VIKTOR DONOVAN

Thursday, August 26, 2010

UNIVERSEUM - GOTHENBURG SCIENCE MUSEUM

The Universeum Science Museum in Gothenburg, Sweden is built of glued laminated wood beams (stronger than steel ). It is well worth a visit. Don't miss the tropical rain forest and the shark tank. And there is a lot more!

Jonah in the Whale?
No, these are shark teeth outside the large fish tanks.
Good for pictures.

Check out the fish and sharks via this web camera under water.

If you have problems with spiders and snakes, maybe it is best to stay away from this section.

From the fish tanks area, you walk into the top of the rain forest.

The rain forest is hot and damp.

Close the door so the monkeys do not escape

Foot steps in the concrete

What animal left this print?

Monday, August 23, 2010

ART IN PUBLIC PLACES

In the budgets for most Swedish public buildings is a sum set aside for art works. These pieces are from hospitals in Gothenburg, Sweden.

Want to see more?

Thursday, August 19, 2010

SWEDEN - THIRD BEST PLACE TO LIVE

Photo © Viktor Trappsteg

The American weekly magazine NEWSWEEK has made a list of the best countries to live. Finland comes first, then Switzerland and then Sweden.

This might come as a surprise to most Swedes who maintain a healthy skepticism towards their own country. There is no room for expressions in the public dialogue such as "I am proud to be Swedish" or "God bless Sweden". It would be considered over-the-top or simply peculiar. Hard to explain to Americans maybe, but so it is.

This is August and the end of summer. People have returned to work after four weeks vacation. An article in the local paper interviewed people how they "coped" at work with the abrupt change from leisure. Most people actually liked being back at their old routines.

August is also a wonderful time for Swedes to use their right (to public access) to take long walks in nearby green areas and forests to pick mushrooms. August is also a popular month for paternity leave.

Sunday, August 15, 2010

STREET ART

The gardeners of the city of Gothenburg in Sweden love to decorate their city.

New color schemes every year.

SO WHAT IS ART?

Illustration by Donovan O'Malley

So what is Art?

Is art just pictures and sculptures in a museum? The safe bet?

A recent BBC program suggested that the largest galleries in the main capitals "decide" what is to be art in order to make money. Is a sheep cut in half and put in formaldehyde in a plexiglass case, art?

Would that sheep in formaldehyde, in the plexiglas, be considered art if it stood in an old barn close to other living sheep? With no one to view it except the living sheep and the farmer? Would the farmer be apprehended for cruelty to animals?

Or does the sheep in formaldehyde and plexiglas only become art when someone who specializes in finding groups of words to glamorize this "art" -- reassures us, the followers, the lemmings, and those with masses of money to invest, that this is indeed art, and yes, spend your money on this. And it might be a ticklish delight to be able to say that one likes art with animals in formaldehyde. One needs to set oneself apart. What to do when you own everything and there is no more room for tattoos.

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

WORK OF ART

So what famous painter was it?

Could it be...

No, more like....

Maybe it is the latest from the fashionable gallery in...

Well....

I am not for keeping anyone on tenterhooks,

Here is the answer

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)