the stuff dreams are made of

Today is what we in very bad Swenglish call a 'squeeze day'. Hence I am working from home, but my tech is really screwing me over. Work laptop is having another unexplainable internet refusal day, so I'm connecting via VPN on my own shitty PC City laptop which crashes whenever you move it a millimeter in any direction. Also, I am doing migration umlaut-cleansing, and conveniently enough this laptop is the British one - which doesn't have any åäö's. I've managed to get Swedish as an input language but it's only working on the internet, not any other apps... I also have to have it on a tiny side table which is at an incredibly achy angle to my back - I just moved it so I could rest my wrists on the table aaaand it crashed (hence blog break from mini-pc)

In other exciting and unrelated news, I've been on a big electronica binge for a few weeks now, playing Röyksopp and Detektivbyrån morning and night. But just now as I realized I was in a mood for some german emo and reached for Zimmer 483 I realized that OMG - I had a dream where I made out with Bill!! Last night! This could certainly explain the urge to hear his voice. It was quite surreal, they were staying in the same hotel as me and there was lots of sneaking in and out of very scary bunker-like toilets. The kiss itself was at a dinner table with lots of other people and very stiff and ehm, surreal. I was like, dude, there are other ppl here! I was still devastated when they left the hotel though, he was very love and leave 'em (so, clearly unrealistic because I insist that Bill seems like a lovely person).

The part of the dream I really wish comes true is the part where he had his old hair back. Bill, if you read this, please grow your hair back out, OK? I know you had the mohawk for like 10 years already but 8 out of those 10 years you were only famous in Germany. Now you're depriving your fans all over the world of this hair-faboulousness! Also, I think it would do wonders for your sales figures.
Love
librarian_girl

Warning!! Detailed discussions of themes that may be considered emo

So, last Friday one of the dreams I've had for oh about four months or so finally, FINALLY came true - Tokio Hotel live. My biggest hope for the concert was that Bill, who according to the CDs have a range with Mariah Carey-esque aspirations, would not suck too badly IRL. I've learned the hard way not to expect the same vocal prowess live as from recorded mediums (OK, I never saw Backstreet Boys live but they sang live on Söndagsöppet when I was about 11 or so and gosh was I horrified - I can still remember the disappointment like it was yesterday).
My second hope was that recent pictures of Bill were mainly PR-smokescreens for his fabulous new hairstyle which would look nothing like anything he's been sporting recently.

Was proved wrong Big Time on both accounts. Horrible, horrible oversized back-slick. I mean, I suppose I could accept it if he wanted to move away from the manga/porcupine/mohawk look I fell in love with as he's had it for quite some time. But this was NOT hot.
On the other hand, it turns out he can actually sing. Like, live. Very well. He hardly wrote down any songs, only one or two songs with incredibly high notes, both of which were not suited for standing still and singing, but required jumping around. Completely understandable. I was impressed.

Another cool thing about the concert was the fact that their set was like a tribute to the Star Trek movie First Contact, with a giant round Borg cube being the focal point. I actually read in one review that the 30m high steel construction should actually resemble the Death Star - but as Bill was dressed up as the Borg queen (...) I refute that statement. This has nothing to do with my aversion to Star Wars, obviously, but is rather the logical conclusion (live long and prosper). The projection in the background featured futuristic cityscapes which could have been borrowed straight from the SGA CGI library. Yes yes so their latest CD is on the futuristic theme but I didn't know that when I got hooked on Monsoon last October so it all pleased my little sci-fi heart to no end.

A fairly big disappointment for which I was prepared was the fact that the manager/band/tour planner was obviously not aware that as German is a very common second language-choice in school here, many Swedish fans prefer the songs in their original language. I base this not only on my own views but on the girl behind me who even though she was substantially younger than me (or shall I say, in the demographic group of 13-18yr olds that 99,5% of the audience belonged to) and may not even have had time to take any German in school exclaimed to her mother that she wouldn't know the lyrics in English. This meant that the high-pitched screaming was by far louder than the sing-along bits, which may be a curse for all bands who publish bilingually (with a target audience who squeals).
Anyway, this may have been a blessing to my dignity as I couldn't always sing along... But it was dark, and I don't know anyone in Gothenburg anyway and oh it would have been so much better in German! An additional minus with the English is the fact that Bill is not a competent English-speaker = practically non-existent between-song-chatter. I mean, this didn't bother me much but that's like the only direct communication line you'll ever have with the star as a fan, so it's a shame it was stilted.

Apparently to the reviewers the pyrotechnics were basic but they must be rather blasé I guess - I don't go to a lot of concerts so I thought it was pretty awesome. Two soundguys got to step into big seats of tech hoisted to the ceiling with wires - that was also awesome (made me briefly rethink career, was very Matrix-inspired).

To summarize, I'm thinking of removing myself from the FB group worshipping Bill's hair, but I'm actually a bigger fan of Bill as a person and as a singer than ever. So there. In indulging in one of my other big interests folk music I hang out with the age demographic 55+ so shouldn't this emo-activity put me somewhere in the middle, close to something normal?

Yeah, maybe not.

The wheel is spinning but the hamster fell off (or is dead).

I'm very fond of these expressions, my favourites being the fairly common 'not the brightest bulb in the xmas tree' or 'not the sharpest tool in the shed'. My sister alerted my to the endless varieties possible. A list of a hundred is here

A fairly entertaining read (on a Friday afternoon) but only three really appealed to me. The post title, which is funny but a bit of a mouthful maybe? Also, hamsters are cute and talking about dead ones could be a downer for sensitive recipients.

This geeky one: "The hard drive is spinning but the OS hasn't been installed."
Would have to be doled out carefully to recipients who can appreciate it.

And finally, what I think is a real contender; catchy and with a universal subject that can be appreciated by all (at least, all in cultures which feature dairy products):
"The cheese slid off the cracker."

It has a difference tense though so I'll have to ponder when to use it. Hmm. I suddenly realize I now bear similarities to Mr Collins. The horror!!

T-minus 1hour until commensement of journey towards Berlin. I blame the itch to get going for this fairly pointless entry. I'm also entertaining the hope (as I always do, futilely) that since I flew from Kastrup last time they will have opened a restaurant/cafeteria/sandwich stand that offers a vegetarian option that does not feature mozzarella and pesto. A particularly memorable one also included a thick layer of butter. Is it just me who shivers in horror at the recollection of biting into a thick layer of butter? *brrr* and Yuck.

Toodles.