My nice, she’s a student now, told me recently very proud that she has a part time job in a destruction company, and how she loves to demolish old furniture. It’s exciting to play with danger, with destruction. It brings diversity in our predictable lives and it creates space for new creations. As a musician, you usually don’t have to worry, you life is not predictable. Still, many musicians flirt with destruction. The audience expects it, it’s what sells. Though […]
The Olympics 2016 in Brazil are over. And again it was all about the medals. The Dutch ‘Chef de Mission’ Maurits Hendriks is very disappointed. His task is, according to himself, to motivate the athletes. But they didn’t perform as expected. Very disappointing! What about the Olympic creed? “The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not to win but to take part, just as the most important thing in life is not the triumph but the struggle. The […]
Context is everything! If you need an example, look at the picture above. Looking at the cylinder it depends on the context, on the perspective if you see a square or a circle, Context is important in everyday life too. Some years ago a right-wing Dutch politician asked during a speech if the audience would prefer more or less foreigners, and they all shouted “less, less, less”. But if you ask the same question to employers who are desperate to […]
It’s like today is screaming the whole time ‘expect the unexpected’ to me! It started when I woke up from a nasty dream. When I got up, everything was misty outside. Later on, the sun broke through and it was a beautiful and warm autumn-day. And on the way to the office I had a flat tire that I had to fix while I was full of other plans. Somehow that is what fall as season tells me every year […]
Last Sunday Prince played two surprise shows at Paradiso in Amsterdam. It started with a fuss about the high ticket prices. Still, the shows were sold out within no time. It was a unique opportunity for fans to see their idol in such an intimate setting. I wasn’t there. On Monday I read in the papers about what I call a clash of expectations. First let’s take Prince. He’s a star, used to be a public figure and having very […]
It’s summer and for two weeks we already have great summer weather over here, they don’t expect it to change in the next week. And today my summer holiday starts 🙂 Before summer holiday starts, everyone is looking forward to it. We start to make lots of plans, looking forward to travel and see yourselves in a very different environment enjoying life. Often we create a dream that has little to do with who we really are. Every time I […]
When I was 19 I moved to Frankfurt and started to study Theology. I thought that the whole world is open to me, and that with age the possibilities will become more and more limited. Well, that’s the best way of getting old even when still young at age 🙂 Our own expectations, and most of all the expectations we think that others have regarding us, are the strongest obstacle in discovering our possibilities. We think that we have to […]
Admiration It starts with others to admire you. The other side of that admiration is influence. They look up to you and it’s easy for you to influence them. People will not only admire you for your art, talents or knowledge. The media will start to ask you questions about all and everything, even if it’s something you have no idea about. Your influence is becoming bigger. Omnipotence Often the result is a feeling of omnipotence. It starts as soon […]
Waiting – don’t you hate it too? Waiting means that you are depending on others, that you have to wait for them to do something, or for the situation to change. Artists have to wait all the time, especially musicians on tour. It seems like most part of your day is waiting. You wait for your band mates to be ready to leave to the show, get in a traffic jam, wait for the sound engineers to be ready for […]