I am living in Landvetter, Sweden (near Gothenburg) and I currently work with communication solutions and Mac support after studies in philosophy and mathematics. Here you can find out about some of the important things in my life. My interests are philosophy, music, cycling and more.
My bicycle tours
Tour of the Dolomites 2000
Tour of the Pyrenees 2001
Tour of the Alps 2002
Easter weekend 2003 in Scotland & England.
Tour of the Dolomites & Central Alps 2003
Tour of the Alps 2004
ToTour of the Pyrenees, Cantabria & Asturias 2005
Tour of the Alps 2006
Tour of Mallorca 2007
Tour of Colorado 2007
I have now started a website – Cycloclimbing.com – which collects these tours together with specific information on every asphalted mountain pass above 1700m in the whole of the Alps. I am also starting to do the same for the Pyrenees, listing all the passes from 1500m. I will make a list of other passes below these heights of special interest and I offer a list of some unpaved mountain passes that I have visited. I also list some mountain climbs and high valley climbs (cul-de-sacs). I have provided pages with links to other places of interest for those wanting to learn facts about cycling in the Alps and Pyrenees. And more.
Philosophy
Essays I have written
The Conditionality of Life and the Teleological Consequences was written as an exam paper by me at the University of Gothenburg. For a fuller understanding and in depth discussion of several of the points I make, I recommend Dr. Harry Binswanger’s book The Biological Basis of Teleological Concepts (pdf).
The Dead End of Modern Philosophy’s Search for Knowledge. I discuss the definition of knowledge as ”justified true belief”, which is a common definition of knowledge among philosophers today. It is a short piece that was originally published in the Lyceum magazine.
Philosophy is a serious subject and my favorite philosopher & novelist is Ayn Rand – click on the icon here to visit The Ayn Rand Institute’s excellent home pages. Ayn Rand’s philosophy of Objectivism is truly a life-affirming philosophy that upholds what makes man great – reason.
For information on Objectivist Resources (organizations, mailing-lists and articles) I maintain a guide called Lyceum References.
I ran the Objectivist club in Gothenburg, Sweden during the 90ies – Föreningen För Objektivismen. I own two Objectivist mailing-lists: lyceum2@yahoogroups.com (in the swedish language) and Objectivism@yahoogroups.com (for the world at large, not active). You can buy books by Ayn Rand and related material directly from our Objectivist club (FFO) if you live in Sweden – check out the book list (need update!).
Music
Listening to the kind of music I enjoy is something I value very high. Around this time in my life I especially enjoy listening to the following:
Eyeless In Gaza and their music have filled my life with much joy since 1983, when I first heard them. Visit their homepage (maintained by me) where you will find a full discography, information about upcoming projects and information on what you can buy from their own company Ambivalent Scale. The solo works by Martyn Bates and related projects is presented on a separate website.
Martyn Bates & Peter Becker 
Eyeless In Gaza is a very odd band indeed. What is most odd with their music is perhaps that it is sincere and beautiful. Eyeless’s music ranges from very improvisational to straight pop music. They are certainly best when they are somewhere in between of these modes, and they usually are. Their best albums may be Saw You in Reminding Pictures, Drumming the Beating Heart and Pale Hands I Loved So Well (unfortunately the first one is sold out (limited to 1000 numbered copies) and the two others appear on a Cd with inferior sound quality to the original releases).
Song of the Beautiful Wanton was a good album released by Eyeless In Gaza in 2000. A new, very good, album called Summer Salt; Subway Sun was released on October 30, 2006. I would also recommend listening to their Orange Ice & Wax Crayons (archive album, sold out), Caught in Flux, Photographs as Memories, Transience Blues (compilation), Bitter Apples, All Under the Leaves-the Leaves of Life, Rust Red September, and the Cd-Ep Streets I Ran!
Welcome to join the Eyeless In Gaza/Martyn Bates mailing-list (both info-list and a separate “discussion-list”). When you sign up for the discussion-list I will also add you to the info-list (for only the info-list, send me an ).
Martyn Bates has also released a very, very nice (organ-based) solo album 1995 called Mystery Seas (Letters Written #2). This is actually my favorite albums – I listened to it each day for several months after it was released and still it gets better and better for each time I listen to it.
Martyn Bates – Dance of Hours Cd (mini-album) is Martyn’s latest solo release. Just as lovely as always and surely recommended to anyone with the faintest of interest in beautiful music. Read more at the Martyn Bates web site
You can listen to a challenging collections of small clips of Eyeless In Gaza and Martyn Bates at my history write-up: Sonic History: a commented sound guide to the history of Eyeless In Gaza & Martyn Bates! 69 sound samples in mp3 (some more could be found here and on the Martyn Bates site).
Wim Mertens is a rather ”modern” composer, but one with a rare talent for making beauty integral to much of his works. I prefer and recommend his Motives for Writing (ensemble) and A Man of No Fortune and with a Name to Come (piano & voice). Other good albums includes Vergessen, Strategié de la Rupture, After Virtue, Educes Me, Jardin Clos, Struggle for Pleasure, Maximizing the Audience, Shot and Echo, Epic That Never Was. There is now also a Wim Mertens discussion-list.
Wim Mertens’ album Jardin Clos was surprisingly good! Mertens combines the best elements from Motives for Writing and Shot and Echo and adds a new freshness to the sound – it’s more cheerful. It is (as always) difficult to describe the music, but it is like something between Penguin Café Orchestra, Philip Glass, Univers Zero and with a strong touch of renaissance music. Female singing, guitar, and violins play important parts. (Instruments played by the ensemble: 4xViolin, 2xViola, 2xCello, Double Bass, Clarinet, Trumpet, Horn, Basstrombone, Basstuba, Bass, Harp, Guitar, Percussion, and Piano.) One of the better Mertens albums (1996).
See the excellent Les Disques du Crépuscule pages maintained by Frank Brinkhuis (who seem to know more about them than anyone who has worked for them) for more information on Wim Mertens and some other rather good music, like early Isabelle Antena. Materiali Sonori also maintain a very comprehensive discography. Avoid his Cd-boxes Gave van Niets, Alle Dinghe and Aren Lezen – they contain experiments and are very tiresome to listen through if you are not used to or very interested in such music (it is rather original in ways, but …) (also, some of the material on Alle Dinghe is quite listenable).
Legendary Pink Dots is a rather original band that plays their own kind of music. You really have to listen to their music and make up your own mind as to what it is all about (I used to ask people when I was younger what kind of music they thought it was and never received the same answer). It is some kind of futuristic psychedelia with a post-punk undercurrent. On the right is a photo of Edward Ka-Spel (the legendary singer and keyboardist of LPD) and me involved in a discussion after a live-performance in Gothenburg in May 1994 (thanks to Ola Qvarnström for photo). For listening I recommend Curse, Maria Dimension, Prayer for Aradia and Chemical Playschool vol. 4 (the cassette). Fun, but I do not listen quite as much to them these days.
For a complete (?, up until spring ’96) listing of all songs by LPD, Edward Ka-Spel and The Tear Garden check out my Song-list and the accompanying Product-list.
Rachmaninov. Classic music with vitality. I recommend listening to his Two Suites for Two Pianos, Etudes-Tableaux, and of course his Second and Third Piano Concertos. I own a lot of classical music Cds but found I relatively seldom listen to them these days – music of this sort and jazz demands to be heard live really. Most music is better live, but for some of the artists I listen to and most pop music, the artists are often better in the studio where they could have more control over things.
Other music that I enjoy are by: Fit & Limo, In Gowan Ring, In Embrace, Bron Area, Univers Zero, Bark Psychosis, Winston Tong, Lost Jockey, Ghost, Current 93, Three Way Dance, Colin Potter, Kevin Harrison, Two Daughters and others.
Have a look at my sale list – maybe you could find something of interest there! (Need update!)
Other interests
Among the other arts I really enjoy architecture and then especially the one by Frank Lloyd Wright. He designed what most of the other ”modern” architects didn’t do – beautiful and functional houses. The house on right here is the Zimmerman house in Manchester, New Hampshire.
Sculpture is another art form I can really like. Here is a nice sculpture by Harriett Whitney Frishmuth: Crest of the Wave (1925) (photo taken at the Myrtle Gallery of Art in Manchester, New Hampshire). (Sadly, I did not catch her upper hand in my photo … .)
I really like chocolate! Current favorites of mine are Pierre Marcolini (they seem to have gotten less good in recent years), Michel Cluizel, Valrhona and others. I also enjoy fine pralines!
When it comes to liquid delicacies and strong liquors I prefer Springbank 21 years old single malt scotch whisky. Bowmore 21 yrs, Port Ellen cask 1980, Brora 21 yrs, and some others are also very good. Among beers I prefer the complex Belgian Trappist ones, like Chimay, Vestvleteren and Rochefort (my current favourite). I like some English beers (too many to mention).
This is a photo of my old Cannondale racer bicycle taken in May 1995 on my way from Bath via Bristol to Wells and back to Bath again (in England) – there’s actually a pub around the corner where I drank my first local ale during this visit to England. (It didn’t taste too good though – but see above for some good ones.)
Send me ideas and comments via Last modified October 16, 2007. |