nuzzaci - an online journal

King of the road by Jenny Nordberg (via Made-In-England.org)

So, we are now a few weeks into 2007 and it’s about time to look back at 2006 and see what actually happened. Since I have had this digital online journal for almost a year (1st of May), 80% of what I’m mentioning here have already been documented earlier.

2006 for me started with coming back from San Francisco (where I had celebrated Christmas (in Lake Tahoe) and New Years (San Francisco) with my girlfriend Willow and her family) and began moving in with Willow to her flat.

During 2006 we had done quite a few improvements to this flat. First we extended the loft so the bedroom got a bit bigger, then we changed the flooring and built a loft bed in one of the bedrooms. But 2006 has just been the beginning… If everything goes as planed, during 2007 I will tell you all about the new kitchen, the new bathroom and the new staircase up to the loft.

 

Work

I don’t talk much about work on this journal. And that’s not because I don’t do any work or that nothing exiting happens at work. No, the main reasons is when i’m not working, and sitting by the computer, I prefer not to talk, reflect or spend time on work related stuff.

I have been at POKE for over three years now, and during these three years a lot has happened e.g. we have grown 462.5% in size, changed offices twice, rolled out a lot of really nice work and won more awards than I can remember. So, as a big reward for our great achievements, about a month ago, we moved into 10000 sq. ft. of dedicated private space.

So 2007 surely kicks off big.
It’s a bit of a fresh start.
A new start.

Two of the bigger pieces of work I been involved in during 2006 was the new topshop.com and the GoodFood magazine website. Thanks to a brilliant team and exceptionally brilliant client, I can look at them both and be extremely satisfied.

 

Sport (F1 basically)

2006 brought me back to Formula One, and the 2006 season was amazing and it definitely made way for an exciting 2007!! The biggest news was of cause the creation of the new 10th of September tradition of German beer and spaghetti tomato sauce, a new tradition to salute and remember the announcement by Scuteria Ferrari of Micheal Schumacher’s retirement as a race driver.

 

Music

So what’s the best album 2006… well it turns out being quite hard… all the ones I’d thought of, turned out being released in 2005! Such as With Teeth by Nine Inch Nails, Go Down! by David Sandstrom and Potemkin City Limits by Propagandhi.

Don’t know, was 2006 a dry year for people with my kind of music taste? What have I missed…

Born In The U.K. by Badly Drawn Boy, 9 by Damien Rice and Dreamt For Light Years In The Belly Of The Mountain by Sparklehorse are OK, wouldn’t go so far and give them the title ‘Best Album of 2006. (they have done better).

The one album that took me by surprise was Comfort Of Strangers by Beth Orton. So, until further notice Comfort of Strangers can wear the crown of Album of the Year 2006.

 
During the end of 2005 i decided to ‘grab myself in the collar’ and take care of the concert opportunities that comes with living in London. So I ended 2005 strongly with seeing Anthony and the Johnsons, Eels, Unseen, Randy, Flogging Molly, Millencolin and Jeff Tweedy, and have followed through into 2006. Some concert reviews pre this blog can be found on my last.fm journal.

2005 I also left The Above. Which means that during 2006 I have been ‘bandless’. Think that’s one of the main reasons I have managed to get up to so much stuff. I do miss playing though, and might just pick it up again in 2007…

Below is a list of the gig’s I went to during 2006. The absolute highlights was the acoustic Foo Fighters concert and the Tindersticks concert.

1. Jason Mraz, warm up by Raul Midon

   The Mraz gig was probably this years biggest disappointment. Saw him preform an ‘absolute masterpiece’ two years prior, and this time he just managed to reach ‘average commercial ass-selling and record label selling shite’. He didn’t even get close to his potential and wasn’t even near to meet my expectations.

2. Nizlopi

   Willow almost passed out on this gig.

3. Iron & Wine and Calexico

   Saw Calexico back in 1998 in a small pub in Stockholm, Sweden. Calexico 2006 is definitely another band on stage (in a good way). For Iron & Wine the venue was a bit to big.

4. The Shins

   Read more here.

5. Foo Fighters

   One of the best concerts I’ve been to. Read more here.

6. Foo Fighters, warm up by Juliette & the Licks, Angels & Airwaves, Queens of the Stone Age, Motörhead

   The biggest concert I have ever been to. 85.000 people in Hyde Park. It was HUGE. Read more here.

7. Death Cab for Cutie

   Saw DCFC twice in 2006, first in March and then in June. Tom Hostler took me along to the March gig, and since they were so damn good, we booked tickets for June gig as well. Read more about the June concert here.

8. The Cult

   As Billy Duffy changed guitar a few songs into the set, I told Willow, “That’s probably the nicest guitar in the world”. Then, on my 28th birthday, Miss W gave me Miss G.

9. The Rolling Stones

   Read more here

10. The Veils

    Another suggestion by The Hoss, and again, another band I saw twice in 2006. Read more on Willows blog.

11. Tindersticks

    Tindersticks preforming their album Tindersticks II. Totally amazing. Read more here.

12. Hello Saferide

    The most common ’search keyword’ that brings traffic to this site is ‘songs about ocd‘. The search brings me on place nr 8 on Google and points to the post I wrote about this concert. Read the post here.

13. Tom Mcrae, Joe Purdy, Steve Reynolds, Jim Bianco

    Read more here.

14. Robyn

    A weird 5 song mini gig at a small bar in Shoreditch.

15. David & the Citizens

    See photos from this gig on Willow’s flickr

 

Travels

I have never travelled as much during a year as I have done during 2006. The weird bit is that even if I have been around a bit, I manage to have 6 holidays left towards the end of the year, which leed to an extra week off in London. To prevent this from happaning in 2007 I have already booked off 15 days of my holidays, all 15 to be spend before the second week in March.

1. San Francisco, United States of America

   Even though the year stared in San Francisco: The Lake Tahoe and San Francisco trip belongs in an non-existing 2005 review and not in this. But it [the trip] was very very nice.

2. Paris, France

   We spent Easter in Paris. Which was a bit of a disappointment. Paris was not even close to what I expected it to be…

3. Rome, Italy

   In May we went down to Rome, Italy, to celebrate my dad and his 60th birthday. It was lovely. Think the Paris trip made me realise how much i like Rome. You can read more about the Rome trip here and here.

4. Rosili Bay, Whales

   In June we went to Rhossili Bay, Swansea, Wales, with David Marks. Read more here.

5. Skelleftea, Sweden

   As a tradition done every year since I moved to London, Middsummer was spent in Skelleftea. Read more about the trip here and here.

6. Hel, Poland

   Read more about the amazing week in Hel, Poland, here

7. Skelleftea, Sweden

   Went back to Skelleftea in the end of October to celebrate my sisters 30th birthday. Read more here.

8. Newcastle, United Kingdom

   Similar to the midsummer tradition in Skelleftea, Thanksgiving is a trip to Newcastle. This year I made something special.

9. Dover, United Kingdom

   This was just a one day trip down to the white rocks in Dover. I didn’t know that it was just an hours boat trip between Dover and Calais. The Freestyle song Dover-Calais make it seem like it is at least a few hours; since in the song they meet ’somewhere between’. Read misleading lyrics here.

10. Rome, Italy

    Anyone who ever meet or knew my uncle Antonio Nuzzaci will remember the end of 2006 as a very sad moment. During the early hours of Thursday 21st of December he passed away. This cast a shadow over the ending of 2006. Willow and I flew down to Rome to attend the funeral on the 22nd of December, and then we stayed in Rome over Christmas.

11. Taranto, Italy

    Last week of the year was spent in my parents house in the south of Italy. This might have been the last time we visited Viale Die Pini 18, since a few weeks back they sold the house and are planing to move up to Tuscany. Photos from the Italy trip can be found on Willow’s flickr.

1. Human Memory Limitations and Web Site Usability
   The usability of your Web site depends upon your users’ ability to encode, store, and remember information. If your users can’t remember what they need to remember, they will be disgusted and they will fail. If they fail, then your site fails.
2. Witness This - a photoset on Flickr
3. Sweden: Heaven and Hell - Movie Trailer
   “Trailer for the 1968 italian mondo movie “Svezia Inferno e Paradiso” (Sweden - Heaven or Hell) by Luigi Scattini. I think this may have been banned in Sweden.”

When I’m away I tend to read more then if I’m at home. I always have one or two books next to my bed that I’m currently reading, and they seem to take ages to finish; doing 5-10 pages every now and again before going to or falling to sleep.
When I’m away, these never-ending books often reach an end and new ones get started. Guess it has to do with distractions and priority.

During my week in Sweden, I brought (and finished) the book Stumbling on happiness by Daniel Gilbert. I think it is my first book in the Psychology gender, so my reference point is probably not the widest.
The book in general is a bit of a mind-fuck - a big catch 22 psych game on your brain.

An contextual example:

apparently, the describers’ verbal description of their experience ‘overwrote’ their memories of the experience themselves, and they ended up remembering not what they had experienced but what they had said about what they experienced.

So what you are reading here and now is not necessarily what happened, or how I experienced it while it happened, more what I now think I experienced when looking back on what happened. And therefor what I’m saying here is not as related to what actually happened as we might want to think.
I found the book to be very interesting, well written and funny. But this is all I will say about it. I will not post a long review of how I liked it while reading it.

This post suffered from a similar syndrome as the books next to my bed. I started writing down notes on this post when I was still in Sweden, and since then (end of october) I have written a bit here and a bit there.
The post ended up being so long and in such detail that I decided to start all over and summarise the original post, and spare you details, such as, what the population of the village my dentist comes from.

Let’s jump back to Sunday the 22nd of October. It’s 2am and the Formula 1 qualifying ends with Michael Schumacher 10th on the grid due to an unknown error during the last stint in qualifying. With a nose full of mucus (also known as snot), I go to bed.
5 hours later, 7am, I wake up, pack my bags and take bus 48 to Liverpool street and then the underground to Heathrow.

That was how the journey began (might not be the best beginning, but all journeys need a beginning). And that set the tone of the whole week in Skelleftea - rapid, quick and a bit stressful.

Flying… Flying… Flying… I have said before: “Flying feels less glamorous then eating a egg and mayo sandwich.”, and the fact that it’s bad for the environment, unpleasant, and this time (again) anything else than a smooth procedure (checking didn’t work since my electronic ticket didn’t exist, and on top of that extremely long queues due to extra security etc etc), just makes flying the most unpleasant, stupid and uncomfortable way to travel.
I wouldn’t be surprised if in 15 years time or so airplanes will be voted to wear the crown of the worst invention ever invented, and looked upon as something as stupid as the atom bomb. According to Sir Nicholas Stern report, it actually seems like it is a commercialised atom bomb in disguise.

Snow!! My family picks me up at an airport that was covered in snow (note: the photo above is not taken at the airport). And it was cold. But since they no longer serve food on the plane - I was dead hungry at this point, and the only worry I had was whether I would have time to get some food in my stomach before the last F1 race of the season.
It was one of those moments when I am extremely pleased over the fact that Skelleftea (pop approx. 35397) has the same ratio on pizzerias as an English village has on pubs.
The first pizzeria we went to was rammed with people. So we went to another one further down the road. At first it looked perfect, with only a few people inside, but it took ages. Turns out that the guy in front of us had ordered 31 pizzas for a junior hockey team… can’t put my finger on it, but there must be something to learn from that experience.

When the last F1 race of the season began, and the last race ever for the great Michael Schumacher, I was sitting comfortably and digesting a very tasty sandwich kebab pizza, on the sofa in the warm house of the Kontro family in Ursviken (pop approx 4060) just outside Skelleftea.

After the race, that didn’t really end the way I had hoped, I went to Skelleftehamn (pop approx. 3123), which is the small village 16km outside of Skelleftea were I was born and raised.

I slept like a soft toy.

As in every city, there’s always a local current trend; a bag, a way of wearing something, an artist, a way of life. As an “outsider” visiting you notice these trends quite quickly, since there is an abnormal and unnatural amount of something that, where you come from, is not seen as special or trendy. This time it’s: baby carrier, big bellies soon to deliver baby and the Crocs beach sandal.

The whole baby boom, big belly and Crocs invasion reminded me a bit of the white headphones and iPod era two years ago.

During the following 5 days I manage to (among other thing):

• Visit the dentist twice
• Have a lovely wine and cheese evening with friends
• Two schedule lunches
• Four evening dinner parties (one in Umea)
• An afternoon at my old job as a Lifeguard
• A bowling competition
• and of cause my sisters 30th birthday party

It’s not often that you find yourself coming back to London, from the north of Sweden, looking forward to get some rest.

Two weeks ago in Japan, Michael Schumacher, minimised his changes of winning his eighth world champion title due to an engine failure. The engine failure occurred a lap and a half after his last scheduled pit stop.
It’s quite a common that around the time of a pit stop the engine fails. It’s the quick change of the engine behavior; engine running warm - stop - start, that makes the engine vulnerable.

And here I am, on the first day on my last scheduled two weeks pit stop before christmas… with an engine failure. Tomorrow i’m of to Sweden for a week to celebrate my sisters 30th birthday, and this morning I woke up with a cold.

Before my last holiday I experienced the same thing. Think I need to slow down the revs…

I guess I am as vulnerable as formula one car engine.

In Sweden, wine needed to be sold in Tetra Pak - box model - before people started buying it. The illusion that it’s cheaper to buy 3 litres, and that it is easier to ‘just drink a glass’ seem to be the main reason for it success.

Being raised with an Italian kitchen culture, this seem very very wrong and unrespectful. Shocking really. I have said many time that selling wine in Tetra Pak is something they would never allow in Italy.

What I didn’t know, until reading this past Sundays Observer, was how right i really was.

The article in the Observer, title: Canned wine is fine for Paris but not in Italy, said:

Under Italian law, wine can be sold only in bottles.

The article was about how the people in the Conegliano/Valdobbiadene region in Italy were angry and upset over the fact that their famous grape, used to make their famous white sparkling wine with the same name, Prosecco, was sold in Red-Bull-looking cans, labeled Rich, and marketed with the face of Paris Hilton in order to target a shallow audience in countries such as Britain, Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
Rich Prosecco have basically bypassed the ‘bottles only law’ by distributing the canned wine abroad only.

Giancarlo Vettorello, director of Consorzio del Tutela del Prosecco:

It is a debasement of our product and something that we will not passively accept.

It’s not the first time that countries outside of Italy have been served an fabricated story about a product and it’s connections to the Italian lifestyle and culture. Quite often products gets anchored in lies - “given values” - in the aim to get a bigger or another revenue stream.

You can’t, for instance, buy the Peroni Nastro Azzurro beer in Italy, even though it’s market as “Peroni Nastro Azzurro is Italian style in a bottle. It brings out the Italian in you.”

In Italy, Peroni is one type of beer and Nastro Azzurro another. Peroni Nastro Azzurro is just a re-branded Nastro Azzurro that’s been given a few new values so that it can be repositioned in the beer market - made it into ‘fashion’ - in an attempt to bring in more revenue from another consumer channel.
This is nothing new, barely an example.

But I absolutely love the transparency, and the deep shallowness and stupidity of the Prosecco campaign. I think Paris Hilton says it best her self, in her song, which is also brilliantly tied to the campaign and available on the Prescco website, Stars are Blind.

Even though the gods are crazy
Even though the stars are blind
If you show me real love baby
I’ll show you mine

Some external links:

• Wine in a box at systembolaget, Sweden
• www.richprosecco.com/
• www.peroni.it/
• www.nastroazzurro.it/
• www.peroniitaly.com/

As I said last week - I been to Skelleftea. Im now sitting in my sofa watching a recording of the Canadian grand prix, waiting for my parents to call from the airport saying; we are here now. Ferrari and Michael Schumacher are currently quickest… but as we all know - he didn’t win this past weekend.

Midsummer was good. It’s just so nice going back and meet all my lovely old friends. They all are truly an amazing bounce of people.

We (Willow, Mr Tall, Henrik and I), rented a car in Stockholm and drove up during Thursday night. I love driving. Especially during the night. And especially Swedish summer nights. It was a pure pleasure.

First thing on Friday morning was a lunch involving fish. I had fish. I just can’t eat it. I did my best. Thanks to the lovely company it went down alright. Then we were of to give my sister a warm hug before finally going to where we the last 4 years have celebrated the midsummer weekend - Olov Nilzens cabin in Boviken. HUGE amount of love and cred to Olov and Carina for putting up with everyone every year.
One of the highlights was definitely when Anders Norberg sang ‘far jag kan inte fÃ¥ upp min kokosnöt’ at the end of a long karaoke session.

On Sunday, we (Willow, Mr Tall, Henrik and I), drove to Burea to play Football Golf with my half brother other brother - Marcus Vaneryd, at Myggvalla (translates to Mosquito Valley).
Football Golf was very very fun. I definitely can suggest that to anyone in any age and any sex.
It is/was a lot more fun then Frisbee Golf, which we played on Monday evening before once again hitting the road to drive down to Stockholm again.

In Stockholm I had a tight schedule. During the day I had plans to visiting Vinh Kha, Simon Kallgard, Isak Wikstrom, Staffan Lamm, Karl Thyselius, Karl Ringman and my brother - Jonaz Vaneryd… turned out to be a bit to tight of a schedule (woke up way to late after the long drive down), so I never manage to get to Karl Thyselius and Karl Ringman =(.

Overall it was a very nice weekend.
And I’m looking forward to next year.

Tomorrow I’m off to my hometown Skelleftea in the north of Sweden to celebrate midsummer. This has kind of grown to be a standing tradition - that I every year go back for this event. Since my parents have moved from Skelleftea and lives in Italy, I don’t go home for christmas. So you could almost say that midsummer is my christmas (Im saying that I’m going home. It’s weird. Since it’s not where my parents live. It’s not where I live. It’s where I was born, raised and grow up… is there a name for that kind of “home”? is it hometown or more like growing-up town?).

Normally it’s loads of fun. Meeting a lot of old friend. My sister (who still lives there). Playing silly games. Having barbecue. Singing songs. Playing volleyball. Drinking beer (Norrlands Guld). I’m really looking forward to it, and a full report on this event will be posted on this blog once I’m back.

This year, two ‘non-northern friends’ are coming with me (and Willow of cause, but it’s not her first time); Henrik Engdahl and Johan Enstrom (a.k.a Mr Tall).
So this year we’re also taking the opportunity to do a little road tip by hiring a car in Stockholm and drive up. I love driving. And since I live in a country where they drive on the left side of the road - driving have come to be something I don’t do very much. - which is kind of sad.

What makes the north of Sweden special during this time of year is the midnight sun. And that, my friends - is amazing! First time I really realised how amazing it is, was the first summer I wasn’t there; my first summer down in Karlskrona (where I went to university at Hyper Island). That year, for some reason, I decided not to go back up north… then I started longing for the midnight sun and jumped on a plane and went back.
When living there, in the north, the midnight sun wasn’t something I regarded as that special. It felt more like my human right after the long and cold winter (yeah, the winters are quite the opposite). But… it is very special and I can suggest the experience to everyone at anytime.

I also have a sad - and happy - announcement to make; My lovely PowerBook, named Alecia (after the artist Pink) and I have separated. After over three wonderful years together, we decided it’s time for her to go in pension. So tomorrow she’s taking a flight over to Stockholm with Mr Tall to go and live her last years with my brother Jonaz.
This means as well that in about 3 weeks I will adopt a new girl. This time around it’s probably gonna be a MacBook Pro.

Here’s some links related to this post:

• skelleftea.se
• Henrik Engdahl
• Willows site
• and Willows blog
• Hyper Island
• The official Pink website
• Apple - MacBook Family

and here are some random links I have found interesting in the last few days:

• listography
  your life in lists create. share. read.
• La Coupe du Monde 2006 de Football en un coup d’oeil
  Every single goal so far in the World Cup. Click on the match score, then click the spinning ball next to the player’s name.
• CSS for Designers
  If you don’t learn, or get more understanding for CSS through this - just give it up.
• Apple - Trailers - Why We Fight - Trailer
  This seem to be a very interesting documentary. Probably a scary one as well.
• Beggr - Scrounging 2.0
  He he, Im afraid he makes a very very good point
• MacNN | 50 Cent turns to Apple for Mac deal
  What caught my attention is the “I never got into it for the music. I got into it for the business.” part. I don’t think Mr 50 is the only one we can blame for all shit music that is floating around - but he sure as hell feeds the beast. After have seen Foo Fighters twice within a week and all… just wished more people did it for the same reason as FF, and with the same respect towards music as an art from. About the Apple deal… if it follows through I will be very disappointed with Apple and Mr Jobs.

It’s like the utimate evil day today (and the national day of sweden)(and daniel norbergs birthday (he didn’t grow horns during the night, I have asked him)), the 6th of June 2006… wow - 666 (the number of the beast). Should be The (capital T) day for Iron Maiden (they are so good)(britain most be proved).

So today we celebrate the most evil day ever, Iron Maiden, Sweden and Daniel Norberg.

“Did you know… That Sweden are traditionally one of the strongest teams in world football, with eleven World Cup appearances and three medals. They finished second when they hosted the tournament in 1958, and have finished third twice, in 1950 and 1994?

Nope, us neither. We barely even remember that Thomas Brolin fella.
But they are also the third…”

from Way of the Rodent