Best of best wishes

The greatest thing I have discovered this past year was the ability to love like a child and not have my heart broken!


I have had the chance to visit many beautiful places and meet faces of great minds yet humble hearts who have helped me realise with the right combination of inner peace and self-awareness, how beautiful this transient infinity called life can be. I am utterly grateful for their presence in my life and in my heart.


Here is my 2 cents' worth of advice, that you have to forgive me if it may sound too shockingly straightforward and simple: Don’t meet people you don’t want to meet or go to places you don’t want to go to or do things you don’t want to do. Don’t hush your highs, yuck your yums and tame your dream, and above all, don’t take anything for granted or putatively just because the majority thinks so or your boss says so. Love yourselves so that you can love others and do not fear the consequences for energy is neither created nor destroyed and if you still worry listen to C. Sagan’s thoughts on this dot we inhabit https://soundcloud.com/adamf…/adam-freeland-pale-blue-dot-dj


I was so lucky to visit many fabulous places this past year that inspired me to start a series of short movies of which the first was premiered in Paris last month http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4268350/?ref_=nm_flmg_prd_2 . Next on my myopic agenda is a trip to Thailand and Sri Lanka where I will join my buddy, Nut. Deivison and myself, are quarter-way through the 1001 facesproject and I am waiting for a couple of good news besides that of continuing my research at the Université Paris 6 - Pierre et Marie Curie and the BnF - Bibliothèque nationale de France for the next year or two.


*Life* is amazing for those who know how to enjoy it. Just ask the stars for anything you want and the universe will make your dreams come true. Don’t take my metaphors too literally and have your fabulous selves a wondrous year cause you deserve nothing less than that.

how well can well being be?

Have you ever asked yourself, simply, how well can one be at well being? People ask "how are you" to which one usually replies, "I'm doing well/fine" but what extreme of well being can one aim for and attain? There is no reason why, if a person can be more well, there is no reason why he would not -- unless -- well, unless well being is some sort of near death experience that defies death and tinkers with other fears we must have auto-developed as we were growing up. But if well being was some sort of (harmless) epiphany, what would be the fatal dose, the heroic dose and what would be the withdrawal symptoms and the quantity of resistance if any at all? Will too much astonishment always be followed by a boring routine or can we find a way to hack our lives into infinite epiphanies each astronomically more enlightening than the previous one? ... Why take risks? Why adventure? Why the unknown? Fear is certainly the answer. Once you conquer it, you might get it!

I made this playlist http://8tracks.com/alahay/untitled-for-the-same-reason-you-were-born

Somewhere

Somewhere independent of space and time I let my heart of a child travel unafraid of being broken. I was curious so I followed only to be in love with the places it lead me to.

Vivere in 2.0 +/- ε dove ε ∈ [-2.0, ∞[

Amare tutti, nonostante il peccato che fan tutti i mortali, certo rende difficile fare compromessi ad una sola persona, a parte che avere una preferenza e' solitamente egoista, e con questo concludo la risposta al perche non vivere in 2 che oramai si traduce a 2.0 o per essere precisi 2.0 +/- ε dove ε ∈ [-2.0, ∞[, cioè ε può variare tra -2 o non vivere (vivere a 0.0), -1 o vivere solo (vivere a 1.0), 0 o vivere fedelissimo ad una persona nei casi rari (vivere a 2.0)... verso l'∞ laddove si perde la frontiera tra sconosciuti, amici e parenti e ogni persona si considera (s)conosciuta.

Penso di tangermi verso il caso dell' ∞ in cui sono aperto e bensì curioso di aprirmi ad ogni persona sia per amicizia che per conoscenza e non si tratta di orge o di malattie cognitive. Si tratta della definizione di "se" e della coscienza di "se" o piu' precisamente in inglese avrei detto che si tratta di "selfness and self-awareness".

Quando uno cresce tra i muri di una dottrina cattolica potrebbe accecarsi a vivere solo o a più di due e oltre biologicamente la sua necessita' di procreare, futilmente o no, diventa uno scopo nella vita.

Ogni tanto, ma tanto tanto perche sono una persona difficile in tempi ancor sempre piu difficili, mi capita di conoscere una persona che mi fa in un attimo vedere invece di un flashback, un flashforward della mia vita matrimoniale e oltre e se quelle persona e nubile nei rari casi della storia umana temo di non crederci e di far un gran cazzata volendo da un parere immaturo o poco sviluppato appropriare impazientemente i miei futuri incontri con la stessa persona o persone simili ... E a quel momento torno a vivere da 1 (da solo) o da mille (da solo) e chi piange a leggermi ora sta piangendo se stesso perche riconosce empaticamente la stessa solitudine che regna la sua vita.



Ho detto tutto, come direbbe Toto'!

lo que compartimos con el tiempo

Hace mucho tiempo que no escribo, igual hace mucho tiempo que perdi la noción del tiempo... Pero escribir no urge y tampoco leerlo, sin embargo y antes de concluir "nieztchemente" en las montañas virtuales de Torino, voy a contar la anécdota siguiente:

Compartimos todos, o casi todos, el dulce resabio de un sueno aun olvidado pero sabroso y buscamos los detalles convencidos que hay una verdad, una belleza, lo que sea, hay algo bueno que no entendimos y a entenderlo llegamos donde queremos y mas alla de donde fantaseamos.

El otro dia, he probado algo muy parecido al dulce resabio de un sueno efímero olvidado. Fue conociendo una persona en poco tiempo y descubriendo (o imaginando) en solo dos notches y con pocas palabras que fuimos a vivir dos vidas separadas en la misma maniera, o sea que ni necesitaba hablar de eso o mencionarlo porque era tan evidente en el modo de comunicarnos cuando era necesario. Habiendo vivido 2 vidas enteras de adultos desconocidos en pocos momentos descubrimos de carambola todo lo que podemos decir y no decir, haber dicho y no haber dicho y quizas tambien lo que diremos o seguimos sin decir. Era casi como haber ya vivido juntos porque ya nos conocemos. Al final, nos desculpamos de tener que separarnos sabiendo que nuestras vidas juntas serán futiles y aburridas...

Hoy y sin la minima noción del tiempo me quedo solo pensando si la comunicación era mas una reflection retro-y-intro-spectiva o una conclusion colectiva porque ya no se. Hoy y sin manana me pregunto si sera la ultima vez que me dejo sonar o la primera.




 




     

What have we done to ourselves?

A couple of weeks ago, I posted about a crowd funding project that if fully funded, it will allow me and the sponsors to participate in a unique exhibition opening at the Cannes Film Festival. I was stunned by how supportive some people were and willing to contribute for the VIP tickets knowing they would be fully refunded if the amount is not reached by the deadline of 8th of April. However, with the deadline nearing and the clock ticking, all the vows and wows are turning into bla bla, the very sign(ature) of insecurity that we are all prone to. And I'm not surprised as I have encountered that in my personal and professional life with people wanting to meet on Thursday -- for example -- but many unnoticed Thursdays passing by  and others excited to collaborate over a scientific idea or develop an artistic vision, eventually all burrowed under soils of endless excuses, that my aesthete organs cannot perceive or penetrate. I have been trained to see and make beauty that translates into truth and therefore I have no sensibility towards flakiness and bullshit. However, I am putting all this behind and moving forward for everything happens for a good reason and in fact, I believe I have a sponsor that will cover all the exhibit's expenses. Regardless, whether I make it or not is not the issue as I would still have learned a very precious life-lesson that I am already sharing with you. As of today, forgive me as it might take a few weeks or months for me to get to know you better if we have never met and I am sure as you read this you will feel the same and empathise. I just want us to be clear that I am not here to impress you or be impressed by you as I barely manage to please my own self, and I am not here for fake unfelt like-for-like or wow-for-wow bazars. The worst place in earth is a place that lacks communication and it's sickening how social networks have destroyed our communication and I do not wish to proceed this way. If you are minimally suspicious of what I am trying to communicate in this message, perhaps this video might change your mind and it is never too late https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-ybt_Sjrp8 let's picnic soon, not the picnic app, a real picnic in the park!

Do you want comfort or happiness?

It might sound counterintuitive but you cannot have both. Once you are too comfy you loose the sense of risk and adventure, and you slowly vegetate into a lesser being, whatever that means. One of my favorite sayings "life begins at the end of your comfort zone" sums this up pretty neatly. On the other hand, "you have to eventually settle down" you whisper to yourself, and it becomes more of an ordeal with every trip and discovery until a week in one place becomes some kind of a phobia.

It is much easier to find comfort in happiness than happiness in comfort but I, along with other lazy and clairvoyant beings, have been more interested in the latter, be it for its assured long-term stability or for the challenges implied.

In parallel to my commitment to arts and sciences, I am trying to master, Greek, the 8th language as a challenge of neophiliac stability.

Languages are like people and countries that we revisit to remember and perpetuate great moments, especially those involving communication, putatively with other beings. When I am speaking a language I am nostalgic for the other ones I am not speaking (and ones I am not speaking to) just like being in a place and not in a myriad of other possible places. 

How traveling can ruin our lives!

I feel terrible but I am inclined to share a great article on how traveling can ruin your lives and I am not quoting any of it so that you read it all!

I would add another point analogous to the nomad's feeling of not belonging to any place. It is that of finding it hard to commit to a person or a relationship. We become very truthful to ourselves and to others about what we like and dislike that we cannot be reckless with our hearts or other people's. I have previously compared people to places and the more I travel and meet people, the more this metaphor makes sense.

Amor, ordem e progresso

A couple of days ago it was summer and I was in love with everything that caught my eye. I thought it was impossible to be awestruck as an adult but I was proven wrong. The magnificent nature breaths unimaginable exotic fruits and aromatic coffees with its tropical ecological diversity. This richness has invited immigrants from every corner of the world creating the most hospitable and generous men and the most beautiful and diversified of women that dance nonstop to any tune hinting to samba music from an audible distance. My good friend Deivison and I had witnessed and framed (see ALAgrApHY for daily pics) fabulous sunsets and beautiful people between Ipanema (with Marjory Lulu Julia ...) Copa Cabana Itacoatiara Saquarema São Pedro da Aldeia Arraial do Cabo Cabo Frio and finally in Búzios where we met Alfredo's family in a paradise that is in a paradise... There is much more and many more people to thank for making this trip memorable but much is owed to traveling with an open mind and a huge heart that Deivison and I had from the very beginning -- perhaps Portuguese is a must. We have found bliss even in the poorest of neighborhoods, in the most chaotic of places Lapa where some carnival rehearsals took place, in a scientific conversation and a future collaboration in data mining on the ipanema beach, in the sinful yet indulging self-service buffets....I am home sick where home is Brazil. I am a Carioca citizen of the world where Carioca is a state of mind.

Agora fico com muita saudade do que vi e do que nem tive tempo para descobrir, e para matar esta saudade, gente, se ter uma festinha de samba, uma capirinha com o 51, um acai o um suco da manga com laranja o maracuja, gente em paris, por favor, tou cheio de saudade! 

 — in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Happy Love Day Every Day

Being loved is one hell of a rich experience that no money, status or power can buy, no Chinese market can imitate or trade and no future or artificial intelligence can fake. I have been extremely lucky to have grown up in a loving environment of family and friends, with unconditional love and patience. In turn, this has made me a victim of excessive and overwhelming free love that has inexorably fueled my expressive artistic projects and quixotic search for like-minded people to love and support in their meaningful journeys and dreams.

Coming from a scientific background in a highly-on-demand and focused field of study, people question my decision of not having pursued a well-established 6-to-7-figure career (that I have been offered on a couple of occasions) and my answer follows: If I were to regret anything in my 50's or 60's, it would be that of not having loved or been loved profoundly, that is including all the bells and whistles of exploring the world with others and disputing with lovers. And I bet you agree with me, also considering the alternative of disputing with your own dying self for not having done what you really wanted. So why let fear yuck your yum and kill your time? Why not turn your cant's into cans and your dreams into plans?

I am having a fabulous day, today, and I am grateful to all the wonderful people sharing their vibes and love. They know who they are and how much they mean to me.

For the occasion, I am sharing this old experimental photograph, entitled with a literal sense "love is in the air" and painted with a remote control and an infrared filter with an SLR camera. This picture has been viewed 13000 times, downloaded 8800 times, and liked 860 times on deviantART.com while listed in at least 26 blogs and sites since Nov 2010. On the other hand, my most popular scientific article has been accessed 4500 times and cited 28 times since Sep 2008. I am grateful and fulfilled to have known both communities of artists and scientists and even contributed to both. Therefore, I am taking this leap of faith, that many have silenced with a big NO NO, to pursue an interdisciplinary career in arts and science, even if I will have to be the first.

The greatest happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved; loved for ourselves, or rather, loved in spite of ourselves -- V. Hugo

Much love to all,
Al  



Love is in the Air by alahay on deviantART
pic url: http://alahay.deviantart.com/art/Love-is-in-the-Air-187377870

txt url: http://28-ish.blogspot.fr/2014/02/happy-love-day-every-day.html

The greatest happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved; loved for ourselves, or rather, loved in spite of ourselves -- V. Hugo

Le NeoSpleen de Paris

I have yet to meet a person who has not suffered a major/minor depression after having lived two years in Paris! Paris, the city of love, promises to many way more than it can offer sometimes creating in individuals a delusional acute state known as the  Paris Syndrome. Japanese tourists, dreamers, cinephiles, wanderers are only few amongst many susceptible to the Paris Syndrome. However, people that are destined to Paris for more than a couple of years experience the city and its people differently. At the beginning, Paris' inhabitants may experience an overwhelming child-like appreciation of the beauty of every street, cafe, or park, sometimes to the point of experiencing a Stendhal Syndrome. With time, however, this beauty fades as we cement our images of Paris,  even of the Paris we have not explored. We assume many places are reincarnations of others and we are so convinced that our perception is biased to prove our intuition right regardless of what new places might offer. This slowly leads to anhedonia, the loss of pleasure, and perhaps existentially and morally towards nihilism.  And based on our genetic and environmental predisposition to depression, this eventually leads to mild and long depressions, such as dysthima or major acute depressions that are all vicious and bottomless circles that are only curable with enough will power and support from family and friends. I shall call this last phase "le mal de Paris" which hints to Baudelair's "fleurs de mal" and almost every poet's and artist's "mal de vivre" althought perhaps I could just update Baudelair's "Spleen de Paris" by calling it  "le NeoSpleen de Paris" such that it accommodates a century of human progress or regress.

Le NeoSpleen de Paris, is contagious! You might get it in the metro when nobody is smiling, not even musicians as they play or kids as they don't. You might get it on the streets whether from the homeless beggars or from fellow inhabitants that have so much convinced themselves of being busy to avoid the void, or you might as well get it in restaurants when your waiter does not expect to be tipped or rewarded and has been already suffering that NeoSpleen for years!

It is only after the second year that you become aware of the NeoSpleen epidemic and the options to cure it are expensive and limited:

- You are suddenly convincing yourself that alcohol/drugs are inevitable to calm you and many of your alcoholic/drug-addict "friends".
- Your friends have talked you into medication for depression or seeing a shrink
- You decide that Paris is not for you and pack your bags and try to settle elsewhere
- You spend the money you would have spent on alcohol, drugs, medication, or shrinks, traveling back and forth to always see Paris as a child sees candy, and I am talking about forbidden and rare candy!

I am guessing you have already made up your mind. If you happen to have chosen the last one, I might see you tomorrow in RIO de JANEIRO!