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Culture Archives

Jan 3, 2006 The quest for the future-proof plot
    The promised spoils of information technology are: Unfettered communication with anyone; the accumulated knowledge of humanity available instantly; and information about the world...
Nov 26, 2005 Googliography: Honor Holland
    Back in January of this year, I wrote about Viola IlmaThis post makes more sense if you first read Viola's googliography., an older...
Nov 23, 2005 Qualis.com
    I've just finished Salman Rushdie's Shalimar the Clown — and what an engrossing novel it is. The prose is luxuriant but the pace...
Sep 23, 2005 Judging wines by their labels
    It's Friday after work in Kungsholmen, and once again I find myself standing in line to take the numbered ticket that saves a...
Aug 14, 2005 Borges and the Eternal Orangutans
    Coincidence is destiny. Had I not forgotten my security card as I left the office early on Friday, I would never have been...
Jul 7, 2005 Flightblogging (properly)
    I was eager to play early adopter and try SAS's inflight wireless web connection on my flight to New York, and have now...
Jul 3, 2005 Archipelago postcard
    On the northwestern edge of Sandˆn, in the Stockholm archipelago, there is a rocky outcropping that is a perfect place to watch the...
Jun 28, 2005 Berlin IV: Holocaust Memorial
    Behind the memorial, the Reichstag's new dome, the chariot atop the Brandenburg Gate, and a crane helping rebuild Berlin. A bit laden with...
Jun 28, 2005 Berlin III: Reichstag
    The glass dome atop the Reichstag is a wonderful piece of architecture that fulfills its symbolic duty — reminding legislators below that they...
Jun 26, 2005 Berlin II: Tempelhof
    Berlin Templehof airport is an instant favorite. The main building supports a huge arching overhang that swallows planes whole. The architecture is monumental,...
Jun 26, 2005 Berlin I
    Argentina vs. Mexico in the Federation cup, and many Berliners in Prenzlauer berg were out watching on the sidewalks on a sunny summer...
Jun 8, 2005 Google politicking
    People [Swedish] like to collect instances of google journalism — where journalists google a term and cite the number of hits they get...
Jun 6, 2005 Thin-slicing my brain
    Almost two weeks ago, fellow Bloggforum panel member HÂkan tried to infect me with the booklisting virus that's been doing the rounds of...
Jun 1, 2005 Dokubloggar
    NÂgon har skickat mig en (tror jag) hemlig minnesanteckningThis is marginalia placed at the very start of the Dokubloggar post. Soon, it will...
May 22, 2005 On Graphemectomy at the New York Times
    The New York Times has an article today about Dag Hammarskjˆld's diary cum autobiography, translated into English and published posthumously in 1964 as...
May 20, 2005 Sith pith
    As I walked home from Episode III, the view from Slussen reminded me of night encroaching on Naboo: The classical turrets and spires...
Apr 6, 2005 Jan Yoors redux
    By the grace of Google, Kore Yoors found my recent post about him and his father, Jan Yoors, and contacted me. It was...
Mar 28, 2005 Christina Olsons hus
    The translation, sort of:Exactly 10 years ago this Easter Weekend, while I was at grad school in Washington DC, I was faced with...
Mar 13, 2005 Googliografi: Jan Yoors
    Fˆrsta i serien: Viola IlmaDen fˆrsta gÂngen jag bodde i New York var mellan 1976 och 1982, som barn, och d gick jag...
Nov 22, 2004 Stockholm International Film Festival
    The 15th iteration of the Stockholm International Film Festival is up and running as of a few days ago, and lasts until next...
Oct 29, 2004 Cold comfort
    If Bush says we hate freedom, let him tell us why we didn't attack Sweden, for example. Top 10 reasons why Osama Bin...
Oct 28, 2004 Political blogs are from Mars, community blogs are from Venus
    Annica Tiger has written two interesting posts (with good comment streams) on women bloggers in Sweden, asking in particular why so few are...
Oct 1, 2004 Sleepwriting
    Must. Stay. Awake. For. The. Debate. This effort is very much being helped along by Marc in Berlin who insisted I read over...
Sep 29, 2004 Top ten things I hate about Stockholm, IX
    The ninth in an occasional series.Ten: Predatory seatingNine: Culinary relativismEight: PreÎmptive planningSeven: Premature masticationSix: Irrational discalceationFive: Radiotj‰nst i Kiruna ABFour: Temporal engineeringThree: Tunnelbana...
Jul 24, 2004 Perfect Day 2 (July 23, 2004)
    Perfect Day 1 was May 5, 2002.If somebody were to ask me to describe a perfect summer vacation day, it might go something...
Jun 17, 2004 Swedish chef, cont.
    — They are going to get that Swedish chef someday. — Who is? — The Smorgasbord of Health. For 20 minutes of guaranteed...
May 2, 2004 Weekend report
    I have seen the future, and it is taller than me. On the occasion, it was also drunker — the occasion being Walpurgis,...
Apr 25, 2004 Top ten things I hate about Stockholm, IV
    The fourth in an occasional series.Ten: Predatory seatingNine: Culinary relativismEight: PreÎmptive planningSeven: Premature mastication. For some time, it has been apparent to me...
Apr 23, 2004 Public service announcement
    This week it was the annual joke show on NPR's A Prairie Home Companion, that liberal gem of a radio show hosted by...
Apr 1, 2004 Top ten things I hate about Stockholm, III
    The third in an occasional series.Ten: Predatory seatingNine: Culinary relativismEight: PreÎmptive planning. In New York, planning a typical night's entertainment went something like...
Mar 26, 2004 Dogs of War
    To paraphrase David Denby, David Denby has lost it. The New Yorker's movie critic now notorious for doing really idiotic things and then...
Mar 26, 2004 Top ten things I hate about Stockholm, II
    The second in an occasional series.Ten: Predatory seating.Nine: Culinary relativism. I am a food racist. There, I've said it. I'm not proud about...
Mar 1, 2004 Blondes of the blogosphere
    Anonymous blogs are undeniably the blondes of the blogosphere: They have more fun. Look at TMFTML, Eurotrash, Belle de Jour, d-nasty, Old Hag...
Feb 28, 2004 SoFo
    New York has SoHo, NoHo, Nolita, TriBeCa and Dumbo, so why can't Stockholm? Last year, somebody had that very thought, opened a cafÈ...
Feb 5, 2004 Feud for thought
    Let's pretend for a moment, for the sake of a nifty segue and the argument that follows it, that Eskimos do indeed have...
Feb 4, 2004 The wallet
    Discovered via the "Oddly Enough" section of Yahoo! news: A wallet lost by an 18-year old girl in southern Sweden 40 years ago...
Feb 2, 2004 It takes two to sambo
    Stockholm is being overrun with small children. Everyone's getting them. This is a wonderful thing, but where do they come from? How do...
Jan 28, 2004 Top ten things I hate about Stockholm
    The first in an occasional series.Ten: Predatory seating. Why do normally civil Stockholmers turn French when they set foot inside McDonalds? All the...
Jan 22, 2004 Snˆvit in person
    Blogged Wednesday afternoon:Historiska Museet's cafeteria abuts the courtyard where Snˆvit is installed, and I am sitting there now, with an unimpeded view of...
Jan 20, 2004 How very unfortunate
    I thought I'd seen her somewhere before. She was on the posters advertising the exhibit. I didn't put two and two together until...
Jan 19, 2004 Compromising Snow White
    I tried to go see the exhibit containing "Snow White and The Madness of Truth" todayFirst, read this morning's post.. At the door,...
Jan 19, 2004 Is it ever right to deface art?
    Israel's ambassador to Sweden triggered a major diplomatic row between the two countries this weekend when he disrupted an installation piece depicting a...
Jan 9, 2004 Ingrid Thulin
    A free rag on the subway to work this morning carried the news in a few grafs: Ingrid Thulin, who so memorably played...
Dec 21, 2003 Freedom Tower
    Freedom TowerFirst, read Felix's detailed tour of Freedom Tower, unveiled Friday. He was my eyes and ears for this post. What follows is...
Dec 13, 2003 A post of whose kind there are far too many on the web
    I'm back from being away from the web for a week, precipitated by an exploding power adapter whose replacement I kept postponing the...
Nov 22, 2003 Tu bi Âr nÂgot tu bi
    To be or not to be(or what is Sweden's suicide rate, once and for all?)Here is a loose translation of what I just...
Nov 16, 2003 Any Way the Wind Blows
    As promised, I just saw Any Way the Wind Blows at the Stockholm Film Festival. By all means buy the soundtrack, but don't...
Nov 11, 2003 About Antwerp
    The Stockholm International Film Festival is nearly upon us again. This year there is a Belgian film showing, Any Way the Wind Blows,...
Nov 5, 2003 Swish Nobels
    The Volokh Conspiracy has a spirited defence going of Swiss creativity, for the most part successful, marred only by its dependence on dubious...
Oct 23, 2003 Photo competition
    Who among my friends gets to win photography competitions? Franzi, that's who! (She's now a Leica richer.) The photo is of Olivier and...
Oct 23, 2003 40th Anniversary Issue
    Why do book reviews have to be so damn descriptive? All too often, one need only choose between reading the book or reading...
Oct 16, 2003 Flightblog II: Pompeii
    So much to blog, so little battery... I've just finished Pompeii by Robert HarrisFlightblog I is here. I had noticed it last weekend...
Oct 2, 2003 Pop and Circumstance
    The view from my office is straight into the upper stories of Stockholm's Royal palace, across the street. Nobody ever seems to be...
Sep 18, 2003 Sushi blogrolls
    On Wednesday night, 10 active members of the Stockholm blogging community got together for sushi and conversation. While I had never met another...
Sep 5, 2003 Remainders
    IKEA's product naming conventions exposed. Next time I need to send an anonymous letter, forget cutting words from newspapers; I'm going straight for...
Aug 11, 2003 Skellig Michael and Great Blasket
    Skellig Michael is a rock jutting 217 meters straight out of the Atlantic swell some 14 km off Ireland's westernmost coast. It bears...
Aug 9, 2003 Dublin survival notes
    Dublin has the best bookstores I've ever seen. They're like the London specialty ones, but cheaper. In this town, the section for books...
Jul 31, 2003 Dublin: notes
    The worst thing I could say about Dublin is that visually, it is probably the EU's least impressive capitalProbably, because I have yet...
Jul 24, 2003 Travelog: Ireland
    My experiences in Ireland so far have come to revolve around two major themes: Battling the great Irish bandwidth famineThis famine is at...
Jul 6, 2003 How the Irish saved civilization? By blogging it.
    I've finally read How the Irish Saved Civilization by Thomas Cahill, and as I expected, it contains a number of big ideas. Among...
Jun 24, 2003 Fear and loathing in Hummelmora
    Last weekend I was witness to the most important Swedish ritual of the year — Midsommar — wherein small children are converted to...
Jun 17, 2003 May I introduce Miss Philips?
    Zed and Clarice swept through town over the weekend, bringing Georgian cognac The cognac came labeled with a strange and wonderful script I...
Jun 11, 2003 Rubadubbing the wrong way
    NYCulture vulture Felix Salmon reviews Dramaten's New York production of Ibsen's Ghosts at BAM, directed by Ingmar Bergman. He can't get over the...
Jun 1, 2003 Great reads
    Here are some great reads I've come across over the past week: An article by Dan Bilefsky in the Wall Street Journal details...
May 24, 2003 The (Euro)Vision thing
    21:07 CET: I thought I might blog the EuroVision song contest (ESC) in semi-real time. It's starting just now in Riga, Latvia, and...
May 8, 2003 24 nya fotografer
    Anna Lekvall is having her first "real" photo exhibit, as part of a group show with fellow classmates from Kulturama. Needless to say,...
Apr 30, 2003 Lawrence of Arabia: The Interview
    Mr. Lawrence, gentlemen, thank you for taking the time to talk with me. If an indication of greatness in a work of art...
Apr 28, 2003 Draken
    There Sweden has the highest per-capita number of cinema screens in Europe, according to this book, which is also the source of the...
Apr 27, 2003 Anthony Lane on Lilja 4-Ever
    The New Yorker, arriving in Stockholm with a month's delay, has been unreadable of late, because nothing destroys my interest in a thriller...
Mar 29, 2003 La Bohème
    I went to La Bohème at the Kungliga Operan on Thursday. Curiously, they've decided to set the Opera in a Södermalm-ish present day,...
Mar 17, 2003 Swedish cultural extremes, part II
    On Saturday, Helena (Gustavsson, from SAIS Bologna days) and her sambo Christer sambo: person you live with but are not married to.hosted an...
Mar 17, 2003 Swedish cultural extremes, part I
    Friday night, I finally got to see Lukas Moodysson's Lilja 4-everAnd it pains me to say it, but he is barely three months...
Mar 13, 2003 A blog on both your houses
    WWII was brought home via the radio. Vietnam via TV. Gulf War I via live TV. Gulf War II will be blogged. We've...
Mar 12, 2003 In search of the European blog
    I was all ready with my thesis as to why there are no blogs in Europe, why nobody here even knows what a...
Jan 30, 2003 The new art of flightblogging,
    Wherein you blog whatever you deem worth mentioning during a battery's worth of computer time between London and New York despite critical faculties...
Dec 23, 2002 World Trade Center proposals:
    Some of the skyscrapers proposed last week for the rebuilding of the World Trade Center might be grand, but what's the point of...
Dec 16, 2002 Demean Streets?
    David Denby's review of Scorcese's Gangs of New York in The New Yorker finds too many faults with it to even call it...
Dec 9, 2002 Let Freudom Ring
    My inbox this morning had an email with a spelling mistake that I suspect is not a typo. It referred to someone I...
Dec 5, 2002 Continued travails in Swedish...
    There are two kinds of Swedes in the winter. One kind is moody, depressed, melancholic, alcoholic, and as a result not too productive....
Nov 21, 2002 Meaner Streets
    The hype for Scorcese's Gangs of New York is ratcheted up a notch, and I for one hope it's all true. Except for...
Nov 18, 2002 Onion Alert
    Every so often, The Onion gets it fabulously right....
Nov 9, 2002 That's a moray
    I think I first came across the word 'awry' when I was 10 or so, probably during the month that summer when I...
Oct 29, 2002 Morrissey meats the New Model Army
    Last weekend kicked off with a Morrissey concert. I freely admit I have never been a big fan off his. Until embarrassingly recently...
Oct 19, 2002 The faint praise I have ever heard
    The IHT's People section today carries a quote attributed to David Remnick, editor of The New Yorker, about his fiction and literary editor...
Oct 9, 2002 Fun facts about the Swedish language II
    In Swedish, a little means a lot. If you say, "I have a little pain" (Jag är lite ont) you are in fact...
Oct 6, 2002 Mission Antarctica: Winning the War of Meaning over Consumerism
    Felix has put up a page for his sister Rhian Salmon, who is going to Antarctica for a year or two, in part...
Oct 2, 2002 Fun facts about the Swedish language
    The alphabet goes from A to Ö ; there is no W, but after Z we get an Å (oh), an Ä (ay)...
Sep 19, 2002 Return to Barcelona
    I was last in Barcelona 10 years ago, almost to the day, after having spent the Olympics there chauffeuring (and sometimes translating) for...
Aug 27, 2002 Mostly Moses
    Last weekend the parents and I drove to the Sinai peninsula to root around St. Catherine's Monastery, at the base of Mount Sinai,...
Aug 13, 2002 And now for something completely
    And now for something completely different: Tales of the Plush Cthulhu...
Aug 9, 2002 Hollywood smitten with God, God smites back
    God punishes Joe Eszterhas for Showgirls, although Joe is under the impression that his smoking is to blame, so he makes a deal...
Jul 30, 2002 A reason to move to London
    A certain Leah McLaren writes a hilarious account of how British men are such hopeless romantics. And she really does stress hopeless. It...
Jul 18, 2002 Trend watch - Post-nuptial agreements
    Just seen on CNBC: A segment on the post-nuptial agreement (!) for those who forgot to get a pre-nup. How on earth is...
Jul 18, 2002 World Trade Center update
    I agree with Felix that I don't really like any of the proposals; they remind me too much of Canberra, or Brasilia--mainly because...
Jul 16, 2002 World Trade Center proposals
    The 6 official proposals for rebuilding the World Trade Center site have been unveiled and are up on the web. Make sure to...
Jul 12, 2002 Emerging trend watch
    Clubs have always had DJs. They would bring their records and spin. More recently, DJs have been been using laptops to create live...
Jul 2, 2002 World Cup redux
    Good guys finish last. Belgium got the Cup's equivalent of 'A for effort' by winning FIFA's fair play award. If only we'd taken...
Jun 24, 2002 Cup Runneth Over-time
    Another reason why the east coast is better than the west coast: New York cops don't care if England fans are screaming their...
Jun 24, 2002 Movies: Minority Report
    Minority Report is a fantastic movie that everybody must rush to go see twice. It melds Spielberg's knack for movie magic with riveting...
Jun 17, 2002 Belgique: Nul Points!
    And so Belgium's World Cup ambitions end with a 2-0 loss against Brazil, despite an early Belgian goal that was disallowed by a...
Jun 4, 2002 Blog map of NYC
    Blog maps: what a great idea, and probably the next big thing in the blogging universe. Of course, New York is leading the...
Jun 4, 2002 Good headers
    This is as good a story as any to broach the topic of the World Cup. From a bleary conversation this past weekend...
Apr 18, 2002 But is it Art?
    I was in London a few weeks ago, and I was very impressed with the Tate Modern, London's newest major art destination. But...
Mar 13, 2002 Sharbat Gula
    National Geographic has tracked down the subject of one of its most famous covers ever. The beautiful Pashtun girl with bright green...
Feb 11, 2002 Zen One on St. Marks
    Six years ago Tom Atkins and Uta Harnischfeger introduced me to Sandobe, a miniscule 4-table Korean sushi den on 11th & 1st run...
Jan 22, 2002 Salmon has now gone mad
    Salmon has now gone mad. Just this weekend, he's posted no fewer than 2 new pieces on l'affair Sullivan ñ an affair, I...
Jan 18, 2002 Fuck Enron
    Simon Clark swears this song by Liz Phair is called Fuck Enron....
Jan 18, 2002 Priceless Armani
    Armani blouse: $1,800 Armani jacket: $5,000 Armani shoes: $2,200 Being disgusted by all this luxury: Priceless...
Dec 20, 2001 The Oscars bet
    For the record, here is the bet between Felix Salmon and myself: "BVC" shall mean "bottle of vintage champagne" throughout. "LOTR" shall mean...
Dec 18, 2001 Amazing Scrabble game
    Yesterday's 2001 World Scrabble Championship finals, held in Las Vegas, produced an amazing game....
Dec 3, 2001 Art alert
    Most likely you visit my site because you know me or because you have impeccable taste. If you also happen to be in...
Nov 24, 2001 Surfing report
    The 70's European motoring experience involved me sitting in the back of my (well, technically my parents') rare 2-door Audi 100 LS as...
Nov 7, 2001 Movie review: AmÈlie
    Oh, look, another movie review. Iíll keep it short. Go see AmÈlie. More fun is discussing the minority of critics who chastise the...
Oct 25, 2001 Surf report
    I resisted for over 5 years, but when I switched from DSL to cable-based internet access a few weeks ago the pricing was...
Oct 15, 2001 Urban tribes
    Felix alerted me to this New York Times Sunday Magazine article. It's a very accurate description of the social life my friends and...
Sep 27, 2001 I quit smoking a year ago
    I almost forgot. September 26 was an anniversary of sorts: I quit smoking a year ago. To commemorate the occasion I unwittingly arranged...
Aug 21, 2001 photogenic abandoned buildings
    There are many photogenic abandoned buildings in Belgium. Some of them are on a new favorite site....
Aug 3, 2001 Oslo
    Two days in Oslo is an experience of the near future, if you're an optimist. Everybody has a cell phone, debit/credit card use...
Jul 25, 2001 Film review: Timecode, Memento
    The possibilities for non-linear storytelling that DVD technology provides are obvious, but until now these have been squandered on the decidedly plot-free travails...
Jul 6, 2001 Petra photos
    The black-and-white photos from my trip to Petra in January 2001 are finally sorted, scanned and presented after a fashion. Feel free to...
Jul 4, 2001 Film review: A.I.
    A.I. A.I., directed by Steven Spielberg but storyboarded by Stanley Kubrick, is a subversive movie. As with all great science fiction works, the...
Jun 19, 2001 Phaemon's dog was right
    At the end of Robert Graves's historical novel Claudius the God, emperor Claudius visits Vitellius, a dying courtier. Claudius ask the man why...
Jun 14, 2001 King Herod Agrippa I
    King Herod Agrippa I was a brilliant diplomat and ruler who secured the best possible deal for the Jews (and himself) under the...
Jun 8, 2001 Coolest photography site
    My favorite site on the internet at the moment: Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii, photographer for Czar Nicholas II, made color (!) pictures years before...
Jun 7, 2001 Movie review: Our Song
    New York is being treated to a gem of a movie right now: Our Song. Set in deepest Brooklyn during the summer of...