Showing posts with label Princess Madeleine. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Princess Madeleine. Show all posts

Sunday, June 9, 2013

Princess Madeleine: A dynamic and modern princess finally gets married and gains the love and peace of mind she's always wanted ♥!; But what about the music? Me, I'd have gone with "This Guy's In Love With You"; #madde, #sweden, #tihi, #bröllopet, @JesperParnevik, @MarcusCooks

Official Royal Court photograph of Princess Madeleine of Sweden and Mr. Christopher O'Neill by Ewa-Marie Rundquist, Stockholm, June 8, 2013. © 2013 Kungahuset.se  
See more of the official wedding photographs at http://www.kungahuset.se/brollopet/pressrum.4.4ea495e313c19c119aa48cc.html?searchKey=category&searchQuery=&showImagesOnly=true


SVT video: Prinsessan Madeleine fick sin Chris. Ett ”ja” – och ett ”I will” I dag gifte sig prinsessan Madeleine och Christopher O'Neill i Slottskyrkan i Stockholm.
PUBLICERAD 8 JUNI 2013 - 15:13 – UPPDATERAD 8 JUNI 2013 - 20:46
http://www.svt.se/nyheter/sverige/kungligt-brollop-i-stockholm
Princess Madeleine: A dynamic and modern princess finally gets married and gains the love and peace of mind she's always wanted ♥!; But what about the music? Me, I'd have gone with "This Guy's In Love With You"; #madde, #sweden, #tihi, #bröllopet, @JesperParnevik, @MarcusCooks
Well, I watched the whole  kungliga bröllopet, royal wedding, LIVE on Saturday morning here in Hallandale Beach via both SVT Play and TV4 Play, going back-and-forth at the beginning but mostly watching SVT after the "I will's" and  the "Ja's," 

Just like the annual Super Bowl, I pride myself on ignoring the lengthy pre-game coverage because at this point, you either fully know what's going on and everyone's back story or you don't, and I do with the happy couple, so I picked up the coverage right about 10 a.m Miami time and watched with great interest and amusement with my legal pad on one side of my desktop and some cold Dr. Pepper on the other. 

(I don't think I've watched more than five minutes of the annual marathon of pre-Super Bowl TV coverage since the last time the Redskins played, when I lived in Arlington County, VA -January 1992.)

I found it sort of amusing in a counter-intuitive way that in a country as cosmopolitan and outward-looking as Sweden that a TV commentator actually seemed a little out-of-sorts that so much English was being spoken, but then Chris is British and American, and his family and friends could hardly be expected to undergo a crash course in Swedish just to know what was going on and being said at the Royal Chapel.

And in his case, getting married on LIVE television, with millions watching, knowing that EVERYONE is focusing intensely on how he acts or any little mannerism or tic, it's not too much to ask that you get asked such important questions in English.



Above and below, some of my better screenshots; I'm having a problem with some of the photos, so I'll have more in the days ahead...











There were two pop songs that were sung very nicely once Madeleine and Chris were up front together for what what turned out to be quite some time actually compared to many weddings, royal, celebrity or otherwise.

Marie Fredriksson of Roxette sang "Ännu Doftar Kärlek" 
Just Click HERE:) YouTube Channel video: Marie Fredriksson "Ännu Doftar Kärlek"., from SVT1's coverage Uploaded June 8, 2013. http://youtu.be/FZkGjIHdHj4

and Peter Jöback sang Roberta Flack's Grammy-winning "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face."
TheLpib1 YouTube Channel video: Peter Jöback "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" Uploaded June 8, 2013. http://youtu.be/szZinuE4bvI

If it were me choosing the music, instead of the latter song, I'd have chosen one which I know would have brought a big knowing smile to nearly everyone's face, and maybe even caused some people to sing sotto voce to themselves in church, since it's an instantly recognizable song that nearly everyone can sing because of the easy phrasing and tempo.
Herb Alpert's performance of Burt Bachrach's "This Guy's In Love With You"


thegoochman YouTube Channel video: Herb Alpert "This Guy's in Love with You" performed July 20, 1971. Introduced by The Carpenters, who recorded on his label, A&M Records. Uploaded March 8, 2008. http://youtu.be/4WZjqdPVaI0

I think you see what I mean.


Professional golfer Jesper Parnevik was a busy bee on Saturday, tweeting from the chapel, on the streets of Stockholm, on a boat and then at Drottningholm Palace.









Chris's speech at the post-wedding party about his late father brought everyone to tears:
http://www.aftonbladet.se/brollopet/article16930666.ab




And world-famous Swedish chef Marcus Samuelsson, in Stockholm from his famous Red Rooster restaurant in NYC, where he hosted a family get-together in May, tweets:






* One last thing and I've gone back-and-forth on even mentioning this but....
There are, sadly enough, thousands if not tens of thousands of people in Sweden and elsewhere in the world whose lives are so miserable and full of bitterness -i.e. they have few friends and low self-esteem - that they have nothing better to do than troll on YouTube writing stupid and inane comments about the various videos regarding this weekend's wedding, insisting that Swedish taxpayers paid for everything associated with it, which is NOT true.
And that it's a conspiracy or it's this or it's that or...

No, Madeleine's father, King Carl XVI Gustaf, is a very, very wealthy man, and while he isn't Queen of England wealthy, he has the means and the desire to pay for whatever needed to be paid for related to his youngest daughter's wedding.
It's really as simple as that.

Madeleine, having the personality that she does and being fourth-in-line to the throne, knows perfectly well how bad it would look for everyone concerned if the taxpayers were being forced to pay for her wedding and the bridal flourishes within it.

If taxpayers paid for it, you would have heard about that already, wouldn't you, no matter where YOU live?
If that were the case, the very competitive Swedish news media would be in a feeding frenzy to get to the bottom of it, leaving no stone unturned or invoice ignored.
And even in the U.S. and Great Britain, whatever information the Swedish media had unearthed would've surely made its way into the American and British dispatches about the wedding in the months leading up to it, wouldn't they?
Of course.
If it was true and there was proof, that would be hard to ignore. 

But it isn't true.
You didn't read about it or hear about it because it's NOT true.
Roger Lundgren, the editor of a Swedish magazine about royalty, told Associated Press news agency the occasion was not as big as Crown Princess Victoria's wedding "because Madeleine is not a successor to the throne".
"Secondly, this is a private wedding - the king is paying for it himself," he added.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-22823898

But some people, whether sheerly out of ideology or cynicism and bitterness can't accept reality.
They can't accept that their wanting it to be true in order to prove some political point, DOES NOT make it true.
Only supportable facts make it true, not ideology.

IF it were the opposite, that is, as all the oddball know-it-alls keep claiming, she would be properly mortified and no doubt insist the wedding take place in New York -where they already are living and plan to keep living- to prevent her father from being placed in a bad position.
Because her father has the means to pay the freight, the wedding was in Stockholm.
It's no more complicated than that.

I mention all this because I shared this small but fairly well-known fact yesterday with someone online, and this morning, I'm getting dozens of angry emails from people, mostly in Sweden and other parts of Europe, who insist that, contrary to the maxim proposed by the late U.S. Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, they are entitled to their own facts.
No, they're entitled to their own opinions, not their own facts.

It just seems very strange and quite sad to me that so many people want to take the time to show how truly uninformed they are to strangers who actually know the facts. 
Trust me, if I don't know something, the last thing in the world I'd want to do would be to contact someone who actually knows what they're talking about just to show how ignorant I was.
But clearly, everyone doesn't feel that way!

Especially people who spend an inordinate amount of time on YouTube watching videos that seem to make them angry politically.

Knowing what Madeleine has been through the past few years, I'm very happy for her that she can FINALLY have the life she's wanted all along, and has FINALLY found the peace of mind she's longed for...

But as these emails I've received make clear, lots of people want her to be just as plain miserable as them.
But she's not -she's very happy and relieved!

Again, the Royal Court photographs by Ewa-Marie Rundquist are here, so take a look: http://www.kungahuset.se/

Here's what Aftonbladet said about the pics: http://www.aftonbladet.se/nyheter/article16929613.ab

More info, photos and videos at:


Thursday, June 6, 2013

Today, Nationalsdagen 2013, calls for sunny skies in Stockholm but downpours here in South Florida -again! SVT Play will telecast ceremonies at Skansen worldwide, and that'll include me at 2 p.m. Eastern; Princess Madeleine's embarrassing pre-wedding encounter with police for driving in prohibited Bus Lane in Stockholm; Norwegian Airlines channels Madeleine & Chris in new video with CEO Bjørn Kjos; @sweden, #sweden, #sverige, #PrincessMadeleine, #tihi


http://www.svt.se/nationaldagen/

Above, the promo for today's SVT1 telecast of the National Day celebrations at Skansen in Stockholm, with the royal family in attendance, hosted by Anne Lundberg, starting at 20:00, 2 p.m. Eastern U.S./Canada.
It will be telecast around the world via SVT Play at http://www.svtplay.se/video/1272214/6-6-20-00 and via Mobile with the SVT app.

Tonight's musical performances tonight will be by Mando Diao, Malena Ernman & Åsa Jinder, Jump the Gun, Pauline, Edith Backlund and Lina Hedlund.





Gearing up for Saturday's wedding telecast via SVT Play between Princess Madeleine and Chris O'Neill.
http://www.svtplay.se/video/1253415/prinsessbrollopet that will be at 3 p.m. Miami time.
Can't even imagine how beautiful this breathtakingly beautiful woman will look in her Valentino bridal dress come Saturday.





To almost everyone's amusement or consternation, depending upon your personality, less than four days from her wedding, Princess  Madeleine got stopped by attentive Stockholm Police in central Stockholm for driving a vehicle in the prohibited Bus Lane.
(If you didn't know, downtown Stockholm also has a congestion tax.) 


Expressen TV YouTube Channel: Prinsessan Madeleine i nya trafiksynder. Körde bil på bussfil i centrala Stockholm. Uploaded June 6, 2013. http://youtu.be/b7d7mAmEUPU

She claimed to the police -and a Royal Court spokesman later claimed as well- that she had a special permit that allowed her to do so.
http://tv.aftonbladet.se/webbtv/nyheter/live/article13428.ab

Further investigation by the news media determined fairly conclusively that while she had the permit, it specifically allows vehicles to use that restricted lane only in connection with state purposes, i.e. rolling motorcades for visiting heads of state and diplomats to get them from Point A to point B, NOT for running pre-wedding errands. 

In my opinion, she'd be foolish to continue to press the matter and should simply pay the fine.

Last October's much-discussed and imitated engagement/förlovning announcement by Princess Madeleine and Chris O'Neill

Förlovning / Engagement from Kungahuset on Vimeo.

has now turned into golden opportunities for some, including very successful low-fare airline Norwegian Air and its founder and CEO, Bjørn Kjos, in one of their newest videos

As regular readers of this blog know by now, Norwegian begins non-stop flights between Fort Lauderdale and Oslo in late November, and between Fort Lauderdale and Stockholm the first week of December, the latter of which may very well include me on-board that first week, as I was busy checking-out some some possible plans over this past weekend for being there for a while before Christmas.


Norwegian tihi subtitle

-----
http://royalweddings.hellomagazine.com/madeleine-of-sweden-chris-oneill/

Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Getting in some early Tuesday morning quality babysitting with Estelle, the new Swedish Crown Princess, as SVT Play presented the Royal Christening -det kungliga dopet- LIVE from the Royal Chapel


SVT video: Archbishop Anders Wejryd christens Crown Princess Estelle as her grandfather, King Carl XVI Gustaf, mother, Crown Princess Victoria, father, Prince Daniel, and grandmother, Queen Silvia, plus Daniel's parents, beam with pride. Amazingly, Estelle was quiet until that moment. May 22, 2012.

Rather than catch-up on some TV shows I've taped the past week -The Killing, Mad Men, et al- I was diligent and did my Swedish homework early Monday night and watched SVT's information-packed one-hour show with host Ebba Von Sydow on the Royal Christening -det kungliga dopet- in Stockholm at the Royal Palace's Royal Chapel, Slottskrykan.


Which is why I'm so tired typing this, since the pre-game baby/fashion/royals watching analysis started promptly at 4:45 am Miami time, six hours behind Stockholm

And for those of you with a good memory, if the music you hear at the beginning of the info program sounds familiar to you, well, it should.
It's the same music that SVT used so well in their really beautiful and graphics-intensive on-air promos for the Royal Wedding -det kungliga bröllopetin June of 2010, which I actually saved  because of how magical they were.
Like something straight out of a classic Disney animated film -but modern.

And seriously, princess or no princess, that is one quiet and contented baby, as she was quiet until almost the very end of the ceremony, even with a singer, a harp and a flute only a couple of feet away from her.

I'll be posting some screen-grabs on the blog later in the day, as the post-christening show is still on at 8 a.m. Miami time, and I've heard about enough already about the fashions, the hats, and the etiquette, et al.

As usual, younger telegenic sister Princess Madeleine looked stunning + gorgeous + je ne sais crois!
I'll have the video of her, later, too.

Friday, December 11, 2009

Hoosier Hysteria in Stockholm: IU's Elinor Ostrom accepts her Nobel Prize for Economics from King Carl XVI Gustaf

Photo by Jonas Ekstromer/Associated Press
IU's Elinor Ostrom accepts her Nobel Prize for Economics
from King Carl XVI Gustaf in Stockholm


For "analysis of economic governance, especially the commons."

http://newsinfo.iu.edu/news/page/normal/12824.html
https://www.iu.edu/~iunews/blogs/nobel/

Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
(
Kungliga Vetenskapsakademien)
-lots of very neat stuff here worth taking a look at, too
http://www.kva.se/en/

Nobel Prize web page on 2009 Economic winners:
http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/economics/laureates/2009/
http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/economics/laureates/2009/presentation-speech.html

Here's some photos of the royal family
-a.k.a.
Kungafamiljen- attending the formal Nobel
banquet earlier Friday, which ran a little under four hours
with entertainment and speeches.

http://www.royalcourt.se/kungafamiljen/aktuellahandelser/2009aretsaktuellahandelser/aretsnobelpristagarepatraditionellmiddaghoshmkonungen.5.62402a8b12475b47cdb80004857.html

This Aftonbladet online article has an especially great
photo of Princess Madeleine worth seeing.
Så var Nobelfesten
http://www.aftonbladet.se/nyheter/article6269587.ab

Here's the story and photo that Aftonbladet ran on
October 13th about Prof. Ostrom being honored:
Så vill Elinor rädda världen
http://www.aftonbladet.se/nyheter/article5948388.ab

It's always good to see
Indiana universitetet
in print.
----------


Early this morning, I received my weekly editor's
newsletter from The Local -Sweden's news in English.
http://www.thelocal.se/email/127/88512/

In that newsletter were these very amusing and spot-on
comments from the editor, Paul O'Mahony, which were
titled,
Nobel banquet broadcast makes toes curl:

Last night I carried on the by now venerable tradition of tuning in to the live broadcast of the Nobel banquet for five minutes before taking aim at the screen with heart in mouth and dignity almost intact.

Sweden is justly proud of its Nobel Prizes, as scientists and writers are rewarded in this life for their vast contributions to humankind. But something deep inside me rejects the idea of television cameras trained on the every move of boffins, royals and dignitaries, all dolled up to the nines and gorging on a bacchanalian feast under the watchful eyes of the etiquette Stasi.

However, the gods of curiosity demand an annual five-minute suspension of disbelief to absorb with jaw on floor the public broadcaster's amnesiac rejection of Sweden's trademark egalitarianism and informality.

Royalist fervour drips through the screen as one commentator fawns over Princess Victoria's frock and delights in the prospect of her impending nuptials. The cameras then pan to the Crown Princess, who is in the process of applying lip gloss while talking to a clever person. It's hard to escape the fact that we're watching people having dinner.

Meanwhile a presenter is aghast as the finance minister appears to send an under-the-table text message. "Tell me I did not just see Anders Borg doing what I think he just did. Off with his ponytail!" Or words to that effect. "Help so bored no pizza on menu 2 many nerdz", wrote Borg. Probably.

Cut to the top of the steps in the Blue Hall, where a pantomime horse trots into view, neighing loudly and pursued with great vigour by a red-clad choir. And that's when I reach for my revolver.

Anybody with the stomach for an entire evening of this stuff has my grudging respect, and indeed there are plenty who revel in it. Good luck to them. But by the time the new day dawned and the crowds had dispersed, all I was left with was a hole in my soul and the need for a new television. Again.

He shoots and he scores!

---------

Earlier in the year, I posted a video of the King
and
Queen Silvia discussing the news about
Crown Princess Victoria's
engagement to
Daniel Westling
and the wedding scheduled
for next June.

Since it's going to be at
the beautiful 700 year-old
Storkyrkan
Cathedral, which is in the Gamla Stan
section of Stockholm, the oldest section of town,
it really
ought to be awesome.
http://www.royalcourt.se/royalcourt/theroyalfamily/hrhcrownprincessvictoria.4.396160511584257f218000503.html




A few months after Victoria's wedding. the King
will be walking down the aisle again as Princess
Madeleine gets married to Jonas Bergström.

http://www.royalcourt.se/royalcourt/theroyalfamily/hrhprincessmadeleine.4.396160511584257f218000839.html



Here's a video of Victoria making the announcement
in February

Stockholm: After seven years, a "Ja!"
Kronprinsessan Victoria och Daniel Westling
förlovade. Den 19 juni 2010 växlar Victoria och Daniel
ringar i Storkyrkan.