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
Above, my screenshot of Expressen reporter/camera operator Nike Jacobson keeping her cool andremaining steadfast while being buffeted by the high winds of Stormen Simone, as the following video shows:
Vi sänder live och ger er senaste nytt om stormen Judas. Vårt team rapporterar direkt från västkusten. http://t.co/9JkQE7S6rG — Aftonbladet TV (@AftonbladetTV) October 28, 2013
More screenshots of mine from this afternoon my time, evening in Sweden.
I've mentioned it in some of my email to some of you out there but haven't mentioned it here yet on the blog, but in the World Cup Group A Qualifying Round, Sweden, after enduring a demoralizing recent come-from-behind 5-3 loss at home to Germany, drew a powerful Cristiano Ronaldo-ledPortugal, which was not the draw that Swedish football fans were hoping for.
The first match will be played in Lisbon on November 15th, and the second at Friends Arena in Stockholm on November 19th.
So with two of the best players in the world set to play one another, there's obviously a little bit of this nervous feeling going around re FIFA kingpin Sepp Blattner.
Final approach on runway 26, Stockholm Arlanda Airport.
Välkommen till Sverige -Welcome to Sweden.
To give you some perspective on how far north Stockholm really is, the air miles from Washington, D.C. to Stockholm, about 4134, is less than 50 miles farther than a flight from Stockholm due south to the Equator.
Above, screenshot of early Monday's Aftonbladet online coverage on this week's trip. Meanwhile, Dagens Nyheter has one of those great graphics they do, this time about the official limo, which always fascinates people no matter what country it is in: http://www.dn.se/sthlm/grafik-sa-skyddas-obama-i-sverige/
SVT news video: Så skyddas Obama. This news segment about the president's protective detail, featuring comments by former Washington Post reporter and author Ron Kessler, ran during Monday night's evening news and is mostly in English.
On Tuesday night I will be uploading my blog post about some things that President Obama really ought to know about Sweden in advance of his flight to Stockholm on Wednesday, but which I'm pretty sure that he will not be briefed about by the State Dept., owing to certain cultural and myopic weaknesses. But I've got it covered. Not so much a Top Ten list, per se, since I'm not sure how many things will make the list, but don't be surprised to see some things mentioned here that you didn't know, or thought you knew about Sweden -but didn't. But as just as a bit of a teaser, I'll remind you, again, that Sweden is NOT Switzerland. (Switzerland is where American actor, social activist and jet-setter George Clooney chooses to live, on Lake Como, and Sweden is where the shining example of Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg, a man who made a huge difference in the lives of tens of thousands of people, in that he made it possible for them to actually stay alive, quite contrary of the wishes of the Nazis. But in a sign that no good deed goes unpunished, he died in a Soviet prison for his heroic efforts, yet lives forever in the hearts of his countrymen.) But Tre Kronor, the Swedish National Mens Hockey team did defeat Switzerland 1-0 in the IIHF Championships in May in the Gold Medal game played in Stockholm, which prompted lots of celebrating in the hours and days afterwards, including at Sergels Torg, one of my favorite places in all of Stockholm.
Marcus Jerräng @blisk: Samtidigt på Sergels Torg I listened to the game LIVE online via Sveriges Radio despite my lack of knowledge of the words for many hockey terms in Sweden, and watched the game when it was finally televised -NOT LIVE- in the U.S., but rather late the next night on NBC Sports Network with no build-up, which sucked.
SVT news video: Early on Monday morning Foreign Ministry Chief of Protocol Caroline Vicini appeared on SVT's Gomorron program and spoke about what events would be taking place and ironing-out things logistically so everything is smooth sailing.
Here's a copy of the email I received last week from the City of Stockholm: Heavy traffic problems expected during President Obama's visit (Stockholms stad: Kraftiga trafikstörningar väntas i samband med president Obamas besök)
Following President Obama's visit to Stockholm on 4-5 September expected heavy traffic problems in many parts of the Stockholm area.
In particular, the inner city and the main roads to and from the airport will be affected.
Some parts of the city is completely closed to traffic. This applies primarily to the area around Nybrokajen, Harbour Street, Finland - Old Town, around the castle.
All modes of transport are affected: automobile, public transportation; mainly bus, plane and to some extent also boating.
Motorists urged to leave their cars at home and use public transport.
Public transport travelers are recommended to first use of rail transport ie subway and / or train.
All road users can expect delays.
Those scheduled travel days to / from Stockholm and Arlanda should contact their tour operator for details of current departure times
Current traffic information will be provided via Trafik Stockholm. Radio Stockholm and at the following websites:
Below is Police Dept.'s info page on changes to auto, bus, rail, bicycle and pedestrian traffic patterns related to the Obama visit.
Long story short, they want people to avoid going into downtown area if they can avoid it, and even encourage people to work at home if possible.
Because Stockholm is, of course, a series of many islands with connecting bridges and has an extensive subway system, the authorities will NOT allow any trains to run under areas where escorts are taking place, which means that train passengers, both local and regional, will be adversely affected.
Translation -strong possibility that train passengers can and will be stuck on trains for quite some time.
The Amnesiac Among Us: American Michael Boatwright is the most curious man I've read about all summer. His recent return to Sweden from the U.S. -STILL with no memory- looking for answers about who he really is, or even why he suddenly started speaking fluent Swedish, but can't speak English any longer, is the mystery of the year
As you might imagine, Boatwright has been the subject of intense fascination and curiosity this summer in the hyper-competitive Swedish press, with literally everyone having a pet theory of their own about what "really happened" to him that would explain his loss of memory. Or, his purported inability to speak English. Talar ni engelska? Nej! Some people, with nothing to base it on, have spun theories about him possibly having accidentally killed someone and wanting to repress the memory and or go to a country that doesn't expedite if the suspect can get capital punishment, or even the usual -when in doubt- blame the CIA theories, except how could someone like this possibly be in a position to help the CIA or anyone, since despite his having been in both Japan and China, he did not have jobs where he'd run into the kinds of people operatives deal with. Plus, his life seems to have become quite unmanageable, a bad sign of spycraft.. Much of that thinking about criminal motivations has to do I think with both the need to make something that's likely very simple, much more complex, and the long-lasting effect in Sweden of so many American police procedurals on Swedish TV, where American-made programming dominates at all hours of the day. ('Smallville' came on at 6 a.m. on my trip in January. Or was it 5 a.m.?)
Aftonbladet TV video: ”Svensken” försökte ta sitt liv – i Kina. ("The Swede" attempted suicide - in China). By Magnus Sundholm, July 29, 2013 http://www.aftonbladet.se/nyheter/article17206906.ab The British press really loves the story, too, in part, because of the mystery angle, just dangling there like low-hanging fruit. Like the Swedish media, they want to figure it out and either explain it or expose him, whichever the truth points to via tangible evidence See also: Transient Global Amnesia: What Total Memory Loss Is Like http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/07/28/transient-global-amnesia-what-total-memory-loss-is-like.html ----- The Daily Mail Who am I?! American who woke up one day and could only speak Swedish goes to Europe in an attempt to regain his memories Michael Boatwright woke up in a Palm Springs Motel 6 in February with no memory of his past life The former English teacher woke able to only speak Swedish His doctors said that his amnesia could have been caused by 'massive emotional trauma' A worldwide search for friends and relatives was launched by his doctors He has returned to Sweden to meet an old girlfriend who he hopes will be able to kick-start his forgotten life By James Nye PUBLISHED: 19:06 EST, 21 August 2013 UPDATED: 02:50 EST, 22 August 2013
The U.S. Navy veteran discovered unconscious in a Californian motel in February, who awoke with total amnesia and only able to speak Swedish, has flown to Sweden in a bid to rebuild his life.
Michael Boatwright, 61, was reunited in Gothenburg on Tuesday with Ewa Espling, an old flame who he has not seen in almost 30 years and hopes spending time with her might trigger an avalanche of lost memories.
The ambitious Latina teen has plans for superstardom, a goal she sings about in her debut, 'Becky From the Block.'
By Reed Johnson
August 19, 2013
At the time, her family had been forced to move into her grandparents' Inglewood garage after losing its Riverside County home. Money was tight. Her dad was stressing out. And her mom was "really scared."
Becky G vividly remembers what she calls "my little mini midlife crisis." It happened seven years ago, when she was 9.
That's when Becky had an epiphany.
"I did have this moment of realization of, 'Oh, my God, what am I going to do with my life?'" she says. "Just feeling like I had to get my act together, even though there was really nothing to put together yet."
This is a slightly-edited version of an email I sent out Monday night to a friend in Europe who is a very smart and savvy music producer and talent manager, whose reaction to this Los Angeles Times article I could well imagine even before I hit "Send."
----------
August 19, 2013
7:55 p.m.
After reading this article above, I think we both know that most discerning people of a certain age, educational background and open-eyed observer of Western pop culture history will be of one mind with you and me on it, and I think we both know, implicitly, something that we can't actually prove empirically.
Why? Well, in my case, I'm smart, pop savvy and have an excellent memory and an even better intuition!
As for you, well, you know those reasons better than me.
Here's what that intuition tells me today.
That there are tens of thousands of people all over Los Angeles in the entertainment industry who woke-up this morning, opened their front door and grabbed today's LA Times off their porch or lawn and started scanning the headlines as they walked back to their house, condo or apartment, still half-asleep.
Somewhere by the time they got into their kitchen, they'd pulled the plastic bag off and had popped the whole paper open on their table and were scanning and scanning and scanning and then...they stopped when they saw the headline below the fold:"Becky G. dreams of being the next Jennifer Lopez."
At that point, more than a few of them said to themselves, "WTF? Who is this girl and why is SHE getting front page coverage by the Times when there are so many more-talented singers out there I know who deserve attention and who've already paid their dues?"
So, this morning, all over LA, people who don't know each other already have something in common: their day started off bad and was only going to get worse once they got behind their steering wheel and within minutes, found themselves in traffic. And as they wait at the long red light, they think back to the carefully-orchestrated photos which seemed more like they belong on Becky G.'s official website, not a reputable first-class newspaper, and they mutter,"All this for a 16-year old Latina rapper? Really?"
And you know what?
The LA Times could care less about how much this story upsets and antagonizes the real professionals within the LA-area recording industry, even if they are subscribers. The people who are below-the-radar but who are the backbone of the industry: sound engineers, techs, the receptionists at the studios, the A&R types in their shiny glass office buildings with nice views of the mountains, as well as the mountains of newspapers and magazines they get to let them have a Sixth Sense know about the Next Big Thing.
The reason the Times doesn't care what those industry people think about this article is because in their own minds, they're taking the larger, long-term view. The Times knows that because they orchestrated this with the complete help and cooperation of the record company, complete with two record company "minders" in tow, to prevent her from saying something the record company wouldn't like -a condition which many reputable journalists would NOT accept.
In large part they did so because they consciously want to be known in history as the first major Anglo news media outlet in the U.S. to "discover" Gomezfor a national audience.
The fact that she's Hispanic helps them ward off the ever-present criticism in LA that the Times
ignores Hispanics in their pages except when they get arrested or are crooked politicians.
But it's hard to say that you "discovered" someone when they already have roughly 48 separate citations on Univision, the leading Spanish-language TV network in the U.S. -and already have a contract with Cover Girlcosmetics as one of their "faces."
To me, she seems more like a carefully-constructed "Disney" media star than a real singer with something to say, and you know I don't mean that positively:
Then I look at what someone I'm more familiar with, 15-year old Cecilia Nilsson tweets and writes about on her Facebook page in Gavle, and to me, she seems so much more grounded. A real teenager with her ups and downs, and while ambitious, of course, in her particular case, someone whom you know I personally believe has an amazing talent, and someone that's preternaturally mature musically. An ability that she's honed and made better thru lots of very hard work and learning from experience.
Andreas Jismark YouTube Channel video: See See (Presentation). Uploaded September 5, 2012. http://youtu.be/0syxcoAblN8
As it happens, this presentation video is in Swedish, but I still think you'll enjoy it as she speaks about herself and her music interests and desire to write songs that are honest and that will connect with people.
It was recorded mostly at her home in Gävle, a very middle-class Swedish city in the best possible sense of the word, and a city that I've written about here on the blog a few times in the past, which has not always had the easiest go of things.
To me, at least, that means that any songsCecilia writes and sings about will be much more in-tune with the average listener's personal experiences than if she'd been born or raised in
a beautiful place Södermalm, one of my favorite places in all the world, and had affluent parents. The sort who'd push her around in one of those amazing $800-plus German prams they sell atNordiska Kompaniet, which I spent some time eye-balling on my last day in Stockholm, surprised that that there was even a little department for them at a store, even one that large, since I'd never seen anything like that in the U.S., not even in Macy's or Nordstrom's.
Cecilia Nilsson - In My Room (Complete Song)
Cecilia Nilsson YouTube Channel: Cecilia Nilsson -In My Room. This is Cecilia's debut single. Uploaded May 13, 2013. http://youtu.be/r3MUHpMTAaoWritten by Cecilia Nilsson & Andreas Mattsson. Cissi's new single is available on both iTunes and Spotify.
Andreas Jismark YouTube Channel video: Cecilia Nilsson "Never Let You Go" -LIVE at Babar in Tranås, Sweden. April 5, 2013. Uploaded April 6, 2013. http://youtu.be/xVmsUZCpJqI
These videos first appeared here on the blog in my May 14, 2013 blog post titled, "On Wednesday you'll be thanking me for introducing you to ANOTHER amazing singer from Sweden: Cecilia Nilsson, a.k.a Cissi or "See See"; Cecilia will sing two songs LIVE on Radio P4 Gavleborg on Friday at 15:30; @CissiNilsson, @andreasjismark, #inmyroom"
Now getting back to Becky G., to me, the LA Times clearly wanted to be the first Anglo media organization to write about this singer -that 99.99% of the U.S. has never heard of- in such an over-the-top way that all future reporters who ever write about anything about her, will reflexively have to read this Times article first, to see what her answers and attitude were like, way back in 2013.
Becky Gomezseems like a nice kid and maybe she's talented.
Or maybe she's not.
Her music isn't my thing and never will be, that's certainly not going to change, but if some people like it, it doesn't bother me, per se, though as you know, I hate rap music, since I like harmony and melody.
But to me, after reading this, what bothers me the most, and what no doubt bothered the vast majority of the people in the music industry I described at the top of this email who also read it, is that it all seems so very contrived.
That Gomez is merely the shiny new face of corporate music trying to find an audience niche amongst the influential and affluent teen market In North America, especially of teenage girls who are perhaps overly-indulged by their well-meaning parents that finds her palatable if not very original.
Not the good part of corporate music, like a certain consistency in the quality of the recording studios or the knowledge and experience of the sound engineers you might work with, or even the quality of the hotels you stay at, but the negative things that we are all in agreement on.
After reading this article, I thought back to the interview with Full of Keys (Anni Bernhard)
on Channel 4 early last year -as seen above in a screenshot of my first blog post on her from February 4th, 2012.
I was so impressed by what she said and how sincere she was in saying it.
That is, to the extent that I could fully understand what she was saying and hinting at to the hosts! :)
Still, the reason I sent this article to you today is because this is a great snapshot of a major American media company, which, because it's located in the world's entertainment capital, and has been losing lots of longtime readers, advertisers and money (and fired lots of reporters), is trying quite desperately to be seen as still relevant.
Which is why they were fully-prepared to swallow whole a pre-digested corporate music advertisement and pretend that it was really journalism.
In the late 1970's and most of the '80's, the Times' ad-filled Sunday paper were famous for
their weight, often coming in at well over eight pounds during the pre-holidays, the largest in America in those pre-Internet days.
Back when they had among the best group of foreign correspondents that had ever been assembled, plus really great political and sports columnists who could tell a story in original and compelling ways, which is why so many of them were syndicated nationally in other U.S. papers, like the ones in Miami that I grew-up reading.
Like Pulitzer Prize-winning sports columnist Jim Murray, whom I read in the Miami News, the afternoon paper that I preferred to the Miami Herald in part because I knew so many of the reporters, columnists and editors who worked there when I was in high school, but spent lots of time there in the Herald building on Biscayne Bay.
I think within a few days, the reader comments at the LAT website will not be quite so friendly and positive about Becky G., with lots of people asking why the editors are putting something so lightweight on their front page that seems to almost be more like an advertisement than a genuine news article.
So with all this in mind, perhaps next week, rather than do some things I already have planned, I should fly off to Stockholm again, except this time, stay at some crazy expensive hotel in Stureplan, rather than the much more reasonably-priced Omena Stockholm on Torsgatan that I stayed at the last five days of my nine-day trip in January.
Then, sometime after lunch, perhaps before going over to Fotografiska, I will suddenly "discover" Zara Larsson, Ha! Ha! Ha!
Yes, the amazing 15-year old dynamo with that powerful voice whom I've only been following for nearly four years or so, and wanted to write about on my blog for years. I've followed the ups-and-downs of Zara since she was one of the handful of very talented kids profiled on TV4's very compelling Tuesday night documentary series from 2009-2010 that I wrote about here on the blog at the time, "Jag ska bli stjärna (I'll be a star). Except, of course, Zara's already signed a contract with Sony.
poriel2 YouTube Channel video: Zara Larsson - Uncover - Live on SVT's 'Allsång på Skansen' in Stockholm. June 25, 2013, the first show of the summer. Uploaded on August 2, 2013. http://youtu.be/undi-9G68Hc
SVT video: De bär slöja som solidaritetshandling (They wear the veil as act of solidarity). Aired August 19, 2013. Article at http://www.svt.se/kultur/sjal-som-solidaritetshandling The best line in the article, in my opinion is from Humanist that ends, "trakasserier är aldrig en form av kritik.” (Harassment is never a form of criticism.)
Non-Muslim women in Sweden wearing hijabs this week to show moral support for Muslim women in Sweden in wake of shocking attack on pregnant Muslim woman in southern Stockholm suburb of Farsta; @hijabuppropet, @Nabila_AFR, #hijabuppropet, @lindblomkarin, @pontusahlkvist,
http://stream.aljazeera.com/story/201308192111-0022988 Aftonbladet's article, I morgon beslöjar vi oss av solidaritet (Tomorrow we veil ourselves of solidarity) has by far the most facts about what really happened last week, and its their coverage that's largely responsible for this campaign gaining traction and being taken seriously. Imagine that, South Florida, a newspaper actually doing somethng besides living off its history!:
A heavily pregnant mother of three was beaten in a parking lot in the Stockholm suburb of Farsta Friday when a strange man started to pull her veil and clothing as he shouted that "people like you should not be here." He pounded her head against a car so hard that she lost consciousness. Police were alerted three times before they finally showed up, and once in place, they argued that there were sufficient grounds to investigate the incident.
Even after all the negative attention and even brutal criticism she has garnered the past few months, even Social Democrat pol Veronica Palm got into the swing of things and tweeted this:
On the other hand, Palm has spouted so many empty-headed platitudes about important issues in the past, it's hard to know if she's serious or instead, playing the role of the sort of person who always exists in Western society who ends up making something that's serious actually look more like a fad, diminishing the efforts of others who are well-intentioned and find their message hijacked by someone who likes attention. So, judging all this from many thousands of miles away, problematic in even the best of circumstances, like here where I've read and watched lots of news stories about this, as well as opinionated tweets, I can't quite figure out if in this instance, Palm is actually being sincere, or, is playing the media-savvy role she so often has in the very competitive Swedish media -sometimes willingly it has seemed to me- of the good-looking and pampered female Socialist politician living-off the fruits of the bourgeoisie that so many of her supporters openly malign and deride, esp. online, but who keep Palm and her friends and supporters living the good life without too much drama or pain in their lives, no thanks to them.
