Fußgänger

/ PLACES / TRAVEL / TRADITIONS / A blog about travel, places I love, places I've lived, and strange customs that keep us occupied the world over. Featured so far: Tokyo, London, Berlin...

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Tom Phillips - A Humument (1966-73)

“In 1966 Phillips set himself a task: to find a second-hand book for threepence and alter every page by painting, collage and cut-up techniques to create an entirely new version. He found his threepenny novel in a junkshop on Peckham Rye, South London. This was an 1892 Victorian obscurity titled A Human Document by W.H Mallock and he titled his altered book A Humument.

The first version of all 367 treated pages was published in 1973 since when there have been four revised editions. A Humument is now one of the best known and loved of all 20th Century artist’s books and is regarded as a seminal classic of postmodern art.”

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John Crace has an innovative way of arranging spines on shelves according to sun exposure. This is one of life's most fulfilling tasks. 

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El dia de la Rosa / El dia del Llibre / SANT JORDI

One of my favourite traditions in the world: Every St. George's Day, the Catalans commemorate the death of Shakespeare and Cervantes (on the same day!) by the exchange of a rose and a book. It is traditional for a man to give his lover a rose, and a woman to give her lover a book, but today, the mutual exchange of both items is perfectly acceptable (I AGREE!). 

The giving of a book originated in 1923, when a Catalan bookseller decided to promote the holiday by way of Cervantes and Shakespeare. Today, April 23rd is a very popular day for new literary releases, and Barcelona will no doubt be awash with improvised bookstalls and the like, being the publishing capital of the Spanish speaking world. 

So give your lover a rose and a book. I can't think of anything better.

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CRY GOD FOR HARRY, ENGLAND AND ST GEORGE!!!

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Happy Birthday Will!

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Incredible photo from space, taken last Wednesday by Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield, revealing how Berlin still glows East and West…

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Somehow I didn’t know that BB’s was closing, and I missed the whole thing and now it’s done.

Insult to injury… it’s going to be a froyo shop.  Oh nyc.

You should read Jeremiah’s Vanishing New York. It lets you know what’s being chased out by yogurt shops.

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Sounds like a book that someone should be writing about Berlin …

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We are going to New York in 9 days! A friend recommended this incredible book by Rem Koolhaas on Manhattan's architecture which is just a terrific read (especially post Ayn Rand's Fountainhead). Here's a snappy review from GoodReads:

"Manhattan," he writes, "is the 20th century's Rosetta Stone . . . occupied by architectural mutations (Central Park, the Skyscraper), utopian fragments (Rockefeller Center, the U.N. Building), and irrational phenomena (Radio City Music Hall)." Koolhaas interprets and reinterprets the dynamic relationship between architecture and culture in a number of telling episodes of New York's history, including the imposition of the Manhattan grid, the creation of Coney Island, and the development of the skyscraper. Rem Koolhaas's celebration and analysis of New York depicts the city as a metaphor for the incredible variety of human behavior. At the end of the nineteenth century, population, information, and technology explosions made Manhattan a laboratory for the invention and testing of a metropolitan lifestyle -- "the culture of congestion" -- and its architecture.. The spirit of this visionary investigation of Manhattan equals the energy of the city itself.

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John Cage first met Marcel Duchamp in the 1940s. Duchamp asked Cage to write music for his part in Hans Richter’s film “Dreams that Money Can Buy” (1946). But it took twenty more years before the two actually became close. Cage didn’t want to bother Duchamp with his friendship until he realized that Duchamp’s health was failing. Then he decided to actively seek his company. He knew that Duchamp was taking chess very seriously, and it was easy for Cage to use this pretext, so he simply asked him to teach him the game. And for the last three years of Duchamp’s life the two men and Teeny Duchamp, the bachelor’s bride, met at least once a week and played chess.

(…)

Actually, Cage hadn’t lost every single match with Duchamp. There was one that he definitely won, after a fashion. It happened in Toronto, in 1968. Cage had invited Duchamp and Teeny to be with him on the stage. All they had to do was play chess as usual, but the chessboard was wired and each move activated or cut off the sound coming live from several musicians (David Tudor was one of them). They played until the room emptied. Without a word said, Cage had managed to turn the chess game (Duchamp’s ostensive refusal to work) into a working performance. And the performance was a musical piece. In pataphysical terms, Cage had provided an imaginary solution to a nonexistent problem: whether life was superior to art. Playing chess that night extended life into art – or vice versa. All it took was plugging in their brains to a set of instruments, converting nerve signals into sounds. Eyes became ears, moves music. Reunion was the name of the piece. It happened to be their endgame.

~ Sylvère Lotringer, “Becoming Duchamp”

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The Barbican's current Bride and the Bachelors exhibition reminded me of this post.

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Greenwich, The Tudors, and Maritime History

Greenwich palace was Henry VIII's birthplace and favourite residence. Ditto Elizabeth I, who signed Mary Queen of Scot's death sentence here.

Henry also met Anne of Cleves for the first time on Blackheath, just up the road, where he realised she didn't measure up to her portrait. Holbein surely made himself scarce.  

The slopes below the Observatory in Greenwich park are perfect for tobogganing (in the snow).

The Queen's house (top) was commissioned by James I for his Queen, Anne, but she died some years before Inigo Jones finished it (James was said to have given Anne the manor of Greenwich in apology for having sworn at her in public after she accidentally shot one of his dogs). 

When Christopher Wren built the Royal Naval Hospital (later College), the one stipulation was that the view of the Queen's House had to be kept clear from the river. So Wren divided his complex into two symmetrical wings with a wide gap running down the middle to the river. 

And Thomas Tallis is buried under the floor of the church in the town centre. These are the things I've learned about my hometown in February. 

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BBC Time Shift - Nordic Noir: The Story of Scandinavian Crime Fiction

Is your country going Scandi-crazy? My country certainly seems to be. In the space of a few months I have come across more new smörgåsbord bars, bakeries offering kanelbullar, and hipster cafes decked out for fika than ever before. Nordic design and furniture shops are popping up like mushrooms in my postcode. More chunky knitted jumpers were purchased and worn this winter than in the entirety of the 1970s, as Forbrydelsen detective Sarah Lund inspired British fashion to embrace warmth and comfort. In my office we discuss Borgen on a daily basis, and even speak what we call “fake-Danish”, enchanted as we are by the poetry of guttural sounds. After a double helping of A Royal Affair and Jagten we’re not-so-secrety in love with Mads Mikkelsen. I myself may be about to resume studying Icelandic (I have tried before, but then I met BT and had to raise the Language Learning Difficulty Bar to level: German).

But it is Scandinavian crime fiction that holds us in its chilling embrace: from Stieg Larssen to Jo Nesbo, from Henning Mankell to Arnaldur Indriðason, there seems to be a highly popular wave of great, disturbing, dark storytelling coming in from the cold. According to this rather good BBC programme, the murder of Olof Palme is responsible for the excellence of Scandinavian crime fiction as a whole. That, and Henrik Ibsen, darkness, the cold, domestic violence, xenophobia, struggles with idealistic welfare plans and other stereotypes. From Lisbeth Salander to Wallander, from Smilla to Erlendur, fun times to be had for all.

(In all this I wonder why Icelandic Oscar-shortlisted director Baltasar Kormakur is working on an English-language remake of Jar City (apparently to be set in Louisiana - WTF?) instead of actually filming the other Reykjavik Murder Mystery novels in the series. Ah yes, the hard law of the box office, the tragedy of “foreign language” cinema. How dull. I’ll take fricative consonants, grim snowy landscapes, and Scandi-cool any time.)

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St Valentine's Day, 14th February, 2013

Homemade valentine's card (received), etching of a heart. 

Rather interesting to mark this Saint's Day surrounded by current debates on gay marriage. Saint Valentine was apparently imprisoned for marrying soldiers who were forbidden to marry (presumably not to each other, though). His ministry was to help the Christians to escape persecution, and to provide them with sacraments, such as marriage, which were outlawed by the Roman Empire at that time.

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Today is the day preceding Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent. In English it is generally called Shrove Tuesday but I think both French and Swedish has more explanatory names for what this day is all about: “Mardi gras” and “Fettisdagen” both mean “Fat Tuesday”. Basically, the day to get...

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So this is how the Swedes do it. I must say I'm craving a Semla just from the description.

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Shrove Tuesday / Pancake Day, Tuesday 12th Feb 2013

Yesterday evening we used up all our fats and eggs and flipped some pancakes but unfortunately Ash Wednesday has not resulted in penitential fasting of chocolate, alcohol or procrastination, all things which I could do with abstaining from for at least 40 days, and its only HALF PAST FIVE! I think I need to buck up my ideas...

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I've just finished reading In The Miso Soup by Ryu Murakami. It's ten months since I left Japan and I'm missing it. I'm finding that reading Japanese fiction is a great way of taking my imagination back there - this book is set against the backdrop of the sex industry in the area around Shinjuku called Kabuki Chō, a sort of red-light district in Tokyo (not that I actually spent any time there myself). It's also a book about Japan's relationship to outsiders (one of the things it shares in common with the UK is its rather insular, island mentality) - the gaijin, the non-Japanese, manifest in the character of Frank in this book, an American sex tourist who hires a young Japanese guy called Kenji to show him around. 

However, one of the most interesting things the book has taught me about is the New Year tradition of the 108 bells. Buddhist temples in Japan ring their bells 108 times on New Years Eve and people gather on bridges and cram into shrines to listen to them. The 108 represents the Japanese concept of bonno, or the 108 human sins/defilements of man, and the act of listening to the bells purifies us of all of the worldly sins gathered over the previous year. In case you're wondering what those 108 defilements are exactly, here's a list:

Ostentatiousness, grudge, gambling, ingratitude, dipsomania (make that 109 bonno if you don’t know what dipsomania is), ambition, dominance, faithlessness, manipulation, stinginess, pessimism, hostility, abuse, debasement, sexual lust, sarcasm (I’m not touching that one!), humiliation, jealousy, gluttony, unruliness, hurt, cruelty, unkindness, obstinacy, envy, indifference, negativity (in case you skipped pessimistic), furtiveness, sadism, enviousness, derision, falseness (think that includes teeth?), high-handedness, know-it-all, rage, aggression, rapacity, effrontery, disrespectfulness, hard-heartedness, power hungriness, lying, insidiousness, self-denial (really?), inattentiveness, contempt, wrath, haughtiness, greed for money, seducement, vindictiveness, insatiability, voluptuousness, excessiveness, censoriousness, dissatisfaction, egoism, ignorance, hatred, greed, impudence, imposture, cursing, imperiousness, lecherousness, callousness, malignancy, torment, intolerance, blasphemy, shamelessness, irresponsibility, obsession, prejudice, arrogance, violent temper, garrulity, dogmatism, presumption, intransigence, oppression, prodigality, lack of comprehension (like, for example, this list?), obstinacy, pride, conceitedness, delusion, quarrelsomeness, self-hatred, violence, vanity, hypocrisy, stubbornness, baseness, pretense, mercilessness, disrespect, ridicule, masochism, tyranny, capriciousness (oh, nooooo!), deceit, anger, discord, calculation, unyielding, desire for fame (say it ain’t so!) and deception.

(source Japan Times: http://www.japantimes.co.jp/community/2011/01/01/our-lives/your-108-misleading-karmas/#.URpsZqXPaJV)

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Chinatown (London), Feb 10th 2013, Chinese New Year

The streets opposite the Curzon Soho, festooned with lanterns for Chinese New Year. Happy New Year to all those who celebrate, and I'm interested to see that we enter The Year of the Snake - a year, so the internet tells me, for steady progress and attention to detail. So, appropriate to the second year of my PhD then. Final year, 2014 - Year of the Horse - "quick witted and extemporaneous"... I seem to have timed that pretty well!

All this led me to investigate my own Chinese Horoscope. Tracking back to 1985, I discover that I'm born under the Wood Ox:

THE WOOD OX 1925 AND 1985

Understanding and fair, these are the least unyielding of the Oxen and the most apt to change and accept new ideas. A more liberal attitude gives them the ability to appreciate the value of being a part of a team, and other members of the team respect the high principles of the Wood Ox. They are particularly self-confident giving them an air of unspoken authority. This characteristic means that Wood Oxen are often chosen as leaders or spokespeople. They also have a shorter fuse than other Ox people, and are more likely to be outspoken or to stand up in a crowd to be heard. These Oxen are quite devoted to those they love and make strong and affectionate friends and relations.

Hobbies and Pastimes: Body-Building, Baking, Gardening, Listening to music, Sewing

Oxen Dislike: Making small talk, foolish games, feeling insecure

Having delivered my first lecture in January, and having been told I should do radio, I'd say this is pretty damned accurate!

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The desk: where I spend most of my time each day. I bought the vintage pencil sharpener as a gift but think I might take up retro stationary as a new hobby. Any old desktop calendars out there someone wants to send me?