are you an archetype? i'm an archetype.

this post is based on a newspaper clip in swedish, from a magazine called nöjesguiden which is the hipster guide to all things happening in the world of culture, music and partying in the skåne/öresund region, much like time out in london or the drum media in sydney. the clip in question:


this might not seem to exciting at first glance, even if you understand swedish. it's an article about (then) upcoming concerts in copenhagen and the headline is "the suffering artist 2007" and if you like gloomy singer/songwriters you will undoubtedly recognize the man in the picture as the gloomiest singer/songwriter of them all, will oldham aka bonnie prince billy aka ten other nicknames. fortunately, the interesting part has been circled, but not by me. you see, i found this clip on the notice board for environmental engineering because it is mentioned in the circled part of the article. environmental engineering students tend to put up stuff related to the program on the notice board when they find it, so everyone can see that we are getting exposure all over the world and that at least someone knows that we exist. anyway, the circled part. perhaps the image is too compressed to be able to actually read what it says, so i'm going to post a zoomed-in version as well:
now, let's discuss what it actually says. it is about a concert with damien rice in copenhagen and it says "a bonnie prince billy for the environmental engineering student who longs for japan and likes table hockey". does this remind you of anyone in particular? i bet it does! in fact, there is only one person in the whole world who fits these three criteria, and it is me. i do not know the person who wrote the article, but after searching the back corners of my brain i realize that he is the boyfriend of one of my high school friends and that i met him once or twice at one or two parties about five years ago. i remember that we talked about writing, it seems to have worked out for him since he now works for an entertainment paper. however, whereas i haven't really thought much about him, apart from seeing him in the city from time to time, i seem to have made some sort of impression on him as the archetypical damien rice fan. essentially, i am an archetype to him. i look and act like the typical bonnie prince billy/damien rice fan. mind you, this is probably true, for i like both of these guys' music, but he can't know this because i last talked to him before damien rice released his first album, and i'm fairly sure i did not listen to bonnie prince billy back then. all in all, i find this immensely funny and it makes me a little bit proud to be the signature face for a group of people, even if it is only to one person.

it also made me reflect on how little it actually takes to narrow a description down to just one person. three adjectives/labels and you've got no one but me left. granted, table hockey is an unusually obscure hobby compared to soccer, for example, and i study a program that has about 50 students in every year and didn't start until 1998, but still - it probably won't take that many labels to narrow it down to just one person, no matter who it is. this a roundabout way of saying that we are all unique.

true to the name

i realized that i haven't mentioned webcomics in a while now, which is something that this blog claims to be about. time to make up for that: check out the perry bible fellowship for some well-drawn and really nifty stuff.

second time around

tonight i will go to mejeriet ("the dairy", you might be inclined to think that they make dairy products there, but no) here in lund and see the mountain goats IN CONCERT. the mountain goats are one of the best bands known to man, and i urge you to go as well. the line below "adventure" is a a quote from one of their songs, and there's more where that came from. this is one of my favorite segments, from their song woke up new:

the first time i made coffee for just myself
i made too much of it
but i drank it all just cause you hate it
when i let things go to waste

i won't tell you what you should think or anything but seriously, YOU HAVE TO THINK THIS IS AWESOME. their songs are full of imagery like this and many of them have lyrics that just blow me away. and for the well-read peter fan, it should come as no surprise that i saw them in sydney in january and it was possibly the best concert i have ever been to. granted, rachel also being there might have had something to with it, but the mountain goats certainly did their share of being awesome. i have tried to get all too many of my friends to go tonight, but they're all going away for easter. but seriously, is there any better way to spend the ol' good friday than seeing one of the world's finest and depressing bands?

this monday i quit playing internet scrabble. i've been addicted to it for a while now, and recently i've just been unable to stop myself from playing. a lot of saying "just one more game, it only takes fifteen minutes" to myself. and i've gone up a lot in the rankings. problem is, it's been seriously cutting into the rest of my life, both study- and friendwise and that's just not a good thing. and i tried cutting down to one game a day, but it just doesn't work for me, it has to be total cold turkey or i won't be able to stick to it. i discussed it with rachel, and she said it's because if you allow yourself to play one game, one more game isn't really that much more, but if you allow yourself no games, then playing just one will result in massive amounts of guilt, and so you won't play it. it's been working so far, no games this week. not that i've necessarily gotten that much more work done anyway, but i'm going to bed earlier and generally feeling better, which is definitely A Good Thing. i still get "the urge" sometimes, but i'd much racher play in real life; trouble is, there's no scrabble action going on in this region at the moment. i've tried to get it started, but it's been tough so far. but soon! there are lots of good players around, it's just a matter of getting them to try the real deal.

i'd love to stay and chat, but i have to go to school and learn a statistics program. yes, i know it's the ol' good friday, but i really feel like i have to do something thesis-related. this week has been a horrible one in that department, i've gotten almost nothing done at all. also, i have to take a photo of something which will most likely lead to a blog post, but that is all i'm going to tell you now. who's the master of cliffhangers? (i'm pointing at myself with my thumbs now.)