tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-56484213950098091222024-02-19T03:44:34.596+01:00Ran ZenAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05201703871033421254noreply@blogger.comBlogger28125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5648421395009809122.post-32313669657930290652015-04-03T17:19:00.001+02:002015-04-03T17:43:41.213+02:00Donibane Lohitzune<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint-Jean-de-Luz">Donibane Lohitzune</a> (St. Jean de la Luz in French), is a small seaside town in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labourd">Lapurdi</a>, in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Basque_Country">Iparralde</a> (the French part of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basque_Country_%28greater_region%29">Basque Country</a>). Once famous for its corsairs and pirates, it is nowadays more renowned for its nice light, its beach and historical buildings. We dropped by on Easter Thursday, had a fantastic meal at Kaiku and a walk around town, and ended up buying too much <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ossau-Iraty">sheep cheese from Iraty</a> (one of my absolute favourites).<br />
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Erromardia Beach </div>
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Beachfront houses with walkways to the protective barrier.</div>
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Church of St. John the Bishop<br />
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Chocolate-something dessert, Kaiku</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05201703871033421254noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5648421395009809122.post-55876583563499774632015-03-22T12:31:00.004+01:002015-03-22T12:36:53.785+01:00A walk in Ibai-EderIbai-Eder (means "beautiful river" in English) is a water reservoir outside Azpeitia. You can park on the road crossing the dam and walk around the reservoir, like we did. According to the internet, this is 6 km, but in reality it is 8.5. It is a flat and easy walk through some nice forest and we met almost nobody, except many birds, like marsh-tits (<i>Parus palustris</i> / Entita / Caraboñero palustre / Kaskabeltz txiki), bullfinches (<i>Pyrrhula pyrrhula </i>/ Domherre / Camachuelo / Gailupa) and Long-tailed tits (<i>Aegithalos caudatus </i>/ Stjärtmes / Mito / Buztanluze).<br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05201703871033421254noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5648421395009809122.post-86323623170129463942015-03-08T21:02:00.003+01:002015-03-08T21:07:05.862+01:00Food overload Part 2 - Visitng a cider house (sagardotegi)Outside Hernani in Gipuzkoa lies the typical Basque cider house (sagardotegi / cidería) where lots of the awesome cider typical of the region is being produced and drunk every year. We visited and ate a typical sagardotegi menu with cod omelet, cod with peppers and tomato and a huge beef chop, finished off with sheep cheese, membrillo (quince cheese) and walnuts, and washed down with generous amounts, of course, of cider.<br />
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<b>Txotx </b>is the most important tradition and means simply to go and drink the cider straight out of the barrel</div>
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<b>Some of the food</b> </div>
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Another good thing with this place was that it has lots of nice walks nearby, so this we tried out afterwards, to start digesting the pretty heavy meal and the litres of cider..</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05201703871033421254noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5648421395009809122.post-71950362606590631832015-03-07T23:31:00.000+01:002015-03-07T23:32:54.637+01:00Food overload in Donostia with Agur, Limpan and JohannesTjena! At the time of writing, being too full to really commit to any in-depth descriptions, here are some hipster food-shots from a weekend of excess, to be continued tomorrow.<br />
<br />
<b>Places visited: </b><br />
<a href="http://www.zintzirierrota.com/">Zintziri Errota, Bakio</a><br />
Justa, Zumaia<br />
<a href="http://restaurantekokotxa.com/">Kokotxa*, Donostia</a><br />
<a href="http://www.barzeruko.com/">Zeroku, Donostia</a><br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05201703871033421254noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5648421395009809122.post-31565054414160895372013-10-03T10:35:00.002+02:002015-03-18T16:52:55.023+01:00Of pigs, chimps, platypii and men<b><a href="http://phys.org/news/2013-07-human-hybrids-closer-theory-evidence.html">Do we originate from a monkey and pig experimenting with interspecies sex?</a></b><br />
<br />
First I thought this was a silly idea; a thought experiment. Then I read more and realised that it mindboggingly makes sense! Religious people might not like it. Although, another way to look at it is that eating pork is kind of like cannibalism, so perhaps the muslims were right all along!
And just like humans might come from chimp-pig hybrids, platypii are apparently best explained by hybridisation between a bird and an early mammal.<a href="http://nsaunders.wordpress.com/2008/05/08/a-brief-history-of-the-platypus-in-5-parts/"> <b>As, of course, aborigines knew since a long time ago.</b></a>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05201703871033421254noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5648421395009809122.post-28259897613085515712013-01-08T23:28:00.001+01:002013-01-08T23:29:58.054+01:00Cross-cooking part IIIIt is time for an update to my not-so-regular report on global cross-cooking phenomena. After <a href="http://ranzensama.blogspot.no/2008/11/glasgow-international-capital-of-cross.html">haggis pakora in Glasgow</a> and <a href="http://ranzensama.blogspot.no/2011/01/cross-cooking-part-ii.html">dangerous experiments in my own kitchen</a>, the time has come for the Basque country. Just in the middle of the Bay of Biscay, between Europe's finest surfing beaches (south of France and north of Spain), lies Donostia or San Sebastian. Not only is it a beautiful city, to which I am soon moving, but it is also the place with the highest concentration of Michelin stars per capita!<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">One of the best things with this part of the world are the ubiquitous pintxos (the Basque answer to tapas). In one of the fanciest places servi</span>ng pintxos, called <a href="http://www.afuegonegro.com/">A Fuego Negro</a>, they have embraced experimental cross-cooking in an awesome way. The basic recipe is easy:<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>One part Japanese: a small but delicious piece of ground kobe-beef (<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="t_nihongo_kanji" lang="ja">神戸ビーフ)</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small; font-weight: normal;"><span class="t_nihongo_kanji" lang="ja">One part American: let's make a hamburger of it</span></span></span></li>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">
</span></span>
<li><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="t_nihongo_kanji" lang="ja"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">One part Basque<span style="font-size: small;">: it is a miniature, i.e. a pintxo</span></span></span></span></span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="t_nihongo_kanji" lang="ja"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">The result is called Mc Kobe, was brilliant, and can be seen below</span></span>.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="t_nihongo_kanji" lang="ja"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="t_nihongo_kanji" lang="ja">This
was the first time I had eaten kobe beef. For those of you who don't
know, it is a very special Japanese delicacy, made from cows who get to
drink beer during the last weeks of their life, and get hour long daily
massages. This makes them very happy and relaxed cows. And tasty. I
highly recommended it (both the massage and beer parts, but mainly the Mc Kobe).</span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="t_nihongo_kanji" lang="ja"></span></span><br />
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="t_nihongo_kanji" lang="ja"><br /></span></span>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkwR7D9kr2JkVYL6nyqwTR1VSf8lY_VRUSiCcHTqmDe13FNJpymPBMXkd38tx6qi6lFByPax4Vy1T1IMsR3Kirh10EhKsnW9BM3VMy-9rmqK0T5tae_G95e1kIZ3PYcpDG-N9rquaz2Mc/s1600/mckobe2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="241" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkwR7D9kr2JkVYL6nyqwTR1VSf8lY_VRUSiCcHTqmDe13FNJpymPBMXkd38tx6qi6lFByPax4Vy1T1IMsR3Kirh10EhKsnW9BM3VMy-9rmqK0T5tae_G95e1kIZ3PYcpDG-N9rquaz2Mc/s320/mckobe2.jpg" width="320" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibFgMUREDUPDnR93QfHNix7N2bK8zpP3uRHVTZoEd5OfLnX6Ng1cZGt9a9vZwmdT5aK1d8IVHKD39oJsHGRuwxUeigRHaV8kZKby9MMQ_qSyAThS7wWY4dq6N3kzlUQA1hhP2lhw_CG-s/s1600/mckobe1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibFgMUREDUPDnR93QfHNix7N2bK8zpP3uRHVTZoEd5OfLnX6Ng1cZGt9a9vZwmdT5aK1d8IVHKD39oJsHGRuwxUeigRHaV8kZKby9MMQ_qSyAThS7wWY4dq6N3kzlUQA1hhP2lhw_CG-s/s320/mckobe1.jpg" width="240" /></a><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="t_nihongo_kanji" lang="ja"><br /></span></span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05201703871033421254noreply@blogger.com0Donostia, 20005 Donostia-San Sebastián, Gipuzkoa, Spain43.3182663 -1.980644799999936417.796231799999997 -43.289238799999936 68.8403008 39.327949200000063tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5648421395009809122.post-83130672800282899762012-01-30T21:54:00.005+01:002012-01-30T22:14:59.044+01:00Stealing bicycles - Bergen kommune's new strategy for environmental improvment<span class="messageBody" ft="{"type":3}" style="font-size:100%;">Bergen has Europe's most polluted air, due to horrible traffic. So what does the city ("Bergen kommune") do? Cuts up locks and removes people's bikes! Because parking them outside is illegal. So this morning mine and all the street's bikes were gone, some previously decorated with stickers that I had noticed ("varsel om fjerning" / "notice of removal") saying approximately "Illegal parking. Not frequently used, thus junk". Not on <span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">mine</span> though. It had been standing exactly 2 days. It's hard to use your bike every day in the icy winter streets, so I don't see how this makes them junk in either case. I think I will start stealing cars from the people working for the kommune if nobody seems to be using them at the time. Maybe leave a notice a day before on some car nearby.</span><div style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiS9vhQTUMoURtjiCPatOZcWtdfy-YU02K4ouzmL3jPqap3rmZho9GxCRNfJkRlfqPvyixmnKo7LiX63iZ7ftwyjhWaI0OBq2JBAls3shFNuuOlRoZ0-Zu7ndiyEyC__VhYdhvNa_ota_s/s1600/IMG_20120130_214942.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 262px; height: 196px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiS9vhQTUMoURtjiCPatOZcWtdfy-YU02K4ouzmL3jPqap3rmZho9GxCRNfJkRlfqPvyixmnKo7LiX63iZ7ftwyjhWaI0OBq2JBAls3shFNuuOlRoZ0-Zu7ndiyEyC__VhYdhvNa_ota_s/s400/IMG_20120130_214942.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5703533314124771890" border="0" /></a></div><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05201703871033421254noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5648421395009809122.post-70736311446930813952011-05-30T19:39:00.002+02:002011-05-30T19:44:41.537+02:00Report from the BAGECO ConferenceSince yesterday, I am hanging out on the Ionnian island of Corfu in Greece, to take part in the BActerial Genetics and ECOlogy conference (<a href="http://www.bageco11.org/index.asp">BAGECO</a>; not to be confused by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bagheera">Bagheera</a>). I'm very impressed by the quality of the talks and research presented so far. Compared to the last microbiology conference I went to (ISME 2009 in Australia), lots of people are taking advantage of "next-generation" sequencing technologiey and other relatively new, cost-efficient molecular techniques, like custom microarrays (Geochips) and proteomics. The buzzword (or "buzzphrazse") is clearly "integrated -omics approach", which usually means to combine metagenomics, metatranscriptomics, metaproteomics and metabolomics (i.e. sequencing of genomic DNA, reverse-transcribed RNA, MS-based proteomic analysis and screening for metabolic products.) I don't know if I like the term "integrated -omics" since it is not very descriptive; "Integrated analysis" or something would be better, but that is another topic, perhaps for Johnatan Eisen to discuss on his very entertaining "Worst omics word award" section of <a href="http://phylogenomics.blogspot.com/">his blog</a>. Anyway, the combination is really useful and can provide a more holistic picture of microbial communities. Some examples of really interesting talks:<br /><br />- Maria Westerholm, from the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences: "Molecular Approaches to detect and quantify syntrophic acetate-oxisizing bacteria in biogas digesters". Very clever study to improve the efficency of metanotrophic biogas reactors.<br /><br />- Giovanni Pilloni from the Helmholtz Center for Environmental Health in Germany: "Degrader community response to hydraulic disturbance in a tar-oil contaminated aquifier". Cleverly, TFRLP fingerprinting with replication was used to confirm the predictions made using pyrosequencing.<br /><br />- Pedro Soares-Castro, from the University of Minho, Portugal: "Towards the metabolomic engineering of myrcene pathway of Pseudomonas sp. M1 using an integrated -omic approach". Genome sequencing, transcriptomics and metabolomics combined in a clever way.<br /><br />- Gavin Lear, from the Lincoln University in New Zealand: "Bacteria as sentinels of freshwater ecological health: An exploration of the relationships between antropogenic impacts and bacterial biodiversity in freshwater streams".Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05201703871033421254noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5648421395009809122.post-10584761097251914682011-05-23T15:21:00.004+02:002011-05-23T15:25:27.534+02:00Weather report<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgN_7uw6rSFJU1J4nDCcH9WWEUOKHE8S9L9pwnyG4vtAxeC8dFsEtNU8HzOX59U-blQxqmjAbUG4dOg3ySrSfq1W0M4Q9BdmAG_Jw4_HryQ0yLxR6wqyva7pxWIjp6ySuVvE8c4Oi8J6RY/s1600/mordor.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 395px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgN_7uw6rSFJU1J4nDCcH9WWEUOKHE8S9L9pwnyG4vtAxeC8dFsEtNU8HzOX59U-blQxqmjAbUG4dOg3ySrSfq1W0M4Q9BdmAG_Jw4_HryQ0yLxR6wqyva7pxWIjp6ySuVvE8c4Oi8J6RY/s400/mordor.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5609901818494096178" border="0" /></a><br /><br />This has, seriously, got to be the shittiest May ever recorded in known history. At least weather-wise.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05201703871033421254noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5648421395009809122.post-21101736403883782912011-05-04T22:13:00.006+02:002011-05-05T09:11:30.212+02:00Eguzkilore<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/lanzen/5686551561/in/photostream/"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 182px; height: 240px;" src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5222/5686551561_a702874aab_m.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a>These "sunflowers" (that really are a kind of thistles) hung to the door or wall of a house are a very common sign in the Basque Country and protect against evil spirits.<br /><br />According to legend, many thousands of years ago when men began to populate the Earth, it was very dark as neither the sun nor the moon existed. In this constant darkness, people were scared of the many sorcerers and witches who came from the bowels of the Earth in the shapes of bulls made of fire, huge dragons, flying horses, lamia (a kind of mermaids with birds legs) etc.<br /><br />Desperate, the people decided to ask for help from Mother Earth (Amalur):<br /><br />- Amalur, we beg you to protect us from the dangers that surround us!<br /><br />But Mother Earth was very busy and ignored the humans at first. However, they were so persistent that eventually she responded:<br /><br />- My sons, you ask me to help you and that I will. I will create a luminous being that will be called the Moon.<br /><br />And Mother Earth created the moon.<br /><br />At first, the men were terrified and stayed in their caves not daring go outside, but slowly they got used to it. But like the people, the sorcerers and witches who were also afraid at first to see the bright object in the sky, got used to it also and soon started to harass the humans again.<br /><br />Once again, the humans came to Mother Earth asking for help:<br /><br />- Amalur, we are very grateful that you have given us the moon but we still need something more powerful because the sorcerers never cease to haunt us.<br /><br />- Okay, I will create an brighter thing, that will be called the Sun. The Sun will be the day and the Moon the night.<br /><br />And Amalur created the sun. It was so big, bright and hot that the people had to get used to it little by little, but their joy was great because thanks to heat and sunlight, colourful plants and fruit trees soon grew up around them and the hills turned green. More importantly, the sorcerers and witches could not get used to the daylight. However, they still harassed the people in the night, so once again the humans had no choice but to ask Mother Earth for help:<br /><br />- Amalur, we are very grateful that you have given us the Sun and the Moon, but we need something more, to protect us during the night.<br /><br />Amalur answered:<br /><br />- I will help you again. I will create a flower for you, so beautiful, that seeing her, the creatures of the night will think that it is the sun itself.<br /><br />And Mother Earth created the Eguzkilore, which to this day defend our homes from evil spirits, witches, Lamia, sorcerers of disease, storms and lightning.<br /><br />Thanks, Agurtxu and <a href="http://mitologiavasca-itsas.blogspot.com/" rel="nofollow">Itsas</a> for sharing this beautiful legend!Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05201703871033421254noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5648421395009809122.post-9223690338244137582011-04-08T18:01:00.008+02:002011-04-08T18:39:03.196+02:00From Ethiopia to Oslo with coffee, water samples and a sun burn<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/lanzen/sets/72157626352187676/">-->Photos on Flickr</a><br /><br />I am sitting in an overcrowded Gardermoen and waiting for my flight to take me and my six kilos Ethiopian coffee back to Bergen, after some 15 days of roaming around. The second half of that was not very exotic but spent teaching in a <a href="http://www.uio.no/studier/emner/matnat/biologi/BIO9905MERG1/index.xml">metagenomics course</a> in the University of Oslo. Good for inspiration and work though. Also had good cod at <a href="http://www.lofotstua.no/">Lofotstua</a>. I can recommend it.<br /><br />Anyway, the first half was more exciting. I've been down in the ancient kingdom of Ethiopia (3,000 years old, they reckon) to take some samples from <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rift_Valley_lakes">alkaline soda lakes</a> in the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Rift_Valley">Rift Valley</a>. This is pretty interesting for a number of reasons. First of all, they are really alkalic and yet with a very high microbial biodiversity, as opposed to many other "extreme environments". Also, they don't taste so nice. I accidentally had some from one of them and now I feel sorry for the poor flamingos who live off their cyanobacteria.<br /><br />Also, it's interesting because it is the first time I ever do any kind of field work, being in bioinformatics and usually not allowed into the secret world of real biologists that cannot be viewed through a computer screen. It was fun, but it's tough work filtering litres of salty brown lake water with a handpump in 30 degrees heat, surrounded by locals and kids and sometimes thousands of ants. They were really nice and helpful but sometimes in the way when they were sitting more or less on top of our equipment offering to help out or just curiously watching what kind of crazy stuff we were doing. And what we were doing would have looked crazy to most people, even those with television and a grasp about modern science. Probably also to other biologists. Anyway, <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/lanzen/sets/72157626352187676/">enjoy the photos.</a>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05201703871033421254noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5648421395009809122.post-49576750797096304182011-02-22T08:46:00.004+01:002011-02-22T08:57:24.497+01:00Toilet paper poetryI unsuspectingly bought toilet paper from <a href="http://www.lambi.com/se">Lambi</a> and found it covered in hundreds of metres of love poems, written in Swedish, Norwegian and Danish. Amazing concept! But I can't help but feel strange to wipe my ass with somebody's creative and romantic work just because I paid for it. Does that say something about the core of the problem with copyright or am I just obsessed?.. :)<br /><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVa4L1oZNKR9PDnVIKDCmsuX2ii99Hmk65vel1dMp6mo5b7g49vhGhhO9Pn2UzxhQPILxRcC0fCwhrSyonT0y5TBxQfFjpQn2r9NO8Wj5ZqwelJ1jESjfsIvAuXfZsbsMqFvsnt_mqFmk/s1600/Foto_0062.jpeg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 228px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVa4L1oZNKR9PDnVIKDCmsuX2ii99Hmk65vel1dMp6mo5b7g49vhGhhO9Pn2UzxhQPILxRcC0fCwhrSyonT0y5TBxQfFjpQn2r9NO8Wj5ZqwelJ1jESjfsIvAuXfZsbsMqFvsnt_mqFmk/s320/Foto_0062.jpeg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5576418918338535122" border="0" /></a>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05201703871033421254noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5648421395009809122.post-83872070283113946062011-01-16T13:25:00.009+01:002011-01-16T14:19:46.962+01:00Cross-cooking Part II<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJotKNF0RhDNowlU_54wyuxqnTfaGW3HYtObdXeyeJB23mg2rDv16fQZdpmGiSPYUvign4pw73SwpwXPCcedU4zJyaLVhIZt9nh-ScEm2zxUTbOUPrnyQ1BXPC5n2fHqra_6sx-x-FkmY/s1600/IMG_8170_morcilla.jpg"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 287px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJotKNF0RhDNowlU_54wyuxqnTfaGW3HYtObdXeyeJB23mg2rDv16fQZdpmGiSPYUvign4pw73SwpwXPCcedU4zJyaLVhIZt9nh-ScEm2zxUTbOUPrnyQ1BXPC5n2fHqra_6sx-x-FkmY/s320/IMG_8170_morcilla.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5562760384284775938" border="0" /></a>I have <a href="http://ranzensama.blogspot.com/2008/11/glasgow-international-capital-of-cross.html">written earlier about the fantastic dish haggis pakora</a> from Glasgow and inspired by this Indian-Scottish cross-cooking I did experiments at home. I am less brave, though, so I have only been trying South-European - Scandinavian combinations.<br /><br />First up (depicted here) is the famous Iberian morcilla along with potato omelette (tortilla). Morcilla is an Iberian blood-sausage quite similar, but typically superior to, its Swedish cousin the blodpudding. Morcilla contains rice or vegetables whereas <a href="http://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blodpudding">blodpudding</a> contains flour and the best ones come from Burgos or Etxarri Aranatz. This one was was from Burgos.<br /><br />Normally you serve morcilla with beans but sometimes like here with tortilla and tomato sauce. My hypothesis was that it would be even better with lingonsylt (lingonberry jam or "tyttebærsyltetøy" as they say here in Norway; the lingonsylt test area is located in the slightly out-of-focus back of the green plate). I think it was damn good but it was even better with tomato sauce, so this was a negative result. Unable to publish it in a peer-reviewed journal I thus put it here on my blog.<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTjJpXIzI4WrLSkF0suJSflJd6xYgcQsMGBgpD5a7kzFas3eUUnFstbwyqNr7AF2RrBYjuwHK6Bsgcb9tqKcAzGcO3IkqFSP0XyOB-iF-dhSjNKZkRz_RHvHNmR9_nsbl_BUINS2OC3nQ/s1600/IMG_8170_morcilla.jpg"><br /></a><div style="text-align: left;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTjJpXIzI4WrLSkF0suJSflJd6xYgcQsMGBgpD5a7kzFas3eUUnFstbwyqNr7AF2RrBYjuwHK6Bsgcb9tqKcAzGcO3IkqFSP0XyOB-iF-dhSjNKZkRz_RHvHNmR9_nsbl_BUINS2OC3nQ/s1600/IMG_8170_morcilla.jpg"><br /></a><br /></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05201703871033421254noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5648421395009809122.post-43953995526847490672010-11-12T11:19:00.004+01:002010-11-12T11:30:58.705+01:00A random historical fact about VeniceI came back from a short vacation in Venice and Trieste the other week and took a lot of photos ~500) that I have just started to go through. Some can be found <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/lanzen/sets/72157625329892200/">on my Flickr account</a>. This completely random one shows a Truth Mouth or Lion's Mouth, which I thought was quite a funny concept.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/lanzen/5169055704/"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4006/5169055704_f0e8cc0435.jpg" /></a><br /><br />There were a number of these spread out over Venice, before Napoleon came and removed them along with the old judicial system. They were used for denouncing other citizens by placing a signed note inside reporting a committed crime. Behind is a kind of mail box emptied by officials. The case would then be tried and if the accused was found guilty, the reporter would be rewarded. If found not guilty, the reporter would be punished instead, with the same punishment as the accused would have gotten. This special Lion's mouth (without the lion motive) inside the Doge's Palace was to be used against corruption or tax evasion amongst politicians or officials of the Republic.<br /><br />The text apparently says: "Put down here your Secrets, against those who oppressed you, freely and officially. Have faith, for those who hide the truth will answer for it."Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05201703871033421254noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5648421395009809122.post-8604486478529836042010-10-21T09:05:00.004+02:002010-10-21T12:15:57.213+02:00Saker det är dags för1) Dags för <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/lanzen/5101197067/">den första snön i Bergen</a>. Annars upplevde jag vinterns första <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/lanzen/sets/72157624554915004/with/4901276150/">redan i slutet av augusti på Svalbard</a>.<br /><br />2) Mer än dags för att skriva nytt blog-inlägg, vilket är just vad jag gör. Ju.<br /><br />3) Tydligen är det dags för <a href="http://www.engadget.com/2010/10/20/os-x-10-7-lion-announced/">nytt OS från Apple</a>. Jag tyckte att Snow Leopard, som för övrigt måste vara världens i särklass coolaste kattdjur, kom ut alldeles nyss, men nu är det alltså Lion som gäller. Det ska ta den fantastiska funktionaliteten från iPhone, iPod, iPad och alla andra iPrylar till riktiga datamaskiner. Med tanke på hur min iPod Touch funkar så undrar jag om det inte vore bättre tvärtom, men jag måste nog läsa på lite mer.<br /><br />4) Dags för <a href="http://www.biff.no">Bergen Internationella FilmFestival</a>, eller BIFF. Ikväll är det dags för en film om legenden och profeten <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_hicks">Bill Hicks</a> liv. Ett liv som tyvärr blev alldeles för kort. Han dog i exakt den ålder jag är nu; 33. Den filmen ska jag se. <a href="http://www.americanthemovie.com/">Se trailern</a> och gå och se den du med, om du kan.<br /><br />English translation:<br /><br />The time has come for a lot of stuff:<br />1) The first snow over Bergen<br />2) For me to write a blog post<br />3) For a new OS from Apple. This time called OSX Lion - bringing the fantastic functionality of the iPod to your laptop. Hmm.<br />4) For Bergen International Film Festival, tonight featuring <a href="http://www.americanthemovie.com/">a film on Bill Hicks</a>, the legend, prophet and all around really funny guy who died much too young in 1994. It should not be missed.<br /><br />Cheers,<br />Anders<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/lanzen/5101197067/"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 333px; height: 500px;" src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1361/5101197067_77599703f8.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05201703871033421254noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5648421395009809122.post-6044396946981500092010-03-14T18:54:00.004+01:002010-03-14T19:02:46.611+01:00Cuisine NorvegienneAs explained by Black Debbath: <a href="http://open.spotify.com/track/26uSPrLQFLdpTz2biEa0Hv">http://open.spotify.com/track/26uSPrLQFLdpTz2biEa0Hv</a> (requires Spotify).<br /><br />As examplified by a recipe:<a href="http://www.vg.no/mat-og-drikke/oppskrift/oppskrift.php?id=3040"> http://www.vg.no/mat-og-drikke/oppskrift/oppskrift.php?id=3040</a><br /><br /><div style="text-align: left;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos-g.ak.fbcdn.net/photos-ak-sf2p/v99/190/72/619281579/n619281579_138062_7625.jpg"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 604px; height: 453px;" src="http://photos-g.ak.fbcdn.net/photos-ak-sf2p/v99/190/72/619281579/n619281579_138062_7625.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05201703871033421254noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5648421395009809122.post-46501755968451490312009-07-05T20:47:00.006+02:002009-07-05T21:28:49.231+02:00Bali and Malaysia, part 4<span style="font-weight: bold;"><br />Day 11: Durians</span><br /><br /><a style="font-weight: bold;" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhljTgLqaP_DnoP0Z40nOxIVqlcfC4PTyEYGSqFR_aw2_Iviruuz2Bsk89_jY64NKZ7N9awkM02SHFP-UrtvUM_TOrHXu8cvokpEyB1U8OAmJ1RIICpN_Udfuk65EAwPqwq3ly0mydTkPA/s1600-h/IMG_3881.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 213px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhljTgLqaP_DnoP0Z40nOxIVqlcfC4PTyEYGSqFR_aw2_Iviruuz2Bsk89_jY64NKZ7N9awkM02SHFP-UrtvUM_TOrHXu8cvokpEyB1U8OAmJ1RIICpN_Udfuk65EAwPqwq3ly0mydTkPA/s320/IMG_3881.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5355059077324147794" border="0" /></a>Tired from last night, we wander about the world's largest bird park in KL's Lake Gardens and later the Museum of Islamic Arts. Although the Lebanese lunch buffet is clearly the highlight of the museum, the exhibition is quite impressive and interesting. I was especially impressed by the collection of Arabian calligraphy in different styles and from different times and places.<br /><br />We go back to the same place for dinner where I am offered a piece of disgusting <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Durian">Durian</a>. I can no longer contain my curiosity, so against better knowledge I try it. It is quite an interesting taste sensation. I would say that the base taste is very close to onions that have spent about a year rotting in the bottom of a much too humid fridge, but there are other elements in there too. It also tastes of honey, almonds and cream. It would taste quite nice if it wasn't for the overpoweringly disgusting taste of rotten onions. I think you have to be insane to enjoy this horrible fruit. That almost the entire Malaysian population seem to not only enjoy it, but to love it, and to eat kilos of it every day during the season, makes me feel a little uneasy about being in this country. Apart from obviously being complete maniacs, the people are really friendly and relaxed here though.<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Day 12: KL to Perhentian Kecil</span><br /><br />I get up very early and spend the day flying to Kota Bharu in the North East of the Malaysian penninsula and then moving on to the small island (Kecil) of the Perhentians. It's a small tropical island without cars or big hotels, that reminds me of the way <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gili_Trawangan">Gili Trawangan</a> was ten years ago.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Day 13: Temple of the Sea</span><br /><br />I join the morning dive for the famous dive spot Temple of the Sea, which is a big coral boomie. We don't get to see the whale shark that was spotted outside the Perhentians just a day ago, but it is a fantastic dive nonetheless. The visibility is possibly the best I have ever seen. We could easily see the bottom 20 metres below where the boat stopped for us to jump in. There's lots of fish and stuff to, like black anemone fish, boxfish, angelfish, groupers, batfish, squid, huge pufferfish and a very well camouflaged scorpion fish.<br /><br />In the afternoon I walk to the wind- and solar powerplant that lies on top of a hill in the North of the island. From the powerplant, where the view of the island is great, there is a huge staircase zig-zagging down to a jetty next below so I walk down and dive in for a nice swim. I meet a French guy there who is staying at the hostel D'lagoon that lies nearby, totally isolated from the rest of the island. It seems like a really good place and if I ever come back that is where I will stay.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGRGLbxmtbjOx3BdD3qLsvnzt-7J2JB6dmtmdLJcg8G1A11wFcdao-dSYUPbHopw83wPyUzJX6zWak9pG-o39q41GsLZKodc0L2bv7b293X2R67fuRpzKjYYj3Gg1sQr69TfE0v490CN8/s1600-h/IMG_3949.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 210px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGRGLbxmtbjOx3BdD3qLsvnzt-7J2JB6dmtmdLJcg8G1A11wFcdao-dSYUPbHopw83wPyUzJX6zWak9pG-o39q41GsLZKodc0L2bv7b293X2R67fuRpzKjYYj3Gg1sQr69TfE0v490CN8/s320/IMG_3949.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5355059369396061858" border="0" /></a>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05201703871033421254noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5648421395009809122.post-43020965673651409822009-07-02T22:24:00.004+02:002009-07-02T23:59:11.924+02:00Bali and Malaysia, part 3<span style="font-weight: bold;">Day 6: Surfing and fever<br /></span><br />Klaus leaves for Sydney and I head down to the beach and rent a surfboard. The surf is quite bad, probably no more than 3 ft, but I have some fun. In the evening I don't have so much I am attacked by some kind of evil mix of fever and sunstroke. Later, I realise that I have caught some stomach bug and I spend the next two days being sick.<span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /><br /><br />Day 9: KL<br /></span><br />I wake up feeling hungry. What a great feeling! The rest of the day is pretty much spent booking, taking and leaving our flight from Bali to Kuala Lumpur, where we arrive sometime after 10 pm. Lucky for us, this is surely not too late for a meal, but the middle of prime time of KL's brilliant night markets. One of the biggest turn out to be only a few hundred metres from our<span style="font-weight: bold;"> </span>hostel. Our hostel, called "Classic Inn Budget Hotel" or some generic name like that, turns out to be a brilliant place as well; really friendly staff and a great place to meet fellow travellers. Anyway, the night market is a fantastic and chaotic sight. A thick swarm of people are walking around or stitting down eating at simple plastic tables covering most of a wide street lined with a swarm of open air restaurants where another swarm of people are frying crabs, frogs, chickens and noodles and about a hundred other things. All of this exists in a beautiful and chaotic mess. As for the smells, the mix is even more beautifully messy, if possible. The smell of roast chicken, fish and fried <span style="font-weight: bold;"></span>spices is mixed with that of exhaust fumes and the rotten smell of those disgusting <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Durian">durian</a> fruits.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Day 10: Drifting around in KL<br /></span><br />During the impressive hostel breakfast I make aquaintances with Alberto the Mexican and Scottish Chris. This duo, who are in fact having their last couple of beers as I eat my breakfast, is quite entertaining and we have a long talk about diving, Scottish rock groups and whether it is a good idea to sneak into <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petronas_Twin_Towers">Petronas Twin Towers</a> impersonating a mysterious Mr. White and his photographer, as Alberto suggests. The reson for this idea is that we are much too late to grab one of the few daily tickets to go up to the viewing deck of the towers' bridge, issued at 8.30 each morning. Me and Ali decide against it, in favour of just heading up the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuala_Lumpur_Tower">KL Tower</a>.<br /><br />Having consumed the view of the city from the KL Tower, we drift around Little India, the Colonial Quarters and Chinatown. However, we move at a snail pace and have to stop several times to cool down from the tormential sun. The first stop is in great Indian vegetarian restaurant where we are served way too much food on pieces of banana leaf, to be eaten with the right hand. The second stop is in some famous mosque, the third is the most desperate one where we run straing in to the first open building nearby that turns out to be a library, and the fourth is in the not-so-special Central Market.<br /><br />A strange event occurs to us on our way home. A woman of heavy stature, possibly transvestite, stops her car and offers a ride, wavinve wildly and tells us to get in. We decline and walk on. When we over an hour later get out of the monorail station and cross the street heading for ou hostel, the very same woman drives by and honks her horn desperately, but this time she cannot stop. This mildly mysterious event was never explained, but it scared Ali frightfully for reasons that I do not fully understand. He tells me that he still has reoccuring nightmares about it, but hopefully he will recover one day and look back at this day as a happy one.<br /><br />Anyway, in the evening we head back to the same night market for dinner, together with Alberto and Scott the Aussie. After feasting on crab, <a href="http://www.travelblog.org/Photos/2731985.html">chicken fish</a> and different stir fries, washed down with generous amounts of Tiger beer and coconuts with rum, we hit the town, or more precisely some place called the Beach Bar, where Jack Sparrow works as a bartender. By this I mean the actual Jack Sparrow and not just <a href="http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/photo.php?pid=2012774&id=619281579">some guy dressed up like him.</a><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNuqIQmDC4S0OmPFP4x7lAimZdLwHAf7sRtLi0VbgPQHvwEx6INocM_jxELwmQKRPg9NrWmlu0kafvBX8bM_wgCaizd33ructMsGRg9C2lc27IBRSLH6VlVdb4QP02z8ImYjoCG1oIDUs/s1600-h/IMG_3889.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 214px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNuqIQmDC4S0OmPFP4x7lAimZdLwHAf7sRtLi0VbgPQHvwEx6INocM_jxELwmQKRPg9NrWmlu0kafvBX8bM_wgCaizd33ructMsGRg9C2lc27IBRSLH6VlVdb4QP02z8ImYjoCG1oIDUs/s320/IMG_3889.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5353985494765420674" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjq9YQR1mp4-QGzA3YJOhBcA1Cb-zn21d47PN6YV5J55Shivamr-doHEbvOWn8B2nGa2jarDpdeLr6Biafr5-7ivjwOZ565iUWIJsjOaXF07EfOd5tzaGELv-So5CHw7a0tPDPZ6x7ZhPg/s1600-h/IMG_3891.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 181px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjq9YQR1mp4-QGzA3YJOhBcA1Cb-zn21d47PN6YV5J55Shivamr-doHEbvOWn8B2nGa2jarDpdeLr6Biafr5-7ivjwOZ565iUWIJsjOaXF07EfOd5tzaGELv-So5CHw7a0tPDPZ6x7ZhPg/s320/IMG_3891.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5353985682202321730" border="0" /></a>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05201703871033421254noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5648421395009809122.post-36717526185748748172009-06-29T13:47:00.006+02:002009-06-29T14:12:25.844+02:00<span style="font-weight: bold;">Day 3: Diving at Nusa Penida</span><br /><br />In the early morning, we hop on a boat with Klaus’s old diving colleague Peter, who is working for Tauch Terminal, which I can warmly recommend to anyone who wants to dive in Bali. After just 20 minutes of high speed pursuit off we reach a really good dive site off the coast outside the small island of Nusa Penida. This island used to be like a penal colony, where the old Balinese kingdom put many of their troublemakers and criminals, kind of like the Balinese version of Australia.<br /><br />The first dive is completely brilliant, following quite a strong drift over almost a kilometre of a continuous colourful coral reef. The second one has much less current and I have time to have a look at some anemone fish and crazily coloured nudibranches. After the dives we spend the afternoon snorkelling on the Blue Lagoon again and then we head for Tulamben for the night. However, we only get as far as Candidasa which is a small and quite beautiful tourist resort some 15 minutes away. However, the beach is destroyed by concrete wave breakers since the previous natural wave breakers in the shape of coral reefs all have been destroyed by dynamite fishing. In the evening we eat a luxury dinner and watch a solitary Balinese folk dancer. She seems very bored and asks basically everybody to join her on stage in order to stand and look ridiculous next to her, which almost seems like an insult to the fine art of Balinese dancing to me. After a lot of insisting I join her for 10 minutes though. Nobody else dares to..<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8JJSgTGPYdqwDrHQcDPa7kXx-2uIfdmVcikZfGdE4PUKNDTRVncueaJAnTp4P63f_4AhZYYt48ZhKa2hyQ2gpDVlXfQlBkbMWrvIWYNO8Dv7whQcpXUroGMi-LVoG7vXGcfqqpk9lxYI/s1600-h/IMG_3578.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 212px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8JJSgTGPYdqwDrHQcDPa7kXx-2uIfdmVcikZfGdE4PUKNDTRVncueaJAnTp4P63f_4AhZYYt48ZhKa2hyQ2gpDVlXfQlBkbMWrvIWYNO8Dv7whQcpXUroGMi-LVoG7vXGcfqqpk9lxYI/s320/IMG_3578.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5352719752852826722" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Day 4: Gunung Batur and Beduguhl</span><br /><br />After the first sleep-in of the trip we head to the small but touristy village on the outer crater rim of Gunung Batur; Bali’s second-most holy mountain. The volcano looks really impressive from there and we can see the fresh black lava from the latest eruption in 2006 that destroyed several homes and all the roads leading up to the inner volcano itself. After lunch we bravely chose to take a road that is dashed in the map we are using, from the 1998 edition of Lonely Planet. At first the road is great and we think that a lot has happened with the infrastructure in the last ten years, which is true, but after an hour or so it is obvious why the road was dashed. Several hours on pot-holy dirt tracks later we reach Beduguhl; a popular lakeside weekend resort for Balinese people.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Day 5: The Conquering of Gunung Catur</span><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_jXqEVdMtWlk6jmKk5-wAZjHtAzjRl6RkDHfQIhK1NEsYwLvjVQjiOHka4C6tJQk82AqJohXGgKuMpxDzpkCd6CRIFudTGu5HLUN6b5B2b5k5fFwGOQPh78wFf6Pce9KRa88BjKxyShk/s1600-h/IMG_3780.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 214px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_jXqEVdMtWlk6jmKk5-wAZjHtAzjRl6RkDHfQIhK1NEsYwLvjVQjiOHka4C6tJQk82AqJohXGgKuMpxDzpkCd6CRIFudTGu5HLUN6b5B2b5k5fFwGOQPh78wFf6Pce9KRa88BjKxyShk/s320/IMG_3780.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5352720214326319138" border="0" /></a><br />After an early breakfast we head up the 2,200 m tall volcano Gunung Catur together with Anna from Atlanta, that we met on the hostel (no relation to Hannah Montana, or so she claims). We almost get lost but some school kids send us off in the right direction. Later it turns out they are just three of probably a hundred kids from a Denpasar school on a class trip, climbing the mountain together with us. We finally make it to the top and are rewarded by a feeling of grand achievement, but not, however, a view. One has to be up there at sunrise to see anything but white clouds over the lake below.<br /><br />In the afternoon we slowly head back to Kuta through some incredibly dense traffic jams. We have dinner in a fantastic yet really cheap Chinese restaurant in Denpasar together with Peter and his family and then spend the evening in Kuta sampling different bartenders’ imaginative interpretations of advanced cocktails and dancing at the Bounty nightclub with the normal clientele of drunken Aussies.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05201703871033421254noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5648421395009809122.post-38659864554572342862009-06-23T14:54:00.006+02:002009-06-24T18:20:25.763+02:00Bali & Malaysia part 1<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9_0f9qDDgqibtdP0HVTeogyWxEmXDG81KhCSqGlb4xeGNAuBgtKurIEixxHFAnqbVn7Rbq21juwhYYqCiWeDexv0XCGQQNJqieE5Fl0-3vMmjE71qyH9NK2R-3lmEqb0qgFzqCDZ6u8E/s1600-h/snorkelling1"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9_0f9qDDgqibtdP0HVTeogyWxEmXDG81KhCSqGlb4xeGNAuBgtKurIEixxHFAnqbVn7Rbq21juwhYYqCiWeDexv0XCGQQNJqieE5Fl0-3vMmjE71qyH9NK2R-3lmEqb0qgFzqCDZ6u8E/s320/snorkelling1" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5350929123397532306" border="0" /></a>After two fantastic weeks in Bali and Malaysia, I am now in Kuala Lumpur International Airport, waiting for my flight to take me back home to Norway. I've written a kind of travel diary and I thought I should post it here in parts, so more will follow..<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Day 0: Arrival (7 June 2009)<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span></span></span>After a long and complicated series of flights (to utilise the super cheap tickets from London) I finally arrive late in the evening in Kuta, Bali, where my old friend Klaus is waiting. Klaus's friend Ali is also travelling with us and they have already spent two days on Bali when I arrive.<br /><br />Kuta is pretty much the same as I remember it from last time I was there, ten years ago. It's full of drunk Australians and Western franchising stores (The Mc Donalds logo hovers over the view from the beach at night). The only exception is that mine and Linus's old hangout Sari Club no longer exists, since it was blown up by fundamentalists in 2002, taking 200 lives with it into the grave. Anyway, I don't mean to sound melancholic; it is really good to be back!<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Day 1: Padangbai<br /></span>After breakfast we head out of Kuta and Denpasar's traffic chaos with Klaus behind the wheel of our rented Toyota, in true Balinese rally stile. In Padangbai we check in to the simple but very cosy Sidha Karya homestay and discover that Klaus's old visit in 2002 is still in the guest book. They haven't had any visits for over a month which perhaps says something about how few tourists there have been for the last years here<br /><br />We spend the afternoon snorkelling in Padanbai's Blue Lagoon; a fantastic coral reef just meters out from a beach. The reef is boiling with colourful fish such as needle fish, blue-spotted stingrays, a moray eel, parrotfish and many more that I don't have a clue about what they are called.<br /><br />In the evening we discover that the other beach of the village is really destroyed. The whole forest of palm trees that surrounded it are gone and someone has started to build an ugly concrete hotel and a big wall closing in the whole beach. Later we hear that it is a Korean construction company and that they were stopped by the local guvernor, but too late to prevent the destruction. Quite a sad story.<br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Day 2: Padangbai & Tulamben<span style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></span></span>We start the day by driving up to Tulamben to dive on the wreck of the U.S.A.T Liberty. She was a American transport ship loaded with weapons and sunk by the Nipponese during the war. Klaus used to work as a dive instructor there several years ago so he really knows the site. We get two really good dives, although the visibility is a but murky, and have a look at the wreck and the myriads of fish.<br /><br />In the evening we meet Camilla who turns out to be from Vallentuna, which is the countryside suburb of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taby">Täby</a>, where I grew up. She has just been to Malaysia and gives a lot of advice where to go there. Some plans have formed and Ali has decided to stay in Asia for another week instead of going with Klaus to Sydney.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRNVQSwnYmR7waxqs7aSvxL3onX1n9MwDYE68cSpw-eoqPGa1YpkSu2tdjeGjAbXx_PryY0ssnYO8DlGnwgrI0zSdfPQUJJk9hRK6snOaQtdO5wr9sfNTnAykPKXocBbIby2FkJBoPeXw/s1600-h/diving1.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 216px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRNVQSwnYmR7waxqs7aSvxL3onX1n9MwDYE68cSpw-eoqPGa1YpkSu2tdjeGjAbXx_PryY0ssnYO8DlGnwgrI0zSdfPQUJJk9hRK6snOaQtdO5wr9sfNTnAykPKXocBbIby2FkJBoPeXw/s320/diving1.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5350929211659391042" border="0" /></a>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05201703871033421254noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5648421395009809122.post-42526069650516057742008-11-21T00:00:00.006+01:002011-01-16T14:18:00.390+01:00Glasgow - international Capital of Cross-CookingAsk anybody what they think of Scottish food and most people will not feel very hungry, or think of dishes such as haggis (which is hugely under-appreciated by the way), deep fried pizza or even the lunatic dessert deep-fried Mars bar, which you can get in some of the chip shops here. During my short visit, however, I have realised that Glasgow should, in fact, be recognised as the Capital of Cross-Cooking. Not only is this the only place in the world where you can order Haggis Pakora in Indian restaurants; When ordering an archetypically British Fish & Chips yesterday, I was asked if I wanted curry sauce with it. My Glaswegian friend Jim confirmed that this is completely normal. He also pointed out that "Scottish cooking doesn't recieve as much recognition as it deserves". I am prepared to agree, although I was not brave enough to try the fish & chips with curry sauce just yet. But I will..<br /><br />Another interesting thing about Glasgow is its subway, with possibly the smallest train cars in the world. Being of average Scandinavian height, I can barely stand upright in it. The general design is simplistic and good with a circle line where trains go in both directions around. But, they don't just call the only line the "the Line" or the "Circle line". No, instead one of the directions is called the "Inner Circle" and the other the "Outer Circle". Does this make sense? Of course, one direction will always be on the inside of the other, but to me it seemed like a bad joke. At first. Just like haggis pakora. But perhaps it is, just like that dish, or like kilts, or curry sauce with fish & chips, actually quite sensible, and not so stupid after all.<br /><br />Goodnight from Scotland!Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05201703871033421254noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5648421395009809122.post-53710816045333686462008-09-20T00:49:00.002+02:002008-09-20T01:01:18.799+02:00Back from AustraliaIt's now been a week since I returned from the my three week long reunion with Queensland, so it's time to write something about it. I have uploaded bunch of nice photos from the trip <a href="http://flickr.com/photos/lanzen/sets/72157607323983037/">on Flickr</a> and some more are on their way.<br /><br />My journey started with a stopover in Taipei on the way to Cairns, where I spent a week participating at the biennial International Society for Microbial Ecology meeting. After this meeting, which was the main reason for going really, or excuse for going at the very least, I rented a car with two workmates and travelled down the East Coast on a mission to:<br /><br />1) See as many funny animals as possible, and<br />2) Do some extreme sports.<br /><br />The results were quite satisfactory. I managed wild crocodiles, wallabies, lots of tropical fish, corals, sponges, nudibranches, snakes, spiders, platypus ("platypii" ?) and even a couple of cassowaries. As for sports, I settled with scuba diving (but quite a lot of it), surfing and a day of sailing.<br /><br />It was an amazing trip.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHbrhyGUSiGPD1E_DyQBhAcqHDf0-l6FyXCY_gx87z66NR1wPHYvAbmPOdQ5xq4KLhKgQ6ThzUh24BvTGdVRo9iZhFK60UZjSbrj4LtWz44qO-gUgQJluMcHvdv-JT0CYnn_Y5sTSeAI0/s1600-h/013.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHbrhyGUSiGPD1E_DyQBhAcqHDf0-l6FyXCY_gx87z66NR1wPHYvAbmPOdQ5xq4KLhKgQ6ThzUh24BvTGdVRo9iZhFK60UZjSbrj4LtWz44qO-gUgQJluMcHvdv-JT0CYnn_Y5sTSeAI0/s320/013.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5247870722712013730" border="0" /></a> <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXAQNqfcU3aWXewTPLgTWW2At-qM2cPvltBzHGqyj0TCbJFs70cxeVldgPCX_V3jGEcweRh6MCl-INjPYv9CsPQNEFUcB9AXJiiWtiFTLPuc61DsUR7sKAEFExvu_pI0enO9aubNbOft4/s1600-h/P1040173.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXAQNqfcU3aWXewTPLgTWW2At-qM2cPvltBzHGqyj0TCbJFs70cxeVldgPCX_V3jGEcweRh6MCl-INjPYv9CsPQNEFUcB9AXJiiWtiFTLPuc61DsUR7sKAEFExvu_pI0enO9aubNbOft4/s320/P1040173.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5247871333026399170" border="0" /></a>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05201703871033421254noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5648421395009809122.post-91054165748072820842008-08-07T17:28:00.012+02:002008-08-07T18:32:21.242+02:00Proposal for Bio-LOLCode package or IM IN YR GENEZWorking in bioinformatics, you typically have to deal with people of two different categories; those with a biological background and those from an informatics background. Luckily there are also those that fit in both categories. When it comes to programming, people from the first category generally just want to get the job done as quickly and (often) impossibly hacky as possible, while many people belonging to the later category often have very strong feelings about how programming is done; what language to program in and if it is LINUX or Windows etc. I am no exception to this rule myself, preffering Java and disliking Perl and Windows strongly. This may seem pretty geeky to some of you, but, there are always degrees of geekiness.<br /><br />For the most geeky of geeks, it is not enough to talk about how Windows sucks and how .NET is Satan's spawn or whetever it may be. The true übergeek instead turns to an unusual <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esoteric_programming_language">esoteric language</a> that very few people use, thus making life harder not only for himself, but also for those around him and this, I suspect, is what he really wants. Typical languages to turn to in this case is <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haskell_%28programming_language%29">Haskell</a> or Darwin. Other people that want to compile the code of the übergeek then has to install the compiler, strange packages and programming libraries for it and other things that may be virtually impossible to find or manage to install. The übergeek smiles as he watches them fail. It has been said that all the Haskell programmers of the world would fit in one Boeing 747. It's also been said that if this Boeing would crash and take the lives of the poor programmers in it, nobody at all would notice.<br /><br />Anyway, to get to the point, I have realised that to transgress the boundary and become a true übergeek myself, I have to find my own favourite programming language that nobody else has ever heard of and now I think I have found it! The language is called <a href="http://lolcode.com/">LOLCode </a>and inspired by the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pidgin_English" title="Pidgin English">pidgin English</a> of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lolcat" title="Lolcat">LOLCAT</a> pictures, using sloppy chat-style language and geeky <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snowclone">snowclones</a>. Its main mission is to rival XML as the Lingua Franca of computers. There's a compiler for Perl and<a href="http://blog.notdot.net/archives/32-LOLCode.net-Now-your-LOLCats-can-use-the-CLR%21.html"> even for .NET. </a>A typical example of a program written in LOLCode would be :<br /><pre>HAI<br />CAN HAS STDIO?<br />VISIBLE "O HAI, I HAS LOOP!"<br />LOL COUNTER R MINIMUM<br />BTW LOOPING<br />IM IN YR LOOP<br />VISIBLE COUNTER<br />BTW Below is an IF-statement<br />I HAS A DIFFERENCE<br />LOL DIFFERENCE R COUNTER NERF DIFFERNCE<br />YARLY<br /> KTHXBYE<br />NOWAI<br /> I HAS A NEXTCOUNTER<br /></pre><br /><br />So, for this beautiful language to truly be useful to us bioinformaticians, we need a <a href="http://www.open-bio.org/wiki/Main_Page">Bio-package</a>. Every language with any sense of dignity has one and the time has come to LOLCode. To be a little different, I suggest we call it IM IN YR GENEZ. Time to sit down and work on a grant proposal to the Open Bioinformatics Foundation. I will let you know how it goes...<br /><br /><pre>(I PROMIZ LEZ GEEKY POST SOON, DOODZ)</pre>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05201703871033421254noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5648421395009809122.post-10520164136250680502008-07-08T21:46:00.009+02:002008-08-07T17:28:10.955+02:00Rock Werchter 2008I'm a little tired and suffering of the usual post-festival trauma. Just came back from four days of bloody good concerts, not enough sleep, beer for breakfast and the other usual festival attributes. In Belgium. For a change. Actually it started with a day in Brussels, spent mostly at the local pub from 11 a.m. until 6 or so, just because torrential rain followed by us by people from the to-be festival camp dropping in and stopping us from leaving. It was a tough week, but we made it.<br /><br />First of all, Werchter does not compare to my favourite; Roskilde. Ok, the beer is cheaper and the weather is supposed to be better, but who cares when it just lacks all the fancy things that make Roskilde such a cool place to just wander around aimlessly, such as cocktail bars, lounge tents, 6 stages of music you never heard of and most of all, the perfect organisation. Instead it feels quite commercial and a festival area built without much love and in a hurry. That said, Belgians really know how to go wild during concerts, in a very good way. The Aussie-Norwegian-French-Swedish-Finnish-Lebaneese-Swiss-Austrian camp we had managed to get together was also something else. And last but not least, the concerts this year were bloody good. To mention a few:<br /><br />--==Neil Young==--<br /><br />Clearly the biggest legend of this festival, Neil with his band basically blasted the hell out of the festival. As opposed to Radiohead, we managed to stand right in the front which made the impact even more powerful. I had not expected such energy from this man, even though he is known to have invented grunge, more or less. But he is 63 years old! During Hey Hey, My My, we were seriously afraid that he would suffer a heart attack. Over two hours and several great songs later, many with long intense guitar solos later and all of which sounded better than I ever heard them before, he was long overdue the schedule but couldn't help doing an encore. This was maybe the highlight of the concert and surely the best Beatles cover anyone is likely to ever do; a hardcore version of A Day in Life, ending with Neil trashing his guitar against the speakers. Truly awesome.<br /><br />Tracklist :<br /><a title="Neil Young – Love And Only Love" href="http://www.last.fm/music/Neil+Young/_/Love+And+Only+Love" class="bbcode_track">Love And Only Love</a><br /><a title="Neil Young – Hey Hey, My My" href="http://www.last.fm/music/Neil+Young/_/Hey+Hey%2C+My+My" class="bbcode_track">Hey Hey, My My</a><br /><a title="Neil Young – Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere" href="http://www.last.fm/music/Neil+Young/_/Everybody+Knows+This+Is+Nowhere" class="bbcode_track">Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere</a><br /><a title="Neil Young – Spirit Road" href="http://www.last.fm/music/Neil+Young/_/Spirit+Road" class="bbcode_track">Spirit Road</a><br /><a title="Neil Young – When You Dance, I Can Really Love" href="http://www.last.fm/music/Neil+Young/_/When+You+Dance%2C+I+Can+Really+Love" class="bbcode_track">When You Dance, I Can Really Love</a><br /><a title="Neil Young – Fuckin' Up" href="http://www.last.fm/music/Neil+Young/_/Fuckin%27+Up" class="bbcode_track">Fuckin' Up</a><br /><span class="inlineFlash"><object classid="clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000" codebase="http://fpdownload.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=7,0,0,0" id="inlinePlayer" allownetworking="internal" height="13" width="13"><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="sameDomain"><param name="FlashVars" value="resourceID=1263607"><param name="wmode" value="transparent"><param name="movie" value="http://cdn.last.fm/webclient/inline/6/inlinePlayer.swf"><param name="quality" value="high"><param name="bgcolor" value="#ffffff"><embed src="http://cdn.last.fm/webclient/inline/6/inlinePlayer.swf" quality="high" flashvars="resourceID=1263607" bgcolor="#ffffff" name="inlinePlayer" allownetworking="internal" wmode="transparent" allowscriptaccess="sameDomain" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" height="13" width="13"></embed></object></span><a title="Neil Young – All Along the Watchtower" href="http://www.last.fm/music/Neil+Young/_/All+Along+the+Watchtower" class="bbcode_track">All Along the Watchtower</a><br /><span class="inlineFlash"><object classid="clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000" codebase="http://fpdownload.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=7,0,0,0" id="inlinePlayer" allownetworking="internal" height="13" width="13"><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="sameDomain"><param name="FlashVars" value="resourceID=11230"><param name="wmode" value="transparent"><param name="movie" value="http://cdn.last.fm/webclient/inline/6/inlinePlayer.swf"><param name="quality" value="high"><param name="bgcolor" value="#ffffff"><embed src="http://cdn.last.fm/webclient/inline/6/inlinePlayer.swf" quality="high" flashvars="resourceID=11230" bgcolor="#ffffff" name="inlinePlayer" allownetworking="internal" wmode="transparent" allowscriptaccess="sameDomain" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" height="13" width="13"></embed></object></span><a title="Neil Young – Oh, Lonesome Me" href="http://www.last.fm/music/Neil+Young/_/Oh%2C+Lonesome+Me" class="bbcode_track">Oh, Lonesome Me</a><br /><a title="Neil Young – Mother Earth" href="http://www.last.fm/music/Neil+Young/_/Mother+Earth" class="bbcode_track">Mother Earth</a><br /><a title="Neil Young – The Needle and the Damage Done" href="http://www.last.fm/music/Neil+Young/_/The+Needle+and+the+Damage+Done" class="bbcode_track">The Needle and the Damage Done</a><br /><a title="Neil Young – Unknown Legend" href="http://www.last.fm/music/Neil+Young/_/Unknown+Legend" class="bbcode_track">Unknown Legend</a><br /><a title="Neil Young – Heart of Gold" href="http://www.last.fm/music/Neil+Young/_/Heart+of+Gold" class="bbcode_track">Heart of Gold</a><br /><a title="Neil Young – Old Man" href="http://www.last.fm/music/Neil+Young/_/Old+Man" class="bbcode_track">Old Man</a><br /><span class="inlineFlash"><object classid="clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000" codebase="http://fpdownload.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=7,0,0,0" id="inlinePlayer" allownetworking="internal" height="13" width="13"><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="sameDomain"><param name="FlashVars" value="resourceID=3050473"><param name="wmode" value="transparent"><param name="movie" value="http://cdn.last.fm/webclient/inline/6/inlinePlayer.swf"><param name="quality" value="high"><param name="bgcolor" value="#ffffff"><embed src="http://cdn.last.fm/webclient/inline/6/inlinePlayer.swf" quality="high" flashvars="resourceID=3050473" bgcolor="#ffffff" name="inlinePlayer" allownetworking="internal" wmode="transparent" allowscriptaccess="sameDomain" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" height="13" width="13"></embed></object></span><a title="Neil Young – Get Back to the Country" href="http://www.last.fm/music/Neil+Young/_/Get+Back+to+the+Country" class="bbcode_track">Get Back to the Country</a><br /><a title="Neil Young – Words" href="http://www.last.fm/music/Neil+Young/_/Words" class="bbcode_track">Words</a><br /><a title="Neil Young – No Hidden Path" href="http://www.last.fm/music/Neil+Young/_/No+Hidden+Path" class="bbcode_track">No Hidden Path</a><br /><a title="Neil Young – A Day In The Life" href="http://www.last.fm/music/Neil+Young/_/A+Day+In+The+Life" class="bbcode_track">A Day In The Life</a><br /><br />--==Radiohead==--<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span>One of my long-time favourites that I never got a chance to see live, this was what I looked forward to the most. And they did not disappoint. They played most of the newest In Rainbows album, quite some from Kid A and also some classics like You do it to Yourself. The last one is what really made the crowd go crazy. And almost the whole crowd seemed to know the lyrics and sing along.<span style="font-weight: bold;"></span><br /><br />--==Grinderman==--<br /><br />Grinderman is Nick Cave and half of the Bad Seeds, in some kind of new configuration, appearently and only playing new material. Very powerful and a much better than the album.<br /><br />--==Sigur Rós==--<br /><br />I had already seen this amazing icelandic band on the smaller "Green Scene" of Roskilde, which was magical. This time was almost as good, but made it clear that the biggest scene of a festival is just not optimal for these guys, at all. I will try to catch them in Iceland some time. In a small village on the countryside on the Heima II tour. It's important to have dreams, at least..<br /><br />--==Beck==--<br /><br />He is not that charismatic on stage, but the man is a genius. Very good.<br /><br />--==The Hives==--<br /><br />"I solemly sweaiearrrRRRrr, to.. have NO... Other... Gods. Thaaaan... The Hives.". These guys are gods on the stage and the Swedish-American-slurry accent of “Howlin” Pelle Almqvist is actually brilliant.<br /><br />--==Justice==--<br /><br />Ok, these guys were not actually that great, and were quite obviously lacking material for a whole concert, but the atmosphere during this gig was amazing. It was simply a really great dancefloor and we liked it. Belgians sure can party. (Even though they should try to shut up a bit more during quiet, introvert Radiohead songs)Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05201703871033421254noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5648421395009809122.post-50695401782711340602008-04-30T13:47:00.004+02:002008-04-30T14:10:07.375+02:00Motorpsycho, USF Verftet, Bergen, 28 April 2008I had barely listened to this band at all until my friend Øystein gave me their latest album "Little Lucid Moments". And it was good. But, it was not nearly so good that it prepared me for their concert. I have to include it among my top three ever, I think. This was Motorpsycho proving once and for all that they are, without competition, the Best Norwegian Band. Ever.<br /><br />For more than two and a half hours, these guys played music that varied between heavy, energetic and slow atmospheric psychedelic rock with an impressive feeling. I could compare it to some of my favourite bands such as the Doors, Radiohead and Tool. It's impressive what two guitars and a drummer can do. Apparently, they varied material from some 15 albums and they have a new drummer. That, they did it with perfection. I am blown away.<br /><br />I should have brought my earplugs though, because it was damn loud. My ears are still ringing...<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUV1KiQjGFsIfWZ1imPAFI09e40lnOxPbieqPUGekQtMjXjcxjJk019tYxEBtHRm-I0mBATmWFxp8bVzLBLc58CD10z0-pAyJ985p10c1FWnI2kTnx3kKWDqtsr52V3Arx2X_c1I-rDwg/s1600-h/DSC00900.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUV1KiQjGFsIfWZ1imPAFI09e40lnOxPbieqPUGekQtMjXjcxjJk019tYxEBtHRm-I0mBATmWFxp8bVzLBLc58CD10z0-pAyJ985p10c1FWnI2kTnx3kKWDqtsr52V3Arx2X_c1I-rDwg/s320/DSC00900.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5195007779767369490" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/alvedust/2449632419/">Here's a picture taken by Alvedust, that is a bit nicer</a>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05201703871033421254noreply@blogger.com0