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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.

09210

I'm really quite bored.

Sappy go lucky

This weekend I visited Melody in Malmö, Sweden's link to the cursed lands of Denmark. She's been studying photography there since August, and is moving back to Stockholm in just three short weeks. This makes me happier than a pig in crap.

Melody is my Favorite Person In The World™, a title previously and occasionally held by Kim Gordon, Aragorn and this dude I met once.

She's funny, smart, unbelievably kind, pretty, cute, sweet, more cool than anyone. She smells good. She loves good food, music, books and film, and she cares about it. She knows everything and doesn't mind teaching me. She actually and continuously makes me happy. She is the best.

I arrived on Thursday morning, after a four-hour train ride that began around sunrise and which allowed me to unintentionally eavesdrop on a married couple's awkward conversation about breasts.

There was obviously none of that in Malmö, as me and Melody paraded the sunny streets in search of adventure. Or, as it were, cheap candy and Star Wars action figures.

In four days we made obnoxiously good food, watched Gilmore Girls, sat on a blanket under a warm sun, visited a library and a Vegan convention (sort of), rented a boat, fed ducks, made plans, took pictures of everything and otherwise enjoyed the hell out of ourselves. It was fantastic, and now Malmö seems like the most fun place on earth.

And I've almost started working. I had two days of introduction and initiation this week, whereby I was told and shown how business is conducted at my new workplace (which also happens to be my old workplace, but that's not very important.)

Work isn't my favorite thing in the world, and could largely be held accountable for some of the times I've wanted to kill myself. But that's a different story.

I try not to think too much about work when I'm not there. I guess I'm not very good at playing grown up.

I am however a serious tourist, as evidenced by the image below.