Sara Hammerzmith

I Wish

Posted in Uncategorized on August 10, 2015 by Sara Hammerzmith

A song by all female band Drain currently going through my speakers as I try to update my iPod.

Ever since the little incident I had where about 300 scrobblings wouldn’t happen because they expired, I try to keep my iPods fairly updated, especially now when I listen to music for about two hours straight every morning thanks to work.

With that said… It’s my birthday today! One whole year older, 24 now, and nothing has absolutely changed, just as usual. It was a quiet day, spent by sitting outside in the garden playing The Sims and eating more candy than I should, doing some gift to myself shopping with the vouchers I got from Nelly and CDON…. and playing more The Sims. Anna has gotten so far, but I’ll tell you all about it in another entry.

Later in the day we had a small celebration, me and my parents and I got a few gifts from them. From my father I got a certain amount of money, which is sort of his standard. From my mother, it was a different story.

First of all, I got a pair of handmade crochet gloves featuring a skull on them. Secondly, a cactus, which I actually got earlier in the day now that I think about it. A portable harddrive where I, at last, can store all my photos and The Sims games for back up. Two bowls made out of old vinyls – one bigger, one smaller and a Stone Sour album, “House of Gold and Bones pt 1” to be more exact!

Really nice things I must say, much appreciated!

The rest of the evening was spent playing more The Sims. I gave The Sims 3 a shot, and finally took Elsa scuba diving, but I lost patience very quickly. I really need to go in with the mindset of playing it, or else I’ll just be too disturbed by how slow it is and how bad the graphics are compared to The Sims 4.

// Sara

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Annika Herlitz @ Mariebergsskogen, Karlstad 9/8 – 15

Posted in Concerts, Music, Uncategorized with tags annika, Annika Herlitz, annika on tour, frozen, herlitz, mariebergsskogen, musical on August 9, 2015 by Sara Hammerzmith

So, like I told you, a little bit last minute we made up our minds about going to see Annika Herlitz perform at the small stage in Maribergsskogen.

It’s quite the difference, approx one year ago I saw Sabaton in this very location, but at the time on the grass field on a temporary stage. This time around, it was inside the little house on the hill and it was…. 98% children. Emelie and I felt a little bit out of place until we saw two more people about our age coming in without children. Thank God! Now, I’m not one who usually cares about this, but I must admit it felt good.

So, like I told you before, this has been promoted as a “Family show” consisting some of the Frozen songs and other goodies, so we weren’t sure at all on what to expect. All of a sudden we hear some carnival music, and Emelie asked me if it began now, to which I responded I had no idea.

And all of a sudden, we see a table coming flying, and a magician accompanying it. Apparently, the support act of the day was a magician. He invited two children on stage with him and performed some magic tricks, which were pretty impressive I must add. The kids were blown away, of course.

Right after this, Annika Herlitz went on stage and opened the show with “Slå Dig Fri”, in which she also took the opportunity to say hi to everyone.

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With a small talk-break, she followed up this epic opening with “Ett Andetag”. It all felt a little rushed for some reason, I’m not sure why, but regardless – this song is just as fucking big live as it is on recordings. Seriously, this woman, she knows how to sing alright.

“Ett Andetag” was followed by a Frozen medley consisting pieces of “Do You Wanna Build A Snowman”, “For The First Time in Forever”, “Love is an Open Door”, “In Summer” and “Making Today A Perfect Day”.

This was followed by the “High School Musical” song “All Together”, celebrating her very first role as a musical actress, followed by her sisters composition “Du Genomborrar Mig”. She wrapped the whole set up with the pop version of “Let it Go”, during which she thanked for the afternoon and left the stage.

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Well.. First of all. It was good – she’s an amazing singer, like REALLY good. It’s nice to see in the big crowd of decent singers, and worst of all, autotuners.

Right after the music had stopped, we got up and left the place.

This is probably the shortest concert I have ever attended, including the supportband they performed for about 50 minutes, leaving Annika doing about 30-35 minutes alone. But you know, I guess this is how it goes in the beginning of a career.

I’m looking forward to see her soon again sometime. Because it was really good, regardless.

// Sara

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Bana väg, låt ske det som sker

Posted in Uncategorized on August 8, 2015 by Sara Hammerzmith

Guess what I, finally, made up my mind about today?

THIS!

annnikka

I had been interested in the show ever since I saw her tourplan, but since I was unsure at the time if I’d be in Germany or not, I wasn’t sure. Obviously, I’m not there, so it became more and more certain. And then, like, very last minute, I asked Emelie if she wanted to join and said and done – here we are with our tickets to see Annika Herlitz, the Swedish voice of Elsa for those of you who are unaware.

I’m not sure at all as in what to expect of the show. It’s promoted as a “fantastic family show” put on by Annika, and I know she performs some of the “Frozen” songs live, so I guess we will see what it actually is.

What I am certain about, is that I’ll be hearing good songs sung with an amazing voice.

// Sara

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Fast Love

Posted in The Sims, Uncategorized on August 7, 2015 by Sara Hammerzmith

Today was the day Anna finally reached the top of the Astronaut / Space Guardian career. This this said, she has now completed TWO full careers (Science being the first one for those of you who hasn’t kept up) and now this. My plan is, like stated before, to go through all of the careers, so this is just the start.

After working a day or two in her new position, I chose my new career for her. It was a tough choice I must admit, but looking at schedules, I eventually decided I’d go with a criminal career. I had originally planned to go with a culinary career, but since they weren’t working on Thursday I decided against it. I wanna get on it as soon as possible, and on her first day of work she managed to get promoted.

I have a slight feeling this criminal career will move fast. Like, really fast.

My next plans for her house is to either extend the actual building, the more skills and such she obtains the bigger space she needs, but I wanna wait until I have some of the stuff and game packs, to make sure I really have EVERYTHING I’ll need. I really can’t wait.

// Sara

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Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now

Posted in Uncategorized on August 6, 2015 by Sara Hammerzmith

Today has been quite okay, didn’t do a whole lot during the day but I did meet up with Emelie for the evening.

We went downtown to find a cosy coffee shop for a coffee (or well, soft drink for me) and just spent a few hours catching up talking about everything and nothing. Emelie is leaving for the UK in just a week or so, so it was a little heartfelt that it might be the last time you see her in quite some time.

It was a nice way to spend the evening, regardless. It’s the little things that makes the most, you know?

// Sara

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Ett Slag Färgat Rött

Posted in Uncategorized on August 5, 2015 by Sara Hammerzmith

You know, when working with delivering newspapers, I get the perfect opportunity to listen through albums properly without being able to change. Or, I can change, but not as much as if I just walked around and listened to music. I usually try to go over albums I don’t listen to as often, in an attempt to give them a fair shot, but sometimes I just relive old goodies.

Like today, when I went over Sabaton. I went over “The Art of War”, “Attero Dominatus” and “Carolus Rex” (there’s only so many albums you manage to go through on two hours) and something that struck me that I haven’t really given much thought before…. is how similar some of their songs really is.

Like when I tried to sleep later that morning and I had “40:1” echoing in my head, which eventually merged together with “1648” off “Carolus”. And the more you think about it, the more you realize that some of their songs are indeed the same.

Wig Wam would have this thing where every album was an evolvement – “A Rock n Roll Girl Like You” was an evolvment of “Mine All Mine” and was evolved to “Rocket Through My Heart” and so on, but they were never so similar it felt like they took the music and slapped new lyrics on top of that. Maybe they’re out of ideas. Huh.

Thomas had already technically enlightnend me on this fact, but I hadn’t realized ’til now. Huh. Would you know.

// Sara

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1648

Posted in The Sims, Uncategorized on August 4, 2015 by Sara Hammerzmith

Spent most of my free time today playing The Sims. It’s kinda nice you know – between working with the newspapers and applying for new jobs, to take some “time off” playing my most loved games.

To give you a bit of an update, Anna has finally quit her job at the science lab, not sure if I told you, but she did. She’s started a career within space, rocket scientist, to keep her on the same place she was already.

Right now I’m working on making her the Supersim Rosalie was supposed to become, but didn’t because I didn’t think too far and married her and had children. So my plan for Anna is to go through ALL the careers in order to unlock all the items but also to actually go through them all to know what it’s all about.

Eventually, on the way, she will also fill ALL the skills. She has currently succeeded in programming, gaming and gardening, and as we speak, she’s filling up on her violin skills. Since Excersice is her daily task, I’ll let her slowly improve in it while fixing the daily task. She’s also at nine as far as cooking goes, but that is also something she improves when cooking and watching TV when she’s bored.

She’s currently level 6 in her work as well, so it’s a progress but a pretty slow one since she only works every second day. Gaah. I wish it went a bit faster!

// Sara

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The Sims Challenge Day 6

Posted in 30 Day The Sims Challenge, The Sims on August 3, 2015 by Sara Hammerzmith

What has become of your Goths in your game?

Good question. Like, a really good question.

In fact, I don’t think I’ve touched a Goth family for about 10 years. Not Goth, not Goth the Elder, not The Sims 2, nowhere. The only thing I usually do is that I go into the Elder and remove them from the house because I want the house.

However, speaking of Goth, I might as well tell you about one of my “major” memories, which terrified me, but also made me stop downloading things to the game. Except the Magic Mirror. I don’t remember how I managed this game before Magic Mirror.

Anyway, it was probably 10-12 years ago, and I thought it could be cool to try out guns.

Yes, you heard that right. I downloaded rifles, guns, you name it. I had read about it in a The Sims magazine that came out that year, as well seen pictures on the internet, and I figured I should try. So I got them in the game, and then I was in Goth the Elder family when I tried it…

And he died on the spot.

Of course, this shouldn’t surprise me, and I guess it didn’t surprise me, but it TERRIFIED me. How quick my sim just died. After that, I re-installed the entire The Sims game and deleted the guns away from my computer. And since then, I haven’t downloaded anything that isn’t directly from the official The Sims pages. Not because I don’t trust them, but before I know it I’ll have imported guns or whatever again…

And it makes me nauseous knowing there are nations in the world who are so reckless with gun laws that this is basically a fucking reality.

// Sara

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Poltava

Posted in Uncategorized on August 2, 2015 by Sara Hammerzmith

So, in lack of better things to write about, I might as well show the tiny little haul I got while at Skogsröjet.

First of all, for the first time ever, I’ve gotten myself a festival tshirt from Skogsröjet. Better late than never, huh? I don’t really have a reason as to why I haven’t gotten any before but… Finally!

Röjröj 024

I think it’s tricky nowadays to find good Skogsröjet shirts, as they are all going… like this. This was the one I liked the best, but for being such a cosy festival, their artwork has really gotten dark…

The next thing was four albums. Or perhaps more like, three albums and one EP.

Röjröj 028

First of all, it’s Beyond Visions EP, and their album “Your Face is Familiar”. Bloodbound “Stormborn”, which is signed, and also Tyranex’ “Unable to Tame”. I’m really looking forward to dig into the three unknown CD’s, but we’ll see when it actually happens.

Yeah what to add. Not a very big haul, but it’s always something!

// Sara

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Skogsröjet 2015: Day two, Saturday 1/8

Posted in Concerts, Music, Uncategorized with tags besserbitch, beyond visions, bloodbound, dream theater, honeymoon disease, junkstars, skogsröjet, the terrorhawks, tyranex, u.d.o, udo on August 1, 2015 by Sara Hammerzmith

I went to bed too late yesterday and got up too soon, or at least it felt like it. I had put my alarm to 11, and the first band I wanted to see started at 11.30, but when I looked at the clock it was around 8. So of course, I decided to snooze. Or at least I tried to, didn’t work out to well seeing I’m at a FESTIVAL CAMPING. A place where people party 24/7. Should have known. But I guess I managed somehow, because before I knew it the time was around 11 and I PANICKED because there’s no way I’ll get done in time. Gladly, the weather was good so half a bread, mascara stains and a pair of shorts and Korpiklaani tank later I found myself at the festival area (Bless the camping being so close to the area!) watching Beyond Visions

Beyond Visions

So, Beyond Visions is a five-piece band formed in 2007. They released their debut album in 2o13, and was the first band to enter the stage this day. There were a bit more people there than I would expect, but still no massive crowds – but none of this stopped frontwoman Rebecka to deliver a powerful set backed by the rest of the band. I was impressed and really liked what I heard! Good job!

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Honeymoon Disease

So, right after this I headed over the the other stage to catch the second band of the day; Honeymoon Disease. It’s a four-piece rock n roll band from Gothenburg formed in 2014. They have released two singles, one in 2014, one in 2015 and are set to release their debutalbum this autumn.

They brought on a good show with great energy, and even though I’m usually not into this kind of music, they managed to convince me! Good on them. I’d urge you all to check them out!

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Tyranex

Running back to the first stage, it was time to catch the Västerås-based four-piece that is Tyranex. They have released two albums so far – “Extermination” in 2011 and “Unable to Tame” in 2014.

The crowd was a bit bigger this time around, and Linnea… she’s insane. Holy hell, the way she sings and the way she plays, I literally had to write to Antoine and tell her what a killer she is on guitar. It was a powerful and energetic gig with a charismatic frontwoman, and if the two bands I had already seen had impressed me, this band went far beyond.

2015skogsrojettyranex

The Terrorhawks

So, there sure was a lot of running back on forth between the two stages here in the early morning, and after Tyranex it was time to see the New Zealand based band The Terrorhawks. Or well, they are based in Gothenburg now. Their debut single was released during the spring, and the debut album is set to sometime in 2015.

The set was good. The energy was lacking a little bit, I must admit, I didn’t really feel a lot from them, but I’m gonna give them thumbs up for going through with their set!

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After this, I first of all hit the merchstand to pick up on Beyond Visions and Tyranex albums and was set to see Hellshaker, when I noticed that the remote to my car was missing. The car-key was there, but the remote was gone. So I went back to the camp in order to look for it, hoping it was there, and while I was at it start to pack up. Gladly, the remote was in the tent and not lost somewhere randomly, even though I REALLY can’t understand how it got detached, since nothing was broken and it’s on a keyring.

Regardless, I started packing out and took two turns to load everything in the car. It took some time to remove all the baby snails and baby worms that were living on my tent, seeing it was placed in a water puddle, and it’s now full of mud because of the.. well, mud. I love this tent, but I’m glad we’re getting another one for next years festivals.

I made it back to the festival area pretty much in time to catch Imber, however, I decided against it. I’ve never been a bigger fan of their music, and I felt that I at least once on this festival should be front row, so I went to pick up a bottle of water and headed over to Bandit stage and started the hour long wait for Bloodbound.

Bloodbound

So, last week when we saw them at Noch Ein Bier the set was pretty short, so I was rather excited to see them doing a longer set at another venue with BETTER WEATHER. And again, to avoid making a Noch ein Bier long post, I’ll keep it short.

First of all, we learned pretty early in the set that Patrik’s father had passed away the day before the show. It was quite a shocking thing to learn, and I salute him, and the band for pushing through with the show.

They played a bunch of my favorite songs -such as “Moria”, “When all Lights Fail” and, biggest surprise to me – “Nightmares from the Grave”. I absolutely low this song. It was massive hearing it live. Although, I must admit I missed “Satanic Panic” a bit.

But over all – very good show, good energy and good set. And especially seeing the circumstances, we should all raise the horns one more time for them.

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Besserbitch

After this, I went over to the other stage to catch the first few songs of Besserbitch before getting in line for the Bloodbound signing session, but I realized pretty quick that I could BOTH stand in line and still see Besserbitch! Bingo!

Besserbitch is a four piece band from Stockholm formed in 2008, released their first two EPs on their own label and gave out their debut album in 2013.

First of all: Where’s the crowd? Seeing the playtime they got, you’d assume they’d have a big crowd. Bloodbound had a full crowd, so people where there, but none seemed to stay for Besserbitch. It was perhaps around 10-20 people, and I wanna add we weren’t THAT many in line for Bloodbound signing session, and NO OTHER BAND was playing at the same time. It’s like the band doesn’t draw an audience.

And while their music is good, I can see why. Now, I’ve never seen this band before, but where is the stage presence of the singer? I spoke of it yesterday, the importance of stage presence, something Jocke and Erik got, but also Mia(Crucified Barbara) and Linnea (Tyranex). That was completely lacking here. Maybe it was a bad day, who knows, but I almost felt like… I should go away, I don’t know how to put it better. It was surprising, to say the least.

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The signing session started in the middle of the set, so I missed out on half a song. It went pretty quickly – Patrik wasn’t there, and I had a quick chat with Fredrik about Noch Ein Bier and the weather there, before getting back to Besserbitch. The crowd was less now than it began with. What the heck just happened? Afterwards, I headed back to Bandit to see Junkstars.

Junkstars

In an attempt to make the festival worth it’s money, I decided to try to catch as many bands as I could today, so it was time to see Junkstars, formerly known as Rock n Roll Allstars. They were supposed to be the final act of the day, but as a result of Doro cancelling, they got her time and Bullet filled in her spot.

It was a good set they delivered with good energy, and you can tell they hit home with the audience, as there were quite a few people there. I still think Junkstars and U.D.O. should have switched, but still. Good to see some energetic and charismatic people on stage. Those are my favorites.

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Right after Junkstars, which finished a bit earlier than Doro’s original time, I went to buy some last minute items and headed to the car to get dressed for colder weather and drop off my newly bought merchandise. On my way, I bumped into Robert and it was SOOO Great seeing him there. We had a quick chat before I ran to the car, fixed my shit, and ran back the the venue to catch U.D.O.

U.D.O.

I’ve been looking forward to see U.D.O ever since I reviewed his album earlier this year, “Decadent” is sure one fine piece of work. So I was very, very glad to see him playing Skogsröjet.

The set was really good, he was on top and delivered a good gig, but I must admit I’m a bit unsure as to WHY he’d play the small stage. The crowd was PACKED in front of it, and people on the side could barely see anything. It would almost have been better if they did what Sweden Rock did, to put him earlier in the day, or, following the cancellation of Doro, but him in Doro’s scheduled time and Junkstars on U.D.O’s. Oh well, what can you do?

What I’m especially fond of is him playing “Pain”. It was always a favorite of mine on the album, and I’m usually so unlucky with favorite songs that this hit hard at home.

Good show, good energy, good set. Loved it!

2015skogsrojetudo

Dream Theater

After U.D.O, it was time for the last gig of the day and the festival for me, Dream Theater. I’ve heard of the band, but never really paid a lot of attention to their music, but I have a few friends who are fond of them, and therefore decided to see them.

They celebrate thirty years as a band, and therefore played material from all of their albums, which was pretty nice, or I guess so for the die hard fans.

The show was good, and I really enjoyed it. It was a good ending to a good festival.

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After this, I went to pick up some last minute candy for the ride home, prepared my car and left the festival for this year. I got home already around 2 am in the morning, which was really good. To sleep in your own bed.

Thanks to all the bands for this festival, you made it what it is. And thank you, Skogsröjet, for once again proving you the best biggest smallest festival in Sweden.

// Sara

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