The Airportline: Observations

Everyone changed their clocks except for me, or that is how it felt when I biked along the canal to the office thinking that it was unusually quiet. Normally the roads are filled with biking people trying to avoid hitting trucks, tourists, trams, tourists, walking people, cars, tourists, and all the other things that constantly is thrown at you while you try and reach the office in a reasonable time. Not today, today life seemed quiet and I thought that it was a very pleasant way to start the week. Then an appointment called and asked where I was and I immediately realized that I was in a different time zone. Jet-lag without flying. When I flew the 45 minutes flight between Las Vegas and Phoenix (an airport with no clocks!) and missed my connecting flight to Charlotte I had a similar feeling. That time I got drunk on white White that I bought in a gas station, this time I biked a bit faster and played catch up with time during the whole day.

’I’m an ant fucker,’ he said and laughed while I struggled to keep a straight face.
‘Yeah, that is what we call it in Dutch when we are really anal about things. ‘Ant fucker.’
‘Ant fucker?’ You guys are weird, I told my friends colleague when we stood in their studio in Eindhoven, trying to figure out what to do with my lap top before going to a party. The studio was situated in a former Nazi building in the city built by Philips, only a free kick away from the PSV Eindhoven stadium.

It is this night I blame for my current state, for the knives in my throat, for the unappealing fleece I am dressed up in as I try and be productive from home instead of from the office while a cold is trying to grab hold of me.

Before the ant fucker discussion we had been at a lecture where three title sequence directors gave talks and showed of their skills in front of an international crowd of design people, and me. One of the directors was French and had a highly impressive mustache. He also quoted Jean-Luc Goddard: “It’s not where you take things from – it’s where you take them to”. He was naturally my favourite. He was also a real quote machine and told us that he had ‘holes in his head’ when he didn’t find the right words. Even the designers found this to be amusing.

After some beers at this exhibition (now unfortunately closed) we went to a far away squat/art installation party where we got accordingly drunk and I engaged in a heated discussion about free press with a man with a giant Afro from Eritrea. He said that Dawit Isaak (Swedish journalist in jail in the country) should have known that you cannot criticize the government. And even though we did not come to an agreement, he had a very interesting perspective of the whole situation (which has been hotly debated for years in the Swedish media) and a revolutionary heart which he had taken to Geneva a few weeks before to protest the UN sanctions against the country. After a while he left me as he said that he needed 'to devote some time to the ladies’. We proceeded to get the Goddard quoting French man drunk and confused, we talked about French music and he brushed away my love for Phoenix, Tahiti 80 and Sebastien Tellier claiming that Serge Gainsbourg was the one and only true genius, which I personally felt was a bit cliché for a mustache wearing French man. This was not information I passed on to him.

When the party music was toned down, and my accomplices felt that it was time to leave, we jogged home (I still have no idea why, or how, we did that) through Eindhoven in the middle of the night. The city was quiet and strange buildings were lit up and industrial sites were abandoned. I was also chasing rabbits. Unfortunately they were faster than me.

Phoenix - 1901 - A Take Away Show from La Blogotheque on Vimeo.

In a recent interview one of the guitarists in Phoenix explained the band's home town, Versailles, as 'very beautiful and very boring'. Boredom of course occasionally bring great creativity and Phoenix is certainly a great example of this. With their love for R&B, soul and funk and their way of fusing these influences with guitar indie, and on their latest album, a flirt with a more electronic side, the band has risen to well deserved fame. Airportline has been a great fan of this band ever since they had a song in the movie Lost In Translation and I saw them pull of a fantastic show in the hipster heaven of Amsterdam's Trouw this past spring.

However, when I was in Paris last year no one seemed to know about them, hopefully that has changed now. It is still interesting to follow the band around Paris where they performed a few songs (with the acoustic version of One Time Too Many on a tourist bus being my favorite) from the best musicvideoblog around: La Blogotheque. Vincent Moon has once again produced some classic music moments (note the married couple in the 1901 video!) to add to his long list of great videos. Airportline's favourite before was the apartment show with Yeasayer and the street performance with Beirut. Both magnificent.

Phoenix - Lizstomania / One time too many - A Take Away Show from La Blogotheque on Vimeo.

Phoenix - Long distance call - A Take Away Show from La Blogotheque on Vimeo.

I'm not sure why. But lately I've become very nationalistic for a person not living in his home country. When I go to book stores I point out what books are by Swedish authors, I count H&M stores in cities I visit, and today I watched Robin Söderling play tennis in the French Open. It was a nerve wrecking experience, to say the least. Fernando Gonzalez fought with the referees while the sometimes erratic Swede kept his cool as if he was standing in the middle of a Swedish winter storm. It was a real tight match, mostly because Söderling only managed to break 5 of the 18 (!) times he had a break point, those who know tennis knows that it is difficult to win a match, especially against such a good serving player as Gonzalez, with those numbers. In the forth set it looked like it was all over for the fighting Sweden, but suddenly he came back from nowhere, breaking Gonzalez like he had just been waiting for it for the last two games but not really wanted to. After that it was all over and Söderling ran out as a comfortable winner, ending the game on his knees on the same clay court which Swedish tennis legend Björn Borg celebrated some amazing wins. Now Söderling, who previously bet the unbeatable Nadal, is looking at his first ever Grand Slam Final. On Sunday I'll be watching in Amsterdam while my room mate follow it more closely in Paris. And tomorrow there is more nationalistic opportunities as Sweden plays Denmark in the Word Cup Qualifier in football.

In pop culture news, I saw French popexport Phoenix yesterday. They were truly amazing. More about that later, maybe even some pictures.

There is some banana remains in my speakers. It has unknown impact on the audio experience which at this moment consists of Kings Of Leon's fantastic debut EP from 2003, The Strokes meets southern rock sounding Holy Roller Novocaine.

Swedish television program Babel (one of three programs I watch every week on SVT Play, the other two are Hype and Kobra) went to Princeton to sit down with one of the big American writers, Joyce Carol Oates. It a beautiful interview where she talks about herself and her writing. For her writing is thinking:

Writing is some form of expression of thinking. If you don't think, you won't write. So people who watch a lot of television, or have noise in their ears, from music, or see a lot of people, they can't write or create any art because they don't have any time to think about it. But they may not miss it cause they are so busy. And young people that have music in their ears all the time, well, they're probably not gonna be writers, they have no time to think.

And even though I don't completely agree, since I think a lot when I listen to music, and music was the reason I started writing, the concept of not having time to think, and that people who always surround themselves with people or other forms of stimuli do not have time to think, says something that I think is very true.

Update: The Phoenix concert I told you about this past Saturday is now sold out by the way. Don't say I didn't warn you!

Ok people. There is no time to spare. Phoenix are playing in the New York Times hyped new Amsterdam location Trouw on the 4th of June. Tickets can be bought here, I just picked up two and they are gonna go fast as Phoenix is lining up an album that many people think will mean they finally get some serious recognition. I've already written about their fabulous first single 1901, one of the best pop songs so far this year. So, if you're in town, I suggest you do some ordering and I'll see you on the dancefloor. Magic will be immintent.

Peter Bjorn And John are in Amsterdam. Playing for a now sold out Melkweg. The Airportline serves up some pre-drinks and cow petting before the gig in his luxurious apartment. Some music will be played and some drinks will be drunk. Or we will be drunk and the drinks empty. Here are some songs that will be combined with this occasion:

Phoenix - 1901
Peter Bjorn And John - Nothing To Worry About, Lay It Down, Teen Love, Objects Of My Affection, Young Folks, Amsterdam, The Chills
Sebastien Telliér - Kilometer
Yeasayer - Tightrope
Jenny Wilson - Clattering Hoves
Lykke Li - Complain Department
Lil Wayne - Let The Beat Build

No, you can not suggest music I should play.
Basta.
That's Italian.
And it does not mean pasta.

I'm really into France right now
These are the reasons:

I'm reading Bodil Malmsten's – Priset på vatten i Finistère (in Swedish), about her first year in France after leaving Sweden. A bit too much about gardening, but full of wisdom.

I'm also reading her blog where she writes about life in France, and Finistère.

I'm in love with Phoenix new song 1901 I wrote about here. It was the most blogged about song in the world the past week. If you haven't gone to their website and downloaded it, you really should. They know how to craft a hit, Paris based Phoenix.

I'm going to French speaking Brussels tomorrow for three days of cultural, beer and European Commission action. I will try and write something about my experiences in 'Urine City' on the blog.

I've rediscovered Une année sans lumière, the part French song from Arcade Fire's monumental debut album Funeral.

And I'm watching this video of Eddy Izzard explaining how difficult it is to say the monkey is on the branch in French, in France.

It's all about France and nose spray here in my room.