Originality

The latest issues of the Swedish magazines Sonic and Filter show little originality. Maybe it's the Swedish way, I dunno. Not only do they show the same guy (a popular Swedish musician/sailor named Hakan Hellstroem) on the cover - he is also screaming in both pictures. Pretty lame. The caravan is nice, though.

Det geniala som klev ut ur fönstret och försvann

Som populärkulturell vägledare i denna förvirrande samtid ser jag det som ett viktigt uppdrag att såga vissa verk på förhand, utan att ha tagit del av dem på riktigt (alltså faktiskt LÄST eller SETT böckerna och filmerna). Sågningarna baserar jag på sunt förnuft, intuition och förutfattade meningar som finslipats genom åratal av populärkulturellt vadande.

Exempel på saker jag sågar reflexmässigt: Guy Ritchies filmer efter år 2000, självhjälpsböcker, TV3, TV4, Avatar (som exempel på en film som varenda en ska tycka är så himla bra), svenska "vänsterrockare", Magnus Betnér, testosteronfilmer som Sin City och 300 (mer datorspel än filmer), musikaler, Cameron Diaz.

Funderar även på att börja såga Christian Bale, från och med första Batman-filmen.

Också det senaste, nämligen boken Hundraåringen som klev ut ur fönstret och försvann, en sådan där helknasig och rolig bok med lättläst språk. En bok man bara inte kan lägga ifrån sig. Snark. Det finns redan en Paasilinna och han bor i Finland.

Games of yesterday

Rewinding. Early 90s, summer flashbacks: Everything was sports, running around, games around the neighborhood. It was a great time. And the time for something new: Home computers. I'm not sure how many of my friends had computers at home, might have been one or two, however, my family was early having one at home. Our first computer was a 386 PC, a huge beige (which computer wasn't that color?) box which was started up by turning a key. The sound barrier was broken when its fans roared and 40 megabyte hard drive was writing. It was something else. It looked and behaved like some kind of combined air conditioner and radiator.

After having been running around outside, me and my friends often calmed down by glueing our eyes to the 13 inch screen of tomorrow. The games we played have certainly left their marks in my brain. There was, of course, the great Wolfenstein 3D which I still refer to as one of the best games ever made, in terms of playing joy and atmosphere. But what I remember most from this period are all those Pinball games, made by Swedish Digital Illusions: Pinball Dreams, Pinball Fantasies and Pinball Illusions. They were all well made and had different, creative themes. They were the perfect games for a platform in its early development stage. The computer keyboard and its shift-keys was made for playing pinball. In 1992 and 1993 pinball was huge - and you didn't need any 5-kronors.

In 1994, Blizzard Entertainment released a game called Warcraft. It was the end of The Pinball Era and since then, noone has felt the desire to play pinball on their home computer.

Only the memories remain.

TV-series > Movies

I'm having trouble watching movies nowadays. I'm not exactly sure when it all started, but it has been sort of a transformation and my interest in watching full length movies has faded quite a bit. I got through one at school (United 93 btw, a great movie) but at home, it seems hopeless, unless it's a brand new, must-see movie (but those are hard to find these days, I don't think I'm even that gaga over Inception).

Somewhere in between episodes of Lost, Californication, True Blood and Mad Men, my interest for movies slipped. TV-series are getting better, more well produced. Of course, they also have much more time to develop interesting characters. Well made TV-series like Mad Men is the literature of the google generation. Also, the DVD/Blu-ray format has taken TV-series to the next level. Missing a whole season of a good series is not a problem anymore, it might be even better because you have a marathon to look forward to. Watch a bunch of episodes, when you're satisfied you press pause and lay your book down, when you're hungry for more you press play and start reading again.

It might be stating the obvious, but in a greater way than ever before, what tv-series you have noted in your calendar defines you as a person, pretty much in the same way as music and clothes do.

My favourite TV-series right now:

1. Mad Men (very well made, great characters - You want to live in the 50's and smoke when you watch it)

2. True Blood (keeps getting better, great cast, good pace)

3. In Treatment (Quickly became a fan of Gabriel Byrne when it aired on SVT during the summer. I also became interested in psychology, hehe. A show that really kept your focus)

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PS. Larry David will return next year with the eight season of Curb Your Enthusiasm. Apparently it will be shot in N.Y. One thing is for sure: It will be prettaaaay good.