Strindbergs dramatik i 'högläst' form!

Detta är ett event som tillkommit till följd av 100-årsminnet av August ('Ågust') Strindbergs död, nästa år, 2012.

Teater-och filmföreningen KLASSEN har skapat detta projekt och man bjuder in skådespelare som deltar i offentliga läsningar av alla Strindbergs pjäser. Efter dessa läsningar utbryter - förhoppningsvis - samtal kring det man hört och kring Strindberg som dramatiker.

För mer information se: http://www.filmochteaterklassen.com/

Gustav III

(Picture taken from: http://danielsundstrom.se/wp-content/uploads/Gustav-III1.jpg)

This day in 1792 the Swedish king Gustav III died from the wounds he got when shot by Jacob Johan Anckarström.

I will not go into the details concerning his death and the history around the conspirators as this is well known data.
What I would like to say is that Sweden, from a cultural point of view, is in need of a person like Gustav III today. This as culture in all its different representations, is seen only as something 'supplementary' to other 'more important' areas in society.
Our politicians today don't understand that culture is the single most important factor for the development and survival of our society(ies).

Of course I'm not in favour of the despotic traits in his person and the fact that he was a dictator and of course he was rewarded prices from institutions he had favoured, almost making him look like one of the foremost artists at the time, something he was not (compare despots as Kim Jong Il and others) but his interest in and promotion of culture in all its prevailing diversity, is something we would need today.
He continued and supported the ideas put forward during the Age of Liberty and thereby founded or promoted institutions as The Royal Swedish Academy of Music, The Royal Swedish Academy of Arts, The Swedish Theatre, The Royal Swedish Opera, The Royal Swedish Ballet, The Swedish Academy, The Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities.

I know that the interest and support for the culture - as with Louis XIV of France - lead to that the poor was neglected but Sweden of today (and France) can afford both a rich cultural life and support for the weakest in society.
Unfortunately the Swedish governments - whether 'left' or 'right' - neglect both.

The Swedish political leaders today are to nonliterate to realize the importance of culture and the Royal family are concentrating most of their work on the promotion of technique, industry and the more 'classical' export areas in Sweden.
The king is no Gustav III.

This might change when an intellectual person comes to power in Sweden but will this ever happen?

Wenche Foss död

Svenska:

Den norska skådespelerskan - och i Norge känd som den stora divan - Wenche Foss avled idag.

English:

The Norwegian actress - and in Norway known as the great 'Diva' - Wenche Foss died today.

My recording together with Lord Shades

This Sunday I made a recording together with the doom metal band Lord Shades and one of my french friends in the band, Alexandre Imbert. They needed an 'opera voice' or as closely as possible and as Alexandre had heard me sing before, he asked me if I would like to participate and I said yes.
I'll add some photos but first some of their tunes:

The Official Year of Volunteering

The European Commission has decided to propose that 2011 be designated the 'European Year of Volunteering'.

The Council is expected to endorse this decision, after the European Parliament has been consulted, by the beginning of next year.

By dedicating 2011 to the topic of volunteering one want the member states, regional and local communities and civil society to achieve the following objectives:

1. Work towards an enabling and facilitating environment for volunteering in the EU;

2. Empower volunteer organisations and improve the quality of volunteering;

3. Reward and recognise volunteering activities; and

4. Raise awareness of the value and importance of volunteering.

The Commission expects that the European Year of Volunteering will lead to an increase in volunteeringand to greater awareness of its added value, and that it will highlight the link between voluntary engagement at local level and its significance in the wider European context.

These aims are good but of course one can see both negative and positive effects of the endorsement of voluntary work.

On the one hand we have to ask ourselves why every kind of work we engage ourselves in have to be compensated economically, on the other hand the question is: Who will engage themselves in voluntary work? Politicians, decision makers, people working within the bureaucracy, the bank managers?

No, of course not, only those who already are poorly paid, lacking the wages they ought to have if one take into consideration the importance of their work etc.

These people are already working voluntary, through the fact that their wages/salaries is correlated to the kind of work they perform.

In France there are a lot of voluntary work done by people within voluntary organisations and quite a number of people are engaged in voluntary work also in Sweden, though less.

In this case I get the impression that the governments are trying to revaluate the voluntary work, officially that is to say, in order to take advantage of people and thereby not having to compensate them for doing this kind of - often - very important work.

(Logo taken from : https://www.slideshare.net/fingalvolunteercentre/european-year-of-volunteering-2011-launch-for-fingal)

R.I.P. Liz Taylor

(Photo taken from: http://celebrity-pics.movieeye.com/celebrity_pictures/Elizabeth_Taylor_402355.jpeg)

(Photo taken from: http://earsucker.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/Elizabeth-Taylor-hospital.jpg)

Literature about Japan/Litteratur om Japan

In 1995, the physical, social and maybe psychological landscape of Japan was transformed by two events:
The Kobe earthquake, in January, which destroyed thousands of lives, and the poison-gas attacks in the Tokyo subways in March, during the morning rush hour.
These two events made Haruki Murakami abandon his life abroad and return home.

The subway attack led to his book 'Underground' where he made a kind of journalistic investigatoin, interviewing 60 victims and 8 members of the Aum group.

The earth quake led to the above six stories, all enacted between the natural catastrophy and the terrorist attack.
The main characters normal day-to-day-life is turned upside down and Murakami discover a lot of human positive trait of characters, not so visible before these catastrophies and it's these human reactions he is describing in the book.
Japan is now living through an ever bigger catastrophy - something that will lead Murakami to penetrate the same questions in another book?

'Trollsländans namn' är titeln på Monica Braws bok och det är också ett gammalt namn för Japan.
I denna bok presenterar Monica Braw (fil.dr. i japansk historia) ny forskning och egna reportage om kejsare, samurajer, munkar, kvinnor, bönder, stadsbefolkning och poeter.

I denna bok vill hon bl.a. visa att bilden av "det stängda Japan" under 250 år är en sanning med modifikation; att Japnas utveckling inte har varit isolerad utan alltid nära förbunden med omvärlden; att samhället sjöd av förändringar och förhoppningar även under den s.k. Tokugawa-tiden, då shôgun, samurajledaren regerade.

Boken ger enligt förläggaren ett vidvinkelperspektiv på Japan och japaner alltfrån stenåldern till Meijirestaurationen 1868 och detta kanske resulterar i en ny Japanbild hos den breda allmänheten?

I denna bok visas upp en rik bildskatt med fotografier tagna av japanska fotografer från Japan daterande sig till slutet av 1800- och början av 1900-talet.
Samlingen inköptes av Ida Trotzig 1917-18 på uppdrag av Etnografiska museet och skildrar det dagliga livet i Japan från olika perspektiv.
samtidigt den enormt stora förändringen som ägde rum under åren kring dåtida sekelskifte.

Ingmar Bergman exhibition Berlin

(Photo taken from: http://img.listal.com/image/445213/600full-ingmar-bergman.jpg)

Ingmar Bergman. Truth and Lies is the title of an exhibition at Deutsche Kinemathek - Museum für Film und Fernsehen in Berlin

The interesting or problematic part in this, is that this exhibition is held in Berlin - not problematic per se - but no Swedish museums or institutions seem to have been interested in taking over the exhibition when it ends the 29th of May!

Surprising? No, not at all, as Ingmar Bergman - as well as many other great Swedish cultural personalities - tend to evoke more interest abroad than in Sweden. This probably because - in the case of Bergman - his films deals with emotional, intellectual issues, questions about belief and 'non-belief', life and death, what is important in life and what is not, how different psychological developments in a persons life also affect his or her life and the life of others, in short the characters in Bergmans films are preoccupied with the intellectual questions concerning from where do we stem, why and (whither) where are we heading? These kind of questions does not appeal to a society as superficial as the Swedish, unfortunately.

Those interesting in getting to know Bergman better - or at least his works - can choose between 130 stage productions, 42 radio productions, 23 television plays and 39 movies/films and if this isn't enough there are a number of documentaries on Bergman.

The exhition in Berlin started January 27 and continues til 29th of May, 2011.

(Photo taken from: http://assets.nydailynews.com/img/2007/07/31/gal_ingmar1.jpg)

The Super Moon

(Photo taken from: http://www.expressen.se/nyheter/1.2371738/i-natt-ar-supermanen-har. Photographer Jan Wiridén)

Tonight the moon passes the Earth at a distance of 356 578 kilometres, closer than anytime since 1992.

In connection with this kind of phenomena, there have been great natural catastrophies reported but some scientists say that this is not at all as closely related as one might think.
However, if there are some turbulence in the geological activities somewhere on earth, a 'giant moon' like this might be disengaging factor, others say.

We'll see about this...

Stefan Jarl 70

(Photo taken from: http://www.gp.se/image_processor/1.391195.1276511182!/image/
4216980332.jpg_gen/derivatives/wide/4216980332.jpg?maxWidth=440)

One of the most interesting Swedish film makers/directors today turns 70!

It's positive to see that some of 'the older generation' beginning their careers in the late 1960's is still going strong.

For most of you he is best known for his trilogy about the drug addicts 'Stoffe' and 'Kenta' in the films 'Dom kallars oss mods' ('They call us misfits'/'On nous appelle les mods', 1968); 'Ett anständigt liv' ('A Decent Life', 1979) and 'Det sociala arvet' ('Generation to Generation', 1993).


Besides this he has made a great number of very interesting and thought-provoking films, the latest one 'Underkastelsen' ('Submission', 2010), is a film about the environmenal- and health problems connected to all the chemicals surrounding us in our daily life, affecting our bodies (and minds?)..

In Sweden Jarl has been seen as somewhat controversial, not least among politicians and the bureaucracy, as is the case with the Swedish director Roy Andersson.
This because both of them have criticized the Swedish society and the way it has developed, not least throughout the 'Golden Years' - the first decades after WWII - under the Swedish Social Democratic Party.
Doing so is anathema in Sweden, more during the 1960's til 1980's perhaps but still the political leaders want the Swedes to believe that they live in a Schlaraffenland and everyone criticizing this image is almost Persona Non Grata!

Congratulations Stefan Jarl!!

R.I.P. Michael Gough

Kultur gör hjärnan friskare

Ett inslag i Nyhetsmorgon med min namne och kusin Gunnar Bjursell samt artisten, sångerskan, körledaren Caroline af Ugglas.

De diskuterar kulturens inverkan på hjärnan och hur sistnämnda påverkas positivt och utvecklas med hjälp av olika kulturella uttryck - och intryck.

Dalai Lama retires?

Dalai Lama recently declared that he will put forward a proposition that allows him to withdraw from the political responsibility in connection to the next meeting with the government-in-exile in March this year.

Next summer Dalai Lama - or Tenzin Gyatso - will become 75 and he has for long stressed the importance of creating a government of younger politicians, elected by the Tibetan people.

This might be a move in order to give the movement more strength and credibility among the Chinese leaders but also worldwide as some influential debaters oppose the religious leadership, as this would become a sort of theocracy, not in accordance with modern, democratic rules.

If the government-in-exile is 'converted' into a regular political body this might give them a greater strength and a formal status or position in the eyes of the World Community.

I doubt that Dalai Lama will leave the international scene, he will just concentrate on other tasks related to the liberation movement, aiming at an independent Tibet, free from the dictatorial rule of China.

On the other hand, Dalai Lama has himself been accused of trying to create a very top-down society with himself as both spiritual and political leader and this has caused negative publicity.

Now he can fully concentrate on the spiritual side, as important as the political I would say.

Representatives for the government-in-exile says that it might be difficult for some of them to accept the stepping down of Dalai Lama as the political leader and China says this is just a "trick" to fool the world.

They argue that the Lama will continue to act 'behind the curtains' and that nothing will change and as the Chinese government looks upon the Lama as an extremist - or why not a 'terrorist', using the now common word for all kinds of uprising, whether or not legitimate - they want him out of the way, declaring that the Chinese government are to decide who should become the next Lama. The Chinese government wants to decide who is the 'legitimate' lama, not leaving it to the religious community or the people.

This might lead to a situation with two religious leaders, one sanctioned by China, the other by the religious community and the people: 'Divide and Rule'!

Dalai Lama has now lived in exile since 1959.

Exhibition London's Brick Lane: QUEEN

One of my all time favourites among rock bands!

From a text about the exhibition:

A new exhibition opens in London's Brick Lane, the first five years of the of one of the worlds greatest rock band Queen.

This major retrospective exhibition celebrates the formation and first five albums of one of the most exciting, glamorous and influential bands in global musical history.

'Stormtroopers in Stilettos' is the first ever major Queen exhibition and takes place in a huge warehouse space in the heart of London's East End at Old Truman Brewery on Brick Lane, opening on February 25th, closing on March 12th.

Disorder was invited to the press night and the exhibition... and a good, boozy night was had by all!

Swedish comedian Lasse Eriksson dead

This is a presentation of the Swedish comedian/artist Lasse Eriksson, introduced to those of you who don't know him, by a friend of mine, Björn Jakobsson (Björns Blåa Blogg).

Below an interview in Swedish where he talks about a book he has co-written or edited: