He did this right as I took the photo, but I took another:
And another:
Actually I felt bad for these guys. They had to stand still for four hours in this miserable cold. Usually I photograph them up close, but this time I felt kinda weird doing it. Anyway, none of them has yet matched the sublimeness of the half-smiling Borg. The half smiling Borg took his job seriously. These boys, I just wanted to give them a hug.
He did this right as I took the photo, but I took another:
And another:
Actually I felt bad for these guys. They had to stand still for four hours in this miserable cold. Usually I photograph them up close, but this time I felt kinda weird doing it. Anyway, none of them has yet matched the sublimeness of the half-smiling Borg. The half smiling Borg took his job seriously. These boys, I just wanted to give them a hug.
First the Maryland cookies and now this:
Rhode Island? Do you love the stripped bass? Will you be washing that down with a glass of coffee milk? Are you taking life credit/no credit?
Sweden, you confuse me. I thought this was a misprint when I first saw it at the grocery store in the Akalla “ghetto” and thought they meant Thousand Island Dressing, but then I went to the ICA in T-Centralen and there it was — Rhode Island dressing.
What other wonders will you bring me, dear Sweden?
When I was an angry teenager, there was this wonderful program on called “Beavis and Butthead.” Oh how I loved it. Oh how I do still love it. I’m the one who goes to the supermarket and says “I need TP for my bunghole.” When I started my new, super serious employment, I decided not to reference Beavis and Butthead in work conversation anymore.
That said, there was this episode of that show (not as good as Cornholio, but that was a genius after all) called “Generation in Crisis” where some filmmaker makes a documentary about our two young heroes and their life of doing nothing. It was nothing short of a masterpiece.
I thought of this episode when I saw this “yute” hanging around in the Central Station:
He stood there for a while not moving in the same position, waiting for somebody or he knew he was going to end up on some girl’s blog. Or he wanted to end up on here. I don’t know. But here’s another of him:
Here I tried to get slightly artistic:
Oh, kids today.
Or where he and his lightening powered rams are going:
But they sure look happy.
I had a bit of a laugh when I saw this at the city museum:
Yeah, its blurry I realize, but the explanation is great.
Not to mention this painting depicting the process:
This painting, so many things that are just so wrong. Whatever they are doing to that guy, he does not look happy. He looks like he is getting a tattoo. The guy doing the tattoo really appears to care little or not at all about the probably blood curdling screaming coming out of the patients mouth.
And the monkey? Was it some kind of law that all surgery had to be performed with monkeys around? I don’t know. This was part of a bigger painting, but I picked what I thought was the most hilarious part of it.
So, since I switched from large, all manual cumbersome giant camera to the small digital camera, some people have told me that my “work” has gone down in quality. I wanted to regain the joy I once had with photography before I had to get a motor drive, 6 multi-use lenses and always check for aperture and speed. One day, when I feel like it and actually have the funds, I’ll get a really nice digital SLR.
That said, here at some shots of Stockholm I took with my humble little digital camera:
Yes, obviously the last 3 were not taken today, but rather in the 24 hour sunlight part of the year and not the “oh my god, its the sun” part of the year. They are pretty, but I want to do more. But for those of you who don’t know Stockholm, here it is. It is really lovely.
I will eventually have visited every metro station in Stockholm, but given the short time I’ve been here, its probably going to be a while.
Usually I don’t understand what the metro decoration has to do with an actual place. Where I work in Solna, there is a hospital and the mythical home of Santa Claus which is really a mail station. But, the metro station is painted to look like the country and it features a miniature house and a moose. Solna features neither of these things.
This metro station, it all made sense. I had the day off to see the city and decided to get off where the station looked the most interesting and this is plenty interesting:
Another view:
This is the stop for Stockholm University, so the stop is obviously called University.
And, appropriately, the stop features all kinds of educational looking things:
The station also featured a few things that I found hard to categorize. For example who is this gentleman and what is he doing?
The lips remind me of the surrealist ones in the Man Ray photographs:
I have no idea what this is supposed to be:
At least these following images could perhaps invoke science or something:
In the following, the camel is on top of the whale and the fish is in the whale. It makes sense, don’t worry. Just look at the pictures:
And now the metro station is about to get interesting. What, you thought we were done with that? Not even close. This metro station featured two things I am absolutely positively sure no other metro on the planet will ever feature.
First, the miracle of life:
If you don’t see it at first, look at the bottom of the photo where it features the word “sperm.” Now the New York City metro, probably features a few words that describe the acts involved with the miracle of life, but a literal expression of it? I’m afraid we gotta go to the Swedes for that one.
And of course what would creating life be without a graph depiction of the one of the worst nuclear accidents in history:
For those of who don’t know, the Swedes uncovered that something was amiss with their neighbors to the East. Now the Swedes have their faults, but one thing is for sure. At least they want to preserve the environment, not create problems with it that will last generations.
The metro art also features a helpful time line of the discovery:
And at the end of the entry, the exit:
I’d say this isn’t your average metro station.
Yeah, its the photography cliche. A sunset. But I’d say this one was above average, considering it is taking place at 3:30 in the afternoon:
Pretty, eh?
I don’t know. I lost track.
Anyway, here are the latest shots from the metro stations I purposely get off on just to take the photos. Well, the following ones I got because of …. never mind.
The photos:
That’s the thing about the Stockholm metro. You just sort of walk around and you look back and you see those fallen clouds. I have to admit the art sometimes does the trick. I wasn’t in a great mood when I got there, but I saw the clouds and I thought — that is kind of interesting.
Two more:
And now Sweden, you disappointed me. You are supposed to be this perfect place and you give me this:
Oh wait, its behind glass:
Oh, sweet Sweden, you are back in my good graces.
This is the rest of the station. I’ve given up on exactly trying to figure out what the stuff is in the metro, so I thought I’d just come up with some stuff:
See here for example we have what looks like an angel fish:
It looks like the paint guns have declared war on one another here:
And this is just some colored tiles I liked:
Not all the metro stations in fair Stockholm look like these. Some are just regular looking:
But again, you look around and it gets a little bit more unusual:
And to close it out, some shots from a little closer to “home” at a place called Hallonberg. Me, I always pronounce it Hallonberg, but apparently this isn’t exactly correct. Its something like Hi on berg or something. Swedes — nice. The language — I have no quite learned to love it yet.
Some shots of Hallonberg’s metro:
My love for the Stockholm metro remains unabated.
