Books I've read in 2010 - September

Lady Susan, The Watsons and Sanditon by Jane Austen - AUDIO
The Haunted Doll's House by Stevenson/James (a Penguin 60)
The Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger
Gutten som hadde svar på alt by Vikas Swarup - AUDIO
Battle royale by Koushun Takami
Turtles and Tortoises by Bartlett/Bartlett
Ondskapens hjerte by Chelsea Cain - AUDIO
Ridende rytter til hest by Per Egil Hegge
Sinnets mørke by Jason Moss
Gentlemen of the Road by Michael Chabon
Peter Pan by JM Barrie
Drømmenes land by Vidar Sundstøl - AUDIO
Kameleonens skygge by Minette Walters - AUDIO
The Prince of Fire by Gorup/Obradovic, eds.
The Harmony Silk Factory by Tash Aw - AUDIO
Världens bästa by by Arto Paasilinna
Lakse-enka by Ingrid Bjørnov - AUDIO

A question

What exactly is a 'wart factory'?

I'm only asking because Thomas Thiis-Evensen apparently thinks that Karl Johan Street* looks like one. Oh, I'm sorry, only parts of it. Which parts, I wonder? Where does the wart factory begin, where does it end?

All these questions ...

*Oslo's main street, named after King Carl XIV Johan of Sweden and Norway (1818-44, the 'bedchamber regime' ... he was a total hypochondriac.)

NORWAY 1960 - Voi voi

The first year we competed in the ESC was 1960, which marked the contest's fifth anniversary. We did pretty well, ending up in 4th place. Sure, there were only 13 competing countries, but still. We beat Sweden, they came 10th. Of course this was the most important thing - they got a head start on us, they competed for the first time in -58, but we still managed to beat them on our first try. Tee-hee. Pretty solidly, too. That's what we like to see. :-)

Anyway ... our performer that year was the fantastic Nora Brockstedt, who, no kidding, is still going strong to this day, literally half a century later. She is AFAIK the oldest living recording artist in the world. o_O She rocks. :-) The song is about a Sami girl looking forward to seeing her sweetheart on Saturday night, and Brockstedt was dressed in something that was supposed to look like traditional Sami clothes. Oy vey, voi voi ...

This is Nora Brockstedt performing Voi voi by Georg Elgaaen. He competed in the Royal Festival Hall in London, England on Saturday, March 25th, 1960.



Lyrics with translation here.

Points for creativity

As I've mentioned before, I'm not a big fan of the Sad Keanu meme - I think it's barking up the wrong tree, so to speak, in a number of ways. But this one is actually pretty good. I like this one. :-) Click to enlarge.
Just in case you've seen the series of photos that these are taken from: they don't show Keanu being totally depressed and pining for better things, cupcakes or otherwise - they're from a movie he's shooting, Generation Um. So there. :-)

Videos from Ireland, yay!

I'm finally getting around to uploading my videos from Ireland to my Youtube channel. Four down, 22 to go. o_O The first two were pretty dull, just scenery from the plane. But now I'm getting to the good stuff. :-) These two are from my first day in Ireland. We immediately set off on adventures. :-)

This is from Knowth and Newgrange, an amazing place ... especially the latter. Wow. A tourist destination for 300 years. :-) Five thousand year old grave mounds, with the world's biggest collection, if that's the word I want, of megalithic art.



This is another such grave - a passage grave called Fourknocks - AFAIK a little more recent, maybe no more than 4500 years. :-D It's a lot smaller than either Knowth and Newgrange - a lot - but in some ways it's more special because you can go inside it, which you can't at Knowth, and it's beautifully decorated, much more so than Newgrange, where you can enter the tomb. But you can't use a camera in there, they don't allow it. Does this make sense? :-)

Here's the video I made, anyway. Ancient grave sites and pretty horses. What's not to like? :-)

Quote of the Week

Faith is often the boast of the man who is too lazy to investigate.
F. M. Knowles

Operatic art

Did you know that the chandelier in the opera house in Oslo weighs 8.5 metric tons ... ? :-o