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Virkbilagan #43
From ahrvid@sfbbs.edvina.se Tue Apr 19 04:54:10 1994
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To: virklist@sfbbs.edvina.se
Subject: Virkis #43
From: ahrvid@sfbbs.edvina.se (A Engholm)
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Organization: Science Fiction BBS tel +46 (0)8 6424077
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Virkbilagan #43 - ett litet pratfanzine, från Ahrvid Engholm,
Renstiernas Gata 29, 116 31 Stockholm, ahrvid@stacken.kth.se,
ahrvid@sfbbs.edvina.se. Copyright (C) Ahrvid Engholm, 1994; fråga innan
du sprider vidare. Well, this is another mess you've gotten me in to!
(Sade Helan till Halvan.) TROF,THOE&TPOB (94-04-13)
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FELNUMRERAT VAR F\RRA numret. Det var nr 42, inte 41.
Det är inte första gången det hänt. Skälet är att jag för
varje nummer klipper in logon från något gammalt nummer och glömmer
ändra. Hav överseende.
Och katten kom ju tillbaka, trots allt! Jag var runt och satt upp
lappar om att den rackaren sprungit bort. Det ringde faktiskt en del
personer, men för det mesta hade de sett andra katter. Men en familj i
Vita Bergen hade sett rätt katt, och min mor var över och hämtade lille
Simon. Han hade hållit sig i parken hela tiden. En förståndig katt.
Huvudinnehållet i detta nummer blir en artikel om Stockholm. Den
beställdes av redaktören för finska Spin under Aikacon. Spin skulle vi i
Sverige snarare kalla ett semi-prozine; det är i alla fall den mest
anrikta av de finska sf-publikationerna. Man ville ha en artikel om
"Stockholm som sf-stad" som kunde vara en presentation för finska fans
som kom hit: litet om själva staden, vilka bokhandlar som finns, tips
om bra krogar och förlustelser, litet historia. Jag skrev den på
engelska, så det skulle bli lättare att översätta (jo, jag vet att många
finländare förstår svenska, men ändå).
Det har blivit mycket artiklar i utländska fanzines på sistone. Norska
Algernon hade i senaste numret min långa artikel om cyberpunk (från
Conscience' programbok). Hugovinnande amerikanska Mimosa nr 15 har just
kommit ut, med en artikel om den hemliga APA:n Gurka av mig. Och man
vill ha mer material!
Jag har inte skrivit så mycket i svenska fanzines på sistone, förutom
mina egna förstås. Dels får jag få förfrågningar, dels har jag faktiskt
fullt upp med mina egna, men dels har jag vid ett par tillfällen inte
varit så nöjd med hur materialet redigeras. För några år sedan skrev jag
en artikel om några klassiska skräckfilmer (som jag varit och sett på
Filminstitutet) för Leif G ]strand, som då utgav ett horror-fanzine. Men
när jag såg artikeln i tryck blev jag lika rädd som den som sett
skräckfilmer: interpunktionen i hela texten var förstörd.
Troligen trodde redaktören att han "rättat", men han borde ha frågat
mig först (då skulle jag ha sagt: Låt bli!). Jag gillar att använda alla
interpunktionstecken; inklusive tankestreck - och semikolon. Tecknen
används för pauskommatering, dvs jag låter dem antyda lämpliga
läspausar. Den som skall "rätta" det vill jag se mellan fyra ögon.
Pauskommatering är en alternativ men fullständigt korrekt
interpunkteringsstrategi. Jag ogillar starkt att någon ger sig på det,
bland annat för att formuleringar och meningsbyggnad bygger på att den
ursprungliga interpunktionen finns kvar.
Jag har skrivit ganska många artiklar med fandom-anknytning, bland
annat på engelska. Jag funderar så smått på att utge en Swede Ishes 2
till den skotska världskongressen nästa år. Den första Swede Ishes
utgavs till världskongressen i Brighton 1987. En Swede Ishes 2 skulle
främst (eller bara) innehålla mitt eget material. Det besvärligaste med
den första Swede Ishes var att hitta tillräckligt bra material av andra
och sedan översätta det. Det blev mycket petande. Gör jag en fantologi
med bara eget material så slipper jag det, och så får jag allt precis
som jag vill! Följande artikel kan i någon form komma att ingå i en
Swede Ishes 2:
STOCKHOLM - THE SCIENCE FICTION TOWN
"I stopped in front of a shop with a small wooden sign
whichhung from a wrought-iron spear projecting from the weathered stone
wall. On it the word Antikvariat was lettered in spidery gold against
dull black. /.../ Five hours had passed and he was still with me as I
walked through the Old Town, medieval Stockholm still preserved on an
island in the middle of the city. I had walked past shabby windows
crammed with copper pots, ornate silver, dueling pistols, and worn
cavalry sabers; they were all very quaint in the afternoon sun, but grim
reminders of a ruder day of violence after midnight. Over the echo of my
footsteps in the silent narrow streets the other steps came quietly
behind, hurrying when I hurried, stopping when I stopped. Now the man
stared into the dark window and waited. The next move was up to me."
-- From the beginning of Worlds of the Imperium, by Keith
Laumer
For me who have lived in Stockholm all my life the city is much more
than a collection of buildings. There are many aspects of the Swedish
capital. The mixture between old and new is evident. The modern subway,
which with its 99 stations is the tenth biggest in the world, goes right
through the medieval Old Town, where the Swedish Academy meets every
Thursday to decide about the Nobel Award, among other things. From the
Royal castle you can see all the way to the Globe, the giant sports
arena where the national Swedish hockey team in blue and yellow, called
"The Three Crowns", battles the Russians or the Czeches in only slightly
more peaceful manners than the king's soldiers 400 years ago. Opposite
the Castle is the City Hall, with the national symbol on top, the three
crowns, famous for the Nobel banquet.
You can take a inner city ferry from the Old Town to the Royal Deer
Gardens, where the poet and troubadour Carl Michael Bellman once played
his songs under the oaks. "Maidens in the green grass, or wine in green
glasses, I yearn for them both", he sang in one of the ballads, that
painted a romantic, decadent 18th Century Stockholm. "To have your drink
and have your girl, that's what Saint Fredman will teach you", he sang,
"Fredman" being Bellman's alter ego in the ballads.
In the Royal Deer Gardens are also the out door museum Skansen, run by
the famous comedian Hans Alfredson, once in the legendary artistic duo
Hasse & Tage. And there you'll find the early 17th Century warship Vasa,
that like later military projects ended in a disaster in front of huge
crowds of Stockholmers.
You can take one of the newly restored trams from there to the inner
city. I love trams; Stockholm once had 21 tram lines, before 1967 when
Sweden turned to right hand traffic and all trams where scrapped.
The tram takes you over the Strand Street. As the vehicle turns you
can make out the silhouette of the Diplomatic Town. Adjacent to the TV
house is the American Embassy, with it's tight security and marines on
guard, and next to it the German Embassy. In the mid 70's the terrorists
of Rote Arme Fraktion blew up that Embassy and killed the ambassador.
There's another paradox: Stockholm is so peaceful, and yet some of the
most notorious crimes in modern police annals have been committed here.
The Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme was murdered on the streets of
Stockholm in 1986.
The tram stops at Norrmalm's Square, where a bank robber in 1973 kept
hostages for several days. In the end the hostages sided with the robber
and pledged to the police not to kill him. This has become known as "the
Stockholm Syndrome": If you stay with someone for a time, you tend to
oversee with his faults.
One of the biggest crimes of the city becomes apparent as you walk
towards the commercial centre, known as "City". Tourists who come here
regret that Stockholm took such a heavy bombing during World War II, but
I have to inform them that Sweden wasn't in the war. All those new, ugly
concrete buildings, with cold steel edges and sterile glass fronts were
raised by the city planning council. They virtually bulldozed all of
City, and were only stopped by popular resistance in the streets when
the Stockholmers won the Battle of the Elms.
But I have stayed with Stockholm so long that I have become a victim
of the Stockholm Syndrome. I oversee with the faults of the city.
One of the best things with Stockholm is its antiquarian booksellers,
"antikvariat" in Swedish. Keith Laumer was quite correct when he used it
as a main feature of the city in his Worlds of the Imperium: the
antikvariats are everywhere. This is one of the things take make
Stockholm a good city for science fiction fans.
Books are becoming so expensive these days that you need second-hand
books. And there are plenty of shops. The Yellow Pages of the phonebook
lists about 70, and that's only half of them. I know of plenty which
aren't there. (You pay extra to be in the Yellow Pages, which some can't
afford.) Within ten minutes walking distance I have about a dozen
antiquarian booksellers.
My favourite antiquarian bookshops are in north of the centre and
around the old Royal Observatory, and in Sodermalm, the southern part of
the city. When I was a very young fan and lived in a Stockholm suburb I
used to take my bicycle into Stockholm - a trip of over ten miles - and
visit all the Antikvariats. I took the addresses from the phone book and
visited all of them, one after another.
Of course I was after science fiction. You could find paperbacks, even
rare US editions from the 50's, for under a dollar each. If you bought
many you could negotiate a lower price. I even found an occasional pulp
magazine. One of my best deals was when I found about two bags of old
New Worlds, the British 50's and 60's magazine.
Here's some good addresses: Rönells Antikvariat on Birger Jarlsgatan
32, Jones Antikvariat on Nortullsgatan 3, Blå Tornet on Drottninggatan
85, Centralantikvariatet on Drottninggatan 73B, Alfa Antikvariat on
Drottninggatan 71A, Aspingtons on Vasterlånggatan 54 (in the Old Town),
Bokslussen (in the Slussen Subway station), Hoffmans on Högbergsgatan
37, and Katarina Antikvariat on Katarina Bangata 31. All of them
sometimes have (or at least used to have) some shelf-metres of science
fiction. I also have Nya Antikvariatet just outside my window on
Renstiernas Gata but the owner there hates sf. (He has many good other
books, though.)
Of course the hunting ground for used sf paperbacks isn't as good as
it was in the late 70's. I'm not the only science fiction fan in the
city. Others have hunted too.
A specialised shop for mysteries is Deckarantikvariat on Tegnergatan
4. Another specialised shop is Hobbybokhandeln, Pipersgatan 25, where
you'll find model kits and books on war, airplanes etc; they even used
to have a small sf and mystery department.
There are by the way also lots of shops form second-hand records. I
couple of years ago the famous French fan Pascal Thomas visited me, and
he's a record buff. He went through all the used record shops in an
amazing pace, on foot. You could probably call it a record speed.
There are other specialised shops. There are three-four roleplaying
game-shops which I never care to visit (they have no books), but
Tradition in Sturegallerian (by Stureplan) should be mentioned; they
have a decent book department. Other gameshops are Spel & Sånt on
Torsgatan 31 and Fantasikompaniet on Rörstrandsgatan 18. If you're into
paintball you'll find Paintballspecialisten on Bondegatan 13 and
Stockholm Paintball Park on Rindögatan 52. If you want to indoor shot-
it-out with lasers you can try Cosmodrome in the shopping centre by
Medborgarplatsen.
There are comics shops too. The old Metropolis, started by the
colourful sf and comics fan Horst Schroder (holding a Ph D in sf from a
German university, tried in court and acquitted form selling
pornographic comics, etc), was a few months ago merged with another shop
and is no more. That other shop was Alvglans on Folkungagatan 84,
founded by another sf fan, Ingvar Jensen. (After 1,5 decade in the
business I tend to know many the people behind the shops.)
Alvglans has a decent collection of comics and a book department with
sciffy. Other comics shops are Serieboden on Västerlånggatan 26-28,
Seriebörsen on Bellmansgatan 26 and Serier & CD on Stora Nygatan 26.
There's a new comics shop in Gamla Brogatan, but the telephone directory
refuses me both the name and the address. In Toon Art Gallery,
Bondegatan 46, you can buy frames from animated films as art. I saw
frames from the Flintstones, Disney movies and Star Trek - the animated
series there.
A good bookstore for new books is Akademibokhandeln on Regeringsgatan,
where it crosses Mäster Samuelsgatan. This is a virtual book
supermarket. They got everything, including a decent science fiction
department. It was here that I missed Douglas Adams last year. he came
to Sweden, appeared in TV shows and held a speech in Akademibookhandeln.
I overslept, rushed into town to the catch the last of his speech, and
just missed him. (Well, no disaster. I met Douglas Adams already in
Birmingham in 1982.) Bokpalatset on Normalmstorg and Fritzes on
Regeringsgatan 12 are also quite big. Fritzes has a special department
for computer books and CD-ROM. Hedengrens bookstore on Stureplan 4 is
quite big, and has recently started a CD-ROM-department.
A couple of remainder bookstores (=cheap books, a couple of years old)
is Bok & Bild, on Drottninggatan (close to the parliament) and
Bokskotten on Gamla Brogatan 13 (they have a second shop on
Regeringsgatan 55, nextdoors to where my friend Rolf works in the Wines
& Spirits monopoly).
Cult and weird videos can be bought in Velvet video on Birkagatan 26,
and a cheap video supermarket is Videoland on Sveavägen 81. Weird film
is by the way shown every Monday night in the club HG5 on Hälsingegatan
5; a membership will cost around 4 dollars and a ticket for each night
also around 4 dollars. If you really want a weird experience you should
go to the 180 degree widescreen omnitheatre Cosmonova, situated in the
Museum of Natural History just north of Stockholm by the University
campus.
Speaking about weird things, if you're into UFOs, magical stones,
astrology and that crap, you shouldn't miss Vattumannen on
Drottninggatan 83. That shop also has a department for archery. I mean,
we should live in harmony with nature and believe in Indian goods, but
it's OK to kill furry animals if you do it with arrows. Another werdo-
shop is Fantasia on Kungsgatan 31, where you can buy strange souvenirs,
pseudo-medieval swords and semi-military outfits.
Of course the main shop for book-reading sf fans is SF Bokhandeln on
Stora Nygatan 45 in the Old Town. This bookstore is owned by fans and
has existed on four addresses. It was started by the Scandinavian SF
Association in 1977 on Pontonjargatan in the west part of Stockholm. In
the beginning of the 80's the shop closed for a short period and
reopened as a division of Horst Schroder's Metropolis (i thing it was on
Roslagsgatan), and then it broke free and moved to Atlasgatan where it
existed for some ten years. Two years ago they moved to Old Town. The
new shop is quite big (probably very expensive in rent) and has a very
good collection.
SF Bokhandeln has all new American or British paperbacks of any
interest, probably all Swedish language science fiction published, a
small game department, shelves for comics, film books, science fiction
non-fiction (if you may call it that), several shelves of video
cassettes, a special fantasy book department and a used book department.
I've been visiting specialised sf bookshops in Stockholm, Oslo,
Copenhagen, London, Birmingham, Edinburgh and probably a couple of other
cities, and the SF Bookstore in Stockholm is as good as any of them.
But the prices are high.
It used to be bad. A paperback would cost, say, 55 Swedish crowns, or
ten dollars. If you want to use a more international currency, a thing
that can be bought everywhere - the Big Mac hamburger - a English
language paperback used to cost about 2 BM (Big Macs). Last fall the
Swedish crown fell. The government defended the crown to the last
minute, with the same bravery as Colonel Custer at Little Big Horn, but
in vain.
The last 1,5 year the crown has fallen 30% towards the dollar and 20%
towards the pound. A paperback now costs around 2,5 BM, or around 75-80
Swedish crowns. (The Big Mac has not changed its price due to the
devaluation. It is always made from raw material bought locally.)
Now, how about local fandom? Where does it live, where does it meet.
We have the Scandinavian SF Association which have a couple of meetings
every month, in a cellar on Västmannagatan. (It is not actually their
cellar, and the real ownership is a complicated business which I won't
go into.) We have the local Tolkien Society, Forodrim, which also have a
cellar, near Fridhemsplan, and have very regular meetings.
The Tolkienists frequently use just about anything they can rent for
their parties. They have 3-4 big parties or banquets a year and several
smaller ones. I've been to some. A major item is the Carnival they have
in May each year, when about 100 Tolkien fans dress up in fancy clothes
and march through Stockholm to a picnic in the Royal Gardens. The guys
doing so called Live Roleplaying and paintball are very active in
Stockholm, but I have neither interests in or contacts with them.
We used to have something called The Swedish Space Movement, where I
was involved together with some other sf fans, which had a head quarter
on Skånegatan. But internal problems finished this group off. Ä176
tecken borttagna efter kontakt med datasäkerhetsansvarig på Linköpings
Universitet.]
Some fans also have pub meetings. I belong to a group called the
Swedish Hackademy (I'm a computer journalist, myself) which have met
every Tuesday evening since 1984. Meeting spots vary, but call me if
you're interested. This group actually consists of sf fans. The
Hackademy has arranged several sf cons and is in the frontline of the
cyberspace development of science fiction. Another group of mainly
people in the Scandinavian SF Association has only met the last two
years or so. Their meetings are Thursday nights in the pub Tre Backar on
Tegnergatan. I've only been their once, partly because I've got my ass
full with the Hackademy, partly because I don't like some of the people
there.
The beer is much cheaper now than, say, ten years ago. At least
relatively speaking. The price is about the same as in the early 80's,
but it hasn't increased with inflation. You will find plenty of places
were you can get half a litre for 25 Swedish crowns (3 dollars or 2
pounds).
Some of my favourite restaurants and bars are around where I live,
south of downtown Stockholm. Black Horse on Bondegatan is a classic,
where you can get draught beer imported from Britain, including Guinness
and draught cider. On Dionysos you can get good Greek food, with lots of
garlic. I live about 5 metres over it, so I know. Kelly's Bar on
Folkungagtan is a popular local hang-out, in the new British inspired
pub style that has become popular recently. Hungarian food can be
enyojed at Lilla Budapest on Götgatan 27. Kvarnen on Tjärhovsgatan 4 is
a popular hang-out for the fans of the local soccer-team; I warn you to
go there a night after a match, especially if their team has lost, but
at other times you'll find a genuine Stockholm atmosphere there. The
"in-place" for the high life and rock stars is Cafe Opera, on the
backside of the Opera Building - but it's not worth the effort to stand
in the long line outsides at nights. Your wallet will agree. A more low-
tuned hang-out for media stars is Hannas Krog on Skånegatan 80. Another
hang-out for stars and wannabees is Cafe String, Nytorgsgatan 38, which
is a coffeeshop in the evening and a used furniture shop during day
time. The 40-50's furniture where you sit and drink are all for sale.
Stockholm has more than 1 000 licensed bars and restaurants, and the
highest concentration is around Medborgarplatsen in the southern part.
You'll find 100 bars within five minutes walking distance there There
are lots of spots of importance for Swedish science fiction history in
Stockholm. For instance, the editorial office of Jules Verne Magasinet
(the first Swedish sf magazine in the 40's) was on Tunnelgatan, close to
where Olof Palme was shot. The now defunct publisher LFP (which did
something called the Nova magazine and the Nova paperback series) have
had two offices in the city.
Sam J Lundwall, Sweden's most famous sf writer and publisher, used to
have offices in the suburbs, in Bromma, but he has now folded most of
his publishing business and has his office at home. About every second
year he sends out a letter to all his friends and others telling that he
will gafiate and quit once and for all, but somehow he keeps draggning
on. For each letter, though, his publishing business gets smaller and
smaller, and the issues of Jules Verne Magasinet gets thinner and
thinner. Another publisher, Aventyrsspel, which recently folded its
fantasy paperback series, also has an office in Stockholm, at Asögatan
close to where I live.
On Drottninggatan is Urban Gunnarsson's wooden handicraft shop. Urban
is a well known fan abroad. He's gone to several of the Worldcons, and
haven't missed a British Eastercon since the late 70's. He carves wooden
figures. He's quite talented; you can order a figure of yourself and all
he needs is a photograph. He has also carved Harry Harrison, Brian
Aldiss, Sam J Lundwall and several other sf authors.
Swedish fandom itself was more or less started on Hotel Reisen, which
is in the Old Town. In 1954 KG Kindberg, a publisher, and Sture
Lönnerstrand, the then most well-known Swedish sf author, met there and
decided to start a new magazine.
The magazine came in 1954 and was called "Häpna!" (Be Astounded!, it
means) and was the cornerstone of Swedish fandom through it's club
column. It folded in 1966, but then it was too late. Fandom had come to
stay. Stockholm has also been the host of probably more than 30 sf
conventions. The first one ever, Luncon 1956, was in the city of Lund,
but the second one, Stockon 1 in 1957, was in Stockholm and much more
successful. The ca. 70 attendees of Stockon was a record that held for
more than ten years.
Stockholm still has the Swedish convention record, with Scancon 76,
which attracted some 450 attendees. It was in the Student House of the
Royal Technical Institute, which has since then hosted about half a
dozen other sf cons. 450 doesn't sound much, compared with the thousands
and thousands that come to American conventions, but you have to
remember that Sweden is a country with only 1/25th of the US population.
Proportionally a con of 450 (times 25) equals a con of around 11 000
people in the US.
For me, of course, it is also of interest to mention what I call the
Epicentre of Stockholm fandom. Well, I call it that: the New Epicentre.
That's my apartment. (The old Epicentre was a fannish apartment in
London in the 40's and 50's.) I host two big parties each year. In the
winter I have Contact 199X, and in the summer I have the Fourth of July
Party, in honour of the fannish Ghod Roscoe. I get 25- 30 people on each
party, and I've had many, many interesting visitors. In 1987, for
instance, Tom Olander of Helsinki took about 25 Finnish fans over and we
had a great party!
That was almost more than the 2,5 room (+ kitchen) Epicentre could
manage. I think I counted to 47 people.
It think it is only fair to say that Stockholm is a good science
fiction city. We have many bookstores, we have local clubs with
meetings, we've had plenty of conventions. Stockholm is also the natural
leading city of Swedish fandom, and occasionally the leader of Nordic
fandom (both Oslo and Helsinki fandom has often successfully challenged
this, though). In the early 80's, lots of fannish activity moved to
Gothenburg on the west coast, but now the leadership is back where it
belongs, in the capital. Lots of fans from the countryside have actually
moved here. Stockholm has also lead the way in the feuding: the great
fan fund feud around the 1987 SEFF fraud was a Stockholmian business.
Ups and downs, bookstores and pubs, shops for archery and games, weird
videos, numerous conventions, authors in a constant state of suspended
gafiation, funny elfs and dwarfs marching, and all that jazz, makes
Stockholm a very interesting place to live. You never know what happens
when you live here.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
"K:P user is a little kid with a propeller beanie" (ur smiley-listan
från Riding the Internet Highway; förmodligen kan man säga att K:-)
betyder att användaren är en sf-fan!)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Avs:
Engholm/Nya Epicentrat
Renstiernas Gata 29
116 31 Stockholm
ahrvid@sfbbs.edvina.se
ahrvid@stacken.kth.se
_Tel: +46 08-6424077 _24h/day V.32/32"_ _ _
(_' _ , _ _ _ _ l_ , _ l_, _ _ l_) l_)(_'
._)(_ l(-'l )(_(-' l l(_ l l(_)l ) l_) l_)._)
ahrvid@sfbbs.edvina.se Author: A Engholm, Date:19-Apr-94
