My Brainpan

I was told yesterday by my darling in Portland that my brainpan is full. Not quite full… but definitely spilling everywhere.

I was going on and on about weblogging, photoblogging, and podcasting as rebellious communication, which it is. In different forms. I get so bored whenever I hear someone dismissing what we who publish any type of media on the internet do, as shallow or marginal. Over four million of us, and that’s not including the readers, and somehow we’re all teenagers talking about who fucked who? PLease. We do much more than that, and moreover, whatever it is we write about – even the teen stories, we are indeed rebels. Because what we’re are doing, to some degree, is saying no to the traditional powers. We don’t need your magazine to publish an article. We won’t go crazy to get a spot on your radiostation (traditional or cable)in order to reach a mass audience. And we don’t need a gallery or some fancy pants publication to recognize us as photographers. We are photographers if we want to be.

One of my toubles with doing research into these ideas, is that so-called experts(usually the older tenured kind who know fuck-all about this stuff) will point and say “oh that bicyclemark, he’s nothing but an advocate… with all his cheering and ra-ra, his arguements are tainted. So be it. Tainted love baby.

The hardest thing is that I want to connect all this fun and sharing of experiences/information to greater world problems. YES – Promoting World Peace Thru Internet Publishing and Social Software. Shhh… I know it’s getting a bit past the basic needs that aren’t being met.

Look at this video and the story that goes with it. Just another example of how dirty-grey this Iraq occupation is. How can you put up a banner that says “we support our troops” when you see the business they’re in. Not one fucntioning building left in Fallujah. In order to save the country.. they have to destroy it. In order to bring freedom they have to restrict everything. In order to bring peace, they make war. 1984.. 2005.. doesn’t matter. Except that the world should know better by now.

Oh I know. You’ve got family or friends there. Me too. But I won’t support their work. Just because your pop works in a missile factory doesn’t mean you gotta support the concept of launching missiles at anyone.

Today’s Sounds: Death Cab – Transatlanticism

For the Censors

Before I could even start writing this thinger tonight, 54 came on Dutch public television. You know.. the one with Mike Meyers. I had never seen it. I thought it was going to be that boogie nights movie and I figured I should watch so I can finally understand what the big deal was about the wang scene. That’s right… its late night and bicyclemark was looking for wang. Quote that doggy.

So in fact it was from the point of view of some bartender from studio 54… and I felt what made the movie was Mike Meyers. Dam he rocked. I think all the Austin Powers movies messed him up, kinda like when the Clash discovered synthesizers. And while I despise and cannot afford nocturnal club culture, I thought it was a sweet story. Especially Ron Jeremy’s cameo. Oh and I find myself rooting for the Jersey characters… even that Neve.

I bet mentioning a porn star or even the word wang gets me banned on certain corporate/organizational firewalls. Both Brain of J and my bro BigdaddyJ have mentioned the troubles of work firewalls and how blogs like the busblog or xtx are considered too smutty. Talk about fascism and censorship… you should rise up and rebel! Can you imagine this in the hayday of organized labor? The headline would read “Workers at GM and Ford plants stage sit-in over smut on the net.” And the cops would probably come and crush some skulls… but by god.. there would be access to naughty stuff and new computers to boot. (or boot up)

And if that doesn’t inspire you, they mapped the world again. This time better. Australasia looks nice. Plus if you’re playing risk, it’s a good place to start.. cause you just building up and.. well..

You know who made my evening? Asia Kennan the supa-cool Deconstructionist. She gave me good tunes and taught me how to be down with Portland ways. Now I know the lingo when I head that way; and I’ll be prepared with my own nag champa and phish cd’s when I swing by Eugene. She also gave me a new idea:personal podcasts… hmmm.

Today’s Sounds: Lali Puna – Tridecoder (lovin it… but they don’t know it in Portugal)

Can’t Afford the Pod

OK… I hope you’re sittin down and buckled in. Not only is there an audioblog, being that today is sunday, but I have upped the “anti” by making my

first REAL podcast (mp3)

using my new MP3 recorder and Audacity (audio software). It’s 6 minutes long, recorded in 56kbps 22,050 mhz (as recommended by someone at Whole Wheat Radio)I had lots of fun doing it, and even mixed in music tracks. (Taxi Europe by Stephan Eicher and then Rio by Vinicious Cantuaria and David Bryne)

While I wish I could do this every sunday, due to my modest site host plan, I would run out of space sometime in June, and I can’t afford that. But I was psyched to do this and there’s so much info on ipodder.org, it was great. I should also mention that I was bigtime inspired by this podcast from Tokyo Calling, thanks for the help Scott! So here’s the first one, and most likely, one of the few I’ll ever do this way.

(just a bit more nerd talk — for those of you who use Blogger.com’s audio blog phonenumber, that’s a great option cause the files are hosted on their server, not YOURS. Only shit is… you gotta be on the phone.. and Im friggin Holland!)

Family Ties

So it’s sunday… and that’s podcasting day on the communiqu?, as you well know. But before I get to that, I just got one of the coolest emails related to this here blog.

You’ve heard of people blogging just to get it all out. Or the one’s who do it to be part of a community. Lots of us make friends through blogging, kickass friends. It certainly helps to keep old friends in touch as well. Then you’ve got those who actually get sweet lovin’ thanks to their blog, even meet their life partner. Hell some even raise money to buy ipods! But what I had never thought about, nor read about, was that a blog might help LONG LOST FAMILY FIND FAMILY.

A member of the bicyclemark family (who’s likely to be reading this right now – hello) happened to be browsing google to see what the latest results were for his family name. Though he was born in Jersey and was also Portuguese from the same town, he knew there were a few families with the same last name that may not be related. But he noticed the communiqu? and so he emailed me to find out — are we related?

Through the wonders of email, we swapped stories and family details. Turns out… he had somehow seen a Season’s Greetings photo featuring a baby that resembled the photos of A-Ren in my blog. He began to spit out fuzzy details about a cousin with my father’s first name, only those details were a mix of things about my uncle and my father. Indeed my uncle did work for the Portuguese Airline and yes, we had a Portuguese radio show on the AM dial til I was 12 years old. So now it’s become clear — he is most definitely my cousin. HOW COOL! Blogs reunite families! We’ll now swap photos and I’ll send my maezinha and paizinho the cool news. Together we’ll fill in the blanks about my family’s genealogy. Can’t wait to here about the bicyclemarkians who migrated from Portugal to Jersey and then… to Cali? Not bad blogosphere… NOT BAD.

Today’s Sounds: Eddie Izzard – Definate Article

Back on the Scene

What? You heeeeard? Turn my headphones up! I’m back in Amsterdamage baby, and got back into the swing of things today. Saturday things that is. What are these typical saturday things, you may ask?:


    – Apartment viewing with Aim… fancy digs, sweet location, lots of windows, but I can’t afford it.

    – Sat in the rocking boat with Crazy Dr. M. Apparently, with these extreme wind days in Holland, the good Dr.’s houseboat gets swung to and fro. He admitted to have gotten a bit sea sick the other night when he got home. As I sat in his living room chatting, I was totally enjoying how the whole house was bobbing and knocking against the dock. Now thats livin’!

    – Sat home and read every blog known to humanity. Heard all about Raymi and the Torontonienne’s crazy dancin. (can you believe she met Raymi? My lil’ blog girl’s all grownsd up!)

    – Got a couscous dinner with McManus at Latei, followed by a glass o’wine at Oosterpark. (all for under 10 euro of course) Basically ridin all over Amsterdam to see what has changed in my 16 day absence.

    – Came home expecting to read my newspapers and listen to podcasts, but instead had my world rocked by XTX’s audio MADnEsS. So fun.

In other news I read about how, 40 years later, the Mississippi burning case is finally going to court. You remember that movie? No not the one where Samuel L. shouts “YES THEY DESERVE TO DIE AND I HOPE THEY BURN IN HELL.” This movie was the one with Gene ‘THE HACK’ Hackman and Willem DeFoam running around like feds while southerners make them feel unwelcome. Exciting stuff… this unswift justice.

Today’s Sounds: XTX’s Audioblog.. over and over..

Jetlag Brings This

I smell. I’m hungry. I can’t keep my eyes opened. Some random dude has been crashing at the Spaniard’s place next door, and he obviously cares nothing for my strict bathroom cleanliness. A brotha goes away for a few weeks and suddenly all of Amsterdam comes over to aim badly at his toilet.

I digress. It’s grey, cool, and windy. Bikes speed past my window and ring their bells. Dutch high speed internet flows through my veins again. I HAVE ARRIVED, all over this city.

I’m too jetlagged to tell you about the nicey-nice Minnesota Femenina who sat next to me for one leg of the trip. We were like travelling peas and carrots.. both carrying our own bags of dried fruit and both working in random European Cities. (she chose Bar?alouca!) Turns out, life in Bar?a is fun, but salaries suck and prices are high. More inspiration never to leave budget life here in the Netherworlds.

Having stopped in two European countries today and read up their newspapers, I thought I would mention that they keep pointing out how many people each country has lost in South-East Asia. They also keep breakin down who donated what. I thought it was odd that the US comes in after Australia, Germany, and Japan. And I think it’s cool that individual countries give money and then the EU as a whole throws a chunk of change. That makes for lots of aid. Imagine individual US states did that… talk about lots of loot!

I spoke to Anti the other night, while in Jersey. I call him Antee, if you must know. And we had a hootenany of a AIM conversation.

And just to get back into my normal inkkernet routine, I chatted quickly with BITCHPHD who seems to be on the verge of big changes, including CHANGING HER BLOG NAME!

Today’s Sounds: Kings of Convenience – Quiet is the New Loud