Photobook

Since I discovered blurb.com well over a year ago, I’ve wanted to make a photobook.  But I’ve never come around to actually make one. My indecisiveness has always gotten me. What kind of photobook should I make? I’ve dwelled with this topic for a long time. The furtherest I got was to start on a book called which I named ‘not color’ and I added one picture in blac and white. I never got around to do more.

Now I’m there again. I want to make a photobook. But this time I actually have an idea. Can you believe that? I actually have an idea! I just get standing ovations just because of that. Hah.

My 365 doors project sure deserves a book. Think about how cool it would be to have a huge book with 365 different doors in it. I came up with the idea yesterday and it didn’t take long time to decide how I wanted the book to be. I see it like this:

• intro: me telling about the project. How it came to life, how I did it etc.
• either one or two doors on on page. I would prefer one, but then the book would cost too much!
• naming the street and maybe say something about the door / about taking the picture
• after a milestone (like after 50 doors, 100 doors etc) I will write a little bit about how it’s going.
• black pages (or maybe white), but most likel

Oh, I have such a clear vision of how I want this to be.  And In my head it looks really good.

Well… all this grant that I actually will finish this project. I need at least more doors than I have now. I think the limits go at 100 doors. That is some over three months of doors and something that can be done. Less than 100 doors is not something to make a book about.

I started on the book yesterday. Of course I had to upload the latest blurb-version which too so long and almost made my computer crash. Yu can’t use itunes and blurb on the same time, god forbid! *rolls eyes* Sigh!  But anway, I uploaded all the door pictures I had (14 yesterday) and put one on each page. That looks the best. After I found out how much it would cost to print a book with over 365 pages I came up with the idea to put two doors on some pages. You know, I would have to pay about 72 euro (tax and shipping not included) to print the book! Whoa! That’s quite a lot of money!

My plan from now on is to upload one more page to the book each day. And do that at the same time I upload it to flickr. Then I won’t be so behind and have to do a lot of work all at once. I think that is a smart way to do it.

I’m already quite excited about this book! I think this will be an incentiv to go on and keep up the project. I’m not nearly bored / fed up of it yet. But who knows what will happened in a month or so?

Right now I’m on full force towards 365 doors! Only 351 to go……

Project update: the perfect street!

Hey, I haven’t melted away! I’m still here! Just barely though. Last night I slept half the night out on the balcony! Yep, you heard right – on the balcony. Tonight all night will be spent there. I know I complain on the heat, but I can’t help it. It’s too friggen hot.  It has been close to 30C+ today. My apartment is still a sauna.

After I left work today I had to go to my sisters house and water her plants. She’s on vacation and left me in charge of the plants. I didn’t go all weekend so it was well needed that I went today.

I was quite bummed because the door I had planned to take a picture of on my way to my sisters apartment wasn’t longer an option. There was this steel fence outside the door and it kept it impossible to get a good shot without getting that fence too. And the fence would ruin the picture.

But! Luckily I found another door. And oh boy.  Sweet Jesus and ten hail Marys! I found this street with lots of great doors. I know I’ll be covered for another week now! YAY! It’s close to work and I can walk that way on my way home. It will be a small detour, but I need my walking, right? It’s a win-win situation.

You wouldn’t know how excited I was when I went down that street! It was like Christmas Eve all over again! haha.

I’ll be home at Lierfoss from friday or saturday. It will be interesting to find doors out on the contry side. I know a few doors on our property I can photograph. It’s good we have a barn,two  garages, two houses, a storehouse on pilars and more. I doubt I will have any problems finding a door to photograph.

I think it’s too cold to ahem… what am I writing? too cold? whaha. I mean too warm to write anymore. You see, I’m already over-heated.

A day in the park

Phew!

It sure is hot outside. Today it has been been around 28+C. Very hot! What do you do to not melt away? You pack your bag and leave your sauna of an apartment and go to the park! That’s what I did.

This is what I brought for the park.

I met Ellen in a small park near her apartment at 15.00 ish. The park is quite small, so we decided to go to another. The plan was to go to Tøyen Park and directed where to go. And I’m happy we did, because if not, then we would’ve ended up in the Botanical Garden which Ellen thought was Tøyen Park. hihi. And in the Botanical Garden you can’t lay on the grass or have a bbq.

We found a nice spot near a chestnut tree in the shadow. It was too hot for our liking to sit in the sun. Gladly we sat just outside the danger-zone of getting chestnuts in our head. We heard a few falling!

First thing we do is to fire up the grill. It took about 20 mins until it was hot enough to grill anything on it. In the meantime we turned on some music. I got this handy little speakers I can plug into my mp3 player. The player was now with some new music from Gaslight Anthem, (more) Bruce and some of Michael Jackson’s hits. The mp3 player was cleared with music from Per Gessle/Roxette/Gyllene Tider. I was a bit fed up with them and I got annoyed everytime one of their songs came up when I played random songs. We had a little movie-quiz going on aswell.

We ate these lovely burgers. Two each. They tasted good with the cheese and some cucumber. The bread was a bit burnt on one side, but that’s how it supposed to be when you’re out bbqing. Not everything is perfect!

After we finished the burgers we went on eating the bag of grapes we had opened while waiting for the food to get ready. And we played some more. This time, two games of Rummy Cub, which I won both! It was fun playing. We also had a new quiz, this time music quiz. Oh boy I sucked. I like to think I know a bit about music, but there sure is a hell of a lot I don’t know. That’s for sure!

We were in the park for about 3,5 hours I guess. Before we went home, we decided to go and have a look in the Botanical Garden. Ellen has never been there and it was about time to show her the beautiful garden.

After we finished the Botanical Garden we headed home. Ellen walked home, but I had to take the bus. It stopped nearby. And for the next half hour (or a bit less) I was on the phone with Linda. Most of the time we were just complaining on the heat. haha.

New music, old music and some in between

I can’t get over the fact that Michael Jackson is dead! I was quite shocked when I read about it yesterday morning on text-tv. I went like WTF??? And since then it was been all over the news all the time. It seems like we can’t get enough of it.  Well, it is understandable; he was the king of pop no mather how waco he was. He was a genius music-wise. Just a little odd as a person. I’m not gonna speculate in what he did or didn’t do, but just state that he was a pop-icon! Even though his death is shocking, I’m not like that norwegian guy I read about who had been fan since he could walk and now had cried for two days. Awww, poor guy! I can partly understand him. Had it been Mr. Springsteen who had died, I might have cried for two days myself… who knows…?

I have to say that I’m glad that I got caught by the music / concert-bug in a quite early age and that led to me and my friend Linda go seeing MJ play at Valle Hovin (Oslo) on his HIStory tour in ‘97.  We didn’t want to see him because we were raelly big fans. It was just because he was big,  famous and had great hits. Apart from being a great concert, what I remember mostly was that he went around on stage saying ‘I love you’ and ‘don’t listen to the press’ a lot of times with his squeaky voice.

One musical person had died, others have been born. Who I’m about to talk about, isn’t knew. They have released two albums since ‘07, but they are new to me.

I read about the Gaslight Anthems in the newspaper here the other day. And they said that they were influenced by Springsteen. They were Bruce punk-rock-ish. I remembered then, what I read in the Bruce interview in Q; Bruce had them on their Ipod. How could I not check them out. So I go to youtube and find some songs.

Man, they were great! I instantly fell in a song called Here’s looking at you, Kid. Ah.  It is so beautiful. So, so beautiful!

So, now I’ve downloaded the two albums they have created; the ‘59 sound and Sink or Swin.  They are both worth listening too. I can recommend High Lonesome, Meet me by the Rivers Edge, Old White Lincoln to name a few.

So… now I just wait for them to come to Oslo and have a concert. I will so be there! I’ll be first in line to get tickets. If I don’t find out after the concert is over that is…

My newsletters from rockefeller.no is now back on track by the way. A woman replied back the next day telling me that ‘it was strange and something must have happened’ Apparently I got deleted from the mailing list by accident or something. Oh well… nothing to do about that now. Can’t cry over spilled milk, isn’t that what people say? I’m on it again, that’s all that matters now.

I don’t really let it bother me anymore that I missed the Killers. I got all their music on my computer and has been listening to it at work and a little bit today.

Talking about music… I have to check my mp3 player and upload it with some new music and maybe delete some old shit. I think all songs of Mr. Gessle is gone and that’s good, because I got a bit fed up by him.

You see, I’m meeting Ellen tomorrow at 15-ish. We’re going to a park to chill; listen music, play rummy and Uno and eat hambugers that we heat up on the disposable grill I bought today. I’m a bit worried I’ll melt away in the heat, but I hope it will be a bit cloudy. Today it’s been like 27/28 C+ and it’s gonna be that tomorrow too, if not 29C+. Phew! It would be best to lay naked in the park, but I don’t think that would end so swell!

My concern now, is how to be able to sleep. It’s so hot in my bedroom. Sigh. I wonder if I should go lay on the balcony for the night! I’ve done it before and it’s quite nice.

“:¤#!¤%@!!!!

I was reading an online newspaper today. As always I check out the music section. Then I read about the Killers who played at Hove (festival at Arendal/Norway) yesterday.  And as I read, they say that the Killers played at Rockefeller (Oslo) on monday. I was like WTF? How could they play in Oslo without me knowing about it. If I knew I would’ve so have bought a ticket to see them! I was in shock and angry. And instantly got very grumpy!

So I started to think… and then it hit me. I haven’t gotten my regular mails / updates from Rockefeller. When i think about it, it’s been quite a while since I got them.

I’ve just checked my mail. I couldn’t find any mails in my spam folder. Either they have stopped sending it or there is something wrong with the mailinglist.  Or the mail could’ve been stopped before it arrived my mailbox, but that doesn’t sound logical. don’t know why it suddenly should do that. I’ve emailed them and asked them about it. I can’t wait for the answer.

So, i got all hooked on the Killers just by thinking about them and I’ve listened to them a lot on work today. Fun. Their latest album Day & Age is really good. There is some great songs there like Human, Neon Tiger, A Dustland Fairytale etc.

I went and had a look at rockefeller.no to see who’s coming the next half year. I have no idea what’s going on aparently. I found out that White Lies will be playing there in November! Great! I really wanna see them and I’m gonna ask Ellen to come with me! I’m sure she will come since they are sounding a lot like Joy Division and she likes them!

Didn’t see much other interesting things though. I hope some more will pop up when fall comes upon us.

I love concert, you know

Emil three months and project one week

Emil is three months today. Mum told me here the other day that they had been invited by Hanne to go see him. Hanne didn’t invite me, but I invited myself! Hah! She was happy that I would come and said there was chocolate cake in the fridge. Yum!

I bought Emil a little gift on saturday; three pair of blueish socks and a blue sweather with a singing dog on it. Übercute!!! It was on sale too. Even better. My sister loved it! Even Geir thought the sweater was cool and he’s not that interested in the clothes. Mum had gone crazy and bought lots of things!

How could I not make a card for Emil? He only turned three months, but I was in the mood to make a card so I did. It’s simple but cute in my opinion.

The 365 doors project is going swell. Today was a very good day. I had found two doors before I came to work. I took a few pictures of them, because I wasn’t sure how much time I would have after work ended. I also found a door on my way to see Emil. And on my way home I found two more doors.

It’s a bit funny, but it was the last door I found that I used. I’ve written down the street names to the doors I haven’t posted on the project yet. I can’t risk forget where I shot it. If you know me, my memory is like Dorian in Finding Nemo, extremely bad. So I have to write down everything! I have it written down in my übercool notebook that I carry around all the time.

Tomorrow I guess I’ll find a completely new door. I’m going on a photowalk with Ellen after work. We haven’t decided where to go, only that we’re gonna meet up outside Grønlands Basar at Grønland. It’s close to where she works and I can easily get there by bus. The bus leaves right outside my office. How smart!

Sthlm <3 (again)

It’s kind of strange. About a year ago, the 24th of June to be exact,  I wrote about how much I love Stockholm and how badly I want to go back in this blog. You can read about it here.

At work today, I got a task from my boss. We have two boxes that we’re gonna ship to Sweden and he wanted me to check how much it would cost. The adress to the loaction wasn’t complete, so I had to search for the exact adress. I thought it was Stockholm, but had to be 100% sure. I was right.

Instantly when I found out the city was Stockholm, I got the same feeling I had a year ago. There is this special feeling inside me. It’s hard to explain exactly how it is.

Ah! I really, really wish I could go back to Stockholm soon. Even if it only was for a weekend. I checked norwegian.no for prices and it’s not that expensive to go. You can get a ticket for under 1000 NOK; that is taxes and luggage included.

Well… to go to Stockholm I would need three things:

1. time off
2. money
3. someone who is willing to travel with me

I think nr. 3 is covered. Ellen wants to go back too I think. Nr. 1 & 2 is not covered.

Maybe I should ask Ellen if we should plan a trip next year? We could start save money now. Or I could ask Chantie. But I doubt we will be able to go there together in the near future….

Well… I can dream, can’t I?

365 doors

Finally!

I’ve been thinking about doing a 365 project on flickr for ages! But I haven’t gotten further than think about it. The subject came up in a mail Chantie sent me here the other day. And therefore I began to think about it again. And with Chanties uplifting words, it’s now become real.

Chantie wanted me to do a regular 365 of myself, but I didn’t really like that idea. I would need a remote control (which I haven’t) and just the fact that I would have to take 365 pictures of myself, didn’t seem like a good idea. I’ve taken quite a few self portraits and only a handfull of them am I satisfied with.

After a lot of thinking and some funny suggestions from Chantie (365 shoes of the day or 365 cats) I landed on 365 doors! I was also thinking about buildings, but I thought that would be a bit boring and difficult. I figured out doors would be way more easier and fun!

So for the next year, I will take a picture of a door each day. That is the plan, at least. I do not know if I will succeed in the end, but the goal is to make it. I have to focus on making it instead of how long it will take me to fail.

I’ve already shot two doors! It’s a beginning.

On my way home today I think I looked at every door I could see. I never thought I would walk around judging all the door in my sight, if they were cool enough for a picture. I must say, it isn’t easy to find door that are worth shooting. Most of the, like 98% of what I’ve seen today, is just boring doors. Almost at home I found the door that ended up being the official door no. 2 of my project.

Wish me good luck on the project. I will need it!

A-HA singing: foot of the mountain

I acted out the teenager in my today. Ellen sent me a mail in the middle of the day and asked if I wanted to join her downtown after work. A-HA is out with a new record today and they had a two-hour signing at Platekompaniet (record store) at Oslo City today.

I was in doubt of going, because I was so so tired. I have been that all day. But I ended up going. I reconed it couldn’t get any worse.

So we met at the third floor around 17.30. I was already in line and Ellen came right after I had gotten there. It was almost two weeks since we last saw each other, so there was a bit of catching up to do.

The queue got longer and longer behind us. I guess there were something like 30 people in front of us, not more.

I felt really dorky standing there in line waiting to get new CD signed. I seldon do things like this, but thought ‘what the heck, lets do it’. A-HA is big. They are one of the few Norwegian musicians that have made it in the USA and hit the billboard-list. Their smash-hit ‘Take On Me’ was HUGE!

As you can see I took a few pictures. It was close to impossible to get any good pictures. I didn’t become any easier since I only had my 50 mm lense with me and that has no zoom. With the other lense (18-125 mm) it would’ve been easier. Oh well, it doesn’t really matter. I got a few half decent shots. It’s enough to post on this blog.

I didn’t really say much when it was my turn to get my sleeve signed. I just said thank you to each of one of them (Magne Furuholmen, Morten Harket and Paul Waaktaar-Savoy) and smiled.

After we both got our CD’s singed, we hung around for a short while. I wanted to get a picture of Paul Waaktar-Savoy, since I only had the two others. I gave up to get a decent shot and we left after a short while.

I haven’t had the chance to listen to the CD yet. I’ve been stuck in front of the TV all evening watching one of my fave shows, Top Model. And I’ve been cleaning a bit and chatting with Chantie.

I <3 Bruce

                                            There is no secret I love Bruce, is it?

I’m sitting here with my headphones on, playing the CD Working On A Dream out loud. It’s late and I don’t wanna wake up the neighbours.

It’s quite surreal. Tonight Bruce has held his second concert in Bergen and I haven’t seen any of them. Bruce has been to Norway and I haven’t seen him! Knowing that I have seen him the 8 last times he’s been here since ‘93, it’s strange to not see him while he’s here.

He has rocked his ass off twice in Bergen and it makes me a bit sad to think about the fact that I haven’t been a part of it. Sigh. Bruce is so special to me, more than some people might think, so my heart aches a bit.

I’m so gratefull for Pinkpop and the almighty Chantie who got me tickets to see him in  the Netherlands!

Now that he’s here, you can’t really avoide thinking / hearing about him. Not even if you wanted either. Not that I want that. It would be impossible. Norway loves Bruce and when he’s here, the media is crazy about him. You’re bound to read about him in the new-spapers! There are pictures, interviews, videos, reviews etc. It seems like people can’t get enough of this american guy! I know I can’t!

There was a documentary about Bruce and his new album on TV today. I thought it would be new, but I’ve seen it before. It came with the new CD. I had seen it before, but it was nice to see it again. This time I paid more attention to what he was saying. Bruce is a wise man. And funny. And almost everything in between!  

Seeing that documentary made me put on the latest CD. I haven’t heard that in a long time. I’ve mostly listened to the old records; either a record from start to finish or a mix of all sorts of songs. I’ve sort of forgotten how good the last album is! I think I’ll be listening to this album for some while now.

I will be listening to Bruce and wait for the next time he comes. He’s said something like he would like to take a break from the E-Street Band and do something on his own again. He’s also said he would like to take break and spend time with his family and kids. But he let us know he won’t be away for a long time, because he loves being on the road! Good to know.

And if Bruce likes Bergen so much that he decides to come back there and not visit Oslo next time, there is always other options. I’ve heard that it’s quite easy to get flight tickets to the Netherlands…