Posts Tagged ‘entertainment’

I had a reply from Helene a little while ago and it was a “go” to post her photo’s from the Viking wedding they attended to yesterday :D At first I planned on adding another gallery in here, but I’m too lazy today : So the images will be in this post alone instead.

Well, first out is my son filming the event. I’m sure there will be some video later at some point…or not…depends on what he was filming and how up and personal it is I guess. But I’ll keep an eye on YouTube just in case :)

Helene also made a comment to my post earlier today and told me that Peter used to be a member of this Viking association.

I take it that means that he isn’t a member any more. But that they still are in touch with a lot of the other members still, friends that they hang out with anyway.
So now that’s settled :p
In the picture to the right is Helene in the dress that Peter made for her. I haven’t seen the whole thing, but since I used to sew costumes for the opera for almost 5 years, I can tell when it looks good. And I have a way of staring at details that most people don’t care about, like seams and similar things. I’m hoping to see the whole thing when they attend to the Medieval Week in Gotland :)

Anyway, to the right left is the bride and groom.

Peter knows the bride, Mia, since collage (also information from Helene in her comment earlier). I believe that there are two difference ceremonies during a wedding like this – the Viking ceremony and then the more “legal” ceremony with a priest.

I really like her bouquet. The colors in it reflects the colors in the grooms clothes nicely and it’s color coordination in a nice and subtle way :) I think if I was ever to get married again, it would be something like this :D I’m a bit too old for the white dress and the church, and since I already been married in a big white silk dress with a long train, veil and all that stuff, something like this would be perfect.

Just a matter of finding a willing victim to marry…hehehe (blinks at Robin :p). Just kidding :p

Anyway, lets continue with this wedding. Piccies below:

The first picture is of the groom, Anders, as he arrives. And the second photo is the bride, Mia, arriving to the wedding on a horse. I can imagine that they were accompanied by music (partly because the guy walking ahead of the groom is playing the flute :p).
The third photo is the Viking ceremony, which they did first I believe, and the fourth photo is the “real” ceremony with the priest that made them legally husband and wife :)

And after that is was the kiss (in the first photo above) and some more music (second photo).

Above is the newly wedded. I don’t know if the old traditions back in the times of Vikings had any of the additional people around that are so common in weddings today, like best man, bridesmaid etc. But I can imagine that the two girls sitting on the ground with red roses in their wreaths belong to them in some way and the woman to the far left is most likely a sister or best friend to the bride :)

Afterwards there was a lot of photo’s taken of course, people to meet and greet and so on. And Alexander met some new friends in that typical way that they do when they are between 1 and 2 years of age: Walk straight up to them and start chatting…lol
I believe that Peter made the shirt and the trousers he’s wearing in these photo’s btw. I’ve got older pictures of him where he’s wearing similar clothes, including a bow and arrows and I know that he made those clothes.
The Viking ship in the last two photo’s belongs to the association and was hand carved. The name of it is Glad, which refers to the horse that the gods used to ride when they would go to make judgements at Yggdrasil. I know this is hand carved because I used to visit the place where it was made on my way home from work many many many years ago. Yesterday they decorated it with a wreath and I can imagine that the couple arrived or left (or both) in that ship.
My son was one of the “galley slaves” who rowed it a few years ago…hehe It’s not exactly something that you could row on your own I might add. Unless you already clicked the link above, take a look here and you know what I mean :p

So there you go :) That’s what a Viking wedding looks like in Sweden and in my old neighborhood.
Peter and Helene had to leave around 8PM since Alexander was tired and had mood swings (heh), so unfortunately they couldn’t stay for the reception and the dinner. But I believe they had a good day in spite of that :)
Click the images above for a larger version of course :)
All photo’s taken by Heléne Törner (thank you :D )

First of all a photo of Alexander…heh I like his smile in this picture, showing off some of those brand new white teeth he’s got :D The whole family was paying a visit at his granddad the other day and that’s when this photo was taken.
I’ve got 3 more, but those will have to wait until tomorrow. One thing at the time ;)

Today I’ve spent most part of this evening listening to music. Since I’m using Spotify there’s a lot of music to choose among, even though not everything is available. Most of the time it has to do with the record labels more than anything.

But I’ve found a lot and as reference I’ve used hit lists from the 90′s. It all began while I was reading the news earlier today. There’s a radio show on in the summer in Sweden called “Summer” (nifty eh?) and the host is different for each show. Most of the time it’s a musician, an actor, author or similar who will entertain and play their favorite music for an hour. It’s been on since 1959 and it’s been something I and many with me grew up with. These days you can listen online, which I do on occasion and if the host is interesting.

And that’s what I did during the afternoon when I bumped into hit lists at the same site from a show called “Tracks”. The first “Tracks” was aired in 1984 and the archive of the hit lists are 100% complete up until today. It’s still on once a week just like before, and the host is the same too.
What interested me was the lists from the 1990′s since that’s the decade that I like the most, probably because I’ve got a way of connecting music with memories. It was a good decade overall once it got started (minus a couple of years worth of cancer in the middle).
So together with Spotify I began to put together play lists with music spanning from 1990 to 1998. 1999 and onwards didn’t mean much to me so I skipped those. The lists in the beginning of the decade are much more extensive than in the later half, so I figured I’d skip the last year all together.

Below are links that will take you to these lists if you’re interested. Some of the songs are Swedish, but the majority were widely known everywhere at the time. If you’re in my age you will most likely recognize a lot of the songs.
And I assume that Spotify isn’t available in the US just yet.

Anyway, here’s the list of play lists:

Tracks 1990
Tracks 1991
Tracks 1992
Tracks 1993
Tracks 1994
Tracks 1995
Tracks 1996
Tracks 1997
Tracks 1998

I might add that the lists doesn’t contain ALL the tracks that I found in these hit lists. Spotify is still limited and during a period of 4 weeks on these lists there weren’t a lot of changes. So I picked those tracks that I could find on Spotify for each year. Some never even made it among the top 3 or even lasted most than a couple of weeks, while others were on these lists for months. As far as I know there are no duplicates either.

And if you fancy boys band you will be disappointed. Or girls band for that matter. Not a lot of that kind of music added.
More like Bon Jovi, Enigma, Roxette, Chris Isaak, Scorpions, Extreme, Genesis etc. etc.

There. So now you know what I’ve done during the evening today :) Doesn’t take a lot of brain capacity to put together and music is relaxing :D So it’s been perfect for a lazy Saturday.

There are certain entertainers that you never forget, and Victor Borge is one of those. At least for me. When I was a kid his performances were on TV a lot and since my family was in the music and art category (whatever that means), it was a popular thing to watch. His sense of humor worked with most people and all ages, his facials were hilarious and his piano skills amazing. Many things might have changed for the better, but they don’t do stand-up comedy like this any more, that’s for sure.

He passed away in 2000 at the age of 91, but he left a lot of laughters behind and his performances continue to entertain. Below is a different, but very well performed version of The Minute Waltz by Chopin that he did together with Leonid Hambro.

And below is a performance from Victor Borge’s birthday concert when he turned 80. To quote what it says in the description of this video:

Victor has just finished conducting at one of his 80th birthday concerts and the crowd reaction was so good that the violinist, Anton Kontra, suggests an encore. No encore was planned but Monti’s Czardas, which Victor had heard before BUT HAD NEVER PLAYED, is suggested. Nevertheless, the two go at it and put on quite a show. Watch Victor’s facial expressions in the 2nd half as his partner escalates the action.

Since Victor Borge there’s been a lot of great piano players, but unfortunately without his sense of humor. What made him so special was the mischief he presented on stage together with skills. There’s been a lot of tributes to him since he died (and before that too) and I was looking for one of them on YouTube but couldn’t find it :( The particular tribute I was searching for was written and performed by Robert Wells, which is a Swedish piano player who twisted a lot of classical pieces into submission and made them his own. At least almost :p And although Victor Borge’s humor is missing, Robert Wells is a brilliant piano player and he’s got a way with music that is very similar to Borge. He also said that his biggest source of inspiration was Victor Borge.

Below is Robert Wells version of The Nutcracker….which became Nut Rocker when he was done with it :p The performance is from China at their one year celebration countdown to the 2008 Olympic Games. There’s a lot more music and information about him on his web site. Under Music in the menu once you entered his site the “Tribute to Victor Borge” can be found at the bottom of the list of audio files. Or at least a part of it.

Thank God it’s Saturday is an understatement today. No sleep during the night, except from a couple of hours during the morning, so my brain is all mashed up and buzzy. I’ve got the attention span of a 2 year old and what you see above is pretty much my kind of entertainment today :p Even The Muppet Show makes sense :pp

But I have to admit that I always liked The Muppet Show. And I still do. It’s one of those shows that just never dies and I would love to have all 5 seasons on DVD…hehe I’m not sure why, but I always though there were hundreds and hundreds of episodes, while they in reality “only” made 120 episodes. When it aired the first time in 1976, I was 12 years old and I guess while you’re growing up it’s easy to lose track of time. The show always seemed to be there, ya know.

Above is Beaker singing “Habanera” from the opera “Carmen”…hehe

And this is probably one of the most memorable songs from any of the show, the “Mahna Mahna” from the very first episode in the first season :D
There are lots of these on YouTube and I’ll probably spend today watching them all…haha It would sure fit my brain capacity right now :p

Enjoy and have a great Saturday :D

First of all, all graphics in this post belongs to Zynga.com. The screen dumps are mine, but the game isn’t :p

Anyway…this is the newest game from Zynga. In Frontierville you start out with a small piece of land that is overgrown, and then it’s up to you to clean it up. There’s lots of weed and wild flowers to remove. Trees growing everywhere and along the way you encounter angry bears and rattlesnakes that you need to chase away.
What you see above is my homestead the way it looks right now. All the images in this post have a bigger version if you click on them. And if you’re not interested in this rant and the ins and outs of this game, you can always skip the entire post ;)
I won’t go into too much detail here since some surprises can be fun if you want to play this, but you start out as a single person, preparing the lot for your spouse to arrive.

While you build a cottage and clean up your lot, the game provides you with tasks to do to achieve this or that. Like most games today you can customize a lot of things, and your game characters are among those things. Currently I’ve got a couple who’s got a son, all of which I’ve had to finish different tasks to get. Building houses, buy trees, harvest and buy animals belong to those.

In “My Stuff” you will find what you see in the images above. “Gifts” will show what you received from your friends. “Family Album” is where you can change the look of your character/characters. “Inventory” is a drawer where gifts since earlier will appear, such as animals, trees, building material and energy. While you harvest and feed your and your neighbours animals, you will find things. They are rewards that belong in the “Collection” box. They are automatically placed where they should be and you’ll get a note on the screen when it’s time to trade them for coins and XP.

Just like most games, Frontierville has it’s own store. And this is where you can find anything you might need. The payment is both coins and “horse shoes”, and the later you can either collect while you play and level up (currently you’ll get 1 horse shoe for each time you level up), or you can buy them using FB credits. In most cases there are alternative decorations or whatever you might want to buy, and that you can pay with coins. In some cases, such as for fences, buildings etc. you will also need enough wood. And wood you’ll get when you clean up all the trees. In time more trees grow as well, so you will always have something to chop down :p

To buy energy you’ll use the pie slices that you earn while harvesting. The more of those you’ve got, the more energy you can buy. The game will generate more energy for you when you’re not playing it as well, so if you leave it for a couple of hour or so, the energy bar is full again :)

The tab Specials is where you’ll find limited items and things you might need to level up and finish the tasks. It’s easy to get carried away when you clean up in the beginning of the game and I’ve made the mistake to clean up a bit too much. So now I don’t have enough thorns to clean so I can finish a task that is currently under way. However, just like everything else that grows, thorns will turn up sooner or later, but it means that I have to leave some of the big trees alone. And I could buy the thorns I need, but I rarely spend any money on these games, so I rather wait.

To build a cottage or any of the other buildings you are sending and receiving building material. That’s partly what your neighbours are needed.
You can customize the buildings and each of them has it’s own purpose. You can collect Bonus from them and the pictures above show what you’ll see when you enter a building. Most of the things you can make inside any building has a purpose later on.
I just finished the school house today and so far there are no classes, but Zynga has announced that there will be lessons of some kind.

At your neighbours Homestead you can harvest, water and revive their crop. You can also harvest their fruit trees, clean up weed, wild flowers and trees. Or feed their animals. In return you get coins, XP and a heart for each thing you do. And you gather the hearts to build your reputation. The higher reputation, the bigger bonus will the neighbours get and in return you’ll get more coins. So it’s a win win situation ;)
And for 50 coins you can hire a neighbour to do work for you. In return your neighbour get the coins of course and if you’re lucky your neighbours will return the favour.

Overall this is a lot more fun than Farmville, maybe because the interactions are different. There are more things to do than just harvest and feed animals over and over again. Your lot will be overgrown unless you keep it tidy. The tasks generated by the game makes for different goals along the way and it’s just a very neat game :)
Simple as that.