It is my blog on all things liquorice! (which I just can't seem to spell right, though. Another reason why to blog in Norwegian!) That's what the name means, Lakris is liquorice in Norwegian!
Have a good one!
YAY!
0
Lakrisbloggen!
Hey you guys, don't forget to read my other blog! It is in Norwegian, but I can't see why that should be a problem! Join me over at http://www.lakrisbloggen.blogspot.com
It is my blog on all things liquorice! (which I just can't seem to spell right, though. Another reason why to blog in Norwegian!) That's what the name means, Lakris is liquorice in Norwegian!
Have a good one!
YAY!
It is my blog on all things liquorice! (which I just can't seem to spell right, though. Another reason why to blog in Norwegian!) That's what the name means, Lakris is liquorice in Norwegian!
Have a good one!
YAY!
by
Tora
Good before-noon! (We can say that in Norway, it is different from morning)
 |
| Up by the church, last week. Oslo can be bliss in the summer |
That must've been one of the most mature dreams I ever had, well, not considering the bit where Tink and I use martial arts to battle free of bad guys to continue our road trip through Istanbul in this tiny, shabby little white car. I mean, there is something quite adolescent about that.
Today I am making pasta with mussels, mm! And I am cleaning the windows and cleaning the bedroom too, because the closet is falling apart again... wait!
A woman is crying outside! Hmm, it's two junkies moving about, he's carrying a picture or something. They talk like they are in a Norwegian film, like really heavy East-Oslo accent in a sympathetic tone of voice, like. "Det er lov å gjørra det noen ganger", "Slutt å vær sjallu på meg a" (these are actual quotes from the pavement junkie drama outside). Seems like she just overreacted or something. They are walking away now with all their kit and that huge frame. Wonder what it was about. There are a lot of people like that in Oslo. We have the heaviest heroin crowd in Europe.
Where was I? Oh yes... Cleaning :(
Maybe I should do the dishes too. SOB WAIL. And clean the bookshelf. I better get started right away... after breakfast! And then... If I keep procrastinating, I will probably finish sometime tomorrow morning. Haha. Oh yes. Wish me luck! Have a wonderful day!
by
Tora
Never quite old enough
The clubscene in Oslo is not exactly what I would call universally vibrant, it can be really stale, and serves such a wide diversity our sparse population can't abide to fill the clubs up. So what happens is that you have to be at those five or six places where things "are going down", or you will be in one of the places that have echoes in them.
Nooo, - I exaggerate. But because all clubs are terrified of being the "deserted" club, they try to be as exclusive or eccentric they possibly can, so they can attract enough people. They are also so scared of losing their alcohol licence, they make sure they get a clientelle that can stay up past bedtime, but also has legal rights to buy alcohol. This means outrageous age limits just to get in, Horgans, I remember, had 26!
I will tell you a story, anyway, concerning the topic. It's not really that enthralling, but now that you're here... I might as well share it.
Tink (as you may know, one of my few friends of the female persuasion) and I, have worked our entire youth to crack the code which is Oslo nightlife. Even at a time when we both were blonde, and slender (Tink, still is, it is only I that seem to inflate at a frightening rate) we had a tough time getting in anywhere, and though we have never climbed in any windows, we were at one point, quite desperate.
I flaunted my sister's fake ID from when I was 16 (pretending I was 20), and that worked for most part, we got in at a lot of places and had... mostly good times, but, obviously, we also had our share of strange ones. Like when that bald guy approached us and really looked us up and down and said "Whoah! You girls deserve a diploma!" and we asked him (quite naturally, I mean, he must've seen that coming) -"What for?" And he, caught completely off-guard, said -"Um. I... Have to think about that". And this terrible awkwardness ensued and I wanted to grab his shoulders and shake him, and yell something. "Jesus! Man! You could have said ANYTHING! You could have just said 'diplomas for drinking the right friggin' beer' it wouldn't matter! Oh my God! Whyyy?! Why are you sooo dumb?!" In retrospect that is probably the way I feel about it now, while as my younger self probably just wanted to die, quickly and make the AWKWARD go away. Yes, those were the days...
Truly. But we also made it in to Café Mono, which I always regarded as some kind of perfect indie hangout, where they played Arctic Monkeys sometimes and the crowd wasn't so young. And I mean, we were there quite a lot, it was our go-to place for a long time. But fake-ID wasn't all a dance on roses, we had a couple of sweaty situations - including one when the bouncer of some other place said he would call the police on me! - made me hesitant to use it. It is, after all, illegal to use.
So we got cautious, and we stayed away from places where we had to use fake-ID for a while, until we could use our REAL ones. This meant going to lots of concerts and going to clubs where people where our age. We had a lot of fun, but it wasn't quite the same. So when we at last turned twenty, we thought we could stride right in to any shop and own it. Er. But we were so mistaken, it is... Um, it is almost embarrasing. We were turned down at Mono like a thousand times, because, for some reason, the place we had grown up in (well, not exactly, but we were there a couple of times even if it was lame, because we were loyal, right! We were so loyal!) wouldn't accept us when we were trying to enter under our real names! Because, as the huuge anal doorman so vigilantly kept reminding us, we had to be 22 to get in at Mono.
My 22nd birthday only just passed, I feel matured to the point that I just want to go in there just to har-umphh and snort and stride right back out again. Bah!
I had got the strange idea of hanging out at The Villa this season though, because it's Oslo's electronica scene, and it was outrageous that I hadn't even been there. But yeah, so. I was very ready, and I thought I'd better Google it, to see where it was, because, like I said, I never been there. Well. Guess what?
Yes.
You have to be 23 to get in.
Nooo, - I exaggerate. But because all clubs are terrified of being the "deserted" club, they try to be as exclusive or eccentric they possibly can, so they can attract enough people. They are also so scared of losing their alcohol licence, they make sure they get a clientelle that can stay up past bedtime, but also has legal rights to buy alcohol. This means outrageous age limits just to get in, Horgans, I remember, had 26!
I will tell you a story, anyway, concerning the topic. It's not really that enthralling, but now that you're here... I might as well share it.
Tink (as you may know, one of my few friends of the female persuasion) and I, have worked our entire youth to crack the code which is Oslo nightlife. Even at a time when we both were blonde, and slender (Tink, still is, it is only I that seem to inflate at a frightening rate) we had a tough time getting in anywhere, and though we have never climbed in any windows, we were at one point, quite desperate.
I flaunted my sister's fake ID from when I was 16 (pretending I was 20), and that worked for most part, we got in at a lot of places and had... mostly good times, but, obviously, we also had our share of strange ones. Like when that bald guy approached us and really looked us up and down and said "Whoah! You girls deserve a diploma!" and we asked him (quite naturally, I mean, he must've seen that coming) -"What for?" And he, caught completely off-guard, said -"Um. I... Have to think about that". And this terrible awkwardness ensued and I wanted to grab his shoulders and shake him, and yell something. "Jesus! Man! You could have said ANYTHING! You could have just said 'diplomas for drinking the right friggin' beer' it wouldn't matter! Oh my God! Whyyy?! Why are you sooo dumb?!" In retrospect that is probably the way I feel about it now, while as my younger self probably just wanted to die, quickly and make the AWKWARD go away. Yes, those were the days...
Truly. But we also made it in to Café Mono, which I always regarded as some kind of perfect indie hangout, where they played Arctic Monkeys sometimes and the crowd wasn't so young. And I mean, we were there quite a lot, it was our go-to place for a long time. But fake-ID wasn't all a dance on roses, we had a couple of sweaty situations - including one when the bouncer of some other place said he would call the police on me! - made me hesitant to use it. It is, after all, illegal to use.
 |
| 2008! We were like 19. I look more like I'm 12 though. |
My 22nd birthday only just passed, I feel matured to the point that I just want to go in there just to har-umphh and snort and stride right back out again. Bah!
I had got the strange idea of hanging out at The Villa this season though, because it's Oslo's electronica scene, and it was outrageous that I hadn't even been there. But yeah, so. I was very ready, and I thought I'd better Google it, to see where it was, because, like I said, I never been there. Well. Guess what?
Yes.
You have to be 23 to get in.
Helge's Music!
Helge has made the extraordinary discovery of so many classic hits. One of my personal favourites include, of course, "Beautiful Ovenmitts" and "I am Not a Roadblock" .
The song "I'm in a House Made of Bacon" actually inspired my game "House of Bacon" back in spring.
What can I say? I am just so glad he's in my life!
The song "I'm in a House Made of Bacon" actually inspired my game "House of Bacon" back in spring.
What can I say? I am just so glad he's in my life!
 |
| Ironically you were of course not allowed to eat the bacon. Only shrimp, lollipops, sushi and icecream. Oh the torment! |
by
Tora
"Of Bees and Mist" by Erick Setiawan
So I read this, among other things this summer, a book called "Of Bees and Mist" by Erick Setiawan. And because I really fought to not put it down, I feel like I have earned the right to give my review on it.
The main character Meridia is this quiet super beautiful girl that lives in a complicated world so full of emotion that they manifest into physical things. Like bees, and mist. While the idea is interesting, I quite liked it, I think perhaps it went a little overboard, and the symbolism became too real and too physical to make sense.
What Erick accomplishes though is to weave increasingly frustrating webs of conflict and despair, wrecking torment and destruction on his characters. No soul is left unharmed, and all characters hate each other with varying intervals. While this does appear interesting at first, fails to come full circle almost every time.
The numerous conflicts all solve or dissolve at whims, with no sacrifice or with no realistic tension. For example, the boy who brews intense hate for his father, is suddenly able to overcome all this, with no logical strength. Just like that. In a couple of minutes. Seriously. So the universe at this, falls short of carrying a trustworthy story. The build up of hate and love and violence when ready to explode, pops and fizzes unsatisfyingly at climax, because as the drama is clever, the wit can't seem to unravel them in any way to do it justice.
The book is wildly metaphoric and psychologic, and lives off emotion. And these can sometimes be so splendidly accurate and terrifying, the read is beautiful. But sadly, the thoughts and actions change so fast and don't connect to human attributes. This is like blowing up a teen drama by a zillion, let it loose on a strange universe and let it ravage unrelenting. A lot is magical here, and so everything that doesn't make sense can hide behind that. But unfortunately the universe is full of holes and lacks depth, and so it fails to cloak the many shortcomings.
The characters are described in words, not by actions, and so don't seem very believeable. Their attributes are simply spelled out. This becomes especially embarrasing when their descriptions fail to apply when the time is right. The man introduced as "patient and warm" get fits of rage, and displays coldness unparallel to snow. Secondary characters lack all dimension whatsoever, and seem to be added just as a convenience.
The story as a whole is indeed a saga, it includes a lot of people and a lot of places, while some of these are interesting, the writer is unable to carry the weight of so much mass. The book is simply too short. The central love story is quickly woven over a couple of sentences, and so we are shielded from learning more about our characters through happiness or through friendship or love. The only lessons are given in times of despair, severe pain and loss. A lot of terrible and dramatic things happen in this book. Absolutely all the time. And there is no end to the tormenting hardships that ravage the characters. The read as a whole, has focus on dreadful events, backstabbing, slandering and unrelenting drama, losing its point and its credibility with each occurring horror.
I wanted to like this book, but I hated it, stopped reading, thought the better of it, and picked it up again. The antagonist is brilliant in her manipulation, and the characters so easily fall under her might. But because of all the things that go wrong, people only seem to get more and more motivated by unmentioned forces. The changes are strange and explained by senseless things, like the spoiled, spiteful girl suddenly becoming warm and fantastic and amazing because she's pregnant. Yeah, fucking right. The character development we witness, is either physical or unexplainable to the circumstances. Suddenly bitter foes are friends "through quiet understanding". Molested souls show incredible, unbeliveable loyalty to their molester, and I don't know. Everything just goes wrong in an awfully detailed way, and then is fixed way to lightly. The conflicts are not handled seriously enough.
I think this book is "too easy", the mysteries lack backing, the characters keep going, though stripped of all hope, and strange hallucinating dreamlike events occur all the time, without sufficient strength to ring enchanting. Everyone are very bautiful, everything is very magical, and everyone are deceiving and strange and otherwordly. I thought I was the perfect audience, but I just think this book has too many logical flaws and not enough depth to be enjoyed, even by me.
The main character Meridia is this quiet super beautiful girl that lives in a complicated world so full of emotion that they manifest into physical things. Like bees, and mist. While the idea is interesting, I quite liked it, I think perhaps it went a little overboard, and the symbolism became too real and too physical to make sense.
What Erick accomplishes though is to weave increasingly frustrating webs of conflict and despair, wrecking torment and destruction on his characters. No soul is left unharmed, and all characters hate each other with varying intervals. While this does appear interesting at first, fails to come full circle almost every time.
The numerous conflicts all solve or dissolve at whims, with no sacrifice or with no realistic tension. For example, the boy who brews intense hate for his father, is suddenly able to overcome all this, with no logical strength. Just like that. In a couple of minutes. Seriously. So the universe at this, falls short of carrying a trustworthy story. The build up of hate and love and violence when ready to explode, pops and fizzes unsatisfyingly at climax, because as the drama is clever, the wit can't seem to unravel them in any way to do it justice.
The book is wildly metaphoric and psychologic, and lives off emotion. And these can sometimes be so splendidly accurate and terrifying, the read is beautiful. But sadly, the thoughts and actions change so fast and don't connect to human attributes. This is like blowing up a teen drama by a zillion, let it loose on a strange universe and let it ravage unrelenting. A lot is magical here, and so everything that doesn't make sense can hide behind that. But unfortunately the universe is full of holes and lacks depth, and so it fails to cloak the many shortcomings.
The characters are described in words, not by actions, and so don't seem very believeable. Their attributes are simply spelled out. This becomes especially embarrasing when their descriptions fail to apply when the time is right. The man introduced as "patient and warm" get fits of rage, and displays coldness unparallel to snow. Secondary characters lack all dimension whatsoever, and seem to be added just as a convenience.
The story as a whole is indeed a saga, it includes a lot of people and a lot of places, while some of these are interesting, the writer is unable to carry the weight of so much mass. The book is simply too short. The central love story is quickly woven over a couple of sentences, and so we are shielded from learning more about our characters through happiness or through friendship or love. The only lessons are given in times of despair, severe pain and loss. A lot of terrible and dramatic things happen in this book. Absolutely all the time. And there is no end to the tormenting hardships that ravage the characters. The read as a whole, has focus on dreadful events, backstabbing, slandering and unrelenting drama, losing its point and its credibility with each occurring horror.
I wanted to like this book, but I hated it, stopped reading, thought the better of it, and picked it up again. The antagonist is brilliant in her manipulation, and the characters so easily fall under her might. But because of all the things that go wrong, people only seem to get more and more motivated by unmentioned forces. The changes are strange and explained by senseless things, like the spoiled, spiteful girl suddenly becoming warm and fantastic and amazing because she's pregnant. Yeah, fucking right. The character development we witness, is either physical or unexplainable to the circumstances. Suddenly bitter foes are friends "through quiet understanding". Molested souls show incredible, unbeliveable loyalty to their molester, and I don't know. Everything just goes wrong in an awfully detailed way, and then is fixed way to lightly. The conflicts are not handled seriously enough.
I think this book is "too easy", the mysteries lack backing, the characters keep going, though stripped of all hope, and strange hallucinating dreamlike events occur all the time, without sufficient strength to ring enchanting. Everyone are very bautiful, everything is very magical, and everyone are deceiving and strange and otherwordly. I thought I was the perfect audience, but I just think this book has too many logical flaws and not enough depth to be enjoyed, even by me.
by
Tora
I am here, and there are you
I have got to say I am a little jealous at the poor, messy, smelly souls that live in tents at the different festivals around Europe right now. God, why aren't we at Heineken Open'er for example? Cut Copy, Deadmau5, Prince, The Strokes, The Wombats and Two Door Cinema Club are playing, to name a few! Whyy?
Whyy? And the atmosphere at Roskilde! I would love to be there right now, despite the filth. Really. I really would. Arctic Monkeys are there, and The Strokes, Portishead, Deadmau5 (craai), Jesus CHRIST, Deadmau5 is at Hove as well. It is NOT a funny joke. It is as if I am being avoided on purpose.
Mau5, this isn't funny. When are you playing in Oslo? Hm? Hm? HM?!
I am not sure why I am telling you this, or why I am telling myself this, for like the millionth time. I suppose it is some twisted kind of self-harming. It's not healthy to be dwelling on things that can't be done! Should rather be focusing on the things I have!
Like the biggest fly I have ever seen, that is sitting on my door right now. I have a really big fly, that's what I got. And a shopping list, a loooong one. Will stretch my arms by at least 10 cm carrying this stuff home.
But I also have an ice cream machine! GLORIOUS! That I got for Christmas... Which is like ... six months ago! And I still haven't used it. But it's in the freezer now, so tomorrow! Ah-hah! I will commence the ice cream making! Oh yes! Banana ice cream actually! Because I have a lonely overripe banana that cries silently at me when I open the fridge. And I just can't throw it out, because I feel so sorry for it.
Not one of my characteristics to over-empathize or humanize objects. Not at all. Just look at all my stuff, surely not a heap of junk acquired mostly because of "the package has glitter on it!!" or "nobody else wants it :( :( :(" or the classic "Look it is so ugly, it is cute. Naawh. It's ALL aloooonehh :( I HAVE to buy it".
*cough*
And I have Nigella on Youtube! -- Even though I said I would stop that.
But I CAN'T. I am only human.
Whyy? And the atmosphere at Roskilde! I would love to be there right now, despite the filth. Really. I really would. Arctic Monkeys are there, and The Strokes, Portishead, Deadmau5 (craai), Jesus CHRIST, Deadmau5 is at Hove as well. It is NOT a funny joke. It is as if I am being avoided on purpose.
Mau5, this isn't funny. When are you playing in Oslo? Hm? Hm? HM?!
I am not sure why I am telling you this, or why I am telling myself this, for like the millionth time. I suppose it is some twisted kind of self-harming. It's not healthy to be dwelling on things that can't be done! Should rather be focusing on the things I have!
Like the biggest fly I have ever seen, that is sitting on my door right now. I have a really big fly, that's what I got. And a shopping list, a loooong one. Will stretch my arms by at least 10 cm carrying this stuff home.
But I also have an ice cream machine! GLORIOUS! That I got for Christmas... Which is like ... six months ago! And I still haven't used it. But it's in the freezer now, so tomorrow! Ah-hah! I will commence the ice cream making! Oh yes! Banana ice cream actually! Because I have a lonely overripe banana that cries silently at me when I open the fridge. And I just can't throw it out, because I feel so sorry for it.
Not one of my characteristics to over-empathize or humanize objects. Not at all. Just look at all my stuff, surely not a heap of junk acquired mostly because of "the package has glitter on it!!" or "nobody else wants it :( :( :(" or the classic "Look it is so ugly, it is cute. Naawh. It's ALL aloooonehh :( I HAVE to buy it".
*cough*
And I have Nigella on Youtube! -- Even though I said I would stop that.
But I CAN'T. I am only human.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
