End of la belle vie, the beautiful life, het mooie leven (Dutch), das schöne leben (German), la vida hermosa!

Au revoir, another twelve harsh months ahead.

Back to Work.

Back to School.

Back to Sports

Back to writing.

Oh yeah, back to the traffic jams at rush hour that get longer every year.

How good it was to be away from it all. You must take the time to reset your buttons; to reorganize your brain; to shake off those negative thoughts that grew on your persona from last September thru June/July. Dolce far niente (translated: time-out) to face or settle kids troubles, spouse troubles, money troubles, you name it. And then travel to an island, relax on a soft yellow sand beach, have your butler bring you a refreshing cocktail, and sip from it while watching the sun go down in bright to crimson splendor. Then wake up after a pleasant night with your romantic companion, hear the waves rolling in, get a coffee, drink it while viewing the deep blue sea, and catch the first glimpse of the rising sun. And don’t touch that stupid TV with that awful CNN. Shut out that dreadful world in which we live. Do you still remember?

After a day of swimming, rolling on the beach, sailing in the wind, have champagne on your terrace. Enjoy the fresh salt water scent. Listen to the crickets. And recycle that brain. Why can’t we do that all the time? Well, Dolce far niente is not for everyone.

Then the rude awakening!

We are back to what has become the US Normal: terrorist attacks (about which another time), riots, burnings, destruction, disgruntled people screaming, all on extended TV, especially the yellow-orange flames in close-up, to grab the ratings for higher advertising rates. As a foreign national enjoying your hospitality, I’m just perplexed at what you are doing to yourself. More so even after eight years of a “black” president rule.

From the moment I touched the American soil in 1972, I have been perplexed with this riot phenomenon. OK, we had a few in Holland, and in Paris, where they burned cars, all religious-inspired.

But here whole inner cities go up in flames. And this has been going on as long as I have been here, for almost 45 years. Be it in Los Angeles with Rodney King (“Why can’t we all get along?”), Seatle (anarchists against the WTO conference–interesting when comparing this to the current Trump opposition to the TPP), or the latest round of Ferguson (“Black lives matter”), New York (“Can’t breathe”), and Baltimore (“more of the same”). I’m sure that if TV did not show it, these protests would be over right away. After the mess they created, they go home, look at TV the whole day to see themselves, and if not, return at night for an another try.

I get so tired of having to watch this all the time that my TV viewing is limited to Turner Classic Movies (great inspiration for writers). I canceled my newspaper subscriptions a long time ago. Either they tell me what I already know, or they irritate the hell out of me. I don’t need all this repetitive analysis. Why pay money for that?

But I will look at the “debates.”

For starters, I am perplexed that Hillary is even allowed to run for president after all the crimes she committed. My mouth stayed open for many minutes when the FBI said she had no “intent.” And that after all the info to the contrary that had been shown left and right. Well, the US is not the only country with double standards. In Russia, if you dare confront the establishment, you are poisoned in secrecy while Putin kills everyone he wants and still walks free. In France, all presidents in my lifetime committed some illegality for which they were pursued by the high court and fined (not sure if they paid up). In Italy, wealthy TV owner, Silvio Berlusconi,  

was convicted of sexual misconduct with an underage girl and then for tax fraud, but because he was over 70, he was exempted from prison and only did a bit of “community service.” Well, Berlusconi is my age, so I wonder what that sexual misconduct was all about. But putting your national security in danger? Because that’s what the US Secretary of State did. I can’t figure that. And then she has the audacity to wonder why she isn’t 50 points ahead in the polls.

Anyway, I digress. I have no vote, so I’ll be curious who “the American People” elect as their next president. I still remember the US planes dropping food bags when they liberated us from the Nazis in 1945, and restoring law and order in The Netherlands and the rest of Europe, including France, Germany, Italy and Spain. When I look at the American spirit of today, a lot has changed. I pray that it will be restored. So be wise.

And that’s my view.

For some relaxed reading, check out:

Some Women I Have Known, in which John van Dorn confuses playing from sheet music with playing between the sheets.

http://amzn.to/1QIL94B

and Enchanting The Swan, in which pianist Paul narrates his story how he fell in love with Fiona while performing The Swan by Camille St. Saëns, but met a wall of resistance when her parents of old Belgian nobility blocked their marriage. Will they ever play The Swan again?

http://amzn.to/1LPFw5o

Till next time!