(Tja, på engelska igen. Det kan vara bra att hålla sin engelska någorlunda
levande, men framför allt kan jag använda materialet mer då, på utländska
listor, i mitt EAPA zine och ibland på t ex Europa SF-siten. Dessutom tror jag
att den svenska skolan - trots pissiga Pisa-mätningar - gör att SKRIVA:s
vördade medlemskader kan läsa det. --AE)
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Saturday we had Stockholm Culture Night, an evening when 120+ museums,
institutions, galleries etc have an open house and different cultural
programs, all free of charge. A few notes on my odyssey through it all.
* Began with a short peek into the Art Academy, which played experimental choir
music and had a big book exhibition, "Strange books", lots of art, culture and
avant garde books. The books looked really interesting but I didn't have time
to stay too long. Through the evening I used my City Bike card, by which you
can borrow a bicycle at any of their stations (www.citybikes.se), and that made
it easy to move quickly from event to event.
* So I went to the Finland Institute, with a "Finntastic evening". Had a glass
of wine to the opening of the exhibition by Ville Andersson, awarded as
Finland's Best Young Artist 2015. Clever, realistic paintings in bleak colour
(some of them slightly pornographic). Met Margareta there, who I often bump
into on these things. They of course had lots of other programming this night,
but I didn't have time to stay.
* A rather long bicycle ride to the beautiful Italian Culture Institute for the
opening of a children's book exhibition with Giovanna Zoboli (author) and
Simona Mulazzani (illustrator, her beautiful work was shown in originals). A
couple of glasses of wine - but you have to take into account that on events
like this you'll get rather small amounts. Met friend Roberto there and to my
surprise he seemed to favour...ehum...Donald Trump in the US election.
* I intended to go to the French Ambassador's Residence, but biking past it I
saw a 30 metre long line in double rows (the Culture Night events usually draws
a lot of people) so I skipped it.
* Instead I went to the Czech Centre, which promised to have a Bohemian
Medieval Party. I saw some medieval instruments but nobody played on them. Not
much happened. Met friend photographer Kari there, who said everyone was
waiting for the Czech ambassador who was delayed. Got a very small glass of
something resembling port wine, took some pictures - I did that on every stop -
and left.
* Because I really wanted to go to the Order of the Templar Knight's HQ, now
open for the first time. At 8pm the program said they'd show some of there
ceremonies. A n elderly man in the Knights' outfit told me this had already
been at 7.30, "but come back 9pm and we'll run it again...but you see, we won't
show our *secret* ceremonies. We want to keep them secret so they are a
surprise for new members." Took pics of their star-spangled main hall."
* I walked to the Stridberg Museum nearby, in the "Blue Tower" apartment this
famed author lived in 1908-1912. It was really interesting to see eg the
display of his scientific instruments, his equipment for trying to make gold,
his photographic equipment - Strindberg was an amateur scientist too, maybe not
too successful. A cosy apartment in Art Nouveau (which we also call Jugend)
style. Strindberg was very modern - having TWO telephones - and popular, but
never received the Nobel prize because the Swedish Academy hated him.
* Intended to visit the Old Observatory nearby, but turned back as there was a
20 metre line outside. Anyway, I have taken several astronomy courses as
Stockholm University and probably already knew everything the astronomers had
to show...
* Back at the Templar Knights at nine. But this time they told me that next
show of templar rituals would be 9.30... I think they don't need to keep their
ceremonies secret. They just have to confuse people with at which time they
are, and nobody will be the wiser. I didn't want to wait half an hour, so I
took a bike to the Nobel Museum.
* They would have a lecture about Alfred Nobel's "lost" play "Nemesis" and
maybe I could catch the end of it. It was printed just before his death, bu all
but three copies were destroyed since executors thought it would "destroy his
reputation". "Nemesis" has in later years been re-published in a dual language
(Swedish/Esperanto) version by Swedish fan, translator and Esperanto enthusiast
Gunnar Gällmo ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nemesis_%28Nobel_play%29 ;). But
the lecture was over when I arrived.
* So I rushed off to the Riddarholms Church, an early medieval church in the
Old Town which has served as burial church for Swedish royalties for
hundreds of years. It's thus not normally open to the public, but since it was
open now I wanted to see it. This church is also the place where they hang the
shields of the knights of the Royal Order of the Seraphim, the finest in Sweden
(but only given to Swedish royalties and foreign dignitaries since the 1970's).
Every time a Seraphim knight dies there's ringing from the Riddarholms church
bells. A four piece military band had a small concert and I saw the graves of
some famous kings (but from the late 1800's and on Swedish royalties instead
lie in the Norther Burial Grounds, Norra Begravningsplatsen, north of downtown
Stockholm).
* A short walk to the SF Bookstore, which earlier in the evening had a panel
about utopian and feminist sf (not my coup of tea) and through the evening let
people do roleplaying and similar games (not my cup of coffee), but I now came
in time to hear the interview with sf poet Johannes Helden, just out with an
illustrated poetry collection called Astroekology, which will also be published
in English (see more at http://www.johanneshelden.com/news/ ;). We learned that
he have had mail exchanges with and on a trip to the US also met Ursula Le
Guin. It all came from his net book project where he wanted to "involve
interesting people" and took a chance and contacted Le Guin. He read from his
new poetry collection. A small TV team was there to film him, but he was
secretive about for what (some documentary to be shown later?). It had been
*snowing* while going to the SF Bookstore, and I reminded Maths Claesson (who
interviewed Helden) of Regncon 1980 in Borås, where it snowed in early May and
Maths took a rake and worked the snow around the convention site... Exhanged a
few words with Helden which showed he knew little about the general world of sf
poetry. He knew Aniara, of course, but had never heard of Kjell Borgström *,
the SF Poetry Association or the Rhysling Awards. I didn't dare to ask if he
knew about Comet Johan Bensin jr... Had a cup of coffe, well away from the
gamers. I don't like gaming (or so called "cosplay") being associated with
science fiction. It trivializes the genre and portrays sf as being for
superficial seekers of cheap self-indulgement.
* Last stop during a very long Culture Night was at the Graphic Association.
Despite being nearly midnight, the place was full of people. They sat at a
table doing "dry needle" - don't know if that's the English term - graphics on
special plastic sheets, that the association would then help them print. It
looked fun. I saw a short animated film with strange music and had tea and
tasty (but small) scones, with jam and cream. Met Margaret there again, who
said that she had been to the French Residence and it had been rather
uninteresting. No delicious French hors d'oeuvres, for instance.
An interesting but busy night. The snow had turned to heavy rain. April has
been colder than usual, and I think we should get our money back, all the
Billions spent on the theory of global "warming".
--Ahrvid
* 1929-1997, long time Swedish fan and poet, a friend of mine and most of all
of Lars-Olov Strandberg. Published two poetry collection, Den suckande tungan
("The Sighing Tongue", 1969 - collected by John-Henri Holmberg and friends,
stencil edition) and En slags parallell ("A Sort of Parallel", published by the
Scandinavian SF Association) but also hundreds of poems in fanzines, most of
them uncollected. He wrote free form, sublime poetry, sometimes bordering the
absurd, about odd beings, strange creatures, alien worlds and so on, in a way
creating a universe all of his own. Fanends knew that you could just ask Kjell
and he'd send you, say, five sheets of poetry in his own not too perfect
typing. (I published some too.) Also known for the jelly raspberries he treated
us with on club meetings.
--
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