Walk to Neptune in 5 songs

Planet: Neptune

Mood: blissful

Neptune.
My favorite place ever. When I feel down, I take my solar cab to the Blue Planet. There is a mystery around it that shapes me in an unreserved way.
To me Neptune is feminine. Though in the roman mythology, Neptune is the Sea God. This is why He gave His name to the striking blue Neptune. So I’ll call it a She.
She wraps you and rolls you and then you fall into Her indigo firmaments immaculately, your eyes closed, feeling every second of the moment.
The sensation is indescribable.

But through the descent, and while laying on the azurite layers of Neptune, the music kicks in.
Four tracks make me dive to this sub-zero Terra. All four are favorites of mine. Yet I feel there is a bond which is tying them, the Neptune numinous arpeggio. Actually five if you count the first one, preliminary vision of what you will enclose on the Blue Planet, and the last one which leaves you longing to return to it.

01. Calling All Stations (Genesis) – from the album Calling All Stations [1997]
“Calling all stations
Can Anybody tell me
Tell me exactly where I am”
While still in the cab, you’re lost in the Solar System. Yet you get a sense of the cosmos tread through the starlight glimpses. And then as you try to find Her, you go through all sorts of galactic elements before She stands majestically in front of you.

02. World in My Eyes (Depeche Mode) – from the album Violator [1989]
“All the islands in the ocean
All the heavens in the motion
Let Me show you the world in my eyes”
This song has a feel of adventurous yet mystical quest. It kicks the wonderful journey on the Neptunian surface. Through the eyes and the beat, you end up unveiling a whole new world. You discover the azurite surfaces of Neptune. You feel you want to grab Her and tackle every possible inch of Her shell. That's when you know youou are already into Her.

03. Spring Haze (Tori Amos) – from the album To Venus & Back [1999]
“Billowing out to somewhere
Billowing out Luna Riviera”
Here you dive into the soft waves of Neptune. But then, as you pierce into them, the sapphire ocean sees its color change into indigo then navy dark blue. The seemingly calm into tumultuous. The band ferociously kicks in and you find yourself trapped and violently pushed down. Deliciously.

04. Plainsong (The Cure) – from the album Disintegration [1989]
“Sometimes you make me feel
Like I am living at the edge of the World”
That’s when you reach the unwavering (or at least what you think is stable). You land onto a soft oceanic verge only to discover how pure rapture really is like. Floating is the term to be used here. Pure Bliss that has to be devoured before it’s time to leave.

05. Unison (Murcof) – from the album Martes [2002]
Leaving. You tickle the unruffled water one last time before you are on your way home. Then you start to feel the wind coming to take you. It’s quite a time before it becomes consistent and the tornado storms your body away from Neptune, while the sound and the sight of the water are still in you. Neptune eagerly awaits your comeback.

P like Paris

"I love Paris in the Springtime
I love Paris in the Fall
I love Paris in the Winter when it drizzles
I love Paris in the Summer when it sizzles

I love Paris every moment
ev'ry moment of the year

I love Paris
why
oh why do I love Paris?
Because my love is near!"

I love Paris - by Cole Porter

(Above picture: me in the metro)

Ligne 4: Gare de l'Est

Constellation: Pictor (The Painter)

Mood: Stranded

I was in Paris last week.
I can't say I like this city. But I love the public transports there. The metro, the RER, the buses. Everything is organized.
And of course, the food is great. And wine …

But even if Paris is flooded with history and monuments and stuff, I feel something is not clicking for me there. My second trip to the French capital, and yet it's overwhelming for me.

Maybe because most of the things are in place and in Lebanon we don't have that. So in a way you want to be there and yet you are stranded.

Pictor is a Southern constellation. It doesn't have any history behind it, because it was introduced in 1752. It was originally title the trestle of the painter, but was altered in the 19th century, this is why the picture of this constellation shows the trestle and not the shape of a painter.
The link with what I'm talking about? The French painters. So many good ones. Cezanne, Chagall, Gauguin, Seurat …

I know a very nice song which deals with a painting of Seurat, Seated Woman with a Parasol. The song is called Parasol by Tori Amos.

"the Seated Woman with the Parasol

may be the only one you can't Betray

if I'm the Seated Woman with the Parasol

I will be safe in my frame"

It's very interesting how she embodies herself as the woman of Seurat's painting. I love to envisage what someone in a painting (as abstract as he is) might think about, might be (or have been) going through.

So to me this songs works perfection vis-à-vis the painting.

A Dress Named Pride

Constellation: Pavo (The Peacock)
Mood: Flaccid

What do I want to share. I have no clue. Yet I feel the need to write about something. Somehow related to me yet totally unrelated to what I am doing.
So here are some random thoughts floating, emerging, hoping they'll surface.

Do you see this cosmos box? Call whatever you want. Here's how it is related to me.

Some time ago, I started to feel that I am respected in my labor entourage. The miniature scum dot is turning into a cocoon in the shades of the universe. It took me some time to digest that. Maybe I just need to believe in myself as someone who is becoming vital in the midst of an organization.

I always take pride in what I do, no matter how decimal this work is. Though I never showed self-pride. I always thought that would lead to ego problems. However, that's not the case, for I think I have to acknowledge my own hard work and that has not happened yet, even if the pride is there.

That feels like random rambling. But it's true. In order to have a higher self-esteem, maybe I should start to feel my own value at work in order to reinforce my own self.

The picture represent the Peacock, a southern hemisphere constellation, introduced during the beginning of the 17th century. To me, this bird represents pride, ego. With his eccentric plumage, it tries to fool others. Maybe it has some interesting features under its outfit, yet the first imagine one gets of it is its allure.

And that is the exact opposite of how I feel others perceive me. Generally, I suck when giving first impressions. It takes some time for others to get to know (and perhaps like) me. So maybe I should get a couple of lessons from Mr. Pavo. As for the rest, I'll have to count on myself.

Numinous Excursions

Planet: Terra (the Earth)
Mood: Dreamy

Traveling.
One of my ultimate activities.
I love to travel.
In a trip you do so many things. Discover. Meet. Observe. Hear. Smell. Taste. Touch. Everything is new.

I happened to have traveled to some gorgeous places.
Since I am in Lebanon, I went to many Arab countries. Like Syria, Jordan, the UAE and Egypt. But I also went to Europe (France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Poland).


The weirdest places I saw however are in Asia, where I visited Thailand and Malaysia first and a couple of years ago, South Korea where we had a theater festival. Mainly the most magical too because everything is different, from the food to the landscapes to the people.
My aim is to go to Argentina for Christmas. It would be my first trip to the Americas. I have relatives there, so it might work.


My top three destinations would be the Easter Island (near Chili), Peru and India. All three fascinate me. The first because I so want to see and be able to talk with the Maoi, those colossal statues on this tiny island. Peru holds the whole Inca background that I've read so much about (and there's the Machu Picchu and Cuzco, "the navel of the world"). As for India, well, it's INDIA. Buddhism and Hinduism. Can one ask for more? Let's see if I will be able to go to any of these before my first death.

Why this travel talk? Because I might go to Paris later this month for business. My first business meeting. And it will be my first trip to a country I already visited. I don't like to do that because I like to visit as many places as I can.

It's fascinating how the Earth holds all of these special places. You feel it's too small compared to the size of the universe, but it's THAT rich that you can't but discover new things on it every day. I wonder if a planet which holds the same characteristics will ever be found among the huge load of crap that is bathing in the cosmos.

Photos are of a Moai Statue (Easter Island), the Macchu Pichu (Peru), the Hindu goddess Saraswati (India) and of course, Terra.