Doin' the Omoralisk Schlagerfestival '12

Maybe I have to crawl out of my hiding hole now that we actually won the Eurovision Song Contest 2012. And I didn't write anything about this year. Mostly because when the Swedish competition was I actually had an internship in a bank and also prepared to move out of my apartment. So I didn't watch carefully enough or invest anything in it, mostly sat at the computer doing other stuff. Like listening to some good music. Of course that doesn't stop the rest of Sweden or Europe from going crazy about this. Just yesterday some danish commentator argued that the rest of the nordic countries should join in an alliance against Sweden to put us down to earth. How admirable that is in this context, it didn't work out that well for them with Norway ending last with an Eric Saade copy, Denmark ending in 23d place with an Anna Bergendahl copy and then Iceland going to the 20th place with an Marlena Ernman copy on stage (tall the similarities was all pointed out to me by political scientist on twitter, because I would really not know and it works for the narrative at the moment). Not to mention that Norway had Swedish songwriters, actually 8 other countries also had Swedish songwriters in the finals, in total 10 including Sweden itself. We may be weak on hard power, but we got a lot of soft power in our music export.

So what can we expect from next years Eurovision in Sweden? First of all, were is it supposed to be? My guess is Gothenburg since the last time was in Stockholm and apparently Globen will be booked with the Hockey finals or whatever. Malmö is... well lets say they have enough trouble as it is. So thats my guess for location. Entertainment then? I have only one idea and that would be, after all the voting's been done, the light goes down, electric lights spout out of guitars to a heavy metal rendition of ABBA's Waterloo (after all, Gothenburg are Sweden's heavy metal capital), the drums drum synchronized to pyrotechnic fire, synths and orchestra all in a glorious symphony, all instrumental, then silence. BANG, an explosion of fire and light while all the music you here are the sound from the  70's version performed by... a reunited ABBA performing Waterloo for just one night. How awesome wouldn't that be (from a theatrical point of view that is)? Eurovision's best song performed once again by the originals. You can't possibly top that. Unfortunately the chance of that happening is pretty slim due to the artist themselves. Have to go with the second best so I it would probably be one of the other swedish winners then, but that wouldn't be as fantastic in my opinion. Maybe get all the other winners performing waterloo instead... Dammit, I give this to much thought it actually deserves.

The Avengers

Saw The Avengers movie yesterday with my sister. After the trailers I wished I went alone so I could used the free tickets I got from my work at Swedbank on the movies I saw. Especially Prometheus looked really interesting and then it was another Spider-Man movie. Nothing wrong, but it's the second origin movie about him and the last one was just something like 10 years ago. At least it had the Lizard as the main villain or it seemed to be him with Dr. Connors making an appearance (hard to miss a man with just one arm). There's also a new Tim Burton movie with the usual cast of Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter and Christopher Lee.  And lets not forget the music by the usual suspect, Danny Elfman. Dark Shadow is the movie based on some TV-series I don't know about, but this one got Alice Cooper in it so that could be interesting. The last trailer (technically the one first shown, but lets not get into that) was nothing interesting. Snow White and the Huntsman didn't seem to impress me with all the special effects. If I want to see a Snow White story I would honestly prefer the Disney version.

What did I think of the movie itself then? Awesome! It was fun, action packed and I felt correct emotional response the film wanted to give me at the different times. The story worked and the actors did a great job and the music fitted the mode. No problem knowing who the heroes were even though I haven't watched all the movies building up to this one. In fact I have only seen Iron Man missing out on Thor, Captain America, The  Incredible Hulk (I don't know if I had this going on the TV while I did other stuff on the computer)  and Iron Man 2. Of course, it didn't hurt that I saw the animated cartoons of Spider-Man and Iron Man from the 90's when I was a kid and have a fairly good idea on what the different heroes and organizations are as well as the 2003 Hulk movie. So I'm not completely lost to the mythos around the characters. I don't know how you would react if you haven't seen anything about these characters, but at least they are all wearing bright colored costumes that all look different (with some minor exceptions).

Last thing to note is that it is important to sit still in the cinema until the lights go back on again so you don't miss the stingers at the end as many did when I watched the movie. I think it was just me, my sister, half the row in front of me as well as a few more people in the back that saw the end of an almost full cinema when it started. Patience people.

The Return

Wow, I was inactive for so long that they changed the layout. How long ago was it now? Last February? That is some time to cover. Easiest to explain is... a lot of work at my internship at a bank. Didn't lead to a real job, but I didn't expect any since I'm fairly up to date with the problems in the swedish financial sector or the economy overall. Wasn't time for that. So that went on until the end of March. Of course, at the same time I had to move from my apartment due to not studying anymore. So I moved in with my sister for the time being until something pops up or we are at each others throats. Or I will freeze to death since I'm having my bed just under the window and she insist that it shall be open all day. At cold spring days on the seventh floor surrounded by open water. The winds are freezing.

Anyway, there is nothing else to say really, just letting anyone reading that the blog isn't abandon and might wake up again now that I have some more free time. Unfortunately I am a bit late for making resurrection jokes and all that due to easter being a couple of weeks ago. What I can say is that SVT disappoints me. They didn't show Jesus Christ Superstar this time. I feel betrayed. It was becoming a tradition for me... and now they stole it away from me. Oh cruel world. Or so I thought, but apparently they didn't show it in 2010 either and I didn't find anything about it last year. Who would have thought that. My memory sucks.  

Spring Time

And once again I lost myself in my everyday life (read that as "just lazy"). And now it's the end of February. Not much happens during work, except last week when I had a really rough time. Friday, I lost one of my gloves. One of them, it annoys me even more than losing both cause now I will always be reminded about losing the pair. Anyway, went to the store to get some chicken and what happens? I don't read the freaking label and buys clubs instead of filet's. And I only notice that after I defrosted them two days later. It didn't help that the particular brand of filmjölk I like was out in the store. Does it end here? No, the following day (that's Monday) I almost miss the bus to work for some reason that escape me at the moment. The senior customers of the bank rails on me because I can't let them into the bank vaults (I'm just an intern for goodness sake). Then on the way home I take the wrong bus and the following morning I get on the bus in time, but it became delayed due to many people wanting to board it and then some cyclist walking on the narrow road. Short and easy, it was a hell of a week.

At least I had some better moments. This weekend my sister participated in a farce so me and the rest and the family was invited so I had to take a trip to Örebro. It was about Wilhelm Tell, the Swiss liberation hero. A very entertaining show if I say so. Good music, good acting and good (or so bad it's good) jokes. In the music department we had the snobbish side of me smiling for the Wilhelm Tell Overture (or it could be my Disney nostalgia), my metal head could have (but didn't) head-bang to a rewritten Hearts on Fire and then some other classic songs rewritten. One that made me smile just hearing the first tunes was a rewritten Brave Sir Robin from Monty Python and the Holy Grail. The only downside was that the music sometimes blurred out the song. And most importantly, I actually helped to write part of one of the songs (or part, it was one word but still). My sister actually called me and asked for a two syllable word that had some connection to the Jönssonligan-movies. The word was flagpole if you had to know. Unfortunately I couldn't get writing credits since it was a "do over song" so it wasn't in the pamphlets and therefore no credits. 

Working 9-5

Been working for a week and start again tomorrow. A really good experience. It helps that it feels like I'm taking control over the internship group from my experience, knowledge and age. Yes, I'm the oldest. And I also got my own office last Wednesday and the others were a bit jealous since I was so far back in the building that no customers would walk up and ask for my help (which would have been "It's my first week, but I think s/he can help"). Privileges, gotta love them. Another one was that I also got our only key that we interns have to share so I had the honorable duty to open the door for the others. At least I don't have to wait outside in the cold, the cold that just hit us this winter. At least it wasn't as awful as the two latest winters that really was cold with a minimum of one meter of snow across the whole nation. So have a great week, cause that is what I hopefully will do. There was something else I have forgotten about. What could it have been? Probably nothing important.

A New Dawn

Some songs really make the most mundane things in life a bit more epic. For example The Touch  by Stan Bush when you are sitting in the buss on your way to your work place. First day at the bank is over and it feels really good. I haven't been this calm for a long time. The sun is staying much longer and lights up the world once more and the same can be said about my life. Hopefully there is no dark clouds on the horizon.

Other things that have happened since the last time? The new social democratic leader has been elected and it, to everyones astonishment, actually went to someone who really can be classified to a blue-color worker, or at least once. He is probably most famous for being the head of the industry union the last six year. I'm of course talking about Stefan Löfven. And suddenly a sound of relief was heard across the left and a sound of interest and small optimism from the right. This is a man that has talked favorably about nuclear power and EMU. A man the social democrats pin their hopes upon to deliver from their current position as opposition and back to the governmental power. Frankly, due to his past actions and statements even I could vote for him, if I wasn't so influenced by the liberal ideologies. Of course, I'm also a bit pessimistic about how he will be able to turn the party toward his ideas that I support. The first day he was already "threatened" by some of his party members that he can't stand for his own ideas, but must always express what the party congress has decided. Although yesterday he seemed to express the use of a loophole in the text they wrote so maybe he could change the party that way. The consequence of this however is that his own members are putting him in a very bad starting point. See, every time he has to talk about an issue that he has already expressed that clash with the party, we know if he lies, but if he speaks for himself and what he sees as the best course of action he will put himself in front of the knives that already cut down two party leaders. Will he be able to survive that or is it just a matter of time before the circus starts anew?

Paranoid

I'm on fire. It was quite a long time ago since I actually made this many posts a week. I would guess new inspiration with all that is happening at the moment and that I feel my situation looks brighter in comparison to the time right before christmas. So, lets look closer on the current political events in Sweden. As you all probably know Juholt has resigned and the Social Democrats is free-falling in the polls as well searching for a new leader to lead them over next election in 2014. Juholt fell due to a combination of back-stabbing in his own party as well as several mistakes made from him, mostly a constant flip-flopping on issues as well as bending the truth. Now this doesn't suit those who sided with Juholt who blame the media for hunting him down due to him being a "hillbilly" or something like that (excluding the fact that of all the other seven only two comes from the capital, the rest is as much "hillbillies" as Juholt). Also, they try to neglect all the mistakes he did by comparing it to Reinfeldt. Fair enough, but there is some mayor differences. One site published all 18 mistakes Reinfeldt done since 2009 (believe me, they would have published more if they could). Then look at Juholt's track record, 13. Oh and that is during a span of 10 month, and 1 month he had a vacation not showing up in media. This is probably something those who are blinded don't quite grip. Juholt constantly did those mistakes. People makes mistakes, we all make them, but he did it more often then anyone, in areas that was supposed his specialty (defence if anyone wonders). And they still defend him and complain about unfairness from the media. Do they not see a pattern here comparing something like 4,5 faults a year compared to 13 in LESS than a year? Then again, social democrats have some problem admitting their own fault since they always do the right thing.

Edit: Yeah, I can't really count, first I thought it was 5 years, when it closer to 4 or even 3, but you know I had trouble with the economics and math so I will blame that.