Hello, friends.
Yesterday we drove around 10 hours in the Highway Tiger (our mini-bus) from Stockholm, Sweden to Kristansand, Norway, where we are to close the 2005 Quart festival tonight at 1:30am.
Here's the BEFORE and AFTER from our last show at the Accelerator Festival in Stockholm. We'll deeply miss our band-camp friends; love to you and yours.
The only other time I've been to Norway was last year with Luke and Rob for an amazing last-minute show in Oslo. During the summers after both 4th and 5th grade I went to a Sons of Norway summer camp in Seaside, Oregon for two-weeks? Maybe three-weeks? That was the only summer camp that I ever went to, but I have a feeling it was pretty much like most summer camps, but on a smaller scale and based on Norway rather than whatever other summer camps are based on.. I learned to speak, read and write the teeniest, tiniest bit of Norwegian, along with some basics about the food, culture and kroner. It was awesome. Now I have the biggest soft-spot for Norway in my heart and I love being here so much. Sweden and Denmark also feel really good to me because the language is so close.. but Norway takes the cake inside of my heart. You could call it a heart-cake. Norway takes my heart-cake. Speaking of heart-cakes, check out these Swedish and Norwegian candies:
KEX: A honey-wafer-chocolate bar
Brynild: A chocolate/caramel lollipop
As usual you can always check out my photos on Flickr for a deeper look into what's happening up in here. I'm only posting about 1/10th of the photos here that I'm posting on Flickr, and Flickr is only about 3/4ths of what I'm keeping in my iPhoto.
Hello-Scandinavia
(19.4 MB - VIDEO MP4)
A BIG, BIG, BIG, HUGE thank you to Mike Beaver of Oklahoma for buying me a new charger for my camera! Mike has been following us via railpass throughout the entire tour and I think he's only missed two shows. He wouldn't let me pay him for it.. he said that getting him into the shows was/is payment enough.. man! You are a nice man! Movies are back! Photos are back! Now I have to come up with movie ideas.. The Ultimate Blogger project really screwed my mind up and set incredibly high standards for myself. I hope I can bring you good stuff, guys. I'll try hard!
I didn't really tell you about Roskilde, did I? Well, it was crazy. There were literally hundreds of thousands of people there, security was tight and I felt exhausted the entire time I was there. Luckily I got to see my awesome Danish friend Nis Bystead and some famous bands play boring music on ridiculously large stages surrounded by a sea of people. Don't get me wrong, I also so some brilliant stuff like Konono No.1 and Toumani Diabaté . All in all I think that festivals like this aren't exactly the best way to see music. I'm much more into festivals as small as What-the-Heck and up to as big as Accelerator.
I'm thinking of making a "greatest hits" section for this site where I feature the best entries and/or movies on one page or something. It's a little tricky getting to old movies and entries, right? You can always check out the archives by clicking on the link at the bottom of the page, but I want to make it even easier. I'll work on it and then tell you about it.
UPDATE: Goodbye Scandinavia.
Truly,
Jona
Jona,
thanks for sharing your super fun times with all of us! I look forward to seeing and reading about all that you're doing. keep on keepin' on man. hearts. Jaime
Jona,
It's great to hear your heart is in Scandinavia, or Norway in particular. I think you have lots of SISU and very little UFF DA.
(I think I can say that as a former Sons of Norway president.) I'm glad you are experiencing part of the culture first hand. I had to go to Ikea this week for my fix.
Love,
Dad
Why won't you tell us about meeting Lyova? Or did Mikey lie to us and you didn't actually see him???
Because I'm hanging out with him again! Jesus, Freddy! LAY OFF. I've got so much going on up in here! My camera wasn't functioning when we were hanging out so I don't even have any pictures. There will be a full Lyova report/post in a few weeks after the Nice Jazz Festival. PATIENCE!
Hey Jona!
When you're in nice, if you get the chance... there is an aremenia/arab/something tea shop in the old part of town where you get this sweet/honey/sugary tea in small gilded glasses. it is the most amazing thing ever!
Hi Jona!
It was so nice meeting you and your singin' n'pickin' pals at Roskilde festival! I hope you all continue to charm some hearts! Everyone I know has gone nuts over your beard from the poloriod we took! Love your site! Take care and enjoy!!
Warmest*,
Sarah
jona, are you playing Y.A.C.H.T. stuff at these fests? Or are you playing with Devendra?
Either way have fun. Good luck.
How lucky am I - did not check for a few days and now you got two more updates done and videos and photos! Great shows in Scandinavia! Very strange Sonic Youth got their private bread, I always thought they were so p.c.? Thanks to your friend from Oklahoma. Enjoy the rest of the Euro trip and give us more videos please.
CU, Birgit
Sons of Norway summer camp? That's really cool.
You look like an alien who is disguising himself as a human, and the alien has only had viking tapestry relics for his reference. Can you imagine? He thinks he fits right in. "What guys?"
jona,
frito-pie hier. so the hairy fairy is gracing Aweston on October 10. good.
do you guys want to do some after-party freak-out at Big Orange Transducers, the sound team spot?
paul
the bass kicks sound awesome on your built in camera microphone.
INSTANT GABBER FOR ALL!!!!
love from vermont,
greg
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hello jona! i know what you mean about norway, i feel many secret things in my heart about norway that i am afraid to share because i do not want it to change... i also had that same feeling you had in sweden, very hard to tell if people are into it or not.
right now, anacortes is hard at work with everyone getting stuff together for what-the-heck. it is incredible, flint is here, kirsten spent a week here, more people are arriving, and we are totally "gaming", at least once a day.
your trip seems so overwhelming, some much action for you to take in all at the same time, please don't explode!
love,
geneviève.