Sydney’s Marriage Equality Rally
It was a beautiful spring day in Sydney: perfect weather for the first Marriage Equality rally since the plebiscite was confirmed. Current estimates: 30,000 people. Here are some photographs.
Similar Posts
Fredrik by Säkert
It was my turn tonight at Swedish class to bring along a song, translate it, and for the class to discuss the lyrics. “Det var svårt”, I told my classmates when I presented them with the song Fredrik by the Swedish singer/song-writer, Säkert. The reason it was difficult, I told my classmates, was because there were a few slang words I couldn’t find anywhere in a dictionary, and because of the poetic nature of song lyrics.
The lyric concerns someone talking to their friend who is a bit of a non-conformist. In the associated video clip, it’s about a young girl relating to her young male friend, though the lyrics are a little more adult. Even now I’m not entirely sure if she’s supportive of her friend’s non-comformity (sometimes it feels like she admires it), or if she’s asking him to wake up to reality. It’s something I can’t hear or interpret from the performance or the lyrics. Still, I really like the song and I’ve had it on regular play over the last few weeks. It’s been quite a big hit in Sweden too. And my classmates liked it too.
Here’s my translation with a few corrections. It’s not a completely literal translation. I’ve taken some liberties. And it could probably do with a bit of further work. Anyone with better Swedish language skills than me – anyone in Sweden over the age of five – is welcome to contribute corrections/interpretations.
When humanity rots in a heap, everyone says “what’s best for me?” and “I buy bottled water” and “she doesn’t love you?”
I say: “Frederick, play the game”.
But you say “why should I? I don’t want to be loved in that way. You get nothing for it when you’re like us, when you have a restful soul.”
Should we start up a village?
Should we build something new?
Should we write a new Bible with ten new Commandments?
Can we be called something else, Fredrik?
Can we find somewhere else where you can be in charge and look after yourself?
They were fighting in town. There was some kind of drugs/heroin in the middle.
All were screaming “check them out” but you didn’t go into the middle.
You don’t do that this in this country.
You don’t talk to the wrong person.
You don’t like this band.
You don’t sing the right note.
(Oh, all the songs I’ve written for people aren’t worth a song
Oh, history is full of songs about people that shouldn’t get a song
You must crush hearts and start wars
You have to hurt/to be hurt to be in books
You have to be damaged for a song, a book, a painting.
Can I get a speech about me in the square?
Can we build something new? I do not know what “the new” is but its better than here and now, for one stops being hard.
Can you stop being hard?
Can you lean on someone?
Can you build a low stage, so you may see people in their eyes?
If it isn’t heaven Fredrik why were we born to please or to be kind?
These are my elbows Fredrik: I will sharpen them tonight
Give me a little stigma. Show me a sect/religion. Give me something to believe in when the lights are out.
Livet är en schlager
In the midst of an otherwise busy weekend I managed to fit in two of the films screening as part of the Nordic Film Festival.
Yesterday, Graeme, Grant and I went to see “Mannen som elsket Yngve”, literally “The Man Who Loved Yngve”. It’s a “coming of age” story from Norway with a difference. The lead character, played by an actor who looked a lot like Danny Bonaduce from The Partridge Family, is about seventeen or eighteen years old. Living in a small town in Norway in the late 1980s, he is part of a rock band with dreams of international success. He has a girlfriend, but he also has a crush on a new boy in town, Yngve. Of course it all goes terribly wrong, as he manages to alienate his friends and family, as he goes through his own internal struggles. The film jumps around a bit with a series of flashbacks almost indiscernable from the narrative, and after the film Graeme asked, “Did you understand the last ten minutes?” At the time, neither Grant nor I did.
Tonight’s film, “Livet är en schlager”, literally “Life is a pop song”, though translated into English as “Once in a lifetime” was much more straightforward. And a much more enjoyable film. It’s a “star is born” kind of film about a woman who enters the Swedish finals of the Eurovision Song Contest, “Melodifestivalen”. Helena Bergström plays the lead character who works caring for a man with a disability, has an unemployed husband, a transexual brother, and four daughters she has named after famous Swedish singers. So, she has a bit on her plate, you might say. All of the main characters are completely rounded, wonderfully enchanting people. The film also worked for me on several levels: the Swedish pop, the gratuitous shots of Stockholm, and the background “cultural knowledge” I now have which helped me enjoy the movie perhaps more than I would have several years ago. In fact, there were times in the movie when the three of us laughed before even the Swedish speakers, because we had that additional layer of cultural knowledge. But that said, you don’t need to be a fan of Eurovision or Melodifestivalen to appreciate the film, as it’s a great story of the triumph of the under-dog.
Coming home tonight, I decided it was time to hop online and really concentrate on booking my airline tickets for next year. And guess what? It’s done. I’m heading off on March 3rd, arriving in Stockholm just in time to head off to Örebro for Andra Chansen.
“Once in a lifetime”…
Clothing Market
Just down the road from Kate’s there’s a big shopping market. Over several floors they sell everything you could possibly imagine from clothing to electronics. Outside the market there are two giant signs warning people not to buy pirated CDs. “Who buys CDs anymore?”, I thought to myself.
Before the shop doors had opened sharply at 10-o’clock a large crowd had already gathered outside. In the midst of the local crowd there also seemed to be a lot of Westerners looking for some of those cheap brand name imitations China has become famousfor. Forget the CDs, there’s a lot of Western brand name clothing here at cheaper prices than you would find in Australia.
On entering, I caught the elevator to the top floor and made my way down, casting an eye over what was being sold on each floor. Each “stall” (or mini-store might be a better description) had a person out the front welcoming you, and asking you to buy their wares. Mistake. Over the last few years I’ve become less and less materialist. I buy my clothes mostly second hand these days. And so when they asked me if I wanted to buy a t-shirt or a jacket, I replied “no, thankyou” politely in Chinese. I may well head back there before I leave Beijing, but at the moment, my head space isn’t about shopping.
I woke early this morning and went for a walk around my neighbourhood. I was keen to explore more of the area in which I’m living, and found myself in some of the backstreets where there are many tailors and associated clothing stores.
I also had an early morning coffee and watched with interest as various expats living here also came in for their morning fix. There was one bloke, a quite well addressed American who devoured a copy of GQ as he drank his coffee.
As I headed back from my walk, I noticed the large number of community safety volunteers out in force. They’re mostly women, but also men, who you can identify by the red armbands. And they were out in force this morning in higher numbers than I’ve seen before.
Later in the morning Kate went off for a scrub at the nearby bath-house while I watched a bit of Chinese television. My conclusion? There seemed to be a lot of studio-based programming. Kids shows. Chat shows. Quiz shows. Panel discussions. That kind of thing.
Mid-afternoon and we headed out to the 798 district where there was an exhibition opening, featuring the combined works of some Chinese artists, some urban Australian artists, and some artists from the Kimberley region. My favourite was a giant boab tree which featured images of the people who participated in the project.
And from there it was back for another evening of lovely food at the same restaurant we had dinner the other night. This time our group expanded to ten, including the artists who Kate has brought to China, along with an American artist who has made friends with the group.
Fish dish – sweet and sour based
As we walked back tonight, there was a chill in the air. There were also strong winds. “Will it blow away the pollution or bring in the desert sands?, I asked Kate. Tomorrow will tell, I guess.
Getting To Know Tallinn
After a late start to the day, I set out to explore some of Tallinn. As I mentioned yesterday, I’ve been feeling a little bit sick. I’m not sure if it’s the day spent in the rain in Stockholm, or being around too many other backpackers, but I’ve been feeling a little congested. Staying in some nice accommodation I decided to make the most of it and stayed at the hotel most of the morning.
Breakfast was nice enough. I especially liked the rollmops. There was also a curried fish dish which was tasty. As with most of these breakfasts, I ate all that I possibly could to make the absolute most of it all.
After breakfast I returned to my room to rest up for a while. The only thing that really made me leave the hotel was an unexpected power outage. “We have a problem with the power”, the woman at reception told me, on my way out of the building. “Not a problem” I replied.
Town was really really busy today. Lots of tourists everywhere.
“50% of all tourists come from Finland”, my tour guide told me on the Official Tour of Tallinn you get with the Tallinn Card. In our case, however, Fins made up 67.3% of those on the bus tour. You guessed it: there was just me and two Finnish girls. As there was only three people it was a very personal tour by the guide who was excellent.
The first part of the tour takes you on a bus around much of Tallinn, an overview more than anything. We were shown the Russian area, remnants of the involvement of Tallinn in the Moscow Olympics and visited the grounds of the Song Festival, an Estonian tradition that dates back several hundred years. The parklands there we also very important to the independence movement that came with the fall of the Soviet Union.
And then we returned for a walking tour around the Old Town.
I guess for me, with an interest in politics, the most interesting parts were hearing a little about the independence of Estonia. Time and time again the tour guide returned to the theme of Estonian independance, noting the country has only had 39 years of self-rule in 800 years. Time and time again she would refer to buildings as being from “The Danish Period” or “The German Period”. The word Tallinn itself means “Danish Town”.
But now they’re independent and you can really sense the pride our guide felt in that independance. “I’ve never seen him before”, she told us, when the President of Estonia appeared on the balcony near where we standing. He smiled for the camera of course.
It was an excellent tour. We had a terrific guide who was very knowledgeable, and who spoke English and Finnish very well. A bus trip. A walk. Two and a half hours in total. And we were lucky, I guess, that ours was such a small tour. And since it was included in the price of the Tallinn Card ($45 Australian), I already feel the card has paid for itself many times over.
I don’t know what the night holds. Although I’m feeling a fair bit better than I was, I still feel a little congested. I think I’ll check out the guide book to see what might be on offer on a Thursday night in Tallinn.
Lucia in Sydney
The young woman chosen to represent Lucia always seems to be a “typical” blonde Swede, and so that’s why I really loved that today’s Lucia broke the tradition, with dark hair and a nose ring.
Though the actual Saint Lucy’s Day is December 13, every year the Swedish Church in Sydney presents the celebration a little early, co-inciding with their annual Christmas market, “Julmarknad”, and that’s what I went to this afternoon.
What is Saint Lucy’s Day? As Wikipedia notes:
Saint Lucy’s Day is celebrated most commonly in Scandinavia, with their long dark winters, where it is a major feast day, and in Italy, with each emphasising a different aspect of the story. In Scandinavia, where Saint Lucy is called Santa Lucia in Norwegian and Sankta Lucia in Swedish, she is represented as a lady in a white dress and red sash with a crown or wreath of candles on her head. In Norway, Sweden and Swedish-speaking regions of Finland, girls dressed as Lucy carry rolls and cookies in procession as songs are sung. Boys participate in the procession as well, playing different roles associated with Christmas. It is said that to vividly celebrate Saint Lucy’s Day will help one live the long winter days with enough light.
I love going to this every year. It’s such a warm celebration, and it helps me practice my Swedish, as I listen and occasionally sing along.
Penny Maclean at Stockholm Pride
When she first appeared on stage, I actually thought it was a drag queen. “She must be 100 years old by now”, I thought to myself. But as the performance rolled on, and when she promised she would return next year with the other members of legendary 1970s Euro-disco outfit, “Silver Convention”, I knew it really was the awesome Penny Maclean. What a privilege.
Perhaps marginally better than Melbourne’s turn out a few weeks ago, and quite impressive. Lol at the Liza Minnelli poster.
I’d forgotten the Liza poster until it came up as an old post. So funny.