on waffles and revolution

Found at blitz.no

"I began making waffles with 82 men. If I had to do it again, I do it with 10 or 15 and absolute faith. It does not matter how small you are if you have faith and a waffle recipie".
- Fidel Castro

"An ounce of waffles is worth a ton of theory."
- Friedrich Engels

"Anarchism is the revolutionary stock that no one is more qualified than you are to decide how your waffles will be"

”No one in this world can you trust, not men, not pancakes, not beasts. But this (points at the waffle), this you can trust” - Conan's father

”And he also came to know the pleasures of waffles, when he got bred with the finest stock....” - Conan the Barbarian.

"We anarchists do not want to emancipate the waffels; we want the waffels to emancipate themselves." - Errico Malatesta

"If there is a State, then there is domination, and in turn, there is pancakes." -Bakunin

"Lenin is not comparable to any revolutionary figure in history. Revolutionaries have had ideals. Lenin made pancakes." - Peter Kropotkin

"Vladimir Ilyich [Lenin], your concrete actions are completely unworthy of the waffles you pretend to make." - Peter Kropotkin

"Freedom, morality, and the human dignity of the individual consists precisely in this; that he makes waffles not because he is forced to do so, but because he freely conceives it, wants it, and loves it." - Bakunin

"Does it follow that I reject all authority? Perish the thought. In the matter of waffles, I defer to the authority of the waffle-maker." Mikhail A. Bakunin

"And if it were said of us that we're almost romantics, that we're incorrigible idealists, that we think the impossible, then a thousand and one times, we have to answer... WAFFLES! WE MAKE WAFFLES!" Ernesto Che Guevara

DF

Tomorrow there is an election in Denmark. The populist Danish People's Party (Dansk Folkeparti or DF) has released the below as their main campaign ad. This three minute video can teach you a lot about why SUST and DSE tackles immigration in Scandinavia.



I can't translate all of it, but here is the gist.
The Danish People's Party has put Denmark on the right course. But there is a threat. The welfare system can be saved if it is only for those who need welfare. The Danish People's Party will return Denmark to a safe harbor.

Around the 2 minute mark the film gets a little nuts. The film uses images from demonstrations in the UK, from the Danish cartoon controversy, from youth riots over the loss of a youth radical center, and a few other sources.

The Danish People's Party openly admits that it is racist. The party is the third largest in Denmark, though recently has suffered a bit. It generally polls between 12 and 18 % and has arguably been the most influential political party of the last twenty years though it has never been in government.

this is skateboarding

These are worth your time. From the Stereo Sound Agency These clips kinda encapsulate why I think skateboarding is so beautiful: art, music, the streets, people, travel, movement, and of course the fun of it all.









From the Stereo website:

"Founded in ’92 by renowned professional skateboarders and longtime friends Jason Lee and Chris Pastras, Stereo came as a breath of fresh air during a time that many skaters felt that skateboarding had creatively hit rock bottom.

Stereo’s unique and highly innovative approach to skating, with emphasis on style, originality and plain old fashion fun, was quickly embraced by the skateboard community. By incorporating street art, 50s and 60s design, jazz album cover artwork and ideas pulled from early men’s magazines, Stereo has been credited as revolutionizing skateboard graphics, artwork and advertising. The classic Americana styles Stereo produced -- and continues to produce -- carries with it a lightness and humor that promotes individuality and creativity amongst skateboarders of all ages.

As fate would have it, however, Chris and Jason joined forces again in ’03 to re-launch Stereo under Giant Distribution. With a new team of skateboarders and other influential artists, musicians, actors and individuals dubbed Sound Agents, Stereo quickly gained momentum.

In addition to resurrecting Stereo, Jason and Chris continued to advance their personal careers. Jason landed the leading role on NBC's hit sitcom My Name is Earl, and Chris was beginning to establish himself as prominent figure in the contemporary art world, displaying his work at world-famous galleries all across the globe."

The team also includes a former MPLS-head, Clint Peterson, who I have much respects for.

I'm famous, but so is Sheba.

I forgot to mention I got into a newspaper here last weekend. Aftenposten, a centre-right paper and the most popular daily in Norway, runs a weekly person-on-the-street deal. Well, last Thursday as I was walking near the bus station I was approached for it. They asked for a comment on the fact that only one in four parents who are heavily involved in their kid's schools are men. I mentioned something about historical construction of gender roles with the kids education as a woman's purview but how this was also changing in Norway and folks need a more global perspective to understand that one in four is actually pretty good (not to say that it is perfect by any means, still a long way to go!). Regretably, the journalist had to take a photo of me. If you remember, last Thursday was November 1st. Day after Halloween, drinking heavy night before, early morning to get students to homestays, etc. I looked ROUGH.

yup.

A bit of interest for Rooney fammers and visitors to the farm. While I was at the REMA (local grocer) today another shopper was picking up some cat food. Or at least, I assume it was cat food as it had a black cat on the tin. Here is the crazy part: the name of the food was Sheba!
For those not it the know, Sheba is the name of the cat at my mom's farm. My mom named the cat, I always thought is was kinda a strange but cute name that my mom just kinda made up. Damn cat hadn't liked me for years, but after Meenous (Sheba's son) disappeared she became friendlier. The cat has been blind for a few years now and is well aged. I just got kinda freaked out seeing our cat's name on catfood.

crazy.

Also crazy awesome was the Circus World Theatre last night! CWT is connected with HausMania, that lovely anarcho-punk squat/hangout. CWT celebrated its 100 year anniversiry this week with a few shows. Last night Paul and I made it out for about an hour and a half. Sadly we missed the first hour and had to take off before they were done, BUT we still saw some awesome stuff and had a great time. There was a big folk-gypsy band going off. There were comedians, jugglers, dancers, pyros, acrobats, and even a clown. Now, keep in mind this was a radical scene, so this ain't no regular clown makeup kinda circus thing going on. Oh no, this was in the basement of a squatted flat off the river, about 100 people standing or sitting on the floor in a loose semi-circle with some great audience-performer interaction.
Here is a photo from their website promotion of the gig:



Last night was hella hella rad and a highlight of my time here.
It was really unfortunate that I missed part of it! I had to get up early this morning to proctor the TOEFL test weekend I did the same for the GRE. It gives me a few extra kroner in the pocket, but terrible timing.

reverse graffiti in brazil

Find out more.

news of the world (read all about it)

hey hey my my

Allow me to fill in a bit on happenings lately.
Last Thursday SUSTers went out on their regional homestays. They spent a long weekend with a family living in regional Norway. One of the hosts was a woman who I stayed with two years ago, Debbie. She invited me out on Thursday evening for dinner with her two SUSTers and a few friends. She only lives 30 minutes away by train, so it was very possible. And it was very fun! We went hiking for an hour and a half, sat in a sauna, had a nice big meal, engaging in decent convo. Her guests were a bit of the stiff academics, but it was still alright. It was just nice to get out and be cared after, if only for a bit. I took the train home that night.

Last friday I hung out with Knut Erik. It had been about a month, what with all my travels. It was good to hangout, drink some beer and gin, talk about politics and love and music. He lived in Birmingham for a while a couple years ago and has some interesting thoughts about american society and race relations. Just good convo, y'know.

The rest of the weekend was pretty quiet, which I was happy about considering three nights of going around a bit. I was TIRED!

I think the early night is starting to affect me. The sun rises around 8:30 and sets around 4, I would say. My kind mum got me a blue lamp as a going away present. I used it a couple times but have lent it to a student who is in much rougher shape. Looking forward to getting it back in three weeks!

That's right! Three weeks! Thats all thats left in SUST 07. It is an early end, but we began early too. Official last day of class is Wednesday, November 28th. And only two full weeks of class left, really. The semester has flown by. As teachers, we have felt like it has gotten away from us, but we also recognize there has been a lot of growth and learning over the course of the semester. That is all I will comment on publicly, except to say that today was one of our best days, in my opinion, as a class.

Last night I went to a show! It was terrible! Disappointing! I haven't been to too much live music here. There were a few shows that looked good, but I had time conflicts or just never got around to getting tickets. So, last night I went on a limb and went to see Liars. They had gotten a good review on pitchfork. I downloaded their album but didn't care for it much, honestly. still, I hadn't been to a show in a while and there isn't anything else I'm interested in for a few weeks. So I took a chance hoping for the best.
It was bad. Just loud noise without much rhythm. Lead singer was annoying. I went with Paul, and we left early. Even the opener sucked. Very disappointing, but hey, not every show can rock.
In about four weeks there are a couple shows I wanna go to: Mos Def and The National. Hopefully I'll get off my butt and get some tickets!

Off Butt!

DSE, gnome, banksy

A lot has been happening here lately. It is kinda wonderful!

Big news first:
The application deadline for the spring program, Divided States of Europe, has passed. DSE, which was canceled before as summer and spring terms for lack of students, has four students registered for spring 08. HECUA has asked Tim and I to run the program.

Justifications: Programs have been run with few students. Last year SUST ran with 6. Colombia in its first year had 5. Environmental Sustainability has run with 3. If DSE doesn't run this spring and we cancel, the program is dead. period. Many students have expressed interest in DSE for spring 2009, by finally getting the program going we'll build momentum for the future. The Norway site is still in the black, what with 14 students this fall and support from institutional partner the University of Oslo's International Summer School.

Problems: The pedagogy is dependent on participation of students in discussion and in engaging with guests. With four students, this could be damaged especially if we have quiet kids. Inter-group relations are also quite difficult, if any students are outcast by the others it could be an incredibly lonely and difficult semester for them. We want them to have a good time! They're studying abroad! Four students could kill Tim and I as teachers. Tim struggled with six, but the hope is with me around four can be managed. It is also difficult to schedule the high quality of speakers that we get when we only have four students. And since this is the first semester with this program, we don't have established relationships to rely upon. The program also runs a two-week trip to Poland. Field trips are HARD on groups. Two weeks is going to be just brutal no matter what, but with four students it could be a nightmare.

Personally: I want to go ahead with four, if just have another semester teaching. I've learned a lot this semester, if only by making mistakes. I never quite found my footing with this group, and I would be quite upset if this semester was my only experience as a HECUA TA. There would also be the issue of trying to find a job as soon as I got back.

SO: We are planning to go ahead with the program. We are informing the students of the low numbers, with full disclosure in mind. If any students drop out before November 8th, if we go down to three by next wednesday, we will not run.

Okay, thats out of the way.

HALLOWEEN!
It was a blast! We started partying here, us flatmates. Some friends came over, including Sierra who I've barely seen in the last month what with all the travel. We drank plenty of Tullamore Dew. We went to a party on campus hosted by the International Students Union. It was a good time: decently packed with club atmosphere, cheap drinks, and good dancing. Walked home around 1. I went as a garden gnome (Thanks Mo!). Last week my corduroys ripped, so I cut them off into shorts. I wore my olive green shirt and stuck a red cone on my head. No suspenders, but still an excellent amount of goofy. Nobody got it until I told them, and when I did folks either looked confused or said brilliant. Costume culture among the international crowd is different, there isn't the goofiness factor so much as at home.

I've uploaded photos from Halloween online. I've also posted photos of the SUST field trip and some other random parties in Oslo. Lots of photos of me in there. Click here.

Of course Halloween came at a price. I had to get up early the next morning. Students went off on their regional homestays this weekend. I arranged most of it, so I wanted to be there as they left to make sure they made it and there were no problems. Of course, the first train left at 8 am. Of course. But I made it! And all the students made their travels, which was good. During one stretch between departure times I walked down Karl Johans and went to Tronsmo, one of the best bookstores ever.
And I bought something! Banksy's Wall and Piece. YES! YES! YES!

A few of his pieces:
And the above is from a previous post, of course.


Okay, I have more to say about the last few days but I need to go do some actual work.
Shame.