Box of Crayons 2: Nobel, Lego, Expensive Beer and Really Good Racing Drivers.

Scandinavian pop is wicked. Not just wicked, it’s really really bloody brilliant. The neptunes were fun for a bit, and Timbaland only makes music for Justin Timberlake and Nelly Furtado now. If you want a good pop record made, go to Scandinavia. Consistently awesome since FOREVER (well ABBA).

Check it out- 26 songs from Scandinavia.

Erase/Rewind- The Cardigans (Swe)
Chewing Gum – Annie (Nor)
Heartbeat – Annie (Nor)
Sitting Down Here – Lene Marlin (Nor)
Take You Home – Annie (Nor)
My Boys – Taken By Trees (Swe)
Freestyler – Bomfunk MCs (Fin)
Seven – Fever Ray (Swe)
Nothing to Worry About – Peter Bjorn and John (Swe)
Boat Behind – Kings of Convenience. (Nor)
Blue Monday - Flunk (Nor)
Turn Back Time – Aqua (Den)
Barbie Girl – Aqua (Den)
Hate to Say I Told You So – The Hives (Swe)
Glorious – Andreas Johnson (Swe)
Sandstorm – Darude (Fin)
Are you Still Having Fun? – Eagle Eye Cherry (Swe)
Heartbeats – The Knife (you might know the cover version from the Sony advert with the balls) (Swe)
Triangle Walks – Fever Ray (Swe)
Gimme Gimme Gimme – ABBA (Swe)
Life is a Flower – Ace of Base (Swe)
Call on Me – Eric Prydz. (Swe)
Buddy X 99 – Neneh Cherry vs Dreem Teem. (Swe)
My Favourite Game – Cardigans. (Swe)
License to Kill – A-ha (Nor)

Please forgive the Annie triple hit, it took great effort not to fill this with Annie. :-D
Some get in on a technicality. I don’t care.
The Ace of Base track could have been “all that she wants” but I like “life is a flower” better.
You can use the Youtube below to check all of the tracks. I have made links for my favourites/ones I can be bothered with. Naturally, I've picked the tracks, so they are all pretty darn wonderful. :-D

Here is a pie chart showing relative dominance. These statistics were compiled from official statistics or the list above. Whichever I came across first, yeah?

Franklin and Spanish.

Franklin says to Spanish.
I shouted into a mirror today and it was irritating.
I normally shout at the world.
But today I shouted at the mirror and it was irritating.
I thought I was being sincere.
But it was just fucking irritating.
Seriously
Just Fucking IRRITATING.
I should stop shouting at the world.
Ideally I will.
But who everdoesthingswhentheyareideal.
Not me.

Box of crayons: colourmix.

I was listening to the radio today and the radio chap put on an entire mix which had a theme (fruit). I was/am inspired to make my own mix/set list. Here it is but the theme isn't fruit but colours :-D

Black Dog- Led Zepplin

Samurai Blue – ZZ

Mr. Blue Sky – Lily Allen

Seven Notes in Black – High Contrast

Greyest Love of All – Taken by Trees (spotify link)

Yellow Sun – The Racounteurs

Blue Monday – Flunk

Silver Stallion – Cat Power

Californication – Red Hot Chili Peppers

White Blank Page – Mumford and Sons

Little Cream Soda - The White Stripes

Purple Haze – Jimi Hendrix

O Green World – Gorillaz

Yellow Submarine – Roots Manuva

Racing Green – High Contrast

colours– The Prodigy

Red Right Hand – Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds

Blackbird – The Beatles

White Collar Boy – Belle and Sebastian

Red Red Red (bootleg)– Fiona Apple

Goldeneye – Tina Turner

Black Coffee- All Saints

Golddigger – Kanye West feat Jamie Foxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Gold Lion – Yeah Yeah Yeahs.

Liar and Thief.

I took something that wasn’t mine.

You’re a good thief.

Why do you say that

Because you reveal your secrets

Wait.

No.

I think you’re lying.

I tell the truth sometimes.

Is now one of those times?
Yes.

Excellent.

What did you steal?
A thing.

A thing?

It might not actually be a thing. Like a real thing I mean.
Like a metaphorical thing?

Yeah I stole a thing which wasn’t actually a thing.

You took it and it wasn’t yours

You care?

No.

Well fuck off then.

Project Athena.

In 1980s Government scientists in the [censored] carried out experiments on reading neural electric patterns and translating them into language. Test control subject "Lisa" was the 67th in a series of trials and what follows is the transcript of a conversation, presumably before the experiment, and an apparent translation of her brain patterns into English.

[Recording Starts]
Scientist: "Today's date is [unintelligble] 1983. Present is myself Dr. [Static] and trial number 67 - Lisa. Lisa, is everthing okay?"

Lisa: "I'm [unintelligable] starving, but otherwise, naturally, I am A-O-K Docco. Can we just get on with this? I need to.. [unintelligable]"

Scientist: "Quite. Lisa, today I'm going to allow you to wear this hat, don't worry about the probes they are [static] harmless. I'm going to leave the room and leave you here with a small plate and a marshmallow. I ask you not to think about or eat the marshmallow. Do you understand?"

Lisa: "[static] off"

Scientist: "I'm also going to leave this clock and I will be back in half an hour. Remember for the next half an hour do not think about the marshmallow or eat the marshmallow- If you manage this we'll [unintelligable] free."

[recording ends]

Translation/Reading:

Minutes 1-4: High zetawave concentration. Apparent rage.
Minutes 5-7: Zetawaves significantly reduced. Get...thing..Remove.
Minutes 8-9: Maccawaves increase: Apathy.
Minutes 10-12: Ringowaves and some Zetawave increase. Theism... Self.. Hunger.
Minutes 13-14: Ringowaves maintain and Zetawave activity subsides. Don't... mall..shop... mall... confection...
Minutes 15-17: Sudden spike in Zetawave. Must not... Distract Distract
Minutes 18-22: Lanawaves surge and Zetawaves subside again. rabbit horse horse cow field country country countrsweety clouds clouds clouds clouds soft soft...
Minutes 23-26: Lanawaves and Einwaves high. 13+3..14x9... soft...85-12...98-98..
Minutes 27-29: Ringowaves increase Einwaves and Lanawaves reduce. unit...remain.
Minute 30: Maccawaves and Ringowaves increase: Relief.

Man and Flower.

What follows is some stuff.

A man starts off at the deepest point in the deepest valley in Northwest Leicestershire.
A thing strikes the man, because the deepest valley in Northwest Leicestershire is actually just the bottom of a teeny tiny hill. Northwest Leicestershire is mostly flat. Or it might not be. Who gives a fuck anyway?

The man tries to climb out of the darned valley everyday and everyday he manages to take a half dozen or 7 steps up the teeny tiny hill. He makes the steps despite having inappropriate shoes for the task. If the man made steady progress at an average of 6.5 steps a day, at the end of the month he would reach the summit of the teeny tiny hill.

There's a snag. Upon reaching step 17 the man gets nostalgic. Or he sees a butterfly which triggers a memory and he longs for the deepest point in the deepest valley in Northwest Leicestershire. It also doesn't help that at the deepest point of the deepest valley in Northwest Leicestershire is a flower.

The flower is arguably pretty. You might say it was positively stunning. You may also say that the flower was amazingly astounding. The last two sentences are however unlikely to be said by you, unless you are a liar, because saying those things would be lies. Or more accurately they are truths if you ignore all the less couth parts of the flower. Like the thorns or the crinkled petals. Of course these features were ignored by the man, for they made the flower only arguably pretty. And who get's nostalgic for things that are only arguably anything?

The man, forever drawn to the flower, but also longing for a good meal (Cheese and Pineapple Toasted Sandwich) decided enough was enough and decided to make another attempt at the ascent. He failed and went back down again.

Slaughterhouse 5.

God grant me the serenity
To accept the things I cannot change;
Courage to change the things I can;
And wisdom to know the difference.

This short prayer exists at the very start of the novel (in fact before the novel even starts) and I reckon sums up a lot of what happens quite neatly. The thing also holds a pretty sentiment so I think it's a neat way of starting a thing of my thoughts about the book.

The book is about a person Billy Pilgrim and his accounts leading up to and surrounding the bombing of Dresden during the second world war. From this summary it's not evident what the scope of the novel actually is. The book not only deals with events but also what appears to be how Pilgrim copes with the events of the second world war. The book starts off with Vonnegut disclosing how he got round to writing this book and the words he had with other people during its writing. The book then reaches chapter 2/3 and starts properly with the events in the life of Billy Pilgrim.

A brilliant thing about the book is how often real life (or is it?) smears into fiction (or does it?). Aspects of Pilgrim's life are given rational explanations in certain places, aspects of "Vonnegut's" life bleed into Pilgrim's life and the whole thing kept me hooked the whole time I was reading it.
The book is written in a breezy/washed over tone despite the obvious heaviness of the subject matter at hand, which gives the impression this is how Pilgrim copes with the trauma of the situations he finds himself in.

Essentially the work feels like a statement regarding inevitability. Early on the author's agent/publisher says that writing an anti-war book is as smart as writing an anti glacier book, citing the inevitability of each and how no person is going to meet with success any attempt to prevent either. The fact that Pilgrim's new adventures are the result of a series unlikely occurances (heck, his entire survival is an unlikely occurance) of which he has no control over further adds to the the argument that as individuals we have no real control over much really. Finally the point is most explicitly put by another character (at the very end of a chapter) suggesting explicitly that the notion of free will is a fairly uncommon view (this will make more sense on reading the book) and most people accept that free will is not real.

Flibbertigibbet

I dig this work man.

laters

K.

I liked this novel, but I'm reminded of these novels also worth a peek which strike me as having similar vibes:

Flatland
Lunar Park