Bound by the rules of Demokratisation(*), Stephen has taken a deep dive into GANTOB pamphlets X12-14, and found Kristina Bruuk lurking, as ever, plotting her come back. And, though Stephen submitted his post many weeks ago, we can see a nice link back to Hendrix, as mentioned by William E Drummond in his post a couple of days ago.
Over to you Stephen!
Doomed Finnish singer-songwriter Kristina Bruuk looks out of her apartment window to a snow covered and freezing Helsinki. She picks up her smartphone and searches for her name again. The same references she knows so well get listed on Google but perhaps it doesn’t find everything she thinks. There may be people on Instagram and TikTok that are talking about me right now and what about private messages, and for that matter, private thoughts. She consoles herself that this private sphere is where she is most alive and where her life and unreleased album, Heaven or Helsinki or Girl From Nowhere, truly exists. Her life of artistic commitment over every other consideration and the perfection of her album is assured. She knows that real life can never compete with the imagination.
Perhaps, she thinks, it is time for more details of her story to emerge. The fans need more fuel to keep them interested and she might gain new followers as well. They will need to be young, then she can live even longer. Should she leak another song online or claim a liaison with some famous and now long dead musician. Her night with Jimi Hendrix or the time she supported The Doors. Or she could start a rumour of a memoir that was lost by the publisher she submitted it to. It was handwritten and of course there was only one copy. It was later found by an unknown but very obsessed Bruuk fan in the late ’80s and just a few photocopies were made for safety only (not for sharing). Either by error or after they died, one of these was found kept safe inside the pages of a children’s encyclopaedia in a charity shop. Its importance was noticed and the finder submitted it to a Finnish national archive However, since then no record of it exists on the system. It presumably waits to be discovered inside a misplaced dusty box. How tantalising this would be, the story of my most active and creative years available to all with a little luck and searching. Now all I need is a title that would really bring it to life and more powerful than any words I could ever write.
She switches off her phone and relaxes with her cats, content (for now) to allow those fantasies to burn bright. She will continue to sacrifice the real for the far more satisfying imaginary. Thus she will live forever.
STEPHEN RENNICKS
18 December 2023
Image from Kristina Bruuk’s Twitter/ X page
(*) Demokratisation is the process of handing the blog over to you, the reader. There needs to be a link back to characters from the GANTOBverse, or at least mentioned in previous GANTOB writing.
If you have 400 words to submit, please get in touch. Ignore the deadlines, but please remember to provide an excuse for being late.
If your blog is used in December 2023 you will receive a copy of the forthcoming book: GANTOB’s 2023: A trilogy, including your contribution. Good luck!
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