FOLLOW me on my popular Twitter feed. Just click this photo! @hbbtruth - David - Common sense on #Politics #PublicPolicy #Sports #PopCulture in USA, Great Britain, Sweden and France, via my life in #Texas #Memphis #Miami #IU #Chicago #DC #FL 🛫🌍📺📽️🏈. Photo is of Elvis and Joan Blackman in 'Blue Hawaii'
Beautiful Stockholm at night, looking west towards Gamla Stan
40 years today since ABBA swept Eurovision Song Contest with their song Waterloo, becoming first Swedes to win: http://t.co/aLNQJtziq3
— Sweden.se (@swedense) April 6, 2014
TheSpringOf74 YouTube Channel video: ABBA - Dancing Queen - LIVE at the Royal Swedish Opera, Stockholm, June 18, 1976, at the gala tribute to Sweden's King Carl XV1 Gustaf and future wife and Queen, Silvia Sommerlath, the night before their wedding.
This was the first time the song had ever been performed in public in Sweden.
The welcoming party that greeted me at the luggage carousel at Arlanda Stockholm Airport back in January was... ABBA. As seen in my May 7, 2013 blog post titled, "A" is for Awesome and ABBA as the new ABBA Museum in Stockholm officially opens this afternoon. Monday night's gala premiere brought Anni-Frid, Benny and Björn together, cheered on by a select group of invitees from across Swedish society and the music industry, who are, in the end, just fans of the band like everyone else, and very excited that this amazing museum is FINALLY a reality; #abba, #AbbaMuseum, #ThankYouForTheMusic, @stockholm, @sweden. http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2013/05/a-is-for-awesome-and-abba-as-new-abba.html
With four slopes and two lifts, Hammarbybacken provides for downhill skiing in central Stockholm. pic.twitter.com/lHaAZYg1Cp — Sweden.se (@swedense) January 8, 2014
Originally, when I thought I was going to be in Stockholm right before Christmas 2012, I was going to be staying at the Park Inn Stockholm Hammarby Sjöstad,
I only changed my plans when I got the chance to stay in a more centrally-located place that made it much more convenient to meet with some people I hoped to be meeting with and possibly even interviewing.
My some great and fortunate stroke of luck, by coming in January, I was able to stay at what is Stockholm's #1 B&B, in Södermalm, at the wonderful 4Trappor B&B As I've previously mentioned, this B&B is the top-rated one in the greater Stockholm area byTrip Advisor-and for very good reason! And the breakfast -and the views thru the kitchen windows- are amazing! I stayed there the first five days of my January trip, before spending my last five days at the very comfortable and affordable Omena Hotel Stockholm on the north side of town, Norrmalm, which is walking distance to the downtown business/retail district, Central Station and Gamla Stan. http://www.omenahotels.com/our-hotels/sweden/stockholm/ You could hardly find a more central location to rest at in-between exploring the sights of this amazing city, and there's a popular sports bar/restaurant on the ground floor which features a terrific lunch deal for 95 SEK. I highly recommend the ravioli -and a window seat! As you can see below, too much bright sunshine was definitely NOT the problem we had that first full day of mine in Stockholm, both excited and jet-lagged at the same time.
Above, using my Latitude app on my Samsung cell phone to find out where people I knew were once I checked into the B&B in Södermalm before I tried to reach them by phone or email.
And now, from my January 1, 2013 blog post titled, Baby, It's Cold Outside! But by sled, ski or snowmobile, everyone who's anyone -yes, even baby princesses- is eager to be part of the scene in chic, sexy, snowy (and Venture Capital-loving) Stockholm, and who can blame them? I'll soon be joining them!; Niklas Zennström, Andreas Ehn and other entrepreneurs on the secrets to their success and why Sweden "punches above its weight" when it comes to producing tech start-ups; #stockholm, #sweden http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2013/01/baby-its-cold-outside-but-by-sled-ski.html If it snows too much next Sunday to do much walking around and sightseeing, I may go here around Noontime, and then just do some people watching while reading the papers and drinking coffee outside, and do some filming of the whole crazy scene.
And THEN head to a sports bar to watch the NFL playoff games!
That's when that six-hour time difference finally works to my advantage. (More thoughts -and photos- of that crazy NFL football predicament I faced in Stockholm 12 months ago can be seen on the blog over the coming weekend!)
RetardedVideos2013 YouTube Channel video: Crazy snowmobile ride in Stockholm (SWEDEN). Uploaded on December 6, 2012. http://youtu.be/j7sCpSFRKww
But somehow, despite all that is known about its power to sift and find that hidden thing which you seek, the article above never mentions the power of Google Alerts, something I swear by and testify to. Just saying...
Music's long-tail idea not working out exactly as planned, is it? I last wrote about rock guitarist Yngwie Malmsteen in my April 30, 2011 blog post titled, If the blog is rockin', don't come knockin' - Yngwie Malmsteen: Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (HQ); original version by ABBA (LIVE at Wembley Arena, 1979) http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2011/04/if-blog-is-rockin-dont-come-knockin.html of which this remake of ABBA'sGime Gimme! Gimme! is but one of many videos there.
Euronews YouTube Channel video: Euronews reporter Valerie Zabriskie speaks with lucky Abba fan club members selected to get a sneak preview of the new museum in Stockholm. Uploaded May 5, 2013. http://youtu.be/xbDW3FdtEgM
"A" is for Awesome and ABBA and the new ABBA Museum in Stockholm, which officially opens today at 1600 Stockholm time/10 a.m. Eastern U.S. Monday night's gala premiere brought Anni-Frid, Benny and Björn together, cheered on by a select group of invitees from across Swedish society and the music industry, who are, in the end, just fans of the band like everyone else, and very excited that this amazing museum is FINALLY a reality; #abba, #AbbaMuseum, #ThankYouForTheMusic, @stockholm, @sweden
I could mention who some of these VIPs are and why they're important and why they're there,
but that's not worth spending the time it would take today to do that, and besides, TMI as I'm sometimes reminded by friends here in Hallandale Beach and elsewhere around the globe. Plus, I've had a very clear idea of how this particular blog post would look ever since I was there in January, so trying to explain to you all who Carola or Sarah Dawn Finer are and why they are in the video below iis, well, just a losing proposition today.
Tickets for the much-discussed and anticipated museum that's full of innovative technology run about 195 SEK/ just under $30 U.S. for adults, and 50 SEK/$7.63 for children up to age 8, at today's current ratio of about 6.52 Krona to the dollar, more or less.
But fair warning, the museum in the beautiful Djurgården section of Stockholm WON'T take bills or coins, only electronic payments, because as the museum puts it loftily, "Vi har en dröm om ett kontantfritt samhälle, därför går det inte handla med mynt eller sedlar hos oss." ("We have a vision of a cashless society, therefore we don’t handle coins and bills." )
Yes, sorta like in the future as seen in Star Trek, but not quite, since there's a 5% discount with MasterCard. Björn's explanation on why abba-museet doesn't take bills and coins, largely to prevent crime, has a great introduction that only a real genius like him could get away with saying in his Big Picture way
There was a time when bills and coins served their purpose. They replaced cumbersome barter and made trade between people and nations possible. But do they still serve this purpose? Do we really need cash? Or is it a fixed idea like with Scrooge McDuck? Have we lost the ability to see that coins and bills are mere symbols and that those symbols easily could be exchanged for others? Cards and smartphones today and who knows what in the future.
According to Lars Epstein's post yesterday, above, at his Stockholm-centric Epstein's STHLM blog at Dagens Nyheter, the museum is expecting about 217,000 visitors a year.
For someone like me who has been a huge ABBA fan for more than two-thirds of my life, the biggest ABBA fan that most people I've known have ever met, as small as this exhibit at the airport was, in looking at it and reflecting back on everything, it was hard to get over the fact that for so long, like millions of other fans, we fervently hoped that there'd be a museum some day that would be shaped along the lines of,,, well, just what they seem to have actually done: music plus heart -musik plus hjärta.
Like those other fans of the band, over the past 20 years I've given up counting how many interviews I'd seen with the band members, especially Benny and Bjorn, discussing the idea of it, but quite naturally, being somewhat unsure of how to answer such a question without seeming pretentious. But it IS a weird question, isn't it, when you really think about it? Should there be a museum that people pay to get into that's all about you and three other people you've known for most of your life? How do you answer that?
TheSpringOf74 YouTube Channel video: ABBA - Dancing Queen - LIVE at the Royal Swedish Opera, Stockholm, June 18, 1976, at the gala tribute to Sweden's King Carl XV1 Gustaf and future wife and Queen, Silvia Sommerlath, the night before their wedding. If I remember my ABBA history correctly, this was the first time the song had ever been performed in public in Sweden. http://youtu.be/33Yj5pbsXAs
Above, in my humble opinion, the single best version of this iconic song ever recorded on film.
Here are those January 10, 2013 photos I snapped at Arlanda before and after grabbing my luggage:
You can see more photos of this exhibit by going to Google Images using these words as your search terms: "Terminal 5, Arlanda, ABBA"
Here's the link to the ABBA Museum-related news videos that have run on TV4, most recent first, obviously, in Swedish, but many with lots of great video of the musem: http://www.tv4play.se/s%C3%B6k?utf8=%E2%9C%93&q=Abba
sannasonja's YouTube Channel video: Benny Andersson on piano, Olle Moraeus on violin - "En skrift i snön" on SVT's Luciamorgon telecast from Uppsala Cathedral, Sweden. Recorded December 7, 2012 for broadcast on Dec. 12th. Uploaded December 13, 2012. http://youtu.be/cTatkGocfCY
Sweet & sublime as always! SVT's 2012 St. Lucia telecast from Uppsala Cathedral -with Astrid Cederlöf as Lucia- was loaded with Swedish goodness, including ABBA's Benny Andersson on piano and Helen Sjöholm singing; There's no substitute for such sheer genius & talent!
The sweetness and the utter simplicity never disappoints.
Church choirs singing traditional Lucia and Christmas carols, the reading of the Lucia text, and as always, all done with no self-conscious showboating or self-congratulatory displays -and no distracting applause from the audience.
All done in one hour.
Above and below, my screenshots of 14-year old Astrid Cederlöfas Lucia.
By now, after a few years of watching this, and having gotten into the swing of how things go, there are certain songs that are always performed that are now so familiar to me that I can already hear the upcoming refrain, chorus or key musical notes even before the chyron disappears from the TV screen.
Correct, like hearing the first few notes of an ABBA or Beatles song. To me, this year's telecast seemed much more subdued than the previous two Luciamorgon telecasts.
Whether that was the plan or just the way it all worked out, I can't say, but it did seem like there was noticeably less energy in the room, maybe almost too subdued. Was it because I already knew that this year's telecast was NOT LIVE as the last two had been, where anything done LIVE always offers up the possibility of something interesting and unexpected happening?
Or maybe it was just because yours truly was already pretty tired and stayed-up all night thru to watch the telecast, which was 1 a.m. Eastern my time that Thursday morning, 7 o'clock in Uppsala. When that opening framing scene outside Uppsala Cathedral came onscreen, it looked SO very dark and very cold! I practically shivered vicariously when it came on and I thought about how mornings like that can make you exhausted even before the day begins. Thoughts of warm tomato soup and soup crackers went thru my head.
This is what it looked like outside the Cathedral in Uppsala an hour later, at 8 a.m., looking more like 6 p.m. in Bloomington, Indiana, about mid-January.
sannasonja's YouTube Channel video: Helen Sjöholm & Benny Andersson - "Vinterhamn" on SVT's Luciamorgon telecast from Uppsala Cathedral, Sweden. Recorded December 7, 2012 for broadcast on the 12th. Uploaded December 13, 2012. http://youtu.be/Xqtr219lt40
sannasonja's YouTube Channel video: Helen Sjöholm & Benny Andersson: "Nu tändas tusen juleljus" on SVT's Luciamorgoon telecast from Uppsala Cathedral, Sweden. Recorded December 7, 2012 for broadcast on the 12th. Uploaded December 13, 2012. http://youtu.be/fsnbicyYNcU
The above was short and sweet, but still my favorite from that day!
The video of the entire telecast is on SVT Play's website for another 28 days, as of today, then will be permanently deleted. http://www.svtplay.se/video/907512/lucia/?tab=undefined&sida=1 As usual, the SVT audio and video quality is amazing, so be sure to click the opposing arrows in the far right corner of the video and hit fullskärm to enable the full screen, And be sure to watch for Olle Moraeus on the violin.
Sweden.se's Vimeo video: SwedishLuciafor Dummies. Lucia Day - a feast of candlelit processions, saffron buns, mulled wine and talking animals. Here’s how to make the most of it. http://vimeo.com/55253944
As a bit of a Lucia bonus, here's a short video of some kids in a Lucia procession who made their way out to the glass cage in the Great Square in Malmö, Gustav Adolf Square, where this year's Musikhjälpen took place two weeks ago, and where Robyn famously performed in 2010, as I wrote at the time. Robyn rocks Malmö at Musikhjälpen 2010 as amazed fans watch her like a goldfish in a glass bowl at Gustaf Adolfs Square http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2010/12/robyn-rocks-malmo-at-musikhjalpen-2010.html
Below, Kodjo and Gina interact with the kids inside their glass cage studio:
sevensman YouTube Channel: David Ruffin - "Walk Away From Love" on "Soul Train" with Don Cornelius. (1975) Uploaded July 20, 2010. http://youtu.be/APlXHfhbiVw Truly, a perfect three-minute song. So much immense talent, so much towering ego, so many inner demons... and that crazy amazing emotive voice that never failed to get your attention. That June day in 1991 that I heard on the radio that David Ruffin had died, I actually cried. As for the video at the top of this post, I remember the Saturday morning that I first saw him performing this song on Soul Train in 1975, when I was fourteen-years old. That was back when the show aired in South Florida on the then-independent Channel 6, WCIX-TV, down on Brickell Avenue, back when, pre-Radio Mambi, WAQI, that street also was the home of Storer Broadcasting'sWGBS-AM710, the then-number one sports radio station in South Florida, with its 50,000 Watts booming from that beautiful brick building on the corner known as the 710 Building. As ridiculous as some of Soul Train's conventions could sometimes be, especially its not always so well-disguised lip-syncing, I watched that show religiously every Saturday morning. Some posts on Miami TV and Radio of that era will be forthcoming in the new year
Below, David Ruffin as he appeared and sang the song on ABC-TV'sAmerican Bandstand with Dick Clark on the November 16, 1975 telecast: David Ruffin - Walk Away From Love (Amerby sagelion13 Also appearing on that show - a band from Sweden that you may've heard of. ABBA did a killer version of "S.O.S" as you can see from Shay's video. 2Shaymcn YouTube Channel: ABBA - "S.O.S." on ABC-TV's "American Bandstand " with Dick Clark, November 1975. Uploaded January 20, 2012. http://youtu.be/6OOrleE6wfc
SVT promo video: Allt för Sverige - De söker sitt svenska ursprung.
Video is available for viewing on website until January 18, 2011.
SVT promo video: Allt för Sverige - The Landing in Torekov.
Video is available for viewing on website until January 18, 2011.
Ten Americans come to Sweden for the first time, eager to find their family roots. "Allt för Sverige" premieres Sunday on SVT.
And best of all for those of you who don't speak Svenska, the eight-part series hosted by Anders Lundin of SVT's daily Gomorron Sverige news/info/chat show is mostly in English, with Swedish sub-titles, unlike this video below of him talking about the upcoming shows, where he plays the role of not just the amiable host, but also part-time teacher, part-time psychologist, as he takes his charges thru some competition and tries his best to instill in them a sense of the best parts of what it is to be Swedish.
Anders Lundin of Gomorron Sverige on the new SVT show he hosts, Allt för Sverige. Video is available for viewing on website until October 23, 2011.
But then it's a reality show, so, good intentions notwithstanding, it's not like the show's cast was going to be talking about high-level economic policy, so you'll be able to follow along with no problems.
As someone who knows from first-hand experience, there are few 'bugs' harder to shake than the genealogy 'bug,' since when you least expect it, it will play havoc with your life and daily schedule for weeks or months if you let it, causing you to stay up all night looking at hard-to-decipher handwriting on censuses from the 19th Century, instead of catching up on your much-needed sleep.
To use a cliche I never have used here before -been there, done that.
The new Allt för Sverige program website is chock full of info & videos: http://svt.se/2.162106/
When I first moved to Washington, D.C. in the summer of 1988, blessed with a not-so-great air conditioner at my place on Capitol Hill, just five blocks east of the U.S. Capitol, I spent hundreds and hundreds of hours at The National Archives on the National Mall, and, even closer to me, at the Local History and Genealogy Reading Room in the Thomas Jefferson Building of the Library of Congress, the one just east of the Capitol and south of the Supreme Court.
Yes, back before the Internet made staying in a large room all day on a beautiful winter Saturday to try to find one small needle in a haystack in a 100-year old book you'd never seen before, seem even crazier than it sounds to read here now.
Sometimes, those hours seemed like years...
And speaking fo Swedish heritage, now for something completely different... from Shay's (SHAYMCN1) amazing treasure trove of ABBA and rock videos:
Agnetha Fältskog - Tack Sverige (Thank You Sweden, 1968)
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