Brother Michael
...good to hear from you. If you still have the samenumber: you will have me on the phone one of these days for a homecoming chat (btw: did the alligators in your backyard return too???)
About this bass ...I'd like to share a story with you all.
It will take some time so please sit back and relax if you want to read it. It has NOTHING to do with basses but my point will become clear soon enough (hehehehe ...I DO hope).
This goes back to the period that I was a video producer.
I was asked by the conservator Piet Chielens of the In Flanders Field Museum in Ieper (most Americans, Aussies and Great Commonwealth people will know it as 'Ypres') to make a documentary on how to handle in an appropriate way the demolition or loss of a city.
I was a little puzzled when he asked but he asked me on an evening to his place and over some whiskies he told me A Tale of three ...four ?five ?whatever Cities.
1. The Ypres case:
as you probably know the town of Ieper in the Western part of Flanders (near the French border there) was completely demolished after World War I. No stone was left upon the other and as was said a horseman could oversee the total town from the back of his horse'.
A lot of British gave their lives in that severe part of the this war and their was the strong claim of the British government to leave the town as it was ...in ruins. They asked to build a wall around it and keep it as a symbol for all the casualties fallen there and as an sign of honour for England (there was a young parliament member those days Winston Churchill -who fought the trenches of Ieper- who would liked it thatr way).
The Belgian government couldn't live with such a symbol and they would give the town back to the people who lived there before and wipe the memory out. There was an architect asked to rebuild the town. Alas ...the architect was so full of ideas that he reconstructed a town that never has been in the past. He reconstructed he 'medieval look alike' town that has never been there. Ironically: historical research proved that just a FEW of the original people of Ieper came back to their town. The majority was fled to other towns in Flanders and started a new life during the war to forget what happened. Ieper became populated by adventurers and thos who had lost their live on other places.
The Commonwealth War Grave Commission received pieces of land to organize war graves for the fallen soldies, the county of West Flanders is littered with wargraves and EACH of them is official BRITISH territory. Most known is the War Cemetry of Passendale. Please visit
www.inflandersfields.be Today there is only ONE (just 1) trace of a shell impact visible in the town of Ieper, in a monastery wall behind the church. The town is rebuild to a copy of itself that never was or has been.
2. The Oradour-sur-Glane case
Oradour is a small French town near Poitiers.
As a revenge for being attacked by the French resistance, a batallion of SS-Tiger Tanks and SS troups entered the morning of 10 june 1944. All inhabitants were brought together in the church and slaughtered and the Tiger tanks raged through the town shooting and destroying.
After these horrible happenings it seemed that NO ONE would touch the town anymore; nor Germans, nor French, nor resistance, nor Vichy-France, After the war the local authorities would love to start levelling the village and rebuild a new one.
General Charles De Gaulle forbided personally to move one stone in that town. A wall was erected round Oradour and until today you can visit the town as a most macabre testimonial of the horrors of war.
3. The Coventry Case
German air raids in WW II were also aimed at civil objectives: towns, cathedrals etc. The cathedral of Coventry was heavy bombed and demolished for a great part.
The British government decided to build a new cathedral but ?functionally interweave the ruins of the old cathedral in the highly modern one that was to be build. Old is cherished in new, memories kept by moving on to something new but ?with respect to the the functionality of the place: a house of God and forgiveness. Please see here
http://www.know-britain.com/churches/coventry_cathedral_1.html I will stop here.
My friend Piet told me that evening also about the fourth city Hiroshima where just the ?Dome? left completely intact after the first atom bomb. And about a fifth city Rotterdam where the government decided to build a completely new city ready for the future. Until today Rotterdam is one of the most modern cities in the Netherlands. I can talk about Dresden in Germany and the firestorms after the bombing etc ?
You my brothers and sisters can talk about the horror-story on 9/11 in New York.
We have difficulties to live with memories and make things work.
Brother Michael ?sorry for this looooooooooooo-oong typical Paul the bad one story. I felt like writing and sharing this morning.
I leave it to your and Mica?s wisdom. Please remember one thing: the instrument is made to play upon. I know there are a lot of modern techniques but this bass will have a story to tell musically and just by being an object.
With the skills of the Elfs at Alembic ?it will turn out the right way ?I just know that.
Paul the bad one
(Message edited by palembic on January 27, 2006)
(Message edited by palembic on January 27, 2006)
