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Debugging the Fool v-0.01

2011-07-18T02:09:00.000-07:00

Kaosswii Fullmoon Performance

2011-01-20T10:46:00.000-08:00

20110119-kaosswii-fullmoon from Honza Svasek on Vimeo.

Happy New (solar) Year

2010-12-22T03:07:00.000-08:00

Midwinter, Full Moon and an Eclipse. What a great time for transition...

I celebrated it with my daughter Donna and friends in a sweat lodge at the Hobbitstee.

After letting go of the old the new starts to crystallize..

This winter I will concentrate on two 'dancetrument' projects.

A dancetrument is an efforts to turn body motion into music, something I have been experimenting with for the last 10 years. Starting with the famous mouse-boots I have tried many ideas so far, some were hilarious, most were fun but none far really worked well

The dancetruments I am working on this winter are:

1. the KaossWii:

Two Kaoss Pads and one Kaossilator controlled two WiiMote controllers. The code is in python and runs on Linux. I use it for Butoh type performances with long, slow movements.

2. the Kinect Looper:

A looper controlled by body position. So far I got a Kinect and have the openNi demo code for it running on my Ubuntu 64 bit system. I have the system design in my head so code hacking can start as soon as I am happy with the kaosswii.

Similar Minds Results

2010-09-13T01:41:00.000-07:00

Enneagram Test Results

Type 1	Perfectionism	\|\|\|\|\|\|	30%
Type 2	Helpfulness	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	54%
Type 3	Image Focus	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	70%
Type 4	Hypersensitivity	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	50%
Type 5	Detachment	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	58%
Type 6	Anxiety	\|\|\|\|\|\|	26%
Type 7	Adventurousness	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	78%
Type 8	Aggressiveness	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	58%
Type 9	Calmness	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	70%

Main type is 7
Variant is sexual

Main Type	Overall Self

Take Free Enneagram Personality Test

7 (19 I must be high and entertained to be happy.
3 (17) I must be impressive and attractive to be happy.
9 (17) I must maintian a peaceful and easygoing environment to be happy.
5 (14) I must be knowledgable and independent to be happy.
8 (14) I must be strong and in control to be happy.
2 (13) I must be helpful and caring to be happy.
4 (12) I must be true to my emotions to be happy.
1 (7) I must be perfect and good to be happy.
6 (6) I must be secure and safe to be happy.

fish and fruit tour

2010-08-24T00:12:00.000-07:00

After the Body Resonance Butoh Workshop Katou and Honza had a fish and fruits tour in north-east Germany...

During this trip I found out about the Subbody Butoh Himalaya school, which I will join in March 2011. It looks that here I'll can continue the quest for the Butoh Body which was started of in me by Itto Moritta during his workshop in the Netherlands...

Performance in the Dom of Greifswald, Germany

2010-08-19T07:27:00.000-07:00

Untitled from Honza Svasek on Vimeo.

Body Resonance

2010-08-09T06:49:00.000-07:00

The place and the workshop are fantastic. Yumiko is a lot of fun and she is teaching a tough course. Hard physical work and I had to start to supplement the raw food with some cooked beans, lentils etc. to survive. After the first 2 days I had lost all reserve fat and I would just fall asleep all the time because of lack of energy.

This intensive workshop is also time consuming because next to a tough training schedule we do our own cooking, dishwashing and cleaning. My plan to blog about it every day is not gonna work out, and the wifi here is broken so I cannot upload any material.

I'll post a summary with pictures after the workshop...

Arrival

2010-08-04T11:17:00.000-07:00

Extensteine was nice but short. We packed the tents early morning, just before it started to rain, Donna left for home and I deceided to drive through in one go to the area where the workshop is.

The day before we had a very nice family meet at this magickal place. When I arrived, Donna and the kids had just participated in a water ritual which was led by 4 wise old Native American women or as Donna called them indianen oma's. They where aparently invited by German neo pagans and did a reportedly great ritual with many drummers etc. Donna was the only one with a baby and was filmed. I might post some footage when we hear more about it.

Today I drove straight to Pasewalk, where I am sitting in the local internet cafee writing this blog entry.

This area of Germany is a real discovery for me. Lots of woods, small hills and a lot of lakes. It reminds me of Denmark (where I lived for 7 years) but with a lot more wood.

It is clear that the big ice was here and carved out these hills, which makes it an interesting area to go hunt for stones. After the workshop I will definitely stay a few days and do so.

Pasewalk is an interesting place. Many inhabitants look like Danes, but the town has that definite ex-commy look that I know from Czech Republic. It makes me feel at home in a strange sort of way, probably because I lived in both places for a longer time.

I have seen several churches, visited one and bought an african rattle and bio cacoa. Now I'll retire to some nice place in the woods around here, make a little fire and relax. I probably won't have to put up my tent, the sky is clearing up. Tomorrow hopefully some pictures, at the Schloss I'll have wifi and can upload. At this cafe that's not possible.

En Route to Body Resonance

2010-08-03T00:42:00.000-07:00

In a few hours I will start a trip to Schloss Broellin, an Art Center in development where I will attend a 10 day Butoh workshop "Body Resonance" by Yumiko Yoshioka

View Larger Map

The first stop will be Externsteine in Germany, where I will meet up with my daughter Donna and my grandchildren Tala and Olivier.

View Larger Map

The Externsteine were a centre of religious activity for the Teutonic peoples and their predecessors prior to the arrival of Christianity in northern Europe. Research into this area was carried out as early as 1564 by Hermann Hamelmann.

Some Neo-Pagans continue to believe that the Irminsul was located at the Externsteine and identify a bent tree depicted beneath the cross in a 12th century Christian carving with it. It is a popular place to go for Wiccans and other followers of the 'old religions'.

I visited Externsteine first in 1993 as part of my training by the Wicca Coven I was a member of for about 2 years. Our coven, which was founded by Jetske & Maurice from Haarlem, the Netherlands, introduced me to the strange beliefs of Wicca.

Wicca (pronounced [ˈwɪkə]) is a Neopagan religion and a form of modern witchcraft. It is often referred to as Witchcraft or the Craft by its adherents, who are known as Wiccans or Witches. Its disputed origins lie in England in the early 20th century, though it was first popularised during the 1950s by Gerald Gardner, a retired British civil servant.

Maurice wrote a nice book about it in dutch. "Heksen Bestaan!", ISBN 90-6010-848-5.

The belief-system of Wicca was not so very interesting to me, but the practice of rituals, and achieving magick through ritual really caught my interest. Luckily our coven was a Ritual and Party Coven with lots of wein, weib und gezang.

These rituals gave me a lot of performing experience that I am still using...

How it all started

2010-07-27T00:46:00.000-07:00

After a very emotional meeting with the Butoh Dance Group de Storm in the beginning of July 2010 I went to the pub with the founder of this group John Giskes and my brother-in-law Taan.

Though I did not really drink more that I was used too, the next day I had quite a hangover. Normally my hangovers lasted about half a day but this one was different. I stayed 3 days in a sort of half-sleep vomiting, unable to eat, drinking some water but then immediately vomiting again and with a terrible headache.

The third day I slowly recovered but something had changed.

Before this event I used to drink about two liters of beer daily and smoke a minimum of five pipes of hash or skunk.

I could not drink and smoke anymore! Something was stopping me.

It was as if my body had taken over control and my will was taken over by some animal instinct. After three days without food I was hungry, but I could not bring myself to start eating right away. I only ate some fruits, thought I could do some sort of a detox and decided to stop eating cooked food.

Right after this I went on a short family holiday with Lucienne and Gabriel, her son. A perfect time to experiment with diet.

I ended up with eating almost only raw food, no more coffee except in emergencies like having to do an 800 km drive.