Text & Photo © M Lilja, JE Nilsson, CM Cordeiro 2014
Marriage as legal construct and social policies on cohabitation: a Singapore – Sweden perspective
In the highly globalised city of Singapore, strong conservative social traditions continue to prevail when it comes to cohabitation and partnership. Here, as an example of old meets new, East meets West, the ornate roof tops of Singapore’s oldest Taoist temple, the Yueh Hai Ching Temple meet the modern glass walls of skyscrapers in Philip Street in Singapore’s Central Business District.
Text & Photo © JE Nilsson, CM Cordeiro 2014
“Being married is so great, it’s so fantastic, it would be such an achievement to be married.”
That line came from a young woman who sat in a café that served French baguettes and kaffe latte to brunch not just two weeks ago, in Sweden. She grew up in Asia. She was highly qualified in academic credentials and currently has an ascending career in finance. But she’s in her late twenties and it was the general vibe from all back home in Asia, that it was about time she settled down and got married. Her parents were willing to engage a matchmaker to arrange a marriage if that was what it took to get her ‘settled down’ and feeling accomplished as a woman. Continue reading “Marriage as legal construct and social policies on cohabitation: a Singapore – Sweden perspective”
Orange almond cake, petite madeleine Escribà Barcelona
Spanish orange almond cake: a variation of the sémola bizcocho de almendras.
Text & Photo © CM Cordeiro 2014
It was the search for that perfect xocolata calenta in Barcelona 2011 on a weekday morning that found me wandering the streets of El Raval in the neighbourhood of Ciutat Vella, also known as Barrio Xinès or Barrio Chino, close to the quarters of Barri Gòtic, that landed me tasting the most wonderful variation of the Eurasian semolina almond cake, infused with orange.
Working on the batter of this cake, I can’t help but return to the words of the protagonist in Proust’s Swann’s Way, the first of seven volumes to À la recherche du temps perdu (published between 1913-1927), on when the petite madeleine, crumb soaked in tea, touched his lips: Continue reading “Orange almond cake, petite madeleine Escribà Barcelona”
Eve of the eve of Midsummer’s Eve
A view from the Swedish west coast, Land of the Midnight Sun.
Text & Photo © CM Cordeiro 2014
Eriksbergshallen in ultramarine
Eriksbergshallen, at Quality Hotel 11.
Text & Photo © JE Nilsson, CM Cordeiro 2014
Summer is here and I don’t think any form of soft or coercive persuasion would keep Swedes on office grounds unless absolutely necessary. My years working in executive education also taught me that holding organisational seminars outside of office grounds could prove more productive for project work. The change of environment provides a welcome break in everyday routine that encourages the workings of the creative. It was for this reason that I found myself standing in the lobby of Quality Hotel 11 at Eriksbergshallen this morning, looking to congregate with the rest of my colleagues whose main focus is research in the European context. Continue reading “Eriksbergshallen in ultramarine”
Swedish west coast
Summer, Swedish west coast.
Text & Photo © JE Nilsson, CM Cordeiro 2014
SNEE 2014 conference in Mölle, Sweden
Helsingborg, Sweden
Text & Photo © CM Cordeiro 2014
The Swedish Network for European Studies in Economics and Business (SNEE), held its 16th annual conference on European Integration at the Grand Hôtel in Mölle from 20th to 23rd May 2014. The focal point of discussion was the ongoing developments in the area of European integration, specifically issues related to policy influencing economic developments in the region. Continue reading “SNEE 2014 conference in Mölle, Sweden”
Mölle, Sweden
Scenic Mölle.
Text & Photo © CM Cordeiro 2014
I pondered the transportation mode from Gothenburg down south to Mölle.
“You could take a train, but it’s a little complicated to get there after you get off the train.” so I was warned.
Forty-five minutes by car backed with an excellent knowledge of the intricate network of roads (GPS will do too) from Helsingborg C train station is what it took to get to the once fishing village of Mölle, that today is nothing short of a Scandinavian riviera resort cum holiday-spa getaway.
The view of the harbour, is breathtaking.
Around since the Stone Age, the first mention of the place came from a Danish handwritten letter in 1491 now archived in Copenhagen, the author writing of a town named Myllæ. Since the 1500s, the town was a fishing village where in 1569, it consisted of just ten ‘fishing houses’. About a century later, the number increased to twenty-two and then in 1800s, there were sixty-six such fishing houses. Continue reading “Mölle, Sweden”
Swedish west coast | azure
Warm azure.
Text & Photo © JE Nilsson, CM Cordeiro 2014
It’s been clear blue skies and intense sunshine for some days now along the west coast of Sweden.
“Ah no! It’s not supposed to be like this now. It’s too early! You know, it’s like this now, then later in the summer, you know it’s going to be miserable. It should be bad weather all the way to Midsummer, then after that, you have good weather. Now that’s a good summer!” ~ A neighbour.
Louis Vuitton Murakami Multicolore Petit Noé blanc – the balance in a new paradigm of luxe and anime
Louis Vuitton Murakami Multicolore Petit Noé blanc. Datecode: CA1015.
Text & Photo © CM Cordeiro 2014
Of all collaborations Marc Jacobs had done in the past decade till 2013 for Louis Vuitton with Stephen Sprouse, Takashi Murakami , Richard Prince and Yayoi Kusama, the Murakami range remains one of my favourites in terms of the execution of precision chaos in art if there ever was such a thing.
Not particularly attracted by poparstic works per se, what draws me to the Murakami Vuitton range is the result of the unusual synergies between traditional handcrafted work grounded in rich European travel history with all its roundness of sensory experience, and the contrasting surreal ‘flatness’ of animations of a completely different era in pop culture, from Japan. If these two worlds can come together in any sense of classical physics and philosophy, then almost anything else can come to be of other areas of unlikely synergies. And the results are a certain finesse of execution in design that is not symbolically regressive Mad Max grunge that comes across in Sprouse-Vuitton collaborations or Gaudí organic progressive reminiscent that comes across in Kusama.
Continue reading “Louis Vuitton Murakami Multicolore Petit Noé blanc – the balance in a new paradigm of luxe and anime”