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Friday, May 17, 2002 Get Out of the Office and Into the Springtime: I had applied for a job at the university and I went to the interview this afternoon. The job is to one day a week help out around the office and make coffee, Xerox stuff, clean up after meetings and run errands. In other words: Be the secretaries’ bitch. The actual interview lasted about five minutes and within seconds it was obvious that the job was mine if I wanted it. I must have been the only one who applied, because the only question she asked me was when I thought I’d be finished at university (I won’t be able to work there after I finish) and the rest of the time she just told me about what the job entailed. So I’m supposed to drop by the office on Tuesday and get an introduction to the work by one of the other assistants and then I’m good to go. Obviously, this is great. I get to work in an environment with intelligent people doing fairly easy chores. The only problem is that it’s so few hours a week that I won’t be making enough money and at the same time it means that I won’t be 100% flexible if I should be lucky enough to get another part-time job. For instance I now won’t be able to apply for the job I walked several miles to get an application for yesterday, because they require that you can work Mondays. But I wasn’t going to turn down a job on the off-chance that I’ll get another better paying job at some point, so I accepted the university job without giving it a second thought. But the cool thing about only working once a week is that if the PR job I got (in theory) suddenly starts happening I’ll be free to pursue that. And since I found out that I’m going to be working at this years Midtfyns Festival my new job doesn’t require me to juggle my schedule, because I’ll only be working one day a week. The last three years I’ve been part of team of writers and journalists, who’ve covered the three largest Danish rock festivals for opasia.dk. I didn’t think we’re going to be working this year, but it turns out we were especially invited by the management to come back to Midtfyns this year. That means I’ll be going there with a group of my friends to write articles, do interviews, and see concerts with the likes of Muse, Doves, Coldplay, Gomez, Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Kent, No Doubt, and Isaac Hayes. The last two years it’s been great working down there. The atmosphere is a lot less stressful than Roskilde, because there are a lot fewer bands playing, the management have been great to us when it comes to setting up our camp and getting us online, and the people in the backstage area are a lot less snobby and wannabe-trendy. So if the weather is nice it ought to be a great four days with lots of fun, music, and beer. I realize I still haven’t gotten around to writing about my adventures on the second day of the Spot 08 festival, but I’m planning on getting that done this weekend. So hang in there. - John Fogde 4:56 PM [+] Strange Currencies: This is the weirdest thing I've seen in a while. I had a very productive day today. I called the phone company and got them to move my phone number and internet connection. I walked to one office to fill out a moving form, then to a company to pick up a job application, then to another office to renew my driver's license and finally to a third office to get a document signed (all of this took about three hours, because the offices were spread all over town and I stood in line everywhere). I did some chores, some shopping, and I filled out the application, so that was very productive. Tomorrow I'll most likely send out a couple of job applications and I probably have a job interview as well. And later the Danish national soccer team will play against Cameroun, which ought to be ace. Just noticed that I had posted something in Danish here, which was supposed to go here. Sorry about that. - John Fogde 1:12 AM [+] Tuesday, May 14, 2002 The Most Important Thing Is Work: I've applied to a bunch of jobs today, but nothing was as disheartening as my chat with the woman at the temp agency. After briefly telling her about some of the work I did at a streaming media company, she cuts me short and tells me they won’t be able to get me work like that. I tell her I’m aware of that and that I’ll take any office job doing anything. She hands me a four page form I have to fill out and return and then asks: “And how do you feel about working in a warehouse?” to which I meekly reply that any kind of job is of interest. And if that wasn’t enough of a humbling experience I nearly snapped while trying to fill out the forms. There were a bunch of boxes, which had to be filled out with numbers and it didn’t make sense at all. So if they call me in for an interview I’ll suggest they give me a job making new forms, because the ones they have are rubbish. So the entire day I’ve waled around feeling like poor Conrad from A Man in Full. But as Astadan over at somethingoutofnothing puts it “Blogs about medical conditions just plain suck”, and since the same probably goes for blogs about poverty, I’ll quickly move on to something else. I’ve been getting cool Warhol-related emails these days. First, I got an email from Factory photographer Billy Name, who I’ve since stayed in touch with. Then I got an email from a woman, who appeared in a Warhol movie and still does some Warhol related work (but wishes to remain anonymous), and today I received an email from Billy Name saying that I should write Ultra Violet, because she wanted to get in touch with me. This might not mean anything to you, but to me it’s wicked cool. So now I'm hoping she'll get back to me. Oh, I got back to Ingrid today and I've agreed to meet up with all the other local bloggers next week, so that ought to be interesting. - John Fogde 11:58 PM [+] Pleased To Meet Me: Apparently, bloggers all over the country are uniting in an effort to drink coffee and presumably chat about life, death, and blogging. It seems to have started in Copenhagen, where self-proclaimed members of the Bloggerista started getting together at cafées and now it's spreading to Århus. I read about the Bloggerista on Tinka's blog (obviously, because they wouldn't be good bloggers if they met and didn't write about it) and now Ingrid has set up a franchise here, which already has seven members (a couple I think attend my school). So I should probably sign up as well, but I haven't gotten around to it yet. However, the last time I did something like that it was a blast, so that installs confidence. And now if you'll excuse me I have to go out into the rain and find a McJob, so I can get my life back on track. - John Fogde 12:20 PM [+] Monday, May 13, 2002 Zen Brain: I've been reading a lot of articles on blogging, but Use the blog, Luke by Steven Johnson is by far the most interesting I've read. It's nice to read about something other than Warblogging and all the pseudo-political pundits, who are mentioned in all the other articles. As a non-American it is exhausting to read all these articles written by people, who assume every member of the blogging community around the world checks Andrew Sullivan’s website every day to see if they agree or disagree with him on some random issue. So what’s cool about this article is that instead of warblogs and the classic "they talk about what they had for breakfast" angle it actually sets up the possibility for blogs to become an information filter if one could create a sort of “blog analyzer”. In this scenario you’d have to appoint some of the blogs you follow a certain status and if you enter a site, which has been commented upon by one of the bloggers you follow, you’d be pointed towards their comments. That would create connections between articles and relevant comments, which would mean you wouldn’t have to search for more information after reading the article. It would be right there waiting for you. This theory is similar to some of the thoughts Steven Johnson touched upon in his analysis of the search engine WebBrain in his book Interface Culture. The idea behind WebBrain is that a search will not only bring forth the needed websites, but also websites relating to your search (so a search for George Washington shows you links to sites about the president, but also links to sites about the American Revolution and other presidents). The site doesn’t really work, but I think the idea behind it is very appealing. - John Fogde 10:01 PM [+] Rockin' for Dollars, Baby! Rockin' for Real Estate! Thinking about money brings me down. Or rather thinking about not having any money brings me down. I just had a talk with my financial advisor at the bank today and her financial advice was to get a job. So I sent an application to an internet company, so I can be a part of their business support staff. I really hadn't planned on working this summer, because I know getting a job means that I won't have time to write, but I've kinda gotten used to eating and stuff, so I need to make some money really fast. And I can't seem to get any paying writing gigs, so I'll have to start looking for something else. Or maybe I'll look into those online casinos I see so many pop-up ads for. Every time you mention those someone always knows someone, who has made a fortune on them, so maybe some day that someone could be me. And with my luck I'll bet the millions will start rolling in right away. - John Fogde 5:11 PM [+] Sunday, May 12, 2002 Cool Scene: I just found out that The Dandy Warhols are going to collaborate with Duran Duran's Nick Rhodes on their next album. Apparently, they've been been hanging out and now they're working together in London. This is going to be huge! I'm a big fan of both bands, so I'm really looking forward to hear the result of this collaboration. I've just seen The Phantom Menace on TV and I can't believe how bad it was. I saw it, when it first came out and back then I thought it was better than the reviews had said, but I didn't think it was great. So I wanted to see it again since it was on TV, but I just lost interest incredibly quickly. The acting is pretty bad all-round and I've heard more believable dialogue in shampoo commercials. Obviously all the computer stuff looks great, but Jar Jar is so annoying it distracts from all the cool stuff (his catch phrase "How rude!" wasn't funny fifteen years earlier, when it belonged to Stephanie Tanner on Full House, so it sure sure wasn't funny in this movie either). But since Natalie Portman pretty much is the greatest actress since sliced bread (Ah, Sliced Bread...a wonderful Lady Macbeth), I stuck it out through most of the movie. Now I have to finish up the reviews from the Spot 08 festival before I can get to bed, so I'll have to postpone blogging about the concerts and my talk with David Fricke until tomorrow. - John Fogde 11:18 PM [+] |
Pavement: Slanted & Enchanted
Ben Folds: Ben Folds Live
Supergrass: Life on Other Planets
Ryan Adams: Demolition
Beck: Sea Change
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