has once again brought
forth a triumph of post-narrative media saturated divertissement which will keep
you talking for literally minutes after seeing it performed. This is no mean
feat in our attention-deficient culture. So, be there or be square.
And, "what about that george bush and his happy little war?" What indeed,
friends? Would I be far off the mark to call George Bush a vile trumped-up
little nazi buffoon? An arrogant little prick of a frat boy who just wants
to...like blow up some arab dudes and say "whoa...awesome" when the brains
splatter his nintendo screen? I don't think so. For more salient comment, I
suggest you go to http://www.alternet.org and see what the likes of Kurt
Vonnegut and Gore Vidal have to say about the antics of Bozo the Clone, our de
loved pres.
Now, I bask in the radiance of a day off from travail and I plan to use this day
in the manner in which god intended. I shall sleep.
Great sizzling gobbets and knobs of love
Your working boy,
blaine
WAG THE DOG
march, 2003
IT'S WAR.
Greetings, sports fans. Unless you have been hibernating you will know that
george bush can die happy now, knowing that he will be remembered as the man who
started the first war of the 21st century. Of course, many of us who must share
the same galaxy with this miscarriage can be forgiven for wishing that he would
just go, happy or not. They went ahead and did it, gang. They are wagging that
dog with a vengeance. Mercy me. It’s war.
I know that the cogent arguments against this war (forget the arguments for,
they don’t deserve the breath it takes to say them) have been written and talked
about until everyone is bored stiff and numb and apathetic. That’s the way THEY
want you to feel. I will refrain from rehashing these points. Go to
www.MichaelMoore.com for articulate satiric comment on this mess from the man
who gave you “Bowling for Columbine”.
What I find particularly sad is this. The people who gave the world rock n’
roll, James Dean, Marilyn Monroe, Marilyn Manson, the Beatles, Shakespeare,
Citizen Kane, Andy Warhol, Hollywood, the Wright Brothers, the Marx Brothers, in
short all that is liberating, fascinating, sexy and fun in modern culture have
turned their back on the spirit that gave rise to these things. How can the
people of the world continue to emulate Americans in their desire to be free,
beautiful, self-motivated and glad to be alive after those same people have
opted instead to become bringers of death from above, a snarling ignorant herd
who believe that they are the only real people on this planet? The lives that
they disrupt can surely have no meaning. Surely the people of iraq will only be
truly happy when they too can shop at wal-mart and wear levi’s as god intended
them to.
Now, when I meet people in Europe and elsewhere in love with late 20th century
American culture, those fascinated with the history of rock music and the
culture it spawned, I am embarrassed for my country. “Yes, we invented rock, but
now we’re too old to want to hang out with our friends and play guitars on the
beach. Now, we want to rule you morons and bomb you into the stone age if you
disagree even mildly.”
George Bush and the nasty constipated little people who have put him in power
are trying to kill Rock n’ Roll. I will never forgive them.
Pass the Freedom Fries.
M U N D O B L A I N E O N E W S
29 MARCH, 2003
TEN GREATEST ROCKSONGS
Hi gang, here I am again. Just got home from the second performance of our
little play. I thought you might like to know that it is going very well. I am
pleased.
I realized that those of you who were good enough to submit your lists of ten
best to me never heard back from me. Well, as things shaped up, the director’s
taste prevailed and “Pretty Vacant” from the Sex Pistols was pretty much the
only song from this list that made it into the show. We did, however, print the
e-mails and put them up in the foyer. There you go. Famous for 15 minutes thanks
to mundoblaineo’s affirmative action program.
Before I bury it in verbiage, here are the dates of this spectacle in case any
of you might like to come, as well as a link to the theater’s site.
Read all about it at…..
http://db1.txnet.de/theater_koeln/spielplan/schauspiel/03_maerz.shtml
and here are those dates, as promised.
Die Zehn besten Rocksongs der Weltgeschichte
Ein Projekt von Albrecht Hirche
Halle Kalk
PREMIERE MARCH 28 19.30 Uhr
March 29, 2003
MARCH 31
MARCH 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 AND 8 19:30
APRIL 26, 28, 29
MAY 9,10, 11
JULY 11, 12, 13, 14, 15
I would truly like to see one or two of you there. It’s worth it to see me play
LUCILLE.
TUXEDOMOON UPDATE
For those of you not on the yahoo list, we are scheduled to play at the pompidou
center in paris on june 26, 2003. here is a link to the center’s own site which
will either tell you everything or nothing, depending upon how good your French
is.
http://www.centrepompidou.fr/Pompidou/Evenements.nsf/Docs/IDB809385D174F9FDAC1256CD700525A01?OpenDocument
and here are some links, souvenirs of my recent webexploits.
LINK TO THE FRONT LINE
Here is a link to a blog (weblog) written by a Lieutenant in the US Army now in
Iraq. If you want a day to day account of what’s happening on the ground this is
pretty good. You can e-mail this guy, but please don’t send him any hate mail.
He is just another poor slob doing the bidding of foul imperialist running dog
war mongers, sons of dogs and 1000 camels.
http://lt-smash.us/
LINK TO A GOOD FREE ANTI POP-UP PROGRAM
I found this in an effort to stop ‘freenet.de’ which is my “free” internet
service provider here in Der Vaterland from opening in my browser after every
search. In the process I found a good free program which ACTUALLY STOPS POPUP
ADS and unwanted cookies, bots and so on.
http://www.proxomitron.org/
I really recommend this!
Also, if you have been assaulted by ‘the free teen sex dialer’ (you know who you
are, you dogs) or other “bots” you can clean house with this fab program.
What is a bot, you may ask? It is a program which casually infests your computer
when you visit certain unscrupulous websites and reports your movements to its
owner. It can also infest your browser with unwanted links, toolbars, behaviors.
These things are as gnarly as viruses and they piss me off.
SPY BOT software
http://security.kolla.de
there you go, friends,
all the best to you from blaine
WHERE IS HE NOW? DEUTSCH-SPRACHIGE NEWS
05/04/2003
Grusse, liebe freunde,
First off, I want to direct you all to a german magazine article (SPEX),
written, oddly enough in the native language of that country. If one is patient
and fluent in Deutsch, one may ascertain what this old dog is up to and what he
thinks about certain refined subjects like post-modernism and the quest for
ultimate meaning by means of wearing lots of makeup and black clothes. Here is
the link:
SPEX ARTIKEL
http://www.spex.de/article.xml?vpID=5&aid=4191&SID=1049533041_6ab200000002cceab479
further german language information about the production currently underway,
“the ten greatest rocksongs…” etc. may be found at the following address:
http://www.sueddeutsche.de/aktuell/sz/getArticleSZ.php?artikel=artikel5750.php
and:
http://www.stadtrevue.de/index_artikel.php3?c=6&s=1
and for a nice mention of your humble narrator:
http://www.welt.de/data/2003/03/31/60800.html
TUXEDOMOON NEWS
The upshot is this, fiends. I was in Brussels this week in order to discuss the
release of the new Tuxedomoon studio cd with erstwhile crammed president marc
Hollander. Looks like we got a deal, folks. We are discussing release in spring
2004 inshallah.
What I want from you, oh members of the mundoblaineo and yahoo lists is this: if
you know of fine modern young hip intelligent and attractive PRODUCER type
people who know and admire the work of the boys, Tuxedomoon, we are now hiring.
Send your suggestions to me or post them on the list.
With that, I leave you.
A lovely weekend to you all.
blaine
TSCHUSS, COLOGNE
16 may, 2003
cologne
Greetings and hallucinations. This here's your old pal Blaine, obeying "The
People from the Future", (yes, the same ones who made question Mark write 96
tears) and writing another wee bulletinlet to further clog your inboxes. I
haven't written for a while. Miss me?
Wistfully, I prepare to close the door on this part of the throbbing melodrama
and the rib-tickling carnival o' laffs that is my life. Full of wist, I depart
the fine city of Cologne and in particular this apartment. This place has done
right by me. The walls have all stayed in place as has the ceiling, not too hot,
not too cold with all mod cons. I will miss this place.
I have come to love the 21st century public works program beauty of this town.
Riding my bicycle down one of the many bike paths, especially at night, I have
lingered to step out of my gestalt, commune with my past selves and tell them
all that, yes, we have arrived safely in the 21st century, guys. I love to
imagine the ordinary night scene here played out in a 60's sci-fi movie,
streamlined superfast trains, computerized trams slowly gliding over a
suspension bridge hung from one pole, tensile structure coliseum and tented
theatre glowing blue in the distance. The taxis talk, giant tv screens distract
those waiting in the metro stations, people send photos of each other back and
forth with their pocket communicators.
The people in this town seem to be constantly on the move. The bike path along
the Rhine is jammed with people walking, biking, roller blading, running, ships
full of gawkers, kayaks and teams of rowers stream up and down the river. On a
sunny day, the sidewalk cafes, restaurants, beer joints are packed. And
naturally, old Guido has been known to sit on a park bench sucking on a Coke
light, watching the parade of blonde pulchritude (and brunette, and red and
green-haired) walk by, even those on the arms of invisible boyfriends. (old
lechers never see the hapless git with the young nexus of lust. We all think
"Come over here, baby, see what experience can do for you." Then we hack up a
piece of lung and risk breaking a hip trying to bend over to tie our shoe. Of
course, we wait until she is gone, otherwise she will see the bald patch when we
bend down.")
I have enjoyed it here, gang. Now, it's back to Greece. Back where the men are
men and the sheep are nervous. Oh, I could go on, but I won't. Oh, just one. The
other day, I realized that the Greeks are only now getting around to emulating
1960's America. They have eliminated pedestrian spaces, bulldozed public spaces,
and are busy trying to build a replica of Walt Disney's autopia. Face it, folks,
there are just too many damn cars in Athens. There are too many damn cars
everywhere, but Athens has taken absolutely no steps to provide alternatives to
this. Let 'em eat smog.
******************************************************
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>the point<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
Don't forget, friends, Tuxedomoon in Hasselt, Belgium
June 21........Salle Belgie
Paris June 26,......Centre Pompidou
The Ten Greatest Rock Songs in HIstory at the Halle Kalk, Cologne
Final performances ever!.........July 11, 12,13, 14
be there or be square.
I remain as ever,
your working boy
blaine
Mon May 26, 2003 12:26 am
Subject: back issues, new gallery
*****The latest from mundoblaineo.com.******
The site that would be a man, this man.
Greetings, y'all
This here's old blaine, back in Greece. I just wanted to direct y'alls attention
to two new postings at mundoblaineo, the site that would be a man.
First, I have posted the site bulletins covering the period of my sojourn in
Cologne. Thrill to my
essays on the war in Iraq, laundry in Cologne, and the ten
greatest rock songs in history.
http://www.mundoblaineo.com/site_news_frameset.htm
Second, I have whipped up a fairly enormous gallery with most of the worthwhile
photos I took up there in Deutschland. I purchased a damn fine digital camera
for a mere 200 euros and I want to share my photos of every waking moment with
you, my beloved list.
http://www.mundoblaineo.com/colognepix.htm
SEE! my
photo of our beloved president, Mongo T. Hasenpfeffer as he declares war
on Ruritainia! SEE! my photo coverage of this year's carnival in Cologne! SEE!
all the photos of the Rhine you ever wanted to see, many of which include
pictures of my bicycle!!!
That's all the news that fits tonight, beloved ones. My nearly 3 year old son
Ian has, as usual, taken over control of my mind. I have taught him the
following litany (how cute, you may say).
He will say something like
"It's hot". I will reply "Who sez?" He: "I say" Me:
"Who you?" He: "I boss" Me: "Boss of what?" He: "Boss of world".
It is interesting to note that I did not teach this to him. It is all his own.
bye
blaine
Wed Jun 4, 2003 8:48 am
Subject: secure in the homeland
*****The latest from mundoblaineo.com.******
The site that would be a man, this man.
MUNDOBLAINEO AMERICAN EDITION
June 3, 2003
Hi gang. This writing finds me in the old country, the United States of America.
I was called to my home town of Pueblo, Colorado on family business at rather
short notice. I am sitting in my the kitchen of the family manse writing
to you.
It is most amazing to be back in the land of the free, home of the brave in
these security-conscious duct tape hoarding times. One of the first things I
heard upon landing at chicago's O'hare airport was an announcement on the PA
from the department of homeland security, reminding us all that the security
alert status had been moved to "orange" and warning us to beware of unattended
baggage for this reason. The vile strangeness of this announcement reminded me
of
a scene from "fahrenheit 451" or some other dystopian science fiction fantasy
from the 1960's. This, my friends, was surely not the future I signed up for.
One may see that 'security' is a growth industry in this country now. Even the
ads on the television that used to try and persuade young people to find their
future in computers now peddle courses in "homeland security". save me. all
sorts of nasty folks now patrol the shopping precincts of this country wearing
black and
toting machine pistols in the name of 'security'. They are no joke, my
friends, one mocks them at one's peril.
On a less creepy note, having been away from this place for twenty years or more
I can see without prejudice that this town provided the raw material for the
landscapes of my dreams. I am re-visiting significant locations on my brother's
bicycle, breathing in the magic prairie air, filled with delicious longing as
the wind charged by its journey over the prairie,
heavy with the musk of an
approaching thunderstorm re-kindles sites of bewilderment in my being that I
thought had long since been papered over with experience.
This vacant frontier town gets me where I live. I suppose that only when we get
older do we realize that it is possible to have emotions which are oxymorons,
love/hate fear/desire disgust/fascination. Small wonder that this oxymoron of a
country, full of oxys and a hell of a lot of morons fascinates the world so.
bye
blaine
photos pueblo gallery