J. K. Rowling is on Twitter - or, in a nut shell: Copy and Paste

Joanne K. Rowling
(I like this picture!)

Anm.: Deutsche Version dieses Blogs hier.
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If you are, as I am, a fan of Joanne K. Rowling's works, aka the Harry Potter saga, you are always happy to find some new bits and pieces from her on the news or in other places.

Not things said and written  about  her, mind you, in articles or TV shows whatsoever, but stuff she said or wrote herself  —  genuine Rowling :-)!

In these modern days of age that we live in, you will probably roam the Internet for information and updates on persons and topics you like, and  you will also check out especially Social Networking portals, like (among others) MySpace, Facebook and Twitter.

The World's largest Birdhouse ...

So, quite a long while ago, I was excited, really, when I found out that Ms Rowling indeed is on Twitter. The account has the check sign for "Verified Account", so it's the real deal.

"Awesome!"  —  that's what I thought, and, without further ado or reading ahead, clicked to follow her. I was (and am not) alone with this, because there is a six digit number of people who also follow her.

But I seriously ask myself: What for?

If you want to sum up what Harry Potter is about, you will need quite a while, unless you just say "Boy with magic powers defeats evil wizard; the whole thing takes friggin' seven books to happen."  Of course this does not do the thing justice, and you will need a bit more time and space to show someone what Harry Potter is about.

Now, if you want to get an overview of what Ms Rowling has been up to on Twitter ... well, let's say: This task will not take you very long, no matter what.

I take it that she made the account mainly to be present on Twitter, as many enough impostors had made fake accounts, obviously, and presumably also to easily scan the site for mentions of her, to see what ticks out there in the world. So far, so good  —  a clever and reasonable move.

She made her first tweet on September 17th 2009. Her most current tweet dates of today (February 24th 2011). What has been going on during this time, can indeed be said in a nutshell, or, even easier, shown in a screenshot. Here you go ...

(click on the image to enlarge)

Not exactly thrilling, is it? And: Yes, this is actually  all  there is to find on that account up to now.

But: Who knows ... maybe, some day, something more than a copy and paste every six months or so will actually happen there. Today, there has already a "STILL" been sneaking in!

So:

If you don't want to miss out on

any possible future excitements,

you better follow

J. K. Rowling on Twitter,

ha ha :-)!

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Blog articles related to Joanne K. Rowling's Pottermore:

Joanne K. Rowling announces "Pottermore"

One in a Million: RainKnight137 at Pottermore

RainKnight137 crossed the Gates of Pottermore

News from Pottermore: RainKnight137's Sorting and Wand

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The Complete Works of Joanne K. Rowling
and more from Harry Potter's world
can be found
here!

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Elektrizität - Eine Entschuldigung an meine Haarbürste (German translation of former blog post)

Nicht meine Wenigkeit;
nur ein Beispiel-Bild aus dem Internet

Note: English version of this blog entry here.

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Wenn Ihr, so wie ich, schon ein paar Jahresringe auf dem Buckel habt und (einfach ausgedrückt) schon ein bisschen älter seid, dann sied Ihr vielleicht auch schon in den späten 1960’er und frühen 1970’er Jahren auf der Welt gewesen.

Und wenn dem so ist, dann wisst Ihr aus persönlicher Erfahrung, dass die Mode damals ein bisschen, na, ich will mal sagen grausam  zu uns war, was Farben und Muster angeht, und auch in Bezug auf die Materialien, aus denen zum Beispiel Pullover gemacht waren. Diese Aussage ist, so im Rückblick besehen, wahr,  und ich lasse mich da auf keine Diskussion ein, denn hier spricht jemand, der das alles erlebt und erlitten hat!

Und obgleich Modedesigner unserer Tage diese zumindest fragwürdige Periode der menschlichen Kultur wiederentdeckt haben, stehe fest ich zu meiner Aussage, dass Kleidung in jener Zeit nicht dafür gemacht war, besonders bequem oder tatsächlich stylish zu sein. Es waren Versuche, in eine neue Gefühlswelt hinüberzuschwingen und die Hemd-Krawatte-Anzug und Petticoat Attitüde der 1950’er Jahre hinter sich zu lassen, nehme ich mal an. Und weil dieses Bedürfnis offenbar ein recht dringliches war, sind die Designer damals möglicherweise ein bisschen ins Kraut geschossen  -  ganz egal, ob da jetzt Marihuana bei im Spiel war oder nicht. Können wir uns darauf einigen?

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Na, ich will jetzt hier aber nicht etwa einen Vortrag über Farben und Muster halten, sondern herausstellen, woraus insbesondere Pullover damals gemacht waren. Nicht viel Wolle war da zu finden, oder Baumwolle, oder sonstige, zumindest teilweise natürliche Materialien, sondern stattdessen viel Plastik mit verschiedenen Namen –  nicht weiter wichtig.

Der Effekt, den diese Pullover auf meine Haare hatte … darüber möchte ich heute sprechen!

Auch hier ist nicht der Autor selbst im Bild
... er hat übrigens viel längeres Haar, haha :-)!

Man zog die Pullover also an, und dann (was noch schlimmer war) wieder aus, und dann wurde das Haar auf dem Kopf elektrifiziert, und zwar so, das man das elektrostatische Knistern auch aus der Ferne noch hören konnte, und man sah sogar Funken von den Haaren sprühen, wenn der Raum verdunkelt war! Und es war nicht nur das, sondern: Durch die statische Aufladung wurde das Haar irgendwie gruselig – es blieb sozusagen magnetisch am Gesicht und am Schädel kleben, auf wirklich sehr lästige Weise. Und Kämmen oder Bürsten war vollkommen nutzlos, denn jedes einzelne Haar schien plötzlich ein Eigenleben zu entwickeln..

Erinnert Ihr Euch an den Satz „Meister … es LEBT!!“ aus dem Roman (oder für das Jungvolk hier: aus dem Film) FRANKENSTEIN? Tja, diese Kreatur wurde ebenfalls durch Elektrizität zum Leben erweckt!

Ich habe das gehasst. Ernsthaft! Und ich war sooo glücklich als, durch das Fortschreiten der Evolution oder wodurch auch sonst immer sich die Dinge in der Mode wandelten und die meisten Pullover damit aufhörten, Schabernack mit meinen Haaren zu treiben. Puuha!

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Nun ja … ein bisschen zu früh puuha  gesagt, wie’s scheint …

Jawohl, lange Haare ...

Ihr müsst wissen: Zum zweiten Mal in meinem Leben habe ich nun langes Haar. Sehr langes Haar. Wirklich richtig langes Haar. Die längsten haare, die je ein männlicher Vorfahr von mir hatte – na, jedenfalls so weit ich das weiß. Und ich beabsichtige, dies auch noch eine Weile lang so zu halten. Im Prinzip, jedenfalls …

Allerdings … Es gibt da etwas, das mich ins Grübeln gebracht hat.

Es hat vor etwas mehr als einem halben Jahr angefangen. Mein Haar hat auf einen Schlag damit begonnen, wieder diese elektrischen Attitüden an den Tag zu legen, die ich weiter oben beschrieben habe … Und das ist passiert, ohne dass ich meinen Kleidungs-Stil etwa zurück zu Klamotten aus den 1970’er Jahren entwickelt habe. Es war einfach so, dass beim Haare bürsten urplötzlich wieder diese wohlbekannte statische Aufladung da war, und dass mein Haar wieder in altbewährter Manier an meinem Gesicht klebte. Und Ihr dürft mir glauben: Dass ich mittlerweile einen Bart trage, ist in dieser Sache alles andere als hilfreich!

Dieses „Festsaugen und Pappen“ ist schon mit kurzem Haar nervig  —  aber mit dem, was ich mittlerweile auf meinem Kopf habe, wird die Sache schlicht und ergreifen grotesk. Ich habe das Ganze von Anfang an nicht gemocht und daher versucht, die Ursache zu finden, die die Lästigkeit ausgelöst hatte.

Da ich seit Jahren immer das gleiche Shampoo verwende, konnte dies nicht der Bösewicht sein, der auf einmal meine Mähne so in Aufruhr gebracht hatte. Deshalb dachte ich einen Schritt weiter: Die Haarbürste! Denn die elektrische Aufladung ging immer dann los, wenn ich mein Haar bürstete.

Also habe ich nun versucht, mein Haar auf andere Weise zu bürsten: Langsamer, oder auch schneller als gewöhnlich. Ich hielt mein Haar mit der anderen Hand fest, um möglicherweise die elektrische Ladung abzuleiten (Haha, bitte um Nachsicht … in Physik bin ich eine Niete!), und ich habe auch versucht, meine Bürste von den Rückständen zu reinigen, die sich an den Borsten ansammeln  — es ging soweit, dass ich die Bürste über Nacht in Spülmittelwasser eingeweicht und am nächsten Morgen den Schmadder entfernt habe.

Der Effekt war zweigestaltig: Meine Bürste muss vermutlich die sauberste Bürste in unserer Region der Galaxie gewesen sein. Aber meinen Haaren war das schnurz  —  bei jedem neuen Versuch, ihnen Richtung und modischen Pfiff (oder was auch immer) zu verleihen, zelebrierten sie wieder den Aufstand.

Also habe ich eine Entscheidung getroffen … Da ich annahm, dass die Metallborsten der Bürste der wahre Grund für den gefürchteten 1970’er Haar-Elektroschock-Effekt waren (und in echter Entrüstung über meine gute Haarbürste, die mir seit bestimmt fünf Jahren stets gute Dienste geleistet hatte!), habe ich mir eine neue Haarbürste gekauft. Sie ist von schicker schwarzer Farbe und hat  Plastikborsten.

Problem gelöst? Nö. Es knistert immer noch, wenn ich bürste, und mein Haar schlängelt und schmiegt sich um mein Gesicht wie eine Seeanemone um einen Clownfisch.

Das einzige, das, wie ich herausgefunden habe, in der Lage ist, „die Spannung zu brechen“, ist, wenn ich meine Hände mit Wasser benetze und diese Feuchtigkeit dann in meine Haare bringe. Dann vergeht jedes Funken schlagen. Ist aber nicht gut, denn dann wird mein Haar feucht und schwer, auch wenn ich das gar nicht will.

Klarer Fall von Fashion Victim, richtig?

Deshalb möchte ich mich nun an dieser Stelle bei meiner alten Haarbürste entschuldigen … Ich habe eine lange und erfolgreiche Beziehung beendet, ein Partnership in Style,  und zwar wegen einer falschen Schlussfolgerung. Sherlock Holmes rotiert jetzt wahrscheinlich in seinem Grab …

Gehab Dich wohl, Bürsti  —  wohin auch immer Deine Reise, die in meinem Mülleimer begonnen hat, Dich auch verschlagen haben mag.

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Aber  —  ich glaube immer noch, das irgendwas im Gange ist in Sachen Haarbürsten und meinem statischen Ladungsproblem. Schaut Euch mal dieses letzte Bild hier an … Ich schwöre, dass es keine Fälschung ist:

Wollt Ihr mich auf den Arm nehmen??
ICH  KANN  DEN  SCHALTER  SEHEN !!

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Ulrik Munther, BOYS DON'T CRY

Ulrik Munther

BOYS DON'T CRY

Have you ever done something you can't change?
Something you can never rearrange?
I have, I have ...
Have you ever felt so sad you can hardly stand?
Lying on the ground, head in your hands?
I have, I have ...

I can feel it all down deep inside
But oh, I want to let these feeling rise

But boys don't cry
But boys don't cry
I know it will be fine
But boys don't cry

Have ever tried to smile and hide your pain
Even though you're really not okay?
I have, I have ...
Have you ever been caught in the pouring rain
Wondering if anything can ever feel the same again, yeah

You try to be proud of who you are
But still you got to let those teardrops fall away

But boys don't cry
But boys don't cry
I know it will be fine
But boys don't cry

Have you ever done something you can't change?
Something you can never rearrange?
I have, I have ...
Have you ever felt so sad you can hardly stand?
Lying on the ground, head in your hands?
I have, I have ...

Boys don't cry
Boys don't cry

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subscribe to Ulrik's YouTube channel

visit Ulriks's official website

listen to BOYS DON'T CRY on Spotify

buy BOYS DON'T CRY on iTunes

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Solitary Shell

Dream Theater

SIX DEGREES OF INNER TURBOLENCE

Part VI

Solitary Shell

Lyrics by

John Petrucci

Music by

John Myung, John Petrucci, Mike Portnoy, Jordan Rudess

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He seemed no different from the rest
Just a healthy normal boy
His mama always did her best
And he was daddy's pride and joy

He learned to walk and talk on time
But never cared much to be held
And steadily he would decline
Into his solitary shell

As a boy he was considered somewhat odd
Kept to himself most of the time
He would daydream in and out of his own world
But in every other way he was fine

He's a Monday morning lunatic
Disturbed from time to time
Lost within himself
In his solitary shell

A temporary catatonic
Madman on occasion
When will he break out
Of his solitary shell

He struggled to get through his day
He was helplessly behind
He poured himself onto the page
Writing for hours at a time

As a man he was a danger to himself
Fearful and sad most of the time
He was drifting in and out of sanity
But in every other way he was fine

He's a Monday morning lunatic
Disturbed from time to time
Lost within himself
In his solitary shell

A momentary maniac
With casual delusions
When will he be let out
Of his solitary shell

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From Dream Theater's brilliant album
SIX DEGREES OF INNER TURBULENCE

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The Girl who silenced the World for 5 Minutes

Deutsche Version dieses Blogs hier.

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This is a speech held at the Earth Summit 1992 in Rio de Janeiro,

by, back then, 12 year old Severn Cullis-Suzuki from Canada.

The video recording of this speech has become known as

"The Girl who silenced the World for 5 Minutes"

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Hello, I'm Severn Suzuki speaking for E.C.O. - The Environmental Childrens Organisation. We are a group of twelve and thirteen-year-olds trying to make a difference: Vanessa Suttie, Morgan Geisler, Michelle Quigg and me.

We raised all the money ourselves to come five thousand miles to tell you adults you must change your ways. Coming here today, I have no hidden agenda. I am fighting for my future. Losing my future is not like losing an election or a few points on the stock market. I am here to speak for all generations to come.

I am here to speak on behalf of the starving children around the world whose cries go unheard.

I am here to speak for the countless animals dying across this planet because they have nowhere left to go.

I am afraid to go out in the sun now because of the holes in the ozone. I am afraid to breathe the air because I don't know what chemicals are in it.

And now we hear about animals and plants going extinct every day — vanishing forever.

In my life, I have dreamt of seeing the great herds of wild animals, jungles and rainforests full of birds and butterflies, but now I wonder if they will even exist for my children to see.

Did you have to worry about these little things when you were my age?

All this is happening before our eyes and yet we act as if we have all the time we want and all the solutions. I'm only a child and I don't have all the solutions, but I want you to realize, neither do you!

1. You don't know how to fix the holes in our ozone layer
2. You don't know how to bring salmon back up a dead stream
3. You don't know how to bring back an animal now extinct
4. And you can't bring back forests that once grew where there is now desert

If you don't know how to fix it, please stop breaking it!

Here, you may be delegates of your governments, business people, organizers, reporters or politicians - but really you are mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers, aunts and uncles - and all of you are somebody's child.

I'm only a child yet I know we are all part of a family, five billion strong, in fact, 30 million species strong.

I'm only a child yet I know we are all in this together and should act as one single world towards one single goal.

In my anger, I am not blind, and in my fear, I am not afraid to tell the world how I feel.

In my country, we make so much waste, we buy and throw away, buy and throw away, and yet Northern countries will not share with the needy. Even when we have more than enough, we are afraid to share, we are afraid to let go some of our wealth

And this is what one child told us:

"I wish I was rich and if I were,

I would give all the street children food, clothes,

medicine, shelter and love and affection."

If a child on the street who has nothing, is willing to share, why are we who have everything still so greedy?

I cant stop thinking that these children are my age, that it makes a tremendous difference where you are born, that I could be one of those children living in the Favelas of Rio; I could be a child starving in Somalia; a victim of war in the Middle East or a beggar in India.

I'm only a child yet I know if all the money spent on war was spent on ending poverty and finding environmental answers, what a wonderful place this Earth would be!

At school, even in kindergarten, you teach us to behave in the world. You teach us:

1. not to fight with others,
2. to work things out,
3. to respect others,
4. to clean up our mess,
5. not to hurt other creatures,
6. to share - not be greedy.

Then why do you go out and do the things you tell us not to do?

Do not forget why you're attending these conferences, who you're doing this for — we are your own children. You are deciding what kind of world we will grow up in. Parents should be able to comfort their children by saying everything's going to be alright, it's not the end of the world and were doing the best we can.

But I don't think you can say that to us anymore. Are we even on your list of priorities?

My father always says: "You are what you do, not what you say."

Well, what you do makes me cry at night.

You grown-ups say you love us.

I challenge you:

 Please make your actions reflect your words!

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Electricity - An Apology to my Hair Brush

Not yours truly;
examplary picture from the web only

If you, like me, have been around the block a few times already and (plainly speaking) are a little bit older, you may have been around during the late 1960's and  beginning 1970's. 

And if you were, then you know from personal experience that fashion back then was a bit, say, cruel to us, colour and pattern wise, and also in regards of the materials that e.g. sweaters were made of. This statement is true in retrospect,  and I will not have any discussion on that, as it is coming from a person who was there!

And although current fashion designers have re-discovered this (at least) questionable period of human culture, I will stand firm on my saying that clothes back then were not designed to be comfy or even really stylish. It were attempts to swing over to a new feeling, leaving behind the  shirt-tie-suit and petticoat attitude  from the 1950's, I guess. And as, obviously, the urge to do so was pretty urgent, designers went a bit overboard, maybe  -  marijuana induced or not. Can we agree on that?

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Well, I do not want to hold a lecture on colours and patterns here, but I want to point to what especially sweaters were made of back then. Not much wool, cotton or other at least partly natural stuff, but a lot of plastic, carrying various names  -  never mind.

The effect that these sweaters had on my hair is what I want to talk about!

Again: In view is not the author
... he's got wayyy longer hair, haha :-)!

So you pulled them on, or, even worse, off again, and your hair (no matter if short or long) got electrified in such a way that you could hear the electrostatic cracks from a distance, and would see sparks coming from your hair when the room was dark! And it was not only that, but: Due to the static charge, your hair would become kinda creepy  -  it got stuck magnetically to your face and skull in the most annoying way, and combing or brushing was completely futile, because every single hair seemed to have a life of their own.

Remember the sentence  "Master ... it LIVES!!"  from the novel (or for the younger folk: movie) FRANKENSTEIN? Yep, that creature was brought to life by electricity, too!

I hated that.  Seriously! And I was sooo happy when, due to evolution or whatever, things changed in fashion, and most sweaters stopped playing that kind of havoc with my hair. Phew!

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Well, too early with that  phew, obviously ...

Yep, long hair ...

You know, for the second time in my life, I have long hair now. Really long hair. Seriously long hair. The longest, I guess, that ever a male member of my ancestry had - well, as far as I know. And I intend to keep that up for the time being. Basically.

Although ... Something got me thinking!

It started a bit more than half a year from now. My hair all of a sudden started to develop those electric attitudes I have described above ... and it did so without me changing my style of clothing back to 1970's stuff! It happened just so, that, when brushing it, all of a sudden there was that well known static charge, and my hair started clinging to my face etc. in an all too well known manner. And believe me: That I am wearing a beard now is  not helping  in this matter!

This "suck and stick" is annoying already with short hair - but with what I have on my head now, it becomes downright weird. I did not like what happened from the very start, and tried to find the reason that had triggered the annoyance.

As I am using the same sort of shampoo for years now, this could not be the culprit who all of a sudden made my mane goo all woozy. So I thought one step further: The hair brush! Because the electric charge would appear when I brushed my hair.

So I tried brushing differently: Slower, or faster than normal; I held my hair with  the other hand, to possibly conduct the electricity (Haha! Yeah, don't blame me ... I suck at Physics!), and I tried various stages of cleaning my brush from the residue that remains on the bristles, including soaking the whole brush in dishwashing detergent water for the whole night, and cleaning off the smudge in the next morning.

The effect was two-fold: My brush must have become the cleanest brush in this region of our galaxy. But my hair didn't care - it got riled up with every new attempt to give it direction and fashionable style (or whatever)!

So I made a decision ... Deducing that the metal bristles were the real cause for the dreaded 1970's electroshock hair effect (and seriously loathing my trusted hair brush that had been with me for 5 years at least and always worked fine!), I bought another brush. It is of a fancy black colour, and it has  plastic  bristles.

Problem solved? Nope. It still crackles when I brush, and my hair cuddles and clings against my face like the tentacles of a sea anemone around a clown fish.

The only thing that, as I found out, is able "to break the tension" is if I sprinkle a little bit of water on my hands and bring that moisture to my hair. Then any sparkliness vanishes. Not good, though, as my hair then gets a bit moist and heavy, even if I don't want it to.

Can we say Fashion Victim?

So, I hereby apologize in all sincerity to my former hair brush ... I ended a long and successful  relation, a partnership in style, due to a faulty deduction. Sherlock Holmes would rotate in his grave ...

Godspeed to you, Brushy - whereever your voyage, that started in my trash bin, may have taken you now. I am sorry I mistrusted you.

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But - I do think that something is going on, still, with hair brushes and my electrostatic charging problem. Check out this final picture here ... I swear it's no fake:

Are you kidding me??
I  CAN  SEE  THE  SWITCH !!

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Mick Karn (feat. David Sylvian), BUOY

Mick Karn
BUOY

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Underneath a burning sun
There's always work to be done
We take much more than we care to give away

You'll be the moth, I'm the flame
I'll bless you and keep you safe and sound
Until sunrise comes around again

I'm like a mountain made of stone
I'm like a new day dawning
I'll be here every morning, close to you

We'll sail on a river, way out to the Baltic sea
Love will keep us together
And the tide will draw you close to me
(Never words so true, never words so wise)
Love will keep us together
'Cause there's more to this than meets the eye

I burn a candle in your place
I picture the passions on your face
Feelings that rise on a wave and fall away

All the pleasures have returned
All of the lessons I should have learned
Return again to light, for us to see

You're like the map of buried gold
I search for treasures in your soul
And when I'm gone, you'll know I will come back to you

We'll sail on a river, way out to the Baltic sea
Love will keep us together
And the tide will draw you close to me
(Never words so true, never words so wise)
Love will keep us together
'Cause there's more to this than meets the eye

I'm like a mountain made of stone
I'm like a new day dawning
I'll be here every morning, close to you

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Mick Karn (feat. David Sylvian)
BUOY

as MP3 download





The song is taken from
Mick Karn's album
DREAMS OF REASON PRODUCE MONSTERS

on CD

as MP3 Download




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Mick Karn (July 24th 1958 – January 4th 2011)

In the beginning 1980's,

when I discovered the British band

JAPAN,

I not only encountered,

by their singer

David Sylvian,

a voice that would be special to me

over the decades

until today.

I discovered their bass player

Mick Karn.

Apart from the bass guitar,

he played many instruments,

he sang,

 composed music,

wrote lyrics,

he drew and painted,

and he was a sculptor.

Yet,

Mick's unique way of
playing the fretless bass guitar

was what hit me.

It was like nothing I had ever heard before:

Melodic, complex,

downright unpredictable,
iconic, archetypal,

and of the utmost beauty.

No one among my friends

back then in the 1980's

and until now

ever shared my fascination

for Mick's way of making music.

I did not care.

And I still don't.

I am used to finding stuff

that gets into the very core of me

as if it belonged there from the beginning

and yet

is something that is mine alone

because

no one else I know can really get on board with it
or even knows about it in the first place.

It is a lonely way of cherishing things.

But: I don't mind.

I am glad that I found Mick's music,

that it has been so fascinating for me

over all these years,

and this will always be so.

Godspeed, Mick.

I'll see you in another life, brother.

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Listen to one of Mick's songs here:

Mick Karm
feat. David Sylvian
BUOY

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Music of Mick Karn
on CD and as MP3 download
here

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