We’ll be open tomorrow and closed on Friday and Saturday to celebrate the coming of summer. Let’s hope that the season changes in more ways than one. Or, as Janis put it in the summer of love,
Summertime
In the sand
Sometimes, it’s not such a bad thing to have your head in the sand, literally, that is, especially if you’re on the beach near Tarragona in Spain, a bit off the beaten tourist track, where we spent the weekend. With the phone filled with new horrors from the so-called real world outside, it can do you good to keep your head down and see what you find in the world around you. Anyway, here are a few pictures of what I found with my head in the sand that I send as a kind of electronic post card while you wait patiently for the shop to open again on Friday, June 13. Hope to see you then.
Off to Barcelona
We’ll be away from June 5 to June 12, so that means that the store will be closed next week as well as the following Thursday, June 12. So do stop by today if you’re in the neighborhood. You might just catch this one, which I usually play at some point each Saturday. If you haven’t heard of or heard Phil Ochs, you should!
Heavenbound
In honor of Ascension day, which we will celebrate by being open for your browsing and shopping pleasure, we will be playing the Ascension oratorio by – who else? – Johann Sebastian Bach, whose music we play exclusively on Thursdays. If you can’t make it, or even if you can, have a look and a listen direct from Leipzig. It’s good for the soul even if you might not believe the tale.
Fight fiercely, Harvard
As a Harvard graduate, who studied there when Henry Kissinger, one of the university’s professors, was actively helping the country’s president wage war in southeast Asia as national security adviser and later, after I graduated and moved to Sweden, as secretary of state, it is heartening to see Harvard in the forefront of the struggle against the current president’s efforts to wage war on his own country. In these tragic times, it seems appropriate to remember and sing along to the words of another Harvard graduate, the inimitable Tom Lehrer, in offering our support to the fight. This was one of the first songs he wrote, when he was still a college student in the 1940s, a “genteel” fight song, as he called it, before he wrote the politically satirical songs that were so popular in the 1960s and which we often play at the shop. He gave up song-writing in the 1970s, saying that he couldn’t write political satire after Kissinger won the Nobel peace prize. But his songs, and for that matter, he himself live on. Fight fiercely, Harvard!
The Boss Speaks
It’s a pity he won’t be coming to Sweden, but you can see quite a bit of the concert on you tube. And to think he also grew up in New Jersey…
Bach on Thursdays
We always play Bach on Thursdays at Andy’s Corner and women singers on Fridays so here’s a piece that we just might play both today and tomorrow. I found it surfing on the internet after getting a cd with Marian Anderson, which brought back memories of seeing and hearing her at the Lincoln Memorial on another momentous occasion, in August 1963. Let it remind us that good things can also happen in Washington and in the United States even if it looks pretty bleak these days.
We’re closed May 1
We’ll be open again at the usual hours on May 2. And come ready to load up on old National Geographics, which will be on sale for 20 kr or 6 for 100 as long as the supply lasts – and we’ve got plenty! In the meantime may peace be with you.
Thanks for the party
It was quite a festive occasion when Alison Luthmers enthralled us yesterday with her presentation in words and music of her newly released cd. We already look forward to seeing and hearing her and Giulia Cantone, who joined Alison on lute for a duet yesterday, at Andy’s Corner again. For those of you who missed the party we have cds in the shop for you to buy. We couldn’t post the video clips we made so here is a link to Ali playing in the fall:
Welcome to spring
We’ll be open today but closed tomorrow and Saturday, as we wish you all a peaceful holiday celebration, be it Easter or Passover or, as it is for an aging atheist, the glorious return of spring and the reemergence of life. To help celebrate, we will be open in the evening on Saturday, April 26 as part of the neighborhood’s annual culture night when the shops and galleries show what they have to offer. It’s usually quite festive, so do come by and join in the spring spirit. And don’t forget Alison’s release party on Sunday, April 27. Should be something special. Here’s a little taste to whet your appetite:
AndrewJamison 