Here it is. Henrik is the tall one, Honorio is the bald one and the young one is Miguel, Honorio’s son.
We’re having a few sunny holidays together in Valencia, now in the middle of the Fallas celebration. Now we’re going to a mascletà (don’t worry, this is not a bombardment).

Great !

Have a nice holiday Henrik !!

So how does it feel to see each other "en chair et en os ?" (in the flesh) ?? Isn't that amazing ?

AWESOME! Hope you two have a blast!

i would really love to meet some AMers in the flesh. if anyone is ever on holidays in sydney, be sure to let me know.

If some of you ever visit Kristiansand, Norway, it would be fun to get together. Not very likely that'll happen, though.

I'd also appreciate some help in making my own remake of Nirvana's Nevermind cover.

Awesome pic!

Hola, this is Henrik. Alone with Honorio's computer. I bored him out by showing him all my different AM source documents, so he went to bed.

I'm having a fantastic week with my family! The sunny weather, Honorio's excellent cooking, his lovely children, the unique fallas celebration... Hanna is having a great time too. The Pet Sounds image was taken at an animal zoo and tomorrow we are going to see an animated IMAX film about fishes. Hanna has also learned a few Spanish words already ("hola", "tonto").

Yes, it's great to meet like this! We have also talked about setting up a meeting of a different format - an Acclaimed Music conference with speakers talking about their favorite topics. For example, the mad scientist could present some groundbreaking new data and Kevin could organize a work session about "How to enjoy Animal Collective".

I LOVE the idea of an AM meetup!

We'd have to have a panel of speakers discussing Beatles v. Dylan too, right?

Henrik, you're not the skinny, nerdy statistician you're supposed to be!

Daniel, that is quite possibly the most awesome thing I've ever seen.

That is way too cool. Have a great vacation!

Hi, I’m Honorio alone this time. And I wasn’t bored at all with all the statistics! It was a really interesting information but I admit that statistics are not my strong point, I’m not a numbers guy (just like schleuse said before).
I’m enjoying a lot too the holidays with Henrik and his lovely family. We’re having interesting conversations about music, work, life and, of course, the other AM forum posters (don’t worry, we love all of you).
Hannah is absolutely adorable and, even that my kids showed her how to say “tonto” (Spanish for “silly” she says it in such a lovely way that is impossible to get upset.
And, yes, we can have an Acclaimed Music International Meeting. What about Paris as the first venue? Or probably we should do it online. But it would be nice to do it seriously. And now, ladies and gentlemen, our chairman Henrik is going to introduce the next speaker: Moonbeam and his conference “Tonight I’m gonna party like it’s 1999".
And, Daniel, that was great!

Cool call for Paris as first meeting place ^^

Paris c'est très bien
I have a spare room at home and can fix accomodations at friends' houses.
This is very exciting !!

although of course online would be much more easy and efficient.
But a meeting of AMers in Paris is still a good idea anyway..
And what about a conference about songs from 1926 to 1928 about hung men ? no, hanged men ?

fcuk, just back from Paris and decently broke right now... but anyway, what a surprisingly awesome AMplosion HenHon it is...
never thought that some of us ammies would actually meet in real life..


/coming next: pictures of me and that mismaiome_fishnetamethyst_stalkerkid
caught snogging/

Henrik, you're not the skinny, nerdy statistician you're supposed to be!

h, didn't you know, it's actually
statistics obsessed Stephen Baldwin's
secret second identity,



but since his fake swedish accent
sounded so cute,
we just let him carry on..

nj - hahaha (re snogging)

if we do ever have an AM "convention" we might need security in case sinder velvin etc. tries to walk in w/ a homemade bomb

i, of course, vote for nyc (which i'm sure will please billadama, penguin, slush, schwah, nick and anyone else in the northeast i've forgotten or am not aware of)

hey nj you were in Paris and you didn't even tell me ???

I'll be in NYC at the end of May and beginning of June, too soon for an AM convention but we could take an AM drink ^^

hey moonbeam, if i remember correctly we're on opposite sides of the city, but i would be totally keen for lunch in the city one weekend when you have nothing better to do?

nj - hahaha (re Baldwin)

Rune,
Don't feel safe in Kristiansand - I'm working on a research funding application with a group that includes Kristiansand people.

Moeboid, that'd be great!

sorry nic, it did happen all too spontaneous,
but nonetheless I have some "good" news for you:
I've promised my fiancé
(yes, that certain specific travel impulse/who's currently working/residing à Paris..^^)
to meet him again as soon as possible.

reads: if that'll be the case, it'd be end of april.. further contacts on lastfm, how 'bout that?

moonbeam, my email address is table_scraps at hotmail.com i'm on MSN all the time so that's a convenient way to contact me. anyone else who wants to add me feel free to do so. actually, i ENCOURAGE you to add me. i would love to talk to you :)

nj

that was a joke, of course. I don't want to interfere.
but end of april will be ok, hope the weather will be fine for a café en terrasse

Hi, Honorio and Henrik. Looks like you're having a great time together. Nice pictures!

In February I was in Spain too, but a bit more South, on Gran Canaria. In the end I did not go skiing, but had one week of stress-free vacation, doing absolutely, completely, totally nothing.

Would be great to meet. I would also vote for Paris to have our first "AM Forum Conference". It's one of my favourite cities and haven't smelled the typical atmosphere for over two years. NYC or down under sound fine to me too, as long as we get the money together for getting and staying there ...

Everybody wants to meet!!!

And as for the AM get together, it would be a nice idea to start with a cultural kick-off, where everybody brings something typical from his/her culture. It does not have to be the usual drinks or foods, can also be something else, like e.g. musical instrument?

Don't know, just brainstorming here ...

Yes everybody wants to meet, and YOU started that Henrik and Honorio. You just lit the match.

if we do ever have an AM "convention" we might need security in case sinder velvin etc. tries to walk in w/ a homemade bomb

haha.. anyhow I wonder what'd be worse: this or one of his endless coked up rants at the lectern desk..

whatever you propose, Andre... just don't expect me to join in with the cliché-laden bavarian stein. I heard Heidi Klum's supposed to supply her american friends with Katjes wine gums everytime she returns from Germany. maybe that's an option..

..this or a personally signed video game shell from Uwe Boll..

Everybody wants to meet!

good stuff. bespeaks the good vibes here on the forum. despite the occasionaly heated disagreement it's a friendly place.

nassim - absolument! remind me closer to the time and we'll arrange some drinking activities. if you're lucky your visit will coincide w/ one of our famous parties (peep those facebook pics)

Katjes means little kitten in Dutch, so that would fit perfectly in the D.N.F. (Deutsch-Niederländische Freundschaft).

And Uwe Boll is even more intelligent than Heidi, I mean, producing not less than three movies in the IMDB bottom top 100 is quite an achievement to be proud of!

I guess we'll just skip the cultural kick-off and go directly to that 'café en terrasse' nicolas proposed.

..which means that you'll be there, too?

despite the occasionaly heated disagreement it's a friendly place.

reminds me of the tags "Mr. Maurer" and "Animal Collective" in my mental diary... bloddy griper

..which means that you'll be there, too?

Depends ... me was more refering to the AM group meeting event, not your rendez-vouz with nicolas. To be honest, some other plans already occupy me for end of April. But let's see, one croissant doesn't make spring yet, so it might still work out to join the both of you ...

Honorio, just out of curiosity, what is life like in Valencia?

I'm listening to the album 1972 from Josh Rouse right now, and apparently he's currently living in ... Valencia.

If Valencia is like his music, I would seriously consider moving down to your place sometime.

Hi, André:
You’re right. Josh Rouse is now living in Valencia too. His wife Paz is Spanish (I’ve read on the net that she took him to the emergency room after having a nearly fatal pancreatitis due to alcohol abuse). Now they’re sober and happily married. They even formed a pop duo under the explicit name “She’s Spanish I’m American”. I’ve read too in Rockdelux that during his last show in “El Loco” in Valencia he premièred two new song in Spanish, one of them called precisely “Valencia”.
But the answer to your question about “what is life like in Valencia” is quite difficult for me. I’ll try to write some thoughts about it but I’m afraid that I won’t be able to reach to some final conclusion:
- First of all is inevitable to talk about the weather. Here the autumns and winters are really benign (for North Europeans point of view, I got some Cuban friends living in Valencia that told me about the harsh winters here!). And the springs are fantastic, Henrik can testify about it. In fact during almost the whole week they couldn’t see any cloud, only the last day when I told Henrik and Malin some nonsense like “the sky is getting sad because you’re leaving”. But the summers here are extremely hot and wet, it’s inevitable to sweat all day and that’s something I can’t stand.
- But oddly during the summer Valencia receive milliards of tourists looking for sun and sand. In fact Valencia is somehow like the Spanish California (or Florida), with splendid beaches for the daytime and endless party for the night time. Many North Europeans choose Valencia as his last destination after retirement (in fact there’s a village in Alicante where 90% of the inhabitants are Danish, including the mayor). But this has obvious drawbacks too, specially the excessive increase of construction works with a serious threat to environment and problems like water shortage.
- About living with Valencian (and in general Spanish) people, I think we are friendly, warm and passionate, it’s quite easy to get friends here. But I must admit too that we are noisy, loudmouth, individualist and even cheaters. And not as true as people from other countries. Henrik told me that the Swedes are people that could seem cold at first glance but when you get to know them they’re warm and true. Probably Spanish people are the opposite, we find a friend on the street, we greet effusively each other and then we say “I’ll call you to have some drinks”. But we never call. But maybe I should not use the word “we”. In fact I invited Henrik, it was not a bluff.

And finally let me say something about our holidays (Henrik, I hope that won’t make you feel uncomfortable). I was hoping that all was going to work well, I was sure that we were going to enjoy the meeting but the actual facts exceeded my expectations. Both Henrik and Malin are wonderful human beings (hey, we need more like you on planet earth!) and that made the whole thing easy and pleasant. I consider now Henrik a close friend, much closer that many friends that I see often. We share a common view of many things in life and we even share the same “lover” in Malin’s words. Or the same “mental disease” in Sophie’s words (Nicolas wife). You know what I’m talking about, here we all share the same lover.
And two more photos, this time not reproducing any cover art. First a photo of Henrik with two beautiful girls, Hannah (his daughter) and Mar (my daughter). And then the photo of the two friends.

I consider now Henrik a close friend, much closer that many friends that I see often. We share a common view of many things in life and we even share the same “lover” in Malin’s words.

..and maybe THAT's the reason my best friends always told me to stay away from things like AMF because of the risky lack of REAL social issues..??
great pics, after all, makes me wish I could've been with you..

Honorio, your answer is much more than I could have ever expected. Nice pictures too. Thank you!

It sure wasn't a bluff. It was one of the best weeks in my life!

...and I told you to be careful with the Zé/Toni syndrome.

Sounds like you two had a well-deserved fantastic time. I feel that I could definitely be great friends with many of you here if we met up in real life.

exactly, mb

...and I told you to be careful with the Zé/Toni syndrome.