Pattern Recognition

Found in the woods

2010-07-24T23:09:00.001+02:00

No System Here

2010-07-15T23:02:00.002+02:00

Samples of my books
removed in sequence here and there
from the shelves and toppling stacks:

Sample One:

Die chinesische Delegation - Luo Lingyuan
Evangeline and other Poems - Longfellow
All Quiet on the Orient Express - Magnus Mills
The Lay of the Land - Richard Ford
The John Tradescants, Gardeners - Leith-Ross
Mrs Malory and the Silent Killer - Hazel Holt
Nattens bibliotek - Alberto Manguel
Lions in Winter - Wena Poon
Vinens vinner 2010 Burgund
Uncommon Arrangements - Katie Roiphe

Sample Two:

Lilje i blekkhus - Hans Kristiansen
More than Cool Reason - Lakoff and Turner
New Poems Book 4 - Bukowski
The Best American Poetry 2002 - Creely
Les Barricades Mysterieuses - Jared Carter
Zebra - Øystein Wingaard Wolf
Snow Monkey, An Eclectic Journal - #15-16
Margie Vol. 5 2006

Sample Three:

Oleander, Jacaranda - Penelope Lively
Pack of Cards - Penelope Lively
Samlede Eventyr 1 - Hans Christian Andersen
Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant - Anne Tyler
Sweet's Anglo-Saxon Reader
The Alchemist - Paulo Coelho
A Life of One's Own - Joanna Field
Handbook of Kings and Queens
Dictionary of Dreams

Sample Four:

Ma Vie - Chagall
Bevisets stilling - Anders Bodelsen
Boken om Kometen - Gøteborg
The Hound of Death - Agatha Christie
Under bergfall - ed. by Fjørtoft
Literary Women - Ellen Moers
Polly Put the Kettle On - Joan Fleming
La nuit sacree - Tahar Ben Jelloun

Sample Five:

Troilus & Criseyde - Chaucer
Min villhave - Elin Conradi
Georgia O'Keeffe - Louisiana Revy
Kokebok -Ambjørnsrud
The Country Diary of An Edwardian Lady - Holden
Conference Interpreting Explained - R. Jones
Lovingly, Georgia - Correspondence O'Keeffe / Pollittzer

Sample Six:

Jerusalem the Golden - Margaret Drabble
Microserfs - Douglas Coupland
A Thousand Country Roads - Robert James Waller
Maigret - Simenon
Intrigernas hus - Maria Lang
Anna of the Five Towns - Arnold Bennett
Dødligt svek - Jan Mårtensson
Two Fair PLaits - Malcolm Saville
Strong Poison - Dorothy L. Sayers

Sample Seven:

Døren - Magda Szabo
Civil to Strangers - Barbara Pym
La Consolante - Anna Gavalda
En ettermiddag om høsten - Mirjam Kristensen
Oracle Night - Paul Auster
Tatt av kvinnen - Erlend Loe
Nachtzug nach Lissabon - Pascal Mercier
The October Palace - Jane Hirshfield
The King's General - Daphne du Maurier
English Sonnets - Everyman's Poetry
Our Game - John Le Carre
The Medusa Frequency - Russell Hoban

Sample Eight:

Dear London - Irma Kurtz
Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase & Fable
Skipper Worse - Alexander L. Kielland
At være der, hvor du er - Bent Falk
Psalmbok (1887
Containerkvinnen - Kim Småge
Knipetak - Aage Bjertnæs
Sky! my teacher - Jean-Loup Chiflet
Eikerminne - Årbok 1990
Breath of Corruption - Caro Fraser
Norsk-engelsk juridisk ordbok - Craig

------

Stolen

2010-01-02T00:48:00.003+01:00

but it's good:

1 January was the best day of 2010. No doubt about it.

Happy New Year-- as we brave a New Decade

2009-12-30T20:00:00.012+01:00

30 years ago --
and they couldn't know what we know --

So much has happened-- for instance:

Globalization

I sent my distant love
the Moon
for Christmas

Turns out he had one
over there
exactly like it

-----

Where May Becomes June

2009-05-31T23:38:00.001+02:00

After a while
the blackbird fell silent

When she next looked up
from the laptop, what passed
for darkness in a northern summer
had settled behind a much stronger light
now from the slow-moving moon

----

Shocking Poem

2009-05-24T13:42:00.006+02:00

my neighbour took his life
off facebook today: won't be final
till two weeks from now

----

Seven for Lent

2009-03-09T18:49:00.000+01:00

Seven for Lent - List Poem

It's Lent so I'm not
buying books
or old movies,
not even jazz

It's Lent so I'm not
buying Dinner
with Anna Karenina
by Goldreich
Arabesque
with Gregory Peck
Kind of Blue
with Miles
That Botswana lady
detective novel

It's Lent so I'm not
buying Sentimental Journey
with Doris Day
or the latest poems
by Hirshfield

It's Lent so I'm not
buying Georgia O'Keeffe
and the Camera

It's Lent so I'm not.
I'm stacking them high
in my Amazon cart
ready for Easter Sunday :-)

Aisha

It's That Time Again

2009-02-12T20:01:00.003+01:00

Lent in 2009 will start on Wednesday, the 25th of February and will continue for 46 days until Saturday, the 11th of April.

NUNS, we need to do our work -- or rather, NOT do much at all: we are not doing any Unnecessary Needless Shopping- No UNS = NUNS!

You won't find us out on a spree-- we'll only be seen on Public Transport for cultural purposes-- museums, galleries, that's us :-)

For Ankush who may have a feed from here

2008-03-20T21:56:00.004+01:00

NUNS, I have sinned. And of course in Paris, that's traditional.

I bought luxury teas at Mariage Freres and a new book by Anna Gavalda.
(I don't count the books by William Gibson: he is after all the raison d'etre of my blog.)

Three more days, and we are out of the woods!

Lent Is Just Around The Corner! NUNS Unite!

2008-01-21T18:39:00.000+01:00

Lent begins on Wednesday 6 February 2008

When does Lent end? When is Lent over?

Lent lasts for 40 days and ends the day before Easter Sunday!

So you know what is coming: No Unnecessary Needless Shopping during Lent!

Oh no!

2007-10-20T14:00:00.000+02:00

Two months away and nothing to report.
Work work work.
Study study study (but that part is cool really).

And a pic of my flowers this weekend.

Wonder if anyone ever comes here any more.
Going now to look up my linked friends.

Four Months Later

2007-08-03T21:05:00.000+02:00

It's a good job Blogger doesn't fine you for not updating regularly.

I thought I would stick a bit in here about Second Life, since the author of Pattern Recognition, William Gibson, has a new book out and actually went virtual last night, reading from it and answering questions in Second Life. And it's all on You Tube!

He says in his blog that all he had to learn, really, was how to sit down in Second Life... the rest was easy.

A couple of my friends were there. I was detained in First Life, where I had to hand out laundry keys to real people.

National Poetry Month: A Haiga

2007-04-11T00:42:00.000+02:00

Lovers with tulip

2007-04-01T19:38:00.000+02:00

Spring reaches the D/S Louise couple too!

Some online friends mapped

2007-03-23T23:33:00.001+01:00

NUNS so far

2007-02-24T12:36:00.000+01:00

Good to read the comments on the NUNS post and see I have some backing -- !

So far I have been greatly aided by online purchases dropping into my mailbox still from earlier shopping sprees :)

We managed it before and we will again.
With a healthy underdraft to show for it...

Time for NUNS again!

2007-02-10T15:49:00.000+01:00

Lent begins on Wednesday 21 February 2007...

And -- Lent lasts for 40 days.

No Unnecessary Needless Shopping until Easter Sunday, 8 April.

I am ready for this! Too many DVDs from Amazon, too many books for the pile at the end of my bed...

Too many easy-to-buy-without trying-on tops.. . too many jeans...

(OK, too few ladylike skirts and trousers, but I even stocked up on that recently. I'm all right, Joan.)

Who wants to join me on this mission against over-consumption?

I am counting on my usual friends: You know who you are, and you are in my sidebar blog links.
Also hoping for new converts...

Down With Shopping !

An Internet cafe with real espresso!

2007-02-07T17:16:00.001+01:00

It can be done!

In Stavanger.

Room with a View

2007-01-23T23:50:00.000+01:00

Plogged in the London hotel room: 8th floor gave great view: quick sketch from window sill with water colour pencils. Gonna try wetting it later for a better effect.

London Story

2007-01-20T13:21:00.000+01:00

captured on the Piccadilly Line:

Home Sweet Home

2006-12-28T21:04:00.000+01:00

OK laugh!
All I have for my blog is my own bookcase-- and I gave myself a virtual logfire for Christmas - complete with crackling flaring sounds...

Planning a mid-week break

2006-12-28T19:23:00.000+01:00

-- in London-- and my friend Wingtips (see links) got me this, just in time to get the best treatment when I order tea and cucumber sandwiches:

My Peculiar Aristocratic Title is:
Imperial Majesty Aisha the Coherent of Hardy St Thomas
Get your Peculiar Aristocratic Title

Bird and alder seeds

2006-12-17T15:53:00.000+01:00

Also on walk today-- Carduelis flammea flammea:

Frosty Walk

2006-12-17T15:13:00.000+01:00

My lake today:

Hearts on a December morning

2006-12-05T19:18:00.000+01:00

I pass this every morning on my way to work...

Heartening :)

November Roses

2006-11-10T22:26:00.000+01:00

Captured on my way today.

October Tree

2006-10-29T16:47:00.000+01:00

This photo is really for my friend Far From The Madding Crowd (see my blog links). He has a worthy :) tree poem on his blog right now

Taken this afternoon through my flat window.
It is a maple or sycamore of sorts.

Old Man in Rain

2006-10-22T19:26:00.000+02:00

Autumn has come!
Let's celebrate! Oops, I dated it November...should be 20th October.

...November doesn't have any colors in the cold rain.

Rye Road Waiting

2006-10-05T02:38:00.000+02:00

Three weeks have passed since I proclaimed the arrival of autumn: far too precipitate.

Rye Road Warming

We are waiting for trees
to turn golden, we are waiting
for days to cool us down: It's October
and too warm still.

That greenhouse effect
must have swallowed
the hype: "Think globally,
act locally."

Rye Road is waiting.

September Walk

2006-09-17T16:37:00.000+02:00

Autumn comes early here:

And now for something completely different

2006-08-29T23:44:00.000+02:00

The poet Wu Men -- brought to my attention by a quotation on a packet of white tea.

Is this a lovely poem or what?

Ten thousand flowers in spring
the moon in autumn
a cool breeze in summer
snow in winter.

If your mind's not clouded
by unnecessary things,
this is the best season of your life.

Wu Men

Lofoten Plog

2006-08-25T22:35:00.000+02:00

Before the paint-brush dropped through the gaps in the pier, I got one:

Lofoten Poem

2006-08-20T22:58:00.000+02:00

Strange Fruit

Key limes drop into the Arctic
fisherman’s palm, salty cod bodies
dry south-facing on poles
while gooseberries common as mangoes
ripen in a Northern garden.

Poets’ tongues are pens
tonight, as silence floods the rorbu
the way sea-fog rolls in
with no warning. Arguments evaporate
over beer and reindeer
balls! we say, to everything!
and Here’s to us.

Lofoten Poets

2006-08-16T09:30:00.000+02:00

Among stockfish drying, poets wetting their throats and pens.

Plog at last

2006-08-03T16:42:00.000+02:00

Proof of Plogging

2006-07-30T14:04:00.000+02:00

I plogged at the seaside. Painting to follow once I get it scanned --

unfortunately the perspective is all wrong, as will be proved by this photo of the scene ...

Aftermath of the World Cup

2006-07-21T21:09:00.000+02:00

Withdrawal symptoms -- I had them -- some still do.

I saw a twelve-year old boy in a BIG blue shirt today in the doctor's waiting room-- loyally displayed on the back : ZIDANE.

And just now, looking out the window, what football is all about: a kid with his dreams.

Rye Road Junk Mail

2006-07-09T12:40:00.000+02:00

(Or: It Nearly Happened)

Yesterday, the postman parked
his van outside our building, dragged out
the cans and piled our trash into the back.

Obviously someone sorted it
during the night: I got a torn
corn flakes box and two empty wrappers
(Mars and Wrigley) in the mail today.

Running now to catch the last post
I fully expect two fluorescent guys
to toss my translation of a court order
(with invoice) into the revolving shovel
on the back of a Clean City truck.

Ever-Ready Waitress Serves Eternal Lovers

2006-06-21T20:20:00.000+02:00

At D/S Louise by the harbour -- this morning, before they open for other guests:

Balloons

2006-06-12T23:32:00.000+02:00

I've been wandering round town taking a few pics with my new Japanese camera, and strangely, balloons were involved twice.

Small balloon lovers by the lake:

And an adult balloon lover passing a harbour cafe:

Home Sweet Home

2006-06-03T20:23:00.000+02:00

Mantra

Clouds rush by overhead, dropping
their shopping in showers, scarves waving
behind, some rouged and fluffed up
for a date with Cloud Nine. I am going nowhere.

Taxis, messenger vans, bikes shuttle
up and down Rye Road, one lonely
business traveller wheels luggage
to the airport bus. I am going nowhere.

The light goes, night falls, wet paths run
to the road, cross the lawn, a banner flaps
our Housing Estate logo from east to west,
a jet blinks red and green. I am going to bed.

A Zen Garden in Kyoto

2006-05-30T11:46:00.000+02:00

I meant to plog, but never got my water colors and the gardens together in one place.

But of course I bought a Japanese camera :)

Only in Japan

2006-05-30T11:10:00.000+02:00

I was lucky enough to work in Tokyo last week.

A Japanese interpreter colleague folded this for me as a matter of course, in a minute, during a tea break - an origami iris.

It's the end of National Poetry Month

2006-04-30T21:42:00.001+02:00

And if anyone wants to read a frenzy of poems, go visit thirty - forty - a bunch of poets who wrote and posted a poem every day during that month.

Poetry-Free-For-All

As for me, and a few others, I started late, and have eleven poems to make up.

Here is one of mine -- written for the other poets in the challenge, tired of writing and commenting on everyone's poems: a delight, but also hard work every day!

Here, a poem for my reader... I was thinking, if I drag my tired typing fingers, my burning screen-staring eyes, my fluff-tickling throat, my metaphor-laden brain to this thread, and decide to go for the very most recent poem, what would I love to see?

I think I know:

Thank You For Not Reading

And if you do
anyway, Thank you
for going away!

Are you still there, Reader?
Confess you loved to hear it.

Take a break
from NaPo
as poetry
from me to you.

Still there? OK, the title
was borrowed from Croatian
writer Dubravka Ugresic.
Zabranjeno čitanje

The quote was overheard
by my friend Judy:

A tramp trying to sleep
among tourists in Jackson Square:
"Please go away. Thank you for going away!"

NUNS go shopping again!

2006-04-17T00:34:00.000+02:00

Happy Easter, Lent is over!
Laurie, hope you are getting spring clothes!

Me, I ordered a book on Amazon as shops are closed here today...

Morning Paper on Rye Road

2006-04-16T20:37:00.000+02:00

A sense of action: the thud on the mat, you open
the door, show your spiky hair and rumpled
pyjamas with virtuous sangfroid, carry
Dagsavisen and Klassekampen back to bed.

They rustle, scrunch up, flap a wing
over your bowl of coffee, you smear marmalade
on the comic strip you had planned to cut out
for the fridge door. The bed linen smudges
from fresh print but you still feel in control:
you are doing something
real about the world’s problems: you don’t stare
helplessly at an online edition, or listen
to the news on the bedside radio.

You are hands on, get to grips with President Bush
in his latest denials, prop bird flu against your knees,
leaf quickly past car crashes, tear out a story
on Germany’s Audubon. Iran should maybe
be allowed to proceed under your coffee rings,
you spill crumbs on Prodi’s face.

That evening, you wrap a broken
whisky glass in Politiken
to protect the trash collector from injury.

Orbiting Venus

2006-04-11T12:39:00.000+02:00

The probe has arrived!

See it here.

What Language To Learn?

2006-04-10T19:03:00.000+02:00

Take the quiz!
Got it from a thread on a favourite hang-out .

My result was:

You Should Learn French

C'est super! You appreciate the finer things in life... wine, art, cheese, love affairs.
You are definitely a Parisian at heart. You just need your tongue to catch up...

What Language Should You Learn?

April Twosome on Rye Road

2006-04-09T21:46:00.000+02:00

The mouthy girl at the supermarket check-out
is on the subway train from downtown
with a small boy, he craving attention, she
cradling a tub of half-eaten popcorn
and nursing a head-ache from "Ice Age I"
at the Saga Cinema, full blast. "And it’s not
as if he needs it loud any more," she says
proudly. "They fixed his deafness
two months back. A new boy, he is
-- oh shut UP, Mommy’s tired!"
We step off into a freezing flurry
of April snow. "Gonna snuggle up warm
now," she says. "With Play Station?" he asks.
Under the blanket? Just us?"

Oh dear!

2006-04-04T17:14:00.000+02:00

I went more than a month without posting again.

How have I spent my non-shopping time? Lapsing once, last weekend (which is not much if you have set aside a weekend for teenage shopper niece to go round all the jeans and shoes and DVD and cosmetics shops of Oslo, or as many as can be done in six uninterrupted hours!)

This was the lapse: half-price and we both love Harvey Keitel. I have forgiven myself.

Paul Auster's screenplay, Wayne Wang directing-- and it is about two ways of telling a story: in images or in words.

What else am I doing? reading newspapers in the flesh: in their paper clothing (how retro is that?) and cutting out interesting bits to send to friends or keep-- and on the Web (as we all do) -- cutting out links to send to friends or keep. The more it changes, the more it remains the same thing, as the French say.

Rye Road: Star-Gazing for Dummies

2006-02-23T15:04:00.000+01:00

It was "Dating for Dummies"
yesterday. I took that
in my stride. However,

during the night, instead
of the usual offers
of business manuals,
printer paper and toner,

my fax machine rolled out
the smudged photo of an astronomical
telescope, at only ninety-nine dollars.

Plog: Snow and Lamp Post on Rye Road

2006-02-20T17:40:00.000+01:00

I was trying to paint snow at night...

The first person I showed it too, saw plenty here, but not snow!

Still, here you are... my view at night with 50 cm of snow.

Rye Road Dating

2006-02-19T12:52:00.000+01:00

The closest we come to a night out
is our chat by the electric blue
recycling container when dumping
the week's newspapers and TV dinner
cartons. Our drink after work is spilt coffee
brought down to the laundry while checking
that faulty tumble-drier.
The last excitement was a small fire
when a pan boiled dry
on the cooker. Any dancing is involuntary
and only when the janitor forgets to grit
the icy path in winter.

NUNS strike again! 1st March is Ash Wednesday!

2006-02-06T21:01:00.000+01:00

Lent is near: Laurie just reminded me (Miss New Orleans in my links).

Here is the post elsewhere in my blog last year--we were joined by Paula too, in Italy, and I think Judy in Silsbee...

Shall we do it again, NUNS?
From 1st March until 15th April, the day before Easter we DON'T SHOP for stuff.

Read here:

"...Wednesday, February 16, 2005
NUNS - wanna join our Lenten non-shopping spree?

Laurie and maybe Carol (or Carol's friend at least), and myself are now going in for No Unnecessary Needless Shopping and will be known during Lent as NUNS for short (copyright Laurie).

We had a discussion in Comments under my 'What are you giving up for Lent' post-- and I for one will walk around the lake next door (maybe not throw myself in, as it is -10 C today) or to the harbour or a museum and avoid all malls.

Only less than 40 non-shopping days left of Lent!

Timeline:
"Lent is a forty-day period before Easter. It begins on Ash Wednesday. We skip Sundays when we count the forty days, because Sundays commemorate the Resurrection. Lent begins on 9 February 2005 and ends on 26 March 2005."

Ghost on Rye Road

2006-02-06T16:20:00.000+01:00

The World Without Us

Comforting to know
that public places stay
if we should die and go.

Our homes will empty
of our stuff. New paint
and furniture wont tempt me

to return, but I would walk
along our snowy path again
to leave no footprints, try and talk

to my ex-neighbours. No. 1312
will shudder, spooked, to hear
my cheery, "Cold as hell!"

Winter Sun on Rye Road

2006-01-22T23:38:00.000+01:00

Happy New Year...with this from the very end of last year, taken with my throw-away camera but I like it anyway -- the picnic table waits even more eagerly for summer this week, swimming in a snow-drift.

Plog : Rye Road Sunset

2005-12-12T09:50:00.000+01:00

View from my window:

Going to Venus

2005-12-12T07:17:00.000+01:00

Check it out!

Plog from here

2005-12-11T15:58:00.000+01:00

Need to scan it first...but I tried to plog from home today.
Window-sill is wide enough for the Moleskine, paintbox and water-jar.
Didn't know that familiar view was so hard to do :)

Watch this space for a 3 pm sunset over Rye Road.

Rye Road Sunday Morning

2005-11-27T05:30:00.000+01:00

Returning in party mood at 4 am, I see lights
in three of the ninety windows. A blue
hand-cart's parked on the snow. Door buzzes
and our paper boy comes out.

'You're early,' I say-- he shrugs:
'Sundays I do extra rounds. Weekend's ruined
anyway. Might as well make money.'

I walk up the stairs he just rushed down, find
mine tossed on the landing. Peace Prize money
invested in weapons, a man admits to killing
his wife. Weekend's ruined anyway, he said,
and the headlines don't help.

Rye Road: Testing, Testing... (The Fountain Pen Poem)

2005-11-01T22:56:00.000+01:00

Rye Road: Testing, Testing

Black cartridges in hardly used
fountain pen - new spiral
notebook - a quiet block
of flats, dark & rainy Sunday
night, books laid aside
and computer turned off. CNN
done with deaths in India
& Iraq, ringing tone switched
off on cellphone & pineapple
rings eaten from the can --
testing, testing: is more
needed tonight? Will the swish
of nib on lined paper
fill this Sunday up
to the brim? Certainly
the Schneider cartridges work
well in a Pelikano pen
-- testing, testing. A drop
of rain slams against the window,
the mattress creaks in Flat 1313
& the ink flows and fills
the page exactly. The lift
hums on the landing, moves upwards.

Fountain Pen Poem

2005-10-31T05:39:00.000+01:00

If my friend Peter can start an Apple blog, I too can post a technical piece-- it just needs to be scanned in first, as it was written with superior technology:

Watch this space! I have no scanner, so need an Internet cafe first ...

Some of my best friends

2005-10-30T16:33:00.000+01:00

Six Hours Behind

Some of my best friends
are Americans, and behind
by six or more hours

Some of my best friends wake up
well into my day
and fall asleep early morning

Some of my best friends
leave me emails in my sleep
and call us Y'all

Some of my best friends
have never been to Europe
or only once, and crave

cheeseburgers if they do
and want us to straighten out
our roads over here

Some of my friends don't understand
siestas or multi-colored Euro bills
or no ice to be had

for love or money. My best friends
have never seen Europe
in movies, the way we've seen siding

in that alien mint-green, boys throwing
newspapers and wide wide cars
made for straight Texas roads.

Some of my best friends know
hurricanes on a first name, shake palms
basis. Am I lucky or what?

Shisa

Rye Road Laundry

2005-10-16T22:15:00.000+02:00

He fishes out my missing sock
from the spin-drier, shows me the gap
they escape through. It's that little-girl number
I bought in England, lipsticks
and mirrors dancing pinkly all over.
I am embarrassed, but he is only concerned
about his convenience store and pizza-to-go
losing money, and how much a sale would fetch.
I describe my walk round the lake, how good
to be alone, not like the gossipy
women in pairs, shoulders tense, bitching about work
and ex-husbands, not looking around at gathering
geese or golden birches. "My ex walks
there every day," he says. I go even redder.

Rye Road Revisited

2005-10-14T19:59:00.000+02:00

This morning, Indian tea by my window, the steam
of wet leaves just right for the view
of the common lawn under golden drifts, a pensioner
bent against the wind at 8 30 am, behind
a wheeled walker, early for the supermarket
as the old always are, shuffling as fast
as he can, followed by a fourteen-year old, cap
low and sagging backpack, late for school
as the young always are, slouching as slowly
as possible. The two keep perfect pace along the path.

Airport Plog

2005-10-09T21:08:00.000+02:00

Most of the time, I really like them.
Airports.

Still, I remember the shop-girl in a U.S. airport who told me customers are extra nasty in airports. She had worked in a local shop before, where everyone tends to be nice, as they will have to deal with the same shop tomorrow.
In airports, customers sometimes think they will never see you again anyway...

"But I remember!" she said. And added that some are very nervous about flying. Which is an excuse. Sometimes.

You pick up knowledge in airports:
Layered soup-- heard about that from a Jamaica, Queens bartender at LaGuardia, on my way to Florida: the thick peasoup sinks to the bottom, the thin minestrone stays on top.
Tastes good, too.

This is my view from the Tivoli Restaurant in Copenhagen Airport, before the pickled herring and clear Aalborg aquavit arrives...On the day President Bush landed and we were delayed for a couple of hours: all traffic ceased.
That's my plane waiting.

The Planet Venus

2005-09-30T12:31:00.000+02:00

I didn't know that Venus can be considered Earth's twin.

But it seems these identical twins developed in very different ways...OK, that's after a cursory read by a lay-person of this very interesting piece:

"One day on Venus, which alone of all the planets rotates backwards, lasts 243 Earth days. The planet's air is thick, at 90 times the pressure at sea level on Earth, and there are dense clouds of sulphuric acid. Violent winds race around 50 times faster than the planet spins, and vast hurricanes hang over each pole. The surface is paved with basalt dating from planet-wide eruptions no more than 500m years ago."

I have loved planets ever since the terrific BBC series The Planets in 1999. It may be a little dated by now, but it inspired a few poems at the time.

The Venus Express will soon be on its way there, to be launched 26 October. Follow its progress from here.

Don't Stick Sophia Loren On Your Wall

2005-09-26T14:00:00.000+02:00

Don't Stick Sophia Loren On Your Wall
-- A Jealous Poem --

Over a beer, she tells us
how her father
had the hots for a film star

in the 60's. How her mother
laughed at cut-out pictures
everywhere.

"I would've hit him!" But
my outburst causes
dismay round the table,

so I add, "Terrible
taste: Katharine Hepburn
is a much better actress."

Shisa

WHAT DO THESE TWO WOMEN HAVE IN COMMON?

Grant, Cary (1904-1986)

:) Any excuse...

Sky's photo of Grasmere

2005-09-18T01:02:00.000+02:00

If you remember the post from 23 July this year, a water color from the Lakes -- well, here is the original view, through the lens of my new friend Sky, taken at the very same time:

Blues for the anchored nomad

2005-09-17T13:58:00.000+02:00

Read my fellow blogger's entry for 15 September.
Do fountain pens hate Sudoku?

At a time like this

2005-09-08T08:44:00.000+02:00

Horrified by what Katrina did to New Orleans, and what the Homeland Security and other authorities obviously failed to do for New Orleans -- there seems to be nothing more to say-- just pity the victims and hope that some lessons were learnt: transport and information up to the last minute for those who want to evacuate before the hurricane strikes, upkeep of the levees to a higher standard...

It is the people we think about, but I did see an egret on CNN today-- obviously distressed in the toxic sludge. Reminded me of the beautiful bayou (can't bring myself to worry about the alligators-- but I hope Alligator Annie's son is ok in Houma.)

Meanwhile back in Norway:

The duck is a muddy bedraggled "kvinand", I think.

Plog - Vardø Harbour

2005-08-31T19:58:00.000+02:00

Plog from Vardø -- Church with Radar

2005-08-31T19:06:00.000+02:00

On a windy morning, I sketched this view in my ubiquitous Moleskine from the hotel pier.

Came by Hurtigruten, the Coastal Steamer, to this old, important bastion at the North-Eastern tip of Norway.

Vardø has amazing scenery and through a weird and wonderful lunar landscape (where we saw a sea eagle) and where Vardø people have their holiday cabins, you reach this old deserted fishing village, Hamningberg.

A good if extreme place to gather for a friend's 50th birthday!

Long time, no poem

2005-08-20T12:19:00.000+02:00

But the jazz yesterday made me look up this old one.

To Duke Heitger:

and to the Jazzin' Babies:

Hear the Jazz Go Down

'You step inside but you don't see too many faces
Coming in out of the rain to hear the jazz go down'
(Mark Knopfler: Sultans of Swing)

Passing in the cold street
you're pulled inside by music
erupting through the wall

Trio fills the pub, eight drinkers
fight for space. Candles
scorch brown panels, turn beer to brass,
wine to pulsing blood

A sax and battered trombone
nailed to ceiling. Photos
of visiting bands, four seats
by the bar, long bench along the wall

Silent listeners except one couple
arguing about a missing
napsack. Barman shushes, liquid
guitar tells them to shut up

Stony-faced, the player walks strings,
moves from soft to stinging rain.

Drummer slams lids, breaks plates,
pounds steak in an unseen kitchen

Bass player vibrates your thighs
like deep rumbling volcanoes

and the jazz goes down.

Shisa

New Orleans comes to Oslo

2005-08-20T11:46:00.000+02:00

Yesterday a septet of Norwegian men in their 20's, playing trad jazz! and aptly named Jazzin' Babies were joined by famous New Orleans trumpeter Duke Heitger at Oslo Jazz Festival -- and I was there!

Superb and surreal: 100 year-old people's music played by babies :)
A couple of them are barely 20, I hear.

And the energy of a seasoned jazz trumpet joining them from over there.

It was something!
All of it held in an old pub in the City Square, built around the year 1700.

Most Popular - the mind boggles...

2005-08-14T13:25:00.000+02:00

Most Popular News!

Talk about news as entertainment. Yahoo Online News actually talks
about "the most popular world news" :(

BTW today it is "Donkeys get marines around Afghanistan"

Just weird--

I know it means "most emailed" or "most hits"-- but still...

Shisa

Plog: Black Sea

2005-08-09T18:15:00.000+02:00

A week in Romania, on the Black Sea. I fell in love with the small low villas -- terracotta-tiled roofs, pastel-paint walls-- can't have changed much since Roman times...shaded by a pergola of vine-leaves, sunflowers and roses in the yard... sometimes a Coca-Cola parasol to break the heat of the day over a kitchen table with a wax cloth...

Mountain cabin Plog: Later

2005-07-25T18:24:00.000+02:00

A peaceful week that had its high points -- :)

Norway: Mountain Cabin Plog - First morning

2005-07-25T18:07:00.000+02:00

A peaceful corner of England

2005-07-23T19:59:00.000+02:00

I was in the Lake District last week, at Grasmere, the name of both the village and its lake -- and the home of Wordsworth.

The paint box was bought from Barney's News Box on Broad Gate for £1 45p--
it was made for little girls: lots of bright pinks and lilac -- only one green.

I hope young Sky or Wang Shao-hua from Taiwan will like the picture -- she watched me start it and took a photograph of the same lovely view. Sky wrote the name on the sheet herself so it is proper Chinese.

I did not have my Moleskine, so this one in a child's Drawing Book, also from Barney's.

Seaside Plog Last Evening

2005-07-03T23:38:00.000+02:00

Plog Wed afternoon/Thurs morning

2005-07-03T23:35:00.000+02:00

Plog Wednesday

2005-07-03T23:32:00.000+02:00

Seaside Plog Day Three

2005-07-03T23:26:00.000+02:00

Seaside Plog Day Two

2005-07-03T23:23:00.000+02:00

Seaside Plog (Painted Log) -- Day One

2005-07-03T23:05:00.000+02:00

Memory

2005-06-20T00:52:00.000+02:00

An email correspondence recently reminded me of something I read somewhere:

Recent research had shown that memory is a tool, not a record-keeping system:
the brain changes memories to make us act more efficiently; we apply the ever-changing incident we recall to new situations -- which is why our memory is unreliable, surprisingly so.

And thus it is apparently a fallacy that it is all stored in there, videotaped by the brain.

I kinda believe that.

But the feelings, the impressionistic remnants of our experiences still symbolize what happened, I think.

Our memories are a poetic view of the past, as well as a learning tool to make us into a mean, lean survival machine.

Make Poverty History - White Band

2005-06-05T21:02:00.000+02:00

I have one -- it looks good :)

Make Poverty History - White Band

The New York Times -- Literary Map of Manhattan!

2005-06-05T20:19:00.000+02:00

Looking to see if the references my William Gibson Web Forum put in are there-- meanwhile enjoy!

Polly Put The Kettle On...

2005-05-18T11:47:00.000+02:00

A shock to everyone's view of the typical Briton -- not drinking tea as they used to!

Brown Betty a thing of the past?

And what will happen to the nursery rhyme?

Polly put the kettle on,
Polly put the kettle on,
Polly put the kettle on,
We'll all have tea.

Sukey take it off again,
Sukey take it off again,
Sukey take it off again,
They've all gone away.

Misbehaving

2005-05-06T16:37:00.000+02:00

I found a very cool blog for Girl Techies

Spelling in Google

2005-05-06T01:30:00.000+02:00

Looking at some gorgeous flowers in Paula's blog, I was reminded of a (to me) very exotic tree I saw in New Orleans: crepe myrtle -- or so I thought. It seems the tree is crape myrtle! Or so I found out here:

"The common name of this plant is crape myrtle not crepe myrtle. It is called this because the flowers have crinkly petals that resemble the material called crepe (which according to Webster is a "light crinkled fabric woven of any of various fibers") but many references tell us that you're supposed to spell it crape when it's in front of myrtle. Confused? I think somebody was full of crape when they came up with this name! At any rate, it's a common name and since there's no authority that manages common names for plants you can spell (or call it) whatever you like!"

So let's make it simple:
Lagerstroemia indica is good enough for me.

Or the 'Catawba' variety:

Tild ~

2005-05-06T00:40:00.000+02:00

I got here by chasing up this image.
Originally I think I saw it in the blog of the PMIM's wife .

Tild~ is funny and different. Have a look.

Bycykel i København

2005-05-05T14:58:00.000+02:00

I wanted to praise the great town bikes you take out for free in Copenhagen, against a twenty kroner deposit in a slot --like luggage or supermarket trolleys -- you get it back on returning the bike.

Unlike many cities, København is built for cyclists: special lanes everywhere.

Longshoremen

2005-04-25T14:10:00.000+02:00

Two ways of seeing the shore:
A source of income, a place of work-- my conference was for longshoremen--

or this way, from the hotel in Barra outside Rio:

ORION

2005-04-24T23:12:00.000+02:00

I drafted two blog entries while in Rio, on my balcony overlooking surf crashing, cormorants speeding past over the palm trees, frigate birds sailing high--

and suddenly now, all I can remember is the sun going east to north and setting, never touching the south-- and Orion stretched out right above my head.
It is odd for a Norwegian, being south of the Equator.

More later.

Hecate -- the clean and the true version

2005-04-08T21:39:00.000+02:00

Sure, sure -- that is the hype-- but I googled her:

"Hecate is the Greek goddess of the crossroads. She is most often depicted as having three heads; one of a dog, one of a snake and one of a horse. She is usually seen with two ghost hounds that were said to serve her. Hecate is most often mispercepted as the goddess of witchcraft or evil, but she did some very good things in her time. One such deed was when she rescued Persephone, (Demeter's daughter, the queen of the Underworld and the maiden of spring), from the Underworld. Hecate is said to haunt a three-way crossroad, each of her heads facing in a certain direction. She is said to appear when the ebony moon shines."

Radish King made me do it -- try, you might get to be Aphrodite!

Quiz

Other people's words

2005-04-08T19:16:00.000+02:00

Many days behind me, many days ahead of other people's words.
Through my headset in one language, back through my mike in another.

During the breaks, while my partner in the small, over-heated booth works, eyes glued to speaker's face or searching a text long abandoned, I take a well-earned break, read some poetry, look out at the assembled politicians, trade unionists, business people, NGO members ...
How many times today did I translate 'important', 'agenda', elections'?
Around 60 three-minute interventions yesterday -- nervous, angry, eloquent, stuttering, smiling delegates -- we handle three each, then a ten minute break, sound turned down against ear ache.

I have a feeling Nicole Kidman has a more exciting time than us... Gonna go check it out when the movie is out here.

Quiz for Wingtips

2005-03-27T18:26:00.000+02:00

For Paula, who passed the relay baton to me (Wingtips in my Links):

You're stuck inside Fahrenheit 451, which book do you want to be?
Pattern Recognition by William Gibson -- hunting cool :)

Have you ever had a crush on a fictional character?
Of course. Darcy in Pride and Prejudice.

The last book you bought is:

L'Usage du Monde by Nicholas Bouvier (Swiss travel writer) 1963 -- in a Norwegian translation.

The last book you read:
P. Wentworth: Meurtre a Craddock House. A very silly detective story from 1939, British in a French translation.

What are you currently reading?
The Shipping News by A. Proulx (second reading) and a German detective story from the Mosel River area, by Mischa Martini.

Five books you would take to a deserted island:
1-The Shipping News
2-Pattern Recognition
3- All of Us (Raymond Carver)
4- Segues (William Stafford and Marvin Bell)
5- The October Palace (Jane Hirshfield)

or maybe the chapbooks of my cyber poetry friends, with loving dedications, to feel less alone!

Who are you going to pass this stick to (3 persons) and why? --

Teper Ranger because he likes a challenge

Carol S. because she is a NUN and a true intellectual

Miss New Orleans: Laurie because her father is a professional clown and she is funny.

Bloggers Move Over

2005-03-14T20:48:00.000+01:00

SO-O-O, is it all about wikis now?