BEACON NO LONGER
I flew back from Bratislava on Sunday and Monday I was on the early train (I mean *early*) to Liege, Belgium; where I was met and picked up to go to Waimes, which is an hour from Liege by car, so really out in farmland somewhere near the German border. I was brought there to work with Jul', a French band I did some work with last year. Essentially I was there do record some vocals, guitar and keyboards on new versions of the songs I did the same on last year. Then we worked at their own small studio, now they are on the Belgian label called
Anorak Supersport and are re-recording the songs at a 'proper studio' (personally, I thought they were getting a great sound at their own place in Epinal, but hey!). Anyway, you should be able to hear the results in the first part of next year. In the meantime you can hear me singing with them on their
myspace.
I was pretty tired from my traveling and the Bratislava weekend and the early morning train so after Sergio from Anorak S. took me to the nearest building with wifi to check at few mails and then I crashed, totally, leaving the guys still working. I was up at 6 to get driven back to Liege for my train, and was back in Paris for lunch. And then Dom & I trained to La Rochelle and met her folks and Aden at the train station. I hadn't seen Aden in over 2 weeks--at least! and I was so happy to see her, give her presents, have her feed me some of the chocolates I gave her, and just generally act silly.
We spent the days, just a couple of them mind you, enjoying being together. I did a bit of aquagym, as there's no pilates offered on the island and the weather wasn't nice enough to swim in the sea. I ate a ton of bulots, the large sea snails that are smoked and eaten everywhere in coastal France. And on Thursday, the three of us headed back to Paris.
OSLO, 8/17
It's never that fun to get Aden up early, but we felt lucky that she was docile as we got her up at an hour long before she can actually function. And we lucked out slightly with the taxi we called--Parisian cabbies are totally insane. You call a cab, and they have the right to run the meter the minute they start heading to you, so you often get in with 8-10 Euros already on the meter. But, they are also greedy and impatient so if you're not right down when they arrive, they take off. And they can do this so quickly that you often are standing there waiting for them, thinking they have yet to arrive but in fact they left after two minutes of waiting. I hauled all our luggage downstairs and ran out to check and saw what had to be our cab pulling away. I waved at him, and he stopped. "Cab for Stringfellow?" "Oui". "OK, I get my bags and come right back" and the guy tried to take off again while I went and grabbed the bags! The moral of the story is--don't be such a greedy fuck, as by taking off he reset his meter and lost all his waiting time! Don't think I tipped.
Orly wasn't very busy as most French people are already gone on vacation. Friday is a good day to leave town: the tourists don't leave on Fridays. So we had plenty of time to get to the gate. It was all fine, and even most of the flight was OK, but about an hour and fifteen minutes into it, Aden had a total meltdown, the special kind that only Aden can have--animal screaming, inconsolable, spitting like a rabid cornered raccoon. I have to admit the flight crew on Norwegian air were incredibly kind and did their best. But, in these moods, Aden is a creature that would give the Devil pause to approach.
Aden did come around eventually, she almost lost it again when I helped her off an escalator (I saw she would have fallen and there were a bunch of people coming down behind her) and she had wanted to do it all by herself so I had to carry her up the stairs, wait until there was a significant pause in human traffic, and let her go down without me interfering (too much).
we had lunch at OSL and took the Flytoget into the center. Then we hopped a cab and headed to the Tiger of Sweden boutique, who have been outfitting the Disciplines with wonderful stuff. Everything you see me wear onstage or in photos is ToS these days (with the band, anyway). Claus met us there and got me squared away, and we all walked over to the venue for tonight's show.
It was fashion week in Oslo, and Sixty, the parent co. for the Miss Sixty brand and others, was launching their new showroom with a big party. We were the main entertainment! They had a real stage built in their courtyard. We hung our backdrop which looks dope, and Claus' bass drum now has the gothic 'a' that serves as a 'd' in our logo on it. And they hung a chandelier over us.
Now, the original reason I was to be in Norway was that each year, my dad and his family vacation in the little village of Duken, part of Knarberg, outside Tonsberg (Lise from Briskeby is from here too). My stepmom is Norwegian and her parents ended up here when they retired (my stepmom's dad was a sea captain, so they lived all over the world, mostly Australia and New York). Her father passed away quite a few years ago, and her mom (who then outlived her second husband) passed away last year, in her 90s. I would always give her a call when I was in Norway. So, the family kept the little house and continue to visit each summer. I first came here in 1992, what was my first trip to Europe. I was coming to visit them with Dom & Aden--my dad hadn't seen Aden since she was just a few months old.
So, when we received the offer to play this show, I cleared it with everyone, and anyway everyone wanted to see my new band (plus there was an open bar for the kiddies!). So, my dad, stepmom, their 3 kids (18, 19, 24), my stepmom's sister, and assorted family friends and cousins all came to the gig! It was kind of amazing to have my dad & co, Dom & Aden, my Norwegian friends, my band, etc. all intersecting. great! The show was pretty outrageous--I had a lot of things pent-up in me that needed releasing. I fell flat on my ass at one point and crawled in the mud like a snake. I spit on some journalists (which they seemed to enjoy) attacked the bar, stole a hat. Etc.! Everybody loved it. I always have the feeling after a Disciplines show, as tired as I am, that I just want to do another one.
But, there was no time! We had a train to catch. We got on the 11.44 train to Tonsberg, which takes about an hour and a half (and you have to be careful as Tonsberg is not the last stop, so you have to be alert and get your stuff off in like 2 minutes). Then there was a taxi SNAFU so we were left in the cold for a bit but eventually made it to the house, and calmed Aden down (you really don't want to wake her up in the middle of a sleep; it's a frightening experience).
Saturday we all went out to the Fulehuk Lighthouse (pictured above). Yep, we walked down to the Knarberg harbor, and boarded a very slow water taxi which took us to a barren rock in the Oslo fjord, upon which there has been a lighthouse for almost 200 years. It's been replaced by an unmanned beacon out in the water, but the structure is completely intact. One of my stepmom's cousins, the jovial and kind Thørvald, is helping renovate it and make it a kind of retreat/b&b. Now, when I say barren rock, I mean barren rock. The wind screams by and whips foam over the surface. The water itself is punctuated with massive creamsicle-colored jellyfish, bigger than basketballs in some cases. It was treacherous getting on and off the boats that took us there and back (with Aden and a stroller!)--there are days when boats can't approach at all, the seas are so choppy. But, quite a few folks where out there for the afternoon (I should mention that the islet the lighthouse sits on is barely bigger than the lighthouse itself). It was a kind of christening of the place in its new guise, and there was a mayor (of Knarberg? of Tonsberg? it was never explained) and a guy in a toll collector's uniform (I guess all the admirals were busy) and about 40-50 folks, including some kids and a way--too-frisky Irish setter (that Aden followed everywhere). We each were given a commemorative mug (and a piece of tape to write your name on it)--not to keep of course! Norwegians are very frugal, and you would never give away a mug that could be used in the future! But they did feed us, with fresh seafood from Roar i Bua in Tonsberg. They make the best gravlax I've had yet, aged in brandy, it is sweet and delicate. There were millions of lovely shrimp, and huge crab claws (you whack it with a spoon and go to work). Everything was fresher than market fresh, and high quality. Worth freezing your ass off on an isolated rock for 5 hours for! I was told that the Viking folk used to come to this rock to do 'rituals'. Probably they assumed the place was so fucking lonely and inaccessible that God would never be looking down on their dirty deeds in that place. And they were probably right.
The drama of the day was NOT Aden getting bitten by the peeved dog, as worried us all day, but a guy got his finger caught in a moving rope when one of the boats was trying to pull up and lost a big chunk of it. I didn't see it (Dom, Aden & I were up in the kitchen stealing the carrot cake that had yet to be served!) but there was some blood for sure and lots of panic. Like, by the time the news went upstairs the guy had been squished between the boat and the island and was for sure dead. This happened twenty yards away. Think about that the next time somebody whispers gossip in your ear.
Today we went to downtown Tonsberg to have MORE gravlax at Roar i Bua, and to have coffee and cakes at Nøtterø Bakerei (another cousin!), and generally veg out. My dad smuggled some Costco sides of beef into the country and some wine and the BBQ, it shall ensue, even under the grey Norwegian skies.
ToS gave me a beautiful winter coat, I look like a Scandinavian rock star now, my dad keeps giving me shit cuz I won't take it off. It is, however, freezing today and the coat is lovely and warm...
Love
KS
Nøtterøy, NORWAY.
