Yesterday X and I visited Fotografiska with Malin. We've planned it for some time and came upon exhibitions by Annie "I need money" Leibovitz, Vee Speers, Joel-Peter Witkin, Lennart Nilsson and Anders Petersen. I really enjoyed some of Vee Speers' pictures of kids at a birthday party, kids seemingly in adult positions. Some of them were great, others not. Leibovitz's exhibition was interesting, especially the family pictures. The big ones were really nice at times, but often felt out there. It was weird to see the axis of evil, i.e. people like Dubya/Condi/Rumsfeld/Ashcroft, all collated in one shot. Some pictures were lovelorn, others just dreadfully commercial, seemingly done to rake in cash. I immediately felt that much money should produce something more interesting. Anyway, Witkin's pictures turned that on its head; seemingly "scary" pictures of amputated people, headless men and nudity mixed with biblical iconographies, most done in monochrome shots were a fresh air, but to me - the cultural baboon - it felt as though Marilyn Manson's already ripped Witkin off and exposed his stuff to the general public. A couple of shots were beautiful, but mostly, his stuff wasn't for me. Neither was Nilsson's, unless you count the (maybe unintentional) feeling of wanting to puke because he'd magnified and coloured a picture of a 20-day-old foetus' brain starting to develop. Otherwise: yawn. All very technically brilliant and all that, but boring. Anders Petersen delivered a bunch of everyday pictures from his home town, most of them shot in 2008. This was really fresh! Most of the pictures were black and white. I really liked quite a few of these snapshots, because that's what they were: simple shots, but I think you can tell they were shot by a very experienced and talented photographer. People partying, jumping, walking around, hugging, being shot in costumes and masks (=maybe not that everyday) and just pictures of environments.

Following Fotografiska, we went to enjoy the buffet at Hermans Vegetariska Restaurang. For $30 USD, you get to eat as much as you want. Their freshly baked carrot-bread with herb-infused butter was to die for, as were their outdoors grill from where we culled corncobs, sweet potatoes and tofu. The lasagna was slobbery, but apart from that a lot of the food was great; hummous, quinoa salad, grilled potato-wedges, potato salad, marinated aubergines... Mmm. I still love Seyhmus Vegetariska more, though.

Oh, today we saw a Swedish film titelled "Snabba Cash". It's a film that mainly follows a young man who studies and tries to keep his poor past from his posh friends, while making a lot of money in a variety of ways; he suddenly finds himself in cahoots with nasty, nasty foreigners who drag his blond, previously unscathed self through the proverbial mud. I had a lot of qualms before I saw this film, and I can sincerely say it shouldn't be viewed by ANYBODY. Sure, it's often visually prettier than most Swedish films, but then again, the old Swedish adage that tells you that handheld camera = intense film, is hogwash. And all the characters are stereotypes. The Evil Foreigners who destroy Sweden through their criminal handiwork are all written as though the author of the book this pulp is based on has read nothing more than...shitty gang films. Films like "Bound By Honor" seem entirely real in comparison with this, where everybody bad does nothing more than walk around being bad. There are no breathers in this film. The main character is more two-dimensional than a piece of cardboard; all in all, I felt no sympathy for the characters, and not even any empathy for the victims. This is a lame-assed vision by somebody who's seen "Scarface" a thousand times and bought into the image of what big-time crime in Sweden looks like, as filtered through the tabloids. The soundtrack is supposed to make us sad at times. I hate it when soundtracks, and visual effects are there to show the viewer what to feel, rather than affecting you. Oh, so the big, bad gangster was beaten by his father when he was a child? Is this info supposed to make you pity him, or understand why he's become the veritable see-through monster he is portrayed as? People don't change in this film. It's a glass onion from beginning to finish. I was actually hoping for some saving grace, but I just wanted to offer the coup de grâce to this disgusting mess. Anybody who likes this film is either a) very young and hasn't seen anything good, b) a philistine or c) stupid.

To end off, here is a tiny slideshow from the past days. Note how Blixa loves the new couch; she loves to dominate on either of the armrests.