A trip down memory lane

I've been too busy to think this week, so instead of writing anything myself I'm just gonna post some links to some stuff that's guaranteed to put a smile on your face (a tribute to the spirit of early 90's).

I'll be back next week!

... and don't forget, we still need to write the following articles:

Obama and morality (by me)

Spain for beginners (by me)

America for beginners (by you)

93 til infinity

Mass Appeal

Pour out a lil liquor (I really don't remember this track sound so good back when I first listened to it...)

Parenthood

So... after my comments about the blog making it much easier to stay in touch, and that my days of going Missing In Action were long gone. What happens? I fail to stay in touch and am reported M.I.A. once again.

Got a good reason this time, my baby girl (Noa Abike) was born in early April, and as you know better than I do: the first few months of being a parent are *very* interesting!!! I'm not sure if you've seen any of the photo's I've posted on facebook (check my FB profile if you haven't).

How's things in the Vesterlund household? Soon be time for summer holiday's, are you going to visit Europe this year?

Getting back to some of the previous blog topics:

I've finally bought the DVD Box set by that Swedish director (what was his name again)? I've also bought "Let the right one in" (by the same guy right)? We're planning to start watching the DVD's as soon as Noa goes to sleep early enough for us to watch it (which probably won't be until early 2011)!

Checked a few of the wiki's. Stonefunkers are quite an influential band, a lot of the swedish artists that you introduced me to seem to be linked to them. Looks like a new album might be coming out soon too...

***

What was the reaction to the World cup like in the US? All in all I think that team USA has played very well, they won their qualification group (which also featured England), and were just edged out by Ghana in the second round. The English team finished second in their group and then went on to have their ar$e handed to them by the Germans (4-1). All my Spanish workmates had great fun pointing out how useless my countries team is.

My target for this blog from now on is one entry per week, should be easy enough to achieve!

PS: Guru RIP.

Did you follow any of the controvery that surrounded Guru's death? I didn't know what to make of it TBH...

Man, were do I start…

Oh well, no dirty words is fine with me. I once mad the mistake of rushing into the car with my kids, there was a CD with Guru in the CD player. I was a bit stressed and thought nothing of it. All of a sudden Ian says “…bit dad, he is saying bad words”.
And, yes, Mr. Gifted Universial Rhymes Unlimited was saying a bunch of bad words :-)
Here are some photos from Tuscany of the Vesterlund clan. The last pic is of Will at the top of the leaning tower of Piza.








I work in public relations…or something like that. I work for a social service organization public relation/marketing team. The “team” stuff is kind of funny since there are only TWO of us. I take care of the 2 websites, design a bunch of booklets, flyers direct mail material about adoption, foster parenting, counseling, services for people with downs syndrome etc, etc. It is OK, beats some of the crazy jobs I have had in the past and my c0-worker is easy to work with.

(Oh, by the way Folk mean “people” in Swedish).

As for Healthcare reform….well….it is crazy..
I have on purpose tuned it out during the last few months. It is obvious that SOMETHING needs to be done. US health care is very good, but it is not assessable to everyone. The whole insurance thing as a circus and even if you do your research, you still can be slapped with a hefty bill. I needed a minor medical procedure. I called the hospital and the insurance company to figure out the cost. My insurance would cover all but $35 they promised me. I later got a bill for $600!!! Apparently the anethetist bills separately and is not covered by insurance?? What the….how should I know that! I had lunch this past Tuesday with a friend. He teaches at a local University here and his wife works part time as a producer for a local TV-show. Their youngest son needed tubes in his ears. It cost a fortune and his dad was going to help out paying for it. OK, his wife only works 2 or 3 days a week, but they still have very nice jobs.

As for the secrecy…I have wondered about that too. Bush was a grand master of secret back room deals, and while I do not think two wrongs make a right (so to speak) I guess this is how things are done these days in Washington, DC. US politics is SO very infected right now. The lobbyist has both parties in their fist. The two parties cannot work together at all. A senator that votes with the other party gets into trouble. I heard that right now during the healthcare debate, there are 2.5 lobbyists PER SENATOR!!! One has to ask, is democracy for sale??
The irony is that Republicans from California and the Northern States are sometimes MORE to the left then a right leaning Democrat. It is almost like two gangs fighting over turf.

I can really relate to your newfound Pro-Britishness. I am very much the same. While I was never anti-Swedish, I thought so much stuff in Swedish culture and every day Swedish life was silly, lame or just plain dumb. I saw us sort of as a backwater nation, stuck up north and far away for all that mattered. After my first 6 months at the American university I attended I kind of changed my mind. Sure Sweden is no utopia, it is a small country with a lot of country side – but it has so many good things too. I also think we Swedes are so scared of being the dumb, hillbilly distant cousins of The US and bigger European nations like The UK, France, Germany and so on, that we sometimes forget what we are good at, both I terms of our society, fine- and pop culture, film, literature music etc. I usually say that I am Swedish in a Zlatan Ibrahimovic/Henrik Larsson type of way. What I mean is that for me, being Swedish is not some kind of blue eyed/blond haired ultra European club stuck in our own and others stereotypes about us (you know Abba, meatballs, skinny dipping in lakes etc, etc). It is kind of hard to formulate in a few words. I try not to big-up Sweden too much because I know t will annoy people.
Man am I blabbing or what. I hope I make SOME sense…
(By The way, are things as bad in Barca for Zlatan as Swedish media make it out to be?)

I can relate to the England squad too. Even sports such as Tennis that I never care for THAT much, I find myself checking online how Swedish players do in big tournaments.
About BBC. I agree it is the best news service in the world. We have BBC World Service on the radio in the morning and in the Afternoon. BBC America has World Service news in the morning and their own news (produced in DC, not UK) in the evening. I also think a lot of their TV dramas are fantastic. If one compares stuff like Spooks, Hu$tle and Life on Mars to standard US drama such as Law & Order, CSI, Desperate Housewives…I actually prefer the just listed British shows. Smarter scripts, sometimes creative camera angles and just more enjoyable entertainment, and the budget is smaller too :- )

The Absent Minded guy is quite amazing. He should probably write a book on how to NOT manage ones career. I always wondered WHAT he was up to and then he gave a big interview a few years ago. Having a serious hashish/skunk habit and verbally fighting everyone around you is probably NOT the way to go. Now he is a dedicated Muslim and seems to have kicked the skunk.

I have not had a chance to listen to Love pt 1 by Build an Ark, but I will this evening.

By The Way - Did you get any of those Swedish movies? Any more Danish directors apart from Lars Von Trier?

Peace and I am outie :-)

Back down to Stockholm, Sweden and Brasil...

... do a US tour for 3 months and then I chill (in Uppsala).

Rules of blog engagement:
No dirty words? That way our kids can read this when they're old enough. Other than that, anything goes.
... not sure if that covers everything. What do you think?

With no further ado, let's get down to mapping out "the world according to us".

Healthcare reform.
A truly fascinating topic. What's your view?
I read news.bbc.co.uk more or less every day, generally speaking; they are a "left leaning" news agency. I will also go on record right now and say that they are possibly the most impartial news agency the world has ever seen. I would say that, right? After all: I'm a British national and I'm talking about the British Broadcasting Corporation.
Co-incidentally: have you experienced a huge surge in your national pride since leaving your homeland and moving to live abroad?
I have.
I never used to be much of a pro-British person. Just the opposite in fact. When I was living in England, I used to be super critical and kind of anti-British (example: I never wanted the English football, rugby or cricket teams to win).
It all changed after a few months in sunny Spain (well; sunny Catalunya, to be more politically correct).
I am so pro-British nowadays! It's incredible how often I find myself bigging up Britian and lauding it's superiority to other countries (most specifically Spain).
I've even started to root for the English football team (although I'm still very happy when England lose at cricket and rugby).
Can you identify with this? Have you had similar feelings about your adopted home and your original home?
Anyway, back to the beeb. The website really is great. First class journalism. I imagine there are few news agencies in the world that would print something like this. They actually depict themselves as a bit of an evil, bullying media empire in this story. With regards to the healthcare reform bill the coverage has been "pro-bill", but with a lot of focus on the flaws in the process that Obama's government have used to get the bill to where it is today.
It seems that there's been a lot of backroom deals and a lot of secret agreements made behind closed doors.
What do you think about all this? Why all the secrecy? Is it a case of politicians just doing the politician thing, or is it because the country doesn't really want healthcare reform and therefore the only way to implement it is to do it whilst the country isn't looking?

Historically, how would you compare the public outcry and outrage over healthcare reform with public outcry and outrage over the war in Iraq (I say "historically", because you've lived in the US through both events, so you'll have first hand memories)? I can't even remember if there was very much outrage in the USA over the war in Iraq, so I'd be very interested to hear what you remember, and what you think.

Music
Loved that Absent Minded video. He was the guy who recorded that track "A & R", right? I'll have to dig that tape out, he had some good tunes.
Some of our other hip-hop idols are about to release/or have already released new albums:
Q-tip (although I'm not sure if this is a hip hop release).
Reflection Eternal (Check out "Just begun").

Best album of 2010 so far for me: Love pt 1 by Build an Ark.
I think this is one of those albums that just about anyone can enjoy. Highly recommended.

Random, funny stuff.
Finally, have a look at this (if you haven't already seen it):