The rules man... the rules.

Yesterday I was close to the High Line park and decided to see it. And was that a good decision or not!? It is the most interesting park I ever visited, with the possible exception for Mainau in the Boden sea and the roof top of the Ghibli museum in Tokyo.
But this is a public park and so futuristic and well designed, or to be honest it parks and design might not match entirely: lets call it adorned. It is very very very nicely adorned.

Not well kept, but well guarded from rabble such as myself who try to smuggle bikes into the park. Oh, I should not have done that! I need to learn the rules. Not that I tried to use the bike. But they, the bikes that is, are not allowed. Like a dog. So I was showed to an elevator and told to leave.

Well I got to see it at least.

Union Pool

I talked to a German woman who exclaimed such a funny thing:
"When I was in Berlin and said that I was moving to NY everyone said: Wow that is the centre of the Universe! And now that I am here it is so lame."

I am most willing to admit that she has a point, not a big one but still a point. However it is also worth noting that she left the place about 15 minutes later to go home and sleep. And I had more or less just arrived.

If I may paraphrase a known Swedish author:
"Lame" said Bill. "The word is Lame." said Bull.

Rapist guy - wtf?

Sometimes it is fairly easy to get offended and sometimes I can not care less. For religion of all types I just resign in-front of the stupidities that are perpetrated each day in the name of a made up character who is supposed to be good but only seems to demand bad things of humans.
Yesterday some friends and acquaintances of mine visited the bar called Union Pool in Williamsburg. In the latter part of the evening 2 chubby guys in white shirts and strange hairdos that looked like the trimmer had broken halfway through the cut started talking to me when I was teaching one of my Colombians some very important phrases in Swedish. The guys turned out to be Jewish although they had forgotten the small hats at home. We talked for a short while about linguistics before my friend asked them about their lack of head protection and for some reason the discussion fizzed out then and there. I felt a sting of my Swedish-ness when I thought that "you should not ask about peoples religions, it is not polite to make them look stupid in a public place". But as I turned to some Norwegian friends who was eager to know what we had talked about I was soon swayed in my perception of that innocent question. One of the Jews had apparently looked at one of the Norwegian girls, who might I add where not provocatively dressed and said that if you dress like that you deserve to be raped. How is your brain working when you think that saying that is your next move?

Conan - wtf

So I just saw Conan the Barbarian, the new one. It got 5.3 in Imdb. The scores on Imdb are infamously high. Usually a Imdb grading around 7 should in reality be about 5, which means that an Imdb grade around 5 translates to about 3, the scale is far from linear though but with reasonable approximations. However, for this particular film 5.3 is actually a very high score, way to high. The question for anyone, fans of Robert E. Howard or just cineastes is the same philosophical conundrum that people have been wrestling with in all ages: "How the fuck can anyone do this?"

Seriously? With a reasonable amount of money and the back-story that is Conan and this smelly garbage is what director Marcus Nispel manages to throw up from the darkest part of his worthless body! I really hope that he wakes up from his weed induced coma and when his brain starts to work again he should feel adequately ashamed. That should melt him into a wet pool on the spot so I guess I will actually hear if it happens.

The strange thing is that a film-production is such a large endeavour so someone somewhere sometime should have said no. I feel this being somewhat parallel to the massacres in Rwanda: someone needs to have the courage to say no and everyone needs the courage to listen.

The Cloisters

The Cloisters is a collection of mostly if not completely French monastery stone and architecture. It is located on the northern end of Manhattan. The different parts of stone has been shipped here and reassembled with new material to a building with some very monastic features. It is a museum and I think it is very interested for anyone with an interest in old monasteries, church architecture and the like. Especially interesting that it is placed here, since all such things are missing in the history of this country.

Beavis & Butthead

I crossed the George Washington Bridge today. Wow. I have done that before in a car, but this time I could see it all. People have been talking about the Williamsburg bridge, even I did that here. Well let me tell you: that is absolutely dwarfed by crossing the G.W. Bridge. It is a huge bridge and a very nice crossing although there is quite a traffic situation. And on the far side in New Jersey the Palisades also put your littleness in proportion to nature. I had a real nature weekend, at least with NY measurements.
I rode through Fort Lee in NJ and was transported back to the time of M-TVs greatness when I went through what must have been the original Beavis & Butthead land. Green lawns, wide streets lined with American styled houses, a bit to big for the small lawns they where resting upon. Stopped over at a Seven 11 and saw a policeman buy what I can only presume must have been doughnuts... ok that assumption might have been a little to perfect. But still: I stick to my story.

Everywhere are traces of the economic situation: closed business spaces and closed out parking lots. But the people living in Fort Lee are probably quite well off judging from the sizes of their houses. But another thing that is evident is what have lead up to this: I was following a street lined with oversized motor-stores of all the international brands. And next to them banks. How often do you see bank offices in the same area as the car-salesmen have their shops? Here they go hand in hand: get a loan then just walk across the street and then you don't have to walk again... Just pay through your nose because you bought a to big vehicle that guzzles gasoline and cost 20 times more than you had.

Bear Mountain and the mouth-man John Mason

We took a cruise ship up the Hudson today with destination Bear Mountain where there was a fair-like October-fest going.
The boat ride was nice enough with 7 happy ladies as my company. But what really shined was the Manhattan tour-guide John Mason who loves his own voice so much that he managed to keep talking long after we had left Manhattan and his area of knowledge. He was then simply "killing it" as we headed back and he announced himself as an eligible target for pick ups and what not, sporting the handle: "Silver Fox". At first I just dropped my jaw at his improbable exclaims and soon he had me laughing out loud in an otherwise silent audience. As I left the boat I shook his hand and declared him "a gentleman and a scholar".

Up in the mountain we did not manage to get to the top because it took some time before we found the trail and instead we ate some "October-fest" food and walked around the lake. When we finally got in to the woods we saw chipmunks (They are so tiny!) and couple having sex. They where very quick, or it can have been the high pitched giggling from some of the girls.

Soon thereafter as we where contemplating heading back we where passed by John & Ray who where walking parts of the Appalachian trail. They commented on the fact that everyone except me where wearing white or black or a combination there of. I followed these gentlemen for a spell when the girls headed back to the boat and we talked about everything from screen design to hiking. Then we parted ways and I headed back and found my self alone with the pine-trees. That was the best experience as I could smell them very intensely. I have not had a good nature experience for some month.
All in all a pretty good day.

Phones in NY

For some reason or the other the use of phones in NY is very limited. The reasons are several such as terrorist scare, extremely tall buildings and open market competition to name the most apparent. Still this does not discourage the locals from extensively trying to use phones. I have only been here three month but I have already resigned since there is little meaning in trying to call people. You might get through on one call out of five. It is just not worth the effort. Texting on the other hand has with the introduction of I-phones become equally hard. I-phone users have stopped viewing the text-message as unit but rather a chat and can resort to sending meaningless text-messages like: "Hi Robert" or "Hey, How are you?" When readers of this blog already know that they are not meaning this as a question but rather a way of greeting. If this is unknown to you you can read more here.
That conversation can be quite irritating for someone paying for each incoming text-message and strange for anyone with a normal phone that will not display the texts as a conversation.
There is a meaning in greeting someone who you do not want to strike up a conversation with when you meet them to say "I see you, I recognize you" but half way around the world? Really? No.

Hurricane Brad

Our Aussie left the office today, going to BBDO. So we had a farewell lunch at a French-sounding place who had soup in their name. The thing was that we had reservation somewhere much further away, but the rain that came down during todays lunch was in the same class as during hurricane Irene. So we managed to move to the French sounding restaurant just about two blocks away. Even so and under cover of umbrellas we all got more or less soaked going back to the office. Which rendered my first day barefoot at the office. Farewell Brad, I hope you have a super time in BBDO!

Ghost biker

Going home on my bike just before midnight along broadway wearing a ghost mask and helmet was of course a sight for tourists and taxi drivers alike. I am generous like that. But the guy who had the best reaction was a guy in Morning side who where hanging out with the buddies outside a cornerstone. The sound he made can not be written with these letters. I hailed him with some other unwritable sound and headed of in the night.

Sleep no more

I went to a theatre called "Sleep no more", which was not a normal theatre but rather a ghost house with actors playing out a 1920-ties version of "the Scottish Play" for those of you who know your Shakespeare and your Black Adder. It is supposed to be a Hotel called the McKiddish and is housed in a five story building with a cellar. You as a visitor and guest are assigned a white mask and implicitly given the role of ghost. You are free to roam the building anywhere and way you might be able to. There are keepers who can stop you and move you at times. And then there are the actors somewhere around 10 or fifteen of them. Acting out their different schemes only rarely with other actors and much more often roaming through the rooms and interacting with the environment. There is also dancing going on when acting out fights and sex. It is an experience, I did like it and was probably most impressed with the surroundings. The actors are good as well. But there is an element missing and that is the interaction. You can of course fiddle around with the stuff and so but you are in no way any ingredient in the story and what happens. There are so called secret rooms to visit, some if not all of which you will be chosen to by one of the actors. Again, I being an interaction designer and a storyteller think there is a missing element in the set up here.
It is quite costly, just shy of a hundred if I am not mistaken, but if you are looking for a different experience this is a good one. If you are in to dancing as well you should definitely go, and if you are a roaring 20-ties guy or gal you should try to get a year long membership.
It is my understanding that the theatre company hail from London where they have set up this and other events like it before so the appearance in NY is surly time limited.
It can also be mentioned that I met a man in the line to get in who had been to the event earlier this week and felt compelled to explore it further. Something I understand very well: it is impossible to follow the whole timeline and see all the actors during the few hours that you have to your disposal.

cultural needs?

Going on the subway tonight I overheard some youngsters talking. One said: "The 8:30 class literally sux". Now I know from experience that this people treat their language like you treat someone else's rabid dog who just bit your daughter. But whit all my imagination I did not manage to empatice that sentence.
Sometimes I wonder if it is possible that humans in different cultures or culturettes in this case can have completely different needs. Kind of Maslow, go shoot yourself.
The things these people talk about, can it really be what they feel is what life is about? Do they not feel the need to eat, sleep, take a good shit, fuck and make an interesting discovery, talk with someone who knows something so that you may know something for a fact yourself? Have they no interest in these things at all? So how does their stair look?

the biking lane... where I walk.

In Central park for instance, or actually that is where this is most specific it is common practise among pedestrians of all sorts to use the biking lane to transport themselves. I might add: slower than your grandmother on her bike from the stone age sometimes. Yes you read me correctly: I am more than a bit frustrated. For the readers who has not visited the park I can tell you that the Park Drive is an one way road with 2 car lanes, a bike track and a walking area sometimes in the form of a sidewalk and sometimes as a extra asphalt road on the side separated by a thin stretch of grass.
Now there are plenty of other walkways in the park that are not open to bikes, but as a rider you have the bike track along the Park Drive. Or so you thought. Some runners, actually most runners think that they run so fast that they should rather run in the biking lane. I might add that I have yet to be run passed by any of the runners in Central Park. Then there are some people out power walking. They also think that they walk about as fast as a bike. And then there are the dog owners who seem to think that their dogs makes them as fast as a bike. And then there are slow fuckers who just do not care that they are not using the walking path, which is usually completely empty. No there is more things going on and people hanging out in the bike lane than anywhere else in the park. I just do not get it.

Peanutbutter revolution III

NYPD, infamous for their violence. I mostly thought it was a reputation that they needed to uphold because it will help them in their daily routine to be looked at as tough-guys. But since I witnessed their sadistic treatment of demonstrators at Wall street, I shall stay wary of any officer in the future.
As non violent as the demonstration in it self is just as unprovoked and without concern for justice did some of the policemen who "intervene" today. The issue at hand was some tarp covering digital equipment that the officers decided to view as a tent for living in. Something that everyone, even the officers with their apparent lack of legal knowledge is well aware is illegal. They could plainly see that this was not the case but instead they went with the violent option of arresting young demonstrators. I would not say that they will be judged for violence: they know better than most that an arrest is a violent process and can never be graceful. It was on the other hand completely meaningless and only suggests that the policemen are losing their calm for what ever reason. They should have not made that move, but inspected the tarp and moved on. It is almost as if they do not want to have freedom?

You can see some videos here, but I warn you that some pictures are disturbing, mainly because it is so meaningless, not that you will see much of damage and violence.

The temperature

It is now a bit chilly outside, the whole transition happened in one afternoon and apparently the autumn is here to stay. It is strange though that it went from sweaty warm to chill without anything in between. It is not the only strange weather related incident here either.

Dead guy

On my way to work today I saw a dead person along side the Hudson River. He was lying on the biking track, this being nothing unusual: most New Yorkers in parks seem to think that running and even walking is almost like biking and therefore should be done in the walking track. But the dead guy was dead and clearly so because he was covered under a blanket and on a stretcher, and the area around him was closed off and a policeman was there keeping an eye on him so he did not start any funny business.
It was mostly undramatic: I had to do some terrain biking to get around the whole scene.

My guess is that the dead person was a homeless dead person, what I could see of the clothes suggested that, although I did only catch a short glimpse since I did not stop.

the streets of NY

When you are out in NY going far and wide on all streets and avenues you soon get very aware of the poor shape of the tarmac and asphalt of the streets. At times you long for Sörmlandish wood roads which in comparison seem flat and even although they still have more patches. I think it is the heavy vehicles that make the wave like ridges, the potholes on the other hand probably has something to do with the heavy rains that drench the city from time to time. But it is the practise to use blocks of concrete and sharp edged metal well lids and such that hurts me and my bike the worst. Right now Madison Avenue has new and very nice asphalt, how ling will it last?

Democrazy Now!

This morning I went up extra early to have the time to take the little detour to Wall Street and give some bread to the demonstrators. Only 16 km extra.
When I got there almost all demonstrator had left to actually go inside the police-barrier and demonstrate on Wall street in front of the exchange. Things are moving along.
Coming back to mid-town I noticed that other things was in motion in the city: around the UN building there where so many police officers that we normal people could not get close. The reason was, according to hearsay (news-networks) that the President is in town and that the Palestinian Question will be discussed today.
A lot going on on the political scene here today but when talking to people here no one has a clue.
Which kind of makes it apparent why things look the way they look in this country.

Please pass judgement on my character

Earlier today 2 persons openly passed judgement on me as a person. The first one was a ten year old boy who I met and played with for about one hour, he might been trying role playing games for the first time, I do not know exactly. I jumped in to the game for a short period playing a not so friendly sea captain. When I was leaving the apartment, putting my shoes on in the hallway (how Nordic!) I overheard the boy remark: "He was cool!"
One to nothing, my favour. Even though I do not like kids very much, I must admit that I do like to get a good remark even from the younger humans.
A half hour later, riding my bike along Broadway all the way from northern Manhattan to the Southern point at a traffic light an older woman seemed to cry at me: "Terrorist!" while I pedalled by, in a less than fast tempo. I did not see her,while I was crossing a larger street and I had to keep my eyes on the traffic situation, but I am pretty sure she directed that word of fear at me. I am not sure why though. Today i was dressed in black shoes, with socks in matching colour. I was wearing long pants, also black which I had folded up so to not have them impede my biking. Above the waist I was sporting a shirt and a tie in perfect matching black and on my head I wore sunglasses and a glossy helmet. Both black of course. I do also have a full beard. I think that matching your clothing patterns/colours and over all dress, as well as your facial hair is close but not fully adequate for a terrorist-or-not call. So even if this old fart was in some error in her judgement there is a certain thrill to upsetting a conservative person: you instantly feel that you are on the right track. So also on this call I rule that it must have been in my favour, since the idiot calling out had no idea what a terrorist is. 2 - 0 in my favour.

Peanutbutter revolution II

Interesting that we where, according to undisclosed source, allowed to stay in Zuccotti Park by it's owner brookfield properties on the condition that we where going to refrain from violence. Like violence would be the normal way of conducting yourself? If this was true it kind of illustrates the problem at hand: the corporations in power does not listen to the angry protesters. Instead they just assume that we are bad people out to destroy. Now even if they where to sit down with us and talk about the problem at hand I do not think that they would be interested in letting go of the power that they bought themselves. But all the other people, who does not own a bank, who can not control the politicians. Should they not be more interested in what we peacefully ask for?
We have taken every precaution to conduct this demonstration peacefully and within the laws constraints. What happens? someone orders Wall street to be closed off and guarded by numerous police officers and us the demonstrators to be, illegally prompted into a park. And in discussion with one policeman where he is asked about lawfulness of politically protesting by sleeping on the side-walk his response is We will not care about that. Then I wish for Judge Dread. A policeman who knows and follows the law, every day, all the time. Summary justice in the hands of the rich can not be a good thing for the rest of us 99%.

Peanutbutter revolution

A report from the slumber party at Wall Street.
We have plenty of peanut-butter but the bread, the fruits and the water is running thin. There are many persons with heart and resolution to make a change. Many are tiered and feel powerless in the face of big capital and the bought parties. No real democracy in this country, the 2000 election and and the Obama presidency's lack of action and fulfilment are often quoted by the people I talk to.
There are people from all walks of life in the park, although younger and whiter is the predominance.
 The question now is if the police will move in and expel the protesters. We wait for their next move.

Biker NY IV

Yesterday I rode my bike far and wide over NYC. Going home I covered somewhere around 23 km. I was kind of bored after 75% of that ride. Even so I spotted four live rats and almost ran over a dead one. Quite the nature experience in the city. To amuse myself I also did the NY high-five with unsuspecting taxi-hailers. Twice, once in the morning going to work and once on the long ride home just to try to make it less boring. It was also one of the things I wanted to check on my NY-to-do-list. Like this.

Noise and the NY-accent

I thought that I had ranted about this before but when I was going to link to it I could not find it, so I will now either repeat myself or put forth a stunning theory in written form for the first time:
Observation 1:
Everything in NY is loud, no resources are used to silence anything. The worst places are where the subway goes over ground, sometimes on metal railing over and along street. The noise as the train passes makes conversation pointless. But even inside the subway cars when there are almost no passengers the noise level is deafening. I measured the noise level in a car once when it was almost empty. Result: peak values of 100 decibel and a mean around 90. This is the reality that a New Yorker live in.
Observation 2:
The New York accent is high pitched and nasal, much like a radio newscaster of olden days.
Syntesis:
Just like the old news casters developed their speech to a high pitched forced sound to get through the ether the New York dialect has evolved in an environment with massive noise to the most communicative frequency and sadly towards a Nanny Fine-type of sound. 

Central Park, I like.

I hear many New Yorkers, and people here visiting express their love for the park. It is such a symbol for the city, such an ambassador for the good of NY. Now, being Swedish, and a naturist I must object to this admiration of the park. It is big, and it is green yes. But it is also dirty in a garbage-everywhere kind of way. And it has cars inside it and it does not have the tranquillity I associate with a green area. Nothing in NY does really.
But I like the park at ten in the evening, when the park way is empty, when I can let my bike go as fast as it was made for, when I can take the curves in the right angle, when it is only me, pedals and the road. That is a NY-moment. And maybe one of the reasons I like to work late.

Feedback and critique

Today I got my first specific feedback on my blog, pointing out some faults on my part. I expected it to come at some point, I just had not thought that much about it. Except I tried to protect myself against this specific criticism of my language through writing something about this blog being my ramblings and that I sometimes don't even bother reading it back before publishing. What we call "brasklapp" in Swedish. In reality another fault on my part: laziness and fear of critique. So I part words when I write. Now I am trying to stop, but it is hard since there are so many words in the English language that is written apart compared to Swedish. But I shall try to better myself. And I would like to thank my dear old friend for having the courage and set aside the time to help me. I appreciate it, even though you make my life harder! I do not think I just opened up the floodgates for a storm of criticism, but if anyone who reads this feel that I should do something differently, or stop doing something or start doing something. Do not keep it to your self: tell me!

Minion

Today I took control over one of the lesser interns and gave him work. I got myself a minion! And I came to think of this because his name is pronounced very much like that although he spells it differently.

It was mot the first time I thought to myself that this that I do now is intern-work. That has happened several times before and then I came to think about that I am an intern too, just a bit more. But this time I thought it was both good to spread my workload as well as having me concentrating on the hard parts of the task. And both the CD and the traffic agreed as well as the person in charge of the intern for the day.

I really tried to explain what we where working on. I showed the assets and talked about the end product as well as showed the animations I had done and explained the code I had written. Still I did not nail it. I did not make my self clear and I did not make him see the vision. This is something that I will have to work on, it is either that or lowering my expectations. And that does not suffice in this environment. So the stuff that he gave me after one correction just would not do. And at that time it was way past bedtime for an unpaid intern. So a paid one could see everything getting pushed back tomorrow. So I ended redoing everything that he had done. And I felt shitty about it. Not that I had to work more; I had planned to go fencing but I had more or less already missed that timeslot and it has been a fun project. The working was fine. But the fact that I was a bad instructor even though I have been teaching for 9 years and that he will se that what he did was not used. He will probably feel a bit bad about it. Ok so I promise myself that I shall give him feedback about what was wrong with the stuff tomorrow. That will be the good part of this. I also got a feeling that he was really looking forward to animate some stuff. Maybe he can get some work on some banners...

Caught In A Mosh

Yesterday I had got my hands and filthy rock n'roll fingers on tickets to the exceptional free show by Anthrax and friends really close to work. The arena it self is called the Best Buy Theater and looks a bit like a spaceship from the original Star Trek series, and according to hearsay takes about 1500 people, enough said.
Anthrax with Joey Belladona on vocals is a musical catastrophe. He never was a good singer and the as the band played the only song from their most important record it became painfully apparent how far Joeys register is from that of the good old days of John Bush. His own songs Joey managed to deliver somewhat without disgrace, but it was far from a shimmering performance. I did how ever not feel in any way cheated on my time there. I mean even a weak Anthrax is worth a look, especially if you get it free. There where some other features to the gig that made it interesting: Kerry King was acting as waiter, serving the band, those who are allowed to drink, some thing strong in between songs and Phil Anselmo came in and played some base. I missed some of the action on scene though because there was such a commotion going on in the mosh area, several incidents that lead to fist fights. I must say, compared to Nordic standards shows in the US suck in that respect. I really do not see why fighting should be part of a concert, for me the moshing is enough. But there where many angry young men, and even more angry old men with big bellies and gigantism. Or at least several of them where very large. The most interesting part was that one guy who got taken away by the guard after fighting and head butting other hapless men came back in after some first aid.
We can conclude that there was much to see and a gig which left most wishes ungranted. Please do what ever it takes to get John Bush back!

Complete nonsense

Yesterday I meet one of the girls from the red team in Medieval Times that I described here. She told me the most fabulous story. Seh claimed that when she was 14 or somewhere around that age she had gone to Medieval Times with her school because they where studying the time of knights and such... Can you believe it? I would like to have five minutes alone with that history teacher.

williamsburg bridge

Yesterday I crossed the Williamsburg bridge on my bike and it was a NY moment. The view is spectacular and the ride mostly easy. It wasn't the best of my moments but still one for this blog.

nine eleven

Today is the day, ten years down the line: mission was accomplished: the United States are tied up in two wars over seas, society has changed for the worse with less freedom and more so called security. Who ever planned this has fulfilled their goals.
The last ten years of war and terror acts from all parts has killed thousands of humans but that is just the measurable statistics. The big impact is for all the rest of us who live with more fear, more religiulousness, less freedom and less understanding. Higher spending on contra constructive and environmentally unfriendly industries. And the grey masses totally miss the point.
When Usama bin Laden was murdered the mainstream media described his organization Al Qaida, the base as being largely unsuccessful. It might be on the verge of collapse, I have no idea, but IF they where part of the planning of the attacks they have succeeded in their efforts to a large extent.
The primary objective to get the USofA into a costly war that can not be won but generates fabulous amounts of revenue for certain privately owned corporations can not be under estimated, while it breeds hatred and sows the seeds of more violence in the future in some of the most unstable regions in the world.   
It is said that there is an elevated risk for new terror attacks in  NYC today, and the fear-mongery goes on. But I wont let that influence me: I will move freely also today.
If I can just find the energy to get out of bed...

Reports from Sweden

These days there are two news items predominantly that get through the filter from Sweden: First thing Swedish police have apprehended 4 persons planning a terrorist attack in Göteborg. They where apprehended close to an art biennial by the national task force located some four hours away in Stockholm. No more information is readily available. The silence about the suspects and their target signals many things but at this point I am not willing to theorise here. It is most disturbing and I await further information about this with great anxiety.

The second item is of much less importance and relates to food: a so called "krovgubbe" or sausage man has since April this year made and distributed the worlds spiciest hot dog called the Harakiri Sausage for unclear reasons, but a guess would be a combination of bad imagination and a WT-disposition.
Any way I have been getting reports of people eating and trying to eat this not so food-like substance in sausage form. I have seen films of the occurrences and it seems like a very painful process. I really do not see the point in it. You want to see any of this I will reluctantly give you a link of the eating here and the aftermath here. All conversation is in Swedish, but you will get the point anyway. And a word of warning: this is not really a meaningful pre-suit.

The Quest, Wilbur Smith II

So I have kept reading the Quest and pretty soon went from sex scenes to a graphical surgery scene. I was reading this part in a crowded subway carriage when my imagination and the disgusting description of a operation during the bronze age almost took me out. My Haemophobia acted up and I was close to fainting in the subway. Instead I stopped reading and sat down on the floor until I could get off the train and sit down for a few minutes. This was not a NY moment but rather the contrary.

Good or bad? It depends on what you wanted to achieve... If I were Wilbur I would have liked it, now I am not Wilbur and I almost fainted in the Subway so I kind of don't like it. Then again that is good advertising for a book: almost fainted from reading it!

Good book!

"That is a good book" she starts, apparently talking to me who just squeezed my bony white ass down beside here on the D-train. Funny thing is that when I left the book in question on my desk at work someone anonymously put a post-it note on the cover of it congratulating me for reading it. Now on my way to work reading the first ten pages and in that time not only discovering one porn-styled sex scene but two I find my self in doubt and also referring to Sidney Sheldon without even having read a word he has written...
Let me tell you how I came to own the book in question. It all started a couple of weeks or a month ago when I visited Rockaway Taco with some friends. We had been trading books among us so I had a handful in my bag when I stumbled up on a trade-shelf where you could either buy books or exchange them one for one. So I gave them my finished Gomorra, (Swedish edition) and picked up this brick-like volume: the Quest by Wilbur Smith.
It is supposed to be a "historical novel" set in the land of the Pharaohs. In reality as far as I can tell it is a fantasy novel set in a time of heroes, as a great struggle between good and evil... (use your most manly voice) AND quite uncalled for sexual descriptions of the type found in "Earth's Children" (a.k.a "Grottbjörnens folk" for all you Swedish people out there).

This story will have to be continued, it is a large book and I have not ventured to far yet.

Bushwick

Last Friday I headed to Bushwick, the shadiest part of Brooklyn yet to see a show by Red Dwarf. The venue was something resembling a mall crossed with a squat-joint. It goes by the name of "the Loom" and they are having shows or happenings every first Friday of the month.
I do not know how many shows Red Dwarf has played before but my guess is none at all. Their biggest problem this night was the room that they played in, next to that I would mention the sound system before getting to the music. The room, sound system and rigging made it impossible to hear the vocals of the three singers who all shared one microphone. I guess that kind of illustrates the problem somewhat, could you also see how the mic hung limp from it´s stand that would be an even more telling picture for a band playing "dick-wave".
The whole ensemble was loud though: the rest of the evening I felt sorry for not finding my earplugs and the next morning my exposed ear still had a bit of tinnitus wave in the distance. Good or bad, well it depends on what you set out to accomplish.
I like the performance in that the guys had energy, the talking in breaks was less interesting, for one we learned that the base player lead a busy life running between concerts, his own and other peoples.
Any way now I am doing the same disfavour to you, let me instead tell you about dick-wave: It is pretty much like FM rock, but add some small harmonies sounding like 8-bit console games played out on guitar, quite fast. Apparently one of the singing guitarist made the word up but when I later talked to a friend working in the music industry she related it to some musician that she knows... might all have been a misunderstanding. I will go on believing that Red Dwarf play FM or Collage Rock. They certainly looked the part.
I would see Red Dwarf again, I would bring earplugs and hope for a better place to play so I could hear a few words from songs about if I understood it correctly "giving head at truck stops". Sounds interesting, Turbonegro might have done a song about that, only they did not, but they could have. That is reason enough to listen.

Hey Bushwick, you shady hoe, you!

Autumn

As I mentioned here Labour-day marks the end of Summer and there for the coming of fall. This was mysteriously precise: today I woke up with a steady autumn rain, the warmth had left us and for the first time since I got here it was not painful to wear long trousers. I even donned my rain coat and it felt correct at times. At no point during the day did I sweat like a pig and the rain kept falling. The autumn is here and it is on time. Sadly, for I was not done with my NY summer.

Taco Jesus

Until tonight I have not had any reason accept the very obvious one to visit and eat at Taco Jesus (not a food branch of Swedish "Skiv-Jesus") that is located on my very street. Unfortunately for me Jesus and pretty much the rest of the world at least the ones who can read English and has internet access it was closed when I got there. It looked cozy though, I did not see a single wooden cross or any nails, no Roman legionnaires where lurking with hammers in the shadows that I could discern. No it actually looked pretty much like a home painted, bright colour Latino restaurant in the heart of Harlem. But sadly just closed as I entered. Well no shadow on Jesus tonight I was out late, but when Jesus can not save you there is always Taco Express! The food truck that stands in between Amsterdam and Broadway and makes loud noises, finally useful! I ordered Chicken BBQ and Goat BBQ tachos, hey you need to try it, don't you think? No you are right. It was not pointless but kind of meaningless. It really tasted goat. What did I expect? Well what do you think? Why would anyone want to sell goat tasting tacos in NY that is my question. Anyway I give the tacos a rating of a weak 3 out of 5. They where fresh, well made and did not contain cheese. Could have had some more diversity to the ingredients and both meats where a bit boring.

Labour day

Today is Labour day, and therefore I do not labour. Apparently it marks the end of summer and holliday season, as well as the time to wear white. When do you get to start wearing white? So many questions unanswered.
Clearly this is a national holiday and it all started in the 1880thies with some striking in Canada some ten years before that to get a 58 hour work week. That is interesting: if everyone worked more than 60 hours per week in the olden days what did they actually accomplish? Yes we stand on the shoulders of our predecessors, but what was the efficiency back then? How efficient are we today? I tried a few googles on this matter and all I get is a bunch of tips on how to get more efficient. But I am looking for the hard facts as well as a definition of work efficiency. Somehow you would think that Speedy Fred would have set something like that up when he started... If anyone has input on this please let me know!

Apollo 18

The movie Apollo 18 by Gonzalo López-Gallego just recently premiered, now this is such a movie you do not want to know anything about before you watch it. There for my review will be as short as the attention span of a ten year old boy. You might say the film sorts in to the multigenre of Sci-fi and Horror, it is made in a mocumentary style with very little on the side, much like "I'm still here" by Casey Affleck. I guess it is the thing now and it sometimes works to fool people of it's authenticity. In this case let us just throw that idea out the door. This is a good film. I recommend you to see it. It is well made, interesting and if I could lift two strong points it would be the form which is so nicely executed and the the storytelling gives you both that eerie feeling and is quite far from ordinary Hollywood style.  I don't think you could have made such a movie 10 years ago. There are other marks of it's time to Apollo 18, I have already mentioned the style and the telling. But this I wil leave for the viewer to explore themselves. Happy viewing!

in sickness and in health...

Being sick is about the most meaningless thing ever invented.

the difference

What is the big difference between Sweden and the USA? There are a number of things that could be mentioned in this section, but I am going to boil it down for you dear readers, I have through long studies: 35 years in one of the countries and about 3 months in the other, and add to that countless hours of video studies found the very definition of differences between the royal kingdom of the North, old three crowned Sweden, mythological land of the Vikings on the one hand and the not so democratic republic of the new west, the land of rape and honey, the young and the brave United States of America, mythological land of the now almost extinct proud warriors of the 'injuns.
The difference, and I mean the big difference is... drumroll? No? ok, that the tomato sauce in the baked beans is more red in Sweden?! This is such a big thing. You get the feeling that the more red the tomato sauce is the more strange substances there are in it. Even though tomatoes are red I don't think that they retain that colour after being butchered and boiled to a sauce to put the beans in. And further more my preconceptions are that Swedish food consists of less extras and strange stuff.
The observations made with the baked beans is there fore a most crucial one: it must mean one or more of several things: 1. Tomatoes could actually be more red in another climate. Studies in the vegetable and fruit section contradicts this. 2. There are more extras and strange stuff in Swedish food than in American. If this is true then Sweden is truly lost because the stuff they put in the food here is horrifying. 3. Colour perception could differ in different places of the world, studies from old analogue camera film support this claim. 4. I am dead wrong: tomatoes without extras makes a more red sauce. I would not be all that surprised actually...

Lost memories of films that I never saw...

In 1998 "Dark City" by Alex Proyas was released, or so we are told. It is a story about memories, the film maker would probably even go as far as to say that the film deals with what it is to be human... I would probably not agree if I was forced to make up my mind. The film is a noir sic-fi, but it is much more. Not because of how good it is by it self but rather because it was made in 1998. This film does not deal with what the human souls is. This film is a mixture of Nosferatu vampires, X-files abduction, Gotham City, an imagery boarder lining Aronofskys Requiem for a Dream, only two years before Aronofsky made his mater piece (No, "Black Swan" is not even close) and a plot line with too many touch points to the Wachowski brothers Matrix. Or what do you make of this:
The humans are sleeping. Someone, a force that is unseen can manipulated every detail of every day life. A life that is a lie, in a city that is never ending and more or less just a stage. The agents for the force is keeping the humans as unaware prisoners. With the help of "technology so advanced that it is indistinguishable from magic" to quote Isaac Asimov. One man possess the power to over throw the system and free the humans. This man can even beat the bad guys on their own turf; he has evolved far beyond their control of their force. The extensive use of 3D effects with houses shape shifting and so on and the list goes on and on.
All this in 1998, one year before Matrix, and 2 years before Requiem for a dream.
The interesting part is that I had never heard of the film before I found it by chance, yesterday. Even more fitting considering that the film has the backdrop of lost memories and how these are fabricated. Now there are several other films that have tie ins to this film like the bizarreties of Cronenbergs "Naked lunch" from1991 and that the main character has the same haircut that Paul Reiser sported in Camerons "Aliens" (1986)... and again this film was supposed to be made in 1998! But that is beside the point and those movies where made prior to this one.
This film has so many touch points with Matrix that I have to dub it a proto-Matrix, although it does not come close in quality. Around that time, pre the terrorist-scare of this new millenia there were several films dealing with concepts of humans trapped in fake worlds, interesting to note that Cronenberg also did eXistenZ in 1999 and Natalis Cube in 1997. But still this film or maybe the inferior script for it must have had some impact on Matrix and Requiem for a Dream. This does not just happen.
What I do not get is how I managed not to be aware of this films existence? It has been 13 years since it was made, they tell me...