Songs in B minor...

Cover tunes covered, my friend did a list of songs he likes in B minor...for some reason, people don't make all that many songs in that key - which is a shame - here's my two cents:

Balloons - Mercury Motors feat. Anneli Drecker
A lovely little duet from a rather underrated early 90's Norwegian group with Anneli Drecker of Bel Canto (Norwegian ambient/pop outfit from mid-80s to early 00s). About the pink goggles you wear when in love and the all too common sport of dealing the blame when it all goes pearshaped.

Stakkars Oslo - deLillos
A tune about "Poor Oslo" from national Norwegian rock legends deLillos. With Lars Lillo-Stenberg's idiosyncratic vocals, they carve out the stark ironies of a city that craves international recognition and winds up tearing down old houses and alleyways to make room for a huge parking mall called "Ibsen" (Norway's most internationally known playwright), stripping the city of what character it had in the first place... Probably the heaviest piece of music deLillos ever made, and among the most scathing.

The Kids are on High Street - Madrugada
Ah, the sweet sound of disillusionment... Keeping up with what seems to be a Norwegian trend in this post - the main Norwegian rock band of the 00s belts out a haunting tune with Sivert Høyem's amazing vocals (picture Eddie Vedder and Michael Stipe in one with a touch of Johnny Cash) just giving me shivers down the spine. Vocals aside, the ending of the song is of the kind that could just develop into one long, never ending instrumental - which, alas, it doesn't. But it leaves me with wanting mooooore.

White Wedding - Billy Idol
Ok, kitsch to the core and the ultimate self-parody as Billy Idol is, this IS a runaway train of an 80s rock tune. Just for crashing through the stained glass church window on a motorbike in the video, this H minor piece is worth a spot on the list. ^^

...and now I will cheat a little and end the post with a song that ENDS in B minor (the song is in G major):

Heart of Lothian - Marillion
From the time when Fish still was a member and still was able to write lyrics that could strike a chord in me. A song of the pride of belonging somewhere and yet...when it all comes down to it...was it worth the fame and the glory? The final lines after what is a patriot anthem winds into a mournful anticlimax labelled "Curtain Call":

And the man from the magazine wants another shot
Of you all curled up
'cos you look like an actor in a movie shot
But you're feeling like a wino in a parking lot
How did I get in here, anyway?
Do we really need a playback of the show?
'cos the wideboys want to head for the watering holes,
watering hols, anyway
Let's go

And the man in the mirror had sad eyes...

Under cover

Ok. I'm a lousy blogger. Well, I'll post this here little thing - a friend of mine made a list of covered songs he likes. Here's my attempt:

Got about 25k titles residing on a hard drive (yep, it was a BEAR getting all those tracks ripped from my cds/dvds/vinyls/cassettes/whatnots), so this might not be quite comprehensive, but more a spur of the moment thing - some covers are here because I love them, others are just fun, while some are just plain...odd.

Lady Madonna - Yeahlove Swans
Norwegian poprock band that never made it in the early 90s - grunge killed them - turning the old Beatles tune into a thunderous train ride).

I come and stand at every door - This Mortal Coil
Late 80s UK project turning The Byrds' song about a child that died from the bomb in Hiroshima into the most heartbreaking thing ever - I simply can't sing it without sobbing.

En stor sølvgrå lastebil - Vazelina Bilopphøggers
Norwegian band part rockabilly part parody singing about going on holiday in a sanitary vehicle (errr...what else to call the truck that gathers human wastes in a tank?) to the tune of It's only make believe by Conway Twitty.

Voodoo Chile (Slight Return) - Stevie Ray Vaughan
Hendrix's genius with the brilliance of SRV...

Smalltown Boy - Vampire State Building
Norwegian 80s/90s s&m-gothtechnorock indie band doing an excellent cover of Bronski Beat's 80s gay anthem.

Night and Day - U2
A song from the early 90s AIDS fundraiser project Red, hot + blue where U2 covers Cole Porter's old classic tune in a way that possibly makes it the most haunting song about steamy, frustrated longings that Bono & co have ever made.

Gimme some lovin' - Blues Brothers
Ok, Steve Winwood has/had an amazing voice, but for the sheer love of music, I think this one outweighs the Spencer Davis' Group original.

Rusty Cage - Johnny Cash
Ok. This is just different. It ain't Soundgarden for sure, just...different.

This Wheel's on fire - Siouxsie & The Banshees
Sorry, Bob Dylan. I heard this version before the original - it's the definite one to me.

O, bli hos meg - Knut Reiersrud & Iver Kleive
Guitar ace Reiersrud and organist Kleive making an exquisite goosebump-raiser out of the burial hymn/FA Cup anthem better know as Abide with me...

Breathe/Time - The Polka Floyd Show
Pink Floyd gone polka with accordion. And it is WELL played with just the right touch of tongue-in-cheek as well as loving attention to the original.

We three Kings - Mojo Nixon & The Toadliquors
The alternative version of the christmas carol. A touch of rhinestone and Tom Waits. Open up your presents, son!

Little Wing - Marius Müller's Funhouse
Another Hendrix masterpiece in the delicate, giant hands of Norway's greatest ever (arguably where physical size is concerned) rock guitarist.

Lay, Lady, Lay - Magnet feat. Gemma Hayes
A lush, LUSH, 2:30 am duet of another Bob Dylan classic. Sheer balm for the ears.

Battle of Evermore - The Lovemongers
I always had a soft spot for Heart since I was a teenager. This live recording under their Lovermongers alias does full justice to Led Zeppelin's original, imho.

When all is said and done - Nils Landgren Funk Unit
The up-tempo, hard beat ABBA song tuned all the way down to a tender, tender piano ballad...

Mission Impossible - Laika & The Cosmonauts
A great rendition of the MI theme, played by these Finns on their "Instruments of Terror".

Carmen - Spike Jones
Bizet's opera in less than 10 minutes. Just the narrator's voiceover stating "Carmen not only fills the role of the soprano, she overflows it" is worth the ticket alone.

Cloudbusting - Steve Hogarth
A live recording from Barcelona where the Marillion vocalist first launches into a mock-soprano version of "Wuthering Heights" before doing a nice version of Kate Bush's song.

The Fountain of Salmacis - Yngve Guddal & Roger T Matte
Early Genesis? Prog rock? For two grand pianos? Take it away, boys!

Birthday - Femi Gange
Norwegian rockers take this Beatles song and cranks up the volume. Loud!

Euroboys - Scarborough Fair
Ok. Here's you find Knut Schreiner, better known as Euroboy from Turbonegro. Don't start running just yet. This is laidback and pretty cool with a 70s movie feel, actually. What Simon & Garfunkel might think of it? Dunno.

Slibesteinsvalsen - Reidar Larsen
Just had to include the cover of a Norwegian song. The "Whetstone Waltz" by Alf Prøysen, is here sung in a fashion by blues singer Larsen that leaves no doubt as to whom is sharpening his blade...the Grim Reaper is coming for you...

Ev'ry time we say goodbye - Annie Lennox
Another Cole Porter classic from the Red, Hot + Blue project. The Eurythmics vocalist does the song full justice and more.

The Portree Kid - The Corries
Scottish bards par excellence doing a uniquely Highlander take on Ghost Riders in the Sky.

Forward to Death - NoMeansNo
Right. An a capella version of a...Dead Kennedys song? And it WORKS!

'97 Bonnie & Clyde - Tori Amos
And I thought Eminem was slightly off the page? Tori goes beyond beyond here...

Wrapped around your finger - Tori Amos
In this live recording with just Tori and her piano, you'd think she and not The Police wrote the thing.

Galju Prikhod - Vopli Vidopliassova
Ukrainian polka! AC/DC! Highway to Hell! Yay!

Ouch

The road to Hell is paved with good intentions, they say. Guess it is about time I started updating this thing again. This online MMORPG called Shaiya just stole me away two months ago...trying to get back to real life now.

There WILL be more on my trip to Scotland. PROMISE!

Summer overload

Heatwave. Got 28C outside, which isn't THAT bad, but airconditioning hasn't quite made it to Norway as a common household item yet (usually, we'd only need it for two-three days a year). Being one of those still without AC, I've got 35C indoors, and the temperature just stays there - no matter what I do.

Which is a bit of a catch-22... My comfy zone where temperature goes is quite narrow, you see. 15C to about 23-24C is what my body prefers. Any warmer, I sweat/boil/fry (in that order), any colder and I'm slightly chilly.

So, for the last week or so, it's been way too hot for me outside - had about 32C in Oslo the other night - and inside is just roasting...so forgive me for being happy about the clouds on the horizon right now. :)

The heat is to blame for me not following up on the posts about my trip to Scotland yet. Will do as soon as the heat subsides....

Going to Scotland - Part 1: June 30th to July 3rd

Going anywhere from this place means that I have to do some bit of planning ahead. First I have to go an hour by bus to the nearest train station, then by train for 3 hours to get to the nearest major airport - Værnes. Then there is the matter of whether I'll make it to the airport on time to catch whatever flight I need to catch to get to my final destination. Usually when going abroad, I won't be able to get there on time, so I will have to stay overnight in Trondheim, the hub of our region.

Now, Trondheim is a rather nice place to stay for a few days anyway, so I don't mind having to go there every now and then. Got quite a few friends there, as well, so there's usually a chance of getting together with someone for a beer in the evening. So, this time around, I set out from home in the morning of June 30th, caught the bus to Grong, to catch the train to Trondheim.

Now, for some reason, there seems to be something delaying every other train ride I'm on. Be it repairs, busted engines, landslides, avalanches, train running into a herd of reindeer, train hitting a moose, floods, locusts (nah, we don't have those), leaves on the line, derailing, whatnot. This time around, people building the new highway into Steinkjer messed up blowing up some rocks, blocking the railway track in the process. Thumbs up to ya, guys! So we were transfered onto buses from Steinkjer to Trondheim. Well, got to Trondheim in the afternoon, checked into my hotel and stayed overnight to catch the early morning flight to Oslo.

From Gardermoen (Oslo airport), I got onto my flight to Edinburgh. Nice flying weather all the way, with beautiful views of Telemark, Ryfylke and the North Sea. Got into Edinburgh in the early afternoon and caught a minibus to my hotel. As I got there, me and a Taiwanese girl were told that our rooms were not available due to some repairs, so we would have to stay temporarily in another hotel. My original hotel was on Cowgate - as central a location as you'll get in Edinburgh - and the other hotel was placed down by the Meadows - sort of within walking distance of the Royal Mile if you don't mind a good walk (I don't).

After a very confusing taxi ride, we got to our new hotel, where it actually took some effort in convincing the receptionist that the Taiwanese girl and I weren't travelling together and for that reason were going to have separate rooms. We actually got checked in three times - first in a double room, then in a twin bed double, before finally getting our single rooms. Confusing, but good fun.

Spent the rest of the day just roaming the streets, and after going for a stroll in the Meadows and dining in my favourite Edinburgh restaurant, I went to bed, quite content to be back in the country.

Moved back to my original hotel the next day and found myself in a three bed room, as my intended room still wasn't ready. Very spacious, at least for a country where people seem to build as cramped as possible, no matter how much space they've got to build in.

Roamed the streets for the next two days, trying not to give in to going ape in the bookstores before going out on my 9 day tour with Wild in Scotland. No need lugging tons of luggage along as I'd be back in the city for some days later on. But I couldn't quite escape the urge to buy something, so I got myself a guitar. Been looking for a traveller's guitar for ages, and finally found something suitable. In hindsight, did I really need a seventh guitar? Oh well...

Basically, the first days in Scotland, I was just winding down from work. Doing as little as possible except allowing myself the luxury of being absolutely random: walk wherever my legs took me, sleep in late in the mornings, just being lazy. The only exploring I did, was going to the Butterfly & Insect World to just have a look at somewhere I hadn't been before. Not the biggest place, but good enough to kill about an hour. By this time, I was rearing to get on with the 9 day tour the next morning.

A word in passing...

Right. Just made it back home again yesterday after my trip to Scotland. Great fun, met loads of people (Hi y'all!), enjoyed the scenery, took loads of photos and brought half of Scotland back with me (at least that's what 45 kg of luggage feels like when strapped to your back and hanging around your neck...).

Will just be staying for a couple of days before I head back out again. Going to visit family and friends down south before getting back up here again to unwind before getting back to work someday in early August.

Came back from Scotland with loads of new books. Seven of them will become part of my neverending attempt to learn Japanese through not studying...optimism is so underrated. Four books on Scottish history, one book on Gaelic, three books on music, four books on behaviour management in schools, two books on Norwegian WWII history, three on music and one on astronomy. Plenty to keep me occupied in the coming months. Brilliant.

And as no visit to Scotland is complete without coming back with some whisky, a bottle of Ardbeg Renaissance and a bottle of Talisker 57 North are now residing on the top shelf in one of my cupboards. Yum!

Some day in a future not too far ahead, I'll post pics from Scotland and write some more stuff about my trip. Till then!

Alba & Uisge beatha

Tomorrow, I'll be on my way to Scotland for the fifth holiday in two years. I've developed a liking for the place that's close to turning into an obsession. Why? Any number of reasons. I'll try to list some here.

Edinburgh

Easily one of my top 5 favourite cities. Ok, it's predominantly dyed in all shades of grey, but it has such age for a Northern European city. And character. Oodles of it. First time I went there, I totally miscalculated my budget, so I spent 9 days there with only £100 left (that's after housing costs had been covered). It was actually a nice way of getting to know the city better - having to plan every purchase of food and whatever else I felt I could afford from day to day. It made for a lot of exploring of what daily life is like. It also meant that I had to entertain myself with what free attractions the city offers. And there's loads of them. Actually, I didn't run out of free attractions until the last day - for which I bought myself a day pass on the buses and rode around the town for several hours. Participating in quiz nights at one of the pubs was also great fun. And speaking of pubs - if you don't find one you fancy, you're dead above the knees.

On later visits, I've made sure to plan my spending a bit more carefully - Scotland is only slightly less expensive than Norway in most aspects. Edinburgh is a nice enough place for shopping, and not half bad for eating out - as long as you stear clear of the few places serving Scots food - that is pretty much the only downside I've experienced in Scotland.

Language

Scots English is great. Rolling R's, all sorts of colourful expressions (got to be at least 200 ways in Scots of telling the world you're drunk) and loads of connections to old Norse - like how words like "brown" and "house" are spoken - just like home.

Then there's Gaelic. Absolutely incompre-hensible. Quirky spelling and half the letters seem to just vanish when it's spoken. The northwest is generally where you find the Gaelic speakers, and all the road signs turn bilingual as soon as you enter the Highlands. Just like here in Norway when you enter the Sami regions up north.

For all the crazy combinations of consonants when written, Gaelic is actually quite nice to listen to. It has a very attractive, musical quality that I like.

People

This is where I start generalizing again. I've yet to meet an unsympathetic Scot. There probably are some less attractive Scots personalities out there, I just haven't met them yet. Straightforward, blunt, wicked sense of humour and an absolutely unique way with words is how I would describe Scots in general. Robert Burns has a lot to answer for, I think.

And I find their traditions attractive, too. Ok, so bagpipes and kilts have become cliché, but even so it lends such colour to what in my eyes is "Scotsdom", that you can't just ignore them. That, and haggis (the only traditional Scots food I find myself coming back to). Just got to have it.

Nature

Yes, I know. I do live in Norway. And yes, we do have amazing nature. Just outside my doorstep I've got scenery that probably would've had half of Europe go ooohing and ahhing for a good while. But we get used to it. Yes, I think it is nice scenery, but to me a mountain here is pretty much just another mountain. Bet it's like that for people living in the Alps, too. So, a change of scenery is always nice. Mind you, I've never been one for the rolling, pastoral landscapes of Denmark and Hungary - I do prefer having something that breaks up the monotony of the horizon.

The scenery in Scotland reminds me a bit of what you find on the coast of the regions of Sogn og Fjordane and Hordaland here in Norway. It is visibly absolutely downright geologically ancient - all eroded, broken down and battered - and, in summer, so absolutely heartbreakingly green. And naked. And desolate. People live more in small villages than spread all over the place like over here. The Isle of Skye, The Hebrides and the western part of the Highlands has wild, rugged terrain (that is, the Hebrides also have VAST expanses of bogs - miles and miles with nothing but bogs and gnats), that just gets to me...

History

Scotland has so much history, it makes my ears bleed. From Picts and Celts to Vikings and MacAlpin, Stuarts and religion, rebellion and repression, there is so much to learn. And half of it - the real ancient stuff, even the Scots themselves are pretty much left to guessing at. Like the standing stones. Like the settlement at Skara Brae in the Orkneys.

But the most fascinating tales come from the internal feuds between the various tribes that fought for domination over what would become Scotland, and the seemingly interminable wars with England that went on for centuries. So many twists and turns that you'll be amazed that there actually are people who's got the chronology of events down pat.

Just to top it up, you have the inventiveness of the Scots. There seems to be no end of significant things that Scots have invented or had a hand in inventing. Coming from a country that for some reason takes immense pride in having invented aerosol spraycans, paper clips (we're obviously wrong about that, though), grenade harpoons (boy, does the world love us for that...) and cheese slicers, your national pride shrinks pretty rapidly in this when faced with what the Scots have managed to wring out of their brains...

Whisky

Last, but definitely not least on my list of reasons to love Scotland. Coming from quite a minor place in Norway, I've been lucky enough to have a decently stocked liquor store nearby. It had some nice whisky brands to get me started on my whisky trail, and I quickly found that I have a penchant for the smoky, peated ones. Then I went to Scotland. Oh, my. Don't think I need to elaborate the subject any further, really. Can't wait to get back! Slàinte mhath, everybody!

(And by the way - "Alba" and "Uisge beatha" is Gaelic for "Scotland" and "Whisky". "Slànte mhath" means "Health good" and is often used when toasting someone.)

Lingo time

Why I am blogging in English, when it's not even my native language? I'm Norwegian through and through, at least where language is concerned. But I speak, read, listen to and write Norwegian every day, so I hardly need to practice it more than that. English, on the other hand, is something I need to practice to keep my brain tuned in to it.

Some people will tell you that English is pretty much second nature to Norwegians. That is a rather grand overstatement. Most Norwegians younger than 45 will now SOME English, as they got it taught in school from age 10. Quite a few of those younger than 35 will speak pretty good English, but have a harder time reading it, not to speak of writing it. These days, English is taught from day One in school, which hopefully will make good English speakers out of more Norwegians. At least, we hope they will be better than infamous Norwenglish speakers like Kåre Willoch (ex-Prime Minister who greeted the US on "Good Morning, America" back in the early 80s with "Good day!"), Erik Solheim, Jens Stoltenberg (our current PM) and Nils Arne Eggen (Norway's most successful football (yep, still "soccer" to you Americans) coach).

As for me, I did ok in English at school, I guess, but didn't start finding it very useful until I was about 14. Then I got myself my first computer! Back in 1985, that was a pretty big deal over here...still got it stowed away in the basement...hmmm...I wonder if any of those games still work...?

Anyway, owning that computer meant that I needed to read up a bit on how it worked and stuff (meaning games reviews), so I started buying computer magazines. At the time, they were almost exclusively in English, and for us Amstrad users, there was only ONE magazine available - in English, of course. So, with determination and a dictionary, my basic vocabulary grew pretty rapidly.

Back when I was about 19, I finally started reading novels, and quickly found that quite often works that were translated from English into Norwegian lost a lot of their flavour during translation. Since then, I've pretty much insisted on reading books in their original language if I am able to read it (which basically means if they're not written in Norwegian, Swedish, Danish or English, I'll need to find a translation into one of those languages).

So, for about 18 years, I've made a point of always reading at least ONE book in English at any given time (I'm usually in the process of reading two or three books pretty much all the time - no, NOT simultaneously!). I try to go abroad for about a month every year so I practice speaking English, but I also need to practice writing it. That's one of the main reasons why this blog has come into being, but also as a teacher of English, I need to keep the English clockwork in my brain greased and ticking.

So. If I make any glaring errors, please point them out to me. Please, be nice about it, though.