. verture [prik] net .

Turning with the sun

jonas.voss@gmail.com (Jonas) — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 10:42:15 +0200

Italy was really nice, relaxed, green, and warm. But mostly in the 2nd week, where I caught this sunflower, it wasn't too busy turning in the 1st week, as there wasn't much sun to turn after.

For some odd reason, this years trip was so very much like last years trip, and then again, it was so completely different.

Coming back to Dublin was slightly scary, but then Erykah Badu was here and fixed it all.

Google Onebox, nu p� dansk

jonas.voss@gmail.com (Jonas) — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 17:51:16 +0200

Du ved godt man kan bruge Google som regnemaskine og valutakursomregner, ikke? Indtil videre har det kun virket p� Google.com, men nu virker det ogs� p� google.dk.

Man kan f.eks. p� vejrudsigten i K�benhavn ved at skrive vejret i k�benhavn. Man kan f� at vide hvor mange dage der er p� 4 m�neder. Man kan omregne mellem valutakurser ved at skrive f.eks. 10USD i DKK. Du kan f� mil i timen omregnet til kilometer i timen, og meget mere.

Og du kan ogs� bare bruge den som regnemaskine, pr�v f.eks. at skrive 21 x 2.

Jeg ved godt det har v�ret muligt l�nge p� google.com, men det er f�rst nu at disse funktioner virker p� google.dk.

A feel-good Sunday evening with Jens

jonas.voss@gmail.com (Jonas) — Tue, 27 May 2008 21:37:15 +0200

The spanish girl pointed at me and said "silencio!"
making a little gesture as if switching off my radio
sliding her fingers 'cross her lips as if shutting a zipper
I clearly got the message I didn't need to ask her

Making the reverse zipper 'cross my lips opening for conversation
signaling the international sign of reckless contemplation
shrugging her shoulders and lifting up the hand that rested on her thigh
her middle finger extended until it's simpel message could not be denied

Jens Lekman played at The Village in Dublin with his all-girls band on Sunday. It was terribly entertaining, and Jens is very Scandinavian I think, and he'd probably kick my ass if I told him so. He's funny, he pulls in the crowd, he's heartfelt, and sarcastic. There, maybe now he'll only punch me in the nose.

I was surrounded by people with year-long admiration for the man, and others with very outspoken wishes to marry him. At the end, I just really wanted to buy his CD, but there was nobody tending the stand. Guess I could've knicked one, but I didn't.

Sticky links, 25. maj 2008

jonas.voss@gmail.com (Jonas) — Sun, 25 May 2008 11:55:48 +0200

The Danish newspaper Politiken brings a story saying that Scandinavia can thank the vikings and their high degree of trust between them, for the current wealth. It sounds sort of romantic, and I'm not sure I subscribe to the idea. They touch upon the violence inherent in the society, and I would probably give that quite a bit of influence in the theory as well. It was hardly trust people thought of when they saw a handful of longboats looming in the horizon.

I've been doing much kiting lately, with my trainer kite, and yesterday at Sandymount winds were blazing. I managed to get a pendulum jump, and lots of scudding (video on flickr or youtube for anyone interested). Roberto went with me to have a go at it, and we were both utterly knackered after 45 minutes.

Philip Glass is playing in St. Patricks in Dundalk in July. Last time I saw him play, somebody ripped a fart so hard on the row I was sitting on, that I had to blog about it. Back then he played with a certain extremely talented griot, this time it will be etudes for piano and he will be joined by other assumable equally talented musicians. Maybe I should go?

Tom Waits and Anti has a talent for making press conferences. I'd like to see him play in Dublin, but really, 130 euro for a ticket? If only they had convinced Joe Henry to play Dublin on his European tour, that would pretty much have made my day.

At Cashmusic they have some really great CC-licensed music from artist such as Kristin Hersh (of Throwing Muses fame), and Donita Sparks. It comes highly recommended by me. They have stems for doing remixes available as well, if that tickles your fancy.

By proxy I managed to ask Saul Williams two questions in an interview done by friends from onemoretune at All Tomorrows Parties. Before that, I was taking pictures of Ane Brun while they conducted their interview with her in Dublin. Keep an eye on their website for the interviews, hopefully they'll be up soon.

Well, turned out to be a mixed bag of links and anecdotes. Now I'm off to the Soul Picnic at the Dublin City Soul Festival. Weather is perfect for it, so I'm looking forward to a day in the sun.

Flying higher now with moving images

jonas.voss@gmail.com (Jonas) — Thu, 22 May 2008 15:46:04 +0200

So, I went out on Tuesday with my kite again, and the good man Eoin came along with his kite, which quite a bit bigger than mine. Wind was good, and you can see the slight pull that my kite gives you in winds of approx. 25Km/h.

Later on, Eoin launched his kite, and he practiced some pendulum jumps.

I had to try as well, of course, and did a faceplant. Tore, I still have face, and I was laughing most of the time. Had sand in all my pockets afterwards (:

Flying high

jonas.voss@gmail.com (Jonas) — Sun, 18 May 2008 01:19:01 +0200

This is my current hobby of choice — kiting.

My ambition for the summer is to get some lessons in kitesurfing, and maybe, only maybe, invest in the full kit myself. It's quite pricey, so I'm not sure I'll get that far, but being in the land of perfect conditions for this sport, it seems stupid not to at least give it a shot.

I'm so lucky to live about 5 minutes on bike from a coastline very influenced by the tide, which means that there are vast plains of sand at low tide, making it perfect for kiting. Today I went for my third kiting sessions (just the kiting, no surfing yet), and with wind speeds of 28-30 km/h it was fantastic! Previously, the wind has been around 9-12 km/h, which makes for some nice practicing, without too much traction on the kite. The above video was filmed Thursday evening under conditions like this. You can like, totally, fly it one-handed for a while, without messing it up too much.

But today, holy crap, wind was soaring, and I was a bit afraid before putting up the kite, but boy did it pay off when I got it launched. The kite I have is a 1.8m² foil kite, and provides plenty of traction for a beginner like me. Reading this humorous description of the Beaufort scale explains why it was so much fun today. I was being pulled, dragged and lifted every time I got close to the power zone, and most of the time, I had to keep it steady on the edge of the wind window, because it was just too much. But feeling the pull of the kite going through the power zone, making a turn on the edge, and bringing it back in, was effing brilliant. I reckon I got pulled across the sand approximately 5 meters most of the time, for a sequence like the one describe. Excellent entertainment! (:

On the other days, I've been able to kite for about two hours, without getting tired in my arms or body in general. But today, with these wind speeds, I was completely knackered after 45 minutes. It felt as if my hands could reach my knees without a problem, and my legs was tired from getting pulled across the tidal plains of Sandymount beach. It was simply genious.

The wind is supposed to continue tomorrow, so I'm planning on another outing. I'll try to bring the camera and get some more video, but if I go alone, it won't be that easy.

Niggy Tardust live at the Button Factory in Dublin

jonas.voss@gmail.com (Jonas) — Tue, 13 May 2008 20:31:31 +0200

Had the pleasure of seeing Saul Williams perform at a packed Button Factory last night in Dublin. Took some photos, embedded below. Enjoy (:

If you get any chance to see him live, I highly recommend it. Sharp industrial punk hiphop, I think I'll call it (Saul himself calls it Ghetto Gothic, I like that), and with some heavy political messages embedded.

Luckily they were selling merchandise as well, so I got his book "The Dead Emcee Scroll", which I'm looking forward to read.

Update: State has a nice review of the concert on their blog.

Paul Dateh, not your average violinist

jonas.voss@gmail.com (Jonas) — Mon, 12 May 2008 15:26:05 +0200

Paul Dateh plays the violin, and he likes it. What I like about him is, that he plays it on top of hip-hop beats.

Now there's something new.

S�dan skal det lyde

jonas.voss@gmail.com (Jonas) — Sat, 03 May 2008 23:57:00 +0200

Det er bash, det er imorgen, det er Sundaybash. L�nge siden sidst ja.. uh men.. det der skete var, at dine to sm� bamser opdagede g�ret sukkerr�r, det modsatte k�n og de der sm� gode brunchp�lser med ost. Sikken en omgang og du vil ikke ha v�ret i vores Ugg's! Uh uh.

Dublin vs �rhus, DJ Bobby Bonzai mod DJ soulclap, i en battle om at have de rette connections n�r det g�lder, den gode version af musikhistorien. Dine to hvide mors-drenge, lukker op for godteposen og giver (hinanden) en lektie i numre de (m�ske) kender men som lyder meget bedre i den her version. Det bliver fr�kt, h�rdt, musikn�rdet, fr�kt, ligep�, bl�dt, smukt, fr�kt, l�kkert og ikke mindst, ret sjovt.

Kig allerede nu forbi sundaybash.net for mere info.

Vi gl�der os til at se dig (:

Hit Instrumentals, 1973

jonas.voss@gmail.com (Jonas) — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 22:22:32 +0200

I've just bought a USB-turntable, so I can listen to some of the records I've bought in Dublin, and looking around shops yesterday clocked in a nice 3 albums, and two 45s. One of the albums is the following:

Cover-wise, nothing much, a little boring maybe, apart from the women all having their mouths open, and wearing clothing that probably would be hip today (is that a knitted dress on the one in the middle?).

Music-wise, it's a curio. It seems to me, that there was a movement of remaking albums with instrumentals of perfectly good tracks back then, as I have a couple of similar albums at home in Copenhagen. Usually, the tracks have been mutilated in some shape or form, and this one is no exception. Have a listen to the version of Serge Gainsbourg's "Je t'aime".

Argh! Hammond hell. The intro is so promising, and then that hammond... My ears are bleeding.

I have no idea of who is actually playing on the album, as it doesn't list one single piece of information about the musicians, so I'm stuck with the 'unknown artist' signifier.

Music like water

jonas.voss@gmail.com (Jonas) — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 14:15:22 +0200

Henrik Moltke links to an interview, or rather discussion, between Chuck D and Lars Ulrich about Napster, and the new shape of the music industry, on Charlie Rose. It's a great 20 minutes, really, and I'm guessing it's from somewhere around 2000-2001, back when the Napster case was flaming hot.

I really like Chuck D and his view, that the power shifted to the consumer, and that the bus of total control, that Lars Ulrich so desperately wants a seat on, left.

I've been spotreading Gerd Leonhard's Music2.0, where I found a link to a NYT interview with David Bowie from 2002. In it he says:

"Music itself is going to become like running water or electricity,'' he added. ''So it's like, just take advantage of these last few years because none of this is ever going to happen again. You'd better be prepared for doing a lot of touring because that's really the only unique situation that's going to be left. It's terribly exciting. But on the other hand it doesn't matter if you think it's exciting or not; it's what's going to happen."

Seeing what artists have begun to do, giving away albums for free (Radiohead, Saul Williams, Nine Inch Nails, Charlatans, and quite possibly a lot more that I haven't heard of), David Bowie was right on the money 6 years ago.

A couple of weeks ago I was at a concert with Sharon Jones and The Dap-Kings here in Dublin, which was bloody great, true entertainers they were, and especially her. The support act was Noelle Scaggs, formerly of L.A.-based The Rebirth (and has done extensive guest performances, on Quantic releases for instance). Before she started playing, you could sign up on her mailing list, and during her concert, she said that everybody who had signed up would get a link to download her new album, for free, before it was released.

I haven't received the email yet (I still trust it will arrive), but the idea is very much in tune with Bowie's idea of doing a whole lot of touring, and Kevin Kelly's 1000 true fans concept. It's great to see artists embracing this, and realizing that rolling with it, makes more sense than trying to fight it.

Another satisified visitor

jonas.voss@gmail.com (Jonas) — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 00:14:57 +0200

But I'm still curious, being priked down sounds a little unpleasant.

Rita Moreno plays Fever on The Muppets

jonas.voss@gmail.com (Jonas) — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 20:04:44 +0200

I still remember this episode of the muppets from when I was a kid. I loved it back then, and it still makes me laugh.

FEVER! <crazy drums>

Sticky links, 22nd of April, 2008

jonas.voss@gmail.com (Jonas) — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 00:18:24 +0200

It's been a while...

Sleeveface — one or more persons obscuring or augmenting any part of their body or bodies with record sleeve(s) causing an illusion. I saw a Ray Conniff cover in there, this is classic stuff. There's a flickr group as well (:

YoungMeNowMe, a competition where you have to submit a photo of yourself as a youngster, and a photo of your current self, posing the same way as in the youngster shot.

Physical geographers have uncovered proof of a spruce from Dalarna in Sweden being the oldest living organism. The tree is 9550 years old. Huzzah! The spruce's ability to clone itself is what makes it possible for it to live for so long (it shares roots with it's offspring, as far as I understand).

Recently I've been into the writings of Richard Dawkins, especially "The God Delusion". It's an interesting read, although Dawkins' approach is sometimes a bit too Michael Moore-ish. I can understand why some religious people dismiss him for being too arrogant. Anyway, in The God Delusion, he references a study done on whether prayers helped people under medical treatment (NYT article, login needed, this might be handy). Surprisingly, there was no scientific proof of prayers helping the healing process.

It seems like somebody got it right in the music world as off late — Charlatans are giving away their latest album, for free (free as in free beer, not 'pay what you feel like'-free).

Behind the 'Running Man'

jonas.voss@gmail.com (Jonas) — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 18:59:55 +0200

How M.C. Hammer got the rights to the Running Man dance move.