VIKTOR DONOVAN

Wednesday, June 30, 2010

HAD ANY VACATION YET?

Illustration ©Donovan O'Malley

This is the season when Swedes have absolutely no problem finding a general subject to bring up at the workplace. The subject: Vacation. People who usually say nothing to one another will happily ask the other person if they have had any vacation yet and/or when they intend to take it.

When they get the answer they don't listen. It's just a ritual. But the ritual also requires that you, who asked the question, relate your own vacation plans. Rather like when you ask how someone is. You do not expect a detailed health history.

Swedes don't think they have enough vacation and would love to have more. Those five wonderful weeks (mandatory by law) go so fast. Swedes have the right to have at least three of those five weeks consecutively during summer. Compared to Americans who get usually a total of two weeks all year if they are lucky, Swedes are fortunate indeed. But those five weeks are equally beneficial for their employer. Employees come back with their batteries charged and work better than ever.

Other benefits for Swedes: The religious holidays. Swedes are not at all religious (religion would never be brought up in political situations), but they love being off work on those religious holidays. Swedes have at least 6 more days off than Americans do. And Americans are generally the more religious. No logic here?

Two friends from California, visited Sweden a few years ago and their first impression was that people seemed so relaxed and unstressed. They loved seeing fathers on paternity leave taking care of their children.

These American friends said that people in California worried about not having or losing health-insurance. losing their job, or not having one. Interesting observation. Maybe we Swedes should count our blessings and stop fretting about not having enough vacation days.

Friday, March 12, 2010

DUDAMEL DEMOCRACY

When the 29 year old Gustavo Dudamel steps off the podium after a concert, he never steps back on it again. He makes a conscious effort to promote the group effort.

He stands among the players and receives the enthusiastic applause of the audience. He moves around the orchestra, encourages the players to stand up. He disappears into the orchestra and if you sit up front, he is barely seen at all. He and the orchestra become truly one.

Here is his latest project:

Gothenburg Symphony and Music Director Gustavo Dudamel are making a live concert movie of Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring, using a brand new digital technique called 5D. Concerts to be recorded are 10-12 of March 2010. This is from the rehearsals and pre-concert filming, including some samples. Photo and editing: Måns Pär Fogelberg

Last year, Dudamel performed The Rite of Spring in London.

Dudamel on Facebook.

Saturday, February 27, 2010

DUDAMEL CONDUCTS MAHLER IN GOTHENBURG

FACE TO FACE

It is rather surprising, that the ordinarily shy Swedes would be so intimate with strangers.

When you negotiate your way in an aisle, in a theatre or cinema, you turn your back to the person you pass.

If you live in England or America that is.

In Sweden you do the opposite. There it is, face to face.

When passing, you face the person you are passing and smile or thank if you are polite. This must appear almost inappropriate to foreigners and maybe an unwanted intimacy since there are not many inches between you.

I have thought about this and wonder if this could go back to Viking times and the way the Vikings were always on the lookout for danger.

In a Swedish skoal (a toast to drink) for example, you obtain eye-contact with the other person (s), and maintain the eye-contact during the skoal. This is said to have developed to make sure that no one was up to any mischief. Like murder.

A Viking would have sensed a definite risk in turning his back to someone else.

By turning your face to the person you are passing, you at least know that you will not be stabbed in the back.

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

NEW STOVE 1917

Fantastic!

No need for domestic servants.

And only half a ton of coal.

What bliss!

Monday, February 22, 2010

1907

The year 1907 seems remote: Queen Victoria has been dead for only six years, and two world wars and the great depression are yet to come.

Economists might remember The Panic of 1907, but some people, today, might remember 1907 as the year an American woman bought an estate in England, and the effect it had for garden lovers all over the world.

Mrs. Gertrude Winthrop an American heiress, bought the English Manor Estate Hidcote and her son Lawrence Johnston, a confirmed bachelor who served in the English army during World War I, settled here and spent 40 years developing Hidcote into one of the finest and most influential English gardens.

(Best to let The National Trust who was gifted the property in 1948, give a short history.)

It is interesting that it was an American who created this English garden treasure, and how it is an American photographer (UGAardener) who, more than any other photographer on the site FLICKR, has promoted English gardens.

He presents himself here.

His photos of Hidcote are excellent. Try clicking on the option "slideshow" for the best presentation. Below is the beginning photo of his set, the famous "Red Border" at Hidcote.

There are other gardens to visit. Check out his "Sets" and click on the garden you wish to see and use the option "slideshow" for the best presentation.

NEW BOOK!

Much of human activity is centered around food. We think of food whether we’re hungry or not. We spend a great deal of time buying it. We take hours preparing it (well, some do). We talk about it. We read about it in cook books. We watch television when chefs talk about it (sometimes to excess). When we socialize, it is often centered around the communal intake of it. We give it as gifts. Food, we can’t escape it! Some people become keenly interested in preparing food for themselves and others; many have become what we call “good cooks”. Usually a degree of creativity is involved together with a keen interest to entertain and a need to take care of others, to be a good host. It is such people that one remembers, and that is how I got started on Food & Folk, remembering, for example that excellent couple, Beatrice and Clayburn La Force on their ranch in Alpine California. After that I just kept going.

MY HOMETOWN GOTHENBURG

A series of closeups (224 photos) of Gothenburg, Sweden. Language: English and Swedish.----- This book consists of a series of closeups of Gothenburg. It is no history book but, hopefully, it will generate some curiosity about our city. When you walk in a city like London you are struck by Britain’s colonial past and its enormous wealth which manifests itself in buildings and institutions all over the city. When you walk in “Little London” as Gothenburg is often called, one is keenly aware of its importance as the best fortified city in Northern Europe. Two forts still watch over it. Remnants of the seventeenth century wall, and the meandering moat are a reminder of the city’s military past. Positioned on the West coast of Sweden, Gothenburg was once a world leader in ship building and shipping and evolved naturally into a merchant’s city. The English and Scottish heritage here is very important. There are clues and traces everywhere. One has only to look.

A GARDEN IN MY HOMETOWN

A book in English and Swedish about the Garden Society of Gothenburg--TRÄDGÅRDSFÖRENINGEN -----The Garden Society of Gothenburg is one of the best preserved early 19th century parks in Europe. It is situated directly downtown, offering lovely walks in the park or in the shaded woodland areas along the canal/moat, waterfront. The garden recently went through a major renovation under the auspices of Ulf Nordfjell, the internationally known landscape designer. The aim was to bring the garden back to its old nineteenth century glory. Carpet bedding returned and five new woodland areas were designed by five international garden designers. A superb new rose park was added, a successful blending of historical roses and perennials.

Love letters from my Swedish grandfather Folke to my American grandmother Olga 1909 - 1961

My American grandmother, Olga, met my Swedish grandfather, Folke Jonsson, in Brussels in 1909. Olga was 18 and Folke, 23. They settled in Gothenburg and Särö, Sweden. Olga, being American, had her family in Florida, and Folke soon came to realize that if you marry a woman from another continent, and this woman is charmingly independent, innovative and brave, and has her own means to boot, she is bound to want to visit her native country some time -- or several times -- or more than several times. To Folke, a sensitive soul, the long separations were quite painful and he suffered till his darling Olga returned. He “talked” to her in his frequent letters. Olga saved all his letters, in their original envelopes, in neat little bundles held together with different coloured ribbons. They were a treasured lifelong testament of his love. Olga and Folke corresponded in English as Olga was American and preferred writing in English. Had my grandfather Folke married a Swedish woman who had stayed at home, there would not be this stack of his letters today. He never intended the letters to be shown to others, but more than one hundred years have passed since Folke wrote them to his darling Olga. I have enjoyed getting to know my grandfather in this manner and I think others, not only relatives, should also share that privilege.

A pictorial Companion to the letters in the book above: 150 pictures of Olga & Folke 1909-1978

NEW BOOK BY DONOVAN O'MALLEY

REVIEW: "...O'Malley continues to prove that he is one of the more important writers around, a writer who with every book brings into our lives some very strange, often exceedingly humorous, and now, frequently very lonely people. His ability to create language for each of his characters is sharp, well studied and written, and without belittling anyone he, in language, shows the difference between class, and education, and exposure. Likely that comes from his experience in writing plays where characters are alive and moving, but with his considerable literary skills he makes his written page people morph into real life folks. He is in top form here ... " Grady Harp, June 12 (Hall of Fame reviewer)