The Church and The Wave

I'm going to church later. No, I haven't gone Christian all of a sudden but my sister is going to play today. She plays a trumpet like thing in the school band which isn't a school band anymore it's just basically everyone who wants to play. But they're good. It's sorta a Christmas concert and others will play, lots of singing and violins I expect. I used to play the violin, most kids here play an instrument. Music has always been a part of this town, people making violins, writing traditional Norwegian songs, the special way of singing these songs is called 'kveding'. 'Kved' is probably the same as 'Kvad' which was a song or a verse of some kind when the vikings where here. It's stuck around.

I don't much like this kind of music though, the singing really gets on my nerves. But it's tradition. Old songs being played again, old dances being danced so as not to be forgotten. Tourists love it. They can't get enough of it. When I played the violin we always had to play these old songs, old dance tunes like 'masurka' and 'polka'. I hated it. So did everybody else and most of us quit at the same time. I sucked at it, mostly because I didn't bother trying. Why? Because I didn't like those old songs. Over and over and over. We did get to play a Christmas song or two in December. If we were lucky. I wish they would put in some easy classical music, something more than just folk tunes from Honndalen.

Well, as I was saying, I'm going to church later. I'm gonna bring my camera and try and get a few pictures from there. I haven't been there in... probably two years... just go whenever there's a concert where my sister is playing or the school has a Christmas concert. I've left all that behind but it's nice when it's all Christmassy like today. Yesterday I was out walking with my sister, stopped by our grandparents and then went to rent some films. It was snowing and it was beautiful so I brough my camera. There must be something wrong with it, pictures are never clear anymore, they're either blurry or just... they don't look like they should. They look like they've been taken with a cell phone with a crappy quality camera in it. Of all the pictures I took last night, this one was the only one where you can actually see anything.

The picture is of a statue at the museum, just below our house. It's in a little fountain and they usually bring it inside for winter but this year they haven't. The statue is beautiful, it's a man standing and a woman sitting, looking up, holding onto him. It's called 'The Wave'. I'll have to get a better picture when spring comes. Must be cold for them though, no clothes, out there in the the snow...