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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. There's no need to go into the reasons why: everyone has a different story, and the word on the street contradicts the word in the newspaper. Let's just say it was no longer a viable business. But it's bad news for the city's freaks. I used to DJ there, and I remember with confusion the scene that greeted me when I came in: the DJ desk upside down in a heap, the dancefloor covered in broken...

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Click for larger cover image Norwegian readers be aware! The book I wrote with Blather.net's Dave Walsh and Damien DeBarra is now available to buy in Oslo. A Load of Blather: Unreal Reports from Ireland and Beyond is the first book by us that anyone has been nuts enough to publish. This 'magnificent tome' is a 'great heaving cavalcade of paranormal events, superstitions, mysterious happenings, conspiracy theories, hordes of rampaging kangaroos in the Dublin hills, and the previously untold story of General Michael Collins' forays into outer space'. Those interested in Norwegian culture will be fascinated to read about the infamous lake monster hunt that Dave Walsh was on in Telemark in 1998, as well as a re-hash of my opinions about the angel woman, Norway's psychic princess. Available to buy at: Sound of Mu, Markveien 58, 0550 Oslo. Price 100kr. Tronsmo, Kr Augustsgate 19, 1064 Oslo. Price 99kr. Or...

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I One June night, a tram-track threw me from my bicycle A guitar-playing hand reduced to impotent rage! Determined to play the 7th, Oslo's festival In time the hand moved - yes! - Dacianos took the stage! II There was not one but two concerts that I - injured - played For June 10th was the birth day of cosmic Anne Bang The plan for a top secret show was carefully laid... With Masse Lys and C.O.U. 'twas three acts that sang III I flew by plane next day to the green isle, Ireland Thinking Europe's not so bad, in Dublin voted YES In the Lisbon Treaty referendum that was held But Ireland's NO may yet turn out to be all for the best IV The night of June the 12th brought the Blather book launch A co-written tome by me with some writers bizarre We drank our hundred free...

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What's this? It's the edge of art... These boxes are artworks by Kristina Müntzig, part of a collection of 'fake' furniture placed in a public park in Skien, Telemark, as part of Skien's public art festival, Tempo. Rather than showing you the art itself, I'm showing you where it meets the harbour. Where it meets 'reality'! Kristina was only one of about a dozen artists who placed their strange objects around the town. My own 'art collective', Sound of Mu, were involved in our own distortion of Skien's reality, as we upped sticks and moved there for one day, to host Tempo's opening event. So into our hired van went musical instruments, a projector, all our microphones and DI boxes, a frying pan, even parts of the floor (each piece of wood having its own story to tell, apparently)... yes, Mu was packed up and driven to Skien on 31...

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Since the last blog things have ticked along nicely but I've been unsure about what to blog about. I've stayed at home and we've been hosting a number of "cultural events", as we tend to do. Here are some pictures, each one enlargeable by clicking. This first pic shows the exhibition of Clas Hansen alongside the banner for a live radio broadcast that Radio Nova did from our bar on 10 April. 17 April. The Siv Bugge Vatne exhibition began. She created collages from the background details of old comic books. There is one of clouds, one of suns, one of flames etc. This is the best one: a collage of waves. 1 May. We opened our back yard to the public. From now on, you can join us for a drink out here. 8 May. American musician Blevin Blectum stayed with us and performed her electronic music and video...

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Memories, music, words, ambiguity and mathematics will all feature in this blog entry. It is the third - and will surely be the last - time I write about the band Hanny. The first time I wrote about how I liked their first album. The second time I was actually in the band (a period that lasted for about six months) and I wrote about that experience. This time I'm writing about the new album, Sceneity, which I played on. I attended the album launch at the Henie Onstad Art Centre on 20 April and it was the first time I'd seen the band play since my departure... Memoir The album launch took place during a week-long exhibition at Henie Onstad Art Center of the posters and CD sleeves that the designers Yokoland have made for the Metronomicon Audio collective. Metronomicon have put out this new Hanny CD. Henie Onstad...

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A sad London scene: an alcoholic takes his only companion, a Christmas Tree he calls "Rover", out for a walk. I used to live in London, and recently, for the first time since I moved to Norway, I returned there. First impression: from the National Express coach coming into London on a Thursday night, the city looked dark, foreboding and full of high-rise buildings and streets with Lovecraftian geometry. Second impression: getting off the coach at Golders Green, there was a smell of dust, and before me was a scene of red buses and shimmering lights. I felt like I was dreaming. Like when you dream you are in a place doing things you used to do many years ago. The dream took me to Hampstead, where I was to stay for a few days with my friends Mark and Alyssa. They brought me to a pub around the corner,...

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The time has come for me to introduce you to a couple of very important concepts in Norwegian culture. Vorspiel and Nachspiel. These are in fact German words - I don't know why - but they describe the first and third phases of a night out in Norway. Vorspiel means the "before party" and nachspiel means the "after party". In between, you go out and buy expensive beer in a bar, concert venue or club. Perhaps that's the origin of these essential parties: they reduce the price of going out in the most expensive land on Earth. Okay, here's how the weekend works. Friday night: vorspiel. Sit down in some chairs. Have some beers. Then at about 11pm it's time to go out. Go to the cash machine. If you're hard of hearing there is a minijack so you can stick in your headphones. Take out your money. Camera wobble....

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Bored, bored, bored of people making electronic music "on their laptops"? Then welcome to the iFolk, the new generation of acoustic laptops. Here's another model: These are the invention of Norwegian noise musician Tore Boe, and essentially the sound comes from a contact mic placed inside. Touch any item on the laptop and it will make a noise. We are exhibiting five of these at Sound of Mu at the moment: You can see the brushes, pencils etc. hanging down there. These are the implements with which to play the springs, needles, toy crocodiles etc., and the wooden surface itself. Artists and rock stars come to Mu to express themselves. Here they are playing: Tore also conducted an acoustic laptop workshop. That's him on the right: They are easy to build yourself. You just need a wooden box, a contact mic and some household junk. We were very happy to...

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I was in Berlin this week. Yes, this blog has once again crept away from Scandinavia to have a look at the outside world. And I chose to visit a post-apocalyptic wasteland, as you can see from the above picture. Jon and John (and could those be Germans in the background?) During the 2+ years of this blog, characters like "Jomba", "Bjarne" and "Jon" have been casually mentioned. These are in fact the people I met on my first ever trip to Norway back in 2002. The first two live in my apartment building and are involved in the Sound of Mu project, while Jon has recently been recording my band. Jomba is "involved" in an Oslo-Berlin apartment-swapping project, which means he hangs out there for weeks on end playing in bands and sampling the beer that's available for purchase morning, noon and night. Jon and I flew over and...