A day in the life of a not so desperate houswife.

0800h – The clock, which actually is a mobile phone, rings its alarm. Turn it off. Go back to sleep.

0900h – Get up, get dressed and walk the Boo.

1028h – Get in from walking the Boo. Doing a bit of random Interneting until 1100h.

1100h – Go down to the laundry room and put the tow first loads in (separate machines: one dark colors, one other colors). Ran out of fabric softener.

1105h – Breakfast while watching a lecture on additives in food.

1130h – Start preparing the dishes, get interrupted by phone call.

1200h – Stop talking on the phone go down to the laundry room to take out the loads from before, and put them in the dryer and the drying cabbinet, and put two new ones: Blue jeans and white (again seperate machines). Last loads of the day!

1205h – Not the last loads of the day. As I get back from the laundry room I found the dog being sick all over the couch.

1206h – Taking all the covers from the back and seat cussions off the couch. Place them in a pile. They need to be washed.

1210h – Giving the dog food. He seems all right. Making myself coffee.

1229h – Coffe break!

1249h – Chatting with El guapo whilst drinking coffee.

1255h – Down to the laundry room with loads 5 and 6. Picking up todays mail.

1300h – Continuing with the dishes (see 1130h).

1307h – Doing some general tidying up. (I have to wait for the dish water to cool a bit. The water I poured into the zink was too hot.)

1332h – Done with the dishes! Organising the trash (I’ll get to explaining that one).

1341h – Changing light bulbs where needed. (Two in the hall, one in the large bedroom and one in the small bedroom.)

1349h – Going down to the laundry room with the 7:th load, two pillow cases I forgot before. I really hope that there isn’t some laundry lurking around here waiting to be found. Even if there is: I won’t do it. I have had it with laundry today. At least the laundering part, the sofa covers are drying as we speak. I also took out the trash. Three bags of trash. (See 1332h.) We are heavy on recycling here in Göteborg so we sort our trash. I was now down to the trash deposit, no we do not have a trash shoot in the hallway, we have a deposit in the middle of the yard, a building for itself, the cleanest trash room you’ll ever see, Hard Plastics, Compost and Burnable. (Everything is burnable I guess but it’s a special category; soft plastics mostly.) We also have, as categories, colored glass, plain glass, paper, carton, wellpapp, batteries, light bulbs, fluorescent lights and major trash. I really hope all this sorting is god for the environment.

1412h – Re-writing lecture notes. (Feeding them into my computer, reading them over.)

1435h – Done with re-writing one of two lecture notes. Stopping with that for a bit and continuing with the general tidying up thing (a lot of stuff isn’t where it is supposed to be in this appartment).

1440h – Didn’t generally tidy up. Rang an old friend and checked if we, Camilla and I could ride with him and his girlfriend to another old friend and his, and his girlfriends, birthday party. We probably could. Now we need a dog sitter.

1453h – Down to the laundry room and out with the Boo.

1516h – Back from the laundry room and walking the Boo. 1. I really hope the sofa covers dry up there in the drying cabbinet, they seemed very damp right now and we only have the laundry room until 1700h. 2. The Boo and I, mainly, if not only, the Boo, just went for a leg raiser around the rock, the Gigantic Rock that is!

1518h – Start making lunch (a bit late but so was breakfast), left over vegetarian stew so all I have to do is boil some pasta. During the boil I fold laundry, not the laundry from today though, no, last weeks laundry! Not yet folded. (Note to self: Do not, I repeat; do not put things on hold… nor postpone things).

1548h – Lunch! Also: Rob called and said that the guys over at cdon.com thought that our record had done all right. We did not get any exact numbers, we’re going to get them next week, but still! All right is all right in my book!

1558h – Done eating. Maybe just a tad fast… Starting dinner! Pizza. First prepare the dough, let it sit for an hour thenRock’n'Roll… but we have no yeast.

1559h – Run down to the store to get yeast… and maybe a little milk.

1610h – Back from the grocery store. Besides the stuff in the latest entry I also got Extra Virgin Olive Oil, Bananas and Apple Juice. It always is like that. You always get more than you think. I also popped into the laundry room to see hoe the sofa-covers were doing, and a god thing i did! I ran into the person who has booked the laundry room time after ours. i nicely asked her if I would be able to keep my sofa-covers in the drying cabinet after my time has run out, after 17ooh, no problem she said! Great! Might get them dry after all. Since the pizza takes about 1h25min to make (dough included) I’ve decided to put that on hold for a bit. 

1617h – Folding more laundry.

1637h – Done folding the laundry then neatly placing on the shelves. Between us Camilla and I have too many pairs of socks, TOO MANY I TELL YOU! I also made the bed, a bit late but now it’s done.

1638h – Taking down the last piece of Christmas decoration… A black star in the bed room.

1642h – Placing the now dry dishes on shelves and in drawers. All whilst listening to Familjen.

1648h – Preparing the apartment, picking up knick-knacks, guitars and dog bowls and such off the floor, for vacuuming!

1658h – Apparently Bosse did not like the way I made the bed. Just found him in it, the bed, and the covers were thrown around in a not-made-bed like matter, or perhaps a Bosse-made-bed matter…

1711h – Done with the first round of vacuuming in the living room. When I later put back the sofa-covers on ther will be feathers and stuff on the floor once again (down filling).

1712h – Re-writing lecture note two of two.

1721h – For the first time today I am starting to feel a little tired.

1730h – Down to the laundry room to get the sofa-covers… I hope there dry!

1801h – Camillas home, the covers are on the sofa and I’ve folded the last pieces of laundry. (I naturally forgot a big bag in the laundry room.)

1803h – Camilla said that she could do the vacuuming! WooHoo!

1804h – Continuing with the lecture Re-Write.

1815h – Done re-writing the second of two lectures!

1816h – Taking a well earned shower.

1832h – Done showering and now I smell like a bed of roses… IRON, I mean Iron. I smell like a bed… FACTORY! I smell like a factory of iron, steel and fire! (That sounds awful.) On wit pizza-dough making!

1847h – Now the dough has to sit for an hour. I am going to read a friends home exam in the philosophy of social science. I need to because I need to find one argument for Holism and one against Positivism.

1903h – Done for the day… just pizza and TV!

How was your day?

Not so desperate housewife.

Today I am a housewife. An odd thing to say, but true, if it were the 1950′s. That’s right: I am today going to do all the particulars that a housewife did half a century ago. (Saying that such was the domestic order 50 years ago might also be wrong, also in the sense that the word housewife today should not imply certain duties, and if it does, should not exist other then as a paying job. Still I know it does, everywhere… not here though.)

Ramblings!

Today I am going to do the laundry, the dishes, vacuum and just in general tidy up. Camilla is out there earning our keep (she’s at school) so I ‘m back at the cave preparing supper. I will also try to get some studying done in between. All in all I think I have a pretty full day ahead of me.

On with it!

The goodness of getting in shape.

I am sitting down in front of the TV, having a cold beer, watching Friends (an old re-run) and it strikes me, harder than it has for the last couple of months, because I would be lying if I said that the thought haven’t crossed my mind, again and again, that I really need to start getting back into shape and I don’t just mean any shape, I mean; I am any shape now, but good shape. I used to be so good at getting in shape. What the hell happened to that goodness?

Album: 2, Recording day 1 and 2.

Ok. Here goes. The report on the first two days in the studio, or one and a half day, or… let’s take it from before the beginning:

It was decided, by Rob and I (after talking to studio owner Sven) that Rob and I were going to do a two day stint in the Studio Lyddevägen in Kinna. We were going to ride down there on Saturday morning, home in the evening and do the whole riding there and back thing on Sunday (naturally recording a song in the middle of all that riding).

On Friday Rob called me and said that he had been unsuccessful in finding a baby sitter for his daughter and asked if we could ride down to Kinna at around 1400h on Saturday instead, estimating a 1600h arrival. He also asked me If we shouldn’t do a sleep over at the studio, enabling us to record with a higher level of concentration both thought and time wise. I said ok to the former and yes to the latter.

Saturday came and at about 1600h (mind you) we packed Robs car full and then we were off!

rec_o

We were now estimating a 1700h arrival and a get going as soon as we got there.

Not far from the studio we passed a taxi standing there stranded by the road. Rob said that that might have been Sven in the cab (all though we did not see anyone in the cab, we just assumed that no one would park a taxi in the middle of nowhere, and Sven drives taxis for a living, and there aren’t many taxi drivers in Kinna… silly us.)

Three minutes after passing the taxi Robs phone rang. It was Sven. At 0300h the night before the taxi he had been driving had gotten a flat tire. He had to leave it on the side of the road. He needed us to meet up with him at the taxi (and if you haven’t guessed it it was the one we just had passed) and help him drive the car he now came in, with the spare wheel, back to town.

So we turned around, waited for a while and then helped Sven. Pushing back our recording start ever further.

This is what it looked like on the desolate road outside of Kinna. Sorry for the poor quality of the picture. New Camera + No Knowledge on its functions = Bad Picture.

rec_1

At 1900h, after also stopping at the local grocery store to pick up some food, we arrived at the studio and what a studio! A real cozy atmosphere and all the instruments I could ever want. Big. Homey.

We started to record almost immediately. First a guitar and vocal track just to get a feel for the song. Then drums:

rec_2

The nice big kit in the back is not the one we used. The two drums in the front are ours. For the entire song we only used those two drums, a bass drum for two bars and some percussion. It sound’s really good. Who invented the drum kit anyway? And why does it need to be on every track? Drums suck!

We continued with bass and some piano before we called it a night at 0200h.

Waking up at 0825h we almost got cracking right away. Listening through the recordings from the day before and fixing some stuff. Then breakfast, at least for Rob and I. Sven stayed back and edited some piano tracks and did a super job at that!

I really can’t remember in which order we did things after that but we recorded Organ and Guitar before it was time for the obligatory fika.

rec_3

rec_4

After that we recorded the last couple of instrument tracks, at least for the day, on the song. There still might be missing a synth or something playing a melody in the verse and there might also be missing some back-up vocals in the verse. We’ll see. As for regulars vocals we got them done. Twice! With the first take Rob accidentally recorded the vocal tracks over the synth tracks, the synth tracks we wanted to use, and it seemed the easiest thing to do was to undo (digital age rules) until the synths came back. This meant having to record the vocals again, which I did… In on take! I rule!

The only picture of Rob working:

rec_5

We’ll see when we’ll get to record again but at least were off. I think the song is going to turn out great even if it doesn’t sound anything like I thought it would.

The song is called One Fear and will probably feature on my next album, if there will be one.

Sorry.

I know I said that I would write a big post on the recording of One Fear today. I also know that I haven’t. A rather uneventful day turned eventful in the end and first thinking I had the time then led to me running out of it. I can’t do it now, I am way too tired. Sorry. I’ll do it tomorrow. I promise.

There, there. Off to bed you go.

Home sweet home…

I’m home from the studio. Our two day stint became a one and a half day stint, or a third of a day, a night and another day stint. I am very tired right now and my head is all over the place. I will return tomorrow with a full picture post and a big tale. For now I can say that we nearly finished the recording of One Fear. What remains is some backing vocals, some percussion and maybe some horn instruments… and glockenspiel.

Check back tomorrow!

On time!

0949h – Rob making sure the synth bass sounds allright with the drums he’s allready made sound allright.

0950h – Rob reading a text message from Sven… Rob answering.

0951h – I really have nothing to do right now. Hence the writing…

0952h – …every minute.

1005h – Rob is still making sure the synth bass sounds allright.

1013h – Sven is on his way over. After editing we’re going out for breakfast.

1023h – Rob is now making sure the barritone guitar sounds allright…

1040h – Breakfast!

Up and Rock!

Good morning. It’s 0905h and it’s time to get cracking.

We have a lot of things to do today. First up is listen through yesterdays recordings. Second start laying down new, other, tracks. The song, One Fear, sounds nothing like I thought it would sound, like I heard in my head, which I guess is a good thing; the song takes on a life of its own, or something like that. Let’s see where it ends up!

The fallen snow of yester eve has left a nice, white, quilt on the ground. Nothing major. I don’t expect any trouble for me and Rob on our my return to the city and his return to the not city.

More to follow. Hang tight…

Last post of the day…

Rob is fiddling with a recording of a piano track. Sven is maintaining a large tape recorder. I am writing this. We are all very tired an as soon as we get this piano thing sounding the way we want it to sound it’s off to bed. Really don’t know when we’ll start in the morning but we have a busy day ahead of us.

The piano is doing our heads in a bit.

It’s snowing like hell outside. World Championship in big snow flakes! Rob fears we might  not get home tomorrow, that we might be stuck here… in Kinna… Let’s hope not.

Until tomorrow!

Preparing for take-off… In 10… 9… 8…

I’m thinking, checking and packing stuff for today. Rob and I are, as I wrote yesterday, going to Kinna, to Studio Lyddevägen, to start recording the new album. I’m bringing all my cool old kids keyboards and the one I got for my birthday. I’m also bringing a lot of drums. I don’t know if I’ve written this but thinking about the album I get a picture in my head of a floor tom and something else. 

Other then that I think we’re going to let our limitations, instrument-, sound-, and location-wise guide us. We will use what is there, in the studio, to be used. I think it is going to be great. For instance for this first two day stint we do not have a Bass so for bass-sounds we will have to use something else.

Here’s a picture of one of my most beloved kids synths. I got this for my 25:th or 26:th birthday from Bananiel (the guitarist from Punk of Country). I give you the Yamaha PSR-6:

bild-87

Tomorrow it starts.

So it begins. The Recording of the new album gets underway. It starts tomorrow at Studio Lyddevägen in Kinna and we’re, Rob, Me (and I think the studio care-taker Sven) will do an initial two day stint. We’re going to record one song: One Fear and see how it sounds, and where the sound takes us. Another 12-13 songs are finished, short of lyrics, so after this first one we hope to keep it rolling until we’re finished.

I guess I’m going to have Internet access (Kinna is not the end of the world… I think). So I’m going to keep you posted with pictures and stuff.

New URL: tomashalberstad.com

A heads up to all you bookmark-readers of this blog. That’s all of you who has a link bookmark to this web-page.

I have now acquired http://tomashalberstad.com and that will be the new, permanent and eventually only address to this blog. For those of you having the wordpress URL as a bookmark I doubt it will do much difference but for those of you having the tomashalberstad.eu address as your bookmark things might mess up. (I haven’t decided if I am going to keep the .eu one yet, I’ll probably do…)

So new URL:

http://tomashalberstad.com

One fear.

I’ve finished the first lyric to the new album! This calls for a celebration: How about a post on my blog!? Yes!

The first completed song, since I always, or up until now anyway (one never knows when things will change), write lyrics to a finished song of chords and melody, is called, or has the working title, One Fear. I write working title because the song titles on my current album, ‘The Anger’, got changed just before release since they, the titles, for the most part, were too long (some might say that there still too long but hey, I did my best in shortening them). Now I’m thinking I won’t have this problem with this song but one never knows and better safe than sorry (or some other lame proverb).

This post might also bring the discussion on how far an artist should let his, or her, audience in the creative process. To each his, or her, own I say. I have no problem with letting you all in this far but I draw the line here, where as some might draw it sooner and not even talk about it, or mention it to anyone until it’s, the work; song; painting; or whatever, is done. I think I’m a bit the other way around: After I am done with it I really do not want to talk about it, what’s the point? It’s done. I’ve moved on. One should not dwell on the past.

Two strays off yesterdays road.

Today has differed from yesterday in two ways.

First. As I got home I found that Camilla had baked, or made small cakes of sorts. I had wanted her to make those small cakes for a while, actually ever since she made them the last time, I even posted a comment on her blog (found under the link above). It was a nice surprise and a good eat to the midday coffee. She left me a comment back (also on her blog) which said that I ought to publicly thank her for the good stuff. So now I am. Thank you Darling!

Second. I started to write lyrics today. Lyrics for the next album. Lyrics I seem to have neglected writing for quite som time. The pressure of knowing the recording of the new album got me going (like pressure always does). I really have no theme, for all of the songs, and lyrics always come second, or maybe third, for me. None the less I want them to be good. I won’t be done with the first lyric today (I think) but I have a good feeling about it. When it’s done I’ll give you the title.

Grim Gray Everyday.

A bit of an off day today. Not much has happened. I’ve walked the dog, been to the optician, had lunch, had Coffee with Bananiel, gone to a lecture, had dinner and watched TV.

There’s not much more to say, or write, actually, but I can, It’s not that, I can, you know I can. I am the master of writing without having anything to write. You don’t believe me? Well watch this. Watch what? You ask. This, the words I have typed out for you, aren’t they beautiful? Don’t you which you just could eat them up? Well you can, or you are. Just sound the words with your mouth. Yes that’s right, talk them, talk them, say them with your mouth. Taste them. Eat them up, all of them. Swallow them, digest them then just sit down on the…

Point proven.

Provoced picture-post.

Lars-Martin was just here for a quick cup of coffee and a cinnamon roll. We talked about football and music, as we do, I think we touched a tad on religion also. Amazing how much talking one, or two, can do in 30 minutes.

As he was leaving I was going to show him the black and white picture taking feature of Camillas and my new camera by taking a picture of him, which I did. He asked: Will this end up on your blog?

So one can say that I was provoced into posting this picture.

Lars-Martin:

marv

How thick is a veil?

I’ve decided!
I am, for my paper in Practical Philosophy, write about John Rawls book A Theory of Justice. I am in particular going to write about The Original Position and a important part of it called The Veil of Ignorance. I am either going to argue that the limitations Rawls puts on the individuals behind the Veil are too great or I’m going to look at other peoples arguments stating the same (my view that is). I might do both, intertwined, for your eye, collide… wiggedy wiggedy wack! (A rap-attack.)

So I best be gettin’ crackin’ on that. Right?