Bored?

If you’re under 14: “Good.” It’s good that you’re feeling bored.
Bored is an actual feeling.

Bored can prompt forward motion. Bored is the thing that happens before you choose to entertain yourself. Bored is what empty space feels like, and you can use that empty space to go do something important. Bored means that you’re paying attention (no one is bored when they’re asleep.)

If you’re over 14: “It’s up to you.”

As soon as you’re tired of being bored at work, at home, on lockdown, wherever, you’ll go find a challenge. You don’t have to quit your day job to be challenged, but you do have to be willing to leap, to take some responsibility, to find something that might not work.

Being challenged at work is a privilege. It means that you have a chance, while being paid, to grow. It means you can choose to matter.

I’m glad you’re feeling bored, and now we’re excited to see what you’re going to go do about it.

In Memory ...

of Marlon's mother and Joyce's grandmother, Lissy Horvath, 1958 - 2019, Elvis fan.

Who passed away very sudenly and unexpectedly at home on 14th May, a sad reminder that all things must pass....

Ray Bradbury's advice

In his lifetime, Ray Bradbury wrote over 400 short stories and 11 novels — including Fahrenheit 451, his most famous work. Ray wasn’t always a good writer. I took him ten years to write his first good story.

To be successfull Ray tells us to make work our partner:

WORK. It is, above all, the word about which your career will revolve for a lifetime. Beginning now you should become not its slave, which is too mean a term, but its partner. Once you are really a co-sharer of existence with your work, that word will lose its repellent aspects. It won’t be easy, of course. You might get a hundred rejection slips. 

But your failures are not your failures:
So we should not look down on work nor look down on the forty-five out of fifty-two stories written in our first year as failures. To fail is to give up. But you are in the midst of a moving process. Nothing fails then. All goes on. Work is done. 

If good, you learn from it. If bad, you learn even more. Work done and behind you is a lesson to be studied. There is no failure unless one stops. Not to work is to cease, tighten up, become nervous and therefore destructive of the creative process.

Do. Learn. Grow.

A mark of genius

I just remembered a story about Sir Thomas Beecham. The world renowned composer was rushing across a hotel foyer when he met a distinguished woman he felt he should have recognized. He bade the lady a good day and went to get into the lift. As he was stepping through the lift door, he remembered the woman had a brother, so he leaned out of the lift and said, “By the way, what is your brother doing these days?”

“Oh, he’s still the king” replied Princess Victoria.

True genius comes with a true humility, people so caught up with their field of expertise that they do not worry about trivial priorities of the materialistic world – the photographs of Albert Einstein also illustrating how a true genius displays an indifference to the sort of values many now regarded as important.

Bowie and Buckley

This interview with William F. Buckley, which I saw in the movie Best of Enemies, about his adversarial relationship with Gore Vidal, really made an impression on me. That it is possible to reach a point in life where you're so tired, so out of ideas, that you wouldn't go back and do it again. 

Here's the beginning of the interview.

Rose: Do you wish you were 20?

Buckley: No. Absolutely not. No. If I had a pill that would reduce my age by 25 years I wouldn't take it. 

Rose: Why not?

Buckley: Because I'm tired of life.

It's such a contrast to David Bowie's last statement about his life. He says better hurry up to express what you have to say because you'll find time runs out before you're finished. 

I go back and forth on this. There are still a lot of things I'd like to do that I'm pretty sure I won't get to do. I am disappointed in the way some things have turned out. I also am at times somewhat tired of life but I have many more moments when I'm not. 

I think as you get older you have a bit of Bowie and a bit of Buckley. You go back and forth. I think eventually, if you live long enough you do get tired of life, the repetition, the roles we're expected to play, whether they fit or not. The endless arguments that never get resolved. The pointless will of human beings. 

PS: If someone offered me a pill that would make me 20, I'd take it!

(Many thanks to Dave Winer for finding the words.)

Haruki Murakami on writing

In a surprise public appearance at a literary event in Fukushima last week, he likened the solitary act of writing to cooking one of his favourite foods, deep-fried oysters.

His wife can’t stand the dish, so he has no choice but to cook and eat them alone, he told the audience.

“I am lonely, but they are delicious,” he added. “Like the relationship between solitude and freedom, it moves in an endless cycle. Picking out single words that are contained within me is also a solitary act so [writing novels] is similar to eating fried oysters by myself.

When my mind grows pressured when I think that I am writing a novel, I feel more relaxed when I think that I am only frying oysters.”

Writer and long distance runner, author of amongst others, Norwegian Wood, and What I talk about when I talk about running.

Die Armee der Poeten

Von Arthur Horvath.

Liebe Freunde,

am 19.11.2015 starten wir die „Dann geh doch … mal in meinen Schuhen“ Kampagne der YOUNG Stage Kids. Den Film gedreht und geschnitten hat die wundervolle und großartige Anna Mönnich die auch eine Dokumentation über Young Stage dreht. 

Ich teile die Meinung der Kid´s in diesem Video (Passwort: Arthur) und weiß, dass ich nicht machtlos bin sondern auch persönlich mit Euch allen gemeinsam die Macht habe die Dinge zu verändern und zu handeln.

-Well done Silke, nice voice!

And this is my right foot in 2015:

B.B. King RIP

B.B. King died last Thursday at the age of 89. He was just magical on tour with U2 in 1989. In 1988, B.B. reached a new generation of fans with the single "When Love Comes to Town", a collaborative effort between King and U2 on their Rattle and Hum album.




"I'm no good at chords!" -must be one of the best understatements of the 20th century!

"I'm one of those rebel kind of guys. They kinda, look at me kinda wierd, they say, here he is a 62 year old and look what he's try'n to do!"

I'm more than glad to say I saw him after Rattle and Hum at the Hohentwielfestival (near Singen) in 2004. Thank you for all those many years of music B.B.

And luckily enough his life story is here, filmed in 2012.

Mr. Spock

I was sad to read of the passing of Leonard Nimoy, Spock in Star Trek. In the hands of a lesser actor, Spock could easily have been a shallow nerd. But Leonard Nimoy played him as a character who was logical, sophisticated and intelligent.

In so doing, Spock in particular was an inspiration to programmers in the 1970's when it was fashionable for science fiction on TV to be mainly silly and confused. He was a good antidote to that before the hichhikers guide.

I was not a committed Star Trek fan then, simply because I was in Germany and didn't see much english TV. Star Trek was however the only TV show that was free to present ideas about humanity and society and in spite of that it was unpretentious, it did not present itself as a highbrow philosophy program.

That, of course, is part of the point of being intelligent. If you are intelligent, you can say things that ordinary people understand. If you can't, maybe you aren't.

Greatness in writing

John Updike. (March 18, 1932–January 27, 2009) wasn’t merely the recipient of two Pulitzer Prizes and a National Humanities medal, among a wealth of other awards. He had a mind that could ponder the origin of the universe, a heart that could eulogize a dog with such beautiful bitter-sweetness, and a spirit that could look on death without fear.

Describing his subject as "the American small town, Protestant middle class," Updike was well recognized for his careful craftsmanship and his unique prose style.

He is also credited with making suburban sex sexy, which landed him on the cover of Time magazine after "Couples" in 1968 in under the headline “The Adulterous Society” — something Adam Begley explores in the long-awaited new biography Updike.

This book chronicles Updike’s escapades in Ipswich, Massachusetts, in the early 1960s, just as he was breaking through with The New Yorker — the bastion of high culture to which he had dreamed of contributing since the age of twelve.

His literary career began to gain momentum with the publication of Rabbit, Run in 1960 — the fictional story of a twenty-something suburban writer who, drowning in responsibilities to his young family, finds love outside of marriage. That fantasy would soon become a reality for the 28-year-old Updike himself, a country boy who had gotten through Harvard by playing the class clown dressed in his ill-fitted tweed jackets and unfashionably wide ties.

I love all Updike's work, -his novels, short stories and book reviews. The Rabbit novels especially, which are a unique social chronicle of the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s, a wonderful mix of the poetic, coarse, witty, and lyrical.

Held des Tages, WM 08.07.2014

Miroslav Klose, Germany's leading goalscorer with 71 goals in 136 international games, he is the third player to score at four World Cup finals, -2002, 2006, 2010, 2014.

16 Goals in 23 World Cup games, (Brazil legend Pele and West Germany's Uwe Seeler both scored at the 1958, 1962, 1966 and 1970 finals.)


Germany have never lost a game in which he has scored.

Happy Birthday Jack Kerouac!

Geboren am 12.03.1922, Jack Kerouac's sportliche Erfolge brachten ihm 1940 bis 1941 ein Stipendium an der Columbia University in New York ein, wo er zusammen mit Kommilitonen wie Allen Ginsberg und William S. Burroughs die Zelle der Beat Generation bildete.

On The Road (1957), auf deutsch Unterwegs war Kerouac's Durchbruch und der Höhepunkt seiner Karriere. Auch in Januar 1957 schrieb Kerouac eine bewegende Brief an seine Ex-Frau Edie, indem stand:

"I have lots of things to teach you now, in case we ever meet, concerning the message that was transmitted to me under a pine tree in North Carolina on a cold winter moonlit night. It said that Nothing Ever Happened, so don’t worry. It’s all like a dream. Everything is ecstasy, inside. We just don’t know it because of our thinking-minds. But in our true blissful essence of mind is known that everything is alright forever and forever and forever. Close your eyes, let your hands and nerve-ends drop, stop breathing for 3 seconds, listen to the silence inside the illusion of the world, and you will remember the lesson you forgot, which was taught in immense milky way soft cloud innumerable worlds long ago and not even at all. It is all one vast awakened thing. I call it the golden eternity. It is perfect. We were never really born, we will never really die."

Die Filmemacher Sergi Castella und Hector Ferreño haben daraus für Dosnoventa Bikes (in Barcelona) eine wunderschöne Werbefilm gemacht, mit Musik von Pink Floyd und Johnny Cash.




Vielen Dank dafür nach Spanien!

A question maybe nobody ever asked you ?

Here's a question: At what point in your life did what you think become important?

Why I ask: Many people seem to think that what a kid thinks isn't important. After all, you're just a kid. Do what you're told. Be seen and not heard. It's totally understandable that adults react this way to kids, because they can be irritating with all their questions, ideas, enthusiasm, energy and emotions. Kids are a handful. Adults like a little peace and quiet. Stay quiet, I'm busy! 
We have to give the adults some understanding.

Soren Kierkegaard

But eventually the kids grow up, and did we ever stop and say, okay now that you're not a kid anymore, what you think is important?

No one ever said that to me. And I think that's a pity, because the truth is this -- what you think matters as much as what anyone else thinks. If they matter, then so do you. If you don't matter, neither do they.

Once you get this, really feel it -- the reason to argue melts away. I don't need to convince you of anything, I just need to believe it myself. Or not. Either/Or (Auf deutsch: Entweder/Oder) 

In other words, I'll make up my own mind, thank you very much.

Happy Christmas!

Die beste Werbung 2013

von Volkswagen in Amerika während der Superbowl geschaltet. Erinnert mich an Ralf hier in Trossingen, -Danke Ralf.

Katzen fördern Konzentration

.. behauptet kein Geringere als Ernest Hemingway! 

"If you want to concentrate deeply on some problem, and especially some piece of writing or paper-work, you should acquire a cat. Alone with the cat in the room where you work … the cat will invariably get up on your desk and settle placidly under the desk lamp. The light from a desk lamp … gives a cat great satisfaction. The cat will settle down and be serene, with a serenity that passes all understanding. And the tranquility of the cat will gradually come to affect you, sitting there at your desk, so that all the excitable qualities that impede your concentration compose themselves and give your mind back the self-command it has lost. You need not watch the cat all the time. Its presence alone is enough. The effect of a cat on your concentration is remarkable, very mysterious."

Filmtip

Ich zähle zu der Gruppe von Älteren die "The Beatles" und "The Rolling Stones" in Dublin live gesehen haben. Und 40 Jahre später BB King auf der Hohentwiel bei Singen. Mit U2 spielte er in 1989 für deren Album Rattle and Hum den Song "When Love comes to Town" ein. Im Jahr 2000 produzierte er mit Eric Clapton das Album Riding with the King. 

Geboren in 1925 und immer noch mit der Gitarre unterwegs, das Rolling Stone Magazine listet ihn auf Platz 3 der 100 großartigsten Gitarristen aller Zeiten. Demnächst kommt ein Dokumentarfilm über sein Leben in den Kinos, "BB King - The Life of Riley", vielleicht auch in Deutschland.    
   

Erinnerungen..

..an eine der schönsten Frauenstimmen überhaupt, Karen Carpenter, 1971

Es lohnt sich auch ihre Interpretation von "Ticket to Ride" anzuhören.

Und bei der Grammy Awards in 1971:

Beste zeitgenössische Gesangsdarbietung eines Duos oder Gruppe:

1. Carpenters, Close to you
2. Simon and Garfunkel, Bridge over troubled water
3. Beatles, Let it be.

Die Beatles auf Platz 3 verwiesen aber leider viel zu früh von uns gegangen.

10 Dinge die ich gelernt habe - Vier

Mitarbeiter oder Menschen?

Jeder von uns weiß, Mitarbeiter sind das wichtigste Kapital einer Firma. Daher gehört es zu den erstrangigen Management aufgaben, sie zu fördern und entwickeln. Das Personalwesen kann einen wertvollen Beitrag leisten, aber es kann nicht Mitarbeiter Fähigkeiten entwickeln wo der einzelne Vorgesetzte versagt. Ein Mitarbeiter ist aber auch ein Mensch und in letzter Konsequenz können sich Menschen nur selbst entwickeln, genauso wie sie sich nur selbst ändern können. Praktisch alle erfolgreichen Menschen waren Selbstentwickler. Sie orientierten sich an Vorbilder oder hatten Mentoren oder Kunden die sie dazu anhielten, dort tätig zu werden wo sie ihre Stärken hätten. (Wie bei mir Willi Haller, Wolfgang Witte, (Wiki-Eintrag kommt noch!))   

Aber Firmen haben mehr als nur Mitarbeiter, das wird in steigendem Masse verstanden. Vielleicht werden immer noch Mitarbeiter gesucht; kommen werden aber Menschen, wie Max Frisch einmal gesagt hat. Man hat diesbezüglich keine Wahl, genauso wenig wie man eine Wahl hat, ob man sie entwickeln soll oder nicht. Sie entwickeln sich so oder so, die Frage ist nur, wohin?


Die Firma kann als Lernumfeld dienen. Man kann also somit beeinflussen was die Menschen lernen, aber nicht ob sie das tun.

Fast alles, was mit der Weiterentwicklung von Menschen zu tun hat, muss individuell geschehen. Man fördert und entwickelt Individuen -nicht Abstraktionen, Aggregate oder Durchschnitte. Menschen lernen auf ganz verschiedene Wegen: Der eine lernt, indem er zuhört; der andere durch lesen, ein dritter durch schreiben. Andere lernen am besten durch Tun, wieder andere indem sie es lehren. Manche lernen aus Fehlern, andere aus Erfolgen.


Man muss somit im Einzelfall herausfinden, wie eine konkrete Person am besten lernt, wenn man etwas für ihre Entwicklung tun will.

Dankbar sein!

Thanksgiving gestern in America. 

Schlecht ist es nicht, wenigstens einmal im Jahr darüber nachzudenken wofür man dankbar sein sollte. Deine Gesundheit, dein Arbeitsplatz, Schule und Ausbildung, Sicherheit, Meinungsfreiheit, 24 Stunden Internetzugriff, deine Rolle in unser zivilisierten Gesellschaft ...

Für jede Einzelne von uns hier die diese Zeilen hier lesen können gibt es Tausende in anderen Länder und Situationen die sehr gern mit uns tauschen würden. 

Wer ist für uns wichtig?

Versuchen wir mal folgende Fragen zu beantworten:

• nenne die 3 höchst bezahlten Manager in Deutschland
• nenne die letzten 3 Sieger in Wimbledon
• wer gewann den Oskar für beste Darstellerin in 2010, 2009, 2008
• nenne 3 Personen die in Deutschland ein Literaturpreis gewonnen haben.

Könntest Du alle nennen? -wohl kaum, genauso wie die Meisten von uns.


Es geht uns allen so; wir vergessen sehr schnell die Helden von gestern. Obwohl sie besonders talentiert und erfolgreich sind, die Besten in ihren jeweiligen Kategorien. Aber der Jubel verstummt, der Beifall lässt nach, die Leistung gerät in Vergessenheit.


Jetzt vier weitere Fragen, schauen wir mal:

• nenne 3 Lehrer die Dich während der Schulzeit am meisten geholfen haben
• nenne 3 Freunde die Dich in schwierigen Zeiten geholfen haben
• nenne 3 Personen die Dir etwas entscheidendes beibrachten
• denk an 3 Leute mit wem Du am liebsten deine Zeit verbringst.

Leichter?

Klar. Weil die Leute unser Leben bereichern nicht diejenigen mit den meisten Pokale, das meiste Geld, die schönsten Auszeichnungen sind. Es sind diejenige die sich für uns interessieren, diejenige die Zeit für uns nehmen.