Lars is probably the one of my friends I've seen taking the biggest leaps forward the past two year. From being a anime and video game loving nerd he's turned into a play writing enviromental conscious ladies man. Not bad I must say. He inspires me. Right now he's working his ass of, trying to write and assemble all the missing pieces for his first stage play - "Ett Evigt Liv" - which is set to go off in Gothenburg this summer. So when Lars asked me to design the logotype for his theatre group - Teater Alvar - I gladly accepted the challange. He wanted something reflecting the deserted feeling of alvaret (the bare limestone soil) and the feeling of reaching for something on "the other side". After a couple of rounds with different logo prototypes and some feedback sessions this is what we ended up with:

This industry. Advertising. Why am I in it? The answer to that question, and what I set out with when I started to walk this road, is probably that I want to use my creativity and my aesthetic qualities. Back then I didn't really know for what purpose, just that it was something I considered fun. During the Hyper Island I tried to find the purpose. I tried different roads - video, animation, graphic design and web design - but I must say I mostly felt kinda lost. But in the middle of last year the goal at the horizon somewhat became clearer. I started to feel that I wanted to contribute, I wanted to do something that made some difference. Not just make people buy the next car or dishwasher.

The month of May must be the best concert month I've ever witnessed. Almost better than Coachellas line up this year. This is one of the reasons I love living in San Francisco.

5. Popcorn & Coke


4. Cinnamon Bun & Milk



3. Swedish crispbread with cheese & Hot Chocolate



2. Cake & Coffee



1. Pizza & Coke

The animation me and my partner Jessica did last week for Fast Company's article about Mekanism is now online.

Coachella 2010.

Some people from Mekanism are going to Coachella to promote a new app, and since I'm going there they're using me as a test subject. So, I've gotten a completely new Nokia N85 just so I can tweet about everything I see and do at the festival.

You can follow me @ http://twitter.com/blomborg

Over and out.

It's been a busy busy week. I havn't even had time for this blog. BUT, after some late nights in the bat cave with Cola and Snickers the animation me and my partner Jessica have been working on is done, and it turned out really great.


Maybe I should try a career as a accordion player? Or at least try to grow a mexican moustache. What do you think?

AND tomorow me, Maja & Johan are taking a flight down to Los Angeles where we're gonna meet up with our classmates Sebastian and Sean. On Friday morning the car leaves for COACHELLA FESTIVAL!!! Three days in the burning sun, filled with mud & dirt, alcohol, hash brownies and of course - lots of great bands. This must be the first festival where I'm gonna be able to see exactly every act I wish to see, except The XX and The Dirty Projectors.

In reality it's never that easy.

But anyway, here's my super packed schedule:

Every friday people usually stop working around 4. After that it's all just fun & games & booze. Today we tried something new - BADMINTON, office style. FUCK YEAH! My good ol' swing were still there and me and my partner Ryan (The Super Smash Bros Deluxe) managed to smash and drink (whiskey) our way to the final, where we unfortunately lost with 15-13. Ayways - Fun fun fun!

...there's not a plastic tree, but definitely some amazing views.

Last year I really stated to question gaming as one of my biggest hobbies, after being kinda addicted for most of my life. I started to feel I didn't get that much in return, started to feel that I wasted my time with nonsense.  As a matter of fact I did barely play any video games at all during my time at Hyper Island. When I flew to the states I left my Xbox 360 back in Sweden, of course, and I haven't been playing video games ever since (some Rock Band sessions doesn't really count).

But now, the urge and hunger has returned. I'm finding my self browsing tons and tons of different video game sites every day. There's SO many good games being released and so many anticipated ones arriving later this year. Stories and experiences that simply look to good to miss.

Here's my top 3:

3. Alan Wake



One of the most delayed and pushed back games of all time is finally about to be released this May. Remedy, who's famous for their excellent Max Payne games, was more than halfway through the production of Alan Wake when they decided to get rid of what they had and start over. Alan Wake has gone from being a open world horror adventure to a more straight forward and episode based action horror experience. Hopefully it's for the better. The story of the writer Alan Wake who's getting haunted by his worst nightmares when trying to settle down in a small Twin Peaks looking village is still - by the latest video to judge - looking more thrilling and more graphically advanced than almost every game out there.


2. The Last Guardian



When Ico was released on Playstation 2 in 2001 something happened. Critics and especially those who hadn't seen video games as something profound started to talk about video games as something bigger, something almost more philosophical, something that deserved to have its own columns in the most fashionable magazines. With Ico video games finally got accepted as an own art form. I had been moved and touched by video games before (I cried during the ending scene of Final Fantasy X for example) but there was definitely something very touching about Ico, maybe because of the relationship created between me (a banished boy with horns) and the trapped and weak girl Yorda. We couldn't understand each others languages, but we both understood we needed to collaborate to be able to escape from the fortress that held us prisoners. I grabbed her by hand and led her because she was to weak to walk by herself. I defended her, swung my wooden stick against dark shadow creatures trying to pull Yorda down into their dark portals. She was able to open up locked gates with some magic powers I didn't have. In the end I got so emotionally overwhelmed that I couldn't hold back my tears.


Ico


Shadow of the Colossus

Team Ico then released Shadow of the Colossus, a game where you needed to climb and defeat giant creatures in order to bring the girl you loved back to life. A truly amazing and epic game, which also focused on collaboration. Only this time around you had your horse Agro by your side, Without him you wouldn't had a chance defeating the giants.

In their upcoming game The Last Guardian, you once again have a partner -  some weird giant creature that looks like a cross breed between a rat and a bird. Something tells me that the bound between the boy and the creature will result in one of the most emotional games this world has ever seen, and it looks like t's combining the best parts from both Ico and Shadow of the Colossus.


1. Red Dead Redemption



Rockstar have everything that comes with the term "rockstar". Ever since they released Gran Theft Auto 3 in 2001 they've been giving everyone the finger, always doing whatever they felt like doing, no mather how controversial the subjects they're building their games upon may be. The key to their success, accept their boldness, is their great understanding of American popculture and the American society.

Red Dead Redemption may not have as many automatic machine guns to shoot, radio stations to listen to or shiny cars to steal as in Grand Theft Auto 4. Of course not, since the clock is turned back to the wild wild west. Instead it has lasso's to swing, wild animals to hunt and dirty horses to ride. It's said to be Rockstar's most ambitious game yet, with a massive open world to explore, an immersive story and tons of western stuff to do.
I haven't been longing for a game this hard since Grand Theft Auto 4. Give it to me - NOW!!!    

5. Snapple Peach - Filled with sugar, of course (this is America), but the best ice tea I've ever had, especially when it's ice cold. Yummy, straight down my throat!



4. Cliff Energy Bar - Maybe this one is to healthy to earn this spot, or at least it should be. But since this is Amerca it's probably filled with unhealthy stuff. I remember my dad eating energy bars while biking (today he's done about 12 Swedish Classics and three Iron Man thanks to them). I didn't like them back then. I guess they tasted to "healthy". I don't know if it's because I've aged, or if it's just that Cliff's Energy Bar's are more unhealthy than swedish energy bar's, but I find them VERY delicious, especially the Chocolate Chip flavor which tastes like my mom's old chocolate balls.


3. San Pellegrino Limonata - Okay, it's from Italy, but I've never had it before coming here to the states. At first I thought this lemon soda was to sour, but when I started to drink it while eating the almost stinging mix of sour and sweet made perfect sense, forcing down Coke from the throne of sodas.


2. Oreos - It's pretty incredible how something so simple as two thin chocolate crackers (do they taste like burned chocolate crackers?) with some white creme filling in between can be so very delicious. Maybe it's the simplicity that's Oreo's key to my taste buds. Once I start to eat them I CANT STOP! Swallow them with some milk and they become flawless.


1. Snickers - When I was a kid I never liked Snickers. The evil peanuts destroyed all the fun! I don't know when it happened, but some day during 2008 I took a bite of a Snickers bar and went straight to heaven. Since then I've been eating Snickers more than any other snack out there, and I'm still munching it like a hamster a couple day's a week. It's the perfect mix of softness and crispness, sugar and salt that creates a temptation Johan Blomborg can't resist.  

Is there anything better than green lights bowing to your will in the morning rush, like the Red Sea waves did when Moses rose his staff into the sky.

Today's gonna be a good day!

Earthquake in Haiti, earthquake in Chile, earthquake in Los Angeles yersterday. My class mate Sebastian stood in his apartment in downtown LA, feeling the whole 12 story building wobble for 2 minutes. It feels like it will strike here in San Francisco any second now. What else? Unusually cold weather and snow storms everywhere. Some of Asia's tallest mountains are loosing their ice, resulting in millions of people loosing their daily water supplies, resulting in massive people displacements. It's not weird that I'm starting to think that the Maya people were quite accurate when they pinpointed the end of the world to occur on December 20th 2012. It's like the earth think it's had enough. It screams louder and louder the more we humans spreading across it's surface and drenching it from it's resources.



The movie Zeitgeist: Addendum shows a very interesting scenario, a utopia, a society that would work without human work power, where money isn't needed, where resources is shared equally, where all transportation is powered by renewable energy. They describe how this utopia would already work, today. But unfortunately it isn't that easy in reality. The systems the world today is built upon is to deeply rooted, to widely spread into every single corner of this world. Right now I'm reading the book "Så Fungerar Samhället" where Eric Ericson in a satirically way describes how the world we live in is built, how everything circles around consumption. Everything needs money. The world IS money. If we would stop to consume, the entire world as we know it would collapse. It would do a 180 spin towards a new stone age. In that case I guess that I - as someone who's about to step into the world of advertising - is doing the world a favor, or at least for those who likes the world as it is today, likes where it's heading, without having to make any sacrifices. I'm keeping the machinery going, making you and everyone else consume, keeping the society alive. The individual is weak, but together, united, we can achieve the most amazing things. But it's also together we become the biggest threat this earth have ever seen.


The COP 15 meeting in Copenhagen didn't work out, which makes all sense in the world. How on earth are you gonna be able to redirect something that has been growing strong for over hundreds of years, something that is so widely spread, something that everything is built upon? Sure, we can live through our values and try to do good. We can try to live ecological - eat less or local meat, buy second hand, avoid certain products. But it's in the higher districts, in the top of the tallest skyscrapers and in the closed rooms the biggest and most important decisions are made, where there is enough power to actually start spinning the wheel and make any difference. Is that gonna happen? I actually doubt it. Or at least not in the next twenty years.



Even if we manage to flip the coin around, set new standards, new systems, everything is far from over. The changes will strike hard, probably with violent riots and deaths as a result. You can't please everyone.  It's both interesting and scary to think of the restrictions that may become reality if the wheel towards a more sustainable world starts spinning. How will it affect us? What luxuries and comforts do we need to sacrifice? Things like yearly family vacations to Thailand and having as many kids as you want is no longer gonna be defendable. Maybe you're not even gonna be allowed to travel outside your continent if it's not work related business.

I've heard some scary future scenario where they would build a giant iron wall between Europe and Africa to keep away all people trying to escape a world that's no longer habitable. Only certain people with high ranks would be allowed to pass. A truly scary scenario, but not science fiction. In fact I think it's closer than we think.

As I see it we got three paths to chose from:

The risky way: Fully take part in trying to change the world with it's current economical system. Stop consuming, make your own clothes, grow your own food, don't make any babies, or maybe just one. Put a giant metal pole in the wheel of production. Try to save the plants and animals that still exist but cut down on our wealth, luxuries and comfort. It's probably gona take A LOT of effort to flip the coin, probably with fatal and devestating results, at least in the first staggering round.

The middle way: Live like you do today, with some minor changes and hope for the best. Take the bike as long as your destination isn't to far away, only try to fly once a year, stop consuming some things that's bad for the nature so that the manufacturers eventually stops producing those things (no market no recources). But will it have any impact? Will it make that big of a difference?

The "safe" way: Fully play along with the system we got today. Consume even more. Put more money in the giant loop. Even if the nature dies we will be wealthy and contribute to science and other stuff that may help us overcome diseases, poverty and other widespread problems. Maybe the scientist are able to come up with cars or even airplanes that runs on water, maybe they will come up with ways to recreate extinct species, which of course is only possible if they keep getting money. 

Which path will you chose?

Normally the weather clears up a few hours south of San Francisco. But this time around the magnificent Highway 1 wasn't that magnificent. 7 hours in the car, rain ALL THE TIME and the worse hang ever!

Got invited to a danish dinner at Maja's co worker Andrea's place outside Okaland. Lots and lots of fish filled sandwiches and booze in various variations were consumed during some of the friendliest hours I've had in San Francisco so far. Most of the dinner i spent talking to Andreas husbands old father.

If it's one thing I love doing it is to sit and listen to old peoples life stories. Sometimes the're so engaging and spellbinding that it feels like I'm a kid again listening to a fairy tail with full concentration to not miss a single word. The same thing when I was working at Apoteket (the Swedish pharmacy) a couple of years ago. I worked with customer support where I assisted people who called for their medicines. Most of the time it was old people who called, and unfortunately they were mostly bitter and angry. But sometimes the old just called to talk, because they didn't have anyone else to talk to, I guess. I loved these calls, not only because I got some relaxing pauses from the serious and boring work. Mostly the old actually had very thrilling stuff to tell and the more I asked the more stuff I got in return. Since they had lived for a long time they had a lot of memories to share. Sometimes very sad, sometimes hillarious - as life is in general.

Andrea's husband's father told me stories about the second world war, about being on the run as a 11 year old, about bird watching, about catching giant mussles under water. I just sat there, eating all the delicious food, and enjoyed every single second.

I've always though buying bottled water is one of the most unnecessary and worst things you can do, as long as you're not in some dirty town in Asia where you can't know weather the water is clean or not.
This video below perfectly describes why you shouldn't buy bottled water. If you're interested in how buying a bottle of water affects the world your living in, or if you just like to gain more knowledge of your importance as a consumer - I suggest you watch it.

Enjoy!

Since I don't have anything to do at work today (yet), I figured I should start putting together some lists that sums up this shattered country and its sometimes strange culture. One of the main goals here is to try as much of their food as possible. So far I've got to taste a lot of things I already know I'm gona miss back in Sweden, but also a lot of things I wish I'd never put in my mouth

Starting today with - The most awful American beverges.


3. Dr Pepper - I actually enjoy Cherry Coke, or at least in small doses. But with Dr Pepper it's defferent. It got that so very familiar American cherry taste, the taste you can find in almost ever cherry candy out there, the taste that maybe feels more artificial than anything else on earth. I'm edning up pouring it down the drain, always.


2. Root Beer - Why am I not surprised. This awful drink from hell is produced by the same company that has earned the number one spot on this list. I've tried it twice now, only to see if it got any better, but it didn't. Both times I stopped drinking halfway through the bottle. It's hard to discribe what Root Beer taste like. The closest I've come so far is Jenka (the old Swedish chewing gum) with a touch of vanilla. And that's something I will never force down my throat again.


1. Cream Soda - Oh.my.fuckin.god. I say - You shouldn't drink candy, and especially not in the form of floating vanilla ice cream. This is by far the most icky American liquid I've ever had in my mouth. I think there's only one thing I ever tried that's worse than this, and that's some weird lemon licorice experiment that Festis tried for a week or so in Sweden before they drove every bottle up to Lapland and nuked it, or at least I wish. I hope they do the same thing with this evil poisonous liquid.

Feeling dull and slow and lazy today. Feels like someone pored syrup into my brain while I was sleeping. Slow reactions, bad English and no motivation. Maybe the side effects from wednesday's beer filled night stroke today, because yesterday I didn't feel a thing. Well well. What can possibly be a better cure than some locksmiths drilling in the hallway at work, creating a sound that sounds like a screaming cross breed between Chewbacca and a horny blue whale. Got pretty scared at first, thought it was some sort of earthquake alarm. I even got ready to duck and cover.