me icon

you need to listen to this. so far all i know is that me icon is an electro duo, london based italians, that sergio is singing and that the song is awesome! sergio said so here, and i happen to agree with him. the song is "me gadget".

what's going on?

my new look accompanied by the lyrics to the fabulous song "going blonde" by juliana hatfield. enjoy.

Na na na na na na / Baby baby baby / I don't want nothing / Means I want something / Millions of diamonds / Sparkling and shining / Singing stupid songs / I'm going blonde
Bleaching my brain / I dig the pain / Firing squad pointed at the sweet spot / I'm turning myself on / I'm going blonde
Never want to be forgotten / I'm speaking American / I need some attention / Tell you my problems / What's going on / I think I'm going blonde
Na na na na na na / Na na na na na na
Baby baby baby / Baby baby baby
Na na na na na na na na

some more cranes songs

here's some proper videos by cranes. alison shaw has such a beautiful voice, and i love how the sound is so dreamy. cranes is the perfect band to listen to when it's dark and you hide under your covers and you can't sleep.



"beautiful friend" from loved (1994). here's also another great song from that album, "shining road".



"tomorrow's tears" from wings of joy (1991). also from that album is "adoration", yet a beautiful song, found here.



"inescapable" that was a bonus track/ep released during the wings of joy era.



"jewel" from forever (1993), although the video/single version of the song sounds a bit different than it does on the record. according to allmusic it's because robert smith remixed it. not surprising considering the cure brought cranes as their opening act on their '92 world tour.



"everywhere", also from forever.

cranes still releases albums, the last of which is self-titled and came out in october of this year. but i haven't heard it yet. i'm mostly in love with the music they made in the 90s and there's a huge nostalgia button that gets pushed in me whenever i hear their songs. a lot of their greatest songs can be found on their 2-cd ep collection, vols 1-2, so pick it up.

tangled up

i was just listening to old cranes songs and "tangled up" came on and i fell back a few years and rediscovered how beautiful this song is. unfortunately there's no video made, none that i can find anyway, so you'll have to make due with a live performance from october this year. before you push play, light a few candles and turn out the lights. enjoy.

my time in america pt 2,5

more pictures of food from my u.s. trip has been requested. enjoy!

dave made me dinner the first night. too bad most of the garlic wanted to stay in the pan :(

lunch at a vietnamese / chinese restaurant in downtown salt lake city. those things in the middle of the table there, they were sooo good! they had cream cheese in them and they were fried. mmmmmm.

arby's mozzarella cheese sticks in all their delicious glory

kate's butter nut squash soup. yum!

lunch at the mediterranean market & deli. i have eaten better paninis in my life but it was ok. the store did have arborio rice so they're forgiven

donuts!! (i was in america after all..)

this is NOT how mexican food looks and tastes in northern europe, but although this specific portion (in cedar city) wasn't my favorite, the one i ate in slc a few days later was really good! though i'm sorry to say, dave, i don't appreciate it like you do.

the salmon burger in las vegas

my time in america pt 2

it's a fact that i enjoy food a bit too much for my own good. good food. i'm not a fast food junkie, i'm a good food junkie. and i don't eat meat. so, with little more knowledge than your average european about american food culture (meat, fast food, large portions, obesity) i have to admit i worried a little bit about how i was going to be fed my two weeks over there.

let me tell you, the worrying was totally uncalled for. although they do seem to have more preservatives and salt in their pre-prepared food than here in sweden, pretty much everything i ate was enjoyable. here's a top 5 list, starting with a taste orgasm;

1. coffee milk shake and salmon burger at blt burgers in las vegas. this milkshake is to die for! now i totally get the conversation in pulp fiction about the $5 shake (although if i remember correctly, this shake was $6, but inflation hits even $5 shakes). the burger was also great.

yes! it was this good! i swear!

2. sweet potato cannelloni at the red rock in park city, utah. O. M. F. G!

3. dave's mom & husband's delicious salad with homegrown vegetables and japanese pears (i hope i'm getting this right, i was too busy enjoying it to really pay attention).

4. arby's mozzarella cheese sticks. i may not be a fast food junkie, but i am a cheese junkie, especially mozzarella.

5. the cheesecake factory's pumpkin cheesecake. i mean, just look at it!


honorary mention: kate's homemade butter nut squash soup was great! and it was my first encounter with butter nut squash, which is always exciting.

new template

sorry if i confuse someone but i'm so extremely tired of my template so i just had to replace it. this new one is not great, but at least it's not like the old one. i'll try and have it not be blue. we'll see.

maybe i can even force my sister to make me my very own soon. :)

UPDATE: that's better.

maribel

if you can't tell already, i'm going through my rss-feed and catching up on the posts on indie-mp3, and now i found yet another very interesting band i never heard before. norwegian maribel.

It's a sleazy slab of noisepop - coming on like The Jesus and Mary Chain rucking with The Cramps whilst trying to remind us how great the 1988 version of My Bloody Valentine were.

this is very true. it sounds great! so far it seems they've only released one single, taste the trash, but i hope they're to release more soon, cos i want more! i'll be keeping my eyes on them.

listen to them on myspace (4 songs).

UPDATE:
what the hell. here's the video, too. why not. :)

osni

go listen to french indie/shoegazer band osni's song "mon pistolet d'amour" (myspace link). someone's been listening to jamc a bit too much it seems ;) although, the other songs aren't as obvious and they aren't too bad.

the baltic sea

there's a sweet song about sweden by swedish/scottish band the social services called "the baltic sea" that i found on indie-mp3. the song is downloadable there but also listenable on the social services myspace. listen to it!

a piece of the lyrics go

Oh Sweden, I’m sorry to say that you’re tedious sometimes / Your natural beauty is unsurpassed, your children are healthy and ruddy / Your recycling facilities are second to none / You’re an ethical peace loving nation.

and then that no one smiles at her on the underground on her way to work. welcome to sweden.

late night humor

this is audio only but so damn funny you have to listen to it! henry rollins talks about a marilyn manson show in germany.

more japanese

there's now one more post on pretending to be japanese from yours truly.

today i'm recuperating from life. or, am trying to. my head is pounding. i don't know who i've pissed off but i swear i have a headache almost everyday now! it sucks. i hate pills.

awesomeness

yo, you need to get over to pretending to be japanese and read my first blog post there. i'm all excited! it's about the jesus and mary chain. go!

kent

for some reason, embedding for a lot of the kent videos on youtube is disabled, but i managed to find this video of one of my favorite songs by them, ff. (this is brought on by my realizing that this is why i liked verdena, their sound is a lot like kent's.) this song is from my favorite kent album, vapen & ammunition (2002).



ff was released as a double single with vinternoll2 that you can find here.

counting down for christmas

sunday i put up my christmas decorations, lit the first candle according to tradition and now i'm having my first glass of julmust for the season and despite the raining outside i feel peaceful and happy in anticipation. i'm hoping it will snow soon.

a tribute post

here's a video from italian band verdana, that sergio posted on pretending to be japanese in june and that until today i didn't even watch. what a shame! it's an awesome song and i'm posting it here so i'll never forget.

i have no idea what they're singing (about the moon perhaps?) but who cares, it sounds great :) here's luna.



thanks for the reminder!

always tired now

i can't really focus long enough to write anything substantial. i got a translated french novel from a friend that i started reading yesterday (original title Ensemble, c'est tout from 2005), by anna gavalda. (there's a movie too, but i haven't seen it.) so far i really like it but i sense a possible anxiety-ridden journey with this book. possibly mine. possibly camille's. there's something very french about it, and while it's seductive it's also neurotic. and i get so affected.

i've been really stressed lately, lots of headaches, stiff muscles and messy dreams, so maybe it's not the best of ideas. i want to get better, not worse. i had to put down paul auster's new york trilogy a few weeks ago cos it was so disturbing i got anxious just thinking about continuing reading it. it's brilliant but i'm way too unstable for it right now. i need to read something safe. maybe i should just re-read some of my less angsty favorites for a while. like hitchhiker's guide or something.

more fast talking fantastic!

a belated birthday present was given to me today. it was fantastic! the fourth season gilmore girls dvd! this birthday season has totally rocked! i should turn 30 more often.

p.s.

jocelyn explains the problem with the mountain goats over at the 405. give her the attention she deserves!

trekking

after seeing the new trailer for the next star trek movie (in theaters in may next year) i want nothing more than rant about how the trailer just screams ACTION MOVIE! and seems to have only character names and the fact that they're in space in common with the world of star trek. gahh! star trek isn't action! it isn't star wars dammit! it isn't the rebels fighting the empire, it's the federation exploring and handling diplomacy! i'm so annoyed. has j.j. adams even seen star trek?

i really really hope it's just the trailer trying to lure non-trekkies to see it as well but if not? then i'll hate j.j. adams forever.

first snow of the season

waiting for the bus

it's everywhere!

pretty

the 30

oh yes, i totally forgot to mention that i turned 30 last week. i was too wrapped up in all the attention and presents i got. it was a great birthday!

though i must ask, what is the fuss all about?

ups and downs

first i was happy, cos i snowed! and i do love snow, even though it gets extremely wet and sticky in this part of the country. my love for snow is firm and i'll never be like lorelai who first loved snow for season after season and then all of a sudden started hating it cos it fell on her car. no, never, not me. i'll always love snow.

then i was more happy cos i met my friend susanna and after coffee and chocolate cake we went to the mall and i found a pretty pretty dress that i liked and she bought it for me as a birthday present! (note: coffee + chocolate cake + presents = happy jenny)

then i got depressed cos i found that amazon.com have the gilmore girls dvds for $15 a season which is awesomely cheap! but, see i have no money right now and even if i had i'm prohibited to buy anything for myself before christmas. that's what my sister says and who am i to argue with her? (besides i already cheated cos i ordered the season 3 dvd of battlestar galactica the other day. oops.)

i'm gonna go try on my new dress now, eat chocolate and forget about this last part.

math humor

andreas shared this with me, stolen from here. i love it.

An infinite number of mathematicians walk into a bar. The first one orders a beer. The second orders half a beer. The third, a quarter of a beer. The bartender says "You're all idiots", and pours two beers.

1984

yesterday on the train back home from work the guy next to me was reading 1984 and i just wanted to hug him and tell him he was reading one of my favorite books of all time, but i didn't. i hope he knows anyway.

a wish and jesus

thanks to madeleine i have found a new music crush. gregory and the hawk. this is the song a wish. listen to this and tell me it isn't good!



however something bugs me with this particular song. it sounds a lot like something that i've heard before, and potentially like, but i can't remember what! please tell me if you think of it.

on another note i had an idea about composing a mixed tape of songs about jesus. it's not as holy as it might sound, considering that the song that made me think of it is a perfect circle's judith. it doesn't really favor the guy, so to speak. i guess the idea is how jesus comes up in lyrics by bands and artists i like and listen to. sounds pretentious? so far i'm thinking that song, neutral milk hotel's the king of carrot flowers pt. 2, iron and wine's jesus the mexican boy, jesus and mary chain's stardust remedy and rosie thomas' much farther to go. what do you think?

here's judith. god, i love this song. love the album, love the singer, love the lyrics. love the video! it looks great, and i love how you can never really see their faces. yay for rock n rollers who're not obsessed with their own looks.

my time in america pt 1

as a good story always begins, with the journey there.

when i arrived at copenhagen airport at 7am that tuesday i had already been up for about two hours. after queuing for a bit i was informed at check-in that my flight was 2 hours late and because of that i had to be re-booked on my connections. said and done. instead of continuing from newark (new jersey, for those of you unfamiliar with u.s. geography) to cincinnati (ohio) i was to go to houston (texas), and then to salt lake city (utah). no problem.

the flight to newark was not full so i had some much appreciated space, even though it was coach. and because dave the considerate had pre-ordered my meals to be vegetarian, the food was great; fresh fruit, actual tastes and no chips.

we came in over the u.s. through northwest canada; newfoundland and there, and continued down towards new jersey through a beautiful autumn colored new england. it was amazingly beautiful! i couldn't stop looking out the window for the entire time from coming in over land to landing in newark. luckily i didn't already had pain in my neck from sleeping on the plane, thanks in large part to the neck pillow i brought, so i could thoroughly enjoy the view.

after getting through customs at newark - i swear the man flirted with me! - i bummed around the airport a few hours with my two old swedish lady friends i got before i boarded in copenhagen, whom i also helped translate the important pieces. here was my first u.s. starbucks experience. weak.

after boarding my flight to houston, it sat for an hour on the runway before taking off, and i quickly realized i wouldn't make my connection to salt lake. but since there was nothing i could do about it, i enjoyed the flight. the view over night time usa is sometimes spectacular. i was seated next to an american couple with a baby who was only temporarily in the states and normally lived in egypt. her teaching english, him working for some christian foundation-something. they had an interesting perspective on everything; living as white american christian minority in such a historically rich country had given them experiences out of the ordinary, at least for me and i would guess, most americans.

arriving in houston i missed my connection by 15 minutes. i was handed a new boarding pass for the next morning (12 hours later), a meal voucher and the message that because of some hurricane or other there was not a vacant room in the entire city of houston so i would have to make do with what i could find to sleep on at the airport. i had already been on the road (so to speak) for over 20 hours.

about 5 am or so at the airport in houston. this is what a sleep deprived jenny looks like..

a mostly sleepless night later it was wednesday and i finally boarded my flight to salt lake city in the morning and arrived at noon. sweet relief! i was so happy to have arrived. dave and me went to chilis where i had a delicious black bean burger, and then home to his place and my room for the coming fortnight. i said good day to the world and fell asleep.

one hungry jenny and one delicious black bean burger

it took about 40 hours to get from my front door to dave's. my adventure sure started off with an adventure.

walking on american soil

after what seemed like forever, i'm finally in salt lake city! i had a string of bad luck with my flights with delays and re-bookings, so i ended up spending the night in houston at the airport sleeping the best i could in chairs. not too comfortable, but at least now i can say i've been to texas!

all-in-all it took me about 40 hours to get from my door to dave's, of which about 16 was spent in the air.

now we're off to see the mormon temple.

going away

it just a week left now! FREAKING OUT!

i've never traveled this far before! i don't know what to pack, i haven't thought it through yet! i don't know what i need to have on the plane! i haven't bought any spare batteries, or a plug converter, if i even need them, i don't even know if i do yet. i don't even know what i need to know! what do i need to know? HELP!

listening to margot

indiana-based margot and the nuclear so and so's album not animal is quite a cute affair. i found it on radiobutt (here, to download) where it's compared with neutral milk hotel, the decemberists, arcade fire and broken social scene, and i don't know. the 3 latter i don't listen too much to so i'm sure that's in order, but i wouldn't say they're too much alike neutral milk hotel. neutral milk hotel are way more noicy than these guys. margot is softer and sweeter. i even hear a bit of coldplay here and there in them. the album doesn't make me go WOW, but it's good.

something that made me go WOW, though, was neutral milk hotel's 1998 masterpiece in the aeroplane over the sea. it's definitely on my top ten favorite albums list (a list i haven't compiled in its entirety yet)! it's great in so many layers, it just has to be listened to repeatedly to fully be understood.

here's one of my favorite songs from it, called holland, 1945. the video is someone else's - there doesn't seem to be any videos made by the band - though it's strong and does get the message across.





EDIT: here's someone who's put his love for in the aeroplane over the sea in words more eloquently than me.

zack and miri

zack and miri make a porno, kevin smith's new flick, is coming in the end of october! although, probably not to sweden, as is usually the case with his movies.. but hey, what's the internet for, right?

here's the trailer.



[on my love of kevin here]

more mary timony

here's a nice mary timony song from her 2002 the golden dove album. i especially love the synchronized dancing part :)

helium

how come no one, until now, bothered telling me about the band helium?

judging from what little i've found to listen to it has most of what i love about 90s music; the shoegazing aspect, feedback noice, lovely vocals. (oh, and it says on wikipedia that juliana hatfield's brother jason was in an early line-up of the band, before they changed their name to helium. cool, right?)

they released two albums and a few eps on matador before they split up in 1998, but singer mary timony continued to make music solo and in other constellations. this is one road i'm going to explore.

have a listen:

helium - xxx (1994)



helium - superball (1995)



helium - pat's trick (1995)



helium - honeycomb (1995)



helium - leon's space song (1997)

when i grow up

i hope you've seen i put a save bitch banner up to the left, but in case you use a feeder and never actually see my pretty little display of fun info and links, here's one more, just for you! (it almost fits too!)



i read bitch magazine as often as i can get my hands on it, which is not always cos they don't sell it in too many places here (pressbyrån centralen!) and i'm not as organized as i may seem (ahem), but i do love it. so i support it! cos the thing is, they have problems with funding and we all know what it's like in the world of publication; small, narrow magazines get put out of business while big, "broad" magazines thrive. this is why all magazines are the same.

don't tell me you haven't noticed.

so i'm putting my 5 cents in. buy the magazine, or give them a few bucks, ok? thanks!

now.

for something equally important. you know what i got in the mail today? this!



juliana hatfield's brand new memoir! it's called when i grow up and it's pretty! here, see for your self! [här på adlibris.se] now, i'm off to read it. see you when i'm done! (look! it's in the ny times.)

arachnophobia

i have a spider problem. it seems a spider has moved in to our bathroom. it has made itself a home underneath the door frame on the left, and for every passing day its net sort of advances into the room. not by much, but enough to make me a bit jumpy. see, even though i'm very much afraid of spiders, i don't mind them in my home, as long as they mind their own business and i don't have to see them very often. this fellow, however, i see every time i go into the bathroom, so we have a problem.

i won't kill it. i condemn killing spiders unless there's a really good reason to. and i'd say really good reasons for killing spiders is if they're in my bed, or if they attack me. simply being there in plain view is not a good reason. so my only option really is either to get over it, or to remove it. but that would mean i have to get within two feet of it and somehow grab it, or get over my phobia, and i can't do that. clearly.

i wonder if this particular spider is accident-prone..

testing testing

You Are 78% Indie

You're a very indie person, and admit it, you look down a little on people who strive to be normal. You'll indulge in a little mainstream pop culture every now and then. But for you, anything not indie is a guilty pleasure!

How Indie Are You?

subing

it would seem my luck has turned. today i got two calls about jobs, temporary as sub, but jobs nonetheless! now yours truly has part time sub jobs for the next four weeks and for about a week after i return from the states. yay!

the trip to slc is coming closer and it still seems quite unreal but oh so exciting. this must be a dream. pinch me!

so far so good

so, it's september now. (what?!) what better time is there to review the year so far. (stay with me here.)

so far this year i've read 23 books. i keep this information not in my brain but in my reading diary i started using in may of last year, because, obviously, who really remembers what they've read. had i not had the diary i'd never remembered what i read a month ago, let alone 6 months, or a year ago. so, yay for reading diaries! it's not a very elaborate thing, i only record title, author, date and a few key words or notes about it, so no pressure.

so in order of appearance, this is it.

1. our band could be your life by michael azerrad. this lovely little book of 500 pages is subtitled "scenes from the american indie underground 1981-1991" and covers a whole line of important bands and indie labels, starting with the d.c. hardcore scene (and sst) and moving west to olympia with k records and sub pop. some of the bands covered is black flag, minutemen, hüsker dü, sonic youth, dinosaur jr, the replacements, fugazi, beat happening and mudhoney. it's a very nerdy and really interesting book, especially if you, like me, have an insatiable need for all things music-related.
   
   
   
2. the virgin suicides by jeffrey eugencides. actually i started reading this last year when i was in glasgow, but put it down cos i found it boring. i really loved the movie so i was greatly disappointed with the book, i actually had to force myself to finish it, even if it's not very long. my tip is, watch the movie instead.
   
   
   
3. the bell jar by sylvia plath. finally i got what the title actually means! at first a bit confusing but in the end things kind of fall into place.
   
   
4. jenny by jonas gardell. i liked it before i even read it since it has my name on it, but really it didn't need that circumstance to lean on, it stands very well on its own. it's a beautifully written story. jonas is one of my favourite swedish authors in that he writes poetic and doesn't duck heavy and tragic content, such as violence, bullying, rape, abuse and the like.
   
   
5. living my life by emma goldman. what a woman! this is emma's abridged autobiography, and it's still on over 550 pages! she's truly a fascinating woman. there's a lot of late 1800-early 1900 history in here, both on russia and on the u.s. i'm no history expert of any kind but there were things in here that i've never ever heard of and that clearly has been written out of history by the people who "won". it's a personal inside account on what went on in the american workers movement during this time and on the revolution in russia and its aftermaths. it's very dense and took some time to read but it was worth it.
   
   
6. black girl/white girl by joyce carol oates. my first novel by her. has lots of contrast; white - black, rich - poor, religion - atheism, prejudice - open-mindedness, shielding - non-shielding. my strongest memory is that it was haunting.
   
   
7. bitch - in praise of difficult women by elizabeth wurtzel. at times it was a bit ranting, but mostly it's smart and interesting. it's typical wurtzel in style and with lots of pop culture. according to herself in her second memoir (more, now, again, 2001) she was high a lot of the time when writing this, but i can't really say that you can tell, except maybe for it being very long.
   
   
8. america the beautiful by moon unit zappa. i liked it! i had similarities to what francesca lia block writes and not only the setting. lots of art and music.
   
   
9. prime by poppy z brite. sequel to liquor and as everything poppy, really good.
   
   
10. soul kitchen by poppy z brite. sequel to prime and also great. poppy is one of my absolute favorite writers.
    
    
11. the gum thief by douglas coupland. oh, man. as much as i love my favorite canadian's style and books, this one was a bit of a disappointment. it's hard to describe it as strange, cos most of his stories are a bit strange, but this was stranger. it was still good, but it wasn't great, which i always expect and almost always receive from coupland.
    
    
12. special topics in calamity physics by marisha pessl. i became very infatuated with this novel. i still am! its form doesn't fit its contents, but because of that i really does; it's really a coming-of-age kind of story but in an academic form and a kind of dense but also poetic and beautiful language. there's a lot of contrasts here. also there's mystery! i don't know if the countless references to music, literature, poetry, theatre and movies (mostly old ones) are real of phony, but it doesn't really matter cos it's credible enough to work perfectly in the story.
    
    
13. the amethyst child by sarah singleton. an ok book for teenagers with everything it should have; friendship, summer holiday, parents who just don't get it, falling in love, identification.. and a cult!
    
    
14. the devil you know by poppy z brite. a collection of short stories. some good, some better.
    
    
15. this book will save your life by a.m. homes. i believe i wrote about this, yeah? i want donuts!
    
    
16. garnethill by denise mina. i rarely read crime, but i would never hesitate to pick up a novel by denise mina. i wrote about this as well, see the link above.
    
    
17. the mistress's daughter by a.m. homes. a very very honest and raw autobiography mostly revolving around her adoption and when as an adult she came in contact with her biological parents. disturbing and interesting.
    
    
18. all families are psychotic by douglas coupland. a bit crazier than usually but very sweet.
    
    
19. exile by denise mina. book no 2 in the garnethill trilogy. maureen o'donnell's crazy life continues with a new suspicious murder. well written and very thrilling.
    
    
20. resolution by denise mina. book no 3 in the garnethill trilogy. great as before.
    
    
21. moral disorder by margaret atwood. my first book by atwood. i still can't really tell what this story is actually about but i liked reading it. it's a bit fragmented and it seems like it's made up of shorter stories that wasn't really meant to go together from the beginning, maybe. there were odd things about it, like the voice of the narrator changed between first person and second person over the chapters for no apparent reason. but all in all i enjoyed it. i plan to read her more known novels (the handmaid's tale and oryx and crake) in a not so far future.
    
    
22. the brooklyn follies by paul auster. a truly awesome novel! very inspiring and extremely well written. i now have a huge crush on paul auster!
    
    
23. låt den rätte komma in by john ajvide lindqvist. an impressive vampire/horror story set in a working-class suburb to stockholm in 1981. i'm so impressed by this that i scarcely know what to say about it. it's well written, totally believable, thrilling and sweet! (available as english translation)

this is normally about what i read in a year so that must mean i get 4 months extra this year. i have a pile of book to read next (more paul auster and john ajvide lindqvist to start with) but if you should have read something really great lately, please tell me! and as for you; now you have lots to pick from. if you don't know what to read next, don't blame it on me.

still august

now i'm on season 5. or at least i should be, could i find it. so make that season 6. i'm also about to start reading paul auster's the brooklyn follies, so soon i'll know nyc from within without even having been there. comforting thought.

i'm out of words. i'm sorry.

august

if you need me, i'll probably be on my couch, dressed in what was closest to my bed, watching season 2 episodes of law & order and maybe answering the phone if it rings.

also, i think my right ear might be infected. it sucks.

being a tourist

it seems i COULD be happier! thanks to my dear dear friend dave i'm going to go to the u.s. in october! for the first time! i've been wanting this for so long!

I'M SO EXCITED I'M WRITING IN CAPITALS (and over-using exclamation marks)!

shining on

today's mail included the highly anticipated package from ye olde records containing juliana hatfield's new album plus a poster and a limited edition demos cd. i couldn't be happier!

the album how to walk away, the second to be released on her own label and officially released 19 august, is sweet, much softer than her latest (made in china, that i wrote about here). the songs feel familiar and mature. it sounds like she's shed a lot of the anger she's expressed in earlier recordings. after two listens i've fallen for the opening track the fact remains and the beautiful remember november.

also recently, it was brought to my attention that juliana's putting out a book. her memoir when i grow up is set to be released in september, and, according to amazon.com it

takes readers behind the scenes of rock life as Hatfield recounts her best and worst days, the origins of her songs, the source of her woes, and her quest to find a new purpose in life. Writing with the same talent for lyricism and poetry found in her songs, Hatfield has produced an engaging literary memoir that will resonate with anyone who's lost faith in a dream.

as you can imagine, i can hardly wait.

also, here's the in my room spread she did in spin magazine recently.

following the rules

tried to watch a scanner darkly yesterday. this is a movie that in theory really appeals to me - sci-fi, based on a novel by philip k dick, really interesting theoretical plot, directed by linklater, starring both rory cochrane (the only reason i still don't hate csi miami), woody harrelson and winona ryder - but after nearly an hour i was bored to hell! and still couldn't make out what the fuck this movie was about. and it definitely didn't pass the bechdel rule. no two women were ever even in the same frame.

so instead we watched emmet's mark, which was ok, no more no less. incidentally; it starred khandi alexander, also in csi miami. i wonder if someone's trying to tell me something. (i stopped watching it in its 5th season cos it just got worse and worse and more and more stupid stereotypic and horrible. otherwise i'm a fan of the csi series.) come to think of it, this movie was a lot like a really long episode of a police/crime tv series. anyway, the movie didn't pass the rule either, if not one no-name woman saying "hi, how's it going" to another counts as a conversation. didn't think so.

me and cds

i got emma pollock's album in the mail today. i'm gonna sleep with it tonight.

a.m. notes

i baked. a tried a new recipe. hybrid rye and wheat buns. they turned out great, and delicious! especially with cheese and marmalade. so i had my midnight snack and was supposed to go to bed after that, but, well. here we are.

read about the bechdel rule today, on bitch ph.d. it goes like this;

The rule is that movies should have 1) at least two women, 2) who talk to each other, 3) about something other than a man.

sounds like a good useful instrument to make gender stereotyping and the practice to marginalize women clearer. cos you think, hey, of course a lot of movies will pass this rule. yeah, well, try it and you'll see. really, it's ridiculous. we're in the 21st century and it's not a given that two women in a movie actually talk to each other about something other than men.

i did see one film that passes the rule this weekend, the hours. i don't know why i haven't seen it before, i've even had the dvd sitting on my shelf for at least six months, but no. however, it was awesome! i loved it. beautiful, depressing - i mean in a good way, actually taking depression and being suicidal seriously - great characters. i haven't read enough of virginia woolf, i should really do that. also, nicole kidman's acting is awesome, i mean the acting over all in this film is great, but nicole's is just mind-blowing. she's SO good.

i got a package of ordered cds today, from the swedish a west side fabrication label. a great indie label! last week when i got into a nostalgic mood after buying and listening to this compilation from the label, i realized i was in love with backfish and so i ordered what the label had by them. good idea, cos all of it was really good! and i also have a crush on the label's mail-order now cos besides being quick and not expensive they sent me 5 singles extra, for free! all 5 was by other small bands from the same period as what i had ordered, so rather than just sending promotional stuff by their new bands (which i guess some label do) they must have thought "she seems to like the 90s, let's give her more 90s and maybe she'll like it too and order more!". and what do you know, i think it worked. i will definitely order more from them.

give it a listen! here's backfish's video fashion mania, not one of their better songs from what i think. there're also a few listenable pieces here.

now i'm waiting for the other packages to arrive, with even more new music. at least for my ears. i can't wait! i want it now!

i was saved by music

i struck gold! when searching for old swedish indie band suredo, that i remember having a really great song by on an old mixed tape i got from a guy i was acquainted with in high school*, i found this place; i was saved by music. it has a lot of downloads, amongst them suredo's two album and an ep by them, and lots of compilations. all in all, lots of great music! shoegazer, power pop, indie. you really need to check it out.

*this guy, martin, actually made something of himself; he's boy omega and he's not half bad :)

bargains!

what's up with placing bargain bin on the floor? a sale at one of the local record stores (not the same as last time) had me crawling on the floor again, but like the cheap bastard i am, i'm happy to. especially when finding prizes like jason loewenstein, the organ and puffin, and magazine and label compilations with great songs (i especially like this one). all in all 15 cds for 215 kr. that's like a cd and a half regular price. good work.

i hadn't heard jason loewenstein's record before (at sixes and sevens) but as you know i love sebadoh so how bad could it be? it wasn't, it turned out, in fact it's really good! you can totally hear that he's in sebadoh, but i wouldn't say his solo stuff is just like sebadoh, but familiar enough to make you feel at home and cosy.

acid test

here's yet another reason to why i love 4AD so much. (as if throwing muses, belly, pixies, the amps, red house painters, birthday party, lush, lisa germano, breeders, kristin hersh, mountain goats, that dog and tanya donnelly weren't enough!) emma pollock - of the delgados for the ones who remember. the song is acid test, and i just ordered her album, she's awesome!




man, i love the 90s.

the france post

ok, so france was nice. and by nice i mean warm, still, relaxing and a whole lot of non-s; non-home, non-stress, non-.. well, you get the picture.

i've uploaded a bunch of the photos i took onto my flickr page if you want graphics.

we didn't really do much. we were mostly just hanging out. we did visit the city of narbonne one day and had a look at their 700 year old cathedral, which was no match for st peter's in rome, but still pretty awesome, and older. for that matter, there isn't much on this planet that IS a match for st peter's - it's fucking huge! that would be the pyramids in egypt or something in their league. i'm so not religious, but there's something really awesome about cathedrals that i can't help but be pulled into totally. i saw st peter's 3 years ago and i still haven't quite grasped its awesomeness - and by awesome i mean the original meaning of the word, not the hot dog.

i read a lot, since i wasn't interrupted by the gizmos of the modern world. i especially loved two of the novels i read, this book will save your life by a.m. homes, and garnethill by denise mina. two very different novels but oh so good. read them!

the former takes you to the world of richard novac, a retired stock market person (what the fuck do i know about that?), who finds himself being cut off of the world in his fancy los angeles house only seeing his housekeeper, his personal trainer and dietist, and he's in pain, excruciating pain. was it there before and he didn't notice or did it just come? he can't tell, he doesn't know, but he feels an enormous urge to connect. so he does, in his own way. the novel is full of odd characters and a lot of warmth, but also harsh reality, though seen through richard's eyes. homes' use of language is captivating in a simple way and her characters, though odd, feels very real. i really loved this one.

the latter is actually a crime novel, oddly enough, cos generally i don't care for crime novels, but garnethill i found extraordinary. for once the protagonist isn't a middle aged alcoholic divorcee ex-cop man, but a young woman with a strike of bad luck. and it is gender aware!

maureen's an incest "surviver" with a fucked-up family; dad gone, mom alcoholic and in denial about the abuse, brother a drug-dealer, one sister pretending they're a happy family and one sister escaped to london. she's also been a patient at a psychiatric hospital a couple of years back. taking place in glasgow, scotland (which, i guess, is part of its appeal to me since i've been there) it starts with maureen, one morning after coming home late drunk and passing out the night before, finding her married therapist boyfriend dead in her livingroom with his throat cut. the police seems interested in pinning it on her and.. damn, i'm really bad at making whodunnit-stories sound interesting. here's what someone else has written;

Viewed in turn by the police as a suspect and as an uncooperative, unstable witness, Maureen is even suspected by her alcoholic mother and self-serving sisters of being involved. Worse than that, the police won't tell her anything about Douglas's death.
Panic-stricken and feeling betrayed by friends and family, Maureen begins to doubt her own version of events. She retraces Douglas's desperate last days and picks up a horrifying trail of rape, deception...and suppressed scandal at a local psychiatric hospital where she had been an inmate. But the patients won't talk and the staff are afraid, and when a second brutalized corpse is discovered, Maureen realises that unless she gets to the killer first, her life is in danger.

ok, so you really have to read these ones. promise!

ok, so i really have to sleep now.

anniversary

i didn't realize, but thanks to sergio for pointing it out; today is the one year anniversary of this blog! yay! for the coming year i want more inspiration and more comments. there. you can all congratulate me now.

as for myself, i'm off to wrap the gifts for my sister who i'll be celebrating tomorrow on her 25th birthday.

more non-france

i want the new issue of mojo. not because i'm a regular mojo-reader but because it's about nirvana and sub pop, two decades later, and that it comes with a sub pop compilation cd. why else?

b&j

ben & jerry's chocolate fudge brownie ice cream is soo. damn. good! too bad it costs a fortune over here. half a liter is about 50 kr (that's roughly 17 oz. and $8) and that seriously sucks. why is everything so expensive here? is it because we're suckers and actually pay for it? (yes, yes, i know you can explain some prices with higher taxes and better paid personnel, but 100 kr/l ice cream is NOT one of them.)

i'm cranky cos i had to walk home in the rain earlier and it was still hot so i got all sticky everywhere. i hate sticky. wet i can deal with, but sticky, no. arg!

foreign slippers

thanks to jocelyn over at pretending to be japanese, foreign slippers was brought to my attention; the song put on her myspace page, packed the car, is added to the collection indiecater volume 1 (jocelyn's review), and it's an awesome song! sort of a roadmovie song. a bit sad but a bit hopeful.

she's signed to izumi records and is to release her debut ep oh, death in the end of july. on the label's site there's another song you can listen to, i wish i was a fisherman, a bit of a piano ballad. she makes awfully pretty music and her voice is strong and sad.

i can't help thinking about the first time i heard ane brun (whose debut album spending time with morgan is so so good) when i listen to this, but i haven't listened to ane for a while so i'm not really sure if the comparison is fair or not. however, i really like what she seems to have going for her so i pre-ordered the ep, and we'll just have to see.

hello rain

i'm back from beautiful france, rested and happier. also with a crappy stomach; seriously, how do they survive eating all that white bread and french cheese? i do love it, baguettes with brie or camembert, but when i got back my stomach was like, fibers! fibers! dark bread! oatmeal! i can't object.

it's amazing how much catch up one has to do after just two weeks. it takes forever too. possible cos i'm slower post-france than pre-france.

anyway. this is not the france-post, i'm too tired, this is the i made it home safe-post. a few notes:

i almost broke my pinkie when i was doing post-vacation laundry yesterday (incidental; i tripped on the stairs and tried to brace myself and hit my finger), however it survived a bit swollen but intact.

there was a postcard from armenia for me when i got back, from my awesome american friend dave, who's totally enabling all my obsessions and always helps me further my collections. he's also awesome enough to send the symbiosis (that's me, my lover and my sister) shoes, since they cost a fortune in this country. we love dave, he is our favorite enabler in the whole world.

while i've been gone, there has been a sort of video competition going on over at pretending to be japanese. it's sad to only be here for the aftermaths.

i saw cat power live yesterday! yay! she was awesome, so totally different from the other two times i've been her. sober (that helps), happy - like she was actually enjoying being on stage. it's a good change.

cat power at folkets park malmö june 7.

i've also read two novels that i'm dying to tell you about!

but now i really need to sleep.

oh! i almost forgot. you can pre-order juliana hatfields new album (due mid-august) now on her website, and there's a limited edition demo cd and some posters too. all the cool kids are doing it.

bzz!

i think i had a mosquito in my room tonight. damn itching.

by this time tomorrow i'll be at the airport in copenhagen waiting for my plane to depart and by this time the day after tomorrow i'll probably be sitting at a restaurant, or on the porch, with a glass of wine in my hand, smelling the sweet smell of french summer and the mediterranean sea. how i long for thee.

i'm determined to do as little as possible except lay down, swim, eat, drink, read, take strolls on the beach, take pictures, write postcards, and relax. i may enjoy a little culture, if it comes my way and catches my interest. but no internet - no emails, no blog reading, no information overload. no tv. no must-dos.

this is where i'm going. i know, i don't speak french either. (arrogant, isn't it?) it's on the ocean a bit outside of narbonne, somewhere in-between montpellier and perpignan. wait. need map.


the white line near the bottom is, for those of you who doesn't love maps like i do - obsessively, the spanish border. this whole area of france is called languedoc-roussillon and it's beautiful with castles, mountains and vineyards. and beaches. the wine is tasty, the food is good and the people are, well, french.

so see you in two weeks! oh, and if you want postcards, mail me your address - and fast! need to have them before i leave.

made in china for the masses

more on juliana. after finding the links to my earlier post i stayed at allmusic reading the review for made in china and found myself surprised, happily so, that the reviewer actually liked the album and gave it a 4,5 of 5.

i love the album, really love it - it's raw and honest and exactly what i expected and hoped she would sound like when she didn't have record company-people breathing down her neck. however, when it came out it seemed like the reviewers hated it. (maybe not as severely as i remembered, but still.) pitchfork sure did, gave it 5 of 10 and a review that makes me wonder if said person ever really listened to juliana hatfield at all. i guess i stopped reading the reviews after the first load of we-hate-it.

so i was kind of surprised to read lines such as "[made in china] is terrifically rewarding", cos that's exactly how i feel! it's not very produced (as in not overly produced like so much other music), it doesn't apologize for being ragged and it balances the honest lyrics extremely well so it never becomes pathetic or embarrassing (which i guess some critics disagree with me about).

i wouldn't trust anyone other than juliana to make this kind of record. yet at the same time it feels as if your best friend made it, and it's the best thing you've ever heard and you're so proud of her you could burst!

(i know you're curious; you can listen to it on amazon.com.)

it's a mystery how i seem to be something less than myself

juliana's not been lazy with her posts on myspace about her songs.

12. daniel (off of beautiful creature)
13. little pieces (off of become what you are)
14. outsider (off of only everything)

if there's still any of you who has yet to discover the sheer greatness of juliana hatfield, rest assured that i will never give up trying to get you hooked. i'll just keep on nagging about her, so you might as well do it and get it over with right now. there are songs over at her myspace (those she's written about, or at least a few of them), or why not see some of the 90-licious videos?

poll results pt 2

so, all of my four really really cool readers voted the same as i would've on the high fidelity-type poll (post about it here), namely that it's a tie. both what you are like and what you like matters. some things are sacred. great minds think alike.

most importantly, no one thought i was a confused pop culture dork. that's a good thing. it means my readers are confused pop culture dorks as well. the very best kind might i add.

what a good day looks like

eventful day, today. and a good one too, mostly. started out by sleeping in, strangely only till about half past ten, at which i, mildly frustrated, got bored of trying to fall back asleep and got up, and felt non-tired. that's a feeling that i hardly ever have before i've had coffee and breakfast and been up and about for an hour or so. it makes for a good start of a day!

i took care of about half of the annoying bureaucracy that's a bit pressing right now. go me. after doing so i treated myself to a large vanilla latte at my favorite coffee shop. how i love reward systems.

decided on a whim to visit one of our bigger record stores, actually one of the more decent ones, but like record store are nowadays, expensive. haven't been in there for over a year, probably more. it turned out to be an excellent idea! they had a sale, and being as i am i just couldn't resist going through the cds on sale. even though they were placed on the floor underneath the ordinary racks. so there i was, crawling around on the floor looking for cheap good cds, for a good half hour, probably longer. usually i'm quite thorough, but to tell you the truth, my legs fucking hurt being bent like that for so long (i couldn't very well sit on my ass on the floor, now could i?!). thorough or not, i found 7 that was totally worth buying, for the total sweet sum of 207 kr (divide by 6 for dollars, 9,5 for euro).

my findings included the may queens (oh, how i love that robin proper-sheppard and everything he touches), mudhoney, madder rose and nina gordon - you know, from veruca salt? and, guided by voices' last chapter half smiles of the decomposed, which i, so far, am not too impressed by. seems a bit bland. maybe it was a good idea to disband after all. since it's not like mr pollard's been putting his feet up on the table and leaned back much since. he must be one of the most prolific people out there. what is it with ohio anyway?

i also found one - a really good one - for my dear sister. she's turning 25 on 12 july and she already knows she'll get cds from me - she always does - i'm just writing it here to tease her. we have this really neat system going; she buys me books on my birthdays and christmas; and i buy her cds on hers. basically cos i'm a discophile and she's a bibliophile. nice to have a sense of understanding in one's family.

i also finally bought tickets to cat power's show here in july. i would scream that i can't wait and that it's the only thing i'm thinking about right now, if the circumstances were what they usually are, but since i'm leaving for a two week vacation in the south of france on saturday, THAT is what i can't wait for and the only thing i can really think about. cat power has priority no 2. if you know me you should now realize just how much i long for the mediterranean sea. last time cat power was in the vicinity i went to both the show in town and the one in copenhagen the day before. and it was totally worth it.

feel the pain

more dinosaur jr for you; here's a favorite video. enjoy.

dinosaur jr

yesterday i got the delicious piece of news that dinosaur jr was playing a free, secret, concert at the local skate park in town today (thanks madde!). there's some sort of skate tournament going on that i wasn't aware of earlier. the gig was especially nice cos before i had decided not to go see them in copenhagen this evening, since i can't really afford it.

now i can check them off the list of bands i haven't seen live. awesome :)

it's also a nice feeling to have seen lou barlow live twice, with two different bands, in the last month and a half. how about that for 90s retro?

dinosaur jr earlier this afternoon in malmö

newly found

here's some very sweet poppy summer music i just stumbled upon on myspace. they're (she's?) called period and i know no more than what's on there. give it a listen!

sun and a clear sky

today's weather was fantastic, as is my new fabulous sunglasses.

daddy

inspired by the fine people over at pretending to be japanese (my new internet-crush) who argues about who's dad is the coolest, i felt an urge to post a tribute to my dad. since my memory still occasionally works and recycling is the shit, i pulled up an old piece i wrote about him two years ago. it's a bit sentimental, and if it doesn't make you see how cool he is, this might: his record collection is still bigger than mine (and i'm really trying here!). among his favorite bands/artists are the doors, the who, the beatles, rollings stones, the moody blues, bryan ferry/roxy music and elton john.

originally written in april 2006 and posted on my old blog. slightly revised.

when it comes to listening to music, i've always had my dad to look up to and be inspired by. i went through his record collection often as a kid, and while i was still young enough to not know better, anything that looked or sounded, shall we say, age appropriate, was the pick of the day.

i used to listen to his 60's collections. status quo. my dad loved status quo - he told me over and over about seeing them live back in the day. i listened to beatles. rolling stones. i know every roxy music cover still. although dad's love for bryan ferry never rubbed off on me, he still tries.

though the biggest moment i remember is when i realized he had rocket to russia. he must have had it since it came out but i'd never paid much attention to it before (after all, in the late 80's, four guys with ridiculously tight jeans and an american 70's punk attitude didn't do it for this pre-teen girl). it must have been around 7th grade, cos i'd just started listening to nirvana and guns n' roses. i had a friend who loved the ramones, so imagine the coolness of finding this record. (when i moved out many years later i brought it with me. the only thing i've ever really stolen from my parents.)

i learned to appreciate the doors through my dad's headphones. he had all the albums. his favorite one is the soft parade. my favorite one was waiting for the sun (although i think i'd go or strange days nowadays). i noticed once when looking through his old photo album from his youth, that he used to have a drawing of a man, in a uniform, without a face, on his wall in his parent's house, that said the unknown soldier.

he's told me stories about listening to radio luxemburg, that played rock n roll on the air, the thrill of it, just like the stories you hear in movies about those magic years. back then he played guitar in his parent's basement when he was in high school, he had long hair and wore jeans to school even though he studied to be an engineer (think late 60's small town sweden, nice haircuts and suits!), he didn't care what people thought of him and he liked awesome music.

when in my most pretentious teenage years and early twenties, i wondered why, with such good taste in music, he listened to elton john. cos elton john for me has always been 80's elton john and piano ballads elton john. until a few years ago. cos being exposed to early 70's elton john through movies like almost famous and elizabethtown i must admit that i'm hooked. i guess i should thank mr crowe for it.

i was the first person in my class and among my friends to have a cd-player in my house. i can still find records in my dad's collection that i didn't know he had. that way it's easier to accept that he grew out of the style, that he nowadays looks like any other 50+ guy; perhaps a bit younger, a bit more groomed and a bit more handsome. cos he still, of course, listens to awesome music.

and he still doesn't care what people think of him. it runs in the family.

what matters?

one of my all-time favorite novels is high fidelity by nick hornby. the movie is also awesome. i love the novel for several reasons.

first of all i really like the language, and the tone of it. the flow of it is fantastic. you're really there, you can see the racks of records you want to go through so badly, and the awkwardness gets under your skin.

second of all, i really dig the characters. they are really real, like it says on the back of the penguin edition "oh god, i know people just like that!", we really do. rob becomes your best buddy, or worst, and you fall in love with him, or with dick. barry is.. well, he's jack black, essentially, which is one reason the movie version works so well.

third, it really appeals to the geek in me; top ten lists, obscure musical facts, pop-cultural references, anal filing systems, obsessive behavior, the focus on mixed tapes.

at one place in the book (p.91) rob ponders on something he's been talking to the others about in relation to his underlying women problem, namely what really matters, what you like or what you are like, and says that

"..the truth was that these things matter, and it's no good pretending that any relationship has a future if your record collections disagree violently, or if your favorite films wouldn't even speak to each other if they met at a party."

those of you who's read the book or watched the movie knows what it eventually resolves to, but whatever that is i still think this is an interesting dilemma, cos even though it's superficial and even mis-guiding to judge people on what they like, it does, after all, matter. at least to me. certainly not as much as it does to barry with his questionnaire, but still.

however, there are morons with impeccable taste, just like there are awesome persons without taste (i call them radio listeners). i think it matters what people are like, but generally i do prefer them to have good taste.

that's what i think. what do you think? i put the poll to the right up just to find out, so please click it. thanks.

oh, and for the love of god, if you haven't read the book, make sure you do that first, but fast, you only have a week before my poll closes.

kevin is teasing us

i love kevin smith. i think he's one of the funniest people alive. i love his movies, or flicks as he calls them. i force them on everyone i know - not too seldom with a positive result mind you. he writes great characters and awesome dialogue. if i had to pick one thing about them that's better than anything it would be the dialogue. they're also incredibly nerdy and sweet. and foul of course.

people usually say that clerks is their favorite (makes sense; back to the roots and all), but i'd say mallrats. casting jason lee as brodie must be one of the best thing he's ever done. what an obnoxious character and how perfectly portrayed! there are so many things i love about that movie it's too vast to list.

the reason for this sudden expression of love is that his new film zack and miri make a porno is coming out this year and he's just put a teaser (not a trailer) up. enjoy! (don't worry, there's no porn in it, just a lot of talk about sex.)

[updated: damn. the embedding first seemed to work just fine and then didn't. click here to see the teaser.]

oh, and yeah, kevin's one more thing i love about the 90s. so if you haven't seen any of kevin's movies yet, DO IT NOW! your life will never be the same. :)

angels

this video makes me cry.



(it's sigur rós "svefn-g-englar")

sun anyone?

i'm not feeling too funky, so no real interest in writing anything. except maybe that i've become cynical and even more sarcastic since watching a season and a half of house md. for the last week or two. and that this time of year is the worst for teachers. especially the ones that grade. who wants summer vacation?!

juliana has updated with two more songs

10. fleur de lys
11. hole in the sky

bad day

a new blog post from lovely juliana today! this time about one of my favorite song of her's, so i'll only leave you with this link here so i can get to it myself. enjoy!

9. bad day