It's the season to be jolly

Snow has fallen and Denmark is painted white. This sunday was the first of advent which means the christmas season has begun. Decorations are appearing everywhere and lights brighten the cold winter nights and happy beautiful songs stream out of the radio.

I have as always imbraced my fav holliday (yep all of december is kinda a holiday for me) especially since the snow is here early this year. I know that a lot of my friends dislike the snow but I find it beautiful and calming. Everything slows down as soon as the snow arrives and the days and nights seems brighter becuase of the shinny white ground. I love the snow for it's beauty, for the fun it brings and also because it is almost the only kind of wheather we have in Denmark that slows us down and reminds us that it is not us that are in control - it is mother nature. We have no real hurricanes, no twisters, no earthquakes and no tsunamis, so what is a little snow once in a while?

Well back to christmas... I have not yet started my decorating but I guess I will sometime this week. My mom gave me an advent wreath today and I lit my first candle (a day late) a bit earlier today, which made me truely feel that christmas is here.

The next thing on my mind is christmas music. There are lots of good music in the radio in Denmark every year, but it is also kinda the same songs we hear every year so I'll try and make my own christmas cd this year. I already have a few ideas for some great songs (that is never or rarely played on the radio here).

Here are a few of my ideas so far:

Angels in the snow by Amy Sky.
http//www.youtube.com/watch?v=uELIAMWNiZs
She is a canadian singer with a beautiful voice and the song is amazing!

Little drummer boy with Ronan Keating and Stephen Gately
http://http//www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7Vu93ugUAE
Because I've loved this song since I was a little girl and Ronan Keating was my fav singer once and I still think he is great, besides this is the last song Stephen Gately got his vocal track on before he died in October 2009.


The marvelous toy by country legend John Denver:


Because it is fun and he is a great musician.

Silent Night - by the amazing Sinead O'Connor
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87q5dmW6zDg
Just because this irish singer has one of the most amazing voices I've ever heard and because this song is one of the most beautiful chistmas songs of all time.

Deck and Halls by James Taylor
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihwLr4iyRPE
Becuase it is a great sing-a-long christmas song (and I always think of a funny moment from the OC when I hear it) and James Taylor's version because it is one of my fav ones - way better than Crosby's that's for sure.

And ofcourse a few songs by my fav band. Unfortunatly they have not made any christmas songs for quite a while now but I do have a few.
This one is called Mummer's Carol and the band is Great Big Sea:

And this next one is called 7 joys of Mary and it is the one I'm gonna leave you with tonight. Listen to the songs, let the spirit of christmas find you and be jolly :D

If you have any great ideas for my christmas cd I would love to hear your ideas :)

Snow is falling all around me

The first sign that christmas is just around the corner has now hit Denmark and painted it white and what a beautiful sight it is:

And yep I got to admit I am one of those hopelessly romantic people who just loves the snow and awaits it arrival every year not matter what troubles it might course this time around. Come on a little challange is only fun and look how stunning Denmark is covered all in white:

And for that very reason this is one of my fav christmas songs. So merry christmas everyone ;)

It's a beautiful day....

Let the best man win... and so he did. The winner of Australian X-factor 2010 is named Altiyan Childs.

He was truely on fire last night preforming the Kings of Leon song that almost got him send home early on and the words of his mentor Ronan Keating almost had him reduced to tears:



The last song Altiyan choose to sing at the x-factor was U2's beautiful day which proved to be very fitting:



That Altiyan won means he will be the won to record the single Somewhere in the World and I for one will diffinatly be looking out for it. Way to go Altiyan and Ronan.

Somewhere in the world

So this is it. The Australian x-factor has come to an end and the votes will be counted and the results will be revealed tomorrow.

As you may know I have been following this show on youtube since it's beginning and I have had my own choice for a winner from the beginning. Fortunatly he is still here. In the great final. In case you don't know who he is look at him preforming at the grand final:



and he also does an amazing job with Bon Jovi's Like a Prayer (actually a better one that Jovi himself in my opinion):



If you have read my previous blog on the australian x-factor you might remember Altiyan forgetting the words to Kings of Leon's Sexes on fire. Ronan Keating brought him trough anyway and Altiyan proved Ronan was right to do so and if you were ever in doubt take a look at this:



The last song I want to show you is the winning song. The song that who ever wins x-factor will get to record and release as a single. To be fair here is the other finalists singing the song.

Sally Chatfield:



Andrew Lawson:



And last but not least Altiyan Childs. The guy that should get to release this single. He is without doubt the best proformer and his voice is right for the song. He is simply the best of the 3:



If you live in the UK or Australia vote for Altiyan Childs and if you do not keep your fingers crossed with me. Altiyan should win this year's Australian X-factor that is for sure.

You forget me not

A friend of mine introduced me to this app on facebook called picnik and it is actually pretty funny. You can redo your pics, put in text, frames and stickers. Here is some of the work I've done so far:

This first one is of me and my best friend Katja and the words are from a Betty Midler song

And this next one is of Alan Doyle and Sean McCann of Great Big Sea - the lyric is also from a Great Big Sea song.

And this one is one I did for a friend of mine. The boy in the picture is her 4 year old son and the words is from an Amy Sky song.

And this last one is of my mom and me. The lyric is from her fav song and I thought them to be very fitting for the picture aswell. If u like what you see or just think you could do better like picnik of facebook and get going.

I'm gonna live you tonight with my mom's fave song: Sweet forget me not by Great Big Sea.



And it sure is a lovely song isn't it?

Aussie x-factor champion

Normally I don't even watch many talent shows (or I do but I never really follow one contestant or show just watch when nothing else is on), but this time I do.

By coincidence I stumbled across the Australian x-factor when I was reading my twitter feeds and thought I would look it up, since Ronon Keating was one of the judges.

Ronon Keating was my absolute fav singer when I was a kid and a teen, and I still buy his cds and love listening to his music eventhough I don't listen to nearly as much pop as I did when I was younger, but Ronan has an amazing voice.
But is actually another coincidence it is his last contestant that has impressed me enough to keep following the show on youtube (it is not airing in Denmark).

His name is Altiyan Childs and this is one of his first appearences on the show:



I know, not to impressive, but you got to admit his voice is pretty good and he has charisma. Ronan Keating did see something in this guy from the get go that most people didn't and what do you know?He was right!

His first few live shows were good but he didn't really start to come in to his own before the 4th live show were he sung Bon Jovi's "Like a prayer" but it wasn't untill the 5th show he really started to impress me. This is him singing U2's "Beautiful day":




And thoughout the next couple of shows he only continued to get better. This is him doing Survivor's "Eye of the Tiger.":



But this guy actually also did Bryan Adams classic "Summer of 69" justice and at the same time he showed himself able to put on just a good of a show with an instrument in hand as he does without it:



This sunday Altiyan put on two amazing preformances whic send him through to the final 3. I can't vote for him since I am not an aussie myself, but if you are. Lend this guy a hand. He deserves to win that is for sure. Still not convinced? Then look at these last two vids of Altiyan singing his heart out and judge again :)

This is the very moving "The living years":



and this is Altiyan rocking the show with Bon Jovi's 80's hit "Blaze of Glory" the title track of the movie Young Guns:



He's good talent right??

Bookworm???

Okay a note has started to go around Facebook of 1oo books BBC thinks most people have only read 6 of. The list is a bit wierd though, but check it out and see how many you get: http://www.librarything.com/topic/61828w.librarything.com/topic/61828

Out of these books I've read 30, but still think it is composed in a rather wierd way. It lakes quite a few books, newer aswell as older and where has all the classic horror stories gone? Oh well it is fun and quite a good inspiration. There's a few books on there I wanna read either because I never read them and they sound interesting (oh yep I was nerdy enough to look up almost all the ones I did not know) or because I haven't read them in ages. Food for thoughts to my bookclub :)

Which brings me too, what I am reading now. As I said before I am in a (newly started) bookclub and we are on our first book. It is by Elizabeth Gilbert and it is called Eat, Pray, Love. It is about a woman leaving everything behind as she goes out into the world trying to find herself. I haven't read a lot of it yet, but it is very promising so far. If this has peaked your interest you can read more about both the author and the book on this website: http://www.elizabethgilbert.com/eatpraylove.htm

This book was not my own choice and not something I would normally read on my own, but there in lies the challange of a bookclub. Eat, Pray, Love was recommended by a friend of mine and I am looking forward to our first discussion about the book.

Eat, Pray, Love has been made into a Julia Roberts film which is running in the danish cinemas at the moment and who knows maybe we'll swing by and make our own judgemenst as if the movie lives up to the book :)

Here is the trailer to the movie in case you are interested:

What are you reading at the moment?? Drop me a note if you want to, I would love the inspiration.

I just wanna let you know...

Okay usually I don't do two posts one the same artist followed by each other, but since I got Scott Grimes' album Livin' on the run a few days ago and his newest album Drive today I wanna do this one while I am in the right frame of mind for it. Besides I don't think I'll be able to do a better job than right now since I have been listening to the man all day long today.

This is, as I just said, a review of Scott Grimes' album Drive:

Earlier today I tweeted my last review to Grimes and told him I would be doing this review too and he kindly reminded me to consider that this album is a demo record done in his livingroom and so I will do just that.

The album is a demo record, which means it's only contains 7 songs where as Livin' on the run has 15. The other sign that this is a demo record it that the style is way more stripped down that Scott Grimes previous record, but that does not hurt his style or his voice the slightest bit. Besides I actually like "Guerilla" recording as I've heard Alan Doyle of Great Big Sea call songs recorded in livingrooms, dressingrooms and in the back of tour busses. The recording style does not define an album (not in my opinion atleast) the artist does and both Harris (who worked on Drive with Scott) and Grimes are very talented.

Hide is the first song on the album and my opinion also the perfect song to release as a single. This is the song was the second Scott Grimes song I ever heard and it was the one that really made me fall in love his music and voice in the first place. The fact that he uses his friends (look closely and you will spot Russell Crowe along with his sons and his two co-merry men Alan Doyle and Kevin Durand) and fans in the video just makes it even better:

There is a red lining through the lyrics in this album aswell, but it is sadness this time more than it is hope. I don't feel that the persons in these songs are overcome by it by it is something they struggle with and someting that defines if not them then the album. The characters in these songs are trying to look ahead (Hide), to find some hope (Waiting) or just trying to "hide" how low they really feel (Corner pub). This is truely a beautiful record and ranks among my other fav records witch contains artists like Bruce Guthro, Bruce Springsteen, Great Big Sea, Russell Crowe and Katie Melua (I actually think Grimes' corner pub has a bit of a jazzish sound to it). Well done.

I wanna leave you with one of my other fave songs of this album. Listen to it before you head to the store or to Itunes to buy this record:


Oh and by the way I actually wanna leave you guys with one last song. Also by Scott Grimes but it is not on either of the albums, but if you love it as much as I do, you can buy it on itunes.



Cheers everybody, have a good night and thanks for reading my opinions on this great artist.

We were young and wild and hopeless and free

A few days ago I got a new album. It is not new but it is too me and I loved it so much I thought i deserved my attention on this blog. The album is called "Livin' on the run" and is by Scott Grimes.

I have know this guy for quite a while, but I knew him an actor. He played the very funny (not always by choice) Achie Morris in ER, where he did an amazing job and in my opinion only made the show better. I had no idea he was a singer too though untill he appeared in Robin Hood (the 2010 movie) as one of the merry men. Promoting this movie I heard him sing Beautiful Girls (by Sean Kingston) along with Russell Crowe (Robin Longstride), Kevin Durand (Little John) and Alan Doyle (Allan A'Dayle) and it dawned on me it couldn't possible the first time he used his voice for singing so I decided too look him up online and on youtube I found what I was looking for:


This song is amazing and is actually from the album I am doing this post about. Sunset Blvd is a beautiful song with both amazing guitar and piano sounds. This song displays Grimes' voice beautifully and like the other songs on the album the song proves Scott Grimes sings just as well as he acts!

Before doing this post I was listening though the album again and I noticed that alot af the songs has a Bruce Springsteen sound to them, which can never be a bad thing. Actually the first song of the album Livin' on the run (which is also the titel track) even has a Springsteen hommage incorporated:

And all those dreams of singin' to the second row
Baby you were born to run (this line being from the wellknown Springsteen song Born to run)
I got this time upon my pocket, and my love for you
And I'll be having fun

I for one prefer the more Springsteen rock sounding songs one the album to the more pop sounding song as You come around, but there are none of the songs I dislike. The album to me feels whole with a red lining running through it.

This red lining is: Hope, freedom, dreaming and also rememberace. The first songs is very much about living in the moment but this swifts with Carrie that is a is about remembering. Carrie is not the first sad song on the album I saw you is. But this song is about the present to and about letting go of a love eventhough it hurts.

I think all Scott's songs on this album stays true to reality, but there also is a ray of hope of something better in all of them or a dream of something more even in the sad song on the album. The only song that I feel lacks hope is without you. The only song on the album that allows itself to be sad without painting a light in the distant. A song about drowning in sorrow and allowing yourself to hurt.

The song Hollywood sign shows us life on the other side of the Hollywood sign painting a picture of misunderstood people going about their lives but hope is reintroduced in the last line of Four piece band; a song that is otherwise about growing up and it this process forgetting your dreams:

"Then my senses came to me this one fine day
That you had no ties that bind you was all I could pray"

All in all a beautiful album with wonderful melodies, great vocal tracks and impressive and touching lyrics. Well done Grimes.

Listen to this song "Carrie" and go out and buy the album:

You never leave a love so rare!!

My blog post last night was negative and was something I never had in mind to use this blog for and as I wrote last night that was the first and last of the sort, but once again I would like to dedicate this blog to someone :)
I was just listening to a song by a danish band called De eneste to (the only two) and remembered I am going to a concert with them this winter :)

This is the song I was listening to:




And this is a very happy me holding my ticket for the concert:

And this is my wonderful sister and me:

and we are going to the concert together and I know we will have a wonderful time. So this blog post is dedicated to you Mona :D You are an amazing woman and I am proud to call you my sister :)

Heart of stone??

Okay this is not what i intended to do with this blog when I first started it and it will be the first and last post of the sort, but I just could not let this slip by without commenting on it and since the girl who wrote this blog post: http://farkthis.livejournal.com/8873.html hat inabled comments I decided to do it on my own blog.

First of all I have no idea who either the girl writing the blog is or PK is , but the girl who is under attack is a close friend of mine, but I really also do feel that is besides the point. I know that girl in question is a strong person with a lot of friends but that too is besides the point. I am a big girl just like her but that is not why I took offense to this either. The real reason is online bullying and all the recent cases of suicide that has happened because of it. If this blogger really don't know who my friend is she wouldn't have any idea of how a blog like this was going to affect her. I am all for speaking your opinion on blogs and letting the world know how you feel about everything between heaven and hell, but why would anyone do a blog post like this?

I wanna leave everyone with one last thought: always remember there is a real person behind every photo you use. A person with feeling, family and friends. A person just like you. So before you lash out how would you feel if someone did the same thing to you? I don't think anything bad of the subject of the blog post. It is okay to talk about how people dress, but I really don't see any reason to personalize it like that.

This blog post is dedicated to this woman, who is not only beautiful but also an amazing friend:

I would like to spend some time with you!!

Great Big Sea have released their new single and thereby their new music video. The song is Good People and it is without a doubt one of the best on the album and the one (as my friends and readers might remember) the one I expected it to be.

The song's lyrics are nothing short of heartwarming, the melody is catchy and is beautifully song by Séan McCann. If you don't know it already it is well worth a listen, and if you do then listen anyway and be moved and believe along with me and the Great Big Sea lads that people are born good!!




If this made you wanna buy their cd you can! On: www.greatbigsea.com/store