Cyber Insect

Blasting The Fall on maximum volume while I vacuum my laptop.
Yes, you heard me right, I finally got sick enough of my computer turning itself if all the time, that I did some research online. Well, that is not entirely true, I have done that before, but for some reason never found any good answers. Last night I found one that said that I could take a normal vacuum and just clean the places on the outside that the fan uses.
So that is what I just did, and now it actually works properly. I started with trying all those things that did not work before; watching videos on YouTube, downloading one of my CD's to my iTunes, then downloading two more. And it is still running. Amazing.

The Fall's Interim is worth the price just hear the fire-alarm go of at the end of Bococtosis alarum. I would have loved to be a fly on the wall in their rehersal space.

FeelingPulledApartByHorses

Last friday I went and saw the NHL premiere in Stockholm. Detroit played against St Louis and even though Detroit lost it was a great game and St Louis played fantastic. It is pretty scary how much faster NHL hockey is compared to Swedish. It really is about time that we get the smaller rinks over here. We have everything to win and nothing to lose.

Saw The Spirit last night, which was a thouroughly crappy movie. There really is not anything good to say about it. Too bad, because when i was younger I loved the comics.

I think that is it for now. I need to get some food in me.

Dreams Burn Down.

Juliette Lewis finally called me last night.
I have been about to interview her for a long time now, but somehow she always manages to cancel in the absolute last second. But yesterday, right after Superstars on TV, while I put the dishes away she called me. Five minutes early!
I have talked to her before, the last time she was in Stockholm, but to hear that wellknown drawl over the phone was pretty surreal. The interview went pretty good, she is a 100% professional and I did not really have to do much. She talked and told me what she wanted me to know about the new album and when it was time for me to finally ask some questions the interview was over. I am getting used to it by now. There are very few bands out there that do not have prepared answers and feeds you with latest sellingpoints. More and more interviews are also done by phone, which makes them even harder, you have no person to feed of, and you never really get that connection. Instead what you get is a not very focused star that usually is doing something different.
I have interviewed a rappar that was driving around northern London looking for a parkingspace, I have called a singer that had lunch in a loud pub with friends and I have talked to a guitarplayer eating at McDonalds after a show. The hardest one was probably still the death metal guitarist I called in the tourbus going through a desert. I could hardly hear him because the transmission was so bad and after 5 minutes he disapeared and did not get out of the radio-shadow until 8 hours later, when I was slepping. Tough conversation to pick up again.
But then again, the funniest was probably when Al Jourgensen from Ministry called me 10 minutes early and I was in the bathroom. Anna answered and I am not sure she has forgiven me yet.
His opening lines when I got on the phone are classic material.
-Hello, where are you calling from?
-I am naked in bed looking out over the Mexican border.

Love Begins To Write a Book Across My Face

Welcome to my sick journal.
Today I went to the doctor who told me that I have to stay home from work for yet another week, since I seem to have coughed myself to some Bronchitis. So now I am eating anitbiotics and drinking cough medicine. Life's a beach.
So that pretty much means back to the book and the movies.

Todays playlist (so far):

Bob Dylan - Blonde on Blonde
A Place To Bury Strangers - Exploding Head
Baxter Dury - Lee Parrot's Memorial Lift
Pan Sonic - Kesto
Blue For Two - Songs From a Pale and Bitter Moon

Tight Pants.

Still sick.
Still bored.
Still reading the same book.

This means that I really do not have anything to say at all. I have not left the apartment since Friday night last week. I am feeling better but am still sick, and my cough is still pretty bad.
So, here is what I have listened to so far today (and I have been up since 7:30AM):

Iggy Pop and James Williamson - Kill City
The Stooges - Olympic Studios 1972
Final - Reading All the Right Signals Wrong
Ministry - The Last Dubber
Grandpaboy - Mono

What I listened to today.

Iggy Pop - Live At the Channel Boston 1988
Iggy Pop - Zombie Birdhouse
Iggy Pop - Soldier
Bailter Space - Vortura
The Black Heart Procession - Six
Beak> - Recordings
Shrinebuilder - Shrinebuilder

Happiness Is A Warm Gun

Nothing much new here in the apartment of swineflu.
Saw Jumper yesterday, and that was not very good at all.
Saw K2 and that was not very good either. BUT the climbing and the views were amazing and made it worth the whole thing. But, jesus, the plot and the acting. Oh no.
Today I have lined-up Enemy of the State and Enigma.
And yes, you have all guessed right, I am just seeing a bunch of old movies I have allready seen. The reason for this is that I can not concentrate very well, I really feel like shit and I do not want to waste a good movie I have not seen.
Having said that though, I am really looking forward to both Enemy and Enigma, two movies I remember liking a lot.

Listened to the new Shrinebuilder yesterday and that sounded pretty good. I need to give it some more time though.
Right now I am watching different shows on You Tube from the Flaming Lips curated ATP earlier this year. Man, that was a good line-up.

Over and out.

Take it outside, Godboy!

Went and saw The Jesus Lizard on friday and I can easily say that that was one of the best shows I have ever seen. It might help that they are one of my favorite bands and that I had never seen them before. But still, they were so insanely tight and the setlist was just perfect.

In other sadly more boring news it seems like I have gotten the swineflu. I am spending all my awake time in the sofa watching movies, Scrubs and reading Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson. So far the book is pretty great, but it is hard to read when you can not really concentrate like you are used to.
This means that I am home from work for a couple of days or at least until the fever is gone and I can get out a entire sentence without coughing up my lungs. Which on the other hand is pretty nice for Anna because it means that I am mostly quiet.
Anyway, I do not have time for this writing blog thing right now, so much to do, so little time.
I need to blow my nose, drink some water, watch some TV......

Radioaktivität.

No, still no way of fixing my ringtone problem, so I am deserting that project for now. It feels like I should have better things to do.
Like getting excited about the fact that I will see The Jesus Lizard tomorrow, one of my absolute favorite bands. And more importantly, one of the few bands I still have not seen. By the time I discovered them they were on a big label, made lackluster albums and broke-up. But from what I have read, heard and seen on YouTube indicates that they are in rare form right now. So cross your fingers for a great show tomorrow.

Listening to: Kratftwerk.

Oh, one more thing.
The new Rammstein single is a great, great disappointment. How come that band has the potential to such greatness and at the same time sinks to such low, low depths? They really can suck when they want to.

With Teeth.

So Juliette Lewis stood me up again.
She was supposed to call me at 18.00 and at 18.14 the recordcompany got a email that said that Juliette did not have time for a interview. They will supposedly work out another date, but we will see, I do not have a lot of faith. To bad because her album is really good.

I got my iPhone yesterday and I am still trying to figure out how to change the ringsignal, right now I feel this will never happen. I mean, I can change to one of the ones that are in the phone, but not to anything else. Not that it is important, but in a world where everyone has a cellphone that constantly rings I need a signal that sticks out. At work the other day a phone rang and me and 4 others took out our phones. I do not need that. But then again, who really cares anyway.

Saw Watchmen the other night, and loved it. Really cool movie that looked amazing and was insanely faithfull to the book. And the opening titles where the best I have seen in a long, long time.

Listening to: Mike Oldfield - Five Miles Out

Up the Irons.
See you on tour.

To Fix The Gash In Your Head

Friday, oh you beautiful friday. Work really sucked today, but it did not matter since it was friday. It is weird how you can take shit and just deal with all the crappiness just becasue you know it is friday and you have two days off.
The Juliette Lewis interview never happened, but I am supposed to try again on tuesday, so we will cross our fingers for that. But I did interview Alberta Cross and a Swedish band called Penny Century. Both went pretty well.
Otherwise I have mostly been reading and listening to a bunch of new albums that I did not have time with earlier.
The good stuff: The Big Pink, Juliette Lewis, Jesaiah, The Bear Quartet, Goatwhore, Jamie T, Kings Of Convenience.
The really good stuff: A Place To Bury Strangers
The bad stuff: Sax Ruins and about 5 German death metal albums that all sounded the same.

Great show, that sadly collapsed after 45 minutes. But up until then, just a really good, nicelooking party.

Hang Them All.

Busy, busy week.
Yesterday I was supposed to interview Juliette Lewis, but that never happened so now I am waiting for a new time. But I will on the other hand interview Alberta Cross in about 2 hours. And then after that I am going to go and see Teddybears. That will be fun, I have not seen them for quite awhile.
And tomorrow Anna and I will go camping in the woods for the weekend, so cross your fingers that we will not get any rain.

Well, I need to go and prepare my interview.

Cigarettes & Alcohol.

So, Oasis finally broke up.
I have a very mixed feeling about Oasis. I have seen them on most tours and I have seen them good, bad, amazing and awful. I have seem them with the original line-up, without Noel (horrible show), without Liam (slightly better show) and tired, rich and uninterested. But I have always read all their interviews. Oasis have always made better quotes than albums and they have always delivered in interviews. I talked to Liam earlier this year and that is a tape that I will keep forever. He was very nice, very Liam, full of bragging and pretty damn hilarious. Liam was a journalists dream, he spoke in headlines and delivered a show-stopping answer on most questions. He also spoke a completely unintelligible Manchester accent filled with "you know's", "fuck" and more "fucks". It took me 2-3 listens to transcribe it properly.
I also saw Oasis at the Hultsfredfestival in 1994 when they were as good as they ever got. The show was loud, cocky and really damn good. That is also the same festival were someone really bright put Oasis in a small hotel in Hultsfred with a bar that closed at midnight together with Primal Scream, The Verve and The Wildhearts. Earlier that day Primal Scream had heated up their heroin in the tourbus microwave during a interview with a big Swedish newspaper and Bobby later in the evening fell of the stage. The Verves singer Richard Ashcroft sat on the edge of the stage druling during The Verve's show and did not really manage to sing many words. Ginger in The Wildhearts was just off heroin but had got a pretty bad coke-habit and Oasis, well, Oasis was Oasis. You can imagine what happened to the hotel when the bar closed at midnight. Big Swedish headlines.

Listening to: Kinky Friedman - Sold Amercian

There´s a trampoline in my livingroom.

Spent pretty much the whole day out at the garden. I was digging a hole in the ground. I would say that that is one of the most manly things you can do. I am going to let that one sink in for a while. Digging a hole in ground. Manly, spade, soil, hole. Mathias.

Right now I am sitting with a glass of wine watching the "Finnkamp" (weird name I know, just ask the person to the left of you what it means).

Nude With Boots.

I know I should be writing some fun and interesting right now. But because of the IKEA catalog I am too damn tired and my brain is not working properly. So here I am, with a martini (3 measures gin, 1 measure vodka, half a measure of vermouth, shake until ice-cold, serve with a slice of lemon) and watching previews on the computer.
So instead of trying to write well and fail, I will give you this great preview (looks really funny):

http://www.apple.com/trailers/independent/themenwhostareatgoats/

Listening to: Juliette Lewis - Terra Incognita (I am interviewing her next week)

Bangers & Mash.

In abut 30 seconds.

A Bath.
Radiohead - In Rainbows.
Joseph O´Neill - Netherland
3 fingers of Bushmills.

The Jackson Whites.

Stayed home today again because of the knee. Got up as usual at 5.15, made my tea, ate a sandwich adn walked to the subway. But it hurt too much walking down the stairs to the station that I turned around back home and called in sick.
Been spending most of the day in the sofa watching Battlestar Galactica and drinking tea. I also finished my book about the Mount Everest disaster. Great book, so far I have not read anything bad by Jon Krakauer. Next up is Netherland by Joseph O´Neil. I have heard a lot of good about it so I am pretty excited.

I kinda feel like my last post was pretty damn boring, so everybody should just skip it. I was tired.

Down Like Disco.

How come bands are so bad at knowing what is best for them?
That is something that I spent way too much time thinking about. It just does not make any sense to me. But the fact is that almost anyone except for the band themselves know what is actually a good decision and a bad one. Take for example Bob Dylan. Bob Dylan is known for leaving great songs off his albums while putting crappy on instead. There is no coincidence that the his albums of rarities and unreleased material is better then most of his normal albums.
Another exampel is The Dandy Warhols. I mean not even the biggest fan thinks that Colder Than the Coldest Winter Was Cold is funny the second time. And still it is there, opening the damn album. When it comes to The Dandy Warhols the skip or program button is there absolut best friend. On their latest album if you just take the last two songs off you have a pretty damn good album, but if you leave them on I have a hard time giving it any better then a 2/5. It does not help that they together are over 21 minutes long. That is 80% of an album by Shellac or Mclusky. On the other hand it is only the first song for Pink Floyd or The Cure live.
Another example if the stoner/doom metal band Electric Wizard. They have not played in Sweden for 6 years and have a pretty big fanbase here for what they are. And still when it comes to doing a european tour they will play London, Paris, Berlin, etc, etc and then in Sweden a restaurant in Växjö. I mean, who made that decison? Do they not want anyone to come? Or what is the deal?
I could go on with this forever, but someone has started drilling in the wall next to our apartment so I have move in to the next room.

Open Day At The Hate Fest.

It is funny to think how right Marcel Proust was.
Last night Anna and I baked our own pitabread and along with that we created our own falafel and which we we ate it in front of the TV watching the Track & Field World Cup. And I started thinking about Times Square. When I worked at Virgin there was this kosher-cart on 5th Ave that had the best falafels. It was an old jewish man that stood there and he always put pickles in the falafel and it was so damn good. And we are sitting there in front of the TV and I think about this and then I get up and get the pickles. I take a bite and suddenly I am sitting in the sun on the sidewalk right next to the old jewish man. And I can hear the traffic and I am wearing my Virgin shirt, smelling the city, loving the city. And this was in the middle of one of my Hemingway phases. And that is when, in front of the Track & Field on TV with a homemade falafel in my hand, that I decide to give up on On the Road. It is great and all but I just do not care anymore. So I take down one of Hemingway's short-story collections and I start to read. and for some reason everytime I do this I get equally surprised by how good of a writer he is. It is just insane. He seemingly says nothing and still it is all there. One story is called After the Storm and this is the first sentence:

It wasn't about anything, something about making punch, and then we started fighting and I slipped and he had me down kneeling on my chest and choking me with both hands like he was trying to kill me and all the time I was trying to get the knife out of my pocket to cut him loose.

And I remember sitting there in the sun with my book, my falafel and a soda watching the midtown traffic speed by, the men in suits running with the lattes-to-go, the homeless screaming man who always stood in that corner and one time tried to spit me in the face. And maybe the falafel there was not better than any other, maybe it was the view, the smell and maybe it was me and where I was in life then that made it the best. Or maybe that old jewish man just knew soemthing that the rest of us don't. I like to think that.

Listening to: Curve

A Ghost Is Born.

My knee started acting up last night, probably been pushing it too hard at work. Which means that when I got up this morning it locked up when I walked the stairs, so I am staying home today, sadly. I have been home one time before because of my knee, and that time the doctor said that it could help with injections of, wait for it, rooster-comb-oil! Yup, that's it, rooster-comb-oil.
This really makes me wonder, and I when say wonder, I really mean it, there are no googling, twittering or calling friends for answers, just thoughts floating in the air like injured seagulls in a northern coastal town of Scotland.
Is it really the oil from the combs of roosters, or is it just a really bad/excellent name? And if it really is the oil from roosters, how do they get it? And even more importantly, how did they find out that it is good to inject into the knees of injured mailmen? Who was the first that they tried this on? And how come he agreed to try it?

While you mull this over I will leave you with a few words from Mogwai:

What is the greatest secret of Mogwai?

Major to relative minor + delayed guitar = girls crying

Watching the World Cup in track and field and Sweden is so damn good. Oh, sorry, wrong channel.

Touch me I'm sick.

Saw Ginger from The Wildhearts play an acoustic set at a bar in Old Town last night. The room could probably hold about 15 people and Ginger and Conny Blom (Electric Boys, Hanoi Rocks) sat in a corner under one of the speakers while about 40 of us were crowding around trying to see something. The set was really good and they played mostly Wildhearts tunes but threw in Abba's S.O.S together with a Prince cover they improvised as Purple Vein. Anna and I each had a Spitfire Ale and then we tried one called Canterbury Jack Pale Ale that was really good.

Right now I am reading Jack Kerouacs On The Road - The original scroll, and I must say that I am slighty bored. Jack is a great writer and he really has an amazing flow in his writing and the story just speeds by. But the problem is that I read this when I was a teenager and since then I have read to many of the copycats so that now I feel like I have read the story a hundred times. Not Kerouac's fault.
I will see whether I finish it or if I start something else.
The amazing thing is still that he wrote it on an actual scroll and that you can tell when you read it. There are no pauses or anything just this constant urge to move forward with the text, I have honestly never really read anything like that.

Listening to: Sonny Boy Willamson

Ghostrider

Spent saturday out in suburbia watching 11 year old girls play football. That is, I was watching my neice playing a football cup. The funny thing with these things is that you discover little things about people that are pretty interesting.
If we take these kids boys and girls 9-11 years old playing football the first thing that hits you is this: The girls do not really care if they win or lose, the boys do not really care either BUT it is important for the boys that they score. It can, for example, sound like this after a game:
-How did it go?
-We lost, I think, but I made a goal!
And when it come to the games, the girls want to get rid of the ball as soon as they get it, it does not really matter to whom, as long as they do not have it anymore. With boys it is the opposite, they do not want to give the ball to anyone, all they want is the ball for themselves.

Spent last night drinking mojitos and watching Fishing With John. TV rarely gets better than that.

Today me and Anna have been cleaning and baking (that is Anna has been baking and I have been helpful).

Listening to: Atmosphere.

I am all about BRING THE WAR HOME right now!

http://www.myspace.com/bringthewarhome

Throwing Bricks At Trains

Wow, that was a long break. Seems like I just stopped writing all together. Well, it was summer and I stayed mostly outdoors where there are no computers, cellphones with internet, internet cafés and other assorted electrical outlets.
But now that I have joined the long line of running lemmings towards that steep cliff that is also called the iPhone, I think that I can start updating a wee bit more frequently. That is, if my iPhone ever comes. It seems like everyone in Sweden wanted one at the same time, so they all bought one. Then I waited a couple of weeks before I decided I wanted one. By which time, they were all out. ALL OUT. Not one left in the whole country. So here I am typing away on my trusted electrical typewriter hooked up to the Commodore 64.
Anyway, if everything turns out all right, maybe I can even figure out how to post some photos that I have not found on the net and post here. We will see.

So for now.

Up the irons.
See you on tour.

A Boy Named Sue

Welcome to the country that has all seasons, all the time.
It seems like we have come to the part of the year that is supposed to be spring but instead is something completely different. We have had now in Stockholm all four seasons everyday. The sad thing is that I am not even exaggerating. On friday we had sun, it was pretty warm and the sky was blue, towards the afternoon it started raining and by late afternoon we had a snowstorm. Yup, a full, straight to the point snowstorm. It was snowing heavily, from the side, and the visibility was zero. After about 2 hours of this whole of Stockholm was covered in snow. Now it is sunday morning, all the snow is gone, it is pretty warm, but the sky is grey and I think it will start to rain.
From this we can also draw one more conclusion. You can tell that I am a Swede who has lived in Minnesota, I spend way too much time talking about the weather.
Oh, and I am a mailman.

The new Isis is really good.

F L O O R S H O W

What you are seeing in this photo is The Sisters Of Mercy from last night. This is a good clear, nice picture of the show. You could claim that my phone sucks, etc, etc, etc, but the truth is that this is what you saw. After about half the show I moved to the back and then I saw a great light show, tons and tons of smoke and heard great music. But once I moved to the back I never saw the band again.
But the show was good, but maybe this is the last time I will see them for awhile. Still the same show, same lights and almost the same show. They need to come up with something new now. Maybe an album??

Last weekend I went and saw Thåström and I can easily say that that was the best show of 2009. I have a hard time seeing how anything can be better then that. With a great new album and an amazing band that turns more and more into The Bad Seeds he is pretty hard to beat. On one guitar Ossler who released last years best album, on drums and the other guitar two guys from Bob Hund and Rockis from Osslers band on bass. Great lights and a really good setlist helped too. So damn good. Hard to believe that he is 52. Especially when he plays Aldrig Nånsin Komma Ner lying rolling around on his back while the band is impersonating a tank.

In other news I am really sucked in to The World Cup Baseball Classics or the World Classics Baseball Cup, it could also be called the Cup Of Classic World Baseball, ha ha, I have no clue. But it is really fun to watch and I am amzed by how good Japan and Korea is. One of them will win the whole Cup of World Baseball Classics.

Ok one more photo.

For The Roses

Hmm, no I do not really have an excuse. I have been lazy, and I have not really been in the mood. But I am back. And I am writing again. Always something, eh.

I have been reading a lot, and I have been listening to a lot of good music, and seen some excellent hockeygames.
The other night Minnesota won over the Sharks in a pretty damn intense game, where I really did not think that Minnesota would have a chance. But they refused to give up and ended up winning.

I also sat up way to late following the trade deadline, which was a bit of an anticlimax. No fun trades, nothing fun at all actually. Maybe the economic crisis have reached the NHL too.

The new Thåström album (which is absolutely amazing) is being released on friday and I am going to go and see him on sunday. As always I am expecting a great show. Especially with the band that he is touring with nowadays. And anyway, I have to see him, I have not missed a tour since Synd in 1986 which was the first time I saw Thåström. It was in a tiny town (or village) outside of Oskarshamn called Blomstermåla and Fleshquartet was opening. Great show.

Like Eating Glass

There was supposed to be a photo of our new dishwasher here, but I can not find the cord for the phone. Sorry about that.

But yes!
We now have a dishwasher, and what a mess it was getting it. You know how when you order something on the internet there is something called Billing Adress and something else called Shipping Adress. Well, the company we bought it from did not really know the difference between the two. They shipped the dishwasher to my parents in Oskarshamn... twice!! That is about 4 hours with a car from Stockholm.
But now it is installed and we have testdriven it and it is just beautiful. The only question now is what we are supposed to do in the evenings and on weekend mornings. But I think we will figure something out.

Last night me and Anna went and saw Bloc Party, which were surprisingly good, they were really dancy and I especially liked the up-tempo songs. They were also very untight (if you can say that in english), but then again not everyone can be Mogwai. And if I remember correctly The Bad Seeds can also be very floaty when they are in that mood.

Listening to: The Blood Brothers - Young Machetes

Nobody's Twisting Your Arm

Is it only me or have Morrissey started more and more to sound like David Gedge from The Wedding Present?
Was mainly thinking of the new song Something Is Squeezing My Skull.

Listening to: P.O.S - Never Better

I Can Smell Your Thoughts

Got really bored of my whole record collection yesterday and I could not find anything at all I wanted to listen to. So I did what I always do in situations like that, I loaded my iPod with everything I had with one band. Yesterday that band happened to be The Leather Nun. So today I spent my route listening to their whole discography from beginning to end, and I must say I was surprised. Some things had of course aged really bad, and the two last albums (Steel Construction and Nun Permanent) were pretty damn bad. But otherwise I really liked it, and some old memories popped up, like the first time I saw them in a tiny basement in Hultsfred they had horns and a tiny moviescreen. Saw them later too, and they were not as good then.

Otherwise I am waiting for the new Mastodon and the new Lamb Of God.

Today i have been writing a article and a bunch of reviews, but I still have some left to do. So better get to it. Right?

LUX INTERIOR R.I.P.

Lazy Sunday Afternoon.

Sometimes I just love cable-TV.
Had a pretty damn great sunday today. Started with Minnesota - Vancover, great game that Minnesota won, then Boston - Rangers, but not the best game so we switched to Toronto - Pittsburgh, which was really good. Then it was time for a football break Liverpool - Chelsea, a really suspensful game that Liverpool won. Dinner some dishes and then Ottowa - Washington. And now it is 21.00 and Boston - Montreal is just starting.

Over and out.

Brighter Than A Thousand Suns

Got home yesterday from the rock-ferry. Jack Daniels had arranged a rockcompetition were the final was held on a cruise to Åland and back. I was invited as a journalist and went on the boat to write about it.
All in all it was a great trip, with a blistering set from Mustach and maybe a bit too many Jack and ginger-ales.
But now it is saturday and me and Anna are on our way in to Stampen to meet with Tomas, Elisabeth and Mira for some beer and blues-jam. Will be fun as always.

Sat up last night and watched a great game were Dallas beat Detroit. Dallas golie Turco was having the game of his life, he took everything.

88-92-96

Had a bit of a bean-fiasco yesterday, but the chili turned out pretty good anyway. Had it for lunch today also, so I think that is enough chili for awhile. Today I will make fresh pasta with basil and oliveoil. Sounds really hard, doesn't it?

Started watching Beowulf yesterday. Did not look as bad as I had expected at all. Was really annoyed when it came out that it was animated, but haveing seen the first half I understand way. Not sure how "watchable" it would have been with a monster that spent the good part of 15 minutes ripping humans in two, eating them, crushing them and so on with real actors. This way it was a bit easier to watch, and did not have all those Saw vibes. This way it was something i could watch without completely losing interest.

Listening to: Six.BySeven (everything they have done)

Nightclubbing.

Today I will make chili.
The great thing about making chili is that no one can agree on where it comes from, how to make it or what to put in it, so you are pretty much on your own, which is nice. The only thing that people seem to agree on is that there is supposed to be both beef and pork in it, so I will make a vegetarian today. I have just been to the store and bought some vegetables and Anna have some beans soaking in water for me. Then I will make a playlist (yes, my complete and utter nerdiness reaches this far) on my iPod for the chili, crank it up, open a beer and start cooking. The only problem with that is that I forgot to buy the beer, so I will just have to skip that part sadly. It means that the chili will not be as good, but what can you do.

Reading the new Ian Rankin right now. It is not a Rebus book, but pretty god so far, the characters are not as full but the story is interesting.

Listening to: Tonight Franz Ferdinand, Danzig - IV, Council Estate Electronics.

The Carny.

Mick Harvey just announced that he is leaving The Bad Seeds. Mick Harvey has always been the only constant thing in The Bad Seeds since the formation in 1983. And before that he formed both The Boys Next Door and The Birthday Party with Nick Cave. So this is not really good news, I had no problem with Blixa leaving a while back, but Mick Harvey. That is not good.

Just watched the NHL All Stars Skills Competition, and that was both fun and boring as usual. Tomorrow it is time for the game, and I will try and see that if I can. Not many Swedes in it this year though, only Lundqvist.

Anna came home from Minneapolis on friday, and she has some serious jetlag right now. She has been up at around 4AM two nights in a row now, hungry and unable to sleep. Hopefully it will get better soon or she will have a tough week ahead of her.

Listening to: Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds - Let Love In

Vanilla Radio.

It is snowing here. And I kind of thought that the winter was over. I mean, we are not really used to getting snow this often nowadays. It seems like lately winter has been a snowstorm at the end of october, green and warm christmas and then a really cold march. But maybe those days are over too.

Saw The Wrestler, which was amazing. And for someone who has being following Mickey Rourke for as long as I have it felt really nice to get to enjoy a movie becasue it has been awhile (Domino was below par for both Tony Scott and Mickey, not to mention the 90's, man did I have to watch a lot of crap in those days to support him). But The Wrestler was really good, reminded me a lot an old, old movie he did when he still had the looks called Homeboy. And no do not look it up, it is not very good.

Almost done with my Heavy Metal book, and since I am still reading it I could mention that I have for the last 4 days been listeing almost only to Kreator, Celtic Frost, Fear Factory, Death and of course Metallica and Slayer.

Waltz In Black

I have just discovered that there is a channel in Sweden showing my favorite tv-chef, Keith Floyd. I discovered Floyd while studying in Växjö and got hooked right away. He travels around the world and cooks the food of the area on a portable gas stove while drinking way too much wine and talking constantly. Sometimes he fails with the food but most of the times it seems to turn out great. But they are great cooking shows, and the whole reason while I fell in love with food-tv.
And then when I moved to the US, Annas brother Nicholas introduced me to my all time favorite tv-show: Iron Chef. A dead serious Japanese show where chefs compete in what the call kitchen stadium to become the chef supreme. Absolutely brilliant TV.
And when I went back to Minneapolis for christmas, Iron Chef was the first tv show I watched. And now there is channel here that shows Floyd. Spent the morning watching 3 episodes in a row. Well, it is sunday morning after all.
And one more thing. Keith Floyd loves The Stranglers. That alone should be enough.

Karmacoma

Just finished Cloverfield. What a great movie! I loved it! I had heard not so good things about this movie and that you got seasick from watching it, so I never saw it when it came out. Then I had this thing that since it is only 1.17 long I thought it was too much money, which is actually ridiculous. I mean a good movie, is a good movie. And Breaking The Waves was almost 3 hours and I still regret seeing that.
But back to Cloverfield. I really liked the fact that you got no information what so ever, that is was just a night in someones life, no start and no ending, really cool. And the special effects were really nice. It was almost like a Blair Witch but done with a lot of money and much, much better actors.
It also made me miss New York. It has been a while since a movie made me do that. But this one had some real good New York scenes and you always knew where they were.

Listening to: the soundtrack to Pi

It's Grim Up North

Made som hummus today, after a few smaller disasters it turned out really well, but now the kitchen looks like Manchester after WW2. But the hummus was good and I ate it on a giant sub I made with what was left in the fridge.
Watched two episodes of the Rebus BBC show based on Ian Rankins novels about Inspector Rebus at The Edinburgh police. The books are amazing and I was curious to see what they had done with the TV-show. Well, after two episodes I can say that I will not see anymore. All of the things that made Rebus who he is was gone and replaced with cliches from other copshows, really lame and extremely disapointing. The only good thing was that he looked right, just like I had imagined him, and so did Siobahn and the flat he lived in. Always something i guess.

Reading a book right now about the history of Heavy Metal, pretty interesting. It makes me want to listen to everything I read about, so right there had been a LOT of metal.
Yesterday I went through the whole discography of Voivod and a bunch of Celtic Frost and today there has been a lot of Slipknot and Slayer and Venom.

Man, I am so tired today. Went and saw The Stranglers last night and they did not go on until 22.00. Which meant that they were done at midnight, at which time I walked to the subway and rode home, drank some water, had a sandwich and went to bed at about 1.00. I got up at 4.40 this morning and worked for 8 hours.
Man, I am so tired today.

Anyway, I love The Stranglers and have never seen them. But the problem is that the singer/guitarplayer Hugh Cornwell left the band in 1990 and they have not really been any good since then. So when I saw that they were coming to Sweden for the first time in 15 years I really felt that I wanted to see them but was not sure that I was willing to pay for it.
But they really surprised me, the band was tight as hell and the setlist pretty much perfect. Opened with Get a grip and played all the songs I wanted to hear Duchess, Peaches, No More Heroes, Tank, Nice N'Sleazy, Hanging Around, etc, etc.

Southland Tales is on TV tonight and I am thinking about seeing it, but everyone I know that has seen it say that sucks so I am not so sure.

Death Take Your Fiddle.

Anna left this morning for Minneapolis again. We came home a week ago and had just gotten back to normal sleeping habits when she needed to go again. Another day, another funeral.
She left on a Continental flight and hopefully it is better then the last one we took with them. The personel was extremely rude and the flight was just unpleasant.
But Anna needed to leave on very short notice and she did not have any choice.

Today I cooked a chili that turned out really well, I think that I have finally mastered the art of making it hot and full without do to much of either. Today I used pretty smoky peppers and it turned out really well. I cooked it for over 5 hours and I think that helped. This time I forgot to get honey though, but it worked really well without it. So we will see if I will even use that the next time.

Listened a lot to the new Franz Ferdinand singel Ulysses today. Great single, I really like the direction they have taken on the new album.

RON ASHETON R.I.P.

One the greatest guitarists of all time was found dead today in his home in Ann Arbour, Michigan. The Stooges were one the best and one of my all time favorite bands ever. There is no end on to how influental and how much they have meant to me.
I saw The Stooges two times while living in New York. The first time was right when they had first re-united at the Roseland Ballroom, and that is one the best shows I have ever seen. It was loud, intense and crazy.
The second time was at a garage-festival on Randalls Island together with Bo Diddley, New York Dolls, Dirty Pretty Things and a bunch of other great bands. A tornodo was coming in during the show and it had to be cut short. Still great though, and the band was on fire.

So pay your respects today by playing The Stooges on maximun volume.

Dreams Never End

Jetlag is not my friend. Left Minneapolis on the 29th and after a very stressed lay-over in Amsterdam landed in Stockholm on the 30th. Me and Anna had, when we went to bed, been awake for 28 hours so we had no problem falling asleep and then staying that way for 13 hours. Sadly this did not cure the jetlag and we have found ourselves every night since then wide awake at 4 in the morning. One night I even got up at 4 and sat reading until it was time to go to work. Not a very good day.

But today it is saturday, really damn cold, dark and gloomy and everything else that a saturday in january should be. Anna is knitting and I am reading American Gods by Neil Gaiman. So far an excellent book. I really like the story and the world that he has created in this book.

Listening to:
New Order - Movement (Collector's Edition)
New Order - Low Life (Collector's Edition)