Maybe I'm going to have to read this book, since my son went through a serious Scandinavian death metal phase a while back. All I know is that there was some serious sonic caterwauling coming out of his room all the time. And you should see the T-shirts...oy.

(He seems to be perfectly normal right now, though.)

But it reminds me of a quote from Homer Simpson: "Ooh, pro wrestling from Mexico. You know, down there it's a real sport!"

because something is likely or understandable does not make it justified. That said, hell yes, boredom and blandness do make violence extremely likely. I know a large number of you here are familiar with Utah, so this should be obvious.

This is not an exaggeration. I've been working on a project involving verifying citations, so I'm in the mood to verify this one. Monty Python: The Case Against by Robert Hewison (London: Eyre Methuen, 1981), p. 93, contains a photo of a theatre marquee, with a Life of Brian poster above the words (in those big slide-in letters theatres use):

FILMEN SOM ÄR SÅ ROLIG ATT DEN TOTALFÖBJUDITS I NORGE

which means just what you think it does, except that there's a typo in one word which should be totalförbjudits or something like that.

The text of the book adds,

Six months later ... a quiet compromise had been reached: the film and English soundtrack remained untouched, only some of the dialogue remained untranslated in the sub-titles. Many Norwegians speak English.

How many people who object to violent video games would object to Piñatas? Not too many, I'd wager. Why is that?

The truly insane thing about the Starbucks ad is the background music, which makes up for the somewhat low-key start. As they're yawning like crazy, the sounds of 'Hava Negila' as played by a pretty good klezmer band are heard; post-Starbucks, it's the guitar and keyboards sweet intro to an alternative rock song that I cannot place now (Coldplay?).

And, um, yes, I just had this for dinner and it was a huge pick-me-up after coming in from the frozen, slushy night.

We fast-forward through the commercials. Even if we're watching the show in real-time, we actually start watching a few minutes in, about 15 minutes into an hour show, just so we can fast-forward through the commercials.

But sometimes we stop for the commercials. We like good commercials.

One day, a smart ad guy will watch people watching TiVo and figure out what makes the people stop and watch the commercials.

-l.

Then again, I once told a Norwegian friend that the bit in one of her short stories about teenagers holding up small-town norwegian banks and post-offices, with guns, to alleviate the gloomy rural boredom, wasn't very realistic or likely. "Possibly not," she agreed, "But we did it anyway."

Bastards.

I don't know why I never read the novels before - I've certainly heard enough good things about them from people whose opinions I respect. I just never got around to it, I guess.

Anyway, I really just wanted to say that, and also to say that, if the first Sandman novel is any guide, I think you may have a real future in the writing business, and might even develop some sort of fan following.

I mean, it's not like I think most Black Metal is good music (I prefer vocalists who actually *sing*), but the majority of its practitioners are more laughable than dangerous, especially since the Norwegian scene imploded several years back.

If I remember correctly, the Rolling Stone article was in the wake of a series of churchburnings committed by one of the guys in Burzum.

There's only one guy in Burzum. He goes by the name of "Count Grishnackh", which is the name of one of the Uruk-Hai with "Count" stuck at the front of it. Except that his real name is "Varg Vikernes". Except that "Varg" is a pseudonym meaning "Wolf", and his real name is "Kristian Vikernes".

Silly enough yet? If not, check out Mortiis.
http://www.inmusicwetrust.com/articles/25p09.html
http://www.earpollution.com/nov99/live/live.html#mortiis
http://www.playlouder.com/review/+406earache/

Now, that said, there are a few extreme metal bands of truly astonishing creativity and melodic talent. I'm particularly a fan of Sigh, Solefald, and Limbonic Art.

I had the privilege, in 1985, of telling Walter A. Willis about how these people were actually having ghoodminton tournaments. His expression was a thing to behold.

Those of you for whom the previous two paragraphs were word salad can come out of hiding now. We'll be good.

Farther down the road, a sign welcoming people to a town named "Westland" had been altered to read "Wasteland."

Neither of those graffiti are there anymore. I can't blame whoever removed them, but I miss them nonetheless when go by those places, which I do occasionally because that's the route I take to get to my sister's house. Appropriately for this thread, this is the sister who used to be a big fan of Alice Cooper and who, in some kind of karmic return, now has a son who is into Marilyn Manson and such.

As for the future in writing... I dunno. It's a dodgy business. Look at what happened to Kingston Dunstan, over at http://www.johnnyalucard.com/quetz.html (Kim Newman demonstrates what it is to be loved by fans)

That's down around Phoenix. Closer to my home in central AZ, there's a little town called Chino Valley, pop. around 2000, set on a rather bleak high plain with almost no trees (though some of the views of weird hills and mountains are good). Maybe teenage ennui is rampant, but there's a cool game store, the aptly named Ugly Green Cafe, and a power thrash heavy metal band, Konvulsion, whose lyrics our less-than-eloquent local paper describes as "a collection that resembles literature, [with] lyrics about nature, the seasons and fantasy." At any rate, these big-haired 20-somethings seem remarkably cheerful and optimistic about their sound, "like Metallica, but heavier." And they're sensible enough to wear ear plugs when they practice.

Just a few snippets of life here in that state with the canyon (and more monuments than *your* state, according to PBS).

This story reminds me of the problem of "suicide contagion" when media coverage is not carefully controlled.

A Norwegian joke:
Q: Does it rain all the time in Bergen?
A: I don't know. I've only lived here fifteen years.

See?

Black metal is actually still pretty big here. Dimmu Borgir, a sorta-black-metal band, will be on national tv tonight on this clean-cut, friendly, chatty sort of talkshow.

Oh, mr. Gaiman: I did in fact meet you while you were in Bergen the last time. You might remember me: I was the one in black at the signing.

If Neil's signings in other parts of the world are anything like the ones in the US, I think you just rested your case.

I may live in Norway, but lutefisk to me is an abomination in the eye of God. The fact that lutefisk is still eaten is a certain sign of the impending decline and fall of western civilization.

What's a Rasff award again?

Lutefisk is an abomination.

As for ghoodminton tournaments, alas, I don't think we ever got around to those.

Harriet

Surely not to factcheck.com!

Now I am envisioning a little bumper-sticker fish, inscribed with the the letters "lute", feet, and two little horns.