On vacation

That's it. I'm outta here. Going to Chamonix. Back March 1st. Available for job discussions, of course. E-mail or call.

Letterman's in-show advertising

In Sweden we get Letterman one week later on TV. Since I don't have the time to download everything, and usually have the TV on while working, I "see" a lot of talkshows. The Letterman episodes from Feb 11 and 12 contained a lot of hoopla about Sports Illustrated's Swimsuit issue. Letterman was ranting of how exciting it was for him as a young guy to recieve the swimsuit issue. On and on he went, and they also unveiled the cover on a huge billboard on Times Square. They also talked with some person about how the issue is shot, and so on. A big deal. Then today I saw Leno, who says: "The Swimsuit issue is just for those who haven't yet discovered all the pictures on the Internet". That's when I realised Letterman's show must have been paid to endorse Sports Illustrated within the show. Pretty lame, huh? Where's the integrity going? Heres an interview with the cover girl:

More biz

More assignments: Drawing of a Midsummer pole for one client. A bunch of Mr Walkers for another (The Phantom as a "civilian"). Getting busy y'all! Not really used to it!

Axl 2001 - What a nice guy!

Nice guy. weird hair:

Axl Rose is totally alive on the web

I can't tell you how much I enjoy watching old clips with Axl Rose on Youtube. I happened to love GNR back in the late 80's & early 90's, it was a bit embarrassing then, but in retrospect I can say I had an okay taste. They simply are one of the the best rock bands ever.
Anyway, I remember back in those days, early 90's, I worked for Aftonbladet (Swedish big newspaper), and for years, there were small articles about Axl EVERYDAY! Like: "Axl Rose is back in court about the case when he threw a bottle of Jack Daniels at his female neighbour who knocked on his door when he had an afterparty one night", or "Axl Rose got in a fight with an audience member who threw a whale tooth onstage in Buenos Aires". Well back then you could read about this stuff, but you couldn't see anything live with them except their MTV-videos.
But today, for some weird reason, people have saved little snippets from old news casts on TV, and are putting them on YouTube, and it's an enjoyment without stpp to see all the stupid and clever and irrational stuff Axl and the band came up with. One scene, that is just so funny, (Spinal Tap!) but also senselessly boring, is when the first incarnation of GNR are sitting on a bench at CBGB's doing an "interview", and they are just stoned and drunk stupid, fidgeting with cigarettes and glasses. A total Heavy Metal Rock'n'roll cliché.

CBGB's Interview:


GNR in Stockholm (Listen to the Cowbell in Welcome to the Jungle!):

More biz

Just got an assignment: A dog with a midsummer-flower-hat!
I say like Britney: Gimme more!

Semi-Pro with Will Ferrell

Seems like fun. Will Ferrell rules, in a lot of his movies, even though what he does is basically a Chevy Chase routine, but since Chevy's lost his Mojo and just isn't funny anymore when being Chevy Chase, it's a job that has to be done, and no-one is better at doing Chevy Chase these days than Will Ferrell. Only he does it better than Chevy. Uknowwottamean?

Cody Diablo

Ok, finished Candy Girl last night. The second half of the book was much better, so I can say it's worth reading. However, her writing is cool and funny, and she's got an ok taste in music too.

More biz , mix'd stuf + Boosh-bash

Three new assignments landed today, no big juicy sites yet, but business is picking up speed. Checked the weather in Chamonix, where I will be heading on saturday. Looks like all sunshine and no powder, which will be perfect since it's a family trip.

Also downloaded season 1 of The Mighty Boosh, which should be interesting.

Am reading Candy Girl by Diablo Cody right now btw. Pretty good book, read half, not that much happens, really.

I also wanna add that I am really disgusted with George W. Boosh right now. This thing with the water torture is the sickest thing I've heard of. How low can you go? Please, get someone decent 4 prez, u people!

The 2 Big Art Shows in STHLM this weekend

Today I went to both the classy und sassy Market-show, and the Underground und hard-found Supermarket-show. Market was very upscale with all the hot & buzzed galleries participating. The art was mostly quite tasteful & easy to fit in a modern downtown appt. The prices were pricey. I liked Loyal gallery best, they featured some interesting stuff of my liking. In the same building there was a Karin Mamma Andersson exhib. Her stuff is incredibly boring, uninteresting, and badly painted. Therefore she is hugely hip, and sells for crazy money, good for her!

Then we went to Supermarket. This is the more alternative show, with the indie-art crowd in mind (Much lower prices). The art was often attached to the wall by needles, and often very cluttered in messed up hangings. Some pretty interesting stuff, but loads of crap too. There was a Danish gallery there, that was cool, with some nice lowbrow stuff. You can check out their website; 

http://www.dunkdunk.dk

Me in Scandinavian Championships in Extreme Skiing!

Yes it's true, May 12th is the day when it'll happen. I'll be 44 years old.

http://www.bigmountain.se/

See the video, it's a bit gnarly!

School shootings

"This was the 5th school-shooting this week"... 5th in a week, we never had one in Sweden!

Charlton Heston of NRA, George Bush, and most people of the US heartland gotta stop thinking: "We gotta let dem nahs folks have guns so they can defend themselves against ill-doers and evil folks who also got guns".

And maybe realize that if there were fewer guns, and serious licensing to have one, this problem would go away. If guns are considered more or less toys, there will be ongoing accidents and tragedies without an end in sight.

The rock happening of this summer

There it is, I am booked for RATM at Hulstfredsfestivalen:

In the meantime, check out some Tom Morello guitar tricks:

Darjeeling - stoned feeling

Wes must be a stoner, and his movies are wearing thinner by the years. Maybe if he didn't get stoned as much, his movies would still be good. Am I right?

Wes your daddy

About to watch another dad-drama by Wes Anderson, Darjeeling Limited -Hopefully as good as The Royal Tenenbaums and My Life Aquatic with Steven Sizou. Just curious about Wes' personal daddy-situation. hmm, there is probably some interview out there on that topic.

Rage Against the Hultsfred

Rage Against The Machine are playing at Hultsfred in Sweden this summer. I gotta go there. Can you imagine hearing Zach de la Rocha laying out some of his super funky yet mad as hell raps over Tom Morello's hip hop guitar? (One of my All Time fave guitarists) Add to that the bass player and drummer who I don't know their names, but are probably the grooviest bass/drum combo in the music biz today. (If you can mention RATM and biz in the same breath) (Heard of Audioslave?)

Check out one of their hits, with a lovely "We Mean Business, We Are F****ing Mad At All Da Bad Shit Happening In Da World, Dude"! Like, "We Don't Play For Pepsi..." attitude, bro!

Here's the Classic "Bombtrack" - Rock don't get much realer or cooler than this:

Dewey Cox - Walk Hard

Just saw the Walk the Line-spoof. Very funny. It's gonna be hard to watch upcoming music stars biography-movies and taking them seriously after this. This one really kills the genre totally, especially the Jonny Cash flick, but also (the one I then thought was fantastic) Ray, about Ray Charles, of course.

John C. Reilly, who was very funny in Talladega Nights, does as good a job here. Even when he plays a teenager in the beginning.

Lenny Kredshitz

Ok, I said I would get back to Lenny. Ok, the guy is extremely talanted, he's got a fantastic voice both for rock and soul, and plays guitar good enouh to play with most rock bands. He also writes really good songs (not always), as well as some real crappy ones.

Anyhow, his problem is on the cred side. He is not really sincere it seems, most of what he does is a pose. He is like the guy in Roxette, Per Gessle, who can steal and borrow stuff, and put it together really well in a new but tretro way.

So, ok, Per Gessle is lame and is not a good comparison. Take Jay Kay from Jamiroquai, kind of the same deal as Lenny, has delivered insanely good tracks, has an incredible voice also, but all is retro, done before.

So is this ok? Well, in a way, since they both are so talented, and takes such good care of the heritage where they work within.

Will they ever be cool? Not with the cred crowd.

Back to Lenny, it's more than once I have been to chicks' 40 years parties, and the records they have is usually lots of 70's disco, some hit collections,  quite mainstream. Then suddenly, at the bottom of the pile is tha Lenny Kravitz Greatest Hits, and then you realize the guy's done a bunch of really smokin' songs, like "Are you gonna go my way", "I wanna Fly Away" and "American Woman" to name a few. "It ain't over till it's over" is just an amazingly good song, within the Al Green/Marvin Gaye context. It is actually even a tad bit better than those artists best songs, if you ask me.

So, what can you say about Lenny? What should he do? Is he too handsome? Too much the sexy dark tropical island umbrella drink ladies dream?

I don't know, but on his last album, he's got a marriage proposal song, "Will you marry me" Kind of like a song for guys to play while proposing. Well Lenny, stop churning out theme songs like that, and you might have a chance to get some cred, some day.

Jon LaJoie 4 Prez

A funny comedian, Jon LaJoie, kind of reminds me of  Will Ferrell, and almost as vicious as Sarah Silverman. I can spot a bit of Larry David in there too. He's still not a pro, but there is a diamond in there, that just needs som polishing:

His videos are fun, check 'em out:

 

http://www.jonlajoie.com/video/mmc.php

The 4 prez bit is because he announced that he will step back from running for president of the Rob Lowe Fan Club.

Lenny Kravitz ain't over till he's over

Soon I will blog about Lenny Kravitz, and his impact on Swedish 40-year old chicks birthday parties. (Anyhow, I dig Lenny, even saw him live in a small club when Let love Rule just had come out.)

Juno

Just saw Juno. I liked it, but got the feeling that the movie, being a Fox movie and all, probably had an agenda. An anti-abortion agenda, which seems appropriate when Fox are involved. This feeling kind of lowered the movie a bit, making it seem a bit fake. Ok, being a father of three myself I can agree with this message in an emotional aspect, but anyhow, the feeling that the movie was selling an opinion overweighed the fact that the movie had a cool visual style, and good actors and a cool indie soundtrack.

The rock'n'roll persona

Now, time for the rock'n'roll persona, compared to the indie persona description previously on this blog.

The rock'n'roll person is totally gung ho, all the way, f**k you all over the place. Take someone like Angus Young for instance, who will be running all over the stage, sweaty, with eyes staring crazily. Sometimes he'll be lying on the floor, playing his guitar, while his legs are running, pushing him around in a circle.

Or take someone like Axl Rose, typical heavy metal front man, who also will do a lot of running, jumping, and posing with one foot up on the speakers. Waving arms, looking quite mental, actually. (In an entertaining way).

Now who is more entertaining? The indie persona, who is very restrained, won't break into a sweat, and keep the hairdo in place throughout the concert? Or the rock'n'roll persona, who would break a few bones in his/her body to put up a good show.

Well, it's probably very much a class matter, if the audience is middle class, with intellectual aspirations, the answer is the well behaved Indie. If the audience is more towards working class, they will prefer the artist with sweaty hair and staring eyes screaming his/her lungs out.

But it's ok to be middle class and still like a good rock'n'roll band too. As long as your indie buds don't catch you doing the sign of the devil.

There are luckily some bands that will be ok for indie kids, but still are very rock'n'roll, but probably won't attract too many Iron Maiden fans. One of those bands that cross over are The White Stripes.