I don’t really use podcasts as such. The main reason is my dislike of Itunes – that program has simply become too big and too slow to use. I prefer Cog. Podcasts I download as I download mp3’s. I also rarely use playlists since my music doesn’t fit on the harddisk of my laptop anyhow, certainly not on my ipod, and even at home I do not always have the external harddisks connected to the laptop. I only use playlists for ‘research’. Yesterday for instance I ‘lost’ 2 hours building a chronological playlist for all the Anthony Braxton I have collected, covering the first 10 years of his career as I’d like/hope to listen through all that in the next few days.

That said, podcast-functionality is perfect for keeping track of programmes that you forget about. I for instance forget that I am interested in audio art, radio art, German Hörspiel. I don’t encounter it in the places that I visit (places = websites, blogs, real places). Yes, I would subscribe immediately if the WDR and Deutschlandradio and Cafe Sonore would offer podcasts of their programs. There is a stream of course.

(Btw: yes, I saw that remark about no podcasts for audio art, during the discussions about Radio at the Balie running at the bottom of the screen).

So here, as a reminder, when the good stuff is on:

WDR 3: http://www.wdr.de/radio/
wednesday 22.00 Hörspiel; 23.00 Studio Elektronische Musik (yes, still wednesday, I am able to remember that!);
saturday 23.00 Studio Akustische Kunst;
sunday 23.00 Studio Neue Musik.

Deutschlandradio Kultur (well, that’s what I know as Deutschlandfunk) has a Hörspiel des Monats, and – that’s a coincedence – on the 13th of May that will be a piece by Raymond Federman: http://www.dradio.de/dkultur/sendungen/hoerspiel/610766/. An overview of their Hörspiels is here: http://www.dradio.de/portale/hoerspiel/. I’m afraid I don’t see any podcasts.

Cafe Sonore is the only programme left on Dutch (national) public radio that covers the ars acustica. Here luckily we have audio on demand (but not for download): http://www.vpro.nl/programma/cafesonore/.

Just reminders to self.

Virtueel Platform’s Cultuur2.0-blog – http://www.virtueelplatform.nl/listpublish-3678-en.html – leads me to Andrew Keen, who blogs here: http://andrewkeen.typepad.com/, is the author of The Cult of the Amateur, and responsible for a ‘flaming’ anti-web2.0-manifesto: http://www.virtueelplatform.nl/article-4224-en.html.

I start writing a short critique, but I find myself using the words “this is so stupid” too often, and stop. I find a good critique of Keen elsewhere: http://ruthiesdouble.com/polemicist/, and also comments are sometimes quite fine, like the one here, which made me smile: http://blog.p2pfoundation.net/against-the-cult-of-the-amateur/2007/04/25, and here: http://blog.p2pfoundation.net/responding-to-andrew-keens-anti-web-20-manifesto/2007/04/26.

Keen is just another one of “those authority types” who love Plato’s Republic and the conservative Orwell, who’d love to have authorities and the elite prescribe to us how we have to live and what is truth (just like… which politicians and statesmen?)

He has one really good point. He insists on the importance of language and good writing. He states: “How to resist digital utopianism? Orwell’s focus on language is the most effective antidote. The digital utopians needs to be fought word-for-word, phrase-by-phrase, delusion-by-delusion. As an opening gambit, let’s focus on the meaning of four key words in the digital utopian lexicon: a) author b) audience c) community d) elitism.” Exactly – and Keen’s view on what is an author, what is audience, what is community, and certainly his idea of the elite are completely different from mine. Especially his use of elite is very troubling (using Adorno in a way that makes one suspect that Adorno is an extreme right-wing authoritarian philosopher).

Just as troubling is the contradiction between point 4 and 2. Point 4 stating the good work that big media have done for culture. Point 2 insisting that good taste is a thing of the elite and is undemocratic by definition (Keen’s Adorno). Generally I would say that in the age of massmedia “big media” have not done anything for culture of ‘really good taste’ in the Adorno-sense. What have the big media done for Lawrence Butch Morris, for Henry Threadgill? Why are Sam Raimi’s earlier movies so much stronger than his later ones? Why’s Dan Brown selling so much more than Ben Marcus, or Don Delillo? (Not accidentaly Keen’s favorite Delillo is his White Noise — DeLillo’s most mainstream-novel. I’d prefer The Names, or Americana). (But well, here my elite-taste really differs from Keen’s mainstream-taste.) Keen is using Adorno but seemingly hasn’t read the big Horkheimer – Adorno book with their critique of the culture industry. I am of course referring to Dialektik der Aufklärung – btw I haven’t read that either, except for some excerpts – but Wikipedia (sic) learns at least this: “Ein Kernpunkt der Dialektik der Aufklärung ist die “Aufklärung als Massenbetrug”. Unter Kulturindustrie ist die kommerzielle Vermarktung von Kultur zu verstehen; der Industriezweig, der sich gezielt mit der Herstellung von Kultur beschäftigt. Im Gegensatz dazu steht die authentische Kultur.”. Usw. (http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dialektik_der_Aufklärung). That’s Adorno.

What in the end made me refrain from writing a critique is firstly that he has met critique already, and secondly, that – rereading – I discovered it not to be worthwhile to take part in this chatter. It is really too close to boring blogosphere ranting. The problem being that Keen’s “enemy” is made up by a pro-web2.0-ideology that is made up by marketing-texts and publicity-bullshit send out to the world by companies who are trying to get a share of the market. (Ranting now).

I know all that makes the world as it is. But I’d rather use my time for another target.

Neither am I so interested to get involved into a discussion about culture with a right-winger who champion’s Plato’s Republic and calls Marx an “intellectual Casanova”.

And well, I guess, in the end there’s a critique here. It bears the stamp of the blogosphere in all respects. That is not necessarily a good thing. I have another text to write…

Let me end then with a sigh that we need both better critics of the Web 2.0-hype as we need more intelligent texts explaining the importance of the shift we’re witnessing in the ‘making-things-public’ – arena.

And for the rest, the best thing we can do is keep referring to good texts, intelligent discussions, good news-sources, good music, good film-clips.

For instance: long-out-of-print seventies free improv and free jazz, ripped from second-hand LP’s: http://jizzrelics.blogspot.com/. Nicra with the trombones of Nick Evans and Radu Malfatti, and Balance by a collective with Radu Malfatti and a certain Ian Brighton (who sounds a lot like Derek Bailey) are very beautiful.

And note that insisting on the importance of these blogs for a blossoming music culture (and I insist on that importance) doesn’t imply that I’m endorsing Rapidshare and those other “sharing”-servives that make use of the worst impulses of human beings (porn, gambling) in order to sell ads.

Zondagmiddag, 16.00 – 18.00. Bewolkt, flinke westenwind, ander weer en regen op komst. Lekker fietsweer.

Marcusstraat – Ouderkerk – Ronde Hoep West – Veldweg – Waverveen – Vinkeveen – Vinkeveense Plassen – Baambrugge – Abcoude – Gein – Driemond – Gaasp – Bijlmer – Diemen – Marcusstraat

(Wat mist aan de lijstjes van plaatsnamen is de route ertussen – voor de afwisseling rij ik nu een zo, dan eens anders).

Zaterdagmiddagronde Langerveldseslag. Heerlijk fietsweer, veel zon, en harde noordenwind, maar perfecte temperatuur en prachtig licht over de weides vol zuring. 12.00 – 18.30. In Haarlem bij vrienden thee gedronken en chocoladetaart gegeten. Het eerste stuk ging weer razend snel, het stuk door de duinen en langs de zee was bijna als het beklimmen van een col, soms was het lastig om de snelheid boven de 20 te houden.

Marcusstraat – Ouderkerk – Nes a/d Amstel – Uithoorn – Kudelstaart – Leimuiden – Ringvaart – Kaag – Sassenheim – Keukenhof – Langerveldseslag – Zandvoort – Bloemendaal – Haarlem – [thee] – Veerplas – Halfweg – Lijnden – Badhoevedorp – Oeverlanden – RAI – Amstel – Marcusstraat

Vrijdagmiddag, 16.30 – 19.30. Harde noordenwind bij nog steeds stralend weer, wolkenloze hemel en felle zon. Langs het kanaal tot Breukelen – dat ging op t gemakje bij 35 a 40 tegen t uur. Daarna al zigzaggend langs Vecht, over de Lambertskade, waar de golven soms over het pad sloegen en de benen nat spatten, door het Spanderswoud naar het noorden.

Marcusstraat – Ringdijk – kanaal – Breukelen – Loenen – Lambertskade – Hilversums kanaal – Kortenhoef – Spanderswoud – Naardermeer – De Horn – Weesp – kanaal – elektriciteitscentrale – Diemerpark – Ringdijk – Marcusstraat

Below are the quotes that I used in the 15 minutes-sketch of my dream of radio [2.0], yesterday at the Balie, at the Coolmediahottalk-show: http://www.coolmediahottalk.net/. I spoke about a few things more, but I guess/hope these ‘quotes’ conjure up my dream somehow.

Btw: it was a really nice event, not a large crowd, but a very good crowd, with an extensive knowledge of, well, alternative radio. Adam Hyde presented before me – talking about his idea of radio and his radio projects. Thanks to him and thanks to the issues and ideas raised by the public (a.o. Josephine Bosma, Federico Bonelli, Jaromil, Jo van der Spek, Eric Kluitenberg, Radio Patapoe and a radiomaker from Rotterdam) the night managed to give an overview of what makes ‘us’ dream about radio, do radio, why radio is still relevant, how radio is transforming and transforms (technically and culturally), why radio can be so exciting.

My talk was personal – but in the answering of questions and the discussion there was a chance to also adress political/cultural issues.

My quotes:

“Whyfor had they (…) donated him, (…) their tolvtubular high fidelity daildialler, as modern as tomorrow afternoon and in appearance up to the minute, (…) equipped with supershielded umbrella antennas for distance getting and connected by the magnetic links of a Bellini-Tosti coupling system with a vitaltone speaker, capable of capturing skybuddies, harbour craft emittences, key clickings, vaticum cleaners, due to woman formed mobile or man made static and bawling the whowle hamshack and wobble down in an eliminium sounds pound so as to serve him up a melegoturny marygoraumd, eclectrically filtered for allirish earths and ohmes.”

“This harmonic condenser enginium (the Mole) they caused to be worked from a magazine battery (called the Mimmim Bimbim patent number 1132, Thorpetersen and Synds, Jomsborg, Selverbergen) which was tuned up by twintriodic singulvalvulous pipelines (lackslipping along as if their liffing deepunded on it) with a howdrocephalous enlargement, a gain control of circumcentric megacycles, ranging from the antidulibnium onto the serostaatarean.”

James Joyce, Finnegans Wake, 1939, 309.11-310.21

John Cage, Imaginary Landscape #4, (for 12 radio’s, 24 performers & 1 conductor), 1951

“wat was dat alweer, een radio, een nieuw wonder van de wetenschappelijke god – en zij vertelden haar, dat het eigenlijk aethergolven waren, een kunstmatig oor dat de wereld kon beluisteren (en ge moest de kleine louis boone zien, hoe hij de knop omdraaide, en wachtte tot de stroom was doorgekomen … hier radio brussel, ici radio paris, norddeutscher rundfunk … en gelijk hij dat alles opschreef, voelde hij zich gewichtig, maar liet het zich niet blijken: hij was een snotneuske, hij dacht dat de wereld nu aan zijn gat hing”

Louis Paul Boon, Zomer te Ter-Muren, ed. 1966, p. 320

“By tuning a radio, you control the amount of wind in your house and, to a lesser degree, the language spoken there. You dial in the wind and regulate which rooms it will enter; how hard it will blow, and the form it will take: shouting, singing, silence, breath, whispering, aroma.”

“Different radio stations collect different kinds of wind, then break it up and slow it down until it sounds like a song or a man talking.”

Ben Marcus, “The Least You Need to Know About Radio”, in Parkett 61, 2001, p.162.

John Cage, Roaratorio, 1979 [____,____ ____ circus on ____]

“The mixture is not a specialized genre dished up for a small group of fans. It is an expedition to the innermost recesses of radio. The penchant for mixing represents the transition from alternative media, which still try to fill a lacuna in the existing supply, to sovereign media, which have detached themselves from the potential listening audience. They do not see themselves as part of bourgeois (anti-)openness or the smorgasbord of media choices, which at most they observe from outside. Things broadcast by others are merely potential ingredients. News is one archive among many. Sovereign media are fallout from the “emancipation of the media”, and abandon the communication model.”

Geert Lovink, “The Theory of Mixing”, Mediamatic, 6#4, summer 1992.

Nog steeds belachelijk warm en zo’n felle zon dat je soms blij bent om in de schaduw te rijden. En het is nog maar 1 mei. En nog steeds die oostenwind. 15.30 – 18.40. Rondje noordelijke Heuvelrug, ditmaal vooral de fietsrouteknooppunten gevolgd en daardoor bij Laren en Blaricum op fietspaadjes verzeild waar ik me niet kan herinneren eerder te zijn geweest.

Marcusstraat – Bijlmer – Gaasperplas – Driemond – Googpad – Ankeveense Plassen – ‘s Gravenland – Spanderswoud – Natuurbrug Crailo – St. Janskerkhof – Het Bluk – Laren – Blaricum – Bikbergen – Valkeveen – Naarden Vesting – Weesp – kanaal – Ringdijk – Marcusstraat