Tuesday, November 10, 2009

I have Röd! Unfortunately, I do not have the Good Speakers, so listening to it will have to wait for the weekend. I'm not entirely sure what to make of the album art, at the moment.

said someone out there at 10:34 PM

Tuesday, November 03, 2009

I just sent off emails asking my tutors for academic references. I hate myself and am terrified of masters applications. That is all.

said someone out there at 5:53 PM

Friday, October 30, 2009

The first reviews of Röd are starting to appear. Some really exciting stuff in there - suggestions that some of the songs break away from formulaic pop structures, for instance. My main worry is that, with the Royal Mail strikes, my copy will not reach me. ._.

said someone out there at 5:25 PM

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

This is one of the most epic tegaki vids I've ever seen. But then again, I think pretty much all Baccano! OP parody vids are awesome.

said someone out there at 5:52 PM

Monday, October 26, 2009

Descartes's attempt to solve the problem that determinism poses for free will basically goes like this:

1. We can't hope to understand God's power of preordination and omniscience.
2. But it sure does feel like we've got free will!
3. And something which we can't understand shouldn't be grounds for doubting something which we grasp so well.

I love how that section in the Principles is actually titled 'How to reconcile the freedom of our will with divine preordination'. Because clearly Descartes's answer to that... is not to try.

The Meditations really goes downhill from the Third Meditation onwards. Sigh.

said someone out there at 3:36 PM

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

I'm hoping that this is the explanation for those sudden, stabbing pains I sometimes get. Hurrah (I think) for internet diagnoses.

said someone out there at 9:20 PM

Sunday, October 18, 2009

I appear to have just bought a ticket for the third Göteborg concert.

Oops.

That makes it:
18 march – Göteborg, Lisebergshallen
19 march – Göteborg, Lisebergshallen
20 march - Göteborg, Lisebergshallen
24 march – Oslo, Oslo Spektrum

Why am I such a sad Kent fangirl? Why?

said someone out there at 5:15 PM

Saturday, October 17, 2009

Töntarna video is interesting, Guero is actually pretty good studying music, I am a bad student, and it is too bloody cold for October. This blog really has degenerated into a Twitter feed.

said someone out there at 11:07 PM

Thursday, October 15, 2009

Unexpected outcome of reading about development economics: finding out more about the systematic discrimination against women and female children, with data and graphs to boot. It's a depressing world in so many ways.

said someone out there at 5:52 PM

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Oh man, extra concerts have been added. The question now is, do I want to see Kent thrice in Göteborg? Or even four times? (Okay, maybe not four times, because I want to have enough time in Oslo before that concert. But oh, temptation.)

said someone out there at 5:45 PM

Monday, October 12, 2009

So, my debit card has been blocked, yes? And I was calling my bank to get them to unblock it. But then the call gets cut off because my phone has run out of credit. And I can't top up my phone credit, because that requires a debit card.

...*cries*

I'll have to visit the bank tomorrow. Augh.

said someone out there at 7:16 PM

Apparently dealing in various sums of Swedish and Norwegian currency counts as making 'suspicious transactions'. In happier news, though, I have Kent tickets. :D

said someone out there at 6:53 PM

Sunday, October 11, 2009

So much yes. And the bit about turning rape statistics around - considering what they imply for the prevalence of rapists in the population - was something that I was thinking about not that long ago. Scary stuff.

said someone out there at 5:34 PM

Friday, October 09, 2009

From the recent 'Ask Kent' archives:

A response to a question asking them if they're religious:

What do you mean by 'religious'?
That we profess a faith?
In that case, which?
There is, hopefully, belief in our music, but whether one believes that is about an omnipotent god, or merely about a belief in the good/evil of man, is another matter.
That is not interesting to me.
What you believe, I mean.
God.
What a confusion that became.

They also call this cover of Vinternoll2 the best cover of a Kent song.

One fan says he's going into uni and wants a line from their new album as a present. Kent offers:

"De tog mig till en plats där inget växte.
Till en plats där bara skuggorna och dammet hade tid".

"They took me to a place where nothing grew.
To a place where only the shadows and dust had time."

Another fan asked what happened in the winter of 2002, haha.

It was a good winter, as we remember it.
We toured as well as one can imagine.
V&A was, of course, huge like a flying blue pig just then, and we were drunk on the enormous break we'd had with the record.
Everything was a shrimp sandwich and thus far these words are merely a mass of lies.

Apart from the fact that it's about the winter and that it was bloody cold in Svedala, But when is it not so? it was for example, bloody cold today.

On what genre their music falls into:
It's out of genres. We make, quite simply, music for everyone.

said someone out there at 3:57 PM

I think this article captures the main point of the Polanski case. Which is not to say that there aren't interesting talking points that the case raises; just that the central one really shouldn't be glossed over.

said someone out there at 1:27 PM

Wednesday, October 07, 2009

Initial thoughts on Töntarna: Shiny, slightly abrasive electronic rock, not far removed from the previous album (but they do seem to do that -- having at least one track that isn't much of a deviation from the previous, and then taking the rest of the album in a less obvious direction). Interesting lyrics. I'm assuming the song is an exercise in some tongue-in-cheek bombast, because really, the bullying of geeks? It's a competent song, I think, but again, not different enough from the feel of TTS for me to get that excited about Röd.

Ambivalent about the war/violence imagery carrying on from the boxset -- which I still have to finish listening to. At this rate I'm unlikely to get around to it before the new album. Must look up pre-order options.

edit: thought it best to clarify -- I don't mean that bullying is a subject which doesn't deserve a serious treatment, but rather that that the style of Töntarna is not the most obvious musical vehicle for such a theme.

said someone out there at 10:38 PM

See blog title.

- I have partly lost the ability to sit quietly on trains and watch the scenery go past. I blame the acquisition of a digital camera.
- I resent how insipid pop songs can sometimes gain an unexpected, unwarranted poignance.
- On the recent trip I returned, if only a little, to the secondary school refrain I want to go home. I think I now know a little better what that means: I want time that is my own, no deadlines, possibility without obligation. Or just: I want to rest. I want a bit more time.
- It's going to be a long, cold winter.

said someone out there at 8:57 PM

Typical. Absolutely typical. I go away for a two-week holiday, and Kent releases a new webpage, all the relevant info about the new album and new single, a track, and tour dates. All while I'm away and not checking their official website.

In other words: ahhhhhh spring tour ahhhhh SO EXCITED. :D

My spring hols are 13 March to 25 April.

Tour options:
13 mars – Köpenhamn, Tap1 [no -- cutting it too close]
14 mars – Malmö, Malmö Arena
18 mars – Göteborg, Lisebergshallen
19 mars – Göteborg, Lisebergshallen
24 mars – Oslo, Oslo Spektrum
25 mars – Bergen, Grieghallen
27 mars – Bodö, Bodö Spektrum
30 mars – Örebro, Conventum Arena

Oh man I hope I can get tickets for this. The problem is collecting them in Sweden, if overseas shipping is unavailable yet again.

said someone out there at 12:54 AM