Moving through space with 600 kilometers a second

[Sahand Sahebdivani]

Hi everyone,

There is an image I encountered which I can't shake. I recently read that our Milky Way, which is so much bigger than the biggest thing that we can imagine, traveling from one side of it to the other would take 100.000 years if you travel by the speed of light, and has in it 100 billion stars, give or take a few, is in its entirety drawn towards a mass. Imagine how big this mass is that it makes the entire Milky Way including the 100 billion stars hurdle towards it with 600 kms a second. Which means I can get up, and instead of taking a cup or two of coffee that gives me a buzz, I could do a morning meditation, feel absolutely still and at peace, and still hurl through the vast nothingness of space at a speed that is beyond anything I can ever understand. I could meet you and look into your eyes and say hi, and in the time it took me to say that word I would have moved the distance between Amsterdam and Berlin, and the only reason at the end of it I would still be looking into your eyes is because you are traveling at the exact same speed in the exact same direction to match my movement, which is really considerate of you. 

Of course Amsterdam and Berlin would also move in the same direction and distance, which means we wouldn't lose where we are (here) but never reach there, unless we move even faster than 600 kilometers a second towards there. But who needs there, if we have here, especially if here has you in whose eyes I can look as I say hi? 

You know what else moves at 600 hundred kilometers a second? Tonight's Comedy Open Mic. It is free, and filled with comedians who are ready to share new material with you. All they need is a willing audience. Come, forget the rain, forget the speed at which life is moving towards some unforeseen but inevitable conclusion and laugh with us at the absurdity of it all. Doors open at 19.00, comedy starts at 20.00, laughter starts a beat after.

Is comedy not enough for you to deal with the existential dread that lies in the corners of your consciousness? No worries, we have more to offer. One is the music event Rogier has curated this Saturday: The Vintage Voodoo night, with music lovers traveling to bring their passion to you from beyond the borders. Tickets, sample music and more info here: https://mezrab.nl/events/vintage-voudou-%e2%98%85-dance-night-feat-fred-kramer-souma-records-2/

Then finally there are the Mezrab nights which we have curated for the Bellevue Theater. In case you have not heard yet: We are proud of our storytellers, and we are even more proud when they make solo shows. Some of these shows deserve to be seen in a theater with light and technical cues. We want you to come and see them because we know they will move you, but we also know that if storytelling happens outside of the Mezrab (and audiences find their way to them), there is a bigger chance that other theaters will start booking storytelling shows and more moving pieces are created to find their way to audiences. So, if you want to see our Lebanese teller Raffi Feghali tell the story of how the city he loved (Beyrut) broke his heart, or how our Irish teller Sinead o'Brien can often only talk about her mother through the metaphor of Irish Mythology, or how our Brabander Marijn Vissers needed to move to Amsterdam to find a sense of home, grab your tickets!

These nights take place on December 27 - 30, exactly between Christmas and New Years. They include a super short tip your toe in the water workshop of storytelling for those who are not ready to commit to longer sessions. Have a look here for tickets and a full programme and see that while this is a professional theater, they have taken the Mezrab approach to accessibility and offer various ticket prices to correspond with how much you can afford: https://www.theaterbellevue.nl/pQ0lGuM/mezrab-i-the-house-of-stories-in-theater-bellevue

Well, that's it for now, see you at the events I hope!

Sahand & Team

www.mezrab.nl