¤¤ Morpheus...
"I believe it is our faith to be here...
it is our destiny.
I believe this night holds for each and everyone of us
the meaning of our lives. This is a war and we are soldiers.
What if tomorrow this war could be over?
Isn't that worth fighting for?
Isn't that worth dying for?"

(Rage against the machine music picks up...)

Matrix Reloaded teaser available @ What is the Matrix

"Le coeur a ses raisons, que la raison ne connait pas"

Tonight @ 2100 PST the Teaser for The Matrix Reloaded will be aired...

"I know you're out there, I can feel you now..."

"Fortune favors the brave, and god looks after the fools"

Tomorrow is Election Day in the Netherlands.

Expected: a landslide and shocking result that will electricize the rightside of the political spectrum across Europe, just as the FN did in France 10 days ago.
Yet it is still too soon for analysis.

Well, let us just say this: in September 2001, we posted our first blog as an outcry against violence and hatred. Please stay tuned for more insights!

"I do not know how the 3rd World War will be fought....
But the 4th will be fought with sticks and stones..."
Einstein

reading: The Smoke Jumper by Nicholas Evans

Book starts off really slowly and halfway through you almost put it down, then you suddenly realize: sometimes it's worth reading something that comes nowhere near the great Prousts or Pasternaks or Poes. Bottom line: sometimes you have to respect the work, the craft, and EVANS has that gift. He proved it in the Horse Whisperer, but now he relies on old-fashioned and tested structures. But that's okay. In order to appreciate the things of beauty, being receptive to everyhting else will get you a long way. We cannot expect only the best, we can strive for it, yet never attain it. So: it's a good read, nothing more, and you're not wasting your time in front of the T.V. at least...

If you have time in Paris: check
- Thomas EAKINS (Musée d'Orsay)
- MONDRIAN: the early works (Musée d'Orsay)
- La révolution surréaliste (Centre Pompidou)

And stay a friday night to go rollerblading along the Seine Quais...

..................................Wow

quote of the decade::
PVDR: "Ik pak mijnen hemel op aarde... Als er toch nen hemel is, hebt ge d'er twee, als er gene is, hebt ge'm al gehad"

Site of the day: KARTOO

m'illumino d'immenso

Je m'éblouis d'infini.

In these days of violence and anger, of war and hate, of darkness, obsession and futile information,
it is a pleasure to cherish the garden of RODIN in Paris, to walk along the Seine Quais and to observe mankind in its activities. Heightened senses after a morning jog around the Tour Eiffel and an early may outside breakfast start of the day with smell of roses in the air, and the sounds of little birds that wake you at 5 o'clock in the morning.
Thinking back now, all these years, you wonder how far and long ago you have to reach, to find this peace of mind and fullness of life. But that is not necessary anymore.
The everlasting now...

Als alles op zijn plaats valt...

En zelfs de regenboog het einde -
van het begin -
in de avondgloed tovert

Als gras en regen unisoon
Stil toekijken en niet verstoren
hoe rustende golven
klaar en duidelijk
het ritme van een hart beroeren

Dan zijn geen woorden nodig
en ook geen dromen
Enkel zwijgend glimlachen
-
om de zon en de maan
die elkaar zo goed verstaan

In het land der blinden is éénoog koning.

It's about time to re-watch "The English Patient" and "Ripley"...

Autres Directions...

een volledig hertekend Frankrijk:
de ongelooflijke resutlaten van de eerste ronde voor de presidentiele verkiezingen hebben dit land een serieuze kaakslag verkocht,
het failliet van "la gauche plurielle" is duidelijk, en weze een waarschuwing voor idiote politici allerhande, zoals in Antwerpen bij ons, die denken dat ze met zo'n pluri-coalitie iets kunnen besturen.
het resultaat is dat de fransen binnen 10 dagen de keuze hebben tussen "supermenteur" en een fascist,
en dan nog eens naar de stembus voor de legislatieve in mei/juni...

in elk geval zijn onze interlocuteurs hier serieus onder de indruk van wat er zich afspeelt de laatste dagen, de manifestaties zijn legio, en in de banlieus hebben ze echt schrik gekregen.
dé vraag is natuurlijk, WIE zijn die 10 miljoen fransen die voor extreem rechts stemden!

niemand kent er zogezegd,
het klinkt ons maar al te bekend in de oren, en we maken dan graag de vergelijking met de situatie in ons landje, waar die zogenaamde zwijgende meerderheid toch durft extreem te stemmen, wansmakelijk!

men hoopt op een mobilisatie van links, maar 't zit er dik in dat we naar een uniforme regering gaan, en dat het gedaan is met die eeuwige cohabitatie.

allez, wij rechtgeaarde democraten moeten ons niet laten doen, maar hier - met hun kies-recht, en geen plicht- voelen ze de gevolgen van het absenteïsme en de schandalen,
tijd dat politiek eens de burgers begint aan te spreken! En tijd voor de burgers om van achter hun TV te komen...

De vergelijkingen met andere landen in West-Europa gaat niet echt op, maar het is een verontrustende tendens om te zien hoe de Fortyuns, de Berlusconi's, de Haiders, de Le Pen's en hun companen uit Noorwegen en Denemarken, Duitsland en België aan een opmars bezig zijn.
Zou het subjectieve onveiligheidsgevoel (zoals Brice de Ruyver het gisteren zo mooi stelde in De Morgen) dan toch zo zijn toegenomen?
Of scheelt er iets aan onze systemen, aan die vastgeroestte belangengroepen, dat exclusion-model bij de syndicaten en drukkingsgroepen.

Les acquis sociaux sont en cause! En we weten allemaal dat de elasticiteit nihil is... Verworven rechten worden niet meer afgegeven, en als men in een hallucinante spiraal van "étatisme" terecht komt, of zelfs op Europees vlak, dan krijg je situaties zoals hier nu, waar schreiende burgers betogen omdat ze kwaad zijn dat ze hun stemRECHT niet hebben uitgeoefend. Vijgen na Pasen natuurlijk...

vanuit Parijs, uw correspondent...

Mr. Trudeau, former Prime Minister of Canada
when asked: what do you believe in, after life?

"Everybody has to believe in something....
I believe I'll go canoeing"

Wacondah on Canoeing
TSC
Fires of Friendship
(recently asked for updates and missing data -
please go check them out if you're a TSC Alumnus)

Last post of the week # 16, my agenda tells me there are 259 days left this year:
horrifying to see this!

Everything passes sooooh quickly, it's hard to keep track of the days without training your memory to remember some stuff. And even harder to train your brain to forget the "ballast" everybody's carrying around, none-essential-information-overload that fires away all this energy and allocates brain process CPU time to the wrong tasks. We, humans, are the greatest multi-taskers around.

At the office, they call us knowledge workers, or PR sharks, non-exec's or corporate gnomes, functional operatives and stuff like that. It's great how a business card can give you a totally different identity. Your badge tells more about you to the skilled eye, than that you realize as a neophyte working bee!

Walking around, being alert, and full of loving attention to the small-sized details that nobody seems to notice:
"m'illumino d'immenso"
starting a string on Metro Poetry in our finally full operational online discussion forum, check it out!

So, for now, closing the laptop soon this afternoon,
it's been a pleasure,
reporting for wacondah.com
and keeping some high spirits alive:
in fact: you don't need eyes to see - you need vision
(repeat this to yourself over and over again!)

Clint & Lawrence of Arabia

Gnomè / Knowledge Workers

metro music for this week by wacondah.com

¤ Dusty Springfield: The look of love (...!)
¤ Gladiator Soundtrack #17: Elysian Fields
¤ Pascal Obispo (whoah!)
¤ Limp Bizkit: Take a look around
¤ Neo in The Matrix: voice extract: "Choice"...
"I know you're out there, I can feel you now..."
¤ Chemical Brothers (2 frm latest album)
¤ Alanis Morsissette: Hands clean
¤ Bruce Springsteen: Missing (remixed)
¤ Faithless/ Back to mine
¤ The Tango Project: Scent of a Woman tango (great to start the day)
¤ Daft Punk: Discovery: first and last track
¤ Mick Jagger: God give me anything I want
¤ Prince: Adore
¤ Prince: How come you don't call me anymore

Why don't you once in a while take another way home??? autres directions...

Listening to: Mahler 5th symphony, movement 4...
Reading: "The decline and fall of practiacally everybody"
site of the week: Prince Lyrics

moving from conferences to conferences, meetings to meetings...

Went to a bar with absolutely no "beautiful people" and drank a KOMODO Rose,
on the basis of rum and Rose petals,
i guess it was plain juice...

So that's the way it goes in Paris: l' ARNAQUE totale
Even if you get a discount somewhere, it's still a rip-off.... But it's funny...

So that's the report of the week for now,
only at wacondah.com

[ The uncharted identity with the limitless possibilities is one of the distinctive qualities of urban living, a liberatory state for those who come to emancipate themselves from family and community expectation, to experiment with subculture and identity. It is an observer's state, cool, withdrawn, with senses sharpened, a good state for anybody who needs to reflect or create. In small doses melancholy, alienation and introspection are among life's most refined pleasures. ]

quote from R. Solnit: "Wanderlust - a history of walking", p. 186

listening to: A. Morissette: "Hands Clean"
dreaming of the Eiffel Tower
welcoming EDUARD
rollerblading on Quay d'Orsay
travelling from 1 metro Center to Havre Caumartin

personal fear factor: below zero, thank you very much
international fear factor: 23.55 - crisis in the Middle East

news: if you have a place for rent around the 16th, 7th, 8th or 9th precinct,
from july 1st 2002 onwards: i'll be checking into that: mail us...

site of the day: http://www.pariscope.fr

State of Siege:
travelling through airports and metrostations,
military checkpoints
"Sir, please take off your shoes"
Quantum particle analysers in airports sniffing for prohibited substances
HUM-V's with big guns pointed at you.

All you want to do, is travel freely, have a nice holiday weekend.

You're being carded everywhere, at every corner of the street.
Everything is prohibited, forbidden, except if noted otherwise.
Do you realize that you're not even allowed to take a picture of a governmental building?

But nevertheless, it's fun to walk around these days

now reading:
"Wanderlust, a history of walking" by Rebecca Solnit
and listening to
Prince: the rainbow children !

Un con qui marche deux jours, ira toujours plus loin qu'un intellectuel qui reste assis