Showing posts with label Oslo. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Oslo. Show all posts

Saturday, July 22, 2017

#22juli - Trying hard not to think too much about today being the 6th Anniversary of the #Utøya Massacre and the #Oslo bombing. But still... 😢 #Norway #Norge #mittlilleland

#22juli - Trying hard not to think too much about today being the 6th Anniversary of the Massacre and the bombing. But still... 😢 
🇳🇴 #Norway #Norge


The message to reporters in the outside world: Du behöver komma till Utöya. Det är döda barn överallt.” Den meningen glömmer jag aldrig. 😢
"You need to come to Utöya. There are dead children everywhere." I never forget that sentence.)
- SVT's Carina Bergfeldt last year, on the Fifth Anniversary





On July 22nd, 2011, even before the TV news cameras and helicopters of the world arrived, there was already an idea in Stockholm at Aftonbladet of how terrible it truly was. 
And they printed it. And I copied it because it was one of the few things I could share with friends about how bad everything was, when rumors were flying abut how many people might've been behind the twin attacks.
Six years later, the words linger in my mind:

”Ring inte ön"”

En varningstweet spreds om att låta bli att ringa de som gömde sig på Utøya, eftersom gärningsmannen fortsatte skjuta under lång tid.
"RING INTE FOLK PÅ UTØYA. De gömmer sig för gärningsmannen. Kopiera statusen! (Ambulansen kommer inte fram ertersom det fortfarande är skottlossning)."

Do not call the island on your mobile as fake cop re-loading gun in search of children to shoot, is listening for rings from phones

(Ambulances won't arrive if shooting is happening.)

from http://www.aftonbladet.se/nyheter/article13364079.ab









The Roar Hagen drawing in Verdens Gang (VG) that hit Jens Stoltenberg so hard...









This film is honest and heartbreaking in so many ways that few films you've ever seen in your life can be, because you know as you watch it and get a sense of what daily life was like at this idyllic Norwegian island camp during the summer, that so many of the very bright and politically-ambitious teenagers and twenty-somethings you will see here, smiling and laughing, never got off the island alive.
This film proves a level of understanding that simply reading endless news stories and analyses can't hope to provide.


"Terror Island" Documentary about the attacks on Oslo and Utoya 22/7 (eng sub) from Tommy Gulliksen on Vimeo.

"Terror Island" - Documentary about the attacks on Oslo and Utoya 22/7 (English subtitles) https://vimeo.com/27616588


----






















Sissel Kyrkjebø - Til ungdommen (Live Minnesceremoni Oslo 2011)





Bjørn Eidsvåg - Eg ser (Live Minnesceremoni Oslo 2011)



Wow!


Karpe Diem m/ Kork - "Tusen Tegninger" fra Nasjonal minneseremoni 22.07.2011



I wrote many contemporaneous blog posts on the horrors of the #Utøya Massacre and the #Oslo bombing, as well as the subsequent nationally-televised memorial ceremonies one month later and in the years since. 
Please check the blog's archives for those posts, being sure to use the search terms Utøya, Oslo and minneseremoni

Dave 

Wednesday, July 31, 2013

"Which European country has the most attractive citizens?" Sweden won in a landslide with almost four times as many votes as second-place France, with Spain third and Norway fourth. Yes, seeing is believing!; Norwegian.com's non-stop flights from Fort Lauderdale to Oslo start in 4 months! :)



Boredpanda.com poll of Europeans asked, "Which European country has the most attractive citizens?"

As the above map on the tweet above shows, Sweden won in a landslide, with almost four times as many votes as second-place France, with Spain third and Norway fourth. 

Yes, seeing is believing!

But trust me, Norway is a very, very competitive fourth!
Even the armed female Customs officers at Oslo Airport Gardermoen are very, very attractive, which at 6:45 a.m., in the middle of January, after a LONG overnight flight from Newark, was not something I was expecting.
But adapt I did!

I really like the Oslo Airport, too, since it's very clean and tidy, and if you didn't know any better, you would think it opened last year.

Remember, too, as I've written about here previously, four months from now, low-fare carrier Norwegian Airlines starts non-stop flights from Fort Lauderdale to Oslo on November 30th.
With flights to Stockholm and Copenhagen days later.
No more need for pointless flights first to Newark, Chicago, Detroit or Dulles just to fly to Scandinavia.

APRIL 20, 2013
Scandinavian Delight! Starting November 30th, fly nonstop cheaply between Ft Lauderdale and Oslo or Copenhagen on Norwegian.com, and starting December 1st, fly from FLL to Stockholm Arlanda; @Oslo, @norway, @stockholm, @sweden, @copenhagen, @denmark

APRIL 22, 2013
Tourism game-changer for South Florida travelers & Fort Lauderdale-area businesses -but only if they're smart and start planning now. Ruminations on the upcoming Norwegian.com flights b/w Ft. Lauderdale and Oslo, Stockholm & Copenhagen, and the need for Broward's hospitality industry to take full-advantage of the opportunity; @Oslo, @norway, @stockholm, @sweden, @copenhagen, @denmark




Monday, April 22, 2013

Tourism game-changer for South Florida travelers & Fort Lauderdale-area businesses -but only if they're smart and start planning now. Ruminations on the upcoming Norwegian.com flights b/w Ft. Lauderdale and Oslo, Stockholm & Copenhagen, and the need for Broward's hospitality industry to take full-advantage of the opportunity; @Oslo, @norway, @stockholm, @sweden, @copenhagen, @denmark



Above, the State of Florida's classic 1970's national TV tourism ad that I've posted on the blog many times before. This spot ad was hugely-popular and successful, especially in the Midwest and East Coast, and was by far THE best tourism TV ad the state has ever produced. To this day, it still makes people smile when they see it or hear that catchy jingle, "When You Need It Bad We've Got It Good."

But in a much-more competitive travel marketplace than existed over thirty years ago, with so many disparate consumer markets, and different ways of reaching out to  prospective travelers, it seems to me that we need to see the state come up with something new that's just as compelling as this was. http://www.youtube.com/embed/OxB0kjqO6SI

Today I wanted to follow-up with some specificity on my blog post of this past Saturday, April 20th, which had some great news that some of you readers of the blog might want to take full-advantage of in the near-future -just like me- regarding a game-changing marketing move 

A move that will simultaneously make travel to a dynamic part of the world more convenient and cheaper, while also offering local Broward County-area hotels, restaurants and hospitality-related businesses an entrée to an affluent English-speaking tourism market -esp. families- that they have barely even begun to scratch: Scandinavia
Scandinavian Delight! Starting November 30th, fly nonstop between Ft Lauderdale and Oslo on Norwegian.com for as low as $238, or fly from FLL to Stockholm Arlanda for only $269, plus taxes and luggage charges; @Oslo, @norway, @stockholm, @sweden

A comparable round-trip flight on SAS to Oslo or Stockholm, even in Economy and made weeks in advance, is well over $1,000, as I know from experience in January.
Compare that to what Norwegian.com will offer starting in late November, with a direct flight to Oslo from FLL.

And coming back this way, with these flights, Broward is now much-cheaper airfare-wise, than flying from Stockholm or Oslo to The Maldives, a very popular vacation spot for Swedish families that's heavily-promoted, along with, of course, Thailand.
The latter is a holiday travel location that many Swedish families have been to so many times before that at least some of their kids are actually blah towards going there again. (Really.)

And since I neglected to mention it in Saturday's post, or so far today, you should know that Norwegian.com is the fastest-growing airline in Europe and has already placed orders for 200 new airplanes.

More at:
Norwegian airline prepares for global expansion
By Jorn Madslien, Business reporter, BBC News
1 April 2013 Last updated at 20:24 ET

Here are two photos from my blog of some travel-related advertising I snapped while I in Stockholm in January, and trust me, these display ads are everywhere you look. 
You literally can not escape them.
And that's in part because they work so well.
Especially when it's 17 degrees Fahrenheit and sundown is at 3:45 p.m.


"SOLREA - SVERIGES BÄSTA RESESÖK"
The colder and snowier it got in Stockholm, the more this simple ad seemed like genius. Sometimes, you don't have to reinvent the advertising wheel. When you're a travel agency and it's cold and snowing, make your target audience think of summers and traveling to an inviting warm beach. Above, one of the many Sistaminuten.se display ads I saw on the side of pay phones throughout Stockholm. This one was located on Ringvägen, across the street from the Åhléns Dept. store (with the Hemköp grocery store in the basement that I visited frequently) west of busy Götgatan and the Skanstull T-bana, the southern commercial heart of trendy and fun Södermalm. January 11, 2013 photo by South Beach Hoosier.© 2013 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved.
*There was recently a controversy with this ad campaign that I will be blogging about quite soon.  


Pictured: A Mom and her two kids sitting on the beach staring out at the waves. Only two blocks from the B&B I stayed at in the Södermalm area of Stockholm on my recent trip, the #1 B&B in the city, also located on Ringvägen were two other display ads promoting travel. The one in the distance is for SAS, which I flew on to Stockholm, and the one in the foreground, on a public telephone booth, is the "Holiday is where the Heart is" ad campaign for VING which started the week before Christmas. January 12, 2013 photo by South Beach Hoosier.© 2013 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved. 
Here's VING's very-popular "Holiday is where the heart is" TV spot: http://www.dagensmedia.se/webbtv/reklamfilm/article3607242.ece
Not surprisingly, this ad was in heavy rotation during morning TV news shows, so much so that I started hearing this jingle in my head by my 3rd day in Stockholm.

Here's more of VING's smart and attractive display ads: http://www.dagensmedia.se/taggar/?tag=Ving

As a friend who's a travel professional in Sweden explained to me, since I didn't know myself, flights from Oslo or Stockholm to The Maldives or to FLL are roughly the same time-wise.
But if you compare the costs of airfare using Norwegian.comNOW flying to FLL from Scandinavia is a ridiculous bargain, by hundreds and hundreds of dollars, and is a bargain that is multiplied by each person who flies here.

After being over there and getting a small sense of how things are done, my own opinion is that the Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention and Visitors Bureau (CVB) needs to really increase their advertising and marketing dollars in Scandinavia and start working on some compelling co-op advertising with Norwegian.com that they can start running this Fall, before the twice-weekly flights start.  http://www.sunny.org/

It seems to me that we need to do this to make sure that the airline's strategy (gamble) works to everyone's satisfaction, and then at some point, they can increase the number of flights or days they fly between FLL and Oslo, whose still-new-looking airport is, in a word, sweet.

Since HB's beach is so woefully unattractive and poorly-maintained, the local postcards that I gave to some business people I met -and the new friends that I made- in Stockholm were entirely of Hollywood Beach and The Broadwalk.

Trust me, people I spoke to there in all sort sof places around Stockholm were very intrigued by what I told them about the area, esp. after hearing them relate some of the daily hassles they deal with when they go to Thailand and other tropical places.
They're looking for new places to visit, so why not our part of the world?

Savvy and enterprising individuals, companies and firms from South Florida to Sweden can now finally reach the affluent, well-informed and influential decision-makers in South Florida and beyond who regularly read Hallandale Beach Blog and its Twitter feed for the facts, nuanced insight and original analysis they can't get elsewhere, and do so via VERY REASONABLE advertising on the blog, at prices starting at just $85 a month. 
Contact me today for more details at hallandalebeachblog@gmail.com

Saturday, April 20, 2013

Scandinavian Delight! Starting November 30th, fly nonstop cheaply between Ft Lauderdale and Oslo or Copenhagen on Norwegian.com, and starting December 1st, fly from FLL to Stockholm Arlanda; @Oslo, @norway, @stockholm, @sweden, @copenhagen, @denmark

Above, in the foreground, a Norwegian.com plane alongside one from SAS and Thai Airways on the tarmac at Stockholm Arlanda Airport, around 12:39 p.m. (I told you it was overcast most of my trip!This particular plane has famed Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus a.k.a. Carl von Linné, featured on its tail. His face also appears on the 100 Swedish krona note, the smallest bill with a security foil strip. As I have blogged about before here, he's scheduled to be replaced on that bill by gorgeous Greta Garbo's face. Ah, Garbo! January 10, 2012 photo by South Beach Hoosier. (c) 2012 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved
Meant to post something about this valuable bit of great news a few months ago when I first got the news from someone in-the-know, but it's still worth mentioning all these weeks later now that it was officially made public on Tuesday.
And it's a real game-changer, too.

Starting November 30th, you can fly nonstop between Ft. Lauderdale/Hollywood and Oslo on Norwegian twice a week starting at $238 each way, plus taxes and luggage charges.
Norwegian's departures from Ft. Lauderdale/Hollywood will be on Mondays and Fridays at 9:30 p.m, arriving in Oslo at 12:35 p.m.the following day. 
Departures from Oslo are on Tuesdays and Wednesdays at 3:10 p.m., arriving at Ft. Lauderdale at 7:30 p.m. Eastern the same day.

If you're like me, you'll be able to use Norwegian.com as a cost-saving head start on a flight to Sweden and Stockholm -WITHOUT having to waste your valuable time by flying to O'Hare or Newark first, and then hanging around the airport all afternoon waiting for that night flight out of Newark on SAS or United
Instead, simply go to FLL and get on your plane and you're on your way.

Introductory fares to Stockholm start at only $269 each way, plus taxes and luggage fees.
Yes, you read that right, $269!
http://www.norwegian.com/us/flight/tips/?D_City=FLL&DestinationGroup=12&SplitDatesInto=3&UseDates=True&D_Day=01&D_Month=201311&D_Day_End=31&D_Month_End=201401&CurrencyCode=USD&IncludeTransit=False

 Copenhagen and Stockholm . The firstCopenhagen flight begins Nov. 29, followed by Stockholm on Dec. 1. Both routes will run four days a week. 

Oslo Airport's press release of April 16, 2013 about the new flights:
http://www.osl.no/en/osl/aboutus/_press/_newsarchive?NOW_YOU_CAN_FLY_DIRECTLY_TO_FLORIDA&id=181-156129

Ft. Lauderdale/Hollywood International Airport:
http://www.broward.org/airport/Pages/Default.aspx 

Sunday, July 22, 2012

Day-long Memorial ceremonies and concert for victims of Oslo and Utöya were dignified and respectful, sweet and beautifully-produced by NRK-TV, under overcast skies that produced no rain drops but some obvious tear drops; Bruce Springsteen and Little Steven surprise crowd with appearance and performance of "We Shall Overcome"; #Oslo, #Utöya, #Norge




Concert opened with Tine Thing Helseth on trumpet playing Mitt lille land

The day-long Memorial ceremonies and concert for victims of Oslo and Utöya were dignified and respectful, sweet and beautifully-produced by NRK-TV, which I watched via SVT Play, and came under overcast skies that produced no rain drops, but some obvious tear drops at times.

Bruce Springsteen and Little Steven surprised the crowd outside Oslo City Hall with an appearance and sang "We Shall Overcome" in the last third of 90-minute concert that started off just right and never had a false note.

More on this on later...

Saturday, July 21, 2012

SVT Play offers LIVE online coverage of Sunday's one-year Memorial ceremony for victims of Oslo and Utöya attacks, at 3 a.m. Eastern U.S./Canada and 8 a.m. BST; Memorial concert from Oslo's Town Hall, also via SVT Play, will be 2:00-3:30 p.m. Eastern U.S./Canada and 7:00-8:30 p.m. BST; #Oslo, #Utöya, #Norge ♥




Sissel Kyrkjebø - Til ungdommen (To Youth) - LIVE, National Day of Remembrance for Oslo & Utøya; Minnesceremoni, Spektrum, Oslo, Norway, August 21, 2011, http://youtu.be/gKZa6hNFouw


Sissel followed Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg's heartfelt speech with this great performamce of "To Youth," which concluded the afternoon's memorial program that was full of heartache and tears.
My August 23, 2011 blog post on her that day was titled simply, Amazing Sissel leaves them proud! Sissel Kyrkjebø - Til ungdommen, National Day of Remembrance for Oslo & Utøya; Minnesceremoni
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2011/08/amazing-sissel-leaves-them-proud-sissel.html 
It was one of several posts I wrote about that very moving ceremony that I watched online LIVE as it happened.

SVT Play offers LIVE online coverage of Sunday's Memorial ceremony for victims of the Oslo and Utöya attacks via NRK-TV at 3 a.m. Eastern U.S./Canada and 8 a.m. BST at:
http://www.svtplay.se/live/193656/minnesdag-for-offren-i-oslo-och-utoya


The Memorial concert from Oslo's Town Hall, hosted by Haddy N'jie, who ably hosted last August's memorial from the Oslo Spektrum, will also be shown via SVT Play from 2:00-3:30 p.n. Eastern U.S./Canada and 7:00-8:30 p.m. BST at:
http://www.svtplay.se/live/193696/minneskonsert-for-offren-i-oslo-och-utoya


Photos of the 77:
http://nrk.no/minnetavle/#13429138007771&height=1690&id=iframe970px


NRK-TV's 22/7 webpage of graphics and facts:
http://nrk.no/227/fakta/kart/



http://227minnekart.nrk.no/





Ett år sedan terrordåden på Utöya... One year since the 22/7 terror attacks in Oslo and Utöya that left 77 murdered and massacred, there's still so much pain amd anger that won't go away...



The five-judge panel that presided over the ten-week trial of Anders Behring Breivik is expected to announce their verdict one month from this week

http://www.svt.se/nyheter/varlden/norge-minns-terrordaden


http://www.tv4.se/nyheter/artiklar/ett-ar-sedan-terrordaden-pa-utoya-detta-har-hant-500ad34104bf726d6300002d

Friday, December 23, 2011

Update on singer Chris Medina -Interviewed on TV4's Nyhetsmorgon on performing at funeral for Utøya massacre victim who loved his song, his new album, and life since American Idol made him well-known; a guy you clearly have to root for!

S%C3%A5ngaren%20Chris%20Medina%20om%20sin%20musik

TV4's Nyhetsmorgon, Abbey Road LIVE -Chris Medina talks about his music
with co-hosts Jenny Östergren and Peter Lindgren. December 14, 2011.


Chris%20Medina%20om%20sin%20medverkan%20i%20amerikanska%20Idol

TV4's Nyhetsmorgon, Abbey Road LIVE -Chris Medina talks with co-hosts Jenny Östergren and Peter Lindgren about his life since American Idol and the months since his successful visits to Scandinavia this past summer. December 14, 2011.

My last blog post about Chris Medina was on July 16th of this year -less than a week before the bombing in Oslo and the massacre on Utøya Island carried out by Anders Behring Breivik- when he performed LIVE on VG Lista Topp 20 at Rådhusplassen, (City Hall) Oslo.


My post then about his American Idol performances and his successful trip to Sweden and Norway was called, A talented & worthy American takes Scandinavia by storm: up-close with Chris Medina - One Day In Stockholm (What Are Words)


As I mentioned at the time, and for reasons I explained, I'm NOT an American Idol viewer, but you don't need to be Quincy Jones to see that Chris Medina CLEARLY has a unique voice and talent.
It's hard not to root for him to have nothing but success.


As I said back in July, the more I see of singer Chris Medina the more I am impressed, and the more he reveals himself as one very-grounded individual in a very cynical world.
And with this interview and these performances -in English- from December 14th on Sweden's most-popular TV morning program, Channel 4's Nyhetsmorgon, he proves that all over again.  


In the TV interview, Medina also discusses his feelings about being asked to perform at the funeral of 18-year old Monica Iselin Didriksen, one of the 77 Norwegians murdered at Utøya on July 22nd, whose very last conversation with her parents -on her cell phone, while taking the ferry to the island- was about her intense feelings for his song, the popularity of which had led him to be performing in Oslo just a few weeks earlier. 


Chris%20Medina%20framf%C3%B6r%20One%20more%20time

TV4's Nyhetsmorgon, Abbey Road LIVE -Chris Medina sings One More Time. December 14, 2011.



Chris%20Medina%20framf%C3%B6r%20One%20More%20Time

TV4's Nyhetsmorgon, Abbey Road LIVE -Chris Medina sings What Are Words. December 14, 2011.


A few days after his calm and earnest appearance on Abbey Road, Aftonbladet columnist Ronnie Sandahl pondered what it must be like to be Chris Medina now,
and suddenly go overnight from unknown singer working hard to become a success in the industry on his own terms, to becoming a beloved American Idol contestant and popular singing artist whose songs are famously sung back to him with gusto at performances.
But inevitably, he knows that at nearly every performance he gives, the question will arise about his  fiancée, Juliana Ramos.
Medina talks forthrightly about that very issue in the second video above.

 Aftonbladet 
Chris får berätta samma berättelse tusen gånger 
av Ronnie Sandahl
2011-12-19

För vilken gång i ordningen står han där med samma milda sorgsna leende, samma fruktansvärda berättelse?Femhundrade? Tusende?
Det är ännu en dag i nöjesfabriken. Den amerikanske sångaren Chris Medina försöker variera sina intervjusvar,fastän frågorna nästan alltid är samma


As you know from my earlier blog post, for weeks earlier this year, What Are Words was the number-one song on the best-seller list in both Norway and Sweden.




UniversalMusicSweden video: Chris Medina - One Day In Stockholm (What Are Words). Chris appears on Rix FM in Stockholm. 
Yes, they DO have 'Morning Zoo' radio formats in Sweden. http://youtu.be/eNjSIKIBE1U 

Link

As I wrote back in July, I received the behind-the-scenes Chris Medina video above within about ten minutes of it being posted to YouTube by Universal Music Sweden, and thus was one of the first persons to see it.
That's the kind of video I want to see more of! 

Link


ABC News Good Morning America
Robin Roberts with Chris Medina.



NRK-TV video: Chris Medina LIVE on VG Lista Topp 20, Rådhusplassen, (City Hall) Oslo, Norway. June 2011
http://youtu.be/ap6oY2cN11E

http://www.youtube.com/OfficialChrisMedina

http://www.youtube.com/user/ChrismedinaVEVO

http://www.facebook.com/OfficialChrisMedina

http://www.youtube.com/user/UniversalMusicSweden