tisdag - fredag.
So here is the post for the rest of Week 43! Not too much happened until the weekend.
Above: Uppsala
A guitalele (guitar-ukulele hybrid, basically a ukulele with six strings and tuned like a guitar) was available with amplification capabilities for something over 2000 kr, but the portability factor is nice. Then again, I don't have an amp, nor do I plan to buy one, so it would make more sense to get a guitar for that price.
Wandered around some of the shops in the shopping mall there, and found a refurbished Apple products store. Some random customer had taken a selfie and saved it as the background to one of the iPads there.
A guy was kneeling next to this odd display and seemed to be sketching the area in front of him, although I don't exactly know what he was doing, since he madly scribbled for another minute as I stood there, and then he packed up his gear and left.
DesignTorget always has interesting stickers.
"VARNING: DANSBAND" = "WARNING: DANCE BAND"
"VARNING FÖR 08-OR" = "WARNING TO STOCKHOLMERS" (the Stockholm area code is 08)
"VARNING: LEGOBITAR" = "WARNING: LEGO PIECES"
"VARNING: STOCKHOLM" = self-explanatory. xD
I stopped by the shopping centre at Medborgarplatsen after nyckelharpa class this week, Found out that there's an Asian food store of considerable size, which even sells lychee juice... Among other things that seem to have seeds floating in them.
This had to be one of the strangest structures I've seen around here, and the most bizarre decorative fountain. I stared at it for a good while before determining that it really was what it looked like.
The weather was actually semi-nice on Thursday, and so I went out for a walk to Djurgården in the hopes of catching some picturesque photos of the autumn leaves. I'd seen from other photographers that there were some excellent tree colours there for the past week or so, and I wanted to photograph them before all the leaves fell off for the winter.
The one below is my current desktop background, in case anyone was wondering. I was pretty pleased with it, considering I'd gone out on an excursion for the purpose of photographing leaves, and not boats.
And here you see what happens if you move the camera in the middle of taking an HDR shot. I didn't actually mean to use HDR; it was completely by accident, and so as a result I didn't keep the camera still. You can see the main form of the tree, but you can also see a hazy shifted form of it, as well as some of the Stockholm shoreline.
I was starving by the time I finished, and so I took the tram partway back and got off in Kungsträdgården to head for the first food place I saw, which was T.G.I. Friday's (not very Swedish, I know). I sat inside near the window facing the outdoor seating and watched some small birds hop from seat to seat in search of leftover tidbits.
This wall bothered me. It's not bothersome that it's a misspelling, so much as that it's specifically a misspelling on printed wallpaper that has probably been used elsewhere, and so it's likely all over the world. D: It should be spelt "signature" with an "a" in the middle.
I decided to end my little tour by walking back through central Stockholm and catching the subway from there, since I didn't feel like getting on the blue line and switching at T-Centralen.
Some Halloween decorations have cropped up in central Stockholm, as well, like this giant inflatable ghost. Which happens to be double sided- and so it has a face on both sides, which is sort of unsettling.
The Owl Pharmacy, as it's called... It's just a pharmacy, for all I know (I've passed by, but never gone inside), but it has a little golden owl on the top of it. Only this time did I notice that the eyes were lit up because it was around dusk.
There was a scuffling noise in the pile of dry leaves outside my housing when I came back, and so I took out my camera and shot a picture with the flash on to see what it was. Turned out to be just a mallard duck searching for worms :P
helgen.
Saturday arrived, and so a friend and I headed up to Uppsala for the Väsen concert. We planned to stay the night at a friend's, and so everything was arranged.
Except for the parking, which was a real pain. 30 kr/hour in most places, and so we had to move the car later on.
Uppsala Konsert & Kongress (UKK) is probably the most modern-looking building in the city, which was sort of funny to me. From the outside, the size seems immense. But from the inside, it's actually quite narrow, and the topmost floors seem to be inaccessible except for the doors to the large auditorium. In reality, it's quite a lot of empty space.
The Eric Sahlström Institute (Eric Sahlström Institutet) sent some of its students and graduates to perform during Oktoberstämman, so we sat in for a few performances. The only thing was, so many violins and nyckelharpor on stage at the same time (I counted thirteen nyckelharpor) only amplify each other when they're all playing melody and none play harmony.
KMH:s performance was, in my opinion, actually better. They displayed their unique takes and variations on traditional songs, as I'd seen so many times before at their concerts. The first year students were impressive, and even played a few Irish tunes in addition to the Swedish ones.
The second year students had composed some pieces, and then blended them into other songs. They also did a nice job on their performance. The teacher I have for the nyckelharpa group lessons was actually there, and I ran into her later during the intermission for the Väsen concert.
For the last number, the first and second year students all performed together. I noticed that although the audience kept streaming in and out throughout these isolated performances, there were far more people coming in and staying for the KMH concert than for the ESI concert.
At the nyckelharpa building booth were Esbjörn Hogmark, Bosse Nilsson and Thor Pleijel, all with nyckelharpor they'd built or were in the process of being built, as well as a few renovated harpor (mostly gammelharpor). Bosse was, again, quite keen on trying to sell me his instrument, but I'd like to do a bit more digging around and trying other's harpor first before I make any decision (not to mention that it's a bit of a hassle with customs declarations and all- these instruments aren't at all cheap). I started taking photos of the harpor, and soon a number of other visitors whipped out their professional-looking cameras and took pictures, as well. :P
Below: View from one of the upper levels of UKK. In the distance, one can see Domkyrkan, the large church that is Uppsala's pride.
Literally everywhere we went, there were small enclaves of folk musicians. Guitarists, nyckelharpists, violinists, accordionists, even oboists and clarinetists. From floor to floor, corner to corner, and even in the farthest rooms, the musicians gathered in circles and played for hours. (Oktoberstämman began at 13.00 and Väsen ran later than 22.00, and the same people were still playing when we got out from the concert, if that gives any perspective.)
There were strange little mini-busts along the walls on one of the levels. I honestly don't know who they were meant to represent.
We finally left and reparked the car at the friend's place, and then proceeded to find a place to get a quick dinner before we had to go back for the Väsen concert.
The theatre was quite full of people, although the space itself was actually not as large as I'd anticipated from the seating charts. Once again, there was quite a bit of free space between the tops of the bottom seats and the ceiling, which provided for good resonance but also was one of those factors that contributed to the building's outwardly massive appearance.
Väsen started off during the first half by playing some of their most well-known songs, along with videograms sent from various fans across the world (mainly from the US and Japan, but also from other places... there is, in fact, a street in Bloomington, Indiana, USA named after them). Their drummer André Ferrari, who only occasionally tours with them, was also there. The original three members are Mikael Marin (violin), Olov Johansson (nyckelharpa) and Roger Tallroth (twelve-string guitar).
They then called a twenty-minute intermission, and so we wandered out to stand and stretch for a bit. No break from folk music, as the groups were still out continuing to play. :P My teacher dropped by briefly to say hi before we had to herd ourselves back to our seats.
For the second half, Väsen performed with various other artists and bands. There were six folk dancers, as well, who performed on stage. At some point, two random fiddlers began playing (just as Tallroth was about to announce the next song) and walked straight up to the stage and continued. Väsen gladly joined them in playing to the end of the song, and the two violinists explained that they wanted to congratulate Väsen on their 25th anniversary (yes, the group is actually that old). Tallroth lectured them a bit about warning him beforehand next time, but it was all in good humour- for the most part.
Of course, the audience called for an encore once Väsen had finished, and so they played Slängpolska efter Byss-Calle along with the wind orchestra, the other fiddlers, and Lena Willemark and blended it together. As we left the theatre, the audience called another encore, but by then we'd been sitting for about three hours and had listened to folk music for the bulk of the day, so we left. It seemed, from what I heard, that the three Väsen members were playing Byss-Calle again on their own, so we likely didn't miss too much.
We went out with our friend afterward to end the night, and I managed to get exactly one halfway-decent photo in the low light.
The time change occurred sometime during the night, and the sunlight streamed boldly through the curtainless windows by 7.00. We buried our faces under the pillows and blankets in the hopes that we could sleep in longer.
After we'd made some sort of sandwiches from whatever we found in the refrigerator, we went out for a quick walk around Uppsala before we'd have to leave back to Stockholm.
The ride back to Stockholm was fairly quiet for a while, as I took photos out the window while my friend drove. But we got stuck in traffic around the Kista area, and he had a train to catch, so we had to strategise on how he wouldn't miss the train. Luckily, everything resolved itself, and we arrived at the train station early enough for a food break before he left and I headed back to my dorm.
Trevlig helg and Happy Halloween!
/The Swedish Fish
(I actually haven't seen any Swedish fish candy sold here. Pretty sure it's made in Canada, but whatever.)
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