Amazing street art video: Muto by BLU

MUTO a wall-painted animation by BLU from blu on Vimeo.

The same artist, Blu, also did this impressive wall painting in Berlin, oh, Berlin:

Listen: Silver Jews - Suffering Jukebox

My favourite song from Silver Jews' 2008 album "Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea".

Silver Jews - Suffering Jukebox


I've been listening to this Nashville, Tennessee band ever since 2002 when a young punk performed a raw version of Smith and Jones Forever at a party at my long past residence in Aarhus, Konvolutfabrikken Royal.

Also check out this drunken singalong to scenes from Planet of the Apes:

Silver Jews - Punks In The Beerlight

Bon Iver - Beach Baby - Lyrics (+ Live Version stream)

Bon Iver - Beach Baby - Lyrics:

When you're up
tell your lucky one
to know that you'll leave
don't you look when you're fleeing
and learn not to hear keys

Only hold 'till your coffee wounds
but don't hurry to speak
once a time put a tongue
in your ear on the beach
and you clutched clicking heels

-------------------
Bon Iver - Blood Bank - Lyrics
Bon Iver - Babys - Lyrics
Bon Iver - Woods - Lyrics



Actually not a bad song! Especially the studio version is great.

Bon Iver - Babys (Babies) - Lyrics (+ Live Version stream)

Bon Iver - Babys - Lyrics:

Summer comes to multiply
to multiply you

And I, I'm the carnival with (peats)
and i'll probably start a fleet
with no apologies

I'm the carnival (you see)
it grows more and more appealing

my woman and I
know what we are for

Summer comes to multiply

------------------

Bon Iver - Blood Bank - Lyrics
Bon Iver - Beach Baby - Lyrics
Bon Iver - Woods - Lyrics

Bon Iver - Woods - Lyrics (+ Studio Version stream)

Bon Iver - Woods - Lyrics:

I'm up in the woods
I'm down on my mind

I'm building a still
to slow down the time

---------------
Appeared on ‘Skins’ ep. 8

Bon Iver - Woods vs. Imogen Heap - Hide and Seek
Bon Iver - Blood Bank - Lyrics
Bon Iver - Beach Baby - Lyrics
Bon Iver - Babys - Lyrics
Bon Iver - Brackett, WI (lyrics + stream)
Nephew - 007 is also gonna die - Lyrics
Jooks - Hun vil ha' en rapper - lyrics
The Streets - A Blip on a Screen - lyrics



crazy "song"...
hated it yesterday, love it today, dunno bout tomorrow...

Quote: Technological Development

"One of the great irritations of modern technology is that when some new development has made my life palpably worse and is continuing to find new and different ways to bedevil it, I'm still allowed to complain for only a year or two before the peddlers of coolness start telling me to get over it already Grampaw--this is just the way life is now.

I'm not opposed to technological developments. Digital voice mail and caller ID, which together destroyed the tyranny of the ringing telephone, seem to me two of the truly great inventions of the late 20th century..."

Jonathan Franzen in Technology Review.

Kanye West - 808's and Heartbreak (stream full album)

The full album:
http://www.deezer.com/#music/album/257435

I heard this talented artist at Roskilde Festival 2006 and fell asleep because it was so predictable (and for some other reasons... hey, it was late night!).
But his new album is very unpredictable. I like it!
Auto-tune wasn't invented in vain!

Discover Kanye West!

Best Danish Christmas Song...

...and probably the world's best!?

The Raveonettes - The Christmas Song (unofficial video, I guess!):

Lyrics: The Raveonettes - The Christmas Song

All the lights are comin’ on now
How I wish that it would snow now
I don’t feel like going home now
I wish that I could stay

All the trees are on display now
And it’s cold now
I don’t feel like going home now
I wish that I could stay

I wish that I could walk...
I wish that I could walk you home

All the lights are comin’ on now
How I wish that it would snow now
I don’t feel like going home now
I wish that I could stay

Santas coming to town
with a suitcase in his hand
Santas coming to town
with sequins in his hair

Night Music Gallery 08 - Jeg synes det vokser på mig det her

My little mash-up video from Night Music Gallery at Statens Museum for Kunst (the Danish national gallery). With free admission like always, two bars like what up, and José González and the danish dj act Stella Polaris playing, this night of art and music was something to remember.



Music
Rodney Graham - unknown
José González - Heartbeats

Art (from the exhibition Reality Check)
Rodney Graham - The Photokinetoscope (high on LSD)
Zoe Leonard - Mouth Open, Teeth Showing (an army of dolls)

José González live at Night Music Gallery

Keeplefty was there. And so was his camera phone:

Teardrop


Heartbeats
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dHPfj1QV0tY

Listen: Mikael Simpson with Trentemøller and Vibskov

Chech out Mikael Simpson, one of the finest artists of Denmark with his band Sølvstorm (including the international names: Trentemøller and Henrik Vibskov)

English translation of the song:

I see it, that you know it
Seen you in town
Seen you at job
Very rank back
And a suit that fits you well.
At Café Amazing
With Latte to Show
There are no places in this town
You haven’t went yet



And Simme recently posted what might be an international (!?) edition of this act which he calls Mikael Simpson Shreds:

Celebrating the Messiah...

Listen to: The Streets - Everything is borrowed

Everything is borrowed


Love you more


The Escapist

Dark October / bright Bongo Camping memories

October - it's getting dark and cold.
Time to bring out the summer recordings from Tanzania and remember how the sun was shining.

Here is some footage from Bongo Camping - a project I am in the board of, where I have created awareness and raised money here in Denmark. They are doing so much good with the money and after only 1 year the camp site is almost self financed through tourist income!
Gotta love it!



The Motos in the video belong to "a couple of adventure motorcycle travellers who want to do our little part in saving lives from this ugly disease (ed. Malaria) that took my brothers life." They have travelled the worlds most distant areas for many years on Motos.
Support them here.

Bon Iver - Blood Bank (lyrics and stream)

Bon Iver - Blood Bank - Lyrics:

Well i met you at the blood bank
we were looking at the bags
wondering if any of the colors
matched any of the names we knew on the tags

you said "see look at that's yours
stacked on top with your brother's
see how they resemble oneanother's
even in their plastic little covers"

well I said I know it well

that secret that you know
that you don't know how to tell

well it fucks with your honor
and it teases your head
but you know that its good girl
cos its running through you with thread

then the snow started falling
we were stuck out in your car
you were rubbing both my hands
chewing on a candy bar

You said “Ain't it just like a present
To be showing up like this?”
as the moon waned to crescent
we started to kiss

I said I know it well

that secret that you know
but you don't know how to tell
I'm in love with your honor
I'm in love with your cheeks
what's that noise up the stairs babe?
Is that Christmas morning creaks?
---------------------------------------------
Bon Iver - Beach Baby - Lyrics
Bon Iver - Babys - Lyrics
Bon Iver - Woods - Lyrics
Bon Iver - Brackett, WI (lyrics + stream)
Nephew - 007 is also gonna die - Lyrics

Bon Iver - Blood Bank (studio version):


I wonder if it's the final studio version of Blood Bank - it doesn't really match the concert version. Or maybe you just have to get used to this more quiet version. Probably, yes.
I recorded Blood Bank at Vega, Copenhagen:



Without the online crowd push he would never have gotten out to the world. No record label would have dared. No promoter would have known.

Now he is touring the whole world with his friends from some town in USA. At the concert in Copenhagen they told us they were happy and thrilled to be here and meet the Copenhagen people - that they were grateful to be able to see the world.
Indeed, they are lucky ones. And so are we!

Running against Nabil

I had a dramatic 20 minutes run against Nabil today at the Genforeningspladsen stadium.
The game is simple: the winner is the guy in the lead after 20 minutes on the stadium clock.

Intro
Nabil took the lead with high speed in the first round. I kept his speed which gave me some serious side stitches. The next 4 rounds he lost speed while I had a hard time with my stomach's muscle spasms. Eventually they disappeared.

Fight of the lead
So at the sixth round I took the lead and got a good 30 meters gap on Nab. I thought this would break him. But I couldn't keep the speed and after some rounds he was back behind me. Then I had my worse rounds and now he won some meters on me. I really felt like giving in.
With 3 minutes left I had lost 50 meters. I had to escalate the speed but he still kept his lead over me.

Sprint
I really wanted to win this one and I knew from the Water Run last Sunday that I had a 400 meter sprint in me. So I started giving it everything with one minute to go and before running into the last curve I had minimized the gap to 20 meters. I guess there was about 30 seconds to go. In the curve I was at a Usain Bolt-like ravaging speed and even though Nabil was sprinting too I passed him by like he wasn't moving. He was so surprised to see me that it took away his power and his body terminated while I tried to keep the speed to avoid him getting back in the last seconds. Legendary - muhahaha!

4900 meter in 20 minutes. Close to my initial target of 5 km.

Become Legendary

Voice of Jordan - the almighty MJ. He sure still got game!
But I'm a bit confused on the message here - what I gotta do to become legendary?
Work hard in the gym everyday or buy a pair of Air Jordans?

Are they educated because they search or do they search because they are educated?

A survey conducted in May 2008 by Pew Internet & American Life Project shows that twice as many college graduates than high school graduates perform online search on a typical day:

College graduate 66%
Some college 49%
High school graduate 32%

Also differences in income affects the likelihood to use search on a typical day:

$75,000 + 62%
$50,000 – 74,999 56%
$30,000 – 49,999 34%
<$30,000 36%

The question is, do you become educated from searching or do you search because you are educated?

The genders also show different search behaviours:

Men 53%
Women 45%

Do men search more because they get better returns on searches or because they need more information to find their answers?

China in Africa - examples to follow?

Since my last post on China in Africa, the comments kept me investigating the development of Africa. My practical experiences on African development is from the project Bongo Camping.

So this week I went to a guest lecture at Africa Studies at Copenhagen University with Fantu Cheru, Professor and Research Director at The Nordic Africa Institute in Uppsala.

Fantu Cheru has a pro-active, but not naive, perspective on the development of Africa. This lecture was on the potential benefits and risks of the evolving China-Africa relations, and what Africa could learn from the Chinese development since 1980.
I just like to submit my notes on Cheru's findings:

China in a new global system
There has been a fundamental shift in the configuration of global power. The world is upside-down and talking about first, second and third world nations no longer make sense. China was once part of the periphery but is now driving changes in the center and turning globalization in its favor by governing the market and controlling the transition to a new system. China has developed through a strategic integration between experimenting and finding unorthodox solutions and still preserving national security and independence – for instance on subjects like the interest rate and the political space. China brings about an example to rethink the way of development studies.

China in Africa
China has always been in Africa but with the the rise of the east their level of engagement has grown widely - also as part of the wider globalization plan for China.
The research on China in Africa is divided between paranoia:
The Chinese are coming! (taking Africa's oil that the West needs)
and naivety:
China is going to save Africa! (the next sexy thing after democracy and development).
But what is actually going on in the relations between China and Africa?

The Chinese Africa-strategy
China has an African policy while Africa does not have a Chinese policy. So it is a big challenge for the African countries to come together and formulate a regional approach through NEPAD.
The Chinese government strategy supports investment in Africa with:
investment promotion: offices helping Chinese investments all over Africa
bilateral agreements: double taxation treaty
interest free loans: little conditions, debt relief
intense diplomatic efforts: China-Africa cooperation forum

The tensions between the Chinese and the Africans
China has a supply chain cost advantage because of cooperation between Chinese firms (insourcing). But there is an unwillingness to subcontract to African companies which is bringing tension to the relationship between China and Africa. Also the dumping of cheap Chinese products on the African market is hard competition for the African manufacturing sector. Also culturally, the Chinese establishment of sub-societies and resistance to integration is bringing out angry African voices.
Nevertheless China has brought an opportunity and a threat to Africa – and Africa has an active role in deciding the outcome.

The hope for Africa
The African economies are too small to control international relations on their own which is why the avenue to a sustainable African growth lies in the regional integration. The African countries simply have too little negotiation power when doing bilateral agreements.

NEPAD can provide a way to deal with the world giving Africa:
- a stronger platform
- a common regional framework on industrialization
- a common framework on resource exploration
- a regional strategy
- common regulations on investment
- trade as opposed to bilateral agreements

The African leaders must push and be pushed towards these goals by a major mobilization of the people and the private sector in Africa.

Google Chrome enters the battle of the browsers...

...in a clumsy way, but with a faster and cooler browser than Firefox and Explorer. (Actually Chrome has some baby flaws - it is really only a beta version!)
(Update: check the comments)

It seems like a very nice browser and when Chrome was launched yesterday two of my Messenger buddies instantly recommended it. I was very impressed and considered making it my standard browser, but now I am glad I didn't.

Some guy actually read and understood the Terms of Service (sic!!) which basically gives Google every rights to use and monetize anything you post through their browser.

The text goes under paragraph 11. Content license from you: “By submitting, posting or displaying the content you give Google a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free, and non-exclusive license to reproduce, adapt, modify, translate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute any Content which you submit, post or display on or through, the Services.”

Google hasn't yet responded to the worrying critics of their Terms of Service.

Until they change it I won't use the Chrome browser any more after this post, which google can happily distribute if they wish...

Jægersborggade at Nørrebro: trendy shopping street

A few blocks from my street you find Jægersborggade - a little street with many small shops and cool cafés. Two years ago Jægersborggade was nothing but the street to buy weed. Then the residents decided to give the street a makeover going green and innovative. Since then 30 mini-shops have arisen.
Now you can go shopping in Jægersborggade - for cool stuff and for hash.

Pictures from Jægersborggade (after closing time):

Kisamakibo - Rap shake dance

When I was at Bongo Camping in Tukuyu I shot this video with two of the members of Kisamakibo (artists from Bongo Camping) who are playing at events all around Mbeya Region in English and Swahili.
They are right now doing recordings of their Swahili songs which I am looking forward to hear!

I really dugg the song and I still do digg it, but tell me, honestly, how does it sound when you don't hear it in the karma-loaded hide-out of Bongo Camping??
Please leave a comment

Kisamakibo - Rap shake dance (opens in youtube)



Kisamakibo - Rap shake dance
Dance oho dance I am dancing all alone
Shake oho shake I am shaking all alone
Rap oho rap I am rapping all alone
Rap shake dance
The guys are getting up.

1. verse
If art's your dear
the field is here
I love you teens
I also love you greens.
Art to me
Is not only funny
When I cultivate
Art is in my head
When I play football
I shake them all
When I go out
Down I fall.
La la la la la Down I fall.

2. verse
When troubles come to you
And you dont know what to do
how to make them go away
Is to watch people play
A football match
The fans they watch
People playing pool
They feel so cool
And the boxing man
Puts a glove on his hand
la la la la la on his hand.

3. verse
When the young are partying
and they dont have a thing
Hands they fling
everybody in a ring.
We are leading
on the streets
we are leading
on the beat
Young hot stream
dont think it is a dream!
young hot motion
we are on the ocean.
la la la la la on the ocean.

Obama vs McCain

Obama speaking in Berlin, Germany



McCain about the president of Germany, Putin!??!

Running: no medal, but an olympic feeling

Just ran another 20 minutes run with Kristian and Andreas from the basket courts. I reached 4350 meters – a 150 meters improvement.

20/Aug/08 Run: 4350 m
13/Aug/08 Run: 4200 m
06/Aug/08 Run: 4150 m

Talked to Kristian about how we hated running. It's nothing but pain. But we could agree that it felt really good – afterwards! And it's a victory every time you don't give up. The devil inside always want you to stop, telling you things like “ohhh, does it hurt a lot?? you have run 2000 meters, great job, better than laying in the couch, really, don't you feel hungry and all proud. stop now, you can run again tomorrow...” and so on, but you have to tell that little devil to zip it because you have to accomplish your goal right now. You set a personal goal for yourself and by making it and succeeding you show that you can accomplish – even when it hurts.

So every time you run you can win. You just need to set a goal and get motivated. Remember Pacino's motivation speech from Any Given Sunday?
"I'll tell you this, in any fight it's the guy who's willing to die who's gonna win that inch... now, what are you gonna do?"

4 Pics: Nansensgade Streetparty 2008

The residents of Nansensgade held a streetparty yesterday. What a cool street!! Me and Jones went bananas with the Nightshot Portrait of my Casio EX-S10. We also pimped the bikes of some lucky girls.

4 Pics: Gam3 Copenhagen at Rådhuspladsen

Running at Genforeningspladsen Stadium

I am trying to run 5 km in 20 minutes. At my first run I did 4150 metres and 4200 at my second. Yes, I am no athlete!! (Though, I still hold the high jump record at my gymnasium: 1,75 meter...)

I run 20 minutes everytime. It may not be best practice in reaching 5 km, but it is simple and motivating. No matter how much pain the running brings me, I always know it will only last 20 minutes.
Map (see you, guys!) to Genforeningspladsen and pictures of me strugling against the time:


Vis stort kort

Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago

My friend, Broken Foot, told me to listen to this album, I think it was some weeks ago, and ever since I have been listening.
It's nothing special, really! I just can't stop putting it on...

Discover Bon Iver!

From Skinny Love (song 3):

Discover Bon Iver!

I told you to be patient
I told you to be fine
I told you to be balanced
I told you to be kind
In the morning I'll be with you
But it will be a different "kind"
I'll be holding all the tickets
And you'll be owning all the fines

More Kajakpolo by Islands Brygge

Sunday I played some more Kajakpolo with the great K-man and again we sweeped over our opponents and won another crushing victory, 10-2.
It was a bit windy so we jumped in the wetsuits. If you want to play Kajakpolo by Islands Brygge the price is 1.700 kr. pr hour for up to 12 persons. And if you want to challenge me and K-man, we will whoop your ass!!
Thanks to Ullams for the great pictures.

Can Europe learn from China in Africa??

Well, I am no expert on China or Africa. But I've been to Tanzania twice and I've seen Chinese people constructing roads (at a fraction of the cost charged by Western companies) and doing all kinds of business there. China is really going all in on Africa.
In Europe there is a widespread suspicion that China must be up to no good, but I do think there are two sides to that picture. But like in any other Western coverage of China nowadays the media prefers to show us the ugly side.

Hong Kong-based researchers Barry Sautman and Yan Hairong argues about China:

“The Western characterisation of China as engaging in an amoral, neo-colonial scramble in Africa has developed out of the larger ‘China Threat’ discourse. The discrediting of China in Africa serves to contain a perceived strategic competitor and to negate the notion of a pluralism of paths of development. This new discourse also retroactively vindicates European colonialism in Africa and constructs the Western self-image as ‘promoters of democracy and good governance’ on the continent—despite US, UK and French continuing support for most of Africa’s authoritarian regimes.”

I believe in trade, business and infrastructure (physically and mentally) as the means to development in Africa. If Europe did not subsidize the farming we could buy cheaper agricultural products from Africa who in turn would have money to buy knowledge-based products from Europe. Instead African markets are flooded with excess EU produce at prices below that the African farmer can compete with.

United Nations acknowledges the steps taken between China and Africa for a liberalised trading partnership:

"More Ethiopian agricultural products would be allowed into China duty-free, he revealed, and China had pledged some $500 mn for various development projects in Ethiopia. “China is an inspiration for all of us,” he added. “What China shows to Africa is that it is indeed possible to turn the corner on economic development.”

I know that China, like USA and EU, are also supporting some terrible regimes in Africa. And this harms all the good development China is bringing to Africa. But I do believe that Beijing these days are choosing the right way. In the end the trading strategy that China is promoting in Africa would benefit more from stable economies than war and corruption. Because the economic relationship matters to China, its government has a vested interest in long-term stability, and China's current rhetoric suggests an understanding that this is best procured by “harmony” and the careful balancing of interests, not by force.

Now I hope that EU will learn from China's policies in Africa making it easier for the citizens of Europe to do business with Africa. Cut the toll barriers and scrap the CAP (Common Agricultural Policy). Let us through social entrepreneurship or just common import-export make money while we make up for our colonial debt to Africa. I got a lot of entrepreneurial friends in Tanzania who are impatiently waiting for the wall to fall.

But like the president of Senegal said at the EU-Africa summit December 2007: "Europe is close to losing the battle of competition in Africa." It was the first EU-Africa summit since 2000 because of Europe's worries about human rights abuses, so it actually seems the EU is waking up. So Europe and Africa are talking again, but it has given no trade results yet, partly because Europe does not have one voice (some countries are still reluctant to engage in free-trade and to remove agricultural subsidies) and Africa now has greater negotiating power.

China Development Brief knows a lot more about this case than me, so I will let them say the last words here. A bit provocative, but it is still the bitter truth:

"Westerners typically believe that although China has the largest society in the world it has no civil society worth mentioning. But this is at least to some extent because China is not easily visible or comprehensible to Westerners, who have a long tradition of finding the Chinese “inscrutable”—a quality that, of course, depends on the cognitive powers of the observer, not the observed. Africans should not be so short sighted."

Diving and Kajakpolo in Copenhagen

At Islands Brygge in the center of Copenhagen, we are doing free water activities this weekend. A concept called Kulturhavn (culture harbour). I played some Kajakpolo with K-man and Ullams. And we won a crushing 5-1 victory against three young guys!


We also did some swimming. The water was so nice. Uhhh, I feel fresh and young! (and thirsty for some wine)
K-man diving from trampoline

Ullams diving from trampoline

Pictures from a day at Nørrebro

Shooting hoops with Jones

at Ravnsborggade banen



Nørrebro Rules street party in Nørrebroparken

New biking bridge connecting Nørrebro and Frederiksberg over Ågade


Graffiti from Nørrebro Rules