earthsea

2007-04-17T22:20:00.000+02:00

To Earthsea visitors - I am now testing another platform for the blog, see this URL:

http://earthseablog.wordpress.com/

See you there!

The Beaver

2007-02-03T17:30:00.000+01:00

Chol-Chol February 2001

We got off the bus in this little sleepy town, coming from Temuco, the cultural capital of the Mapuches. Our guidebook mentioned a museum in this town but no-one we asked had heard about it.

At last we found the modest local museum right across the street when we returned to the bus stop. There the traditional ways and handicrafts of the Mapuches were shown, and a ruca, a traditional sedge-house, was re-created.

2007-01-27T11:35:00.000+01:00

Lindberg revisited - Plastic design

As I was staying at a nearby hotel, I had a couple of hours free so I could not resist seeing the Stig Lindberg exhibition at Nationalmuseum again (see September 30 entry).

This time I watched the 3 short movies that were run continuously. One of them, "Industry visit" from Swedish television on April 25 1957 was an interview with Lindberg. He talked about Gustavsberg as a creative place. At this factory, plastic was an important industrial material so it was natural also for the ceramics designers to work with it and create beatiful and functional every-day things. (They did not themselves talk about beauty, only of "smartness".)

Lindberg became one of the pioneers for design in plastic. One example was the thermos "Termic" which was produced from 1957 until 1975! It was found in most Swedish homes over 2 generations.

2007-01-19T00:03:00.000+01:00

Stig Lindberg - the Joker and the Lady

The Karneval series from 1958 - 1962 is typical Lindberg imagery. It contains a large number of images - trays as well as vases. The series is now popular for collecting and I have noted that prices in England and USA on these and other Lindberg works are even higher than in Sweden. One sales site is found here.

It is supposed to be a kind of reminiscence of the faience period at Gustavsberg ceramic factory up through the 50's. It is however made in serial production and not individually designed items.

The harlequin can be compared to the joker of the deck of cards (See entry Dec 28). This one has a more childish and innocent appearance. Maybe he has escaped from one of Picasso's circus paintings.

2007-01-14T23:17:00.000+01:00

Winter, finally?

The ground under my car still did not bear any witness of snowfall as of this morning. And at the coast, there has been less ice this January than ever, since mid 1800's when records started. Today, though, it seems that winter is catching up at last.

Storm has hit southern Sweden today, even resulting in casualties. Up North, we are not so unfortunate, and only have a reasonably heavy snowfall. It feels as if time has turned right. Now just let us see if the white cover will stay with us.

2007-01-10T23:53:00.000+01:00

A Russian to remember

Jevgenij Zamjatin is an early 20th century Russian author who deserves a better fate than to be forgotten. Therefore it is excellent that one of his short novels, "The story about the most important", recently has been translated to Swedish and published by the small editorial Ruin.

I have already mentioned the science fiction novel We by Zamjatin (November 22 entry). This is an amazing work in many aspects. We are now presenting some more of his writing from the insect perspective, and in particular the new book which has a central insect theme.

Just like Jan Larri (see June 14 entry) he was bold enough to write to Stalin. Writing without restraining himself, and publishing We abroad, he ended up accused of being counter-revolutionary, although he had long been a devoted communist. Surprisingly he survived and was allowed to emigrate.

Read more in part 26 of the Literature history of insects in the recent issue of Natur i Norr! (In Swedish)

Drawing by Juri Annenkov 1921

2007-01-06T21:05:00.000+01:00

Mussels and Caviar - Chiloë 2001

Chonchi is known as la ciudad de los tres pisos because of its peculiar topography. In this harbour town we found some of the best seafood in all of Chiloë (and Chile). At restaurant El Trebol, we had very fresh and fine Mussels in Salsa Verde, and delicious Locos.

At another place, we started a conversation with three young men who all worked in the salmon industry. One of them suddenly disappeared, only to return after a while, bringing a small plastic package with Japanese writing. He gave us the package and asked us to taste the content. The guy had gone back to his work to get a sample of salmon caviar, produced for the Japanese market. It was very good, almost like Russian caviar, but, of course, bright red.

2006-12-28T21:27:00.000+01:00

Petrus Laestadius, Yngve Ryd and Harsh Times in Lapland

Petrus Laestadius tells in his journals about the harsh years in 1828 to 1832 when all bad fortune gathered over Lapland. Most of all, there was hard crust on the snow (called tjocke, tjuocke, or, in Swedish, flen, by Laestadius), preventing reindeer from grazing. “It can be supposed that the Mountain-lapps' reindeer herds in Arjeplog, in this one year (1828), were diminished by at least one third. Rich Lapps became poor, and those who earlier had small reindeer-herds became unable to sustain as Nomads, so that many left for Norway and settled there.”

In the coming years, there were many wolves, preying on the reindeer and scattering them, and much lemmings consuming the alpine forage. There were also forest fires, and summer frost.

In 1832 there was another winter of tjuocke. “Of the Lapps, who actually are my people, the best part, the Forest‑lapps, have been almost totally ruined: their want is incomparable to that of any others. The reindeer-herds of the Mountain-lapps are at least halved: so hard times must have been rarely occurring.”

Tjuocke is actually a problem also in the present winter 2006/2007. In our county 50 000 reindeer may need to be transported by truck to the coast. Even if the effects will be less dramatic nowadays – no people will starve to death – the costs for supplemental feeding will be serious enough.

In the excellent book “Snö” by Yngve Ryd where the Lule Sámi vocabulary on snow is explored, the tjuohke phenomenon is analysed also. It is a crust of ice that entirely locks the lichen forage so grazing is impossible. It forms already in the autumn and does not melt until spring. It is the worst possible winter condition for the reindeer.

2006-12-28T00:44:00.000+01:00

Stig Lindberg - the deck of cards

I told about the Stig Lindberg-designed deck of cards, that we sometimes played with (in the September 30 entry). It really stands out among card decks for its bold design. There was one deck with blue back side, and one with red. The blue one, which had been retrieved from a poker-playing uncle, I saw again this Christmas day.

Here is just the Joker, which by the way carries the same pattern as the back side - the very typical Lindberg harlequin pattern. The series is called "Comedia" and was released by Öbergs playing card factory in 1958. It was reprinted again later, in the 70's maybe, but does not seem to be available in stores any longer. An unused deck, supposedly the original version, can be bought on the Internet for 650 SEK.

More about Stig Lindberg can be read here .

2006-12-17T20:41:00.000+01:00

Winter again?

Winter came in October and left again in November. Now fínally we are having 5 degrees below zero. The archipelago garden is frosty but not snowy. Dry lily stalks still stand upright carrying their seed capsules like little bells.

The rowans are waiting for the moose to take their yearly toll of top shoots. Waxwings swarm and ring aginst wintery clouds.

Will winter stay? Or is it just another joke?

2006-12-16T21:32:00.000+01:00

Meanwhile, in Norrland….

Two famous travel diaries overlap in 1831-1832. These are Darwin’s travels on board the "Beagle” 1831-1836, and Petrus Laestadius’ mission travels in Norrland 1827-1832. Although the former has a greater fame internationally, also Laestadius is well worth reading. He was born in Arjepluog in 1802 and as a small child he was raised under incredibly miserable conditions.

Much thanks to the efforts of his elder half brother, who was a priest in Kvikkjokk, Petrus came to be educated in theology in Uppsala and came into contact with modern ideas including Kantian philosophy. Laestadius returned to Lapland and became a missionary. His journals are still very readable, and give much more information on local nature and culture than other similar sources, for example Linnaeus’ Laplandic account, since he was of local origin and a fluent Sámi speaker.

2006-12-07T23:02:00.000+01:00

Valparaíso 2001 again

We got another good advice from Francisco Roca, and this was about what to do in Valparaíso. This was to visit the Nordic School. There is a Swedish folkhögskola (Biskops Arnö) giving a film course for young Swedes, many with a Latin American background, Escuela Nórdica de Cine Documental.

We visited the school together with our friend. This was a very good place, situated high over the town on one of the many hills which are reached by the elevators (ascensores). We saw some student productions, many bringing up difficult subjects such as social injustice and sex among young people in Chile, and talked with the teachers. (I think the students were somewhere else at that time because we didn’t meet them.)

The students live for a year in Valparaiso meeting local young people and interviewing and making film with and about them. In this way they learned a lot about making film, about people, about Valparaíso, Chile and Latin America, and not least, a lot about themselves and their own background.

Picture by Julia Lundberg, student at the school

2006-12-05T22:08:00.000+01:00

Crossroads – Arvid Kaddik in Arjepluog

An elderly person I know well told the other day about how Arvid Kaddik (see October 18 entry) came to her village every Christmas in the mountain area of Arjeplog parish to give a sermon. Then there was also a reason to have a Christmas party for the whole village.

Kaddik, a deacon, was deeply religious and something of a mystic. He was of Sàmi origin and born in 1904. He first was aducated to be a teacher and then studied theology. He travelled all his life among the Swedish Sàmi people and was loved everywhere for his kindness. He was also important for promoting Sàmi culture – and it was in this role he took part in the meeting in Yttervik, where I got the chance to meet him.

He wrote down his memories in two volumes 1989 and 1992.

2006-12-04T20:30:00.000+01:00

Sour Fish 7 - The Concept

Continuing the series from August, here is a new marketing concept for sour herring from Ulvö Little Saltery under the brand Eric the Red. The idea seems to be that this fish is a viking food with "sybaritic aromas and sublime taste".

The fish can is packed in a box with a nicely designed leaflet in Japanese and several other languages. It is sold together with similarly branded bread and beer from other local producers. Maybe this new branding idea can recruit new sour herring fans?

How it tastes? I didn't open the can yet - as I wait for some special occasion...

2006-11-23T17:34:00.000+01:00

Archipelago Crafts - the result

After a number of working hours a number of boots and bags were produced, in various styles and sizes. Leather and pelts of various kind was used, but the base was seal skin. Traditionally here, the sole of seal skin boots was made by horse skin, with the hairy side out for better grip. The seal skin was then not tanned, just scraped and dried.

Neather is the Inuit way of preparing seal skin proper tanning, but instead the skin is softened physically, by chewing or by using a tool.

The old people in the archipelago still remember how they used to make their own boots. They were warm, and if treated with tar water on the inside, they were quite water resistant too. It seems that the women deserted the seal boots before the men did. Maybe sealskin shoes were too rustic and old-fashioned - girls wanted something more modern and fancy to put on their feet.

Of course,with the coming of rubber boots, the time was up for seal skin footwear.

2006-11-22T23:26:00.000+01:00

Questions for book addicts

Klimakteriehäxan has challenged her book-reading readers for these questions. So I just had to be the first one to answer them:

1. Latest three books read (more or less): Eriks bok, by Lars Sund. Part three in a great Finlandic epic trilogy about a family in an Ostrobothnian village (and United States). Kalla det vad fan du vill by Marjaneh Bakhtiari. A good candidate for the big Swedish novel of the millennium’s first decade. Numret till Calicut by Calle Hård. A North Swedish/South India crime story, quite catchy.

2. First book ever read: Hur gick det sen? by Tove Jansson. As far as I remember. Yes, the actual one shown above.

3. Very special favorite book: A wizard of Earthsea, obviously. Rather, the whole earthsea trilogy by Ursula LeGuin which is actually five novels and a number of short stories. A very beautiful and immensely sad story. Can only possibly be matched by Jansson's Comet hunt.

4. Favorite genre: Must be fantasy and scifi….or maybe history….or biographies? Also I do read poetry once in a while.

5. Favorite reading time: Long rainy sommer days.

6. Favorite author: Since I already have used Jansson and LeGuin, then…Tolkien? Garcia Marquez? Chatwin? Ekelöf? Tranströmer? No I will say Jayne Anne Phillips, for the short story collections Black tickets and Fast lanes.

7. Book I read right now: We by Jevgenij Zamjatin. A science fiction satire thriller from the Soviet Union’s early 20’s. The author asked Stalin for permission to emigrate to the West, and was allowed this - nothing less than a miracle. Maybe the most remarkable dystopy ever written, Orwell and Boye included. (Actually I started reading The Black Book by Pamuk but that was apparently less exciting since I put it away.)

8. Book I long for to read: Quicksilver by Neal Stephenson. It is lying on my shelf, a beautiful volume. Historical science fiction (I think, I didn’t read it yet), first volume in a trilogy. Recommended on the website of a guy I knew almost forty years ago (so it must be good).

9. Why do I read books? I just can’t stop.

It may seem as if I have something against normal Sweden-Swedish novel writers (as you know, Calle is from Finland, too) - no this is not so at all. Ask me again in a year and I may have a different list.

2006-11-21T00:25:00.000+01:00

Archipelago Crafts

We gathered for a weekend, about 10 people, learning to use seal skins for making traditional boots and bags. Seals are now again hunted in the Baltic Sea and it would be a waste not to use them once they are shot.

Also the meat and blubber can be used for a large number of purposes. Using these products was a large part of coastal culture in the Gulf of Bothnia. Traditions have almost been lost over generations since seals had to be protected to recover from overhunting and environmental poisoning. Now the knowledge has to be recovered and learnt again.

2006-11-08T00:59:00.000+01:00

A note on Fame

This is based on my comment on the June 22
Form and matter blog entry ”Elvis and me”.

On his first album, Nick Drake sings:
Fame is but a fruit tree
So very unsound
It can never flourish
'till its stock is in the ground
So men of fame
Can never find a way
'til time has flown
Far from their dying day

This was in 1969 and it did not make him famous. Five years later he died from an overdose of antidepressives, if by accident or by his own will is not known. Now, more than thirty years later, he is praised as a genius and hero, and played all over the musical world. What an irony, isn't it? How right he was, and what a pity, too...

2006-11-06T23:36:00.000+01:00

Interlude: Dylan on Darwin

From "High Water" (Love and theft album):

Well, George Lewis told the Englishman, the Italian and the Jew
"You can't open your mind, boys
To every conceivable point of view."
They got Charles Darwin trapped out there on Highway Five
Judge says to the High Sheriff,
"I want him dead or alive
Either one, I don't care."
High Water everywhere

2006-11-06T22:37:00.000+01:00

The failure of journalism

In a seminar at the local visual culture museum, the honour of international media in relation to reparting on international terrorism and the Middle-East was torn to pieces by the speakers Loretta Napoleoni, Dahr Jamail and Hana Al-Bayaty.

Journalists are not doing their job, not asking the right questions said the Italian economist/writer Loretta Napoleoni. She is on the other hand famous for doing just that. For example, how can terrorist organisations fund their expensive activities? And how does this affect their morals and politics? She has reported on this in books like Modern Jihad and several others.

Dahr Jamail, who is an american journalist was shocked to find how biased the reporting on Iraq by all main American media was, not least by the intelligent strategy of the military's use of "embedded journalists". He has since treaded the dangerous path as independent journalist in Iraq. So has Al-Bayaty, from France/Egypt, by shooting film for example in Fallujah.

Visit the exhibition Contemporary Arab Representations: The Iraqi Equation, at Bildmuseet, Umeå!

2006-11-02T17:52:00.000+01:00

Darwin in Cucao, 1835

Darwin on arriving, noted that “the district of Cucao is the only inhabited part on the whole west coast of Chiloe.” He found it painful to watch how humble the thirty or forty families of Indians that made up the inhabitants. They were treated bad by the rulers, the relative upper-class on Chiloë. Darwins companions treated the Indians as if they were slaves.

Today, the descendants appear to live by renting cabins and camping sites in summer to (mostly) Chilean tourists. The small village was full of little kiosks and bars.

On January 25, Darwin and his company "…rode a few miles northward to Punta Huantamó. The road lay along a very broad beach, on which, even after so many fine days, a terrible surf was breaking. “

He found a strange plant, “…allied, I believe, to Bromelia, and called by the inhabitants Chepones….This plant bears a fruit, in shape like an artichoke, in which a number of seed-vessels are packed: these contain a pleasant sweet pulp…I saw…the Chilotans making chichi, or cider, with this fruit: so true is it, as Humboldt remarks, that almost everywhere man finds means of preparing some kind of beverage from the vegetable kingdom.”

The next day he took the periagua again over the lake, rode back to Castro, and then on to San Carlos de Ancud. He had a great view over the great forest of Chiloë and over the chain of volcanoes on the mainland. “I hope it will be long before I forget this farewell view of the magnificent cordillera fronting Chiloe”, he wrote.

2006-11-01T23:54:00.000+01:00

Strange but beautiful

The music of Sofia Jernberg (left) and Cecilia Persson is unlike anything else. It is distorted and fragmented but has a strange beauty to it. It is like rolling over all the frequencies on a radio receiver, listening to a lot of odd words and noices. The occasional twinkling of a piano. All of a sudden you stop to listen to a station with funny marimba, tuba and bass clarinet music.

Sofia and Cecilia sang and played, respectively, with their sextet on this year’s Umeå Jazz Fewstival. Much to short beacause everyone wanted to go and listen to some big shot on the main stage. Sofia was also awarded the festival’s main sponsor’s travel grant this year. Very well deserved.

Photo from SR P2

2006-10-31T17:38:00.000+01:00

Crossroads: Literature as Jazz

In cabin 579 on board the Cristoforo Colombo (see August 22 entry) in 1975, I had the ambition to read Finnegans Wake. I even brought a reader’s guide. My conclusion after struggling with Chapter 1 was:
”So much has happened since then (dylan, the great war, new worlds, new ways to speak, a new history and new associations) and his world* is so wound up in itself. A meaningless monument to the memory of a man. Of local interest to Irish with knowledge of latin and a liking for puns.
*) like the book”
Having arrived in Buenos Aires I immediately sent the books home.

At the Umeå Jazz Festival, the Swiss-Dutch singer Susanne Abbuehl made great renderings of Joyce’s and other’s texts. One of the most beautiful was from one of the last pages of Finnegans Wake:
“Sea, sea! Here, weir, reach, island, bridge. Where you meet I. The day. Remember! Why there that moment and us two only? I was but teen, a tiler's dot.”

2006-10-30T23:40:00.000+01:00

Desert Jazz

A favorite of the audience at Umeå Jazz Festival was Avishai Cohen trio. Three master instrumentalists (here two of them, Avishai and Mark Guiliana), playing so tight you could see the treads between them. They were the most generous group appearing at the festival, even having the surprised jazz audience sing along like it were a rock concert.

They played two evenings in a row, treating us with a newly written song both days, one of which was a beduins' chant.

Why was this music taken to the heart by the Swedes, in a way similar to the Norrland music I described earlier this month? Maybe because it is tied to the love of a landscape, the Israeli desert, like Johan's and Jonas' is to the northern rivers, forests and mountains.

They will now play in Uppsala, Lund and Stockholm - hurry and buy tickets!

Photo from http://www.avishaimusic.com/

2006-10-30T23:16:00.000+01:00

Suddenly winter

Now only 2 weeks after my latest garden entry, temperature is several degrees below zero and snow covers the ground. From summer to winter in no time at all. The icy flowers appear taken by surprise by this instant change.

Tracks of hares, reconnoitering for winter food, are seen in the snow. The sun now hardly reaches over the treetops.

2006-10-24T23:55:00.000+02:00

The surreal made real

An amazing performance is done by Aurélia Thierrée and Jaime Martinez in L'Oratorio d'Aurélia which is played here this week. It is the world turned upside-down and in-and-out. The show can be labeled as Cirque Noveau if you like, but there is no showing off of acrobatic talent even if it obviously is there.

Is it funny? The Swedish audience laughed a lot. However in Spain it was considered a sad story about loneliness (according to Aurélia)! Must be some difference in national character - we feel at home with the loneliness... But most of all it was very beautiful and a bit scary. Like wandering at night in a landscape painted by Magritte, Delvaux and Picasso, while Syd Barrett and Eric Satie are playing music somewhere.

It can only be compared to the shows made by Aurélias parents, Jean Baptiste Thierrée and Victoria Thierrée Chaplin - and Victoria has actually been creator, director, stage designer etc for this show.

This is a must if you have a chance to see it - L'Oratorio d'Aurélia will continue to tour Sweden until next week, and then France, Norway, and Switzerland in 2007.

Photo by Richard Haughton

2006-10-19T23:27:00.000+02:00

Darwin’s road to Cu-cow, 1835

On January 24, Darwin and his companions left Castro with fresh horses. “At Chonchi we struck across the island, following intricate winding paths, sometimes passing through magnificent forests, and sometimes through pretty cleared spots, abounding with corn and potato crops.” He found this a pleasing landscape, since it reminded him of the wilder parts of England… When he came to Huillinco, and Lago Cucao, the landscape changed again. “…. Only a few fields were cleared; and all the inhabitants appeared to be Indians. This lake is twelve miles long, and runs in an east and west direction.”

Like Chatwin 140 years later he travelled over the lake: “The road to Cucao was so very bad that we determined to embark in a periagua…a strange rough boat, but the crew were still stranger: I doubt if six uglier little men ever got into a boat together.”

He did not however (like Chatwin) travel with a corpse, but still with a strange passenger. “In the same periagua with us, a cow was embarked. To get so large an animal into a small boat appears at first a difficulty, but the Indians managed it in a minute. They brought the cow alongside the boat, which was heeled towards her; then placing two oars under her belly, with their ends resting on the gunwale, by the aid of these levers they fairly tumbled the poor beast, heels overhead, into the bottom of the boat, and then lashed her down with ropes. At Cucao we found an uninhabited hovel (which is the residence of the padre when he pays this Capella a visit), where, lighting a fire, we cooked our supper, and were very comfortable.”

The modern travellers came by bus, although the road was still quite bad. We stayed at the relatively comfortable and cosy Posada Cucao, probably the best hostel in the village. The back yard, with Lago Cucao behind, is seen in the picture. The chickens are seen first feeding in the front yard, then at dinner they appear on the table. The room was however feeling damp all the time and had a mouldy smell, reminding us that Chiloë is wet and rainy all year around.

2006-10-18T21:59:00.000+02:00

Norrland – the Photos

Radio P1 sent a program about the photo collection at Västerbotten’s Museum. Sune Jonsson and Bertil Ekholtz. Also several less known female photographers, Albertina Eriksson and others, who travelled much and took pictures for people in the villages.

Again, I think about my Yttervik pictures. One has a quite good story behind it. Axel and Elsie were hosting a meeting of the board of the Same Ätnam cultural Association, of which he was the secretary. After the meeting, the Sami deacon Arvid Kaddik found that he had locked his keys inside the car. So the whole board was engaged in helping him to break into his own car, here Axel in the front of the picture.

Then I realize that this happened more than 30 years ago, and now can be classified as history. So I guess I should contact the museum and contribute my pictures to their collection…

Then they started to play some jazz music in the radio program. Guess what? One of the Norrland tunes by Johan Norberg and Jonas Knutsson, I don't remember which one, maybe “Yttervik”….

2006-10-17T20:10:00.000+02:00

Norrland – the Music

I am a great fan of Johan Norberg (guitar) and Jonas Knutsson (saxophone), in particular when they play their “Norrland” collection, which now has been published in two CD volumes – “Norrland” (Gazell Records) and CowCow: Norrland II (ACT).

Johan’s in-between talk actually takes as much time as the music. His stories are so exhilarating they can be listened to any number of times. One of the favourites is when he tried to find Yttervik by driving on a dirt road using a colour slide of the village as the only guide. Only, he looked at the picture from the wrong side….

After hearing this, I tried to think: which, and where, were my own pictures from Yttervik? I stayed there some weeks as a guest of Axel Rydberg, the reindeer agronomist, and his wife Elsie.

I found lots of pictures of people, reindeer, and moose but strangely enough none of the house and yard. Or is it so surprising? The buildings and rooms are the things we take for granted, the framework of existence.

2006-10-16T22:02:00.000+02:00

Late summer in the Archipelago

Probably the last warm days on the Northern islands - 13 degrees in daytime. Now we are waiting for the first snow.

Still, the lawn grows more than ever. The late-flowering plants keep flourishing - Chinese Spindle Tree (photo), Bugbane, pink Sedum, Colchicum, and many others. But maple shrubs and trees have turned yellow or red.

2006-10-15T22:40:00.000+02:00

Salty Cyclostomatan

Neither sour, nor fish, this is a local delicacy. Lamprey is in our area preferred smoked, and then fried in butter and stewed with cream. Best served with almond potatoes.

The river lamprey is a fishlike jawless animal which lives in the sea and migrates up in the rivers in the autumn, where it is caught in traps in a traditional manner.

When Linneaus described lamprey fishery in early 18th century it was already an old custom. It was taxed by the crown at least as far back as the 16th century.

2006-10-12T22:34:00.000+02:00

Lindqvist and Pirsig

Sven Lindqvist has been one of my literary heroes for decades. He seems to be, in all aspects, the total contrary to Chatwin as a travel writer – whether writing about South America or Australia. Politically and socially aware (but never dogmatic), respectful to the people that deserve it, trustworthy, and logically consistent.

I more or less followed in Lindqvist’s footsteps in South America after reading his classic travel reports which were published in two books in the 1970’s. I and my travel companion were not as ambitious in publishing as he was, so we only ended up with a series in the local newspaper. Without any payment.

In his new book, “Fadern, sonen och den heliga motorcykeln”, Lindqvist writes about his travelling (by car) in the motorcycle tracks of Robert Pirsig and actually meeting people who are in his book. The books of Pirsig have changed my ideas about things. I exactly remember where and when I was spending a night at a kitchen table, although it was quite long ago, not being able to put down “Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance”. Lindqvist is however more critical than I was, at least at that time. Now I am just waiting for Sven to also make the boat trip which is the frame story in Lila…..

2006-10-11T17:55:00.000+02:00

Patagonia 2007?

The other day I unexpectedly ran across a friend living in the other end of the world – Juan the Argentinian, who I haven’t seen for several years. Juan is now living in Bariloche, Patagonia. He was only in town for a couple of days and I was just leaving for the weekend. So unfortunately we had just a few minutes to chat.

Apart from some teaching and research at the university in Bariloche, Juan is now starting up a tourism company with his family and friends, outside Bariloche, at Puerto Manso, in Parque Nacional Nahuel Huapí. The concept, lodging and surroundings look promising enough. Maybe this will be the target for the next trip to Patagonia…

http://www.puertomanso.com/

2006-10-09T19:08:00.000+02:00

Matthewism. Lindqvist, Wallace and Darwin

In his latest collection of essays, “Fadern, sonen och den heliga motorcykeln” (2006), Sven Lindqvist writes about Charles Darwin’s famous stomach problems. He contends that it was no wonder that Darwin vomited in the mornings, considering the terrible secret he was carrying for several decades, until Alfred Russell Wallace (photo) forced him to “come out of the closet” with evolution by natural selection.

Actually Wallace is often placed in the shadow of Darwin, which is somewhat unlucky. He had stated the theory of evoultion by natural selection just as good as or even somewhat better than Darwin. He had suffered more than Darwin in his travels, almost dying in fever and being shipwrecked and losing all his natural collections and notes. He is one of the true heroes of the development of biological science.

As Lindqvist points out, the first person to come up with the theory of natural selection, three decades earlier, was actually neither Darwin nor Wallace, but Patrick Matthew. Matthew was an author of a book of ship timber, and thought natural selection was quite self-evident and nothing to make a big affair out of, so he put the theory in a foot note. So evolution by natural selection might just as well have been called Matthewism.

2006-10-05T19:01:00.000+02:00

The road to Chiloë, 1835

The 25 year old adventurer Charles Darwin passed Chiloë (and the Chonos) on his travels with the “Beagle”, in the southern summer of 1834-1835. He spent some time in November – February on Isla Grande, Lemuy and other islands. He found Chiloë a troublesome but fascinating place. It was terribly rainy, the forest impenetrable and impossible to clear by burning. The people were incredibly poor, although very friendly and helpful.

Charles visited many of the places we did. Strangely enough it is easy to recognize today’s Chiloë in his writings, for example the openness and friendliness to strangers: “Everyone on this road acts on a ‘hail fellow well met fashion’ and one may here enjoy the privilege, so rare in South America, of travelling without firearms.”

He was riding from Ancud via Castro and Chonchi to Cucao and tells of the dangerous roads. “Even where paths exist, they are scarcely passable from the soft and swampy state of the soil.” Some roads were made by logs but they were very wet and slippery. He wondered at the strange manners of women, very unlike that of fine English girls: “Our female companion, who was rather good-looking, belonged to one of the most respectable families in Castro: she rode, however, astride, and without shoes and stockings”.

2006-10-03T22:35:00.000+02:00

What is in a brand?

On SVT2 there was a program today about the community of Gustavsberg. This is famous for fine architecture in the small and medium format. It is above all known for industry of porcelain and other ceramics, with many excellent designers and artists, such as Stig Lindberg and Karin Björquist. The photo shows a piece from her series "Kobolt".

Today the big factory is closed but there is still a lot of small scale activity related to ceramics and handicraft. At the same time, there are plans for establishing Gustavsberg as a conference centre with an 80 store hotel.

Will it be possible for this new "Gustavsberg Harbour" to benefit by using the goodwill of the old trademark, one of Sweden's best known, without ruining what created it?

2006-10-03T22:31:00.000+02:00

The road to Chiloë, 1975

When Bruce Chatwin came to Chiloë, he travelled west toward the Pacific Coast. At that time there was no road to Cucao so from Huillinco people took the ferry over Lago Cucao. He had to travel with the coffin of a dead woman and felt like he was on the river Styx.

Of course he picked up some stories in Cucao, about the witchmaster Millalobo and a baby partly changed into a seal…and about the landing place of the Ferryman (whom you should not call for). This is all in the chapter “Chiloé” in the essay collection “What am I doing here?” He mentions two wooden churches, standing in a field, which could have been built by old celtic monks.

2006-10-01T00:17:00.000+02:00

Gardens of Wij 2 - the Gates

The gardens are a fantastic creative setting. There are many surprises. One of these were the gates made by smithery design students of HDK Steneby . The photo shows a detail of one of these, made by Gustav Karlsson.

2006-09-30T20:20:00.000+02:00

This is still not a design blog - Stig Lindberg

Stig Lindberg was one of the most loved and influential Swedish designers of the 20th century. I grew up in a world where his design was the standard, for example the Domino ashtray shown here, and did not reflect on it or have a distance to it. I just associated this world to the 50's and 60's.

I visited our Nationalmuseum and the exhibition about him and his work. Oddly enough, I was amazed at how many things shown at the exhibition I did not expect to come from him. For example the beautiful, and seemingly un-Lindbergian, Shmoo (Sw: Gnurglor) objects (do you remember the original Shmoo, in Li'l Abner?). And conversely, how many things not shown there that I missed. His very special deck of cards for example, that I used to play with together with the girl next door.

Lindberg has also been celebrated in a thematic issue of the cultural journal Västerbotten in 2005, see the photo.

Read also Klimakteriehäxan's blog (see Favorites), Sept 13, about this exhibition.

2006-09-27T23:35:00.000+02:00

Valsparaíso

Our host in Valparaíso, Miguel Angel Aldunce, is a fine oud and guitar player, and university music teacher, also sometimes touring in Europe. I brought home a live recording by his group “Sala del espejo”, recorded at an event in the former prison, which at least in 2001 was used for a cultural project.

The group has issued at least one official CD, “Mínimo” (2003) , with partly the same music as on the live recording. It is partly a celebration of the home town, one song actually named Valsparaíso, but also a lament of the war in Kosovo.

The music is well described by Íñigo Díaz on the website La Música Emol: “Un debut discográfico de creaciones colectivas que van en distintas direcciones, señaladas a veces más a veces menos por la instrumentación diversa: un clarinete en plan klezmático, un violín reiterativo, solos jazzísticos, cantos abiertos, percusiones “tradicionales y exóticas”, como ellos mismos lo indican.”

2006-09-26T18:22:00.000+02:00

Valparaíso -70 and 2001

Francisco Roca and the Narren theatre group made political music theatre in 1975 about pre-coup Chile, which also resulted in the recording of an LP, Valparaíso -70, mostly with Francisco’s own songs.

I did not get to Valparaíso until 2001. This is an exciting city with a very cosmopolitan feeling. The city is built on a number of hills around the harbour, and the parts of the city have a distinct character from the origin of their original inhabitants – English, Croatian or whatever. We were lucky to have a great host and guide, who is an enthusiast and amateur hometown historian. He took us around Valparaíso, finding his way in its labyrinths, making us ride all the 100 year old escalators, which he was documenting for the purpose of making a documentary CD-ROM.

He also took us to the old prison, which was closed down only a few years ago. There we were guided by a former inmate. This was a very scary place, not least considering that it was one of the places used for imprisonment, isolation, and torture of political opponents of the Pinochet government. It was also strange to hear the former inmate tell about the self-organized community of the prisoners – on harsh terms of course, but still leaving some degrees of freedom.

2006-09-26T17:40:00.000+02:00

Norrland – the Cheese

My uncle was a salesman in car spare parts, travelling all over Norrland in his Vauxhall Velox. He used to bring food and other things back from his trips. I especially liked the cheeses. So I learned at an early age to cherish the sandwiches with white and brown goats cheese.

I still like these a lot, in particular when combined, on white crisp barley bread. My favourite cheeses come from the Högåsen goat farm, produced by the Danish lady who came here a long time ago, falling in love with the landscape and the peace and quiet of the Norrland inland.

2006-09-20T23:11:00.000+02:00

Crossroads - Chatwin and García Lorca

In "In Patagonia", chapter 95, Chatwin writes about the poetry of Garcia Lorca. He surprises a ladies underwear salesman at his hotel in Punta Arenas by recognising the first lines of the García Lorca poem “Lament for Ignacio Sanchez Mejias”: “A las cinco de la tarde. Eran las cinco en punto de la tarde…”

2006-09-18T01:36:00.000+02:00

Sour food

Saure lunge, or saures lüngerl is in Bavaria sold both canned and in many restaurants. It may seem to be the answer to sour herring or rakefisk but I guess it is rather related to pölsa or haggis, which both can be quite tasty.

Still, I was reluctant to try it so I stuck to pork, beef, and duck.

2006-09-16T01:35:00.000+02:00

After the Pope

There are no longer t-shirts, scarves and Vatican flags for sale in Freising. The stores now instead sell the stories of the Pope’s visit, and of what he said. In addition you can also buy photograps of the pope in the Papamobile and blessing the town and people of Freising. There is always a market for something!

Coming home again, I see the church towers of the Freising dom on the TV news, and the comments are about muslim protests against the Pope's speech (in Regensburg). This story will probably not end there...

2006-09-16T01:13:00.000+02:00

Old beer 2

If not the oldest beer, so at least the oldest beer from a monastery (from 1050), is the Weltenburger Kloster Bier. It comes from an amazing place, the former monastery of Weltenburg – now a first-class tourist target, along the upper parts of the Danube. There is still however a baroque style church and of course the brewery.

Weltenburg can be reached by boat along the river, passing upstream through the Donaudurchbruch, a very scenic ravine which was created when the Danube changed its course many millions of years ago. The monastery yard is now a Biergarten with place for hundreds of people drinking the Weltenburg beer and eating matjes herring, Obatzte (a cheese-based, here beer-seasoned paste), or wild boar gulasch stew (a German invention – in Hungary Gulyas leves is a soup).

2006-09-13T15:47:00.000+02:00

Old beer

In Weihenstephan, on the university grounds of Freising, lies the world's oldest brewery still in the business, dating from 1030. Connected with the brewery is also a restaurant with a beer garden, with a nice view of the landscape, and a beer cellar, both for serving food and drink to the guests. The food is excellent at reasonable prices and of course the beer also. My favourite so far is the dark Korbinian, which is a real luxury beer with a big round taste. The best dinner there has so far been the roast duck with blaukraut.

2006-09-12T13:16:00.000+02:00

Crossing trails 2

Wandering the streets of Freising I find a lot of typical German stores with common household stuff, food, fruits, and books (on the Pope). However in a small street there is also a Salento product store with southern food and wine, bringing back memories of the spring in Apulia. Cheese, biscuits, olive oil and vinegar...

Otherwise the food in Bavaria is something very dfifferent from the Mediterranean - but very good. Roast duck, fried ham, sauerkraut, blaukraut, knödeln in various shapes and origin. And beer - more about that later.

2006-09-11T18:39:00.000+02:00

Pope fever

Freising, Bavaria is now in pope fever. The Pope Benedict XVI who once was a student in this town is on official visit to Germany and will come here on Thursday. The town is full with welcome banners and posters, and the bookstores display books by and about him. Unfortunately (?) the Beaver Congress will be on beaver excursion all the day then so we will miss the whole arrangement....on the other hand this event has mostly caused problems with traveling and housing for us.

2006-09-06T00:01:00.000+02:00

A world heritage

Apart from the main island Chiloë Grande, there is also a large archipelago in the straits eastwards to the mainland. If Chiloë Grande is peaceful compared to the mainland, the small island of Lemuy is even more so. It is a piece of countryside nostalgy for a Swede, with some wild Fuchsias with colibris added, which doesn't make it worse.

The Chiloë archipelago houses a fantastic UNESCO Cultural World Heritage, its wooden churches. These have a remarkable common stile across sizes, from the big cathedral in Castro, to village churches such as that in Ichuac on Lemuy.

It is only to hope that the World Heritage status makes it easier to fund maintenance for these buildings, which in some cases was badly needed.

2006-09-01T19:30:00.000+02:00

The road to Chiloë, 2001

Chatwin actually wrote no more than four pages, chapter nr 52, about Chiloë in “In Patagonia”, really. This only deals with the Brujería, the feared sect of (male) witches on the island. Somehow, this chapter triggered my wish to visit Chiloë. Afterwards, I was surprised that he had not written a lot more in the book. It seems typical of Chatwin’s writing, that it starts to live its own life in your mind long after reading. How this happens I haven’t figured out. I guess if I had I would be a writer too.

One more influence was an interesting TV film by Francisco Roca about Chiloë. When we were planning a trip to Chile I took a contact again with Francisco after maybe 20 years. He then actually happened to be in Santiago so we met there. We had some good advice for the Chiloë visit and a telephone number to a contact person. This ultimately led us to a very cosy hotel in Ancud, the northernmost town on the island.

What is true at least is that Chiloë is full of legends and tales, which may be the natural thing for an island that was isolated from the rest of the world for two centuries. Lore of the huilliches mixed with that of the colonists and story telling developed to amazing levels.

2006-08-31T23:37:00.000+02:00

End of summer

It is still warm and the butterflies are swarming in the garden - admiral, peacock butterfly, and tortoiseshell. The admiral is a migrant butterfly. They fly here in spring, lay eggs on nettle plants but (so far) can't survive the winter at our latitude. So the newly hatched butterflies have to migrate back to continental Europe or perish in the cold. Our white clematis appears to be a favorite plant for feeding.

2006-08-31T22:39:00.000+02:00

Patagonia, 1975

The Englishman I shared hotel with is unbearable. Keeps talking all the time. He said he wants to be an author. I find that utterly unlikely to succeed. He has, apart from some newspaper writing, only worked with antiquities so far and says he was successful at that. Why then leave an apparently well-paid job and go to South America just to try to get famous?

He had actually been in Sweden once when he was a boy some twenty years ago, to train a couple of kids in English. His only friend there had turned out to be an old eccentric, no wonder.

He doesn’t understand anything of Argentine politics. This is definitely going to get him into trouble. Apparently it was close already the other day when he started to argue with some policemen. He also annoys most of the locals and he hardly speaks any Spanish. He seems mostly to talk about his ancestors of which he claims that one had sailed to Patagonia. He tries to follow the footsteps of that old fart and other Brits... A strange thing to do in a country on the verge of a military coup.

If he wants to write, why not try to alarm good old England and the rest of the world about young presumed leftists and montonero peronistas who keep disappearing and turn up dead and mutilated by so-called paramilitary groups?

(No, this is not a true story but could well have been, with some weeks difference)

2006-08-23T20:00:00.000+02:00

La Guitarra

Francisco Roca made a musical interpretation of the García Lorca poem La Guitarra on a fine LP from 1977 where he otherwise mostly sings Violeta Parra.

Empieza el llanto
de la guitarra.
Se rompen las copas
de la madrugada.
---
Llora por cosas lejanas
Arena del Sur caliente
Que pide camelias blancas.
Llora flecha sin blanco,
la tarde sin mañana,
y el primer pajaro muerto
sobre la rama
O guitarra!
Corazon malherido
por cinco espadas

This song is very emotional, maybe more so than melodious. I believe it catches a lot of the sentiment in the poem, which partly deals with the war.

I first saw Francisco Roca appear with his group Atacama at a music festival in Uppsala, probably in 1971. At this time, Latin American music with charango, zampoña and drum was not so common as it is now with an Andean group playing in every town square. The audience felt this was something new and exiting. Francisco has since become an institution for Latin American culture in Sweden, working in music, film and writing.

2006-08-22T00:29:00.000+02:00

The passing of decades. Remembering García Lorca.

When the Cristoforo Colombo came into Lissabon November 1975, it was a time of revolutionary worker manifestations there. On this particular day, we joined the largest demonstration I have ever seen, with the whole city full of workers with helmets, waving red flags. The march was, we understood, heading for the Governmental Palace, where the flag was at half the pole. The reason was that Generalissimo Francisco Franco of Spain just had died. The masses demanded that the flag should be raised to the top of the pole, which of course did not happen.

Almost 40 years before, in the summer of 1936, that is exactly 70 years from now, the same Franco had started the Spanish Civil War and his Guardia Civil was cleansing the country from unwanted elements. One of these was the poet and playwright Federico García Lorca, who became an early victim (August 19) of the falangistas because he did not want to leave his country. Thank you Swedish Radio 1, for remembering this, and broadcasting plays by, and about him.

It is a strange coincident, that the same week this year as this anniversary, one of Franco's contemporaries and alikes, Alfredo Stroessner, blood-handed dictator of Paraguay 1954-1989, passed away (August 16).

Photo of García Lorca - SVT Bild.

2006-08-22T00:08:00.000+02:00

Crossing trails

I don't travel at all as much as many people I know. Still I have some experiences of when different journeys cross their trails. We had a fish dinner at a hotel in Porto Cesarea, Puglia, this April, when I noticed a picture of a ship over our table. I realised that I had borded that ship 30 years and a half ago in Genua for Buenos Aires.

I spent more than two weeks on the Cristoforo Colombo eating Italian food and talking, listening to music, and maybe, dancing. I remember the Argentinian couple who we later were to spend a lot of time with, and the basque guy who went to Argentina to get some peace from political turmoil (three months before the military coup!). Also, we stopped in harbours, beginning with Barcelona, Lissabon and Santa Cruz de Tenerife so we could spend the day there.

2006-08-21T23:46:00.000+02:00

Sour Fish 6 - The Economy

A normal year, 1.4 million cans of sour herring leave the Swedish salteries. This year, due to the small herring harvest, only 800 000 cans have been produced, according to Ruben Madsen, president of the Sour Herring Academy, interviewed in Dagens Industri on August 17. Considering that the price is 40-50 SEK per can, this still means a turnover of maybe 40 million SEK. This is not as much as the estimate of the North Swedish vendace roe production - 100 million SEK, for 80 tonnes of roe (DI August 14).

However, with the sour herring sales, there is also a market for thin crisp bread, potatoes, onions, sour cream and tomatoes at a value of 350 SEK to go with each can - a total of 320 million SEK for the fish parties. And then we haven't even counted the beer and booze....

Picture from the Sour Herring Academy.

2006-08-14T22:18:00.000+02:00

Sour fish 5 - The Contest

The other evening we tried three popular brands of sour herring, all from different provinces. All cans were last years herring, which is usually preferred by fermentation connoisseurs. All brands were fine but our judgements differed. My own opinion was that Oskars and Hannells were very even in taste and Storö was a little bit behind.

But what will happen to our delicacy in the future? According to Jan Söderström, chairman of the fish salting industries in Norrland, interviewed in Dagens Industry on July 7, the catches of herring have been halved in two years. - Finnish trawlers fishing for mink food take all little fish, he said, preventing herring from growing up.

2006-08-13T23:00:00.000+02:00

A world of music

This official year of diversity in Sweden the Urkult festival decided, maybe as a bit of provocation, to almost only book artists from the Nordic countries. Nevertheless, they have their roots in thirty different countries. On Saturday of the festival, you could listen to Senegalese Galaxy from Finland, Andra Generationen from Sweden with Turkish and Romani music, etc., and 20-yr-celebrating Baba Blues, on the photo.
A personal highlight on Saturday was taking part of the three-hour chanting workshop of Amina Annabi, where I learned that I actually could hold a tone steadily for more than a few seconds. Yes, this was the same Amina who should have won the Eurovision Song Contest in 1991, and almost did so, instead of a certain Swedish singer....now a steadily returning Urkult fan.

2006-08-13T22:35:00.000+02:00

The virtual made real
- only by clowns!

Cirkus Urkus, Sirqus Alfon and Clowns Without Borders made great shows, tricks and music during the festival. They also made the seemingly impossible - perform a jump in slow motion - in reality. At least this is what we believed we saw. This happened at Urkult festival, on the Friday. The profits from the festival this year go to Clowns Without Borders who travel to refugee camps all over the world and make life a little happier for the children.

2006-08-13T21:58:00.000+02:00

Fire night in the north

The now traditional fiery first night, Thursday, of the best festival of all, Urkult , was this year created by the "international fire theatre wizard" David Eveleigh. It was just amazing and a suitable inauguration of the festival. The night was almost chilly so the fire helped warming - until the firebrigade came and put it out so the band could play safely.

2006-08-01T00:06:00.000+02:00

Sofia is also for real

At the island song festival, maybe the finest appearance was that of Sofia Karlsson and her musicians. Their interpretations of songs by poet Dan Andersson and beloved songwriter Olle Adolphson made the audience' feelings swing between sorrow and happiness. The intimacy of a small stage and closeness between performers and listeners create great meetings.

Dan Andersson's songs are just almost too romantic and sentimental, and we cry to them everytime. In particular when they are sung and accompanied so beatifully. Maybe you think his songs are too much tied to memories from the remote forests in Sweden's early 1900's? No, they have a potential of moving people all over the world.

As just one example, here is the Spanish version of the beginning of "Tiggarn från Luossa", translated by Kiko del Paraguay (Pompeyo Lugo Méndez), who learned about Dan Andersson in Sweden and still works with his material after 17 years back in South America. Reality for poor forest people in Paraguay today is close to the stories in the poems.

"En los cerros de Luossa en una noche de sol, los humildes aldeanos oyen a un mendigo cantar, de mendigos, caminantes, ilusiones y de sueños, y de su melancolía toda la noche cantó."

Just by chance, I find that Kiko is actually playing at the Dan Andersson Festival in Ludvika in Dalarna, and receiving the Dan Andersson price, on this very Tuesday! I hope Sofia will be there! At least she will play there on Saturday...

2006-07-31T23:39:00.000+02:00

A day in the garden

Sun is scorching the lawn. No rain for weeks. Flowers need constant watering. Carrying of buckets again and again up from the well. Success - rosebuds turn into flowers, at last. Small tortoiseshell butterflies abound, having grown up in the rich nettle fields down in the broadleaf forest. Bumblebees are crazy about the alpine eryngo, searching all the little flowers for nectar, seemingly forgetful of all possible dangers of the world.

2006-07-25T00:28:00.000+02:00

Laleh is for real

Reconnecting to what is real or virtual (May 15)...on the street festival, Mr Swedish summer himself, Tomas Ledin, appeared on the biggest stage and at the same time we saw him on two gigantic screens. Sometimes the audience could see itself instead (do we know it is this actual audience?). On one screen video clips are sometimes displayed. To improve the show? I leave the place, disappointed, after a few songs.

Earlier that day I saw Laleh on a much smaller stage. That was very much real and much more exciting. All the little thrilling brilliant moments of unpredictability. Only voice, body, guitar, piano, and a small band. No screens, no video, just pure presence. Nature beautifully celebrated her performance with rays of evening sun through showers of rain.

Visit Lalehs webb!

Photo: Evelina Attervall, Sundsvalls Tidning

2006-07-24T21:11:00.000+02:00

Sour fish 4 - now in Sweden

The other day I was happy enough, for the first time, to run across a package of rakfisk (rakefisk) at a local store. At least it was packed in Sweden, and possibly also produced here. We invited a group of neighbours to a "strange food" summer party and to their surprise this was "better than sour herring". As I did not have the original drink (see July 3) to go with it I tried a calvados-spiced sweet Swedish Christmas aquavit, which turned out very well. Spendrups Old Gold pilsner beer (3,5) blended in OK with it.

To give away the whole menu, we continued with a smoked Canada goose, a potato, olive, and caper salad, and a Sauvignon blanc. After that an Italian peccorino-type cheese. Finally, a dessert on dried fruit with creamy milk.

2006-07-11T02:33:00.000+02:00

Gardens of Wij

There is an amazing rose garden, a forest and wetland garden, a vegetable garden, experimental gardens of students, art exhibitions, plant shopping, great food and coffee. All in all, strongly recommended if you like culture, nature, or both. Just go to Ockelbo. Or check it out on the webb
first.

2006-07-11T01:37:00.000+02:00

Two days in the archipelago

We rowed and sailed all day without coming much closer to Finland. After thirteen hours and a half in the boat we finally stumbled ashore on the island of Björkö. After being welcomed at midnight by friendly locals with sauna, coffee and blueberry cake we were ready to fight the mosquitoes and find a campsite. In the morning, the same wind persisted so we sailed home without much effort in just seven hours. Only after rounding the last point did we have to row against the wind for half an hour.

The post rowing in small traditional boats is a celebration of old contacts over the straits of Kvarken, and a remembrance of the crown's demand for mail transports. Many thanks to fellow crew and the mate.

Photo by Olle Nygren, Damina, who was also our security staff. Yes, the horizon was actually slanting that day.

2006-07-03T15:29:00.000+02:00

Sour fish 3 - the drink

On request (!) I am happy to present Oplandske Rakefisk Aquavit, a sweet and spicy potato-based liquor of Scandinavian type. I have only tried it with the rakefisk I described before.

It was tested by Apéritif which called it an interesting aquavit, which I can agree on, click here!

In an earlier test they recommended it also to mature cheeses and even to Danish breakfast. I don't know exactly what the latter would include but it will certainly not be anything embraced by Swedish dietists...

2006-06-26T23:52:00.000+02:00

Sour fish 2

In Norway's countryside there is small-scale production of rakefisk, a dish prepared from trout - rakørret - or arctic charr - rakrøye. Unlike herring, the fish is cleaned out and cut into pieces, before it is fermented for a couple of months at low temperature with salt and a little sugar added. If the process is going in the right way there should be a breadish smell about it.

The charr has a milder taste but the trout improves after being stored a half year. Served with boiled potatoes and Norwegian flatbread this smooth fish is a great experience. The specially spiced brand of aquavit that should accompany this is rare in liquor stores.

2006-06-21T22:24:00.000+02:00

Sour fish 1

Our neighbours invited us for sour herring some days ago (not this brand though). This is a delicacy every time whether served with only fine boiled potatoes and a lager beer, or with (hopefully freshly homebaked) thin white bread and onions, or even tomatoes. Last years release is usually the best choice, if not the next to last - the flesh should not be to firm, and there should be a gaseous feel to it.

It is a pity that only few brands remain out many that existed a few decades ago. Maybe we can hope for a development like the beer market? The eating habit seems to spread down into the south. I still remember the best herring I ever had, thirty years ago - the taste, like an old danish cheese, and the green colour of the can.... unfortunately not the name of the brand though - but that would not help revive it anyway.

I was happy to hear my cousin, who fishes his own herring, tell me that he is learning to make his own sour herring. I hope to have the chance to try that later on....

2006-06-21T00:28:00.000+02:00

This is not a design blog

However I can't resist commenting on how everyday wares are turned into collectors items. The likes of this butter container from Rörstrand, Picknick no 44, designed by Marianne Westman in the 1960's, are now sold on auctions even in England. On one hand this is an acknowledgement to fine Swedish design and a sign that it should be valued. On the other hand how can you dare to use it when you know that its value in £ or SEK will go on increasing? To read more about Picknick and its relatives in the Pomona series, click here.

If you want to read about Marianne Westman, click here!

If you want a real design blog instead, click here!

2006-06-20T00:06:00.000+02:00

A forgotten people

The little-known Messapians lived in what is today the Salento region. They were at odds with the Greeks in the area and the two peoples fought each other until they were both conquered by the Romans. Their equally little-known language is said to be of Illyrian origin so they might have come from the East. Lithuanian linguists (note alliteration) consider it to be similar to Baltic tongues which is controversial but maybe gives to these a more civilized aura.

At Roca Vecchia we found a large field of ruins where excavations apparently proceeded very slowly if at all. We had to cross a cut-up barbed-wire fence to find this attraction which was listed in our guide-book. If the ruins had been of Italic origin they probably would have been well studied and marked-up, maybe even with some information signs! Messapians are left to oblivion instead of being recognized among the roots of Italian culture.

It seems though that some recent traces have been found in New York City...
Click to read the play about the last Messapians!

2006-06-16T23:49:00.000+02:00

Ricci in Puglia

Ricci are seasonal seafood, only used when they breed. The ovaries, "corals" in English, are eaten raw (alive, actually) with a small spoon or a piece of bread after they are opened with a ricci opener. We found them in April on the coast between Otranto and Lecce. The are both salt and sweet. We were served by Marcello in his small provisional shelter on the coast (the picture is NOT on Marcello). The price was 10 € for about 15, including bread. A friendly customer who was finished gave us his half full wine bottle - this is BYO country.

My mediterranean seafood bible tells about a number of ways to prepare ricci: Oursinado (soup), Omelette d'Oursins and Daurade (Guilt-head bream) à la Crème d'Oursins. Or simply in the scrambled eggs. Save one coral for decoration!

2006-06-16T22:15:00.000+02:00

A day in the archipelago

The air is filled with terpentic, oily and tarry smells as boats are being prepared for the summer's use. Missing details need to be fixed and replaced. Soon it is time for the annual post rowing adventure between Sweden and Finland in traditional boats. This is a way to honour past generations of archipelago people and understanding something of their ways. For them life was very much about rowing and sailing whether they were fishing, looking after cattle, collecting hay, or hunting seals. A difference is that we have mobile phones, gps, and modern life vests. They were totally dependent on themselves.

2006-06-14T18:08:00.000+02:00

Not A Good Idea

Jan Leopoldovich Larri was a latvian author who wrote an anonymous letter to Stalin in december 1940, with part of a science fiction manuscript "Visitors from the sky" describing the future of the Soviet Union a century later, from a visiting Marsian's point of view. It was not altogether a pretty picture he painted. So Stalin's agents of course found out who sent the letter and Larri was to spend the next 15 years in the GULAG.

He is famous for the children's book "The wonderful adventures of Karik and Valja". Read more about this in part 25 in the series "Insekternas litteraturhistoria" in the latest issue of "Natur i Norr", see http://www.emg.umu.se/biginst/andersn/09_ins_litt_25.pdf

Back issues from 2002 and on are found at: http://www.emg.umu.se/biginst/andersn/NEF_NiN.htm - with Strugatski brothers, subcomandante Marcos, Tranströmer and many others.

2006-06-12T22:20:00.000+02:00

A night in the archipelago

At last - time for archipelago nature. Travelling in boat at night among the islets. The boat passes slowly over the shallow areas. Black guillemots swarm like big insects, velvet scoters like heavy black projectiles, arctic terns and black-backed gulls hover over the boat. All islets are different individuals. The sun goes down over Grossgrundet. The night is surprisingly warm and never gets dark. Still, we can see flickering of the lighthouses - white light of Holmögadd, and green of Stora Fjäderägg. For how long will they still send their beams over the straits of Kvarken, in this era of satellite-directed navigation?

2006-06-06T22:30:00.000+02:00

On Time

A few days ago I had an uplifting experience of finding a total creative flow together with a group of people I had not seen for three decades (yes I am that old). Could it be that we remembered how to cooperate in a dynamic way, over all the time that had passsed? And knew exactly to what degree we should respect or confront each other?

I had reasons to reflect on what it is we recognize in people over a longer period of time. A beard or a moustache, hair style – these are important at first. After a while, the person you used to know works his/her way out through the surface and becomes visible again.

I also reflected over the self. What does it mean to develop over time? Who was I then? Who am I now? What has changed and why? In what sense am I the same person as 32 years ago, and in what not?

We discussed the ideas we had in common and ideas that differed. I found out that differences in political ideas, seemingly big at that time, were in reality only superficial. We had much more values in common than we realized at that time. How much are these tied to our being of a certain generation? The common identity maybe was in the discourse itself?

2006-05-23T23:45:00.000+02:00

Diversity as quality

This is a continuation from a comment on the significance of language differences at Peters blog, on www.formandmatter.com, where I argued that there is a value in the diversity of human languages. More languages contain a larger amount of information and adds quality to human culture, generally speaking.

My friend who is a language-freak brought me a very fine chorizo from Mallorca, but the real gift was actually the package, where the name of the product was written in four different languages: Castellano, Basque, Gallego and Catalan. For the Spanish, the right to a regional language is an important part of living in democracy. Without allowing regional languages the nation might explode.

On the other hand in Yugoslavia, language was part of the ethnic conflict and Serbo-Croatian rapidly split into Serbian and Croatian, as the nation also did so, and all possible language differences were searched for and enlarged.

In Spain and Ireland for examples there are road signs with double languages. This is only starting to develop in Northern Sweden. Will we se a surge in Sami road signs, now that the Sami languages along with Meänkieli, Yiddish and Romani are acknowledged as parallel languages in Sweden? What will the political effects of this be?

2006-05-19T18:04:00.000+02:00

Speciesism against beavers?

The night before last Sunday a beaver checked in at a hotel in Örebro, central Sweden, according to the Swedish news agency TT. It walked right through the reception and into a room. It was caught and evicted by the municipal hunter. Now this seems like an blatant case of speciesism. What was the reason given for this? Was it the rumours that beavers could start gnawing on furniture? Had it been served herbes or shrubs by the hotel this would likely not happen. Rock stars and other humans are known to devastate hotel rooms but hotels still go on letting bands rent rooms. Or was it a belief that the beaver would not pay for the room? The beaver would probably have a house somewhere in a creek that could serve as security at the bank. Maybe the hotel feared that the beaver would "lay a cable" on the hotel room carpet? But as far as I know beavers shit in water so it would most certainly use the WC. No, this can be nothing else than pure speciesism without any cause against beavers.

2006-05-15T23:05:00.000+02:00

Inside or outside?

At the conference Netlearning 2006, we are – in an excellent lecture by Terry Anderson – asked to be skeptical against lectures…."if one thinks a teacher’s job is to dispense information, then teachers are obsolete"…..but we are also asked to be skeptical against his own lecture.

During the conference talks the room is lit by the blue light of scores of computer screens as the audience are following, and contributing to, the Internet chat about its video-streamed version. Yes, I have followed this at other occasions, either being ”inside” or ”outside” a conference or seminar. The new here was that the participants actually present in the room felt they had to get connected not to fear being ”outside” although they technically were ”inside” (or were they? This is like playing a game of Go).

Likewise, in an interview sent during the conference, with Finnish researcher Yrjö Engeström questioned if it is meaningful today to make a difference between “real” and “virtual” – as he said this in the studio, he commented whether the interview was “real” or “virtual” – and viewing this, we could not quite know how real the show we saw really was. Which I guess proves him right?

Highlights during the conference were the provocations by Elza Dunkels and Wim Veen about the net culture of a new generation. However I could not help thinking of us in the audience as inhabitants of a doomed planet trying to grasp life on another celestial body by sending out anthropological observers, searching informants among friendly natives. To what benefit for the galaxy?

2006-05-15T22:58:00.000+02:00

Starting beaverblogger

True to my own nature, I stumbled head first, without intention, into the world of blogs. Well, so be it. This blog might come to deal with not only beavers but also Messapian culture, archipelago nature, seafood recipes or Ursula K. LeGuin’s short stories. Your comments will be appreciated.
Bloggers note: This blog started out as beaverblogger and later changed to earthsea.