Gyllene Tider (Golden Times) is a old famous Swedish Band where Per Gessle(Roxette) started his career. I used to love them as a kid. I remember having mime contests with friends in our living room. Nowadays I have mixed feelings for the band. Gyllene Tider stands for Swedish summer, with everything that comes with it. Swedish summer is the best, no doubt about it, but there's also the bad parts, or stuff that I pitty. When I was a teenager other teenagers on the country side where getting way to shit faced on camping grounds in their silly attempts to loose their virginity. For some reason I associates Gyllene Tider with these teenagers. Maybe because they always screamed songs like "Sommartider". And now when they grown up, they're still singing "Sommartider" because it reminds them of the "good 'ol times", or because they simply don't know any other music. I was never one of these teenagers. Maybe that's why.

Anyway. This song gives me the creeps. it makes me angry. So fuckin cheesy and icky.

Crying rivers at work after seeing this picure. Epic fail indeed. The owner just wanted to cuddle.

Went to another gig tonight (finally managed to bring three other people). Manchester Orchestra (ranked high on my 2009 best of list), warmed up by Biffy Clyro and The Features . Super solid show! The guys know what they're doing. A mix of the early Kings of Leon, Brand New's melancholy, Nirvana's riffs and Creed's most bombastically sides. Damn, I think I nailed it!

I shook hands with Ace Ventura yesterday, or it was not the Jim Carrey version, but pretty damn close. After buying a Jack Daniels (tried to put myself in a rock mood, and hell yeah it worked!) and waiting for Black Rebel Motorcycle Club to start I saw this old but cool looking dude standing next to me. I asked him if he'd seen the band before. He had. This was his forth time. Bruce was a pet lawyer. Took care of cats,dogs, horses, elephants...but not giraffes, and no white bats for that matter. But he was a cool ord fart. He'd been to all Coachella festivals so far, and he seemed to be more down with the music than many of the hip indie kids out there. Every Coachella festival he never went to see the bands he knew he could see in San Francisco. Instead he went to explore, to concerts with unknown bands he'd only heard was supposed to be good. We kinda clicked. Apart from his big music interest he seemed to have the life I would like to have at his age. He lived in a house right at the beach north of San Francisco. He used to surf, but nowadays he just ran and meditated at the beach 1,5 hour per day. In the end of the gig he asked me if he could give me a ride home. I said thanks but that I had a bike waiting for me oustide.

He nodded his head and went into the rainy night with a young boy that I assume was his son. How kick ass isn't that?
If it was the other way...not so kick ass.

I finally got a bike, which enables me to explore the city in my own way and pace. Oh the freedom! Love biking to work in the mornings, when the sun starts to heat up the city and it's inhabitants, when the workers cleaning the sidewalks, when people heading to work with one bagel in one hand and a cup of coffee in the other. When the American flags waves slowly in the morning breeze and the sun reflects onto my face from the giant skyscrapers stretching towards the sky. Sometime's the feeling is overwhelming - I'm actually here, I'm in America! Fuck yeah!

Yesterday I got another revelation, when seeing Black Rebel Motorcycle Club perform at the rock club Slim's. I finally got to see a band I've been dying to see for several years now. And they played every single one of my favorite songs. There was smoke, strobe lights, Jack Daniels and dirty guitar riffs at a small and intimate venue. Exactly how I wanted to experience them. And they performed so fuckin' well that I started to think of how, or if, I will be able to not have THIS in my life.

I seem to live in the heart of San Francisco, or at least in it's musical heart. From my front door there's only 5 minutes to the majority of all the good venues - Great American Music Hall, Slim's, The Fillmore, Regency Ballroom...
In Stockholm you travel 30 minutes to go and see some good band perform at Debaser every each month, in San Francisco there's at least one good concert every week, only minutes from my front door. Amazing.

*Video is commin up commin up*

Last night my self diciplinary me set the alarm for 7 AM, and hell yeah, it managed to drag my body out of the warm and cozy bed this morning. While Johan#2 where sleeping as a baby I conquered San Francisco's steep hills in the cold(IT WAS FUCKING FREEZING!) dawn. Ran some laps in a small park and then headed up to Almo Square(Full House) from where I saw the entire city skyline being revealed by the morning sun. Pretty satisfiying.

And tonight it's finally time for Black Rebel Motorcycle Club to enter the stage at Slim's. Hell yeah!

There's something special about biking. The feeling of being able to go everywhere, with the wind in your hair, for free!

After sending out a sentimental letter to all my co workers - explaining how I grew up biking every day as a kid on Öland (I attached some pictures of my house and Alvaret to make it even more powerful), how I havn't been able to live without a bike ever since and how badly I wanted to have one in this city - I got five replies, all offering me a bike. I finally went for the one from Mekanism's boss Tommy. It tuned out he builds bikes and sells them. This one he would've sold for 400 USD, but I got to borrow it for FREE during my internship period.

How awesome isn't that?

And it's a freakin good bike. And it's BEAUTIFUL! The most beautiful I've had so far. It's a fixed gear, but it rolls like it had Swedish ball bearings. The pedals usually spins automatically as the back wheel turns, but I flipped the back wheel to get rid of that feature. And I removed the straps on the pedals so my feet won't be stuck. Not so hardcore, but I prefer to not get my self killed in the sometimes rough traffic.

Here she is, Surly, in her full glory, before she's going to bed with me and Johan (even if Johan disapproves).

FINALLY got to see 500 Days of Summer, and what can I say. I'm still in love with Zooey!
And if I'm going to this years Coachella Festival she will be playing there, with her and M. Ward's band She & Him.
Guess who will be standing in the front.



And btw, the movie was great!

Found this package in the hallway. And it had a strange name on it.



Jul in Swedish means Christmas.

I wonder if there's any person out there with one of the following names?

Jul Bord

Jul Gran

Jul Klapp

Jul Bock

Jul Tomte

We lied. Said we were going to a bar called Revolution Bar. Johan didn't have any idea what was about to go down.
6.20 pm me and Maja storms into our apartment whe're Johan sits, talking to his girlfriend/ex grlfriend/whatever.
We blindfold him, put headphones on him with some loud Queens On The Stone Age and jumps into a cab, going down to Fishermans Wharf. We meet up with the others and when we finally reveal the reality for Johan there's 8 boobies (4 Hooters waitresses) standing in front of him singing the fastest version of "Happy Birthday" I've ever heard.
We then enjoyed some really fat but amazingly good food at Hooters before the booze swept us away towards the jazz bars and the 90's dance floors.

Sleeping in the same bed and even sharing the same sheet with Johan works fine, but lately the situation has become more and more intimate. I think the lack of girls starting to take its toll. A couple weeks ago I swear I felt Johans morningwood against my back. Last week I woke up when Johan wrapped me in his arms whispering something like "I want you". Yesterday was a really busy night. First Johan grabs me in the face (Or as he said: "I made the bowling grip") and then I wake up having is tounge against my arm. I don't think he's ever done that to any of his girlfriends,  But I don't really mind. I'm actually feeling kinda flattered.

And today is his birthday 

Happy Birthday my friend!

I've been incredibly bad at updating this blog lately. But unfortunately there's other things I put first in line right now. I can't say it enough - the day has way to few hours. After work you only have like 4 hours before bed time. I would need like 2 or 3 more hours to be able to feel satisfied.

But now I finally got some free time here at work, so I will give you a small update on what has happened lately:

- Attended at a commercial shoot at the tv station KPIX, starting 7 in the morning. I was production assistant, which means carrying around heavy props and providing food for all participants (Ramne, you Know what I'm talking about). Even if I didn't have any super important and challenging task it was still fun to watch...the HOT actresses!




- Ran, rain, rain. I got washed away for fuck sake! San Francisco felt more like London than a Californian city.



- Found the perfect cure for the sad weather though: The Radio Dept - Heaven's On Fire



- The dark clouds finally vanished and some great sunny days came along. Took a nice long walk over some of the highest located hills in downtown. San Francisco is a white city in general. And from these hills it almost felt more white than The White Hell(tm). My old men back in Stockholm would like this city for sure.







- Saw Mark Kozelek (singer of Sun Kil Moon and Red House Painters) at the Berns looking venue Great American Music Hall. Amazing how a man only equipped with a guitar can create something so emotional. Got to hear one of my favorite songs of all time, which was amazing indeed.



- Went to see the Chinese celebrating the Chinese new year with a huge carneval downtown.




- After a sunny breakfast on our roof I went on my first bike ride so far with Johan and Maja. Biked over Golden Gate, down to a hidden beach and climed up to a secet cliff (can't say my purple Converse was the most suitable foot gear). The reward - an amazing view over the Golden Gate Bridge and the San Francisco skyline.

A while ago when I was hungry at work I searched the kitchen for food and found a old package of bread hidden on the shelf. Looked like new. No mold. No weird smell. BUT, it had expired somewhere in the middle of december!  I've had more encounters with food that's been way to old but hasn't smelled or looked bad. I wonder what dark secrets they're putting in to make it last...

I really worked my ass of this weekend with the trash can design for the Coachella festival competition. I sacrifised both my friday and my whole saturday to get it done in time. I even slept at the office!
I sent them my submission 11.59pm on Febuary 20th. One minute before deadline, but still on the right side.

Today Coachella replied, telling me that they'd already closed the compeition at the time I handed in my design.
Feels really sad right now. Sended them an email with a screen capture of my inbox explaining the situation and showing them that I was on the right side.

Hopefully they change their mind. Otherwise - I'll grab some sorrow quenching beers.

Anyway, here's my submission:

The air condition sounded like a monkey playing that drum set.

It's Saturday morning. The time is 6 am. I'm back at the Mekanism office. I was here 2 hours ago, working late. Trying to finish a project with Maja to win tickets for the Coachella festival. Around 3am Johan came by from a party, pretty drunk, and borrowed my keys because he had forgotten his own in our apartment. Before 4am Maja left the building. I checked google maps to find a connection home, and I followed it's advice to take the subway. Went to the subway, but no train ever came. Started to walk up the street trying to catch a bus, but no bus came either. Looked for cabs, but there wasn't a cab as far as my eyes could see. So I decided to walk home. Took me 40 minutes. When I finally arrived at the front door to our house I called Johan to make him come down and open for me. I called him over and over and over again, but he was probably to past out to hear the phone. Tried to scream at him the loudest I could from the sidewalk without waking the neighbors, but no response. Called Maja, but her phone was not on. Well... So I decided to take a cab back to work. So, here I am, at the desk I've been spending the last 20 hours. Life could have been better, but it could also have been worse. I could have slept on street. Now I actually found an air mattress and a sleeping bag. Not that bad actually. Gonna try to catch a few hours of sleep in the editing room, accompanied by the loudest fan in history. Goodnight.

I'm back at the office in San Fran after a long weekend down in Los Angeles, visiting our class mates Sean and Sebastian. Like Eagles of Death Metal sings: "I really wanna be in LA". There's definitely something magic about that city. Or, at least some parts of it. When I visit Venice, Santa Monica or Malibu it reminds me of why I started to look for internships there in the first place. Surf, beautiful weather, palm trees, great shopping, awesome music . It just feels right. It's like they and I are ment to be. Even downtown (where Sean & Sebbe lives) was better this time around. It seems like they've been cleaning it up a litle bit since I was there in 2008. Now it feels less shady and more welcoming. Still you can't get away from the fact that you need to have a car to get around the city. The public transport is almost non-existent. And the freeways can be packed, even if they have 4-6 lanes. It took us 1,5 hour to get from downtown to Malibu, which of course sucks balls if you're living in downtown and the weather is hot.



Overall I would say that San Francisco is a better city. Colder, but more tangible & less hysterical. Los Angeles is more segregated and there's a overall feeling that everyone wants to be the biggest, the richest and the best. It's more about the looks, the cars, the music, the cribs. It's lika a race. But I must say that I'm dreaming of moving to the LA coast someday. Have a small tree house down at the beach, grab my surfboard every morning and just jump into the clear blue ocean. Work a few hours during the day and then grab a beer on my front porch, watching the sunset.

More material from the trip is on the way. So stay tuned.

This was posted at Mekanism's rumour blog last night, after a wet visit to the Golden Gate Park's aquarium.

...but it slipped out of my hand.