musikkfest oslo

The house is filling up with bike freaks faster than you can say Campagnolo these days: we have Inspector Gadget visiting. As a result we did a tour of all the bike shops in downtown Oslo on Saturday morning. On our way we came across a number of stages being set up all around town. Turns out that in the way only Norway can, the Fête de la Musique which is held in more than a hundred countries every year on the 21st of June is also held in Oslo… on the first Saturday of June every year instead.

Mr. Snow and I ended up in Paris for the Fête completely by chance one year, made it all the better due to lack of planning. We had dinner and lethal mint cocktails at a fabulously mystical Moroccan restaurant by flickering candlelight. When we finished and went out on the street again we found it was still light (benefit of holding the Festival on the longest day of the year). The streets were full of music of every kind, from impromptu acappella soul outside the Pompidou Centre to the Gotan Project at the Palais Royal. A hard-to-beat experience but anyway, note to self: remember the change of date for next year in Oslo!

We had made other plans as the weather is still as lovely as it has ever been in Oslo. The mercury hit 31C a couple of days ago (for comparison, it was -1C one morning about three weeks ago!). Barbequeing is reaching endemic levels in the city, and we were no exception. The lambs ribs we got were a little bit fatty, and I forgot the Guinness at the Vinmonopolet but otherwise if you need a quick marinade for lamb for the barbie this never goes wrong.

Marinade for grilled lamb

1/3 olive oil

1/3 soya sauce

1/3 Guinness (or any other dark beer)

A few quick grinds of pepper

Leave lamb (chops, ribs, or anything else you fancy) to marinade for as long as you can. Chuck onto hot grill when hungry. Cook until done. Happy summer!

epileptic by david b.

The comic book library is leading me deeper and deeper into the comic book world, and it is turning out to be quite a family. There is a definite Francophone thread connecting many of its members, from Guy Delisle (of Pyongyang) to Joann Sfar (of The Rabbi’s Cat).

The book I finished last night, Volume 1 of Epileptic, is by another French comic book great, David B. It also turns out he mentored Marjane Satrapi of Persepolis fame. The book tells the story of the cartoonist’s childhood, growing up in 1960’s France, in the forefront his older brother’s epilepsy and his parents’ continuous search to find a cure for him. The disease affects each family member profoundly, and in different ways. The cartoonist creates a story-telling and illustrating world for himself even as a child, while his parents tramp increasingly wearily from one macrobiotic commune to the next.

A couple of great reviews online give more background. But the most striking aspect of this book for me are its black and white ink drawings, filling panel after panel with high-contrast, rich animist images reflecting the grip the disease has on his brother and the family. I’m also looking forward to the second and final volume to see how his personal story ends.