Nailing the Thesis

Yesterday I went to my second 'thesis spiking' ceremony. This is where a soon-to-be doctor takes a hammer and a nail to his years of hard work and impales it onto a stake in the library.

Johnny Grahn in front of one of the thesis stakes

Hasse with the finished masterwork. Non-alcoholic champagne (grape juice), hammer, and bronzed nail provided.

It's been a while since we've seen that smile

Hasse and Johanne are the two senior PhD students in the division, and are defending their theses in a couple of weeks. The postgrad system is quite different over here to that back home, and acutally will change to be more uniform across Europe. In fact the whole school system is quite difficult to understand, especially due to some linguistic confusion for English speakers.

School starts with grundskolan which starts from the age of 6 (a bit later than home) and goes up to year 9. Then students go to gymnasiet, or 'gymnasium', which has nothing to do with trampolines and forward rolls. But tertiary education is called högskolan (literally 'high school'). As you could image a discussion of Nadia Comaneci's education gets very confusing to follow.

Johanne, about to crucify his work

There are 2 levels of graduate degree from a university; 'bachelors' and 'masters', which kinda correspond to an aussie diploma (ie from TAFE) and a bachelors degree respectively. So if you proclaim you have a bachelors degree over here, it might not be as impressive as you'd hope. Their final year project is called their "diploma thesis' which is needed for their 'masters degree". Following this a widespread European requirement is to do 6 month's work experience / internship which is called 'ex-jobb', and is required before you start working. Oj.

The Frenchman provided real French champagne this time, from Epernay in Champagne (via Systembolaget in Sweden, of course)

Discussing whether size actually matters

A postgraduate student here is actually a salaried employee of the university,paying taxes, and making superannuation(-like) welfare contributions and therefore eligible for unemployment benefits if they don't find work when they finish. They have a certain proportion of time allocated for teaching/supervision, and must also take a lot of coursework. Frankly I am amazed that the research gets done here, considering how much time is spent on other things.

After about 2.5 years, they then have a intermediate exam called the Licenciate. This is more, rather than less, than an aussie Masters, but not by much. But the Lic in engineering is more accepted in Europe than a Masters is back home. Then, they can continue on to a PhD.

The PhD is in the 'journal papers' format, so they don't write such a huge chunky monograph. Soft bound, double-sided and single spaced; hundreds of copies might be printed and distributed to libraries, friends, anyone. The Lic and the PhD is defended publicly, first with a presentation of the research, then an interrogation by the designated 'opponent', and a bank of 'points judges' basically hold up signs after every question with their scores. The defense is fully open to the public, so questions can literally come from left field. Friends and family turn up, often in kostum (suit and tie). After this of course comes a big 'fest'

It is all a bit more ceremonial than my thesis submission, which was very anticlimactic. After sleeping for a week or so in between handing the thing over to the bookbinder and getting it back, I took the massive tomes to a nondescript office in the admin building at uni, signed a form and hand the things over. I could have paid to have a photo taken at that point and receive a balloon. The theses then might sit on a desk for a couple of weeks waiting to be sent to the examiners. You just wait for the message from your supervisor 5 months later saying that the examiners have finally got around to reading it, given some comments, and after adding a few minor Errata you can finally bring out the white coat and stethoscope and call yourself. Dr.


I don't know much about the graduation ceremony except this: top hat and tails are required. The swedes are polar in their formality - it is either casual (work 'formal' is usually jeans, shirt, and a suit jacket at most), or really really formal. Going out involves more shirts and ties than it does back home (see post about NY eve last year). So at the graduation, top hat and tails are required. Could you imagine the chaos that would be had at a graduation from a magician's school...

Update

For scaring the moose away?

Sorry about the lull in posts, but things have been really busy lately, both at work and otherwise, and as my mate Geordie in Singapore has discovered, blogging takes a long time, especially if you want to make it at least half good. (BTW you can check out his also innovately titled blog at geordieinsingapore.blogspot.com).

So what's been going on? Well, a couple of weekends ago I tramped for an hour through foot-high snow on unploughed roads to go to an Argentinian Tango course for 6 hours; last weekend I was Gävle for GeflaSOF with Luhrarne, the uni Big Band for a small bands festival ( a small festival for big bands); Ive bought and used cross+country skis, but only once because of the crappy weather,; practiced with a small jazz sextet for an upcoming concert at a local jazz club; seen someone literally nail his thesis; ate wild boar and watched the 1958 Tony Curtis and Kirk Douglas film The Vikings, with some Swedes for historical accuracy checks.

I will have pics up from some of the above soon, but in the meantime, I'll just let you know about a great internet distraction: http://www.overheardinnewyork.com/ where people report what they overhear on the streets -naturally there's lots of overheard sex talk, but also plenty of stupidness, and the sublimely bizarre, my favourite being:

Chick in stall: Would you ever eat cereal out of my mouth?
Friend in next stall: Well, if I had that background music... Yeah, sure.

Enjoy

Melbourne's Unweather (Snow in November)

For my Swedish readers (yes, I have some), this summary from Dagens Nyheter on the strange weather in Melbourne and around Aus:

Reader photo from theage.com.au

Australien har drabbats av en kombination av torka, stormar, buskbränder, snö och rekordlåga temperaturer, vilket förbryllar befolkningen som vanligtvis brukar besöka stränderna så här års.

Kyliga vindar från Sydpolen fick invånarna i Sydney att huttra på väg till arbetet på torsdagen sedan landet noterat den lägsta nattemperaturen på mer än hundra år.Termometern visade på 8,3 grader Celsius, och så kallt har det inte varit sedan november 1905. Med vindens nedkylande effekt "tror jag att temperaturen var kring två grader", sade meteorologen Rob Webb på den australiska vädermyndigheten.

Det för årstiden ovanligt kylslagna vädret har orsakats av vindar från Sydpolen. Den lägsta temperaturen registrerades i Thredbo i Snowy Mountains i delstaten New South Wales. Där föll det snö under natten. (Här åkte jag skidor i Septembras i +17oC soligt väder!)

I delar av Blue Mountains nära Sydney kröp temperaturen ner mot nollstrecket. Där kämpade också brandmän med bränder som rasar utom kontroll i det snustorra busklandskapet. De kraftiga vindarna försvårar släckningsarbetet.I Queensland i nordost blåste stormar med kraftiga hagel av tak på hus, förstörde bilar och svepte med sig träd och elledningar. Mer än 30.000 hushåll blev strömlösa.Men regnet har inte påverkat vattennivåerna i den torkdrabbade staten, sade vattenmyndigheten talesman Rob Drury.

Delar av Australien upplever den värsta torkan på tio år, vilket har medfört att klimatfrågan hamnat i fokus för den politiska debatten.Premiärminister John Howard är inte längre tveksam om hotet från den globala uppvärmningen. Nyligen har han tillkännagivit en rad initiativ på energiområdet för att minska de växthusgaser som fått skulden för klimatförändringarna.På torsdagen gratulerade en radiostation ironiskt Howard för dennes förmåga att så snabbt kunna ställa om landet från varmt till kallt.

Men meteorologer säger att vädret kommer att återgå till det normala på fredag.
- Efter en kylig start blir det ett mer typiskt sommarmönster med normala temperaturer eller till och med högre i New South Wales. Helt säkert får vi en riktigt trivsam helg i Sydney, lovade Webb.

Yup, a record hot September, and a record cold November. Maybe the polar bears can start migrating south...

IKEA Day

The worlds northernmost and "most international" IKEA has opened in Haparanda yesterday. If they could, they would have proclaimed yesterday IKEA day and made it a holiday.

The plans to build an IKEA in the north have been around for 15 years. Haparanda lies on the border with the twin town of Torneå (Tornio), and is near to Norway and Russia - the Barents Sea Region. Customers are expected (and have come) from all four countries. The closest one in Russia is 12 hours away in Murmansk, and apparently it has the same caché as Chanel. So there is a lot of talk about changing the customs regulations into Russia - almost setting up a separate line at the border for IKEA customers - that's how much clout IKEA has up here. Currently Russians can take back only 35kg through customs, and a full kitchen weighs a bit more than that.

It is Sweden's 16th IKEA, and now the closest one to Luleå (130 km away, compared to 500 km previously). Plans for one in the north have been around for 15 years, and Luleå was in contention for a time, but didn’t fight hard enough (or give enough tax breaks or whatever) to make it happen. Most people here think losing it was a big mistake: the arrival of IKEA in Haparanda has basically saved the town from despair and ruin. The whole town has been renewed, with 1500 jobs created, house prices up, huge drop in the numbers of youth leaving the town to opportunities in the south, and hundreds if not thousands more jobs are expected to be created over the next 5-10 years. A 250 room hotel is in the works, along with an Aurora shopping plaza with 50 stores, and hundreds of new apartments ... all this in a town of not even 11,000 people. (The map above, if you enlarge it, shows that there are 470,000 people within a 150km radius of it, and 70,000 within 30km. Luleå is located where the industry SSAB is located).

The day's newspaper has just been delivered, and the official figure for the opending day was 10,371. Now the official population of Haparanda is about 10,800. 150 people or so work there, so that leaves 280 people, minus police, fire, taxis etc, say 200 people who were too damned lazy to go and support their town, and whole region, and shop at IKEA.

The founder of IKEA Ingvar Kamprad is the worlds 4th richest man, and still a humble old gent who rides the bus, flies economy, and generally shuns publicity. He was born in Småland, traditionally one of the the poorest parts of Sweden where the Smålanders are known for being 'Scottish' with their money. His dyslexia forced him to give the stock Swedish names to make it easier for him to remember.

He was at this opening, where he declared his love for the Haparanda councilman he worked with to bring this all about, seriously, describing their relationship as kär, and this personal compatibility was one of the major reasons building their, despite all the economists advice that it won't make money. But Ingvar purposefully wanted to support a struggling area and prevent the flood of youth from leaving, and is donating 1M kronor (~185,000 AUD) a year to support activities promoting the region, and several other companies are also putting some money for the same purpose.

So there you go. The world's richest man has done it again, and now even the polar bear hunters on Svalbard can come and get a Billy bookshelf for their igloos...

Swedish Mardi Gras

For those wondering what is going on in Sweden, you can scan the headlines of The Local http://www.thelocal.se/ and for some of the light hearted stuff, check out blog: http://www.thelocal.se/blog/

There you can read about how the new foreign minister (who is actually a recycled old prime-minister) arrived at his office to discover there has never been a computer in it. Ever. I'd say our Federal Communications Minister Helen Coonan has a similar situation in her office - saying a couple of months ago that she can't fathom why anyone is complaining about Australia's broadband speed as she never has any problems. Oy. I'm guessing she has never even sent an email herself. The 1Mb connection speed Australia has isn't even considered to be broadband in most countries.

There is also a link to trailer for a film that has been doing the rounds here: Sweden, Heaven and Hell .Definitely worth seeing, but be a little careful where you open it - decadent behaviour on display. I only wish I knew where this so-called 'Sweden' is how I can get there.

Sweden: Heaven and Hell

So, to Swedish Mardi Gras. Well, I lied a bit, but if you click on the link with the goose, there is an explation of Mårten Gås (St. Martin's Day Goose). I've never heard anyone around here celebrating it, as it is a tradition that comes from the very south of Sweden (affectionately referred to as 'Denmark'), and probably hasn't climbed much further north than Stockholm. To get revenge on a goose, Martin (he probably wasn't saintly yet) cooked it up, effectively drinking its blood. Thesedays, the blood is turned into "a sweet yet savory soup made from the blood drippings of the bird flavored with aromatic spices like cinnamon, clove and ginger. More like a gravy than a soup". Dead geese? Leather chaps? Is there a mardi gras anywhere vegans can participate in?

What comes around...

The Roundabout Hound

Slow news day in Luleå or what? Leading the Kuriren newspaper last Friday was a story about Luleå's first rondellhund - a cutout of a dog placed in a roundabout. And not just any roundabout, but the big almost-finished roundabout leading up to the center of town in front of the under-construction Konstens Hus performing arts center.

The background to this 'guerilla art movement' as described here is basically that in Linköping after a dog statue in its roundabout was vandalised and removed for repair, a replacement äppeared overnight. Then they started popping up all over the place, mostly for fun, but sometimes as a meaningful protest against the type of modern art taxpayers aren't always happy to support. It has spread all over Sweden, the dogs breed and roam around various roundabouts, and when removed, often reappear. Haparanda, way up north on the border of Finland, was Norbotten's first. And then it started breeding...

Reactions to the Lulea one were mixed. The question was asked though "in a democracy, who has the right to decorate our public spaces?". The Culture Secratary thought it was great; hoping that local youth were finding a way to express themselves in public spaces, because they won't have many ways to do that through the somewhat elitist Kulture House. The head of the roads agency things its just harmless fun so as of Fri had no plans to remove it. The roundabout and the kulture house are a still construction site so it's hardly distracting. (Pic and info from kuriren.se).

All this fuss over a piece of plyboard and a stick.

... comes around

Talking of coming full circle etc, if you check out the latest Swedish pop charts here on P3, amongst the Scissor Sisters and Justin Timberlake there's more than a dash of nostalgie-retro present.

Roxette are there, at #8. Remember "The Look", and its brilliant lyrics "na na na na na, she's got the look"?, They've been together for 20 years, peak about 1991 along with Marie's spiky hair. Now they're back with a top selling best-of album and a new hit single that's pretty ordinary, and doesn't even get stuck in my head, which is a bit of a sand trap for the hummable middle-of-the-road power chorus. If you are intersted the video can be seen here.

Way further down the list at #47 is Europe, them of the long hair and The Final Countdown. Their heyday was 20 years ago, but it seems the countdown is to be restarted. They got together again at the turn of the millenium in Stockholm to perform that song, and 500,000 people turned up (I told you they take the song seriously here. Only "Arrested Development" fans get the irony). If you are interested you can hear some of the new stuff at their myspace page here. Again, forgettable stuff.

According to a blog somewhere, when Europe were on tour and going through the town where Per Gessle from Roxette lives, they managed to track down his house and steal apples from his garden. Whoo hoo! It's not exactly a viking longboat raid but I guess they didn't want to put on a horned helmet and mess up their perms.

The #1 song at the moment is a bit of a power ballad by Martin Stenmarck. It's about a guy who leaves his previous life, shaves his head and starts boxing in 'fight clubs' to find himself. Or lose himself. Maybe both, I'm not sure. The sentiment is popular though - the song went straight to #1. This chorus has got stuck in my head, which is a bit dangerous as he is one of Sweden's Eurovision representatives from a couple of years back.

Martin Stenmarck - 7milakliv (seven mile steps, ie 'leaps and bounds')


What do I actually like in the charts? Mando Diao, and the song Long Before Rock and Roll.

You can hear other snippets through their website http://www.mando-diao.com/

Bo Kaspers Orchestra have been around a while, having a bit of a jazzy dance-band sound. This song Samma Bil (the same car) was a big summer hit, and is a cruisy song that I quite like. Your best bet is to listen to it through P3, but otherwise someone has posted a videoclip of their drooling baby, with Samma Bil as the soundtrack.

Melody Club - Destiny Calling is another good singalong track, which reminds of plenty of other songs, but none of it specific enough to mention. Watch the clip, and let me know what it all reminds you of.

Lisa Miskovsky - Mary
I can't remember if I wrote about her before, but in addition to being a popstar she was a member of the Swedish national snowboarding team. The song Mary has been on the radio alot over the summer, and the lyric "Mary, Mary, I can't get you out of my head" sums it up. It straddles the line between annoying and likeable.
The live acoustic version though is quite nice


Darin - Perfect
This song is far from it. He is a runner up from Swedish Idol and got a recording contract anyway. Now I have had the pleasure of watching a whole episode of Swedish Idol, and believe me when I say it is woeful. At least on the Aussie versions I've seen there has been at least one person with obvious singing talent. Not here.

I thought this song was an over-produced bit of rubbish pop, but a little bit catchy. Then I saw this live clip, and the littlest shred of credibility died. His hair seems to be more important than anything else, so now I just find it all annoying.

Other stuff I don't like in the hitlist are Poodles, a 'hard' rock band, and Orup, whose song I've only heard once but it didn't grab me.

Enough Snow Already!

No, not really, I don't mean it. I love it. The last week has brought heaps of the stuff, especially the weekend, where 36cm fell on Saturday. The local paper thumbed its nose at the helpless Stockholmers saying "6cm of snow in Stockholm and you get chaos, 36 overnight in Luleå, so what".
There has been an unusal amount of snow for this time of year, so the Oct/Nov darkness caused by limited sun and no reflective snow on the ground has largely been avoided. People are talking of Christmas (and saffron buns and glögg have hit the store shelves), so its definitely coming

Anyhow, these pics were taken before the weekend snowfall, when things were only lightly covered and the sun was kinda out. You out there might be thinking "enough of the snow pics already", but you should realise that isn't going to happen.

Bathroom view

Path through uni

March of the Xmas trees

Frosty globe and booger icicles

More Unweather

So the day I left for Linköping about 2 weeks ago was the first snowfall in Luleå, and then when the unweather came it brought maybe 20cm of snow in a day, and since then even more. Some pics. Middle Sweden seems to be badly hit by snowfalls. Last week Stockholm was literally brought to a standstill: buses, trains, cars, all stuck due to snow chaos. I had a friend spend 33 hours on a train (instead of 14) to travelling back from Stockholm. Traffic jams reached for 10's of kms, forcing people to spend overnight sleeping in their cars. Hotels in the city were overflowing. Commuters couldn't get anywhere. Madness. The Stockholm trains often have a problem. If it isn't snow it's leaves. Yes, falling leaves stop the trains, due to the fact they chose rails which have the electricity running on the top surface, rather than underneath. So when the rails are covered with leaves... no trains.

Some snow pics here. Today was great - about 0 degrees, which meant the snowflakes were large and it was a pleasure to be outside. Too bad the bike doesn't work in the snow, and relies on plowed paths for some grip.





And a few weeks ago I had a visit from Flat Stanley - a little boy who was flattened when a bookshelf fell on him and so can be posted all around the world. Karen sent him Northward.

Unweather in Umeå

Weather, not unweather

One of the quirks of the Swedish language is the word for storm being o-väder, or literally un-weather, which is a word I really like. Other un- (or im-) words range from the sensible like omöligt (im-possible) to stranger things such as odjur (un-animal = monster) , olycka (un-luck = accident) and oktober (=un-november).

2 weeks ago I travelled down to Linköping to do some electron microscopy. It rained every day, and was kinda miserable like Melbourne at its worst. But all the talk for the whole week was about the class 3 unweather that was coming this weekend. A couple of years ago the storm Gudrun hit and did massive damage with its 126km winds, and people were expecting the same this time around. But in the end it wasn't nearly as bad, though in some areas there were big winds, and large snowfalls causing power outages and traffic chaos. My train to Stockholm was delayed due to the storm, so was my train to the airport, but unfortunately the flight wasn't delayed and I barely made it. The landing in Umeå though was the roughest I've ever lived through, with the plane demonstrating all possible directions of movement (pitch, yaw, and sudden plunge).

Then there was a 30min wait for a flygbuss (airport bus), before we were told that the next one is 1.5 hours away - because they are only scheduled to meet SAS flights, not Flynordic, the cheaper competition. This is true even when two flights arrive within 10 minutes of each other, as happened when we arrived and I could see the bus leave just as the first Flynordic luggage hit the belt. I don't know exactly what the business relationship is between the 2 companies, but why not make money from the Flynordic passengers as well?

Weatherwise, the following days were mild. I was in Umeå for cocktail party #3, a celebration of Ander's turning ('filling') 30 years. It was also the same weekend as the Umeå jazz festival, Sweden's biggest and with an international profile. (The Stockholm jazz festival struggles to survive, luring in audiences by defining artists like Sting as 'jazz'.) Actually Saturday night was totally clear, and we got another dose of Northern Lights when we left to clubbing, and Sunday was a beautiful sunny day, and even with a hangover the walk into town to find breakfast was enjoyable.

Stacey Kent - a really good singer, who amongst the standards sang a french song by Henri Salvador that was a mesmerising highlight. The other concert we got to see was Kurt Elling - an unbelievable singer with a rich voice and control and technique... if you ever get the chance to see him, go. Due to the cocktail party committments and shopping and delays with some concerts, these were the only two concerts we got to see, but they were worth the 80 bucks. Or would have been, as due to some error somewhere I got my ticket without paying. Wayne Shorter was the headlining act, and was sold out so I didn't get to go, but friends said he was showing his age (70+), and left most of the playing to the rest of the band, so no great loss.

Check out the Kurt Elling website and have a listen - click on an album, scroll down and select listen. Or you might find it easier through the Bluenote site here.

And to all you lonely brass players out there, move to Finland. I will be. One of the big bands on the open stage had an all female trombone section... can you believe it? (Insert blowing/pulling/tongueing pun here________________).

Daniel, the toastmaster for the evening, Bengt, and birthday boy Anders.

Daniel kept everything going as a toastmaster should - plenty of toasts, and lots of 'back in the days' stories, such as when he and Anders... well, they were very amusing, but you kinda had to be there.

A Swedish conundrum: 6 complete strangers order a taxi at the airport, through the Flygtaxi office. One gives his name. We wait. It doesn't come. We get the office guy to ring again. In the meantime another taxi arrives, with no passenger waiting for it. I suggest we hop in. We are told it is the wrong company, not the one we ordered, and the guy who gave his name wants to wait for right taxi, after all, he doesn't want to put the taxi driver out. Before this becomes an issue, our taxi arrives.

This is how the Swedes are. Generally, they follow the rules, and strive to be be fair. Talking to other Swedes, there was some sympathy for my position, which was that the taxi was late, so bugger it. But generally, waiting for the ordered taxi would have been the right thing to do. This is the second time I was in this situation, and got the same response. Your thoughts?

Jazzy Stuff

Sorry to those of you who saw the faulty draft posted here, but now I've hopefully fixed things up. There's been a bit of a jazz theme over the last couple of weeks: I went and saw Peter Erskine, drummer with Weather Report + heaps of other stuff, play with the Norbotten Big Band, and then saw a couple of great gigs at the Umeå Jazz Festival.

I'm also playing in Luhrarne, the university Big Band, which I saw play last year and decided not to join because it wasn't as good as the Monash Band (at least in its heyday) and played some of exactly the same arrangements as we did over the last 11 years. I wanted a fresh challenge.

So now, a year later and I am in the band... on drumkit. I have only mucked around with a kit for a couple of months before I came to Sweden, and thought I could just have a bit of fun and keep time for them playing ting-ting-ta-ting until they found someone better. But I'm still there, and faced with a much bigger challenge than I thought - lots of great but complicated funk tunes and less of the ting-ting-a-ting swing that I thought I would be good at. Sure, after years of Japanese drumming, my hands do reasonably well on their own, when I have to add my feet into the mix lots of things go haywire. And in two weeks I will play in front of people for the first time at a bands festival, which could be a bit embarrassing. But should be fun.

So here are a couple of jazzy things from Sweden, starting with some electro+jazz stuff, nothing amazing but good for chilling to.

Koop - Whenever there is you
- Whenever there is you
This comes via their website, but was a find from SwedesPlease, where a clip to Come To Me can be found here.

Monica Zetterlund
Going back in time now to some cool jazz from the 60's, and Sweden's biggest star Monica Zetterlund. She got some worldwide fame after recording a couple of songs with pianist Bill Evans on his classic ablum Waltz for Debby. Here is a clip of them working together. The song starts after 1 minute. Note the cigarette; she died rather tragically a few years ago smoking in bed - it caught fire and due to leg problems couldn't escape.



A song in English: Lucky to Be Me

She actually sang in the Eurovision song contest in 1963, with a not unreasonable jazz ballad (you can find it), but famously got 0 points.

E.S.T-live
Cool, chill jazz, from current big names the Esbjörn Svensson Trio (E.S.T)




Lisa Ekdahl - It Had to be You

She has a slightly odd voice, and is more famous for pop stuff in the 90's. But here is a pretty good version of the classic standard.




A brief bit of her live doing some of her folky pop stuff.


Nils Landgren - Trombone legend

The biggest name in jazz tromboning here. Does lots of funky stuff, has a definite Bill Watrous influence, and apparently sings alot - including in musicals written by the ABBA guys like Chess. Not alot around to show you on youtube, but this piece of funk with a great solo that starts at around 1:45


And here with Pat Metheny - singing and playing.

Some samples are meant to be up on his website, but aren't working. At least there is the background music.

And to cap of this non-pop posting, it would be impossible not to mention Christian Lindberg, the world's premier orchestral trombonist, and possibly the "greatest living brassplayer". It is hard to really encapsulate how amazingly talented he is. He isn't afraid to go out on the edge and do contemporary stuff either - such as the Motorcycle concerto where he spins round and round to get the sound right. Here is a clip from a movie called BrassBones - a Western instrumental shootout. I'm linking to another blog, where I seemed to have more luck playing the trailer. Enjoy.

Brassbones - the movie
Also, check out the homepage here.

Other clips:
Csardas - the traditional Hungarian folk dance, played high with amazing tone and tongueing and with 'humour'. (And it is much harder to do than it looks).



Motorbike odyssey (live) Stick with it - Kilt spinning happens at around 4mins!

Concert Highlights

IF you want more, go to his website for more and click on the videos, which have much better sound, even for the motorbike odyssey.

Aurora Borealis Moving Picture

Aurora Borealis Moving Picture

Go to youtube, search for 'Aurora' or 'northern lights', and knock yourself out - there's plenty there. This vid is set to some industrial electronica, and is pretty good, but long.

Cocktail Green

A while ago now we had Cocktail Party 2, at Ida's, who lived at the other end of Kalkällan. I didn't have my camera with me so these pics are from Anders. As you can see, in the middle of the cocktail party we were rudely interrupted by an amazing display of the aurora borealis - the northern lights. This despite it being the middle of summer (19th Aug, I think), when I had long ago stopped looking up at the sky hoping to see it as I thought it could only be seen in winter. Apparently a lot were around in April too. That night though, for over an hour we had an amazing display -swirls, streaks, curtains, all in vivid green with tinges of purple. It was amazing how quickly they changed and moved across the sky.

Of course it's very difficult to catch with point and shoot digital cameras, so a bit of photoshopping was done to highlight the aurora.

A few of us were excited enough to drag the others outside to check it out. Catherine is another Melbournian, and Emily comes from Canad... no, Alaska, and has a strange fear auroras and rainbows, so needed the liquid courage to go out. Bengt, a local, was bemused and perplexed at the idea of going outside just to look at the sky. Of course we took our field cocktail making equipment with us, which soon made Ida turn a similar shade of green.

Me, Ida, Emily, Catherine, and Bengt
Anders, self portrait

Emily

Usch!

More Aurora

Actually, last weekend I was in Umeå, just south of Luleå, visiting a relocated Anders who was hosting a(nother) cocktail party to celebrate his birthday. The day before was a fairly major storm, but the Saturday was clear, and stepping out of his apartment to hit the town we had another display of the aurora. Again, no pics, but again it was really spectacular. And of course none of the swedes really stopped to look at it.


So what is the aurora? For lots of good info and explanations head to Nordlys. A bit more on info on the particle interactions are also given here. But basically auroras form when particles of solar radiation which are funnelled to the Earth's magnetic poles (yes there are aurora in Antarctica too), collide with atoms of the upper atmosphere. This causes the electrons in the gas atoms to flouresce; which is to absorb a bit of the impact energy, then release it as light.

For fantastic pictures, click on the Nordlys photo contest link on the top left, and check them out. Don't miss the photos of the year for 2001, 2002, and 2004.

More great pics can be seen if you click here. And if you scroll down this page of swedish explanations, there are some good pics too.