Taking a Break

Hi all, Hubby Gray here.
Laura is still taking a break from writing on her blog while she continues to gather more material. I will write in a later entry about the band after we have our first performance in October. For now an update.

We have settled in quite nicely here. The sun has returned after a couple of weeks of drizzly weather all over most of Europe. The fall colors are beginning to show and the temperature is dropping quite fast. In a couple of weeks there will be snow in the mountains. You can now get great deals on mountain bikes and last years skis. Every few days folks are slowly adding a new piece of warm clothing to their outfits; a scarf here, a hat there.

Last weekend we went to a free environmental festival. There was a free tour around the fjord. It was fantastic to see all of the little island communities. In little over a week Oktoberfest Oslo style will begin. Not sure what that entails. I do know that around this time of year Norwegians enjoy a popular dish of lamb and cabbage. I was disappointed to hear that my friend Ulrik will not be serving this dish at his party this Friday. He is having people over to watch the American debates and in honor of that he wants to serve meatloaf with a little American flag sticking out.
He asks me if I am excited about the debates. I tell him my stomach hurts just thinking about it.
Maybe a slice of meatloaf will fix it.

Speaking of which; Laura and I met an American in our Norwegian class who is so happy to be away from American press and any news about the election. He said it really used to stress him out and now he is happily taking a break. Not a bad idea. The American news has become so insistent these days, like the fast flickering of a TV screen, screaming out "look at me look at me, I am all that matters, feel the tension conflict and the utter outrage." Maybe I need to to take a break myself. I don't mean pretend its not there, I just think turning down the volume a bit will do. There are so many amazing things all around us everyday, expressing eternal beauty and connectedness. All one has to do is turn away from the laptop and head out for a walk on the beach, or climb a tree, build a porch, a spend some time playing a board game with one's kids. NOT MONOPOLY, at that point one might as well go back to reading the news.

Anyway, we miss all our friends and family back in the states and we so look forward to our vacation in December where we can sit around and play all in poker while we discuss the economy, and have some stiff eggnog while we discuss the election results... ahem, yeah...
Think I need a walk on the beach.

Joining a Punk Band vol.1

By Matt (Lead singer of Konge Familien, The Royal Family)

A 13 year olds dream come true!

At 41, I am ready to rock the house, tear the roof off, slam, thrash, mosh and shred; a dream come true really. Ever since I was in 8^th grade I wanted to be a singer in a band. Like many 13 year olds, I used to close my bedroom door, turn on my boom box and pretend I was a rock star. While young girls would grab a hair brush and pretend they were Olivia Newton Jon, or Belinda Carlisle of the GoGos, young boys would air guitar pretending they were Eddie Van Halen, Jimmy Page or Pete Townsend. Myself, I used to air guitar to the live version of Free Bird, off the Lynyrd Skynyrd, “One More From The Road” album. Either that or pretend I was Bob Weir of the Grateful Dead, or that I was Peter Tosh; wishing I was black with long natty dreads, instead of just a kid from the burbs.

What do Brahms and the Ramones have in common?

And now I am the lead singer of a power chord punk band in Oslo, Norway. Our first gig is at a place called the Fun House in downtown Oslo, opening for an 80s punk cover band. How the heck did this come about, you may ask. Over a year ago I joined the San Francisco Choral Society and had a great time. And so, when I moved to Oslo, my first order of business was to find a chorus. One evening I was out with Nils and he had a friend along named John-Åge (Pronounced yoon oh guh.) John-Åge was the drummer of a punk band who was pretty well connected to the Oslo music scene. So I asked him if he knew of any choirs about. His face lit up and he said that his band was looking for a lead singer. The band had been around for years, and while the musicians are all quite good in his band they have been having a hard time finding a singer who can come up with good material, sing well, and show up for rehearsals. He asked me if I would like to audition.

Dead Cow

Before coming to the audition, I listened to a few of the tracks of the original band with the old singer. (You can hear these clips on the Kong Familien “Myspace” page.) The band sounded incredible with fantastic bone crunching power-chords, however, John-Åge, was right about the singer. He basically growled through the songs unsure of what to sing. An example is the song, “Dead Cow”; the first verse, goes like this, “You ain’t nothin’ but a cow, You ain’t nothin’ but a dead cow baby, You ain’t nothin’ but a cow, You ain’t nothin’ but a dead cow baby, You ain’t nothin’ but a cow, You ain’t nothin’ but a dead cow baby.” The chorus is an exact repeat, except in this case the last line goes, “You ain’t nothin’ but a cow baby YEAH.” So the Yeah makes it different. The other songs have the same kind of lyrical depth. Songs about getting too wasted, impotence, and other subversive topics, reserved for artist like Frank Zappa, who can throw some amazing arrangements behind them. Having never written lyrics down, I knew it would be a challenge but I figured I could at least improve on the previous content. Right?

We could jam in Joe’s Garage

A few weeks later I prepared some rock standards and came to the audition ready to rock. The rehearsal space looks exactly like the kind of picture you would find in next to dictionary definition of "garage rock rehearsal space." It was in a back alley lot, all the broken windows boarded up. I walked into the small beer soaked studio with carpet on the walls. And saw the practice equipment shared by all the other bands that fill time slot rent on the space. In walked Glen, with his guitar on his back, followed by Frøde the base player. The guys had not preformed in months and were glad to have the excuse to get together and jam even to just audition some guy they had never met and hope for the best. I did a few vocal warm-ups while the band plugged in, John-Åge taped his drum stick to his fingerless right-hand, and did a few loud flourishes and fills. I threw out a few song suggestions of stuff I knew. Glen wasn’t sure of the punk covers I suggested. The LA scene is very different then what caught on in Europe. It turned out the band knew the Elvis version of the Little Willie John standard, “Fever”.
Not really a song I associate with punk, the band kicked off a speedy power chord version of the song. I tried to sing very tentatively, and hit the right notes, but my energy wasn’t where the band was. I felt like a timid karaoke singer. Suddenly something came over me, and I started wailing out the lyrics, the band responded and we were off. After a thundering finish, they all looked at each other gleefully, Frøde exclaimed, “YA DA MATT!” (Norwegian for f*** yeah!) I felt very good. That was it I was their new singer. Now I just had to write some new material on top of the old songs and sing it. I will talk more about my experience with trying to write punk tunes in the next installment. As it stands now; we have written a total of 12 new songs together, and have rehearsed for two months now. I am so happy with the results and the energy with the band is fantastic. We have yet to post any of the songs with me singing on the myspace page. Stay tuned we will be in the studio soon enough. Meanwhile if you are in Oslo on the 17th of October, come and see us. You WILL be entertained, we will show you a great time.

Stay tuned...

Annie Get Your Gun!

My first entry: The Magic of Mølde
Hello all! Hubby Gray here with my first blog entry.(Cue fan fare and confetti.) Our story begins just a couple of weeks ago when Laura and I traveled with our good friend Nils, up north to a place called Mølde. How can one explain Mølde. Ah yes, Mølde home of the body bag, if ya wanna get shot wear the wrong color rag. No, that’s not it… let’s see. Mølde, where kids are king, come on down because we are the dealingest. No that’s not it either, I think a more accurate description would be close to what the great Garrison Keillor often says about Lake Woebegone, “Where the women are strong, the men are good looking and the kids are all above average.”

Yes Mølde, is a magical place, with delightful people, and incredible mountains and fjords. Many of the mountains and valleys have been sculpted out by massive glaciers, in much the same way as Yosemite Valley, however in the same way that Yosemite is truly a one of a kind place; the same can be said of Mølde. I must say, in regards to the people of Mølde, the Lake Woebegone reference fits quite well, as I explain the rest of my journey below.

Norman and Jorunn
We stayed for a few days with Nils parents Jorunn and Norman. They are two of the sweetest and most hospitable people I have met. This was my third time visiting them with Nils. And I must say our friendship has really become a connection I cherish. Often when I come to visit we stay up late at night talking into the wee hours and on occasion enjoy a few sailing trips around the fjords together.

Where the women are strong
After our too brief stay with them, Laura, Nils and I headed a short distance away to have brunch with Nils’s sister Anne and her family. We first had to board a ferry to take us across the Fjord. After boarding, Nils encouraged Laura and I to buy a special kind of pancake served on the boat. I went to the counter and order, behind the counter was Nils’s niece, a slim young woman of about 19 years in age. She came over to our table to take a break from her work and tell us all about her winning first prize for her age group in a strong man competition in Mølde. A video of the competition can be found on youtube following this link. she can be seen at about 5:12 into the video, lifting a variety of heavy objects, and the smiling sweetly for the cameras.

Mølde's very own Annie Oakley
I don’t know about you, but I am impressed. So just who is the mother of this strong young woman? That would be Nils’ sister Anne. A very fitting name, for a woman considered to be the Annie Oakley of Mølde.
Annie in Action
Annie in wiki
Annie Get Your Gun

Every time a motorist hits a large animal on the mountain roads, if the animal runs off after the accident, it is the driver’s responsibility to call in and report it to the highway patrol. At that point the highway patrol calls in Anne. She and her husband then load up their three German bred blood hounds into her truck and then head out, often into the darkest early morning hours. They track down the large animal, (moose, reindeer, or bull elk) and try to determine if the animal has the ability to survive its wounds, or if the animal suffering they put it out of it's misery.

We arrived at her home by the fjord and had a lovely brunch outside on her porch. After we finished eating Lingon berries and vanilla cream, we headed out to the shooting range with Anne and her Husband. The shooting range was a short distance from their house, a large shed-like structure with barn doors on the back side that slid open to a large ravine. Far across on the other side of the ravine were the moose and deer shaped targets. The targets are connected to monitors inside the shed where the shooter can see immediate feedback on how close they hit the bull’s-eye. The moose target in particular is quite difficult, since the only way to bring that large animal down is a direct shot to the heart; an area just a little larger than one’s hand. This target is only exposed when the animal is in exact profile to the shooter. If the moose is angled away from tracker by just a few degrees, the target is blocked and the opportunity missed. In most cases, the shooter gets one opportunity. In Anne’s case, she gets one opportunity in the dark of night climbing up mountains and through brush.

Bull's-eye
I have never been fond of guns, and feel the world would be a better place without them. This is one of those rare instances where I can see there is no alternative. I had only ever fired a weapon once before, with Laura’s cousin Ben, a professionally trained soldier, who had served in both Iraq and Afghanistan. In that instance I shot some pretty large rifles that freaked the crap out of me when I pulled the trigger. Especially the very large shotgun, the Ben insisted that I fire once with the stock down looking through the site and again with the stock up firing from the hip like Clint Eastwood. The second time I fired, I was so overcome with nervous anticipation, that I may have closed my eyes at the last moment, just like I did the first time I swung a bat in little league. Jumping ahead now to Mølde, this time I put on ear protectors and stood several feet back with Laura from where Anne was positioned. The sound was incredible and I marveled how relax and steady she kept her body and focus. Most impressive was how close her shots were all grouped dead center in the bull’s-eye and in the exact same spot. She turned to me and asked if I was ready. I really REALLY didn’t want to. But since I was the guest, I saw there was no way out of this request. So I relented, shrugged my shoulders and got down into position next to Anne. She helped me quite a bit and gave some fantastic instruction. I was actually able to calm my nerves and heart rate down, and turn my concentration to the target. The target was far enough away across the ravine that my slight pulse was causing the crosshairs to bob passed then target with each heart beat. The key was to settle into this context until I could anticipate and pull the trigger at a predictable moment. And wouldn’t ya know it, that I Matt Gray brought up in the comfy California suburbs of lawn mowers, and leaf blowers, managed to hit the inside of the bulls-eye. OMG! I actually hit it on my first and second try. She asked if I would like to fire one more time. I declined in order to keep my record as an expert shot intact. What a thrill! Still as I stepped back for moment, I am sure it is quite a different experience after scrambling up steep ravines in the dead of night chasing a large frightened animal. Still I can't wait to tell Laura's cousin Ben.
Takk på leser, Matt

Fall begins = Høst begynner

NORWEGIAN
Etter en levetid i California, detter er mitt første virkelige høsten. På første dagene av september været snudd. Nå om morgen luften er skarp og kjølig. Det er på tide de finner hatter og votter gjemt bort i boksene. Hver dag, lys endringer og hver uke trærne viser noen flere blader av gull. Kontrasten er mest dramatisk i Nordmarka hvor tepper av berry busker transformere dag etter dag fra lys grønn til mørk grønn till fiolett, rød og oransje. Eventuelle uke nå temperaturen synker noen få hakk, åsene vil være i live med farge.

ENGLISH
After a lifetime in California, this is my first real autumn. On first days of September the weather turned. Now,the morning air is crisp and cool. It's time the find the hats and gloves hidden away in our boxes. Every day, the light changes and every week the trees show a few more leaves of gold. The contrast is most dramatic in the NordMarka where the carpets of berry bushes transform day by day from bright green to dark green to purple, red, and orange. Any week now, when the temperature drops a few more notches, the hills will be alive with color.






A historic building near the Holmelkommen ski jump. For more pictures of the last days of summer, click here.

Learning Norwegian = Lære Norsk

(for English translation scroll down)

NORWEGIAN

Ikveld Matt og Jeg hadd en første norsk kurs på Folk Universitetet i Oslo. Dessverre, det være veldig kjedelig og meget treg, men, jeg synes det vil bli flere fort nest tid. Vi har en venner på kurset. Han heter Zdenek og han kommer fra Czech. Nå bor han i Oslo hvor han arbeider sammen vi.

Norsk kurset er lite, og det er elve andre studenter. Læren heter Trine og hun er høy og tynn. Kurset møter to dag hver uker på tirsday og torsday. Hver dag vi møter fire timer med to pause. Jeg håp et vil bli flere fort.

ENGLISH

Tonight Matt and I had our first Norwegian class at the Folk University (which is similar to a community college). Unfortunately, it was very boring for me and very slow, but I think it will speed up next time. We have one friend in the class. His name is Zdenek and he comes from the Czech Republic. Now he lives here in Oslo and works with us.

Our Norwegian class is very small and there are only 11 other students. The teachers name is Trine and she is tall and thin. The class meets two days a week on Tuesday and Thursday for 4 hours each day with two breaks. I hope it will speed up.