Bonjour.
The tour has begun once again. So has the blog, it seems. We are now in New Zealand, Auckland to be exact, but will go to Australia today. We performed at the Big Day Out festival yesterday, in front of some 48000 people. I think we played decently, though festivals are always a bit strange. There are so many people and not everyone comes to hear Björk. I think yesterday was OK, but not that great.
I left Iceland last Monday, with Mark Bell, Rosemary Lllagostera and the Wonderbrass. We had an awful time getting here, the weather was so bad in Iceland our plane got delayed by some two hours and when we finally arrived in London, our plane to Auckland via LA had already left. So we had to wait for several hours for the next available flight, which took us to Hong Kong, and then to Auckland. The entire trip lasted more than 40 hours. It was disgusting.
But the past few days here have been delightful. It is summer and it is really nice to get out of the snow in Iceland. Everything is so green in New Zealand, it is no wonder The Shire as seen in the film Lord of the Rings is quite close to Auckland.
I’m a Tolkien fan and would have liked to see the movie set for The Shire, which apparently still exists. But we had only one day for that and most of us were so jet lagged that we decided to just take it easy.
The time difference between Iceland and Auckland is thirteen hours. Right now it is Saturday, but still Friday in Iceland. When I spoke first to my nine year old daughter after arriving, I pointed out to her, much to her amusement, that she was now speaking to a man from the future.
That’s kind of cool, eh?
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January 18th, 2008 at 10:58 pm
It’s very cool.
Good to see you back, and good luck for the rest of the tour.
January 19th, 2008 at 12:39 am
yay its glad to see the tour and the blog back in action! hope your trips are more pleasant!
January 19th, 2008 at 3:37 am
This blog will make many people happy!
January 19th, 2008 at 4:08 am
So good to have you back, Jónas.
Lots of love!
January 19th, 2008 at 5:07 am
welcome back!
we’re all still around!
January 19th, 2008 at 7:52 am
Gorgeousness to see you back.
I am glad you are having fun. Life is about good shows and bad shows and learning from both.
So good to see you back in the swing.
Tell the natives we said hello!
K
January 19th, 2008 at 10:40 am
Hi Jónas! Welcome back
I was at the show in Auckland last night. As a long-time Björk fan, and a reader of this blog I was delirious with anticipation!
Unfortunately, due to the crowd numbers and and behaviour, and because I am not a tall person, I had a pretty frustrating time. I could hardly see the stage at all. It was very disappointing for me, but after the first couple of songs I decided to make the best of it and ended up just listening and really enjoying the show anyway. I think you guys did play decently, although I’ve nothing to compare it to. It was a particular joy to hear Desired Constellation as that is my favourite track from Medulla.
I’m sorry that the crowd wasn’t 100% with you. Unfortunately, you were sandwiched between Shihad (local NZ rock band) and Rage Against The Machine, so the crowd was kind of aggressive and wanting to mosh. Also, New Zealanders are lazy when it comes to music, and generally tend to only like what they know, rather than engaging with something new that stretches them.
Anyway - I loved it despite my bad position, and it was great to finally see/hear you in action.
All the best for the rest of the tour, and please come back to NZ sometime to do a proper show!!!
January 19th, 2008 at 11:27 am
Welcome to Australia, Jónas! I am so excited for the Sydney Festival gig next Wednesday. See you there!
January 19th, 2008 at 3:32 pm
Glad you are back, Jonas!
You were greatly missed!
January 19th, 2008 at 5:39 pm
HAPPY DOLLY PARTON’S BIRTHDAY!!!
a day for a little extra kindness!
January 19th, 2008 at 8:43 pm
Dolly Parton is such a happy little person! She makes me smile.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY DOLLY!
K
January 19th, 2008 at 11:43 pm
This may sound naive or silly….
But i listened to some Volta live shows in good quality. And i just want to say that i very love your participation in the songs, Jonas. I love what you add into it. Especially… well… Cover Me, Immature, Bachelorette, Pagan Poetry… Well this is very silly to name the songs, because you add something in every song. But your interpretation of the songs is very clever, very sensitive, and add so much to it. And Hyperballad too… Oceania… HOPE!!! It’s sad this song is not sung much more time, it’s so beautiful!
Well, this is very silly to say, this “i love what you do” thread… But, i assume.
All the best
January 20th, 2008 at 12:17 am
mihfolya:
I don’t think its silly….I am sure it is nice to get compliments no matter what you do for a living! Being accepted is surely more fun than being rejected that’s for sure!
I like the fact that he approaches every night as a professional yet has a good time at the same time. It is fun to watch.
January 20th, 2008 at 9:57 am
Welcome back. I just had a train/bus/train trip that turned into a train/bus/train/bus/wait for 9 hours/bus trip back the other direction to the correct destination adventure (while suffering bronchitis or some similar funk), so I can very much feel for you all on that end. Traveling is great, waiting around can suck. I hope you have some greatly enjoyable shows, and smoother travels to come… and please keep blogging away. This was a great thing for you to take on Jonas. I believe I speak for all the fans when I say Thanks very much for putting in the time and effort = )
Happy new year
January 27th, 2008 at 8:47 pm
Yeah, Australia and New Zealand go through New Year’s celebrations before anyone else in the world, right?. So yeah. Weird. That’s a huge flight though. I’ve gone from SF to Europe and back, and usually find it a faster flight to fly with the jetstream going over to Europe, but then it’s easier for me to adjust to the jetlag when coming back to SF, because I’m such a night-owl, and getting jetlag which goes against my tendency, and which makes me go to sleep earlier is actually quite nice. It makes me see the sunrises I never usually see.
it’s kind of nice to joggle yoursel around on this little space-ship we call earth. Basically it doesn’t make much sense to me that we even pay much attention to a line drawn in the ocean, and call that a day, because the earth just spins and hawls so fast around the earth, we’re never in the same place twice. By the time we’ve spun around, we’ve also moved in space, and it’s not as if we’re in the same place in space as we were when Australia was there so many hours before. To me, it’s just like drawing a line in the sand. Doesn’t mean much. But it’s interesting to dissect it like that. When I used to live in France, in 98-99, they had these little shows on called “tous sur orbite” which would examine the earth in its orbit and the tilt, and the seasons, and the trajectory in space, and it’s relationship with the stars and the other planets, and what you’d see in the night sky, or how it all works with space-time. It was fascinating to me. …still can’t believe I understood any of it, because it was in French. But yeah.
You guys are lucky bums to get to go avoid the winter, and to get to have a second summer down under.