Sunday, September 26, 2004

Scandinavian Jazz

Why does all the best new jazz come from Norway and Sweden? In 1989 Miles Davis recorded Palle Mikkelborg's Aura suite in Stockholm...and since then, ECM legend Jan Gabarek, followed by the fantastic Nils Petter Molvaer. And now Eivind Aarset's stunning work on Connected!

Saturday, September 25, 2004

Love in a cold climate

Another object of desire is the wearable MP3 player. OK if it's cold, wet or both - but as Ruth points out 'No good if it's hot!'. Have they considered MP3 shorts?


Friday, September 24, 2004

Whatever happened to Fist?

Graffiti has a long history dating back, as far as I know, to comments carved into the paving slabs of Ephesus and the Great Wall of China. The Silk Route exhibition at the British Library also showed interesting 'textual litter' in various languages uncovered by nineteenth and twentieth century archeologists. But the spraycan presented a new technology for unofficial urban literacy and marked a new departure in writing. Fist decorated bridges, billboards and buildings with his distinctive tag until the police caught up with him sometime in the 1990s. He was given a gaol sentence for his labours. What happened to Fist? His spirit lives on.

We're now witnessing the emergence of URL graffiti, where affinity groups and activists use this technique of subvertisement to direct the newly literate to their websites. But what would screen-based graffiti look like? Or could this be a way of describing some writing in the blogosphere?

Thursday, September 23, 2004

BLOGGERS' BLOCK?

Am I suffering from bloggers block? No, I just gave it a break. Life got in the way. Now I'm getting some students into the blogosphere. It's going to be a bit wooden at first, but let's see how it unfolds.

I've been away in Turkey and access seems quite hard outside the major towns. I found internet cafes in the tourist places, but they were very hot and sweaty with slow connections. All I was able to do was check my mail a couple of times. That or melt.