From ahrvid@sfbbs.edvina.se Tue Apr 19 04:54:10 1994 Received: from mail.swip.net (mail.swip.net [192.71.220.11]) by godot.lysator.liu.se (8.6.8.1/8.6.6) with ESMTP id EAA05955 for ; Tue, 19 Apr 1994 04:54:04 +0200 Received: from c3po.edvina.se by mail.swip.net (8.6.8/2.01) id EAA11220; Tue, 19 Apr 1994 04:49:49 +0200 Received: from sfbbs.UUCP by c3po.edvina.se (4.1/SMI-4.1) id AA03274; Tue, 19 Apr 94 04:49:04 MET Received: by sfbbs.edvina.se (1.64/waf) via UUCP; Tue, 19 Apr 94 04:22:04 GMT for matoh@lysator.liu.se To: virklist@sfbbs.edvina.se Subject: Virkis #43 From: ahrvid@sfbbs.edvina.se (A Engholm) Message-Id: Date: Tue, 19 Apr 94 04:18:03 GMT Organization: Science Fiction BBS tel +46 (0)8 6424077 Status: R Content-Length: 25481 V V I RRR K K BBB I L AAA GGG AAA N N V V I R R K K B B I L A A G G A A NN N V V I R R K K B B I L A A G A A N N N V V I RRR KK K BBB I L AAAAA G GG AAAAA N NN V V I R R K K B B I L A A G G A A N N V I R R K K B B I L A A G G A A N N V I R R K K BBB I LLLL A A GGG A A N N --------------------------------------------------------------------- Virkbilagan #43 - ett litet pratfanzine, fr}n Ahrvid Engholm, Renstiernas Gata 29, 116 31 Stockholm, ahrvid@stacken.kth.se, ahrvid@sfbbs.edvina.se. Copyright (C) Ahrvid Engholm, 1994; fr}ga 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) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- FELNUMRERAT VAR F\RRA numret. Det var nr 42, inte 41. Det {r inte f|rsta g}ngen det h{nt. Sk{let {r att jag f|r varje nummer klipper in logon fr}n n}got gammalt nummer och gl|mmer {ndra. Hav |verseende. 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 f|r det mesta hade de sett andra katter. Men en familj i Vita Bergen hade sett r{tt katt, och min mor var |ver och h{mtade lille Simon. Han hade h}llit sig i parken hela tiden. En f|rst}ndig katt. Huvudinneh}llet i detta nummer blir en artikel om Stockholm. Den best{lldes av redakt|ren f|r finska Spin under Aikacon. Spin skulle vi i Sverige snarare kalla ett semi-prozine; det {r 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 f|r finska fans som kom hit: litet om sj{lva staden, vilka bokhandlar som finns, tips om bra krogar och f|rlustelser, litet historia. Jag skrev den p} engelska, s} det skulle bli l{ttare att |vers{tta (jo, jag vet att m}nga finl{ndare f|rst}r svenska, men {nd}). Det har blivit mycket artiklar i utl{ndska fanzines p} sistone. Norska Algernon hade i senaste numret min l}nga artikel om cyberpunk (fr}n 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 s} mycket i svenska fanzines p} sistone, f|rutom mina egna f|rst}s. Dels f}r jag f} f|rfr}gningar, dels har jag faktiskt fullt upp med mina egna, men dels har jag vid ett par tillf{llen inte varit s} n|jd med hur materialet redigeras. F|r n}gra }r sedan skrev jag en artikel om n}gra klassiska skr{ckfilmer (som jag varit och sett p} Filminstitutet) f|r Leif G ]strand, som d} utgav ett horror-fanzine. Men n{r jag s}g artikeln i tryck blev jag lika r{dd som den som sett skr{ckfilmer: interpunktionen i hela texten var f|rst|rd. Troligen trodde redakt|ren att han "r{ttat", men han borde ha fr}gat mig f|rst (d} skulle jag ha sagt: L}t bli!). Jag gillar att anv{nda alla interpunktionstecken; inklusive tankestreck - och semikolon. Tecknen anv{nds f|r pauskommatering, dvs jag l}ter dem antyda l{mpliga l{spausar. Den som skall "r{tta" det vill jag se mellan fyra |gon. Pauskommatering {r en alternativ men fullst{ndigt korrekt interpunkteringsstrategi. Jag ogillar starkt att n}gon ger sig p} det, bland annat f|r att formuleringar och meningsbyggnad bygger p} att den ursprungliga interpunktionen finns kvar. Jag har skrivit ganska m}nga artiklar med fandom-anknytning, bland annat p} engelska. Jag funderar s} sm}tt p} att utge en Swede Ishes 2 till den skotska v{rldskongressen n{sta }r. Den f|rsta Swede Ishes utgavs till v{rldskongressen i Brighton 1987. En Swede Ishes 2 skulle fr{mst (eller bara) inneh}lla mitt eget material. Det besv{rligaste med den f|rsta Swede Ishes var att hitta tillr{ckligt bra material av andra och sedan |vers{tta det. Det blev mycket petande. G|r jag en fantologi med bara eget material s} slipper jag det, och s} f}r jag allt precis som jag vill! F|ljande artikel kan i n}gon form komma att ing} 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: R|nells Antikvariat on Birger Jarlsgatan 32, Jones Antikvariat on Nortullsgatan 3, Bl} Tornet on Drottninggatan 85, Centralantikvariatet on Drottninggatan 73B, Alfa Antikvariat on Drottninggatan 71A, Aspingtons on Vasterl}nggatan 54 (in the Old Town), Bokslussen (in the Slussen Subway station), Hoffmans on H|gbergsgatan 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 & S}nt on Torsgatan 31 and Fantasikompaniet on R|rstrandsgatan 18. If you're into paintball you'll find Paintballspecialisten on Bondegatan 13 and Stockholm Paintball Park on Rind|gatan 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 V{sterl}nggatan 26-28, Serieb|rsen 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 M{ster 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 Sveav{gen 81. Weird film is by the way shown every Monday night in the club HG5 on H{lsingegatan 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 V{stmannagatan. (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 Sk}negatan. But internal problems finished this group off. [176 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 G|tgatan 27. Kvarnen on Tj{rhovsgatan 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 Sk}negatan 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 As|gatan 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 L|nnerstrand, 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 "H{pna!" (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 fr}n Riding the Internet Highway; f|rmodligen kan man s{ga att K:-) betyder att anv{ndaren {r 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