Library

If there's one thing I like about Sweden, it's the libraries. They all cooperate really well, for example by lending books to each other if the book you want to borrow isn't available in your library. This only surprises me since the rest of the country seems so disorganized. The only competent people work at libraries.

I digress. I was at the library a few days ago because my younger brother had a gig there. After he was done playing, I went upstairs and watched some capoiera. Apparently, there's a capoeira club in my town, and they had invited the caopoeira club from a neighbouring town to participate in the show.

I recorded this with a digital camera with no mic, so no sound in this clip. That's unfortunate, because the singing and rhythms were fun. On the plus side, it's a blast just watching that bald guy. I got the feeling that this guy was the instructor, since he led the songs, played the most complex looking intrument, and finished off the show with the coolest moves. The smoothness with which he easily flowed from move to move is exactly what I wanted to see.

Where the first clip was lacking in the sound department, this one is lacking in pretty much every department. At least it has sound, so now you can hear the singing and the sticks banging together. I've never seen this style of capoeira before (although I haven't seen much capoeira at all), and I must say I like it. Who doesn't want to see high-speed rhythmic stick fighting?

I'm guessing this week is some kind of culture week at the library, because today when I went in there to borrow some Richard K. Morgan books, I was greeted by piano and cello harmonies. To my mild surprise, a small ensemble was performing classical music to a rapt audience.

The music was nice, but I didn't have much time to listen to it since I was running around looking for a free computer to print out information on which books I wanted. Strangely, the music kind of fit my running up and down stairs. I suddenly had a private soundtrack for The Quest for the Unoccupied Library Computer, starring me as myself. I also got the privilege of shouting at a librarian for the first time, for her to hear me over the music. She seemed intimidated and frightened, but on the other hand, that's perfectly normal behaviour for a librarian.