My little crusade...

https://www.facebook.com/fanpowerformarillion

In my mind there are no better musicians in the world than the guys in Marillion. So to make sure all my friends know, I've made a fan petition to get them on Telly.
I urge all of you who are reading my blog to click on the link and then click like... It's for a good cause, it's the counter weight to all the crap music in the world, the counter weight to all the sex disguised as music...all the money machines disguised as music.
If you are like me, and want quality, soul and heart in what you surround yourself with, then help our little crusade...share and like :)

A little over one week to go now, so we need all the help we can get :)

Summer holiday :)

I could have written a few entries this summer, only I haven't... Awfully sorry about that. I'll get back on track when normality sets in...
I could tell you about the books I've read during summer, go into detail about content, style and whether the stories were good or not.
I could tell you about the stories I've written (because obviously I have to write something as the days are long and slow and lazy...).
I could tell you about the music I've been listening to... (only you who read this blog regularly will know what it is).
I could tell you about the movies I've watched... Avengers were sensational, and I also really, really liked the new Spiderman movie...
I could tell you about my plans for the rest of the summer, they involve a rather significant concert experience (which will get a blog entry on its own, promise).
I could tell you about all the interesting people I've met... I could elaborate on how I suspect some of them might become important people in my life...
I could tell you about all the waking nights I've had doing absolutely nothing, just staying awake, enjoying the time off.
I could tell you about all the worries I've had for the future... even sunny me worry (go figure). When I have many enough waking nights I tend to get into a gloomy mood, luckily sleep helps ;)
I could tell you about the fact that I've taken up jogging... only that's a message I should brag about on facebook, no?
I could tell you about how I'm looking forward to start university again...how much I'm looking forward to writing my bachelor thesis, and how much I'm thinking about what to write my thesis on...
I could tell you about all the times I went swimming in the ocean...
I could tell you about all the deep and interesting conversations I've had with my friends...
Only I'm not going to ;) Because it's summer, and I'm lazy :)
I realize I have a lot to cover when I do get back on track, but I'll worry about that another day...

Have a great rest of the summer :)

We did it!!!

Voice of light Master


Kenny the sound guy and I have written, performed and produced a song... we are very, very proud :)

Nightmare...

When I have a nightmare it doesn't always contain a monster or a ghost. I had a terrible nightmare the other night, and it was about exams.
The assignment at hand was write about anything you like.
- From the syllabus? - I asked.
- From anything you like. - was the answer I was given.
And on an exam that was pretty much the most terrible task I could get. In real life I have no problems writing about whatever I like, that's how I roll... But in that situation I felt completely lost.
The hours flew, and suddenly, when only two hours remained I landed on the sonnet. If you have read this blog before, you might have read an entry or two about the sonnet. I think the sonnet is a very interesting poem, and I keep coming back to it.
But the sonnet I chose to write about isn't considered a sonnet by anyone but me, so obviously...still me being me...I took a huge risk on this exam.

Ezra Pound (1885-1972)
He was born in Idaho, but in 1908 he moved to Europe and settled in London.
Ezra, being active in the middle of modernism, had an urge to "Make it New", and tried his best to reinvent poetry, moving as far away from what made him want to be a poet in the first place.
He coined a new expression, "imagism", which was his name for his new kind of poetry. Rather than describing something - an object or a situation - and then generalizing about it, imagist poets attempted to present the object directly, avoiding the complex but predictable verse forms of traditional poetry (Norton Anthology).
This becomes very clear in the poem I'll look into.

In a Station of the Metro

The apparition of these faces in the crowd;
Petals on a wet, black bough.

These few words took him three years to write, so they had to be significant...

Let's just take a quick trip down memory lane, what was a sonnet again?
The Sonnet contains 14 lines (or verses - one line is called a verse). When talking about Italian sonnets, these 14 lines were divided in two, an octave (8 lines) and a sestet (6 lines). The octave can be, and often is, divided into two quatrains (4 lines), and the sestet can be, and often is, divided into two tersets (3 lines), so in the end it's all mathematics...though content has nothing to do with numbers, unless you are writing a sonnet about numbers, but then we're moving into philosophy, and I had something else in mind completely, I think...
You have terms called volta, which is a turn... and a sonnet is considered the important poem.
Shakespeare changed it to contain 3 quatrains and 1 couplet in the end...Still 14 lines, and still the important poem...
But not to complicate things, let's stick to 14, 8 and 6.
Now let's have a look at the poem above...

The apparition of these faces in the crowd;  8 words...
Petals on a wet, black bough...6 words...

Though my mathematics mark is awful, I can't help noticing that 8 + 6 = 14, and this has to be significant, it just has to.
In class last semester, my teacher called this a haiku. I disagreed. This is no haiku...
I claimed there and then that this is a post-modernistic, minimalistic sonnet, and that he's sticking to the traditions still, only reinventing them as a true "imagist" would. My teacher smiled and laughed and said it was a good idea, but she herself had never thought about it. She couldn't confirm my notion, nor could she dismiss it... So there was no more discussion on the subject.
But here I'm going to claim that this is in fact a sonnet...And I do so, completely convinced I'm right. Count the words... there's even a volta. In the first 8 words he sets the scene, in the last 6 words he comes with his conclusion, classic sonnet. Classic!

Here he's using his "imagism", he's presenting the object directly. But what is he saying?
OK, let's tumble down the rabbit hole anyway, let's get philosophical...
And please correct me if I'm borderline crazy now, my interpretation is just that, my interpretation... Luckily a poem interpretation is as individual as there are interpretations... But I obviously would be wrong if I said he was talking about... cake...or dogs... It could be dogs, he could be seeing the dog's faces...
No, I'm not gonna get sidetracked, not so close to the end of my nightmare.

I think we might be talking about reflections in water.
I can see the poet sitting on a bench at the Metro in Paris, staring at the floor. It has been raining outside, and people's wet shoes has formed puddles. In these puddles he can see the reflections of the faces belonging to people getting on and off trains. The faces are only reflections, echoes even, of the real thing, and here is where the poetry lies.
Then I had to submit my assignment, and I'm sure I failed...Unless I made someone think...
Hopefully I did! :)

But it was only a dream...

Multitasking

Because I am so terrible at multitasking, I couldn't finish this in one go... Not even in two goes... But hopefully this (my third attempt) will be the one that stick...unless a crisis occurs and I have to concentrate on that one thing...And obviously it did, so here I am trying to finish this on my fourth attempt. Let's see if I can do it without having to comfort a child, cuddle a cat, watch a Television show, or anything else of a pressing matter.

I am a woman, and according to legend I should have the multitasking down, but I haven't.
I really haven't.
Many women claim that they are the mistresses of multitasking. They claim so very proudly, and this is their equivalent to the men's hunting talent...and further stronger muscles. When ever I hear this I have always gone; say what? I have no idea what you're talking about.
I can't relate to this. I have tunnel vision when I'm occupied with something, and I can't easily get distracted from my task at hand, and if I do get distracted and have to do several things at the same time, I'm completely rubbish at it.

Let's visualize a very common scenario in my house... I'm writing, I have a thousand ideas and I need to get down on virtual paper, and I do so accompanied by Marillion:) Now, when I'm in the zone I'm so far off that a bomb could explode next to me and I wouldn't notice... for several reasons, really, when a bomb explodes, I would probably not notice anything else on this side of eternity, but there you go. I'm not easily interrupted. Ok, this was a bad example, I'll give you another...
If I'm driving my son to school and he's talking about Ninjago or Batman, I can't manage to part take in the conversation because I'm busy driving...which is a good thing I guess, but it bothers me that I'm so bad at this. He has come to know me well, and suddenly he says, yes mummy, I know I'm nagging you... And I have to say, no no no, dear, not at all... but really he is, because I'm busy driving.

I have watched a couple of concerts with various rock bands, and what amazes me every time is their fantastic ability to multitask. They play the piano with one hand, the xylophone with another hand, plus managing the rhythmic egg and other percussion instruments, whilst singing and remembering the lyrics to a zillion songs and also performing and making sure that every soul in the audience feels touched by the magic... Yes obviously I'm talking about Marillion, but this is impressive. Also Muse are brilliant here. Matt Bellamy plays, to perfection, both the guitar and the piano...I mean, the man plays Chopin and then turns around rocking the stadium...
I'm a singer and a performer as well. But I suck at for instance playing an instrument at the same time. That could be because I'm not a good instrumentalist, but still. I can sing and act at the same time...but I've done so my entire life, so that's sort of automatic.
I'm aware I'm contradicting myself a bit here, and I might send out conflicting messages. But I really believe that a woman's ability to focus like steel on one thing at a time is a brilliant ability.

Take breastfeeding, I couldn't do anything but... and most of the times both myself and the baby fell asleep.
Take reading a book... I can't focus on the outside world when I'm reading...

But, having said this, and probably made a few enemies on the way, I do know a lot of women perfectly capable of, and actually brilliant at multitasking, and I know men completely unable to... so maybe...just maybe this isn't a gender thing at all???
Maybe it's a personality thing?

And my personality doesn't multitask... I can do many things, but one at a time.

Have a brilliant weekend.

Slow and steady wins the race...

Voice of light 5

This is now a great example of how working hard and goal oriented will get you the results... This version is a big step towards discovering magic...or so I think :)

Have a great day ;)

Kenneth Branagh

Long have I tried to write this entry.
Many times did I start.
Many times did I leave my words behind, because nothing could ever do him justice.
So how come I manage now?
I don't know. But I do know that I have adored this man since I was a teenager.
Why, do you think that is?
I think an answer has to be;
Because he understands Shakespeare...as I would like to think that I understand Shakespeare.

I have felt that the stories from old have relevance today, both as literature and as plays, so when he reinvents the plays time and again I'm left in total and deep admiration. He is one of those rare magicians. One of those embodying qualities from all the muses. And when he then went and made a brilliant film of my favorite Norse God, then I became at a loss for words. Only a few people on this planet will have that effect on me. Kenneth Branagh is one of them. That is why this entry is such a hard one to write, because where to start?
I think I'm going to give a small selection of my favorite films from all the ones he's made.

I'll start with Henry V.
This is one of the historic plays of Shakespeare. It is fashioned like a tragedy, but with the wedding in the end it isn't... This was Branagh's first big motion picture both acting and directing, and I think he did a marvelous job!
The story is beautiful and powerful, and I absolutely loved it...

Then comes the film where I really understood his talent.
Much Ado About Nothing.
The film is so elegantly executed and so brilliantly both in terms of acting and direction that I fell completely in love with Ken, Ken, Prince among men...
And the tension between Beatrice and Benedict (Emma Thompson and Kenneth Branagh) is timeless. Also the atmosphere of the film has a certain timeless feel to it.

I saw Frankenstein when it came back in 19...mmmpluh, and I really enjoyed it. But it was when I read the book on University and watched the film again I truly saw the film for the strike of genius it is. He's taken the essence of the novel and turned it into the best filmed version of the gothic story...
SPOILER...The only thing I didn't like about the film is that Frankenstein didn't make the bride, he refused to do this. And in the film Helena Bohnam Carter is was changed into The Monster's bride.

Along comes the film of my favorite Shakespearean play, Othello. I have never before seen a more sinister Iago or a better Othello... Come on, it's Morpheus and Frankenstein :)

Then comes this pearl of movies in As You Like It.
He really is a Shakespeare authority, and when moving the woods of Arden to Japan he struck genius I think. He's not acting in this, which is sad, because I value his talents as an actor to a great extent. He really is a multi talent. But the movie is brilliant, and the story is beautiful. Plus, a movie with Kevin Kline is never wrong.

He has also made a movie of my favorite opera, The Magic Flute by Mozart.
And I think it's a real treat that the singer playing Papagena is Norwegian...and she's also a very talented singer. This film has the Kenneth Branagh magic along with the magic of the most talented composer of all times.

And Kenneth Branagh as Guilderoy Lockheart was brilliant. When he came on screen, I felt that this part was written for him, and Kenneth Branagh proved to me that he is a magician ;)

But his true high point, at least by my standard, was when he directed Thor.
I have enjoyed the stories about the norse gods almost just as much as I have enjoyed (and enjoys still) Tolkien and fantasy as such. So when I went to see the film version of the Marvel story, I had rather high hopes and knew a bit more about the back ground than the average joe... Though, as my brother kindly pointed out, the Marvel stories and the mythological accuracy are two very different things, and must not be confused...
However, Kenneth Branagh managed to fuse the two wonderfully, and he made Valhalla even more magnificent than I had imagined. And the world tree was so breathtakingly beautiful that I cried. And of course that's how it is, if it's there...
And though I know that Loki really is the true son of Odin (only his mother is a jotun), and though I know that Thor really is married to Sif, I couldn't care less. Kenneth Branagh should make more superhero movies... He has the touch of the masters of old :)

I think Kenneth Branagh is one of the great men and great actors on this planet placed here to inspire and comfort. In my mind he's part of a precious group of people who are simply extraordinary.