Afr0 Games

Det første kapittelet i boken ‘Herskap og tjenere’ av Aslak Sira Myhre er først og fremst en godt skrevet oppvekstskildring som etterhvert gir seg i kast med å kritisere i øst og vest, uten å konkret forklare hvem eller hva den kritiserer. Det strøs rundt med begreper som ‘miljøbevegelsen’, ‘abstrakt olje’ og ‘konkret olje’. ‘Abstrakt olje’ er visstnok en metafysisk olje som bare folk som bor i Oslo (eventuelt på Østlandet) har hørt om.

I det andre kapittelet begynner Aslak med en kritikk av diverse uspesifiserte Oslo-borgere som ansetter polakker til å jobbe for seg, og fortsetter med en lang tirade mot det norske oljefondet. Den siste kritikken er forsåvidt ganske velbegrunnet og interessant å lese. Kapittelet avsluttes med en del gode idéer som jeg tror de fleste venstreradikalere kan være enige i, så som at polakker og andre utenlandske arbeidere må få Norsk statsborgerskap og Norsk tariff, og at det offentlige må slutte å presse prisene i bygg og anleggsbransjen.

Kapittel nummer tre begynner dårlig allerede i tittelen, ‘Miljø som metafysikk’. Stort sett brukes kapittelet til å fyre av mange salver mot en heller obskur ‘miljøbevegelse’. Det blir aldri helt klart hva eller hvem denne bevegelsen består av, selv om navn som Natur og Ungdom, Zero og Bellona nevnes. I dette kapittelet dukker også begrepet ‘venstresiden’ opp, som ser ut til å være en betegnelse for AP og SV (ikke Rødt). Kapittelet inneholder igjen en del fine skildringer fra barndommen til Aslak, i tillegg til noen morsomme anekdoter (som at FRP på slutten av 80-tallet ville stoppe bygging av drivhus og rive en del eksisterende – for å få bukt med drivhuseffekten).

Det fjerde kapittelet er definitivt det beste i boken. Det er for det meste en lang og sammenhengende kritikk av Norges krig i Afghanistan, i tillegg til sammenligninger mellom Sovjet og Norges likheter i krigføringen. Argumentene, poengene og likhetene er slående og godt oppsummert.

Til slutt kommer det vanskelige siste kapittelet, som viser seg å være det dårligste. Det starter med at Aslak funderer over hvorfor han kaller seg kommunist og regelrett skammer seg, selv om han ikke er sikker på om det er hans eget ubehag eller selve kommunismen han skammer seg over. Mitt råd til Aslak er simpelthen å ikke lenger kalle seg kommunist hvis han skammer seg over å gjøre det. Allerede på den første siden møter man på et kritisk spørsmål;

‘Finnes det i det hele tatt noen praktisk politisk grunn til å kalle seg kommunist i begynnelsen av det 21. århundret?’

Svaret er opp til hver enkelt å avgjøre for seg selv, men jeg skal, i anmeldelsens, politikkens og debattens tjeneste her presentere mine argumenter for hvorfor nettopp mitt svar på dette spørsmålet er et rungende ‘Ja!’;

• Kommunister kan (kjempe for å) forandre verden (i første omgang Norge) ved å propagandere, aksjonere for og verve medlemmer til kommunistiske parti.
• Kommunister kan (kjempe for å) forandre verden ved å bruke sin stemmerett til å stemme i kommunistisk og sosialistisk retning.

Videre sukker og akker Aslak seg over situasjonen til ‘venstresiden’ i Norge, og spør seg hvor ønsket om grunnleggende forandring kommer fra. Hvis ikke kommunismen kan innføres i Norge, uansett hvor dårlig situasjonen synes å være, hvordan skal den da kunne innføres i resten av verden (det siste synes å være mesteparten av grunnen til (håpet?) at Aslak fortsatt kaller seg kommunist)? Deretter avslutter han kapittelet og boken med å beskylde deler av det kommunistiske miljøet i Norge for å være sekterisk, og tillegger ‘venstresiden’ en haug med meninger (imot olje, selvgode, imot økonomisk vekst osv.)

Oppsummert er dette en fin og til dels meget imponerende oppvekstskildring fra Stavanger på 80-tallet. Derimot er den heller dårlig og lite egnet som politisk debattbok, uansett hvor mye den gir seg ut for å være det.

Boken kan kjøpes her!

Review of  ’Herskap og tjenere’ by Aslak Sira Myhre

The first chapter of the book ‘Herskap og tjenere’ by Aslak Sira Myhre is, first and moremost, a wellwritten tale of growing up that eventually starts to criticize to the east and to the west, without explaining concretely who or what it tries to criticize. Terms such as ‘the environmental movement’, ‘abstract oil’ and ‘concrete oil’ are thrown around constantly. ‘Abstract oil’ is, apparently, a metaphysical kind of oil that only people living in Oslo have heard about.

In the second chapter Aslak starts with a critique of different unspecified denizens of Oslo who whire Polish workers, and continiues with a long tirade against the Norwegian oil fund. The last of which is relatively well-reasoned and interesting to read. The chapter is rounded off with a few concepts and ideas that I think most left-radical people can agree with, such as the notion that Polish and other foreign workers must become Norwegian citizens of state, receive Norwegian salaries, and that official contractors must stop trying to pull the prices in the construction business.

Chapter three starts badly even in the title, ‘The environment as metaphysics’. By and large the chapter is used to fire many shots at a rather obscure ‘environmental movement’. Who or what this movement consists of never becomes quite clear, even though names such as ‘Natur & Ungdom’, Zero and Bellona are mentioned. In this chapter you’ll also find the term ‘leftist movement’, which seems to be a term used to describe AP (Labour Party) and SV (Socialistic Left Party) (not Rødt (Red)). The chapter contains some nice passages from Aslak’s childhood, in addition to some nice anecdotes (such as the fact that FRP (Progress Party) at the end of the 80s wanted to stop the building of greenhouses and tear down some existing ones – to cope with greenhouse gases).

The fourth chapter is decidedly the best in one the book. It is, for the most part, a long and continious critique of Norway’s participation in the Afghanistan war, in addition to comparisons of Sovjet and Norway’s similarities in the way the war was waged. The arguments, points and similarities are striking and well summarized.

Finally comes the last chapter, that turns out to be the worst. It starts with Aslak pondering why he calls himself a communist , which leads to being ashamed, though he’s not sure if it’s his own discomfort or communism itself which leads to this feeling. My advice to Aslak is to simply not call himself a communist if he’s ashamed by it. Already on the first page, one hits upon a very critical question;

‘Is there even a practical political reason to call oneself a communist at the beginning of the 21. century?’

The answer should be judged by whomsoever reads this article, but I will, in the for the purpose of this review, politics at large and for the purpose of debate, present my views on why the answer to this question is a resounding ‘Yes!’;

• Communists can (fight to) change the world (first and foremost Norway) by propagandizing, working for and otherwise gaining members to communistic parties.
• Communists can (fight to) change the world by using their votes to vote in a communistic and socialist direction.

Aslak continiues by sighing and pouting about the situation of the ‘leftist movement’ in Norway, and asks himself where the need to reform society is coming from. If communism cannot be brought into play in Norway, no matter how bad the situation seems to be, how then will it be brought into play in the rest of the world (which seems to be most of the reason (hope?) for why Aslak continiues to call himself a communist)? He then closes off the chapter and the book by declaring parts of the Norwegian ‘leftist movement’ to be sectarian, and ascribes the ‘leftist movement’ a pile of meanings (against oil, arrogant, against economic growth etc.)

Summarized, this is a nice and  quite impressive account of growing up in Stavanger during the 80s. On the other hand, it’s poor and quite useless as a political book of discussion, no matter how much it claims to be just that.

The book can be bought here!

Unfortunately for English readers, it is currently unavailable in English.

Lately I’ve been making a small network library in C#, mostly aimed at server applications.

I was wondering what I’d call it, but I figured I’d just throw myself onto the Apple wave of naming everything ‘i + The Name’. So I called it iNet. Neat, huh?

The library can be downloaded from here!

Includes sourcecode and a tiny, tiny serverapplication that demonstrates how to use the library.

I made a new book!

It contains images from the Melody Gardot concert as well as many interesting images I took when I was in Oslo.

You can buy it here.

You will be able to preview the first 15 pages before you buy.

Oslo Concert House, 1st of May 2010

Melody Gardot is a musical tour de force. Together with her group of extremely talented backup/session musicians, she forms an impressive musical machine.

As it turns out, all good machinery takes a while to start up.

After the warmup act had played 8 or 9 songs about love in Spanish (enough to get certain crowd member(s) to start booing), it took an additional 4 – 6 minutes for miss Gardot to show up on stage.

Once she did though, it was 6th gear and full throttle from beginning to end.

Starting out with an extended and spiced-up version of ‘Your Heart Is As Black As Night’, Melody and her musicians soared through extended versions of practically every song from her second album, ‘My One And Only Thrill’, ending with a soothing ‘Somewhere Over The Rainbow’ some one and a half hours later.

Each song seems to have been practiced to the point where each performance is unique, sounding slightly different based on the musicians’ mood and the day of the week.

Melody is already, despite her young years, a seasoned entertainer. She knows how to involve the audience in the music, and likes to talk about her life inbetween songs. This (almost) makes a concert with Melody Gardot feel as though the listener is on a musical (and intimate) date with her for the duration of the concert. The listener goes from being merely that, to being a participant in the music itself.

For a 25 year old woman to get a concert hall filled with relatively shy Norwegians, one third of which are twice her age, to stand up and clap consecutively for 6 minutes in order to get an encore is pretty impressive.

In many ways, Melody Gardot is a born entertainer. She has classical good looks, a voice that can make grown men cry, is lightning smart and has a sharp wit. Also, she is a more than competent piano and guitar player in her own right.

Couple this with clean, sharp sound, an amazing light setup that makes you feel as though you are on the stage with Melody as she is playing, in addition to emphasizing each musician during solos, and you have a concert well worth attending!

I might also add that Melody takes the time to come outside after every show to sign CDs and take pictures with whoever has a camera at the ready, as if to underline how much she appreciates that you showed up to listen to her.

As you might already have guessed, this concert gets 5/5 Afr0s!

To check Melody’s touring schedual, go here.

A couple of days ago I witnessed Metallica unleashed in the Telenor Arena outside of Oslo.

It was an experience I’ll be hard pressed to forget. The weather was great, the setlist mindnumbingly good, the sound overwhelming and brutal, and Metallica were at their best. You’d expect nothing less from a concert that sold out in less than an hour.

James Hetfield commands his audience

The setlist

That Was Just Your Life
Cyanide
Fuel
The Shortest Straw
The Day That Never Comes
Of wolf and man
The Judas Kiss
Sad But True
The Unforgiven III
Justice For All
One Master Of Puppets
Battery
Nothing Else Matters
Enter Sandman
Helpless
Phantom Lord
Seek and Destroy

If you’re a diehard Metallica fan (like me), you will have already noticed that The Unforgiven III was played live for the first time ever during this concert, as a special gift to Norwegian fans.

The only negative thing to comment on was the (usual?) insane crowdedness close to the stage. Several people fainted or blacked out during the show, but fortunately there were medical teams handing out free water to people who needed it. The next time I go to a Metallica concert I will seriously consider getting a seat and bringing binoculars, in an effort to combine being able to enjoy the music and watch Metallica closely without running the risk of getting run over.

All in all, I give this concert a strong 4/5 afr0s.

As you might (or might not) have noticed if you’ve been following my blog, I have a passion for animation. Especially traditional animation. So here’s some stuff I’ve been working on;

Esmeralda Facial Animation (Based on ‘God Help The Outcasts’)

Redemption – Short movie I did for an assignment at school

Dog Walkcycle

Bus Stop (Animation done at school)

Bouncing Ball

Cat Jumping Through Hole In Wall (Based on runcycle found in “Animator’s Survival Kit’)

Press Release

Google Games -A division of Google

In an unprecedented 160$ million USD deal, Google aquisitions Afr0 Games (TM) and all it’s assets.

Says Sergei Brin, owner of Google;

“This will strengthen our new Google Games (TM) division, and will ensure that all Android users will be able to download a port of ‘Operation Sourcecode (TM)’ to their phones”.

I don’t normally buy alot of CDs, as I get most of the music I listen to online.

But I made an exception for Kina Grannis‘ new album ‘Stairwells’, and figure since I bought it I might as well review it. My brother got me listening to Kina’s music on ‘YouTube’, and I quickly became a fan.

First of all, Kina is really talented;

She can play guitar, piano, ukulele, glockenspiel and possibly more instruments that I’m not aware of.

She’s also a pretty good lyricist, though some of her songs, lyrically, can feel like they are very much moving into terrain that’s been covered many times before by different artists (love, breakup(s),  how the world can seem very large at times etc.)

Kina Grannis

The arrangements on the album are really good and compliments Kina’s music very well. Alot of her songs can be heard on YouTube (just search for Kina Grannis), so hearing how the arrangements on the CD give the songs an extra dimention is really refreshing.

I would urge you to listen to her music on YouTube before buying her album, and if you like it, I dare say you will like the album as well.

So far, my favourite tracks are:

- Strong Enough

- Valentine

- Together

- Message From Your Heart

- Stay Just A Little

All of those are also available on YouTube, so if you want to buy them separately on iTunes, you can do that.

Lastly it has to be said that if you bother to watch any video of Kina on YouTube, you might become a fan even if the music doesn’t immediately strike your fancy. She has an aura of charm around her and love for her fans (and anyone watching her videos) that radiates through the screen and hits you in the heart.

Overall, I give ‘Stairwells’ 4 of 5 Afr0s.

Wow!

The first handdrawn animated movie from Disney in a decade, and you can’t help wondering if they still have the magical touch that they used to have. This movie is the answer, and without a doubt it spells out a resounding ‘yes’!

For a movie with the title ‘The Princess And The Frog’, you might be more than a little surprised to learn that the main character isn’t a princess at all, but a hardworking girl from New Orleans named Tiana. In addition to spearheading Disney’s reentrance to handdrawn animation, she’s the first black princess to ever star in a Disney movie.

Disney has gone down alot of unusual paths for this film, but it serves to make it stand out and give it a special feeling. Among some of the unusual paths is the fact that one of the main characters is killed towards the end of the movie, which is another first. However, the death is handled in a very bittersweet way and doesn’t leave you alot of time to be too sad before the grand, unsurprisingly, happy, ending.

Tiana on the balcony

It is also worth noting that the animation is absolutely top notch. This feature feels vibrant and full of life, even in the age of Avatar. The use of strong, bold colours and handpainted backgrounds doesn’t hurt either. Add to that a fantastic score by Randy Newman, great singing ability by the performers and old-school slapstick humour, and you have a movie well worth watching!

When I first heard about this movie and learned that it would be directed by John Musker and Ron Clements, I was actually a little worried. The pair have made great movies in the past such as ‘Aladdin’ and ‘The Little Mermaid’, and while their last effort, ‘Treasure Planet’, wasn’t bad, it wasn’t terrific either. Their last movie was also, coincidentally, the last handdrawn movie to be made by the Disney studio. Until now.

So are the directors able to live up to their former glory? The short answer is ‘yes’. The story is a classic fairytale about the princess kissing the frog that turns into a prince. Only this time, it has a twist. Tiana isn’t a princess, so she’s turned into a frog, and must grudgingly travel into New Orleans’ bayou area to find an old voodo lady called ‘Mama Odie’. Before coming that far, however, she manages to learn the prince a thing or two about hard work (this is a very lazy prince!), and realizes that he may not be as bad as she initially thought he was. Needless to say, the pair has to go through alot of hurdles to transform themselves back into humans, and they manage to stumble upon a great cast of comic reliefs along the way. These sidekicks can be a bit childish and probably somewhat annoying for the average adult viewer, but this is ultimately not an adult movie. The story also feels like it takes a bit too long to reach it’s main story archs, but this is largely very easy to ignore in favour of great music, animation, artwork and song.

To summarize, this is a definate return to former glory for Disney, and a triumphant victory for all involved! This movie deserves no less than 4/5 afr0s.