A Welcome to the Minimax Blog
Axel Hansson and Vamshi Darisi
Who are we?
Axel: Hello! My name is Axel, and along with Vamshi I will take care of the blog posting here on the website this year. I am a first-year student at the B&E bachelor program, and this is therefore my freshman article for Minimax (hopefully the first of many). As far as introductions go, I am 19 years old and have lived in Stockholm all my life.
Vamshi: Hej, wonderful readers! My name is Vamshi, and I am absolutely delighted to be part of the blog team this year. I grew up and studied in a small town close to London, and now I am two years into my degree at the London School of Economics. I really enjoy living in London, but the opportunity to come to Stockholm and take a break from that life was a welcome one. I’m eager to make the most of my opportunity this year, through taking interesting courses, travelling and exploring Stockholm, and chasing down the Northern Lights by any means possible.
Our interests
Vamshi: I can’t really categorise the things I’m interested in, because it’s pretty much everything under the sun, as I’m sure you will realise quite quickly. My favourite pastimes include falling into Wikipedia rabbit-holes and watching 4 hour YouTube videos about things I’ve never heard of before.
I love all kinds of music - if a genre exists, I’ve almost certainly had a phase where I exclusively listened to it. Currently, I’m quite enjoying math-rock/indie folk type stuff (and would very much appreciate recommendations) but I was very much obsessed with early 2000s pop-punk music for longer than I would like to admit.
However, my biggest interest by far is movies and TV. I think my one true love is a 60-year-old British science fiction show called Doctor Who, which has been a big part of my life for longer than I can remember (so my standards are clearly going to be quite high), but I love keeping up with everything coming to our screens, although I can’t promise to know everything in the Swedish zeitgeist!
Axel: I have a great passion for art and culture in general; something you will be very aware of if you read my posts here on the blog in the future (more on that further on). When it comes to movies, I usually say that I like everything that is good; that is, everything that I feel has been made with an honest effort to make a proper movie. Hence, I don’t consider myself restricted by any particular genres; as long as the quality and genuine passion for cinema is there it doesn’t matter if we’re talking about a slow-burn historical drama or an adrenaline-pumped action flick. Regarding my music tastes, they are more distinguished - although I have made conscious attempts to broaden my preferences over the last few years - since I am more inclined towards alternative (and classic, to some extent) rock than anything else. What’s more, I also love sports and follow Arsenal religiously, so I will always be up for a good old football discussion (although I probably would be too blinded by my personal biases in order to write about football here on the blog - but we’ll see).
What can you expect from this blog in the future?
The idea behind the blog is that we will write continuously each week on the latest happenings in SASSE, however big or small they might be. For instance, we will cover big events like Handelsdagarna in February and Handelsspexet in May, but the space here on the blog is not limited only to the biggest events at the school. So, if you are part of a smaller club, society or committee within SASSE, and want to let more people know about an event you’re organizing, or just want a channel for general advertisement, contact us! We will write about it and spread your amazing work to students who otherwise maybe wouldn’t have come across it!
As lovers of film, music, and books, we will also regularly give recommendations, make some lists, write reviews, and similar things in a separate column here on the website, starting off this week with Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds’ home-run of an album Murder Ballads. Once again, if there is something particular you want us to review or write about, let me know and we’ll give you our two cents on it!
From Vamshi’s end, exploring Stockholm is also one of my top priorities - as a non-Swedish student, I want to get involved as much as I can with the city, and would love to share my journey and experience with you all!
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