You Are Here

This month's blog entries were invariably about various different places, countries, cultures, locales and whereabouts...which rapidly digressed and got sucked into the black hole of the Euro football Championships.

(to which I say: YeaY Spain...the capital Y's looking like people cheering with their arms raised in celebration).

So I thought I would end June's entries with the ultimate You Are Here post.

Cause we're all here.

All of this ~all~ of which we can barely wrap our heads around - are here.

Far more than is humanly or artificially comprehend-able - is here.

And there is no doubt far more beyond all this here-esque-ness there is still more to explore - around here.

Stephen Hawking once said "Even if there is only one possible unified theory, it is just a set of rules and equations. What is it that breathes fire into the equations and makes a universe for them to describe?"

What indeed?

From a different quadrant of Hawking's universe, Eduardo Galeano once said from his quadrant

"The light of dead stars travel, and by the light of their splendor they look alive...The voice travels on, leaving the mouth behind."

....but Eduardo would say that, that breathing fire friendly poet soul.

WINNERS OF THE 13th EURO CHAMPIONSHIP: SPAIN !!

Fernando Torres, seen here in red jersey, finally lived up to his billing as one of the world's great strikers Sunday by scoring to give Spain a 1-0 win over Germany and the European Championship title.

Torres showed why he is rated one of the best strikers in the world.

Torres, who had been overshadowed by teammate David Villa all tournament, scored in the 33rd minute of the final to down the three-time European champions and earn his nation's first major title in 44 years.

Spain was a deserved winner of the 13th European Championship.

From the outset, It was all Spain.

Players gathered to throw 69-year-old coach Luis Aragones into the air in celebration, while the massed ranks of Spanish fans sang themselves hoarse with "Viva Espana" as fireworks went off overhead.

What an exciting Championship!!!

Romanian Radio

BBC World Service is to close its Romanian language service. The news and current affairs service is proposing to cease broadcasting on August 1 2008 after 68 years of broadcasting.

BBC Romanian broadcasts for almost four hours a day on radio and also runs a complementary website.

It is the last of the BBC's non-English language services specifically aimed at countries that are EU member states. This will be BBC Worlds Service's only language service closure during this current funding period.

This decision, which has been endorsed by the BBC Trust and the FCO, comes after consideration of audience need to continue broadcasts, the changing media landscape in Romania and the declining impact of the service.

The changes are also made within the context of the very tight financial framework in which BBC World Service operates.

The scale of the competition in radio and all media has intensified since Romania acceded to the EU in 2007.

Broadcasts in Romanian for the Republic of Moldova will also cease, as the Moldovan side of the operation cannot be sustained without the infrastructure of BBC Romanian.The closure will affect 46 staff (30 in Bucharest in Romania; four in Chisinau in Moldova and 12 in London) and will save £1.3 million per annum.

BBC World Service Director Nigel Chapman said: "Like the other European services we closed three years ago, BBC Romanian had its roots in the Second World War.

"It has served its audiences with distinction through the Communist era to the present day.

"The contribution of all BBC Romanian staff has been immense: serving Romanians with innovation and commitment for 68 years. The quality of the current output is of the highest standard".

Nelson's Ninetieth

Art by: Nelson Mandela

Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela born July 18th 1918.

At seven years of age, Rolihlahla Mandela became the first member of his family to attend a school, where he was given the name "Nelson", after the Admiral Horatio Nelson of the Royal Navy, by a Methodist teacher who found his native name difficult to pronounce.

His given name Rolihlahla means "to pull a branch of a tree", or more colloquially, "troublemaker"

He said, "Many years ago there was a historic concert in London, which called for our freedom. Your voices carried across the water and inspired us in our prison cells far away. Tonight we can stand before you, free. But even as we celebrate, let us remind ourselves that our work is far from complete. Where there is poverty and sickness including Aids, where human beings are being oppressed, there is more work to be done. Our work is for freedom for all."

The concert raised funds for Mr Mandela's HIV/Aids charity 46664.

46664 charity was named after the prison number which Mr Mandela was given during the 27 years he spent behind bars for his stand against South African apartheid.

Nelson Mandela was imprisoned on Robben Island where he remained for the next eighteen of his twenty seven years in prison. On the island, he and others performed hard labour in a lime quarry. Prison conditions were very basic. Prisoners were segregated by race, with black prisoners receiving the fewest rations. Political prisoners were kept separate from ordinary ciminals and received fewer priveleges. Mandela describes how, as a D-group prisoner (the lowest classification) he was allowed one visitor and one letter every six months. Letters, when they came, were often delayed for long periods and made unreadable by the prison censors.

Following his release from prison in February 11th 1990, his switch to a policy of reconcilliation and negotiation helped lead the transition to a multi-racial democracy in South Africa. Since the end of apartheid, he has been widely praised even by former opponents.

Mandela has frequently credited Mahatma Gandhi for being a major source of inspiration in his life, both for the philosophy of non-violence and for facing adversity with dignity.

Mandela's leadership through the negotiations, as well as his relationship with President F.W. de Klerk, was recognised when they were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993.

Mandela has received more than 100 awards over four decades, most notably the Nobel Peace Prize.

"During my lifetime I have dedicated myself to the struggle of the African people. I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die".

"We say tonight after nearly 90 years of life, it's time for new hands to lift the burdens. It's in your hands now, I thank you."

Nelson Mandela

Throughout history few have left so indelible an imprint on the international stage as Nelson Mandela. His courage, his compassion and his humanity are among the qualities than have led to this Nobel laureate being recognizedNelson Mandela
Throughout history few have left so indelible an imprint on the international stage as Nelson Mandela. His courage, his compassion and his humanity are among the qualities than have led to this Nobel laureate being recognized as the world's greatest living statesman.It is therefore fitting that the extraordinary imprint of his right hand should so closely resemble the shape of the continent of Africa. It is as though its rhythms, sources of strength and dynamism were reflected in the character of this truly amazing man who is now also a talented artist. Never did a single individual more powerfully symbolize the hopes of a nation. South Africa became free in the way that it did because his hand reached out to all and thus his name became a beacon of hope to oppressed peoples throughout the world as the world's greatest living statesman.It is therefore fitting that the extraordinary imprint of his right hand should so closely resemble the shape of the continent of Africa. It is as though its rhythms, sources of strength and dynamism were reflected in the character of this truly amazing man who is now also a talented artist. Never did a single individual more powerfully symbolize the hopes of a nation. South Africa became free in the way that it did because his hand reached out to all and thus his name became a beacon of hope to oppressed peoples throughout the world

Sparring Spain

Spain beat Russia 3-0 in one highly intense match today.

Vying In Vienna

Germany won 2- 1 against Turkey today.
But will go on to Vienna to play the victor
between Spain and Russia.

Photo: Vienna, Austria

Poisoned Mind In High Park

As per CBC news:

Toronto police say a number of dogs appear to have been poisoned in High Park by consuming antifreeze.
The antifreeze was in buckets of water near a hydrant in the off-leash part of the park, according to police.
At least six dogs became ill in separate incidents after visiting the park over the weekend. Two of the dogs died on Monday night.
Police say dogs will drink water containing antifreeze because it tastes sweet.

A police investigation in Toronto into the poisonings of dogs at a popular city park has taken a bizarre turn.
Toronto police Det. Suzanne Pinto says sources have told investigators that dead raccoons have also been found in High Park, in the city's west end.
The carcasses supposedly looked as they had been deliberately posed, Pinto says.
Pinto says police were told one dead raccoon had its paws placed in front of it and was "holding" a bouquet of flowers, while another was with a dead squirrel.

I'm going to try and be unlike me here and say to the person who has done this [as I doubt there are two], as he [yes, he] will no doubt be tuning in to watch his work on tv, and googling to read all the updates about what he's done, so the likelihood of him finding this post is higher than improbable.

To you I say....

if all this brings you pleasure and gratification, not withstanding the help the complicit and equally-messed-media has unwittingly given you, you probably now possess an ever larger distorted false sense of self, a false sense and semblance of accomplishment, and a belief of achievement-like-impressions, or *being*' something you simply are not, but if you can do all that, and think all that, can you ask yourself why you felt the need to do that?

Why, of all methods and manners of expression, would you chose this?

What part of love don't you understand?

Wouldn't you rather know that, instead of us thinking the way we do about you?

There are always two roads - choose the one that is most difficult for you.
And grow.

Brain Droppings - Pooped Out

George Carlin

May 12 1937 - June 22 2008

I have as much authority as the Pope, I just don't have as many people who believe it.

I'm always relieved when someone is delivering a eulogy and I realize I'm listening to it.

If it's true that our species is alone in the universe, then I'd have to say the universe aimed rather low and settled for very little.

Some people see things that are and ask, Why? Some people dream of things that never were and ask, Why not? Some people have to go to work and don't have time for all that.

Inside every cynical person, there is a disappointed idealist.

Holy Toledo SPAIN!

Holy Toledo Spain knocked out Italy 4-2 om spot-kicks

at Vienna's Ernst Happel Stadium after the teams failed

to score in regulation play or 30 minutes' extra time.

Spain will now play in the semifinals for the first time in

24 years.

Photo: Toldeo, Spain

Summer Solstice

Summer Solstice Meridian

Date: June 21 2008

Moonrise: 23:19

Moonset: 08:04

Distance: (km) 399,353

Illumination: 93.9%

World Refugee Day

Displacement in the 21st Century. A new paradigm

The refugee challenge in the 21st century is changing rapidly. People are forced to flee their homes for increasingly complicated and interlinked reasons. Some 40 million people worldwide are already uprooted by violence and persecution, and it is likely that the future will see more people on the run as a growing number of push factors compound one another to create conditions for further forced displacement.

Today people do not just flee persecution and war but also injustice, exclusion, environmental pressures, competition for scarce resources and all the miserable human consequences of dysfunctional states.
The task facing the international community in this new environment is to find ways to unlock the potential of refugees who have so much to offer if they are given the opportunity to regain control over their lives.

As World Refugee Day, marked on June 20, approaches, refugees in Turkey are faced with many difficulties.

In Turkey, asylum seekers have to wait four years on average to begin a new life in a third country and, during these four years, they don't have the means to integrate into Turkish society or find work. In theory, they are not allowed to travel within Turkey. Meanwhile, for their residence permits they have to pay YTL 370 every six months, and usually they don't have means to do this.
According to statistics from the Turkey office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the number of registered asylum seekers who are waiting in Turkey to be placed with a third country was 19,594 at the end of May of this year. Nearly 5,800 of them are women. During the first four months of this year the UNHCR was able to find a third country for just 2,667 refugees.
Although the nationalities of the asylum seekers and refugees vary over time, at the end of April, 41 percent were Iraqis, 31 percent were Iranians, 11 percent were Somalis and 7 percent were Afghanis.

Portugal Sails Away

As Portugal is launched out of Euro 2008 today, the futures of their main two protagonists slid even more sharply into view. The 3-2 defeat by Germany marked the end of Brazilian coach, Luiz Felipe Scolari's five-year tenure. Portuguese is the third most widely spoken European Language in the world and is the mother tongue to about 200 million people. Countries in which Portuguese is the official language: Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, São Tomé and Príncipe in Africa, Brazil and East Timor in Asia. There are also Portuguese-speaking communities in other countries: large communities of recent immigrants exist in Europe (France, Luxembourg and Germany), in the Americas - United States, Canada and Venezuela, in Africa, South Africa and Australia, there are also small groups of people in the erstwhile Asian colonies. In Portugal a considerable number of citizens can communicate easily in English, French and Spanish.

What a Rush

Russia beat Group D rivals Sweden2-0 to clinch the last berth of Euro 2008 quarterfinals

while holders Greece bowed out without a win after losing 2-1 to Spain on Wednesday.

The Boot kicked 2 In

Italy is a country located in Southern Europe, who beat France 2-0, and comprises the Po River valley, the Italian Peninsula and the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia Italy shares its northern alpine boundary with France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia. The independent countries of San Marino and the Vatican City are enclaves within Italian territory, while Campione d'Italia is an Italian exclave in Switzerland.

The Germinator

Germany, with the third largest economy in the world, and located in the heart of Western Europe, needs to avoid defeat to stay in the tournament, looked nervous in the first half against Austria, but Ballack's strike from 25 metres at the start of the second changed the game and took them through as Group B runners-up behind Croatia. They will go on to face Group A winners Portugal in Basel on Thursday.

Czech-ered Past

Co-host Switzerland of Euro 2008 earned its first ever win at a European Championship football tournament with a 2-0 win over Portugal today.

In Geneva, Turkey made an improbable comeback to beat the Czech Republic, 3-2, and reach the quarterfinals.
The Czechs jumped to a 2-0 lead. But Nihat Kahveci scored two goals in the 87th and 89th minutes to seal the win.

Photo: Switzerland

Russian Remedy

Russia only scored one goal against Spain's 4.

But knocked Greece out with a score of 1-0.

The History of the Russian Federation is brief, dating back to the collapse of the Soviet Union in late 1991. Since gaining it's independence, Russia was recognized as the legal successor to the Soviet Union on the international stage. However, Russia lost it's superpower status as it faced serious challenges in its efforts to forge a new post-Soviet political and economic system. Scrapping the central planning and state ownership of property of the Soviet era, Russia attempted to build an economy with elements of market Capitalism, with painful results. Even today, Russia shares many continuities of political cultural and social structure with it's Tsarist and Soviet past.

Robust Romania

Romania and Italy 1-1

The Golden boys held the Favorites off.

Located in South-East Central Europe, North of the Balkan Peninsula, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, Bordering on the Black Sea, Romania has the 9th largest territory and the 7th largest population witih 22 million people among the European Union member states. Its capital and larggest city is Bucharest, the 6th largest city in the EU with 1.9 million people. In 2007 Sibiu,a large city in Transylvania was chosen as European Capital of Culture. Romania also joined NATO on March 29th 2004, and is also a member of the Latin Union of the Francophonie and of OSCE. Romania is a semi-presidential unitary state.

Crucial Croatia

Croatia beat Germany 2-1 in one well played Croatian lead game.

Some facts:

Croatia is inhabited mostly by Croats, 89.9 per cent of the population. There are around twenty minority groups. Serbs are the largest minority, comprising 4.5 per cent of the total population. The predominant religion is Catholicism at 87.8 per cent, with some Orthodox at 4.4 per cent, and Sunni Muslim at 1.3 per cent minorities. The official and common language is Croatian, it is a South Slavic language, using the Latin alphabet. According to the 2001 census, 96.1 per cent of the population speak Croatian as their first language. And are passionate and focused footballers.

Suisse Done Like Dinner

Turkey is cooking & good to go, having beaten Switzerland 2-1

Population: Over 70 million, but young.
More than half of the population is below 25 years old.
Religion: 99% Muslim, 1% Orthodox, Gregorian, Protestant, Catholic, Jewish
Government: Founded in 1923 Republican Democracy headed by a Prime Minister.
Currency: Turkish Lira. Exchange rates with foreign currency are published daily.
Banks and post office: Are open five days a week.
Passport & Visa: Required for most European & USA passport holders, can be obtained from the ports of entry. Contact Turkisr consulates. USD 45 for Americans, GBP 10 for British, USD 5 for Italians, USD 10 for Dutch, Belgium and Australians.
Voltage: 220 V AC with standard European plug.
Photo: Turkey

No Spain No Gain

Spain beat Russia 4-1 with Hat trick scoring by David Villa

Here is David Villa's villa of Langreo.

Langreo is part of northern Spain, in the province and principality of Asturias,

where fruit and cider are produced, as well as coal mines, foundries, and factories for manufacturing coarse cloth.

Population: 47,000

Plus one star.

Orange Juice

Holland, fortified with Vitamin Dutch enriches the Netherlands.

3 - 0 win over Italy.

Love the Dutch. And their showmanship & sportsmanship.

Didn't get to see the game between France and Romania,

but understand France lost 0 - 0.

Or is that...

Romania won by holding their own, and not letting France to score a goal.

Croatian Corroboration

Croatia, known for it's coastline, and beating Austria 1-0
in the preliminary round at Euro Football 2008.

With a wee nod to Germany for it's 2-0 win over Poland.

Portuguese Persuasion

2 nil over Turkey Euro 2008

Toronto The Good

Toronto, T.O., Hogtown, The Big Smoke, Toronto The Good. T-Dot.
Whatever you want to call it.

Toronto, more specifically Toronto Life Magazine won Magazine of the Year this evening at the National Magazine Awards.

Congratulations to everyone over there for all their work efforts an achievements at http://www.torontolife.com/

A great night had by all.

Tropical Storm Arthur, 1st of hurricane season, hits Yucatan

BELIZE CITY (Reuters) - Flash floods caused by tropical storm Arthur have killed at least five people in southeastern Belize, including a toddler, the government of the tiny Central American country said on Wednesday.

Arthur, the first storm of the year in the Atlantic, dumped over 11 inches of rain across Belize this week as it moved inland, also drenching southern Mexican states.

The body of a 2-year-old boy was found on Tuesday evening. His father had struggled for half an hour in turbulent floodwaters before the infant was washed away.

Two people from the southeastern district of Stann Creek were still missing on Wednesday.
Belize, wedged between Mexico and Guatemala with a population of just 300,000, is best known for its laid-back atmosphere, palm-fringed islands and coral reefs.

Torrential rains from Arthur -- which have also left swathes of southern Mexico waterlogged -- swelled rivers in Belize and wiped away two bridges in the south, severing key transport arteries for Belize's farming and fishing industries.

"This was really a kind of freak occurrence that with the best will in the world, and all the resources in the world, we could not have anticipated," Prime Minister Dean Barrow, who became Belize's first black leader on taking office in February, said this week.

Authorities estimated that 13,000 people across the country were affected by Arthur.

Belize is the last unexplored frontier near our borders, a naturalist's paradise! Belize is a beautiful, peaceful country in Central America in the heart of the ancient Maya World. Ruins abound, and it is the archaeologists dreamland. It is also one of the best kept secrets of the Caribbean.The ancient Mayan civilization once lived throughout Belize, and over 600 of their fascinating ancient cities can still be seen here.

The history of the Mayans began a long time ago, around 2500 B.C. The oldest site appears to be Cuello in Orange Walk. Then came the pre-classic era in which the cities of Lamanai, home to the largest pre-classic structure in the Mayan world, and Cerros prospered. In the classic period, the crowning period for the Mayan Civilization, the enormous sites of Caracol and El Pilar rose out of the forest and ceremonial centers like Xunantunich built lovely temples and pyramids. The prosperity of the Maya didn't last forever, and in 900 A.D. most of the great Maya centres collapsed. But the culture and outposts of the civilization were still alive and cities like Santa Rita and Lamanai still were inhabited when the Spanish came. In fact, Lamanai lasted right up into the 1900s until British sugar cane farmers drove the remaining inhabitants out to make way for their farms.

3 Gorges Dam

The Olympic torch relay has reached Yichang, near the three magnificent valleys, universally known as the Three Gorges, where the Yangtze river snakes through the Daba Mountains.

The region is home to the Three Gorges Dam, the largest hydro-electric power project in the world. Dubbed the biggest engineering feat since the Great Wall, it has taken shape over the last 16 years

The dam has spawned a reservoir 660 km (410 miles) long and about 1km wide, displaced millions of people and submerged many cultural heritage sites.

Environmental groups say the project has wreaked havoc in the region, bringing pollution, soil erosion and landslides, as well as blocking fish migratory routes along the world's third longest river.

But officials believe the benefits outweigh the costs. When its 6,000-tonne turbines begin work - scheduled for next year - they will produce enough electricity to power a sizeable city.

China points out the dam will generate non-polluting power and stop the Yangtze valley flooding, a problem that claimed the lives of an estimated nearly one million people during the 20th Century.

Scientists have claimed the weight of water from the dam reservoir will be so heavy it could even tilt the Earth on its rotational axis by a slight degree, though this will be imperceptible to humans.

Václav Havel's Velvet Revolution

Václav Havel showed Czechoslovakia, and the world, there is hope when there is change.

“The only lost cause is one we give up on before we enter the struggle.”


Awarded the Ambassador of Conscience in 2003 by Amnesty International, former prisoner to President
one man sought to see if it was in fact possible to put the morality in politics - and found the answer was:

Yes.

Morality is possible.

Change is possible.

Hope is essential and indefatigable.

“Isn't it the moment of most profound doubt that gives birth to new certainties? Perhaps hopelessness is the very soil that nourishes human hope; perhaps one could never find sense in life without first experiencing its absurdity...”

But Václav Havel never wavered. He did not remain silent nor did he move out of the country as the authorities wanted. During the repressive communist rule and although he was forced to take menial jobs, he continued writing, speaking out for human rights, and standing up against the communist dictatorship.

In 1977, he co-founded and co-authored Charter 77, a manifesto signed by hundreds of artists and intellectuals protesting the government's refusal to abide by the Helsinki Agreement on Civil and Political Rights. For his continuing courage, he was jailed several different times, and spent in total five years in prison.

After the fall of the Berlin Wall, Václav Havel became the leader of the 'Civic Forum', an organization of groups opposed to the Communist Government. I

In November 1989, massive crowds gathered in Wenceslas Square to challenge that government.President Havel showed great leadership and calm in bringing about a peaceful transition. It became known as the 'Velvet Revolution', and in December he became the first president of the new, free Czechoslovakia.

In 1993, he presided over the peaceful split of Czechoslovakia into two independent nations becoming the first President of the new Czech Republic.

“You do not become a 'dissident' just because you decide one day to take up this most unusual career. You are thrown into it by your personal sense of responsibility, combined with a complex set of external circumstances. You are cast out of the existing structures and placed in a position of conflict with them. It begins as an attempt to do your work well, and ends with being branded an enemy of society.”

Again, there is hope when there is change.

Nepal's Kathmandu will come through their democratic change anew.

Let there always be examples of hope steeped in deep integrity to look to, and draw upon.

Nepal's Quiet Revolution

Nepal's quiet revolution unfolds.
By Charles Haviland BBC News, Kathmandu

Popular opinion turned against the monarchy before its abolition.

Against a yellow-pink sunset sky, the ageing prime minister arrived, waved briefly and walked in so quickly, the band did not even get a chance to play Nepal's new, non-royalist national anthem.
By this time the new assembly members, nearly 600 of them, had been waiting inside all day.

Many are new to politics, one-third are women, and many wore the traditional clothes of their ethnic groups, in a country which until recently stressed uniformity. To this group of men and women fell the task of declaring Nepal a republic.

Towards midnight, they finally did so, voting out the monarchy by an overwhelming 560 votes to four. The crowd in the street roared their approval.

"Vive La Republique!" shouted one banner headline the next morning. The monarchy, the papers said, had been a discredited dynasty that had looted the country and made it one of the world's poorest.

So ends a monarchy which had its roots in a hilltop fortress called Gorkha, the word now used for Nepalese recruits to the British army.

Gyanendra became increasingly unpopular after becoming king.

People liked the fact that his father, the former king, Birendra, would tramp the countryside incognito, asking about people's concerns.

But all that affection was shattered in the 2001 palace massacre.

According to all the evidence, Dipendra, furious at his mother's veto on his choice of bride, gunned down his family and five relatives before allegedly killing himself.

Distraught Nepalis thronged the streets in grief. As the royal cremation pyres smoked, the reverence for the monarchy crumbled. Suspicions worsened for the new king, Birendra's brother Gyanendra, most Nepalis suspected that he and his son, Paras, had planned the killings.After all, Paras and his mother survived the shooting spree, while Gyanendra was out of town. Paras was already loathed. The playboy prince is widely believed to have run down and killed at least two people in drink-driving incidents. Already unpopular, Gyanendra made matters worse by taking on political powers, culminating in a disastrous spell of absolute power in 2005 in which he failed to crush the Maoist rebels and locked up dissenters.

Just as the monarchy was perhaps irrelevant to most Nepalis, getting rid of it will not cure the country's ills.

On Thursday morning, though, the palace staff - their future in doubt of course - quietly lowered the royal standard that used to flutter outside.

What most want above all is peace - which is still not properly in place after the Maoist insurgency. And their next bowl of rice.

They would like justice after years of dismal human rights violations. They would like an end to caste discrimination and corruption.

Those are the counts on which they will judge their new rulers - likely to be the Maoists, who have now entered politics.

Back at the unlovely 1970s royal palace, stray dogs were resting against the gates.

Through the railings could be seen soldiers, checking their text messages in the gardens which may soon be turned into a public park.

There was little on the surface to suggest a quiet revolution was happening.

But late that evening, the staff who had lowered the royal standard in the morning, raised the national flag in its place.

The palace building is no longer the domain of a king, and Nepal is no longer a kingdom.

Life is forever changing.
There is always hope.


Let us all begin a new month, season and way of life then...

Iceland's Sigur Rós

Iceland's Sigur Ros latest release með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust

[ English Translation: with a buzz in our ears we play endlessly ]

Sigur Rós will release their fifth lp "Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust" June 23rd worldwide. June 24th in North America. The album will be available to pre-order on sigurros.com on June 2nd and a live stream of the album will be available on June 9th for those who have pre-ordered.

"Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust" was co-produced with the band by renowned producer flood, and was recorded in New York City (at Sear Sound Studios), London (at Assault and Battery Sstudios and Abbey Road), Reykjavík (at álafoss, the band's studio, as well as a church in Reykjavík), and Havana, Cuba.

The album title is translated into english as "with a buzz in our ears we play endlessly" with the English spelling of the Icelandic album title being "med sud i eyrum vid spilum endalaust".

Sigur Rós' last release "Heima" took the band to their homeland, their newest creation is the first album in the band's career to be made outside of Iceland.

It is also their first album to feature vocalist Jónsi's vocals in English on one track. In addition to the English, one of the album's tracks is sung without lyrics ("Hopelandic") and the rest of the tracks are sung in Icelandic.

Inspired by the unfettered feeling of the acoustic performances filmed during Heima, Sigur Ros decided to adopt a looser approach in the writing and creation of með suð.

The material for the album was written, recorded and mixed entirely in 2008 and is being released just one month after its completion.

The album glows with the perfect imperfection of live takes, the sounds of fingers playing guitar strings, cracked notes, and a stark, upfront presence not found in previous sigur rós recordings, moving away from reverb-soaked guitar sounds towards something altogether more affecting.

The record also contains some of the most joyous music the band has ever recorded.

Opener "Gobbledigook" sets the tone for með suð í eyrum… with its shifting acoustic guitars, playful vocals, time signature swings and swirling percussion, while "inní mér syngur vitleysingur" ("within me a lunatic sings") sparkles as one of the most anthemic songs Sigur Rós have ever written. "Festival" is epic in its elation and scope, "Illgresi" features one of Jonsi"s finest vocal melodies over a lone acoustic guitar, and "ára bátur" is the largest musical undertaking in the band's career, as it was recorded live in one take with the London Sinfonietta and London Oratory Boy's Choir, a total of 90 people playing at the same time.

The band also utilised the talents of their string-quartet friends Amiina, as well as a five-piece brass section on certain tracks.

For more information: http://www.sigur-ros.co.uk/band/disco/medsud.php