Daily Slow Chat

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1. Big cooking day again here,we actually have two Christmas events this weekend… one we are bringing food for this evening, and one at home tomorrow!

   How’s your Christmas party scene? Do you have work parties to attend, gathering of friends or meeting family.members before actual Christmas Day?

2. Dick Van Dyke is 100 years old today! Are you going to watch Mary Poppins this Christmas? Or another movie with him in it?

3. I rewatched Game of Thrones but I never bought Season 8 because everyone said it sucks. Now I went out to buy it and it’s impossible. I’ve been to three shopping centers and not a single store had it, had to order from Amazon. In general it was noticeable that BluRay and DVDs are disappearing, available selection is miserable. CDs are disappearing too but Vinyl seems to had a big comeback. Digital is the way I guess.

4. Am I the only one with a kind of research syndrome? I love doing research, reading about manufacturers, development and industrial history. Comparing products in all sorts of categories, but maybe particularly what belongs in the kitchen. So when my parents vacuum finally broke down I was delighted to help them find out what they should buy, even it was a family klenodium inherited from grandma. Hours of reading about vacuum cleaners, feeling my brain burning slightly and ending up with really no clear conclusion. Needless to say my parents took the final decision themselves. I’m going back to reading about trams and trains of mainly perished manufacturers now.

5. Yesterday I went to see Tosca in Helsinki, which was great. It’s such a good opera, and the production was just top class. Beautiful set design and what was really incredible was the set lighting. I’ve never seen lighting so good, seriously.

   Before the opera I went to a museum where there was an exhibition called Gallen-Kallela, Klimt, & Wien. The focus was on how Gallen-Kallela’s art developed parallel to other early European modernists, mainly members of the Vienna secession like Klimt. There was a lot of paintings from the two named, obviously, but also many other artists of that era like Franz von Stuck and Edvard Munch.

   Pretty interesting. I really like art nouveau, that sort of early modernist period. There are sort of these beginnings of abstraction, more esoteric ideas coming into play as art is starting to become free from its former shackles. But I’ve had enough of it now, I think, lmao. It’s so popular, like every other exhibition I go to is art nouveau, jugend, or Finnish national romantic or apparently Vienna secessionist, or something similar.

   I went to another exhibition though, in a contemporary art museum. Exhibition by some Argentinian conceptual artist called Leandro Erlich. It was all very deception based, playing with illusion and perception, liminality, overall very fun. Highlight was sculptures of incredibly realistic looking clouds which were created by painting glass panes and placing them in front of each other. From the front it genuinely looked like a real cloud just floating there. But from the side the illusion was completely broken. Very beautiful, and very impressive.

6. Just back from a few days business trip in Germany. It was full on but found time to hit the local Christmas market for mulled wine and Käsewurst. For once Cologne airport had its shit together with security clearance times.

   What is going on in the Cologne area with the trains though, what a massive mess that is.

7. I caved and ordered the latest Simon Stalenhag book, Swedish Machines and decided that I will dig out my other Stalenhag books and reread them before the new one arrives. Do you guys also do this “I collect all the books of one author” (especially with currently living ones?)

   I was watching Ilya Malinin’s world record figure skating routine (even if you don’t care about figure skating, highly recommended). It seems like backwards salto is allowed again? At least he did one (though there’s no points for it so it’s just a flex, I guess? I mean it’s impressive). I think it used to be banned because it’s dangerous. Well. With or without, it was really great. The kid is like a flea. His fellow Italian competitor kneeled before him after the routine, it was pretty funny.

   [In case you missed it yesterday, here’s some foggy landscape porn](https://imgur.com/a/Hgegzej).

8. Today were are celebrating Lucia (St. Lucy’s Day) in Sweden, with our traditional Lucia choir concerts in our churches all across the country. It is very beautiful and atmospheric, and to many Swedes this is the day when it truly feels like Christmas starts for real.

   This year’s televised Lucia concert on Swedish public service television was broadcast from the old city of Visby on the island of Gotland. It can be watched for free from anywhere [here at SVT Play](https://www.svtplay.se/video/jQ7EAnd/luciamorgon-fran-visby/luciamorgon-fran-visby). I highly recommend watching it, especially if you have never seen a Lucia concert before. Traditionally while watching at home, you should also eat pepparkakor (gingerbread cookies) and [lussekatter](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saffron_bun) (saffron buns) and drink glögg (mulled wine).

   I also recommend watching [this very cute short video](https://www.svt.se/nyheter/lokalt/helsingborg/har-kommer-harald-arets-lucia) from the veterinary clinic in Helsingborg, which held its own Lucia parade with the pets of the veterinary staff, and with the guineapig Harald as Lucia/St. Lucy.

9. The bars are crazy busy today, it’s the busiest day of the year for those which produce arancine,timballo and other rice dishes.

   We had to wait in line about 30 minutes but it was worth it!

   Most people don’t eat any wheat today..no bread,no pasta etc.Some people make arancine at home but it’s a long and laborious job,so the majority buy them at a bar and take them home (or eat on the spot, but they are too crowded for that!).