Got a tip of really fun site http://www.expertvillage.com/. Here there are a lot of experts uploading videos of how to do stuff. So if You wonder how a Sitar is played, how to build a new kitchen or how to throw a American football - here is the place. A lot of fun is guaranteed. I couldn’t find anything about the euphonium… yet. Might upload some stuff there if i dare

Today it is really cold in Stockholm, about -10 degrees Celsius. That’s nice i think, for a shorter time. This is what winter is all about. But today we will also see (i guarantee it) the famous Swedish Coldness-trump. This is an age old game that Swedes have been playing since the thermometer was invented. It is very easy to take part, and just listen people all around you and i promise that you will hear it played; you just make a very long and dramatic story about how cold it was at your very special whereabouts. The coldest place and/or most dramatic story wins. And if you don’t have the coldest place you always tell the story about “that time when it was REALLY cold… i mean this is not cold in comparison”. I am sure you understand the rules and objectives of the game by now. :)

Lets start this week with something really impressive and yet … sad. Look at this and then just for a while try to comprehend how much time that have been put into this act. Just finding the honks (?) in the right key and “composing” the songs must have taken forever…

OK - it is now official. I am in love! For sometime now i have had some ideas that the Hibernate framework is cool, but i have not seen it in action. But now I have and it is wonderful… so nice and cool. The Hibernate framework solves the tedious work of mapping your objects in C# (or Java as it is originally) to tables in the database. This is accomplished through mapping files in XML, so it is easy to maintain over time. It’s so clean and reduce the database coding to a mere minimum. Also this will make you focus on the right stuff, such as business logic. I am still a rookie (just playing around with it for a short while yet) but this will be my melody from now. Here is some code lines that convinced me: // Open a new session to retrieve the just...

Got to listen in to a band that i loved as a teenager yesterday. Poison, which believe it or not was a hard rock band in the 80’s Here we have it all; long poodle hair, harmonically singing (several parts), the obligatorily guitar solo in each song and some really cheesy lyrics. Listen to them and let it take you back. Way back. src=”http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_kkDJOSPNTLs/RdAMWRNKkCI/AAAAAAAAAFI/fMTodQlknD8/s320/poison.jpg” id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5030534360488120354” style=”CURSOR: hand” data-border=”0” />](http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_kkDJOSPNTLs/RdAMWRNKkCI/AAAAAAAAAFI/fMTodQlknD8/s1600-h/poison.jpg)

Can’t start this week in any other way than to praise Anja Pärsson… The Swedish flying skiier, looking like a lightning in the slopes. With thighs that is bigger than both my put together. She is so good - and this after a really bad season where she haven’t won anything at all and we (swedes) all counted her out about the 1 nov. But she proved us wrong and now she’s defilating through the world cup. In Åre, Sweden. I am most impressed and hope that we all get inspired by her personality, fighting spirit and joy in the slopes.

This week a lot of brass banding has been (or is being) sent out over radio. The complete program is found here http://www.4barsrest.com/news/detail.asp?id=4972 This is the creme de la creme of bands in the world so don’t miss it.

A week, or so, ago the Eikanger-Bjørsvik Musikklag (http://www.ebml.no) went to Britain to take part of the RNCM Festival of Brass together with the top bands of Britain. This is the top band in the world as far as i am concerned and they got some marvelous reviews, see http://www.4barsrest.com/reviews/concerts/con381.asp. Also I have heard that Elgar Howarth went on stage and told the band “Now I can die, this was the best concert i ever attended!”… So if you want to hear it find it here on Wednesday and (hopefully) for a while afterwards also http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/proginfo/radio/wk6/wed.shtml

I went to a short concert last afternoon with the Hendon band. This is one of the biggest bands in the Salvation and maybe elsewhere. So i had prepared for a real “earcleaner” but to my big surprise they managed to play very controlled and balanced. Strong, yes for sure, but also very soft where needed. Great to hear. Cornet-soloists was amazing and the tuba section was so nice to hear. A soft, dark sound with much richness and really led the band. So - if you ever have the possibility to hear this band, don’t get scared by the size. There are some very good quality sounds to be heard from the band.

When this comes to the local amusement park I’ll be far, far away… but not via a slingshot. :)