Scandinavian Delight! Starting November 30th, fly nonstop cheaply between Ft Lauderdale and Oslo or Copenhagen on Norwegian.com, and starting December 1st, fly from FLL to Stockholm Arlanda; @Oslo, @norway, @stockholm, @sweden, @copenhagen, @denmark

Above, in the foreground, a Norwegian.com plane alongside one from SAS and Thai Airways on the tarmac at Stockholm Arlanda Airport, around 12:39 p.m. (I told you it was overcast most of my trip!) This particular plane has famed Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus a.k.a. Carl von Linné, featured on its tail. His face also appears on the 100 Swedish krona note, the smallest bill with a security foil strip. As I have blogged about before here, he's scheduled to be replaced on that bill by gorgeous Greta Garbo's face. Ah, Garbo! January 10, 2012 photo by South Beach Hoosier. (c) 2012 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved

Meant to post something about this valuable bit of great news a few months ago when I first got the news from someone in-the-know, but it's still worth mentioning all these weeks later now that it was officially made public on Tuesday.
And it's a real game-changer, too.

Starting November 30th, you can fly nonstop between Ft. Lauderdale/Hollywood and Oslo on Norwegian twice a week starting at $238 each way, plus taxes and luggage charges.
Norwegian's departures from Ft. Lauderdale/Hollywood will be on Mondays and Fridays at 9:30 p.m, arriving in Oslo at 12:35 p.m.the following day. 

Departures from Oslo are on Tuesdays and Wednesdays at 3:10 p.m., arriving at Ft. Lauderdale at 7:30 p.m. Eastern the same day.

http://www.visitnorway.com/us/Getting-here-and-around/Air-travel/New--Direct-flights-to-Norway-with-Norwegian/

If you're like me, you'll be able to use Norwegian.com as a cost-saving head start on a flight to Sweden and Stockholm -WITHOUT having to waste your valuable time by flying to O'Hare or Newark first, and then hanging around the airport all afternoon waiting for that night flight out of Newark on SAS or United. 
Instead, simply go to FLL and get on your plane and you're on your way.

Introductory fares to Stockholm start at only $269 each way, plus taxes and luggage fees.
Yes, you read that right, $269!
http://www.norwegian.com/us/flight/tips/?D_City=FLL&DestinationGroup=12&SplitDatesInto=3&UseDates=True&D_Day=01&D_Month=201311&D_Day_End=31&D_Month_End=201401&CurrencyCode=USD&IncludeTransit=False

 Copenhagen and Stockholm . The firstCopenhagen flight begins Nov. 29, followed by Stockholm on Dec. 1. Both routes will run four days a week. 

Oslo Airport's press release of April 16, 2013 about the new flights:
http://www.osl.no/en/osl/aboutus/_press/_newsarchive?NOW_YOU_CAN_FLY_DIRECTLY_TO_FLORIDA&id=181-156129

Ft. Lauderdale/Hollywood International Airport:
http://www.broward.org/airport/Pages/Default.aspx 

re Justin Bieber -Teen Idols and Teenage Girls' Consumer Power and the Backlash: Signs of the coming Pop Culture apocalypse in Oslo: 5 Norwegian schools are rescheduling mid-term exams around Justin Bieber tour dates, and it's okay according to Kristin Halvorsen, the Norwegian Minister of Education and Research. But other politicians are less sanguine about it, and worry what this sort of govt. response will encourage in the future

love this. "Schools in Norway move midterms so students can attend Justin Bieber concert" foxnews.com/entertainment/…
— Justin Bieber (@justinbieber) April 3, 2013

re Justin Bieber -Teen Idols and Teenage Girls' Consumer Power and the Backlash: Signs of the coming Pop Culture apocalypse in Oslo: 5 Norwegian schools are rescheduling mid-term exams around Justin Bieber tour dates, and it's okay according to Kristin Halvorsen, the Norwegian Minister of Education and Research. But other politicians are less sanguine about it, and worry what this sort of govt. response will encourage in the future

And the one thing we know from the mountain of evidence is that the students who would otherwise have skipped school are NOT teenage boys!
Interesting that the news media is unwilling to state the facts -that the students who will not show up for school are almost exclusively girls, don't you think?

Art Beat blog

New York Times

Schools in Norway Postpone Exams for Bieber Concerts

By JAMES C. MCKINLEY JR.

April 4, 2013, 10:40 am 

http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/04/04/schools-in-norway-postpone-exams-for-bieber-concert/

This article below from NRK TV's website can hardly be more apt: "The whole world is laughing at us"

NRK-TV

Heile verda gjer oss til latter

Politikarane rasar fordi skulane har flytta tentamen til fordel for Justin Bieber-konsert.

MARIA HOLAND TØSSE

Pubisert 03.04.2013 17:03

http://www.nrk.no/nyheter/distrikt/more_og_romsdal/1.10972320

Another article about the over-the-top situation is this one that ran on Tuesday, that was dominated by one large photo of a teenage fan's bedroom :

Flyttet tentamen for Justin Bieber, Nedtellinga til konsert i Oslo 17. april har begynt. Da får Kristiane Søvik (15) se sitt store forbilde - Justin Bieber.

Randi Longva

Publisert: 02.04 2013 06:00 

Sist oppdatert: 02.04 2013 14:42

http://www.smp.no/nyheter/article7333397.ece

It's like I'm always saying on these pages -twelve-to-seventeen year old girls in Western countries are taking over the world and won't let go of their grip, and as long as they hold sway, pop culture will cease to be a meaningful measure of merit or talent in the way that it often but not always was in the past.
That so much of what teenage girls "Like" music-wise is pre-digested corporate filler product is not a positive sign. 

Old rule of thumb for the blog and his circle of friends is that if the recording artist's album sale or concert is comprised of more than 90% of one gender, they're not really that talented.

Those girls' fingers on their precious cell phones, whether texting or casting votes dozens and dozens of times for no-talents at home, at school or while walking across the street without looking both ways, are like tentacles around real music talent's throat and creativity.

U.S. and Western consumer product companies and their print/TV middlemen are completely afraid to call their bluff, too, which is the worst sign of all.

That's closely followed by the U.S. Mainstream Media's general cowardice and unwillingness to push-back against the LCD group think that says giving more news time to what's going on with teenage girls and their myriad fads and obsessions, is, actually helping.

In many cases, it's pretty clear that the more the media -hard news and general interest- talks about one of these issues -teen suicide, anorexia, bulemia, teen fashion, teens texting while driving- is actually does more harm than good.

But publicly you can't tell teenage girls NO anymore, as per the Marjorie Stoneman Douglas cheerleading scandal here in Broward County, where a mob and a mob mentality made the all-female Broward School Board make decisions not based on facts but on their -yes- feelings.

For more on that, see my October 8, 2012 blog post titled, Dynamite! Bob Norman adroitly uses facts and context to lower-the-boom on the Broward School Board for their abysmal handling of the purported Douglas H.S. cheerleader coach 'scandal" -and drops School Board member Katie Leach squarely on her head; One month before the election, docs show Donn Korn opponent Franklin Sands funds his race with lots of money from his stepson’s lobbying firm -shocker!; @mattgutmanABC, http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2012/10/dynamite-bob-norman-adroitly-uses-facts.html

The firing of Coach Melissa

By Bob Norman, Reporter, bnorman@Local10.com

Published On: Oct 07 2012 10:33:04 AM EDT  

Updated On: Oct 08 2012 11:16:26 AM EDT

http://www.local10.com/news/blogs/bobnorman/The-firing-of-Coach-Melissa/-/3223354/16884040/-/8enkprz/-/index.html

Not giving in to upset teenage girls and their emotionally over-wrought mothers actually resulted in a principal being removed!

Principals upset over cheerleading coach's firing
'They're furious. They're absolutely furious over this'
Published On: Oct 08 2012 06:30:41 PM EDT  
Updated On: Oct 09 2012 10:16:48 AM EDT
http://www.local10.com/news/Principals-upset-over-cheerleading-coach-s-firing/-/1717324/16903370/-/t6vkfa/-/index.html

And you certainly can't say aloud in the media that many of their so-called "problems" actually seem much more psychological in nature, and based on their own self-esteem or lack of it, not something physical, otherwise you're labeled as not being understanding.

But if these things were physical, shouldn't there be at least some measurable incidence of bulimic or anorexic activity by girls in countries like Pakistan and Iraq, too?
But there aren't any.
Why the dissonance?

Because these groups all have an incentive to not tell these Western teenage girl consumers the truth -that they can't always get their way. 
They want to sell them something: a product, a fad, an idea... that will make them like themselves better.

So, while consumer product companies and the advertising industry falls all over themselves to get in (and stay in) the good graces of teenage girls -because they'll be making the family buying decisions in the future, so they want to favorably shape those opinions ASAP!- the news media just capitulates rather than stand up for common sense or the truth.

And they just can't wait to find out the new trend and fad of upscale teenage American and Western girls and obsessively report on it as if it's something more than it is.

My last post on Justin Bieber was an August 31, 2010 post I titled simply,

Examining a music phenomenon: ABC News Nightline's Chris Connelly interviews pop sensation Justin Bieber: "The Business of Being Bieber"

http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2010/08/examining-music-phenomenon-abc-news.html

It's now been read 4,081 times.

-----
http://www.regjeringen.no/en.html?id=4

Awesome news! Yohanna to tour soon featuring Eva Cassidy-inspired songs :) - Sings "Is It True" and "Fields of Gold" on NRK2's "Allsang på grensen" and charms crowd in-between raindrops; Jóhanna Guðrún, @yohannamusic

Yohanna - "Is It True" and "Fields of Gold" on NRK2's "Allsang på grensen", Halden, Norway, July 18, 2012. http://youtu.be/D3w8cG93zyU
One of our favorites, the talented Icelandic beauty charms 'em in-between raindrops!

Awesome news! Yohanna to tour soon featuring Eva Cassidy-inspired songs :) - Sings "Is It True" and "Fields of Gold" on NRK2's "Allsang på grensen" and charms crowd in-between raindrops; Jóhanna Guðrún, @yohannamusic

The exciting news about Yohanna doing a tour that features songs that were staples of the late  Eva Cassidy, is absolutely fabulous news for both music lovers and longtime Yohanna supporters like me, as is the fact that Eva's brother, Dan Cassidy, will be part of the band, as he is here on violin.


If I play my cards right, I might even see her perform in person in a few weeks. 
If so, I guarantee you will see some amazing video and photos here on the blog! And on my YouTube Channel.


@yohannamusic  http://twitter.com/yohannamusic
http://www.facebook.com/yohannamusic



wroenn video: ABC News Nightline's Dave Marash's famous profile of singer Eva Cassidy. http://youtu.be/bXU219b3Zdw


This segment originally aired on May 25, 2001, while I was still living in the Washington area. 
I can still remember the night I videotaped it while sitting in the living room of the townhouse I lived in, with stories still floating in my head about her amazing performances from friends of mine who'd been smart enough to see her in person at various places around the Beltway.
By the time it ended, I was not only blown away by how well it was produced and came together, easily one of the best things to ever appear on Nightline, but even more profoundly regretful and sad that I'd never made the time I should have to see this amazing talent for myself. 
I certainly had plenty of chances to join them, but I always had an excuse for why I couldn't go: an Orioles ballgame up in Baltimore that I already had tickets to, film or dinner with my then-girlfriend, an IU or Hurricane ballgame of some sort on TV that night that I "had" to watch, or... 
And now I rue some of those choices and wish that at least once, I'd listened to my friend's suggestion and been able to see the magic for myself in-person. 


Posthumous Fame 
A U.S. Singer Enjoys Success Abroad -- Five Years After Her Death 
By Dave Marash 
http://evacassidy.org/eva/nightline.htm


-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


One thing is for sure and that is that NRK-TV could learn a few valuable lessons from SVT about how to broadcast a LIVE concert.


Maybe it was just the fickle weather since their LIVE coverage of the 22/7 Memorial in Oslo That I watched came out great, and maybe it's just my imagination, but compared to SVT's masterful coverage of Allsång på Skansen in Stockholm from every angle you can think of, this suffers in the comparison.


Granted, SVT DOES have more cameras to work with, including probably some robot cams, but when you look at the fluidity and variety of shots, as demonstarted well in this video segment of three very talented and popular performers from July 18th, it's like the final brick in the wall.



http://youtu.be/vnGFped5SEs


Above, Alexander Rybak playing Grieg's "I bergakungens sal" (In the hall of the mountain king), and then him being joined by Kalle Moraeus and Linda Lampenius for an acoustic version of "Stockholm i mitt hjärta," the prideful leitmotif that opens every one of the broadcasts during the summer. This is followed by Kalle singing "Underbart" (Wonderful) with the crowd and host Måns Zelmerlöw.


In the NRK segment at the top, honestly, it seems to me that there are too many crowd shots of people that look either distracted or bored, instead of some shots from behind the stage showing Yohanna and the crowd interacting and the crowd singing back to her.

Plus, while SVT always seems to anticipate situations correctly, above, NRK goes from a nice shot to one of a woman who seems to be nursing her baby.
I have to admit that I've NEVER seen that done at a concert, or seen a TV director thinking THAT'S the money shot you've got to get. 
Perhaps she looked like the director's wife, but still, very, very strange.


What is NOT strange though is uris1.
He never fails to deliver the goods with high-quality musical videos from Scandinavia and Europe!
Which is why I subscribe to his feed. http://www.youtube.com/user/uris1


No, that's not your imagination, his YouTube Channel really is framed by multiple shots of one of our favorites, Swedish singer Jill Johnson.


Jill's rocking version of "Jolene"


http://www.youtube.com/user/jilljohnsonmusic
http://www.jilljohnson.se/eng/

Day-long Memorial ceremonies and concert for victims of Oslo and Utöya were dignified and respectful, sweet and beautifully-produced by NRK-TV, under overcast skies that produced no rain drops but some obvious tear drops; Bruce Springsteen and Little Steven surprise crowd with appearance and performance of "We Shall Overcome"; #Oslo, #Utöya, #Norge

Concert opened with Tine Thing Helseth on trumpet playing Mitt lille land

http://www.nrk.no/video/tine_thing_helseth_apner_minnekonserten/F76A7B794C03BAC0/

The day-long Memorial ceremonies and concert for victims of Oslo and Utöya were dignified and respectful, sweet and beautifully-produced by NRK-TV, which I watched via SVT Play, and came under overcast skies that produced no rain drops, but some obvious tear drops at times.

Bruce Springsteen and Little Steven surprised the crowd outside Oslo City Hall with an appearance and sang "We Shall Overcome" in the last third of 90-minute concert that started off just right and never had a false note.

More on this on later...

SVT Play offers LIVE online coverage of Sunday's one-year Memorial ceremony for victims of Oslo and Utöya attacks, at 3 a.m. Eastern U.S./Canada and 8 a.m. BST; Memorial concert from Oslo's Town Hall, also via SVT Play, will be 2:00-3:30 p.m. Eastern U.S./Canada and 7:00-8:30 p.m. BST; #Oslo, #Utöya, #Norge ♥

Sissel Kyrkjebø - Til ungdommen (To Youth) - LIVE, National Day of Remembrance for Oslo & Utøya; Minnesceremoni, Spektrum, Oslo, Norway, August 21, 2011, http://youtu.be/gKZa6hNFouw


Sissel followed Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg's heartfelt speech with this great performamce of "To Youth," which concluded the afternoon's memorial program that was full of heartache and tears.
My August 23, 2011 blog post on her that day was titled simply, Amazing Sissel leaves them proud! Sissel Kyrkjebø - Til ungdommen, National Day of Remembrance for Oslo & Utøya; Minnesceremoni
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2011/08/amazing-sissel-leaves-them-proud-sissel.html 
It was one of several posts I wrote about that very moving ceremony that I watched online LIVE as it happened.

SVT Play offers LIVE online coverage of Sunday's Memorial ceremony for victims of the Oslo and Utöya attacks via NRK-TV at 3 a.m. Eastern U.S./Canada and 8 a.m. BST at:
http://www.svtplay.se/live/193656/minnesdag-for-offren-i-oslo-och-utoya


The Memorial concert from Oslo's Town Hall, hosted by Haddy N'jie, who ably hosted last August's memorial from the Oslo Spektrum, will also be shown via SVT Play from 2:00-3:30 p.n. Eastern U.S./Canada and 7:00-8:30 p.m. BST at:
http://www.svtplay.se/live/193696/minneskonsert-for-offren-i-oslo-och-utoya


Photos of the 77:
http://nrk.no/minnetavle/#13429138007771&height=1690&id=iframe970px


NRK-TV's 22/7 webpage of graphics and facts:
http://nrk.no/227/fakta/kart/



http://227minnekart.nrk.no/





Ett år sedan terrordåden på Utöya... One year since the 22/7 terror attacks in Oslo and Utöya that left 77 murdered and massacred, there's still so much pain amd anger that won't go away...



The five-judge panel that presided over the ten-week trial of Anders Behring Breivik is expected to announce their verdict one month from this week

http://www.svt.se/nyheter/varlden/norge-minns-terrordaden


http://www.tv4.se/nyheter/artiklar/ett-ar-sedan-terrordaden-pa-utoya-detta-har-hant-500ad34104bf726d6300002d

More mournful wistfulness about a talented entertainer: All Eyes on Sharon Tate

Turner Classic Movies video: All Eyes on Sharon Tate - (Original Promo Featurette) A behind the scenes featurette on the making of 13 which was released as Eye of the Devil (1967). http://youtu.be/Qf1NX9AQOEI


I've been wanting to post this Sharon Tate featurette video ever since I started the blog, even before Turner Classic Movies finally made the video available on their website as an embed, having previously videotaped it off of TCM many years ago and then subsequently dubbed it to a DVD thanks to a friend who had a VHS/DVR when they were still expensive.

But now, well, I don't have to do that, and the difference in quality is obvious.


(And no sooner do I say that than two of the videos I've embedded here keep showing the same thing, the trailer for Eye of the Devil, when I look at this in Draft preview.
Even though the embed code for each is different! I've run into this problem before with the TCM embeds and had to cancel some blog posts here on classic films because I couldn't show what was the meat of the post. Oh, well.)


These sorts of featurettes and film promos are one of the reasons that I've been such a devout TCM viewer ever since it started. My favorite is one that was done about the filming of The Dirty Dozen, like the first video, filmed in London in 1966 for MGM.


Turner Classic Movies video: The Dirty Dozen - (Original Promo Featurette), A look behind the scenes of the making of the World War II thriller, The Dirty Dozen (1967), starring Lee Marvin & Jim Brown.
http://www.tcm.com/mediaroom/video/30500/Dirty-Dozen-The-Original-Promo-Featurette-.html


The specific reasons I'm posting this today is two-fold.
First, it's a general reaction of sorts on my part from watching so much of the truly disturbing courtroom testimony that's been given at the trial of Anders Behring Breivik in Oslo, which I've been following closely and watching online since it started, though I haven't mentioned it here on the blog for reasons not worth getting into now.


Breivik was/is a person with a delusional personality who imagined himself destined for big things, believes in a political manifesto and was more than willing to kill innocent people to gain publicity for those political beliefs and to hasten the change that he imagined would naturally follow from it. 
Just like Charles Manson.


This past week, I finally I saw a recent film directed by Sharon Tate's husband, Roman Polanski, that I'd never seen before, though I've seen pretty much everything else he's done that's been released in the U.S., including the Polish language films from the 1960's, like .
Knife in the Water . 
It's 2010's The Ghost Writer starring Pierce Brosnan and Ewan MacGregor.


I've previously discussed the controversy surrounding him here on the blog, but my focus today is on Tate, his wife who was only 26 when she was intentionally murdered by the Charles Manson gang, along with their unborn child, and four others on her property, three years after this video was filmed.


When you watch this video at the top that was done to promote the upcoming David Hemmings, David Niven and Debrorah Kerr suspense film she was co-starring in, she just completely takes your breath away, and you see how her dynamic beauty just jumps right off the screen.

Turner Classic Movies video: Eye of the Devil - (Original Trailer)
A French nobleman deserts his wife because of an ancient family secret in Eye of the Devil (1966) starring David Niven and Deborah Kerr.
http://www.tcm.com/mediaroom/video/29013/Eye-of-the-Devil-Original-Trailer-.html


In my opinion, the only actress we have now with those sort of dynamic qualities is really Charlize Theron, and frankly, I'm not so crazy about her recent film choice selection or even her off-screen choices.


Theron is perplexing in that way, and while I can imagine some of the reasons why her film choices might've seemed appealing to her at the time, to be honest, since she won her Oscar for a film that very few people actually saw at the time -and which is, even now, largely forgotten and which draws blank looks from people when you ask which film she won the Oscar for- while there's no doubting that she's clearly got the talent chops and the beauty, what have we really been offered of late that film fans will recall fondly twenty years from now?


Why is she never in an ensemble film that is really well-done, memorable and popular with critics and audiences alike?
Why is is always one but not the others?


Talented directors we respect and admire ought to practically be banging down her door -or having her agent do that because of a role that she'd be perfect in- but I never hear from my friends and contacts in LA about good roles she turned down in order to be in something great.


It sort of makes me wonder what's going on, and whether there's some reason, mysterious or banal, that might better explain why Theron, as close as we have to a glamorous old-fashioned movie star as anyone, doesn't seem to be getting offered the sorts of scripts we'd all agree she ought to be seeing, for films that we'd like to see her in.


Who knows, maybe the directors I'm thinking of think she should work for less to be in quality ensemble productions, something that DOES happen frequently in Hollywood and esp. in London for period films, and she simply thinks that she'd be making a mistake to do that now.


On the other hand, isn't this sort of what has happened to Oscar-winner Gwyneth Paltrow, too?
They both should really be in the 'sweet spot' of their film careers, where they are in one good film after another, and yet... the best thing I've seen Charlize in has been that fabulous Dior ad for J'adore.



http://youtu.be/mXrWiJcmvBI


As for Gwyneth, is it a case of too much Goop-ing around?


Meanwhile, we wonder about what might've been for Sharon Tate.
The quality light-comedy films that she would've delighted us in, or the melodramas that made us cry, as she got better at her craft and more self-confident...
Take advantage of your opportunities while you have them...



Sharon Tate, Murdered Innocence - Part 4
http://youtu.be/NnrqxXnD-Mo  

Norway's Easter double-feature: Alexander Rybak's musical wizardry and the Bike trial wizardry of Thomas Remvik Aasen -NRK-TV's LIVE Påskekveld broadcast from Geilo, Norway Thursday night

Alexander Rybak video: Alexander Rybak "Dagdrøm" (LIVE) NRK1-TV's Påskekveld broadcast from Geilo, Norway. April 5, 2012. http://youtu.be/6TeR1Gtr4Js

Norway's Easter double-feature: Alexander Rybak's musical wizardry and the Bike Trial wizardry of Thomas Remvik Aasen -NRK-TV's LIVE Påskekveld broadcast from Geilo, Norway Thursday night

http://www.nrk.no/nett-tv/klipp/838698/

Be sure to watch the show's introduction to get a sense of the context, but the Mountain Trial Bike segment I want you all to see is from 28:54 to 32:02 and be sure to watch the little boy wearing the teal-colored skullcap at 30:24, who is completely captivated, as later shots show.

Video by Alexander Vollevik Larsen.

It segues perfectly into a short chat between Alexander Rybak and NRK host Caroline Bækkelund Hauge before he plays the song he wrote, Dagdrøm, which concludes Thursday night's telecast.

If you really want to see how ridiculously talented Alexander Rybak is, see him sing and perform in this March 4th, 2012 telecast of SVT's popular "Så ska det låta," which I have referenced here on the blog many times before for obvious reasons. 

The full program was uploaded a month ago -with multiple subtitles, including English- and I finally had some time to watch the whole thing un-distracted -twice- last weekend.
He never disappoints.



Rybak's Facebookies video: Alexander Rybak in "Så ska det låta" - Full program - March 4, 2012. With subtitles!

http://youtu.be/Rz09ygTKdt4

Thomas Remvik Aasen, April 2012.


Yes, his latest bike trial video was filmed in the same town as what was shown on Thursday's NRK telecast. See his other videos at: http://vimeo.com/user764351 and his bio at: http://www.trialtech.co.uk/rider.php?rider_id=4

The music playing in his most recent video is from Frou Frou - "Let go" which you might remember from, among many other things, Zach Braff's critically received directorial film debut, Garden State, which he also wrote.



From "Garden State"  -the final scene, at the airport between Natalie Portman and Zach Braff. http://youtu.be/iTnzPuFPxPw


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Official Alexander Rybak Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/alexanderrybak
Official website: http://www.alexanderrybak.com/ 

Justine Ezarik -a.k.a. iJustine- our modern-day Digital Renaissance Woman, back from CES, is in Miami for NATPE and checking out the South Florida scene

iJustine video: Justine at NATPE. January 28, 2012.
http://youtu.be/Q3S1yKyYhyw
http://ijustine.com/natpe-in-miami-2/


Justine Ezarik, a.k.a. iJustine, modern-day Digital Renaissance Woman and well-known YouTube Partner, back from CES, is in Miami for NATPE and checking-out the South Florida scene.



iJustine video: we in miami, trick. January 29, 2012.
http://youtu.be/gPQFUzahJEM


I originally meant to post the two videos -below- of lovely multi-tasker Justine about three months ago, back when she was visiting Norway and taking some awesome photos and videos of that beautiful country that's been the sad subject of so many posts of mine here since the massacre in Utøya, and home to so many friends, talented musicians -and, let's be honest, very beautiful women.

Plus, in case you missed it, Justine finally explained, to those who didn't know, what the reality of the Swedish Fish situation was. So there's that!


Curiously enough, that video of Justine and her Norwegian tech friends doing the glacier trek was one of the things that I had waiting for me in my YouTube inbox one night three months ago, when I'd  come home from spending a few hours with my Dad when he wasn't doing very well after he'd taken a fall earlier in the afternoon at the Hollywood ALF he's living at up the street. I'd had to jump into the gridlocked traffic on US-1 and rush up US-1 to get him and then head south to the Mt. Sinai ER in Aventura, with a large and disconcerting gash above his right eye.

Right where he had had surgery back in 1973 after he was the innocent victim in a car accident in North Miami Beach, while I was in Junior High School.

When I finally got home and flipped on my computer and the TV, with Jimmy Kimmel

about mid-way thru his monologue, I was both physically exhausted and emotionally distraught, and driving home I'd once again been mentally debating my idea of whether or not my visiting Sweden and Iceland soon for two weeks to just get away from here for a while and clear my head is such a great idea.
Something I've mentioned a time or two here before.

But as she has so many times before, especially the rough last year-and-a-half, with all of its upsetting ups-and-downs concerning my Dad's health, Justine made me laugh and smile when I really needed it... so there's that.
She's Pittsburgh thru-and-thru!

Something my Steubenville-born dad would surely appreciate if he only fully comprehended the whole Influencer scene.

 

iJustine video: EPIC GLACIER HIKE! October 27, 2011.
http://youtu.be/pD0xXf9-_lI



iJustine video: Moose meat and glacier wounds. October 27, 2011.
http://youtu.be/n5JAIrd8IFI


Months after I'd originally planned on doing so, I'm going to be over on South Beach Monday afternoon to take some photos and shoot some video of the space on Lincoln Road that was supposed to be the new H&M store many months ago, but which is, well, STILL not open.


I'm going to try to get some straight answers from some responsible people as to when that soon-to-be cash cow store is going to be a reality, but if by chance I run into Justine, with her camera in tow, well, that sleuthing of mine may well have to wait until another time.


Even though I'm NOT a fan of reality shows anymore, per se, since the only one I consistently watch is CBS's The Amazing Race, Justine is definitely someone whose quirky personal adventures, misadventures and hijinks I would watch on the small tube. 
Yes, smarts, savvy and personality still counts for a lot with me, and Justine has enough personality for any two women.
Take that as a hint, NATPE programming types looking for new ideas.


-----


http://ijustine.com/


The trip to Norway: http://ijustine.com/?s=Norway&x=14&y=11 


Justine's photoshoot for Maxim magazine: http://youtu.be/YLKU4tkWH2s 


Photos at: http://www.maxim.com/amg/girls/girls-of-maxim/91021/ijustine.html 

Justine Ezarik's media portfolio, besides ijustine.com, consists of the following portals:

twitter.com/ijustine, 

youtube.com/ijustine, 

youtube.com/otherijustine, 

youtube.com/ijustinereviews, 

youtube.com/ijustinesiphone, 

youtube.com/ijustinegaming, 

ijustine.spreadshirt.com, 

dailybooth.com/ijustine, 

facebook.com/ijustine, 

myspace.com/ijustine

Yes, there's a Justine for every demographic!

A head's-up for those of you with YouTube Channels, esp. those of you who DON'T receive anywhere near the volume of visits that Justine gets.

Which is to say, all of you.

And me!

After originally planning on posting it over Christmas week but not being able to do so for reasons that some of you know about, in the next day or so I'll be posting the fascinating and instructive video of ABC News' 20/20 program from September called "YouTube Generation" that I've already spoken to some of you about via email. 

I'll also post some of my pithy observations about it.

Update on singer Chris Medina -Interviewed on TV4's Nyhetsmorgon on performing at funeral for Utøya massacre victim who loved his song, his new album, and life since American Idol made him well-known; a guy you clearly have to root for!

TV4's Nyhetsmorgon, Abbey Road LIVE -Chris Medina talks about his music
with co-hosts Jenny Östergren and Peter Lindgren. December 14, 2011.

http://www.tv4play.se/nyheter_och_debatt/nyhetsmorgon?title=sangaren_chris_medina_om_sin_musik&videoid=2119478&utm_medium=sharing&utm_source=permalink&utm_campaign=tv4play.se

TV4's Nyhetsmorgon, Abbey Road LIVE -Chris Medina talks with co-hosts Jenny Östergren and Peter Lindgren about his life since American Idol and the months since his successful visits to Scandinavia this past summer. December 14, 2011.

http://www.tv4play.se/nyheter_och_debatt/nyhetsmorgon?title=chris_medina_om_sin_medverkan_i_amerikanska_idol&videoid=2119578&utm_medium=sharing&utm_source=permalink&utm_campaign=tv4play.se

My last blog post about Chris Medina was on July 16th of this year -less than a week before the bombing in Oslo and the massacre on Utøya Island carried out by Anders Behring Breivik- when he performed LIVE on VG Lista Topp 20 at Rådhusplassen, (City Hall) Oslo.

My post then about his American Idol performances and his successful trip to Sweden and Norway was called, A talented & worthy American takes Scandinavia by storm: up-close with Chris Medina - One Day In Stockholm (What Are Words)

http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2011/07/talented-worthy-american-takes.html

As I mentioned at the time, and for reasons I explained, I'm NOT an American Idol viewer, but you don't need to be Quincy Jones to see that Chris Medina CLEARLY has a unique voice and talent.

It's hard not to root for him to have nothing but success.


As I said back in July, the more I see of singer Chris Medina the more I am impressed, and the more he reveals himself as one very-grounded individual in a very cynical world.

And with this interview and these performances -in English- from December 14th on Sweden's most-popular TV morning program, Channel 4's Nyhetsmorgon, he proves that all over again.  

In the TV interview, Medina also discusses his feelings about being asked to perform at the funeral of 18-year old Monica Iselin Didriksen, one of the 77 Norwegians murdered at Utøya on July 22nd, whose very last conversation with her parents -on her cell phone, while taking the ferry to the island- was about her intense feelings for his song, the popularity of which had led him to be performing in Oslo just a few weeks earlier. 

TV4's Nyhetsmorgon, Abbey Road LIVE -Chris Medina sings One More Time. December 14, 2011.

http://www.tv4play.se/nyheter_och_debatt/nyhetsmorgon?title=chris_medina_framfor_one_more_time&videoid=2119557&utm_medium=sharing&utm_source=permalink&utm_campaign=tv4play.se

http://www.tv4play.se/nyheter_och_debatt/nyhetsmorgon?title=chris_medina_framfor_one_more_time&videoid=2119557

TV4's Nyhetsmorgon, Abbey Road LIVE -Chris Medina sings What Are Words. December 14, 2011.

http://www.tv4play.se/nyheter_och_debatt/nyhetsmorgon?title=chris_medina_framfor_one_more_time&videoid=2119597&utm_medium=sharing&utm_source=permalink&utm_campaign=tv4play.se

http://www.tv4play.se/nyheter_och_debatt/nyhetsmorgon?title=chris_medina_framfor_one_more_time&videoid=2119597

A few days after his calm and earnest appearance on Abbey Road, Aftonbladet columnist Ronnie Sandahl pondered what it must be like to be Chris Medina now,

and suddenly go overnight from unknown singer working hard to become a success in the industry on his own terms, to becoming a beloved American Idol contestant and popular singing artist whose songs are famously sung back to him with gusto at performances.
But inevitably, he knows that at nearly every performance he gives, the question will arise about his  fiancée, Juliana Ramos.

Medina talks forthrightly about that very issue in the second video above.

 Aftonbladet 

Chris får berätta samma berättelse tusen gånger 

av Ronnie Sandahl

2011-12-19

För vilken gång i ordningen står han där med samma milda sorgsna leende, samma fruktansvärda berättelse?Femhundrade? Tusende?

Det är ännu en dag i nöjesfabriken. Den amerikanske sångaren Chris Medina försöker variera sina intervjusvar,fastän frågorna nästan alltid är samma

Read the rest of the column at: http://www.aftonbladet.se/nyheter/kolumnister/ronniesandahl/article14097494.ab

As you know from my earlier blog post, for weeks earlier this year, What Are Words was the number-one song on the best-seller list in both Norway and Sweden.

http://allcharts.org/music/sweden/singles.htm 

http://lista.vg.no/

UniversalMusicSweden video: Chris Medina - One Day In Stockholm (What Are Words). Chris appears on Rix FM in Stockholm. 
Yes, they DO have 'Morning Zoo' radio formats in Sweden. http://youtu.be/eNjSIKIBE1U 

As I wrote back in July, I received the behind-the-scenes Chris Medina video above within about ten minutes of it being posted to YouTube by Universal Music Sweden, and thus was one of the first persons to see it.

That's the kind of video I want to see more of! 




ABC News Good Morning America: Robin Roberts with Chris Medina.



NRK-TV video: Chris Medina LIVE on VG Lista Topp 20, Rådhusplassen, (City Hall) Oslo, Norway. June 2011
http://youtu.be/ap6oY2cN11E

http://www.youtube.com/OfficialChrisMedina

http://www.youtube.com/user/ChrismedinaVEVO

http://www.facebook.com/OfficialChrisMedina

http://www.youtube.com/user/UniversalMusicSweden