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# Burn in progress...    02'04'28 16:44    link

Received the first Midsummernight Burn cd yesterday from Fraser:
 

Today I received notification of the three lucky, lucky bloggers who'll be reciving copies of my Midsummernight's compilation in a few days time. I won't let you know who they are quite yet, but here's a few clues. One is Dutch, two are based in the UK. One is quite well-known, one less so, one a complete newcomer. One is female, whilst the others are male. Two of them have sites I like. One of them doesn't.
 

Pretty sure I'm the male Dutch complete newcomer with a site he doesn't like :-)
(browsing Fraser's site, looking for an emailaddress... nowhere, but hey! He sings in a band! Weeh!)
Rather nice compilation, I'm listening to it now. Twenty tracks, all with 'summer' in the title. With three exceptions (Undertones, Tom Waits and the Velvet Underground) all rather... well, middle of the road. Not in the bland sense, but as in very classic. Some rather nice stuff actually (never heard of the Mystic Moods Orchestra, and they sound exactly like I expected from their name). Music that makes me grin. Music that makes me want to watch the sun setting in the mediterrenean. So Fraser, mission accomplished, thanks... makes me curious for the other two. (and even if they don't come, well, this cd's worth it).
I'm burning my outgoing cd's right now, bring 'em to the PO tomorrow (just found out I don't have any stamps anymore). None of the tracks have summer in the title - I've taken it as 'a cd I would like to play on a summer night'. Stuff that puts a smile on my face. Or makes me want to nod along in a hammock.
They'll be going to two Brits and one Dutchman, all men. The dutchman has a website that does not reveal anything about the guy, and the other two first names have more than one listing in the participants' list... so really no idea who they're going to. Which is nice.

# inspiration and cooking    02'04'28 13:34

Back after a long break, and not just to writing here - I've been on hiatus from life, with only a few exceptions. Much to mull over and reaching inside for my inspiration. Which was missing for a long, long time. And things started rolling this week with a photo assignment that was very challenging,, bits of poetry whirring up while coding... the desire coming up to start a new band, to sing with ! An idea I've buried for years. My own music. I've put it under wraps for a long time.
But that's all future plans. The real test is what I am doing with it in the here and now. I signed up to actively become involved in the local Amnesty charter, having been just a donating member for years. From a sense of civic duty, duty in the positive meaning of the word.
And giving wee dinner party yesterday - the first time in ages that I did that. Spent an afternoon shopping and preparing, and everything was pretty much ready when the guests came. Last time I cooked like this, I welcomed my friends in only to rush back to the kitchen again, hand them glasses of wine and tell them to hang in there for a while until I was finished. I wasn't too bad at cooking, but I never got the timing right. Not yesterday! The doorbell went when the pastry had some 20 minutes to go in the oven, and everything else was standing by on the gas, sauteed and all, ready to finish with a last burst of various ways of heating.
Oh, and it was actually all really good. A mushroom/almond pate in pastry, with steamed courgette and another green whose english name I can't be bothered to look up now, lightly stirfried polenta cubes with parsley, and salad with a honey-tamari dressing that worked really well, offset byb red onion rings sliced less than a millimeter thick.
And vanilla icecream with a dark, dark, dark, hot chocolate sauce - bitter, strong, with my secret extra ingredient - deceivingly simple, but hard to get right (note to self: look for a pan that I can actually do au-bain-Marie with...).
God, I really enjoyed doing that. I wasn't able to do that last year, being in unknown kitchens all the time. 't Was good. 't Was inspiration coming at me from a different angle. Yeah, using big words here, on the verge of spoiling the experience for what it is, but damnit it is a good sign and I feel really good now. And that's not just a gratiutous (sp?) feeling, since I am now looking at a *huge* washing up in the kitchen... *)
*) and I hate doing the dishes!

# Excerpt    02'04'23 14:46    link

Tomorrow I may eat another houseplant.

# gedichtje    02'04'22 14:49


Ik zie een witte muur vanuit mijn raam
en staar ernaar, met ogen als spleetjes
de zon op zijn hoogst tegen hemels blauw
maakt het papier van wit vuur

Als ik niet beter zou weten:
Noentijd in Griekenland. Tijd voor siesta.

# Sanity prevails in Melbourne    02'04'17 14:01    link

A break from world politics - transport politics, for a change: Sanity prevails in Melbourne as the city reverses the ridiculous split of its public transport system from the mid-nineties.
(yeah I should go back to work ;-)
[via Erik's Rail News]

# Ingrid Betancourt    02'04'17 13:32    link

A slow but steady stream of visitors keeps trickling to this blog searching google for info on the kidnapping of Ingrid Betancourt in Columbia. Unfortunately, google points to the blog page with recent entries, but since I wrote about her here, two months ago, the entry itself moved to the archive page for february. So I've added a direct link to the archive page that holds the entry in the sidebar.
I also found more links on the case of this courageous woman:

Living with fear - interview by a dutch radio station, both text and 30 minute realaudio. The interview was done before her kidnapping but the program was broadcast afterwards. Ironically, the program is called A good life.
www.ingridbetancourt.com - official website.
Friends of Ingrid Betancourt - dedicated to her release.

# Make trade fair    02'04'17 13:25    link

www.maketradefair.org, an oxfam site. Aiming broadly (catering for today's average short attention span) without sacrificing on information. Well done. Join the Big Noise
[via Meg - still a woolly liberal, aye? :-) ]

# Letter from a Palestinian to an Israeli (from The Independent)    02'04'16 10:33    link

"This is just an explanation of how we Palestinians think and what we Palestinians believe. Maybe, just maybe, it will bring us closer."
(By Hakam Kanafani)

# debunking six common Israeli myths, as well as totally unrelated stuff    02'04'15 23:15    link

debunking six common Israeli myths - no, I have other things on my mind, too, but somehow, I just keep running into the middle east conflict.
Another one: Human Rights Watch World Report 2002 on Isreal, the occupied West Bank and Gaza strip.
 

Meanwhile, An article from The Observer on Pim Fortuyn. He's an extreme rightwinger, a debater, a dandy, openly gay, and may very well enter the parliament with 10% of the vote. Not too bad coming out of the blue. Mind you, he is mad - it is in his eyes. Het Parool ran a frontpage article Pim nu ook voer voor Psychologen (Dutch only) . Still, there's a hard to underestimate anti-politics sentiment around that he taps into.
And the cabinet is about to resign en masse over Srebrenica disgrace, where the dutch government has not done enough to prevent the largest war crime in europe since WW2.
Half a year ago, this country seemed so boring.
 

I talked to my friend I. today about the demo. He's jewish, and actively involved in the palestina committee and the peace movement. He was so calm about it, said he'd seen it so often, and yet he doesn't give up. He was glad he had a good excuse not to attend though, he'd seen it coming as well, but he kind of shrugs and goes on.
But still, he doesn't give up. Thanks, man - inspiration in the micro-level.
 

In unrelated news, I still owe A. and G. a letter, M.'s visitinng in two days, the band is about to split up and I don't know what to buy S. for her birthday tomorrow yet.
In even more unrelated news, I couldn't get the ^&@#&^@#^ ssl certificate installed in the maintainance window tonight - shit. Which happened after I'd struggled for an hour with the authorisation server suddenly not working in the production environment, working flawlessly in the testbed before (ouch. it was pushing cookies outside its own domain. had to write an extra cookiepusher for each domain server by the middleware.)
 

I grabbed a biological frozen quattro fromaggio pizza on the way home - topped it of with fresh bell peppers - and it turned out delicious. That was a nice surprise.
The irony - I called a friend tonight, we had fun on the phone and she liked my idea of a project together, though she can't make it in time for the assignment, which is just as well cause I have someone else already. There's some trust and wisdom going on with us, as well as a lot of bullshit. But I felt relaxed in such a way that I let out a bit of lament on the uncertain parts of my life - cause, hey, life is very good at times, and it sucks major balls, too. still being so new to the game of being single. - and she took me way too seriously. Hey, I wanted a women's conversation, just a bit of listening - not a men's, where it's immediately about solving problems! As if they're problems. Yes they are. And yet they aren't. I can laugh at myself, I can cry at myself, and I do both. I know when I should be alone and keep to myself. So don't shoot me down, please. God, glad to get this off my chest. C., you're a real provoker, you know how to stir me up. And I should learn to stand up to you even more than I've learned already. We tend to aim past eachother - wonder what'll happen if we aim our sparks at eachother directly. Whaterver that'll be, it'll be charged.
And to finish it off - Fernando on the radio. There you are again, my friend. So good night. Love you all.

# really upset 2    02'04'13 20:03

about 200 youngsters rioted at the end of the demo, nu.nl article (dutch).
Presumably, the ones I saw earlier. Guess I saw it coming.
Next item on the news: Palesitinian rescue workers working near Jennin. Looked like the earthquake aftermath in Turkey: crumbled buildings, people trapped, everything in ruins.
Except that it wasn't an earthquake, but an army.
That is the dilemma. Guerilla warfare versus an ordinary army. With both sides not caring much for civilians - suicide bombers or tanks crushing houses where people are sheltering. Destroying the most basic infrastructure. Not just electricity - the drinking water and sewage mains. There'll be an outbreak of cholera soon, very soon.
It is ordinary people who suffer. But, may I add, what the Palestinian endure is of a different magnitude compared to what the Isrealis are going through.
Sick, sick, it makes me sick. What to do, what to do.

# really upset    02'04'13 19:46

I am highly emotional right now, disturbed. Just came back home, having roamed through town for a couple of hours.

A number of organisations had organised a demo against Isreal's treatment of the Palestinians in the occupied territories. I know some of the people organising it; I know that they have their heart in the right place. There were a number of jewish organisations involved, too. Still, I had had a bad feeling about it ever since I heard it, fearing that extremists would come out and dominate the demo.

I had my photo course in the morning. When class ended, though the demo was held at Dam square, quite far away from there, I could hear the speakers, and the cheers. I couldn't hear what they said - but I picked up the atmosphere from the tone of voice, the way the cheers sounded. Harsh. Violent. Police choppers in the air, a lot of police personnel on the ground, it was very unnerving. Meanwhile, it also was a normal spring saturday: lots of tourists around, and lots of locals doing the big weekend shopping.

As an aside: if this country would turn into a police state, that's how it would look, I thought then. People would just get on with their lives, or probably try to get on with their lives with a vengeance, pretending really hard nothing's going on, making up for unease with a spending spree. But I digress.

So I did my weekend shopping at the biological market nearby, dropped the groceries home and went out again. I felt very uneasy about the atmosphere, but I hadn't actually seen anything. I had only heard a rumble in the background. So I had to find out what it was really like.

Coming from Central Station, towards the Dam Square - if you've ever visited Amsterdam as a tourist you'll remember this: it's the main artery from the station into town, and a real tourist trap, ugly as hell - no trams, no traffic, but the usual flood of visitors was there as if nothing was going on. A little while on though, the demonstration was coming straight in my direction. A full line of police was ahead, directing everyone to the side. I was lucky that I was just near an alley that I could jump in. I saw it pass from there.

There were two types of demonstrators.

There were the usual suspects from the alternative cirles. They have a kind of alternative dress code (workerish, baggy, you know the kind); they were a mix of various ethic groups, I estimate about half of them white and a about quarter women; their signs were 'pro-peace', ie. against terrorism from both sides; but most of all, they looked uneasy, down. They were silent, or quietly talking amongst themselves.

I would have felt like that if I had walked there, too, because the other type of demonstrator were from the extremist circles. They were dressed more normally, that is, they looked like your average early twentysomething nowadays; they were predominantly maroccan young men; they held signs against Israel and the US (a couple using the germanic rune-S for the S in Sharon and USA); and they were shouting.

"Hamas, Hamas, all jews on the gas".

 

I was afraid this would happen. But it still literally made me sick to see it.

There were over 300 people from the organising committee, very recognizable in bright yellow T-shirts, who did their best to keep the situation from escalating. As I watched the demo pass, I saw that they were doing their utmost to calm down things. There was an outside terrace on the street - within a minute, it had all been brought in the restaurant it belonged to, out of nowhere at least fifteen people appeared to help the staff. Very alert. On the radio later, I had also heard that they prevented pamphlets with swastikas being thrown around.

I am really upset at this. Antisemitism invoking WWII touches a raw nerve.

Those fscking kids - there was one group at the front, maybe a hundred; and there was one group at about halfway (I estimate the length of the demo at about a kilometer - whatever else, at least there was a good turnout), about the same size. So say twohundred kids spoiling it for at least 5.800 others. Not to mention what this did to the impact of the protest.

 

I can't write more now, but there's more coming. I'm churning over all this in the back of my head. Gonna watch the news now.

# more maps!    02'04'10 13:46

On a lighter note: for those of you who liked the urban transport maps site, check these ones out:
http://pavel.physics.sunysb.edu/RR/maps.html (often offline though, but worth it if you can get through)
http://travel.to/transitmaps/ (warning: heavy geocities...)

# can't wait...    02'04'10 12:19

... to post a link to the site i'm working on. Where cartography and STD's meet...

# reading on the israel/palestine conflict    02'04'10 07:35

A dire list of must-read articles from the mainstream press:
A relatively unbiased TIME article on the 'suicide bomber phenonemon'.
LA Times article on Isreals crushing of the palestinian police, which it apparently so far had never attacked.
Haaretz article tells the story of a forty year old teacher from Ramallah's arrest and interrogation. Note this is an Israeli newspaper!
There's a Mefi thread on the Time-article, but alas with a low signal-to-noise ratio.

Even direr must-reads from more alternative sources:
Bitter Lemons, which every week invites two israelis and two palestinians to write on a subject. Intellectual, thoughtful, which is refreshing - and it is sad to see how wide the gap is, even here. Still, it is dialogue.
Live from palestina 'the electronic intifadah, a resource for countering myth, distortion and spin from the israeli media war machine'. Straight from the raw nerve, so to say.
There are many, many eyewitness blogs from both sides, to balance it out here's one from the Israeli side: Tal G. from Jerusalem.
So sad, so sad. But the worst thing to do is turn my head, so I try to keep reading up, and try to feel what it'd be like to be inside that whole mess, rather than in my nice, safe and boring life.

# Yes!    02'04'09 15:17    link

Global city transit navigation design. Ooh. A whole page of them. Luvly. I could spend hours on this page now if I weren't at work, now I can only drool at them behind another window. grin.
Thanks, Meg!

# Midsummernight's Burn    02'04'06 19:44    link

I signed up for the Midsummernight's Burn - send three cdrs with my favourite music to three randomly chosen participants, and hopefully get three as well. From the list of participants it looks like I can expect something far more alternative than I've been for years, which might be, well, refreshing. Cause I threw a lot of stuff out over the years, but not my eighties' tapes stuffed with songs recorded from John Peel and VPRO's De Wilde Wereld. Hope the receivers of the cd I've already started assembling in my head will appreciate the rather eclectic selection though...
Just kidding. Not knowing is the whole point, and I'm really looking forward to being introduced to music that I'd have never come across otherwise, that's the spirit isn't it?
Last week, I spend an hour in the Gigantic record store (which as you might've guessed, is a tiny place. Record storette, so to say). I walked in and asked the guy behind the counter if he could recommend me some stuff and he could, and rather than letting me listen on the headphones he asked if it was ok to put it on in the store, since there weren't many people at this outer end of the afternoon. Of course that was fine - and he got very enthousiastic.
Walked out with Nick Drake (that he was amazed I'd never heard, and now that I have, so am I), Coldplay and a long list of records to buy when I'll have more money in the bank.
[ you can sign up 'til the 10th of april - you need to be in europe & maintain a blog ]

# Aber falls (Rhaeadr fawr, Abergwyngregyn)    02'04'02 23:07    link


(this image's gamma is set for my macintosh - I just saw it on a windows screen and it's got a horrible purple veil over it. Ouch.)

# funny you should say that    02'04'02 19:25

Talking to a woman in an old, dearly beloved cafe, where everybody knows eachother and has done so for twenty years. "Great place, but I feel like an anthropologist on research here sometimes", I said. "Funny you should say that," she answered, "cause I am one - and I spent three years here for my thesis."
IANMTU.

# lazing on a sunny afternoon    02'04'01 23:15

All my plans postponed. This was no weekend for studying, deep cleaning, programming or even being creative. This was a weekend of being lazy, having fun in the pub til closing time, getting stoned with a friend on his homegrown, having icecreams and sitting in the sun.
A long, lazy easterweekend, with beautiful weather. My favourite Italian Icecream Parlour, Tofani, opened again after, signalling the official end of winter. Great icecream, and one of the best places to get a capuccino in town. Served by the two breathtaking daughters of the owner...
(this also turned out to the weekend my bike got nicked. damn.)

# this way    02'04'01 23:06    link