When I came back from lunch there was a package waiting on my desk


I opened it, and SURPSRISE - there was a blue beard!


And all of a sudden we were three beardos. Ryan, me and Emmet


Emmet dropped of and somewhere around midnight Little Saturday (the middle (I gave her that name)) joined the party. We put on an appreciated show oustide a gym then went for some beer drinking at three-four different pubs. 


Took a detour over Russian Hill. Amazing view from there.


Ended up at Ryans place, cooking dinner and playing videogames.


Woke up in Ashbury after two hours of sleep.


Then back to work.

Me and Johan Cavemar are moving out from Marius apartment. Marius girlfriend is coming here all the way from Norway to stay for a while. They havn't seen each other in 2 months (if you don't count their 6(!) hours of Skype conversations everyday), so we need to leave them some private space.

For me and Johan this means a fresh start. A new chapter in the San Francisco tale begins! First we gona stay at Maja's place a couple of days before moving into our own tiny but permanent apartment at McAllister Street.

So, bye bye Brannan Street and Marius and thanks for the past month.

I don't think I've ever showed you the crib, so here's some pics:

The livingroom where me and Johan spent the most of our time


Long live broadlooms! Good for sleeping and absorbing spilled beer.


The kitchen

He crawled out of a dark corner in the bar claiming he was the better half because he had the reddest hair.
Maybe he has, but I still look better. HAH!

Maybe an episode of Mad Men can do it.

Sonic Living is an awesome service. It pulls info from your music player on your computer, and as soon as one of the bands you're listening to comes to town it gives you a notification. How fuckin awesome isn't that?

Right now my calendar for Febuary looks like this:

3rd: Jaguar Love
5th: The Thermals
6th: Dawes
13th: Justin Towns Earle
14th: Girls / Magic Kids / The Smith Westerns
16th Motion City Soundtrack
18th Alkaline Trio / Cursive
26th: Atlas Sound
27th: Mark Kozelek (Sun Kil Moon & The Red House Painters)
27th: Soundtrack Of Our Lives

I'M NOT COMLAINING!!! Or, to bad that I will need to make a hard descission the 27th=(

I've been here for a month now. INSANE! Feels like yesterday I walked through the door to Marius apartment at Brannan Street. It didn't take long to adjust. Life over here already starting to become a little bit of a routine. 9 to 7 work every weekday and parties on weekdays. Maybe it's because of the continiuosly rainy weather or the fact that I'm not in a far away country just for fun and relaxing days at the beach, but right now San Francisco doesn't feel that much different from a traditional Sweden autumn. Sort of grey and usual, except for the language. It's obvious how much the weather affects my temper. That and my stomach, who's been very loud the last couple of days after a three week long and peaceful coma. And the alcohol. I said it before - "I'm starting to get to old for that shit". Last night I drank one rum & coke and one glas of beer. When I woke up today I felt so weak and tired, as I've been feeling after all parties lately.



Don't get me wrong. I really enjoy being here and of course there's much more to look forward to.
I just think I need to activate myself a little bit more. Exercise more, meet more new people, explore new parts of town and so forth. Good balance in life is fuckin important. You can't just get stuck in front of a computer screen. And I'm not just gona sit here and complain. That's not Johan Blomborg. This is ment to be one big adventure. And I'm gona make that happen.

Five months to go!

Weekend!
Movie night with home made food, cola and popcorn (Our microwave has a popcorn preset mode!!!).
Different movie wishes, as usual.
United.
Breakfast Club - Awesome movie.

Then.
Watched the trailer for Death Sentence. Looked promising. Sort of psyched we were!
Started to watch it.
And, at first is was promising. Maybe a little bit jumpy storytellingwise and some B-acting here and there, but still intriguing with a well executed parking garage sequence.
But somewhere halfway through something goes terribly wrong. It all falls apart. All credibility and  authenticity goes straight to hell as the movie tries to fit in every single genre there is. A pretty solid revenge driven drama/thriller/action-movie in line with Taken turns into a forky splatter/videogame/grindhouse wannabie where there's absolutely no sympathy for the main character (Kevin Bacon) what so ever.

What went wrong?

Here's some assumtions:

A. The entire production team was swapped out. The new team was led by Uwe Boll.
B. They didn't have a finished script and were running out of time. 
C. Kevin Bacon wanted to shave his head and play Rambo one time before seeing his career come to an end.

This time last year was the time before Spotify's big breakthrough, so when I did this I had to find YouTube videos of every damn song I wanted to play for you. This time around it's different. Everyone has Spotify, and since Spotify starting to get a pretty solid library of songs, creating a Spotify playlist is the most convenient way to share music.

For almost everything else there's Groove Shark. A pretty neat service that works almost exactly like Spotify, except that it's completely online and that it has a lot of songs you still can't find on it's bigger brother.

So here you go, 63 songs (about 4 hours of music). And since I know that many of you people don't like my punkrock & hardcore side, I saved you pussies some "skipping track"-trouble and put these at the bottom of the lists.
Not so very punkrock of me, but nice, ey?

Spotify playlist

Groove Shark playlist

Even if I sometimes feel like a bat, sitting in the dark lower parts of the office, I can't complain. I'm getting fed. The fridges at are fully stocked with different kinds of free bevereges (Beer, Coke, Snapple, Dr.Pepper etc) and there's bowls filled with candy. When it's hectic times at the office and when it's a lot to do, Mekanism even brings in food for their hard working ants. Last night I had my first late nighter at the office. After a meeting at 7 pm we needed to wrap some stuff up before today's deadline. So I stayed until midnight. Fortunately I got a really yummy salmon sandwich in return, and hopefully some kudos for my work.

Our unknown caveman neighbour's apartment



VS

Johan Cavemar's corner in our apartment

Saturday striked hard. "We're gona take it slow" didn't work, as usual. As we crawled up Haight Street the booze kept on coming. A beer here, a White Russian there. Ryan, my Art Director, is one hell of a generous buyer. Yesterday was mainly soked in headaches and slow pace.

Today it's a red day in the calendar, a day to mark the birth of Marthin Luther King. I don't know if Americans celebrating this happening in some way, but the important thing is that I'm off work, which is NICE (I always though the weekends should be 3 days long). Or I mean, it should be nice. I should be happy and relaxed, but I'm still feeling very dull and powerless from saturday's party, and I have a lot of important stuff I need to take care of. It looks like crap in some corners of our home, so I should clean. I need to start receiving money, so I should fix my csn papers and my american security number. I should cook some fresh & healthy dinner, but there's some pizza slices left in the fridge. I should finnish a case movie I promised to help out with. But the rain keeps falling and there's a lot more relaxing to watch a few more episodes of Mad Men...

So lets start with...a few more hours in the couch accompanied by Donald Draper. It's one of these lazy days.

Happy day overall . Full of coincidences, new contacts and weird encounters. From soccer in Golden Gate Park to pub crawl at Haight Ashbury. Playing Rock Band with a large group of very drunk people can be frustrating and sound absolutley aweful. It's weird for a party game like that to not have a drunk mode, or as for tonight - a very very drunk mode.

A thing that seperates the pizza from the the top of the pizza box, so that it dosn't get sticky and soggy.

And the winner is...PETRA!

Congrats!!!

What's the little thingy on the picture for?
Clue: Fat food I've been having for lunch three days in a row now.

You will get the answer tomorrow, cause now I'm going to floor (that's where I sleep)

The bakery who made this actually specializes in baking genetalia, ONLY.

And it tasted like it looked like...



And while we're at it:

Sitting at work, sort of drunk actually. The time is 6.30 PM. My art director's been giving me "Car Bombs" (Guinness + a shot glass of Bailey's & Jamesson), starting at 4.30. This week have been a good one. I'm starting to feel more comfortable around here. Nice people, fun work and crazy stuff starting to happen. Mekanism sure knows how to celebrate someone's bithday, especially when celebrating four birthday kids at the same time.

This is how they do it

5. The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart - The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart



First time I met the band with last year's hardest name it immediatley felt very familiar, but at the same time very unfamiliar and thrilling. It was like meeting an old love and feeling a new exciting spark. It resulted in a spring relationship, one that I will remember for a long time and one I probably will return to once the trees are blooming and the birds are warming up their soft voices.

Best tracks: Come Saturday, This Love is Fuckin Right!


4. Japandroids - Post Nothing



Two men creates the most sparkling and compact sound I've heard from a duo since White Stripes early days. The thick wall of distorted guitars and banging drums almost hypnotizes me sometimes, pulling me into a world where I have unlimited energy, where I'm constantly running and jumping around playing air guitar.

Best tracks: Young Hearts Spark Fire, Wet Hair


3. White Denim - Fits



Three young men drives into the desert. They bring one big pile of their favorite experimental records from the 60's & 70's and one huge bag of "snow". They move into a small cabin where they record Fits during two hazy smoke filled weeks. I've no clue if that's how this record was born, but it sure sounds exactly like that.

Best tracks: Say What You Want, Paint Yourself


2. Banner Pilot - Collapser



From the beginning this record was a big disapointment compared to it's prodecessor. I remember thinking it lacked variation and that all of the songs just sounded the same. But with every spin Collapser took the songs became more and more chiseled and catchy. And all of a sudden they became this years most melodic, honest, powerful and striking punk tunes. Even if Collapser doesn't bring anything new to the genre it becomes completely indispensable for a punklover like me, a heavy drug that I'm still using on a daily basis.

Best tracks: Hold Me Up, Greenwood


1. Phoenix - Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix



Personally, no movie has ever managed to capture the feeling of true love as good as Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind. Every time I see that movie it swallows me whole, making me cry like a thirsty little baby. In the world of music the counterpart is called Phoenix. Everytime god damn time these Frenchmen release a new album they set my heart on fire, giving me tears, goosebumps, dancing feet and countless jumps of joy. If that ain't love then I don't know what love is. None of their so far four studio albums have been below "very good" and Wolfgang Amadeus is no exception. It's a fantastic pop record, all the way through. Let's face it: Phoenix is the past decade's best pop band. End of discussion.

Best tracks: Liztomania, Rome

10. Brand New - Daisy



When Brand New gently tip on their toes just to seconds later explode into a tidal wave of anger and anguish - then no one in the genre even comes close. The peaks are not as many as on the 10/10-record The Devil & God Are Raging Inside Me (2006), but as soon as Daisy's hardmelted melancholy sinks in it really is a heart-shaking experience.

Best tracks: Bed, Sink


9. Wilco - Wilco (The Album)


Wilco have always been taking different roads and detours,experimenting with diferent genres. On their latest album they proves that they master everything from catchy rock tunes to the more experimental, soft and deliberate.

Best tracks: You And I, Everlasting


8. The-Dream - Love Vs Money



RnB was definitley NOT my thing. Or, that was to cautious. I used to puke at everything called Rnb. But then the song Rockin That Shit came to visit my eardrums. It started to massage them so soft and gentle that they both started a intimate realtionship in my ear channels. The Dream don't have the best voice, but compensates with a instinctive feel for smooth melodies, spot on collaberations and a big fuckin horse cock of confidence.

Best tracks: Rockin That Shit, Put It Down


7. Manchster Orchestra - Mean Everything To Nothing

Even if I've just been listening to this record for a week now I already feel that it deserves a spot this high up on this year's top 10. From start to finish this is one hell of a solid indie rock experience - one that feels like the perfect match between underground and mainstream, and one that probably will lift these boys into the big crowds. With great vocals and lyrics and influences from Nirvana, Weezer and Brand New this is a grand journey, often sending me good chills down the spine.

Best tracks: I Can Feel A Hot One, Everything To Nothing


6. Dawes - North Hills



The fact that four guys between 18 and 23 have created some songs that many of the big American folkbands from the 60's/70's would be proud of is a remarkable effort. This is 2009's most candlelight-friendly record.

Best tracks: That Western Skyline, Beside Manner

From now on I will try to write in English so that everyone who stumbles upon this blog can understand what Mr Blomborg is saying. And of course it's a good way for me to practice my English. It definitely feels a little bit rough sometimes. The only time I will use Swedish är när jag pratar skit om min praktik och den amerikanska regeringen, men jag tror inte det kommer bli nödvändigt. Och även om jag skriver på svenska går jag inte säker i dagens internetsamhälle med nymodigheter som Google Translate och www.tyda.se.

So, I started my internship last monday. It felt pretty odd going back to reality (the computer screen) after some wonderful and relaxing tourist days here in the city. It's to early to say if my internship will be a good one. The work climate feels pretty different here compared to Sweden and Hyper Island - a little bit more non social and more individual. Surprisingly, Americans are not the best ones at inviting you and making you feel welcomed, or at least not at work. Daily friendly gestures like saying "good morning" and "goodbye" are not always so daily here. It takes more than just a week to adjust and to get into the flow - that's what almost everyone's saying. And I think it will be better when I'm starting to get into the language more and when I'm feeling more relaxed at the office. It actually  starts to feel better already.

Chips Ahoy!

15. The Dangerous Summer - Reach For The Sun



Best tracks: Where I Want To Be, Surfaced


14. Girls - Album



Best tracks: Lust For Life, Ghost Mouth


13. Polar Bear Club - Chasing Hamburg



Best tracks: Living Saints, Drifting Thing


12. Cursive - Mama, I'm Swollen



Best tracks: From The Hips, What have I Done?


11. Vetiver - Tight Knit



Best tracks: Everyday, More Of This

With the internship kicked off earlier this week every weekend from now on will be special, or at least that's our intension. Weekends means free time, free time to do something besides just sitting in front of a hypnotizing computer screen. No time to waste! This weekend we rented a car, gathered a huge tent and sleeping bags from people all around San Fran and headed over the famous Golden Gate Bridge for some traditonal camping. Without a gps we got lost in the dark and ended up at some fuckin scary roads and dead ends with deformed people with chainsaws. One sign said "Hostel". We didn't go there. But after some trial and error driving we finally found our booked camping place and managed to put up outr tent around midnight. We heard weird noises coming from the bushess, but screamed at whatever it was and managed to catch a few hours of sleep before heading of to some walking in the pretty beautiful Muir Woods.

Close one's:
Hard Girls - Hello
M Ward - Hold Time
Junior Boys - Begone Dull Care
Jamie T - Kings & Queens
Deportees - Under The Pavement The Beach

(click on title for Spotify link)

20. The Love Language - The Love language



Best tracks: Sparxxx, Providence


19. Cymbals Eat Guitars - Why There Are Mountains



Best Tracks: And The Hazy Sea, Indiana


18. Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavillion



Best Tracks: My Girls, Brother Sport


17. Atlas Sound - Logos



Best Tracks: Walkabout, Logos


16. The Dirty Projectors - Bitte Orca



Best Tracks: Two Doves, Useful Chamber

When a relationship ends the best way to recover is to look forward and forget about the old crap. But when it comes to music it's different. The time has come to look in the mirror and review the music year 2009 aswell as the music from the past decade.

2008 was a fuckin great year.

This was my top 10 albums of 2008:

1. Fucked Up - The Chemistry Of Common Life


2. Good Luck - Into Lake Griffy
3. Dillinger Four - Civil War
4. Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend
5. Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago
6. The Gaslight Anthem - The '59 Sound
7. Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes
8. Cut Copy - In Ghost Colours
9. The Hold Steady - Stay Positive
10. Q Tip - The Renaissance

2009 I set some sort of personal record with a listening resume of over 200 albums. Maybe it's because of this huge amount I think of this music year as a very good one, even if the peaks were higher 2008. This year have been like a Way Out West festival - Maybe not the best and biggest bands and releases but a whole lot of awesome medium goodies. In some upcoming blog posts I will reveal my favorite music from 2009 and the last decade. Maybe you will insist on what I'm about to say, maybe you don't give a shit. Maybe you will think I'm the godfather of good music taste, maybe you will think I suck harder than the best pornstar out there. Nevertheless I love lists because everyone can have an opinion about them, in one way or another. And of course, it's a good way for me to flash my excellent taste in good music. Hopefully you will get a lot of awesome tips along the way.

Det finns många sidor av Amerikat som inte stämmer överrens med min livsåskådning, som känns väldigt långt ifrån trygga Sverige eller som jag helt enkelt inte förstår mig på.

Round 1, Fight!

Bait Car - Ett tv-program där man lockar bilrånare att sno bilar genom att lägga ut beten i form av olåsta bilar, bilar riggade med kameror, mikrofoner och sändare. Sedan ligger polisen bara och väntar på att få napp, och napp får dom med råge. När bytet är fångat får poliserna äntligen dra sina välpolerade pistoler och skrika "freeze motha*****, step out of the ****ing car". Rånare efter rånare åker dit och filmas hela tiden utan någon som helst censur.

Reposition - Ett annat tv-program där man iscensätter "äkta" våldsamma bråk på olika parkeringsplatser. Typ så här: Bimbotjej slår kille med ölflaska i huvudet. Killen slår tjej med rostig kedja han råkar hitta på marken. Liten kines kommer rusandes ut från ett närliggande hamburgerhak med en kvast i hösta hugg och börjar puckla på killen. Killen lyfter upp kinesen och kastar ner han i en stor container. Behöver jag säga mer?

Censur-pipet - Det är okej att visa ocensurerade fettsugningar och blottade brottslingar på bästa sändningstid men att säga **** och **** går inte för sig. Så fort någon kastar upp ett **** eller ett **** kommer det där jävla pip-ljudet. Jag skulle inte vilja vara ljudsnubbe för amerikanska tv-shows.

Reklampauser - 5 minuter film, 5 minuter reklam. Nästa vecka sträcksänder dom Lord of the Rings-filmerna, extended versions. Jo tack.

Efter att ha sett premiärtrailern av Avatar var jag inte särskilt upphetsad, trots alla förstklassiga filmer James Cameron har i bagaget och trots att Avatar är världens hittills dyraste film. När de blå smurfgubbarna kom in i bilden kändes det bara töntigt och "Vafan, kunde dom inte bättre än det där!?". Men så började recensionerna trilla in, och en i stort sett enad amerikasnk kritikerkår var lyriska. Klart jag blev sugen. Ikväll gick jag och Marius (Hummern) och såg Digital 3D-versionen (hade läst att den skulle vara bättre än IMAX-versionen). Cameron började med filmen 1994(!) och den var tänkt att premiärvisas 1999, men enligt Cameron själv fanns då inte teknik som skulle göra filmen rättvisa.

2009/2010 finns tekniken där, och Avatar är främst en visuell upplevelse - och en häpnadsväckand sådan - som tar bioupplevelsen till nya höjder. Storyn är inget mer än en Pocahontas i modern tappning, men sättet den visas på har aldrig tidigare skådats. Planeten Pandora och dess flora och fauna är trots dess gälla färger och galna kreationer ytterst trovärdig. Den sprudlar av liv och enastående detaljrikedom likt en gammal Pettson och Findus-bok. Jag sugs in, är på plats och lindas in i dofter och atmosfär. I Digital 3D smälter Navi-folket (de blå smurfgubbarna) naturligt in med resten av miljöerna och känns långt ifrån så påklistrade och plastiga som jag först tyckte efter att ha sett trailern. De känns nästan mer levande än filmens verkliga skådespelare. Det är en fantastisk prestation och jag vill inte tänka på hur många sömnösa nätter som måste krävts för att skapa deras språk och silkeslena animationer.

Avatar är 2 timmar och 40 minuter lång men blir aldrig någonsin tråkig eller ointressant. Visst blir det alltid något klischéartat när amerikanare skapar stora krigsscener, och Avatar går inte utanför den mallen. Likaså saknade jag lite mer kött på benen i vissa delar av handlingen. Men så får den visuellt storslagna inramningen mig att glömma allt det där. Jag är ju där på Pandora, som en avatar, på riktigt.

Och så är det ju ballt att man kan bli lite småkär i en animerad kvinnlig karaktär. Men så är det ju också 2010 nu.

Solen stod högt på himlen, himlen som var klarblå för första gången sedan jag kom hit. Så jag och Johan (Fettmar) bestämde oss för att utnyttja denna söndag (Marius låg som vanligt kvar i sin grotta) och vinna nya landområden i vår strävan efter att utforska San Fran till fullo. Vi lämnade vårt hem (A) och tog bussen över till Treasure Island (B) - en konstgjord ö som byggdes under 30-talet med flygplats i åtanke, men som istället blev ett tillhåll för armén och som 2010 mest består av gamla bostäder och tomma hangarer (i en av dessa har Bullet Time-sekvenserna i den första Matrix-filmen spelats in).

Allt som har ordet skatt i sig känns ju pirat och utforskarglädje, så vi hissade segel, laddade kanonerna och satte kurs. Det blidde dock inga guldpengar men några gyllene soltimmar, vackra vyer och fint grabbhäng. Och så lite  soliga bilder till er där hemma i vintermörkret, såklart.

Marius är så exalterad över sin superdyra Sharks-tröja att han inte kan kontrollera sina 16-bitarskrafter.

San Francisco So Far

Vanligtvis när jag reser tycker jag att tiden går i ultrarapid, något jag brukar förklarar med en ständig ström av nya upplevelser och intryck. De fem dagar som förflutit sedan jag landade på San Francisco International Airport har fullkomligen svischat förbi. Hur kommer sig då detta? Jag var iofs här fyra dagar sommaren 2008 och känner således till staden en smula, och hittar faktiskt redan väldigt bra i downtown utan någon fjantig turistkarta (grymt lokalsinne är ju en av mina starkaste superkrafter). Men jag tror snarare anledningen är att jag känner mig bekväm.

Jag trivs redan som fisken i vattnet. San Francisco rond 2 känns än så länge betydligt bättre än den första stressiga turistronden som gick mellan t-shirtjakt och Alcatrazbesök. Det är nog som jag för två år misstänkte - San Francisco blir bättre ju mer man andas staden. Rent atmosfärsikt känns den lite som Berlin - varmt välkomnande och uppfriskande avslappnad, något som jag tror har att göra med att den i ganska stor utsträckning formats av folket självt. Stoftet från det rökiga, fritänkande och rebelliska 60-talet ligger fortfarande tjockt över de branta backarna de mulliga trähuskvarteren.

Jag rider onekligen mycket på utforskarglädjen so far. Smilbanden åker ständigt spontant upp över öronen - oavsett om jag planlöst vandrar runt i ett dödstyst villaområde efter en blöt nyårsnatt, shoppar second hand-kläder i ett haschdoftande Haight Ashbury, sicksackar mellan milslånga hyllor av färdigmat på Safeway eller hugger mig fram med tv-dosan i dungeln av sötsliskiga tv-kanaler i den lortiga tv-soffan. Gång på gång infinner sig känslan - JAG ÄR VERKLIGEN HÄR! Och det kommer jag ju vara några månader. Äventyret har bara börjat.

Håll i hatten.

Nytt år
Ny stad
Nya äventyr
Nya erfarenheter
Nya kontakter
Nya influenser

Nya tag här på blomborg.se.

Hoppas ni hade en förbannat fin nyårsafton.
Det hade jag.