Wet Saturday Surprises (FMTSO)

… Ooops! …
Water seems to be coming from all directions today!

Not to worry. Nothing sprung a leak. It’s a fountain.

On a hot day it looks quite refreshing.
On a wet day, however… Just weird!

Quite a few people did find it worth while going into town in the rain today, though.

One reason may have been that there was a Birthday Party going on in the main square – to celebrate the town’s 393rd birthday. We really don’t want to miss the opportunity of Free Cake, just because of a little rain!

Even more weird stuff to wonder about:

Why has half the square been filled with sand, with terraces for spectators on each side?

And what on earth are they building here?

Having been born (I can only suppose) with a sports filter pre-installed in my brain, it has totally slipped me by until today, that next week (the whole week) Borås will be hosting the Swedish Championship in about 40 different types of sports (some of which I don’t even know what they are).

Apparently this was decided in June 2012.
Which just proves how very efficient my sports-filter is!

Linking to

Friday My Town Shoot Out – Open Theme

 

BTT: Anticipation

This week, Deb at BTT wants to know:

Do you still get excited about new books as you did when you were little? In general? New books in particular, like from a favorite author? Or do you look at all new, unread books with the same level of anticipation?

It usually takes a bit more than a general “hype” about a book to make me automatically think I’m going to love it. There has to be something that catches my personal interest (or tickles my curiosity) – whether it’s the author, a review, the blurb from the publisher, or even just the title or cover image.  A new book by a favourite author usually tends to get priority over other titles in my “to read” pile, though.

Just now I’m kind of trying the opposite – reading an older book by an author (Peter May) whose latest four (‘The Lewis Trilogy’ + Entry Island) I’ve appreciated a lot. The one I’m reading now is the first in The Enzo Files series – Extraordinary People (2006). I’m only about 40% into it yet (reading on Kindle) but it seems rather Dan Brown-inspired (Da Vinci Code etc  - not quite my favourite genre, a bit too stereotype). I think May has deepened his writing skills since then, not least when it comes to characters, and conveying the atmosphere of a place. But it’s interesting to see an author develop; and that in itself can make it worth while to go back and read earlier works for comparison.

Revisiting and Catching Up

I suppose you might be wondering what I’ve been up to since my last post on Midsummer Eve… I’m kind of wondering myself where the time has gone to.

The rest of the Midsummer weekend was kind of chilly and I spent much of it indoors, catching up with an abandoned book, a bit of paperwork and “whatever”.

I’ve also let myself get wrapped up in revisiting (on DVD) the classic British TV series Brideshead Revisited from 1981 (adaptation of Evelyn Waugh's novel from 1945). There’s something kind of hypnotic about the tempo in which it’s told; and even more so when one is able to choose one’s own pace of watching (not having to wait a week or whatever for the next episode)…

Then on Monday I revisited the exhibition of sculptures in and around the Textile Fashion Center, together with my aunt and uncle, who were in town for the day. We also had lunch at the restaurant within the Center.

This is Michael by Xavier Veilhan.  It’s supposed to be “reminiscent of early Modernism’s endeavours for reduction, to portray the human body as a regular structure – man as architechture”. The artist is the same who made the sculpture Vibration  which I’ve shown in an earlier post (blue horse and wagon).

Why this one is called Michael, the brochure does not tell. Thinking about it now, I come to the conclusion that it must include a reference to Michaelangelo (who was good at angles as well as bodies). I had to think in English to come up with that, because in Swedish that play on words (angel/angle) does not apply!

Later on Monday I got my HP Slate Book back from the “computer hospital” where I had to send it a couple of weeks ago when it suddenly collapsed and refused to recharge its batteries (after I’d only had it a few weeks).

As I suspected, the fault turned out to be in the AC charger, and all it needed was a new cord. But of course they would not take my word for that, so I had to send the whole thing to the repair shop. And before I did that, I thought it best to uninstall the personal apps and accounts I was logged into… Which means that when I got it back, I had to start everything over more or less from scratch. So no wonder perhaps that yesterday seemed to swish by rather quickly too.

Today I’ve basically had a householdy day of washing and cleaning; but also managed to slip away to revisit a nearby shoe shop and catch up with their sale…

 

 

Swedish Midsummer

Midsummer Eve this year turned out mostly sunny, even if a bit on the chilly side. Probably rather perfect for the folk dancers wearing traditional costumes…

 

There was such a crowd of people gathered in our museum park this afternoon that I really did not expect to be able to get close enough to the folk dancing performance to take photos. But I was lucky, and a after a while I managed to sneak into a very good spot in the front row.

 

Do the pictures make you wish you could hear the music as well? I did actually manage to get a video snippet too:

BTT: Format

Deb at Booking Through Thursday asks:

All other things being equal, what is your favorite format for reading? Hardcover? Paperback? New book? Old book? Leather-bound first edition? E-book?

I know I’ve answered similar questions before, but sometimes one’s answers change with time, so the same question may be worth mulling over again.

In my bookcases you’ll find both hardcovers and paperbacks. I’ve also always borrowed library books.

Hardbacks in nice covers always look great on the shelves, of course; but as my library grew, I came to prefer paperbacks – for one thing, because they were cheaper to buy, but also because they took up less space (and were lighter to carry).

With age, other aspects also started coming into it: like small print getting harder for me to read, and some books more difficult than others to physically hold – some because they’re heavy, others because they don’t “fall” open but need to be actively “held” open.

Since I bought my Kindle back in October 2012, that has become my favourite reading format; at least for fiction (and in English). Besides being much easier on my eyes, and convenient to hold and carry with me, and allowing me to look up words by just pointing at them, it also means I can go on collecting classics (and other favourites) without needing any more shelf-space!

With Swedish books I usually try to borrow those as audio books from the library now.

If I buy a printed book now it’s because I already know I like it and will want to have it handy to reread or look things up in and quote from etc. The main advantage of printed books over e-books I find to be when wanting to get an overview of the work as a whole, looking back for context, or finding a passage without remembering the exact words etc.

Gasping for Water

It’s not been raining much lately. Nature in general is still looking fresh and green; but I noticed today that the water lilies in the river aren’t feeling too well:

Friday My Town: Above, Straight and Below

FMTSO Scavenger Hunt:
"High above, Facing Straight and Down Below" - Take a shoot looking up, then a shot facing straight, and lastly one looking down.

I took my camera into town this afternoon and came up with two different series.

The first one was shot from a bridge over the river.
Hotel on the left side, town park on the right.
And a surprise when I turned the camera downwards!

I think that’s the first lock on a bridge I’ve seen in my town – following the lovers’ tradition, I assume, from more famous briges in Paris, and somewhere in Italy… (Don’t remember the name of the Italian town.)

I also shot this series from under a tree in the park and looking across to where an exotic crowd of people were sitting on the stone steps by the water:

Gollum and the Sparrows

In a park I’m not sure I ever visited before, I came across this Gollum-like creature today. It’s called Viskarn ~ “The Whisperer” ~ and was created by by Swedish artist Christian Partos in 1999.

 

I just had to check the dates when I got home. Please note: The Lord of the Rings’ promotional trailer was first released on 27 April 2000…

Well, we always wanted to be Avantgarde here in Borås!

By the way, the river flowing through town is called Viskan (without the ‘r’). Was the sculpture given its name on purpose or by coincidence? I have no idea!

Anyway, the birds seem unconcerned about all that stuff. They regard the fountain as their bath tub, and never mind the creepy creature watching them.

I think these must be Eurasian Tree Sparrows (Passer Montanus) (Swedish: pilfink) rather than common sparrows, because of their brown heads.

Skywatch Friday / FMTSO: Colours of Early Summer

These are some photos I took out of the car window last Friday as my brother and I drove “the scenic route” from town out into the countryside.

Big Flowers

The third of my Clematis plants on the balcony is now in bloom – and the flowers on this one are huge! It’s a ‘Warszawska Nike’.

Please Take Fake Information

Yesterday I went for another walk to the Textile Fashion Center, with the special purpose to pick up some Misinformation.

For the duration of this summer’s Sculpture Biennial, in the entrance hall of the Fashion Center, just opposite the genuine information desk, you will also find a Falskkiosk (Fake Kiosk).

During the opening week, inside the Falskkiosk, you would (most of the time) find the artist Momus, also known as Nicholas Currie.

When not talking to people, he was writing a series of ‘newsletters’ to be left in the kiosk for future visitors to read. They are all entitled “Official misinformation service of the Borås International Sculpture Biennial 2014.”

Going back this week, I found he had left a series of 45 different letters behind. I think I’ve now managed to collect them all – but I have not yet read them all. Some of them seem to be quite a clever mix of facts, fiction and philosophy, though.

For example, in one of them he writes:

I don’t mean to imply that the things I’m saying in these newsletters are insincere. They’re mostly lies, but lies don’t have to be insincere; one writes what one would sincerely like to be the case, rather than what one knows to be the case. In this sense, lies are a bit like progressive politics; both are based on what ought to be rather than what is.

I once wrote a book full of lies about Scotland. On the cover was the motto: EVERY LIE CREATES THE PARALLELL WORLD IN WHICH IT IS TRUE.