birds

playing around with the camera in Raleigh and at home; then putzing around with photo editing software...

Here's one:



You can see the rest here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/citizenplastic/Birds

Stockholm Syndrome Relapse

As promised, here's part 2 on Swedish pop. This time, instead of highlighting the phenomenon of inter-gender duos in the Swedish pop scene, I just want to throw out some Swedish vids for your listening and viewing pleasure. I think these five are remarkable. The first three of them have their own trend going on in them: they all use animation.

The first video is a popular one: "Young Folks" by Peter, Bjorn, and John.



The second is "Jump the Train" by My Darling YOU! - a duo by the way.



Next, there's Dungen and their video for the song "Festival." I saw them live a couple of years ago in Carrboro. They didn't speak any English except at one point the lead singer said into the mike, "I'm come to Carrboro to smoke my Marlboros." I think he had a pretty good grasp on American culture to be able to condense it so succinctly. What was even more endearing was that after the show the band lined up at the exit door of Cat's Cradle in a sort of receiving line to meet people on the way out and thank them for coming to their show. I've never seen anything like that in my entire life.



Video number 4 is the song "We're From Barcelona" by the band I'm From Barcelona. I love this so much and I probably shouldn't.



And finally, the duo Suburban Kids With Biblical Names with the song "Rent a Wreck." I'm told that SKWB recorded their album in the hallway of the basement of the family home. Lyrics like, "I wanna turn all the dance floors into a burning inferno of Ba-Ba" should always be made into t-shirts.



God Bless the Kingdom of Sweden!

What's More Swedish Than Ikea?...

Swedish pop duos (especially the one male/one female variety).

Note to reader: I plan for this to be post number 1 of 2 in a 2-part series on Swedish music. I can't say exactly why I have so much pent up angst vis-a-vis the Swedes and their tunes that I need to go all around the internets blogging about it, but I do - and I want to share it with the world. I think that as you delve deeper into this issue with me, you'll catch on.

Aunt C recently shared with us her approval for our planned name for our boy, Jonas, explaining that she thought the name extra special because it was a Swedish name. So, she further explained, if he's born blonde and grows up to live in Stockholm, he'll have no real trouble assimilating.

Great point Aunt C! I think we're doing the right thing with the name too - the more I say it in my head the more I love it. We just need to figure out a good Swedish last name now. Jonas, we can't wait for you to come (but we will, because you have to cook some more). In the meantime, let me give you a couple of heads-up on the pop music aspects of your soon-to-be future counterfeit heritage.


For me, it all begins with Roxette. Or maybe ABBA, which is a double inter-gender Swedish pop duo - so I guess they don't count since that makes them a quartet. So let's start with Roxette, a group made up of Marie Fredriksson and Per Gessle. They had a couple of top ten hits in the U.S. in the 1980s, specifically a hit that they'll probably still be playing by the time you, Jonas, are old enought to listen to (digital) radio: it's called "It Must Have Been Love." I also just found out that they are huge elsewhere around the world, especially in Latin America. They are in fact one of the highest selling acts of all time with 75 million records sold worldwide! They set a high bar for the rest of the co-ed Swedes. [Note: Roxette is shown in the first picture at the top left.]

Sort of jumping from the earliest example to one of the most cutting edge examples, next consider a band called Wildbirds and Peacedrums made up of Mariam Wallentin and Andreas Werliin. I love that band name, it taps into that Strawberry Alarm Clock verve. They are the next funny looking duo on the left (look for the guy in the Cosby sweater holding the two fake goldfish). It's like a hippy drum circle meets P.J. Harvey with an endearing Euro accent.


The next picture shows another sullen looking young man with a very blond femme fatale. That's Club 8, comprised of Karolina Komstedt and Johan Angergård. I don't know much about them, other than that they put out a lot of pretty danceable bossa nova / triphop joints, and that they have that quintessential Swedish look that must not go unnoticed.


"The Knife" is a brother-sister electropop duo of Karin Dreijer Andersson and Olof Dreijer (See: boyish-looking gymnast and his too-much makeup-wearing trainer). Some might categorize these folks as weird. They distinguish themselves by eschewing normal pop sensibilities by (1) generally refusing to make public appearances and interviews, (2) if they do appear in promotional way they wear masks (mostly venetian masks that feature long bird beaks), and (3) until recently, they outright refused to perform live concerts. Atypical Swedes in that they haven't quite fully adopted a twee and fancy-free lifestyle, but typical in that they are a brother and sister performing pair (very common among this community) and that they have an English moniker and that they sing, mostly, in English.


Let's take a moment to acknowledge how this business all started coming together in my mind. Jonas, I suppose all this Swedemania started to brew with the recent popularity of a song called "Young Folks" by the Swedish group Peter Bjorn and John. The song features a duet between a frisky Swedish male voice and a seductive female voice (what I learned later was the guest-starring voice of Victoria Bergman of a group called The Concretes). Having never seen a photograph of PB & J, and only having seen their animated video for this song which features a boy and a girl, I thought this group was a co-ed duo. A shot from that video is shown at left, and you may just see it posted later in part 2 of this series.

So, it made me think, "Wow, you know I think there are a lot of co-ed Swedish duos out there, I wonder if there are more of them that I don't know of." Then I started doing some research and found the duos mentioned above. What I also found out was that PB & J was in fact made up of three dudes: Peter, Bjorn, and John. I don't know how I could have been deceived there - maybe it was the lack of commas in the name. Anyway, this discovery made me start thinking about all-male Swedish groups. As I started to look further into all these Swedish groups, the more MALE Swedish pop duos I noticed, just like their co-ed counterparts. Here are a couple of interesting ones.


The first is The Legends. English name, sing in English, happy-go-lucky sound, strange promo photos. See how the pattern is not really that different. Where are they running to anyhow? Wherever it is, I hope they get there soon because they look like they're tired. But, study that photo carefully because, if you do, you'll notice that this "band," this "duo" is actually just one man! It goes to show you that there is some self-awareness among Swedish musicians and they realize that what they should be doing is BEING A DUO and not a solo act. And if you're not a duo, well then you better Photoshop yourself into a picture of yourself, and fast. What's even crazier, and more telling about this identity crisis is that on The Legends' website they (he) say that they (he) are (is) a band "comprised of nine members." Who does this shapeshifting Swede think he is? Well, it's none other than Johan Angergård - the aforementioned sullen guy from Club 8. He is also known to haunt the band Acid House Kings. Hey, Johan, what gives? You can't just be part of a duo and then not be part of a duo as the situation fits you best. Stick to the script! You and blondie (preferably your sister) start a band, you make happy little records, and you get huge in Latin America. What's so hard about that?


It doesn't help that Johan has a enabler to his schizophrenia: the record label Labrador Records. See, Labrador is the imprint for all of his Club 8, The Legends, and Acid House Kings projects. So, while I was on Labrador's website, I checked in on the rest of the label's lineup and discovered that the company is filthy with duos.

Choosing to mention them purely on the strangeness of their promo shot, consider if you will Labrador mates The Sound of Arrows made up of Stefan Storm and Oskar Gullstrand. "Hold still Oskar! You've missed this one glob of product. Here let me," Stefan says (or maybe it's the other way around). I promise to check out their music soon and let you know if it's as great as these Forever 21 catalog outtake photos.

And finally, this brings me to my favorite new Swedish duo of Johan Hedberg and Peter Gunnarson. The name of their band is Suburban Kids With Biblical Names. That's them with the dog.

I see that picture and I make up this story in my head about how their dog Sasha has just told Johan and Peter that he wants to run off and join the circus and that this will be their last afternoon frolic together in this meadow of heather. Johan cuddles up to Sasha and says, "But the school children! How will I break the news to them?" while Peter gives a thousand-yard stare because he's thinking about how much trouble Sasha has been all this time what with the chewing of his Ikea futon and all, and how, now that Sasha is joining the circus, he can just get a goldfish. "Yeah, a goldfish, that'll be easier than Sasha...and then I'll have more time to figure out this 'Wildbirds and Peacedrums' business."

dance dance revolution

Kate's birthday potluck went swimmingly last night. It seemed like all had a blast.

So, you know how sometimes towards the end of a great party, when the rhythm of the party swings low (and the bulk of your guests head for the door), you're left with a couple of your closest (and punchiest) friends to get silly. Spawned by interest in our Party in Punjab CD, Kate and I kicked off this phase of the night by trying to teach folks how to "bhangra." Where "bhangra" is the high-energy dance from the Punjab region of India and Pakistan. Here's a nice example to introduce you:



This short tutorial was followed by Lara and Annick's revealing to us the recent French craze "Tecktonik." In the video below you can see why this followed from the bhangra moves. Kate, Michael, and I had never heard of this dance style, so of course we had to pull out the laptop and call up YouTube for a few examples. I don't know about Kate and Michael, but I was floored by it - probably because I know my body will never be able to do that. Not since throwing my back out from krumpin' in 2003. Check out this Tecktonik example:

Is s/he dead?

For some reason, lately I have been wasting valuable time over worrying about whether or not certain famous people are alive or dead. Besides listening to Journey and trying to get my hair styled like David Lynch's hair, this is my fave timewaster du jour. Sometimes I'll bring others into the headscratching - it makes a nice icebreaker or game at a party.

Perhaps I began feeling an ounce less morbid about my new hobby when I did some Googles and found that I'm not alone in this strange obsession. There is a website, called "Dead or Alive?" dedicated to just this issue, updated hourly it seems. There are lists on Wikipedia of people who have once been thought to be deceased prematurely, falsely, or otherwise. There are sites that are simply obit aggregators.

It's all Abe Vigoda's fault. The man, who once portrayed "Fish" on the decidedly craptacular Barney Miller, has sustained an entire career on a 1982 People magazine gaff that proclaimed him dead. This mistake instantly revamped his career (people hardly speak ill of the dead). And ever since Vigoda's earthly solvency has become the punchline to a million jokes. It probably helps that he's got such a funny name. By the way, you can check his status at this website - be sure to hit refresh just to make sure he didn't just kick it!

I mean really, if you think about it, this question of alive or dead is a totally viable thing to worry about. Maybe you're a huge fan of Roy Scheider, but you've lost track of him since the mid-1990s TV show seaQuest. [Dead: infection, 2/10/2008] Or maybe you're like me and couldn't fathom that someone as wildly infirm as Jesse Helms could possibly still be alive. [Alive: evil never dies] Or maybe you just don't religiously follow the celebrity blogs. So, before you judge me for being too morbid, I ask you...can you honestly tell me (without peeking on Wikipedia) if the following people are alive?:

John Goodman
Henry Kissinger
Ike Turner
Bea Arthur
Ed McMahon
Shelley Winters

(See what I mean.)

Mount Everest

Biff and I are huge fans of PBS's series Frontline, which airs documentary programming about all different topics and then will post them for computer viewing as well. I've been really interested in Mount Everest since reading Into Thin Air in 2001, and seeing the Everest IMAX. David Breashears is a mountain climber/filmmaker who was on Everest in 1996 filming that IMAX when a storm came up that ultimately killed 15 climbers I think, including his friend and fellow guide who got stranded on the summit. Breashers returned to Everest a couple of years ago to rethink the tragedy and interview survivors in the program Storm Over Everest. We haven't really seen the tragedy narrative until this point, although Into Thin Air describes it well, you don't really realize how sublime the mountain is and how epic the journey until you see it. I personally feel like submitting Everest is the ultimate in human hubris and selfishness, especially since for every 6 who summits successfully, 1 person dies. I really feel for the family members of the climbers. However, I definitely see the fascination and understand the power of the superlative-how tempting to have scaled the highest mountain on Earth. What's especially incredible are the non-climber thrill seekers that train specifically for Everest and pay tens of thousands of dollars to risk their lives just to have that distinction.

We've since seen Breasher's other documentary called Everest: the Death Zoneabout what happens to the human body at really high altitudes (accelerated decay and cognitive loss). It's okay. There are other books about the 1996 storm, but I don't know if I have the heart to read them.

From Russia with consternation

Cecelia has been tutoring a Russian vaccinologist in English for awhile now, and it seems that his gift for biomedicine outweighs his gift for language, but in a really adorable way. She wrote him an email about how she had been out of town for a week and received this reply (really common actual Russian name replaced with other really common Russian name for privacy):

Hi, Cecelia
I so glad to see you on Wednesday. We have been worrying for you. You have got lost and we can't information about you. It's terrible.
See you later. Vladamir & Family's Vladamir