Kurt Cobain - been some time since I thought about him, and more accurately his premature "departure" (live fast, die young - leave a beatuiful corpse...)

I was in the Army when I heard the news - and I remember a full-page image in Time (or was it Newsweek?) after his death...
- been ten years, and still no word :D


A world filled with books
Over production - too many books... in Norway? Compared to what? Worldwide sales? The quality of those published? Or to the cost of writing and editing books in Norway? Should we send all authors to Thailand - and teach a large group of former East-bloc editors/professors to learn Norwegian and get the editing done for 1/10 of the price?

Am I beeing to sarcastic? Is it meaningless to complain of too many books - when a book is so much more than just a book; some books are esacpe from the rainy days of summer, some are for putting the kids to sleep, some are for learning a new subject - or engaging in debate about an exsisting one. Some are a more durable alternative to the weekly gossip mags - and some are a way for the author to work his/her way through a problem...

How does that relate to the web - and mayhap blogging in particular? Does blogging make surfing easier, or does the simplicity add to the increasing amount of "unknown" content?


MATRIX RELOADED ...I belive the hype!
...Saw the original 4 times at the movies, and a couple of times since then on video, dvd and tv

- so what to write about? The differnet angels? The hype or the deeper meaning - reality or just fiction

Jean Baudrillard - lies and truth - some links [UTA ed - net - MTSU]

Lewis Carrol
Blue as sleep, Red as free - Marx, communism as opposed to conservatives? Revolutions this one... oh, sorry - the next one!

Carsten Jensen - anything on our Danish philosophic friend?

Wachawski - as in Monsters INC? A coincidende - Mike? SOunding board or the new mickey (mouse)?
Or another typo in Morgenbladet? Yup... Wachowski...
BILLY CRYSTAL (Mike Wazowski) gives a hilarious performance as the energetic, enthusiastic and excitable Scare Assistant to James P. Sullivan

MUSIC
- listening more to (my) music now than any time before... so easy to pump up an album or two when surfing after digitizing my stuff (sorry - not sharing it... EAC for great sound, large file size - actually to good to use on girlfriends Sony Discman (almost...) - but works great on our surround system!)
Convenience goes a long way... no wonder people are buying less records, when they finally figure out what they actually have... and are able to play it just like 1 - 2.

Quality Popular Television : Cult TV, the Industry, and Fans by Mark Jancovich (Editor), James Lyons (Editor)

"The Sopranos, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Friends, and ER are examples among many of a new era of the "must-see" programs"
Well - at least some of them are for me... Buffy rokcs - just bought Season 2 for my girlfrined (bday present - she loves it as much/more) on DVD - which is also probably another reason for decline in cd sales: do you want a full-price 40 minute album with two songs you really like (8 minutes?) or a TWO nice-price DVDs - the Matrix and Pulp Fiction perhaps? The worst I've seen was Amelie [Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain - site] - the CD with the soundtrack was $5 more than the DVD of the movie - in the same store!!!


Other small sites that i should have a look at
- article by mr Vassnes ?

- grimstad, animation and shorts...?

- digital democracy or just a virtual meeting for those already IN power? YOU decide!

- vacations in style

norskehus.no - vivaldi looks nice ... but they didn't have it online - just in the ad for the site! REALLY bright!!!

- onani spill, almost banned (requested removed by the Minister of Culture)

- poetry in motion, Eminem translation, new debate in Norway - should he get the Nobel prize, and do poets understand rap (and rappers poetry)..?


then there is the shit list

1. Reggie (Redman)
   
2. JAy Z
   
3. Tupac +
   
4. Biggie (Smalls? +)
   
5. Andre - Outkast
   
6. Jada
   
7. Kurupt
   
8. Nas
   
9. ..then Eminem
   

...btw listening to old'skool - NWA LEgacy -
8. Bow Down - Westside Connection ... "cause I ain't a hater like you, to a niggaz that bigger than you"
R-spect

sack = sherry... dry sack! doooh! Shakespear, Falstaff said it

Once again - XP not up to it! Looking into windows progs as alternatives
( RE written on NEW google blogger api thing-a-ma-jig)

Blog for late May

(with some serious link formatting problems!!!)

Tivoli

In Denmark this is an amusement park
[English] in the center of wonderful Copenhagen. Based on the classical influences from Roman Italy - enjoyment, parks and fun - and the
name (buildings).

So, what did we do in Norway? Well - currently the .no site is a digital playground - or "casino in spee".

"Nyte" - "Flyte" or enjoy and flow... don't match that well in English - because you are not supposed to let things drift? Or because you can enjoy life and still retain control? Something that at certain times (National day) does not seem to be desirable or possible...

Style
"Since we're only here for a while - we might as well show some style" - James Taylor
No need to be boring when there is so much to life - and the world around us at all times

Truth
"the great ocean of truth" - Newton, according to John Banville
"I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the seashore, and diverting
myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than
ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me."
[bartleby]
Truth is all around - so how to get it? Dive in - dip a toe to test the temperature, take a nip and taste it - or build a boat and start crossing it, using it and abusing it? Is all truth valuable? Knowledge, experiences and facts - or mere trivialities?
Does it make a difference how many trees I see outside the window? Or how many leaves they have in total?
Even if we went swimming for a long time, we would hardly plunge or use up all the ocean - and hence we might have to make do with gazing out looking for a further shore of enlightenment...

Borrowed
Does Bush and his friends need a "gang name"? Would it make it easier for others to accept them and relate to them? Should the TV show "The West Wing" (know in Norway as "The President") be followed by a new series called "The Administration" - in a slightly Orwellian - scifi - fremasonly - chique-charm?
And of course with David Chase - of Sopranos fame - taking over the creative lead and development...
(...and yes, this is an idea I picked up reading a column - but I liked it, so it put it here as well for others to see)

So, what else?
Some discussion going on related to a museum exhibit -is art digital digital or art... see Art for one example. Or read up on a bit of linked history

This is a discussion I find a bit "narrow" - considering all the design - experiments - art - sites being made by Flash (BACK again) designers all around the world, some of them even as corporate projects. Books like "New Masters"
are as much coffe table art books as they are hands.on computer books... (no ref-fee ;D)

Other view bitform


The Matrix
Not going to say or write too much about it for now - just put up some names and look into it after I've seen Reloaded... so look at Descartes, Baudillard, Lewis Carrol, William Gibson - or Chris Suellentrop, or maybe the movies The Breakfast Club and Revenge of the Nerds - teens with problems trying to cope with a strange world slightly beyond their control at first...

Keeps on coming
Now I remember why I was going to try to to this more often... to keep the number of subjects down on any given day (Cheers Mr Stone)
So - we are building a new opera in Norway - and there is a question of what is should be used for - since opera and ballet is basically song and dance - shouldn't all the MUSICALS (such as Les Mis, Cats, Grease, ...) be performed there? That would solve the problem of "no good new operas" that some seem to find so strange... seriously - would you rather write a musical, sell millions and millions of tickets - or an opera and sell maybe a thousand? Or perhaps "black metal" - Norway's claim to fame after Aha - could be the solution - move over Wagner, we've got the real pain and anger in a grand setting.

• Epiphany


• Key a car


• Angry young

VW - Wolfsburg - overall story - polyvalens (or VW credit as they suggest if you search for Wolfsburg on the .com US site...)

koyaanisqatsi - a movie (or three actually), comes recommended - but not by me yet, maybe I should order it and have a look one of these days - Life out of balanc/in transformation/as war is the translated (from Hopi) titles (or manga time again soon?)

DK conference with AV and
- the anit-ad-ad-awards...
(what would we do without Google... the more I write/research the more I depend on it - it is so fast and mostly accurate - even if I got a couple of "nasty" Orwell related sites a bit earlier tonight)

- due to renewed problems usign Blogger I'm putting this here with EdHTML, so please excuse the look for now{re-done 1st july - finally}

...and a simple info note: I'm now blogging properly from XP - whatever the issue was it seems to be resolved! :D

Print and web - so different media, so alike yet so challenging to keep together.

In one you have more or less full control - but are often restricted due to time and set guidelines.
In the other you have some control, both never know how it "really" looks - but can do just about anything, add everthing and then some more.

Brodovitch : "A layout man should be simple with good photographs. He should perform acrobatics when the pictures are bad.”

So, transferred to the web - if the possibilities are endless, and the content is less "regulated" - then the layout has to stand out even more? Going beyond mere tables to create complete graphic experiences - and even audio or video as part of the mix?

Use something stunning - as this image ? Yann Arthus-Bertrand captures "everday" views in a new perspective - from above rather than from the left, right or center. Does that make all the difference? Or is it the combination of information, background and overall statistics?

"Aerial views are often compared to abstract paintings. If it is art indeed, it owes more to nature than to the photographer's eye" [1]

...and outside the spring is gently hidden behind the damp fog - all is grey, all is silent, but all is not right.

Quite some time without posting... or maybe not. It's been Easter and a lot of things going on - but I've finally started going through my "backlog" of ideas, thoughts and reflections - and posting some of them here... more to come... stay tuned.

the Sparrow

Reflection [image] - is it an ongoing process?

Do we even consider most actions we take as we take them - when we eat, drink, read, see or buy something.
Or is it just a matter of "good enough for now" - or even more appropriate for TV; "probably nothing better on the other channels"?

How does this shape us in our everyday life? And what does it mean for marketing and consumer research - if we are hardly paying attention to what we are doing, how can we say that we prefer Pepsi over Coke?

And is this what Maslow [official] wanted when he talked about self-realization - that we transcend our everyday choices, leaving them behind in the back of our minds, doing auto-pilot for 75% of our waking hours - and focus on having "rich fullfilling lives" the last 25%?


Do we need Big Hairy Goals - just to get somewhere nice, or can we keep going in circles - quarter by quarter, week by week and trading-hour by trading-hour? What makes it Big? The will to be different, the openness to risking it all - or just the "cojones" to say it LOUD?

So what - or maybe where - or better yet:

WHEN is HumaNation?

It is in the back of the back of your head - right before you go fall asleep, when everything suddenly falls into place - all the problems are solved and you doze off with the trace of a smile


(others use it for various things - heroes, religion and Mars; 1, 2, 3)

Stress - success
It rhymes, it matches - can we think about one without the other?

How does life compare to living - and how can we match them gently togethet? [ml2 - or fastco]

Always to much to be done - a back log, some books (too cheap not to buy them...) an magazines (too interesting not to pick them up - while they last in their real form [1, 2, 3]

Inspired by Allison today... some of her own input


Stuff
What can we throw? Recycle - yard sale - charity?
Family heirlooms or just space takers and dust collectors?
"If you own more than seven things, they will own you" - used in a commercial with a guru... but the twist is that he rest everything else - and hence has all the "neccesities" of a modern household anyway.


cold
inside, outside - wind is ripping along between the houses, down the valley towards the sea
"sun on a cold day - snow on a gray day" - sparrow

A new month has begun - and the short period of almost spring last week has been replaced by a bit chillier weather - and slight problems for some
- http://www.aftenposten.no/spesial/bildeserier/article.jhtml?articleID=520604 - flooding in Oslo

links as text only... still no pictures on the control bar - xp "feature"?

The war rages on - this time with a typical "human interest" (and gung ho) slant - the US SpecOps bring out a female prisoner of war from Iraq (and estimated eleven bodies as well). Details of the action and the war as such aside, I find it hard not to be impressed that they made the effort to get her - I assume that they have more than enough things to do down there... capture airfields, secure oil sites, avoid/destroy/find all the weapons of mass destruciton that are hidden behind a bush...
http://www.aftenposten.no/nyheter/uriks/irak/article.jhtml?articleID=520857 - in Norwegian with picture
http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&q=Lynch&btnG=Search+News - comprehensive list from good ol'google

Other than that - not much to say really - working quiet a bit now, looking forward to easter and warmer days ahead - hopefully not to far
http://www.storm.no/vg/dittvaer.asp?utmx=596062&utmy=6643114&mapid=4000000&meter=19&snavn=OSLO&adm1=3