Tag: culture

Väsen “Lilla Kulturbidragsvalsen” (The Little Culture Support Waltz”.

   Hey people! 🙂 

   Today I have a charming little Swedish folk tune for you all, from a band called Väsen, which name can mean anything from spirit or a living being, to noise in Swedish. Its members are Olof Johansson (nyckelharpa) and Mikael Marin (viola) and in this particular piece I’m sharing with you today we can also hear Roger Tallroth on guitar but I believe he’s no longer part of the group. A couple months ago, one of my readers wrote to me recommending this great band to me, and while I’ve been familiar with them for a long time, I was really glad that she did because I hadn’t actually listened to their music in ages. Väsen was one of the first bands that I discovered when I started to take an interest in the thing called Nordic folk, and learn things like that there is such an instrument as nyckelharpa (which I grew to really like but I’m sure I’ve already written about it a fair bit) or a Swedish folk dance called polska (which is not to be confused with polka or polonaise, though it has a lot of common ground with the latter) which I thought was very funny because Polska is the Polish word for Poland. So soon after she wrote to me I dove back into Väsen’s music, which brought a lot of great memories with it, because while the time when I started to discover Nordic folk coincided with a rather intense time in my life, it was also a very good time overall. 

   But I think my most favourite piece by Väsen is this little pizzicato waltz, I think it’s just so incredibly beautiful! 

Question of the day.

Can people with vastly different cultural backgrounds live together peacefully? How?

My answer:

I think absolutely yes! But just as with people with similar cultural background, the key is to respect each other’s views, opinions, values etc. even if they may be a bit difficult to understand for one another if their cultures are really distant from each other and based on totally different mentalities. Though trying to understand each other’s background is also certainly worth the effort, and I’d think must be very enriching and interesting. If they all are actually willing to live peacefully, I don’t see why, with a bit of effort on everyone’s part, that couldn’t be achieved, unless there are also some other factors at play. My Mum often says that in case of multicultural couples, they have more challenges to face, but I think it’s more like their challenges are just different, and am not sure if they’re really many more than what monocultural couples have to face. Then again, I’m just talking very theoretically here as, while I know a lot of people online from different places in the world, I’ve never really lived with anyone with a vastly different cultural background.

What do you think? 🙂

Question of the day.

What kind of books do you like to read?

My answer:

Overall, anything that is somewhat related to my interests, books which can help me develop them and learn more about them. Other than that, I’ve always loved girly books, with my favourite author being Lucy Maud Montgomery, I liked authors like Louisa May Alcott, Frances Hodgson Burnett, Eleanor H. Porter (the one who wrote Pollyanna or the book about that other girl Billy), and other such, and I still like this kind of books. I also love authors like Bronte sisters, Jane Austen or Elizabeth Gaskell. I love Scandinavian literature as long as it’s not crime novels or alike. My most favourite Polish author is Małgorzata Musierowicz and I really like her style, but I also sometimes read other similar authors, just light stuff that could be read by pretty much whole family. I like some authors who wrote definitely for children, with Astrid Lindgren being my absolutely favourite in this category. I like anything to do with folklore – myths, legends, fairytales, etnographic books about some aspects of culture or folklore. – But folklore is actually one of my interests so I’ve already said that. I like historical novels but not all of them, same about other historical books, it really really depends on lots of factors and I’m very picky here. I like to read to develop myself spiritually so I often read some Christian books too, same about books about psychology/mental health but that’s also among my interests. So, very basically, that would be it, I suppose. I am a bit picky when it comes to literature, but I think I am also fairly eclectic. I usually stay away from crime novels, most of science fiction and modern fantasy.

How about you? 🙂

Question of the day.

What kind of shows do you like to watch?

My answer:

Well, like with films, I don’t watch a lot, I just don’t watch a lot of TV in general. But if I do, they’re often some documentaries about stuff that interests me, sometimes talk shows but they have to be really interesting, and sometimes talent shows though I used to much more in the past, now I just can’t really take them seriously and they often feel very cringey. I do sometimes listen to some music from people who have become famous or at least more widely known thanks to some talent show and yes there are some really fabulously talented people but the vast majority is oh so bland, and just the way all those talent shows work is somehow off-putting to me.

How about you? 🙂

Question of the day.

Do you ever eat snacks while watching films? If so, what do you eat?

My answer:

Not that it is a tradition or a must or something, same as watching TV isn’t either for me, but yes, sometimes I do. It’s usually crisps, or crackers, or peanuts, or nachos, or other crunchy, salty/spicy stuff like that. When it’s something longer and rather during the day than at night then maybe popcorn too.

You? 🙂

Question of the day (16th February).

How often do you watch films?

My answer:

As I wrote in the last question of the day post, not very often. Actually, the last film I watched was “Keeping Faith” which I watched in early January. I wanted to watch this film series earlier, it’s a Welsh series, also under the Welsh title “Un Bore Mercher”, not only because it was in Welsh, but also because I supposed it could be quite interesting, and I liked the soundtrack to this film, (actually I once shared one of the songs from that series on my blog and for some very odd reason it became one of the most popular posts on my blog, so I thought it would be good if I knew the film too). But only did it finally when we discovered with Mum that it’s broadcasted on the Polish TV – no, not in Welsh of course, sadly, but still. – Somehow it didn’t make such an impression on me as I thought it would and was a bit of a disappointment, but overall was quite enjoyable.

How about you?

Question of the day (15th February).

After a bit of unintended break I come to you with some questions regarding your favourite films, TV shows, books and music. Here we go with the first one:

What kind of films do you like to watch?

My answer:

Well as I am sure most of you who come here regularly already know, I don’t watch films or TV very often, only when something really really interests me or just to be with my family and not caring too much for what we’re watching. So, if something catches my attention, it’s usually because it’s in one of my favourite languages. It would be nice if the topic interested me at least a little bit too, but most often I’ll be quite satisfied just to hear one of my favourite languages – obviously not counting Polish and English since I have them pretty much all the time. I do like many British films though, and so does my Mum. And some Polish films with good humour, just anything that you can laugh at, but not because it’s so cringey. I am also able to watch a whole crime series even though my interest in the plot itself is little to none, just because the main character is called Misha. 😀 So that’d be it, I guess.

You? 🙂