so a lot has happened

It turns out that the guy who's job I was covering finally got out of jail and so therefore I am now once again unemployed. Spring is here in someways. The sun is shining and its inspiring. So inspiring that I decided to go skateboarding the day after I lost the job and then proceeded to break my arm. A lot of time in the hospital and then I finally went home(no operation). Of course before passing out in bed I decided to check email and then I found out that I have been accepted to the master's programme that I had applied for.

That means that sometime in August I will migrate to southern Sweden and the city of Lund will be my new home for the next two years. Now all I need to make all this so much better is to wait four weeks for the cast to come off. The hour hand always moves slower when you're looking.

Ladiesmen and gentlewomen...Uh or uh....

This is a public service anouncement. The author Aron Hendrix, who is a.k.aed as Sven Josefson on odd days of the week, has turned 23 years old. A milestone? Hardly considering its just a day at a time with no real planning involved. An event worth celebrating? I worked the whole day and then had a beer after my shift, rode the subway home reading King Leopold's Ghost in Swedish, and now after 4 cl of Jaegermeister I'm writing this.

Andrew Bird on Sunday. Excitement is the word that best describes the feeling I have that is associated with this event.

Bob Dylan decided to do something unusual and now he's going to play three shows in Sweden. One of them at a club a block away from where I work. Of course the tickets were sold out minutes after they were available to the public. Oh well. Life goes on someone once said. I'd burn him in effigy if I knew who he was.

East vs. West

I'm stepping out on a limb here. Movies aren't to be taken to seriously is what someone has said in regard to the movie 300, which I haven't seen yet so that is the limb part of this. So its okay then to be historically inaccurate then? Its okay to portray an empire of the past as a group of warmongers and barbarians, I can't wait to see the U.S. portrayed in 200 years as a bunch of greedy racists who think of only one person me, me, me. Did I mention that the U.S. should also be portrayed as warmongers then? They always pick on smaller and weaker nations.

This concept is fairly common in the U.S. history that I have come in contact with; if the Greeks had lost then democracy would not exist. Your eyes would not be scanning these lines now. Fatalists! Ha, its nice to know that your entire existence hung on these 300 men. Otherwise you wouldn't be running the show today right? Its sad the Persians didn't win. Maybe the world would be a better place.

What is going on....

Due to a twist of fate I now have a full time job. If you happen to stop by Il Tempo Ristorante off Götgatan and order an appetizer or desert then four nights out of six I probably made it. It appears that the guy I replaced isn't leaving the Swedish penal system anytime soon.

On another event notice, and I'm sure anyone reading this is tired of these, there is a nice exhibition of Alphonsé Mucha at DansMuseet until the end of March.

Tonight on the subway I had an interesting experience. A three hundred pound Turk wanted me to try and understand how his epilepsy medication prescription worked. Once I finally convinced him that I had no idea he then proceeded to talk about football for the remaining part of the journey. Apparently this guy bets, not a lot according to the tickets he showed me, on all the Uefa cup games. He told me I should try it sometime. I think I'll spend my money on books instead. Which reminds me, I've been reading a lot of the Beat generation poetry. Highly recommended.

Derby Warning

I hope most of you reading this are aware of the recent problems concerning football in Italy. Well for those of you aren't fully aware of which games are dangerous and which ones aren't should think about this; is it a derby game or not. A derby would be a game played between two teams of the same city that are extreme rivals. Thats where the Italian(Serie A) police officer died and thats where the coach of Sevilla(La Liga) was knocked unconscious by a fan throwing an object(labeled missile by most news sources). Stockholm is also a city known for its violent derbies. Last year the derby between Hammarby and Djurgården was halted after 51 minutes of play due to fans storming the pitch and hitting a linesman in the head with a coin. So be ware of the derby! Then again Djurgården is going down this time!

Berns

Mr. Strindberg wrote a novel that deals with Berns. It so happens he wrote the Red Room(Röda Rummet) in 1879. Note to readers at this point; most of these facts are borrowed from a certain internet source for biased knowledge, otherwise known as Wikipedia so before you run off at the mouth to friends be sure to double check.

Anyway, back to the main event, Berns is still there in Berzelli Park in Stockholm. Its still a fancy get dressed up suit and tie kind of place. They also have fantastic concerts there. I saw Sufjan Stevens play there a while back. On March 27 there is a free show at Berns.
Eleni Mandell is playing. Listen to her profile songs and if I'm not working that night I'll see you there.

Working Man

Sven got a job. Hurray to working nights! Hurray to getting paid better than back in Tallahassee. This might be a shortlived hurra however seeing as how I got the job when one of the other cooks ended up in jail for two weeks(don't ask don't tell). Then today, or last night really was pay day. Everyone who works in Sweden had their checks hit their accounts last night and that means party.

When I got off at midnight the whole Slussen area was already packed. People so drunk it makes college towns look conservative. Then there was the misogynistic lover, presumably high on something that isn't green and smokable, trying to get aggressive with his girl at the station. He had her in tears and wouldn't leave. Thank God there were real men standing there making sure he kept his paws off her. Someone even offered to make sure she was home safe. All I could do was tell him to stop. I felt so ineffectual.

Working for now....

So I'm working at this place off Götgatan. It's called Il Tempo. Italian Food that is extremely high quality. The place is nice and not too big. Of course its also only a three man kitchen so the size is just right. I started on the cold side doing the starters and the desserts. Everything is made from scratch and its very tasty. The desserts are the best of any place I have been in a long time.

I got the job by leaving a resume. Then when I didn't expect to hear from them they called due to one of their employees beeing in jail on a two week stint for unknown reasons. So that makes this a temporary job seeing as how if he gets out in two weeks then I'm unemployed again. Oh well at least I get the experience, the money, and the job reference.

Moderna Museet

Once upon a time there existed, although this was immediately debated due to certain philosophers disbelieving it, a man named Pontus Hulten. He went on to be one of the most distuingished museum directors of all time until his death last year. Some of the places he has catapulted to fame are the Moderna Museet in Stockholm and the Pompidou Center in Paris. If you don't know the Pompidou center then I suggest you get in touch with the theory of architecture.

Next week at the Moderna Museet in Stockholm an exhibition is opening featuring the works of Robert Rauschenberg. If you don't know who he is then you can stop reading this now. Otherwise check out the exhibition. It starts the 17th of February and goes until the 6th of May.

Saturday night(Sunday morning)

Boredom besets me like a pack of wild hounds on a bloody fox-(Goodie Mob)

I'm still sick and even better today my voice decided that it wanted to go, so now I almost can't talk at all. Of course there was nothing on TV and the book I'm reading had reached a really high and dry point. So otherwise I'm hoping that I can find a job next week as it is time to start earning some cash for the summer and potential grad school.

I also realized that I had missed another concert when I found out that Bright Eyes is also coming in March but of course the show has long been sold out. Of course I blame no one but myself for being bored, ok maybe I'm going to blame this cold as well.

Goings ons

Bush is talking about sending more troops. Another bad idea in a six year series of terrible ideas. I know lets invade a country without UN approval and carry out our version of justice. This will of course include discrimination against anyone of middle eastern descent. Who gets hurt? Maher Arar and the fam. More great ideas from a sinking ship's captain.

I've got a cold and have spent the last two days reading the Godfather in Latvian. The FIS world cup is taking place in Åre, finally as snow held the competition back three days. Imagine that suddenly we had the problem of having to much snow.

Otherwise the job search is so so. I guess I'm upset because I haven't found a place that I would really like to work at yet. The search continues....

Football is Murder

No this isn't a new Smith's album. The Italian Football League(Serie A) and all the amateur leagues have been cancelled indefinitely. Why? Due to a police officer being killed by fan violence. I have to say that I am going to have to give a lot of respect to the leaders who made this decision. Cancelling something that is more important than God for a lot of people is a tough decision. Its hard to do the right thing often but it appears that the Italian Football Federation is doing it. Much respect to them.

Well what do you know?

So I still don't have a myspace. I don't think I will ever have one. Tonight it did make me so very happy though. I was browsing the music section looking for something new and I came upon Andrew Bird, who I've been listening to a lot lately. Then while I was listening to the songs they had available to listen to I noticed he was on tour at the moment. Turns out he's touring Europe. Turns out he's coming to Stockholm in March. Turns out that it wasn't sold out yet and now I have a ticket.

I'm still going to sulk about missing Spektor but this more than makes up for it. STHLM what can I say? Its got a nice music scene.

The Job Market Day 1

I went all over town today in search of a way of making money. I need to make some nice cash by June so I can see a little bit more of the world that is out there. I handed out my CV a couple of times and even talked to a manager who said he had a place for me in the end of February. That would be nice but its a little long to wait. So that means that tommorrow will be day 2. Other than that I snapped my skateboard in two, but of course that happens every so many months. It was nice to have the hook up on a cheap deal this time and not pay the Swedish price for a new board(100 USD or slightly less).

I've been listening to Iron and Wine, Andrew Bird, and a little of this and a little of that. Check out Architecture of Helsinki which is also not bad. Otherwise life is going on like it always does. Sometimes ups outnumber the downs, but mostly it just stays average.

Regina Spektor or why to buy tickets early....

Regina Spektor is sold out for her appearance at Berns. I am more than upset. That was the only reason I was looking forward to March. Lesson learned: buy tickets in advance when I know the show will be good. I guess I could scalp, hmm. Some loser will sell the ticket.

The wedding was nice and somehow I ended up as unofficial DJ for the evening. Al Green and Marvin Gaye it is then. Hard to choose wedding music I must admit. Couldn't play a lot of nice stuff that just didn't fit the mood or the age. In the end though I finally got in some Beatles, The Smiths, Leonard Cohen, Dylan, even Jimi Hendrix(not Hey Joe). When we were cleaning up I managed to get everyone into the Daft Punk mood and we were dancing more than cleaning. A funk band played the wedding and they were, well they were really nice.

I'm back in Stockholm and looking for a job now so that I can travel in the summer. I think that I am also looking for something in France to work so that I can surf for a while and pick up the language. It would be nice!

A wedding in January...

Its not raining outside, not right now anyway. The lack of rain does not by any means imply that the weather conditions are anywhere near ideal for a white wedding. All that was decided by the bride and groom though of course.

Sven Josefson, his street name, has chosen to write this in the third person. It isn't an ego trip or some form of randomness, it just is. His father decided to be a derrier pirate and take the digital camera with him. This means that there will be no documentation of the event as a whole. He finished East of Eden and is now hard at work on a biography of the late, great Jimi Hendrix and after that he may even tackle Garcia-Marquez autobiography. Reading is growth. Unless its Romance novels of course.

Marie Antoinette is in the mix for tommorrow. Most have said its a debacle but Sven is going to be a gonzo journalist and envestigate this one for himself. P.S. Sushi is cheap in Riga, especially if its without fish(avocado). P.S.S so is booze and tea.

Weekend Update

Despite my love for the environment and preserving it, I have decided to board a Ryanair flight Riga, Latvia on the 15th of January. An old friend is getting married and I am going to mourn with him. No, actually I'm going to party at the wedding until the sun comes up. I'll be there for a week and stay with my old partner in crime Viesturs Celmins. After that week long stunt I'll have to come back to my current dwelling place in STHLM and get a job.

I haven't heard yet from the powers that be at Lund University but then again I probably won't hear from them until April. I don't really know yet what I'll do if I don't get in. I've been thinking about living in Spain and France just to learn the languages. If anyone out there knows of any job opportunities please feel welcome to send an email or leave a comment. Thats about all thats going on.

Book recommendation of the week: Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer

Le Monde

The winter is hibernating this year. Santa Claus couldn't believe his eyes as he watched the glaciers he has called home break up in front of his eyes. Bears were attacking Russians in the Siberian forest when they should have been sawing logs. Skiiers are realizing that they may be practicing a dying art. Is Holland worried their entire country may be lost to the sea again?

This is not the climax of our story. We have discovered on the other hand that there are no heroes. This may be upsetting at first but truthful none the less. The climax is still a few years off. It involves soaring water prices and petty conflicts that can be traced back to nationalism. Blame the West. Blame the White man. Everyone else still has a choice though. What is really true of our new century is that we are in the middle of a giant storm. This isn't a new development, the world has always been a storm.

What we are learning slowly and painfully is that there is no captain at the helm and all the officers are children wearing the costumes of adults and using their language.

Strindberg, Riga, and 2007

The fireworks are dying down and the holidays are officially over. Things fell through with the ski-resort plan. Instead I have a ticket to Riga, Latvia for the 15th of January to hang out with some friends and go to a wedding. I might go back down to Copenhagen next week as well. Its a possibility. Upon returning from Riga I will be re-entering the job market. That probably means I'll be cooking again. C'est la vie.

I am looking forward to the summer though and seeing some new places. Spain, Portugal, and Morrocco are all on the Menu as of this posting. Instead of drinking in a bar for New Years I just took shots with strangers on the Metro ride home, thanfully they were in possesion of a bottle of Tequila. Here's a quote from Strindberg, if you have no clue then wikipedia him.

“People are constantly clamoring for the joy of life. As for me, I find the joy of life in the hard and cruel battle of life - to learn something is a joy to me.” -August Strindberg

After the Flood

December the 25th came and went and we were never given the snow we'd been promised by the meterological gods of the local television station. Perhaps what was needed was a blood sacrifice but that just isn't my style so we'll keep the clouds and the heat(meaning that its not freezing). I've been reading, because I want to and because I've been sick, and would have to recommend H. G. Well's classic The Invisible Man. If you like dark and dreary, fitting for the weather, then read it.

In other news a family friend named Ilya is visiting Stockholm as he is on break from the tyranny of Bible School(Joking!) There is a hockey match tommorrow at Globen so we're all set to check out that. Djurgården vs. Luleå. I don't like either team but its hockey.

New Years plans? Hmm. Find a busy bar with a nice female to male ratio and look for the tequila. Sounds nice.