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Memorial Mammoth Weekend

So I really wanted to go ride some slush. And with Mammoth closing this weekend it was now or never.
Mammoth has had temps over 75 so I was ready to ride in a t-shirt for a day or two.
Mother nature had different plans.
The DeVille had never seen snow before. Let alone in California in late May.




Hjalmar bought a monoski this year and despite some really sketchy first turns he made some very radical maneuvers.




After riding we made "palt" a swedish dish that´s basically a ball made out of potatoes, flour and pork inside of it. Boil for 45 min and eat with lingon berries and butter.

I got paltschwimmen afterwards and passed out on the floor for a few hours. After waking up to Hjalmars farts lingering in the house we´re now heading out for a mojito or two

Stekare

Inte nog med att Niclas Nordfeldt visade sin bästa sida på klippet under Metallica posten.
Han verkar även (kanske inte helt oväntat) steka på Stureplan också.

För mer bilder på hans nylle kolla här, här, här och här.

Inte ofta jag brukar lägga energi på att le åt andra som är sig själva. Men Nicke är fan värd det.

Sorry for another confusing swedish post. I´m just entertained by this yuppie from Sweden.

Music and parenting.

Went to see Metallica last weekend. MGMT played at the same festival on the same day, but seven hours earlier. As mush as I love MGMT I couldn´t man up to go to a stadium festival in OC at 2pm on a 95 degree day to see them and then be stuck in there with the OC festival crowd until 11pm...

MGMT played in San Diego the day before, also at a stupid festival. But I wasn´t prepared to spend $100 to see them that day either. My friend is hosting a party in LA soon though where that are playing. I´m going to try and make that party.

Another band that played there were Flogging Molly.The guy on the accordion is Matt Hensley, legendary skateboarder.

But back to the parenting part of this post.
In front of us we had a dad and his, maybe, 6 year old kid. They were rocking out together, singing almost all the songs together. It was awesome to witness. Some might say that who in their right mind brings the kid to a Metallica concert?
But I think it was bonding on a level way higher than any fishing trip.

Here´s a clip of them singing:

Glöm inte bort

att klä er rätt nu när sommaren kommer pojkar.

Your Vote Counts (if in God you trust)

Without much investigation I found out that more americans voted for Taylor Hicks in the 2006 American Idol final than they did for any president.. Read here.

Hicks got 63 (some sources claim 66) million votes in one night when he won the 2006 AI.

Bush got (including cheating) 62 million votes when he won (read rigged) the 2004 elections.

This is scary.

In 2005 over 500 million people voted in the AI series! 500 million votes!

From what I could read up on us swedes vote for schlager music contests a lot too. So yeah, this voting on music stuff is an international phenomenon. But I´ll bring up how much I dislike swedish schalger music another time.

On a tangent: Check out this song by Toby Keith "Put a Boot Up Your Ass"
Forward to 2:05 for the boot in my ass part.
I´m all for supporting the troops.
I just wish they wouldn´t have to go. Or that Bush´s family and relatives were there fighting for their oil instead.


How anyone can win an american presidential election with only 62 million votes in a country that has 300 million inhabitants is scary in itself. Especially when 78 million eligible stayed at home on election day.

To top it off Fox News (not the best news source, but in a weird way I want to believe this story) claims that 35% of americans think their American Idol vote is just as important as the one on the presidential election... oh god..



This upcoming election will be interesting to follow..
I was 90% sure Bush couldn´t win in 2004, but he did and I´m 99% sure McCain can´t win this year.
Cause if he does there will be more killing going on, that´s a guarantee.
Not to mention an ever more elitist society.

So any good news..? Well yeah. In 2004 59 million americans voted against Bush. I have my fingers crossed that those people and many more with them will vote on Obama this year.


Check out www.sorryeverybody.com


Now back to the pool, and then the computer, and then packing, and then driving to LA, and then driving to Mammoth to board, and then.. who knows?

No world championship hockey in the United States of Softball

Softball... yeah. ESPN choosed (is that a word?) to show womens college softball instead of Cananda vs Sweden.
Well not only that, they choosed (it´s a word now) to not show any games from the hockey world championships.
I mean.. a final between Canada and Russia?!
How the fuck is it possible to NOT broadcast that in the 50 united states?!
I called around to every sportsbar in town (which can seem kind of looney to watch some meatheads with sticks) and nobody had heard about any world cup hockey...
Here are some responses:
Hockey, what? It´s on now? Even if I had it Kobe is on in 30 minutes so...
-Young woman: What was it again? Canada vs Sweden in world cup hockey?... Let me check.
Oh yes we have it, we have everything.
I called back just before getting in the car for the 15 min drive..
-Same young dumb woman: Yes we still have the game.. duh..
-Me: are you sure..? Cause I don´t want to drive down there in vain.
-Oh I´m sure.
-Can you double check?
2 min goes by..
-Jock-ish sounding male: Eh what did you want to watch?
-Canada vs Sweden. Semi finals in the ongoing world championships.
-Frat dude again: Nah, we don´t have that.
Are you sure it´s on today?...

Stupid bitch. I have zero (or very little) tolerance for incompetent people like that.
I mean if I call to make sure I plan to get the correct answer the first time.
Then I call them back another time cause I was doubting her ability to check the listings or ask her boss only to then discover that they didn´t have the game.... Idiots, mother fucking idiots.
Pretty sure it was this rocket scientist who worked there. Or a close relative.


And you couldn´t watch it on the canadian websites either...


So my friend The Jonk was online and was nice enough to invite me into his and Lisa´s living room.

The quality was surprisingly good. And the commentary was in swedish, so I was happy. Jonk fell asleep towards the end though so my comments on the game became unanswered.

For the Sweden-Finland game I had my dad move their computer to the tv so I could watch it.

The game sucked and I lost a breakfast to my cocky finnish friend Jussi.
But I´m pretty sure he owes me for the ´03 game where Finland was up 5-0 and then Sweden won 5-6!

This stuff happens a lot when I´m over here. Even world cup soccer... I remember going to see that in some mexican joint (bar).
And now with the european championships coming up (soccer, or football as 6.7 billion people call it) I´ll have to rely on my swedish friends to turn on their ichat cameras.

The other day it was some intense moments in the LA Lakers - Utah Jazz series. We were at an art show (lisasolberg.com) until the last few minutes of the game.

We made it back to the house just in time to see this:

Jazz were down 3 points and needed to get a 3 pointer in (duh..).
They had 13 seconds to do it. They got two tries!

Here´s a longer version. It was soooooo close. I hate Kobe.., he´s such a primadonna. And Gasol, he´s as whiny as they come.


That was it for sports... until Detroit wins the Stanley Cup.

Blind Skater talks to Tony Hawk

Read about this kid in a mag lately.

Here´s a clip of him skating!

Weather

I heard that Sweden had some nice weather last week.
I bet nobody was inside killing time on facebook when
it´s over 20 degrees outside in May.

Here I feel guilty if I´m inside and the sun is shining, cause if you grew up in Sweden you were never inside if the sun was shining.
Yesterday was such a day, didn´t leave the house until 3pm. But for the next few days I´m gonna try and go outside a little more, work on the farmer tan.

Weather looks promising, a little too warm for my taste, but I´ll take it. At least it´s not 39 degrees like in Sacramento.. yikes.

Cali trip

So me and sis drove around Cali for a week. Now I´m in SD trying to figure out my future.
Here are some pics from our Cali trip:


My sister turned into my personal Atiba (photographer). This is my old ass at the Truckee park.



This was so cold, seriously, it hurt like walking on shattered glass.



Ski patrol dude with dog on his back.



The roads in Napa Valley / Sonoma are gorgeous. Even though I don´t drink wine (they make most of the wines in Cali here) I love driving around here. I´ve taken this drive many times by myself on the way between Lake Tahoe and San Francisco and it´s great every time.



It would have been fun to skate this spot if a firetruck with douche bags didn´t roll up and said I couldn´t.
Somethimes I wish I had Tony Hawk with me when I get denied to skate a spot.
I mean would they tell him to leave too?
Would you tell Tiger Woods to put his putter back in his car if he walked around your local park putting a ball?



My sister behind the camera again.



Tourist spot, I wore my newly ironed sweater.



Staged shot at the tourist spot.



Big ship and golden bridge.



Sister behind the lens again. I´m posing.



Glass tree.



Anne Leibovitz (really awesome photographer) had an exhibition in SF. Amazing work.


Every time I see great photography it makes me want to become a photographer. And who knows.., maybe I will.



SF houses.



In Pacifica California they have a Taco Bell on the beach!

Seriously! It´s the mother of all Taco Bells, oceanfront patio dining. Amazing.




Two of the lighthouses we stopped by on the drive down from SF to LA. I´ve taken this drive a few times as well and it´s a must see for anyone who´s in the area and haven´t done it. It beautiful.

I´m very into lighthouses. I dream about living in one (part time).. preferably on an island.
Here are two french ones that look awesome, except that they are in France.




This is the view you get if you mow the greens at Pebble Beach.


Tree on a cliff.


Tree which has seen wind before.


Gas on HWY 1 is spendy, but still less than half compared to Europe.



This was taken at Hearst Castle, about 90 miles south of SF. It´s a huge mansion built my WR Hearst in the 20´s and 30´s, during the depression. It cost over $10.000.000 in the 1920´s to build. the story behind the Hearst fortune is as inspiring as the building of this mega mansion.
Learn more here, or here.


Here in his indoor pool the floor was covered with 23.5 carat gold. Well, not the entire floor, but maybe 10% of it.





Packing, and moving... it never seems to end. So many bags and nowhere to put them.