JÄÄ

pics: robbz

The most amazing thing ever. EVER.

Amazing track from 1997

pic: yess

They wrote a little something about me on this nice blog. Now, I'm off to see Knut the polar bear for Niclas birthday. Happy birthday, freund. While I'm gone, listen to this amazing song from 1997. Also, I'm going to be in New York in 8 days. Ace.

How to know if people will be terrible parents.

I guess all actions might as well be considered maneuvers. Or called maneuvers, at least. I'm fairly certain that your ability to maneuver certain situations, would be a certified way of juding if you are good at life or not. To me, that's what being "cool", or good at life in general, is all about. Always being able to maneuver. It doesn't necessarily mean you can maneuver every single scenario in the world, it simply means you never get yourself into a situation that you can't handle. Makes perfect sense. Always staying on top of things, means you are good at life. Now, some people are not very good at maneuvering, thus they are not very good at life. Why does it feel like those people always have children? Those people should not have children. In fact, there are a number of easy ways to spot people that should never spawn, or shouldn't have spawned any offspring. These are generally horrible parents:

-People who jaywalk with their strollers: This has to be the most egoistic thing one can possibly do. How would you feel if a car came along and hit only your stroller, and not you? You probably wouldn't care, since you're the self-centred anti-christ of parents, but still. From an objective standpoint, that scenario would be unfortunate.
-People who live on Manhattan: It can be hard teaching a child proper moral values, if you've never paid your own rent.
-People who are religious: It can be hard teaching a child proper moral values, if your whole life is dedicated to serving something that might not even exist. And if it does exist, it most likely hates us. Avidly. I guess God can be compared to the cutest girl in school. No matter how hard you try, she doesn't see you. You buy her things, you get into fights over her, you do all her work for her, and she never recognizes your efforts. But somehow, there's a tiny part of you that still thinks you'll get to sleep with her if you try hard enough. That she's just testing you. She's not. She just doesn't like you.
-People who bring their kids to restaurants: Kids do not like restaurants. It really is not that complicated. Just don't bring them places they don't want to be. They'll cause a scene. It's like throwing your dog into a bag of fleas, and then tell him to sit still.
-People who are French: You have been unpleasant for centuries. You're the kid that everyone pretends to like, because he has cool clothes and is not excited about anything.
-People who decide it's a good idea to give Barack Obama the Nobel Peace Prize: Naturally, I have to ask. Where did Barack create peace? Shouldn't a prize be awarded due to result, rather than ambition? Actually, I think we should just give all future olympic gold medals to Germany, because they entered the competition with the intention of winning. Not because they actually won.
-People who have an abortion: Well, duh. Also, it must be horrible being a sperm in that equation. I mean, imagine running a race with like 10 000 other people, and somehow, you miraculously manage to win the entire race. You're number one. Then, after having sprinted for two or three weeks straight, and you've finally reached the finish-line, the main sponsor tells you the race has been terminated.

These people should never be allowed to have their own children. And if they already do, these children should be taken away from them. Right now.

BLÄ

These are some pictures from a recent roll I developed. It includes roof-climbing, people cutting my hair while being drunk(meaning I had to do it again the next morning), and finally proving to people that our shower actually is in our kitchen. It's true.

pics: sometimes

The Company of People

I just noticed I have a page on The Company of People's website. I wasn't aware of the fact that they put my pictures up yet. There are lots of great photographers and artists on their website, and it's fun being included.

My page on The Company of People

sweet

Cloud - All over

My buddy Alex just released a new single on itunes, beatport etc etc. Needless to say, I enjoy both the song and the cover. You can have a test listen and/or buy the song on itunes:

Cloud & Androgenious - All over

Random Still That I Like Part VII

You never cease to amaze me.

The creators of...



proudly present...



Needless to say, these products are not European, Asian, Australian, African or South American. Or Canadian.

You can do better, Woody.

I read about Frida Kahlo on Wikipedia today, and I came across something relatively interesting. I don't know if you've seen Vicky Christina Barcelona, but doesn't this description of Frida Kahlo's marriage, remind you of the relationship between Penelope Cruz, Scarlett Johansen and Javier Bardem's characters?

"As a young artist, Kahlo approached the Mexican painter, Diego Rivera, whose work she admired, asking him for advice about pursuing art as a career. He recognized her talent and her unique expression as truly special and uniquely Mexican. He encouraged her artistic development and began an intimate relationship with Frida. They were married in 1929, despite the disapproval of Frida's mother.

Their marriage was often tumultuous. Kahlo and Rivera had fiery temperaments and had numerous extramarital affairs. The openly bisexual Kahlo had affairs with both men and women, including Josephine Baker. Rivera knew of and tolerated her relationships with women, but her relationships with men made him jealous. For her part, Kahlo was furious when she learned that Rivera had an affair with her younger sister, Cristina. The couple eventually divorced, but remarried in 1940. Their second marriage was as turbulent as the first. Their living quarters often were separate, although sometimes adjacent. There were frequent lovers between Frida and Diego, such as Leon Trotsky and Dorothy Hale."

Disregarding the fact that Cristina was Kahlo's younger sister, it feels pretty similar.

Those updates

Remember when Facebook got its own Twitter-function? You know, when people started updating their status more frequently? I really like that function. I like the spontaneity of it, and the fact that you can attach stuff etc. And the best thing, is reading about people's everyday lives, since it really makes me feel like I'm closer to the people I know, even though I don't live in the same city as them anymore. My absolute favorite, is when people write about the different kinds of food they've had during the day. You know, something like:

"X Just finished baking a lemon custard pie for desert, and now it's time to watch some TV!"

Doesn't that make you wish you were there? Doesn't that make you envious? In this very moment, that person gets to indulge in both a tasty dish that's available everywhere, and gets to sit in front of something that everyone has, at the very same time! That really tickles my envy-nerv, I'll tell you that right now. Or what about this good old classic:

"X is now feeling sick from the monstrous salmon-pasta dish that my bestest friend X came over to make, and now it's time to sleep! YUMMY!"

Not only is this person crazy enough to combine food from Norway, with food from Italy, he/she's totally going to bed afterwards! Again, I can't say how envious I am. I would never have the guts to indulge in all those crazy activities. And it might even have been on a weeknight. Oh, such madness!

Please continue with the food-updates, guys! It's not like every single person we know eats food and nobody cares.

Great magazine covers

A dog day.

I came across an amazing picture story via Magnum Photos. Basically, this guy did a snapshot series when he was in Bogota to adopt his daughter. Such a great concept, I wish one of my parents had done a picture story when they acquired me. There's one thing that I find fascinating about his images. His portraits of people aren't anything special, it's his portraits of Botoga dogs that are amazing. His dog-portraits are way more genuine than his people-portraits, which is something I haven't really seen before.

Alec Soth

Akbar the baby & Au Revoir Simone

I may be mean, but I give credit where credit is due. If someone does something worthy of praise, I'm not one to deny it. Therefore, I would like to give a big thumbs up to this lady:

http://www.aftonbladet.se/wendela/barn/article5845966.ab (Swedish)

I couldn't find the article in English, but essentially, some woman in Indonesia just gave birth to a child that weighed approximately 8.7 kilos. His name is Akbar. Akbar the baby. Akbar the baby who weighed 19 pounds, and still decided to thrust his way out of his mothers vagina. I guess it's her own fault, for having a placenta that's made of mayonnaise, but still, if giving birth to something the size of a small pool-table isn't worth a bit of praise, then I honestly do not know what is.

Also, here's a great song:

Au Revoir Simone - Another Likely Story(Aeroplane Remix)

Studio playlist-additions Part I

I'm going to start adding studio-playlist songs spontaneously. Just because a song is #1, it doesn't mean it's my favorite. Starting now.





1. Fleetwood Mac - Little lies
2. Fleetwood Mac - Everywhere

A day at the bookstore

pic: dunno, new years 2007/2008

Today I went to the bookstore inside the Helmut Newton museum. I'd be pretty confident in saying it's the best bookstore I've ever been to, when it comes to photography books. It's not so much the quantity of books, but the selection. Everything's amazing. Here are a few gems I'll be looking to buy whenever I get some cash:

I, Tokyo by Jacob Aue Sobol 40 €
Nollywood by Pieter Hugo 40 €
Hannes Killian 40 €
Immediate Family by Sally Mann 25 €
An Aperture Monograph by Diane Arbus 30 €

Total: 175 €

That means I'll be able to afford these books in about 400 years. Neat.

I know it's relative, ok?

Two things are currently on my mind. One: Since my ipod broke, I need to compile a new studio playlist. This got me thinking about the criteria for a good studio playlist. Of course, this is something relative(which is what point two is about), but having a finely tuned studio playlist has always been very important to me. Especially when you're a person who doesn't know what he's doing in studio, and needs to win respect on other fronts when working in one. I've always been of the opinion that it should be a mix between songs that everyone knows and likes, guilty pleasures, new versions of old songs, and songs that nobody's heard of. It sounds easier than it is. Therefore, any suggestions are welcome.



The other thing I've been thinking about, is how much I despise when people answer random questions with "But that's relative, it's different from person to person". For instance, I really enjoy asking strange questions that are not related to anything or anyone. If you socialize with me, it's not uncommon for me to ask something like:

-So, If the world had to decide on a world capital, what would it be? Keep in mind cultural, economical, political arguments etc etc, and come up with a solution.
-Well, I don't know... I mean, that's relative. It's different from person to person, you know.

Do you take me for a fool? Is that it? Have you ever gotten the impression that I am a moron? It's pretty obvious that everyone has their own opinion, the point of the question is not to underline the fact that we all have different cerebral activities. The point is to argue and get try to get somewhere, even though the topic in itself is not relevant. When someone answers "It's relative" it must either mean that this dumb fail of an argument has worked in the past, that the person is a little bit dumb, or that he/she thinks it's not even worth discussing things that are not directly linked to our lives. Possibly all three.

It's like when you ask someone what their favorite song/movie is, and they say "I can't say, there are just too many". Seriously, just.name.one. Please. It's as if you think I'm going to judge your entire character, simply because you said your favorite movie is Reservoir Dogs. Loving film so much that you can't name your favorite one, does not make you cultivated. It makes you a coward.

So, if you want to be my friend, just walk up and ask me something like, "If you could combine any two animals, which would they be, and why?" If you don't want to be my friend, I can understand that too.

Random Stills That I Like Part VI