Blood & Sorrow

Four different episodes and three different artists. The style of the various ones are quite different. And it effects the way I percieve the comic quite a lot. The different painting styles are as follows.

The one that appeals my senses most is the one out of
Wolverine #49 - Better to give ... it has a crisp and colorful art that is more to my liking. Here you're actually worried that he'll rip himself out of the book and go after you

I'm coming for ya!

The one on 2nd place will have to be the ones by C.P. Smith.
The two comics are quite different and I got to like the first one out of X-men Unlimited 12 - The Healing best. The story is quite simple. Retold further down.

Wolverine goes soft

First page of Smith's second comic in the book

The least liked one is the one with art from Aja/Villarubia from
Giant-Size Wolverine #1 - The House of Blood and Sorrow.
Dear old Logan is drawn as a bum and there is too much drawn in each square. It gets crowded to see a monsters zillion tentacles squeezed in to a small spot.
The story in this and The Package are not quite as interesting as the other two either. In The House of ... Logan wakes up at a farm in the middle of nowhere after dealing with a monster robot and finds out there are more monsters about and a little lost girl needin' savin'. The story in The Package was, well Logan is in the African republic Zwartheid and has to carry a baby to a safer place.

Hillbilly Vs Hillbillies

In Better to give Logan finds himself reluctantly among other Christmas shoppers as a hostage situation sets off - and of course there is a large amount of small green elfs with UZI's. What's not to like!

The story in The Healing is just that, Wolverine wakes up blown/shredded/stabbed to pieces or whatever and goes through the whole process of healing and his techniques to ignore the pain. Only to realize that his first and foremost weapon in that struggle - Jean Grey - and his love for her is the very reason he got off to that isolated region in the first place.
The end-scene is a one that sticks with you. Not something very special art-wise but the contrast between Logan and the lone mountain is quite poetic. Less is sometimes more.

But I'll be okay. As long as I remember the first rule:
You don't have to live through this 'til it's over.
You just have to live 'til the next moment
And when that comes ...

-You'll live with it, too.

---

All in all a very readably album. I rank Wolverine as my favourite X-man. His lonewolf lifestyle and drawn back image is an interesting one. The stories are quite straightforward and my previous lack of reading Marvel don't leave me with grey spots. I find the love/angst-theme of the Healing to be on a lot deeper level than I had expected to find and that is always a bonus.

What happens in Chicago ...

... doesn't have to stay there. So here's the story continued. More pics. Some more words. Same love!

The last few days held more of the same. And as promised an NHL-game, some live Blues and a whole lotta dollar$ were spent.

The NHL-game was an awesome experience, some 21 000 fans had missed they're Hawks since they had been out on the road a week or so, so this was the 2nd largest crowd for the season. And with help from their two Scandinavian fans the home team showed the Avalanches who were the bosses in United Center.

The blues was sung by, doh, a huge colored woman with a strong voice and an awesome saxophone-player to back her up. And as expected, she had some issues on men and the world in general and shared some of it in between songs. The place was Blue Chicago:


The museum's and art exhibitions were limited to just a few. But the one that inspired most was the one over Contemporary Photo. Some great works over American culture and identity. Hard to describe it any better without having access to the pictures. Monday was supposed to hold some more galleries and such but seeing how that is the big Everything-arty-closes-down-day we had to settle for shopping and a lunch @ the Hardrock Café. Not to shabby choice either. Learing that the first one in the chain was opened in London 1971 and that their first memorabilia stored is a guitar from Eric Clapton.

The shopping was a bit more than I had planned and a lot less than I wanted. Or "The long list of selfdeceit":

Olympus E-510 & 14-42mm lens - 2000 NOK "saved"
Sansa View 8gb mp3-player 400 NOK "saved"
Etnies shoes - 1000 NOK "saved"
Burton beanie - 100 NOK "saved"
Lots of great book ans magz - 500 NOK "saved"
T-shirts - same price, but wider selection
Travel adapter to go with the charger for the E-510

So all in all I almost earned money by going there ;)

The budget all in all will be revealed once the American Express company decides to bill me, but shouldn't be all to high above 12K NOK.
Flight & Hotell 2K, Camera 4K, Eating 2K, Shopping 2K, *Surprises* 2K

---

Random pictures from the trip

This alley gave me comic-book Déjà Vu. I could picture a young Bruce Wayne seeing his parents robbed and killed by the joker here:


Everything's big in America:

Sure this blog is named contradiktory, but I find my contradiction fade next to this one - Christian + Science:


Speaking about Christianity, Chicago had some more of that.
A registration plate:


And well ... on quite the same topic. I just sense that the surveilance camera shows a little lack of faith from the Betlehem Healing Temple-crew:


When the, by coincidence cute, presenter talks about the SAAB Aero X's Scandinavian heritage and the Swedish design it brings a tear to my eye:


The home arena of the Chicago Bears -
Bears the slightly patriotic name Soldier Field:

Because first impressions last ...

... and memory sometimes fails. I'll be posting a quick temporary write-up just to get the "notes" together in one spot. And since there's the possibility, I might as well share some pictures.

Well the trip over was a breeze. No hazzle anywhere. Sure a 2h-delay out of Kastrup but that wasn't really a problem. Getting in to the states wasn't any problem either. Immigration and Custom was quite pleasant and smooth. Had feared it would involve a full body search and a ten-minute interview with a ten-headed jury. Read Knut Hamsun's Pan on the flight over and got around to see
Simpsons the Movie. The book was a great read and the movie was a great see. The book is given more justice in a review of it's own.


Chicago, US and the Americanos. Well it is all I ever imagined it would be. No more and definately not less ...

Looking north from Sears Tower's 103rd floor, some 1700' up.
Our hotel should be somewhere mid-right in it.

Things done -Everythings huuuge in America

Shedd Aquarium - world's largest
Sear's Towers - world's largest building (counting antennas)
Chicago Auto Show - North Americas largest
Museum of Contemporary Photography

Things to do

Chicago Blackhawks - Colorado Avalanches
Seeing Live Jazz / Piano Bar
Lots of Art exhibitions to cover
Lots of Dollar$ still unspent

And I have to drop a little teaser for 25% of my readers to drewl over:

The Sandman one is seven chapters by seven different artists.
Story by Gaiman.

The Wolverine one is four stand-alone stories with my favourite X-man.
Just taste the description of one of the episodes:

A heavily armored suicide cult - clad in elf outfits - has taken hostage a mid-Manhattan department store on Christmas Eve and is threatening to blow the place sky-high. Among the shoppers Logan is itching to sink his (Santa) claws into someone after enduring the Yuletide rush

Chicago over and out

Out Of Office

Time for a trip Over there - have heard great things about Chicago

Hell has been described as a pocket edition of Chicago

Ashley Montagu

No realistic, sane person goes around Chicago without protection.

Saul Bellow

---

Bokningsnummer : XXX-YYYY
Evenemang : Hultsfred 08 1-dags 12/6
Arena : Hembygdsparken
Datum och tid : Torsdag 12 juni 2008, kl 10.00
Antal biljetter : 2

There's Always Time

[: Public Announcement : This is a Personal Statement :]

Posting this ...

while there's still time
while I still remember what I wanted to say
while I am still on this side of the Atlantic

A very up & down day today.
Some great news came to my attention
Some sad news came to my attention

A Softer World #263

The good news - Rage are to play at this years Hultsfredsfestival! This is indeed astonishing news, saves me the trip to Germany and the probabilities approach 1 as time goes to June. The only little catch is the clever crew @ Rockparty won't say what day they play so I can't book a 1-day ticket.

The sad news - Oslo and Frontline suffers a great loss with Söderhamn's finest moving back home. I don't like it at all. But I do understand him, he said it all too clear in:

I can't stay in a place where I only feel good 3h a day 6 days a week.

What I do "like" is that I at least have learned from earlier separations that I should be straight and honest in telling him that he will be missed.

Related to that topic and to show the world why we love beeing at that place those 3h I have uploaded 12 of last Saturday's 13 fights.
(The 13th one was a plain mismatch and ended up with a KO)

Youtube

---

Well what's more to say?
Do I even have anything to say?
Do I ever?
Why do the clock approach 2 PM tonight as well?
Why do the things you do do that to me?

If I only could, be running up that hill
If I only could, be running up that hill

Placebo - Running Up That Hill

But I can't run up that hill for you - I run down my hill
I am picking up speed - I've got momentum and I won't stop now!
But I am here for you - I can't carry your burdens but I can share them

Why do I talk in riddles when there's no answer behind them
Why do we do what we do when we do what we do to you know who

Why do I write as beeing payed per word

...when the only payment I get is to have it off my chest

Why don't this make sense even to me

... as little sense as posting random frames with random text

A Softer World #229

Talk To Me

Jag tror en dylik post gör sig bäst på modersmål. Det känns rakare och naknare att skriva det på svenska och norskan är inte på långa vägar där. Could of course have written it in English since that is a language I, at least hope, can express myself fully in. But I keep it Swedish this time.


Var är Det Goda Samtalet - har vi stressat bort det till förmån för korta mail och komprimerade SMS?
-Absolut inte, men det har tappat en del av sin naturliga roll. Jag vet inte om jag skönmålar eller bara har selektivt minne men jag vill minnas att jag under mina tonår hade många givande samtal. Scenen var annorlunda riggad och vi spelade en annan pjäs - men vi var ju samma aktörer. Visst måste det finnas ett behov även idag att prata om liv och död, att säga saker man tänkt på och diskutera ting som har mening?

Vad är ett bra samtal då? -Ja ett som får ta tid är en bra start. För mig behöver det inte vara varken politik eller religion - liv eller död. Ge mig en timme eller fem - blanda och ge från ditt livs kortlek. Ta upp den där incidenten från lågstadiet, berätta om första gången du blev kysst. Låt mig berätta om en liten blyg kille på ett dansgolv. Låt oss diskutera framtid och forntid. Låt dig avbrytas för en kommentar och gör det samma och kom med ett tillägg.

Vad ska vi göra åt det?
-Möt mig i ett soffhörn, ta med ett öppet sinne och låt oss konversera. Stick inom på en lunch, diskutera en aktuell fråga och reflektera över vad som sägs och skrivs om det.

I Hope I am ...

(This beeing the third post today says quite a lot about the quality of the content to come. This is just a rant and ramblings. A salute to Fireside. A fool's last rites before the new week sets in. And a cheap way to keep the postcount on an expected level.)

Once more it is time for some references to popular culture, and in my world that usually means posting lyrics that makes sense or has similarities with a recent event.

This weekend - and an SMS marathon - brought me back to the late 90's /first millenial years and my favourite Swedish rock band Fireside.
All this because I've been called a fool.

Fåne, så sant som det var sagt, men en bra sådan iaf!
Det hänger inte överdrivet många av den sorten i träden

Received @ 01:19

You say that I'm a fool
Well maybe I am, but
I am the greatest fool of all

Fireside - Jupiter, 1999

That is somewhat of a themesong of mine. Sure I do things my way, but what I do want to do good. And if it's about beeing a fool - then I sure want to be the greatest one of all.

It also moved me back some ten years to the premarital years and a warmth that has been continually emitted from that very same heat source. I know what she shows is real. But I am quite uncertain on her motives and well about mine as well. Are we just two lost souls swimming in a Pink Floydian Fish Bowl?

Om tiotusen år
inunder träden går
en flicka rank och blond
med blommor i sitt hår,
och det är ännu vår.

Det är en morgonstund
här i min ungdoms lund,
allting är svalt av dagg,
var stig, vart träd och snår,
allt det som ej förgår.

Ljus rörer björkens gren
vid hennes panna ren,
och det är ännu hon
som jag en gång haft kär,
allt det som varit är.

Pär Lagerkvist from the collection Den Lyckliges Väg (1921)

Well this post has gone slightly out of control and bordering on ego-boosting so I might as well keep it foolish and uncensored.

This weekend I attended a great House-warming-party @ Madelene's place in Gbg. Great fun, great people and a good crowd ... and then there were brokers. It was a classic show of Us and them-mentality and well the party was split in half. Brokers on one side interacting on their own turf and us regular people on the other side. It is quite tragic to see, but pointless and hard to prevent. They are surely humans as well but not on an as relaxed way as us lethals.

This was my sixht sober weekend and it went all fine.
Not really sure what would've been better if I had been drinking.

And I am coming up to almost the same time logged out of WoW. The weird thing is that that one is harder letting go. Not that I miss the playing, but I know now how terrifyingly much time and energy I've spent there. And in what other social groups does a statement like this make sense:

I boosted Hofor's Lucia in Dire Maul -
and all I got was this lousy signature

MSN Signature - Late 2007

Which actually makes complete sense here. Cause I really did just that.

I guess you recognize the theme. The original one is of course the:
"My **** went to London and all I got was this lousy T-shirt"
as a kick in the nuts to all random souvenirs you bring home.
There are some nice spin-offs to this on the net of course. Like:

Well that being said about my time off from WoW and being drunk, I guess I have had to replace these habits with other ones - to keep the sum of all addictions constant. There are some openings in my 1p-gaming, my habit of replacing drinks with snus @ parties, the newfound Sudokos and of course all the books I could imagine and even the unimaginable ones should keep me busy for a while.

Bitches & Hoes

Had some time to kill today - both on the bus home and in Gothenburg. So I spent a good two hours stacking up on new books @ Pocket & Bok above Lagerhaus. The list came down to the following 4 titles
(Buy 4 - Pay for 3) :

(listed in planned reading order)

1. Ronnie Sandahl - Vi som aldrig sa hora
   ("For us who never called them bitches")
   
2. Knut Hamsun - Pan
3. Chuck Palahniuk - Fight Club
4. Christopher Hitchens - God is not great

Read through the first one one the bus back and it was a wonderful read. (Review further down).

The second one is a work by Norwegian writer Hamsun and supposebly a classic and a must read about the individualist Thomas Glahn and his affairs in northern Norway. (Translated to Swedish).

Third title doesn't need any further presentation, and the language was chosen to be that of the author to not miss a single syllable.

Fourth one is a chance and might be left unread for a while. Topic is to promote the writers anti-religion case and his quest to fight organized religion.

---

Well Sandahl's debut novel is a masterpiece. I love it from index page to back cover, I take notes and fold pages to remember some extracts. The major one is of course the one giving it its title:

Nu satt han med ryggen mot sängkanten och önskade att också han kunde bete sig iskallt och oberört. Hårdare på ytan, svårare att tränga igenom. Vassare i kanterna. Godhet lönar sig inte.
Om detta visste femtonåringen ingenting.
Han fick lära sig.
Han som trodde att kärlek blott var ett resultat av två personer som tycker om varandra. Han som trodde att tjejer ville ha killar som bryr sig.
Han tvingades inse att tjejer vill ha killer som ...
Färdigpaketerade. Mördarkön och hustrumisshandlargener. ...
Så mycket som femtonåringen ännu inte visste, så mycket kvar att tvingas inse:
Vi som höll deras hår när de kräktes.
Vi som aldrig sa hora
Vi är också de som aldrig blir deras.
...
So much the boy was yet to know , so much more to have to face
We who held their hair when they threw up
We who never called bitches
We are also those who will never be theirs

To me, it's my Fucking Åmål. It is American Beauty revisited. It is every visit at a club. Every No I didn't get because I didn't even ask. It is my story told. My case has a defender.

-Jag är inte hård.
-Spela hård.
Och om jag inte vill spela?
-Då har du gjort ditt val.

It just stuns me with its straightforward descriptions. Like reading up to a sentence like this with pencil in hand:

Han satt uppkrupen i ett trång säte med Per Hagmans senaste i knät. Med en blyertspenna strök han under alla ord av betydelse.
He sat there crawled up in a tight seat with P.H.'s latest in his lap. Underlining every word of importance.

-Busted ;)

And here's another boot to the face:

Hannes drar sig längre in i lokalen. Måste tänka. ... Tänker på de små fåniga dikterna han skrev i sin anonyma, obesökta blogg. De handlade om stora vackra drömmar. Sällan eller aldrig om att stå ensam på Utestället när klockan slagit två och lamporna tänds;
Hannes goes further in to the room. Needed to think ... Thinking of the small silly poems he wrote in his anonymous, unvisited blogg. They were about grand beautiful dreams. Seldom or never about standing alone at The Club when the clock has struck two and the lights go on;

The gray heavy hometown is described in very Kent-ish manners and with great credibility. Especially since you have walked the same streets yourself, the only thing different is the names of the streets:

Falköping doftar ingenting, gatorna hinner inte.
Regnet sköljer bort varje ansats.
F. doesn't have a scent, the streets don't have time
The rain washes away every try

The romance and love is also described and written about in very fine and rich language. Not much more to say there, trembling neck kissing and skin on skin is what it is ;)

And what I like about it is the depth, there isn't a very large difference between the characters. It's neither black nor white. The ones not calling them bitches aren't all innocent and saintly either. There are some secrets beneath the surface on every one of the characters.

What surprises me and puts me in a little shame is that the very same Mr Sandahl is a columnist @ Aftonbladet. The paper I have come to despise and the boycott is now up in some 4-5 years. But well, the columns where one of few things I found readable in there ... and Puls of course before they changed it into the gossipy Klick!.
But that is a c o m p l e t e l y different subject.

On the Road Again

On the road again
Just can't wait to get on the road again
...
Goin' places that I've never been
Seein' things that I may never see again,
And I can't wait to get on the road again.

Willie Nelson - On the Road Again

Out travelling again, this time a full week in Växjö working, stopping by in Gothenburg for the weekend on the way back to Oslo. Just to refuel long enough before getting on the plane on Valentine's Day to see Chicago for a good full five days!

Växjö by Night - The old Pentax S4i doing a decent job

But what's the fun in it, what's the downsides, what's worth it, what's hell

+
Hotel lifestyle isn't something I take very much harm in living, I try to spend max a waken hour or two in my room. Växjö offered the possibility to keep me fit and keep training Muay Thai and also have a brief contact with a new, for me, martial art - Savate or French Boxing.
Hotel breakfast is a theme of it's own, but well - I love it :)
A typical one would be:

a bowl of ceraels with yoghurt, dried fruit, flax seeds
a cup of tea and a glass of juice
a couple of loaves of bread with ham / cheese / Brie
two boiled eggs and caviar

A breakfast for champions ;)

-
The downside would be to eat alone. But that's not very much different from my solo lifestyle in Oslo, though it is a lot more obvious when doing it in a restaurant. Doesn't trouble me awfully much but would hate if it occurred all too often.


This plus and minusing will lead to a small comparison between our two offices as well - and it is inevetable that it turns in to a Sweden Vs. Norway battle in a way as well.

Sweden - Norway
Fruit basket every day - Fruit basket twice a week

Needless to comment, fruit five times a week is better than two.

The Swedish fika - No fika

Being almost carried away to the regular 9'o'clock'coffee and the 14.30 one is a rare sight in Oslo. The love for fikabröd is also quite swedish. I managed to time two birthdays and the fettisdag so that might have something to do with the high frequence of fikas here.

Industry - Office

Not many blue-collar workers seen in Oslo, and the scent of welded steel and the greenpainted corridoors doesn't loom over us there.

Lunch - Nistepakke

Not sure whether the Swedes win this one, getting a serving of classic swedish cooking @ 68 SEK or having the sallad buffet and a loaf of bread @ 25 NOK. I'd say Norway is on the winning side there. The swedes also have this love for eating quite heavy, proved today by ordering pizza/kebab for lunch. I am quite sure this will affect my afternoon's work.

Swedes - Norwegians

With risk of losing my readers from one nationality or the other I won't make a stand. It is a difference surely but not sure whether the Swedishness or the Norwegianhood wins in the end.

To sum it up - the offices are quite different and I am happy I work at the one I do, but I surely don't mind getting away on a trip or ten to the Swedish office as well. But I fear all the eating would damage my Beach08-plans if I stay too long.
I am not even sure that the short distance (~200 m) from the Muay Thai-club would help.

Single Player

After fighting my way through five-mans in countless PUG's with random kids, waited for 25-40 man raids to start because of slackers needing to do this-and-that, I am finally alone!. Just me and the monsters.
This time the choice fell to indulge in a single player RPG-action game known as the Witcher, a title that has gone me by completely but was awarded best RPG of the year by several sources.
The story is quite a lot more "mature" than what I am used to, dealing with issues as racism and containing some "adult" content.
(You will for instance receive a card for each woman you "seduce")

In-game photage / cut-scene from the Witcher

Since I haven't really been playing any single player games since WoW, at least not any RPG's, the graphics have evolved quite a lot compared to my latest 1p-experience in games like Neverwinter Nights and such ... and it doesn't feel long ago since they were "fake 3d" in games like Baldur's Gate and those good ol' friends.

Well the story here in short is that I am taking the role of Geralt - a Witcher returning home after a battle with amnesia only to find my base being attacked by an evil mage and the hunt is up. Character generation = 0, and fine by me. There is of course a levelling system that will allow quite a lot of customization. Chosing whether to improve in swords or herbalism can be quite an important decision. And lots of the story is driven forward by your character having to learn things in books - he isn't all knowing and will have to read up on wolfes in order to skin them and be able to use reagents from them in the important alchemy-part of the game.

All in all - a great story driven forward by the classic grinding and slashing you'd expect. It is at times a bit too linear despite promises of the opposite. I guess I am a bit spoiled by the freedom of WoW were you are able to practically go everywhere and do anything.
I have just gotten in to chapter two out of five/six and events and actions in the early chapters will have consequences later on in the game so I guess and hope that there is some re-playability as well.

What I appreciate is the choice I have - sure I can go ahead and play it for some three-four hours straight but I can stop/pause whenever I want. Both because it is a single-player and because it isn't t h a t good ;)

And if all else fails, there is still NWN2 to get in to and the recently released addon Mask of the Betrayer.

It Is!

The results of the little project was as follows:

Tuesday, January 29th 21:45

First coin has disappeared, that particular one was nailed to the board with a headless pin and took less effort to grab.

Friday, February 1st 15:45

The whole board was cleared - if it was done by our janitor when cleaning up or if it was done as a cover-up from a great minded thief we will never know.