Looking forward to spending a few days on the southwestern coast of Norway; never been in that part of the country (shame on me) so it's going to be great. Staying with friends I haven't seen in a long while so I bet we'll be chatting a lot and sleeping very little. Going there means I'll be back at my favourite spot in a few hours' time - Gardermoen International Airport (although I believe the international companies call it "Oslo Airport" - its abbreviation is OSL.) See you in a few days! Hopefully I will have taken a couple of photos by then. I did when I visited the same couple in Fredrikstad one and a half years ago (yes, they lived there - it's a beautiful city but I haven't seen much of it, unfortunately. Shame on me again.)

Looking forward to seeing Bubba Ho-Tep before going to bed tonight, though. Bruce Campbell is such fun.

Current track: Nothing, the telly's on. The theme for American Dreams I guess.

Labels: film, holiday, Norway

Feeling a bit lost after having watched five films today: Baby Boom - seen this one three times before, cute kid - Being There - this is the film that made me a Peter Sellers fan back in the eighties (!!!) but I can't say I remembered any of it - La Cage aux Folles - the original, French film, which is as old as I am AND brilliant - La Cage aux Folles II - after having seen this right after the original I feel I know Renato and Albin so well it's making me slightly confused - and finally Bring Me the Head of Mavis Davis - I finally got it on DVD, as my tape was getting worn out.

I think I must ooh-là-là myself to bed. Toodles!

Current track: The techno track from AstroPop (the very addictive game)

Labels: film

Young man of about 20 standing behind the counter at the local newsagent's: "That's a very nice watch you've got there. Very subtle and elegant." I was rather perplexed. He was wearing a baseball cap and baggy trousers and slurring like some teenagers do. As I left he said "have a wonderful evening. Take care!" (As in "take care of yourself", not just "bye".) Just goes to show you should not judge a book by its cover.

Holiday's started. Will be watching films most of this weekend. Have got ten newly arrived ones to look through. I feel lazy, but then again the weather isn't very nice these days.

Current track: Nothing.

Labels: personal

Watched Hey Mr. Producer last night. I've wanted to own this tape for so long and I bought the CD (long live eBay) last year, but only got around to buying the video about a month ago. Didn't watch it till yesterday. So much for being a fan. Ahem. Anyway.

It was of course better than just listening to the CD. Unfortunately they've tried to put so much into the three-hour-long show that a couple of my favourite songs have been cut short - the sacrilege being cutting a whole verse out of Stars AND speeding it up a bit. One of the numbers started out in a way I didn't recognise from the CD, and at this point I had put away the playlist, deciding to be surprised instead. It was Jonathan Pryce walking out on stage, saying something, then when the music started I let out what could only be described as a cross between a primal scream and the infamous sound simply called nngh; I had instantly recognised the intro to The American Dream from Miss Saigon. I've had that song on my mind all day.

I came to think of a couple of things, though. I have recently become very fond of musicals; I blame a friend of mine for putting on Master of the House from Les Misérables as I visited them three summers ago. I borrowed the CD (the 10-year anniversary concert version) and was hooked a few days later. Up till then I'd thought of theatre as boring and musicals as being the silliest thing around since laserdiscs. I mean, there's no resemblance to real life in musicals; who would suddenly break out singing and tap dancing in real life, unless they were mad? But all of a sudden I realised that musicals were brilliant; they mixed two of the things I hold most dearly: Acting and music. What could be better than that? Thus began my slight interest in musical theatre. I've got a lot of catching up to do, though, especially since I'm interested in new musicals as well as the older ones that are so popular with tourists. My favourites are quite a mixed group. There's Les Mis of course, then I also appreciate Martin Guerre (same composers) and I bet I'll love Miss Saigon (yep, same composers) if I ever find a version I can import tax-free. However, I'm very much into The Fix, which believe me I would have kept running longer by buying lots of tickets if I'd been rich back in 1998. I think Avenue Q has a lot of funny songs and the premise is original too. I'm currently listening to The Boy from Oz, which I think has a lot of potential once I get into it (it certainly has a lot of Hugh Jackman in it); Bounce and Zanna, Don't! Once I followed the story of South Pacific I realised it was very sad and I get emotional every time I listen to it, but it's definitely a favourite. Another one of my all-time favourites only recently became a full-blown musical, and that is Paris. It's a kind of a rock musical, very catchy songs and a great cast on the studio recording. Recommended. Considering I like that one, I'm sure I would also appreciate We Will Rock You, Taboo and Our House (I'm a Madness fan, by the way, became one 20 years after they started out in North London. I feel like I've missed a few decades here.)

The Lord Lloyd Webber musicals are always sure winners, and that made me think about what makes a great musical tune. First of all, it has to be catchy. Not necessarily up-tempo, but something that people will recognise instantly, something they will remember when they leave the theatre. There's a connection to Eurosong tunes there. Second, it must convey feelings. You should associate the catchy song with some kind of strong emotion, be it happiness, sadness, despair, melancholy, love, even childhood memories. When it comes to songs featured in musicals, the lyrics come in second place. People from all over the world travel to Broadway or the West End in order to hear their favourite tunes; many of them understand very little English but music is universal (even though there are regional variations, all music comes from the same source.)

I may have to revise my new theory. Until then I would like to be excused, as I simply have to listen to The American Dream again. Good night!

Current track: Jonathan Pryce - The American Dream

Labels: Lloyd-Webber, music, musicals

LOL! It's not that wondrous, it's just that I've got a couple of questions from people wondering what kind of a mobile I've got. First of all, since I'm Norwegian I have to make sure you understand I bought this phone because I needed a new one, not because I change phones every three months. OK?

My new mobile is the Siemens CX65. I used to have the SL55 but it was crap. Well, not crap, the software was very good and the phone itself was a catch, but the size was sufficient for someone with tiny fingers, and since I don't appreciate giving mobile phones to toddlers, I'd actually advise against this phone. I would still stick with Siemens, though, because I've grown quite fond of them this past year since I bought the SL55. AND it's a big hassle to learn yet another SMS layout. ;-) My first mobile phone, back in '97, was a Motorola brick which had one line of text and no communication between the phonebook and SMS messages, meaning you'd have to remember the number of whomever you were texting. It also had just two volume settings: Off and really loud. I kept that phone for two and a half years, before switching to the then very popular Nokia 3210, a few weeks before the price plummeted. Oh, well. It still works, although it needs a battery which probably costs more than the phone is worth. That's why I switched phones again last summer; soon the Siemens SL55 came home with me and we had a passionate love affair until last week when I dumped it for the younger model CX65. ;-)

It's quite impressive, this little thing. The screen is what is the most attractive part of the whole phone; it's got 65,536 colours and room for nine lines of text in addition to both a menu at the bottom and a "title indicator" line at the top of the screen. I was afraid this phone was going to annoy me, as it took a couple of days for the battery to become fully charged. It seems to have stabilised now. Due to the large colour screen, however, the battery needs to be either powerful or recharged quite often. I'm hoping for the first option.

The camera resolution is 640x480, which is crap for a digital camera you bring with you on holiday, but very good on today's mobile phone market (can you tell this is my line of work?). You can even make film snippets, but they're really no more than snippets because of the storage limit of 11MB (of which about 40% is used by pre-installed software, photos and sounds.)

Thanks to the Mobile Phone Manager program available from Siemens, you can quite easily move photos, tunes and messages between your PC and the phone (you'll need an inexpensive cable, though). Ever since polyphonic ringtones were introduced a few years back, it's become very easy to make your current favourite tune the ringtone for your mobile, and the MPM programme lets you copy them to the phone without having to download them from some greedy company. Just find the tune on the 'Net (ever heard of MIDI?) - they're everywhere, really - and copy it to the phone and hey presto! You'll be able to hear your favourite tune whenever your phone rings. I'm also VERY pleased that I can copy my favourite photos from the computer to my phone. This way I can have the same photo as a background on my PC as well as on my phone (although in a smaller scale, naturally.) Yum.

The calendar feature has become an important part of my daily life this past year, and I can't see how a scatterbrain like myself would ever do without its reminder function. ;-) The downside is that for some wicked reason it's not possible to synchronise the calendar with Outlook's calendar, even though its little brother, the M65, built on the same hardware and much of the same software, can do that quite well. We're hoping for an update soon, but that may never happen. Thanks to the infrared interface I can, however, move info between the phone and my PDA, which is a nifty feature.

There's been a leap in mobile technology since my first mobile phone back in 1997 and it's constantly evolving, so I'm pretty sure what impresses me now is laughable in a few years' time. Bigger, better, faster, right?

Disclaimer: I do not work for Siemens. :-)

Current track: Roxette - It Hurts

Labels: technology

I read Caution Uneven Surface earlier tonight and was inspired to do a post on pretension. I don't like it one bit. You know, people trying to pose as being intellectual and then turning out not to be. Or this notion that one has to love jazz and philosophers and nothing else in order to be an intellectual. Like these people are better than the rest of us; the only ones putting them up there are themselves. They're annoying. Look, I listen to techno and heavy metal and The Beatles. I read crime novels and watch a lot of TV. I like Austin Powers. Does that make me less intelligent or something? Well, then. I also listen to so-called classical music (you see, I do know "classical" is the wrong term, that what we call "classical" consists of several musical periods). I listen to Miles Davis. I read books about language, Asian history and religion because it interests me. I watch the Discovery Channel. I go to the theatre (uhmm...yes. Not just to see musicals.) I have read Livy, Cicero and Martial in their original form. See? Looks stupid when one goes all pretentious, doesn't it?

Excuse me, I'm going to bed. I have a very plain job to go to in the morning. I really hate my job.

Current track: Reset - Blue

Labels: personal

Not yet, but getting there. Yesterday, after having been a tourist for a couple of hours, I got back home and slipped a DVD into the player. It just took off from there. Apart from the occasional pee break and snack attack and the ever-so-annoying nightly sleep, I've been watching films ever since one o'clock yesterday afternoon: Cypher (better than I thought, and Jeremy Northam had an interesting, nerdy look), East is East (third time I watch it and it just gets better), Bent (slow-paced drama about the treatment of homosexuals in Hitler's Germany; a much overlooked aspect of that period, as well as what they did to gypsies, people with Down's syndrome and physically disabled people - their cruelty is beyond belief; this film also features Mick Jagger as a fugly drag queen), My Name is Joe (now, this one was bit difficult to follow for someone who's not used to listening to Glaswegians all day long, but I got through it all right), Nuevas reinas/Nine Queens (the only Argentinian film I own; when I first saw this film I knew I just had to have it - it reminded me of The Sting, which is one of my topmost favourites ever), Frida (second time I see it - I really like this film and I can finally admit that Salma Hayek can act. But what is it about Alfred Molina in this one; I know they've done something to his appearance but I can't for the life of me see what it is), Sister Act (must be the fourth or fifth time I see this, I particularly like the lively Kathy Najimy and the very proper Dame Maggie Smith in this one, as well as the music, of course) and The Actors. This film was a big surprise. It's gone unnoticed past anyone but the critics, who'd like to send it to hell, it seems, but I really liked it. Dylan Moran has been a favourite since I first laid my eyes and ears on Black Books (brilliant!) and he's really good in this film. So is Sir Michael Caine as per usual, but the biggest surprise was Sir Michael Gambon. Now, I know he can act, but I haven't really paid any attention to him until now (although I'm one of those not the least bit disappointed by his Dumbledore.) His hilarious turn in The Actors may very well cause me to begin following his career (which has already been going on for more than 40 years.) And he's tall. Not that that's got anything to do with it, I just thought you'd like to know.

My DVD recorder is very picky. It may tolerate non-brands but would rather accept well-known DVD media brands, preferably of its own brand. This has come to my attention recently, as I have been a bit unlucky with some of the media I've put into it. This week I almost fainted when it went into its infamous "recover" loop on my most precious DVD recording. Skip this paragraph if you don't know anything about DVD-ripping and/or -recording and you want to stay ignorant. The disc in question hadn't been finalised yet, meaning it can only be played on DVD recorders that accept DVD-R media. I had just been watching this precious programme and decided to finalise the disc. Just as I had typed in the title, it goes into "Recover" mode. This is (apparently) a well-known bug in this recorder, and if you're unlucky it may render the whole disc unusable. I freaked out and started cursing at the recorder (which pretended not to be listening.) It turned off and on a couple of times, then came back to where it had been. Panicking, I took the DVD out of the tray, not wanting it to swallow it completely (my last DVD player did that; I was watching my very precious Ultraviolet series when it suddenly stopped and refused to open its tray. I had to disassemble the bleeding thing in order to get it out of there; I bought a new player within the week.) Earlier today I dared putting it back. Fortunately, the programme is still playable (thus far, touch wood) but only on that very recorder. The problem is I would have bought brand media if they'd been available. I've been looking for a year, buying a few through eBay (ooh, that reminds me, must check if I won last night's auction,) but no stores sell that particular brand here, and my contacts within the company can't be arsed to answer my questions. Great customer support. However, since I'm actually very pleased with the product apart from this little flaw (which is wholly due to my own cheapness, really, and not in a tarty sort of way,) I won't mention any names or brands. I've just got one tip for you: Don't buy cheap recording media of any sorts. It usually isn't worth it.

Current track: Roxette - Milk and Toast and Honey

Labels: alfred molina, comedy, film, technology

I went out on Saturday in order to be a tourist in my own town. I actually went downtown to replace some shoes, but as the weather was nice and I really didn't feel like going home just yet, I followed the stream of people walking (seemingly aimlessly) around the city. I have no exact figures, but it looked like about 80% of the people in the central areas were tourists. I heard a whole lot of different dialects and languages being spoken.

Anyway, my new mobile phone came by post on Thursday and I decided to try out its photographic abilities. It's nothing like my real digital camera, but it's better than having no camera at all. So I took a few photos for your pleasure.

First, there's the cruise ship that was moored by the harbour on Saturday. This picture also shows the diversity of the harbour, or should have, had it not been so blurry, but anyway there are four or five wooden sailboats there as well, in front of the gigantic cruise vessel (don't remember its name...Princess something.)



Then I just had to take a picture of this, a perfect example of the exploitation of the tourists; as soon as they step off the ship, they're funneled straight into the tax-free shop:



The weather was nice:



A few photos from Akershus Fortress, built in 1299 and still in use by the military, although to a much lesser degree than earlier; most of the fortress area is open to the public and some of the lawns are perfect for sunbathing. In the summer, that is.

Here are some of the cannons:



A pond inside the fortress as well as some of the buildings show you how idyllic this place is:





Another (blurry) view of the harbour:



And here's the view of Aker Brygge/Aker Pier and the City Hall (the brown building to the far right - it's actually got two towers but I was too lazy to move). It looks very fuzzy, but the Pier area is very popular during the summer (and thus also the most expensive place to go out, and that says a lot when it comes to Oslo, one of the most expensive cities in the world!)



Then I went up to the Royal Palace:



Another blurry picture, this time of a member of the Royal Guard (and no, I didn't get his name - they don't say much):



(I'm including this less blurry photo as well, visit The Royal Guard's website - which for some very strange reason has no pages in English)



Here's the view from the front of the Palace, facing the Karl Johan's Street, Oslo's main boulevard, currently being renovated for the mother-of-a-party happening next year when we're celebrating getting rid of the Swedes our hundred-year-old independence.



And another one of the Palace. The wife of a much-discussed politician managed to drive their car down these steps after dropping off her husband for a dinner at the Palace a few years ago, and we're still bringing it up from time to time. Took the focus off her monster of a hair-do (see below.)





Then the mandatory photo of the University - most tourists take a picture of this before realising it's not the Royal Palace. Anyway, this is the downtown area of the University, which houses the Faculty of Law. The "real" campus is based further west. Basically, the University has got faculties, institutes and museums scattered around the city. The buildings in the city centre are nevertheless the oldest university buildings, dating back to 1852 (even though the University itself was founded in 1811.)



On the other side of the pavement from the Faculty of Law there's Spikersuppa, a favourite spot between the Parliament and the Royal Palace, housing a large fountain and a pond that becomes a skating rink in the wintertime (which is more or less six months. Grr.) The sculpture you see in front of the fountain is changed regularly so that lots of artists get shown.



Finally, I managed to take a photo of the American Embassy without the guards noticing me. Considering how paranoid they are (a man got arrested for throwing a paper plane towards the building a few years back - perhaps they thought it to be in bad taste) I wasn't sure if they'd let me take a photo, so I took a picture just as one of the guards was busy fastening the chain on one of the makeshift gates surrounding the area. Again, this isn't a very good photo, but you can just about make out the fences they've put around the building, blocking up half the street. The building is in a triangular shape, btw, it's not just a funny angle.



There are a few things I've noticed about tourists, after having watched them every summer for eight years. First of all, if they're obese, wearing sunglasses and large cameras, they're American. If they're tiny, wearing sunglasses and large cameras, they're Japanese. However, they could be Chinese; they are starting to go travelling abroad as well. If they're blindingly white, speaking English and looking for the nearest chip shop (which doesn't exist), they're English. If they're blindingly white, speaking English with a funky accent and looking for the nearest Bierstube (which doesn't exist), they're German. If they're driving a caravan or mobile home and speak as if they've got a potato stuck in the throat, they're either Danish or Dutch, possibly Belgian. If they sound a bit like us but keep complaining about how silly we Norwegians are, they're Swedish. If they are Polish, they're not tourists, they work here.

I love tourists, though. They are usually very polite, put their litter in the bin and are really cute when they're standing in the middle of the street with their unfolded map, looking very confused. I always want to give them directions, but usually when they ask me I have no idea about where it is they're supposed to go. "Eexcoos me, fere iz ze Fikink sheeps, bitte?" (Pause.) "Oh, the Viking ships? Right, just take the bus over there..." I love them when they ask me in their own language, though. Italians in their sixties, utterly distraught, looking for the Royal Palace, not speaking a word of English. Turkish students looking for their hotel, constantly pointing at their map as if to say "it's supposed to be right here!" (It was; it was just around the corner. It is the tallest building in the city. In the country, actually. Easy to miss.) I love tourists because they come visiting my town, this city that I like so much and it makes me proud that they take a trip here, even if it's just for a few hours, stopping on their way to the fjords on the western coast and the world's northernmost city (good luck on your VERY long journey up there; it's like going by car from Oslo to Rome, you know, or even longer. Plus it's by sea.) As I was walking up and down Karl Johan's yesterday I spotted all the tourists enjoying a cup of caffe latte or an ice cream in the cafés and thought "this is exactly what I would have done in a foreign city; sit for a couple of hours in a nice café, sipping a cup of expensive coffee, only to discover by the time I left that if I'd walked around the corner there would have been a much less expensive and even nicer place and I could have afforded a newspaper as well." Oh, well. Yesterday's tourists were lucky; it's been raining here for weeks now (including today) but yesterday was all sunshine.

Still awaiting the summer of 2004. Please don't tell me we had it back in May.

Current track: Pacific Blue - Ocean (ooh, memories)

Labels: Norway, technology

Watching a couple of TV commercials it suddenly hits me how incredibly dull the world can be sometimes. There was a commercial about this month's edition of some men's magazine, stating that they had photos of sexy girls. A few moments later, there's a commercial about some hair product in which a male model flips his hair around and grins (you're just waiting for his teeth to twinkle.) I'm sitting there thinking "I really don't find any of these people the least bit fascinating." Of course, that means I'm not mainstream. No new information there. I know the US has got (too) many magazines for all sorts of tastes. So, I'm looking for Flabby, Middle-Aged Men Monthly or Scar-faced Beauties! Magazine or even "People With a Certain Something" Fans Digest. Please give me a ring if you find any of these.

Current track: Morrissey - Why Don't You Find Out for Yourself?

Labels: humour, personal

Are you suffering from too large a penis? Go to Bucharest and have it removed!

Current track: Orup - Magaluf

Labels: current affairs, humour

Nine-year-old girl set fire to in Sydney park - I'm just...why? Just: WHY???
 
At least they've found Bobby Fischer.

Current track: Anastacia - Sick and Tired

Labels: current affairs

Beating the Swedish is always very important to us. This time it's the Human Development Index, part of the Human Development Report 2004 presented by The UN Development Programme at this precise moment. We're the number one country (out of 177) this year just as we've been for the past three years. People think we should stop whining. In my opinion, if we hadn't been a nation of whiners we wouldn't have had all the incredible progress we've had for the past sixty years, starting out as a developing country in the 40's. Unless you live in a utopia, whining is good for progress, human rights included. Yay us.

Current track: Nothing.

Labels: current affairs, Norway

This blog is getting quite a few hits from people googling for Susanna Mälkki and Dennis Storhøi (although, strangely enough, never at the same time.) You really should look elsewhere for any fan pages; I've just happened to mention them a few times. Of course, now that I've mentioned them again there will only be even more hits. *grins*

Current track: REM - Everybody Hurts

Labels: dennis storhøi, personal, technology

Went to see Super Size Me yesterday; pretty scary stuff he presents about fast food, I must say. Didn't get the "oh no, I'll never ever eat at McDonald's again" reaction I was warned about, but that's probably because I hardly ever go to burger joints anyway, perhaps twice or three times a year. I don't feel that guilty after watching this film. It's quite disturbing that as much as 60% of the Americans are overweight, though. And I had no idea P.E. isn't mandatory over there. Connection? Hmm...

Current track: Morrissey & Siouxsie - Interlude

Labels: current affairs, film

Every year this terrible event takes place in Spain (popularly "Pamplona"); hundreds of bulls are set loose in the streets, chasing mad and cruel people for miles before ending their lives in a traditional bullfight. Which isn't much of a fight, really, more of a barbarically prolonged murder. Yes, this is my opinion. I think any person with the least bit sympathy for other living beings believe the same. Still, this isn't stopped. Tourists keep the tradition alive.

Every year I'm browsing the papers to see if anyone's been killed in the run. No one has been killed yet this time around, but a few people have been gravely injured. I have absolutely no sympathy for them. They have deserved it. Just like the people leaving their pets on the motorway these days just to get rid of them before going on holiday. Who are these people? They are all around us, they're our colleagues, neighbours, they're the man on the street. Unfortunately not the man lying in the street, being run over by hundreds of speeding cars.

I vote for lynching coming back into the judicial system.

Current track: The radio.

Labels: animals, current affairs

First of all, this rant is mostly about American conservatives, who are rather different from the European ones that I'm more used to. However, it's the American ones we usually hear about over here because...well, they're so much more extreme. It seems like right-wing extremists are totally legal and accepted in the US. We sort of started getting rid of that after WWII, but hey, everyone's entitled to their own opinion. I support everybody's right to express their beliefs and feelings, but for some reason I find it more balanced and fair that this goes both ways. With extremists, this hardly ever occurs. Also, extremists have this peculiar way of expressing themselves in that they tend to be off-the-point and clearly misinformed. Some of them seem brainwashed. This goes for any kind of extremists, not just conservatists even though those are the ones I'm addressing right now.

Of course, in their eyes I'm stupid and the one who's misinformed. I just don't see their problem. What's happened in their lives which make them so angry with other people, so scared and so paranoid? What makes them think they're above this god a lot of them are worshipping? Judging other people is, after all, playing god. Makes me wonder if their god really intended this to happen in the first place. I'm saying "their god" because I just can't believe in someone who just lets all of this happen. Sometimes I'm hoping this god realised what a mistake (s)he's made and started all over again on some other planet or in some other universe, abandoning this place, because I'd like to think that if there were a god or several gods who ruled the universe, (s)he/they would like their creation to be equally perfect to themselves. I'm undoubtedly not the only one to ever have said this, so I'm pretty sure the so-called Christians have already lots of premade replies to this one. After all, they're getting pretty used to having to defend their religion these days, as the Enlightenment Age has come and gone and we're all a little bit less superstitious and a lot more skeptical. We've become a lot more scientific in our personal approach to problems that come up.

The thing that led this on, was a comment made on this blog, by semi-regular reader Percy, containing a link to Conservative Petitions, a website I support in no way whatsoever, mainly because I discovered I agree with them on one point only, and only halfway through that one. There were quite a few, in my view, outrageous comments and accusations on that site, and some of them were outright appalling. The lack of homosexual rights is a pet peeve of mine, if you could put such a serious problem under such a trivial label. Three of the petitions I read were particularly aggressive towards gays. One of them basically equals homosexuals to paedophiles. I totally agree with them that paedophiliac tendencies are vile and I can't even begin to express what I think of those offenders, but then that is the general belief among people all around the world; the Christian fanatics aren't the ones that came up with that idea. But when they state that homosexuals should not be allowed to become mentors within the "Big Brothers, Big Sisters" movement because there was a case about a paedophile, homosexual man molesting his "little brother" in the programme, I'm thinking "does that mean all Catholic priests should not be allowed to be around children at all?" Generalisation is very dangerous.

In another petition Conservative Petitions stated that "Wal-Mart is the lynch pin in the sodomites' plans to conquer America and subvert our nation's morals." The sodomites they're talking about here, are the American homosexuals, apparently. For some reason they threaten America, it seems. I'm having a very hard time believing this. Firstly, I'm having problems picturing this ever happening. Secondly, I'm having great trouble understanding how anyone can say this. In a third petition they say "If America's youth isn't propagandized, how else will homosexuals have fresh meat upon which to feed? They are counting on confused minds, when faced with life's awkward moments of doubt, choosing to believe the lie." Fresh meat upon which to feed??? This is absolutely horrid. It scares me beyond belief that some people actually feel this way; I'm wondering what makes them say it. What goes on in their minds? I am too far away from their stand to ever in the least bit understand their views, however, and even though it would be interesting to catch a glimpse of what goes on in there, I must say I'm relieved that I'll never understand it. I can see the cause in some instances, but never feel the same, thus I'll never comprehend that view.

Many of the other petitions seem to be full of paranoid views. I bet some of those people are amazed every day when they wake up to see that Armageddon hasn't happened yet. They'd probably be better off living in secluded villages in the mountains or something. Coming to think of it, some of them already do. I find it very frustrating that the nation that calls itself the Greatest Nation in the World (and believe me, the rest of the world mostly don't think of the US that way) is harbouring these extremists. When they say that "homosexuals experience high rates of sexually transmitted diseases, substance abuse problems, mental health problems and infection from AIDS." I'd like to point out that the substance abuse problems and mental health problems appear due to intolerant people like themselves. The AIDS problem is a big threat to everyone. I'm educated enough to agree to the fact that yes, there was a larger proportion of gay people with HIV/AIDS when the illness first appeared, so that would have been correct back then. (Sidenote: Then how on earth did it spread to all those "straight" people? Hmm...) I'm sick and tired of the constant talking about sex that "Christian" conservatives do; why they are so much more fascinated by the subject than the rest of us, at that I can only make am uneducated guess, so I won't. "Despite what homosexuals claim, no person is 'born gay.' This behavior is changeable. It is an unhealthy lifestyle, and children should not be led to believe homosexuality is equivalent to heterosexuality." They keep pointing out that "tens of thousands" of homosexuals have "changed" and are now ex-homosexuals. Interesting term. Might I comment upon the fact that between 5 and 10 per cent of the world consider themselves to be gay, and a much larger portion are bisexual? That means between 300,000,000 and 600,000,000 people are homosexual. Yes, that is at least 300 million people. Most of these people are persecuted (some to a larger degree than others) because of their sexuality, many are tortured and killed because of it, and somehow that makes me think they'd probably change their sexuality if they could.

This whole thing worries me. The bigotry annoys me and the blatant disregard of other people's feelings angers me. Perhaps a cup of tea would help.

Current track: Crowded House - There Goes God (quite fittingly)

Labels: current affairs, personal

What a silly expression that is; "Hen night". Nevertheless, I went to one last night. Actually, it started at ten in the morning, right after I'd picked up a couple of parcels from the post office (the film Divorcing Jack, which was very good; the book Watching the English by the anthropologist Kate Fox, more on that later; and the original Broadway cast recording of La Cage aux Folles, which was a very good substitute for the Norwegian never-ever-to-appear-on-any-type-of-(uhmm...legally-made)-recording show) - we met at the bride-to-be's place (which just happens to be the groom-to-be's place as well; probably annoying the hell out of all those "conservative activists" out there - MUCH more on that later) for breakfast, having text messaged with her fiance to check how far she'd got into the waking-up process. Due to the extremely successful organisation by the maid of honour and her sister, we had a great day and evening. We were going to an amusement park (the only one around for hundreds of miles) but the weather gods didn't appreciate that idea, so we went for plan B, which was going bowling. At this point I must make it absolutely clear that in Norway this is a perfectly legit pastime for anyone from any kind of "class". I doubt the King has gone bowling, but I bet his children have at some point. After the bowling we went back to the maid of honour's place. She gave birth to their first child three weeks ago, so the father went along with their very hungry son wherever we went. They both looked very proud and it was a joy watching the whole family. Anyway, I digress. As the evening went on, we gave the bride-to-be lots of tasks (more like questions, really) and weird presents. The customary drinking-till-she-gets-sloshed ritual never occured, because frankly, none of us are particularly fond of that. We just spent the evening talking and laughing a lot and the thirteen hours went past like a dream. It seems that everyone had a really good time.

Something very strange happened, though. As both the maid of honour and bride-to-be live less than five minutes away from me, I popped home to pick up my umbrella and camera before going to the bowling alley. On my way in, I shared the lift with my downstairs neighbour, you know, the guy who's an alcoholic drug addict (I'm sure he's both, you see) and who keeps me up half the night with all his noise if I'm not wearing earplugs. On my way back out, we shared the lift again, and he made an attempt at a smile and struck up a conversation (!!!) He asked if I was the one living upstairs from him and when I had confirmed this, he asked me if he made a lot of noise (!!!) Being a person who hates rowing, I said, rather vaguely, that well, I could hear his TV in the night. "I'll turn it down." (!!!) I said it's usually after eleven I'd like for it to be a bit more quiet, and he said "Sometimes I fall asleep in front of the telly, you see." (Oh, you don't say?!!) Then, to be a bit forthcoming I asked him if he could hear a lot of noise coming from my place. "I don't hear anything coming from your flat. You shouldn't worry about that. I'm deaf in one ear." (!!!) We then talked about this and that all the way to the tube. I couldn't believe my ears. And I'm not even deaf in any of them! (Touch wood, btw.) Now, I'm not going to take anything for granted, but at least it helped to know that he can't usually hear me. That way perhaps I can start walking around like a normal person instead of tip-toeing around in my own flat, like I'm doing now. *snarls*

Current track: Armand van Helden - Gandhi Khan

Labels: film, literature, musicals, online shopping, party, personal

I told you Alfred Molina would be a great Doc Ock. Well, actually, I didn't, but I have now. Just got back from the Oslo premiére of Spider-Man 2 and I thought Molina was fabulous, sexy and very possibly on my favourite villain list. The film itself was filled with action and clichées to make Hollywood weep with pride. *rolls her eyes* It was great to be watching this in a huge, THX-certified cinema with enough space for my legs to be comfortable (let's just say I've got a favourite seat.) I will also buy the DVD, but that's just because I want to see Molina's fighting scenes. The first part of the film was funnier than the last part, which was pretty much about special effects and mushy scenes. I was entertained, but wouldn't give this product much for plot... Molina saved it for me, though, but I'm highly biased. *grins*

Current track: Some track by Franz Ferdinand.

Labels: alfred molina, film

My morning ritual is basically to push the snooze button on my mobile five or six times (it goes off every five minutes) before even thinking of getting out of bed. My radio is turned on at around the same time so I stay in bed listening to the weather report (!!), the national news, the local news AND a couple of songs before hitting the shower in a sleepy daze. Today was slightly different. By the time the local news started I was wide awake. The headline was that my one and only love the Oslo Nye theatre is about to go bankrupt after this season if the city council won't grant them more money. It was the way they conveyed this piece of news that must have woken me, because this has been a news item for the past four fiscal years. :-( At first I thought "you mean it didn't help that I spent my lousy money there this season?" but then I realised that they were of course considering last year's income and let's say I must have been living under a rock somewhere in Alaska all through 2003 because I didn't visit that theatre even once. I was supposed to, but it never happened. Anyway, their remedy is to have a sell-out run of Victoria this upcoming season. Sorry, can't help you there. There's no way I'll pay to see Herborg Kråkevik on stage. If it'd been for keeping her off stage, I'd gladly do it.

The good news, of course, is that I know the theatre will survive somehow because in a few years' time I'm going to be involved with the production of Noises Off there - hey, I'm ready now, coming to think of it, just need a bit of money...

Current track: My neighbour's drunken rowing with either a mate or the telly. I'm having fish tonight wearing earplugs tonight. As usual.

Labels: art, current affairs, theatre

Surfing the web I happened upon...well, entered the URL of my hometown's daily newspaper. Now, I come from a town that's had 33,000 inhabitants for decades. I have no idea why that figure never changes. I'm thinking there's a black hole somewhere, probably hidden behind a school or something. No matter, there's something very safe about one's hometown. Or it's supposed to be. I feel proud of my hometown and I always pay attention whenever it's mentioned on the news. I also defend my dialect (fiercely, I might add) and the customs of the people there. At the same time, I can't stand staying there. I'm pretty sure I've got tons of unsolved issues with that town, because I hate going there. I think I'm afraid of meeting anyone I used to know, people from school or something; I tried to start anew when I moved to Oslo (so did about half of my old school, LOL! We used to bump into each other on campus) so going back only brings back very bad memories. Yet I hardly ever regret anything I've done; it just adds to my experience, I believe. I would like to be one of those who turn 50 and move back to their birthplace because they loved it there, but it doesn't look good. Explain to me how I can be a big supporter of my hometown (which actually isn't my hometown any longer) and still hate being there.

Current track: Tungtvann - Plan B

Labels: Norway, personal

This piece of news apparently is too much for the American and British governments and they have censored both CNN and BBC. I have only been able to find English articles about it that are very left-wing or awfully conservative, so the best I could do was to link to Der Spiegel (in German). Anyway. Once again American soldiers have allegedly abused Iraqi prisoners, this time children/teenagers (I really don't understand how right-wing supporters can defend this by saying "by Arab standards, 14-year-olds are not considered children" when American soldiers and the UN actually do. It's quite appalling.)

This may be the last drop, if it turns out to be true. This will divide Europe from the US for a very long time indeed. Seriously, it's quite clear that the American government is censoring their news services and we get a whole different view on things from over here. Oh yes, that's right, we're the cowards. I don't think going to war for all the wrong reasons is very admirable, but that doesn't mean I'm a communist Islam-loving pacifist only interested in cashing in on the welfare system for my large need for weed. Grow up.

I think it's very sad that such historically good friends as the Americans are ruining this friendship by keeping an egomaniacal twat in the Oval Office. Keeping him gagged would be a start in the right direction. It is embarrassing to us when he opens his big gob, I wonder how it feels for the Americans. At least don't re-elect him. You still have the chance to keep our friendship. I think it'll be very lonely for you otherwise, and even though you've got a whole continent to yourself there is a world outside of your borders. Really.

Current track: A very boring song on the radio.

Labels: current affairs

Short thunderstorm started the second I walked out of the office and stopped the minute I got home, where two films awaited me; Along Came Polly and some Bruce Willis film. I watched the first one and I must say it was very embarrassing, slightly disgusting and quite fun. And I've come to the conclusion that it seems like Jennifer Aniston actually can act. So not just good looks, then, good for her (and us, the cinemagoers.) Of course, my favourite line from the film was uttered by Hank Azaria, this time as the French nudist Claude: "Reuben, look to me in my eyeball." I nearly laughed my arse off. Which would have been a great loss. ;-)

Current track: The humming from my computer.

Labels: comedy, film

I just love this label found on a bag made in the US.

Current track: Sport news on the telly

Labels: current affairs

Hope you had a good one. They were celebrating the day in the Vigeland Park here today, singing the national anthem, giving speeches, eating candy floss and more nutritious food, and registering voters. I can understand their desperation when only 50% of the Americans vote, but still; isn't going abroad for this a little bit over the top?

Current track: Nothing.

Labels: current affairs, party

Found myself having been whistling the same song for hours on end tonight and finally decided to watch the film from which the song was taken. It's Privates on Parade, one of those 20 or so films that I have seen more than five times each and that I just don't mind watching over and over. Having browsed that "list" I see that quite a few of them have a couple of things in common. *laughs* Make up your own mind: The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert ("Oh Felicia, where the fuck are we?" - Terence Stamp in drag is such a bold move) - The Birdcage (it's Hank, it's Nathan, it's Robin, it's Gene in a funky outfit AND it's got "We Are Family" as its theme song) - Bring Me the Head of Mavis Davis (it's the perfect film for Rik Mayall - and he's turned blond for this one) - The Cannonball Run (!!!) - A Fish Called Wanda ("I Wendy, I Wanda, I wonder...") - Fucking Åmål / Show Me Love (English title) - Galaxy Quest ("Mum's the word!" / "Mum. Mum.")- Groundhog Day (got to love Bill Murray) - In & Out ("She was too OLD for Yentl!") - Just One of the Guys (I love a good farce mixed with American mid-eighties teenage angst) - Monty Python and the Holy Grail ("One day, lad, all this will be yours." / "What, the curtains?")- Monty Python's Life of Brian ("Crucifixion?" / "Yes." / "Good. Out of the door, line on the left, one cross each. Next!") - My Bloody Valentine (brilliant for a film night on Hallowe'en) - Peter's Friends (great music, great cast) - Robin Hood: Men in Tights ("Unlike some other Robin Hoods, I can speak with an English accent!" - and Roger Rees is fabulous as the Sheriff of Rottingham) - Tootsie (what can I say; it's the best) - Victor/Victoria (great music, and it's got both James Garner and Dame Julie) - You've Got Mail (to me it's the ultimate romantic story.)

Current track: Still whistling the title song from Privates on Parade

Labels: film

No, I haven't had an(other) epiphany or gone religious all of a sudden. I got my new glasses today. Went in for a check-up last week, since I've been noticing the fact that my eyesight has deteriorated this past year. Too true, it turned out; it's changed rapidly and I definitely needed new glasses. They were done today and the second I put them on, I thought "WHY didn't I do this months ago? Like, back in January. I could have saved heaps on theatre tickets; not having to sit within the first three rows all the time." The problem is, I'll be walking around like a toddler for a few days, as everything has shrunk, including me, and I'm having problems using the stairs. This proved to be a laugh at the shopping centre today; I felt like I was taking unnecessarily large steps onto the escalators. I probably was.

I celebrated my new extra eyes by buying three CD's...because...uhmm...I use my eyes for listening? No? Anyway, I'm very pleased with all three of them: Muse - Showbiz, Basement Jaxx - Kish Kash and Morrissey - You are the Quarry. I have only recently discovered Morrissey, and I do mean "recently", as in "these past few days", and I don't know why I haven't noticed him before. Blame it on stupidity. Or the boogie. See if I care.

In other news, our much-anticipated intranet was finally installed and tested today, so after three years of quarrelling with the boss, trying to explain to him why the company would benefit greatly from having a server system, including Internet access for all of its employees, we have succeeded somewhat. He was about to pull the plug today, but we managed to prevent it by telling him to have a bit of patience, and after a few hours the system was up and running, so he calmed down. Unfortunately he knows nothing of computers; he's in for quite a few surprises and will probably freak out at some point, meaning we will have to get rid of the system again. Or so he thinks. We've decided it's there to stay now, even if that means we'll have to gag and bind him and put him in his own wine cellar. ;-)

Current track: Basement Jaxx - Lucky Star

Labels: music, personal, technology