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
This past week, in anticipation of Easter, TV4 News in Sweden's Halland bureau -not Hallandale Beach!- sent a crew to the town of Halmstad to watch a bunch of cute kids at school dressed up for Easter -the Superman outfit confuses me, I'll admit, but it's better than a Chade Henne Dolphins jersey.
As if on cue, the kids acted genuinely amusing, precious and droll the way that little kids can do for years before they get older, harder and bitter about the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune. But for now, they're just proving that the only thing cuter on TV than a bunny is a cute kid dressed up as a bunny, with or without floppy ears.
(Given the current state of corruption here, I'm going to guess that those smallish school buildings depicted in the video at the top would cost about $5 million a piece if built in Broward County! You have to charge a lot for everyone to get their share of the payoffs!
I discovered this otherwise obscure video late Saturday night while perusing the TV4 Play website and watching some TV4 news segments while waiting for the videotape of last night's episode of Körslaget to be uploaded so I could watch it. More on that infectious singing competition show later in the day.
Speaking of music, I expect to have some musical surprises here on the blog later in the day, including a triple dose of some video ofRobyn performing that I know with certainty that most of you living outside of Sweden the past six months have NEVER seen. In it, she is -shocker- AMAZING and AMUSING! You will be very pleased!
Happy Easter/Glad påsk to the thoughtful and well-informed readers of the Hallandale Beach Blog all around the world! -----
IF only we could get rid of corrupt South Florida pols by tossing 'em off a plane -just thinking out loud per this new season premiere trailer for 2011's Körslaget. Or, how a snippet of a Swedish TV trailer reminded me that for about two years, I have wanted to say something here on the blog about American TV music shows and why I find them so unappealing compared to other countries', so here's my chance to say a thing or two. Körslaget, the popular Swedish TV singing competition show onTV4 features choruses led by a well-known singer battling one another, and has its 2011 premiere on Saturday night the 19th. It has a great homepage on TV4'swebsite, with new videos, photos, and old trailers from past seasons. And just a reminder, it's considered a Premium to see the entire show repeated at TV4 Play. http://www.tv4.se/korslaget but you can see clips of the songs performed for free. http://www.tv4play.se/noje/korslaget?videoId=1.1621208 Here's the Körslaget trailer from two years ago:
Here's an article from two weeks about the 500 people who lined-up for hours in Umeå to be part of one team that would be led by hometown girl and popular singerLisa Miskovsky, whom I've previously mentioned here. Of the 500 who showed-up, 20 were selected for further consideration. http://www.folkbladet.nu/242725/2011/03/01/korslaget-rena-koslaget
Lisa Miskovsky -Still Alive (Theme from Mirror's Edge) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aE9gMFR1yFY I believe this sort of show would do extremely well in the U.S. if you made sure that none of the well-known singers competing were under the age of 40, so you could directly eliminate the Teen and Tween media frenzy factor that drives so many American music shows, and which cause me to ignore them, except for Glee.
The thing that's so noticeable to me as someone who watches a lot of music shows from other countries is not only the sheer talent and resolve of participants to be professional in handling the ups and downs, but the fact that the shows do NOT go out of their way to feature obviously bad singers, drama queens or oddballs to fill out the programming the way that American Idol's producers do to fill out the dozens of hours it occupies on the Fox-TV schedule. Instead, it's largely just singing. That more than anything else is why I NEVER watch amerikanska Idol -I don't want to watch someone on TV just because the show's producers think he or she is attractive, interesting or amusing. I want to hear good singing -first and foremost.
That's why I watch the Swedish version of Idol, http://www.tv4.se/idol of whom the 2009 season's Calle Kristiansson is the best example of someone whose self-evident talent is apparent to everyone who hears him, which is why I've posted his Walking in Memphis video here a few times.
That no-nonsense attitude of mine for music shows makes me a member of the minority hereabouts. Plus, I want to hear rockers, not trilling divas, and see talent rewarded, not attitude.
Calle Kristiansson - Walking in Memphis, Sweden Idol 2009, Malmö auditions. The music part starts at 01:18 of the video and the judges are so wowed by Calle that he doesn't even need to finish the song. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zEly4QZaf30 As to the genius idea behind Körslaget, IF you could put together a first-class competition featuring choruses fronted by some well-known power pop singers from the '80's and '90's, like Simon LeBon for instance,it would be EXCELLENT and people would tune-in! Below, the complete acoustic version of CalleKristianssonsinging Walking in Memphis
