Wednesday, December 26, 2007

Monday, December 24, 2007

Sunday, December 23, 2007

"A Hard Day's Night"

Peter Sellers doing his version of Laurence Olivier's version of "Now is the Winter of our Discontent" through The Beatles' "A Hard Day's Night" version.

"How to Hold Up a Bank"

On the issue of "Unfortunate book titles": On World Wide Words some Henry Willis contributes a recollection: “Thirty years ago, when I was a desk clerk at the library of the US Department of the Interior in Washington DC, I was given the job of organising all the check-out slips for the previous three years in Dewey decimal order. (This, by the way, was punishment for being caught reading the books that were being returned; I was told that doing so was ‘inappropriate’ for someone in my job.) One of the slips was for ‘How To Hold Up A Bank’. That intrigued me enough to get me to descend a few floors into the stacks on my lunch break to find it. Unfortunately the book wasn’t there, but I was able to get an idea what it was about from the other books on that shelf, all of which concerned soil engineering.”

Thursday, December 20, 2007

To All You Swedish People Out there...

Från Aftonbladetartikel med anledning av "Bonde söker fru".

Thursday, December 13, 2007

Tuesday, December 11, 2007

These Guys Couldn't Turn on a Radio

The year is drawing to a close, and it is time to look at the “100 Unsexiest Men 2007”. I am very pleased to see Mel Gibson, Tom Cruise, Ronaldinho and Karl Lagerfeld on the list, plus of course the Pope. The presence of Bob Dylan, Devendra Banhart and Colin Meloy makes me doubt it’s credibility though.

Monday, December 10, 2007

My pretty, pretty car!

My very own V-Dub, styled and ready! Make your own at: dubmodder.com

Tuesday, December 04, 2007

Presenting Wordie.org


The connection between Flickr and Wordie might seem far-fetched, but there are some relevant likenesses. Wordie must be the no 1 social site for word geeks, in the same way as Flickr must be considered the equivalent when it comes to photo sites. Both sites rely on members adding their choice of selected, in one case photos, in the other case words. On both sites you are able to comment on added pictures/words, your own as well as others. On both sites you are able to introduce yourself through a profile. No avatar on Wordie, but then what could better represent you than an onomatopoeia, alongside your favourite and your least favourite words. On both sites you are able to post a written presentation of yourself and add links to other sites.

Just like one on Flickr creates sets of pictures, one creates lists of words on Wordie. There are all sorts of lists to be come across: Fantasy Words; Sports Page Headline Words; Bureaucratic Words; Geek Words; Irritatingly Misused Words; Words About Words; Words That Are Funny To Say etc. Personally I have had great fun remembering and listing words I can remember from my days in the rag trade. Making a list of Decemberist (the band) words have been an eye opener to the genius of Kevin Meloy. I am sure there are plenty of other artists and bands it would be interesting to scrutinize in the same way. My list of Nature Words That I Find Particularly Awesome includes words like tundra, creek, talon etc. This is a list that existed in my head long before my Wordie days.

There are no pictures on Wordie, and thereby zilch stealing the attention from the characteristics of the words themselves. The only advertisments are pictureless Google AdSense. I find the site pleasurably attractive in it’s simplicity, and it is furthermore easy to navigate and understand.

Each word posted has hyperlinks pointing to related entries from eight different sources. These include Google, Merriam-Webster, Wikipedia, Urban Dictionary and Ninja Words. Thus a word that cannot be found in one dictionary is most likely to be found in another, thanks to the diverse styles of lexicons. It is furthermore possible to see how many times a particular word has been posted; this fact is supplied with links to whomever has previously posted it.

I am a sucker for social sites and Wordie is definitely one of my favourite such. The interacting bit is enhanced by, for example, ones ability to see the profiles of all users who has put the same words as oneself on their site, including the profile question of favourite and least favourite word.

I am also a logophile and Wordie enables me to share the love of words with other word-loving people. To submit a word I like or just find interesting or fascinating, and then know that other logophiles will see it and assess it feels very cool.

Klick here to see my latest words. And if you decide to join, please let me know!

Monday, November 26, 2007

Packing "Solstorm"

Leaving for Iceland the other week, and while adding the last touches to my luggage, I realised I had nothing fictional to read during travel. Without much ado I grabbed a paperback out of the bookcase; one of those free-with-a-magazine paperbacks which I had never really considered reading. It was added to my other reading stuff consisting of Hylland Eriksen's “Ethnicity and Nationalism” and a bunch of student essays.

The train schedule had given me ample time at Arlanda to browse the shops, and I decided on spending some time in the paperback shop, selecting a book for the flight. After about half an hour of agonising decision making I ended up with Åsa Larsson’s “Solstorm”. A movie based on the book was just about to be realised, and through the trailer I had come to like the idea of the story, which was all about murder in an independent church congregation in northern Sweden.

What I did not realise though, but would find out while unpacking, was that this book I had so carefully selected was the same book which was already in my luggage, and which I had so nonchalantly grabbed on departure.

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Tuesday, November 06, 2007

I Am Going to (n)Iceland on Friday

Sitting down to do my packing list for traveling to Iceland, I remembered this packing list-generator I had come across on the net a while back. I found it through my del.icio.us and so ventured to try it out.

The generator will, according to ones criteria, generate a comprehensive packing list with anything from, what you have to think about before you leave to what documents you should bring.

I feel really pleased now that I have had my list generated. What I did was I deleted anything non applicable from the list, and then I added things that the "The Universal Packing List"-site did not know me well enough to add.

My criteria specified:



Another great site for traveling tips is "The Power-Traveler's Checklist" on "Travel Day" Here one gets loads of good advice for the airport and the flight.

I am so excited!!

Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Some homeworks are nicer than others

Cameron's Home Economics assignment provided us with the most fabulous Italian dinner this evening.

LASAGNA
All the ingredients needed (apart from the flour to thicken the sauce)



The bolognaise sauce


The cheese sauce


Layer the two sauces
with the pasta plates


Sprinkle grated
cheese on top


Bake in the oven for
about 25 minutes


Dinner table all set


And voalá!

Tuesday, October 30, 2007

And this week’s winners are …

1. THE DECEMBERISTS
No band manages to conjure up vivid images to ones mind like The Decemberists. There are stories of historical romance; sailors at sea; runaway teenage hustlers; embittered social scenes and what have you. Meloy’s ingenuity was emphasized to me as I started collecting words from his lyrics onto my Wordie site. There are words of such loveliness and mystery; one just cannot imagine where he gets them from. Have a look at my list here.



2. OKKERVIL RIVER
I think it was the name that first made me notice the band. Okkervil River is both a book by Tatiana Tolstaja and a river outside Saint Petersburg. Some free songs to be got here.

3. IRON & WINE

Some interesting trivia: The name Iron & Wine was taken from a dietary supplement named "Beef, Iron & Wine" that Sam Beam found in a general store while shooting a film. He liked the name, but decided to drop the "beef".And here is another one: I just learnt that Sarah Beam, Sam Beams sister, has contributed backing vocals on many of the studio recordings.

4. ELVIS PRESLEY
The kids again…

5. LOW
Cool slowcore. Apparently not to keen on the term themselves. It quite intrigues me how such cool music can be implicated with the mormon fate. Did I miss something…?



6. KATE & ANNA McGARRIGLE
Two sisters from Montréal who’s musical career began with the 1960s folk music movement. I love their singing, it is both beautiful and humorous; and of course very sixties! It is their first record I have listened to. It is called by their names and came out 1974. Favourite songs on there would be “Swimming Song” and “Complainte Pour Ste. Catherine”.

The sisters provided backing vocals on Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds's 2001 album “No More Shall We Part” and they also appear in the 2006 Leonard Cohen tribute film “Leonard Cohen: I'm Your Man”. They have also, among so much else, recorded with Irish group The Chieftains, with Emmylou Harris and with Joan Baez.

Have a listen here



7. ANNA TERNHEIM
Anna Ternheim provided me with one of the most memorable performances at this summers Love & Peace festival in Borlänge. She is so cool and she is so good! She also had the coolest outfit at the festival (well after Alice Cooper that is), with black puffed sleeve blouse, black braces, tight black trousers and black riding shoes. She’s cute!



8. CROSBY, STILLS & NASH
At the site of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Museum is to be read that Crosby, Stills & Nash are: “…America’s longest-running experiment in vocal harmony and social relevance.” I’d like to hear a bit more of David Crosby’s solo projects.



9. WOODPIGEON

Here most weeks. And in last weeks chart blog.

10. COWBOY JUNKIES
Does a brilliant version of “Sweet Jane”

11. CARISSA'S WIERD
Slow, rueful country-tinged indie rock. Could possibly join Low in the slow core genre, even though the sound is pretty different.

12. DAVID THOMAS BROUGHTON
Now, this is an interesting musician! Something that also becomes apparent in reading the Wikipedia presentation of him: “Generally playing solo with an acoustic guitar, he creates the sound of a large ensemble by sampling himself singing, playing, tapping and making an assortment of other sounds through a Digitech digital loop/delay pedal. He also uses various non-musical instruments to augment his songs, including long-wave radio and a portable television, and has recently begun incorporating seemingly self-conscious and/or ironic dance moves, as well as off-mic (often off-stage), singing into his set.”

The album I have been listening to, "The Complete Guide to Insufficiency", was recorded in Wrangthorn Church, Leeds, England. Review to be read here.



13. MAGNOLIA ELECTRIC CO
Everything Jason Molina does turns out gold.

14. GIANT SKYFLOWER BAND
This is real psych hippy stuff and/but very good! Proof is in some of the titles from the album to which I have been listening “Blood of the Sunworm”: “Rainbows and Dreams (With Worms Singing)”, “Bitter Wild Rabbit/Builds the Bone”, “The Arcangel (Hurray for the Beast)”, “Meditations on Christ and the Magi”.

Justin F. Farrar writes in a review of the album “…the dude sounds not only like a psychic hobo from Bolinas, but also a weary toker strung out on twee pop, British folk-rock, and David Crosby's burnout classic If Only I Could Remember My Name. There's not a single composition among Sunworm's 10 tracks -- just the barest of sketches and the acute feeling that Donaldson and partner Shayde Sartin did nothing more than record a stoned jam session, where the two Californians messed around with a room full of exotic instruments.”

The artist himself, Glenn Donaldson, describes the album as: “an exotic, flowery and crumbling new recording project with nods to fruity new age, psych, prog, folk, and pop songwriting.”



15. THE BUTTERFLIES OF LOVE
This is, contrary to what the band name would suggest, not hippy stuff; apparently though the tallest, skinniest band in America. New to me is that the band was doing Peel sessions as far back as 1998. If I had been listening to them for these last nearly ten years, I’d probably be well fed up with them, as I assume they have had this similar classic indie rock style all this time. But as it is they are new to me, and I really, really like them.

16. THE ACORN
Boring!!

17. THE COURT & SPARK
“…soundtracks for driving down a long dusty highway in late June.” Read a very well written review here.

18. BEGUSHKIN
See last weeks chart blog.

19. 16 HORSEPOWER

Can’t really remember listening… Must have been put on by mistake.

20. LEE HAZLEWOOD
See last weeks chart blog.

Monday, October 29, 2007

I wonder if ...

...that is one single piece of foil ...

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Swedish Midsummer

I you guys only knew how true to life this is.

Monday, October 22, 2007

An Eclectic Array

My choice of music is very much ruled by my immediate frame of mind. Music that might be unthinkable one day, might be what I crave the next. As I scroll my selection, the choices I make involve very little contemplation; all I do is listen to my heart.

Come Sunday it is time for the week’s listenings to be compounded into a chart at Lastfm. I find this exciting for different reasons. For example do I like the element of surprise, as I have very often forgotten many of my listenings. I also think it is interesting to see the actual list compiled, with the different artists in relation to each other.

Last week's top 20:

1. WOODPIGEON
Woodpigeons’ “Songbook” has been my favorite album for some time. Their music has been appropriately described as: “[…] jingly, ramshackle chamber-folk concoctions driven by banjo, glockenspiel, a sprawling choir and quivering male vocals.” (Now Magazine ) Lyrics like “I went to ninja school, to learn how to murder you” and titles like “The Alison Yip School For Girls, If Only I Were A Painter I'd Paint For You The Moon” or “Home as a romanticized concept where everyone loves you always and forever” are proof of their brilliance.

Free Woodpigeon EP


2. THE MOUNTAIN GOATS
Number 3 in my over all chart, with over a thousand plays. It is the entertaining, story telling, clever and highly literary lyrics that does it for me.

3. MOMUS
Another great one for lyrics is Momus. Wikipedia says: “In his lyrics and his other writing he makes seemingly random use of decontextualized pieces of continental (mostly French) philosophy, and has built up a personal world he says is ‘dominated by values like diversity, orientalism, and a respect for otherness.’[…] He is fascinated by identity, Japan, the avant-garde, time travel and sex.” Momus is moreover Scottish and he has been in the music business since early eighties.



4. LEONARD COHEN
Not much more than the perfect background music.

5. ELVIS PRESLEY
It wasn’t me; it was my children.

6. DEVENDRA BANHART
If nothing else, he’s pretty.

7. MUGISON
Mugison is an Icelandic artist to whom I was introduced (albeit not personally) this spring. He performs on his own, with guitar and computer. The Independent Newspaper wrote in a review “he played wild, crashing guitar while mixing vocals and distorted breathing through a laptop - was a meld of the recklessly shambolic (his computer crashed twice), endearing love songs and epic, disturbing soundscapes out of the Barents sea.”

I love the song title “Sad as a truck”.




8. BEGUSHKIN Nightly Things (2006)
One of my many folky finds this year, and another one-man-band, constituted by Dan Smith. Begushkin's music is dark and haunting, late-night and mystical while still kind of cute. Some of the lyrics are very lovely.

From “At Night With Me”:

And you will be my monkey girl
I will be the dude
You and your monkey cars
and me
and my ox-blood shoes...


9. TOM WAITS



10. JOHNNY CASH
My favorite Johnny Cash album at the moment is Amerian III and my favorite songs on there are “Solitary Man” and (as much as I hate to admit it) Bono’s “One”. “I won’t back Down” is also very wonderful.


11. THE BAND
I did a blog on the band, and their “Last Walz”-album some time ago. It can be found here.


12. CALEXICO
My favorite band, topping my over all chart, with over 2000 plays. I love the sound of Calexico and I love the way it is so obvious that those guys are in it for the love of what they do.




13. JENS LEKMAN
Jens Lekman seems a genuinely nice, humble and undoubtedly very intelligent guy. Lyrics and video productions are cleverly brilliant. I really do wish I could fall for his music, but I can’t. It is that orchestra sound… I tried very hard, and that’s how he made my chart.


14. NEIL YOUNG



15. JOSÉ GONSÁLES
Same goes for him as for Devendra Banhart


16. LEE HAZLEWOOD
I will always love a baritone voice, and especially in combination with country music. And, I love a lot of Lee Hazelwoods songs. Not all of them though. I was very irritated to have fallen asleep while listening to him the other night, and so woken up by his “Strangers, Lovers, Friends” – can’t stand that song. “Dolly Parton’s Guitar” is another irritating track. In all I find his music very entertaining though, as there is such a great variety of songs and styles.

I had no idea Lee Hazelwood had just passed away (August 4). Neither did I know he lived in Sweden during the 1970’s. Here he wrote and produced the one hour television show Cowboy in Sweden.

17. RED HEART THE TICKER For the Wicked (2005)
“Very Marie” someone pointed out. I am sure it is too, which of course means that it, apart from being folky, according to me is very good. The album was recoded in a barn, and in one song there are crickets to be heard.


Tasters to be had here


18. WE ARE WOLVES
Someone sent me a taster. French Canadian post-punk and pretty good.


19. JOANNA NEWSOME
A true artist she is Joanna Newsome; and a multi-talented such, as a harpist, pianist, harpsichordist, singer and songwriter. Wikipedia says: “Although her harp playing is not completely divorced from conventional harp techniques, she considers her style distinct from that of classically-focused harpists. She has been strongly influenced by the polymetric style of playing used by West African kora players.” Further it reads: “Her songwriting incorporates elements of Appalachian music, avant-garde modernism, and African kora rhythms”.

Decemberists has made a fabulous cover of her song “Bridges and Ballons”. This is probably the reason for me giving time to Joanna Newsome, as I have a bit of a hard time getting her music to do anything for me.




20. KRAFTWERK
For sentimental reason, and for going to sleep.


My Lasfm profile

Saturday, October 20, 2007

Making Murder Adorable

Having got rid of my main defence weapon, the cast iron frying pan, I am looking for a replacement. Quite its contrast but ever so effective would be the Hello Kitty AK-47 assault rifle with its hand-crocheted shoulder-stock muffler and its anodized titanium plating. I am also thinking along the lines of one of Antonio Rielli’s jewelled grenades.





More glamorous weaponry are to be viewed at glamguns.com where the shopping cart checkout link takes you to Amazone.com and A Theory of Parody: The Teachings of Twentieth-Century Art Forms. More of Antonio Rielli’s art work is to be viewed here.

Thursday, September 06, 2007

In Six Days God Made the Perfect Creation

Eve in The Garden of Eden with pet velociraptor:


By courtesy of The Museum of Creation, Kentucky

Someone has suggested Eve is wearing an iPod in this picture. Although more probably a Zune, there's a gap of only 6000 years between Eve and the Zune, compared to 65,000,000 years between velociraptors and humans. Accordingly, Eve with an Zune is obviously more realistic than Eve with a pet raptor. Conclusion: She might very well be wearing one.

Notes:
1) Velociraptor seems to have moved down the food chain one step
2) Is that Victorian dress really appropriate for the plains?

Saturday, September 01, 2007

Me at Work


By courtesy of Simpsonize Me

101

I just noticed my last post was my hundredth. Ah, well; should be noted I suppose.

Saturday, August 18, 2007

Family-oriented five-seater

This is just such a cool advertisement! I wonder if she is photo shopped...

Big Bear at Skansen

Came across this picture while sorting holidays snaps. I think it's lovely the way they all hold their hands up as if to pat the bear.

Monday, August 13, 2007

EEE

This is when I admit defeat:

Sunday, August 05, 2007

Gather XP, collect treasures and fend monsters, while seeing to your daily chores!

Not a dull moment in this house since chorewars.com came into our lives. The tedious household work is now turned into an interactive RPG, which makes us willingly do things we previously detested.

It works like this: Household chores are listed and made into adventures. When a chore is done, one is able to claim it and gather the XP attached to it. Sometimes claiming XP will result in a battle, but there is also the chance of gaining treasure. Our house is gleaming!

Cool thing is that the boys other household (their dads) also has joined in, and thus both houses are gleaming, while the boys are able to gather XP every day of the week.

New chores/adventures are continuously added as we discover them. Cleaning out wardrobes is next to be added to the list. There is bound to really horrid monsters to encounter doing that one though…

The statistics provided by the site furthermore provides an excellent valuation tool. It enables us to analyze our housework, in terms of who does what, and when, etc. 'How long ago since the plants were watered?'; 'Is everyone getting a chance to cook dinner?' and so on...

The Party “The Highland Fellowship” and it’s members:
From left to right: Dungeon Master ‘Skye of Ghaidhealtachd’ (Druid), Fraser 'The Master of Hell' (Barbarian), Worf the Klingon (Shaman), King Stuart 'Master of Light' (Paladin), malin (Barbarian), The gammla räv (Paladin)

An array of our adventures with scores and events (click on picture to enlarge):


On completing an adventure one is able to add a comment…


This is not the first time we involve the internet in getting our housework done. We have had an earlier experiment with mychores.co.uk ; blogged in an earlier posting. This system was far to complicated though, and it never really caught on with us. Aren’t we web2.0, so say!?

The "Master of Hell" in action:

Friday, August 03, 2007

Saturday, July 14, 2007