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Working Class Hero by John Lennon

As soon as you’re born they make you feel small
By giving you no time instead of it all
Till the pain is so big you feel nothing at all
A working class hero is something to be
A working class hero is something to be

They hurt you at home and they hit you at school
They hate you if you’re clever and they despise a fool
Till you’re so fucking crazy you can’t follow their rules
A working class hero is something to be
A working class hero is something to be

When they’ve tortured and scared you for twenty odd years
Then they expect you to pick a career
When you can’t really function you’re so full of fear
A working class hero is something to be
A working class hero is something to be

Keep you doped with religion and sex and TV
And you think you’re so clever and class less and free
But you’re still fucking peasants as far as I can see
A working class hero is something to be
A working class hero is something to be

There’s room at the top they are telling you still
But first you must learn how to smile as you kill
If you want to be like the folks on the hill
A working class hero is something to be
A working class hero is something to be
If you want to be a hero well just follow me
If you want to be a hero well just follow me

Categories
Blogs Humor Kim Blog (English) Music Musik

Mrs. O’Leary’s Cow

INSTRUCTIONS:

  1. Put your iPod or other music player on shuffle.
  2. For each question, press the NEXT button to get your answer.
  3. YOU MUST WRITE THAT SONG NAME DOWN NO MATTER HOW SILLY IT SOUNDS!
  4. Tag friends who might enjoy doing this as well as the person you got this from.

IF SOMEONE SAYS “IS THIS OKAY” YOU SAY?
Piano Concerto No. 21 in C Major, K. 467: II. Andante – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart – Friedrich Gulda, Hans Swarowsky & Vienna State Opera Orchestra

WHAT WOULD BEST DESCRIBE YOUR PERSONALITY?
Mellow Mood – Material

WHAT DO YOU LIKE IN A GUY/GIRL?
Calabi Yau Manifold – Dopplereffekt

WHAT IS YOUR LIFE’S PURPOSE
100 bpm – Mikæl Simpson

WHAT IS YOUR MOTTO?
Sexy Dancer – Prince

WHAT DO YOUR FRIENDS THINK OF YOU?
Le Printemps (For Mona) – Natacha Atlas

WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT OFTEN?
Freeland – Big Wednesday

WHAT IS 2+2?
All’ Aurora – Bernhard Lewkowitch

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR BEST FRIENDS
Mistlur – Martinez

WHAT IS YOUR LIFE STORY?
Sugar Never Tasted So Good – The White Stripes

WHAT DO YOU WANT TO BE WHEN YOU GROW UP?
When The World Ends (Oakenfold Remix) – Dave Mathews Band

WHAT DO YOU THINK WHEN YOU SEE YOU SEE THE PERSON YOU LIKE?
Fourty Days – Sound Directions

WHAT DO YOUR PARENTS THINK OF YOU?
The Ostrich Effect – Dorit Chrysler

WHAT WILL YOU DANCE TO AT YOUR WEDDING?
Hayati Inta – Natacha Atlas

WHAT WILL THEY PLAY AT YOUR FUNERAL?
Zorba’s Dance – The Sirtaki Orchestra

WHAT IS YOUR HOBBY/INTEREST?
Circus – Kelis

WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST SECRET?
Fynboen – Dirch Passer

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR FRIENDS?
Kada sva sama – Olivia

WHAT’S THE WORST THING THAT COULD HAPPEN?
The Matrix Revolutions Main Title – Don Davis

HOW WILL YOU DIE?
Who’s My Baby – Natacha Atlas

WHAT IS THE ONE THING YOU REGRET?
Momentos – Andrea Bocelli

WHAT MAKES YOU LAUGH?
At Least You Tried – Neo Geo

WHAT MAKES YOU CRY?
Achilles – Antena

WILL YOU EVER GET MARRIED?
long life – E.T.

WHAT SCARES YOU THE MOST?
The Boy From West Bronx – Future 3

DOES ANYONE LIKE YOU?
All Day – Interfarence

IF YOU COULD GO BACK IN TIME, WHAT WOULD YOU CHANGE?
Dolphin Dance – Herbie Hancock

WHAT HURTS RIGHT NOW?
Bliv Ved Med At Danse – MC Einar

WHAT WILL YOU POST THIS AS?
Mrs. O’Leary’s Cow – Brian Wilson

Tagged by Laura Marie Kiralfy on facebook, originally posted to facebook as Mrs. O’Leary’s Cow

Categories
Blogs Bookmarks Education/Undervisning Kim Blog (English) Kunst Music

Planning for Kulturnatten 2008 (Copenhagen Night of Culture) despite elitist selection practices by organisers

Kulturnat2008It’s time for the yearly Copenhagen event “Kulturnatten”, or “Night of Culture”, and I’m basically done planning for it.

At the bottom of this post, you’ll find a list of events I’ve saved to my profile on kulturnatten.dk, unfortunately they don’t have a RSS feed or a URL that I can share, so I had to copy/paste/edit the list :-(.

I’m planning to attend the events below, but I usually stray, and end up in strange places, my recommendation is to just go with the flow, and stay in places longer than you originally planned for, if you feel “good vibes”.

Last year the high point for me, was a visit to the old shipyard crane on Holmen, which is back this year, and Ars Nova in Marmorkirken, which isn’t :-(.

The events hit by elitism
I’ve been a huge fan of Kulturnatten for several years, but this year the organisers has decided to limit the official program, and has weeded out some events that had been running, successfully for several years, for instance the event by IT Politisk Forening.

I’ve been noticing that Kulturnatten over the years has become more and more like a carnival, and that was somewhat annoying, but I think that the strict selection of “relevant” events is an example of elitism.

This being said, the Kulturnat is an impressive show of strength, and I’ll keep on attending, even though I strongly disagree with the new policy of the organisers.

List of events I’m planning to attend:
Kultmusik og magiske videoinstallationer
Kultfænomenet Snöleoparden fylder gården med sin særlige equilibristiske nordiske version af østens musik, alt imens den verdensberømte kunstner Yang Fudongs magiske videoinstallationer tegner billed…

Time: 18:00 – 00:00
Place: GL STRAND, Gammel Strand 48

Lasershow illuminerer facaden på Charlottenborg
Facaden på Charlottenborg er hele kulturnatten illumineret med klassisk italiensk billedkunst. Lasershow arrangeret af den romerske kunstner Livia Canella.

Time: 18:00 – 00:00
Place: Danmarks Kunstbibliotek, Kongens Nytorv 1, Postboks 1053

Konspirationsteorier fra Tempelriddere til 11. sep
Konspirationsteorier er som en virus, der angriber, når immunforsvaret er svækket. Med benhård historisk kildekritik afmonterer Dan H. Andersen nogle af nutidens mest populære myter og konspirationst…

Time: 20:30 – 21:30
Place: Frederiksberg Bibliotek, Falkoner Plads 3

Polkageist Power Party
Nyd energifyldt koncert inspireret af salsa, calypso, funk, rock og balkanmusik sammen med “cool” øko-snacks.
Generel info: handicapfaciliteter, bespisning

Time: 21:00 – 22:30
Place: Det Europæiske Miljøagentur, Kongens Nytorv 6

Social networking /foredrag
Kim Sneppen, Models of Life, NBI

Time: 22:00 – 22:30
Place: Niels Bohr Institutet, Blegdamsvej 17

Herredømmet – Lykke, Thordal, Trier & Zahle
Carsten Lykke, Kenneth Thordal, Tobias Trier & Oliver Zahle pisker stemningen helt i vejret med en vittig, varm og swingende koncert om den moderne mands genvordigheder. Sangenes tema “Mænd forstår a…

Time: 22:00 – 00:00
Place: Frederiksberg Bibliotek, Falkoner Plads 3

Salsa Loca – Kulturnattens hedeste danseaften
Traditionen tro spiller Salsa Loca op til dans. Kulturnatten afsluttes på denne måde med et brag af en fest med livesalsamusik af bedste kvalitet og dans til den lyse morgen.

Time: 22:00 – 03:00
Place: Krudttønden, Serridslevvej 2

See also:

Categories
Blogs Bookmarks Kim Blog (English) Music Resources

Last.fm, Jaiku and Dorit Chrysler – a match made in heaven?

Dorit ChryslerIt’s been a while since I wrote about the Jaiku online service, but it’s a service I use all the time, and I love it.

This is, mostly, due to the fact that Jaiku is filled with people, with whom I share interests, but the people there, all, seem to be more interesting than I am, so I can learn new things, and that is the thing in life I love the most.

One of the things I’m very adventurous about is my music, and another of my favourite online services, Last.fm, supports that perfectly.

Yesterday a conversation about Last.fm surfaced on Jaiku:

Jaiku | Det slår mig lige, hvorfor jeg er så vild med last.fm. Jeg kan holde liv i det ved at gøre noget, jeg alligevel ville gøre: Høre musik :-

Translation: It just struck me why I’m so crazy about Last.fm. I can keep it going by doing something, I’d do anyways: Listen to music 🙂

That is correct, Last.fm builds and extends your network by comparing your musical preferences to the other users, and it also gives you recommendations based on your listening habits.

Eventually the question was asked: What do you use it for?

This triggered me to use Last.fm again, something I usually only do once a month, and the feature I love the most, is the similar artist radio.

In April 2008 I travelled to Lisbon, Portugal, and I was so fortunate to attend a concert by Dorit Chrysler, a very talented artist from Austria, that has specialised in using the Theremin instrument, a very strange instrument that you control by moving your hands in the electrical field generated by the instrument, that basically is a bend metal-rod.

So the Jaiku post triggered me into finally ripping the CDs I bought in Galeré Zee dos Bois in Lisbon, listening to them, and then using that to listen the Dorit Chrysler Similar Artists Radio.

And what I dug into, was a wealth of wonderful music, that spans from Opera to Classical Chanson, over Russian Abstract Hip-Hop and even the wonderful Colleen, that I already knew.

Here’s a list of some of the wonderful artists I discovered:

  • Robert – A wonderful French chanteuse
  • Gudrun Gut – German female singer. Original member of Einstürzende Neubauten
  • Ute Lempner – German chanteuse
  • Susanna and the Magical Orchestra – Norwegian act that, for instance, does some amazing covers, especially one of Dolly Partons Jolene is wonderful
  • Meret Becker – Another German singer that has be associated with Einstürzende Neubauten

The list goes on, and I’ll recommend exploring the artists that are similar to Dorit Chrysler, you will not regret it.

Last.fm remains one of the most impressive, and genuinely useful, online services – the list of these services is short, the big three are, to me, Jaiku, Last.fm and Flickr.

The picture used here was taken from Last.fm, and is, most likely an official promotional pressphoto, I hope my use here will go under “fair-use”

Categories
Blogs Kim Blog (English) Music

As high as it gets: Method Man and Redman in Store VEGA the 14th of April 2008

Redman and Method Man - How High SoundtrackMonday the Copenhagen Hip-Hop community was served a defer than def jam (pardon my “old-skool”), when Redman and Method Man tried to bring down a sold out Store VEGA venue, and sometimes it felt like they might succeed, because the bass and the stumpin’ made the floor bounce.

The wires were heated by a local act, that I missed the name of. The Danish Hip-Hop scene seems to be experimenting with mixing of genres, I must admit that I like the more European approach to Hip-Hop, which means that we have live musicians on stage, this is not a problem for seasoned acts from the States, but few European acts can pull off only having a DJ and 3-4 MCs as the only instruments. The Europeans are bringing some degree of renewal into the genre, and I welcome that, IMHO French acts like Clotaire K and Kalash are the trailblazers, on the tailcoats of MC Solaar, but we can be quite proud of our local acts.

I refuse to complain about the delay in the starting of the concert, it was worth waiting for, and they need to “prepare”, which they supposedly did at “Staden” ;-), well when they finally arrived in a big black van, they went directly on stage, and almost from the get-go, the joint was jumpin’.

I was quite tired, having just arrived from Lisboa, Portugal, and at one point, before the jam kicked off, I was sitting in a corner sleeping, and one of the guards told me to try to keep my eyes open, really I don’t see why, he obviously thought it was Friday night at 5AM…That being said, the guards at VEGA are very professional, and the few times I saw them go into action, they managed the situation.

Well I was so tired, that I wanted to leave early, but when I was about to leave, I looked directly at the stage, and I could feel the energy radiating from the stage and the room, as Red and Method told us CONSTANCE: you have to work as hard as us, we feed on your energy, and they did, and I stayed, I didn’t regret that.

Store VEGA is the perfect size for a act like this, packed, and the lighting crew did a great job, a trick that is common in Hip-Hop is that you, quite often, shine lights on the audience, this was used to great effect, and when they did that the house was jumping, with the exception of the lame mid-section of the balcony, you s*ck! But it gave me a flashback to the time I went to the Ladies First Jam in New York’s Nassau Coliseum, where the crowd was 4-5 times bigger (and 99,9% blacker ;-)), where the DJ tore it up with the floodlights on the audience – that made a lasting impact crater in my cortex.

And the energy on the stage was nothing short of amazing, I love the cool, cool moves, especially when they did “the march” routine, that was so cool!

It’s been a while since I went to a Hip-Hop Jam, and the previous one was the disappointing Busta Rhymes concert in K.B. Hallen in 2006 (hey I didn’t even bother with a review 🙁 hmm seems that I did). Busta is returning this year, but I’m not going to see that. Red and Method delivered what Busta, unfortunately couldn’t, it might have been the venue, but his DJ was wack, and WAY too many hype-men. Red and Method keeps that to an absolute minimum, hey they even engaged in some of the most crazy crowd-surfing I’ve ever seen! Almost as real as it gets

This ranks in the top 3-4 of Hip-Hop Jams I’ve been to, competing closely with Masta Ace and Clotaire K, but I really prefer the hard accented flow of Red and Method to Masta and Clotaire, so I’ve decided that this is number 2 on my list, I doubt that Queen Latifah (<3) will ever loose that crown

Now I’m tempted to will go see can’t go see the Wu-Tang Clan, because they’ve rescheduled from June 7th to July 23rd 2008, I’d like to have attended, not just to feed on the energy, but to share it, because Redman and Method Man were 100% proof, seems like they’re the real deal!

Jeg er ude! Fred! Og ses vi til Wu-Tang? Det tror jeg nok vi gør…

The picture is the cover from the Soundtrack of the movie How High. It was copied from Wikipedia, it’s most likely Copyright Def Jam Records, but I consider my use of it here as being fair use.

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'i dag' (Danish) Blogs Kunst Music Musik

Aldrig Mere

Aldrig mere
vil jeg se
du er kold
kold som sne
og vinden blæser

Altid væk
i en sky
der er så stort
i min by
og du er lige så grå og død
her er ikke noget at lave

Du er åh
åh så skøn
men kun sne
fra din mund
og dine øjne skifter
fra grøn til rød

Bare vi to ku få det godt
hos dig er jeg sagt op
hos dig er der heller
intet arbejde af få

Altid væk
i en sky
der er så stort
i min by
på hånden blæser vinden
et sekund
før alting synker væk

Lyrics: Haagensen/Voss/Torp/Brill Track:Aldrig Mere – Album:Supertanker – Artist:Kliché (links to Last.fm)

Categories
Blogs Kim Blog (English) Music

You know loud’s my diagnosis

OK, you’re on your own, it’s late
Your girlfriend is on another date with the hero in your dream
Turn around, ask yourself. So, you think you’re gonna win this time Manchild?

Is it the pain of the drinking
Or the Sunday sinking feeling
The car never seems to work
When it’s late your girlfriend’s on a date
And the hero with her in your dream
In your sleep it seemed like you
Turn around ask yourself
Turn around ask yourself

Chorus:
Manchild, will you ever win
Manchild, look at the state you’re in

Could you go undercover
And sell your brand new lover (could you)
Be someone else for a night
Maybe someone else will love you
You’d sell your soul for a tacky song
Like the ones you hear on the radio
Turn around ask yourself
Turn around and ask yourself

Chorus:
Manchild, will you ever win
Manchild, look at the state you’re in
Manchild, he will make you cry
Manchild, Manchild, Manchild

From Monday down to Friday
You’re working on another man’s car
Or is it in the factory?
It doesn’t matter where you are

Just turn around and ask yourself is this communication
Accentuate the positive to give some illustration
See Manchild, you’re no one, I turn the microphone on
Control communication when I’m kickin’ it and so on
To the point that I need, the air that I breathe
Into an audience that’s waiting and ecstatic to receive
For the meantime another mean rhyme, I keep on sayin’ it
I know what the time is in the crowd we’ll keep on playing it
Through the speaker boxes loud’s my diagnosis
‘Cause I believe in miracles and words in steady doses.
Enough R-E-S-P-E and C-T
Respect yourself express no stress the mike is easy
Just believe that all you need is the air that you breathe.
(Turn around ask yourself)

Chorus:
Manchild, will you ever win
Manchild, look at the state you’re in
Manchild, he will make you cry
Manchild, Manchild, Manchild
He’s the apple of your eye

Once bitten twice shy, why don’t you bite me again
Just take it in the right and go tell your friend
Are you ready for the words I turn the microphone on
A figure of speech to reach you at the back and so on
The style I’m stimulating dance floors
Raise your body temperature now and
This demands for power in the amp you know loud’s my diagnosis
‘Cause I believe in miracles and words in heavy doses

Categories
Blogs Bookmarks Computere og Internet Humor Kim Blog (English) Music Open Source Resources Technology

Pink Dildo Records’s Label Page – Music at Last.fm – Now I manage a record label

Last.fm logoBeneath Contempt Logo

Pink Dildo Records’s Label Page – Music at Last.fm

Yes, I love Last.fm, and after registering as a solo artist on Last.fm (no I’ll not remind you by linking to it – for YOUR own good), I’m now managing a Record Label.
Beneath Contempt Wurst 2

It’s of course Pink Dildo Records I’m managing, and so far I’ve uploaded the non-copyrighted tracks by Beneath Contempt.

In 2000 I investigated the possibility of issuing a CD with Beneath Contempt, called Digital Comeback 2000, with copyrighted covers-tracks, but that was too cumbersome and expensive, so I gave up on it, and the cover-tracks aren’t available on Last.fm either – it would only result it us getting promptly banned, but all the tracks has been made available in FULL and as FREE downloads. N-Joy. Be advised it’s guaranteed to be in GLORIOUS LO-FI.

But it’s quite ridiculous that I can’t make the number one hit by Beneath Contempt, a spoof on Pippi Longstockings called Hippie Longhair, available due to the copyright rules. If you know Danish, and even if you don’t, just follow the link, and make your own version instead – the ultimate in DIY.

“These” limitations will eventual disappear, but only because we now are beginning to make music available for free.

Great Label Manager

As expected the process of uploading material to Last.fm is smooth. The material has to be submitted at 128K MP3 files, and you have to bundle your uploads into releases (e.g. albums). I found it easiest to package your release into a single ZIP file, and then upload it as one release.

After you’ve uploaded the file, Last.fm validates it and I did of couse have some hidden resource forks, that I could iron out, and you’re given the opportunity to change to artist and title of the tracks. The info is read directly from the MP3 file, so remember to have it tagged before uploading it, I had no problems with the process, and considering how much time I just spend uploading pictures to a Share Point Server, this was really easy and productive.

Last.fm also offers to upload the material for you, you just have to send them the CD and they’ll take care of it for you – great customer service.

Last.fm also offers integrated promotion tools, buing of including banner ads, co-marketing deals etc. It’s really quite impressive, and it looks very easy to use.

The traditional music publishers should take note, “Houston: YOU have a problem!”

ps. Trouble in “paradise”

And then I ran into one of the “limitations” of Last.fm’s Label manager.

Oh No - It HurtsI tried to upload the works of another of our “artists”, Oh No, and that name was already taken by, no other, than the brother of Madlib, so now my label and the content is put in an automatic moderation queue, quite understandable, let’s see how that works, and I’m not allowed to manage my label for the next three days, while the account is being scrutinised by the Last.fm staff.

I expect no problems, despite the controversial name of the label and the LO-FI, in mono, no less.

What I expect is than we’ll be told to find another name for the “artist” when publishing on Last.fm, or keep “Oh No” away from Last.fm, which would be a “shame” ;-).

I think the policy of Last.fm makes good sense, but the ambiguty of artist names, especially short and cathcy ones like “Oh No”, is a major problem, and Last.fm could be better at handling that.

If you can’t wait to go back to mono with “Oh No”, you can listen to the tracks we have available on pinkdild.org.

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Blogs Bookmarks Design Education/Undervisning Kim Blog (English) Kunst Music Photography Resources

Done “shopping” for events for the Copenhagen Kultur Natten 2007 – it WIIL be GREAT

 Media(345,1030) Front Illu 2007Today October 12th-2007 is the day of the cultural event of the year in Copenhagen, “The Night of Culture” or Kulturnatten, and I’ve just finished “shopping” for events.

You can build a custom program on the web-site, unfortunately it doesn’t have a URL or a feed so that I can share it directly with you.

This year it seems like my theme will be Passion, Science and Christianity. Below is a list of events that I’ll try to mange to attend – it will be tough, and I’ll let the “Instincts be my shepherd” and stay for long in the places where I feel good vibes, and I’m very confident in my instincts.

It does look like my fix-points this year will be Kastellet, Botanisk Have, Humanistisk Fakultet, Glyptoteket and Marmorkirken. The previous years I had an extensive program as well, but I ended up spending hours at the Copenhagen HQ of The Danish Refugee Council, but since they’re not open this year, I might manage more.

Really there’s only ONE event I’m not going to miss, and that is Ars Nova singing English renaissance music in Marmorkirken – last year they were spectacular, and this year they’re issuing a new CD on the Kulturnat, I’ll be first in line to get a copy.

From the previous years I’ll HIGHLY recommend the Exhibition at Thorvaldsen’s Museum, the lights are turned off, and the statues are illuminated, it’s just fantastic, for me it’s been there done that this year however.

Rundetaarn is always too crowded, and the midnight concert this year is just too mainstream for my taste, but I loved it two years ago, and the storage room above the church is just wonderful.

So I wish you all a great Kulturnat, you just have to love Copenhagen for having the energy to set up such a massive event. And strange things happen on the Kulturnat, if you just let your senses guide you, and while you wait for my next blogpost, you can read about my experiences of the last two years here:

Events I hope to cover in 2007 – prioritised order – but my full intended program is 4 pages long:

Categories
Blogs Computere og Internet Design Education/Undervisning Hackers Kim Blog (English) Music Technology Undervisning Videnskab

Show your love for science – Science After Dark @ City Hall Square

Researchers Night LogoFriday I went to the Science Fair – dubbed Science After Dark – that was held at Copenhagen City Hall Square (Københavns Rådhusplads), and I enjoyed it very much. I didn’t really know what to expect, but when I read that there would be live electronic music, I knew that I was going.

The first thing i noticed was that attendance, despite the location, was disappointingly low. I feel that it was because the venue looked quite uninviting, due to the fence, and the rather closed looking pavilions.

I also got the feeling that the PR for the Science Fair had been less than satisfactory.

ConDio – Controlling Audio

ConDio - Controlling Audio at RådhuspladsenAnyway, the first thing that grasped my eye was the ConDio, Controlling Audio. The ConDio is a device with which you can control the playback of sound, simply by moving physical bricks around on a table surface. The ConDio uses pattern recognition to determine the position of the different blocks, which translates into a specific function, for instance one brick changes the track that is being played, others applies filters.

It’s remarkably simple, efficient and intuitive to control a computer in this fashion, and it was a real crowd puller.

The ConDio has been developed by the medialogy branch of the University of Aalborg, and It was really great talking to the students that were responsible for the project. They were really feeding from the enthusiasm of the people that were looking at it.

I’m really envious that the students of today get to play with technology like this, to quote Haladjjan, the founder of Violet (manufacturer of the Nabaztag intelligent WiFi bunny):

“le début de l’internet a été une aimable kermesse… Maintenant les choses sérieuses commencent” – (translation: “the beginning of the Internet has been a friendly festival…Now the serious stuff begins”.

What a great time in history to be alive in.

Kim Bach – The failed scientist

I also enjoyed visiting the Bio Chemistry tent, where I had a discussion about how to bring science to the public (“videnskabs formidling”). The scientist in charge asked me it I’ve heard about Jens Martin Knudsen – and the regular reader would know that I just posted a tribute to him – we need more like him – since he was able to bring across complicated matters in lay-mans terms – we also discussed the great Richard Dawkins.

What I really hope is that someone could take up the reins from Jens Martin Knudsen, because we need those positive role-models from the scientific community to teach us the importance of understanding our world.

I also had a chance to redeem myself. I label my self a “failed scientist”. I’m really a product of the inspiration of the space program and the lunar missions, and when I was a kid, I desperately wanted to become a scientist – but “something” happened along the way – and it’s too complicated to talk about here – but I basically got fed up with boring educational system.

But it does seem like I have some basic scientific intuition, and I got some high marks from “the teacher” for thinking like a scientist, when I was observing the strange creature the Daphnia.

It was also interesting talking to the students from the Nano technology line. They’re looking into how to produce solar arrays that are less harsh on the environment, it turns out that you can use fruit juice from black berries as the base of a solar cell, instead of silicon – amazing.

Bend my circuits

But what I really enjoyed the most, was the tent dedicated to audio, which also included live performances from Dødskuglen, Rumpistol and Bjørn Svin (who I missed).

In the tent some interesting and simple demonstrators were set up, one was a Theremin that was controlled by a plant. You could actually play music by touching the leaves of the plant – very entertaining. Another was a tube with a number of nozzles from which gas could escape, and be lit, if you then played music, the sound-waves would modulate the flames – Daft Punk’s Robot Rock looked quite good “going up in flames”.

Dødskuglen plays with circuit bending, and they had gutted a lot of electronics with audio capabilities, for instance a couple of Furbys, that now looked – and sounded – like mean birds, and when you hooked them up to a keyboard, they were capable of making some wonderful noise.

Dødskuglen has their name from a dome shaped device, that is the center-piece of their show. According to them it’s filled with gutted electronics from Happy Meals and the like – I’m not surprised.

We also got a live demonstration of how to circuit bend – don’t try this at home – you might hit the AC power-supply and die – but if you’re careful, just take a cheap electronic keyboard apart, and try to apply some wire patches live – it was amazing to hear how the standard drum-machine suddenly went into a completely different state, and sounded completely different, only to return to it’s standard loop after being reset.

Kim Bach – The failed musician

After Dødskuglen, Rumpistol took the stage, and he’s using his computer in combination with analogue synthesisers to produce great electronica.

Besides being a failed scientist, I also consider myself a failed musician, but with the simple technology being showcased here, that is so much more fun and intuitive to control than a traditional instrument, I might be able to express myself – I know that I have some music in my head – maybe I can finally make some music – I know that I want a copy of the guitar simulator for the Nintendo DS called Jam Sessions.

A child’s mind

There’s a strange unifying synergy between science and music. When doing science and music, you really need to have a child’s mind, and like to play. That’s something I still, I’d say increasingly, possess – so I might still become a scientist/musician. It’s also noteworthy that a number of my heroes for instance RMS (Richard Stallman) and N (Peter Naur), actually play music themselves.

I went home after having had a great time, with renewed faith in our educational system, it seems to be producing playful scientists – I wished someone had told me that science was about playing, when I was a student.

I hope that Science After Dark will become a recurring event.

Show your <3 for science – make some NOIIIIISSSSSEEEEE!!!

I did, however, hear some rumours the Science After Dark has been frowned upon from the established scientific community. Come down from your ivory towers, Science is FUN and NOISY. Show your <3 for Science – make some NOIIIIISSSSSEEEEE!!!