I'm excited to share with you and the world that I have released my first official music video!
The song is "Music", which was recorded over in Sweden and released on my Kriztina Åhs & Countryfied project, but the video itself was recorded in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. I wrote the song about the feeling, thrill and magic of enjoying - you guessed it! - music.
I hope you find it as enjoyable to watch and listen to as it was for me to sing it.
Today I have some thoughts about the difference between the American word "culture" and the Swedish word "kultur". They do not carry the same meaning at all.
Today's thoughts started as I read a Swedish news article about Max von Sydow. If you haven't heard of him: he was a Swedish actor, most famous for his role as Antonius Block in Ingmar Bergman's "The Seventh Seal" (one iconic scene is when Antonius plays chess with Death).
Try to stay on topic now Kriz! Okay, so, after I had read the article, I saw suggested ones appear and one of them had the Swedish word "kultur" as part of the headline. "Kultur" in Swedish would translate to "The Arts" in English. It has everything to do with anything that is creative - like music, dance, art, theater and the like. If you say "fin-kultur" (or "finkultur), it would encompass the higher forms of arts like opera, classical music, poetry, classical plays and paintings and art that are very expensive. "The Seventh Seal" would be considered "finkultur".
Now over to the English meaning of "culture". That can be described as things one particular group of people would do/say/listen to because it is part of their culture and heritage. Let me give you some examples: Americans often eat hamburgers as it is part of their culture. Swedes celebrate Midsummer because it is part of their culture.
I hope that clarified and explained the distinction between the two words.
This past Holiday Season was hectic. Or is that something that we decide for ourselves? Hmmm, that could very well be. That whatever we choose to do and feel and think reflects our daily life ... in other words: if one decides to put too many to-do's on oneself, stressful is going to be one's everyday living.
How many "musts" could we cut out of our hearts? What kind of change would it be in your life if you decided to think that the expectations of others oftentimes start in oneself? I think communication helps here. How many gifts do we need? Each person on your list? Maybe they and we don't need as much as we think we do ... talk to them this year before anyone starts any gift list (whether it is a mental note one or a written-down one), and remember, the Greatest Gift has already been given to us:
So, what is this new year going to bring? Much of it is up to us, the Human Kind ...
"My inner joy is not dependent upon any outer circumstance". Quote by Kriz Rogers. Copyright Kriz Rogers.
I am wishing Each and All A Very Happy And Prosperous New 2019!!!!!!!!
One is crazy cute and adorable - talking 'bout videos for goodness sakes! - and the other is a crazy kind of lonely captured in a song. The latter does offer a solution and a reflection on our own responsibility for our situations though (found in the last line of verse two. Lyrics provided).
Kriz Rogers wrote this song when going through a divorce. She performed it live with her band Countryfied at the Swedish Masters of Country Music in September of 2008.
Driving Me Crazy
Lyrics - Copyright Kriz Rogers
The ones I loved before gave me what I asked for
A bunch of lies and heartaches that made me walk the floor.
But, they were honest, told the truth 'bout what they did so I knew.
What a difference it was, not anything like you.
Driving me crazy
To the edge of the world.
My heart is not driven in a way it deserves.
Living by anger - praying for love.
Driving me crazy
to the edge of the world.
At times I touch the sky. Countless days I crawl on ground
so dirty it's like darkness there maybe I belong.
But I'm not stupid, I can see if I stay here I do me wrong.
There's no one who'll rescue me: not anyone but me.
As International Women's Day was this past Wednesday, I was thinking about one particular place that I was invited to perform at and the reason I was contacted. The lady in charge of the Women's Day Celebration events at a very prominent venue in Sundsvall, Sweden, contacted me becuase she had read about how I was bullied at school and of my journey to redemtion through music. So, this is where I played at:
