between the mountains

As someone who cannot stop watching a Michael Bay film once I've started (Armageddon, I'm looking at you!) I found this hilarious. It is what the title says Michael Bay Eating a Bowl of Cereal.

( slow-mo cereal )

There is this strange Scandinavian tradition to read and watch crime stories during Easter. In fact, the bloodier the better. Why this is I have no idea, but in honour of this morbid tradition have a look at this creepy, wonderful video by Swedish artist Fever Ray.

Fever Ray is the solo debut of Karin Elisabeth Dreijer Anderson, better known as part of the duo The Knife. With Fever Ray she has taken the dark, disturbing bits of The Knife and enhanced it. The video is also something to watch, with its feel of Carl Theodor Dreyer's creepy symbolism meeting the twisted world of David Lynch. Enjoy.
( If I had a Heart )

While in Rome I caught up with one of my friends, and she is currently writing about the Franciscan Monks. She kept insisting that the Franciscans had wholeheartedly adopted popular culture, and since I at first didn't quite believe her she presented proof:



This is the record cover made by by the Community of St. Saviour's Monastery in Jerusalem. (from here)

( Right this way for the Franciscan version of So you think you can dance )

How come I have never seen this before? It combines two things I love - Eddie Izzard and Star Wars. More precisely Darth Vader in the Death Star Canteen.

Its all wonderful, but my favourite part is this:

Darth Vader: "Do you know who I am ?"
Canteener: "Do you know who I am ?"
Darth Vader: "This is not a game of who the f**k are you"

( click for video )

I am still going through this nostalgic tv-show thing. The last thing that has touched my sentimental heart is the tv series based on Astrid Lindgren's book Ronia-The Robber's daughter.



On the night that Ronia was born a thunderstorm was raging over the mountains, such a storm that all the Goblin folk in Matt’s Forest crept back in terror to their holes and hiding places. Only the fierce harpies preferred stormy weather to any other and flew, shrieking and hooting, around the robber’s stronghold on Matt’s Mountain. Their noise disturbed Lovis, who was lying within, prepared to give birth, and she said to Matt, "Drive the hell-harpies away and let me have some quiet. Other wise I can’t hear what I’m singing!"
The fact was that Lovis liked to sing while she was having her baby. It made things easier, she insisted, and the baby would probably be all the jollier if it arrived on earth to the sound of a song. - from the English translation of the book

( this way for the rest of the story, its pictures and music )

Somehow, despite being on a rather tight schedule I’ve managed to finish a few books. Huzzah! Although, by the look of this list, it would probably do me good to read some fiction. ;P

Christopher Tyerman: God’s War – a New History of the Crusades

Tyerman goal is to write a new introduction to the Crusades, one that also could be seen as a more modern version to the classics by Steven Runciman. He gives it a good try, but I’m not sure he succeeds. He writes well, but lacks Runciman’s style - and as introductions go God’s War is a little messy.
While talking about the First Crusade he keeps sliding in sentences like "this law was later changed during Baldwin II". Now this will make sense if you know a little bit about the crusades, but if this is your first introduction I suspect the mention of Baldwin II is a little awkward. Seeing as you’ve just gotten your Bohemond’s and Tancred’s in order and all. (and that is no mean feat! Yes, geeky Crusader humour. Sorry..)

What Tyreman is good at is shedding the light on the economic and political aspects of the world surrounding the Crusades. He has a great analysis of how the cost of siege weapons varied largely dependent on the ease with which one could get hold of timber. In Palestine wood was scarce so siege weapons where expensive. Tyerman argues that the First Crusaders had an advantage since they could use the cheap, European timber that they had shipped to Palestine. Ergo more siege weapons and easier to take cities.

It’s aspects like these that make the book enjoyable, and I would say it is a well written and very interesting book. Just not an introduction.

Christopher Clark: The Iron Kingdom – The Rise and Downfall of Prussia, 1600-1947

This now is a great introduction! Clark follows the history of Prussia from the Brandenburgs to the fall of the Third Reich. He has a great, flowing style – and is often quite funny. The fact that he always makes it quite clear which Friedrich Wilhelm he is talking about is also a plus.

His portrait of Friedrich the Great is wonderful – as he manages to combine the large historical lines with small, personal anecdotes. Did you know that the great Friedrich apparently wrote a poem about orgasm? (Sadly this has been lost.) Or that his father, Friedrich Wilhelm I, once forced a professor to be locked in a lecture hall with several bears, while spectators shot fireworks at the bears? Personally I prefer the one with the poetic inclination.

So in conclusion;I really liked this book and heartily recommend it.

Emma Hartley: Did David Hasselhoff end the Cold War – facts you need to know about Europe.

I bought this in Berlin seeing as it deals with, among other things, a little known part of German history; David Hasselhoff and his part in bringing down the Berlin Wall. His song "I’ve been looking for Freedom" (based on a German song Auf Der Strasse Nach Suden) topped the charts for three months in the summer of 1989. Ten years later Hasselhoff visited Berlin and the Checkpoint Charlie museum and lamented that he was not featured as part of the exhibition "How the Wall came down". He felt his song had inspired the movement. *g*

The book lists other facts as well. The Norwegian fact is "In 1998, the Norwegian Prime Minister announced that he was depressed and took several weeks off work". 'tis true, 'tis true. There is also a chapter called "Finnish food is better than French", "The Twelve Stars on the EU flag are a symbol of the Virgin Mary" and so forth.

Great fun and actually quite interesting despite it's odd chapter titles.

Did this man help bring down the Berlin Wall? Well, he just might have...

( Cut for Hasselhoffian evidence )

I think I might be in love!

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I have a love for the combination of images and music. This might be why I adore the last 15 minutes of Last of the Mohicans so much. There is almost no dialog, and the music and the photo is allowed to take center stage. This love might also be why I really like some music videos. Not all - but every now and again a director comes along who manges to create a personal vision which truly matches the music. Lately I've been very impressed with Danish director Martin de Thurah.


He made the video Human for the Danish band Carpark North.
( Human )

He also made the video to What else is there? by the Norwegians Røyksopp.
( What else is there? )