Melodifestivalen

Ever wanted to see Dolph Lundgren (he's the Swedish guy who played the big blond Russian in one of the Rocky movies) sing "A Little Less Conversation" while he chops ice and wood blocks in half with his bare hands? No? Well, the Swedes do, and now so do I!

It's all part of the annual magic that is the insanely popular Melodifestivalen. Melodifestivalen is the Swedish run-up to the Eurovision Song Contest. Each week you watch 8 performers sing some of the greatest and most horrendest pop songs ever and vote for your favorites. Then there's a finale in Stockholm at the Globe theater and the winner gets to be Sweden's official entry at Eurovision in the summer. The cheeze! The fashion! The Swedish pop! We have been watching on Saturday nights with the kids, who tell us whom to vote for. Julian always likes the blond ladies with big boobs and flashy clothes, like the lady from the Alcazar in the picture above. Ava actually picks songs she likes, for example this catchy number called Kom from a band called Timoteij (and yes, the girls in the band do all look like those old Timotei shampoo ad girls).

Bad baby

... or baby bad (shower gel for kids). Why did I never notice this was sort of funny? Oh, and it's organic baby bad.

Plopp

Yes, it's a candy bar called Plopp. And yes, I've tried it and it's slightly better than the name implies.

Just what every family needs

And it's only $10 at the pharmacy.

Swedish dance bands

Our friends Eli and Claudia sent us pictures of some Swedish dance bands from the 70's and I just had to share. The pictures are sooo good that the fact the bands have names like "Schytts" and "Simsalabim" is just icing on the cake. You can see the whole, sordid selection here. To any Swedes reading, please explain yourselves.