Author: Lotta K.

why 1980s theme parties are offensive to me

An old friend of mine got his band back together, almost 30 years after they broke up, and played two nights. Part of the reason was, as I understand it, to show their now-grown kids what dad can do. (If you lived in Göteborg in the early 1980s you might want to press play.) The last time they played together was in the summer of 1985, and everyone was very young.

My friend was sweet enough to send me the link for the youtube version of their show. As I listened (because, let’s be honest, you don’t really see much) I realized that those songs were sitting somewhere in my brain. They’d been there all along.

I’ve never been fascinated by time travel, but all of a sudden it felt as if the 1980s was a place. A place I could travel to on a plane. And if I did travel there, I’d find the streets and the bars and the stores and the people still there, intact. The people who are dead now, and the people who are older now, and the buildings that were torn down. Still there. A strange feeling.

oh, what a time it was

People think this is Grand Central Station. My friend Buford tells me that it is not. This is Grand Central Terminal. Buford worked in advertising in New York in the 1960s, and would run to Grand Central Terminal to catch the last train in the evenings. I watch Mad Men so I have an image in my head of what that would look like. I’m probably wrong about that too, though. Buford is from Texas and a great connoisseur of the cowboy boot. Don Draper, in a suit, and cowboy boots.

first rule: don’t think you are somebody

There is a Swedish proverb that I had never heard until, maybe, last year: “Those who wish to sing, always find a song.” When I see it quoted, it’s always considered inspirational, and uplifting. Not only have I never heard it, but it also doesn’t ring very Swedish to me.

The Law Of Jante (based on observations by Danish writer Aksel Sandemose in the early 1900s, now used to describe a state of mind in Sweden and the other Scandinavian countries) suppresses individual achievement. Generally, to stand out in a crowd is not considered a good thing.

I wonder of this proverb may have had a negative tone originally, meaning “those who want to stand out always find a way”. Somehow that feels more Swedish to me.