The Afterword

Musings on the byways of popular culture

Menu

Navigation

Karin Park: a “bloody Swede” in Norway

by 4 Comments

Ms Park has been mentioned in dispatches a couple of times but nobody seemed to know exactly which country she is from. For those of us living in Scandoland, these things are important. There is enormous rivalry between Norway, Sweden and Denmark and a lot of differences between them.

She was born in Djura in Dalarna, the very heart of Sweden, but she now lives in rainy Bergen on Norway’s west coast. What’s most surprising though is that she wrote Norway’s 2013 Eurovision entry: I feed you my love. Which is very good. I can’t imagine her Swedish counterparts, The Knife, going near ESC with a bargepole.

Many from Sweden go to work in Norway and earn a lot of money, particularly in healthcare. Young Swedes take all the crap jobs that the Norwegians don’t want and then live a wild party life. They are not popular with the Norwegians.

A recently released film, Svenskjävel, (literally translated bloody Swede) looks at this relationship.

The outspoken protagonist, Dino. a young Swede working as an au pair in Oslo, doesn’t beat around the bush when it comes to describing the relationship between the two countries.

“Swedes like Norway. We think of » Continue Reading.

“Weird Teacher” Yankovic deserves an Apple

by 7 Comments

Weird Al doing his bit for the English language. The lyrics are clever, the graphics are witty and if even half of it sticks he’ll be the darling on the staffroom.

Tops marks for mentioning literally which my son is constantly misusing. “I literally found a 100 SEK note on the way home from school.” How else would you find it?

Any other Tubers who are doing their bit for education?

Anyone for skinny dipping with Satan?

by 6 Comments

Tonight’s the night, my weird Swedish sisters!

According to ancient tradition, this evening the witches of the north fly down to the island of Blågylla for an evening of magic, mayhem and merry-making with Mephistopheles.

Satanic smorgasbord, skinny dipping and diabolic disco.

The only problem is that it’s bloody snowing here. I thought yesterday was April Fools Day.

And whereas the hardened crones of yore would not miss this necromantic knees up for anything, I suspect that the modern Swedish witch is a tad more finicky.

“Nick darling, could we do the Satanic incantations on Skype this year? I’m having problems with my broomstick and I’ve got a new Ozzy DVD I just have to watch.”

That old black magic just doesn’t have the same appeal. Beelzebub may be on his tod tonight. And the pizzeria in Byxelkrok hasn’t even opened yet for the summer season.

Strange how what would have had you burnt at the stake 300 years ago is now an excuse to get more chocolate. All the small girls here are dressed as witches today and will go round trying to cadge some sweets. A bit like trick or treat. My daughter looked particularly splendid in » Continue Reading.

Duo-lightful

by 129 Comments

There’s a plethora of duet albums these days. Most of these seem to involve one singer taking the first verse, another the second verse etc.

But how many songs can you think of where there are two distinct characters singing?

Very common in opera and musicals of course, but less so in pop and rock.

I’ll kick off with Ms Lauper and Howlin’ Pelle getting into quite a lively Xmas row where quite a few skeletons get thrown out of the closet.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3fdj5m1DEs0

I’m so bored with the …..D.N.A

by 12 Comments

“The DNA never lies.”

You hear this all the time in the CSI-esque cop shows these days. It seems a visit to the morgue to examine the victim is obligatory. Not to mention one where a junior cop examines CCTV footage and makes an important discovery.

Swedes can’t get enough of English murder mysteries.

Recently we’ve had Endeavour (young Inspector Morse) and Grantchester (set in the 50s, vicar and cop solve crimes together). Is this an indication that TV viewers are getting bored with the infallibility of scientific investigations. Good for criminal justice in society but not for Sunday evening entertainment. Are we getting nostalgic for pre-scientific times?

Anything else you’ve read or seen that shows a similar tendency?

And just for Dodger……

Homework;

A 2000 word essay on the history of the TV cop show. On my desk by the end of the Easter break.

Prison siblings sing in Sing Sing

by 7 Comments

Stumbled across this clip of Joan Baez and her sister Mimi Farina singing together and couldn’t resist sharing it. They are performing for the inmates of Sing Sing Prison. Joan certainly know how to choose the right song: I shall be released. The experience inspired Mimi to found a charity Bread and Roses promoting gigs like this.

Overshadowed by her sister, she was a very interesting woman whose life was marred by tragedy. Her husband and bandmate, Richard Farina, died in a motorcycle accident on her 21st birthday.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1335956/Mimi-Farina.html

Here they are.

1965 – the most revolutionary year in popular music?

by 23 Comments

A friend who knows I’m a music nerd sent me this book review.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/book-review-1965-the-most-revolutionary-year-in-music/2015/02/05/817efdf2-9a61-11e4-bcfb-059ec7a93ddc_story.html

(One quote from the review amused me: in 1965, “movies almost always had happy endings, unless they were foreign.” I bet it was bloody gloomy Scandos!)

“No year was more revolutionary in popular music than 1965.” Andrew Grant Jackson

Discuss. Max 1000 words. Write on one side of the paper only in ink. Plagiarism, factual errors and spelling mistakes will be penalised.

A cornucopia of narrators

by 87 Comments

Jumping shamelessly on the bandwagon of recent threads by Carolina and Mr Moles, I’d like to ask: how many different kinds of song narrators can you think of?

Here a few examples to kick things off.

The victim of domestic abuse – Suzanne Vega’s Luka.

A redneck – Randy Newman’s Rednecks

The god of hellfire – Arthur Brown’s Fire.

A songwriter – here’s an old favourite, The beautiful South’s A song for whoever.

Any more for any more?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dcEG3NudPCk

The Princeton Review tries to stitch up Taylor but is not swift enough

by 1 Comment

The grammar snobs at the Princeton Review have been really hoist by their own petard. They tried to ridicule Taylor Swift but couldn’t even get her lyrics right. The sassy Ms Swift rapidly put those fuddy duddy grammarians in their place.

http://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2015/mar/26/taylor-swift-grammar-marked-incorrectly-princeton-review?CMP=share_btn_link

Unbelievable. There was a section in their test paper called “Grammar in Real Life” which read:

“Pop lyrics are a great source of bad grammar. See if you can find the error in each of the following.”

Who ever went to pop songs as a source of correct grammar anyway?

Professor Lemmy’s seminar on the use of the subjunctive? I’ll pass.

Childhoods: past, present and future?

by 40 Comments

A few days ago Mrs Mousey asked for tips about English songs for children.

That got me thinking: when does childhood end these days? As regards their consumption of popular culture, kids are getting interested in mainstream pop by the age of 9 or 10 and digging Rhianna, Niki Minaj, No Direction,Taylor Swift, Calvin Harris etc.

Childhood is not what it used to be.

Fear not! This is not a Daily Mail style rant about how much better things used to be when the world was full of boys playing football using their jumpers as goalposts.

In many ways things are much better now. No corporal punishment in schools. A golden age for kids films compared to some of the dross I had to put up with. Fantastic internet resources for teachers to use in the school. Kids get to travel far more and see more of the world.

To get to the point.

I’d like to hear about songs, films, poems, TV programmes, etc that illustrate how childhood used to be, how it is today and just for fun, how it might be in the future. How long before we have Roboteachers in the classroom? “Kiss my shiny » Continue Reading.

Pride

by 9 Comments

I went to the cinema club at our local fleapit, Reflexen, yesterday to see the French film, Girlhood.

Modern cinema bears a closer resemblance to a home cinema system than you’d think. Long gone are the days of tins full of celluloid. They were showing the film off a USB stick! There were a few problems getting the film started and once it had, they couldn’t get the subtitles to work! Giving up, the club announced they would be showing Pride instead.

Yippee ! DuCool had recommended it very warmly and his film tips are always worth listening to. My only reservation was that he does have a fondness for rather glum films. Not many frothy romcoms or preposterous monster movies on his best of the year!

Gay activists and miners. What would this be like? An agit-prop Full Monty? Brassed Off without any music?

I needn’t have worried. A great script by Stephen Beresford and some stupendous performances: I haven’t laughed so much in a cinema for yonks.

A tremendous, feel-good film with an important message. See it!!

Based on a true story too.

http://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/aug/31/pride-film-gay-activists-miners-strike-interview

Pass the sick bag! The most cringeacious lurve songs ever?

by 82 Comments

“Treasure! That is what you are! You’re my golden star!”

To my great surprise, my son came home from school and launched into Bruno Mars’s mega-hit, He then started rabbiting on about pop music. Well it made a very pleasant change from World of Warcraft and League of Legends.

He then sang the song again. And again. And again. So much treasure in fact, that even Long John Silver would have probably lost interest. For a little variety I suggested that we listened to another song by the diminutive hit machine. Mistake! He chose a very syrupy ballad that made me a tad nauseous.

The lyrics were about how hot she was with her wavy, blonde hair, her pouting lips and her silky skin. Bruno was a puppy whose mouth was watering for a large bone.

Lady in Red, The way you look tonight : there are certain romantic ballads that make me cringe so much that I have an almost allergic reaction.

Ladies and gentleman, your favourite cringe-inducing and inappropriate examples from the world of the love song, please. They needn’t necessarily be full of cuddly bunnies and cuddly kittens.

Anything that makes you think: no, no, no!

Wacky » Continue Reading.

50 Shades of Schoolboy Mischief?

by 12 Comments

As mentioned previously, there was a two day film festival at Björkhagens School last week and my son and all his schoolmates dressed us characters from the movies.

He chose to go as Heath Ledger’s version of The Joker from a film which he is not allowed to see but which he seems to know far too much about.

It could have been worse. He could have done like this Manchester schoolboy and gone as Christian Grey!

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/mar/06/schoolboy-fifty-shades-christian-grey-barred-from-world-book-day-school

His teachers do sound like a dreadful bunch of humourless fuddy duddies!

Any other characters from books or films which are really not such a great idea for school fancy dress?

Storytelling 2 – The Sequel

by 75 Comments

Here’s a continuation of the Storytelling Songs thread for those of us who find it a pain to scroll down 140 posts on our smart phone to get to the bottom. Let your mind flow as you are out doing your weekend chores.

Inspiration can come in the strangest places.

You’re standing in the queue at IKEA and you suddenly think of a murder ballad.

You’re inspecting the melons at Waitrose and a love story comes to mind.

You’re out on walkies and remember a shaggy dog story you haven’t listened to for years.

Thanks to everyone who has posted so far. Such a broad variety.

Interpret the genre as broadly as you like. And remember: not every story song starts at the beginning or ends at the end.

I’ll kick off with this gorgeous Laura Cantrell song. (I might be able to find one with a stronger narrative drive, but my son is glaring at me. He wants to play World of Warcraft. Now!)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBwiNyzDjFs&list=RDnBwiNyzDjFs#t=0

Ready! Steady! Snow!

by 26 Comments

It’s Friday evening and after a lovely sunny week it’s bloody snowing here. What a start to the weekend!

So I’m going to turn on that old Afterword Jukebox and cheer myself up with some tunes. Old, new. borrowed, blue and probably demographically inappropriate. Please join me and bung on a few tracks.

You’ll probably empty the place if you put on a two hour track of atonal honking. But other than that, anything goes! So please surprise us!

I’ll kick with a new song from local Stockholm heroes Teddybears. They played an enormous free gig just down the road from us this summer to the delight of my kids. My nine year old daughter was with me in the moshpit and loving every second of it.

Storytelling songs

by 141 Comments

There’s an article in the latest Uncut about Slate Creek Records from Frisco in Texas and some of the new generation of country artists such as Kacey Musgraves, Brandy Clark and Angaleena Presley.

Jim Burnett of Slate Creek comments on how these artists are writing “highly observational lyrics about their everyday lives and challenges” and adds that “For me, country music has always been about the words and the stories they tell.”

Ever since the Vikings sat around the campfire, roasting an ox and knocking out a few riffs on their lutes, storytelling has been at the heart of a great deal of popular music.

Jazz, reggae, folk, soul, blues, disco, ska, country, hip.hop, metal, prog, whatever: your favourite story-telling songs, please!

I’ll let that able raconteur Mr Bragg kick things off with a love story.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Am9s85pfH8I

My life as a dog-ged cinephile

by 57 Comments

Despite the fact that the cinema is one of the great popular art forms, I can’t help feeling that it is not given enough attention in schools. ( I would be delighted to her about initiatives that prove me wrong about that by the way.)

So I was very pleased to hear that this week at our son’s school, they are having a two-day film festival. The kids (10 – 14 year olds) get to watch films and then talk about them. The big event was Titanic, which would not have been my choice. Not his either! He bunked off home.

But they are showing Ang Lee’s The Life of Pi and Lasse Halmstöm’s Mitt Liv Som Hund. Two great choices.

All the films have to be chosen from a special catalogue of films available for Swedish schools which restricts choice a little.

My question to you is: if you were putting together such a catalogue of films for kids from 10 – 18, which movies would you choose? Obviously one ought to have some cinematic milestones in there, but I’m also very keen to hear about less well-known films which would inspire young cinephiles.

Carte blanche as regards » Continue Reading.

Afterworders’ natural habitat?

by 19 Comments

Having, completely by chance, run into one of my AW brethren yesterday in a Södermalm chazza, I got to thinking where in the world one would be least and most likely to have a chance encounter with one of you lot. Moose tells me that AWers are as rare in Yorkshire as pork pies in Mecca.

Least likely?

This was really difficult. We’re such a broad church, it’s difficult to rule anything out.

How about

10 Downing Street Glastonbury Festival (well, Rob at least is unlikely to be in the moshpit) A Jeffrey Archer book signing event

Most likely? City Lights Bookshop, San Francisco Lords Cricket Ground A penguin colony in Antarctica A Steely Dan gig in Reykjavik

I’m sure you can do far better than that. Your suggestions please as to the natural habitats of that mysterious creature, the afterworder!

I’m sure Sir David would track one down in a jiffy!

Word Encouters of the After Kind

by 26 Comments

Magic moment in the Ants charity shop on Götgatan this afternoon.

I’d dashed into town with my son, Kai, to buy the final part of his Joker outfit. (They are having a film festival at school tomorrow and the kids have been encouraged to dress up as movie characters.) Just as I was paying, a guy came up to me and said “You must be J**** F*****!” I’m P**** from the Afterword.”

(I’d use our real names but I’d get a spanking from Hannah)

Thanks to our time on Facebook, he knew what I looked like. Sadly I had to dash to pick up my daughter from school but we did manage to exchange a few words about Ebbot who he’s going to see in concert soon.

What a pleasure that all was! The second AWer that I’ve ever met face to face!

The chance of meeting one of you lot is as remote as running into a Giant Panda or encountering a moose.

Our very first Stockholm mini mingle!

Kai was visibly impressed. “Wow, Daddy! You really do know a lot of celebrities!”

Fabulous folk fiddlng from Skenet

by 11 Comments

There’s nothing more exhilarating than some joyous fiddling and so this track by young folk rock band Skenet really hit the spot for me. They’ve just released their debut album, Allting rullar (Everything rolls? everything flows?), and you can give it a listen on Spotify.

A Swedish band that I really must try to catch live.

If this doesn’t get Mr Cheshire Cat donning his clogs and waving his hanky, I don’t know what will.

Long after they were famous

by 39 Comments

Here’s a companion thread to Eddie’s Before they were famous.

Which artists have you seen a while after their moment in the spotlight?

I was lucky enough to catch the late, great Swedish jazz singer Monica Zetterlund at the Fasching jazz club here. By then she was sitting in a wheelchair and a shadow of her former self. But there were moments of beauty when I could really understand I was in the presence of greatness.

Then by contrast there was Arthur Lee on a sunny Saturday afternoon at the Roskilde festival a few years back with an enormous band doing fabulous versions of songs from Forever Changes. And there were Danish teenagers dancing to the music whose parents probably weren’t born in his heyday. Uplifting!

Your experiences please of life after the limelight.

Warner Bothers

by 14 Comments

Our book circle have just been reading Alan Warner’s excellent The Deadman’s Pedal. Tonight, we’re off to the pub to discuss it over a pint or two of heavy.

It’s set in the 1970s and, as in other Warner novels, music plays quite an important role. The protagonist, Simon, makes friends with the wealthy, gauche, bohemian Alex from the posh house through their mutual enthusiasm for the Floyd, Hendrix etc.

Simon really fancies Alex’s very foxy sister, Varie, and In one scene he invites her home and she looks through his albums. (Nowadays she’d just look at his Spotify playlists): She find one she likes the look of but it is never named.

“The cover …was a photograph of robed figures worshipping at dawn, their silhouettes showing through the gaps in Stonehenge.” The centrefold has ” inner, psychedelic illustrations of sacred hearts, eyes in pyramids, bursting stars, Egyptian gods galore.”

“The first side is just awful” according to Simon.

Does this record actually exist? Or did Warner just invent the details?

Any ageing hippies among you who can help out with this?

Zen and the Art of …filling a student bookcase

by 85 Comments

Moose, mentioned enjoying that cult work of philosophical fiction, Robert M Pirsig’s Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance over on the One Book Wonder thread. I liked it too and what memories that book brought back! Back in the day there was no student room that did not boast a copy.

A Swedish friend was recently surprised that I did not know Boris Vian’s L’ecume des jours. Back in his inter-railing days, no rucksack was without it.

What other works of cult fiction come to mind? And how well have they stood the test of time?

John Fowles’s The Magus and Hesse’s Steppenwolf for example.

Along of course with Dark Side of the Moon, Tubular Bills.