I saw an interview with singer/songwriter Jaymay maybe a year and a half ago. I think I was in Sweden. I think I felt that it was the wrong place to be. Jaymay said that she was between London and New York, it sounded annoying for someone in only one place. Annoying since I was not between anything. I was in one place and that was the wrong place. But I downloaded her album cause I thought her music seemed sweet. Then I didn't listen that much to it, felt that it was a bit boring, a bit too sweet. But now when I am waiting for the rain to stop so I can bike out and go to a party for a friend that is leaving. Now it seems perfect. My friend will be between countries for a year, in every place and no place. Then Jaymay sounds perfect, and as we turn the clocks to winter I turn the stereo to Autumn Fallin' and too sweet might be just what I need right now. Never underestimate time and space.
The magic of reading is difficult to describe, the active creation of a story from your own personal experiences is something both personal and internal. Italo Calvino comes very close to explaining this in his book If On A Winter's Night A Traveller:
“Reading,” he says, “is always this: there is a thing that is there, a thing made of writing, a solid, material object, which cannot be changed, and through this thing we measure ourselves against something else that is not present, something else that belongs to the immaterial, invisible world, because it can only be thought, imagined, or because it was once and no longer, past, lost, unattainable in the land of the dead...”
“Or that is not present because it does not yet exist, something desired, feared, possible or impossible,” Ludmila says. “Reading is going towards something that is about to be, and no one yet knows what it will be....”
Otherwise in Airportlineland, it's Monday after a weekend that involved most things that makes life better than most other things. Exept sleep, I somehow missed out on sleep. Not ideal for group work.
Summer is in Amsterdam, it moved in just when we needed it. Every spot with sun is full of beer drinking, coffee sipping, newspaper reading, sunglasses wearing, people. The mentality has changed, random conversations appear between people, bikes go slower as their drivers make sure to catch as much sun as possible, it's all very plesant. The wind is still here, to make us remember that this still is Amsterdam, but it really doesnt matter. Airportline celebrates by putting on our nicest tennis clothes and biking to Westerpark for some tennis action. Tomorrow Airportlines Zürich associate, by some reffered to as Udo Dirkschneider arrives in the city. He reported about kids drinking red bull and vodka on the night train to Gent where is is now.
For you Swedish people, one of my favourite blogs bigtalkstrangewalk have included the book tips I gave to their writer Carolina for her trip to New York in this post. For those of you that hate clicking I suggested:
Keith Gessen - All The Sad Young Litterary Men
Elise Blackwell - Grub
Italo Calvino - If On A Winter's Night A Traveller
