söndag 29 april 2012

Internet Exile

I am currently without a charger for my computer and without easy access to internet. 
I have a couple blog posts that I intend to finish up and publish soon, but right now I wanna make the most of my few days here in Winnipeg.

I'm leaving on Thursday. Today is Sunday. I haven't fully understood that I'm leaving.
I've found good people here. I've been in many places, I've met lots of people. I can tell when I meet people that I fully...  like. So I feel sad about leaving them. Because I know how far between it can be between them.

In Swedish we say that people can click with each other. I've clicked with them. 

I like Winnipeg, it's a nice city. I don't agree with the natives of this town who always question why I chose to come here. I like it here, a lot. I like the department of Linguistics at University of Manitoba, a lot. 

I feel sad about leaving. I don't want to think about it. I wanna stay longer. I also feel sad about how hard it is to express sincerity about these things... it all sounds so cliché and polite. I really, really like this city and the people I've met here. I hope they can understand that. I feel powerless when it comes to expressing feelings with language.

So.. since I'm in Internet Exile I'll put up a few photos of what I've been up to in the IRL-world. 


Me and Kristine at Brandens house outside of Winnipeg. Right before we went out quading in the dark plains of Manitoba. Not the first but the second meaning of the term "quading" as listed by urban dictionary..

1. having sex with a quadriplegic
2. 4Wheeling


 I posed like Rosie the Riveter and bleached my hair. Or rather, Branden bleached my hair ^^!
Went to the zoo with Meera, Sean, Kristina and Branden. Saw pretty birds and cute pandas and a huge construction site for the new polar bear exhibit they're building.

I found Yifan Liu and discovered how much fun she is to party with! 

 I found out that shared not only taste in beer with Jesse but also 
opinions about the left movements in North America. Good stuffs.

 Skated at the forks :)
 I drew a picture for Branden. It took a couple of days but I'm quite satisfied ^^!


 Went walking in the sunset
 Had poutine.
 Went to derby scrimmage 
Went to a quiet fashion show.

Hung out with wonderful pretty Sean.

Bye bye for now, talk soon.

fredag 13 april 2012

Winnipeg: Orange Jell-o

Orange Jello-O
Movie still from My Winnipeg
In the fictional movie My Winnipeg (Guy Maddin 2008) there is a period know as the "Orange Jello-O-days". During that period decadence ruled and at The Bay on Portage there was a restaurant called the Paddlewheel where they held Man-pageants. Women watching men parading, showing of their bodies. The citys Mayor selected the winner - The Golden Boy. The Paddlewheel sold orange - golden - jello as dessert. Everything was wonderful and sinful.

There was actually a mayor called Mayor Cornish, just like in the movie. But he was mayor in the late 1800's.. so. Yeah no.

On Sebastians birthday, the 24th of February, we went to a restaurant on Edmonton St here in Winnipeg called Affinitiy garden. It was really good and all (the Seitan and the noodles were very veryyy good), but what was most exciting was the Tea Jelly! It was orange and tasted of vanilla, much like Crème Brûlée. Here are two very short clips of us and the jelly. I have no idea if they know anything about the movie and the connotations of the orange jello - I doubt it.


Point being:
very exciting to have had orange jell-o in Winnipeg in presence of a hot guy.

Here are some more stills from the movie:






Isn't it just wonderful? It's a kinda hard movie to watch, you have to be in the right mood. It's very slow in the beginning and the narrative is broken into many pieces. Once you get into it though it's a great, great movie. It's hysterically funny, especially if you know Winnipeg.

North American Cuisine
They're crazy about their jello-o over here, really.  I found this awful recipe of Jell-o fruit salad. I mean, come on.. you... you just.. CAN'T DO THAT!!

North americans don't care about what is appropriate in the "old" world, it's like the parents are gone and the kids have the house to themselves. They come up with the weirdest combinations of foods, many things that would be considered very vulgar and barbaric in europe. Like mayonnaise on sushi.. (I know you like it Sean and it's okay ^^).

Not to mention the culture of being able to specialize your order like kah-razy. "White Mocha Non-Fat Frappucino with Caramel"... I feel like the mum in Goodbye Lenin: I want there to be only one option!!

I don't think it's all bad, they are being more creative and they think outside the box... it's just... I'm a poor little european and I feel it's WRONG. And then there's the architecture, they just go bananas!! They have lots of space here on the prairies and no shortage of concrete. I like that though, I reeaaally like that. It's fun with all the weird designs they come up with, even the ugly ones. At least they're doing something new!

I've never felt so european as I do here, not swedish but european. I find my self missing London, Paris and Leipzig. I'm not even from there!!

I like it that "european" here means... loose morals (or plain erotic), experimental, snobby, pretentious, superior and interesting. I understand it's no fun getting stereotyped but... but I enjoy this stereotype ^^
Bye bye!

P.s. This boy is called Branden (->) and his favorite expression when he likes something is "golden" ^^.  I like how Winnipeg has the "Golden Boy"on the legislative building and that the jello is golden orange. My theme for my farewell party was "Gold and Canada" and everybody that it was really strange. Looks like I was on to something!! HA! Look who's laughing now!!
Branden told me that Winnipeg is the Slurpie (kinda like Slush Puppies) Capital of the world. This needs to be investigated!

Absurd Animations

I am a big fan surreal and absurd animations (or art in general). A big fan. Animation is such a playful media, you can do so much!
I wanted to share with you four of my favorite surreal animations. If you like this kinda stuff I recommend subscribing to Channel Frederator on the tubes. They have a short weekly show were they discuss and recommend new up and coming animations.

Who I am and What I want
"I want to me a part of the interal workings and crushed within them"
Brilliant animation by David Shrigley. 
Absolutely brilliant. Stunningly brilliant and awesome. Period.
Thank you Raoul for showing it to me the first time.
David Shrigley has also made a music video for Blur's song
"Good song
". It is also epicly good.
Sleeping and Dreaming of Food
by awesome artist Kolbeinn Karlsson and animator Eva-Marie Elg.
 I'm sorry it's only a trailer. You can see some more stills and stuff on their website. Kolbeinn is from Uppsala just like me but we became friends in Stockholm through Galago-parties.
Kolbeinn is an awesome artist and a wonderful person. He has left Mälardalen for Malmö though.  (WHY MUST ALL AWESOME PEOPLE MOVE TO MALMÖ?!?! Don't tell me, I know why.. it's an very nice place, less stressful and people are more..
close, making spontaneity easier.)
 
Fuck the humans
"They don't fucking have fur!"
By Brad Neely
I don't know anything about the creator of this song or animation.
But I love it!

DOCTOR BREAKFAAST
"Looks like you're giving that naked man a bath"
by Stephen P Neary
A beautiful story of real friendship!
I love it so much! Especially the voice actors

Greetings from the rainy prairies!
It's pouring down outside so I'm inside having beer and burgers. Hope you're all alright.

tisdag 3 april 2012

Reese, Cely and gifs of Men

Let's take a minute away from the seriousness of science and other serious issues. Let's talk about men and chocolate.

I love Reese. I really REALLY love Reese. I've found someone who also loves Reese as much as I do. She is awesome and her name is Cely. Her blog is about all kinds of things that interested her, like REESES(!!), cute dogs and sexy men. And also running [sic].


I love to eat Reese’s cups, like LOVE them so much I can eat 10 at once. In comes the “running off” part. I run to eat. period. the end. I love Reese’s cups so now I have to like running.

That's the most inspiring thing I've ever heard, when it comes to motivating people to start running. I mean it, I've never heard a better argument in my life. I seriously have to rethink my position on running now.


Gifs of men
.gif is a fileformat for pictures and is most often used for a very short series of pictures shown after each other and is looped, see below. Gifs were very, very popular in the beginning of when the internets became a public space.
On mondays this Cely girl posts a lot of gifs and static pictures of hot men.

In case you're having a bad day or something, here is something to lighten your day: some my favorites gifs of hot guys.

Just thought you'd be interested ;)