No Style :: No Content

iTunes envy

Yeah, and can I just say that while it's awesome that iTunes is finally available in Denmark, I'm really f*cking pissed that the catalog available for download from here is really crippled compared to what you can get at the American store.

What's up? Some kind of bullshit licensing deal no doubt.

Saturation

I'm going kinda crazy with podcasting lately--it's been really great. I'm getting NPR, Democracy Now, MacNeil-Lehrer, and some offbeat specialized stuff (Slacker Astronomy, anyone?). It's been a simple and powerful way to get information--you just subscribe once, and all this material comes pouring into your iPod for you to listen to on the bike ride to work.

There's just one problem, and it took a while for me to realize it. By filling every single moment of my life with a flood of information, it's crippled by ability to write anything. I've been so entertained and informed for the last couple of months that I haven't been able to put a single line down in the book I'm working on since I was on vacation in Croatia. It's like my brain needs to rest for a while, maybe even to have a little sustained boredom, to get to that point where the ideas and motivation will start flowing again. It's like I'm bursting with data, but I've got no outlet for it all.

Another thing is I just forget that I'm in Denmark sometimes, and that's a pity. I'll be on the train listening to a broadcast about the Plame scandal or the Miers nomination, and then the guy comes to ask for my ticket in Danish and I get a moment of disorientation. Like I forget I'm not in the US any more. It's an odd feeling.

I'm hoping to do a writers' weekend with Brendan and Shanti mid-next month. We'll lock ourselves into an unused apartment or summer house for a couple of days with nothing to keep ourselves company with besides our laptops and ideas, and maybe a bottle of whisky.

In other news, I got a notice from the US Embassy in Copenhagen that when the avian flu hits, they will only give medicine to overseas military and diplomatic staff. Overseas civilians are left completely on our own.

Thanks a lot guys. You could have at least told me "good luck, you're gonna need it."

New Prince

No, not a new album by that little purple guy. Crown Princess Mary just gave birth to a boy, who, all goes well, will be King of Denmark after his dad Frederik, the current Crown Prince.

I saw Queen Margrethe II in the royal box seats at a ballet once, and I was in a training class with Mary three years ago when we worked at the same company. Maybe it's because I grew up in a republic, but monarchy seems strange and kind of cool to me.

Moog

I finally saw last year's documentary on Robert Moog, inventor of the Moog modular synthesizer. What a great film! This is essential viewing if you're into electronic music, and besides it's just a fun, warm, funny film.

The camera crew follows Moog around as he talks to some of the very early innovators in the 1960s electronic music scene, as well as guys like Money Mark, DJ Shadow and Mix Master Mike. Other scenes just have Moog talking about the technology and even the spirituality behind these machines and the way people interact with them.

There are also some hilarious archival clips from the 1960s that are a mix of fetish shots for enthusiasts of first-generation analog synthesizers, combined with a bunch of clips of guys with howlingly bad haircuts.

The background music is awesome too- Stereolab, Meat Beat Manifesto, Tortoise, Money Mark, and a lot of experimental stuff.

It was such a cool movie! It seemed odd to watch it on my iMac, I felt like I should have seen it in a theatre with a bunch of artsy types so we could all talk about it afterwards.

Mars Needs Women

Hey if you haven't seen the night sky lately, go out and take a look at Mars. It's amazing, so bright and red that my brain took a few minutes before it could accept that it wasn't a light from an airplane. Apparently, Mars is at its closest point to Earth for like the next 15 years.

Beautiful.

The Lounge

I've been back in Denmark for a week and have finally hacked away enough of the backlog at work that I can attend to some writing of my own. The conference in the Netherlands last week was great, hanging out with a pack of hardcore investigative journalists in Amsterdam, of all places. My biggest problem was trying to keep up with these guys, and most nights I was in bed before midnight, what a disgrace.

It was really good to hear all the stories--it gave me a deeper view not just into how to be a tougher journalist, but into how the world really works... all the stories that don't get written, all the things we know but can't talk about. If even half the things I heard were true, the world is a more interesting, but also darker and more dangerous place than I'd thought (and my imagination is pretty dark).

I'm getting desperate for new music, and have been trolling through some music podcasts to find new stuff. One gem I've found is Dave's Lounge. You can subscribe to it at that link, or just subscribe through iTunes, which is probably easier. It's a half hour or so of mellow blue room-ish downtempo, released every few days.

It really makes me miss the old "Art Damage" show I used to host on WMNF in Tampa like ten years ago. I'd start out with industrial around 2am when everyone was getting out of the clubs, then slowly soothe them to sleep by fading through 4AD-style shoegazer down into Eno, Sylvian and Laswell-style ambient and dub, finishing at 6am, blind with fatigue. Those were the days.