Little Black Book

Art

Sat, 30 Sep 2006 23:44:38 GMT

Dear Friends of the Italian Opera,

I did study German Romantic Painting for my MA. This is what I just found out :

You Are Pop Art

When it comes to art, you're definitely not a snob.
You can appreciate the mainstream aspects of culture, even if you need to twist them a bit to make them your own.
Whether you're into comics, retro pinups, or bold colors, you embrace what's eye catching and simple.
As far as most other art goes, you consider it a little too elitist and high brow for your tastes!

What Art Movement Are You?

How is that?

Heisser Sommer.

Sun, 30 Jul 2006 18:50:17 GMT

Dear Friends of the Italian Opera,

not unlike the weather that we have been having here in London, I feel like I have been drying out recently. Not that the juices are not flowing anymore, no. It's not that.

After graduation, which was earlier this month, with pomp and circumstance and Mother visiting, I fell into a little depression. It didnt help that we now have wireless in the house and I inherited Oliver's Macintosh. So I basically have 24/7 access to the internet with the usual casualties. In the first weeks, and somewhat I am still in that period, I spend literally all my free time on the internet, mostly to pick up guys. Or trying to. An infernal spiral of unhappiness is set in motion. Now, I have to force myself out of it again!

And its not like I have nothing to do.

Life has started, again, after this, my second graduation. It needs a direction.

One of the big questions is : PhD or getting started in the business of dealing and wheeling in art. Or both?

Now, there is a chance of getting into a PhD programme in the States, Ivy League even.

Building an independent career here in London seems however more difficult. However it also sounds exciting.

I also need to do more push ups.

Eat more healthily.

Be more safe.

Ah!

Yours truly
Queen of PrussiA

Fri, 02 Jun 2006 18:21:05 GMT

Dear Friends of the Italian Opera,

I thought I grace you with an entry. It has been a while since I last spoke to you. Do we remember what I last said about the state of the world? Does it matter? Has it changed? Will it ever change?

I have been reading about circles recently. Les metamorphoses du cercle. By Georges Poulet. A little of an obscure publication, it seemed to me. But apparently that dude was some good French novelist. In any event, he traces the story of the figure of circle through Western thought. And how it had been adopted to express different things throughout history.

Somewhat, it all seems to boil down to the self though.

I tell you, its all about me.

Love

Yours truly

Queen of Prussia.

Wed, 26 Apr 2006 13:47:41 GMT

Dear Friends of the Italian Opera,

it is time to sing.

I am not quite sure what song it would be. May be "Love is such an easy game to pla." Although. I feel. That might be inappopriate. I am trying to read for my dissertation. Reading about Anxiety. Until anxiety sets in. And I am sitting at the PC again, looking for dick. Being unable to overcome that - I don't even know. Fear. May be.

What song would it be?

I gotta run.

Drinking coffee with a girl I just told of from reading my Livejournal.

Fuck.

yours truly
queen of prussia.

Quick Thing

Mon, 27 Mar 2006 21:11:43 GMT

Dear Friends of the Italian Opera,

I am in Germany. Jaha. For a study trip with my fellow students.

Is it nice to be in the Fatherland?

I would not know.

Else, things are going ok... just.

xXx
qop

Death.

Sun, 12 Mar 2006 23:57:59 GMT

Dear Friends of the Italian Opera,

More and more, the world around me, the world I live in, appears to be ugly. I go out of the house and I see animals: frightened, walking down the streets, barely trusting each other, speaking yet unable to communicate. The effort and goodwill to make things work is visible everywhere. Yet failure is our business.

Yesterday was one of those days. I had been sitting at home all day long. Supposedly I was preparing a presentation on an early Picasso painting that I have to give on Tuesday in the Courtauld Gallery of Art. Yellow Irises, 1901. It is important because it was part of Picasso’s first exhibition in Paris, ever. It is a sign of his lust for life, a sign of his youthful vigour and also of his immense creativity. Anyhow, I did not do anything in the end, just sat there, flipped through a couple of pages, drifting away with my thoughts etc. In the evening I attended a party in West Kensington, the other side of town. I had a bit of white wine. Got a bit tipsy. A bit hot. I came home and was horny.

Online. The usual. You get a message here and there. You chat. You get hornier. As the evening progresses, you get less choosy. Suddenly, you are willing to hook up with a mediocre looking 37 year old, just because he lives nearby (like half an hour on the bus…) and promises you an ecstasy pill.

You get there: a godforsaken street in a dodgy neighbourhood; next to a big loud road. It is all rather empty and dark. It is 3 o’clock in the morning. He is, indeed mediocre looking. Smaller then you had expected. And he twitches. His whole body somewhat. He seems to be nervous. He smokes. He gets a beer. Is he an addict? After all he had promised me an ecstasy. I get it. I take it. We wait. Talk about his writings. And how he wants to apply for a Masters degree at Goldsmiths College. He has a couple of books on his desk. He wants to write a story about online dating. He says he will give one of his characters the profile name of bareback3000. Ah!, I think. Interesting. We talk about Berlin. About the scene. – We clearly don’t feel each other. – He smiles. But his face is an ugly mask. His muscles have lost it. Too many drugs.

E sets in. I get started. I think, fuck it, lets do this. We get up. Touch each other. Go rather quickly into each others pants. I am soft. He is half erect. I get down on him, open his trousers and some bad smell comes out of it. The dick seems to be clean though. It’s just. I don’t know. It don’t taste good neither. After like 15 seconds of sucking, I say to myself, no no no no no no no no. This is not good Max, WAKE UP. So, I wake up, stand up and tell him: I am going home now. And that is what I do. I go home.

I feel extremely dirty.

And I feel I have just escaped death.

Today, I was high. It was a pretty potent ecstasy pill. I worked further on the painting and learned a couple of things. About how Picasso was heavily influenced by van Gogh in his first Paris show and how already there, the fundamental modern fear of nothingness is taken on in the project of the reconstitution of vision.

Bless. Long live painting.

Religion

Sat, 11 Mar 2006 19:14:02 GMT

Dear Friend of the Italian Opera,

it has been a while since I last spoke to you, beloved subjects of my heart. Today is the day.

I have been studying hard in recent months. I wrote two long essays. I had one exam last Monday and now, I am looking forward to writing my MA dissertation on, in all likelihood, the lovely subject of "Bad Taste". Isnt that hilarious. I can look at all those campy kitschy objects. Something I always wanted to do.

Single still.

Lost in translation. As always. Life does not translate too well. As in. The world is a heap of bits. The usual postmodern afternoon headache. Like, the sirenes are bursting your ears whilst the advertising tits spill their milk into your McDonalds meal. The BigMac is soggy. So is the weather and the dick of the last hook up also didnt quite get as hard as I had expected.

Man, too much creativity for one session.

See: Hidden (Cache) by Michael Haneke. VERY good movie.

Oli says: Sweet Jesus.

xXx
qop

hug it.

Thu, 02 Feb 2006 17:46:50 GMT

Dear Friends of the Italian Opera,

why, for fucks sake, don't we have a groundhog day here in good old europe?

I wish we had one.

I love traditions.

Max,
Kween oP.

Quoting it.

Fri, 13 Jan 2006 16:34:47 GMT

Dear Friends of the Italian Opera,

Do you do Rodeo?

yours very truly
max, queen of prussia.

The Unity of Disfunctionality.

Thu, 12 Jan 2006 15:34:54 GMT

Dear Friends of the Italian Opera,

after a long silence, I am back and back with vengeance.

Or so.

Your Social Dysfunction:
Paranoid

You show pervasive and unwarranted suspiciousness, and mistrust of others. You are overly sensitive and prone to jealousy.

Take this quiz at QuizGalaxy.com

Please note that we aren't, nor do we claim to be, psychologists. This quiz is for fun and entertainment only. Try not to freak out about your results.

Love.

Sat, 26 Nov 2005 14:37:29 GMT

Dear Friends of the Italian Opera,

Colin now has a boyfriend. James. Who is not me.
Nadim has been with his girlfriend for over 3 years.

Too bad.

Handed in my first history of art essay EVER yesterday. Yay.

Hope all is well.

Lataz
max, queen of prussia.

Autumnal Spring.

Sun, 30 Oct 2005 16:38:29 GMT

Dear Friends of the Italian Opera,

I am loving it! Seriously. This is the best thing that possibly could ever happened to me. I mean my Masters Programme in the History of Art. For some reason, and may be I am making that fiction up, I believe that there is actually room for me in that field. And that is such a great feeling. It is also a feeling that I never really had before, apart from being part in a play. May be I just found my stage.

Also, I think I might be about to fall in love with two guys simultaneously. Ah! Ah!

Ha!, you think, tell us more! - But Ha! I think, I will just not do that. Yet. Lets wait and see... I can give you names though. Nadim. Colin.

I am so excited.

Life is good.

So good.

LOVE
Yours truly
Max, Queen of Prussia.

Fri, 07 Oct 2005 17:34:00 GMT

Dear Friends of the Italian Opera,

here it is. The lastest news.

Why is it that computer rooms are always put away somewhere, be in it some vault, some cellar, some dungeon... Why can't they put the on top of things, out there, where the daylight is? The light of the screens is bad enough. I do not understand. Why invent machines and then tuck them away? Are we ashamed of our inventions? What is going on? - We should investigate more into the nature of computer labs - after all, they have become an important feature of modern society. They should be not only the domain of cost saving designers and architects.

Right now, I am sitting in the IT Centre of the Courtauld Institute of Art. Yes, I have finally started my new course, and boys, although it is only the first week, I am so excited and feel so good about all this like I rarely have ever before in my life about something that I am doing. Not high school, not my undergraduate years, not the last year, where I worked at a market research company.

I want this year to be a good year. And it will be a good year.

Vince, my roommate from my first year in uni here in London, , is visiting me at the moment. Later tonight we are going to the first big Courtauld Party on Brick Lane. Checking out the undergraduates. Which should be fairly easy, as most of them are female - and the male ones are very much gay. I like that.

What else?

I had been to Berlin in September. That was an interesting experience. It was good to be back home. I could catch up with the lives of my close friends and share their ups and downs, their sorrows and joys. Its good to have people of the same age with whom you share a story of now sometimes already 12 or more years. At the same time, I also saw most of my family. As I grow older, I come to see most of my family in different lights. Not even that. I allow myself to actually think the things about them that beforehand I would have guessed but not thought out, as, after all, it was family. But it feels good to have more controlled relationships to my family. One can be more oneself. And luckily, my family seems to be tolerant enough.

Berlin - it is still changing. Not always for the better. In fact, very little for the better. Post-card charme, tourists, disneylandesque (update on Potemkin village). The riches of the redone heart of Berlin is in stark contrast with the less maintainted areas of Berlin. Local papers already hype some quarters to be crime-ridden. I don't know to what extent crime is impacting adversely on people's life in Berlin - but the point that I want to make is that Berlin becomes more dysfunctional as a city. A bit like London. You have the central districts of power, of media, of shopping and a few wealthy satellite bourroughs around may be. But there seems to be little interaction between those and the quarters where people actually live, where there is a continuum of social structures, temporal and spatial. It hurts me a little to see my home town to develop in that way.

More later.

Kisses.

The Queen of Prussia.

Today. Tomorrow.

Mon, 29 Aug 2005 17:09:19 GMT

Dear Friends of the Italian Opera,

Yes. I know. And I am not really sorry.

Revenons a nos moutons alors. This coming Thursday, I will be off to Switzerland for a couple of days and after that I'll be heading to Berlin, Germany.

I am not quite sure what direction that stay will take. I have not spend four weeks at home in ages. Last time I went to Germany, I had this bizarre feeling. I was caught between wanting to re-enact the past, Berlin memories so to say, whilst being aware that I had moved on. I felt like a stranger at home. Home was not home anymore, even though Berlin is the only place I feel totally at ease. Yet, I was a visitor.

And in London, it seems to be much harder to be me. After all. Just yesterday, I was told that when I speak German, I sound so masculine whereas when speaking English I would come across as much more of a female character. Oh well.

Visiting Berlin will give me that chance of linking to storylines, which hitherto have been running in parallel, not least because I tried to shield the London life from the audience at home, in Germany. I hope to be able to give the past, this neverending story, a reading allowing me to link it to the future - a future that I am proud of, that I am looking forward to, as it will be MY future.

Last Friday was my last day at work. As I always took it as a temporary solution, I had no hard feelings to leave it. Also, forgeing numbers is not a really an edifying job. So, no tears shed.

I will keep you posted.

Or so.

Love

Max, Queen of Prussia

Thu, 07 Jul 2005 11:55:18 GMT

Dear Friends of the Italian Opera,

Surprise Surprise.

You Are 21% American

You're as American as Key Lime Tofu Pie
Otherwise known as un-American!
You belong in Cairo or Paris...
Get out fast - before you end up in Gitmo!

How American Are You?

Ha ha.

Love

q o p

Terror.

Thu, 07 Jul 2005 11:42:34 GMT

Dear Friends of the Italian Opera,

as you might be aware I live in London. As I am writing these lines, the city is trying to get control over what seems to be the consequences of a planned terrorist attack earlier this morning.

It is clearly a shock. And in fact, I am just writing, not really knowing why, or what about. All the information is on the net or TV, in one form or another. You can see the double decker bus, totally savaged, not far from where I used to live. Bloomsbury, where so many students live. You will have seen one of the tube stations, and how they closed it, and how people stand outside, not knowing where to go. You might have seen some blood too.

I am at work, as usual when I am on Livejournal these days. Work in just between Liverpool Street and Kings Cross Stations... which were apparently both hit.

Nobody really works right now. We are on the phone, if the lines work. We click on the net. Apparently the Streets are empty.

It is no surprise, however. London Police has been trained for 4 years after Nineeleven. They also knew the transport system would be the obvious choice for a terrorist attack. After all, its London weakest link.

Oh World.

As far as I know, no one I personally know has been injured or hurt. Which is a good thing.

It is said, the G8 summit in Gleneagles is a likely reason for this attack. What do we know? Does it matter?

Liberal democracy and cosmopolitanism will prevail.

yours truly
queen of prussia.

Another Blog.

Tue, 21 Jun 2005 17:09:38 GMT

Dear friends of the Italian Opera,

here:

http://queenofprussia.blogspot.com/

All the best,

yours
truly
queen of prussia.

Fri, 27 May 2005 11:07:51 GMT

Dear Friends of the Italian Opera,

You want it too.

You scored as Very Kinky. You are very Kinky. Yuo are not over the top but you like kinky arousements and you are willing to try something new every time. You will make a very fun sex partner

</td>

A Sicko

80%

Very Kinky

80%

Average

50%

A WUSS !!

How sexual are you
created with QuizFarm.com

Love

Queen of Prussia.

We try harder.

Wed, 25 May 2005 14:37:44 GMT

Dear Friends of the Italian Opera,

nah, can't be bothered.

Some other day.

Luv.

Queen of Prussia.

Beyond Class.

Fri, 20 May 2005 11:54:29 GMT

Dear Friends of the Italian Opera.

I grew up for the first 7 years of my life in East-Berlin. That was, back then, a communist - well, socialist - country. My family is from a modest background. Very modest background. My mum grew up in a village, where here father was the only teacher. My Grandma, whose father was a peasant who had to flee the Russians in 1945 when they came to East Prussia, did not have any formal education. She remained a secretary all her life. My mum left that village at the age of 18 to go to Berlin, where she studied and took on a position in the civil service. She still works there. Almost 20 years now. During that time, in the early 80s, my mum met my dad whilst they were both washing plates in the Palace of the Republic, a grandiose but rather dull building of Eastern German political hybris. The communists build it where there used to be, before 1945, the Berlin Castle, residence of the Kings of Prussia. Anyhow, after reunification it has been found out the building is asbestos ridden. Now, all thats left is a ruin. The new Germany wants to get rid of that past. Anyhow, thats where my parents met, as dishwashers. My dad, back then, studied theatre studies. Since then, he has worked as a dramaturge at several theatres, has divorced my mum, is now a writer without stable income and has married his third wife 8 years ago. She owns a company with 30 employees and is barely able to sustain herself, my dad and the 2 kids of 3 and 1 1/2 years.

My mum raised me after my parents divorced in 1988. We were never rich. We were not poor neither. All my grandparents were, back in the day, fervent supporters of classless society. I guess, although they have accomodated themselves with Capitalism in the past 15 years, they still dream of the past as something better, where class does not matter. I argue with them that the GDR was a totalitarian state - but I let them be, and indeed, do not have much to say, when they say that nowadays, society has become all about difference and status.

I am not quite sure how class consciousness works. I am pretty immune. I never had much. I never had little. We would not have TV until my aunt gave me one at the age of 16. We had books and theatre instead. My mum still does not have a car. I will never have one.

I was brought up in an environement where material attributes did not matter and where not given much importance. I am extremley grateful for that. What matters was what you do with your head and your heart.

Of course I am not entirely immune. I am not exactly working class, but I am no proper middle class neither. I grew up amongst intellectuals, as my father hung out with them. Uncles and aunts are builders, secretaries and so on. I am from a slightly undefined social background. However, I got the brains and skills to move and slowly the courage to interact with people from whatever social background.

I was lucky to be send to a French High School in Berlin. Somewhat middle class. But that, I couldnt care less about. I was busy discovering the culture of Berlin after reunification, going to the movies, theatre - like most of my friends. I was not aware that these in themselves were attributes of a certain social position. I went to the opera not to spend £400 on a ticket ( I got mine for free, as I knew the students checking the tickets...), I went for the intellectual bit. Our parties were simple. Booze, weed, haning out in some run down appartment in my East Berlin. I guess you could call it alternative.

I was the only child of my mum. Just the two of us. Therefore I was lucky enough to be able to leave Germany when I was 18. My mum also never had another child because she knew it would financially not work out. She is still supporting me now once in a while.

I moved to Paris for a year, where I went to a public (read free) elite school, on the merit of my good grades in High School. After that I came to London, to the London School of Economics, top of the world for social sciences (so they say). Again on the merit of my good grades. You can imagine the kind of people going to that school. Lots of rich kids. I could see it everywhere, most of them are far richer then i ever was. But it did not really affect me.

I now live in one of the most deprived neighbourhoods of Great Britain. It qualifies as Ghetto (poor areas in europe are however not readily comparable to poor areas in the states). I live of "Murder Mile", as the Hackney Gazette has called it. In London, its important where you live. If you say "Hackney", well, some people dont even bother talking to you. - And I cant be bothered to talk to those people. A waster of my time.

I met amazing people throughout my life. I developed amazing friendships. I do admit most of them are from the same social background. But since I came to London, I was exposed to a far wider variety of social backgrounds. Through with whom I slept, with whom I went to uni, with whom I work and so on.

Class does not matter. You can make it go away. You just have to look beyond it. May be make an effort to meet people from different backgrounds.

I know I am a good person (with faults). I am honest. Reliable (or so). You know what I mean. Whomever I meet in my life, poor or rich, I will take into consideration what their horizons might be. I will always interact with a fellow human being, a person that deserves respect and understanding. People that have only eyes for social status - I might talk to them, might even have a drink with them, but I would not bother too much about them. They miss the point of life.

Material possesions are nothing. To be a fully fledged human being is everything.

To get there takes time. Money wont make that faster.

Thu, 19 May 2005 12:31:13 GMT

Dear Friends of the Italian Opera,

I knew it.

You scored as Anarchism. <'Imunimaginative's Deviantart Page'>

</td>

Anarchism

100%

Green

100%

Democrat

67%

Communism

50%

Fascism

25%

Republican

17%

Nazi

17%

Socialist

What Political Party Do Your Beliefs Put You In?
created with QuizFarm.com

But honestly, since I came to London in 2001, I stopped recycling.

love,

qop.

Quo vadis.

Tue, 17 May 2005 16:10:15 GMT

Dear Friends of the Italian Opera,

I need your advice.

Do you think I should be more directional in the choice of my LJ friends/communities (Have a look at those...) or shall I just continue to add myself randomly to whatever and whomever I think is interesting?

Quel chemin prendre?

Walk for Life.

Mon, 16 May 2005 10:43:32 GMT

Dear Friends of the Italian Opera,

please support me walking for a good cause through London on the 19th of June.

http://www.walkforlife.co.uk/maxkoss

Thank you ever so much.

yours truly
max, queen of prussia.

Mon, 16 May 2005 10:42:31 GMT

Dear Friends of the Italian Opera,

what is YOUR favourite Font?

and WHY?

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/16/arts/design/16typo.html?8hpib

And, do you know its history?

Does it matter?

Mon, 16 May 2005 10:21:39 GMT

Dear Friends of the Italian Opera,

You scored as Postmodernist. Postmodernism is the belief in complete open interpretation. You see the universe as a collection of information with varying ways of putting it together. There is no absolute truth for you; even the most hardened facts are open to interpretation. Meaning relies on context and even the language you use to describe things should be subject to analysis.

</td>

Postmodernist

88%

Cultural Creative

88%

Idealist

63%

Existentialist

50%

Materialist

38%

Romanticist

25%

Fundamentalist

25%

Modernist

13%

What is Your World View?
created with QuizFarm.com

What do you think?