Few people call it dark ages now, but the reference remains. I don't think medieval times were perceived as that dark, to the people who lived during that age. They must have been outside most of the time, living by natural light. Once daylight fell, few could afford man-made light sources such as candles or oil lamps. The option remaining was sleep, not too hard to welcome after all that physical labour.
The air was fresh, the waters clean, the forests full of wild game. Sure, houses went up in flames all the time, kids often died before even reaching their teens, dentistry was harsh but there must have been moments during medieval times that we can only imagine.
I keep doing that.
To help me, I'm enjoying these Yale lectures.
Sunday, April 29, 2012
Friday, April 27, 2012
Hard work
The grinning face of a woman who CAN'T BELIEVE she's getting paid to look in
Dubbelarbetande idrottare.
Grips av att det är något orättvist här. Den modigaste människan på plan måste också tvätta? Är det verkligen rätt?
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
Raisin hell
Anders is away and while he is, I keep wearing my favorite Anders t-shirt. It's this one, as you can see, it's a bunch of raisins hanging out partying, drinking, smoking, dancing. In case anyone should miss the point, the t-shirt also reads RAISIN HELL IN LOS ANGELES.
Well Niki can't read. She asked me, curiously: Mom, are those raisins or turds on your shirt?
I was strong, I told her the truth.
Ps. Do you also tell your kids this song is about Momsters?
Monday, April 23, 2012
Sunday, April 22, 2012
How I love this man
Saturday, April 21, 2012
at home modeling with fan machine
Love this sweater. Want to wear it every day.
Off to Lidingö Centrum where something always happen.
Hang on to my beard!
Watched Mio, min Mio yesterday and had such a laughing breakdown with the kids as Bo climbs up into the beard of the wise old spirit and flies through the universe. Want to laugh? Start watching at around 16 minutes into the clip.
Bonus: If you keep watching, you'll get to see Christian Bale as youngster, looking exactly as he does now, just shrunken.
Friday, April 20, 2012
Languages
The same words, so different in Swedish and English.
Modern dog.
In Swedish, a tragedy, in English a ridiculous canine trend.
Ps. Now that I googled, I see that Modern Dog is even a "lifestyle magazine for modern dogs and their companions". A dog without a mag, that's so...1900s!
Modern dog.
In Swedish, a tragedy, in English a ridiculous canine trend.
Ps. Now that I googled, I see that Modern Dog is even a "lifestyle magazine for modern dogs and their companions". A dog without a mag, that's so...1900s!
Not for sale
This dog...I was told it was not for sale, the man in the store interrupted me when I begun "that dog in the window.." and brusquely told me to "fuggedaboutit".
Thursday, April 19, 2012
I if was in SF
I'd go see this. I'll miss it there, but hopefully will catch it at the Guggenheim in NYC this summer or fall.
Here's an in-depth article on Rineke Dijkstra.
More socks
When I was a teen, nothing seemed more luxurious to me than Burlington Argyle socks with the intriguing little button and Burlington's promising tagline that these socks were the "Sign of style". Every time I wore a pair of such socks, I imagined I was a stray British boarding school student somehow adrift in Sweden, sure to return to England in time for Cambridge where I would wear pleated skirts, cardigans and drink tea while browsing important books like Gibbon's Decline and fall of the Roman empire (that title! all downhill!) Well that didn't happen. Or it kind of did, I studied classics but not in England but in Stockholm and Uppsala together with a bunch of twenty-something weirdos.
These days, I get my daily dose of the world of antiquity through a browser.
But I digress. Back to those socks...they still kind of do it for me.
And yes, that's exactly how my teenage self imagined my early 20s look would be in the future.
Thanks Cattis Aronsson for knowing.
Ps. Image googled Gibbon and found he's a dead dead ringer for Mel Smith?!?!
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
What you may not be looking forward to...
What you may not be looking forward to...but I am is my NEXT PARKING TICKET since it will be the first one I get and as such VALID PROOF that I'm out driving, parking and am a rebel who parks in a way that most people who drive and park cars seem to do - winging it, hoping for the best.
I'll frame that sucker, hang it next to my wedding picture.
Ps. Writing sucker like that seems really cheesy but the rebel in me made me do it. I think perhaps this attitude has come with my new adventurous foot.
On children's books.
Parents are often told how important it is to READ great books to your child. How it develops their imagination, sense of language and so forth.
Well.
I believe it is important to spend time with your kid in order for both of you to prosper. I believe reading books to your kid is a great way to spend that time. But as a parent, let me tell you, kids have no sense of literary quality. I'm not sure it is essential to read great books to them at all.
Instead, reading great books to your kid is a way to keep your own sanity in between reading the crap kids so often are drawn to. It's a good way to make sure you hang out with them, only, away from phones, computers and all the rest that take over your interest.
If you're a regular human being, I believe you can read any kind of crap to your kid and they will be fine since they are thinking creatures to and they will, eventually, see through the crap and prefer other stuff.
The other day for instance, Vanja showed me how it took Hello Kitty SIX hours to get ready for a date. She called Hello Kitty on her bullshit. No Hello Kitty date is worth that much time fluffing the fur.
The one song that captures how love really feels
http://open.spotify.com/track/69ZaYEdon8b4Md0LG8kveX
I love you, Neil. Thank you.
Have listened to this song thousands of times, it never fails to have a physical effect on me. Eyes well up, muscles relax, and I get a very strong notion that LOVE IS ALL.
EVEN in eat pray love, it did that to me, though the context seemed all wrong.
BAD BUT LOVELY TAXIDERMY!
I'm so against shooting healthy young animals just to stuff them up and have them around the house, but once it's done I'm against not having them around. Make sure the animal is revered eternally to pay for the sin of killing it in the first place!
ps. Wow, look how similar this fox (?!?!??) is posing compared to my daughter below.
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
Monday, April 16, 2012
Parisa and other unicorn lovers
I mean that as in people who love unicorns. But also unicorns who are lovers.
There's a new collection out, and it's all for you/us!
The End Consumer has always had a huge soft spot for Catalina Estrada and now YOU CAN WEAR HER DESIGNS!
"I just went into the store and took them"
The perks of being married to the PPR CEO. and the perks of BEING the PPR CEO and being married to Salma!
I love Salma.
I love Salma.
Look at her. Listen to her. Take in her talents as producer and actress.
When life decides for you
Like when you buy a new shirt. And you don't know it you should keep it. And it's white. And suddenly you spill coffee on it. That always happens to me.
Is it a Freudian Spill? Your (in this case mine) subconscious takes command of your limbs? Is it my Id who wants to dress in tarnished white?
"the id is the set of uncoordinated instinctual trends"
Agree.
The dirtiest words in the English language
The dirtiest words in the English language must be "Two consenting adults". You know those two are definitely about to get nasteeee.
Tidningen Stark
Går lite överraskande i bräschen för den extrema jämställdhetsrörelsen. Män kan också vara gravida!
Oh! If you're in New York
Go to the Cloisters, catch a thorough glimpse of the Lewis Chessmen before they return to London! Hurry hurry, ends April 22!
I love these little creatures. The pensive queen, the solemn horses. When I was little, my dad bought a plaster mould set (like this one) so we could cast our own chessmen and paint them.
There was something so familiar and emotional about them even back then.
Perhaps because I, like most people up in the North (and many Japanese?) grew up with the images and stories of Tove Jansson.
Look at this image of a knight so ready to go into battle he almost can't contain himself, he's chewing on his shield while waiting for the actual confrontation. He looks like someone, doesn't he, Tove Jansson?
He looks a lot like Mårran. At least to me. At least to the child I once was.
Here's a picture of Tove.
Sunday, April 15, 2012
Saturday, April 14, 2012
rufus wainwright is making me a horrible neighbor
I keep playing this over and over and over and over and over and over again.
Look at you, look at you, look at you, look at you suckers.
Promise
When, one day, I win a big award, I will hold a thankful speech to my ...dishwasher and washing machine for making success possible.
Seriously, my gratitude is infinite. I LOVE YOU, MACHINES!
ps. Feel a speech coming on right now! Thank you machines, for making it possible for me to go read a suspense novel instead of doing dishes like forever.
ps 2. Lotta, du har redan gjort detta inser jag nu? Du tackar diskmaskinens uppfinnare i slutet på boken? men så är du också ett geni, det vet vi ju.
Confession
EVERY morning I wake up and am happy that I'm one day closer to the opening of ANNA KARENINA.
Friday, April 13, 2012
Oh life
Joel is ALMOST SEVEN YEARS OLD?!?!?!
My little, little boy now goes to soccer practice and quite often says MOM! in a way that's more annoyed than affectionate.
This was like, yesterday. To me.
This was like, yesterday. To me.
(fatta att han säger kille kille kill som en uppmaning när jag killar för lite. BEBISAR! unknown masters of communication!)
This too. Be still, my heart.
livet på ön
Barnen drillas tidigt i de viktigaste sporterna: Golf och tennis.
Allt man behöver för att må bra på ön!
Tennis! Musik! Fysisk träning! Smoothies!
The current female ideal
20-30, long blond hair, caucasian, interested in fashion, dressed in white.
From looks alone, only a trained eye could tell them apart.
How weird is it that we all have that trained eye.
Thursday, April 12, 2012
HAPPY FEET!
My foot is getting so much better, now can dance again!!!! Only two more weeks and then I'll be able to run again! Did you dance yet today? May I have this dance with you, please? Thank you!
YES!
Some people just ride a plane. Other's sneak into the bathroom and turn the trip itself into an art opportunity. Nina Katchadourian has made a series of self-portraits in the Flemish style, using props you'd find on a plane.
Thanks for the tip Jenny!
S
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
Sunday, April 8, 2012
HOW DID I MISS THIS?
Did you see this? DID YOU SEE THIS? A relatively new website that let's you get closer to Jan and Hubert van Eyck. The Ghent altarpiece in 100 billion pixels.
While on the topic of this work of art, did any of you read
Stealing the Mystic Lamb: The True Story of the World's Most Coveted Masterpiece
Can you reccommend it?
Saturday, April 7, 2012
Learning to drive
I have a higher pulse when driving than I had when I saw, heard and felt the surgeon cut off several bones in my foot with the help of a surgical saw.
Must do this though. Everybody seems to do it. I should be able to do, it too. In America 16-year olds do it. All around me, people do it while texting and talking on the phone. Some people do it drunk. I am completely sober with all my focus on the driving.
This is what I keep telling myself, loudly, to convince myself: DRIVING IS SO MUCH FUN!!!
Thursday, April 5, 2012
No thanks
There is no cell in my body saying "yes, let's get that".
To me, google glasses seems like an effort of actively decreasing interference with people physically present around you. I like people. I won't get these glasses.
Also, as this video aptly illustrates, no word is less cool than the word "cool".
ps. In my original post, I wrote "weirdly autistic tool". Robin made some very wise comments on my choice of words. See comments. Now am actually more interested in the glasses than before!
Many readers have asked
Many readers have asked what I wear to go running. Currently not running, because a doctor has (upon my request) sawed off two bones in my right foot. But once I return to running, it will hopefully be warm enough for me to go running like this, which seems almost indecent, yet liberatingly wonderful and free!
THAT IS A RUNNING SKORT! AND A SHOCK ABSORBER RUNNING BRA. I can recommend them both. Especially if you're a woman.
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