Music of the day!

Radiohead is back with what is called a locomotive of an album!

2 years after Thom Yorke announced albums as being "dead", the 5 schoolmates from Oxford is back with a new release. But again, as with their last release in 2007 " In Rainbows", you can only download this digital album form either www.radiohead,com or www.kingoflimps.com.

Here a little preview of what might be up -or in- there, in cyberspace.

Paraphrase of the day!

A famous painting inspired me to this photo. Can you tell me which painting it is, who painted it and who does is portray?

Thank you to my good colleague Mr. Dufty, who posted as a model for this paraphrase.

If you have any clue, please leave a little Comment.

The Famous City Derbies.

At this coming week-end there will be yet another of the famous football Derbies in Glasgow, Scotland; the tense and thrilling "Old Firm"game between Glasgow Rangers and Celtic Glasgow.

This scottish derby is one of the most intense and classic in the modern Football world.

But it is not the only city derby that literally can & for sure will divide the city for the day it is on.

Yesterday in evening in Hamburg, Germany there was another derby, and this between Hamburger Sports Verein and the the much smaller club from Hamburgs "Reeperbahn" district; ST. Pauli.

HSV is here the more success full club, and the only club in Germany which has never been relegated, or played in a lower division or league, than the "Bundes Liga".

ST. Pauli though has. They have been up and down like they were clerks in an old fashioned lift some where in the financial district, but although the club is riding up and down through 3 divisions, their fans has never lost their devotion to "their" club.

If you do not know the result from yesterday, I can tell you that the smaller of the two won it, and that for the first time since 1977.

Viva ST.Pauli.

If you go down and look in my list of links I've lined up further down on the right, you will also find a link to ST. Pauli.

In Buenos Aires, Argentina, you can find another of the worlds famous and classic "Derbies".

"Boca Juniors" against "River Plate".

Look at this fine little documentary from the BBC, and you will know a bit more.

Should that be funny?

I realize that I have have put some links to other web sites further down on the right side at this blog.

One of them is called something like : "Danish Humor, not political correct".

Maybe you've seen one of these sketches at one point, or maybe not?

It is two younger danish guy's, who has kind of invented a Danish version of the fabulous

American cartoon Artist Gary Larson , who got most famous for the "Far Side Gallery".

Every day a new strip appears on this site in English, so if you need more I can just suggest that you log on and go explore some of their strips. If you are not too lazy Click here! or you can go down and find the link on the right side.

If you consider your self as an intellectual type and want to know some background information, you can click here and READ some stuff about them.

One of my favorites the last weeks is this one.

One of my favorites Gary Larson strips is this one with the cows:

Crispy crackling for the Rabbit.

It happens at about the same time every year and it is one of the events I start looking forward to from around Christmas time and onwards, until it happens. It is never on a fixed date as it alternates and has something to do with the lunar calendar and the influence of football devotion on some Sai Kung fishermen.

This year this event happened Wednesday the 9th of February. I was not prepared for tt to happen as soon as it did this year. Normally it is always at the first trainings after the Chinese New Year holiday, but as the good football team “Sai Kung Yacht” has become, let us say, less constant and not as frequently as at the beginning when I joined, which is now about three years ago.


But as always in this new era of the team, I got a SMS or an e-mail from captain and manager Perry, telling me whet ever the training was on the following Wednesday or not. I received that notification from him on Monday afternoon, saying that the event was on at 6 PM and then the game would start at 7 PM.

I was thrilled and excited and also a bit surprised, as I’d not expected it to be that quick after the holiday. On that day I hurried home from work at about 4:30 to be able to be at Sai Kung Sports Ground at 6 PM. First I had to get to our house to change from the professional job related clothing to the more relaxed and sport related football outfit. There was just time to bring some close to the dry cleaner before I found my way to the sports ground.

The set up there was a bit like I had expected. Captain Perry and a couple other players were already there, mocking around preparing the stage for the main character of the evening. That main character isn’t really a character as such, not like Perry, our captain or anyone else from the team, no that special guest isn’t there to be there for a long time, it is just there to show of a bit and then get eaten.

It is part of a Chinese ritual at the lunar New Year, and it to welcome and celebrate the new coming year and to get even with the ghosts and spirits, so they will bless the team in the following year. Incense and fake money gets burned by all team members, good Chinese schnapps get pored out on the ground and apples and oranges and then the special guest gets lined up as an offer of appreciation. But not for long, soon a big knife gets tucked into the back of that little special one and cuts it into bits and pieces for us all to eat.


And then we all play some football with greasy fingers.

It is the evolution, baby!

What an awesome animation to a great song.

What disturbing images and horrible content.

Unfortunately is the reality.

Albrecht's new world!

It is about to become normal now, having a “son” in the house that is. Going from two till three has meant some changes in the Mortensens household. New routines and a different kind of work flow. So far it is working very well, and I think all three involved benefits of the new experiences. Albrecht has now created his own blog where he is giving his own account of his meeting with this diverse million metropolis, known as Hong Kong.

The link you can find here, but I have to say that it is in German, but it also has a lot of nice pictures, and these can be viewed and enjoyed by anyone.

That doesn't maen that he will be neglected on this blog though, when he deserves it, he can still be mentioned in a post every now and then.

Poetry for February!

New Farm Tractor

SNUB nose, the guts of twenty mules are in your cylinders and transmission.

The rear axles hold the kick of twenty Missouri jackasses.

It is in the records of the patent office and the ads there is twenty horse power pull here.

The farm boy says hello to you instead of twenty mules—he sings to you instead of ten span of mules.

A bucket of oil and a can of grease is your hay and oats.

Rain proof and fool proof they stable you anywhere in the fields with the stars for a roof.

I carve a team of long ear mules on the steering wheel—it’s good-by now to leather reins and the songs of the old

mule skinners.

Poem by Carl Sandburg

(1878 - 1967 USA)

Picture in picture!

There must be a way to kind of disguise the fact that I just want to show some good music here sometimes. Often I just find some cover versions and act like this is something great, or I can try to take the approach of being professional, and use the music clips as kind of examples, showing different techniques in the video editing. Like today where I will show you the picture in picture effect.
This technique can be used to show different actions taking place simultaneously. This effect is as old as the video media it self and has been used in many years. I have found some good songs to show you some very creative ways to use this video effect.



This is a very clever way of using the picture in picture effect. It looks easy and spontanously done, but is has maybe been more difficult to do than a traditional music clip.

Books.

This is the week where we can rejoice the second New Years celebration in less than two months. One month ago, it was the first week in 2011. Again on this coming Thursday we can celebrate yet another New Year Party, and we will be the in first week of the year of the Rabbit. This means that this day will be the last day in the year of the Tiger, which is my sign on its way out.

There should be some decisive events happening to you when your year is up, and in these last days, I guess I’ll be wondering what has happened to me this past year. Just as a little comparison to what happened last time at the year of the Tiger, 12 years ago. It was 1998. That year I turned 36, left Denmark and went to Spain to study for a semester. And I never again came back to live in Denmark. In Spain I found a reason to go to Dresden, and so on it goes.
So obviously I was very excited one year ago when we were about too enter the year of the Tiger, because I was wondering what on earth could happen to me this “Tiger” year? If nothing serious will take place the next two days, I think I can conclude that this has been an astonishing eventless “Tiger Year” for the Tiger himself.

One thing I know that has been happening a lot in the past year is that I have read quite a lot of books. Without exaggeration I think that the amount of books I’d chewed myself through in the Tiger year, by far outnumbers the amount of books I’ve read the last 12 years, if not even beyond that.
The trigger for this was Stieg Larson and the dragon tattoo girl trilogy, and as I’d finished those I felt like some kind of vacuum and a kind of abstinence for the thrill of a good night time story. As Stieg Larson died even before these books came out and turned into bestsellers, left him out of the loop for a continuous bed table supply of entertainment.

I read some other books, and yes, they were OK, but not in the same complete addictive way. My brother wrote to me in an e-mail that in Skandinavia, there were other very skillful writers like Hening Mankell, Jo Nesbø, Håkan Nesser etc.
In the summer holiday I’d brought a brick of a book by Ian Rankin, but the long light summer nights in northern Europe and my addiction for a good story, didn’t leave that one last long enough for the whole extent of our trip, so when we arrived in Aberdeen in Scotland, it didn’t take long before I found myself wandering the book shops there, exploring the bookshelfs on my hunt for the next story fix. I ended up in the section with the letter “N” Two names there infiltrated my mind. They were next to each other on the shelf. Jo Nesbø from Norway and Håkan Nesser from Sweden. After reading the summary on the backside I made my decision. A Swedish writer yet again: Håkan Nesser. Two books went into my bag, and later in the house of Catrionas sister, when Catriona was playing with her niece and left me to occupy my own time, I snuggled up somewhere and fell into his universe of murder and betrayal.

Håkan Nesser is a good writer, but yet didn’t quite get up there where Stieg Larson had left me. After finishing the first of the two books –“The Minds Eye”- I knew that I had to go on the hunt again. At the time we’d arrived in Denmark, so I went to a Bookshop in Horsens to have a look. This time I went straight for the Norwegian writer; Jo Nesbø. There were a whole lot of his books, so I just picked one out, turned it around to read on the back. Something about a police officer hiding in Hong Kong after some devastating experiences in a former case back in Oslo, but someone gets send out to lure him back as even more devastating events had happened and they needed his skills once again.
Sounded good and familiar because of the Hong Kong connection, and of course as I were in Denmark, it was in Danish. Also a good thing for me, taken in consideration that I do not very often find books, here where I live, in my first language.

After returning back home after the holiday, I swallowed the about 700 pages in about a weeks time, and got hooked again. This time not because of an anorectic girl with a dragon tattoo, this time it was a huge Norwegian police detective, who has as much trouble living his own life, as he has with the murders he is set out to catch. I was hooked again, and knew that there was more of the same stuff out there, but could I find it in the bookshops here in Hong Kong? Jo Nesbø and his series about the troubled policeman; “Harry Hole” is now a bestselling author world wide, and I found his books in English in Aberdeen, so why not here in Hong Kong.

I found some the first time I went to one of the big bookstores here. Two of the titles were there; I bought them and felt happy. The two titles I found was number 3 and 5 in the series, and the first one –the one I bought in Denmark- is the 7th and the last one so far. The problem is that there is a kind of continuity in the books and there are always some cross-references to previous events, and so I some times feel a bit left out, as there has been something happening before, what I don’t know about.

Now I have gone into the habit of always checking the major bookstores when I’m around. On that way I’ve found another couple, first it was number 6, and in Laos this Christmas I found number 4 in a secondhand bookshop, and the funny thing was that it was in Danish. I read it before we even came back.
Then here at the beginning of January, when I was out showing Albrecht around in Central, I just wanted to check a tiny bookstore, and there found book number two. This will be my fix for the holiday and when that is finished, I only need to find the first one, and then I’m through the merits of Harry Hole. As the first one I read was the last one, it is only logical that the last one I read, has to be the first one.
Check Jo Nesbø and Harry Hole out here.

Utopia!

I guess everybody dream about a visit to Utopia or even better, they would like that the world is like that so they could live there.
But why is this so that the word or the thought of Utopia has this effect on people, what is Utopia exactly?If you ask me, I’ll just say out of my free interpretation and subconscious farmer knowledge or belief, that it is a beautiful place somewhere in the nature, and somewhere where everything is in harmony, where pleasure has conquered hardship and struggle. It a place where you can lay around on soft cushions to enjoy the view out on the riverbanks by a lazy river submersed by sunshine. Utopia is a location where people of different nationalities will mix up without any racial loathing. It is where someone will bring you one nice cocktail after another, and should you feel a bit of hunger, food would be delivered with the next cocktail.
People there feel alive and in no hurry to get anywhere or rushing to get anything done, they will have no immediate obligations, only relaxation and pleasure.
Say’s my naive peasant wisdom, just so, out of the blue.
“Utopist” is what the socio intellectuals would say to that and continue by adding, that there is no such place, and that just the thought of it is; -yes, “utopia”.
To that I can say: “I have been there” and it was just a little month ago or so, this Christmas (that just was), and Utopia exists and that it is in Laos, in Luang Prabang and if you no one will believe what I’m telling, I can provide some photographic evidence here.

Originals and Covers!

It is the week of the Chinese New Year celebrations. Every body is on their holiday.

The school is (nearly) empty, only me and one of my colleagues are at the office today, looking at each other. No students and no teachers around, so here is fairly quiet and to be honest; not much to do.

off cause I can always work on some editing, trying to get a bit into some of those theater performances from last week. But then again why should I, it is a job the students should do, they want it to be filmed, they need some practice in editing, so here you go. I will think of something else I could do for now.

What about some music?

Good songs are good songs, whenever, however and whoever!

Any similarities between these two videos?

Both start with a shot, containing a car.

And what do you think about this one. From back then in my own teen time.

Well, I can't really say that the "Bay City Rollers" had such a big star in my music universe at the time, I knew them and listened to them when the hit parade was on the radio, but thought -as I can recall seeing this again- that their outfits was kind of silly. But again: who could know that I was going to meet and get married to a Scottish woman and furthermore; be wearing a Kilt at my own wedding?

Flashback: "The day I was a tree and a toilet". Chapter 2.

8 o’clock in the morning we were set to meet at the Children’s Library. It was a foggy morning in Luang Prabang. The temperature was pleasant, yet a bit chilly in the early hours. Close to our hotel we found a little eatery for a bit of breakfast.
Laos has very good bread and coffee. That might be some reminiscence from the French influence in the country, and so a typical Laotian breakfast, is a baguette like sandwich with some kind of pork meat pate. None of us had that though at this morning, I had a sandwich with bacon, eggs, horseradish, some shredded carrots and a nice dressing, and Catriona had an omelette as I recall.
We were the first to arrive at the Library, where Chantha, the manager showed us around while waiting for the rest of the party. As they had arrived the box with the books and we were loaded onto the back of a tuk tuk.. 10 minutes later the tuk tuk arrived at the Mekong riverbank.
A huge number of different sized boats were anchored side by side. At the improvised bamboo pier a little boat was lying waiting for us to embark. That was the Library Boat and the captain and a smiling female teacher was welcoming us onboard.
Along the walls of the boat -if you can say that- there were books placed in holders, so when the Library boat came to one of the small villages along the river, the children and their teachers could get on board and read.
Apart from us, Chantha the manager, the female teacher –which name I cannot remember- and then a young volunteer called “Gow”, were onboard and our captain sat the course up the river towards the little village school, somewhere up there, which was going to receive the box of books.
A stunning ride lay ahead of us up the mighty Mekong river, and we had a pleasant time either watching the wilderness along the banks of the river or to chat or read in the books for the Laotian pupils, the ones that was in English, that is. The young man joining us, tried in his best English to explain where we were going, and tried to teach us some simple phrases in Lao. The fog was still hanging over the trees at the banks, and made the view to the hills and mountains further back, like a dreamy opening of a adventure movie. After some time the fog just disappeared, like when you snap with your finger and then the sun was shining from a clear blue sky.

After about one and a half hour we were approaching the village on the left riverbank. Gow was on the phone, I guess to tell that we were approaching and to ask where the boat could anchor up. Suddenly we saw this little army of children running through the bushes in the dense jungle, and down to the sandbanks at the river, where they lined up to have a look at the visitors.
As we stood in front of them, they were all lined up in perfect rows yelling a Laotian greeting simultaneously.
Then the funniest thing happened when we introduced our self, all of them repeated exactly what we’d said, like: “Hello, my name is Jørgen, or Bob or Catriona, Yvonne or Larissa”, and again all in chorus from thirty something small voices.
The female teacher –which name I still can’t remember and the young man told some stories and told why we were there and what we’d brought for them, and all of this happened on the riverbank. The sun had meanwhile gained in strength, or to say it in another way; it had become pretty hot, and out there on the river bank, with no real shade, we could feel it, so the children was told to walk into the shade of some bushes, and while they were sitting there, Gow, the young volunteer and the female –what was her name again- started to tell a story, using some hand puppets and some props like a cardboard tree and a cardboard toilet building, both placed on sticks. I then volunteered to hold them as the backdrop of the story, which presumably had something to do with normal hygiene using the toilet, and something I guess they need to bring to the children in the most remote and rural parts of Laos, embedded in a funny little puppet theater story.
So that was why a had to act like a tree and a toilet at the riverbanks of the Mekong River on Christmas evenings day 2010.

Good stuff from the 80ties gets better in the 00ies!

Gary Numan, one of the synthesizer musicians from the 80ties meets up with Trent Reznor at a concert in London in 2009.
Here the original from back then, and how it turns out when he joins Nine Inch Nails some 20 something years later.

On stage with Nine Inch Nails!

Could sound like some musicians dream, to be on stage with Nine Inch Nails. Here you can try out how it is to be a rock star at a huge concert.

Albrechts Cooking School. Vol. 1

The good thing about getting a “son” aged 16, is that you can start teaching some cooking skills right away. I mean when he is so matured, that he wants to go so far away from home for 6 months, to live with the two of us who has absolutely no experience in parenting, then he must be grown up enough to start cooking for him self –and us.
Albrecht stated that he couldn’t cook. So he got a cookery book –Asian Cuisine- and had to choose a dish he –and I- would make for dinner, as the first lesson in the art of cooking.

His choice fell on this receipt:

Chiang Mai Noodle.

Preparing time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 15 minutes
Serves 4

500 g Hokkien noodles (or what ever)
1 tablespoon oil (peanut oil is the best as the wok gets pretty hot)
3 red Asian shallots, chopped
6 garlic cloves, chopped
2 teaspoons of chopped red chilies
2 teaspoons of red curry paste (from a glass)
350 g of chicken or pork meat in thin slices
1 carrot cut into Julienne (thin sticks)
2 tablespoons of fish sauce (from Asian grocery)
2 teaspoons brown sugar
3 spring onions, chopped
Chopped fresh coriander

1. Boil the noodles in boiling water 2 to 3 minutes, drain and keep warm.
Heat the oil in a wok. Add shallots, garlic, chilies and curry paste and simmer for 2minutes while stirring.
2. Add the meat to the wok and fry untill it changes colour.
Add the carrot sticks, the fish sauce and sugar and bring it to a boil, keep stiring.
3. Mix the noodles to the meat and add the spring onions as garnish, simmer for 1 minute and serve on plates with the chopped fresh coriander on top.

Good job "son".

Flashback: "The day I was a tree and a toilet"!

Chapter one.

I guess that many will agree on this one; Christmas evening’s day can be pretty predictable in terms of what is going to happen. Here I do not think about what could be inside the wrapping paper around the foreseeable Christmas presents tucked away under the unavoidable Christmas tree in the obvious Christmas decorated living room.
This is needless to say that this is when you come from a certain culture, and a culture where this Christmas thing is something and important.
For the writer of this Blog Christmas evening’s day –last year it is already- turned out this way.

We’d arrived in the city of Luang Prabang in Northern Laos on the 23rd of December by bus from Vientiane.Friends of ours -Bob, Yvonne and Larissa, who was also touring in Laos and Cambodia- had arrived the day before us, and had not surprisingly explored the city and the surroundings a bit. When we arrived I had a txt message on my phone to call them at their hotel, for the reason that they had an idea, what we could do on Christmas evening’s day.

Here I need to make a little excursion in the story, and go back one month in time, to tell something related to our work at an International School here in Hong Kong, and show a video.
The students in year 12, has to do something called CAS week. That means that they will take some action including Creativity, Activity and Service, That can be done in many specific ways, such as going to for example Laos and Cambodia to help an organisation called “Schools to Schools”, with their work setting up and supporting schools.
In November a group students and two teachers went to exactly Luang Prabang to help and sponsor a project there called ‘Library Boats”. These boats is a typical Mekong river boat, equipped with books and designated to go up the Mekong river to remote villages hidden in the jungle, and where they do not have normal access to books and or other educational material.

A group of students went to Laos to help and support the Library boat in Luang Prabang.

From this trip we got to know this noticeable project, and naturally this was in our mind when we decided to go to Luang Prabang.

Now in the story we're back in Laos at Christmas time last year, and we'd arrived in Luang Prabang, and the text message from our friends.
So when I called the hotel where our friends was living to get to know what the idea for Christmas evening’s day was, I was not so surprised of their suggestion for the next day.

They had already been to the library and talked to the manager. Obviously she could remember the work our students had done one month previously, so we were welcome. We decided to sponsor some books, some pens and notebooks and some balls and other toys. So the deal was that we should meet at the Library early in the morning, to go with the Library boat up the river to a little school in a village, which had not yet had the visit of the Library boat, and there we could hand over the book gift our-selves.