Filming in Uppsala

From Filminspelning

One of Uppsala's main streets is the stage for a scene in an upcoming big budget movie. The scene in question shows a Children's Day Parade in the 60's - with plenty of extras, vintage cars and all the scenery of that time. Strolling by, I joined many curious and delighted spectators who followed the cinematic events. It is great to see the filming taking place just around the corner from the cinema where Ingmar Bergman went to the movies as a child. Click the picture to see more pictures.

View of the River

Just another view of Fyrisån. It is currently carrying 13,6 m³/sec at 12,5 °C. The water is still quite warm, at about the same temperature as in the air. At its peak in April this year, it carried 70 m³/sec, and the water level was about one metre higher. In some parts of the city, that is dangerously high. Before the high walls were built in the 19th century, the streets were regularly flooded. The Linnean garden, for instance, was vulnerable to the river and the university's botanical garden was moved to its current location thanks to a donation by the king. I might do another post about the river, stay alert! :)

Democracy's Finest Hour

Only a few days remain before the general elections take place and political forces are on the move more than ever. On Thursday, it was time for the xenophobic party "Sverigedemokraterna" to speak to the public on a square in central Uppsala. As in other cities, people had gathered to protest against them. Despite police restrictions (the vuvuzela "orchestra" on the picture wasn't allowed any closer than 100 m.), the party members were completely drowned in a cacophony by protesters.

It seemed like a good idea, taking stands against racism and religious intolerance. But in recollection, I'm not sure. Isn't the point of a democracy to let people speak? Acting like this, how could we, the majority, accuse them of being undemocratic? It seems, we are losing an important argument in our rethoric. Instead of muffling the counterpart, we should prove that we are different with our own words. After all, the voters are at the centre. In our enlightened age, they should know exactly what the options are.

"Solo Songs and Piano" CD is out

I've finally finished the CD with solo songs! When I finished the course in "Solo song interpretation" in May, I felt I wanted to save the songs from oblivion. I also found them very good, and worthy to record. So I asked Susan Yondt, who taught piano interpretation at the course, if she was able to record them with me.

Said and done, the CD has arrived and features 7 songs, spread out from the early baroque to the early 20th century. Consider it a demo, or a (rather fancy) documentation of an academic course. Thanks to Martin Nilsson and my brother Martin for helping me out with the recording!

Go to this page to listen to a couple of tracks and, if you like to, order the CD.

The Fountain

The fountain at the entrance to "Stadsträdgården", the City Gardens. To the left you see the ships Linnéa and Sjösala, that travel up and down the river. Contrary to what you may think, this photo was taken quite recently, today even. But I converted it to black-and-white since it brings out so much more from such a picture. I've used a red filter, so the red flowers closest to the camera really stand out. This is actually a huge picture, some 90 Megapixels, and would, if shown here in it's real size, be more than 2 meters wide. See this outtake, which is at 50 % of original size.

Pictures of August

The "Picture of the Day" idea turned out quite fun and spurred me to take a lot of photos. I hope you have enjoyed it, too. Here are all the pictures of August collected. If you want to see these pictures larger, click here.