Life's too fast to play it safe.

readers digest.

new books on the block the left.

daniel quinn.

.. (...) something extraordinary is going to happen in the next two or three decades. The people of our culture are going to figure out how to live sustainably--or they're not. And either way, it's certainly going to be extraordinary.

read a complete summary of a recent speech by Daniel Quinn, done by Henrique..

"If the world is saved,
it will be saved by people
with changed minds,
people with a new vision.
It will not be saved by people
with old minds and new programs.
It will not be saved by people
with the old vision but a new program."

"And when you're on
the brink of extinction
and want to live for a while longer,
the laws governing life might
conceivably become relevant."
 

don't want to polute when you fly?

thank you for the link, Emil.

http://www.terrapass.com/

alvin ailey and..

..arts in education, integration and motivation through dance.
http://www.alvinailey.org/page.php?p=dir&c=9&sec=programs

His (Alvin Ailey's) legacy:
dance as a medium for honoring the past, celebrating the present and fearlessly reaching for the future.

first class // back to basics again.

it's when you think you actually should not try something new now again, this is all going to be too embarassing, that's when I know, aah, ulli, you really are on the best way to have to jump into something new.

I received a small tag for my key chain, that gets me into every course at the AileySchool. Some of the classes have never been offered in Munich, where I did most of the dancing.
Today it was HipHop - the feeling of dancing in the middle of Manhatten, with a teacher so tough and so humorous at the same time, makes my heart beat so fast I have to slow my breath. This is a quality without name for me. The warmth with which I was welcomed into a class very much advanced, me just enjoying to dance, and not getting much of the choreography, but..being there.

Lesson: music was so loud, wowowowow, and suddenly the teacher stops and says, "listen, it is very easy to give up at this stage. I do not take you're being here for granted, you let me do what I love doing, and my task is to make you go out of this room and feel good, feel that you have achieved something."

There is much cheesiness that is, I believe, put to some of the american pratices, but there was a deep spirit in what she was saying. Never, never give up. You better practice hard, but nobody said it was easy. Give it a smile, and just continue with passion.

I never heard that before in any dance class. And indeed, as Royston Maldoom [http://www.royston-maldoom.net] says, you can change your life in a dance class..if you just let it.

aarhus, september 2006

new york and..

Before it is again taking too long for me to explain..here you go.
It is my final year at the KaosPilots in denmark. June 2007, yesyes, and I already got something very amazing coming up, so, no worries on the workplace. Not for much profit, but much spirit, I can promise you.

I had planned some very long time back to go to Zimbabwe for my world internship period this autumn. But my mother fell very sick, and so there the only way to go was not to. (http://www.kufunda.org)

Having met amazing people in June/Borl/Slovenia, I contacted Werner, working with Caritas/Austria, as we were talking back then about 'Rhythm is it' [http://www.rhythmisit.com] in one way or the other in Vienna. And, yes! He was really working on making this amazing dream happening, and I thought, how amazing, I can join in for my internship, vienna, my second home, and the project an amazing opportunity.

During a conversation in Vienna, it turned out, that it might be more helpful for the project, if I could join in when it started, that being february 2007.
Wuwuwuwuwuw, no internship.

How could my having these two months be of use for the initiative of integrating underserved schoolchildren through dance?

Lululululu, I looked for those that were doing amazing things within the field, and many of them were on the east coast/U.S. So I called some very different organisations, with the same goal, to create value through dance, so I got in, so I am here. New York it is. Alvin Ailey, the number one on the list, those that I did not dare calling until the last moment, my inspiration.

I had no idea, what would be expecting me, I had not been dancing/class in ages, I had no appartement fixed when the plane landed, and I was having heartvibrations (herzflimmern, you know) all through my body.

The present story now without further drama: I am working and learning from Nasha Thomas-Schmitt, Director for Arts in Education and Community Development.

I am amazed to be here. I am at awe when seeing the dancers every day around the office, I am grateful.

And I have the privilege to choose life, and feel I truly am.

modern heroes//thomas d.

with love from new york - i am back, needed some time to find words for thoughts.
here we go with some borrowed ones from a new book..
______________________________________________

There is the saying: "if you've saved one life, you've safed the world." I think this really refers to your own very life. If you safe you're own life, by not giving up, not becoming depressiv, bitter or haggard, but you'll succeed to stay open and loving until the end of your life, then it will be ok for this world.
In the end it is about keeping our humanity, to respect and look after eachother.

Wenn du dein eigenes Leben rettest, indem du nicht aufgibst, nicht depressiv wirst, verhärmst oder verbitterst, sondern es schaffst, bis zum Ende deines Lebens offen und liebevoll zu bleiben, dann geht das in Ordnung auf dieser Welt.

stine.

this is stine. my amazing danish friend, that learns german without pardon and dances whenever she can - in all her own style. Although she does not own any, she walks in red shoes. She is a true lover of life.
Tak for dig, soede!

Angels in America.

It has been some time now, that I watched the movie - and it takes time to digest it and suggest it to others and try to understand only half of its scenes, pictures and dialogues.
A group of us, here in San Francisco watched it with the director of photography, Stephen Goldblatt, who would stop between the scenes to mention some of the emotions that were happening behind the scene whilest shooting the movie.
Kushner himself, the writer, lost most of his friends in the early age of the AIDS discovery in the U.S., it is phantasy and reality in one. Well, isn't that often so?

If any of the below touch or move you, you should see it..

Harper: "This is the very threshhold of revelation sometimes. You can see things . . . Do you see anything about me?"
Prior: "Yes, you are amazingly unhappy."
Harper: "Oh, big deal. You meet a valium addict. You figure out she's unhappy. Of course, something else, something surprising? . . . Well, I don't like your revelations. I don't think you intuit well at all . . . I have to go now. Get back. Something just fell apart."
Prior: "I usually say f*#@ the truth, but usually the truth f#@*s you."

Louis: "It should be the questions and shape of a life, its total complexity gathered, arranged, and considered that matters in the end. Not some stamp of salvation or damnation which disperses all the complexity in some unsatisfying little decision."

Belize: "Thadeus, real love isn't ever ambivalent."

Harper: "Your breasts and your genitals, they're amazingly stupid like babies or faithful dogs. They don't get it."

Wife: "Can I come with you? This isn't working anymore, I'm cold."
Departing Husband: "I wouldn't want you to see."
Wife: "You think it's worse than what I imagine? It's not."

Angel of America: "The body is the garden of the soul."

Bitter Lady of the Plains: "You ain't stupid. So don't ask stupid. Ask something for real."
Harper: "In your experience of the world, how do people change?"

Harper: "Nothing is lost forever. In this world there's a type of painful progress, longing for what we've left behind and dreaming ahead. At least, I think that's so."

Excuses for Inaction.

I will be going to a lecture in Berkeley tomorrow - the Rwanda conflict and its history. Some comments of others, while preparing for it, if that is even possible..
___________

After my experiences with Darfur, I suddenly became an expert at hearing all of the excuses why one should not do anything about it. I made a list of seven reasons I was told when I came to London, Paris, Washington, and many places I went to when I was the U.N. Coordinator in Sudan.

The first reaction people had was, 'The situation is not as bad as you make it out to be, surely it cant be that bad.' The second excuse was 'You are being too impatient. Give them a chance to sort it out, the best thing is let them find their own solution to their own problems.' The third excuse was 'It is very difficult, Sudan is not a tiny country. If we were to intervene, it would only make matters worse.' Fourth, 'Why should we do it? Let the someone else do it, then we'll join in and we'll all do it together.' Another excuse was 'We've got other problems to solve. Let's solve the other problems first, then we'll deal with Sudan.' Another reason was, 'We've already brought this problem to the attention of high-level officials, and it's been discussed at the very high level.' Another excuse, which someone gave me yesterday, was, 'We can't intervene because we have to get a proper framework for intervention, then discussions must take place, and then we have to do this and that.'

The truth of the matter is, it is not just a question of instruments, and it is not just a technical matter; it's not just a debate about whether we need 6,000 troops in Darfur, or whether we need 12,000 troops; or whether we need to find a different financing mechanism; or whether it needs to be the U.N. or the African Union. These are reductionist and technical arguments, and these are not the arguments which the leaders of the world should be arguing about when serious evils are being committed. Serious evils require serious actions.