Choose your music wisely

Recently I had a little summer job as a band chauffeur. The two bands I've worked with were the Kaiser Chiefs and Simply Red. Driving them around was fun yet not as spectacular as one might imagine. Just a bunch of guys on their way to play a gig and me hoping that I won't crash the van.

What was rather interesting though was to get a closer look behind the scenes of a big concert. It's really incredible how much work goes into a show that only lasts 90min. So many people spending so much time getting everything ready, I could write a blog entry just about that. But something else is far more entertaining: the riders!

The rider is basically a list that the management of the band sends out to the local production team before the concert. It specifies everything that the band needs with great detail: lots of technical stuff, hotel and transfers, food and drink requirements for the backstage area, etc. Some of these requests make sense, like if some of the band or crew are vegetarian and need veggie food, or if there's an alcoholic needing strong vodka. But some (too many!) people take the piss and ask for ridiculous things.

The Kaiser Chiefs wanted some tea, some beer, cereals and pizza. Fair enough. However, with Simply Red – or more precisely Mick Hucknall, the singer and head of the band – it was a very different story. He needed to be picked up separately from the rest of the band (if you play in a band but don't travel together, that's already weird, no?) in a Mercedes S-class, he made ridiculous demands for his hotel suite and backstage he wanted wine costing between 80 and 100 Euros per bottle. Now, I don't know much about wine but I'd say that unless you're a super wine connoisseur you can't tell the difference between a 10 Euro bottle and a 100 Euro bottle. And if you're a real connoisseur you'd probably name exactly which wine you want. In other words: Good old Mick, or Chucky as I like to call him, just wanted to have expensive wine because it helps him to keep his hopelessly inflated ego satisfied.

Chucky is in good company though. I've had a little look around the net and found some nice gems:

• Mary J Blige: On one of her tours she requested in every venue she played at her own private toilet – with a new toilet seat!

• Madonna: She wants the backstage room to look exactly like her own home and so she ships her furniture to every stop of the tour.

• Eminem: The story goes that in 2011, playing on a festival in Northern Ireland, he asked for a wooden pond to be constructed in his backstage area – filled with koi carp.

• Mariah Carey: Apart from the usual Rolls-Royce and pink carpet she also asked for 20 white kittens and 100 doves at a Christmas event in London.

This is so fucked up that it's actually funny. Still I wonder, is there any hope left for our beautiful human race? Fortunately there is. Here are a couple of examples:

• Foo Fighters: They ask for “used DvDs (no sports titles or Martin Lawrence) and magazines (no Spin, Rolling Stone or People) that show us you have a brain and fantastic interests.” And furthermore, “Please make arrangements for leftover food to be collected by a local soup kitchen, homeless shelter or our roadie who looks like Osama Bin Laden.” Amen to that.

• Jack Johnson: When considering the environmental impact of his concerts (thousands of plastic bottles used, thousands of litres of fuel burned by those visiting the shows, etc.) he first wanted to quit touring. But instead of doing so he changed the way he was doing it. Details on his riders now include reusable beer cups for everybody and discounts for those who come by bicycle to his concerts. Also, for five years he donated all the profits made from his tours to non-profit organizations. Amen again.

Bottom line: You can change the world by choosing wisely which musicians you support. Stop funding bands that play absurd power games with your money and instead find bands that inspire and speak out about things that actually matter.

Do you need what you keep?

His name is Carlos. He's a juicer. And not just any juicer – he's a legend! Made by a small manufacturer in California, he's also known as THE CHAMPION. I've bought him about 10 years ago and witnessed his magic on several festivals where I was running juice bars, and at home he's been a great help to supply my daughter with vitamins in a hassle-free way. Fruit juices, vegetable juices, sorbets – all amazingly delicious!

A few weeks ago I saw Carlos when I was cleaning the kitchen. Tucked away on the top shelve, he was collecting dust and didn't seem too happy. It had been at least 18 months since we made juice together and I don't think my house mates had used him during this time either. So there he was, a precious gem, half forgotten and totally unappreciated.

I started wondering: Do I actually need to keep him? Maybe someone else would be delighted to use him? I could sell him and make some space. But then doubts came rolling in. What if I'd regret it? Maybe I'd miss Carlos. What if I want to use him next week, or next month, or next year? What if I never recovered from the loss and would die of a broken heart?

In the end I sold Carlos to a good friend and now he's making my friend and his family happy. I earned some money, gained some storage space and, most importantly, I got rid of the feeling of having unused stuff cluttering my life. It was a surprisingly difficult process at first, to part from him, but once it was done it felt profoundly liberating.

In our civilised and wealthy world the endless accumulation of material possessions has become a very common problem. Sure, many things bring comfort into our lives but our greed and the lacking practice of letting go mean that more and more often we find ourselves drowning in stuff. It's like attaching weights to the wings of a bird – instead of travelling light we're getting stuck.

I used to live in a 4-bed room house. Empty corners were pretty much non-existent... When I moved to a small room in a shared house I put most of the stuff that filled the big house in storage. Bar very few exceptions, I didn't need or miss any of it once it was out of sight. It took me several years to finally get rid of it all. Now I don't even remember what it was.

Another good example are clothes. There are so many clothes in each home! But how many shoes and shirts do we actually wear? And if we don't wear them, why do we keep them? To remedy the nuisance of having an overcrowded wardrobe some people buy bigger wardrobes every few years. In contrast to this rather bizarre strategy, here's what a friend of mine does: Every spring she takes every piece of clothing that she owns and thinks about how often she has worn it during the past twelve months. Everything that hasn't been used for a whole year she gives away.

Ultimately it's quite easy. Just go through all your stuff and ask yourself: Do I really really really need it? If not, there are flea markets and auction houses and many people who have hardly anything and would gladly help to lighten your load. Freedom and happiness are waiting! It's not YOUR stuff anyway. It's just stuff.

For further inspiration and perhaps a final push, listen to the wise words of Mr Flowin Immo:

IMMO'S GARAGE

Once there was an island...

Brexit – what a weird word, sounds like cat food. And probably you are as tired of hearing it as I am, so I won't mention it again. I promise!

Very soon it's referendum day on the little green island. A fierce battle is going on between the supporters of Vote leave and Vote stay – the news and social media sites are full with it, streets and pubs too. Nothing else matters, so it seems.

Reading all the different posts and watching some of the campaign videos, one gets the impression though that it's a lose/lose situation anyway: 'If we don't leave now, the nightmare will continue' versus 'if we don't stay, it will be hell'. Not quite what a bright future looks like.

Now, leaving the EU or not is of course a big decision. Hence I encourage everyone who is entitled to vote to do so. After all, that's what a democracy is all about, right? To take part in the decision-making. I actually think voting should be compulsory. If you don't like any of the options given, vote blank or create a different option yourself. But you have to participate, that's your responsibility as a citizen.

Back to the upcoming election. Whether Britain will stay in the EU or not, really it doesn't matter. Either result won't make the world a better place. In or out, some things might improve a bit and others will get worse but there won't be any real change. Things will drag on as usual and a ping pong game of blame and power will be played.

You want real changes? Change yourself! Start in your own micro cosmos because that's where you have a real influence, that's where you can make things happen.

• You're worried about local businesses? Give them business! Big supermarkets and online places like Amazon are terribly convenient but the more you use them the more you kill small shops run by local people. And the big players aren't the most honest tax payers either.
• Change to an ethical bank instead of supporting huge financial institutions that use your money to make profit from wars.
• Help your neighbour – gardening, babysitting, carrying bags, whatever! 'Your' country starts next door.
• You feel threatened by Muslim immigrants? Invite one for a cup of tea and find out who that person is. Chances are high that, as humans, you both share similar fears and hopes.
• Reduce waste, use a bicycle instead of driving everywhere, eat organic and more vegan food – in other words, do things that any sane person would do when it's obvious that Mother Nature is suffering.
• Consume less stuff and produce more kindness.
• Be forgiving to the assholes you meet – for everyone is on a journey, and everyone struggles at times.
• Find peace within yourself.

These are some examples of changes that are needed. And the one thing they all have in common is that each one of us can choose to start making these changes today. Voting leave or voting stay, voting Trump or voting Hillary, voting candidate #1 or candidate #2 – at the end of the day they're all distractions! Distractions from what we really should be doing. And that is, to choose with our daily actions which WORLD we want to live in. Because there is only one world. It's like an island, floating through space, and we're all stuck on it together.

Tinder and Time

The other day on Tinder I...

“What? You're on Tinder?”

Yes, I'm on Tinder. Sometimes. Why not?

“Because it's so superficial. I didn't expect that of you...”

Well, what can I say? Most Singles I know are on there. I guess I'm trying to be normal. Kind of. And hey, while Tinder has a reputation for being a dating app that is merely used to find quick sex, ultimately it's like with everything else in life: It all depends on your intention and your attitude! One-night stands are indeed a possibility, but so are new friendships, beautiful romances and even the future husband or wife – as always, limitations reside only in the mind.

Now, admittedly it's a rather superficial act to select potential lovers from looking briefly at a few photos but...c'mon, if you go to a bar, what makes you talk to someone? It's not that people wear signs on their foreheads naming their favourite books. Either there's some physical attraction or you stay alone and order another beer. And I hate hanging out in bars anyway.

Of course Tinder can't match up with an experience like walking into a groovy vegan restaurant in Berlin, high on Californian weed, and bumping into someone you didn't even know was waiting for you... But hey, how often does that happen?

Used in moderation, a dating app can be really entertaining because apart from some pretty faces you also see all sorts of really weird and crazy people. It's like a freak show, right on your phone screen! You get a glimpse of how strange society really is – scary stuff, but also very funny...

So the other day on Tinder I saw the profile of a woman with the following line as her intro text: 'You've got the Rolex – I've got the time.' At first I couldn't stop laughing. What a ridiculously dumb thing to say! Honest perhaps, but nevertheless stupid. Then I was amazed that this kind of old-school thinking still exists. I mean, it's the 21st century, right? Each to their own, sure, but you'd think that we've come a little further than this by now. Maybe not. Anyway, somehow the words stayed in my head and I started thinking about what else they might have to say.

Quite often we find ourselves in situations where, in one way or another, we have to choose between time and money. Should I go out to eat, which costs more money, or stay in and cook, which requires more time? Should I take the taxi or the bus, car or bicycle? Should I book a luxurious hotel for a week or go backpacking for a couple of months? Do I move to a bigger flat so that I have more space for all the stuff that I buy, knowing that I will have to work more hours to pay for it all? Or do I change from a full-time to a part-time job, gaining free time but losing money?

In short: Do I want to be the one with the Rolex or the one having time? I think it's a very important question to ask oneself, at least once in a while. If you prefer the Rolex, that's cool, but unless you're already super rich there's a little detail that might be worth considering. Here it is: You can spend your time without spending money, but you can't spend money without spending your time. Every cent has a timetag on it! Therefore I think it's a good idea to try and choose wisely how much money you really need – and how much time you want.

Some Dude from Uruguay sums it up perfectly. (And just in this moment I'm realizing that I've somehow ended up creating a link between the bizarre world of Tinder and the great José Mujica. I hope he forgives me...)

“When I buy something, or when you buy it, we're not paying with money. We're paying with the time from our lives we had to spend to earn that money. The difference is that you can't buy life.”

(extract from HUMANS with the above quote from José Mujica)

Vegetarianism is dead

I used to think that you become a better person when you embrace vegetarianism. Of course I was wrong. No ism will ever make you a better person – in fact, nothing will make you a better person, or a worse one for that matter. There are only actions, good ones and bad ones, done by different people. At any given moment, a saint can commit murder and a murderer can save a life.

Vegetarianism... I tried it, several times. Not a big deal really, after all there's plenty of other delicious and nutritious food around which isn't meat or fish. But I always ended up making occasional exceptions, usually in social gatherings with some dead animal as the main course. “Okay, I'll have a piece of lamb, why not?” Let's be flexible, right? There's even a word for it: Flexitarian.

My bad conscience remained though. Every time that I ate meat or fish I felt bad. Well, not totally bad because when meat tastes good it's obviously a very pleasurable experience. But there was this guilt hovering over my shoulder, nagging at me...'you're the reason why this animal was killed – unnecessarily!'

Luckily all this changed when one day, a year ago or so, a friend told me the following: “Eating a steak is, ethically speaking, better than drinking a glass of milk. Because the cow who provided the steak is at least dead, while the milk cow keeps suffering.” In other words, I can eat dead animals and be less of an arsehole than the preaching veggie from next door who lives on cheese and yoghurt. Great!

I looked into veganism (= no animal products whatsoever) and have started to eat more and more vegan food. And I must say, I've never eaten healthier in my life and I keep discovering amazing stuff that I didn't even know existed (popped amaranth, hazelnut milk or, the latest, marinated tempeh!). The ethical reasons for a vegan diet are plentiful: no animal torture, greatly reduced CO² emissions, less rainforest destruction, etc. To sum it up: If most of the world switched to a predominantly vegan diet, many environmental problems would be greatly reduced. And all those lovely videos about the violent animal industry would disappear as well. Like this one. Or this one. Or here, my recent favourite: DAIRY IS F**KING SCARY (highly recommended!)

So yes, I think vegetarianism is dead. If you care for animals and the planet and you really want to make a difference, the only logical step is to start with a vegan diet. Period.

Now, you're probably feeling already the urge to defend your beloved eating habits and to turn away from these weird vegan people who might be trying to brainwash you into some kind of cult. Here are a couple of things to consider:

1) I feel the wording is quite important: It's '...to start with a vegan diet', and not '...to become a vegan'. That's right, you can eat vegan food without being a vegan! It's like...you don't have to become a Buddhist if you want to meditate. Or if you see the benefits of cleaning the kitchen regularly, well, you don't have to become an official 'cleaner'. You just do it while continuing being you. No identifying needed, no worshipping, just pure common sense. Like, you don't have to be a socialist to vote Bernie Sanders – you vote him because this man is perhaps the only hope this world has left. Same with veganism.

2) It would be amazing if everybody was able to change completely from one day to the next but this ain't gonna happen. I can't do it myself and it looks like most others can't do it either. Fine, that's just the way it is for now. However, it is possible to make small changes and then sooner or later, as long as you keep going, these small changes will lead to a big change. Creating a better world one moment at a time! So, eat as much vegan food as possible. Try it! Two days per week, three, four or five – any day is better than no day.

I believe that the future will be at least 90% vegan – or else there won't be a future (for us humans). This is not fiction, we're heading for a huge environmental disaster on many levels and animal farming is one of the biggest causes of this problem. Find out for yourself and enjoy the facts!

Furthermore, I believe that evolution has not only brought us sensational advances such as smartphones and plastic surgery, but also a certain amount of responsibility. And for me, a big part of this responsibility is to respect all life – not because we ought to, but because we are able to. And you know, it really can be done. It has actually never been easier for a human being to live a healthy and happy life without harming other living beings. So if we can do it without torture and killing, why don't we?

I'm not a vegan. But when I eat mainly plant-based food, as local and organic as possible, it always makes me feel really good. Like more connected with everything, in a positive way. There's less abuse and more respect in my life, less selfishness and more kindness. There's a feeling of hope because I can see how my actions are contributing to less death and suffering and to more peace in the world. And that's something to strive for, isn't it?

Cooperate or die

Have you read SHANTARAM? What a mesmerisingly amazing book! So honest, so magical and so bloody intense! If you haven't had the pleasure yet – yes, the almost 1000 pages might be a bit scary at first, but it's really worth it. A wonderful and very rare reading experience is waiting for you!

There is a story going round that Gregory David Roberts, the author of Shantaram, started to write the book in prison. One day the prison guards found the manuscript (paper in those days) and threw it away. Roberts started from zero, got half way through the book and then the same thing happened again! So he set off a third time and when he finally got out he managed to finish it. Now, that's dedication!

Whether this story is totally true or not, I don't know, but it's possible. And for me that's what this book is about: A reminder that life itself is a crazy adventure and that each moment carries endless possibilities.

When I finished Shantaram I read a few articles and watched some interviews to find out more about the book and the author. At some point I stumbled across a video with Roberts speaking at an event in Mumbai. The whole video is really good but there is especially one part where he talks about the current state of the world, and the way he describes our situation I find quite remarkable.

We are in transition – a much needed transition! For a long time we've been competing with each other and consuming the hell out of this planet. In fact, most of the stuff we do involves competition and consumption, the two have become God-like ideals to strive for. But our circumstances have changed, rather drastically, and so unless we start to cooperate and to conserve, very soon this whole place will be a story of the past. WE will be a story of the past.

I was going to write more about what he says in the video but I think that he puts it all so well, so clear and inspiring, speaking passionately and beautifully, that I recommend you to simply watch it.

“If we don't change, if we don't learn how to cooperate, we will compete ourselves to death.”

(The part about competition and cooperation is from minute 3:05 - 15:50)

  

This is it

“Once the house is sold, everything will be better!”

These were the words of a good friend, repeated every time we met, for almost five years. Last week we talked the first time in ages and she told me about all the struggles she is facing at the moment. Towards the end of the conversation, after about 20min, she said that she'll be busy next weekend clearing the house.

“What?”

“Yes, the house, it's sold.”

I was puzzled. For years one of her main hopes for a better future had been to sell this damn house, and now that it was sold she hardly mentioned it. Her big dream had finally become true but now that dream had lost its magic; it had drowned in the sea of all the other everyday crap.

A similar kind of story happened to me recently too. Three months ago I was finishing my first documentary film, anicca – embracing change, and during the final weeks I could feel my stress levels rising on an hourly basis. I remember that I kept saying to myself, 'once this film is done I'll be able to relax'. Now the film is out and since the middle of last month I've been working on a new book. Due to a self-imposed deadline I found myself yet again with rising stress levels, and again I could hear that voice in my head, trying to convince me that 'once this book is done...'

'Once I have a better job...'

'Once I finish my studies...'

'Once I get my money back...'

'Once I find a new home...'

'Once it's summer...'

'Once I'm in love...'

'Once...'

Yes, one day it might all be better. But what if not? What if it won't get better? Or what if I am dead when one day arrives?

“We always imagine that there's got to be somewhere else better than where we are right now; this is the Great Somewhere Else we all carry around in our heads. We believe Somewhere Else is out there for us if only we could find it. But there's no Somewhere Else. Everything is right here.” (Brad Warner)

Can you hear it too? That furious storm of excuses hurling through the air? 'All very well, but I first need more money', 'I first need to find a different house', 'I first need to fall in love', etc. etc. etc. Fine, get money, find a house and fall in love. Do what you have to do but in the meantime, live! Laugh, cry and dance, be kind and breathe deeply! Enjoy today and be grateful for everything you have already. For there might not be a better tomorrow. There might not even be a tomorrow at all.