villia

David Bowie – Blackstar

19 November 2015 by villia Leave a Comment

David Bowie ★

What can I say? Just watched this for the first time. I have no idea what to think. Bowie has a way of doing that. He creates something completely unexpected. Sure, he is a very talented artist, but the unpredictability and the willingness to take risks is probably why I regard him as the best rock star of all time. No competition. There are lots of great musicians, great stars, but Bowie is the man. Nobody else has managed to stay interesting (not always really good, but always interesting) for 50 years.

So, what do I think? No idea. Last time I had this WTF feeling after hearing a new Bowie song was in 1995 when he released 1.Outside. That was weird, difficult, unaccessible, but after listening to it a few times, it became a favourite.

As for this. ★ It seems to be about religion. Jesus is a scarecrow, Ahmen, a solitary candle at the centre of it all, the book with the ★, the women kneeling on the day of execusion. It definitely seems to be about religion, but it doesn’t glorify it. It makes it scary. People seem to have lost all individuality. They are spastic in their prayer. On the day he died.

Musically, it reminds me a bit of David Byrne and St. Vincent.

But what do I know? Except that this song is a real achievement. Bowie could easily be churning out China Girl like songs into eternity, basking in the glory of his past. But that would be boring. He doesn’t do boring. That’s why he’s the man.

Now, I’m off to watch this again. See if I can make sense of it.

Zouheir

16 November 2015 by villia Leave a Comment

The name of security guard that stopped one of the killers from entering the stadium in Paris is Zouheir. He is a Muslim and this is somehow a big deal. I don’t see why.

Being somehow surprised, relieved or extra happy that the hero is a Muslim seems to indicate some kind of a belief that a Muslim would react differently from a person of another faith. That he would have let the killer in or that he would have had any kind of understanding or sympathy for the killer’s motives.

This is ridiculous. A decent human being will try to stop a murderer and Muslims are just as likely to be decent human beings as people of other faiths.

His name should be remembered and celebrated, but his faith is of no relevance, except to prove to idiots that Muslims are not the problem. Idiots are.

Facebook’s Fear of Death?

31 October 2015 by villia Leave a Comment

Yesterday was the day I discovered Tsü. I’d heard of it, but as I have a mild phobia of signing up to every and any new social media fad, I never paid attention to it. A couple of Facebook friends were posting about this platform and it looked kind of interesting. But it was Facebook itself that sparked my real interest.

Facebook has decided to block all links to Tsü. This is two things. Censorship, and I hate censorship more than anything. And fear. If Facebook is afraid of Tsü, then it must be worth a look.

I signed up. Connected my youTube and Twitter accounts and tried to connect Facebook, but that didn’t go so well. Facebook won’t let anyone post a link to Tsü on their network and they won’t let anyone connect the profiles.

The fact that Tsü promises to be less intrusive is a great thing. They also say they’ll share 90% of the advertising revenue with content creators. That would be the users. Image the content you’ve created for Facebook in the 5-6 years you’ve been there. The photos, posts, links, clicks, likes. It’s enormous. Now, imagine they would share their profits with you, or a charity you choose?

A social network is nothing without users, so here’s hoping that Tsü manage to grow and that they stay true to their vision.

If you want to follow or befriend me on Tsü, go here: http://www.tsu.co/VilliAsgeirsson

What Have You Done, WordPress?

27 October 2015 by villia Leave a Comment

Twitter followers will be well aware that I’ve had some issues with FatCow hosting. They wouldn’t restore my data, they stalled at every opportunity until “the system” deleted the files.

But there was hope. Archive.org’s WayBackMachine did have my site on file and I managed to copy my scribblings into a word processor. It’ll be quite a bit of work to get it all back onto the site in correct order, but it’s a challenge that I have no choice but to accept.

I did have much of my posts in the WordPress iPhone app. I realised that today. I jumped for joy! I could probably use the app to restore much of my posts. I signed into the app with my new login and password… and promptly watched as all my posts disappeared. They were all gone, except for the two posts already on the restored site. Other pages, such as the one with information on my novel disappeared too. It was all gone.

Now, I understand that it may make sense that the website has priority over the app. The app replicates the site. Sure. But would it not be an idea to have the app prompt you if deleting posts is actually what you want to do? If the app had asked if I wanted all the posts gone, I could have pressed the button saying NO. And then looked for a way to get the posts onto the site.

As it is, the website dominated and all my posts, bar the two, were deleted. It was like watching a hacker delete everything from a server in a movie. It was horrible.

So, WordPress team, a suggestion for a future update. Let the app prompt you if you want posts stored in the app – but not on the site – deleted. Let the app give some options. Delete, keep unchanged, move to drafts, publish. Something like that.

Because, after all, our data is what it’s all about and a company that does everything to preserve that data is king.

Resurrected

27 October 2015 by villia 4 Comments

My blog was hosted with FatCow, an American hosting provider. In September 2015, that all went wrong. The account was deleted after my partner which I shared the account with found discrepancies in how he was being charged. He did warn me that the account would go offline, but I was away at the time and failed to make a backup in time. One could say it was my fault. I decided to contact FatCow support and see if they could help me. I didn’t expect much, as it had been my fault, but one can always try.

Now, I’m not saying I was entitled to anything. I should have backed up my site. I can’t blame FatCow for the loss of data. That is all my fault. What I do regret and my problem with FatCow is how they handled the whole thing. What followed were weeks of support hell, broken promises and lost opportunities. They had the data and had they immediately shown interest in restoring it, we would have solved this within days. They could also have said no and that would have been the end of it. My loss, but I would not have been left waiting, hoping and begging for weeks. I would have restored my website much earlier with whatever data I had. It wouldn’t have been offline for a good month.

The site is up now. I will proceed to rebuild it as much as I can. I have the blog text, but any comments and replies are gone for good.

Here’s to a better future!

Berlin – 25 Years of Freedom

9 November 2014 by villia Leave a Comment

Growing up in the shadow of the atomic bomb was an odd experience. I remember sitting in a sand box, playing with a plastic shovel. Possibly eating the black volcanic sand. Another kid said the Russians had more bombs than the Americans. That was scary, because the Russians were the enemy. He said they could wipe out a whole city with one bomb and they had thousands. I probably took a mouthful of sand at that moment. It was the first time I realised that life was dangerous and that the world could actually come to an end.

Later, in my teens, I would read the back of the phone books. They had instructions on what to do in the event of a nuclear attack. Paint the windows they said, then stay away from the windows, cover yourself. Afterwards, see if anyone needed help. They explained how to treat burn wounds and avoid radiation. I wondered if the best thing wouldn’t be to go outside and enjoy the fireworks. Better than survive and die of burns or radiation sickness.

I remember a story from the Cuban Missile Crisis. Someone apparently sat down on the sofa, TV turned on. Gun and a bottle of whisky. Prepared to drink the bottle in no time and use the gun if they announced that the bombs were on the way. Better be gone before the blast got you.

That was the paranoia. The fear. Thankfully, we have been spared this madness for 25 years now. When the Berlin Wall fell, the cold war fizzled out and we could become friends with the east. We could finally accept that Russians were people too. It has been a bumpy ride, ups and downs, crisis here and there, but the threat of nuclear war vanished shortly after 20.000 people crossed Bösebrücke, 25 years ago today.

But there are two things bothering me tonight, on this great anniversary. The first, and most obvious, is that we seem to be heading for another cold war. A pointless and unnecessary confrontation between east and west.

The other thing is that the wall probably wouldn’t have come down, had the east German politburo not made the mistake of telling people they were free to go west. People rose up after being told it was OK. The time had come, communism was crumbling, Poland was experiencing martial laws due to civil unrest, the borders between Hungary and Austria were already open, making the Berlin wall mostly obsolete, but people gathered and the border guards gave up on the day authorities said they could.

What if Günter Schabowski had not said the borders were open? How long would it have taken for the public to denounce their oppressors? How long would the GDR have survived?

The Berlin Wall fell, South-Africa denounced apartheid, but one major wall of shame remains. The one keeping Palestinians trapped. Will they ever be free?

And will we ever be free of the invisible walls we are trapped by? The fear of doing what we think is right? The fear of standing up to authorities that treat us like subjects in a George Orwell novel? Hopefully, some day, we will break down our own private walls of fear. Then the rest will follow.

Happy anniversary, Berlin! See you in three days.
(Photos in this post are taken from my film that will be shown at the Berlin interfilm festival next week)