(Steve) Temple  

I've been sitting in front of my laptop for hours now, reading the comments under the YouTube videos of this West German TV series Tour de Ruhr: A nuclear family and a young couple are on a bike tour through the landscape of the Ruhr area. Steve Temple for example wrote: Wonderful people in the Pot with strong character traits and a landscape that was cracked but still beautiful at that time. In contrast to today you don't drink so much liquor in the early morning and in contrast to other reviews I think the DVD quality is not bad.

I have two friends who grew up in the Ruhr area. I'm sure they would agree with Steve Temple and describe the landscape as cracked. Cracked because of the industry, because of the coal-fired power stations, which make it wide and narrow at the same time. Even the stockings are cracking because of the crisp air, they say at Tour de Ruhr. It's the 80s and nylon tights are still an important accessory for Western women. The skin-coloured nylon tights are, like the Ruhr, made of coal, water and air. I read at some point that nylon fiber was accidentally invented or discovered in Delaware and was first used as war material for parachutes and tents. At any rate, at the same time that the actors are driving along the Ruhr with their wheels packed, my aunt sings a love song called "Das Meer" (The Sea). It is a love song to a person or to a country. The land of the unforgotten and the unreasonalble, des Unvergessenen und Unermäßlichen, where the lovers met. It is a utopian country where no borders exist. There is no power, no commitment to structures, no hierarchies. Everything happens in spontaneity and cooperation. There is no nation and the concept of nationality does not exist. This country is surrounded by the unresisting water of the ocean, in the middle of which the society of lovers kisses each other blue like the sea. I had to think about about and you today. I think you would love this song. Maybe you'd like to listen to it.

Ring

The first time I saw John was on September 22nd at his girlfriend’s birthday party. Two weeks after I quit school. I had that blue dress on, The one I exchanged with that widower for a few photos of me in it. John had a face like from another century. The second time I saw John, he had done something to his hair and offered me a job as a security guard in the office of an accountant firm. So, I have a job now! I watch CCTV all night, staring at empty rooms where nothing seems to move, guarding cheap furniture, high quality printers and the accountant’s secrets. It is quite nice, actually. A few weeks later, I decided to get a surveillance camera myself. So on my break at 3 a.m., I went on my smartphone, to start some research on camera systems and I found one built by a manufacturer called: Ring. This name really spoke to me, because of the number of things this world could mean, you know?! A saleswoman in stone-washed jeans sold me the Ring-camera. She told me to find some tutorials online before installing it. I found one by a user named the Engineer, who had greenish barbed wire tattooed around his upper arm. He said: „The update may take a few minutes. but as the app reminds us: „Rome wasn't built in a day“ either. So you might have to wait a little while. The camera is particularly useful when my wife is home alone or when we are on vacation.“ I installed the camera soon after. Now I can not only watch the office rooms, where nothing seems to move, but also my empty apartment. where no-one is at home. It is 1.30 a.m. at the moment and I am at the office thinking about the Engineer’s wife: How she sits on a folding chair with a box of crackers in her hand, waiting for the coffee to boil, just waiting in general, how she plays with her imagination, how she forgets to continue this game, to then wait again, to see if something happens, if something comes up, how instead of answering the door, she will sharpen her knifes, counting down from three to one: three two one.

Then she starts rummaging through the trash for a crumpled piece of paper a German lover gave to her. This is my translation: „It would have been better to have slept and dreamed, then to watch the night pass and the slow moon sink.”

run away with everything

My fingers feel differentas if they had grown bigger overnightI keep hitting the wrong keys
I am sorry if there are any spelling mistakes here ┬──┬ ノ( ゜-゜ノ)
The package has arrived
The mosquito net is fantastic!＼(＾▽＾)／
Yesterday I lay under the net, through the loops and through my window I watched the mountain for five minutes,
the yellow fog poisoning it,
the floodlight over the stadium,
then I fell asleep.
It was so nice to meet you!
Before we drove to the drive-in, you said
you would recognize the face of an emperor in the mountain.
I rememberin the parking lot with a drink in your hand, you then said:
"I see the look of the emperor whenhis pride in the endless expanse of conquered territories slowly fades
and he becomes nauseousas he lies down,
from the smell of the bloodstained dust,
while a flag is waving in the wind."
༼;'༎yy ༎yy༽
Since you said that, I see Napoleon every day.
Since you said that, the scar on my hand is slowly fading from red to pink.
On the hand with which I type these messagesand eatand held the rifle and
Wait! think something fell overI'm going to take a look.
( -_-) ︻デ═⼀' * (/'o')/
Okay.
I'm standing in my grey skirt
Upstairs looking for anything out of place.
I'm spinning in circles in the atticand bump into this f@#$%& thing from the heating boiler.
I black out and hold onto a chair.
You know who sat in that chair before?
Anyway.
I focus again and see a small, still bundle of fur in front of me.
I get down on my knees and see: It's a bat.
I think it's dead. But it's not dead.
It’s lying on the ground.
A terrain where it doesn't belong.
I have the taste of iron in my mouth.
Or blood. I spit in my hand.
But there is no blood. I open all the windows.
I don't even know how it got in there.
Suddenly, the animal straightens up in slow motion.
Stands up and asks me to pick it up. ヽ(~_~(-_- )ゝ
Studies show that sensing the environment by sound waves encourages avoidance,
while sensing the environment by sight encourages attack.
The chances of an attack seem minimal to me.
I pick her up and seegrey dots on her fur that roughly represent the map of Europe.
Out of my hand she flies to the ceiling.
I wonder if I should close the windows again.
Or what would be a good next step.
While the bat slowly arranges its body parts, stretches its wings and makes sounds I can't hear,
the rain that pelts against the roof, which quickly increases in speed,
gets louder and louder.
Anyway.
With you it is now 6 o'clock in the morning.
When you wake up, you'll have 92 new messages from me.
What I actually wanted to tell you is:
yesterday I read Napoleon's letters to his wife Joséphine.
He writes to her mainly about military successes, his feelings and the weather.
In one, he compares his conquests in Europewith her conquest of him.
I found the letterwhich Napoleon wrote
when his pride in the endless expanse of conquered territories is slowly fading.
and he becomes nauseousas he lies down.
"A lot of blood was shed yesterday. I have 60-70,000 prisoners,
more than 90 flags and 200 cannons.
For three days the weather has been very nice,
but I am almost dead from fatigue.
I feel a serious illness coming on.
I hope that soon I will be able to embrace you in my arms,
completely I want to wrap you in kisses as hot as if they were born under the equator.
I am in bed. Bonaparte"
And now I can't remember where we met...
But I see a senseless green meadow.
And a hill where we can't go any further.
It's good to get no further
In a place before the conquests,
over which a bat flies in the sun.