Hanging in the Balance

Argh!!! But I guess I have myself to blame as I started a little too soon after the cold and fever broke out. But it's hard to be still when I feel good. On the other hand I don't feel very good now. Everything I eat and drink have a touch of snot and just walking to the car is exhausting. I planned this to be a working week, a lot of things done, long days and so. Instead I've been trying to hide as much as I can to avoid talking to anyone unless absolutely necessary. So I've basically been sulking in a corner of the office all week.
It feels good that it's Friday tomorrow though and I can drive back home. I will take the usual stop at Gunnaröds Gård to buy some nice meat and veggies, presumably also some bread. Everything Ecologic of course. The meat is really fantastic, better quality can't be found in any shop and it's not more expensive either.

But to comfort myself this week I've been shopping a bit... First thing that entered the basket was the Michael Schenker's Temple of Rock - Live in Madrid. It should be a goodie, it's 4-CD's and one Blueray... 

And judging how much I enjoyed the shows I saw earlier this year, this is bound to be fantastic. Note to self, I need to buy tickets for Sweden Rock Festival too, at least Saturday. I have to see that one, will be a first occasion for both Robin McCauley and Graham Bonnet. 

Then what? Some pre-orders... The new Cloven Hoof vinyl, Sacral Rage, Blood Ceremony. And some to fill up the collection, Symphony X, Empire, Royal Hunt, Hammeron. And then... Yep, it was quite some batches. That's fun with Discogs on occasion, it's possible to get music cheap. 

I've also started the summer planning a little more in detail. Ok, May is still spring but as it seems right now we're going to see Metal Church. The record is fantastic I think so to see them live ASAP is a must.

We haven't decided on which date to go yet but it's leaning towards Hamburg or Hannover. I would have wanted to go to Switzerland as Riot V is featured on the bill there too but it's not possible to get that one into the schedule.

When seeing the poster for this year's Metal Magic Festival I got really excited. There are some damn cool bands on the bill. It always is but it's more this year. Uli Jon Roth, Manilla Road, Exumer, Iron Angel, Deathriders and perhaps most Denner / Sherman. It's gonna be awesome!!!!

One more thing that I'm really excited about is to see The Skull. I've seen Eric Wagner with Trouble earlier and he's always been fantastic. And The Skull album is awesome so it should be damn good. If we will manage both Copenhagen and Gothenburg we'll see. I'll go to Gothenburg at least... Perhaps I run into Gabbe again also. That has been fun!

The coming weekend Peter will be rehearsing with Goatess again so me and the cats will rule the house. I don't have any problem to keep myself busy. Still have some catching up to do and there's ALWAYS things to clean nowadays. Those fur-monsters sure know how to make a mess... One thing that feels really good is that I start to feel the urge to play again. It hasn't been fun at all lately... So perhaps I'll lock the cats out and myself in with a beer or two in the rehearseroom and try to come up with some cool Heavy riffs.

I know for sure I have some nice records waiting for me when I come home! Peter got the mission to pick up what TPL sent and apparently it was 2 rather Heavy boxes! :O) Also I should have received a few more packs, as if the TPL box wasn't enough... Perhaps that, and to get home will make me feel a little better.

Cheers
E

NP: MOB RULES - Tales from Beyond

 
 
 

Easter full moon

The moon sure is impressive tonight. Of course, completely impossible to shoot and get a decent shot so I have to settle with looking at it. 
And it sure has been good with a few extra days off now. Not that I've had much time to relax though since Friday meant Void Moon rehearsal from 9:30 in the morning... (normal bands rehearse at night and take a beer, Void Moon rehearse BEFORE breakfast on occasion...) But ok, we got to have a BBQ lunch before the guys had to leave for their easter comitments and I had the afternoon to take care of other stuff. For some reason it feels like things are taking so much more time than they used to. I never had problems to squeeze in Rehearsal, fancy dinner, photo-editing, TV watching and a party in a day but that don't happen often now.

My plan was to catch up as much as I could with photo editing since I can't open the raw-files from my new camera in Elements 7 and I can't install creative cloud on my work computer. Need to see if the little red one can handle it so I'm not locked to editing on weekends only. There's just too few of them to manage everything that shall fit. But else I'm very happy with the new camera and my new toy... Yep, I bought the Canon L 8-15mm lens... Turns out rather crazy and it's not all that useful, but it is FUN!!! Also, I tried the Sigma 10-20 but it was too slow for the price so it felt right to add a bit more cash and get the really good one.

Perhaps a 10-20 would have been more useful since it the 8mm almost takes 180 degrees, the pictures are virtually round. And I assume it is stressful for the bands as well since it focuses on 15cm away from the target and fully opened, this is what it looks like from 2-3dm away from the fist dude on stage!!! I.e. I get AWFULLY close with it... :O)

But it was quite a challenge for a while. My main lens broke during the Satan gig in Gothenburg. I got it fixed but I was out of it for Sacred Steel, Sanctuary and Up The Hammers. As a backup I had a fixed 50mm and the 8-15. A BIT of a mismacth in the middle but it turned out ok. That VERY CHEAP fixed 50mm is still very good and stable but it's hard to not have the zoom, I've always had that and I'm used to it so it becomes rather strage with a fixed lens. Also, for the EOS 50D I had 17-50mm and for the EOS 5D I have 24-70mm which made me miss the mm's up to 50 more than above. 

 
It sure would have been good with a few more days home now. I've been away a lot lately, two weeks in Dallas felt like an eternity and prior to that we went to Katowice to see Overkill and of course Up The Hammers in Greece. So these days has been really nice even ifI haven't completed what I set to do. I doubt I will manage by tomorrow but who knows, I might wake up early (fat chance, nooo) and feel inspired and start right away.

Anyway, if I can keep the speed up with writing and editing the days I'm home I will be in a good position before the new Festival season start. And I'm sure looking forward to it. I got a report yesterday saying Exciter kicked ass at Defenders of the Old Festival. I'm really looking forward to see them at KIT together with Uli Jon Roth, Riot V and more... Great line-up as always. But first we're off to Ireland!

Cheers
E

NP: Riot V - Unleash the Fire

Sundown

So... Weekend soon over and it will be a full workweek again. Had some hours off last week at least spendera a few extra days at home. The downside with being off is that I'll have some catching up to do this week. But I also have some things to look forward to.
First Uli Jon Roth in Copenhagen on thursday, then The Haunted in Malmö. After that there will be a Void Moon rehearsal also, so a busy weekend filled with Metal. And like this it will be a few weeks forward now. So even if we're moving to darker times it sure looks bright ahead.

Cheers
E