Show day x2

So, soon we should head out, tonight it's 2 shows with Mr.T. Yesterday we recorded demo vocals for a new song we've been working on, it sounds funny as hell :) Also rehearsed 4 new songs for the acoustic set. Today we started with an 8,5km jog and a sauna, and now it's time to get to work. See you later bitches!

Drunk acting (no,not me)

I sincerely hope this becomes status quo, so I too can have a career in the film industry:

'Star Drunk,' a film by drunk people

"Your safety is on, but you still made the sounds... So that's good!" :D

I find this seriously cool:

Lenny Kravitz overhears a band playing his music on the street

Lappajärvi all night long

Still in the woods, thankfully not lost. Been working on a new song all day, and in the evening Mr. Railio and his friend Masho graced us with their presence. Had a sauna and talked shit. Now having some rum and coke and listening to some demos. Tomorrow we try to finish the demo we've been working on today and maybe rehearse some new stuff for the acoustic set and on Saturday it's time to try and entertain the audience twice again.

Catch you later Pumpkins!

I see weird things...

The Department of Homeland Security says it is illegal to freely play music in The United States.

Aaaaand....

Canadian Government to Charge International Touring Artists $425 per Band Member per Performance in Canada

Seems like the people on the other side of the Atlantic really hate music...

We took a head start...

...we're already in Lappajärvi. We arrived around 20:45, changed clothes and went for a 6km run. After that sauna and then checking out some new songs. All in all good times :) I also got in a mail (e-mail, for you morons out there) the first mix of the Arion stuff + the new Railio single, which both also sounded nice. Now some sleep and tomorrow some exercise and then it's back to the old drawing board.

Over and out.

Back in the Land of the Living

Or at least pretty close. I have pretty much beaten the flu, went yesterday for a 6km walk, as I wasn't sure what shape I was in, and today I went running for 10km. Seems I'm starting to (for better or worse) be myself again, which is great. I really suck at doing nothing, few more days and it would've been a cabin fever like never before.

This week I'll travel to Lappajärvi to do some rehearsing and writing with Mr.T and on Saturday we are playing not one but two shows. Ought to be fun. And as it looks like next week I will get to rock out with Mr.Railio and the band before heading up north to spend some days at school one can say life is pretty good :)

Getting it right can cost you money

Trends In TV Scoring – Self-Financing Composers

Yeah, like Blake Neely says at the end of the article, it is kind of a double-edged sword. Would really like to write a score for TV or a film (or a video game) at some point.

WTF???

A moment of charity

Ok, this is something I don't usually do, but That Guy With Glasses / Channel Awesome are having their Charity Drive right now (01:45CET when I'm writing this), and it goes on for 8h still. So, as I'm pretty sure I can't be the only one here who likes Doug and the other guys I thought I'd share this. You have 8h to see the show and contribute to the charity (http://www.onestepcamp.org/) if you have it in your heart. I've linked some Channel Awesome stuff here before, so I thought I'd try and give something back. If even one of you donates 5 dollars it was worth it. Lets call this my random act of kindness for this year.

If you see this too late and missed your window, well, shit happens. Channel Awesome still has some funny shit, check it out.

Didn't happen to me...

... and can't really see how the two are connected. Gotta love the campaign though :)

Gotta love Finnish rap...

...or not. Like Mr. Arhinmäki, our Minister of Culture, I think that Cheek sucks ass bigtime. Unlike him I also think 99% of the Finnish rap sucks ass. Then there's the 1% that's so bad that it's actually funny. Like for instance this (granted, these guys don't actually sing in Finnish, but they're Finnish and it is (tries to be) rap, so I think it counts. They probably should try Finnish, as they can't really speak English to save their lives...

And, unlike Arhinmäki, I'm NOT the Minister of fucking Culture, so I can voice my opinions whenever the fuck I want. I hate rap, but if you're the Minister of Culture it is NOT your place to voice your subjective opinions publicly (no matter how much I actually agree with him on this one). You're entitled to your opinion, but you should fucking know better and mind your mouth. </rant>

But seriously, check the link out, if you have the stomach for it. I'm yet to make it all the way through, and I've tried...

This pesky little flu...

...just doesn't seem to fucking give up. It is slowly getting better, but hell, this has been going on for almost 2 weeks now. Of course travelling and playing a show with Mr. T didn't really help, but still, damn this fucker is hanging on... Well, luckily I have this weekend off so I can still try and recover. Actually this is my last off-weekend in 2 months or so, would've been fun to try and actually do something, but it seems like the couch will be my best friend this weekend...

On a completely different note: Someone just told me in the comments of the previous post that Rob Swire had written in Twitter that they might release a new Pendulum album next year (which would be great). Well, I went to see his Twitter feed and one other thing caught my eye. As I have no Twitter and can't "re-tweet" (or what the fuck it's called) the thing I will just blatantly copy it here, as I think it was really funny, and probably also true:

"It must suck to be Avril Lavigne, being nearly 30 and still having to write lyrics like 'I'm a fuckin' princess, don't tell me who to be' "

Interesting article:

How atheists became the most colossally smug and annoying people on the planet

Not that I necessarily agree with everything Mr. O'Neill writes there, but he does have some interesting points. I've probably become a nihilist already years ago, but that was not a transformation from atheism, just natural evolution :)

Someone asked me here a while ago if I've heard Ghost. I hadn't back then, but I did yesterday, and I think it's fucking brilliant! I've only heard a few songs now, but this one definitely made an impact. Have to see them live at some point :)

Ghost - Year Zero

Hail Satan!

It's been a while since a song brought a smile to my face, but this one did it :)

Showday

Blah...

Yeah, as you have probably figured out by now, I don't really have anything better to do than post stupid links today. That's because I, for a change, have the fucking flu again. Feeling like shit, should go and play with Timo on Saturday. Hopefully this has taken a turn for the better by then. Wasn't too much fun sitting at school Mon-Tue feeling like I had been hit by a bus either. I have no illusions today would turn out too productive, maybe just some shit from the TV and lots of fluids, and not even the good kind of fluids...

I'll stop posting stupid crap (for today), so here's the last one, I think it might actually be pretty accurate:

Dinner date

Lost in translation part X

Some of these are actually really funny :)

Dragons n' stuff...

So, apparently dragons are real... All the sword-and-sorcery power/symphonic/epic/insert-genre-here bands should be sooo happy to find this out.

Funny lineup...

Michael Jackson to play alongside John Lennon, Mahatma Gandhi

WTF of the day:

WTF? 

Isn't this fad supposed to be over by now anyway?

Back 2 school

Had my first day of school today after the "summer break", which I of course spent working. Now new days learning about writing lyrics. Even got some homework: Write lyrics for a song, using as many clichés as you can. Ought to be fun :)

I thought it would be more difficult than this...

...but apparently not.

Don't quit your day job...

...not just yet...

Movies...

I actually went to the movies twice last week, to see The Wolverine and Pacific Rim. Some thoughts:

The Wolverine:

Ok, let's get this out of the way: It IS better than X-Men Origins:Wolverine, but of course everyone who has seen that piece of shit knows that we are not setting the bar very high here. It looks decent, although I hate 3D. It has a plot that is VERY predictable, but I guess they were going for a Summer Blockbuster-thing anyway, so one shouldn't expect anything too cerebral to begin with. Hugh Jackman is still awesome as Wolverine, the villains are not very memorable, in fact they are actually pretty goofy, especially The Viper... I used to read shitloads of X-Men comics when I was a kid, and it's sad that they still didn't give one of the better characters of the franchise the movie he deserves, but at least they're moving to the right direction...

Oh yeah, and the "Days of Future Past" teaser clip that comes somewhere halfway through the credits: Awesome, can't wait to see THAT movie!

Pacific Rim:

Well, here's a movie that knows exactly what it is, what it tries to be, and does it very well. It's not Citizen Kane, in a fact it's kinda dumb, but I knew that already going in. I went there to be entertained, to see big-ass robots and huge monsters kick the shit out of each other, and on that front it delivers. When the shit hits the fan it really delivers. Fuck you Michael Bay, THIS is how it looks like when giant robots start to rumble, now leave Transformers the fuck alone.

This movie is a tad too long, the middle part drags a little, the main character is totally boring little twerp and the competing pilot of the other Jaeger (that's what they call the robots) looks exactly like him. In a fact, most -if not all- of the characters here are your standard archetypes, and I think the movie tries to give us too much character development (yeah, go figure...), but it never really goes anywhere, and lets face it, we came to see robots and monsters fight. The fucking head honcho gives one of the most cringeworthy "big speeches" I've seen in a while ("Today, we are cancelling the Apocalypse"... My god... :D ).

Sure, the movie has problems. A lot of them. But in the end, it knows what it should be, and it is what it is. I liked it, more than I thought I would. If you like shit going down and some epic battles (Hell, when thay have the battle in Hong-Kong and the robot, size of a fucking skyscraper walks towards the monster while dragging behind him a fucking SHIP -which it then proceeds to use as a sword/club to kick some major ass- I was smiling like kid, going "FUCK YEAH!!!" in my head), this one is for you. It's dumb and childish at times, but it will keep you entertained.

And before I quit rambling: If you want to see this, GO AND SEE IT IN A THEATRE. This probably doesn't translate that well to the smaller screen, and it looks fucking gorgeous at times. And this is the first and probably the only time I'll ever say this, but see it in 3-D. I HATE 3-D movies, and this was the first time it seemed like it actually served a purpose, it looked amazing. From the opening shot you know that this is going to look goooood on 3-D.

Ok, I've rambled on enough, should go out for a jog and then try and lay down some guitar solos. Until the next time, take care you little fucks.

I had a Dream...

I had a dream last night, and in that dream I was dating Olivia Wilde. The happiest few hours of my life, and if I could've decided I would've NEVER woken up. This might be just the universe trying to tell me to pursue my heart's desires... So... Olivia, darling, if you're reading this give me a call ;)

Foster's Radler

"Foster’s Radler 2.0% is a refreshing mixed drink that combines 

60 per cent citrus-flavoured soft drink with 40 per cent Foster’s lager"

I tried this today, it sounded so weird I had to. All in all, not that much to write home about. It wasn't as refreshing as one would hope, smelled pretty damn bad, and with 2.0% it doesn't do jackshit for a seasoned pro such as myself. To it's credit, it was very easy to drink and didn't taste as bad as it smelled. Final verdict with a sample size of one (1) can: 2/5

MILF

"This organization was formally established in 1984 as the Moro Islamic Liberation Front. Muammar Gaddafi became a longstanding supporter of the MILF after its emergence."

I too am a longstanding supporter of all things MILF.

Metal news of the day

Apparently Pasi Rantanen returns to the Thunderstone lineup. That's good news, never been a fan of Thunderstone (although they have some decent songs), but Rantanen is an excellent singer and a really nice guy. Also, Emperor returns, would be most cool to see them live, but there's no way I'm attending Wacken :)

The curious case of Jesus H. Christ, reopened.

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague has constituted a panel to hear a case filed by a Nairobian challenging the unfair trial, sentencing, punishment and death of Jesus Christ.

Worst hangovers...

... come when you're 29-years old, at least according to a British study. I can from an experience tell that it doesn't get any easier after you pass the magical mark of 30 either. Hell, I'm a tad bit hungover right now. Red wine tends to do that to me, but I don't mind. As I always say, you have to appreciate the hangover. It can be a wondrous state of heightened awareness where your soaring spirit will join with the cosmos to be as one. Or then you just feel like shit, that happens too...