Syncing Cell Phones: the beauty of Technology

I just got a new cell-phone today, and experienced one of the great joys of working technology. My old cell phone was a Motorola Razr V3T. A great little piece of hardware - it came with an MP3 player, expandable memory, cool vibes, and both a bluetooth and a usb connection. I've had it for about two years (I got a case for it and tried not to drop it), and just in the last couple months the screen started going bad. Apparently there is a flex cable that gets worn out over time in these flip phones. I could send and receive calls fine, but half the time I couldn't see who I was calling or read any texts. Finally the screen died altogether last week. So I figured it's time to sign up for another 2-year contract and get a new phone with it.
But Here's the beauty: with my Mac, I was able to use Bluetooth to sync my contacts with my address book - a little mac program called iSync. Just beautiful. It took me a while to figure out how to access the contacts via USB, since I couldn't see the screen on my old one to know what I was doing and get into my tools to turn on Bluetooth on my phone for my computer to see it. I had to delete the old bluetooth Razr connection and re-discover the phone while it was connected via USB. I also had to remove the memory card, otherwise it would show the memory card as a USB drive.
So I got a new phone that also has Bluetooth and USB - the trusty Razr. Unfortunately they don't make the ones with expandable memory and MP3 player anymore, but that doesn't worry me. I hear all sorts of stories from my friends about losing or breaking their cell phone and all their contacts are gone. With iSync everything is now backed up - minimal loss of contacts, if any! I just put my old case on the new phone, linked up the Bluetooth, and now my computer is putting all my contact phone numbers on the new Razr with the visible screen.
I love technology... when it works!

Check out: Katie Becker - Firstborn

We just finished working on Katie Becker's EP Firstborn. For those of you who don't know, an EP is a collection of songs in which the total playing time of all the tracks is less than 45 minutes. Anything longer than 45 minutes is a full-length LP (long-play). Katie's EP has already received a great review from Ken Mueller, an avid music listener who works for WXPN. It has been really exciting to work on these songs. Katie is a gifted songwriter, arranger, musician and... singer. She has a unique approach to singing, emphasizing particular nuances of the text with movement and poise. Almost Bjork-like in her stylings. She is also a very grounded person. We got to know each other at church through working with the youth group and helping out with music, and I have spent many a meal and evening at her family's house. As one keenly interested in life and what is going on around her, Katie is a songwriter for a new era of concerned individuals trying to make their way in the world even while they lend a hand to those around them. Find Katie online at www.katiebeckermusic.com, visit her myspace site, befriend her, and try to make it to a show near you to pick up a physical copy of this disc. Better yet, set a show up for her near you. You can also find her 5-song EP on iTunes:

Life Comes at You Fast...

It's a cliche, especially now that it has been used in a TV commercial, but it does serve a purpose, as all cliches can. My brother reminded me the other day that I needed to update the news page on my website, and I figure I'd better do the same with my blog.
Suffice it to say that life has been pretty busy, with work and finishing up mastering a couple projects and trying to finish mixing the Christmas album. We spent a good chunk of time yesterday on one song, and got it pretty much mixed. We have three more sessions like that and then we can listen back to all 14 tracks and make final adjustments. It is amazing what hard, focused mixing can do to transform a song from 'okay' to 'great'. And I think we've been able to do that for a lot of these tracks.
The busy spell is beginning to slow down, and I feel like it goes in waves. Next week will probably be packed, or if not next week then the following week. I'm starting to book some more solo shows, and pretty soon I'll be working on finishing up the cover design for my album. It's exciting to have projects to work on, but when busy-ness goes in waves it's often hard to know what to do with my time when it's free.
In my free time there's a lot I could probably do (practice, write songs, record new tunes, etc..), and I do a fair amount of music-related things, but sometimes I'm just burnt out on music and I'd rather do other things. Today, for example, I had a big lunch and watched Seinfeld episodes. Last night I watched the vice-presidential debates. But that's another story.

John McCain

Last Tuesday I went to see John McCain at a rally in Lancaster. I figured since both candidates were in my city (just down the block from my house) I might as well go see them both and see firsthand what the difference was.
I joined some friends who are hardcore McCain supporters in the long line to get in (there was no possibility of standing outside the cordoned area, since the rally was in a gym instead of outside in a park) and eventually made my way through.
What amazed me was the number of Obama supporters yelling obscenities and wearing tshirts, etc.. intended to spark something who were standing or walking around where the people were lining up to get in - almost as if they wanted conflict to occur. I didn't see any anti-Obama people openly at his rally on Friday, but here were anti-McCain people at his rally, most of whom were being ignored by those in line. It strikes me that this may be the fundamental difference between Republicans and Democrats, at least in Lancaster: D's are much more emotionally tied to their candidate, where as R's are much more willing to separate their emotions from their decision. I have to admit I'd rather make a rational decision than an emotional one, but maybe both are valid.
Inside people were giving out signs to hold up, and when I declined one offered to me, the girl looked at me with a weird expression, as if she didn't know what to do with me. I smiled at her and she smiled nervously back.
Finally the candidate came out, and with him were Sarah Palin and her husband. Sarah introduced McCain and he gave his spiel. I have to admit I was pretty impressed. They said some good things - I was impressed more by the way they delivered their ideas, though. They were very specific about their goals and the way that they intended to achieve them. Energy independence was a big topic, something Barack didn't touch on, and there were specific measures that they intended to use to get there. It was cool too how both people running spoke too - I have yet to hear Biden speak a single word.
Maybe it was just that I had never heard their positions, or maybe that Barack assumed people had already heard his positions, but McCain was somehow clearer about what he wanted to do with and for the country.
Still with-holding judgement, but it was definitely good to experience both sides of the political spectrum.

Barack Obama

Yesterday afternoon I went to see Barack Obama. Seriously. He made a campaign stop in Lancaster's Buchanan park, just up the street from my house. So I rode my bike over there to see what all the commotion was about. I climbed a tree to get a better view, since there were so many people there. It was kind of like Zaccheus and Jesus, except that Barack didn't call me down from the tree and tell me he wanted to eat at my house. Good thing, too, since I didn't have any food ready. I heard him introduced and about five minutes of his speech, and then got yelled at by the secret service to get down from the tree. I guess they don't like people in trees around presidential candidates. That was as close to Zaccheus as I got. So I got down and listened to the rest of the speech from the ground - fortunately I could still see him ok, since I was taller than most of the people around me. He gave a good speech, I thought, given that he only spoke for 45 minutes. He has a comfortable and easy way of speaking, and he seems to think clearly, though the long hours of campaigning are showing their toll in his pauses and his lost train of thought. But all in all, a good speech. I've never been really interested in politics, especially presidential campaigns, but this campaign is a bit different - I think because both candidates are coming to my back yard. Good 'ol Lancaster. And they're both coming to places I can walk to. So I plan on going to see McCain in the flesh when he shows up on Tuesday - see what it's all about. Maybe then I can make an informed decision.

Recording and Math

I just started a new job, working for Math U See, which makes and ships math textbooks to people around the world - mainly homeschoolers. They have textbooks from basic math all the way up through Calculus. As I remember trying to teach myself Calc out of a public school textbook, it seems like they're on to something - especially the way they are able to teach these concepts using visual blocks. They've found the teaching methods to be so effective that some public school special-ed classes are adopting it as their curriculum. Pretty cool!
We've also been recording these past couple weeks, which has been really good. somewhat stressful, of course, but we've gotten a lot done on the project. I'm working with Matthew Monticchio, David Green, Katie Becker and a bunch more musicians and it's turning out pretty nicely. Hopefully this will be ready for release by Christmas.
I actually have to go record pretty soon (we've got some string players coming in for a session), so I'll cut this short even though I haven't mentioned Purple Door. I'll try to blog about that in the coming days.

For those who believe that bad Art exists

I've been back in the US for a couple weeks, and something I've been thinking about I wanted to get out here. Many of you know I'm a musician, and as an independent artist starting on my own I'm interested in the social implications of art. I've had some local recognition, wherever I play people like my music (no-one has told me lately that they dislike it, though when I was first starting to write and perform that wasn't the case), and I think over the years I've come to discern what makes a good song (music, content, etc), which is why I've become a bit of a producer of other people's music.
Being a producer and engineer for other people has required an understanding of the niceties of musical quality. Instruments have to be in tune, the mics have to be set up properly, and there has to be something of value in the song at hand. I use a certain set of criteria to judge that value - is the song musical, does it move people, is it emotive, do the words and the music add to each other rather than detracting...? I believe that music (and any Art, really) is intended for an audience, and if these elements don't exist within the song it will not be worthwhile to record it, because the song won't DO anything for anyone in a deeper way - it will just annoy them.
That being said, some songs do this better than others - and that's the real social implication of song. I want to write and record songs that last a long time precisely because each of the elements - the music, the lyrics, the instrumentation - fits together so perfectly that is strikes a chord of response within the listener as music is intended to. Which brings me to a final point about why quality is so relevant to any discussion about Art.
As an independent musician, I want people to listen to my music. If the music sucks, people won't listen. There's a lot of music out there that sucks, and it floods the market because people believe that "anyone can create, whether they have talent or not". Yeah, they can create - but it might not do much for their audience. I've discovered in trying to get my music out there that there are a lot of contests to help you get your music heard. Some of them have great prizes. I have begun to avoid contests, though, where your fans get to vote - I live in a small town, and despite a large email list I have discovered something scary: the hardest working musicians with the most fans don't always have the best music, but they often win the contest because the criteria for winning is based on how many people vote for them.
Which makes me wonder - does this mean that most people who listen to music don't have any discernment about the quality of the music they listen to? I don't think so. I'm sure if you talked to any music listener over a period of time you would find that they discard the crap and listen more often to certain musicians. However, in terms of winning a contest they would rather help someone they know than a better musician who they don't know - it becomes more a relational territory war than about the quality of the music. Those with the largest social networks win.
So when we talk about the 'democratization of the arts' we are talking about letting down the drawbridge for everyone to come in and vote, removing all criteria and ignoring social ties to the artists. Not a very fair representation of quality, I'd say. What would be really interesting is to find a group of people (say 1,000) who have no ties to any of the artists, who have a large variety of music they like and listen to, and who would vote simply on what they like in the new artists they are exposed to. That would be a worthy group of judges to submit music to.
But at the end of the day, I realize that I just have to create music, and as long as the people I live with enjoy it, that's all I really need. It would be nice to gain larger recognition, but that's just a question of time. Because time filters out the crap, and only worthwhile songs remain.

Through England

I am now in the US once again. I spent a week in England on my way back, visited some old friends from Ghana and made some new ones. My friends the Hewers live in Thame, which is in Oxfordshire, not too far from Oxford. So the second day I was with them i caught the local bus to Oxford and walked around the city.

Thanks to the gift of the gab (or my self-effacing humility, or something of the sort) I started talking to another wanderer who was on her own. It turns out Marta is from Portugal and came to Oxford to study English for a few weeks. So we wandered around together, had lunch and then went our separate ways. It was great to have someone to explore the city with.

The Natural History Museum was probably the coolest of the sites we saw. Something about old dinosaur bones just gets me. Amazing what these animals must have looked like.

The day after I visited with friends from Norway and other friends from Ghana in Guildford, a bit south of London. It was so relaxing just to sit in the garden with friends and eat and chat while the little ones ran around. It threatened rain, which happily never came, and I even got some sun!

Walking on Ice

It's sad that I was only able to blog daily for about a month, but there has been a reason for it. Matt and I have been busy painting one of the apartments, and it's beginning to look a lot nicer. It's amazing what a coat of paint will do for a room! So a lot of the last few days have been pretty much the same.
In preparation for my leaving, however, we have been doing a few different things. Yesterday we went with Dave and Liv Marit to a craft show in Jondal, northwest of us toward Bergen. We traveled up the West side of the fjord to Utne, and then took the single-lane, old road over and through the mountains to Jondal. It was pretty scary in some parts, especially as we had to pull off several times to let big buses and other cars going the other direction pass by. We stopped to look at some old rock pictures (petroglyphs) from the beginning of the Christian era, though probably made before Christianity arrived in Norway. We did our best to interpret whatever story might have been displayed there.
In Jondal we wandered around the craft show and looked at various handmade work - a lot of great woodcarving and fabrics, as well as jewelry and painting. It reminded me of various craft shows I'd been to in the US. I managed to find a good Norwegian cheese cutter (my Mom made me promise to bring one back, since they are some of the best cheese slicers in the world), and Matt got a wooden toy for his daughter.
There was also music to listen to on the bandstand - the Hardanger Big Band was a highlight. We ran into Lajla Storli as well, a local folk musician, who together with her folk musician husband John Ole Morken recorded with Ove and I last week. Lajla's main instrument is Hardanger Fiddle, a particular type of violin that has four under-strings strung below the regular strings, which are tuned as sympathetic strings and resonate when the top strings are played. It has a really unique sound, one instrument that I've never heard before - it sounds like a couple violins at once. BUT it also means it can only play in certain keys, because of the harmonic resonance of the under-strings. It was really neat to record them - John Ole's main instruments are the viola and violin, and he just completed an album of Norwegian folk tunes, which sounds quite good. Here's a picture of Lajla recording with us last week. Some great musicians around here.
Before we left Jondal to go back home, we decided to drive up the mountain to the glacier, Folgefonn. This is the glacier that sits between Jondal and Odda, and on the Jondal side they have a summer ski center on the glacier. We drove up to 1200 meters (on a road much smaller and more windy than the one between Utne and Jondal), right to the edge of the glacier, and stood on the frozen snow at the end of June. Pretty crazy stuff! Matt, having grown up in Florida, was excited to be on so much snow. It was a pretty incredible experience!

The Bunker

So once again I have been lax in blogging. The past couple weeks Matt and I have been working on the buildings and staying busy. We've also done a few other things, but it has been raining almost constantly for the past two weeks. So here are some pictures of what we've been up to - not the work, but the other things. This past Monday was midsummer night, and they celebrate it around here by having a 'child wedding'. Kids get dressed up and go through a 'ceremony' and dance together to celebrate the longest day of the year. It was a cloudy day, but that didn't stop the ceremony.
Yesterday was finally a sunny day, and after working Matt and I took a walk along the old road north of Tyssedal. There's a German bunker there that dates from WWII when Norway was occupied by the Germans. Odda was a strategic location because of the factories here, and this bunker covered the approach from the north.

Skjeggedal

Matt has been here for the weekend. He arrived from the US on thursday before I left for Tønsberg, and spent the weekend here in the apartment, meeting up with Warren and getting settled. I arrived back from Tønsberg yesterday and it has been really cool having another American around.
We decided to walk up to Skjeggedal today, along the Kaiser's Way which starts right outside our apartment here in Tyssedal. I had never been up it the whole way, so it was an adventure. The weather started out rainy, but just got better and better as we went. Here you can see the insignia that was carved in the stone to mark the path, which was the only way up at the turn of the century. This was where all the workers came up, with their horses, and where the Kaiser came up with his entourage in order to view the dual falls that have now been diverted for electric power.
We wandered up to the dam in Skjeggedal, which was built to generate hydroelectricity at the beginning of the century. All hand-cut stone. Pretty crazy. We went over to the lake that is fed by rivers off the plateau, and it was so amazingly clear - we could see 30 feet down to the lake bed near the shore. There is actually a giant intake for the hydroelectric plant below the surface of the water, and it draws the water through a 2-mile long tunnel under the mountains, coming out right above Tyssedal, around Lilletopp. That explains why no water was getting through the dam, and also why the water level of the lake was so low.
On the way down we met some German tourists, who kindly gave us a ride home in their minivan. By then our feet were pretty tired, so it was nice to have a break.

World's End

It was a beautiful day in Tønsberg. I arrived here yesterday and straight away was whisked to the youth party - the last event of the year, since school is ending for the summer. Had a great time playing volleyball, chatting, eating and reconnecting with people from when I was here last. There was an interesting game they translated as 'the block game' in which two teams have a row of blocks standing, and the object is to knock the others' over by throwing wooden pegs underhand. It's harder than it sounds. We got home pretty late and slept in this morning.
I went out to the Tønsberg center with the girls. The Mørken's cousins are visiting from England, so I wasn't the only foreigner - that's what they kept calling us the whole weekend, as a joke - the 'foreigners'. I walked up to the hill that made Tønsberg defensible, and thus part of the reason why it is the oldest settlement in Scandinavia. Not much to see, but a nice spot for a picnic if it hadn't been so windy. Mostly ruins and a memorial tower currently under renovation.
Then Knut and co picked us up and we went out to Verdens Ende - the end of the world. It's a spot south of Tønsberg out on the last island that kind of reaches itself out into Oslo fjord. If you keep going that direction, the next stop is Denmark. Sara and Knut went swimming, and the rest of us just sat on the rocks and took pictures. Fiona and Hamish agreed with me that they were rather mad to swim with it being so windy - we were cold enough out of the water! But Knut insisted that the water was probably about 17 C, so it really wasn't all that cold - I guess not, compared with the arctic ocean.
We were getting close to when I had to be at the youth meeting to prepare for the concert, so we drove home, picked up some pizza, and then went to the spot where the youth event was going to be. Discussions ensued about where they would have the concert - I deferred to Kristoffer, the youth pastor. They eventually decided to have it outside, with the hope that the wind would die down and the sun would remain outside enough to warm people up while they sat. It was a pretty good concert. A bit hard to hear myself without monitors, and eventually it got cold enough that my strings started going out of tune, but people really enjoyed it. I think next time we'll probably have it inside. =)

Hammond Organ

I just got back from a recording session north of Tyssedal, in the farm country along the fjord. That's where Geir Aksnes stores his Hammond B3 Organ (dual manual) with its accompanying Leslie amp, a trademark sound of rock, blues and jazz from the 40s, 50s and 60s. It sits in a side room of the community building there, and we went in and set up on the stage.
The roads are very steep and narrow around here, and a helicopter was transporting building materials just outside the building. Ove told me that all the farms have hunting rights up on the steppe, and that they use helicopters to travel to their hunting cabins and also to take their game out and back down to their houses. So as we waited for the helicopter to finish, we set up the organ and my recording studio and got familiar with the songs.
Geir is an electrician, and when he got the Hammond organ it was in bad disrepair. He fixed it up himself many years ago, and has since used it all over Norway. He plays in several local bands and is an extremely skilled piano player and, obviously, organist. The crazy thing about the organ is that you have to know it pretty well. You have to be able to use your feet and hands to switch buttons and press dials at the same time as you are playing chords and the bassline on either the top or bottom manual (keyboard), which I assume means you are playing two different registers or tones, though I'm sure that's all configurable in multidimensional ways. Needless to say, it's not something I can do, and that's why Geir was there.
The two songs we worked on: Living Water and Voices. After a couple run-throughs and me explaining what I wanted, we were off to the races. We got some great takes that I'm looking forward to revealing in the final mix. This album is just getting better and better. =)

Rainy Day

Today it rained all day, off and on. Here's a few pictures from my balcony, in succession, several minutes after each other. You can see the rain coming in the first, then it obscures the view (but I still have some sunshine), then it passes by and the next cloud comes into view. It was really windy too, so sometimes the rain would go sideways.
I'm continuing to prepare for Matt's arrival - doing some cleaning, sorting, and organizing. Warren has a lot of papers to go through when he gets back. I need to find a place to store the tools and finish up a couple of small tasks around the place.
I also went shopping in preparation for the weekend. I'm beginning to use Norwegian a bit more as I shop and interact with people, and I can understand more and more.
I also helped Ove set up his Myspace so we could get some songs up in a public place for people to listen to. We listened to some mixes on his surround sound system, and they sound pretty good. I have to send out an email to all my friends letting them know they can listen to them: www.myspace.com/ovedanielsen
The rest of this week is going to be pretty busy. Tomorrow I'm recording some Hammond B3 organ (with a Leslie amp), then Thursday Matt comes, and Friday I travel to Tønsberg for the weekend, where I'm playing for a youth event. Hopefully I can get Matt settled before I leave. Warren missed his flight from Frankfurt, so we're praying he arrives safely today and is able to make it to Bergen for his dentist appointment. Crazy things.
Oh, I met an Afghani on the bus on my way home from Odda. We spoke some Dari together, though he is actually Pashtun, a language which I don't know, unfortunately. My language was a bit confused, what with all the Norwegian I've been trying to learn, but I was able to communicate pretty effectively. That was really cool. I couldn't quite catch whether he was here for a long time, or just temporarily working a job before he returns to Oslo. Hopefully I'll meet him again.

Sabbath Rest

Today being sunday, and having gotten a good night's sleep last night, I hung out at home and read and played music, listened to John Piper and did a slight bit of recording. I borrowed a friend's bass last week, and just now got around to recording it on a couple of songs - Play Switch (I wasn't happy with the tone of the earlier bass) and Ove's song I Will Hope Continually. I'm not sure I'll keep the bass on that second one.
You can see me in this picture playing the bass. I relocated my desk to the living room of the apartment, in preparation for Matt's coming this week, and I think the new location is pretty nice, actually. Gives it more of an office feel when I sit down at the computer.
The bass belongs to Jan Olav Andersson, and is pretty nice. It's an old Ibanez (they like the Japanese-made instruments around here) from the 70s - an Eagle bass. Has a nice growly attack and a smooth sound and feel. I recorded direct through the Mbox and am really liking the takes I got.
I also did some laundry, the dishes, and a few other things like nailing nails into a board so I have somewhere to put all my Uncle's keys other than in a pile. I also played around a bit with GarageBand. It's a pretty cool program, but as always I have issues with it. ONly because I dual-partitioned my hard drive, though. So I had to figure out the Mac OS X file structure and copy the files onto the second hard drive so Garageband could find the loops. I don't know why they don't just have an option in preferences that lets you select WHere to look for loops, rather than forcing you to copy the files on a dual-boot system. I think that was an issue they didn't think of though.
It just started raining, so after I post this I'll probably call it a night and crash early. Tomorrow's a busy day. I'd like to watch a DVD, but that means I'd have to change the DVD region on my player, and I'm not interested yet. I need to see if I can find a player online that lets you bypass the region. Though with Mac it might be a hardware lock...

A Bad Night's Sleep

Last night I went to bed around 11:30pm. Which is normal, given that the sun doesn't really go down until 1am. What isn't normal, though, is that I lay in bed until 5:30 am before I finally fell asleep. I don't know if I was just thinking a lot (sometimes my mind just spins incessantly, but maybe I was trying to process all the norwegian I had just learned) or I had eaten the wrong kind of food just before bed (spaghetti and hamburger meat in sauce), or it was just so warm (even though I had opened all the windows), or it was too noisy outside (cars revving their engines outside the apartment at 3am and kids yelling, not to mention the birds that started up a racket at about 4am when the sun rose), or what. Kind of strange.
Needless to say, I didn't feel all that well-rested when I got up at 10:30. I then went in to Odda to record some saxophone with Ove. That was fun, but tiring. Jazz sax - a little gospel feel for the one song, and then more pop-oriented for the other. It's been great to work with Ove as a co-producer, to give suggestions and help steer the ship, as it were. Perhaps not as much creative control, but after all, it's more his vision than mine. I think we got some great tracks today - now we only have three more that Ove wants other instruments on. We have the rest of this week to record, and then the schedule calls for mixing from then on. It's good to have deadlines sometimes.

Shopping Day

Today was a shopping day. I went in to Odda in the early afternoon, brought my computer along. I returned some books to the library (2 of the 3 language courses) and did a few other things - bought some more minutes for my cell phone on the pay as you go plan. I discovered that all the language courses teach the same dialect of Norwegian, which happens to be the dialect around Oslo. So if I listen to the CDs that come along with the books, I sound very different than the people around here. But at least the language is written the same in both places, so I can learn vocab through the books.
I spent some time at the Filadelfia on their internet, checking email and trying to make contact with people to plan out some concerts for the later summer, early fall. Somewhat unfruitful, but maybe that's what happens when you leave the country for a few months.
I then went to meet with Knut Dale to study some more Norwegian. He was very helpful with the short wordlist I had compiled, and was able to give insight on some things I had noticed: the word 'lære' means both 'teach' and 'learn', depending on the context - also the dialect here differs from Oslo with a lot of the common question words, saying 'kå' instead of 'hva' (means 'what'). He also really helped me with pronunciation of Nynorsk as we read from Proverbs. I tend to have trouble with the 'u' and 'o' sounds, with making the vowel sounds right in multi-syllabic words (I want to keep the same mouth shape and just move my tongue), and also with putting emphasis on the wrong syllable (emphasizing the first syllable is generally the rule in Norwegian). To name a few issues.

Norwegian Wood 2

The other day Ove asked me to play a few songs in a concert that was happening in Tyssedal's church. The place he leads worship (Bedehuse) was sponsoring it. So yesterday and today we were busy setting up and playing. I borrowed the key to the church yesterday evening, and overnight I recorded some vocals in the sanctuary. It's a great place for vocals - natural reverb with the high ceilings and natural wood, but not too much bounce. Actually, the guitar tracks I recorded in there sounded pretty good too. Something about all the space, I guess.
Here's a shot of my recording stuff all set up in front (computer on the right), with the sound system up as well. I got some great takes. I was a little worried because earlier in the day, when we were setting up, I discovered a nest of birds just on the outside of the wall, in the eaves. Every now and then they would send up a chorus of 'cheep! cheep!' as the parent came with food. And it wasn't something you could predict, so I wasn't sure how that would go. Luckily, at night they were silent. Of course, night doesn't fall until midnight now, here in Norway. So I was recording from about 11:30 to 2:30. At least I can sleep in. Except for the sunlight coming through my window at 6am. But despite that I managed to stay in bed until 11 or so this morning.
But the concert went well, I thought - lots of people there, and most of them didn't speak much english. They listened well though, and seemed to appreciate the songs, especially the one I wrote in Nynorsk. I have my doubts about how much they understood of that song either, though, what with my accent and all. I've also learned that a lot of Norwegians don't understand Nynorsk anyway. It's like a strange dialect, and you have to study it to really know it. It's probably easier to understand than English, though.

Behind the times

So I guess I'm a bit behind on my blogging, so I'll give a quick overview, though no pictures, unfortunately. Sunday I hung out at home - listened to a sermon by John Piper, did some mixing. I wrote a couple songs as well, which was pretty cool! I'll unveil them at some point, but you guys have to be patient.
Monday and today I've been doing more of the same, as well as doing some fixing up of apartments and chasing down electric companies. I met with Ove a couple times to do some overdubbing and continued to work on mixes. I'm also re-ordering my apartment to get ready for Matt's coming - just a week or so away, pretty crazy. Time is flying.

Smelteverk

The Smelteverk used to be the largest employer in Odda and the area. At one point it had between 500 and 800 workers. Don't quote me on that. =) But there were a lot of people working there. I think this was around the turn of the century. It was the largest Calcium Carbide factory in the world, according to my Uncle. The following story is also according to my uncle:
There were two American brothers who owned the second largest calcium carbide factory in the world, at the time, based in Germany. Through various means they bought the Smelteverk and ran it into the ground. Their purpose was to drive up the price of calcium carbide by limiting the supply (they must have read Mr. Smith's book on economics), and they succeeded. In the process they decimated the local economy and the government here in Norway didn't do anything to stop them. Eventually they just left, the factory mostly in ruins and the ground contaminated, and most of the workers left as well. The land now belongs to the government by default.
If you go around Odda, most of the old buildings are somehow connected to the Smelteverk - many of them built by the original owners of the factory to house workers or provide places of entertainment, shops, a library, etc.. There is actually still a performance hall located on the premises of the factory that gets regular use. It seats about 500 people and is usually full for a performance. But most of the land and the buildings are in disrepair.