Recent news
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Car-free Sunday
Today, on a sunny Sunday, Brussels feels like a perfect place to be in. There are just a few cars around as only public transport, taxis and emergency vehicles are allowed to enter the city streets. Cyclists, skateboarders, rollerskaters, pedestrians, and even horse-drawn carriages take to the streets. I just wish it would be a bit like this tomorrow too; but I guess I’m asking for too much. More » -
Paul Simon, after all these years
Two good concerts during the last couple of days: first Maria Schneider playing at Brosella Folk & Jazz, and then Paul Simon at Forest National. The former I’ve seen before in Finland many years ago, but the latter never. Paul Simon, glad you came to the cold, humid Brussels. More »
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Time for new gadgets
My Windows XP machine crashed some days ago, which actually helped me to finally stop using Windows as my primary machine at home. Why bother when I have Linux and Max OSX too? (Luckily I had separate partitions on my Windows disk for the data, and also a backup of that data ;-) ) More »
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JavaScript frameworks
Times have changed. I used to avoid using JavaSript as I didn’t see the point. Why use JavaScript when many users disable it anyway? Searching for code snippets and tutorials on the web took a long time and often those scripts didn’t work properly — and I didn’t know how to fix them. But after reading a couple of good books, DOM Scripting (New Riders Press 2005) and Beginning JavaScript with DOM Scripting and AJAX (Apress 2006), and after understanding the concepts of graceful degradation, progressive enhancement and unobtrusive Javascript, I began to see the benefits of using JavaScript. However, I didn’t know where to start, or how to build or choose a good framework of functions that can be reused. More »
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New year, new job
Happy New Year! To kick off 2008, I thought I’d write a few words about blogging (and social networking). I’ve got a new job too, but more on that later. First of all, I find it difficult to post here regularly. The problem is not that I don’t have anything to say, but rather that I don’t have time to do background research when preparing articles. It’s not easy for me to “just start writing”. Writing requires inspiration and practice. Writing takes time — especially when you’re not a native English speaker. More »
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Messiaen’s Vingt Regards
Next year, 2008, is the 100th anniversary of the birth of Olivier Messiaen, a French composer, organist, and ornithologist. He must have been one of the most original composers of the 20th century: by mixing his own modes of limited transposition, birdsong transcriptions, exotic rhythms, religious ideas, and colourful instrumentation and orchestration (see ondes Martenot, for example), he created some truly original and inspiring music. More » -
Brussels restaurant guide
Lists are nice. I’m a big fan of “best of” lists as they help me keep things in one place for future reference. By viewing lists compiled by other people you can get new ideas and refine your own lists. It’s fun and useful. This time, I’ve put together a list of restaurants in Brussels that I particularly like. This is not exactly a “best of” list. It’s merely a collection of restaurants I’ve found to be good and not too expensive. In Brussels you can’t have a bad meal even if you wanted to! More » -
A musical week in Belgium
During the last week or so, I’ve heard three good concerts here in Belgium: first The Chemical Brothers in Antwerp, then SoundCheck at Beurskafee in Brussels, and finally Meshell Ndegeocello in Leuven. Some weeks ago, Bobo Stenson Trio played in St Truiden (too bad I missed that). More » -
More photos on Flickr
To follow up with my previous post about travel photos on Flickr, I’ve uploaded some new photos. If you have a minute, go ahead and have a look (arranged below by tags). More »
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Travel photos on Flickr
After returning from holiday in Sweden, I uploaded some photos to Flickr (see photo sets from Gothenburg and Helsingborg). I’ve had an account there since quite some time, but I didn’t really use it that much, until now. Many people use Picasa, but I somehow prefer Flickr — partly because you don’t need any additional software (just a browser) to upload your photos. It’s fun and useful! More »
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I love Göteborg
A few days ago, I came back from a trip to Sweden. After a couple of days in Helsingborg (a nice town with beautiful seafront!), I continued to Gothenburg. I still have a very special relation to that city; after all, it’s the city where I lived in the nineties (as exchange student). More »
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Shopping in Brussels, my way
Shopping in Brussels used to be a very frustrating experience for me: I spent hours in crowded streets and chain stores without finding anything. Something was missing: the small, cool boutiques. Maybe I just didn’t know where to find them? More »
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Ubuntu Linux 7.10 “Gutsy Gibbon” released
Could 2008 be the year of the Linux desktop? With the latest release of Ubuntu Linux (7.10), I believe for me it will be the year when I finally drop Windows and continue using only Mac OSX and Linux. At home, that is. At work, it might be a different story. More »
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Radiohead makes history
Radiohead’s new album, In Rainbows, has become available for download from Radiohead website. It’s up to you to decide how much you pay for it! Now, this is a brilliant idea which I hope will carry on to other people and change the way music business currently works. More »
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Belgium, a united nation
People in Belgium live in two (or more) different worlds. Some even say they don’t want to live in the same country with the rest of its population. Or is it only something the national media and some crazy politicians want us to believe? I admit that I didn’t realise until now, during the current crisis, how deep the linguistic divide in Belgium actually is. Or is it? Why are media and politicians exaggerating things? More »
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In memory of Joe Zawinul
Joe Zawinul, one of the greatest musicians and composers of all time, has passed away in Vienna. I was lucky enough to see and hear him live in Paris in 2002 — but I still regret I never experienced a live gig of the greatest group in the history of improvised music: Weather Report. (I was too young!)
I’ve been listening to Weather Report half of my life. There is something in the music that never dies. Thank you Joe Zawinul for all the inspiration and joy you brought us. You will be remembered forever.
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Bye Bye Internet Explorer 6 or lower
No more support on akikoo.org for dead browsers: Internet Explorer 5, 5.5, or 6. If you’re reading this with any of the above mentioned browsers, you’ll see unstyled content only (with just a few basic CSS rules applied). More »
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Brosella Folk & Jazz Rocks!
Brosella Folk & Jazz festival is one of the highlights of summer. This year, I missed the folk (so I thought) by going there on Sunday to check out some jazz. The evening turned out to be quite “folky”. More » -
The Flaming Lips in Brugge: with all their power
Two Father Christmases, bright lights, giant balloons, large amounts of confetti, video projections and great music. Wayne Coyne and The Flaming Lips delivered big time on this year’s Cactus Festival. More » -
Funky politics – The Roots in Brussels
They dedicated one tune to the worst president in history. Then they played Machine Gun. The message was clear — and their funky beats irresistible! The Roots from Philadelphia, played yesterday at Couleur Café festival in Brussels. What a nice evening it was. More » -
Why Open Source and Ubuntu Linux could succeed in Brussels
Today, while feeling miserable and being fed up with Belgian weather, I remembered someone has said: there is no bad weather, just bad clothes
. Well, in Brussels you can’t find rubber boots (so I bought trekking shoes instead). And you can’t use your umbrella because the wind will tear it down in seconds. So what can you do? Stay in your car? NO! Stay home and play with your favourite Linux distribution, for example ;-). That’s what I did today. More » -
Books to bring to a desert island, Part II
As I mentioned in Books to bring to a desert island, Part I, I will now concentrate on books about music, art and inspiration. I realise that my bag is getting heavy. But don’t worry, I’ll keep the headline but keep on adding books that I like :-).Special thanks to Anders Jormin who recommended most of the Swedish books on this list. More »
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Books to bring to a desert island, Part I
Without these books — or without having met the people who recommended some of them — I wouldn’t be the kind of person I am today. I’ll start with some of my all-time favourite books that mean a lot to me personally. More » -
Our man in Brussels
I thought I’d share some personal observations and impressions about living in Brussels. But first, let me make myself clear that I’m only talking about the city and people of Brussels, not Belgium as a whole. I believe Brussels is like Paris in that it’s like a small country within a country. It seems to be quite different than the rest of Belgium. More » -
Berlin, probably the coolest city on Earth
Before visiting Berlin for the first time in 2005, I didn’t really know what to expect. Even if I had heard only positive stories about it, I thought it would be a tiring city full of ugly buildings and traffic noise (I don’t really know where this impression came from; probably my ignorance). I’m so glad I was wrong - Berlin is such a nice and creative city. More » -
Welcome to akikoo.org
After having my website online for years without any major updates, I at last found the time to design my new WordPress powered site. I have a new domain name too: akikoo.org.For the first time in a personal project, I’m using blog software — which I find pretty useful as a cms too. RSS 2.0 feed is available for those who can never get enough of the web.
If you have any comments, don’t hesitate to post your wisdom, or contact me.
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Instruments and ranges cheat sheet
Back in 1998, I created a “cheat sheet” containing the most common instruments and their ranges. The idea came after I found it too time-consuming to check the ranges in various books whenever I wanted to write music for a particular instrument. After all, it’s difficult to keep everything in your head. More »
Old stuff
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University courses
This is a list of courses included in my Master of Science (Econ.) degree – 250 credit units all together.
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Spatial sound in a user interface as a method to deliver hidden information and to relieve visual burden
In Finnish Spatiaalinen ääni graafisessa käyttöliittymässä. Pro gradu -tutkielma Jyväskylän yliopistossa 2002.
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Avoin kirje Sibelius-Akatemian rehtorille
In Finnish Kritiikkiä ja parannusehdotuksia opiskelijan näkökulmasta.
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Thomas Adès — Säveltäjäesittely
In Finnish Englantilaisen säveltäjän Thomas Adèsin nousu kotimaansa menestysten kautta yhdeksi Euroopan suosituimmaksi nykymusiikin säveltäjäksi. Tiedonhankinnan menetelmät–kurssin lopputyö Sibelius-Akatemiassa maaliskuussa 1999.
Fiasko Records
Sibelius Academy
Nefertiti
Beck
allmusic
Meshell Ndegeocello
Alban Berg
Anders Jormin
Abbas Kiarostami
Luis Buñuel
Go board game