The Bloody Time of the Year

I hate Christmas. Not because it is commercial, invented by card companies, nor for the forced happygo-lucky athmosphere. Me and Christmas have been good friends in the past, but now I have good reasons for disliking it.

1. The music

For six years, I have been working in stores that play Christmas music. I know the tunes, I know the melodies, and all the lyrics in Finnish and in English. The repetition of the songs is not what annoyes me though. It is the remakes, the new versions of the old songs, where the artist decides to put his or hers own influence on it. 99% of the cases the songs become sappy, over rendered smush that usually is constructed from screaming and crying. Oh my god, we get it! Silent night, Holy night is a beautiful song, but it gets me over the edge to hear the singer practically crying when the word child is mentioned. For fucks sake, it is only on the third row you can imagine what the rest of the song is like!

Plus I hate, hate, HATE Power of Love. This is for personal reasons, that don't need to be mentioned here. Let me just ask a question about it; the single was released during Christmas time, the video shows the holy night, but what the hell does the song have to do with Christmas?! NOTHING! It's worse than bloody Christmas Shoes, and that song is god awful!

2. Shopping

As I mentioned I have been working in a store for quite awhile. The typical stressed out customer getting his or hers last moment presents is not anything new to me. Actually everybody does that, and even though we hate it, we like to brag about how we made it just in time. It is stupid but not really the reason why I hate Christmas shopping.

As you might know, I'm sort of an environmentalist. The waste of great amounts of materia is not what irritates me, but the hypocrizy. During December there is a big fuzz about spending time with our loved ones and how we should cherish the silence and peace. BULLSHIT. Peace and harmony my ass, Christmas is all about getting shit, and we have to go through the yearly hell of the shopping malls for it. I think the perfect gift would actually be just spending quality time with the loved ones without pressure, ignoring all the extra crap.

3. Quality time with the family

Starts off nice, then it is horrible. For me it has not been all bad, but I am over the childish excitement of 'family fun'. It is nice to see folks but I just wish we wouldn't have to have this stupid holiday for an excuse to catch up. Cannot families have quality time without ho ho ho's? Apparrently not. Just look at any holiday movies, even the ones not meant for kids. All of them spread the message of the magical family reunion during the wonderful Chrismas day. If people find it hard to spend time around each other, why pretend to be a happy family at all, even just for one night. All we do, is create an illusion (an expensive one, I might add) to please the common media of the typical holiday picture.

So why this sudden burst? It is 0:00 am, I just realized I fucked up my dads gift(which I'm making myself), and I still don't have anything for mum. Tomorrow we are going to have dinner together, without my brother because he is in Norway. I planned on escaping, but he did it first. I have to wake up tomorrow at 6 to get back to work to hear the bloody Power of Love, fucking Party of Five, Mariah Carrey's Chrismas blower, and for what. To remind me to do things differently next year? As if.

4.Holiday Specials (Excluding the Snowman, because it has the song)

Just watch Star Wars Christmas Special



All I want for Christmas is for it to be over

Tuesday Music

I was browsing through youtube and ended up listening to Natalia Imbruglia's new single 'Want'. I'm sorry, but it doesn't do anything for me. Not changing rythm, high pitched singing, and obvious attention whoring with showing half naked body doesn't cut it. She has changed her style to disco, which is not too surprising, most of the 90's acustic guitar fans have changed to synthesizers. Kids want rythm, easy listening, and they want to move! I don't think this is going to be the great hit of the year, but I have to give her some credit; she is still doing music and she looks amazing.



Sorry for the bad quality. All the HQ videos were missing embed code.

Other video was a pleasant surprise, it was just like we want to see this guy; energic, glittery, inspirational. Mika's We Are Golden is a fantastic song for the late saturday night runs. I want to find my disco hat and go out!



Another happy meeting was with the band called Mumford and Sons. I have never heard about this band, but apparently they just released(just in my terms means this year) their first single, so I guess this is a new discovery for all of us. Little Lion Man is definetly guitar pop, but it has a nice irish feeling to it.



Actually the two fist singles were released during the summer, the last one in early Septemper. I am late, I'll never be a pop culture critic. This happens when one doesn't have a tv or a radio. Anyways, summer was just few months ago

I'm Back (at least for today)

I read two books in considerably short time. They were nothing alike, and I won't compare them more than this, but let me just ask a question. Does one have to like a book for it to be good? I know that both of my reads are international best sellers, praised by critics, and I don't have enought fingers to point all my friends who really like these novels. Still, I'm not convinced about their greatness, actually I am surprised by my oppinion. Let me elaborate:

The first book was The Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini, the second Fear And Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson. While reading the later one, I was convinced that I liked the first one better since it was a page-turner for me. This phenomenom hasn't happened to me in years, so even I was surprised by my interest to get deeper in to the story; I had to learn more about incidents in the two main characters lives. The second did not have the same effect, but still it took only few days for me to finish. My problem against Thompson is how I have a naive fear against drugs and simply cannot find anyting amusing about them (except the part where att'y starts yelling at an old police couple while violently throwing out in a Cadillac).

A Thousand Splendid Suns is a page turner for one reason, it is hard to believe how shitty life can be and you just want to know if, please, anything good happens on the next page. In the end, when the lives of the two main characters, is solved, Hosseini really, really, milks the drama, and it is not all that impressing. Compared to the fast pace of most of the book, the last 40 pages or so are really dragged and have no point. I wish I could praise the book, like I did to my friends while reading it, but I just cannot do it anymore. If the lust for soap is ignored, then it is a really good read. Now I have to say that it was ok.

Against my prejudice I actually prefer Fear and Loathing. The reason for my changed oppinion is simple; Hunter does not enjoy the drama, he leaves it be as it is, and just tells what happened. It was honest, in a way that hallusinating drug user can be, and it certainly doesn't apologise or try to explain. The more I think about it, the better the book actually is, and probably I will give it one more go.


[edit] actually these two novels are very much alike; they both have strong statements about their goverments and culture. It is just the style, main story, and the country that are different. For social commentery they both are excellent, but I still prefer Fear and Loathing.

It is Monday

Ok, today's a good start for the week. I woke up at 6, like I wanted to, and tried out an old/new dress, which looked surprisingly good. I have an exam today, topic: civil engineering. Haven't studied a shit. Whoops. I was really down last week and had to take some time just for myself. Therefore yesterday was a therapy day; I know now how Silent Hill 2 and 3 ends, plus I reminded myself about the greatness of Gilmore Girls.

Not that I want to complain, but I don't understand why people are hyped up about autumn. Hoorray, they yell, finally we can buy lovely autumn clothes, and choose them from wide colour selection. Ok, there are two things wrong with that; the autumn clothes are only in one colour: black, and secondly, who is happy about the fact that more money has to be spent?? Yesterday I was walking to the store and was so annoyed by the gray sky and the dead leaves on the ground that I decided to pack my shit and move to Spain. Bye bye summer and my happy days, I told myself. But then I realized that there are still leaves on the trees.

A Typical Sunday

I woke up at 1 pm, which is really unusual for me. This pretty much set the course for the whole day: I, once again, did fuck all. At four I started to watch Let's Play Silent Hill and managed to brake that one rule I have. No horror stuff ever.
So happily I watched till 10 pm and realized I haven't done any school work. I have a presentation the next day and haven't prepared shit. So off I go doing research. Now it is almost 3 am and I cannot think straight anymore.
Actually it was a good think that I managed to get myself scared today. I wasn't really tired till about 20 minutes ago. Perhaps I should start my mornings by watching Saw and the Exorcist. Lil' bit gore once a day keeps the sanity away!

Japanese spiderman was cooler than our whiny Tobey Maguire (no offence, Tobey, call me!). Even his bitch was much better than Mary Jane Watson.

If you feel horrible, give yourself two days. Then get up, embrace the world, and see how wonderful truly you are. This week I want to smile and to get over all the negative things that has happened to me during the past month. Now is the time to move on; continue this journey. For that, for me this morning is officially dedicated to Disco. Voilá, the latest of my favourite 'shake it' songs: