# Christina's questions: February 2026

2026-02-14

> 1. What song instantly makes you happy? If more than one comes to mind
> you may list as many as you like.

I will name three:

- Of A Revolution - Crazy Game of Poker
- The Decemberists - Summersong
- Georg Kreisler - Onkel Joschi

They all create a different "happiness": the first one is the kind you
feel during your first bike ride in summer. The second one is a cozy,
wholesome kind of happiness and the third one a more mischievous one. 

> 2. Should intellectual events be more popular than sports events?
> Can you imagine corporation funding for intellectual events?

Ok, this needs a longer response.

Mental labor has become increasingly superfluous in our society. Not
because it is not important, but because it refuses to bow to the
logic of markets. Sports is a perfect example for a completely
commercialized, spectacularized and depoliticized sphere. Sports
are based on clear rules, there are winners and losers, and they
profit from a clear, affective response by the masses. Intellectual
engagement, on the other hand, is in essence contradictory, lengthy
and often irresolvable. Commercializing them would require changing
this essence and replacing them by simple messages, professional
"debaters" and spectactle. Something like this already happens:
YouTubers like Destiny (on the left) or Crowder (on the right) are
doing exactly this. The internet is full of videos like "professor
DESTROYS woke student", "destiny ANNIHILATES MAGA idiot", etc.

> 3. What artist's painting or ink illustration would you like to step
> into?

One of Hiroshi Nagai's paintings would be interesting. They all have
this calming effect on me, and rarely contain any people. I often had
the desire to just wander these 80s-style beach landscapes for a
while.

> 4. If you were an artist, what would be the theme of your drawings
> or paintings?

Urban scenes, probably. Scenes that show humanity amidst the concrete
wilderness and the tension between a dehumanizing, overpowering
environment and creating safe places inside of it.