Lise Lyng Falkenberg's Point of View

Where to get "Greatest Hits"

2012-01-31T09:17:00.000+01:00

"Greatest Hits 1996-2011" is now available a lot of places. You can, of course, still by it at Smashwords, but you'll find it available through Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk as well. Barnes & Noble and Apple iBooks, Kobo, Sony and Diesel sell it, too. Prices range from $2.99 to $5.74, Amazon.com being the most expensive, and in the UK you can get it for £1.98. I've checked out some of the editions and especially Apple's iBook edition looks amazing. Please, buy and read. I could really do with some reviews, too, especially on Smashwords and Amazon.

I'll leave you with a funny book trailer that my daughter made for me. You can watch it here.

Greatest Hits 1996-2011

2012-01-06T15:52:00.001+01:00

After 30 years of paper books, publishers and 15% royalties, it is finally here: my first ever indie ebook! It's called "Greatest Hits 1996-2011" and it's a celebration of my first fifteen years as a short story author.

"Greatest Hits 1996-2011" consists of my ten most popular short stories. The collection is formed like a literary Top 10 chart, counting down from number 10 to number 1. The short stories have been selected based on sales figures like in any other chart, and the selection has been made from stories previously published in Danish and English short story collections, anthologies and literary magazines.

The collection includes "The Blackbird", "Bigal's Nasty Café", "The Smiling Skeleton" and the literary novella "Mooncalf". It takes you on a journey into my trademark magic realism universe populated by rusty rock stars, faithless lovers, ghosts and goddesses, where tall tales of empathy, prejudice, love and death unfold in the encounter between reality and paranormality. Hopefully you'll feel well entertained on the journey to places like Manhattan, Hell and Copenhagen - and a bit wiser afterwards, too!

"Greatest Hits 1996-2011" is available here through Smashwords and on Amazon.

Books I read in 2011

2012-01-05T08:02:00.003+01:00

I didn’t read as much in 2011 as in previous years, probably because I’ve been so busy writing, not only Don Powell’s biography, but also stuff of my own. You see, after 30 years of paper books, publishers and 15% royalties, I’ve decided to go indie, so hopefully no less than five of my works are going to get out in 2012 as indie ebooks.

Anyway, when reading through my book list, it is fairly simple to see what has interested me in 2011: manga, sci-fi, horror, mysteries, fantasy and high quality literature. And then of course 2011 was the year, when I stopped smoking! :-)

Here’s the list:
Aki, Katsu: “Manga Love Story”, vol. 1
Aki, Katsu: “Manga Love Story”, vol. 2
Arden, William: “The Mystery of The Shrinking House”
Arthur, Robert: “The Mystery of The Stuttering Parrot”
Barker, Clive: “Abarat”
Bradbury, Ray: A Graveyard for Lunatics”
Bradbury; Ray: “Something Wicked This Way Comes”
Bradbury, Ray: The Illustrated Man”
Carey, M. V.: “The Mystery of The Flaming Footprints”
Carleton, Barbee Oliver: “The Witches’ Bridge”
Carr, Alan: “The Easy Way to Stop Smoking”
Coope, Katy: “How to Draw Manga”
Garner, Alan: “Elidor”
Garner, Alan: “The Moon of Gomrath”
Gray, Peter: “How to draw Manga – Heroes and Villains”
Hart, Christopher: “Kids draw Manga Shoujo”
Hatori, Bisco: “Ouran High School Host Club”, vol. 14
Hatori, Bisco: “Ouran High School Host Club”, vol. 15
Hatori, Bisco: “Ouran High School Host Club”, vol. 16
Higgins Clark, Mary: “Loves Music, Loves to Dance”
Jones, Terry: “Furious Resonance”
Keene, Carolyn: The Clue in the Crumbling Wall”
Murakami, Maki: “Gravitation” vol. 1
Nakamura, Shungiku: “Junjo Romantica” vol. 13
Patterson, James & Peter de Jonge: “Miracle on the 17th Green”
Straub, Peter: “Ghost Story”
Tolkien, J. R. R.: “The Hobbit or There and Back Again”
Trudeau, G. B.: “Doonesbury”, vol. 20
Trudeau, G.B.: “Doonesbury”, vol. 28
Zwigtman, Floortje: “Auf Leben und Tod”

I especially recommend the books by Floortje Zwigtman (I was really sorry to see her Adrian Mayfield series come to an end with “Auf Leben und Tod” as they are the best books I have ever read), Terry Jones (I met him on the train to Birmingham, smashing bloke) and Alan Carr (I stopped smoking because of his book). Happy reading!

Merry Christmas

2011-12-23T14:08:00.000+01:00

From me to you: my Twitter haiku 2009-2011:
http://twimagination.com/c3nc

The Adventures of Tintin

2011-11-22T10:29:00.000+01:00

Steven Spielberg’s performance capture 3D film ”The Adventures of Tintin” is charming, funny, and action-packed. Too bad that it just isn’t Tintin!

Born and raised in Europe I grew up reading the classic comic book series of Tintin, created and drawn by Belgian artist Hergé. What characterises the series is its “ligne claire” style, which Hergé pioneered with Tintin. The style uses clear strong lines with a minimum of hatching and contrasts and it features strong colours and a combination of cartoonish characters against a realistic background, which gives the comic a flat aspect. The style is so essential to Tintin that without it there is no Tintin at all and sadly Spielberg has chosen to discard the style all together. This is clear from the beginning where in the 2D intro Spielberg pays homage to his own Saul Bass inspired “Catch Me If You Can” intro rather than Hergés ligne claire style. Although the Tintin intro includes elements from the comic books, it doesn’t include the right colours or the strong lines, which is very disappointing. Especially as the intro is Spielberg’s only chance of using the ligne claire style, as the film itself is so realistic due to its 3D performance capture technique that it could as well have been an “ordinary” film.

”The Adventures of Tintin” (also known as “The Secret of the Unicorn”) is based on three of the original comic books: “The Crab with the Golden Claws” (1941), “The Secret of the Unicorn” (1943), and “Red Rackham's Treasure” (1944). Despite the use of three different books as its source, the plot is good and easy to follow. It tells the story of Tintin, a young Belgian reporter, who buys a model ship named the Unicorn and suddenly finds himself pursued by the sinister Mr. Sakharine. Tintin and his fox terrier Snowy join forces with the drunk Captain Haddock and the incompetent detectives Thomson and Thompson in an adventure that leads them to Morocco and the unveiling of the secret of Red Rackham’s Treasure. So far, so good. The plots in Hergé’s comic books are usually adventures mixed with slapstick humour and elements from fantasy, science fiction and political thrillers, added satirical, political and cultural commentaries, but somehow Spielberg has managed to turn his plot into a very American, political correct action film. Annoying!

Another thing that is annoying is the way that the characters are being portrayed in the film. In fact it’s difficult to recognise some of them because they are extremely fat with HUGE noses! WHY?? The only one with a small nose is Tintin, but where Hergé’s Tintin is as blank as a canvas with hardly any personality, Spielberg’s Tintin (played by Jamie Bell) is charming, funny, passionate and…well…a human being! A genuine likeable hero as opposed to the original boring idealist. Hergé’s permanently drunk, swearing, cynical and grumpy Captain Haddock isn’t quite himself, either. Not only is he fat and huge-nosed, he has turned into a bit of a whiner in Spielberg’s version as well, a self-pitying drinker who is ashamed of his drinking and who doesn’t swear very much. He is played by Andy Serkis, whereas the detectives Thomson and Thompson are played by Nick Frost and Simon Pegg. Thomson and Thompson (who are not related in any way, they just look alike except for their moustaches), are the fattest of them all in Spielberg’s version (again WHY?), but at least they are as stupid as in the comic books. The same can’t be said about Tintin’s dog Snowy. In the comic books the dog is really stupid, but in the film he’s as clever a Lassie! Why?? I also wonder why “the Milanese Nightingale”, opera singer Bianca Castafiore (played by Kim Stengel), has the face of a man? And why isn’t she as voluptuous as in the comic books? But she still has a huge nose? And why is the villain Sakharine (Daniel Craig), made to look younger and nicer than the one in the comic books? But with a pretty big nose, too? I’m just wondering.

Sadly Spielberg doesn’t manage to capture the atmosphere of Hergé’s stories or the nature of his characters and with the very special aesthetics of the comic books missing too, you are left with a VERY American action movie. I truly miss the real Tintin, but when that is said, I have to admit that I really liked that film, as it is very entertaining. I do think, however, that the PG rating (in Denmark a PG–7) is wrong, not because of the drinking, swearing and killing in the film, but because of the plot. I think that you have to be at least 10-12 years old to fully understand it. And as a grown-up it’s quite annoying having to share the cinema with hundreds of seven year olds, who are screaming, talking, jumping in their seats, throwing popcorn and being generally bored by a film that is way too “adult” to keep their attention during the 107 minutes that it lasts.

Three out of five stars: ***

Mirror Boy

2011-11-03T16:10:00.000+01:00

“Spiegeljongen” (“Mirror Boy”) from 2010 is the Dutch author Floortje Zwigtman’s third and final novel about Adrian Mayfield, a young gay model and journalist living in Victorian London. Like its predecessors - ”Schijnbewegingen” and ”Tegenspel”- the novel hasn’t been published in English, only in Dutch and German, and as usual I read it in German. Here the novel is called ”Auf Leben und Tod” (“On Life and Death”).

The year is 1895 and Adrian has turned 18 years old. Because Adrian used to be a rent boy, his lover, the conservative painter Vincent Farley, has kicked him out and Adrian has lost everything; his job, his home and first and foremost his love. In London Oscar Wilde is on trial for homosexuality and the gays are panicking, some fleeing to Paris, others committing suicide and the ones like Vincent repressing their gay tendencies by seeking female company. When Adrian finds out that Vincent plans to marry the innocent Octavia Webb, he goes mad with hate and jealousy and joins forces with the decadent, transsexual Lady Kinderly in order to get his revenge. The “lady” specialises in kidnapping young children from London and selling them to brothels in Paris, so when Vincent goes to Paris to propose to Octavia, Adrian follows him together with Lady Kinderly, her male nurse Chris, her foster “daughter” Eliza (who is really a boy) and three kidnapped children. The revenge doesn’t go as planned, so back in London Adrian decides to expose Vincent’s homosexuality, thereby bringing not only Vincent but the entire Farley family down. Vincent’s brother Stuart gets in his way, though, and suddenly Adrian is the hunted, fighting for his life.

Although a lot of new characters are introduced such as Lady Kinderly and her posse, we get to meet all of the old gang in “Spiegeljongen” as well. Adrian’s family and old friends all have a part to play and so have Oscar Wilde, Lord Bosie, Aubrey Beardsley, Augustus Trops etc. and we get a closure on all of the characters, which is very fulfilling. Furthermore the trial of Oscar Wilde is always in the background of the story and Zwigtman uses it skilfully to show the hate and fear, which embraced homosexuals in Victorian London.

“Spiegeljongen” is more dramatic, darker and scarier than its predecessors, as Adrian’s hate and madness permeate the story, but still he is one of the most interesting, sympathetic and complex protagonists in modern literature with his matter-of-fact look on life and his sarcastic sense of humour. I just love that guy! The story is high-paced, thorough and well-researched and as such the novel is a worthy ending of a trilogy that – in my humble opinion – is the best I have ever read. If I have to say something negative about it, I can’t, but one thing that struck me as odd was the epilogue. Zwigtman ends the book with a “27 years later”-epilogue and although I know it’s a very popular thing to do nowadays, it is also a bit weird, especially as the narrator is no longer Adrian, but Vincent. I could have lived without it, but I guess Zwigtman wanted to make absolutely sure that her readers got the aforementioned fulfilling closure on all of her characters.

Each volume of the Adrian Mayfield trilogy is a masterpiece on its own and “Spiegeljongen” is no exception. Despite the explicit gay sex scenes, you don’t have to be gay to read it and despite it being (wrongfully!) labelled a young adult book, you don’t have to be a teenager, either. You don’t even have to be a fan of Oscar Wilde, just read it! On each of the 640 pages, Zwigtman shows her superiority as both a writer and a storyteller, and I for one wasn’t able to put the book down, but had to read it in one go. I sure hope that the entire trilogy is going to be published in English soon, because this masterpiece deserves to be read by as many people as possible. To be honest, if I had the power, I would nominate Floortje Zwigtman to the Nobel Prize in literature any day!

Five out of five stars: *****

Terry Jones: “Furious Resonance”

2011-10-27T08:07:00.000+02:00

Riding trains can be boring. It can be fun, too and sometimes quite surprising. Earlier this year I was on a train bound for Birmingham, UK. As usual I was writing, minding my own business, when suddenly I heard a voice say, ”Are you writing a novel?” The owner of the voice was Terry Jones. Not THAT Terry Jones from Monty Python, but the editor, writer and former lecturer at Carlisle College Terry Jones

Terry Jones writes poetry and we made a pact then and there on the train. I was to buy his collection of poems ”Furious Resonance” that was just about to be published in the Poetry Salzburg Pamphlet series, whereas he was to buy the ones of my books that have been published in English. So far I don’t know if he has kept his promise, but I sure have kept mine and what a pleasure it was to read ”Furious Resonance”.

It says on the back of the book that the collection ”explores how the spaces of the past and the present, the personal and the political, the conscious and the unconscious, and the living and the dead re-sound across cultures and languages in sympathy or protest with each other.” Big words, but true as “Furious Resonance” is a remarkable collection of poetry. The twenty-four poems make you think, laugh and listen, because Terry Jones has a way with words. His way of using the English (and German and Xhosa!) language is unique, because this is an intelligent poet with something on his heart and mind and an own voice to express it.

Jones’ poetry flows easily. Notice for instance the almost hypnotical cadence of the long poem “Sun” which prevails despite the huge differences in voice and verse in the four parts of the poem. Or what about the imagery of the poem “Sleep-Talking”? An everyday observation made into art. My own favourite is, however, “Preservations”, an unsettling poem about the burning of dictionaries.

“Furious Resonance” is one of the best collections of poems I have read within recent years and to think; if I hadn’t been on that train going to Birmingham that day in May, I would probably never have read it! So the next time someone asks my why I don’t have a driver’s license, my answer is going to be: because I like good poetry!

Terry Jones: “Furious Resonance”, Poetry Salzburg Pamphlet Series (PSPS) 5, 2011
ISBN 978-3-901993-35-0
Four out of five stars: ****

Harry Potter Festival 2011

2011-10-23T15:28:00.001+02:00

The 9th Harry Potter Festival took place here in Odense, Denmark on October 20-22, 2011. During the first seven years of the festival kids were able to attend Hogwarts, where they took classes in Transfiguration, Defence Against the Dark Arts, Charms, Potions, History of Magic, Herbology and Care of Magical Creatures, the subjects being taught by McGonagall, Snape, Hagrid and the rest of the staff. Last year Hogwarts was closed because J. K. Rowling came to town and she needed the building for reading to children and having lunch with the notabilities of Odense. As Hogwarts is the core of the festival, we naturally expected Hogwarts to open again this year, but we were sorely disappointed. It seems that Odense City and Odense Library that finance the festival have decided to close Hogwarts for good and try other things instead. Bad decision, if you ask me!

Thursday the festival took off with a ride on the Hogwarts Express. Kids aged 8 to 12 turned up in their school uniforms on platform 9 ¾ on Odense Station at 5.17 p.m. Here they boarded the old steam engine and at 5.43 p.m. they were off. My daughter was on the train and she wasn’t impressed. The kids were seated in three coaches, McGonagall, Mad-Eye Moody and Hagrid looking after them. After a thirty minutes ride, they got off at a small station and on a nearby parking lot they watched a short fire show, young people juggling and performing tricks with fire. Then it was back to the Hogwarts Expres for the return trip. The kids were handed apples and Bertie Bott’s Every Flavour Beans and at some point the lights disappeared and the train came to a stand-still. The kids were told that they were under attack by Dementors, but shortly after the lights came back and the train started moving again. According to my daughter the trip wasn’t worth the money (£7.50 for a 75 minutes ride).

On day two of the Harry Potter Festival, Odense City opened what they called Diagon Alley in the city centre. This was a new feature. In town we have an old alley called “Vintapper Straede” (Tapster Alley) so obviously it had to be made into Diagon Alley. The problem was, however, that Odense City clearly hadn’t read the books! The only thing Diagon Alley-related in the alley was Gringotts Wizarding Bank whereas the rest of the alley consisted of workshops where you could make your own owl, halloween pumpkin, wicker baskets etc. You could play chess, draw pictures or learn magic tricks at a Weasley Workshop and there was a fortune teller and someone doing face paint, too, but nothing that had to do with Diagon Alley. Madam Puddifoot’s Tea Salon was there as well as Scrivenshaft’s Quill Shop (in fact they shared the same building), but as far as I know they are not situated in Diagon Alley, but in Hogsmeade! Furthermore Madame Puddifoot’s Tea Salon was far from romantic; in fact it was just an empty shop with a few plastic tables and chairs. Very disappointing. Oh well, at least Gringotts was amazing. The goblins were really scary this year!

In the evening Odense City and the library had organised a Harry Potter Concert. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to go, but friends of mine who went were duly impressed. Like last year during Rowling’s visit, Odense Symphony Orchestra played Harry Potter music while characters from the books entertained the audience. This year the music consisted of John Williams’ “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone Suite”, Nicholas Hooper’s “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince Suite” and Patrick Doyle and John Williams’ “Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire Suite”. The suites were arranged by Jerry Brubaker and directed by Per-Otto Johansson and consisted of 23 pieces of music all in all. My own personal favourite, Nicholas Hooper’s “Fireworks”, was not among them, which I found quite odd as apart from “Hedwig’s Theme” it is the most popular and most recognisable of the Harry Potter music. The concert lasted from 5.01 p.m. to 6.31 p.m.

Saturday was the big finale, the Harry Potter Market, where the city centre turned into a cross between Diagon Alley and Hogsmeade for four hours, starting at 11.01 a.m. As usual Professor Snape gave potion lessons in his dungeons in the old town monastery and Professor Sprout taught kids how to pot young mandrakes in Herbology class, the kids wearing earmuffs as the plants were screaming awfully! Of course Professor Sprout had to give lessons in Diagon Alley as Hogwarts was closed. In the nearby park you were able to play Quidditch, and in the town square you could visit different shops such as Gringotts Wizarding Bank, Ollivander’s, The Daily Prophet, Eeylops Owl Emporium, Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions, Quality Quidditch Supplies and Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes. As usual only George was there. We have never had a Fred. The Leaky Cauldron was open as well, but this year I think they had joined forces with Honeydukes, as they were selling candy, too!

Like last year Hagrid’s hut behind Hogwarts was occupied by a fortune teller while Hagrid was away, doing guided tours on the Hogwarts Express. And like last year The Weird Sisters gave a string of concerts while St. Mungo’s Hospital for Magical Maladies took care of the ones who had done “The Hippogriff” a little too enthusiastically. You could also visit the Mirror of Erised, duel Death Eaters or join a lookalike contest. As something new you were able to participate in a Harry Potter clue hunt using GPS, but not many did that as you had to hand in your mobile phone as security!

Usually our Mayor plays the part of Dumbledore and the international footballer Thomas Helveg is Madam Hooch while the rest of the Harry Potter characters are played by professional actors, magicians, opera singers and of course loads of volunteers. This year most of “the usual suspects” were gone, though, only Snape, Hagrid and Voldemort being the same as usual, whereas new people played the rest of the characters. Some had just switched characters, for instance the guy who used to be Krum was now Mad-Eye Moody. Of new characters this year were Dobby and Bellatrix Lestrange, Bellatrix being extremely good. Her psychotic laughter could be heard all over the city centre, sending chills down people’s spines!

The Harry Potter Market is always a huge success as it is fun, action packed and cheap. For £2 (that’s about $3.75) you get 500 galleons in Gringotts and that is all that you need in order to try out everything, eat at The Leaky Cauldron and buy wands, brooms etc. More than 4,000 people visit the market each year and this success is now threatening the squash the festival. The Harry Potter shops are simply too small and the volunteers too few, so visitors spend most of their time standing in line, waiting to be served, which is very frustrating, especially to the kids. I hope Odense City and the library are going to have the courage to think big before the 10 year anniversary next year as I’m sure the festival is going to draw even more people then. It would be fairly easy to use even more of the city centre area and to involve more volunteers and please, please re-open Hogwarts! Let’s make this festival the best of its kind next year!

Pottermore

2011-10-10T14:35:00.000+02:00

Pottermore is a Sony sponsored website by J. K. Rowling that is supposed to let people experience the world of Harry Potter. As I’m one of the lucky few (1 million!!) with early admission to Pottermore, I’ve been on for about six weeks now and I’ve come to know the website pretty well. I know it’s only the Beta version so far, so a lot of things are probably going to change and hopefully they will, as there is way too little to see and do on the site as it is right now.

The Pottermore website is interactive, which basically means that you can move through the seventeen chapters of “Harry Potter and The Philosopher’s Stone”. It is called “a virtual reading experience”, but you don’t have to read the books to be on Pottermore. You won’t understand much of what is going on, though, if you haven’t read the books in advance and sometimes you can’t even move on without knowing certain details from the books.

On the website each chapter is divided into two or more interactive “moments” where you are able to get background information on characters, places and objects, in fact it says that the site is going to provide “over 18,000 words of additional content including background details and settings”. I guess most people don’t realise that 18,000 words are less than ten pages, so it isn’t very much, but I must admit that what I’ve read so far has been funny and enlightening.

On Pottermore you are also able to locate and collect different objects, books and galleons that will be added to your trunk or bank account. You’ll get your own bank account at Gringotts as well as a wand at Olivander’s and you’ll get sorted when you reach Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. I’m a Ravenclaw, of course. Always have been, always will be, no matter how or where I’m sorted. At Hogwarts you are supposed to be able to brew potions and participate in duels, too, but the duel page is down and more often than not the potion page freezes. Tough luck.

The visual side of Pottermore is really nice although the choice of keeping everything dark and shadowy is a bit strange and alienating. You don’t really see any of the characters, so you feel pretty much alone in this artificial universe. The website is 3 dimensional, making it possible to get deep into the layers of the “moments” but there is not enough to do as each “moment” only has two or three things to read and/or collect and that is way too little. I managed to get through the entire first book within an hour! The shopping at Diagon Alley and the sorting at Hogwarts were far the best “moments” because you could spent more time there than in any other “moments”. Still, I don’t feel that Pottermore really caters to the many HP fans and the lack of sound, be it music or background noises, is a big mistake. It just feels…empty.

While on Pottermore you compete with the other houses for the House Cup by gaining points. You gain points from brewing potions, winning duels and finding hidden objects, but as the duels page is down and the potion page freezes, I’m only able get points by finding objects. There are about 41 hidden in the first book and each one gets you 1 point, so how some of my fellow Ravenclaw students have got 8,000 points already, I don’t know. I still haven’t reached 40!

Pottermore is supposed to be a place where Harry Potter fans meet, play, chat and hang out. You can add friends to your account – if you know their Pottermore usernames, that is. You don’t choose your username yourself, so you have to live with whatever the website chooses for you. I have one that makes me sound like a very old, wicked reptile, but at least it isn’t as ridiculous as some of the other names, I’ve encountered. Anyway, it’s difficult to add friends as you’re not supposed to tell your username to anyone, so in the end you add friends randomly. At least the 14 friends I have on Pottermore are total strangers who have probably added me for the same reason that I have added them: to have someone to duel with whenever the duel page is back! I’ve never chatted with any of them for sure.

Well, all in all Pottermore could become an interesting website once we are out of the Beta period. I hope to see a lot of improvement to the site by the end of October 2011 when registration will open to everyone. Hopefully the next book “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets” will then be accessible, too, as frankly, six weeks of “Harry Potter and The Philosopher’s Stone” is getting on my nerves! By the time that registration opens to everyone I’m sure that Pottermore is going to launch the part of the website that reveals its true purpose: to sell e-book and audiobook versions of the seven Harry Potter novels. We haven’t seen that in the Beta version, but don’t be fooled. Selling books is what Pottermore is all about. Happy buying!

Gurls

2011-09-28T09:52:00.001+02:00

I was watching telly with my daughter the other day. She’s a pre-teen and into crap TV such as “The X Factor”, “Survivor”, “Teen Mom” etc. Recently she has started watching a show called “My Mom and Me”. She is watching the Danish version and the other day the show was about a mother and her teenage daughter having a mother-daughter day out. And what did they do on that day? They took the train to Copenhagen to have their breasts enlarged! Not only that, but Mom had bought porn magazines for her and her young teenage daughter to look through on the train in order for them to figure out which size breasts they wanted. When I saw that, something snapped inside me. I’m not prude, on the contrary, but the sight of a mother teaching her daughter to pick porn stars as her role models and that happiness lies in a pair of fake boobs was appalling to me. When I pointed it out to my daughter, she just shrugged her shoulders and said, ”That’s how it is today, Mum. All the girls want fake boobs to look good for the boys."
That appalled me even more and when I mentioned that life ought to be about more than just look good for the boys, my daughter rolled her eyes and said, ”You’re so old-fashioned, Mum. Maybe it was different when you were young, but nowadays all that matters is how you look and you HAVE to look like a porn star to be liked.”
Well, of course I know that women have always been judged by their looks, but we have to look like porn stars now? Really? I began to do a bit of research into the ways that youngsters see themselves and each other and to my horror I found that daughter is right.

When I was a kid, girls wanted to be astronauts, doctors, designers, artists or at least schoolteachers. Then came a time where everybody wanted to be singers or actresses, but nowadays girls don’t even want to be supermodels anymore. No, their role models are strippers and porn stars and the girls on reality shows like “Paradise Hotel” who have sex on TV.
The generation of women before me fought for equal rights and my generation continued the fight, but the generations after me have never really cared. They have been raised under the illusion that men and women are equal with equal rights and equal pay and somewhere in this fake equality, the gender roles have suddenly been emphasised in order to differentiate between men and women.
The young women of today don’t preach equality, they preach differentiation, but they do it on men’s conditions. Although many of these women are well-educated, they advocate a view on women where women are seen as horny, unrestrained creatures who don’t deserve any respect, consideration, let alone love, as all they are good for is a quick roll in the hay. You don’t believe me? Well, then go to the nearest night club!

In any night club whether it is in Denmark, England or the United States, you’ll find today’s young women dressed like whores. They wear very skimpy outfits, very high heels, tons of make-up and no knickers, just like street whores, and not only that. They behave like whores as well. Girls turning barsexual for the boys is pretty common, the girls kissing, groping and masturbating each other on the dance floor in order to attract the attention of boys. It’s sickening and it doesn’t stop here. According to recent statistics many girls as young as 14 are not only having “ordinary” sex on a regular basis, they also have “advanced” sex such as anal sex, group sex and SM. The only explanation, that the experts are able to give, is that TV, commercials and the entertainment industry as such are teaching girls to act like this. In the media girls and women are portrayed as being content, in fact even happy with a status as objects, not subjects, in a male dominated world and experts think that young girls copy this behaviour in order to fit in. We are back not just to the 1950s, but to a place that is even further back in time, or maybe we have reached a place where we have never been before?
Even before the women’s lib movement women had at least some respect if as nothing else then as mothers, but today the respect is gone and girls are reduced to boobs and cunts and nothing else. Never before in modern society has it been that widespread accepted to regard and treat women as non-human creatures only put in the world in order to please men sexually.

The problem is that nobody seems to do anything about it, neither men nor women. Of course some men have always wanted women to be just sexy whores with nymphomaniac tendencies, but some men wanted strong women, too. They don’t anymore or maybe the ones who do have disappeared, in any case the entire media industry has gained the view that women are boobs and cunts only. In adverts for products as diverse as Nando’s, Axe or the Danish CULT Shaker, women are portrayed as beautiful, dumb, naked creatures who only have one thing on their minds: to fuck. Pardon my French, but it’s the most precise word for it. The worst thing is that young girls are buying this image, heck some girls like Katy Perry or the Pussycat Dolls even promote it, but then again, with a name like Pussycat Dolls, what did you expect? Don't cha wish your girlfriend was hot like me? No, thanks!
As for Katy Perry and her California Gurls, if all you are good for is getting sand in your stilettos while melting guys’ popsicles with your hot, sun-kissed skin, I’m afraid you’re not that unforgettable. You’re just poor role models teaching young girls that they have to play it dumb and spread their legs to everyone if they want success. Is that anything to be proud of? I don’t think so.

This morning I heard on the radio that in one third of all Danish relationships women earn more money than their men. Because of that, many women get divorced, so Denmark has a lot of well-educated, single women, whereas the single men are mostly unskilled workers. The MALE expert then came to the conclusion that women become unhappy if men don’t provide for them! At first I thought, what? Have I missed something? How did he come to that conclusion? But no, I hadn’t missed anything, and the expert explained, that women, who have a higher education than their husbands, divorce them in order to find a well-educated man, but as all the well-educated men are already taken, the women are doomed to live alone, thereby being unhappy. Had the women refrained from getting an education and a well-paid job and instead let men provide for them, they wouldn’t be living in misery. Oh, my God! And this is 2011!
That male expert didn’t mention at all that maybe women are happy with having good jobs and earning good money. Maybe it’s the men who divorce the women, as most men don’t want women who are either smarter or earn more or both. Because that’s how it is. It bruises the male ego if a woman is smarter or richer, so she gets dumps. I know it. I’ve been there several times and so have most of my girlfriends. But what about our egos? Are we just to be poor, stupid, uneducated sex objects? Yes, the expert said. Then we’ll be happy because the only thing that makes a woman truly happy is to have a man who takes care of her. Bullshit, I say! I love men, I fall in love with men, but this is too far out. Unfortunately it’s also what is passed on in today’s society as “expert knowledge” and the young girls believe in it as no one tells them differently.

So I beg you; please, don’t let this go on. Please, tell your daughter, sister, niece that her happiness doesn’t depend on pleasing boys. Tell her that being sexy and being bright doesn’t rule each other out. Tell her that it is okay to earn more money than the boys and that she is worth just as much as any boy no matter what she looks like. Let her know that she has the right to stand up for herself and create the life that she wants instead of just being a sex provider in the life of a man. Let her know that playing the dumb nympho never solves any problems. And let your sons, brothers, nephews know that they have to treat girls with respect, consideration and politeness, no matter who they are and what they look like. Amen!

OFF11

2011-09-01T11:28:00.000+02:00

August is festival-time here in Odense, Denmark. Not only do we have the annual Flower Festival, we also have Odense International Film Festival, a festival that concentrates on short films, animation and documentaries. OFF11 took place on August 22-27.

First of all I have to congratulate the powers behind OFF. This was the 26th time that the festival took place and finally, FINALLY, it had solved its major problems. Up until now the festival has suffered from too little room and insufficient technical equipment. In earlier years screenings were often cancelled due to problems with screening films in the proper formats and more often than not it was impossible to see the films anyway, as there was no room for the many people from all over the world, who attended this free festival. These problems had been fixed this year. The equipment actually worked and instead of screening each film two times, most of them were screened three times so everybody had a chance to see them. Unfortunately the many screenings of each film meant, that OFF11 didn’t have as many films as previous OFF festivals.

Most of the films at OFF compete for different awards. This year the International Grand Prix was won by the short film “Little Children, Big Words” made by Lisa James-Larsson, Sweden. The National Grand Prix was won by Danish Malou Reymann’s short film “13” and best animation by Swedish Jonas Odell’s “Tussilago”. The Audience Award went to the Danish documentary “Asger” by Signe Markvard and The Youth Jury Award to the Danish short film “To All My Friends” by Behrouz Bigdeli. I must say that I was astonished by these choices.

First of all I found it very odd that all the awards went to either Danish or Swedish films. It seemed VERY “clannish” when you think of the fact that the majority of films were non-Scandinavian. I guess it has something to do with all the jurors being Danish except for one, namely the Spanish Montserrat Guiu Valls, Managing Director of the Huesca International Film Festival. I think the festival ought to bring back huge international directors as jurors like in the early years.

Secondly I was…well, sad to see that all the winners – like last year – were so damn political correct! Among the winners there was no room for all the crazy, funny, strange and innovative films that used to be the trademark of OFF. These kinds of films were still around on the festival, but they didn’t stand a change of winning and I think that’s wrong. The main idea with OFF has always been to show the unexpected, the new and the creative, so why did the winners have to be so predictable and even boring? To me it seemed like the festival had lost part of its soul.

My own personal favourites didn’t stand many chances to win this year. Had it been up to me the French short film “The Piano Tuner” by Olivier Treiner would have won the International Grand Prix. The story of the piano tuner who pretends to be blind was surprising, funny and scary. For the National Grand Prix my winner would have been the Danish “Meeting My Father Kasper Hojhat” by Lea Glob, a very personal and witty documentary on how the director tries to construct the life of her father (a bank robber and magician who committed suicide after fourteen years in prison). Best animation for me was the Canadian “Sunday” by Patrick Doyon, because let’s face it, Canadians are simply the best when it comes to animation. My personal Youth Jury Award would have gone to the Polish “Mission To Mars”, a frightening short film telling the story of a Polish urban legend, and my Audience Award would have gone to the Spanish short film “The Screamers” by Roberto Pérez Toledo. It was probably the shortest of all the films – only 1 minute long – and hilarious.

As always Odense Film Festival offered a lot of other things than just the film award competitions. This year there were free concerts, open air screenings, seminars, workshops, talent camp, summer dance, Master Shorts, Pixar screenings, Club OFF and my own favourite “The Old Theatre” or “The Old Cinema” as it was called this year. This year the silent movies screened at The Old Theatre were the two Chaplin movies “The Cure” and “The Immigrant” from 1917, the Laurel & Hardy movie “You’re Darn Tootin’/The Music Blasters” from 1928 and finally the masterpiece “Strike” by Sergej Eisenstein from 1925. Like previous years the silent movies were accompanied divinely on piano by composer Lars Fjeldmose and introduced by the witty and insightful film historian Ulrich Breuning. If ever you come to OFF, “The Old Theatre” is a must!

After a week at OFF11 my hunger for short films, animation and documentaries has been satisfied, at least for now. But I’ll be back for more next year, so see you at OFF12.

Odense Flower Festival, 2011

2011-08-21T14:11:00.000+02:00

Last year I boycotted the annual Flower Festival here in Odense, Denmark. The event used to sport spectacularly imaginative displays of flowers, but over the years it had turned into a simple flower market selling potted plants and I didn’t like that. I believe in second chances, though, so I gave the Flower Festival a new shot this year.
Each year the festival has a new theme and that way we’ve seen dinosaurs, the European capitals, the French revolution, most of Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tales and an entire zoo here in Odense, all made of flowers. This year the theme was Nordic Mythology and I had really expected a lot from that, so boy was I disappointed!

First of all there were hardly any displays. Where the festival used to cover the entire city centre, it was limited to two parks, three streets and five squares this year, the Town Square included. Secondly no one seemed to have bothered to make any decent floral sculptures. Most of them were just cheap metal sculptures with a few potted plants on the side. Thirdly a lot of the sculptures were recycled and originated from other displays. Thus a Lock Ness Monster that used to be situated in the harbour of Bogense town was now the Midgard serpent here in Odense, and the sculpture of Clumsy Hans that is usually situated behind the Hans Christian Andersen Museum had been altered to look like the Norse God Thor!

There were a few high lights, though, like the steel wire sculptures of Odin and Thor in the Town Square, the floral Vikings opposite the Cathedral and the poetic tree of life, Yggdrasil, in the Hospital Church.

The best part of the Flower Festival was, however, not the flowers, it was Joana Vasconcelos’ exhibition “Jardim do Eden” (the garden of Eden) in Brandt’s exhibition centre. In a totally dark room Vasconcelos had created a labyrinth consisting of transparent, colourful plastic flowers illuminated by thousands and thousands of little LED fairy lights. Small engines created movement and humming sounds, and walking through this in the darkness was absolutely magic!

Another great thing was the many free concerts in the Town Square. One of the concerts was by the local band “Tankens Bager” (The Baker of Thoughts) and as their frontman is a friend of mine since childhood I fully enjoyed that.

To make a long story short, the flower displays this year were shite (pardon my French), but the extra features were great!

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, part 2

2011-07-13T18:41:00.001+02:00

“Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” part 2 is the last film of eight in the saga of Harry Potter. In other words: it is the one to end it all. There has been a lot of hype about it and it is has been mentioned as the epic ending of an era and in a way it is, but…

The plot
I saw the film on July 13th, 2011 at the first screening on the first day of its release here in Denmark. Although the screening took place in a small cinema that seated only 135 people, less than 50 turned up, mostly young kids and teenagers and the press, some there to review the film, others to interview the audience. It was rather annoying, especially as the press photographers kept photographing the audience during the first fifteen minutes of the film.
When we were finally able to watch the film without the irritating click-click-click noises all the time I was… No, I won’t say I was disappointed, but that’s because I’ve come to expect very little from the HP films since David Yates took over directing the saga in 2007 with HP5, “Harry Potter and The Order of The Phoenix”. Since then the Potter films have lost some of their magic (at least for me) as Yates has a way of jumping from scene to scene without any explanation and leaving out the insights into and depths of the characters that should hold the scenes together. HP7 part 2 is no exception.
In “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” part 2 Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe), Ron Weasley (Rupert Grint) and Hermione Granger (Emma Watson) are still out to find and destroy Horcruxes, the objects in which the evil Lord Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes) has hidden parts of his soul. That leads to a huge battle at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, a battle that takes up 70 of the film’s 130 minutes. The battle is the main story of the film and in fact, the two first stops at respectively Shell Cottage and Gringotts Wizarding Bank would have been better placed in “Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows” part 1. They seem a bit out of place in HP7 part 2, although the Gringotts scenes are among the best in the film. Like in the book, the film ends with a “19 Years Later” epilogue, rather pointless, but necessary as there is a certain feeling of emptiness after the battle.

The cast
I don’t know what to say about the cast this time, I really don’t, as most of them don’t even have lines, but just run around in the background. The focus is on Harry, Ron, Hermione and Voldemort and apart from them only Dumbledore (Michael Gambon), Snape (Alan Rickman), Luna Lovegood (Evanna Lynch) and Neville Longbottom (Matthew Lewis). have lines of real importance.
At one point in the books it wasn’t clear if The Chosen One was Harry Potter or Neville Longbottom and when you watch HP7 part 2 you get to wonder as this film is truly Neville’s. Next to Harry he is by far THE most important character and Matthew Lewis portrays him so well. Very convincing. The only other actor I noticed was Maggie Smith as Professor McGonagall. She’s just brilliant. The rest of the cast never really gets to show their skills, but that has been a problem ever since David Yates took over directing.
As for my own favourite characters, the Weasley twins, they are hardly in the film. George Weasley (Oliver Phelps) has two lines and Fred (James Phelps) says one single word and that’s it. As far as I understand, the scene in which they speak wasn’t even in the original script, but the Phelps twins were called back to adlib it, as otherwise they wouldn’t have had any lines at all. To me it was sad to see these great characters more or less reduced to extras.

True to the book
A good thing about “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” part 2 is that it stays true to the book. The few twists and turns it takes are mostly good and the events at Gringotts and the first big battle at Hogwarts are truly epic. Unfortunately the second battle (well, you can hardly call it a battle as we only see two duels!) and Snape’s last scene are not epic at all and not what I had expected from reading the book.
Another thing I had looked forward to was the return of the prodigal son, Percy Weasley (Chris Rankin), but that scene doesn’t exist in the film. Percy is just there, no explanation given, and that’s another ongoing problem since Yates got on board. Things are not properly explained. For instance we hear Remus Lupin (David Thewlis) talk about his son, but in the films we have never learned that he and Tonks (Natalia Tena) had a baby! It’s like in HP6 when they were suddenly married without the audience having heard about their love affair. Pretty confusing if you haven’t read the books.
Instead of Remus talking about his son I would rather have had the film dwell on the deaths of some of the main characters and the reactions from their loved ones, but unfortunately the film is true to the book here as well. Suddenly a number of people have died and we never learn how. In fact not even the long awaited “death by wall” incident from the book has made it to the film. We never get to see it! Very frustrating.

The end
Seeing the Harry Potter saga coming to an end with “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” part 2, I must admit that I had hoped for something else. A more epic ending and an ending that left the audience satisfied when it came to say goodbye to the characters who we have come to know and love through these films over the past ten years. In that way I am disappointed. I never got to say goodbye to the Weasley twins or to Percy. Or to Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, Hagrid, Professor McGonagall, Professor Flitwick and a lot of other characters that had come to mean something to me. And the goodbye to Lucius Malfoy was just so wrong! The only good goodbyes were actually the ones to Dumbledore, Neville and Luna. As for the main characters (the ones in the epilogue), it was a strange goodbye as it showed a status quo, a return to the past disguised as future where the only thing that had changed with the battle against Voldemort was the reputation of a certain Slytherin.
It is always sad to say goodbye, but it is even sadder if you are not allowed to part properly. I guess it has to be this way as HP7 part 2 remains true to the book in the end, so allow me to say my own goodbyes. Goodbye George, goodbye Fred, goodbye Percy, Snape, Lucius, Remus, Sirius, Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, McGonagall, Luna, Ron and the rest. I’m sad that most of you were reduced to extras so I didn’t get to see you shine for the very last time. Goodbye Harry Potter.
Three out of five stars: ***

P.S. I saw the film in 3D and although it isn’t used for much except for in the Gringotts “roller coaster” scene, I like the special Harry Potter 3D glasses that the cinema handed out. Too bad that they are too small to wear for people like me and Harry Potter who already wear glasses, but the bag is neat!

Censorship

2011-06-20T17:14:00.001+02:00

Yesterday I had a frightening experience on Twitter. Each Sunday we have a thing called #writechat where writers meet to discuss writing. Yesterday I asked if people use pen names and why. I got a lot of answers from (American) writers who said they use pen names either because they don’t want their families to read what they are writing or because they are afraid of getting fired from their day jobs as they’re writing erotica. One even sent me an article about a schoolteacher who got fired after 25 years because the parents of her pupils had found out that she wrote romance fiction. A writer from Canada told me that she thought it was an American thing, as she didn’t have that problem in Canada and an American writer wrote me that she thought it was an example of American hypocrisy. I answered that writer, saying that it was probably an American thing. I mean, in Denmark, where I come from, erotica is no big deal, no one would ever get fired from writing that, heck, even our Queen’s husband, Price Consort Henrik writes erotica!

Well, to make a long story short, all hell broke loose because I answered that American writer! Within seconds I was swamped by hate tweets from other American writers blaming me for generalization, for judging other peoples cultures, for being narrow minded (ha-ha-ha!) etc. etc. I didn’t even get to answer that Canadian writer because the hate tweets kept coming. What happened to her and the American one I don’t know, but measured by what happened to me because of me answering one private tweet, I’m not sure if they’re alive anymore. Out of the many writers on #writechat only one – ONE – wrote that everything should be allowed in art. I think he was Norwegian…

Anyway, the whole thing made me think. I always thought that writers were supposed to stick together and fight against censorship and for freedom of speech and not jump the gun on our colleagues if they had a different view than ours. My whole idea of pointing out that if we hide behind pen names because we are afraid of society’s reaction was shot down by the people who’re supposed to fight for the right to say and write whatever we like. Instead I was blamed for being anti-American! Well, I was not judging the US per se, in fact I think it’s a nice country and I have lived in both New York City and Los Angeles, but it was American writers who brought up the problem as being American. All I did was react to it and I’ll continue to do so, because something is wrong if you have to hide behind a pen name in order to avoid getting fired, no matter if it’s in America or Antarctica! If people keep hiding, we’ll never get anywhere and the powers that want to censor and control us have won.

I must say that I was pretty sad and disappointed about the reactions on #writechat yesterday. I guess we still have a long way to go when writers would rather support a system where they can’t use their own names than allow a few (foreign) colleagues to criticize that system, blaming them of being judgmental and narrow minded. I think those writers are going to have a hard time when/if they have their works published as I can’t see how the heck they’re going to handle the critique that any writer gets. And I sure as hell can’t see how we are going to get rid of censorship as long as writers fight each other instead of fighting censorship as a joint community. That’s all. Peace and love, man!

Source Code

2011-06-13T13:29:00.000+02:00

“Source Code” is the second feature film directed by David Bowie's son, Duncan Jones, following the brilliant “Moon” a couple of years ago. This time Duncan Jones has more money and greater studio expectations behind him, and with this new sci-fi thriller he fully lives up to the expectations.

“Source Code” centres on the American army helicopter pilot Captain Colter Stevens (Jake Gyllenhaal) who wakes up on a Chicago commuter train in the body of an unknown man. His last memory is flying in Afghanistan, but now he sits opposite the lovely Christina Warren (Michelle Monaghan) who obviously thinks he’s a teacher called Sean Fentress. Eight minutes later the train explodes and Stevens finds himself in a space pod where he talks to Colleen Goodwin (Vera Farmiga), a woman who is evidently now his commanding officer. Stevens learns that he is part of a government experiment called the Source Code, a program that enables him to cross over into another man's identity in the last eight minutes of his life. Stevens now has to re-live the incident on the commuter train over and over again, gathering clues each time, until he can solve the mystery of who is behind not only the bomb on the train but also bombs that threaten to kill millions in downtown Chicago.

In a way you could say that “Source Code” is a kind of “Groundhog Day” meets Rod Serling, but then again it isn’t. The film asks more of its audience than the average film, it is philosophical, but action packed, too, although the action is more concerned with thinking rather than things exploding. “Source Code” is all about time, identity and multiverses and it gives you plenty of food for thought. I know that the scene where we finally get to see the “real” Colter Stevens is going to haunt me for ages.

I’ll give “Source Code” four out of five stars, although the fourth star goes solely to Duncan Jones. While I sat in the cinema waiting to see the film, he was kind enough to write me on Twitter, saying, “hope you have fun!” Thanks, Duncan, I fully enjoyed it!

Four out of five stars: ****

Sparkle

2011-06-11T16:56:00.001+02:00

The new phenomenon Sparkle has now gone live on www.globalsparkle.com. And what is Sparkle, you may ask. Good question. It’s a social network where stars of sports, music, film, fashion and comedy share short video-clips (usually of 1 to 2 minutes’ duration) of what is going on in their lives. Among the celebrities using Sparkle are dancer Brian Fortuna, actress Emily Atack, supermodel Caprice and then the Phelps twins, who play the Weasley twins in Harry Potter.

It is pretty clever of the Phelps twins to do Sparkle as now that Harry Potter is almost over, they have to maintain a following in order not to be forgotten when what they are famous for is coming to an end. So far there are about 30 clips of the twins on Sparkle, mostly filmed by themselves and most of them being 2 to 3 months old, so it’s old news that you get, you could say.

On Sparkle the twins share moments of their hectic and very privileged lives, all very carefully selected in order to protect their privacy. In fact the most ”private” thing you’ll see are a few clips filmed in their own shared home. Instead some clips include hidden ads for companies like Adidas and Mathiesen & Brooke Tailors Ltd., others promote some of the twins’ favourite charities like The Great Ormond Street Hospital charity or their favourite sports clubs, like Oliver Phelps’ fave FC Aston Villa.

Most of the clips are either funny or informative and held in a positive tone and this way you get a very glossy and edited picture of how it is to be a Phelps twin. There’s nothing gritty there, nothing bad or revealing. In fact the most true-to-life clips are one with James opening Oliver’s rental car door into a tree and one of Oliver and his mates being pulled over by the police outside Las Vegas for speeding.

Watching the twins ”sparkle” as it is called, you can’t help but wonder what it is good for. Fans are gonna love it, at least at first, but after watching for a while you get to wonder if this is such a good idea after all. Although the clips are designed to please fans and protect the private lives of the twins, you get a behind-the-scene picture of the Phelps boys that is probably unintended and at least unexpected. Despite the carefully selected events and the positive tone when sparkling, the twins’ personalities shine through in a way that you haven’t seen before. When interacting, Oliver Phelps comes across as the bossy big brother (he is 13 minutes older than James) and James Phelps as the sheepish little brother. In other words you get a better picture of why their mates call Oliver Grandpa and why James seems so insecure, but is it a picture that fits in with the image they have built up within their fan community?

Recently there has been a huge debate regarding whether or not Twitter is a good idea for celebrities to use, as fans grow weary of their idols’ tweets that are often meaningless and inane and the same could be said about Sparkle. Why do we need to know that Oliver has just eaten an In-N-Out Burger? And why do we need to know that James has difficulties in choosing a lining fabric for his new tuxedo? On Twitter celebrities have started losing their magic and thereby fans because of things like that and I’m afraid the same thing is going to happen to stars using Sparkle, especially stars like the Phelps twins who are on both Sparkle and Twitter. A lot of illusions are going to be shattered and what you end up with are the rather pointless sparkles of two extremely privileged boys leading extraordinary lives.

I’m sure that with Sparkle the Phelps twins are trying to strengthen their image as ordinary, down-to-earth and very approachable guys (and as celebrities come, they really are), but with the clips of them playing golf, getting fringe benefits, attending VIP parties and jet setting around the world, the result is just the opposite. Yes, they are approachable, but they are in a different league and the upper crust life has become so ordinary to them that they don’t even seem to realise. I think that after a while the Phelps twins are going to lose fans over this, because they want to seem approachable, but at the same time they are not willing to share what the fans really want to know. Instead the fans are fobbed off with inane chit-chat about a life so blessed that ordinary people can’t even start to dream about it.

In a way the celebrity “sparkles” are as phoney and staged as a Hollywood movie, because they only show edited versions of the celebrities’ lives. When that is said, I have to admit that I haven’t had enough, yet, but I will at some point, I’m sure. As for now I’m just tagging along for the ride, hoping against hope that the sparkles are going to be a bit more profound in the future.

Collectormania 2011, Milton Keynes, UK

2011-06-01T10:49:00.000+02:00

On May 28th I went to Collectormania in Milton Keynes, UK. I got there by train and only 10 minutes after arriving at MK Central, a coach came to drive people to Collectormania free of charge. The coach stopped just outside the MK Dons Stadium where an awful lot of people were queuing up. Luckily, when the doors to the stadium opened, the queue moved quite quickly and at 9.05 a.m. I found myself in front of the Phelps twins “tent”; a sort of white canopy placed on the concrete above the lower tier.
When the twins turned up a little later, only seven people were in front of me and the twins took their time to talk to everyone and pose for pictures for whoever wanted it. I’d brought a photo that I took of the twins at the gala premiere of HP7 part 1 in Copenhagen, which they signed, and James said that it was one of the loudest premieres they had ever been too. My fellow Villan Oliver got up and gave me a hug and a kiss and he asked me about my trip to the UK and me staying in Sutton Coldfield.
I’d bought the twins wristbands from my local FC and Oliver decided that James was to get the ones in the home colours while he kept the ones in the away colours. I know, wristbands aren’t as inventive as the Ned Gerblansky T-shirt I gave James a couple of years back, but to make up for it, I also gave the twins The Slade Box, a 4 CD anthology containing Slade tunes from 1969 to 1991. Then we had a pic taken and I got a new hug and kiss from Oliver before my five minutes were up.

Walking around the MK Dons Stadium was freezingly cold and I was surprised to see that most of the celebrity guests were placed in flimsy “tents” outside on the concrete while the dealers were inside, warm and cosy. It only took me about an hour to see it all, as there was not much to look at unless you were a major collector of especially Star Wars and Dr. Who memorabilia or porn. A few people were dressed as characters from Dr. Who and Star Trek, there were some Freddie Kruegers, Ghostbusters and HHGTTG guys and then a whole lot of Star Wars types, some of them raising money for the Great Ormond Street Hospital Children's Charity.
I then went to see Nigel Planer (Neil from The Young Ones) and I got an autograph and a pic, but there was no time for talk. He only asked me if my name had an a or in e in the end. He seemed nice enough and I noticed that no flash photography was allowed.

I was freezing seriously now and as it was only 11.30 a.m. I left the stadium and went over to ASDA to shop and get warm. Then back to the stadium in order to queue up for the twins’ photo shoot. The queue was as endless as the one in front of their “tent” and people were freezing their butts off while waiting. To make things worse, it even started raining!
The photo shoot was hilarious and the quickest I have ever attended, the bloke shooting the pictures calling everyone Sir or Madam no matter if they were six or sixty. Each shot took less than five seconds, the twins almost laughing at the photographer who kept repeating, “Step up, Ma’m, that’s nice, Ma’m, you’re done, Ma’m, step up, Sir,” etc. over and over again. Oliver sneaked in a “Hi again” and “Cheers. Thanks for coming,” to me, then I was done there as well.

Literally stiff with cold I went to get a cup of tea, then I walked around and looked at some of the other celebrity guests (no autographs, though, as I was on a budget). I saw David Warner, Robert Englund, David Prowse, Nick Moran, Afshan Azad and Charlotte Skeoch. Englund struck me as a funny guy, David Warner as very bright and the rest were nice, but a bit bored as not many queued up to see them. The queue for the Phelps twins was by far the longest at Collectormania, only challenged by the one for Robert Patrick.
In the meantime the sun had come out, but because of the wind it was a lot warmer outside the stadium than inside and the place slowly emptied. Around 4 p.m. only the people waiting for photos were left and even most of the celebrity guests had gone, except for the Phelps twins. Their photos didn’t show up until 5 p.m., then their queue got even longer as everyone wanted their pics signed. Poor boys, they worked hard for the money!

When finally I was able to leave, it was with mixed thoughts about Collectormania. I think it’s brilliant that the entrance is free and the coaches running to and from the station is a great service. But having such an event at a stadium, that is prone to be windy, is probably not the brightest idea. Furthermore there is too little to see and do if you have to spend the whole day there waiting for pics.
There were many dealers, yes, but most of the stuff that was on sale was the same, and when it’s impossible to take pics of the celebrity guests because they are hidden inside “tents” what are we supposed to do while we wait?
A chill out zone or a bar/restaurant with seats would have been nice, too, as it is very tiring to spend nine hours walking around the stadium as there was nowhere to sit down. You couldn’t even stand still because you’d then freeze to death! To be perfectly honest, hadn’t the Phelps twins been there, I would have regretted going, but as it was, the twins saved my day. Thanks, guys.

Pirates of the Caribbean 4

2011-05-25T09:53:00.000+02:00

Thin plot, great action and an excellent Johnny Depp. That pretty much sums up ”Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides”, the fourth instalment in Disney’s adventure series about Captain Jack Sparrow.

The movie is directed by Rob Marshall and in many ways it marks a new beginning to the series. The old plot from the first three movies, where the love affair between Will (Orlando Bloom) and Elizabeth (Keira Knightley) played a central part, has been replaced by a flimsier plot with the relationship between Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) and Angelica (Penélope Cruz) as the turning point. In “Pirates of the Caribbean 4”, Jack is forced by his former lover Angelica to join Blackbeard's crew and to lead them to the Fountain of Youth. Both the Spanish King Ferdinand VI (Sebastian Armesto) and Captain Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush) are after the Fountain, too, and on the way they have to encounter deathly mermaids and retrieve a couple of silver chalices from a grounded ship.

The plot as such is not very interesting and neither are the characters apart from Johnny Depp’s Jack Sparrow and Geoffrey Rush’s Barbossa. Barbossa is really hilarious this time, serving as a smarmy privateer to the British Navy. It is a pleasant surprise, too, that Keith Richards is repeating his part as Jack’s father Captain Teague and Kevin McNally is back as well as Gibbs, Jack’s former First Mate. I suppose Stephen Graham does an okay job too as Jack’s new funny sidekick Scrum, but here the fun ends for me. Yes, Ian McShane fills the part as Blackbeard, but to be honest I had a hard time telling him apart from both Barbossa and Captain Teague and the love affair between the missionary Philip (Sam Clafin) and the mermaid Syrena (Astrid Berges-Frisbey) is no match to the old Will/Elizabeth love story. That brings us to the other love story of “Pirates of the Caribbean 4”, the one between Jack and Angelica, which just doesn’t ring true. Penélope Cruz is not convincing as Angelica and I don’t know what seems most unlikely; that Angelica grew up in a convent or that she is the true love of Captain Sparrow. She is boring and her thick accent is more than annoying.

When that is said, I must admit that I enjoyed “Pirates of the Caribbean 4”. It is tighter and funnier than part 2 and 3 and I loved the action scenes, the mermaids and Johnny Depp’s acting. Too bad that the 3D effects weren’t used for much, though. You could as well have seen the movie without.

The way “Pirates of the Caribbean 4” ends, I’m sure there’ll be a part 5 in the future. Hopefully without Penélope Cruz. Please, bring back Keira Knightley. Elizabeth ruled!

Three out of five stars: ***

J. K. Rowling press conference in Odense, Denmark, October 19, 2010

2011-05-10T08:22:00.001+02:00

On October 19, 2010 J. K. Rowling received the first “H. C. Andersen Literature Award” in Odense Concert Hall, Denmark. In that connection she gave a press conference where she answered questions from the Danish and foreign press. Here is the transcript:

Q: What do you see as your greatest achievement?
Rowling: It’s a pleasure to put money for example towards medical research. Multiple sclerosis is an area that I’m interested in. That was the disease that killed my mother. To be able to do things like that is a real privilege. I never imagined that I would be able to do that in such a scale. I think I’ve always tried to do something, but it increases your power when you have the resources. I’m proud of that.

Q: What inspires you?
Rowling: Everything, to be honest with you. I really need to write and I needed to write from a very early age. Harry Potter was far from the first thing I had written and I need to write now. It hasn’t gone away. After the publication of the seventh Harry Potter book - which could have been a very, very difficult time for me – for a few days I felt berefted, I thought it was over. The thing that shocked me, the thing that moved me so much and upset me so much, was that I can’t write it anymore: How awful. Getting past that there was only one solution and that was to keep writing. So it’s very difficult for a writer to say what inspires them. It’s a mysterious process, but I remain inspired.

Q: Are you used to adults screaming and shouting when you enter a room like it happened today in the concert hall?
Rowling: It has happened before. I must be honest with you. I did an event in Carnegie Hall in New York which was the closest I’ll ever get to know how it felt to be a Beatle. It was an extraordinary thing and it was very similar today to walk into a room and have a reception like that. I can’t imagine who wouldn’t enjoy that. It was amazing, just fantastic.

Q: The entire Harry Potter story is soon finished in both books and films, so what would you say to all the Harry Potter fans who want more?
Rowling: I would say…oh, goodness, me…I would say, it’s not over in the sense that you can always go back and read them. I think I have probably written my last Harry Potter book, but I’m not going to say never. Always through all these years I’ve always said that I don’t want to rule out the possibility of another book, because I might want to do it. When I’ve had a ten year break – and I say ten years for some reason, but maybe it won’t take that long for me to feel the need again - then it is possible. So don’t be too sad.

Q: What does it mean to you personally to be connected with Hans Christian Andersen and what are you writing on now?
Rowling: He’s the Shakespeare of children’s literature, that’s who he is, that’s how great he was. The standard of his works was so consistently high. What is extraordinary about Andersen is, and I’m aware that like Shakespeare he didn’t invent all of his plots, yet it’s his stories that have become the definitive form. We all know Andersen’s versions from his fairy tales. So it is a massive honour. He was an extraordinary writer. My favourite of his stories is the one with the tin soldier and the paper ballerina, which I think is a beautiful, beautiful story and of course he invented that. That wasn’t a copy story. Yes, it’s an immense honour. What am I writing now? I’m writing several different things now. After the Harry Potter finish, it was as though I had the reverse of writer’s block. All those ideas I’d had to put in notebooks and put aside over the years that I was doing the Harry Potter books, I’m now going to explore. It’s sort of an explosion and it has been fun.

Q: Do your life feel empty now that Harry Potter is over?
Rowling: No, not at all because I’m still working very hard and I’m very fortunate in that I have three children and a very happy marriage. I’m not going to deny that the ending of Harry Potter was immensely difficult in some ways because I’d been writing it for seventeen years and it was seventeen quite turbulent years in my life and I was always able to return to Harry. It was a constancy in my life and I think if I hadn’t had other things in my personal life, after the books were finished it would have been very difficult for me. But no, my life is not empty. It’s the reverse of empty. I have a very busy life.

Q: Are you still in contact with the actors from the movies and are you close to them?
Rowling: Yes. Some more than others. And I can truly say that you’d have to go a long way to meet nicer, more intelligent, well-adjusted young people than those actors. I last saw most of them at the opening of the Harry Potter theme park, which was a really nice reunion. It was lovely and I write to a few of them: We have quite close relationships, which is really nice.

Q: Have you ever been in Odense – Hans Christian Andersen’s town – before and are you going to stay a few days?
Rowling: We arrived yesterday so my husband and I had a small explore yesterday which was very nice. It’s beautiful and I had no idea that Odense is so beautiful so we definitely need to come back and explore it some more.

Q: One of your colleagues in fantasy writing is Stephenie Meyer. Have you read Twilight?
Rowling: I’ve not read Twilight. I merely wrote to Stephenie when she… I don’t know how this happened because I’m not a computer expert, but it was reported in the press that one of her Twilight books had been accessed by someone who shouldn’t have had access to it, which must have been very distressing, and I merey wrote to her then and said that I could identify strongly with the difficulties of writing something that is very eagerly awaited which obviously is mostly pure pleasure, but occasionally it is a little straining. I had journalists searching my dustbins when I was writing Harry Potter and it was sometimes quite surreal. I’m quite glad to be away from that.

Q: What do you see as the future for fantasy for kids?
Rowling: I’ve always said and I maintain this, that there will always be fantasy and I think another author will be sitting here in a hundred years time and they will have written a book about magic. There is something very elemental and primitive and important to us about magic. We seem to have a need for it.

Weezer – Hurley

2011-05-05T15:20:00.000+02:00

Weezer’s eighth studio album Hurley was released in September, 2010. Named after Hurley from Lost, it’s a quaint, up-beat pop rock album and the first one released on an idie label. It combines the elements from former Weezer albums, the intimacy, the anthems, the experimentalism and the out right great songs and you’ll detect threats back to pop and rock from the sixties, seventies, eighties and nineties. It’s entertaining, energetic and enjoyable.
There is not one track on Hurley that I don’t like, but when that is said, I have to admit that I like the first part of the album better than the second. My favourite track is probably Memories, but it’s hard to decide, as there are several contenders. Memories is a catchy, dynamic songs with great lyrics about being Weezer for the past sixteen years seen from front man River Cuomo’s perspective. Truly a hilarious hymn to the band and its past.
Ruling Me is another great track. With its chunky guitars, steadfast drums and efficient chorus, this song is a piece of extremely well-composed pop rock.
Unspoken is also favourite of mine. Don’t let the acoustic guitar and Rivers Cuomo’s sweet vocal at the start of the track fool you. It builds up, the lyrics gets darker, the drums harder and the strings and guitars aggressive. True grit.
Finally I have to mention Where’s My Sex? I really like that track. Never mind if the lyrics are about sex or socks, I like the heavy guitars and overall sound, although the middle section seems a little out of place and like a completely different song.
As for the four bonus tracks, I like them all, especially All My Friends Are Insects written by Adam Deibert and Represent (Rocked Out Mix), the unofficial theme song for the US Men's Soccer team..
In short I find Hurley a great Weezer album. There’s something for everyone, no matter what Weezer era you prefer and it’s a good introduction album if you’ve never heard Weezer before. Thumbs up!

ABIII

2011-05-03T11:36:00.000+02:00

ABIII is the third album from Alter Bridge, released in October, 2010. Quickly fans and critics came to agree: this album is one of the best rock records of 2010 and I think they’re right. The album is darker than Alter Bridge’s previous ones and it’s not as easily digested, which is very becoming. It shows Miles Kennedy as the excellent front man that he is, Mark Tremonti gets to show off his guitar wizardry and Brian Marshall (bass) and Scott Phillips (drums) make up a tight, powerful rhythm section.
ABII consists of fourteen tracks, broody, melodic, heavy and dynamic. There are plenty of great songs to choose from like Isolation, Ghosts Of Days Gone By and I Know It Hurts, but my personal favourite is the album’s opener Slip To The Void. It sets the dark mood from the start and is completed by classic Tremonti riffs and Kennedy’s outstanding vocal performance. Epic.
Among my favourite tracks you’ll also find All Hope Is Gone, which starts of slow and broody, then picks of pace. Although it is a dark track, Tremonti’s riff adds an almost 16th century folk song atmosphere to it, completed by Kennedy’s soulful vocal.
Wonderful Life is also worth mentioning, a melancholic ballad, although uplifting in its delicacy. The album’s most beautiful song, in my opinion.
Finally I’d like to mention the sinister Coeur D'Alene, heavy and melodic at the same time with a crunching riff, great vocal and catchy chorus.
To me ABIII is Alter Bridge’s darkest and most elegant album so far with its superb vocal, riffs and harmonies. No matter if you’re an Alter Bridge fan or not, this album deserves a listen to, so give it a shot if you haven’t already. Maybe you’ll end up liking it as much as I do.

2011-04-22T14:50:00.002+02:00

Gnomeo and Juliet

2011-04-22T14:49:00.002+02:00

William Shakespeare’s classic tragedy subjected to garden gnomes and Elton John. That’s pretty much what the CG-animated movie ”Gnomeo and Juliet” is about and that’s not bad.
    The movie tells the story of the garden gnomes in the gardens of two neighbours, Mrs. Capulet and Mr. Montague who live in respectively 2B and Not 2B in Verona Street in Stratford-Upon-Avon. Mrs. Capulet’s garden gnomes are blue, Mr. Montague’s red, and blues and reds hate each other as much as their owners do. But of course the blue Gnomeo falls in love with the red Juliet and it turns out to be a difficult task to be lovers in the middle of a feud.
    The movie has quite a few funny Shakespeare in-jokes that you’ll only get if you know your Shakespeare and that way ”Gnomeo and Juliet” appeals more to an adult audience than kids. Furthermore the story has quite racy undertones, I mean, it’s perfectly clear what the size of the gnome hats are supposed to indicate!
    ”Gnomeo and Juliet” makes use of the voice talents of James McAvoy (Gnomeo), Emily Blunt (Juliet), Michael Caine (Lord Redbrick), Maggie Smith (Lady Bluebury), Ozzy Osbourne (Fawn), Dolly Parton (Dolly Gnome) and Patrick Stewart (Bill Shakespeare) - just to mention a few – and it is released through Touchstone Pictures. It is directed by Kelly Asbury, who also directed “Shrek 2”, so don’t be surprised if sometimes you get the feel that you’re watching “Shrek”. Especially Juliet’s character reminded me of Fiona from “Shrek” and the ending…well, see for yourself. The 3D effects were okay, by the way. Three out of five stars: ***

2011-04-19T10:49:00.002+02:00

Joe Matera – ”Face Off”

2011-04-19T10:48:00.002+02:00

On May 2nd, former Geisha guitarist Joe Matera is releasing his new solo instrumental track named ”Face Off” which marks his return to his rock guitar roots after having released two acoustic tracks in 2010/2011.

“At the heart of my guitar playing lays a life long love affair with the electric guitar,” Joe Matera explains. ”After having delved into the world of acoustic guitar on my previous solo recordings, I felt the time was right to return to my primary first love; melodic rock guitar playing.”

”Face Off” is an energetic rocker featuring Matera’s signature melodic guitar playing. The track is written by Matera and as well as playing all the guitars, he also engineered and produced it. It is an exciting, melodic and breezy track where Matera’s guitar soloing follows in the tradition of guitarists such as Cheap Trick’s Rick Nielsen, Boston’s Tom Scholz and The Angel’s Rick Brewster. Rick Brewster actually makes a special guest appearance on one of the track’s guitar solos.

”Face Off” was mixed by Craig Pilkington (The Killjoys) at Audrey Studios, Melborn. Bass duties were handled by Tony ‘Demolition’ Dolan (Atomkraft, Venom), The track is released through Mercury Fire Music and will be available on iTunes from May 2nd. It is set to appear on Matera’s EP CD later this year, too.

For more information go to: http://www.joematera.com

Don Powell biography blog

2011-04-14T08:49:00.000+02:00

I now have a blog where you can follow the progress of my work with Slade drummer Don Powell’s official biography. You’ll find it at: http://www.donpowellbio.blogspot.com .
    In 2006 Don Powell asked me to write his biography and back then I thought it would be a 2 year project like any other of my books. Today I’m wiser.
    I decided on a format for the bio pretty quickly and the sources were to be Don’s diaries, interviews with Don and with his family, friends and colleagues. I started out making the interviews with Don and over the course of 3 years I made 14 interviews with him, amounting to a whopping 36 hours. The diaries I didn’t get until 2008 and as they go all the way back to the 1970s it took me several months to read through them and pick out what should be included in the biography and what not. By then a 2 year timeframe for the bio was out of the question and we postponed a possible release date until 2010.
    The work with interviewing Don’s family, friends and colleagues kicked off in December 2006. What first seemed to be a fairly easy part of the process, turned out more complicated than expected and I had to wait up to 4 years for some of the interviews that I needed. By February 2010 I thought I had made my last interview, but new contributors to the bio kept being added to the list and at the moment I’m still awaiting the comments from another 2 or 3 of Don’s colleagues.
    Then in November 2010 Don found a number of diaries which he thought he had lost. I’m still waiting to get those and yes, you have guessed it. We’ve had to postpone a possible release date yet another time. With a little luck I’ll finish the biography by December 2011, but I won’t guarantee it, as something new seems to pop up all the time. Anyway, on the new blog you’ll be able to follow the progress of the bio. Keep your fingers crossed that it won’t be a never-ending story!

Books I read in 2010

2011-01-11T13:57:00.000+01:00

So far we’ve had a cold and snowy January here in Denmark. The pavements are icy and the snow at times so deep that you can’t get out of the house, anyway. Indoor activities are called for and one of my favourites is reading.

If you need a little inspiration as to what to read, here’s a list of (some) of the books, including manga, that I read (or re-read) in 2010:

Abraham. Yamila: “Yaoi Hentai 1”
Burgess, Anthony: “A Clockwork Orange”
Boedker, Cecil: “Hungerbarnet”
Carroll, Lewis: “The Complete Illustrated Works of Lewis Carroll”
Faulkner, William; “The Sound and The Fury”
Geneser, Kenneth: “Europadroem”
Hatori, Bisco: “Ouran High School Host Club, vol. 12”
Hatori, Bisco: “Ouran High School Host Club, vol. 13”
James, Henry: “The Turn of the Screw”
Jarry, Alfred: “Supermale”
Jarry, Alfred: “UBU”
Levin, Ira: “Rosemary’s Baby”
Lindsay, Joan: “Picnic at Hanging Rock”
Llewellyn, A.J.:”Rent Boy”
Mankell, Henning: “Hugget”
Murakami, Maki: “Gravitation vol. 3”
Murakami, Maki: “Gravitation vol. 7”
Murakami, Maki: “Gravitation vol. 8”
Murakami, Maki: “Gravitation vol. 9”
Murakami, Maki: “Gravitation vol. 10”
Nakamura, Shungiku: “Junjo Romantica vol. 12”
Poe, Edgar Allan: “Complete Stories and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe”
Rowling, J. K.: “The Tales of Beedle the Bard”
Sandemo, Margit: “Trollbunnen”
Thimm, Jack: “Swinger det ik’”
Thimm, Jack: “Undervejs”
Townsend, Sue: “Adrian Mole: The Wilderness Years”
Woodward; E. L.: “A History of England”
Zwigtman, Floortje: ”Ich, Adrian Mayfield”
Zwigtman, Floortje: ”Versuch einer Liebe”

Some of the books I read in English, some in Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, German and French. That’s the great thing about knowing languages: you’re able to read a lot more books! I wish I did read Dutch a little better than I do, though, as the best book I read in 2010 was Floortje Zwigtman’s “Ich, Adrian Mayfield.” I had to read it in the German translation, as my Dutch isn’t good enough to read it in the original language. I hope it’ll be translated into English one day as it’s the most exciting, well-written thing I have read in decades!

I hope to be doing a lot of reading in 2011 as well, and thanks to my iPhone I now have Kindle, so it shouldn’t be a problem to always carry good literature with me. Happy reading, everyone!

Merry Christmas & a happy New Year

2010-12-21T16:00:00.000+01:00

Christmas is here and 2011 is approaching so I guess it’s the time of year when you take a look at what has happened within the last 12 months. Well, when you are going through bad times, people tend to say, ”Count your blessings,” and believe me, I’m counting! I think I’ve never done so much counting before, because let’s face it: 2010 has been one of the worst years in my life.

Not only was I attacked by a mugger with injuries to my back, teeth and mental health as a result, my boyfriend through 2½ years and I broke up as well and I lost two friends to cancer. Two others are diagnosed with it as well. So it has truly been a year from Hell, but I’m counting.

For instance, I’ve read a lot of good books this year, the highlight being Floortje Zwigtman’s Adrian Mayfield series. Why these books haven’t been translated into English is beyond me. They are wonderful, wonderful books and Floortje Zwigtman is deservedly compared to Charles Dickens, but a female, modern one. The story of Adrian Mayfield’s life in late 19th /early 20th century London is captivating to anyone who loves good literature and I refuse to believe that the lack of interest from British publishers has anything to do with the fact that the main protagonist, Adrian, is gay. If so, it is about time that they realised we no longer live in a time where being gay is a crime. Anyone, gay or straight, male or female, young or old, will be able to find something wonderful in these books, but of course only if they are able to read Dutch or German!

For some odd reason I haven’t read much yaoi this year, but instead I’ve seen a lot of good films, among them “Alice In Wonderland”, “I Love You Phillip Morris” and “The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus”. The best one was without doubt “A Single Man”, though. Gay themed again, yes, I know, but it was a great film: elegant, impressive, hypnotic, moving, delicate, ironic and outright excellent. I loved it.

On the other hand I haven’t had the time to go to the theatre this year and hardly any art exhibitions either, but I went to a lot of concerts. Most were with Danish bands, but I happened to see Rage Against the Machine in June, Muse in July and Alter Bridge in October as well. I’m not really sure what I think of Alter Bridge live, but Muse are always good and the Rage Against the Machine concert at Download Festival in Derby, England was perfect. Even though there was a bit of turmoil amongst the audience.

I’ve travelled a bit in 2011. I’ve been to England five times and to Belgium once, each time to be with my (then) boyfriend, so it's a little painful to think about now. The summer holidays were spent in the Danish towns of Aarhus and Silkeborg, though, with my daughter Tea. We stayed in Aarhus mainly to visit their museums and amusement park and then we popped by Silkeborg to see Don Powell and his family. And yes, I’ve finished Don Powell’s biography, or so I thought. Last month Don found some diaries that he thought he had lost, so I have to rewrite the last three chapters. It’s a never ending story. Apart from that I haven’t done much, except write the script to a Danish radio show about The Monkees and interview a few celebs now and then at different events.

Oh, yes. Events. I’ve been to a few this year. Towel Day in June, OFF 10 (Odense International Film Festival) in August and the local Harry Potter Festival in October among others. In connection with the HP festival I even got to meet J. K. Rowling at the press conference during her stay here in Odense, where she received the Hans Christian Andersen Literature Award. Oh, and in November I got kissed by Oliver Phelps (George Weasley in the Harry Potter films) at the Danish premiere of “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1” in Copenhagen. That has to count for something as well, I guess, especially when you have lost your boyfriend.

So yes, I’m counting my blessings, however small they are, hoping against hope that 2011 will be better. Wishing you a merry Christmas and a happy New Year. See you in 2011. xx

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, part 1.

2010-11-18T21:09:00.002+01:00

I saw the film on November 18th, 2010 at the first screening on the first day of its release here in Denmark. Although the cinema seated 900, only about 100 showed up, mostly people in their late teens or early twenties. They were not impressed and neither was I.

In “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” part 1, the evil lord Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes) has taken control of the Ministry of Magic and Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and he has outlawed Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe). In order to kill Voldemort, Harry and his friends Ron Weasley (Rupert Grint) and Hermione Granger (Emma Watson) set out to find and destroy horcruxes, the objects in which Voldemort has hidden parts of his black soul.
    The plot is as simple as that, but if you don’t know the book, it is very, very hard to understand what is going on on the big screen. The story is just too hectic and badly explained and as such the film comes across superficial and unsatisfying. All scenes are boiled down to the essentials and that is both too little and too much. We get all the highlights, but in a very comprised way, leaving the audience no time to dwell on the characters and their situation and at the same time the trio’s travels between events seem unnecessarily long-winded.

On the positive side “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” part 1 is true to J. K. Rowling’s book which is nice as its predecessor, “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince”, had very little to do with the written saga of Harry Potter. The few changes that are made in HP7 part 1 are very becoming, like Hedwig’s death or Harry and Hermione entering Godric’s Hollow.
    The film also skips all the tedious parts of the book and reduces its likeness to The Lord of the Rings. Where the book is almost identical to The Lord of the Rings with Harry as Frodo, Hermione as Sam, Ron as a twisted Gollum and the Slytherin Locket as the Ruling Ring, it isn’t in the film and that’s a good thing. On the other hand, without the likeness it is difficult to understand why Ron gets so mad that he leaves the quest.
    In general the film could do with some explanations. For instance it was surprising to see that the Weasley home – The Burrow – was still standing. It burned down in HP6, but apparently the scriptwriters forgot as in HP7 part 1 it is still there. No explanation at all. I find that very unsatisfying.

To me the Harry Potter films have lost the magic that was so clearly there in the beginning and I guess things started to go wrong when David Yates took over as director in HP5. Up until then the Harry Potter films kept getting better and better, but the three latest ones that Yates has directed are average at best.
    With HP7 part 1 Yates has tried to make a dark, gloomy coming of age/road movie, but it doesn’t work. There are no depths to the characters or the plot and you feel that you’re just being transported from one scene to another without time for reflections or feelings.
    I know the actors say, that with Yates they were allowed to explore their characters more than with other directors, but unfortunately it doesn’t show. The characters come across one-dimensional or even worse: as actors delivering lines. We all know how brilliant the Harry Potter cast is, but in HP7 part 1 they never get to show it. It is rather disappointing, especially with Rupert Grint who doesn’t get to unfold his gifted talent as Ron Weasley at all.

To me there are only three reasons to watch HP7 part 1:
1: Daniel Radcliffe as the seven Potters. He is wonderful slipping into the characters of the other actors.
2: Oliver Phelps as George Weasley. He is hilarious, especially in the kitchen scene.
3: David O’Hara as Runcorn. He is brilliant in the Ministry.
    As for the scenes, there’s a tender scene between the Weasley twins and one between Harry and Hermione that work quite well. And I liked the scene with Ron and Harry in the tent with Hermione’s fire. That’s all and far too little for a film that runs 146 minutes.

When “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” part 1 was over, the guy sitting next to me said, “What that it?” and it was. “I hope part two is better,” he said and so do I. Three out of five stars: ***

P. S. I haven’t mentioned the animation of the tale of the three brothers, because although I get the idea and appreciate how it is done, I found it distracting and not very Harry Potter-like.

The Danish Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, part 1 premiere

2010-11-15T14:16:00.002+01:00

Friday the 12th of November 2010 the Danish gala premiere of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 1 took place at the Imperial cinema in Copenhagen and in that connection the Phelps twins (Weasley twins) came to town. Not that anyone knew, because for some odd reason the Danish press had decided not to write about it in advance! Only a few film clubs and fan clubs had mentioned the visit in connections with competitions about winning premiere tickets.

Anyway, I was the only one there to cover the twins’ visit for foreign press (America/UK). Although I’m Danish I was quite pleased with not working for a Danish magazine because…well, I don’t know why, but Danish press is not that interested in foreign visits in connection with premieres. What interest them are the Danish VIPs (mostly actors, strippers and reality TV-stars) who turn up for the prem. It was no wonder, then, that when the twins arrived in Denmark, neither press nor fans were in the airport to great them. The twins spent less than a minute in arrivals, which was probably just as well. Their flight was an hour late, so when they left the airport it was 4.30 p.m. and the red carpet event in connection with the premiere was to start at 6!

When I arrived at the cinema in order to cover the red carpet, only about thirty fans had gathered outside to see the twins. Inside a handful of journalists and press photographers were lined up and as the Danish VIPs started to arrive, a true battle broke out. I’ve worked all over the world, but I’ve never experienced anything as brutal as the Copenhagen press! They were almost fighting for the best spots, and I still have bruises all over from being pushed around!

It was close to six thirty, before we heard the loud cheers and screams from outside, indicating that the twins had arrived. It took another ten or fifteen minutes before they had worked their way through the fans, signing autographs and having their pics taken, and reached the spot where I was standing with the rest of the Danish press. Again fights broke out, but not as bad as when the Danish VIPs had walked the red carpet and I did manage to take some pics, although I bruised my wrist when the photographer standing next to me shoved me into a table.

When the pics were done, I gave Oliver Phelps a wave like I’d promised him on Twitter and his face lit up. “It’s you!” he said and came over to say hi and give me a hug and a kiss. We had a short chat, then Oliver Phelps gave the press co-ordinator his mobile phone and asked him to take a pic of us. Need I say that after that the other photographers stopped bullying me?

Because the twins had been so delayed, the planned interviews had been cancelled. Instead the Danish press agency Ritzau was to do a short interview before the twins went on stage to introduce the film. I was allowed to listen in on the interview and here I learned that the only ones to surpass the Copenhagen press in brutality are the Copenhagen security guards. I was brutally pushed away by one and the press co-ordinator had to tell him to back off and let me do my thing, but I missed the first part of the interview because of that.
Anyway, according to my notes, Oliver Phelps said that this was their first time in Denmark, but they had heard about Copenhagen from friends who were here last year. James Phelps added that they’d had a fantastic and very loud welcome and said, “I can’t thank you enough.”
The twins said that it was a bit sad that the Harry Potter saga is coming to an end.
“It’s difficult to say how things will be now that we don’t have to do Harry Potter anymore,” Oliver Phelps said. “It’s been wicked being in the movies.”
“When we agreed to do the movies we had no idea that it would be that big.” James Phelps said. “If you’d told me ten years ago that I’d be here in Copenhagen today I wouldn’t have believed you. It has changed our lives, but we love it. It’s fantastic.”
”Growing up on a film set is very different to what other people experience, I think,” James Phelps continued, “but all of us who are in Harry Potter grew up together so we’ve been friends since childhood and we’re still friends today.”

The twins agreed that they would never tire of playing Fred and George.
“It’s fun being Fred and George and if we’re a bit naughty we can always say that we are in character,” James Phelps laughed and continued, “but I won’t miss having my dyed ginger every second week!”
Oliver Phelps told the press, that next year he starts filming without his brother.
”It’ll be different not being together,” he said and James Phelps agreed. Asked if they were going to see some of Copenhagen after the premier, Oliver Phelps said that they hoped for a good night out in town, but when asked if the twins were single or had girlfriends, they both just smiled and refused to answer.

After the short interview, the press co-ordinator took another pic of Oliver Phelps and me with my camera (a very crappy pic, ha-ha!) and then the audience was over.

According to Twitter, the twins did indeed have a good night out in Copenhagen (at the Hilfiger Denim LOUD event in Vega, actually) as well as a visit to Tivoli, the world’s oldest theme park, so a great time was had by all, I suppose. I hope to see the twins in Denmark again some day, but without the press and security brutality and I do wish that by then the Danish press has stopped calling Oliver James and James Oliver, ha-ha!

Harry Potter Festival 2010

2010-10-24T14:54:00.003+02:00

Here in the city of Odense, Denmark, we have an annual Harry Potter Festival. Usually it takes place one week during September, but this year it only lasted 3 days in October. Furthermore Hogwarts was closed. Usually kids are able to attend Hogwarts, taking classes in Transfiguration, Defence Against the Dark Arts, Charms, Potions, History of Magic, Herbology and Care of Magical Creatures, the subjects being taught by McGonagall, Snape, Hagrid and the rest of the staff. But not this year. Why, you ask? Well, because J. K. Rowling was coming to town.

Odense is the hometown of the fairy tale writer Hans Christian Andersen and Rowling came to receive the “H. C. Andersen Literature Award”. The award is founded by a private literature committee and its purpose is to pay tribute to Hans Christian Andersen’s influence on writers from all over the world by selecting award winners whose works can be tied to Hans Christian Andersen’s through similarities in genre or narrative qualities.

J. K. Rowling received the award on October 19 and because of that the Harry Potter Festival had been moved from September to October and Hogwarts had been closed, as Rowling was to use it building. Normally Hogwarts in situated in our old town hall, but this year Rowling needed it in order to read to children and have lunch with the notabilities of Odense. Needless to say that the kids were devastated, as attending Hogwarts is one of the highlights of the year. But of course, Rowling is more important than the kids she writes for.

Hogwarts is the core of the festival, so with that gone, not much was left. Instead of attending the school, kids could take a trip on the Hogwarts Express, but not many did as they were too upset about not going to Hogwarts. As adults were not allowed, I don’t know much about the train ride, except that the children had something to eat and drink and were allowed to roam the compartments with the lights off. I think they were attacked by Dementors as well

Tuesday was the big day of the ceremony award. You could buy tickets to the award show and it was actually very good although short. Odense Symphony Orchestra did a wonderful version of “Hedwig’s Theme” and Rowling made a very funny and also moving acceptance speech. After the show, she walked to the Hans Christian Andersen museum, but the streets were closed off, as people weren’t allowed to get near her. Then she drove to the town square where she signed autographs to children – but only to the ones who were dressed like characters from the Harry Potter books.

In the town hall Rowling did a 5 minutes reading from her HP books to children aged 8-14 who had paid quite handsomely to see her. After the reading they were allowed to ask her 9 prefabricated questions, then they all got a signed copy of “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.” And that concluded Rowling’s official programme in Odense.

As most Danish kids aged 8-14 don’t understand English well enough to get anything out of Rowling’s reading, a lot of them had opted out of paying to attend it. What they were left with was the Harry Potter marked. Usually during the festival, the city centre turns into Diagon Alley with all its shops and buildings and you can meet all the characters from the books there. This year only a handful of shops were left, as the town square had to make room for Rowling walking from the limousine to the town hall, so again the kids were disappointed. Gringotts was there, manned by real goblins (or rather dwarfs) and then Ollivander’s, The Daily Prophet, Eeylops Owl Emporium, The Leaky Cauldron and Quality Quidditch Supplies. Not much compared to what we are used to. Even Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes was gone, although George Weasley still did his tricks in the alley. He always does that on his own, as we’ve never had a Fred.

Snape was in place in his dungeons in the old town monastery and I was glad that he was, because we always have a little chat while my daughter mixes potions. He wore a silly wig this year, though, but his presence made our day. Hagrid’s hut in the old ruin behind the town hall wasn’t there, though, so Hagrid no longer had a place to live. Instead the ruin was occupied by a fortune teller. I don’t know what she had to do with Harry Potter, but there she was.

Apart from George and Snape, you could find Dumbledore and Hagrid at the marked, but not many of the other characters. Instead the place was swamped with Dementors and Death Eaters and even Lord Voldemort was there. It is safe to say, that the marked this year had turned a lot more gloomy and commercial and less magic. Even at Gringotts you only got 500 galleons for £2 whereas last year it was 1,000 galleons for £1. Inflation, I suppose.

In past years the Harry Potter Festival has been all about giving kids a magical experience, but this year it seemed to be all about buying stuff, as there wasn’t much else to do. The only new welcome addition to the marked was The Weird Sisters performing standard rock at The Leaky Cauldron from time to time, but all in all the festival was a huge disappointment.

I know that it is a feather in the cap of Odense City that Rowling came by, but it was such a let-down to the kids. I sure hope that next year we go back to the usual festival with Hogwarts and tons of shops and buildings in Diagon Alley for the kids to enjoy.

Odense Symphony Orchestra

2010-10-20T00:55:00.000+02:00

Princess Marie and J. K. Rowling trying to lift the award sculpture

2010-10-20T00:54:00.001+02:00

The Princess and The Writer with the sculpture

2010-10-20T00:53:00.000+02:00

J. K. Rowling with her award

2010-10-20T00:52:00.000+02:00

J. K. Rowling

2010-10-20T00:51:00.000+02:00

J. K. Rowling too

2010-10-20T00:49:00.000+02:00

Press conference

2010-10-20T00:48:00.000+02:00

J. K. Rowling receives the “H. C. Andersen Literature Award”

2010-10-20T00:27:00.004+02:00

In connection with the annual Harry Potter Festival in Odense, Denmark, J. K. Rowling received the first “H.C. Andersen Literature Award” in Odense Concert Hall, Tuesday, October 19, 2010.
The purpose of the award is to pay tribute to Hans Christian Andersen’s influence on writers from all over the world by selecting award winners whose works can be tied to Hans Christian Andersen’s through similarities in genre or narrative qualities.

When Rowling arrived at Odense Concert Hall, she was greeted with standing ovations, screaming fangirls and press photographers going crazy. Later, at the press conference, Rowling admitted that she had only experienced a greeting that massive once before, and that was in Carnegie Hall. She said that it made her feel like one of the Beatles.

The award ceremony in Odense Concert Hall was very moving with Odense Symphony Orchestra performing John Williams’ “Hedwig’s Theme” and Countess Caroline Ahlefeldt-Laurvig-Bille making the nomination speech. The Countess said that what makes Rowling a genuinely extraordinary writer is that she doesn’t pretend that the world we live in is plain sailing. Even wizards experience times of crisis and injustice and that helps the reader identify with Harry Potter.
“Who has not mourned Dubledore’s death,” the Countess said, “or marvelled at The Mirror of Erised or laughed at the pranks of the Weasley twins?”
But – as the Countess pointed out – Rowling’s greatest achievement is that her life has broken all imaginable boundaries and in that way inspired millions of children and adults.

Her Royal Highness Princess Marie presented the award to J. K. Rowling, an award consisting of £50,000 and a very heavy bronze sculpture of Hans Christian Andersen’s ”The Ugly Duckling” which the Princess and the Writer tried to lift up in vain. The merriment that this caused was prolonged when Rowling nodded at a ginger female violinist in the Odense Symphony Orchestra and said, “You really know how to make me feel welcome. I see that one of the Weasley cousins is in the orchestra.”

Rowling now thanked for the award, saying that she was humbled and deeply honoured to receive it. She didn’t presume to compare her Harry Potter books with Hans Christian Andersen’s stories that have lasted two centuries, but she admired that Hans Christian Andersen was not afraid to depict cruelty and pain. She said that the true dilemmas of childhood are the dilemmas of the whole of life: those of belonging and betrayal, of the power of the group and the courage it takes to be an individual. That is why writing that succeeds with children often succeeds just as well with adults.

After the ceremony, Rowling did a 15 minutes press conference in which she told the press that at the moment she is writing all the things that she didn’t have the time to write while she was working on the Harry Potter series, but she wouldn’t rule out that she would write a HP8 in ten years time. She said that ever since she was a child, she had had a need to write and that she was happy that her wealth had made it possible for her give money to charities, especially to research in multiple sclerosis, the disease from which her mother died. She told the press that she has a good relationship to the cast of Harry Potter and that she had never met people nicer, more intelligent and well-adjusted than the young actors. Finally she admitted, that she had never read Stephenie Meyer’s “Twilight” series and that her favourite Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale is “The Brave Tin Soldier”.

Upon leaving the Concert Hall, Rowling walked to the Hans Christian Andersen Museum. On her route, young actors from the Hans Christian Andersen Parade acted out scenes from Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tales. After visiting the museum so went to Odense Town Square where the annual Harry Potter Festival took place. The square had turned into Diagon Alley complete with Ollivander’s, The Daily Prophet, Eeylops Owl Emporium, The Leaky Cauldron and Quality Quidditch Supplies. J. K. Rowling signed autographs while the chimes of Odense Cathedral played “Hedwig’s Theme”.

Rowling then went inside the Town Hall to read from her Harry Potter books to children aged 8-14. She answered a few questions as well, telling the kids that the person she identifies with in Harry Potter is Hermione. She finished her visit to Odense with lunch with the notabilities of the city.

Toy Story 3

2010-10-11T08:57:00.001+02:00

In Toy Story 3 Woody, Buzz and the rest of Andy’s toys are mistakenly delivered to Sunnyside Daycare center instead of the attic right before Andy leaves for college. Andy’s toys are welcomed in the Butterfly Room of the center by the strawberry scented bear Lotso and his companions Big Baby and Ken, but although Barbie finds a home (and love) with Ken, the rest of Andy’s toys soon find out that the daycare is run like a prison by Lotso and his companions. Buzz and the rest of Andy’s toys are ”deported” to the Carterpillar Room, occupied by toddlers who plays rather roughly with the toys, and Buzz & Co. realise that they are not going to survive long there. The toys now plan their great escape which is to be the nervewrecking highlight of the movie.

Toy Story 3 is directed by Lee Unkrick and written by John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton and Lee Unkrich (screenplay by Michael Arndt). I’ve never been a huge fan of the Toy Story movies, well, I liked the first one and disliked the second, but this third one is just brilliant. It is funny, scary and emotional (people actually cried in the cinema) and you get to know the characters a lot better than in previous Toy Story movies.

Toy Story 3 appeals to kids and adults alike, although if you’re an adult, you’ll probably enjoy it even more because you’ll catch all the references. There are load and loads of references to other movies and TV-serie; The Bridge on the River Kwai, Happy Days, Return of the Jedi, Jurrasic Park, Cool Hand Luke and Monsters Inc. just to mention a few. It really is hilarious, although most kids won’t get these references and in fact the movie is a little too scary at times. I brough my 11 year old to see it and she found several scenes quite upsetting, not to mention Big Baby who really scared her, but in the end she too was bowled over by the story and the characters, wanting to see it again.

As usual Tom Hanks stars as the voice of Woody and Tim Allen as the voice of Buzz, the latter being hysterically funny when Buzz is set to speak and act in Spanish. Michael Keaton, too, is hilarious as Ken, and the rest of the cast is wonderful as well.

So far Toy Story 3 is the best animated movie I have seen this year - even the 3D works well - so I’ll give it four out of five stars: ****

2010-10-04T09:06:00.000+02:00

Joe Matera: Travellin’ West

2010-10-04T08:59:00.000+02:00

Travellin’ West is a new instrumental solo release written and performed by the Australian guitarist Joe Matera.

Most people know Joe Matera’s electric six string guitar sound from Australian rock outfit Geisha, but this new acoustic release shows new sides to the guitarist without leaving out any of his signature trademarks; melody, taste and style.

Matera plays all the guitars on this beautifully played and produced release. The interplay of acoustic and classical guitars is both powerful and very melodic and the harmonies are beautiful and spot on with a melancholy, subdued quality that seems almost hypnotic.

Travellin’ West is Recorded at Dragon's Lair Studios, Melbourne, Australia with Chris Doheny handling production duties. It is released through Mercury Fire Music and available as a digital single download through iTunes. Visit www.joematera.com for further information.

OFF 10

2010-09-13T11:39:00.001+02:00

The annual OFF (Odense International Film Festival) took place in August 23-28. This year the festival celebrated its 25 anniversary, as although it was founded in 1975, it was a bi-annual event during its first years, making 2010 the year in which the 25 festival took place here in Odense, Denmark

OFF is a festival concentrating on short films, animations and documentaries with contributions from Iceland in the North to Australia in the South and from South Korea in the East to the USA in the West. The festival is free and apart from the film award competition it also includes a lot of other stuff such as free concerts, open air screenings, seminars, talent camp etc. etc., but like other years I concentrated on the films.

With so many great films to chose from, it was hard to pick a favourite and I must admit that I had quite a few. One was the Australian ”Franswa Sharl” by Hannah Hilliard about twelve year old Greg who enters a beauty contest for girls in order to win his father’s respect! Another was the French ”Logorama” by Francois Alaux, Hervé de Crécy and Ludovic Houplain which – through its use of logos - told a spectacular tale of Ronald McDonald’s dark side. A third one was the French ”The Little Dragon” by Bruno Collet about a Bruce Lee action figure coming to life. The Norwegian ”The Fight” by Keio and Dag Aastein deserves a mention, too. Very Norwegian and very, very funny!

This year’s winners of the festival were not among my favourites, though. The winner of the international competition was the German ”A Lost And Found Box Of Human Sensation” by Martin Wallner and Stefan Leuchtenberg - a rather muddled animation about how to cope with death. I guess it won because Ian McKellen and Joseph Fiennes had lent their voices to the animation!
The winner of the animation competition was the Norwegian ”Angry Man” by Anita Killi, a pretty pathetic film about a violent father. The audience award went to the Danish ”Out Of Love” by Birgitte Staermose, a film about children in Kosovo.
In my opinion all three films won because they were ”political correct” and that bothers me a bit. All the crazy, funny, strange and innovative stuff didn’t have a chance this year. Too bad, but at least the majority of the films were of a more interesting substance than the winners.

When that is said, it wasn’t the biggest problems with the festival this year. The biggest problems were the same as last year: too little room and too lousy technical skills.
Like last year, the festival suffered from lack of room. The screenings take place in three small cinemas - one has only room for 50 people – and when thousands of people from all over the world come to watch the screenings, more often than not they can’t find room, especially as many screenings are pre-booked by schools! Then, if you finally find a seat, the cinema equipment is outdated, and many screenings were cancelled as the cinemas weren’t able to show the films in the proper formats.
Of course you can see all of the films at the festival video bar, but again, here you have to pre-book and often there are no slots available. I guess it’s about time that OFF realises that it has grown too big for the three little cinemas and that it is time to move on to bigger venues.

One last thing: each year OFF has a special event called “The Old Theatre”. This is a must! The cinema theatre screens old silent movies to the divine piano accompaniment by composer Lars Fjeldmose and the funny insights by the ever so witty and knowledgeable film historian Ulrich Breuning. This year “The Old Theatre” screened “La Première Séance” (France, 1895), “The Lion Hunt (Denmark, 1907), “The Woman Always Pays” (Denmark, 1910) and “Battleship Potemkin” (USSR 1925), but like last year something went wrong and we had to leave the theatre without seeing the ending (and Asta Nielsen’s very sensual dance!) in “The Woman Always Pays”. That’s not good enough, OFF!!

I will of course be back at the OFF festival next year, but I do hope that they’ll have done something to get rid of their problems and not just ignore them like they have done the previous 2 years. On that (happy? no!) note, I congratulate OFF to its 25 anniversary. See you next year.

2010-08-21T15:16:00.000+02:00

Defence

2010-08-21T15:10:00.000+02:00

Floortje Zwigtman’s novel ”Tegenspel” (”Defence”) from 2007 is the second of three in her series about Adrian Mayfield, a young gay man living in Victorian London. When I read the first of the novels - ”Schijnbewegingen” (”Tricks of the Trade”) - I was sure that I had never read anything quite as good and I was curious if Zwigtman could keep up the pace in volume two. Now I know, that she can. This Dutch author is a bit of a wonder and I’m quite surprised that she hasn’t been translated into English, yet.

I read volume two of her Adrian Mayfield books in German. Here the title of the book is ”Versuch einer Liebe” (“Attempts of Love”), a title that is just as fitting as the original one. The year is 1894, the place London and Adrian Mayfield is now 17 years old. He has found what he believes is true love with the moral and high-principled artist Vincent Farley, but the problem is that the past is catching up with Adrian. He knows that if Vincent ever finds out that Adrian has once worked in a male brothel, their relationship will be over.
To avoid his former colleagues and blackmailers Adrian moves back to The King’s Arms, the pub that used to be his dad’s, but is now run by Adrian’s first love Peter. Again Adrian’s past catches up with him as Peter is now married and Peter hates gays. At the same time it is clear to Adrian, that his lover Vincent sees homosexuality as a shameful disease from which you have to try to get cured.
Adrian gets work as a journalist, but when he has to cover the trial against Oscar Wilde regarding his love affair with the young Lord Bosie, all hell breaks loose. Adrian has nowhere to run and he is about to lose everything he has ever loved.

Floortje Zwigtman’s second Adrian Mayfield-novel is as good as the first one, but darker and a lot more disturbing. Although the books are regarded a youth books in Holland, I don’t think they are particularly aimed at young people as the subject and the darkness are very mature. In this volume two you get a deeper insight into the characters and their pasts, especially Adrian’s and Vincent’s, and what you get to see is not always pleasant.
The novel takes many unexpected twists and turns and Zwigtman isn’t afraid of taking the story places where other authors wouldn’t dare to tread. At the same time the novel is very well researched and the trial of Oscar Wilde is a great document of Victorian (double-)standard. Personally I can’t wait to read the third and final volume of the Adrian Mayfield-series. Again I have to reward the book six out of five stars: ******

The Ultimate Favourites Survey 150 Questions

2010-08-19T16:27:00.002+02:00

For months I’ve tried to come up with answers to the craze called “25 Things You Don’t Know About Me” that is sweeping the internet. So far I haven’t been able to come up with 25 things, though, that you don't know about me AND that I would like to share! Instead I found this on the net; a questionnaire named The Ultimate Favourites Survey 150 Questions. Now THAT I can answer, and here you’ll see what I’ve come up with:

Colour: Yellow/green
Food: Swiss potato cake
Animal: Pig
Restaurant: Mauritz Café, Odense, Denmark
(Best) friend: Soren and Mette
Type of shoe: Sandals
Style of clothing: Casual
Type of jewellery: Necklaces/rings
Scent: Apple/white musk
Taste: Salty
Memory: Going to an amusement park with my Nan when I was 8.
Class (at school): Music and German
Day of the week: Thursday
Time of day: After 10 p.m.
Month: May
Holiday: City breaks
Season: Spring
Thing to do when happy: Writing
Thing to do when sad: Listening to music
Thing to do when angry: I’m hardly ever angry, but yell maybe??
Thing to do with friends: Hang out, talk, go to the pub
Bible verse or quote: I’d rather quote Shakespeare, ha-ha!
CD: Brian Eno’s Here Come The Warm Jets
Song: Currently Rage Against the Machine’s Sleep Now In The Fire
Male singer: Donovan/Eminem
Female singer: Janis Joplin/Amy Winehouse
Actor: Donald Sutherland/Johnny Depp
Actress: Jodie Foster/Marianne Sägebrecht
TV channel: Danish DR2 and Charlie
TV show: Monty Python/The Simpsons/The Young Ones/Northern Exposure etc.
Movie: Currently the brilliant movie Twin Town
Type of weather: Sunny and mild
Website: Google Earth
Book: Currently Floortje Zwigtman's Adrian Mayfield series
Manga/anime: Junjo Romantica
Drink: Water/tea/white wine
Hairstyle: Long (both guys and girls)
Teacher: Mr. Clausen (music, drama etc.)
Church activity: I don't go to church. I’m not Christian
School activity: Everything. I loved school.
Type of chores: Cooking/baking
Gift: Surprises
Compliment: About my writings
Insect: Ladybird/grasshopper
Flower: Freesia
Letter: B or X, I guess
Number: 13, 6 and 5
Shape: Circle or triangle
Writing topic: Relationships/magic realism
Type of music: Rock/metal/jazz/classical
Type of books: Fantasy/magic realism/history
Type of movies: Horror/fantasy/British movies
Breed of cat: I’m allergic to cats
Breed of dog: Any dog that doesn’t scare me!
Night time activity (before going to sleep): Writing or watching telly
Morning activity (to wake you up): Taking a shower/drinking orange juice
Design (striped, plaid...): Dunno
TV character: Ed Chigliak (from Northern Exposure)
Piece of technology: My computer
Eye colour (normal): Green or brown
Hair colour (normal): Ginger, dark brown or blond
Gemstone: Tourmaline/emerald
Cookie: Chocolate chip
Candy: Dark chocolate
Dessert: Chocolate mousse
Meat: I don’t eat meat
Fruit: Strawberries/apples
Veggie: Broccoli
Dairy product: Cheese
Bread product: Rye bread
Car: Dunno. I don’t have a driver’s license
Outfit: Dunno
Store: Forbidden Platen in W’ton and Nostalgia Books & Comics in Brum
Water animal: Sea horse
Inside joke: Pinky and the Brain (don’t ask)
Guy friend (closest): Soren, Chris and Oliver
Body type: Lean (guys)/curvy (girls)
Type of phone: iPhone
Type of camera: Nikon
Type of music listening device: iPhone, iPod, Denver surround sound system
Wish: To move to England soon
Childhood toy: Toy dog named Lasse
Video game: HP5
Sport: Football/golf
Shoe brand: Not that interested in shoes
Clothing brand: Fransa/Ze-Ze
Eye colour (unnatural): Husky blue
Hair colour (unnatural): White
Pillow shape: Square
Type of pj's (night gown, etc.): short, silk night gown
Ice cream: Chocolate/strawberry
Country (can't be your own country though): England
Cake: Brownies
Pie: Vegetable pie
Thing to do alone: Read/write
Thought: Thinking about my next book
Person to be with: Friends
Way of receiving mail (email, text, etc.): Email and snail mail
Type of chocolate: Dark/orange/white
Number over 100: 142 maybe
Form of entertainment (TV, internet, musical...): TV/internet/concerts
Artist/band/group: Beatles/Velvet Underground/Mothers/Queen/Slade/RATM/Muse
Beanie baby: Dunno
Body part (on yourself): Lips/legs/bosom
Body part (in general): Eyes/fingers
Body part (on guys): Eyes/fingers/chest/privates
Emotion: Calmness
Planet: Venus
Pet: Budgie
Parent (closest): Both dead, but I was closest to my mum
Sibling (closest): I have one older sister, Ilse
Vacation spot: West Midlands, UK
Cave: Tingbaek lime cave, Denmark
Coffee-like drink: Black coffee, but I prefer tea
Gum: Strong mint
Mint: Not sure
Magazine: The Danish magazine “Hjemmet”
Pokemon game: I don’t play Pokemon games
Kingdom hearts game: Actually I don’t play that, either
Email website: gmail
Blog website: Blogger
Sad song: Sad Song by Velvet Underground
Christmas/holiday song: Merry Xmas Everybody by Slade
Person to shop with: I always shop alone
Type of money (dollar, check, change...): Cash!
Lava lamp colour: Blue
Lotion scent: Scentless
Future vacation spot: Brum
Thing in your room: Paintings/photos
Lesson learned: Miracles happen to those who believe in them
Soda: Coke
Cafeteria food: Fish & chips
Picture on computer: Signed Phelps-twins pic w. personal comments from Oliver Phelps
Diary entry: I don’t keep a diary
Word: Wicked
Social network account: Twitter
Handwriting (of a friend): All my British mates. They are taught lovely handwriting in school.
Type of school project: School plays/school concerts
Writing utensil (pen, pencil): Blue pilot pens
Colouring utensil (crayon, etc.): Coloured pencils
Makeup product: Mascara
Hair product: Nothings special
Time to think: Nighttime
Daring thing to do: Moving to another country for good
Type of light (sunlight, light bulbs...): Sunlight
Beach activity: Swimming
Mountain activity: Not going to the mountains, as I’m scared of heights
Snow activity: Making snow men and snow angels, ha-ha!
Job: Writer (or working at an amusement park!)
Pastime: Questionnaires!

2010-07-25T12:25:00.000+02:00

Tricks of the Trade

2010-07-25T12:21:00.000+02:00

I’ve just finished reading the most wonderful book and it is of course Floortje Zwigtman’s ”Schijnbewegingen” (Tricks of the Trade). To my big surprise this Dutch masterpiece from 2005 hasn’t been translated into English, and really I don’t understand why. This book should be filmed, it should be made into theatre, it should be on everybody’s lips as it is plain and simple brilliant.
Luckily I read a little Dutch and I read both German and Danish fluently, so I’ve read the book in all three languages (in German and Danish the book has been renamed ”I, Adrian Mayfield”) and I was amazed. I just couldn’t get enough. I have already ordered volume two of the series in German (as the Danes are not going to publish the rest of the series) and volume three in Dutch (as it’ll take a little time before the German translation surfaces).
Few books have made as huge an impression on me as this masterpiece by Floortje Zwigtman. William Faulkner’s “The Sound and The Fury” was one, Elias Canetti’s “Die Blendung” another, not to mention Douglas Adams’ “A Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy”, but with this book I’ve got a new favourite. I just couldn’t put it down and read the entire 500+ pages in one go!

The year is 1894, the place is London and here 16 year old Adrian Mayfield works for a men’s tailor. After a bar brawl he quits his job and tries to figure out what to do next. His father is an alcoholic actor and former pub landlord and his mother - who has left her husband because of his drinking - is a poor seamstress. His older sister Mary Ann works in a music hall and all in all none of them are able to help the street-hardened Adrian. Instead he hooks up with the middle aged second-rate artist August Trops, who introduces him to Oscar Wilde, Aubrey Beardsley and other flamboyant and powerful personalities of the time. Adrian finds work as an artist’s model and slowly comes to term with the fact that he is gay.
Adrian’s life seems to be on track, he even falls in love with a young lord, but then his new friends relocate to Europe for the summer and Adrian is again out of a job. He finds work in a male brothel and learns how dangerous it is to be gay at a time when this was regarded a crime; blackmailers and the police being your worst enemies.
In the end Adrian has to choose between his integrity and his fears, his flamboyant friends and the outraged bourgeoisie and last but not least true and false love.

Floortje Zwigtman has won several prizes in the Netherlands, and the book “Schijnbewegingen” has seen her compared to Charles Dickens. Although they both are brilliant writers describing Victorian England, the comparison doesn’t do Zwigtman justice. Where Dickens tended to be both bleak and sentimental, Zwigtman doesn’t overdo thing, neither in the positive nor negative direction. There’s no sensationalism there, she just tells things as they are; raw, sharp and to the point. And yes, that includes describing gay bashing, male prostitution and explicit gay sex. Could that be the reason why the book has never been translated into English? I sure hope not, but I suspect it to be the case. Shame on you, British publishers! We’re in the twenty-first century now and you have to realise that straight people like me are fully capable of enjoying works about gay people like Adrian Mayfield! The film and television industries seem to have got the message, isn’t it about time, that you get it, too?
In 2005 “Schijnbewegingen” was named youth book of the year by the Dutch booksellers and that is probably part of the problem. The book fully deserved the title as book of the year, but really, the book isn’t just a youth book, if it is a book for young people at all. This isn’t an ordinary coming of age book, it isn’t even a book about coming to terms with your own sexuality, it is first and foremost a masterly journey into late ninety century London, its artists, its atmosphere and its dark sides. It is a realistic novel based on thorough research, but it is also an entertaining novel, a compassionate novel and one that’ll give you food for thought. I can’t wait to read the next volume!

Six out of five stars, ha-ha! ******

Muse at Roskilde Festival, 2010

2010-07-22T12:56:00.000+02:00

When Muse hit the Orange stage at Roskilde Festival in Denmark Saturday July 3rd, the 40,000 people strong audience was in for a treat. The band was on fire and proved once more, why they are regarded one of the best live bands around these days.

Composer, vocalist and very talented lead guitarist Matt Bellamy led the audience on a breathtaking, ninety minutes journey into Muse territory aided by his fellow band members: bassist Chris Wolstenholme and (left-handed) drummer Dom Howard. The concert was dynamic and tight, Bellamy’s vocal and guitar riffs brilliant against the sweaty drum and bass sound.

Muse played all the songs that people were there to hear: Uprising, Super Massive Black Hole, Undisclosed Desire, Resistance etc. etc., actually it felt like listening to one long chart show! An obvious proof of Bellamy’s brilliant song writing talent. Between songs the band played snatches of The Animals’ House Of The Rising Sun, Led Zeppelin’s Who Knows Who, Nirvana’s School and Rage Against The Machine’s Maggie’s Farm and that just spiced up the concert even further. The highlight came when Bellamy decided to play his guitar behind his head, Jimi Hendrix style, during Plug In Baby.

Hit upon hit of symphonic rock were thrust upon the enthusiastic audience, who showed their appreciation by singing along, jumping, clapping, waving flags and all in all enjoying this unique experience on a perfect summer night. When Muse went off stage around midnight, no one was in doubt that the British band is the top of today’s progrock. What a blast of a concert!

Setlist:
1. Uprising
2. Supermassive Black Hole
3. Map of the Problematique
4. Hysteria
5. Stockholm Syndrome
6. United States of Eurasia
7. Feeling Good (Leslie Bricusse & Anthony Newley cover)
8. Undisclosed Desires
9. Resistance
10. Time Is Running Out
11. Starlight
12. Unnatural Selection
Encore
13. Plug in Baby
14. Knights of Cydonia

2010-07-03T19:43:00.000+02:00

I'm a bad blogger

2010-07-03T19:14:00.003+02:00

I'm a bad blogger, a very bad blogger! I haven't been on for 6 months! Today it is exactly 6 months since I wrote here last and I feel very much ashamed! The thing is that I've been blogging in other places. My Space is one, my homepage another. It's no excuse, I know, so from now on I promise (fingers crossed, haha!) that whenever I blog in other places, I blog here as well. So...from now on this place is no longer the kind of diary-thingy that it used to be, but a genuine blog, because let's face it: there is no need for diaries, since twitter came into our lives!

When that is said, I want to close the whole "Oliver Phelps used my pic as his twitter profile pic"-thing I had going. He used it for exactly 6 months (thank you SO much xx) and today, well, today I received a signed copy of the entire pic (which was of his brother James as well). Aww....they really are lovely blokes, aren't they? James signed it although he isn't an Aston Villa fan like Oliver and me and Oliver liked the cook book I had given him. Awww.....

Oh well, look out for blogs here on music, art, books, events and just odd happenings in my life. Hope to see you around and feel free to leave a comment!

Surprising twitter conversation

2010-01-03T16:03:00.000+01:00

The pic that Oliver Phelps ended up using

2010-01-03T16:02:00.000+01:00

Surprise, surprise!

2010-01-03T15:52:00.002+01:00

I had a bit of a surprise the other day when Oliver Phelps aka George Weasley in the Harry Potter movies asked me on twitter if he could use one of my pics as his official twitter profile pic.

I’ve been on twitter since April 2009 and you get to talk to a lot of people there, including some of the cast of Harry Potter. Some of those who are currently on twitter are Warwick Davis (Professor Flitwick), Tom Felton (Draco Malfoy), Matthew Lewis (Neville Longbottom), Chris Rankin (Percy Weasley), James Phelps (Fred Weasley) and Oliver Phelps (George Weasley). They have between 10,000 and 100,000 followers and get several hundred tweets from fans a day, but they do their best to answer as many tweets as possible.

I must admit that I only follow the three “Weasley-brothers” and the past months I’ve had the good fortune to talk to all three of them: Oliver Phelps 3 or 4 times a month, Chris Rankin usually once a month and James Phelps every third month or so. I’ve talked to James Phelps about his followers, about female skeletons, Lost, Ned from South Park and Christmas. I’ve talked to Chris Rankin about his band, his role as Percy and about snow (!) and I’ve talked to Oliver Phelps about football, boxing, his car (an MX5 Roadster named Sidney), Weezer albums, the flu and now profile pics.

Anyway, I’m rather proud that I’m now able to call myself the official photographer of Oliver Phelps’ current twitter profile pic. Thank you, Oliver, and you are welcome as well. ;-)

Birmingham by night

2010-01-03T15:24:00.000+01:00

Slade on stage in Bilston, December 10

2010-01-03T15:23:00.000+01:00

Don backstage in Bilston

2010-01-03T15:22:00.000+01:00

Happy New Year!

2010-01-03T15:06:00.000+01:00

Hiya all! Hope you got safely into 2010. Well, December was it usual busy self with Christmas parties, Christmas shopping and Christmas stress. At least I got to spend 5 more or less relaxing days in the Midlands, first with Slade, then with the BF.
I met up with Don on December 10th at the hotel in Wolverhampton and together we went to Slade’s concert in Bilston the same evening. Good seeing so many of my British friends again and good spending a little time with the band. The next day I went to Brum for my check-up and it seems that my back has stabilised for now, which means I’ll probably have 5 years or more where it isn’t gonna be worse than it is now. Yay! The rest of the weekend was spent in Brum, London and Sutton with the BF and we had a lot of fun.
Back home in Denmark I went to Christmas parties with Tea at her dance academy and swim club and then finally we were ready for Christmas. My friend Mette came by on the 23th, my sister and her husband on the 24th and then Tea and I just relaxed during the Christmas days, that is: I had to babysit for 24 hours on Boxing Day!
New Year’s was quite peaceful, although a house a few blocks away burned down. As for now I’m just looking forward to getting back to normal. How about you?

Tea on the front page of our paper during the HP festival

2009-11-04T09:34:00.001+01:00

Look-alike contest. The Weasley-twins won.

2009-11-04T09:33:00.000+01:00

Who's afraid of snakes? Not me!

2009-11-04T09:32:00.000+01:00

Potions with Snape

2009-11-04T09:31:00.000+01:00

Tea at Hogwarts

2009-11-04T09:29:00.000+01:00

Tea wondering in Alice's chair

2009-08-12T10:50:00.000+02:00

I have a thing about Captain Hook, he-he.

2009-08-12T10:48:00.000+02:00

Disneyland

2009-08-12T10:46:00.000+02:00

Tea in La Defense, Paris

2009-08-12T10:45:00.000+02:00

James Phelps, me and Oliver Phelps (sorry to look so smug, but they really are delightful boys!)

2009-08-12T10:43:00.001+02:00

Meeting Oliver and James Phelps (a.k.a. Weasley twins) at LFCC

2009-08-12T10:41:00.000+02:00

Me getting ready for a London premiere

2009-08-12T10:39:00.001+02:00

Meeting Chris Sarandon at the London Film & Comic Con

2009-08-12T10:36:00.000+02:00

Ten Things I Did This Summer

2009-08-12T10:19:00.002+02:00

While reading the blog “Ten Things to do before Summer Ends” by my writer colleague A.J. Llewellyn, I couldn’t help but sigh. You see, here in Denmark summer ended officially two weeks ago. It made me a little depressed, as A.J. had listed so many great things to do, but then I came to think of what I’d done myself this summer. Hmm, not bad. So I decided to come up with my own list: “Ten Things I Did This Summer”:

10. Stayed in bed in the nude for an entire weekend with somebody very special. Yes, you know who you are!
9. Went for a swim in a tropical water park. Hot enough for skinny dipping, but sadly it wasn’t allowed.
8. Watched the moonlight and the bats (!!) with someone I love. I have bats in my garden and they’re so cute to watch, especially if you make yourself comfortable w. candlelight and cooled white wine on a blanket.
7. Went to see a free summer concert, or rather three free music festivals! One in Denmark with my sister, one in England with my boyfriend and one in France with my daughter. Not bad, eh?
6. Got hugged in public by seven celebrities I always wanted to meet (or at least some of them!), namely Tom Baker, Chris Sarandon, Oliver Phelps, James Phelps, Danny John-Jules, Michael Keating and Don Powell. Okay, Don doesn’t really count, does he, as we’ve been pals for ages, but he’s still a celebrity, isn’t he? If we extend the summer to go back to late May, I can even put 4 more names on the list, but that would be cheating, I guess. I also had to drop off some photos I had borrowed from scriptwriter Andrew Birkin, by the way.
5. Brunch with my oldest and dearest mate. Nothing beats that. Girls talk, toast and tea. Lovely.
4. Went to the cinema and ended up snogging like teenagers. Well, we saw a bit of the movie as well, so I guess I lose a little points on that!
3. Had a young guy whistle after me in the street, well, actually I had three (in their early twenties). Trust me on this one, it does wonders for your self-esteem!
2. Watched and applauded a sunrise. I watched several sunsets as well, but they always make me depressed (don’t know why, but it has been like that ever since I was a child), so I seldom applaud them.
1. Had sex in the middle of the day – outside. In a rooftop garden. In London. Mmm…

When I looked through my list, I felt a little better. I mean, I hadn’t even added the great art museums, I had visited, the hilarious trip to Disneyland Paris, the film festival, the outings with my daughter etc. etc.
I realised that the memories of things done are often better that the anticipation of things to do. So: Aloha oe, A.J., I hope you get to do your stuff before the summer ends, and that of course goes for the rest of you as well!

Ray Sawyer and Lise, May

2009-07-15T16:49:00.000+02:00

Don and Rocky, June

2009-07-15T16:47:00.000+02:00

Twitter

2009-05-01T23:18:00.000+02:00

Sorry, I can't update this blog more often, but feel free to follow me on twitter.

Tea (long red pants to the right) in school musical

2008-12-21T21:03:00.000+01:00

More musical!

2008-12-21T21:01:00.000+01:00

Mal, Don, Mick and Dave in Bilston

2008-12-21T20:57:00.000+01:00

Merry Christmas

2008-12-21T20:50:00.000+01:00

December has been quite hectic here. On the 8th I went to Birmingham to get my back checked out – it has gone worse as always – and visit friends. Apart from the back I had a great time. Then on the 10th I was in Bilston with Don and the rest of Slade to see Slade’s gig at The Robin 2. Had a great night out and met loads of friends.
Tea has been busy as well, participating in the school Christmas musical and even doing some choreography for it. Now the Christmas holidays have started and we seem to be ready, the Christmas presents bought, the cards written, the baking done etc. So now all that is left is to wish you all a merry Christmas and a happy New Year!

Time flies

2008-12-06T12:28:00.001+01:00

I’m sorry it has taken me SOOO long to get back to this diary, but things are just too hectic at the moment. As usual my back problems don’t help, so a lot of the time I’m just not able to do anything and whenever I am, I spend the time on Don’s biography. Since I wrote on this blog last I’ve interviewed Dave Hill of Slade, Slade’s sound engineer Robin Lavender, Andy Scott of Sweet and Francis Rossi of Status Quo. I’ve also had quotes from Jim Lea, Jona Lewie and Craig Fenney and I’m in e-mail contact with Henry Weck, Suzi Quatro, Keith Altham and Len Tuckey. Furthermore I went to London in October to borrow scrip writer Andrew Birkin’s 1,004 negatives of Slade from the US tour in 1974.
I’m off to Birmingham, Wolverhampton and Bilston next week and upon my return I hope to finally get the time to prepare for Christmas…

Snape and Tea in potions class

2008-09-19T17:49:00.000+02:00

McGonagall and Dumbledore

2008-09-19T17:48:00.001+02:00

Luna Lovegood and Tea

2008-09-19T17:48:00.000+02:00

The living dead were among us

2008-09-19T17:47:00.000+02:00

Fire sword fight at the market

2008-09-19T17:46:00.000+02:00

Hagrid and Tea

2008-09-19T17:45:00.000+02:00

Tea and Krum

2008-09-19T17:44:00.000+02:00

Tea (right) at Hogwarts

2008-09-19T17:43:00.000+02:00

Harry Potter Festival

2008-09-19T17:39:00.002+02:00

Here in Odense we had at Harry Potter festival, September 9-12, and it was really amazing. The local library had arranged it together with the town of Odense, and I was surprised to see what they did for the kids. Tea was among the 160 lucky children to get a place at Hogwarts. she was in the house of Ravenclaw, of course, it being the house of intelligence. A chip off the old block, ha-ha! Hogwarts lessons were from 5.52 p.m. to 9.32 p.m. in the evenings so that the kids – all aged 8 to 12 years – were able to attend regular school during daytime.
The physical settings of Hogwarts was Odense’s big old town hall and our old lord mayor himself was acting the part of Dumbledore, complete with long hair, long beard and a splendid set of wizard robes. When I took Tea to Hogwarts on the 9th, it was amazing to see all those 160 children all dressed in school uniforms and robes with the respective logos of their houses. Tea was first year as she had never attended before, but as soon as we arrived outside the town hall older students from her house came to greet her and take care of her.
Parents weren’t allowed inside of course, but the kids had such a great time. Professional actors, opera singers and football players were teaching them, all dressed as the professors from the Harry Potter books, and volunteer teenagers acted the parts of older students such as Harry Potter, Draco Malfoy, Luna Lovegood and the rest. Tea immediately hit it off with Luna of course.
The kids started off with a feast in the great hall followed by lessons in potions, charms, transfiguration, defence against dark arts and care of magical creatures, being taught by Snape, Flitwick, McGonagall, Mad-Eye Moody and Hagrid. The classrooms were situated in a nearby cloister, Snape’s class in the dungeons by the cloister garden and Hagrid’s in an old ruin behind the town hall. They also played Quidditch in the nearby park, that was illuminated for the purpose. Everywhere lurked dementors and inferi, which they had to fight off, but as the kids were taken to Ollivander’s to get their very own wands, it was no big problem, although very exciting and a bit scary.
At 9.32 it all culminated at the town square with a big fire show for which the parents were also invited. Here the small but well-known Circus Sort (Circus Black) performed stunning things with fire, not only eating it, but also juggling with it, battling with fire swords etc. It was truly magic and the settings with the darkened town square and a white half moon partly covered by ragged clouds were perfect.
Tea did quite well at Hogwarts, at least she passed all subjects and was reported to be extraordinarily good at playing Quidditch. While waiting to go to the graduation ceremony we parents had a hilarious conversation with Lucius Malfoy, whose wit was brilliant.
The Harry Potter Festival ended on the 12 where the city centre of Odense had been turned into what resembled a cross between Diagon Alley and Hogsmeade. Here you could buy owls, wands and brooms, visit Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes, write for the Daily Prophet or have a drink at The Three Broomsticks. I was very surprised to find out that Rosmerta is actually an old friend of mine whom I hadn’t seen for ages, but it was quite good as she gave us free drinks all the time. All through the day there were duels and shows at the market.
The adult visitors were finally allowed to attend classes at Hogwarts and I attended Hagrid’s class and learned a lot about dragons and then of course I also had to take potions. Snape took an instant liking to me, I wonder why??, and I managed to produce a potion that he had never come across before. Very uplifting.
At the Weasley shop George, or maybe it was Fred, taught me to do a very show-off magic trick and at Ollivander’s I acquired my very own wand. All over the grounds you could meet the characters from the books, the teachers were there of course and the older students, and also Glitterick Lockhart who signed autographs, Kingo Schecklebolt, Fleur and Victor Krum, Krum being extremely kind and funny, by the way. The dementors and inferi were there as well, but with so many good wizards and witches around us we were never harmed.
We stayed at the market all day and when we got home Tea’s only comment was, That was the best day in my whole life!! Thank you for the magic to the library, the town of Odense and of course J.K. Rowling. Tea will be back at Hogwarts next year for sure!

Hanging out backstage in Koege

2008-09-14T15:56:00.000+02:00

Rocky, the miracle dog

2008-09-14T15:55:00.001+02:00

Xmas hats in Koege

2008-09-14T15:54:00.001+02:00

Slade in Koege, Denmark

2008-09-14T15:52:00.001+02:00

On Saturday the 30th of August Slade gave a concert as part of the Koege Festival Week. It was a wonderful, sunshiny day, very different from what we’d been used to, as it had been pouring down with rain most of the week. I met up with Don and Hanne at the town square of Koege at 5 p.m. They had brought Rocky, their dog, and as some of you know Rocky has had an accident so he was still wearing a cast. Five weeks earlier Rocky had been hit by both a car and a trailer and had come out off it very badly. He’d lost his tail and hurt both hind legs, one of them so badly that part of the bone had actually been scraped away. A main artery had burst and it was nothing short of a miracle that he survived, but he did, and after two operations and new ligaments in the one leg, he should be as good as new as soon as the wounds heal.
Anyway, Rocky limped about the backstage area minded by one of Hanne and Don’s friends. I bumped into Heine, a Slade-fan I have known for a couple of years, and we set out to enjoy the day. The rest of the guys turned up shortly after, all in a good mood, kissing and hugging and joking. We had dinner, the guys were signing autographs, doing interviews, greeting the fans etc. etc.
Slade went on stage a little past 8 p.m., this way being the first band to use the lights. The town square was packed, this being a free concert, mind you, and as soon as Don entered stage, the crowd was up and going. I was pretty pleased that I was able to watch the concert from an enclosed area for people with backstage passes, otherwise I’m sure I would have been squashed!
It was a truly magic concert and I’m sure the audience would have liked it to continue, but there were two more names on the bill, so the guys cleared out. Heine headed back home but I spent a couple of hours backstage with Don, Hanne, the band, Tim and Robin and the usual gang. A great night out, to be sure.

Don on stage in Taarnby

2008-07-05T13:51:00.000+02:00

Slade on stage

2008-07-05T13:50:00.001+02:00

Don and Tea

2008-07-05T13:50:00.000+02:00

The white spot marks our hotel in Haugesund

2008-05-31T17:59:00.000+02:00

Slade on stage at the Classic Rock Festival

2008-05-31T17:58:00.000+02:00

Robin and Don watching Rod Stewart

2008-05-31T17:57:00.000+02:00

On our way to lunch in Haugesund

2008-05-31T17:56:00.000+02:00