Robert van Heumen Composer Improvisor Laptop-Instrumentalist Sound-Designer
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Rhode Island

I'm currently in Providence, Rhode Island, USA. Giving a talk about STEIM (today) and a concert (solo and with Butch Rovan / Joel Ryan / Kevin Patton - tomorrow).

I find my relationship with this country rather interesting. Everytime I'm about to go there, I don't really feel like going - for a big part of course due to the political 'situation' (also see the countdown for the days left in office for the current 'president' in an earlier post). But when I get there, and it doesn't seem to matter which part, I feel very comfortable, almost like home. Is it just melancholy, just some kind of longing to go back to a moment in the past that felt really good, or is it really the culture that attracts me?

It is true that that rush I felt when arriving here 8 years ago for a stay of 2 years, the thrill of moving to a completely unknown place, this adventure, is something I feel I go back to whenever I eat a bagel with peanutbutter & jelly, or when I talk to complete strangers and they are very friendly but you don't really know what is real about that, or I smell those familiar smells, that I want to move back here. But something tells me it's not only rememberance. It is something in this culture that I really like, and I can't put my finger on it... Yet.

Bla.