Discount Shopping in Stockholm and other Incongruities

(One of these is banana flavor. Thank you to Google Images for a truly frightening image.)

If you are one of my facebook friends, you will already know that I am the proud owner of a rather adorable brand of fish paste with dill. I like to find strange foods at grocery stores, ostensibly for Jeremy, but I admit that I like them, too-- and fish eggs in a tube with a insanely blond boy on the packaging proved too tempting to resist. I also bought a chocolate bar with a gooey licorice called 'Plopp', and some rather normal little mocha-fudge cakes.

Stockholm is kind of an expensive city, and really too hip for its own good. In fact, it may be even hipper than Berlin. I went right into the dark heart of hipness and tried to find affordable goodies-- they exist! I found crazy sunglasses at the thrift store, and a very reduced and adorable dress in a boutique.

And there is a dance museum!

We still haven't bought a new camera, and here is what I could take pictures of with my phone:
The cherry trees were in full bloom! Greedy girl that I am, I got twice the amount of cherry trees this year.



across the street from the opera



The street's name is "Fatburstrappan", and I could not get the horrifying visions out of my head.

In other big news: I am teaching at the Schwetzingen Dance Days this summer! It's a week long workshop with lots of different teachers (ballet, jazz, hip-hop, and now baroque). There is a beautiful palace with gardens there, too. To celebrate this new development, I cooked an all-green dinner: artichokes, snails with herb butter sauce (already made, but our forks are too big so we had to stab the suckers with chopsticks in order to get them out of the shells), and asparagus soup.

And now I think I have grossed you out enough.

Two more facts

1. There an an innumerable amount of 7-elevens in Stockholm. Rather supportive of point 4 below.

2. Swedish cider is incredibly sweet, like soda.

Facts about Sweden

I know I may be harping on about Sweden, but this is not the last you'll hear about it, so get yourself nice and cozy. Not only am I in Stockholm this very second, drinking blueberry juice and wondering if my cold will become bad enough to see if their free health care extends to foreigners, but Jeremy will be teaching near Gotland in July (he is SO fancy), and I will also be coming back in August to do Orlando at the fabulous 18th century theater in Drottningholm.

Here are some facts straight from the Swedes themselves:

1. There actually isn't a socialist government anymore. They were replaced 2.5 years ago by a liberal/conservative coalition. But, really, to my American ears, the differences between the parties were hard to fathom.

2. My hosts thought that Daily Show clip was HILARIOUS. That truck factory is well-known for being the best factory to work in in the country.

3. They think the French are much more socialist.

4. They also think that Sweden is the most Americanized European country. That seems odd to me, but I did see an American storage company (Shur-something?) on the way into town from the airport that I hadn't seen in any other Euro country. My hosts tell me that Sweden is the European testing ground for American companies.

Travel-- a little for now and a little for later

I got my tickets to come to the US in July today! Yes! I cannot wait to see everyone, blithely speak English all day, work with my American baroque buddies and maybe even eat some Ben and Jerry's ice cream (at 5€ a pint, I always think "oooh yum" and then "I'll just wait until I get to America"). I'm flying Air India for the first time and am quite excited at the prospect of Indian food and Bollywood movies on board. The only thing that is a little scary is that the price was a good 200 EUROS cheaper than any other airline. I hope this only means that they are trying to lure customers, but really, since the next cheapest flight was $1000, I had no choice.

This weekend, I head up to Stockholm for the final installment of my grotesque dane course. I've been working on "The Hunchbacked Cripple", and I hope that I can be funny and not just bizarrely offensive. Interestingly enough, The Daily Show was talking about Sweden last night...

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	M - Th 11p / 10c
The Stockholm Syndrome
thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Economic Crisis Political Humor

This week in moderately interesting obsevations

I finished the sweater! I have to say that I am quite pleased with how it turned out. Sleeves are a drag, and unnecessary with the abundance of long-sleeve t-shirts currently in my wardrobe.


We got our first load of produce from Apfelbacher farm! Since we decided it would be insane to try to farm our own little plot of land (sigh) because I'll be away for a huge chunk of the summer, we are now getting deliveries of fruits and veggies from a farm near Cologne. This week we received 2 leeks, 10 tiny apples (apple pie!), some salad leaves, and this unbelievably huge bushel of a Rheinland green called Rübstiel and the Japanese green called mizuna. To be honest, even after looking up both plants on Wikipedia, I still can't tell which is which, and my source on all things German tells me she has never even heard of this crazy Rübstiel. And, my friends, this is just what I wanted from the farm--- lots of crazy vegetables no one has ever heard of because I grow weary of buying the same wan produce from the grocery store week after week.

I'm now volunteering for the Alles Was Tanzt people--- for the Köln Tanzt project, an open performance showcasing all of the dance in Cologne which is now clocking in at 4 hours and can be classified as a marathon. They have been making short video clips of the performers, to be shown on the walls during the performance, and I'm helping with the editing process.

Notes on working with German artists:

1. Plenty of abandoned and refurbished (to varying degrees) factories and warehouses give the scene a cozy Brooklyn feeling, but beware of the ancient layers of dust that immediately coat your hands and put the cilia in your nose to work.

2. Preferred musical choices remain lodged in the indie late 1990s-- you can expect a reoccurring loop of Tricky's Maxinquaye followed by the Cat Power album that you don't have.

3. An inspiring obssesion with set design/video projection, giving you lots of ideas for further projects.

4. A surprising amount of hip-hop/breakdancers.

Alles Was Tanzt!

The only bad thing about riding the bike around town in the gorgeously blossoming springtime is the myriad of tree debris that finds its way into my mouth and eyes. My defense system is very Aeon Flux.

Anyway, just a few days ago my profile went up on the Alles Was Tanzt (Everything Dance) website. The pictures are unbelievable, and the German is hopefully understandable.

Check it out!

The Catacombs, plus new dance action

In light of this being Easter Sunday, I thought I would share the previously unblogged information about the Early Christian Catacombs that I learned while visiting them in Rome last month.

The Catacombs are located outside the Roman walls, dug into volcanic clay next to the site of Roman pagan mausoleums. They were condoned by the Roman authorities, and not secret. The tour guide said that the Early Christians did not live there or hide out there for long periods of time (imagine the smell!), as is commonly assumed. The graves themselves were niches dug into the clay, kind of like shelves-- these were for individuals. The family tombs were bigger, with archways for the openings and they contained urns for perfume, incense, and sarcophagi for baby graves (much like the Roman tombs nearby). The Catacombs had holes at the top, open to the ground above for lowering in the new bodies, and workers performed this task. There were also plaques inside, with early Christian symbols: a Greek fish (different from the fish used to symbolize Christianity today), and anchor, the PX symbol, a dove, and an olive tree (absoluely no crosses!). There was a dining room at the entrance to the catacombs, where the early Christians celebrated the death day of their loved ones (monthly and yearly) with a feast, as well as the death days of Sts. Peter and Paul, who were buried in this Catacomb (St. Sebastian Catacomb) briefly before being interned to be buried where they were martyred in Rome. In he Christian dining rooms, there were plaques commemorating the feasts for Sts. Peter and Paul with prayers for the people giving the feast. This feast near the burial place of the dead was similar to the the picnics (in the open air) held by the pagan Romans next to their mausoleums. I also saw the Roman mausoleums-- they were like small A-frame houses, with mosaic floors, urns for the ashes of the dead, and urns for perfumes and incense.

In dance news this week, I found out about a big show in Cologne in May that will showcase all of the dance happening in Cologne (modern, ballet, flamenco, Turkish, etc). I got in at the last minute-- there is a website as well that will have portraits of all of the dance-makers in Cologne. I'll share my portrait when it goes on-line. The woman organizing the show was excited to know about me and my crazy baroque dancing (kind of shocking)--- she once danced in a baroque show herself. Yay! I also have another show in Switzerland in June, and I am working on organizing a small show with new musicians (They put out an announcement looking for Renaisance/baroque dancers in Cologne-- little did they know this announcement was basically just for me! I am so glad I found it.) for Frankfurt in November. Little by little, things are turning up.... All this happened this week-- crazy.

Spring! Barbecue! Flowers!

It seems that perhaps I was a bit too hasty to reveal my love of lentils, so I will back off of the crazy hippie-ness and show you some pictures of this year's foray into balcony gardening!



This year, we are determined to have a flourishing garden, so we only bought plants that have proven themselves to thrive under our care (except for a hearty-looking tiny blue-flowered beauty and the Swiss Chard you see above): daisies, geraniums, petunias, and raspberries (currently making a jail for the poor little chardy). We still have to find some more herb seeds and tomato seeds--- I'm holding out for a really delicious variety.

We went on Sunday-- yes! the garden store is open on Sunday!--- and it is amazing how many people will smile at you on the subway if your are carrying armloads of flowers.


We also had the first scientific barbecue of the season on Friday. I made a better-immediately-forgotten peacamole and a fantastically delicious strawberry-rhubarb cake.

Recipe Time

My friends, you too could be a sweater knitting, yarn sniffing, bread baking, spelt soaking, butter churning, veggie growing (ok, the last two are in the future or threatened to be in the future by Jeremy) hippie like me.

First step-- try this yummy recipe!

Waldorfesque Lentils and Stuff

1 cup lentils or lentil mix (I used a yummy mix of brown lentils, parboiled (maybe-- the German literal translation is something like "partially polished" spelt, and wild rice)
2.5 cups of water (or whatever the appropriate water/grain ratio would be)
2 apples
4 ribs of celery
2 sm. red onions
1 slice of thick bacon (maybe 2 American slices...)
1 lemon
some olive oil
salt and pepper

Cook the lentils in the water (duh). Fry up the bacon and onions until soft and crispy. Whisk together the juice from the lemon, and good amount of olive oil (1/2 c?), and the salt/pepper in an appropriately large bowl that will hold all ingredients. Chop the apples and celery, and put them in the bowl. Put in the onions/bacon and the lentils when they are ready.

The earthiness of the lentils and bacon were sublime with the alternately sweet and bitter crunch of the apples and celery. This is not an April Fool-- Jeremy and I ate this tonight, and Jeremy liked it (almost as much as Rice Krispie Treats).

More domestication!

My bread entries seemed to have sparked some mild interest in this blog, so I will try to give the people what they want. Of course, what the people really want is lushly created historically informed 18th century performance, but it seems that this desire is buried deep in the subconscious. Perhaps what the particular people who read this blog also want to see is:

My new sweater creation!


(I am actually liking using photo booth for these silly kinds of photos. Much easier than taking them off the camera, and my inability to light a photo properly would have happened anyway.)

It is supposed to be some kind of short Danish Brocade Blouse, Short Version (thanks "Knitting in the Old Way!"), but I turned it into a kind of color-stranded, empire-waisted, vaguely 19th century folk-looking (to me) vesty type sweater. This will be the third time I've attempted to make the high collar-- both of the other times I've made the hole too small for my bulbous head. Then, since the Short Version length is actually REALLY short, ending at the top of my natural waist, and I don't have a supply of high-waisted Danish skirts, I will rip out the bottom to make to make the sweater a more reasonbale length. But I am loving the design! And the color-stranded band is quite fetching, no?

It's all knit with the super-yummy alpaca yarn from near my parents' house. From animals I met and petted!!