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Orlando Doom

Business trip to Orlando. Scandinavian got us out of Copenhagen two hours late (security hassles) and we missed our connection in Washington DC. Next connection was 830pm, a United A320. We got on the plane, rolled out to the taxiway, and then the right engine wouldn't start. Back to the terminal.

Then they got us on another A320 and this time there was a light on the overwing emergency exit that showed the escape slide had deployed. It was just an indicator failure, apparently, and one of the flight attendants pounded on the door until the light went off. Clear for takeoff? Yeah okay. Hang on and hope for the best I guess.

We landed in Orlando past midnight got to the hotel at 1am, and stood in line for another hour waiting to get checked in (there were a lot of us).

Now getting ready for 9am meetings to extend all day (hardly any sleep but lots of jetlag), and I turn on the news and find out that we're two days from getting pasted by Hurricane Ernesto.

Yes, it looks like it's going to be one of those weeks.

Make the Bastards Suffer

This from Warren Ellis.com

What with the Washington State Supreme Court handing down its anti-gay-marriage decision several weeks ago and the ever-hearing more about attacks on reproductive rights down south, I’m feeling that the States is tripping a bit too merrily down the Handmaid’s path.

This week, I found a way to strike back.

Focus on the Family, the horrid anti-gay evangelical church based in Colorado Springs that wields too much power for anyone’s good, has a store on their website that will give you books, CDs, and DVDs absolutely free of charge. Usually people pay for their items by donation, raising millions of dollars to help Focus on the Family produce more hate-propaganda featuring “experts” on homosexuality who claim it’s a curable “sickness”. (They’re practically defined by their book A Parent’s Guide to Preventing Homosexuality. Course, there’s no mention of having less kids, which is the only proven method. No, no, you shouldn’t use birth control, that would be wrong. They need more worshippers, how dare you prevent god’s will.)

It’s a little bit time-consuming, but not enough to deter me. (Nor should it you). The chance to take money out of their pockets is too useful, not to mention satisfying.

Here’s how to do it in 10 steps:

1. Go to www.family.org and look for the “Resources” link in the blue bar on the left-hand side, right above the “Search” box, and click it.

2. Under the “Resource Category” menu on the left-hand side, you’ll notice categories such as “Homosexuality” under “Resource Category.” Me, I went straight to the CD’s and DVD’s under “Resource Format.”

3. Go through, find something you like, such as the recently released movie, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe or The Chronicles of Narnia Radio Theatre Complete Set, suggested donation US $79.00, or the three disc Les Misérables soundtrack. It’s not a very wide range of products, but there’s bound to be something either you like or you could use as a sweet gift for someone else. Click the “Add to Cart” button.

They won’t send more than $100 worth of materials for free in any given shopping trip, so be sure to go through a few times, until you’re sure you’ve dinged them.

4. Select “Add New Shipping Address,” decide to send it yourself or someone else, and once you’re done picking up to $100, click “Proceed to Checkout.” Some people have been sending items to themselves to sell later on eBay, some have been ordering the more controversial items as conversation pieces or educational props, (as anti-anti-propaganda), but I plan on using mine as gifts, mostly. I’ve found no reports on receiving Focus on the Family junk mail after inputting an address, so I figure it’s fairly safe.

5. The next screen asks you to sign-up for an account and give your information. Fill it out with fictitious information, enter whatever name and address you like. You might want to make up a phone number too and an e-mail account too. After filling out all the required fields, click “Proceed to Checkout” one more time.

6. This will take you to the “Here is Your Cart” page. You may have to re-enter your data again after this part to actually confirm your account. Eventually, you’ll get to the “How Much Would You Like to Donate?” page.

7. Select “Enter other total amount” and enter 0.00 as the amount you would like to pay. (Don’t put in a dollar sign or it will ask you for credit-card information.) Don’t be fooled by the field in the lower-right-hand corner that shows you the suggested donation amounts, simply Proceed to Checkout.

8. The next screen is a guilt screen, to make you feel bad about how little you donated. ignore it. Ignore it utterly. Think of how many people they’re persecuted and had in their “gay kids can be cured” camps. Just proceed to checkout again.

9. Click “Checkout Now.”

10. Finally, pass this information on to all your friends. They’ve got money to back them, we have word of mouth, let’s see if we can win.

Liz Fraser

Holy smoke. I just got back from the Massive Attack show here in Copenhagen. It really brought me back to my days in San Francisco in the late 90s (and made me wonder when the first time I listened to them might have been, where I *wasn't* high as a kite). But the real treat--and this was completely unexpected--was that Liz Fraser was touring with them this time around. I had no idea.

I've never seen her live, and never thought I would because even when she was the vocals of Cocteau Twins she never toured that much. I couldn't believe she was standing there on stage and I was hearing her voice--this part of it takes me back even further, distant past, it's hard to imagine. She sang four tracks including the incomparable "Teardrop."

Then dig this, when the music ended I ran off to the side of the stage rather than to the doors, because that's where the nearest men's room was (and I'd had a couple of beers). There were some people standing by a fence near the hallway, and as I approached they were all looking to one side and began cheering. I stopped to look, and Robert Del Naja, the lead singer of Massive Attack, was there touching hands with people briefly before hustling off to the green room.

A moment later, Liz appeared, walking away towards the stairs. I didn't have time to think but I rushed to the fence and shouted out "Liz! You're wonderful! We love you!" (What else are you going to say in five seconds?) This person's been part of my life--in a very real way--for almost twenty years now.

She turned around shyly and I swear to fox I could almost see her blush. Then she smiled and trotted up the stairs, dropping her cup of water at the top and picking it up again before disappearing. I was flying!

It's like the night I ran into Laetitia Sadier and Tim Gane in the lobby before a Stereolab show, or the night in Utrecht I smoked a cigarette backstage with Nicole Blackman. You let these people into your lives through their music and their art, and they touch you, they become part of you really, even if they never know it.

Liz Fraser. Bloody hell. She's unique. There's no one on the planet that sings like she does.

Be well, Liz.

Strange vacation

It's been a great vacation so far, I've been able to relax, catch up on sleep (!) and pound out ten pages on the book, so far. It's been going by too quickly.

So Katrine and Toke are getting married tomorrow and Cec and I helped them put the logistics of the wedding banquet together, at a big hall they rented out in Kalundborg. It was good to be out in the countryside out in the sun. Gorgeous day. I love Danish summers because they'e not oppressively hot.

Then I got a meeting request on my phone to show up at an all-team meeting at work. I could neither attend nor call-in, but afterwards I found out that there's been a major re-org at work, and that I have a new boss and a new boss-in-cheif. Maybe a new job too, or at least a chance to get some new responsibilities. Every crisis is an opportunity to make a grab for some new experiences and new pathways, new connections with people.

So I'm not complaining about this but my head is just not in the right place to handle full-on negotiations right now. There are a couple of other angles which I've been working on that I can't talk about, but this may mean I have to make some big decisions about my next two to three years sooner rather than later.

After coming home from the party hall I had to take a nap. Now I've woken up and it's too early to go back to sleep, but feels like my head is surrounded by a meter of cotton wool. Must get my act together and think about all this.

Spin Spin Sugar

Just saw Thank You for Smoking tonight. Great movie. It's well cast (Rob Lowe is perfect with his Hollywood producer-meets-Larry Ellison bit) and has some of the snappiest, most clever dialogue this side of West Wing. It really nails the spin industry and the surreal venality of DC (and if anything, it makes LA look even worse).

And I was just starting to feel really terrible about my job. This movie gave me back my motivation! Now I just can't wait to get back to the office and spin spin spin! I look forward to the ego-driven turf wars and battling the "circus of swinging dicks"! I can't wait to be seduced by cute journalists who trade sex for information!

Okay, that last bit doesn't really happen so much, but there's always hope.

On a side note, I just downloaded the Sneaker Pimps' "Spin Spin Sugar" from iTunes. Back in 97 when I was dancing to that track at The Endup in San Francisco at six in the morning I was too fried to notice the lyrics, and only figured out what they were talking about after I bought the CD (which I had to sell with all my other possessions when I left the States). Well done, Kelli. Good to have you back.

French fries return

I just heard that the Capitol cafeteria has stopped serving "Freedom Fries" and has gone back to "French Fries."

Well, I guess that settles it, right? Presumably the French are dancing in the street and waving American flags, and Jacques Chirac can finally get some solid sleep again?

No, not really. I just heard a French analyst on BBC saying the whole issue was "daft and useless." (I like that, nice and concise analysis.)

Great that people in Washington are spending time thinking about what to name French Fries instead of, I don't know, the wars in Lebanon, Iraq and Afghanistan, global warming, the Iranian nuclear weapons program, the North Korean ballistic missile program, the energy crisis, the staggering national deficit...

I could go on but it just makes my head hurt.

The world is as soft as lace

Just finished work today and am off for two weeks vacation. I'm too broke to leave Denmark but that's okay because Danish summers are absolutely gorgeous (I have a hard time dealing with heat). To defend myself, I told my co-workers that I was going on a research trip to Nagorno-Karabakh, a pro Armenian breakaway region of Azerbaizhan, where the Internet has not yet arrived in a big way and mobile phone networks are spotty. I don't want people calling me when I'm trying to relax.

Listening now to Belle and Sebastian and there's one song where Stuart Murdoch sings "I met a man today/ he told me something really strange/ there's always somebody saying something/ he said the world is as soft as lace."

This is something I return to just about every time I hear that Belle and Sebastian track. I remember walking around the campus at San Francisco State around 2000, after NASDAQ crashed and I gave up the whole web thing to go back to school. I remember walking past one of the dorms on campus and something beautiful about the quality of the light got me thinking "you know, the world *is* as soft as lace."

But with that thought came a premonition that such a statement is pure hubris, and that hubris must be paid for.

So now, every time I hear that song I just remember how true my premonition had been and how utterly fucked it all went shortly afterwards. I like the track but what do you do if every time you listen to it, it just stirs up things lying dormant in the black that were best left undisturbed?

Janne Malmros art subsite

I just launched a new subsite with art and contact info for Janne Malmros, a very talented friend of mine based here in Copenhagen. It's a mix of photos, photograms, drawings and sculpture made of "found" art.

Janne's theme is finding the unique or extraordinary within the ordinary. Drop her a line if you like the material!

Sense of place

The thing I loved most about Florida was the daily thunderstorms in the summer. I loved going to sleep to thunder. In California, I loved it on misty nights when I could hear the foghorns of supertankers in San Francisco Bay rolling across the city as I drifted off. Hellerup is just a tiny suburb on the outskirts of Copenhagen, but it's right up against the Oresund and you can pretty often hear the horns of the big ships as they power slowly by.

And tonight we're getting a thunderstorm.