The first one I did is here.
1. Favourite book in the series.
Deathly Hallows. It answers everything as well as ends everything :)
2. Least favourite book in the series.
Order of the Phoenix. It's painfully obvious when I read it nowadays that she really had no idea what to do with that one when she started it.
3. Favourite character.
Dumbledore. He's just awesome.
4. Favourite villain.
Bellatrix Lestrange. She's so deranged it's fascinating O.o
5. Saddest moment.
Death of Dumbledore
6. Favourite professor.
Professor McGonagall
7. Least favourite professor.
Gilderoy Lockhart. Yes, he beats Umbridge!
8. Favourite subject.
Charms
9. Least favourite subject.
Divination. It's just a bunch of crap.
10. Favourite shop in Diagon Alley.
Either Florean Fortescue who sells ice cream or Weasley's Wizard Wheezes... I'm not sure.
11. Most handsome character.
Sirius Black. Not Gary Oldman. Just Sirius Black.
12. Most beautiful character.
Lily Evans.
13. Most missed dead character.
Dumbledore
14. Favourite book cover.
Now this is a tricky one. I'm not a big fan of the original British covers and I don't really like the American ones either. But I used to really love the Swedish covers of Philosopher's Stone, Chamber of Secrets, Prisoner of Azkban and Goblet of Fire (the first four and also those I've read most in Swedish). I also like the adult cover of Deathly Hallows. I'm not too sure about the signature versions. I think the colours are too bold.
15. Favourite Tri-Wizard Tournament challenge.
The Third Task. The hedge maze. It's fantastic. A perfect way to let the best win. The one who knows enough magic to beat whatever is thrown in front of them.
16. Favourite Hogwarts house.
I'm a Slythclaw. And I can't really decide between them.
17. Favourite animagus.
McGonagall.
18. Favourite unforgivable curse.
Am I too morbid if I say the Cruciatus Curse?
19. Favourite horcrux.
The Slytherin locket
20. Funniest moment.
"I've got a good feeling about going to Hagrid's"
Or potentially "I've always wanted to use that spell" and "Boom!"
21. Most emotional moment.
Death of Dumbledore
22. Aspired Quidditch position.
Chaser. I think I'd suck a little less in that position than at everything else :P
23. Whose pantronus is your favourite?
Luna's. A hare.
24. Your own patronus.
Probably a dolphin or a rabbit.
25: Favourite Dursley.
Dudley :D
26. Favourite wand.
I think I'll have to say James' or Lily's... Or maybe Draco's...
27. Favourite magical ability.
The flying Voldemort and Snape does. It's Dark Magic but who wouldn't want to be able to fly? Honestly?!
28. Favourite death eater.
Bellatrix Lestrange
29. Favourite Hogwarts portrait.
Hahah! Sir Cadogan ofc! :D
30. Favourite spell.
Accio. I'm lazy enough to like that.
Friday, 30 December 2011
Sunday, 18 December 2011
Dungeons & Dragons inspired fantasy RPG #3
We're back in Gwelvin's temple. The others are there too. Lelarion tells us that a dragon tried to turn the ship over so he made the decision to teleport it away. Narampyr (the Dwarf king) is out of town and has gone to the other Dwarf Kingdom. There's a rumour running about a wedding over there (no dwarves get married out of love). There's a knock on the door. Razario, who is closest, opens it. A dwarf guard in full armour is there. He says that someone is looking for Starion. Starion leaves. While he's gone Razario asks us why we're on this trip. Starion comes back. Starion walks to the pool and the water rises to form the face of a dragon. Razario is out of there. Starion tells the dragon that Gwelvin may be dead. The dragon doesn't react. Mirion says the same thing in dragon language and the dragon turns back into water. Starion and Mirion have a telepathic conversation. We hurry after Razario. We catch up with her and the dwarf Bellur before they arrive at the market. (Lots of innuendos on Razario's and Starion's behalf) Starion travels to his library with awesome wings. The rest of us travel to the elven forest below ground. We arrive at a tavern. Ariana and Razario eats and drinks beer. Get drunk. Continue downwards. Arrive there and they're out. (Zzzzz) Thanks to some nuts they're just mildly hungover the next morning. By then they're back above ground.
Wednesday, 14 December 2011
Nerd pictures!
I wanted to blog about something nerdy, but couldn't think of anything nerdy that I had been up to lately. So I decided to give you a taste of how I put nerdy in my environment :P
1). My Potter shelf. Two copies of each book (Swedish and English) + Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them + Quidditch Through the Ages + The Tales of Beedle the Bard + Harry Potter Page to Screen + Harry Potter Film Wizardry. 2). Harry Potter Trading Cards + game board + Pokémon Trading Cards + Harry Potter Quidditch Card Game + Death Note Deck + RPG dices with bag + Charmander figurine + a Neopet. 3). My DS + console case + games + game cases + PokéWalker. 4). Harry Potter notebook from Wizarding World + a replica of Bellatrix Lestrange's wand
1). Winnie the Pooh box with memories from Japan from Tokyo Disneyland + soda can with Hello Kitty + fruit drops can with Hello Kitty + two boxes with Mame Goma. 2). My two Gloomy bears. 3). Munchkin Board Game + Monopoly The Nightmare Before Christmas. 4). Pot with Pikachu.
1). Marauder's Map Wall Scroll. 2). My teddy bear with a Konoha forehead protector. 3). Poster with Morning Musume. 4). Books of Greek mythology, Japanese design, Korean and Pirates.
1). Slytherin crest key chain on my rucksack. 2). Slytherin crest key chain + Les Misérables 25th Anniversary key chain on my keys. 3). My Ravenclaw scarf. 4). My DVDs with Phanom of the Opera 25th Anniversary and Les Misérables 25th Anniversary.
Now I am planning on buying more Potter-related books so my Potter shelf my have to expand. There will overall be more Potter objects in the future :) I'm also considering buying myself a third Gloomy bear, this time a purple one. But all in due time and when I have money. More Hello Kitty items will probably follow as well...
And of course I forgot to take pictures of some things that I have on other places in the flat. But at least you'll get the idea ;)
Wednesday, 16 November 2011
Birthday presents part 1
Happy birthday to me :) Now I'm 21. That is not reflected on the presents I got today (next batch comes on Saturday when the family shows up for cake).
Day starts out with pancakes with vanilla ice cream and strawberry jam for brunch :) Then I got a 200g bar of Marabou milk chocolate with Dime in from a friend :D Then I got my presents from Love. Three of them. I opened them in order of size of course, smallest first ;) The Nintendo DS game for Plants vs. Zombies. See you sometime around Christmas. I've pretty much finished everything there is on the PS3 game so now I can start over on the DS one. I'll be so lost.
Second biggest was a Harry Potter book called "Harry Potter Film Wizardry". It's amazing. It's more of a toy than a book. Except for containing loads and loads of information on the actors and the sets, the actors memories etc. It also contains loads and loads of artefacts and pop-up things. The first thing you get to actually hold in your hands is Harry's letter to Hogwarts; a parchment paper envelope with green ink writing and a Hogwarts crest and a wax stamp at the back. As you open it you're able to extract Harry's admittance letter to Hogwarts. As you keep turning pages you arrive to Diagon Alley where you can find (after opening up the spread) a product catalogue from Borgin & Burkes. Later on you're given a copy of Advanced Potion-Making with stickers to put on bottles and boxes to make them look like they contain potions or ingredients! When we arrive at Hogsmeade we're given a sheet where you can extract two sweet boxes to fold together :) Moving on we arrive at the Quidditch World Cup and we're given a programme to flick through. At the Yule Ball we're given another programme to flick through. Towards the end there's an awsome spread of the Black Family Tapestry. Then we arrive to Dolores Umbridge and we're given five Educational Decrees on paper than you can actually use and put on your wall. And (the best thing) at a page called Confidential we're given the Marauder's Map :D At Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes we're given a product catalogue. The last thing we're given is a Ministry of Magic Identity Card for Mafalda Hopkirk.
The third present (and the largest) was a huge Harry Potter-esque book (meaning it takes up all of my desk and doesn't fit in the bookcase). It's called "Harry Potter: Page to Screen" and basically tell you the story of how the films were made with loads of photos and interviews etc. How the casting was done and everything. It was quite fun to read although I didn't read all of it, I mostly flicked through the pages and looked at the photos and read whatever I though was interesting. I loved reading about Evanna Lynch who played Luna Lovegood since her story is somewhat remarkable. She started out just like the rest of us: a huge fan of the books. She was one of the lucky few who wrote to Rowling and got an answer and at the casting they realised that she was a personification of Luna. I love this book. I actually thought of buying it myself, but then I decided against it - and I got it anyway!
This night we will order some sushi for home delivery and then we will cuddle up in the sofa watching a film of my choice - Cutthroat Island. I wanted something piratey, but I've seen Pirates of the Caribbean too many times so I decided to let Love watch my other pirate film for the first time. Obviously it's not as great as Pirates of the Caribbean, but it's not total shit either ;)
So to sum up my 21st birthday:
• Pancakes with icecream
• Chocolate
• DS game
• Harry Potter nerdiness
• Sushi
• Pirates
And the world seriously considers me an adult? O.o
Day starts out with pancakes with vanilla ice cream and strawberry jam for brunch :) Then I got a 200g bar of Marabou milk chocolate with Dime in from a friend :D Then I got my presents from Love. Three of them. I opened them in order of size of course, smallest first ;) The Nintendo DS game for Plants vs. Zombies. See you sometime around Christmas. I've pretty much finished everything there is on the PS3 game so now I can start over on the DS one. I'll be so lost.
Second biggest was a Harry Potter book called "Harry Potter Film Wizardry". It's amazing. It's more of a toy than a book. Except for containing loads and loads of information on the actors and the sets, the actors memories etc. It also contains loads and loads of artefacts and pop-up things. The first thing you get to actually hold in your hands is Harry's letter to Hogwarts; a parchment paper envelope with green ink writing and a Hogwarts crest and a wax stamp at the back. As you open it you're able to extract Harry's admittance letter to Hogwarts. As you keep turning pages you arrive to Diagon Alley where you can find (after opening up the spread) a product catalogue from Borgin & Burkes. Later on you're given a copy of Advanced Potion-Making with stickers to put on bottles and boxes to make them look like they contain potions or ingredients! When we arrive at Hogsmeade we're given a sheet where you can extract two sweet boxes to fold together :) Moving on we arrive at the Quidditch World Cup and we're given a programme to flick through. At the Yule Ball we're given another programme to flick through. Towards the end there's an awsome spread of the Black Family Tapestry. Then we arrive to Dolores Umbridge and we're given five Educational Decrees on paper than you can actually use and put on your wall. And (the best thing) at a page called Confidential we're given the Marauder's Map :D At Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes we're given a product catalogue. The last thing we're given is a Ministry of Magic Identity Card for Mafalda Hopkirk.
The third present (and the largest) was a huge Harry Potter-esque book (meaning it takes up all of my desk and doesn't fit in the bookcase). It's called "Harry Potter: Page to Screen" and basically tell you the story of how the films were made with loads of photos and interviews etc. How the casting was done and everything. It was quite fun to read although I didn't read all of it, I mostly flicked through the pages and looked at the photos and read whatever I though was interesting. I loved reading about Evanna Lynch who played Luna Lovegood since her story is somewhat remarkable. She started out just like the rest of us: a huge fan of the books. She was one of the lucky few who wrote to Rowling and got an answer and at the casting they realised that she was a personification of Luna. I love this book. I actually thought of buying it myself, but then I decided against it - and I got it anyway!
This night we will order some sushi for home delivery and then we will cuddle up in the sofa watching a film of my choice - Cutthroat Island. I wanted something piratey, but I've seen Pirates of the Caribbean too many times so I decided to let Love watch my other pirate film for the first time. Obviously it's not as great as Pirates of the Caribbean, but it's not total shit either ;)
So to sum up my 21st birthday:
• Pancakes with icecream
• Chocolate
• DS game
• Harry Potter nerdiness
• Sushi
• Pirates
And the world seriously considers me an adult? O.o
Tuesday, 8 November 2011
Challenge accepted
After being shown this video I kind of feel like I need to prove my nerdiness in some way, and at the same time help her prove that hot nerdy girls exist ;) (Cause seriously she's hot. The first thing I look at when she's going to show the Lord of the Rings copy around her neck is her boobs! O.o)
Let's start with the obvious:
Harry Potter. I have two copies of each book. One in English and one in Swedish. I haven't actually read the sixth and seventh books in Swedish but I like to have the complete set, you know? I also have "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them", "Quidditch Through the Ages" and "The Tales of Beedle the Bard". I also have had two books containing background facts about the world of Harry Potter, unauthorized by JK Rowling. The first one I got kind of fell to pieces (like my very first Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone in Swedish. Had to buy a new one) the second is "A Complete Idiot's Guide to the World of Harry Potter", which I must say isn't all that accurate. I actually had a lot of fun correcting the thing while reading it! ;) I also used to play dress-up Harry Potter as a child (so long playing with dolls, I'm off to Hogwarts!) I had a wand as a child, but it broke. Now I've ordered a new one (Bellatrix Lestrange's wand) along with a wall scroll of the Marauder's Map ^^; Oh and after I got sorted into Slytherin at Pottermore I bought two key chains with the Slytherin chest; one is on my keys and one is on my rucksack. I used to have Harry Potter Lego (it's probably still in the Lego bin at my parents' house). I also have a Quidditch card game and I have a fair few of Harry Potter Trading cards, along with the playing chart. Oh and I also loved playing Lego Harry Potter Years 1-4 on my DS and I can't wait for Years 5-7 to come out which is happening real soon! Yay! :) Oh and I've played through the computer games for Philosopher's Stone and Chamber of Secrets a few times each ;) Here's my Harry Potter playlist on YouTube and if there's anything else you want to know of my Harry Potter fandom then I redirect you to this older blogpost of mine. I also used to hang out a lot at hogwarts.nu (Swedish community) before it closed down, still have contact with a few people from there though. Now I sometimes hang out at mugglarportalen.se, but thing is it's not the same. Hoggy had this amazing spirit and it's not present at Mugglis :( I kind of miss that.
Now how to top that? :P The others aren't as much fandoms as fangirl crushes... Oh well, let's take them in some kind of order.
Pokémon. I fell for them in elementary school. I still stand by that there are only 151 Pokémon, I may stretch it to 250. But I really don't like the Pokémon beyond the second generation that much. That is why I'm still playing SoulSilver on my DS ;) I love the PokéWalker! I didn't really get the hype over Black & White, although I do have White version. I don't have all my old Pokémon cards left. I sold most of them, but I kept those that I really liked and now they serve as bookmarks (I have a tendency to lose real bookmarks, but I've never lost a Pokémon card :P) I have seen the first three films and I have the entire first season of the anime on my external harddrive ;) If you throw a Pokémon from the first generation out in front of me I can probably name it without having to think (much) about it. A friend of mine used to have a poster of all the first 150 Pokémon on the ceiling above her bed and we used to lie on her bed and testing ourselves if we could remember the names of all of them xD I only have one plastic figurine left and that's Charmander, but I did buy a mobile strap with Eevee on when I was in Tokyo. I also love reading this one.
Digimon. Well I might as well. Digimon was the only thing that made me get up early every Saturday morning. (I got that sleeping-'til-'noon thing when I was about 10). I've seen the first two seasons of it and I have the first season on my external harddrive. I never collected the cards, but I used to know the names of all the Digimon and what they evolved to, similar to what I knew about the Pokémon. Thing is I can still find watching Digimon fun, that's not really true for Pokémon anymore.
Pirates of the Caribbean. Wow, I can't believe it's soon going to be 10 years since the first film was released... I feel so old... Anyway, the first film got me into a kind of big frenzy. I read up on pirates in general, both on the Internet and in books. I bought a book about it. I had a pirate flag in my room and I still have a pirate cushion. I know all the lines of the first film by heart. The DVD with the extra material on it has gotten jumpy due to me watching deleted scenes and bloopers too much. That film also got me a huge fangirl crush on Johnny Depp and I started watching every film I could find starring him. I've kind of gotten over that one by now. But Pirates of the Caribbean is still going strong. I love his entrance in the first film, I love this song and I love this cover. I have Lego Pirates of the Caribbean for my DS, but I haven't really tried to play it yet.
Hello Kitty. Not even slightly possible to skip that one. I can buy anything because it's Hello Kitty on it. I have socks and shirts with that cat on them. I've got a tin can no longer filled with caramels, saved just because it's Hello Kitty on. I even saved the soda can with that cat on ^^; I still love Hello Cthulhu. It's such a shame that in Sweden Kitty is percieved as something only little girls can wear and have. So loads of children's clothing and stuff have Kitty on them but not adult ones. There are also a lot of make-up and creams that have Kitty on them - but I don't really use that :/ I have Hello Kitty case for my DS and loads of DS Hello Kitty stuff that came with it. I also have four mobile straps with Kitty on. This is my current desktop background:
Manga & Anime. I used to have a really big one for that. It started with Pokémon, Digimon and Sailor Moon. Then it evolved to Naruto, xxxHolic, Chobits... really I've seen a lot of them! I lost interest in anime first cause I always found the manga so much more interesting and funny to read. I used to buy a lot of them. One time I counted my manga volumes to about 400, of course 40 of them were One Piece, 15 Naruto and another 15 Fullmetal Alchemist, but you get the point. I used to have a really big thing for CLAMP so I had loads of their mangas, other than them it was mostly shounen that I liked. Oh and the gothic style of Kaori Yuki! I got a slight back-glimpse at anime when Kajsa showed me the anime for Nana (I had previously read Paradise Kiss). I watched the entire anime with her, then I found OneManga (which is currently not working because of copyright issues) and there I read all the mangas I was currently reading plus a fair few one shots and I started on several new ones. Now I've sold most of my manga volumes. I still have my 45 One Piece ones and some odd ones like the first volumes of Azumanga Daioh and School Rumble, and I don't really read a lot of manga anymore. I only keep track of five; FairyTail, One Piece, Bleach, Naruto and D.Gray-Man.
I think this next one is more dorky than nerdy, but whatever.
Greek and Nordic mythology. I started with Greek mythology in about sixth grade. I read everything I could find, mostly on the Internet. It came to an abrupt end when I (at the age of fourteen) gave myself the task of making a family tree of the Greek gods. Fantastically impossible! Then I went through a phase where I wanted to find myself a faith and I went for the old Nordic gods. So I learned all about the myths, the gods, ceremonies all that I could find! In the end it stopped being for the faith (I finally found myself comfortable with being an ateist) and it became to be only for the fun of knowing and reading up on the mythology.
Code Lyoko. I spent an entire summer watching this show. It's four seasons of pure cartoon awesomeness. The first half of the first season is really not that great but then you start getting some hints of a background story. And the fourth season is just wow. Anyway four high school kids find an abandoned factory which contains a super computer. They start up the super computer and find that it holds a virtual world, where they also find Aelita; a girl who apparantly lives there. In this world there's also XANA an evil entity that tries to take control over and destroy our world. To stop that from happening three of the four children are scanned into the virtual world when a threat appears. There they have to fight off some of XANA's monsters to help Aelita (who can't fight herself) get to an activated tower (XANA activates towers to get to our world) where she can deactivate the tower and stop XANA. After the tower has been deactivated they press the button that makes the super computer return them to the past. All of the children remember everything that has happened but no one else does, and so the world remains unaware that XANA exists. But there's a remaining question almost throughout the entire series: who is Aelita?
Heroes. The TV-series, that is. I remember some of us had a period in school where we greeted eachother with "Save the cheerleader" "Save the world". I think that's enough to describe how nerdy we were about this.
Other small things that make me nerdy? RPG is one thing. My favourite dice is a D10 which instead of numbers has kanji. Another one is that I've seen all the six Star Wars films in the right order (the order they were filmed, not the order they take place). I've also seen the entire first season of the original series of Star Trek (I actually kind of enjoyed the 2009 film). I get the strangest associations to YouTube jokes when watching the Lord of the Rings trilogy ("They're taking the hobbits to Isengard-gard-gard-gard"). I used to watch the cartoons Batman, Superman, Spiderman and Justice League and thanks to that I know most of the characters. Spiderman is without any doubt the best of them! I have tried playing WoW, but I don't like games that tell me what to do all the time. I'm kind of good at Guitar Hero, Bejeweled and Fruit Ninja and I'm getting really good at Plants vs Zombies. I've tried out Magic the Gathering once in the beginning of the 21st century, but really we weren't that good at English at the age of 10 and really it wasn't as fun collecting them as it was collecting Pokémon and because of the lack of English and the lack of someone explaining properly I never got the game... Oh and I looooove boardgames. That's one of my reasons for buying Monopoly Nightmare Before Christmas edition:
Admittedly I have had other obsessions throughout the years, but other than these most of them were simple fangirl crushes (meaning reading everything, collecting pictures, downloading everything...). I've had fangirl crushes on Avril Lavigne, Jonas Brothers, Johnny Depp, Nightwish, Lordi, Alice Cooper, David Eddings, Neil Gaiman, Keira Knightley and most lately Ramin Karimloo :)
I think that covers most of it. Am I as good at the nerdy stuff as she is? I'm not entirely sure, but heck what to do if I don't like most sci-fi, Tolkien or MMORPG? I mean if I dislike those things I have to find supplements, right?
Monday, 7 November 2011
Dungeons & Dragons inspired fantasy RPG #2
It's been ages since last time, I know. Life kind of got in the way for at least one of us all the time. But we did manage to get together on October 29th (I know I'm lazy with the RPG blogging) the same day I had my phonetics exam. Great way to end a day, although because I got up at 7am I was tired to death around 11pm so we had to quit early :/ Anyway, if you don't remember (I know none of us did without reading old notes first) here's how it all began and where we were when this meeting started.
Ariana Stumbles the first scaly man that comes running. It doesn't really have any effect. But in that moment the entire place shakes as if from a huge earthquake and everyone lose their balance. We feel some kind of shockwave from behind - the direction from which we came.
Mirion has with the help of his Invisibility Cloak been able to move from the tunnel in which Gapy and Ariana are to the tunnel with the archers. He kills the archers then deactivates his Cloak. More scaly men comes running and Mirion recieves a cut on his arm which almost cuts his arm off. Starion heals him. Gapy hits the first one coming at him, he gets hit and falls down unconscious. Ariana tries to push him aside to be able to get past him. Starion borrows Mirion's Cloak and sneaks off into the hall beyond the tunnels. He conjures a huge Grave of Thorns which kills most of the scaly men, but when he conjures the spell another spell goes off and give each of us 15 HP damage. Gapy dies. Mirion, Ariana and Barrskägg are unconsiouc. Starion pretends to be unconscious (he's got some kind of magician in his mind that at this point tells him what to do. Starion's magic Protection saved his life.) The magician in his mind healed us and put a spell on us so we'd look dead, because now there's a person walking among us and making sure we're really dead. After this Starion's shizo-friend magician disappears (something with an old debt being repayed). We find a glass coffin or chest (blackened glass) that can't be opened by magic. At the glass there are loads of demon faces. The floor around and under the chest seems to contain loads of iron ore. Starion can't feel any kind of consciousness coming from the chest. Mirion's Perception gives us nothing. We try to destroy the ches with the weapons of the scaly men. Not even a scratch. Mirion conjures a sylph to get the rocks away from the landslide. Starion squeezes through to the outside and swims back to the surface. There is no ship. Starion flies around looking for a ship and finds none. He is discovered by a water dragon that agrees to help us in exchange for the chest. The dragon digs us out and takes the chest to his mistress. We get dropped off at the coast of Narania, because we still couldn't find the ship.
Ariana Stumbles the first scaly man that comes running. It doesn't really have any effect. But in that moment the entire place shakes as if from a huge earthquake and everyone lose their balance. We feel some kind of shockwave from behind - the direction from which we came.
Mirion has with the help of his Invisibility Cloak been able to move from the tunnel in which Gapy and Ariana are to the tunnel with the archers. He kills the archers then deactivates his Cloak. More scaly men comes running and Mirion recieves a cut on his arm which almost cuts his arm off. Starion heals him. Gapy hits the first one coming at him, he gets hit and falls down unconscious. Ariana tries to push him aside to be able to get past him. Starion borrows Mirion's Cloak and sneaks off into the hall beyond the tunnels. He conjures a huge Grave of Thorns which kills most of the scaly men, but when he conjures the spell another spell goes off and give each of us 15 HP damage. Gapy dies. Mirion, Ariana and Barrskägg are unconsiouc. Starion pretends to be unconscious (he's got some kind of magician in his mind that at this point tells him what to do. Starion's magic Protection saved his life.) The magician in his mind healed us and put a spell on us so we'd look dead, because now there's a person walking among us and making sure we're really dead. After this Starion's shizo-friend magician disappears (something with an old debt being repayed). We find a glass coffin or chest (blackened glass) that can't be opened by magic. At the glass there are loads of demon faces. The floor around and under the chest seems to contain loads of iron ore. Starion can't feel any kind of consciousness coming from the chest. Mirion's Perception gives us nothing. We try to destroy the ches with the weapons of the scaly men. Not even a scratch. Mirion conjures a sylph to get the rocks away from the landslide. Starion squeezes through to the outside and swims back to the surface. There is no ship. Starion flies around looking for a ship and finds none. He is discovered by a water dragon that agrees to help us in exchange for the chest. The dragon digs us out and takes the chest to his mistress. We get dropped off at the coast of Narania, because we still couldn't find the ship.
Saturday, 5 November 2011
Mostly about The Sims 2
This Thursday I went out to meet a guy I had only talked to online previously. It went well actually. I'm just so ridiculously shy that I feel uncomfortable keeping eye contact for very long and then I don't know where to look. I can't talk with someone knew without having something to fiddle with (this time I ripped a napkin to pieces :P) But all in all it went well and he seems like a nice guy :P At least he said he'd like to meet again so I can't have been as weird and awkward as I thought ^^;
Moving on, yesterday and today have both been terribly boring days. I read some French books yesterday, but other than that half-hearted attempt at studying I've only been playing The Sims 2. Basically what I do is building houses. I usually get bored with the families after a while and to keep them interesting I usually do something kind of evil; like having the wife cheat on the husband with more than one sim. Having the husband abducted by Aliens makes for an Alien baby. Hurrying up the birthdays and creating new families with the children or have the teenaged sims cheat with eachothers girlfriends/boyfriends, make them run away from home, skip school (to the point where they are sent to military school) or having them sneak out every night and being brought home by the police every other night (the police yells at the parents for letting the teen sneak out). Sometimes I just kill off one of the boring sims :P Creating a big happy family without any internal problems is usually less fun than making a completely messed up family.
I also make up stories for my families. In the neighbourhood I created today my first family consists of Sayumi that fell in love with Bradley as a teenager and accidentally got pregnant. Her parents shunned her and they ran off together to start a new life. Their future contains some terribly naughty children :D I initially created two adult sims and after some cheating Sayumi had twins the very same day they moved into the new house (which made for her being pregnant as a teen without actually being it) and Bradley is already halfway through his adult life (which made for him being much older than her). This is the house I built for them:
Recently I got a thing for pillars, balconys, sloping roofs, several porches and orchards, and all my creations contain one or more of them. At least I've gotten over my fireplace period :P
The reason I'm still playing The Sims 2 and not 3 is because I tried out 3 and it was too much. So many details, it was so elaborated that it lost its fun part. I didn't like 3 because of that. 2 is what you make it out to be. 3 is just the way it is.
Oh, and because it's that day I just have to add this:
Remember, remember
the fifth of November
The gunpowder treason and plot
I know of no reason
why the gunpowder treason
should ever be forgot
Wednesday, 26 October 2011
Within Temptation
Yesterday it was time for the long-awaited concert with symphonic metal band Within Temptation. There has been some troubles with this concert. The date was first set in March at Store Vega in Copenhagen, however at the end of last year the singer of the band announced that she was pregnant and thus the entire tour was moved. My concert was moved to October 25th. Soon the venue was sold out and to be able to get more people to the concert the venue was changed to KB Hallen (where I previously have seen both Nightwish and Disturbed). However about a month ago there was a fire at KB Hallen and for some time I was worried the concert would get cancelled, but instead they changed the venue again to a place called Falconer Salen.
When we got to the right place (after a very nervous (on my part) walk from Copenhagen Central Station to Falconer Salen) we discovered that the new venue was a real fancy place. Big glass walls and everything. We got inside, payed for wardrobe, bought our tour T-shirts, got something to drink and entered the hall. I had read nothing about a support, for a moment I though there was none. But turned out that there was. It was a three-piece metalband called Triggerfinger. Although I remained unimpressed by the music I was throughly amused by their performance and I looooove their image; three men properly dressed in suits. The singer/guitarist had a backslick, the bassist was bald with sunglasses and he never said a word, the drummer was as hyperactive as drummers are supposed to be (as was the singer/guitarist). I liked their performance, but I probably won't listen to them again since I didn't enjoy the music. A live band through and through.
The support played for about 30 minutes, then we had to wait another 30 minutes while the crew fixed the stage and then they got on. I haven't listened much to their knew album. It's different from their other stuff and I wasn't overly impressed with it. But this tour was to promote that album and thus I knew they were going to play songs from it and in the end it wasn't that bad. I actually came to like a few songs. Albumwise (newest first) these are the songs played (may have missed one or two):
The Unforgiving:
Shot in the Dark
In the Middle of the Night
Faster
Fire and Ice
Iron
Sinéad
Mother Earth
Ice Queen
I loved that they had a huge screen at the back of the stage that either showed the official music video or a videoclip made for the song. The screen also gave away which song would come next. When the intro was shown/played for Stand My Ground I swear the ceiling lifted. This was the only song where Sharon told the crowd that we could sing along if we wanted to. And if we did! Wow. Same thing happened when What Have You Done started. It was perfect. They were very good at getting the crowd going and there was always loads of arms up in the air, heads banging and people jumping up and down or singing along. All of those make for a perfect concert experience. One of the best made-for-concert songs was Our Solemn Hour. All those "Sanctus Espiritus" were perfect as crowd chants. What Have You Done was second best, the crowd really screamed "What have you done now?" everytime that line showed up in the lyrics.
Any song I'd wish they'd played, but they didn't? Maybe It's the Fear or Hand of Sorrow or The Cross... Would Deciever of Fools be a good concert song?
I'll end this post with the two videos that made me like Within Temptation back in 2005 (especially the first one):
When we got to the right place (after a very nervous (on my part) walk from Copenhagen Central Station to Falconer Salen) we discovered that the new venue was a real fancy place. Big glass walls and everything. We got inside, payed for wardrobe, bought our tour T-shirts, got something to drink and entered the hall. I had read nothing about a support, for a moment I though there was none. But turned out that there was. It was a three-piece metalband called Triggerfinger. Although I remained unimpressed by the music I was throughly amused by their performance and I looooove their image; three men properly dressed in suits. The singer/guitarist had a backslick, the bassist was bald with sunglasses and he never said a word, the drummer was as hyperactive as drummers are supposed to be (as was the singer/guitarist). I liked their performance, but I probably won't listen to them again since I didn't enjoy the music. A live band through and through.
The support played for about 30 minutes, then we had to wait another 30 minutes while the crew fixed the stage and then they got on. I haven't listened much to their knew album. It's different from their other stuff and I wasn't overly impressed with it. But this tour was to promote that album and thus I knew they were going to play songs from it and in the end it wasn't that bad. I actually came to like a few songs. Albumwise (newest first) these are the songs played (may have missed one or two):
The Unforgiving:
Shot in the Dark
In the Middle of the Night
Faster
Fire and Ice
Iron
Sinéad
The Heart of Everything:
The Silent Force:
Mother Earth:Mother Earth
Ice Queen
I loved that they had a huge screen at the back of the stage that either showed the official music video or a videoclip made for the song. The screen also gave away which song would come next. When the intro was shown/played for Stand My Ground I swear the ceiling lifted. This was the only song where Sharon told the crowd that we could sing along if we wanted to. And if we did! Wow. Same thing happened when What Have You Done started. It was perfect. They were very good at getting the crowd going and there was always loads of arms up in the air, heads banging and people jumping up and down or singing along. All of those make for a perfect concert experience. One of the best made-for-concert songs was Our Solemn Hour. All those "Sanctus Espiritus" were perfect as crowd chants. What Have You Done was second best, the crowd really screamed "What have you done now?" everytime that line showed up in the lyrics.
Any song I'd wish they'd played, but they didn't? Maybe It's the Fear or Hand of Sorrow or The Cross... Would Deciever of Fools be a good concert song?
I'll end this post with the two videos that made me like Within Temptation back in 2005 (especially the first one):
Stand My Ground
Angels
Sunday, 23 October 2011
Les Misérables in Malmö #2
Today it was time again and I'll try to write something of a more professional review. But I'm still quite the newbie at theatre and musicals so my expectations and opinions may be somewhat faulty and well... childish.
Scenography. I was impressed with the scenography last time as well. The wolf still sticks out like a sore thumb though. I still not get that one. Although I loved the Paris scene where all the extras press together and spread their arms it somehow seemed less amazing this time. Still an impressive scene though.
I still love the bar scene. It's a drunken place with raggedy, drunken, happy people (probably the way it was until they woke up the next day, hung-over, and only to discover they'd been robbed). I hate hate hate Lovely Ladies. I hate how the extras are marionnette dolls. The misery of the scene may be kind of accurate, but weren't the whores kind of bold women? Didn't you have to "have some balls" (lacking a better expression) to be able to continue living on as a whore? Still don't like the whole cage-thing with Cosette, nor the Christmas tree shaped bushes. I found myself approving of the barricade. It seemed accurate to me that the barricade consisted of whatever sturdy material the students had been able to come across to help build it. The actual use of guns (cap guns) made it seem more real. All in all I like the scenes.
Jean Valjean. Dan Ekborg's Valjean has grown on me. Before going today I listened through the soundtrack of Les Misérables in Stockholm in 1990 and Tommy Körberg's Valjean sounds kind of, well, bored. he's boring to listen to. While Dan Ekborg puts loads of feeling into his voice. It's not just lines here. He's not just standing about saying his lines, but he's actually moving and acting and actively taking part in each scene he's in. I like his Valjean a lot. The way he's dressed also seems appropriate in my eyes.
Javert. Fred Johanson. Do I need say more? He's like a mixture of Norm Lewis and Roger Allam. With a voice similar to Norm Lewis' and facial expressions similar to Roger Allam, he makes for the ultimate Javert. He's incredible! Also his proper completely black clothes are very fitting. I like the top hat.
Fantine. It was Karolin Funke this time 'round as well. I'm still not impressed by her. Not only because of the producer obviously having a hard time finding a blond girl in Sweden (the wig bothers me), but because she looks nothing like I picture Fantine. I picture Fantine as a very beautiful fairly young girl (as beautiful as Cosette grew up to be). I'd set her maximum age at 25. The foreman is supposed to have the hots for her and I get the image that she's somewhat younger than the other girls working at the factory. They accuse her of being a whore (obviously she's more good-looking than the other girls and they're jealous). She sings of her man "taking her childhood in his stride" so she can't have been very old when she got pregnant. Karolin Funke looks somewhere between 35-40 and she's a squat woman. The clothes and the wig bother me. I don't like her at all in this production.
Mr. Thénardier. This time (I made sure of it) I got to see Peter Harryson as Thénardier and I liked him. He wasn't as lively as David Lundquist but it wasn't necessary. He got the job done and he did it well. He may be a little too old for how I picture Thénardier but otherwise I like his performance. He wasn't just sitting around, but he was moving about and he used his facial expressions and the feelings in his voice. He was perfect at the Wedding! Still don't like the ragged clothing of Thénardier, but I really liked how they dressed him in the Wedding. Also the perfect Thénardier in my book is Alun Armstrong. They got it right the first time! Matt Lucas is great too...
Mrs. Thénardier. Kajsa and Tiffany had mentioned how Marianne Mörck wasn't any good so I made sure that I got to see Evamaria Björk as Mrs. Thénardier again. She's great. I love how she's doting on Éponine and how she's pretending to be loving of Cosette when Valjean shows up. She puts on a great show. I also like how they've dressed her.
Little Cosette / Little Éponine. Same little Cosette as last time and she seemed less nervous this time. She's adorable and she sings Castle on a Cloud (I Himlens Slott) as perfectly as Mia Jenkins whom I love as Cosette. It was a different little Éponine though and she wasn't as great as the other one. The other stuck her tongue out at Cosette, teased her when she had Cosette's doll. This one behaved like a spoiled child but she only showed some kind of expression towards Cosette when Valjean put on Cosette her dress and she managed to look extremely envious and pouty. The dressing of Cosette is actually very fitting. The dressing of Éponine is less so. If she's so spoiled she should be dressed as a princess in a frilly dress like her mother.
Gavroche. Oh my my! This Gavroche was sooooo cute! I just wanted to grab him and bring him home. He was obviously nervous, but he still made a better show than the other kid. This Gavroche may have been 7 years old while the other kid we saw last time could have been about 11. His (this one's) Little People was perfect and he actually managed to shout "Listen to me!" before they all went quiet anyway. The introduction of Gavroche in Look Down (Gavroches Sång) is still too measly, but that may just be the Swedish language... He's dressed perfectly and his news paper boat hat in the beginning is extremely fitting. I cried when he died.
The students. Marius is still hot (and tall!). Philip Jalmelid makes a very convincing Marius. Enjolras (Anders Gjönnes) seemed to be less nervous this time and made a good job at being a convincing leader. I love love love Grantaire (Glenn Daniel Nilsson). I love how his playing around with his wig and being all theatrical. I've never really payed any attention to Grantaire before but this time I rather looked at him than at Enjolras. I like their clothes but I'm not that happy about the (very revealing) striped pants (they have to be stuffed with a sock or something, right?) I also like Grantaire's relationship with Gavroche! As per usual I didn't really pay any big amount of attention to Feully and Courfeyrac.
Marius. As mentioned above he's tall. He managed to hit his head in the ceiling of the cage! He's awkward but still very gentleman-y in front of Cosette. He seems the most grown up of his friends and he's very good at stepping all over Éponine's feelings as usual. He has the best clothes out of all the students. No striped pants to be seen anywhere. He's a skilled singer and he knows how to express sadness with his eyes.
Cosette. I'm not a big fan of Cosette. I do not like her in any way. Emmi Christensson, however, made a much better Cosette than Mathilda Ahnell. I don't know what else to say about her. We are always given very little of Cosette. Emmi sings well and she can act a happy lovefool very well. The feelings were present in her voice when she begged Valjean not to die yet at the end. Her suspicious looks from a distance at the Thénardiers at the wedding were very well done. The dress could have been of a different colour though. Yellow/Gold is usually not a very flattering colour for blonds.
Éponine. Same Éponine as last time. Ida Högberg sings great. Her voice is fitting of Éponine. But it's hard to feel any kind of compassion when she looks like Little My from Moominvalley in a punk rocker outfit. I hate her clothes so much more when she's all grown up than when she's little. What was the producer thinking?! A Little Fall of Rain made me cry again, though so there's no problem acting on her part.
Extras. David Lundquist (Thénardier last time) served as an extra this time. I'm seriously wondering if he shouldn't be diagnosed with something regarding too much energy. He's a clown. As soon as he steps out on stage he steals the attention from everyone else. This didn't make me like him better, if possible I now like him even less. Although he made a great job playing the bishop in the beginning! Speaking of extras. I've already mentioned that the marionnette doll whores bother me. What else bothers me is that the soldiers are dressed like traditional London soldiers. I mean, come on! Doesn't the producer know any better or did he just think those hats look cool? I also hate that all the servants are dressed in a fashion 100 years out of style. The musical takes place in the 19th century, not the 18th. No powdered wigs, okay?!
Translations. I listened through all the Swedish songs from Stockholm 1990 to know something of the songs when I got there today. Imagine my disappointment when I discover that they've changed the lyrics at a fair few places! Also mayor in Swedish has 4 syllables (borgmästaren) so when Javert sings "but monsieur maîre" it sounds very forced and wrong. Do You Hear the People Sing (Folkets Sång) sounds very weird in Swedish although the both songs basically sing the very same thing in the very same order. I don't like the Swedish version of On My Own (För mig själv) maybe because "I love him" in Swedish has 5 syllables (Jag älskar honom) but it doesn't work with the song so instead she only sings "I love" (Jag älskar). Songs I do like in Swedish are Red and Black (Rött och Svart), Drink With Me (Drick Med Mig) and One More Day (Än En Dag).
Scenography. I was impressed with the scenography last time as well. The wolf still sticks out like a sore thumb though. I still not get that one. Although I loved the Paris scene where all the extras press together and spread their arms it somehow seemed less amazing this time. Still an impressive scene though.
Jean Valjean. Dan Ekborg's Valjean has grown on me. Before going today I listened through the soundtrack of Les Misérables in Stockholm in 1990 and Tommy Körberg's Valjean sounds kind of, well, bored. he's boring to listen to. While Dan Ekborg puts loads of feeling into his voice. It's not just lines here. He's not just standing about saying his lines, but he's actually moving and acting and actively taking part in each scene he's in. I like his Valjean a lot. The way he's dressed also seems appropriate in my eyes.
Javert. Fred Johanson. Do I need say more? He's like a mixture of Norm Lewis and Roger Allam. With a voice similar to Norm Lewis' and facial expressions similar to Roger Allam, he makes for the ultimate Javert. He's incredible! Also his proper completely black clothes are very fitting. I like the top hat.
Fantine. It was Karolin Funke this time 'round as well. I'm still not impressed by her. Not only because of the producer obviously having a hard time finding a blond girl in Sweden (the wig bothers me), but because she looks nothing like I picture Fantine. I picture Fantine as a very beautiful fairly young girl (as beautiful as Cosette grew up to be). I'd set her maximum age at 25. The foreman is supposed to have the hots for her and I get the image that she's somewhat younger than the other girls working at the factory. They accuse her of being a whore (obviously she's more good-looking than the other girls and they're jealous). She sings of her man "taking her childhood in his stride" so she can't have been very old when she got pregnant. Karolin Funke looks somewhere between 35-40 and she's a squat woman. The clothes and the wig bother me. I don't like her at all in this production.
Mr. Thénardier. This time (I made sure of it) I got to see Peter Harryson as Thénardier and I liked him. He wasn't as lively as David Lundquist but it wasn't necessary. He got the job done and he did it well. He may be a little too old for how I picture Thénardier but otherwise I like his performance. He wasn't just sitting around, but he was moving about and he used his facial expressions and the feelings in his voice. He was perfect at the Wedding! Still don't like the ragged clothing of Thénardier, but I really liked how they dressed him in the Wedding. Also the perfect Thénardier in my book is Alun Armstrong. They got it right the first time! Matt Lucas is great too...
Little Cosette / Little Éponine. Same little Cosette as last time and she seemed less nervous this time. She's adorable and she sings Castle on a Cloud (I Himlens Slott) as perfectly as Mia Jenkins whom I love as Cosette. It was a different little Éponine though and she wasn't as great as the other one. The other stuck her tongue out at Cosette, teased her when she had Cosette's doll. This one behaved like a spoiled child but she only showed some kind of expression towards Cosette when Valjean put on Cosette her dress and she managed to look extremely envious and pouty. The dressing of Cosette is actually very fitting. The dressing of Éponine is less so. If she's so spoiled she should be dressed as a princess in a frilly dress like her mother.
Gavroche. Oh my my! This Gavroche was sooooo cute! I just wanted to grab him and bring him home. He was obviously nervous, but he still made a better show than the other kid. This Gavroche may have been 7 years old while the other kid we saw last time could have been about 11. His (this one's) Little People was perfect and he actually managed to shout "Listen to me!" before they all went quiet anyway. The introduction of Gavroche in Look Down (Gavroches Sång) is still too measly, but that may just be the Swedish language... He's dressed perfectly and his news paper boat hat in the beginning is extremely fitting. I cried when he died.
The students. Marius is still hot (and tall!). Philip Jalmelid makes a very convincing Marius. Enjolras (Anders Gjönnes) seemed to be less nervous this time and made a good job at being a convincing leader. I love love love Grantaire (Glenn Daniel Nilsson). I love how his playing around with his wig and being all theatrical. I've never really payed any attention to Grantaire before but this time I rather looked at him than at Enjolras. I like their clothes but I'm not that happy about the (very revealing) striped pants (they have to be stuffed with a sock or something, right?) I also like Grantaire's relationship with Gavroche! As per usual I didn't really pay any big amount of attention to Feully and Courfeyrac.
Marius. As mentioned above he's tall. He managed to hit his head in the ceiling of the cage! He's awkward but still very gentleman-y in front of Cosette. He seems the most grown up of his friends and he's very good at stepping all over Éponine's feelings as usual. He has the best clothes out of all the students. No striped pants to be seen anywhere. He's a skilled singer and he knows how to express sadness with his eyes.
Cosette. I'm not a big fan of Cosette. I do not like her in any way. Emmi Christensson, however, made a much better Cosette than Mathilda Ahnell. I don't know what else to say about her. We are always given very little of Cosette. Emmi sings well and she can act a happy lovefool very well. The feelings were present in her voice when she begged Valjean not to die yet at the end. Her suspicious looks from a distance at the Thénardiers at the wedding were very well done. The dress could have been of a different colour though. Yellow/Gold is usually not a very flattering colour for blonds.
Éponine. Same Éponine as last time. Ida Högberg sings great. Her voice is fitting of Éponine. But it's hard to feel any kind of compassion when she looks like Little My from Moominvalley in a punk rocker outfit. I hate her clothes so much more when she's all grown up than when she's little. What was the producer thinking?! A Little Fall of Rain made me cry again, though so there's no problem acting on her part.
Extras. David Lundquist (Thénardier last time) served as an extra this time. I'm seriously wondering if he shouldn't be diagnosed with something regarding too much energy. He's a clown. As soon as he steps out on stage he steals the attention from everyone else. This didn't make me like him better, if possible I now like him even less. Although he made a great job playing the bishop in the beginning! Speaking of extras. I've already mentioned that the marionnette doll whores bother me. What else bothers me is that the soldiers are dressed like traditional London soldiers. I mean, come on! Doesn't the producer know any better or did he just think those hats look cool? I also hate that all the servants are dressed in a fashion 100 years out of style. The musical takes place in the 19th century, not the 18th. No powdered wigs, okay?!
Translations. I listened through all the Swedish songs from Stockholm 1990 to know something of the songs when I got there today. Imagine my disappointment when I discover that they've changed the lyrics at a fair few places! Also mayor in Swedish has 4 syllables (borgmästaren) so when Javert sings "but monsieur maîre" it sounds very forced and wrong. Do You Hear the People Sing (Folkets Sång) sounds very weird in Swedish although the both songs basically sing the very same thing in the very same order. I don't like the Swedish version of On My Own (För mig själv) maybe because "I love him" in Swedish has 5 syllables (Jag älskar honom) but it doesn't work with the song so instead she only sings "I love" (Jag älskar). Songs I do like in Swedish are Red and Black (Rött och Svart), Drink With Me (Drick Med Mig) and One More Day (Än En Dag).
Rött - för blod från arga män
Svart - för gamla tiders hat
Rött - för sol i gryningen
Svart - för natten som blir dag
Wednesday, 19 October 2011
A Harry Potter questionnaire
This is supposed to be one of these things that answers one question a day. But I don't like the thought of having forced themed posts for a whole month. So I'll do them all in one go :)
1. Your favourite book?
Tough one. During the gap between fourth and fifth my favourite was Prisoner of Azkaban, although later on I liked Half-Blood Prince and Deathly Hallows. I think I have to say Deathly Hallows.
2. Your favourite film?
Once again Deathly Hallows. Both of them. Thanks to the book being split into two films they managed to make the final story the best one. The other films are just abysmal, although the first two are quite well-made as well.
3. Is there any of the film adaptations that have made you angry because they've ignored important parts of the book?
Goblet of Fire is without doubt the worst film. But the only film that has made me angry instead of just disappointed is Half-Blood Prince, which tend to be more of a high school romantic drama than a real Harry Potter film. I know that there's a lot of love and couples in the sixth book, but the main story is Dumbledore's lessons with Harry, teaching him about Voldemort and Horcruxes which we don't see that much of in the film. Also, Dumbledore's death left me completely unemotional in the film, whilst I had to read it three times over and over in the book (while crying) to actually realise that it was true and that left me feeling empty and sad for days.
4. Favourite male character and why.
Albus Dumbledore. Already in the first book he became my hero. My would-be go-to person. Not even what was revealed about his past in the final book could remove him from that pedestal. This is also why I hated Michael Gambon's portrayal of him. I loved Richard Harris, although a bit more lively would have been good. So the greatest Dumbledore would have been portrayed by a Richard Harris who wasn't sick with cancer.
5. Least favourite male character?
I think I have to say Cornelius Fudge, although this is a hard one. He seems sympathetic enough in the first two, three books and then he's transformed into this proud, ignorant, indifferent, negligant bastard. I just want to smack him.
6. Favourite female character and why.
Minerva McGonagall. She's a wonderful person. She's so strict and yet she's a person who loves Quidditch. She's patriotic towards her House and she loves her students. She wants to protect them and hates it when she has to punish them. I love Maggie Smith's portrayal of her. Especially in Deathly Hallows part 2. I also love that we are given her full background story at Pottermore :D
7. Least favourite female character and why.
Easy. Dolores Umbridge. She's sort of made to be hated.
8. What House would you want to be in?
I think I would be a Hatstall. I think it would be between Ravenclaw and Slytherin and I wouldn't mind either. I don't want to be in Gryffindor, that much I know. I don't think I'd want to be in Hufflepuff either. Pottermore sorted me into Slytherin, and after googling and reading all of Rowling's Welcome letters and descriptions of the Houses I feel like Slytherin suits me the best, although I thought myself a Ravenclaw for years.
9. What do you think would be your favourite lesson?
Probably Charms. Possibly Defense Against the Dark Arts.
10. Horcruxes or Hallows?
Hallows.
11. What character would you say you are most like?
As a child I resembled Hermione most. I'm still an incorrigible know-it-all. But I don't think I'm that Hermione-esque anymore. I think I'm kind of a mix of Bellatrix-Hermione-Minerva...
12. Favourite ship?
I've read the most fanfics shipping Harry/Hermione and Harry/Draco. Although I must say that my own favourite ship is Albus/Minerva ^^
13. Least favourite film?
Goblet of Fire.
14. Team Voldemort or Team Harry?
Do I have to pick a side? I think I'll have to say Team Harry. Simply because I'm liberal and Team Voldemort in my opinion stands for oppression and conservatism.
15. Who would be your best friends at Hogwarts?
In the Marauders' time it would've been Lily and Severus. In Harry's time I'm not so sure. Maybe Ginny and Luna?
16. Favourite professor?
You have to ask? McGonagall!
17. Favourite Harry Potter actor/actress and why.
Another tough one. Maggie Smith (McGonagall) or Evanna Lynch (Luna) for favourite actress. Alan Rickman is simply the best actor on the set.
18. Least favourite book?
Order of the Phoenix. Thinking back now that book distinctly shows the signs of her (Rowling's) writer's block.
19. Do you prefer the books or the films?
Books. Not even glancing at the films.
20. If you had to meet one member of the cast, who would it be?
Evanna Lynch. Unless I can count Rowling into the cast? In that case, definately Rowling!
21. Out of all the characters that died, if you could bring one back, who would it be?
Fred. I feel so sorry for George having to lose his twin.
22. Harry Potter or Twilight?
Isn't that something of a stupid question? I'll answer with this picture:
23. Any part of the books/films that makes you cry?
Books: the deaths of Dumbledore and Dobby. When Harry uses the Resurrection Stone.
Films: Death of Dobby.
24. Any particular scene you wished would have been put in the film but it wasn't?
I'm a huge fan of Quidditch in the books and in general the films have contained way too little Quidditch. A scene I would have loved to see on screen is for instance the Quidditch final in Prisoner of Azkban. Also there's way too little of Keeper Weasley and Grawp in the sixth film, but the sixth film is lacking in most areas.
25. Nineteen years later. Are you happy how it turned out, or do you wish something was different?
Actually I was sincerely hoping that Harry wouldn't survive and that both Harry and Voldemort would die. I'm not a fan of happy endings and I was extremely disappointed by the epilogue when I first read it. I've gotten somewhat accustomed to it now but I'm still not a big fan of the extremely obvious ending.
26. If you could be able to work one spell without a wand what would it be?
I'm considering Impervious, the water-repellant. Would make umbrellas completely useless and that annoying drizzle wouldn't be as annoying anymore. I'm also considering the Disillusionment Charm. Imagine to be able to go practically invisible at will! :)
27. Would you rather own The Invisibility Cloak, The Resurrection Stone or The Elder Wand?
The Invisibility Cloak. Easily.
28. Do you listen to Wizard Rock? What do you think of it?
I used to listen to Harry and the Potters. The lyrics were hilarious at first, but after hearing them over and over for some time I got kind of sick of them and stopped listening to Wizard Rock altogether. My favourite songs at the time were The Foil (Malfoy), Luna Lovegood is OK and The Dark Lord Lament.
29. Did you enjoy A Very Potter Musical?
Seeing it is on my to-do list :)
30. What affect has Harry Potter made on your life and how much does it mean to you?
I think I've covered this question before. So I'll just redirect you to my previous post:
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 2
1. Your favourite book?
Tough one. During the gap between fourth and fifth my favourite was Prisoner of Azkaban, although later on I liked Half-Blood Prince and Deathly Hallows. I think I have to say Deathly Hallows.
2. Your favourite film?
Once again Deathly Hallows. Both of them. Thanks to the book being split into two films they managed to make the final story the best one. The other films are just abysmal, although the first two are quite well-made as well.
3. Is there any of the film adaptations that have made you angry because they've ignored important parts of the book?
Goblet of Fire is without doubt the worst film. But the only film that has made me angry instead of just disappointed is Half-Blood Prince, which tend to be more of a high school romantic drama than a real Harry Potter film. I know that there's a lot of love and couples in the sixth book, but the main story is Dumbledore's lessons with Harry, teaching him about Voldemort and Horcruxes which we don't see that much of in the film. Also, Dumbledore's death left me completely unemotional in the film, whilst I had to read it three times over and over in the book (while crying) to actually realise that it was true and that left me feeling empty and sad for days.
4. Favourite male character and why.
Albus Dumbledore. Already in the first book he became my hero. My would-be go-to person. Not even what was revealed about his past in the final book could remove him from that pedestal. This is also why I hated Michael Gambon's portrayal of him. I loved Richard Harris, although a bit more lively would have been good. So the greatest Dumbledore would have been portrayed by a Richard Harris who wasn't sick with cancer.
5. Least favourite male character?
I think I have to say Cornelius Fudge, although this is a hard one. He seems sympathetic enough in the first two, three books and then he's transformed into this proud, ignorant, indifferent, negligant bastard. I just want to smack him.
6. Favourite female character and why.
Minerva McGonagall. She's a wonderful person. She's so strict and yet she's a person who loves Quidditch. She's patriotic towards her House and she loves her students. She wants to protect them and hates it when she has to punish them. I love Maggie Smith's portrayal of her. Especially in Deathly Hallows part 2. I also love that we are given her full background story at Pottermore :D
7. Least favourite female character and why.
Easy. Dolores Umbridge. She's sort of made to be hated.
8. What House would you want to be in?
I think I would be a Hatstall. I think it would be between Ravenclaw and Slytherin and I wouldn't mind either. I don't want to be in Gryffindor, that much I know. I don't think I'd want to be in Hufflepuff either. Pottermore sorted me into Slytherin, and after googling and reading all of Rowling's Welcome letters and descriptions of the Houses I feel like Slytherin suits me the best, although I thought myself a Ravenclaw for years.
9. What do you think would be your favourite lesson?
Probably Charms. Possibly Defense Against the Dark Arts.
10. Horcruxes or Hallows?
Hallows.
11. What character would you say you are most like?
As a child I resembled Hermione most. I'm still an incorrigible know-it-all. But I don't think I'm that Hermione-esque anymore. I think I'm kind of a mix of Bellatrix-Hermione-Minerva...
12. Favourite ship?
I've read the most fanfics shipping Harry/Hermione and Harry/Draco. Although I must say that my own favourite ship is Albus/Minerva ^^
13. Least favourite film?
Goblet of Fire.
14. Team Voldemort or Team Harry?
Do I have to pick a side? I think I'll have to say Team Harry. Simply because I'm liberal and Team Voldemort in my opinion stands for oppression and conservatism.
15. Who would be your best friends at Hogwarts?
In the Marauders' time it would've been Lily and Severus. In Harry's time I'm not so sure. Maybe Ginny and Luna?
16. Favourite professor?
You have to ask? McGonagall!
17. Favourite Harry Potter actor/actress and why.
Another tough one. Maggie Smith (McGonagall) or Evanna Lynch (Luna) for favourite actress. Alan Rickman is simply the best actor on the set.
18. Least favourite book?
Order of the Phoenix. Thinking back now that book distinctly shows the signs of her (Rowling's) writer's block.
19. Do you prefer the books or the films?
Books. Not even glancing at the films.
20. If you had to meet one member of the cast, who would it be?
Evanna Lynch. Unless I can count Rowling into the cast? In that case, definately Rowling!
21. Out of all the characters that died, if you could bring one back, who would it be?
Fred. I feel so sorry for George having to lose his twin.
22. Harry Potter or Twilight?
Isn't that something of a stupid question? I'll answer with this picture:
Books: the deaths of Dumbledore and Dobby. When Harry uses the Resurrection Stone.
Films: Death of Dobby.
24. Any particular scene you wished would have been put in the film but it wasn't?
I'm a huge fan of Quidditch in the books and in general the films have contained way too little Quidditch. A scene I would have loved to see on screen is for instance the Quidditch final in Prisoner of Azkban. Also there's way too little of Keeper Weasley and Grawp in the sixth film, but the sixth film is lacking in most areas.
25. Nineteen years later. Are you happy how it turned out, or do you wish something was different?
Actually I was sincerely hoping that Harry wouldn't survive and that both Harry and Voldemort would die. I'm not a fan of happy endings and I was extremely disappointed by the epilogue when I first read it. I've gotten somewhat accustomed to it now but I'm still not a big fan of the extremely obvious ending.
26. If you could be able to work one spell without a wand what would it be?
I'm considering Impervious, the water-repellant. Would make umbrellas completely useless and that annoying drizzle wouldn't be as annoying anymore. I'm also considering the Disillusionment Charm. Imagine to be able to go practically invisible at will! :)
27. Would you rather own The Invisibility Cloak, The Resurrection Stone or The Elder Wand?
The Invisibility Cloak. Easily.
28. Do you listen to Wizard Rock? What do you think of it?
I used to listen to Harry and the Potters. The lyrics were hilarious at first, but after hearing them over and over for some time I got kind of sick of them and stopped listening to Wizard Rock altogether. My favourite songs at the time were The Foil (Malfoy), Luna Lovegood is OK and The Dark Lord Lament.
29. Did you enjoy A Very Potter Musical?
Seeing it is on my to-do list :)
30. What affect has Harry Potter made on your life and how much does it mean to you?
I think I've covered this question before. So I'll just redirect you to my previous post:
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 2
Monday, 17 October 2011
Plants vs. Zombies
I watched Love play this on his computer last year I think, or maybe even in 2009... Anyway, quite recently he bought it for his PS3 and he and Will played it for a while. I gotta say it's friggin' impossible not to watch it while someone is playing it. Love pestered me for a while and wanted me to play it. But I hate the controllers for video games. I can't use them without button-mashing. However yesterday I gave it a try and went Walnut Bowling :P Turned out that it was surprisingly fun and yesterday evening I started playing the adventure and played through four levels xD I will continue today I think. All studying is postponed! We'll see...
Gameplay. First level of the adventure.
This guy sucks at playing.
Walnut Bowling gameplay.
This guy sucks too. I think it's the same person...
While looking for gameplay videos on YouTube to put here I found a gameplay from a Nintendo DS version. If I can find that one... My average student performance will drop really bad! Still the way this person plays the game... Wow... Just wow... It's so bad:
Friday, 7 October 2011
Love Never Dies
I wanted to wait for the 25th Anniversary album to be released before I listened to the sequel, but I wanted more Phantom. I looked in vain for a recorded DVD-version of the musical, but when I found none I downloaded the concept album instead and read the synopsis on wikipedia. Since it's a sequel I had no hopes for it, sequels are usually not as good as the original. I don't know if it's equally good (I hate the Vaudeville stuff) but it's great in a different way than Phantom of the Opera. I love how the characters have evolved. I also love that it's "my" Phantom and Christine (Ramin and Sierra), exactly as it should be.
I've listened through the musical 2½ times and I have three favourite songs, and no, my three favourites do not include the most known 'Til I Hear You Sing (lyrics), which I find simply boring. There's nothing in it that appeals to me. My favourites here are Beneath A Moonless Sky (lyrics), The Beauty Underneath (lyrics) and Devil Take the Hindmost (lyrics). I'm one of those who can see The Beauty Underneath. Listen to the song! I can relate to it so much! Beneath A Moonless Sky is simply beautiful and shows their (Phantom and Christine) true feelings for eachother. Devil Take the Hindmost is the song where the Phantom challenges Raoul and I love it cause he (the Phantom) seems so proud and sly. I love it!
There are so many twists and turns in this story that I don't know what else to say without spoiling the whole thing. But I can tell you as much as that the opera in Paris was burned down by an angry mob, the Phantom was believed to be dead, but with the help of Madame Giry and Meg he was smuggled to America where he built Coney Island with their help. Raoul has turned into a drunk gambler and sourpuss with huge debts. Christine hasn't sung in years but she's had a very succesful European career and she's invited to launch her American career... where? At Phantasma in Coney Island. Invited by a Mr. Y. This story takes place 10 years after Phantom of the Opera and we have moved from the end of the 19th century to the beginning of the 20th century. All the candles have been exchanged for electricity and I'm not sure if I like this development.
Another thing that I like about this musical is that the story reveals more about the relationship between Christine and the Phantom. It reveals that Christine really loved (loves!) the Phantom and when he finds out about this his self-confidence gets a huge boost. The timidity is exchanged for pride and he challenges Raoul.
I'm torn as to whether I want to see this musical if it comes to Sweden or if I get a chance to see it in London. I mean, it won't be "my" Phantom and Christine. I wonder if that's because I totally adore Ramin's voice and his Phantom, or if it's because I'm sceptical as to whether anyone can portray the Phantom as well as he does. I learned that playing the Phantom has been a dream of his and that usually make for great portrayals.
Three Phantom-related posts in one week... Yep, I'm pretty much lost. I tried to play the soundtracks in French (1991), Swedish (1990) and English (25th) for Les Misérables yesterday. But there's something missing, suddenly.
I've listened through the musical 2½ times and I have three favourite songs, and no, my three favourites do not include the most known 'Til I Hear You Sing (lyrics), which I find simply boring. There's nothing in it that appeals to me. My favourites here are Beneath A Moonless Sky (lyrics), The Beauty Underneath (lyrics) and Devil Take the Hindmost (lyrics). I'm one of those who can see The Beauty Underneath. Listen to the song! I can relate to it so much! Beneath A Moonless Sky is simply beautiful and shows their (Phantom and Christine) true feelings for eachother. Devil Take the Hindmost is the song where the Phantom challenges Raoul and I love it cause he (the Phantom) seems so proud and sly. I love it!
There are so many twists and turns in this story that I don't know what else to say without spoiling the whole thing. But I can tell you as much as that the opera in Paris was burned down by an angry mob, the Phantom was believed to be dead, but with the help of Madame Giry and Meg he was smuggled to America where he built Coney Island with their help. Raoul has turned into a drunk gambler and sourpuss with huge debts. Christine hasn't sung in years but she's had a very succesful European career and she's invited to launch her American career... where? At Phantasma in Coney Island. Invited by a Mr. Y. This story takes place 10 years after Phantom of the Opera and we have moved from the end of the 19th century to the beginning of the 20th century. All the candles have been exchanged for electricity and I'm not sure if I like this development.
Another thing that I like about this musical is that the story reveals more about the relationship between Christine and the Phantom. It reveals that Christine really loved (loves!) the Phantom and when he finds out about this his self-confidence gets a huge boost. The timidity is exchanged for pride and he challenges Raoul.
I'm torn as to whether I want to see this musical if it comes to Sweden or if I get a chance to see it in London. I mean, it won't be "my" Phantom and Christine. I wonder if that's because I totally adore Ramin's voice and his Phantom, or if it's because I'm sceptical as to whether anyone can portray the Phantom as well as he does. I learned that playing the Phantom has been a dream of his and that usually make for great portrayals.
Three Phantom-related posts in one week... Yep, I'm pretty much lost. I tried to play the soundtracks in French (1991), Swedish (1990) and English (25th) for Les Misérables yesterday. But there's something missing, suddenly.
Wednesday, 5 October 2011
Music of the Night
Seeing the Phantom of the Opera gave me a huge fangirl crush on Ramin Karimloo. Since Monday I've been looping this song over and over on YouTube:
His voice is amazing, this song gives me goosebumps every time I listen to it! Look at his eyes! The expression in them is absolutely wonderful. The way he whipsers "touch me, trust me" is amazing. His final tone in "night" is incredible. I also love the way he portrays the Phantom as bold but still awkward. If you take a look at his hands, he never really touches anything, he's just holding her in place. Still he seems to want to get close to her, but everytime she seems close to kissing him or touching his mask/face he turns away, suddenly shy. I love it! I can't stop watching it! It also helps that he manages to look cute/handsome even with the mask on!
Thing is I have to force myself to listen to other kinds of music, other artists, other groups, because my brain stops working when I hear this song.
Monday, 3 October 2011
The Phantom of the Opera
The show began at 7.30pm with an introduction of how the musical came to be with interviews with Andrew Lloyd Webber and Cameron Mackintosh and several others who helped the musical come to life. At 8pm the musical started. I can tell you right away that I'm not a big fan of opera. The arias of the sopranos usually gives me a headache, that said I have nothing against male opera. As soon as the show started I started thinking: "Where is the Phantom?", "I want the Phantom!". He's the only character that I've found interesting when I've read short plot descriptions. But then I also have a thing for Beauty and the Beast-ish stories, my favourite always being the Beast.
The music wasn't as fun and upbeat as the music of Les Misérables, still it was extremely beautiful. My favourite is the kind of heavy score called The Phantom of the Opera. But I also enjoy Music of the Night. All the others sort of flow together. The song with all the notes is kind of fun to listen to :)
I love the climax and the final scene. I wasn't disgusted by his face when she removed her mask at the end. Not because I knew that it was make-up, but because I never look at people's faces first. I look at their eyes, their manner of moving, their manner of speaking, I look at their general behaviour. All I wanted to do was to comfort the poor soul. He's a wonderful character who's been forced to live a hard life because of an unfortunate facial distortion. I can't do anything but to feel sorry for him and want to help him.
I loved this musical and leaving the cinema I felt really happy. I had enjoyed this musical a lot. I've gone and went all cultural! Never thought that would happen :P
I realise that I've almost only talked about the Phantom here, but I love this character.
I'll end this post with the song that got me interested in the Phantom of the Opera to begin with:
Wednesday, 28 September 2011
Alice: Madness Returns
I manage some jaw-dropping amazingly beautiful dodge-attack moves, solely by button-mashing. I'm a button-mashing n00b. But I'm still clumsy with the controls, I misjudge the space between platforms and if this game counted deaths I'd be aiming for the World Records - this is why I never managed to play Super Mario, cause I died at every goddamned hole and turtle. This is why I'm glad that this game does not give you a specific amount of lives, just a health bar and an unlimitied amount of tries.
So this far I've been jumping on mushrooms, shooting pepper at flying pig snouts, shrinking to get through key holes and flying on steam. I've met the Cheshire Cat and the Mad Hatter and The Duchess. Now I'm at the end of chapter one and the Hatter's Domain. All I have to do to move on is to defeat a humongous Menacing Ruin that keeps shooting fire at me. But if I managed to kill three tea-shooting Eyepots which were assisted by three Insidious Ruins, I guess I'll be alright as soon as I figure out this guy's weak spots (do not tell me). My favourite enemy? Probably the Madcaps at this point.
Another thing I like about this game is that you collect teeth as you collect coins in Super Mario, and lifepoints are in the shape of red roses. Despite my continuing rage-quitting I do like this game and I will finish it, although it will take forever, and all of my blood, sweat and tears :P But it's a good game, every major fight leaves me with my hands shaking from adrenaline :D
Sunday, 25 September 2011
Les Misérables in Malmö #1
Yesterday evening I, Love, Kajsa and Tiffany went to see Les Misérables in Malmö. I was really looking forward to it, although I was a bit sceptical and wondered whether I would agree to the Swedish translations. For some reason it seems impossible to sing pompously and majestically in modern Swedish and for some reason they always have to make the lyrics somewhat oldfashioned.
(All links to Swedish songs are from the 1990 musical in Stockholm)
Anyway we sat down and waited for the show to start. The intro was great and I didn't even react to the fact that they had changed Valjean's number from 24601 to 25601 (simply because 4 contains two syllables in Swedish and it doesn't work in the song) until Love told me so. Speaking of the intro, can someone explain the wolf to me? I liked Dan Ekborg as Valjean, although it bothered me for ages that I had seen him somewhere before but couldn't remember where. Of course Fred Johanson was absolutely spiffing as Javert, but who'd expect otherwise?
Continuing on to Fantine (Karolin Funke), I thought she looked old and it bothered me that she wore a wig. I mean how hard can it be to find a blond girl suitable to play Fantine in Sweden? Seriously? Her voice was spot-on (I Dreamed a Dream / Jag Drömde en Dröm), and her performance was nice. Another small detail that bothered me was the colour of her dress. I want Fantine to be dressed in white because Cosette sings of a woman all in white in Castle on a Cloud (I Himlens Slott) and I've interpreted that as she's singing about her mother, but she doesn't remember that it's her mother. Little Cosette and little Éponine were amazing though. I'm also not too sure about the general performance of Lovely Ladies (Sköna Damer) because they had made most of the extras who were whores were dressed as marionette dolls for some reason.
I liked the Swedish version of Master of the House (Herre i sitt Hus), but I was so disappointed in David Lundquist as Thénardier. He looked ragged and disgusting, somewhat like a zombie. I've seen pictures of the regular Thénardier, Peter Harryson, and it's still not how I picture Thénardier, but at least he doesn't look slimy. Madame Thénardier (Evamaria Björk) was very convincing and I liked her performance a lot.
Moving on to Paris. Gavroche sounded too cute in Stockholm Swedish. Maybe I'm spoiled with Robert Madge, but even the French 1991 version of Gavroche is cockier. We all agreed that Cosette (Mathilda Ahnell) sounded to opera-y to be fitting for Cosette. But the students were awesome! The guys portraying Enjolras (Anders Gjönnes) and Marius (Philip Jalmelid) are hot! :) I actually prefer the Swedish version of Red and Black (Rött och Svart) on the other hand the Swedish version of Do You Hear the People Sing (Folkets Sång) was bad. The translation was bad. The English version is true to the French original, while the Swedish has a meaning somewhat resembling the English/French ones. It's still a battle song, but not as awesome as the English/French ones.
I liked the stage, I can say as much. I also liked the Sweeney Tood-esque costumes and aura of the play. I liked how they had set up the scene of Master of the House, the whole bar was awesome. Still don't get the wolf though. Can someone also explain why the bushes in the park later on was formed as Christmas trees? Or why Cosette is in a cage?
During intermission we were nerdy enough to stay seated instead of stretching our legs, use the toilet and buy sweets. We sat there discussing the play thus far and comparing it to the original book, the French version, the original London cast version, 10th anniversary and 25th anniversary. None of us liked Éponine (Ida Högberg). Why does she resemble a Joker with a big fat green bow on top of her head? We liked her voice and her singing but not how they had styled her appearance.
The second act started and there was not much new to tell. I liked to watch the fighting at the barricade, it was well done. It was also my first time seeing the death of Gavroche. I cried some when Éponine died, which I didn't when I watched 25th anniversary, so I thought it was well done.
When it was all over we got out of the stage room, decided not to go to the stage door to get autographs and walked out through the doors while singing Do You Hear the People Sing. All in all it was a great night :)
Coming home I booked another viewing almost immediately. Today I've been listening through the soundtrack in French and Swedish. I've also found some songs in Danish and I also stumbled across some songs in Japanese! Gavroche sounded too cocky there! xD
Saturday, 24 September 2011
Edguy
Yesterday I went to Malmö with Love to go to my second Edguy concert. It was the same venue as when they performed there in 2009. I was a little worried, cause their new album felt too much power metal, I love the heavy metal part about them, but I'm always second-guessing the power metal part. This time Malmö was also the first city they went to on their Age of the Joker Tour 2011, which meant that we set the standard for all the other cities xD Kind of cool.
Unfortunately just like last time they had two support acts, but this time there was no pleasant surprise like H.E.A.T, this time it was simply boring. The first band, Fullforce, was your generic power metal band (thing with Edguy, and especially Tobi, is that all other power metal sounds mediocre). The only fun thing about that band was to watch the drummer who seemed to be having the time of his life and enjoying drumming way too much :D The second band was called Kottak and I soon learned that their frontman was the drummer of the Scorpions; James Kottak. But you know why the drummer is always in the back, both on stage and on press footage? It's because drummers are not supposed to be frontmen or singers. It was bad. Really bad. They sounded like a punk band trying to be metal. Their lyrics were on the same intellectual level as Ramones, but without the humour. If they had toned down the disted guitars a bit they would have sounded more like a punk band and it would've sounded so much better than what it did now. Kottak's performance actually made me want to leave for some fresh air and not having to listen to the noise. Kottak was too American, too obnoxious and made too much of a big deal out of being from L.A. He's almost 50 years old! Stop acting like you're 15!
It took forever for the roadies to fix the stage for Edguy and my mood dropped to the bottom. But it soon switched back up again when they finally got on stage. Tobi's energy was contagious. The show started with the intro of Mysteria ("Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the freakshow") and thus it took me a while to realise that they weren't playing Mysteria when they got on, but Nobody's Hero off of the new album. Tobi got the entire audience going. I don't recognise the songs off of Age of the Joker yet (the new album), and Tobi was aware that many hadn't learned their new songs yet but still got us going. Still they played many songs off of the new album. The older songs, however, got the most cheering from the crowd as usual; Tears of a Mandrake, Lavatory Love Machine, Superheroes, Ministry of Saints, Vain Glory Opera and the encores Land of the Miracle and King of Fools. King of Fools is my absolute favourite song by them and just like it was last time, I knew it would be in the encore, because it is one of their most popular songs. Land of the Miracle, Tears of a Mandrake and Vain Glory Opera are all really old songs, both Land of the Miracle and Vain Glory Opera being from the 90s and Tears of a Mandrake from 2001. It was my first time hearing Land of the Miracle live and Tobi mentioned that it had been a long time since they last played that song, but it worked amazingly well live!
On a sidenote I can mention that the girl in front of me caught a plectrum, as did the guy to my left and the girl to my right caught a drumstick... Why can I never catch anything? :(
"We live to fight the hand of doom. We got the pride to strike a fool. Vain Glory be my wicked guide."
- "Vain Glory Opera", Edguy 1998
Keep on railing at what I believe
Call me insane and I'm proud to be
And I walk the wicked way
We don't wanna be like you
Don't you get that King of Fools?
We don't mind your life is trite
You are the King of Fools
We are never gonna be like you
We don't follow King of Fools
You're the blind to lead the blind
Everything is as it should be after a concert; my neck and throat are sore from all the screaming and headbanging. Going to bed yesterday my ears rang. Going out of the venue the chilly night air was the most lovely thing in the world, being sweaty from all the jumping, headbanging, screaming and waving hands. Getting back to Lund that McFeast was the most delicious thing I had eaten that day (I was so hungry and so thirsty). Went to sleep around 3am, got up again around 11am. Tonight it's time for Les Misérables in Malmö! This weekend is already amazing!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)