A kid gets into trouble for using the F-word to his teacher and hires Mr. Super Lawyer, who gets online and writes a manifesto explaining the family of fuck [via Catherine]. This thing has everything - there's google searches, references to former fuck trials, and it mentions everything from Pulp Fiction to Chris Rock. My only question is: Who the fuck are Spleen Dingo?

Lasse, who was one of my blogathon sponsors, has captured a moment in time during the blogathon and turned it into high art. It's a truly moving piece from this young artist.

And speaking of the blogathon I forgot to mention that while I was posting like crazy my brother participated in the Reversed Blogathon. But after 24 hours of not posting he came back refreshed and wrote a brilliant piece of political satire in which he likens George W. Bush to Winnie the Pooh.

Dong Resin takes on the Prison Rape Elimination Act, which fails to mention anything about tossing the salad.

If this shirt isn't for you, and this one isn't for you, maybe this one could be.

PopMatters reviews the latest from Crazy Town. It starts "Here's a challenge -- find me a band that's worse than Crazy Town. Can't be done, can it?" and just keeps going. Good stuff.

I was watching mountain climber Aron Ralston on Letterman yesterday tell the story of how he had to chop off this own hand after being caught under a huge boulder, while climbing in a canyon. Although he made a few jokes while retelling the story it was still fairly grueling to hear the details of how he after having been trapped for five days had to break the bones in his arm, so he could cut the arm off. I couldn't find a decent interview with Ralston, but I did find a short CNN transcript of an interview, which will give you an idea of what he went through.

Artist Kevin Banks recently donated a series of framed images called Charles Schulz meets Robert Mapplethorpe to a charity auction. The series was intially accepted for the auction, but was rejected the day before the auction took place "due to its "obscene" and "pornographic" nature". Banks explains himself and then presents the images online, so you can judge for yourself (the first two pages are text and then the rest are images, which are definitely not safe for work). The phrase Good Grief! has never been this apropos.

I wrote an evaluation of the Blogathon experience, where I comment on some negative feedback we received here. But it's in Danish (and probably only interesting if your familiar with Danish weblogs), so no point in going further into it here.

However, I'd like to mention that the most fun we had during the Blogathon was when we decided to shoot pictures for The Mirror Project. We each sent in a shot, which you can see here and here. They're kinda goofy, but so were we at the time.

Other than that not a lot is going on right now. Not surprisingly I was a complete mess Sunday and having to get up for work Monday didn't make things better.

So the only thing I'll mention (since I'm already getting Google hits on this) is that Iron Maiden drummer Nicko McBrain was arrested in Long Island for hitting a security guard with his car. Apparently, he got offended, when he wasn't allowed into the VIP parking lot of the venue where they were to play that night.

Oh, remember the snowball game where you move kids around to throw snowballs at each other? Now you can play pretty much the same game, but with paintball guns and foul language [via Hypermind].

This is the final entry from me in this year's Blogathon!
It's been tough, but it's also been a lot of fun. So I'd like to say thanks to all the people who sponsored me, the people who commented, and the people who read some or all of the 49 entries I've produced in the last 24 hours.

And last but not least I'll say a special thanks to Emme for doing this with me. I would never have participated in something like this by myself and had it not been for her great mood and crazy ideas I would've gone to bed before midnight.

Here's a list of all the 31 CDs we listened to and their Allmusic rating:

Pete Yorn - Musicforthemorningafter (4 stars)
The Thrills - So Much for the City (4 stars)
The Smiths - Louder Than Bombs (4 1/2 stars)
Air - Moon Safari (5 stars)
Eels - Beautiful Freak (4 stars)
Cake - Motorcade of Generosity (2 stars)
The Raveonettes - Whip It On (3 stars)
The White Stripes - White Blood Cells (4 1/2 stars)
Hot Hot Heat: Break Up The Breakdown (4 stars)
Ben Folds Five - Whatever and Ever Amen (4 stars)
Pavement - Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain (5 stars)
Lou Reed/John Cale - Songs for Drella (4 1/2 stars).
Belle & Sebastian - If You're Feeling Sinister (4 stars 1/2)
The Dandy Warhols - Thirteen Tales from Urban Bohemia (4 stars)
They Might Be Giants - Flood (4 stars)
Fiona Apple - Tidal (4 stars)
Beulah - When Your Heartstrings Break (4 1/2 stars)
Fountains of Wayne - Fountains of Wayne (4 stars)
Wilco - Summerteeth (4 1/2 stars)
Built to Spill - There's Nothing Wrong with Love (4 1/2 stars)
Ben Kweller - Sha Sha (4 1/2 stars)
Joseph Arthur - Big City Secrets (4 1/2 stars)
That Dog - Retreat from the Sun (4 stars)
The Shins - Oh, Inverted World (4 1/2 stars)
The Pixies - Doolittle (5 stars)
Lloyd Cole - The Collection (2 1/2 stars)
The Strokes - Is This It (4 1/2 stars)
Guided by Voices - Bee Thousand (4 1/2 stars)
Super Furry Animals - Fuzzy Logic (4 1/2 stars)
Whiskeytown - Strangers Almanac (3 stars)
Interpol - Turn on the Bright Lights (4 1/2 stars)

Together they added up to an average rating of 4,15 stars, which means that Allmusic agrees with me that these are brilliant records.

So what have we learned from all this? Well, we found out that Emme can appreciate music from a lot of different genres and she even found a couple of records she really liked. Unfortunately, she overdosed on music halfway through, so a couple of the records I'd hoped she'd really like didn't get the chance to sweep her off her feet. I guess 31 records is too much for any one person to take in during a single day, so I think it's fair she couldn't get as excited about the CDs I stuck on a 5am as I was.

Seeing as these are some of my favourite records I had a brilliant time listening to all of them again. And now I'll have an even more brilliant time shutting down the computer and going to bed.

I hoped you enjoyed the Blogathon as much as we did. Remember to check the Blogathon 2003 - Hour by Hour Gallery, thanks for stopping by and please come again.

As you might remember I went to the Midtfyns Festival a few weeks ago and it rained almost non-stop. Looks like the poor people who went to the Langelands Festival to see Dionne Warwick can relate.

Remember the guy who promised to get pictures of blogathongs? Well, he did get some panty shots, but they're not quite as sexy as you could've hoped for (neither for males nor females).

I personally hate crank calls and tv shows and radio shows featuring crank calls, but if you're into that sort of thing you might find this article amusing.

A World Football Guide designed for the American audience [via Fark].

10 things we didn't know this time last week [via Fark].

Like I mentioned almost 24 hours ago Suggs and Boller aren't officially Ravens yet, and therefore they most likely won't report to training camp tomorrow. But Ray-Ray will and you know he's dying to kick ass after having been sidelined last season. Man, am I psyched about the upcoming season or what?

I've just found all the Seinfeld quotes you could ever need. And they're sorted by episode. So if you can't remember what Mr. Bookman said to Jerry in The Library, this is where you should go ("I've got a flash for you, joy boy. Partytime is over")

And if you've been wondering how to turn your old album covers into handbags this is the site for you [via Scrubbles].

There's an hour and a half left of this year's blogathon and it doesn't look like I'll be able to create the world's first online brunch after all. I haven't been hungry since I wolfed down that pizza and Emme's been eating so much candy she should be bouncing of the walls because of all the sugar. The brunch will hopefully still happen, but it'll not be documented in the excrutiating detail it would have been had I started cooking four hours ago.

UK politicians to crack down on Happy Hour.

I'm honestly way too tired to figure out who'll be playing what in this article about Roseanne Barr, who's developing a reality show about developing a cooking show. But you give it a go, why don't you?

I think I'm going to have to face that Emme is being way too silly to focus on something as important as music right now. I've played her The Strokes - Is This It (4 1/2 stars), Guided by Voices - Bee Thousand (4 1/2), and Super Furry Animals - Fuzzy Logic (4 1/2) and the only time she mentions music is when she tells me to move my bitch-ass and put the next CD on. I'm giving her gold here and she has barely raised an eyebrow in the last two hours. I'm at my wits end and I'm left with country records and more music by depressing guitar wielding men, so I doubt I'll musically be able to shock her back into coherence. This is tougher than I ever thought it would be.

Have you been following this weblog from I started on my blogathon adventure? Sick of me only posting every 30 minutes? Well, then Snoop this puppy up! [via No Matter What You've Heard] Everything sounds fresher through the mouth of Snoop. Just check this snippet from my Pixies posting:

Crap, that shiznit's skipping like a school brizzle now, know what I'm sayin'? We might has change da CD, know what I'm sayin'? We'll still has play that shiznit loud, though, as someone is playing Queen records, know what I'm sayin'?

And you just knew I had to link to a story, where I could write Izzard to play old fairy, didn't you?

Having problems reading Danish? Well, it doesn't get any easier when my crazy companion starts removing all the vowels from her postings.

Jens suggests that we blog about insomnia seeing as we've been awake for so many hours. I doubt I'll have any problems falling asleep when this thing is over, but I think one of the reasons I'm so beat right now is that I didn't sleep well last night. I went to bed early, because I figured a good night's rest was a good idea before attempting to stay awake for 30 hours. But I couldn't sleep at all. I tossed and turned for almost two hours, which is one of the most frustrating things in the world.

You're lying in bed totally aware of the time and that the time you have to get up is coming ever closer. So you tell yourself, "Stupid brain, stop thinking! Fall asleep already!", but for some reason that doesn't really work. So I got maybe six hours sleep before having to get up and get ready.

I haven't really had any problems staying awake so far. I'm tired, but not really sleepy. However, I did hit a rough spot, when I got on the couch for a few minutes. I just needed to lie down for a few minutes, because I'm not used to sitting down for so long. After ten minutes I could feel the soft pull of sleep sucking me under like the undertow. But I shook it of and have been a pillar of stamina since. And since it's bright as day outside now, I doubt we'll have any problems getting through the last few hours.

For more on weird sleeping phenomena check Vodkabird's posting about sleep paralysis

It's 11:30am and we're rockin' and rollin' now, baby! I've been reading Well Hung at Dawn and cranking possibly the best indie record ever: The Pixies - Doolittle (5 stars). Crap, it's skipping like a school girl now. We might have change the CD. We'll still have to play it loud, though, as someone is playing Queen records.

Supposedly , The Pixies are thinking of getting back together, which I think is a major mistake. Sure, I'd love to hear all the old songs live, but reunions are rarely a good idea (I have high hopes for the Duran Duran reunion, but I'm sceptical all the same). I like Frank Black's solo records and he plays Pixies tracks at his shows anyway, so I would really hate to see them go the same way as The Sex Pistols.

"It like needs to be weirder. The last couple of CDs have been men saying, 'Look at us with our deep voices and our guitars'". So precisely can The Shins - Oh, Inverted World (4 1/2) and Lloyd Cole - The Collection (2 1/2) be described by someone, who hasn't slept in 24 hours.

She forgot to mention That Dog - Retreat from the Sun (4 stars), because I played that while see was in a bit of a slump. And she added that she liked The Shins (and I think she liked Lloyd as well), so it wasn't that she didn't like the music. She just needs a bit more power to keep her going, so I'll see what I can do.

Are you sick of war, hunger, natural disasters, and reality television? Well, take it to the man in charge [via Jish] and quit bugging me.

Jay Allen explains the meaning of the word Blogathon. Had I known we'd have to blog ad nauseum I probably wouldn't have signed up.

I visit quite a few music zines on a regular basis, but none are as weird looking and (dare I say it) downright ugly looking as Playlouder. If you go over there you can read about the new Super Furry Animals record and Damon Albarn, but the design will probably make you want to leave before you've even click on a link.

How would you have liked to be sitting at your desk on September 11th in your office in the World Trade Center, when suddenly a plane came smashing through the window? Oh, you think that would've been kinda cool? Well, I guess they made the 9-11 Survivor game for you then. The rest of will just be sitting here shaking our heads then, while you enjoy trying to get out of a collapsing building.

I mentioned Bob Dylan earlier, so I thought I'd just pass along this picture. It's just one of many cool pictures available at Stencil Revolution.

Malaysian men allowed to dump their wives via SMS. And apparently they don't even have to text their lawyer first as "Islamic law permits a man to divorce his wife by declaring "I divorce you" three times." I wonder if Malaysian for divorce is "Candyman"?

We've decided to push breakfast towards brunch instead. We've been eating all kinds of stuff all night, so we're not really hungry yet. And there's way too much food for two people who aren't really hungry.

I should get ready to make breakfast soon. I figured we could use a nice, sturdy meal after staying up all night, so I brought along sausages, bacon, eggs, toast, tomatoes, and mushrooms to go with the coffee, milk, and juice Emme has in her fridge.

I'm not that hungry yet, but it'll take some time to get ready, so I'll probably get on it any minute.
Will there be pictures of this historic event, which will include me actually cooking? I think it's safe to say it'll be the most well-documented breakfast preparation act ever.

Built to Spill - There's Nothing Wrong with Love was a success, but Ben Kweller - Sha Sha (4 1/2) just kinda sat there in the background. Joseph Arthur - Big City Secrets (4 1/2) was another success, but it's a tough sell on the first listen. And lines like "Put my daddy on prozac/I don't think i want him back" don't exactly invite themselves to friendly sing-alongs anyway.

I know all these albums like the back of my hand, so I can't help humming/singing along to them, which has made Emme remark several times that it's unfair that I get to sing along. She's finding it hard to sing along with me seeing as she's hearing these tracks for the first time. But hopefully this will change in time as I expect she'll be buying several of these records and learn the lyrics quickly.

When Wil Wheaton wrote this I though about this t-shirt. And then I thought of Dennis Miller's comment on born-again Christians: "Born again? No, I'm not. Excuse me for getting it right the FIRST time".

The top four ugliest cars on the road rated on the Gary Busey scale of ugliness.

We've been blogging for 17 hours now and I've been awake for 23 1/2 hours, so I'm a little tired now. I just need to get myself through the next hour or so and then I'm on breakfast detail, which will be a nice change of pace from sitting here in front of the computer.

We're listening to Joseph Arthur - Big City Secrets now and the thing about him is I actually met him before I knew who he was. Years ago I did an interview with Gomez in Copenhagen and we had to do the interview in the support act's dressing room. So we went in there and they talked to the guy a bit and he left to do his sound check. Then after a while he came back and complained about the interview going on to long and talked like he was drunk. I asked Gomez who that guy was and they said: "Joe Arthur - he's this really talented guy who performs solo and has all these effects for his guitar, so he can make it sound really incredible". So in my ears he sounded like a busking version of Peter Frampton.

He kinda pissed me off a little bit and the description of his musical style didn't help, either. So instead of watching him perform I hung out in the bar and waited for Gomez to go on.

It wasn't until I read that he was the only American signed to Real World I got interested and now that I own two of his CDs I'm a bit miffed I didn't spend at least five minutes checking out his show.

I must get back to Dancecentrum in Stuttgart in time to see Kraftwerk [via The Modern Age].

There's an NY Times article about Bob Dylan playing Jake Fate in the movie Masked and Anonymous. Dylan plays a faded rock legend and there are appearances by John Goodman, Luke Wilson, Jeff Bridges, and Penelope Cruz, which pretty much makes it a must-see in my book.

However, the article doesn't mention the story about how Dylan might have borrowed a few lyrics from Junichi Saga's book Confessions of a Yakuza for his latest record.

I linked to Anil Dash earlier, who was talking very specifically about fonts in Windows. And I think most people will agree that it's impressive when people know a lot about certain technologies. But obviously it's less impressive and more creepy when that knowledge is used for evil. Like using Photoshop to recreate boobies than have been cropped out.

The net has been flowing with first video clips and then stories about the Star Wars kid, who played around with a light saber. Now the kid is suing the other kids, who captured his Jedi adventures on tape and made them available online. Apparently, appearing on the net like that was more than he could deal with.

Now his parents are claiming damages of $160,000 from the families of the four classmates who digitized and published the video. Ghyslain's parents claim their son was so humiliated, he is undergoing psychiatric care and may be marked for life by the experience.

I have a feeling this kid will be paraded round on a lot of talk shows in the next months.

This is just plain weird.

Everyone was caught by surprise when it turned out that Emme actually knew Fiona Apple - Tidal (4 stars). Thankfully, she really likes it, so that was nice. But while we were listening to Beulah - When Your Heartstrings Break (4 1/2 stars) and Fountains of Wayne - Fountains of Wayne (4 stars) we got a little distracted by running around with the camera, so she can't really say if she likes them or not. Then Ingrid showed up with ice cream and I put on Wilco - Summerteeth (4 1/2 stars) and then all was right with the world. Because how can you not love that record?

And now we're listening to the brilliant Built to Spill record There's Nothing Wrong with Love (4 1/2 stars). Alongside Pavement's Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain (which we've already heard) and Guided by Voices' Bee Thousand it's proof that 1994 was a damn fine year for music. I'm currently trying to think of what to play next that'll impress her so much that'll she'll actually pay attention to the music. It's not going to be easy.

I've been searching through news sites for blogable items these last couple of hours, but there's not a damn thing going on on the western hemisphere. So genius that I am I started going through an Australian newspaper to get the breaking news (aren't they supposed to be awake down there). But I'll be damned if I can find one newsworthy item from down there.

Once again the glorious Found Mag delivers the goods.

Building on the success of Glow by J.Lo, Coty Inc. has developed a second perfume with Jennifer Lopez, this time aimed to appeal to a more sophisticated, mature customer. For some reason the idea of "mature customers" and "J-Lo" just doesn't added up in my head.

Jim Treacher comments on the fact that disgraced NY Times journalist Jayson Blair is still getting assignments [via Gawker]. Isn't having Blair write an article for you a bit like asking Lorena Bobbitt to be your mohel? Sure, they know the work field, but the results are devastating.

I recently mentioned the freekobe website and now there's a full article on it over at The Black Table.

Somehow a post about Dave Mustaine and an anonymous penis turned into a love fest for the Danish people. The internet is a fun place.

I was not aware that you could win an award for doing the blogathon, but apparently you can. The only one I qualify for is Best Music Project, but I doubt playing CDs to a grumpy blogger is going to beat the ones where they're writing and recording their own songs every hour.

I've just sent this picture and this picture to The Mirror Project. Unfortunately, they won't be accepted until after the Blogathon is over, but I'll definitely post links as soon as they're available.

This is my first submission and it's almost embarrasing to admit, but I broke two out of three rules:

Tips for better mirror photography:

I. Turn the flash off! It's going to reflect and blast out your image. This is only a suggestion.

II. Don't look at yourself in the mirror or the display of your digital camera. Look into the mirror at the lens of your camera. Makes for a better picture.

III. Take a look around you. You'd be surprised at how many different mirrored or reflective surfaces there are around you. Be creative. It's not that we don't want to see your bathroom, baby! We want to see whatever you want to show us.

We turned the flash off, but the rest is disaster city. For the record I'd like to add that we tried being creative and shot pictures in both a mirror and two different windows before accepting that the bathroom was the only place with enough light. And the "looking at ourselves in the mirror" fumble? Well, that's just a rookie mistake, I guess.

Apparently, yesterday was Aldous Huxley's birthday. I was not aware of that.

And it was also Stanley Kubrick's birthday. I wasn't aware of that, either.

While looking through Blogcritics I found Craig Lyndall's comments on the article Emo: Where the Girls Aren't. It's an interesting article written from a female perspective about songs written by men in which she says: "The numbers of times I have genuinely felt, or even sensed my reality or the reality of the women I know portrayed in a song sung by male-fronted band— that number was at zero and holding.". Maybe it's true, but it sounds a little harsh. I'd say an emo song like Undone- The Sweater Song applies to everyone. But I guess by the same token you could argue that it makes sense to no one.

Is this the creepiest chair you've ever seen or what?

I know you were all excited about the Hunting for Bambi weekend you were planning, but unfortunately it's a hoax.

Emme has uploaded some of the failed Mirror Project shots and they're obviously way too disasterous to send anywhere, so in a bit we'll try again and hopefully they'll turn out better.

Ingrid has just let us know that she'll be stopping by with ice cream in about an hour. I think around the same time we'll start making coffee, because there's definitely some yawning going on now.

In an attempt to get some quality time together we've experimented with creating shots for The Mirror Project. There are rules against flashes in the mirror surface, so we're experimenting with the lighting (it's 3am here btw) and trying to take shots, which combine decent light, us looking normal, and then actually being in focus. I don't think we've succeeded yet, so I think we'll have to shoot a second round in a bit. And if you're lucky we'll post the most miserable shots here later on.

And for those keeping score at home we've now reached the halfway mark. Thank you for playing!

Emme seemed to like Belle & Sebastian - If You're Feeling Sinister (4 stars 1/2), but right now enthusiasm from her consists of talking monosyllabically to me inbetween cursing at whatever is on her screen or whatever book she's leafing through for inspiration. She also liked The Dandy Warhols - Thirteen Tales from Urban Bohemia (4 stars) and claimed she'd never heard the song Bohemian like You before (she truly lives under a rock, when it comes to music). However, she did giggle at several tracks from They Might Be Giants - Flood (4 stars), which she referred to as "weird, but in a good way" and "sounding like Monty Python", so that was good. I always laugh at the lyrics to We Want a Rock (Everybody wants prosthetic/Foreheads on their real heads).

We just realized that between emailing, chatting with people, searching for stuff, and blogging we've barely had a conversation since this thing started. But hopefully that'll change now that most people have logged off and gone to bed. It's actually very nice right now, because it's dark out and very quiet. The only frustrating thing is trying to come up with new ideas as soon as you pressed the Post button. But so far I'm not panicked about running out of subjects and/or links. If all else fails I can always break out my rock star anecdotes and 9/11 stories. Even though most of you have probably heard them before.

A lot of the records I've brought along are special to me because of the lyrics. Therefore it is unfair to have to judge them after just hearing them once (especially under these conditions), because there's no way you'll be able to pick up on what E's singing about in Susan's House, while trying to figure what what to blog about next.

But I know these records well and while listening to some of them I was reminded of their brilliant lyrics. The Songs for Drella record is fab from start to finish, but I especially like these lines:

Andy said a lot of things, I stored them all away in my head
Sometimes when I can't decide what I should do
I think what would Andy have said
He'd probably say you think too much
That's 'cause there's work that you don't want to do
It's work, the most important thing is work
Work, the most important thing is work

Ans the lyrics to Belle & Sebastian's If You're Feeling Sinister always puts a sly grin on my face:

Hilary walked to her death because she couldn't think of anything to say
Everybody thought that she was boring, so they never listened anyway
Nobody was really saying anything of interest, she fell asleep
She was into S&M and bible studies
Not everyone's cup of tea she would admit to me
Her cup of tea, she would admit to no one
Her cup of tea, she would admit to me
Oh but her cup of tea, she would admit to no one

Obviously, I should be quoting Morrissey here as well, but after Smithsgate I hardly dare.

Sometimes news is stranger than fiction:

When bears turn blue

Chinese Democracy

Nice trunks, you Mary

My karma's so bright I gotta wear shades

Conjoined test tube people

Play on, playa.

Isn't the tiger supposed to go in your tank?

Way to look scary, dude

Okay, so this is the lamest posting yet and to be perfectly honest the sole reason I'm posting it was so I could make that Chinese Democracy crack.

Blogger is acting all screwy now, so Emme is having problems posting. But stick around as I'm sure the problem is temporary.

In an attempt to get us over the hump that is blogging after midnight Ingrid decided to email a DJ at the Danish National Radio (DR) and ask if we could request a bunch of songs. Her wish was granted, so sometime during the night you might hear the DJ mention something about crazy people blogging in Aarhus if you've got your radio on. He asked that we requested five songs each and then he'd pick out the songs he thought was suitable for his show.

My five requests were:
Lloyd Cole: Undressed
Interpol: Obstacle 1
The Dandy Warhols: Bohemian like You
Eels: Novocaine for the Soul
The Flaming Lips: Do You Realize?

The first four songs are featured on CDs, which I was planning on playing for Emme during the Blogaton. And the Lips song was requested, because Emme recently bought the CD, because I've been yapping about them for ages (proving that musical indoctrination works!).
We were asked to keep our requests mainstream, but I figured if he was going to play my requests I might as well pick tracks that had something to do with what we're doing here tonight. I can listen to J-Timbo and Fiddy back at the crib.

There's a rather long article about Beyonce Knowles over at PopMatters. I'm not mentioning this because I'm a fan of hers. Nor do I think her videos are worthy of the scrutiny the writer puts them under. I'm not linking to the article, because I find Destiny's Child infuriating when "the other two" keep praising Beyonce's song writing abilities (which I do). No, I'm simply linking to it so I have an excuse to let you know that myself and a former colleague used to sing "I don't think you're ready... for New Delhi" on a regular basis, simply because we thought it was hysterical.

Also, it gives me an opportunity to link to Dead Kenny's entry about how Kelly Rowland reminds him of an aeroplane. The non-smoking crack is pure genius.

The musical indoctrination theme is still rolling although it's becoming clear that Emme's ears aren't as open as they have been. We've been through Ben Folds Five - Whatever and Ever Amen (4 stars), Pavement - Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain (5 stars), and on Ole's suggestion Lou Reed/John Cale - Songs for Drella (4 1/2 stars).

BF5 didn't make a huge impact, but she liked Pavement and she really liked the Lou Reed/John Cale record. If you haven't heard it you really should check it out sometime. It's basically the life of Andy Warhol told through song by two people who knew him well. The lyrics are fantastic and considering Lou and John are the only musicians on the record (and they only play one instrument at a time, so if John's playing viola there's no piano on the track) it's a remarkably diverse.

So after eight hours of blogging Emme has been introduced to a lot of music and so far her two favourite records have been Air - Moon Safari (5 stars) and Lou Reed/John Cale - Songs for Drella (4 1/2 stars), so she's showing definite signs of great taste. She even asked if we could hear Songs for Drella once more, but I was tough and put on If You're Feeling Sinister (4 stars 1/2) by Belle & Sebastian.

I love going to concerts and I prioritize concert tickets very highly in my budget. So here's a list of upcoming shows I'll be going to if I can find the money.

Voxhall:
Heather Nova, August 18th (I've seen her twice at Voxhall already)
Tindersticks, September 5th (I think I saw them 6-7 years ago, but I'm not sure)
Vic Chesnutt, September 15th (Didn't see him the last time he was here)
Damien Jurado, October 7th (I've heard good things about him. Update: It's been brought to my attention I'm seeing Bowie that night)
The Walkabouts, October 9th (They play here all the time and I've yet to see them)

Vega:
Lloyd Cole, September 22nd (Seen him twice and seeing as this is a solo show it could turn into a great storyteller show like last time)
Muse, October 16th (One of the best live bands around)

Pumpehuset
Eels, September 4th (I saw them them on the Electro Shock tour, which was a somber affair)

Loppen:
Bright Eyes, August 17th (He played here recently and I missed it)

Forum
David Bowie + The Dandy Warhols, October 7th (I have tickets!!!)

The nominees for this year's Mercury Award was announced not too long ago and as per usual they were an eclectic bunch. I hate the Grammys and I'm not a big fan of the Brits or those other shows, either. But the Mercurys always include interesting new bands, so I usually try to check out acts like Badly Drawn Boy, Tom McRae, or Gomez if they've been nominated and I hadn't heard about them before.

But how do they pick the shortlist for the Mercury Award I hear you screaming at your computer. Well, thankfully that mystery is solved in this article writing by a former Mercury judge.

"There's a moment that the judges of the Panasonic Mercury Music Prize anticipate and dread in equal measure. It happens sometime in mid-June when a Securicor van arrives to deliver a box containing almost 200 CDs. The hapless - and unpaid - judges then have about a month to whittle them down to a shortlist of just a dozen."

My question is: Where do you sign up for this gig?

I was watching Parkinson last night and his guests were Robin Williams and Stephen Fry, so as you might expect it was pretty funny. Robin did a lot of bits from his HBO show even though he was supposed to be plugging One Hour Photo. Anyway, Stephen Fry came on to talk about The Peruvian Spectacled Bear, whom he apparently has visited in Peru after finding out they belong to the same species as Paddington Bear. He made a documentary and a book, but was barely allowed to plug them, because Robin kept making comments and upstaging the poor, polite Brit.

Anyway, in a round about way this was supposed to lead to the anecdote Fry told towards the end about an infuriating university professor, who was famous for being able to speak intelligently about every subject in the world. So one day some students decided to try and stump him by thinking of obscure subjects and casually mentioning them. So during lunch one of the students says out loud: "So did any of you see what happened in the Danish football league this weekend?" to which the professor replied: "Oh yes, who would have thought so-and-so could beat Copenhagen like that".

And in a round about way that was supposed to lead to the fact that the Danish football season started today and last year's champs FCK beat AaB 2-0 in the first game of the season. Local team AGF will take on Esbjerg tomorrow, but the game starts as the blogathon ends, so I doubt I'll catch much of that game.

Looks like everybody in the blogosphere had pizza for dinner. We did, Ingrid did, and pretty much everyone else who's blog I've visited did. Our pizzas were great, but what did you expect since we picked them up from Casa Mia - the town's premiere pizza place.

The music project is going really well again. The Raveonettes went over like gangbusters and Emme actually thought the album was too short. I followed up with Hot Hot Heat - Make Up The Breakdown, but between eating and having to post really fast it didn't make too much of an impression on her (even though I told her it's the record all the cool kids are listening to).

Mikkel commented on Emme's blog that I should figure out what the average Allmusic score of the CDs I brought along was. So from now on I'll mention the CD's score when I write about them here and then add them up, when we're finished. So far we've listened mainly to master pieces as you might be able to tell from the scores:

Pete Yorn - Musicforthemorningafter (4 stars)
The Thrills - So Much for the City (4 stars)
The Smiths - Louder Than Bombs (4 1/2 stars)
Air - Moon Safari (5 stars)
Eels - Beautiful Freak (4 stars)
Cake - Motorcade of Generosity (2 stars) (are you kidding me?)
The Raveonettes - Whip It On (3 stars)
The White Stripes - White Blood Cells (4 1/2)
Hot Hot Heat: Break Up The Breakdown (4 stars)

You know how everyone hates Microsoft? Well, that's not in itself funny, but what's funny is when some articulate soul takes the time to vent in writing about some specific thing about MS, which has been driving him or her nuts for ages. That's what Anil Dash did yesterday and it's pretty damn funny.

And for more wackiness check out the The Ghetto Fab-u-lous Wedding [via Monoki], which is made even funnier by the Bling-bling and Oh no, she didn't comments.

Speaking of Glamorama - did you know Roger Avary is working on turning the book into a movie? IMDb used to list a slew of actors supposedly attached to the project, but now the names seem to have gone. But you can still check out the Who would you cast in your version of "Glamorama"? debate on Avary's website.

Is there a book you really love that you would like to see turned into a movie? Personally, I think A White Merc with Fins by James Hawes would make an excellent movie. Any suggestions?

I've posted about Douglas Coupland a couple of times, where I've talked about the mailing list I belong to and the times I've met him. Well, he's on a US book tour right now, which I won't be able to attend. But a lot of the kids from the mailing list have gotten together for Coup-Meets and it culminated in Boston, where they got to hang out with him. For a full run down of their meeting check out Erin's LiveJournal.
And to see the website from the first ever Coup-Meet go here.

And speaking of my literary heroes I've been trying to find out if Bret Easton Ellis is working on a new book. I thought Glamorama was brilliant, so I'd really like to get a new book from him as soon as possible. Where do you go to get info on books in progress?

So I took the Will You Survive the Blogathon? quiz [via Villa Santiago]

60 %

There's a 60 % chance that I'll survive the 'thon.
Will you survive the Blogathon?

60%??? Come on! Just because I answered No to the "Do you wish the Blogathon would last forever?" they don't think I can cut it. Well, I'll show them.

If nothing else I'll stay in the game so the good people coming over from Metafilter won't be able to make fun of me for quitting. Peter at Crushing Krisis was kind enough to mention me in a comment in a MF debate about the Blogathon, so hi to people coming through from there.

We've been updating the Hour by Hour Gallery, but because of some problems with the light the 19pm shot is not from the usual angle, but is of yours truly taken a lot closer to me than I'm comfortable with. But on the plus side you get a shot of my snazzy Brooklyn Beer shirt. And if you live near Brooklyn be sure to check out the annual Brooklyn Beerfest on September 13th.

As far as music goes the Air record was a big hit and so far it has been Emme's favourite of the bunch. I followed it up with Eels' brilliant Beautiful Freak, which also went over really well. Then came Motorcade of Generosity by Cake, which she thought was okay. It was probably a mistake to choose that record instead of one of their later ones, but for some reason that one is my favourite.

I've decided we need to rock out a little now, so I've just stuck The Raveonettes on and will probably follow it up with more records in a similar style.

On August 6th Andy Warhol could've turned 75 had he still been alive. This is something I should be celebrating over at Warhol.dk, but quite frankly I haven't had the time to do any serious updates over there. But thankfully the Warhol Museum are pulling out all the stops and have turned this into The Summer of Andy. Their calendar is full of interesting events and they've added a Make your own silkscreen feature to the front page. So if your into Warhol you should check it out.

Remember I sent a Warhol quote to Wil Wheaton a couple of days ago? Well, I just remembered that I scanned six Doonesbury strips from when The Andy Warhol Diaries came out, which I hope you'll find amusing.

Remember in the movie Donnie Darko when Drew Barrymore (at least I think it's her) says that someone once said that "cellar door" was the most beautiful phrase in the English language? I've thought about that ever since I saw the movie. First off there are several theories about who originally said it. I think they say on the DVD that it's Edgar Allen Poe and others credit Tolkien.

So no one is really sure who said it first, but that doesn't really matter anyway. What I'm interested in is why it's the most beautiful words in the English language. My theory is that it's because it sounds a lot like je t'adore, so perhaps unconsciously this has influenced all these people to think cellar door sounds pretty great as well. What do you think?

And for more theorizing on Donnie Darko check the article Peter wrote a while back.

I've misspellt Blogathon as Blogathong so many times I got quite excited when I saw this weblog, where the owner promises to post pictures of panties belonging to bloggers for every $25 dollars people donate. Right now he's collected $135, so I guess the chances of seeing a real honest-to-god Blogathong are pretty good now. And should he fail to be able to produce panty pictures you're welcome to leave snide remarks and suggest ways for him to embarrass himself in front of the entire blogging community.

If you're a movie buff like me I think you'll enjoy Stennie's weblog. Her theme for the blogathon is movies, so she's decided to watch ten movies and review them during the 24 hours. And she'll be adding trivia questions as well, so if you think you know movies you should pay her a visit.

Musically, we were off to a good start. We started with Pete Yorn - musicforthemorningafter, who didn't exactly get a standing ovation (I believe the exact words were "What is this?", when the intro to Life on a Chain played). But it got to stay on the CD player and was followed by The Thrills - So Much For The City. Emme actually recognized One Horse Town and seemed to like it. So we started out with one record she thought was decent and one she liked right off the bat. Nice!

However, she wasn't as impressed by The Smiths. I played her Louder Than Bombs, which features classic tracks like Shoplifters, London, Panic, and Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now. She called it music her Dad would listen to and not even the fact that she likes The The could convince her of the band's greatness. And after having heard Shakespeare's Sister she vetoed the record and dismissed it as terrible.

So to get on her good side I've put on Air's Moon Safari, which I've never met anyone who didn't like. And I think she's getting into it as well. Now I just have to figure out how to follow up on a success and not screw it up like last time.

Have you heard the new version of Tour de France by Kraftwerk? It's pretty cool in a Royksopp kinda way. Anyway, stage 19 of the Tour de France is on its way, but seeing as we're not watching television here I'm going to need some updates on how the top ten riders are doing. Especially in regards to Tyler Hamilton against his closest competitors and the duel between Lance and Ulrich.
So drop comments or mails if something important happens.

Did you know that the Blogathon participants are being monitored? Well, we are, because someone has to make sure we don't fall asleep I guess. The good people at Yellow Darts are monitoring myself and Emme and the brilliantly named The Might Be Monitors, who are the inspiration for me to bring along Flood by They Might Be Giants (at Emme's request actually), are monitoring as well.

And from the Oh yeah, like you didn't see that one coming a mile away department - Liza splits with David. Apparently, being married to a gay icon just wasn't gay enough for him.

John Schlesinger, who directed Marathon Man and Midnight Cowboy, has passed away.

And in footie news local team AGF signs another Swede. This time it's Jeffrey Aubynn, who'll be replacing Bojan Djordjic. Apparently, he didn't mention to his old club that he wanted to leave, so they're miffed.
Raul, like Elvis Costello before him, doesn't want to go to Chelsea. But Jens Lehmann, however, has no problem going to Arsenal. For more on the new Arsenal keeper and other signing rumours check in with the always opinionated and well-informed Arseblogger.

However, the Baltimore Ravens have yet to sign first round picks Suggs and Boller, which isn't great news especially since they were supposed to report of training camp tomorrow. Reports of the problem being agents screaming out "Show me the money!" have yet to be confirmed.

Since we have to post something new every half hour I won't have time to do a lot of surfing. So if there's some interesting news going on I haven't picked up on please let me know. During these 24 hours you can email me, contact me via messenger (contact info to your left), and leave comments, so feel free to do so.

Like I said in one of my previous entries I have checked out some of the other Blogathon participants and one is completely off the rails. I'm talking about the VS. Dobbs blog, which has the coolest concept I've seen so far. The guy is blogging in support of Sweet Relief (you know the charity which has helped Victoria Williams and Vic Chesnutt) and will be posting legal MP3s donated by bands like Bright Eyes, Marah, Guided by Voices, Lambchop, and My Morning Jacket throughout the 24 hours. And on top of that he's got some writing project going as well, so there's a lot of coolness going on over there.

From now on and until the Blogathon is over I'll be posting without headers, because quite frankly I can't think of 47 appropriate quotes taken from songs I like. But I'm sure somehow you'll be fine without them.

So what does it take to compete in a Blogathon, you ask? Well, in our case it takes two laptops connected to the net, 49 CDs, a lot of candy and fruits, two cans of Pringles, 6 litres of Coke, bread, cake, coffee, beer, wine, and the ingredients for a killer breakfast, which is my responsability (but more on that later).

As promised we're taking a picture of us blogging every hour on the hour, but because we need to edit and upload they'll be posted randomly during the day. But the plan is as time progresses you can watch us get more and more stressed out and tired in the Hour by Hour Gallery, which you'll find to your right.

And we're off! This is the first posting for this year's Blogathon and I'm confident that I'll be able to post another 47 during the next 24 hours.
If you've just stumbled in here I can tell you that I'm blogging for Doctors Without Borders, so if you want to sponsor me that would be very cool. I posted my theme in the Hot Spot section at the Blogathon website and it goes a little something like this:

My goal in the 24 hours I'll be blogging is to expose my partner in crime to as much brilliant music as possible. I'll be schlepping 49 CDs that I don't think she knows over to her place and will make her listen to as many of them as possible. The genres will be all over the place and the only selection criteria is that I love them and I think she will too. During the 'thon I'll write about how they were received and hopefully also how many of them she's planning to buy when the 'thon is over.

We took a picture of the 49 CDs, so you can get an idea as to, which kind of jams I'm inflicting on her. There's no metal, no rap, and nothing too crazy. Hopefully she'll dig at least some of them.

I haven't written down a list of all the CDs, so if there are covers you're curious about leave a comment and I'll let you know which CD it belongs to.
The rules are that I get to choose what we listen to and in which order. She then has the clicker and can skip tracks she doesn't like or even eject the CD if she hates it. Sounds fair, don't you think?

Today has mostly been spent getting ready for tomorrow's Blogathon. I had to cruise out to my parents' house to pick up a laptop and their car and then I made it over to Emme's, which will be the base for our blogging adventure. Getting online was a bit more of a hassle than expected, but we got the job done without resorting to name calling and finger pointing (well, almost anyway). However, getting everything else in order was a bitch, because I'm used to having all my passwords, programs, email addresses, and so on available on my machine. But my Dad's laptop was completely virginal, so I had to install all kinds of junk on it to make it usable. But I think we're ready to go now.

I'm really looking forward to tomorrow and have already packed all kinds of stuff. And I'll have to do some shopping in the morning, so we're prepared to not being able to leave the house at all during the 24 hours. I've also stumbled onto some really cool weblogs, which'll be participating in the Blogathon, so I'll probably link to some of them tomorrow (including one which is completely off the rails!).

You might have noticed I've added some gear at the top of this weblog (which hasn't changed appearence since it was created). Feel free to take the webring for a spin or click on the sponsor links to sponsor me. And in case you clicked on a link to Emme's weblog and was scared off by the nonsensical postings I have good news. She'll be blogging in both English and Danish this weekend, so it's like the best of both worlds over there.

LollapaEurope?

Drop everything and play Fishy - it's insanely addictive!

I ordered the Fountains of Wayne record last week and can't wait to get it. But while I wait it's really cool to be able to hear the entire record streamed [big ups to Slatch!]

And finally it looks like Letterman's power tool wielding girlfriend played Siren before she got her big break (scroll down to the bottom of the July 22nd entry).

Every since Google bought Blogger there's been a brouhaha about how Google ranks and presents weblogs in searches. There's been said a lot about this already, but I thought Ev's responds to Matt's entry, which claims something isn't right in Googleville, is fairly interesting. And because this is the blogosphere Matt responds to Ev's entry right away.

I haven't signed up for Friendster (or Enemyster for that matter) mainly because I live here and everyone signed up lives in NYC, so really what's the point? But that doesn't mean I don't think the Friendster shirts aren't a good idea [via Gawker].

I guess it was just a matter of time [via Dong Resin].

Man, they're sooo writing about my life here [via Felafel].

Bolt of Blue's Alyse is living the life of a bonafide rock star these days. I mean check out who she's been hanging out with!

Someone on the blogathon mailing list posted this nice article about Heather Truett, who'll be blogging in the blogathon as well.

And speaking of the Blogathon the third person to sponsor me is another member of the abcbc posse - Jens Winther - who runs the popular bound.dk weblog. So big thank yous go out to him as well.

Remember when I got the date and time for the blogathon screwed up (I really can be such a tool sometimes)? Well, I done did it again! Not the dates this time, but apparently I didn't read the rules clearly enough (which is whack, because there's pretty much just one rule). Anyway, the rule is that you have to post something every 30 minutes (and not every hour as I thought), so now I'm thinking of topics and anecdotes, so I'll have some stuff to blog about, when we hit that 4AM blogging drought.

People are going crazy making all kinds of weird buttons to promote the blogathon. You can download a bunch of them here, but my favourite one belongs to Cat Connor, who started the whole blogathon thing. I just love that I want my two dollars kid from Better Off Dead.

As some of you might know I run the Warhol.dk site and yesterday I was looking through some of the quotes I've posted over there. I was going through some quotes from The Andy Warhol Diaries, when I noticed this one:

Wednesday, August 13, 1986
Went to see Stand by Me at the Coronet or Baronet. These four little kids and there's the Fat kid and the Brilliant kid and the Crazy kid. The only disappointing thing was that the kid who's a writer they show writing about it later in life, and this really cute little kid has turned into Richard Dreyfuss! It should've been Richard Gere. Then I would've been happy.

I'd written that quote down years ago, but it wasn't until yesterday it dawned on me that the kid Warhol is talking about is Wil Wheaton. The reason I originally added that quote to my site was that it's the second time Dreyfuss gets slammed in the diaries, which I thought was funny.

Anyway, I wrote Wil an email about it, because to me being mentioned in The Andy Warhol Diaries is one of the coolest things that could ever happen to a person. And I'm glad to see Wil thought it was cool as well.
And just for fun here's the other Dreyfuss quote:

Monday, April 3, 1978 - New York
I hated the Awards, I hated the whole thing. I hated every nominee and I hated everything that won. I must be really out of it. But nobody good like John Travolta won. I mean, Richard Dreyfuss? I mean, if he's a sexsymbol, I don't know what the world is coming to.

According to RS Online Ben Folds will release three EPs this year. The first will include a cover of The Cure's In Between Days and an old Folds/Jessee collaboration and is available now through Attacked by Plastic. However, there still seems to be no international release planned for the EP from The Bens.

The nominees for this year's Mercury Award have been announced and I'm personally pleased to see The Thrills and Athlete on the list. Not so sure about The Darkness, though, but so far I'm mainly basing that on their appearance.

If you want to play a weird bug-eatin' game try Butch Mushroom [via B3ta].

The internet seems to bring out the weirdest in people. Take Japan's Dokaka for one, who has recorded a cappela versions of Metallica's Creeping Death and Iron Maiden's The Trooper [via Metafilter], which sound like Bobby McFerrin on crack. I very much doubt something like this would have happened 20 years ago.

Today's gratitude and salutations goes to the second Lasse to sponsor me in the Blogathon. This Lasse runs the weblog 1001 Pixel and is a fellow member of abcbc and big thanks go out to him for pledging money to Doctors without Borders.
If you're thinking of joining the Blogathon you need to sign up right away as tomorrow is the last day they're accepting new participants. So far more than 500 people will be blogging in the Blogathon, so it's turning out to quite an event.

I'm really looking forward to the Blogathon thing now. Yesterday, I announced that I had signed up on abcbc.net, which is a joint weblog for local bloggers, and since then I've been getting a lot of traffic from that site and from Emme's site (she's my partner in crime on this project), which hopefully means that a lot of people will check in on us this weekend. And this afternoon less than 24 hours after signing up I got my first sponsor!

Mad props and shout-outs go out to Lasse Rimmer, who has been kind and generous enough to sign up and sponsor me and hopefully some of you will follow his example. If you decide to pitch in you'll not only get my gratitude, but I'll also mention you right here on my weblog and add a link to your weblog, website, LiveJournal, Tiffany fan page, or whatever you wish.

Not a lot of Danes have signed up for the Blogathon (which I keep misspelling "Blogathong") yet, so in a brilliant attempt to get some high profile people involved Emme has emailed former Prime Minister and blogger Poul Nyrup Rasmussen and informed him of the event. She hasn't heard back from him yet, but it would be awesome if he signed up like British Labour MP Tom Watson has.

In other blog-related news I actually got around to read through more than two thirds of my paper this weekend and my notes, combined with the structural advice my Dad gave me, has left me a lot more confident about the quality of the paper than I ever been before. I still need to produce at least 15 more pages and I have barely looked at the final third of my paper since I wrote it, so I'm sure it needs one or two serious rewrites. But I think it's beginning to look like I'll be able to hand in a fairly respectable paper around October 1st (which will then forever be known as my independence day). So between the amazing weather, getting off early from work, the blogathon, and the paper looking less and less like a mission impossible my mood is reaching Roberto Benigni heights, which is remarkably pleasant.

I've signed up for the Blogathon 2003 now, so here's the 411 on how this sucka will be played out. On Saturday the 26th of July I'll join the lovely Emme for a stint of 24 hour blogging at her place beginning at 3 PM Danish time (that's 2 PM London time, 9 AM NYC time, and 6 AM LA time). She'll be blogging in Danish on her weblog and I'll be blogging in English here. We haven't chosen a specific theme for the event, but she has decided to post once an hour and end each posting with a question, which will hopefully spawn interesting debates. We'll also be taking a picture every hour on the hour, which will depict the state we (and her poor apartment) are in during the blogathon.

I plan on dragging around 50 great CDs with me that she doesn't know yet to introduce her to some of the fantastic music she has been missing out on. So during the 24 hours I'll be writing about what we've been listening to and what she has thought of it. Other than that I'll just be posting links to news stories and other general weirdness, but probably also a lot about what's going on with the other Blogathon participants.
If you stop by here on a regular basis you might have noticed that I use quotes from songs as my headers. But because of the amount of postings I hope to produce during the Blogathon I'll be refraining from using quotes, so for a short period of time you'll have to go without nuggets of wisdom from my favourite bands.

So if you want to participate in this event you can sign up for the Blogathon and post like crazy for 24 hours. You're also welcome to stop by here and leave comments on whatever I'm writing and if you want to support a noble cause you can sponsor me. The money will be going to Doctors without Borders (because quite frankly they could really use some borders), so hopefully you can find a few yen, bucks, squid, or whatever to throw at the docs doing good. But even if you don't sponsor me I hope you stop by and check on me during the event.

What would Jesus drive? [via Bradlands]. And in case your curious what God, Moses, and The Apostles drove then the website will tell you about that as well:

And, following the Master's lead, the Apostles car-pooled in a Honda,
"The Apostles were in one Accord." !!!! - Acts 5:12

Ernie writes an article for Inkblots [via what-do-you-think?]

Sarah is one of my favourite weblog writers and once again she writes beautifully about love. I can relate to what she says about clichees and although I'd rather be the one driving and the one reading I know where she's coming from.

Looks like Kings of Leon will make it to the Best of 2003 lists. They get a five star review in The Guardian, who claims Caleb Followill "tears into Red Morning Light and makes the White Stripes sound about as bluesy as Wham!."

While watching Spider-Man the other day I was reminded of Bruce Campbell (he plays the announcer in the wrestling scene) and the Evil Dead movies. So I was pleasantly surprised to see that someone has turned the movies into a musical featuring songs like All the Men in my Life (get killed by candarian demons), What the Fuck was that?, and Do the Necronomicon. Coming soon to an off-off-off Broadway theatre near you. And if you want to know more about what happens when strange stories are set to music there's a whole thread at Metafilter about bizarre musicals.

Yesterday, Alex Doonesbury suggested they set up a Dean Blog. Looks like someone bet them to it.

I went to work today, but the day was cut short, when one of the secretaries announced she was going on vacation and broke out a couple of bottles of red wine. After that working was impossible, so I printed out the 45 pages I've written for my final paper and am now planning on staying at my parents' for a couple of days, so I can try to read through the paper to see how I can inflate those pages into a 60 page paper that'll turn me into a Master of Information and Media Science (has quite a ring to it I think).

You might have noticed I've added a link under my picture to the left to the Chavez video for Unreal is Here. I wanted to link to an MP3, but the way they crack down on music pirates here in Nazi Germany Denmark I didn't feel like uploading a track and then getting busted. But then I found the video for the song, so if you're curious where I got the line There is nothing to not be amazed at from you should check it out.

A lot of people here have been taken in by the Metallica hoax about them suing a band for using E to F chord progressions. In case you need more info the articles have been debated in detail at Metafilter, but apparently the Danish bloggers aren't the only ones, who don't do their research. Danish newspaper Ekstrabladet has picked up the story [via Waiting for a Truck], which I think is fairly embarrassing.

The New York Times has an interesting article about Project Greenlight, which is especially interesting if you've read about Roger Avary's fascination with the show.

Every summer there's an open air movie thing going on here, so last night we went to see Spider-Man pretty much because it was too damn hot to do anything else. They had set up the screen in the park on campus, so there were students with blankets, beers, and bicycles everywhere. It was really nice, but because it was in a park there were a lot of mosquitos (apparently, they don't bite you if your blood alcohol level is permanently .15, so I made it through without being bitten) and, more annoyingly, bats. I haven't seen bats more than a couple of times, so it was way creepy seeing this devillish creatures flying around over our heads throughout most of the movie.
The movie itself was entertaining, but the funniest moment was at the end, when the people behind us got all riled up and yelled out the last lines: "Who am I? I'm Spider-Man!".
The movie ended after midnight, so when they turned off the screen you could lie on your back and look up at the stars. It was a very clear night and because the sky was framed by trees in the park it was a remarkable sight. I can see the sun set every night from my couch, but I rarely look at the stars, so just lying there was special.

The Raveonettes have made a video for That Great Love Sound and it is very cool. It reminds me of The Ballad of Tom Jones, but with campier acting.

Mexicans love Moz. Great article about Moz' Mexican fan base and the tribute band The Sweet and Tender Hooligans [via les.Yper-sound]. Who would've thought you ever hear the names El Vez and Moz in the same sentence?

At The Black Table there's also an article about 10-Year High School Reunions (mine's coming up this October), which is quite funny:

"The scary part is realizing that no matter what you do, no matter what you have or have not accomplished in your life, every single person in the room at your reunion is going to see you as the same schmuck you were 10 years ago. This is partly because that's the last time they saw you. It is mostly because you are the same schmuck you were 10 years ago."

Seems like the British press have conviniently forgotten how much they used to hate Duran Duran. There are articles in The Sun and The Guardian now about how great this reunion thing is. Now if they'd only quit touring Japan and playing secret LA shows maybe the rest of us could get a chance to see the reunited band as well.

"What is it you have?", she said. "Excuse me?", I replied. "Your shirts says you have it and then there's a picture of an orange, so I was wondering what it is you have." I then explained to her that "Yo La Tengo", besides being a baseball phrase in Spanish meaing "I've got the ball", is a band from New Jersey. She accepted the explanation and thankfully didn't inquire further into the meaning of the orange.

I wish it was Sunday. Not just because that's my fun day, but also because yesterday was a good day. We went to the one day charity concert and had a great time. The weather was amazing, there were about 30.000 people there just hanging out, and one of the fun things that happened to me was I met my cousin and his wife. I usually only meet them at family functions, because they live in the northern part of the country. But they had decided to drive down for the show. I had no idea they would be there, but luckily I ended up standing almost next to the wife during the Suede show and after the show I walked right past where my cousin was sitting, which gave me a chance to catch up with the both of them.

Today, however, is a different story. I went past a bakery today before work, took a number and got in line. After that I guess I should have guessed what kind of a day it would turn out to be.

Nothing like getting a clear cut message from God first thing in the morning.

The article about wine drinking in NYC called Bloomberg Uncorks a Brouhaha is filled with bon mots and snobbery, which always makes for an entertaining read.

The song Stupid by The Long Winters is one of the most romantic songs I heard in a long time. I've been humming it for days and it just continues to put me in a good mood.

I'm going to a charity concert today to see Junior Senior, Mew, and Suede (you might know them as The London Suede). Suede are still huge here and continue to play several shows here every year. I think Denmark is the country in the world where they've sold most CDs per citizen and they continue to play sold out shows all over the country.
A couple of years ago they even played three shows during the four day long Roskilde Festival (and I ended up going to all three). The first was awesome, because they played in a tent, which made the concert a lot more intimate than the show they played the next day on the Orange Stage. The final show was played in one of the smaller tents and was billed as a fans only show, because the band had decided to only play b-sides and little known tracks. They brought along a Wheel of Fortune with song titles written on it and spun it to determine which songs they were going to play. I don't think anyone has ever created a setlist like that before, so it was a pretty special event.
I haven't really heard a lot of their newer stuff, but they always put on a good show, so I'm quite looking forward to seeing them again.

Ryan Adams, the only guy in rock who's as prolific as Prince, is ready with a new album in September. However, this time the musical genius will release under the name Warren Peace (geddit?) and as a part of the band The Finger, which also stars Adams' protege Jesse Malin (who's featured as Irving Plaza on the record). So with this release, the solo record he's working on for Lost Highway, the Pinkhearts record, and the 5 CD boxset he wants to release chances are he'll have a new record out every month for the next year. But unfortunately according to his website the Whiskeytown reunion is not going to happen, which is a bummer considering that would've been the most interesting of all his projects.

Irish boy Damien Rice was on Letterman recently and played his excellent song Volcano. You can (and should) download it at Neumu and then after you've fallen in love with it and bought the album you should lend it to me seeing as I can't afford it right now.

Jack White follows up his acting gig in Cold Mountain with an appearance alongside Meg in the Jim Jarmusch flick Coffee & Cigarettes. This will be the fourth part in Jarmusch's series of weird short films, where famous people play themselves.

Top Ten Reasons Why Ralph Wiggum is God.

It's not just on paper the new Pernice Brothers record sounds really good. The actual songs are really good as well.

I was looking for a link to the video for the new Junior Senior single Rhythm Bandits, because it's a fun video and I like the song a lot better than their other stuff. But instead I found the video for Kings of Leon's Red Morning Lights. It's a good song and I've been dying to hear the record since I heard Molly's Chambers. So I think they could go a long way if someone pointed them in the direction of a decent tailor.

I don't really read a lot of books and when I do I tend to read stuff by depressed 30-something men, who are way too fascinated with urban life, models, and pop music. So I've decided in order to maintain my self proclaimed status as an intellectual I needed to start reading books that have been published before I was born and was considered classics by others than the reviewers at Q Magazine.
So I read Voltaire's Candide and I'm currently reading The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner. Candide was a blast, not only because it's so short, but also because it's really funny. And it was interesting to see the similarities between Voltaire and Danish author Ludvig Holberg.

But The Sound and the Fury is a completely different story. I've read about half so far and there have been a lot of hinting to all kinds of tragedy. But the way it's written it is really hard to tell what's going on and especially when it is going on. I'm hanging in there, though, as it is an interesting read and I'm very curious to see how far he can take this writing style without revealing everything in one blow. After The Sound and the Fury I might pick up something a bit lighter, although I'm determined to read A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man soon as it has been sitting on my shelf for a few years now.

It's weird how sometimes life imitate fiction. I'm sure by now you've all heard about the man called Terry Wallis, who woke up after being in a coma for 19 years after having been in a car accident, when he was 20. In case you didn't know Douglas Coupland wrote a book called Girlfriend in a Coma five years ago about a 17 year old girl, who slips into a coma and doesn't wake up until she's 34. She delivers a child while in the coma and Wallis had a six month old daughter, when he went into the coma, so the similarities are fairly spooky. Having read the article it would seem that Wallis hasn't technically been in a coma for the entire 19 years, but apparently he hasn't been able to talk (or watch television from the sound of it), so he's not aware of all the fun stuff that has happened in the last two decades. I wonder if they'll give him the Time/Life tapes to watch, so he can catch up on current events like Austin Powers did.

Finally, there's some news about the forthcoming full length album by The Raveonettes. The release date has now been pushed to the 25th of August and the record will feature 13 songs and run about 33 minutes. You can find the full tracklist here and download the first single That Great Love Sound through their website.

It's pretty obvious that football season is over, when people are competing in wife carrying contests [via les.Yper-sound].

This year's Harvard Commencement speech was held by the hilarious Will Ferrell [via LYD]:

"Graduates, if you will indulge me for a moment, let me paint a picture of what it's like out there. The last four or, for some of you, five years you've been living in a fantasyland, running around, talking about Hemingway, or Clancy, or, I don't know, I mean whatever you read here at Harvard. The Novelization of the Matrix, I don't know. I don't know what you do here."

The rest of the speech is equally nuts. Last year I linked to Conan O'Brien's speech to the Harvard class of 2000, which is also a fun read.

Apparently, people are still mad at Kevin [via Popfactor]

I forgot to mention that I saw both Richie and John Walker Lindh at the Midtfyns Festival. And John was trippin'.

Don't Copy That Floppy! The way to stop software pirates is having a rapper explain it to the kids. It's so simple (and one of the most insane things I seen) [via Defective Yeti]. Well, maybe not as insane as this picture.

I'm back home now and have gotten the mud and dust washed off. I caught two shows yesterday and both of them were really good. First I saw local heroes Tiger Tunes play a show in front of a small, but enthusiastic crowd and then I went and check out The Roots. The main part of the concert was pretty good, but there were way too many solos and too little rappin' going on. But the encores were off the hizzook. They started out with the first verse and chorus from When Doves Cry and then went straight into The Seed, which meant the crowd went mental. Later came a string of bits from popular tracks like Hot in Herre and then went into tracks all beginning with the word Don't, which meant they went everywhere from Don't Believe the Hype over Don't Be Cruel to Don't You Wan't Me. They kept doing encores for ages and it was pretty obvious they were having a great time, which meant the audience were having a great time as well.

I have collected a bunch of festival pictures (all courtesy of Jan Chrillesen), so you can get an impression of the festival was like.

It's the final day of Midtfyns and even though it hasn't rained since yesterday everything is still covered in mud. The most extreme thing which has happened was that a van slid out, while delivering toilet paper to the portapotties, and drove over a couple of tents with people in them. Nobody got seriously hurt, but it must have been pretty freaky waking up all hungover and not being able to get out of your tent, because a van had parked on it.

I didn't see a lot of shows yesterday, but I caught the Kathleen Edwards show which was really good. She played a bunch of stuff off Failer and towards the end she said that she realized nobody knew who she was. So she wanted to play at least one song that everyone knew and then played Money Talks by AC/DC, which ironically no one seemed to know. It was a fairly straight forward set, but she has a bunch of good songs and the combination of a good band, good songs, and her charming ways made for a good show.

I also saw Danish band Alexanderband, who are like Bloodhound Gang, but without the subtle wit. They had crappy songs about poop and sex with animals, but great onstage banter including the line: "We're going to play a song, and if you know the words you're welcome to sing along. We just wrote it an hour and a half ago, but if you know the words you're welcome to sing along".

There were a couple of shows I considered watching last night, but instead I ended up hanging out with the guys we have worked with the last couple of years, when I worked here as a reporter. They have a fridge full of beer, a coffeemaker, scotch, and whipped cream, so they're good people to have around.

Today, I'll go see The Roots and after that I'm getting the hell outta here. I'll probably have to help out with some packing, because the people I work for have brought a lot of gear along (including the computer I'm working on right now). But then I get a free ride home, which is nice. And then it's shower and shave time back home in the mudless city.

More news from the muddy fields of Midtfyns. Today's highlight has so far unsurprisingly been Love Shop, who have never played a bad show. They started off with mainly new songs, but within half an hour they had switched to playing the old favourites and as usual they rocked
and the kids loved it.

Senior citizens Sort Sol played here about an hour ago, but I didn't go even though they played songs of The Spaghetti Incident as a way of regaining their diminshed punk cred (oh yeah, Kick Out the Jams is an original choice for a cover, guys. Nobody has ever done that before).

I saw the first four or five songs from Finnish goth rockers HIM (or His Infernal Majesty as they're called) and they were unbelievably shite. Imagine Turbonegro without the irony. Their latest record is called Love Metal (honest!) and their band symbol is a pentagram combined with a heart turning it into a Heartagram! I couldn't make this stuff up even if I tried. There were quite a few teenage goth chicks in the front row, but even though people were extremely generous with applause the singer looked very bored with playing and appeared very arrogant . So after I'd given them
the benefit of the doubt I had to leave as they were way too horrible to
watch.

Tonight I'll check out Moloko and the Manics, which ought to be good and tomorrow it's Kathleen Edwards and work pretty much the rest of the day. It hasn't rained in a couple of hours, but here are a couple of links to pictures of how crappy the conditions were here just a few hours ago.
The tent were I'm working and a close up of our entrance. And the roads going to the camping areas all look like that, so there's a lot of tiptoeing through puddles going on.

Just a brief update from Midtfyns. The Lips were awesome and R.E.M. were really good as well. The Lips played pretty much the same show as they did the last time I saw them, but that wasn't a problem seeing as it's an incredible show. The R.E.M. show didn't really reach euphoric levels, because it was raining like a mother (and it hasn't stopped raining btw). But Stipe was in good form dedicating songs to Mew and Junior Senior and the band played a varied set of oldies, but goodies.

Badly Drawn Boy cancelled his show today, which sucks in a major way. And seeing as it's been raining non stop for almost twenty hours there's mud everywhere, which is a drag. But we're trying to stay positive and hopefully it'll have stopped raining when the Manics take the main stage tonight. And thankfully the umbrella embargo has been lifted (I was told I wasn't allowed to bring my umbrella into the festival area, when I first arrived), so I'm not too cold and wet. And I moved a shift around in the place I'm working down here, so I won't miss the Kathleen Edwards show, which I'm really looking forward to.
I haven't seen a lot of shows yet, but we caught Finnish heroes The Rasmus yesterday, who surprised everyone by sounding like an 80s glam band (but in a bad way). And the only thing worth saying about Good Charlotte is Bad Charlotte! Bad, bad bad Charlotte! So there's definitely room for a couple of good shows now, so hopefully things will pick up a little today and tomorrow.

Stylus Magazine has a list of Fifteen Films You Haven’t Seen, But Should [via Parallax View]. Most of them are older than... well, me, so I haven't seen them, but the inclusion of Last Night and Zero Effect adds enough cred to the list that I might actually try to check a few of them out.

I took the rather large geek test this morning and scored a surprisingly low 11.63708% - Geekish Tendencies, which is the lowest level of geekdom you can achieve on the test [via Monoki]. I guess it's because I don't read sci-fi or fantasy, I don't follow any of the shows usually associated with geeks, and I can't programme my way out of a paperbag. However, I do know quite a few people who'll score through the roof on this test (wink, wink, nudge, nudge).

For feck's sake! Now they want to make an American version of Father Ted [via Hardglitter]. I don't know how they think that'll work, but I think it's an even dumber idea than trying to remake Men Behaving Badly. What's next? Ted Danson as Blackadder? Steven Weber and Dave Coulier as Richard Richard and Eddie Hitler? When will the insanity end?

Jason is right. This is the best website. Ever. The letter below is their Find of the Week and it's truly amazing.

I think we can all relate to what the author of the letter is talking about. But for some reason I read it from a guy's perspective, so the last line really took me by surprise.

I watched Rules of Attraction last night and I felt odd about the movie afterwards. On one hand it's very cool and slick. There are plenty of fun scenes and stylistically it is definitely interesting. But on the other hand all the style gets in the way of the characters, who end up as caricatures. Obviously, it's fun watching Dawson go mental and the movie's packed with attractive kids, who you might recognize from a string of more or less successful tv shows. But in the end I didn't really feel like I'd learned anything about the characters, which meant I didn't care the least bit about them.
And some of the scenes felt like they were included, because they were important in the book. But for some reason they just don't work in the movie. The scenes with Eric Stolz as the teacher don't really tell you anything about neither him nor Lauren Hynde. And all the stuff with Paul and Dick in the hotel in Boston doesn't make sense in the context of the movie especially since so little is done of the relationship between Sean and Paul. But I guess going for style over content is the only way you can go with a book, which is so much about style in the first place.

These SARS t-shirts [via Jish] are funnier than the apology shirts. But not as funny as the cartoon Tim made, which might turn into a t-shirt for the Coupland list I'm on.
And speaking of Coupland it would seem that the term McJob is one of many new additions to the Webster's Dictionary. I don't know if he invented the term, but he was definitely the one who brought it to the masses.

There are more unique t-shirts at 2kshirts with Warhol and Basquiat images and those weird Andy Muller Stalagmite shirts.

Can you believe the Leno/Letterman feud is still going? Leno sucks, change the channel, and watch Letterman already.

There's been a slew of articles about Denmark in the NY Times lately. The latest article focuses on the Free Town of Christiania in Copenhagen, which is well known for it's disregard for the Danish hashish laws.

It can be really difficult sometimes to determine if something on the net is a joke or not. Unfortunately, I think these people are serious.

Junior Senior gets written up in the Village Voice.

If you visit Fark occasionally you might remember that Drew Curtis went on a promotion tour last year. Well, now Shift has published his tour diary all about drinking, travelling, and losing luggage. It's long, but pretty funny.

The weather here is whack. Yesterday it was crazy hot, which meant I spent a large part of the day on my balcony sitting on my inflatable doll mattress reading. But today the rain is coming down in biblical proportions and unfortunately it looks like it'll keep on raining from now on until I come back from the Midtfyns Festival. As some of you might remember I worked at the festival last year and wrote several long entries during those festival days as well. I doubt I'll be able to do the same this year, but I will try to get online and write something.