AndrewJamison

On Martin Luther King Day let us remember that there once lived among us a man who was truly worthy of the Nobel Peace Prize, which has recently become an object of ridicule as the latest prize-winner has tried to give hers away to the conman-in-chief. I had the honor of seeing King speak at the March on Washington in August 1963 and, as the years have passed and the US has sunk lower and lower, I have often thought of that day and King’s speech as representing America at its best. Here he is accepting the prize in 1964, less than four years before he was killed at the age of 39.

Amidst all the nonsense and horror stories that fill the media and our heads these days I saw this inspiring piece in the Guardian about a garden of eden that really exists. I will definitely be visiting this place on one of my next trips to Spain. How about one of you out there arranging group tours?

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/jan/16/garden-of-eden-the-spanish-farm-growing-citrus-youve-never-heard-of

Never a dull moment at Andy’s Corner! When I opened the shop after the holidays on January 2 one of the rooms was covered with water that had leaked through the ceiling from the apartment above. Luckily, there was almost no damage to the books below, but there is now a big hole in the ceiling where the water leaked through. It will be quite a while before the room is back to normal and in the meantime there are books that have been moved to a storage room that were once on the shelves. Just ask if there’s something you can’t find that used to be there. Sorry for the inconvenience. Anyway, it brings to mind that wonderful old song:

Now this is what I call annoying: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/jan/11/google-ai-overviews-health-guardian-investigation

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It’s been nearly eight years since the marvelous French oboeist Antoine Torunczyk visited the shop, but on February 6 he’ll be back – together with our beloved Bellevue String Quartet. Antoine will be in the area to perform with Concerto Copenhagen – among other places in Lund on February 5 – and he and the quartet have graciously squeezed a concert at the corner into their busy schedule.

In the meantime you might enjoy listening to Antoine and Concerto Copenhagen playing what they call the “new Brandenburg concertos” that Antoine has expanded from Bach’s organ sonatas into six new concertos and which they will be performing in Lund and at various places in Denmark (https://coco.dk).

https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_nEjX6CUD1gD_iGK-0jrMUfhYgkGNi9EP8&si=BH5BCZJJkaNMozGA

At Andy’s Corner the program will consist of

Georg Druschetzky, Oboe and stringquartet, C-major

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Jagdquartet 

Johan Christian Bach, Oboequintet op11, No1

I have often wondered why so few, if any of our so-called leaders and/or opinion-makers do or say anything meaningful about the technologies that have recently emerged from the academic-industrial money-making machine that go under the alias of “artificial intelligence”. Like so much of what people devote their human intelligence to making and propagating, AI is a real problem-creator of astounding proportions and, as far as I can tell, of little real use in solving or even helping to solve any of the problems the people of the world already have. There are undoubtedly some potential benefits to be had from AI but, as with all technologies, there needs to be a lot of active governance, that is, policy-making, rule-making and decision-making, if the benefits are to outweigh the problems or even be developed at all. We have already lost many of the positive benefits of the internet because we have left its development and use to the “market” – ie, greedy con-men – and it seems that much the same is the case with AI. So until there are meaningful forms of governance and regulation, how about joining me in a boycott and simply refuse to have anything to do with AI? Not so easy perhaps but as with antisocial media it is possible. For some motivation to join with me just click:

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/jan/03/just-an-unbelievable-amount-of-pollution-how-big-a-threat-is-ai-to-the-climate

I might have not searched hard enough but I have not been able to find any coverage of Zohran Mamdani’s inauguration as the mayor of New York City on the Swedish television news website or in our local Malmö newspaper Sydsvenska Dagbladet online or off. Curious.

So for those of you who rely on these sources of information for your news – and for all you others who might or might not have heard about it – I post a video of his inauguration speech on New Year’s Day. I have a feeling it may turn out to be historic. Happy new year!

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DV52L7u5j9yY&ved=2ahUKEwiUroLP_u6RAxXKEBAIHdYtICk4ChCjtAF6BAgJEAU&usg=AOvVaw2sQy831cpjALkeWjxkoWMr

As the sun sets on the year that was let us keep on looking for the light. Despite the real life horror show that dominated our lives in 2025 there is at least some reason to hope that the new year will bring a new spirit into the world, such as the one that carried a charming young immigrant to power in New York City. Just listen to mayor Mamdani after his election in November….

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/nov/05/zohran-mamdani-victory-speech-transcript&ved=2ahUKEwiP7ZyLuueRAxXyJxAIHTFyBi0QFnoECCIQAQ&usg=AOvVaw2YKcF38Cy47ddPqpNiBjKL

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A warm thanks to all who enjoyed our shop in 2025. We’ll be open again at the regular hours on January 2.

We’ll be closed tomorrow on Christmas day but open on Friday and Saturday and if you’re lucky you might just be able to meet these cute kids who have come all the way from Barcelona to celebrate with us.

My warmest holiday wishes to you all.

On Monday my granddaughter’s school choir gave their annual Lucia concert at our nearby church and, as an extra added attraction my talented granddaughter played a piece on the piano with one of her classmates that sounded familiar but I couldn’t place it. Then this morning while reading a post on Timothy Snyder’s blog I heard it sung on a video clip that was included in the post which, as is always the case with Timothy Snyder’s blog posts, was a most enlightening history lesson. So as a small contribution to encouraging the Christmas spirit, let me repost it here and offer warm holiday greetings to you all.

https://substack.com/app-link/post?publication_id=310897&post_id=181599505&utm_source=post-email-title&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=yzpwm&token=eyJ1c2VyX2lkIjo1ODc3MzQ3OCwicG9zdF9pZCI6MTgxNTk5NTA1LCJpYXQiOjE3NjU3MzEzMTAsImV4cCI6MTc2ODMyMzMxMCwiaXNzIjoicHViLTMxMDg5NyIsInN1YiI6InBvc3QtcmVhY3Rpb24ifQ.DAg3sdeQrZfkY5XGDapZMAEYoKlkV0WCMFICab7rkz4