Televized sans scrupule???

Will I do it? Would they reckon I’m a suitable person for their programme? Would I deliver the representation our community needs here in The Netherlands? What will be the consequences for my personal life?

I responded to a call for transsexual youth to feature in a Dutch TV-show, and I now almost finished a questionnaire they sent me in reply, which I’ll send them back as soon as it is done. The show in question here is about young people with all sorts of conditions, every episode there’s a couple of young people with each a different conditions in the spotlight. At least that’s what the format was past seasons. I don’t know if that’s the same for the next season, because I read in one part of the response call that one would be followed for three months and get an own video camera to capture certain things yourself. I’m guessing the format will change a little, but what matters most is self-representation!

I am really critical towards the representation of transsexual people in the media. So it’s not strange that I have questions about how such a tv-show wants to represent me, what they will show and what they won’t show, is essential to which degree the perception of viewers is influenced. The most important thing is that the people whom make this show don’t have their own fixed idea of how they want to represent a transsexual youth. And even if there is no pre-fixed idea about that, you do have to wonder if there are any prejudices which could influence how they edit the material. I’m very aware of prejudices in society and the general lack of klnowledge about transsexuality, that makes me critical on the issue of representation. The issue with critical self-aware people is that they are critical and thus make demands. There simply are certain demands and boundaries to what I want to discuss and show if I were chosen to get in that show. That is part of self-representation to be in power over you own representation, like Gwen Haworth chose to be with her documentary She’s a boy I knew, that makes her an example for me and hopefully for many other transsexual guys and girls out there. Of course I have to understand that a tv-show has a certain format, which sets limits to self-representation. There has to be a way to find consensus over how I like to see myself represented and the shape they want to put that in.

In recent years there have been a number representations of transsexual people on Ducth television, none were self-representations. They were mostly documentaries and news items, and certain were set in an entertaining context. This last category was as you can guess the most awful, in the mind of the people who made those shows they might thought they were representing them as regular folks, but that’s hardly the case when you make a show about somewhat peculiar things in the life of normal people. The news-items were quite okay, though the fact that these people were transsexual was of course defining for the individuals in question due to how these items were presented. There was also to a degree a level of pity that hung over those items, a representation which confirms one of the existing perception out there about transsexual people. The documentaries and documental articles in news magazines were overall the most interesting to watch and read. These were mostly respectable and although all of them only intigrated self-representation to a limited degree. The representation of transsexual youth was mostly in this last category, and although youth can be open about their situation the people who protect them from unfair exposure don’t know how to protect them because they are not the ones whom are transsexual. So these youth, most still in their teens, were probably despite honest preparation of those people whom interviewed them not yet fully capable to judge the impact of what was filmed and asked to answer. You might think that honesty and openness is the best thing when you’re involved with representations in the media. The fact is that non-transgendered people can sometimes be too curious, and they can ask questions which are improper and show things about you which are too personal. Take the case of genital status this might be thought very interesting to those whom are completely fine with there genitals. Genitals don’t represent the gender of pre-op transsexuals this creates directly a topic that conflicts with our identity and thus would strengthen the idea of a person not showing what he or she actually is, his or her genitals. Pointing it out makes it a defining factor in the persons representation, which I believe no transgendered person would favor. Issues like these which redefine the person’s actual identity to fit prejudices and reiterate discrimination are not the way to go for media representations of transsexual people.

I am already actively representing myself using modern media like thise blog and my a youtube channel, and I have done two interviews old-style, even have a picture included with both. No I’m not media shy, being on national televion is still something very different from getting over 8,000 hits on a youtube video. I do try to be as normal and as equally awkward as any other person putting a vlog on youtube, I have my peculiarities but my transsexuality isn’t one of them in these videos (if i’m woring there please notify me ). The topic of transsexuality does underlie the themes I discuss both in this blog and in my vlogs, there’s a lot of issues connected with transitioning, and as I am transitioning and want to give others an insight in what that means I write about these topics. I think I could easily write lenghty posts in which transition or transsexuality are not present, I already do that when I write about the music I love. It doesn’t define me, that’s one of the biggest things I want to show. Transition is part of my life currently, but one day will be in my past while other things still matter like friendships and my love for music, these are much more defining. The risk I take with being in a(n) educational TV-show is that transsexuality will seem to define me merely by the choice of addressing it on national TV, even if the TV-show does a good job in representing me as young woman with friends, family and a love for music. The qualification for me to be in that show is that I am a transsexual woman, transsexuality will be the theme so I cannot shy away from it. Honestly it is a risk I take with pride, because it puts me in the position to influence the perception about transsexual people. You could compare it with coming out about your transsexuality, that’s the issue, but only for you to enable yourself to be yourself among those people to whom you come out. With this tv-show I enable the Dutch society to come to terms with the fact that the transsexual community is part of this society and deserves their rights to be respected like anybody else’s rights.
Yes that’s quite challenge, but I never said I didn’t like challenges, did I?

The girl I first loved

I saw her thursday, at least I think that it was her, haven’t seen her in person for almost 8 years. She was my first real crush, and I never crushed that hard again ever since. Was I in love? I have my reservations on that, but it was damn close to being in love.
I saw her thursday at the introduction market for first year students of Nijmegen’s college, she studies there, for a few years already. I found out about that when I once googled her name, simply out of curiosity. So I guess she was there to lead a group of new students of her study. The peculiar thing is that I live in a building right next to this college campus, now also for three years, and I see college students every day.
I saw her there because I was behind one of the info stands on that introduction market, to be specific the one of the GLB-youth organistion in which I’m involved. She didn’t walk by our stand, so I only saw her from about 7 meters away. I still have my doubts, but my curiosity has led me earlier this year to stumble upon a picture of her, so that made recognizing her a lot easier. She has changed these past years, well not as much as me, but I wouldn’t have recognized her if I hadn’t seen that recent picture.
I just turned 18 when I met her and her friends at a camping ground here in the Netherlands where I was camping with my three friends of the field hockey team I was in. She was 17 I vaguely recall, and both our groups came to hang out, and later that month me and a friend joined her and some friends at a festival. I grew quite a liking for her, I don’t know how she felt about me, she never shared that. Not even when I wrote her a letter later that year how I cared for her. Writing that letter was one of the most difficult things in my life so far, and I was more or less ignored after that, so then I even called her just to know what my letter had done, and yes that was an awkward phonecall. So my huge crush and my feelings which could be called love weren’t answered. I don’t know anymore what she said exactly, nothing mean, she simply didn’t feel the same about me and there were some personal things I vaguely remember. Ah well no hard feelings, we kept in touch for a short while, but it dissapated, and I deleted her e-mail address eventually.
I cannot recall anymore how it felt, my feelings for her, but they were undeniably strong. When I saw her thursday none of those feelings were there, would been a bit weird if that had been the case. Too much has changed and too much time has passed, what’s only left is curiosity. My crush for her was sort of a momentum in my life, so I think it’s not that strange to be curious about how her life has developed after we lost touch. All I know is where she studies and what, and that she likes goa music and went to South-Africa for an intership abroad past college year. It would have been again an awkward chat if I had went up to her there at the introdution market, and had said: “hey I know you, we met eight years ago, I had a crush on you, but I changed a little since then.” Undeniably awkward would that have been, but I believe she’s an openminded and smart girl, she might even been quite interested about my life story of the past eight years.
It didn’t happen, and the chances I’ll ever see her again are slim, but it still is peculiar how closeby she’s been these past few years.
Writing this I simply cannot deny anymore how much of an impact she had on me eight years ago, it was a gift to have known her and it’s a mystery how we haven’t met in all those years we both studied in this city. Well maybe we did met, over two years ago a girl got in the bus, at the bus stop in front of the college, I was in coming from university and sat next to me. This girl was alternative, thinking back of it, it wouldn’t wonder me if she’d been into goa, and she made a sweet comment about my hair pins. Her own hair was wrapped in a head scarve, it could’ve been her but just as well another kind girl, it intruiges me still.

Sans scrupule: pest of both worlds

No that title isn’t misspelled, and no I don’t mean it either, whatever you think I mean with it. What I’ve heard people think of the fact that I’m a transsexual woman, is that it delivers me the best of both worlds. Worlds meaning the Man World (i.e. manhood) and the Woman World (i.e. womanhood), and as a modest person I cannot believe I hold the best of both, or whatever best for that matter, in me. Not only because I’m an individual living in this world, one world, but mainly because I detest that comment and that wouldn’t make me the best in pride, which some would tell you is a masculine attribute. Honestly, which I always try to be in these posts, I am in the unknown what’s the best of either worlds. There’s so many things which could be ascribed to either the Man World or the Woman Wolrd, but I have no message to that. Especially not when it comes from a guy who’s got the hots for transsexual women, luckily I haven’t experienced it yet, and I hope I never will. I don’t feel flattered by such a comment, I have no pride of my transsexual status that such a comment can carress my ego. Transsexuality doesn’t define my persona, and as I detest the man charade I held up all through my puberty after I came aware of my feelings a few years before puberty, I will not go cheering when someone tells me I have the best of the Man World in me. Yeah I could cheer for the fact that people recognize a Woman World in me, but hell, I don’t need such recognition when people simply cannot imagine me other than being the woman they see when they see me. They see the woman I am, not that I’m trying hard to make them think that I’m a woman. It is how the dichotomy works the mind and I do nothing else than being simply myself, although my body does make me struggle with being myself, but that’s no obstruction for those people to perceive me as whom I am. Only the knowledge of my past and transition can interfere with that image, but that hasn’t made people treat me as if I’m still using that man charade.
Yes I was raised by my parents and treated by the people around me in my youth as a boy, that gave me certain perceptions and a whole lot of experiences which I think are different than the ones my little sister got. I also got different perception and experiences from many boys in my class on elementary school, because from second grade on I got teased like no other kid in my class and had a really hard time dealing with that. I was an emotional kid, and seeked refuge in solitary and not sharing my feelings because I felt like no one understood me. This got even worse when I went on to secondary school, I didn’t become a tough boy. Sure I had my tough moments, but most of it was part of the charade.
Yes my mom didn’t whine as much about me getting home alone late after going out as she did with my sister. On the other hand my study abilities were doubted by my mom all through my secondary education. Struggling with myself and with how I was treated by a number of boys in my class from first to last year of secondary school, I didn’t end up to be the kid with top grades I could have been. This had damaged my study motivation and up to today on university where I came out and now can be myself I have to struggle to get myself past that last brink to graduate for my master degree. I lacked social skills and had only a few friends during my teen years, I was unable to sprawl any masculinity with the guys and for the girls I was a guy they didn’t understood. Well I didn’t understood myself either, though better than I understood the guys. A few of them gave me an insight in their mind by what they told me, which I don’t mind, but I couldn’t make myself understood to anyone, girl or guy. So as I listened to other kids I didn’t tell them a bit about myself as to how I experienced life and myself.
Now out in the open and being recognized as the person I am, I cannot claim to have the best of the Woman World either. I am without a doubt influenced by western culture and current perception of womanhood in the light to how I present myself, but this time it’s my free will without holding back any feelings of misplacement in how people perceive me. That’s something which enables my freedom to be myself and be seen as the woman I seemingly am. This freedom exists by the virtue of other people’s perception, as long as their perception is congruent with how I see myself everything will be fine. I do not own my womanhood, I do not claim the Woman World as mine. To be clear on this, I cannot even define it. I only have myself, my own feelings, my own identity, and the interaction with the people around me and what they show of themselves. As my personality resonates with those of people around me, theirs resonate with mine, and as they can like and dislike me and aspects of me so can I like and dislike apsects of their personalities. I think and I know from experience that it’s better and healthier to show yourself than to make up a self from what the world around you wants to expect from you.
All in all, I do not have the best of whatever gendered World in me, I am me and I have to deal with myself, with my fallacies, with my struggles. I do have positive attributes, one of which is trying to stay positive and share that with those around me, as I share pride of my sexual preference with my gay friends, as I share willpower for empowerment with other trangendered youth. That’s a good thing Sophies Wolrd has to offer, and there’s more, but I leave that to my friends and family to judge

Privatizing those faces of the past

Those faces of the past which I showed in comparison with faces of the present at that time (3 posts between January and April), those faces will have to leave this public stage. Of course this blog makes obvious that I’m a transsexual woman, but I have come to prefer to present myself as I am now. In that light those comparisons have no personal purpose and pictures of merely the present will suffice to show that hormone treatment does wonderful things for my looks.
It isn’t like I want to deny how I looked before, absolutely not, I treasure, for example, the four picture albums which hold the pictures of my past. I simply prefer to be in control on whom sees them and that’s not possible when I put certain pictures on here. So from now on you’ll simply have to take my word for it that I’m a transsexual woman .
The present is in my case better than the past, so I will keep updating my flickr account with new pictures, because I can be proud of those faces of the present!

Banden och artister från Sverige ~ part 2

Here goes for part 2 of my favorite and growing list of Swedish bands and artists I listen to. Want to know what was in part 1, read it here.

The first one is a band which like The Cardigans had a hit here in The Netherlands, and yes sometimes I am susceptible to hits. The fact is that this hit was a hit by an indie band, going by the name(s) of Peter Bjorn and John. Although one hit is never a guarantee for an album which is entirely fun to listen to, Peter Bjorn and John are clearly not a one hit wonder to me.

Peter Bjorn and John – young folks

This style of this next artist lies somewhere between The Tiny and El Perro Del Mar from part 1. This wonderous and mysterious music of Billie Lindahl, going by the title of Promise and the Monster, fit me like cinderella’s glass shoe. Although she combines her enchanting voice with acoustic guitar her music is every bit more than plain folk music. It is magical.
 
Promise and the Monster – sheets

As well as Peter Bjorn and John this next band is an all guy band, these have become more seldom in my music collection, meaning that this one is also a very special one with music that grabs me by my heart as well as it can trigger an upbeat feeling of joy. I’m talking about The Mary Onettes of course, these Swedish guys might sound like they’re stuck in the shoegaze and new-wave eighties, but that never troubled me, especially not when they make such amazing music as these guys do. The song from the clip I chose is actually my favorite one of theirs, one that really gets to me, as much as ‘mad world‘  by Tears for Fears can get to me, and that says a lot, a whole lot.

The Mary Onettes – lost (live perfomance)

With this next duo we find ourselves at the end of this second capture of my love for Swedish bands and artists. It is extraordinary end to this post, because this duo is an extraordinary one concerning the music they make. The sound of Wildbirds & Peacedrums isn’t one you’d call ordinary, it is a combination of female vocals with merely drums. And neither the vocals nor the drums are conventional as many of us are used to, to me that makes it tantelizing because I have a slight prefernce for unconventionlities. I say you’ll just have to listen to them, you’ll love it or you simply don’t get it that’s what I think. I love it.

Wildbirds & Peacedrums - doubt/hope (live performance)

Well that’s all for part 2, there’ll be a part 3, but this time I’m going to keep it a surprise which bands and artists will be in that one. I can tell that most of them were only dicovered recently by me, though that doesn’t mean they’re all fresh in the Swedish music scene.

Dix mois ~ optimiste

It’s difficult to tell if even monthly updates are too much for my uneventful transition. Uneventful means in my case that things are going well, little to complain about though even less to be euphoric about to be honest. Of course I have something to mention besides saying I’m doing well, which even people around me tell me.
Like, I had my check-up with my endo and therapist a week ago and the conclusion was simply that I’m doing well, not only in transition but also on other issues. One of those is studying, but I do find it hard to keep the feel of doing well on my study, I do believe I’m cathcing up regarding my motivation to study, but I’m surely not there yet.
There’s enough things on my agenda for the near future, but I do not need to be much troubled about transition. Well except from my breast development, mentioned in a previous post. I talked it over with the endo last week, and he told that it would stagger after a year or 18 months of hormone treatment. I’m now at 10 months, so I shouldn’t expect much more than I have now he said. I do have to consider that he is the same guy whom told me that I wouldn’t get that much hair back as now is the case. In that sense I do not believe that those things my endo tells are infallible transition laws. So I am not going to sit down and cry now, not only because I’m not much of a cry-girl, but mostly because I like to stay positive.
The fact that I still haven’t experienced more than two real emotional moments in ten month of RLE does wonder me. I hear and read about how other girls have moodswings and are much more emotional because of the hormones. My experience isn’t the contradictory to that, I do feel my emotions are able to surface more easily, but they simply have very little reason to surface. It’s true that I do  not feel comfortable with getting emotional, and that I won’t let myself go that easily. Such moments which I really have to hold them back hard have been almost absent, and there were only two moments I couldn’t hold them back. I must have mentioned it before in this blog, but a stable life like I have has its benefits regarding transition. I have no love life or screwed friendships, nor do I have people who bother me with their negative feelings about my transition. My study is the only dealbreaker on transition stability, but I have my ways of distancing myself from being continually bothered by feeling inable to study well. I do not say it’s good how I handle this, but I am finally trying to get things going again and I do not feel like getting myself on a negative track about it now. That simply wouldn’t help me a bit, would it? A solid life like I have now isn’t something which I can continue forever, I do want to fall in love, and I do want to finish my study which would force me to find employment. These things bring new endeavors in my life, new feelings, new people, new experiences, and probably lots of reasons to let my emotions run my business for more instances than I have experienced thus far.
Oh well I’m an optimist, and although I had my setbacks mainly with my study, I have enough reason to stay optimistic. I also love to share my optimism with the people around me, which can be difficult when things aren’t going that well for certain people around me.
Okay, I do have one new positive thing to mention on my body changes, my waist seems to have gotten more visible. That’s something I’m pleased about, sure hope it won’t get less when I start to do some work out or excercise at the sports centre of my university. For the first (and last) year I have gotten myself a subscription to the sports centre facilities, called the sport card. After four years of doing absolutely nothing that came close to excersizing, I will now hope to pick up a bit of sports to regain a healthy energy leven. Also not a bad idea, because of the weight gain since I started hormone therapy, although if I’d get back muscles again I wouldn’t lose much weight in the end, most important is to be in a healthy condition again.
Well I’m off to bed, long day tomorrow and the day after that is my modest party to celebrate my birthday of last friday. Hopefully a lot of fun, but I’ll probably be really tired on saturday.

26

It isn’t merely a number, it’s also the count of years I’ve been around on this not-from-me-forsaken planet. I already got four early congratulions today, among them those of (one of) my endocrinologist(s) and my charming therapist, makes me remember how I told her that I have to watch my posture for speech therapy. *sits up straight* We talked about that a little among many things. As I wrote in the previous post this 27th year of my life will bring change and academic achievement, as I intend to finish my study somewhere around April 2009. Which means I’ll enter the world of earning big bucks and paying taxes and having colleagues if all goes well, beside that I hope to continue and expand my pleasant social life.
Ow 26, it’s getting me closer to 30 than I feel I am, but who cares, I’ll simply make it a great year. My 26th year of life, which is past year, started good with a nasty bump though, but over the course made my life worth more and more to myself, I could say that it broke personal records, on social life, on self expression, on self esteem and general enjoyment of life. That means I have quite a job to do to set even better personal records this next year of my life. Breaking the personal record of my age is the simplest one, which I happily continue to do so every day.

Years to come

Suski did a post on what her life would be like in one and three years.
I remember my therapist also asked me to write something one time about how my life would be like in 5 years. It didn’t influence her diagnosis last year which gave me green light for the hormone treatment, knowing she read that piece at the start of the appointment she brought me the news, which was immediately after she’d read the piece. So I positively guess that she’d already had made up her mind. I do see the benifit about writing about one’s future, especially when it’s difficult to envision how that future will be.
Now almost ten months into hormone treatment, envisioning my future is hardly as difficult as it once was, so here goes:
Where will I be in 1 year:
- I will have graduated from university with a master degree in the pocket
- I will have found a nice job with pleasant and interesting colleagues
- I will have had a number of flirts and might even got to kiss one of the girls I flirted with
- I will have founded GenderQontrast as a official foundation, with fellow Dutch trans youth
- I will be on the front of GenderQontrast as its first president

Where will I be in 3 years:
- I will have had my SRS
- I probably got another job, which better suits me
- I have found love and am looking forward to live together with her
- I have moved to a bigger appartment, though still living on my own
- I turned GenderQontrast with my fellow GQ’ers into a significant and meaningful organisation for trans youth in a large part of the Netherlands

There’s some big things in there which might not sound easy to achieve, but hey there’s still some time to struggle with achieving them, and don’t say I can’t struggle well, because my past tells you the opposite
Want to read more about how I deal and have dealt with my future then read the next posts:
- The Schism
- Self-fulfillment
- At what point will I be done?
- A tale

Concerning certain inconfidence

Something has started to bother me lately, it concerns expectations, it concerns envy, it concerns quite some doubts. When I first started hormone treatment October last year I couln’t really make myself any expectations of what my breast development would be like. So a few months into hrt I thought I made a promising start, which did hand me expectations for the coming months. Now months later I read and see what other girls about my age have developed in less months of hrt. And to my perception they reached greater breast development than I did. This kind of depresses me, because I don’t look forward to getting breast implants, even if I wait taking them until after my srs, being sure that by then I got all the development possible. Now okay I have seen pictures on a certain website with girls who’re not beyond what I’m at and presumed to be equally as much months into hrt. Still one always think from oneself you’ll do better than those anonymous busts one some informative website. Also, I do know that my genes aren’t in favor of helping me with sufficient breast development, but of course I much rather believe my body does delivers me the benifit of a natural B-cup. The facts are clearly pointing in another direction, and I find it a bit difficult to deal with now that I will have to acknowledge that and cannot fool myself any longer.
It is not like I’m obsessed with my breasts, I simply want to be all natural with natural proportions. Before starting my RLE I feared wearing foundation and things like push-up pads daily. That outward fake was something I couldn’t see myself succumb to, I did though, not considering it fake but necessary makes it quite a nit easier. The perspective of getting breast implants makes me have to deal with a whole different kind of fakeness. I cannot deny that hormone treatment is unable to deliver me a b-cup, with which I’d be really happy. Of course the next 9 months could surprise me, but I sincerely doubt that. It’s not like I’m not pleased with having the breast development I had up til now, it just makes me a bit sad that I have to review my prospects. Like any woman my breasts are an important part of my body, even after only developing breasts for 9 months.
In my daily life you won’t notice my diminished confidence about my breasts. Though like any woman I want to function well, which means that I (being a lesbian woman) want to be intimate with another woman when there’s mutual feelings that foster getting intimate. I do expect my breasts to be normally sensitive, but being inconfident about my breasts will make me more hesitant to get intimate. This prospect would be noticable down the line of getting intimate, I’d even be less confident when flirting. I have to mention up til now I haven’t really flirted yet with other girls. So this could impact quite a bit on my future love life and all over happiness. I am not a pessimist, but as an optimist I do try to be realistic. I can hope for the hormone treatment to rescue me from getting implants as much as I want but in the end I have to acknowledge reality, which now doesn’t look all nice and shiny concerning my breast development. Oh well, I will deal with it, whatsoever, maybe I will even overcome my inconfidence on my own, without implants and be able to be intimate and find love being confident about my body.

Banden och artister från Sverige ~ part 1

In honor of all the Swedish bands and artists I listen to, a post specially dedicated to them, with a title in Swedish, a language I don’t speak, though a sweet friend of mine has already read ‘Pippi Långstrump’ out to me in Swedish. The words sung by those bands and artists aren’t Swedish either to be honest, that doesn’t make them less amazing musicians. I’ve already been listening to certain artists/bands from Sweden for a couple of years, but recently I got into another four Swedish artists/bands and thus I think it’s time for a post on them.

Long before Romeo+Juliette made The Cardigans‘ Lovefool  a hit I had been enchanted by that song, it wasn’t until the late nineties that I really dedicated myself to the Cardigans. Although their later music couldn’t charm me that much anymore I still credit The Cardigans for getting me in touch with my love for Swedish bands.

The Cardigans – lovefool (1996)

It wasn’t until 2006 when I was enchanted again, this time by Jenny Wilson, that time I was very fond of discovering bands on myspace, as happened with Jenny and also her former band First Floor Power. Other Swedish artists would follow in those footsteps so to say.

Jenny Wilson – let my shoes lead me forward (2006)

Soon after I added Jenny Wilson to my favorite Swedish artists a band called The Tiny caught me with their amazing music and the beautiful voice of singer Ellekari Larsson. More specifically the song Dirty Frames convinced me that I should not and could not shy away from them. It was love at first listen.

The Tiny – dirty frames (2006)

Although her artist name wouldn’t make you think of a Swedish artist, El Perro Del Mar certainly fits in with those other Swedish artists. She did bring a jazzy tinge into the Swedish sound I came to know by those three mentioned above.

El Perro Del Mar – party (2006)

Sofia Coppola has a good taste, I say, she exhibited that when she put together the soundtrack to Marie Antoinette. The Swedish discovery that movie surprised me with was none other than The Radio Dept., a band which had been making its wonderful music for a number of years before I first heard of them. I’m really thankful to Sofia, also for making that movie by the way, that she brought The Radio Dept.’s shoegazy music to my ears.

The Radio Dept. – pulling our weight (2003)

Of a quite different order is Envelopes, no sweet-voiced singer there, with their playful catchy punky somewhat chaotic songs about unordinary things brought upon me a different sound from Sweden. Especially their debut album Demon does it for me, on theit sophomore album Here comes the wind  tehy lost their playfulness, which I think is a pity. I might give Envelopes a chance to stick with me, in the end they have made onne great album, and I’m happy I discovered them.

Envelopes – sister in love (2005)

In Banden och artister från Sverige ~ part 2 I’ll tell you a little on and show you a favorite video of Peter Bjorn and John, Promise and the Monster, The Mary Onettes and Wildbirds & Peacedrums.
And ready yourself for part 3