Imaginary time capsule

So. Kaizers Orchestra, my favourite contemporary band. I haven't mentioned them in a while. Partly because I haven't been a big fan of their output lately; Their last three albums have been part of this elaborate storytelling project, known as Violeta Violeta. The response hasn't been... overwhelming, I think. I love some of the songs on those three albums, but boy are there a lot of misfires, a lot of experiments that didn't pan out.

Kaizers Orchestra is a liveband, they've won awards for their theatrical and high-energy performances -- I think that's why committing to an experimental series of concept albums wasn't the optimal thing to do.

But here's the point:

They're disbanding.

Last night Tiny and me attended one of the concerts on their farewell tour, known as Siste dans ("Last dance"). This would be our tenth concert. I'm not going to talk at length about how great Kaizer concerts tend to be, I just know they're the best concerts I've been to in my entire life.

( So what was last night like )

All in all, when it was fun, it was as fun as it's always been, but a lot of things were kind of disappointing: The crowd, some of the set list, the lack of banter and tom-foolery up on stage. Tiny and I broached the subject afterwards that maybe it's for the best the band quits while they're ahead, because it's like they reached their zenith a few years ago and the downward curve has started to show.

But man, I'm going to miss this band.

To think, ten years ago I taped a Kaizers Orchestra music video off the TV. I had to use a VHS cassette, Janno didn't have grey hair, Terje was still wearing wife beaters rather than well-tailored three-piece suits, they had another bass player -- it all happened so long ago! Look at these babies:

Got a few minutes to spare as I'm sitting alone in my mum's house until Tiny comes and drives me to Oslo where I take the train back to Bergen. Of course it all feels slightly ridiculous seeing as I'm planning to return for Easter, but this is after all the penultimate week of English lectures and I got a feeling I should attend them.

But gosh, lots of things this last week: On Thursday, after showing Tiny and her Man the sights in Bergen, I spent seven - count them, seven - hours backcombing and twist'n'ripping Tiny's hair to get the dreading process going. I'm glad we decided to put in some solid prep work first - rubberbanding her hair into fifty-two neat little sections (in contrast, I've got thirty-five dreadlocks) - because from there on it was pretty pleasant work, though my thumbs felt like they were going to fall off once we passed the midnight mark. I'm well pleased with my first foray into making dreads rather than wearing them. My babies. I'm going to watch them grow and develop from here.

On Friday we went to Oslo by train (with plenty of stops as there was both storms in the mountain range and signaling problems on the track), and on Saturday we went shopping before the Kaizers Orchestra concert in Oslo Spektrum.

( Bullet points because, well, Kaizers Orchestra )

Welp, that was as disjointed and out of order as my Kaizer reaction posts always are. Good to be back in the game.

And now, a long boring journey back to Bergen (I'm totally going to pop into the comic book shop at the station. I'm thinking Dark Avengers. I'm still waiting for Gargan to eat somebody's brain.)

Here's some contrast: I've got a good feeling about this, man. Everything's going to be awesome.

- I've attended this semester's first lectures! They're even more interesting than I thought!

- My counselor for my bachelor thesis is a lecturer I've liked for ages (and I think he'll let me write my thesis about the Carolingian dynasty - only the BEST DYNASTY EVERRR)!

- I've already written today's quota of TP questions! Okay so maybe I'm a bit indulgent on viking kings, but come on! One of them even became a pirate after he was deposed!

- New single from Kaizers Orchestra: 'Philemon Arthur and the Dung'! It's... okay. I remember liking it better when I heard it live. I think the soundmix is a bit off (though that could be my dying computer speakers). Also Janove Ottesen's got a new hairdo that Tiny and I can discuss endlessly.

Life... is good.

Boy, you know you're lazy when one of the most worthwhile things you've done the last three days was asking the guy at the local comic shop if they could possibly stock some more volumes of Cable & Deadpool.

But the weather has been so preeeetty, and I've walking all over the city just checking if everything's as it should be (and yup, it pretty much is).

Oh, and I've been making those animated Kaizers icons I was talking about. Did I ever stop and ask myself if there was any real demand for them? Hell no, this has all been "because I can" all the way!

Sample (a.k.a the cool one):



( Herr Polizei, du finner meg aldri igjen )

This always happens.

In my day-to-day life, Kaizers Orchestra is just a band I like. They're one of many bands I enjoy, I listen to the albums now and again, wear the T-shirt occasionally. Then I attend a concert and spend an hour and a half with my arms in the air and a huge grin on my face shouting "Halleluja!" each time The Jackal tells me to. And then I always spend a couple of weeks being all KAIZER KAIZER KAIZER after.

Thus the Sunday treat will be slightly affected by this.



( videos and stuff and things you have to see, Tiny )

RPS: Still not something I'm entirely comfortable with, but I'll be damned if that's going to stop me having fun.

Guess what.

Månefestival was brilliant! The atmosphere, the city, the weather (for the most part), not to mention the music.

( Too many pictures )

And a quick'n'dirty guide to most of the weird running jokes created by Tiny and me spending three days together:

- Dropping the punchline "as the Bishop said to the actress" (which I love) in favour of "that's what Tollak is saying right now".
- See also; Why both professional sound checks and The Fonz have forever become linked with Tollak Friestad's sex life.
- Due to my mobile's autospell function Skambankt has been renamed Spankbank.
- Sean Connery sings the Commitments!
- "Deny thy father and refuse thy name, and I shall no longer be an Ottesen", or; Kaizers present Romeo and Juliet.
- "Damn birds, coming here and stealing our jobs. Lets go beat up a duckling."

Part two of the picspam coming up: CONCERTS!

If there's somebody listenin'
Won't you hear my plea
Won't you send me a good good girl
To spend her life with me

SWEET JESUS YES. Term paper finished! I'm printing out the three copies as we speak. I intend to never ever write the word frontale (antependium) again. The closest I shall endeavour the get is the phrase "full frontal nudity" I think.

I want to wash out all that pent-up fretting and stress with something meaningless. And my sister is going to have the screws in her broken ankle removed tomorrow, and will possibly need a pick-me-up.

I know, a Kaizer Orchestra pic spam!

( I'm just going to assume you're not familiar with them )

As usual my pic spam gets out of hand. But I've got an excellent excuse!

Good luck with the procedure, tiny_cs, you'll be off those crutches in no time.

Me fekk ting til å skje
Heile byen danset for oss
Og meg og deg danset med

Back to Bergen, where it's pouring down (lovely!) and it's cold as anything. For the first time I feel I might get through this term paper thing. It's been two days since my last nervous breakdown, things are looking up.

Had a wonderful birthday party with my nearest and dearest. Wore my pretty new summer dress (the first one I've bought on my own actually), ate cake (Tiny made her famous oreo one) and recieved some v. neat presents, including a CD giftcard, money for a new school bag, my very own zippo lighter, Franz Ferdinand album, Italo Calvino book and other cool things.

Of course, the ticket to the Kaizer concert was one of the presents from Tiny, and since the concert had been the night before we had to make a symbolic placeholder to put on the gift table. We had A) a camera and B) a gasmask Tiny had recently bought in a second-hand shop.

( The outcome was predictable )

And yes, the Wolverine movie. The general consenus was that X-Men 3 was worse, although that's doesn't say much. I'm pretty sure I would have been less judgemental if they hadn't named that... thing... Deadpool.

So on Free Comic Book Day I did my best to erase it out of my mind and bought my first volume of Cable & Deadpool. So now I can finally use a Deadpool icon without feeling shallow.

Eg kan sei det igjen men eg har sagt det før
Familiebedriften dør, sjå på meg den som tør
Å sette seg i stolen

Nope, still don't enjoy standing in autograph lines. In the rain. Starving.

( But I got a snapshot with Janove )

The sad thing is of course that the whole band was there, but not positioned in any way that lent itself to photo ops. At least I got my copy of Våre Demoner signed anyway.

So. Tomorrow I'm taking the train, then tomorrow night I'll watch the new X-Men movie with Tiny in Oslo (even if it sucks at least we can stare at Hugh Jackman for two hours), then on Friday there's the intimate Kaizers Orchestra concert at Mono (I think I'm starting to look like a stalker), and on Saturday I celebrate my birthday with my family.

All in all that means that for four entire days I'm not going to freak out about my term paper. Jesus Christ yes.

I can hear the soft breathing of the girl that I love
As she lies here beside me asleep with the night
And her hair in a fine mist floats on my pillow
Reflecting the glow of the winter moonlight

There's something brilliant about how my tutor, who's the biggest all-round expert in Medieval history I know, ends a lecture on archaeology with the words "...which was very nicely illustrated in the first season of The Black Adder."

And my English seems to be broken today, I apologize in advance.

Anyway, it's been a long time since I did a music meme, so here's one:

Nicked from vesleskjor:

Think of 20 10 albums that had such a profound effect on you they changed your life or the way you looked at it. They sucked you in and took you over for days, weeks, months, years. These are the albums that you can use to identify time, places, people, emotions. These are the albums that no matter what they were thought of musically shaped your world.

( List and snapshots of my life )

I was thinking about how these days I don't have my record player so it's all CDs and mp3s instead - and with the skipping of songs that don't appeal to me and making my own playlists I don't have that same feeling towards "albums" anymore. Records you listen to all the way through, I miss that aspect.

I need get my record player to Bergen some day.