Glasgow
Stressing a bit here. Me n three friends are off to Glasgow tomorrow to check out A Silver Mt.Zion. If you have the possibility, track down this record. It is the only record this far that has made me shed tears with joy. Considering the masses of records consumed during 32 years, that's no mean feat.

Just thought I would give you the URL to where you can check out almost all videos from Lume. You can either go to Googlevideo or Youtube. Your choice.

Apart from that, we had a splendid rehearsal with Nazca yesterday. We'll be spending the summer recording.

Be back on monday
Cheers

Choir n other stuff
Big thanks to everyone who took the time saturday eve to be in our very improvised choir. It was great to see so many nice people and good singers in the same room. Funniest part was when I asked everyone in the room to scream. The result of that sudden blast of sound was that the Tascam crashed.
Apart from that, beer, cookies n homemade stuff (courtesy of Ninni) was consumed and a great time was had by all.

Anyhow, what's up?
Been putting the last touches on a series of illustrations for a finland-swedish schoolbook coming out this autumn from Söderströms. You can see one of them at the top of this post. Click the pic.

The Norwegian Arts Council has been generous enough to support both the projects we proposed to them. Hats off to them, I am extremely grateful.

What projects? Well, a new compilation of Fakta fra Verden (Facts from the World), plus the project I showed the teaser from. It's still a bit hush-hush, but it just went forward a giant step. And it will be great.

Apart from that, I would like to thank Turkoosi club in Helsinki for shutting their doors without telling anyone about it. They have been just as helpful with information about when or if they will open again. The fantastic results of their splendid efforts are around ten bands losing booked n promoted gigs and promoters losing advertised clubnights without ever being notified. Kudos Turkoosi!

Big shout-out also goes out to DHL which managed to smash the used Powerbook I bought, altho I paid them almost 90 € for insured shipping. Extra kudos goes out to them being impossible to reach, arranging for meetings and never showing up (twice!) plus their hard work at keeping me informed about the ongoing process. Thanks DHL!

Nazca live video
Here's 'Real Love', live at Lume.
Enjoy!

What's Happening?

Been a busy bee lately. Spent the last two weeks editing the Nazca | Lume -performance.

Weird, memories of the gig weren't that good. Our gigs are usually pretty spontaneous affairs, so we felt a bit out of place there. I remember thinking it felt like a theatre performance more than a concert, since we'd spent the preceding two-three months planning the concert. Everything was pretty tightly plotted.

Looking at the footage, I realise how wrong I was. It's great, one of our best at that point. I'm deliriously happy it was documented properly this time.

If everything goes well ( it rarely does, but anyway) we'll have a dvd out shortly.
If you would like to check out parts from it, go here.

Otherwise, we've been recording a bunch of music lately. Just some more glockenspiel to record and we're done with a bunch of songs. And they all sound fantastic.

If I may say so.

I think I may.

Apart from that, comix, book design and illustrations are filling my waking hours. Together with biking of course.

Teaser




In the comic business, we call this a teaser...

This one is a classic.

Ah, Hollywood.

Hee.
I saw the movie Sin City yesterday.

Virginville, more like it.
Everything in that movie reeks of repressed sexuality (whatever that reeks of).

It's a porn movie with killing instead of fucking. They colored most of the blood white, so it looks like an ejaculation whenever anyone gets shot.

First of all, I don't mind porno, but this metaphoric nudge-nudge-wink-wink-stuff was more grating than porno dialogue.

The heroes are all tough all-killing-no-fucking guys. One is too ugly to get laid (starts killing people after he once gets laid), the other prefers killing to sex (he refuses sex to preserve his honor) and the third is somewhat portrayed a bit like a nancyboy because he is weak for the ladies. Not to mention the guy who gets castrated twice.

Usual puritan fare. Sex equals death. The only time anyone got laid in that movie, the girl died almost instantly afterwards. Everyone knows people getting laid will die instantly afterwards, just like in Friday 13th.

Yeah, I know, it's, ehum, a postmodern deconstruction of the noir genre. An exposition, if you will. The smartest way ever to be stupid. He's really just spoofing the thing, he makes it look so cheesy, you realise how stupid the whole noir genre is. My, what a genius.

I was hoping that was the case until I checked out the 'making of'-part of the DVD. Mr. Miller comes across as a 50 year old pent-up virgin with absolutely no distance whatsoever to his creation. Which made me feel a bit queasy.

Not to mention the usual careerist cocksuck-fest that makes up 75% of these little marketing vehicles. "It was SO great working on this movie, Rodriguez is a genius, I've been a Miller fan since whenever. I love everyone who worked on this movie"

It fits these times. Murder as orgasm. This really sinister fundamentalist mindset. Every fundie religion wants to repress peoples sexuality. Then you get a bunch of really tense people ready to kill.

I don't mind a good violent movie. But this puritan "my penis makes me a bad boy"-bullshit is grating in the extreme.

In other news: I received an email today that it was "My last chance to supercharge my sexual performance". Better hurry up answering that one.

Biking

Just two kind requests to my fellow human beings.

1. Bike lanes are just that. Bike lanes.

They are not convenient parking space, they are neither extra sidewalk.
Sometimes it's just annoying, other times it's plain lethal. I come around a corner and almost run down some mom with a babycarriage.
Would she walk in the middle of the car lane too?

2. One side please.

When you bike together, form a line. Don't bike next to each others as if you are taking a stroll.

Thank you for your time. You may resume your daily duties.

Phwew, just had to get that off my chest....

----edit----
My friend Pete added these:
Actually, checked it recently. my impression was that according to the law it is legal to walk on the bike lane. don't ask why. i could add that at least on the big roads in and out of helsinki it is ok to drive on bikelanes with mopeds. really. they just come storming past at 45km/h.

oh, and in traffic lights. why cannot the cyclist just form a queue? why do they line up side-by-side to the both sides of the crossing? and then, when the light turns green, there is this randomized shuffeling of who goes where and who is in the way and who is faster and who is too slow.

Me oh my. What a labour day. Haven't laughed this much in years.

I guess it peaked when Otto told how he managed to cut his hand on porridge. He then proceeded to cut his hand on a sock. No one knows how. Much mirth ensued.

Many thanks to Mitja for holding such a fantastic bash.