I realised last night what an anti-social creature I’ve become. To avoid conversation and contact with other human beings while on the bus to Circular Quay, I actually put my headphones on without the sound playing. It was actually quite good, as the headphones both blocked out the sound, and gave me the ability to appear invisible.
That’s what headphones do you know. They allow you a moment of quiet in an otherwise busy city. And for the less socially conscious, they allow you ignore people begging for money without appearing to be heartless. Sorry, that’s being a tad cynical.
I was on my way into the city to see “Up Close & Musical” at Sydney Theatre. While many would think of nothing but sleep at 11.15pm, I really love the idea of late night cabaret and I’m really pleased it was well-attended.
Star of the show was Genevieve Lemon (currently Priscilla Queen of the Desert) who has lost a significant amount of weight, by the way. She sang some great songs and was warmly welcomed by the audience.
Supporting her were Jennifer Peers (a beautiful voice and loads of fun with a routine where she sang a classical piece with her own humorous surtitle) along with Luke Barron and Jason Langley.
A great night out, especially since the $18 (I was shouted, actually) also included a generous glass of wine.
“There’ll be a new book, a fourth one at the end of August”, we were told today by Carin, our tour group leader for the “(Stieg Larsson) Millenium Tour” run by the Stockholm City Museum, Stockholm Stadsmeet. “We don’t know very much about it”, she went on to say, “except that it hasn’t been written by Stieg Larsson”. The author of the new book was a surprise to me. He is David Lagercrantz, who wrote the best selling book about Swedish footballer, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, and for whom, Carin told us, there was “sport” in writing a new book with the Millenium characters, more than about making money. She also told us there was a fourth unfinished manuscript, and that Larsson had scoped out several other books.
Millenium Tour Group
Having watched the three Swedish films, and the American one, having read all through books in English, and having slowly started the first in Swedish, I was really interested in undertaking the tour. My friend, Grant, had also been on the tour a couple of years ago, and had highly recommended it. I would recommend it too.
Bellmansgatan 1, the apartment where Mikael Blomqvist lived
Over two hours, as you walk around the streets of Södermalm, you get a really strong sense of the physicality of the places mentioned in the books. Our tour guide, Carin, was also really knowledgeable about the films, and about the places that made it into the films, and those which didn’t. Often the changes were made for practical reasons, such as the inability of a film crew to actually fit into a small one-way street. Other times they were made for artistic and aesthetic reasons, such as finding another location which illustrated a thematic point better.
One of the restaurants featured in the book, though it never featured in the moviesKaffee, a shop which features in the American movie, though not in the Swedish movies.,
Carin has also had some lovely anecdotes about the film. For example, for the American film they needed to recreate a winter scene in Stockholm in the middle of May, and so brought in a great deal of man-made snow. There is, however, a continuity error, as in some of the scenes, you’ll actually see snow mixed with trees with their leaves on, and pot plants in full-bloom.
The tour begins with the home of Mikael Blomqvist, and ends with the home of Lisbeth Salander, which we were told was actually owned by a family who doesn’t actually live in the house, except for their annual New Years Eve Party. What a waste! It has great views.
The top two floors of the apartment block where Lisbeth Salander lived, though also not featured in the movies.
The tour guide, Carin, was excellent. She was clearly knowledgable about the books, and with many interesting insights I’d never considered previously. For example, she notes all of the “good” characters live on Södermalm, Kungsholmen is “neutral ground”, and all of the bad characters live in other parts of Stockholm. She also mentioned the connection with Astrid Lindgren’s work, which I’d never previously knew about. Carin brought a lovely sense of humour to the tour as well, and so it was a really enjoyable way to spend a couple of hours on a Saturday afternoon in Stockholm. Highly recommended.
There was a lot of anticipation as Colin and I entered the Dendy Opera Quays Cinema to see “The Queen”. Being a mostly middle-aged to older audience, we all happily stood in line, waiting for the previous screening to exit before we could enter. As the rope was dropped, we all walked quickly and politely into the cinema. But not everyone was so polite, as one woman jumped over the rope and refused to listen to the hapless attendant who unsuccessfully tried to remind her of the queue. It was like a rock concert and a mosh-pit, except I was the youngest by about twenty years. Still, I’d been anticipating the film for a fair while, and it was the only one of the “Boxing Day” films that I really wanted to see.
I find it hard to fully articulate the reasons why I wanted to see the film so much though, except to say I like bio-pics, I think the story of Diana’s death is fascinating, and I was confident with the assembled cast the movie would be told with both humour and sensitivity, and it was.
Like millions of others I’d watched the endless hours of rolling news coverage when news broke of Diana’s death. And like millions of others I’d watched Diana’s funeral, and shed a tear or two when funeral procession went past with the card simply entitled “mummy” was attached to a bunch of flowers. Even now, the outpouring of grief associated with Diana’s death – which the Royal Family in this film failed to understand – seems entirely natural, in stark contrast to some of the more recent displays of “public grief”.
Interestingly, it’s Prince Charles who comes closest of all members of the Royal Family to understanding the grief, relating it to the modern world, explaining how the Queen had grown up in a different time, and rationalising it by explaining to the Queen & The Duke that “the public didn’t know the Diana we did”. I still don’t know what to make of such favourable coverage of the Prince, nor that of Tony Blair.
The film is very funny and sometimes touching. For me, one of the most powerful moments was when, reluctantly, the Queen walks “amongst her people”. As the Queen walks past and observes phrases hand-written on cards such as “you were too good for them”, she is clearly shaken. But just for a moment, and moving on, she makes contact with “her people” and you sense that although the public was pissed off with the Queen for remaining at Balmoral during that time, they were fairly quick to forgive.
Being on the other side of the world, and with no recently family connection to the UK, I suppose I’ll never really understand fascination the English have with the Royal Family. I can, however, appreciate a good story, and “The Queen” is just that, a really good story, told and acted well.
“I’m sorry, I’m running late”, I told some friends via Messenger today. Though there has been talk of it for a few months, I hadn’t quite comprehended the impact of the changes to bus routes in Sydney’s “Eastern Suburbs”.
For as long as I can remember, I’ve been able to catch three separate bus routes to Sydney’s “Railway Square”: 372, 393 and 395. On a personal level, this has been wonderful, as I’ve been able to catch a bus from the Surry Hills Shopping Village to Railway Square, only a few hundred metres from my work. On rainy days, in particular, this has been very convenient, as I’ve been able to get to work undercover pretty much all of the way.
But the changes have reduced these routes into a single 374 which, guess what, no longer goes to Railway Square. From the Transport for NSW brochure and from Google Maps I thought it did, but I was wrong.
I THOUGHT I could catch the bus from outside the now-empty Surry Hills Village, and it would take me to a bus station at Haymarket, which would allow me to catch another bus to Leichardt, where I was meeting friends, but I was wrong.
With a slight diversion, I walked past Belmore Park and saw this. WTF? A teabag on a phonebooth? There are so many garbage bins closeby. Why couldn’t they use them? “This is just like back in Surry hills”, I thought to myself, as I’ve been writing about lately. There are heaps of garbage bins, and yet people choose to place litter on valuable things. FFS.
I was on my way to meet friends at the Palace Cinema for a film that’s part of the Scandinavian Film Festival. We were hoping to see it a few months ago, until the festival was postponed due to COVID. Indeed, the director of the film had been hoping to visit Australia for the screening. But of course, COVID happened.
The premise of the film is the return to a small country town by a woman, currently living in Stockholm. On arrival, she discovers a business decision she made will result in the closure of a factory the town relies upon. Her own father will be made redundant.
Staying in the town, she revisits old friends and relationships.
The film is described as a “jukebox musical”, and is based on the songs of Swedish singer, Tomas Ledin.
Tomas is a Swedish legend, who I first became aware of through ABBA. He was a backing singer (and had a brief solo role) in ABBA’s 1979 tour. A couple of years later he recorded a duet with Agnetha Faltskog. And he married Marie Anderson, who was the daughter of ABBA’s manager. Tomas makes a cameo in the film.
It’s a light, fun movie with heart. Along with the sensitive plotline about going back to your hometown (I can relate to this) there are some laugh out loud slapstick moments in the film. The cast is good. I was pleased to see the presence of a particular favourite (and earlier crush, Jonas Karlsson – hubba hubba!). The music is incorporated mostly fairly seamlessly.
The only thing that was slightly weird was the subtitles. Knowing a bit of Swedish, there were moments when the text didn’t exactly match the spoken word, especially the songs. There was also a moment when a Swedish word was translated as “crikey”. WTAF? I will have to watch the film again to pick up what exact word that was.
It’s been a busy weekend, keeping up the Swedishness, as I also caught up with some of my ABBA-related friends yesterday at a nearby pub.
It’s a busy week coming up, with lots of end of year activities, so I’m resting up this evening. Time now for bed.
I swear there must be a secret plan for Stockholm to put in a bid to host the Olympic Games. That, or they’re expecting a Swedish economic crisis, so they’re doing as much now as they possibly can. How else could you explain the amount of building activity going on around Stockholm at the moment?
From the Royal Palace to Sergel’s Torg, the city is awash with scaffolding. Major buildings are either being given an external clean or a major renovation. In the case of Sergel’s Torg, the glass tower in the middle of Stockholm, the accompanying signs tell you it’s so this iconic Stockholm monument can live on well into the future. Personally, I think it’s ugly in a Blues Point Tower kind of way, and I can’t see what they could possibly do to make it look better.
Of course, the major work underway is the re-development of Slussen, the transport hub, and the creation of a tunnel which is supposed to alleviate traffic problems in the city, and hopefully, make it a far more friendly place for pedestrians and cyclists. There’s certainly some opposition to this development. Benny Andersson from ABBA has been one of the most vocal critics. In fact, he demanded the poster of ABBA at Stockholm Airport welcoming people to Stockholm be taken down. Interestingly that poster has been replaced by many others promoting the forthcoming opening of the ABBA Museum.
As I walked around today, I could begin to imagine how Stockholm, which is already a very beautiful city, could become so much more beautiful if it became more of a place for pedestrians and cyclists. Combined with all of the renovation work going on around the city, you can begin to imagine how the city might look in five to ten years. But hey, I’m just a tourist who visits from time to time, with little idea of the practicalities of what’s underway.
Katarinahissen – March 2013
Speaking of Benny from ABBA. Do you know how I mentioned I inadvertently booked a hotel room that looked directly onto his business, Mono Music? Well, guess who I saw this morning as I walked back to my hotel room? He was chatting with a woman with an English accent as I walked past by. Ten years ago I might have been interested in stopping and asking politely for a photograph. But that’s not where my head-space is, these days. My interest in Sweden started all those years ago with ABBA, but meeting a member of ABBA is not something I really want to do these days. OK, maybe Frida.
I also saw the former presenter of the Swedish TV program, Allsang pa Skansen, Anders Lundin at T-Centralen, and that was mildly exciting too.
But aside from celebrity-spotting, it was a day of practicality. I booked out of the hotel I was staying and met one of the two guys who I’m renting an apartment from. He works as an IT systems developer for a major world company based in Stockholm. He was the loveliest guy. He showed me around the apartment, apologised the wifi hadn’t been installed as quickly as they’d hoped, and told he had bought a dongle so I could use the internet. He also gave me some great tips, including the one a colleague back in Sydney had also told me about, the famous Stockholm cafe, Sirup, which is directly across the road from where I’m staying. The apartment’s great and I’m looking forward to it being my home base for the next ten days, before I head off to Berlin.
The other practical thing I did today was getting a Swedish SIM card which has given me a local number (so I can avoid those international charges) and 2 gigabytes of data. One of the guys in the shop was really helpful in helping me decide which pre-paid plan to go on. I think the other guy thought I was a bit of an idiot when I asked for some help setting it up. “I just don’t want to stuff this up, and my Swedish isn’t good enough to guarantee I won’t”, I told him. I’ll be here for most of the next two months, so it made a lot of sense to do so.
Aside from those very practical things, I had a terrific day reacquainting myself with inner-city Stockholm. I got lost for a little while, as I struggled to remember the difference between North, South, East and West. It also took a moment to remember which way the traffic travelled. Thankfully there were no near accidents for this boy from the Southern Hemisphere.
The day was stunning. After arriving in cold conditions last night, there were times today when I even thought it was a little warm. Just before sunset, it was 6 degrees and clear. Shock! Horror! That said, I also went past a playground where children were playing ice hockey and skiing just metres from my door. And on Saturday night, the temperature’s forecast to reach minus twelve, so I’m not ready yet to hand back the warm jacket Damien loaned to me for this trip.
As much as I love dance music, I gotta say I’m a little bored with it, as it hasn’t really changed much in the last ten years. It still sounds the same now as it did ten years ago, as it reverberates through my apartment block.
Yes, once again, tonight, there’s a party on my rooftop. And yes, I’m sure I received a notification about it a couple of weeks ago, and I’m sure I read it. But of course, I didn’t take much notice, as I assumed I wouldn’t be home at this time on a Saturday night.
No doubt it’s someone moving overseas. Or maybe they’re turning 30 or 40 or 50? And isn’t it great they’ve given all the neighbours advance notice, so they should make alternative arrangements?
What, of course, they failed to mention, however, is that like every other party that’s ever happened on my rooftop is that, they’d be playing exactly the same music as every other party has. Doof, doof, doof. Bop, bop, bop. Why doesn’t music have words anymore?
Yes, the same old beat, the same old rhythm. It’s just party muzak, where the words, the tune, the rythm doesn’t matter anymore. Of course, the same old finger-food doesn’t matter either. Ten years ago it was turkish pizza (it was soo exotic)… what is it now, sushi? Of course, it’s sushi, the food you eat when you’re not eating food.
What time is it? 11pm. God forbid, we can probably expect a drag show at midnight. Ten years ago, it would have been Kylie or Madonna. Now, of course, it’s… it’s… it’s probably Kylie or Madonna, too.
Yes, I’ve had these parties, myself. I’ve made these noises, myself. But isn’t it time for them, these young folks, to re-invent the rooftop party, instead of playing out the same old party that forty year olds, like myself, have already done?
Damn, I wish I’d read that note properly. And no, I don’t wish I was invited.
P.S. The doof doof was still coming from the rooftop when I woke at 5.30am Sunday.
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Out of interest, do you remember what Genevieve sang? I’m heading up to see Pippin on the 18th, and hope to see the Simon Burke lead show that night.
She started off with one of those old 1940s songs, which I remember being redone in the 1980s called “Where The Boys Are”.
She also did that number which I can never remember the name of about the woman who hates going to the opera, though her boyfriend loves it. It’s sung fast and with “clever” lyrics, if you know what I mean. Oh dear, what’s it called?
There was another song which I’ve forgotten (I had a second glass of wine by this time).
And then she finished off with a song about a woman with breast cancer from Matthew Robinson’s musical, “Metro Street”. Matthew, by the way was in the audience, and Jason Langley also sang one of the songs.
I’m also planning to go the Simon Burke late night show, as I quite enjoyed the show he presented on Foxtel last year.
Late night cabaret is such a great thing… here’s to more of it!
the song about the woman who hates going to the opera to which you refer is called “It’s a Good Thing He Can’t Read my Mind” written by Christine Lavin
Out of interest, do you remember what Genevieve sang? I’m heading up to see Pippin on the 18th, and hope to see the Simon Burke lead show that night.
She started off with one of those old 1940s songs, which I remember being redone in the 1980s called “Where The Boys Are”.
She also did that number which I can never remember the name of about the woman who hates going to the opera, though her boyfriend loves it. It’s sung fast and with “clever” lyrics, if you know what I mean. Oh dear, what’s it called?
There was another song which I’ve forgotten (I had a second glass of wine by this time).
And then she finished off with a song about a woman with breast cancer from Matthew Robinson’s musical, “Metro Street”. Matthew, by the way was in the audience, and Jason Langley also sang one of the songs.
I’m also planning to go the Simon Burke late night show, as I quite enjoyed the show he presented on Foxtel last year.
Late night cabaret is such a great thing… here’s to more of it!
the song about the woman who hates going to the opera to which you refer is called “It’s a Good Thing He Can’t Read my Mind” written by Christine Lavin
Colin – thanks so much.