Jack Dee to pull David Blaine pole stunt in London. This has to be a joke.

Ween tries to sell out and fails miserably. The second version just exudes white boy pain. [Via Silent Uproar]

Roskilde books The Datsuns, Dave Gahan, and possible The Raveonettes. Now if they'd only get around to booking the Dandys we'd be alright.

Tom Glazer, who wrote On Top of Spaghetti, died Friday. I honestly didn't know that was a real song. Does that mean the Diarrhea song from Parenthood is a real song as well?

The phrase Oh - My - God! has been used to death already, but when you read something like this it just seems the most appropriate thing to say. [via Gawker]

Ali G does the US: "With America on permanent code red for any jokes about the biggest event in the nation's modern history, it was probably unwise of Cohen to run a gag in which Ali confuses 9/11, a now sacred date, with 7/11, a chain of convenience stores." Come on! How is that not funny?

I've made an Oscar Poll, which you're allowed to steal and use for your own Oscar party. I've only used the "major" categories, so if you want to allow people to guess on the Achievement in Sound Editing category you can just add that category yourself. Just remember to change my email address to yours or it won't work.

I'm on my way to Copenhagen to see Aimee Mann (I'm thinking drinks first and then we'll see what happens). It's a three hour drive, so on my way I'll probably try to think of something fun to do for the Fauxhemian birthday party on March 7th. I can't believe it's been a year already.

Jason Kottke has interesting comments on a letter sent to Wordspy regarding their entry on Google as a verb. Wordspy has listed a couple of references to articles and such to back up that people use words like googling and googled in everyday conversations. However, they missed the funny one from Buffy:

Willow: "Did you google her yet?"
Xander: "Willow! She's seventeen!"

Tom Coates follows up on the story and points out that:

"When you're trained as a journalist, you're told that you have to capitalise brand-names. If you don't, the company concerned is forced to write to you requiring you to make it clear that it's a brand. If it doesn't do so - and cannot demonstrate that it's done so, then the word can be associated with any product at all."

I always figured that every company in the world strived to become the next Band-Aid, Hoover, Xerox, Kleenex, White-Out, or Frisbee. Imagine having created a product so popular that its name becomes synonymous with all similar products. But apparently this generification doesn't sit well with companies, who are desperate to protect their copyrighted name.

And the paedophilia is the new heroin meme continues as Massive Attack's 3D gets picked up accused of internet child porn offences.

Once again Well Hung At Dawn watches the Grammys. Obviously, they hate Norah Jones and Avril (but then don't we all) and refer to Nelly and Kelly Rowland as a second-tier Jay-Z and Beyonce (true dat). So it's all good. My only comment on the Grammys is that they should've let Elvis sing London Calling by himself. No offense.

The geniuses who brought you Break Stuff and American Bad Ass comment on the upcoming war.

And Walter Schreifels, who should be working on a new Rival Schools record, is working with Rebecca Schiffman (who?) and others on a record, which is out in May.
Seriously, I'd forgotten how dope Metal Hammer is. They are way more alternative than back in the day when I used to buy it for the posters.

I've got two extra tickets for Aimee Mann Saturday night. Since the show isn't sold out yet I'll make you a good deal on them. So drop me a line if you're interested.

And just when I said Ja Rule wasn't gangsta his boss goes and gets himself shot in front of his office. To paraphrase Justin: What's the deal with this thug life and when is it gonna fade out?

And today I received this email from MTV:

Subject: RE: MTV, THE FRIDGE
Hey John,
we're not posting the winners / prizes on the website, however I can tell you that you'll get the raveonettes jacket with the post, great jacket, great danish band!

So now I can be, as my brother put it, roadie cool. Can't wait!

I missed Junior Senior on Jo Whiley today, but thankfully the segments is available online. There's a cool live version of Move Your Feet and they announce some tour dates in case you want to check them out.

Ben "The Dell Dude" Curtis: "My creative talent was getting wasted. All the best takes we did were never shown. I felt hindered as a performer." [via Gawker] I'm going to let that one slide.

And it's nice to see that the Danish Pizza Scandal has been picked up by the foreign press. What a dumbass!

A lot of stuff is happening in music right now. The latest additions to my musical calendar are Yo La Tengo and Mew, both of whom will be playing here in May. Mew's third record, Frengers: Not Quite Friends But Not Quite Strangers, is out April 7th and Yo La's Summer Sun is out on April 8th, so there will be time to listen to the new stuff before the shows.

Danish band Kashmir will release their fourth album, Zitilites (presumable pronounced City Lights, but who the hell knows?), next week. But the video for the single, Surfing the Warm Industry, is available online now and you should check it out [via Opiate]. The video was directed by one of the guys behind the weird Wulffmorgenthaler site and it's unique to say the least. The video has been chosen as one of MTV Europe's Fresh Cuts, which means it'll get a lot of exposure, so maybe this will break them to an audience outside Scandinavia.

And speaking of MTV I won something on The Fridge Friday, but more on that when I find out what it was.

I saw the video for Ja's Smokin and Ridin the other day and I almost choked on my coffee. The Rule is an O.G.? Who does he think he's kidding? The guy's only 26! That would make him the youngest O.G. ever. Stop talkin' that trash and stick to doing ballads with J-Lo and Ashanti already.

And in more serious news Howie Epstein has died at age 47 presumably of a drug overdose. You might not know the name, but you probably know his work on records like Johnny Cash's Unchained and Tom Petty's Full Moon Fever, and a string of other Tom Petty records. Add to that his work with John Prine, Bob Dylan, and John Hiatt and I think you'll agree that it's a shame he won't be around to make more records.

And continuing the music talk: Is it just me or does the intro bit from Resistance is Futile by Jets to Brazil (of the Orange Rhyming Dictionary album) kinda sound like Gary Numan's Are Friends Electric?

Local blogger Jens Winther has broken his vow of silence and has resumed blogging at Bound in a Nutshell. Welcome back!

And the best thing about Dr. Phil being on Letterman? The mention of the fictional book "More advice Dr. Phil just pulled out of his ass". The list of things Dave had called Dr. Phil (including hump, halfbaked quack, and meddling son-of-a-bitch) was up there as well. Maybe he is a quack, but at least he's a lot funnier than that Gary Zukav guy, who always looks like someone just shot his puppy.

I've been out partying and stuff the last couple of days, so this is a round up of stuff I've noticed whenever I was near a computer this weekend.

Slate does Denmark: All three parts of Slate Magazine's guide to Copenhagen is now available. The people of Copenhagen are described as follows:
"Its citizens are an attractive people reigned over by an equally attractive royal family; they are more civilized than the Norwegians and more ironical than the Swedes; they dress well and have rather good haircuts."

If you haven't visited our fair capital yet you should definitely swing by some day. [Link via Peterwrites]

I enjoyed this take on Dilbert and the war. And the plot twist begat plot twist take on Joe Millionaire was good stuff as well.

There's an interesting article about unsigned bands being featured on Dawson's Creek over at Pitchfork. The article focuses on the band Choo Choo La Rouge. They could have written the same article in 1999, but back then it would've been about Pancho's Lament instead.

I think the Guess the Dictator and/or Sit-Com character website has been around for a while, but it's still pretty amazing. However, I did manage to stumped it by thinking of Shrug from It's Like, You Know (sucka thought I was thinking of Zorro. As if!).

I read the online comic Same Difference yesterday and thought I'd pass the link along. [via L.Y.D.]

And if you haven't seen the video for Hurt yet, you really should check it out. It's exactly as great as people are saying.

I'm going to Copenhagen on Friday to see Aimee Mann, who performs there Saturday night (if anyone knows who's supporting her let me know). I'll be hanging out for a few days, so hopefully I'll get a chance to see some friends and Rules of Attractions, which opens here on Friday. It's gonna be crunk.

But until then I need to get my old-piece-of-shit computer hooked up to the net in my new office, so I can start working. I've been by my office every day last week and I still haven't written a damn thing, because every time I get up there something new isn't working. But hopefully things will get fixed tomorrow.

I was talking about cyberbegging and the associates programme earlier, but there's a third way of making money for bloggers. Cafepress allows you to create merchandise with your logo on it and takes care of selling and shipping your products to customers. Always eager to help out friends I'd like to plug the latest in fashion gear. Check out cnut by Arseblog - It's f*ckin' excellent! Don't be the last one on your block with the cnut thong or cnut bip. It's the next fcuk, baby.

I got an email about the new issue of Solanas Online today. Check out the funky Lichtenstein gun intro with the Grandmaster Flash loop and read about Claudia Gonson (of Magnetic Fields fame) and the artwork courtesy of Drub.

And speaking of E-zines according to She Speaks Good English the site Shift is no more. And we were just getting reacquainted.

I've already got a bunch of concerts lined up for the next couple of months, but there are a couple I'm uncertain about. So if you know any of the following bands leave me a comment and let me know if they're worth checking out:

Subsonics (US)/Silverrocket
Timesbold (US)

So if I should go check them out please let me know.

I was watching Gilmore Girls tonight and thought this bit was funny in a very Nick Hornby type way:

Christopher: Well, what's his CD collection like?
Lorelai: Don't read into his CD collection.
Christopher: Jazz? Classical? What's his story?
Lorelai: It's a kind of a general collection.
Christopher: Uh Oh.
Lorelai: Christopher.
Christopher: Are we talking a dozen soundtracks, a few Beatles, a Bob Dylan plus a generic fifty.
Lorelai: I said don't.
Christopher: Alanis Morrisette?
Lorelai: Hey. A lot of people knee-jerked about that first one of hers. Cut him some slack.
Christopher: Dave Matthews?
Lorelai: A couple of his things are good.
Christopher: Buena Vista Social Club?
Lorelai: Stop it.
Christopher: Enya?
Lorelai: I'm gonna hit you.

[Transcript courtesy of the U2 Pop Culture Database]

And finally: Come on! Seriously, you gotta be kidding me.

Jason Kottke has written an interesting piece about Amazon's Associates Programme. If you haven't signed up for this it might not interest you, but since many bloggers (myself included) have signed up I thought I'd pass the link along.
The gist of the entry is that you have to look out, when you're creating product links to Amazon. If you're just copying the product's URL and adding your ID, then you might not get any referrals. Apparently, Amazon creates two kinds of URLs, when you search for a product and one of them doesn't work properly, when you just add the ID. And because there doesn't seem to be any real consistency in the way the URLs are created you have to look out, when creating URLs. But he explains it better than this.

I signed up to the Amazon programme, because I have a list of books at my Warhol site and I figured I could make a few bucks, if people bought the books I mentioned on the site. I eventually added an actual store section, because I kept getting emails about where people could get certain movies or posters. So now there's a section of the website that should help you out if you're looking for the Warhol/Basquiat boxing poster or a copy of Flesh.
And just for the hell of it I've added a few referral links on this page as well (I usually link to Amazon US on the Warhol site and to Amazon UK here based on the number of Americans/Europeans, who visits the two sites). So every time you follow a link from this site to Amazon and buy something I get a few pence. It hasn't added up to much yet, but hopefully in time it'll pay for a CD or something.

Maybe I'll get the new White Stripes album, which'll be out sooner than planned. Turns out some people had made tracks from the album available online, so now it's all about getting the record out before people get sick of them and don't want to buy their stuff.

Phoenix New Times has a profile of Brendan Benson, who's supporting The Flaming Lips in Europa and who I'll go see next month.

If you went to see The Walkmen on their latest tour you might be interested in Derek Teslik's weblog, where he has posted pictures and stories from the tour (he was the tour manager, so he's in-the-know).

And remember to listen to Jo Whiley next week, when Junior Senior are guests in the Live Lounge.

Kottke gives a sneak preview of the new Bloggle interface (gotta love the I'm feeling lucky button).

I'm back home now and I've been thinking about some of the weird discussions I had with my Dad in the last two days. First off it was nice that for once we agreed about something political (i.e. the Iraq-crisis as it has been dubbed). So the weirdness began whenever something cultural came up. I was listening to Sondre Lerche, so we talked about Scandinavian music. After a while he mentioned that he didn't like Björk (I didn't realize he knew who she was let alone had an opinion about her music) and he laughed, when I explained that her music wasn't exactly made for people like him and frankly something had gone terrible wrong if he were to like it. He also read me a passage from About a Boy (which he uses in one of his classes) that he really liked even though he didn't get the reference to Marvin Gaye. And finally he stumped me, when I was telling him about the song Plastic Jesus, because I said, "The song is about..." and before I could finish the sentence he interrupted with "Kurt Cobain?", which I thought was pretty funny (I mean, how often does your Dad make Cobain jokes?). So it was a nice couple of days.

Oh, and if you live around here you might like to know that we're planning a blogger meet on March 4th.

I was a bit surprised, when I read the Google buys Pyra article. Based on what Evan Williams have said about his company in the past I never thought he would sell Blogger. But now it's done and people seem unsure what this will mean to those of us living in the Blogosphere. Ev posted about the deal here and here and comments about the deal have been made by Tony Pierce, Anil Dash, Jason Kottke, Azeem Azhar, Nick Denton, and Dave Winer (and pretty much every other blogger in the world).

Obviously, this is great news for Evan and his Blogger team. But what's interesting for the rest of us is the effects this deal could have. Hopefully, it'll mean that Blogger will start functioning better (I tried to blog about the deal yesterday on a Blogger Pro powered site, but I couldn't get through) and that the guys will have time to start adding new functionalities to Blogger Pro. Which would be nice.
I think Google will find some way of adding their search engine to blogspot sites meaning that archival searches will finally be possible, but at the same time making it possible to make Google searches from all blogspot sites. This will make their search engine even more popular and further establish them as the number one search engine. And that's obviously bad news for more companies, who are developing other search engines and also for the people, who don't like Google.

Another concern could be that Google might favour Blogger powered sites, while searching for information. Google seems to rely heavily on the Page Rank system, and if they start ranking Blogger pages higher than say MT or Userland powered sites then a search would more likely return Blogger powered sites than other sites. Hopefully, this won't happen, but I think it's something to keep an eye out for.

But, concerns aside, this is a very interesting partnership and I'm sure this new development in the world of blogging will be followed closely.

In other news a Danish paper claims that Sunderland AFC has a debt of 30 million punds and that being relegated this season will mean a loss of income of about 20 million punds next season. That means they'll most likely have to sell a couple of key players including Danish goalie Thomas Sørensen. Now I know that people still think of him as the guy, who dropped the ball into his own net during the Denmark - England game, but overlooking that one crucial mistake he's a very good goalie. He's been picking off penalty kicks left and right this season and I personally think he would be a good investment for Arsenal seeing as Seaman is in the autumn of his career. Two of the goalies Wenger has available right now are injured and a third is signed to a short term contract. So none of them look like long term solutions and I definitely think Sørensen is worth taking a look at. But whatever happens in his career next season I recommend that he stays away from Manchester United unless he wants to have a boot kicked in his face.

CNN has an article on Cyberbegging, which indicates that begging online has gotten more popular. I made my opinion on this matter be know months ago, so I'm not going to bitch about it again.

I'm out at the homested today to take care of some business. That was dealt with yesterday, so today I've just been hanging out listening to music and reading. I'm going back tonight, because I have work tomorrow and I also have to pick up a key for my new office. I received a letter Saturday informing me that I had been awarded an office where I can work on my thesis. I haven't checked it out yet, but I'll probably swing by tomorrow and drag my old computer up there as soon as possible. Maybe an office without a television, PS2, stereo, and phone is what I need to finally get cracking on this source of constant guilt. It's worth a shot anyway.

There was a nice turnout downtown for the demonstration and as a speaker mentioned there hasn't been that many people in the townhall square since 1992 (when Denmark won the European Cup). I only took a handful of pictures, because there wasn't really anything to take pictures of besides people standing around freezing their asses off.

There were four speakers at the event and although the daughter of Iraqi refugees was quite eloquent and passionate in her speech the most informative speech was held by a woman, who had recently visited Iraq. She told of the appalling conditions and how they most certainly would only get worse if the country is attacked. If the power generators were to be bombed (which they usually are during attacks) the waterworks will stop working and people won't be able to get clean water. And if the country is attacked Saddam will stop delivering food to the 7 million people, who have no other income than the food given to them by the government.

The sanctions against Iraq already mean that the country is desperately in need of medicin and medical supplies and an attack would most certainly mean that more people would need medical help, but not be able to get it.
And as she told of what she had seen she also mentioned the European and American doctors and volunteers, who have tried to make a difference in Iraq for years. They've lobbied for a change in the sanctions, but apparently the US and Britain keeps voting against changes, so the sanctions remain the same. They've tried to let the public know about these terrible conditions, but nobody has cared the least about Iraq until recently, so all pleas for help have fallen on deaf ears.

Now, I don't know a lot about politics or what the rules are for invading a country, but I haven't yet heard any reasonable arguments for bombing this already miserable country to smithereens. It just seems to lack any perspective to just attack, try to kill Saddam, and then assume everything will be swell and keen. Obviously, everybody would like it if Saddam got put in a jail cell for the rest of his life and could the UN and America help with that I think most Iraqis would be eternally grateful. But if Iraq is attacked, invaded, and carpet bombed I think you'll be hard pressed to find any gratitude coming from a people, who are innocent and has nothing to do with this conflict.

I watched The Contender tonight and the conflict this fictional President has on his hands is not quite as serious as the one Bush is faced with. In the movie the Vice President has died and the President now has to choose a new one. His choices are basically limited to Grissom from CSI and Joan Allen and because of an incident, which is vaguely reminiscent of the Chappaquiddick scandal (Good senator, but a bad date. You know what I'm saying, folks?) Grissom is kicked to the curb and the rest of the movie is basically about trying to get Joan Allen approved for Vice President.

The story has a lot of references to McCarthy and the Lewinsky scandal and a lot of other shady parts of American political history. But the real kicker is watching Gary Oldman as a real scumbag and Jeff Bridges as a charming son-of-a-bitch, who just happens to be President. Bridges has a couple of scenes, where he is in public functions and in those he is charming and professional, but the scenes where he is just talking to his advisors and other politicians are what makes the movie really entertaining. When the door to the Oval Office is closed Bridges walks around in sweats and tries to stump the White House chef by ordering things like shark sandwiches. He plays bowling and curses like a longshoreman and is generally very unstateman-like, which is very funny. Several times it's actually like The Dude showered, shaved, and got elected to office. An illusion kept live by the fact that Sam Elliott hangs around the Oval as well.

The movie is in the same vain as Primary Colors i.e. if you have any dirt in your past it will most definitely be dug up if you're fool hearted enough to attempt a career in politics. The story has twists and turns and is complicated enough that you'll want to hang around to find out, who actually gets the job. But it's the acting that'll make you want to watch it a second time.

Don't you just hate it when someone else gets your dream job? Well, I was looking through some articles over at Shift, when I saw Not So Quiet On The Set, which is about a blogger who got a job blogging about the making of a movie. I don't know what they're paying her, but it sounds like a pretty sweet deal. Maybe I should send an email to Lars von Trier and ask if I could do the same for part two (and three) of the forthcoming Nicole Kidman trilogy. I wouldn't mind that at all.

According to Zentertainment Steven Soderbergh is working with Henry Bean (who wrote and directed The Believer) on a series for HBO. It's about political consultants and in an attempt to stay current they'll shoot the episodes the week before they air. Also involved in the project are Democratic consultant James Carville and Reagan White House staffer Michael Deaver. Doesn't sound like the next Seinfeld, but then ratings and quality don't always go together.

Also at Shift I found a long article about The Smoking Gun (which is not located at smokinggun.com btw.). It's fascinating stuff, but I'm still not sure how they get their stories, because in every case description it just says they checked out the story.

The Reversible website is hotter than Chinese firecrackers right now, but I'm still not sure what the point of it is. So I've created I Like Aarhus to see what happens.

We're going to the The World Says No To War demonstration today (I can't believe we in this day and age have to stand up and say that war is hell, but so be it). If you want to go here's a list of cities where demonstrations are held. I got a hold of a camera, so I'll take a few pictures and if they turn out alright I'll post them here.
But first it's time for the ManU - Arsenal game. Then after footie we can get political.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Valentine's Day isn't a big deal here, but I thought I'd wish those of you who celebrate this day a wonderful time buying or getting chocolate and flowers. Personally, I'll send a couple of emails to female friends and otherwise pretend like I don't mind being alone. And now back to our irregularly scheduled programming.

I was a member of the now defunct Firefly back in the day. I used to rate and listen to music at Echo, and one of my favourite sites 5-6 years ago was a page, where you could type in a bunch of your favourite records and then get music recommendations. All these sites are gone now, so when I heard about Audioscrobbler [via Shane] I figured it would be something I'd be into. The idea seems to be to listen to music using your WinAmp player and after a while you'll be able to find users who listen to the same kind of music you listen to. Hopefully, they'll also be listening to stuff you haven't discovered yet, so that will serve as an inspiration for you.

In order for the system to work you have to listen to a fair amount of tracks (I think at least 200), but after that the more you listen to the music you like, the more precise the system should get. I only signed up a few hours ago, so the recommendation thing hasn't kick in yet, but we'll see how cool it is in a week or so.

The people at BBC News Online are encouraging people [via Scripting News] to send pictures from anti-war demonstrations from all over the world. We were talking about going to the demonstration here in Aarhus on Saturday, so if I can get my hands on a camera I'll send them some pictures (and post them here as well).

There's an interesting discussion about the power and hieraki of weblogs going on right now. Dave Sifry has created a page that tries to promote lesser known blogs, but all the math and algebra went over my head. He explains his theories here and Jason Kottke continues the discussion.
I think the idea is great, but I doubt it'll do me a lot of good. The whole thing is based on people creating new links to weblogs, and seeing as this page only gets linked to once or twice a month then I don't see it hitting the top of this new chart. But as I said it's a good idea.

Kottke also mentions a site called Reversible. Once again I don't get what it does or why, but I'm going to add http://reversible.org/ilike/weblogs to this entry and see what happens. Maybe I'll learn something.

I was listening to Jo Whiley today and during the movie news she was talking about the movie Party Monster starring Macaulay Culkin. There was a brief interview with Mac where he talked about the weird costumes he had to wear for the movie. Afterwards Jo and the movie reporter talked about some pics they'd seen of Mac and it sounded like they were pretty out there. I searched around for pictures from the movie without too much luck (I found a pic of Seth Green as James St. James, though).
But then tonight I found the movie's official site (I guess partymonster.com was just a bit too obvious this morning) and found a picture of Mac dressed as Michael Alig [Update: That's Club Kid Richie Rich and not Mac. But there's a picture of Mac here.]. He's pretty spooky looking, but on top of that he actually looks a lot like Alig.

In case you haven't heard of Michael Alig here's the story. In the late 80s and early 90s Alig was a party promoter in New York City. He was one of the so-called Club Kids and not only did he arrange parties in clubs. He also arranged impromptu parties at Burger King or in subway stations. Not surprisingly did these Club Kids do a lot of drugs and in 1996 Alig was convicted of murdering friend and drug dealer Angel Melendez and he is currently incarcerated in the Southport Correctional Facility.
Five years ago the documentary Party Monster was shown on tv here. I didn't really know what it was about, so I just taped it and watched it the next day. But I was so blown away by it that I started talking about it to everyone who would listen. A friend of mine borrowed the tape and within a week the tape got lent out to his colleagues and later to more of my friends. I've seen it ten times and still I get impressed every time I watch it. The story is fascinating, because all these crazy kids are dressing up, partying and doing drugs. But all of a sudden party time is over and you have to realize that people's actions have consequences.

The Macaulay Culkin movie is based on the James St. James book Disco Bloodbath, which I haven't read yet. But James is heavily featured in the documentary and I think he was involved somehow in the movie as well. So that lends a lot of credibility to the movie, which I'm really looking forward to. For more on Alig and the Club Kids check out the Michael Alig Club Kids site.
Oh, this is a fun this shirt. It's almost as cool as this one.

What's the deal with paedophilia being the new heroin? Used to be that the hip thing was to take too many drugs and die at 27 or maybe get arrested for possession, but now getting busted for kiddie porn seems to be all the rage. Besides Jerry Lee Lewis I don't think I ever heard off anyone famous, who were (accused off being) into this kind of thing until the Michael Jackson case. But now it seems like people get charged with statutory rape and possession of child pornography every day.

Obviously, Pete Townshend hasn't been convicted of anything and neither was Michael Jackson, but Gary Glitter was and R. Kelly is out on bail charged with all kinds of nastiness. And as Rolling Stone points out in their latest issue this is probably not the best time for a reissue of I Can Fly (The R. Kelly Story).
And then there was the Paul Reubens/Jeffrey Jones case, which I think is still in court.

Recently Father Brennan, who runs an orphanage in Pattaya, was accused by British paper The People of hooking rich paedophiles up with street kids. This has upset a lot of people here, because a lot of Danes have volunteered at the orphanage and several celebs have donated a lot of money to him.
And it seems every time I read a paper some old pervert is being drag off to court for putting his hands where he shouldn't have.

I can't help but wonder if this surge of cases is coincidental or if the sexual objectification of children in advertising and the entertainment industry has anything to do with this. Maybe stuff like this has been going on always and it's only now we're (or at least I'm) learning about it. But maybe it really has gotten worse.
I recently saw this fashion picture and thought it was distasteful. And add to that the schoolgirl videos for "Baby, One More Time" and "All The Things She Said", JonBenet Ramsey and the scary beauty pageants, and covers like this and you have just the tip of the iceberg.

I don't have a real point with this other than it creeps me out and I can't help but notice how kids grow into oversexed fashion conscious consumers faster than they did ten years ago. And I think that's partly because companies are pushing products towards younger demographics than before. When I was a kid there weren't any compilation records with bubblegum pop and one-hit-wonder aimed at me and the teen talent shows on TV didn't get you a record deal. But I guess them days are over.

No, when I was a kid we listened to sensible music like Hall & Oates. Okay, actually I didn't, but Ben Gibbard from Death Cab For Cutie did. Oh, and if anyone knows Ben let him know that the cherry wine Jermaine Stewart sings about does in fact exist.

And the concert season here continues with gigs from Stephen Malkmus in April and The Go-Betweens in May. The second Malkmus album will be called Pig Lib and will be in stores in the March. Can't hardly wait.

You are not the kind of guy who would be at a place like this at this time of the morning.

That's the first line from Jay McInerney's Bright Light, Big City, which is one of my favourite books. I hadn't seen the movie version, starring Michael J. Fox and Kiefer Sutherland, before, but it was on last night, so I got a chance to check it out. It's weird that I haven't seen it before, since I've seen pretty much every movie Michael J. Fox has made including those dodgy comedies in the early 90s. When I first heard that Fox starred as Jamie Conway in the movie version I thought it was a bit of a casting mistake, but he's surprisingly good and shows a lot of range in the emotional scenes towards the end. Kiefer is perfect as the slick party-goer always on the lookout for Bolivian Marching Powder, and I guess the movie does a pretty good job of capturing the 80s clubbing scene (lots of music like New Order and Depeche Mode on the soundtrack).

But for some reason the movie felt a little flat. Maybe it's because McInerney wrote the script himself and keeps it too closely to the original text. Or maybe it's because the storyline about Conway's mother is introduced too early on in the movie and too little is made of his obsession with his wife, who has left him. Either way I was a little disappointed especially considering the strong acting in the movie.

I really like the first line in Bright Lights, Big City. Another great first line is: People are afraid to merge on the freeways in Los Angeles, which is from Bret Easton Ellis' book Less Than Zero. The line from Bright Lights tells you a lot about Conway's self image and opens up for a narrative style, where he reflects over the state of his life and how it all has come to be so crap. And the Ellis line is a metaphor for the relationships in Los Angeles, where nobody merges, but everyone just sits in their cars and drive past each other.
So I think both lines do a really good job of setting the tone for the rest of the book and furthermore they suck you into the story right away.

We were out merging Saturday night. We'd been invited to a birthday party, where drinks were a buck and beer were fifty cents, so most people hung out until they ran out of everything. There were people playing cover versions on a little makeshift stage and on occasion someone would put George Michael on the stereo. We debated the merits of Brothers in Arms (a debate that continued Sunday down the pub) and wondered why all the cover songs had to be depressing.

But before we even got to the party we'd been sitting around watching a show about Danish television in the sixties and too indifferent to change the channel we slid straight into Saturday Night Fever. I hadn't seen it in ages, so I had a hard time separating it from Staying Alive, which led to a discussion of Travolta's career in general. However, the highlight of my night was debating, which movie had the better social depiction: Saturday Night Fever or Dirty Dancing. What kind of social statement was made by Johnny Castle and Baby was never made clear, but I once again argued that Fever is Rocky, but with dancing. Both Rocky Balboa and Tony Manero come from the same type of environment and want to do something more than work some dead-end job for the rest of their lives. Tony is driven by a desire to get out of his parents' house and make it in the city and Rocky is driven by love and although they don't make it big (at least not until the sequels) they still succeed in a small way. And people seemed to agree with this. At least a lot more than people do with my theory that The Commitments and Mr. Holland's Opus are basically the same movie.

I've been visiting Le Petit Hiboux regularly recently, so when Krissa suggested that people leave a comment and write something crazy about themselves I wrote: "I'm John, I'm Fauxhemian, and I'm the only man in the world, who thought Lord of the Rings was kinda boring" figuring that would set me apart from the rest. But as it turns out three others chimmed in in agreement, so I guess I'm not alone with this.

So, the 411 on me and The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring is that I didn't see it at the local multiplex. I didn't read the book as a kid, and I very much doubt I'll get around to seeing the second movie any time soon. When I was about 13 I read The Hobbit, because I played D&D and listened to Iron Maiden, so it seemed like a natural step. I thought The Hobbit was a decent enough book, so I started reading LotR and after about 100 pages I was so bored out of my mind I didn't finish it. When the hype surrounding the movie kicked in I thought about reading the book again and then seeing the movie, but I never got around to it. And when the movie finally opened I realized that I quite frankly didn't give a toss about a bunch of leprechauns mocking about in the forest trying to get a ring from one place to another.

But a friend of mine bought the extended version DVD, so I borrowed it from him recently and sat down and watched it. Now, it would be unfair to say that the movie sucked, but I did think it was a bit boring. The first disc seemed to drag on forever before some serious ass-whuppings were delievered on the second disc. I though the Gwar-looking monsters towards the end were pretty cool and obviously the movie is beautifully shot, but other than that I really didn't think it was that great. Viggo Mortensen was the only actor I really liked in the movie and I didn't think the hobbits were funny, so the whole thing left me feeling slightly underwhelmed. I haven't seen the second (or fifth depending on your perspective) Star Wars movie, either, nor have I seen the second Harry Potter movie, so maybe I'm just not a fairy tale type of guy.

I've heard two supremely weird songs today. First, Cunts with Attitude: Only Straight Girls Wear Dresses [via She Speaks Good English] and later the Xfm remix of Just Jack's Snowflakes and both have to be heard to be believed. The first is a lesbian rap (I wasn't aware those even existed) and the second is someone who sounds like Mike Skinner, while rapping over Lullaby. You'd think it wouldn't work, but it does. It's kooky!
Oh, I also heard Tatu's version of How Soon is Now today and it ain't half bad.

Apparently, Guns 'n' Roses are looking for a new singer. Well, not the combo with Axl, Buckethead, and the rest, but the reunited group with Slash, Duff, Izzy, and Matt Sorum. And VH-1 are going to make a show about how they picked the new singer. Well, of course they are. Why don't they just pick Sebastian Bach and get it over with?

I've been wasting my time playing Gridlock [via Kasper] and BliX lately. I'm stuck in both games now, so maybe I should give up and move on to doing something more sensible.

I like Dave Barry a lot. I don't get around to reading his columns nearly often enough, but I'll definitely be visiting his blog a lot. He does seem to be a bit too occupied with Joe Millionaire and The Bachelorette, though:
"As you know by now, if you follow world events, Trista dumped Russ. Afterward, she said she knew she had made the right decision, because -- as I interpret her remarks -- Russ did not react to the news by immediately committing suicide."

I usually hate it, when people post cat pictures. But these are scary-funny.

I used to listen to Radio 1 all the time, but the cable company took it off the dial, so since then I've barely listened to any radio. But on occasion I'll log on to BBCs 6 Music and listen for a bit. Today they've played The Streets, Massive Attack, The Divine Comedy, and some other good stuff, so that's been alright. However, right now they're discussing whether Dolf Datsuns is sexy or if he looks too much like Feargal Sharkey.

I've been linking more than writing about myself lately, but when all you do is sit around the house there really isn't much to write about. But tonight we're going to a birthday party, so hopefully something wacky will happen, which will turn into an interesting story for the ol' weblog.

On further inspection it turns out I'd misread the overtime article I mentioned yesterday. Turns out 12 out of 26 overtime games were decided on the first drive and not just one (but only one was decided on a kick returned for touch down). So now the criticism makes a bit more sense, but seeing as less than half the games were won on the first drive the rule still doesn't seem monumentally unfair. There's a run through of the stats in this article.

The always humble Chris Martin is surprised more people don't hate Coldplay and says about the band: "We're a more English version of Incubus".

I ordered a bunch of stuff early last month from Amazon UK, so it would be here for my brother's birthday. Among the items were Bright Eyes: Lifted. Unfortunately, the CD skipped and got stuck on the 6th track (Bowl of Oranges), so I sent the CD back. Today I received a new copy and it skips and gets stuck in the exact same place. It would seem that there's a flaw in the shipment of albums they have in stock, but for some reason that flaw doesn't turn up, when I play the CD on my computer. So now I can listen to the album today, but I think I'll have to return it again as I don't want to hang on to a CD, which I can't play on my stereo.

The creator of the LOVE sculpture in Manhattan, Robert Indiana, seems to quite the grumpy fellow.

And the list of Blog Awards continues. The French have now created Les Blogs d'Or 2003, which I'd be happy to tell you more about, but unfortunately the rolling stars at the top of the page made me seasick, so I had to leave the page. I guess a Danish version can't be far off now.

The two records I'm looking forward to the most are the forthcoming albums from Duran Duran and The Dandy Warhols. The Dandys' record, Welcome to the Monkey House, will be out in May and feature Evan Dando and Nile Rodgers and have tracks produced by Nick Rhodes. There was a rumour going around that Simon Le Bon would sing on a track as well, but maybe that didn't happen.
There's been a rumour going around that Nick Rhodes was in the studio with the Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs (he has actually been producing a band called She Said Yeah) to which the Yeahs responded that it was actually Andy Taylor, who was in the studio with them. But it was all a joke (I guess they don't feel like sounding like Thunder).
And speaking of Duran: This is pretty funny.

And finally the Well Hung at Dawn boys finally get their asses in gear and list the best records of 2002. And as usual you'll have no idea what or who they're talking about. But at least they pointed me towards Drowned in Sound, where I found a funny review of the Tatu album.

The man called E has been busy lately. He's been recording the soundtrack to the movie Levity, he'll be releasing a solo album next month under the moniker MC Honky, and Eels will release the album Shootenanny in June. Hopefully, the record will be followed by European tour dates.

Everybody's favourite up-and-coming band, The 22-20s, finally have their own website. Unfortunately, it only has tour dates right now, so this entry still seems to be the premiere place for information. And they really seem to be on the rise. They played at the first of the NME Awards shows Tuesday alongside Starsailor and Nada Surf.

And the Courtney-does-London story continued as she appeared at the Old Vic Theatre with her knickers showing. That's the story The Sun chose to focus on, but for some reason they completely missed that she came on stage dressed as Donald Duck.

And in sports the NFL's competition commitee will convene next month and look at the controversial overtime rule. 26 games were decided in overtime this season and it has been argued that those games were basically decided by a coin toss. But as it turns out only one game was decided on the receiving team's first drive and only 11 out of 26 games were won by the receiving team. So statistically speaking it seems the rule is pretty fair. But I guess the alternative could be to play out the full extra fifteen minutes, but I'm not sure that would be particularly exciting. And you could end up with more games that ends as draws and possibly games lost because of missed two-point conversions.

And finally the first season of The Shield has been released on DVD before it has even been picked up by Scandinavian television. But according to this article (which also mentions the Six Feet Under DVD) the DVD is so packed with extra goodies you'd be almost foolish to wait around for someone to pick up the show instead of just buying it right away.

Fastlane premiered here last night and it's either the best or the worst show ever. The show is like an upgraded version of Miami Vice and once again we have two cops, who don't follow the rules, while driving fancy cars, boinking hot women, and clubbing. The soundtrack is bouncin' with tracks by everyone from Folk Implosion to N.E.R.D. (and there was even a Phil Collins track in there just like on Vice). And because the first episode was directed by McG it had more fancy camera work than The Matrix.

I'm not even going to try to explain the story, because it was pretty ridiculous and only functioned to showcase the two cops and their new boss (played by Tiffany Thiessen). And since this isn't exactly Hill Street Blues or The West Wing that doesn't really matter. But what it lacks in story it makes up for with lines like: "Is this bedtime? Did I ask for a story?" and "If I was here to get bent over and doggied, wouldn't I be barking?".
There were cameos from Isaac Hayes and Fred Durst and the gratuitous Duran Duran reference and the black cop line dancing in a redneck bar to Cat Scratch Fever just makes the show so over-the-top you have to laugh.
The show might go down the crapper once directing duties goes to video directors and nobodies, but until then it's just big, dumb fun.

I just found out that Brendan Benson is supporting The Flaming Lips on their European tour. And yesterday I found out the Mark Olson & The Creekdippers and Ed Harcourt are coming to town in March, so suddenly the world is a much better place than it was two days ago.

I usually don't link to a lot of articles and fun websites, but yesterday and today I've stumbled over some fun stuff, which I've decided to pass along.

You have your weblog awards and your Anti-Bloggies, but now some genius has created the Nude Weblog Awards [via Francis]. The deadline for entries was on Sunday, so unfortunately I won't be able to enter (yeah, like I would in a million years). But like the rest of the blogging world I'll be checking in and commenting as soon as the nominees are announced.

I mentioned the Doors "reunion" recently and now it turns out that tinnitus isn't the only reason Densmore isn't on the road with Ray and Robbie. And frankly he'd prefer it if they called themselves The Hinges

Tom McRae is back with a new album, Just Like Blood, and Q Magazine has five songs available with their presentation of the album. That's also where he is quoted about living in England: "One day, Tony Blair will get back from his day job as White House bidet and find that everyone's fucked off to Baghdad because the weather's better and the threat of being gassed is nothing compared to the Central Line at rush hour." He's just happy as Jack that one.

Yahoo! has an interesting story about the American networks' and news station's handling of the Columbia accident. It's not about how they dealt with the story, but which anchor they chose to have on screen while bringing updates on the story. The story comes because as it turns out CNN anchor Aaron Brown continued to play golf with Bob Hope after he learned that the space shuttle Columbia had exploded. But as a news analyst says in the article: "Anchors are overrated anyway."

First she scared people on a London street for a Q Mag photo shoot (check out the weird pictures (via Catherine's Pita)) and then she scared people in the sky after pulling a Peter Buck. Obviously, Courtney Love just isn't her well adjusted self these days.

Turns out the British version of That's My Bush! is a play called The Madness of George Dubya.

And finally the New York Times is reporting that certain people think there is too much sex on television (how is that even possible?). And they're getting support from the oddest place.

When singers go solo they usually go in one of two directions. Either they totally discard their back catalogue and refuse to play their old hits even though the fans would love to hear them (there's no point in shouting out Voices Carry at the Aimee Mann concert next month). Or they figure it's a shame to let good songs go to waste and play whatever songs they feel like. Thankfully, Grant-Lee Phillips belongs to the second category. It hadn't occured to me that he was going to perform solo, but as it turned out it was pretty cool, because it gave him a chance to talk between songs and just play whatever he felt like. And the old-school fans went nuts. He played a lot of Buffalo songs and even threw in hits like Fuzzy and Mockingbirds. But as my brother pointed out: "Fuzzy doesn't really sound like itself, when it isn't followed by a letter from a depressed teenager" (you'll only get that joke if you listened to Danish radio in 1993 I'm afraid).

Grant-Lee Phillips was in excellent form and started the show by saying that he was happy that he'd finally made it to Aarhus and he couldn't believe it had taken him so long to get here. He then asked if Shania or P. Diddy had played here, and since they obviously haven't (Voxhall holds about 500 people) he said that he would have to pick up the slack from his Hollywood homies. Later, he introduced See America by saying, "This next song is about how sometimes you have to get lost to get where you want to go. And right now it seems like the driver of our collective American cab is completely lost... So buckle up!"
There's a pretty good review in Danish (with a setlist) over at Gaffa, which you can check out for the full play-by-play. But I'll add that even though I didn't know that many songs I really enjoyed myself. And I was really impressed by Grant's voice. Not only does he have a killer range, but he also has a very unique voice and he had no problems reaching the audience in the back even though it was just him and a guitar (he played piano on a couple of songs as well). Oh, and the fact that the place was packed with familiar faces didn't hurt, either.

Camper Van Beethoven plays here on Monday and I'm seriously thinking of going. So I'd very much prefer it if you're going that you don't bring any pepper spray. Seriously though, if anyone as seen Camper on this tour I'd like to hear what kind of stuff they play and if they sneak in Cracker tracks during the set. So leave a comment if you've seen them recently.

Did you like Rock Star? Roger Avary did and so did I. So how excited was I to hear that The Crüe are getting back together to make a movie about their career? I like Judas and all, but a movie about The Crüe is going to kick ass!

If you're more of a punk rocker than a metal head you'll probably be excited to hear tracks from the forthcoming White Stripes album Elephant [via Catchdubs].

And finally you've gotta feel sorry for Mariucci. After taking the 49ers to the playoffs four times in six years he now has to coach the Lions. That poor bastard.

I had MTV running in the background as I was reading the news and checking weblogs this morning and suddenly my TV freaked. The picture disintegrated and was replaced by a black screen with a glowing, vertical line through it. It looked like that on all the channels and seeing as the sound was gone as well I just assumed the cable company had screwed up.

I turned the TV off, waited a little while and turned it back on only to find that the sound was back, but the screen was still F-ed. I turned it off again and a few minutes later something started to smell burnt. I started sniffing every appliance in the apartment, but I couldn't quite locate the origin of the smell. At this point I was sure the picture tubes were blown and the thought of schlepping my 28" TV down three flights of stairs out into the snow and freezing cold to get it fixed did not sit well with me at all. And seeing as our washing machine has been busted for a week I felt pretty Amish right then.

But I went about my day and an hour later I checked to see if the TV had magically healed itself (not unlike Joey's barcalounger, Rosita) and it had. So it must have been the damn cable company after all. And when I later went down to the basement it turned out someone had fixed the washer, so I've been upgraded from Amish to totally dependent on technology again.

I went by school today to hand in an application for an office, so I can get kicking on the thesis thing. Three others I know have also applied, so the plan is that we get an office together and somehow be able to keep each other at it instead of sitting individually watching MTV. I know the guy in charge of distributing offices, so I had a little talk with him (not in Sopranos way, obviously) and I think there's a good change that it'll work out.
And I also picked up tickets for Grant-Lee Phillips, so we're definitely going to that show tonight. I listened to a bunch of tracks from Mobilize yesterday and I liked them a lot more than the stuff he did with Grant Lee Buffalo. Some of it reminded me of what Beck did on his Sea Change album. And a lot of people seemed to be going, so it should be fun.

Oh, Johnny called and he wants his shirt back, honey.

I was thinking of an unrelated thing, to quote TMBG, which was that there's a debate in the Danish blogging community about how people use their blogs. The point which was made was that when you blog about breakfast, parties, and your fear of your television set blowing up you're not reaching the medium's full potential. A weblog can be seen as your virtual bullhorn, which you should use to voice your opinions about more important matters. While I can follow this way of thinking I personally have no desire to discuss politics, the environment, religion, or something of a similarly important nature on a regular basis. I discuss these matters with my friends and I prefer that to writing about Bush or Saddam and then being thrashed in the comments for being a lefty-commie-pinko-bastard like it seems to be the case on so many other blogs.

I mean I could link to this or to articles, where France and Germany are referred to as the Axis of Weasels, but what's the point? The War Bloggers are convinced they know the truth (not to the point where they'll actually suit up for combat themselves, but you know what I mean) and the rest of us, who haven't seen the evidence that Iraq are building the infamous weapons of mass destruction or that there's a link between Saddam and Bin Laden are just cowards (which is about 82% of the people of Europe). I mean what's the point of saying that the people of Iraq won't be "free" (whatever the hell that means anyway) just because Saddam is captured or killed or whatever Bush wants to do with him. Or that the whole thing is about oil and money and the fact that Daddy didn't get to kill Saddam, so now Sonny-Boy has to have a go at him.

Does anyone actually believe that bloggers of any political conviction can sway people's opinions about anything? It's not like we're known as a group of people too bothered by fact checking the ramblings we spew out on a daily basis. And if you look at the links from one blog to another it seems most of us only link to people we already agree with anyway. And if not it's just to show others how big an idiot someone is.

So instead of getting all worked up every day and writing about how stupid this approaching war is I choose to focus on whatever happens in my everyday life. I write about the things I care about and leave the propaganda to others.
I write about music and television shows, because this is what I know and care about and the chances of convincing someone that a show or band is cool are a lot better than convincing someone to change their views on politics or war. If that is a cop-out or a sure-fire never to reach the full potential of blogging then so be it. But that's just the way it's going to be round here.

I'm so tired. I was at a wine tasting party last night with 14 others and it lasted from seven at night till four in the morning. It was really nicely arranged and it was a lot of fun, but it has left me completely knackered.
A couple of my friends had bought wine from three different countries (France, Italy, and Chile) and in three different price groups from each country and then hidden the labels, so we didn't know which was which. They had made score cards and we then had to grade the wines, guess country and price range and after we had tasted all the wines we checked to see how we did. Half a point was awarded for a right guess of country or price range and out of a possible 9 points I got 4 1/2, which I thought was great considering how little I know about wine. I guessed more countries than prices ranges, which I also thought was cool. My friends had also bought a lot of different cheeses and baked all kinds of bread, so it was a pretty impressive setup.

Several of the people at the party had tickets for Grant Lee Phillips, who is playing here tomorrow. My sister asked me a couple of weeks ago if I wanted to go to the concert, but I said no, because I want to go see Camper Van Beethoven next week. And I'm going to see Aimee Mann and the following week The Flaming Lips in Copenhagen in March, so I really shouldn't spend more money on concerts right now. But since everyone seems to be going I'm going to check out some of his solo stuff today, and if I dig it I'll probably go.

Thursday night was supposed to have been low key and chilled out, but instead we ended up at the International Student Center and partied with Polish exchange students. At the ISC they have a bar with a pool table, fussball, and cheap beer, so we hung out there till they closed. Then we made it over to the bar at the dorms, where we go all the time and stayed till we got kicked out.

I don't think I've ever had that many White Russians and talked to that many people in one night before. My sister was there with some friends and in general there were justa lot of familiar faces there. I even met a girl, who I also met last year, when I was looking for a place to live. She was renting out a room and I went and interviewed for it. For a number of reason I later phoned her and said that I wasn't interested, but when I met her Thursday night she didn't remember me. So we talked for a bit about who she had gotten as a tenant instead and she persuaded me to try a Cosmopolitan (how 1998!). I also got invited to a party next weekend by a friend of my brother's, and I talked about John Ford and country music with a friend of a friend, so it was a pretty cool night out.

Unfortunately, it took its toll on me, so I was out cold all day yesterday. So I made a huge breakfast today with eggs, bacon, and the whole shebang, so I'm fit for tonight. We're having a wine and cheese thing, so if I'm going to be able to drink anything tonight I need to make sure I've eaten a lot beforehand.

I'm watching VH-1 Storytellers: The Doors, which I haven't seen before and it's pretty good. When I bought the Stoned Immaculate record I was very disapponted, because I thought a lot of the versions were boring. But the live versions, where The Doors just plays with the singers, are a lot better and the show has audience members asking questions. Also, the guys tell stories about the songs, which is interesting. The only thing I don't understand about the project, though, is that they didn't bring in Eddie Vedder. I bought a bootleg in 1992, where he sings a couple of songs with The Doors and those are the best new versions of Doors songs I've ever heard.

Scott Weiland does a pretty good job on Break on Through (also a highlight on the CD) and Patrick Monahan does a nice version of Love Me Two Times (a favourite of mine), which is a lot better than Train's version of Light My Fire, which is on the CD. But the rest aren't that remarkable, so the main reason the show is good is because of the three surviving members, who still seem to really love those songs they must have performed a million times before.

I remember the first time I heard The Doors I thought they were horrible. A friend of mine was a huge fan and lent me a tape, so I could check out this music she loved so much. Unfortunately, it was a live recording and the only thing I could hear was Ray Manzarek's damn organ, so I thought it sucked. Which I told her and she did not appreciate my honesty. So it wasn't until I got hold of a real record I discovered how cool they are. I later tried to read some of Morrison's poetry, but it didn't really do it for me. But I like the lyrics a lot and I think they were pretty remarkable.

I read that Manzarek and Kriger went on tour with Stewart Copeland and Ian Astbury as The Doors and I thought that was a pretty odd endeavour. I saw them on Leno a while ago and thought it was fairly unremarkable, but I guess if you're a huge Doors fan it's nice to get a chance to hear these songs live (especially if you didn't catch them the first time around). I know that's how I felt when I saw The Velvets in 1993.