You’re not really supposed to record or photograph in concert halls, but for seven years Christopher DeLaurenti recorded the sounds of people coughing and musicians warming up before and during concerts. He used a MiniDisc recorder and went forward to be closer to the orchestra warming up. You can buy the CD, or listen to three excerpts at the New York Times.

For Mr. DeLaurenti, 39, a Seattle-based “sound artist” and composer, the noises were art. Now, out of more than 50 hours of recording, he has compiled a CD of greatest hits. It is called “Favorite Intermissions: Music Before and Between Beethoven, Stravinsky, Holst,” the latest entry in humankind’s search for art in unexpected nooks.

It recalls my earlier entry:

The recording falls firmly in the conceptual tradition championed by John Cage, who turned randomness into a compositional tool. Witness his “Imaginary Landscape No. 4” for 12 radios, or “4’33,” ” in which a pianist sits silently at the keyboard for 4 minutes 33 seconds and ambient sounds become the performance.

(Via Boing Boing)

The Daily Mail reports that a Court of Appeal judge charged with flashing on a train is being allowed to continue work:

Lord Justice Richards is reviewing failed immigration and asylum applications as he awaits trial over claims he twice exposed himself to a woman on a train.

Quite right too, particularly in view of his salary. He may very well not be guilty, anyway.

He stressed his work was purely a ‘desk-top exercise’.

As long as he’s sitting down, then.
The article has a good picture of a full-bottomed wig (Allongeperücke). These are only worn on ceremonial occasions, not in normal court proceedings. ‘Lord Justice’ is the title of a judge in the Court of Appeal and doesn’t imply he’s a lord, by the way.

(Via Criminal Solicitor Dot Net)

The monthly collection of articles at LLRX.com includes an updated version of European Union Law: An Integrated Guide to Electronic and Print Research, by Marylin J. Raisch. This is a good introduction, starting from basics. I think the last time they published it, the EU changed all its electronic addresses on the same day!

Another new (to me) language weblog is by Peter Harvey in Barcelona. Most of his site is related to his Guide to English Language Usage, but the blog (on Typepad) is wider-ranging.

The BBC says:
Serbia jails ‘filmed executors’
Serbia’s war crimes court has convicted four Serb paramilitaries who were apparently filmed as they shot dead six captured young Bosnian Muslims.
Speaking as an executor myself, I rather hope that they mean ‘executioners’.

(Thanks to Dances with Goats)

According to The Register, a British coach driver set fire to Germans’ towels on the Italian Riviera in order to make sun loungers available to British holidaymakers:

Glyn Bowden, 55, was driver for 55 South Wales tourists at at Viana Marina near San Remo. He yesterday recounted how the Germans “put their towels on the best sunbeds on the private beach and by a nearby pool”, much to the chagrin of the British party, The Daily Mail reports.

The situation escalated and Bowden set fire to the towels. He was arrested and about to be charged for criminal damage, but he was released after two hours at the request of the hotel, which owned the towels.

Here’s the original Daily Mail report. I tend to agree with the first three comments there: the Germans get up very early, and that’s why they are seen to do this – something other nations do too. And there’s nothing to stop you removing a towel and releasing the sun bed. (See earlier entry on Ralf Höcker’s book)

But the tabloid papers love to fan the flames of this one.

On the other hand, when I go to the local sauna, there is a women’s room with about 30 loungers. The last time I went, six people were lying there and all the other loungers had towels on them. Of course, they didn’t know I am British.

(Thanks to Trevor)

Medien, Internet und Recht reports on a case before the Hanseatisches Oberlandesgericht (Hamburg Higher Regional Court – scroll down to download the full judgment as a PDF file) where someone had applied for an interim injunction and then withdrew the application and immediately made it at another court. This, it held, might be an abusive form of “forum shopping”, using the English term. It might refute the presumption of urgency. In other cases, forum shopping is permissible.

From the judgment:

In diesem Verhalten liegt nach Auffassung des Senats ein Fall missbräuchlichen “forum-shoppings“, welches die Dringlichkeitsvermutung
des § 12 Abs. 2 UWG – und damit den Verfügungsgrund der gewählten Verfahrensart entfallen lässt.

One would have expected des missbräuchlichen Forum-Shopping instead of missbräuchlichen “forum-shoppings”. Apparently these people can’t even get their Denglish right. Actually, it comes up four times in the genitive, twice with the S and twice without.

MIR explains in a footnote:

Unter dem Begriff “forum shopping” (engl. wohl “Gerichts Einkaufsbummel”) versteht man das zielgerichtete Auswählen eines Gerichts, welches dem Antrag oder der Klage mit hoher Wahrscheinlichkeit stattgeben wird. Vorraussetzung ist die konkurrierende Zuständigkeit mehrerer Gerichte, welche insb. bei unerlaubten Handlungen im Internet – auf Grund des sog. “fliegenden Gerichtstandes” – gegeben ist.

Dietl has:

forum shopping (IPR) Zuständigkeitserschleichung; Suche nach einem günstigeren Gerichtsstand (Wahl des für den Kläger günstigsten Gerichtsstands [bei konkurrierender Zuständigkeit mehrerer Gerichte])

Hanseatisches OLG, Urteil vom 06.12.2006 – Az. 5 U 67/06

(Via Handakte WebLAWg)