About 'Alpha+Good'

Alpha+Good (a bad wordplay on Orwell's "double plus good" and old machismo - I'm the realest after all) is a side project that belongs to 'Onklare taal' ('Unclear' or 'Unripe language'), the umbrella of several literary projects in Dutch.

This section is almost exclusively in English and comprises my ongoing thoughts on progress, gender, politics and various other social themes. Why is this in English why everything else in Dutch? Because I want to gun for a much wider audience here. Also, my literary English isn't good enough, otherwise I would always write in English. In 2020, I released my debut novel 'Fragmentariërs' (it's written in Dutch, though who knows I may one day make an English translation).

Are you a little lost? This link will take you right back to my home page.

Friday, February 20, 2015

20 people I admire (I): Chris Corner

Who? Sometime member of The Sneaker Pimps, now better known as IAMX. Englishman who moved to Berlin.

Why? While arguably a popular musician, Chris Corner represents a kind of dark integrity and craft not often found on the pop scene. Of course, it is an image like any other, and all images are about perception to a degree, but as a listener, you can't shake off the idea that Corner puts his money where his mouth is. It helps that he creates really fine tunes as well, simultaneously bombastic, seductive and pathos-laden as well as intimate and political. Truly, as William Blake said, the path of excess leads to the tower of wisdom. If I'm looking for an emotionally cathartic experience, Corner is very often one of the voices I'm drawn to.

What resonates with me? I discovered IAMX in 2009, and it was with me the entire time of my brief period I traveled back and forth to the UK, actually not very far from where he was born. Corner's utmost fragility in all his brutality, his hope couched  in cynicism, resonate with me most strongly.

Best bit? Hard to choose. I would say it's a toss-up between the hopeless love anthem 'Mercy' and the breakdown confessional 'I am terrified'.

Next up: Mark Rosewater, Head Designer of 'Magic: the Gathering'.