sonic in Europe

2007-03-12T23:09:00.000-07:00

the realisation that I was leaving only came as I was walking down the hallway of our grey apartment complex, and the realisation came flashing back as I got off the lift and stared the opposite direction down that same hallway. my euro-dabble was short but sweet and while I didn't do anything incredibly exciting, go anywhere historic or culturally significant. I just chilled with my girlfriend and her family, and I am ok with that.

this time Amsterdam was sunny and warm while I met up with June (international blog crossover!) and her Dutch friend Elise, nuff to say this time was completely different to the first visit and I actually had fun walking the streets and canals, drinking coffee and playing spot the tourist (and variations on harass the tourist/get the tourists phone number). June has the photos, my camera was flat although if anything is coming from here it will probably be more drawings.

the trip home was absolutely nuts. flying 14 hours to Tokyo, 8 hours stopover and then back on the plane for another 9 hours, I was considerably kooky from jet lag and airplane food preservatives. WHEEEEeeeee.... Tokyo Narita Terminal 2 was getting renovations so there wasn't as many shops to waste time in, I spent most of my zombie state with some American soldiers who let me use their PSP charger. we watched CNN while talking and I got some recent insights and opinions direct from the actual soldiers (although they were fairly intent on getting drunk enough to impress San-Francisco customs :)

then home again home again, walking down my incandescent hallway, coming home and finding two Thai girls in my bed was a bit weird and took me a while to figure out what was actually going the hell on. I thought Seiji had a really wild party the night before or something until I finally remembered my friend Oi was going to be on holiday here while I was away and I had put her in touch with Seiji to help her out. madness madness madness.

so then I go and see !!! (Chk Chk Chk) with Rys on the Monday night!

DOES IT END? NO IT DOES NOT!!

regular resistance persistent from the southern front.

2007-03-07T17:20:00.000-08:00

So today sony announce "home", a 3D world where you can interact with other PS3 owners online, chat, share video and music and invite them back to your virtual house which is completely customisable.

this video of the future of human interaction is well worth watching.

So anyway, I would like to celebrate sonys announcement by announcing a "home" of my own: its a 3D world where you can interact with anyone, anywhere, anytime you like. you can even share video and music, and invite them back to your *fully customisable* dwelling! there are many games you can play within the environment, some of my favourites are "ice skating" and "inline skating", there's even in-world mini games like PSP and Playstation 3 and the graphics are out of this world!

call me an old schooler, but enjoy real life while it lasts people.

speaking of real life, I am flying home today... I am a bit upset about leaving Wiebke.

2007-03-06T17:12:00.000-08:00

OMG I can't believe I subscribe to this fairyland bullshit.

NO, its not product placement you fool, its a German, oversized, inconvenient box of tic-tacs!
only drawback is no chance of finding that very last one stuck in the lid.

almost as large as a pack of cards! fantastic, I bought 3!!

2007-03-05T16:15:00.000-08:00

boy do I have some treats for you.

Paprika (from the guy who made Perfect Blue): apple.com/trailers/sony/paprika/

Great NY Times article on several of my favourites. God, Religion, Cognitive Science... and birdies! (long, but worth the read): nytimes.com/2007/03/04/magazine/04evolution.t.html

and a freeking drawing! (Hangover in Hannover cont) yep, its the Universität, which we passed on the tram like a jillion times! (presented in Oliver vision)
don't say I never do nuffink for ya!

2007-03-05T12:30:00.000-08:00

Michael Mayer "IMMER 2" came with a little insert that gives you a download of 7 bonus tracks. could they be better than the CD??? buy this CD if you see it, even Wiebke (who listens exclusively to pop crap) said she enjoyed it.

2007-03-04T16:32:00.000-08:00

Hangover in Hannover

I bought these German Minimal CD's. actually, I wouldn't have bought any if I hadn't heard Mayers IMMER in Shibuya HMV. Both are pretty great minus a few vocal samples which break the surface tension, I bought some other music too for the plane ride home which is not too far away.

For a city of only 800,000 it feels alot bigger because the space it occupies is alot smaller, they are more dense. it basically feels like Melbourne but is smaller in population than Adelaide. ozzys are just spaced out man...

so we went out to a "cocktail bar" on friday night, which was a wierd way of getting drunk. you basically order and then drink these "cocktails" which come in huge glass mugs. I had 2 "Bostons" which was like, gin with orange and grapefruit or something WIERD!!!!! (but nice) and I got a little drunk. the kind of annoying, not quite drunk, not quite sober kind of drunk. the kind of drunk that makes my alchoholic ozzy blood just want to get rip-snorting BLIND-DRUNK. but it was not to be, and we went back to Fraukes (Wiebkes sisters) apartment for the big ice skating day on Saturday.

I counld't find any ice skates to waste money, I mean buy. this was due to the last 2 years which have had no lakes freezing over to skate on (stupid global warming!) but we wen't to the ice rink anyway and rented some foo-crusher rental blades. once I was on the ice my troubles dissapeared, the ice was good quality and the rink was semi-outdoor (just a roof). Jan (a bloke) and myself skated and drank wierd hot winter wine while the girls shopped. for like, 5 hours.

meeting for a coffee is not the alfresco affair I usually insist on. its either at a friends house or your own and you use a designated tea room. you use nice crockery and there is bread and snacks too. maybe its only the rich school kids I've been hanging out with and the fact that they are either female or gay. but it seems like a happening thing and I like it! that rush job above is my description of some such coffee afternoon at Garrits house (*cough* mansion *cough*).

yeah, I forgot my camera so I'm just gonna draw scenes from memory over the next few days :)
I don't really like photos anyway, my dads the photo guy.

2007-03-01T17:19:00.000-08:00

Seiji says: "Smoking is good for you."

This may or may not be a tribute to my German great-grandfather.

2007-03-01T15:22:00.000-08:00

back in the good old days, they used to design a cars body, then the engineers would have to make their workings fit within it. I remember I got excited when watching discovery channel and saw a computer model of a new idea; where the engineers designed the workings and then the designers worked around it to make it look good.

so when are the designers going to be working around the web-app developers???

I am sick of designers telling me about usability and what works and doesn't work online. this coming from someone who probably uses hotmail, msn and/or myspace? so instead of them umming and arrring over whether they should go fullscreen in a pop-up or not, they should let me make a kick ass website and tell them what content and interface the design needs to accommodate. if I have been working with a designer for a while, this happens naturally, but designers in general need to ease up a bit and accept that the only reason for their existance is to make things look pretty.

why keep a dog and bark yourself? - Ogilvy

small crack teams of programmers, not designers, end up creating the most successful web applications (google, flickr, youtube, skype etc...). not to undermine their usefulness, but when did you last hear of a small crack team of designers creating something cutting edge or innovative?

get it right first, then make it look nice.

2007-02-27T17:46:00.000-08:00

ok, without sounding like some ego maniac...

there was a time not too long ago when I would open my mouth and people would speak over me. there was a time when I would speak and people would contradict me and tell me I was out of line.

but recently, people have been stopping to listen to me. recently people have been agreeing with me and telling me I am in the right, "being great" and how they appreciate the way I deal with things (girlfriends excluded).

I stop when it happens and I don't know what to say next... I feel... great! like maybe I am can do some good after all...

is this simply the rumoured respect that comes with age? because I am totally insane. it also makes me wonder who I am, I mean more than usual. who am I? no, who am I? I am I. I am the being which is myself. I am a variable in the sum of all history. I entered as zero hopefully exiting as zero while leaving behind a loud and resounding
plus one.

bizarre.

2007-02-27T04:47:00.000-08:00

just watched the documentary Life and debt (Jamaica)...

powerful film, the same pressures of globalisation are felt in Australia, but its a gentle headache compared to the trauma in Jamaica. on farms like my mums you see big loans and alot of people going under, but not to the extent where my mum is working in a production line making clothes, or my brothers mugging other peoples mothers.

here is the Torrent
Chant down Babylon!!!... whatever that means ;)

2007-02-26T12:30:00.000-08:00

Brazil.

its my favorite movie and also my girlfriend acid test.
the movie has, strangely, become a good indicator of how any relationship will fare.

I had a girlfriend who didn't understand it at all, she did not understand me at all.
I had a girlfriend who fell asleep during the first 10 minutes and this became a perfect description of her enthusiasm towards us.

so anyway, I just tried to watch it with Wiebke and she complained about the lack of plot for 10 minutes, then just when Tuttle is sneaking in to fix the aircon with the gun she says "I don't like these kinds of movies.." excuse me? what kind of movie? you barely watched the introduction to the characters.. can't you enjoy the acting and the dysfunctional slapstick?

*sigh*, I really thought she was my kind of girl too, what a shame...

2007-02-26T09:45:00.000-08:00

from the desk of Oliver Lardner.

I have not been outside that much and my camera has been holstered, this is the desk in my room here and its where I have been spending most of my time actually.

I have had things stolen from me before.. cameras, ipods, phones, bikes and the usual.. it did not affect me and I thought I was immune from attachment to material possessions. but before I left for German, my dads, fiancés, 8 y/o son broke my MP5K, which, while priceless due to the fact that it is impossible to buy again within Australia because of the new gun laws, also took me many many hours of planning, disassembly and smuggling to get the fucker there in the first place. the upshot of this...
FUCKING DISASTER
(ahem..) is that I realised I am a material boy living in a material world after all. thus, I am now excused for posting the following photos.

M.C. Escher gashapon!!!! OMGOMGOMG!!! I got these in Tokyo and they keep me company on my desk.

a gummy bear lamp gifted by Wiebke, how cool!

so with all the dangerous serenity and ominous ringing bell clock towers here, I have had alot of time to contemplate my life, listen to Anthony Robbins and stop smoking again (I took it up after the gun break incident... just kidding). I am going to Hannover this weekend, hopefully to ice skate and check out some German skateparks.

2007-02-26T08:44:00.000-08:00

piracy pays for itself.
heroin pays for terrorism.

piracy makes distributors scared and want to try to stop it.
terrorism makes Americans scared and want to try to stop it.

trying to stop piracy creates an ideal environment for piracy.
waging wars on terror creates prime environments for heroin production.

piracy pays for itself.
heroin pays for terrorism.

2007-02-22T12:11:00.000-08:00

101 Projects for Artists and Illustrators landed on my lap yesterday, I am going to go through them to get warmed up and hopefully find confidence to start on the book for dad, I noticed number 16; Illustrate the seven days of the Creation.

now I have seen Ralph Steadman, among many others, do this and the first image is always black. which is how I was going to start.. but wouldn't a nothingness, a perfect balance of energy be more of a soothing grey? WHO KNOWS!!!! HAHA, I made you think about stuff!!!! WHEEEEEEEeeeeeeeee.

2007-02-22T06:38:00.000-08:00

some happy snaps.

theres lots of clocks and bells. bells in every village, bells that chime on the hour and half hour, 15 minutes of bells before mid-day for the man that died and bells in the house in case you miss out.

why does a creativity block keep coming back? after you thought you dealt with it for the last time. I create best when I do not have too; if clients give me money without any expectations of seeing a finished product, I could give them a masterpiece. I wonder how the masters dealt with balancing deadlines, creativity and women.

how many forests must a man make out in?

having a blast ya'll. hope I get to go ice skating soon, after going from skating daily to skating hardly ever, I keep nervously checking my legs for signs of atrophy.

2007-02-20T12:18:00.000-08:00

I don't have aids.

2007-02-19T14:47:00.000-08:00

the grand cafe.

I have noticed that there are alot of dreary, ornate, candle lit french or italian restaurants around europe. its a classic concept of what eating out should be and its very popular here to take your lover to one and oggle at each other in low lumens over a big slab of meat or some other crappy food. the noisy windows, flowers, table cloths then might almost be a distraction from how bad the cuisine is.

so to my girls, I say. look, lets skip the candles and flowers and grab some good food, eh?

2007-02-19T05:14:00.000-08:00

Some great links to further fluster your click cycle.

http://strangepaths.com/en/
physics? computation? philosophy? yes please.
awesome visuals included.

http://spacemusic.libsyn.com/
new spacemusic podcast "Fresh Air", great music and TC's cheerful dutch accent returns ;)

2007-02-19T02:30:00.000-08:00

chillin' in Markhausen...

this place is so quiet. sometimes I go for walks.
the forests are like the ones in the kids books we used to read about in Australia but never really understood. christopher robin and lewis carrol... birds are flying south for the winter, a jet fighter is flying in circles.. looked like a F14 Tomcat, but wikipedia tells me it was probably a MiG.

I am still very much feeling like a spanner. after living in the city for so long, having no shops makes me feel a little uncomfortable. My first day here I freaked out about it and walked the 9ks to Friesoythe (the nearest town with a McDonalds franchise and wikipedia entry) to try and find a powercable for my equipment but mistook the computer shop for a furniture shop and ended up eating curly fries to satisfy my consumerist urges.

everything seems too perfect to be real. all the work is done and everything is neat and tidy. I would be lying if I said I wasn't restless.

2007-02-16T22:59:00.000-08:00

WWELKOMENN!!!

I am in Germany now, but before I unwind and get into things here, my flying saucer tour of Amsterdam:
I have nothing nice to say about Amsterdam, except; it is nicer than Paris.

Amsterdam Central smells like weed, even my hotel smelled like weed. however most people I disturbed were nice enough and I did have some nice pasta but I spent most of my 24 hours searching for the non-existent Japanese conbini or vending machine while waiting for my soul to catch up with my body.

no, it was really fun and I love waffles as much as the next geezer, but it seemed grotty and reminded me of Paris, plus the whole weed thing is a bit much.. t-shirts and merch, coffee shops with ads for "Australian Gold". well I can get that at home and enjoy it outdoors in the sun on a nice beach, not cooped up in a grubby little coffee shop with giggly British backpackers. I hate weed anyway, its such a non-productive, claustrophobic head space. give me something with a little more zing and I might come back to your slimy mud puddle :)

but that was Amsterdam, and I am in Germany now.
Germany is clean.
Very clean, in fact the whole place seems like a well oiled machine... and it makes me feel like a great bumbling spanner, any minute now sprockets and cogs will go flying, harbinger to me being stuck fast in the works. I have not been to any city larger than Bremen yet, mind you. I like it, and the food prepared by Wiebkes family is a worthy substitute for what I left behind in Tokyo. It feels like I'm dreaming, if the world is a stage this must be an operatic interlude in my soap-box life.

testing

2007-02-10T06:19:00.001-08:00

hello world.