Received from brother J.:

Belgium claims New York 400 years late.

The End of an Era?

It’s like “Previously, on Neighbour.” Our series finale is coming up, and he’s performing the live action variant of a clip show covering the highlights of what happened so far. It’s a strange idea, but somehow I get the feeling my neighbour is going to miss me.

Swamp Thing

The light of the territories was different from light as he remembered it, but he was grateful for it all the same. Crossing the swamp was proving to be a treacherous affair as it was; the boy shuddered to think of traversing it in darkness.

Meet Me By The River’s Edge

A Warm Welcome

Our next-door days are numbered. I will be moving house soon and then my neighbour will be my neighbour no more.

I’ve actually been dreading to tell him, worried that telling him will make him more adamant than ever to have me over for dinner. But as the day approaches there’s no beating around the bush anymore; there are people coming to see my apartment, and I break the news gently.

Words to the Wise

Time had been trying to play its tricks on him from the moment he’d entered the territories, but he was still wise enough to recall his teachings. And thus while the cycles of darkness and the hints of dawn came and went with maddening randomness, he consciously chose not to worry as he silently sat with the creature.

A single attempt at conversation was all he wasted, but the strange animal’s trance was not to be broken. It was hard to tell if anything was happening at all, but keeping the faith seemed like a good bet. It was too dark to see far into the distance, yet the smell that travelled across the plains suggested something so foul he welcomed the time it took the creature to do its business.

Passage

Clutching the white rock in his pocket he stood, staring at the gates. There was no sense of urgency, no need to make haste. He would either succeed at his task eventually, or not at all, and in that case nothing would change. The world would continue as it was – as children were being raised to believe it always had been.

As he was about to set off again, he spotted a large animal swiftly hopping towards him in the distance. He couldn’t tell what it was from afar, but even as it drew closer he was no more able to determine its nature. The creature was jumping on two legs like a kangaroo, but looked more like an oversized chicken, leaving black feathers in its trail.

Bißchen scharf?

Ups and Downs

My neighbour disturbs my early Saturday to ask if I found the Gewinner magazine that he left on my doorstep. The magazine featured his profile again, calling him a Glückspilz. This time it even highlighted one of his quotes in an extra large font, no doubt as a message of hope and inspiration to the rest of its audience: “In life, sometimes you’re up and sometimes you’re down.” For being featured he gets 50 Euros in cash and 50 Euros worth of stamps to continue participating in all manner of competitions. He’s been featured three times now, so that’s a whole lot of stamps.

He’s fully dressed for the occasion, sporting a yellow Sweden cap and smoking a cigarette. I’m granted an extensive update on his life’s endeavours. He’s particularly proud of the new lock he’s just installed on his door. Numerous items have been stolen from his apartment lately, including a porcelain dwarf and a set of zinc owls he was particularly fond of. Prime suspect of this ongoing thievery is the landlord.

Unfinished Rant Against a Loveless Cinema

Some despise the multiplex, others eschew the arthouse, but in many reasonably sized cities it would appear that both can co-exist pretty well, making ends meet by catering to mostly different target audiences. The former impresses with giant-sized screens and state of the art equipment, the latter tends to provide warmth and intimacy as well as an atmosphere unrivalled by home cinema.

Frankfurt am Main plays host to a venue that doesn’t care about meeting the needs of either category, nonchalantly willing to piss all over its punters’ movie-going experience by serving up the cinematic equivalent of soggy chicken nuggets.

Meet the Turmpalast.