water in the city

I love cities with water flowing through them. You stick your nose out of the door and voilà, somethings strange happens. A small pilot boat dragging two huge cranes in the sunset...

I love the reflections on the water, the activity on the water..
The tall ships I can actually see from my bedroom window and sometimes i see a glimps of the water mirroring the sky.

So the cranes disappear into the distance, soon to stand sleeping in the mild summer like night.

The problem is when I look at the tall ships, I also can see the smoke rising from the nuclear power plant at the edge of a million people's town.

No nuclear energy - change to solar and wind.

Walk of fame II -Startiing with Kermit the Frog

The stars on Hollywood Boulevard: 2000 of them are interesting, some names remind us of good times, fine music, great acting, wonderful locations like the Kodac theater and the colorful Capitan.

All is for sale:

Rocket launchers and arsenals for private wars.
Machine guns, grenades, hand guns and of course pepper spray.
 Frilly underwear for more personal power games. I saw the woman I never became, shoes I could never wear.

 The divide in society is enormous, one sees the rich, the 1% and the players, the people trying to be that and those lost by the wayside, the 99%. Some sleeping rough, eating out of the thrown away food in garbage cans. Some wear their plight with dignity, but sleeping in doorways with just a blanket and a plastic bag with meager belongings shouldn't be a normal view in any town.

 Scientology and churches in general are prominently present. All denominations are represented.
Luckily there is a lot of creativity like in this nice mural where the seated audience looks at the strollers, the flaneurs of the boulevard.

V.R.'s 65 bash

 Veerle is a great graphic artist and wonderful enabler of projects involving word and image. For her 65th birthday she invited friends, family, people she had worked with. The afternoon started with Patricia Beyssens, great attitude and voice, wonderful choice of songs.

 Tony had organized a program in which different artists or authors would speak about the different projects. He was a smooth operator introducing the people he knows well.

 Philosopher Frans Boenders entertained us with his take on South Africa ( one the projects), although basically traveling more to the orient. He finished with four quatrains, funny and telling.

 City Peter, the just released city poet Laureate of Antwerp gave a fine performance, warm and with even a song on a melodica. He spoke about the working together with Veerle for the cover of one of his book. Down on the right a picture of the wonderful place Zaal 7, pure art nouveau and holding about 150 pople that day.

 The left guy Jack van Peer is the president of the Foundation which wants to work to preserve and support contemporary graphics.
On the right is Jan Dockx President of the Circle of Friends which will be treated to museum visits and learning about contemporary graphic art.

 Tony in a pensive, quiet moment before the
second set of German Lieder  from about the 1920/1930's... Click on the picture and admire the shoes.

The picture below shows Johan van Cauwenbergen in a rousing speech.

 Veerle's partner Willem Persoon spoke about the 10 years the have been together: the busy, rich fulfilled life  with Veerle.
I which both of them many more years, many projects and good times.

Marleen de Crée also spoke about the first project in the Masereel Fonds in Kasterlee and the often mentioned trip to South Africa. The microphone kept hiding her face so the picture didn't work. Ivo Va, Damme, who takes the pictures at these events is the man on the left.
 And the birthday girl is seen here unwrapping  the gift of all the artists: a piece of original graphic work plus a poem by every poet. Happy Birthday Veerle8

ANC: 100 years

Today 100 years ago the African National Congress saw the light. Today the festivities take place for 100 years of selfless struggle. As an interpreter I have been once or twice the voice of Nelson Mandela after he was released from Robben Island. When South Africa was freed from Apartheid, it became member of the ACP and had at their first attendance the meeting in Cape Town and were given a most moving and enlightening tour of Robben Island by a former prisoner who became a minister in the first Mandela government. It was non-violence which won freedom. was one of his messages and that the embargo gave support to the resistance because even when suffering they knew it was  because people supported their struggle. At the opening of the ACP Meeting the African Anthem was played, well known by all who had worked for the abolishment of Apartheid and this is what I saw:

Sikeleli Africa

At the first notes

just two white people jumped up

one with his left fist in the air

she with her hand on

her heart

All peoples standing

the light skinned

rose

a few notes later –

The huge hall filled with

respect

I like to think

the white people were

slow

not recognizing the music in their

soul

or just older and stiffer and

slower

I like to think

Nkosi Sikeleli Africa

is the hope that touches us

all -           

 

Debate on climate change, culture and art

The panel

 

Plastic bag for culture, yet biodegradable

I went to listen to a debate about ecology and culture. Basically the question was 'what can the cultural sector do to prevent climate change which, when nothing is done, will make children sick in about 20 years'. There is a radical solution: Insulate your house, don’t eat meat or fish, don’t fly and in 20 years we would have avoided that the temperature would go up with the fatal 2°C. I learned that working half an hour equals drinking a glass of water. Each worth one unit, and the bad news is: one person has only 40 units per day for a good ecological footprint. Many solutions are at best tentative or even misleading. I try to buy organic and fair trade food and products, I have paid to carbon offset flights but it seems that is not the right system. Many artists have renovated their house in order to leave a smaller footprint, some installed solar power, others make artwork with low ecological impact. As a poet and literary translator I wonder whether I do have to feel guilty for using my laptop extensively, for using a lot of paper to check in print for mistakes. I wonder that people speak about not eating meat or fish, not flying, making tickets more expensive but don’t really deal with social injustice or the cost of war, cost in lives, in destruction, in pollution by the heavy armored tanks, the war planes. I wonder what the ecological cost is of war. Or is war just considered to be a branch of polluting industry? And if you want to know how I went to this debate: I walked, I shared one cup of coffee (bio & fair trade) and connected to people.

Follow up on high end ghetto

I need to correct something  I wrote in the last posting: high end ghetto. I transpired this morning that the weapons the man brandished were FAKE. The policeman got injured by a rubber bullet from one of his 'toy-guns'. His ploy was to commit suicide by policemen shooting at him.

In these economically difficult times, people get deeper and deeper in trouble and more and more psychologically imbalanced people live in the streets. We saw it in San Francisco where after two days you knew who slept where, who begged where, what route another followed. One also knew who was slightly aggressive and who was not. We live in difficult times.

High end Ghetto

The other night  my blind and almost deaf griffon was restless, barked. I checked things out and found nothing amiss. I remained unaware of the events developing around the building. 

A former psychiatric patient, know by the courts and the police (among others for shoplifting) ran amok, brandishing according to eyewitnesses, two revolvers and a machine gun... Shots rang out.

The police responded... The other man finally shot a policeman in the leg. His colleagues replied in kind and shot the perpetrator in the leg so that he couldn't cause more harm. How did the poor man get his small arsenal with the strict gun laws. I guess the street provides.

50 shots in all where fired, right across these venerable old houses... 

Obviously every one tells me their story, obviously some people were shaken since some visiting friends upon leaving the building got caught up in the situation. I's like Chicago here. It seems we're living in a high end ghetto, my neighbors commented.

The picture I didn't take was where the blood still is coloring the sidewalk, not withstanding  a night with pouring rain.

Music and Jack Kerouac alley

After a congenial meal of Fish and Chips - no not wrapped in newspapers, just served on a plate - at the O'Reilley's a down town evening stroll brought street musicians with wonderful rhythms and Jazz sung by Lisa and the band. That is one of the many gifts of San Francisco one finds in one of the bars and watering holes.

 Of course, since poetry was on the agenda in San Francisco we walked as a last tribute Jack Karouac Alley, reading the moral or literary thoughts one finds there. No it is not poetry but interesting none the less. 

Fog over the Golden Gate

 

Fog on the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco is an almost daily occurrence. Yet it doesn't deter the tourists, although some are a  bit disappointed when the picture of the full elegance of the mythical bridge can't be taken. The fog however lends mystery, and since above there is nothing to see the exploration yields a view of the construction and its beauty. Friends have taken the time to share parts of the city they love. For Ana this includes this Holocaust Memorial. And yes remembrance is the beginning of redemption...

The quiet beauty of the Golden Gate Park with ponds and lakes a botanical garden, museums is a pleasure to the eyes.

San Francisco Mime Troupe

       In the Dolores park the San Francisco Mime Troupe  offered a free play in the park. The Troupe has been performing their old style type political theater for 53 years: Death to the pigs! The fascist capitalist conglomerates, accepting money from the 'wrong side' is being a whore of the corporations. The singing and dancing is professional. The audience consists of colorful and happy people and pets. Pick nicks and wine and water, chairs and pillows, make shift  blankets, music and fun. Here two flower-children discuss  the task of the mayor to come.

View of the fog drifting into the bay as seen from Twin Peaks

San Francisco, the city, the bay, the café...

People make a city, from union activist to musicians playing on an array of discarded bins and pots and pans, from editors to singer/songwriters to poets. And then there is the Bay, the bridges, the hustle downtown, the tourists, the stylish locals.

And the Bay Aria with the Golden Gate Bridge (the color is actually international orange), the Secret Beach and the China Beach. near Land's End.

A bit of nature soothes the heart, calms the mind from an overactive city, which seems big yet where circles pulse, growing and shrinking, a heart beat for friends and like minded people. Accidental meetings, meetings which change or strengthens one's path. 

San Francisco Poetry

Shawn at the Paradiso studio

© sms:foto duisburg/rhein 2011

One of the reasons to come to San Francisco was to  record Susan Birkeland's poetry. Through Nicole Savage's website of San Francisco heart, and indeed a big heart and a fountain of information, some poetry friends of Susan gather at the Paradiso Studio and will record in their voice,  Susan's poetry.

The first to read was Bill Mercer  choosing three of Susan's poems. The next friend and poet was Ana Elsner reading one and afterward sharing about her friendship/sisterhood with Susan and their shared life experiences like having overcome cancer... Clara Hsu with her melodious reading of Flashlights of Innocence, was followed by Nicole Savage who brought this group together and reading 6 poems. Also Jerry read two poems.

After those voices and words are secured, devorah major read from tears in the mouth of the moon and Dark Love from where rivers meet ocean. A powerful display and moving performance. The studio is very professional: in three hours all the poetry that needed to be recorded was on cd's, all this under  the watchful eye of the organizer.