The Experimental Generation of Interpersonal Closeness

AKA playing cupid.

An interesting experiment, which might lead to the chemistry of 'falling in love'. But staying in love is a completely different story.


http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/11/fashion/modern-love-to-fall-in-love-with-anyone-do-this.html?_r=2






The experiment involves standing on a bridge and staring into each other's eyes for 4 minutes.

The consolations of art

The brilliant mind of Alain de Botton does it again: finding meaning applicable to our own daily lives, in the works of great artists.

http://www.thebookoflife.org/edward-hopper-revamps-motel-chain-train-carriage-and-diner/

"Hopper discovered that – even when others love us very much – some essential part of us is always alone.

It is this recognition that makes his paintings so compelling. And indeed, it is by addressing loneliness that art can be most therapeutic: consoling us and reassuring us that estrangement and sorrow are normal, that we are neither very strange nor very shameful for experiencing them. Sad and lonely art allows us as viewers to witness an echo of our own griefs and disappointments, and thereby to feel less personally persecuted and beset by them."


Excursion into Philosophy, 1959

2015.

I don't believe in years. I believe in days. Every day can be different, if you want it to be. Don't wait for 365 days to pass to notice changes or try to achieve something new. Start today. Today we can be here, tomorrow we may not. There is no way to know. Knowing you tried is what counts.

Work to become who you want to be, in 2015 and every day.

We are all extras in someone else's story

“We live together, we act on, and react to, one another; but always and in all circumstances we are by ourselves. The martyrs go hand in hand into the arena; they are crucified alone. Embraced, the lovers desperately try to fuse their insulated ecstasies into a single self-transcendence; in vain. By its very nature every embodied spirit is doomed to suffer and enjoy in solitude. Sensations, feelings, insights, fancies—all these are private and, except through symbols and at second hand, incommunicable. We can pool information about experiences, but never the experiences themselves. From family to nation, every human group is a society of island universes.”
― Aldous Huxley, The Doors of Perception

All together now

Some art for the day.








I'm also playing Corsica Studios on Saturday. I'm excited.

Summer

Long summers, short dresses, cold drinks and hot bodies.

This is one of my favourite sets, ever. Any Paul Kalkbrenner set that starts with Dockyard and is followed by Since 77 does it for me. Sometimes you need to start with a couple of big tracks, to put yourself and your crowd in the mood. It all depends on the moment.

So, in two days, I'm leaving (on a jet plane) for a while. I haven't felt like this in ages. "Life starts all over again when it gets crisp in the fall", according to Jordan from The Great Gatsby, but of course there's some irony in that (note the word 'fall'). But life for me? It starts all over again tomorrow.

And summer starts the day after that.

Hello Summer

It's been a while. Time to get back on the terrace, embrace the mid-20s temperatures (AKA spring weather in Cyprus terms), play lighter music, wear lighter clothes, carry a lighter soul.

The first festival of the season is already over, and despite the ridiculous clashes and the fact that the person taking care of set times should be jailed, it was pretty good. I couldn't miss Dixon and Âme for the world. Jon Hopkins and Todd Terje, I'll catch you in your full glory some other time.

Now, it's time to recuperate. Nine Inch Nails, followed by five crazy days and nights in Berlin, followed by Field Day and its after-party (despite the blurry mind, I'm sure Kristian played an almost identical set to their b2b a few hours earlier). No regrets, but this body needs some rest, and I think it's time to head to back the studio/my bedroom to produce some party music myself.

Change is on its way and it feels like the possibilities are back, and they're a lot more than ever before.

There must be more

As I stop, and take the time

To inventory, the inside of my mind
I realize, it’s not as full as it used to be.
With images of justice, or designs of liberty

The world has changed, or is it me that’s new?
A different set of morals from a different set of clues
So still I wonder, is this all there is to life?
The ever changing cycles of a world that’s damp and ripe

There must more, yeah in my heart I hold to this
I’ve known the joy of love and I’ve seen the peace and bliss
But as you know, all things must end, except the need for faith
And the spirit that’s within to keep you strong

When it seems you’re ’bout to break
Just call upon the strength within and plant it as your stake

Move forward with power, program yourself to feel
With depth enough to know what’s up and heart to sense the real

Where you at?

And now a picture for the frame we set aside
Below the baseline a secret place awaits for us to hide
To pass the time as the war goes on-and-on
Post-apocalyptic sunset, Post-apocalyptic dawn
But just the thought of the world we once possessed
A place that wasn’t ours is just a house with an address
A false existence, wrought with fear and mistrust, a life inside a box
No life inside of us.

Find your soul, and use your inner voice,
The road less traveled, is now the path of choice.
Realize, with time comes change
New attitudes, new values, priorities rearranged.

Move forward with power, program yourself to seek
Wear your shield of justice and wield your sword of liberty
Move forward, move now, program yourself to feel
With depth enough to know what’s up and heart to sense the real

Where you at?

There must be more…. more… more..
Is this all there is?
Is this it?

There will be time

A rainy Thursday in London. Yesterday seems so long ago. Radiohead and T.S.Eliot provide the mood, and comfort, for the day.




And indeed there will be time 
To wonder, "Do I dare?" and, "Do I dare?" 
Time to turn back and descend the stair, 
With a bald spot in the middle of my hair—                              
[They will say: "How his hair is growing thin!"] 
My morning coat, my collar mounting firmly to the chin, 
My necktie rich and modest, but asserted by a simple pin— 
[They will say: "But how his arms and legs are thin!"] 
Do I dare 
Disturb the universe? 
In a minute there is time 
For decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse. 


http://people.virginia.edu/~sfr/enam312/prufrock.html

After the midnight mark on a Sunday

my thoughts 

are creatures of the night.

unexpected visitors, hidden in feathers 

and down.

the mind begins to wander

as the body rests,

the present disappears

while the future manifests.

in thoughts, in dreams,

reality permeated by

a sudden amalgamation of moments

that have yet to occur.

as much as you may battle with the wave,
you can never defeat it.

five nights later and here you are.

but not really.

I don't know either, I just found this in my Drafts

Got that Monday feeling on a Friday

“My thought is me: that's why I can't stop. I exist because I think… and I can't stop myself from thinking. At this very moment - it's frightful - if I exist, it is because I am horrified at existing. I am the one who pulls myself from the nothingness to which I aspire.” ― Jean-Paul Sartre, Nausea



I have nothing else to add. I shall retract back into my thoughts now.

Just a dream

It feels like it all finished before it even started. And now... Now what? Back to the real world. Back to daylight, the sounds of the city, your alarm, some sun.

What happens in Berlin stays in Berlin. Because the memories are all a blur.

Let's do it all over again.

REM

A dream
(within a dream)
Sleeping in consciousness
Prolonging the manifestations of the mind
and body; this is where happiness lies
No - no - it should not end
It is far too soon
to be awake -
Too late
.

Moments of Introspection

Off to Berlin in exactly one week and one day.

Berlin has a special vibe that I haven't felt in any other place in the world. Money is not the main driving force behind the city. A combination of factors have made it what it is today: the people, the history, the music. Everything feels authentic. You don't feel ripped off in everything you do. It feels just right. You can be who you are, or who you want to be, and no one will judge you. There is an ongoing energy that makes you feel very much alive.

My Berlin Pinterest Board has been updated with new places I'd like to visit party in. I have also created a custom-made Google map, because I am a geek, which I may or may not share when we're back. I have been looking forward to next weekend for too long.

A weekend of getting lost in deep sounds and dark rooms. A weekend of getting lost in the moment (as the Innervisions crowd put it) and at the same time rediscovering yourself. It's one of the funny things about clubbing for hours - you can reach moments of profound clarity, because at the very moment that you close your eyes the magic begins to happen. It's only you, and the music, and the way you perceive it.

In a similar way, daylight saving time has prolonged the night and the hours of darkness every day, forcing us to spend more time in the dark. Ironically enough, sometimes we see things more clearly in the darkness, with our mind's eyes. Surrounded by people, yet experiencing everything alone, in our moments of introspection.

Five minutes in the morning

That's how long it takes to add some creativity to your everyday live. I had a debate with a friend yesterday, about 'losing' creativity. Creativity and inspiration are not the same thing. Inspiration comes and goes. Creativity is instilled within you. You can't 'lose' it, because it's always there. You just need to be a little patient and persistent until it surfaces.

After having read Oliver Burkeman's very interesting article in the Guardian called Rise and shine: the daily routines of history's most creative minds, I realised that most of the biggest creative minds in history had - wait for it - full time jobs. But instead of letting this get to them, they managed to somehow fit their creative sessions within their already very busy days. They did other activities (taking long walks was a popular one) to get inspired and ensured they devoted a proportion of their day to their art.

How hard can that be? If you clear your head, sit down in a self-imposed quarantine and face a blank computer screen, or a piano, or a canvas, or whatever medium you choose to use, something will come to you. And if it doesn't, it's ok. As long as you try. Don't let 'real life' get to you - let real life be your source of inspiration. Let it be what structures your day, and your week, so you can base your moments of creativity around it.

Five minutes in the morning. Every morning, before work. Or five minutes before you go to sleep. That's all you need.

Franz Kafka worked for an insurance office

Summer in the city

There's something quite magical about summertime in big cities. Everything and everyone transforms. People are happier. The grass looks greener. Ugly residential blocks of concrete suddenly glisten with pride.

And suddenly, the days are longer, the nights are shorter, but you don't need the nights anyway because you remember how good it feels being in the sun. Suddenly, you realise that maybe you already have what you need. A terrace, a paddling pool, a group of friends, music and drinks. Dialogue-free scenes from a Sofia Coppola movie, with nostalgia quietly at work.

Time slows down, it's not your enemy anymore.

Then Monday comes. Every Monday feels like a small death. Every weekend that passes, a mini-lifetime that went by in flash. How could you have spent it differently? Could you have done more? Did you waste it doing nothing, or did you make the most out of it?

Snapping out of holiday mode, you make your way to work only to sit indoors and dream about being in the sunshine again. But it's not a bad feeling, because you know this time, summer's here to stay.

For now.

f@ck yeah

That is all. I have nothing else to say.

Free chocolate milk in the morning + this = I'm happy (ish, still can't get over this week's Game of Thrones episode). I can't wait for proper European tour dates. Not Reading festival. Not Leeds festival. Give us a proper London venue, and I'll be the first to stand in line.

DAFT PUNK DAFT PUNK DAFT PUNK DAFT PUNK DAFT PUNK DAFT

PUNK DAFT PUNK DAFT PUNK DAFT PUNK DAFT PUNK DAFT PUNK DAFT PUNK DAFT PUNK DAFT PUNK DAFT PUNK DAFT PUNK DAFT PUNK DAFT PUNK DAFT PUNK DAFT PUNK DAFT PUNK DAFT PUNK



I mean, this is probably not even the final version. But I can't stop listening to it and thinking of the beach, the sun and having a couple of these. (if you're too lazy to click on the link, it's a recipe for a smashed raspberry lemonade cocktail. Click away)

At least this year's music is good

2013 has not been disappointing when it comes to music releases. Yes, it's snowing in April. Yes, home is going through some (serious) sh1t, but a bunch of favourite artists are keeping us company through these cold, miserable times.

First of all, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs - a horrible album cover, but the music makes up for it. I can hear the dance remixes in my head:



P.S. Karen O, you are mental.


Up next, DAFT PUNK!




And, to set a more sombre tone, Nine Inch Nails. The release of their new album will probably be next year, which means 2013 will be spent listening to all the Halos and praying for a How To Destroy Angels European tour.

The smell of sunshine

I remember sometimes