Swedish Movies, part 2

January 12'th, I posted a list of four Swedish movies we'd seen. Since then, we've seen three more. The first, Ett Öga Rött which means "One Eye Red," was simply excellent, especially in these days where immigration issues are in the headlines. It's about a Moroccan family that immigrants to Sweden and encounters some "issues." It's also about reconciling your past with your future.

The second is called Blåbärskriget which means "The Blueberry Wars." This may be even better than Ett Öga Rött! It's a tale of multi-cultural scamming in a Swedish wilderness town and it all started (and ended) over blueberries.

We also saw Nina Frisk, the story of a beautiful airline assistant and dysfunctional her family. It's a worthy movie but the previous two are my picks as "best."

Note, however, that these movies only got around 5 stars out of 10 on www.imdb.com. Maybe I'm too excited by the Swedish style of movie which is new to me?

3 of photos published!

Take a deep breath. It might take a minute to load.

Schmap published two of my photos and one of J's in their latest Stockholm tourist guide: Vasastaden, Brunnsviken Bay, and the Sweden House. The Brunnsviken Bay one was taken by J.

See if you can find them using the widget below to brouse their web site. Hints: use the pull down menus to select sets of photos. For example, the Vasastaden photo is under "Neighborhood Guide." The map will have small markers which you can click on. Note: they found these photos by searching Flickr.

A Skirt, photos sets, and Facebook

My wife told me she'd seen a male construction worker in a skirt and I thought she was somehow mistaken but noooo. Check it out here.


Also, some of you have not been keeping up with my Flickr pictures (over 1500 now) so I made a set of my last 100 and a set of my 48 most interesting as determined by Flickr, which is determined by Flickr's interestingness measure.

Btw, I'm on Facebook now. I finally caved in to the pressure....anyway it is useful for some thing. I've ranked a lot of Stockholm restaurants there, for example.

Swedish Movies

J and I have watched three excellent (English subtitled) Swedish movies lately. These movies tend to develop characters and represent real life. No expensive special effects, no cars exploding, no chase scenes, etc. Just dialog. At first they seem incredibly slow but enduring them always leaves you rewarded. J and I continue to talk about them long after viewing them.

Here they are:
Farväl Falkenberg - (Farewell Falkenberg) A story of friendship, alienation and depression is a small Swedish town.
En Kärleks Historia (A Swedish Love Story) directed bt Roy Andersson. It's a story of finding love. For me, it feels very Swedish. I'd wonder whether Swedes agree.
Den Nya Människan - (The New Man) This one is about a time in Swedish history (1930-1950-ish) where they practiced eugenics (sterilization of people deemed undesirable). It is a very emotional movie! The US also practiced eugenics, too.

I'm not sure whether these movies are available in the US but it's worth checking Netflix or the foreign film section of your local video rental store.


Another excellent one we viewed before coming to Sweden was: Under Solen - (Under the Sun). This one has some nudity, so put the kids to bed.


Get some popcorn and watch these if you can.

15 days in Oconee County

J and I just returned from a nice 15 day visit to our birthplaces in Oconee county, South Carolina. The weather was superb for January: some days were warm enough to get by with just a long sleeve shirt, no jacket. There were some really cold days sprinkled in too.

On the visit we went to J's annual family reunion. There were about 35 there and we had an amazing selection of good food. One of the enduring traditions at the reunion is fresh coconut cake, a specialty of our beloved and deceased Ruby. We visited a new museum in Walhalla. It's free and I recommend all residents of Oconee to go there to see some of Oconee's past, including some Cherokee and Catawba Indian history.

All the brother's and sisters living in Oconee had us over to their homes for a nice time. Having a large home with acreage is a far cry from the fourth floor 800 square foot apartment in an 95 year old building we live in Stockholm - totally different lifestyles.

We also did some hiking. This is where you can experience the natural beauty of Oconee. It is unfortunate that many residents don't appreciate the natural beauty and tolerate some awfully ugly buildings and general junk. One of the most valued principles in Oconee is the notion of property rights (and it's a good principle). A person can do just about anything on their property as long as nobody gets hurt. Government taxation, regulation and interference is despised, probably because it smacks of "occupation" which the original Irish and Scottish settlers viewed as very "British," who occupied Scotland and Ireland for the better part of 800 brutal years. However, I wish there was a better balance with the principle of preserving nature and natural beauty (which would increase property values!)



One thing we now observe about Oconee that wasn't there in the past is the broad range of homes from run down mobile home parks surrounded by junk cars to well kept but modest farm homes to disgustingly opulent beautiful multi-million dollar lake front properties with a dock jutting out and cluttering the lake shore. This is because Upstate SC is a popular state for retirement and summer homes for wealthy people.



Bernard-Henri Levy (in American Vertigo) says that Americans, unlike Europeans, don't mind letting cities die. The old parts of both Walhalla and Seneca seem to be dying. It's shame. The unregulated sprawl is moving out to the 123 by-pass and other areas. Some places are a hodge-podge of signs and cheap store fronts. It is criminal to blight such a pretty area this way.

Oconee's "exports" are wood (mostly pulp wood), electricity from Oconee Nuclear station, and lake front property. There is also some industry but much of it is moving to China.

My two son's and daughter-in-law also met us there (unfortunately our daughter couldn't make it). Out out-of-town brothers and sisters and their spouses also drove in. It was so nice to reunite with them and the extended family.

I have posted numerous pictures from the trip here.