oldies

Lou Reed is having a concert in Oslo in May. I can't decide whether I want to go. I think he's still cool, but he hasn't really done great things since Transformer, has he? I remember when Sex Pistols played at Roskilde. I think it was 96. It was terrible and quite pathetic. I caught a glimpse of them, but preferred Leftfield and Underworld. Oldies are not alway goodies. But maybe Lou Reed is?

easy

My everyday life has just become easier. Since yesterday I have an eMac in my office, which means I no longer have to carry my powerbook back and forth to work everyday. No, it was never a big problem, a bit extra hassle and heavy packing with machine, books and work-out clothes. But an office-machine is really much better. Besides I don't think my powerbook really enjoyed life on the back of my bicycle. Even if it was safe in my Ortlieb. The screen started to have problems. Luckily I think Lars fixed it. Thanx.

film festival

I spent the weekend in Tromsø together with Idunn, Nina and Elisabeth. Movies, movies, movies at Tromsø International Film Festival. Festivals are great, whether film or music. I missed the Northern Light, but enjoyed several great movies. Mike Leigh's Vera Drake is beautiful, Bahman Ghobadi's Turtles can fly is really disturbing, Stephen Hopkins' The life and death of Peter Sellers is well worth it, I enjoyed Friedrich Murnau's Sunrise despite the worst screening room ever, Munthe and Ahlson's The armwrestler from Solitude is definitely enjoyable, and Jeff Nathanson's The last shot is just terrible. I also had the chance to go and see Mike Leigh talk about directing movies in general and Vera Drake specifically. And of course, we enjoyed the nightlife in Tromsø. More photos will be flickered.

touch/presence

I rarely enjoy reading academic books the way that I I've enjoyed reading Peters' Speaking into the air. It's beautiful. As I understand him, he argues that we can never reach communication as the meeting of two minds. But he's far from adhering to solipsism (of which he writes a great deal). In a way he's not to different from James Carey and his ritual understanding of communication. It's all about sharing time and place. He eloquently explains what most of my informants seem to suggest: Being still matters, and people who care for each other will seek each other's presence. This seems rather self-evident, right? Well, it sort of indicates that communication really isn't about the meeting of minds. In that case, a telephone conversation or an instant messenger chat would suffice.

old spice

Interestingly my all-time favourite Thierry Mugler's perfum Angel mixed with a very fresh body tonic from Decléor blend into quite another scent. I now smell like a man. I know I shouldn't mix fragrances, but the body tonic is a birthday present, and I really like it. Yet, I can't resist Angel. I will have to go either or from now. Besides Decléor products, I got excellent birthday presents when celebrating my 30th birthday on Friday (my actual birthday was Tuesday). In random order: the coolest Swatch Irony, the sweetest bambi bag and scarf, Iittala bowls, champagne, great photos, music and two books! I had a great time.

little interest

I've offered the students at the Text, production and analysis course a short evaluation of their home-exams. The papers were only marked with passed/failed . So far only 10 out of 79 students have contacted me for an evaluation. I'm rather surprised. "Passed" doesn't exactly say much about the quality of the work.

waste of time?

I guess staying at work when I'm totally unfocused and hardly capable of either writing, thinking or reading can be compared to staying in bed when I'm not able to sleep at all. Luckily neither happens very often. Today however, I have not been able to control my mind significantly. It keeps wandering off.

phantasms from early 20th century

Thanks to John Durham Peters for clarifying that problems of authenticity have of course not appeared with digital media technologies: "The ability of persons to "appear" apart from the flesh was perhaps the most unnerving thing about new audiovisual media" (Speaking into the air: 142). J.D. Peters elaborates on various lineages of understanding communication. I find some parts of the book rather difficult. After reading Friedrich Kittler's Gramophone, Film, Typewriter last year, Peter's writings about phantasms and doppelgängers at least don't seem as strange as it did when I struggled to understand Kittler writing about the same things.

planning

I definitely need to set up a few personal deadlines for the spring semester. I have no more teaching obligations. Which means I have no excuses not to progress on my Phd-project. Scary. I have promised myself to do a lot of interviewing before Easter. I just need to find the perfect place. My informants this far have all preferred to meet me in some cafe. Which I don't mind at all. I just have to find the perfect, nice and quiet cafe. It's not impossible to transcribe the interviews I already have. It's just very tiresome with all the background noises. My worst/best interview experiences were the interviews I did in December 2000 for my master-thesis. I had 7 days (or maybe 10?) in London to contact and meet with Burmese exiles. Interviews were done wherever. I managed to do 9 semi-structured interviews.