Rants, music, and science

Elegant Science Dissemination: Scale by Brad Goodspeed

2011-02-05T14:37:00.006+01:00

The Award Show P3 Guld 2011

2011-01-15T13:52:00.013+01:00

As has become traditional, I watched the award show P3 Guld, last night with a few good friends. It continues to be one of the only award shows I find worth watching. It's quirky, very Danish, and is about music that is not Beyoncé. Finally, the show consists mainly of a string of good live perfomances and four awards. No fuss. Just the good bits.

The prize for Breakthrough of the Year went to blog-favourites Turboweekend, and I certainly won't complain about that... Though, I believe you can always argue on what level they actually had their breakthrough last year. With the remix of Trouble Is by Joker and Tiësto, they certainly raised some international eyebrows last year. Here's the one by Tiësto:

Talent of Year went to Agnel Obel. Hmmm. Not really my cup of tea, though I can certainly hear the talent, and I appreciate the novel sound. Somewhat too art'y for my taste, I guess. I'd probably have voted for Kellermensch for holding the rock flag high. Here's their Springsteen-like Army Ants:

The Hit of Year - as voted by the listeners - went to Volbeat for Fallen. I am not much for popularity contests, as I seldomly like what the majority likes; but fair enough, Volbeat is party-hardrock, and that's ok by me. The nominees were these 25 songs, including two hits by rising popstar Vinnie Who. After the performance below by Vinnie Who last night I'd have thought it fair that he won at least one award.

Very, very stylish funky pop. I also applaud that he also understands that live music is about giving the audience a show.

The main P3 Guld award went to Fallulah. Ok, I guess. Her performance last night was quite good.

Hmmm, well. Ok, catchy. Well, she can actually sing and it's infinitely more pleasant to listen to than standard American/English pop. But - I was really impressed by Vinnie Who, so I must say that he was my favourite here, as well.

...

And finally, tadaaah! My main prize was a great new (for me at least...?) song, performed live by another blog favourite Veto!

The Most Enlightening Thing I've Read About the WikiLeaks Situation

2010-12-26T17:13:00.003+01:00

This. By Bruce Sterling, co-father of cyberpunk. Eloquent, long, insightful, and rather sad.

Daft Punk Lives

2010-10-28T11:27:00.004+02:00

This deserves a bump of my near-dead blog:

An alluring teaser for the reshoot of Tron - including silly quotes, two-dimensional characters in a 3D-world (isn't this so MineCraft?), and ALL NEW MUSIC FROM DAFT PUNK!

UPDATE: I have now seen, and, in particular, listened to this video at least 25 times this day. So I decided to change my blog-design to celebrate Tron.

Groan. Moan.

2010-09-17T20:26:00.007+02:00

Thought I was gone for good, huh?

I'm down, not out. Lots of surrounding bullshit the last few months. Alot. Don't really feel like blogging about that now.

Music is helpful. Radiohead soothes some of the time. Something fresh and tasty like this also does: Eumig and Chinon remixes Ginger Ninja's Sunshine. Aaah. Tasty funky pop. Pleases my vampire soul.

P.s. Right. So I changed the design of my blog to another standard theme for no particular reason. Not creative, I know. Well. That's just how I roll.

Digital Love - of the German Kind

2010-05-23T21:47:00.007+02:00

I guess it's been too long, since I last pretended to blog and instead just posted some links to vaguely noteworthy music that others pointed me to.

Well... This time I have the opportunity to play two cards at the same time - the nerd card as well as the indie card; thanks to German indie-punk band Bonaparte and their excellently titled ~~first~~ album "My Horse Likes You". I find the music strangely enchanting, and the lyrics is hysterical.

Incidentally, my new fad is not shared by my fiancée, Lena. She snortingly refers to the tune as Press Play On Tape-like - not a favorable comparison in her vocabulary. Which, of course, instantly leads me to put this little ditty on:

Covers - Followup 2

2010-04-17T21:47:00.002+02:00

The meaningless semi-coordinated prancing around. The helmets with plasticky feathers. The shining waldhorns.

Inducing Silence

2010-04-17T20:29:00.009+02:00

I've fled down here. I hear them talking about me. I try to shut out the sound. My mind cannot do it. It doesn't work. I thrust music into my ears. I just want to be left alone. I just want. Silence.

My mind is racing. Adrenaline pumping. Shaking mentally. Am so tired.

How do they do it? How can they not weary from the continuous contact? The inane chatter. The pleasant nothings. The filling space. The. Break. And. Stutter.

Why does it matter?

I pull myself inwards. Cue emotionally tinted retrospective. I'm staring out the window. The trees are black fingery shades against a broken sky. They wave at me.

I was five, the first time I remember experiencing true terror.

We lived in a large cold house in a small town. The garden was as old and unkempt as the house. Dominated by large trees surrounding the house, I recall that we had recently buried my pet rabbit under the old apple tree in the corner of the garden farthest away from the house. It was fall, I think, and dark, darker than here and now. I was sitting at our large wooden dinner table. Drawing, maybe. I was a silent, contemplative child. A branch whipped across the large window to my left. Again. I looked left. I could barely see the trees against the near pitch dark sky. Then it occurred to me that there were no trees within five yards of that window.

White noise.

Lights have been lit around me. Probably as well.

Am still trying to induce silence.

Covers - Followup

2010-03-18T21:27:00.005+01:00

Yesterday, I linked to a list of favourite covers by musical connoisseur Le Gammeltoft of Unga Bunga fame.

If you haven't perused through them yourself, let me highlight these two haunting acoustic renditions of soul/pop-hits "Crazy" by Gnarls Barkley and "Hey Ya" by Outkast. I did not know any of these artists before. I most certainly have them on my watch-list now.

By Ray Lamontagne - "Crazy":

And by Mat Weddle from Obadiah Parker - "Hey Ya":

Covers

2010-03-17T19:58:00.005+01:00

I just noticed that Le Gammeltoft had posted a list of favourite covers. Mmmmmmh, food for my addiction.

By the way, these days, busily coding, I've got this old little juvel high on my Youtube playlist - Newton Faulkner playing Teardrop by Massive Attack:

Wastedness

2010-01-29T21:49:00.010+01:00

Cobra is running on the telly. I am lying flat on the floor just barely able to move my fingers enough to be able to type this, while at the same time trying to pretend that I follow the movie.

I've had better days. My head's pounding, sinuitis having settled in my skull. I've had 12-hour days all week, been on pills and caffeine, fighting the vicious cold that spawned the sinuitis, and tried to be of some kind of help with my kid during the nights, since he also has a hefty cold (he, of course, being the vehicle of the viral transfer from the petri dish they call 'day-care' to our home). In all, I'm feeling fairly sorry for myself. (Why is Brigitte Nielsen wearing a clown's make-up? - reeealy white skin, red lips, big furry hear?)

I may be getting soft. I haven't done these kind of hours work-wise, since I was writing up my dissertation. (Go on. Read it. You know you want to. There's a funny bit on page 104. Promise.) On the other hand, then I didn't have Asbjørn. (He so sad, Sly. Sad, sad eyebrows.)

I'm trying to think of some music for the mood. In looking through my little heap of links that I keep of stuff that I trip over, I find a little gem, which I don't seem to remember having posted about.

In an earlier life, I posted about not being able to find online the incredibly artful rendition of (a snippet of) I Am the Walrus by Swedish actor Peter Stormare in the movie A Million Dollar Hotel. His character, Dixie, claims to be the fifth Beatle, and, in particular, claims the credit for the song.

For some reason, somebody doesn't want this movie to be embeddable, so quickly, before I fall asleep - go click this link.

Whoooooa, I'm alive!

2010-01-21T20:32:00.004+01:00

Where were you man?!

Eh... I don't know. I've been busy. Doing ... Like stuff...

Then why didn't you tell us about it?

It was like... boring stuff... Wiping the nose of my kid... And so on. Do you want to hear about that?

No! We want more fun and music. Some more rants, also. And science! Where's the science in this blog? Gofix!

...

Ah. Well. Let me see. I should think this is already weird enough to count as a rant. Science. Ah. I'm sorry, Dave. I'm afraid I can't do that, right now. (Did you see what I just did there? Referenced a classical sci-fi flic, while stipulating that I cannot talk about science? This blog may be dropping to new depths of cheap puns to survive...)

Now go listen to Alphabeat's perky cover of the excellent Daft Punk tune, Digital Love.

There's a recorded and polished version as well. As usual I prefer the live version, though.

Just Some Links

2009-12-02T21:00:00.001+01:00

Not much time - writing a burst of emails. I might get back to why in a later entry.

Need to listen to something while writing though, and for inspiration and expanding the horizons of the mind, I make sure to check the personal blog of Le Gammeltoft. Le is (co-)DJ on Unga Bunga, the source of a wealth of choice bits of attention-arousing sounds.

Also, a very dear friend recently pointed me to the magnificent Submarine Sessions courtesy of self-styled "Digital Magazine" third ear. Submarine Sessions, you ask? Simple, really. Take one submarine, one artist, one song, and one camera. Then stir.

Stop Press - Grizzly Bear feat. Michael McDonald

2009-11-24T23:25:00.000+01:00

I must be doomed to playing musical catch-up.

I just heard While You Wait For The Others by Grizzly Bear, sung by one of my favorite soul-singers, the one-and-only Michael McDonald. You may know him, for instance from, this little tune - What a Fool Believes.

Apparently, the version of While You Wait For The Others was on a B-side of a single released back in September. It is hauntingly beautiful.

Reevalution - Turboweekend

2009-11-24T21:35:00.010+01:00

I recently put down Danish synth/electro-rockers Turboweekend as less than surprising, and lacking something. Silas Bjerregaard, the singer is clearly gifted; however the singles, I'd noticed on the radio, and zipped past on my Last.FM-profile, were quite good - but a bit too tidy, too constructed, too pretty for my taste. I may be simple creature, but in both electronic and rock-music I generally look for something unsettling, something unexpected and raw, an instrument, a passage, or a driving beat, that oozes energy. Incidentally, that is, I guess, as close as I can get to a personal definition of rock.

I wasn't particularly happy about putting Turboweekend down, though. They fit pretty much in the sweetspot of my current musical tendencies; and I found myself digging through their back catalogue over the next few days. I'm pleased that that musical journey led me to reevaluate my earlier verdict.

Listening through the material from their two albums, Night Shift (2007) and Ghost Of A Chance (2009), I found myself liking the lighter style and faster beats on their debut-album more. Listen, and take look at, the pleasingly naïve and refreshing Wash Out.

Given my preferences, this contrasts to the more somber tone of Ghost Of A Chance, exemplified here with the single After Hours.

Now, at this point I happened to watch a recording of the excellent show Backstage (on DR2 - by our nice friends, the Danish Broadcasting Corporation) with Turboweekend (and rappers UFO Yepha). The programme seeks to expose the best of current Danish live-music, by setting up a friendly "battle" between two Danish bands, also requiring them to create a novel act together. This had lead to many interesting, amusing, and also splendid moments of art. I'll try to get back to that later. For now, let me focus on Turboweekend. Simply put, live, they add that spark of energy and power, that I so missed in their recordings. Listen to, and in particular, take a look at their rendition of After Hours on the show.

Interestingly - speaking pure audio - the live-version is not radically different, actually. Mostly, the vocals are sung more powerfully and freely; but the energy that their stage-performance exudes makes a great difference for me. The intonation, and visual underlining of the line "From my window - I've got a clear view of the towers." simply drags me in and requires me to feel the beat and vocals much more strongly.

Their other single-performance on Backstage, of Holiday - also from Ghost Of A Chance, displays a similar amount of great energy, that just blasts through the screen. (It really helps also, that the Backstage-audience for this programme is really enthusiastic - something which is sadly not the case, every time.)

Splendid. Turboweekend is on my plus-list now. And incidentally - damn, I look forward to having more time to go see live-music again...

Yes, I am a Sucker for Good Pop

2009-11-16T13:42:00.009+01:00

I recently discovered splendid Web 2.0 (oh, the proliferance of terms with next-to-no information content) music-site The Hype Machine. The site solves a simple problem: Tracking and listening to all the splendid songs that are blogged - and thus eponymously 'hyped' - on the internets.

Good old Carpark North just popped up, being blogged about by an American. In particular, it was their tribute to the raging hormones of youth, Human. The award-winning video by Martin Thurah is simply fantastic. The song is strong one, but it was only when I watched the video, that I really felt the song. Take the time to watch the video - preferably in a larger window than the one below:

A spark, maybe?

2009-11-09T22:26:00.006+01:00

I'm feeling myself drift more and more into listening to music which, I guess, can be classified as electronica (though as an aside, I must say, that mostly I view genre-classifications of art with disdain). Maybe it's simply that most musicians nowadays simply grew up with computers with decent audio-recording hardware, and started their careers on 'borrowed' audio-editing software rather than on a beat-up acoustic guitar.

As I've hinted in the last blogentry, I have a special interest in collaborations among artists - intended or not. I tend to go hunting for mashups, remixes, covers, duets, etc. In those clashes something new and unexpected sometimes emerges. In trying to bridge the gap between two or more artistic styles, a tension is built - at the most basic level just from not knowing whether the experiment is going to collapse in a puddle, or is going to hold together.

As (another) aside, I think it's the same kind of energy that I seek in live-performances. That spark of energy that emerges from artists that dare to interpret their own (or even better, others) creations live, rather than just reenacting the recordings line by line.

Returning to electronica and the previous paragraph, today I tripped over a fresh remix of Turboweekend's "Trouble Is". Turboweekend is a Danish band typically classified as synth-rock (... well ok, genres are nice for brief introductions - but really - just go listen to them for yourself, rather than believing a two-word-classification). Frankly, I've found their music a bit less than I hoped for. Being a great fan of fellow synth-rockers (pfhhht...) Veto, I simply think, that - apart from great vocals - the singles, I've heard from Turboweekend have lacked ... well, something to surprise me.

That said, right now, I'm trying to decide whether the following remix adds a spark of rawness to "Trouble Is". The remix is by a bloke called Joker (he is a bloke - he is very much from the Bristol scene - and he seems to take his name seriously (quote from The Guardian: "[...] and a third man, 20 years old, who leans in and gives his full name slowly and carefully to the dictaphone as 'Joker ... Joker' [...]".)).

Listen for yourself below:

Oh. And, I should also advertise, that you can listen to the original version of "Trouble Is" on Turboweekend's Myspace-page.

Mashup-hunting in Århus

2009-11-04T23:05:00.006+01:00

Being in the music mecca Århus again - this time for pleasure, not for business - puts me in a funky mood. Having just laid the rest of my little family to rest, I'm surfing, remembering my old addiction to mashups - (popularized in Denmark as 'bastard pop' by the splendidly crazy radio show Monkey Business).

I'm wading through various levels of amateurism on Youtube, when I trip over this little jewel mashing up Depeche Mode and Madonna:

I was a huge Depeche Mode fan back in the days, and I guess the beat in "Personal Jesus" lends itself quite smoothly to this kind of exercise, but still - this is nice work. If you're in to this kind of thing, I can recommend a browse through the blog of the obviously talented creator DJ Appolo Zero.

Interdisciplinary Skills

2009-10-16T20:30:00.000+02:00

We interrupt our regular programme briefly for this choice bit of news, courtesy of CNN International.

This just came onto my radar: "Crooning ex-prime minister Koizumi is 'Ultraman King'".

At JAOO

2009-10-08T17:14:00.008+02:00

I'm at JAOO. Overall quite a positively surprising experience. Much less business-lingo and far more fairly advanced conceptual and abstract stuff than I had expected. I knew that keynotes by Simon Peyton-Jones (Haskell-father) and talks by Don Syme (the man behind F#) would be good.

But I was positively thrilled by some of the topics discussed and some of the discussions we got into on the day with the concurrency-track. Rich Hickey and the idioms he'd put into his Clojure-language really utilized some knowledge and nailed down some programming idioms for concurrency - in a much more useable manner - than what I've been used to seeing at academic conferences. Yes - it's hard; yes - threads and locks are a terribly bare-bones model to work with concurrency; yes - you really need to use immutable state. He essentially isolated four gradually more advanced forms of concurrency: An atom - essentially a cell, where you are given a synchronous read-and-set operation to work with it; a var - a persistent reference to a value that might change but is isolated inside a thread; a ref - a mutable storage location, which allows synchronous access, but only through transactions (segue to buzzword-compliant software transactional memory); and, agents which provide asynchronous access to mutable state. These idioms are available via fairly simple built-in keywords - inside a LISP-variant language (which is ok, but not reeeally to my liking, I'm more an ML/Haskell-kind-of-guy).

As Rich Hickey is not in academia - but develops programs for real customers, he needs to make these things actually work. He's chosen - wisely, I think - to target virtual machines. Building on top of custom Java libraries and compiling to bytecode running on the JVM, but also - via collaborators - aiming to target the CLR. This was so refreshing. He'd essentially made this language, because - as a consultant - he was extremely tired of developing concurrent programs in languages like Java, C++, and C#. How alien to an old fallen academic like myself. Actually having a problem before looking for a solution!

Ah - gotta run now. But in passing, I should mention also that I have - I promise myself this time (for the 5th time) - to go check out Erlang.
The guest from Erlang - Ulf Wiger - essentially shut up all the other participants on the Concurrency discussion panel, when he dryly remarked that Erlang-people had trouble comprehending concurrent programs running hundreds of threads; they were used to programs running hundreds of thousands of threads...

Ph.D.

2009-09-18T22:32:00.000+02:00

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah....

'Nuff said.

Energy

2009-08-01T11:58:00.009+02:00

These fine gentlemen (The Mars Volta) are fairly energetic. Exactly the opposite of how I feel. I would care to wager that they do drugs.

And here is a version with better sound. Though it lacks the live feeeel, that I so diiig. (My apologies. As is well-known, it is obligatory to use at least one slang-expression, when discussing musicians with helmet-hair.)

Mandatory cutesy baby pics

2009-01-25T17:02:00.003+01:00

Here's some cute pics of our little sleepy bear:

How to spend five weeks

2009-01-21T23:05:00.003+01:00

Well, well, well. I've been away for a few weeks. I've been busy stuff in the the non-virtual world, not the least preparing for becoming a dad in three weeks.

But well, what do you know - my son decided he couldn't wait, so early Monday morning (3.45 am), I became the proud and somewhat surprised father to a healthy boy! We'd heard that many give birth too late the first time, so we were really caught somewhat surprised. We've just come home from the hospital now - we're extremely happy - but still somewhat puzzled by the events that have pooled up over the last few days. We should probably start by finally selecting a name - he hasn't got one yet, as we thought we had plenty of time to think about that. We also have to buy the last few things, and assemble a lot of stuff. But hey; most importantly, both he and Lena are in fine shape.

I'll try to upload some pictures in the next post.

Now I have to go change a diaper...

How to spend five years

2008-12-21T19:12:00.061+01:00

So I just handed in this tiny thing, called a dissertation.

I must admit - it's a nice sensation. It goes a long way towards bringing closure to the ... hmmm ... last ... five years of my life. Five years and bit, in fact. Dammit, that's a long time. I'm getting old.

What did I do(?!), you eagerly shout... without having read the bloody thing? Well, ok - right now my passing-on-the-stairway-version is the following:

I worked with a framework (bigraphs) for domain-specific programming languages (DSLs). I developed some fundamental theory and algorithms that enabled us to implement a prototype tool to play around with such languages. Oh yeah, and then I developed a DSL, the snappily named C calculus (C for cell), that biochemists can use to describe and experiment with cells and proteins in silico. Check out this poster, for some nice pictures:

Quirky?

2008-12-04T12:59:00.002+01:00

Sometimes, I worry that my stint in academia has left me quirky and absent-minded. As usual, my beloved brother comes to my aid, by reminding me that these tendencies have nothing to do with my time in academia.

I recently received an email from him, saying (translated):

Subject: 3 things.

(1) I know what to get dad for Christmas.
(2) What do you know about OCR-scanning?
(3) I forgot the third thing.

Stephan

A crazy, crazy life

2008-11-29T17:03:00.004+01:00

Where have I been, you ask?

I'm in my cellar. Writing my dissertation. It's not too bad. No really. I'm ok.

When I look out, I can sometimes see people walking past the window. I notice when the sun sets, because then I have to turn on another light. And sometimes I get up and walk a bit about, and play hockey with myself - bouncing a ball against the wall.

Today, something incredible happened. After lunch, I ate a clementine - and it had 26 seeds in it! How about that!

Stop, hey what's that sound?

2008-10-29T17:33:00.006+01:00

I'm hiding in the bathroom. It's outside. The dizziness is still there.

I'm fully dressed - more than, actually. In particular, I'm wearing a sweater, my winter-coat and a hat. I've opened every window and door in the house. I'm writing this with my laptop on my lap. I'm waiting for it to go away.

[Approx. nine minutes before.]

*Pfhhhht. Pfhhhhhht... Pfhhhhhhht.*

Working in my cellar (in my new house - more on that another time). There's a sound somewhere in the cellar.

*Pfhhhhhhhhht. Pfhhhhhhhhht... Pfhhhhhhhhhhht.* *SLAM*

*[The sound of running]*

Lena and her friend, Stine, run past my cellar-room. Seconds later the smell hits me, choking me. They've been spray-painting something in the other room. They slammed the door shut to keep the smell inside. To no avail. The smell sieves through every crack and crevice in the old cellar, and permeates the room. In half a minute, I have to go upstairs. When I open the door to the main cellar, I can't breathe. It's not a smell. It's the sweet churning sensation of choking ... burning through the throat towards the stomach.

Lena and Stine smile somewhat perplexedly when I make it up the stairs. I slam the door shut to the cellar. "Eh... It's surprising how the smell drifts everywhere, right? Whoops..." "Yeah, well - you couldn't really know. It's ok. I'll just sit up here for a bit", I say. I storm down the stairs; disconnect my laptop and storm upstairs again.

Lena and Stine planned to go for a walk, so they do that. Just after they've left, I can feel the sensation. The cellar-door is by no means a tight-locking seal, and how is it with gas that is lighter than air? It tends to drift upwards... In a few minutes, it's a done deal. I have to open every window and door upstairs. I do it. Then I take a few deep breaths outside, leap downstairs, and open everything that can be opened downstairs, as well as setting the ventilation-system to ludicrous speed. I sprint upstairs again. It's freezing outside, so I have to put on extra clothes, my winter-coat and a hat. For a moment, I consider to also turn on the vacuum-cleaner, and put it in the door-way. After a moment, I decide not to. Having just moved to the place, this would prematurely condemn me to be viewed as a mad hatter amongst the neighbours.

Resignating, I take my laptop under the arm, and search for the room least permeated by the smell - the bathroom, it turns out - and try to seat myself comfortably on the loo. Before putting my fingers to the keyboard again, on a whim, I decide to set the little occupied-sign.

Talk on staying abroad

2008-10-24T14:05:00.004+02:00

I gave a talk today on planning your stay abroad as a PhD student for an audience of mostly new PhD students at the ITU.

I basically tried to collect a set of questions and issues that I considered, or didn't consider before visiting Jean Krivine and Robin Milner at the École Polytechnique near Paris for seven months. Here are my slides, if you're interested.

Let me underline that I had a very nice stay abroad - not least thanks to Jean and Robin; but there were still a lot of practical things, that I wish I had thought of earlier on.

Some of you, my readers, have had experiences in living abroad as well. Do you have any good advice to PhD students that are going to plan their stay abroad?

Aah, nothing like jazz

2008-10-22T15:27:00.002+02:00

Just tripped over this little soothing tune. Herbie Hancock is an old favorite of mine, and Corinne Bailey Rae has popped up on my Last.fm suggestions more than once.

Denmark is a city in Russia

2008-10-10T19:38:00.005+02:00

"Denmark is a city in Russia"; so far the latest comment in a fascinating multi-threaded debate on YouTube, spawned by the crazy, danceable, and highly addictive Alphabeat smash hit "Fascination". The debate weaves a nimble narrative around such difficult subjects as anti-americanism, racism, love, and hatred, as well as commercialization, and homophobia. In short, it tackles head-on the weltschmerz of a young disenchanted generation.

But enough with the academics. Go on. Listen to it. You know you want to. It's pop and, yes, I love it.

Here's something for you to read

2008-10-02T16:55:00.006+02:00

Ah, so you've noticed? These months, my blog is fast approaching a state of torpor, in a trajectory that suspiciously follows the decline of the western civilization. (I am, of course, thinking about the state of the financial markets, not the choice of running mate of the republican presidentially hopeful.) As you may or may not know, right now, I'm in the final race to finish my PhD; as well as handling a few hundred other things at the same time.

To amuse, you while I'm labouring, here's a few blogs, which I can heartily recommend (does it show, that I'm an old gamer, who only has time to read about games, now-a-days?):

Teahouse on the Tracks, personal blog of sci-fi novellist, Alastair Reynolds.

supertroels.dk, personal blog of Troels Abrahamsen, singer in Veto (who I have ranted about before elsewhere), and independent musician and producer.

Opinionated techie, personal blog of Brad Wardell, nerd, famed (in computer game-circles) owner of Stardock, creator of several critically acclaimed games, such as the Galactic Civilizations series, and glowing republican, it seems.

Flash of Steel, personal blog of Troy S. Goodfellow (fantastic name!), a most eloquent games journalist, with a particular interest in historical strategy games.

Rock, Paper, Shotgun, the combined blog (clog?) of four splendid British games journalists, Jim Rossignol, Kieron Gillen, John Walker, and Alec Meer. This blog alone, has induced more laugh-aloud moments, than any other website. I recommend it, if you have even a passing interest in computer games.

Bodil Bierings blog at Version2 (in Danish), friend and self-proclaimed IT-provocateuse.

That should be enough for a few days. Now run along.

The art of selling real estate

2008-09-03T16:27:00.016+02:00

Pheeew. Time is flying, and I have eighty balls in the air.

As some of you might know, in between writing a dissertation, I'm also on the hunt for a new place to live. Lena and I have decided that we want to try to find a house in Vanløse - like all the other boring academics in our segment.

The housemarket in the Copenhagen area is plummeting at the moment, which means that it is not a bad time to be on hunt - if you plan not to sell within the next few years. It also means that there are a huge amount of houses for sale, which in turn means that Lena and I spend nearly every Sunday on seeing houses.

After having seen the first 30 houses, I'm quite amazed that there are so few sellers who makes the extra effort in trying to present their house in the best way possible - spending perhaps just a few thousand kr on this. For example, always paint walls and ceilings white! You can never go wrong with white - everything else can look silly to some people. And it makes rooms look larger, and more clean. And always clean up and consider stoving away a few tons of your stuff in some cellar. I've been to more than one home, where it smelled just plain bad. Given other choices in the same category - this is not something I'm likely to buy.

I, like most people, I guess, am also susceptible to be impressed if the seller has really good or expensive style. I'm getting better at seeing past this - but it's still something I have to consciously think past. And, I believe it still colours my impression of the place. My best example of this are shown in the pictures on the right. They are from a place we recently saw - I'm a sucker for the rapier in the first picture; and note the title of one of the books in the second picture. (You can click on it, to enlarge it.) "Happiness" - coincidence? I think not.

It's the name, stupid!

2008-08-24T18:16:00.007+02:00

Surfing. I have a cold, so I'm not worth much today.

I just tripped over this:New Alliance considers name-change (in Danish only sadly). Apparently the youngest political party in Denmark, New Alliance, who are roughly the political party-equivalent of a Marx Brothers-movie, are contemplating a name change. Though an applaudable effort in trying to right what is arguable an impressively disastrous first year, it somehow feels like trying to sell cans of spam, by saying "Hey! It might be spam; but now we call it 'SUPER-EXTRA PRIME-CUT ANGUS BEEF', so please buy it!"

This follow-up news Numerologist: New Alliance should change their name, sets a perfect context, I think (also Danish). The numerologist Mauren Pihl (note the splendid name), finally gives us an explanation of the hardships of the toddler party: Both words (in Danish) "Ny" and "Alliance" yield weak energies - apparently the double ll and the single c is an amateurish mistake. Taken together the two words yield a "fateful" and "unlucky" name, indicating that the party needs to "restart again and again". I'm in awe by the supreme explanatory power of the superior numerologic science.

Not content to critizise, she contributes with more expert advice: Apparently, the current favourite candidate new name is "Liberal Alliance". Though, the word "liberal" apparently contains ridiculous amounts of energy (I could have told you that, just read Newsbusters.org - Exposing liberal media bias for a while; check out their take on CBS: U.S. should be more like Denmark), but it does not "work together well" with the weak word "Alliance".

May I suggest, that instead of a precarious name-change, they should invite the guru, Mauren Pihl, to join the party? In my mind, somehow the madness of numerology and New Alliance fit each other perfectly.

Down the drain?

2008-08-21T22:35:00.011+02:00

Having just my heard my blog referred to as "already going down the toilet", I haste to note that this is not the case - yet.

I have simply spent a little time reinforcing my touch with the so-called real world. Yes. I have a life when not surfing. I have, among other things, been cruising the Danish countryside in a Toyota Yaris, and spent a few days playing gardener at my in-laws. Very zen, very enjoyable, and very off-the-grid.

Oh, but such moments of innocent joy are fickle, of course. When I returned, Russia had invaded Georgia; Denmarks football squad had their trousers pulled down by Spain; and the world may be destroyed in September, when a few (mad?) scientists pull the switch and fire up an experiment in the Large Hadron Collider producing the universe's first man-made black hole - right before sucking Earth plus a goodly 6 billion humans into it. They say, the black holes which may be created are microscopic; they say there's only a one in 50 million chance of something going wrong; but when could we ever trust white-coated shifty-eyed men like these:

Technically speaking, this particular mad scientist is, of course, wearing a green coat. The tricks they invent to confuse us.

Singularity divides?

2008-08-02T10:24:00.004+02:00

A few years ago, I read a tech-report from Microsoft research about the Singularity project (a name with sooo much nerd-appeal). It was fairly interesting reading - a micro-kernel system building on managed code, from kernel drivers and up; strong typing; specification of invariants allowing static analysis, etc. (Notably, they also had a fair amount of high-profile people attached to the project, Aiken, Fähndrich, Abadi,... )

Now it seems the grapevine is flowing over with talk about a higher-profile succesor to the Singularity project: Midori; which apparently means "green" in Japanese (everything - I mean everything is on Wikipedia).

The SDTimes article: "Microsoft's plans for post-Windows OS revealed" gives a good overview. (And here is a brief summary in danish on Version 2.)

Confessions of a habitual pop-addict

2008-07-31T10:31:00.001+02:00

What is this? Pop on my Last.fm channel - Maroon 5?! What in the !#¤!"¤!" is going on? I thought, I had spent ages telling Last.fm about nigh-all aspects of my life; thus they should bloody well know that my tastes are far more sophisticated than stale radiopop such as some tune "Not Coming Home" by Maroon 5. Their claim to be called innovative, alternative, and daring is about as brittle as Britney's (or, to take a wild swing in another direction, Apple's for that sake; I've about had it up to here hearing the mindless fanboiz cheering ...)

I share with you this clonework (for some reason the video only starts at 0:17):

Wait a minute...

...

What's this? That break was not half bad...

Hmmm, and the rhytm section is actually swinging. I wonder, if they're funk-musicians turned rock/pop? And, though a bit over-the-top, that howling guitar is really not too bad. His voice is kind of funny, though; but in a ... kind-of-nice way, I must admit...

Am I turning soft?

Heatwave

2008-07-28T00:24:00.003+02:00

It's midnight, and it's scorching - according to my internal thermometer, at least. I'm sitting in the window sill - in my shorts - trying to catch the frail gusts of wind, that manage to find it's way from the harbour. As usual, I should just go to bed - and read something to still my thoughts. Quell my mind.

The black-greenish bug that has been circling the lamp on my table just found the lightbulb. It's now limping sideways on the table. I'm somewhat puzzled by the lifeforce of the creature.

It's quiet. It's quieter here at Østerbro than at Christianshavn; or Nørrebro, where I lived years ago. I look down at the guy that just arrived on his bike. He finishes typing something on his cellphone. He parks his bike, and proceeds to unlock the front door to no. 14 across the street. I follow his figure up the stairs to the second floor.

I decide to try to end the suffering of the bug. I manage to hit it with the base of my hand. A drop of blood is smeared on my hand where I hit it. Apparently a mosquito - I wonder if it was me, that it got to. I wipe the blood off, and try forcibly to think of something else.

I can hear the S-train leaving Nordhavn in the distance. The guy upstairs starts his late-night exercises. I take that as my cue to go to bed.

Three seconds in the life of the modern family

2008-07-22T21:57:00.000+02:00

The radio is on, playing some random pop; the TV is on (loudspeakers down, though); two laptops are running - mine playing a live tune by VETO, while I'm surfing in four tabs at the same time and writing this; the Chumby on my left is flipping between Google News and the weather forecast (brought to you by the "Weather Channel"^TM); and Lena is trying to tell me something from the kitchen.

I wonder, whether my head is going to split into pieces?

...

Oh. The VETO song, you ask? It's the one below. Feel the live power - feel the raw strength of the voice of Troels Abrahamsen aka SuperTroels - around the age of 21 in this recording. A fan? Yes, I am.

Back in black

2008-07-10T01:01:00.002+02:00

Back again.

I'm sitting at our table at our new place at Østerbro. It's late. I should really go to bed. Just finished reviewing a short paper about wireless protocols. That was nice to get out of the way, but it sort of eliminated the idea that I sit down and tune out a bit before going to bed.

I hear someone shuffling drunkenly past outside. This is a rather nice neighboorhood, so it's not an everyday occurence. (Even the brothel downstreet has a pretty little entrance with green leaves framing the doorway.)

I'm reminded of our neighboorhood tramp in Paris. A dishevelled spot-bearded middle-aged man, who we used to see sitting on his cardboard - eating the snippets of food that he got from somewhere, I don't know where. I used to wake in the night sometimes from his cramped vomiting - his stomach not being able to hold the food and cheap liquor that he'd quaffed during the day. Lena wanted me to leave our insulated sleeping mat for him. I forgot it in the confusion when leaving the apartment. I forgot.

I feel ashamed.

Move around

2008-06-25T18:11:00.004+02:00

Pack it up, pack it in. Let me begin.

That is what my life is mostly about these days. We'll be moving soon - from sunny Christianshavn to posh Østerbro. There's a few things I won't miss - the beer-smelling square and the herds of tourists for instance. I'll miss the bread from the best bakery in town - Lagkagehuset, though. And the coffee and cozy relaxed mood at Café Keizer.

Oh well, Østerbro is wallowing in cafés. I might find a new hangout for when I need to think or read; or just pretend I'm working.

What kind of Dane am I?

2008-06-19T15:27:00.003+02:00

I'm ashamed.

Having already posted twice on music, I have just realized that none of these posts concern Danish music. I should get my passport revoked.

To underline my danish citizenship and ensure my sensitive readers that I truly am a nationalistic flag-worshipping, queen-loving, pig-eating dane - I rush to you with a Danish treat from the chart-topper Danish electronica-band, the stylish Spleen United. Having released their second album Neanderthal this spring, they recently played two sold-out concerts at trendy Vega, the latest of which I attended some weeks ago. A very good concert, I must say, though a miniscule critique might be that they seem nearly too perfect on stage. For my live-concerts, I like a bit of impulsiveness and unpredictability - the moments of genius that occur when going where you might fail.

Suburbia is the upbeat party-starter track on Neanderthal, and the first track to get released on video. And thanks to Youtube - some things are for free.

Downtime

2008-06-17T19:37:00.006+02:00

In between trying to write an article I am, like everybody else of course, trying to download Firefox 3 - the last version of the famous browser widely rumoured to be faster than a speeding bullet, easier to use than a teaspoon, and slimmer than a stickman. According to schedule it was to be released just about 57 minutes ago. Not surprisingly - right now, though, the webservers at Mozilla are taking a bit of a beating...

This in turn means that I find myself staring at a screen like the one on the right.

I forget why, but while idly browsing around - in an attempt to escape writing - I stumble upon a splendidly named webservice: downforeveryoneorjustme.com

And no, it's not just me.

There's more?

2008-06-08T20:31:00.013+02:00

You're still here?

Ah, you're lurking about for the youtube clip. I understand. Well, I can throw you a bite of catchy french disco - electrohouse, I think this exact subgenre is sometimes referred to. (Note-to-self: someday I should blog and make fun of the whole ridiculous "genre"-concept.)

As I mentioned last time, electronic music is spinning in circles on my stereo and in my headphones these days. After living in Paris for a while, I've tuned my ears to the marvelously stylish and yet danceable french disco-scene. Having ripped through the entire backcatalogue of the splendid Daft Punk (using Play, of course - piracy is so terribly 90's), I'm now in the process of hunting down sound-a-likes.

The tune DVNO by the french duo Justice is smack center in that territory. I've dug out a few other productions from their hand, and I must say that I'm not exactly a full-blown fan; but in DVNO they are impressively unafraid of applying the central ideas of a gut-thumping beat and synth-violins to reach the levels of true catchiness.

Enough with the introductions. Press play!

First post

2008-06-03T18:50:00.008+02:00

Well, I'm back.

After disappearing from the nets for a few months - after careful consideration I've decided to polute the blogosphere with another ill-fated blog. I give this project a 15% chance of being active at the end of the year. As you will note, this time around I will be ranting in English in a feeble attempt to cater for my international acquaintances.

In keeping with the tradition of most personal blogs I've read, I'll treat this space as my personal spillover of random thoughts written during hangovers or after working long hours, populated with far too long sentences, and mostly impenetrable to others. As you will have noted from the carefully selected title, it will probably revolve mostly around music and science. In practice, I will probably end up posting youtube clips, stolen comics, and pictures of the Little Mermaid (again to cater for my international acquaintances, you see).

Well, here goes.

...

Ah. I nearly forgot the youtube-clip. These days, I'm listening to electronic music quite a lot. Just moments ago, the exquisite (yes, Søren, I'm stealing your phrases) Nine Inch Nails song, Somewhat Damaged came on. Highly recommended.