MHQ: What is the essence of this site?
ME: Everybody might have a different answer: I would say, friendship. Friendship in physical and non-physical ways. The exchange of thoughts that are related to matters of the heart: music, everyday life, real and purely imagined journeys, deep thoughts and higher nonsense, love and disaster, the joy and misery of our existence. Empathy at last.
MHQ: There have been, in moments, verbal injuries, bad behaviour, the shadow side of the Manafonistas.
ME: Yes, and, on certain days, I was in the middle of it, no doubt. Lately I was „attacked“ in a comment as being „grössenwahnsinnig“. I’m quite sure that dude was wrong. At least I asked Caesar afterwards, and he told me I shouldn’t care about douchebags.
MHQ: The ups and downs of life?
ME: Sometimes it’s good to part company. In partner therapy, years ago, when I was working with couples in the red zone-area, I realized one thing: many people forget that divorce can be a relief. So they simply had to learn to say good bye. And that’s not so simple. For the Manafonistas, it’s a permanent exercise. Letting go. Some seem invisible most of the time, some leave the scene, some meet and have a good time. I love being surprised by signs of life, And the more heart or wit there is, in the postings or pictures, the deeper I feel for them.
MHQ: Anything else?
ME: It’s all, in the best sense, about the thrill of being alive, still discovering beauty, and trying to cope with the darkness all around us, in any private or public dimension. Oh my god, this sounds like a credo. Douchebag might come out of his corner. Small things, my friend, small lights.
MHQ: Small epiphanies?
ME: Not in a religious sense. I’m a pagean. But, well, I had to cry when I saw that episode of Sons of Anarchy with that song about „The Lost Son“. Silent tears. Goose skin all over my body, three, four minutes long. What we do here, has never anything to do with entertainment. Or self-appraisal, playing smart Alec. It’s about connection, falling out of patterns, stealing horses, sharing the twilight, drinking coffee, tellling stories, listening to a record in the wee hours. Maybe it all ends with No 100 of „Gregor öffnet seinen Plattenschrank“. Or with an aeroplane crash on the Isle of Barra. I think I need a whisky now.
MHQ: Ian can recommend you some good ones.
ME: Yep, I only have crap here. I asked Ian to chose his favourite piece from the new album of this vibraphone player, for my show, never did this before. Now, in this minute he has been writing: „Micha, my choice from Apologues by Masayoshi Fujita is the track Flag. 4 minutes 17 seconds. The strange and perfect minor-key strings on this track are forward moving and insistent – a forward impetus filmic melody. The vibraphonic sound provides rhythm and reflection and contrast – an inner perception in the frame of forward filmic movement. Then the woodwind kicks in and suddenly we’re on a journey up, up into the clear, cool air: higher than rooftops, cities, nations, flags. Free.“ Oh, ho, doesn’t that say it all?