Tummyrumble

I lost my virginity at The Plough (Poetry Shack)

Yesterday I lost another virginity. Since I started going to London I lost quite a few, but the act of losing my live poetry readings virginity was one of the best so far.

Having promised Brett (one of the many lovely acquaintances I have made since moving here) I would come, not being entirely sure about the whole thing (live poetry reading and me has been on the "scenarios that surely won't play out" list for a long time), I packed my stuff and left office at about 19:30. I work just down the road from The Plough at Museum Street, where Poetry Shack made camp last night, so a few minutes later I was there.

UPDATE: Please note, as of late Poetry Shack has taken residence at The Old Crown, 33 New Oxford Street. Yes. It is the place without a sign outside, opposite the burger bar. No. It is not the place called The Crown located confusingly few doors down the street.

Having received the invite via an Internet forum where me and some friends hang out, I wasn't really sure who Brett was, or what he looked like. He did send me a photo which rendered in me a curious feeling of recognition, but he still didn't look really like the Brett in "Brett and Silvia" who I have met a few times while out clubbing. The lack of neon clothing and sweat must have been what put me off track, 'cause as I met and shook hands with him I realized that it was that Brett (also, Silvia standing right next to him was a helpful clue as to Brett's true identity). Sneaky, sending me such a normal photo...

Losing my religion... Or winning a new one?

At a forum I usually frequent, a member asked how to start a new religion. Apparently he has some good ideas. This is what I replied.

Build a more or less credible web site, write a number of totally insane blog entries, spread the word in all the news groups and publish the link everywhere you can find. Eventually you WILL have a following, I am sure.

Oh, start ordaining reverends. Met two friends (names have been withheld so as to not embarass the guilty) at birthday bash this last Saturday, and they have been ordained. So they can now legally marry people, bless your beer / drink (lots of blessing going on last Sat) or help you get rid of those inner demons of yours (no, I don't mean the post weekend angst, I mean the kind that makes your head spin and sh*t). They signed up on a web site, and got a certificate and everything.

On a similar note, it is kind of hard to start a new country. Since all the land is already taken, you have to start with an invasion and then work from there to reach recoginiton I guess.

There is an artist in Sweden, Lars Wilks, who has made some interesting works of art. One of them is starting a new country, called Ladonia, on the south west tip of Sweden.

Actually, his first well known piece of art, more a publicity stunt really, was declaring his wrongly parked and thus fined car not a car but a work of art. A statement. A protest, if you like. He went to court with it and won. Didn't have to pay.

He then went on to start building a structure called Nimis on the south west tip of Sweden (where I am from by the way). Using only what the sea brought him and washed up on the rocky beach (and some nails, sturdy rope and some tools of course) he erected a structure tens of metres high and covering quite a big part of the beach. You can walk around in it, see the sea from angles you never could before, see patterns in the wood work and walk around for hours looking at all the stuff he built in there. Great place for a picnic, if you survive the climb down the hillside above to get there.

Naturally the authorities went mad. They called it a "building" and to build a house you need a building permit which he of course didn't have. So for years they tried to get rid of him and tear the building down, but they never quite succeded since they kept batteling it out in court (again, claiming it isn't a building, it is a piece of art, damn it). Suddenly one night the whole thing burned to the ground. Wonder why, and how... Weird, innit? So he rebuilt the whole thing.

It is still there, right next to another structure he created in stone (called Arx, and to get rid of the discussion about needing a building permit he made sure this structure never can be called a building by calling it a book, complete with its own registered ISBN-number and everything and putting a page number on every one of the roughly 250 stones in the structure).

Hmm... Now how did I end up here... Right! Creating a new religion, which made me think of creating new countries and then... Never mind. One of his latest creations is actually a new country, as I said, on the south west tip of Sweden near the two structures. The country is called Ladonia, and anyone can apply for citizenship.

Applying on the web site is simple, and common citizenship is free. For a small extra charge you can be nobility, and you can choose whichever title you want.

There is a national anthem (performed by throwing a rock in the water), they have a flag (a green cross on an equally green background), a national currency (Örtug) and they pay tax:

"The currency is Örtug. One Örtug is about 10 Swedish crowns. Taxes are to be payed in Ladonia but not with money. Citizens pay by giving away a part of their creativity."

My little brother is a citizen. Even a noble I think.

Quite funny, but what wasn't so funny for a while was all the people applying for citizenship over the web thinking it would actually help them leave their country and go to a better place... But of course Ladonia citizenhip isn't recognised anywhere, and the country doesn't have anyone living in it. It is just a small patch of land near the ocean in one of Sweden's beautiful nature preservation areas.

They did recently elect a new president though. The winner received 20 votes... ;)

URL: Ladonia - the web site

Westminster Abbey goes to war with Dan Brown

The religious fellows over at Westminster Abbey apparently are sick and tired of getting questions about The Da Vinci Code, since they have "armed their marshals with leaflets to tell tourists exactly what the novel got wrong. Filming on location for the upcoming movie is totally out of the question.

Among the arguments of what Dan Brown got wrong I especially like this one:

"Relies on apocryphal Gnostic texts which had been excluded from the biblical canon because they were imaginative."

Yes, of course. And I think that should be interpreted as "excluded from the approved propaganda since they didn't coincide with our goal of world wide male domination."

It is all a conspiracy you know.

URL: ThisIsLondon: Abbey joins Da Vinci row [via]