almost done

almost done, originally uploaded by Dr. Monster.

moved

Just to let you know that I have moved our blog to http://sicut.nl/blog/.

tit for tat

I confess. It was on the early morning of December 7th, 1979 -I was a lad of just 15- when I committed the misdemeanor of graffiti for the first and last time. On my way to grammar school, I scribbled the rather bland “Eet meer Freud” on the pillar of a department store. Of course, I was promptly arrested by the strong arm of the law, whisked away to the police station, encarcerated, questioned and ultimately sent to apologize to the shop-owner and offer my services to remove the last trace of my vandalistic outburst. I spent the rest of the day cleaning the marble column with vim. The real challenge of course was one day later, when I found out that the local newspaper had written a short entry on the whole event. The Dutch custom of protecting the anonimity of suspects by just using their initials miserably exposed me. Coming home to my avid newspaper-reading parents, I undoubtedly used an ingenious ploy to make the newspaper disappear, hoping they'd read past the whole thing. (Years later I found out they didn't and in fact enjoyed every minute of my desparate antics.) Now, thanks to the digitization of the local newspaper, my sins of youth are there for the world to see.

महाभारत

“Destiny has slipped into my words without warning.”

Kunti in Le Mahabharata by Jean-Claude Carrière

blond, blue eyes

but the dress, originally uploaded by [sic].

Immensely enjoyed Lisa Gerrard’s performance at the Rotterdam theatre. Intense, nervous, perfectionist, Lisa Gerrard was far from easy on herself and presented her l’art pour l’art as a religious dogma. At that moment I slowly began to understand Rutger Hauer’s slightly tormented facial expression towards the end of Simone de Vries’ filmic portrait of the Dutch actor. In “Blond, Blue Eyes”, the documentary film maker closely follows Rutger Hauer and peels off the on-screen persona of the dangerous, strong and sexy villain. In real life, the seasoned actor is more than timid and soft spoken, and even shows sardonic self relativization. Towards the final moments of the documentary, the actor at times seems to look puzzled, as if about the say: “Hey. I’m only pretending".

¡Santo!

For his age, Leon masters an impressive multilingual lexicon of terms and expressions. There are two things however, Leon just will not say. The word “please” is in none of his books. He falls silent in Spanish, Dutch or English when we suggest him to use the word. More curious even is his refusal to refer to himself with his own name. He reacts when we say “Leon”, but when we do the pointing and naming game at the table, where everybody points to someone else and asks for their name, he can accurately name everybody, but he refuses to use the name Leon for himself. The only way he refers to himself is either “bebe” (the baby) or “niño” (the little one). Tonight, at the dinner table, we played the game and much to our surprise he referred to himself with a whole new name. It was not Leon (or Leense for that matter) but Santo. Leon proudly pounded his chest saying “Santo!”. He is half Mexican after all.

safe and sound

The blazing Californian wildfires did reach the Chula Vista region after all. Sylvia’s house was safe, but her daughter had to be evacuated for just one day. Nothing happened. Phew.

communist candy

Hubertus took some Russian candy from Magdeburg. It reminded me of the candy from behind the Iron curtain, I tasted when my parents visited Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia, long long long before these countries ceased to excist. The taste of Ersatz made me think: "Is this the taste of socialism?"

amazing

Every parent learns the adage "When it's quiet it is too late", so the other day, when Leon was not making a noise Claudia rushed in to find him play-acting his medication procedure in accurate detail with surplus medical supplies from the closet. And yes, we keep needles under lock and key.

the road to isenheim

This finger has been haunting me for decades now. Insanely long. Probing. Pointing. Poking. Quoting John 3:30. With whom should we identify. The pointer or the pointee?

pressing matters

A tin can of condensed milk, featuring a vignette with farmers ploughing and sowing plus a distant windmill? The great puzzler here is the cryptic text between the laurels. It looks like the fake runes from the Oera Linda manuscript. Alas, the customer service could not aid me in this quest.

---

Contact number: 348631

Dear mister van Dijk,

Many thanks for your email of September 19th, 2006 on the condensed milk.

As far as we have been able to ascertain, the vignette shows a farmer cutting grass and a text in partially illegible (Chinese?) characters.

We are very sorry that we are not able to disclose this matter fully.

Kind greetings,
Friesche Vlag Consumer Services

Margot Krijt

---

everything has already been done

twice.

new routine

new routine, originally uploaded by [sic].

stage of separation

Next Wednesday, it will be one hundred days since Mario passed away. In many cultures around the globe, this is a special moment, marking a new stage of separation. We look forward to a special Dia de los Muertos, later this year, to celebrate the life of Mario Dominguez.

the gift

Joost is my father's younger brother. The euphemism says he is mentally challenged. I think he has lived up to much more than just mental challenges.

He has seen his nephews and nieces grow up. And their children. With the benjamin of the family now starting to walk, Joost presented Leon the reading book his father bought him when he was four. It took him twenty years to master it.

leon is back

leon is back, originally uploaded by [sic].

Leon has had surgery on his right (club)foot. It was performed by the renowned doctor Besselaar, who relocated a tendon from the shin to the side of the foot. We haven’t been able to find a picture of the doctor, but he does look like Sam the Eagle from the Muppet Show. As Leon was heading to the OR anyway (and we were facing the standard 10 extra days in hospital for hemophiliacs), the hematologist suggested to have his Broviac-Hickman catheter (basically a rubber tube in the chest) by a Port-a-Cath. A PAC is a metal box with a silicone plug that is implanted under the skin and is safer to use. In the mean time we have to pass another test, because cleaning and operating the PAC is normally restricted to registered nurses. One month later we are very much looking forward to next week, because we are hopeful we will pass the test next week and administer the Factor VII three times a week from home.

the charm of the unfamiliar

Fuelled by nostalgia and longing for their homeland, peasants from the inland, European immigrants and creoles shared poverty and disillusions about their golden dream of Argentina in the immigrant packed conventillo houses. They acted out in violent music and dance in the patios and brothels of Buenos Aires, accompanied by violin, guitar, flute and bandoneón. Thus, the genesis of the tango. To see this longing for the homeland emulated by those desperately longing for a faraway place (the essence of exotism) by the very inhabitants of the fatherland of the inventors of tango is a reversed “mise en abyme” to say the least. Think Malando, Joseph Schmidt, Pjotr Leschenkov and Olavi Virta.

percentage

As the Frisians say: "Elts praat fan my sûpen, mar nimmen fan myn toarst" (Everybody talks about my drinking, no one about my thirst). However, quenching thirst seems to be the lesser need of the modern drinker. Ominously, the x-height of the percentage seems to have grown larger than that of the actual brandname, overnight. As was to be expected, it tastes like sterno.

broken heart

Just a couple of weeks before he died, my father in law explained the technicalities of the surgical procedure performed in a Belgian hospital. In the end, medical complications and an onset of emphysema sadly caused his untimely demise.

jumping the band wagon

Well, that's what virals are for. It was a very therapeutic session with all the family members contributing.