"Oh, honey. Black, white, gay, straight-- What's the difference? We all finish ourselves off in the end anyway."

Greetings from a rather wet, but occasionally sun-spelly, England. I'm slowly working on getting drunk with the aide of the twin's flatmate, pouring me this nice South African wine, mmm. Saw this and the phrase "Få vågar resonera annorlunda idag. Den politiska korrektheten ligger som en våt filt över samhället." Drunkenly started thinking about PC (Political correctness, means that you strive to not use offensive language or behavior - even if the particular language/behavior is not offensive to you).

Because non-PC is the new PC, we all know that, right? People who like to think that being "non-PC" is the same as being fearless, original, going-against-the-stream, etc, they just seem to be everywhere now. It's like this endless line of lemmings, walking around, all feeling like special and unique snowflakes. Thinking of themselves as rebels, the only ones who dare to be different. Driving me CRAZY.

Being non-PC can be extremely funny. Comedians know this. It can be used to drive home a point like nothing else. But then there's the unfunny non-PC people who all think that having to be politically correct is omg oppressive! Sigh.

The reason everybody isn't happily debating the "ethical dilemma" of abortion today is not because it's considered non-PC and has been labeled "extremist" by, um, really mean people. And you can't just claim that if someone has views that a large part of society at that point in time seem to agree on (like, say, "burning witches is wrong" or "people should be able to have safe abortions") they are just doing it because it's PC. Because 1, honey, no, and 2, it's a lame way to argue a point. You can't just say "but this group, they always get sooo angry when we bring this up, sob". Use real arguments, like everyone else.

The "I'm a non-PC rebel" line has been used enough.

---

Met up with the twin's gay boyfriend today. Thinking about getting one of those for myself. Gay boyfriends are fun and have no stupid macho fears about having lovely sweet, pink drinks with little umbrellas in them in a London bar on a partially sunny Sunday afternoon.

Am also thinking about getting myself one of those non-gay but somewhat geeky boyfriends that completely understand why one has to go and see Harry Potter on the day it's released and who will happily watch a whole Supernatural marathon with me without sarcastic comments like how "we've already seen this before", but who will laugh at all my sarcastic comments about the show, and knows how to distract me (without annoying me) when I drink three glasses of wine in silence and stare at the computer for a whole evening. Well, I guess it's more that I'm starting to realise this is what I will have to get. 'Cause no one else will ever put up with me. Will they?

"Where is your boy tonight, I hope he is a gentleman"

SPOILER WARNING! There will be talk about Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows here.

Though not a lot cause I'm still uncomfortable posting spoilers without being able to put it under a cut tag.

But still, some SPOILERS HERE!

So, yes, book 7. I was pretty much happy with it, even though the heteronormative of the Potterverse was even more outspoken in this book than the others, especially in the end. Why does JK Rowling insist on doing that? Many people figured Tonks had something queer about her when she first turned up, but that was completely turned around. And Sirius and Remus being, ahem, "roomates" in book 5 was ten times more interesting than any Harry-Ginny action. I also didn't get what Draco's role in this book was, at all. And didn't it seem like all the good witch characters were turned into housewives? Also, Hedwig, what the fuck???

But I did like everything about Snape, and I couldn't help but get teary when there were glimpses of James, Lily, Sirius and Remus together again, helping Harry, and there were some surprises and, well, you have to admit that the Harry Potterverse Rowling has created is a wonderfully imaginative world, just filled with great ideas and stuff and characters and owls.

---

Watched 28 Weeks Later, since it takes place around where the twin lives and so we got to see all these places we know, crawling with zombies and on fire. FUN.

"This menu rocks! Every dish is more incredible than the last. Should I take the uppers down a notch or do I actually care about noodles?"

Look, we all know the only way to stay totally unspoiled for the new Harry Potter book is to turn off the Internet during the last week before the release. But then again, when book 6 was released it was out on the Internet days before it was out in the bookstores, and on the day of the release people wrote spoilers like "XX kills XX on page XXX" (but without the XXs) on big banners and then proceeded to parade back and forth in front of the people in line to buy the book. So, really, maybe turning off the Internet isn't enough. No, best not to leave the house at all.

And, speaking of, this hiding business is getting ridiculous. I'm getting ridiculous. I'm Joey and Chandler in the episode when they get the comfy chairs and the big screen tv: Inside - good. Outside - bad. And it's not even about being sad about the stupid parents' stupid divorce any more. Just fucking let them. I just don't think of managing other people's hurt feelings and long phonecalls about house-selling and whatnot, as vacation. I can do that perfectly fine all other days of the year, thank you. I'm only here in London for another 2 an 1/2 weeks, and I don't think there's been even one day of balcony weather since I got here and at this point I'd rather talk to every telemarketer in the world than to anyone in my family, except the twin.

No, I'm sure I'll feel better in a moment. It's the rain that brings me down. Maybe I'll just go take a walk in it. Maybe I'll go to HMV and buy a dvd that I can watch. Something violent.

"And thats about the time that bitch hung up on me, nobody likes you when youre 23"

I'm drinking and youtube-ing and watching an interview from this summer where My Chemical Romance is interviewed by some german tv-reporter, and she's being, well, german and keeps asking them about beer. She asks Gerard how many beers he usually has before going onstage! Dear lord! I mean, even when I hadn't really heard any of their songs, I still knew that Gerard Way is an alcoholic who has been sober since 2004. There just seems like there are certain things you should look up before you interview a band. Standard canon. Like, we all know Pete Wentz used to date a crazy girl who broke his heart, and we don't talk about it. And we know Gerard Way used to mix vodka with xanax and that now his long-suffering band mates won't even let him take Nyquil for his cold.

But maybe in Germany "sober alcoholic" means "can still enjoy the occasional drink...ing binge"?

So the twin's gay boyfriend asked if we wanted to go to some Harry Potter party for the release of book 7. Except you have to dress up, and I have no idea who I'd go as.

Haven't felt any real excitement about the new movie being out yet either. Maybe because Order of the Phoenix wasn't my favourite book. And no director will ever do with the Harry Potterverse what Alfonso Cuarón did anyway. And the only thing I'm really excited about seeing is the bit with the Marauders.

You know, my life got so much easier when I got old enough to stop pretending and just embraced my own geekiness.

"Forget all these things. It is not possible to prove anything. Relax and enjoy life."

My love for London is of the grand and poetic kind.

In the mornings I walk with the twin when she goes to work. This morning we ended up walking several blocks behind this young urban professional guy who was chatting with his female co-worker on the way to the office and, we noticed when the telltale smell could no longer be ignored, smoking a joint. Well. Why not? It IS Friday after all. Even if it's also 9 o'clock in the morning.

And there's just something about a guy in his twenties, in dressy shoes and a business suit, getting buzzed.

On the way back I had a coffee at Starbucks and I noticed they are recruiting store managers. I was this close to applying for a job. I mean, I'm sure I could stand the minimum pay and annoying customers not knowing what a "venti" is, if it meant I could spend the day making skimmed-milk cappuccinos and not have to go back to Sweden and deal with the parents' divorce or the FEAR that every time you turn on the radio you'll hear someone attempting to use embarrassing Swedish lyrics in a song about sex where the phrase bang me becomes, um, dunka mig. *loses will to live*

Also went to M&S and got milk, fruit sallad and wine.

Everybody's into Judge Judy.

"Where have you been? I've been waiting for almost half a Xanax."

Am in London. I'll be here for about a month. This means there'll be one month of blog posts mostly in English, except for when I can be bothered to get on my swedish laptop and write.

Took a walk this morning. So now I have ze Starbucks coffee, ze bottled water, ze shirt I just bought from ze Gap on, and some really crappy English candybars.

The weather here kind of blows at the moment, but I'll take it.

---

I don't get this article either. What has pornography got to do with anything in the text? The reasoning looks too much like a need to put a Family Friendly stamp on everything without question. Do we really want a whole world labeled PG-13? Must everything always be suitable for children to not be considered the enemy?

However, having said that, I couldn't be more fed up with people who keep insisting that porn is about "sexual freedom" and that the mainstream porn industry "explores" and "breaks sexual taboos" and yada yada yada. Are you people kidding me? Is there anything more stereotypical and less taboo-breaking than mainstream porn? I mean, how can you watch your typical porn and NOT see the blantant age-old, traditional Victorian theme? Did these people perhaps also miss the zombie-pirates in Pirates of the Caribbean? Did they go watch Titanic and somehow not see the big sinking ship in it? Just because porn is not something you wanna watch with your grandma, doesn't mean it's revolutionary. It's impossibly to discover your own burgeoning sexuality through mainstream porn, because porn has an agenda, and a pretty boring, unadventurous one at that.

And people are irritatingly self-congratulatory about their so called "broad-mindedness" when it comes to this. It's like, hey, let's call other people "moralists" or "crazy feminists", let's talk at length about the greatness in "exploring ones sexual fantasies on film" and let's all feel superior and liberal about it, but does that mean will we also demand more young, beautiful boys pole-stripping and touching their nipples on movie covers, and that there is at least as much boy-on-boy action as lesbian sex in each and every hetero porno? Will we demand that the sex industry stop upholding the idiotic ideas that 1, sexuality is always, always tied up with the female body, and 2, men can't get fucked? Noooo.

And when someone (me) asks, they stare at that person (again, me) like he or she is disgusting for even thinking in that way (me crawling away to hide).

Taboo-breaking, my third-wave feminist ASS.

"The world's not waiting (for five tired boys and a broken down van)"

Jag är så glad att jag gick och lyssnade på My Chemical Romance igår. De är främst ett liveband, och att se dem spela var naturligtvis fantastiskt. Det kändes som om de spelade under huden på mig. Jag var inte förberedd på att varje ton skulle pulsera genom kroppen och ge mig mini-orgasmer tillsammans med alla Ryan Ross/Mikey Way/Conor Oberst-kopior i publiken. De kom ut precis när solen gått ned. Gerard var klädd helt svart.

Jag var nervös ända fram till att de började spela ute på Frihamnen. Det har varit lite inställda spelningar på den här turnen, med salmonella och naturens krafter och Mikey borta. Kanske skulle Gerard råka gå på en båt och hamna i Danmark. Men det gick bra.

De spelade alla låtar jag gillar men jag gillar alla låtar så det var kanske inte så svårt.

Gerard fick oss att vända oss om och titta på det han såg från scenen, vilket var Göteborgs hamn, stilla och upplyst i halvmörkret, vilket, okay, var rätt fint. Tack, Gerard.
Gerard: What a beautiful fucking night!
Publiken: AAAAH!
Gerard: I need a place to live. Should I move here?
Publiken: YEEEEEES!
(Jag: Honey, no. Yeah, it looks all nice and pretty now but you come here in the middle of November and you'll step off that plane and go "What the crap-?")
Gerard: You're all fucking beautiful!
Publiken: WHEEEE!
Gerard: And you have that kick-ass medical care!
Publiken: Well, Not for long the way things are going after the last election! (fast det lät mer som YEEEEAH!)

Aww, political Gerard.

Han visste precis var han befann sig och passade på att ge både staden och oss komplimanger. Heh. Gerard är perfekt som frontman. Fast han borde hångla mer med Frank. Och varför kan inte han ta bilder av sin penis som sedan postas över hela Internet, när andra kan?

Pier pressure var kategoriserad som "emo". Jag och A kunde sitta några timmar innan spelningen och bara titta på alla som var där. Svenska ungdomar har generellt både tid och råd att lägga mycket energi på kläder och utseende. Och gillar att följa mode ned till minsta accessoardetalj. Vilken musik de än gillar att lyssna på. Det märks.

Uppdaterat:
Funderade på om ingen gjort en intervju eftersom de inte spelade i Stockholm, men
En hemlös, serietecknande rockstjärna

"I'm more homosexual than Brett Anderson."

Saker jag skulle säga till mitt 16-åriga jag om jag fick chansen:

1, Alla de som nu försöker tala om för dig hur du borde tycka och tänka vet ingenting om det verkliga livet. Det finns ingen större anledning att vara avundsjuk på dem.

2, Mellan 20 och 30 kommer du drabbas av tre stora depressioner och vid flera tillfällen kommer du tro att du aldrig kommer komma ur dem. Men det kommer fortfarande inte vara lika sucky som att vara fucking 16.

3, Ja, jag vet att du har ämnesomsättning som en tonårskille just nu, men när du fyller 26 kommer du gå upp ca 15 kilo i vikt och få bröst! Jag lovar. Jag tittar på dem just nu.

4, Vid trettio kommer du knapra antidepressiva tabletter varje dag, och ha gjort det i nästan sju år. Men i övrigt kommer du inte ha några speciella beroenden som jag kan komma på. *shoots up caffeine*

5, Pretentiousness in people gets real old real fast. *gäsp*

6, När du är runt 22 år kommer du bli förälskad. And it's gonna suuuuuuuuuck.

7. Fyra saker: Boys, hips, books, tattoos. Life doesn't really have to be more complicated than that, just because you're a girl. Låt mig illustrera:

8, En dag när du är trettio år kommer du sitta i din egna lägenhet, vid din alldeles egna laptop som du har döpt till Dean och dricka kaffe ur en kopp med Starbucks-loggan på för att du vaknade på morgonen och kände att du längtade efter London. Du kommer sitta och skriva ett brev till dig själv som sextonåring, medan du funderar på vad du skall ha på dig på My Chemical Romance konserten samma kväll.