Popularkultur issue one

issue one january 2007

Christian Brunnstrรถm photography.

Skateboarding near the arctic circle.

The Happy people fashion.

Populär kultur issue one, january 2008 Art director Albin Holmqvist Editor Sara Landeira de Abajo Photography Isak Sandling Andreas Renlund Christian BrunnstrÜm Writers Isak Sandling Albin Holmqvist Graphic design Albin Holmqvist

w w w . h a s s e l b l a d . s e

contents 4 11 13 19

skating near the arctic circle goodstuff

the happy people style&fashion christian brunnstrรถm photo

Featured on the cover; Sara wearing the famous Same hoodie from Happy people.

THE ARCTIC CIRCLE* 4

words and flicks by isak sandling.

*in the winter it can get as cold as -50 degrees C° The Arctic Circle, can you imagine how far away that is? The only reason that it’s possible to live up here, on the sixty sixth latitude, is the current - and God bless it - that somehow manages to sneak up here all the way from the gulf of Mexico.

There seems to be some misapprehensions about the life up here that I will take the liberty of killing off right now. Polar bears don’t roam the streets, everything is not covered with ice, and Inuit’s live on Greenland, for the most part.

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grew up two kilometers south of the Arctic Circle, and by all means, the climate is quite ambivalent here. In the winter it can get as cold as -50 degrees Celsius, and pretty much constant darkness. In the summer the temperature can creep up to 35 on the other end of the scale, and the light never seems to fade.

Tourists come here from all over the world, especially from China and Japan, just to see the midnight sun, and to meet Santa Claus in Rovaniemi. Which is right across the border to land of the thousand lakes. A common way of living for a typical `Norrlänning` (a person from the north of Sweden) is that s/he works all winter in a steel factory, or in one of our mines, saving up money, and mainly focusing on getting through the cold and dark period of the year.

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Âś Light is constant 24/7, birds are chirping, and the vegetation shows you just about every color in the spectre. Âś

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hen summer arrives, s/he comes out of hibernation, and comes `to life` again, just as nature does. Light is constant 24/7, birds are chirping, and the vegetation shows you just about every color in the specter. The conditions for outdoor activities such as skateboarding, hunting and fishing are impeccable. The wild life up here is outstanding. Thousands of birds migrate here from all over the world just to breed their offspring in these prime conditions of ours. When you are from the northern part of Sweden you learn to cherish every second of `skateboard weather`, and all in all be a happy camper, `cause that gets harder when the winter comes a knockin`.

In the early 1900 there was blooming job market up here. There were thousands of jobs in correlation with dams being built to supply the area with electricity. Railroads where constructed, and people came rolling in. The majority of electricity in Sweden comes from hydroelectric power. In those days `Norrland` was the main supplier of this type of power, due to the number of raging rivers up here. Now most of them are dammed up, or just dried up.

Daniel Sandling Switch flips to fakie at a a picture perfect spot.

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n the eighties skateboarding had it’s heyday up here, like so many other places. It didn’t take long before I caught the bug and acquired a shredsled for myself. But it’s up here, like anywhere else, people stop for various reasons, and it’s only the die hard enthusiasts who keep at it. If it hadn’t been for my older brother, my passion might have faded years ago. But thanks to him, it’s still burning as bright as ever. (Thanks, Bro. For all the inspiration and positive vibes.)

I grew up a bit outside the city of Luleå, in the countryside. When I was younger I imagined it to be the equivalent of New York or London. I heard rumors that there was a thriving skate scene there. When I got a chance to go and check it out, I was blown away! `This is skateboarding!`, I remember thinking. People where flipping their boards in every which way, and sliding down rails. It was magic. A new world revealed itself to me. And I’m happy to say that I’m still in it, and loving it just as much.

Since back in the day Luleå has had a quite an unstable skate scene, but there has always been a few dedicated soldiers up here.

If you look at the elite in Swedish skateboarding, half of the `major players` are from the northern part of Sweden. Big guns such as: Ricky Sandström, Markus Kärnebro, Jerry Svensson, Mika Edin, Stefan Ylitalo and John Mcmillen.

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The spots up here may not be as perfect as in Spain, or any other major city in Europe, nonetheless, they do inspire to creative skateboarding, and `outside-the-box` thinking. So if you like skating spots that are challenging, and a tad bit rough, then the north of Sweden might just be your cup of tea. I think the vast majority of people who have gone out of their way to pay a visit to this fair area of northern Europe have found it to be well worth their while.

The only flip side to the summer season, are the incalculable amounts of mosquitoes that make this place their home, with no regard for human life.

This is fine and dandy for all the fish, birds and other wildlife creatures that see them as tasty after-dinner snack. For us humans, with warm blood coursing through our veins, it can seem like a pre taste of hell at times.

But when we stick it out with these blood slurping bastards, you know it has to be swell here, right? Just get yourself bucket of the meanest mosquito repellent you can obtain, and you’ll be fine.

Don’t worry . . .

¶ they do inspire creative skateboarding, and“outside-the-box” thinking ¶

If the spot is rough, you’ll fix it.

Kickflip to fakie by Albin Holmqvist.

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Gunes Ă–zdogan blunts to fakie.

Tight. Real tight.

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Superior sightlines and sound, a darkly swank, well-stocked bar, and next-big-thing lineups mean Bowery Ballroom has the title of best music club in New York pretty much locked up.

6 Delancey St., between Bowery and Chrystie Sts., 212-533-2111

Bowery Ballroom

Up on the romantic rooftop of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, sculpture, hot Italian tourists, frozen daiquiris, and colossal Central Park views converge into one juggernaut of a drinking experience.

220 E 65th St # 17F, New York 212-715-0837

Roof Garden Cafe

The signature St. Regis cocktail is spicy, smoky, and totally worth every penny of its exorbinant price, what with the white-glove service, clubby environs, and that multimillion dollar Maxfield Parrish mural.

St. Regis Hotel, 2 E. 55th St., between Fifth and Madison Aves., 212-753-4500

King Cole Bar & Lounge

CLUBS&BARS

Thomas Keller’s extravagantly hyped establishment gets four stars.

10 Columbus Cir, New York 212-823-9335

Per Se

Masa Takayama, the illustrious sushi god from L.A., came to New York with a uniquely Japanese, if slightly insane proposition: that a meal of the highest quality is worth almost any price.

220 E 65th St # 17F, New York 212-715-0837

Masa

Number one in the city. The french Service and the wines are incredible 155 W 51st St New York, NY 10019, USA 212-554-1515

Le Bernadine

RESTAURANTS

good stuff

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Graphic design in wall-format. Stockholms finest.

www.dizelsate.com

The coolest of all cool stuff. I mean really cool!

www.thecoolhunter.net

Typography blog, what else can i say?

www.ilovetypography.com

Huge gallery filled to the brim with type-candy from the masters.

www.typogabor.com

Design collective and store/gallery. Barcelonas finest.

www.vallery.es

Computerlove. Graphic design blog. Good stuff, lots of updates.

www.cpluv.com

Image bookmarking, theres no end to it.

www.ffffound.com

INTERNET

Major collection of modern art in New York, USA. Showing modern and contemporary artists from America and around the world.

1071 Fifth Avenue (at 89th Street) New York, NY. tel: 212 423 3500

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum

Collection of modern art in New York City, USA. Showing major modern artists from around the world.

11 West 53 Street, between Fifth and Sixth avenues New York, NY 10019-5497 tel: 212-708-9400

Museum of Modern Art (MoMA)

Important collection of art in New York City, USA. Showing art from ancient times through to modern artists.

1000 Fifth Avenue at 82nd Street New York, New York 10028-0198 tel: 212-535-7710

Metropolitan Museum of Art

Museum of art in New York, USA started by Henry Clay Frick, showing important old master paintings, sculpture and furniture.

1 East 70th Street New York, NY 10021 tel: 212-288-0700

Frick Collection - the frick collection of art

GALLERIES

Name: Thomas Niemi Lives: in Lule책, in the very north of sweden Education: 3 years of design education and the hard knock school of life.

Movies: Black cat, white cat Music: Dancehall Style: Liam Gallagher Etc: Thomas loves sneakers, he has over 30 pairs.

THE H STY

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Thomas is rocking a hoodie from the S/S -07 collection.

HAPPY PEOPLE YLE&FASHION flicks by Andreas Renlund.

Back in '94 i moved to Luleå to study fashion and design for 3 years. I started my first brand in '96, opened my first shop in '97. But it didn't work out with my business-partner at the time so in 2000 I went solo and thats when Happy People was born.

As a shop, a brand and a club.

What was the name of your first brand?

The name was Children and it was kind of a skate brand with a full team and stuff. I actually had some of the best swedish skaters at that time on the team. Skaters like Stefan Ylitalo and John McMillen. It was a good time.

And what was the name of the shop you had back then?

It was called Rudie's and from the beginning it was mostly a secondhand shop but later evolved to more of a street fashion shop with brands like, Carhartt, Ben Sherman, Peter Werth and stuff like that. We also had our own Rudie's brand. And this was like '97 to'99 something like that.

So right now you’re dealing with a store, a brand and a club.

Are you doing this by yourself?

Actually, I’m only doing the brand right now. The shop is being leased and runned by another company until June this year.

And the club is on ice at the moment. So I’m fully concentrated on the brand right now and that’s cool.

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ow come you got interested in clothes?

I thought ice-hockey was more popular than streetwear up there...

Hehe. Yeah I know what you mean but the thing is that I’ve always been interested in clothes and style. I’ve always been facinated by diffrent styles, whether it was mods, skaters, rockers, hiphopers whatever. I’ve always loved to watch it and analyse it. And I think it’s like that with creative people, musicans, artists, what ever. They have a need to create and my thing is clothes. And because I left my family to live alone at the age of fifteen, I really had to hustle to get money for things. So thats were the business thing started. I put those two things together and BOOM I got a business rolling.

In general, one associates streetwear with big cities but you’re from the Swedish north, Luleå, how does that show in your apparel?

I feel that it’s easier to do my own thing up here were the tempo is lower and the atmosphere is warmer. I don’t have to get caught up in all the hype wich I found is easier to do when living in a big city. I’ve tried to live in Stockholm and in London but I didn’t like it. I’m very proud of my heritage and background so I love to take influences from that in my design. And if you look at the design for the s/s-07 collection you’ll see exactly what I mean.

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¶ It doesn’t matter how much money you have, you cant buy style ¶

This tee is from the S/S -07 collection.

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eah, your heritage really shows in your design. Can you tell us more about your background. I don’t think many people knows about the small village called Svappavaara.

Svappavaara is a really small mine-village, where the whole village is depending on the mine. My father worked there, my grandfather worked there and even I worked there in the summers when I was younger. So it has made an impact on me. The same thing with what surrounded me there, like picking cloudberries and sell it to get cash and seeing the Sami peoples situation and the way they were living. But when I was living there I didn’t think so much about it, I was more in to sports and stuff. But now when I’m older I can see how it affected me.

¶ I don’t sell drugs, r guns to mak Where can we find your clothes?

Right now you can find it at Sole Appeal in Umeå, XIT in Kiruna, Caliroots in Stockholm and The Happy People shop in Luleå.

I’m still waiting to recive orders from a coupple of other shops so hopefully the list will be longer next time you ask me.

What will be the next thing from Happy People?

Well I’m working on some new designs right now and in a near future I will expand the line with shirts, jackets and pants. The plan is also to have Happy People represented in shops in all major citys in Europe and to get reprensentation in the States.

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rob or pack ke money Âś

Sarah is wearing the Ilolas Olbmot tee from the A/W -07 collection.

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THIS MIGHT BE AWKWARD

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The photography of Christian Brunnstrรถm

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Âś The highest and most beautiful things in life are not to be heard about, nor read about, nor seen but, if one will, are to be lived. Âś

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œ And if I am compelled to be involved, where is the manager—I have something to say about this. Is there no manager?

To whom shall I make my complaint? Âś

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Âś In heaven all the interesting people are missing. Âś

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