blurred girl

Here's the last picture from my Friday night. It's Marisa. After this I managed to say no thanks to more tequila and catch the last bus home to Fiskis. My bed was totally annoying and moved like a boat when I tried to sleep.

glen campbell - wichita lineman

I remember that we listend to Glen Campbell and his version of the Witchita Lineman (which I think is the definite version). I've liked Glen Campbell since I was a kid. This is one of those songs that once you've heard it you'll never forget it. The production is beautiful and the song has a great flow. It's the sound of childhood summers. Wichita Lineman was written by Jimmy Webb and released by Glen in 1968.

white russian

Here things started to get really blurred. We began drinking White Russians and listening to soft country music and ABBA.

a day at work

This is a day at work for Per... sitting on the floor holding his arm around Victoria Silvstedt... poor guy...

superman

Per showed us how he stays in shape.

art

Fanny started to express herself on Pers dumbbell...

after hours

Since Snottys had to close at one we went to Pers appartment instead. There we started to discuss music over a couple of Gin & Tonics. Not bad. But now I start to feel a bit dizzy.

...and again...

What I do know is that we met Fanny and Marisa there. We shared old job memories from the restaurant business. That's one crazy business that you can talk about forever and ever. We also discussed squids and shellfish.

snottys... again...

Then I went to Snottys where I met Per. This is how happy he looked when he saw me. I'm actually not sure what we spoke about or what we did at Snottys... but I think we drank more beer... stupid me...

zappa music club

Met a bunch of Zappa fans at Carmen. We shared some music and had a good time.

twin peaks - the second season

Finally it's here! The second season of Twin Peaks. Some people don't like the second season but I'm not one of them. I loved the weirdness and the new storylines about the White Lodge, the Black Lodge and Windom Earle. I also liked that we got to see more of Major Garland Briggs. The second season points towards TV-series like The X-Files (David Duchovny/Fox Mulder plays the transvestite DEA agent Denise/Dennis Bryson in the second season) and more "arty" and ambitious TV-series like Dexter, Carnivàle and Lost. This is absolutely brilliant television.

waiting for the train

This is how I spend most of my mornings. Waiting for the train on the Blue line.

fiskis end of march 2007

It has been a fantastic March this year. Warm and sunny.

this is the end

This is how beautiful we were at the end of our staff party. I think I have red wine and coke in my glass... scary...

stkhlm

The sun and the warmth is back in town.

nytorget

Had a coffee with Maria and Rita at Nytorget. The sun was shining and it was plenty of people there.

electric light orchestra - 10538 overture

They played this old ELO song in the latest episode of Life on Mars. It's their first single from their first album. Pretty good - isn't it?

pretend vacation five

We had a really great evening. I think it was the best staff party I ever been too. At least the best I can remember.

pretend vacation four

The Thai food from Bee's and the music actually made it feel like a vacation. We had even recorded the sound of cicadas just to get it all right.

natacha atlas - mon amie la rose

We listened and danced to a lot of great music from all over the world. Natacha Atlas cover of Françoise Hardys 1964 hit Mon Amie La Rose was one of those songs.

pretend vacation three

After a while we got kind of dizzy. We really needed a vacation. Eventhough it was just a pretend vacation.

pretend vacation two

It was a very laid back and friendly party.

pretend vacation one

We had a staff party at work. It was a vacation theme. Kind of exotic with lots of booze.

our neighbor totoro

I found this Totoro poster close to the school where I work and the kids went ballistic when I showed it to them. They love Totoro and the movie My Neighbor Totoro since I showed it to them. Eventhough I had to translate it for them.

rome - deus impeditio esuritori nullus

Rome is in excellent shape right now. It has everything we loved with the Roman empire - sex, decadence, violence, love, intrigue and weird food. Mark Antony, brilliantly played by James Purefoy, is enjoying life in Egypt together with Cleopatra. Titus Pullo has more or less adopted Lucius Vorenus kids while Lucius Vorenus is taking care of young Caesarion who he knows is actually Titus Pullo's son. And that's just the beginning. There's starvation in Rome and things are starting to look pretty desperate for Octavian. But the boy has a plan. A good one too. I really enjoyed this episode. It was very very dark and sad. Almost all characters are controlled by their instincts and desires. Sometimes they aspire for something more - for love - and for a short while life gives them some hope just to take it away a few moments later. You can't escape your destiny. This is a Greek tragedy in Rome.

visage - mind of a toy

Mind of a Toy was the third single that Visage released. It's also on their excellent first album which was released in 1980. The album features Midge Ure and Billy Currie from Ultravox. John McGeoch from Magazine, Public Image Ltd, and Siouxsie & the Banshees (Try to beat that!). Rusty Egan from The Rich Kids (He was also a DJ at Blitz) and Dave Formula and Barry Adamson from Magazine. Quite an impressive line up. Then, of course, there was Steve Strange. He was the coolest guy around back then.

simpsons - the greatest season ever?

It's Sunday and it's raining. I'm totally bored. But then I remember my Simpsons DVD's. I put season 12 in my iBook and lay back in my sofa and get a really positive surprise. These episodes are great! There are classic episodes like HOMR, The Computer Wore Menace Shoes, Hungry, Hungry Homer etc etc This must be the greatest Simpsons season ever and HOMR and The Computer Wore Menace Shoes must be among the best Simpson episodes ever made.

hello artlovers

I found some new stencils at Slussen.

stereolab 1996

stereolab - cybele's reverie


stereolab - the noise of carpet


Stereolab will always be on my Top 5 list of the best bands ever. They have a great flow in their music which you can trace back to German krautrock, especially Neu! and their song Hallogallo with its famous motorik beat. That combined with influences from cool French pop from the 60's like Serge Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin gives them a very special sound. These two songs, Cybele's Revenge and The Noise of Carpet, are from their brilliant 1996 album Emperor Tomato Ketchup. Every song on this album brings back loads of memories. I saw them in Stockholm in the mid 90's when they played at Studion (St Eriksplan). It was a really good concert.

www.stereolab.co.uk

night vision

The house on the otherside of the Fiskis avenue seen through my Che Guevara drapery.

emmis premiere

Johan, Jonas, Robin and me went to Emmis for the first time since Eastside closed. I kind of miss Eastside but this is still a classy joint. Cheap food and beer. What more can you ask for?

300

This is a movie Leni Riefenstahl would have enjoyed and I'm sure John Milius got a huge hard-on from watching it. It's based on Frank Miller's comic book 300. The 300 are the 300 Spartan soldiers who fought against Xerxes and the armies of the Persian Empire at the Battle of Thermopylae in the year 480 BCE. Epic stuff. And Frank Miller has made some really great stuff before in his career. I love his take on Batman and Elektra. But his version of the Battle of Thermopylae felt both bitter and tired and it didn't speak to me. Neither did this movie. Eventhough Zack Snyder has done an excellent job. The movie is visually stunning. It's the source material that's the problem. The story isn't good enough. The heroes are super heroes with oiled and extremely well defined muscles and very little clothes. All the women are beautiful and seductive and have iced and very stiff nipples. And all the enemies are inhuman monsters. And that's the real problem. They aren't interesting. It gets boring watching a bunch of grand Spartans/Americans fight against monstrous super evil Persians/Muslims/Arabs/Black dudes and freaks. Among the first thing you hear about the Persians is that they demand submission - the interesting thing is that Islam means submission! The Persian Immortals look much more like the Iraqi insurgents or the suicide bombers you can see on the news than ancient warriors. They are Muslim soldiers - not Persian. Behind their masks they are monsters - not humans. Stories like the Iliad and Henry V are much more interesting and gripping because they are about humans fighting against humans. The really interesting monsters are the monsters we can find inside ourselves or the freaks who hide a human side. Unfortunately this movie lacks all subtleties. It's a gut movie without brain and heart. Fun for a while but easily forgotten. And I wonder about the symbolism. I'm sure most americans view themselves as the Spartans. But in many parts of the world I'm sure most people would view the Americans as the modern Persians. One thing is sure. George W Bush is not King Leonidas and this movie is much more Rambo III than Henry V. Go and see it for its visual style, the beautiful violence and all the cool freaks. But don't expect too much.

the beloved - the sun rising

I end my Fiskis Spring Tour 2007 with this old The Beloved tune - The Sun Rising from 1989. It's not the best video ever. But it's a nice laid back song and it's about the Sun! And it's rising!! I like that.

Remember to boycott Viacom and MTV! They suck.

fiskis spring tour 2007 - part V

A nice blue plastic tube...

fiskis spring tour 2007 - part IV

Found this cool trailer on the parking lot with a lot of interesting stuff on.

fiskis spring tour 2007 - part III

You can always find a lot of useful stuff in the parking lot. Or just dump some crap you don't need there.

fiskis spring tour 2007 - part II

The Fisksätra Avenue have some nice little hiding places.

fiskis spring tour 2007 - part I

Went out today on a little Spring Tour around Fiskis. It was pretty damn nice.

stranger than fiction

In my popular series "Reviews that came far too late" I've finally come to Stranger Than Fiction. This is a great little surreal romcom about litterature, taxes and the creative process. Kind of like Spike Jonze's and Charlie Kaufman's Adaptation. I didn't really like the beginning of the movie. I thought it was a bit annoying. It feels very academic or constructed for a while. The narration. The watch. I didn't speak to me. But then Harold Crick (Will Ferrell) meets Ana Pascal (Maggie Gyllenhaal) and the movie starts to make sense. I really liked it when it started to focus on the characters and on Harold Cricks journey and transformation. His talks with the literary expert Jules Hilbert (Dustin Hoffman) are kind of funny. So "Reviews that came far too late" gives this movie 4 stars out of 5.

the host

I missed this movie when it went up at the cinemas here in Stockholm but now I finally watched it on DVD. The Host is not as great as Jaws as one American movie critic claimed. But it's a good movie. One of many from South Korea lately. It's directed by Bong Joon-ho who's been very successful in his home country. The photography is fantastic as in most South Korean movies I've seen. And the pace is much more European than American. That's one of the things I like with Japanese and South Korean movies. Eventhough some Korean movies can be too slow and too gloomy for my taste. But that's not the case with The Host. It's an entertaining monster movie which uses the classic setting of the city sewers. This time the city is Seoul and the sewers leads to the Han river. It's a perfect movie for a rainy afternoon. And when you've watched it you can check out one of Park Chan-wooks movies too. Both Oldboy and Sympathy for Lady Vengeance are brilliant.

bodi bill - very small

Bodi Bill is Alex Amoon and Fabian Fenk. They are from Berlin and play a beautiful and very european combination of fragile pop, electronica and glitch. Sometimes they reminds me of the more melodic sides of Faust. They have just released their first album No More Wars and I will be very disappointed if I can't get a copy of it. The songs I've heard so far have been great.

klaxons - golden skans

I like this song. And I like the Klaxons. They kind of remind me of the "Second Summer of Love" and "Madchester" and all that. There are plenty of good bands in the new rave or dance punk scene. Maybe we are ready for the Third Summer of Love. It took me almost 15 years to recover from the last one. But I'm ready now! Golden Skans is from Klaxons new album Myths of the Near Future. Sounds very Summeroflovish.

action cat

I met my old pal Action Cat at the Igelboda station. He likes to go hunting there.

pale legs

Running season is here and today I had my shorts premiere. My legs were scary pale. I need to change that.

my balcony

You've seen it from the inside. Now you can see it from the outside.

lost - tricia tanaka is dead

Hurley: Dude that beer has been sitting there since Rocky III. Maybe even Rocky II. It's probably poison by now.
Sawyer: Yeah? Well Skeletor seems to like it. Bottoms up!

I actually enjoy season 3 of Lost. They have killed off the right characters eventhough some of them were very good looking. The episodes have become tighter and more interesting again and the flashbacks have become less annoying. I'm still one episode behind - but I'll change that today. That's one good thing with sundays.

my bloody valentine - soon

This music is totally intoxicating. My Bloody Valentine back in 1991. The song "Soon" is from their masterpiece Loveless. It's an album that made a huge impression on me back then. I still enjoy listening to it. It's kind of like floating in a warm lake far out in the forest with sunshine glittering all around you. Both relaxing and overwhelming.

spring flowers

Look at this! Flowers! Life is good.

sunshine!

Woke up pretty late today. Don't know why. Looked out through my window and there was sunshine all over the place! Went out on my balcony and it was warm outside! Seems like it's offical now - spring is here!

new order - blue monday

The favourite analog song yesterday evening were New Orders 1983 hit single Blue Monday. This must be one of the most influential songs ever made and one of the most important songs of the 80's. It's also a great dance tune.

analog music

We actually listened to vinyl records! Some of you may not have heard about these. It's an old analog way of storing music and sound. They are very big and sensitive.

night life

Had a very loud and intense evening at Robins place. Great food and a lot of wine and beer made us all very talkative. Mostly politics as usual but we managed to cover some progressive music and interesting TV shows like BBC's Human v 2.0 too. Are we nerds? If so - then nerds know how to party.

boy scout of america

My friend Gudmundson has grown a moustache, bought a Boy Scouts of America shirt and is now flying to Beirut. It will be very interesting to see how the people in Beirut will react to this fashion statement. In a week we'll know. Hopefully he'll be able to tell us all about his week there over a couple of beers at Carmen or Emmis.

human v2.0

Watched BBC Horizons Human v2.0 two days ago. It focus on Ray Kurzweil and his ideas about The Singularity. He predicts that by 2029 computer intelligence will equal the power of the human brain and he base that prediction on Moore's Law. Moore's law states that "the number of transistors on an integrated circuit for minimum component cost doubles every 24 months". Human v2.0 presents several very interesting ideas and some spectacular and sometimes disturbing research. Like for example the remote controlled rat. You can view this episode on Google Video. They have other BBC Horizon episodes too.

at the movies

Me and the 5th graders made some short movies about Majblomman (May flower - it's an old Swedish charity project). Vote for our movies at Majblommans movie page. The name of our school is Kungsholmens Friskola. Notice that handsome dude walking by in the last scene. It's me trying to impress some Hollywood agents.

ghetto art 1975

One of the three black painted iron sculptures made by Henry Gustafsson and Ilhan Koman that are placed in Fiskis. I kind of like them.

sparks - never turn your back on mother earth

I loved the Sparks as a kid and this beautiful little song is from their 1974 album Propaganda. The sleeve art must be among the greatest ever made. You just want to listen to that album as soon as you see the photo on the front cover. This video is taken from the German music show Musikladen. I totally agree with the title of the song - never turn your back on mother earth.

night run

I went out for a run after work. There's still quite a lot of snow and ice out there. And darkness.

the films of kenneth anger vol. 1

Finally Fantoma has released their first Kenneth Anger DVD. The DVD includes Fireworks (1947), Puce Moment (1949), Rabbit's Moon (1950, the rarely seen original 16 minute version), Eaux d'Artifice (1953) and Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome (1954).

Buy it from Badlands or Amazon.

mark ronson - just

Very much last year but it's still a nice bourgeois SoFoish Hip Hop tune. Don't know that much about Mark Ronson. Nice graffiti theme through out the video though.

heroes - parasite

Not as good as last weeks episode but still a great episode. Hiro and Ando visits the future and they become quite surprised as you can see above. And finally we get to meet both Mr Linderman (played by a relaxed Malcolm McDowell) and Claire Bennets secret protector. That actually was a nice surprise. The new mutant, Candice Wilmer, that we met in Primatechs science lab last week also gets a more detailed presentation this week as Bennet's new partner. She has a very useful and interesting ability. As I said, it's a great episode.

spring 2007?

I totally enjoyed what I hope was the first day of spring today. It was really nice. Just look at my happy red bearded face! Happy happy joy joy!

full moon

The full moon was shining over my little red cabin. I hoped I would be able to see the lunar eclipse tonight but the night sky became covered by clouds so at half past eleven I could see nothing. There was only the sad cry from a lonely fox. Win some - lose some. At least I have wireless broadband in my cabin now.

mao is in da house 2.0

Most of you probably don't even remember Mao Zedong. He died in September 1976. That's more than 30 years ago. Nowadays he's probably most known due to the abundance of Chinese Mao kitsch and memorabillia. For me Mao is almost entirely connected with the Chinese Civil War, the Long March, the Cultural Revolution and the Gang of Four. Even kids heard about these things back in the 70's. Maybe because the Vietnam War put focus on that part of the world or because Maoism was really in vogue among radical Swedish students during those years and some of them were my substitute teachers.

So why the hell do I write about Mao? Simple. I'm reading John Keegans book A History of Warfare. It's very interesting and he mentions Maos ideas of a "protracted people's war".

"People's war strategically avoids decisive battles, since a tiny force of a few dozen soldiers would easily be routed in an all-out confrontation with the state. Instead, it favours the strategy of protracted warfare, with carefully chosen battles that can realistically be won. A revolutionary force conducting people's war starts in a remote area with mountainous or otherwise difficult terrain in which its enemy is weak. It attempts to establish a local stronghold known as a revolutionary base area."

He also mentions how Mao focused on discontent peasants instead of factory workers to build support for his revolution. During WWII Tito used Maos ideas in his war against the Nazis. But both Maos and Titos highly politicized method of war caused a lot of suffering for both the peasants and workers they claimed to support. Now it seems like a very similar situation is occurring in the muslim world. Small Islamist groups use or have used similar tactics in Afghanistan, Algeria, Chechnya, Kashmir and, to some extent, Iraq. But who are they fighting against? Their governments? Russia? India? USA? Maybe. But in Algeria the extreme use of terror against civilians made it obvious that these small groups no longer fought a guerilla war against an oppressor - they had become terrorists and oppressors themselves. Anyone with a different view than themselves were regarded as an enemy and ought to be killed. Islamist fringe groups, often consisting of Afghan war veterans, killed everyone. Even fellow muslims. Now this has become an everyday practise in Iraq too and a peaceful end seems to be very far away. More than a hundred thousand civilians were massacred in Algeria during the civil war in the 90's and maybe as many as a hundred thousand civilians have been killed in Chechnya. Since the US invation of Iraq in March 2003 approximately 650 000 civilians have been killed. 600 000 of those died because of violence.

Between 1980 and 1987 Iran had it's own Cultural Revolution. Makes one wonder. In Sweden many old Maoists became neoliberals and neoconservatives. Did the old Maoists in the muslim world become hardcore Islamists?