imomus | Winning the lottery

Winning the lottery

Hisae and I saw a sign at a Hackeshe Markt news kiosk yesterday saying that the Lotto jackpot has reached €24m, so we decided to buy a few tickets. If we win we plan to split the money 50/50, €12m for me, €12m for her.

Hisae wasn't clear how much it was, so I said "Think of twenty-four quite impressive houses in a city like London. That's what it's worth."

Then I started thinking about what all that money would do to my life. Would people like me more, or only pretend to? Would I be taken more or less seriously as an artist?

I'd probably want to build a house in Tokyo, perhaps designed by Atelier Bow Wow or Ushida Finlay or Rem Koolhaas. But that would take years, and involve endless hassle with contractors, inspections of sites, decisions about materials, hold-ups, unforeseen problems, conflicts with the neighbours and the authorities... and meanwhile I'd have to sort out Japanese citizenship, another series of headaches. I'd inevitably fall out with Rem, either because he was being a stubborn bastard, or I was. Soon the name "Koolhaas" would have me wincing. "Foolhaas, more like!" I'd grumble, before launching into nightmare anecdotes about his unreasonableness, and the things I'd heard he'd said about me behind my back. And I'd be nostalgic for the days when I could wander through a Koolhaas building full of wonder and admiration, as I did last week in Porto's Casa da Musica, without spending one euro cent.

Meanwhile, how much more food would I be able to eat? Well, better quality food, probably, in more snooty restaurants with fussy wineglasses and plied white linen napkins instead of paper ones, and unemployed actors for waiters, and a chef who drives a Porsche. Would I get fat? And would I buy a Porsche myself, despite feeling that private cars are the curse of our age? I'd certainly want to build a private sento in my new house, but I'd miss the colourful characters you see in the public bath-houses. The fact is, I like public transport, public buildings and public life, and what really gives me pleasure is money spent on things that make life better for everyone.

How many baths would I be able to take a day without shrivelling like a prune? Would I live much longer with money than without? I wouldn't have to work, but I already don't work. I'd be able to travel a lot, but I already travel a lot. Would my money make the air cleaner in the city where I live? It wouldn't be enough to do that. Would the graphic design on the labels on the food in the Thai supermarket please me any more? I probably wouldn't see them any more, because employees would buy my food. Would I be able to tile the walls of Berlin to make it as beautiful as Lisbon? It wouldn't be allowed. Would my money make people's conversation more interesting, or would I just gravitate towards other rich people who talk about their money all night?

I could record in big expensive studios, with professional arrangers and the latest gadgets, but that would just make my records sound more "standard". I'd be able to promote my records with major advertising campaigns, but that's no guarantee that sales would increase substantially or that people would suddenly see things the way I see them. Word would probably spread that it was a sort of vanity publishing situation and that I was a rich amateur. I'd certainly stop updating Click Opera, because it would be embarrassing to tell you exactly how much I'd just spent on a new sofa then sit back expecting half-hearted comments of congratulation through gritted teeth.

Would I be able to guarantee that votes would go to better politicians, or that wars would stop? I could certainly give money to charity, but it would be a drop in the ocean. I could have sex with umpteen women instead of one, but there would no longer be any way of knowing that anyone loved me for who I am rather than for the money and the lifestyle that came with me.

About the only thing the money would be good for would be having the best medical care, getting my teeth sorted out, travelling first class instead of economy. Well, actually, I wouldn't mind starting my own art college, a bit like Fabrica, Benetton's college outside Venice. That would be fun.

I'll tell you (actually, on second thoughts, perhaps I won't) if I win the lottery. But on reflection I think Agnes Bernelle had it right when she sang, in "A Nightingale" (on her album Father's Lying Dead on the Ironing Board)

You want to be rich?
Well, isn't that what you are?

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My favorite math joke is "Your chances of winning the lottery are about the same whether you play or not."

So, is the lottery a hope to divorce one's community. It's seems many want to be assured they'll have time they can afford to waste.

That's a really interesting way of putting it.

1. what is the picture of in your post today? It looks so inviting and serene.

2. I have stopped buying lottery tickets because the idea of being rich makes me sick to my stomach. I fret about how the money should be dispersed to so many others that need it far more and would feel utterly selfish with any extravagant purchase I make. I'd want to buy art, but I would feel compelled to donate it to a museum. I'm glad I'm not the only one who has a moral dilemma (however slight or large) by taking the chance of playing the lottery.

Follow the Fabrica link and you'll find some portfolios by students themed around 'the perfect weekend', it's from there.

Thanks.

Did you find a place to stay in NY yet?

I've had some kind offers, but in a word, no. It's complicated by the fact that I've left booking the flights a bit late, and the only day I can fly is now June 13th, which makes my stay even longer...

I'm still waiting to hear back from my contact, but she has two other roommates and just got a job from NPR based out of MI. Although, perhaps if she moves to MI around that time, you could sublet her spot in the apartment. But I've really no idea for certain. I'll keep following up on it though.

It blows my mind that with all the people reading this journal everyday, you haven't found a spot.

Good luck.

Oh, something will turn up in the NYC of time, it always does! And necessity like this is so often the mother of rich experiences. If I do win the lottery and end up staying in some bad taste "good taste" room at the Waldorf Astoria, I'll certainly miss out on meeting someone very interesting and starting all sorts of mini-narratives.

ha!

Staying in fancy hotels unsettles me thoroughly. I tend to end up in them for work conferences and I usually make a bee-line from my room to the front doors because I feel so out of place.

Although, you do find remarkable characters at them. In Bermuda, I met this man with a strange Austrlian/English/Bermudian accent that had the largest tufts of black/grey hair coming out his ears I've ever seen. My coworker and I were convinced he had a thing going on with a lovely and opinionated German woman working at the front desk...though what she saw in him left us perplexed.

http://www.hospitalityclub.org/

Well, the Algonquin would be my pick if such a windfall should ruin your life. It has cosy rooms, worn, comfortable furniture, "writer's rates" and a cat who lives in the lobby and sleeps behind a screen on a tiny pink divan. And a cabaret. And a $10,000 martini. If nothing else, it beats those overpriced "trendy five years ago" midtown hotels with bad drum and bass playing in the lobby filled with pseudo-severe mid 90's era stylings.

OK, I'll try my old mucker from Jersey: he might be able to put you up in Manhattan (is this for two or one?)

Otherwise I have an actor friend in Brooklyn I can lean on a few friends to get a favour... But I'm surprised there is no-one with a spare carpet from New York on here...

I guess this entry touches on the Utopia Povera (http://www.livejournal.com/users/imomus/2005/04/12/) theme.

I thought of that while reading it over.

In the last year or so, I've gone from being very poor to being not (rich isn't in the cards, I'm afraid). In my experience, the most wonderful thing that having more money than you really need can give you is the ability to not worry so much about money.

Not having to think about whether you can afford to pay the rent next month, to pay bills on time, get good care for your body, means you can spend your days doing something that's actually worthwhile, whatever that may be.

A beautiful little skinny apartment in Tokyo would be wonderful though.

Despite everything, I am intrigued by the question of what would happen if people like Momus would be the holders of capital?

I had this dream last week that Scotland was ruled by me, Stephen Pastel, Bobby Gillespie and Stuart Murdoch. But it all ended with squabbles -- we had to talk Bobby out of putting acid in the water supply. I don't know if that answers your question.

For me, being poor means being more isolated, not less. Back in the day when I couldn't even afford bus fare, I didn't get to see my friends very much.

But now I work in a little cube, and am "better off" than I was. ?.

But if I were rich, I could afford to be a teacher, and spend lots of time with my students! (Back when I actually did teach, I couldn't make enough to pay my student loans. I have some thoughts on the American system of higher-education-as-indenture, but I will keep them for my own journal, another time.)

"Poverty is your treasure. Never exchange it for an easy life."
-from Zengetsu.

You wouldn't experiment with augmentation to your 2d vision?

The acanthamoebae won't have eaten your optic nerve, (though previous
attempts at fixes or workarounds might have) so you could pay for something
like Neil Harbisson's eyeborg unit, or start a new project, maybe.

Artificial synaesthesia? The Momus Mobile podcast direct from your patch?

It would be better for the advancement of interesting kit if you'd
won the even larger jackpot earlier this year (which went to someone in
a Swiss canton)

> Think of twenty-four quite impressive houses in a city like London
You've not looked at house prices in London recently ;-)

opening up an art college sounds like a really good idea.

if you start your own school, please, send me the application form, :)

so sweet. I hope it's true.
kim

i recently found myself with a little bit of money.
i started by buying a little wind-up whale (i named him alaska nevada) from the local market...moved on to organic fruits from faraway islands, products to give my my filipina-jew hair a matte finish, buttons that look like tiny cameras...
now i'm thinking about a digicam and corrective eye surgery...would like to combine the two and be able to take fotos is i blink my eyes just so...

robot toys cost an arm and a leg. which can be replaced, perhaps, with robot arms and legs. which would cost another arm and leg.

i would like to build a home in a well or a hollowed out tree on a tiny island but i don't think i could receive internet access or new episodes of degrassi: the next generation in these places. and i don't know if my friends would visit.

in conclusion, i'm sorry for taking up so much space on your comments page and if you ever really start an art school i would like to apply for the position of academic adviser.

xo to you, sir.
mischashoni

Yeah, but JUST THINK OF THE WHALE YOU COULD BUY WITH 12.5 MILLION EUROS!

It would be the Moby Dick of whaledom; it would eat children; you could have a mobile pagoda with fountain effect built right over its blow-hole...

STOP PRESS: The Lotto draw was held today -- we got one number out of six right, which I think means we win €2.50. I plan to open a small art school in a matchbox for fleas.

sounds like a club in which i'd like to be a member

maslow puts needs in a hierarchy and says you can only address each level when the ones below it are mostly satisfied. i think he might also have said that if physiological and safety needs are adequately covered, then overdoing them by winning the lottery can only fuck the rest up.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslow%27s_hierarchy_of_needs

That's just blatant prejudice against bed-bugs.

Oh Momasu, you're so funny you makee me cry.

Fabrica is interesting, but by the time I found out about it I was too old to attend.
Do you NEED money to start an art college? Why not start one online now. Don't sweat acreditation yet....I'm sure it would come in time. Meanwhile, do you know the project "Learning to Love You More" ? It's somehow connected to the Whitney. Project ideas galore.
Why not make a syllabus? You've already made assignments before....Flash videos, make NYC temporary housing for Momus, etc. just keep things like that coming. I'd be interested to see what you'd come up with. The Even More OPen University (?) Justin Lincoln

Hmmm...the corruption of your soul by the evils of mammon would be a blow from which the world of haute couture and neo-revivalist intellectualism would never recover.

To this end, I will make the sacrifice and take it upon myself to:

1. Relieve you of the worry and stress of money by taking any future winnings you might earn in the amount of €5000 or more and keeping it indefinitely, spending it on myself. I'll vent the horrors of wealth and power upon mine own person to protect you from the moral degradation inherent in large amounts of cash.

2. I will guarantee that a certain percentage of the money so transferred will be donated to charities that specialize in looting the donation boxes of other charities, to encourage fair and socialist distribution of economic largesse...and because I am a bastard at heart.

No, please, no need to thank me for my selfless service. I've been rading your writings and following your travels for the better part of 5 years now and it would be remiss of me to do anything less. As a Japanese-American, I am repaying you for your kindness to my ancestral homeland by offering this, my very soul, as a stand-in for the moral firing squad.

Today, at the 7/11, a lady who cut me in line (queueueueue) to play lottery. In a moment of anger, I said, "That's a sucker's game you're playing. You should put you're money in a mid-cap growth fund."

Was I a patronizing asshole, a bourgeouis capitalist asshole, or was my anger righteous since I was cut in line?

Yours,
American in Canada

pardon grammar. Have resorted to wine (unter anderen) for euphoria, as there is no bathtub I could fit in nearby because I am 2 meters tall (6'7").(!)

This is my main motivation for wanting to go to Japan-- deep bathtubs..

ALso, I bought Otto Spooky today, but I also bought Grandmaster Flash--Adventures on the Wheels of Steel, so I haven't listened to O.S. yet, but I hope that I've helped keep you solvent, oh bard of my last half-decade.

I read your journal late at night- a midnight snack - a treat - a guilty pleasure -like cookies without the crumbs in bed- it makes me happy to know I am not alone, in perception, just maybe rare- a steak tartar of self- not quite done yet- I wrote years ago- but thats not important now- It takes time, to get comfortable, with the self- I am sure you know. If I had the money I would set up house in New York, just for a month for you to visit for the price of a conversation, or maybe just start traveling and making lacey dialogues of photos and confessions to correspond with your own. All I know how to do is not to be a groupie, and I think that thanks to you and your work, that is proving difficult. My favorite words I cannot spell out claerly enough it seems. I wish you well. I admire your courage, bravado, fill-in-the-blank...M...

Thank you, M, I will fill in the blank with pleasure when I find the time to do it!

Maybe try to get a job writing Robbie Williams's next album. It's worked for Stephen Tintin Duffy.

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Winning the lottery

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no [fewer] worries

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Often I console myself thus

crass

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i can barely afford to dream these days...

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Fabrica

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I wonder how you find the time to do it all?!

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