The Airportline: Observations

Inflation, it feels like its everywhere. Inflation in blogs about nothing, inflation in guessing where the economy might be going, inflation in concerts, albums, books I should/want to read, inflation in people complaining about stupid things, like inflation. It’s like a disease, that’s why I’m flying to Helsinki today, cause in Finland they don’t have inflation, only a language which no one can read or write. I’m also going to my grand mother’s funeral, she was very old and wanted to die, so she did, and now we all meet again, and maybe I will tell everyone about all the phone calls I got from her when I could still speak and understand Finish. How she would read from the bible while I almost fell asleep on the other end of the line, how she always ended her monologue with jeesus rakasta sinua (jesus loves you). And I always wanted to go out and play, and not listen to my crazy Finish grandmother, cause when you are young it’s hard to find time for bible reciting in Finnish.

It was early morning for someone who went to bed at 05.30. The phone in my room which is connected to the door downstairs rang. When I answered no one was there. The content in my head was spinning as it tried to understand why the rest of my body was not in bed anymore. I opened the window and my bare chest hit the cold morning air. Down by the front door a man with a packet was standing.

‘Do I have to come down?’ I asked with the same mouth in which I pored down beer after beer only a few hours earlier. He nodded. I put on yesterday’s clothes and the smell of cigarettes and beer that came with them.

After stumbling down the stairs the man gave me the packet with a book I forgot I ordered: The Paris Review Book of Heartbreak, Madness, Sex, Love, Betrayal, Outsiders, Intoxication, War, Whimsy, Horrors, God, Death, Dinner, Baseball, Travels, The Art Of Writing, And Everything Else in The World Since 1953. As you see, it is a compelling title to come across while browsing Ebay.

So I started reading the Lorrie Moore’s short story Terrific Mother in between sips of water in an attempt to peace together a sleep deprived mind. A few pages in the main character is out jogging with another woman, the following discussion occurs:

Adrienne tugged on her socks. “I don’t believe in casual sex.” She paused. “I believe in causal marriage.”
“Don’t look at me,” said Kate. “I married my husband because I was deeply in love with him.”
“Yeah, well,” said Adrienne. “I married my husband because I thought it would be a great way to meet guys.”

It was a strange morning, with some good reading.

So it sent an email, to Matt on Memphis Industries last week. I wanted to reach the creative heart of Sunderland popoutfit The Week That Was, an evolutionary project from the ambitious pop group Field Music. This is what I wrote:

Hello The Week That Was. I just wanted to tell you guys that I have started a blog with the name: airportline.blogspot.com. The name is taken from your wonderful song, The Airport Line. It will not be a blog about you though, even if I might write about your music. If you think this is cool it would be nice to hear something from you like ‘we are honoured to name this blog’, or anything random really that I can post on my blog. It would also be nice to hear what the song is about and what make you write it? The drums and strings are truly amazing. And if you’re not happy that I named this blog after your song, then a comment might feel a bit unnecessary. Much love and keep on doing inventive popmusic, Field Music and The Week That Was is the music I didn’t know I was waiting for.

Patrik Edvardsson

CEO – airportline.blogspot.com

A few days later an email appeared in my inbox:

hi patrik spoke to peter (hes not online very often) about this and yeah thats absolutely fine...... The song is about the optimism of a train ride - in particular the train ride from sunerland to newcastle airport thanks matt

So now we know. A - the band is fine with my blogs name. B - the song is about a train ride.

Tomorrow I'll tell you about a book I got this morning with a really long title.

So I went through some old emails today, and in a long forgotten corner of my mailbox I read 'love must be different with different people' and I've never thought about it that way. But that's exactly how it is. I'll let The Week That Was explain their song tomorrow instead, want to let this simmer a bit, like a soup of wisdom from my mailbox.

Once after meeting one of my favorite bands at the time – Stars – in a nightclub in Berlin, I promised the singer Torquil Campell that I could help him get some weed when they played in Zürich, where I have a friend. He was talking a lot about weed, Torquil. I contacted my friend and checked if he could get him some. Unfortunately he was going to a wedding the same weekend they were playing there. And that is my only story involving trying to help a Canadian band touring Europe got get some weed. It’s not my greatest failure in life. But it’s still a failure I occasionally reflect on.


Later today The Week That Was explain what their song "The Airport Line" is all about.

Me and my room mate watch a lot of CNN, our favourite show is The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer. To be able to have Wolf (or ‘Wolfie’ as we call him) Blitzer steering you through the most interesting and most uninteresting issues of the American day in the situation room is like crack for us. If crack would be a good thing. Wolf has an impressive resume to say the least, here is part of his life according to Wikipedia:

At an April 1977 White House press conference, Blitzer asked Egyptian leader Anwar Sadat why Egyptian scholars, athletes and journalists were not permitted to visit Israel. Sadat, somewhat taken aback, responded that such visits would be possible after an end to the state of belligerence between the two nations. This was the first time Sadat said that peace between Israel and Egypt was possible. In November of that year, Sadat made a historic visit to Israel, and Blitzer covered the negotiations between the two countries from the first joint Israeli-Egyptian press conference in 1977 to the final negotiations that would lead to the signing of the Israel-Egypt Peace Treaty two years later.

This is one reason for loving Wolf. The other one is his impeccable ability to make everything seem urgent and dramatic. People are ‘standing by’ all over the place in the Situation Room, and, in case we would ever forget he makes sure to say ‘the best political team on television’ at least once every five minutes. He is everything our lest favorite CNN-journalist, the painfully unfunny and tactless, Jonathan Mann is not.

Tomorrow the band that inspired me to name my blog The Airportline explain what their song "The Airport Line" really is about. Only on airportline.blogspot.com

I have poster over my bed containing a rooster on fire, dressed in a Priest outfit. Sometimes I dream that he will have made me an egg when I wake up. But all I see when I wake up are dark gray clouds in the distance moving closing by every hour. Ok, that last part was from the Death Cab For Cutie song Tiny Vessles, a truly beautiful piece of music for those of you that are not familiar with this page 1 paragraph 1 indie band from Seattle. So far the rooster stays motionless on my wall, as he stares at me with his ignorant eyes, as if he is unaware of himself being on fire, and the inappropriate clothes he is wearing for this occasion.

The 23rd of March 2005 I made a mix-cd to my sister with the somewhat mushy and melodramatic title From One Heart To Another. It consisted of 15 songs with motivations. The forthcoming 15 Saturdays I will present one of these songs per week, with the motivations translated into English. The songs will be accompanied by a yotubelink where possible so that you always have a song I thought was great in March of 2005 to listen to as you begin the weekend. Several of these songs are still personal favorites. Today I present song number 1:

Josh Rouse – Sad Eyes (the video is an interview with Josh Rouse where he plays the song acoustically in between some talk, all is in English except for first minute.)

From his album Nashville. A spracely orchestrated song which leads into an amazing soul chorus, one of the best songs Josh has made and the clear high point on this album. The end, where the song changes into a white mans soul anthem would even make Solomon Burke impressed.

Sometimes I meet a homeless person selling a newspaper when I enter my local supermarket. I lower my focus and look stressed when I hurry past him through the door, often avoiding looking him straight in the eyes. Sometimes I plan on buying a copy, but what would I say? I can’t speak Dutch and I won’t be able to read his magazine. I can’t even share a few words of comfort. So I pass him by again, with a stressed look unapologetically blaming the world for the inequalities in society. One day I will buy a paper, and look him in the eyes and we will not have to speak because I have seen him, and that is really all that matters in life. But until then, I pass him by, detached from his world, aware of my own shame.

Im studying persuasive messages. I have theories in one hand and I’m trying to force them down on paper. It is a difficult mission, not for every man, or woman. You need strength, water, coffee, and what some people call 'a sweet spot for insanity'. It’s also positive if you do not misspel your teachers name so that it becomes the same as a famous type of cheese. Anyway, the picture you see here is what I’m focusing on right now. It is a fear appeal message used in a campaign against speeding in New Zeeland. They’re pretty hard core down there, down under.

For a brief period during Obama's inauguration speech I had a feeling someone might shoot him in the head. I started worrying about the lack of glass covering his face. I started thinking what an anti-climax it would have been if Biden would be the new president of the United States. But nothing happened and as we speak commentators all over the world are trying to analyse what he said. While I was bracing myself for a presidential murder.

It’s happening, it’s really happening, right now (there was a need to quote my all time favourite movie ‘Me And You And Everyone We Know’ as a starter). It is time, although this is not a good week to start a new blog. But time doesn’t wait, so you obey, or fail. You could say it’s here by popular demand, but that would be a stretch. You could say the world needs another blog, and that could be plain wrong. And you could say that I need an English outlet, for observations, musicians, book quotes and maybe some pictures, and videos, and text about songs, and you might be right. There will be texts about songs. So if you’re in need of songs, and observations, from a Swedish perspective. Then, I would say you have come to the right place. Bookmark bitch!