I've Been Everywhere, Man, I've Been Everywhere

I've been to so many places.

Gothenburg

Gothenburg has the appeal of a big city while mixing it with an old-world charm. It's an old seafaring citiy on the western coast. Lots of grand statues as well as nice malls and restaurants. Me and the girls and Ben spent the day there walking around and taking pictures with the statues and looking at old buildings.


Kalmar

I spent Valentine's Day in Kalmar with the girls. Located on the far eastern coast of Sweden, Kalmer is a very old town, as small if not smaller than Växjö. Lots of very old buildings, including a castle! Of course the castle was closed when we were there, which was really dissapointing, because we arranged the trip around the assumption that the castle would be open (it's a long story). So we wound up with a couple of hours to kill so we walked until it was just too cold and we held up in a pub until or train came. A pretty good day.

Distraction

Process

Writing a paper on Scandinavian film is a complex process. Here's a step by step guide to help guide you through.

1. Write a paragraph.
2. Make a snack.
3. Go downstairs, watch the girls play Super Nintendo.
4. Come back upstairs.
5. Get a glass of water.
6. Check facebook.
7. Check blog. If bored enough, write a blog.
8. Start over.

As you can imagine, it's slow going....

Circuits of Fever


-5 today, Celsius. Snow falling. Footprints on a frozen lake. Ice fishers sit on icy stools and wait for bites. Children skate the ice behind our building in the mornings: slipping, gliding, not even 3 feet tall.

Spanish dinner tonight. Paella and Spanish omelets. Spaniards love to cook, and we have 4 on the floor. Lucky me.

All The Small Things

So I woke up this morning to one of the best surprises I've ever had. A video posted on my facebook wall proclaimed the impossible : Blink-182 are back together.

This is the band that basically sum up my entire teenage experience. Their lyrics and music always seemed to fit in perfectly with what I was feeling at any given moment. Their radio-friendly (some would say "commercialized", but they would be wrong) brand of pop-punk was the soundtrack to my generation. My connection to their lyrics is hard t express in words, but suffice to say that much of who I am today comes from the steady diet of Mark and Tom's lyrics I digested when I was younger. Love, lust, anger, frustration, angst, and good times with friends, their music had it all. Teenage therapy in audio form. They effectively broke up in 2004, right as I had just started to understand (and obsess over) their music, but drummer Travis Barker's recent brush with death has brought them back together, both as friends and as musicians.

While I love Tom's newest band, the epic Angles and Airwaves, and I hope that they will continue to put out great records, I am utterly elated that Blink-182 are a band again. I will pay however much I have to to see them live, since I never got to do that while they were together.

Essential Songs : Dammit, The Rock Show, Story of a Lonely Guy, Adam's Song, All The Small Things, What Went Wrong