re: verden

Test

2007-02-08T01:25:00.000+01:00

This is just a test.

Queen Adreena: Heavenly Surrender

2006-09-16T11:17:00.000+02:00

I like this video

The seach is over(ish)

2006-08-28T10:22:00.000+02:00

Warren Ellis writes:
I remember, as a kid, reading Doris Lessing’s foreword to her novel SHIKASTA and being struck by an aside comment: that the youth of “today” (1981) could not conceive of how wonderful the present was, where any book you could think of was there to be had “on a nearby shelf.” Soon, I will have to explain to my daughter, who, through her love of story and fantasy will soon be interested in fringe, “occult” knowledge, that part of the joy of seeking it out was the quest itself.

Read it all

Being CD

2006-08-04T23:59:00.000+02:00

You readers have most likely noticed that i don't write a lot on this blog (not that I have other blogs, where i actually do write a lot).
So can I call myself a blogger?
I have a blog but I don't blog?
It's a bit like CD - Colin Dobson in Ben Eltons "Stark" - he's a writer although he hasn't actually written anything yet.

Base commander: Guantanamo suicides 'acts of war'

2006-06-11T11:13:00.000+02:00

This is quite amazing: The suicides of three inmates of the US prisoner camp in the Guantanamo base in Cuba are being descibed as ACTS OF WARFARE against USA. WTF?

The suicides of three detainees at the US base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, amount to acts of war, the US military says.

The camp commander said the two Saudis and a Yemeni were "committed" and had killed themselves in "an act of asymmetric warfare waged against us".

The story from BBC

Todays music

2006-04-18T00:15:00.000+02:00

Create your own Music List @ HotFreeLayouts!

Note to self

2006-04-17T18:32:00.000+02:00

I am a perpetual procrastinator and I should learn how to deal with my problem. I could start here.

I have spent my Easter holliday trying to figure out how to write a paper for Politics, Development and Change at African Studies, Copenhagen University. I find it extremely difficult to write the way one is supposed to in academic papers (I'm a journalist goddammit!). The paper has to be done by april 24, so I do have time to finish it, even though I have to work elsewhere some hours most days during this week.

Off course it didn't have to be this way. I could have - and should have - begun weeks ago, but back then it seemed kind of pointless to start because there was almost two months until I had to hand in the paper.

Currently listening

2006-04-16T14:20:00.000+02:00

Create your own Music List @ HotFreeLayouts!

Money concentration

2006-03-20T11:33:00.000+01:00

L'Oréal, the French cosmetics company, is taking over Body Shop says BBC. Apparently it is really good news for Body Shop founder Anita Roddicks wallet, but it is making life just a little bit harder for the conscious consumer, who is trying to avoid putting his or her money into the hands of giant corporations.

Quick-guide to where to/not to put your money (L'Oréal brands): L'Oréal Paris, Biotherm, Cacharel, CBB Paris, Garnier, Giorgio Armani, Helena Rubinstein, Inneov, Kerastase, Kiehl's, Lancôme, La Roche-Posay, L'Oréal Professionnel, Matrix, Maybelline, Mizani, Ralph Lauren, Redken (not to be confused with this Red Ken), Shu Uemura, SkinCeuticals, SoftSheen Carson, Vichy, Viktor & Rolf and now also Body Shop.

New pix

2006-03-13T22:48:00.000+01:00

There are a couple of new pictures on my Flickr! site. More is on the way.

At home

2006-03-13T22:09:00.000+01:00

Today I bought a huge - approx. 2 x 1,30 meters - map of the world on sale in Nordisk Korthandel (Nordic Map Shop)for 50 kroner (€ 6,50).

It's going to go on the wall in the living room and it's going to look fantastic.

New job?

2006-03-12T21:13:00.000+01:00

Since september 2005 when I regained student status I've been happily ignoring job advertisments, but somehow this one caught my attention. I actually decided to apply for the job for the fun of it, being fairly sure not to get it, but then I read, that applicants have to be US citizens. Never mind, I don't like cold weather anyway.

Winter

2006-01-23T14:19:00.000+01:00

View from my kitchen at 13.30 today.

Home

2006-01-22T14:16:00.000+01:00

New toy/tool

2006-01-22T14:09:00.000+01:00

Yesterday I bought a digital camera. Extensive research made me decide to buy a Canon Powershot S2 IS. Stay tuned for pictures taken with it.

Propaganda Inc.

2005-11-25T13:39:00.000+01:00

Here's an interesting story from Rolling Stone magazine. It's about a fellow named John Rendon, who runs a PR-consultancy company, which have been working for the US government in every one of USAs wars since the invasion of Panama in 1989 with the exeption of Somalia.

"Rendon is a man who fills a need that few people even know exists. Two months before al-Haideri took the lie-detector test, the Pentagon had secretly awarded him a $16 million contract to target Iraq and other adversaries with propaganda. One of the most powerful people in Washington, Rendon is a leader in the strategic field known as "perception management," manipulating information -- and, by extension, the news media -- to achieve the desired result. His firm, the Rendon Group, has made millions off government contracts since 1991, when it was hired by the CIA to help "create the conditions for the removal of Hussein from power." Working under this extraordinary transfer of secret authority, Rendon assembled a group of anti-Saddam militants, personally gave them their name -- the Iraqi National Congress -- and served as their media guru and "senior adviser" as they set out to engineer an uprising against Saddam. It was as if President John F. Kennedy had outsourced the Bay of Pigs operation to the advertising and public-relations firm of J. Walter Thompson."

Read the article here. It's long, but it's good and well written.
Via Boing Boing

Udsigt fra mit vindue

2005-11-16T18:49:00.000+01:00

I dag ved 17-tiden.

The Moldy Peaches

2005-10-29T14:49:00.000+02:00

I går var jeg i Sound Station for at købe en fødselsdagsgave til min veninde Mary Lisa. Jeg vil af flere årsager ikke komme nærmere ind på, hvad jeg købte til hende. Det vigtige lige her og nu er også at jeg foretog et impulskøb, som jeg ofte gør i musikbutikker - heldigvis kostede det mig kun en halvtredser.

Jeg købte en cd med The Moldy Peaches, som du sikkert aldrig har hørt om. For nogle måneder siden hørte jeg deres nummer "Downloading Porn with Davo" på en netradiostation. Det var første og hidtil eneste gang jeg har hørt en sang om en porno website, og det fandt jeg interessant i sig selv. Senere downloadede jeg nummeret for at nyde den skramlende lyd igen, men nu har jeg altså betalt for det og 18 andre numre.
The Moldy Peaches' lyd er som et mix af Liz Phair, Sonic Youth, The Amps og Pavement. Hvis den beskrivelse ikke hjælper dig, så kan du høre lidt af deres musik her.

Darwin has a posse - og jeg er med i det!

2005-10-23T22:24:00.000+02:00

Da jeg første gang hørte om begrebet "intelligent design" troede jeg at det var noget med nogle designere, der tænkte sig om en ekstra gang når de designede et eller andet.

Snart fandt jeg dog ud af, hvad det i virkeligheden handlede om: kristne fundamentalisters forsøg på at ligestille biblens skabelsesberetning med videnskab. Deres idé er at naturen er så kompliceret at den umuligt kan være blevet til ved et tilfælde. Derfor må en eller et eller andet intelligent have designet den.

Det er nogle år siden jeg først hørte om begrebet. Det var - naturligvis fristes jeg til at sige - i USA at ideen først fik vind i sejlene. Men som med alt det andet amerikanerne har fundet på, var det naturligvis blot et spørgsmål om tid inden vi her i Danmark også skulle udsættes for "teorien" om intelligent design.

I den forløbne uge er intelligent design kommet på dagsordenen i flere danske medier. Blandt andre har biskoppen i Viborg, Karsten Nissen, sagt at han ikke mener, at menesket ikke kan være opstået ved en tilfældighed.

På den ene side er det jo fint, at en biskop tager sin religion alvorligt, og står frem og siger at han tror at en intelligens har skabt mennesket. På den anden side er det en smule foruroligende, at en (går jeg ud fra) højt uddannet person i Danmark i 2005 åbenbart mener, at videnskab er noget man kan vælge at tro på eller lade være - ligesom man kan med for eksempel påskeharen og julemanden.

Som min egen stilfærdige protest mod denne galskab har jeg produceret klistermærker (med motivet oven for) til støtte for evolutionsteorien. Du kan gøre det samme. Klik her for at downloade en pdf-fil med 20 Darwin'er og print dem på selvklæbende A4-ark og klip dem derefter ud. Hvis du ikke har mulighed for det og du kender mig, så vil jeg gerne printe nogle ud til dig.

Læse mere om Darwin has a posse her.

New language

2005-10-21T16:08:00.000+02:00

The reason this blog is written in English is that the parts of the internet I move in are in English. But I have decided to change to Danish from the next entry, because it's so much easier for me to wrte Danish than English. I might go back to English at some point, but I'll stick to my own language for a while.

New music

2005-10-19T15:43:00.000+02:00

While browsing through the applications folder on my computer a moment ago I noticed an application called Indy, that I must have downloaded a while ago. Don't remember when or how I found it. However, that does not matter now. I have just had a look at it and it's actually rather cool. It's sort of a net radio station that plays new music from indy bands and musicians. While or after listening to a track you have to rate it with one to five stars. In the applications preferences you can check off if you want to keep some of the music and listen to again via iTunes or whatever application you use (and yes, it's legal). For instance I have checked off that I want to keep the tracks I rate four og five. It seems like a pretty good way to discover new music.

Link: indy.tv/

Nothing

2005-10-16T12:35:00.000+02:00

I have nothing interesting to say for the time being. I'll be back... I think.

Changes

2005-09-02T12:31:00.000+02:00

Things have moved quite fast for me recently, which is the main reason why I haven't posted for ages.

First thing is that I'm moving - again. This time to a large flat, which i'll be sharing with two nice people.

Second things is that I've just started studying again. I'm taking a two-year M.A. course in African Studies which paired with my degree in journalism hopefully will help me land a great job as a correspondent or whatever.

From now on I'll use this blog to remember interesting Africa-related stuff that I find on the internets.

Adding categories

2005-07-24T16:49:00.000+02:00

There is one thing missing in Blogger: a tool to categorise the posts.

Todays mission was to find a way to do it anyway. A quick search led me to an O'reilly hack which suggested that one should make a blog for each category and then feed the main blog with posts in the category blogs. I tried that and the result is visible beneath this post.

I wasn't satisfied with it, because

I don't like that one can see that the post has been emailed to the blog.
It would be rather time consuming to add a post to more than one category using this method.
It's a bit annoying to have to have x amount of different blogs just to be able to categorise the posts on one blog.

There were some comments to the hack and one of them suggested that one use del.icio.us tags for categorising blog posts. I already had a del.icio.us account, so it only took me a few moments to create the first categogy - photo. It's not too much extra work, I just have to add a line in the bottom of the post saying categories: whatever and then link whatever to del.icio.us/laurits/whatever.

I'll use it from now and see how it works for me.

Categories: blogging

[re: the world - Lab] Testing...

2005-07-24T16:18:00.000+02:00

--
Posted by laurits baad holdt to re: the world - Lab at 7/24/2005 07:18:00 AM

[re: the world - Lab] Testing...

2005-07-24T16:10:00.000+02:00

--
Posted by laurits baad holdt to re: the world - Lab at 7/24/2005 07:10:00 AM

Pictures uploaded

2005-07-22T12:01:00.000+02:00

I've just uploaded six pictures I took in London in April 1992. The pictures are taken a few days after IRA had planted and detonated a bomb at St. Marys Axe in City of London.

Link

Categories: photo

New old pictures

2005-07-21T16:36:00.000+02:00

I've begun scanning and uploading some of my paper pictures to my Flickr! account. Yesterday I uploaded pictures from my trip to Ukraine in 2000. More pictures from my travels are underway and I will post new pictures as well. I just remembered that I have some pictures from London when the City of London was bombed by IRA in 1992. I'll scan and post those as well.

News as is happens

2005-07-21T16:26:00.000+02:00

Today there has been some detonations in underground trains and a bus in London - same as two weeks ago, exept this there were no explosions and it seems nobody was killed.

My sister lives in London and my parents went there today. A couple of hours ago my sister texted my and told me that something was happening in London again. She couldn't get to any news source, so it tuned into BBC5 via the BBC news website to follow the situation and briefed her via text messages.

From my bag

2005-07-18T22:38:00.000+02:00

Show me what's in your bag and I will tell you... whatever.

I have jumped the whatsinyourbag craze and taken a photo of all the stuff (well, almost - I forgot my sunglasses and a tourist map of Copenhagen in the front pocket) I usually carry around with me in my backpack.

Sometimes a carry a lot more. But in the spirit of simple living (as mentioned yesterday) I have started cleaning out my bag a couple of times a week. An I can tell you that it's good for the soul and the back.

See the picture with notes here.

Simple living I

2005-07-17T15:00:00.000+02:00

I while back - when I moved to my second flat i Copenhagen three years ago - I began thinking that I had too many things and that should get rid of some of them. I then did the usual going through old school papers and such and got rid of a bit of it.

Somewhat later I realised that I had things that just took up space but were never used - things such as clothing I never used, outdated reference books etc. There were also things which was being used, but still took up an inappropriate amount of space, such as cases for my then 400+ cds. I replaced them with thin plastic sleeves, that takes up less than a fifth of the space. My cds are now stored in boxes and takes less space in my tiny home. They also weigh much less which is a bonus when one, as I have been doing for some years, move once a year.

There are still too much crap in my home though. So recently I have turned my attention to my books. I have a huge old-school Lundia bookshelf, which covers one wall in my room. I have quite many book which I have bought, found and been given during the last 25 years or so. I have only ever thrown out or sold a few books, but now is the time. Some of them has to go. This decision more or less coincided with my birthday (which is now commonly known as the day when fifty-some people were killed by bombs in London). My presents included seven books - about as many as I had singled out for expulsion from my book collection. Its good books, but now I have to find more old books to get rid of.

Bombs in Copenhagen?

2005-07-10T21:53:00.000+02:00

After the four bombs in London on july 7th, people here has started wondering if Copenhagen is also on some terrorists list of targets. The reason for that being that Denmark along with US and UK are one of the official occupiers of Iraq.

London was an obvious target and many londoners were sort of expecting something like what happened to happen sooner or later.

Its different with Copenhagen. Hardly anybody know where it is and most of the people who do probably have no idea that there are Danish troops taking part in the occupation of Iraq. But some do know of course.

Terrorism is about publicity. The question is how much publicity there is in a bomb in Copenhagen. My guess is that there would be quite a lot of publicity in it, because if Copenhagen is a target then anywhere could be a target. So my conclusion must be that there is quite a serious risk that Copenhagen will be targeted by international terrorist sooner or later.

Good reading

2005-07-03T15:35:00.000+02:00

I just finished John Pilgers "The New Rulers of the World". Great book!

Pilgers thing is to dig up un- or under-reported stories and wave them over his head. One chapter in the book is about the bloody history of Indonesia. In it he describes how the western powers helped the former dictator Suharto to power and how western companies then split the Indonesian economy between then. Another chapter is about Australia, Pilgers own country. Here he paints a picture of Australia that is fundamentally different from the one held by most people. He describes how Australia has failed to move on from its colonial/apartheid past in its threatment of the Aboriginal population. Well, just read the book. And watch his movies as well while your are at it.

Still offline

2005-07-03T14:59:00.000+02:00

My office is still offline, so once again I'm at the café with wifi. It's a nice place and the staff is friendly, but I still miss not having to go to a caf'e to check my mail. I really, really should get a adsl connection at home.

A long break

2005-06-26T11:44:00.000+02:00

Woohow! Surely I must qualify for a top five position on the list of bad bloggers. It's been three weeks or something since I posted.

That calls for a short summary of recent events (nothing dramatic, I afraid): I spent the better part of two weeks in London. My sister live there, so i stayed with her and her boyfriend. They both have real (day) jobs, so during the days I strolled around the city. On the second day of my stay I bought Bill Brysons book "Notes from a small island" in which he takes the reader through a seven week tour of Britain. Bill Bryson is an American who has been living in Britain for about 20 years. He knows the country pretty well but he is still amazed with the eccentricity of the British which is one of the reasons why he love the country and its people. I began reading the book the same evening and it made me realize what a great place London and Britain is. People are friendly and relatively polite, they have a wonderful sense of humor and the pints are much cheaper than in Denmark. Suddenly I wanted to live in London. And why not?
Apart from strolling and reading I ate and drank, did some book and music shopping and met with friends and acquaintances Vibeke, Kirsten, Ashley and Martin.

More later. I have to help a friend who's moving today. I will be back asap, though my office is offline at the moment, which mean I have to go to a cafe with wifi or something.

Off to London

2005-06-01T13:30:00.000+02:00

I will be in London for the next two weeks, but I will try to post anyway. I have no idea how common wifi hotspots are in London, but I will bring the lab top find out.

Shared secrets

2005-05-28T14:18:00.000+02:00

Postsecret is a blog that publish post cards on which the submitters have written a secret that she or he hasn't told anyone before. The submissions are anonymous.

Some of the post cards made me laugh, others moved me and some of them I can identify with. I won't tell you which ones though.

Postsecrets via Observer blog

Sorrounded by Clear Channel

2005-05-25T18:16:00.000+02:00

The other morning I heard a song by and some words about an American singer/songwriter called David Rovics. He is very political, critical and left wing. Apparently his songs are not played on the radio in the United States, at least not on the on the stations owned by friendly neighbourhood mega-corporation Clear Channel. According to its web site Clear Channel owns about 1200 radio stations in the US.

In Denmark Clear Channel controls half the market for outdoors advertising and owns the biggest concert booking company DKB-Motor.

Clear Channel supports the republican party in the states and its radio stations favours the conservative side in American politics.

What worries me is not so much that Clear Channel supports George Bush, but rather that one corporation has so much power and influence.

Other worried people:
CorpWatch: What You Can Do About Clear Channel
ClearChannelSucks.org

The trouble with weblogs

2005-05-21T13:37:00.000+02:00

As regular readers (yes, that's you ro) will no doubt have noticed, I don't post to the blog very often.
So why is it that I have a blog, when I don't write anything? Well, I could say it's because I'm busy, but that's really not true at the moment.

The truth is, that I'm not exactly sure what to write about.

Pretty stupid to begin a blog without any idea what to blog about, huh?

Oh well, I shouldn't dwell on the past. Hopefully the blog post will be more frequent in the future.

Where is Leslie rankine - part 5

2005-04-24T14:23:00.000+02:00

Well, I still don't know.

The investigation hasn't really gone anywhere for a while, since the invistigator has been busy attending his day job and his yoga classes, drinking beer and enjoying springtime in Copenhagen.

I have done one thing though. I have searched the whole world wide internets for any clue to what she is up to. There are plenty of hits, but most are old news.

If you know anything that can help me, and my readers (yes, there are actually somebody besides you, who have stumbled upon this blog) in the search, please contact me by email on laurits (at) 107b.dk

If you are Leslie Rankine or if you know her, I want you to know that I mean no harm. I am not a stalker and I will leave you/her alone if I am told to do so. But could you drop me a line and tell me what's happening?

The end of an era

2005-03-27T13:17:00.000+02:00

My parents moved to a new house in a new town this week. They have lived in the old house since August 1984, when I was twelve. Moving from a house after more than twenty years is hard for most people. My parents are no exception, and as I had expected they talked a lot about how strange it would be suddenly to live in a new house .

But what I was really curious about was my own feelings. What would I feel when the house that I lived in for ten years would be emptied and sold to another family?
While the movers were carrying the furniture and the cardboard boxes through the front door to the orange truck on the street outside, I walked through the house several times looking at the empty floors and walls. I then realized that I did not really feel anything. The house did not mean anything to me anymore. Had it ever? The house was a shell that used to contain something, that means a lot to me, but that something - my parents - were moving. The house were nothing more than a used set from a movie or a show I used to have a part in.

Going away

2005-03-18T13:10:00.000+01:00

I will be away from home until thursday. I am visiting friends in Århus and Vejle during the weekend and then I will be helping my parents moving from Kolding to Sønderborg.

My new computer

2005-03-18T11:55:00.000+01:00

Finally I got a new computer.
For way too long I have been using either an unstable labtop, my work computer, the G4 I borrowed or somebody elses machine. But as of yesterday I have a hande little white lab top computer. I plan to carry it with me most of the time, and that means that I will be able to share some of my thoughts with the (two) readers of this site.

A-Team reloaded

2005-03-01T15:12:00.000+01:00

This is so funny.

The people at How Stuff Works have placed an add on Craigslist for "... a pilot, a veteran with leadership qualities, a bouncer-type who knows his way around a welding torch, and a face-man. Crack commando experience a plus."

Follow the fun here.

Other online activities

2005-02-22T13:04:00.000+01:00

Galicia, summer 2004(29)
Originally uploaded by Laurits.

Take a look at some of my photos at Flickr.

I am planning to post more photos, but that will have to wait until next month, because I have exceeded my posting limit for this month.

The Doctor is dead

2005-02-21T10:45:00.000+01:00

Dr. Hunter Stockton Thompson is dead. Apparently he shot himself.

I wouldn't call him an idol, but he was undoubtedly one of the major reasons, why I wanted to become - and finally did became - a journalist. It wasn't that I wanted to write or live like him - I was sure that I would never be able to do that and I was not crazy enough to attempt it. But reading his drug and alcohol crazed but very sharp rants about politics, civil rights etc. etc. was such a kick, that I knew I had to give writing and journalism in particular a try as well.

The Doctor taught me a lot about American society, politics and way of life. He entertained me and he inspired me.

Thanks for everything Mr. Thompson.

Angie Reed

2005-02-17T11:09:00.000+01:00

If you do not know Angie Reed already, I recommend that you check her website or buy her excellent album, The Best of Barbara Brockhaus.
Angie Reed is a one-woman electronic pop band musically related to Kevin Bleachdom, Chicks On Speed and Peaches. Her music is sexy and incredibly funny (with titles such as Psychic Dick and Jungle Gigolo) and friend Trine told me that her seven year old daughter loves to dance to it. I guess it is what they call family entertainment.

Changing world

2005-02-11T10:26:00.000+01:00

My favorite news site, news.bbc.co.uk has, as one of its many features, a picture gallery called In pictures. One of the topics are Your Changing World, which has great pictures of our changing climate.
Some of the pictures a beautyful, but also quite disturbing.

Link

No signal

2005-02-10T11:54:00.000+01:00

I'm still here - just busy.

50 foot wave

2005-01-22T18:17:00.000+01:00

Kristin Hersh have done it again.

50 foot wave is her new band and the sound is similar to her old band Throwing Muses, but it has its own sound. There's a Quicktime stream of the record and one video on the site.

I haven't listened to much new music lately, but this is a record I must have.

Where's Leslie Rankine - part 4

2005-01-16T17:28:00.000+01:00

There is no news whatsoever about my attempt to find what Leslie Rankine is doing - or if she is doing anything.

I'm still searching though.

And many thanks to ork for the comments. It's rather fantastic that someone who doesn't know me is actually reading my blog.

Kill your PDFs

2005-01-11T11:50:00.000+01:00

PDFs can be nice and handy, but they can also be plain annoying. So when one is bothered with a PDF-file, but really just need the text, it's time to switch on the PDF-to-txt-conversion-machine

Public Service festival 2005

2005-01-06T17:21:00.000+01:00

The Public Service festival for Nordic electronic music will hit Copenhagen for the second time in august. My friends and I from Komponent will once again take part. There are pictures from last years festival at the festivals web site (pictures 48 - 60 are mine).
Perhaps I'll see you there.

Where is Leslie Rankine - part 3

2005-01-06T17:17:00.000+01:00

1. Is it Leslie or Lesley? I don't know.
2. I've asked about Ms. Rankine at chrisconnelly.com's discussion forum. So far two persons have aswered, and they agree that she hasn't made any music recently, but has begun making babies instead.

Where is Lesley Rankine - part 2

2005-01-03T15:18:00.000+01:00

Friend Ashley (not this Ashley) says:

as for leslie, it is her, i know her a bit, but havent seen her for a few years, i know her through chris the silverfish bassist who joined headbutt after they split, fuzz the guitarist is the house engineer at the dublin castle, and i bumped into stewart the drummer a couple of weeks ago, he's a metal worker. i think she did an album as leslie rankin sometime in the last year or so, and i believe she lives in l.a. with chris connelly of all those pigface type bands...

The investigation continues...

Happy New Year

2005-01-03T15:12:00.000+01:00

2005...

My laptop - which is my only computer - is broken. Hopefully friend dzl can fix it sometime. Until then its the computer at work or some computer at Lab when I need to travel to cyberspace.

But there's a pay rise in the horizon, so hopefully I'll be able to afford an iBook soon and then I'll be blogging (almost) every day.

Where's Lesley Rankine...

2004-12-06T14:53:00.000+01:00

and what is she doing?
A long time ago, when I lived in Kolding, I bought an issue of UK music magazine Select, that included a promotion cassette - yes, a cassette - from Creation Records. One of the tracks was Vitriola by Silverfish and I loved it right away - especially the vocals by Lesley Rankine. I later got me a cd-player and went on to buy all the Silverfish albums. Then Silverfish stopped, split up or whatever it is bands do when they stop releasing records.

Then one morning(ish) a couple of years later or so I'm reading my newspaper and see a review of Salt Peter by Ruby with vocals by Lesley Rankine. I finished my tea, jumped into my beach sandals or whatever I was wearing that summer and ran down the stairs to the record shop (yep, I had a record shop in my house) and bought the cd. I loved it too, though completely different from Silverfish. Some months later Ruby played at Pitstop and that's probably the best gig I've seen there.

And now I have a question: What is Lesley Rankine doing today? I love her music and I want to hear more! An invistigation is underway. Stay tuned for news or non-news on the situation

Vinyl Terror & Horror

2004-12-03T16:57:00.000+01:00

Vinyl Terror & Horror (1)
Originally uploaded by Laurits.

This was some great noise.
Yeah, I know. It's a bit late, since the concert was on 26. november - but hell, it's my blog.

The concert was arranged by Bragagild.

"Supportband is Vinyl Terror&Horror, this band has made one release with CD and LP versions, the members of this group are working with sound and sculpture, and made some of the sculptures presentet together with the Steven Stapleton exhibition at Charlottenborg 2002. They use analog soundmodeling of modified turntable loops to generate rythmic noise and soundscape." (Quote from Bragagild)

Unbeliveable!

2004-12-01T14:54:00.000+01:00

That's what I thought (and said to a security guy in the supermarket) when I went to buy a newspaper and saw this new magazine called Plastique.

I love magazines and I think it's great that there are so many different and weird ones. Too bad there really aren't any I feel like reading - well exept for Lettre Internationale.

I've been working

2004-12-01T14:41:00.000+01:00

It's been a rough couple of weeks (there has been work to do at work - ususally I've got time to do all sorts of important stuff, but the last two weeks or so it's been work, work, work) and there has been no time to blog. But from now on, I'll try to post at least every other day.

Jesus hates us all

2004-11-11T14:21:00.000+01:00

I really, really don't want to be mean and poke fun of ordinary americans, who voted for George Bush. I mean, I disagree stongly with them, but it's their choice (and by the way, I'm very, very tired of "Bush is stupid" jokes/flash animations/movies/games. Please don't ever send me any of that again, thank you).

This letter to the editor from a guy called Earl is a bit far out and it might be a joke, but nevertheless, I believe, it explains why George Bush was elected again. I laughed when I fist read it, but it's really not funny at all.

I hope the election of George W. Bush is seen as a wake-up call to all the liberal Democrats who oppose God's will.

Link stolen fra Fark.com

Did man ever set foot on the Moon?

2004-11-09T14:30:00.000+01:00

There has been a lot of debate over the last decades about the alleged moon landings. I'm not sure how convincing this (new?) evidence is, but at least its something. And its fun too.
Link found at I Love Everything.

Single Orange Muppet

2004-11-04T16:11:00.000+01:00

What if other popular movies were performed by puppets, Fark.com is asking. Here's the answer.

I love the Apocalypse Now, Single Orange Muppet and A Nightmare on Elmo Street posters.

Thank you Fark.com - you make it easier getting through a looong day at the office.

Armageddon in Kolding

2004-11-04T14:38:00.000+01:00

Well, I did hear more on the Us election yesterday - I even talked about it - and my head did not explode. But in my hometown Kolding a fireworks factory exploded and devestated the neighbourhood of Seest.

My brother, who lives in the centre of Kolding, told me, that his whole apartment was shaking several times by the eksplosions.

My parents live about eight kilometers from the factory, and they told me, that the sound of the eksplosion was enormous even that far away.

Here's some pictures of the situation - from JyskeVestkysten, the local paper.

Meanwhile back in the rest of the world

2004-11-03T13:13:00.000+01:00

US election blah blah blah... four more years blah blah blah... That election is everywhere and I think my head is going to explode if I hear anymore about it today. There are other things happening too, you know.

Yesterday I was visiting a Palestinian familie, that lives in Copenhagen. We were watching TV (they have 50 or 60 arabic channels!) and while we were doing that it was announced, that president Sheik Zayed of the United Arab Emirates had died, and soon it was top news on many of the channels. For my friends and for many other people from or in the Middle East that meant a lot, because Sheik Zayed was seen as a wise and generous leader and a friend of the Palestinian people. Most people in Denmark have never heard of him before and probably didn't pay any attention to the news of his death. I'm sure that goes for the rest of what we call the western world.

So, what's my point?

My point is, that there are huge differences between what is seen as important news from the view of people from one culture to people from another culture, who might live right next to each other. That means, that we often don't know anything about what is going on outside Europe and North America, and then when the shit hits the fan somewhere else on the planet, we go: What the fuck? Why are they doing that? Why was the fan started? And who threw that shit?

Out and about

2004-11-02T13:21:00.000+01:00

Saturday night I went out to listen to some music. I don't get out as much as I'd like to, but this saturday I did.
I went to see the the Cologne-based Danish singer/musician Alice Rose perform at Barbarellah in the centre of Copenhagen. It was a positive experience - the place is quite funky and the music was good. Alice Rose's style is something like a mix of Björk, Moloko and Portishead. She's got a good voice and she's a good musician. Apparantly it was her first gig in Denmark.
At the venue this guy was selling his own indie-comic. I bought one because I love comics and becuse I like to support indie art and media. I liked the comic.

Lazy

2004-11-02T13:17:00.000+01:00

I spend most of my working day in front of a computer, so why don't I post more often?
Don't know.

Election time

2004-10-28T14:40:00.000+02:00

Copenhagen is pretty far from Washington DC. and the rest of the United States. Still the US election campaign is taking up so much time and space in the Danish media I use - and I don't even watch television anymore. But that's ok, I think, because it's important (even though most Americans don't seem to think so). It's important because US foreign policy has such a huge impact on the lives of everybody else on the planet.
I hope the majority of the Americans that can be bothered to vote will vote for John Kerry. It's not that I believe that he will do much better than George W. Bush, but I think that, at least he can't do any worse.

Super Preis

2004-10-28T14:24:00.000+02:00

I just recieved Super Preis - the new cd from K&A (Kirsten Reynolds and Ashley Davies). It's out on Phono Erotic. Part of it is recorded at Komponent in Copenhagen, where I usually spend a lot of time.

Satanists are as good soldiers as anybody

2004-10-25T09:05:00.000+02:00

For the first time the British navy has let its first registered satanist onboard, BBC reported today.

A spokesman for the Royal Navy said: "We are an equal opportunities employer and we don't stop anybody from having their own religious values."

Link

Private military companies

2004-10-19T22:53:00.000+02:00

A couple of days ago Denmarks Radio Radio1 aired a documentary on private security personel in Iraq. Link (in Danish). In short, it told, that there are about 30.000 private security people in Iraq at the moment. They guard people, building and infrastructure - such as harbours. In March this year four employees of a security company, Blackwater was killed and mutilated by an angry mob in the Iraqi city Faluja. Among Blackwaters recent jobs are - according to BBC - the training of the bodyguards, that protected Paul Bremer (the former US head of occupied Iraq) and providing security for food deliveries in Iraq.
One of the many companies mentioned in the documentary was Vinnell, which I have been doing some research on, but I have never gotten around to write the story that I meant to do. I still have a load of material about the company and its doings, so I guess I should get myself together and do it asap.
I will post some more information about Vinnell and other private military companies (there are many of them) in the future.

K&A Live in Copenhagen

2004-10-17T18:10:00.000+02:00

Two weeks ago Kirsten Reynolds and Ashley Davies performed as K&A together with Apeiron, nomadstation and Martin Picton at Komponent in Copenhagen as part of the D.O.R Motion and Time tour. It's always a pleasure to see Kirsten and Ashley.
Check out some of their other stuff: Project Dark

First time...

2004-10-17T01:46:00.000+02:00

Lets see how this thing works...