Thoughts from the North

Norway is a beautiful country. But it is also a strange place. Things are more expensive there than any place I've ever visited, yet you can camp for free almost anywhere, as we did. It has milder winters than where I live, yet it is much further north. I breached the 60-degree latitude for the first time in my life (Bergen, Norway is at 60° 23' N). But most perplexing of all, they have a 7-11 store on nearly every corner, and 5 or 6 in Oslo Sentralstasjon (the main train station), yet they have no Slurpees. Instead, each store has 2 or 3 slot machines.

Combined with a couple of days in Sweden, this trip pushes my lifetime country count up to 13, 14 if you count Vatican city. Denmark will be the last one I add for some time.

Another list

I love lists. They are a quick and dirty way to write something without really having to say much. So expect to see a few lists in the next little while, summarizing this past year.

Here is a list of shows I saw this year, in chronological order:

1. Arcade Fire, at the Melkweg, Amsterdam
2. Ted Leo & the Pharmacists, at Paradiso, Amsterdam
3. Arcade Fire, featuring Final Fantasy, at Paradiso, Amsterdam
4. Magnolia Electric Company, at Paradiso, Amsterdam
5. Broken Social Scene, at Paradiso, Amsterdam
6. 13 & God (The Notwist vs Themselves), at Paradiso, Amsterdam
7. Stars, Secret Machines, Black Mountain, The Dears, Hayseed Dixie and Death from Above 1979 at the Metropolis Festival, Rotterdam
8. Next week: Sigur Ros, at Paradiso, Amsterdam

And while we're at it, a much shorter list of the movies I saw in the theatres this year:

1. Star Wars Episode III
2. War of the Worlds