Zoo's

Listened to Mr Zoo (in Sweden) Jonas Wahlström on the swedish radio show "Sommar" the other day.
It was very entertaining, I saw a lot of me in him when he kept telling stories on how he got into arguments with officials etc.

Like when he imported an octopus for the zoo and was going to pick it up at midnight at the international cargo terminal at Arlanda airport.
Octopus is called ink-fish in swedish. But it´s actually a mollusk (blötdjur) so you don´t have to declare it as a fish.
The customs guy got all hyped on keeping the "ink-fish" since
Jonas didn´t have the paperwork for the fish..
So to settle it, the customs guy got a phonebook and called the "fish/animal specialist".
And this was at midnight!
A woman answers the phone and tells the customs guy that the person
he´s looking for is at the airport to pick up an octopus.. hehe. Love it.

He kept on talking about how great the zoo´s are in parts of America, Europe and especially in Sweden. Their importance etc..

Then today I got this picture sent to me on ichat:

It´s a pic of people throwing a goat into the lions for entertainment.. hmmm.

Here´s the article of the zoo in China.
And here are some excerpts from the article:

- "Oohs" and "aahs" filled the air as the children watched the goat being ripped limb from limb. Some started to clap silently with a look of wonder in their eyes.

- The zoo also encourages visitors to "fish" for lions using live chickens as bait. For just £2, giggling visitors tie terrified chickens onto bamboo rods and dangle them in front of the lions.

- Visitors can take part in China's latest craze ? tortoise baiting.
Simply put, Chinese families now gather in zoos to hurl coins at tortoises.
When giggling tourists begin hurling coins at them, they desperately try to protect themselves by withdrawing into their shells.
But Chinese zoo keepers have discovered a way round this: they wrap elastic bands around the animals' necks to stop them retracting their heads.

- Astonishingly, the zoo also sells tiger meat and wine produced from big cats kept in battery-style cages.

- Tiger meat is eaten widely in China and the wine, made from the crushed bones of the animals, is a popular drink.

Although it is illegal, the zoo is quite open about its activities. In fact, it boasts of having 140 dead tigers in freezers ready for the plate.

Here´s a video (if you want to see lion fishing with chickens) from youtube.
And here´s another one.


It´s completely normal for lions to eat other animals obviously, but why are people paying money to witness this? It´s so wrong, in so many ways.


Here are some LA pics I just got from H-Man:





Peas

Hmm.., North Korea..

I'm a huge fan of www.vbs.tv

They have a lot of cool shows. The most popular one is probably Epicly Laterd, which is a nerds perspective on skateboarding.
Then they have a surf one and some other interesting ones you can check out here.

I actually met up with two guys from VBS who are in town interviewing people about the history of snowboarding. I'll obviously post those clips when they become available.

Since I'm sitting at a place that won't allow me to send emails or edit to Final Cut Pro's full capacity I figured it would be cool to see the VBS show about their trip to North Korea and see if there are any similarities. And even though there are some;
no email, empty parking lot (at least at night) and very limited food choices, things are defiantly a little crazier in North Korea.

So I recommend you getting a warm cup of chai tea and make yourself comfortable and spend the next half hour or so watching Shane travel to North Korea. It's pretty fascinating, otherwise I wouldn't waste your time.

Here's the first episode.

I've only made it to episode 5, and can't wait for the rest of them. What a weird country this is, man.

I think these two pics might show two of Kim Jong-il's secret weapons of mass destruction, or as they say here in America, WMD's!




Here's an article of one of my favorite photographers Andreas Gursky's trip to North Korea.
More amazing photos by Andreas here, here, here and here.


Check out this anti homosexual film from the 50's. Scary.

Computer died

Well maybe it didn't die, but it won't wake up.

Finally had a meeting (yes you need a meeting to drop it off) with Apple after not being able start it up for five days.
So now my comp is gone for 7-10 days...

Got a set up at DC but that hasn't helped much.

The i-t department here is making it very difficult to work here as well as making it impossible to communicate with the
outside world.

But I'm doing the best I can and hopefully I'll be able to make them see the importance of me using my 3rd party filters for editing as well as being able to send emails.

Planned on going to see Journey in SD tomorrow, but I guess they played yesterday! God damn.
So they are playing in Orange County tonight, but we couldn't get tickets. So bummed.

Instead I'm in a bunker in what could be North Korea trying to do magic.


Here are two pics from the 80's party from July 3rd.


Oh and Lauri got the cover of the new Snowboard mag! Congrats.
Here's a short interview of Lauri from their website. And I made him say that I was awesome:)
No seriously, I did.

Computer acting up

Boy do you get nervous when your computer acts up..
Mine wouldn´t start for a day and a half...

It did eventually start again, for reasons I can´t understand. I did go to the DC office and get a back up just in case it fails this weekend.

Here´s my computing area at my new crib.


Tomorrow I´m going to Orange County to watch skating. 1st place is $100.000.

Check out their two trailers/clips here and here.

Got this pic in the mail the other day. From Riksgränsen, Sweden, 2003.
While shooting for Lame. Benedek took the pic.

Here´s a sweet movie trailer with some of Christian Slaters earliest acting:


Greek eggs and chai tea time..

Devun & Iikka talk about their DC ads

Go here to check out Iikka and Devun working. I´m pretty impressed by Iikka´s two shots. Can´t wait to see the rest when the Mackodoggo video comes out.

And if you´re not tired of reading about our NZ rally shoot and Ken´s racing feel free to check these two interviews out.
Parto Uno
Parto Duex

There´s also a documentary in the works about the life and times of Tim Brauch who passed away a few years ago due to heart failure.

And in case you live in Flint Michigan, don´t use sagging pants. You will get a $500 ticket or go to jail for 93-365 days. Way to go "Land of the Free".


And if you do get arrested, make sure the cop doesn´t grab your package like in this clip:


Here´s a trailer for Michael Moore´s movie "Roger & Me" that shows what happened in Flint Michigan in the late 80´s/early 90´s.

I´ve driven through that city and it looked pretty boarded up and depressing (no pun intended to anyone who lives there). But that´s the beauty of capitalism for you.

Speaking of capitalism. I just read that the people (in America) who make more than $100.000 a year pay for 95% of all state and federal taxes! WTF!
This is from an article from 2000, but still.

So all the others who have taxable incomes under $100.000 a year pay the other 5% ?!!!
I need to investigate this (when I have time:).

The top 1% of taxpayers pay 30% of all state and federal taxes?! That doesn´t make any sense to me.
Granted there are some rich bastards here, but 1% of the taxpayers are paying 30% of the taxes?!

And back then in 2000, you were in the top 1% if you made more than $208.000 a year.

Sounds to me like America needs to get the other 99% to pay up some. But before that happens cutting down on military funding seems like a good idea.

I´ll try and bore you with some newer stats when I find them.

Oh, just found some newer stats from 2005..


So let me get this straight... half of America´s households (around 50 million) pays for 3% of the taxes?! Wow.
And on this site it says that the median household income in America is $44.000.
So if your household makes less than that (44k) those families contribute with 3% of the taxes?! I´m confused, and upset.
Is this balance sustainable?

Now off to play tennis.

Here´s some sweet tennis from Borg and McEnroe from 1980.
Gotta love McEnroe.

New movie from Stacy Peralta.

Stacy Peralta is a filmmaker who started out as a professional skateboarder and is also a co-founder of one of the biggest skateboard companies of all time, Powell Peralta.

He started making some pretty sweet films for PP during the 80´s and early 90´s before venturing off elsewhere to make more films.
His films from the PP days have been very influential on my own work, I think.
Back then skate videos were super raw and filmed with shitty vhs cameras (which was great too, but in another way). Stacy was the one who started filming with nicer expensive beta, hi8, super8 and 16mm cameras.
And with nobody to look at for inspiration he created a look that is truly original.

Here are some of his work from the PP movies:

Saiz, Barbee, Sanderson & Thomas from Public Domain.
Frankie Hill from Ban This. I paid (in todays US $) around $70 for a copy of Ban This in the early 90´s. That was more than a months allowance when I was in 8th grade.
Frankie Hill in Propaganda.
Diaz, Mariano, Rodriguez & Johnson in Ban This.
Ray Barbee in Ban This.
Mike Frazier in Eight.
The Search For Animal Chin.
Rodney Mullen in Public Domain.

His biggest commercial successes are Dogtown & Z-Boys and Riding Giants. Two movies which depicted the skateboard movement in LA in the 70´s and the pioneers of big wave surfing.

His new movie "Made in America" is a documentary about the gang violence in LA. Mostly focusing on the two notorious gangs, Bloods and Crips.

I for one can´t wait to see it.

Here are two links to a trailer for it. One short version and one longer version.

4th of July

It started out with me waking up with really short denim shorts at a friends house around noon.
The reason for the very short shorts were the 80´s party the night before (pics might come later this week).

Then followed by Alka Seltzer caffein tablets which work great for anyone who wants to throw up:)

Then we hit the beach (pics might come) and played some badminton.
We´ve been playing badminton a lot lately.
The ball you use in badminton is usually called a "birdie", but I found out it´s actually called "Shuttle Cock".
Very random and very funny.

I was so slow on the 4th though.. couldn´t think clearly and felt like an idiot when people kept showing me pics of the previous night.
Not to paint a picture or anything, but I guess this is what happened, kind of:



We also missed the fireworks. They are illegal in Encinitas and it didn't seem like an option to take a taxi to Del Mar or Oceanside to watch them. But from what I heard they were amazing.

Speaking of Oceanside. I just moved into a place here. Feels ok. I never knew Oceanside was this sketchy, so many thugs and homeless people lurking around. It's only 5 min north of Carlsbad, where I've lived several times, and it's very different.
I asked a lady at a grocery store about the contents of a salad the other day, but she couldn't understand me. My friend who speaks spanish had to ask her.. I wonder if her immigration papers were in order.., or anyone elses in that store for that matter.

Some people at a thrift store were singing along to this song, which is almost like an national anthem and I´ve heard it frequently this past week.
Wonder if us swedes will become as proud of our country as americans are. I mean, we never celebrate our national day or participate in any festivities that has to do with celebrating our country. The closest are probably midsummer and "First of May". But that´s more an excuse to drink and on the first of May we walk down the streets to complain. I want more true festivities.

I haven't really moved in yet. I've had four friends staying with me for the weekend. It's been great. I love when people come to visit. So if any swedes wants to come over and enjoy the beach (I'm 50 meters from the ocean) and 25-30 degree sunny weather every day shoot me an email.
Jag är här tom mitten på augusti.

And I did some semi historical shopping too at H&M.
Except from maybe 10-15 pair of socks and one knitted sweater I can't recall ever shopping at H&M.

I think the main reason is that I didn't want to wear any of the same 10 sweaters, shorts etc that everyone else in my town. Cause there's a H&M store for every 20.000 people in Sweden, so shopping there was never that appealing.
The fact that I've been travelling a lot for the past 10 years prolly made it more fun to consume clothes elsewhere.

But then came yesterday. I was with my friend Erin who really wanted to go to H&M and shop (there are only a few stores in the States) and I wasn't planning on buying anything obviously. But then I walked into the men's department and bought 12 items! I guess I felt it was time to get some swedish clothes for my new american house/wardrobe. And boy was it cheap. Sweaters were $30 and beanies $6, felt like I was robbing the place.


Sunglass shopping at Urban Outfitters


Oh, and the iphone 3G is coming this week. There are already people in line outside a few stores.
Just like when Nokia release their new phones.., not.


Buy.

Olympic BMX racing

So I just learned that BMX racing is in the olympics... how weird.

Would have made more sense to have in the 1984 LA olympics.

But we all know the OC aren´t with the times.

I wish the final will look like this:



So what sports aren´t in the summer olympics?

Synchronized swimming, golf, tennis? What else?

Vi har en svensk mästare i problemlösning.

Sorry for you english speakers/readers out there. Have to do this in swedish.

Alltså, inte för att peka finger men hur kan det här ha ngt nyhetsvärde?

Maken till viktig artikel har jag inte läst på länge.

Nyhetsvärdet skulle väl vara att det visar (vissa) svenskars inställning till hur samhället ska servera ett jobb åt en på ett silverfat, eller i det här exemplet en subventionerad bussrutt.

Jag kan förstå att hon ev har det knapert, men du kan inte kläcka ur dig:
"– Det är akut med anställningen. Nu kanske någon annan kan ta sig dit i stället."

Vill du ha jobbet eller inte? Beskrev du inte ditt nuvarnade som tillfälligt? Är det här mötet så viktigt kanske du kan sluta lite tidigare, eller kanske tom stanna hemma och gå till Hökarängen (bästa svängen).

Om du inte är redo att promenera 5km för det här viktiga mötet så tror jag inte du vill ha jobbet nog mycket.
Vad är det här för jävla inställning.? Känns tyvärr typisk svensk i alla fall och vad jag kallar ett i-lands problem. Och tydligen så tycker Aftonbladet att vi bör läsa om hennes situation.

- Oj bussarna krånglar så nu kan inte jag få ett jobb för det tar säkert drygt en tim att promenera dit...
Eller har du hört talat om cykel? Tycker det verkar rimligt att kunna styra upp en sån på 24 tim om det nu är det man behöver.

Tror ni våra föräldrar (och framförallt våra mor/far föräldrar) skulle tycka det var, citat: jättejobbigt, när inte bussen gick som den skulle och dom fick promenera en halvmil eller ngt en juli morgon för att träffa en arbetsgivare som du vill ha anställning hos? Än mindre bli intervjuad av tidningen pga det "jättejobbiga" promenaden/situationen.

Vart är improvisationsförmågan? Kan inte tänka mig att hennes arbetsgivare ger henne anställning om dom får läsa den här artikeln.

Nu kanske hon inte söker Elisabeth Tarras-Wahlbergs tjänst eller som produktionsledare på Jonas Åkerlunds nya film, men hur tafatt får man bli?

Jag ville egentligen inte att Andréa S Blomqvist skulle bli något slags offer för mina, vad vissa kan kalla, högervridna åsikter. Men nu blev hon tyvärr ansiktet för många av dom svenskar som verkar tro/tycka att andra ska lösa deras situation.

Nog för att man kan vara solidarisk, men jag har lite svårt att tycka synd om henne för att hennes buss inte går som planerat imorgon.
Fast det är klart jag fattar att busstrejken är ett problem, har bara lite svårt att känna ngt medlidande för den här damen.

Livschoachen Peter Nilsson hade nog haft kul åt hennes "problem".

Ha en trevlig helg så kanske poletten trillar ner.

I guess you can´t say fuck with rent-a-cops around / Happy Danes

Don´t mess with Muska (or Vallely)




And in case you didn´t know Denmark have the happiest people. I can see that.

I find theories about happiness fascinating and recommend grabbing a cup of tea and spend the next 12min watching this. Americans especially, but then you might want to grab a sugar coffee from Starbucks instead of some Earl Grey:)

Teleporting a trillion trillion atoms.. Why not?

If there was teleportation I would pay a lot to be in Skellefteå right now.

You can only appreciate so many sunny 25 (77 F) degrees days in a row.

I´d like to smell the rain on swedish asphalt, watching Russia play Spain on a big screen at "Stadsfesten" and drink sugar cider on a chilly June evening. That´s what I want right now.


My friend Mathias who lives with me at the moment had falukorv in the freezer. I spotted it and freaked out. Cause you can´t get that sausage in the States. Turns out his mom took it with her when she came to visit last month.

Those slices of falu were incredible. Even better than the bestest of mexican food. And it made me miss sweden even more.

So by now you don´t need to be Sherlock Holmes to understand that I´m homesick. Well home and home.. where is home? Some say it´s where your family is, some say it´s where your work is, some say it´s where your dog is, I say it´s where my toothbrush is. So by those standards I guess we can call my state of mind swedensick (although that does sound kind of negative).

Here are some pics from last few days of skating. Notice the slick feet arrangement in the curb photo, pure precision:)

Skateboarding is so cool

This behind the scenes video clip is a piece of art.


For more sexy underwear and hot models go here.

Trevlig Midsommar

Just wanted to throw a greeting to my swedish friends who are celebrating midsummer today.




Önskar jag hade kunnat vara i Sverige och spelat kubb (å kanske krocket?) och ätit tunnbröd.

Finns inget som går upp mot en midsommar hemma. Även om regnet kan komma på besök.
Blöt asfalt och nyklippt gräs, den lukten är inte fy skam.




Here are a few more funny clips on what might go down in Sweden today:
Moped Race
Cow Bingo
Dancing "Small Frogs", a very mandatory dance around a pole of birch leaves.
More dancing around the pole.

NBA Finals / Euro Football

So the Boston Celtics won the NBA title this year.

They won the last game with 39 points!

La Lakers were hurting. Bad.

I´m not a big fan of Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol. But on the other hand I can´t be happy for bostonians, so I lose either way:)

And although this might not be a big thing back home in Sweden it is here.

And then there´s the Euro Cup in football...
Sweden just lost a game they needed to tie with Russia.. lame.


The other day my friends from Skellefteå made the online newspaper Expressen.se while cheering for Sweden down in Austria

Skate Awards

Went to see the Transworld Skateboarding Awards last night.


Guy Mariano won.
Best Street
Best Video Part
and Readers Choice
Not bad for a guy named Guy (trying to be funny) who hasn´t had a video part in 10 years or something.
Here´s his latest one. Very awesome.


Check out his first full part here and two other ones here and here.

I got a little starstruck when I spotted Spike Jonze on stage with the Lakai Fully Flared crew.
He usually works on the Girl/Chocolate/Lakai projects to some extent.
Here are some of his work with the companies mentioned.
"Yeah Right" Intro.
"Yeah Right" Invisible Boards.
"Fully Flared" Intro.

Here are some of Spike´s other work for anyone who feel like spending 30 min on youtube.

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

Football, anniversary and slideshow

So Sweden won over Greece (Greece means pig in swedish) yesterday. That was fun.

Now they´re playing Spain on Saturday, pretty exited about that.

Been hangin at Hjalle´s in LA. Met some friends and even drank wine yesterday (a sweet rioja).

Since I´ve been hooked on MGMT for a few months now and they don´t have a music video for their song "Kids" I made my own yesterday.
I just took as many photos from my iphoto as there were seconds in the song + a few sec of video from their concert last week.

So here are some of my favorite moments to my (current) favorite song "Kids"

iphotos from pierre wikberg on Vimeo.

Oh the anniversary.. It´s been one year since I took the tumor out. And it´s my dad´s birthday.
Arnold "The Governator" Schwarzenegger does NOT have a tumor. If you don´t believe me look here:

The ONLY phone to beat the iphone!

If this version doesn´t have built in ichat someone will have to get beaten. Although it doesn´t look like it has it! At least not built in..
Like how could my T-Mobile Sidekick from 2003 have ichat, and it worked perfect too, but not the iphone or iphone 3g?

If we landed on the moon 40 years ago (some say we didn´t, read about that here and here), why can´t
I have ichat integrated in my iphone?
And still only a 2 mega pixel camera.. and no FM tuner... hmmm, last I checked it was 2008, not 2003.


But even if this awesome piece of technology still
doesn´t have the ichat application or a good camera my question to the world is still..:
Why do "normal" people buy PC´s? I´m serious.., why?
You want to use the internet, you want to organize your music and photos.. maybe make a little movie once in a blue moon.. and you´re looking to buy a Dell, HP? Why?
Cause they are cheaper? Sure it might be cheaper to buy, but it will last you half the time an Apple will. And you will get viruses + it´s ugly.


Read more about this wonderful, beautiful thing here.



For the record, I don´t have an iphone. But pretty sure I´ll get the 3g one cause this time around you don´t have to commit to paying AT&T for 24 months straight.

Red Wings Win!

Amazing game. The 3-1 and 3-2 goals were intense. Stoked for the people in Detroit and anyone in Sweden who still tunes in to hockey in June.

Right after the game I went to LA to meet up with some friends and go to a MGMT concert.
This Level bottle didn´t last too long. Look at the price! For the same amount of one drink at home I get 0.75 liters of vodka here.
Last time I checked the communist liquor stores in Sweden they didn´t even carry this vodka. And they are supposed to have "the greatest selection of alcohol". Sure, they don´t have Level vodka and they don´t have Coors Light and they defiantly don´t have any low carb wine coolers.
Please bury the state liquor stores NOW!




From what I remember I had a fun night. Except the part were this bitch took my hat and threw it in the crowd. I hope she got karma'd.

Recognize her? If so, tell her she´s an idiot.



Decent sized bottles of hangover.

Found this sweet shirt at a vintage t-shirt store. Sucks it was too small. And a bargain at $38.


I walked up and down Melrose/Fairfax in LA yesterday, like a zombie.
Strolled through the DC and Burton store, they were both very impressive.

Oh, just realized it´s Sweden´s national day. But swedes don´t celebrate it, well not yet at least. Maybe in a few years.
I leave the celebrating to the norwegians on May 16/17th and the americans on July 4th.
Nevertheless... here´s a clip of beautiful Sweden:

Hockey & Politics

Detroit Red Wings lost 4-3 last night to the Penguins. They were up 3-2 with 35 sec left of the game, but then it went into sudden death. So after 110 min of playing the Red Wings lost...

Next time they will win.


And Obama will now be the democratic candidate for the american presidential elections.


I could have cared less who they nominated, either would have made a 679 times better leader than W.





Let's just make sure McCain and his evil looking wife aren't moving into the White House.