Drawing of Susanne Valadon by Erik Satie, 1983 Veux and voeux . This new episode on piano, The Vocabulary of Love , is all about wants and wishes.  From chocolat ,  Liebesfrühling , to the romance of t…

Leafing once more through Walter Benjamin. A Critical Life I come upon Benjamin's daily routine while he was living in Ibiza in the summer of 1932. I was surprised to see that he finished his days by…

This week I discovered that  René Magritte was a funny guy. Here a few examples that of his wit in his Écrits Complets , his collected writings:  “Do you think much about death?” the interviewer asked …

There is a surprise in the artist book that Hitomi Usui sends me from Japan. She has included the goodbye poem that I wrote for her, my then neighbour at the HIAP residency in Helsinki. To be more precise…

Last week I had to compensate for A having a good time in New York City, full of excitement and VIPs. So I watched The Andy Warhol Diaries on Netflix. For inspiration, as I myself have been planning a p…

I have by now a proper library on Erik Satie. My latest purchases are the books by Ornella Volta: “Satie Seen Through His Letters”, “Satie / Cocteau. Eine Verständigung in Mißverständnissen” and “Erik Sat…

In the local coffee shop Pausini I have a chat with the barista. Turns out she was born in Alt-Tempelhof, went to school here, left the neighbourhood only shortly for a stay in Pankow and some work in Pre…