Art

I went to Hedi Slimanes photography exhibition at MOCA (Museum of Contemporary Art) a while ago. I really enjoy his photographs, a lot of his pictures is of up and coming artists and musicians and I like that combination.

I liked the exhibition. First there was one room with mirrors and photographs and the second room was 4 big screens playing still photographs. Even though i liked it i felt like they had too many pictures playing on those screens. They should have chosen more pictures to display like in the first room.

 

Matisyahu

I read the corsair and found out about a concert at the Gibson Amphitheatre. You were able to win tickets to the concert through the corsair if you emailed them and also through IL Care or Eventbrite. I entered both contests and i won! on BOTH of them. two tickets on each so I had four tickets and I brought 3 friends and we went to see Matisyahu on NOV 20th. I have wanted to see him live for several years but never got the chance. The concert was really nice and I’m so glad that I won.

By entering the Evenbrite contest i also promised to volunteer for the I.L. Care. Even if I’m not Jewish I’m looking forward to do the 4 hours i promised to give before 2012 ends. 

 

 

1 Month Have Passed

Remember this post?

About a month ago I said that I was going to buy only the necessary and not anything that i didn’t need. Do you think I did it? Im sorry to say that I did not really succeed with my own challenge. I did however do pretty good according to myself.

It started off pretty bad as I had problems with my phone. So I had to buy a new one, and a phone is a pretty pricey thing to buy when you’re not supposed to buy anything. But I couldn’t go entirely without a phone so I still consider this a necessary item. Then one day not so long after that I went to Third Street Promenade just to go to T- Mobile and set up the settings for my new phone. And I happened to walk into Cotton On. At Cotton On they had this awesome deal. Jeans, skinny fit in different colors for only $30 (!). I know that this was probably not entirely necessary. But I could not resist that deal because the fit was just perfect and having my challenge in mind I only bought 1 pair and not 2. And I figured that I will eventually (In a not so distant future) need jeans, and then its better to buy them at an awesome price than to wait until i actually need them and not find a good deal like that. I also during this month bought socks, but those I really needed because it is getting cold and I had holes in most of mine. To celebrate me doing at least pretty OK during this challenge I went to the rosebowl fleamarket in Pasadena Sunday Nov 13. But as the challenge started Oct 12 I’m not counting the bargains I made at the fleamarket.

All together I think I did pretty good, accept for the phone (but i couldn’t help that). I probably would have bought much more if I didn’t put myself in this challenge. I’m going to try this again this month to just see if I can keep down the costs and unnecessary consuming.  This month I’m also going to go through my belongings and clothes and see what I can sell.

 

 

 

Superfoods?

“Potatoes are bad for you, coffe is good for you, acai berries are some sort of miracle berries, Greek yogurt is unbelievably healthy, potatoes are good for you, coffe is bad for you, green tea is another miracle worker, coconut water is the best recovery drink ever, Maybe Greek yogurt isn’t that good?, acai berries have lots of antioxidants but is it really that good as we think?, caffeine is horrible, caffein have antioxidants and may be good for the heart if not consumed to much, A glas of red wine a day will keep you healthy, a glas of red wine a day will make you an alcoholic, Sushi is healthy, sushi is NOT healthy”

These are some of the common believes that we initially have been told by media, or “experts” (that may or may not be so much of experts after all) media use to convey what they want us to believe. In today’s society we have tons of these. They change every couple of year or so and “experts” find new bad or good items all the time. It really makes me crazy. These experts (That still may or may not be experts) may have done good research and found out that there is so or so many antioxidants in acai berries, or that caffeine may affect your body in a bad way if you consume it too much. But what makes me crazy is that people are using these “superfoods”  to make money out of people. And of course you are gonna get fat and maybe sick later in life if you eat fast food every day. But if you don’t have a special condition and you are healthy diets and superfoods are exaggerated.

I think if people just vary their food and eat all they want but in moderation and move their bodies just enough, people will be healthy. If someone has a sedentary job, maybe they have to work out or run a few times a week. And if you move a lot at your job, maybe a walk a couple times a week is enough.

This is what I have done my entire life and this far I’ve been healthy and I’ve never been overweight.

 

Admail Caused Neighbours Feud

In sweden a radio station used mail to advertise a special radio show they have. Trying to be funny they sent out a note saying “there’s nothing wrong in your taste of music, but frankly at three o’clock in the morning we prefer sleeping!!  / Your Neighbor”. the joke didn’t really get through to all people and many actually thought that the neighbor was complaining. Especially older people that got the note got very upset and even scared of their neighbors. Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet reports that some neighbors even started fights because of the note. The note was sent out in three major cities in Sweden and one guy claims he was threatened from his neighbor with a baseball bat. The neighbor knocked his door holding a baseball bat and when he opened the door the neighbor asked “Do you have a problem with me watching TV at night?”.

-We send out many admails in a year and not all of them are perfect. We are really sorry that people got genuinely scared and worried about this. Say Per Lorentz, Press Officer at the radio station.

This is what the note looked like:

A thing that i noticed when i read in different newspapers about what happened is that the Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet’s headlines for the story were really aggressive towards the radio station. The headline’s included the words “mail coup” and “rages” which made it sound like the radio station did this on purpose. Another newspaper headlines were more nice towards the radio station saying that an admail triggered a dispute amongst neighbors. Also the other newspaper didn’t even mention the guy with the baseball bat.  So now I know that Aftonbladet is not biased towards the radio station but the other newspaper i read probably is.

 

Staples Center – Keith Urban

A couple of weeks ago I went to see Keith Urban at the staples center. My roommate got free tickets to the concert for the Hyde Lounge Box and the concert was amazing. I’ve never been to the Staples Center before but i have heard so much about it, even when i lived in Sweden i knew about the Staples Center where the Grammy Awards took place. I’m not a ports fan at all and i barely knew who the Lakers were before i came to LA, but I heard about all the famous artists that have played the Arena. I had heard only a few songs from Keith Urban before, he is not that big in Sweden. Now I’m a big fan of his music. The best part of the concert though was that all of a sudden legendary John Fogerty was up on the stage with Keith and they played an unrehearsed Proud Mary. I am a really big fan of John Fogerty and Creedence Clearwater Revival so that was really amazing to me. In one of the encore’s Jack Black came up on stage and sang his own little version of “The Devil went down to Georgia”. Keith Urban has a really nice connection to the audience and i love when performers include the audience in their show. He brought up two girls and one guy to sing the song “Kiss a Girl” with him on stage. It was a really nice experience to see a concert at the Staples Center and the Hyde Lounge was really nice but I prefer being on the floor closer to the stage when I go to concerts.

 

Magazine iPad?

I found this interesting article about a Baby that thinks a magazine is an iPad. I don’t know if i found it scary or amazing. It really makes me think about what the world is going to look like in about 20 years when that baby (and her generation) is grown up.

The article was found in the online version of The Daily Mail UK.

This is the video of the baby when she mistakes several magazines from iPads. She even seem to think at one point that its something wrong with her finger and tries it on her leg instead.

Lately I’ve been thinking…

People are obsessed with stuff. We want to have the newest phones, biggest TV’s, coolest computers, designer clothing. The feeling of buying something new that you have wanted for a while is great. But i have noticed that the more stuff i buy the more stuff i want. It’s like I get addicted to buying. In my case its usually clothes and jewelry,(lucky im not one of those who buy the expensive kinds, I love buying clothes and jewelry from second hand stores and cheep places like H&M and Forever 21). But i really don’t need all the clothes and stuff I’m buying. A big part of why I want to buy i guess is commercials and ads. They make me think that If I buy this piece of clothing im going to be the model in the ad. And If my really cool friend has the new iPhone I want it too cause I want to be as he/him.

I met a guy who’s backpacking. He reminded me of how it is living in a backpack, just travelling. I’m as happiest when I travel and meet new people and see new places. The awesome feeling that gives me is not even comparable with buying a new dress. There is something seriously wrong with the world when people care more about their stuff than about other humans around them.

Therefore I’m going to challenge myself not to buy anything but the necessary. For one month starting today I’m not going to buy any clothes or jewelries or dvd’s or make up. I’m only going to be allowed to by groceries and other necessities.

Killer Whales is an animal with huge brains, they live for their family. Even when they catch the tiniest little fish they share it among their family and friends.

NEEDTOBREATHE

Last week I told you how Spotify changed the way most people in Sweden listen to music. But to me It’s also a source of finding new artist, bands and albums. When you listen to an artist on Spotify you get a list of related artists. And if you klick on one of those artists you get to their music and you get a new list with that artist’s related artists. When you log into Spotify their front page show new releases. And you can easily klick on a new release and start listening right away. These two ways of finding music probably make up about 80% of the new music i find. I have actually found my new favorite artist through the new releases on Spotify. NEEDTOBREATHE – I had never heard of this band before but I’m always on the hunt for new great music. I was interested to see if my friends use these ways to find their new music also so I asked around, turns out that of the 25 friends  I asked 22 of them use Spotify to find new music. Now I have a lot of music interested friends but to me that is still  a pretty impressive number.

Needtobreathe’s new album – The Reckoning is a 14 track album and every single one of the tracks is amazing according to me.

Spotify “Changed” a Country

I remember when it first came, I lived in Sweden and everyone were talking about this new awesome music library on the internet which you could access for free and it wasn’t even illegal! You had to have an invite of course. (A way for Spotify to make them self seem exclusive and desirable?). Or you had to pay a monthly fee. If you payed the monthly fee you would get rid of the ads. But o one really cared about the ads in the beginning. I even once went in to a bar which played their music through Spotify, the free version. So every 5th or 6th song you would have a 30 second ad about something. And they would always squeeze in that if you buy Spotify Premium you will no longer have to listen to these ads. Now a days when Spotify has been released in several different countries (including USA) the rules have changed. If you don’t pay the monthly fee you can only access a tiny bit of the library and you can only listen to a certain amount of songs per month. But that doesn’t matter because everyone i know in Sweden, No matter if they are 15 or 50 they all have Spotify.  The premium version. Everyone I know use it as their primary music source and you can even have it in your phone so no need for buying music and filling your iPod with it anymore. No one ever ask you if you have spotify, the questions are instead “Should we log in to yours or my spotify?”, “Do you have any good spotify lists to share?” or “did you see the new album release on Spotify?”

I can’t ever remember any more how we played music in Sweden before Spotify, Did we use CD’s? because if i remember it correctly iTunes was not that big in Sweden. I have no clue, but i know this: It doesn’t matter as long as we have Spotify.

So I guess what I’m trying to say with this is that in less than a year, Spotify changed the way that people listen to music in an entire country more or less. And I’m glad it did because Spotify is by far the best music source I’ve ever had. The sound will never be as great as when playing LP’s on a record player but those days are long gone.