Taken from a contribution to the Metafilter discussion on the controversial Eurobarometer poll which yielded the result that 59% of the EU citizens think that Israel presents a threat to peace in the world. Joined second in terms of danger were Iran, North Korea and the United States with 53% each.

It is interesting to look at the exact country breakdown (see page 82 of the Flash EB No 151 "Iraq and Peace in the World"). Only 48% of the Italians seem to think that Israel poses a threat to peace whereas 74% of the Dutch have this opinion. The extreme values for the US are 88% (Greece) and again Italy with 43% followed shortly by Germany where 45% think that the US present a threat to world peace.

The survey was carried out by Eos Gallup Europe which interviewed 7,515 citizens from the 15 EU member states by telephone from October, 8th to October, 16th, 2003. According to the short version of the report which does not include the disputed poll from above the statistical margin of error is +- 4.4% points per country and +- 1.2% points on the EU level. Per member state about 500 people were interviewed.

Something I just learned from wood s lot. Albert Camus and Joni Mitchell both were born on November, 7th. Camus in 1913 and Joni thirty years later. Somehow I seem to be attracted a lot by scorpions. I am a cancer myself. One of my best friends at school also was a scorpion. Any astrologists in between my dear readers who can tell me if this predilection is confirmed by their "science"?

A question which just popped up in my mind concerning Camus. Was he the youngest winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature ever with 44 years?

on stage last night in the Jahrhunderthalle in Frankfurt-Höchst was like an extra-terrestrian who hadn’t got used to the strong pull of gravity on earth yet. Who came from outer space where he surely will return to soon. Staggering around, looking pretty lost. His knees were hardly holding him. He was so small, so thin, so fragile. Ducked over his cheap looking electronic piano. The microphone was still too low so he also had to bend his head to sing. Weird that nobody from the crew had pity with him and fixed him his mike. Dylan hardly communicated with the audience outside of his songs.

I am glad I went to see him. Somehow I feel this is his last tour. I hope I’m wrong. My personal favourite was Honest To Me. It started with the guitars on full blast in fast forward mode. Power-rock. The slide guitar cutting the air into molecules. And the lyrics are so Nostradamus-like. Remember Love and Theft was released on 9/11. Another highlight was the calm It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue dominated by the pedal steel. Especially Dylan’s mouth harp play at the end. Here it was quite reserved. On a later song (I have forgotten which one) it was wild and mesmerizing. White man's blues if there ever was any. I have always preferred his mouth harp voice to his real one. The setlist is here at Dylan pool. A wonderful site with setlists of all concerts from 2001 on and discussions on most of the songs he performed yesterday.

P.S. The first five songs of the set as mp3s (via the discussion board of said Dylan pool). They will be replaced by the next five and so on soon.

P.P.S. Zwei Besprechungen des Konzerts. Eine ziemlich treffende Zusammenfassung von Herbert Heil im Wiesbadener Kurier und ein siebenteiliger Versuch einer Rezension von Harry Nutt in der Frankfurter Rundschau, der zwar nur zum Teil von dem Konzert handelt, aber in seiner impressionistischen Unfokussiertheit auch aufschlussreich ist.

Bands and solo artists for which I am in the top 100 results at Google:

• Östro 430 (no. 1)
• Sun Kil Moon (no. 3)
• Tom Liwa (no. 4)
• Okkervil River (no. 7)
• Fehlfarben (no. 18)
• Montgolfier Brothers (no. 22)
• Mark Kozelek (no. 24)
• Loose Fur (around no. 60)

Pretty lame all this but you know I am obsessed with the interweb and all that.

A propos interweb I am not sure whom to blame for the awful look of my new blogroll (scroll down, it is on the right) which has been decimated substantially to about 60 items. The programmers who didn't allow German Umlauts or my German fellow bloggers who nevertheless use them in their blog subtitles. Ouch!

P.S. In case your blog is not in the blogroll it doesn't necessarily mean that I don't read it anymore. It can be because of that but often it means that you do not ping weblogs.com after each posting and therefore blo.gs doesn't know the correct timestamp of your blog. I will make a static page (maybe even on the front page) with all the other weblogs I read soon, promised.

We had an argument on a similar subject before...

<a href="www.google.com"guy+debord+is"">is

• really dead (first 5 results)
• very instructive in thinking through the problem of the meaning of taking responsibility for your own actions
• not badly known; he is known as the Bad
• described through many of his own words
• the creator of this palindrome
• published by Jonathan Cape, Random House Group Ltd
• interviewed on Belgian radio, speaking at length on industrial painting
• dead, alas
• so far superior to me
• alive and well and living in Paris

<a href="www.google.com"guy+debord+was"">was

• certainly responsible for the longevity and high profile of Situationist ideas
• born in 1931 into a family on the point of ceasing to be wealthy
• a visionary thinker
• one of the founders of the situationist movement of the 1960s
• a filmmaker, social critic, and founder and longtime member the Situationist
• born on December 28, 1931
• an extraordinarily complicated man: an anarchist and yet a Marxist and a Leninist as well; a heavy drinker and a libertine and yet an autocrat
• the leading light in the Situationist International
• , however, not an artist and he was not interested in challenging or shifting perspectives between art and spectator
• editor of the journal Internationale Situationiste from 1958 to 1969

P.S. Online: the 221 pieces (aphorisms?, mini-essays?, theses?, thoughts?) of Guy Debord's chef d'œuvre La Société du Spectacle (The Society of the Spectacle)

1988's Prairie School Freakout by the criminally underrated and unsuccessful Eleventh Dream Day has been re-released by Thrill Jockey. I have just been listening to the 14 thirty second snippets over at Amazon and I must say that this guitar freakout(!) album which makes me think of Yo La Tengo's folkier side, Sonic Youth's experimentalism and Crazy Horse's guitar sound immediately jumped on top of my wishlist and I believe every word of the glowing Dusted Magazine review:

One of the outstanding songs on the new Swell (French fan site) album Whenever You're Ready. The album is pretty good though a tad too long. A return to form after the disappointing last record, 2001's Everybody Wants to Know which was basically David Freel solo on guitar and electronic devices. For those who know nothing about Swell their music could be best described as westcoast guitar pop psychedelia in the tradition of Dream Syndicate with a spacy cinematic component.

Next to Nothing (mp3) has Swell's typical warm and wistful acoustic guitar sound which always makes me think of the San Fransico fog with the sun rays slowly piercing through it. On top of that is a dreamy keyboard line and Freel's slightly raspy baritone which reconnects the song to the earth. Sean Kirkpatrick who lives in Santa Barbara now is back on drums and is also responsible for the lush CD artwork always close to postcard/poster kitsch but still gorgeous. David Freel sings here in a duet with Cory Sipper, a folkish singer/songwriter from Santa Barbara. Considering that I am not a fan of duets I find this one works amazingly well.

The world's most eclectic rock band has a new maxi out. Apparently like on the last tour the new versions of the first three songs which are from the mellow Summer Sun are rocking quite hard. From the latest Aquarius newsletter:

P.S. Nice extensive review of Today Is the Day in Dusted Magazine.