If Good Is A DJ*

To begin with, the facts… the organisers of the World Youth Day in Cologne have proudly pulled together: a half a million followers, 500 confessors, 260 liters of communion wine, 2.8 million Hostien, 500,000 rosaries, 400,000 candles, 5,000 tons of provisions, 3,000 kilos of coffee, 300,000 liters of milk, 12,000 portable toilets, 3.6 million garbage bags and 1 pope. Sounds like the statistics of the Love Parade.

Love is the rhythm
You are the music

It’s doubtful that Pink had the World Youth Day, the pope, or even me in mind when she wrote this verse, which I have borrowed to title this work. It works. The World Youth Day was an open-air happening, a Catholic Woodstock, organized by the God Almighty PR department and it’s number 1 spokesman B.XIV.

You get what you’re given
It’s all how you use it

At some point I just couldn’t listen to it anymore, this “Benedetto”, the droning hymn of the Catholic fans. The earplugs went in and alternating between the sounds of 50 cent, Neil Young, Nirvana (unplugged) and Pink Floyd, I surfed with my own sound track through the masses. It was an experiment in which the visual was enhanced and the mental condition morphed. It was only seeing, no longer looking or looking for. Just seeing and feeling. I felt relieved to be freed from the acoustic ballast that detracted from the glorious images. A little bit like: I photograph, so I am.

I can see everything here with my third eye
Like the blue in the sky

It was good. It was fun. The Catholic Church rang out to the youth of this world and the youth of this world came. During the week, all those who came without a partner, could find one. It was a little like carnival, except that the nuns were real.

You take what you get and you get what you give
I say don’t run from yourself, man, that’s no way to live

*The excerpts were taken from the song “If God is a DJ”, by Pink.