moif world update

Original image by Oleg Zacharov

March has been a tough month (which you can see by the number of easy You Tube posts and the sneaking return of politics to JRC-1138). Essentially, all my plans for getting back into shape came to naught and my weekly swimming plan appears to have led to some kind of chronic infection in my joints. At least thats how my doctor is explaining it. I currently have a sharp pain in my left arm pit, which I've had since mid January, and which appears to be influencing the entire region around it, down to my elbow and across my torso. On top of that my neck appears to be swollen and stiff leading to more muscle pains, pains in my eyes and headaches. Then I have a rash on my feet, and another different rash on my arms and torso. I'm going to see a specialist tomorrow, but today my doc told me he reckoned these were probably some kind of reaction to this supposed infection in my joints/nerves/bones/...take your pick.

So, for the last four weeks, I've been very 'lazy'. I only went swimming once and decided to lay off it for a few weeks to see if that would ease the pain in my shoulder. It didn't, so I guess I'll start going swimming again shortly. I could have gone today only Freja's gone down sick and this has upset all Mette's best laid plans. Mette is going to England tomorrow to vist her little brother and some other freinds. Freja was meant to be sent to her grandparents for a short holiday with them and I was going to have the flat to myself for a week. Only this morning Freja woke up covered in shit and puke and looking some what bemused so now it seems as if Mette will be going tomorrow and Freja and I will be alone until Freja gets better. No doubt she will get better before I do since I've been (in one form or another) fucked up since 1993.

I'm not doing badly though. All things considered, I'm actually in a good mood. I've been at home a lot, writing role playing games and surfing the net for inspiration and research. Its been impossible to miss the Fitna thing, but the truth is, I can't be arsed going through all the same arguments all over again. Suffice to say any ideology that can be used to justify violence is void of merit in my opinion, and that just about covers all religions except buddhism for me. Pat Condell has posted his opinion and since I agree with him, I've posted his latest You Tube video below.

So anyway, I've written up all the next events in Takshendal, those events which will happen unless the players some how manage to prevent them, and I've begun writing up the background and characters for the third part of the game, 'The Curse of Slapershaven'. This chapter will take place off in a distant, dark and wet rural setting and I've been practicing my Dutch accent so as to get the mood right...

Freja has just crawled into my room, gasping and panting and is now rolled up in a ball behind me. She doesn't look too happy... I'll write about the next Rocketman campagin later on...


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Pat Condell: Religion of fear

The Celtic Lady

Ha! Mette hates this song but I love it. I wish the human race would spend more time making beautiful stuff like this. Sometimes I think I'm already in Hell.

'Caribbean Blue' is another great track. I cried the first time I heard it as I often do when music reminds me of my lost innocence. The pain today is knowing one day Freja will lose hers too. Judging from the boy in the video, I suspect Enya is singing about the same feelings.

What ever you do kid, don't ever leave the book!



Its also a really nice homage to Maxfield Parrish!

Takshendal

So, we finally got to playing the first Takshendal game last wednesday (and the next session is due next thursday). In the mean time I've been preparing the game and writing up the next Rocketman adventures. Below are a few images of the game taken by Oleg and there is a write up, along with more images on the Takshendal blog.



As you can see, not all the models are finished. Specifically, the interior floors are all bare wood as yet. At some point, I intend to sculpt floors as I have done with previous models, but in the mean time, I ran out of time. Six months just wasn't enough to finish all these models. What I have finished works well enough though and the first game went well. I'm trying to create a certain 'cinematic feel' to the game, and hopefully this will create a unique campaign.

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Politichikane?

This is a video, put on the net today by a young Muslim man stopped by the police for traffic offences, who doesn't have a driving license with him and who is previously on record for carrying a knife in public. Its in Danish, so its of limited interest to any one who doesn't understand whats being said, but I think it aptly illustrates the attitude of the Muslim immigrants who we've had to hear so much about in this country during the last decade or so.

The man has posted the video claiming police harrassment...

Mad Moif

...just about sums up my mood today.

Beggering belief....

This is translated from todays DR news page:

“Just one small mistake can ruin any chance for the autonome dream of a ‘youth house’”.

This is the opinion of one of the politicians who is fighting for a new ‘youth house’ in Copenhagen.

On April 3rd, the ‘youths’ will lay seige to Cpenhagen city council. The ‘youth house activists’ have named their proposed action BlokR, and they intend to deny exit to the Copenhagen city council until it has found a replacement for the old ‘youth house’.

In anticipation, the ‘youths’ have bought hundreds of gas masks and riot shields and have held seminars on demonstration methods. The police have said they will arrest any one wearing a mask. “If this demonstration develops into violence, then the balance of goodwill will tip against ‘youths’ says Frank Hedegaard of the Socialist People’s Party. “They need to be very careful when they do their ‘happenings’, because I know from experience that if there is even the slightest hint of violence or trouble with the police, then the other party’s will be unwilling to find a solution”.

Frank Hedegaard reckons certain parties will even attempt to provoke a confrontation with just such an end in sight.

Sometimes I just can't not react in amazement. The level of hypocrisy and political bias astounds beyond my ability to remain aloof.

After an entire year of riots, arson attacks against private and public property, not to mention throwing molotov cocktails at the police, here is a socialist telling the Autonome to be careful not to 'make a mistake'!

What exactly does the Socialist Peoples Party consider a mistake? Its fairly obvious where the SPP's allegiences lie. They like to distance themselves from the Autonome by describing them as 'anarchists', but any one who's spent time around the Autonome, even as little time as I have, knows full well that they are ALL left wing extremists who cultivate anarchy as a fashion statement. They are no more anarchists than I am. The Autonome are the left wings contemporary brown shirt thugs who go out of their way to use violence for political means.

Frank Hedegaard is a hypocrite who tries to talk down the serious nature of political violence by refering to it as a 'happening'. As if several hundred, black clad, hooded, Autonome, trained and equipped for a confrontation with the police is some kind of art project.

I also note how Hedegaard tries to deflect any responsibility for the inevitable outcome of the upcoming confrontation by suggesting 'other parties' will try to use any violence as a bargaining tool against the Autonome, as if violence by left wing extremsists is nothing that ought to get in the way of a desired political solution.

These wankers don't deserve a 'youth house'. Youth? The name implies any one young would be welcome there where as the truth is, the former youth house, which started life as an illegal squat, like all Autonome bastions was a closed and insular environment used exclusively to ferment and develop left wing hatred for any and all exterior perspectives which clashed with their own.

In point of fact, there is no right wing or nationalist party version of the Autonome though it is a time worn practice for the Autonome to try to justify their violence with the pathetic argument that they are 'combating Nazi's'. As if gangs of neo Nazi's were some kind of social problem in Denmark.

They are not.

No other party has any connections with mobs of armed extremists willing to turn our streets into battle grounds. Only the shivering cowards of the socialist party's hang out with such hate mongers as the Blak Blok, the Autonome, Hizb'Allah and Hamas.
Willy Søvndal, the leader of the SPP recently made the news when he told Hizb ut Tahir to get out of Denmark if they didn't want to live in a secular society. Naturally, this led to all the usual drama with some Muslims trying to make out that Søvndal was 'picking on Muslims'.

What made me laugh was how the SPP tried to portray Søvndal as being tough on extremism. As if the SPP had actually changed its stance in any way at all. They haven't. As Hedegaard clearly explains, any violence or trouble with the police will cause the other parties to react against the Autonome, but not the SPP.

Nothing has changd in the Socialistisk Folkeparti under Søvndal. They are still willing to support the use of political violence in the time honoured tradition of socialists the world over.


Below is our former prime minister, the Social democrat Poul Nyrup Rasmussen, aligning himself with those who would limit freedom of expression:

Sir Arthur C Clarke

1917 - 2008

Almost the last link to Science fiction's old guard- attendee at the 1st formal, organised SF convention in the world in 1937, fanzine editor, astronautics fan, &c., and not /just/ communication satellites, but also fully immersive VR (& RPGs!), AI & genetic engineering in "The City and the Stars" decades before cyberpunk "invented" the niche.

Good bye and thank you.

Serendipity?

Snr Sgt Sonny Kappel Jakobsen & Captain Christian Jørgen Grundt Damholt

Denmark lost another two soldiers in Afghanistan yesterday. Mere days after Danmarks Radio was clever enough to air a TV programme showing how Danish troops were lightly armoured when on humanitarian missions, a suicide bomber took the opportunity to become a martyr by attacking just such a mission. Serendipity for the mujahideen or just a coincidence? He wounded several Danish soldiers and killed two of them in the town of Gereshk. Today DR has the story on its news page under the heading 'Random killing of Danish soldiers', and quotes the Danish commander of the forces on the ground, Colonel Jens Lønborg as saying the attack was probably a random event and not especially aimed at Danish troops in particular. I wonder if Colonel Lønborg is even aware that just a few days ago DR was demonstrating what easy targets the Danish troops were in Afghanistan when not on actual combat missions... I doubt it.

Naturally, DR does not take any rsponsibility for having broadcast the vulnerability of Danish troops to any one who happened to be watching. I don't supose the thought that there might be Islamic extremists in Danmark ever occured to them. No doubt they assume these people are not well connected with their spiritual brethern in Afghanistan at all. I'd be surprised if they'd even thought about the implications of telling the world about when the Danish troops were most vulnerable.



In the mean while, Mærsk (Denmark and the worlds biggest shipping company) has come under criticism for having paid a ransom for the release of one of their ships.

Puntland's Fisheries Minister Ahmed Said Aw-Nur told the BBC the British captain, Irish engineer and four Russian crew on board were safe. But he condemned the fact that a ransom was paid to secure their release."It can only encourage piracy," he told the BBC Somali Service.

[snip]

Mr Aw-Nur said that he suspected Puntland security officials were working in collusion with the pirates.

The Svitzer Korsakov (pictured above) was seized by pirates off the coast of Somalia (an area which the Danish navy, along side our allies, is supposed to be keeping clear of pirates). Quite why Mærsk should be criticized is beyond me. Apparently, the local authority's believe paying a randsom to get your ship and its crew back is a bad thing, whilst pirating is all good. Odd how we never hear a peep out of the local authorities when these so called 'pirates' seize our ships, or the ships sent to the region with food and medical aid.


Ynsha Allah as they probably say down there.

Six is just not enough...

...but here goes anyway:

Dazed and confused,

Infatuated with Annemette!

More You Tube madness!

I love You Tube!

I heard the Marilyn Manson version of this song and sneered at the lack of creativity (though I quite liked the sound). Believing Manson had stolen the song from Soft Cell, I still believed 1980's were still an era of musical creativity...



...so I thought. Now it turns out, as so many times before that the song is not only older still, but its older than I am!

Still, its an interesting progression of interpretation. I wonder what kind of Industrial Death /Speed Metal variantion we'll see next. Here are a few more interpretations in the mean time:
Pussy Cat Dolls
Coil
Milk inc
Re-Entrants

Respect?

Oh I agree. This bollocks has gone on for long enough now...

Ich muss zerstören

Expressing the masculine desire to just not give a fuck and simply solve all ones problems by reducing the world to rubble...

...Its Rammstein time again!

Achtung!

Band member Richard Kruspe (who originally founded Rammstein), is due to bring out his first solo album soon, called 'Emigrate'. The first video release can be seen here. Personally, I'm not impressed. Its soft.

Beowulf & Grendel

Beowulf in his brand new armour
Hrothgar emasculated by post modernity

Beowulf is an ancient Anglo Saxon poem, dating from about 1,000 years ago (give or take a century or two). Its a mystical saga about a young warrior hero from the lands which are now southern Sweden and his battles gainst three antagonists; Grendel and Grendels mother in the lands of the Danes and later in Sweden; a Dragon.

'Beowulf and Grendel' is a strange post modern story of a hero filled with self doubt and questions, who meets a twenty first century, humanist witch whilst hunting a 'troll' but who eventually finds redemption in honouring his dead enemy.

Frankly, the film is an utter waste of time. I can't even wrap this criticism into some nicely worded phrases because the bottom line is, it stinks. Iceland is not Denmark. Danish kings in the fifth century did not embrace christianity. Grendel is not just a misunderstood man. Fifth century Scandinavian warriors did not have expensive armour like chain mail. There is no witch called Selma in Beowulf, nor does Grendel father a child.

Beowulf is the hero of an Anglo Saxon epic. I don't care how many morons this film was meant to educate or entertain, you can't just cut and paste an Anglo Saxon epic into a post modern story and expect it to work. It doesn't. Its forlorn, predictable and utterly boring and whats worst of all is the few people who might actually want to see a dramatized version of Beowulf, and who might forgive some artistic licence in the visual department are left disapointed by the vast liberties taken with the story.

B17 tribute film

This is a nice little compilation of footage of the Boeing B17 'Flying Fortress'. When I was a boy, the B17 was my all time favourite aircraft and I still clearly remember the day I bought the airfix 1/72 scale model and saw how big it was next to my other models. Unfortunately my model making skills in those days were often hampered by inexperience and impatience and the finished model was never a beauty. I've never seen a real B17, and since the survivors are all said to be in the states, I probably never will. Thankfully such footage exists so I can still enjoy the sight of these ungainly angel's.

More bombing raid footage. (with some repeats)
Flying over the channel.
Starting engines.
View from the nose.
Chucky starting up.
Memphis Belle fly by.
Aluminum overcast. (interior, start up and take off)

This post was edited 16th January 2010

Mehmet and Kong

Recently I've been hanging out with my neighbour, the Turkish Dane who owns the corner shop below our flat. His name is Mehmet and he's a handful of years older than me. I say hanging out, but the nature of my time in the shop is some what more beneficial. I usually stand and talk with Mehmet when I'm down buying milk or what ever and one day a few weeks back, he asked me if I wouldn't mind 'helping him out'. As a dedicated workophobe I was instantly on my guard, but it transpired, from his some what warped Danish that what he really wanted was some company. He said he needed some one to help 'top up the beers in the fridge' when the shop was busiest, so I said I'd do it.
It turned out that although the beers did need topping up (not exactly difficult), I'd guessed correctly and what Mehmet was really after was some company. We ate some Turkish pizza's. laughed at the drunks and laughed at each other for eyeing up the girls. Mostly we just talked about life in general.

I've done this a few times now, never with any obligation and always with a smile. Its not exactly a job so I don't feel obliged to do anything, but it is nice to help out, and Mehmet, who has some useful connections to the 'ethnic underground', is always interesting and always manages to get his hands on all manner of curious commodities. Amongst other things he recently gave me four kilo's of frozen chicken breasts he'd come by. When I asked him why he was giving these to me, he replied, 'because my own freezer is already full'. Fair enough. I never deny people the opportunity to be generous.

It turns out that one of Mehmet's contacts is a Chinese chef called Kong, and Kong often comes by on a Saturday, around closing time, and after Mehmet has closed the shop, they sit and talk, drink wine and smoke very strong cigarettes. Tonight I met Kong for the second time.

Kong seems like a nice person, but he is very different from the Danish and English people I normally hang around with. In fact, with his Chinese mannerisms and appalling bad Danish, he's almost like some character in a film. Today, I asked him how old he was.
"Ooooh, bad question!" he replied giving me the sort of side long look one might expect in a martial arts film. "Veeery bad question!"
"What do you mean?" I reply.
"Chinese people, never ask how old, or how are you?" he explains. Such questions appparently lead to bad luck because if the person you ask wishes to, they can make things very bad, for example, they might reply, 'I'm not well at all, I need 5,000 kroner to pay the rent, can you help me?"

Well.
Since I'm not Chinese, I fail to see why this is so bad since I would just reply; 'I don't have this money for you', but obviously its bad for Chinese people since any admission of age or poverty can be interpreted as weakness. Kong, being a nice sort, immediately forgives my Danish ignorance, then feels the need to maintain the equilibrium between us by giving me some small gift. Since I don't smoke or drink alcohol (both which Kong finds strange) he buys me some chocolate. Since we're in Mehments shop however he must buy this chocolate from Mehmet, and Mehmet refuses to sell him any chocolate at the correct price of 30 kroner.
"10 kr for you" he tells Kong.
"What? Why?" Kong is immediately suspicious "I have 16 kroner here in my hand."
Mehment is adamant and Kong tries to haggle upwards until he and I start laughing at the absurdity of haggling a price upwards from a man who is haggling his wares down in price. In the end, Mehmet sells Kong a bar of chocolate for ten kroner, and then Kong gives me the chocolate and shakes my hand. Equilibrium has been mantained and I feel like I'm in a Wayne Wang movie.

Ninety percent of Mehmet and Kongs conversation revolves around 'tak tak'.
In Danish 'tak' means 'thank you', but in Chinese slang, 'tak tak' means to fuck, and for Mehmet and Kong there is no better subject of conversation. From the moment the shop shuts at 11pm, they sit drinking and smoking their very strong cigarette's (I'm all but choking in the smoke), hatching one cunning scheme after another as to how they can find some willing females and get some 'tak tak'. Since both of them are married, and the plots they hatch are some what fanciful, I take it this is some kind of running joke. They even make contingency plans as to what they'll do in the eventuality that the women turn out to be men, or want money.
"I'll wink at you then pretend to go and buy some cigarettes and you climb out the back window" Mehmet tells Kong.
"What if they are men?" Kong shudders and we all laugh.
"I can tell" Mehment insists but Kong doesn't believe him. Its fairly obvious that Mehmet loves to tease Kong but I can't quite tell how much Kong understands.

I get a lot of odd looks when I'm in the shop. Some people seem to think its unusual to see me there and I assume this is because I'm Danish and Mehmet is Turkish. Most Danes don't react, though some of the immediate locals, all of whom know Mehmet by name, give me an odd look, but most Turks, seem to find my presence to be most baffling. Often they ask Mehmet in Turkish who I am and he replies in Danish, 'He is my neighbour'. I wonder if the rumour is going round about Mehmet and his Danish side kick but I don't really care. Mehmet is something close to a friend since I've known him for more than four years now and he's always been fun to talk to.

The convoluted darkness of imagination

...whats a better term for steam punk, than steam punk? Its not that I dislike the term, I just don't think it suits the genre very well because when you look at the list of films and books attributed to this genre, most of them are not 'punk' (which I take to mean 'anti establishment') in any way. Take HG Wells 'War of the Worlds' for example, its always on the list, but how can a Martian invasion be interpreted as 'punk'? And where is the steam for that matter? It turns out the phrase was coined in a letter to a magazine by one obscure sci fi author in an attempt to describe his 'style' and that of two or three other authors and from that meager begining, spun out of control until today its about as established a genre as it possible to be. The term now encompasses a huge amount of literature, films and art and is widely interpreted to fit any manner of works without any real consensus on what the term means, or why it exists at all. Steampunk seems to be a genre without meaning beyond a certain 'look'. Its akin to the French cinema of the late eighties which was coined 'cinema du look', because it discarded plot, acting and subtext in favour of mere style. The images existed without any context beyond the need to look fabulous. I noted Luc Besson's films in particular met with a lot of criticism because they were 'too pretty' rather than well written. I liked that then because I never really cared much for stories which bored me anyway, but with the rise of CGI I've felt a growing distance between myself as the viewer, and the artists who fall back on visuals to make up for shoddy story telling.
For me, ambience is very important. So important in fact that I feel it ought to be taught in art schools along side composition. Ambience is what your trying to recreate with art (unless you have a genuine god complex and you believe you are capable of originality). Ambience however, does not rely on mere visuals. Visuals are important, of course, but vision without context is a form of blindness. Vision without context in art is impossible. For art to function, you need to have context.

Steampunk, like film noir is a genre based on a certain style, but do the words steam and punk really fit the style? I don't think they do. 'Steam' I can accept. Its the premier eccentric power source of the retro worlds which make up the steam punk style, it has the volatile character and heavy industrial aura that is required.

'Punk' on the other hand... Punk in this instance is derived from cyberpunk, another style of science fiction, this one easier to comprehend from the perspective of being anti establishment because cyberpunk looks forward where as steampunk doesn't. If anything steam punk looks backwards, or maybe sideways... Which ever way it gazes though, it does not look with eyes rebelling against 'an establishment'. By its nature, steampunk is pure escapism and unless human instutions now establish reality then there is no way a genre like steampunk can be considered 'punk'.

That leaves the obvious question and the obvious counter question. The obvious question is, what would be a better name for the genre? The obvious counter question would be, who cares?

I quite like the idea of making a new genre name because I would like to make a role playing game which incorporates a lot of the style of steampunk, but without being classed as steampunk.

The convoluted darkness of imagination part II

The mind is a strange place I find. Maybe its because we grow up in the hard light of reality without any understanding of why we exist that we create our own context as a means of explaining our existance, but in doing so we populate our minds with a vast clutter of obscure, random and irrational ingredients that defy our own understanding. In otherwords, we are strangers to ourselves, even in our own minds because we live inside a mental cocoon of personal understandings and fabricated context, based on myriad memories and misunderstandings. Sure we have a rough idea of who we are, a mental sketch, but this is a construct, an illusion based on desire, wishful thinking and fear.

When we are confronted with ourselves outside of our own constructed context, we suddenly find ourselves facing a stranger. Like when you hear your own voice on a recording, or see your face on a photograph instead of in a mirror. The photographer Man Ray once demonstrated how little we actually see of ourselves when he took a self portrait then added a simple ink line cross over his face to high light how crooked it actually was. Until you saw the uncompromising lines of the superimposed cross, you never comprehended the lack of actual symmetry in a human face. At least, I never did, and I was drawing and looking at human beings all day long.

So, does an artist actually understand all this and take it into account or is art merely another form of self deception? I think art must be some form of self analysis if it is to be considered a form of self expression. In other to express yourself, you must have some understanding of where your expression comes from. If you didn't, then you'd be no better than an automaton.

Unless art is preprogrammed into our genes, then it must be a product of minds grown dark and convoluted with imagination born of self deception. In other words, in art we try to express ourselves, but our self expression is based on the compromises we have evolved since birth in order to make sense of our existence.

I personally doubt that art is self expression, rather I think art is always a means to understanding reality. Like when you argue to clarify in your own mind what you actually think.

Artist of the Month: Juarez Machado

This month, I dedicate to a new artist, well, new to me, from Brazil, called Juarez Machado. Apparently his work inspired the colours in Jeunet's film 'Le fabuleux destin d'Amelie Poulain' (Its such a great title, how can I not write it in its original language?).


I really like Machado's style. It reminds me of Jack Vettriano both in terms of his application of colour and line and in the choice of subject. Both artists appeal to a surreal sense of sophistication, and whilst I'm not a sophisticated urbanite who likes to hang out drinking with urbane intellectuals, I do still like the ambience recreated by these artists. I think it might have something to do with my '1936/noir gene' which has become quite dominent in later years, though forsooth, I am confused as to how these colourful paintings fit into my perception of the dark world of 1930's story telling. Yes. I really did use the word forsooth. It could also be noted that both Vettriano and Machado are more popular in the art print shops than in the art galleries, make of that what you will.


I bought a print of the picture below for Mette because she likes tango music (and because I am in love with her). By a happy chance it happened to arrive the day before St Valentines day. Its called 'Femme au robe rouge' which is easy enough to translate, even for me. I've just had it framed.