We’re back in business today and looking forward to a little extra springtime activity this week. We’ll be open till 9 tomorrow along with many of the other shops and galleries in the neighborhood, and on Saturday we’ll be welcoming the new folk trio, Trä 2 1 for their first public concert.
We usually play only Bach on Thursdays, but I just might make an exception today for this exuberant performance I just found on the net.
It was supposed to be an exhibition about Matisse and, of course, the master’s early efforts were fun to see and compare to the works of some of his contemporaries. But for me it was the few paintings by the Algerian artist Baya Mahieddine or Fatima Haddad, a woman I had never heard of, and who apparently had a significant influence on Matisse, as well as Picasso, that made the show at the Caixa Forum in Barcelona particularly enlightening. Do check out her story:
https://www.jadaliyya.com/Details/30916
Here are a couple of her later paintings on display at Caixa Forum.
And here are a few of Matisse’s early efforts.
There’s even a room where you can make your own “Matisse”.
It’s all in an old converted factory near the Plaza Espanya. Well worth a visit.
On May 8 we will stay open till 9 as part of our neighborhood’s annual culture night. So do come by and see all the wonders we have to offer. In the meantime we will be away on a family visit to Barcelona and back in business on May 7. Anything you’d like me to bring back?
Olof Johansson came by the shop recently and we started talking about our shared interest in environmental politics and folk music and he told me of his new group, which seems to mix the two quite nicely
As he describes them, “Trä 2 1 is a new folk trio consisting of Axel Ahlin (vocals and piano), Pierre Engström (guitar), and Olof Johansson (double bass). They perform songs with themes centered around nature and climate, but above all, they play music that they themselves find enjoyable and fun to perform.”
They will give their first public concert at Andy’s Corner on Saturday, May 9 at 5 p.m. Do join us.
I’ve written about the Resurgence Trust on this blog before and today recommend three talks that you can listen to that are coming up, on April 21, May 19 and May 26 with Thor Hanson, Kaira Jewel and Nicola Peel. Just click:
Sometimes things happen at the shop that warrant reposting, since the way the internet works, they don’t get the attention they deserve. They literally get lost in the shuffle. A good example is a video recording that Katlijn Sergeant arranged to be made at Andy’s Corner in 2024 of an original piece for piccolo and marimba written by Anders Koppel based on a poem by Shelley. I was reminded of it when Margareta Langeen’s son came by yesterday to pick up the loudspeaker and microphone that his mother had used at Saturday’s event. Turns out he was once the bassoon player at the Malmö opera orchestra and his replacement was the fellow who had made the video. Anyway here’s the piece. Lovely stuff. Enjoy.
Greetings from Burlington, Vermont where I have been spending the weekend on a family visit. From the view across Lake Champlain to the automatic pancake-making machine in the breakfast room at the hotel, from the sublime to the ridiculous, there’s no end to the things you can wonder about in the old homeland. I should be back in Malmö on Wednesday.
will be in Swedish, a “theater lecture” with Kristina Grebelius and Margareta Langeen on April 11 at 5 p.m. (kl 17.00).
Here’s Margareta’s description:
“Vi har under 2025 deltagit i Färnebo folkhögskolas resande-kurser i Norrland med spetsen riktad mot Norrbotten och Västerbotten för studier av den sk Gröna Omställningen, dess inverkan på samhällena, klimatet och naturen. Vi har besökt Kiruna, Piteå, Luleå, Älvsbyn, Övre bygden, Markbygdens Vindkraftpark, Vittangi, Boden, Vännforsbäck, Umeå, Jokkmokk. Vi har mött stadsflytt, gamla gruvor, planerade gruvor, vindkraft, hotade naturområden, hotade dricksvattentäkter, hotad samekultur, lokalbefolkningar, deltagit i gruvkonferens, hört om tillverkning av tallolja, lyssnat på flera föreläsare.
Vi kommer att berätta om en del av detta, framför allt om samerna, skogen och gruvorna. Är den så kallade Gröna Omställningen verkligen Grön??
Föredraget tar cirka 1 tim. Efter det är arenan öppen för frågor och diskussioner.”
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We’re off on a family visit to North America this weekend so the shop will be closed. We’ll be open again at the usual hours on April 9. In the meantime, may peace be with you.
Every year around this time I go out looking for pasque flowers (backsippor) on the heath by the sea at Stenshuvud near our country house.
It’s become a kind of ritual, and it was especially exciting this year when I got lost wandering through the woods on my way back from the heath – spring fever? – and discovered a marvelous place with a view, Kortelshuvud, where I had never been before.
The pasque flowers still haven’t started blooming but if you look hard enough you can see them popping up out of the ground, little furry things that, for me, have come to mean the onset of a new season and with it the prospect of better times. So happy easter or passover or whatever else you may wish to celebrate this time of year. For me the coming of spring is good enough.
Some time back I posted an article about Cory Doctorow’s new term enshittification and now the consumer council in Norway has made a film to help spread the word and show what it means. And it is actually quite funny. Read all about it (and watch the film):
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