There is a movie-in-the-park mini-festival going on here, and the other day we went to see Scorsese's documentary/Rolling Stones-consertmovie Shine a Light (2008). The mood was very hippielike, we where smoking the ganja and drinking beer with a peacefull musicloving crowd - there where even applause between some of the songs.
I never realized the drug-connotations in the Rolling Stones band-name, but watching Scorsese's outtakes from various interviews done throughout their carrier there can be little doubt that these guys are stoner superstars.
Caroline Williams New Scientist article Teach your brain to strech timeis more of an insigthfull introduction to how your brain measures time than an actual guide of how to strech time itself. The article describes how elderly people feels that everything is going slowly, but the years are flying by. Not beeing bussy, doing nothing, will make time to appear to go slowly - but not filling your days with memorable events makes the years fly by and one day you are, well, quite frankly, dead. In the final notes Williams suggests that taking some slowtime every day will make time seem to go slower even when your dealing with your daily hazzles.
"Certainly endemic low-level warfare is embedded in Pashtun society—the words for cousin and enemy in Pashtu, for instance, are the same." Good analyzis of why the war in Afghanistan acctualy can be winnable in Washington Monthly.
These guys are the Telemark Battalion, training in Mashar-al-Sharif.
She loves stuff like the online etymological dictionary, and articles like this one about How language shapes the way we think. She loves nature and can completly regress to the state of a five year old little girl at the sight of a pretty flower or a dead frog and just stop, forget time, and just stare in a mezmerized state. It can be pretty fucking cute.
Morten Ståle Nilsens concert-revue Tender and Humble in the norwegian newspaper VG is written like a goodbye. I don't belive this is the last we'll se of the 75 year old zen-buddhist, troubadour and writer; but Nilsens sad fears did make me think, for a moment, of loosing this already immortal man.
Christmas 1988 I bougth my first CD ever. I was twelve and I bougth Im Your Man (1988) as a christmasgift for my mom, but I guess I listened more to mr. Cohens songs than my mother. In my early twenties I 'discovered' some of his old stuff like Death of a Ladies man (1977) with the legendary "Memories" - some people acctually think its the best song, like ever.
His novel Beautiful Loosers is in fact a poem disguised as a novel (in some ways resembling my own wonderfull and unreadable book [whatever makes you happy baby]). It has been said that Leonard Cohen is 'the canadian Bob Dylan' but while the comparison indeed holds some juice, I think it is unfair to the both of them.
When Al Gore, the glorious inventor of the internett and timetravel, received his nobel peace prize in Oslo he appeared on a norwegian talkshow with Gro Harlem Brundtland who chaired the 1983 World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED) (widely referred to as the Brundtland Commission) and - you guessed it - Leonard Cohen. It was a marvel to see the respect Al Gore showed for the monk and superstar who had such presence you just knew he could have been president had he nurtured such lowly ambitions.
He is 75 now. I think he will perform for another 25 years - but that doesnt mean you should'nt go see him if you have the chance. It was indeed, like mr. Nielsen felt it to be, a goodbye concert. But it was so for a completly different reason. The norwegian Marianne of So Long, Marianne was in the crowd - and it must have been a truly magic evening. Even timetravelers might have been there.
Our friendly neigbourhood pub is a half-shady billiardclub. Our host refused to go there in the beginning. Even though he is local he is scared of the natives who like to drink and fight.
Do I look like Im afraid? When I had gone there a few times by my lonesome without problems of any sort, and even befriended some of the native population, my host at last came with me. His life will be better for it. Visit your local pub today. Love your neighbourhood.
Note the fucked up sofa. Im drinking Zubr, it is one of the cheapest beers, but it tastes just like a nice summer pilsner, it contains 6% alcohol which is almost perfect for a beer - not to weak, but not to much alcohol-taste like the 7.2% (and higher) can have.
It seems tumeric (aka. gurkemeie) is a wonderdrug against arthritis with beneficial effects on other curses like Alzheimer's, breast cancer, diabetes, osteoporosis and psoriasis - all diseases depending on the formation of new blood vessels. If you are sceptical you should read the whole article by dr. Scott Haig
This article in norwegian newspaper Aftenposten describes how England have lost 15% of its honeybees over the last few years. Nobody knows why and with the importance of bees (the great prophet Albert Einstein once said 'No more bees, no pollination, no more plants, no more animals, no more humans.') research seems underfunded. Furthermore the problem is international, Norway have for instance lost 14 out of 194 wild bee species within the same timeframe.
A new world will come wether we like it or not; but we can still chose what to pass on to it.
"Why the imp in you brain gets out" is an interesting NYtimes-article on the psycology of unwanted thoughts. Trying to banish the desire to get high or fucking that girl will only make that impulse return as a compulsion. Back in the day when I studied hypnosis I learned that the brain doesnt really understand negatives. Thus I will not simply becomes I will.
There are three very effective tecniques for extinguishing sense-desire: Indulgence (I will get high), replacement (how hot is my wife!) and the attainment of nirvana (good luck with that).
While my wife was sleeping I read a very fucking cool article in Berkeley Universitys magazine "The Greater Good"(it is part of "a non profit organization that promotes the study and development of human happines, compassion, and altruism.")
The article describes how our world has become significantly less violent from the days of free tribal men to our present facist utopia. It suggest that working towards ending violence across the globe is not only the only way to continue our development and honour the sacrifices of the past - but acctually the only way to not enter a decline back and down towards the violent anarchy of Thomas Hobbes primordial man.
I've been chillin in suburbia with my new friend Marcin - I acctually could be his dad, but we're having fun. He is studying to be some kind of land-measurer in the university, but he is more interested in doing some sort of business. He worked in Norway last year, and is traveling back again this summer. His family is taking some vacationtime in Norway as well and he is trying to convince me to take his family into the artic mountains. Im thinking that I maybe will.
Marcins babuzca; she made sunday dinner for us - way to much! - and afterwards she joined us for drinks on the terrace. A very cool woman who worked as a teacher and a principal. She speaks german and russian in addition to polish, and she studies english with the systematic devotion I guess you could imagine of a retired language-teacher. She loves to travel and is to shy to really speak anything but polish.
Jean-Paul Sartre once wrote "As far as men go, it is not what they are that interests me, but what they can become." Walking in the countryside with Marcin his non-pretensious hippie-nature shines, and his love for the art of bonsai shows his soul to be rather of the patient and gentle artist than the rich-kid playing with drugs and danger he appears to be.
I love beeing stoned in nature. People using drugs to pacify themselves should seek therapy as that is a serious indication of a deeper problem.
Marcins father. He is a hardworking heartsurgeon and a very cool and professional guy. He, as the myth of heartsurgeon goes, ofcourse likes fast cars and has a somewhat competitive nature.
While we where having a few drinks after grilling a neighbour came by with his son who had a finger out of joint. They had some pleasant and smiling conversation and when the boy was completely distracted he popped the finger back in its joint.
He is a master of putting people at ease and even though he worries for Marchins future his home is filled with love.
We're smoking cuban Romeo y Julieta cigars. The whisky was only 8 years old, but I still love my life.
Beeing almost exactly as much older than me as I am older than his son; our dynamic was very interesting. Most of my friends are even older than this man, but still somehow, I was one of his 20 year old sons friends.
Marcin ligthing the shizha. Nothing like sharing some fruit tobacco to create a congenial mood.
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