Busted!
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Kiinni jäit!
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I won!!



One day early too. Wow. It feels great! Although I don't think I'll ever show anything of what I wrote this month to anyone, it was a lot of fun, and I think I'm going to laugh hard when I read through it at some point. But most importantly, I feel like I really learned a lot about writing, and I'm eager to start writing something new. But I probably won't until next November. Well, at least I've got almost a year on me to come up with a good plot. :)

Also went to see New Moon on Friday. I liked it much better than Twilight the movie, but still, it came by as pretty ridiculous at some points. I loved how faithful it was to the book, I loved Jacob (also thought his wolf-shape was really cute), and my favorite scene was the one with Bella, Mike and Jacob at the movies. Priceless. :) Edward was still way too stiff, the fight in Volterra was pretty stupid and all in all the end felt rushed. But I liked watching this one, and wasn't constantly in some state of agony over how bad or ridiculous it was, like in Twilight.

Mew was AMAZING! I screamed my lungs out and jumped my legs off. Which has to mean that it was a great gig. :)

Highlights for me were Sometimes life isn't easy, Medley, Cicuitry of the wolf and the encore. Even though it was a magical night as it was, I have to agree with others who have said that an icehall isn't the perfect place for Mew to perform. I'd love to see them in a smaller venue too in the future. But anyway, awesome gig, great crowd, not the best sound quality were I was standing but the backdrops were stunning (and I saw them much better than in Ruisrock). And of course, Mew's music is always magic and gives such a rush.

The last few days I've been experiencing post-Mew-depression. Oh I want to see them live again! And soon!!

Mew at Jäähalli 25.11.2009

1. Intro
2. Circuitry of the wolf
3. Chinaberry tree
4. Special (long)
5. The zookeeper's boy
6. Introducing Palace Players
7. Repeaterbeater
8. Snow Brigade
9. Medley (New terrain - Nervous - She came home for Christmas)
10. Silas the magic car
11. Sometimes life isn't easy
12. Hawaii
13. White Lips Kissed
14. Am I wry? No
15. 156
16. Apocalypso
17. Saviours of jazz ballet
18. Bamse
----
19. Beach
20. Comforting Sounds

By the way, Oh no ono were warming up for Mew, and I liked their set. Especially the new song Swim, the Radiohead cover, and Keeping warm in Cold Country.

Yesterday I watched the best movie of the year. Many years even.



"This is a story of boy meets girl, but you should know upfront, this is not a love story."
(500) Days of Summer is romantic and funny, yet it's not the typical romcom, actually pretty far from it. There's a fresh twist to it. And most of all, it's just so well done.

When I say romantic, I mean cute, not over-the-top, love-conquers-everything or too-sugary. By funny, I mean seriously funny, like laughing-my-ass-off funny. Not typical? They dressed like they were living in the 60's, they listened to Belle and Sebastian and The Smiths and the guy's job was to write greeting card texts. (60's and alternative music would of course already make me love any movie, but this one was actually good otherwise too!) And by well done, I mean, I can just think of the many awesome scenes and go "I want to watch it again!" The Ikea, the dance in the street, the split-screen, the karaoke, the elevator... I could go on.

All in all, wow. I might have a new favorite movie. :)

NaNo is going well, I'm at 19 000 words (yes, exactly 19 000 :D) Had a rough time at one point, but then I killed my protagonist and "gave birth" to a new one. Then, when I still had to beat myself up to write even 200 words, I jumped over some stuff to another point of the story, and then it suddenly started being fun again. So for now, I'm pretty happy. The stuff I'm writing is still crap though, but what can you do. :)

So Kent's new album Röd is out, and the most surprising thing is that I actually like it. Not my favorite by far, but so much better than Tillbaka till samtiden. I don't know how to analyze this, but suddenly I see beauty in Kent again. Wow. Favorite tracks now: Hjärta, Svarta linjer and Det finns inga ord. But Taxmannen, Sjukhus and Vals för satan (din vän pessimisten) aren't bad at all either. And of course I've sort of started liking Töntarna too... As some sort of outcome of this album-liking I also bought a ticket to Kent's gig in Helsinki in March. (Although March still feels awfully far away.)

Only two weeks 'til Mew's gig though! Starting to feel excited about what they're going to play... it seems like you can't predict too much based on other shows of the tour this time. But Cartoons seems out of the question, which is a pity. :(

I just finished Belong to me, a novel by Marisa de los Santos. It's an independent sequel to her first novel, Love walked in, which I have talked about here. It follows the life of the main character Cornelia, but also introduces a whole lot of new characters. Cornelia has moved to the suburbs with her husband and finds herself in a new position where she's surrounded by people who don't like her. However, this of course changes. After all, Cornelia is great (sometimes annoyingly so) and also the new people around her, face challenges of their own and change with them. This is especially apparent in Piper, who is quite a bitch in the beginning, but her friend's cancer makes her almost a totally different person. There's also an extremely bright 13-year-old boy, Dev, whose mother has just moved him to town without telling him why.

I loved this book. In Love walked in, I had a serious problem with Cornelia's first-person narrating. It was downright infuriating sometimes. I remember that book being quite puzzling in how it was so irritating but I still liked it a lot. But Belong to me didn't have the same effect. Cornelia's narrating (which here accounted for only 1/3 of the book, as opposed to 1/2 in Love walked in) was still distinct and recognisable, but I think the most glaring stylistic aspects had fallen off. One thing I found odd, was how grown-up the 13-year-olds were. But I guess they'd just gone through so much already in their lives, unlike me, who still at 13 was quite immature and ignorant of the world. The actual story didn't snare me in immediately, but growed slowly into something really moving and an actual page-turner at the end too. Something struck a deep chord on me. I really loved this book.

On another note, I am writing a NaNoWriMo novel and am at 7 040 words so far! Today wasn't very productive, but other than that, it's going well. :)

Long time no post.

My latest read has been Cormac McCarthy's The Road, which I'm pretty sure I never would've read if my friend hadn't recommended it. Good that I did though, because it was good. I found it a bit too artistic in the beginning, and I'm afraid I wasn't fully capable of understanding the linguistic beauty because there were so many words I didn't know. But still, I liked it. A story about a man and a boy, wandering through a burned landscape, where everything is gone. Hiding away from everything and constantly looking for food and clothes. A modern novel, written in a style that's not traditional, but not too "weird". There's also a movie coming up (starring Viggo Mortensen).

Keane has a new song, Sovereign Light Cafe! I don't even know how old news this is, but I haven't been following the actions of Keane lately (and almost any band besides Mew). But I really like the song! After two listens, I'm almost ready to say that I like it more than anything on Perfect Symmetry. Which probably isn't all true, but anyway, I like the new direction their music is taking!

My last.fm tells me that I've been listening to The Temper Trap lately (because I read in some article that they're supposed to be somewhere in the middle of Mew, Kings of Leon and Glasvegas. Nice music, but a bit boring) and The Antlers (I love their song Sylvia. The rest of the album Hospice is also pretty good.)

I started reading Posession: A Romance by A. S. Byatt. It's about two academics in the 1980's who discover a secret love affair between two victorian age poets (fictional). I've read about 140 pages (out of 700) and I like it, but I also feel that it's such a lengthy, deep, detailed and sprawling book that I don't have the time and energy right now to really get into it as much as it deserves. So I'm afraid I'm leaving for now, but I definitely want to come back to this one. Maybe during Christmas break? This would also be a nice book to have in my own book shelf. Hm, definitely going to the "books I'd like to own" -list.

After Gossip Girl ended I've felt that there's absolutely nothing good on TV. My friend recommended The Mentalist so I might have to check that one out though. But otherwise, it doesn't look good. :(

Fortunately Survivor: Fans vs. Favorites started yesterday! At least that's something. And I've been looking forward to this season ever since I found out about the thing between Ozzy and Amanda. XD I hope that this will be a really good season, at least the setting is interesting. Although I was kind of rooting for the favorites, I was glad to see Johnny Fairplay go first. He was really irritating this time around. (Whereas last time he was a jerk, but still interesting.)

I watched the movie Public Enemies on Friday. I admit: it was partly because of Johnny Depp and partly because my friends really wanted to go look at it. Too much shooting for my taste, but otherwise ok.



Also saw The ugly truth, which was a nice romantic comedy. I laughed pretty much and the end was wonderful. Plus I have a soft spot for these kind of romances where they almost hate each other in the beginning but end up falling in love.



My newest band-acquaintance is The xx, whose debut album xx has just been released. Their music is pretty minimalistic and even a bit cold so I didn't expect to actually like it, but I do. Islands, Shelter and Infinity are simply great songs. Also the minimalistic, cold, eerie, urban atmosphere is kind of... enchanting. :)

Mew's third album (or fifth, depends on how you count) is wonderful. I used to think that it was very different from their previous work, but when someone pointed it out on the Mew forum, I realized that it's just different from Kites, their last album, whereas, it doesn't differ that much from Frengers, or Half the world is watching me. For me, Kites was just the first album of Mew that I heard, and also the one I love most as an album, so I guess I'll always compare everything Mew to that.

But to Stories... It's not a concept album like Kites, the tracks are very different even from each other, and draw clearly distinct landscapes. Cartoons and Macramé wounds for example, always reminds me of a cold winter somewhere in the north, whereas Hawaii takes me to tropical islands. New Terrain is weird and lovely (played backwards, it reveals a hidden track, Nervous), Introducing Palace Players proves to me how Mew does that alternative-indie-rock-gone-funky-thing better than anyone else. Beach is wonderfully cheerful, colorful and warm. It's also the one that most reminds me of pre-Frengers stuff like Mica and Saliva. Repeaterbeater has a hauntng beat that is sure to make my foot stomp. Silas the magic car must be Mew's most personal song ever. It's extremely beautiful in its simplicity. Cartoons and Macrame wounds, in all its complication, is a masterpiece. At least three songs, blended into one everchanging epic piece of music. It makes me cry.

Hawaii is actually one of my favorites. The tropical instruments in the beginning are so odd, yet they work in creating the tropical atmosphere. And then the chorus - I always imagine being a dolphin and plunging into the ocean only to then jump up again, high into the air. Also, Jonas' voice is always lovely, but when he sings things like "and we all make mistakes once in a while" it just makes me feel so warm, like wrapped in flannel. Love.

Vaccine makes me dance. Tricks of the trade on the other hand is the only track that I could almost say that I dislike. I don't really know why, but I hope it's not a hint at what Mew might do in the future. But then we come Sometimes life isn't easy, which had me in ecstasy the first times I heard it. Still incredibly wondeful. Reprise isn't my favorite musically, but the lyrics are lovely.

Lift your head
Don’t forget you are loved

Hang on to me
That’ll be the first words that you learn
Listen child and believe them till you die
Not long for me
For you see, the dreamers have all grown
And I so wanted children of my own

   Curtis Sittenfeld: American wife

"On what might become one of the most significant days in her husband’s presidency, Alice considers the strange and unlikely path that has led her to the White House–and the repercussions of a life lived, as she puts it, 'almost in opposition to itself.'"

It took me quite long to read this one, but that doesn't mean that I didn't like it, because I did. I thought it was a really good book. It was a classic story, very well written and not dull at all (okay maybe just a bit in the beginning). I could (again, just like in Prep) relate to Alice in so many small things, which made her feel very real. Also, it does bring that extra bit of interest, that this book is loosely based on the life of Laura Bush. Before reading American wife, I knew next to nothing about her, and now I must say I'm quite confused as to what's real and what was just the author's imagination, but still, it did make it really interesting. Definitely a book that I would recommend to almost anyone. :)



The Young Victoria was a nice film, at least when I've always liked costume dramas. I'm not good at analyzing movies, so I'll just say that I loved the character of Albert, found the slight lack of a drmatic arc odd, but not necessarily bad, was spell-bound by the dance-scene and oh, did I mention that I loved Albert? :D

I've never been a big fan of music videos, I think they rarely add anything to the song. But there are of course exceptions. So why the talk about music videos? Well, Mew released their first off the new album, Introducing Palace Players.



It's a bit boring, I admit, there's not much going on. But it's also really beautiful, with the setting and the animals. And of course, the flying boxes are quite cute. :) I would've liked to see the band though.

( more videos under the cut )

I know this is already old news, but I wanted to post it because I thought it was a fun piece of news.
From guardian.co.uk

I guess it means that New Zealand is now also 30 cm closer to me... :)

I went to watch Harry Potter and the half-blood prince yesterday, and I have to say I enjoyed it very much! The sixth book is one of my favorites, of course, but still. In comparison I didn't like The Order of the Phoenix -the film all that much, because it felt too short and too different and Sirius' death didn't have nearly enough emotion. Whereas in this one, I thought there was just the right blend of humor, action, romance and emotion. I almost laughed my head off at times, really. Dumbledore's death was given the respect it deserved. Especially when they all lifted their lit wands up, and the Phoenix... Now, I was a little disappointed of course that the Harry/Ginny-stuff was so lame, but I doubt they would have made it very well as actors, so maybe it's better that it almost didn't exist.
All in all, it was a visually very beautiful movie, I laughed a LOT and was touched by the ending, so I was very pleased. :)

On monday, I watched the first episode of Scarlett (the tv-series of the sequel to Gone with the wind), which I hadn't seen before. I've read the book though, or more like the first half and then the end. As you may guess, I didn't like it. It didn't have the Gone with the wind-feeling, but was more like a second-class romance. Still, I thought I'd watch the tv-series, because, you know, I was interested in seeing how it had turned out, and I thought it would be entertaining if nothing else. What I wasn't prepared for, was how wrong the characters looked to me when they were played by different actors than in the original movie. Especially Scarlett, I mean, Joanne Whaley just looked mean and arrogant and, I'm sorry, not beautiful enough. I guess she did a decent job in adopting (Vivien Leigh's) Scarlett's manners and way of speaking though. Timothy Dalton I guess had something Rhett Butlerish about him too, but it didn't help much. They just weren't my Rhett and Scarlett!

I'm trying to fill my life with some other music so that I wouldn't think about Mew all the time. I was inspired by the fact that I absolutely adore the singer in Glasvegas and his scottish accent. So I started listening to The Twilight Sad (and yes I know what that name immediately brings to mind, but I don't associate it with that in any other way :)). Equally adorable accent, a voice that I don't get tired of quite so fast, and really nice music overall.

I'm reading Curtis Sittenfeld's novel American wife right now. I've begun to like it very much after the slightly boring start. Things undeniably started happening, and now it's almost carrying me away. I hope it can keep it up. I had mixed expectations for this one, because I loved Sittenfeld's first novel Prep, but didn't enjoy The man of my dreams nearly as much. Hopefully this is one of her better moments. :) American wife is about Alice, who marries a man who becomes the president of the United States. And though she disagrees with her husband's politics, Alice continues to love him. The character of Alice is loosely based on Laura Bush.

I'm also just some twenty pages away from finishing John Irving's The Hotel New Hampshire. That one was quite gripping during the first half, but then after one shocking event it became much more boring, just introducing new characters. But towards the end, it picked up speed again and I've been reading it almost feverishly for the last 200 pages. The Hotel New Hampshire is a family saga, but certainly no ordinary family saga. There aren't many generations really, not an enormous amount of characters, and the events are actually too weird for a family saga. But it is a story about one family. Actually, I'm starting to see it as Win's, the father's, story, although his son John is the narrator.

( spoilers ahead )

One just has to marvel at Irving's gift of writing a story. The text flows so effortlessly, it's amazing.

Keep passing the open windows.

I started reading Marian Keyes' novel This charming man and I read about 200 pages, but then I had to give up because I felt that absolutely nothing relevant had happened. It's about four women, who all have some connection to Paddy DeCourcy, who is getting married. There's the girlfriend who's not the bride, the journalist, the bride and a fourth person I don't remember because I never got to her part of the book. Seriously, the only funny thing in the book, as far as I got, was when a guy said "you dazzle me". That really cracked me up! (On the bus of course...) But other than that, I didn't find it funny, Lola's narrating was irritating because she never used a subject in her sentences, and there just didn't seem to be anything important happening. So if someone has read this book and knows that something will happen, please tell me, and I can continue on. Otherwise, I'm leaving it unread.

One book that I did finish (and rather quickly too, but that was because I was sick and didn't have anything else to do) was Jo Rees' Platinum (Kostajattaret in Finnish). It's about three women who all have some connection to Juri Hordinski who is a russian billionaire and an evil man. (I seriously only just now got how alike these two books are!) This book wasn't really anything special to me, but it was fast-paced and a nice, quick read.

Mew oli, no, mitäs muuta ku mahtava. Ne soitti just niin hyvin ku odotinkin, ja paremminkin. Biisit toimi. Varsinki ne, jotka muutki yleisössä tunsi. Mä nyt voin hyppiä ja kiljua melkeen jokaseen Mew'n biisiin, mut se tuntuu vähän tyhmältä, jos kukaan ympärillä ei käyttäydy samalla tavalla. Olisin myös halunnu lähemmäs lavaa, koska nyt en nähny suunnillen mitään. Parasta oli ku ne soitti Sometimes life isn't easyn, eli uuden biisin, jota en ollu ikinä ennen kuullu. Se oli niin ihana, ja nyt mä haluaisin ensinnäkin kuulla sen uudestaan ja toiseks saada sen albumin käsiini niinku nyt heti. Puoltoista kuukautta vielä!

Setlist:
1. New Terrain
2. Introducing Palace Players
3. Circuitry of the wolf
4. Chinaberry tree
5. Special
6. The zookeeper's boy
7. White lips kissed
8. Repeaterbeater
9. Sometimes life isn't easy
10. Am I wry? No.
11. 156
12. Snow Brigade
...
13. Apocalypso
14. Saviours of jazz ballet
15. Small ambulance
16. Comforting sounds

Haluan nähdä Mew'n uudestaan, ja seuraavalla kerralla aion oikeasti nähä jotain!

Niin, näin mä muutaman muunki bändin siellä Ruississa. Egotrippi oli kiva, Ladytronin kaikki biisit kuulosti ihan samalta, mutta ku sato nii piti värjötellä siellä teltassa, Glasvegas yllätti positiivisesti, oon nyt aivan ihastunu Daddy's gone-biisiin ja The Soundsilla oli hyvä show.
Live-musiikissa on jotain erityistä. Uudestaan! :)

Luin juuri Sara Gruenin kirjan Vettä elefanteille ja tykkäsin siitä niin paljon!

Vettä elefanteille kertoo Jacob Jankowskista, joka nuorena perhetragedian jälkimainigeissa päätyy kiertävän sirkuksen mukaan. Siellä hän tutustuu useisiin sirkuksen työntekijöihin ja artisteihin ja pääsee vähitellen perille sirkuksen hierarkiasta ja tavoista, kohdatessaan niin aitoa ystävyyttä kuin karmeaa julmuuttakin. Joukossa on tietysti myös tähtiesiintyjä Marlena, johon Jacob rakastuu. Päätarinan lomassa kerrotaan Jacobista myös 90-vuotiaana hoitokodissa, jonka viereen saapuu sirkus. 

Oli ihanaa lukea taas kivaa tarinaa, kevyttä, nopealukuista, perinteistä, hauskaa, romanttista ja riipaisevaa. Pakko verrata vähän siihen Gavaldan uusimpaan. Jos siinäkin oli vanhempi mies muistelemassa nuoruuttaan, niin siinä keskityttiin vanhuuteen, ja vanha Charles oli aina "läsnä". Teksti oli muutenkin vähän sellaista ajatuksenvirtaa. Tässä Gruenin kirjassa sen sijaan keskityttiin Jacobin nuoruuteen, eikä kerronta ollut sinänsä muistelua, vaan ihan tavallista kerrontaa. Perinteistä, ilman erikoista kikkailua. Sitä paitsi Jacob oli hurmaava vanhus, ja ihana nuorukainen. Ja kaikenlaiset sirkus- ja teatterimiljööt ovat aina kiehtoneet minua tavattomasti. :)

( spoilereita )

Nyt luen myös John Irvingin kirjaa The Hotel New Hampshire (Kaikki isäni hotellit). Se on myös yllättävän viihdyttävä. Tarina yhdestä perheestä, ja tähän mennessä (olen vielä aika alussa) enimmäkseen niistä lapsista. Täytyy myöntää että Irvingillä on tarinankerronnan lahja.

( ehkä spoilaavaa )

Jei, olen taas aivan innoissani kirjoista!