Andreas Weiland
 

                                                                        What's Cookin'                                                                                      
                                                                                     
                                                                                                                    for Manue and Mike…

                                                       she combed her
                                                          magical hair
                                                       he dreamed of
                                                               touching it
                                                           but could not until
                                                          that secret moment
                                                                 that both keep now
                                                                            in their hearts
                                                                     & to themselves

                                               in old England
                                           the pueri made firebrands 
                                                         on Saint John's Day
                                                       fires of St. Jean
                                                         to cook up stories
                                                                 of things and men longgone

                                               What's-cookin', he asked
                                           BECAUSE because
                                                             we desire truth
                                             what myth was hidden
                                               (he did not ask)
                                               Le cru et le cuit
                                         how do you translate THAT
                                      when the old traditions
                                                         do not answer any longer
                                         the imperatives of new circumstances

                                              and marriage? she said
                                         the eternal recurrence
                                                  of joining split halves?

                                                 It is a god /  joining them
                                               couples are wed in heaven
                                                       bread and butter
                                                      the oven makes the dough
                                                            merge & fuse with the meat
                                                          is it like that, then?

                                       and religious phenomena are in tension
                                                       between the eternal (AS THEY CALL IT)
                                                     and the mutable
                                                a coming-to-be (a “not yet,” Bloch said)
                                                         and 'the here-and-now'
                                                                  
                                                       and marriages are not 
                                                 the same as yesteryear these days
                                                            and each of us gropes for an 
                                                                   understanding
                                                             we know / and don't know
                                            our everyday myths the Mythen des Alltags
                                                      constantly in a state of becoming... Leach said
                                                  they're generated by you by him 
                                                                                            by her by me & all of us

                                                                            IN SITUATIONS
                                                               (specific socio-economic
                                                                  socio-psychological
                                                                   socio-historical contexts)
                                                                      Ask Levi-Strauss

                                                              by chance, came across 
                                                          the Niederrheinisches Kochbuch
                                                                             wherein, next to all 
                                                                                          that belongs to this art  
                                                                and that is dealt with, in great detail                 
                                                            the different home-economical and
                                                                      economical advantages are also taught
                                                                'xcuse me  HOW DO I GET
                                                                        TO CHLODWIG SQUARE?
                                                                               the stranger called 
                                                                      (it was his first visit, to Cologne)
                                                                         Best  thing is
                                                                    to take the tram, replied the conductor
                                                                          This tram?, the stranger asked
                                                                       I don't care, said the conductor

                                                              How, then,  do we transform 
                                                                                           the everywhen
                                                                           into the here-and-now ?

                                                         husbands beaten by their wives
                                                           “riding backwards” on an ass – 
                                                                                  that was pretty long ago
                                                       At a village near Avesnes,
                                                  the Fête des Durmenés … was always held
                                                                     on Saint Lawrence's Day
                                                            BUT THEY DON'T RIDE ON IT ANY MORE
                                                                even if they make an ass of themselves
                                                                            UNTER'M PANTOFFEL
                                                                               AS THEY WOULD SAY IN KOLN
                                                                          and the man holds his own tail
                                                                                      and the woman?
                                                                                                           
                                                          I remember that place, Avesnes
                                                                coming from Mons, hitchhiking to Paris
                                                                                          in 1970
                                                                                                                                                    
                                                            patriarchy had its strange reversals
                                                                            and still has – 
                                                                       nonetheless, it is real
                                                                         & Matriarchy, longgone
                                                                        and would we return to it
                                                                          it would be shit, too
                                                                            no less than male dominance

                                                                       Can we bake a different world?
                                                                                       HOPE FOR THE THIRD
                                                                           beyond thesis 
                                                                                  and antithesis?

                                                                     The nature of the war of sexes
                                                                           concocted by those who prefer
                                                                            anthropological constants

                                                                   but the food changes
                                                                 and so does the manner of eating 

                                                                                       

                                                               
                                                      WE DON'T EXPECT VIRGIN BIRTH, ANYMORE
                                                              AND SOME KIDS KNOW THE OTHER SEX
                                                             AT AN AGE WHEN THEIR DADS WERE 
                                                                CONSIDERED GRUEN like lettuce
                                                                           BEHIND THE EARS 
                                                                                 (still wet, that is)

                                                         IT IS TRUE, we have no theoretical insight yet
                                                                 into les structures ... de la parenté
                                                            everyone relies on trial and error
                                                                                       is it the best way?
                                                                                   THE ONLY ONE 
                                                                                                             LEFT FOR US?
                                      
                                                           The ritual of courting / over now
                                                                     let's work together
                                                                        let's create art
 
                                                      The art of loving, not the least of all arts
                                                            and the art of cooking together
                                                                                                   – not bad, eh?
                                                        From Futurist Cooking to Eat Art
                                                              I remember Tony, now, Tony Morgan
                                                                                          in those days in
                                                                 Amsterdam Duesseldorf Genève
                                                                                     Cologne, too. Yes Koln.
                                                                 Wenn alle Kuenste untergehn
                                                                           (come on, was that celebrated
                                                                      over at the Brouwersgracht, too?)
                                                                                    die edle Kochkunst (come on
                                                                           even in Amsterdam,  no kiddin')
                                                                              bleibt bestehn, bleibt, stays alive

             
                                                                     marriage rules, by their very nature,
                                                                      are interrelated 
                                                                                               with behaviour

                                                              and the analysis of their
                                                                                    internal
                                                                                        logical coherence
                                                                       cannot be divorced from
                                                                their immediate consequences
                                                                             on a practical plane

                                                          didn't know, until today, 
                                                              about La Cucina di Beuys...
                                                  Die KUNST AUF DEM WEG ZUM LEBEN
                                                           (life not separated from art, or vice versa?
                                               OR BOTH WAYS – WECHSELWIRKUNG intended?)
                                                                      Old Shakes would have liked that:
                                                                                     Comer o no comer
                                                                             Reflections on comida
                                                                                            arte
                                                                                   y communication
 

                                                         the “realm of rules”
                                                         (SOMETHING EVERY COOK KNOWS
                                                     EVERY PRIEST EVERY CHEMICAL ENGINEEER)
                                                   not simply determined 
                                                      by the “infrastructure”
                                                     (economics, politics, kinship etc.)
                                                       but ALSO, AND MORE DIRECTLY, MAYBE
                                                               by mental constraints

                                                                                     faced with
                                                                 THE SURFACE MEANING OF LOVE
                                                                             OF UNION
                                                                            OF THE CAKE BAKED
                                                                               THE FISH FRIED
                                                                            do we find truth 
                                                                            in the discovery
                                                                   of their LATENT STRUCTURE?

                                                                          Nature and culture
                                                                          the raw and the cooked
                                                                                    
                                                                      ripping of the clothes and
                                                                                        biting into the penis
                                                                                      the protruding breast

                                                                              myth yields a strict symmetry
                                                                                                 Claude claimed

                                                                             the young – the old
                                                                                (such binary opposites)
                                                                             DON'T REDUCPLICATE
                                                                                        the interplay of history
                                                                                                   and the present

                                                                                     they both eat food
                                                                                           that was prepared today

                                                                      AND YET, the young long for
                                                                  the gentle embrace
                                                                                 of an old couple
                                                                          and the old remember
                                                                                         (or dream of)
                                                                        orgiastic seconds, minutes and days
                                                                                      Dionysian bacchanalia
                                                                                                    A MYTH, even then
                                                                                                             
                                                                           let us say No, then
                                                                      to everything and everyone
                                                                        determined to discourage
                                                                                      and to make us wither
                                                                     As every woman and man is an artist
                                                                           (IN NUCE, or blooming already)
                                                                                    how can we not hope
                                                                                for a Leipzig of tomorrow
                                                                                    a blooming, just world
                                                                               where spring ceases to be icy
                                                                       and summer – 
                                                                                          no time of endless drought
                                                                                    Discover. Search. Experiment.
                                                                                              Care. Love. Wonder.
                                                                                           Wanderers, we are.
                                                                                                 From place to place – 
                                                                                                     rooted in hope
   
                                                                                                                                                    July 1, 2013
 
 
 
 
 

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