This Blog is about performance art and Christmas in Strasbourg

 

The Implosion 

One can suffer a lifetime of damnation with pleasantries.

~reflections on indecisiveness

Robust, strong Gaelic rock music loudly consumed my ears, but controversially I pondered sin and the burden of separation from our creator. The dichotomy music that stirs one’s spirits and thoughts that burden it.

As I watch the calm night waters of the canal peacefully float by, I feel an Erie, too familiar presence, behind me. It is something evil but I am not afraid of it because I am used to it; like seeing a long lost friend, except without the warm reception. Somehow it is comforting. Suddenly thoughts of taking meaningless showers as symbols to wash the tainted soul. Thereafter, sad, only to discover you have not changed. Other thoughts, restless nights of heartache over issues and thoughts that you thought were forgotten. The only cure to heal the deepest, darkest regions of humanity lies in Jesus Christ.

Back to walking along the river, the erie presence – which all are familiar with; you know nothing is there and so you don’t look behind you to see if anything- is there. Maybe it is something horrible, but the denial of its existence keeps your eyes fixed on your goals (One can suffer a lifetime of damnation on pleasantries). Little do you know that the presences consists of a numerous floating flock of black balloons . . . and . . . all one needs to do to rid themselves of such evils is firstly turn around acknowledging it and then one by one pop the Erie dark corners of your tormented souls to make room for the fullness of life that is waiting to be revealed. However most people don’t turn around.

The next day I went to Kehl, Germany to buy balloons and met with friends known and unknown to pop the balloons as symbols of the evils, the problems, or the wrongs in our life.  We did it in a public space next to the entrance to the Christmas Market.

Are you willing to turn around and pop some balloons?

Are you willing to turn around and pop some balloons?

 

Post-It Note Leaves

The green, orange, yellow, and red Post-It notes I threw in the air, as they gently and gracefully fell like autumn leaves. Random, they made a beautiful, colorful mess of my apartment. The streets are covered with such colors as my Post-It notes, and the wind chooses and randomly spreads the leaves in every direction and sometimes in circles.

“The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit.” (John 3:8)

Let him be our Director, our Comforter, and the source of our trust and hope. Let every fear and anxious thought of seeming disorder or lack of direction be cast off, and be as a leaf at the mercy of the wind. I promise life will be very, very colorful!

‘They’ say that it takes people three months to acclimate to a new culture, and for me this is true. It is harder for me to get lost, I’ve created community, and I feel normal and that I belong in this place away from where I grew up.

In regards to the language my mind finds explanation in postmodern philosophy. Life is a lot like learning a new language. Like 20th century philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein would put it: their are many forms of life that we are involved in, each with its own particular language and grammar. And like a game of monopoly it has it’s own logic, reason, and set of rules.

“There are multiple games, each with its own internal rules of consistency and meaning, each of which serves a different end. On that telling it would be a mistake to try to translate or to reduce one game to the other.”   ~Caputo

In other words it is would be a mistake to translate French into the English rules of grammar or translate French Culture into the American way of life. And also life is full of different seasons and times of our life and living the way of the past season means denying the joys of the new. One must constantly disassociated oneself, whilst also learning and growing from the past and history, but striving forward; as one might say, from glory to glory (*wink).

Studying abroad and learning a new language and culture has been enlightening; each stage of our life is full of newness, opportunity, and experience, but you have to let go of past ideas, conceptions in order to get the most out of them.

 

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Christmas

What do you get when you get when you hangout with an Armenian Artist/Chef, a 40-year old Ukrainian belly dancer, a Vietnamese journalist, and an American singer… You get really interesting conversations and a good time. We took a cultural trip together to the small town of Gertwiller, in order to visit the Gingerbread museum.

Nothing feels you more with the Christmas spirit than going to a gingerbread bakery/ museum. Afterward we wanted to have some Alsacian wine whilst we were on the train.

When we arrived back to Strasbourg it was close to the opening ceremony of the famous Christmas Market, many people were there however was a smaller crowd (than last year) due to fear of terrorist attacks. Strasbourg is called the city of Christmas and houses one of the largest markets in Europe, last year having around 2 million guests. Markets run through the cobblestone street of Strasbourg, with artisan gifts and tarte flambées and the popular hot wine. Restaurants and shops decorate their facades with christmas-esque scenes and lights, and all through the town is the air of joy for the holidays.

 

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Culture

Living in one of the three European Capitals means Strasbourg is an international city and specifically hailed as a human activist city with a rich history of being ruled by either France or Germany. That being said, there is lots of new devised pieces that spring up in the city of unity and diversity and acceptance of different languages and cultures. One of them being a multi-language dramatic musical post modern piece (French, German, Spanish, Italian, Arabic, Japanese, Portuguese, and English). The production used over 7 different diction coaches and two vocal coaches, and was a phenomenal expression of cultures and problems, from personal and global, through languages. The jerking of the audience between tears and laughter, between global political world problems and calling a technician in Italy about computer problems puts things into a global perspective with honesty, sometimes irreverence, and humor. (piece called Suite No.2)

À la Prochain,

DCM