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Duchenne (en toch fietsen)

Een deelgebied van onze (verleden) worstelingen met motoriek en voortbeweging van onze Duchenne-man was fietsen.

Het traditionele traject is: duwfietsje, kleine driewieler, eerste ‘echte’ fiets met zijwieltjes, daarna zonder zijwieltjes maar met valpartijen, enz.

Bij ons ging ook dat een beetje anders. Vele pogingen tot fietsen, trappen, recht blijven, enz. Diverse modellen en hoogtes geprobeerd (en soms gekocht). Maar met beperkt resultaat. Tot met de diagnose van Duchenne blijkt waarom: spierkracht (of het gebrek eraan).

Toen kwam de piste van een driewieler. Altijd evenwicht en minder stigmatiserend dan blijven rondhotsen met zijwieltjes. En bij het testen bleek (plotsklaps, heldere hemel): HIJ FIETST! Juicht, vrienden, juicht.

En via de nodige voorschriften leverde het CTO onze (zijn) eigen fiets:

Driewieler (groot) -tribikeIan fietst op school

Cool model. Fascinatie bij vriendjes, lekker meedoen met de fietsdagen op school, te hard racen door de wijk.

ps. beetje grote auto is wel handig om hem te kunnen vervoeren…

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Plenti to mesmerize

A man with a familiar voice wanders off to a different musical spectrum. Determined to be judged on his own merits. That this will be his party.

Julian Plenti Is Skyscraper (party banner)Clearly different rhythms and breaks. Vocoders, a delicate touch of keys. Rocky edges, drops of sound. More mesmerizing as well. Pretty relaxing. Reflecting. But I feel reluctance, distance. I miss vocal energy. Does the Julian Plenti persona need more development? It is still a good record.

Who he is? Well, Julian Plenti is… Skyscraper. Cerebral celebration!
No betrayal though. A familiar musical spectrum here. Join the party!

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Joy Division (Closer… to finality?)

grant-gee-joy-divisionShortly after its release on DVD I watched the Joy Division rockumentary by Grant Gee (much acclaimed for similar stuff on Radiohead -‘famous’ it seems-). Being a sort of old-skool fan I couldn’t escape the same sense of disappointment I had with Control. It was good, maybe even great in a way, but it certainly didn’t fully live up to my expectations. Not excluding my expectations to be the problem.

I regretted that Control didn’t fully capture the insights from Deborah Curtis’ heartbreaking book Touching From A Distance. The problem with this Joy Division rockumentary is that it is mainly a collection of people talking about the band, about Ian, but without much focus or coherence.

The influence and ‘atmosphere’ of the grey concrete of Manchester is visually well captured. The visionary approach of Martin Hannett -sound of breaking glass-. Peter Saville‘s graphics. Authentic footage. All… nice.

But nothing on Warsaw? Their early recording? And no clear chronology or backgrounds on the making of the music, the songs. Confirmation that those who survived (aka New Order) can’t sit in the same room. I only liked Stephen Morris’ funny nervousness, kinda like his drumming.

Deborah Curtis preferred not to appear in a movie with a certain Mrs. Honoré in, but her contribution would have been tremendously bigger.

So, finality? It will probably never be. There are just… opinions.

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Nonsense; rubbish

Arctic Monkeys - Humbug (dictionary)

Arctic Monkeys - HumbugNo worries, Arctic Monkeys have not released any ‘rubbish’. But Humbug does have an unexpected relaxing, deep and resonating sound with an overall pretty mature and self-confident feel to it. Gone is the overstressed, rushing, high-speed sequence of crowded, multi-melodic songs.

Most of the typical style elements have remained though but in a calmer form. Luckily there still is Alex Turner’s amazing ability to stress syllables that you didn’t even know were there. And his way to cut up sentences but still make them fit some sort of rhyming purpose.

Monkeys may be animals, I don’t feel that the Arctics are D A N . G E R . O U S here. But maybe I’m just lost in an Age of the Understatement.

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The adoption of Agile: TALC vs. Hype Cycle

An interesting poll was posted at Scrumology asking us to indicate where we consider ‘Agile’ to be on the Hype Cycle. A little note…

logo-myfragilityThe presentation of my framework My.Fragility starts with a general introduction on ‘Agile’ before diving into Scrum and going beyond. This introduction ends with a maturity assessment of Agile using Geoffrey Moore’s Technology Adoption Life Cycle. The conclusion is that Agile has Entered the Bowling Alley (so has definitely Crossed the Chasm).

In 2008 I added a comparison with Gartner’s Hype Cycle for Application Development, which puts Agile in the Trough of Disillusionment and predicts a period of 5-10 years before mainstream adoption.

Agile on the Hype Cycle for Application Development 2007 (Gartner)

However, having studied and compared both models I am convinced that Agile is -at least- on its way to the Slope of Enlightenment:

Agile on the Hype Cycle vs. TALC

Other objections I have with Gartner are:

  • Agile is primarily the common denominator of a number of methods and is as such not one defined method. As a practitioner of Scrum, combining it with XP and going beyond with My.Fragility, I believe these methods to be certainly farther in adoption.
  • A complete Agile approach covers a number of practices and disciplines that Gartner separates (e.g. various testing levels). See my indications on the Hype Cycle.
  • My intuition and daily experience contradict the 5-10y expectation.

Challenge: from the TALC I expect Scrum to become the Agile Gorilla…

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Florence+a 13 lung effort

Once upon a time (in 2009) my attention was drawn to Florence+the Machine. However, around that time I was too busy being impressed by a strong, yet fairy-like, lady voice/musician known as Bat For Lashes. But great reviews on Florence’s summer festival performances convinced me to get Lungs anyway. Florence+the machine - LungsAnd I now know (this is a confession) that I shouldn’t have hesitated in the first place.

This is truly a wonderful lady (and a machine, of whatever kind)! She put out a very strong album, that is musically substantially different from Mrs. Natasha’s (when -wrongfully- sticking to some form of comparison).

Power to this Florence that is no nightingale, but flies+sings with the firm conviction of an eagle. She has a steady and straight-forward power in her voice and in her lyrics. At most a little tremble -controlled-. The music is composed and arranged with lots of subtle layers. Enjoy the extraordinary collection of instruments.

Somewhere halfway there’s a fantastic playful, rocking interlude, clearly telling us not to mess around with her. Because I imagine she just might turn into this punk (song) princess that will set fire to your bed, despite her rabbit heart. In the way that she leaves no room for doubt (all over this record), you can tell that she has a lion heart (and lungs…).

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Van daluren naar piekmomenten

Mira - In de dalurenOmdat ik haar laatstgeborene, Stukken Van Mensen, zo geweldig vond, was ik ook heel erg benieuwd geworden naar de vorige van Mira. Die heet In De Daluren en blijkt, na ettelijke beluisteringen, voor een debuut behoorlijk matuur en al heel… Mira. Het sappige accent, de gevatte teksten, heerlijk druipende ironie, omgekeerd zelfbeklag, preoccupaties met de domheid van het BV-dom en andere kleurders van dagen.

Zijn er dan geen verschillen/evoluties te merken? Jawel, hoor. De instrumentatie op dit debuut is prima, verfijnd of wat steviger waar nodig, maar globaal wat traditioneler. De opvolger is zeker een pak gedurfder, wat elektronischer, frivoler en speelser (met dank aan JMX ongetwijfeld), hier en daar wat gevoeliger. Ander verschilpunt is dat nummer 2 zeker hit-gevoeliger materiaal bevat, net iets catchier, evenwel zonder aan eigenheid en (vooral) eigengereidheid in te boeten. Gevolg: meer airplay (in de piekuren dus). Zodat ik ze kon leren kennen…

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An acoustic evening with?

Ionic Vision Live 2009-09-04I had the unique chance to see Ionic Vision live… without travelling abroad. They played at the Bar Mondial in Antwerp with Darkmen, from IV’s label Machineries of Joy (production by IV’s lead singer).

Well, the title of my note is probably a little misleading (joke!). There are probably no bigger opposites than Ionic Vision and acoustic (remember that they “Rage against” it).

I found the performance to be completely in line with the Bitter Isolation album that I already wrote about. Except maybe for the fact that certainly the vocals were less open to compromise or emotionality (too bad for Sleep e.g.). But hey, it’s the way their game is played. Their music is genuine and hardcore EBM, but luckily (for a general fan of alternative music as myself) they are more dynamic than most other EBM bands.

The show was concluded with a powerful No Shuffle (Front 242) followed by the best pogo I’ve seen in years on their final encore. Really loved the transformation of my singing friend into a fierce animal (head) on stage.

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De kiekens van tUZA

1986. (in volgorde van ernstigheid) Sleutelbeen-, dubbele open been- en schedelbreuk, 6 weken ziekenhuis, waarvan 2 in coma (trouwens, gewoon een zwart gat, niks wit licht). Mijn kennismaking met het UZA in Edegem. En sindsdien onthouden: op de parking lopen… KIEKENS!

2008. Het leek wel of de kiekens zich intramuros hadden voortgekweekt.

Eerst (I): hoop. Eindelijk, multidisciplinaire opvolging voor onze Down–zoon. Gedaan met voortdurende vergelijkingen met genetisch gezonde kinderen, met antwoorden uit ‘de vakliteratuur’ (kinderarts van onze Duchenne lijdensweg trouwens).

Dan (II): de onderzoeken. Resultaat: half gewurgd kind (wel bloed getrokken!), bloedend oor (héél raar kind, zat niet stil), pijnlijk misplaatste klemmetjes -in zijn vel- (hartonderzoek), bloeddoorlopen kindergezicht (van de stress), een logopedische vraag die eindigt in ASS, achterhaalde visie en ouders die niet geïnformeerd huiswaarts keren.

Vooral ASS-gezeik was totaal misplaatst. Onderzoek zonder toestemming, wij eindgesprek afgezegd (want vooropgezette conclusie tegengesproken door ervaring en onderzoek omkaderend team), denigrerend rapport naar onze huisarts. Maar (lichtpunt?): persoon staat ervoor bekend. Jochei!

Dus (III): nieuwe sessies (2009) toch maar even afblazen. Op onze strepen staan. En, oef, het heeft gewerkt. Nieuwe (jonge!) coördinerende arts, onderzoeken gecombineerd en zonder pijn. En kijk, ook hij heeft zijn groot nazicht goed doorstaan. Gehoor, zicht en gebit zeer goed. BMI op het randje? (‘t is tòch een sportman, zie foto). Schildklierhormoon idem? (zijn algemene pathologie en ontwikkeling zijn zò goed)

Wij vinden het goed zo. Geïnformeerd. Kiekens op de parking is genoeg.Jente jumpt in t zwembad