tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-275790902012-02-02T03:51:32.585-08:00notes of a mad womanwhy be humble when you can be awesomeJosefinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08154957028302476654noreply@blogger.comBlogger5411100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27579090.post-56703220511910426912012-02-01T23:22:00.000-08:002012-02-01T23:23:37.072-08:00“The One That Got Away”
As deep as the woods come in this part of the country.
The One
That Got Away
a short story by
L. J. Lundblad
January 2012
“Everything will be okay in the end and if it’s
not okay it is not the end.”
[unknown]
The spring of that year I began wishing every
plane I boarded would crash. Up until that point, I was the embodiment of a
success story. As a child I had been a goodJosefinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08154957028302476654noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27579090.post-65028734722995820362012-01-29T01:06:00.000-08:002012-01-29T01:10:27.379-08:00those self-fulfilling prophesies
Friday
was the beginning of my life’s most Serbian weekend so far: in the evening I went
with a group of good friends to see Kitka performing Serbian folkmusic in San
Francisco. Before the concert we had dinner together in the city and above is
what I think is one of the best shots from that dinner – so Slavic in a sense…
On
Saturday I finally organized all of my printed out articles Josefinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08154957028302476654noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27579090.post-26405374626998334852012-01-25T01:16:00.000-08:002012-01-25T01:17:17.796-08:00Whose Body is This Anyway?
This
is as much skin as I’ll show on the interwebs.
No
full frontal nudity? NO FULL FRONTAL NUDITY.
«Той, где на монетах –
Молодость моя,
Той России – нету.
Как и той меня».
[Марина Цветаева,
«Страна»]
“That one, where on the coins
–
my youth remains,
that Russia – is no more.
Like she I was before.”
[Marina Tsvetaeva, “Country”]
My cousin sometimes chronicles her thoughts Josefinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08154957028302476654noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27579090.post-59906579150233774772012-01-24T21:05:00.001-08:002012-01-24T21:06:58.379-08:00“New year and new definition of some like it hot”
Here
is a scan of my latest causerie in Göteborgs-Posten published as Linnéa J
Lundblad on Sunday January 22 2012. The scan is – as always – courtesy of my lovely homegirl Annie. To read it my dear comrades will have to save the
picture on their computer and open it in full-size. In this text I write about flying
from California to Europe for the winter break, with some ‘folkhemska’ [I’m so
Josefinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08154957028302476654noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27579090.post-32586281357764742412012-01-21T23:53:00.000-08:002012-01-21T23:53:57.933-08:00типо пир во время чумы
One of
many late evenings [past as well as future] spent in the company of a hot
beverage and a good Russian novel in the department library.
Contrary to my own grim expectations, I’m
beginning to feel excited about my fourth semester as a graduate student of
Russian literature after having received a tiny taste of what is yet to come
during its first week. Yesterday evening I went with Josefinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08154957028302476654noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27579090.post-50543564070715142032012-01-17T22:34:00.000-08:002012-01-17T22:41:36.686-08:00The Eleventh Commandment
Today
I enjoyed the first chai latte of 2012 with Mrs S. I love those conversations
when you both decide “it’s time to get going” and then continue talking for
another 45 minutes.
«Задача женщины в этой жизни
определна четко,
идея жертвы вытекает из
ее природы, из ее назначения.
Она сама производит на
свет свое потомство,
в молчаливом смирении
вскармливает и выращивает его.
На долюJosefinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08154957028302476654noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27579090.post-70937190256635361382012-01-15T09:22:00.000-08:002012-01-15T09:22:48.304-08:00du behöver inte svara på det här inlägget
The
first thing I did when I got back to Berkeley was to redecorate our bathroom
with a little something I got for Christmas from Mother. As Critical Companion
wrote to me the day before I left Sweden, “I’ll always be the Sheldon to your
Leonard”, I’m sure most of my dear comrades recognize where this reference to
popular culture comes from.
While
transferring in London I decided that Josefinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08154957028302476654noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27579090.post-62312937586542472772012-01-11T14:21:00.000-08:002012-01-11T14:25:22.982-08:00all things considered
When I
visited Katok in Budapest, we went to Memento Park to look at old Soviet
monuments. I wasn’t too impressed, but that could be because I got to play with
twice as much Soviet memorabilia in this ‘museum’ I found in an elementary
school in a village about an hour outside of Tobolsk in January 2007.
Sometimes
when nothing happens – and in times like these no news is good news – I Josefinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08154957028302476654noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27579090.post-17760369353228914622012-01-09T14:49:00.000-08:002012-01-09T14:55:35.149-08:00man skapar sin egen verklighet
On
Friday I tried my new camera on nature. If I hadn’t told you so, comrades,
would you have thought that this photograph was taken in Sweden in early January?
On
Saturday I went with Mother out into the countryside to have a look at her new
little red house. In the woods I finally saw some seasonally appropriate snow.
On
Sunday evening I sat at a coffee shop and wrote my next Josefinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08154957028302476654noreply@blogger.com3Hisingen, Kvisljungeby, Gothenburg, Sweden57.7666667 11.883333357.758197700000004 11.8635923 57.7751357 11.9030743tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27579090.post-39231271538269875742012-01-05T14:15:00.000-08:002012-01-05T14:22:08.933-08:00all things new
Yesterday
I bought a new camera. Today I was trying it out the way my self-centered and self-adoring
generation prefers – taking some egoshots in the bathroom – and thought I ended
up looking a little too fine [see photograph above]. After a while of figuring
out my new camera, I realized that I had been using the ‘beautifying’ function
as it was the default…
That’s
more like it – moreJosefinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08154957028302476654noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27579090.post-39000894710902834842012-01-02T14:21:00.000-08:002012-01-02T14:27:01.034-08:00Хватит это терпеть!
On
December 30th I arrived in Budapest to visit my great friend K. who is doing
her Master’s in Gender Studies at the Central European University there.
We did
a lot of walking around the gorgeous city and crossed many bridges over the
lovely Danube.
It is
interesting – though sometimes frustrating – to be in a country where you don’t
understand the language at all. [Sometimes Josefinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08154957028302476654noreply@blogger.com11011 Budapest, Clark Ádám tér, Hungary47.4984056 19.040757847.3267646 18.7249008 47.6700466 19.356614800000003tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27579090.post-56315545258649664912011-12-29T13:31:00.000-08:002011-12-29T13:38:24.176-08:00Hade vi ens tur med vädret?
On
Monday morning – December 26th – my sister and I took the train from Gothenburg
to Stockholm to visit our father. [This is my improvised ‘really I live in
California, now I’m only visiting’ outfit; I bought the boots last winter in
Sweden – which required something to resist 20 below – and the coat my mother
borrowed me.]
This absolutely
lovely dog is one of the splendid people withJosefinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08154957028302476654noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27579090.post-33213518099450852002011-12-24T23:59:00.000-08:002011-12-25T00:03:04.349-08:00alla ska med
All private
things considered, a publicly expressed socialist thought met me on Christmas
morning at the tram stop.
Already
for the third time lovely K. and I started Christmas by attending a traditional
service in church. This is what ‘same procedure as last year’ looked like this
year.
My
sister Lillbubb and her boyfriend pose in front of the traditional Christmas
bush for Josefinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08154957028302476654noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27579090.post-59287161045979014552011-12-22T22:13:00.000-08:002011-12-22T22:14:50.625-08:00the road preferably never traveled
Me on
Hisingen on the sunny and snowless Monday.
Another
study of winter without snow from Hisingen.
Somehow
it pleases me that I get to be her.
People
who don’t know what ‘Hisingen’ is are probably confused by now – but here is
another photophraph of Hisingen.
When I left our cozy university world behind,
Boy-C promised that he would comment once on my blog during the Josefinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08154957028302476654noreply@blogger.com6Hisingen, Kvisljungeby, Gothenburg, Sweden57.7666667 11.883333357.758197700000004 11.8635923 57.7751357 11.9030743tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27579090.post-57884402107868781152011-12-19T01:13:00.000-08:002011-12-19T01:20:59.489-08:00the nearest exit may be behind you
Flying
out of a pretty in pink sunrise over Bay Area on Friday morning…
…to be
greeted by a soft as milk winter sun in Gothenburg on Sunday afternoon.
Once again, I’ve survived the long journey back
to Sweden for another winter break – for the eighth time to be exact. After the
usually tedious voyage complete with epic – for their boredom as well as length
– layovers in New YorkJosefinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08154957028302476654noreply@blogger.com4Burggrevegatan 3, 411 03 Göteborg, Sweden57.70887 11.9745657.437440499999994 11.342846 57.9802995 12.606274tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27579090.post-34623573157533408732011-12-14T13:45:00.000-08:002011-12-14T13:46:04.343-08:00“A Christmas carol about the virtues of not understanding”
Above
is a scan of my latest article in Göteborgs-Posten, published on Sunday
December 11th 2011 as Linnéa J Lundblad – as always, I’m grateful to
my homegirl Annie for scanning it for me! Due to the fact that Blogger no
longer wants to show pictures in “full size” [why is beyond me], you have to
click “save as” on the picture and open the file on your own computer if you
would like to read Josefinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08154957028302476654noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27579090.post-30566818821078161092011-12-12T21:54:00.000-08:002011-12-12T21:55:24.180-08:00like in a Mariah Carey song
Today
I went Christmas shopping and almost got all of it done in four hours – except I
still have to find something for Mother, Daddy, and Critical Companion… The
gifts won’t look this pretty after a trans-atlantic flight.
Here
are a few more pictures from the latest photoshoot with Mrs S on December 2nd.
I’ve chosen the ones I like the most, like the one above for example.
She
Josefinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08154957028302476654noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27579090.post-83898193854710287562011-12-07T23:04:00.001-08:002011-12-07T23:09:31.480-08:00«Нет полного счастья без полной независимости»
When I
was in Russia this summer, my friend Rodya [who is now dating one of my former students
of Swedish] filmed an interview with me. He later transcribed my answers during
this recorded session and turned them into an article for the October number of
the magazine «Наша молодежь» [“Our
Youth”], the first page of which is this with the title «В
Россию, с
любовью» [“Into Russia, with Love”].Josefinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08154957028302476654noreply@blogger.com2Yekaterinburg, Sverdlovskaya oblast, Russia56.85 60.656.711076500000004 60.284143 56.9889235 60.915857tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27579090.post-16124692060945220742011-12-05T00:27:00.001-08:002011-12-05T00:29:25.998-08:00a scholar in sweatpants
This serious
and seriously beautiful photograph was taken last Friday – prior to the weekend
I became a scholar in sweatpants – by the lovely Mrs S. Do note how my outfit
matches the Starbucks cup, comrades: that’s a little something called color
coordination. Friday was one of the hottest days we’ve had here in a while, and
I don’t think I had worn tights under my shorts if I knew that when Josefinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08154957028302476654noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27579090.post-21299505652797584742011-12-02T23:04:00.001-08:002011-12-02T23:06:22.149-08:00what doesn’t kill you
Remember
when I baked lussebullar with the Swedish teachers last year? Well, this year
we made it into a tradition! This year, just like last year, we also made
pepparkakor and I thought I’d share a photo of that process for reasons of
diversity.
Today I did something I’ve never done in the United
States of America before – I broke up with someone. [Even though he was a
non-american I Josefinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08154957028302476654noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27579090.post-74693384697626466762011-11-29T23:27:00.001-08:002011-11-29T23:33:55.189-08:00“Eat All the Cakes”
Here I
am on a tram in Yekaterinburg in July 2006.
Sometimes
illustrations to posts appear randomly selected – this might be the true
strategy behind the selection.
Comrades, I did it – yesterday I finished a
short story in which the heroine’s name is Nora and there are male characters
with the name Arvid. Mission impossible has been partially completed. This
short story doesn’t have a Josefinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08154957028302476654noreply@blogger.com01901-1909 University Ave, Berkeley, CA 94704, USA37.8715926 -122.27274737.8214551 -122.351711 37.9217301 -122.193783tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27579090.post-72201403932190378212011-11-27T20:19:00.001-08:002011-11-27T20:28:16.273-08:00из сделанного и прочитанного на выходных
It is
not in my habit to publish photographs here with other people than myself in
them but this one taken on Thanksgiving at our place is such a lovely shot that
I felt I must share it with the world.
On
Friday I walked to IKEA – it is strange to think of how I live within walking
distance from it but so rarely have the time to go there – and was so overcome
with sweet nostalgia for Josefinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08154957028302476654noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27579090.post-46162620383995922982011-11-25T12:15:00.001-08:002011-11-25T12:22:15.236-08:00“No reason to restrain oneself here either”
Here,
comrades, is a scan of my latest article which I published as Linnéa J Lundblad
in Göteborgs-Posten on Tuesday November 22nd 2011. Thanks so much to
my homegirl Annie for taking time out of her busy day to scan and send me it!
In this text, I compare the American Fall with the Russian Spring as both are
seasons overflowing with various holidays. Then I put on my bunny ears and
expand onJosefinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08154957028302476654noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27579090.post-85332571604820020522011-11-23T23:13:00.001-08:002011-11-23T23:24:04.188-08:00those were the days
One
day this week, Mrs S and I were eating lunch outside and talking about serious
stuff when I got distracted by this hoard of undergraduates passing us by and
looking like school kids. “I also looked really young as an undergrad,” said
Mrs S and later sent me a photograph as proof. I responded with a flashback to
my first semester of university studies – this picture was taken on some Josefinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08154957028302476654noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27579090.post-58182408449353327612011-11-21T21:28:00.001-08:002011-11-21T22:17:27.328-08:00where would we be if we didn’t talk to each other
Remember
my post from a while back, about how the truth of our time is written in the toilet? Well, I revisited my favorite public restroom booth – last week as well
as this week – to find that the productive female dialogue continues.
It all
began with the little question “Are you happy?”
Then,
also other messages received a reply – or several.
Who
wouldn’t?
Of
Josefinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08154957028302476654noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27579090.post-89011921086557415462011-11-18T22:49:00.001-08:002011-11-18T22:58:17.185-08:00Sheldon Time
‘Sheldon Time’ is what Critical Companion and I call
our Friday evenings when we stream the latest episode of Big Bang Theory [and
some other sitcoms we like], drink hot cider and eat chocolate together.
On
Wednesday AND Thursday I wore this adorable knitted dress that I bought –
without thinking it might actually be a long sweater and of the fact that I
live in California – at H&M last Josefinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08154957028302476654noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27579090.post-89509804724501664182011-11-16T21:13:00.001-08:002011-11-16T21:22:22.052-08:00and the award goes to…
Late last night, I received a comment on my
previous post from my comrade-in-arms [in the literal sense of the word] Dining with Dostoevsky, informing me that she had given me the Liebster Blog Award. Thank
you! I couldn’t have summed up my own blogging enterprise as eloquently as she
did:
“And, finally, I turn to Josefina at Nothing But Perfection. Josefina is prolific and, even better, Josefinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08154957028302476654noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27579090.post-78222670506723341562011-11-15T00:34:00.001-08:002011-11-15T00:36:42.645-08:00The never ending story of Nora & Arvid
I
would probably be a bit jealous if the picture above wasn’t a shot from very
own my life: lunch with a bottle of wine in Berkeley marina on November 14th
2011. These are the kinds of activities one can allow oneself to engage in when
one is dating a man with a car and the professional freedom to take two hour
off in the middle of the day… To the story should be added that I was still my
Josefinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08154957028302476654noreply@blogger.com21901-1909 University Ave, Berkeley, CA 94704, USA37.8715926 -122.27274737.8214551 -122.351711 37.9217301 -122.193783tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27579090.post-35103222185802515732011-11-12T23:30:00.001-08:002011-11-12T23:37:06.381-08:00here we make our own excitement
Comrades,
I did it! I finally got a moment alone in the public restroom at Doe Library on
Thursday afternoon and was able to take a quick shot of myself in the mirror
like I used to do when I had a greater concern for fashion and more time for
ego-pics. It is pretty awesome to have a hairband with a bow in a color that
exactly matches not only this top, but also three other tops I own.
Josefinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08154957028302476654noreply@blogger.com01901-1909 University Ave, Berkeley, CA 94704, USA37.8715926 -122.27274737.8214551 -122.351711 37.9217301 -122.193783tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27579090.post-69313733307702210172011-11-11T00:01:00.001-08:002011-11-11T00:08:10.653-08:00Bunny up!
On
Monday November 7th 2011 Mrs S granted me a new photosession called ‘Bunny
up!’ because that’s what she told me to do in preparation.
When
we walked past the teacher of Swedish and her students who could not stop
laughing in the Scandinavian department, her comment became quote of the day: “In
Sweden they celebrate Halloween for a month.”
Other people also thought it was fun toJosefinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08154957028302476654noreply@blogger.com1University of California Berkeley, 2440 Bancroft Way, Berkeley, CA 94704-1651, USA37.8754404 -122.245536437.8629064 -122.2652774 37.887974400000004 -122.22579540000001tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27579090.post-27726721407673149912011-11-08T23:55:00.000-08:002011-11-08T23:56:01.783-08:00when past becomes ‘before’ and future ‘after’
When I
lived in Russia and earned my money by perceiving surrounding reality – I guess
that’s one way of labeling ‘accidential journalist and professional blogger’ –
I acquired the habit of always carrying my camera around. The habit comes in
handy also in the US of A. Random words written in public are my preferred
motives.
All of the sudden comes the day that brackets all
of what came Josefinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08154957028302476654noreply@blogger.com11901-1909 University Ave, Berkeley, CA 94704, USA37.8715926 -122.27274737.8214551 -122.351711 37.9217301 -122.193783tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27579090.post-64633172273370367772011-11-07T21:41:00.000-08:002011-11-07T21:44:13.987-08:00in Soviet Russia the Party throws YOU!
It’s nice
to come across a joke you get.
A
while ago Mrs S got me hooked on a new habit: chai latte at Starbucks.
A
great way to round up a cold day in November at the university is to enjoy in a
traditional ‘fika’ with someone from the homecountry.
«...но в том горе, что я
слишком рано взялся за вещи серьезные в жизни;
взялся я за них, когда
еще не был зрел для них, а чувствовал Josefinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08154957028302476654noreply@blogger.com2derevnya Yasnaya Polyana, Tul'skaya oblast, Russia54.0675508 37.517249954.0302783 37.438285900000004 54.1048233 37.5962139tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27579090.post-75774710175544503142011-11-05T21:17:00.000-07:002011-11-05T21:20:24.701-07:00How to Make Swedish Mushroom Quiche
Many
months ago now, I promised my friend Girl-C [known on the interwebs as Krug the Thinker] the recipe for that Swedish mushroom quiche she tasted at my birthday
party this summer. Today turned out to be the perfect rainy Saturday to stay in
with Critical Companion and make ‘pie’ – as the dish is called in my native
language.
For
this special occasion I decided to splurge and buy some Josefinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08154957028302476654noreply@blogger.com21901-1909 University Ave, Berkeley, CA 94704, USA37.8715926 -122.27274737.8214551 -122.351711 37.9217301 -122.193783tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27579090.post-25211282423937232952011-11-02T23:08:00.000-07:002011-11-02T23:13:15.777-07:00it’s alright
I’m
sure both Sara and Nora would’ve approved of this.
“Om två stå bredvid varann,
och ljuga redan då ett tycke för varann, som
de icke hava;
icke gör då bönen lögnen därvid till sanning.”
[Det går
an av Carl Jonas Love Almqvist (1839)]
”If two stand next to each
other, and lie already then about
a liking for each other which
they do not possess;
then by that the pray doesn’t
Josefinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08154957028302476654noreply@blogger.com1Mariestad Municipality, Sweden58.7097526 13.823744958.4458481 13.192030899999999 58.973657100000004 14.4554589tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27579090.post-5303472661304672922011-10-30T22:56:00.000-07:002011-10-30T22:57:28.537-07:00old endings and new beginnings
This Halloween
I was going to fulfill another teenage dream: be a Playboy Bunny. But instead
of going to the party in San Fransisco yesterday, I stayed home, contemplated
and then streamed “Jesus Christ Superstar” with Critical Companion on netflix.
«Но тут уж начинается
новая история, история постепенного обновления человека,
история постепенного
перерождения его, постепенного перехода Josefinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08154957028302476654noreply@blogger.com0Berkeley, CA, USA37.8715926 -122.27274737.8214551 -122.351711 37.9217301 -122.193783tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27579090.post-45937192568096902822011-10-29T21:36:00.000-07:002011-10-29T21:36:21.491-07:00neither here nor there
Every
place can be a border place.
This
is the ‘Here & There’ monument which seperates Berkeley from Oakland.
At first I wanted to write that for the past
couple of days I’ve been thinking. Then it occurred to me that this is not
true: I’ve been thinking for the past two months, if not even longer. In the
light of certain events I have felt it necessary to reconsider the choice I
have Josefinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08154957028302476654noreply@blogger.com5Berkeley, CA, USA37.8715926 -122.27274737.8214551 -122.351711 37.9217301 -122.193783tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27579090.post-66772632195221093592011-10-27T20:48:00.000-07:002011-10-27T20:54:19.340-07:00Gott & Blandat
Critical
Companion & I saw this sign in the window of the Science Fiction Bookstore
around the corner [most literally] on Saturday. Right away I decided I would
buy all the gifts for my family from this store – coincidentally, most of them
are big sci-fi fans. Then we went into the store and were told they’re closed
because of “trouble with the tax man”. Oh well…
A
lovely ‘fulkväll’ Josefinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08154957028302476654noreply@blogger.com1Perm, Permskiy kray, Russia57.9971695 56.235279257.727891 55.6035652 58.266448 56.8669932tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27579090.post-68374143960120245252011-10-24T20:50:00.000-07:002011-10-24T20:54:04.037-07:00“Comparative libraries and curvy blondes”
A scan
of my latest article published in the Världens gång section of Göteborgs-Posten
on Saturday October 22nd 2011 as Linnéa J Lundblad. Click on the
picture to view it in a larger, readable version. As always when I publish
scans of my articles a shout out to my lovely friend Annie is due – it is
because she’s always there for me that I get this rare opportunity to read my
own texts after Josefinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08154957028302476654noreply@blogger.com6Krasnovishersk, Permskiy kray, Russia60.4002686 57.086711860.3688966 57.007747800000004 60.431640599999994 57.1656758tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27579090.post-31017607473050189192011-10-20T23:35:00.000-07:002011-10-20T23:35:44.948-07:00the truth of our time is written in the toilet
From
afar it seems to be just your usual seat-cover dispenser.
Upon
closer examination, however, a vibrant polyphony of voices appears.
Sometimes
it is difficult to see the words of others as not words of your own.
Perhaps
no such distinction exists in human language anyway.
Despite
two minor earthquakes in the Bay Area today, the bridge looks fine as the sun
sets on SanJosefinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08154957028302476654noreply@blogger.com21601-1645 Market St, San Francisco, CA 94103, USA37.7749295 -122.419415537.6745235 -122.577344 37.8753355 -122.261487tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27579090.post-76870835909079645062011-10-18T23:19:00.000-07:002011-10-18T23:20:14.441-07:00The Living Doctor
Oh the
Urals! With places like this, who needs a home?
«Изменил ли он Тоне,
кого-нибудь предпочтя ей?
Нет, он никого не
выбирал, не сравнивал.
Идеи «свободной любви»,
слова вроде «прав и
запросов чувства» были
ему чужды».
[Б. Л. Пастернак, «Доктор
Живаго»]
“Was he unfaithful to Tonya,
preferring anyone over her?
No, he did not choose anyone, he did not compare.
Ideas of ‘free Josefinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08154957028302476654noreply@blogger.com1Perm, Permskiy kray, Russia57.9971695 56.235279257.727891 55.6035652 58.266448 56.8669932tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27579090.post-60368708978330041792011-10-16T23:32:00.000-07:002011-10-16T23:33:41.453-07:00modest confessions of a nascent consumer
Today
after church I scrambled through downtown San Francisco in search of a birthday
gift for Mother – it suddenly occurred to me that as it is less than a month
away, I need to get cracking if it is to arrive in Sweden on time – and must
say I was not as scared by Bloomingdales and Nordstrom this time as I was by a
prior visit to Macy’s. Even though I like the luxurious experience of such Josefinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08154957028302476654noreply@blogger.com11601-1645 Market St, San Francisco, CA 94103, USA37.7749295 -122.419415537.6745235 -122.577344 37.8753355 -122.261487tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27579090.post-28514598054651358732011-10-14T23:27:00.000-07:002011-10-14T23:33:27.984-07:00with friends like these
A shot
of what it’s like to write a midterm paper on the dream of Oblomov at Free
Speech café in the afternoon on October 14th 2011. Perhaps I don’t
say it often enough, but I do live in the best of worlds…
A while back we were having a break during the
folklore class I’m taking in the anthropology department. The class I’m taking
this fall is the second section of two classes on folklore Josefinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08154957028302476654noreply@blogger.com1Berezniki, Permskiy kray, Russia59.4014703 56.799480559.2721528 56.4836235 59.5307878 57.1153375tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27579090.post-83407944364693500212011-10-12T22:08:00.000-07:002011-10-12T22:10:11.327-07:00“project happiness”You know what they say, comrades: if it’s written on a California wine…Written on this bottle is also ‘kruzhok’ [кружок] which is the name of my department’s graduate initiative – when the grad students united by Slavic interests get together about twice a month to have wine, pizza, and desert while one of us shows his or her research to the rest. It is one of the best things about being at Josefinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08154957028302476654noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27579090.post-30557794488438946242011-10-09T23:29:00.000-07:002011-10-09T23:30:31.968-07:00Project HappinessOn Friday Mrs. S did a quick photoshoot with me in the Scandinavian library.I guess the theme we were going for was ‘intellectual female angst.’
The reason I asked her to do this was because my next article for Göteborgs-Posten in is all about libraries [I named it “So Many Russian Books, So Little American Time” but we all know how my editor loves to christen my creations on his own].
This is Josefinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08154957028302476654noreply@blogger.com2Stinson Beach, Kalifornien, USA37.9004816 -122.6444263000000237.887762099999996 -122.67326280000002 37.9132011 -122.61558980000002tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27579090.post-24715362575247798662011-10-06T23:08:00.000-07:002011-10-06T23:11:47.489-07:00Vi vann!Berkeley’s Scandinavian Department celebrates the victory.
”De sparkar fotbollplötslig förvirring – bollenflög över muren.”[Tomas Tranströmer, Fängelse. Nio Haikudikter Från Hällby Ungdomsfängelse (1959)]
“They’re playing ballsudden confusion – the ballflew over the wall.” [Tomas Tranströmer, Prison. Nine Haiku Poems from Hällby Youth Prison (1959)]
«Лара шла, вздрогнула и остановилась.Это про Josefinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08154957028302476654noreply@blogger.com1Fristad, Borås, Sverige57.799662 13.00643149999996257.775637499999995 12.984764999999962 57.8236865 13.028097999999963tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27579090.post-71176752333742884862011-10-03T22:01:00.000-07:002011-10-03T22:04:07.421-07:00read ‘em allSometimes I procrastinate and find things like this on the interwebs.
The 3rd of October 2011 was after all a day of importance in my little life: my article about the International Shalamov Conference in Moscow this June was at last published in Baltic Worlds today. Please do enjoy this rare opportunity to read me English and perhaps even click ‘like’ as you finish “Exploring the Moral NecessityJosefinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08154957028302476654noreply@blogger.com1Tartu, Estland58.3708837 26.71482820000005658.3060877 26.469824700000057 58.4356797 26.959831700000056tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27579090.post-69664334552113654732011-10-02T21:54:00.000-07:002011-10-02T21:56:47.394-07:00but that was all we hadAlcatraz looking good this morning – October 2nd 2011 – on my way to church.
On Saturday evening I talked some with my former more handsome half M. He said that he had had a dream in which he had first seen that purple bag I used to have – it was from Puma but we jokingly named it Rita [несложно совсем понять почему] – and then seen me in his home town of Nizhny Tagil. Apparantly, I had looked atJosefinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08154957028302476654noreply@blogger.com1Tomsk, Tomsk, oblast, Ryssland56.46398929999999 84.9625475000000356.38439779999999 84.85490800000002 56.54358079999999 85.07018700000003tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27579090.post-56742235675522246302011-09-28T22:47:00.000-07:002011-09-28T22:49:30.044-07:00De menandeRed wine, cosmpolitans & marängsviss after tacos made the perfect traditional Swedish ‘tjejkväll’ on Saturday evening with my friends in the Scandinavian department.
“Like much of Dostoevsky’s work, [The Possessed]consists primarly of scandalous revelations,puntuated by outbreaks of mass violence.”[Elif Batuman, The Possessed]
It took me two days to finish reading The Possessed: Adventures with Josefinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08154957028302476654noreply@blogger.com1Petropavl, Kazakstan54.8833333 69.1666666999999554.8278258 69.06843319999994 54.938840799999994 69.26490019999996tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27579090.post-65248162302631842622011-09-25T12:30:00.000-07:002011-09-25T12:31:21.956-07:00“Finally fall and sunshine and swimming in a pool”My paraphrase of the set phrase in Swedish – “sol och bad i en pool” – is rather difficult to render in English and so all I could muster was a boring direct translation of the title I chose for my latest article published in Göteborgs-Posten on September 24th 2011 as Linnéa J Lundblad. [Click on the picture for a larger, readable version.] I began reading it but saw that my editor had opted for Josefinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08154957028302476654noreply@blogger.com0Berkeley, Kalifornien, USA37.8715926 -122.2727469999999837.8365441 -122.33954799999998 37.9066411 -122.20594599999998tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27579090.post-568082211784694242011-09-23T23:29:00.000-07:002011-09-23T23:32:42.176-07:00the kind of woman I’d want my daughter to beI changed the header on the blog to a more ‘season appropriate’ one [from September 2008 in Yekaterinburg, because here in California the summer is in full force] and then looked for more beautiful shots of Russian fall on my computer – that’s when I realized that fall very soon turns into winter where I used to live… thus, I have more pictures of glittering snow than of pretty colored leaves. Josefinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08154957028302476654noreply@blogger.com4Sibirien, Guldborgsunds kommun, Danmark54.82579519999999 11.984902154.81747319999999 11.975281599999999 54.83411719999999 11.9945226tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27579090.post-10035266171213629482011-09-22T00:28:00.000-07:002011-09-22T00:36:35.875-07:00Så länge jag håller i så är du helThis is what my sister will be getting in the mail next week.
”Jag vet inte vem hon ärmen det måste finnas någon där utesom du kan vara med”
[“I don’t know who she isbut there must exist someone out therewith whom you can be”]
Melissa Horn, “Mardrömmar”
The review of Melissa Horn’s latest album, Innan jag kände dig [Before I Knew You], in Dagens Nyheter a week ago seemed both displaced and Josefinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08154957028302476654noreply@blogger.com2Borås, Sverige57.7209979 12.94025450000003757.527473900000004 12.602215000000037 57.9145219 13.278294000000038tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27579090.post-56453285088094190052011-09-19T22:14:00.000-07:002011-09-19T22:16:43.306-07:00Mastering the Art of the Dinner PartyLast night Critical Companion and I invited a fellow graduate student and her girlfriend over for a Sunday dinner during the preporations for which both she and I got to refine our mastery of the art of giving the perfect dinner party. I prepared perhaps the best lasagna I’ve made so far in this country while she was in charge of the French desert with apples soaked in whisky, sugar and cinnamon…Josefinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08154957028302476654noreply@blogger.com2Berezniki, Permskij kraj, Ryssland59.4014703 56.7994805000000759.2606203 56.547180500000074 59.5423203 57.05178050000007tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27579090.post-51512015871601873062011-09-17T23:51:00.000-07:002011-09-18T00:02:04.318-07:00On CultureOn Friday I was searching for a good picture of myself for Baltic Worlds to publish on their ‘contributors’ section and it came to my attention that I have a tendency to make silly faces on most photographs. I came across plenty of good pictures but they were all old; “I don’t look like that anymore,” I lamented to Critical Companion but she did not concur. Among them I found this – possibly my Josefinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08154957028302476654noreply@blogger.com0Kara-Bogaz-Gol, Turkmenistan41.35194440000001 53.595277799999968.981857900000008 -6.1703472000000374 73.72203090000001 113.36090279999996tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27579090.post-4890368753170025502011-09-15T23:34:00.000-07:002011-09-15T23:34:42.814-07:00Jag kan fixa vem jag vill“It’s funny how War & Peace is always the quintessential classic,” said Critical Companion when I brought home this piece of photographic evidence from my Bart ride into the city this evening.
«Ведь вот я теперь и не знаю, что это я пишу, никак не знаю,ничего не знаю и не перечитываю, и слогу не выправлю, а пишу только бы писать, только бы вам написать побольше...»[Ф. М. Достоевский, «Бедные людиJosefinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08154957028302476654noreply@blogger.com0Sankt Petersburg, Ryssland59.93903899999999 30.31578500000000559.634551999999985 29.648178500000004 60.24352599999999 30.983391500000007tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27579090.post-30735969284818115792011-09-13T22:01:00.000-07:002011-09-13T22:01:42.371-07:00On Days When Nothing HappensThis morning I thought to myself “Nothing’s going to happen anyway today so I might as well not bring my camera.” Thus, after classes I enjoyed my very first dinner at Cheeseboard Pizza – a true Berkeley staple – together with three fellow graduate students. Sitting on the grass. Yeah, that’s right. This is Berkeley, comrades.
“But men in love with their opinionsmay not only suppose what is in Josefinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08154957028302476654noreply@blogger.com3Magadan, Magadan, oblast, Ryssland59.55632019999999 150.8130796000000459.27592019999999 150.48487960000003 59.83672019999999 151.14127960000005tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27579090.post-1398350265029697482011-09-11T21:48:00.000-07:002011-09-11T21:49:49.179-07:00aldrig ångrade hon beslutetÄntligen soffa! On Saturday morning the rest of the couch made it all the way here and thus our living room is finally starting to look like a room to live in. Yeah, Critical Companion allowed me to place a red rug in this common area… The red pillow is also mine; she gets to pick her own color and said it will be blue. She likes boy-colors.
Äntligen söndag! On Sunday afternoon – after putting inJosefinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08154957028302476654noreply@blogger.com2San Francisco, Kalifornien, USA37.7749295 -122.4194155000000137.7206295 -122.50881550000001 37.8292295 -122.33001550000002tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27579090.post-5056713081799353552011-09-06T22:03:00.000-07:002011-09-06T22:15:26.282-07:00ВопрекиThis morning I smuggled the camera with me to the gym and took some pictures of ‘reality’ as a way to illustrate my next text. Consider this snapshot a sneakpeak of the highly topical subject which one might or might not be able to read between the lines of my ensuing causerie – which, according to my editor, will appear in print on Saturday 24th of September.
“It is perhaps because he never Josefinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08154957028302476654noreply@blogger.com1Tara River, Ryssland56.6142158 77.0439645000000256.3582003 74.61612700000002 56.87023129999999 79.47180200000001tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27579090.post-56514157335838422332011-09-04T22:55:00.000-07:002011-09-04T23:02:26.827-07:00Jag har alltid hållit hårt om dem jag inte orkat medI’ve said it before and I’ll probably come to say it many times again: my own life often feels like a song by Melissa Horn. Once again, the time has come to anticipate a lovely new album by her – this is the first single from it – which will be released on September 12th. Judging by the bestellers on Sweden’s iTunes Store I’m not the only one who has decided to count down the days by listening Josefinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08154957028302476654noreply@blogger.com1Finspång, Sverige58.7060686 15.76755409999998458.4966691 15.381747099999984 58.915468100000005 16.153361099999984tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27579090.post-8509511415344181472011-09-01T21:55:00.000-07:002011-09-01T21:56:19.628-07:00The Impossibility of KnowledgeThis picture was staged: I did not read Frank Westerman’s splendid effort to follow in the footsteps of Konstantin Paustovsky to Kara Bogaz, “Engineers of the Soul”, while sitting in the sun and nibbling on nuts today after kicking off my shoes [why yes they are new and aren’t they cute?] – I finished it two days ago and only carried it with me so as to return it to the library where it belongs. Josefinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08154957028302476654noreply@blogger.com0Berezniki, Permskij kraj, Ryssland59.4014703 56.7994805000000759.2606203 56.547180500000074 59.5423203 57.05178050000007tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27579090.post-4612834938732685602011-08-30T19:42:00.000-07:002011-08-30T19:47:51.744-07:00“Here the Homeless May Demand their Right”’This is a scan of my latest causerie published on August 27th 2011 in Göteborgs-Posten as Linnéa J Lundblad. Click on the picture to see it in a larger, readable format. I have made the habit this year of reviewing every article after publication – thanks to Annie back home in Gothenburg this is possible even from northern California – and until now I have never been *really* pissed at my editor.Josefinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08154957028302476654noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27579090.post-40374912553284679692011-08-29T21:50:00.000-07:002011-08-29T21:59:27.962-07:00With Censors Like These…It is striking trend: while our private existence is intentionally flaunted on various social networks, blogging has come to suffer from deliberate self-censorship. When did we start writing capital letters for the initials of people in our lives, or come up with clever pseudonyms for the same? I often think that internet needs no censorship; we’re actively learning how to censor ourselves – Josefinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08154957028302476654noreply@blogger.com1Solikamsk, Permskij kraj, Ryssland59.63624970000001 56.7667884999999659.58693720000001 56.73569699999996 59.68556220000001 56.797879999999964tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27579090.post-6471194241346967512011-08-26T22:32:00.000-07:002011-08-26T22:33:04.181-07:00Take TwoYesterday we started building the sofabed and Critical Companion documented the whole process with comments like “what I enjoy most are the sound effects”. Alas! as it is being shipped in two parts [when I called IKEA with a perplexed voice they were like “didn’t you know that?”], I can’t show you the finished product in place in our livingroom yet, Mother.
This Friday evening was spent in the Josefinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08154957028302476654noreply@blogger.com1Berkeley, Kalifornien, USA37.8715926 -122.2727469999999837.8365441 -122.33954799999998 37.9066411 -122.20594599999998tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27579090.post-47392028365483997782011-08-25T12:10:00.000-07:002011-08-25T12:13:13.964-07:00Happy New Academic Year!Yesterday I decided to get ready for the academic year of 2011-2012 by cutting off another two inches. Usually my cousin does my hair, but as she’s in Sweden I had to make do with a local hairdresser. “Someone’s been playing with the curling iron,” he commented and, after I answered his question about when it was last cut, added:“your cousin must be some kind of genius because your hair is Josefinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08154957028302476654noreply@blogger.com4Berkeley, Kalifornien, USA37.8715926 -122.2727469999999837.8365441 -122.33954799999998 37.9066411 -122.20594599999998tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27579090.post-55576376120786611212011-08-24T00:00:00.000-07:002011-08-24T00:01:18.442-07:00Vem ska trösta doktoranden?A few days ago I was lurking around Free Speech Café and came across this. “Who hasn’t thought of this?” I wondered and walked up to have a closer look.
Upon closer examination of the flyer, however, an unpleasant surprise awaited me. “Even jail sentences are more precise than that!” I exclaimed.
Comrades, minutes ago I had one of those ‘oh-my-God-I-really-do-live-in-California’ moments – we Josefinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08154957028302476654noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27579090.post-67727940809405705262011-08-21T00:50:00.000-07:002011-08-21T00:51:00.725-07:00Humbert HumbertThis is what my work space at the university looked during the entire past week. Finally, after putting in so many hours and so much effort at this very table in the Slavic library, the first draft of my article “A ‘Bad’ Bildungsroman? Varlam Shalamov’s antinovel Вишера as a Reconsideration of Generic Traditions” is finished. For my next trick I will attempt to edit it according to the Josefinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08154957028302476654noreply@blogger.com2Berkeley, Kalifornien, USA37.8715926 -122.2727469999999837.8365441 -122.33954799999998 37.9066411 -122.20594599999998tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27579090.post-5415495968717166032011-08-14T23:01:00.000-07:002011-08-15T08:23:23.248-07:00Ложу или кладу? [к вопросу о вечных русских вопросах]When I got home from church today I found Critical Companion had made herself useful in my absence and purchased a kitchen table. Yesterday she bought fresh flowers – as seen on the table – and yesterday we also acquired the apartment’s first plant; she’s apparently running for Roommate of the Year.
Currently the table pictured above is covered with various research materials for my article on Josefinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08154957028302476654noreply@blogger.com1Berkeley, Kalifornien, USA37.8715926 -122.2727469999999837.8365441 -122.33954799999998 37.9066411 -122.20594599999998tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27579090.post-66868120669646901872011-08-12T21:19:00.000-07:002011-08-12T21:21:02.912-07:00Return of the RoommateWe don’t have an actual dinner table yet but I’m sure you get the general idea implied in the photograph above: today Critical Companion and I celebrated her return to Berkeley with a bottle of California zinfandel and a take-out pizza from Addie’s [which is conveniently located two blocks from our apartment and can be highly recommended].
After my return from Idaho I’ve been pretty busy working Josefinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08154957028302476654noreply@blogger.com1Berkeley, Kalifornien, USA37.8715926 -122.2727469999999837.8365441 -122.33954799999998 37.9066411 -122.20594599999998tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27579090.post-28827870402649909892011-08-09T22:37:00.001-07:002011-08-09T22:52:05.271-07:00Once a Bridesmaid, Always a BridesmaidThis past weekend, I escaped Bay Area by plane and traveled to ‘real America’.
Gulnara and her husband-to-be had rented a big beautiful house outside Sandpoint, Idaho with a magnificent view.
Три девицы – не совсем под окном но все же – занимаются макияжом... Here I’m doing Gulnara’s much celebrated make-up for the big day, together with her sister-in-law.
At breakfast on Saturday, Gulnara Josefinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08154957028302476654noreply@blogger.com3Sandpoint, Idaho, USA48.2765903 -116.5532476000000248.2485293 -116.57852060000002 48.3046513 -116.52797460000002tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27579090.post-34353966431270980532011-08-08T22:49:00.000-07:002011-08-08T22:50:48.546-07:00“Russia’s Destiny Found on a Street in Vologda”My latest journalistic effort was published under Linnéa J Lundblad in Göteborgs-Posten on the 30th of July 2011. For various reasons – first, my darling Annie [she’s in charge of scanning] was enjoying a week on Malta and, secondly, I spent the past weekend in Idaho where I enjoyed Gulnara’s wedding – it took over a week for it to appear here on the blog. As always, click on the picture to see aJosefinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08154957028302476654noreply@blogger.com1Berkeley, Kalifornien, USA37.8715926 -122.2727469999999837.8365441 -122.33954799999998 37.9066411 -122.20594599999998tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27579090.post-39564045336954029182011-08-03T13:47:00.000-07:002011-08-03T13:51:23.755-07:00After Move, Fresh Start in New ApartmentOn Monday I moved into the new apartment.
Some very kind friends of mine helped me with the move.
At first, everything was one big mess –
I hadn’t even chilled the champagne!
Here I will live with Critical Companion. Everything in the apartment awaits her return from Russia next week – like the blue toothbrush cup in the bathroom.
Slowly things are starting to come together.
The kitchen has begunJosefinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08154957028302476654noreply@blogger.com2Berkeley, Kalifornien, USA37.8715926 -122.2727469999999837.8365441 -122.33954799999998 37.9066411 -122.20594599999998tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27579090.post-529654347516701382011-07-28T10:35:00.000-07:002011-07-28T10:39:14.267-07:00FanmejlSometimes I wonder “For whom am I writing?”Then I get stuff like this in my mailbox at the university.
Though the question was repeated – with slightly altered intionation – when I flipped to the message’s other side…
Growing up, becoming responsible, taking control, being proactive, choosing wisely, etc, etc… is perhaps what I have been struggling with this past week – and will, no doubt, be Josefinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08154957028302476654noreply@blogger.com1Berkeley, Kalifornien, USA37.8715926 -122.2727469999999837.8365441 -122.33954799999998 37.9066411 -122.20594599999998tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27579090.post-65760682092322280492011-07-25T00:39:00.000-07:002011-07-25T00:40:18.940-07:00Жоня, напиши роман!My sister and I laughed a lot when we read “A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man” out loud together in May during dinner on Brännö.
Three pivotal scenes remained outside of my recent short story “The Beginning of a Beautiful Friendship” or maybe they weren’t left out at all but rather they came to me at a later point – as a matter of fact it was the day after I had finished the story when I Josefinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08154957028302476654noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27579090.post-60779560207845081762011-07-22T22:50:00.000-07:002011-07-22T22:53:33.573-07:00Confusion is a kind of ClarityThis is what San Francisco fog looks like seen from the top of the Berkeley hills in Tilden Park. On Thursday I went on a second date with a man by the initial S. The second meeting much resembled our first on Tuesday: we first enjoyed a pleasant view of the bay from Tilden and secondly a nice meal with fish at a restaurant.
Today [Friday] the Gay [Rainbow] Trout Lovers’ Association met again to Josefinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08154957028302476654noreply@blogger.com0Berkeley, Kalifornien, USA37.8715926 -122.2727469999999837.8365441 -122.33954799999998 37.9066411 -122.20594599999998tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27579090.post-76335158144175907062011-07-21T00:02:00.000-07:002011-07-21T00:16:24.921-07:00“The Beginning of a Beautiful Friendship”All I could remember was how we had walked hand in hand along the cobblestoned streets of old town in Stockholm when she was fifteen and I was twenty-five and nobody knew when the war was going to end and she took a bite of the red apple and looked up at me with a curious smile and asked why it was that Leo Tolstoy never got the Nobel Prize?
“The Beginning of a Beautiful Friendship”
a short Josefinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08154957028302476654noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27579090.post-37618068895380326592011-07-20T13:26:00.000-07:002011-07-20T13:32:36.302-07:00DagensYesterday I bought these awesome shorts from Urban Outfitters.
Ten years ago – when I was sixteen – I had far too many hang-ups about my body to wear this kind of ‘revealing’ outfit in public. For example, I always thought I had ‘too fat’ arms to wear anything shortsleeved – now, naturally, I understand that I might never attain the kind of skinny ‘feminine’ arms I would like to possess, but at Josefinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08154957028302476654noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27579090.post-2099564904007377412011-07-17T00:18:00.000-07:002011-07-17T00:23:44.104-07:0026Today – July 16th 2011 – I turned 26!
Here I’m cutting the cake.
Cameron and Eric obviously liked my cake.
My birthday party was frequented almost exclusively by fellow slavicists and their significant others – as my comrades can tell by how intensively Katya is reading «Что делать?» to Luke. Danielle [a significant other belonging to Shota] doesn’t look too impressed…
Now I’m officially Josefinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08154957028302476654noreply@blogger.com1Berkeley, Kalifornien, USA37.8715926 -122.2727469999999837.8365441 -122.33954799999998 37.9066411 -122.20594599999998tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27579090.post-57236714591551149192011-07-15T23:10:00.000-07:002011-07-15T23:11:01.441-07:00НаканунеThere’s a whole lot of cake in my fridge.
Last year for my 25th birthday I made Napoleon Cake [very Russian, very tricky, but worth all the complicated structural work]; this year for my 26th birthday I wanted to make an American cake. As I am not an expert on baking, I turned to Dining with Dostoevsky for advice. She suggested I make Red Velvet Cake, which I did one of yesterday evening to Josefinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08154957028302476654noreply@blogger.com4Berkeley, Kalifornien, USA37.8715926 -122.2727469999999837.8365441 -122.33954799999998 37.9066411 -122.20594599999998tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27579090.post-56083502995754093802011-07-13T00:58:00.000-07:002011-07-13T00:59:30.166-07:00Ад – это другиеAnyone who has flown coach across the Atlantic has been to hell.Sartre – and Mother who quotes his words – is right: “Hell is the others”.
It was around 11.30 pm on Saturday when I landed in San Francisco after some fifteen hours of flying – two hours from Gothenburg to London, ten hours from there to Dallas, and then another three hours – and I was lucky to get on the last BART train to BerkeleyJosefinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08154957028302476654noreply@blogger.com0Berkeley, Kalifornien, USA37.8715926 -122.2727469999999837.8365441 -122.33954799999998 37.9066411 -122.20594599999998tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27579090.post-82485944671005694832011-07-10T09:23:00.000-07:002011-07-10T09:23:54.376-07:00“Black as the bread, hot as the borsht”Here is a scan – thanks to my homegirl Annie as always – of my latest article published as Linnéa J Lundblad on July 7th 2011 in the Världens gång-section of Göteborgs-Posten. As always, click on the picture to see it in a larger – more reader-friendly – size. This time the text is all about Russian food, some about my former more handsome half M., and a little bit about Goncharov’s novel “Josefinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08154957028302476654noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27579090.post-77754530376335134162011-07-07T13:52:00.000-07:002011-07-07T13:54:51.399-07:00nu när mamma är så glittrande gladToday Mother & I took a day trip out into the archipelago.
For lunch we enjoyed fresh fish and cold beer.
These are good times of great changes:
no more long hair and the vegetarian of 16 years now eats fish.
My first July article this year – the second will be published on the 23rd – was published in Göteborgs-Posten today, July 7th 2011. Here Mother is inspecting her daughter’s craftsmanship.
Josefinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08154957028302476654noreply@blogger.com1Öckerö, Sverige57.709032 11.65184299999998557.628128000000004 11.362425999999985 57.789936 11.941259999999986tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27579090.post-11991651158576217382011-07-02T23:27:00.000-07:002011-07-02T23:27:59.544-07:00it is time for a changeBefore.
After.Josefinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08154957028302476654noreply@blogger.com2Göteborg, Sverige57.6969943 11.98649999999997857.5121863 11.478792999999978 57.8818023 12.494206999999978tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27579090.post-71039904927803530052011-06-30T12:23:00.000-07:002011-06-30T12:24:21.060-07:00man kan ju inte bli kärA picture taken during my last day in Yekaterinburg and my last ‘walk & talk’ with K.
On the eve of my last day in Russia, it is with the intention to reflect back on the month of June 2011 that I sit down alone with my laptop Ilona. My last day in Russia was spent on my own walking around in a stuffy scorching hot Moscow; originally this day was to be spent hand in hand with a man walking aroundJosefinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08154957028302476654noreply@blogger.com5Moskva, город Москва, Ryssland55.755786 37.6176330000000755.4907435 37.20096450000007 56.0208285 38.03430150000007tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27579090.post-75811631158253154232011-06-28T07:48:00.000-07:002011-06-28T07:49:44.033-07:00The Seven Year ItchМоя первая квартира. Санкт-Петербург, сентябрь 2004.My first apartment. Saint Petersburg, September 2004.
Мой первый костюм. Омск, июль 2005.My first suit. Omsk, July 2005.
Мой первый Альма матер. Екатеринбург, август 2006.My first Alma Mater. Yekaterinburg, August 2006.
Моя первая картошка. Екатеринбург, сентябрь 2007.My first potato. Yekaterinburg, September 2007.
Моя первая научная конференцияJosefinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08154957028302476654noreply@blogger.com1Jekaterinburg, Sverdlovsk, oblast, Ryssland56.83781399999999 60.59684199999992456.657535999999986 60.13084199999992 57.01809199999999 61.062841999999925tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27579090.post-32585505318918796872011-06-25T11:45:00.000-07:002011-06-25T11:45:57.982-07:00A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Tonight I should walk across seven fieldspick seven different flowersplace them under my pillowdream of my future husbandlike when I was a childas if the place where I grew upstill remains somewhere todayas if childhood never came and wentas if on the other sideof the street I’m on tonightonce again the ocean awaitsto greet me through the eyes of a kidwho never got enough of salty windswho Josefinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08154957028302476654noreply@blogger.com1Jekaterinburg, Sverdlovsk, oblast, Ryssland56.83781399999999 60.59684199999992456.657535999999986 60.13084199999992 57.01809199999999 61.062841999999925tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27579090.post-43510938862539471642011-06-24T11:44:00.000-07:002011-06-24T11:44:40.676-07:00and we leave traces everywhereThis is my former student Dina with her daughter Sonechka. During my final semester as a Swedish teacher at Ural State last year, Sonechka became my youngest student ever – she attended class up until the week before she was born! Since then Marina has taken over and is now home-schooling both mother and daughter. I hope Сонечка will remember тётка Жоня! Josefinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08154957028302476654noreply@blogger.com0Jekaterinburg, Sverdlovsk, oblast, Ryssland56.83781399999999 60.59684199999992456.657535999999986 60.13084199999992 57.01809199999999 61.062841999999925tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27579090.post-9483231592833853182011-06-21T11:00:00.000-07:002011-06-24T08:15:58.451-07:00Ржд – властелин российских отношенийSome happy Shalamov scholars on Sunday evening in Vologda.
Today I got back to Yekaterinburg after spending a beautifully hectic and strangely exiting week in Moscow – including a weekend in Vologda – and it feels like I was gone for much longer than seven days. It feels like I managed to live an entire little life during the time I was there. The International Shalamov Conference went splendid. Josefinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08154957028302476654noreply@blogger.com2Vologda, Vologda oblast, Ryssland59.2152406 39.8767089000000459.1760046 39.77071140000004 59.254476600000004 39.98270640000004tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27579090.post-44957757297054737392011-06-12T10:54:00.000-07:002011-06-24T08:28:35.390-07:00“You will not always be at home…”The communist leader and the blonde philologist on the photo above have very little to do with the text below.
“Bildung is concluded under the sign of memory, of mémorie voluntaire, of the rationalization of the accomplished journey.”[from a book on genre]
“To live is to choose”: if you choose to position yourself in opposition – of whatever it may be – it is imperative to recognize this to also Josefinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08154957028302476654noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27579090.post-80535989335132789542011-06-09T11:54:00.000-07:002011-06-09T11:55:07.174-07:00«Пичалька» and other useful expressionsI stand outside of Ural Federal University reading up on the first ‘real’ concentration camp in Soviet Union – located in the northern Urals on the river Vishera – and «испытываю уважение» [“experience respect”].
Marina teaches the useful difference between the Swedish words “kort” and “kontant”. In other words, «препод Мариночка жжёт» [the meaning here is, as the common expression goes, lost in Josefinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08154957028302476654noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27579090.post-88667581356316448092011-06-08T12:51:00.000-07:002011-06-08T12:54:02.314-07:00“Here Short Stories Apply to Rebels”Here is my sixth article in Göteborgs-Posten this year, published on June 4th under the Swedish title “Här är det noveller som gäller för rebeller” [not mine this time either, but that’s okay because the title I came up with was bad] and under my Swedish [I guess it could be regarded as such by now] pseudonym ‘Linnéa J Lundblad’. As always, I’m grateful to my homegirl Annie for scanning it and Josefinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08154957028302476654noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27579090.post-74230350505702141852011-06-05T08:59:00.000-07:002011-06-05T09:05:39.910-07:00smygstart på nationaldagsfirandetToday Marina and I gathered a group of students of Swedish at Ural State – sorry, I mean Ural Federal – in Парк пионеров [“Park of Pioneers”] for an early celebration of Sweden’s National Day, which is tomorrow June 6.
Here we are: a group of assorted young folks in love with Sweden.
Last night I finally made it to the infamous ‘orgrasm scene’ in Goncharov’s Oblomov – believe it or not, but thisJosefinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08154957028302476654noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27579090.post-82407770552331460782011-06-04T11:31:00.000-07:002011-06-05T11:36:49.132-07:00somebody still loves you Boris YeltsinThe world’s first monument to Russia’s first president – a phallic symbol worthy both of eccentric respect and bewildered envy – was recently erected in Yekaterinburg.
I don’t know if I told you, comrades, but my Russian Alma Mater, the university from which I graduated a year ago with a Masters in Philology – Ural State University named in honor of Maxim Gorky – does not exist any longer. In MayJosefinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08154957028302476654noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27579090.post-60551516915992006952011-06-03T12:52:00.000-07:002011-06-05T11:36:49.133-07:00тебя так не хваталоПостарайтесь, товарищи – найдите на этой фотке шведку!After almost a lifetime with bangs I have decided to let them go. What do you think, a good decision or not? When I told K. – we went on a three hour walk today around town and yet we did not manage to talk about everything we wanted or could have talked about – I’m also thinking about cutting my hair drastically shorter – though no shorter Josefinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08154957028302476654noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27579090.post-81284884476231278972011-06-02T12:47:00.000-07:002011-06-05T11:37:14.171-07:00lång dags färd mot nattOn the 1st of June Stockholm was at its most beautiful.
It is strange in many ways – the longer you live, the fuller life seems to become. My flight to Russia on the 1st of June got cancelled, and thus I was blessed with an extra day in the capital as I ended up leaving Sweden on the 2nd instead. My time in Stockholm was spent – it always somehow seems to be that way – in the proud tradition of Josefinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08154957028302476654noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27579090.post-59637986058830760652011-05-30T01:21:00.000-07:002011-06-05T11:37:14.171-07:00man vet så lite om varandraCoincidentially, the week I was in Gothenburg was Pride Week.Thus, it was as if I never left the Bay…
Since Wednesday I’ve been living on Brännö.
On Sunday morning lovely K. and I engaged in some church-hopping.
Afterwards we enjoyed a private church coffee ceremony together.
As Sunday was Mother’s Day in Sweden, I celebrated Mother together with my siblings – brother and sister – by treating herJosefinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08154957028302476654noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27579090.post-71383808350459206242011-05-25T00:39:00.000-07:002011-06-05T11:37:14.172-07:00Coming HomeFor my next trick I’ll show a picture of Not the Golden Gate Bridge.
On Sunday afternoon I landed in Gothenburg, Sweden – the town where I was born almost twenty-six years ago, the town where I grew up, the town which was my world until the age of nineteen. As the plane got closer and closer to my hometown’s airport – located way outside of town in the middle of the woods for no apparent reason Josefinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08154957028302476654noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27579090.post-30096463587163684152011-05-18T00:47:00.000-07:002011-06-05T11:38:27.245-07:00«Там, где начинается жизнь»Lasagna and beer equal one awesome Friday evening.
Most of my comrades should know by now that it is always a good sign if a) a new short story appears here on the blog [like yesterday, when all of the sudden I wrote “And Then There Was Music” even though I had initially thought I was going to write something else entirely); and b) the header on the blog gets updated [this time, I decided to go Josefinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08154957028302476654noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27579090.post-82723165475952981712011-05-17T00:24:00.000-07:002011-05-17T00:34:14.176-07:00“And Then There Was Music”Sometimes you have to say to yourself life starts now...
“And Then There Was Music”
a short story
by L. J. Lundblad
May 16th 2011
“All happy families are the same;every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way”Tolstoy, Anna Karenina
One time she stood in front of the mirror and tried to say it. It was somewhere on the east coast; probably it was in the ladies room at Harvard – it might have Josefinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08154957028302476654noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27579090.post-18128016180803863502011-05-13T16:58:00.000-07:002011-05-13T17:00:04.947-07:00om sanningen ska fram
I can't get over how great this song is.
That's why I decided to write an answer to it - from the female point of view - can you spot the difference, comrades?
Om jag skrattar medan du pratar,bara nickar och ler brett.Om jag säger du är rolig,att personlighet är viktigastför alla andra är så ytliga,om jag låtsas intresserad.Om jag låter dig ta all plats,men inte säger vem jag är.
Om jag ger Josefinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08154957028302476654noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27579090.post-57118869467697096562011-05-09T15:57:00.000-07:002011-05-09T15:59:50.104-07:00come for the dinner, stay for the wrestlingMy latest article in the Världens gång section of Göteborgs-Posten, published Sunday May 8th 2011 [click on the picture to enlarge!]. The original title of this text – about traveling by train in Russia versus in the US of A, exploring internet dating, and listening to the wise words of one’s mother – was not “Kärleken på spåret och andra vägar undan ödet” [“Love on the tracks and other ways awayJosefinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08154957028302476654noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27579090.post-49209060033914785402011-05-06T21:12:00.000-07:002011-06-05T11:38:27.246-07:00they call it paper-writing-modeSome pictures of what my life has been like since classes officially ended a week ago:
Sunday: angst in the stacks with Critical Companion. I’m putting the final touches on the take-home exam in Russian descriptive grammar. The madness on the board is not my paper, but hers…
Monday: angst in the stacks with Critical Companion continued. She puts it in writing this time. And this is officially theJosefinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08154957028302476654noreply@blogger.com1