Sara Culler

Outside are fireworks - They've been going on for weeks but I guess they have been increasing the closer we get to 2008. I don't like New Years Eve... Too chaotic... But anyway - Here's to 2008.

2007 was the worst year and the best year at the same time.

The random best things of 2007:

1. David proposing to me - Is on the top of all the best things so random comes below.

• USA - Meeting my fathers side of the family for the first time in 10-13 years! Oh sweet reunion - I love you guys!
• Scott Dixon (and Richard Garcia over the phone from SXSW) finally meeting again!
• USA - Playing at woxy.com at SXSW and opening for Oppenheimer in New Haven.
• Meeting Rocky (you are an angel) of Oppenheimer with whom I've been MySpace messaging and emailing with for ages! Both Shaun and Rocky are the greatest people out there amongst bands. Yes, Gerry You are great too ;o)
• Matt and Mike @ woxy.com for being ever so supportive :o)
• Singing on an Oppenheimer recording.
• Meeting Dan in New York.
• Mine you have saved me so many times.
• Bikram Yoga Malmö finally got a permanent home!
• Per Nordborg(?), Peter Broch, Daniel Jansson, Anders Weberg for support and words.
• Mom - Lill Culler for financing the cover for "Miss Takes - Light The Night!" and for helping me stand up when I barely could breath...
• Dad - George Culler for presenting me to China - Echo - Thank you too!
• Magnus Josefsson, Anders Mortensen, Steve Glenn and Niklas Nelldal - You give the word "friend" a face.
• Dolce Sicilia - Now that's Ice Cream!
• Ben of Radical Face - I told you once, Ben - Your CD is one of the best!
• Miss Takes - Light The Night!
• Jeremy of Fingertips Music.com
• The Bird and The Bee!
• Jill Buxrud - You've been gone for more than a decade but now, thanks to facebook, you're back!
• Restaurant Asien - The best Vietnamese food.
• Amanda @ the yoga studio for being this lovely supporting soul - Thanks for the organic food!
• Whole Foods.
• All the great people on MySpace + my blog and now also facebook that have endorsed and supported.
• Agneta Niemi för våra samtal om amöbor.
• My family here in Sweden.

The random worst things of 2007:

• The non-faces and devils playmates - You've kept me up 24/7 certain periods this year (and almost five more years but 2007 was enough). You will NEVER know how much you've hurt me with the lies and everything. I don't know if you know that I think of it EVERY day. Demons out and be gone. I wish it were that easy...
• Not getting anymore hours at my job.
• Cutting my left hand, index finger knuckle in a meet cutting machine taking a month to heel after the crappy handling by docs and nurses...
• The summer of 2007 - Which summer?
• The flue in NY.

Cheers and hugs,
Sara

I'm taking a break from adding vocals on David's tracks for his free download EP. It feels strange working on recordings again. I haven't done that since I recorded vocals for Oppenheimer. Speaking of which I can't wait for their new album!!!

It's strange how ones passions suddenly can get tossed around. After certain incidents and peoples actions I have really come to question my existence and also if I'm at all supposed to keep on struggling with music here in Sweden. Most of the business response I've gotten has come from abroad and the feeling I have about the who's-hot-and-who's-not way of living here in Sweden is as you all know not approved by myself... Belonging to the click, the group who keeps each other's backs - The different awards that are so typical for this time of year. Swedish nominees for - Level one - The same relations within the "underground band level" get nominated. Level two - The same relations within the "mainstream level" get nominated. No names but look at the different lists and you'll get the picture...

Today is Lucia. David woke me up with candles, saffron rolls that we baked yesterday evening whilst watching Heroes and a cup of tea. It's gray outside. It's like Narnia's 'The Lion The Witch And The Wardrobe' minus the snow. Here some wicked witch or wizard, probably person, has cast a spell on the southern part of Sweden making it gray all year around - Never sun - Never snow - Just gray. It's really depressing.

I think there is something degenerative about mankind. Global warming and how stubborn humanity is. For example how slow freckin' Swedes are on taking actions. Even Swedish scientists were like -
"Oh - Al Gore is over exaggerating - Ices won't start melting yet - We say 50-100 years". Yeah, great guys - we'll be dead or living in a water world before you know it. Go and buy presents for your family and add to the statistics that show that Sweden is the country that consumes the most/capita of all the countries in the world - Crazy!!! Sweden is a lovely country and I can absolutely see myself growing old here but for now I need a break. That is why I'm planning on moving. Also - This complaining and ruthless nagging has to come to an end. I promise to stop pestering you with my semi bitterness ;o)

Speaking of lists. I usually list the year that has past but I'm quite reluctant to do so about this year. There are things that I would want to list - Want to write about but I'm afraid to. I might just do a best of list instead and leave all the B.S events and actions out of it. We'll see.

Speaking of recording - I might start to record a little something but I'm just waiting to install Battery or Redrum so that I can continue on the way I started with my song 'Keep The Silence' that is to be released as a single with me on side A and David & the Citizens on side B. You'll get to hear it soon enough.

I have to go and have a second breakfast now.
Thanks for your time!
Sincerely, Sara

I often get scared that opportunities will pass me by. My dear friend Rocky of the band Oppenheimer (my favorite band as you all know) has offered me to record my stuff countless of times. Now he has built this great recording studio in the heart of Belfast and it's in this old building that is about one thing only - Music! From what I've heard it's him and some other people from Snow Patrol, Ash and other important Northern Ireland music biz profiles that are making this whole machinery work and I think it seems like a wonderful place to create! Rocky offered me to record an entire album worth of songs there but once again - Like soooo many times before in life - I can't make it money wise. We have a savings jar but it's not even over 1000 SEK worth yet... Like Rocky says - He will get to record me someday. I just don't know how to keep hope up here any more. The industry here in Sweden is all about knowing the "right people", brown nosing them to get the hype and I don't mix with that. The global music industry is a lot about that, I know, but Sweden is extreme. I need to get out of here...

At the deli where I (used to) work, about a month and a half ago I got my hand stuck in a slicing machine - A machine that you cut ham and salami with. I cut the knuckle of my left index finger and to make a long story short - I'm not getting any hour shifts there anymore... At the ER they sewed the wound wrong and 2 weeks later when the nurses took the stitches they tore it up again. The wound got inflamed because the nurses didn't know how to treat it properly and the doctor I had put me on a too high dose of strong antibiotics. Finally, after about three weeks, got to see a specialist. I had to go to the ER to get a referral 'cause none of the clinic doctors would write one. At the specialist's they only had one word for it all - Malpractice!

About the money - I can't help the feeling of bitterness grow and I'm fighting it with the few yogic powers that I possess but my strength is running out. I'm doing a translation job from English to Swedish for a yoga studio/hair salon homepage and that's fun but I don't know how much I'll get paid or how much it will help our household? I wish I could record an album that I can shove in the face of the labels that have showed "some" interest in me. I wish it for myself and I wish it for you all who read this. I LOVE the few comments I get here and I love the comments on my MySpace too - Still I wish more of you would say SOMETHING when dropping by here.

It's so sad that money should have such power. I mean both David and I are so happy and in love with and in our engagement but we both think it kind of sucks not even being able to make bigger plans for our wedding because of freckin' money.

Sorry for this gloomy post but somebody had to say something around here.
XO,
Sara