Willow and I never had a defined Start Date. But, apparently, today is our Use By and Best Before Date. It’s not much one can do. Love works in mysterious ways. It brings the best moments and sporadically it brings the worst.
Frantzén/Lindeberg — A taste sensation to remember!
Three colleagues and I went out for dinner this Thursday to celebrate a few projects that have gone well.
Three of us (and I was one of those three) had no idea where we were going. Looking back on it, it being a surprise was probably a good thing!
We went to Frantzén/Lindeberg. A two star Michelin restaurant in Gamla Stan, Stockholm. I think this is the first two star Michelin restaurant I have ever been to. But it sure as hell isn’t the last!
The dinner was exceptional on so many levels. A taste sensation and food experience over the average.
We never got a menu in the traditional sense. What we got was a selection of the ingredients they are working with at the moment. All we had to choose was between 6, 8 or a 10 courses. We chose 10. Thats my kind of place. I hate long menus.
To drink we decided to go for one of their drinking packages. We could choose from a small, medium or large. We chose large.
All the courses are really small. A mouth full. But many of the courses are a few courses in itself!! This blog post gives you an idea of how each course could be like.
It’s pricy, and this time I didn’t pay for it. But, if the occasion occurs, I wouldn’t hesitate in doing it all over again and pick up the bill at the end of it. You pay, but they sure as hell deliver.
Dave Matthews Band at Fryshuset, Stockholm, 15th March 2010
When I sat down to write this post I was happy and full of joy. Then I started to look around the web for a photograph of the event in question and stumbled upon a few reviews… Now I’m angry. Not sad-angry. I’m pissed-off-rant-angry.
All the reviews goes something like this:
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet massive in the US, consectetur adipiscing elit. Grate ful Deads Curabitur in nulla vitae arcu bibendum imperdiet nec eget ante. In hac habitasse platea jam band dictumst. Fusce faucibus libero jazz a tellus consequat pulvinar. Proin vestibulum urna at est consequat fermentum. Curabitur extremely skilled musicians accumsan, metus a placerat varius fermentum quis, but it gets boring nulla est porttitor purus, ac cursus diam sem quis dolor urna at est. Vestibulum urna at est consequat but I get a feeling it’s for people who cares more about the quality of the TV than was actually on it. Lorem fucking dolor set.
See, I had a period in my life when I just hated people who wrote music reviews. I don’t know if it was due to the fact that I were on the receiving end a few times, or that I, in general, have a hard time respecting critics with low qualifications.
When it comes to music writers, in many instances, there’s a fine balance between being a journalist and a music enthusiast.
I’m not saying that you have to be a musician to write about music. But if you aren’t, you need to have the journalistic skill to articulate what you don’t like in a manner that doesn’t shift you’re not-so-good-music-knowledge into a bias I-don’t-like-this-so-they-are-shit.
How do you rate a concert if what you hear isn’t something you like, and you’re not capable of zooming out of the personal zone or skilled enough to judging the performance from a strictly musical angle?
When is a review a statement saying “this is not my cup of tea” and when is it a professional documentation of the quality of a performance?
I thought I had put all of this behind me. That I, past 30, could live in harmony even in a society where shit heads express their ignorance and get paid to do it.
There are just so many parts of these reviews that just amplify how the world would have been a better place if they didn’t attend the concert, or, at least, decided not to write about it.
An example extract from these reviews would be Dan Backman, who writes for SVD.se and Po Tidholm, who writes for DN.se. Both of these fellows decided to share with the world their qualified drum and rhythm qualifications by slagging of the drummer Carter Beauford.
Mr Backman claims that Mr Beauford never ever finds a groove “worth of it’s name”. Mr Tidholm writes something along the lines of; no matter what mood or atmosphere of the song Mr Beauford preoccupied himself with some sorts of non-stop sweeping masturbation on his 37 symbols and 63 drums and toms. Now that’s quality.
Mr Tidholm also ends his review by saying that people who like Dave Matthews Band are the sort who “care more about the quality of the TV than what’s on it”. Ooo, nice one. I’d almost like to turn that metaphor 180 degrees — sorry for liking music. An extra nice touch with his last statement is the fact that most people reading this review will undoubtedly be people who like Dave Matthews Band. Yeah, there are lessons to be learned here — this is how you build a fan base among readers.
Besides Dan Backman and Po Tidholm, also Anders Dahlbom, who writes for Expressen and Håkan Steen, who writes for Aftonbladet decided to chip in. They both had an opinions on the Bob Dylan cover “All along the watchtower”. Makes me assume they aren’t actually familiar with any of the Dave Matthews Bands material.
I’m convinced, that the 3200 audience attending this concert, not because they had to, but because they wanted to, can’t disagree more with these reviews/opinions. That the fact that Dave Matthews Band are a renown live performer and one of the biggest live acts in the US as well as a holding a high position on the RIAA top selling artists is not just a fluke, but a result of skills.
So… my review of this concert ended up being a long slag-off of other reviews… classy. Oh well. I’m sorry for the angry mood. But, I had to get this of my chest. I will leave my review part to the 140 character summary I posted in on twitter
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Oh, yeah, and I ended up steeling the photo from www.rockfoto.net.
Mark Linkous
Mark Linkous, best known as the man behind Sparklehorse, is yet another great artist who made the decision to take his own life and leave us. Besides being a brilliant songwriter, Linkous also produced records for A Camp (Nina Persson, singer in The Cardigans solo project) and Daniel Johnston.
If you haven’t heard of Sparklehorse, I can recommend all of his albums. If you have access to Spotify, just follow this link
Lee Alexander McQueen
On the 11 of February the world lost a visionary — fashion designer Lee Alexander McQueen. Truly truly sad. We are in need of more people like Mr McQueen, not less.
I had a pleasure to work for him while being part of the small team at POKE who designed and build the previous incarnation of www.alexandermcqueen.com. The project ended up winning several awards, including a BAFTA for best design. I like to believe that the magic ingredients in the project was that we adopted his extreme attention to details.
To me Lee Alexander McQueen was a source of inspiration. Someone who made his own path. Paved his own road. Took no shortcuts. He also managed to find a healthy balance of being both artist and designer. Which, sadly, isn’t the easiest thing to pull off.
No important endeavour that required innovations was done without risk
I’m no big fan of James Cameron’s blockbuster movies, such as Aliens, The Terminator, Titanic and Avatar. I have respect for the work that goes into them, but it’s not the kind of movies that keeps me wanting more.
But credit where credit’s due. His TED talk strung me a chord.
Firstly I found his curiosity inspiring, secondly he ends the talk in a very “2010 way”, talking about risk, failure and innovation.
Don’t put limitations on yourself. Other people will do that for you. Don’t do it to yourself. Don’t bet against yourself… and take risks.
NASA has this phrase that they like, failure is not an option. But failure has to be an option. In art and explorations. Cause it’s a leap of faith. And no important endeavour that required innovations was done without risk. You have to be willing to take those risks. So, that’s the thought I would like to leave you with. In whatever your doing, failure is an option. But fear is not.
View the talk here: James Cameron: Before Avatar … a curious boy