Category Archives: Ears

Music, music, music, and … well, beanies?

Eternally Unfinished

Men speaks many different languages, the king said
Children speak only one: the mother language
Mothers don’t speak; they hear
For men don’t know what to say, but this is okay
For older people don’t hear nor do they speak
For having come before, they learned how to see
How to decay, while they observe” [1]

Sometimes we are above, sometimes below, but we are Eternally Unfinished, even if we knew ALL the languages, as I sometimes wish.
The second guided tour I had the pleasure to experience with Juan wasn’t any bit less intriguing than the first, which was this one:


I am therefor very happy that a centrepiece of that exhibit has found its way into my realm, where it can remind us of the most universal und powerful language of all: silence.
As Juan emphasized back then, the skull is a symbol of life, not of death. As we unearth it, layer by layer, we uncover and discover his-story, auf Deutsch: die Ge-schichte(n). Just as we ourselves are many-layered stacks of stories, some of them lost, some hidden, some fragile and fading, but some strong enough to provide us with a skeleton that supports us for some time.
Which stories will remain?


The skull (category: Brains) is a multi-layered symbol of life.

And those you fear neither Death nor Hell nor the Florence Foster Jenkins of Finnish Tango go back to www.petersch.at and make sure their browser doesn’t block audio autoplay. Qui vit sans folie … (category: Ears) 🙂

[1] from Juan Arata: “What makes us human? – A model of Migra Tion”, Booklet for Ruberoid Festival 25-26 Sep 2015, ACUD Kunsthaus, Berlin

Das Hörrohr

“Reading The Hearing Trumpet liberates us from the miserable reality of our days”, said Luis Buñuel. And not just during a pandemic I would like to add to that. In the end, “people under seventy and over seven are very unreliable if they are not cats”, and those are the majority. And: Leonora reveals the true origin of the Holy Grail, which after all we’re also searching for here, and which reminds me that the front tyre of my bike is in desperate need of pneuma. 🙂 Whoever does not acquire a copy of this book at their local book merchant of trust after this immediately, cannot be helped.

First published 1974 (though written in the early 60s) in French translation as “Le cornet acoustique”

Here she is:

A book for all senses, but clearly: category “ears”.

Nothing doesn’t mean nothing at all

I recently came across this fabulous solar powered “do-nothing machine”, designed in 1957 by American design duo Ray and Charles Eames (yet again via aeon.co):

Here you can find a few more photos of this phantastic machine. I very much like the idea that what on first sight appears like a “toy” that “does nothing” represents the very essence of creativity and innovation. In other words, it is ONLY by providing space and time for play or for “nothingness”, that the possibility for SOMEthing new is actually created. Think about it when you come across one of those articles that insist how bad mind-wandering is for children.

Here’s a “Nightcap” from Elmer Bernstein (who might have written the jazzy piece featured in the short movie):

Nehmt das Leben nicht so ernst

Mira las flores:

Listen and remember your favourite things:

Trinket alle daraus (aber hofft nicht auf ewiges Leben – es ist die Hölle).

Hier ist er ĂŒbrigens gefunden, der “Heilige Gral”. Bernie’s search for the Holy Grail. Ist die Suche deshalb zu Ende? Oder: wurde sie jemals begonnen? Die Geheimnisse des Lebens sind – wenn ĂŒberhaupt – immer ganz klein gedruckt, in NebensĂ€tzen von lĂ€ngst vergilbten BĂŒchern (und blogs), geschrieben in Sprachen, die niemand mehr spricht oder die wenigsten die Geduld haben zu erlernen. Meist frappieren sie in ihrer Ähnlichkeit zu TrivialitĂ€ten … wer hat denn die BlĂŒten wirklich angesehen? NatĂŒrlich ist die “dragon scroll” ein leeres Blatt Papier, der Heilige Gral eine leere Flasche Wein. “Kommt noch etwas im Leben?” – NatĂŒrlich nicht! Oder solltest vielleicht zum leb’n vagess’n ham?

… et l’enfer, c’est les autres, comme vous le remarquez tous en ce moment Ă  la maison:

Och nĂ€r han kommer (“VĂ€nta ett ögonblick! – SĂ„ sĂ€ger ju alla!”), du kan ju försöka att spela schack med honom, men … jag rekommenderar att bara följa med honom, som med en gamla vĂ€n (Är du beredd?):

Sinon, faites comme Simone et Jean-Paul

.. eller bilda Olsen Banden (skidegod):