Music full of colours

In 1996 I was working in a project writing articles for a paper. Through the project I got to know a woman quite well. When she heard I was a musician she told me her husband Hasse worked with handicapped people playing music. I got very interested when she told me he was looking for a companion. I contacted him and the next day I took my guitar and paid a visit to the place where the group rehearsed.

This was the first time I got in closer contact with mentally retarded people so I did not know really what to expect. But they were very friendly and very curious about me and at the same time they were very eager to explain what they were doing.

Mentally retarded people often have difficulties to read and write. In many cases they are able to do it well but then they have to do it at their own pace. Their problem is that in this modern world obsessed with effectivity we have no place for anyone that needs a little more time to do things.

Having difficulties reading poses quite a problem in the world of music too, because you often need to know which notes and chords are next in line in a song. This means you have to read notes quite fast and also you have to have the ability to make the connection between what you read with your eyes with the sounds you hear with your ears. Then you have to compute this information and figure out what your hands have to do to make the right notes come out from your instrument - and the timing is crucial! It may sound a little complicated I know, but I can promise you it is way more complicated than it sounds!

What I found out was that they had overcome this big problem in the most amazing way. They were using colours. They had painted their instruments in different colours for different notes or chords so they knew exactly where to put their fingers to make the notes come out right. Instead of using the name 'C' for a chord they called it 'red'. Instead of the name 'F' they called it 'green' and so on.

Instead of having to read the notes from a sheet of paper they used a lamp displaying different colours. The lamp was controlled by a person using pedals. For each pedal there was a colour and a corresponding note. A really brilliant system! The only disadvantage is you can only have so many colours. Otherwise it is too confusing. This means you are limited in your choice of songs you are going to play because of the lack of chords. But then - if you are a little musical you know for a fact that - almost every popular song only consists of only three or four chords! So it depends on which way you see it if it is a disadvantage or not to be limited to play only the big hitsongs!

Since that day in 1996, when I met Kaggens Orchestra I have been working with them as a helper and Hasse and me take turns controlling the tonelamp - as we call it - at the same time as we play our instruments.
During these years Kaggens Orchestra has toured in Europe, has made three CD's and has had several hits on the local radio-toplist Värmlandstoppen. Kaggens have been mentioned in 'Svensktoppen'. We have had the swedish royal family as our audience. We have played for the prime minister of Sweden and in 2004 we were honored with the Fröding cultureprize.

I think you understand that meeting these people changed my universe. It wasn't only the system using musical colours but their whole attitude towards music and life and everything. It made me see that every person has a lot to say. We only have to find the right way to communicate. Music is truly a universal language that breaks down barriers.

Holes in the wall

Carl Sagan's Contact is a good story. I think the main part of both the book and the film was highly believable. Everything about how we would handle a situation like this is very believable; the lack of trust between countries, the government trying to cover up the truth in the end, the religious aspect and how women are seen upon in the scientific - and man dominated - world.

The book focused much more on the breaking of the code (in the movie that part was done in about five minutes I think), and it was really interesting to read about how they were trying to solve it. If we would get a message from space for real I think it would be a real challenge to decode it, but I don't think the message would be coded by the sender deliberately to be hard to break. The challenge will instead be for us to recognize the message as a message at all. To separate it from all the other radio noise in space.

What I don't find so believable about the story is the thing about traveling in space through worm holes. I think it is strange - and that he totally ruins the story - when Sagan suggests that it would be possible. Even if it even would be the case that worm holes do exist - I know many scientists have written lots on this - I just can't believe a human or anything organic could survive passing through them. I think it is equal to suggesting we can travel through a brick wall - like it's done at the railwaystation in the Harry Potter books! J.K Rowling may get away with it but not Carl Sagan!

The book and the film's concept up to that point when the journey starts is really believable but it would not have been necessary to go past the point when they (just Ellie in the movie) go away in the machine. I think it would have been better if both the book and the movie had ended right there and left us wondering. Just like the 70's movie Close encounters of the third kind did.

Gorgeous and loved by everyone

Last month I went to the cinema to see Martina Haag's swedish movie Gorgeous and loved by everyone directed by Hannes Holm (2007). The movie is written by Martina Haag and the story is about herself and she also plays herself in the leading part as an actress looking for work.

Martina is a notorious liar who suddenly gets a role in a play on the famous swedish theatre Dramaten. Of course the play is going to be directed by the legendary swedish director Ingmar Bergman. There is only one problem with Martina getting the role in the play. (A small problem according to her!). To get the job she has lied to the casters that she is an expert in acrobatics and that was the only reason they chose her for the role. The story that follows is mainly about how Martina is trying to save her skin telling lies and more lies to cover up the lies she already has told.

The movie is quite good and funny and I think it in way shows how a notorious liar like this is thinking, lying about everything to everyone. Martina lies very often about small things and the small lies lead to bigger lies trying to save herself.
It has occurred once in a while that you have met a person acting like this, lying and cheating to get advantages. Afterwards you met them one has wondered how it is possible that they are able to get away with this. Even more strange is the fact that they often are very successful. Getting good jobs and a high status in society etc.

Gorgeous and loved by everyone is a movie I can recommend everyone to see. Sometimes the movie's tempo is a little uneven but it is a good laugh and a perfect little comedy. The movie never tries to be something else than that. Maybe it is a bit romantic sometimes but that never gets in the way. When you leave the cinema you leave it with a big smile on your face.

Nothing new on the addiction front

I grew up in the 70's. At that time it was not so common to own a personal computer. The existing computers were expensive and there were not many video games available at the time that would be of any interest to us youngsters. The interactive games available were pinball machines and so called fruit-machines/one-armed bandits.

Compared to now it was like another planet. No Internet. No DVD's or mp3's or even CD's. Not many cell-phones. Two television channels. Not much rock music to listen to on either radio or television. No video recorders so you had only one chance to see a movie.

How did we survive?

The pinball machines were addictive. I had several friends that would spend all their money on the machines to try to break the current record. The machines were coin operated.

I remember there were many parents that demanded that they ought to set an age limit to play them because the kids were ruined trying to break records. It also became obvious that spending lots of time gaming would result in bad grades. School work came second hand to the pinball addicted.

In the early 80's the video game revolution started. Me and my friends used to save up money to rent video games for a whole weekend. Then we sat all night and day playing until our eyes and thumbs were sore. At sunday 1800 hours the game had to be returned to the shop and usually we played right up to the last minute before we had to bring it back. This obsession finally made myself and some of my friends soon writing our own computer games. So at the same time we were learning something.

At the same time the video recorders came about and movie rental stores were the new gathering point for young persons like us. We just had to see all the films that were crucified in media as "dangerous for youths" like "The chain-saw massacre" and other really crappy movies.

This big debate about violence in movies only fueled our interest. It also made us realize that authorities and media not always automatically are right in their opinions just because they are in charge. The downside of this video-revolution was of course that some people developed something you could call an addiction to films. Watching three movies every night or more!

I don't think today's problem with people being addicted to online video games is a new or even a big problem. It is quite a big problem for the individuals but I would like to think it is a problem that only occurs for a small period in a person's lifetime.

Plus I believe if the addicted person wouldn't be addicted to online video games he would be addicted or obsessed doing something else; TV, collecting stamps, body building, chemical substances or climbing mountains. So therefore I don't think the problem being addicted to video games is the real problem for these people.

I think it lies deep in the human nature to hang on to things that are rewarding. Or run away from things that are not.

If real life does not live up to what you want it to be it maybe is easier to just stay in a fantasy world that does. Until you inevitably have to deal with reality. Real problems - real pleasures.

Are we being hoaxed?

This is not an easy subject. Is this increased environment awareness just another cheap stunt pulled by the media to make us buy their papers and watch their tv-shows? Is it a trick to make people focus on something other than the obviously incompetent leadership of our countries. Or are we really on the eve of destruction?

I don't know, but my guess is, from what I've seen with my own eyes, that the environment really is taking a lot of damage. I believe that that part is a reality.

On the other hand is the fact that we now are able to get reports of disasters happening all over the world almost the second it happens. The media can now cover every little corner of the world and does not miss reporting a single tremble or quake. In that way our world seems to be a much more hazardous place to live in now than it used to be.

This also makes it easy for fact-freaks to make us pay attention to the increased number of reports now compared to the lesser reports of the years before and so on. The scientists can then draw a graph using those figures and easily predict a very grim future for us all.

Before the technical breakthroughs of the information-age we often did not hear anything at all about earthquakes occurring in other parts of the world. At best we did get to hear about it weeks or even years after the incident.

Though it's easy to be intimidated by the shear number and frequency of catastrophes we hear of happening all over the world every day, our increased knowledge is not only a bad thing.
The good thing is that we are constantly being reminded how quick and easy we can make the earth inhabitable if we are careless.

Even if it all should turn out to be a big hoax - which I don't think it is, at least not a big one - we all would be better off as human beings if we started living our lives a bit more responsibly.

Taking care of each other AND the place we live in shouldn't really be so hard, should it?

Why study?

My main reason for studying at the Karlstad University is because I want an education that gives me more opportunities to get a job that I like and also can make a decent living from. I guess most people studying share that reason with me. Even if it seems harder now and university studies is not longer the "free ticket" getting a job I still believe it is at least some kind of ticket. Where it leads is for us to see. There are not many other ways to choose from.

The drive to learn new things and gain knowledge in different areas is of course another important reason for continuing studying all your life. I think the many years since leaving high school in a way makes me see things in a different way. Just like a fine wine maturing with age life gets better. At the same time you develop your own taste. I can say I appreciate studying more now than I did right after highschool.

Getting a family makes me feel even more that I want to do the best I can to someday be able to provide for and support it in the best way possible. To have a proper education and one that opens up for more possibilities is essential for achieving this goal.

But at the same time it is not easy to be a student for years with next to no money having to buy expensive course books that you often just will be using for a couple of weeks. After that they are mostly just taking up space in your cupboard. Expensive space I say! But I hope the contents of the books will leave something useful in my head and fill up the holes there too!

Why I choose to study in Karlstad is because I live here and I want to be near my family. (Yes of course they want me to be here too!)

Studying English for science and technology

Hello! This is my first post to my all new blog! I am taking a course called English for science and technology at Karlstad University in Sweden. In this course we have assignments and one of them is to write entries in a blog on topics provided by our teacher. So here it is! My very own blog!