Dreaming of Freedom

Week two of SFI passed uneventfully. It continues to be excellent although we can’t help but sit there letting about 70% of it wash over us as incompressible. It seems that usually someone or other understands what the teacher is saying and that manages to carry the class forward. It’s very interesting trying to learn a new language. I think I’m still in awe of myself trying and can’t quite believe I ever will. But nothing ventured, nothing gained…
Although it feels like a mountain to climb, it is an excellent excuse for reading kids books and last night I branched out into film and tried to watch Pippi Långstrump (Pippi Longstocking). Perhaps not surprisingly I could really only make out a couple of words!

It’s now turned icy cold here which is a relief after all that horrid rain. Braving the cold on Thursday night I took the ferry across to Lindholmen and met up with K and friends to watch Manufacturing Consent - a film all about Chomsky and seeing as it’s his 80th birthday coming up, we ate cake to celebrate. Although he is one of the leading intellectuals of the day and certainly has some of the best politics, I don’t think there is much in the way of films about him. I think this one is a good attempt to introduce people to ‘Chomsky the political activist’. Chomsky himself if somewhat ambivalent about the film, in part because he feels the medium of film is prone to heroizing. He says he regularly receives letters asking how people can ‘join his movement’, which is of course frustrating when he is just one person in a whole diverse sea of people working towards a better world. I think the fact that he is a professor at MIT, articulate, white and male gives him a certain credibility to begin with but also he is extremely hardworking and in the public eye and that in itself is going to lead to a certain amount of admiration. So while he isn’t the figurehead of any movement he is certainly able to analysis, collate and present evidence that is used to support anarchist interpretations of theories of power, propaganda and control - which is something that makes anyone read his work feel less isolated in their own interpretation of the world and more empowered to try and change it for the better.

On Friday after work I met up with Karin at Botaniska and walked around the wooded laked area behind it. It was cold but beautiful and the pearly white deposits of frozen water sparkled on the trees and the heather and the frozen ice shapes on the lakes and puddles made the world seem calmer and stiller. There was hardly anyone there and we spent a couple of hours wandering around and stiffening up in the cold before coming back to the flat for a well earned fika.

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I finally went to the design museum here it’s called the Röhsska Museet and it has an interesting collection of stuff from the last 3 hundred years. I spent a good hour or so wandering round and got a chance to watch some of the film Surplus: Terrorized Into Being Consumers which was showing. Somehow just going to the museum made me come home and spend a few hours on my novel. I also felt creative enough to put up my new Gothenburg page

Today we’re going to see an exhibition of some art and design work by first year students today which should be interesting. I’m also hoping to nip into
the Maritime Museum and Aquarium - which is supposed to be Gothenburg’s most popular museum.

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The weather turned cold on Monday and it seemed like the Gothenburg honeymoon was over but a change back today has restored my faith in the idea of a long hot Swedish summer. Apart from nipping into town and cycling to the sea I’ve been very busy the last couple of days grappling with CSS, html and embedding maps. I’m going to put up a new page on my website soon so you can see what I’ve done. I doubt anyone is going to be impressed!

We’ve just been to watch a film at the Global Studies Department at Göteborgs Universitet. For a few Wednesdays at 6pm students are showing free films. Today we watched Sophie Scholl. A film I was expecting to be like ‘The Wind That Shakes the Barley’ but it was quite different. Instead of using violence to make you sob, it was thought provoking - it making you think about how individuals should act when they perceive that the government is wrong.

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I have just got back from a wee holiday in Dublin. We nipped over there for Keyvan’s graduation - an exciting event held in The Helix at Dublin City University. The only slightly odd thing about the ceremony was the lack of motarboards but we all pulled through. There was a good speech from Olivia O’Leary who was receiving an honorary degree. I felt quite stirred up after she talked about the principles the OU was founded on - accessible education for all and feasible distance learning.

After a brief sojourn at the Helix with the chocolate dipped strawberries, bucks fizz and medieval costumes we headed back into Dublin centre and wandered around for the rest of the weekend. I managed to check out Trinity College and the National Gallery of Ireland. I saw the outside of Dublin Castle, the National Museum of Ireland, The National Library of Ireland the Guinness factory and the Gallery of Photography. I saw the inside the National Photographic Archive which is near the Gallery of Photography, while Keyvan and his family munched on delicious food at Zaytoon - a Persian fast food style restaurant nearby. I also popped into a display about organic cotton in one of the many side streets in that area, which was on because of the Ethical Fashion week.

I spent time on O’Connell Street admiring the digital art by Julian Opie. His work is worth a look if you get a chance. I know his work from portraits of Blur he did for an album cover.

I also spent some quality time in the cinema on O’Connell Street just because I haven’t been to the cinema for what is getting on for years now. We saw In Bruges - an odd black comedy that is actually amusing in parts. As the main character came from Dublin that added to my cinematic experience.

It did rain - as I gather is to be expected in Ireland but Monday was pleasant enough with a warming amount of sunshine. I didn’t see as much of Dublin as I would have liked so I can’t really tell you much about the place. The best thing about the city was the good transport infrastructure. They had an amazing number of buses that actually ran on time and were easy to use. The tram was also good. I’m a big fan of trams - I like Sheffield for almost solely that reason and I’m looking forward to see another tram system in action in Gothenburg. There should be trams in every city and I’m hoping that Norwich get their act into gear and put one in soon. A city with a good public transport infrastructure can’t be all bad but I didn’t really get enough time to get a good look around Dublin so I’ve been left with a slightly dreary impression of a run down city with sooty buildings that the rain doesn’t clean.

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I spent a very pleasant weekend with Mum. We went to the Tate Modern to look at the crack. It seems to be a really popular piece of art. People walk along, lots photographing or filming it. Small children spill out of it - arranged by photo hungry parents in various poses. Despite the ‘fun fair’ element, it is an interesting piece. The artist is Doris Salcedo and the work is entitled Shibboleth and is worth £300 000. The crack starts small and grows wider and deeper as it runs the length of the Turbine Hall. It’s really quite impressive. Salcedo says it symbolises racism and the division between Europeans and the rest of the world. “It is the experience of immigrants, racial hatred and segregation”. The sculpture was made by casting concrete sections, digging a trench and lowering the castings in. It will be filled in with concrete and rather aptly leave a scar on the floor of the Turbine Hall when the exhibition ends.

Saturday was busy. We met up with Jon who was dressed as a pirate for an evening of fun and hilarity in Covent Garden. We nipped to his friend’s flat near Victoria for a spot of spag bol and a drop of red vino and came home in time to see some spectacular fireworks from the flat windows. The local residents clearly have too much money to spend because there have been fireworks going off all week. It’s very nice for their budget conscious neighbours but it does get a little wearing at one in the morning.

I started a new job on Monday and so far so good. Nice place. Nice people. I taught process writing today - which was fun! I’m working part-time which is great. I highly recommend it!

And last but not least! I just watched Bee Movie… it’s kind of sweet. Basically Antz but with a a bit more ‘environmental awareness’ thrown in. I would say ‘take the kids’ but as it’s made $31.9 million dollars so far - so maybe don’t. They might need all that cash however as Beeceuticals LLC - a cosmetics and skin care company is suing over the use of the slogan ‘give bees a chance’ - it’s theirs since they trademarked it last year. They use organic honey in one of their products. There must be some level of irony in that!

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I went to Norwich Arts Centre to see Rory McVicar, Jeffrey Lewis and Kimya Dawson last night. Some of the songs were great. I took to Rory McVicar and the groovy old films they had playing on the screen behind them.

John Pilger was great! Of course a lot was squished into 2 hours so it has its limitations but otherwise it was a well made film. Heartrending but necessary. It was good to see the man himself. What a guy! A life time of investigative journalism! He must be very strong to see the horror for himself. Someone asked him how he managed to do it and he said he felt privileged to be let into people lives and do the work he did but it must be very hard to see so much suffering and hear so many tales of woe.

Right I’m off to meet Rich for coffee and a natter. I’m trying to ignore the fact that we now have another new PM and this one is even more interested in ID cards. Keep an eye on him on this clever little website.

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I am very excited today because I am going to see John Pilger tonight at the Curzon Cinema in Soho. Pilger is such an inspirational film maker. I can remember watching his documentaries in the lecture theatres at uni and coming out just wanting the world to be a better place and determined to change it! I haven’t but he is still a brilliant film maker. His latest is called the War on Democracy. I’ll let you how brill it is tomorrow!

The CELTA course is going well – teaching people who want to learn is amazing! I highly recommend it!

In my spare time I have been reading Now or Never – it’s not bad!! Check them out on Wikipedia or (I don’t want to advertise!!) myspace!

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Went to see Mark Wallinger’s State Britain at Tate Britain the other day, it was amazing – an exact replica of Brian Haw’s protest. There were some very disturbing images of deformed and dead babies and other such horror. Well if you’ve been to see Brain Haw’s protest then I don’t really need to describe it to you. It was interesting to have such imagery in a respected art gallery rather than on the street where it is usually seen. Afterwards we stayed at the gallery to listen to views on free expression, it turns out that the first Friday of every month there are free talks and film showings. Last Friday was all about protest so it was particularly interesting, we didn’t stay to watch The Weather Underground but it was interesting that it was being shown. The next ‘Late at Tate’ is on the 6th July. The talk was quite interesting but the best bit was when a member of the audience suggested that we stormed the Tate and took the exhibition back to Parliament Square - needless to say no-one took up the idea! Probably just as well as we didn’t have our camera.

I’ve been trying to write a CELTA essay, plan a lesson and catch up on my OU reading this weekend but I still haven’t got anything finished! Best get back to working. I’m off to Kew Gardens with Rumi tomorrow. I haven’t been since I was little and it was free so it will be fun if expensive to go.

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I watched Norma Rae the other day. It’s partly based on the life of Crystal Lee Sutton, a hardworking textile worker who helped to unionise the J. P Stevens factory she worked in. It’s a good film not least because it’s based on real people. The part where Norma Rae stands on table holding up a piece of card with the word union until she is taken away by the police, really happened to Crystal Lee Sutton. The film highlights the problems people face unionising their places of work and is a ‘must-watch’ for anyone who talks about the concept of ‘cheap labour’ as something acceptable.

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