Good morning, my sweetest friends!
The long awaited, and long needed as well, vacations finally happened to me. Pretty spontaneously happened, I must say.
It started with a little chat with my friend Evgeny Stakhovsky. Perhaps some of you might remember my interview with him for Radio Mayak in Moscow. I think it was one of the most interesting, exciting and deep talks I had in my not so rich history of interviews given.
Well, thank universe for the YouTube and everything archived, the video from that interview is still available. Here it is –
It is really interesting for me to re-watch it now and see how my attitude changed, from reserved and secretive, trying to hide my own self behind mysteries and stories, to me now – open, honest and myself-ish. The changes are satisfying, I must note to myself.
Anyway, so I was having a chat with Stakhovsky and then he invited me to visit him in Spain, and I was like – oh yes, please! It was a perfect idea – to hang out with a very interesting person, enjoy some sun and sea, and also – let’s be honest – save some money on hotel accommodation, which in my case of a semi-broke artist is also an important point.
I must say, it was one of the most satisfying vacations ever in my life – I let go of my control completely, did what I want and had so many inspiring conversations, that I came back with an extra piece of luggage of stories and ideas.
I will soon release a talk with Stakhovsky where this time I interview him in the frames of my project “Talks Without Pants”.
Another side of the thing was COVID-19. I have realised how privileged and lucky we are in Berlin, that we had a relatively mild lockdown and relatively low death toll. Spain felt the pandemic much heavier – you could see it in every glance of a local, you could feel it so present still when you have to wear masks even just walking outside. While I was in Spain some of the regions were declared to have emergency situations again, and it was in the neighbouring Catalunya for example. I have no idea when it ends, but I beg you – please please please take good care of yourselves and your beloved ones.
I also noticed that Spain is much more conservative, “thanks” to catholicism, or so it seems. So I felt like my whole trip was a bit of a solo gay pride. This photo sums it up pretty much 😀
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THE JULY SONG
As promised, but with a little delay, I post the July song. Initially I wrote the first version of it in 2017, and I showed it to some of you in the first edition. It is called “Proserpina” and it was supposed to be the title track of my “lost” album. In July I decided to change some lyrics and sounds there and re-recorded it. Here’s the result! What do you think?
LOVE
Gene
