Tag Archives: Sweden

Shai Dahan’s Red Dala Horse Mural on Broome Street

Shai Dahan Red Dala Horse By Gail Worley
All Photos By Gail

It’s been months since we had a lovely, sunny weekend day in Manhattan where I wasn’t also otherwise occupied with a trade show or a museum visit, or some other plan that was going to keep me indoors all day. But this past weekend we enjoyed enough good outdoor weather to venture out on an Urban Art Safari, and that’s just what I did!

Shai Dahan Red Dala Horse By Gail Worley

As I turned onto Broome Street, walking west near the corner of Forsyth, I spotted this fantastic, Bright Red Horse which towers up five stories of a six story mixed-use building. A bit of Googling revealed that the artist, Shai Dahan (whose name is clearly visible at the top right corner of the mural) painted the horse inĀ October of 2019 as a gift to NYC, his former home. Dahan currently lives in Sweden.

Shai Dahan Red Dala Horse By Gail Worley

This particularĀ Red Horse is modeled after the Dala Horse of Sweden.

Shai Dahan Red Dala Horse By Gail Worley

You can read more about the artist and this fantastic Red Horse in a Q&A with Brooklyn Street Art located at This Link.

Video Clip of The Week: The Amazing, “Picture You”


For your listening and viewing pleasure on this fine Sunday morning, Sweden’s The Amazing present the video for “Picture You” — a visual accompaniment to their new album’s artwork that will develop over the course of three videos. “Picture You” was filmed in London, but is intended to be seen as a generic cityscape. The French New Wave inspired clip follows actress Tamsin Topolski as she wanders through a cold, modern landscape, filled with anonymous yet familiar faces.

Directed by London design firm Shilling & Shilling, the directors explain that, “The concept was to bring the album and single artwork to life over 9 minutes and getting the 2 parts of the song to work well together, and also being distinct from one another. [We wanted to capture] the idea of normal people being part of the narrative, while also having a protagonist that holds the whole thing together.”

The Amazing inhabits an aural landscape that’s all its own: a panoramic, constantly evolving spectacle marked by layers of intertwining guitars, richly textured keyboards and a rhythm section adept at skewed tempos and a tendency to veer off in unexpected directions. It would take a shelf full of thesauruses to describe the Swedish quintet’s music, but one word that keeps reoccurring is “psychedelic,” a characterization that Christoffer Gunrup, the band’s singer, songwriter and guitarist, dislikes. “I hate the word,” he says. “I have no relation to psychedelic music or prog rock. Reine (Fiske, one of the band’s three guitar players, formerly of Dungen) likes that prog stuff, and he’s very good with sounds, so he would be the one to blame for that.”

“Picture You” comes from The Amazing’s upcoming LP of the same name, due out on February 16th/17th, 2015 via Partisan Records. Enjoy!

The Amazing Band

Metallica Release Master of Puppets

On This Date, March 3rd in 1986: Metallica released its highly influential third album, Master of Puppets, considered by many in the metal community to be the best metal album of all time. This was the final Metallica album with original bassist Cliff Burton, who was killed when the group’s tour bus over-turned in southern Sweden while touring to promote the album.

Swedish Singer Loses Fight For His Right to Party

Booze

Story courtesy of The Local Dot SE via a tip from Tracy at Modern Urban Living:

A 21-year-old singer tried to weasel his way out of Sweden’s hefty tax on imported alcohol by claiming that partying and free-flowing booze were occupational requirements for rock ‘n roll stars. ā€œI also drink a great deal more than the average Swede. I’m a singer in a rock band and whisky is a part of it,ā€ the man explained to the county administrative court. Continue reading Swedish Singer Loses Fight For His Right to Party