/var/log/orava

Nice weekend. Leonard Cohen was fantastic, managing to be even better than expected. Somehow he made the huge Hartwall Arena seem intimate, which is quite a feat. The backing band was also superb. Janka writes some more on the subject.

Sunday was mostly spent at the salle, we did six hours of Bolognese sidesword. Fun, and a weird mix of easy and quite difficult; some moves felt quite natural, while some were a total bitch to get even remotely right. Normal thing when learning a new weapon, or course. The seminar was also Ilkka’s Assistant Instructor exam, so we did some things (as told to by Guy) to make his life more difficult. He did splendidly and gave us an excellent day of learning the fundamentals of a new(ish) weapon… and easily passed the exam too. Over the years Ilkka has become a good martial arts teacher, it’s been interesting watching him develop both as a swordsman and as a teacher. I do like the sidesword, it’s a fun weapon which combines techniques from various other sword styles I’m familiar with; I’d like to learn more.

Only negative for the day was the fact that my back was killing me, I had picked up a nasty pain in my lower back from somewhere and had to eat some tabs to keep it in check. Those mostly helped, though some parts of the day were painful, literally. Good thing is that the pain is a lot less now, on Monday. Exercise helps (except when it doesn’t, of course).

On Wednesday we went to see Tuulta Päin, a play by Gérald Sibleyras (originally titled “Le Vent des peupliers”… “The Wind in the Poplar Trees”?). It was a comedy of sorts, set in the 1960s at a home for aging war veterans. There were only three actors, playing the parts of aforesaid veterans. The plot consisted of them sitting on chairs in the back yard of the home, planning their escape to Indochina, talking about girls and women, and trying to look after each other despite lots of needling. Oh, and there’s a stone dog. He’s important.

It was funnier that I had expected, though I’m not sure if “comedy” is the right word for it… “humorous drama” might be more precise. In any case, it was well-written, well-acted and very much worth seeing. Haven’t been to the theater in a long while.

Tonight we’re off to see Leonard Cohen at the Hartwall Arena. I’m not an absolutely rabid fan, but do like many of his songs (the best of which are quite brilliant)… and Janka like his music a lot, so I grabbed tickets the moment they became available. We’ll see. Haven’t seen him live before, but by all accounts he is still in great touring shape and tends to play long gigs (2.5 - 3 hours). Not bad for a 75yr(?) old.

In the neverending quest to make everyone’s day a bit more surreal, today we present morecowbell.dj.

It adds more cowbell and Christoper Walken quotes to any mp3, thereby vastly improving any song. Genius, I tell you!

I recently got myself an emusic account and I have to say I’m pretty impressed. I remember hearing about the service quite a while ago, but didn’t try it out earlier (for some reason or the other, don’t remember). Now the topic came up in an IRC conversation and I thought I might give it a go.

Basically, you pay a monthly fee and that allows you to download a set number of songs per month. Full high-quality MP3s (with intact and full tags) and no DRM crap of any sort. The montly plans start from 6 euros per month, which gives you 10 tracks (0.60e per track), up to a 300 songs per month one. I have the one which gives me the cheapest price per track: 21 euros, 75 songs, 0.28e per track. That’s very cheap compared to other downloadable music services, and there is no DRM crap here.

What’s the catch? Well, the artist selection is limited, you won’t find most of the big mainstream artists here (though some are available). Also, the monthly schedule might not be to everyone’s taste. Me, I’m happy with the thing; it gives me an excuse to get 75 new songs per month and emusic carries a lot of artists I like a lot. You can download the songs via the web if you want, but that’s kind of cumbersome… the default method is a standalone download program which allows batch download and other convenience factors; versions exist for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux. I’ve been using the Linux downloader and it seems to work fine.

When you sign up you get 50 free songs, and you can cancel the thing without paying anything if you don’t like the service. In other words, even if the service doesn’t interest you as such take it as a chance to grab some totally legal high-quality songs from some great bands. To get you started here are some of my current playlist favorites available from emusic:

• Challengers from The New Pornographers. Their latest and most melodic album, check out tracks Your Rights Versus Mine and Adventures in Solitude
• Twin Cinema from The New Pornographers. Now quite as strong as Challengers, but the song Bleeding Heart Show is fantastic
• Fox Confessor Brings the Flood from Neko Case. Alt-country with Neko Case’s fantastic voice, with story inspirations from Russian folklore, what’s not to like?
• Boxer from The National. The album has really grown on me. From the hypnotic Fake Empire to the affectionate Slow Show, this album is pure gold. Very low-key, though, and needs repeated listens.
• Exile in Guyville from Liz Phair. Even though Liz’s later albums haven’t left as much an impact, this (her debut) remains an indie classic. Check out Help Me Mary.

Even though I’m still a bit pissed off about Björk’s cancelled gig, stumbling on the Black Cab Sessions did brighten up the day a bit. Cool idea, some guys in London decided they’d try to pursuade visiting bands they liked to sing a song in the back of a cab. Nobody gets any money (except the cab driver), and everyone does it for fun (or because it’s weird, or for publicity, or whatever).

They have actually managed to snare in some bands I like a lot. The National (see below) is brillant and moody, and The New Pornographers, Death Cab For Cutie and My Morning Jacket are all great.

Not to mention poetry in motion, in the form of Benjamin Zephaniah. Whoah.

As an aside, The Bleeding Heart Show has been running through my head all week. Love that song. I’ll have to get the album, and some of Neko Case’s solo stuff too.

We have arrived
too late to play
the bleeding heart show

Goddamnit, just heard that Björk has had to cancel her Helsinki gig due to voice problems. I was a bit afraid of this, she had cancelled some of her previous shows on this tour due to the same reason, but I was hoping she’d get better for Thursday’s show. No luck.

…and of course, Blondie (which was my second choice for concert for Thursday) is now sold out.

Gah.

People say that your dreams
are the only things that save ya.
Come on baby in our dreams,
we can live on misbehavior.

The weekend is starting up, the sun is shining, and this song – from what’s is still one of the best albums I’ve heard during the last 5 or so years – manages to reflect my mental state perfectly. It’s a very good state, in case you’re wondering. The song itself is open to interpretation, like so many great songs are.

It’s “Rebellion (Lies)” from Arcade Fire’s “Funeral” album, in case you don’t know.

Also worth checking out are these fantastic live performances of Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels), Neighborhood #3 (Power Out), No Cars Go and Wake Up.

God, I want to see these guys live, someday.

More and more, companies and individuals are exploring alternatives to the traditional ways of publishing and releasing stuff. Two new examples saw the light of day just now.

First off, we have Trent Reznor (Nine Inch Nails) releasing a whole new album, just scant months after the last double-disk instrumental set. This time around, the whole thing is absolutely free, you can download “The Slip” in various digital forms, without needing to pay Trent one dime (or having to deal with DRM or other nonsense). Trent says that he intends to also release the album in more traditional CD form later, but for now the digital download is a “free gift to the fans”. Apparently his previous “decide how much you want to pay” foray with the Ghosts set was a success – or else he just wants to thumb his nose at the big record labels. Or maybe both. Me, I’m not complaining, I’ve really liked the new NIN stuff – lots of energy and actual melody, instead of just industrial drones.

The second has to do with roleplaying books, where the guys at Pagan Publishing / Arcdream decided that they would like to publish a new Delta Green book (which is at least partly complete already), but all their cash is tied down in other book projects. The Ransom Model to the rescue! So, we now have a new Delta Green: Targets of Opportunity book ransom running; you pledge $50, and if they manage to raise the full $20,000 there will be a print run and you’ll get a copy of the book. If not, you don’t get charged anything and they’ll possibly publish it later via more traditional means, but there’s no guarantee or timeframe on that. So in effect, it’s a binding pre-order for a book, which also gauges how much interest there is for the thing. Very cool, and Greg Stolze has been doing it for a while now with his Reign supplements. Because it’s a printed, hardcover book, international customers will need to Paypal an extra $25 to cover shipping if the book goes to print.

Personally… well, a new hardcover book filled with more Delta Green goodness? Of course I’m in. Besides liking the ransom model in general, Delta Green rocks and the writers on this one are once again first-class. Here’s hoping they get enough pledges so we’ll get the book sooner instead of (much) later. It’ll cost me $75 with international shipping, but with the current $-vs-euro rate that’s about 50e which is quite a normal price for a big hardcover book.

So… if you like NIN, hop on over to their site and download the new album as a gift. If you like Delta Green, pledge your $50 and support the excellent cause of “pay great writers to create tons of cool new modern Cthulhu stuff”. Can’t really go wrong with either choice.

We just came back from the first concert of Värttinä’s 25th anniversary Finnish tour, at a concert hall in Matinkylä. It was excellent; I’ve seen them live a few times before but this was the best so far. Great use of visual imagery and choreography to add to the music, without either becoming a distraction. It was also a lot of fun, with high energy. If I have a complaint, it’s that it would have been even better at a rock club – having to sit down all the time was a bit of a downer, they played a lot of fast numbers.

As always, they combined Finnish folk music (with Russian and Hungarian tweaks) to great effect. To anyone who thinks folk music is boring: go see these guys.

In general it’s been pretty quiet over here. Lots of small things happening, but nothing too report-worthy. Tempest the cat got some sort of urinary infection and I’ve been feeding him antibiotics for some days now; I’m not sure he understands why he’s suddenly getting private meals, but he doesn’t seem to mind. He’s also getting over the infection, it seems, though I’ll have go have him checked again after a few weeks. As always, Felina was expensive but well worth the cost.

You thought The Doors and Blondie have nothing in common? Think again and check out this mashup. Awesome!