För Alltid Svensk~ Forever Swedish

The purpose of this site is to provide a place for klubb members and friends to catch up on news and events in our area and also to learn more about our Swedish heritage, culture, customs, language, music and art. We welcome others with similar interests to join our site and our klubb.

The silly cinematic experience takes audiences deep into rural North Dakota (dontcha know) where an unsuspecting amateur cook finds himself in the middle of a centuries-old feud between warring sides of the Norwegian mafia. Norway has a mafia? As the film notes, “Like most Norwegians, they like to keep a low profile.”

The oddities begin when a strange man knocks on frozen food deliveryman Karl Larsen’s (Stewart Skelton) door and promptly dies in his kitchen. Soon Larsen, his fiancée and the entire town of Newford, N.D., is entrenched in a heated mafia dispute over an ancient recipe for Lutefisk, a popular Norwegian dish made from fish soaked in lye. Yum.

The film, made in a mockumentary style, invokes obvious comparisons to the hit Coen Brothers film “Fargo,” another mystery set in North Dakota. While the film is not quite as clever, it des offer strong performances from a cast stellar at portraying no-nonsense Midwesterners. Joel McCrary is particularly genius as Brother Cousin Louie, a Lutheran monk with an affinity for artfully decorated taxidermy.

The writing is solid, with giggle-inducing lines like:

"That's when our trouble really began, as if a dead man in your hot dish isn't enough."

A Semla is basically a sweet bun, spiced with cardamom, top is cut off, scraped out the insides of the bottom of the bun and stuffed with almond paste lots of whipped cream, and then the top is put back on and sprinkled with confectioner’s sugar.

see recipe on our Taste of Sweden page

The book is now available.“A story of courage and pain, of dreaming and hope, of struggle and achievement, of communion and cooperation with the natural world, this vivid picture of 19th century Swedish Baptists who rebelled against the established Lutheran Church in their homeland and immigrated to the Northwest Wisconsin woods enlightens and entertains the reader. Historical photographs, maps and illustrations add visual understanding and delight to L. J. Ahlstrom’s narration of pioneer life and a useful introduction frames this translation in information about his family and life and writing.”

On the new web site www.filmarkivet.se you have the opportunity to see unique archival moving image material that otherwise are rarely accessed; mainly shorts, non-fiction films, news-reels and commercials; films that reflect the transformation of Swedish society over the last century  The Archival Film Collections of the Swedish Film Institute constitute one of the oldest film archives in the world. Our mission is to collect, catalogue, preserve and give access to Sweden's film heritage, by which we mean all Swedish and foreign films released in cinemas in Sweden: feature films, non-fiction films, animations, commercials, news-reels http://filmarkivet.se/sv/English/ 

The Inspector Wallander.org website is a site for English speaking fans of Henning Mankill's Kurt Wallander Mysteries. Mankell's compelling books about the idealistic police inspector - who is even more miserable than the English Morse - have sold more than 30 million copies in 43 different languages and inspired more than 25 film adaptations. In Europe, readers took instantly to the troubles, lonely cop with his horrendous health problems and catastrophic home life. The nine Wallander novels became runaway bestsellers all over Europe, but in Britain and the United States success was slower to take off. But now, since Kenneth Branagh has taken on the central role in he acclaimed and award-winning BBC series, British and American fans have really taken Wallander to their hearts. The popularity of the character has turned the small Swedish town of Ystad into one of the country's top tourist attractions and many British and American visitors are joining the queue to visit murder scenes and immerse themseleves in the bleak landscape made famous on screen. Yet Wallander is much more than just another TV crime series. Henning Mankell invented the caring policeman as a vehicle to write about the disturbing increase in violence and racism that was undermining the comfortable social democracy of Sweden. Those problems are as international as Wallander's appeal.

The wood carvings of Axel Petersson.

Axel Petersson Döderhultarn was born December 12, 1868 in the parish of Döderhult, Sweden,As a boy his primary interests was in whittling, and carving small figures. This activity was considered worthless by his friends and family in Sweden. His family decided the best thing for him to do as a young adult was to emigrate to the United States. Peterson did not emigrate to America, as his family had planned, and after a brief time away he moved back to help his now widowed mother in Oskarshamn, Sweden.Döderhultarn became know as one of Sweden's great artists. His work as well as photos of his work were circulated world wide. and he served as an inspiration to other woodcarvers, including Carl Johan Trygg, and H. S. "Andy" Anderson. His popularity was so great that "Döderhultarn figure" became the generic term for any small figure in the minimalist style.

www.oskarshamn.se

Kulning, or herding calls, the song form is primarily used by women, as they were the ones tending the herds and flocks in the high mountain pastures.The song has a high-pitched vocal technique, i.e. a loud call using head tones, so that it can be heard or be used to communicate over long distances. It has a fascinating and haunting tone, often conveying a feeling of sadness, in large part because the lokks often include typical half-tones and quarter-tones (also known as "blue tones") found in the music of the region.

www.susannerosenberg.com

Imagine that you were walking through a Swedish town on a normal day and everybody you met was wearing a folk costume - the men in yellow breeches and bright white linen shirts, and the women in long, colourful skirts with aprons, bodices and a little bonnet covering their hair.  Unless you were visiting Skansen or attending a folk music festival, a scene like that would floor you. Yet just one hundred and fifty years ago this was what it looked like in Swedish towns and villages.

Larsson was born on May 28, 1853,[1] in Prästgatan No.78, a house on the Tyska Stallplan in Gamla stan, the old town in Stockholm. His parents were extremely poor, and his childhood was not happy. Carl's strong artistic talent had emerged early in his life. When he was 13 years old, his teacher at the school for the poor had persuaded him to apply for enrollment at Principskolan, the preparatory department of the Royal Art Academy.

http://www.carllarsson.se/start.aspx

Johanna Maria Lind (October 6, 1820 – November 2, 1887), better known as Jenny Lind, was a Swedish opera singer, often known as the "Swedish Nightingale". One of the most highly regarded singers of the 19th century, she is known for her performances in soprano roles in Sweden and across Europe, and for an extraordinarily popular concert tour of America beginning in 1850. The Swedish songstress and her appearance in the US along with her  relationship with Chopin keeps this page very busy.  Pictures of Castle garden and Chopin. Also a video of Elizabeth Parcells as Jenny singing "und ob die Wolke sie Verhulle" the aria that made her famous as a young girl.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s3RMFGk7ndE

Fika usually refers to the Swedish coffee break.  Fika, a social institution in Sweden, is both verb and noun in Swedish and has a broad definition. Essentially, it refers to a break from one's activities in order to drink coffee or other drinks with friends, family or acquaintances. This tradition of a coffee break with a snack is central to Swedish culture, and Swedes are one of the world's top coffee consumers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZ9F4QgdwgM

The nyckelharpa is a traditional Swedish instrument that has been played, in one form or another as it evolved, for more than 600 years. At least four different versions of the nyckelharpa are still played today,an uncommon situation for most folk instruments. Also visit  www.nyckelharpa.org

"Swedish American Women and the Life of Mina Anderson"

If your great grand mother was Swedish she may have been among the 250,000 single women who came to  America from Sweden between 1881 and 1920.  Read more in a book by Joy K Lintelman, a history professor from Concordia College. The book was published in February of 2009 and was reviewed this past weekend in the St. Paul Pioneer Press.  "I go To America" is everything a popular history book should be--interesting, informative and lots of fun." Mary Ann Grossman

Member Anita in Denver has been sending out these special little rocks that she made to Swedish klubbs around the country --thank you  Anita

The following is sent to us from our member Judy Wester from very musical relatives in Sweden. The musical story is called“Lurberget”. It’s about the hills of Hedesunda that rose from the sea when the continental glacier, that covered great parts of northern Scandinavia, was melting. You can call it “the birth of Hedesunda” i. e. when the first people arrived, thousands of years ago, how they lived and worked. As I said, we composed the music and wrote the lyrics and manuscript. A lot of clips at www.lurberget.se  (up to now in Swedish). At  www.youtube.com you can also look at some trailers (search for “Lurberget”;)).

Nordic walking is defined as walking with specially designed poles. It evolved from an off-season ski-training activity known as ski walking, hill bounding or ski striding to become a way of exercising with poles year-round.

Nordic walking combines simplicity and accessibility of walking with simultaneous core and upper body conditioning similar to Nordic skiing. The result is a full-body walking workout that can burn significantly more calories without a change in perceived exertion or having to walk faster, due to the incorporation of many large core and other upper-body muscles which comprise more than 90% of the body's total muscle mass and do work against resistance with each stride.

www.nordicwalkingonline.com

Garbo was born Greta Lovisa Gustafsson in Stockholm, Sweden, the youngest of three children of Karl Alfred Gustafsson (1871–1920) and Anna Lovisa Johansson (1872–1944). The family lived in a small apartment at Blekingegatan No. 32 in Stockholm. When Gustafsson was 14 years old, her father, to whom she was extremely close, died. She was forced to leave school and go to work. From 1922 to 1924, Gustafsson studied at the prestigious Royal Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm. While there, she met director Mauritz Stiller. He trained her in cinema acting technique, gave her the stage name 'Greta Garbo', and cast her in a major role in the silent film Gösta Berlings Saga (The Story of Gösta Berling) in 1924, a dramatization of the famous novel by Nobel Prize winner Selma Lagerlöf.Added on the film page are a selection from the film, the Ice scene  http/www.youtube.com/watch?v=6LjBkDvHNY4 .

Larry has a new CD: It can be ordered at the website

www.rockabillyhall.com/LLPhilipson.html

"NO WELCOME HOME":

A TRIBUTE TO VIET NAM VETERANS!

CD TRACK LISTING

1. No Welcome Home

2. Rose of Yesterday

3. Old Enough to Worry

4. Charlene

5. Too Blue to Cry

6. Standing in the Shadows

7. Bitter Feelings

8. A Corner in My Heart

9. Absent Minded You

10. The Old Milwaukee Road

11. Give Love a Try

12. I'm Wondering Now

13. The Old Country Store

.