Call Of The Wild

Went to the Excel Center yesterday to see Wild - Blackhawks. The Blackhawks were on a amazing winning streak and the Wild on a losing, and that is how it continued. The Blackhawks played great and won with 4-1, the last goal being scored in an empty goal with 2 seconds left. It was a good game and really fun to see, just too bad that the Wild did not really start playing at their fullest until the last period.
We had great seats at a drinkrail right in the middle of the arena, but then we had also promised away our firstborn for those seats.

Tonight we are flying home, so today is pretty much doing some last things and moving some things around in our luggage so that no bag is over 50 lbs (23 kg). I think right now the score is: 23 kg, 22 kg, 22 kg and 21 kg. Gonna suck with four giant full heavy bags plus a carry-on each, but I guess that is why the taxi was invented.

Yesterday we went and saw Burn After Reading. Really funny movie, one of those Coen brothers movies where everyone is really stupid and most things go to hell. Brad Pitt plays a really dim and lovable character, really good. And John Malcovich is hilarious, same with George Clooney. So go and see it right away!

Weather has been warm and extremely slippery today, pretty hard to drive. Also took a trip to Mall Of America yesterday. Mall of America is a black time hole. Time just disappear there and never come back. It was very exhausting and not very much fun, but we got all the shopping done that needed to be done. Ate some pretty lame Chinese food at the food court.

Everything's Gone Green.

...just got home from Valkyrie which I thought was great. Amazing actors, good screenplay and really suspenseful (which is very hard considering that you the whole time know what will happen and how it will end). Tom Cruise was very toned down and very good. Kenneth Branagh was great, even though he was not in it very much, and Tom Wilkinson was, as always, brilliant. So go and see it.

Got a lot of nice presents last night, ate way too much food and drank some really good IPA's. All in all a very nice Christmas here in Minnesota. Anna and the gang is watching Benjamin Button and has not gotten home yet. Then I think it is time for more food and maybe a walk around the lake.

Still really cold and lots of snow, but I have gotten used to it. Which makes sense considering that I lived here for three years. It is great being back and it felt really good driving around uptown the other day with 93X on full volume in the car. Felt like I never left, which was weird.

HAPPY CHRISTMAS

How did Darth Vader know what Luke Skywalker had bought him for Christmas?

Because he felt his presents.

Echo Of My Scream

Landed in Minneapolis yesterday after a long plane ride. I watched four movies, drank red wine and read a book. When we got to Minnesota we had to circle the state because the landing strips had to be plowed first. And then when we had landed Homeland Security took me in for questioning as they always do. Must say that even though I am used to it now (they always take me in for questioning), it is starting to get pretty annoying, mainly because they are so damn rude about it. This time the man behind the counter told me, and I am quoting: "It is obvious that you worked very hard to get your Green Card, but since you then decided not to live in the US you are not worthy of having one". And then they took it. So I am no longer a Green Card holding member of the United States Of America, from now on I am just a little Swedish music nerd.

Anyway, Minneapolis is covered with snow and right now it is -11 F (that is -24 C for you europeans, well I guess that is me). Yesterday I went to Electric Fetus, the best record store in the state of Minnesota and spent a lot of money. Felt great.

No Sleep ´til Hammersmith

Went and saw Motörhead... again! And it was definitely one of the better times I have seen them, which is pretty insane considering that Lemmy turns 63 in two weeks. They opened with Iron Fist and then straight into Stay Clean and not a lot of openings get a lot better than that. They had a pretty big production for being Motörhead, lots of lights, smoke and fire, oh yeah, lots of fire. The highpoint was probably a brilliant version of Metropolis and a absolutely insane Overkill with six minutes of only strobes and fire. Love it!

Anna also left for the states this weekend, so I am alone for a week, which usually means that I watch way to many movies and eat badly. But I am not sure I actually have time for that this week, got a lot of stuff to do, presents to buy and bags to pack. And then on saturday I will board a plane for Minneapolis. I am really looking forward to going there again, and to have some time off.

Anyway, time to do some dishes.

Fine Art In Silver

Hmm, took me quite a while to write again. But I have a great excuse, well a pretty good one at least. Tons of stuff has happened in a really short time and Anna and I have been pretty busy. But where to start?
Somewhere in the middle I guess.
Anna and I have started this tradition where we invite our friends every year for a big thanksgiving dinner. We cook for two days and then people come over drink a lot of beer and wine and finish all the food in a couple of hours. It is always really fun and even though we almost kill ourselves with the cooking it is obviously enough fun that we keep doing it. The tough part in Sweden is getting a big enough turkey, turkeys over here are pretty small (with american standards) and pretty damn frozen. The turkey this year took two days to thaw, which was a little big too long since I did not really start the process until 24 hours before the guests were coming. But everything went really well and people enjoyed the food and the drinks.
About that time, Anna got laid off. The financial crisis hit Sweden a little bit later and the small company that Anna works for were forced to cut down on personel. So Anna and four others were laid off. Annas last day will be january 8th. This means that we have to do some serious cuttings in our budget, but it should not be too bad. Anna is a member of the union and will get unemployment pay and I got a raise the same day she got the boot (how is that for irony).
What else? Hmm, maybe that was it.
Anyway, over and out.

Motörhead is in 5 days.

B A U H A U S

It seems like I totally forgot that in the beginning of this year Bauhaus released a pretty damn good album. And it also seems like totally forgot to put it on my list.

And it definitely needs to be on the Top10, maybe even top5. I need to think about this and revise the list. Crap!

Well, here goes again.

1. A Place To Bury Strangers - A Place To Bury Strangers
2. Ossler - Ett Brus
3. Firewater - The Golden Hour
4. Division Of Laura Lee - Violence Is Timeless
5. Bauhaus - Go Away White
6. Atmosphere - When Life Gives You Lemons You Paint That Shit Gold
7. Portishead - Third
8. Twelve - Houston We Have No Problem (I and II)
9. Mogwai - The Hawk Is Howling
10. Mercury Rev - Snowflake Midnight
11. The Black Angels - Directions To See A Ghost
12. Spiritualized - Songs In A & E
13. Tv On The Radio - Dear Science
14. Disfear - Live The Storm
15. Melvins - Nude With Boots
16. Montys Loco - Farewell Mr Happy
17. The Dandy Warhols - Earth To The Dandy Warhols
18. The Soundtrack Of our Lives - Communion
19. The Last Shadow Puppets - The Age Of Understatement
20. Bloc Party - Intimacy