iProblems

I went to the optician yesterday, a long overdue appointment.

I've felt for years now that there might be an issue with my visual system worth reprimanding. I can, for instance, barely read subtitles.

I am nearsighted. No big surprise there, it can and will be fixed with glasses or contact lenses.

But why settle for simple? My left eye also suffers from astigmatism, which means the eye doesn't focus equally along the horizontal and vertical axis. It's hard to understand or explain, and apparently difficult to correct as well. So that sucks, and I'll need a pair of goggles.

While I'm not overly excited about wearing corrective spectacles, I look forward to improved vision and actually enjoying things like HD and Blu-ray without having to press my nose against the screen and squint.

And on that subject, I've recycled my Wii, so to speak. Due to a lack of money and new, really good games (well, there's some of both, but not enough) I've gone back to Twilight Princess again – still an absolutely fan-fucking-tas-fucking-tic game – and occasionally continuing my struggle to collect all 120 stars in Super Mario Galaxy.

On top of that, I finally connected the console to a wireless network, enabling all kinds of online funtime downloadyness. Like World of Goo. Or Tales of Monkey Island. Or Mario Kart online, which is really addictive and fun.

In a month, the band will go on tour with American Jesus-core sextet The Devil Wears Prada. I'm pretty excited, if only to see the workings of such an ambitious machine.

Last weekend we played three shows in Sweden, which were, on the whole, a lot of fun (and about as much time as I want to spend with those people in one go.) We sounded pretty good, we got paid, and we broke something in our hotel room, as per our rock star obligation.

A quite flattering example of the kind of wit and wisdom (and musical brilliance) we can look forward to:

'Size

Can't wait.

I hate

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Also

Oh! Continuing my list of things that keep me going – TV is fun again!

Okay, the subject of television shows in respect to quality and quantity, and the seemingly sudden increase of both… should be it's own, long-as-fuck-post, but I won't write it now.

Suffice to say, in the last year I've seen many really good tv shows, and two more are now looming on my 32" horizon.

Both of these cater to the modern pop culture nerd (I'm struggling to find a good word or description here, but basically everyone who thinks 300 is both "fucking awesome!" and a "dignified version of Frank Miller's graphic novel".)

The first is The Pacific, HBO's follow-up to Band of Brothers (pretty much the best thing ever). It seems to be more of the same, if only more epic. Epic is important to the modern geek. Hollywood has understood now, that the epic-money ratio is almost equal (the exception being some of Roland Emmerich's films, which are just silly.)

The Pacific also stars Joseph Mazzello, the kid from Jurassic Park. How 'bout that!

The second is Spartacus: Blood and Sand (you know it), which fuses Gladiator, 300 and Rome. It has more testosterone than watching The Expendables while driving a hummer through a strip club. Just look at the trailer and production video, and you'll agree it has the potential to be profusely epic indeed.

Both will be out sometime next year.

Small doses

That's it.

The last time I submitted anything to this blaaawrgh, summertime was in full swing (the sun was chirping, the birds were shining) and I was gearing up for six weeks of hard work.

That was precicely six weeks ago today, and next week I don't really have a job to go to. I should be alright, I actually don't mind a few days off.

And that's the thing.

I've realized I don't really like doing anything for very long, or even very seriously. It quite silly, and I think very representative of my generation. A little bit of this, a little bit of that. No real job, no one hobby that takes up all your spare time every day for the rest of your life. Even relationships in many cases just wear out and we're always adamant in our belief that a bit of change is A OK.

Anyway. I'm not a big fan of this, my own, attitude. Stability and genuine dedication to any one cause is, I think, desirable.

As grey as my days may feel, there are things that excite me. Here are some:

Going to London (at some point, hopefully within the next three months.)

Movies. Big Fan, Sherlock Holmes, The Lovely Bones, and looking further ahead – Alice In Wonderland, Avatar, Prince of Persia, and many others.

Music. Things tend to pop up (no pun intended) here and there, so there's not that much anticipation. However, some highlights include new music by Yo La Tengo, Beastie Boys and Oceansize, and the ever-impending new album by Glassjaw.

Touring with Jesaiah. Possibly.

Redecorating. Basically I've finally gotten fed up with the shortcomings of my residence. The bed. The couch. The big, empty wall behind the TV. It's a beautiful place to live, by all means, but now I want to, once and for all, sort things out.

Is it hawt enough for you yet?

Shit! I haven't been writing enough, as usual.

Note, non-existent reader, that I don't find these pages to be of any real importance or literary gravity. My eagerness to scribble merely comes from an ambition and determination to write. Anything. 'Cause, you know, words are cool and stuff.

Two weeks ago I celebrated midsummer's, a very Swedish thing to do. Me and Melody got our blue and yellow groove on in expert fashion by cooking a lot of food. Like, a lot of food. I think the total amount would have sustained a small village for two weeks, but alas we settled on eating it ourselves. What? At least it took us two days.

The menu included a Västerbotten cheese pie, a strawberry- and mint salad, a french-ish potato salad, smoked salmon, home-baked parmesan bread and, oh why the hell not, a cheesecake.

I like food.

Today I saw Ponyo, the latest film by animation-God Hayao Miyazaki. Having deliberately limited my impressions of the movie to merchandise (which was hard to avoid in Tokyo) and the trailer for the english version, I didn't know much about the actual story.

To say the least, I was impressed but not surprised or really blown away. It's not his best work, but his worst is still miles ahead of damn near any other animation. Yes, Pixar included.

Ponyo on the cliff by the sea gets four hamsters out of five.

On Monday I start work for real, but I still have three days in which to get funky. So, tomorrow me and Fredrik are watching all six Star Wars movies back-to-back.

Yay!

We'll try to get started by 3 PM, which means we should finish Return of the Jedi around four in the morning. Not a bad day, indeed!

Although watching trilogies in one sitting have almost become a standard for me and Melody (we did Terminator 1, 2 and 3 a week ago and finished by going to see Salvation. It was fun.) I have yet to watch all six installments of the Star Wars saga without so much as a nap in between. We'll see how it pans out. I might need some sugar.

Also, summer is the biz.

Blackberry cheesecake. And you can't have any.

Nathalie doesn't actually need my hand, she can walk on her own.

It's awesome.

Boatness in the city.

A very slow afternoon.

Like a real musicplayerperson

It occurred to me just now that I haven't written anything in a while, despite "ideas" for posts (which will never be written.)

So. I've spent the past two days in a studio in Gävle, about two hours on a slow train to the north of Stockholm. The first six or so hours of that time were spent recording bass for the new Jesaiah record, which may actually turn out pretty good. 

I thought two days would be enough. Enough to get everything nice and tight, fix any mistakes, and take my sweet time fine-tuning a massive sound that would melt people's brains. Turns out, I underestimated my own awesome bass playing skills, and was able to finish all my parts in less than a day. Well, all but one song, but we did that this morning with Joel finishing the last guitar parts.

The sound is gritty, dirty and mean, which I like. But it's still simple and punchy enough to actually break through all the other crap (namely, guitars and drums) and make a difference. In short, I'm stoked.

Having completed our task, me and our producer Björn (whose apartment is covered in sawdust, by the way) spent the rest of the day at his friend Bosse. This came to be by Bosse's invitation to partake of some DIY vegan sausage that he'd just made.

If my friends called me because they had just made vegan sausage and wanted me to eat it, I would be a happy rabbit. This never happens.

Does this not look like the most delicious thing ever? 

Okay, don't answer that.

Today Melody moved back from Malmö, for real. She now lives in the same city as me, and that makes me more excited than everything Nintendo revealed at E3 combined. 

Yeah, I said that shit.

New Super Mario Bros. for Wii? Mario Galaxy 2? Some new ultra mega burn-my-eyes-out Metroid game? Oh, and Monkey Island on WiiWare. Fuck it. I get to see my girlfriend.

Yes, I am quite aware that one does not negate the other. I'm trying to make a point.

Smiley.