trick? or treat?

I was sitting in Blitz just a little bit ago, chompin' down a cheap vegan meal. Some haggard old dude comes up and speaks norsk to me. I ask him to switch to english and he says he has a bike he wants to sell for 300 kr. I had been wanting to get a bike here, but after shopping around online I decided I couldn't afford the 1000kr + for used. New in stores around 4000. So I finish my meal and go check it out. Its a nice mountain bike. I note the clip on shoes - a hassle for me - so he drops the price to 250. I take it out of Blitz and ride it for a minute. Feels alright.
I spend several minutes contemplating my ethical dilemma. I have the opportunity to buy a GOOD bike for super cheap. But the bike was clearly stolen and the dude was likely going to use the cash for drugs. He kinda had this nervousness to him, this shaky edge. And he was kinda old and haggard hanging around Blitz...
I decide to pass.

I go in and tell him. He looks pained. "200. 150!"
I pause.

I contemplate. What is one person's price?


My price was 150. What's yours?

nachips

Hmmm, the wolf. My friend definitely said lonely wolf. Perhaps lone wolf would have better established the base of my existence, while lonely defines the emotional world I (usually) inhabit.

My room is on the side of a hill. I can look out my window and see lights from nearby single family homes and god-knows-what in the distance. About a kilometer away is a freeway. Next to it runs the T-Bane line to Kringsja. Every 15 minutes I can see the T-Bane ride by. It is beautiful at night viewed through bare trees, lit cars moving across my window. No leaves left. Sunsets at five. There is occasional snow in outlying parts of the city, but I haven't tasted it yet.

This week I have downloaded and loved music. Against Me!'s latest album, New Wave, is anarcho-punk at its funnest. Meat Puppet's II is just so damn good I can't believe I hadn't heard it yet. I knew a few of their songs from Nirvana covering them for MTV Unplugged, but hadn't heard the band before.

I'm still waiting for a haircut. I look ridiculous and usually wear a hat.

I don't know what I'm gonna do for Halloween. There is a big International Student party. Most folks I know are going. What will I be?
Tempting to go the guerrilla revolutionary look: green shirt and pants w/ hiking boots.

There are many many magpies here. and pigeons. Thats about all the birds I've seen.


where do bad folks go when they die?
they don't go to heaven where the angels fly
they go to the lake of fire and fry
won't see 'em again till the fourth of july

i knew a lady who came from duluth
who got bit by a dog with a rabid tooth
she went to her grave a little too soon
and flew away howling on the yellow moon

where do bad folks go when they die?
they don't go to heaven where the angels fly
they go to the lake of fire and fry
won't see 'em again till the fourth of july

now people cry and people moan
look for a dry place to call their own
try to find some place to rest their bones
before the angels and the devils
fight to make them their own

where do bad folks go when they die?
they don't go to heaven where the angels fly
they go to the lake of fire and fry
won't see 'em again till the fourth of july

update

Well, I can't really explain the reasons for outbursts in the last couple of posts in this public setting. It will have to remain a mystery.

Things seem more or less back to normal now. I have much free time, especially now that I'm not taking norsk. I'm actually friends with a couple of the students now, which is positive for my mental health but occasionally problematic. I am much closer to a couple of my flatmates, especially Isi and Wiebtke.

I've heard about two awesome job openings in the Twin Cities, which is quite hard to hear. HECUA's City Arts TA and a job as coordinator at Jane Addams School. And I've been getting some love at JAS and YF lately.
I still don't actually know if I'll be here next spring. It drives me crazy. Right now there are 4 students expected. I don't know if more will register, the deadline is Nov. 1st. Tim has said he would definitely run the program if 5 register. Four is a weird zone and I don't know what any of it means for next year.

I'm trying to appreciate Oslo again, but it is much more difficult here than in Stockholm or Copenhagen, especially Copenhagen. It is not an easy city to get to know well solo either. It is not easy to break into and become established on your own. My reserved nature around folks I don't know well makes this much more difficult. And this city is so damn expensive that to do anything on the town.

Not much to say. Any questions?

still feelin in

I am feeling very West Bank right now. In touch with my inner anarchist. Wanna hit the Hex and the Seward and NORTH COUNTRY and Luce and Hard Times and Arise and Mayday and Heart of the Beast and CC Club and Triple Rock and Intermedia Arts and MINNEAPOLIS

Punk music and street art and disturbing the paradigm and culture revolution and revolution and fight

Not my revolution if I can't dance

I'm beating my eartrumpet into a megaphone

I got mine here. scandinavia is a radical nexus. but oslo is dull and only the kids are here.

Must fight for it. only way i can do it.

phoenix

photos from prague posted to flickr. monthly quota full.

trip to stockholm and copenhagen with class complete.
highlights:
-Political rally in Norrebro for Ungdomshuset with set by Manu Chao
-Stockholm's KulturHuset and its showing of Martin Parr photos
-Getting in touch with my inner anarchist
-Sweden's Museum of Modern Art
-Hot White Chocolate at Chokladkoppen, a gay-friendly cafe in Stockholm's old town
-Yummy sandwich at Kaffekoppen, next door to above
-Drinks with Tim, including a Left Hand Sawtooth Ale
-Student engagement with our speakers and our course material
-Yummy mochas in Norrebro, with steaming whole milk poured onto a popsicle of chocolate slowly melting in quality espresso
-Living dreams in Tivoli
-Seeing smoldering street barricade and riot police outside Christiania
-Three trips to Christiania
-Two delicious meals at Christiania's vegetarian cafe Morgenstedet
-Accepting the limitations of my situation and refusing the submersing/subverting/sublimating of myself
-A renewed affection for Oslo
-Fall train rides through Sweden
-Meeting some incredible people through class
-Surviving Sweden's U.S. Embassy
-Late night Cheap Red Wine over a 14th floor view
-Two visits to Riz Raz, a cheap and delicious Mediterranean buffet in Copenhagen
-Falafel Stand in Christiania
-Reading Havel's Disturbing the Peace
-Free drinks in Vesterbro
-Tipsy and ineffective communication in French
-Forging friendship
-Survival

ANARCHY

www.ungdomshuset.dk
www.obeygiant.com
www.adbusters.org
www.blitz.no
www.christiania.org
www.dontdoitarmy.com
www.derrickjensen.org
www.banksy.co.uk

in a fightin mood

Turman

Cate sent me a small package recently that included a recent issue of the Minneapolis Observer Quarterly. The MOQ used to be a free monthly but is now a paid quarterly, given as a gift from Cate's folks (thanks Rynda!). I like the rag, even though it makes me feel like an elite liberal. Its very MPR/Garisson Keiler/Kenwood in some ways.

In this most recent issue sent my direction, a Minneapolis based graphic artist, Adam Turman, was featured on the cover with a the above print based on the Gold Medal sign and building. I like Adam Turman, I dig his style. He did the main graphic for last summer's Stone Arch Bridge Festival, and I checked out his work at that fest. I kept him in mind, and a few weeks later saw some of his work at some concert/gallery showing. What stands out for me are his designs based on landmarks in Minneapolis.

He also does a fair amount of work based on voluptous women. I don't like these nearly as much, I find them kind of... pointlessly sexist maybe? (can sexism have a point?) Maybe I'm just bothered because a man is making prints of women that I think are both sexy and art. Am I such a prude as this? The women are as similarly artificial as barbie dolls. It bothers my inner feminist.


Despite these reservations about this part of his work, I still really dig on his stuff. Below are a few favorites of mine, and a couple of new prints that are just outstanding for many reasons.

The above is beloved.

This should hang on many a wall. The only thing that would make this better woulda been tattooed forearms. Ikke sant?

This is one of the best beers I've ever had AND it is from a local company. I've seen it rated one of the best in the world by some of those beer snob websites. And its called fucking Surly Darkness. How bad ass is that?

A different sort of Purple Pride.