“Witty for a Buck …

… smart for a hundred, I recognize that, but now I have a question. The big laughter that liberates, who can afford it? Ho ho, laughing until the train has passed.” (Rönnblom 1983, p. 43)

Who is Anders F. Rönnblom? When I was a young dude one of my best friends had an obscure worn tape recording with some strange rocksinger/-poet singing in a sensitive way with a clear sarcastical and ironical undertone. I instantly liked this music, the voice and lyrics. I listened to the tape repeatedly on and on again at my friends mono tape recorder in his summer house.

The citation above is from one of Anders F’s tunes from 1977. The book 48 tunes (48 låtar) is a personal collection of the best songs by the composer with lyrics, scores, comments and harmonical analysis. The excellent portrait photos reproduced is taken by Mariann Eklund, Studio Matchbox.
Photo above: linked in from www.boogieproduction.se

Litterature Anders F. Rönnblom (1983) 48 låtar Stockholm: Air Scandinavia (128 p.)

Visit Anders F’s myspace web site where the song above is uploaded · Anders F live video from the music steamboat S/S Blidösund

Swedish Destinies and Advetures

”Swedish Destinies” is an anthology from famous August Strindberg, a book with the ambitious subtitle ”Masterpieces of Strindberg: Stories from all Eras” Strindberg lived in Stockholm and experienced that he was much criticized and overlooked and then moved on to Paris. He was married three times, and had some hard times with his women. He wrote the essay ”Womens’ inferior under the Man” (1895) in Paris.

One story is told about the union of led founders in medieval Stockholm. One of it’s ”gesäll” members, a smart oddball called Bosse, had invented a new method of mixing metals and making led and also a new design of a led pitcher for wine, an artifact much better than the traditional product. This results that the masters of the union got scared and put a ban on his invention and Bosse in jail. The hard and nasty german traderunion from the Hanseic city of Lübeck, traders who was located in Stockholm, stealed the invention and started to found this new kind of led piece and sold it to the people of Stockholm. So the lesson learned was that the narrow minded trade union got swindled.

Swedens most expensive painting ever, the painting “Alpine Landscape” by August Strindberg. MUSD 4 was the prize at Sotherbys in London (source: disajn.se)

Visit the web sites for the Strindberg Museeum · Strindberg and Helium Flashstories · Strindberg texts at Project Runeberg at Linkoping University · Detailed article about Strindberg in the Encyclopedea Nordisk Familjebok

Art of Cooking

”The Art of Cooking” is a book by H. Gyllensköld (1956/1982) Stockholm: W&W (223 p. ISBN 91-46-14131-6) with illustrations by Eric Lilius. This is a nature science and positivistic inspired piece examining cooking as a science. Dinning, food and cooking, one of lifes most frequent reccuring enjoyable fields, is here treated, not in an ignorant infantilistic way, but in a calm, careful, methodical and knowledgeable way.

Gyllensköld presents us wtih practical results from his research like how to: understand how the taste sense works and could be synthesized, manage salt and how it affects the taste in different ways, weight and maximize quality to get the best proteins for fewest bucks, use new tools like an inejction needles to infuse steaks with spices from the inside.

The author has done a comparison with medicine, and claims that the science of medicine has developed very rapid in one or two centuries, but the science of cooking has barely developed at all. Gyllensköld gives good examples and advice for both the amateur and people in the restaurant business.

Alster: A Moment of Texts

Claes Eriksson, born in 1950 in Swedens motorcity Trollhattan, is a famous swedish comedian, actor, writer, director and producer. He is a member of the group Galenskaparna and Aftershave. Eriksson has collected some of his greates texts in a book published in 2003. Now he has made an audiobook from this, a auditive experience where he reads his texts and also presents examples from film and theatre.

The text’s I like best is the parodies of different genres of littarature with fictive crazy examples. Some of the recorded samples from his shows are totaly surprisingly weird. Eriksson makes a lot of a word twisting.
Here is an humoristic example from the book (in swedish).

Claes was representating the swedish movie sector when the company Swedish Filmindustry reopened the 5 screen movietheatre ”Filmstaden” in Vallingby C (Vixton). This fall Claes and his friends in AfterShave puts up a show called ”Cartwright” at the GAS-club Read more on International Movie Database’s page with data and facts on Claes Eriksson

New Cut

”New Cut : True Stories from Life” (Pan Norstedts, 336 p.), is a collection of essays by the infamous infant terrible, Robert Aschberg from the time he writed in the magazine Z, a swedish formerly vivid popular extreme magazine, now shut down. The Z-TV national-TV-channel is still broadcasting in the cables.

Mr Aschberg rants and describes topics like travelling to trade fairs, visiting fancy parties, bowling with his workfriends, tie and smoking wear, see the royal family, kicking on cars, watching soccer in Albania, preparing christmas etc. all in his sarcastical ironical way. A minor theme in the book is disgust, presented like this in a passage: ”As if that was not enought with disgust, I can tell you that I myselfe at a visit with school at Vallingby [Vixton/Wix] Police Station in 1965 [13 years old] succseeded in throwing up, hold everything in my mouth, and in little gulps swallow it again” (Aschberg, p. 142).

The author also write on the combination booze, sex and sports. Like this, a remark on a world leading runner’s girlfriend: ”She is known to be sexy. She shure is. She is sexy like a vise [a big iron tool on a planing bench].” (p. 103)
The beers you get are mostly too weak, so you could try this instead, the habit of drinking wiskey with cola to the supper, like a old friend of his in the music business usally does.

By the way, as a footnote, I did some quite bad immitations of Aschbergs style of excessive well-designed, a bit self-righteous, magnificent ways of presenting his self in the crime-night show ”Insider”, in my radio show this spring. Btw once again. I met a famous leading Brommapojkarna premier national leag soccerclub supporter at Krukan in Stockholm. He was angry at Mr Aschberg. Why? Because the supporter had heard that Aschberg has a monthly sallary of USD 70.000 (SEK 500.000)

The Heat

Live and kicking authors with new published books mixed with classic autors with a twist from old Sweden — yes, that is Gubbsnusk (means old mens’ filth).
”Värmen/The Heat” (559 p.) is a brick-size title from Mr Ulf Lundell, the old rock dinosaur, and what you supposed to get if you make a crossover of Dylan with Springsteen and let him sing in swedish. Lundell has made a summer monologue programme for national radio this summer. The book is about a middle aged divorced rock artist called Paul, living in Stockholm and an old house in Skane (the South). He is restless and driving up and down Europe from Stockholm to South France. Paul has a bully friend called Bull, that is an author who likes to burn money on expencive living, booze and lay young ladies. Paul also has a young female assistant called Sunny that becomes his misstress. She has to go to Island to visit her father. Paul and Bull having wild parties at a big house in Nice. Then Paul writes a collection of songs for an album and then goes to Copenhagen to record with some younger musicians. They lock themselves in in the studios with drugs, big palms, a lot of TV-sets etc. Paul miss Sunny much.

The most interesting part, from my point of view is the music business descriptions, how to arrange for a recording and get the people suitable for different roles in the recording process. Talks with and descripitions of guitarists, guitar techs, engineers, managers etc.

To Choose Happiness

Today I start to writing my reviews in english, on swedish male authors writing for men. First out is Kay Pollak, a film director. His latest movie is from 2004 and is called, As It Is in Heaven. He is also writing books, conducting lecture series and manageing courses. His book ”Att välja lycka” (To Choose Happines) I consumed as an five hours lasting audiobook with Mr Pollak himself reading.

The book is intended to be used as a reader or a course book on how to make your own life working out better by changeing or transforming your ways of thinking. Pollak gives directions on how to correct yourself and your thinking to reach a happier life, to become an adult active agent choosing your own ways and beeing more creative. The author gives alot of real and fictive examples. Pollak’s main thesis is that it’s up to you how you feel about a wide spectre of topics, not others or the circumstances. Your feelings are completely controlled by your thoughts, Pollak is claiming.

My criticism: I think Pollak is a bit dogmatic and also repeating his dogmas time after time, so you get a bit fed up. He behave like an old teacher that you cant question. The book is also a kind of rewriting or recycling of traditional cognitive therapy. This is an audiobook for everybody, so not verry much gubbsnusk this time actually.

Read more on Kay Pollak