There are some in colour, too. I was photographing stuff I'll sell online (trying to get rid of as much as possible before I move), and one of the things is a Soviet army cap ('pilotka'). Since my face is the way it is, it was really hard to get a photo where both the cap and myself looked all right. In the process, I got quite a few funny and 'artistic' pictures.

(A propos 'pilotka', as I was confirming that the one I have is just an imitation, I involuntarily found out during my research that 'pilotka' is yet another Russian slang word for the female genitals. I guess it's because of the, uh, quite obvious shape. Argh, I swear, after this nothing will ever be the same again when I see Soviet soldiers! I won't be able to see anything but this huge olive green pilotka on their heads ...)

(Being possessed by gods and forced to have sex in comics)

As I watched "Immortel (ad vitam)", the film based on the comic books "La Foire aux immortels" and "La Femme piège" by Enki Bilal, I came to think about another comic book - "Promethea" by Alan Moore (etc.).

See, in Bilal's comics, Alexander Nikopol gets possessed by the god Horus, who uses him to have sex with one of the infinitely rare women who can procreate with a god - the beautiful blue-haired Jill:



Whereas in "Promethea", Sophie Bangs is possessed by the demi-goddess and 'mystic warrior woman' Promethea, and at one point has to take on her Promethea shape to have sex with a dirty and disgusting old man so he'll teach her magic.



The stories are a bit different, as Sophie is actively using Promethea to get what she wants, and it's supposed to be a bit of a 'challenge', as it obviously would be boring if she'd get all that knowledge for nothing. Nikopol, on the other hand, just gets caught up in the schemes of Horus and has little control over the proceedings.

But I still found this sequence of "Promethea" extremely disturbing ... Maybe not so terribly much before and during the act, but *definitely* afterwards, when Sophie has changed back into herself, and they start doing these little intimate things like him helping her with her bra ... Ewwwww ...




...

So, anyway, I won't draw any conclusions from this comparison. That's up to you ...

Sergei lurking behind the doorway ...



Today in the evening mum and I went on an expedition to see what was the source of the terrible smell that was brought to the yard from the field of young fir trees to the north. Up until today it had been pretty windstill, but now the wind brought a smell of carcass.

Unfortunately, we didn't find any source of the smell (it might have been fun to photograph), but we did see this double rainbow.

¤ ¤ ¤

Today I went to Gothenburg to print my little minicomic "The Compass Rose". (I'll put an English translation of it on the web when I get my ass of the wagon.) I made a Swedish and a German edition on special paper. The paper for the German edition - old, yellowed recycled paper, brownish for the covers and greenish gray for the guts - was lying around forgotten in the office of avant-verlag, where I did my internship this spring. I asked if my boss was doing anything with it, and he seemed happy to get rid of it.
I drew the comic specially for this paper. Unfortunately, there wasn't all that much of it - only enough for 31 issues with brown covers and 14 completely gray-green. I have to put ads in the papers, looking for old yellowed paper ...

I got Tunguska issue 6 fresh off the xerox machine today. It's without doubt the best issue I've made so far. (But Tunguska #7 will be even better!)

You scored as Art. You should be an Art major! How bohemian! Art 100% English 100% Linguistics 92% Philosophy 92% Journalism 83% Sociology 75% Dance 67% Chemistry 67% Theater 67% Mathematics 58% Biology 58% Engineering 58% Anthropology 58% Psychology 50% What is your Perfect Major? created with QuizFarm.com

Yeah, well, I guess that's what I *should* have been ... However, I chose the options #3 and #5 instead (and steered off #5 in the last minute). But maybe what I'm doing now instead of #5 - Publishing - has a bit of art in it. But I should perhaps have specialised entirely in Graphic Design, because that's what I like the most about my Publishing course.

Click the phallos to see all the new pictures!

As usual, only about 30% of the pictures are decent enough to show anyone. But this time I wasn't actually expecting anything else, since I mostly used the Zenit as the camera of choice for taking pictures from a moving car, and then, later, as a backup for when the batteries of my Olympus died. My digital camera's manual focus is a nightmare to use, and the autofocus has severe problems with moving targets, so the Zenit's fast and simple manual focus was much more suitable for these conditions.

Of course, many of the pictures look kind of interesting, because of a certain problem I have with SLR cameras.
When I'm calm and, most importantly, NOT photographing, I know perfectly well that the higher the f/value is, the more depth of field you have (i.e. f16 puts most of the picture in focus, while f2 concentrates the focus on one certain point, and most of the other stuff is out of focus).
But when I've just spotted 'the perfect picture', and am nervously struggling to get my camera in gear, a thought sometimes hits me: "But what if it was THE OTHER WAY AROUND???!!!" (Smaller number, more depth ...??)
I guess I might get confused sometimes because of the slightly confusing fact that the smaller the f/value, the more of the lens is exposed, and vice versa. (The smaller the aperture, and the bigger the f/value, the more focal depth you get.) Maybe it would help if I'd try to think of it in terms of "closure", not "aperture" ...
(Here is a total idiot's guide to aperture, which I, obviously, found quite useful...)

(The title is borrowed from an old website that used to exist in the 1990's - "Akane's kitchen of Pain" - where some manga and anime fan published his recipes. He had a cooking style quite close to the one of Akane in Ranma 1/2. I don't remember much of it, except that he recommended eating straight from the pan (so you don't have so much to rinse), and called sesame oil "Tenchi Muyo oil", because his mum would pronounce it "sasami oil" ...)

Anyway. Today's dinner and part of tomorrow's breakfast, if there's any of it left until then:

Asparagus baked in paste! (about 35 specimen, almost enough for one person)



Ingredients:

¤ 1 tin of white asparagus left behind by your former tenant
¤ Some flour (not pure wheat if you can avoid it - wheat mixed with rye is tastier)
¤ 2 eggs
¤ Some water
¤ Two big pieces of garlic
¤ Some salt, curry and chilipeppers (or whatever you like and have at hand)
¤ A third egg

Take a bowl and put some flour in it. I never care exactly how much flour I take, but I would guess about 5 dl (mwa hah haa you people who never learned the metric system! I never learned *your* system!!).
Break the eggs into the flour. It's less messy if you make a hole in the flour where you can put the eggs.
Mix the eggs and the flour as well as you can. Press the garlic into the dough, and add the other spices, according to taste. Then add water while mixing the dough all the time, until it's nice and supple, but not so wet it sticks everywhere.
Wash the dough off your hands, so that your hands won't stick while baking. Open the tin of asparagus with your Swiss army knife. (A normal can-opener won't do. I'm serious.)
If you, like me, don't have any rolling pin (because all of it except the handles has mysteriously disappeared), just press the dough somewhat flat with your hands. Then cut it in pieces big enough to wrap around the asparagi. Take an asparagus and wrap it in a piece of dough, pressing and pulling the dough until it covers most of the asparagus.
Now is about the time to remember that you should pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees Celcius. Bring out the baking tray and spread a piece of baking tray paper on it. Now arrange the wrapped asparagi on the tray tightly in interesting geometrical formations.
If you are as smart and experienced with dough as I am, you will neither have any asparagi nor any dough left once you're finished. Just try to adjust the thickness of the dough wrap to the number of asparagi left.
Put the wrapped up asparagi in the oven (about mid-level). They should stay there about 15-20 minutes, or until they are 'ready'.
Ten minutes into the baking you might think of how nicely shiny the stuff could be if you'd brush it with egg. So, take another egg, break it into a cup and get your medium-sized paintbrush (for walls and stuff, because you don't have any sissy 'baking brush'). Make sure it's clean. Then, mix the white and the yolk in the cup, and paint the wrapped asparagi with it. Then put them back in the oven for another ten minutes. (Save the rest of the egg for something nasty you'll cook tomorrow.)
One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten ... Whee! All finished! Let them cool down if you can, because the asparagus inside the dough is a bit hot fresh out of the oven.

Le spirit dans l'escalier (wise afterthoughts):
1. The asparagi are tough to bite apart, so I ended up eating a piece of dough and the whole asparagus first, then the rest of the dough. Possible solutions: either cut the asparagus in pieces before wrapping it up, or give in to over-civilization and use fork and knife while eating it.
2. A mild dip based on some thick milk product-like stuff wouldn't have been bad at all with this. But once I'd started eating, I was too hungry to go make any.

Last night, I couldn't sleep (as usual lately, thanks to 1001 irritating things including the extremely annoying guy who has been renting my apartment), so I tried to do something constructive while waiting to get so exhausted from lack of sleep that I would finally fall unconscious on my bed around 3:30 AM.

I found some more pretty decent pictures that I had taken back in May of the decaying industrial complex on Liebermannstrasse, Berlin/Weissensee, and uploaded them on Flickr ...

(Geklaut von der Band Wir sind Helden - wobei alle auf Musik bezogenen Fragen mit Comics-bezogenen Fragen ersetzt worden sind.)

Wo geboren: Värnamo, Småland, Schweden
Wann: 19/4 1981
Wie (Kopf- Steiß- Zange- Saugglocken- Kaiserschnitt): Kopf zuerst, und zwar schnell. Ich habe meine Mutter in den Arsch getreten, sobald ich endlich raus war.

COMICS-EVOLUTION (PASSIV):
Erster Comic: Soweit ich weiss, entweder "die Mumins" von Tove Jansson oder "Bamse" von Rune Andreasson.
Lieblingscomics bis zehn Jahre: "Mumins", "Bamse", "Lucky Luke", "Yakari", "Tim & Struppi", "Grön Natt" und "Pearl" von Horst Schröder und Mikael Grahn, und die Shakespeare-Adaptationen von Gianni De Luca.
Mit zehn Jahren: Ich versuche mich vergebens zu erinnern, was für Comics ich in dem Alter gelesen habe – wir waren gerade nach Deutschland gezogen. Es scheint, ich habe damals eher Prosa gelesen...
Mit zwölf Jahren: Hmm ... "Sandman" und "Abenteuer aus der Elfenwelt", aber immer noch eher Prosa.
Mit vierzehn: "Blade of the Immortal", "Akira", "Adolf", "Maus", "Battle Angel Alita", "Ranma ½", "Corto Maltese", Rumiko Takahashis Seejungfrauen-Saga, "3x3 Eyes", die gesammelten Werke von Masamune Shirow, Will Eisner, Bilal, Moebius, Jaques Tardi und Ralf König, und immer noch "Sandman".
Mit siebzehn: "Blade of the Immortal", "Cerebus", Baru, Francois Bourgeon, "Love & Rockets", Joe Sacco, Sampei Shirato, "Nausicaä", "Sin City", "Strangers in Paradise", "Macao" von Altan, Charlie Christensen, "Mystiska 2:an" von Rolf Gohs, Joakim Pirinen.
Mit neunzehn: Weiterhin "Blade of the Immortal", die Schweine-in-Panzer-Comics von Hayao Miyazaki, und das meiste von dem, was mir auch früher gefallen hat.
Mit zweiundzwanzig: Ungefähr dann habe ich "Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou" und Igorts "5 ist die perfekte Zahl" entdeckt, ansonsten war mein Geschmack ungefähr derselbe. Ich habe allen möglichen Blödsinn studiert und wollte Journalistin werden – Comics waren leider nicht das wichtigste zu der Zeit.
Und jetzt? GIPI!!!!!!!!!!!!! Immer noch "Blade of the Immortal", "Love & Rockets" und Hayao Miyazaki, und ausserdem, seit nicht so langer Zeit: "Vagabond", "Full Metal Alchemist", "Blame!", "Dragon Head"... und "Die Metabarone"!

COMICS-EVOLUTION (AKTIV):
Werkzeuge und Techniken? Papier: Hahnemühle 185g in A3 oder A4 (je nach Druckformat).
Skizzen: Bleistiftminen 0,7 B.
Tusche: zwei "Kalligraphiefüller" ( jeweils 1 mm und 2 mm breit), Staedtler pigment liner 04, zwei Pinsel – ein kleiner 00-Pinsel und ein vielseitiger Dachshaar-Pinsel, Tusche von Bourgeois (welches ziemlich scheisse ist).
Lineale: ein durchsichtiges 30 cm-Lineal, ein "Pythagoras-Dreieck" (b = 15 cm), zwei russische Kurvenlineale (ein kleines und ein grosses), und zwei rumänische Schablonen für Kreise und Ovalen.
Radiergummi: die grossen weissen von Staedtler.
Lettering: per Hand mit Staedtler pigment liner 08, wenn ich auf die grossen Originalzeichnungen lettere, oder einem Pilot Hi-Tecpoint V5, wenn ich im Druckformat auf verkleinerten Kopien lettere. Am liebsten aber am Computer in InDesign mit den Fonts Komika Slim, SF Toontime Blotch oder A.C.M.E. Secret Agent, je nach dem Comic.
Techniken: Ich habe nie wirklich "unterschiedliche Stile" ausprobiert, sondern habe nur einen und denselben Stil irgendwie weiterentwickelt. Ich zeichne prinzipiell keine Comics im Computer mit dem Tablet, sondern bin Papier-und-Tinte-Fetischist... Tusche-Techniken, die ich toll finde: keine weissen Konturen in schwarze Flächen machen (so wie Dave Sim und Gerhard), viel schraffieren (wie Joe Sacco).
Andere Werkzeuge und Techniken? Ich habe vor einer Weile zum ersten Mal im Leben einen farbigen Comic, in Gouache, gemacht. Das war toll, obwohl der Comic eher textbezogen war und die Zeichnungen nicht so gross rauskamen. Das Aquarellpapier, das ich benützte, war aber leider irgendwie stinkig und zu grob strukturiert.
Wann hast du deine jetzige Technik gelernt? Ich habe immer so gemacht... Ich habe erstmals meine Comics getuscht, als ich 15 war und angefangen habe, mein grosses Epos "Treibgut" auf Papier zu bringen. Davor hatte ich noch keine Comics so "im Ernst" gezeichnet.
Und wie? Ich habe einfach losgezeichnet, und angenommen, dass ich durch das Zeichnen selber alles lernen würde, was ich brauche, um ein guter Comic-Zeichner zu werden. "Die beste Art, irgendwas zu lernen, ist es im Ernst zu machen", wie Ryoga Hibiki es in "Ranma ½" asgedrückt hat.
Comics vor [dem jetzigen Hauptwerk]? Seit ich klein war habe ich Entwürfe für unterschiedliche Geschichten gemacht. In jüngeren Jahren wollte ich zwar ein "richtiger Verfasser" werden, aber ich habe trotzdem immer Bilder und kleine Comics von meinen Romanfiguren gekritzelt. Vor "Treibgut" hatte ich aber keine ernsten Gedanken an Comics, nur an Prosa-Romane.
Sonstige Zumhorstmachungen auf Papier? Die Serie von Kurzgeschichten über Eva ist eine meiner Lieblingsbeschäftigungen neben "Treibgut", obwohl die Geschichte, an der ich gerade (seit 2 Jahren oder so!) arbeite, verdammt schwierig ist (vielleicht ist sie zu ernst?). Ausserdem habe ich ab und zu manche Spinoff-Geschichten über die anderen Hauptpersonen in "Treibgut" gemacht. Und auch ein paar kurze Comics, die nichts mit "Treibgut" zu tun haben, und meistens von Schweinen, Osteuropäischem Landleben oder beidem handeln.

SOZIALVERHALTEN
Freizeitgestaltung: Ich schaue Filme und lese Bücher und Comics. Wenn ich die Möglichkeit habe, betätige ich mich auch mal (sehr) gerne erotisch...
Nahrung: Vegetarisch. Irgendwas in Teig gebackenes, mit frischer Gurke und riesigen Mengen von Knoblauch. (Ich liebe Gurken, bin aber gegen Gurkenpollen allergisch!)
Sportive Vorlieben (aktiv): Reiten, wenn ich mal die Möglichkeit habe (wild durch die Gegend zu galoppieren ist besser als Sex!). Klettern, wenn ich mal die Möglichkeit habe. Slalom habe ich nur einmal probiert, aber es hat mir gefallen. Ich fahre ziemlich viel Fahrrad, aber das sehe ich nicht als Sport, sondern einfach Fortbewegung. Manchmal, wenn ich frustriert bin und Überschussenergie habe, gehe ich rennen. Dabei gefällt mir Sprinten besser als Dauerlauf.
Sportive Vorlieben (passiv): Alle möglichen Kampfsportarten – Boxen, Karate, Kung Fu, alles. Ich habe neulich Parkour entdeckt, und finde es grossartig. Generell gefällt es mir zuzuschauen, wenn attraktive junge Männer tolle Tricks mit ihren wohlgeformten, muskulösen Körpern machen.
Alternativleben: Landwirt (Selbstversorgung), Auslandskorrespondent, Leuchtturmwärter, Angestellte bei Human Rights Watch (meine Lieblings-NGO), Verrückte Frau im Wald, Möbelpacker, Pferdemasseur, Tischler.
Bla bla bla, einsame Insel, bla bla? Genug Zeichenblöcke und Stifte, um mein Lebenswerk zuende bringen zu können, ohne jemals dieses Paradies der Ruhe wieder verlassen zu müssen. Ein bisschen Werkzeuge wäre auch nicht schlecht – Axt, Spaten, Messer, Säge, Schmirgelpapier und so, damit ich mir einen Zeichentisch basteln könnte.
Phobien und Ticks: Klaustrophobie.

UNTERHALTUNGSPRÄFERENZEN
Ich gehe ins Kino um: Einen Film auf der Leinwand zu sehen. Normalerweise schaue ich aber Filme zu hause am Computer, am liebsten alleine (weil alle anderen Leute immer Kommentare machen müssen, oder nachher "diskutieren" wollen.)
Lieblingsfilme: "Chungking Express" und "2046" von Wong Kar-Wai, "Porco Rosso" und "Spirited Away" von Hayao Miyazaki, "Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence!", "Pulp Fiction", "Kill Bill", "Le Grand Bleu", "Schwarze Katze, Weisse Katze", "Respiro", "Sharkskin Man & Peach Hip Girl", "Hana-bi", und alle möglichen Jet Li-Filme (wegen den Kampfkünsten :o).
Lieblingsschauspieler: Weil sie gute Schauspieler sind (und gut aussehen): Takeshi Kitano, Tadanobu Asano, Tony Leung; weil sie tolle Sachen machen können (und gut aussehen): Jet Li, Chau Belle Dinh; weil sie einfach so gut aussehen, dass alles andere dabei egal ist: Takeshi Kaneshiro.
Lieblingsfernsehserie: Anime: "Full Metal Alchemist" und "Wolf's Rain". Als ich klein war, war ich ausserdem ganz besessen von "D'Artagnan und die drei MuskeTiere". Live Action: "Matador" fand ich irgendwann sehr toll – ich bin damit aufgewachsen, genau wie mit "Monty Python's Flying Circus". Heute sehe ich nur selten Fernsehserien, die nicht japanische Zeichentrickfilme sind ...
Lieblingsbücher: Die drei grössten: "Leben und Schicksal" von Wassily Grossman, "Johnny Got his Gun" von Dalton Trumbo, und "Catch-22" von Joseph Heller. Die Bücher des Sowjetischen Seemansromantik-Fantasy-Schriftstellers Alexander Grin haben auch einen gewaltigen Eindruck auf mich gemacht, schon lange bevor ich sie überhaupt gelesen hatte! Sonstige für mich sehr wichtige Verfasser: James Joyce, Hermann Hesse, Franz Kafka, Feodor Dostojewski, Viktor Pelevin, Woody Guthrie und Anja Kauranen/Snellman. "Voyage au bout de la nuit" von Céline sollte auch nicht vergessen werden.
Die Welt muss gewarnt werden vor: Der Schwachsinnigkeit, anderen Leuten blind zu folgen.
Die Welt darf Folgendes nicht verpassen: Die Möglichkeit, mit dem eigenen Verstand Entscheidungen zu treffen.

So, now not only the syndicalist weekly Arbetaren, but also the liberal daily Dagens Nyheter has said it out loud: the hymen is a myth!

There is no such thing as a hymen that has to be 'broken' - it's actually just an elastic piece of mucous membrane that partially covers the vaginal entrance but can easily be pushed to the side. The majority of women don't bleed during their first penetration, and if you're willing and sufficiently relaxed, it doesn't hurt much, or at all (depending on the size of your partner), either.

Hey, that's just the way it was for me! And here I had been thinking all my life that I must be abnormal, because I could never find any hymen!!!
No one ever told me about this, although I had sexual education at least five times in school (in every new school I transferred to since 3rd grade).
Terrible injustice hath been done unto me! >_< I was afraid of having sex for years - for no reason at all!!!!!! I had to 'practise' with fruits and vegetables until I was finally brave enough to try it for real!!!! While I could have eaten the fruits and vegetables instead, and gotten valuable nutrition!!!!!!