Monthly Archives: April 2005

See Me Live

Some of you seen me all live and fully clothed on the internets this afternoon. I talked a mighty talk bout podcasting, and I tried my bestest not to offend too many out there, but you know – the mouth, its got a mind of its own.

Still I think it went well. The audienced seemed chill and the virtual audience was pretty active and I loved seeing many of you asking me questions. Specially Joggl in Germany and BlondeButBight currently in the UK! Actually there were other questions from other friends, so thank you to all of you. Tomorrow I’ll see if I cant get a link to the archived video up.

Today I met Dijereedoo Jim, if I may baptize him with that blogname. He’s an Australian living here, but to simplify his identity in a few blog setences couldn’t do him justice. Among other things, we had a long talk about the yuppification of cities, since he had lived in the Pijp neighborhood of Amsterdam back in 99, and it was then becoming, and is now, very trendy. The order seems to go, industrial wasteland, working class housing, artists, people who think artists are cool to live near, and then yuppies. With each level double the rent, while you’re at it.
Anyway I digress, the man rocks.

Tomorrow, it’s Stockholm for me, and Ill be podcasting of course. Soundseeing tours, with limited editing cause I gotta say, Garageband is simply not as cool as Audition. But, apparently MAC has a much cooler program called Soundstudio or something, and I must get it! Underground channels, can you help a new MAC bother out?

Sidenote: After the presentation a pair of MAC guys sat down with me and pulled out there 17 inch and 15 inch…. LAPTOPS… it was hot. I was sweaty. Those are so gorgeous machines, my baby 12 is a hotty too, but when you see those other chicas…. yowzah.

Eventually this blog will talk politics again, just not right now. Still, somebody should keep an eye on Bush, Congress, and the plan to drill in the arctic. I hear theyre reviving it bigtime.

Today’s Sounds: Dawn and Drew’s latest

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Low Budget Blows

Remind me to tell you my plan for getting together a bunch of young kick-ass laywers to take all these low budget airlines like RyanAir and Transavia to the European Court of Justice and sueing them for violations of my traveler rights and fraud. It doesn’t count as Brussels, Stockholm, or Rome if the airport is 2 HOURS away from the actual city! Yet they advertize cheap ass flights as if it were true. If you come to Europa, stick with the quality airlines or else Easyjet – cause they still do it with real airports.

Here I sit in Umea, which is a one hour flight north of Stockholm. I saw piles of snow, but the weather is spring-like for Scandinavian standards. So far so good. Stockholm was city-ish yet small, but I’ll really get to know that place on thursday. For now I’m here amongst the academics and enjoying all the loving care I get as a gust in this particular house. There was a bit of a party here tonight and I met lots of cool Swedes, but also a great Iraqi couple and a fantastic Brazilian with whom I had crazy insane discussions with. We’ve concluded the answer to life might lie in Portugal, eventually. Write that down somewhere. He also gave me this quote which I find bloggable:

“Sweden is the best place in the world to raise children! But I’m not a child! (So get me out of here)”

So maybe, just maybe, you want to see me live streamed on the internets, as I give my talk about podcasting! Exciting says you? Well, you can find out, 7:15am EST / 13h15 CET, it’s available via the HUMlab blog, I hope.

Oh, and lucky me to have the German Phrase of the Week, the new pope guy is German!

My own photos tomorrow, I promise… i think.

Today’s Sounds: Swedish countryside?

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Study Sverige Now

Dear Blog readers, stop the presses! Tomorrow we’re heading to Sweden! YES – Scandinavia! By we- I mean you and I, with emphasis on the ME. In a few measly hours I’ll endure the HORROR of low-cost transavia airlines and the middle-of-nowhere airport they call Rotterdam airport. I’ve got lots of toys loaded onto the PBg4 which I can toy with throughout the journey, and I picked up pistachios, which will be my sustenance for the duration.

HOWEVER – before we fly to a new land, we must first study this land… or at least amass a collection of quirky facts so we can feel edumacated. So, let’s get studying the Kingdom of Sweden! (cue the Abba music!)

Lesson 1: The penis shaped country covers a landmass of 410,934 sq km, that’s like – slightly bigger then California. – I wonder if it gets landmass envy?

Lesson 2: Sweden has a population of around 9 million. It’s capital, Stockholm – home of my buddy Marty McFly, has around 740,000 people. But they did the census before he moved there, so add one.

Lesson 3: Swedish people have an average life expectancy of 80.4 years. Number 7 on the alltime greatest life-span-hits list. Japan is above them, and so are names like Andorra and Macau, which isn’t even a country, but what do you expect from the CIA’s info?

Lesson 4: MAybe you knew that Abba and Ace of Base, two of the finest groups ever assembled, are Swedish. But did you know that Millencolin, The Hives, and YES Roxette, are Swedish.

So there you have it, study up, cause tomorrow we go Swedish, and we want to fit in right?

If you’d like to learn more about Sverige, please consult the widely acclaimed LEARN SWEDISH blog, or this young lady, who will give me shelter and cake.

Today’s Sounds: Cardigans – Long Gone Before…

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AudioCommunique#27-IvegoneMac, CatchingUp, Apartments

This moving to mac thing ain’t easy. This one is recorded on my old machine, going to take time for this padewan to become a Jedi on mac. Still, lots of goodies, music, and a rant about the insane logic of housing in capital cities throughout the world. Speaking of the world, my next podcast will be from Sweeeeeden!

AudioCommuniqu? #27(mp3)

23min+, 64kbps, 11Mb+

Featuring:

A Radio MacGuy
My Voicemail 206-339-7850
German Phrase of the Week with Joggl
Georgia on my podcast, from Caribbean Free Radio
Lots of Tunes, including Swedish Rock

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BM Meets PBG4

She’s here. At least I think it’s a she. If its a male, that’s fine, I’d still be in love with him. All day and all night I’ve been fiddling with my new PowerbookG4 – which you the readers and listeners helped make possible!

So this post is thank you. For all the tips you left in the tip jar, advice you left in the comments, or words of support left in my gmail. It all helped. The PBG4 is sweet, silent, sleek, speedy, powerful, and fun-as-hell. I suspect in the coming years Apple stuff will continue to get popular, thanks to the prevalence of items like the Ipod. Which means being a Mac person won’t be as lonely. Matter of fact, it won’t be as special. But for now, hello world, my name is bicyclemark and I’m a new macboy.

Speaking of Mac people, Verbal C was on Australian radio with me recently-talking about blogging and podcasting, and she loves her ibook. While Brain of J just received his PBG4 this week as well. Good writers with the right tools, that’s what the world needs. That… and laughter.

PS – I’ll still be paying for it little by little, so it’s still appreciated if you decide to drop a tip in the jar.

Today’s Sounds: Malcolm X – Bullet or the Ballot Speech

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When I Was French

Between the now successful move to a new host, busy days at the fishtank complete with overtime (easy thing for the part time king), and the arrival of my love – my powerbook g4, I haven’t been blogging properly. Take one of these and call me in the mornin, I should be telling you. I’ll get to the thank you’s and the Powerbook Porno shots tomorrow, today I wanted to tell you bout how my present and my past are linked.

One of the French fishes at the tank decided for all my hard work and all the bla bla bla I have to endure from international students, I deserved to have dinner cooked for me. And she decided she’d do the cooking, and baking I might add! And so I made the trek to that suburb that -I vow- I will never live in. because it’s just NOT Amsterdam when its that far away, and sat down to a meal full of reminiscing.

This because she’s from Marseille, and I studied just outside that city, in Aix-en-Provence, Southern France. But that was a whole 5 years ago, back when every weekend you’d find BM in a different country and I was heartbroken about some feminina back in Jersey. Aix was a ritzy city with cushy programs for foreigners like myself. School shacked me up with a lovely yet quirky madame, probably because we were both veggies or because I myself am quirky.

But I digress, this is about my meal and the conversations about Marseille. We talked and talked. I still remember the street names and the different neighborhoods, 5 years and I still know what goes on all around the Vieux Port. She spoke of the towns we used to invade for the day; St. Tropez, Cassis, and even the poshy-posh Cannes. Some of my memories of those places have spilled over into each other. St. Paul de Vence tastes alot like Grasse. Antibes smells like St. Tropez. Sloppy memory, making a mess.

She had even cooked a few familiar dishes, a very provincial salad, a gateaux, and that cheesebread that I forget the name of. For shame, I’m forgetting names. But one thing for sure, I’m not forgetting that dark city. The mountains of Couscous, the fleet of ships, the Gateway where France meets the wondrous realms of North Africa and the Middle East. Snobs in Aix used to say “Marseille, ce n’est pas la France.” Ah non? I used to respond, well that not-France city over there, overflowing with culture and history, I absolutely love it!

I also met the Mindcaster today. More proof that if you get along online, you’ll have just as many laughs and things to talk about in real life. More on those great conversations in the next podcast.

Today’s Sounds: If I lean in close, I still cant hear I peep from the New Powerbook

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