Author: Suzanne Beenackers

creative writer & artist

and where exactly did you have in mind? | What Do Rock Stars Need To Hear Today 2025 02 26

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and where exactly did you have in mind?

Because it’s not about wanting the thing, the person, the career, the money.

But where is it supposed to land?

—

A very long time ago, because it was 2019 and we all know that was an era which feels closer to the 60s than to our current day reality, that’s how much has changed, I got into an argument about inclusion at the workplace.

My provocative stance was that anyone not a cis male, had no benefit from any numbers game or intention from a company to hire more inclusively.
Because a workforce was a reflection of how much the culture there can absorb.

Focusing on introducing different employees would only result in them being spat out by “the system” immediately, or result into very unhappy newly introduced employees.
Because they would not be accepted, and be confronted with not being a cis  white male every day.

My firm stance was that an inclusive workforce is a result of a very hard to achieve culture change, and cannot and should not be forced from the outside in by just adding a new type of co-worker.

They disagreed with me, and thought I was letting companies off too lightly. That my opinion, although they understood it was coming from a good heart, but that it was unhelpful, in this matter.
And ever since I have wondered if I am in all actuality a cis white horrible female….

But come different era 2025 and I think No!
I mean yes of course, I could still be a horrible cis white female. After all villains are seldom accurate in their assessment of themselves.
But I do still stand by what I said in 2019.

I think it is dangerously simplistic to think the solution to getting a more diverse inclusive society lies in forcing culturally diverse people into reluctant, 50s-time capsule, male dominated environments.
As if we can flood them into submission.

Because if those environments were welcoming to people of diverse backgrounds?
They’d have them!
Marginalized people are not like an extinct species, where you would have to manually reintroduce them.

We all know very well where we are loved, and where we are not.
It is our number 1 survival skill.

In other words, instead of focusing on the new people coming in, or setting quota for how high (or typically, how low) a percentage needs to be non-male or non-caucasian;
The focus needs to be on the people already there.
Or, in a bit more abstract way, on the culture currently existing within the company.

Because they are the reason the workforce is white and male;
You’re looking for ghosts, if you think focusing on new imaginary employees will change anything.

And this all reminds me of someone whom I think must have fallen from grace one way or another, I don’t really keep up, but he had a domineering way of treating people that was controversial even back in the day.
So I think somewhere along the way, he fell (figuratively) and will not be as popular now anymore.

But that person is Dr.Phil.
From whom I did pick up a few quotes that I use probably more frequently than I should.

One of them was when he asked an abusive partner or parent:
“How much fun do you think it is living with you?”
In an attempt to open their eyes that it was of course, absolutely horrendous.

The abusive partner or parent, similarly to the cis-male workforce from the earlier example, was lacking in skills that are absolutely vital in navigating and building healthy relationships!
You cannot solve that by giving therapy to the abused partner, anymore than you can make a workforce more inclusive by targeting the new employees.

And this is just us talking about people, currently.
But if that’s your thing you can even imagine money, good fortune, creative spirits, and God themselves, having a consciousness that gets to choose!
What do you think they will choose?
Are you offering a place where they will feel at home?
A place where they are taken care of, and do not have to bring something to you, or prove their use or validate their existence?

The things you say you want, and the people that you think should be in your life but that have been absent from it, as if you’re an all male environment being forced by HR to diversify.

Ask yourself;
Where is the culture of YOU, behaving toxically toward them?
In word, in thought, in deed, in a house overflowing with clutter that would feel welcome to no one….
Are you preparing for the arrival of those events you say you want?

The bible says to dig your ditches, even when there is no rain (abundance, good fortune) in sight!
Are you digging your ditches? 

If the doorbell rang now, and it was the person or the delivery you have been wishing for;
Would they be welcomed with a big smile, an open heart, and ample space and time to accommodate and attend to them ?

Are you ready, not just in any, but in every way?

~Suzanne Beenackers
Catacombe
become the Rock Star you were born to be

.
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NEW founded in MAY 2024: SUBSTACK

Rock Star Take On INSPIRATION | The New Rock Star Channel (new video)

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new video on YouTube:
click here to see it
->https://youtu.be/YyLwx1CHRuA

Rock Star Take On INSPIRATION
| The New Rock Star Channel 

—

The New Rock Star Channel is here!

This week, the sixth video. A Rock Star Take On INSPIRATION

Or watch the foundational video first, from 24th Oct 2024:
https://youtu.be/AQCIWDhaK4E
2 Rock Star Things That Took Me 25 Years To Find Out

In this video;

1. welcome to another video 00:00
Of Rock Star Take On.
This episode is about inspiration and I have the tiniest bit of inspiration, but definitely not the whole thing outlined.
So let’s go!

2. What I did come up with 00:22
In a workshop I heard what it is that CREATES inspiration!!!
It’s moving from the higher emotions back to the lower ones. And vice versa.
And I indeed was able to find a scientific study to back it.
(as indicated in the video, I would go look for it)
Here is the scientific study on where creativity comes from:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1041608024000748
“Creativity and affect: A person-centered analysis”

3. The highs AND the lows! 01:30
Are needed to create inspiration.

4. How society suppresses inspiration 03:15
Productivity is our number one survival skill.
Yet it basically demands an ANTI-inspiration, lifestyle!
The lower emotions are dangerous to your survival, and the higher emotions are compartmentalized.
Like once a year, on the biggest feast of the region wherever you live, you can let go.

For the rest of the year, as we say in the Netherlands:
“Just act normal. That is already crazy enough.”
Except when it is Carnaval, which is one of our few outlets.

5. Where your Inspiration comes from 10:58
Or not! Obviously.
Learn all about what is killing your creativity, and what is fueling the fire.

6. What shall we do next?! 14:47
For very good reasons we’re not going to pick a new topic based on something that came up today.
But an inspired choice that just came to me as I was filming!

Next stop, Rock Star Take On?
LEGACY!.

.
~Suzanne Beenackers
Catacombe
become the Rock Star you were born to be

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Playlist of this series: The New Rock Star Channel

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who else is on f- speed dial? | What Do Rock Stars Need To Hear Today 2025 02 11

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who else is on f- speed dial?

Proverbially speaking, since neither speed dial nor calling are a thing anymore.
Worst of all, in the majority of cases the “who” has become an It.

What app or website has the
– for-a-fact way too big –
honor of your daily and undivided attention?

—

Last summer I took the step of raising the bar in my friendships. Because even though I have never shied away from breaking up with friends, and regardless of how messy it got – in fact preventing the messiness of it, was my prime motive for opening the conversation when there was no drama – I had still not achieved a 100% alignment.

I only sent it to the friends who are not professionally tied to me, nor connected through family bonds.
So the letter did not go to all friends, but only to the ones who had the freedom to end our friendship, without there being any consequence or awkward situations arising in real life.

So I wrote this letter but since I was unable to formulate the higher principles – which I knew for a fact were the root cause of our seemingly irrelevant differences – I narrowed my desires down to pure execution.
Although there was obviously some exposition on why I wrote the letter, at its core were the specifics, of what I would be needing moving forward.
Or not moving forward, if they chose that.

In sexual and romantic relationships there is a new culture and custom on the rise, of being transparent in asking consent and managing expectations beforehand. Not after boundaries have been crossed and people have slept with each other where one thought it was exclusive and the other was going to gaslight their way out of any meaningful connection with “texts” that turned emoji-only in a cold heart-beat.

This new practice of two people rooting their romance in communication,  and clearing up any grey areas where misunderstandings can create unsafety, originates from higher risk relationship styles such as polyamory, BDSM and D/s.
The final abbreviation stands for dominant submissive play, as hinted at in the movie Babygirl.

The new practice, where there is so much more thought put into the interaction and with way more communication than ever before, can also be found in the medical world and is described with two terms:
Embodied Consent
and
Informed Consent.

Embodied consent means that just someone giving their spoken consent is not enough, they also have to embody that they are okay with the suggested path or procedure.
With the concept of Embodied consent, ignoring a patient’s (or a partner’s) body language becomes just as big a deal as ignoring a No.

Informed Consent means that the other person has access to all information necessary in order to foresee the consequences of their choice.
Leaving out complications that 10% of patients will suffer after an operation is a violation of Informed Consent.
Not saying you will not want anything to do with them after you’ve had sex with them, is a violation of Informed Consent.
You forced your will by deliberately holding back information.

As is probably already obvious from the above paragraphs, I have given this topic of consent and deliberate interactions an incredible amount of thought.
And I have come out a Believer.

I believe that this carefully created safe space, the one most of us have only heard of, and that traditionally belongs in the riskiest of professional as well as sexual liaisons?
That this is not just the standard we should all aspire to;
But require.
And at the most basic and visceral level.

The great thing about this whole concept of consent, is that it is extremely actionable.

Just like with my friends, where I suspected difficulties in communication were expressions of more abstract things, like conflicting interests and different values, things I would not be able to address or word properly;
Consent brings the conversation to execution level.
Similarly, the letter to my friends also kept it simple.

In a way too long letter, I covered three areas.
How we got here.
What I could no longer offer, and why.
And I told them what our friendship would be like, if they chose to continue.

Although I understandably lost friends, it was overal far less dramatic than it would have been if I had kept it going to the point of collapse.
Collapse of me, them, and the friendship.
But the icing on the cake was that I got so many super cool letters from people whom I had not expected to hear from in such detail.
And several friendships have even gotten deeper and better since then.

So this is all half a year ago, and I considered it a private matter and “just” one of the many areas where 2024 was an important year.
Until today….
Because boy!
Talk about sweating the small stuff!!!!

My whole consent-boundaries-safe-space thing for friendships and for ALL other real life relationships as well?
That is nothing, compared to the time I spend online.

And the contrast between me attending to my most intimate relationships when at the same time holding the door open for the whole world to march in with their dirty feet, becomes even starker if I give you one of the key elements I said I could no longer deliver in friendships.

WhatsApp conversation.

Anyone who chose to be in a friendship with me, had to understand WhatsApp was going to be limited to a tool to set a date or schedule a telephone call.
That’s it.
Staying in touch through WhatsApp would no longer be on the menu, it was going to be calling or dating-only.

There was also another option if you needed help, so I definitely explained how I could be there for you in good times as well as the bad.
But I was aware that I took something off the menu, which was casual connection, that a lot of people valued and even needed.

So like I said, this all was months ago, and my friendships have never been better, and I didn’t think much of it.
Until today.

Because why on earth am I so demanding in my friendships when at the same time I still check news and social media every day, and binge on YouTube videos every time I can use some entertainment?

Even the word “casual” would be labeling my online behavior too positively.
I do have boundaries, in terms of the times when I am online (f.e. I do not sleep with my phone in the room) but otherwise the behavior itself, is not intentional at all.

I have supercool playlists with interesting videos, one even with the name “My TV channel”.
Meanwhile I just let myself be seduced by the YouTube algorithm. YouTube decides what’s on, not me.

With Social Media I am a little better for sure. And there really are people with whom I just love seeing their daily content, and I love knowing what they’re up to!
I’m genuinely so grateful they let me/ us into their lives!

Until today, where I thought:
“Wait a minute!”

How can anyone showing up online be more important than my true friends? If I continue my current behavior, then what I apparently basically wrote summer 2024, was:
“You cannot message me in between dates, but if you post to Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn or make a YouTube video (which is my favorite, hint!) then I will show up and be invested in you.”

Holy Christ……
I cannot believe it took me 6 months to figure this one out.

So invitation to you, Rock Star!
Where are you annoyed by group chats or people texting you, when at the same time you ALSO have notifications on from half a dozen apps?
Constantly refreshing pages so that you get to see a news headline within minutes after it has been added?

You sense something is overwhelming you when it’s people you know.
But at the same time you’re letting the world in, unchecked.

You’re saying to your friends/ family/ co-workers/ peers/ pets but also to your children and partner:
“I need you to respect my boundaries.
But here’s a gazillion people who have my undivided attention.”

The people you share your life, street, or city with, should always have a higher status than anyone and certainly than anything, you find online.
Cutting corners here (I know!) because a lot of great causes and activism are also depending on your willingness to show up online.
But you get me – 
We must be mindful and intentional.

But think of it like this:
In the Netherlands, whether officially or just by custom I don’t know, you don’t have to answer work emails after office hours.

Similarly, regardless of where you live;
You don’t have to engage with the world in your free time.

YES!
You can dedicate a certain moment every day to stay updated and participate.

But the world should not be on fucking speed dial.

Instead use your engagement, your curiosity, talents and focus to think about how to create a wonderful, exciting, alluring, maybe even sexual, safe space for all those intimate, close by, soul-aligned people you have in your life.

Starting with the most important person;
You.

.
~Suzanne Beenackers
Catacombe
become the Rock Star you were born to be

.
Subscribe to receive
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But no additional or promotional emails are sent – just the blog, sec.

Catacombe’s other series “Rock Star Take On”
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NEW founded in MAY 2024: SUBSTACK

Rock Star Take On POWER | The New Rock Star Channel (new video)

Published on by Suzanne BeenackersLeave a comment

new video on YouTube:
click here to see it->
https://youtu.be/e0iX8L_FCAg

Rock Star Take On POWER
| The New Rock Star Channel 

—

The New Rock Star Channel is here!

This week, the fifth video.
A Rock Star Take On POWER

Or watch the foundational video first, from 24th Oct 2024:
https://youtu.be/AQCIWDhaK4E
2 Rock Star Things That Took Me 25 Years To Find Out

In this video;

1. welcome to another video 00:00
Of Rock Star Take.
In this episode is, as announced: Power!
Unfortunately The Muse, or other sources of inspiration, have not checked in yet.
So I have no idea what I’m going to say.
But we’re going to roll with it, because the lighting is just superb this time of day.

2. What I did come up with 02:00
Power is so much about the non-doing.
The non-saying, the not being in connection with or in relationship to.
Power resists the high levels of interaction, that have become the norm and are expected.

3. The Gift, power brings 05:21
Power creates space, that is its biggest gift.
A field of possibility, an a place where we can BE.
And suddenly we feel at peace, and can let go of our restless wants and needs.

4. A Rock Star Take on Power 06:40
“Where am I doing, instead of being?”
“What is the real price tag, the moment I start doing?”

5. Active participant or….? 08:40
Do I actually serve by showing up in my power.
And bring peace.

6. What shall we do next? 09:13
Let’s do inspiration!

Next stop, Rock Star Take On
INSPIRATION!

.

~Suzanne Beenackers
Catacombe
become the Rock Star you were born to be

Subscribe to receive
Rock Star Take videos
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Playlist of this series: The New Rock Star Channel

 

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(what if?) that is the actual work | What Do Rock Stars Need To Hear Today 2025 01 28

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(what if?) that is the actual work

Promoting, cleaning shit up, creating your look and getting ready every day.

The difficult conversations.
The fixing of unforeseen problems.
The setting of boundaries when you least expect it.
The nurturing of social structures surrounding whatever it is you do.

= your actual job

—

Years ago there was a meme trend for yoga teachers with “What people think I do” versus “What I actually do”.
I forgot what the specifics were, so I looked it up. What people think I do was actually specific to a person or a group.
So you’d have like “What my parents think I do” or “What my students think I do” or “What the New York Times thinks I do”.
The latter with a picture of inflexible people trying out poses way over their head, because we were in the aftermath of a critical article which, if I am not mistaken, was called “Yoga Wrecks Your Body”.

Yet although the interpretation of what it was the yoga teacher did varied, where the yoga teacher themselves was usually content with meditation sessions where they checked their watch all the time, doing long relaxation pose or a supported child’s pose (and nothing flashy);
At least everyone was on the same page.

Everybody thought a yoga teacher did yoga.

This is of course a very logical thought, because it is our most distinguishing feature.
However!
This does not mean that it (doing or teaching yoga) is what determines our professional success, or even what we are doing most of the worktime.

Mapping out our teaching schedule.
Promotion (creating content and being online).
Doing our own yoga.
Keeping our website updated.
Email correspondence.
Preparing classes.
Travel time.
Having social interactions before or after class.
Cleaning the studio time. *

My estimate is 25% actual teaching hours, 75% tasks as illustrated above.
But yoga teachers are not alone here;
This goes for so many types of work.

If you’re thinking about a career switch, or exploring new directions?
Look at that 75% of the not-doing-your-work, before making a decision!

The 25% of whether or not the real work is ideal, a true match, or if it is work which remotely appeals to you?
Irrelevant.
At least when it comes to making a non-passion based job decision.
You’ll manage, you’ll find a way.
Yet, if you are not the right person to rock that 75%?
Oh, that’s gonna be one hell of a painful work path.

So, nuff said about that scenario.
Because similarly to yoga teachers, we are usually not really thinking about a non-passion-based job right?!
We may have one, and it’s good to know this whole thing about the 75%, but where we wonder if we can do it…… wonder if we can “make” it?
That is our passion, our creativity, our calling, our purpose.
Like the yoga teacher, we already know what it is we want to do.

Work which has come through deeply felt passions, or through an unstoppable need to help out or to contribute.
It – THE Work, OUR Work, the area of interest or the places or people we just love to hang out with, the things we like to DO! – it all comes through us and out of us, and the only choice we have is how to navigate this force.

It’s those areas where we need to be strategic.
And it‘s here, the “75% rule” can help make a choice, or should at least be considered!

So let’s say, hobby scenario, right?
You have a passion, or feel a call to do something and contribute.
Choose a way to limit extra tasks! Instead of settling for the meager 25% spending the time on what you really like doing, try upping it to 50%, or a hundred!

For example, a lot of people do voluntary work because they like the social interaction. But if you do it in an area where you normally don’t reside, you’re not going to build your network in your own neighborhood, and you’re also going to invest hours in travel time.

So “even” when something is a hobby or unpaid, beware that you don’t pick up work that is not the aspect you like about the job.
That’s not your passion-based part.

But one way or another, hobby or leisure time activities usually have a way of sorting themselves out.
Even without knowing this.

However, the most difficult areas are when we work because we are passionate about a certain cause, or because we have a different sort of calling or interest in it, and yet?
Oh, we find ourselves resisting all kinds of little, annoying, administrative hurdles and returning tasks, that we feel we need to “get by” in order to get to the “real work”.

It’s in those moments, that this blogpost is your wakeup call.
Those smaller tasks?
That is the work.
And in many cases, if you’re a professional it’s how you deal with those aspects that make you stand out. They’re usually way, and I mean WAY, more important, than the direct quality of your “real” work.

In 1983 a then unknown Bon Jovi had their first big show. They were the support act for ZZ Top. A stroke of luck! Because their debut album had not even been released, and the night before the two shows they had actually played for 30 people in a club in New Jersey.
Jon had been so nervous for this small gig, he’d lost his voice and it took all he had to go up on stage.

Yet the next day in Madison Square Garden he played it like he owned the place. “I lived there, it’s no problem.”

Jon even had to improvise, because guitarist Richie Sambora’s amplifier had blown up at the first chord of this important show.
The guitarist still remembers: “It was like slow-motion: ‘Ohhh, no!'”
The crowd, whom had been polite at first, was starting to get rowdy, shouting “ZZ Top! ZZ Top!”.
Jon took off his guitar and threw it to Richie.
“It’s all on you, play the guitar!”

They went through a 30 minute set in 17 minutes, but they did it!
(source: The funny story of when Bon Jovi was ZZ Top’s opening act) 

Even then you could see Jon Bon Jovi was more comfortable dealing with that “75%” often overlooked work necessary to perform in front of tens of thousands of people;
Than the skills required to entertain an unexpectedly intimate audience.

Which is in line with the fact that from the get go, he went for becoming a big rock n’ roll band, and did not even consider settling for the security of an income cover bands in New Jersey were close to being guaranteed at the time.
All or nothing.
“There was no Plan B,” he remembers.

So whether you are faced with technical problems on your first big break;
Or have stage fright when there are only a few people showing up.
Make sure you’re all geared up for the 75% of the work that people, parents and the New York Times, don’t realize you do.

‘Cause that?
Is your actual work.

 

~Suzanne Beenackers
Catacombe
become the Rock Star you were born to be

* I teach yoga in Nijmegen, https://declubyoga.com/

.
Subscribe to receive
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Yes – you can subscribe to receive new blogposts;
But no additional or promotional emails are sent – just the blog, sec.

Catacombe’s other series “Rock Star Take On”
also goes out on ->
https://www.youtube.com/@TheNewRockStarChannel.


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NEW founded in MAY 2024: SUBSTACK

liberate now | What Do Rock Stars Need To Hear Today 2025 01 06

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liberate now

Do not underestimate the level of bondage the world around you is in.
Everything it brings forth toxically tainted.

If you do nothing else this year;
Set the intention to be bigger and louder in 12 months.

And more ferocious.

—

I’ve listened to way too many reviews and analysis of the amazing movie Babygirl, and although I’ve heard many takes on it, from the most misogynist to the most positive as well, I have not heard anyone else bringing a very disturbing fact of this movie to the light.

Maybe because it’s a spoiler?
Or a bit of a spoiler? 
I don’t know, could be!
So spoiler alert then..

Are you still here?

Because here it comes.

Although the ending of Babygirl is open to multiple interpretations – something I will definitely be getting back to in 2025 (on my other blog, world between worlds, link to category babygirl) but I first want to give everyone a chance to go watch it-
so although there is definitely, and fortunately, a lot of interesting wiggle room with regard to Babygirl’s ending;
When interpreted at its most blunt face value?
It is an UNfinished hero’s journey!
What heresy!

Definition of hero’s journey;

“In narratology and comparative mythology, the hero’s quest or hero’s journey, also known as the monomyth,
is the common template of stories that involve a hero who goes on an adventure, is victorious in a decisive crisis, and comes home changed or transformed.”

Wikipedia

An unfinished hero’s journey would for example be, if after having mustered a fellowship of nine, having been stabbed half to death by a Nazgul on Weathertop, crossing the Dead Marshes with your best friend, who you first lost due to your own delusions, after which you were captured by a giant spider who sedated you and hung you up to be consumed later, and then your friend saved you;
*big breath*
And a small creature with two personalities followed you around and then push came to shove and you decided to not throw the ring into the fires of Mount Doom.
As would have been required to save the world.

But instead you hid the ring really well.
Somewhere no one would find it.
Because it saved you the final kilometers up the mountain, and those were really steep and you were kind of tired from all your adventures and besides the mountain was really hot and the little creature looked like it would bite your finger off and you dreaded spending the rest of your life with only nine fingers even though that would have been super symbolic of your fellowship so you just decided to call it a day. Or a journey.

That, is an unfinished hero’s journey.

And when taken in its most simplistic way, the ending of Babygirl is just that.
It has you yelling:
“You gotta be f-ing kidding me!” at the screen.

Until, of course, I realized this was really the highest possible outcome with regard to sexual liberation of women, currently achievable to Hollywood standards.

That Hero’s Journeys can be, and should be, and will be, completed when it’s about a bunch of guys putting their lives on the line to save the world.
However, when it’s about a woman trying to save her sexual identity, we’re gonna just walk a third into the first movie and after the Prancing Pony, we’re just done.

I mean, the wizard wasn’t there as he had promised he would be;
And we’ve seen the cloaked figures on horses that are definitely up to no good and they’ll try to assassinate us tonight, stabbing the decoy figures we will lay in the beds to fool them.

We’re done!
Let this Strider fella just take us hobbits home because we’ve seen enough adventures for three generations!

That, is how Babygirl ended.

Because when it comes to sexual liberation we have got such a long way to go, society and Hollywood being so restricted, we simply cannot have female heros walk their path to the bitter, or the satisfying, or the necessary, but in any way shape or form, the FULL ending.

Again, not using the wiggle room interpretation wise.
This is just going for the most obvious interpretation of it.

And who knows, maybe it was never intended to be a hero’s journey, but simply an art house drama movie. Who is to say.

But what struck me was that when thinking about the movie I had been so ignorant of the limitations a movie like this was faced with.
That I had actually assumed this movie had had full creative freedom.
Of course not.

Babygirl was made tiptoeing Hollywood’s Dead Marshes of misogynie.
The hero’s journey? That was not the protagonist having her sexual liberation!
No, it was writer and director Halina Reijn getting this movie made in the first place.

With Babygirl, Reijn got the ring into Mordor for us.
But it’s up to us to make sure it gets thrown into the pit.

So when I say Liberate Now, I mean;

Do not underestimate your opponent.
Do not think for a minute you’ll be allowed to break the shackles with whatever or whomever, and just walk your own path.

Know where you’re going.
Stay the course.
And bring a compass to readjust along the way.

And do not lose sight of the mountain of work ahead of you, but at the same time;
Be incredibly grateful for all the digging, smoothing, and the sign posts put up by all who went before.

And unless you’re the protagonist in an erotic 2024 drama movie that was brought to light against the odds;
Walk the path all the way to the end.

And throw that ring and all the other shackles that bind you, into the damn pit. 

..

..

Goodgirl /Hero
(pick one)

.
~Suzanne Beenackers
Catacombe
become the Rock Star you were born to be

.
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What Do Rock Stars Need To Hear Today
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Offers for Rock Stars Dec ’24 – Dec ’34
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But no additional or promotional emails are sent – just the blog, sec.

Catacombe’s other series “Rock Star Take On”
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NEW founded in MAY 2024: SUBSTACK

Rock Star Take On SEXUALITY | The New Rock Star Channel (new video)

Published on by Suzanne BeenackersLeave a comment

new video on YouTube:
click here to see it->
https://youtu.be/PluuNhxFT_k

Rock Star Take On SEXUALITY
| The New Rock Star Channel 

—

The New Rock Star Channel is here!

This week, the fourth video.
A Rock Star Take On SEXUALITY

Or watch the foundational video first, from 24th Oct 2024:
https://youtu.be/AQCIWDhaK4E
2 Rock Star Things That Took Me 25 Years To Find Out

Rock Star Take On SEXUALITY was recorded on 5 January 2025

In this video;

– welcome to a new episode of A Rock Star Take On 00:00
We are in SUCH luck! But before I get into that we have to go back to the topic I discussed last time.

– RECAP TIME! 00:20
Core Culture versus Outer Rim.
The last video was about this little known topic, but it could be your big Aha, as to where your Rock Star-ness comes from.
And thrives.

Want to watch that video, at any point?
Here’s the link:
https://youtu.be/T_IodALXEhs
(Rock Star Take on CORE CULTURE)

– And now: a juicy topic! 02:45
To counter the heavy topic of that last video, it was decided this one should be about sexuality.

– The movie Babygirl 03:20
This afternoon I realized Babygirl provides the perfect illustration to A Rock Star Take On Sexuality!
(And my official prediction Babygirl will be the most visited film of The Netherlands for 2025)

By now I have 10 hours of YouTube videos, 15 reviews and 1 screening of it under my belt.
And I already wrote two articles about Babygirl:
Review:
https://worldbetweenworldsnijmegen.com/2025/01/04/babygirl-2024-gets-hollywood-on-its-knees/
Pre-work:
https://worldbetweenworldsnijmegen.com/2025/01/02/but-will-it-satisfy-the-spoiled-ones-babygirl-2024-movie-pre-screening-musings/

-Sunday Holiday Lingering…. 06:54
After spending days in my head with this movie I knew I had to let this topic go before Monday, in order to pick up my regular work including videos for this channel.
Until I realized this movie was exactly the right topic to illustrate our video with!!

I will illustrate this topic with the male protagonist of the movie Babygirl;
Samuel, a 20-something intern in a big tech company.

– The Basic(s) 09:12
It’s all about understanding sexual power, and knowing how to wield it.
The only movie I know that has not one but TWO, protagonists in their Rock Star Sexuality, is Basic Instinct (1992).
Video includes a provocative invitation on how to watch it 😉

– Samuel 12:11
The male protagonist in Babygirl, possesses a dominant Rock Star Sexuality.
Why that is, how it expresses, and an observation that the strength of his power, is missed by almost anyone who watches it.
But if you watch closely, we can learn Samuel.
A lot.

-Scene by scene 14:37
The dog calming scene. The cookie scene. And even the scene where Samuel helps the husband of his lover.
Watch it through the lens of Rock Star Sexuality, and you will be mesmerized!
(and we are all educated🤓)

Next stop, Rock Star Take On
POWER!

And I have no idea how to go about it, but I’m counting on the Universe to bring me the perfect take on it.
As it did this time, with Babygirl.

.

~Suzanne Beenackers
Catacombe
become the Rock Star you were born to be

Subscribe to receive
Rock Star Take videos
in your Inbox.

Offers for Rock Stars Dec ’24 – Dec ’34
→ https://catacombenijmegen.com/current-offer/

Playlist of this series: The New Rock Star Channel

 

Catacombe is email-list free!!

Yes – you can subscribe to receive new blogposts;
But no additional or promotional emails are sent – just the blog, sec.

.

NEW founded in MAY 2024: SUBSTACK

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Rock Star Take On CORE CULTURE | The New Rock Star Channel (new video)

Published on by Suzanne BeenackersLeave a comment

new video on YouTube:
click here to see it->
https://youtu.be/T_IodALXEhs

Rock Star Take On CORE CULTURE
| The New Rock Star Channel 

—

The New Rock Star Channel is here!

This week, the third video. A Rock Star Take On CORE CULTURE

Or watch the foundational video first, from 24th Oct 2024:
https://youtu.be/AQCIWDhaK4E
2 Rock Star Things That Took Me 25 Years To Find Out

Rock Star Take On CORE CULTURE was recorded on 29 Dec 2024

In this video;

– welcome to a new episode of A Rock Star Take On 00:00
On a topic that is so new and niche, I built the larger part of this theory myself! 😅

– The Pioneers 00:58
Very little is known about this term.
But I had the luck of being introduced to it by therapist Melissa West: https://www.melissagaylewest.com/
And she credits learning the basics of this concept from a book by
Daniel Deardorff, “The Other Within”.

– Core Culture and Outer Rim 01:40
Prepare to have your whole world view turned upside down!
Explained with Star Wars!

– definition of Outer Rim 03:28
“People in the Outer Rim have positioned themselves so far away from Core Culture that they don’t have to fight the powers that be, in order to be free.”

– we all start in Core Culture 04:15
99.9% of us are born in Core Culture. Very few of us had parents who lived in the freedom of the Outer Rim.

– your only two options 04:40
Stay or Go.

You stay in Core Culture, either in the dominant part of Core Culture.
– the “First Order” – variant, of wherever it is you live-
Or in the part of society that had everything taken away from them.
This is the resistance or rebellion part, of the society where you live.
Staying in Core Culture is what will automatically happen if you don’t do anything.

Or, alternatively, you find out about the Outer Rim.
And one way or the other, and you move.

– The Rock Star Take 07:03
A Rock Star is an Outer Rim dweller, who shines so brightly, they can be seen from within Core Culture.

Because of the Rock Star, we in Core Culture:
– understand there is another place. They show us the existence, of the Outer Rim.
– understand where we are, and can navigate. Just like the stars were used to navigate at sea.

– the limited views in Core Culture 09:55
“Who’s on top?!”

– This is all rudimentary 10:47
The concepts of Core Culture and Outer Rim, and the perspective of theorizing about the freedom we have to position ourselves, are new.
This video does not pretend to be anything more than a first draft.

And was released with the hope that it increases chances someone more skilled will take it on, to push it further!
🤗

– Why the concept of Core Culture is important 11:23
Because its biggest problem is that we don’t know that we’re in there.
And we pay to be here, by having to submit to written and unwritten rules.

We are protected by Core Culture, but there is a price tag!
Becoming aware of what the price tag is FOR YOU is crucial.

It helps you to start actively looking if there are ways to position yourself better within Core Culture itself.

– moving to the Outer Rim 16:46
For some of us, life in Core Culture is not the right choice.
Whether we have dreams that require more space than Core Culture will ever allow, or because we are marginalized within Core Culture.
These people are the ones who will take their chances moving to the Outer Rim.
The price in suppressing who they are is so high, they will choose to move.

But the rules that keep you safe in the Outer Rim, are entirely different than the ones that keep you safe in Core Culture.

In the Outer Rim, just like a Rock Star, you only have yourself to fall back on.
And in return, you are now;
Free.

Next stop, Rock Star Take On
SEXUALITY!

Because after all this heavy listing, we deserve something light.

.

~Suzanne Beenackers
Catacombe
become the Rock Star you were born to be

Subscribe to receive
Rock Star Take videos
in your Inbox.

Offers for Rock Stars Dec ’24 – Dec ’34
→ https://catacombenijmegen.com/current-offer/

Playlist of this series: The New Rock Star Channel

 

Catacombe is email-list free!!

Yes – you can subscribe to receive new blogposts;
But no additional or promotional emails are sent – just the blog, sec.

.

NEW founded in MAY 2024: SUBSTACK

other socials:
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Let’s Get You Sellin’ | new offer 2024 – 2027

Published on by Suzanne BeenackersLeave a comment

We really have only one job.
As artists, as entrepreneurs, but also in ANY job whether in the commercial market or the public sector.

And it is, you guessed it, it is to sell.

And although life would get much easier if we all learned this, or were aware of this, that this is the key thing required to get through life smoothly whether you have a payroll job or not;
Let’s just limit it to a professional context.

So that’s all payroll jobs, but also the independents of artist, writer, or  otherwise hopefully madly passionate about what it is you do- person.

We are all basically paid to the degree at which we are successful at selling. Not “selling ourselves”, no, “selling”.
Sec.
But some of us are more comfortable selling products, and we show up daily on the socials to sell those.
Others also prefer something tangible, but have a business-to-business strategy where they strive for making one bigger deal a week.

As employees we need to work out an income strategy, how we are going to navigate our career.
And as independent service providers (so we don’t sell tangible products), we should answer these two questions;
“What do I want to sell?”
“Who do I want to sell it to?”

So if I’m a writer, the answer can be selling my time, selling copy, articles, manuscripts, printed books, my body of work, one new novel a year etc.
And to whom the answers can be selling to businesses, or to Instagram users, to book publishers, to Hollywood producers, to collectors and so on.

In all cases, whether we’re selling products, are employed, or selling services;
It’s not the quality of your work, that determines its financial success.
It’s whether we’re able to sell the work successfully.

We can only sell successfully to an audience that is a match with how we want to sell. There are transactions and markets where buyers feel insecure and aggressive selling is a big No.
These buyers are, often entirely justified, very uncomfortable being sold to because they recognize their vulnerability here.

But this is a perfect market for you, if you have a lot of patience, love giving explanation and even coaching your clients through their buying experience. Your ethical way of serving this particular audience, could make you a very successful seller there.

But that’s not for everybody!
Many of us like a little bit more speed!
And love creating easy grab-click-pay offers, that buzz with excitement.

Here too, if you like the high-energy of having a lot of clients and an avalanche of sales?
This is your thing!

But get this;
Although Let’s Get You Sellin’ is inspired by my realization that so many qualified professionals fail to make any money because their industry just doesn’t have a healthy financial practice;
The problem underpinning it all?
Is a cultural one.

It’s not specific to running a business, but just as problematic with salary conversations. And it’s also not limited to money, and could just as easily be applied to dating.

The cultural problem is a coded in limit on how much space we are allowed to take up.
How much sex and more specifically how many partners we’re allowed to have?
How much money we’re allowed to make?
How much power they’re comfortable with?
It’s all the same.

And it’s how you’re cock blocked from your own good fortune.

In all those areas, our culture has us moving within invisible lines of shame and internalized aggression. And it is that electric fence that we cross if we start selling. Whether selling is a salary conversation, selling our digital products on Instagram, or making our move or planting our flag, in any of the above mentioned areas;
You will feel the presence of the fence.
And the sting if you cross the line.

If you get a shock, that was culture aggressively indicating how far you are allowed to go.

THAT, is the reason I want you to start selling.

Not because it is the only way to make money, and not even as a way to liberate yourself.
BUT I WANT YOU TO KNOW WHERE YOU ARE.

Selling is like the smoke that makes invisible radar or laser beams, visible to the naked eye.
Do it, and you will see the tripwires, externally as well as internally.

Catacombe is my business created for ROCK STARS.
So of course my vision for you is that you do liberate yourself.

These invisible constraints are toxic as hell, yet cloaked as love and worry about your well being.
By the people that are closest to you.
It is crucial that you understand what has happened to you. And why this shaming of selling is so particularly debilitating.

And there is more.
Because you are not just, selling.
You are also an artist, a creative, meaning your work itself has a destabilizing edge to it.

Even if you make the most lovely nature pencil drawings, simply the amount of time you’d spend on them, the dedication to your craft and the prolific sharing of your work, would be more than enough to draw out snarky and discouraging remarks.

I wish for you to open your eyes and to see what the forces are you are actually dealing with here.
Because even if you decide staying within the lines of other people’s comfort zones is at least for now your best strategy;
You need to know that, is what you’re doing.

Otherwise the first shock of electric fence will have you floored.

I believe we should aspire to step on that for many of us new path, of standing up for ourselves and for our work;
Promoting ourselves and making ourselves or our work visible;
And the endgame of starting to sell, like you own it!

It is one of the most actionable and liberating things we as human beings can do for ourselves.

Maybe this post is more than enough for you to understand the forces at play here, and to start leaning into them.
Let them feed you, call them out, draw a line in the sand as to how far from now on your life will be influenced by so called well-meaning advice about what you can or cannot create;
How or where you show up;
And who you sell to and how you sell.

Then go forth and start selling in any way you see fit.
Create and boldly stand by it.
Yes, you are in integrity selling.
And No, you do not need mine or anybody’s approval.

If you’d like to have a conversation with me, then you can book

Let’s Get You Sellin’

It will be available until 7 July 2027.

The costs are € 297.
And what you get is a two hour call with me.
And the invitation to send me all your thoughts on the subject, in writing, in the week before our call.

Until mid-March 2025, I have options available until 8 PM Central European Time.
After this I expect to be scaling down, so if you are on a different continent (like East Coast USA) this might be the better time to book.

You’re welcome to take the call on repeat, for example once a year. And after the workshop you are also eligible for a second workshop at a similar price point, where we take a look at what you would like to sell.
What would make your heart sing, if you’d wake up everyday to that being your work.

But first we get you sellin’.

Because that is how we show the world where we are, and who we are.

Unconsciously, or perhaps after this post consciously, allowing other people to stand up into their power too.

And become the Rock Star they were born to be.

~Suzanne Beenackers
Catacombe
become the Rock Star you were born to be

Apply

By sending an email to
s_beenackers@hotmail.com
Your application always remains confidential and if I can help you, we start right away.

All applications are treated with respect and dignity.

I look forward to seeing you.

You got this!

~Suzanne
https://catacombenijmegen.com/terms-conditions/. 

Catacombe is email-list free!!

Yes – you can subscribe to receive new blogposts;

But no additional or promotional emails are sent – just the blog, sec.

Promotions are very rare, but if available, they’re posted on Instagram and Rock Star Writer Facebook.

If you don’t use social media, feel free to say so with your application. If there is a special offer I will email it to you. .

NEW founded in MAY 2024: SUBSTACK

other socials:
Instagram – Twitter – Rock Star Writer Facebook – Facebook Suzanne Beenackers Schrijver – LinkedIn

you’re a performer not a Swiss train conductor | What Do Rock Stars Need To Hear Today 2024 12 05

Published on by Suzanne BeenackersLeave a comment

you’re a performer not a Swiss train conductor

So unless it’s part of your art, it’s not your job.

And if it is?
There’s only one option.

Make it art.

—

The truth is, I don’t have the final version of how artists (in general) are supposed to leverage it all, come 2025.
Where art starts and where it stops and the havoc of commercialism begins.

I do not have a final lecture on how to handle making a living when your work, together with all the other things that give our lives meaning, was never included into capitalism.
And has been passed around like a hot potato from one marginalized group to the next, or from one privileged figure in society to the next, for thousands of years.
Always without a natural home.

So no finalized list, no artist’s manifesto.
All I can say is that, like with many things, the more you know the more you’re aware of how little you know.

Suffice to say, I m sharing the little that I know, while still being aware I will probably need to eat my words again.
And that’s okay.

So artist, performer;
What is it that you do, and why are you not a Swiss train conductor?

The title is a quote from the movie Bohemian Rhapsody. It is what Freddie Mercury says to his bandmates when he’s being called out for arriving late at the studio.

“I’m a performer Darling, not a Swiss train conductor.”
movie Bohemian Rhapsody, “Freddie Mercury”

There is a children’s book by Leo Leonni, about another Freddie, called Frederick.
(video)
It is about a mouse who does not seem to work. When the other mice are collecting food for the winter, Frederick collects colors and sunbeams.

And deep into winter, when the food is all but gone and their tiny bodies are cold from the harsh temperatures, they call upon Frederick.
“How about your supplies?” they ask.
And Frederick starts speaking.

About the seasons and about the sun shining warmly on their furs.

Little by little the mouse begin to feel better, their cheeks rosy and their minds brimming with memories and the promise of better times.

As a performer, your art is everything that enables you to be there, even when the other systems have come to a halt.
And even if that means that in the pre-art phase little is visible, and the people around us may not be as understanding as the mice from Frederick’s community.
Or we less eloquent than Frederick, or Freddie Mercury, in explaining what it is we do.

The moment we start measuring our success (or worse: value) by whether we are as accurate as a Swiss trainconductor, or as productive as the other mice whose lives in the heart of winter will be dependent on whether or not we have nourished our artistic capacities;
That, is the moment we kill our art.

So can we then not be more productive?
Can we not be accurate and reliable?

You can if you make it part of your art.
I don’t know, maybe Frederick could have color coded the stock.
Or Queen could have set up their studio days in a more colorful fashion, around certain themes, fancy dress codes and with guest musicians to collaborate with.  

In the same way you can incorporate activities or areas of life that are difficult to skip or neglect without being an asshole, into your creative work.

Just never forget what you are here for, and what will be needed from you most, is your warming light;
Your bright colors;
Your words;
And your poetry.

.
~Suzanne Beenackers
Catacombe
become the Rock Star you were born to be

Subscribe to receive
What Do Rock Stars Need To Hear Today
in your Inbox.

Extended!
Originally scheduled to be renewed on the 4th of December, these offers are still up, until this Freddie (Suzanne) feels inspires to create her new offer.

Because she’s not a Swiss train conductor, and it means you can still sign up for:

– Specify. Sell. Repeat.
→ https://catacombenijmegen.com/current-offer/specify-sell-repeat/

– Email Mentorship
→ https://catacombenijmegen.com/current-offer/

& The in-person as well as the reduced- (<5PM) rate of THE ROCK STAR
→ https://catacombenijmegen.com/current-offer/
will also disappear.

On 4 December 2024 whenever a new cycle starts.
With a fresh but minimalist program offering, leading all the way up to 2034.

signature offer:  The Rock Star 2024

monthly mentoring:
THE COUNCIL

until 4 Dec 2024:
Specify. Sell. Repeat..

THE ROCK STAR

.
THE ROCK STAR, is Catacombe’s signature 3 hour session.

THE ROCK STAR is a one-time investment, and our conversation is confidential.

To book, email me at:
s_beenackers@hotmail.com

Terms and conditions at:
https://catacombenijmegen.com/terms-conditions/

Once we know we are a good fit, my price is accepted by you and you choose to make a booking;
We move.

It is possible the above story has already given you an outline of what you want to discuss.

If you think you would benefit from a broader approach, my suggestion will be to sort your story into:

1. the earthly plane
Your possessions, worldly matters, income streams, worries and responsibilities you fear you can’t meet.
A helpful term could be how do things look from the perspective of financial freedom, or worldly freedom.

2. your purpose
What is the work you love doing, what are the moments big or small, that you know you are aligned. Has God told you, what you’re here for?
This is about creative freedom, or even karmic freedom.
Are you free to do the work, that is yours?

3. your Rock Star expansion
What is the fullest expression you are here to bring?
And what are the areas you’re playing small, as if cut off from your powers?
We investigate if in those areas, the rules you play by are yours, or society’s.
“3” is related to sexual freedom.
Like anything, it is up to you if that is part of our conversation or not.

Because all three points are just a suggestion, they offer a good framework providing one hour for every topic, to go deeper looking for answers.
But the setlist is not fixed.

I have merely built the stage for us, and we have three hours.

It is up for you to take it.

————-.

Catacombe is email-list free!!

Yes – you can subscribe to receive new blogposts;
But no additional or promotional emails are sent – just the blog, sec.

Promotions are very rare, but if available, they’re posted on Instagram and Rock Star Writer Facebook.
If you don’t use social media, feel free to say so with your application.
If there is a special offer I will email it to you.

.

NEW founded in MAY 2024: SUBSTACK
free memberships provided
other socials:
Instagram – Twitter – Rock Star Writer Facebook – Facebook Suzanne Beenackers Schrijver – LinkedIn