Oslo's massive outdoor summer music festival is called Øya, but the first night of the festival takes place indoors in all the clubs in town, and is called Klubbøya. This year my band Dacianos played Klubbøya.

Read more »

Posted by Barry at 8:14 EM | Permalink

Photo: ©Kim Haughton

'So, you had a book published then did ye?' he says, tipping the brim of his hat back from his eyes. They were slightly bloodshot, with a hint of mischief about them.
'Well, sort of,' I said, in between gasps of air, 'I didn't write all of it. Only bits'
'But you were published?'
'Well, yes. I was, I suppose'
'And now you can't breathe because you're too pisht, too high and too excited?'
'I think so. I mean, I don't know'.
'Well' he says flicking through the pages with this thumb, a sardonic smile tugging at the corners of his mouth, 'I wouldn't get too carried away with yourself just yet. It's a load of shite, if you ask me'
'You reckon?'
'Yep' he says, 'but then again that's what the fuckers told me for ten years'.

Read more »

Posted by Birdbath at 2:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Ahoy hoy. Have a rummage around our virtual Blather HQ. Bejaysus, you can even see Daev's bed.

(Google account required). Built with Google's Lively.

Posted by Damien at 12:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (10)

Blather.net sat down with mercurial artist Fred Einaudi to get the skinny on his provocative and apocalyptic art, the finer points of using oil on canvas and a plan to annihilate loud motorbike drivers.

Read more »

Posted by Damien at 1:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

(image 'adolescent paranoia' by Dr. Joanne)

WAR!

Old-school blather readers will know that Blather.net spent many of its formative years talking about, looking for and worrying about that most insidious of modern phenomena - the UFO. Indeed, as Daev recently detailed in our book 'A Load of Blather' had there not been a rather oddly intense period of UFO activity towards the end of the 1990's (perhaps born of 'pre-millenial tension') Blather.net may never have come into existence at all (at all). But as the years passed, our interests have shifted and we found ourselves moving on to talk about other things (paranormal or not) and UFO stories became increasingly rarer as time went by.

FAMINE!

The cynic in me might comment that this was most likely because we'd gotten a bit older and were now concerning ourselves with such matters as 'saving the planet' and 'getting laid', but every once in a while a UFO story does catch our attention. This morning, our friends at the excellent 'Damn Data' sent us a story (from some low, common rag known as the 'British Daily Telegraph') which duly caught our eye; a story posing a question which had bubbled up to the surface of my own addled mind only a week or two ago - why is there such a sudden and dramatic surge of UFO activity reported in the media in recent months?

Read more »

Posted by Damien at 4:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (11)

Recently Aftenposten reported that new statistics show that one in four people living in Oslo is a foreign immigrant, i.e. non-Norwegian, i.e. like me. The breakdown goes like this:

Year: 1998. Population of Oslo: 499,693. No. of immigrants: 85,550. Percentage: 17.

Year: 2008. Population of Oslo: 560,484. No. of immigrants: 137,878. Percentage: 24.5.

So what does this mean for "us" and for "them" ?

Read more »

Posted by Barry at 2:35 FM | Permalink

I've been looking through my uploaded photos of recent art exhibitions and music shows we've put on. There's a lot missing (sorry Jens Hamran, sorry Somadrone) but here's some pics that weren't lost. First off, the Hilmar Fredriksen exhibition. He projected a pretty cool film onto the bar, and you can see a frame from it, with our barman Martin underneath looking, er, arty. Click to enlarge.

Read more »

Posted by Barry at 11:32 EM | Permalink

A hilarious article has appeared in Dagbladet detailing the destruction that occurred on Spasibar's last night. Here's a photo from Dagbladet showing how they trashed the furniture - but even though the business is in a building owned by the art school, it was Spasibar's own furniture, so they were free to do so.

Whether they were free to light a bonfire on stage is another question...

Read more »

Posted by Barry at 3:21 EM | Permalink

She's back in the news! The 'psychic' Norwegian Princess Märtha Louise (pictured above). The controversy this time is that her angel school has begun courses for children.

Read more »

Posted by Barry at 5:29 EM | Permalink

A large bar on the posh side of Oslo, in a building connected to the art academy. Toys, mannequins, porcelain dogs, photographs and junk are everywhere. The staff are wearing robes and wigs. Crazy music is playing. At the back of the stage hangs a mosaic of the eccentric owners, who for some reason are obsessed with Russia, and this is a "Russian themed" bar.

That was Spasibar, which closed down on 30 June.

Read more »

Posted by Barry at 3:27 EM | Permalink