2007-02-28

voices and wings

World renowned clarinetist Martin Fröst and pianist Roland Pöntinen gave a remarkable performance in our Concert Hall tonight. Their music ranged from classics by Schumann to contemporary Hillborg. Add creative light, choreography and a background film on DVD and this was something special. Watching Fröst move across the stage performing a duet with himself (also moving!) on the screen behind was fascinating. What a concert!
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February in Karlstad

Go see.

Same excitement as always when it comes to qualifying for the ESC. Flags were waving all over town on a windy day by Klarälven..
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2007-02-27

slow down

Without any insight into today’s bus crash north of Uppsala I obviously can’t shed any light on that fatal event and won’t try to comment. Having traveled extensively by bus through the years I’d still make the following general observation. Given the excessive speed, insufficient distance to preceding vehicle and apparent nonchalance from too many bus drivers I’m surprised that serious accidents are relatively few and far-between. Again, without hypothesizing on today’s crash – let’s slow down a bit. Now.
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2007-02-15

weaker in Åre

In case anyone missed this there are World Championships in Alpine Skiing underway in Åre, Jämtland, Sweden, hooray hooray and Sweden has had more than its share of success and medals yada-yada.

At the risk of sounding like a grumpy old something, can I just add the observation that the rules are biased in favor of small countries like… Sweden. How come? Elementary, Mr. Watson. There is a cap on the number of participants per country.

This doesn’t bother us, for obvious reasons we couldn’t send more than a handful of top skiers in any discipline. But suppose a country like Austria has ten or fifteen world class skiers for the downhill competition. In a regular World Cup race all ten could take part. When there is a World Championship (or indeed in the case of the Olympics) only a few are allowed to start. Therefore, by definition, the field is weaker in Åre than in an average World Cup event.

So beside good timing, the home crowd and a bit of luck there are other reasons why Anja Pärson has her best week of this winter.
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2007-02-05

two years later

Still blogging. Not very focused recently but I keep writing just for the fun of it. Anyone brave enough to follow, let's see what new per spectives await.

2007-02-03

dead serious

Some have sensed it for decades. Many realized this in recent years. Now everyone knows. There’s no denying anymore. We’ve got an environmental crisis on our hands which could threaten the life and wellbeing of people all over the globe. In fact, if we cannot turn the tide our planet could become unfit for human life within a couple of centuries.

It would be a fascinating experiment in maturity and compassion for generations to come. If it wasn’t for the fact that we’re all locked into the risk laboratory. The clock is ticking and it’s not a movie. It’s dead serious.
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