Houses in Egypt

As Egypt is now getting more and more prominent in the news….

Egypt is a beautiful country. At the same time colorful and dusty, wet and dry, full and empty.

There is so much more to see than pyramids and temples. I don't pretend to know more than the average tourist, but I tried to get a glimpse of "normal" life when I was there. 

Of course there is the enormous difference between living in the big city or in the country.

Cairo and Alexandria are huge cities. People in general live in high apartment buildings. A special feature are the windows. They don't have to be all the same, but can be different. Just as you like. As in all big cities, the traffic is often jammed. Cars mingle with horse drawn carriages or even flocks of animals. 

In the countryside life has a different pace. The pace of horses, donkeys and boats. The houses are small, made of muddy bricks and many are painted in bright colors. 

For larger pictures and more visit Houses in Egypt at my Flick account.

Book markets

I Love books, I love book markets, I love second hand book stores. In my lunch hour I went often to the second hand book store nearby just to look at what was there. Mostly I would bring home some books. As I have a lot of books already, I made a rule that I wouldn’t keep the second hand books, but give them away afterwards. There are exceptions of course; I would keep the poetry.

Some years ago, when I was visiting Paris, I went to a  book market in Montreuil. When my memory is right it was in the Parc Georges Brassens. It was like a huge open air bookstore with only a roof. Being there is a memory that belongs to the larger picture: Walking through Paris, writing poems in café’s, talking, being alive.

A few years later I visited Berlin for the second time. There was the book market at the Humbold University. I was accompanied by a friend that had been starving of books the largest part of his life. So we entered there in a kind of “land of plenty”. The joy of visiting a book market is overwhelming.

Now we only went to get tickets (again) for some theater production. But finally we happened to turn up at the weekly book market in The Hague. No greater pleasure than looking at these books. It was a bit cold this time of the year. And there was nothing we really wanted. So in the end we just went to the large second hand bookshop nearby.

Getting back to the train we were happy with our new “old” books. Looking forward to read them in our warm apartment. Tonight, when I looked at the pictures I took this afternoon…. There was this picture of a man at the book market. Was he really the "poet laureate" of the Netherlands a few years ago? 

Innovation - Le Nozze di Figaro

It was a perfect evening in the “Rotterdamse Schouwburg” (theater). The theater was recently renovated and reopened in the end of 2010. And I think they did a good job! 

Before hand I was a bit skeptic: A baroque performance of Le Nozze di Figaro by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. It was an adaptation by the Barokopera Amsterdam . I was afraid I would miss the orchestra and the chorus. How wrong! Maybe, if I would have been a bit more observant  of the classical music scene …..

We listened to the introductory explanation. The original play takes place on the day of the mariage of Figaro and Susanna. In this new setting storyteller Figaro "flashes back" to this day. Left by Susanna after 12,5 years of marriage Figaro tries to reconstruct what went wrong. In stead of singing the recitatives in Italian, Figaro speaks to the public (in Dutch), thus involving the public directly in the play.

The performance was excellent. The singing was beautiful. I was grateful for the way they did away with the recitatives. We enjoyed everything.


As I didn’t read the program beforehand, I couldn’t grasp what had gone wrong in the marriage (12,5 years before). This is my fault, because I am always late finding out who is the villain. When I looked it up in the program later, it seemed a bit far fetched to me. Not that it mattered a bit.

We had a perfect evening.

For some good pictures of the opera…   http://www.barokopera.nl/fnozze/fotosnozze.html

Trapped by Puerto Natales

Hotel on the Sound of the Last Hope

City hall and church

I was surprised!!! Puerto Natales is now known to the world.  Tourists got caught in a strike (sparked by a government plan to raise gas prices by nearly 17%) and were prevented to get out.

Puerto Natales is a little village (founded exactly 100 years ago / less than 20.000 inhabitants) in the south of Chile near to Argentina. It lies on the land side of the famous Torres del Paine. A perfect place from where to visit the Torres National Park or go for boat trips on the Última Esperanza Sound. This sound is called the “Sound of the Last Hope” because they hoped to find there a more northern route from The Pacific to the Atlantic. But you guessed… even the last hope was in vain.

Sound of the Last Hope

In the evening a friend and I went to the shore looking at the boats, taking pictures and watching the sunset. The telephone boot with a “roof” that looked like an umbrella. There we were rewarded with the most spectacular sunset imaginable.

It was always one of my dreams to go to PN and stay there for at least a month. Just sitting, looking and enjoying the sunset. I was there for only three nights, but they were enough to fall in love with this little spot on the earth. But that was me a “western tourist”. I expect that being born there makes you see the place in a different light.  It isn’t a rich place. Life in South America is not rich. The people struggle to get by. And when it gets to much they might go for desperate actions.  Maybe they lost their last hope.

But I am still dreaming of going back there. 

See: http://patagoniabagual.blogspot.com/

Rain - São Luiz de Paraitinga

When I look outside the rain gushes down the windows. It doesn’t matter if you are in Brazil or in Europe. It rains. Only the temperature is different. This makes life in Brazil in general more comfortable. But when it rains there, the consequences are more serious. Landslides destroy houses. And now there are even many deaths.

 In 2009 I spend Christmas and the New Year in Brazil. Christmas was in Aparecida (the town with the huge cathedral) and on January the second (2010) we planned to go to the beach in Ubatuba.

It had started raining  after Christmas. It kept raining all the time. The road from Taubaté to Ubatuba was blocked by landslides. Paraty could not be reached. What was more serious was that the river Paraitinga had flooded São Luiz.

It took us 4 to 5 hours to get to Ubatuba by the road of Caraguatatuba. We were lucky we didn’t come back like all the people from São Paulo going home. It took the taxidriver almost 12 hours to get back.

After some days, on the normal way back to Taubaté, we passed São Luiz. The beautiful (recently restored) Church had dispeared. Only rubble. The square with the big old houses of the coffee barons and the colorful market were covered with mud. The beautiful little town was unrecognizable.

We need rain, but let’s hope it gets dry soon.

If you want to see more pictures (and larger ones) 

klick here

With abraços for my Brazilian followers.

Empty landscapes

Iceland

I was watching a writer explain that landscapes are important for the creation of the characters of his novels. And he liked empty landscapes. Suddenly I realize how strange it is to call a landscape empty.

Canada

Even the fact that we talk about an empty landscape… It suggests that there should be something extra in there. That something is lacking. Is nature not sufficiently filling the landscape? Can a landscape with animals, like a herd of cattle, be “empty”. Can you make it feel empty”?  Is a landscape filled when there are buildings in sight?

Canada

I can think of many ways to fill a landscape. Like the painters Jeroen Bosch or Salvador Dali fill the landscape with demons and dreams. Looking at paintings, the landscape is often filled with a story, a battle or some biblical scene.

Scheveningen

Looking at my pictures, I see landscapes that feel empty because they are filled. It might be the indication, suggestion, that people are absent that makes them feel “empty”. Sometimes you even need people in the picture to make you see the “emptiness”. But on the other hand a landscape empty of people can feel full when it is overwhelming.

Iceland

I am not a philosopher, so I won’t pretend I can explain. For me it counts what I feel when I see a landscape. The emptiness means different things in different times and different places. It can be filled and at the same time be empty. An empty landscape is free to wander in but also forms a kind of mental frame. It puts you in a certain mood. A kind of mental peace; no noise, no action. Maybe some loneliness. It certainly makes you believe in space, in freedom……

Patagonia

A "Barbapapa house"

The moment I read this, I hear the song of the Barbapapa family; Barbapapapa….  Summer holidays. Driving through Europe with the kids in the back of the car, listening to tapes of Barbapapa, Pippi, the bear Colargol…. Just one rather big tape recorder and they didn’t have the earphones yet. So coming home we could dream a wide repertoire of children stories and songs.

But this is a real serious “Barbapapa house” designed by Atelier Van Lieshout (Zie ook NRC cultuurblog van 2011/01/05). The building looks like a big terracotta bloc with something (also terracotta) crawling around it. Off course I think straight away of the buildings of Hundertwasser and a bit later of the buildings of Gaudi.

From whatever time ago I saw the first pictures of the works of Hundertwasser and Gaudi I was in love with these multicolor structures. Although, Gaudi has also done some pretty “depressing gray” stuff. The Hundertwasser museum in Vienna (Kunsthaus Wien) is a feast of color and fantasy. Two floors of full of pictures in a flowing building. Some years ago in Rotterdam in the “Kunsthal”, there was an exhibition of his models of towns and houses. 

This Atelier Van Lieshout (AVL) certainly makes intriguing art projects. (try the link). It probably did also this man walking in the Hofvijver in The Hague in the summer of 2004.

And what about the monkey like hands coming out of the water in the same year? Is it also from this AVL? I was searching the web, but nothing about this.  And if they are not made by AVL, then who did it? I really would like to know……..

The Museum Quarter

It was because a friend gave us a theater coupon. When you want to use the coupons you have to go and collect the tickets at the theater, some days after you have ordered them.

There we went to Rotterdam. The weather was bad, so a good day to see an exhibition of works of Edvard Munch in the Kunsthal.

Rotterdam as I see it, is always “under construction”. In the Second World War Rotterdam was bombed. After the war rebuilding went on for many years. And now they are renovating the Central Station in a big way. One day I have to make a separate blog about the architecture of Rotterdam.

Coming out of the station there were many puddles to cross. The big highway in front of the station was effectively blocked. No waiting for traffic lights. Only the trams and bicycles. We got our tickets and walked on in the rain. 

Passing the “Boijmans van Beuningen” museum we thought we were stuck. Building going on ahead. Rounding some gates there was a little hidden “path”. A big sign told us go there to the “Kunsthal”. Skipping over puddles, wading through mud, we arrived wet and cold at the museum.

I am sorry but Munch doesn’t appeal to me. I was more entertained by the exhibition of international realism on the upper floor “Feest der herkenning”

Paintings that look so much like pictures, but had this eerie kind of lighting. Huge detailed landscapes and city scenes. Beautiful portraits like this sitting family (“Flagrant”) by Eugene Buland. Very weird when you see the super realistic sculptures of Duane Hanson and John de Andrea. Some years ago in Museum “Arken” (Copenhagen – Denmark) there was a big exhibition of works of Duane Hanson. I remember a sleeping baby in a buggy. We had to look very close to see if it wasn’t a real sleeping baby.

All this realism makes you wonder about what you “really” see.  

Very realistic was the dried out little plant on the plinth of the room. We noticed because there was a spotlight on it. It made me think of my Christmas piece that I just threw into the garbage bin that morning. What a waste.

Going back to the station through the persistent rain. We discovered some fantastic graffiti works in the real world. 

And what about this exiting red zebra….. 

High Places

We were lured into a church once with the promise that we could go into the dome by elevator. The view would be fantastic. So pushing myself to be brave (I simply don’t like heights) we paid rather a lot to get in. Entering the church we saw some scaffolding in the middle and a building site elevator. First I thought they were working on the roof. How stupid of me… 

This was the way we were supposed to go up. The elevator was a see through elevator. So as we got higher the hole under me started growing to immense proportions. I knew there was only this thin floor between me and this gaping depth. Coming to the platform we saw what next they had in store for us. We had to walk over this wobbly platform to a lot of stairs going up to great heights. 

I couldn’t move, let alone take pictures, let alone enjoy the view. And I really didn’t want to go any higher. Everything was moving just a little. As soon as the elevator arrived to go down again I somehow managed to get in.

And then happened what happens always when you don’t reach the top of whatever you are climbing….. I wondered if I should have gone up further. When you are down and safe you feel challenged to go up again.  

So look at these brave men: Going up with a building site elevator, without a protective church around them. Hanging just a bit over the edge of their little “comfort zone” to untie important knots in the many cables of these high cranes. The wind blows; these are the men in real high places…..   

  

The New Year Concert

While I visited the Hundertwasser Museum in Vienna, Antonio went to the “Haus der Musik”. This home of Music is also the home of the Wiener Philarmoniker. Remember all the New Years Concerts? Yes, he brought me a DVD of the New Year concert of 2010. The program promises us “bonbons”, “wine, women and song” and “champagne”. So coming home we sit down comfortably in front of our TV with a glass of wine, prepared for the concert. 

The Opera building is magnificent with a lot of gold. The Orchesta is large and mainly male. The music is dancing along. All the Strausses are present. Polka, Walzer, Tanz and Scherz ending in Gallop. At the same time we are a bit distracted by the old conductor. Obviously used to being a leader, the dominant figure. He is way into the eighties and seems extremely happy with himself, making jokes. (I am probably being unfair.) The program tells all about the music, but nothing about him. After the bonbons, the champagne and a lot of cuckoos and other whisteling birds we listen to a piece of Offenbach; Rhine Fairies. It makes me think of beija flors (kiss the flowers = humming birds) flying around in the floresta (forest). I cannot stop myself, with one Quadrille and some Morgenblätter to go, I fly away into the forest ……