Geoffrey King

Vouwfiets

Jeremy defies the laws of nature by getting more cute as he gets older. He looks about 28, though he is perhaps 40. Being so good-looking (especially now that he’s all bronzed from a recent cruise) and nice, and clever and well educated, and everything else that any reasonable person could desire in a partner, he naturally has boyfriend trouble……

We sat on the balcony and J. served lunch. I could see across to the Rembrandt Tower. It was a lovely hot day. I started to wear a straw hat, but that didn’t help. Truth be told, I don’t much like hot sunshine. But I did like sitting amongst herbs and pot plants. And being with him was so nice.

We talked a bit about the massacre in Virginia because it’s just happened. But all the issues have been gone through again and again, so there’s not much to say. The main thing I find is not to sneer at the U.S. and its problems. I don’t like that. It’s a cheap thing to do. J. didn’t do that of course. On the contrary, he’s researching into the problem.

Cycled back along the Baarsjesweg where they plan to build the new Westermoskee. If it happens it should be magnificent. Fantastic position there by the canal and they’ve erected a hoarding where you can see an image of what it will all look like. The whole project is controversial though……….needless to say.

Royal standard of Norway

By chance, the journey via Hilversum gave me an idea. A very obvious one, but I have a peculiar ability to miss the obvious… Maybe because there is so much around that doesn’t appear to be interesting. We passed by some business premises just outside Hilversum – I don’t know what the firm was. There were flags flying there. Not nice national flags or, even nicer, a royal standard, but “company flags”. I was used of course to seeing these, but had always discounted them. In this case, they were truly risible. Along the tops of the flags, threaded into the border, was a thin rod, at right angles to the flagpole. So the flags were erect and “flying” even though there was no wind. It was stupid looking and, of course, part of the attraction of a flag is the way it furls and unfurls in the wind.

These stupid stiff versions are really advertisements, simply that. And then I thought that blogs, websites for composers, are similarly advertisements. Attention seeking.
On the journey back, I was thinking about the ways in which composers do this. The other day I received a publishers catalogue of what is, I think, quite a poor composer. There was an introduction written by a music critic. The prose was almost purple (violet? mauve?). And then I got the idea that the critic knew just how weak the work was that he was praising. The more “purple” he became, the more he seemed to be lying. (We never stop lying of course, but the insidious ones are the lies we tell ourselves).

So I think a website can be used to give out honest thoughts and feelings as well as cataloguing work. Trumpeting “success” where there is none is, well, lying. And rather transparently so in the case I mentioned. As to company flags – how dull is that?

The Royal Standard of Norway, shows how it should be done.

Brilliant meal at Jeroen’s pretty house in a cute village situated on the river Vecht. Me, Ananda, Chendra, Jeroen of course (who was cook) and Iman Ahimsa, a photographer. They got on to the subject of China and then Feng Shui. I was just “taking notes”. A classical music station was was playing in the background, so Ananda and I were meanwhile enjoying recognizing things as they came along. It’s a good game. Some Star Trek music appeared (obviously scraping through into the classical music category) and then a marvelous choral piece by John Rutter which we hunted for when we got back to Amsterdam. The subject of Lounge Music came up and the Buddha Bar in Paris. So Jeroen put on a compilation CD released under their brand name. Nice, but, oh dear, I’m pretty sure that’s not on my list of “things you must like” – the one I mislaid several years ago.