Britney Spears by Hannes Fossbo

While heading to Sneakersnstuff, run into Galleri Kocks - lucky me - where candles claimed öppet and invited you to the interior. 11 months of work gravitating around The Pop Princess aka Britney Spears.

Lucky me that, after being dazzled by how had the artist shadowed only by means of colorful crayon - I just LOVE that technique and I could kill someone to learn howto - I was asked:

- Which was your favourite?

What triggered some longer and more interesting conversation. Hannes Fossbo, smiling in suit with a Britney badge, explained why her and nobody else "Only a matter of boredome you know. I was just there, one year ago, cold evening at home, googling arbitrary names. Then, realized how famous was her from the incredibly high google-hits count"



A figure that turned out to be more interesting, when reflecting on how Britney personalizes the American Dream, the Capitalism and if you let me, the Global Economy itself. Exactly, the golden era that seemed so perfect just broke down.

Why? Because that way of living was just no longer sustainable. Same for our beloved Little Miss America. She, ended up as victim of the media that - funnily enough - had crowned her golden locks some time ago while us, well, we'll end up as victims of this capitalist crave for what wasn't truly required, all these externally-generated concerns and pressure to buy, have, eat and show that bring nothing but tremendous unhappiness.

Thanks Hannes, for a great chat and best of luck - I do believe YOU are a GREAT artist!

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Sustainable Pleasures.

I have been thinking quite a lot about sustainability, about the crisis and the trades which will survive or even, get strengthened out of it. Really don't know why, but everything that I went through today, was linked this idea of affordable great experience coming out of well-planed and efficient processes.

Sunday brunch took place in VAPIANO, an incredibly nice place to taste great food without going bankrupt - really suitable for the moment, huh?


How can it be possible? Bueno y Barato? Several reasons.

The serve-yourself is key when combined with clarity in the service. When you hit there, they give you an RFID card that you'll then use around the restaurant, to charge everything you order and pay when leaving the place - planning to leave without bringing the card back to the entrance counter? Bad idea man... Cardless fine goes up to 750:- (around 75€)

The entrance desk.

Then, you join the queue that suits your needs the best: Pasta? Pizza? Antipasti? Or desserts, coffee and spirits from the little bar placed closer to the lounge? Dividing people into different queues increases efficiency and decreases customer dissatisfaction, they can talk with their friends while scanning the flyer containing the menu and planning what to order. Same thing with the different areas, that can be freely selected - of course.

Eating area.

Lounge, for espresso, fika or longdrinks!

Let's-grab-something-fast zone, as cool for efterjobbet as for a special chat.


One asks then to the chef, who will cook in front of you, to your taste. More sauce? No sauce? Less cheese? Extra ingredients? No oil? Not only crystal-clear and fast but also amazing to discuss what could taste best and... Delight yourself when hitting the table!



See, just in front of them - just the hygienical glass in between.


Cheap but fresh.

Once the plate is ready, you will swap your RFID card to charge the consequent amount on your bill. Zip! And done.

You carry your stuff to your place. No waitress constantly filling your glass of water but, who cares? The food tastes good within such a relaxed and glossy atmosphere.

Tables are packed with all-you-need so waitresses are no longer needed.

Some details make it even better. Like the free jelly bears placed at the entrance. Great to lick while waiting to pay - the queue can become really enormous on weekends and evenings. A cheap detail to make the customer feel considered.

Then, we moved to ZARA where I wanted to get some basics. I'm proud to be spanish, even prouder to be spectator and contributor of their umblemished successful growth: They increasing in scale, market segments and locations; becoming 62nd Brand of the world - according to Business Week.

How does one do that?

Zara's secret? It moves fast. With an in-house design team based in in La Coruña, Spain, and a tightly controlled factory and distribution network, the company says it can take a design from drawing board to store shelf in just two weeks. That lets Zara introduce new items every week, which keeps customers coming back again and again to check out the latest styles.

Zara's success is all the more surprising because at least half its factories are in Europe, where wages are many times higher than in Asia and Africa.

Follow-Up for a truly interesting article.

And again, same thing. The well-grease business that takes consumer as starting input, rather than puppet; that immediatly adapts his taste and needs, proving successful on providing just what they expect - never more.

They both remind me of Samba Sushi.
The eating place is tiny, you cannot even see a bathroom - really don't know whether they actually have one, never asked - but the variety of fish is as outstanding as their freshness, the innovation and delicacy when preparing and displaying the dishes is delighting so, if you really love sushi... Immediately fall in love with the place, too. Lagom, as they say here. Big enough to sit. Clean as a hospital and - the most important thing - full of people that love their job and care about you as a customer. More signs of affordable luxury.

The bottom line is that, only those in complete control of their end-to-end processes, using the mix of tech with their own competences to flawlessly provide what the customer expects, being flexible enough to adapt the market pace seem to actually be coming out of this crisis.

The good news - or the interesting ones - for those who look through the other side of the glass are the amount of things one can feel great and loose himself without spending a buck.

Like galleries and VICE. But how did I end up interviewing the artist being an amazing 11-month project that revolved around Britney Spears aka "Miss more google hits than Madonna" is, another story.

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Happy to see...

That some of my guesses were not so far from real trends.

Me vs PSFK

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Who am I?

Sunday morning, 8AM.

A great time for waking up, for taking a walk, for discovering something breathtakingly reflective and new in Magasin 3 because, what could be cooler than a modern art museum hidden on the old freeport district?

On the way there, aided by the map.

I guess... It's always nice to have a clear goal,

And maybe, the easiest way for getting to it seems to follow the marked path. Follow the line, don't think, just do what they want you to, what seems logical and correct because... If they say so, should be because they know better, right?


But sometimes, apparent logical and traditional reasoning brings us to crossroads that, unless counting on tones of criticism and initiative are more impossible to solve...


Which is what I love the feeling you get after two lessons in K'fack. Learning to make up your OWN mind is the most important kecture - and maybe the hardest to get taught, at least, in Technical Schools - you can hope to pass in your life.

But somehow I reached my goal, so here it's what expected me upstairs...




Some others, tried to focus on the meanwhile. Which is why BETWITXT made me think so much. If you are not happy in the meanwhile periods of life, you'll never be happy when - if being enough lucky - reach your goals.

Cosima Von Bonin - "Seasons in the abyss", 2006 Mixed media, 2 x 2 m (podium)

But le Grande Finale was yet to come from Christian Boltanski's mind.


Who are you?

Is the question asked to and hopefully to be reflected inside the viewer's mind.
From human evolution, to heartbeats, from stereotypes to self-perception of the own persona to the itching sensation that remains... Hours later, when trying to fall sleep.

The others.

Maybe trends are just the aggregation from the evolution of many people's perception of themselves, merging our illusions with others whom we share future personal goals with, just the behaviour that results from inner plans, beating inside our chest that, we might have not shared yet... But keep thinking of, anyway.

Having my ill heartbeat recorded was kinda cool...

I don't know, but I'm just happy of being able to question... Which is much more than what could I have said not so long ago.

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Blondinbella says...

I'm tired of wearing that Red Coat... Wasn't it black cooler this Fall?

It's funny for me having written on this quite a long ago... That she decides to quit, right now. End of the media, advertising mogul who based her B'Model in the Lack of Privacy? No more adventures of the swedish gossip-girl?

Being honest, music to my ears to hear that. I don't get what's wrong on this society, where you're free to study, where you get help to learn, to open your mind, to become part of that intelectual elite that some call creators, who will rule the soon-coming interdisciplinary world...

One just needs to keep eyes wide open and take the challenge. What's the purpose then on so many people focusing on her? I don't feel any inspiration. Maybe I'm biased, for my age and nationality. And anyway, I shouldn't close my eyes to this celebrity-blogger thing, becoming Business with capital B. A global one. From Tv to fotolog princes and princesses.

It's just scary, the extent to which Big Brother lives within mankind.

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Useless... Though free.

"In the future, we'll get design from India and China, for free"
- Ronald Jones

Maybe that's not the exact quote but anyway, it came to mind, when I got the phone call - direct from India - answering my sos-email. One of those outsorced IBM Indian consultants who unfortunately, could neither speak proper english, nor understand my complaints. Kinda nice though, she seemed quite busy and concerned with the release of the reference ticket WIH ST0000007394172 - OVSD 539452930 - in other words, she needed me to say it was ok to go on with the next one.

Tired of intercontinental mumblings and timeloss for both sides, decided to tell her it was working and moved to next table, where Eva, the as nice as experienced assistant who has been working there for more than 25 years takes care of everything:

- I'll fix it soon, don't bother ;D

Maybe the help comes for free, as well as - according to Ronald - the design. But to which extent is this authenticity-centered society compromising the actual quality of what it comes? Like happens with cheaply-promoted magazines, this free-something might just point out a not good enough product.

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Real Gender Equality.

Just a quick thought to contrast the previous one...

When will this arrive to Spain? Last Friday, I got the following email in my job's inbox:

Hi,
I would like to thank you all for the flowers that we received for our wedding one and a half week ago. I also want to inform you that I have taken my wife's name which is (..)

Still amazed though hoping that, as well as there are more women in managerial positions than men, conducting the project I'm currently working for, this sticks and extends into other areas like politics and eventually, permeates society in the less-advanced countries, like my own. I hate people rising an eyebrow when hearing about papaledighet: There's written nowhere that we - women, black or any other discriminated group - are less so, let's hope for the best.

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Guerrilla Marketing

Luxury hotels in Stockholm - Sheraton, Grand Hotel, Radisson bl a - bombarded with Club Privé's flyers. Blame my innocence but I thought these things didn't happen here, in the land of equality, respect and papaledighet.

After observing they way of a group of middle-aged, nuptial-ring wearers, spanish b'men gazed - like deer hunters - a beautiful asian-looking girl... Started to question my views.

And it's just maybe the fact that a growing single frequent-travelling generation of professionals demand having fun after the meeting. Some made business out of it, like networking dinners where you share table with other lonely-interesting people during the b-trip evening.

Who makes the money out of Privé? Aren't we going backwards like kräftor?

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Green Living?

Mens sana in corpore sano.
-Décimo Julio Juvenal

For nobody's interest just as an introduction to provide some credibility to my stats... If you were about to describe my diet, the shortest and clearest-cut as well as fair enough would be to say that I eat like a rabbit. Fruit, vegetables, everything raw, nothing transformed or cooked in any way - apart from some sill & caviar.

My rubbish bag tops off sooner than what I expected and, I really didn't get why. C'me on! If I'm throwing nothing! Well... Nothing in terms of food, quite a lot of packaging though.

Kinda of funny, right? Green-living, green-eating and green-acting as a well-known established trend, but who is laughing at the joke am I? Carrying my not-a-plastic-bag to ICA to happily come back with a tones of PVC around my veggies? Such clutter of trays, tight plastic coverings, bags, transparent boxes... you name them, is doing nothing good for the environment.


I, seriously, do not get the point. Even worse, this doesn't scale well either. How can fresh food carry a greater amount - and even more damaging - of package than junk-food? Is anyone caring 'bout that? Are you more concerned about how should the ECO logo look to be more appealing? Or how to make people internalize the relevance of your CSR program to pay that profitable premium?

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Esta es la vida, del emigrante.

I drop everyday around Kista Galeria. Neither do I like it as a shopping mall, even less as a place for lunch. However, I find the mix quite interesting. On one hand, the card-army, bluetooth headset in one ear, smartphone on the hand, constant boring work-centered conversation overall. On the other, the naturals. That massive amount of immigrants - kinda funny - who like I did, moved to Sweden in the search of a shiny new life in the full-of-opportunities to learn, work and be-happy Scandinavian society.

More than 2 years being regularly around da hood and I still cannot help gazing the women who still wear the scarf. Well-educated, sitting beside me at school; fashion and beauty conscious - even obsessed - but still sticking to their roots, to their religion, to the scarf, to Ramadan.

I don't understand why. I don't get what's the power of the scarf. So, after being stroke of seeing a girl wearing - in this fashion - my beloved, recently bought & trendy leopard-printed scarf I tried to wear it myself. Just for fun, to see what happens.

I felt uncomfortable at the beginning but, then started to realize the power of hiding. They say that you are slave of your words but owner of your silence and it's just maybe that, combined with the tendency of sticking to something that all of us have.

However, my concern goes further from the surface, drowning in the perturbing question about the future: What will come out of such a fast-growing group whom, despite being merged in a completely forward-thinking and equalitarian society, sticks to its traditions and probably to tremendously old-fashioned social roles too?

Well... Let's play some Manu Chao - in Spanish ;P, anyway.

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