100 happy days :: day 14

today's happiness, seen through the haze of a headcold and slight fever; an intimate concert with viggo sommer and a two-man (very talented) jazz band in the children's area of our local library. what makes me happy is that all the seats were full, people were close to the stage (hence "intimate concert"), the musicians were relaxed and talented and entertaining, everyone appeared to have a nice time. but even more happy-making is the creative thinking that led to it - who would have imagined we could move around a few bookshelves and create an intimate music stage in the library? who would have imagined we could attract people who had never been seen in the library before? who would have imagined we could pull it off? and yet, it was a very successful evening for the 70 or so people who attended. here's to daring to make things happen even when it would appear, on the surface, to be impossible.

on how we consume music today

there's suddenly a lot of swirl in the interwebs about illegal downloads. here in denmark, the government has just proposed the very daring step of "dialogue" about it, rather than laws and punishments (quite an odd move for them, as they like to legislate the hell out of everything). they're taking a hit in the press for that. but i also just read this, a response to a young intern from NPR's all songs considered that recently admitted on the NPR blog that she had 11,000 songs in her library but had only ever bought 15 CDs in her life (this is not to say that most of those songs were illegal downloads, she goes on to say).

as someone who has plugged my iPod into someone else's iTunes library and downloaded to my heart's content as well as ripping CDs from the library into my iTunes library, i'm not really one to talk, but i have to say that i find the debate to be quite a lot of whining all around - from both musicians and record companies. while i'm in favor of people being paid for their creativity, what's needed is a radical rethink of the way we consume music. apple has, in many ways, already done that for us, as we've got the devices and despite all of the frustrations and misgivings i have about iTunes, they have actually made it quite easy for us to legally obtain the song we want, at the moment we want it.

i know that the iPod has radically changed my own CD-buying habits. i used to buy 1-2 CDs every week - up until about 2006. now i can't remember the last time i bought one. and i'm sure that both musicians and record companies are legitimately feeling the pinch, as i'm not unique. and perhaps there's a bit of darwinism at play here as well - survival of the fittest. the trichordist piece says that there at 25% fewer professional musicians than there were in 2000. i'm not convinced this is a bad thing and when i listen to the radio, i find myself wishing the number were even higher, as there's still a whole lot of bad music (especially pop music) being made.

i actually think the danish government might not be so far off in their challenge to dialogue - what's needed is a conversation around this topic that results in seriously rethinking the way musicians provide music and the way we consume it. and when they have the conversation, they need to talk to children, because the way they're already consuming music points to the future. despite having iMac, iPad and iPhone, sabin doesn't ask to buy music. she listens on spotify (premium is part of our mobile phone package) or she finds the music she wants to hear on youtube and plays it on her computer in the background while she edits a video or builds a SIMS family.

services like spotify are changing the game and complaints that their payment model isn't good for artists sound like a whole lot of whining to me. my inner capitalist says that the prices will land on what the market will bear - so if musicians want different prices, they'd better change their tune. or come up with a viable alternative. i seriously don't believe that all these creative people can't come up with a creative solution.

she's at it again

remember the last time i came to oslo (i'm talking to all of my pre-BoN lovelies) how some moron apparently packed my suitcase, leaving out essential items like clean underwear and deodorant and footwear one could be seen in in public, but including things like knitting needles (when i don't even know how to knit) and three different kinds of perfume (that at least we understand)? well, apparently, she's been at work again...

1. she failed to pack my toothbrush, which i didn't discover until after the big-ass mall next door had closed and i was forced to brush my teeth with my finger and some toothpaste (which thankfully WAS in the makeup bag as usual--and i'd really like to know where my travel toothbrush is).
2. she ordered my tickets home for late friday afternoon, not realizing that friday is a HOLIDAY and therefore a day off in norway. and then, when i tried to change my ticket today, i discovered that on a holiday, norwegians apparently choose to flee norway via copenhagen, as there was NO WAY to move the flight up. not a flight to be had outta here tomorrow evening or friday morning, so i'll be the ONLY ONE IN NORWAY until 16:20 on friday.
3. that moron keeps insisting on speaking danish to clerks in shops (double lattes are allowed during austerity april) and waiters (so is dinner). this leads the norwegians to think that i have a prayer of understanding their response. which i don't.
4. she ordered a double latte after 4 p.m. this will not be good after restless swine-flu ridden sleep last night (coughing, couldn't breathe--ok, it might be the birch pollen, not the swine flu), but i need some beauty sleep!
5. she broke austerity april and impulse-purchased an album called little things (thinking perhaps it wouldn't count against the austerity april thing if it was just a little thing) by hanne hukkelberg . it's a bit weird (in a good, tori amos/regina spektor/marie frank kinda way) and although i think she's norwegian, she largely sings in english and swears in danish. which, on the whole, i like. and it was a nice price album at only 89.90NOK, which is close to free, so it didn't break austerity april THAT badly, or wouldn't have had she not also authorized the purchase of the new whitest boy alive. she apparently knows we like norwegian music.

lastly, she made me get a brownie with my coffee after 4 p.m., tho' arguably that might have been molly's fault.

fairytales

"snow white is doin' dishes again, cuz what else could you do with seven itty bitty men.."



i have always had a soft spot for music that twists fairytales. whether it's sondheim's musical into the woods or sara bareilles fairytale song, the whimsy of making fun of fairytales just speaks to me. maybe because i never really liked fairytales all that much. princesses waiting around for their prince charming to come and rescue them from something or other was never really that appealing (tho' i loved the long-haired barbie versions of those characters).

some of the fairytales were a bit gory for me as well--beheadings, poison apples, grandmas being eaten by wolves or children lured through the woods by a witch who intends to fatten them up and eat them. these are scary stories. why do we think they're appropriate for children? they gave me nightmares as a child.

not to mention that the idea of sleeping for 100 years in a thorn-covered castle simply didn't appeal. though i would have loved to have hair long enough to climb, somehow that never happened. it's just as well, since as sara bareilles sings of rapunzel:

"a tall blonde lets out a cry of despair, says, would have cut it myself if i knew men could climb hair. i'll have to find another tower somewhere and keep away from the windows."

i can't stop listening to...

..Yael Naim's New Soul, that great song used in the new Macbook Air ad:

I'm a new soul I came to this strange world hoping I could learn a bit about how to give and take. But since I came here, felt the joy and the fear finding myself making every possible mistake.

la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la...

it's a lovely combination of lyrics, Yael's voice and a brass band. the brass band is quite unexpected in pop music today and adds a pleasant element of nostalgia, without crossing into kitsch. her accent is charming. in all, i can listen to it again and again. it's a song of self-forgiveness and of trying to find one's way in the world, even tho' we make mistakes all along the way. it captures some of the ways in which the world is bewildering, at the same time as you have to have a sense of wonder of it all. sometimes a song just captures the mood of a certain period and this is definitely my song of the moment.

This is a happy end cause' you don't understand everything you have done why's everything so wrong.

This is a happy end come and give me your hand I'll take you far away.

lights out, slow skate

hit a radio station on the way home that was playing disco. it transported me instantly back to the community building on a saturday night, clad in well-worn whitish-grey skates with red laces. last song(s) of the evening, lights dimmed, holding hands in a furtive sort of way with some local farm boy....was it troy rommen (romeo & juliet, samson & deliliah...when we kissed, oooo, fire)...or was that later, at that junior high dance, after which i came down with a late (7th grade) case of chicken pox....doesn't really matter. amazing how both music and scents can transport you into a memory, especially of a place. it happened yesterday too, when i wore kenneth cole's black perfume. hadn't worn it in a few months. it transported me, several times during the day, to my first (and only) trip to korea--to that crazy o'kim's irish bar in the lobby of the westin. but that doesn't really have anything to do with lights out, slow skate, now does it?