Today, Stockholm is T minus 21 days -and yes I'm counting!; Some Swedish homework of mine to make my trip go well includes reviewing grammar and re-watching the original films in Swedish based on Stieg Larsson's Millennium crime fiction trilogy, starring Noomi Rapace & Michael Nyqvist

CBS News YouTube Chanel video: CBS News Sunday Morning correspondent Erin Moriarty travels to Stockholm, Sweden to discover the story and the truth behind the success of the late Swedish author Stieg Larsson, whose Millennium crime fiction trilogy has swept the world of book publishing: Stieg Larsson: Behind "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" Uploaded October 10, 2010. http://youtu.be/X-WJ6BlLw2s

Above, at Panera Bread in Hallandale Beach last month, a few hours after three elements of my "Swedish homework" were finally delivered via Amazon.com.  I wanted a few weeks to brush-up and remind myself of some things that I just might've forgotten the past few years, while toiling away for clean, effective and transparent government here in Hallandale Beach and Broward County, THE most-corrupt county in all of Florida. November 19, 2012 photo by South Beach Hoosier. © 2012 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved

Here are my three handy study tools to help me make more sense of things in Sverige in a few weeks when I'm doing my thing in Södermalm and Norrmalm.


Essentials of Swedish Grammar: A Practical Guide to the Mastery of Swedish
By Ake Viberg, Kerstin Ballardini and Sune Stjarnlof 
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0844285390/
Because it never hurts to go over some things...

201 Swedish Verbs: Fully Conjugated in All the Tenses (201 Verbs Series) 
By Richard P. Auletta
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0812005287
Because there's always those verb tenses that seem slightly different than the way you remember them, and because I hate to make mistakes...


Dragon Tattoo Trilogy: Extended Edition (2011)
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005JTLTI4/
A four-DCD collection that includes the three original Swedish language films from Stieg Larsson's Millennium Trilogy, starring Noomi Rapace as Lisbeth Salander and Michael Nyqvist as Mikael Blomkvist, plus a bonus CD.


Trailer: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2009); original title in Swedish: Män som hatar kvinnor


Trailer: The Girl Who Played with Fire (September 2009); original title in Swedish:  Flickan som lekte med elden


The much-scarier teaser


Trailer: The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest (2010); original title in Swedish: Luftslottet som sprängdes

I saw the original Swedish films but wanted to review them again before my trip so that:
a.) it would be fresh in my head once again once I get there, and, b.) so that I could take some notes on certain places where action takes place in and around Södermalm, since I'll be staying there for half of my trip. http://youtu.be/mJzQ_0XHJ58

The Millennium Tour
http://www.visitsweden.com/sweden/Regions--Cities/Stockholm/Culture-in-Stockholm/The-Millennium-Tour/

Bellmansgatan 1, Södermalm, the fictional home of crusading journalist Mikael Blomkvist.


View Larger Map

Photos of the free Millennium tour in Stockholm at: http://www.losapos.com/millennium%20locations%20in%20stockholm

Of the various versions of the trilogy collection you could buy, I wanted to get the one that was in Swedish and that included lots of the footage that was cut from the original shorter theatrical release, so nearly every one of the three is three hours in length.
It does come with English subtitles, of course, since I'm not fluent in Swedish, just know what I know -and it even has an English dub track I won't use- but not one that's all dubbed, since that isn't what I saw the first time.

That's one of the other things that Sweden has in common with the U.S. -real hardcore film fans prefer their films in the original language, with subtitles, NOT dubbed, as is so common in Italy and Spanish-speaking countries.
On top of all the dozens of other things i will be doing during my stay there, I'll avail myself of some opportunities to check out other aspects of Swedish film culture and history while there.

After all, as I mentioned here in my blog post of April 25, 2012, 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
Sweden doesn't just talk the talk, they actually put their larger-than-life film personalities on their currency, in the case of the two giants below, starting in 2015. 

Designed by Göran Österlund

Many years ago, when I was still living in the Washington, D.C. area, and despite a busy schedule, usually managing to see a foreign film a week, one night while leaving the theater, completely out-of-the-blue, I came to the sudden realization that unless Uma Thurman 
or Cate Blanchett agreed to portray her in a well-written biopic, there was almost no chance we were ever going to see a top-tier actress play Garbo in a believable way.

Queen Christina trailer (1933): The One and Only Garbo!
I think I've probably seen Queen Christina about a dozen times over the past 30 years.


http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/385/Queen-Christina/

Ingmar Bergman is on the new 200 Kronor note, replacing Selma Lagerlöf, who was the first female writer to win the Nobel Prize for Literature.

Designed by Göran Österlund

You Only Live Twice -Sometimes when you least expect it, from the most unlikely of sources, comes something to smile about: Freddie Wadling on SVT's 'Go'kväll' and "Skavlan'

SVT video: Freddie Wadling - You Only Live Twice (Live Go'Kväll 2011) December 14, 2011. http://youtu.be/LN_ISU_wMQY


You Only Live Twice -Sometimes when you least expect it, from the most unlikely of sources, comes something to smile about: Freddie Wadling with Fläskkvartetten on SVT's Go'kväll and Skavlan.

At 46:35 below, the title song from the 1967 James Bond/007  film "You Only Live Twice," by John Barry and Leslie Bricusse, originally sung by Nancy Sinatra, here with vocals by Freddie Wadling and music by Fläskkvartetten

SVT video: Skavlan, Episode 13 of 13, Christmas Special

Originally aired December 31, 2011

http://svtplay.se/t/102974/skavlan_julspecial

This video is available on the SVT website until Monday January 30, 2012.

Here is what in my opinion is the best and most-recent homage to this great song, from 1998:





Robbie Williams -  Millennium

http://youtu.be/BJ5uIkJDb6o

In a word, brilliant!!!

"You Only Live Twice" opening with vocals by Nancy Sinatra

http://youtu.be/PDitUVMMzE0

As always, watch for the ingenious camera dissolve from the blood on the mattress to the red that forms the red disk that represents the rising sun on the Japanese flag, Hinomaru.

Definitely among the three best opening-credit sequences of any Bond film, along with On Her Majesty's Secret Service and The Spy Who Loved Me.

Freddie Wadling's new collection of James Bond film songs -and other secret agent songs- is available on his new EMI Music Sweden CD titled, "With a License to Kill"
http://www.jamesbond007.se/events.asp?id=2890

http://svt.se/gokvall

Fredrik Skavlan:

http://svt.se/2.102111/start

http://svt.se/2.102096/1.1883339/likheter

Hurricane preparedness in Broward County and Hallandale Beach

Upside down hurricane evacuation sign on A1A at 1800 S. Ocean Drive, south of Hallandale Beach Blvd., in front of The Related Group's Beach Club, taken May 29th, 2007;
photo by South Beach Hoosier

June 1st, 2007, the first day of the 2007 Atlantic hurricane season, and the City of Hallandale Beach is already behind the proverbial eight-ball, as the above photo ominously foreshadows.
Yes, it's already later than you think.

If you're a regular reader of Hallandale Beach Blog -or have simply come to it by accident- you need to know that the main reason that I personally hold the City of Hallandale Beach in such low regard, and, frankly, am so contemptuous of it, is that because in the three years since I returned to South Florida (I grew-up in North Miami Beach) from the D.C. suburbs of Arlington County where I lived for 15 years, is because I've personally witnessed, on a daily basis, their chronic inability to do even the smallest aspect of responsible governance correctly or promptly.

Whether it's keeping supplies in the public rest rooms at the beach, keeping street lights on, cleaning up debris along the city's three most-heavily traveled roads, or, if you can believe this, responding to traffic accidents on US-1 -in front of their own building- in less than 20 minutes, as I witnessed last year, after personally walking into the Police Dept. HQ.

Twice.

(See my April 3rd post on HB's joke of a city dumping policy, compete with photos, where junk was dumped just two blocks from HB's own City Hall, directly across the street from Gulfstream Park Race Track & Casino, and phone calls to the appropriate individual produced no tangible results. Ever.
So there it stayed there -for months.)

Things that are taken for granted in other parts of the country -much less, the absence of a resolutely hostile attitude from city employees- fester here for months and even years in some cases, with nary a care expressed by either the elected/appointed officials or HB city employees.

It's a simple point, one that can hardly be expressed better than this:
If, as a city, you consistently prove that you can't handle the simplest tasks, the sort of problems that require easy, straightforward solutions, how can I possibly trust you to handle difficult problems that require real leadership and difficult choices to be made that have very tangible consequences to your own residents, as well as those of Aventura and Hollywood, who must, necessarily, travel over roads in HB?

What do you expect from people who run a city where the most well-known thing in the entire city, The Gulfstream Park Race Track & Casino, the city's largest employer, is NOT pictured on the city's website photo montage?
Hard to believe, but true!

Let me show you two photos that really speak volumes, photos I had planned on using in other contexts on the blog, but which now require their use here.

You'd be hard-pressed to find a municipality in Florida, no matter how small or parochial, where you could routinely park your car in what is clearly understood to be a FIRE ZONE.
It's just something that's not done.

Yet in the City of Hallandale Beach, city employees have routinely parked in front of City Hall's east and south entrances for hours at a time, as I've witnessed for three years.

I've recently seen city cars parked there for up to three hours at a time, and actually been there to witness HB EMS personnel being forced to wait for city or resident's cars to move their vehicles from the entrances to City Hall, so they could pull their ambulance or truck up to the sidewalk and attend someone inside City Hall, as happened in April, something that I've mentioned in phone conversations with both Chief Daniel Sullivan and Chief Johnson.

Believe me, from talking about it with them, the EMS first responders are LONG past being pissed-off about it, yet HB Fire Chief Daniel Sullivan, who's been a member of the force for 24 years and Chief for 8 years, along with that all-star braintrust of City Manager Mike Good, City attorney David Jove and Mayor Joy Cooper, apparently see no need to have the City of HB come into the 21st Century and conform to the same societal norms, rules and regulations that any responsibly run city or town requires of its commercial property owners and merchants, and homeowners with respect to fire hydrants.

You know, commercial property owners such as the RK Diplomat Center on Hallandale Beach Boulevard, where there are plenty of such Fire Zone signs.
How can the city be so clueless?

How can they be so blind to something so obvious in FRONT of their own City Hall?

Where's the simple sign that reads something along the lines of "FIRE Zone, No Parking/Tow Zone, By Order of HB Fire Chief"?

(Just as a point of information, this past Wednesday, on my way over to the library, I saw yet another scofflaw, an HB city car parked in front of the eastern entrance to city hall, #3340 645, FL license plate 13829, parked there from 3 p.m. 'till at least past 4:45 p.m. That's just par for the course.)

And the City of Hallandale Beach City Hall Crew wonders why it's considered a laughingstock by South Florida residents and local media?

Photo of eastern front of City of Hallandale Beach Municipal Complex, May 29th, 2007; photo by South Beach Hoosier

Photo looking east on State Road 858/Hallandale Beach Boulevard, May 29th, 2007; photo by South Beach Hoosier.

Quick: What does the sign say?

The gateway to the beach is a perfect example of the City of Hallandale Beach's neglect and their city employees' and contractors' chronic inability to see the forrest for the trees. (Or the sign for the bush.)

This bush has been growing steadily larger since last summer, yet, somehow, nobody in city government seems to notice that the drawbridge warning sign with flashing yellow lights is disappearing because of a lack of common sense pruning and maintenance.
Not even members of the HB City Commission who pass it just about everyday, like Francine Schiller?

Yes, exactly like someone who lives on A1A.

Hmmm... I'll bet that's how HB senior citizens get stuck walking across the bridge when it goes up, don't you think?
I realize that it's a state bridge, but am I supposed to believe that nobody who works at City hall has never seen it? Really?

I first met Alex Baird, the City of Hallandale Beach's EMS Division Chief last week at the Hallandale Beach branch of the Broward County library, realizing once I showed up that I'd incorrectly written down the meeting info, having placed it for later in the week. C'est la vie!

Part of Mr. Baird's duties include, apparently, being the face of hurricane preparedness in the city, and towards that end, he helped conducted the meeting in the the much larger HB Cultural Community Center from 6:30-9:30 p.m.

(You might recall that the CCC is the place where last December, I saw State Senator Steve Geller, the Florida House Minority Leader,
http://www.flsenate.gov/cgi-bin/View_Page.pl?Tab=legislators&Submenu=1&File=index.html&Directory=Legislators/senate/031/
wearing his other hat, that of lobbyist, where he was at a public meeting attended by me and a handful of others -plus the Miami Herald's Jennifer Lebovich, who was sitting by herself at the table next to me- to hear what his client, Millennium, was planning to do with their property at 2500 HBB.
No shocker that -expand upward and outward.
See #12 on http://www.hallandalebeach.org/DocumentView.asp?DID=203

2500 HBB is the VERY SAME building where the very popular and well-regarded Padrino's restaurant is located, where a horrific murder took place last year that was solved not by HB Police ingenuity or detection, but rather because the guilty suspect was dumb enough to quickly use his victim's credit cards at a Wal-Mart, and was photographed by the store's security cameras -along with his girlfriend- after being alerted by a store clerk who sensed that something wasn't quite right with the transaction.

I was very tempted to ask about the poor security there, the self-evident and longstanding parking lot lighting problems.

The problem?
Oh, that the first five lights you encounter upon pulling into the parking lot there are either broken or obscured by tree branches, including the two lights closest to the sidewalk on HBB, which have been broken for months and months and now into years.
Yes, years as in plural.

In the end, I bit my tongue. Bit over the next few days, I'll have photos to buttress my point.
safety is NOT a concern of Millennium.)

I must admit that though I only spoke to Mr. Baird for a few minutes, I was impressed, since besides the fact that he has a very serious job, I got a real sense that he was forthright and honest, and thus, not one of the armies of City of HB drones who seem to do as little as possible for their paycheck, especially when responding to citizen complaints.

It's a sign of the times that since it's the City of Hallandale Beach you're dealing with, the following is what greets you when you go to the City of Hallandale Beach's NEW website, the supposed new-and-improved one that was years in the making -to replace the one where, to cite but one embarrassing example from many, the police chief, Thomas Magill -who was so busy snapping photos at last night's meeting- didn't have an email address.

You had to know the name of his secretay in order to send him an email.

When you check the link, you find out that Baird's bio isn't there, which would've proved helpful in getting some sense of his professional background, prior to the actual meeting:

"You are here: Home > Staff Directory

Alex Baird Fire & Rescue Title: EMS Chief Phone: 954-457-1481
Return to Staff Directory
No biography exists for this person."

I'll hope to have more info here on the blog regarding Thursday's meeting over the next few days. In the meantime, add this to your list:
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/weather/hurricane/
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