Spinning Words

In between watching the news, filing invoices and updating websites, I take the time to go to my Swedish classes twice a week (for now), classes which I absolutely love and which give me the most pleasant headaches I ever had, or I take the time to just reflect on the World. It is amazing that when I am not at work, like, during the week-ends, I still go online to read the latest news because being up to date with World issues became some sort of addiction. I’ve subscribed on Facebook to all TV channels that are of my interest so, if a bomb goes off I  know almost instantly. And unfortunately I do. Because that is pretty much what comes up in the news these days: bombs going off. From Syria being bombed, to terrorist attacks, to killings at a peaceful rally or shootings in a school, an explosion at a chemical plant, there is no happy news. Not in the headlines at least. So it takes a lot of strength to watch the news. At a certain point it becomes a reflex but sometimes it is simply impossible to stay indifferent to what you watch. It’s like you live in a bubble when you have no idea what is happening in the World, and a lot of people don’t. On the other hand if you get too much into this, it can bring you down harder than you think.  As any other things, a middle way would be ideal. But when your professional interest spins around the news and what comes up in them, well, sad or not, you get over the depressive stuff and you try to understand the World or, to be more precise, the way it is being presented in news narratives, because in the end, if you probably draw a line, there are more happy things in this World and more love than news bulletins show. Yet the World is not pink. It is not as gray as it is pictured either. It’s a lovely blend of all the colors. And I have no idea why I am talking about this because when I sat down to write this post I actually wanted to say a few words about something that I love writing about a lot, music, and a bit about U2. Yet writing led me here. May be because of my fever, I am becoming delirious. Or just loosing trace of my thoughts. Or these things just needed to come out in the open. It’s a bit of a personal post that was supposed to discuss my biggest passion, one of them at least, maybe even the love of my life. But yet again I can’t realize if the love of my life is music or tennis. I guess it depends on who’s playing.

Surprisingly and unintentionally, this has been a week-end full of music. Starting with the Europe concert on Friday, (you can read about it here), the week-end kicked off on a rock tempo, carried on the same on Saturday and ended melodically yet full on energy on Sunday.

Let’s Say We Did

Saturday evening I ended up with a friend in Restaurang Landed, at Telefonplan. The idea was to see a band she liked, The Wave Pictures, have some beer and enjoy. The really small bar on the first floor hosted probably 50 people. My shock came with the first riffs of the opening act: the Swedish band Let’s Say We Did. They were simply great for that small concert atmosphere. They called us closer to the stage, so we were practically 2 meters away from them and were able to fully enjoy their music. It’s times like this when you are happy you are in such a small venue with people who really come there for the music but you also wonder why they can’t play for a larger audience (maybe they do that other times?), simply because their music deserves a wider public. So of course that now I follow them on Facebook and I listen to them on Spotify. Apparently they’ve been around since 2008, and already have released two albums and a couple of singles. And they’ve been quite nice to listen to.

The headliners, The Wave Pictures, come from the UK. They do a good job on stage and sound harmonious given the fact that there are just 3 guys playing in the band. They were full of humor and very friendly and communicative. Unfortunately they couldn’t play too long, or better said they weren’t allowed to have a longer setlist because of location regulations. However, after the concert they just took the time to hang and chat with people.

The week-end ended with a classical music concert in Eric Ericsonhallen in Skeppsholmen. The event was named “Sinfonia Antartica” and the pieces the orchestra interpreted were Gustav Holst – The Perfect Fool (Ballet Music), Edward Edgar – Sea Pictures (with Amelie Fleetwood as soloist) and Ralph Vaughan Williams – Sinfonia Antartica. A totally different sound compared to the previous two concerts that I attended but not less exciting. The music was simply beautiful. And after the concert was over and I had to rush home, I came across a beautiful sunset above the city. Yes, I was in a hurry but I took the time to snap a picture. Music and week-ends go amazing together. Add sunsets and coffee and it’s even better. Walks too. But now it’s Monday time…