Smiling Cecilia Kallin! :) Sweet! Nobody but nobody can smile as often when she speaks and with as much appeal as talented and vivacious lead singer and guitarist Cecilia Kallin of Timoteij. She's such a charmer!; #Timoteij, #CeciliaKallin, #BodilBergström, #PontusTidemand, #gopontus

Smiling Cecilia Kallin! :) Sweet! 

Nobody but nobody can smile as often when she speaks and with as much appeal as talented and vivacious lead singer and guitarist Cecilia Kallin of Timoteij. 

*This post was updated with additional videos and text at 11:55 p.m.

Does it really matter what Cecilia was asked about here at the Helmia car show in Arvika? 

Not really.

Cecilia's friendly and infectious smile just knocks me out every time I see her in an interview, even one as semi-awkward as this. 
She's such a charmer! :) 

Also seen in the top video in Arvika: bandmates Bodil Bergström, fleetingly: Elina Thorsell, and, rather abruptly: Johanna Pettersson. Uploaded April 21, 2013.

After they sang a few songs, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hm0I6JzzMGI
and had finished signing autographs at the record signing, Cecilia and Bodil, separately, were among a number of passengers in a rally car driven by 22-year old Swedish professional rally driver Pontus Tidemand, which resulted in some great photos of him, Cecilia and the band -and a very smart and well-produced video that's definitely worth checking out.



PTMRacing YouTube Channel video: Pontus Tidemand Videoblog EP09 Helmia Show-driving in Arkiva, Sweden. Event was on April 20th, Uploaded April 22, 2013. http://youtu.be/pVWknesYt0I

Above, you can see a truly striking-looking Bodil getting into the car at 1:15 and then the whole band from 1:31 to 1:38, with Cecilia happy and clearly relieved to be standing on her own two feet again and Bodil looking calm and cool. 
From 2:08 to 2:15, Bodil is recounting the experience to Elina, standing next to her, sipping a drink.

There's a great photo of a smiling-but-nervous and helmeted Cecilia in the rally car on her blog page on the group's website at http://www.timoteij.se/2013/04/22/det-svanger-om-arvika/ 
where she admits that for at least part of the ride, she had her hands directly in front of her face and was peering thru her fingers, while, not surprisingly, 'driving' and 'braking' with her feet.

Here's the photo of her and the band on Pontus' wonderful website and Instagram account: 
http://instagram.com/p/YVYMIqiw0R/

*I received a link to the below-the-radar video at the top of this post courtesy of an eagle-eyed reader of the blog living in -wait for it- Sweden, who wanted me to see it and share it with you all, but remain anonymous.
Tack så mycket, Anonymous!

On Saturday the band will be performing in Cecilia's hometown of Falkirk, so I'm sure she will be snapping lots of photos that will soon be appearing on the band's always amusing blog and her Instagram page at http://www.timoteij.se/ and http://statigr.am/ceciliakallin

Timoteij tour schedule:  http://www.timoteij.se/turne/

Pontus Tidemand's official website, which is very attractive and , well-designed, is at:
http://www.pontustidemand.se/

Summer 2012 is officially here as Timoteij's new album, Tabu, drops today. And they also celebrate a new-and-improved website that's delightfully more-colorful, engaging and pleasing to the eye -and more intuitive!

Summer 2012 is officially here as Timoteij's new album, Tabu, drops today. And they also celebrate a new-and-improved website that's delightfully more-colorful, engaging and pleasing to the eye -and more intuitive!

The top of the new website, which changed slightly from the original template a few weeks before their participation in the 2012 Melodifestivalen two months ago, now sports new photos for both the website and the blog, and I must say that in the week since I first saw the photo of the new album over at Swedish Stereo blog in Damian's description of the songs and their order, http://swedishstereo.blogspot.com/2012/05/timoteij-tabu.html which seems to be fresher, more upbeat and dance-friendly but with all of the Timoteij folk and authenticity trademarks we love, I've been eager to see what it looks like in a new and improved online environment.


Well, in my opinion, the new features and photos really POP off your computer screen in a way that the old pinkish/purple ones really didn't after awhile because... well, we just got so used to them.  http://www.timoteij.se/


The new group photo for the website now is, left-to-right: Elina Thorsell, Johanna Pettersson, Cecilia Kallin and Bodil Bergström, and the photo is the same as the album but in the header photo, you don't see their instruments, while the header above the blog text 
http://www.timoteij.se/category/timoteij/ is a variation of that: Cecilia, Elina, Johanna and Bodil.


I also saw that last week's news also had this great teaser: Buy the new album and enter a contest to have Timoteij perform at your home/place of work -in Sweden: http://www.ginza.se/product/timoteij/tabu-2012/11863/


Correct, it's remarkably similar to what the amazing Full of Keys (Anni Bernhard) did on her tour in February for her winning fan, Victor: http://fullofkeys.com/blog/?p=228
I was so envious!


On Monday, the girls were still busy promoting the new album and swung by the Sveriges Radio (SR) studio in Skovde, and fortunately for us, the folks at P4 recorded a bit of what happened, which is how I can share it with you here now:



SverigesRadio P4 Skaraborg video: Nytt sound men ändå  som vanligt på Timoteijs nya. May 14, 2012. Related article at: 
http://sverigesradio.se/sida/artikel.aspx?programid=97&artikel=5107583


I also came across this great SR photo from this past January which I hadn't seen before:
http://sverigesradio.se/sida/artikel.aspx?programid=789&artikel=4312611


Here's the text of the interview:
http://sverigesradio.se/sida/artikel.aspx?programid=399&artikel=4312609


Not to give away too many teasers about some future posts you'll be seeing here soon, but as some of you reading this particular post already know, I actually have hopes of seeing these talented ladies perform -as well as the fabulous Florrie, whose new album drops next week- in a few months in their native habitats, though I'm still working on exact dates and logistics.


My original killer post about Timoteij and Melodifestivalen 2012, scheduled to run the morning of the Second Chance competition, with a complete recap about what happened to them and other acts like Molly Sandén during the competition, was actually killed by a freak power outage one night when my electricity didn't come back on for quite a few minutes, and Blogger lost what I'd written.


Hours of work down the drain!
I was so beyond frustrated! 


Below are some odds and ends from that the draft of that post which I'd thought to save to an email draft before I started trying to finish up and the electricity went kaput, my post going adios! Obviously, there were lots of what I thought at the time were some well-chosen words, photos and videos that ought to be below but which aren't.


-----


Today is D-day for Timoteij and its fans: Clear sailing to next week's Melodifestivalen Finals in Stockholm, or, Stormy Seas? (Stormande Hav) 


It's the day we've all been waiting for... "Andra chansen." The second chance. 
One last chance to make the grade for the chance to represent Sweden at Eurovision.


Yesterday the band posted this short acapella version of them singing an excerpt of Stormande Hav in one of their hotel rooms onto their official YouTube Channel.



Timoteij - Videoblogg - Stormande Hav -acapella. March 2, 2012.
http://youtu.be/s7wk3p0Y8hg


Like many of you out there, I've wondered, too, why they and the record company still hadn't posted a HQ copy of their performance at the Second Heat as good as the one that uris1 posted two weeks ago, or done a series of occasional updates on their YouTube Channel since then on their preparations the past few weeks, a variation of what they've been writing on the blog.
But now at least, somebody finally decided to do something positive. 

uris1 video: Timoteij - Stormande Hav. Second Heat of Melodifestivalen 2012 in Göteborg, Sweden. February 11, 2012. http://youtu.be/Nw73WHckdNY


Meanwhile, over at SVT's Minimello, where Ylva Hällen and sidekick Skvallerbyttan have good seats to watch all the performers -and keep the laughter coming...
http://svt.se/2.140234/minimello
http://svt.se/2.140629/


SVT video: Jag är lik Timoteij!!!! 
Skvallerbyttan hittar likheter mellan henne och Timotej.
So funny!

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http://www.youtube.com/user/LionheartSweden
http://www.youtube.com/user/TimoteijOfficial


Fans of the band may want to start looking at this page to see what's also being written about them on Social Media: http://whotalking.com/flickr/Timoteij 

Sweden's nationally-televised WTF (musical) car crash moment of Saturday night -Björn Ranelid feat. Sara Li., performing "Mirakel"; a new low for Melodifestivalen?

Sweden's nationally-televised WTF (musical) car crash moment of Saturday night during Melodifestivalen -Björn Ranelid feat. Sara Li., performing "Mirakel"

Proof that, at least in Sweden, some people love a (musical) car crash as long as they are not in it...

No, it's NOT your imagination.

I really HAVE been avoiding mentioning what's been going on thus far at this year's installment of Melodifestivalen, the iconic and nationally-televised song selection contest over five weeks that annually leads to Sweden's choice for the Eurovision Song Contest, this year, taking place in Azerbijan in a few months.

I could get into the reasons why I've NOT mentioned what's doing with familiar Hallandale Beach Blog favorites like Molly Sandén and Timoteij so far, but it's easier to say why I've broken that silence -Sweden's nationally-televised WTF (musical) car crash moment of Saturday night -Björn Ranelid feat. Sara Li. 

As always, seeing is believing!

*All screen grabs on this page are from SVT by South Beach Hoosier

To say the least, the reviews of Björn Ranelid feat. Sara Li are in and they are so angry, scathing and unmerciless in their pummeling, that it's a wonder that many of my friends and folks I know, like Sofie and Pernilla -who keep coming back to the blog!- who watched the show LIVE Saturday night didn't, well, blow a gasket.

Or make like Elvis and shoot their TV set! 

Though now that I think about it, maybe some of them did, since as of early Monday morning, I have NOT heard from some of them after Saturday night's deltävling 3 -Third heat-of this year's competition in Leksand, like I did after the two previous weeks the past two Saturday nights in Växjö and Göteborg, respectively.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1keVBfBrVI4

I urge you to watch this video ASAP because this video will probably be yanked-off YouTube very soon by SVT for copyright reasons, but it's the only one I've seen that shows how truly horrendous the act was.

Oops! Too late. 

They already hit it and removed it since I saw it a few hours ago.

Since that's the case, watch their performance here on SVT Play's website, which will have the entire show online for viewing until MIDNIGHT Tuesday morning Stockholm/Central European Time (CET), which is one hour ahead of GMT and six hours ahead of yours truly in Miami, in U.S.  Eastern.
So the deadline for seeing this is 6 p.m. Eastern.

Get moving, because the clock is ticking!

Björn Ranelid feat. Sara Li appearance starts at 0:45:58 on the vid, ends at 0:50:05.

http://svtplay.se/t/102943/melodifestivalen

I watched the show in its entirety on Sunday afternoon, taking notes.

So, did I mention that people were angry?!!!!

Apparently, more than I thought, there were thousands of people watching TV in Sweden on Saturday night who thought they'd say a big f-ck you to the Swedish music industry, and do it by spending what amounts to about two bucks to text this "car crash" -the favorite metaphor being used among Swedish bloggers to describe this performance the first 36 hours afterward- and send them directly to the Finals in Stockholm on March 10th, at Globen.

Hmm-m... imagine if a participating country's national Eurovision song selection competition was hijacked by the country's usually-friendly folket in order to send the worst possible act to Baku, Azerbijan for the actual European competition...

Hmm-m... now that's a question so preposterous and diabolical that even Stieg Larsson never thought of it while toiling away in Gamla Stan thinking of things for Lisbeth Salander to get upset about!

Yes, it's sort like what the Florida Marlins did in November in announcing their new Miami Marlins logo and uniforms for their new stadium in Little Havana... which was, itself, a rainbow-colored WTF moment as far as most fans were concerned!
Yet typically, the condescending Marlins owners and management act like this finished product is what they always wanted, and don't much care what fans really think.
They're so in love with the idea of being "bold," of marketing themselves in Latin America in pastel colors, that they've lost sight of what the real fans who actually attend their games think.

For those of you reading this outside of South Florida, I honestly DON'T see anyone wearing this stuff around the area, that is, except for the sort of person at the shopping mall who does so clearly to bring attention to themselves.
Like the sort of woman who purchases a new expensive purse or accessory and takes it with them to Sunday brunch and tried to appear blase about it, even while craning her neck to see who notices it.

Miami Marlins New Logo and Uniform

http://youtu.be/mC-zle_rk4g

Here's what some of the Usual Suspects, music-wise, have been saying so far.

Over at Scandipop, 

...it certainly got people talking, as well as voting – “Björn Ranelid” and then “Ranelid” both became wordwide trending topics on twitter last night after his performance.

At the ESC Xtra, which LIVE blogged the show, when it was finally announced that Ranelid & Li  had qualified to go directly to the Finals in Stockholm, along with Molly, they wrote simply,

I am lost for words Sweden. See ya next week…

At the more action-oriented Schlagerblog, which was not so crazy about Molly's song, either, they wrote

The big surprise for the Schlagerboys was how excited we got about Björn Ranelid feat. Sara Li. Who'd have thought a bonkers orange bloke wandering around the stage rambling on in Swedish while his granddaughter prances around for the chorus in a glittery frock would be so fab! The best bit was near the end where the key change should have been, when he clearly forgot his microphone was live and started mumbling the words to the chorus. Love it!

I'll have my updates on Molly Sandén and Timoteij and what else is going on in the competition later in the week before Saturday's competition from Malmö.

-----

http://svt.se/melodifestivalen/


http://www.visitsweden.com/

Just in time for the summer, Timoteij's wonderfully infectious new single "Het" hits the airwaves -with a BRILLIANT video, too!

Timoteij - Het (Officiell Musikvideo)

http://youtu.be/AzoRucqYers

Make sure you watch this on a full screen for maximum effect.

En somrig hit? (A summer hit?)

Yes!

It will probably come as no surprise to those among you reading this blog who have an interest in this subject that I've been reading and hearing a lot about the new Timoteij single being released for awhile now.

But the first time I actually heard "Het" for myself -sans video and the rap opening that both jolts you and catches your attention- came last weekend, a few days after it was featured on May 12th P4 homepage for Sveriges Radio's Daniel Kjellander and Jenny Lindeborg, who host a four-hour morning show.

http://sverigesradio.se/sida/artikel.aspx?programid=730&artikel=4500881

Obviously, I don't listen to SR all the time, probably more like a couple of times a month out of curiosity, and the truth here is that I simply got a tip from someone I trust and followed it up -and took a listen myself.
You may well remember that I previously mentioned here that I'd been having some computer problems and all last week, esp. with my speakers?

In any case, it's just as well that I didn't post about that SR link, because I didn't have access last weekend to this tres charmant video and THAT's what really makes this particular song POP and sets it apart!

And didn't Johanna (Pettersson) tell us only on Wednesday, on their blog, how truly sick -"cruel"- it would be when we all saw it for ourselves?

Yes, she did, saying "Den är grym! Såå bra! Hurra!?"

http://www.timoteij.se/2011/05/18/musikvideoteaser/

OMG, it's even better than advertised!

First off, there's a whole lot more going-on in this sweet and catchy -and ingenious- video than seems readily apparent at first viewing -a whole lot more, which is why you have to watch it a number of times on full screen to catch some of the clever touches.

To me at least, parts of both the song and the video have an almost Nashville-centered feel to it, like certain very popular female Country Western acts you and I can both think of.

Giving a video a real sense of place and reality is very, very smart, actually.

I dare you not to be hooked by the second time you play it, and actually know what to expect with the whole switch in tone at the beginning from the typical rap 'intro' and the appearance of the long white stretch limousine

and paparazzi at the ready, to the looks of, first, dismay

"That's NOT schlager, that's hip-hop!"

and then quickly, delight on the faces of the little girls and boys wearing those popular pink and blue Timoteij skull caps when the band cruise in,

"Here they come!"

emerging from their sweet cherry red Skoda -embossed with their name in script on the hood and a silhouette of them on the sides.

Adorable autograph hounds at the ready!

Oh-so much cuter with a Skoda!

http://www.timoteij.se/2010/05/05/timoteij-kor-skoda-2/
http://www.skoda-auto.com/COM/Pages/homepage.aspx

http://personbilar.toveksbil.se/artikel/17088/det-finns-en-fabia-for-alla.html

Photos of the band with their individual cherry red Skodas back in Skövde:

http://personbilar.toveksbil.se/101/artikel/351/timoteij-kor-skoda.html
http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=390108438751

(Johanna didn't have her license yet when they got the sponsorship deal.)

And in case you were wondering, yes, those pink and blue Timoteij-embossed skull caps ARE ridiculously popular, as even a cursory look at many of the photos or video of their touring the past year has made abundantly clear, where you see them everywhere, and NOT just on kids.

I almost bought one of them last year for my youngest niece, aged ten, up in Maryland, and while not naming names, I have some friends in Sweden who bought a lot of them for stocking stuffers and such, even giving some blue ones to their more hard-edged heavy metal male friends and work colleagues as a joke.
(But they had to wear them out in public, of course.)

The slower, quieter part of the song that kicks in at 2:30 or so, starting with a shot of Elina (Thorsell), is a great change of pace and really brings the attention back to the quartet's sweet harmonies that these four do so consistently, seemingly, effortlessly.

Here's a video they recorded of their behind-the-scenes preparation for the "Het" music video, and yes, that is Taylor Swift playing in the background; they love Taylor Swift!

Timoteij spelar in musikvideo - Förberedelser

http://youtu.be/wtnYFjsBaeg

(Pictured above: Elina)

This is the quartet's first video on their "official" YouTube Channel.
More on that in a minute.

Speaking of summer, or as one person I know who has spent many, many winters in Sweden puts it, the first time you have seven days in a row when it's NOT freezing, here's a short vid from Expressen TV last August, showing how willing the girls are to indulge the media to get some attention for their self-evident talent -singing while swimming in a pool.

http://tv.expressen.se/noje/1.2086679/har-badar-timoteij-i-bajsvatten

One of the other things I've sort of been waiting to mention here on the blog for a bit, thinking the new single was the time to mention it, was that there is -FINALLY- an official YouTube Channel for Timoteij, even though their fans have been pretty good the past year at uploading videos they shoot of them on tour around the country or even their TV appearances -per Nyhetsmorgon, Lotta på Liseberg, Sommarkrysset and Allsång på Skansen.

http://www.expressen.se/1.2078733

Timoteij - Högt över ängarna (Hoch Ubber Den Wiesen) Live Habo FestivalenTag [Ultra-HQ] -High Above the Meadows.

http://youtu.be/owoZ6gBHj4M

(Pictured above: Bodil, Cecilia and Elina)

Timoteij - Ingen idé

http://youtu.be/JKqpY4ve_xY

(Pictured above: Cecilia and Johanna)

Here's the URL for their Official YouTube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/TimoteijOfficial

As it turns out, your faithful blogger and friend Dave was their second subscriber.

For what it's worth, I have actually mentioned to them via an email that I thought that their very amusing videos on their official -not fake- Facebook page, located at

http://www.facebook.com/timoteij.official were full of personality and often hysterical, especially the ones where they were traveling and Elina was acting as cinematographer from the back seat -82 videos as of a few days ago at http://www.facebook.com/video/?id=286938310265&s=0 - and really needed to be shared with more people via an official YouTube Channel they controlled.

Whether or not they will start putting those sort of funny videos up at this new channel, I can't say for sure, but this first one is certainly a good sign and when I hear something, I will share the news with you here.

Timoteij's official blog: http://www.timoteij.se/

See also:

You’re Making Me….HET HET HET!

by SCANDIPOP on MAY 20, 2011

http://www.scandipop.co.uk/?p=5859

Lionheart Sweden's YouTubeChannel

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

http://www.leg.se/

Only in Sweden, my friends! Drag act 'After Dark,' Timoteij, et al perform on dynamic kids show 'Den Flygande Mattan'; Nothing like it in U.S.!

Christer Lindarw (After Dark) - La Dolce Vita/Mamma Mia from SVT Barnkanalen's "Den Flygande Mattan" March 2011. (With lyrics)http://youtu.be/boVS7_XETBA
Only in Sweden, my friends, only in Sweden!


Ever-vigilant Darin over at popular music blog Scandipop got it right a few months ago regarding fashion designer Christer Lindarw's alter ego musical drag act, 'After Dark' performing on SVT's Children Channel's dynamic show, 'Den Flygande Mattan' -The Flying Carpet, just a few weeks after the talented women of Timotiej performed there, too.


Don’t mind doing it for the kids…
by scandipop on February 14, 2011
http://www.scandipop.co.uk/?p=4862


I was laughing, smiling and crying at the same time at the image of the whole thing, above, whether the young boys in suits and fedoras dancing like they were a Vegas act during La Dolce Vita, http://svt.se/content/1/c8/02/35/27/57/dfm_after_dark.jpg
or the eager little girls doing their best Agnetha and Anni-Frid impression during Dancing Queen, when Christer was walking into the audience and they sang along without any coaxing.
It was fabulous!


FYI: The dancers are students at BASE23 Stockholm Dance Academy


I actually started a blog post about SVT's wry, whimsical and pop music-heavy kids show 'Den Flygande Mattan' back in January after I came across a particularly cute clip while looking for something else from the SVT Play website.

Here's the show's animated intro:


http://youtu.be/HAzAMpUvjOY
(The name of the show's band -with a cute female drummer no less- is The Flying Carpets.)


I added a little here and there as various artists I know and have followed performed their songs on this popular show, which is hosted by the talented and vivacious Sara Edwardsson.


She is a DYNAMO and has the perfect personality for the show, upbeat like a favorite aunt who knows lots of interesting things she wants to share and impart and never talks down to you just because you are a kid.
Not that I had an aunt like that, but I sure wanted one.


(Slight digression: When I was in high school, a popular and otherwise smart girl I knew somehow, on her own, mistakenly got it into her head that actress Jaclyn Smith was my aunt, since my mother and I were both born in Texas, my mother's hair looked very similar and we had the same last name. Really.
I let that confusion play itself out over a few weeks, but it was a nice thought and certainly a 'fact' that I could've happily lived with!)


Then, in early March, Timoteij performed some songs and I took some notes about that:
http://www.timoteij.se/2011/02/03/den-flygande-mattan-2/
http://svt.se/content/1/c8/02/35/27/57/dfm_timotej.jpg

Timoteij - Kom - from SVT Barnkanalen's "Den Flygande Mattan" February 2011. (With lyrics). http://youtu.be/zj4B2BEvRks



Then, almost as if on cue, everything about that post I'd spent time on disappeared when the power in the neighborhood suddenly went out.

Oh, and that fail-safe automatic Save function on Blogger that's supposed to automatically keep my stuff here from disappearing entirely into the ether by accident or screw-up, well, not so much. It did save the title, but, of course, that was the least important part of the effort.


A few weeks later, I noticed that Darin at Scandipop had written on March 14th about Christer Lindarw performing his drag act on the show -after I'd already seen it for myself via the SVT Play website.

After Dark, but pre-watershed!
by scandipop on March 14, 2011http://www.scandipop.co.uk/?p=5227


I decided that I'd needed to re-write my original post as best I could remember, so that those of you who have never seen it, 100% of you, can get some sense about how truly cute and amusing it is. But I'd already forgotten a lot so...


The 'one-of-these-days' post about why South Florida currently seems to have about ZERO original LIVE English-language programming for children in what is supposed to be such a "creative community" -go ahead, just ask them over at LIV on South Beach and they'll tell you how clever they are!- will have to wait for another time.

Until then, I will just throw out a small south Florida shout-out into the blogosphere for:

a.) Chuck Zink and The Skipper Chuck Show on the old Channel 4 when it was WTVJ, which I was at a few times as an audience member when that was a very tough ticket to score;

b.) Banjo Billy's Fun Boat on Channel 10, WLBW, not WPLG-TV, in the late '60's, where the hook was amiable host Dave Herbert playing Dixieland music, not exactly that hip then -or now- but definitely outside-the-box thinking.

c.) Sunday Funnies, the Sunday morning staple of the then-WCKT, wherein actual Channel 7 news reporter Wayne Chandler -when it was an NBC-affilate during the Dolphins' heyday- read the Herald's Sunday comics along with a robot named Toby, that for all the world looked to be in a very large plastic garbage can.
http://www.theparklander.com/previous/july04/Toby.htmYes, what a potpourri: New Orleans Dixieland music, a dark blue Captain's cap and the Sunday comics and a robot when Charles Schultz's Peanuts was still the most popular newspaper comic strip in the country.
And now on local TV we have... what?
ZERO!

-----
Speaking of children's television, tell me where the local equivalent in South Florida was this past week for this story I found on SVT's Lilla Aktuellt, about a Swedish girl named Anna that was born on September 11th, 2001, about what it's like to have your birthday be a day that most people think of in such a negative way, or what she thinks about what happened to Osama bin Laden?
http://svt.se/2.62895/hem


In the South Florida media market of today, kids under 13 get on TV because they are cute or fat or stupid or are shot dead in drive-bys or graduate from high school when they are 11 or have rich parents who book a big-name music act for their bar mitzvah or call 911 when their mother falls asleep in a drug-fueled haze and their baby sister has wandered out of the apt. or fallen into the pool or...
But mostly, when they are on TV, they are shown in a store buying something.
It's so predictable!


But where's the Miami TV stations' attempt to serve that particular demographic?



SVT's Lilla Aktuellt video: Anna föddes samma dag som terrordåden
(Anna was born on the same day as the 9/11 attacks)
Video available for watching on website until May 3, 2012.
http://svtplay.se/v/2415038/anna_foddes_samma_dag_som_terrordaden


Lilla Aktuellt homepage/hemsida: http://svt.se/2.62895/hem


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See also:
http://swedishstereo.blogspot.com/

2010 St. Lucia Day in Stockholm: traditional songs and sweet sentimentality that ring true across the miles; SVT's Lucia program is sublime!; updated

The first five photos above are screenshots I took of Amanda Römmesmo Diaz (as Lucia) from Tuesday morning's St. Lucia concert at Kungsholms Church in Stockholm, that was broadcast LIVE by SVT -at 7 a.m.- in an event officially titled, Luciamorgon i Kungsholms kyrka.

The ridiculously cute St. Lucia icon/photo directly below those photos of Amanda is from Elina Thorsell's blog post Tuesday, as the flute-playing member of Timoteij recounts what she was up to today on one of the biggest days on the Scandinavian calendar.

This was updated in December 2015

------

Lucia

Av Elina den 13/12/2010

Idag är det den 13 december och julen närmar sig med stormsteg! När jag gick upp imorse så var tv.n på och luciafirandet strömmade ut ur högtalarna. Så fint!...
Read the rest of Elina's post at: http://www.timoteij.se/2010/12/13/lucia/

In Elina's particular case, the celebration of the Queen of Light amidst supernatural forces, included her going to her little brother's school to listen to him and his classmates sings some festive traditional holiday songs. What a sweetie she is!

As the ever-adorable Elina alludes to in her post, Swedish TV was in full St. Lucia mode today from the get-go, and one of those features was SVT's fabulous one-hour broadcast this morning featuring the Södra Latin Chamber Choir -conducted by Jan Risberg- singing traditional Lucia and Christmas favorites like, well, yes, angels, even as the St. Lucia action holds our attention, as our brunette Lucia, Amanda, stays perfectly still throughout the ceremony, with four burning candles on her head wreath.

Good job, Amanda!

Also appearing this morning to sing some traditional Christmas favorites and give it some oomph were some very popular singers like Darin, Sonja Aldén, Shirley Clamp and Sanna Nielsen.

As I watched it earlier today, the only word that fit was serene -except when that word was heavenly.
Watch the whole program on SVT Play at
http://svtplay.se/v/2265228/luciafirande_i_svt/lucia



As always when I recommend an SVT program for your enjoyment here on the blog, once you have pulled-up the SVT web page, click the word "Fullskärm" to the bottom right in order to make it "full screen." Though some of the program is in Swedish, obviously, you'll still be able to appreciate the songs without knowing a single word of svensk.

I really urge you to watch some of it -if not the whole thing- as a means of not only reducing your own holiday stress, but gaining some Scandinavian cultural awareness, PLUS, and I can't emphasize this enough, the audio and video production qualities of this are just flat-out amazing! Especially considering that SVT had this entire program up on their website within hours of it airing!

(I have a future blog post on the amazing technical quality of SVT and SVT Play's programs and website that features plenty of examples of why they win so many design and technical awards.)

There's no heavy-handed VO narration by some un-seen quasi-celeb, nobody in the audience aping for the cameras, nobody in the church trying to steal the limelight from the kids performing. In a sense, it's almost like watching a documentary on another culture, with cameras that are carefully hidden to prevent anyone from acting un-naturally.
The video is available for watching on the SVT Play web page until January 11, 2011, so you only have a month to catch it before it goes buh-bye!


2015 Update: Excerpts from SVT's 2010 Luciamorgon, i Kungsholms kyrka, via 398asa YouTube Channel

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLycexat2xk
Luciamorgon i Kungsholms kyrka

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SVT's holiday webpage, http://svt.se/2.114277/julen_i_svt_2010 is chock-a-block full of interesting things and as usual, is not only clever and colorful -while a bit cheeky- but also well-produced, but NOT busy and cluttered, unlike the Miami Herald and South Florida Sun-Sentinel's web pages these days, which cause me to get a headache at the complete waste of resources in an area like South Florida that is crying out for real news coverage, not more syndicated photo files of B-List celebs or amusing animals.

Will someone please put a stop to that madness before the shareholders finally find out what's been going the past few years?

Tell them that the second-rate websites and the duplication of stories isn't fooling anyone about the actual quality of the product anymore?

We see thru the self-serving lies, the ridiculous fallacies, clear-cut news mis-representation and the longstanding charade that most of the reporters, columnists and editors really want to bring compelling stories to the public's attention -they don't.

That dog doesn't hunt anymore, plus, it's so, so painful to wade thru all the junk online plus seeing links to so-called Breaking News that's already 18 hours old.

Me duele la cabeza!

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I know that I am remiss in this, and I've already received some emails from overseas the past few days asking me why I haven't said anything yet about the suicide bombings in Stockholm.

Well, I'm working on something right now in regards to that specifically, as well as the larger change in Swedish political and social culture.
I think it'll give you some real insight into some matters that you won't find elsewhere in South Florida, though that clearly isn't really much to brag about these days, is it?

All-in-all, I think at least some of you of a more serious bent will be surprised at what you learn -as well as disturbed- and find out how much has been going on in a modern democratic European country like Sweden that you haven't been hearing about in the American mainstream media, print and electronic.

For instance, the efforts by certain non-native groups that aren't particularly keen to assimilate and adapt to Swedish norms of democracy and civics, to actually prevent people from being able to speak freely at public forums, and inciting violence so that they can then be cast by the news media as victims.
There has been an awful lot of that!

Whether you haven't seen it in print or on TV already in the U.S. because of journalistic laziness, editorial myopia or that old alibi, lack or resources, I can't say.

But after you read a bit and see some videos I have in mind for you all, you won't be able to say that you didn't know.
And the facts are pretty compelling, especially when you have the video that tells the tale.

If you think the mainstream news media in the U.S. is condescending and ideologically against the interests of the average American, you have no idea how much worse it is in Sweden, as the election coverage showed.

As Christmas nears in the U.S., nobody-but-nobody wants 'legacy media' in their Christmas stocking, not even their own employees.
It's the same thing in Sverige.

Everybody wants the 'new media!'