Ola profile picture

Ola

Ulysses of the 50s, missing the year of Achilles' death. Was it 1964?

About Me

Still in the beginning when it comes to both things I know and things and haven't even heard of. Maybe that's why my classmates look so old to me.

My Interests

History, music, movies, poetry, travelling.

I'd like to meet:

Many of them aren't among us anymore. And I had so much to ask them about.

Music:

Monteverdi, Purcell, Paganini, Wagner, Bruckner, Mahler, Richard Strauss, Alban Berg, Hindemith, Stravinsky, Schnittke, Arvo Pärt, Robert Johnson, Beatles, Jethro Tull, Deep Purple, Laura Nyro, Pink Floyd, King Crimson, Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix, Kate Bush, Janis Joplin, Leonard Cohen.

Movies:

Repulsion, Death in Venice, Who's afraid of the Virginia Wolf, The American Friend (the Wim Wenders version), 2001, Five Easy Pieces, A Clockwork Orange, The Conversation, One Flew over the Cuckoo's nest, Taking Off, Dr. Zhivago, Freaks, M, Requiem for a Dream, Cries and Whispers, Wild Strawberries, The Seventh Seal, Dr. Strangelove, Amarcord, A Woman under the Influence, 8.5, Sunset Boulevard, Gilda, Nosferatu (the Murnau version), 21 Grains, Happiness, Blow-Up, Ivan Rubljov, Grizzly Man, The Blue Angel, The Battle of Algiers.

Television:

Sopranos, Six Feet Under, Life on Mars, Tell me you love me

Books:

Poetry by John Donne, Walt Whitman, Carl Sandburg, Allen Ginsberg. Prose by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, August Strindberg, Anatole France, Thomas Mann, Hermann Hesse, Franz Kafka, Truman Capote, Orhan Pamuk. Plays by Euripides, Shakespeare, Ben Johnson, Racine, Schiller, Ibsen, Strindberg, Beckett, O'Neill, Williams, Albee.

Heroes:

Have now at last realized that if there are any heroes, it is those who dare to defend "weaker" people, even if they risk their life and freedom. But don't forget Charlie Brown, David Copperfield, Aljosha Karamazow, Svejk and Mr Chips.

My Blog

Daniel Hope and the composers

He's the new young violin star, to the right on the CD cover you find below. Saw this interview with him the other day. Hope says that his artistry is nothing compared to that of Mozart, Mahler, Shost...
Posted by Ola on Wed, 27 Feb 2008 10:51:00 PST

I know a man who eats scarves

There's nothing wrong with him. He just eats scarves. And he's done it all his life. I haven't got much to say really, keeping this plastic rat (Kevin) in my sofa. I bought him in Dublin. Kevin i...
Posted by Ola on Mon, 25 Feb 2008 01:27:00 PST

D.T.H.S.

Dare To Hate Spring is an academy formed by Marko and me last year. There are only two members at the moment, but certainly room for more. No fee, no obligations. It's just an association for peo...
Posted by Ola on Sun, 24 Feb 2008 03:52:00 PST

Fear thy neighbour

Maybe this is typical Swedish. If I'm preparing to leave my flat and hear somebody outside, I prefer to wait a minute or so, so s/he can start moving downstairs or take the lift. I don't wan...
Posted by Ola on Fri, 22 Feb 2008 10:35:00 PST

Classical ballet

It was founded in the 17th century, at Louis XIV:s court. Its rules are still  ground for the training and that training is extremely hard and disciplined. You start early and you ...
Posted by Ola on Mon, 18 Feb 2008 11:25:00 PST

Differences between Americans and Swedes

I have no plans to learn Spanish, but if I told the world, this would be the reaction: The American (according to the most vulgar prejudices): Wow. Gee. Fantastic!!! You're gonna learn Spanish. Y...
Posted by Ola on Thu, 14 Feb 2008 01:01:00 PST

The English monastery plunder

It was a brutal story. The roofs were teared down. The graves were digged up and their remains burned. The metals were carved out of everything. And everyone in England were supposed to swear&nbs...
Posted by Ola on Mon, 11 Feb 2008 11:20:00 PST

A great scandal

This was during fall 1962. I had begun school and we were learning how to write. This is so extremely long ago that we used pens and ink-pots! I'm a link back to I don't know what. Maybe the antiquity...
Posted by Ola on Fri, 08 Feb 2008 10:16:00 PST

The real differences between film and theatre

One of them is the importance of the picture. A movie should never be just about plot and acting. Thinking about it, the films which have made the greatest impression on me (and perhaps on y...
Posted by Ola on Mon, 04 Feb 2008 01:03:00 PST

Der Freischütz

Listening to it today, we might find it hard to understand, what its revolution was about. But the 1820s understood. This was romanticism's great breakthrough in opera. It was almost like The Bea...
Posted by Ola on Sat, 02 Feb 2008 02:25:00 PST