Happy 14th birthday, Benny Anderdoll

 14 years ago today, I put in the finishing stitches on my homemade Benny doll. :D

 

New ABBA The Museum Kimonos

 I was just browsing the ABBA the Museum website and happened to see that they've just remade the kimonos.  And I was pretty excited because, as stated in my lengthy post from August about the problems with ABBA the Museum's costumes, ABBA the Museum did not make an accurate kimono.  Now, I'm not trying to diss ABBA the Museum for attempting to sell ABBA costume replicas, because so few of those exist, but when the product is described as being a replica of the ABBA members' stage costumes, I expect to see a replica, not just something inspired by the kimonos.  And sadly, these kimonos are just as flawed as the first one.

The first issue is not with the costumes themselves, but with the item description, which is as follows:

This kimono is a replica of the stage costume worn by Frida during the Japan leg of the tour. Designed by Owe Sandström, the piece reflects a creative fusion of Japanese and Swedish aesthetics. Sandström chose the traditional Japanese kimono silhouette and adorned it with motifs from Swedish flora—specifically, the Columbine, a classic garden flower. 

(Obviously it says a different ABBA members' name per product description, I just copied the one for Frida's.  Everything else is the same.) 

Now, if you're familiar with ABBA's story, which I would assume ABBA the Museum would have to be because they are the official ABBA museum after all, you know that the Kimonos first debuted in 1976.  Not 100% certain on this, like I can't find a source for this other than my own brain, but I do believe the kimonos were created for the purpose of taking them to Japan, but ABBA didn't end up going to Japan until 1978.  Bjorn and Benny did end up wearing the now-two year old costumes during the short promotional trip, specifically for three of the performances (Knowing Me, Knowing You, The Name Of The Game, and If It Wasn't For The Nights), although Benny was oddly wearing Agnetha's kimono rather than his own.  

 The first official appearance of the Kimonos was in one of the commercials for Japanese Electronics Company, National, in August 1976.  And roughly a month later, the kimonos were worn during the performance of Why Did It Have To Be for the TV special, ABBA-Dabba-Doo.  The final time the ABBA members wore all four kimonos together was in November 1976, when they appeared on the French TV show Les Rendez-vous du Dimanche.  

The kimonos were not worn during the Japanese leg of the 1979/80 World Tour.  So I don't understand why they would say that in the product description,

Now onto the actual costumes themselves.

In the previous iterations of the Kimonos that ABBA the museum sold, they simply scanned in one design out of the 3-4 that appear on each ABBA members' costumes and repeated it in a couple spots on the kimonos.  The kimonos were also full-length, more accurate to traditional Japanese kimonos, but not accurate to how ABBA's costumes were designed.

This time, they have made shorter kimonos, more in line but not quite as short as ABBA's original Kimonos.  They've also scanned in more of the original designs, not just the one, and have made the costumes more accurate in color.  

They almost had me fooled that they'd made an accurate replica this time, however, yet again, the placement of the designs is wrong, again.

To compare, here is an updated chart featuring my drawings of the designs in the correct placement, and the new ABBA the Museum costumes.  (For some bonus fun, can you tell from where on the original kimonos they took the designs from???)  ((ALSO just a reminder - these drawings I did of the floral designs are not 1000% accurate because I had to piece them together myself using images of ABBA's kimonos))

Agnetha: 

  Frida:

 

Benny:

 

 

 

 

Bjorn:

 

 

 I'm just so baffled as to why they've done this, why they can't just put everything in the correct placement.  If they just looked at my charts, they would see how inaccurate they are, but they don't even have to use my charts because they have the actual original costumes right there on display in the museum to consult with.  I just don't understand.

 

 

 Now we know that I have beef with a lot of ABBA tribute bands, but why is it that some of their costumes are more accurate in terms of design placement than the ones sold at the ABBA museum???

 

  

PLEASE do better ABBA the museum, or at least don't list your costumes as replicas.  Please and thank you. <3

 

Somewhat related - I saw this shirt at the Polar Music store, and I think it's such a cute, but subtle way to wear an ABBA themed garment, featuring the design on collar of Frida's Waterloo Costume.  It may be ridiculously expensive, but it's super cute regardless.  If ABBA the Museum wanted to sell more ABBA-inspired clothes like this, I wouldn't have any complaints with that.

 

 Alright, rant over.  Thanks for coming to my TED talk.

 

Also, one nice thing about these new kimonos is the nice high quality scan of the design that's on the back left of Agnetha's sleeve that I unfortunately had to make up half the details for on my doll kimono because there were no high quality reference photos.  Unfortunately this means, oh the horrors, my doll costume is slightly inaccurate, but at least I can saw it's placed in the correct location lol)

 

Darius

 My sweet blueberry boy Darius passed away today. He was one of the smartest birds I have ever met, he was spunky, he was clever, and he was the best. Mordecai and I will miss him so so so much. Fly high, my angelic boy. 💙💙💙  

 

Happy 80th birthday, Frida!

 Today we wish our beloved Anni-Frid Lyngstad a very, very happy 80th birthday.  Grattis på födelsedagen, dear Frida!

 

Rest in Peace, Karin Glenmark

On October 30th, Karin Glenmark passed away at the age of 73.  Both Karin and her brother Anders' story have been so intertwined with ABBA's, from their early days of competing against ABBA in the 1974 Melodifestivalen, together with their aunt and uncle, to providing backing vocals live during Agnetha's 1975 performance on Sommarnöjet, to Anders playing backing guitar on ABBA's Dancing Queen and Money Money Money, to eventually both Karin and Anders contributing the majority of the backing vocals for Bjorn and Benny's Chess Concept Album.  Karin and Anders even provided backing vocals for Agnetha's 1985 solo track "Save Me."  And then of course there is Gemini, Karin and Anders' band that featured tracks mostly written and produced by Bjorn & Benny.  And also Anders' went on to produce Frida's 1996 album, Djupa Andetag.

When I was younger, I used to disdain Gemini, fueled by the fact that I was upset that ABBA had ended and Bjorn and Benny had been focusing on the duo instead.  Plus Benny once said (can't find the source, I'm sorry) that Karin sang better than Agnetha and Frida!  But, I've matured a lot since then, and I've really grown to appreciate Geimini's music, to the point that I have their first album on my phone, and their songs often play when I have my phone on shuffle.  I have yet to actually listen to their second album, but I've literally had the tab up on Discogs to purchase it, so the news of Karin's passing really hits hard.

Aside from her music with Gemini, Karin also had a few solo albums and singles released from 1980 until 1996.  I have never actually listened to them before, but I'm inclined to now.  

Karin has always had a strong and powerful voice.  One of my all time favorite vocals from her is on the final track on Gemini's first album, "Another You, Another Me."  The song is definitely very ABBA-esque with the lyrics, which were written by Bjorn, so I've always had a soft spot for the song anyway.  An absolute favorite performance of mine is during Chess in Concert in 1984, when Karin stepped up to fill in for Barbara Dickson who had suddenly gotten sick  during Endgame. Another song that demonstrates Karins beautiful, softer vocals are Mio Min Mio, and also Karin's performance/cover of Agnetha's 1967 hit "Utan dej mitt liv går vidare".  I also have always really enjoyed Gemini's performance of TLC on Jacobs Stege in 1987, with the song being an extremely fun an upbeat track.

Rest in peace, Karin.  Thank you for the music and the memories.