Showing posts with label Dagens Nyeter. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dagens Nyeter. Show all posts

Tuesday, September 3, 2013

Tonight I'll be posting and sharing some 'common knowledge' and common sense about Sweden on the eve of President Obama becoming the first U.S. president to ever visit it for a bilateral meeting. Yes, you will get fascinating factoids and amusing anecdotes you will be NOT be seeing over the next few days on TV or online, when Obama sees Sverige and Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt "Up-close and Personal" and later meets with other Nordic leaders; @sweden, #stockholm





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.




Tre Kronor på Kungsträdgården, Stockholm; The public celebration ceremony the day after winning the 2013 World Ice Hockey Championship 



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)


City of Stockholm

Heavy traffic problems expected during President Obama's visit

Stockholm - August 29, 2013 11:25 EDT
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:
Current traffic Trafik Stockholm, www.trafiken.nu
City of Stockholm, www.stockholm.se
Transport Administration, www.trafikverket.se
Police, www.polisen.se
SL, www.sl.se

Contact: Mats Freij, Traffic
Telephone 076 1226160
mats.freij @ stockholm.se 

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.
Just saying...

 Så påverkas trafiken under Obama-besök

Tuesday, May 7, 2013

"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


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.

Aftonbladet TV video: Här invigs ABBA-museet -Jonas Bilberg levererade livebilder från galaöppningen. 
May 6, 2013. http://tv.aftonbladet.se/webbtv/noje/article11311.ab

Aftonbladet TV video: Här inviger kändiseliten ABBA-museet  
7 maj 2013 00:12
http://tv.aftonbladet.se/webbtv/noje/article11311.ab

It's enough to know that it's logical that they were there.
Just go with it.


BBC-TV video
Abba museum in Stockholm celebrates Swedish pop group
7 May 2013 Last updated at 04:22 ET 

BBC-TV video
As the Abba museum prepares to open its doors in Stockholm, the BBC's Russell Trott takes a look inside.
6 May 2013 Last updated at 21:54 ET


Aftonbladet TV: Nu öppnar ABBA-museet, Björn Ulvaeus: - "Kan visa det för barnbarnen med stolthet" 6 maj 2013 15:31
http://tv.aftonbladet.se/webbtv/noje/musik/article11284.ab



SVT video: TV Abba-museet öppnades
http://www.svt.se/nyheter/article1203720.svt


NTDTV -ABBA Museum in Stockholm

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.
Read the rest of Björn's comments at http://www.abbathemuseum.com/cashless

Combining innovation, ideals, crime-fighting and Scrooge McDuck! 
Brilliant!!!


Dags för ABBA The Museum 
by Lars Epstein 
15:14, May 6, 2013
http://www.dn.se/blogg/epstein/2013/05/06/dags-for-abba-the-museum/

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.

Yes, holograms...


ABBA Museum website:

Here's the website of the ABBA Museum exhibit at Stockholm Arlanda Airport that I saw back in mid-January when I arrived for my nine-day trip in Stockholm, where I snapped some photos while waiting around for my luggage at the arrival carousel at Terminal 5which was festooned with photos of... who else?
http://www.swedavia.se/arlanda/om-stockholm-arlanda-airport/om-flygplatsen/official-airport-of-abba-the-museum/


All original photos on this page by South Beach Hoosier. © 2013 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved. Right-click photos to enlarge them.


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:
 



All original photos on this page by South Beach Hoosier. © 2013 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved.





Here's how they appear on the airport's official exhibit web page:
http://www.swedavia.se/arlanda/om-stockholm-arlanda-airport/om-flygplatsen/official-airport-of-abba-the-museum/

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
Obviously, there's a lot to see and watch!



Friday, February 24, 2012

There's a new princess in the world and Sweden has her! (Det finns en ny prinsessa i världen och Sverige har henne!) Prince Daniel declares "Mina känslor är all over the place."

Kungabebisen
There's a new princess in the world and Sweden has her! Det finns en ny prinsessa i världen och Sverige har henne!
Prince Daniel declares "Mina känslor är all over the place." (My feelings are all over the place.)


For a while at least, it looks like the Swedish royal family will have some happy news to celebrate and most Swedes will have the common sense and proper perspective to cut them some slack for a bit, instead of continuing the personal criticism of the King and Queen regarding their so-called "secrets" -that were NOT really quite so secret after all it would seem- that have come out over the past few years.


As I've stated here previously, Crown Princess Victoria's positive and warm personality and earnest thoughtfulness has helped keep her personally popular among the populace even while her parents have suffered the slings and arrows that many felt were overdue.


Already, hours later, there are stories appearing in the mass circulation newspapers with various "experts" positing that the birth of Victoria and Daniel's daughter will begin the permanent shift away from her parents and usher in a new era towards what she (and her new family) will do in the future, logic that is very hard to argue with, given how unpopular her parents are with some people.


Dagens Nyheter, http://www.dn.se/, had such a story on Thursday titled Focus shifts from challenged king to Victoria, with various media editorial types from different media groups weighing-in on how they thought they'd cover things in the near-future and long-term.


Fokus flyttas från en ifrågasatt kung
Allt ljus på Victoria och nyfödda prinsessan. Hovexperten Sten Hedman tror på en ny era, som kommer att vara väldigt lönsam för medierna.
http://www.dn.se/kultur-noje/intresset-flyttas-fran-ifragasatt-kung-till-victoria


Naturally, once everyone got over the initial news, the next question was, so what's her name?
There's the mystery!


We'll all be finding out on Friday morning around 11:30 a.m. Stockholm time, and as I mentioned in an email to someone Thursday night, also named Jennifer, like one of my sisters and my niece, I asked, "So why not name den nya prinsessan "Jennifer" and then Sverige can really celebrate?"


I haven't heard back from her, but popular Stureplan.se blogger/model and longtime HBB favorite Tess Montgomery was already noodling on the name game from her perch in London by the time I came home Thursday:
http://stureplan.se/bloggar/tess/2012/02/23/una-principessa


The DN also has an angle on that naming question, too, with the Conventional Wisdom p.o.v. being Sylvia, like the Queen, the Crown Princess' mother, with some thought towards Astrid, which I like.


Names it WON'T be, based on my own educated hunch, include Chelsea, Hillary, Ashley, Jessica, Shania, Demi, Taylor, Reese, Winona, Juliet, Rachel, Giselle, Alyona, Lexie, Hayden, Angelina, Dakota or Brooklyn.
Or Lisbeth!


Malin or Marin or Marina would be good choices, and some of you out there in the blogosphere far from Miami know why I've always loved Kirsten.
But that would be too much to hope for.


Aftonbladet will be streaming the press conference LIVE at their website, so check it out if you can:
http://www.aftonbladet.se/