There’s finally a new CD of Office-R, Recording the Grain, published by the Norwegian label +3db. Office-R is pretty much my favorite band, my favorite music…
Reviews here, or via here (mostly Dutch):
http://www.kindamuzik.net/recensie/office-r-6/recording-the-grain
http://www.goddeau.com/content/view/5329
http://www.hardhatarea.com/hatlog/2008/11/officer_new_cd.html
Office-R: http://www.n-collective.com/etc
On friday Devember 19th the TransAgriculture-event takes place at V2_ in Rotterdam. It’s part of the Life & Art program series at V2_ focused on the intertwinement of art and life. Asking whether art can be lived or a life can be art takes on a new meaning in an age of genetic technology, financial crisis and living art.
TransAgriculture is a one-day manifestation featuring penetrating introductions to the field, lectures on guerrilla- and avant-gardening, and bioart forms.
Location: V2_, Eendrachtsstraat 10, Rotterdam
19 December 10:00am–5:30pm
With:
René Boomkens, cultural philosopher
http://www.rug.nl/staff/r.w.boomkens/
Bruce Sterling, author
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruce_Sterling
Natalie Jeremijenko, avant-gardening
http://www.nyu.edu/projects/xdesign
Richard Reynolds, guerrilla gardener
http://www.guerrillagardening.org
Michiko Nitta, Extreme Green Guerrilla
http://myportfolio.me.uk/EGGs.htm
Moderator: Sebastian Olma
LUNCH – The Life & Art audience will enjoy the experience of a special TransAgriculture lunch, designed by Marije Vogelzang from PROEF. http://www.proefrotterdam.nl
Admission: Full program including lunch: €20.00 [stud.: €15.00], without lunch: €15.00 [stud.: €10.00]
Reservations: v2@v2.nl
Working hard to finish a 1000-words reaction on Literair overleven, Dirk van Weeldens plea for ‘aanvallende literatuur’: http://www.augustus.nl/. (Literally ‘offensive literature, but that has a strange connotation that the Dutch ‘aanvallende literatuur’ doesn’t have — what is meant is a progressive, playful, enthousiastic literature, a literature that freely and happily takes up the challenges of this world).
I thought I’d already missed the deadline. So I’m happy it was not too late. As usual my text was still 2500 words long at 21.30. With pain in my heart I just deleted 2 paragraphs in which I mentioned Open API’s and open standards. Down to 1275.
‘No better way to combat cycling-blues — now that the season is over — than to read a good book on the history of cycling.’ I could say that, although it’s true in a general sense, it doesn’t make sense for me now as I have managed to do a fair amount of rides after the end of the season.
I also read Herbie Sykes The Eagle of the Canavese, a biography of Franco Balmamion (ai, with a ‘m’, not a ‘n’ as I thought) centering on the story of the 1962 Giro d’Italia. I would be exaggerating if I would say that this is an outstanding book, on pair with Benjo Maso’s Het zweet der goden, or the biography of David Millar, yet it is certainly far beyond your average cycling biography. Sykes does not only tell the story of the 1962 Giro — one of the heaviest ever –, he not only sketches the character of Franco Balmamion — a rider who’s largely forgotten — he also manages to give insight to the whole socio-cultural context of Italian cycling in the early 1960s. (The role of the sponsors, the regional differences, etc.) And to top off, it does also give you mini-bio’s of companion riders like Giudo Nero and Germano Barale. If I would be making lists, I’d say this book could make my top 10 of cycling books.
(After, or next to both Benjo Maso’s books, Richard Moore’s Millar-biography, Krabbe’s De Renner, William Fotheringham’s Put me Back on my Bike, Marchesini’s L’Italia del Giro d’Italia, probably Les Cahiers de la Mediologie 5, Merci Freddy, merci Lucien (nostalgic reasons), and maybe Rolf Gölz Het Volk en wat volgt).
There is of course also a great attraction in the fact that this book exactly covers a period in cycling that is simply not so well known. I know a bit of the early sixties, but that’s centered around Anquetil, Gaul, Bahamontes and Rik van Looy. For Italy it was a transitional period. The times of Coppi and Bartali gone, football becoming sports number one, and no new heroes yet. Only two, three years later a new generation of champions would capture the imagination: Adorni, Motta, Gimondi, Zilioli, Bitossi (admitted: I would love to read a book on those champions too). In the meantime Franco Balmanion won two consecutive Giri. The Silent Champion, a modest character, a good climber, his main contender his teammate Nino Defilippis. He did not attract the attention of the public, hardly won races, but apparently was a very intelligent and constant rider.
Get the book here: http://www.mousehold-press.co.uk/detail_Eagle_of_the_Canavese.html. (It might seem a bit pricey compared to some other cycling books — it has photos and diagrams of all the 1962 Giro-stages, yet it is not your photo-biography-type-of-book — but I found it worth the muneys).
And here two videos, in total 20 minutes about the 1962 Giro:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-lYyIGrXj4 and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SLG2Ar-xnyk.
Just adding to my reading list… John Tillbury’s Cardew biogaphy and a Cardew anthology:
http://www.matchlessrecordings.com/cardew-reader
and:
http://www.matchlessrecordings.com/cornelius-cardew-life-unfinished
Give me a cheap laptop with wifi. Just for typing text, checking e-mail, reading. I do not need 200 gigabytes for storage (I have seperate harddisks), I do not need fancy programs. I want a text-editor and long battery-life.
With the current trends — like the 100-dollar laptop — it seems that finally the market is catering to my desire…
But then for once, behave accordingly… you think. (Except for books I hardly ever buy unnecessary things. I do not need a new computer).
L. said: ¨Why don you buy one of those mini-laptops? You can even install OSX on them. Take mobile internet, that’s also just 20 euro’s a month now. It’s just what you need¨
Yesterday I bought an Asus EEE PC. The smallest one. I am writing this post on it.
It’s incredible. It’s ridiculous. F. said: “But it’s a toy!”
It feels like a cheap toy. But the cheap toy is so powerful that it just delivers all you need, fast internet, listening to internetradio, watching television, all the websites. Everything is there. Weighs less than a kilo.
I am sure it is much more powerful than I now realize. It has a full Linux-installation and KDE. It’s a while since I used Linux, and the ASUS-launcher that is built on top of it is yes easy to use. Yet it closes off clear access to everything else. (Actually just somewhere on the last page of the manual there a sentence that tells you how to open a terminal from the launcher). So I haven’t figured out how to install new software, and even haven figured out yet where the simple texteditor lives. The computer has OpenOffice, but I prefer a simpler editor for typing. Because I tried out pico in the terminal, and saved a text, and then opened that text by clicking the icon the simpler editor started – but it’s not part of the Asus-gui. No idea where it is.
Of course I checked out how to install OSX. I must say I am a bit daunted by it. It’s something for people who like to spend an evening or two tinkering. I will leave it. Linux is also fine.
There is another reason for not installing OSX.
I thought this Eee Pecee would be for typing, and for on the road. (That will be so good. No spinning harddisk, just all cheap stuff, light and small, not luxurious at all. It means carrying it around without any worries).
But actually, this computer foremost ressembles a portable transistor radio. When cooking you take it to the kitchen to have a bit of music. Or you sit down to watch the news in between. (It’s a radio with television and internet-capabilities). Or to Skype. (It’s a telephone too).
It’s like a radio because the wireless connection is the center of this machine.
So no OSX because a lot of the ‘internet television’ works so much smoother under Linux compared to on a Mac. And the screen is actually quite nice to watch clips fullscreen.
A-and, typing on the small keyboard is okay for me (I have small fingers).
At the moment my blog is only recording my bike rides. Excuses? No.
But do check out this: The Complete Arista Recordings of Anthony Braxton, published by Mosaic, 8 cedees, classic stuff: http://destination-out.com/?p=205.
Arjen Mulder & Joke Brouwer’s Interact or Die! has been awarded the media art research award of the Prix Ars Electronica: http://www.aec.at/de/prix/winners_lbi.asp. Nice. Congrats to Arjen and Joke. The descriptions of the artworks in the book were edited/assembled/written by yours truly. So I guess a tiny bit of the light of the award shines on me too…
Gonzo Circus (http://www.gonzocircus.com) will publish my 700 words review of George Lewis’s A Power Stronger than Itself – a history of the AACM: http://www.press.uchicago.edu/etc. Nice!
Meanwhile I find excellent stuff at Steve Coleman’s new (?) M-Base site, uhm, all music available for free…: http://m-base.com/. That’ll keep me listening to his work for while. Also check out his blog-posts: http://mbase.wordpress.com/. That is, if you’d like a thorough explanation of his musical theories.
This friday, May 30th: We Love STEIM Party at the Mediamatic Garagebox. With performances of DJ Sniff, Toktek, music played by your DNK-deejays Andre, Harm and Koen, and much more: http://www.mediamatic.net/artefact-38024-en.html. Come and party to show how much we love STEIM.