Celebrating U.S.A.'s 240th birthday today from hot & humid Florida, but wishing I was in Sweden, on a boat in the Stockholm archipelago, eating strawberries with friends, and enjoying the Midnight Sun; Ingmar Bergman's "Wild Strawberries"

Snapshots, in a few tweets and words, of what I'm thinking about today, the Fourth of July...
Celebrating U.S.A.'s 240th birthday today from hot & humid Florida, but wishing I was in Sweden, on a boat in the Stockholm archipelago, eating strawberries with friends, and enjoying the Midnight Sun; Ingmar Bergman's "Wild Strawberries"

Before hamburgers, hots dogs, pretzels & beer R consumed today -& B4 we "Let freedom ring!"- there must be #donuts! https://t.co/m9BybGCcwY

— HallandaleBeachBlog (@hbbtruth) July 4, 2016

Before anyone else is awake, we sneak out for a morning run with the boat. ...and maybe some "fika"? ☺️☀️☕️ pic.twitter.com/nXY48b9aYI

— Magnus Lundin (@magnusswede) May 30, 2015

Sun sets over Stockholm @sweden , heading out to the archipelago. Fantastic October evening.

Have a nice weekend! pic.twitter.com/eohvTUHexG

— Magnus Lundin (@magnusswede) October 3, 2014

Midsummer!! 🕶 #swedisharchipelago #yxlan #midsummer

A photo posted by fullofkeys (@fullofkeys) on Jun 25, 2016 at 12:32pm PDT

Above, a great recent snapshot of a boat in an archipelago in Sweden taken on Midsummer Day by super-talented Anni Bernhard, a.k.a. singer Full of Keys, a friend of the blog and someone we adore for a whole host of good reasons, many of which we've written about here in the past.

@magnusswede Celebrating 240th B'day 2day in humid #FL, wishing was on #STHLM archipelago, eating strawberries! :-) https://t.co/FpYZtX8Qs2

— HallandaleBeachBlog (@hbbtruth) July 4, 2016

@magnusswede Just in case, I'll order us a backup boat so daytrip goes perfectly! @chriscraftboats ad fm 1944 @LIFE. pic.twitter.com/Hr6Q4tTWeY

— HallandaleBeachBlog (@hbbtruth) July 4, 2016

Updated on 2016-07-05

Well, it's the Fourth of July, Birthday #240 for the USA.

Owing perhaps to the oppressive heat and humidity of Florida as I'm experiencing it in 2016. I mentioned strawberries in one of my tweets earlier today to Magnus Lundin, savvy and personable CEO of SISP, the Swedish Incubators & Science Parks, located in beautiful Stockholm, because 
a.) I really do LOVE strawberries, and,
b.) It seems without ever planning to, more often than not, most Fourth of July weekends, at some point, often after watching fireworks, I end up watching Ingmar Bergman's iconic film "Wild Strawberries" because... it's SO perfect, SO summer and SO Sweden!

I can't believe that I and my then-friends put up with this crazy summer heat as a kid growing-up in South Florida in the early and mid-1970's, riding our bikes EVERYWHERE during the day, without benefit of plastic water bottles!

Moonrise in the light of the midnight Sun https://t.co/92EUHiXCRV #moon #midnightsun #Sweden #Norrland #Nikon #D810A pic.twitter.com/nYuCu8YAO0

— Göran Strand (@Astrofotografen) July 1, 2016

Which is to say, for me, it's a perfect film for transporting me away from my everyday, mundane concerns, including helping me to forget how truly hot it is outside, with mosquitos buzzing around aiming to make me their meal ticket, something that was just as true this time of the year when I was living and working in Chicago and Washington, D.C. as it is today back in Florida. 

Part of the genius of this film, at least to me, is that like the best films, it always gives gives the viewer a reason to contemplate a life very different from the one they are currently living, since it has a huge dollop of wistfulness in it, something I, perhaps, already spend too much time considering.
This classic film of remembrance, known as Smultronställe in Swedish, officially opened in Sweden on December 26th, 1957, but for me, it remains a film of #summer.

One of my all-time favorite films, I've probably seen it, conservatively, over two dozen times, mostly on Turner Classic Movies (TCM), though I have a DVD and videocassette of it and many other Bergman films. It's a film that I always gets something new out of, and never tire of watching in part because there's so very much going on, even when it doesn't always seem that way.

It stars Victor Sjostrom, and a 22-year old Bibi Andersson, Ingrid Thulin and Gunnar Björnstrand.  I've got some good clips of it at the bottom of this post for you to peruse.

For those of you who are new to my blog and the wide variety of subjects that I like to discuss, share and analyze here, or newbies to my ever-expanding number of Followers on Twitter via my @hbbtruth handle, https://twitter.com/hbbtruth, I note here that Swedish film director Ingmar Bergman was accorded one of the greatest honors of any film personality I can think of when a few years ago, he was chosen to be the face of the newest Swedish 200 Kronor note, starting last year, replacing Selma Lagerlöf, who was the first female writer to ever win the Nobel Prize for Literature.

Designed by Göran Österlund

I previously discussed who the newest faces of Swedish currency were in this April 25, 2012 blog post titled, "Beautiful, just like the original! Greta Garbo will be featured on the new Swedish 100 Kronor note, with Ingmar Bergman on the 200 SEK note, all designed by Göran Österlund, starting in 2015"

http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2012/04/beautiful-just-like-original-greta.html

-------

Wild Strawberries -Opening Credits (1957)

http://www.tcm.com/mediaroom/video/239721/Wild-Strawberries-Movie-Clip-Opening-Credits.html

https://youtu.be/A3n4TxNeaPg

https://youtu.be/41usu9d8Fnw

Dave 

Twitter: @hbbtruth, https://twitter.com/hbbtruth

https://twitter.com/hbbtruth/with_replies

http://www.hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/

https://www.youtube.com/user/HallandaleBeachBlog

More amazing & infectious music that'll hook you from the start by super-talented Full of Keys (Anni Bernhard), from her #GrazingGrounds album: "Silent Agreement" & "Cover My Eyes"; Just MORE proof that everything I've said & written about her is 100% true :-)! @FullOfKeys, #STHLM

FullofkeysOFFICIAL YouTube Channel: Full Of Keys - Silent Agreement. Uploaded January 9, 2014

http://youtu.be/7yHULYTxEt4  

From the second album by Full of Keys The Grazing Grounds
http://www.youtube.com/user/FullofkeysOFFICIAL

Full Of Keys - Cover My Eyes (Stills Video) via Andreas Jismark YouTube Channel. 

Uploaded February 23, 2014. The second track from #grazinggrounds album. http://youtu.be/aha-pf_QrXo

Here are some of the early scheduled dates for the Grazing Grounds tour, so if you are going to be anywhere near Stockholm or Visby in the next three weeks, start making plans to go there with your friends RIGHT NOW.
Personally, I really love the Hotel Scandic Anglais, right around the corner from Sturegatan, which is also where another one of the blog's favorites, Jennifer Åkerman, @jjakerman, and her band Jaxx played last year: 

March 22nd Bunker Bar, Stockholm (Private party) 

March 28th Hammer Bar, Adelsgatan 33, Visby, Gotland

March 29th KGB Bar, Stockholm (Private party) 

April 4th Hotel Scandic Anglais, Humlegårdsgatan 23, Stockholm

Above, singer/songwriter Full of Keys (Anni Bernhard) while recording her second album, "The Grazing Grounds" at Sandkvie Studios in Visby, Gotland, Sweden. 
Ann is wearing the teal-colored Miami Dolphins cap I gave her from my trip to Stockholm in January of 2013. 
Also pictured here are sound engineer and co-producer Linus Larsson and musician/DJ/co-producer Mats Jönsson, April 12, 2013. 

My post on Anni from last summer:
http://www.hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2013/06/our-full-of-keys-drought-is-finally.html

More information at:
http://fullofkeys.com/ 
Blog: http://fullofkeys.com/category/blog/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fullofkeys 
Twitter: @FullOfKeys https://twitter.com/FullOfKeys 
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/FullofkeysOFFICIAL

See older videos and photos of Full of Keys are at: http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/p/full-of-keys.html

Happy Miami Dolphins Anniversary; For some, the Dolphins' glory is like faded photographs in an album, but to me, it is as fresh in my mind as anything else in my memory. I only wish the people running and coaching the team now cared as much as I and some others do, who know what it's like to see and appreciate a thing of beauty -perfection- up-close and personal; Sports Fan in Chief Obama Honors Champion 1972 Miami Dolphins at White House

Happy Miami Dolphins Anniversary; For some, the Dolphins' glory is like faded photographs in an album, but to me, it is as fresh in my mind as anything else in my memory. I only wish the people running and coaching the team now cared as much as I and some others do, who know what it's like to see and appreciate a thing of beauty -perfection- up-close and personal; Sports Fan in Chief Obama Honors Champion 1972 Miami Dolphins at White House

PBS NewsHour YouTube Channel video: Sports Fan in Chief Honors Champion 1972 Miami Dolphins. "More than 40 years since the 1972 Miami Dolphins made NFL history with their perfect season, coach Don Shula and his undefeated team were honored by President Barack Obama with a visit to the White House. Kwame Holman reports on the presidential tradition of following sports and Mr. Obama's dedication to his home teams." Uploaded August 20, 2013  http://youtu.be/wAAXkutt7as

The following is an edited version of a August 16th email I received from my NPR-listening mother, who now lives up in Polk County in Central Florida, and my response to her shortly thereafter, on the occasion of the 48th anniversary of the Miami Dolphins being born in 1965. 
------

August 16, 2013

On this day in history, 1965, August 16 Danny Thomas and Joe Robbie received the approval of the Dolphins Franchise.   
At least that's what I think the announcer said this morning...or something very similar to the beginning of the Dolphin Football team.....they don't repeat these things.

Hugs,

MOM

I replied as follows:

But that's only half the story, of course.

Here's some of the rest...

You were fortunate enough to have a son who as a child loved to evangelize about the 
Dolphins and their players with perfect strangers -even while acknowledging the players shortcomings- and often talked what some thought was too much about the wonderful things that they could do so much better than other  teams in American cities that were much-larger,

more-influential and more important than Miami in the larger scheme of things.

SUDDEN DEATH AT KANSAS CITY

 

Miami's Garo Yepremian Ends the Longest Game; (kneeling) placekick holder Karl Noonan, January 3, 1972

KIICK AND CSONKA, MIAMI'S DYNAMIC DUO

 

Larry Csonka & Jim Kiick, August 7, 1972

BUILDING FOR THE SUPER BOWL

Miami Coach Don Shula, December 11, 1972

IT'S MIAMI AND WASHINGTON

 

Mercury Morris Speeds Past The Steelers, January 8, 1973

MIAMI ALL THE WAY

 

Bob Griese, January 22, 1973

Wolfson Archive YouTube Channel video: Miami Dolphins Perfect 1972 Season Celebration and Superbowl Victory. Uploaded August 20, 2013. http://youtu.be/BxLG_exjIDQ

The Don Shula Show 17-0 Season January 15, 1973. Super Bowl VII Winners.  

conkyjoe YouTube Channel video:The Don Shula Show 17-0 Season January 15, 1973. Super Bowl VII Winners. Uploaded December 1, 2012. 

http://youtu.be/Q7NLRpatx9c

1970 Dolphins radio play-by-play announcer at WIOD and later Channel 10 sports director Joe Croghan was host until 1974 for what everyone simply called "the Shula show."

The guests the Monday night after the 14-7 Super Bowl victory over the Redskins were QB Bob Griese and DT Manny Fernandez.

But as usual, Coach Shula is the glue that holds it all together, which is why even today, he is still THE most-admired person in all of South Florida for most longtime South Florida residents, including me.

My family and I never missed the Don Shula Show and we could all mimic the show's intro voice-over by heart!

By the time this particular show aired, I think I'd been up since sometime Sunday morning! Just riding on adrenaline...

From the video uploader's comments, which are quite important for making sense of this for those of you who were NOT living here forty years ago,  "From January 15, 1973. The Dolphins first Super Bowl win with an unbeaten 17-0 season. Perfection. This is the only footage of this show in existence. It was recorded on a Sony B&W reel to reel VTR in the newsroom. No quad color tape machines were available because of commercial playback. Unbelievable nobody but me recorded this historic event. Sorry for the marginal audio track. No highlights are shown due to NFL rights restrictions. The show was produced by The Sandy Tinsley Ad Agency, Miami. Rick Shaw, voice over announcer. Sponsored by Holsom Bread and Eastern Airlines."

When the Dolphins were undefeated in 1972 and won their first NFL Championship, your son was at every home game, his first year as a season-ticket holder, his eyes like a video-camera remembering everything around him, which he would detail years later to anyone who was interested.

Once Upon a Time.. there was perfection in aqua and orange and white.

Just like our whole family has talked so many times over the years since when we all drove down to the Eastern Airlines tarmac and terminal of Miami International Airport early in the morning hours 42 years ago to greet the team returning from Kansas City, after their extremely-emotional double-overtime playoff win over the Chiefs on Christmas Day in 1971.
I was so exhausted and hoarse that I literally couldn't talk the next day.

And eyes like a video-camera remembering everything around him the following season when they won their second Vince Lombardi NFL Championship trophy.

PRO FOOTBALL, MIAMI IS ROUGH AND READY

 

Larry Csonka & Bob Griese, September 17, 1973

Over at NBC, one of the perks of consistently winning -attention- came to a whole crew of Dolphins in their NFL intro package, featuring mostly Dolphins guard Bob Kuechenberg getting dressed, and, in between video of other great players of that era, Larry Little, Vern Den Herder, Larry Csonka, Bob Griese and at 0:57, the late Jim Mandich., whose warm personality and honesty is still so greatly missed in South Florida by so many, more than two years after his untimely passing.

beaverstuffers YouTube Channel: NFL on NBC, opening (1973). Uploaded August 20, 2009. http://youtu.be/nv-datkQYUU

Yes, 1973, the last year the Dolphins really WERE the best team. Forty years.

Zonk! Miami Massacres Minnesota

Larry Csonka, January 21, 1974

And for a while at least, when people around the country thought of Miami, they thought of the Dolphins, never the most-talented team, but always the hardest-working team and a team of winners who demanded a lot of themselves and of each other.

Vince Lombardi Championship Trophies from Dolphin victories in Super Bowl VII and VIII.

April 2007 photo by Mario J. Bermudez taken at Miami Dolphins Headquarters, Davie, Florida.

It's why you play the game.

For more on this longstanding wistfulness, see my Super Bowl blog post of February 6, 2011,

"Lombardi. A certain magic still lingers in the very name. It speaks of duels in the snow and cold November mud..."; Packers will win by at least 8!

http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2011/02/lombardi-certain-magic-still-lingers-in.html

NEW LIFE IN THE WFL

 

Warfield, Csonka and Kiick of Memphis, July 28, 1975

THE DAY OF THE DOLPHINS

 

Andra Franklin Plows Through The Chargers, January 24, 1983

ROOKIES ON THE RISE

 

Dan Marino: Miami's Hot Quarterback, November 14, 1983

AIR RAID! MIAMI BOMBS WASHINGTON

 

Mark Clayton (burning Darryl Green) September 10, 1984

SUPER DUPER!

Wide Receiver Mark Duper Of The Undefeated Dolphins, November 19, 1984

DANGEROUS DAN

Dan Marino Passes Miami Into The Super Bowl, January 14, 1985

In mid-January of 1985, when your son was 24, he watched the Dolphins play the 49ers  in the Super Bowl at your apt. near The Falls, their second Super Bowl appearance in four years, and in only Dan Marino's 2nd-year.

Like all of South Florida, we were all quite confident that with Marino as our QB and with Don Shula as head coach, there would be many more such Super Bowl appearances in the next ten years, and the Dolphins would likely win their share of them.

But though we didn't know it at the time, after the game the Dolphins were, to be fair, largely toyed with by the 49ers in the second half, something fundamental was taking place.

A shift that for Dolphin fans like us, would NOT be a change for the better, not even a valuable learning experience.

We thought the team was getting better and building towards the future, but the reality was that we were actually falling like quicksand into a particular ring of football hell reserved for very entertaining NFL teams that never win in the clutch, no matter how big a lead they have.

Teams that score a lot of TDs quickly, but then promptly give them up even more quickly.

Teams that never make that one trade that they need to make to keep the door open and then knock the door down.

After Marino retired, theDolphins got older, more boring  and more irrelevant than ever, and changed coaches and QBs with great regularity until they were no longer considered one of the best-run sports teams in the country, they were no longer even the best-run team in Miami, having long ago lost that title to the University of Miami that played exciting AND winning football.

And now, today, 48 years to the day they became a team, the same day that Babe Ruth and
Elvis died on years apart, 99% of anyone you see or speak to who is under the age of 27 has NEVER BEEN ALIVE when the Dolphins were playing in a Super Bowl game.

Now that's some perspective that really says something profound.

Still, your son, ever the Dolphins evangelist, albeit in-spite of the team rather than because of any success or enjoyment from watching the team, keeps the spirit of a once-upon-a-time tradition of hard work, commitment to attention to details and a winning culture alive, however he can, even when he travels overseas.

Above, at Panera Bread, Hallandale Beach, FL in December of 2012

Photos above and below as seen at:

http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2013/06/our-full-of-keys-drought-is-finally.html

Which is why when a certain son of yours found himself in Sweden in January, it was only natural that he had extra Dolphins caps with him to help spread the word.

And thus, when a certain very talented and moxie-filled Swedish singer named Anni Bernhard came to record her new Full of Keys album in April for at least part of the recording session that week in a Swedish city that you've never heard of -Visby- she wore the Dolphins aqua cap proudly  when smiling for the camera, and even put that photo out on the Internet for all to see.

Pictured above, left-to-right, are Anni Bernhard (Full of Keys), sound engineer and co-producer Linus Larsson and Mats Jönsson, April 12, 2013, Sandvie Studios, Visby, Gotland, Sweden.

No, Anni was not ashamed to be seen wearing the aqua and orange.

Thanks to your son, the persuasive Dolphins evangelist.

Full Of Keys

@FullOfKeys

Stockholm, Sweden · fullofkeys.com

Love, Dave,

your son, the Dolphins evangelist

------------------------------------------------------------
As some of you know, from the time I went to my first Dolphins home game at the Orange Bowl in December of 1970, with my Dad, a 45-3 win over Buffalo that clinched a playoff position for the first time in team history, I missed less than a handful of home games -preseason, regular season and playoff- some because of my own sports games, until I left for Bloomington and college at IU in August of 1979.
And I have every Pro! game program from every game I went to, as well as the ticket stub.

I didn't see much losing because after a tough loss to the Jets in 1971, the Dolphins won a record 31 straight home games, regular season and post-season games, not losing until the opening season game in 1975 against the Raiders on a Monday Night Football classic that was back-and-forth with that great Raider team of so many future Hall-of-Famers.

That was the famous game within our family's history where after doing it for years, I somehow got on the wrong Metro Dade Orange Bowl Express bus to the Golden Glades stop in the Levitz Furniture showroom parking lot, because there was a back-up of buses along the street outside the Orange Bowl. 
(I think it was a small accident or something, so all the busses were slight out of queue.)

I always checked what the destination said on the front of the bus before boarding, even though the buses were always in the same place so that people would remember where to go.
But that night, something happened and... within ten minutes or so, I realized I was headed somewhere towards Kendall -the complete opposite direction.

In those pre-cell phone days, I had to call my Dad on a pay phone around 1:30 am. and have him drive from North Miami Beach to pick me up, after the bus finally dropped me off on the way at a well-lit area.
Talk about panicked, my dad had to go to work in a few hours and I had school in a few hours.
Only one of my biggest mistakes ever!

Music Industry pros in Los Angeles still pondering true meaning of the LA Times' royal treatment Monday of a 16-year old Latina rapper, Becky G.; Becky Gomez gets the full works -a front page, lots of carefully-staged photos and a completely sympathetic writer! It reads like it was a record company advertisement, not journalism; @ZaraLarsson_, @CissiNilssonn, @FullOfKeys

Haven't heard of #beckyg? You will. @RJohnsonLAT has this rapper's story: http://t.co/suWaabYpWm
— John Corrigan (@jtcorrigan) August 19, 2013

Los Angeles Times

Becky G dreams of being the next Jennifer Lopez

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."

Read the rest of the article at:
http://www.latimes.com/la-et-c1-beckyg-20130819-dto,0,7820311.htmlstory

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" Gomez for 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 Girl cosmetics as one of their "faces."

http://search.univision.com/resultados?refPath=/musica&q=Becky%20G.

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:

http://msnlatino.telemundo.com/videos/al_rojo_vivo/becky_g_es_la_nueva_chica_rapera/6da47c33-d515-413f-8898-e81e921315b0

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 songs Cecilia 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 at Nordiska 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/r3MUHpMTAao Written by Cecilia Nilsson & Andreas Mattsson. Cissi's new single is available on both iTunes and Spotify.

Grymma gig i Tranås igår! #seeseesweden #MiriamBryant twitter.com/andreasjismark…
— Andreas Jismark (@andreasjismark) April 6, 2013

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"

http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2013/05/on-wednesday-youll-be-thanking-me-for.html

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 Gomez seems 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.

http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2012/02/prepare-to-meet-amazing-musical-talent.html

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!

Hi hi Twitter :) pic.twitter.com/4GesAYdD9A
— zara Larsson (@ZaraLarsson_) June 25, 2013

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

Photos: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=632634726760695&set=a.502708629753306.115426.502667543090748&type=1


Zara Larsson - Uncover (Introducing EP / 2013)
http://youtu.be/gdzJ9wyV3QU

Aftonbladet
Zara Larsson får treårskontrakt i USA,
Svenska popundret ska bli vår nästa superstjärna
(Zara Larsson gets three-year contract in the U.S. 
Swedish pop wonder will be our next superstar)
By Jonna Blessed
May 10, 2013
http://www.aftonbladet.se/nojesbladet/article16748824.ab  

http://zarish.blogg.se/
https://www.facebook.com/ZaraLarssonOfficial
http://www.youtube.com/user/ZaraLarssonOfficial

------
Anni in New York this summer, new album comes out next month.

From NY and Cakeshop a little late =) http://t.co/HW7rVjCWkZ
— Full Of Keys (@FullOfKeys) August 7, 2013

Full Of Keys - Snow Glass Apples
http://www.youtube.com/user/FullofkeysOFFICIAL
https://twitter.com/FullOfKeys

https://www.facebook.com/cecilianilssonofficial
http://instagram.com/cecilianilssonofficial
@CissiNilssonn - https://twitter.com/CissiNilssonn