A couple of news items:

• My piece on The Fall, originally written for the Spectator is now up at Medium. In fact, I have a few pieces showcased there now.
• The latest verses in my ongoing translation of the Viking poem Hávamál are up at the History Witch area of Witches & Pagans. Drop by and take a look.

Tuesday’s Overlooked Audio/Visuals

I have an old DVD transfer of a video of Äppelkriget. Even when my Swedish skills weren’t as rusty as they are now, it was tough going without any help, but I was charmed anyway by the magic of this story, as the small town folk try to fight off the corporate ‘Deutschneyland’ monolith.

I’m delighted to find a subbed version with annotations available online! In much better quality than that video transfer, too. The environmental, anti-corporate message might seem a little heavy-handed now, but it remains a delightful film in so many ways. Beautiful, too — the Swedish countryside indeed looks like the land of the angels, as legendary singer Evert Taube sings of it (he has a small cameo in the film, too).

The cast is excellent of course: von Sydow especially, but I love Monica Zetterlund’s Pippi-esque wackiness. I love the humour and the zanyness of the inventions. There’s a serious side to showing how the myopic thinking of the small business people allow them to throw their lot in with the rapacious industrialists (I love the pig farmer who thinks he might be able to sell piglets to tourists, then when they abandon them as they head home, supposes he can round them up again). As we continue to denude our forests and ‘develop’ wilderness, we lose so much.

Terrific characters, a sense of fun, gently strident, just the right amount of magic — and hard cider!

Check out all the overlooked gems at Todd’s blog.

— and happy birthday, George Harrison 🙂 AKA Pirate Bob.