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mars 26, 2004
Smart
I just registered at musicalmystery.com. After registering, I got the following message:
You are now registered and ready to play. Your email and password details have been emailed to you.
My email address has been mailed to my email address? Gee, thanks!
Posted by swepett at 12:52 EM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
mars 19, 2004
Polar Studios closing
At a business christmas dinner last year we talked about the crisis in the recording studios in Sweden. There are no big studios left and everything is converted into small workplaces for computer-based recording. A guy from Stockholm told me the last big studio was about to close. The legendary Polar Studios. I was wondering if it could really be true and maybe someone would take care of it. Well, this morning, my morning paper announced that on May 1st, the studio is closing. The people owning the building will raise the annual rent from 700.000 SEK to 2.2 million(!) SEK and the studio owners can't afford that. Polar Studios was the last private studio in Stockholm that could take an entire string orchestra. The only alternative now is a studio the state-owned Swedish Radio. The Swedish Ministry of Culture has been approached and asked if they wanted to step in and save the Polar studios as a culturally significant building but they didn't want to do that.
The studio's website is still available at and they have this list of who has recorded there ("almost every major Swedish musician for the past 20 years" taken off the list):
Abba, Adam Ant, AHA, Aqua, Bacharach Burt, Backstreet Boys, Banks Tony, Beastie Boys, Big Country, Cardigans, Carlisle Belinda, Def Leppard, Earth Wind & Fire, Edelmann Randy, ELO, Europe, Genesis, Led Zeppelin, Madhouse, Ofra Haza, Pretenders, Ramones, Rammstein, Rolling Stones, Roxette, Roxy Music, Rutherford Mike, Scorpions.
String recording sessions with:
Emma Bunton, Celine Dion, Roxette, Backstreet Boys, Jessica Simpson, Natalie Tnysayne.
Led Zeppelin were among the first to come to the studio. The studio opened on May 18, 1978 and LZ arrived in December the same year. Leif Mases who worked on the Led Zeppelin albums has of course gone on to work with people like Ian Gillan, Jeff Beck and Black Sabbath.
Add the Abba legacy and all the Swedish artists to this and I would say that this is a pretty damn important part of Swedish culture. The Swedish government never misses a chance to mention how good an export Swedish music is and the Swedish king even comes out when it's time to give Polar founder Stikkan Andersson's Polar Music Prize to some cool celebrity each year. Ethnologists in the future will mourn the loss of both the cultural and technological values lost when Polar Studios close. Pop and rock music is also culture. Vintage music making equipment is also worth saving.
Posted by swepett at 1:20 EM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
Friday Five
If you...
1. ...owned a restaurant, what kind of food would you serve?
Everything. Greek, Asian, Italian, Swedish, you name it. You would find really cheap stuff and really good expensive stuff. How come most restaurants are fcoused on just one price range or type of food?
2. ...owned a small store, what kind of merchandise would you sell?
Records and books.
3. ...wrote a book, what genre would it be?
Non-fiction. Maybe a biography about some interesting person.
4. ...ran a school, what would you teach?
Music and arts.
5. ...recorded an album, what kind of music would be on it?
Contemporary classical jazz funk metal ambient electronica with some ethinc flavours.
Posted by swepett at 12:20 EM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Fredagsfyran
Tema: hågkomst
1. Minns du vilken den första skivan var du köpte?
Jag är ganska säker på att det var "The Muppet Show". Men beroende på hur man ser det kan svaret bli olika. Tomas Ledins melodifestivalsingel "Just nu" samt Depeche Modes första platta "Speak and Spell" ligger bra till också. Muppskivan var helt klart först men ver nog inte den som ledde till att jag under mitt liv köpt tusentals skivor. "Just nu" var nog första popmusikskivan jag köpte. "Speak and Spell" var nog första LP:n. Whitesnakes "Slide it in" var den skiva som startade inköpen av tusentals skivor.
2. Minns du någon bok som tidigt gjorde stort intryck på dig?
"Liftarens guide till galaxen". Den läste jag i en tid när jag inte läste mycket böcker. Jag hade svårt att intressera mig för böcker ända upp till sena tjugoårsåldern. Konstigt med tanke på mina höga betyg i svenska och mitt ovanligt tidiga läskunnande.
3. Vilken var den första film du såg på bio?
Ingen aning men jag sprang mycket på helgmatineerna hemma i Motala när jag var liten så jag skulle gissa att det var något av Disney.
4. Vilken skiva/ bok/ film vill du ge till ett barn (ditt?) för att denne ska få en bra start på livet?
Skiva: "Barn på nytt" med Georg Riedels Orkester. Astrid Lindgrens och Georg Riedels vackra låtar tolkade av samtida popartister under överinseende av Maestro Riedel himself. Musik framförd av riktiga musiker. Ett beteende som snart måste k-märkas. (Sen får barnet naturligtvis obegränsad tilgång till min skivsamling. Inte det sämsta.)
Bok: "Mannen utan öde" av Imre Kertész.
Film: Modstrilogin av Stefan Jarl.
Posted by swepett at 12:14 EM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
mars 17, 2004
Ferris wheel at night
Malmö is now the proud owner of the biggest Ferris wheel in northern Europe. I wonder where the border between northern and southern Europe is? Probably round about where the bigger Ferris wheel lives.
They have been building this the last week and on my way home from a gig tonight, I saw it lit up for the first time. Pretty massive.
Posted by swepett at 11:27 EM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Rolig särskrivning
Sämre bemedlade Möllevångsbor serveras på kannibalrestaurang?
Posted by swepett at 11:23 EM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
mars 16, 2004
Janet Jackson
BBC reports that Janet Jackson is about to be allowed back onto US TV. The oh so friendly people at ABC, who are letting Jackson back on the air, says, "At some point, freedom of speech needs to be remembered". Earlier in the article we read that the show will be on a five second delay to prevent a repeat of the Super Bowl incident.
Being from Sweden, the land of naked people everywhere, I think everyone in the US media is overreacting on the Super Bowl thing. Overreacting might be one thing but how stupid are ABC if they think Janet Jackson will do something similar now that she comes back on TV? After the negative attention she got the last time? Let's see, what could she do to top the last performance? Rip off all her clothes? Does ABC really think she would do that?
Jackson is scheduled to be on Letterman soon. That should be a hoot. And no, I don't think she will rip her clothes off there either. And Letterman's show is not even live.
Posted by swepett at 4:28 EM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
mars 15, 2004
Washing windows
Washing windows must be one of the most interesting and rare things one can do these days. At least it seems so from the looks you get when you do it.
I just finished washing four of our windows, the ones toward the park. Facing the park and the streets, they get really dirty and it didn't help that some funny kid threw an egg on one of the windows the other day. And of course, spring is here and the law requires you to have your windows cleaned within a week of the arrival of spring. Or something.
All the people who pass by stare at you and make funny faces. The women look suprised and giggle and the men look shocked. Arabs and Asians walk by, all of them look at me with strange expressions on their faces. Is it that a man shouldn't be doing things like cleaning the house in their eyes? No, there's a Swede who also can't stop looking at me, even though I stare back at him with my famous evil eyes. He doesn't seem to be much older than me, surely he must used to cleaning at home?
Then it hits me that I might be the first one they see this year doing this. Maybe I destroyed the day of these people because they realised it was time for them to go home and take care of their windows? It takes a while getting used to the season changes here in Sweden. When the ice comes, people drive off the road because they get surprised each year. When spring and warm weather arrives, people sweat in their warm clothes for a couple of extra days because they are surprised again. Or maybe they just don't believe themselves? "Oh yeah, it's nice now but I am sure it gets worse soon!"
Posted by swepett at 3:37 EM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Weekend pictures
I've uploaded some pictures from the weekend. On Friday, I did a gig with Sophie Zelmani.
Saturday had Majvor Blom on stage.
On Sunday, spring arrived for real (that is, a sunny day actually meant higher temperatures instead of the other way around) and while enjoying the sun, we discovered that the old Skanska buildning in the harbour was being torn down. As a male, the kid inside me of course got very excited from seeing the cool equipment and some pictures just had to be taken. The wannabe Urban Explorer in me also tried to peek out from deep inside but didn't quite dare to come out this time either.
Posted by swepett at 3:24 EM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
mars 12, 2004
The Day After Tomorrow
Aaaaah! Another wonderful disaster movie coming up! Can't wait for The Day After Tomorrow!
Posted by swepett at 11:11 FM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Kjell Alinge
Jag minns 80-talet. På söndagsförmiddagarna stod P3 på och Eldorado strömmade ur kassettradion i köket. Kjell Alinge förmedlade sin värld av populärkultur. Då, i lägre tonåren, var jag fascinerad av Alinges röst men hade lite svårt att koncentrera mig tillräckligt för att hänga med i hans språkliga vindlingar.
Nu är Alinge tillbaka. Eller, han har varit tillbaka länge och numera är det fredagsförmiddagar som är veckans höjdpunkt. Det bästa radioprogrammet just nu är Kalejdoskop i den kanal Sveriges Radio kallar P2 Musik. Programmet sänds måndag till fredag 10:00-11:00 och på fredagar är det Kjell Alinge som presenterar 2000-talets Eldorado. Kjell Alinge är fantastiskt rolig på sitt underfundiga vis, som jag nuförtiden förstår att uppskatta bättre, och musikblandingen är perfekt för någon med så vrickat musikintresse som jag. Den fantastiska musikblandningen är något Kalejdoskop bjuder på alla dagar i veckan men Alinges ordkonst finns bara på fredagar.
Ett annat P2-program som kan rekommenderas är Delta på söndagkvällarna. De senaste årens somrar har dessutom Delta ersatts av ett program med Kjell Alinge, ett tvåtimmars Kalejdoskop om man vill, så det är lika bra att ni tränar på att ratta in P2 redan nu.
P2 Musik sänds över Stockholm (FM 96,2) och Malmö (FM 100,6) samt i Sveriges Radios webbradio. När det är invandrarprogram i vanliga P2 sänds specialprogram som Kalejdoskop och övriga dygnet samsänds med "vanliga" P2.
Posted by swepett at 10:56 FM | Comments (3) | TrackBack