Vogue!

Enough of philosophising - let's have some fun!

A few months back Nina and I hung out with dance artist Danny "Hakan" Red.  It was with great interest that I listened to Danny's first-hand stories from the world of dancing, something I know very little about despite my great love for music.

My interest in listening turned into curiosity when he spoke the word: "vogueing".

 

"Vogueing?  What's vogueing?", I asked.

(The dancers among you will probably ask now: "Hey Robert, where have you been living over the last 20 years - behind the moon?"

  

Vogue magazine (from which the dance style got its name, as you guessed) defines vogueing [ˈvəʊgɪŋ] as "a dance style of the late 1980s, in which a fashion model's movements and postures are imitated in a highly stylized manner." 

In other words: the dancers take on model-like poses integrated with angular, linear, and rigid arm, leg, and body movements.

 

Egyptian hieroglyphs and fashion poses serve as the original inspirations.

I learned from Danny that there currently are three styles of vogueing:

1. old way (pre-1990)
2. new way (post-1990) and
3. vogue femme (circa 1995).   

Old way is characterized by the formation of lines, symmetry, and precision in the execution of formations with graceful, fluid-like action.  It's the style that Danny, Nina and I decided upon for the photo shoot. 

Vogueing gained mainstream exposure when it was featured in Madonna's song and video "Vogue" (1990).

Many thanks to Danny "Hakan" Red for agreeing on this photo shoot during a very busy schedule here in Vienna!

Thanks also to the people who put all that extremely helpful information about "vogueing" on Wikipedia :-)
    

That Was One Small Step For A Man ?

Heimlicher Atomtest

In "The Change Book",  authors Mikael Krogerus and Roman Tschäppeler identify six dictatorships in the so-called "free world" which should be toppled. One of these is the "dictatorship of breaking news". They claim that if a piece of news was really so important then we would hear about it sooner or later anyway.  Instead, we should draw our attention to what is overlooked.  I couldn' t agree more.  I feel like I am permanently exposed to a cacophony of information, most of all in my mailbox - the "real" and the electronic one.

I consider myself a person who by nature is not very interested in breaking news, for the reasons that Messrs Krogerus and Tschäppeler outlined above.  However, every now and then there comes that certain "one in one thousand" headline that manages to catch even my attention... 

 Baba, Papa
 

On 28 February 2013 A.D. pope Benedict XVI resigned, aged 85. The last pope to do so was Celestine V in 1294.  If you are not a Roman-Catholic you probably couldn't care less.  But if you are like me someone who can best be categorised somewhere between pious church-goer and christened atheist, you might have wondered during the last weeks what the implications of this development are and whether you need to adjust your world view a bit.

That Was One Small Step For A Man ?

Some say that Benedikt XVI (now - again - Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger) was forced to resign.  If that really was the case, I do not think that we would ever know.  Assuming it is not the case, I congratulate Mr. Ratzinger for having taken this bold step.  More people should have the courage to do what they know is the right thing to do even if their society tells them otherwise. 

 

Primary Colours 

But what about those things which some societies approve of while others - alongside the church - resent?  Who can give the unequivocal verdict on what is really ethically correct or morally wrong?

 

Some Things Are Almost Indestructible

What about fun things which some priests are trying to make us feel bad about?  What is really so wrong about heavy metal, premarital sex, or a good joke about god?  

La Décadence Aux Tours De Notre Dame

And are they practicing what they preach?  The ones who do must be super-humans.

Shortsighted In The Church

In religious discussions I like to bring the example of the indigenous man living in a jungle somewhere on this planet.  All of his life he does his best to be a reliable partner, a caring father and a responsible member of his tribe.  He also shows great respect for nature.  However, when he dies will he fail the test at the gates of heaven because he does not know who Jesus is? 

 Notrenotre Damedame

If there is a god then He will judge us by our behaviour towards others and towards nature rather than by our religious rituals I would hope.  He would certainly also apply this rule of judgement to a man who some humans had called their "pope" for a few years.  Was this also what the man formerly known as Benedikt XVI was thinking when he decided to step down instead of completing a questionable religious duty which foresees retirement only via death?  If yes, then Mr. Ratzinger's move would symbolise a modernised Catholic church that I could identify with, one I would be proud to be a member of.  Then - from my perspective - Benedikt XVI's resignation would have been much more than just one small step for a man.

Between Reality And Wonderland

 

The other day Lisa invited a bunch of friends including me to watch a video she had just finished editing.  The 55 minute film turned out to be a creative documentation of seven months in late 2011 and early 2012 during which Lisa and 21 other artists developed and finally performed live a circus piece called "reALICE".

"Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" was the main theme of the acts and they depicted Alice in her old age: a woman who gets lost in weird memories full of whirling contradictions, disoriented thoughts, acrobatic banalities, enlightening darkness and sounds that drip of poetry.  The aged Alice balances high above the trees, stumbles through the labyrinth of an absurd reality but won' t let anything get her down.  

Lisa's short film inspired me to think about Robert in Wonderland and the Robert that has a foot in reality and another in wonderland.  The next day I conducted a search on the internet for images, quotes and other material around the theme of "Alice" which made their way into my own (unsurprisingly photographic) interpretation.

     

 "I’m Not Going Back To Yesterday Because I Was A Different Person Then"

When I was a teenager I considered everyone above the age of 40 to be "officially old".  I also believed that at that age everything in my life from job and hobbies to friends and family would be one wonderfully comfortable routine without the real dangers of a less predictable life.  In 1983 at 12 when I decided I wanted to become a "famous songwriter", it would have almost certainly devastated me to learn (from someone who' s been to the future) that exactly 30 years later I would not only have given up on music but also still be at "square one".

The reality however, is far from devastating. I can safely say that I prefer leading a life that constantly creates that "square one"-feeling to that of the "comfortable predictability" that I had actually expected and aspired to.  Time for me to move on to square two, however...

 "But You Can't Help It. Everyone Here Is Mad."

In every day conversations I find it sometimes difficult to clearly state what I personally think about this or that. I am often reluctant to voice my opinion because I feel that I know too little about the topic in question. And I really feel awkward when I have to admit to myself that I don' t even have an opinion at all!

But why? Why is it that I, and probably others, believe that in this world today, we are supposed to have some opinion on everything if we don't want to be considered "uneducated", "disinterested" or "ignorant".    

Could it be because we seek acknowledgment and acceptance?

"If Everybody Minded Their Own Business,
The World Would Go Around A Great Deal Faster Than It Does"

 

I sometimes find it hard to accept people as they are, probably many of us do, as we try to place them in the categories and boxes that frame our world view and expectations of them.

 
I do not care about academic titles, they say nothing about me.  Money is not my main motivator and hopefully never will be.  And I have no intention of stopping to be a "dreamer" who likes to mentally escape into his own "Wonderland" at random moments of the day, every now and then. Others out there like me, who have aspirations that are out-of-the-norm, may be shattering the worldviews of those around them in this very moment!

And we should, as long as we are not harming anyone. The biggest step towards happiness is by being true to yourself.

The Moment I Realised That I Was Tricked

Lying in the face of others is one thing.  But what about lying to myself?  Isn't that an obvious attempt to ignore a valid possibility or even fact about this world which I do not want to accept for whatever reason?

Maybe.  But it is easier said than done to accept the possibility. As it would be for a religious person, to even contemplate the possibility that God may not exist or that their life is a pure cosmic coincidence...

Empty Promises

Man, I really take people by the word sometimes.  And then I get angry at them because they did not "behave" or "deliver" what they promise.  While trying to reason with my anger, I've made two observations: First, in most (if not all) cases the main cause for my anger can be traced back to myself.  Second, I sometimes put people through the looking glass but not my own self.  I do not always "walk the talk" either.

"So Rested He By The Tumtum Tree"

Not that I can remember when I last did it but I just don't understand what is so wrong about hugging a tree!  So why is it that the term "tree hugger" is used to belittle environmentalists?

Is it wrong to acknowledge the "simple" things in life which in reality are far more complex creations than anything we humans could ever make?  No. And if it makes you happy then go and hug that tree for as long as you like.

 "Because Everything Would Be What It Isn’t"

 

I do not expect you to have an opinion about everything, let alone this "Image Of The Subconscious" or its title "Because Everything Would Be What It Isn’t" or on how the image and title fit together. You might like neither or would not want to "meditate" on whether you actually like anything about this image.  That' s fine with me.  Because I, on some matters, refuse to have an opinion.