Beloved Bookstore

Foto: Melissa A. Barton

My favorite place
Browsing for hours space
Ink filled shelf maze

Along Old Town’s busiest street
Fantasy and Science Fiction meet
Wild dreams with care treat

Rows upon rows of books
Customers in all manner of looks
Geeks and nerds in every nook

Kind magic filled atmosphere
All welcome however queer
There whenever the world feels to severe

My favorite store
Filled to the rafters with strange lore
Lets inspired creativity soar

© REDCAT

Foto: Melissa A. Barton

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My second poem for Global Poetry Writing Month, inspired by today’s prompt. To write a poem about a specific place – a particular house or store or school or office. So I choose my favorite store in Stockholm. Which also happens to be one of the best places I ever worked.

Also linking to OpenLinkNight #263 at dVerse.

Foto: Melissa A. Barton

GloPoWriMo 2020

DAY 1 – Build a New Start
DAY 2 – Beloved Bookstore
DAY 3 – Sunshine and Hail
DAY 4 – Isolation Dating
DAY 5 –Staring out a Windowpane
DAY 6 – Casanova Comes Closer
DAY 7 – Swirling Colors of my Mind
DAY 8 – White – Red – Black
DAY 9 – Different World After
DAY 10 – Spring Hay(na)ku
DAY 11 – Love – Hay(na)ku
DAY 12 – Make Art – Triolet inspired
by Neil Gaiman and Chris Riddell
DAY 13 – What did you think would happen
to a child left on my doorstep?
DAY 14 – Ballad of the Lost Poet
DAY 15 – Writer’s class – Hay(na)ku
DAY 16 – What is a Nomad without a Tribe?
DAY 17 – Pale Spring, Here Again, Nature Awake
DAY 18 – Spring Day in the Garden
DAY 19 – Close Couplets
DAY 20 – Lost in Love’s First Flush
DAY 21 – She Tasted Like Memory
DAY 22 – Struggling Mind
DAY 23 – Written in the book of dust
DAY 24 – At the end of every week, Friday-Cozy!
DAY 25 – Slip, Crack, Shatter
DAY 26 – Humans Really Don’t Know
DAY 27 – April Rain
DAY 28 – Greeting the Watch Horse
DAY 29 – Letter of Hope
DAY 30 – Witches Walpurgis Night Preparation

Foto: Melissa A. Barton

Avicii tribute concert

So today it’s time for the big concert. The door open at four o’clock, the music starts at five, and the whole thing is scheduled to last until eleven or so. A review will follow during the weekend.

Hopefully however good or bad the concert is. It will raise awareness about Mental Health issues. An issue that affects me and many, many more in the world. And should not be seen as a stigma or a sign of weakness.

Here’s an excerpt of what I felt when I heard Avicii’a last album for the first time:
Just listed trough Avicii’s last album, TIM. It was hard, sad, and one of the best albums I’ve heard.
It breaks my heart to know this is the last. That this talent where cut short by his own hand. That whoever you are, you can fool your surroundings, and like our beloved Chaotic end your life.
It also fills my heart with Love for the friends who caught me, while I was ready to leave. I will always remember and owe you a debt of gratitude. 💖
Heart Upon My Sleeve are pure genius!
It contains some of the sexiest sounds I’ve ever heard! 😘

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Original post published 5 September 2019.

Sometimes a birthday treat show up unusually early in the year, on December 5th, at Friends Arena, The Tim Bergling Foundation will host a tribute concert. Many artist, producers and DJs that worked with Avicii will perform alongside a 30-piece live band. News of the concert splashed across Swedish media the other day. Tickets where to be released at 10 a.m. today, and I know my husband and I where not the only ones glued to their screens at that time. 55 000 sold out instantly. We got two! :-)

 

 

The concert hope to aid Mental Health Awareness!

Something sorely lacking in way to many places. A tide of illness that only seem to swell in our narcissistic, social media dependent, look at me society.

Tim Bergling is a good example of however famous, of means and loved, by family, friends and the world, you are, if you suffer from a mental illness and don’t get the right help, you may end up taking your own life. It doesn’t matter who you are, or your circumstances, if you need help you should GET IT and you should NOT be ashamed to ask for it. There are many of us who have lost family or friends this way.

The only reason I can sit here today writing is because I did get help, both when I asked for it and when I where to far gone to do even that.

So YES caring makes a difference, and everyone needs to remember that mental illness have always been way more common than humanity have wanted to accept and seem to be on the rise in our fast paced world.

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The Sauna

Street art opposite the Sauna. Artist unknown. May 2019

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Midnight train. People of every kind, with luggage.
But not because of travel.

Curious, I break the Stockholm-tabu to talk to strangers.
Turning to a suit-dressed man.
-Where are you going? He smiles mischievously.
-To the sauna, he says. Then laughs at my confusion. 
-Come along, and I’ll show you!
I hesitate, but his face is open, honest.

Everyone heads in the direction of an old wear-house.
As we near, I feel a bass-heavy beat.
The people with luggage head to a locker-room.
-Be back later, says my guide.

I take a walk through this strange world. Kink everywhere you look.
Total abandon on dance-floor and in dark-rooms.

Suddenly a susurration. “The Queen”.
There, wearing a fabulous creation, my guide.
An entourage of queers.

With a beatific smile, the Queen spreads her arms in welcome.
“If it’s darkness we’re having, let it be extravagant.”

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Some prose flash fiction, based on a real place. ;-)
Written for the prompt on dVerse ~ Prosery: Meet Jane Kenyon.
This one I got to be exactly 144 words without the title.

Weekend special – Stockholm staycation

• 

• 

• 

As you might have guessed by Fridays post. It was adventure time.
Playing tourists in our own town. Not wasting time on travel.
Mr Delight had booked a favorite hotel for two nights.
Tickets for Richie Hawtin at Berns secured months ago.
An interesting bar in old town to visit.
Mattias Dahlgren restaurant Rutabaga, finally.
Sleeping late, rambling trough town, letting our fancy steer.
No news, no screens, no social media.
Talking, being together, reconnecting, sharing.
Still, the future is never an easy subject.
So make time and space for those conversations. Regularly!

A weekend well spent. That left me with reviews to write, photos to sort trough, a list of ideas for future posts (or other writing projects).

So here’s a first taste of what to do on weekend in Stockholm.

Reviews:
Berns
Pharmarium

Weekend special – Richie Hawtin at Berns, Stockholm

Berns is a historical building in the heart of Stockholm. It was once the space for dashing bachelors in the late nineteenth hundreds. Two of August Strindberg‘s books are named after salons here.

Today it’s a hotel, restaurant and nightclub. I’ve been here more times than I can count. Graduation dinner in one of the private rooms, dinner at Berns Asiatiska, afternoon tea. And lots, and lots of times for music and dancing.
I love the big hall, with big crystal chandeliers and a real wooden floor. There is few better floor for dancing a night in this town.

So when it was released that the legend Richie Hawtin where going to be playing in town for the first time in eleven years, tickets had to be bought.
Last time I had a chance to dance to this genius, was eight years ago, in Sitges, Spain, with the Mediterranean sea just a stone-trow away.
The place was packed, both in the basement and the big hall. Standing near the front was no idea if you’re like me.

I go out to DANCE!!!

So I did what I always do. I found a spot with booth ok sound and enough space to dance my heart out. Mr Hawtin of course made that really easy. ;-)

Weekend special – Pharmarium, Stockholm review

Pharmarium is the cocktail bar for decadent drinks and good snacks. Located at Stortorget where Sweden’s first apothecary opened in 1575. With inspiration from the antique apothecary we create interesting tastes with dubitable ingredients and a big scoop of fantasy.

(Translated by me from their homepage.)

Since I write reviews as a Local Guide, Google Maps is getting scary good at giving recommendations. So I found Pharmarium in Stockholm old town. We booked a table and went there before going dancing.

The place was bigger then I expected, but book a table, it seemed popular. Both with groups hanging out and couples dating.
We got seated in a very cosy area. But I have to say, I would rather sit a little less cosy if it means the waitresses didn’t have to squat to talk to costumers or serve drinks.

The cocktail list took a while to peruse. It was a busy night, and the service was kind of slow. But eventually…

• 

  Pillowcase Cocktail
  &
  Champagne in the Membrane

• 

  The Night Howler

I’m not one for sweet drinks, and that champagne cocktail was way too sweet. Dr feelgood however, my second cocktail was really good, ginger often is. ;-)

Mr Delight and others where all intrigued by a smoky drink. But really, it just tasted like a birch fire smells. And yet smokey flavored things pop up all over the place.