Monthly Archive for November, 2009

Stockholm, a tale of food and peril

Crawfish salad

So after more than two years of absence, I returned to Stockholm last weekend to visit my sister, her husband and two unruly but fantastic little Swedish kids. Contrary to my usual ways of taking at least 5000 photos, bugging everyone and their grandma to death, I actually took but a moderate amount of pictures, saving myself from being slaughtered by an angry mob of Swedes and half-Swedes.

As always, my days were dominated by my quest for food and drink, which is nicely reflected in some of the pictures I did take. I also met up with an Austrian friend, whose cousin introduced us to traditional Swedish saturday-night entertainment highlights such as one-room appartment skinhead parties somewhere in the outskirts of Stockholm, complete with pint-glasses of Captain Morgan’s and face-tattoos. One thing I learned that evening is that nights out tend to be so much better when suddenly your only hope is getting out alive. I need to find myself some perilous places in Vienna for jolly good evening entertainment.

Anyway, I did survive the party as I did drinking (another Swedish specialty) at Kvarnen, a pub/club in the heart of Stockholm’s Södermalm. Which reminds me: if you go and smoke a cigarette outside that place, make sure to not sway in any way, because security guys might think you’re too drunk and bar you from going back in. Which in no way happened to me, of course. Oh, and if it happens to you, simply walk away and go back in. Which I heard might work.

And finally, just to prove that I did not spend my days and nights on food and booze only, here’s something for my fellow Stieg Larsson fans. There are tours organized by the city museum called, aptly, Millennium-tours, where you’ll see many of the places featured in Larsson’s Millennium Trilogy. They are Sundays only, but you can buy a map of the tour, complete with explanations of the spots’ relevance in the books. Which is what we did, and, yes, I did take a few pictures. I felt like a fanboy, which, I’m unfortunately obliged to say, I guess I am.

Well, that was my rather concise but nonetheless extremely witty, entertaining and as always dramatic recount of my three day weekend in probably the cleanest city of Europe, if not the world. Enjoy the pictures.

Sun Kvarnen Montelius Vägen Swimsuitboys View Damaged Kötbullar Södermalm Berns Salonger Millennium Office Södermalm Crawfish salad Berns Salonger Brandstation Mellqvist Kaffeebar Stockholm Public Library Tivoli Salander's Home Stockholm harbour Stockholm Salander's Home II Köttbullar

Concerts – A Rant

There are a couple of things young people like to do (yes, I still consider myself young, so fuck off, will you?). One of these things is going to concerts. I myself am not as avid a concertgoer as some of my peers, mainly because I’m too elitist to listen to most of what is playing in venues near me. But once in a while, I do like to indulge in a live-experience, and whenever I do, I remember another reason why I don’t do this more often: the people.

That’s right, people. It’s similar to the movies, really. You come to see and hear someone or something, and most of the time your enjoyment is hindered by someone else who has come for the same reasons but, unlike you, is an inconsiderate or stupid bastard. Or both.

So let me run down a few things that tend to make me want to shoot someone in the head (“shoot in the head” is of course a figure of speech – I’d actually bludgeon them to death with my plastic beer cup):

  • Dancing: Yes, I have heard from people that moving your body in a fashion resembling the way the schoolgirl-zombies move in STACY is something to be enjoyed. I am inclined to believe that notion, but I’m als extremely annoyed when people think it’s their prerogative to move that way in a crowd that’s already as packed as a can of sardines. I don’t exactly care for your idea of feeling the music through weird movements of arms and legs, so bumping into me repeatedly with a look of bliss on your face is not something I take to lightly. I might make use of that plastic cup.
  • Cameraphones: Yes, it is perfectly alright to take pictures of your favourite band. I’ve done it! But it’s not alright to constantly take photos with your crappy cameraphone, thus obscuring everyone else’s view behind you, forcing them to watch the whole concert through the crappy lense of your crappy cameraphone. Enjoy the music (don’t dance!), and try to forget about posting crappy pictures off your crappy cameraphone to facebook once in a while, willya?

Actually, that’s it. Apart from the fact that I’m really not into handing in my coat, therefore being envious of all those people who prance around in their tshirts and don’t have to either carry or wear their coats and sweat like a pig, there’s nothing else I’d like to add. I guess I’m only half-way to being the bitter, old man I’m aspiring to be.

Oceansize, Flex, 09

Oceansize
It’s not that long ago that I wrote on here about one of the best concerts I’d ever been to. It was Oceansize’s gig at Vienna’s Flex, about two years ago.

I was quite ecstatic, and for solid reasons. First of all, I was in the fortunate position to interview lead-singer Mike Vennart, which in itself is always a nice way to start a night. And second they simply played a fantastic set, seemed to be really into it and, last but not least, the audience seemed to be too.

Last Monday, they played again in Vienna, again at the same venue. The vivid memories from their last gig still fresh in my mind, I went there with great expectations, sky-high I’d like to think in retrospect. Can you guess what happened next? In case my powers of dramatic storytelling have failed me once again, I’ll tell you. It was disappointing.

First of all, they didn’t seem to be too taken with their audience, and the audience didn’t either. I think it didn’t help that lead-singer Mike Vennart repeatedly told them that he’d appreciate if people went outside or to the back to smoke. While I do understand that it must be tough to sing in a smoke-filled club, it’s never a good idea to tell people to do one of the two things that people do at clubs, namely smoke and drink. Especially in Vienna.

Apart from those rather unhealthy dynamics, they also played a set-list with many either very new or yet unreleased songs. They didn’t play a single song off Frames, their latest LP, which I think is their best (which is of course no reason for them to think so too, but fuck, I’d have loved to hear “Trail of Fire”. Or at least “Only Twin”). And after a rather short concert, they played just that one encore. Which actually was quite awesome, I must say.

Didn’t help, though. In the end, it was a great band’s disappointing concert. Which I think is somehow worse than the other way round.

Martinigansl at DBM

Martinigansl IV

The more loyal of my readers will know that I’ve had yet another blog for a while now. Called “Death by Martini“, it celebrates the greatness that is food and drink.

My latest entry, written mere minutes before this one, is sporting scrumptious pictures of the traditional goose served up on or around St. Martin’s day. Click here to see it with yer own eyes.




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