Batman

Yesterday I went to see The Dark Knight Rises together with my two sons and my brother-in-law. It was a great movie. Not as good as The Dark Knight, but that one's hard to beat, Heath Ledger is so absolutely amazing as the Joker. Anyway, while watching it, I realised that I just have to try making a Bane mask. Yes, I know there are Bane masks out there to buy, but I bet it's a lot cheaper to make one yourself. Not that I think I'll ever be able to use it anywhere, but I want to try anyway.

There was one scene in the movie that I kind of anticipated before it happened. And it wasn't because anyone had told me anything about this movie, it was because I had read a copy of a Batman magazine when I was a kid. You see, reading comics can come in handy later in life. I don't want to spoil for anyone who might read this blog, and hasn't seen the movie yet, but it has to do with Ra's al Ghul.

And of course, we need some music to get through this day. Here's one I must have heard a thousand times, but it suddenly really clicked last week. This song is awesome, it's Action de Grâce by The Hellacopters.



/H

Time for a short update

It's been waaay too long since I posted here. Still enjoying Clockwork Angels. I still haven't been able to print my tickets for Rush' O2 Arena gig in London. I'm not really worried yet, but I'm wondering what the problem is. Well, as long as I can print the tickets before May 2013, I'm ok with that. We still have to find plane tickets and some place to stay, but I'm sure we will. After all, it's not the first time I'll be going to London, and this time I should be able to ask some advice from my TNMS mates.



Almost all the recordings for the upcoming Hilastherion album are done now. I think there are some spoken parts that still need to be recorded, but that should be it. We started practicing again after a summer break, and it went better than I expected. Of course I didn't nail all the parts, but at least I remembered most of them. And some parts I even remembered better than I thought I would. This is going to be a great album.

There's also a pretty big Larp coming up next summer. Dark Paths' End is Eloria's 10th anniversary Larp. Eloria is a Swedish-language Role-playing association, where I'm a member. I'm really looking forward to this Larp, it's not only for one evening or even for one day. It starts on a Thursday with preparations and prebrief, the actual Larp is on Friday and Saturday, and it ends on Sunday with a debrief and disassembling the camp and everything around it. Actually, preparations have already begun, and will go on all the way until the Larp takes place. There will be a lot of different workshops building up to this Larp.

/H

Vaasa Night of the Arts 2012

Last night I went to the "Night of the Arts" in my hometown Vaasa. It was absolutely brilliant! I got a few tips on genealogy, I saw a little demonstration of medieval fencing by Vaasan Miekkailijat. My very good friends, the wonderful Ulvens döttrar performed (together with two additional musicians, both of them also good friends of mine), a "fire dance group" Titinki tulitanssiryhmä performed some beautiful fire dance routines, and finally another good friend of mine (and guitarist in one of my current bands) performed with another of his bands (Divine) on a stage in the town square. Most of this in excellent company, a bunch of good friends from the Fenno-Swedish Role-playing association Eloria. By far the best Night of the Arts ever for me. And very inspiring too, I got a few ideas I really want to try. If any of these ideas should work out, I'll be sure to tell you more about it later.

/H

Hilastherion

The second part of my vacation starts officially tomorrow. This year I decided to take two weeks vacation, work for one week and continue my vacation two more weeks. It's worked fine for me, I feel great. And I feel even better after my recording session last Friday. I recorded some clean vocals for Hilastherion's second album. Here's a YouTube clip with some samples from the drum recordings.

This album is going to be better than the previous one. And I'm not saying that just because I joined the band only after the first album, I'm saying it because it's a fact. However, the first album is really good too. On this page you can listen to some samples of it. If you happen to like it and would like a copy, you can buy it here.

Well, that's enough self advertising for today. Updates will follow as soon as there is anything to update.

/H

Vacation coming up

Only a couple of days left now, then I'm off on vacation. Naturally, I'm not going to spend a lot of time online. I have better things to do, like reading, swimming and thinning a little in the forest at our summer cottage. And what could be a better setup for a Rush video? Here's The Trees.



Enjoy! I'll be back some time in August.

/H