Miami Vice by Michael Mann

Miami Vice is a beautifully directed piece based on the two detective characters Crockett and Tubbs from the 1980's action drama.

The music is skilfully blended with the artistic portray of the two undercover agents in the midst of Miami's drug business.

It's dangerous. It's beautiful. It's another exceptional delivery from Michael Mann, mastermind behind movies like Heat and Collateral.

Car patching

I like the first picture even though the quality is not that good and you have absolutely no idea what's going on; it was dark and I used a mobile phone. Looks like Jenny is trashing the car...

Well, she's not - just patching the car, replacing the windshield wipers. You haven't seen the manual by the way?!

Babel by Alejandro González Iñárritu

Babel is a thought-provoking creation based on three distinctly separate stories taking place in different parts of the world, on three individual continents.

Between the stories leap thin lines of cause and action, brought into being by human events at a certain time in space.

It's a beautiful package, masterly pieced together by Alejandro González Iñárritu.

A city full of nude ballerinas

I have seen them dancing on rough brick walls, in dark gloomy concrete tunnels, on facades, on all sorts of ordinary everyday objects. Sometimes alone, sometimes dancing in a small group.

Is it art? Well, I file it under art...

More about the dancing queens can be found here; an interview in Sydsvenskan covering Mr Ballerina and his creations.

Traditional Christmas shopping

This year's finding during me and my sister's traditional Christmas shopping is a 'three in one' offer; it's due to a misspelled price marker. In English it would be something like "some cotton, a chemist, and a reindeer, you get it all for only 20 SEK".

For some reason the tradition is to shop in Malmö. Don't know why, it's just tradition. However, instead of the traditional Chinese cuisine we decided to go for Thai food at Möllevångstorget after a tip from Per. The tip was Krua-Thai, a Thai restaurant that's definitely worth a visit since they do dishes Thai-style upon request; a little bit spicier...

Lemon ice cream at Krua-Thai. Served in a lemon of course. Mm...

Future megatrends

Erik, visionary colleague, researcher and collector of future trends and ideas, has written a report on future megatrends.

Much of the information in the report is, according to the author himself, based on his own thoughts around the subject taking shape in various blog posts at Framtidstanken.

Emanuel Sidea at Ekonominyheterna has written an article about the report.

Dumplings by Fruit Chan

The temptation of rejuvenation is brilliantly and provocatively portrayed in Fruit Chan's colorful and horrific tale Dumplings, a ninety-minute masterpiece based on an initial shorter version part of Three...Extremes.

The movie's stylish and beautifully composed shootings are mixed with the most exquisite piano music.

It's true visual art from Fruit Chan, combined with the most atrocious dough bundles you could ever imagine.

Going Postal by Terry Pratchett

Last page.

Finished Terry Pratchett's Going Postal that I got myself during a trip to Thailand a few weeks ago. Didn't find time to reach the last page on one of those sunny Thai beaches for some reason.

Rating: It's good fiction. Is it great? Not sure - I guess it takes time to get to into the Discworld. Need to read a few more books in the series to be able to tell. But it's good writing. Definitely.

It's actually the first Pratchett book I have read all through to the last page. Tor once tried to get me hooked on Pratchett by lending me Only You Can Save Mankind, but it just wasn't the right moment back then - never finished that one.

Please, money, please

"Shoppingresa i världens verkstad", Po Tidholm, DN Kultur:

"Barnen stirrar mig i ögonen, sträcker fram sina små slitna emaljkoppar och viskar "please, money, please". Som om vi behövde ytter­ligare en påminnelse om obalansen."

Po's article portrays western consumerism as it's right now showing it's face in China's backyard markets. Westerns going to Beijing on 72 hour shopping quests for cheap pirated goods. Bargaining over fake Gucci and Ralph Lauren shirts in trading districts becoming more and more organized and structured.

Culture?! No, not interested. I'm here to shop. Only got seventy-two hours. No, I don't have any money to spare. Have a nice day.

Read it.

Jazz brunch with Kullrusk

This year's (2006) last jazz brunch at Mejeriet in Lund featured Kullrusk and their experimental jazz music. It was Great. It was Electrical. It was Magical.

This was Jenny's first Kullrusk session. She immediately took control over the musical analysis part, identifying beats, etc. I think that's just normal behavior if you're part musician, part physicist (well, she's more than just "a part" in the latter case, but you get the picture).

A happy face of a beautiful beat counter. Makes me happy...

I got the band's latest released audio CDs. Since they were running out of discs to sell at the brunch session they told the audience to fix it themselves - i.e. copy the music from each other...

Anyway, I suspect ("fear" is too negative for this sentence) I'm starting to get addicted to the electrical Kullrusk sound. This is the second post on that band in just a few days.

http://www.kullrusk.com/

Electrifying Kullrusk session at Jeriko

Never heard of Kullrusk? Make sure you experience them live at least once. It's magical. It's music on... on something. Hard to define. But great, really great music, great jazz music.

Per "Ruskträsk" Johansson and Jonas Kullhammar; action shot.

The music is perfectly balanced and served - electrically mixed and blended - with effects.

This was my first live encounter with the band; arranged by Jazz i Malmö at Jeriko. It won't be the last though. Their experimental jazz is very well suited for live performances.

http://www.kullrusk.com/

Dead art finally coming to life

Olle Bonniér's installation "Healing the Earth" has for as long as I can recall been an extremely silent piece of dead art. It's placed on top of LTH's E-house in Lund. Always silent and sad, looking down at busy students, not moving an inch. Not moving an inch even in a windy day.

At least, that's has been my reflection of that particular piece of art up until now. But this evening something had changed for the better. It was actually spinning around when I walked by on my way home.

It's finally "speaking" again.

More on art at LTH in Lund...