Hi, thanks for dropping by. My name is Anders, I live in Umeå, Sweden, a supposedly peaceful and once supposedly neutral european country known for the Nobel Prize, safety matches, angst-ridden Bergman films and for constantly being mixed up with Switzerland by those who slept through their geography lessons... I am a nice, tall, usually friendly, hard-working culture activist inolved in music and art in many ways, basically as a concert and event organizer but also as a musician, art dabbler and part-owner of a tiny record label.I am usually considered to be fairly clever without being a totally unbearable smartass, highly passionate in just about anything I do. I love a lot of things in this crazy and sometimes abominable world.I am a true and loyal friend, caring and compassionate to those I love, insanely curious about life and people but I try to always respect the integrity of others.I try never to judge a book by it’s cover. And if I do,I ‘m usually happy to find out sooner or later that I was wrong. I love to joke and laugh and play with words and can be witty and funny as hell at times but the things that should be taken seriously I take seriously... I like to think that I am 95% kind, friendly and easy-going except to those who treat me or the ones I love in a bad way.Then I will use the full force of my verbality to slash the bastard(s) to metaphorical pieces... I try to keep an open mind to most aspects of life, dark or light,I belive in strong, deep friendships and I enjoy meeting people who have realized that things are complex and can live with it and even be fascinated by it, who dare to think and feel and follow their own paths,express themselves in just about any way and get into endless discussions about all kinds of strange and incredibly normal things, who dare to be at the same time male and female, childish and adult, tough and vulnerable, social and asocial... Those people will never grow old even if they get billions of wrinkles, only wiser,smarter,funnier and sexier...
(The photo: An insanely over-sized version of the Dalecarlian Horse (Dalahästen),the most arch-swedish of all swedish folklore artefacts...)
Music:
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(last updated:July 26, 2008 @ 10:06 am)
Yes, I am a total music freak and music is my life as mentioned above... And no, I don't like all kinds of music. But I like truckloads! And I appreciate that there are all kinds of music... OK, sorry for getting kind of super-pretentious here, but I really need to say this: There can only be Good and Bad music, and it's up to you to figure out what is what! So, good music for me:60s psychedelic stuff, punk and post-punk, noise and industrial,good old soul, various kinds of ethnic music,folk and freak-folk, danceable electronica,electro-acoustic loudspeaker music, dub and reggae, indie pop, french 60s pop,metal,german krautrock,drone and minimalist,film music by the likes of John Barry, Ennio Morricone, Bernhard Herrmann and Krzysztof Komeda,some jazz, contemporary chamber music and some classical,you name it...and last but not least I have a deep interest in free improvised music,I've played with and organized lots of concerts with free improvisers and I find that kind of music to be totally absorbing even if it may sound like when someone is strangling a cat and dropping 1000 nails on a silver plate.In free improv collaborations, such amazing things are being created that could never happen any other way! It is a way of transcending, getting high, escape the tyranny of the so-called rational mind..in the end, it's a way of staying sane... So, enjoy the playlist...
Interests:
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I’m into music (oh,did I mention that???), art, reading,writing,talking,listening, giggling,laughing out loud and sometimes my fucking ass off, working, travelling,staying at home, playfully serious people and situations,eccentric things and people, discovering new things,learning new languages, long,deep and interesting discussions, being outdoors, being indoors,urban landscapes in some respects, rural landscapes in other respects,caves, extreme landscapes like deserts and glaciers, cooking, eating, good food and wine, german and belgian quality beer, drinking tea instead of coffee, orange juice,drinking cold water from a tap instead of buying bottles of water, asking questions,solving mysteries,unsolved mysteries and how they affect us,psychology, philosphy,dada and surrealism,kabuki,greenlandic mask dance and mask dance rituals in general, throat singing,etymology,anagrams,palindromes,Paul Auster, Julio Cortazar, the beauty of friendship,everything that’s romantic,lovely, sensual and sexy, flea-markets,cats, hedgehogs,wolves,solar eclipses, bioluminescent underwater creatures,DIY culture,fanzines,punky attitudes, hippie-like amicability, urban exploration and the sad beauty of modern ruins, Iceland,Poland,London,Berlin, the US despite all ugly things there,all the places where I've never been,history and getting a historical perspective on things, the smell of lilac,good horror movies,clever Hollywood stuff like the Coen Brothers films, arty films,east european avantgarde animators like Jan Svankmajer and Walerian Borowczyk, strange coincidences,six degrees of separation and many far more ordinary, laid-back things.Life.
What I dislike.The obvious - Of course I have a bunch of disadvantages too which does not necessarily make me a scumbag. I hate all kinds of dangerous and harmful stupidity (racism, religious fanatism etc) and most kinds of violence although I’m without doubt, whether I want to or not, a part of a bigger kind of violation in more than one way. And like every other supposedly sane person i dislike liars, hypocrites and fake people, which of course does not mean that I have been or can be 100% honest to myself and others in every sitution in life (hey, seriously!!). Let’s just say that I hate when people are using lies and other bullshit to harm and hurt others. Be well. Take care.
Idols:
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"No, I have no idols..." Bullshit! I have tons, thousands,shitloads of idols, people and other creatures that I unashamedly admire, idolize and would gladly place on huge pedestals if I got the opportunity...Here are some:
My parents, undoubtedly; for encouraging me to follow my own path,whether they've understood my sometimes strange ways and crazy ideas or not...thanks....
My lovely, weird, wonderful, wise, clever, funny,talented and sometimes totally nutty friends, without whom...well,thanks
All non-militant warriors fighting global,regional,local stupidity...
Since I'm a sucker for all kinds of creativity (except the one preached by the nazi morons of the Church of the Creator)I could bore you to tears with endless lists of writers, musicians, filmmakers, visual artists etc that mean a lot to me, but this profile page is already drowned in nerdy namedropping, so I'll spare you...
But yeah, these ones rock as well:
(Photos: The Moomin Trolls, Serge Gainsbourg, Laura Nyro, Ingrid Segerstedt Wiberg, Tony Conrad, Naomi Klein, Noam Chomsky, Ambrose Bierce, Meredith Monk, Hugo Ball, Fursaxa, Boris Vian,Vali Myers,Erich Fromm,self-portait by world-famous yet anonymous street artist Banksy)
Movies & TV:
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Some movies I like: Magnolia, American Beauty, The talented Mr Ripley,Ghost world,American Splendor, The Others, 24 hour party people,Silence of the lambs,Carnival of Souls, Midnight cowboy, Point blank, Pi,Sunset Boulevard, The Parallax View,The Servant,Saw,Valerie and the week of wonders,Whatever happened to Baby Jane,The Machinist, Lemming,The Conversation,The double life of Veronique,Rumble Fish,Virgin Suicides,Koyaanisqatsi,The Whales of August, Jacob’s ladder,Don't look now,Spinal Tap,The Sting,The Day of the Jackal,The Hitcher,The Colour of Pomegranates,Sorry wrong number, Diva,American Graffitti,Fritz the Cat,The secret life of Walter Mitty,Pulp Fiction,Bunny Lake is missing,Alice sweet Alice,Hellzapoppin,Tetsuo – the iron man,almost everything by David Lynch, Jim Jarmusch, the Coen Brothers, Andrej Tarkovskij, David Fincher and Todd Solondz.Being John Malkovich and everything else written by Charlie Kaufman.The Holy Mountain by Alejandro Jodorowsky,Le Revelateur and others by Philippe Garrel,Dreams that money can buy by Hans Richter,The Cremaster Cycle by Matthew Barney,Tales from the Gimli Hospital and everything else by Guy Maddin, Amarcord and several others by Federico Fellini,La Famiglia by Ettore Scola,Closely observed trains and others by Jiri Menzel,Europa and other films by Lars von Trier, several films by Milos Forman, Dr Strangelove and many others by Stanley Kubrick ,Possession by Andrzej Zulawski, Blow-up by Michelangelo Antonioni,Sisters and several others by Brian De Palma, Dead Ringers by David Cronenberg,Confidential report by Orson Welles,Stepford Wives (the 70s version),Vertigo and most Hitchcock films, Images, Three women, Short Cuts and lots of others by Robert Altman, Shadows and most films by John Cassavetes, japanese and corean horror movies, new spanish horror movies, Velvet Goldmine and some others by Todd Haynes,In the white city by Alain Tanner,Michael Moore (despite his cheap tricks and debatable methods),Repulsion and basically everything by Roman Polanski,The last of England by Derek Jarman,The Belly of an Architect by Peter Greenaway,Sans soleil by Chris Marker, The Marx Brothers, Chaplin, Buster Keaton & all that, british 50s comedies from Ealing Studios, Woody Allen,John Waters, Details by swedish director Kristian Petri and several films by swedish directors like Lukas Moodysson, Roy Andersson,Björn Runge, Bo Widerberg and Ingmar Bergman of course, (especially Persona),some films by Michael Haneke, experimental film works by Stan Brakhage, Kenneth Anger, Walerian Borowczyk, Jan Svankmajer, Maya Deren (gush, finally a female!), Ira Cohen, James Broughton,Toshio Matsumoto and many others.Strange old informative and propagandistic films, often unintentionally hilarious.Early silent movies about arriving trains and workers leaving factories,babies eating breakfast and trips to the moon (because they could), Plan 9 from outer space and others by Ed Wood (because he tried), zero-budget movies although many of them are crappy (because they show it's possible).Monty Python, Fawlty Towers, Twin Peaks, Simpsons, Kvareret Skatan (swedish tv comedy). Twilight Zone, Night Gallery & other classic tv horror...