EllaSkerries

Did you know...

2010-09-01T10:28:00.009+02:00

...there's a place where the pictures are big and all the links in English?

Goodbye EllaSkerries
Hello, hello! Skerrie Things

Welcome to my new blog!

Graknitti

2010-08-31T10:13:00.013+02:00

Isn't this a beautiful thing that Kerstin, Karin and old graffiti writers Ångest and Ruskig have made? We stumbled upon this piece last Saturday in Hornstull when the Glenn, my mother and I took a walk in the sun (ending up with wine in the park and then some proper Chinese, yum!). Though the weeks have been rainy and dull, the weekends have brought us nothing but summer. Thank you!
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Aj!

I got a bad tingle in my belly. Today is an important meeting, one of those No or Go thingies. I think us girls in the Nordic tango docu crew should get an award for perseverance.
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Tuesday Hello!

The city that never ends

2010-08-30T09:35:00.031+02:00

This Monday doesn't begin with a brisk walk along the shoreline with a coffee in my hand and a backpack full of computer stuff as was intended.

Instead it begins by my desk with the glamour of flat traveling, fueled by left over chanterelle pizza, through a snippet of the vast and weird landscape of Swedish author, designer and artist Eric Ericson (info in Swedish - info in English).

Would you like to slowly cruise through the 21 meters long drawing that is his Panorama Pocket, click here.

From the back of the book (my translation):

"How big can a city get? If you go through Los Angeles, Tokyo or Kairo, you get a sensation that the city never ends. The city seems to continuously keep on going."

Mind you, this pocket is old news, it's from 2005 and as far as I know out of print.
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Fun for the Swedish speakers:
My friend Jocke keeps on banging out the best web.
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Announcement:
This weekend skerriethings.com was registered.
A new flag with the Ella Empire logo loosely pushed down into earth.

To be continued.
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Monday Hello!
It's a lot of Monday today.

These are the pale pastels

2010-08-27T10:04:00.010+02:00

The last episode of the colourful exposé that was The abandoned brewery.
Next week my blogging goes back to how it once was.
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Story:

This is where Heinrich, Berlin based urban exploration fan, takes all of his out of town:ers, "since it's so easy to break in". We had a beautiful day exploring nooks and corridors, halls and broken staircases, finally climbing up the roof drinking bubbles watching beautiful Berlin below us.

When Heinrich first found the brewery a year ago it was completely intact, with bottles and equipment in place, just like it was left in the 90's. Since then people posted its location online and it's been trashed, like Teufelsberg.
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Friday Hello!

Tonight we give in to the call of the Flexi-pop!
Colouroïd DJ-session, Babajan, Katarina Bang 75, 21 - 01.
Together we'll be allein, ganz allein.

These are the colours brown and yellow

2010-08-26T10:15:00.023+02:00

This is the last but one episode in my series The abandoned brewery.
I think you're now getting a sense of how big this place is - and this is only a bit!

(I quite look forward to getting into my normal blogging routine again!)
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Story:

This is where Heinrich, Berlin based urban exploration fan, takes all of his out of town:ers, "since it's so easy to break in". We had a beautiful day exploring nooks and corridors, halls and broken staircases, finally climbing up the roof drinking bubbles watching beautiful Berlin below us.

When Heinrich first found the brewery a year ago it was completely intact, with bottles and equipment in place, just like it was left in the 90's. Since then people posted its location online and it's been trashed, like Teufelsberg.
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Thursday Hello!

Is the working week coming to an end, or will the weekend become an extension of the week? And pretty though it is, what is The limits of control really about?

This is the colour turquoise

2010-08-25T09:56:00.019+02:00

I'm not awake yet. The Glenn is still at home ill. This is a sleepy morning indeed.
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Part three of The abandoned brewery.
I hope you like it!
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Story:

This is where Heinrich, Berlin based urban exploration fan, takes all of his out of town:ers, "since it's so easy to break in". We had a beautiful day exploring nooks and corridors, halls and broken staircases, finally climbing up the roof drinking bubbles watching beautiful Berlin below us.

When Heinrich first found the brewery a year ago it was completely intact, with bottles and equipment in place, just like it was left in the 90's. Since then people posted its location online and it's been trashed, like Teufelsberg.
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Wednesday * ya-a-awn * Hello!

This is the colour indigo

2010-08-24T11:13:00.012+02:00

This is part two of The abandoned brewery.
Part one This is the colour grey is yesterday's news.
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Story:

This is where Heinrich, Berlin based urban exploration fan, takes all of his out of town:ers, "since it's so easy to break in". We had a beautiful day exploring nooks and corridors, halls and broken staircases, finally climbing up the roof drinking bubbles watching beautiful Berlin below us.

When Heinrich first found the brewery a year ago it was completely intact, with bottles and equipment in place, just like it was left in the 90's. Since then people posted its location online and it's been trashed, like Teufelsberg.
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Let's see what colour tomorrow might bring!
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Tuesday Hello!

This is the colour grey

2010-08-23T11:03:00.021+02:00

Monday Hello!
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This "morning" I've overslept and the Glenn is ill and staying at home - with me.
Outside it's sunny and I catch myself thinking: Holiday!

Let's see if busy me and leisure me can make a compromise...
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This is the beginning of my week long series The abandoned brewery.

And this is where Heinrich, Berlin based urban exploration fan, takes all of his out of town:ers, "since it's so easy to break in". We had a beautiful day exploring nooks and corridors, halls and broken staircases, finally climbing up the roof drinking bubbles watching beautiful Berlin below us.

When Heinrich first found the brewery a year ago it was completely intact, with bottles and equipment in place, just like it was left in the 90's. Since then people posted its location online and it's been trashed, like Teufelsberg.

Urban exploration is secretive business indeed.

Grey and gaudy

2010-08-20T09:46:00.019+02:00

The Eastern children are going out to play.
A breakfast erdbeerschorle, backgammoning for my life (I'm red).
Visiting the wrong Stasi museum, the everything looks like a school project-one.
Sunbathing our full bellies before a slow walk to the water tower.
Colour coordinated pigeons, a sign of an old civilisation.
Yellow roses and white wine looking at the Glenn.

You didn't think I was done posting Berlin pics? No!
Next week I have a little something planned for you, a colourful week long exposé...
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Boring, but: I've posted on the Blogger forum the fact that even though Blogger, dashboard and settings-formatting-language are all set on English, "comments" and "links to this post" under my posts are still in Swedish. My blog What Was Once has the same settings as this one and there everything is in English. Annoying.
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Weekend Hello!

Lulu in Berlin

2010-08-19T11:32:00.021+02:00

Today I've spent the beginning of my day watching the interview film with Louise Brooks Lulu in Berlin over at YouTube. It's shot in 1984, one year before her death (and quite ugly:ly shot I must say!).

I'm in lust to see the documentary Memories of Berlin: The Twilight of Weimar Culture and much curious to read Louise Brooks memoirs Lulu in Hollywood. The book will be easy enough to get, but does anyone know how to get hold of the film?
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See - after all this colour I had to elope to the black and white!
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A 2CV fan has encouraged me to start selling a coloured template for my paper car. It's a charming idea, though I'm not sure what I would charge for it... The sketches and measurements remain so maybe I should put one together. Cold be fun, hm?

Folds

2010-08-18T09:06:00.011+02:00

This is a pattern that I threw together last Saturday, from pieces of origami instructions that I previously altered. There should be lots of variations to this theme, maybe something could be made with some movement to it...
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The other night I dreamt that beer was a clear, slow flowing beverage with origami folds in it. When you looked at it from the side you could clearly see the origami pattern. (What would it taste like to swallow a fold?) The beer contained at least six spices, the dream was specific on this, that looked like mix pepper and the beer tasted something like litchi... It was served in jugs shaped like Napoleon hats turned upside down.
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This night has been a night of magical, horrific dreams, WW2 and something made of studs and fur that could change colour, that I was very proud of, and waking up in the middle of the night in panic, frightening the Glenn. The dreams are taking over.

Citroën 2CV

2010-08-17T10:04:00.012+02:00

Vroom!

I promised you colour!

This is the little 2CV I made for my sister's birthday. She has a massive collection of I don't know how many 2CV:s - but none in paper (one Cuban in papier mache).

I grew up a caravan child, probably to stem my father the sailor's constant restlessness (he didn't want a boat 'cos that would be too much like working). As soon as the grass grew green we'd pack up our belongings and giant dog and take to the road all summer through. He longed for this the rest of the year.

In the caravan my sister and I shared bed, and this is actually her old sleeping bag that I have turned into a bedspread. It's the softest in the world.

Electric (electric)

2010-08-16T10:56:00.019+02:00

Walking home Saturday night, this electric currant called Midnattsloppet - The Midnight Race - intercepted us. It was a hot humid night, and the next morning I read in the paper that two people, one as young as 26, had died from this race.

So sad and stupid.
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Today I'm back at Filmcentrum, prepping tango material for an upcoming meeting. The Nordic tango docu is a neverending story. We don't relent! (Yet.)

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The next two days posts will be a lot more colourful, I promise!
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Monday hello!

The original Pixies

2010-08-13T05:14:00.012+02:00

I'm actually posting this at 5 in the morning! The neighbour upstairs is having a party for two and I can't go back to sleep... Blogging in the dark as not to stir the Glenn is a tricky thing since his computer keys don't light up....

I discovered that the fairies have been dancing in my 'hood while we were away.
Wikipedia dearest says: "One resident of Balquhidder, Scotland, said that the fairies sit on the mushrooms and use them as dinnertables, and a Welsh woman claimed that fairies used the mushrooms as parasols and umbrellas."
But we all know they've been dancing, right?

I'm not so much New Age:y as raised on Northern fairytales. I love seeing traces of the old mythology in my everyday life, a kinda layers on layers thing.
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Yesterday I forgot to mention it was my sister's birthday.

Hurra Spo!

But it's okay since she doesn't read this blog. Today I'll keep on making a little paper Citroën 2CV for her.
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Yesterday's paintings still give me a shiver.
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Friday Hello!

Dreaming

2010-08-12T10:19:00.034+02:00

Dorothy Napangardi Robinson - Sand Hills at Mina Mina
2008 Acrylic on Linen

Kathleen (or Kweyetwemp in her Eastern Anmatyerre tongue) Petyarre
- Mountain Desert Lizard Dreaming
2007 Acrylic on Linen

Lily Kelly Napangardi - Tali (Sandhills)
2008 Acrylic on Linen

Narrabri Nakamarra - Lupulnga
2008 Acrylic on Linen

Anna Price Petyarre (Pitjara) - My Country
2010 Acrylic on Linen

Jeannie Petyarre - Bush Yam Leaves
2008 Acrylic on Linen

It was flickering through the latest issue of Elle Interiör, coming across this painting by Ningura Napurrula, that set this spree off. Mesmerized by the marvel of dots, the world around me dissapears and I want to give in to dreaming.

I can't help but notice that all these paintings were made by women.
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My company name, Skerries, actually refers to dreaming. The name comes from the comic Sandman (#32 - A Game of You), that is about the "skerries of dream", your land you return to when dreaming. At the time, 2003, I thought it was a great metaphore for animation where you kinda "dream up" whole worlds.

Also, two of my films are about dreams, Squariebearies (2003) and
Love will get me through the week (2004).

(The images link to their original locations, except for the two photos of Swedish Elle Interiör 06/10.)

Doodle-do

2010-08-11T12:43:00.011+02:00

Doodles from Berlin and today.

The transition from holiday bliss to everyday shores has been brutal. We've tried to console ourselves with lots of sleep and The Wire, but finally there's no way out but to give in.

My computer is still at the repair shop (because of trouble with Apple - register your two years of AppleCare in good time!) and is greatly missed. All creative work is postponed and I attend to the most boring of chores, those I always manage to delay.

On top of everything there's a grey dot in my camera.
Now what do you do about that, I wonder?

So long - farewell - auf Wiedersehen - adieu

2010-08-08T08:33:00.013+02:00

This is the last morning of Berlin and I've barely slept because of migraine. Having old u n g t b l o d posts for company I decided I must make a Berlin blog good bye.

The Glenn and I are big Berliner Fernsehturm fans and this time was our most anticipated going up into the tower time. It was quite the let down since you couldn't enter the Telecafé unless you had made a reservation to eat. We sat on bar stools surrounded by running around school kids, sipping on a drink, swallowing a bubble of panic from the bodily warning signals from being inside a bubble on a stick.

My love for the tower stays undiminished. I'd love to have a poster of this old stamp:

Pretty yes?

There's so much I could say about the wonders of this trip and the fantastic people we've met. This is not so much a good bye as the start of a return. I long for my bed at home and my Stockholm friends, but boy I'd love to stay and loiter. The return to work and routines no matter how good my life at home is, is going to be as hard as ever.

Berlin, wait for me.

What I'm not going to miss however is this rental flat.
Craphole goodbye.

(The stamp image links to its original location.)

Dog world

2010-08-06T10:51:00.019+02:00

Berlin is dog land indeed, there must be at least one dog per three Berlinians. Even though the dogs have parents they kinda seem to belong to everyone too in a way.

One charmer we watched, a black beauty with a worn out tennis ball, got everyone to throw his ball exactly the way he wanted to - not too far, and in a way so he could catch it and show off as well - and if people threw it too far he simply sat down, waiting for someone to come to the rescue. People, uninvolved in the ball throwing, stopped conversations and stepped off bikes to throw it back to him.

This dog is a different story though. Luke. It's probably one of the most socially inept dogs I've ever seen, with two all consuming interests, food and licking ass, the latter to a stalker harassment degree. If he were a human he'd be the guy you'd avoid at all cost - at least that's what all the dogs at Görlitzer Park did, after proper telling him off's.

Candy eye

2010-08-05T12:23:00.014+02:00

For my birthday I got this lovely colour kit from the Karol.
It's a portable candy eye, turning everything into sweets and nonsense.

Revisitation

2010-08-02T08:51:00.036+02:00

The first day of our engagement, on a swing in Mauerpark, watching my candy shoes and graffiti in action. Dark nights with neon and paper lamps, and sunny plates of kimchi. The sweet hours before the proposal, at a bar playing the very best of Pet Shop Boys. Nonsense shops, tracks and ruins. The darkness of Anja's stairwell and floods of street art and shit.
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Tonight I lie curled up in the third home of our stay, a tiny, weird smelling ghetto flat, very different from our previous loving homes, listening to Schönhauser Allé compete in volume with Glenn, dearest steam engine of mine.

It's the last week of the holiday already happening.

Yesss!

2010-07-30T12:56:00.014+02:00

I proposed, he said yes.
Loveliness.

Other people's things

2010-07-27T11:03:00.017+02:00

Anja and Conrad have a lot of beautiful books, and this little treat - Peter and the Wolf by Sergej Prokofjew, beautifully illustrated by Frans Haacken - was lying on top of Anja's desk. (I feel my photos don't make the illustrations justice though,
so an enlarging click might be the thing to do.)

Today we're moving out of Anja and Conrad's flat, into Heinrich and Laura's living room, that in its' entirety is bigger than our whole Stockholm apartment. The best thing about this move is that it means we'll get to hang out with Anja and Conrad again - and meet little brand new Hermine for the first time!

It's a world with cakes on top of cakes.

An excellent place for a sunburn

2010-07-25T11:24:00.013+02:00

Come on Glenn dearest, wake up, there's a flea market to go to.
It's Sunday in Berlin, outside the sun is shining, and we needs go play...

Silly girl

2010-07-24T11:48:00.019+02:00

I couldn't figure out the intercom, so I ran out into the stairwell to open the front door, turned around to fetch the key and watched the door slam shut in my face. Glenn waited sweaty and weary by the front door, when I opened it saying: I messed things up for us...

If you get locked out, the landlords here don't have an extra copy of the key, so you drill up the lock and install a new. This didn't seem to be a good option for us and the family we house sit for are far away.

After long vertiginous minutes of thinking and searching the yard, saying sorrys and thinking whys, a kind neighbour lent us his ladder that was much too short. Glenn climbed it, the house and in through the open window and he didn't fall down upon us.

Having a home is a lovely thing.

Beast and machine

2010-07-22T13:05:00.021+02:00

(Pics from our first day in Berlin.)

Today I'm the strong silent kind (hungover).
The Glenn is visiting Native Instruments and I'm here with you.

Berlin is turning our pale Swedish backs into red hot crab meat:
Our hides are sour, our feet pissed off and our minds happy at ease.

My camera is resting on the cool white floor of Anja's work room.
Holiday can be exhausting for both beast and machine.

Back to B

2010-07-16T09:38:00.019+02:00

Today, this Friday, Jacob and Jana get married at the Berliner Fernsehturm.
Imagine that.

We wish we could join them but we had already got our tickets when we found out.
We'll join them in thought though and meet up on their honey moon - their honeymoon and our - three - week - long - holiday in dusty hot wunderbar Berlin.

Come Saturday my computer goes into repair and come Monday we fly fly away.
Blogging is bound to get a little scarcer, my dears.

Hey, legs!

2010-07-15T09:51:00.011+02:00

Trying to figure out this thing "crawling" while the grown ups try on new shoes.
I'm the worst baby photographer ever, but I do appreciate good candy cheeks,
sweet as Ellis:es.

Wilting

2010-07-14T16:57:00.030+02:00

It's hot!

Meltingly, sticky, honey eyed as the honey of a tiger eye, night and day hot hot hot.

As I took these photos a woman came up to me and told me that the old lady that's planted and been fuzzing over these beautiful blossoms is getting too ill to do so, from age and warmth.

She said: "We have to hurry and take these (photos) now. They are wilting."
I said: "Det är nu de är som vackrast. Now they are the most beautiful."
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I got a teensy tiny, extra job today! Exactly what I needed.
I was hired with the words: "We're not looking for anyone cool."

So now you know.
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Autumn, be good to me.

HIC SVNT LEONES

2010-07-12T09:33:00.011+02:00

"The classical phrase utilized by ancient Roman and Medieval cartographers used to be HIC SVNT LEONES (literally, Here are lions) when denoting unknown territories on maps", Wikipedia dearest tells me.

This morning, before breakfast and coffee, I contemplate this year. Where it's been, where it's going. It feels like spring was a mellow start with long haul projects yet to pan out into a clear something something.

This autumn will have uncharted territories, possibly full of lions. Me and Glenn starting our own record label. Lots of hooks waiting for fishies and new hooks having to be prepped. Familiar conditions getting turned upside down, both by choice and necessity.

The tingle in my belly is getting worse.

Do you look forward to your autumn?
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Monday Hello!

iPhonography Saturday

2010-07-11T01:37:00.011+02:00

A picnic and going swimming with my tiny family.
Cold Becks with the neighbour on his sunny house balcony.
A cheap dinner with friends at the local tapas place.
An unexpected park birthday party.
Staying up in the dark, listening to music with friends,
watching foxes, badgers and hares make speedy silhouettes.

Now it's time for sleep.
Tomorrow is another summer day.

Sleepy kisses, Ella.

Dear half-ass

2010-07-09T10:30:00.012+02:00

Lately I've felt frustrated, half-assed, shattered and like a real hoppjerka.
I jump from project to project, unable to focus, finish or even take time off.

I resolved this state of being a half-ass the other day somewhat, when I realized that if you're always where the project ends in your head, you're never where the project is right now: You have to stick to your guns to get something to fire at.
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Also, I heard from two production companies. One was much too busy but loved my little film, and the other wants to speak again in the later summer.

Fingers crossed, as always.
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Weekend Hello!
Let's go swimming.

Honey kissed

2010-07-08T11:42:00.039+02:00

When it's like this, hot and lovely and all tinsely mellow, longing for holidays abroad is a silly thing to do. Who of sound mind would want to leave this?

I do.
And we will.

Here be monsters

2010-07-07T09:52:00.012+02:00

Pictures from Domenico Gnoli's Bestiaro Moderno o Cos' è un mostro (1968).

This is my laziest blog post to date, since all my images (but one) stem from the same blog post. If I encourage you all to visit the now inactive Giornale Nuovo, maybe I'll be spared an eternity in blog hell?

I love inspiration from the world of bestiaries, especially now after the discovery of of cryptozoology. - An illustrator in the realm of Edward Gorey, Lewis Carroll and Piero Fornasetti is a treat. - The Latin meaning of monster is to warn. The monster is not what you warn for, the monster is the warning for worse things to come. - These images remind me of this book that I crave since years back. - The images ties the blushingly pink world of map dragons together with the black and white of this blog.

See?
I had to do it.

(The images link to their original locations.)

HC SVNT DRACONES

2010-07-06T09:48:00.017+02:00

Olaus Magnus' Carta Marina shows Scandinavia in a rather different light than the guidebooks normally do. Here be dragons, my friends, in the sea and in Lapland. In Finland there is a big snake problem and in the east the bears are climbing the trees.

Click to enlarge. The amount of detail is worthwiledly sweet.

Lindorm dearest

2010-07-05T11:32:00.010+02:00

Sitting in the sun by the allotment gardens, we saw lindormen try to renew its grasp of the world. It's a good thing to see as it means good luck, and the Glenn and I weave manyfold plans.

Wikipedia my friend, tells me:

"The belief in the reality of a lindorm, a giant limbless serpent, persisted well into the 19th century in some parts. The Swedish folklorist Gunnar Olof Hyltén-Cavallius collected in the mid 19th century stories of legendary creatures in Sweden. He met several people in Småland, Sweden that said they had encountered giant snakes, sometimes equipped with a long mane. He gathered around 50 eyewitness reports, and in 1884 he set up a big reward for a captured specimen, dead or alive. Hyltén-Cavallius was ridiculed by Swedish scholars, and since nobody ever managed to claim the reward, it resulted in a cryptozoological defeat."

Cryptozoology: The study of hidden (legendary) animals.
Loveliness. Why didn't the study counsellor of my suburban school tell me of this career path?

tunnel T banan

2010-07-02T08:37:00.037+02:00

"tunnel T banan
The building of the subway
Favour Götgatan's businessmen
Slussen Södra Bantorget Skanstull
Skarpnäck Enskede Örby"

Photo 1, March 7th 1933, photographer unknown, Spårvägsmuseet

"every day
The Stockholm Paper
Stockholm's Daily
to the point - independent - fun - stimulating"

Photos 2 - 6, 1933, photographer unknown, Spårvägsmuseet

This intersection I pass by almost every day, to and fro my home, shops and transportation. (I live to the left!)

Photos 7 - 8, 1957, photographer unknown, Spårvägsmuseet

Photo 9, 1933, photographer unknown, Spårvägsmuseet
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This concludes my historical pictorical tour of Skanstull. No more of this.
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Tonight! Flexing in the weekend is yours truly Colouroïd DJing the home studio 80's synthy tunes at El Mundo. Erstagatan 21, 21 - 01. You're most welcome!

Would you like to listen to an early Flexi-mix? Clicken sie hier, bitte.
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PS. I have a crush on this necklace - bodylace! - by Fannie Schiavoni at
Bon Vintage. Ooh, the high back. I wouldn't mind this with a simple white tee.
Maybe it's time to get an income?
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Weekend Hello!
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Photos published with permission by Stockholmskällan/The Stockholm Source.
(The images link to their original locations.)

Treat

2010-07-01T09:28:00.005+02:00

Have you already watched Spike Jonzes beautiful short I'm here,
or can I bring this treat into your life?

It's free online for your pleasure.

PS. Over at Meryl Smith's blog, the woman who made the rats for I'm here,
I find the tackiest Halloween costume ever. Yes. It did make me laugh.

Once upon a time in Skanstull

2010-06-30T09:54:00.029+02:00

I live at Skanstull at Södermalm in Sthlm, and through Stockholmskällan I got access to archive photos to show you what my 'hood once upon a time looked like...

Old house south of Götgatan 100
May 15 1907, photo by: Larssons Ateljé, Stockholms stadsmuseum

Workers at Piehl's brewery at Götgatan 100. Here Marsöl, Vegaöl, Bitter Nürnberg, Witzenbier, Pilsnerdricka and Franziskanerbier was made.
1897, photo by: Frans Gustaf Klemming, Stockholms stadsmuseum

Aren't the female brewery workers striped aprons and triangular bonnets lovely?
Over all this photo is a treat!

View from the country road by Skanstull over Hammarby lake toward Södermalm.
May 15 1907, photo by: Larssons Ateljé, Stockholms stadsmuseum

Stockholm's waterworks by Eriksdal.
1896, photo by: Carl Johan Gimberg, Stockholms stadsmuseum

View from Skanskvarn (that I've written about before) over Södermalm.
1891, photographer unknown, Stockholms stadsmuseum

View from Stora Blecktornet, Södermannagatan 49, toward Skanstull.
October 18 1909, photo by: Larssons Ateljé, Stockholms stadsmuseum

The making of the Skanstull bridge.
1944 - 1947, photo by: Lennart af Petersens, Stockholms stadsmuseum

The beauty of shattering ice.

The establishment for sand washing (sandtvättningsanstalten - !) by Skanstull.
In the back is Bohusgatan and Stora Blecktornet.
1897, A. O. Alrutz, Stockholms stadsmuseum

Götgatan north of Skanstull.
1896, photographer unknown, Stockholms stadsmuseum

Götgatan 90, north of Skanstull.
1885 - 1910, photo by: Kasper Salin, Stockholms stadsmuseum

Published with permission by Stockholmskällan/The Stockholm Source.
(The images link to their original locations.)

And now, a harsh transition from analogue to digital. I tried to find approximately the same views on hitta.se, an online map, to break the romance of old film:

Götgatan 100 (pic 1 and 2).

View from Skanstull bridge over Hammarby lake toward Södermalm (pic 3).

The Stockholm's waterworks was below these houses and the hill (pic 4).

View from Skanstull bridge toward Södermalm, Skanskvarn is below to the left
(pic 5).

Södermannagatan 49, toward Skanstull (pic 6).

I couldn't find a good shot of Skanstull bridge (so nothing for pic 7).

The sand washing establishment was somewhere around here (pic 8).

Götgatan 90 (pic 9 and 10).

It's like the final words in my (up and coming) short film What Was Once:

"Next time you see me
you won't recognize me,
nothing in my appearance will give me away.
Because you see my love,
what was once,
can never - ever - be again"

(Are you supposed to tell these things?)

From black and blue all the way to white and orange

2010-06-29T10:10:00.014+02:00

This x ray pin up calender I first saw over at my.god.damn.gown.
This being June it's a bit of old news, but that doesn't stop me.
I think it's thrilling, silly and all the way.

Hope Gangloff's beautiful work I found through an acquaintance at Facebook.
She does more varying motifs than people laying down.
These somehow stuck with me.
I like the coldness of colour.

Holly Woodlawn

Jackie Curtis

Candy Darling

Last some old Hollywood, 60's glamour.
I love the backlit hair, their soft hands and serious expressions.
Where the 40's pics seem somehow eternal, these feel momentary, like a window shutting out a noisy street. The make up will come off and a new shape form.

(The images link to their original locations.)

Looking at you looking back at me

2010-06-28T11:22:00.010+02:00

Images by EllaSkerries.

Today is the day when I start e-mailing producers about my short film
What Was Once. I have a tingle in my belly and an etch a sketch list over Monday things to do... I've overslept and the calling of the woods have put a running sensation in my legs. Outside the sun is painting things white.

Monday Hello!

In-a-tint

2010-06-27T02:06:00.049+02:00

One long lovely day, as seen through the warmth of my sunglasses.

In the midst

2010-06-25T06:23:00.018+02:00

Today is barbeque, croquet, sunshine, music and friends in the park - it's midsummer! I love these long days of sun and relaxation, effortless and lovely.

Concrete and lush

2010-06-23T11:37:00.013+02:00

In Sthlm there are several places where 60's concrete meets cottages from the previous turn of the century. I love the beautiful anachronism and dream of one day having my own house under a bridge.

Last time I was at the mill Skanskvarn I was told about the ghost Linda that murdered her husband by throwing a sack of flour on him. The neighbors starved her to death in the top floor of the mill where you still hear her song...

Below Skanskvarn right by the water is Sundsta, pale yellow, wooden apartment houses from the previous turn of the century in a wild, overgrown garden. I pass it every time I go jogging and think: Mmm...

Bathed and baked

2010-06-21T02:46:00.008+02:00

Sitting at night by my desk, I can still fell the sun burning on my face from a weekend of sun and wine and Glennliness.

Lovely Lidia is here from Barcelona and it's nice to team up with everyone and enjoy how we no longer live in darkness. No matter what troubles we might encounter before then, the holidays do lie ahead.

Inside I'm reeling ever so slightly from the punch in the face that is Kimberley Reed's excellent and sad documentary Prodigal Sons. (What unknown legacy did Orson Welles leave behind?) It's up at SVT Play until June 24th.

Birthday Boy

2010-06-18T09:34:00.018+02:00

I love these photos by Karolina Brobäck and Jonas Esteban Isfält, how the golden light hits our sculpturally handsome faces. They were taken at an early Snotty DJ-evening in the name of FlexiLiebe. (My, my hair was short.)

For some time I've looked immensely forward to this weekend.

Apart from us putting a DJ Flex in the night, tonight at Babajan, Katarina Bang 75, it's my lovely Glenn's birthday this weekend! His last birthday was a treat, with bubbles in the grass and a balaclava photo contest.

High quality celebrational silliness will be required.
Have a splendid weekend y'all!

PRC Paper dolls

2010-06-17T09:20:00.019+02:00

Sometimes I like having old Project Runway episodes on when I work.
After going through Project Runway Canada season 2 yet another time,
I decided to make my own paper doll creations for some of the challenges.

And a bathing suit for some reason.
Silly but fun.

From bedroom to boardroom, a power suit and underwear.
I was thinking a Russian inspired dress going suit, with paisley cuffs and a tie belt, and black halterneck underwear with long silk ribbons.

Return of the supermodel: A dress for Coco Rocha.
I took an Elizabethan lacey collar and turned it down and added white pearl buttons. And then a clean raw silk dress with an open back.

I really wanted to draw a bathing suit though there was no such challenge.
I was thinking a white bathing cap with a bow, either a real one or one drawn on with black contours. And a black halterneck bathing suit with a shirt collar.

Fun!
Now I'll go back to work.

(The original paperdoll comes from here. My! She's a busty number.)

Sur la plage

2010-06-16T01:17:00.013+02:00

I'm in awe of B ea Szenfeld's latest haute papier collection Sur la plage.
It's so beautiful, repetitive and imaginative, sheer, sheer suits that would disassemble under any pressure.

I wonder how she came to think of basing a collection on haenyos?
A beautiful idea.

Something is wrong with me, I've stopped sleeping at night.
I've resisted the call of the woods, when tonight turns into today I'll have to go running. Let's see if I'll resist - or sleep.

(The images link to their original locations - except this the last one which is a photo of a spread in Swedish Elle Interior no 5/2010.)

In my cave

2010-06-14T03:08:00.027+02:00

Sitting in my cave, a-squat and at peace, I think of Daniel Ellsberg's advice to Henry Kissinger in the documentary The Most Dangerous Man in America:

"Henry, you're about to get a lot of clearances higher than top secret that you did not know existed. That's gonna have a sequence of effects on you.

First a great exhilaration for getting all this amazing information that you didn't know even existed. And the next phase is you'll feel like a fool for not having known of any of this.

But that won't last long.

Very soon you'll come to think that everyone else is foolish.
What would this expert be telling me if he knew what I knew?

So in the end you stop listening to them."

Great advice.
With information comes responsibility and power - or/and corruption and lies. Just take a pick.

On SVT Play until the 30th of June.

The green patch

2010-06-11T04:51:00.031+02:00

Poor health makes it hard for me to sleep tonight.
Damn you, much too early rainy morning.
---
In this tired evening I want to add that I love Om jag var din hemmafrus tip What the fuck should I make for dinner? Curse words and food, two of my favourite things.

Have a lovely weekend!

I intend to curl up next to my boy in our hallowed mess, eat pasta salad, watch cliffhanging FlashForward episodes and possibly do the laundry. It's what this evening requires.
---
Edit: I fell asleep at 11 p.m., missed all FlashForward episodes, left the laundry for my boy but did indeed eat lots of pasta salad. Girlfriend of the year am I.

A world in black and white

2010-06-10T09:27:00.025+02:00

Celebrating this tiny speck of light and enormous explosion - see previous post - I turn to Woman in the moon (1929). The moon seems to be a world of darkness and eternal winter, something that does appeal to me, a Northener.

I think of the White Witch of Narnia and the realm of Hel though I can't find no testament that the latter's land is that of winter.

(Do I associate women with winter?)

Did they ever find the woman in the moon?
I must find out.

Look at these lovely graphics:

(The images link to their original locations.)

Today my thoughts go out to space

2010-06-09T10:20:00.014+02:00

It seems the future made my yesterday hopes for "blunt, graphic, black and white" come true. What could be prettier than the 20's silent film style drama Jupiter takes yet another hit from Science News on Vimeo:

"The object in question"

- this tiny speck of light -

"hit Jupiter with a force equivalent to a few thousand nuclear bombs, and left a scar the size of the Pacific Ocean" BBC News informs.

Now imagine that.

(The image links to its original location.)

Informant

2010-06-08T09:50:00.014+02:00

This morning I long for blunt, graphic, black and white patterns, I want repetition and nonsense. I content myself with this handsome graph from Information is Beautiful - good name - and look toward the future, for right now my vision is impaired by a tiny throbbing thunderbolt by my temple.

Stop it, you!

(The image links to its original location.)

Roll the dice in show

2010-06-07T13:30:00.012+02:00

Saturday's Roll the dice concert at Voltfestivalen was a beautiful thing, the concert hall, the lighting, their outfits, the tunes. Three songs for half an hour felt like a beginning interrupted.

Sometimes I love being left longing for more.

Yes! We're so Swedish!

2010-06-06T15:01:00.024+02:00

On this the National Day of Sweden I celebrate by reading the Färgfabriken exhibition Building Blocks magazine, an exhibition where children come up with ideas for houses and architect bureaus attempt to realize them.

(I blogged about this exhibition ever so slightly once before.)

Here are some ideas from Lili, Nina, Erykah, Miriam, Mustafa, Ketcho, Latavia and Jamal at Friars Primary in London:

Sweetie House: On top of the house there's a giant lookout cherry.

Big Globe House: The shape of the rooms are those of the continents. There is a cat called Broccoli and an Africa bed with an Egypt shaped pillow.

Balloon House: The windows blow bubbles.

Sing Out Mansion: "My dog is called Doodle doo, he's my slave and his fur collects information and finishes my homework."

Happy Sweden day to us all!

The record that goes round and round

2010-06-04T15:35:00.016+02:00

Autechre - Oversteps

Flying Lotus - Cosmogramma

Autechre - Move of Ten

Flying Lotus - Cosmogramma (again)

These covers intrigue me plenty, so simple and nice and precise. I'm very drawn to patterns and repetition, thin lines and the black and white. These rhyme with my mood, and the music is great as well!

Have a sweet weekend!

I'm thinking a barbecue and Voltfestivalen and making some Colouroïd nonsense. And sun. Lots of it please.

First up though is... the laundry.

(The images link to their original locations.)

In my tree house

2010-06-03T10:49:00.011+02:00

I can't remember how this post originally came about, but there's something very lovely fairytale:y with the idea of sleeping in your own safe homemade indoors wild nighttime forest.

Me and the Glenn sleep - he actually sleeps as I post - in a golden hallway under the cheapest of chandeliers, surrounded by shoes and doors.

Our forest.

I digress.

(The pics link to their original locations.)

Days of signs

2010-06-02T09:51:00.016+02:00

Hanging out with Jocke and his mother.
Celebrating mother's day at the museum, watching strange amounts of plastic.
Hello modern day Anne of Green Gables.
Lamps light up in the trees as the evening deepens.
Summer reflecting in all the old concrete buildings.

Now I'll dive deep into the woods to see if what Yayoi set in motion is still at play.

Plimsoll and Kih-Oskh

2010-06-01T18:28:00.019+02:00

The Plimsoll Line markings are so striking I had to google them a little. They remind me of the symbol of Kih-Oskh in Hergé's Cigars of the Pharaoh although it was "20/20 vision Glenn" who made me aware of the recemblance.

He's also pointed out that Stockholm based band Roll the dice sound like John Carpenters and Sigur Rós' love child. I have a crush on their version of Motorcycle Emptiness and hope to see them live at Volt Festival in Uppsala.

Life is rich.

My heart goes out to Karol the Barrel, bestest little beast in the wood.
Your luck will come around, lovechild.

(The Plimsoll Line pictures link to their original locations.)

Yayoi Kusama was right

2010-05-31T00:19:00.026+02:00

"One day I was looking at the red flower patterns of the tablecloth on a table, and when I looked up I saw the same pattern covering the ceiling, the windows and the walls, and finally all over the room, my body and the universe. I felt as if I had begun to self-obliterate, to revolve in the infinity of endless time and the absoluteness of space, and be reduced to nothingness. As I realized it was actually happening and not just in my imagination, I was frightened. I knew I had to run away lest I should be deprived of my life by the spell of the red flowers. I ran desperately up the stairs. The steps below me began to fall apart and I fell down the stairs straining my ankle."

- Yayoi Kusama has said Wikipedia tells me.

The invasion of the polka dots, and ultimately the annihilation of the world, has begun in the forest. Summer is here.

The French North

2010-05-28T09:32:00.016+02:00

The summer of 2000 me and my sister went to Paris. We stayed at a little hotel, in a room right under the rooftop. Fitted pink carpets covered the ceiling, walls and floor and you couldn't open the one window. Exhausted from the heat and lack of oxygen our stay at the hotel more or less resembled a Benny Hill show without a Benny Hill, with us dizzily rambling about in our birthday suits, from carpet to carpet.

In the reception a twitchy guy worked. He had tired eyes and seemed to be there 24/7. He introduced himself as Loke, jester of the Aesir.

When we returned home one day from a thunder storm I said to him:
By the way, we met your brother.

He didn't get it.
---
Tonight Colouroïd DJs again! El Mundo, Erstag 21, 21 - 01
There will always be enough Flexi for all of us - welcome!

The energy of the black square

2010-05-27T08:57:00.029+02:00

"What you ultimately discover is that there is a certain energy in the black square with its seven pieces - a force that goes beyond geometry and linear thinking. It is an energy that empowers you to exceed your present mental abilities and attain a higher level of vision."

I got a crush on a tangram puzzle at the neighborhood Red Cross. 40kr worth of graphics and intrigues. The possibilities for inspiration seem almost as manyfold as the amount of figures you can turn your seven pieces into.
(1.600 according to the accompanying booklet!)

The shapes also remind me of an old logo I was toying with for myself once upon a time, inspired by the origami shuriken. Funny.

What inspires you right now?

(The quote is from Tangram by Joost Elffers and Michael Schuyt.)

Nicofixation

2010-05-26T10:25:00.020+02:00

Lately I've been toying with the idea of inventing the nicotine pacifier. Imagine a whole subway car full of adults sucking on their Nicofiers, the regular sucking sound they'd make together. Suck - suck - suck -

You'd make a black one with a black silk bow for galleristas, fashionistas and gothic lolitas, a pink glitzy one with a chihuahua print for all the Paris Hilton wannabes, a tweed print Nicofier for the gentlemen and the stylish, a marine one with a single pearl for all the discreet and posh, one with a big glittery Rolling Stones mouth for all the indiscreet and direct, one in pale linen with a greyblack capital letters print for all the art students....

Everyone, every stereotypical group I could think of, would get one.

What unifies a lot of people is the desire to quit smoking or to keep smoking in the name of quitting. I'd be rich enough to be able to make every movie I'd ever dreamt of making.

The Nicofier.
You read it first here.

3 X 3: Women in black and white

2010-05-25T10:10:00.039+02:00

Virginia Oldoini who took photos of herself. The worst dinner guest ever because she'd complain on the food and then run off with the host.

Theda Bara, one of the first "predatory women" of the screen,
the original vamp and third most famous moviestar of her time.

Nancy Cunard, a natural force before her time who did everything and everyone and ended up with nothing.

Three women with as interesting lives as strong imagery.
Inspirational, bewildering and out of time.

(The images link to their original locations.)

Robots dream of electric... clouds?

2010-05-24T10:51:00.018+02:00

Cloud Passerelle by Yu Jordy Fu

Liquid Winter by Yu Jordy Fu

Nimbus by Dominic Wilcox

What a lovely thing a cloud lamp can be.
(The paint bucket lamp in the back is kinda creepy though!)

After having seen this cute Cloud Stilt Lamp by Abovo Booth over at Design Sponge, I turn my dreams into googling. Dominic Wilcox's Nimbus is my favourite, and it's not in production.

"I had a bag of polystyrene balls under my desk for a year. I liked to look and feel of them, they seemed to have potential but I wasn't sure what direction that potential could lead. One day I put a light bulb in the bag, it looked interesting. While experimenting with polystyrene balls and mixing them with different glues and resins I created some ball objects. I noticed that light passed through the balls in a similar way to light passing through a cloud. One of my experiments lead to a ceiling light called Nimbus"

- you can read at Dominic Wilcox's page.

Another thing to add to the Let's make list then.
It's indeed a most crowded list...

My black and white life

2010-05-23T17:34:00.016+02:00

Since summer suddenly came into my life it has been turned into black and white. The sharp and glittery blues and greens don't appeal to me once frozen and I no longer can get to the moves and breeze and scents.

Today is a very sleepy Sunday. I contemplate my gazillion ideas, that I have to work so slowly to get to what I want and that today's attempt to record new Colouroïd music failed. I feel frustrated and lazy, ambitious and loving. It's much too easy to focus on the negative to do so.

Yestereve's DJing at Babajan was a hoot. I watched Glenn dance around, hugging and haggling with people, trying to make them like what we played. That boy is full of love and mys.

"If you can't play Lady GaGa, at least you could play a little... lower."

"Don't you have any Grateful Dead?"

No. Never. We won't.

Weekend!

2010-05-21T08:58:00.009+02:00

(Detail from What Was Once.)

This weekend Glenn and I - aka Colouroïd - DJ once more:
Saturday, Babajan, Katarina Bang 75, 21 - 01

Now I'm off for for the forest and water and sun of Sthlm.
Have a lovely weekend!

In the realms of the unreal - the movie

2010-05-20T10:53:00.031+02:00

Jessica Yu's movie on Henry Darger, In the realms of the unreal, is sad and beautiful, a winding universe of old photos of lost boys and nuns, animations of Henry's illustrations, scraps and tangled pieces of dirty twine.

Henry Darger is the neighbor you never get to know, an abused child disguised as a sad loner, a defender of all lost children that doesn't dare speak or interact with anyone else but his one friend and his rich world of imagination.

I could say so much more, but instead I urge you to watch the film.

For more on his art see this previous post.

Nonverbal

2010-05-18T10:05:00.017+02:00

To my surprise I found these in my cellphone, taken sometime this winter. Green, indeed.

I'm not very verbal today, we took yesterday's celebrating of warmth and sun and grass a bit too seriously. It's all good. Today is monotonous drawing, radio and coffee, three things I really really like.

In the realms of the unreal

2010-05-17T11:17:00.048+02:00

Though quite famous, Henry Darger is a new discovery for me.
I would love to take a look at...

"...his posthumously discovered 15,145-page, single-spaced fantasy manuscript called The Story of the Vivian Girls, in What is known as the Realms of the Unreal, of the Glandeco-Angelinnian War Storm, Caused by the Child Slave Rebellion, along with several hundred drawings and watercolor paintings illustrating the story"

...to quote Wikipedia.

In (very) short he was a loner that had a terrible childhood and obsessed over murdered children. The loss of the photo of murdered child Elsie Paroubek made him want to recreate the image and his perception of it. The end result was In the realms of the unreal that he created on his free time and never showed anyone.

"Darger's human figures were rendered largely by tracing, collage, or photo enlargement from popular magazines and children's books. (Much of the "trash" he collected was old magazines and newspapers, which he clipped for source material.) Some of his favorite figures were the Coppertone Girl and Little Annie Rooney. He is praised for his natural gift for composition and the brilliant use of color in his watercolours. The images of daring escapes, mighty battles, and painful torture are reminiscent not only of epic films such as Birth of a Nation (which Darger might easily have seen) but of events in Catholic history; the text makes it clear that the child victims are heroic martyrs like the early saints. One idiosyncratic feature of Darger's artwork is an apparent transgenderism: Characters are often portrayed unclothed or partially clothed, and regardless of ostensible gender, some females have penises."

...Wikipedia describes his art.

I look forward to watching the film about him.

(The images link to their original locations.)

Pssst!

2010-05-13T09:18:00.008+02:00

I'm off for the west coast.
I'll stare into the ocean until my eyes turn even more greygreenblue.

Tattered

2010-05-11T10:52:00.016+02:00

Reading Patti Smith's - Just Kids I'm fascinated by how every little item and circumstance seems to have a deeper meaning, is part of a mystical, haphazard web. Where some parts are beautiful -

"The boy I had met was shy and inarticulate. He liked to be led, to be taken by the hand and enter wholeheartedly another world. He was masculine and protective, even as he was feminine and submissive. Meticulous in his dress and demeanor, he was also capable of a frightening disorder within his work. His own worlds were solitary and dangerous, anticipating freedom, ecstasy, and release."

- others just put me off where the language starts pointing to itself rather than toward the story. The book feels like a soft, damp silky cloth smelling of incense and street fumes, tattered and beautiful. I dive in.

The folds of spring

2010-05-10T11:14:00.027+02:00

Waiting for my other board members I fell in love with these origami looking buds. I had a moment with them until a man came up to me wondering why I was taking photos of his cottage? Then I ran out of time, discussing his health and all the deers and birds he had encountered, oh and did I know about the flat cliffs in the forest?

I did.

Have you ever watched a movie about origami?
Between the folds seems interesting!

In my endeavors to take photos of my avocado plant - thinking that spring is a more certain thing when indoors - I realized again I need a tripod. Or do I? Cunningly I built one myself:

It's not something I'd like to carry with me though.

Now work.
Pilots and applications don't make themselves.

Bunny and the Bull

2010-05-07T16:47:00.039+02:00

Do you like a good mix of live action and animation?
The sad, the funny, the absurd and the mysterious?
Haven't you watched Bunny and the Bull (2009) yet?

If you haven't I envy you. This is your moment to make a lovely new acquaintance. Bunny and the Bull stepped into my life by chance and I reveled in its imagery and storytelling. It's jam-packed with crabs, bets, exotic European countries and a longing for love...

My weekend includes a board meeting brunch, red wine and a fine boy.
I want to go to this and this but doubt there will be time for that.
Sometimes time in itself is too desirable for content.

Have a lovely weekend, my dears!

More war in art

2010-05-03T11:53:00.017+02:00

M.I.A. - Born Free.
This lady isn't afraid to go for the jugular. Crash boom bang.

The Second World War - yours truly
A slightly different approach to war.

WWII in a three room flat in the suburb of Rinkeby, Stockholm, 2007.

A gang of multi coloured Nazis practicing with their weapons on the access balcony didn't raise any neighbor's eyebrows. In this neighborhood you can wave your red flag from your balcony or build weapons sitting by the highway all you like without anyone looking impressed.

Pictures of a war

2010-05-02T19:52:00.021+02:00

For all ye Swedes and Swedish speakers out there I want to recommend this April issue of SVT:s Kobra, on Belfast and the political war that took, and still takes, place on the walls of the city; political murals made by both sides and on how the propaganda continues and changes with time. The program can be watched at SVT play until June 15th.

Me, I'm all buttered up from Indian cuisine and refurnishings.
I'll spend the night in bed by my lover boy, watching movies.
That's where old ladies belong, in bed.

Jag ska måla hela världen lilla mamma

2010-04-29T13:05:00.044+02:00

I will paint the whole world little mummy it's written in white on the pink bench by the allotment park. It's the title of a very preppy little childrens song that I used to listen to when I was little:

"I will paint the whole world little mummy
Full of sunshine every day
That it's raining ans is grey doesn't matter
You will have sunshine in you window anyway"

Oooh, it's very annoying and very "what a little girl should be", I feel.

Tomorrow on Walpurgis Night Colouroïd DJs the Flexi again:
El Mundo, Erstag 21, 21 - 01. Welcome!

I feel it might be a slightly different evening than last years celebrating:

Neither Hekla nor Katla

2010-04-29T12:30:00.021+02:00

Here is one of the mountains that I was drawing.
It's not a finished thing, just a sketch, an idea.
I hardly ever draw just for the fun of it and it was great.

And it's my mother's birthday today!
Grattis Sirkka-Liisa!

The straight and the narrows

2010-04-28T09:40:00.008+02:00

I'm lost in drawing land. In lust for a new header I've unexpectedly embarked on a journey full of diamonds, bird's nests and hollow mountains, I'm channeling Iceland. Today is my set deadline for this nonsense, tomorrow I hope to post perhaps no header, but the result.

PS. For more Icelandism: Cynthia Stern - Monkey Face Ansikte is to be found here and if you're not sick of all the nonsense go American here.

This weekend...

2010-04-26T10:20:00.036+02:00

...we attended the childrens' architecture show Building Blocks
(sweet but much too dark for my camera's eye).

...we played with suncats and sunkisses.

...we spied upon the secret world of children and their beloved.

...I saw that hard surfaces might look as smooth and soft as silk.

...a hairy monster invaded my desk....

...and another tried to swallow the sky.

I was never afraid.

How do you make a Monday like this sweet?

I'm thinking a lovely dinner.
And music.

Tonight I'll go listen to a debate arranged by the Swedish Film Board and the Arts Counsil on artistic freedom, ethics and responsibility, censorship, freedom of expression, media and politics.

Let's hope there will be food for thought.

PS. If you thought my header was too sombre you'd tell me, right?
I think it looks clumsy and heavy, I might have to do something about that.

La Réalisme Social

2010-04-23T17:30:00.018+02:00

I thought the best way to unmute myself - see previous post for a more sombre mood - might be to go through old projects of mine, so that's some of what I've been doing today.

There was a time when I was playing with the idea of changing Skerries for the name La Réalisme Social. The idea of this "social reality" - with mothers crying over a sink full of dirty dishes, distant fathers/unemployed struggling fathers, the moment before your glue sniffing kids return home and you have to give them the disappointing truth and a constant grey drizzle - has always haunted and taunted me. Is this reality - the real reality - really?

To be continued.

In mute

2010-04-23T11:17:00.008+02:00

Muted is my mood today although the sun is shining and we stand on the brink of weekend. It feels like I'm asking myself all the right questions and have to remind myself I needn't come up with an answer or a rule to regulate the incompletes.

It feels frustrating.

PS. Saturday it's flexi-time mit Colouroïd!
Babajan, Katarina Bang 75, 21 - 01
Exchange the 17th to the 23d and press repeat, I repeat, press repeat.

Tracy's face

2010-04-22T11:10:00.021+02:00

"Why is life worth living? It's a very good question. Well, there are certain things I guess that make it worthwhile... like what... okay... for me... I would say... what, Groucho Marx, to name one thing... and Wilie Mays... and... the 2nd movement of the Jupiter Symphony... and... Louis Armstrong's recording of Potato Head Blues... Swedish movies, naturally... Sentimental Education by Flaubert... Marlon Brando, Frank Sinatra... Those incredible apples and pears by Cezanne... The crabs at Sam Wo's... Tracy's face..."

When I first saw Woody Allen's Manhattan in my early teens I don't think I quite kept up with the dialogue. What made the biggest impression on me - and still does - was the smooth surfaces and angles of Tracy's face. Mariel Hemingway's voice, her calm composure and soft determination intrigues and compels me.

Beside the stunning photography I love all the womens outfits.
A steady hand has ruled that costume department.

Northern humour

2010-04-20T10:47:00.016+02:00

I'm in awe of this ransom note in Swicelandic/Icewedish:

"Put 30 billion Euro in the garbage bin Icelandic Embassy tonight and we'll turn off the volcano! Not call the police!"

Over at Breaking News you can learn:

7:53pm 4/19 Update: Iceland weather service confirms it was looking at wrong volcano; Hekla is not erupting

All is going well in the North.

PS. Interesting explorations.

(The image links to its original location.)

Pearls, ribbons and lace

2010-04-19T10:15:00.019+02:00

These big girls I pass by almost every day on my morning walk.
I like how their armored bodies are tricked out with lacelike patterns, sheer pastels and fashionably coarse necklaces. I love their vintage colours and their sharp yet rounded angels.

Also I like asking myself: Where should I go today?

PS. I would not want this job.

Weekends are heaven

2010-04-18T18:25:00.022+02:00

I've become something of a heaven collector lately (in Swedish the word for heaven and sky is the same - himmel - so I feel free to do as I will) and as spring enfolds my camera points gradually upwards like a dirty peekaboo crocus.

These are from Saturday's ramblings.
I can't believe the weekend is nearly over - again.

Tonight awaits coconutcurryveggiesandveggieschnitzel and films films films, preferably digested in bed.

Tomorrow I'll place an order for Patti Smith's Just kids.
The future looks bright.

PS. Det här är en gammal bloggpost men jag tycker att historien är fantastiskt rolig. Speciellt i en matblogg.

Retraction

2010-04-17T11:01:00.024+02:00

Edit: No Flexi tonight, there's been a double booking at Babajan.

Let's enjoy our invisible volcano ash induced, empty air space instead. Sthlm is always huddling under thousands of lowrider planes, maybe today is the best kite day?

A kite and Autechre's - Oversteps in the headphones.

Have a lovely Saturday!
I'll go quiet my headache soon with a sandwich.

You know what's going down...

2010-04-16T17:25:00.010+02:00

...the 17th!

Tomorrow: Flexi-pop, Colouroïd, Babajan, Katarina Bang 75, 21 - 01

Let the dystopic 80's bouncy tunes enfold you, lift you up and carry you home, slide you over your treshold and tuck you in good like that certain someone always forgot to do...

Happy weekend my dears! I'll be spieling my liebling all weekend long.

I keep calm, admiring the lava

2010-04-15T11:14:00.054+02:00

Because of recent events and Glenn's Icelandic heritage, we were joking about what it would be like being stuck at Iceland for a year or two. I must say, as long as I wasn't devoured by months of lava fountains, a blood red sun, sulphurous fog and burning rivers as in 1783 (you can read about it here) and I could keep on doing what I do (the conditions!), I would love to live abroad for some time again, and I would love to do it there and in such good company...

Let's hope for all our sakes that Katla isn't awakened by Eyjafjallajökull.

PS. You do know which song and artist the post title refers to, yes?

The right to play

2010-04-14T10:17:00.012+02:00

Sometimes it feels like I can still step into the magical world of childhood that one worked so hard to preserve in the presence of adults and others. I remember the swift jerks between expectation and possibility, and it can still make me sad. There was always an urgency to play before one were being found out. I still get that sometimes.

Night hair

2010-04-13T13:01:00.008+02:00

I woke up this morning with wighair.
A big wobbly puffy balloon of hair,
like a classic male 60's wigdo,
ready to burst into flight any minute.

Pins and water just seems to anger it.
I wonder what mood my hair might be in tomorrow?

Does hair dream?

Night tide

2010-04-12T05:22:00.016+02:00

I sleep, then all of a sudden wake up and it's near impossible to go back.

Yesterday I began reading a book in the sun, High Tide by Inga Abele.
There were seagulls and grovel and squinting and children,
and from my coarse grey bag a bottle of bubbles peaked.

First I cried, then I was confused, and then Karol came along.

In this golden light

2010-04-09T14:22:00.006+02:00

Spring is in town!
I can feel it, even though today is grey.

Tonight there's a Hux Flux Flexi gig at El Mundo, Erstag 21, 21 - 01.
And tomorrow I celebrate my birthday, sweetly.

More running houses are turning into stars over at What Was Once.
And I'm thinking of veggie Pasta Carbonara. Yum!

PS. Breaking Bad.
It's the worst way to end your day, for you never want to go to bed.

Before I shoot off

2010-04-08T10:05:00.002+02:00

Lately I've drawn so many shooting stars for What Was Once,
that I actually woke up with a shooting star etched into my belly.

Now I ask you, is this right?

Söderfint värre

2010-04-06T15:02:00.008+02:00

I must admit I do feel a little söderfin (like hm, south Sthlm sweet)
when I click clack around in my new old spring coat and shoes,
happily chanting the Ella tune like a tiny blue barrel organ.

Thank you Karol dear!

Confetti world

2010-04-06T09:54:00.025+02:00

I celebrate my birthday by taking this spring's very first pollen pill.
I wish it came in the shape of a miniscule cake,
complete with frosting and candles, but it's a plain white.

I can't make my mind up about tonight:
Should I be a good board member and go to the annual meeting,
or stay at home and make vegetarian plankstek with my boy?
(Törley and plankstek, the highlights of the Hungarian cuisine...)

PS. Karol sent me a lovely animation, and Lidia a lovely birthday song:
Tuxedomoon - In a manner of speaking
I press repeat.

Dinner and rave

2010-04-05T16:04:00.010+02:00

Here are my remaining Easter pics:
Dinner at my mother's and Cynthia Stern in full on rave mood.
It's been a busy weekend, but I don't look forward to the working week,
for I just want more sweet time with my sweet heart.

Are you feeling Revigorated?

2010-04-05T10:44:00.014+02:00

I'm exhausted from a massive Easter.

Revigorators first live was a lovely thing,
I hope there will be plenty more of that!

Looking out my window it's snowing. Really.
Spring, spring, where did you go?

Squint...

2010-03-31T21:13:00.013+02:00

...and focus:

Then ask yourself:

Are you a Contender?
Are you ready to Dance for your Country?
With your Dog?

PS. Finally it's here:
Ever vigilant, ever true.