Snow Soup

I was very pleased to see new contributors/readers leaving comments in recent posts. Even if that meant I was proved quite wrong on some of my points, especially that students on the metro thing. Those Nadar and gay marriage questions have been discussion topics between me and friends for the past week. I love a good discussion. But I digress.

My big dream.. actually not so big.. is to apply at the Music Conservatory here in Amsterdam. Stay with me here, most of you might know that I’m a very dedicated and able French Hornist. While Id like to be modest, I must say I’m good.. dam good. So why not make a new and unexpected career move and focus on music again. Otherwise it’s just me playing for my roomates and neighbors, oh.. and the occasional open mic/salsa club where I sit in and play. I’m not sure it qualifies as a dream because Its quite attainable in the near future. Still.. Im a social scholar, and I’ve only begun down that road.

Here’s a topic I’m interested in, and I’m trying to get people to talk about here in the ‘dam. The new Mel Gibson film “Passion of Christ.” Let me first put some facts out there: I’m not religious. I don’t go around saying Im atheist because I find that label annoying.. I prefer non-theist as Edward Abbey once said. I just don’t have any need or involvement as far as myself and religion. On the same hand, I’m not against other people having a religion.. althought I do despise all the evil that has been done on this earth in the name of religion. That being said… I want to see this film and I think I’ll be pleased with it. Pretty much the same way I would love to see a movie about Mohammed or David or Confucious.. I’m interested in history and culture.. and yes even FICTION, so this movie interests me. On a very simple level, Im psyched that the film is in Aramaic and Latin.. I want to listen to how they depict the languages. On the down side churches are going nuts over this film…. and they’ll try to use it to recruit new “believers” which to me is manipulative. It’s art… film is art… unfortunately it’s also used as propaganda by some. Nonetheless, Passion of Christ interests me… and Richard Goldstein breaks it down quite nicely in this week’s Voice. OH and Roman uniforms are always good for a laugh.

Today’s Music: Ceclia Cruz – Regalo del Alma (Salsa)

Working from Home, Wear Business Pajamas

Those LiveJournal people are wierd. I’m telling you, I got caught up reading some of those lately, and it’s such a cult – what with their little emoticons and that silly category thats says “Mood”. People who post what mood they’re in outta shampoo my crotch. I can’t take credit for that line, I think it was Nicholson.

OK no more beating around the bush.. pardon the pun… THE NADER ANNOUNCEMENT. Let’s talk about this. Right off here’s what I’m not going to do: I’m not going to say he’s making a mistake. I’m not going to denounce him like most progressives who hate Bush and fear four more years. I’m not going to say “it’s not the right time” or make hypothetical claims that he cost Gore the election… GORE COST GORE the election.

I’m not going to say these things because I agree with what the man says, and it takes a great amount of nerve to do what he’s doing.

First off, in a democracy, there should be many different candidates to represent the many different people. There has been no progressive voice in this election so far, not including Kucinich who won’t win the dem. nomination. Furthermore the philosphy of “not now” is ludicrous. (so ludicrous I can’t spell the word!) There will never be a time where progressives say “YES NOW!” If Dems win this time, in four years its likely that conservatives will come storming back, so again it won’t be the “right time.” People act as if George Bush is the first anti-christ who’s been president… PLEASE. He’s just another in a long line of anti-christs. Reagan was just as evil. Clinton had equally as damaging policy moves in terms of welfare and trade. With all this Bush madness, we’ve decided to ignore the truth – THE PROBLEMS OF THE U.S. WILL NEVER BE SOLVED BY THE PARTIES WHO CREATED THEM.

One last thing and I’ll drop this – Whether I vote for him or not, I’m glad Nader is in the race, because candidates have been silent on the issues he brings up. They’re too busy counting their military medals or checking attendance records from the VietNam era instead of talking about FTAA, the growing Nuclear Weapons Developement, and the corporate irresponsiblity that has ruined far too many lives! Not now you say? PLEASE NOW I say.

Oh, on a lighter note yesterday (though technically still today in the states) was Mr. O’s birthday. He’s old as dirt now, so I’d like to extend my congratulations on doing a great job with the whole aging thing. Happy Birthday sir!

LET THE COMMENTS BEGIN!

Today’s Music: Getti Lee – My Favorite Headache

Jogging, can’t feel my ears

I’m going to keep reminding the readers out there, that you can now leave a comment after each post. Not only is it possible… it is encouraged! Or you can just click on comments and read what folks have written, although it becomes a chicken/egg issue at some point.

I tried to convince a Canadian to go bike riding in the sun with me. In the end there was no sun and the Canadian had to work. I myself decided to just go jogging… during this jog I realized how cold it was as I lost feeling in most limbs. Even though it’s such a familiar feeling, that “my ears are going to explode” feeling amazes me every time.

Sadly, I spent much of my day fiddling with WindowsXP OS tools… translation.. I’m bored with WindowsXP and I want to customize this whole thing to the point where I’ll probably ruin everything. Now I have a very Lynux-Techy desktop with buttons in wierd places. If you get curious, I recommend WindowsBlinds4.

A great deal of time was also spent on catching up on Village Voice reading. I especially enjoyed catching up on the Mr. Roboto column, who’s latest highlights include insight on Tablet PC’s and Centrino technology. I guess I won’t be using Wi-Fi stuff anytime soon. Oh, and perhaps more importantly, in this week’s Voice Sydney Schanberg

gives the run down of how GW Bush has pretended his way through the last 4 years.

Oh hey, and I just heard that one of the cell phone companies here in the NL is going to start offerring hand-free sets for bicyclists! How exciting! I mean, I intend to continue biking with one hand and speaking on the phone with the other, but I think its about time a company gave some attention to cyclists. After all, millions of people, one quarter of the workforce in the NL, ride their bikes to work everyday. Hooray for mobile-phone-velocepedes!

Today’s Music: Damien Rice-O

Sunrise, Sunset

Well it just keeps getting better ’round here on the blog. Observe, as you read on, that there are now comment boxes for each post – thanks haloscan.com! Please post comments, don’t be shy, yell at me or just share any thoughts!

I’m parking my bike out front today, and one of these old men who has been milling around the boats parked along side the canal looks my way. Now for the past two weeks a bunch of men in big black boots and mucky-mucked uniforms have been pulling sunken row boats out of the water. It’s as if they let them sink awhile back, and now that they’ve got some spare time, they’ve decided to go back to titanic. So the guy walks over to me mumbling in Dutch, says something like “yup, we finally got it out.” And I, being the Gordon’s fisherman himself, look over in awe… in my best dutch I tell him “Yes, you guys have been very busy. Beautiful boat.” I was especially happy when we didn’t flinch at my pronounciation or grammar… I mean.. he’s not an understanding university student.. he’s an old guy.. I expected him to understand nothing of my accented gibberish. But we were like two old sea captains out there… except I have little to do with captainism or sea things. Good conversation all the same, and hey.. perhaps a new friend to take me on a boat ride!

I wanted to get into the issue of gay marriage. Alot of this comes after listening to Off the Wall on WUSB, Stonybrook, NY. It is disturbing to find all the attention and anger put into this issue, only now. With folks like GW Bush saying he wants a constitutional ammendment against gay marriage… as if this is so necessary? Were gay couples and their marriages really affecting his life so much? Was he in any way even in contact with married gay couples? NO. It’s so strange to see people getting outraged at gay marriage as if their own lives are being destroyed. Talk about all-out hatred and fascism, out to put a stop to people who have never influenced your life in anyway. Insanity… mostly for political gain. As if the nation was in any real danger because of gay marriages. Once again, Bush’s priorities are those of an imbicil.

Obviously round here in NL things are a bit different in that department, which I wouldn’t even regard as progressive… just humane. World needs a bit more of that.. humanity. Marry, don’t marry… who cares? Just don’t expect a huge wedding gift cause I got no steady income these days!

Today’s Music: Bright Eyes – Fevers & Mirrors

Nelly is my queen

I think I’m averaging 8 hits per day! 8 hits per day! You corporate web types might think “oooh small potatoes,” but we unemployed academic types think “hey 8 people pay attention to me daily!” So yeah… this week.. under the travel section.. I promise new stuff… actually old stuff… but new old stuff.

So there’s this neighborhoody feeling startin to develope at my “temporary” new place.. ever since the neighbors party for people in my building, there’s a whole lot of “hallo!” and “Hoi!” or “Hoe is het?” [hows it going] And this makes me quite happy… Im even going to get brave and start doing the “pop-in” at the top floor where the ladies have invited me to pop-in around dinnertime anytime! Im a gentleman, I will have to oblige.

As nice of a guy as I am, I’m superhappy to see that Joe Lieberman is out of the primaries, that hatemonger, I hope he goes off and joins the far right where he would feel more comfortable. Free to hate rap music and rated R films all he wants. And before I get off the election topic, I must express my approval of Teresa Heinz Kerry … I like her more than her husband.. she should run for pres! She’s active within the UN system, she runs a charitable foundation, she speaks multiple languages, she was schooled in Switzerland, raised in Mozambique.. and hey… it doesn’t hurt that she’s of a Portuguese family!

So I’m worried about my teeth. I don’t have a dentist over here.. and I feel its time to get my dogs checked. I heard through the U of Amsterdam grapevine (yes there’s a vine.. I think I run it) that I can go to THE DENTISTS school. YES — They have their own school! Don’t get me wrong, Im not an anti-dentite! No sir. So I can go to this school and apparently something like 2 or 3 students will check my teeth under the supervision of a teacher. Low BUDGET! But hey… theyre gonna be dentists right.. so.. that’s good enough right? I’ll be sure and ask for the A students.

Today was the 1 year anniversary of the London Traffic Congestion Toll… basically you gotta pay to take your car into the center of the city. Based on the numbers, it’s a huge success.. traffic is down, city is cleaner, more people are taking public trans. I’m a huge fan… not only of the intiative but of mayor “Red” Ken Livingstone.. I wish he would run for PM and bitchslap that oligarch Blair. Happy anniversary congestion toll!

Today’s Music: Nelly Furtado – Folklore

Share the Code

While riding the Brussels metro today, en route to the train back to Amsterdam, a very interesting yet simple thing happenned. I recognized it both because I was smack in the middle of it, and because it was the type of occurance that would never be allowed in the United States. A group of around 20 children, scouts, inavaded the subway car with their with their 20 something year old male group leaders. They only stayed on for one stop, but during that brief ride I observed the usual kid antics… singing, joking, taunting.. and a whole lot of handholding. So my point: Could this happen in the US… in any city with a subway? Probably not. Thanks to lawsuits and general paranoia, parents or schools would never allow a group trip to hop on the subway – EVER. Furthermore they wouldn’t allow a group of young males to chapperone a field trip. So, overall, I think its a dam shame, and I was glad to see that at least in Belgium, you can still see these things.

Speaking of seeing things, someone leaked parts of windows code onto the internet.. hahahaha

I say everyone go forth and use it, share it, imitate it. Computers are much too important for our societal needs for one company to control them the way microsoft does. We need to start dismantling the empire and finding a more egalitarian method of software developement. Oh wait.. that already exists.. its called lynux!

During my journey back to Amsterdam, I swear I also heard two people whistling.. once on the train and then again parking their bike in front of my place. They were both whistling the Rasmus! (In the Shadows) When I heard the second girl, I just couldn’t stay quiet about it, I yelled to her “Hey.. Rasmus right? – in the shadows? ” And she gave me a blank stare response. I got annoyed… both feeling like an ass and for not being validated for what Im convinced was a correct answer. BUT THEN – two minutes later, that same girl sees me through my groundfloor window and knocks, she yells… “Hey you’re right… I didnt realize… it is Rasmus!”

I win girl…. knock on my window anytime.

Today’s Music: Azure Ray – November EP