This article is based on this dutch article of Martijn Benders

Rough Aggression Over the Olympics

After surpassing 100 subscribers on YouTube, things moved rather quickly: last month, I gained another 100 subscribers. This is a much faster growth compared to, for example, TikTok, which I find a challenging medium because TikTok fundamentally revolves around the ‘fun’ aspect of your video. Nobody is there for philosophy or music; if you want to thrive on TikTok, you really have to focus on going viral.

Since De Hertenklanken also have nearly 200 subscribers, I now have a total of 400, roughly 1/3 of what the Osdorp Posse has. Of course, it doesn’t mean much, but it’s fun to see how you can reach a larger audience with modern techniques.

Mavi is naturally staying here, and I promised to show her Paris and Venice. With teenagers, you must understand that you should not impose too many projections on them. Projections, expectations, guiding didactics, and all a teenager really wants is to be left alone—they already have to survive in an extremely stressful environment throughout the year, at school, so I just let her do her thing here. If she wants to sleep until 3 PM, she does that.

Yesterday, I played a song together with my daughter for the first time. It’s this song by De Hertenklanken, based on the opening poem of Ginneninne:

Mavi plays a Vintage Vibe Electric Piano, an electric piano sampled by Keyscape, and I play a Planet T, which is usually my instrument of choice along with the Farfisa. I am the Planet T man, so to speak. And Mavi played well right away; this is the first take where I barely had to tinker with it, except in terms of mastering, which I think I have become much better at, which is, of course, good news.

I think I will release a record with De Hertenklanken soon, certainly this year. The workload is a bit high when you aim to transform ten bands. I maintain that idea, but I don’t know what the final result will be.

Goethe on a Tractor—somewhat unfortunate that Runway does not maintain facial features well, O Land of Great Writers—we recognize the image from ‘It’s Only Mountains’, my poetry collection from six months ago. Those interested in the connection between Great Literature and agriculture, I recommend that collection or perhaps you can take a look here, where the two also connect.

Meanwhile, our first Luna Moth has been born:

She almost immediately laid eggs, without any male involvement. She turns out to be very attached to Veronique; yesterday, she rode along on Veronique’s shoulder all day. She clearly considers Veronique her mother, and the memory from caterpillar to moth is transferable: there was evident recognition.

I have already sampled the eternal dust with my nose; this is less potent in the Luna Moth than in the Atlas Moth. In my opinion, the Luna Moth is better as a tea source: the Luna Moth droppings are highly medicinal as tea and taste delicious.

Breeding moths both to sniff their dust and to make tea from their droppings may seem eccentric to the average person, but I can already say that this is the best hobby I have ever adopted. Ideally, I want this entire house filled with the most beautiful flutterers. The wild garden outside is also a source of much insect joy and, as I age, I increasingly learn to perceive insects not just as equal beings but rather as superior, wonderful beings.

Frankly, do you remember that lecture in Amsterdam in September? A small hoverfly was constantly communicating with me, which actually seemed more real to me than the assembled audience, which the audience did not appreciate. They became so aggressive that I was almost lynched. You must not attach as much importance to a hoverfly as to an assembled audience. But the communication with the fly was just significantly more interesting, and the expectations that I would give a sales pitch about my book were not fulfilled. If you are on stage and value communication with a fly more than with the audience: a torrent of aggression ensues.

I see this same rough aggression continually at the Olympics. It is indescribable how you can call someone who was simply born a woman a ‘transvestite’ or a ‘reconstructed man’ just because she had high testosterone levels once, something that menstruation can already cause. I am really so done with that entire band of clowns on X, who are just severely disturbed; there is no other way to put it. And the moths and hoverflies, oh my, what clarity, what beautiful spirits, and if you can’t see that because you live in a dead Newtonian conceptual world (or Hegelian, for all I care)—that blunt conceptual autocracy is a horrifying terror.

Martijn 03-08-2024