Price Tag
Now this, this is brilliance. This is the way development is supposed to be done! By Dutch microbanker.com
Lost
Så har man massvis med fantastiska vänner lite överallt, och är sjukt tacksam för det – men vem ringer man egentligen till när man faktiskt är riktigt ledsen?
Everybody’s curious, but who cares?
What does the Fox say?
How did I miss this? I’ve seen a million references to this online the past month but it took me until today to actually google “What does the fox say?” and find the original source. It has almost 148 million views which is very impressive as it doesn’t include nudity, violence or, actually, any sort of substance. Anyway, it’s being watched and enjoyed by millions so it’s obviously brilliant in one way or another. Who am I to judge?
No matter how insanely ridiculous and sometimes rude and politically incorrect today’s pop culture is, I love what the Internet does to creativity and humour. Reddit, 9gag and other online never-ending flows of ideas, references and meme spin-offs show that today’s kids really like playing word-games, show off their talents, and come up with hilariousness and well crafted, often inappropriate, sarcasm. Keeping up with the updates is almost impossible with the thousands of references and meme personalities out there – it’s a new culture of humour, a global uncensored forum open for anybody to contribute to, get recognition from and inspire other people at. It’s a different kind of intelligence, requiring innovation, quick ideas, a skill in digging up relevant images, and a broad sense of humour and general knowledge. One can’t just sell anything anymore, as you have to compete with the entire world for the likes and votes. It’s participatory, democratic and inclusive, and these kids are ingenious – a wonderful (and of course time consuming) trend.
One of my favourite memes are the spiderman comics with fake titles. This is what I do between all the seriousness. Laugh at sarcasm and looping references. Once a nerd, always a nerd, and I feel this is for keeping myself in the loop of humour. If that requires me to know what the fox says, I now do.
Random post
Did you know that there is a button in the Archives that says “Random post” ? Clicking it, you get to a random post from between June 2009 and today. It’s risky business for me, haha, but it’s all me and I have told you before that I use my blog like a diary, and that it has the ability to throw me right back into a moment and the way I felt at that point. Like this picture, when I clicked random post just now, it took me to the days when I used to stay in the office at UNICEF Nicaragua until long after working hours – because I had a deadline that was very optimistic from the first place. But hey, a deadline is a deadline – especially when you’re a consultant, and I really don’t mind working late when I’m excited about what I do. Not kidding!
On another, dead serious, note. I was just at the gym. And I realized my arms are ridiculously weak, while my legs are kind of super strong. After realizing that, I drove back home and ate almost an entire bar of dark chocolate. Because dark chocolate isn’t not really candy, right? haha
Click the picture above for a random post. And let me know which one you got!
22 minutes of LOVE
I am completely blissful about Active Child’s latest EP, Rapor..! Yes, even an exclamation mark right there. It has been up for streaming for a week now, and releases today (October 22nd) on iTunes through Vagrant Records. The EP has instantly been added to my list of rare but perfect albums for driving at night and singing along. What you have here is absolutely wonderful 80’s electro pop with Pat Grossi’s sweet and melancholic falsetto voice, glistering synths and some subtle but very much welcome post-dubstep vibes that reconnect you with the 2013 feel. Featured on the EP are also the vocal talents of Ellie Goulding and Mikky Ekko (Who tips on the border of sounding just a little bit too much like Justin Timberlake, but gets away with it.) The EP is only 22 minutes long and leaves me craving for more, but the six tracks still manage to provide a perfect balance between playful, painful, epic and soulful. It’s just all there, I’m not kidding. A thousand times repeat.
Friluftsliv
Alonso Vasquez – Feel Like a Mountain (2013)
Directed by 19 year old Alonso Vasquez, this short film won a UN International Forests Short Film award this year. Sweetness.
Dark Stuff: Jaar ft. Harrington
Darkside – Paper Trails
Psychic (2013)
Nicolas Jaar and Dave Harrington released the album Psychic two weeks ago under the moniker Darkside. Here’s a live session of the track Paper Trails, filmed and edited by Resident Advisor. But please, please – only press play if you have patience, speakers with a proper bass and after changing to HD quality. This live version is twice the lenght of the original, so try appreciating the hazy tunes and Harrington’s classic rock guitar the way they deserve to be appreciated – turn the volume up, relax, wait for the bass, and let yourself be taken to a darker place. The closed eyes, arms up, swaying kind of dark.
Ready? Last day in Warsaw.
Woke up, booked a table in a restaurant, got into a cab.. and got a phonecall “Come here, we made lasagna!”. So the cab changed the course to Kris and Piotr’s place, where we had lasagna and hung out, before going for a small shopping spree where Avina got her hat. Kris dropped us off back at home, we visited the pool and spent the rest of the evening watching rental movies and enjoying the little luxuries and laziness that room service provides.
Well, at least until 10pm.
Because we did go out dancing, of course. Prosecco and snacks in Aïoli first where we realized that half of the group had been too tired to join us for another night of insanity, so we went for “Bubble Boom” shots with candyliqueur and sprinkles at Sketch by Night. The night was blue, pink and intense.
Next morning Piotr and Kris drove us to the airport. I seriously think they belong to the category of some of best people on earth. So much love! By 8pm, after a busride from the airport, we had arrived home in Stockholm. Avina, her hat, and I. Exhausted. Happy. Done.
Blood, shots and kisses. This is Warsaw by night.
On our second night in Warsaw we had the entire group with us. We first met for dinner in Der Elefant and did it the way it’s done in Warsaw – a lot of love, a lot of different clubs, and breakfast in Lemon, of course.
Somebody dropped a broken glass on my arm from the second floor in one of the clubs, so I got bandage on the cut and looked like Lara Croft (Oh, I wish!) for the rest of the night. Anyway, after Der Elefant, we went to a really nice bar that I don’t know the name of (guys, help!), then we visited a really nice club called Syreni Spiew, which is kind of like a house in a park with live music and a great athmosphere – and then we danced for a while in de lite, where the whole glass incident happened, and then we ended in Klubokawiarnia, which unfortunately has changed a lot since I used to go there. At least there were dancing poles so one of our friends had a lot of fun as she does pole dancing for sports – we were more than entertained. After finally having breakfast at Lemon in the morning hours, we got back to the hotel and took the elevator up to our room on the 30th floor. There, we found ourselves completely embedded in white – and that’s where we went to sleep. Among the clouds.
Warszawa – the first 24 hours
So we arrived in Warsaw by 9pm on Thursday night last week, and took the 5 minute walk from the Central Station to the hotel, where our friends Piotr and Kris were waiting for us. We checked in, opened the bottle of wine that welcomed us in the room, went for a swim in the hotel pool and went out dancing. The night ended in Lemon, the 24hour bar where all Warsaw nights tend to end and I was reminiscing the nights in 2006 when I used to go there with Bumbi, Sofie and other friends. The next morning we went out to meet Piotr and his colleagues for lunch (breakfast!) and wine, and then walked around Warszawa all day – looking at beautiful things, trying on wigs, drinking champagne, enjoying the wonderful weather, and riding the tramway. Just like any normal day in Warsaw. No, seriously – it was one of those memorable perfect days, where things are just smooth and easy. Warsaw is good at delivering that. Dziekuje!
