Final training sessions done - now on my way to Kalmar ironman

Now I have done the last training sessions, and am on the way to Kalmar ironman.

This Sunday I did the last bike session: around 100-120 km in moderate speed. I did this by combining it with attending a concert held by my friends Pelle and Sofia Hansen. For those of you who do not know it already, they have really succeeded in demonstrating what I have always believed to be true: that it doesn't matter where you do something, as long as the quality is high enough, people will come. They have created a concert hall in the middle of nowhere, out on the far countryside in Östergötland, but manage to get both some of the best artists in Sweden (of which they are ones), and a working economy, because they take proper ticket fees (200 SEK/ticket) and get full audiences (2x150 people/concert).

I managed to get a seat < 2m from the performers, here playing Schönberg's Verklärte nacht. Pelle and Sofia, the main arrangers of these concerts, are sitting to the far right, and in the middle to the left, respectively. 

As you see the concert hall is completely filled to the brink, and this despite this concert being doubled, i.e. given twice in two days. 

One of the benefits of going by bike to places, especially places like this that are a little bit off, is that you get to see very beautiful places along the way. Many of these places I would never had seen otherwise, if I had gone by car or bus, since these travel along much bigger roads, at higher speeds, and with a numbening glass window between you and the landscape, which makes you less present, and less prone to stopping and enjoying the view. Here are a few of these pictures, the first of them is close to the concert hall, nearby Slätmo, and the others are from a small country road between Opphem and Bestorp.

Then on Monday, I sent off the bike to Kalmar via a bus-based service, and ran home in a way that was approximately 10 km. It felt fine, and was a good sign that my previously a bit troublesome foot will hold up sufficiently fine to complete the race on Saturday (which has been my main worry so far).

Finally, on Tuesday, I did a swim of approx 1500 m, and some weight lifting just for fun.

Since then, I have mainly taken care of my body: done some yoga, rested, and done and listened to some music. And, now, today, Thursday, I am at last on the train down to Kalmar, where the race will be. Today I will receive and re-assemble the bike and do the registration, and tomorrow I will do the final preparations of food and plan when, where, and how, I will eat what.

Then, on Saturday, I will go up around 5AM, do a little bit of yoga, eat breakfast and go down to my bike and "place with all my stuff". At 7AM the race starts, at 8.30, I should be done with the swimming, between 9-15.30 I will be on my bike, and between 16-23 I should have plenty of time to finish the final part: the marathon. My main focus this year will just be to finish before the closing at 23, to go through as healthy as possible, and to get the experience of doing the complete race.

Wish me luck! :)

Welcome to the concert tomorrow - Chopin's 4 ballades

 Here is a (phone) recording of some of the last minutes of today's rehearsal before leaving Bjärka Säby - the place where I will have my concert tomorrow. As I have written in previous blog posts, this concert will be the fulfillment of an over 20 years old dream: to play all of the 4 ballades by Chopin. What you hear in this video is a segment in the first half of the last ballade, ballade nr 4. As is argued by many, this last ballade is one of the both most difficult and most wonderful of all music pieces ever written. However, no ballade is far behind - neither in difficulty nor in awesomeness - and each ballade is an intricate story of its own. I am looking forward to playing all 4 of them for you tomorrow, or whenever you will get the chance to listen to them (eventually I will also make proper recordings and upload them here).

The genial usage of stories and images by Martin Luther King - to look at what is, and feel inspiration

We have now reached the third clip in the documentary about Martin Luther King's "I've been to the mountaintop" speech. The reason we are looking at this particular speech is that it is filled with useful insights for our ultimate goal: to create a set of updated visions, dreams, and ideologies useful for us today, in the internet age, facing our own set of challenges and opportunities. 

In the previous clip, we had a look at one insight, and in this clip we are looking at two more: 

Insight 1: To look at what is, but to find a perspective that gives inspiration

Martin Luther King had a marvelous ability to find perspectives that allow you to simultaneously look at the situation at hand - which usually is filled with lots of problems and issues - and, at the same time, feel great inspiration to change it.

Insight 2: To use images, analogies, and stories to make your points

One of the main tools he used to obtain the "both/and" view from Insight 1 is to use stories, images, and analogies. In fact, his speeches are made up of almost nothing but these. 

In the video above, you hear several parts of the speech that illustrates these two points.

What do Hans Rosling, Martin Luther King, and Barack Obama have in common? They all use history to get a progressive perspective

We have now come to the second clip from the second video in the video series on new political dreams, visions, and ideologies. In this clip, we are taking out a first insight from the segment we heard in the first clip, from Martin Luther King's "I've been to the mountaintop" speech. This insight is that King makes great use of a historical perspective. Of zooming out, and thereby seeing that change is possible, inevitable even. And that we still are in the middle of this change. And now it is up to us. What do we want to see happen now, in our lifetime?

In this blog post, I want to add a little bit more inspiring examples of the same idea. The first of those is Hans Rosling. Prof Rosling became famous on the world-scene through his first TED talk, and here is a shortened-down version of the essense of this talk: a historical overview of how the world has progressed.

The greatness of this is that you see how the world has evolved, and how it is no longer true that the world is divided into a developed and an undeveloped world, but that country after country, continent after continent, are following in this evolution, and that we in fact are seeing a continous chain of countries, all climbing up the ladder. This gives an important point: if we take care of our ecological impact - using new smart, green technologies - we can all climb up to the upper right corner.

The second example I want to give is from Barack Obama's wonderful wonderful speech on the night that he won the election, in 2008. In the end of this speech, he also takes a historical overview of what has happened in the world through just the life-time of one individual: Ann Nixon Cooper. This overview gives the feeling that change is not only possible, it is inevitable. But how it will change - that is up to us. Us who live in this moment.

"This election had many firsts and many stories that will be told for generations. But one that's on my mind tonight's about a woman who cast her ballot in Atlanta. She's a lot like the millions of others who stood in line to make their voice heard in this election except for one thing: Ann Nixon Cooper is 106 years old.

She was born just a generation past slavery; a time when there were no cars on the road or planes in the sky; when someone like her couldn't vote for two reasons -- because she was a woman and because of the color of her skin.

And tonight, I think about all that she's seen throughout her century in America -- the heartache and the hope; the struggle and the progress; the times we were told that we can't, and the people who pressed on with that American creed: Yes we can.

At a time when women's voices were silenced and their hopes dismissed, she lived to see them stand up and speak out and reach for the ballot. Yes we can.

When there was despair in the dust bowl and depression across the land, she saw a nation conquer fear itself with a New Deal, new jobs, a new sense of common purpose. Yes we can.

When the bombs fell on our harbor and tyranny threatened the world, she was there to witness a generation rise to greatness and a democracy was saved. Yes we can.

She was there for the buses in Montgomery, the hoses in Birmingham, a bridge in Selma, and a preacher from Atlanta who told a people that "We Shall Overcome." Yes we can.

A man touched down on the moon, a wall came down in Berlin, a world was connected by our own science and imagination.

And this year, in this election, she touched her finger to a screen, and cast her vote, because after 106 years in America, through the best of times and the darkest of hours, she knows how America can change.

Yes we can.

America, we have come so far. We have seen so much. But there is so much more to do. So tonight, let us ask ourselves -- if our children should live to see the next century; if my daughters should be so lucky to live as long as Ann Nixon Cooper, what change will they see? What progress will we have made?

This is our chance to answer that call. This is our moment.

This is our time, to put our people back to work and open doors of opportunity for our kids; to restore prosperity and promote the cause of peace; to reclaim the American dream and reaffirm that fundamental truth, that, out of many, we are one; that while we breathe, we hope. And where we are met with cynicism and doubts and those who tell us that we can't, we will respond with that timeless creed that sums up the spirit of a people: Yes, we can.

Thank you. God bless you. And may God bless the United States of America."

Chopin's ballades are both among the best and the most beautiful pieces ever written

One of the things I really like with this age is that everybody can be creative, and that so many creative voices are heard. One example is this youtube channel:

She is a relatively ordinary pianist who primarily works as a teacher. But for this endeavor, she has taken onto herself to create a large amount of videos on various topics that are useful for beginners and intermediates in piano playing. With a positive mind and focused and consistent work there is a market for any message, and so also for this one: there are many potential listeners to her videos. In the video above, she goes through all of the different types of pieces by Chopin, and discusses them in terms of level of difficulty. The 4 ballades - which I will play as my main programme on concerts this autumn - are rated as some of the most difficult pieces he ever wrote, and all of them they have the highest or next-to-highest rating of difficulty.

Apart from this, she also did another overview of the Chopin pieces - this time identifying her favorites. Again the 4 ballades appear, and about the 4th one she says: "If I would choose one piece that encapsulates the entire romantic era, I would chose this one". The 4th ballade is, together with the 1st one, also my own personal favorite. As so often, those two are also the two most difficult ones.

If you want to hear me play and go through all of the 4 ballades, the first and next opportunity is outside of Linköping in beautiful Bjärka Säby, on August 10, at 16.00.

Welcome!

Only when it is dark enough can you see the stars

This video is the first part of the little documentary I made about Martin Luther King's mountaintop speech. In this part, I do two things:

i) I go through the first story in his speech, the one where he explains that his own time is the best time he can imagine to live in
ii) I show a little bit of the inspiring environment I was in, when I made this part of the video.

In this short blog post, I will just add a few extra things to this video.

First, regarding the clip from the speech: it contains one of my favorite quotes of all times, and I don't really mention why in the video. The quote is "only when it is dark enough, can you see the stars". As will become clear in the following videos, that's a typical Martin Luther King quote. The reason why I love this quote so much is that it reminds you that when things seem bleak for some reason - either in your personal life or in society - smaller positive gestures are seen more clearly. When you feel down as hell, and somebody gives you a smile, that can make all the difference in the world. Or perhaps even more importantly, your own small acts of kindness are more obviously visible - you can make more of a difference! - when things look bleak. Therefore, dark times are inspiring times! They are times when even small efforts in the right direction may become shining little stars, that suddenly are seen quite clearly.

Second, regarding the environment I was in. It was in the island where my very cool aunt lives. In her life, she started her own clothing company when she was in her 20s. In the beginning, she did all of the designs herself, and her husband took all of the pictures. However, over the years, her enterprise has grown and grown, and she has 22 shops that sell in >16 different countries. She is still, at 76 years old, at the heart of both the business empire and the design process. And much of that design has been done on this island. So the environment is very inspiring for that reason. But the environment was also really great for other reasons. First because it was isolated: not so much to do on an island, and the only natural thing to do is to let what is inside you come out. Second, because it was with family and friends. I really believe that any sound change in our society must come from us finding a way of living where we can act in a sound way, both in regards to our function in society at large, and with a warm and nurturing support-network of family and friends. Below you see a couple of pictures from this visit.

Second video in the new video series: insights from a speech by Martin Luther King

Did you hear about Martin Luther King, but haven't actually listened to any of his speeches? Or have you heard them, thought about them, and would like to think a little bit more about what makes them so great, and what we could use from them also today? Then this video may be for you. I have done it over the last two weeks approximately, and it ended up being a little mini-documentary. For those of you who don't have the time to listen to it all, parts of it will be posted and discussed in more detail in the days and weeks to come.

Enjoy! :)
/Gunnar