Category Art

Music, artwork, poetry…

Feel free to ask

Geir Isene 545 Comments

q

When the traffic gets high, when posts get more than 500 or even a 1000 comments, I am bound to miss questions from my readers.

I want to answer your questions, and to ensure you are not left without an answer, I propose you ask any questions you may have to me as comments to this blog post.

Just add your question as a comment here and I will get back to you with an answer. Ask anything – from my views on life, IT, Scientology, my favorite HP calculator, music, art, preferences in any part of life or whatever else you may have on your mind. Do not hold back. I am not shy.

This post is not an arena for long discussions – or I may again miss some questions buried in long threads. Interesting topics may instead earn separate blog posts.

Renaissance of Midnight Magic and SpaceSynth

Geir Isene 19 Comments

From 1987 till 1990, Stein Halvorsen and I ran the legendary Norwegian weekly radio show “Midnight Magic”. Interactive radio featuring role-playing on the air. After 22 years off the air, we did a comeback just before X-Mas on Pål Hverven‘s radio show “Magic Beat“.

Pål was a big fan of Midnight Magic – both the role-playing and the music we played on the show – Italo Disco, Depeche Mode, SpaceSynth as well as the regular crop of hits. Five years ago, Pål started his own music radio show – the Magic Beat where he mostly plays SpacSynth. An oasis among the run-of-the-mill airings.

SpaceSynth, greatly inspired by Jean Michel Jarre and similar artists, was born in the mid-80’s and served by Koto, Laserdance and their ilk. Around the start of our show, Koto came out with one of my old-time favorites, Dragon’s Legend:

During our comeback a month ago, I rediscovered SpaceSynth – and much to my delight, I discovered that there has been a renaissance of the genre. Lots of new artists such as Galaxion and Resource X had entered the scene – and the scene is more active than ever. And so I have spent the past few weeks listening to tracks like this:

http://youtu.be/Gv7eJvH55ss

this:

and this:

http://youtu.be/8Y5_OZzCZzc

and even Laserdance is delivering new music:

It’s a Renaissance! Oh Joy!

And without further ado, here’s the Midnight Magic comeback:

Midnight Magic comeback 21st December 2012.

You can also get it streamed from Radio Nova (click on the program dated 21.12.2012). I am sure the world didn’t go under because everyone was anticipating our comeback.

It may mark the start of a renaissance for our program. We’ll see if Pål can come up with some time slots for Midnight Magic. If it happens, I will let the readers of this blog know. Perhaps we can do a couple of programs in English as well.

Report from Geir’s

Geir Isene 70 Comments

…space.

I am sitting at Wayne’s Coffee, downtown Oslo preparing an IT course I will hold for a client the day after tomorrow – while I listen to Galaxion.

I could have picked almost any of their tracks. Here’s how I feel right now:

A bunch of rules for happy living

Geir Isene 146 Comments
  1. Get up in the morning
  2. if you feel like it.
  3. Get enough sleep.
  4. Sleep with the right person.
  5. Eat
  6. drink
  7. but not too much of either.
  8. Don’t get drunk all the time.
  9. Play
  10. but not only with yourself.
  11. Laugh your ass off
  12. often
  13. Go bat-shit crazy
  14. now and then
  15. or often.
  16. Challenge the status quo.
  17. Challenge yourself.
  18. Drop the arrogance.
  19. Care.
  20. Get enough sex
  21. but not all the time.
  22. Eat chocolate.
  23. Get a telescope.
  24. Get an HP-41 calculator.
  25. Play with it.
  26. Listen to music.
  27. Get carried away.
  28. Exercise your free will.
  29. Be a rebel.
  30. Make trouble.
  31. Avoid permanent damage.
  32. Swim naked.
  33. Tumble in the snow.
  34. Tell wild fairy tales to the kids.
  35. Lose yourself in their games.
  36. Cry during movies.
  37. Love
  38. lots.
  39. Feel
  40. a lot.
  41. And disregard rules.
  42. Make your own understanding of Life, the Universe and Everything

Amazing person: Brian Culkin

Geir Isene 5 Comments

In this post, I will let Brian himself start off with something really amazing:

And he has a mind to match it.

Brian can do stuff with his body I didn’t think was possible. And the viewpoints he can relate through his writing is crazy and inspiring.

Brian is an adventurer, artist and spiritual thinker. He’s intense and powerful and always able to land on his feet.

With the video above, I think any more writing by me here is superfluous.

5000 reads on Scribd

Geir Isene 4 Comments

I swung by Scribd.com and found that my articles now have a total of more than 5000 reads. That would account for around half the number of total reads of those articles (the rest being read on isene.com and elsewhere). If you haven’t yet looked at the articles, now is the time to nudge you to swing by the same place 😉

Writing articles: Collaboration

Writing articles in collaboration with great people

Reflections and vacation

Geir Isene 38 Comments

Today is July 22nd. It’s been one year since the terrorist attacks in Norway, and in commemoration of those tragic events last year, this day has served our nation well. I am proud of my country. Proud that we answered hatred and intolerance with love and compassion. I am proud of our government, our Prime Minister and our Royal Family. They have been excellent leaders – both in the aftermath of the event, in the past year and in the many ceremonies and events throughout today. They answer the attack on our democracy with more democracy, more openness, more compassion. I am proud to be Norwegian. I love my country and the people who live here.

I went downtown to attend the charity concert outside the City Hall. Many great artists made this an evening to remember. Great and worthy music – from Bjørn Eidsvåg and Vinni to Karpe Diem, Lillebjørn Nilsen and Laleh.



And while speculations went on whether or not he would appear, Bruce Springsteen entered the stage and did a wonderful take on “We shall overcome”. Big as he is, he didn’t overshadow the essence of the concert. With poets reading and with clips of people giving their views and encouragements, it was an event I will remember as long as I live.

A couple of days ago I had the purpose of writing a special thought provoking blog post that should spark some interesting discussions. But I decided to let that blog post wait till after my vacation. I am off without a PC, but will occasionally check in to see that all is well among the contributors here. The blog post I had in mind will be published on August 6th if life doesn’t take a strange turn. I will be having pure fun with my family, sailing and playing with my kids. We will be having a blast.

While I’m at it, let me extend my thanks to all my readers and the contributors on this blog. The past couple of weeks have seen some business on this blog with interesting discussions and exchange of views. I love you all, and I value your viewpoints – the ones I agree with and the ones I disagree with alike. I learn a lot from all of you. I cherish the fact that you help mold my views and I hope I contribute some value in return.

I’m not leaving until Tuesday morning, so I will still be around for another day to answer questions or to participate in the many ongoing discussions. But after Tuesday, don’t count on me to reply to any communication until I’m back.

So, for now; αντίο.

The hunch and the key

Geir Isene 515 Comments

I have a hunch. That the ultimate truth, the secrets of existence, the answers to Life, Universe and Everything is in fact in front of us. Right there, or here, hidden in plain view. For everyone to see and for everyone to understand. That there is perhaps no secret and that the understanding of it all is up for grabs for any and all.

My hunch is further that it would only require a certain attitude, a willingness or idea of what to look for or how to really see what is here, there and all around – the ultimate understanding of it all. I believe the X-factor, the key, the “it” is right there on the table in front of you and me – a metaphor for within our grasp at every moment. My quest is to find that key.

Life. Make it happen.

Geir Isene 12 Comments

Did some more experimenting with music and video, this time also using text-to-speech.

This is a small step toward an idea that Brendan gave me last night; That I should put together lots of quotes from the contributors on my blog, add some crazy music and make that into a video… But there are 20000 comments, so if you can help me out with some golden quotes from this blog – or at least some worthy for a video – then I would be very grateful.

Update: Added another – Drive: