The Kings of Convenience are coming...to Stockholm!



Yesterday morning I was checking my mail when I received an email saying one of my fave bands was coming to Stockholm. I was a little groggy so I didn't think much of it until I was out in the fresh air (well, maybe not so fresh since I was walking down Sveavägen) and I saw a guy putting up posters for upcoming concerts at Nalen.

And then I saw it...Kings of Convenience...Nalen 4 May...

The first thing I did was call Tord and babble, "The Kings are coming, the Kings are coming!"
His response: "Okay...cool."
Me: "We have to go!"
His response: "Okay."
Me: "Really? You'll go if I arrange tickets?"
His response: "Sure, why not?"

I love when things come this easily. So now I just need to check my schedule and make sure I don't have to work too early the day after the concert since it's on a Sunday night. I will probably be the oldest person there, but I don't care. Anyway, if you want to check out the Kings, go to their Myspace page, http://www.myspace.com/kingsofconvenience, or their official website, http://www.kingsofconvenience.com/. If you want news about their concert in Stockholm, here's the link, http://www.nalen.se/.

There are rumors of a new album coming out in April but according to the Kings' Myspace page nothing is recorded yet. However, we Kings fans can rejoice that Eirik and Erlend feel really confident about nine of the new songs they've written. So who knows, maybe there will be a new album soon?

Now, on to things not related to the Kings, I have been working on an outline for my new book so I can stay on course. I had several weeks where my brain was barren of ideas so an outline is what I need to see where I want to go. I know how I want the book to end. I just need a map of how to get there so I won't hear "Mmm...you can't get there from here..." in my mind--so reminiscent of the last time I was in Vermont back in the early 90s and we got lost. I think we heard that phrase at least three times until we finally were given proper directions. Speaking of Vermont, the new book, a romance involving a young widow, her ex- from Sweden who turns up on her doorstep and a dilapidated Federalist-style house in a small town in Vermont, is making me long for a trip to New England. Maybe the next time I am Stateside I'll have to fly into Boston and take the train into Brattleboro or White River Junction...hmm...we'll see. I am starting to feel a little homesick but I don't want to spend my entire time in the US hanging around Philadelphia.

And for those of you who share my Sims addiction: news of Sims 3 has been popping up on the Net. It looks promising--but then again, new Sims games always look promising but the end result doesn't always live up to our expectations. And still we play. It looks like we'll have more freedom customizing things in the game as well as have a seamless neighborhood--something I have always wanted. Looks like it will require a lot of our computers so I guess I will have to get a super PC in 2009 (when the game is projected to be released). You can find more info at http://thesims3.ea.com/.

A few weeks ago, Tord and I tried out a new restaurant (well, it was new to us anyway) called La Dame Noire on Scheelegatan 3. The food and service were amazing. You should check out their menu, http://www.ladamenoire.se/. Tord and I were in seventh heaven it was so yummy there. Methinks we'll be going there again next week. :)

Now I think it's time for coffee...I need a bucket of latte to get me going. Going to synch my iPod first since I just downloaded Dreams by Whitest Boy Alive (Erlend's other band) from iTunes and have been dancing around the living room to "Fireworks". [Check them out at http://www.myspace.com/thewhitestboyalive.]

Off I go!

Weirdness...

Yesterday wasn't the best of days. I was PMSing--never a good thing--and felt like a zombie (not enough sleep, my own fault for staying up too late watching a movie on the Silver channel). Anyway, I'd had a morning class in Hammarbyhöjden and was on my way back into town when this wiggy older man sat next to me on the subway. Now, this in itself is by no means weird. Strange old men seem to gravitate to me--much like skanky men often approach me and say the most vile things to me (my friend Dave once told me this was due to my having an invisible tattoo on my forehead that only icky, skanky men could read ha-ha). Usually these strange old men try to tell me their life stories or babble about something they read in the newspaper that they are sure I must know something about. Most of the time, I humor them. Yesterday I was creeped out and wanted nothing to do with the weird guy sitting beside me.

Why? Well, first of all, he had this freaky Charles Manson crazy stare. Then he started talking to himself and kept hitting my leg. I got up and moved to another seat. He turned and stared at me from Gullmarsplan all the way to Gamla Stan. By the time we'd arrived at T-Centralen, I was completely wigged out by this old guy.

As I got off the subway at T-Centralen, I noticed the old guy had disembarked through another door. He was on the platform before me and he pointed at me and started chanting, "Neger...neger...neger!" (The Swedish variant of "N*gger...n*gger...n*gger!"). I ignored him, then he apparently found some more black people to follow because I heard him chanting it again and when I looked over my shoulder he was walking behind a younger African woman. She turned around and slapped him with her handbag before she continued towards the steps to the other levels of the station.

Then I started thinking about being called "neger" and how nowadays I just ignore it whereas if someone had called me a nigger in the States or when I was younger it would have set off a huge explosion of whoop-ass. Am I becoming Swedified and sticking my head in the sand? Is it because I am getting older and am learning to let things slide? Have I learned to simply ignore crazy people? Was this all one of those "Candid Camera"-style moments that will eventually pop up on some TV program for the entertainment of the bored couch potatoes of Stockholm?

I don't know the answer, but I can say it didn't make me feel riled up in any way. Maybe these last few months of yoga and Ki-balans and finding this "tranquility within me" (which always sounded like mumbo jumbo before) is actually making me feel calmer. Who knows?