I think today is supposed to be the official american first day of summer. A lot of people have been blogging their summer goals so I think I am going to copy them and do that;
This summer I would like to: -chill out -figure out dishes to cook with all the odd ingredients that have accumulated in my cupboards -organize my belongings -figure out how to enjoy drawing again -think of some ideas for a senior thesis -write more -take more pictures -get my keyboard fixed and organize the files on my hard drives.
I sat in the school computer lab from around 11 PM to 4.30 AM going through my semi-disorganized archive of film photographs that survived my hard-drive crash and picking out pretty much every picture I ever liked to put up in the "work" section on my website. I grouped them in a way that I thought semi-fit.
This one didn't make the cut:
because there is no group for pictures that are trying to be postcards.
There is a group of nice things, things that make me feel uneasy, nature things, city things, vertical portraits, pictures which strongly remind me of feeling certain feelings and pictures that make me think of the colors white, green and pink.
I don't know.
I did this because I thought I was supposed to have a proper looking, functioning website for my web-design class today. Now I am in class and think I might have been mistaken, as in I am not being asked to be ready for anything right now.
Oh well.
Oh! My work got chosen for the Tribute part of the American Illustration Annual. I am still not sure exactly what this means but it sounds somewhat fancy. This is what got me "fame", it's the first spread of my mini-comic Bearkiller and also words from a dream I had:
I am just writing some words. I feel boring. I guess I'll show you more pictures. Holly and I had a fancy photo shoot for Feather & Folly. I think it was because an Australian woman is writing an article about Brooklyn girl-bands. I never lived in Brooklyn but I've played there a lot so I guess that counts. Here's one picture:
I'm not sure which abyss I'm talking about but I just like to make things sound dramatic. The abyss of neglect maybe.
So I have been doing a lot of things that mostly don't include the computer; I still have an empty hard drive.
I took Alex Fitzgerald to Iceland for 10 days over spring break, this picture pretty much sums up the trip:
I´ve been playing with Feather & Folly a lot and we have a considerable amount of upcoming shows. The amount became more considerable when Holly almost cut off her left thumb on Monday, so expect more singing and less guitar playing for the first couple of dates. A list of dates and locations can be seen here.
My big sis was visiting for a week which was nice and lovely. When I haven't been paying visits or receiving visits or playing music I've just been doing my schoolwork like a responsible person, getting drunk like an irresponsible person (only after I've done my schoolwork so not too irresponsible), making friends and trying to be good and happy.
And saying "you know I really should update my blog more frequently" frequently.
Reading books. Watching movies. I've been halfassedly using twitter as a place to write down the movies I watch and some other words that would be inappropriate elsewhere. I'm still not sure what I think about twitter. I think: blah.
Okay. What prompted me to write this post: I'm slowly but surely putting my homepage together. I now have an "about me" section (with an F.A.Q!) and a "links" section (and a blog, obvs.)
I wanted to ask you: Do you have a homepage that I am forgetting / you think I should link to? Or a blog that's missing from my blog-friend-links.
Also: If you have a link to me on your homepage/blog feel free to update it to go to http://juliahermanns.com/ rather than straight to this blog. Just a suggestion.
Speaking of mummies; my hard drive crashed recently -> I lost all of my music (there was quite a lot of it). I felt it was logical to look around for files in my Gmail account, since various people have sent me various songs that way over the years.
The disadvantage is: this made me re-read old e-mails which would've been better kept forgotten... in the context of what happened since such messages mostly make me think thoughts like "aww, fuck." or "fuck you you misleading coward" or "I should have gotten back to this person 3 years ago I suck."
speaking of music: there is a new song up on the Feather and Folly Myspace page. It is called Holiday and we recorded it last Sunday in a public ladies' bathroom at school in the dark. Some of the lyrics are by Richard Brautigan, I think they are my favorite lyrics.
We recorded music all day. Good people recorded it for us. I am excited to hear it when it is ready. I hope you are too.
this blog's keyword analysis says more about me than this blog does
-winter makes me feel like shit -i don't know what to say anymore -black metal -obama singing whatever you like -why is there nothing interesting happening in my life? -why did fred sandback's work make me cry -poem "lonely pilot"
Loved by the unhappy.
Feather & Folly have been doing some recording. I just pimped our myspace with some Dolomite mountains. There there are now 2 songs the myspace playlist featuring me: Cold Spring & Crazy Baby. Every time I communicate the latter name I find myself thinking about Britney Spears (a blessing and a curse), however the song is actually about On the Road by Kerouac (Holly wrote it). It is only one out of a selection we have about Kerouac. The improved myspace also includes a video recording of us performing "I got over Kerouac" (a Jonathan Byerley cover). Anyway. I'm the one with the messed up voice (Holly is the one with the pretty, angelic nice voice) and the tambourine / snare drum / whatever they allow me to beat on.
Here´s a couple of pictures from practice:
...and here is one from a practice with my other band, severed goat head of death in the skull river of frozen morbid doom blood
I am trying to not fail at life. I mostly want to go home. And look at the wall. And look at the television. And eat food all the time. And not communicate. And be completely useless.
But I don't know what will happen.
I want to write about things on this blog all the time, fun things maybe, but then I think "no you are failing at life you don't have time to blog".
So Obama heard about how diligently I've been promoting him on this blog despite not being an American citizen and gave me a platinum ticket to the inauguration.
joke.
My good friend Charlie (who did actual legit work for the Obama campaign) knows a good man who is on the JCCIC and this good man gave Charlie and I platinum platform tickets to the inauguration.
I am trying so hard to begin to describe what this meant and what went on but I need a little more time to think. I am still processing this. Charlie took pictures. I have yet to see them. I will show and tell when I do, I promise.
If you click on Charlie's name above you can see a picture on his blog that gives an idea of where we were sitting. Charlie can be seen in the picture but not me, despite the fact that I was next to him. Clearly the photographer is not comfortable with having Icelandic people in his inauguration shots and cropped accordingly.
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What I can tell you right now is that last night Holly and I played at a inauguration celebration slash fundraiser show for the underground runway (= a group of people from Parsons and Lang who have good parties and shows at their large apartment in Brooklyn).
I dressed up like an American flag.
(note the stars on the necklace)
Nobody else was dressed up. It was minimally embarrassing. I learned the American national anthem, 4 days too late. I tried so hard to look like I was singing it at the inauguration because I had been told that I was occasionally visible on television during the event and was extremely nervous that I would be on camera only for the public to see that I was the only person not singing the anthem.
Anyway. Nice girl Kaela Noel recorded some of mine and Holly's live singing and posted on her blog. Mine is the voice that goes higher in the harmonies in the first video and in the second I only sing "OBAMAAAAAAAA AAAAAAA OBAMAAAAAA..." etc. Note that the Obama song was a spur of the moment, partially improvised version of our song "Oh Mama". It was the last song of the evening and my voice was shot. But it was a very good time. Note that I really like it when Cuddles Kovinsky cover T.I.'s you can do whatever you like and everyone dances, as can be (barely) seen in Kaela's 3rd video.
I did a pretty good job of finishing up my semester and getting good grades, all things considered. I also managed to play 2 shows with feather and folly and drink a lot of fancy beer.
here's a picture from the underwater-birthdayparty-midfinals-featherandfolly show:
it was a happy place. people lost their minds and danced and asked for an encore. not quietly.
I made a picture story book that I like. It's called bearkiller. It's sort of about the film grizzly man by Werner Herzog (a favorite), but not really. It's mostly just me being a jerk.
here's the cover and the last 2 spreads (out of 5)
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I'm pretty sure I didn't name him hairy priest. I swear. brother hairy priest. magnificent.
So now I've done Jólin (holiday of lights, heathens, etc.) and new years eve (holiday of blowing shit up and me always getting drunker than I intended to). My family is nice, my down-slippers are warm.
I look forward to coming back to new york and seeing friendly faces and walking around every day and drinking fancy beer in front of a bartender dressed as a monk sometimes. Maybe I can go to DC and visit charlie. maybe I can be a normal person. 2008 was a fucked up year. 2009 needs to not be. maybe i can have a job.
anyway, I'm also content here. I am content, listless, unsure and fine.
I don't know
I think we could all learn a thing or two from Amadeus the traveling dog.
When I was a little kid I was pretty damn sure that I would spend my life with three (brother) huskies. I was gonna name one Wolfgang, one Amadeus and one Mozart.
Episode 2 of Sex, Lies & Radiowaves is finally out. This episode is bigger and better and now includes strategically placed musical interludes. It's a fun time. Incedibly dorky but very fun to make. I talk about smegma and Andrew delivers a monologue about threesomes while I judge him.
Uh. This semester is coming to an end. It is scary and I have way too much work to do. I've just come down with a massively sore throat and nasty cold. great. I'll try to make it work. I'm trying to keep myself distracted in order to not go overboard with anxiety. Wish me luck. And then I get to go home to winter-wonderland and lounge and see my family. can. not. wait.
It's Andrew's birthday today, happy birthday Andrew. He had a big party over the weekend which was an excellent fun time. A young lady peed out the window into our courtyard and Alex Fitzgerald threw up in a pastry box. This clearly means that it was an epic party.
I am meeting nice people. People are nice to me. Things are looking up maybe. I hope.
Feather & Folly are playing 2 shows in december. check it out. I hope my throat gets better so I'll actually be able to sing.
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I don't remember if I posted this before. I wish my sex-advice show was exactly like this.
Play both of the following two youtube videos at once,
BUT! this is important: mute the first one (by clicking on the volume button or turning the volume all the way down) and listen to the soundtrack of the second one while looking at the first one. I guarantee greatness.
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I've been lousy at updating recently. That is because I've been trying to be a real person with a normal life. It's going okay, I'm still failing at some fundamental things though.
I had this conversation the other day at a "party":
dude: "Hi Júlía"
me: "hi...?"
dude: "do you recognize me?"
me: "no I'm so sorry! I suck at recognizing people. who are you?"
dude: "my name is ______, we used to be friends on myspace, I came to your video store sometimes..."
me: "Oh I do remember you! I'm sorry, I don't even use myspace anymore. My account more or less stopped working. I'm actually pretty upset... having been a registered user since early 2004 I felt like they owed me something and this was just betrayal"
dude: "I think myspace just sensed that you needed to get off the computer and out of the house. you had spent too much time on it and it said "stop, no more myspace for you, get out of the house, go to a party, get a life". that's why this conversation is happening"
me: "that is completely true! now I understand everything."
Nothing exciting is happening in my life but I will distract you from that thought by writing more about Eurovision.
I was so underwhelmed by the Russian song that won Eurovision that I couldn't even be bothered to tell you about it until now. So yes; the country that formerly ruled over half of all the other countries competing got most of the points, not a huge surprise there. I think there needs to be a Eurovision and then a separate Sovietvision. Sovietvision could fill the stage with as many awkward male figure skaters and babes dressed as demon-strippers as their hearts desired. Obviously sovietvision would be more interesting to watch, but the "old Europe" could also stop being so damn sore and start doing good in their own contest again. Because in a contest centered around bad taste extravaganza, northwestern europe just doesn't stand a chance against the former soviet union.
Anyway, Björg and I had a jolly good time watching, I lost count of how many times I said "what the fuck! Azerbaijan? What is this! they just became a country! They do not even count as a country! No one ever talks about Azerbaijan! What the fuck can possibly be going on there that makes them think up musical performances such as this one?!?! AZERBAIJAN..?"
Azerbaijan got a shitload of points and left me completely speechless. Iceland did not get very many points at all. That's fine because our song was awful, but so were most of the other ones, awful songs being the whole point of this game.
Speaking of songs that didn't win Eurovision, I heard that Moldova, the poorest country in Europe, made their performers pay all of their own expenses as punishment for not getting into the finals. That is some serious harsh shit, and makes me wonder: WHY do they not just send their own amazing Dan Bălan (possibly the only Moldovan person anyone in the rest of the world has heard of) to compete? this song would have kicked eurovision's ass (only made better by the fact that he used to be part of a doom metal band):
My favorite non-winning eurovision song of all time was this Latvian song from 2000.
They did come third so they don't really count as having done badly. However I have here what is possibly the best song to ever come last in the Eurovision song contest. The performers are Telex from Belgium. This took place in 1980, and with it I conclude this entirely unnecessary but entertaining (if only for me) study and discussion of the glorious phenomenon that is the Eurovision Song Contest.
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I work a lot these days at my summer job. At work I play a daily game called "do everything possible to avoid having to sit by the phone and take phone calls from angry sailors." So I've been making skipper certificates, binding books of reports on the financial situation of harbors and putting pieces of paper in envelopes.
I also play a game called "eat something at lunch today that you normally would never eat". So far I have eaten some shrimp, some pork, and giant bright-blue guillemot eggs. or auk eggs, or svarfuglsegg, I think it's all the same in english and you're not going to know which bird i'm referring to so think about penguins. or look at this:
I also play a game called "eat as much as is humanly possible at lunch."
I swam for a while with Björg in our giant local outdoor pool in the magical time that is the late evening sunshine of magical Iceland. Swimming is better when you can wave to your friend under water as you pass each other. I swam until I thought my heart would explode and my lungs would collapse and then we sat in the seawater-pool and now I am soft and clean and lotioned and shiny and exhausted on my bed with my cat.
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That was me trying to make you think that my life is nice.
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And there was an earthquake. The building I work in cracked. I thought I would die for a few seconds. nothing bad happened to me or anyone I know. bad things happened to a lot of people is some towns south or Reykjavík. Some of them don't exactly have real homes anymore. No one died.
GIANT EPIC EUROVISION YOUTUBE POST FOR THE POOR AMERICANS WHO ARE MISSING OUT
Before I begin my epic post on the epic event that is the Eurovision Song Contest, here is a quick update:
I miraculously completed every single one of my 7 courses despite having been an epic wreck the later half of the semester. I got good grades, which is even more miraculous than having completed them all. I am clearly a magician.
I came back home to Reykjavík early Monday morning and have since then been taking it easy; reading, eating, driving around and swimming in my wonderful local pool which looks like this:
In an attempt to expand on my taking-it-easy I turned on the TV this morning, to discover that I have only one channel (the icelandic national broadcasting service). The last time I was here, we at least had two channels. Now we have one. Can you imagine that, american readers? having only one channel on your TV? No you probably can't. Not being able to channel surf when something boring comes on? unthinkable.
Luckily for me this morning a rerun of the 1st part of eurovision was on. The Eurovision Song Contest is a big televised event where each European country taking part sends in a song to be performed live on stage. Everyone votes and the song that gets the most points wins. The country that wins usually hosts the contest the following year. The contest has been held since 1956 and since then 49 countries have taken part at least once (the continent of Europe contains approximately 50 countries at the moment). I don't know of any other event that unites a whole continent in front of their television screens simultaneously to watch the same live event, so this is pretty special. In the past few years though, since those "eccentric" eastern-european countries started taking part, the contest has become too big for just one long show so now we have all these semi-finals and shit, making the whole thing far less exciting since poor Iceland never gets through to the finals due to lack of "friend-countries" (political voting is kind of big in this game). Thanks a lot eastern-europe mafia.
I grew up waiting anxiously for that Saturday night in May when my family would gather around the TV with snacks and my own homemade scoreboards to watch sparkly people sing in various kinds of gibberish on stage.
It was later that I found out that the music is mostly terrible eurotrash and almost no one who takes part is actually famous, which answered my question "why doesn't Björk just take part because she would obviously win".
I have however accepted these truths (and there are always a couple of exceptions to them anyway) and will proudly watch the semi-final tomorrow night and then the final this weekend. Except I'll be feeling proud to be european rather than Icelandic; our song sucks. It sucks so much that I'm too embarrassed to post it. Instead, here is my favorite song this year:
Sebastian Tellier for France, 2008
Following is my second favourite, although it takes a while to really start. But they have a chicken on stage. and farmers.
Bosnia & Herzegovina 2008
Some ofther notable 2008 entries are:
Spain
Belgium
Yeah I have no idea.
Iceland has been taking part whenever we could since our 1986 debut, Gleðibankinn:
My favorite of our contributiousn were the 1990 duet "eitt lag enn" which got 4th place:
And when we sent Iceland's nr. 1 gay icon, Páll Óskar, to compete in 1997, way before being gay was trendy and before everyone accepted that eurovision is actually just a big homo fest. Eurovision still being in the closet back then, we got no points and 20th place.
Now, I just want to end with some notable Eurovision contest winners from the beginning:
France Gall for Luxembourg in 1965, Serge Gainsbourg wrote her song:
ABBA with Waterloo for Sweden in 1974, the second most famous act to ever compete:
Israel in 1978, catchiest song ever, I could sing "A-ba-ni-bi" before I even knew what Israel was:
Johnny Logan for Ireland in 1980, he went on to win eurovision 3 times. And he's hot:
Celine Dion for Switzerland in 1988, the most famous person who ever competed:
Dana International for Israel in 1998, THE FIRST TRANSSEXUAL TO WIN EUROVISION:
Ruslana for Ukraine in 2004, mostly notable because me and my friends had our Eurovision party in a summer house and had to take shots every time the country we were rooting for got points. I was rooting for Serbia&Montenegro which came in 2nd place so I got very drunk. I always knew this song was better, I just didn't want to pass out before I knew who won:
And finally, Lordi for Finland in 2006, FIRST BLACKMETAL BAND TO WIN EUROVISION:
I assume that by now every single one of my American readers is dying to be European. Yeah I would be too if I were you.
Stopped by at st. mark's bookshop on my walk home the other day. Got curious about this book just because it was all about female musicians and I myself happen to identify somewhat with female musicians. Björk was in it, she got 2 pages. And then look who I randomly found in the last chapter. It's something about stylish people who go watch bands play. I was at an Ecstatic Sunshine/ Dirty Projectors show in my hood that particular night. But of course the book says something completely different and nonsensical. I got 1 whole page though. Therefore I am now 50% as famous as Björk.
Oh and I had to pay $30 for this, what a lousy deal.
maybe I would vote for him if this was his actual campaign. or if I were actually allowed to vote.
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this is all I do: sit on my couch and think about how much i have to pee, or how hungry I am, or how much work I have to do, and then I just sit on the couch for eternity thinking about it instead of doing something about it.
maybe obama can make a change in my life.
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I went to see Mýrin, or Jar City, the other day at the IFC center.
I took andrew and rachael with me. they liked it. this was very exciting for me. this was the third time I saw an icelandic film in NYC and every time it has been exciting. I don't know what is wrong with me, I shouldn't get so excited. but there is something so strange about watching a place that's so familiar but not being there at all. I guess I just like to think about these things more than other people. By these things I mean location and the difference between the two parts of the world where I spend my time. especially when I'm watching a movie like this that intentionally makes fun of one of the characters for being some sort of a "coward" or not tough because he lived in america for some time. that is funny and at the same time makes me feel uncomfortable, especially when i watch it with my friends who are american. a few things in the movie actually made them think that iceland is anti-america, but not in a super serious way. it's completely understandable because the movie did that on purpose, and we probably are in some ways. sometimes that makes a little part of me embarrassed of living here or liking it here. mostly i just want my friends who have never been to iceland to think good things about it because it's such a huge part of me and i want them to think good things about me. yes, this is something I think about a lot.
Anyway, I want to quote loosely a conversation that 2 american girls had in the bathroom after the movie:
So funny that we went to see this just because you hooked up with that icelandic dude. yeah. this was so weird. yeah. iceland is like, so depressing. because the sun NEVER shines ever, so it's just like totally depressing. and people are just angry all the time. totally.
I'm not going to comment.
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Anyway. Rita Pavone is really amazing! Here, watch her:
this one's about an american potato that sort of relates to what i just sort of talked about.
Tonight I went to a dinner party and then I fell asleep on my former roommate annie's bed maybe because I'm kind of sick and had an 8 hour schoolday of manual labor (silkscreening).
Then Andrew woke me up and took me home and then he left and now it's 4 am and i'm lonely and awake.
there is a confused ant that lives inside my computer. sometimes when i open it he comes out and walks around on the keyboard and looks confused.
I have too much shit to do in life. I hope i can do something fun tomorrow.
I made this page cream, maybe because I have liked cream paper so much lately. knowing html (something I've known for a long time) and CSS (which I learnt last semester) is nice, it makes me feel smart.
the following is possibly one of the best songs ever written for an icelandic childrens' musical.
those of you who are familiar with Lazytown: this is the original.
the chorus goes:
Good CD drive good hard drive without those things I am neither bird nor fish (=I am nothing) I act up if I need some megabytes.
Jói recently mentioned how I was blunt in the way I word things that I write down here. Maybe because I use bad words sometimes. He called me "tough". I like the idea of being "tough". I hope you like my "toughness". My silkscreening teacher told everybody that I was strong today. She said it like "ooh guess what guys, she is STRONG!" I like the idea of being secretly strong. I'm going to listen to the radio now and be strong and tough by myself in bed.
