Books – Mieville: Embassytown
The new novel by China Mieville, Embassytown, is just great. As an old science fiction fan, running low on new input for several years, I would never have expected this. Here is a true science fiction novel that shows the superiority of the whole genre, over the money-pushing fantasy bullshit that has polluted our shelves. […]
New music – August 2012
I just saw that Bob Dylan has a new album, Tempest, coming in September, and thought that this might be a nice place to sum up listening experiences the last months. Listening for good music, now as always. Among music bought this last semester, I quite like Supersilent: 10, very experimental, great sonics. Generally, albums […]
“Men, also, must be willing to reduce their careers”
Former minister Knut Storberget and former chief editor of the daily newspaper Dagbladet, Lars Helle, on how work/family balance is now a concern for men as well as women: http://www.aftenposten.no/kultur/–Familielivet-er-for-travelt-til-at-jeg-kan-ha-en-lederstilling-6920620.html
Gender equality and violence
Who would think, that gender equality reduces violence in the home by almost two thirds. Not I. I thought the evidence would be mixed, in line with international research. Yet this result popped up, in my research, and would not go away, whatever variable I corrected for. Some findings are more important than others, and […]
Masculinities in motion
[June draft version – oversize pictures, some pictures and comments missing, etc] The “Masculinities in motion” conference at the University of Oslo (May 31 – June 1, see program here), was very successful, with almost 200 participants from Norway, the Nordic region, and several other countries, and a broad range a keynote and workshop presentations. […]
Arkeology
I don’t usually buy digital music (rather, analog LPs), but I make an exception in this case: World Party: Arkeology, a 5 CD box set with 70 songs and a booklet. I have ordered it. World Party is about pop music, they are somewhat derivative, often poorly recorded, and so on, but I find them […]
Gone and back again
I am sorry for web page problems the last weeks, but they seem to be solved now. (The web page appeared unordered, the css file did not work correctly). The problems were fixed and the web page was brought up again, through the help of my son Lasse Gullvåg Sætre – very much appreciated! We […]
Truthful reaction
This is about getting up to speed, in the sound sense, about 45 rpm versus 33 rpm. The latest Stereophile discloses that some of the engineers behind the long playing vinyl disc actually wanted this disc to play at 45 rather than 33 rounds per minute, at the vinyl turntable. I did not know that, […]
The rose march continues
You have done a good job, says one of the survivors of the terror to the defence lawyer. Cf http://www.dagbladet.no/2012/02/06/nyheter/innenriks/anders_behring_breivik/fengslingsmote/20107916/
Bushman’s Revenge: Jitterbug
Do I understand this album? No. Was I meant to? Probably no. Do I understand Stereophile making it album of the month, September 2010, after their reviewer Stephan Mejias had grown to like it in May that year, saying “it kills, but it also builds, it soars, it uplifts”- ? Well, eventually, yes. He evidently […]