You Say Goodbye, I Say Hello

Hello, hello :)

Gotta love the dancing!

So far 2008 has been different. I am no longer bored out of my wits, nor am I stuck with the feeling that things are not moving in my life. I am, however, very overwhelmed by stress and pressure and JESUS, I need a vacation. So, in a couple of weeks I'm going to take two whole days off and go to London for a long weekend. Go me and my new year's resolutions (stop being bored, travel more and stay clear of men that put me in a corner)!

The Best of 2007 lists are out. Platekompaniet.no (my all time favorite record store) usually make lists I can relate to, but this year something is off. No. 1, Arcade Fire's Neon Bible is ok enough, but where are all the really good records of last year? The National, The Editors, Babyshambles, Cloud Cult... It feels like my people are letting me down! I have not seen any Finnish best of lists, and nor will I, as they are sure to make me want to rip my hair out. Fortunately Q Magazine did not leave me out in the cold and made a pretty ok list.

I went to see the Bob Dylan movie the other day. I'm Not There was an interesting affair. I can not say I loved it, because the 45 first minutes were pure torture. Cate Blanchett's part, however, was amazing and beautiful and man, I have to learn more about Bob Dylan now. Kinda freaked me out that Heath Ledger died. Only 28 years old... that could be me. Except I don't lead a very I-could-die-any-moment-kinda lifestyle (although it felt like it when I woke up yesterday after partying too hard Saturday night).

I really want to go on a road trip to Romania and see the Carpathians this summer. Everyone keeps telling me that it's a bad idea, I should go to Paris or Rome or Barcelona and just do the big city thing I love so well. But no, I hear the call of the wild ;) And I have this urge to read Kostova's Historian all over again.

Those Flashing Lights Come From Everywhere

Bowler hats. Why are they called that? Because the top looks like a bowl? And did the guy who plays in Clockwork Orange ever star in anything else? Some actors do all kinds of weird shit after their big hit... Like Kyle McLachlan went on to do both Sex and the City and Desperate Housewives after his Lynch era with Twin Peaks, Blue Velvet and Dune. Weird...

Sometimes there are so many questions in my head I don't know where to begin. I read about this guy who wrote a book about reading the entire Encyclopedia Brittannica in a year - he apparently did not get many questions answered but learnt all kind of crazy stuff he didn't really need. Maybe his brain is just constructed in a way that makes the wrong kinds of information stick. I mean, you think you'd at least come out from something like that with an ability to win every single cross word competition you entered and get filthy rich that way. (Is there such a thing as cross word competitions where you can win money?) Yet another question. I bet they don't answer that one in E.B., so there you go, maybe he wasn't so daft after all.

I am starting to think that everything is actually going to be just fine.

The Morning Rain Clouds Up My Window

Winter in Helsinki - oh joy! So far there's been something like three days of winter interrupting five months of autumn. Don't get me wrong, I do not mind the absence of snow, but come on... This feels a bit out of sync, to be honest.

The good thing with 20mps wind throes and sideways rain is that I have an excellent excuse to not start training for this year's Women's 10 km Helsinki run. I agreed to sign up for this when someone caught me in a moment of weakness a couple of weeks ago, and there's no way out. I will simply have to start jogging. Ah, the suffering...

Unfortunately (strange as that word might seem, once you've read the next couple of lines) it also kept me away from my first experience with winter swimming today. I've caught a cold somewhere between being workaholic and having a social life. Hope it'll wear off over the next couple of days.

So, my tea's gone cold and I'm wondering why I got out of bed at all. A songbird named Dido has been fluttering around my apartment today, helping me with my laundry. I'm thinking about giving re-organizing the record collection a shot. On second thought, maybe I'll wait for the sun to return instead.

The use of Here Comes The Sun at the end of Bee Movie is brilliant, by the way. Ten thumbs up. Did you know George wrote that song on Eric Clapton's guitar? Now that's a nice piece of Sunday music trivia for ya!

Walk Away In Silence

I've been to Matkamessut today (Helsinki Travel Fair). Was hoping to be royally inspired for a trip to Romania, but the people at the stand didn't speak english. Got some good offers on flights, though, so look out London and Paris - here I come (again). I've also found my future TV at On-Off in Sello, and could use a couple of strong men that want to do some heavy lifting (anyone?).

Yet another good week, even though my sleep is extremely disturbed. I'm guessing it has to do with work, but if it doesn't fix itself soon I'll have to do something about it. I finally met a fellow Norwegian that doesn't work for Nissan (Trygve, from JD, very nice), and a lot of other lovely people from the same organization. I think I'm about done making my mind up about it, and I think it's good :)

Thursday I went to the cinema to see Control for the third time, and it touched me even more than the first two times. If you don't get why I would go see the same movie three times in the cinema, _please_ don't ask me. I've tried to explain it to people a couple of times by saying stupid music geek things like "It's like when you put a really, really good record on and you just want to hear it again and again and again until you would recognize every song everywhere and it merges with life itself.", but it just sounds pretentious. You don't have to get it, it's just a good movie.


Control is based on Touching from a distance, the Ian Curtis biography written by his wife Deborah, but also on letters between Curtis and his lover Annik. Tony Wilson co-produced the movie with Deborah amongst others before he himself died last year.

The movie follows Ian Curtis from age 17 through to his marriage to Debbie, the time with Joy Division and onto the time of his death. The entire film is in black and white, as almost all footage of Ian Curtis was without color. All live performances in the film are performed by the actors, and it is chillingly good. The soundtrack was put together by the members of New Order.

Two of the times I have seen Control it has been with friends that do not have a strong relationship to the music - one of them none whatsoever. Still they both loved it. For me this film is first of all something I've been waiting for since I read Touching from a distance years ago and heard a movie was coming out, but also something that brings back an artist that I am too young to have seen but has been partly responsible for my love of music.

I would recommend Control to anyone who likes music or movies. It is not only a good movie with good music, but also a piece of music history it wouldn't hurt to learn ;)

Prettier And Younger But Not Any Better Off

Standing in line to get into Cuba last Saturday, Lotta commented upon the fact that all the people in the queue around us seemed to be at least five years younger. Now, I'm no golden oldie myself, but it does at times seem the Helsinki social life has a very high percentage of under-25-somethings (the exception being Teatteri where I usually feel comfortably young and under-made-up).

Anyway, today's topic is age.
Would I like to go back to being 20? No way, José! I liked my early twenties, had shitloads of fun and did the craziest things that I now know to stay clear of. I am very much in love with my later twenties, although I am starting to get a feeling that this too will be an age I will not want to return to at a later stage. Still finding myself, figuring out what I want to be when I grow up and all that.

Had a conversation with my granny about this during Christmas, and she said that her best years had been from 50 to 65. That's encouraging, I still have decades of kick ass memory building to go :)

I am currently giving Fall Out Boy's 2007 record Infinity on High some rounds on my player. It's not half bad, actually, considering I don't usually go for this US college music stuff. Tracks 1-7 are good, but they seem to have stuck an awful lot of left overs at the end of the record.

Fall Out Boy has some seriously messed up titles on their songs. Usually I'm a sucker for complex names and titles, but things like "I'm Like a Lawyer with the Way I'm Always Trying to Get You Off (Me & You)" are just silly, when the song should just be titled Me & You. The same song has a line I find fun:
The best way to make it through with hearts and wrists intact
is to realize that two out of three ain't bad.
Can't get much more emo than that.

Life Is A Rollercoaster

It's funny how, just when you think you've hit an all time low in your social life, it suddenly picks up with a mind blowing speed and literally leaves you gasping for air after a week of juggling schedules and running from one thing to another. In other words, I've had some tosi good days this week.

The Jolly Dragon thing I tried out on Wednesday was ok. A bit different from HSC and other similar things I've been to, might be less of a "contact" thing and more of a "potential friend" thing? I don't know, I'll give it another couple of shots before I make my mind up about it. Also, they seem to have a great variety of events going on, maybe I can even persuade enough people to join me in launching a pop quiz!

There's also been a lot of Lotta time this week, and I must say I've missed that. On the list of women I've met she ranks pretty high! Saturday evening we went to see Control in Tennispalatsi first - my second viewing and even better this time around. We then joined some of her girlfriends in a bar called Cuba. Never been there before, but it was not half bad and I'll probably go there again. Seemed to be preferred by swedish speaking finns, which suits me just fine.

Tomorrow: Work out! (I think.)
PS. It could be argued that the title of this post ruins all musical credibility I might have, but my name is Cecilie and I like Ronan Keating. Give me a ten step program to get it out of my system or deal with it ;)

Fuck Deg

No further investigation into the general state of attractiveness this evening, but:

On the use of English words in Nordic songs.

Sichelle had a great hit in Norway with the song "Fuck deg" last year. The original "Fuck dig" in Danish is performed by Anna David (she also has a German and an English version out), and Sichelle translated it into Norwegian. Gulping down everything that is even remotely obscene, the population of Norway naturally loved this song.

The lyrics are not incredibly clever, nor is the music particularly good. This is, however, outside of the rap genre, one of the first flirtations by a Norwegian artist with a mix of english and norwegian... and to my great surprise I like it. It's kind of pop/RnB'ish, the vocal is not too bad, and the lyrics are gutsy. Although critics could not stomach the urban "too cool to speak Norwegian" vibe it gives off, it's probably closer to the language young people in my home country use than any of the straight up no twist norwegian pop music on the market.

Also, it makes me kind of proud of being a girl. Sometimes I have no idea how my mind works.
Så fuck deg. :)

You Look So Fine

Some people are all that. (Off course some of them _are_, but those are not the ones this little piece of the world wide web is about.) They look a little bit fresher, dress a little bit sharper, sound a little bit louder and simply take a bigger piece of the ether than others. Some times I take up too much space myself, I'll not argue on that point, but the one thing I can not (with my Norwegian Jantelov-discipline) fathom is the "I look so fine" thing.

What defines a good looking person? Model looks? Intense eyes? Muscular body structure? Thin thighs? Big boobs? Huge biceps? Whatever happened to the full package? Since when did someone who does not even stoop to the level of addressing you in conversation reach any level whatsoever of attractiveness? My standards are clearly somewhat differing from the norm on this point.

So, am I strange to think there has to be a certain level of intellectual stimulation present for interest to be in its place? Should I simply let my blow-my-mind-with-your-words guard down? Would my life be better if I aimed to be mind-fucked (or even better, physically so) by the white pieces of meat I am confronted with in daily life? After all, bloody steaks are bad for digestion.

I will undoubtedly investigate this topic further on Friday.

Tell Me Again, What Am I Feeling?

After two years of Finlandic living it's time to give blogging in english a shot. 2008 has so far (seven days in) been the year of making drastic, life altering decisions that either break my heart or turn my life upside down, so why not!

Tom McRae - King of Cards (2007)
I loved McRae's two first records (Tom McRae, 2000 and Just Like Blood, 2003). End of the World News (Dose me up) received massive radio exposure in Norway, and by all means, it's a good song. Both albums are lovely, with Bloodless, Draw Down the Stars and You Only Disappear as definite peaks. I've yet to hear his third record, All Maps Welcome (2005), but with last year's release he managed to get my attention.

King of Cards is very McRae, he hasn't changed much since the first two albums. Hence, if you're after revolutionary ideas this will not be your slice of pie. If you, on the other hand, are into Nick Drake/Bob Dylan/Damien Rice'ish modern day troubadourism, you'll love it. The first three tracks make the record easy to like, but track 9 - One Mississippi is the main attraction.

Remember: Buy it, don't steal it.