Christmas bling

Hello Destiny

This looks ok - better than last weeks snowy chaos. Yes, my computer speaks Finnish. The picture you want to be looking at to be in the know is the second one from the left. That's Thursday.

I've got a date with destiny, I would say if I would be inclined towards the cheesy. And I am. Destiny*, here I come.

* "Destiny" is not a person.

Feeder - This town

This is where I’m coming from: I’ve never actively followed Feeder. Although I’ve been aware of their existence and heard their hits, I’ve never started a conversation with the words “Have you heard that new Feeder track?”

Until now, that is. Their new single This Town awoke me from the relatively Feederless existence I’ve been living. It’s a shame in a way, because it turns out that This Town is far from their best song. It’s not the best track from their album Renegades that was released earlier this year (the title song snatches that title). In fact, even the far more melodic and melancholic Down to the river, the B-side of the single, is a stronger track. This Town is a competent rock song, but it does lack that great melodiousness that Feeder usually excels at. 

Review published on Music-News.com:
http://www.music-news.com/showreview.asp?H=Feeder&nReviewID=6581

Mantra of the day

Keep your eyes on the prize. Eyes on the prize.

Outfit of the day

The all butter mince pie.

Yeah baby.

Snow! Where?

It feels like a case of the Emperors new clothes. People staying home, trains refusing to move... IT'S NOT SNOW PEOPLE! It's just a slightly whiter rain.

On the other hand, it's quite fun to see how much hoopla a measly half centimeter of grey gloop can cause. Til it affects you personally. My meeting tomorrow, at the riviera of UK, just got postponed because of having snowed there all night.

Now, I'm sorry, but if it ain't looking like this when you wake up, it's not snow:

Also, walking on it won't kill you. In fact, it's quite fun.

Itsy bitsy flower

Autumn sky

Radio telegram - Stockholmarnas julsupande

Radio telegram about how much the Stockholmians drink over the holiday season. In Swedish.

Radio rep - Fast i 50-talet

Radio feature about a guy that is hopelessly stuck in the 1950s. In Swedish.

Radio rep - Svordomar

Radio feature about swear words. In Swedish.

Autumn in Bath

Canal Boat

Greyvember

November is doing it's very best to kill me slowly. And it's still only the 4th.
Everything is utterly boring and grey. Suddenly I realise that putting up all the Christmas bling a month too early is a survival strategy.

As is the relentless cocooning.

Send Concretes your summer snaps

I like this idea. The Concretes are urging you to send in your best summer snaps. They will pick a favorite and post it on this blog each month: http://wywh.co/

Brilliant in its simplicity. Just like their music.

Warpaint

I've been a bit slow, I admit. But let's think about Warpaint for a moment. The name is brilliant. And by my tail, it does sound like their music is, too.

Let Me In

It sounded like a stupid idea - but now it's here, it actually doesn't look so bad at all: The American version of Let The Right One In. So they've skipped the Morrissey reference in the title, and hired the director of Cloverfield to do the remake. Here's the trailer.

Playing with food

Coffee and cake

 Yum.

Paul Smith - Margins

Paul Smith, frontman of Maxïmo Park, has gone solo, at least for the time being. By doing so he joins ranks with the likes of Fran Healy from Travis, Brandon Flowers from The Killers and Kele from Bloc Party, all frontmen who recently released their first solo albums. 

Mr Smith recently announced that the release of a book of pictures will coincide with the album release. “Thinking in Pictures” will consist of pictures taken on tour with Maximo Park.

Released on his own small label Billingham records, Margins is a very sympathetic story, hard to dislike in its earnestness. It’s also easy get just a bit irritated by the same earnestness. When it’s good, it is very good. But sometimes it becomes a bit too earnest and sincere, falling into the already overcrowded jar of cliches labelled “young man with guitar and an effects pedal”- like the very stripped down Pinball.
But that is the exception. What will stand out the most on the album are the unpolished Northern little pop gems you will find in songs like North Atlantic Drift and Strange Fiction.

By a coincidence, I was reading David Nicholls’ Starter for Ten when listening to this album, and it became a perfect soundtrack to the searching young man in the book, struggling to find wisdom, struggling to get the girl and dreaming of drinking red wine at big wooden tables and kicking piles of fallen autumn leaves on long walks. Since most people have a period of their life that they want to spend doing those very things, the album is bound to find its listeners, someting that the already sold out tour could be proof of.



First published on Music-News.com: http://www.music-news.com/showreview.asp?H=Paul-Smith&nReviewID=6390

Pillars & Greek Cats

A Summer Wedding

Morcheeba - Blood Like Lemonade

Reunited with vocalist Skye Edwards, Morcheeba has gotten the groove that made them famous back.


The single Blood Like Lemonade is a great example of the older sound, lost and now found. Recently featured in the season finale of HBO:s vampire series True Blood, it is in Paul Godfrey of the band’s own words, a song about “an ex-priest vampire bounty hunter, who goes around seeking revenge on bad guys…whose blood he drinks like lemonade.“ Of course.
Seems it’s now mandatory to make a contribution to the vampire themed pop culture if you want to play with the cool (and pale) kids. But if it gets a new generation to open their eyes and ears for the classic trip hop of Morcheeba, so be it.

When you think about it - the dramatic theme would make the lyrics a great fit in a heavy metal song. Although I personally prefer Morcheebas dreamlike sound and whispering vocals, it would be a treat (or interesting at least) to hear someone like Nightwish make a bombastic cover of it.

On Morcheebas own site, Paul Godfrey says ’this is the record we should have made after Big Calm” – and he’s right. This is what Morcheeba always should have sounded like.

Published on Music-News.com:
http://www.music-news.com/showreview.asp?H=Morcheeba&nReviewID=6362

Easy peasy apple pie

One of the things I looked forward to indulging in once we moved in to our new flat was baking. (Other were simple pleasures like NOT finding an empty space in the fridge where you left your food or wine, NOT finding unknown curly hairs in my razor were also on the list).

Now we've lived in this new flat (and when I say new, I mean new to us, not new as is mint condition, cause that it ain't) for a couple of weeks and I have yet to start any bigger baking projects - It takes a lot of time for everything to settle after a move this big, and since we are still waiting for my kitchen paraphernalia to arrive in boxes from the Swedish warehouse the poor utensils have been stored for the best part of 2 years, as well as for the the IKEA delivery service guys to put down their crack pipe for long enoug hto successfully deliver our furniture to our house, it's still a bit of a mess in there.

I HAVE however managed to find a new, dead simple recipe for apple pie, that I in the spirit of everything nice will share:

Kleft some apples (about 7 f them) into a pie tin - the Swedish kind, big diameter with low edges, like this one:

Then powder (sift, sprinke - I don't really have the foodie vocabulary nailed yet) the apples with about 2 dl flour and 1 dl sugar (1 dl = 100 milliliters ok?)

After that it's just a question of covering the beauty with some butter. Use a cheese grater (you know, one of those things that would make your life endlessly much easier than trying to cut cheese with a knife like some kind of caveman)

And then you pop it in the oven for 40-45 minutes on 200 degrees, gas mark 6. Ta Daaaa! Easy peasy apple pie.

Steam of life

This is as Finnish as it gets: A documentary set in the sauna, about silent Finnish men opening up and sharing the often violent, sad and uplifting stories about their life. It makes me so home sick I might just shed a teeny tiny tear.


STEAM OF LIFE TRAILER from OktoberFi on Vimeo.

Hurts

There’s a interview with Hurts on the Gigwise website. Well, there’s one there too, since Hurts – finally, a long time after first hearing Wonderful life – now has blown up, as they were meant to. They belong on the top.

I can’t help thinking though, like every indie kid inevitably always does when their favorite band goes and becomes all popular, that I liked it better when they were my little secret, and I got the satisfaction of evangelizing to others about them: “Have you heard the great news, Hurts is coming!”.

I try to suppress that feeling nowadays though, because it’s very unflattering, all about ego really. Now everybody knows them, and you don’t get to be a smartass about it any more. Get over it and get on with it.

In the interview, Theo Hutchcraft is saying “We’re not just two lads down the pub”. It’s just quite unheard of, for artists/celebrities, to say that you’re NOT like everybody else, that you’re NOT like any other person and have no intention of trying to be either. I love it.

That’s why I don’t get the “are they for real” discussion – What exactly is it that wouldn’t be real? Do people think that they dress in shell suits and listen to N-Dubz on their spare time? Because their happen to be able to form sentences without drooling and dress like your grandpa? 

I think this is the most real thing that has happened to the UK charts in a long time. And I can't wait for them to become real pop royalty. Even if that means that I don't get the satisfaction of introducing someone new to their music.  


You can find the interview here.

http://www.gigwise.com/features/58267/Hurts-It's-A-Wonderful-Life

Pausmusik

Ok. Av nagon anledning har nu alla Youtubeklipp pa bloggen blivt knasiga och saknar sin hogra halva. Eftersom HTML kod icke ar mitt gebit sa far ni lyssna pa pausmusik i form av Solander medan jag forsoker rycka tag i nan   datakunnig.

http://www.myspace.com/solandersweden

Hyper Hyperballad

This is brilliant in both idea and practice: Robyn covering Bjorks Hyperballad. From the Polar Music Prize in Stockholm.

Finndie Wednesday!

The lovely, lovely Husky Rescue. Note the best hipster/tango moustache ever. I get home sick just seeing it.
You might want to go to the Youtube link to watch the whole video thought, cause for some reason, it won't show the whole thing.... where's IT when you nee them?

Dagens roligaste

http://gizmodo.com/5632159/this-is-how-a-heavy-storm-looks-inside-a-cruise-liner

Dagens känsla

Bild fran Trendey.com

A work list

So it’s official now, I’ve got a new job.

And since I’m on a listy mood, I’m going to list good things about it.

-          I will be able to go to London, without actually living there.

-          I will be able to read A LOT on the train.

-          I’m going to be able to have a Nordic keyboard at work again!

-          I can go into the Bristol office for massage Wednesday and doughnut Fridays.

-          I get to work from home and occasionally, play 50s housewife and have the dinner ready for Chris when he comes home.

-          I get to see all the people I haven’t seen for almost a year in the London office.

-          I get to go to the Sun and 13 Cantons for after work drinks and stand outside on the pavement and feel Soho buzzing.

Sommarmiss

Jag har missat hela sommaren. Hela sommaren har jag suttit pa nionde vaningen i ett trist och knokfullt kontorslandskap och stirrat ut genom ett tjockt smutsigt fonster pa hustaken utanfor. Inte sett manniskorna nedanfor pa gatan i sina himla flip flips och solglasogon. Bara stirrat pa hustaken och reklalskyltarna pa de hogsta kontorsbyggnaderna, som delar airspace har uppe med oss, en fellow betongkloss som gor stadbilden lite tristare.

Jag har sett alla nordiska vanners bloggar och deras bildkavalkader av sommardopp, bara fotter, loppisar och skargardsliv. Och jag har forbannat detta U-lands arbetspolitik och slavliknande villkor som innebar att alla jobbar langa dagar, ingen fikar, alla ater lunch vid datorn och ingen jobbar hemifran nansin. Lagg till 20 dagars semester per ar som far tas ut i inte langre an en vecka i taget och du har typiska engelska arbetsvillkor. Anda ar produktiviteten langt lagre har an i Norden. Go figure, sjalv gar jag i nagonslags synnerligen oproduktiv och okonstruktiv halvdvala som inte direkt hjalper mig astadkomma nagra mirakel pa jobbet.

Forhoppningsvis kommer Greklandsresan som hagrar att rada bot pa allt detta. Det ar ratt hoga krav pa en veckas charter, men jag tanker mig att om jag far till en exakt och bra blandning av solstolslitteratur sa kan det nog ga vagen. Har ska racerrelaxas!

Fika, kom tillbaka

Herre min je vad jag saknat att fika. Formiddagsfikan, eftermiddgasfikan. Det ar sa mycket som dom inte forstatt har i England.

O-inspis (finlandism)

Oinspirationen har sänkt sig som ett vått täcke över min tillvaro.

Bara ett meddelande om ett nytt jobb och att äntligen få flytta in i vår nya lägenhet kan bota detta. Samt torra skor.

Suck

I dag ar en suck-dag. Som jag suckat redan, fastan klockan inte ens slagit lunch.

Inget farligt med det, kanns bara som att det liksom inte kommer tillrackligt med syre till knoppa annars.

Suck.

Men sa traktigt behover ju inte ni ha det. Ni kan titta pa det har istallet, och ova er pa att saga Iamamiwhoami.

Today...

...is a good day. My camera is ready for collection (finally!), I've just had half a jam doughnut, and something else, something big, that I can't say just yet. Jonsi gets to say stuff instead.

Just another Friday afternoon in the office

Slumming it with a Bacardi Breezer and a cracking Obi Blanche mixtape. http://soundcloud.com/obiblanche

Wind of change

Nu nar ny lagenhet och samboende star som nasta punkt pa att gora-listan, sa ar det latt hant att man i forandringens anda igen narmar sig “vad ska jag bli nar jag blir stor”- funderingarna. For att nu vara helt uppriktig sa har jag val spenderat ratt mycket tid id et mental skapet redan under det senaste aret, men nu mer an nagonsin. Sommar och ny lagenhet och allmant ratt trist job har latt den effekten.

Jag har aldrig sett mig som en person som sitter och raknar timmar fore klockan slar ga hem och tankte inte borja nu. So there we go, nagot maste goras. Det tristaste ar att ett journalistiskt jobb knappast ligger inom rackhall i ett land dar journalistoverskottet ar annu storre an i Sverige (och jag misstanker att det har journalistberget ar utonordentligt valutbildat och har 17 oavlonade praktikplatser i bagaget ocksa), och jag har inte nagon erfarenhet att namna pa engelska.

So there we go.

Kanske man skulle bli glasblasare.

There's a problem with your face

The 100 Greatest Movie Insults of All Time. If you don't like swearing much, better leave it be.

Cheap Monday - Jeans för folket

Egentligen är det konstigt att jeans med bootcut blev så stora i Finland, detta land som envisas med att låta befolkningen gå runt i en snöliknande sörja vars färg ligger nånstans mellan bländvit och gråbrun halva året. Konstigt, därför att sådana jeans har en tendens att suga i sig sörjan, så att man efter en aldrig så snabb promenad mellan punkt A och B får finna sig i att ens byxor är våta upp till knäna. Även om ”fashion before function”-devisen oftast är betydligt roligare än motsatsen, så finns det gränser. Den gränsen går ungefär vid dubbelsidig lunginflammation.

Därför kunde både fashionistas och mera praktiskt lagda jubla åt stuprörsjeansen intåg. Det finns inte en chans att de nånsin rör vid marken eller blir sjöblöta av en vanlig promenad i en vinterslaskig stad.

I spetsen av det triumferande återintåget av de smala jeansen finner vid det svenska märket Cheap Monday. Om du inte äger ett par (eller åtta) så har du säkert sett loggan; Den grinande dödskallen, med ett litet uppochnedvänt kors i pannan. Något som fick den kristna högern att reagera då jeansen lanserades i USA. Grundaren Örjan Andersson tar den uppståndelsen med ro:

- Vi är snälla människor, det är inte som att vi är satanister eller så. Vi ser loggan som en kul grej.

Hur som helst är det en logga som återfinns på otaliga popsnörens, och i rask takt även andras rumpor. Faktum är, att hela stuprörstrenden, med Cheap Monday i spetsen, har lett till att uttrycket ”poprygg” myntats i Stockholmsnejden. ”Poprygg” innebär att man klämt in sig i ett par byxor som är så tajta, att fettet liksom bullar upp sig ovanför linningen, på ryggsidan. Fenomenet kan bäst ses på tonåriga flickor, oftast ackompanerat av svart hår och slitna converseskor.

I en jeansbransch vars priser löpt amok, där ett par shyssta märkesjeans kostade (och kostar alltjämt) över 100 euro, gjorde Örjan & co. tvärtom. De gjorde billiga märkesjeans. 

Det hela började med butiken Weekday.

- Där hade vi många dyra märken. Vi hade en del stamkunder som tyckte om utbudet, men eftersom det var så dyrt så hade de bara råd att köpa 10 %  av det de ville ha. Så då vi startade Cheap Monday, som en service för stammisarna.

Det var 2004. Knappt tre år senare finns Cheap Monday i 28 länder, eller det tror Örjan i alla fall. Det har gått fort, väldig fort.

- Det är ju jättekul. Lite stressigt, men kul.  

I Finland är märket rätt nyetablerat. Men hur kommer det sig att de är så ensamma om att göra billiga jeans?

- Vi är ju inte helt ensamma, H&M gör ju också, fast det är klart, vi kör ju litegrann vår egen grej.  

Liknelsen med H&M är intressant, efter det är ett annat svenskt företag som har gjort billigheten till ett honnörsord. Ett tredje är IKEA. Svenskarna verkar ha en fallenhet för att förse folket med möjlighet att klä sig och inreda flashigt, även med små resurser.

- Det finns inpräntat att varumärkesstatus bygger på priset, men jag håller inte riktigt med om det. Det finns andra värderingar, säger Örjan, och berättar att de håller priset nere genom att dra in på t.ex. marknadsföring. 

De är dessutom väldigt få som sysslar med märket.

- Vi har bra produktionskanaler, vi skulle kunna göra det hälften billigare, men då skulle det vara genom taskiga produktionskanaler.  

Kolumn först publicerad i Papper, 03/2007. 

Neon Indian – Ombloggad som få

Brittiska The Guardian skrev ifjol om fenomenet med tokchillad sandstrandselectro.
De buntade ihop amerikanska band som Neon Indian, Washed Out och Memory
Tapes med svenska Air France och Studio och döpte musikgenren till “chillwave”.

Mannen bakom Neon Indian, Alan Palomo, har själv beskrivit sin musik
som “någonstans mellan elektronisk och psykedelisk”. Spot on, säger vi. På Palomos
CV hittar vi utöver Neon Indian band som Ghosthustler och VEGA, den sistnämnda
aktuell med nytt material.

Neon Indians debutalbum Psychic Chasms släpptes 2009 och bums lovordades de av
en kusligt enig blogosfär, med sajten Pitchfork i spetsen for hyllningarna.
I sommar kommer Neon Indian till Popaganda och vi kan inte tänka oss ett bättre band
att fira skymning med.

Text först publicerad juni 2010 på http://www.popaganda.se/program/neon-indian/

Shout Out Louds – sex, drugs and afternoon tea

Sveriges i särklass trevligaste indiepoppare Shout Out Louds släppte ett efterlängtat
tredje album i februari. Popagandarutinerade rävar kanske kommer ihåg både ett och
annat år då Shout Out Louds gästat oss tidigare, men vi vill alltid ha mer och i år är de
tillbaka på publikens såväl som arrangörernas begäran.

Förra gången lärde vi oss en viktig läxa backstage - riktiga indiepoppare dricker inte öl
före spelning, de dricker eftermiddagste och puttar barnvagn.

Titeln på deras tredje fullängdare, Work, avslöjar något om deras professionalitet,
något som hjälpt dem nå framgångar av sällan skådade svenska mått i såväl USA som
England. Vi är omåttligt glada och stolta att ha dem åter pa Popagandisk mark.

Text först publicerad juni 2010 på http://www.popaganda.se/program/shout-out-louds/

Hurts - Brilliant pop i mörk kostym

Att se Hurts live är att dö en smula. Det är dramatiskt, bombastiskt och mörkt – men bara på utsidan. Själva låtarna är skrimrande poppärlor, livsbejakande som få.

Deras låt Wonderful life är en av årets bästa och deras debutalbum som släpps några veckor innan Popaganda ett av årets mest efterlängtade. Hurts förkrossande vacka videoestetik tillsammans med  deras åttiotalsdoftande melankoliska electropop, komplett med saxofonsolon, garanterade Manchesterduon en plats i pophistorien. För en liten stund kändes popen angelägen igen.

Hurts påminner  om den göteborska duon The Tough Alliance som också de lyckades injicera nytt liv i en trött popscen med sina låtar, många av dem nutida klassiker på indiedansgolv landet över. Skillnaden är att där TTA valde huliganestetik med intoxikerade scenshower och slagträn, går Hurts gentlemannens skräddade och välkammade vag.

I en nyligen publicerad intervju i NME berättar sångaren Theo Hutchcraft  om hur de upptäckte den obskyra genren disco-lento (långsam disco) under en resa till Italien. Det är något oklart om genren ifråga verkligen existerar, eller om Hurts uppfann den själva. I sammanhanget spelar det ingen större roll. Detta är ett band med stora ideer; perfektionister, stilister och aktörer. Som Hutchcraft själv uttryckt saken:  “Hurts liveshow består av teater, drama och förtjusning.”  Det här är en konsert du inte vill missa.

Text först publicerad juni 2010 på http://www.popaganda.se/program/hurts/ 

BBC 6 Music - Nu tystnar musiken

I februari i år rapporterade brittiska medier om sparkrav på BBC. Inget nytt med det, public service-medier överallt verkar alltid spara. Det vore en större nyhet om de plötsligt hade tillräckligt med pengar. Skillnaden den har gången var att hela digitala radiostationer plötsligt var nedläggningshotade.  


Nyheten om nedläggningen ledde till stor uppståndelse, speciellt runt 6 Music – en petition för att rädda kanalen tog form, en Facebookgrupp (naturligtvis) som nu har över 78 000 medlemmar bildades och folk protesterade utanför BBC-huset i London. Artister som Lily Allen och David Bowie, samt politiska profiler som Gordon Brown (!) har uttryckt sitt stöd för kanalens fortlevnad.

6 Music är alltså en digital radiostation som lanserades 2002 och var den första nya radiostation som BBC lanserat på 32 år. 6 Music är en plattform för ny musik och ger en chans för oetablerade band att hitta sin publik. De senaste månaderna har till exempel Broken Bells, Gorillaz och Darwin Deez legat på tung rotation. De har specialistprogram med initierade dj:er som till exempel Pulpsångaren Jarvis Cocker. De är nominerade till 6 stycken Sony awards, radiobranchens motsvarighet till Oscarsgalan. Kort sagt, de gör bra radio och de spelar bra musik, speciellt om man som många i målgruppen (den genomsnittlige lyssnaren är 35 år) är trött på Lady Gagas och hennes gelikars herravälde över radiovågorna. 


6 Music har en budget på 7 miljoner pund och  695 000 lyssnare. Enligt BBC är det inte tillräckligt många. Med tanke på att BBC betalar miljoner för profiler som Top Gears Jeremy Clarkson samt morgonradiopresentatören Chris Moyles, båda praktexempel pa Extremt Irritierande Människor som exemplifierar talesättet “tomma tunnor skramlar mest”, är det svårt att ta BBC:s “vi har inte råd”- argument på allvar.  


Även om radiokanaler precis som andra traditionella medier lider av sviktande lyssnarsiffror så är radio fortfarande kung då det kommer till att etablera hitar såväl som nya artister – ingen speltid, ingen hit. Om 6 Music läggs ner kommer den brittiska musikbranschen att sakna en plattform för att introducera ny kvalitetsmusik. Etern skulle bli tråkigare, mer likriktad och ännu mer den exkluderande klubb av megaartister och pinsamma one-hit-wonders än den är idag. BBC själva skulle tappa den pondus och kredd de i dagsläget har inom brittisk musik.  


Det går inte en dag utan skriverier om 6 Music och nedläggningshotet. BBC själva har sagt att protesterna hjälper. Just nu håller alla andan och väntar på det mirakel som måste ske kanalen tystnar för gott 2011. Det enda rätta vore att ge 6 Music plats i marknätet. 


Kolumn först publicerad i Papper, 05/2010. Kan även hittas på http://www.peppar.fi/ som PDF.

Bi Lingua

I'm thinking that Lisa Milberg, of the Concretes, doesn't do too many things wrong. So I'm going to follow her example by going bilingual in this blog.

Like this: http://lisamilberg.wordpress.com/

Without all that many photos, perhaps. At least til I get my new Canon. Any day now...*Längt*

Midsummer dreams

It sucks not being in a country that celebrates midsummer. Today, Midsummer Eve,  is the most relaxed day of the year in the Nordics, more so that Christmas when everybody is stressing to get all the shopping stuff done. No, midsummer is all about getting some booze, food and maybe a good book and getting the hell out of the city to the nearest (or farthest, more often) summer cottage and just chilling with your friends. Preferably, by the sea.

It’s about pretty dresses, romance and picking seven different kinds of flowers, putting them under your pillow when you go to sleep and dreaming of the person you’re going to marry. And waking up with bugs in your hair...

And here in UK? Nothing. Nothing at all. The closest thing you get here is Summer solstice when crusty hippies gather by Stonehenge to get high. Not really the same thing is it?

So depressing. If I had my own flat, I would have had a Midsummer party, with schnapps and new potatoes and lots of strawberries. Next year, maybe.

No, next year, I hope to be at my friends house outside of Stockholm, with the little sauna on the end of a bridge, paper lanterns in the apple trees and all that jazz. Sigh....

The perfect room

I cannot describe to you how perfect I find this picture, this room.

Pic from the lovely site http://theselby.com/

Camera dreams

I think I'm going to get me one of these for my own birthday:

It's a Canon EOS 550D. You know, the ones they're advertising at the moment. You know, the really expensive, new model with HD video included. 

I've been arguing with myself for days, no months  - I've been dreaming of getting a proper camera for years. I think it might be time now.  I haven't bought anything, you know, big or substantial for....well, I can't remember last time I did. I think it might be time to spend a little, on me, get a proper new hobby, become an all round journalist, who can both write and take pics, produce whole features by herself. That's the plan anyway - so it's not just a luxururios accessory, I'm actually planning for it to pay itself in the end.

Ok, justification rant over.

20 best under 40

The New Yorker has listed the 20 best authors under 40.

And I am ashamed to say that I have only read one of them, Jonathan Safran Foer. This has to be rectified immediately! I'm going to start with Safran Foers partner, Nicole Krauss, also on the list.

Apparently, the couple lives on the same street in NY as the coolest author couple OVER 40, Paul Auster and Siri Hustvedt. What are the chances?

Mens Sock Street Style Blog

Exactly what I said: 

http://www.socksforsir.com/blog/

I wish I was a man and could wear the same (or rather different versions of the same) siut all the time and only chance to different, colourful socks. 

I love socks.

A week of salmon

It's been a very long and exhausting week. But also a brilliant one, since half of it was spent in Stockholm, revisiting friends, clubbing, eating a LOT of salmon and other fishies, and of course the obligatory Sunday hangover movie and pizza with curry powder and bearnaise sauce I wouldn't dream of ordering in UK, but it's a...if not a classic, at least not a eyebrow raising choice in Stockholm.

We also met my parents over a coffee, they had come over from Finland just to meet me and the boyfriend that they hadn't met yet. Well, now they have and the stamp of approval received. Thank God.

Anyways, we were talking about my desire to start a little collection of Moomin mugs, but they are quite expensive in UK, so you don't just go out and buy a dozin on them. And what does dad magically pull form the bag, if not 2 brand new Moomin mugs! What's the odds?

So now our collection is officially started. Can't wait til we can sit on our kitchen and sip coffee resp. tea out of these puppies.

Sophie Delila

I'm lucky enough to be promoting this girl:



Looking forward going to London tomorrow to oversee a few interviews with her, although it's the beginning of some very hectic days... Going to Stockholm Thursday morning and coming back late Monday, in quite a knackered state I'm presuming, although I'm really looking forward meeting all my wonderful, much missed Stockholm friends.

How hard can it be...

... to find a nice orchestra/big band to play clarinet with. But the big bands doesn't seem to even have clarinets in them in any form (hello, carlinets are quite  vital bit of swing and jazz!) and the symphonic orchestras demands that you have an both the regular B clarinet as well as an A clarinet. Not fun. Maybe I'll have to buy a saxophone. Poor neighbours. Poor house mates.

Friends and illustrations

I just found my Stockholmian friend Karin Ronmark on  this illustration agency by accident, she's done some amazing stuff, quite would like to see this on my own wall:

All hearts

Sometimes you have to love the digital mess that is all around us. Like yesterdya, when Robyn and Kelis is tweeting each other, discussing going on tour together and calling the tour All hearts. How amazing wouldn't that be? I think so even more now after listening to her new album: Kelis – Flesh Tone

Really looking forward to seeing Robyn at Heaven in London as a late birthday present for myself on the 17th too. Her moves are impressive, I said it before and I'll say it again:You can't get cooler than this; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmFu-hF6iKc

Tiger Tape

Swindie Friday: Tiger Tape – I Woke Up In Hökarängen

Life changing

I'm going to see the NME Radar tour at Thekla tonight. Last year featured LA Roux as headlining artist. This year it's Hurts, suppported by Everything, everything! and Darwin Deez - that is one helluva line up, but I would gladly give my little finger to just see Hurts. It's going to be absolutely magical and I don't know when I've looked forward to a gig this much last (except Black Rebel Motorcycle Club last week...)

Vappen!

The 31.4 and 1.5 is quite special in the Nordics, especially Finland. This is what it looks like in the centre of Helsinki about...now. Piictures from Vappen celebrations 2007.

jj

Such a follower

I just stumbled upon a blog that told me that John Ajvide Lindqvist, the writer of the filmatized novel Let the Right One In, amongst other even scarier novels, just released a new book, and I HAD NO IDEA!
If you’re into Swedish, read about it here: http://www.johnajvide.se/

I don’t like it, not knowing what’s going on with things I care about in Sweden. And there seems to be a lot of them. Both the things, and not knowing about them.

Luckily, I’m going to Sweden end of May and can fill my boots with new Swedish literature. And my boots are the only place I’m going to have too, since I have to bring the rest of my life in Sweden back to England, consisting mostly of books and cds…

Promos and rye bread

It's Friday, sunny and I got a afternoon of promo and an evening of gigs in London ahead of me, none to shabby ey?

My first promo day....can't wait!

And since I'm staying in London til tomorrow, I'm going to pay the Nordic Bakery a visit and get me some cinnamon buns and karelian pastries. I read on their site that they do oven pancake on weekend mornings too, how nice is that?

Cocoanut Groove

It's Swindie Thursday! Cocoanut Groove has got two brand new tracks for free download here.

Granny styling

Ha! I was doing this 12 years ago... For my graduation, I had short, spiky grey hair. My scalp was beeing for mercy after the 3(!) first bleaches...You can trust countryside hairdressing to not abandon it's old roots (shaha!)

In the world of fashion, grey hair is in – if it isn't natural |
Life and style |
The Observer

To match my hair, I wore an iceblue silk like dress I'd sown myself in home economics.

You tend to paint with the biggest brushes when you're 15. If you don't do it then, you probably never will.

Kent - now and then

I know I've talked about them before. I just got caught up in one of those ah-those-were-day-days sessions today. Fridays tend to do that to you.

Here is a video from 1996, from their second album, when they were young, pretty boys who dressed in second hand suits and wore too much eye make up. Proper indie and the Swedish version of britpop.



Now they're the biggest band in Sweden and has been so since 2004 when their 5th album (8th of you count the brilliant B-side collection and the two English versions of the previous studio albums) Vapen & ammunition was released.

Suddenly everybody was listening to them, including your parents, your teachers and the popular kids in school who usually listened to Bryan Adams and Axel F. Being too popular is, as you know, very bad for your indie status. Every geek, outcast and otherwise indie inclined kid will per definition not listen to what the bullies to. Ever. (Which is why you won't find one decent music journalist who was popular in school, but that's a story for another day.)

They were still brilliant though, they just happened to be brilliant EVERYWHERE ALL THE TIME. They had so many airplays it was like they were stapled to the very air.
It was Arena Rock at it's best, but still with disturbing, brilliant videos directed by the singers brother, Adam Berg. Like this:



And now, NOW, they've gone proper synth, as middle ages men with some dignity and class tend to -and should- do. They've regained some, if not not MORE of the cred they lost during the years when the public loved them to bits. Now they're not pretty young boys anymore. They've always been serious and more pretentious that it's kosher to say you are, but now they've got 20 years in the business, so they can pretty much do what they like.

Which is, of course, what they've been doing all along. Like their big outdoors concert for 30,000 people at the Staduim in Stockholm in 2003, when they asked everybody to dress in white. Nobody does what they do better than them. And the disturbing videos remain, thank god.

Easter

This is how we do it in the Nordics.

We take in twigs of vide (don't know what that translates to) that has little fur bolls as..flowers.

Like this

Then we put colourful feathers in it.
Like this.

And fill our Eatser eggs WITH chocolate, candy and other nice stuff, rather have eggs made of chocolate.
Like this.

Today...

Hipster parade

There's an array of hipster blogs out there. Here's a new acquaintance:

Unhappy Hipsters

And two favourites:

Look At This Fucking Hipster
and
Hipster Puppies

This years pair of M.I.A:s

Spring (where ever it is today) means sun and sun means an urge to cover yourself from it in every way you can, paradoxically enough.

These are the nicest juiciest sun glasses I've seen so far this spring.

The pic is from Elle.se, and the glasses are from Rodebjer, they're yours for 2 499 SEK. That's about £220 and quite enough for one never to dare wear them out. 

When it comes to umbrellas and sun glasses, I just can't spend more than a few quid, cause I'm gonna loose them, sit on them, scratch them, they're gonna get stolen, broken and generally not last very long. So no. I'll go to H&M and get the same model for a a fiver. At the end of the summer, you can probably find them at the bottom of a Swedish lake or something equally random. 

JJ at SXSW

jj at SXSW

From PSL.

So, now when the mystery is yesterdays news, when are they gonna come to a venue near me and you?

Gorillaz in da house

Thank God for boyfriends more music obsessed than I.

Otherwise I would have missed Gorillaz playing the trinity Centre tonight in Bristol. I have no idea what to expect, holograms, an actual Damon in the flesh hopefully, maybe some guest artists....I have no idea and I LIKE it!

Seal bomb

This is probably one of the funniest things I've ever seen. I cannot look at it without giggling, every time. 

Look. 

Giggle.

Work.

Just  a quick glance. 

Gigglegiggle.

You see?

Photo from http://cuteoverload.com/