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.

Gnōthi Seauton - Know Thyself

"Composers combine notes. That is all. How and in what form the things of the world are impressed upon their music is not for them to say."

 La Place Stravinsky

Thus spoke Igor Stravinsky when asked whether his "Symphony in Three Movements" was programmatic music.  I had to mention this quote when Nina told me after reading my previous blog post "La Vie En Rose" that she liked the pictures but that the captions were merely descriptions of how the images had come about.  She missed the philosophical deliberations of other posts (like "Parallel Universe").
 

Cercles Mystérieux Des Adolescentes

Do Stravinsky's words apply - mutatis mutandis - to photography as well?  Should I keep it to myself how and in what form the things of the world are impressed upon the "Images Of The Subconscious"?   

The answer is yes!  I will stop explaining my pics right now  :-)

 Quatre Etudes

According to the entry in Wikipedia, four is "the natural number following 3 and preceding 5".  Phew - I knew that!!!  I also knew that 4 is a composite number.  I could have possibly guessed that it is an automorphic number.  But admittedly I did not know that 4 was also a Smith number and a Motzkin number.

Oh boy, there's so much out there to know... You could spend your whole day (and life!) just reading newspapers or watching the news and documentaries.  And still by evening you would most likely feel like Goethe's "Faust" who famously complained that despite having graduated in law, medicine and theology he was no wiser than before.  Or like Socrates who knew that he knew nothing.

 Le Roi Des Étoiles

Being around people who (other than Faust and Socrates) claim to "know a lot" is not always fun.  Countless times have I been faced with questions or comments like

- "You do not know when and where and of what Napoleon died?!?"

- "Come on Robert, it is general knowledge that Kazakhstan has a new capital!!!"

 - "Did you not learn in school that the Hagia Sophia was originally a basilica?!?"  

Unfortunately you can not impress many people with a profound knowledge of pop music, but in a perfect world I would have answered something like "Okay, admittedly I do not know these things, but I know that Stevie Wonder's song "Happy Birthday" is a social activist song from 1981 that was aimed at having the birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr. become a national holiday (=that holiday become a reality in 1986, it is on the 3rd Monday in January of each year and this year coincided with the inauguration of president Barack Obama on January 21, 2013).

I agree: Even this information might have just the same relevance - namely none at all! - for my every day life, such as knowing that a certain someone passed away 1821 in St. Helena because of stomach cancer (which would explain why in paintings he's always shown with his right hand under his shirt), that Astana succeeded Almaty in 1997 and that a formerly religious building is now a museum.

So let me come to the point: knowledge is very important, there can be no doubt about this.  Education must be a fundamental right for every woman and man, not least because it helps you better realise your potential and makes you more open minded (and thus happier?).  But do not despair if you cannot answer all the questions in a Trivial Pursuit game or a "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?" TV show. 

En Passant #1

It might be more relevant for you to know that you have a skill which only few people on this planet have and which could even help solve some of the most pressing problems in this world and earn you money eventually.  Note that Sir Richard Branson's motto is "have fun, do good and the money will come".  Every one of us has unique skills, Richard Branson has them, I have them, and you have them as well.  In case you are not aware of them right now just think for a moment of the things that you really love doing and which you know you are good at.  Why be a passenger in your own life? Where your skills and the needs of the world intersect, that is where your might find your vocation! 

L'Empire Des Lumières # 2

Let' s hope president Barack Obama also remembers this during his second term and that he uses his skills in order to help make this a better (and "greener"!) world for all of us, irrespective of our race, religion or sexual orientation.

 This Is My Tribute To A Man I Admire