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’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.
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:
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:
Judith-Maria Blomsterberg and Giulia Cantone will join Alison Luthmers on April 27 at 3 p.m. to celebrate the release of Alison’s new cd with music by the Swedish composer J.H. Roman. More info at Bookstore Events.
We call it a season
But it’s really a mood
It gives you a reason
To try to feel good.
It’s light in the darkness
It’s warmth in the cold
It helps you to harness
The strength to grow old.
Frida Kahlo wrote the words “Viva la vida” – or “Long live life” – on this sumptuous painting that she completed just a few days before she died in 1954. With all the hype and commercialism that has come to immerse her in recent years, it was a real treat to be able to visit her actual home in Mexico City, where she grew up and where she died, and walk through the blooming garden and the colorfully decorated rooms, with their pictures, among others, of Marx and Lenin on the walls, and get a feel for what inspired that remarkable woman.
During my week in Mexico City, I also visited a house once lived in by David Siqueiros – another communist artist, who spent four years in jail for his beliefs – which he had given to the city in 1973 along with paintings, murals and sketches, and which is now a small museum, but where, in striking contrast to Frida Kahlo’s museum, which is one of the most popular tourist attractions in Mexico City, I was the only visitor.
Altogether, it’s been a week marvelling at marvelous art and artefacts, both from the recent past and from Mexico’s pre-columbian past at the many museums and outdoor sites that are to be found in the city. It made me realize how short the age of European and northern American domination has been and how long and rich a legacy Mexico has to build on in the future.
Walking through the Alameda on my last day in the spring sunshine and savoring the local cuisine, and then seeing another Sunday afternoon in the Alameda portrayed as a dreamy vision of Mexico’s history in Diego Rivera’s fabulous mural – yes, Frida Kahlo’s husband was also a painter – was a truly memorable experience.
Let’s hope I can bring some of the warmth and wonder of that experience back to Sweden with me. We’ll be open again at the usual hours on Thursday. Long live life.
In May 1974, when another American president was doing his best to destroy his country – and was soon to resign in disgrace for his efforts (now there’s a precedent for 47 to follow) – I spent a few days in Mexico City after visiting my parents in Guadalajara.
I can still remember how amazed I was at discovering the fabulous paintings and murals by Diego Rivera, José Orozco, David Siquieros and Rafael Tamayo that were to be found on the walls of schools, government buildings, and at the many museums that were spread around the city. It was a real morale booster in those troubling times to see the wonderful ways in which art could be used to contribute to a progressive consciousness and, not least, lift the spirits.
Anyway, I will be going back to Mexico City next week to help my sister celebrate her 80th birthday, and I look foward to revisiting the murals. Heaven knows we all can use a morale booster these days!
At the time of my previous visit, Frida Kahlo was known primarily as Diego Rivera’s wife, and was “also a painter” as a guidebook from the 1990s that I have in the store puts it, and her house was off the beaten track and I certainly didn’t know about it or her, for that matter. Now it is a very popular place and, if I hadn’t booked tickets last week I wouldn’t have been able to get in when I was there. All sold out.
So I hope you can make it through the week without Andy’s Corner being open. We’ll be open again at the regular hours on March 27.
Back in the winter of 2015 I walked into what was then Gregers Antikvariat and had what might well be called a moment of truth. At the time, second hand bookstores seemed to be vestiges of the past, doomed to oblivion in the brave new world of Amazon and ebooks. When I asked Greger Antoft about the possibility of taking over his store, which he had decided to vacate after many years of operation, he told me that he now did most of his book-selling on the internet, and could just as well move exclusively into ecommerce.
As a lifelong lover of books and used bookstores, who had recently moved to Malmö, I took his words as something of a challenge and soon decided to make a go of it. Running a second-hand bookstore and, in the process, giving it a more international flavor to serve Malmö’s increasingly multicultural population, seemed to be well worth doing, especially for a newly retired professor with time on his hands.
And now, ten years later Andy’s Corner is one of four second-hand bookstores on Helmfeltsgatan, as we welcome our new neighbor, Antikvariat Artes to Malmö’s own book street, along with Bokfinken and Atlantis. So come by and browse to your heart’s content. If one of us doesn’t have the book you wanted maybe we have something even better, the book you didn’t know you needed.
One of the few remaining pleasures of American culture is the weekly magazine The New Yorker, which this year is celebrating its 100th anniversary. When I was growing up, it was always fun when a new issue came in the mail – I mostly enjoyed the wonderful cartoons – and through the years it has continued to publish fine reporting, reviews, poems and short stories, as well as the inimitable cartoons, as many, if not most of its contemporaries, have disappeared from the proverbial marketplace of ideas. Anyway, as a subscriber for many years, the magazines have accumulated and so, as a small token of my appreciation, and a way to keep them from gathering dust and in circulation, I will be giving away a free issue to all customers at Andy’s Corner if and when they make a purchase. So come and peruse the piles on the table in the front room next time you visit us.
AndrewJamison