By Popular Demand

Here's the sweet X-Mas card Martijn sent to Mrs. UF (ex) and yours truly.  Short of the card from our mom (which was stuffed with cash) it was the nicest card we received this year.  As you can see, it shows off Martijn's obsessive-compulsive side, which is also on display on his very fascinating blog.  Thanks, Martijn. You're the best.

Comments

[Martijn]

Ho ho ho, and thank you! My (fascinating) blogs tend to be suffering from extinction a bit, but who isn't? Mike, next year I'll top your Mom's.

[Jan Martin Löhndorf]

Looks like the Reeperbahn, hoes wherever you look.

[Martijn]

Nothing gets passed you, Jan Martin! Ha ha. Reeperbahn you say? Now there's a dream holiday destination.

[ishootblanks]

Reeperbahn? What is that? Some kind of Blue Oyster Cult tune?

[Jan Martin Löhndorf]

Reeperbahn is Hamburg's red light district. Fuck and get fucked. I got my tattoo there, though.

[Martijn]

Yes, why didn't Kraftwerk made a song called Reeperbahn? Would have been catchy ánd commercial.

I played one of there albums this week (just one side of it because it got on my nerves like boxed up mimes) and I suddenly heard a tune I only knew from Coldplay! And I have this Kraftwerk record for quite some time now! That's how well I listen to music sometimes. Now I have discovered the Stones' Album "Some Girls" and play it over and over. Not a bad band eh, The Rolling Stones? Imagine how good they could have been if not Brian Jones but Mick Jagger had died in the early days. Just partly kidding, Mick, if you're reading this.

Oh hells balls, I don't know why I write all this. Pure boredom I guess (and to fuck with you). Bored out of my mind actually. Freedom is highly overrated. Office jobs are mind numbing and torture, but at least you don't notice it for most part of the day. Just when you're driving home you consider taking an exit of the highway where there isn't one. Jeez, what am I saying, I'm so lucky to have been fired (with pay!!). If only I could find something to make the best of this, to profit from it as it were. But these last weeks (apart from reading a kick ass book) I was bored stiff. I could do a ho ho ho or ha ha ha thing the size of a football field and be perfectly content with it. Now, let's flip the record and get more coffee.

[Jan Martin Löhndorf]

Hey Martijn! I'm about to meet an old friend of mine and I have spent the weekenb boßeln through the streets of Hamburg and fondling a three-legged dog (although I usually do not like dogs) and falling in love with a left-wing activist woman (who's been living in a relationship for several years now, so much for futility) and I am about to launch my own clothingcompany (sort of) and and this evening my friend and I will have dinner at an anarchist-run cantina.
I am tired as fuck and I like the Batles more than the stones except for Brian and Keith when he was still cool, now eat your heart out, Fuck Jagger.
Thank you for your attention (which in cludes Mr Jagger).

[Martijn]

Wow. I could take a few leaves out of your book. You really know how to amuse yourself! I used to amuse myself too, but this year is terrible. Perhaps the not drinking is at the root of the problem. Or just because I'm becomming a miser. I can't think of a thing to do... I begin to hate art. That's the worst thing. I resent at and hipness, the thing I thought was my only love. But no. And it's raining constantly and my best (& only) friend is traveling in China at the moment, seeing great walls and eating duck blood soup, she writes... dapper little trooper. I just went out to eat a sandwich (chicken, egg, rocket and some strange but delicious Surinam sauce kind of thing on it) just to stop the boredom. Didn't work.

But then again, the entertainment of my town is perhaps a little less spectacular than that of Hamburg. There is no Reeperbahn here and I have never seen a three-legged dog as far as I can remember. And the less said about my encounters with left-wing activist women the better. Where ARE you, left-wing activist women?! I even settle for a three-legged one, or a one-legged one, as long as it's the left.

I'm a huge Beatles fan. Got all the albums. Play them. Love them (just not that keen on the hits). From the Stones, I only had the early ones (till about '68, but I came into possession of the 'Some Girls' album a few months ago, but wasn't bothered playing it. Still... not bad! I now like it, even though Jagger sings like a retard with his balls in a vice.

Thanks for cheering me up JML. Over to you, Mike. Take it away! Mr. Music, will you play...

[ishootblanks]

Martjin, I was driving home and there was a freight train in my way. The red and white guard came down and I came to a stop, the train clickety-clacking past at about 60 MPH as I waited for it to pass. But after about a minute, I started getting a little pissed at the train, and I could visualize me giving the truck the gas, bursting through the guardrail, and attacking the train with my truck, just to teach it a lesson. I could also visualize the train winning, my truck being torn in two, my body smashed against the big pole attached to the flashing red light, and since I am not suicidal (am I not suicidal?) I managed to refrain from teaching that train a lesson.
They say our bodies fail us....so do our minds.

[ishootblanks]

Oh, I prefer Beatles to Stones by a longshot.

[Martijn]

Ishootblanks, or should I call you Youshootblanks (hey, Steve!) I don't think your mind failed you there. I don't know your truck, and I know American cars can be quite large, but I'm pretty sure it wouldn't have learned the train a lesson. But the WANTING to teach the train that lesson says enough: that you are alive & kicking! Full of live's energy I mean.

Praised be White Album! Amen.

[UF MIKE]

ishootblanks, that is an instructive tale. I've never lived in an area where I had to wait for trains to pass, but I can imagine the sheer indignity of having to wait there impotently while it happened. And I feel for you. As for the Beatles, they have a couple of good songs. As for the Stones, they have Exile on Main Street. Personally, I think they come out about even in the end.

[Martijn]

Exile on Main Street! That's the record I wanted to play. I watched a docu on the making of it the night previously; all in Keith's basement at the Côte d'Azur, with Anita Pallenberg and smack and super guitar play and the rest. I wanted to live the R&R live by proxy today by hearing that music again. But I don't have that record, so I played the next best thing.

[Jan Martin Löhndorf]

Martijn, art will always love you no matter what. Andwith a mind like yours, how on earth can you be bored?
And sas for Beatles vs. Stones - you're right, Mike. The Beatles (esp. George) were acquainted with Monty Python's Flying Circus, thatÄs a plus.

[Martijn]

Thanks Jan Martin, again for the cheer. I am ashamed for being bored. And I should be.

It really is a complicated matter, Beatles vs Stones. All sorts of factors. But I don't want to say bad things about any of them. There was much goodness in both bands: Stones never did a song as criminal as Hello Goodbey; Yoko was cool (not a terribly good singer though); Stones went to jail; Beatles were smart; Stones were ugly, the Beatles quit. But some like Lady Gaga of course, and that's all okay tonight. Hey all.

[Jan Martin Löhndorf]

Don't be so hard on yourself. Show some mercy and love and understanding.

[AnitaNH]

Martijn, "a ho ho ho thing. . . the size of a football field" is funny! Boredom and depression for me are linked and I turn to writing in my journal where I allow myself to say anything no matter how stupid or inane. I hope to hell I get the chance to burn them before I croak, is all!

Jan Martin, I think you are right about art always loving you and congratulations about your clothing company. Keep us posted!

[Martijn]

Thank you, Anita, for your kindness and the being here (one of us, and kinder). Perhaps I should go out and look for funding for my giant Ha Ha Ha writings (also because I have nothting left to draw or paint... or write for that matter... ha ha ha). But all'll be well of course. If Mike can date, then maybe so can I!

[Martijn]

Wouldn't you know but I found this morning at the 2nd hand shop the very same album: Exile on Main Street! Super.

And yes, Jan Martin, lots of success with the clothing company! Luck is in the air at the moment.

[Jan Martin Löhndorf]

Also this morning: sunshine over Hamburg, a rare occurrence!

And rhanks everybody for wishing me luck. Love y'all!

[AnitaNH]

Mike and Martijn, this is for you:

http://healthmaven.blogspot.com/2012/01/bad-day-try-fukitol.html

Started my morning off with a smile!

[Martijn]

Fukitol made me laugh too. And so did the pill rap under it. I play it for the third time now.

[AnitaNH]

"There is another kind of suffering for the artist which is worse than anything a winter, or poverty, can do; it is more like a winter of the mind, in which the life of his genius, the living sap of his work, seems frozen and motionless, caught--perhaps forever--in a season of death, and who knows if spring will ever come again to set it free?" (Robert Nathan)

RN was an inspiration to collage artist Joseph Cornell. . . wrote about it today.

[gillian]

Thanks for posting this picture, I was looking forward to it! :)

Martijn, "it got on my nerves like boxed up mimes" is wonderfully descriptive.