Oct 28, 2018

A very good day of my life

I am passing on the hateful dramas in US this week. Speechless. I don’t have anything to add.

I am passing on the Swedish PM Stefan Löfven tomorrow most certainly informing the Speaker he has failed on his assignment forming a new government. I have nothing to add there either.

Instead I will give you a good day of my life. Ending with watching my son as a musician on an international scene.

This weekend the Umeå Jazz Festival has been celebrating it’s 50th anniversay. It’s an international festival, and through the years everyone has been here. I’m saying everyone. Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, Miles Davies, Chick Corea, Sarah Vaughan, Count Basie, you name them. And that’s just the real old heroes. I’m saying everyone!

Umeå Jazz Festival is accordingly a big event, lighting up the late October darkness. When I was young we used to spend all the extended weekend listening to as much as we could afford. Some years we even were a part of the festival as musicians, either with the choir Sångkraft or our vocal group Oktetten Moritz. Those times were special of course, also because we got to carry an Artist Pass around our necks, giving us access to every single concert in the program. Gosh, the week after was a hang over from sleep depravation and overwhelming experiences!

I don’t know when I last visited the festival. It might have been ten years ago. And for the last six years it’s been out of the question. My body just can’t do it.

This year though there was an act I really wished to see. Gidge.

Gidge is Trouble 2 and his high school friend Jonatan. An electronica duo nowadays touring places like Berlin, Amsterdam, Budapest, London, Bucharest and even Georgien and Mexico. They have created their own nisch, forest-techno. The two of them growing up on the countryside they are rooted in the woods and making music inspired by it. Sampling the sounds of a branch breaking, the wind, walking on sticks and a trumpeting crane, transitioning them into rhythms and sound clouds. 

What’s really fascinating is how Gidge's music is received in big cities far away from the northern Swedish forests. You would think the feel of a misty greenery on the 64th latitude would be too foreign to catch inner city souls, but it seems like the opposite. Their shows also include big screen projections with video images featuring the nature from where Gidge was born and grew up. Their neck of the woods. As well as mine.



It’s really rare for Gidge to have s show in Umeå. And of course, to me very special they were picked to be an act at the Umeå Jazz Festival 50th celebration. Oh how I wanted to be a part of that. And I actually was!

Audrey’s mom, yet another Maria, picked me up in the afternoon. She carried my bar stool and and my foldable textile garden chair, the tools I need for enjoying a concert. The festival takes place at a great downtown facility offering venues of all sizes. We saw three very different acts, a perfect mix. And just like back in the days I bumped in to old friends and colleagues cause everyone is there, so much fun! The mother-in-law-friends also had a delicious three course dinner until the restaurant was invaded by ambitious Halloween costumes and turned into a night club. 

Gidge was on at 11.15 PM, an unusually early slot for the Europe travellers. I climbed my bar stool and plugged my ears. And dived into a forest bath. That’s how Gidge music was described in the festival program. “Their music is like morning fog above the swamp, spider web in juniper, the majestic pine trees humming and the scent of moist moss. There is mysticism and contemplation”. 

I am so glad I was there. So grateful. It is such a gift watching my son and his long-time friend expressing themselves in music and photo. We are going to be nr.1 in the world, that’s what they said to each other when they playfully started out their giggling experimenting in the high school sound lab. I don’t know if that’s still there goal, but it’s wonderful seeing them realising themselves, still with that boyish playfulness at the core. 

It was well passed midnight when Maria drove me and my chairs back to the village. Roads icy from the snow falling the night before. We had spent twelve hours together and Saving Time had change to Normal before we said good night. My day had been perfect. Hard on my body of course. But I had the joy of a total Umeå Jazz Festival experience again. A full day of fun with my friend Maria. And I got to see Trouble 2 as an act at the Festival 50th anniversary. A very good day of my life.

Oct 21, 2018

Shady decision-making on light and dark

It’s a grey day here, actually Seattle-grey, with some rain. Already in the afternoon I am turning the lights on inside. And next Sunday we will loose one hour to the dark over night. Switching from Savings Time to Normal. And I hate it.

For me, switching to Savings Time (or Summer Time as we call it in Sweden) in March is like a breath of fresh air. It’s hope. It’s promises. It’s magic.

The other way around is, of course, the opposite. I feel trapped in a sack of coal. Eternal darkness. No way out. Lungs shrinking. 

For some years there has been a quite lobbying going on for staying on the same time through the year. One argument is the switch would be bad for our health. Causing depression, heart failure and stroke. 

Bullshit, I would say. It takes 24 hours for the body to adjust to a one hour time change. So one day. That’s how long of a jet lag the switch brings. Ever heard of people sleeping in in the weekends? 

It’s not that I am sceptical to scientific research, the result might be right. But put it into some perspective, please!

And while we are in the bullshit department, I remember the biggest problem discussed at the start of Savings time in Sweden in 1980 was how the cows would manage change of milking time. It would cause chaos! It turned out they were doing just fine. 

Anyway. To my surprise the European Commission during the summer has been conducting a big vote to find out how the Europeans feel on the subject. Surprise, because I’ve never heard of it. Neither has anyone else that I know of. Apparently it was a survey on the internet. I can not remember any kind of information or call to participate in this vote. Although I am a member of the EU.

However, the result is clear and overwhelming, according to Jean-Claude Juncker chair of the EU Commission. 80% of the Europeans don't want to go back and forth, they want a steady time. Yes, that’s a high number, I agree. And more than 4,5 million people took part of the big vote.

Excuse me? 4,5 million? We are 508 million people within the EU! 4,5 million, are you kidding me? That’s like… nothing! Also, an interesting fact, most of those 4,5 million were Germans. And how many people live in Germany? 82,53 million.

So, what can we make of this? Well, it seems like a small group of Germans out of some intention (Daimler, BMW, Mercedes, Volksvagen, Siemens, who knows?) has found - or been given - a way to affect the logistics within the EU.

Am I a fan of conspiracy theories? Usually not. But this is weird. The process is hasty as well. As a result of the vote a proposition for same time all year around starting already fall 2019 was presented in Brussels last week and is now on it’s way to the EU Parliament. Then it’s up to every country in the Union to decide on eternal Savings Time or Normal Time. Good luck on the logistics on that one!

In one week Sweden will make the annual switch to Normal time, what we call Winter time. If we in a year won’t make that change for to stay on an Eternal Summer Time I couldn’t be happier, and my gratitude will go to those few Germans who made this happen, although the circumstances are most doubtable.

On the other hand. If the outcome will be Eternal Winter Time my personal fury towards the EU Commission will most certainly cause me a heart attack, I can feel it coming already, working myself up. To take a decision about a change concerning 508 million people on a shady internet survey (it’s not like a lot of us are checking in on the Commission web site as a daily routine to be sure we aren’t missing something crucial to us), that’s just wrong.

The countries within the EU have seats in the Parliament, our representatives. That’s where the decisions are made. But to make a decision based on an internet survey most of us didn’t have a clue about and only 4,5 million people attended to, that’s most questionable. To say the least. 

Oct 14, 2018

And the baton goes to the next runner up

It’s an Indian Summer day here on the 64th latitude. Sun and mild winds from the south. I even have the balcony door open a tiny bit. A day inviting picking mushrooms and taking care of those last left overs from the garden. Withered summer flowers hiding in a corner. Turning the water barrel upside-down before the snow comes. Seasons changing.

To be continued, I wrote last Sunday. Regarding forming a new government in Sweden. It’s been more than a month now since the general election. And today, this minute, the situation is as unclear as it was when I tucked myself in in Bolsena, Italy, on election night.


For two weeks now the Right bloc leader Ulf Kristersson has tried to form government, assigned by the Parliament Speaker to do so. He failed. That he declared to the Speaker today. It also looks now like the Right bloc is falling apart.

So, what happens now? Well, tomorrow the Speaker will go one more round with the leaders of all eight parties. He will most certainly pass the baton to form government to Stefan Löfven, leader of the Social Democrats. After all, he is the chair of the largest party. He would be the next runner up. But will his chances to succeed be higher?

Probably not, as Prime Minister Stefan Löfven lost the vote of no confidence against him and his cabinet right after the election.

I would say the situation is even more locked today than a week ago. Now the Right block is more or less divided into two. And when it comes to talking to each other between the eight parties, those talks are conditional on restrictions they are all putting up, and the tone of conversation keeps getting more high pitched and harsh by the day.

Experts are shaking their heads. Pundits are nodding. No one can see an end to this in the near future. What happened to the famous Swedish consensus? Gone out the roof with all other loud politics of the world? 

And what happened to truth? The result of the election was 144 seats in the Parliament to the Left bloc and 143 to the Right. Simple and straight forward math. In spite of that the Right announced themselves winners, without a plan to form government. That worked well, right?

Yes, those 144 seats include the Left Party which has not had seats in the present government although backed it. The government has been a minority government. Which is not ideal of course, often the case though.

But tomorrow is another day. Will Stefan Löfven try to win the Centre Party over? The Liberals? To be continued…

PS. I am really looking forward to a different topic than politics in this forum. And there will be. A heads up for the risk (yes, I refuse calling it chance) of abolishing Savings Time. Wait, is that politics as well? 

Oct 7, 2018

A week of win and losses


1. The week when the Nobel Prize in Literature wasn’t announced.

2. The week when Brett Kavanaugh was sworn in to the Supreme Court.

3. The week when Jean-Claude Arnault was found guilty and convicted for rape.

4. The week when the right wing (Moderaterna) Ulf Kristersson was assigned by the Speaker of the Swedish Parliament to try to form government.

So how do I put this together? I don’t. Although two of the points are related.

To point 1: my hope from last week regarding this subject turned into disappointment. Yes, the FBI-investigation was held. In which they did not find a place, a time or any witnesses supporting Christine Blasey Ford’s detailed testimony against Brett Kavanaugh, accusing him for sexual assault during their high school years.

Those opposing Kavanaugh claim the FBI-investigation was doomed from the start, limited and constrained. After all, the investigation was commissioned by the White House, although not by the White House choice. FBI is only a client.

Christine Blasey Ford. What will her life be after this? Are the thousands of women (and men) all over the country demonstrating supporting her until the bitter end helping at all? 

Is there even one whistle blower through the history who afterwards didn’t disappear into the shadows of his/her own story? Yet, we have to whistle. I hope Christine Blasey Ford will find comfort, strength and pride in knowing she did the right thing. 

To point 2: the result of the Swedish general election was unfortunately even, 144 seats in the Parliament to the Left bloc, 143 the the right. And 63 to the nationalistic end xenophobic Sweden Democrats. 

By some incomprehensible reason math didn’t count. The Right argued they were larger than the Left. 143-144. On 25 September Prime Minister Stefan Löfven lost the vote of no confidence against him and his cabinet. As a result, a new PM and government will have to be elected. 

On Oktober 2 the Speaker gave Ulf Kristersson, the leader of the Right party (Moderaterna) the assignment to try to form government. Try is a crucial word here. Positions are locked since neither bloc is willing to compromise and the willingness to talk to or be supported by the Sweden Democrats varies and are still unclear. Ulf Kristersson will have to come upp with a government within in two weeks. So, To be continued…

To point 1 and 3: the start of the fall of The Swedish Academy, which awards the Nobel Prize in Literature, was 18 women accusing a man in close connection to the Academy of sexual assault and rape. The name of this man is Jean-Claude Arnault, married to one of the Academy members.

I have been following the tragic, dramatic, messy and historic events of this story and here is more to reed.



Out of all the accusations towards Jean-Claude Arnault - events which had been going on for decades - two held all the way up to court. The long time span has been a negative factor for the victims. As Brett Kavanaugh, he has denied all allegations, but on October 1 Arnault was convicted of rape in one case. For that, he will spend two years in prison. The prosecutor will go further with the second case.

It is in a way symbolic that the verdict towards Aranult fell on the same day as the announcement of the Nobel Prize should have taken place. Should have. Because 2018 is the year when the controversies within the Academy made it impossible to hold on to the tradition. The confidence around the world for the Academy is broken. An historic institution is shattered. The image of Sweden and one of the finest awards in the world is soiled. All for a man who couldn’t keep his dick in his pants and his hands off women. And for his pals who didn’t think it was a big thing.

But. Jean-Claude Arnault is now a felon. He will spend two years in prison. And there might be more to come. And every woman he has laid his hands on can stand tall. Because the verdict tells the story.