Great voices: Rob Thomas

I have a tendency to like music where I really love the vocals. I love people that sings like it will almost kill them if they don't, or/and just have that emotional beautiful edge that makes you understand that it comes right from the heart. One of the vocalists that has hit me the hardest is Rob Thomas. I discovered him when he sang with Santana on Smooth and later went on to buy Yourself and Someone Like You an album by his band Matchbox 20. The music is a bit soft and a bit boring if I am completely objective, but that voice!! When he sings "Long Day" it almost makes me cry and at the same time, kind of bubble inside and shiver down my spine. And it also helps to see him sing, then you can really see how he's into it. There's vains poping and eye movements and very often straight out VERY sexy!! So Ladies and Gentlemen; I give you... Rob Thomas:

My So-Called Life in 1994

When I was 15 in 1994 the tv-show called Angela was aired at Norwegian tv. I identified with it so much that it still gets emotional when I watch it... I was so in love with Jordan Catelano too and I know lot of my friends where to and everytime I mention the series to girls my age, they go weak at the knees. Unfortunally the show was canceled after just one season and one can wonder if it just got to real for American tv. Anyways.. Jordan Catelano was played by the very handsome.... Jared Leto and Angela was played by Claire Danes, no wonder it was a great show, ha? Oh, and it's called My So-called Life in English. So with further ado I give you a few of my favorite clips from the series. Enjoy :)

Jordan realizes that he actually love Angela with the help of Shakespeare... Lovely


Jordan never wanna show that he loves Angela and this is kind of the defining moment:



Jordan sneaks in to see Angela late at night


Later they brake up for several reasons and this is how it ends


Angela's mother expects her old boyfriend from High school to drop by but ends up meeting Jordan for the frist time

Jack

Last night I watched The Raconteurs from Hove festival i Arendal live, and I think I have almost never seen more intense guitarplaying and singing than by Jack White during "Blue Vains". Just totally amazing. In the middle he just stood still tapping his guitar without making noise for about 30 seconds and still maintained the electricity. He's just so into it that it's from another world. You can watch the whole concert here

It's been some problems with getting the link to work right today, so I give you another too, just in case it doesn't work :)

Friday fun!

Time to give you people out there some Friday fun! This is the world history from a Norwegian perspective by the Norwegian comedians "Raske menn" (Fast men). For all of you that don't know Thor Heyerdahl is a quite famed Norwegian explorer and he used to speak English like that and was always used for anything because he was so so famous... (or maybe not?). He also leaded the opening show at Lillehammer when we hosted the Olympic games in Norway i 1994, as you might have figured out.. I think this is so funny that I cry, even though I must have watched it about 50 times.

*For you that are not Norwegian:

• Asbjørnsen and Moe are two men that collected all the fairy-tales of Norway in the 1800's. The fairy tales are very common in Norway and everybody knows that it should be ESPEN not ODD.

• Det kom et skip til Bjørgvin i 1342 - is a book describing how the Black Plague came to Norway. Used frequently in Norwegian schools and often used by people my age to remember when the Black Plague really took place... (What was the name of that book.... hm ... :)

• Sputnik: Also a Norwegian country artist with a horrible song about Johanne.

Weezer cover of Radiohead's Creep

Amazing clip by weezer and friends covering the legendry Creep by Radiohead :)



Weezer cover Radiohead's Creep, live in Portland from Dave Allen on Vimeo.

The master

To a bit of a suprise to me I have actually done it! I have my master degree! I can't belive it! And I actually got a c too! Amazing! Celebrated with good friends and cake and tea.. Lovely! No more nerves and some freedom. Ten years of studying is over and it actually feels very very good. Now the "real life" can start. Hopefully... ;) Love to all from the master of arts :)

Norway, Brazil and Hattfield in 1998

Exactly 10 years ago today I was sitting at a kitchen in a student home in England in Hattfield in Herefordshire. On the table was all the left overs from the two fridges in the students kitchen. All that students had left that was still eatable. Beside me was my boyfriend at the time, an american student in England and another couple, both english. On tv I had hoped to watch Norway - Brazil in the European Championship, but of course they were showing Scottland - Marocco. BUT.. thankfully they showed the highlights from the Norwegian match when exciting things happened.. We waited and waited and then it happened... Brazil scored of course at the end of the second half. Then a miracle happened. NORWAY SCORED!! I started to have some hope. And then... an even bigger miracle... NORWAY GETS A PENELTY KICK... I see Ketil Rekdal the captain with a face carved of stone lining up to do the penelty kick. I scream to the others: "HE WILL SCORE!" and he did... I scream and run out on the terrace on the roof screeeeeaming with joy... half drunk :) I am the happiest and loneliest Norwegian in the world. In Oslo they go crazy and the next day I buy The Times. Norway has beaten BRAZIL! Brazil later almost wins the championship, Norway ties their next matches and is out, and Norway is the only team except France that has beaten Brazil. One if not the greatest moment in sports in Norway's history.. Brazil haven't lost a game like this since 1966.

And tonight... ten years later... I get to see the whole game. They are showing it on tv now and I look forward to the end, though I will not scream that much this time...but I love the memories :)

And... sigh... My exam is in two days... God knows how this will end...

Timbaland

Seriously.... enough Timbaland allready. There must be other producers out there, and it's not that special. I could do that! It's only a god damn rhythm loop... over and over and over again in any song. Ok, I do respect him. He does good work, but... Enough... enough! And why is Coldplay and Eno sounding suprisingly bad... I need to get back to you on that one.

Eton

You know that you are an anglofil and a lover of history when you find yourself reading about Eton College and what students are allowed to bring and not at 00:21 at night. Someone might even call it crazy, and I see their point. If you don't think so you can catch up at Eton's homepage. (And I was reading this earlier today)

The day has been ok I guess. My masters degree paper is not that bad after all and I might actually pass my oral exam... And even some day might get a real job. Feels like I have to grow up finally, and I don't like it at all. People are having children and job interviews all around me and what do I have.. Passion for music and a dream and an extremly expensive but maybe useless education. No wonder I crave what seams to be a very safe life at Elton.. hehe. Well, tomorrow is another day.

Norwegian Slang Test

My kind of Norwegian (East) is very filled with a kind of slang that is spoken different than it is spelled. Maybe it's possible to figure out if you are not Norwegian too?:)

	Kan du slang?
	Jeg hadde 10 av 10 riktige
	Ta denne quizen på Start.no

New Radiohead documentary online!!

Yeah!! New Radiohead documentary. I am now gonna sit back and enjoy and try not to think
about the fact that I HAVE TO start prepearing for my oral final exam tomorrow. It will be my final exam ever, but I have to defend my master thesis... that will be... eh... let's just say... we'll see.. :S

Anyways: here is a link for Radiohead:


source: AtEase

Other events of the day:

• Realizing the absurdity of the moment when the dentist actually screws something to you tooth and the extreemly strange feeling that gives you.
• Waiting for a call about a job offer... He calls... I am under the table trying to make my internett work... I get up.... Call back... He has left work... argh... I think it's a sign...
• thinking that it incredible that it's light out at 23:50. Makes me love Norway.
  

Photo from Quart festival

Concert
Originally uploaded by pdrpdr87

How to "steal" a festival!

The last decade the Quart festival has been one of the leading music festivals in Norway. A few weeks ago it was though announced that they had to give it all up due to few sold tickets. Lots of great artists were booked like Kent, Justice, Kings of Leon, Death Cab for Cutie and tons more. For some reason people just didn't buy tickets. I attended the festival twice in 2001 and 2002 (I think?) and it was amazing. It was my first real music experience, so one part of me is really sad to see it go. But I do understand why, I think. When I used to attend people used to come straight from Roskilde festival i Denmark and go on to Quart. The last few years Roskilde has started to host their festival the same weekend as Quart and the effect of that had to be noticed I think. At the same time it kind of feels like the program of Quart is a bit safer now and a bit more boring. The former leader of the festival left and started his own festival Hove a few years back and I think that had a lot of influence. When looking at his festival there are a lot more acts I would like to watch that at Quart.

Anyways... Quart is over... Today though we were hit by some very supriseing and amazing news. A couple of people in Oslo has actually managed to convinced a few of the top acts to come to Oslo instead of Kristiansand and made a festival in the middle of the city in less than 2 weeks. They have the city councils support and will be using an area that these weeks are used for showing the games from the European fotball championship. It's an amazing idea!!! It's so fresh that they haven't got a web page yet and the concerts are in two weeks. It will be very exciting to see what they can do in just two weeks with all the left over artists the scooped up from the Quart festivals program. I understand that the people around other parts of Norway most be really pissed at us, but hey!... finders keepers .. :) I think I might go on Thursday if there are any good bands. Going on a trip with the band from Friday to Sundag :) Sun, sea and music :)

Clip from NRK about the new festival (in Norwegian)

Mother and Medieval times

This weekend my mum came to visit me in the city. Belive it or not, she has actually let some friends borrow her house to celebrate their wedding, so she came to stay with me for two days while it all went down. First of all we went on a little shopping spree around the city. I got some nice new black sandals, great purple shirt and came to a very clear realization that I really don't like pattern on clothes. At least I am very picky and know very well what kind of clothes I like to wear. I try not to just choose purple and black clothes after my long period of just wearing these two colors a few years ago. Somehow I am still drawn to them though and still feel the urge to buy more black and purple... I also love green and blues a lot more though, so I guess I am getting better.


Today we decided to attend The Medieval Festival in Oslo. The medieval part of Oslo is more or less reduced to ruins and neglected for a long time but the last years a whole area of ruins have been taken more care of and is no a seperate park. Every August the rock festival Øyafestivalen takes place in the area among all the ruins, but today it was time to remember the medieval times.



On the way over we stopped and had a look at Oslo's new opera-bulding that was just done. I was there in May on my own and was absolutely godsmacked because of the beauty of the building. Really amazed. It was still very very beautiful today. Big and white with interesting shaped and lines and just on the waterfront. It looks like a mix between a gigantic iceberg and a mountain plateau in the winter, that is so white that you feel blinded by the whiteness. Truely beautiful and amazingly so because it's Norwegian :)



































When we got to the Medieval festival a knight's tournament had just started, so we took a look at that before looking around in the general area, filled with all kinds of exciting glimpses into the old days. While walking around it really started pouring down and I got quite wet so I hope that I won't get a cold. Probably not. The weather was so bad that we didn't stay for long and didn't get to see half of what we wanted. It's so typichal: after days on days with sunny weather it really pours down when we wanted to be outside for a day... argh.. I hope to go back next year though and maybe get a bit more involved also? Love the history and the period and it was a great festival.

Guitars

Oh my! I now have 4 guitars available in my apartment. I impress myself. Looking forward to testing the new sound-effects I have borrowed and am quite happy about the Ibanez guitar I have also borrowed. Sounds and feels a lot like my trusty acustic Ibanez guitar. No one beats my honey though; dear Matthew, the telecaster. He's all mine. I need a Vox ac-30...

Yeah, I realize it might be a very girlish thing to do to give ones guitar a name.... hehe.

Smells like a guitar-riff?

Yesterday I watched a Norwegian music program about drummers in famous bands and Dave Grohl of Nirvana was of course mentioned. Some Norwegian drummers talked about him and they said that the drums on Smells Like Teen Spirit sounds like a guitar-riff and almost even more than the guitar-riff on the song. I think it's so so true! Can't belive that I haven't heard that before. Genius. Then again it's not that strange when you know what Dave are doing these days. And oh... I saw wish I had seen them live last night... Foo Fighters played in Oslo, and I missed it.. sigh. The things you do for the benefit of your education, ha?

I give you the You-Tube clip of the song, so that you can listen for yourself. You agree?

Smells Like Teen Spirit

Welcome!

For a long time now, I've wanted my own blog. Basically I often feel the urge to write about things that happen in my life and most of all about music. So here you go. Hope you enjoy you stay and I love all kinds of feedback :)