Freudian name slip

Few know that Jay Leno has chosen a somewhat unholy name for himself. "Leno" is the Latin word for pimp.

New university chancellor an anglophile

Anders Flodström, noted earlier in this blog on account of his hostile attitude towards the Swedish language, was last week appointed chancellor of the royal and state universities. His appointment was the first done by the new center-right government meeting the new standards of open contest; since all higher civil service positions up til now have been filled by the old boys network or with people holding a party book in the social democratic party.

So, Flodström is qualified for his job! But probably determined to undermine the role of our national language in education and science.

May Day in Uppsala

Last year the Christian Democrats managed to pull off the biggest May Day parade here in Uppsala, with some 1 200 participants. Today was not so great for them, only 400 turned up. Still, the only non-commie, non-pinko political party to show themself on this one truly red day in the almanac.

Göran Persson gets it on in London

Swedish PM Göran Persson is not very good at speaking foreign languages. This is a true story - he once visited London for a European summit, and relaxing after hours, he hooked up with a London hooker:

- I love you, Persson said, somewhat uneasy and eager to "break the ice".
- I love you too, the hooker said routinely.

Now Persson had to think really hard. He didn't want the hooker to see him as some kind of foreign bum. Said he finally:

- I love you three!

True blue traitors

-Well, today we are no longer a Swedish university but a European and a global university. We recruit the best students no matter where in the world we find them, and therefore English is the natural language of education, says KTH principal Anders Flodström in Swedish State Television.

- On the whole this will put educators and students in a sort of semi-colonial situation. Living in a land that was never occupied, they will be forced to change to a language they do not fully master as soon as a foreign student or teacher sets foot there. I find it extremely unfortunate that this decision has been made, remarks Horace Engdahl, permanent secretary with the Svenska Akademien (Swedish Academy), guardians royal of the Swedish language and the institution that awards the annual Nobel Prize for literature.

Engdahl's rebuttal is part of an increasing domestic opposition to the almost self-obliterating national policy of cosmopolitism in Sweden. As late as last year centrist Alliansen put it to the vote in Riksdagen (parliament) that the Swedish language should be made an official language in Sweden, but lost to the leftist red-green government led by Göran Persson. Since the turn of the millennium Finnish, Tornefinnish, Romani Chib, Sapmi and Yiddisch are the sole official languages of the land. The majority language has never had official status.

The two most offensive factors surrounding the change of main tutorial language in what is Sweden's biggest technological university are:
1. The university is governement operated
2. The foreign students that are "recruited" pay nothing. The Swedish taxpayers pick up the whole tab, and to what end?

Blind man in fierce fight with deaf man

A true story, reported by Andreas Jélvefors i Metro, Swedish national edition, April 10, 2006.

After late one evening returning to his home in a Malmö apartment building, the blind man rang the doorbell of his next door neighbour to enquire about the time. The neighbour, a deaf man, at first did not understand the question. His blind neighbour soon started talking in gestures which then caused the deaf man to hold up his watch in front of his neighbour.

Being blind did however make it impossible for the time lost man to perceive the watch being held in front of him, and frustrated by the long silence he ended up punching the deaf man. The incident ended with the two men, both in their sixties, pounding each other with their fists and falling to the floor where the bout continued.

The deaf man filed a complaint to the police with the assistance of his personal social worker.

Swedish Foreign Office, State Security and Sverigedemokraterna

The fact that the Swedish Foreign Office, in conjunction with State Security, actually pulled the plug on a web publication protected by government license and the constitution, was on top of the news agenda in Sweden today. The reason: This hasn't happened in peace time since the early 1800's.

For Sverigedemokraterna, a party that scored 1,4% in the last general elections, this was the first time in the party's 18 year history that it was the top story, both nationally and on BBC World.

What is funny, is that the rather poor cartoon that had appeared on SD-Kuriren's web edition not even depicted Mohammad. It was a man, any man, with the text "mohammedan self censorship".

See for yourself:

Cartoon

Ominous July 25

Today marks the quarter century of the demise of Vladimir Semyonovich Vysotsky, the greatest of all troubadours. Vysotsky left this world July 25, was laid on lit-de-parade in front of the Taganka theatre in Moscow, and accompanied to his grave in Vagankovskoye Cemetery by 300,000 grieving moscovites.

To me the music and poetry of Vysotsky came to life in the shape of Tomas Bolme and Fria Proteatern, staging a play with Vysotsky and his music, in Swedish translation. I saw the play back in 1988.

http://otblesk.com/vysotsky/
http://www.kulichki.com/vv/
http://www.vladimir-vysotsky.de/
http://vysotsky.russian.ru/
http://vysotsky.km.ru/
http://www.ringbom.se/index.html
http://www.russia-in-us.com/Music/Artists/Visotsky/
http://www.casanostra.no/vysotskij.html
http://www.vinstra.vgs.no/emnegode/tekstprodukt/vysotskij.htm

Links by Ördög

The Blasters, live in Uppsala

Rock'n'roll is scarce today. The foremost of only a few remaining rock clubs in Uppsala is Fredman's on Queen's Street. Around 10 on Tuesday night Phil Alvin - together with John Bazz, Keith Wyatt, and Jerry Angel kicked off on the minimal stage. The Blasters, live in Uppsala.

As some may know The Blasters is a group first formed in 1979 in Downey, California by Phil Alvin (vocal and guitar) and his brother Dave Alvin (guitar, quit the band in 1986), with John Bazz on the bass and drummer Bill Bateman. Right from start, as well as today the band played "American Roots Music", influenced by blues music, rockabilly and rhythm'n'blues.

The Blasters energetic live performances gained a local following, and they became fixtures of the early 1980s Los Angeles punk rock scene, performing alongside X, Black Flag, The Gun Club and others.

Rhythm and Blues saxophone legend Lee Allen joined The Blasters for their last two albums, and toured with them as well. Steve Berlin (later of Los Lobos) joined, playing barytone sax, and Gene Taylor joined as well, perfoming boogie woogie style piano. Dave Alvin--always the group's primary songwriter--left the band in 1986 for an acclaimed if sometimes only moderately successful solo career. Phil Alvin has led various incarnations of The Blasters intermittently since then.

The Blasters lasted toured Sweden in 2004. The Uppsala gig didn't sell out, but consiering the time of year as well as the time of week, local interest in the band proved OK. The early portion of the night was the best, with the bass track in at least one of the pieces being powerful enough to make my breastbone resonate. Now and again that punkish wall-of-sound-feeling could also be detected. Myself not being equally impressed with blues and rockabilly in the Blasters fashion, some other parts of the gig felt close to boring.

It was striking assessing the crowd this night. Right next to me stood a guy with long greyish hair, looking round about 50 y/o. Apparently rock music is now the music of the middleaged to elderly. Phil Alvin himself is in his fifties, and bears a striking resemblance with Swedish TV-buffoon Ronny Jönsson (Phil does however possess the personality that Jönsson so desperately was seeking). It struck me that the best place to pick up middle aged chicks in Uppsala is in a joint like this.

But to be fair, the most frantic dancers in front of the band were girls in their 20s. Maybe the groupie still exists?
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Note: The section on the band's history was knicked from Wikipedia. Therefore the wikipedia copyright rules apply to this posting.