Swedish News:

Swedish beauty queen arrested. Christmas shopping: Swedish design online. Pepparkaksbollar - Ganache a la Suedois..? 

• Swedish beauty queen arrested for assault.
  Anna Anka, the former beauty queen and Swedish wife of US entertainer Paul Anka has been arrested for assaulting her husband, 29 years her senior. The pair clashed at their luxury home in California on November 28th. The 37-year-old former Miss Sweden runner-up became so angry while the couple argued that she launched a piece of ice at her husband's head. The ice struck home and left the 67-year-old one time teen idol needing hospital treatment for a head wound. When Anka returned to their home after receiving two staples in his head to close the wound he found Anna, whom he married in Italy in the summer of 2008, missing. Anka became worried and called the police. When the police arrived they considered the wounds sustained by the veteran entertainer to be sufficient to arrest Anna Anka for domestic battery when she eventually returned to the house. Paul Anka has not reported the assault to the police and the couple was keen to play down the clash. "We are doing fine. Anna has had a tough time with her ex-husband over a custody battle," he explained. "It was a silly little episode," Anna Anka said.

• Christmas shopping: Swedish design online.
  Some of it is sleek, and some of it is just plain weird. Some of it’s pretty, and some of it is just plain ugly…by design. Here’s a guide to some of the best of Swedish design online. Fuldesign www.fulshop.se. The name says it all. Fuldesign, which means “Ugly design”, is a Stockholm-based studio that claims to be inspired by “everything from German gay porn, Sci Fi and anxiety to old ladies and good music.” Check out their web shop for everything from raunchy embroidery to a pillow pistol. Also visit www.fuldesign.se for free patterns, stencils, naughty robot music and instructions on how to make your very own monster. Juniform (In Swedish only) www.juniform.se . Selected products from well-established and new Swedish designers. Here you’ll find everything from gender-neutral children’s clothes, vintage wooden clogs from the 1970s, the latest Odd Molly garments to jewelry, wool socks and pillowcases. Brands include Odd Molly, Swedish has-beens, Moonkids, Shampoodle, Färg och form, Trots, Lummen, GUPP, KADE, Acne jr, Viveka Zera and Arbeståhl Design. Moderna Museet. Like its analogue equivalent, Moderna Museet's online gift shop is a great place to pick up some unique presents sure to please art lovers and designophiles. Designtorget www.designtorget.se One-stop shopping for all of the Swedish design you could ask for. Signerat (In Swedish only) www.signerat.se . An excellent online store that provides an outlet for independent Swedish designers, similar to Brooklyn-based Etsy (www.etsy.com) in the US, which bills itself as an “online marketplace for buying & selling all things handmade”. (If you’re in the US, you’ll even find some Dalahästar lurking around on Etsy). Don’t forget to check out the gifts for the furry ones. Who doesn’t need a cashmere polo for their Chihuahua? Kuji-goji design Kuji-Goji. Japanese graphic design Masaaki Oyamada (www.masaakioyamada.com) has recently made Stockholm his home. Check out his t-shirts for the house-hunting expat (or Swede for that matter). It worked for him! Dizel&Sate. www.dizelsate.com . Street-smart stocking stuffers from graphic design duo Dizel&Sate. Check out their new 2009 t-shirt collection, a spin-off from their Life & Death in Architecture print collection, released earlier this year. Expect geometry, pills and Mickey Mouse allusions. Your weekend fashion shop (In Swedish only) www.ywfs.se . Swedish fashion at your fingertips. Brands include Bea Szenfeld, Burfitt, LiseLotte Westerlund, Pimpinette, Rodebjer, Carin Wester, Dagmar, Hope, Ida Sjöstedt and Wyred. T-post www.t-post.se Subscribe to a bi-monthly…t-shirt. Every six weeks, T-post commissions a new t-shirt featuring a bespoke design on the outside, and the latest news on the inside. Read all about it.

• Pepparkaksbollar.
  Ganache, or truffles, is perfect for Christmas. An elegant dessert that’s surprisingly easy to make. Here’s a Swedish version with a an extra Christmassy twist to it, as it includes cloves, ginger and cardamom. This recipe yields 20 rich truffles. Ingredients: 1/2 cup heavy cream, 2 Tablespoons butter, 150 g dark chocolate (break it up into smaller pieces) , 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, 0,5 teaspoon cardamom, 0,5 teaspoon ginger, 0,5 teaspoon cloves, 0,5 teaspoon cocoa. Bring the heavy cream to a boil, put in butter and chocolate pieces, and let it melt on low. When melted, stir in the spices. Let the batter cool until almost firm. Form small balls and sift the cocoa over the truffles. Let sit in fridge before serving.

• Maltese heartthrob sings home Swedish Idol prize.
  Sweden's Idol 2008 talent show came to a screeching climax on Friday night and left Kevin Borg, a young crooner from Malta who has only lived in Sweden for a year, clutching the champagne. Borg moved up to Arvidsjaur in the far north of Sweden only a year ago to be with his Swedish sweetheart. His short sojourn in Sweden was however enough for this young musical talent to polish up his Swedish, join the popular TV4 talent show and claim the applause of a packed Globe arena in Stockholm on Friday. Borg beat off the challenge of fellow 'northerner' 17-year-old Alice Svensson from Hedesunda, near Gävle. Svensson accepted her defeat with grace, aware that she had lost to the hot favorite. Borg won the deciding final against Svensson with his rendition of "With every bit of me", written by Andreas Carlsson of the jury together with Jörgen Elofsson. Borg also chose to sing "Living on a prayer" by Jon Bon Jovi and "You're the voice" by John Farnham in the final, while Svensson sang "Heavens on fire" by Kiss and "So what" by Pink. Borg has shown the massive TV audience that his voice could master a range of genres from gospel, 'schlager', rock and, as if to demonstrate his new found Swedish roots, Abba. Each test was passed with flying colors and Borg added to his burgeoning teen fan base as the final neared. Kevin Borg has previously twice competed in the national final of the Eurovision contest for his home country Malta but was recognized as a complete unknown in his adopted country of Sweden. On Saturday morning all that had changed for the 22-year-old after Sweden cast its vote with a resounding "douze points" for the Maltese contestant.

• Let’s Dance!
  Here in the U.S. they call it “Dancing with the Stars” but back in Sweden it’s called “Let’s Dance”. However you call it, the two TV-shows are based on the same concept: Celebrities (sports, film, TV and so on) are paired with professional ballroom dancers and compete each week by performing dances, which are given scores by a panel of judges. Viewers, too, can vote. In the next season’s “Let’s Dance”, the line-up looks like this: Magdalena Graaf, Carl Jan Granqvist, Laila Bagge, Elisabeth Höglund, Hasse Aro, Martina Haag, Lia Boysen, “Blondinbella”, Daniel Karlsson, and Niclas Wahlgren. “I really want to learn how to dance,” Wahlgren said in an interview. “The rest of my family all know how to, and it’s a really fun TV-show. My own dancing is more like stomping my foot a bit.” About participating in the show he said: “I’m crazy enough to do it.”

• Swedes seek new surnames in record number.
  More Swedes than ever before are applying for new surnames, with some looking for something new, while others hope to invoke a sense of old-fashioned nobility. So far this year, Sweden’s Patent and Registration Office (PRV) has received 7,183 applications from people looking for new last names. The agency reckons that final figures for the year will surpass last year’s total of 7,500, reports the TT news agency. “Many want to get rid of their ‘-son’ name, while others want to have a more Swedish sounding name,” said PRV’s Jan Ekengren. He added that nearly 20 percent of applicants apply to have completely new names registered with the agency. “Many take the opportunity when they get married, especially if both have a ‘-son’ name,” he said. Examples given by Ekengren of approved surnames with a new-age flair include Soldikt (‘Sun-verse’), Clintsol (‘Hill top sun’), and Skogshjärta (‘Heart of the forest’). Another popular trend for those seeking to cast off their common Swedish name is to seek a name echoing those of the old Swedish nobility, such as Silfwerflyckt, Stiernhoff, and Ridderton, all of which were approved by PRV in 2008. Others, however, see a name change as a way to help them blend in with the Swedish masses, giving up a name, which sticks out in favor of something less distinct. “Some who have foreign-sounding names change to something that sounds more Swedish,” explained Ekengren. “Some choose a compromise and change to Mohammedsson.”

• Skarsgård to the stars.
  Alexander Skarsgård, Stellan’s son (how he must hate to hear that!) has had a decent fall. He got rave reviews for his part as a marine in the HBO mini-series “Generation Kill” and went on to play a Nordic vampire in another HBO drama, called “Tru Blood”. And now the younger Skarsgård has laid his hands on a part in a star-studded movie, a remake of the French film “13 Tzameti”. Mickey Rourke, Ben Gazzara, Ray Liotta and Ray Winstone are also in it.