THE CARPENTERS: "Top Of The World"

TIGER FEET: "Mud"

I drive to work in the morning. I sit alone on my white-leather seat, they are packed together in an open pick-up truck. I smile when hearing the jokes on the radio breakfast show, they stare at me without expression with their hollow, tired eyes. I will read the newspaper, have a good lunch, and sign some documents in my air-conditioned room during the day. They will lift heavy materials, have a 15 minute lunch break and obey orders in the outside heat.

I jog along the construction site in the evening. Two clean-white 100-dollar-each running shoes; hundred muddy 10-dollar-each safety boots. I sweat for pleasure, they sweat for money. Some people get fat and rich doing little, some people get skinny and poor working hard. Those guys don’t even have time to go out running after work. And even if they would, they surely must feel too tired for that after a long day. Think of it. Know that you are spoiled. We are all equal. But until the day we all realize this, they will continue building this city like the Egyptians built the pyramids.

TIMBALAND: "The Way I Are"

Nothing more than a little clay statue
In a lightless hollow gallery
Hidden in a forgotten corner
Of a remote museum of history

I have no purpose
Than merely be there
Out, everywhere nor nowhere,
just somewhere

No need for a spotlight
To make me look different than what I am
No need for a guide
To explain all but anything

I am just here
For those who want to see
How an artist made me to be

Some rare creation of the past
Maybe…
But uniqueness will last
- you’ll see -
For empty words are spoken
Promises are broken
In a world full of emptiness
Always more, never less
Nonetheless
I strive to survive
Complex in my simplicity
Silent in complicity
Credible by authenticity
Ever shying away from publicity
For this forgotten corner
Of a remote museum of history
Where, in a lightless hollow gallery,
I am nothing more than a little clay statue
For those who want to see

EXTREME: "More Than Words"

Words are the clothes of thoughts.

LEONARD COHEN: “Be For Real”

Lead by setting the example. Teach by being yourself. We all get to know ourselves better trough the interaction with others. Sometimes we just don’t see ourselves the way others look at us. Sure, other persons also deceive us at times, when they turn out to be different than we thought they were. They either pretended to be somebody else or we were imagining them to be another person who was never really there from the beginning, just because we wanted that person to correspond with the image in our mind. Likewise, we have an image of ourselves in our mind, but not necessarily does this image correspond with how others perceive us. Think of that awkward feeling you have when you hear your own voice on a recorded tape. The sound you hear seems to be completely different than how you imagined it to be. And that can be confronting.

The best lessons are learnt without being imposed onto someone. What will last forever, is when that person eventually draws his own conclusion what he should do, rather than just obeying what he has been ordered to do. Just because he is in an unequal position of authority or power doesn’t mean he agrees with what he must do. Power is nothing without control. Now that is more than just the advertising line of a tyre brand that stresses the importance of grip on the road. There is no need to control anybody in the first place, if that person is doing something out of his own will. Nobody owns anybody else, exactly because of this reason. Thoughts are free, and are the only thing that can never be taken away from a person. You can rob a person from his belongings, you can take away his freedom, you can even steal his pride. But never can you prevent him from thinking. And thoughts contain hope, like hope contains dreams.

CREED: "One Last Breath"

- What's the longest word in English?
- ...
- "Smiles". Because there is a mile in between the first and the last letter of the word.

CAMILLE: "Ta Douleur"

Don’t think you are deserted
For no one is leaving you behind
You are surrounded by all
Who left their footprint in the grind

When people walk away
They dare not admit and say
how much they would still love to stay
perhaps, in one or another way,
courage is what they lack
to simply turn their back
one last time before they go
look you in the eyes
no longer hiding their cries
if only you would know
how many regretful tears flow
in doubt of what they missed
what could have been
distant, but always akin
a bond that ever was, forever will,
‘cause sweet memories eventually fill
the space of an open door
for always, there will be more

張惠妹: 知己 (A-MEI CHANG: "Soulmate")

"What is a friend? A single soul dwelling in two bodies." (Artistoteles)

LEONARD COHEN: "The Land Of Plenty"

Melbourne (Australia)

MIKA: "Love Today"

歲月不留人 (suì yuè bù liú rén)

Time and tide waits for nobody.

BOBBY DARIN: "Beyond The Sea"

A thought a second
A halt I reckoned
When little becomes more than a breeze on a sunny day
That rolls ashore
One word hides more
Than what was ever said before
A wave rising endlessly
Clear still undefined
Near though undermined
All too many drops in the sea
So why can’t it be me
But I don’t have the faintest clue
What will ever be one day
Crystal blue or never ending gray
A way to say:
There you are
Something still anything
Few though many things
A thought a second
A start I reckoned

JIMI HENDRIX: "All Along The Watchtower"

Life is a labyrinth. The only thing which is certain, is that there is just one entrance and just one exit.

BELINDA CARLISLE: "Leave A Light On For Me"

I could not help but smiling when I realized that the flickering headlights of the truck that had approached me at the opposite side of the road had the same meaning as they have in my home country Belgium, thousands of kilometers away from Singapore. A few seconds earlier already, a car had signaled with its lights in exactly the same manner. It was broad daylight, so I had not forgotten to put the lights of my car on, like it happens to me all too often. That would have been the reproaching meaning of the flickering lights at the time of dusk or dawn, but now the hot afternoon sun was shining very bright. It was therefore excluded that this signaling was the subtle, yet irritated gesture of condemnation by a fellow driver, pointing his pundit finger at an absentminded danger on the road, who – unlike him of course – forgot to switch on the car lights. I always thought there must exist some sort of Darwinistic explanation why some people find pleasure in pointing to other people’s mistakes, thereby pretending to act out of concern and with the intention to help them, but instead they radiate an air of superiority, as they implicitly convey the message that they would never had make such an obvious mistake themselves.

Anyway, this theory would sure not apply in this case. These flickering headlights in the afternoon sun were different in nature. At this time of the day, there was no need to put car lights on in the first place.

I saw the police officers at the road side a little bit further. And that’s when I realized… There must be some kind of universal traffic code out there, which passes any language barriers, which crosses any borders, and which became applicable in each and every jurisdiction ever since the first car was invented. The code is like a secret password that is passed on from generation to generation of vehicle drivers, without ever being written down. It is not documented in traffic code textbooks, it’s never a question in a driver’s license test, but yet every driver is supposed to understand the meaning of the signal whenever it presents itself. The flickering headlights of a vehicle in the opposite direction… They are a warning signal that you are approaching a police patrol very soon. You can then still slow down in case you would be driving a bit too fast, or comb your hair instead, to make you look good should you nonetheless insist on them having your picture.

Now would what Darwin think of that?! That is what I call unconditional solidarity. A mysterious bond between drivers, an expression of the group feeling towards a common enemy, “us” versus “them”, “the good guys” and “the bad guys”, the “cowboys” against the “Indians”. The road cowboys, in this case.

MOONDOG JR: "T.V. Song"

- "Honey, what's on television?"
- "Dust."

RIO: "Shine On"

...Sunship and Friendshine...

DJ ÖTZI: “Anton Aus Tirol”

Ich bin so schön, ich bin so toll
Ich bin der Anton aus Tirol

Life may be nothing more than figuring out how to put a puzzle of a thousand pieces together, without knowing what image will appear eventually, without even being sure if there are missing pieces from the beginning. The pleasure is in the search, not in the final result. It’s a continuous search for occasional moments of joy and inner glow, each time when - as by magic - a handful of pieces fits into each other. Then on precisely those moments, smile as much as you would do when you would be holding the last piece of the puzzle in your hand...

FIVE FOR FIGHTING: "100 Years to Live"

水滴石穿 (shuǐ dī shí chuān)

Dripping water wears through rock.