Sweden has a huge love affair with denim, from the big three authentic brands to home grown denim such as Indigofera, Denim Demon and the fashion denim of Acne and Cheap Monday. I just discovered a new brand made in the town of Eskilstuna by two denim nerds, Hampus Luhanko and Patrik Andersson. What started out as blog about vintage denim they found on Ebay became a blog about their our own brand of custom denim – Blue Highway Denim. I have yet to get a pair in my hands but it seems these guys really love denim and are putting their heart and soul into making a few pairs for themselves. I’m guessing if I can find a pair it will be from Sivletto in Stockholm. Sivletto is the place where you can find lifestyle products that will appeal if you like the 40s and 50s. It’s their version of rockabilly and beyond.

One of my favorite classic denim brands – Wrangler Blue Bell has just launched a new website for Autumn 2010. Why is this interesting for Sweden? Well, besides having a huge denim market that craves new denim labels and loves the classic look, a Swedish web agency made the site and the Spring 2010 site just won four prizes at Cannes Lions.

Gothenburg based agency Kokokaka have created a site which is much more than a product showcase, yet again set to be a destination that people will want to revisit and to share. The digital film allows you to playback Tony Ward’s actions and watch them in incredible detail.

Blue Bell serves up a cinematic presentation where the viewers themselves can manipulate the action as it is chased in a dark, damp, industrial landscape. Viewers can throw him from a ladder, tears off his clothes and make him jump and roll – all thanks to the interactive technology. Congrats to Kokokaka!

Randy Evaluates Sweden was aired for the first time at the Peace&Love Festival in Borlänge on June, 30 2010. Also, the end of the movie was shot during the festival since Randy played with his new band (musicians from Borlänge) at the festival.

Randy Evaluates Sweden by Ahang Bashi and Mattias Olsson see the trailer here.

Neighbors from Hell revolves around a family of demons who move from the underworld to Houston, Texas, on a mission to destroy a drill that can dig to the Earth’s core. The family not only faces culture shock trying to fit in with humans, they also realize that the humans can be as bad as the demons, and that Earth is almost no different from Hell. It is entertaining so far and I’ll see if I’ll make it all the way through the season.

The F12 is a restaurant located at the Royal Art Academy opposite to the Swedish Governments offices in Stockholm. Owned by Melker Andersen & Danyel Couet, the restaurant serves high-class international food and is rather expensive.

However, during the summer the top two terraces of the restuarant are transformed into a club – which has earnt the reputation of THE place to be in the summer.

Its steps are usually packed with the hipster kids and although this years clientele is a little older, its still a very cool, music, fashion and creative orientated club. There’s a VIP room with a classic, cosy feeling and a little bar downstairs called Salongen which is open for the summer and hosts functions.

It seems the fashion film is certainly continuing to be in vogue. Swedish designer Carin Wester recently screened her collection film ‘Beeping Sleauty” by Sandberg/Timonen and Fredrik Skogkvist.  Carin Wester graduated 1998, from Beckman’s School of Design and started short thereafter to work as a designer for the brand Paul & Friends. For eight seasons, she designed the women’s line, until  she started her own brand Carin Wester in 2003. Since the launching of the brand, Carin has been nominated for Nöjesguidens fashion award (2004) and achieved the prize as newcomer of the year by Elle (2004) for her design. Carin was also nominated as the Designer of the year by Elle (2005) and nominated by Ernst & Young as Entrepreneur of the year 2008. 2009 saw her win Damernas Världs Gold button. One of my favourite Danish labels Souland, created an amazing film set in the Scandinavian  countryside to promote their AW10 collection.

Brussels, what the fuck?

Well, if you can’t make your mind up what to eat and you have exhausted the extensive recipe database of Jamie Olivier then there’s always the new site ‘What the fuck should I make for dinner?’ to help you decide. Its currently has 12,451 fans on facebook and supposedly they are looking to compile a book. Here’s one of their recipes which has a distinct Gorden Ramsey tone to it.

Halve sprouts. Rinse em’ off, don’t fucking peel that shit, theyre going into a scorching hot oven, don’t be a pussy. Put those fuckers in a low sided roasting pan/hotel pan Olive oil Salt and pepper the shit out of them Brunoise some shallots, throw those on there too. And some mustard seed. Put them in a 400 degree oven, they should take about 30-45 minutes depending on size and your oven. Pull them out when they are tender and taste good. Dice some bacon. Brunoise some more shallots. Cook bacon until perfectly cooked. Don’t fuck this up. Don’t touch a nonstick pan. They suck. Take bacon out of pan. Reserve bacon fat. Throw shallots into pan. Crank that fucking heat. Let them sautée in the bacon fat for about 4 minutes, let them caramelize a bit. Add white wine, chardonnay works well because of it’s acid content and some dijon mustard, whisk the fuck out of it, add salt and pepper. Dress the brussel sprouts with the vinagrette in the pan, drop that bacon on there too, toss that shit. Receive the thanks of everyone you share my creation with, and revel in the idoltry of being viewed as a demigod. *If any of you fuckers take my recipe without giving total credit to me, and nobody but me, I will hunt you down and eat your brussel sprouts.

The American

I rather enjoyed Control by Anton Corbijn (the Ian Curtis biopic), so I was very intrigued to discover he has just directed ‘The American‘  a suspense thriller adapted by Rowan Joffe from Martin Booth’s novel, A Very Private Gentleman. Starring George Clooney the synopsis I discovered sees him as master craftsman for assassins on his last job after a job in Sweden goes more harshly than expected (not sure how harsh, I have to see the actual film first). Clooney gets away to the beautiful Italian countryside for some time off, hooks up with the local priest and gets it on with a local woman but in doing this, tempts fate …..  So far I think it looks great and could be a great film.