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Pizza Feud: Stockholm’s little Italy.

Thursday, September 1st, 2011

It’s not wise to mess with an Italian from Palermo, Sicily.

The closest Stockholm gets to a little Italy is crammed into a cafe at Hornstull on Södermalm. At least when it comes to Italian soccer football fans. Especially if you support Palermo’s team,.

The locals know it as “Dellos” from its original name, “Cafe dello Sport” but passing by the other day I discovered that a little tiff between the Dellos gang and the pizza man around the corner has changed the face of Hornstull’s Little Italy.

Dello’s has now renamed itself

VIP or Very Italian Pizza
vip large description

But why?

Long story short. The pizza place around the corner tried to jump on the Dello gravy train which wasn’t very popular with the real McCoy-ianos.

vip

So they fought back and opened a corner of the café as a pizza place, reinvented themselves and re-signed
vip sign

They weren’t open for pizza when I was there. I must stop by again and sample that pizza. Though probably still not on par with Varasano’s

little known fact: The owner of Varasano’s, Jeff Varasano, scouted and imported his pizza oven from Borås, Sweden. He is also a pretty fast Rubik’s cubist, 19 seconds!

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Tags: cafe dello sport, dellos, hornstull, jeff varasano, stockholm, stockholm pizza, varasano's pizza, varasanos, VIP stockholm pizza
Posted in Swedish products, stockholm | 1 comment »

Swedish mainstream shop: Alternative lifesytle?

Wednesday, August 24th, 2011

When homosexual wedding greeting cards are unceremoniously displayed in mainstream shops we’ve shaken the “alternative lifestyle” label tagged on to gay marriage. At least in Sweden.

Same-sex marriages have been legal since May 1, 2009 and registered same-sex partnerships were recognized already from 1995.

I found these cards on display at one of my favorite stationery [chain] stores,
Ordning & Reda
wedding cards .

Now you have all options covered for your next wedding invitation needs.

Just don’t drive yourself nuts by converting the 30kr cost of the card (OK, if you have to, it’s just under $5.)

Oh, and if you’re attending a gay wedding, I highly recommend buying the Leatherman Multitool for the happy couple. Especially if it’s already on their gift registration list.

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Tags: gay marriage, leatherman multitool, ordning & reda, ordning och reda, sweden, swedish gay marriage
Posted in Swedish culture, Swedish politics, Swedish products | No comments »

Fashion/Fury over fur pompom: Blue fox Crown(ed) Princess.

Monday, February 21st, 2011

Since Victoria kicked off a fury of fashionista followers and well…a plain old fury with her mössa med blåräv toffs (knitted hat with blue fox fur pompom ) I’ve been seeing them all over Stockholm. pompom hat

For the record, I’m not a bunny hugger and as long as we treat animals humanely when we farm them for food and clothing, I’m pretty much ok with it. Natural materials and pelts make warm and beautiful articles of clothing and luxurious linings and collars (I admit that I do love the feel of real fur) But seriously, a pompom might be arguably the best candidate for a faux fur replacement. Unless you take it off and waggle it playfully in someone’s face, no one reaps any of the properties of fox (and not faux) fur.

Now the Swedish Crown Princess isn’t supposed to participate in political positioning but the image of her (albeit a very cute princess in a very cute hat) sporting a decadent adornment of fluff from a fur[r]y blue fox isn’t really sending the right international message, is it? (Though that fox does look like a very cozy hat in itself).

Since uproar in the mainstream and tabloid Swedish media last week I would imagine that Victoria will resist pulling that hat on again in public. However with the sightings of foxtoffs (Newly created Svengelska word?) especially around Stureplan central will only increase until the spring (summer at this rate of deep freeze) thaw.

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Tags: blue fox pompom, blåräv, mössa, pompom, stockholm, Stockholm fashion, Stureplan, toffs
Posted in Swedish politics, Swedish products, stockholm | 1 comment »

Christmas cookie cutting IKEA: Christoph Niemann’s “Let it Dough”

Monday, December 20th, 2010

IKEA is the product of Sweden arguably best known and most associated with all things Swedish, well, these days in any case.
ikea
So it is isn’t very wondrous that Christoph Niemann, a well-known (OK, I had never heard of him before but I don’t regularly read the publications –albeit those publications are very well-known to me–he has been featured in) artist and illustrator, includes a little mention (or rather, more of a dig) to the flat-packing furniture and furnishings global mammoth in a cute blog entry he published in the NY Times a few days ago (and was republished and posted on Facebook by 3 friends today.)

Take a peek. The cookie image piece has nothing else to do with Sweden. But it does spread a humorous and tasty spirit of Christmas.

And it mentions IKEA.

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Tags: christoph niemann, ikea, let it dough, sweden
Posted in Swedish culture, Swedish products | 1 comment »

Buying Bergman. You got to want it for that price.

Friday, September 3rd, 2010

Within the final hour the highest bid for Ingmar Bergman’s canceled passport went from 15,500 to 44,000 SEK or nine times the original estimated value. pass

When I first saw it I figured it would double the estimate. In fact it hung around 10,000 until the day before the auction close. When Bukowskis emailed me the “One hour to go” notice, the bid stood at 15,500. There must have been a few nervous people hovering around their computers for those final 60 minutes.

The winning bidder is obviously seasoned with a customer number so low, 1202 -giving 97,205 (an apparent newbie to the Bukowski Market auction) quite a run for the money.

How do you appraise the value of celebrity memorabilia anyway? Has piqued my curiosity what the resale value will eventually be.

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Tags: bukowskis, ingmar bergman, Ingmar bergman passport
Posted in Swedish products | 6 comments »

Buying Bergman: Death requires no passport

Tuesday, August 24th, 2010

You too can bid on Ingmar Bergman’s canceled passport at Bukowski’s Market (formerly Auktionskomaniet.) I’m tempted. Ingmar Bergman passport Link to auction.

Of late I am a bit addicted to the on-line auctions. (We need a lot furniture and things -like art- after moving from a little 1-bedroom apartment to a house.)

That leaves me vulnerable to buying things I plainly just don’t need but am oh, so intrigued by. The estimated value of the passport is 5000kr but currently bidding is at 6700 with 10 days left, so I have a feeling we’re going to see this take a run and pass 10,000. Thankfully, that financial reality leaves me out –especially considering there’s a 20% commission to pay.

But it leaves me mulling about what it would be like to have that kind of memorabilia in my possession and what it could be worth in 30 years. Bergman has only been dead since 2007. Retirement fund?

I think I’ll have to stick to traditional saving vehicles for my retirement, but I am still romanticizing the idea of owning a tiny bit of something so personal of someone so culturally influential, all the while within my niche all things Swedish.

Ain’t gonna happen for me, I’m afraid.

(for those who aren’t familiar…)
Ingmar Berman is world renowned for the iconic direction of The Seventh Seal döden

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Tags: auktionkompaniet, bukowskis, ingmar bergman, Ingmar bergman passport, seventh seal
Posted in Swedish culture, Swedish products, stockholm | 3 comments »

Chako Paul, The Local and P3: “Blond Swedish lesbians running around in the woods”

Monday, October 19th, 2009

The Local’s article, an attempt to debunk a myth about a female-only city in northern Sweden published and spread throughout China, has given life to a new myth in the West that Chinese men are swamping Swedish tourism bodies to book their trips to Sweden in a spurt of bizarre sex tourism.

And if you’ve gotten a bright idea to try to capitalize on it, you’re slow out of the blocks. The .com, .se, .org, and .net domains for chakopaul are already snapped up. (Though as of this publishing the .co.uk and .eu were still available and if you throw in a hyphen only the .com has been spoken for –act quick!.) Heck, merchandise (a very cheesy t-shirt and cap) is already for sale for the low, low price of $29.95 plus shipping for this limited edition (that was hard to write with a straight face.)

This isn’t Chaka Paul merchandise. Well, not yet.

I think The Local’s journalist, David Landes, said it best when interviewed on P3 radio about the Swedish mythical women-only city, Chako Paul,

“Anytime you’re talking about lesbians running around in the Swedish woods, it’s going to raise some eyebrows, true or not true…” Sveriges Radio P3, Oct. 18, 2009 -download the program here -it starts at minute 39 but most of it is in Swedish.

I wrote about this in Blond babes, bikes and Blatte when it first came out. No surprises here that the world goes gaga when you start talking about Swedish women especially when you tie in the tag lesbians.

Now we just need to come up with some Swedish-influenced souvenirs to sell. Wouldn’t that be a twist to find a DalaLesbian in China marked, “Made in Sweden.”

I was thinking of a sculpture where the woman is painted in the darlacarlian tradition, but this will have to do to spark your imagination

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Posted in Swedish culture, Swedish products | 5 comments »

Bad sport motion: When words say more than pictures.

Friday, September 25th, 2009

Sometimes the a few words caught in a picture are worth more than a thousand words. (Not sure how a picture stacks up in the valuing system on this one, sorry.) My local swimming pool complex recently reminded me of this worn-down-though-never-quite-worn-out giggle over Swedish words and signs which read funny for English-language eyes.

Fart hinder–speed bump

Gotta wonder why they use boobie images to reduce speed.

Infart and Exfart–entrance and exit

The sign is cautionary. Yes, we should warn people about them.

And…

Slut–the end. So plastered over retail windows is Slut Rea or final sale.
Sluts for sale?...nah, just final clearance

Personally, my favorite Swedish sign has no funny words

Seems car diving is allowed though you should take care

And so the trigger for this review of funny words and signs in English belongs to the place I just spent Friday afternoon into the evening :

Not the most appealing signs to get new members signed up

It just seems to counter the effort to attract members to come and work out or get fit. But then again, instead of advertising, perhaps they’re reminding me, the passer-by, of my own condition.

Dunno. But I signed up for a 3-month training pass. I wonder if I am diligent if they’re update the sign to “Good Sport Motion”.

I’d be happy with Good Sport.

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Tags: bad sport motion, farthinder, ferry berth, infart, sign, utfart
Posted in Swedish products, Uncategorized, stockholm | No comments »

Anna Anka: Stirring debate? What debate?

Thursday, September 24th, 2009

It seems Paul Anka exploits illegal immigrant labor. He might be well advised to inform his wife, Sweden’s neo-numero-uno woman-most-loved-to-be-hated, Anna Anka, that she should probably keep that under wraps.

kajsa anka

I had actually tried to not blog about Mrs. Duck (Anka means duck in Swedish and Donald Duck’s name in Sweden is Kalle Anka and Daisy Duck is Kajsa Anka.)

But with all the attention she’s getting from her outspoken views published in an article on Newsmill (in Swedish only sorry) and her role on the reality TV show Swedish Hollywood Wives (also only in Swedish) there’s too much talk on the town to ignore her totally.

So what’s the hype? Yeah, that’s my question too. Here’s a few of her controversial statements:

“[In the US] it’s the illegal Mexicans who do the work. They do the dishes, clean the house, take care of the garden. I have an enormous garden and four gardeners.”

“Swedish dads are tragic with all their nappy-changing and equality. A real American man panics if he is alone with a child for more than 20 minutes. American dads do not prepare dinner and do not iron, they work and provide for their families.”

“Sexually it is the woman’s responsibility to ensure that the man is satisfied, if she does not then she only has herself to blame if he is unfaithful,”

“[In the US] mothers don’t nag their daughters about education and going to college, but instead that [the daughters] should find an athlete or a celebrity. Isn’t that wonderful?”

I can’t fathom how people can take any of that seriously. This is entertainment and comedy, but not debate.

And amazingly, for some inexplicable reason, it’s somehow become part of a political debate here in Sweden. But I am still wondering…HOW? What is the debate to debate?

There was a talk segment on the radio yesterday (My lovely SAAB suffers from that all-too-common malady of a busted digital display so I have no clue which station it was) about Anna Anka and the “Debate around her” and I had to agree with 2 of the 3 guests that there ISN’T anything to debate here.

And so the debate (whatever there is to debate, and I love a good debate so please tell me what to debate) goes on.

I wonder if anyone is checking on her employees for their papers now? Imagine, they might just have to pay minimum wage soon.

Which is 8 bucks per hour in California. I hope they can afford it. illegal mexican

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Tags: anna anka, california, hollywood, hollywoodfruar, illegal immigration, newsmill, paul anka, svenska hollywood fruar, sweden
Posted in Swedish culture, Swedish politics, Swedish products | 17 comments »

The smell of Moonshine is in the air: Literally.

Thursday, September 10th, 2009

There’s a scent of moonshine wafting in the autumn air this morning. Unceremoniously, it’s not from a band of bootleggers, but the wind blowing southwesterly from the yeast factory, Jästbolaget where they produces all of Sweden’s yeast.

yeast

The reference makes for colorful morning small talk since the act of illegal alcohol distilling (aka moonshine, better known as hembränt in Sweden) falls into that limbo land of civil disobedience and culture heritage preservation.

Popular misinformation scares people into thinking that moonshine can make you blind or otherwise harm you. While it might give you a hangover to compete with the mother of all hangovers, the worst moonshine can only impair your vision while under its spell –a phenomenon better known as beer-goggles.

And while in reality there isn’t any hembränt being brewed in the neighborhood (well, that I know of) I am pretty sure we’d find a number of stills still in the basements of the local folk.