May 2012
3 posts
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I Am Lucy Grey: "How to Kill a Transperson" by... →
On Saturday, Sanesha Stewart, a transwoman of color living in the Bronx, was murdered in her own apartment. She was 25 years old. Her accused killer, Steve McMillan, had known her for months, yet when he was arrested, he claimed to have been enraged to find out that she was what the media…
This very nearly made me cry…
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Birthday Blog or Something
I’ve been meaning to blog several times in the past couple of weeks. I just haven’t had it in me. It’s one of those things, you know, where you sometimes can’t seem to DO anything.
I had a lovely, small and intimate release party for my new single on the 30th of April. Everyone who showed up was absolutely amazing and we had a wonderful time. I even held a little mini-gig,...
April 2012
8 posts
WatchNew single, out today, available exclusively through Bandcamp. Listen! Buy! Share!
What’s cool about Bandcamp is that whatever you choose to pay goes straight to me! Bandcamp only takes a small 10% as a distribution fee, and there’s no label taking any of my moneys. So, you’ll be supporting the artist directly!
And, did you know you can even order a CD? Editions out of 100,...
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It is Here!
Amazingly, incredibly, it is here, at last! After all the secrets, the anticipation and the general suspence, my single is being released RIGHT NOW! Available exclusively through Bandcamp, you can now experience the happy ukulele feeling, the strangeness and the proper fucked-upedness of “My Friends Are More Fucked Up than Me”!
<a...
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Happy Birthday, Dad.
My father was a very talented musician and a remarkable person. He has inspired me in so many ways, and has been an important factor in my decision to become a musician myself. He would have been fixty-four today.
My dad and I performing together at Särö in November of ‘97:
Last year, when I was at university, I had a module called Untold Stories. It was a popular music history module....
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Mysterious Surprise Single Release
Plans are afoot! Evil ones! Or perhaps not so evil, but certainly strange and intriguing. I plan to release a single! Two songs have been recorded quite secretly in my living room. Which songs, you will find out on the 30th of April, which is the release date I’ve set. I’ve made a Facebook event that you can go join in case you’d like to be reminded, though it’s possible...
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Japan Extravaganza: Appendix
Japan is a weird country, and the Japanese are weird people. In case this wasn’t clear enough from my Japan blog posts, here’s a collection of funny signs and just funny things we saw.
Aside from how disturbing I find it to have food smiling at me, this guy looks like he wants to eat ME:
A clean tombstone is a happy tombstone:
I saw two of these. No idea what they do inside:
...
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Japan Extravaganza Part 3: Tokyo Fun and...
Part 1: Kyoto
Part 2: Inari, Hakone, Harajuku
KayKay got up very early indeed on Saturday morning, as she had an introduction ceremony start of term thing at her uni. Morten and I had breakfast at the ryokan. They gave us way too much food, as they are prone to do at ryokan, but it was all lovely.
After a slow morning involving a long, comfortable bath in the ryokan’s onsen, we made our way to...
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Japan Extravaganza Part 2: Inari, Hakone, Harajuku
Part 1: Kyoto
Day four, we decided to head out to a Arashiyama to have a look at the bamboo grove there. While the grove itself proved to be somewhat underwhelming, the trip there took on all kinds of unexpected qualities. When we got to Saga Arashiyama, it turned out that we had to buy separate tickets for a “Romantic Train”, the Sagano Scenic Railway, to get to Torokko Arashiyama, which was...
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Japan Extravaganza Part 1: Kyoto
We started our journey at 10 in the morning on the 31st of April. We reached Japan sixteen and a half hours later at 9:30 in the morning the following day. We’d made sure to sleep a short night in hopes of getting some sleep on the plane to avoid jet lag. It kind of worked.
The plane trip was uneventful, though we did get some of the best plane food I’ve ever had. I watched some movies and tried...
March 2012
12 posts
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Things That Are Going On
I’m getting really tired of my job. Not the work itself, though it is tiring; I quite enjoy the work, I love kids. But the schedule, or lack thereof… I keep getting phone calls early in the morning on days when I’ve hardly slept the night before, and someone’s going, “You have to come in, it’s an emergency!” And while I’m fully at liberty to say no, I really need the money, and I’d feel really bad...
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Body Complains
“Ow! Why do you DO this to me???” my body complains loudly.
“Well,” I respond sheepishly, “I thought it would be a good idea for us to get into shape. You know, get healthy. Besides, climbing is fun!”
“Not for me, it isn’t!” Body is fuming now. “For you it’s all excitement and dropping down from high places, but for me, it’s...
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Why International Women's Day is Important
Ignoring for a moment the fact that a lot of people in a lot of countries are completely ignorant as to there even being an International Women’s Day, I’ve noticed a few articles, Facebook posts and tweets today from people who DO know about it that frankly make me a little angry.
Mostly, they’re along the lines of “What’s the big deal?” “We don’t...
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dorkstorm asked: Mr. Gaiman, I urge you to find a...
neil-gaiman:
Well, I’ve now spent a couple of hours this morning reading KONY2012 stuff, doing my best to avoid iffy sources.
This article from the Independent was eye-opening.
It led to this Twitter Feed. Which led to this article from Justice In Conflict on what the Invisible Children video does and does not say.
All of which seemed un-iffy, and all of which have reservations, to a...
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Please read and share Invisible Children's... →
Insvisible Children respond to our concerns.
visiblechildren:
This is precisely the sort of information I was hoping they would be more up-front with. Please read this - it’s great that IC is providing this resource.
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Visible Children: We got trouble. →
I admit I haven’t been paying much attention to the news lately, so I don’t know much about this Kony 2012 thing other than what people have been posting on Facebook, but I think for those who are interested in a more nuanced point of view the below might prove an interesting read. If TL;DR, the bottom line is this: Invisble Children is a somewhat questionable organisation and seems to...
February 2012
9 posts
Watch
The Reichenbach Fall
Doomsday
Just when you thought this scene couldn’t get any sadder… *bawl*
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Aftermath
It is now nearly two in the afternoon on a Tuesday. I would have liked to blog about my gig the moment I got home last night, but I was too tired and full of wine and whisky.
Last night was a complete success! There were even a good four people in the audience I didn’t know from before, and I just about made money. I needed 24 paying customers in order to cover the fee for the sound guy,...
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Neil Gaiman: What today is... →
neil-gaiman:
”Well, when I changed schools, when I was a kid, my Dad made a point of telling me how much he had always looked forward to Presidents’ Day, when he was a boy, because it’s the law that on Presidents’ Day, the kids who go to school dressed as their favourite presidents get a big bag of candy.”
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GIG!!! Gig, gig, gig!
So, my gig is coming up. TODAY!! Well, tomorrow at the moment, as I haven’t gone to bed yet, but it is already the 20th. I’m sure most of you won’t read this until the morning anyway.
But yes. Gig. I’ll be playing at Skuret from 10 pm. Skuret is located in Christian Kroghs gate 2, in Oslo. That would be here:
Vis større kart
Facebook event is here.
If you...
porter-gembling asked: You mentioned you like...
aimalyn:
neil-gaiman:
Look, this is a bit embarrassing, but I’m afraid that I’m a fully-paid-up honest-to-goodness barmitzvahed-and-circumcised Jew myself. And while I would, of course, like sympathisers and money, I most certainly do not want yours.
Also, it’s spelled ‘voluntary’.
I fucking love Neil Gaiman.
<3
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Photoshoot with Glenruben →
Check out my awesome new pics, shot by my friend Glenruben Engen! Woo!
Click the image or the link above for more.
Also, look, a gig poster!
If you happen to be in Oslo, you should come.
That is all.
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Café Press Store Launch and a Few Other Things
So I need to blog more often… It’s been hard to do much of anything lately, as I haven’t been sleeping very well, or very much. I’ve been staying up way too late doing basically nothing but play Skyrim and completely shirking any kind of responsibility. As a result, the kitchen is a mess and I’m getting more and more nervous about my upcoming gig.
I booked this thing...
January 2012
6 posts
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On SOPA and Publishing and the Music Business
So, I guess it’s time for my very own SOPA rant. Today is SOPA black-out day. All across the Interwebs, people are getting black screens when they visit their favourite websites and services, such as Wikipedia and Reddit.
Here in Norway, it would appear as though our Parliament is getting ready to vote on a similar law (no link, sorry, I read it in a physical newspaper, le gasp!), which...
December 2011
27 posts
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Happy New Year →
A short blog post about what I’ve done this year and all the things I’m looking forward to.
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“I hope that in this year to come, you make mistakes.
Because if you are making...”
– http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2011/12/my-new-year-wish.html (via neil-gaiman)
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I’m all full of love and happiness tonight. Gonna go to sleep while this feeling lasts. Love you all! <3 <3 <3
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Holy fuck, Neil Gaiman reblogged Melinda! Over 700 plays later, I’m currently basking in the glow of temporary Internet fame. Too bad it won’t last… :P Still, so many people are listening to my song! It’s like being popular, only better! <3
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Ukulele Anthem
I interpreted Amanda Palmer’s Ukulele Anthem to Swedish:
—-
Sid Vicious spela fyra-strängars bas och kunde inte sjunga
Och alla hata honom utom dom som tyckte om han
En ukulele har fyra strängar, men Sid spela inte ukulele
Han tog crack och mörda nog sin flickvän Nancy Spungen
Om Sid hade en ukulele kunde kanske han vart lycklig
Kanske allting inte hade slutat lika illa
Han kanske...
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I picked up a copy of a picture book called...
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Merry Christmas, happy peoples of the Interwebs! And if you’re not happy, here’s some music to make you so!
<a href=”http://maiamadness.bandcamp.com/album/winter-rose” _mce_href=”http://maiamadness.bandcamp.com/album/winter-rose”>Winter Rose by Maia Jern</a>
Should I dye my hair fire engine red for Christmas?
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So, quick update. Since Friday, I’ve had over 350 plays of my EP, I’ve sold seven copies and three people have downloaded it for free. To me, this is an immense success! That said, I hope there’s more to come, so if you haven’t shared the link, please do!
http://maiamadness.bandcamp.com
&amp;lt;a...
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Okay, it is definitely time for bed now… I’m exhausted, but happy. Thank you so much to everyone who’s bought my EP! I love you! <3
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Radiohead has over 7 million likes on Facebook. I have 105. Radiohead sold 44,000 copies of their last album, In Rainbows, in its first week. I have sold three copies of my EP Winter Rose in the first two days. Proportionally speaking, this makes Winter Rose about 5 times more successful than In Rainbows, so far. :P