Voting, gardening, fisting
Few things irritate me more than people who don't vote, and there were a bunch of them yesterday when we had to elect the right people for the municipalities and regions/counties. And indifference is not a valid reason as most decisions will affect you in some way or another. Unless we're dealing with crap like this, of course:

Unfortunately, yesterday's election was an important one so it wasn't the time or place for juvenile acts of any kind. The picture is from the last time I was in the voting booth where the government wanted us to vote for "equality" between the sexes in the royal family. Yup, seriously. As long as we have a selected few who – by birthright - are better than the rest of us, all talk of equality is mindlessly stupid. King or queen? I really couldn't care less, and the sooner the monarch gets the boot the better. But I digress. The election in Århus went swimmingly and we stayed up late to catch all the latest news. Good times indeed. I had a few friends and acquaintances running for office in other parts of the country and most of them did fairly well, only few got elected, but I can now count a mayor among my Facebook friends (but not in my city, I'm happy to say.)

Recently, a few weekends have been spent digging, planting, destroying a terrace, establishing flower beds, and stuff like that in our small garden. And the apples from our apple tree have been converted to apple sauce and juice, while the neighbour's crabapples have been residing in a bottle of vodka for almost a month now, and it looks (and smells) extremely tasty. Can't wait to give the schnapps a try in December (the 20th to be exact.)

Finally, just a quick note on the video in my last post. If you think James Graham is singing 'Only girl in the town with four fingers in Ireland', you're totally wrong. It's actually 'Only girl in the town with her fingers in eyelids.' For some reason, probably the accent, I did not catch that during the first couple of listens. I guess I just liked the thought of a Scotsman fisting Ireland too much to let it go. Same thing happened with the Kent song, Om du var här, years back when I refused to believe that the line 'Min knutna hand i fickan' had nothing to do with the sexual perversion mentioned above. Much to my dismay, I learned that 'fickan' didn't mean what I thought it did, and, consequently, the line was just a symbol of repressed anger or some shit. The world really needs some good songs about fisting. I'll let that be the final word.

A great band
I very much enjoyed "Fourteen Autumns & Fifteen Winters" by the Twilight Sad (#3 on my 2007 list and #16 on the end-of-the-decade list I revealed recently.) And the new album is just as great (perhaps even better?) and I can't recommend it enough. Just check out this little pop gem:
A quick question. Is it all right to show naughty bits for artistic reasons on YouTube? I mean, there are nipples and everything (well, nipples) in this video, and this hilarious video by Frodegruppen40 includes a quick (accidental?) penis shot at the end.

These are snackless times
Apart from some (presumably horrible) homemade candy I bought from an importunate snotty kid the other day, this house is absolutely devoid of snacks. I'm considering giving gave the candy a go, but I noticed too late that they were banana and cola flavoured, and these two flavours are the single most worst artificial flavours in the world. Stupid kid. This would be a good time for the neighbours to step up their game. I'm expecting delicious things after we presented them with this:

I see your weird snacks and raise you these gorgeous homemade cupcakes.

The 'Recommended for You' feature on YouTube is a strange thing. Rarely, something of interest is recommended, and, more often than not, it's just Family Guy clips, football videos, old commercials, Christmas songs, freestyle battles, and a bizarre assortment of Magtens Korridorer songs, how-to-fake-abs-tutorials, and episodes of Australia's Next Top Model…I blame the last one on the missus…and I swear I have never watched a Magtens Korridorer video voluntary…and the abs bit…well…

But every now and again, something decent is recommended. Like this insane cooking video with an eccentric French chef. He kind of reminds me of a fictional chef who had a food column in the official magazine of the Department of English which I used to edit. I believe he was called Sjef Sjerard Depardjøø or some shit (which actually wasn't very funny at all.)

And while searching for stuff and reminiscing about the good old days, I stumbled upon this funny piece written by Roy when he left the magazine. He sums it all up right there.

A real Christmas treat
I have often complained about the lack of Christmasized brands of snacks and candy in Denmark around the holidays. Sure, Coca Cola gets the traditional Santa treatment every year, but that's about it – and it's definitely not enough. I want every single candy bar and soft drink to (at least) don a Santa hat, I want Christmas variations on an already established theme (like gingerbread filling in a Mars bar), I want my toothpaste to smell and taste like pine. I wouldn't buy a lot of those products of course, but it would be nice to know that I had the option. That doesn't really work from a commercial point of view, I know, but thankfully it doesn't stop m&m's from introducing these babies to the Danish market:

To my understanding, it's just red and green m&m's, but its strength lies in its simplicity, and I will definitely give them a try.

The cruellest month?
April? Pffftt…T. S. Eliot was so way off. No, November and January are by far the cruellest months of the year - with February following close behind. For me, a mild winter depression used to kick in around the first of September, but, in recent times, I've certainly grown fonder of the colder parts of the year, and, to be fair, I was still running around without a jacket all through September. Still hate winter though. Let it snow on the 24th of December and a couple of weekends in January (for manufacturing of snowmen and extreme sledding), but that's it.

This week has consisted of rain, slush, darkness, and considerably lower temperatures. We do not like this, and to make matters worse, an old friend from high school has just moved to San Francisco, and she is posting pictures and updates from the great city with the nice climate on her Facebook profile all the time. I really need that application that allows me to filter out updates from people who are more successful or have better lives than me. From now on, I only want to see semi-suicidal updates, messages about break-ups, and pictures of dirty dishes.

Oh well, I guess I can begin celebrating Christmas in a couple of weeks, and then everything will be fine again. In fact, I stumbled upon something awesome the other day, but more about that tomorrow.

The new Kent album, "Röd", is out today. The last one was exceptionally bad so for the first time in a lot of years, I didn't pre-order the latest release from one of my favourite bands. Yup, I downloaded it instead (shame on me), but since it could be worse I might buy it to complete my collection at a later stage. Earlier today, I agreed with a friend that this was their best effort since "Hagnesta Hill", but another friend reminded me of "Du & Jag Döden", and (while listening to that album right now) I must withdraw that conclusion. "Du & Jag Döden" is indeed pretty awesome (despite what I've said earlier.)

Best albums of the last decade?
My top 25 of the best albums released this decade ended up looking like this:

01. Sufjan Stevens: “Illinois”
02. Death Cab for Cutie: “Transatlanticism”
03. The Shins: “Chutes Too Narrow”
04. Modest Mouse: “Good News for People Who Love Bad News”
05. Beirut: “Gulag Orkestar”
06. The Shins: “Oh, Inverted World”
07. Interpol: “Turn On the Bright Lights”
08. Death Cab for Cutie: “Plans”
09. The National: “Boxer”
10. Band of Horses: “Everything All the Time”
11. Eels: ”Blinking Lights and Other Revelations”
12. The Decemberists: ”Picaresque”
13. Arcade Fire: “Funeral”
14. The Bowerbirds: “Hymns for a Dark Horse”
15. Okkervil River: “The Stage Names”
16. The Twilight Sad: “Fourteen Autumns & Fifteen Winters”
17. The Long Winters: “When I Pretend to Fall”
18. Lambchop: “Aw Cmon/No You Cmon”
19. Håkan Hellström: “Känn ingen sorg för mig Göteborg”
20. The Postal Service: “Give Up”
21. Iron & Wine: “The Shepherd’s Dog”
22. Radiohead: “Hail to the Thief”
23. The Walkmen: “You & Me”
24. The Notwist: “Neon Golden”
25. The Libertines: “Up the Bracket”

I picked them because I'm constantly going back to them (an important criteria), and although some of them haven't been played as much as other albums that didn't make the list, they played an important role in shaping me as a person and guiding me in different musical directions (perhaps the most important criteria.) So, I guess you could say that these 25 albums aren't exactly my 25 favourite albums, but instead they are the 25 albums I love the most. If that makes any sense.

And I saw the most creepy thing last night. When new Danish children's channel DR Ramasjang isn't broadcasting they're showing "live" footage of the various hosts and beloved characters sleeping and snoring. It's eerily quiet, captivating, and creepy as hell. Give it a shot.

Struensee, ftw
Well, well, well. I may have misjudged the next-door hoochie mama's awful kids as we didn't have a single trick-or-treater all night yesterday. It warms my heart to see Danish kids standing up against Halloween, although I guess it's only a matter of time before the constant pressure from the media and the retail world will force parents into sending their costumed kids out on the streets to beg for candy. Until then, though, I'll just sit here celebrating that all my fears (expressed here and here) were somewhat uncalled for. Struensee abolished Halloween in Denmark in 1770 – let's keep it that way!

The two concerts on Friday were amazing. Both performers had interesting backgrounds to say the least, and we were treated to stories and songs about Nicolay's acquaintances at a freak show he worked at, and Eitzel's experiences with the gay scene, friends with AIDS, junkies, etc. Nicolay’s set was pretty light and humorous, whereas Eitzel went for a more morbid approach. The tall man seemed a bit awkward on stage, but it was impossible not to feel affection for him and his songs. He wore his feelings on his sleeve, and what a brilliant voice! I should have bought some of his CD's because I think it's time to get more acquainted with both his solo work and American Music Club. John reviewed the event, and Simon took some cool pictures. As the evening progressed, more friends showed up, and we ended up at the local indie bar without too much mingling with people who were out celebrating J-Day. If the search function on top of the page would work, I'm pretty sure I could find other posts where I bitch about this horrible beer and all the hoo-hah surrounding it, but it doesn't…and there's not much to say about it anyway: so-so beer should not be celebrated in this fashion. End of story. The journey home was such a nightmare.

Last month, we (and the patronising smartass who phoned us up) decided that it would be a good idea to start paying for our media license again. We stopped paying when we moved to the dorm in 2001, and, apart from the annual letters, we never had any trouble. Well, they found us, and although I could list a bunch of reasons for not paying (or at least for not paying that much), I caved in. I support public service wholeheartedly, but I will pay for it through taxes, and DR should be forced to spend my money on quality TV instead of brainless shows and competitions, archaic Danish films, and low-budget American TV series. With that being said, the day after we paid, the station showed the original Transformers movie from 1986. An omen of better things to come? Unfortunately no, it returned to being ass the second it was over.

Going out again (possibly)
Since last Friday's Malk De Koijn concert was such a success, and since wife and child aren't home tonight, I'm seriously considering going to the Mark Eitzel/Franz Nicolay gig at Musikcaféen. Apart from a few YouTube vids, I'm not at all familiar with their respective works, but I quite enjoy both American Music Club and The Hold Steady, and seeing as the entrance fee is pretty cheap, I might give it a go.

Tomorrow, I'm expected to hand in my top 25 of albums released this decade (to be used in a list of paramount heights over at Frekvens), but it's surprisingly hard work. I'm always having trouble with finding albums for the top slots in my yearly top ten lists, so making a definitive list for the last ten years is almost an impossible task. But, at least, I know what I'm going to occupy myself with early tomorrow morning (the rest of the day is reserved for tedious work, football on TV, and for telling trick-or-treaters to fuck off.)

Okay, as I was writing this, I managed to unearth a few mp3s with the two artists performing tonight, and I must say it sounds pretty promising…albeit a bit grown-up (for the most part.) But I'm definitely going, and I've just learned that a couple of friends are going as well so that is cool.

Two
Time flies and the greatest daughter in the world is turning two years old today. I really can’t believe it, but I guess a huge congratulations to our future supermodel-turned-prime minister is in order.

Christmas is here
Malk De Koijn tonight, Method Man in March. I should be happy, but I've just returned from a trip to a very large supermarket, and they had their Christmas decorations up...which made me somewhat depressed.

An unproductive day so far
But from my seat at the window I've seen two birds chasing a white cat into some trees, as well as two janitors almost killing each other with chainsaws (it definitely was a close encounter as they somehow thought it wise to work on the same tree at the same time with their views blocked by branches.)

Other things that put a smile on my face today:

- My fantasy football team which has been kicking ass and taking names since the hideous first game (the Brady-Moss combo was pretty good to me last night.)

- Plenty of cookies. Over the weekend, I finally found the perfect formula after a couple of spongy batches. I might give some to the neighbours who once again are delivering food to our door (this time around it was sweet and salty snacks made of puff pastry, figs, sesame seeds, and nigella sativa. Strange but tasty.) You know I want to make a "Gran Torino" reference, but a friend beat me to it.

- Our daughter who is having sausages tonight after she declared that my lasagne tasted 'disgusting, just like snails' the other day. I really should cook up some snails to make her eat her words, but, lucky for her, I'm not that evil.