Wednesday, August 09, 2006

'tis the season

there's rain and thunder outside. i love rain. one of my favorite all time lines from a song is "the rain falls hard on a humdrum town".

i also like coffee a lot, so it should come as no surprise that another one of my favorite lines is "i can tell you taste like coffee, 'cause you look like rain". seriously, that line has it all.

the rain started falling hard while i was halfway to work, on my bike. i got insanely wet. wet pants. ("hey, wet pants! this isn't the women's auxiliary balloon corps!") so now i've borrowed a cover-all at work, which makes me stand out slightly. it's a smashing green color that just happens to match my shoes. i haven't been getting any funny comments at all. nosiree.

boom.

Monday, August 07, 2006

her rabid glow is like braille to the night

something about music.

music is a big part of my life. i have serious problems with silence. in my apartment, if it's not music it's radio coming from the speakers. it's always something. i'm a quiet-o-phobic. a noise polluter. i'm not sure what it is about music that makes it so important to me, but i think it's got something to do with the connection music-mood. music amplifies the mood and sometimes turns it around. music makes life seem more important, makes it matter more. and because i often try to match music to my mood, what i listen to varies a lot with time, but there are some bands i always come back to. two of them are interpol and mojave 3. interpol has high cred with the indie crowd, but mojave 3 is probably seen as a band that hasn't really contributed anything special. they are not my favorite bands, but for some reasons i've chosen them for my first music segment on the internet.

interpol. the mood interpol's music conveys can best be described as 'big city angst', which is close to what i feel sometimes. it makes me think of driving (and no, i don't have a license) in the dark or walking in the city in the dark and seeing all the lights. it's the beauty of sadness that so many artists and bands try to express, but almost exclusively fail. (side note: i like this beauty a lot, which is likely the reason i have such a soft spot for male depressing singer-songwriters as well). i'm currently listening to their song 'leif erikson' on repeat and it's not often i listen to songs on repeat. i'd say it's the third time it's happened, but i may be forgetting a song or two.

mojave 3. the mood mojave 3's music conveys can best be described as 'tired in the sunshine'. it's perfect for sunny days when you're too tired to do anything, which is a kind of day that comes along quite often. it's the music of having slept way too few hours and sitting in the sun with a cup of coffee and just staring. no stress, nothing that needs to be done, except finish that cup of coffee and brew another one. they're also insanely depressing at times, such as in the song 'she broke you so softly', which is possibly my favorite break-up song.

so there you have it. interpol and mojave 3 are two important parts of the soundtrack of my life. i'm not sure what you should do with this information, but that's the way it is.

idiot box

some erlend loe before i go to bed. unfortunately for all you english-speaking people out there, this text is not available in english. i suggest you hunt down your local publisher and force him or her, possibly at gunpoint, to translate erlend loe's collected writings into your language.

ur doppler.

"Förutom de illegala besöken hos Düsseldorf och ett par sällsynta turer till ICA på Ullevaal Stadion är det över sex månader sedan jag var i ett hus. Det ger absolut ingen mersmak. Jag går rastlöst omkring. Fyller ryggsäcken med verktyg och torrmat jag kan få användning av. Ser lite på teve, där det som vanligt är ett rikt utbud av tennismatcher och rekonstruerade brott och mer eller mindre fiktiva berättelser om människors gnat och tjat. Detta att se på teve blir för mig som ett uppslagsverk över varför jag inte tycker om folk. Teve är ett koncentrat av allt som är motbjudande med oss. Det som redan i verkligheten är svårt att försonas med av mänskliga egenskaper blir direkt grällt när det kommer på teve. Folk framstår som idioter. På teve skulle till och med jag ha framstått som en idiot."

over and out.

Thursday, August 03, 2006

i'm so bored with the...

a short ventilation of frustration. no interesting musings on what really constitutes the human condition. no fascinating recaps of my journeys around the world. no defense of rain. just frustration. and possibly some anger.

i'm currently trying to get myself a ticket to that fine continent on the other side of the world, australia. see some opera houses, battle some dangerous animals, hear some interesting accents and most importantly, see that girl i love so much. why would anyone want to interfere with this noble endeavour? well, i don't know, but mr dentist and mrs insurance company sure seems to want to, by taking (what seems like) eternally long summer vacations. you see, i knocked a tooth out whilst practicing handball when i was 11 and the insurance ran out june 30th this year. aware of this, i went to mr dentist on the 19th of june for the necessary first check. he was then to send a proposed plan with estimated costs to mrs insurance company. when he did, he got no reply despite trying phone, e-mail and fax. after some investigation, i found out that the person who handled my case at the insurance company had quit. nice going, mrs insurance company. so in the end, my case ends up with a real person, although a couple of days after june 30th. i do not currently know if this will be a huge deal or not. so ok, we're in the beginning of july here, still plenty of time to get things done and teeth fixed, but no! suddenly, everyone goes on vacation until the beginning of august! and the dentist is on vacation until august 15th! and my case at mrs insurance company is currently with some dentist expert/consultant who just might be on vacation! i don't know! and i'm hoping to leave the country in six weeks! do you see my dilemma? do you see? i have booked a ticket, but the booking expires on tuesday and i'm afraid ticket prices will go up since it's not very far away in the future and tickets might be scarce. and i don't know what to do because everyone is on vacation and i can't get in touch with them.

ok, that was all i got. feel my pain. it's almost as bad as not having a home or money to buy food.