True friendships are mirrors of the best of yourself

Christmas is drawing near an end. It's been a wonderful end to the year, and I've had some time to do a little "soulsearching" (if you forgive me for using such a cliche'ed word?). I've done a lot of thinking about friendships throughout the year. What makes a true friend? What value do friendships have? How far would I go for my friends? And most importantly (because I am way to nice and gullable); how can you tell which friends are worth keeping and who are just pretending to be your friends because they want something from you?

They are hard questions to answer - and even my therapist tells me I have to figure it out for myself... :p That's why I've been giving it a lot of thought over Christmas. And I've come to some conclusions. Not sure if anyone would be interested in hearing them; but I don't care. If you've read this far, you're gonna have to read on ;) So here we go... Some people that I've come across in my life I would have done anything for. But on closer thought and observation they now stand out to me as lovely enough - but they wouldn't put even half the effort into our friendship as I would. And should I exhaust myself to gain their favour when they wouldn't do the same for me?

Then there are the other kind of people. The gems that sparkle and make my life better just by being there. I've been lucky enough to come across a few of them these past couple of years - and my world is better for having them in it! They share my views on creating the life you dream about, and would no doubt give as much of themselves as I would in a friendship. I wanna go for these people. I've made my choise, and have learned a lot about how to tell the one kind apart from the other. 2012 is gonna be a year of friendship for me. And to those of you who I consider part of my "flock": I love you all, and look forward to creating recordbreaking magic with you in the coming year!!

To end, I have an illustration of true friendship for you. It hit me to the point of bringing me to tears (happy ones, I promise!!) when I was opening my presents on Christmas Eve. A present from a true friend doesn't need to be expencive, prestigious or posh in any way - but it mirrors who you are as a person, and brings up the fondest memories and moments you've shared. Here are a few of those moments and mirrors that made me feel so lucky and loved:

Thank You Trouble :)

Hey there all you people that are up in the middle of the night.

I've "just" come back from a lovely and wonderful gig at a brilliant venue in London - and I just wanted to tell you a bit about one of the artists that played there tonight :)

So if you sit/lay back and relax, I'll let you into my secret world for a moment - and introduce you to an artist you should know about. I guarantee you your life will be richer for having heard his music.

His name is Ryan Keen - and he is a percussive guitarplayer and smooth singer. He works the acoustic scene, and has recently been given the honour of travelling around supporting star phenomenon Ed Sheeran. When seeing Keen live, you kinda understand why Ed would want him opening for him. Apart from being am awesome guitarplayer and wonderful songwriter/singer - he has a stage presence that captures the audience and keeps them engaged. Sometimes you see him putting on a full on concentration face for parts of some songs, and then at other times his face just lights up in a wonderful grin and you can see and feel how much he loves doing what he does. It's captivating, and although this is the first time I see him play proper live (apart from webcasted gigs and one time in the back of a van...) - I still feel such pride for the quality artist he is (I knoooow - I'm such a softie! lol).

I'm also very proud to say that he's coming out to Norway to play a few gigs in December, including Dreamcatcher (I'd be mad not to book such talent!), and for some reason, that just adds to the pride I felt when he put on a great performance tonight. Dreamcatcher-artists are kinda "my" artists - and once booked, I'd do anything to help them out.

I have a feeling we're gonna hear a lot from Ryan Keen - and hopefully it won't be long before a lot more people than me start blogging about him ;)

Here's a couple of pictures from tonight:

Now I bet you're all wondering what this guy sounds like! Here's a couple of YouTube-links for you - just for your pleasure ;)

And one of my favourites:

The Last Puzzle Pieces

I'm spending the weekend at my mums house. It's the house I grew up in, and it's always incredibly lovely to return to it. The house is on the gorgeous island of Senja, in a tiny Northern-Norwegian village named Skatvika. The amazing thing about this place is how quiet it is, and how much you feel in sync with nature when you're here. You just feel compelled to stand still and draw your breath at times - and feel yourself being filled with cleansing air and energy. It truly is rejuvenating!

I went for a walk late last night. The only sound I could hear was that of the oceans waves caressing the shoreline. Not even a bird uttered a warning that I had come too close to its nightly habitat. The birds are quiet at night. But when you wake in the morning they readily greet you with their songs and cheeky rants. It's one of the things I miss when living in the city. Where I live now, a seagulls voice is synonimous to "watch out or it's gonna steal your food", whilst when I grew up, it was a sign that the weather is good and it's about time to go out and enjoy a new day.

Last night, I walked by a neighbouring house. I stopped to draw a peaceful breath, and the smell of a log fire filled my nostrils. The next breath I drew was salty air from the sea. That's one of the magical things about this place. One of the things I love and that makes me sharpen my senses everytime I visit. All the surprises that nature has in store if only I allow myself to be open to them.

I don't think I can ever stop returning home. When I'm tired and feel incomplete - the last pieces of the puzzle can always be found here.

Skatvika. Photo by: Christina Finjord

One of those

Today has been one of those days... One of those days that you're not supposed to blog about because it shatters the illusion that your life is perfect and that you can do just about anything in the world. And I might even regret having posted it. But my blog is called "Honestly", and honesty is what you should get when getting to know me. Either it is virtually or face to face.

I've been feeling ill today. They say that there are a lot of flues, colds and stomachflues going around, but I don't think that's it. I have a feeling it's one of those weird "me"-sicknesses that show up when something is bothering me, and that usually comes at bad times. I was supposed to accompany a friend of mine to a nerve wrecking doctors appointment today, but had to stand her up because I was ill :( I feel really bad about that. I really wanted to be there for her, but I couldn't. I've taken my meds, but still I'm just trembling and aching and feel like sh*t. If only I could figure out the cause of these illnesses... Then maybe I could prevent them from taking me by surprise the way they do - and screwing things up for me.

I've been planning to go to the supermarket too today. I've now given up on those plans. I'm not brave enough to venture outside on a day like this... If you feel like stopping by and making me laugh, please do. I'd love for something to break my transe and heal me. For now... Until I'm caught by surprise again... :(

Idyllic October Night

Huh.. I think my lack of blogging the past few days might be an indication of me being busy... Who would have thought? ;)

I had an absolutely wonderful night at Tuesdays Dreamcatcher-gig. We ended up having to move the whole thing to the big stage - where it looks like we'll be staying for the coming Dreamcatchers. If you were there, please let me know if you had a good time and what you thought of the gig and the decor. I love fairylights and would light up my whole house with them if I could justify it to myself, and I personally think they really work in creating the magical Dreamcatcher-atmosphere. Combine that with an overdose of candles and amazing music - and it's my dream come true!

This Tuesday we had an all Norwegian lineup. Victor Brynning started the night off with his country/blues/rock'y music - and it was great to see him with a full band. I've only seen him play once before and that time he was completely solo and smashed it, so it was a treat to have him open the night for us.

After that, local band TSQ brought the jazzy, mystical vibe to the stage, with unusual exciting use of melody phrasing and vocal expression. I really enjoyed it, and a girl I talked to described it as "soothing relaxation-music". So if you're looking for a relaxing break from life, do check out TSQ at http://www.facebook.com/pages/TSQ/162899273777885?sk=app_19507961798

Ending the night, we had the sensational Oh!, who's newly released EP has stormed right into the ITunes charts and the official norwegian album-chart VG-Lista. I've blogged about Oh! earlier - after having fallen in love with them at their EP launch a couple of weeks ago, and I can't help but mentioning them in excitement again! Promise me you'll check out their website http://www.ohband.me . If they stay in the air after this flying start, I believe they could very well become one of the alltime big bands that has come out of Norway.

But enough about my love for Dreamcatcher (for now). I'll leave you all with a photo I took the other night. Sunset on my street <3

Enjoy your Friday night

Musical Friday Night

Hey there people

It's getting really autumny outside now, something that basically means dark candlelit evenings with a cup of warm tea and some good music. Sometimes in my own living-room - sometimes at gigs.

I was at Radio Tromsø today, talking about upcoming gigs in Tromsø. There are a lot of them in the coming months, to be fair! This weekend the Insomnia Festival is hyping up the town and Tromsøs superband Violet Road are having their sold out album release party. I really like Violet Road. You should check out their latest music video "Can You Hear The Morning Singing"

Violet Road - Can You Hear The Morning Singing

In the coming months you can see great up&coming artists like Cazadores, Peter Estdahl, The Northern Lies and Kaia at different venues across town. And not to forget Dreamcatcher at Tuesday - featuring Oh!, TSQ and Victor Brynning! It's gonna be awesome!

Speaking of... Oh! actually went in as nr 35 in the official Top 40 Album Chart of Norway today!! Congrats bigtime to the guys! Can't wait for Tuesday!!

But back to the radio session. I was fortunate enough to be able to share with everyone music by some great up&coming artists. Today I played tracks by Heidi Solheim, Peter Estdahl, Jamie Abbott, Skinny Machines and Rubylux. If you missed the show, you can watch a few of the tunes here:

Rubylux - What you Need

Skinny Machines - Stop That Girl

Keep enjoying your evening. I know I will!

Carpenter wanted

Sometimes, enjoying a lovely evening at home with the TV and my thoughts can take a turn for the unexpected...

I am sitting here in my sofa, enjoying a lame chick-flick on TV and quietly observing that my 7 year old kid and his friend (who's spending the night) is still not asleep upstairs, when suddenly; out of nowhere - a scary realization hits me like I haven't been hit since I was 9 and a kid at school pushed me so hard that I fell over on the asphalt and needed to have stitches sown in my forehead!!

I am old! WHERE did that come from, and WHEN did it happen??! How come I haven't noticed the sneaky transformation..?!

Huh? What do you mean; "Why am I old"?! Seriously:

Here I am... On a Saturday night... Sat at home with only my cat as company, watching TV and drinking a soft drink.... Whilst my SON is having his GIRLFRIEND stay over night!!!!!

If that's not proof, I don't know what is! *Hyperventilating*

I got so freaked out that I called up my sister and my mum to fish for some much needed comfort.

- "No, you're not old. You still look like you're in your early twenties."
- "Old? You!? Who's life is so much more rocknroll than it was in your teens?"
- "Hahaha. Relax. You're in your TWENTIES"

...is what I expected them to say.

What they ACTUALLY said is this:

- "Jepp. You're old. Haven't you realized it sooner?"
- "Yeah... So how is the planning of your fiftieth birthday coming along?"
- "Sorry girl. There's only one way to go from here... Catwoman..."

So much for supporting family... :p

That's it! I won't have it anymore. Come, age, and try it on. I'll put up one hell of a fight!
Midlife crisis, schmidlife crisis. I can happily chase away my shock with the naked truth that I'm younger now than I was 5 years ago. (Don't ask me how that works, but it's true)

My life is actually quite fabulous - although I should watch out for my son being such a charmer...
I swear, when he hits 16 and is actually going to have girlfriends over for OTHER purposes than when he's 7, we're going to have to soundproof the hell out of this apartment!

Any volunteers for the job....? :/

Do It Again

Oh!
Photo by: Marius Fiskum

A few days ago I attended an EP-launch here in Tromsø. The band is a fairly recent construction of fabulously talented guys from around here, and they're called Oh!. The launchnight was actually a split-launch with the sensational artist Heidi Solheim (which I promise you I will get back to in future blogs!!!), but if I were to write about both of them right now the blog would be eeeeendlessly long... hehe

Here's to the phenomenon of Oh!. For they have quickly become a phenomenon. Having only played a couple of gigs together before, the venue at the launch was packed with fans of all sizes, ages and shapes - everyone enjoying themselves and grooving along to the soulful, suggestive beats of the music. The combination of their stage presence, instrument-skills and songwriting talent convinces me that this is a band we should REALLY look out for!

And I'm clearly not the only one who feels that way. Oh!'s debut EP "Lesson One: EP" went straight to nr. 1 on the ITunes chart for R&B/Soul albums this week, and is also currently nr 7 in the top album chart - positioning themselves in front of recent releases from artists like Sivert Høyem, Bernhoft, Björk and Peter Gabriel.

Needless to say I'm really happy for these talented guys! And I'm lovin' the music! The vibe of it sends my mind wandering to both Bernhoft and Marvin Gaye. Baby-making music indeed ;D I can't wait to hear more of Oh!. Can't wait for them to create more songs, expand their repertoir and show off the variety I know they can deliver.

And most of all: I seriously CAN'T WAIT for them to play our Dreamcatcher-night on Oct 25th!!!!

A friendship in the making

This weekend at my mums house, I was delighted to observe a fascinating and rather amusing phenomenon - The powerstruggle of two newly acquainted animals. Obi Wan (my cat) was determined to be crowned Alfa male, and sweet Mica (my sisters/mums dog) was really frustrated with why this tiny little creature wouldn't play with her. Here are some pictures from Micas attempt to befriend the arrogant cat ;)

Obi Wan is blissfully unaware of the approaching Mica 

But not for long.
-"Oh no! Not that dog again...", Obi thinks to himself.

  

Obi: "I wonder if she'll go away if I ignore her...?" 

Obi: "Hey! Wait a minute. Where did she go?!"

Obi: "She couldn't have gone far"

Obi: Ah well... I can get back to my nap then.

Mica: Hey there strange little creature. Do you wanna play?
Obi: "Whaaaat!? Get lost."

Mica: "That's too bad... *whimpers*
Do you mind if I just rest my head here for a minute...?"

Mica: "Hi I'm Mica btw"

Obi: "Dog. I don't know what you're up to, but this is MY chair"

Mica: "I'm not up to anything, honestly!
I just wanna get to know you... :( "

Obi: "Ok.. I guess a LITTLE conversation wouldn't go amiss."
Mica: I'm so happy we're friends now!! Welcome to my house!"

Obi: "Hang on a minute, dog. Friends? Who said anything
about being friends?! And btw: Keep to YOUR side of the chair!"

Obi: "Yaaaawn... I'm getting tired now. All this walking on
eggshells around you have made me miss at least two of my
usual daily naps."

And so the amazing thing happened (from the observers point of view of course). Mortal enemies relaxed in each others company. I'm not gonna say they're friends yet - or that they'll live happily ever after; but for a couple of geezers who've only known each other for less than 24 hours, I'd say this looks promising:

But of course... What do I know? ;)

Obi: "Yaaawn. I had the strangest dream... HEY! What's that dog
doing in MY chair!!??"

Sleeping beauty

Staying in the air

It's both scary and exhilarating to do stuff you've never done before. Especially when the stuff you've never done before are big projects that require you to learn a lot of new things.

I've always been fond of learning. And I've never been clever enough to steer away from exciting projects that are too cool to not be involved in. I look at it this way: If I've never done it before, there's no proof that I'm not really good at it, right?! :D

Thankfully, it usually turns out that with enough prep-work and the right people helping me out, I can do basically whatever (with a few exceptions like football, stern arguing, tiling, piano tuning +++). My sister Therese is one of those people who're usually bullied into helping me out, and it's really fab working with her as we share so many of the same crazy ideas and lack of knowledge of our own boundaries ;)

At the moment, we're simultaneously working on several projects: Workshops, tours, Dreamcatcher gigs and the big big one - the upcoming Dreamcatcher Festival. I can't say a lot about it at the moment, because there are so many cool plans flying around and meetings being held, and we're trying to keep as tight a lid on everything as we can until the big reveal date! I can promise you though that it's going to be aaaaawsome!

I'm so proud of us for taking on projects that might seem scary at first! ...or rather... Seem excellent at first, and then when you start working on it and realize how complex it all is, starts being really scary. lol

One of the good knowledges I've taken with me from all of our fearless project-works (and that keeps me calm when my head tells me it's time to panic) is this:

And based on this law of nature (erhm...), our current plans are going to be massive successes!!

It is as they say in The Hitchikers Guide To The Galaxy: The way to learn how to fly is to forget to land.

xx

Golden evening

Anyone who knows me properly, knows my love for the golden, lushness. And anyone who's been to my house knows that there are quite a few items in there that reflect that love. Now that the nights are getting longer and darker, the opportunities for lighting candles and bathing in the golden glow multiply, and I took a few moments tonight to capture some images.

Although I'm not a professional photographer of any kind (and I used the hipstamatic camera-app on my iPhone) I hope you enjoy the current mood of my house as much as I do :) 

Split this!

I had a really good self confidence boost today :) I was at the gym enjoying my favorite class - Body Balance. It's a mixture of Yoga, Tai Chi and Pilates, and gives you a really good exercise to strengthen your core muscles, increase your balance and clear your head.

After the class I decided to do a little experiment that I haven't done in a loooong time - and I can (very) happily report that I can once again do the split!! :D This is a really big self confidence boost for me as I used to be a gymnast, and I used to love working out, but when I got pregnant a few years ago the pregnancy brought with it some health issues that made me have to give up the serious workouts.

Lately, however, I've been very determined to get back in shape, and to regain some of the "me" that was lost those years ago. That's why I'm superhappy and dancing all over my living room tonight as I can see results are starting to present themselves :)

I like having confidence boosts like that. Please keep 'em coming!






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Candlelight conversation

Tonight I'm having a quiet night to myself. Gabriel is off for a sleepover at a friends house, and candles are lit in my living room. On the TV, a documentary about serial killers just started, so I'm switching over to a more positively vibed channel... It suits me better.

Quite frankly, I'm still smiling from the Dreamcatcher gig on Tuesday! We had four lovely artists playing, and two storeys full of supporting audience. I love the Dreamcatcher nights. They fill me with such warmth and energy, and I feed on that rush of enthusiasm for days! It's hard to explain exactly how that works, but something inside me just tells me that "this is the way you're supposed to live your life" when I see the artists enjoying themselves on stage and tell me that they loved playing our night. Making dreams come true - whether they are my own or others, seems like a good way to live. I'm happy I found this out about myself at such a young age - so that I can live the dream instead of constantly searching for it.

For those of you who are not thoroughly acquainted with Dreamcatcher, let me tell you a bit about it. But first, I'm just going to refill my glass of wine...

Done ;)

Dreamcatcher is all about promoting great up and coming music through a variety of concerts, showcases, tours, workshops etc... Me and my sister Therese are heading the "operation" (find her bilingual blog here: resnhansen.blogspot.com) and together with a bunch of great people we work to make magical events happen. Our "catchphrase" is 'Live And Intimate', and we span the kind of genres we mostly love to listen to ourselves - singer songwriter, folk, pop, soft rock, blues, funk and soul. It's become my life lately, and we've got some amazing stuff planned for the future that unfortunately I can't tell you about yet, as it's all secret!! :D

To get a jist of the Dreamcatcher-spirit, I'd like to share with you a few pictures taken at some of our events. All pictures are by our fabulous house photographer Siri Andersen <3