At a metal concert.

Yesterday it was time for some (folk) metal live in concert.
I haven't visited the metal scene for some time now. Last being in 2010 when I saw Rammstein twice in a year and went to the Metaltown festival in Gothenburg.  
The German scene is not so much different then the Swedish.
I would like to break the stereotypes about metal people, but it is hard to do when just entering the concert hall you are filled with stereotypes. There is mostly men, in black clothes and long hair. Or shaved hair. A lot of band T-shirts and some men wear long skirts/kilts (special for folk metal concert). The woman also where a lot of black but red and other colours can be mixed in. I really like the metal aesthetic. The black, the shortness of skirts, the corsets, the platforms or high heels shoes, the fishnet stockings and other accessory. My little metal heart beats fast when I see this and remember how I also used to dress all like that.
The men look like people I used to date. I stood close to a guy that looked so much alike a guy that I dated years ago that I always was surprised when I turned and saw him.


I took the bike to C-Club, about 10 minutes from home. Was fashionably late because of work. I was going to see Tanzwut! An awesome German folk metal band that I was first introduced to when I was 15 years old. Lügner and Für Immer was the first songs I've heard and since then I was hooked. I was excited to see them for the first time.
C-club is a nice place with a beer garden outside and a big concert hall in. I came right on time to the second warm up band, Stahlmann. I had never heard them before but I'm so glad that I did. I can add another German folk metal band to my playlist. They where so good and I headbanged a lot to their songs.


When Tanzwut then comes on stage I couldn't be happier. Two bagpipers come out and hit on big shaman drums and the concert starts.  There are no doubts anymore, I do have a thing for bagpipes and watching two-four men playing (metal) bagpipes is just beyond words. The second song, Ihr wolltet Spass, really starts the show. There is a lot of dancing, clapping and metal hands going on. We all sing along to the lyrics.

The concert goes on and the crowed dances more and more metal hands (\m/) are in the air and after about half way everyone is on a high. When Lügner and Der Ärtz are played me and all the people around me go wild. At the end of the show Tanzwut tells the men to show some skins and take of there shirts and so many do. I find myself in the middle of many bare breasted men and I don't really mind. It's metal.
Four encores are played and after almost two and a half hours the concert ends. I euphoric and tried after all the dancing, headbanging, metal hands and clapping along.
I need to let my metal self out more. I feel so comfortable and happy when I'm there. I couldn't care less about how I look and let the music just hit my eardrums. I remember the metal days and just smile.
I'm ending this note by sharing a metal picture of me from back in the days.

Tom.

I wrote that I would write about books next time, but something has come up that I really feel like sharing.

This something is Tom.

Before people go and congratulate me on a new boyfriend or get any ideas like that, let's make it clear what Tom is. He has nothing to do with my love life, but he is a pretty sweet dude that likes sandwiches with strawberry marmalade and honey on.

This might be the best children's show on (German) TV now.

The plot:

Tom is going walking and he can't shake the thought for a sandwich with strawberry marmalade with honey on (ein Erdbeermarmeladebrot mit Honig). So he goes to his friend der Müller (the Miller) and asked if he has one, most of the times he doesn't, or just part of it like the bread and Tom has to go though different steps on the way to get his piece of bread. It always ends with that he shares him bread with his friends (his friends being his mum, the strawberry mouse, a crocodile and some other ones) when he get one and eats half of it himself. But it tasted so good that it like having a whole and Tom is happy, wunschlos glücklish.

This is the shit.

Me and Oskar love it. We go tomtomtomtomtomtom (how we think the intro goes), we walk like Tom, we talk about different Tom episodes and about the Erdbeermarmeladebrot mit Honig all day today after I picked him up at Kindergarten.

Tom is a pretty rad guy.

Every night at 18:30ish comes two episods of Tom. Me and Oskar will be like glue to the TV at this time to watch how he gets his Erdbeermarmeladebrot mit Honig this time.

Youtube is not my friend in finding a video with Tom and it's better when you know German. It's not hard to understand without knowing it either but anywho... For those who want to get hooked on it go to this page.

Hottest tip right now people!

Friday and Saturday.

Weekend is gone and I'm back working, the family is home again after us being apart for two weeks. I'm kind of worried and excited how Oskar with react when I pick him up today. We'll see.

I had a nice weekend. Friday the 13th didn't give me any bad luck.

Stated with brunch and the usual place with Jake, Sinead and Lucas. I bought some veggies at the Turkish market. I went to movie night at Peter's and watched The Big Heat (1953) and drank wine in a packed living room. I liked the movie and hanging out with the people at movie night.

The night wasn't over there so I met up with hew-bro Asaf and went clubbing. Something I didn't really feel like but then when we where dancing in Lido to Offspring, Blink 182 and The Drums among others I changed my mind.

There was a silent disco there also, which I'm a big fan of. Dancing with headphones on in a quite room, people dancing to different music. Great idea. We danced until we got to tried and I slept on Asaf's shoulder on the way home while I half responded to what he said.

Saturday was spent walking around in Berlin, ending up at a café in F-hain and reading. I've been reading like crazy and that feels like all I want to do right now.

Bestie Mark called me and joined me and we talked for some hours about what happened in the last weeks. He seams so at peace, zu frieden, with his life and what he does and it was really nice to catch up with him.

We went our different ways, I ended up home hanging out with the family that just had come home and cooking. Oskar's new favorite games is to have me play horse, him sitting in my lap jumping up and down, since he ridden a horse when he was away at holiday. Baby Jonas looked at me with big eyes just smiling, happy to see me.

Feeling lazy or more tried since the night before, I stated an awesome book, I didn't leave the apartment more that day. I read, read and read. Feel asleep with the Kindle still in my hand and as soon as I woke up I stated reading again. I had a good weekend and I'm going to continue my read flow right now, reading Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl.

There will come a blog post about books pretty soon. I stated writing it and just have to make it readable. Bis dann!

German folk metal song of the day.

So it's time again for a German folk metal song. Tanzwut are awesome. When I first heard them in 2006 I was sold. I was new to metal by then but I knew then that this band would be something I would listen much to. It's true. I listen to them even more know then I did back then. I might have a thing for bagpipes.

So let's all sing along int the chorus:

Ich bin Dein Arzt der Dir die Jugend wieder bringt

Dein Medicus der Dich verjüngt

Ein Spezialist der Dich ganz genau studiert

Und gerne mal was Neues ausprobiert

Tanzwut are playing in Berlin at C-club at the 26th of April. I will most likely be there headbanging.

Free Comic Book Day!

Okay. I just read that there is a Free Comic Book Day on the 5th of May.

I love comics. I'm super-duper-hyper excited. I have mostly read Swedish comics lately by females but I enjoy what ever I get. This feel like a great day for a book nerd like me that does want to read more comics in my every day life.

In Berlin the place to be on Free Comic Book Day is Grober Unfug on Torstr. 75. Man, I'm going to be there. Check out on the home page to see the town near you, if you're not in Berlin. Berliners, we'll see each other there. I'll be the overly colourful girl jumping up and down of excitement. See you in Mitte on the 5th!

German folk metal song of the day.

I waked home from Jake, that lives a couple blocks away from me with my headphones on. I filled my mp3-player with German folk metal lately and love it. I think I will learn German from it and I do claim that some of my German comes from listing to Rammstein. There are so much good metal in German though and folk metal is my kind of music. This song I danced to some part of the way home.

I will most likely post more German (folk metal) songs on this blog. Bagpipes are not used enough in other kinds of music.


Schandmaul - Wolfsmensch - MyVideo

Teufelsberg.

In February I was at Teufelsberg, a former american military base in Berlin. I stated to write a post about that here but I didn't really finish it. Some post I just start to write but then become to lazy/uninspired to finish or just feel like I'm over sharing about the crazyness that is me. Let's not do that now.

My friend Emma, also Swedish, has her boyfriend here so we thought we should go to Teufelberg all of us today. I think they will really like it.

So instead of word puking (is that even something you can say? In Swedish we say 'word pooing') out all that is there I will share some photos and two videos of the acoustics at the top. Excuse our singing voices. We're singing "Ut i vår hage" a song that you learn in school in Sweden (click here to have a proper version) in the first video. A song that Amina had/has a thing with so we sang it as often as we could when she was still living here. Viel Spaß!

Back in Berlin.

Spending 17 hours traveling (18 if you count the hour that I had in Malmö) is a long time. It could have taken about 2 hours to get to the airport and fly, but that's not how I do it.

I spent most of the time listening to music and looking out on the rain outside the window. I watched "Dr Horribles Sing-a-long blog" (Neil Patrick Harris <3) for the sixth or seventh time. I snused until my lips felt like a raisin. I talked to the woman sitting next to me on the bus about her recent travel to Istanbul. I slept. I couldn't concentrate to read or write.

The time I spent in Malmö with a former college I haven't seen for a long while. We talked about politics and how the world is fuck up. Really just a great time but way to short.

I took the train from Malmö and talked a bit to the people in my compartment but then decided to hop up in my bed and I was fast asleep when the train got on the ferry over to Germany. Arriving in Berlin at six a clock in the morning, getting home, listing to Swedish morning radio and unpacking. I'm craving coffee but I broke my french press before I left so I'm thinking about going to IKEA (yes, I know, I'm such a stereotype Swede sometimes) to get a new one or just go to a café and drink coffee until I'm all shakey. But I'm back, and I'm glad to be.

Of topic in Sweden.

This week has been spent in Sweden.

Meeting up with friends, drinking beer and to much coffee, shopping in my own waredrob, playing with the nieces, reading and coming home to mum and dads in small town Trosa, about 100km south of Stockholm by the Baltic sea. The city I'm born and rised in the house I lived in for over 10 years.

Mostly I've been hanging out and getting the update on friends over a coffee or a beer Stockholm and chilling at mum and dads.

I picked up my nieces at kindergarten was so much fun Tove, four years, screamed out "My Jenny is here!" after she ran to me and gave me a big hug. Sofia, two years, kissed me and hugged me, not wanting to let go. We played in the playground on our way home. They told me about kindergarten and other things as we where swinging in the swing set.

We went home and watched "Cars 2" and they told me which cars where good and bad and the names of them. We played until sister came home and then we cooked and put the children to bed, me reading good night stories and holding Sofia's hand until she fell asleep.

I missed them so much since I've been gone, not being able to pick them up from kindergarten or just coming over to play for a couple of hours. Something I used to do quite often.

Being home in mum and dads house, cooking with dad, reading, laughing with brother little (I love that guy so much it not even possible to put into words) and having a nice time. Mostly planing for the next meal. Looking up recipes and such. Helping mummo (granmother in Finnish) move and talking Finnish. I so wish I used my Finnish more.

It's been a slow time and good. Right now (Sunday when I started to write this) I'm planing what to cook for dinner when we have guests over and I'm going to bake bread soon.

It fun to cook with my dad. He sometimes yells at me for doing stuff wrong, or in a different way and he makes me chop a lot. I told him that since I decided on a vegetarian diet that it feel like all I do is chopping and that I would like to be better at it. He made me practice.

Also being home with a fridge full of food that I can make anything of is inspiring to cook new things then I'm used to. Taking time to look up recipes and cooking luxurious veggie meals feels good.

Last night in Sweden (Monday, not counted) I spent at a big dinner at my parents with friends of the family. Brother big drove back to Stockholm and took me and brother little with him.

I went to take a beer with former roomie and good friend Anna. Brother little joined with a friend and his girlfriend. Me and Anna of course, as siblings do (Anna has known Tim, brother little, for a long time and has a lot of stories to tell) telling the girlfriend Camilla stories about Tim. How he is the person we know that has been robbed most times, how he likes to sing popular songs way to loud and the same song for months and falls from stuff and breaks legs among other things. Camilla still liked him after this so I like her. She is approved in my eyes.

Brother big, Fredrik, was at a bar close to ours so when Tim and Camilla headed home I meet up with Fredrik and his friends. We talked about opening a bar in Stockholm, which they have been wanting for years. When the bar closed me and brother went on to an other bar and talked until that bar also closed, brother buying me beer and telling stories of travels, work and other thing. I had a really nice time out and I will miss Stockholm, or at least the people there.

I had a great time being home.

After breakfast today I headed to the bus station and am now in a bus going to the south of Sweden where I will take the night train to Berlin. Home in Berlin around 06:00 tomorrow morning. My bag is full of stuff I got with me, and I'm excited to get back, seeing friends, enjoying Berlin and speaking German again.

Somewhere in the Swedish woods at this moment I'm staring out a window dreaming away.