The end of an era began at 12:01 am. We had snagged tickets via the internet so we got into the first showing. At our theater, not a lot of costumes, but lots of lightning scars, a few wands, and one cape.
The main difference was the applause when the movie began, and at the big victories including cheering when Molly Weasley took out Bellatrix, and of course at the end. Forgot what it was like to have audience participation.
Alan Rickman was stellar, with the scene of Snape crying over Lily Potter's after Voldemort's fatal attack particularly moving.
Ralph Finnes gives us Voldemort who for the first time begins to show fear and doubt, even while maintaining his absolute contempt for weakness or love or his followers.
Maggie Smith, who I had worried looked to ill to make it to the final movies, has the most fun as she gets to move to prime defender of Hogwarts, unleashing the stone guardians.
As always my favorites among the child (now young adult actors) are the girls, Hermione and Luna, but even Ron, Harry, and Malfoy have turned into real actors by now, with Nelville finally getting his chance to really shine. Perhaps the most moving scene that excelled over my reading of the book it as Harry passes out of the castle to give himself up to Voldemort and he walks passed all the dead Hogwarts defenders and we see the children, particularly Ron's first love, dead on the stretchers and Remus and Tonks laid side by side.
Although I would have preferred the final duel between Harry and Voldemort to be in public as in the book, rather than in the isolated courtyard as the movie, the scene still plays out well, as Nelville's killing of Nagina meshes with the crux moment in the duel, turning the tide finally and fatally against Voldemort.
And the cheesy last scene wasn't so cheesy, except that none of the kids really looked like they were 19 years older, (but isn't that what we tell ourselves too?)
Saturday, July 16, 2011
Saturday, July 9, 2011
U2 in 10aC
U2 is the band that more than any other has defined my life, "we" have grown up together, so I thought I would wax a bit nostalgic...
It was 1985 and I was working at the outdoor pool when another lifeguard, Sarah Wood, first introduced me to the little Irish band called U2. At the time, they were pretty much unknown in our little hometown. (If it wasn't on the radio, most of us didn't know anything. ) At first I found the lyrics about Sunday Bloody Sunday and New Year's Day confusing. But over the summer, as Sarah continued to play her albums over the loud speakers (the only way we lifeguards past the long afternoons) the music and band grew on me. Their political outspokeness and Christian imagery fit well with my evolving teenage personality.
The next year or so, the band released Joshua Tree and suddenly U2 hit the mainstream. Everyone knew the band then, although I think most people still stayed away from the earlier albums.
Then I went to college, fell in love, and then left for a mission. In the early days of my missionary training, it was songs (sung in my head, rock music was banned for missionaries in the MTC) like "A Day without Me"
I'm starting a landslide in my ego
Look from the outside to the world I left behind
I'm dreaming - you're awake
If I were sleeping, what's at stake?
A day without me...."
and " 40"
"I waited patiently for the Lord, he made my foodsteps clear, I will sing, sing a new song...how long, to sing this song...."
that got me through those long MTC days and lovesickeness. I remember trying to translate the lyrics of "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" into Thai. Then as I went to Fresno and began working with Cambodian refugees songs like "Mothers of the Dissappeared" and "Pride in the Name of Love" took on new meaning.
At the end of my mission (again no rock music for 2 years....) I started seeing posters for the movie Rattle and Hum displayed in the local mall, and was intrigued, looking forwarded to seeing the movie. People told me they thought Rattle and Hum wasn't that good of an album. And maybe in the first couple of listen through it was a bit of a change. But certainly it didn't take long for me to come to appreciate it as a new chapter in U2. Particular favorites were "Van Diemen's Land:" (I'm always a fan of when the Edge gets to lead vocals), "Angel of Harlem", and "All I Want Is You." More on that last song later.
Achtung Baby was shift in a new direction and frankly I wasn't as enthusiastic about the new direction, but there were still a couple of songs that entered the most memorable song list like "One" and "Acrobat" and "Mysterious Ways".
Zooropa and Pop further went down a path of synthetic pop that I was as not as excited about. Except Zooropa introduced me to Johnny Cash again via "The Wanderer", which I will always be grateful for. And "If God Will Send His Angels", "Staring At the Sun", "Please", and "Wake Up Dead Man" are some of the most haunting songs of disillusionment and shaken faith that are out there, made authentic by the band clear formerly heavy faith based lyrics. These songs spoke to me as my own quest for authentic faith weaved through many dark and turbulent days.
We actually finally got to see U2 live when the PopMart tour came to Salt Lake. In some ways the concert was really great, but that phase of U2 was not the U2 that I had always wanted to see live. So I admit really wishing I could have seen them in the early days or at least pre-Zooropa.
With "All That You Can't Leave Behind", U2 came back to their old self, much to my great satisfaction. This album featured three of my all time favorite songs, especially "Grace", "Peace on Earth", and "Walk On".
...Grace
It's a name for a girl
It's also a thought that changed the world
And when she walks on the street
You can hear the strings
Grace finds goodness in everything...
...Because grace makes beauty
Out of ugly things...
How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb is most remembered as the soundtrack for the then revolutionary idea of the iPod and I know a lot of critics think it is one of the lesser albums, but for me this is actually one of my favorites, for songs like "Yahweh":
...Take these shoes
Click clacking down some dead end street
Take these shoes
And make them fit
Take this shirt
Polyester white trash made in nowhere
Take this shirt
And make it clean, clean
Take this soul
Stranded in some skin and bones
Take this soul
And make it sing....
We went down to Chattanooga to see U2 in 3D which featured this album and this renewed my desire to see U2 live again.
So I was very excited when I found out that U2 would be in Tennessee on our anniversary. No so excited when I tried to buy tickets and they were sold out instantly. Unwilling to pay big bucks to scalpers who had snatched up all the presale tickets, I had resigned myself to having to stand outside the stadium. But the day before the concert, I went back online to Ticketmaster and found that more tickets had been released, so I quickly snatched them up. (Then quickly called AM to make sure she hadn't bought tickets as well since she had been looking out for them as well.)
So we got to go, and we had fabulous seats. We took JPD with us, as he is a big fan as well. (But he didn't get to go to our anniversary dinner...) It was a hot muggy nights, the crowd was enormous and the lines for the restrooms were so long that I had to make a scary choice, forego the pregame biobreak with the hope that my old man bladder could make it thru the entire concert without an emergency. (Fortunately, I could.)
The crowd was fantastic, the band was fantastic, they played a great mix of old and new songs. Here is the set list:
- Space Oddity (Major
Tome)The FlyThe WandererBeautiful Day (With snippets from the Space Shuttle)Miss SarajevoEncore:
Amazing GraceWhere The Streets Have No NameEncore 2:All I Want IsYou
The band had finished, they had taken a picture and were walking off the stage when Bono decided to call some guy up from the audience. When the guy comes up, I actually initially thought he was drunk because Bono had given him his arm to help him come up and the guy had ignored it, and then he almost fell over the step on the stage. It is only two days later that I read that the man is in fact blind and I guess had been holding up a sign during the concert saying something like" I'm blind but can play, and Let me play a song for my wife".
Anyhow, Bono gives him his guitar, the man says how nervous he is and then he and Bono start in on "All I Want Is You." At the time, knowing that he was doing it for his wife, it was really cool, but now knowing he was blind, watching it on youtube gives me goosebumps...
"You say you'll give me
Eyes in a moon of blindness
A river in a time of dryness
A harbour in the tempest
But all the promises we make
From the cradle to the grave
When all I want is you..."
At the end, Bono gives the guy his guitar.
Monday, July 4, 2011
The Gothenburg Art Museum
The next day, I went to the Gothenburg Art Museum before the conference started at 2:30 pm. I should note that the way you slip when its still light outside is you draw very heavy curtains over your window. But its still trippy for it to be so light. I think I typically ate supper at 9:30 to 10 pm and based on light, I would have thought it was 6 pm.
Outside the art museum.
Looking down from the steps of the art museum and up the Avenyn. Poseiden statue in the foreground.
Its too bad this is blurry.
A completely bizarre but colorful picture.
This kind of reminded me of the Apollo space craft for some reason.
By a Nordic artist. You can tell by the dark, solemn colors and the sea. Below is a picture of the Death of Charles XII, the King of Sweden who invaded Norway, but almost lost Sweden in return.
Van Gogh.
I took a picture of this mostly for JPD who objected to our considering having a shiny reflective globe in our yard as cheesy like a pink flamingo. I will point out to him that apparently its high art.
Rembrandt
By a Nordic artist. You can tell by the dark, solemn colors and the sea. Below is a picture of the Death of Charles XII, the King of Sweden who invaded Norway, but almost lost Sweden in return.
Trädgårdsföreningen (The Garden Society of Gothenburg)
After ending my water tour, I continued to wander the streets. I came to Tradgardsforeningen, paid my 20 SEK and walked into the park.
Statues lined the outer paths that ran by the canal.
This maypole was the center of the MidSommar celebration the night before. But I missed it all! I sat for about 20 minutes on a bench here and thought, you know, I don't get a lot of time just to sit and do nothing but mediate nowadays. Too much of a frantic life, not taking enough time to enjoy it. I'm am glad for this unfettered afternoon.
Flowers and Butterflies.
Can you see the bumblebee just leaving the flower/
I am a huge fan of these purple flowers. Ours back in Tennessee are much smaller.
This is Gothenburg's (sometimes referred to as Little London) version of the Crystal Palace. It is a hothouse (greenhouse) mostly containing tropical plants. Very important in a city that is winter 9 months of the year!
These lovely roses growing on the side of the Crystal Palace.
Inside the greenhouse.
I don't know what these are, but I thought they were the coolest flowers I had ever seen.
It occurred to me that I had very rarely actually seen lilypads shaped like perfect circles that one sees in fairytale books. But here were some perfect specimens!
Aren't bromelids lovely? If I weren't so good at killing them, I would get some for my office again.
Back outside. I was getting pretty tired by now, as I was running on probably 2 hours of sleep over a 36 hour period. I don't think I could ever make it as a medical resident.
I should note that although it was sunny and a bit warm, it was a pleasant warm, not at all unbearably hot like summer in Tennessee. I noticed when I got back to my hotel that I had a bit of a sunburn.
Gothenburg by Boat
Strolling up Avenyn, I came upon the Padden Boat tours, which promised a 50 minute tour of the cities waterways and under 20 bridges for 150 SEK. Disparing of seeing the city in any other fashion, I paid my money and hopped on the English/Swedish tour.
A majority of our boat was Swedish, but there were at least a few English speakers, so our tour guide gave each spiel once in Swedish and then in English. I had a hard time hearing her, so I got some but not all she said.
One the right is one of the many beautiful parks in Gothenburg, on the left is the canal wall. Gothenburg was built at the mouth of the Göta Älv. The first Gothenburg was invaded by the Danes, who forced the Swedes to buy it back at an outrageous ransom. So King Gustav decided to built a new Gothenburg on the other side of the river and make it the most defensible city in all of Europe. The canal is actually a moat built to defend the city against to invading Danes. The parks are areas that were left open to allow for the army to defend the outer city and then fall back across the bridges if necessary.
This section of the city is the Stone Area because all the buildings are made of stone. This is the only Jewish synagogue in the city (at least for many years.) In general, the Swedish state allowed other religions, but was officially Lutheran.
More beautiful views of canal-side parks.
Bikes, bikes, everywhere!!!!
The old Swedish East India Company building, now the Gothenburg City Museum. More about that later. The Swedish East India Company sailed the ship Gothenburg to China and made a fortunate for about a decade. The building was primarily its warehouse, along with offices.
We passed under at least 20 bridges. This bridge right before going out into the harbor was so low that everybody had to kneel down on the floor beneath their seats to avoid hitting their heads. You can see the people in the back who are still under the bridge.
Out in Gothenburg harbor. Gothenburg is one of Sweden's biggest harbors and traditionally where many Swedish immigrants to the US left from.
A retired Swedish naval vessel. Sweden remained neutral during the World Wars. Although it imported iron to Nazi Germany, it also helped sheltered thousands of Jews who fled from Norway when the Nazis invaded.
The Gothenburg Ferris Wheel is on the left, and the Gothenburg Opera House on the Right. The Opera house is intended to look like a ship.
The Viking. One of the largest sailing ships in the world, but it can't leave the harbor anymore because one of the bridges was built too low to let it pass out. So it serves as a floating hotel.
This dry dock is large enough to float the Titanic. Gothenburg had four ship building centers during the 70s, but a downturn in the need for sailing ship has reduced it to a single active one.
The "Fish Church". The women who sorted the fish demanded a indoor facility and as a joke, the Fish Hall was built in the form of a church. One couple was married here.
Later in the week, I had a delicious fish fry here.
Gothenburg's bikeshare bikes all have distinctive blue fenders.
A majority of our boat was Swedish, but there were at least a few English speakers, so our tour guide gave each spiel once in Swedish and then in English. I had a hard time hearing her, so I got some but not all she said.
The Gothenburg Ferris Wheel is on the left, and the Gothenburg Opera House on the Right. The Opera house is intended to look like a ship.
Later in the week, I had a delicious fish fry here.
Flight to Sweden
The beauty of a flight to Europe is that somewhere in the scheduling of three separate flight legs, there is going to be a connection that seems suspiciously too short to actually make. I had originally hoped to exchange my US dollars for Swedish Kronars in the Atlanta airport, but realized that the 45 minute connection time was probably too short to do that, since international flights start boarding 45 minutes prior to departure time. As it was, my plane landed about 20 minutes late and at the opposite end of the airport. So I made it on my plane as the last person to board.
A BLESSING IN DISGUISE
As I was hustling down to the gate, the gate agent told me my seat had been changed. I'm thinking, oh great, does that mean I won't have an aisle seat? It turns out I was sitting in a bulkhead seat, which really threw me for a loop. I had planned on working on my laptop at least some of the flight and of course, but there is not seat in front to store my backpack with the laptop underneath, so I had to place it in the overhead. This kind of upset me. It is only later, much later, when I start to think about it, that I realize that a bulkhead seat is a prized possession for those flying in cattle class as it is one of the few seats that has full leg room. Believe me, on my return trip, I was sorely missing that leg room. So I got to watch a bunch of movies and use my iTouch and sleep a few minutes. If my stomach had not been in full scale revolt for the full eight hours, due to something I ate, it might have even been pleasant. I left Tennessee at around 12 noon and we landed in Amsterdam at about 5 am European time (10 pm Tennessee time).
MY BRIEF STAY IN AMSTERDAM (AIRPORT)
I then had enough time to stroll leisurely through the huge airport with its duty free shopping mall, pass through interminably long passport control lines and make it to my flight to Gothenburg.
IMHO, the Dutch do a poor job of line control for passports. In most US airports, the lines would be controlled by the typical post and retractable bands for however long the lines extend, and typically well passed this distance, so that it is clear that you are standing in the right line and what your place is in the line. In the Amsterdam airport the posts only extend a few feet and the EU passport and All Nations passport lines were running alternatively, so that that you had huge crowds sort of merging from all sides and people cutting in from everywhere and no one really sure if they were surging for an EU queue or an All Nations passport queue. What a mess and not very efficient.
But I had two hours and a half hours to make the connection so I did eventually get my passport stamped (only my second visa stamp, so still pretty exciting to me!) And I had some time to stroll thru the shops and think about about exchanging my money, but decided against it as it appeared that all the exchanges were for euros rather than Swedish Kronars. Sweden is part of the EU, and officially it has agreed to eventually convert to the Euro, but since its citizens keep voting down this conversion in referendums, it seems unlikely that will happen anytime soon.
I had a window seat for the relatively short flight to Gothenburg, so I got a spectacular view of the canals and windmills as we flew out of Amsterdam. I was not really clear if "electronic devices" included cameras, so I didn't take any pictures. Flying into Sweden was also very pretty, we passed over Malmo, with its train tracks that run out into the sea, over lakes and wooded areas, and it was just beautiful.
GOTHENBURG
I landed in Gothenburg, which turns out to be a pretty tiny airport. I thought that I would have to pass through passport control, but I guess since we were coming from an EU country to an EU country, this was not necessary. So I strolled out, picked up my bag and milled around until I found a place to exchange my money and then found the bus stop.
BUS RIDE
I had already bought my bus ticket online (ah the beauty of the internet), so I got on the bus, found a seat and pretended I knew what I was doing. I did a lot of this on the trip. Although just about everyone in Sweden can speak English, and there are often signs in English at museums and hotels and such, its the little things that kind of trip you up. More about that later. In this case, I knew that I wanted to get off at the Korsvagen stop, which according to the website was the first stop, but the little lighted sign at the front had some other word that I had no idea what it meant, and when the driver made his announcement as we were getting into town, he spoke so softly and the guy in the seat behind was jabbering so loudly, that I had no idea what was said. Fortunately as we pulled off the freeway, I recognized the area from the website pictures (again the beauty of the internet) so I figured I was at Korsvagen and it turned out the the bus shelter said this, so I hopped off.
A PEDESTRIAN IN SWEDEN
It took a few minutes to get oriented and start off down the road to my hotel. My printed Google Map had its usual cryptic," there may not be sidewalks" message, so I was slightly worried about whether there would be sidewalks all the way to my hotel. Oh how foolish this worry was. There could not be a more pedestrian and bicycling friendly city in the world than Gothenburg. There are wide sidewalk boulevards and either shared bike paths, bike lanes, or bike roads everywhere, as well as courteous drivers who yield (as required by law) to pedestrians. Amazing.
THE PROBLEM WITH MIDSOMMAR
So I was very excited that my first day in Sweden was Midsommar because I thought that would mean I would get to see some great local culture. However, it turns out that most of the city celebrations on are Midsommar Eve, which was the night before (if you can call it night when there is still some light at midnight) and then everybody stays home or goes to the countryside for Midsommar, so that all the museums and such were closed. Major bummer! The city was pretty much deserted! Since none of the museums were opened I strolled up Avenyn, one of the main boulevards, looking for something to tour. By this time, it was 4 am Tennessee time, 11 am Swedish time and I needed to stay awake for another 9 to 10 hours. It was my only full day to see the sights and I was kind of disappointed that it looked like I wouldn't be able to see anything.
A BLESSING IN DISGUISE
As I was hustling down to the gate, the gate agent told me my seat had been changed. I'm thinking, oh great, does that mean I won't have an aisle seat? It turns out I was sitting in a bulkhead seat, which really threw me for a loop. I had planned on working on my laptop at least some of the flight and of course, but there is not seat in front to store my backpack with the laptop underneath, so I had to place it in the overhead. This kind of upset me. It is only later, much later, when I start to think about it, that I realize that a bulkhead seat is a prized possession for those flying in cattle class as it is one of the few seats that has full leg room. Believe me, on my return trip, I was sorely missing that leg room. So I got to watch a bunch of movies and use my iTouch and sleep a few minutes. If my stomach had not been in full scale revolt for the full eight hours, due to something I ate, it might have even been pleasant. I left Tennessee at around 12 noon and we landed in Amsterdam at about 5 am European time (10 pm Tennessee time).
MY BRIEF STAY IN AMSTERDAM (AIRPORT)
I then had enough time to stroll leisurely through the huge airport with its duty free shopping mall, pass through interminably long passport control lines and make it to my flight to Gothenburg.
IMHO, the Dutch do a poor job of line control for passports. In most US airports, the lines would be controlled by the typical post and retractable bands for however long the lines extend, and typically well passed this distance, so that it is clear that you are standing in the right line and what your place is in the line. In the Amsterdam airport the posts only extend a few feet and the EU passport and All Nations passport lines were running alternatively, so that that you had huge crowds sort of merging from all sides and people cutting in from everywhere and no one really sure if they were surging for an EU queue or an All Nations passport queue. What a mess and not very efficient.
But I had two hours and a half hours to make the connection so I did eventually get my passport stamped (only my second visa stamp, so still pretty exciting to me!) And I had some time to stroll thru the shops and think about about exchanging my money, but decided against it as it appeared that all the exchanges were for euros rather than Swedish Kronars. Sweden is part of the EU, and officially it has agreed to eventually convert to the Euro, but since its citizens keep voting down this conversion in referendums, it seems unlikely that will happen anytime soon.
I had a window seat for the relatively short flight to Gothenburg, so I got a spectacular view of the canals and windmills as we flew out of Amsterdam. I was not really clear if "electronic devices" included cameras, so I didn't take any pictures. Flying into Sweden was also very pretty, we passed over Malmo, with its train tracks that run out into the sea, over lakes and wooded areas, and it was just beautiful.
GOTHENBURG
I landed in Gothenburg, which turns out to be a pretty tiny airport. I thought that I would have to pass through passport control, but I guess since we were coming from an EU country to an EU country, this was not necessary. So I strolled out, picked up my bag and milled around until I found a place to exchange my money and then found the bus stop.
BUS RIDE
I had already bought my bus ticket online (ah the beauty of the internet), so I got on the bus, found a seat and pretended I knew what I was doing. I did a lot of this on the trip. Although just about everyone in Sweden can speak English, and there are often signs in English at museums and hotels and such, its the little things that kind of trip you up. More about that later. In this case, I knew that I wanted to get off at the Korsvagen stop, which according to the website was the first stop, but the little lighted sign at the front had some other word that I had no idea what it meant, and when the driver made his announcement as we were getting into town, he spoke so softly and the guy in the seat behind was jabbering so loudly, that I had no idea what was said. Fortunately as we pulled off the freeway, I recognized the area from the website pictures (again the beauty of the internet) so I figured I was at Korsvagen and it turned out the the bus shelter said this, so I hopped off.
A PEDESTRIAN IN SWEDEN
It took a few minutes to get oriented and start off down the road to my hotel. My printed Google Map had its usual cryptic," there may not be sidewalks" message, so I was slightly worried about whether there would be sidewalks all the way to my hotel. Oh how foolish this worry was. There could not be a more pedestrian and bicycling friendly city in the world than Gothenburg. There are wide sidewalk boulevards and either shared bike paths, bike lanes, or bike roads everywhere, as well as courteous drivers who yield (as required by law) to pedestrians. Amazing.
THE PROBLEM WITH MIDSOMMAR
So I was very excited that my first day in Sweden was Midsommar because I thought that would mean I would get to see some great local culture. However, it turns out that most of the city celebrations on are Midsommar Eve, which was the night before (if you can call it night when there is still some light at midnight) and then everybody stays home or goes to the countryside for Midsommar, so that all the museums and such were closed. Major bummer! The city was pretty much deserted! Since none of the museums were opened I strolled up Avenyn, one of the main boulevards, looking for something to tour. By this time, it was 4 am Tennessee time, 11 am Swedish time and I needed to stay awake for another 9 to 10 hours. It was my only full day to see the sights and I was kind of disappointed that it looked like I wouldn't be able to see anything.
Sunday, June 26, 2011
Eating Rudolph
The other day I was in Sweden for a conference which had a smorgasbord for one of the receptions. And one of the menu items was reindeer meat. So I ate Rudolph, (or maybe Blitzen) and he tasted pretty good (and not like chicken.)