Lucia in the Rain, And A Rap Video

Today is Lucia Day in Sweden, but I'm doing laundry instead, because I celebrated last night by attending an advent concert at the Nordisk Museum (pictured here). I went with my colleague Elizabeth, and it was pouring rain, which made me reflect on the interesting Swedish attitude toward weather. (We'll get back to Lucia in a minute, I promise.)

Earlier in the day, I had tried to hail a cab to take me to a meeting maybe 25 blocks away. It was raining, and although the destination was walkable (by Swedish standards, anyway), I didn't feel like it. I got into the back of a guy's cab and told him where I wanted to go and he said, "It's just straight ahead and then you turn right and go for awhile." And I said, "Yeah, that's right. Go there, please." So he goes, "Lady, I'm sorry, take a walk. It's good for the health." I was shocked! It wasn't like I asked him to drive 100 meters and stop at the corner, and even if I had, it was pouring rain! So I got out of the cab, really pissed, but also sort of doubting myself. Was I being lazy? Was my request unreasonable? I didn't even have an umbrella. But I decided to walk anyway, because maybe I was overestimating how far the place was.

But no, it took me 20 minutes to walk there and I was completely soaked when I arrived. Interestingly, though, I noticed that I wasn't the only one who didn't have an umbrella. In fact, lots of Swedes don't carry an umbrella for a walk in the rain—especially men. I'm not sure whether it's some kind of "we're hardy Nordic people and we can withstand the weather" attitude, or they just don't mind, or what. I like to think it's the latter, because it seems sort of noble to be so harmonious with the weather. Like that passage in Another Roadside Attraction, when the protagonist is trying to teach himself not to flinch and squint in the rain.

So, anyway, people were still not carrying umbrellas on the way to the Lucia concert, but this time I found a cabbie who judged the distance to the museum long enough to travel in a car without shame.

The event was held in the vaulted main hall of the Nordisk—a dramatic setting made all the more mysterious with blue lighting creating shadows and contrasts among the architectural flourishes of the cathedral ceilings. The beginning of the concert was the best part, as the choir wound through the hall with their candles and white garb and star-shaped lanterns on tall staffs. They sang traditional Swedish Lucia carols and advent songs a cappella, and the acoustics in the hall were amazing. At one point, they actually split up, and most of the sopranos and a few altos moved to the other side of the room from the others, to play with the sound bouncing through the chambers. There was a children's choir, too, which featured one hilarious little girl who—singing all the while—kept looking around at everyone else on stage and fussing with her skirt and rubbing her hands up and down the velvet bodice of her dress.

As a nice contrast to the Lucia concert, the first music I encountered this morning was the soundtrack of a rap video being shot in front of my apartment building. So funny to see this happening in staid Vasastan! The music was really good, though—sort of North African influenced hip-hop. The cameraman had his rig set up in the back of a hatchback car, and they were rolling down the street really slowly filming two guys (the rappers, presumably) as they lip-synched and strutted and danced. Pretty great.