Every mythology, every god has a reason why it was invented. When seeing the Cardigans, one understands the legends about the Norse Goddesses. Nina Persson emanates seriousness and power from her first step on the stage and whatever she does from that moment on is right and puts the spectators in the state of pure admiration. Nina can laugh, make jokes, she can jump around and cry into the microphone, at no moment does she lose any part of her radiation. You see her and you know she's great and you do not doubt that until she is gone.

Up till the concert I only knew their album "Gran Tourismo", which I liked from the first moment. Somehow I did not believe that they would be capable of doing such a atmospheric album again, so I resisted from getting the later ones. That was clearly a mistake and they proved me wrong during the concert. They mix Rock and Pop into a sound that rushes up your blood.

And then of course the lyrics. I don't know what they give the Swedish girls to eat, but they are able to write down even darkest incidents in their lifes in clear words without exaggerating or being pretentious at any moment.

But music and words and show mean nothing when little Nina raises her hand straight up and everybody just gazes and is willing to accept any of her words as the pure and only truth. Here comes the light, the sound, the woman and the power. It may have been Peter Gabriel, whom I saw in 1992 or so, who made a similar impression to me. It's rare. But it does exist.

To see all the pictures of this concert, click here. To start the pictures as a slideshow, click here.

They sang before the Cardigans went on stage. Montys Loco is a Swedish duo of Anja Bigrell and Marie Eklund. Whilst Anja sings with a gentle voice, that often gets a harsh and raw undertone, Marie accompanies her on the acoustig guitar that goes along perfectly with the singing.

They maybe sang five songs and throught that time I had the impression that the whole club fell into silence and left only room for that voice and the guitar, that guided the audience carfuelly and savely through the winters night. There were softer songs and wilder ones, but at no point any of the two girls became too loud. They did not need to move, their music caught the room in a warm trance and all of us were listening and bound to them.

The lyrics are nothing for easy listening - they are serious and most of them have a sad notion. Anja sings them with a clear voice and makes them easy to understand.

I got their CD "Man Overboard" which is beautiful to listen to and shows more facets of the band. Songs like "Give me More" and "Image" give an impression of how they are live. On the teaser "Wasteland" there is the song "leather", which has a lot of power. Samples of the songs can be heared by clicking on their names.

The true magic of Montys Loco is only apparent when they are on stage. Don't miss to see them.

While still deep in the jet lag and unable to do anything challenging, I stumbled over flickr and got enthusiastic about it. That is finally the link that forced me to sort all my pictures and upload them there. It is dead-simple to use and quite effective.

So below are links to some of the collections (so-called "sets") that I uploaded so far to there. Just click on the highlighted names and you will see all the pictures. Click on the pictures below and a slideshow will start.

You can find a complete list of all my sets here.

When the doctor comes to town ...
During August 2005, Johannes and I took trips to Tallinn, Turku and Porvoo.

Theresas Trips to European Capitals
Since 2004, Theresa and I visit at least one European Capital per year. The visits so far were:

• July 2003 – Berlin
• April 2004 – Vienna
• May 2005 – Helsinki
• September 2005 – Athens

Finish Impressions

• Oulu, February 2002
• Around the Olympic Stadion in Helsinki, July 2005
• Savonlinna, August 2005

Some more trips

• December 2001 to Chichen Itza
• January 2002 through the Arizona desert
• July 2002 to Yokohama and Kamakura
• November 2002 to Thailand
• June 2003 to San Francisco

Jeweils zur Geisterstunde in der Nacht von Donnerstag auf Freitag versorgen die drei Hauptprojektleiter Haipl, Knötzl und Votava nicht nur Österreich, sondern die ganze Welt mit Wahrheiten die man nie für möglich gehalten hätte und von denen man zudem eh nichts wissen wollte. Die drei Journalisten bilden das "Projekt-X", das seit mehr als zehn Jahre auf der Frequenz des österreichischen Senders FM4 ausgestrahlt wird.

Seit einigen Wochen werden nun die Projekt-X Ausgaben dieses Jahrtausends legal zum Download im Internet angeboten. Aus dem sehr großen Fundus habe ich mir erlaubt, die brisantesten und besten Sendungen auszuwählen und hier der geneigten Leser- und Hörerschaft vorzustellen. Aus rechtlichen Gründen wurden die Musikeinlagen aus den MP3-Dateien entfernt.

• Kasperl in der Krise – Michael Niavarani interviewt den Kasperl und den Fußballer Herbert "Happy" Prikoba. Wir erfahren unter anderem, dass der Kasperl auf Drogen ist und deshalb aus der Urania rausgeschmissen wurde. "Ich gebe zu, ich habe Drogen genommen - ich habe das psychologische Element dahinter beleuchtet."
  
  
• Rock'n'Roll Legende – Peter Steinlechner von den Zillertaler Schürzenjägern interviewt Peter Kraus und den österreichischen Altrocker und Frauenkenner Walter Knatter zum Thema Rock'n'Roll. Beeindruckend sind unter vielen anderen Details die politischen Einsichten des Walter Knatter, demzufolge die Russen Österreich nur deshalb nicht gschnupft haben, weil es in der Alpenrepublik bereits zuviele Rocker gab.
  
  
• Kunstdiebstahl – Fluch oder Segen? – Beim direkten Kunstdiebstahl wird das Kunstwerk direkt gestohlen, während es beim indirekten Kunstdiebstahl indirekt gestohlen wird. Und Bienen ficken gerne Blumen - das muss einmal gesagt werden.
  
  
• Volksmusikkapazunder – DJ Ötzi, der Hias und Karl Moik planen einen Musikantenstadl in der Türkei und erinnern sich an Anekdoten aus ihrem Leben. Ein einzigartiges Tondokument postmoderner Musikkultur.
  
  
• Laptop vs. Weidinger – Ein Radieschen und ein Kräuterpfarrer streiten um biologische Tatsachen.
  
  
• US-Präsidentschaftskandidatin Jazz-Gitti – Was niemand wusste und später wohl auch von allen Seiten verleugnet wurde: Steffi Werger, das österreichische Original, das unter dem Namen Jazz-Gitti bekannt wurde, nahm im Jahr 2000 an den US-amerikanischen Präsidentschatswahlen teil. Diverse Anrufer stellen Fragen an die Kandidatin.

After having Friday afternoon out in the Sanya city center, mostly in a bar together with my favourite chairman and some local beer brands, I slept until Saturday morning and finally adjusted to the Chinese time zone. At 6 o'clock I went up, packed, had a short breakfast, checked-out and went to the local airport. 1.5 hour flight to Hong Kong. There waiting in the airport longue until the flight to Frankfurt was ready. It just took us 12 hours to go from the former British colony to Frankfurt. And from there then another 2.5 hours to Helsinki, where I arrived the night from Saturday to Sunday at 1.00.

My flat had the usual "there was no window open since one week" smell, but still it welcomed me warmly. I switched the computer on and half way on its way up I switched it off again, went to bed and fell into a restless sleep.

On Sunday I found out that the after shave bottle in my luggage broke and everything in the bag had a comfortable and intensive smell to it. The electric razor decided not to survive this attack. I am back to my old wet shaver again. Also looking at my flat at daylight is not the thing I needed after the long flight. Stuff from the Denver trip is still waiting to be cared for, books are piling up in several corners together with dust. There's no food in the fridge and no ironed shirt within these 42 square meters. Somewhere I find a to-do list from which I still cannot cross out anything. And I am still on Chines time zone. It will take a while to adjust to GMT+2 again.

But there is compensation for all of this. The sun shines from a dark blue sky onto snow-white Helsinki. The temperatures are low, which does not seem to be any problem anymore after the humidity and heat in Sanya. The week will bring two concerts in Tavastia. And wet shaving is not that bad after all.