Beethoven: Symphony No. 7 in A Major, II Allegreto

If you have not heard this beautiful piece of music created by Beethoven, I suggest you check it out. It is incredibly moving. I first heard this particular symphony in the film The Fall. It is repeated throughout and definitely has a way of seeping its way into your brain.

Anyways, here I sit at my place in Moss, listening to Beethoven, trying to find a new book to teach from for the Fall semester. I'll be teaching Comp. 120 again which is "Writing The Research Paper." I've narrowed it down to a few choices. "This Is Your Brain On Music" by Daniel Levitin, "Pop Culture: The Culture of Everyday Life" by Shirley Fedorak, "Superfreakonomics" by Steven Levitt & Stephen Dubner, or "Eating The Dinosaur" by Chuck Klosterman. I want a book that focuses on more current events so my students can relate and I also want something that will generate some good in class discussions. As interesting as "This Is Your Brain On Music" is, I feel that the content may be too limiting and specific for thorough discussions. The Pop Culture book could be interesting, but I fear that the writing style may be somewhat bland. "Superfreakonomics" is a sequel to "Freakonomics" written by the same authors. The first book had been taught before, but they pulled it out of rotation at school because it's been used so often, but this new one just came out, so that might work out well. I really like Klosterman's work and I recently taught "Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs" this past semester. The book went over well and prompted a lot of great in class discussions on our society and the mass media's effect on our lives, thoughts, and perceptions, and the students generally had a lot to say not only in class, but also in their papers, which was great. The only negative about Klosterman's work is that, when being used as a teaching tool, his work is pretty informal and unorthodox, which can confuse some students who are developing their writing abilities. Alongside "Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs" I also taught from a book called "Cod," which was about the Scandinavian Cod Wars, and that was more of a research book with good examples of how to cite sources and what not. Looking back at what I have written, it looks I've narrowed it down a bit. "Superfreakonomics" and "Pop Culture" seem to be the safe bet...but sometimes playing it safe stifles creativity..hmmmm :P We'll see how things play out. I just need to figure it out By this week so I can turn in my book order.

Only three more weeks until my return. I miss you all and can't wait to see you!

A New Mantra

Today was a beautiful day, not just physically, but also emotionally, spiritually, etc... It was kind of an overcast day and it rained here and there, but there was definitely a certain beauty to it, and it made me feel good. Lately I've been listening to a lot of instrumental music, specifically the music from a band called Explosions In The Sky. They have an album called The World Is Not a Cold Dead Place and I've been listening to it on Spotify. The more I listen to it the more at ease I feel. It's very powerful and moving music. After listening to it on an online radio, I felt the need to search for it, and sure enough, I found a vinyl version of it at Tiger Records in Oslo, so I decided to take a spontaneous trip. I had gotten all of my work done and figured "you only live once, right?" After I bought the record, I opened it up and began looking at all the great stuff inside. It's a double LP set, meaning the music is spread over two records, but there are only three sides of music, so the blank side of the second record has doves etched into it and this phrase, "The world is not a cold dead place because you are breathing, because you are listening." and I just found that to be incredibly moving and quite fitting. There are times when we feel like our lives are the pits, things are too difficult to over come, or we just have this constant idea that life won't get better, but it can and it will. There is beauty everywhere, we just need to open our eyes to see it, perk up our ears to hear it, or hold out our hands to feel it. Beauty and love is all around us.

P.S. Mom, I know what you're thinking..."More records!?" hahaha but look at the wonderful insight I got from it ;) haha love ya.

-Xavier

National Record Store Day!

As you can tell, I am pretty excited about today :) I was planning on taking the train to Oslo to go check out the record stores on this day of vinyl celebration, but I decided to stay in Moss and check out the local record store again, which ended up being quite a fantastic experience. The owner was working there today and we ended up having a pretty great conversation about music, different styles, and how it's a universal language. He makes his own music, mostly hip hop and house stuff and he played me some of his stuff that he's made over the years. It was really great stuff, especially the hip hop stuff. The rhymes were in Norwegian and they were super sick and flowed insanely well! I told him about my music and what I've been up to lately and he seemed pretty interested and said that if I ever have anything I want to sell in the store I was more than welcome to send the stuff his way because, as he stated, "My mission is to expose the world to new music." which I thought was pretty cool :) I ended up buying some more records and he knocked off 50 kroner! (which is like $8!) I got the soundtrack for A Clockwork Orange, The Warriors soundtrack, No Jacket Required by Phil Collins, and Them by King Diamond. My national Record Store Day was pretty epic, how was yours?

The Record Books

Friday brings joy, and tomorrow is National Record Day...so it looks like this will be a weekend for the record books :)

I ♥ Bonfires.

Today was another great day in Moss. After class today I went down to the beach with my friend Tor. We just hung out and watched the seagulls and swans chill near the water. We thought they looked hungary so we went to the grocery store across the street, got some bread, and fed some of the birds haha which was something I haven't done since I was a little kid. Later on in the afternoon, after some relaxing at the house, I went up to the dorms to get ready for a bon fire :) Me and several of the other students walked out into the woods behind the dorms to a fire pit and had ourselves a nice bonfire. We made hotdogs and smores and just had a great time. The weather was beautiful and I absolutely love bonfires, so it was an epic night :)

I discovered that Saturday is National Record Store day, so as much as I would love to save some money, I'm feeling a calling to go to Oslo and just spending the day in several of the record stores and maybe making a single purchase. I say single purchase because I'm trying to save up for an Engelhardt Swingmaster upright bass :)

So yeah, it was a great day and it looks like it should be a great weekend :)

A Beautiful Day

Today was a gorgeous day in Moss. The sun was shining and it was about 54 degrees :) After some breakfast and guitar playing, I decided to take advantage of the beautiful day. I went for a walk down near the harbor and decided to explore a little more of Moss. I went around the harbor and crossed the bridge to the other side of Moss and stumbled upon the beach that I had been told about before. There were quite a few people out today, considering the weather, and everyone really seemed to be enjoying themselves. I had brought my camera and took a ton of photos haha Just more to add to my collection. Speaking of photography, I've been thinking about trying to set up a show for when I get back; maybe asking a coffee shop in Sioux Falls or Grand Forks. We'll see what happens :)

Other than that, it was a pretty chill day. I tried something different for supper tonight and made a stir fry. I had never tried it before, but it turned out pretty good and I really enjoyed it. I also have a bunch left over which is nice...saving some money!

Yesterday I was looking back at my previous blog entries, especially the ones that i first wrote, and it's crazy to see how much has changed, not just with my attitude but also my life. I knew that this experience would change things, but I had no idea how big or positive those changes would be. Although I had some rough patches, there was always something good to help me get though. This experience has been absolutely amazing. I've learned a lot of things about myself and life and Im eager to bring the things I've learned back to the states with me. I have 5 weeks left. Only 36 more days. I can barely believe it. Time certainly has flown by and I seemed to have missed it haha. I can't wait to see everyone. I miss you all!

Råkk og Råll Brukthandel og Museet for Samtidkunst

Today was a pretty great day. I went with another instructor here at the ACN to Oslo for the afternoon. First we went to Råkk og Råll Brukthandel which is a huge record store in Oslo. It's three floors of records, CD's, cassettes, and other trinkets haha It was quite an amazing place. I ended up making a few purchases. I bought a record by a group called The Ozark Mountain Dare Devils. I've never heard of them, but they're a string band and they looked pretty cool :P I also bought The Graduate Soundtrack, The Byrds Greatest Hits, and a record called Rap Attack 1 hahaha It has songs by Grand Master Flash and Sugarhill Gang on it :)

After the record store we went to the Museet for Samtidkunst which is the Museum for Contemporary Art. They had some pretty cool exhibits there and I really enjoyed it. They had some great media art of huge psychedelic projections and some awesome wood prints :)

After all the record shopping and the art admiring, we ate at one of my favorite restaurants in Oslo, The Rice Bowl. It's this amazing little Thai restaurant that makes some of the best food ever!

Now I'm back in Moss, enjoying the amazingly beautiful weather. I have the windows open and a cool breeze is blowing in. Things are good :)

A deep rooted happiness

Last night I had one of the best conversations I may have ever had. It left me feeling complete, happy, and just absolutely satisfied with my life and things happening in it right now. It also opened my eyes to some amazing opportunities in my near future. Life works in mysterious ways, and it never ceases to amaze me.

My time in Norway is coming to and end soon. I have about 5 weeks left. I'm incredibly excited to get back home and begin even more new journeys. The band has a bunch of shows booked for the summer and I absolutely cannot wait to get back with them and make some music. I'm also hoping to play some shows on my own so I can get some of these new songs out.

So yeah, things are absolutely incredible and I feel like things are where they should be :)

Easter in Copenhagen...

doesn't compare to Easter at home. Miss you guys.

Copenhagen: Part Deux

I'm currently sitting in my hotel room at the Radisson in Copenhagen, Denmark. It's an absolutely beautiful day here today. The sun is shining, the breeze is blowing, and the many people of the city are out and about. The day has been pretty great thus far. Me and my friends, Tor and Truls, went out to get some burgers because we were starving, so we found a nice chill place and got our eat on haha Then we walked down to Urban Outfitters and did some shopping. I got the Where's Wally: Ultimate Travel Collection woot woot! haha Tonight will be a low key night I believe. There's a casino in our hotel, so I might be playing my first slot machine tonight lol

Mom, I didn't get any danish chocolate, but I've discovered a new chocolate bar from Freia that has milk chocolate with salted/roasted almonds in it and It knocks the Firkløver out of the water, so I'm picking up one of those for you lol

Radical

Today day has been a nice day thus far. Woke up at 7, ate some breakfast, and then went for an early morning walk. It's been raining all week here in Moss, and although one may think that this kind of weather is a bummer, I must admit that it has made for some great photo opportunities. It also gives me the chance to mellow out and listen to some acoustic sulking music :) I'm not sad or anything, just nostalgic; thinking about home :) Other than that, I'm getting ready to head to Denmark tomorrow for another weekend in Copenhagen, which should be great. I'll have to pick up some more Danish chocolate for you mom ;) haha