Januar 28, 2011
Counting Down to 22 January 2013
22 January. Free dog food to the 13th customer after 8.13pm, i.e. 2013 hours, a tribute to the year 2013 using the 24 hr clock.
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Posted by barry at 4:36 EM Contact
Desember 18, 2010
This Year's Christmas Song
Hanging from my Ikea CD towers is the latest Christmas CD from the Micronomicon label, Christmas Postmas, which features a certain Xmas recording I had a hand in: Dr Sno and the Santamangas - 'Tomorrow Never Knew What Yesterday Will Be' (aka 'From Christmas With Love'). We present the mp3 here on Blather.net as an Xmas gift to YOU, in case you intend to waste the holiday season on the sofa watching James Bond flicks.
Mp3.
Posted by barry at 10:55 EM Contact
Mai 26, 2010
Talking with the Center of the Universe about Poetry
Here's the story. Back in May 2008, I publicized a DJ set that a friend an I were doing with the text below. The event took place on 16 May, the night before Norway's national holiday, and the text was presented as 16 reasons why you should spend the night at our event:
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Posted by barry at 9:09 EM Contact
Mai 13, 2010
Scream Scene
In my blog entry of 6 March 2006, I described my attempt to go to the spot on the hill of Ekeberg overlooking Oslo which provides the setting for Scandinavia's most famous painting, The Scream by Edvard Munch. There was too much snow for me to make it up the trail that time. Four years later, a friend who frequented the spot walked me up there. If it wasn't for her it would undoubtedly have slipped my mind forever, but here at last are some modern photos of the Scream scene.
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Posted by barry at 8:06 EM Contact
Februar 23, 2009
All Places, Infinite Time
Hi - I have a personal message for North readers at the end of this blog entry. But first read about my latest exploits:
This year at the non-corporate Oslo music festival By;Alarm (which occurs at exactly the same time as the more commercial music festival By:Larm), Dacianos played at Mir, but the band was reduced to... well, just me.
'The rest of the band are in jail,' I announced at the start of the show. I had seen some guy on stage say this years ago, can't remember who, but it's a good way to start.
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Posted by barry at 12:08 FM Contact
Februar 16, 2009
Premium Bananas Music Hall
About a year and a half ago, artists Trond Arne Vangen and Frode Fivel completely changed our bar with cardboard and convincingly made it look like an old-fashioned bar with old-style wood furnishings. Now the duo are back with more cardboard, with a concept based on a banana box. I've got some photos here, which should show you (especially readers who have been here) how dramatic a change this is to the normal use of the space.
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Posted by barry at 11:23 FM Contact
Februar 8, 2009
Wollstonecraft's Letters
Mary Wollstonecraft, remembered for A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792), and for having died from giving birth to Mary Shelley, also travelled through Scandinavia in the summer of 1795, and wrote of her experiences in Letters Written During a Short Residence in Sweden, Norway and Denmark, which I've been reading. Here's some excerpts for you...
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Posted by barry at 12:53 EM Contact
Februar 1, 2009
Norwegian invention: The Cheese Slicer
The Norwegian Thor Bjørklund (1889-1975), like Jesus, was a once humble carpenter, until he was gripped by a visionary thought...
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Posted by barry at 6:18 EM Contact
Januar 25, 2009
The Arm
'Don't make fun of the Arm!' Tori warned, as I departed from the museum.
But I have no intention of doing so. I'm a great admirer of the Arm, in all its blue, grey and silver majesty.
Posted by barry at 2:59 EM Contact
Januar 18, 2009
Norwegian invention? The Paper Clip
North is back from its unplanned hiatus (I was recording music: a still-unfinished Dacianos innspilling) and I type this as parked cars disappear beneath the white blankets of snow and the air is filled with small white angels falling in heavenly silence. Or something. Anyhow, as the winter bites and the outskirts of the city fall prey to Polar Bear attacks, I fearlessly report to you, my worldwide readership, on one of the most controversial subjects in Norwegian culture: the invention of the paperclip.
Aye, the paperclip. Binders it's called in Norwegian. Why is it so important to Norway? There was a 7-metre paperclip erected as a monument to it in 1989, Norwegian patriots during the Nazi occupation wore paperclips in the 1940s, and I even found a paperclip in the shower the other day. The paperclip lies at the heart of the Norwegian experience - yet there is great uncertainty about it. The Norwegian-ness of the object is shrouded in considerable doubt.