Hans Holbein
When I was a kid, we had a book with his paintings. I cut out his portrait of Thomas More and hid it, like treasure. If I would do the same today I woulda been a goddamn loonie.
Read the Guardian's article here
Check out the paintings here

John Pilger

This might be one of the best things I've read in weeks

Pics


My friend Mika Meskanen sent me a picture he took from the office tupari I had last month. For you non-finns, tupari is like a housewarming party. For the record, we had a fantastic time.

















This one I got from my friend Vesa Kataisto, which I'm seen talking to in the previous pic. It's from the comix fest. Fun was had by all. Yes, REAL FUN by ALL.

Comix festival










Big thanks to the organisers behind Helsinki comics festival. We were treated like royalty. We had a great time, the gig was fun and the whole shebang was filmed. I was told that Warren Ellis thought Nazca sounded Norwegian, 'because of our surf guitars'. We take that to our hearts, even if we are not quite sure what he's talking about.


The next day I was moderating the alt.comix now panel. It was pretty interesting since nobody could hear each others on stage. I just asked broad questions to the invited artists and hoped they were able to take it from there. No chance to do follow-up questions, since I couldn't hear their answers and in most cases, they couldn't hear my questions. It musta been a nice spectacle to watch.


Also big hellos to Dongery, I have vague glimpses of insanely drunken conversations. (me being the insanely drunken part)I was given a nice button saying 'Bendik sucks', which I thought was hilarious. Nobody I showed it to got it, but they laughed politely with me and hoped the drunk man would go away.

On a sidenote, Bergen prodigy Kim Holm has published his guest-entry to my book on his website. Go see it and everything else that man produces.

Kipsari gig tonight
























A lot of water has passed under the bridge, a lot of leaves has fallen from the trees and other clichés that time has passed...

We are playing Kipsari again. We got invited by the Comics society of Finland and the opportunity was too good to turn down.

This is happening tonight. This is a free event. We are playing together with Finlands best punkrock band Kätyrit. Showtime around 2200 hours. This will be Nazca's last Helsinki concert this year, so be there or be...






...well, you know.

The reason why we are cutting down on gigs is as simple as if we ever want to finish off our new album, we have to stop gigging for a while, no matter how much we like it.

We will play one more gig in Oslo friday the 10th of November, but that's it. That gig will mark the release of my book and we will play together with the spastic fantastic demons of the Oslo underground This Sect.

So, either you are standing in front of us tonight or we'll see you in 2007, unless you are in Oslo, that is.

Spam Bandnames

For all you rock kids out there, here's an idea.

Can't find obscure enough bandname? Walnut Walrus already taken? Use you mailbox!

Yes, purely by browsing the senders in your spam folder, a plethora of possible bandnames reveal themselves.

Here's some from MY spamfolder:

Abhorred (grindcore)
Different Keywords (math metal/acid jazz)
Can Try (AOR/Christian funk)
Kanri (estonian folkrock)
All groups (White power)
Weber (soul)
Mr. Salas (Dancehall/Reggae)
Abigail Madrid (Indie)

Just remember, when you are on the cover of NME, remember to tell them where you got your bandname.

Back again

It's been some really good, busy weeks.

If you were tuning in to Radio Orakel this saturday and were fluent in norwegian, you would have been able to hear yours truly on the air, being a tipsy guest host at 'Stupet'. Thanks to Harald F. for making that possible.

Also, I got a new comic happening. Here's a teaser:

















More about that one in january.

I got full up, one book cover for Söderströms, a four page story for Egmont/Tusj and the final polish on the book.

My deepest gratitude goes out towards Mikkel, for lending me workspace, my brother Jomar n his wife Berit, for lending me their sofa and various people during the week, lending me food, beer, their ear and their precious time.

Raptus

A big 'hi' and 'thanks' to everyone I met at Raptus. I had a whale of a time.

For readers fluent in norwegian, I would like to recommend Øystein Runde's 'Futen'. Runde is, by this week, also reigning norwegian champion in the somewhat obscure sport "cartoonist fight club". Anyway, read Futen, a fantastic mix of norwegian traditional folktales, bureaucracy and Corben-inspired ultraviolence.

A big thanks goes out to Håvard for being my gracious host and Tor for helping me out in a tough spot plus being one of the nicest travelling companion in the world.

Oslo/Bergen
I'm off to Oslo today, gonna get me a pint or two before heading off to Bergen and the Raptus festival starting friday. I think it might be fun.

Me and my big mouth...

I've been meaning to post something on this for a while, but stuff has been coming in the way all the time...

I recently did a hatchet job on Norwegian band the Murder Mystery. It was completely unfair, written in 30 seconds and I should have thought better than publishing it.

All apologies. You didn't deserve my cruel words.

Some videos

Still megabusy with the book. Complications happening all the time. Here's some of my favourite internet videos for your enjoyment.

Book work

Been light blogging the last week. I'm entering the last stressed-out phase of putting together the new Facts-compilation.
The good news: It's gonna be great
The bad news: No time for blogging

Here's some pics of the new office though:












Russian gasmasks 4ever










Work area, half-done













Skylight, which may seem nice, until you try sitting under it on a hot sunny day. Ant under a magnifying glass-effect. I've covered up half of it with silver foil. When I get a taller ladder, I'll cover up the rest.
Yes, this is Finland, land of the sauna, but this is ridiculous.

Cheers to all the wonderfully talented and kind people which have been sending me guest entries to the book. It's not gonna be a good book. It's gonna be the best.

Report from a bad day

I had a pretty bad day on tuesday. I wrote this in my phone:

Who hasn't felt like blowing up a bus every time your dinner gets burned,
every time there's a stone in your shoe?
Who hasn't felt like driving a truck full of explosives into a police station
because you missed a deadline, because your girlfriend has this time of the month?

If I feel bad, it's only fair that everybody else should feel as bad.

I'm not surprised that terrorism exists, what surprises me, is that their motives
are so pure.

I sent it off to Tanja, she called within five minutes and asked if I was alrite. I tried telling her I found that thing funny, it was meant as a nihilist joke. She didn't believe me. I still think it's funny, in a very twisted way, of course.

Chaplin

Ho ho ho
Just saw Chaplin's 'Modern Times'. What a movie.

Our friend starts the show with getting a nervous breakdown and sabotaging the steel mill he's working at. He's taken to a mental hospital.

Upon release he manages to get arrested for communism. In prison, he gets high on cocaine and beats up four men. This makes him a hero and he is pardoned.

On his release, he finds poverty pretty bad and he's not too keen on working, so he does his best to get back into prison. That's when he hooks up with an underage streetgirl and finds motivation to work.

He tries working as a nightguard, but spend a bit too much time rollerskating and getting drunk. In the end, they finally succeed as bar entertainers (Charlie sings a saucy song in french/spanish and makes some lewd gestures), but the law puts a stop to it. They escape and skip town as fugitives. Roll credits.

Fun fact: Fascist exploitative steel mill tycoon is a spitting image of real life fascist exploitative car tycoon Henry Ford.

*sigh* They just don't make those anarchist movies like they used to...

Nazca live vids

Moving went smooth. Big thanks to Timo and Lauri for helping out!
Still no internet in the new office, but I can still post from home.

Here's some edits I did of last saturdays gig. Enjoy!

Sell me Down the River




One Day Understand

Cameraphone fun.

I'm busy moving, so why don't you guys check out some pictures?

Aki en route to Tampere, Nazca/Kätyrit split gig.












Mikko en route to Tampere, Nazca/Kätyrit split gig














Black eye after the Tampere gig













Freddy in Cornmo studio, scene of the crime for Non Grata and a bunch of other music.












Dad












Me n Tanja doing trick photography












Mikael, Nikolai's kid, trying my russian gasmask












Doing trick photo on myself












My brother gave me a nice cowboy shirt.












Tanja plus plastic flower












Freddy's cat Skitso

Moving

Gonna take some days before I'm back online again. If I haven't answered your email, this is why.













This is the gate of the new place.

A late tribute

Roger Keith "Syd" Barrett died on the 7th this month. His music has been a great inspiration to me. Had Piper at the Gates of Dawn permanently in the cd changer since december...
Here's some videos of Floyd at their trippy surreal best.

Enough whinin' bout cigs. Been one month and THREE days now and feeling much much better.
So, on to other things, like:

Gigs.










The Silver Mt. Zion gig was fantastic. It was worth every penny going to Glasgow to see them. We even got to chat a bit with the band earlier in the day.Intense, emotional, melodic, trippy, political and just so human you want every gig to be.

Stage banter:
Efrim: You are a fantastic audience and we would do anything for you.
Scot audience member: Cut your hair!
(laughter)
Scot audience member: Only kidding
Efrim: I've had nightmares where this is happening.

The same thing happened as when i saw Godspeed, I got an immediate crush on the string section. Something about cute girls in great bands. My hormones go wild.

One of those that will ruin future concerts for a while, because it set such a high standard. Up there on the all time top 5

Mogwai
I never really got Mogwai, every record had a mix of utterly fantastic stuff, then followed by muzaqesque plod.
They got a reputation as a great live band,so I went to see them in Tavastia, hoping I would finally see what is so mindboggling about this band. As on record, I got a mix of some really nice stuff and elevatorstuff. Left before the encore. Sorry.

Rubik opened and played a really impressive first song before turning very Radioheadish. No, I don't consider that a compliment. Got very little against Radiohead, but very much against Radiohead-inspired bands.

C'mon guys, sometimes 'strange' is better than 'pretty'.

Murder Mystery
Two guys on guitar/vox and bass, plus a drum machine. Immaculately styled with ironed shirts and hair straight from the hairdresser. Surprise, surprise, shit music.
Postpunk is the new goth. All style, no content. Go back to your PIL and Gang of Four records. Listen to them. Hey, they got lyrics.
Apparently about things. But hey, we all know that you listen to the new postpunk, the ones with the flashy shirts and the lyrics about gurlz n stuff. Don't ruin your mascara singing about stuff that matters.

Vom
Free gig in Oslo. Great stuff, an all-girl band singing about food.

Life without cigs.

It's been two and a half weeks without cigs now and I must say it's been ...interesting.
What I've learned:
1. Things bounce when you throw them at the wall
2. The satisfaction of smashing something lasts about 2 nanoseconds
3. It hurts like a mofo to smack your nuckles towards a concrete wall. Biting into your hand hurts pretty much too.
4. Sudden explosive rages doesn't necessarily improve your life.

Apart from that, colors are a tad more grey, but then again, I feel the worst is past me. If you've seen Trainspotting, you might get a hint of what I'm talking about.

And yes, I am exaggerating for comical effect.