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

http://www.aftonbladet.se/webbtv/nyheter/article14421584.ab

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/

Sunrise, sunset... Well, actually, a ten-hour Arctic sunset courtesy of Terje Sørgjerd, and beautiful ones via Andrea Hegard and Tess Montgomery

Wall Street Journal: Norwegian landscape photographer Terje Sørgjerd has released unique footage of the extended sunrises and sunsets that occur just prior to the arctic summer. He explains how he captured the images. Originally published June 8, 2011.
http://youtu.be/5xEssyTHVMs
I originally planned to post this video on June 23rd, but because of some interesting posts with photos that I received late yesterday afternoon, it's probably for the best that the video stayed in Blogger Draft for the past three weeks.

By the way, for the record, Terje Sogjern is also Terje Sørgjerd, it's just that different publications and media outlets spell his last name differently because they don't all use use the Norwegian letter "ø" in their keyboards or stories. And that my friends explains why so many people with that same first name have similar videos!
Meanwhile, in another part of Norway that's far from the Arctic Circle, blogger Andrea Hegard who lives in Stockholm but who's now elsewhere on vacation like the rest of Sweden, takes a moment out of her rest and relaxation to snap some great photos of the orange sunset she just saw, and trust me, it's well worth checking-out. http://stureplan.se/bloggar/andrea/2011/07/14/sunset

Andrea blogs on the hugely popular Stureplan.se blogging platform that I've spoken of here before that gets so many reader eyeballs every day, keeping multi-national consumer product advertisers happy as a clam, and which also includes bloggers like London-based Tess Montgomery and Anna Hibbs among others I keep tabs on.
Tess is actually back in Sweden for a bit of some Swedish sommar fun now, and has a great sunset shot today, too!
She calls it beautiful heaven on earth, if that gives you an idea of the photo:
"Vackraste himmelen på jorden!"
http://stureplan.se/bloggar/tess/2011/07/14/vackra-vackra-sverige
In my experience from reading her for a while, Tess has a real knack for taking photos with her family and friends that are consistently inspired, amusing and sweet, as last year's photos around Christmas almost looked like something straight out of a 1940's Warner Brothers film set, but it was all real.
It was really something!

It really, really, really made me envious, too, especially when I accidentally got stuck in traffic gridlock on U.S.-1, a half-mile north of Aventura Mall, when I got distracted by something I was listening to -the great Point of Grace Christmas CD from 1999, A Christmas Story, back when the original four-member band performed.

Everyone who hears it absolutely LOVES that wonderful album.

Having seen POG perform LIVE in Washington, D.C. in 1999, with Amy Grant and the Nashville Symphony Orchestra as part of her holiday tour, when I hear their songs, esp, When Love Came Down, I think back to the concert and... well, the next thing I know, I've missed my turn and am stuck in the line of cars being attracted to the Mall like a magnet.

It took me 20 minutes to navigate my way off the road and make my escape!

(To North Miami Beach, no less, not Shangri La!)

That gridlock was NOT a happy holiday memory!

Almost as envious as I've felt the last few weeks hearing about various friends summer plans on the water, esp. near the archipelago, and going-on and on about the great weather.

Far from the humid and non-breezy 94 degrees your faithful blogger is experiencing hereabouts!

(And not just brutally hot, but brutally boring and repetitive, too, as one day seems like the one before.)

Meanwhile, over there, everyone is relaxing, absorbing sunshine, having fun, jumping in the water once in a while and eating outside, esp. -of course!- strawberries.

Below, in a relaxed moment from July 7th, awesome Cecilia Kallin, lead singer of Timoteij, anticipates the taste of some delicious strawberries while in Lysekil, Västra Götalands län, on the country's west coast, before their recent tour, which they've been blogging about here,
http://www.timoteij.se/

Photo from the official Timoteij blog

http://www.timoteij.se/2011/07/07/smultron-sommar/

Some thoughts on the frustrating South Florida blogging scene in 2011 that compares so unfavorably to the innovative one in Sweden; Observations re NY Times' article on growing cleavage between using blogs and Twitter to disseminate original content: "Blogs Wane as the Young Drift to Sites Like Twitter"; On comparing the blog portals at the Miami Herald to the ones used by savvy Swedish news media that makes young women like Blondinbella, Tess Montgomery and Josefina Boston influential voices on so many issues; The whole blogging scene in Sweden is not just different from the U.S. -it's better. Meanwhile, here, MSM and "Usual Suspects' try to dominate the conversation

South Florida blogging scene in 2011; Observations re NY Times' article on growing cleavage between using blogs and Twitter to disseminate original content: "Blogs Wane as the Young Drift to Sites Like Twitter"; On comparing the blog portals at the Miami Herald to the ones used by savvy Swedish news media that makes young women like Blondinbella, Tess Montgomery and Josefina Boston influential voices on so many issues; The whole blogging scene in Sweden is not just different from the U.S. -it's better. Meanwhile, here, MSM and "Usual Suspects' try to dominate the conversation

* Updated in January of 2016

I'm still laughing and bemused after reading this New York Times article, below, with my emphasis in red.

This fascinating-yet-revealing quote is what really hit me: “It’s different from blogging because it’s easier to use,” she said.“ With blogging you have to write, and this is just images. Some people write some phrases or some quotes, but that’s it.”

Yes, putting those pesky words together in sentences and paragraphs sure is hard work! 
These kids are all thumbs.

New York Times
Blogs Wane as the Young Drift to Sites Like Twitter
By Jim Wilson/The New York Times
Published: February 20, 2011

SAN FRANCISCO — Like any aspiring filmmaker, Michael McDonald, a high school senior, used a blog to show off his videos. But discouraged by how few people bothered to visit, he instead started posting his clips on Facebook, where his friends were sure to see and comment on his editing skills.
“I don’t use my blog anymore,” said Mr. McDonald, who lives in San Francisco. “All the people I’m trying to reach are on Facebook.”

Read the rest of the article at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/21/technology/internet/21blog.html

Meanwhile, in Europe, media companies that create a stable of popular and blogs stressing text and visuals, esp. those written by popular teens and twenty/thirty-somethings about fashion, design and pop culture, are making money. Why?
Because they offer something that readers always want: interesting unique content.

The hugely-popular blog, The Blond Salad, http://www.theblondesalad.com/ created by a very 
savvy and resourceful Italian twenty-something named Chiara Ferragni @ChiaraFerragni today had this exclusive: Burberry fashionshow in real time on Theblondesalad!

Yes, timeliness and genuine relevancy for her readers, just two of the things that concerned residents like me perpetually complain that we have far too little of in South Florida for local politics and government, in part because in the year 2011, we also STILL lack an All-News local cable channel that can fill that gap. 
To match the All-News radio station that South Florida also still lacks.

How The Blonde Salad's @ChiaraFerragni made millions by #blogging (and designing shoes) https://t.co/cBFaoBUQfM pic.twitter.com/N4aV4I9bSj

— Telegraph Fashion (@TeleFashion) December 27, 2015

Above, the colorful header used by model Tess Montgomery for her popular blog, TessM.se.

*2016 Update to below: In 2013 Tess was one of the featured bloggers on the very popular Stureplan.se platform at http://stureplan.se/bloggar/tess but in 2016 Tess is now blogging at http://tessm.metromode.se/  

Spotlife.se with two London-based blogs, Josefina Boston's Absolute Boston, http://absolutboston.se/  and Tess Montgomery's, http://tessm.se/, both of which I have mentioned here very positively in this space previously, have multi-national advertisers, and that's even more the case at Isabella Löwengrip's Blondinbella blog -also at Spotlife- who has become a well-known celebrity/author throughout Scandinavia and Europe.

She's also not only a frequent presence on national TV in Sweden, but is more influential than most veteran reporters and correspondents at well-known European newspapers, magazines and wire services covering fashion or pop culture.
And everyone knows it, too.

In Sweden, there's even a nationally-televised awards show for blogs on Channel 4, for the best blogs in about a dozen different subject and age categories, and it's promoted on both TV and in print, even to the point where they have TV ads featuring the various candidates in the weeks leading up to the telecast. I've even placed those some of promos here on the blog in the past to give you an idea of how differently blogs are viewed.
Here's the video they produced for the Blog Awards 2010 show in the category of Best Newcomer - Årets nykomling


http://www.tv4play.se/noje_och_humor/blog_awards?videoId=1.1773279

See some more recent clips at: https://www.tv4play.se/program/blog-awards

Let me tell you something -there is no station promo for local Miami TV newscasts or Dolphins or Hurricanes shows that is as well-produced as that one.
Yes, genuine effort and vision still counts for something with readers and viewers.
And the numbers show it.

Here's the list and video of the 2010 winners:
http://www.tv4.se/1.1831566/2010/09/27/vi_vann_blog_awards_2010

Meanwhile, the Miami Herald's blog network such as it is, is featured in the bottom-third of the website's first page, and has no identifiable icon or graphic next to it, just boring black text saying South Florida Blogs.

Above, a screenshot I took Monday night of the location on the Miami Herald's website where their blogs and collection of South Flordia blogs are located, with, as you can see, no icon to attract your attention or differentiate them -just text in black.
Boring!

I'll leave to another time the question of why a media company like McClatchy that prints both English and Spanish language newspapers in Miami insists on placing Spanish language blogs on an English language website, and even worse, confuses people by having a Spanish language blog with an icon being the first one that people actually see on the English language website.
And it's also the only one.

Why are there blogs listed in the South Florida blogs section that are actually written by Herald staffers, and why aren't they listed in the Herald's own section?
That's real genius!
And nervy!

Lots of online Herald readers no doubt see that and say, "Why even bother?"

And when you get there, you aren't exactly wowed visually by what you see!
http://yourblogs.miamiherald.com/

Compare that frumpy-dumpy scene of the Herald blog page to not only Spotlife's colorful blog home, http://spotlife.se/ but also the very popular Stureplan blogs, which are very much about Stockholm's exciting nightlife and entertainment scene which puts Miami/South Beach's to shame for genuine fun for non-millionaires, http://stureplan.se/

Could there be more of a contrast between the integration of color and design?
And there are other differences, too.

For reasons that were never explained to me, my own blog -yes, this one- was listed on the Herald's blog page when it first launched, but since I was never asked about it or received any info from the Herald about their plans prior to its launch, I only found out about it a few weeks after it started, thru an email from a friend who'd seen my blog on it and was puzzled why it was there without my ever having mentioned it to her.

She wanted to know who I got there to put in a good word for me.
Nobody -it was a complete surprise to me, too.
That's NOT exactly a strategy to win well-informed hearts and minds -or readers and eyeballs.

And now that the Herald's link for their hodgepodge collection of blogs has migrated from near the top of the website to some dubious real estate with no promotion, graphics or icon, it's not at all clear that readers even realize it's STILL there.
I don't even think about it anymore, even though I'm on it.

Since this article is about a downward trend among some sub-set of bloggers, let's call them the never-reads, let me leave you with a more encouraging stone-cold fact about one who gives people facts and context they are looking for.

Isabella Löwengrip at Blondinbella has more people following her on Facebook than the Miami 
Herald and South Florida Sun-Sentinel and ALL their reporters, columnists or subject blogs combined.
She's... actually recognized in Stockholm at the airport when she flies home into Arlanda.


Interesting and unique content -it's why I read the blogs I've mentioned here and why so many other people do, too.

Just saying...

Fashion TV: Daria Werbowy -Like a taller Canadian/Slavic combo version of Cali's Amy Smart -whom we LOVE!; Josefina Boston & Tess Montgomery in London

Fashion TV video: A bit closer with Daria Werbowy.
She's sort of like a taller Canadian & Slavic combo version of Cali's Amy Smart -whom we LOVE!
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0005442/

Some say Daria's the "world's most-hyped model." As if that was a bad thing!
HBC "The Room"
http://www.aftonbladet.se/webbtv/noje/sofismode/article7310866.ab



See more photos and video of Daria over at The Daria Files http://dariawerbowy.onsugar.com/

When you're finished watching the vid, head over to Absolut Boston and see what fashion forward Josefina is up to these days in London, a far cry from our own summer nights in South Florida trying to avoid the heat, humidity and heavy thunderstorms. http://absolutboston.se/

Our guess? It'll involve fashion, her friends and clubbing!
Yes on all three!

First a little Cricket, then Thai food with friends in Notting Hill, plus a plug for her good friend, Tess Montgomery, who also has a Spot Life blog. http://tessm.se/
Now that's the life!

Tess is the model featured here for British-based Seksy Wrist Wear by Sekonda

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWy3TA3Hw3o



and here at their website, http://www.seksy.co.uk/

Josefina is someone who SHOULD absolutely -Absolut, get it?- have a TV crew following her every move for a reality TV show worth watching, since she's always on the move and doing interesting and amusing things.

She's sort of the alter ego for so many of the female bloggers in the U.S., Canada, Australia and Europe who are heavily into fashion, but while they mostly just talk about it, she's actually doing it for Escada AND talking about it.

Plus, she's a savvy trend-spotter!

Meanwhile, it just rains and rains here in South Florida...
http://www.srh.noaa.gov/mfl/