Norwegian Wood the movie and re-reading books

Twin Peaks

Yesterday, I re-watched an episode of Twin Peaks, which remains a fantastic David Lynch classic. Being somewhat low-energy, I scrolled through my Justwatch list to see if any other exciting films were available. There, I found Norwegian Wood.

Recently, I reread Haruki Murakami’s book. I still liked it very much. (I rarely reread a single book, with exceptions being Haruki Murakami, Gerrit Krol, Douglas Coupland, Derek Sivers and Seth Godin)
The movie Norwegian Wood has a very similar atmosphere to the book. The film has the typical Murakami-like alienation from the world.

“Of course.”

“Is that a catchphrase of yours?”

I found this again in “The City and Its Uncertain Walls” (in Dutch – De stad en zijn onvaste muren).

→ The City and Its Uncertain Walls

Project 2025, an outlook on US autocracy

Yesterday, I stumbled upon Trump’s Project 2025. This project is an astonishing fascist agenda of the ultra-right wing of the Republican party that seeks to overthrow the government and install an autocratic government in which the president has all the power.

The language on the website is so amazingly hateful. What is behind this hate between left and right in the US that led to this extreme divide between the people in the US?

The 180-day playbook describes a swift transition of the entire government. For example, under the term “personnel is policy,” thousands of political jobs are planned to be re-staffed with “dedicated conservatives.”

Under the term “religious freedom,” which they claimed to correlate with poverty, economic growth, and peace, an orthodox Christian policy is promised to be instituted that bans abortion rights, LGBTQI+ rights, etcetera.

The next conservative Administration must champion the core American value of religious freedom, which correlates significantly with poverty reduction, economic growth, and peace. It should train all USAID staff on the connection between religious freedom and development; integrate it into all of the agency’s programs, including the five-year Country Development and Coordination Strategies due for updates in 2025; strengthen the missions’ relationships with local faith-based leaders, and build on local programs that are serving the poor.

We have enough evidence of what an orthodox Christian society will bring. What any society based on an orthodox religion produces: intolerance, oppression, government violence, racism, discrimination, and other extreme outgrows.

We can only hope that the people in the US, especially those typically supporting the Republican party, will distance themselves from this autocratic threat. The alternative is probably not their ideal either, but it seems approachable and rational.

… o shit

Sometimes, you are telling your story so confidently. How elegantly you solved that solution. Then you get that one question that silences you for a couple of seconds, and all you can say is “… o shit”.

We can become so blind to the omissions in our stories that we overlook the most obvious shortcoming, that question that we overlooked and we should have an answer for.

Today was one of these days. We worked on this for a year and a half, and then this person in the audience asked, “And what if this XYZ widget in your thing here fails?”

… Silence … o shit!

Compliant by nature

From Murakami’s The City and Its Uncertain Walls:

Zijn moeder was van nature meegaand en ze rekende het tot haar voornaamste plicht om geen moeilijkheden te veroorzaken.

His mother was compliant by nature, and she considered it her first duty not to cause trouble.

Such a Murakami sentence.

Crossing

Unexpected crossing in the fields around Krommenie.

Otoboke Beaver in Paradiso

I saw Otoboke Beaver in Paradiso last Thursday, July 4th. Arguably the most innovative band in the world.

Otoboke Beaver

The sleeper

A fat man in a light blue coat zipped up to the top, arms crossed on his stomach, lies snoring.
His glasses slant. He smacks in his sleep.

Amazing how he always wakes up in time for his destination.