Archive for May, 2010

• MY WEEKEND IS RUINED!!!!

  Date: 2010.05.28 | Category: Music, Sweden | Response: 5

  I have to do an ALL CAPS SUBJECT LINE like my friend Janet A. because this news is TOO AWFUL: Sweden’s Eurovision entry, “This Is My Life” by Anna Bergendahl, was eliminated during the semi-final round and will not compete during tomorrow’s finals. As previously stated, I was not a fan of the song, but I would have rooted for it anyway, because that’s what one does. Azerbaijan’s bombastic entry, Safura’s “Drip Drop,” was written by three Swedish composers, so perhaps I will need to cheer for it. Or Belarus, because it’s awesome.

  I will also have to finish up whatever stray sugary items are in the house, because I’m doing the Summer of Lent again, and giving up refined sugar during the month of June. (I had to make an exception for evaporated cane juice, which is an ingredient in my favorite breakfast cereal, Kashi.) In July, I have decided to give up something even more extreme: mystery novels. And chick lit, so I don’t just switch from Lee Child to Sophie Kinsella. I’m finally going to get around to reading those serious novels that lie neglected around the house.
  

• Swedish laundry, part 2

  Date: 2010.05.27 | Category: Sweden | Response: 0

  My mom writes, in response to my last blog entry (I’ve translated her email into English, so if I made any mistakes, she can feel free to correct me in the comments!):

  When I was little, there was a laundry at Laxsjön [the lake], so you had to take your laundry over on your bike, boil it in large pots, and then wash it in the lake!

  Sheets and things were sent to a laundry in Billingsfors [a larger town, about 5 km away] in a suitcase.

  Mormor [my grandmother] got a portable washing machine when I was maybe ten or eleven years old, which was hooked up to the faucet in the kitchen and had two valves, which pressed the water out of clothes one by one before the laundry was hung out to dry. It was perhaps a bit more modern than this:

  I hope my mom doesn’t mind my mentioning that this would have been in the 1950s (when they got the portable washing machine). She and her sibings still own the house in rural Sweden where they grew up; there’s been a modern electric washer there as long as I can remember, but there’s never been a dryer. You hang your clothes out to dry and enjoy the resulting skogsdoft (scent of the forest).

  I would imagine that if I had to send our sheets to a laundromat, as my grandparents did, I wouldn’t wash them as often. Of course, the main reason our sheets need frequent washing is because of the accumulation of dog hair, and I suspect the phenomenon of dogs sleeping on the bed is a very modern one.

  Wikipedia has some interesting notes on the history of washing machines in the U.S.

• There are no laundromats in Sweden

  Date: 2010.05.24 | Category: Sweden | Response: 3

  My friend Neal sent me an article on the musical duo The Handsome Family, whom he recently presented in concert. The Handsomes are almost as renowned for their between-song patter as they are for their music. “If we spent the day doing laundry, I’ll talk about it on stage,” said singer/lyricist Rennie Sparks. “Once we were in Sweden and Brett [Sparks] had hung his underwear out the hotel window to dry. Of course, it all blew away. I couldn’t help telling everyone at the show that night.”

  “In Sweden, she noted, there are no laundromats because everyone can afford a washer/dryer.”

  A socialist paradise indeed! I felt compelled to do a bit of fact-checking. Are there truly no laundromats in Sweden?

  When Joe & I were living in Stockholm a couple of years ago, we stayed in an apartment building that had a shared laundry room in the basement. That is also the case in my aunt’s building. You sign up for a time slot, and as a nice, polite Swede, you make sure you do your wash and clear it from the machines in time for the next person. The machines were all free of charge, and the facility was quite pleasant — everything was top quality, and there was even an iron and ironing board available. One of the two washers broke down during our stay, but it was swiftly repaired. You do have to bring your own detergent. I wasn’t sure if they had fabric softener sheets in Sweden, so I had packed a few in my luggage before leaving home.

  Anyway, it turns out that Rennie Sparks was (almost) right! According to a 2008 article from Sydsvenskan newspaper, Stockholm — a city of over 800,000 people — has but a single tvättomat, or laundromat, centrally located in the Odenplan neighborhood. According to the owner, Elisabeth Gordon, “When I took over in the 80s, there were four [laundromats] here in Vasastan. Now I’m the only one in Sweden to my knowledge.”

  Who uses the laundromat? “It could be someone who is renovating their laundry room. Or older people who do not know how to use the new machines available in the laundry. Or someone who does not dare to be him/herself in the laundry room and feels safe here.”

  The article then goes into a helpful history of laundry in Sweden. From 1800-1900, being a washerwoman or a mangler was a growing occupation. In the mid-1900s, most people did their own washing at home; many used klappbryggor, or washing-bats, at the waterfront, to help beat the dirt out of their garments. In 1925, housing cooperative HSB introduced electrical washing machines, centrifuges and dryers in their Stockholm properties. They were expensive and required constant manning.

  In the 1940s, common-area laundry rooms were placed in apartment houses with the help of government loans. By the early 1950s, 8 percent of all households had access to public laundry facilities and 12 percent had private washing machines. 70 percent of households still washed by hand.

  In the mid-1950s, 80 percent of all households in apartment buildings had laundry facilities. Ten years later, the proportion had grown to 90 percent. By the early 70s, it was 94 percent. Nowadays, commercial laundries fill few needs — mostly dry-cleaning and the washing of oversized items like rugs that can’t be washed in a normal-sized machine… except for that single tvättomat in Odenplan.

  What about in the U.S.? A census survey from 2002 reports that 80% of Americans own washing machines, which leaves a lot of people who still have to rely on their local laundromat. There are about 35,000 of them, according to the Coin Laundry Association, and it’s a good time to own such a business: “During periods of recession, when home ownership decreases, the self-service laundry market expands as more people are unable to afford to repair, replace or purchase new washers and dryers, or as they move to apartment housing with inadequate or nonexistent laundry facilities. The market size grows proportionately to the increase in population. The public will always need this basic health service — people always need to wash clothes!” Clearly, at least in this regard, we have a way to go before we catch up with Sweden, where people never need to worry about saving their coins to feed the washer and dryer.

• Rather chilly for May

  Date: 2010.05.23 | Category: Theater | Response: 0

  Spontaneity is overrated. There is only one reason I go out as much as I do — I buy the tickets way in advance. When you’ve already laid out fifty bucks, you’ll get yourself out the house, even if you’d rather stay at home and watch your TiVo’d episode of the “30 Rock” season finale.

  Yesterday was a cold, blustery day in San Francisco, which meant it was especially difficult to leave my warm home. However, Joe & I had tix for the closing weekend of 42nd Street Moon‘s production of the ironically titled “Very Warm For May,” the final Broadway score by the great Jerome Kern (with lyrics & book by Oscar Hammerstein). “May” was something of a flop back in 1939, despite a wonderful score (including the gorgeous “All The Things You Are,” which was a major influence on the young Stephen Sondheim, who saw the original production of “May” at the age of nine). Hammerstein refused to allow revivals of the musical after Kern’s death in 1945, and it remained under wraps until 1985, when the creators’ estates finally authorized a performance. Still, it’s pretty obscure, to say the least — the kind of show Moon delights in reviving.

  Moon performances are pretty stripped down; until recently, the shows were performed with scripts in hand, a practice the company recently abandoned. Scenery and props are minimal. Audiences can rely on the fact that the acting and singing always ranges from good to great.

  The plot of “May” is pretty thin — 17-year-old May longs for a career on the stage, but she wants to start out in “barn theater,” a sort of summer stock that is anathema to her older brother Johnny, a Broadway impresario. She makes a crafty escape from the goon Johnny’s assigned to look after her, and winds up joining the troupe that is putting on a show scripted by Ogdon Quiller, a hyper-pretentious surrealist. Naturally, Johnny winds up tracking her down right before the play’s about to open — and a frustrated Ogdon is ready to give up the theater after a disastrous dress rehearsal. Will the show go on?

  The totally awesome and charismatic Bill Farhner completely steals every scene he’s in as Ogdon. Newcomer Megan Hopp, as May, has a bit of a charmingly ditzy young-Diane-Keaton quality about her. The performers do justice to the lovely score, making one wish that “Very Warm For May” wasn’t so obscure. I really respect 42nd Street Moon and the work they do, and I hope there are enough musical theater geeks out there to keep them afloat for a long time to come.

  Meanwhile, back in the East Bay, Alameda’s Altarena Playhouse is currently performing A.R. Gurney’s “Sylvia,” a play which strikes rather close to home, as it’s about a middle-aged man and his powerful bond with the energetic, affectionate dog he adopts. That doesn’t sound like anyone we know, does it? The gimmick in “Sylvia” is that the dog is performed by a young female actress, in this case Analisa Svehaug. (The original “Sylvia” on Broadway was Sarah Jessica Parker, and “SNL”‘s Rachel Dratch recently played her.) Svehaug does an incredible job as the titular mutt — she manages to be playful, sexy (Sylvia hasn’t been spayed, so a dog park denizen named Bowser catches her eye) and ingratiating. Empty nester Greg, who finds Sylvia the stray in his Manhattan neighborhood, has to convince his wife Kate to agree to take in the dog. But while man and dog form an immediate attachment, Kate doesn’t want a pet complicating her newly-streamlined life.

  Altarena is a community theater using amateur (non-Equity) actors, but Svehaug, Christopher Ciabattoni (Greg), Leontyne Mbele-Mbong (Kate) and Jamie Olsen, who has perhaps the most fun of all taking on a trio of richly comic roles, are all totally first-rate. “Sylvia” is a hilarious heartwarmer, and definitely recommended.

• I often dream of trains

  Date: 2010.05.16 | Category: Music, TV | Response: 0

  We’re only a week away from seeing either Evan or Nicole (who has been working overtime to convince the viewing audience that she cares so much about this competition and wants to win so badly!) triumph on “Dancing with the Stars,” but my heart has already moved on to Eurovision, which is less than two weeks away. I love the fact that Iceland’s entry is by a singer named Björk, but not that Björk, and I find this video by Belarus’s 3+2 curiously moving — two and a half minutes in, there’s a key change and the singers turn into butterflies! If that doesn’t give you goosebumps, well, you’ll never be a Eurovision fan. I hope they find a way to replicate that moment at the finals. If only they could release thousands of butterflies into Oslo’s Telenor Arena! Considering that Russia’s Dima Bilan managed to put Olympic skater Evgeni Plushenko on the world’s tiniest skating rink during Eurovision 2008, truly anything is possible.

  According to the show’s producers, Oslo’s theme art represents “gathering people and the diversity of emotions surrounding the Eurovision Song Contest.” Diversity of emotions? The crowd should feel only one emotion — awe, as in we are witnessing the most awesome thing ever! And yet as Oslo prepares, 99.9% of Americans remain blissfully unaware of the Super Bowl-like hoopla the contest generates overseas.

  Meanwhile, I continue to have a recurring dream in which I am trying to catch a subway train and either just miss it, or it never shows up, or I get on the wrong train. Considering that I only take the subway a few times a month and I drive almost every day, it’s got to mean something that I never drive in my dreams. So I decided to turn to the Internet to interpret my dream.

  Global Oneness says missing the train means I “may be fearful of missing important opportunities.” It would be so much more interesting if I’d dreamt I was riding atop a train — that apparently “denotes you will make a journey with an unpleasant companion, with whom you will spend money and time that could be used in a more profitable and congenial way.”

  Myths, Dreams, Symbols suggests the dream could be “trying to tell you to stay ‘on track.’” If I stay on track, though, might I not miss out on important opportunities?

  Bella Online believes the train “might symbolize a powerful force that is guiding you but one over which you feel you have no control,” adding, “In this country train travel is not as common as it is in other countries such as Europe, so the train might also symbolize some powerful, set way of doing something that may be outdated.” Maybe my European heritage is coming through in my dreams — although over 350,000 people ride BART every day, so public transit isn’t just for foreigners!

  Dreamsleep.net has a meaning that could keep me awake at night if I dwell on it — “To dream of being in the subway predicts a loss of money.” A banner ad on the site encourages me to phone a psychic for only £1.50 per minute. To call a psychic hotline guarantees a loss of money!

  Dream Moods has another unsettling interpretation — dreaming that you miss a train could denote “nearly escaping your death.” It also suggests the snoringly literal idea that I could be “‘in training’ for some event, job or goal.” Since I’m actually dreaming about subway trains, perhaps it just means I really want a sandwich.

• Life would be perfect

  Date: 2010.05.14 | Category: Sweden, Travel | Response: 0

  When I was in New York, I couldn’t stop thinking about what it would be like to live in New York. Everything about the Bay Area seemed puny by comparison — can you get a decent slice of pizza here at 2 AM? I don’t think so! The theater, the culture, the architecture, the cheap & convenient public transit, the sense that everything is there at your fingertips… it was really hard to leave. Just as it was after my month in Sweden a couple years ago. Realistically, I know the long and gloomy Nordic winters would eventually leave me with a whopping case of S.A.D., but walking along Strömgatan after dinner at the Grand Hotel and gazing across the water at the Royal Palace, I was sure nowhere else on earth could be as beautiful.

  The constant, restless feeling that the grass is greener somewhere other than where I’m living is one I’ve struggled with for almost my entire life. From a very early age, I can remember wanting to move to Chicago or Toronto or Washington D.C. Returning to the Grand Rapids airport after a trip always left me glum. There’s something about the novelty of being in a new place that makes me almost giddy, and I try to tell myself that would wear off in time — “Can you believe that they have vending machines on the subway platforms?” would soon turn into the sense of ennui that comes with taking them completely for granted, because you see them every day. Yawn!

  I bring this up now because I read an article by Megham Daum in Salon which perfectly sums up how I feel about both new cities and new houses. Daum is a real estate junkie who has written a book titled Life Would Be Perfect If I Lived In That House. While she was searching online for a home in L.A., Daum “looked at rickety farmhouses in Iowa, sprawling ranches in Wyoming, crumbling historic townhouses in Baltimore, and seaside cabins in Maine… the salient feeling of my adult life is that of being pulled in opposite directions by two warring sides of myself: the nester and the transient. I want to settle down, sure, but I want to settle down everywhere.”

  That sentence is so me it’s scary. Besides New York and Stockholm, I have imagined myself living in Albuquerque, Paris (I’ve never been there, but it must be fabulous), Traverse City, Pasadena (love those Arts & Crafts houses!), the other end of my own town (the neighborhoods over there are just so much cuter), and any number of places I’ve seen on “The Amazing Race” or “House Hunters International.” (Who knew Malta was so picturesque?)

  Then one day I found out that our new dental insurance plan might not cover the dentist I’ve been seeing for 12 years now, and I contemplated — ever so briefly — having to find a new one. (What can I say? I really like my dentist.) I have a friend who drives 100 miles each way to Sacramento twice a year so he can continue to patronize his childhood dentist, even though he moved from the capital to the Bay Area 25 years ago. It’s weird, but I understand it. It’s hard enough to make friends in a new place, but having to start from scratch to assemble the knowledge you gain after spending a few years somewhere sounds so exhausting, it’s a wonder anybody ever moves.

  So the next time I contemplate how lovely it would be to live in (fill in the blank), I will try to focus instead on the benefits that come from staying put. A new home in a new locale can sound glamorous and fun, but packing everything you own into hundreds of cardboard boxes and having to find a new doctor and dog groomer? Not fun at all.

• Betty

  Date: 2010.05.08 | Category: TV | Response: 2

  There aren’t many TV personalities about whom it can be said that I literally grew up watching them, but it’s definitely true about Betty White. When I was a toddler, my mom, a newcomer to the U.S., would watch the game show “Password” every day, which was hosted by White’s husband, Allen Ludden. (White herself was a frequent panelist on the show — in fact, that’s how she met Ludden in the first place.) A few years later, we were big fans of “Mary Tyler Moore,” which featured White in a supporting, but scene-stealing, role as scheming sexpot Sue Ann Nivens.

  I never became hooked on “The Golden Girls,” but my grandmother was a loyal viewer, so I did occasionally see Betty as the naive, kind-hearted Rose Nylund. And it’s always been fun to see her pop up in TV shows and movies, most recently last summer’s “The Proposal,” in which she co-starred with Sandra Bullock. White may be 88, but she’s never stopped being one of the busiest actresses in Hollywood.

  Everybody loves Betty White — that’s why an Internet campaign managed to catch the eye of “Saturday Night Live” producer Lorne Michaels, who invited her to host tonight’s show. “SNL” is pretty hit or miss, to put it kindly, but I’m hoping that the writers put together some great sketches for White. My TiVo is set, and I’ll be looking forward to another opportunity to enjoy the talent of this wonderful old dame.