Sven the Hippie speaks! An exclusive interview

Perhaps no one was been more surprised by the phenomenon that is Sven the Hippie than Sven the Hippie.

A simple country boy from Mora, Sweden, Sven has catapulted to internet fame with such stunning videos as “Yack K,” and, of course, “Dungen,” which recently won the August 19th installment of the Big Sur International Short Film Series, beating out “Miracle Fish” from Australia, “Manon Sur Le Bitume” from France, “Dangerous Games” from the Netherlands, and others.

We recently caught up with Sven, who took a break from sleeping in his van on Highway 1 and practicing “My Sweet Lord” on guitar, for an all-too-brief interview over e-mail.  Enjoy.

HML: Sven, “What is Vinyl in the Woods?” went live a few months ago.  Then it went viral.  Were you truly prepared for that kind of response?

Sven: I always knew that everyone was going love me. Is that what is viral?

HML: When you perform in those movies, how do you prepare?  What is your mind-set like?  Do you go to a dark place?

Sven: Prepare? I am just myself.

HML: Recently, a young lady on the Henry Miller Library Facebook page suggested you get your own Facebook page.  How does that make you feel?

Sven: Really, really good – I am hitting the big time in he movies…but music comes first…roadie…groupies…

HML: Speaking of which, is there a special lady in your life?

Sven: That is so embarrassing to talk about…you are crazy to ask about that!

HML:  What is next for you, Sven?

Sven: Going on tour with Dungen, I know it will happen, I know it will happen, will happen, will happen…happen.

Sven, Kerouac, and finding satori on Bixby Beach

If “House of Floyd in Big Sur” was Sven the Hippie’s “On the Waterfront,” than “Yack K” is his “A Touch of Evil.” (?)

Never before has Sven plunged to such murky, yet technicolor, subterranean* depths.  Sven’s experience lends credence to the theory that to your mind must disintegrate before you can put it back together again.  Very intense.

The film was created to celebrate the August 14th screening of “One Fast Move or I’m Gone: Kerouac’s Big Sur,” the fantastic collaboration between Jay Farrar and Ben Gibbard.   The move traces the origins of Kerouac’s “Big Sur,” which documented his not-so-pleasant retreat from Beat stardom while renting out Ferlinghetti’s cabin in Bixby Canyon.  If “On the Road” was joyous and librerating, “Big Sur” is stiffling, uncomfortable, and tragic, as Kerouac speaks of his psychological meltdown in candid, impressionistic detail.

It is into this mythical narrative than Sven steps, seeking to attain satori and purge his Swedish soul of unspeakable – and as yet, unidentified – demons.

* That was a Kerouac pun.

There’s a Riot Goin’ On: some musings

There’s a Riot Going On is a hot seller here at the library.  It examines the radical 60s and their intersection with rock n’ roll.  So we read about such ahem, “revolutionaries” as Abbie Hoffman, future Apple shareholder Jerry Rubin, the Black Panthers, the Weathermen (lame), and how they feebly tried to co-op Dylan, Beatles, Stones, etc.  Not the Monkees,  though.  What’s up with that?

No one in the book comes across as too cool.  Most people come across as young, ignorant, rich, confused, and conflicted.  Keith Richards, for example, was bummed to know that the cash the Stones made went to their label, which in turn gave money to contractors who built bombs.  Gnarly.

Most of the book focuses on those two super-central “spokesmen” of the counter-culture, Lennon and Dylan.  Each comes across pretty good, but in different ways.  Lennon struggles mightily with his fame, and we see his thinking evolve, from a pacifist, to a closet-militant (funding the IRA and other armed groups), back to pacifism.  Give him credit: this was complicated, heady stuff; there were no simple answers (sorry, Abbie Hoffman), and his agonizing, I imagine, spoke to a lot of other middle class kids torn between the status quo and some un-specified, drug-addled “revolution” that would only lead to a lot of dead, unarmed kids.

Lennon also kind of rules because all of this confusion is perfectly encapsulated in his tune “Revolution.”  “We’d all love to see the plan,” he said, and gosh darn it, no one ever saw a plan.  The Weathermen’s plan was wanton, chaotic, violence, and innocent people died for no reason.  Total morons.  So I give John credit there.

“Revolution” also noted, “If you carrying pictures of Chairman Mao/You ain’t gonna make it with anyone anyhow.”  And it’s true.  Why the hell were people like Phil Ochs embracing Mao, who killed, what, 20 million people?  C’mon Phil.  Not cool.

Dylan came out smelling like a rose simply because he kept his mouth shut on such issues, more or less, from 1966 onward.  (He even hinted he may have supported the Vietnam War.)  That’s the lesson, kids: sometimes it’s best to keep your trap shut, head up to Woodstock, and crank out tunes like “All the Tired Horses.”

Ultimately, it’s an impressive narrative constructed by Peter Doggett.  My only major beef is how the story stops short in 1972 (or, in the Epilogue, roughly 1975), proclaiming the “dream was over.”  C’mon.  What dream?  The dream of civil rights?  Women’s rights?  Gay rights?  Legalization of pot?  Multiple dreams, man, and there is no objective end-point to any of ’em.

If anything, the truly powerful and long-lasting contributors of this era – the legions of unnamed, hard-working, pragmatic activists who cared more about their respective causes than yucking it up on Dick Cavett (you, again, Hoffman) – created the movements that still exist today, and are still affecting lives today.  Great book, though!

Getting in touch with our inner (musical) child with Dan Bern

I was eavesdropping on the Dan Bern songwriting workshop last night  and realized the participants were singing “Row, Row, Row Your Boat.”  And later, “You are My Sunshine.”  So cute.  But to what end?  I thought.

Then it hit me: when you go retreat at Esalen, you get in touch with your inner child (while eating killer red quinoa.)  Why not do so musically?  Those melodies have been ingrained in us since an early age (less so for me, sadly; came from a circus family), and their simplicity is stunning.

There’s an old saying that John Lennon wrote at least 10 songs that ripped off “Three Blind Mice” (eg. “My Mummy’s Dead,” “All You Need Is Love.”)

So why not get in touch with your inner musical child? This is a rhetorical question.

Look at ’em go!

“House of Floyd in Big Sur” – break down The Wall, Sven!

Sven the Hippie movies are kind of like children.  You say you love them all equally, but deep down, you love on the most.

That said, even if I did love “What is House of Floyd?” the most, I wouldn’t say.

I’ll say this, though: from a character-perspective, he we begin to see Sven the hopeless romantic, the lost soul, the drifter, the Swede in search of acceptance, love.  Pathos ensues.  Powerful stuff.

Huxley on Huxley: Feed your head (responsibly)

Ahh, nothing like movie night in Big Sur.  The redwoods.  The stars.  The LSD jokes.  Last week’s installment: Huxley on Huxley, a film about the prescient, hulking-yet-gentle, and tweed-clad British writer-genius Aldlous Huxley, told through the eyes and voice of his second wife, Laura Archera.

It was a hoot, especially for this Huxley neophyte.  What was especially telling was his prescience about the extinction of fossil fuels, namely oil, and his fear of religious lunatics.  Of course, these ideas made their way into Brave New World, but seeing him speak to Mike Wallace of CBS in 1955 about the very same issues we’re dealing with now was downright eerie.

Eerie!

What was also cool was how the director addressed his relationships to mind-altering drugs, like LSD.  Huxley was no Tim Leary.  Huxley took that stuff super-seriously, unlike Leary, who wanted everyone dosed (even Nixon!)  It’s like, y’know, with great power comes great responsibility.

There was the obligatory Doors reference too, with an interview from their drummer, whose name currently escapes me.  At least it wasn’t Manzarek.  Anyway, if Huxley did turn the Doors and Jim Morrison on to acid, the chap has a lot of explaining to do, what with that “Mr. MOJO RISING” bit in “LA Woman.” I mean, really.

“What is Vinyl in the Woods?” – The video that started it all

It’s hard to believe it was only two months ago.  We here at the Library were just trying to promote a little vinyl fair we were putting together, called Vinyl in the Woods. Then we met a drifter-Swede named Sven and our world hasn’t been the same since.

Sven the Hippie has gone viral; it’s a sensation not even we could have imagined.

But through it all, we’ve never forgotten where we came from. So here it is, the video that started it all, “What is Vinyl in the Woods?”

SARK in Big Sur!

When I was younger, I wrote quite a lot.  I attended a writing workshop for teenagers.  In the end, that was pretty much one of the most decisive events in my high school years, despite the fact that I don’t really bear much resemblance now to who I became in those three short weeks – who bears any resemblance to their 16 year old self?!  Oh, how glad I am that I don’t, though I was pretty cool, just so you know.  Pretty cool indeed with my angsty teenage poetry and Fiona Apple positively BLARING on my headphones.  These have transformed into singing Van Morrison with friends and writing blog posts about the book I’ve been reading or that time I had my cat neutered.  But the fact remains, that were it not for those three weeks spent with like-minded peers, throwing ourselves headfirst with reckless abandon into that craft we had all decided, at our then-tender ages, was important to us.  We all wrote, we all wrote differently, we all had very different perspectives and inspirations and experiences, but we came together, to form six small classes and wrote, read, and talked for hours and hours and hours in a structured workshop for three weeks.  When we weren’t in class, we were talking with our new friends about the work we had brought with us, or the ideas we had created while there.  It was simply mind-blowing to my slightly provincial (small town rural snowwy mountains seemed so far away from the idea of a city I carried with my as a child, and a city was where the real thinkers were.  Since growing older and finding peace in Big Sur, I now know the opposite might be true, but like I said, I was 16) mind that there could exist a community of writers and thinkers, even if just living in dorms for 3 weeks before we all headed back to the places where we were from, and in full 16 year old glory, naturally resented the HELL out of.  I met friends who I thought for a while I must have imagined.  That is a product of my wild imagination (it would not be unlike me to have created the perfect friend, though I was never the kind of kid to talk to them or indicate that they “exist”), as well as the simple beauty to be found in strangers gathering around a goal such as writing and thinking.

This magical time in my life has been food for my thoughts much more lately because I’m looking at the workshop that the Henry Miller Library will be hosting in January.  SARK, who was particularly important to me as my ideas of myself as a writer were forming, is going to join us in Big Sur from January 22-24th to host a workshop based around her new-ish book Juicy Pens, Thirsty Paper.  We had planned on offering this workshop around the same time last year, but the winter storms staring us in the face scared us into postponing the workshop.  This year we are more confident that our increasingly less fragile surroundings can withstand what the winter will throw our way (we have already weathered a particularly gnarly storm, and while it brought a sizable redwood crashing down against our debris-net in the canyon, we’re fine and so is everyone else in our community, bring it on, El Nino! – just bring it on nicely, alright?).  And so we will host SARK at the Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park Lodge and enjoy a workshop which will pull us all from our web of procrastination and perfectionism, and we will all write with joy, passion, and creativity.

trust me, you want to stay here

I pulled Juicy Pens, Thirsty Paper from our shelf here at the library, where you can get your own copy to prepare for the workshop, and am immediately drawn to SARK’s signature colorful handwriting, water color painting and doodles that adorn the pages and drive home important points.  The chapter lists are as follows:

Chapter one: being a writer

Chapter two: time and energy to write & create

Chapter three: games, stories, and ways to get your juicy pen moving like crazy

Chapter four: difficulties, challenges, and ways to transform these

Chapter five: the power of stories

Chapter six: stories and portraits of other inspiring writers in addition to you

Chapter seven: publishing, style, process

Chapter eight: excellent writing resources just for you

To get you thinking, and maybe even writing in preparation for this workshop, let me give you a prompt from the list that SARK has on page 85 of this book:

take this sentence and write a story!

The door cannot be seen from the outside…

The workshop here in Big Sur is complete with wonderful lodging with our friends and the hosts-with the most(s?) at the Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park Lodge, and delicious meals from their impeccable kitchen.  You will be here in Big Sur during one of the most magical times, a time during which I believe it to be impossible not to be inspired by the migrating whales in front of the razor sharp horizons to the west, the crisp air and that all-important-human-necessity of the feeling of being warmed by the sun.  Also, not as many people know the magic of Big Sur in January, and it’s entirely possible that the “turnout phenomenon” as we here call it won’t happen to you (the “turnout phenomenon” is that funny thing that happens as one is headed to the pullouts south of the Henry Miller Library to catch a glimpse of the ocean and – this is the important part – to have a quick and deep s0litary moment, despite being on the highway.  There are dozens of beautiful places to stop, and one may pull over at any, and one probably choses a pullout with no other cars at it to get the aforementioned solitude and peace.  This is when it starts, the “turnout phenomenon,” because as soon as you pull out onto a turnout with no other cars, all passing motorists from Kansas or New Jersey or Germany automatically pull over, as if driven by some frightening magnetic charge.  The fact that you’ve pulled over for some peace and quiet indicates to all other tourists that you are seeing something that THEY NEED TO SEE, TOO, and so your moment of peace is zapped into an iPhone photo taken backwards at arms length.)  But as I’ve said, lucky for SARK workshop participants, the liklihood of the ‘turnout phenomenon” happening to you reduces exponentially in January.  So come one, come all and have some peace and quiet!  But also, spend all the time you’d like in the bliss that I’ve described at the begining of this blog post – surrounded by like minded people, working toward a unified cause – spreading joy through writing and creativity.  Let SARK guide you!

And to leave you, a quote from Borges, by way of Juicy Pens, Thirsty Paper.

“Writing is nothing more than a guided dream.” – Jorge Luis Borges

For more information about workshop specifics, pricing alternatives, or registration, please visit our website for the event.  You can also call (831) 667 2574, or zip me an email at keely@henrymiller.org

End of summer push at the Henry Miller

Your comments keep me honest.  They don’t immediately spur me into action, but they keep me here, that’s for sure.  Thank you all for coming back and reading, checking up on me, and calling me out on being too busy!

Big Sur in September is both one of my favorite times of year and also one of the hardest for us.  As you can tell, it’s been a busy summer, filled with events, visitors, beautiful weather, and general non-stop action.  This is the primary reason for September being both so wonderful and so tiring.  The tourist population in Big Sur takes a definite nose-dive in September, as kids are back in school, people wrap up their vacation plans and travel back home for the fall.  This causes a false sense of calm at the Henry Miller Library, which is entirely because we are incapable of not scheduling wonderful events.  If someone comes to us with a good idea, we will find a way to make it happen, and it will be a screaming success if for no other reason than Eric, Magnus and I had a wonderful time, learned something, or met a cool new person.  We are just always hungry for more when we’re scheduling events throughout the spring and summer.  However, when it comes down to the final days of September, the three of us are run ragged; just as hungry for new wonderful experiences to be sure, but tired.  And so: September is so wonderful because it’s entirely possible that if I go for a walk before work I will be the only person at the beach, or perhaps my wait for coffee at the Big Sur Bakery in the morning is not quite as long.  But it is also hard because we have been working upwards of 60 hours a week for about five months straight.  Don’t let me even BEGIN to make you think that I’m complaining, or that the quality of our events suffers in the end of the season.  Quite the opposite, in fact:  We spend the entire summer hitting our stride, perfecting our well-oiled machine, setting up the movies or the concerts or the book signings in less and less time, with more attention to detail.  But, I would like to suggest that if you come by the Henry Miller Library, you might give us a hug, a pat on the back, or encourage us to drink one more cup of coffee with you. Either that, or take us out for a beer when we’re done with the day.

Food, Inc. a benefit for Don Case presented by The Big Sur Bakery at the Henry Miller Library with Eric Schlosser and Robert Kenner

Tomorrow we have an event that will undoubtedly be a wonderful evening.  Eric Schlosser and Robert Kenner, the producer and director respectively of Food, Inc.  The critically acclaimed documentary about the mechanized food system.  Those of you who have been reading this blog for a while understand that there could be no one more excited about this particular event because of my strong feelings about food reads.  In this film, Michael Pollan, author of the Omnivore’s Dilemma, reviewed earlier in this blog, is interviewed, and I can’t wait to see the film and hear what he has to say.  It is making me want to get a copy of Fast Food Nation, which I’ve never read.  The movie also follows Polyface farm, which Pollan visits and discusses in the Omnivore’s Dilemma, and I am excited to get a visual on this farm about which I’ve read and since then thought a lot about.  Aside from the fact that the film will be wonderful, and we will share the evening with our friends from the Big Sur Bakery, it is a benefit for our neighbor in Big Sur, Don Case who lost his home last year in the Basin Complex Fire.  All proceeds will go directly to the Don Case Rebuild fund.  Please consider coming by tomorrow, or making a donation to this cause.  You can do either (or both!) by visiting our website.

Chavez: The Revolution Will Not be Televised.

On Wednesday, September 30th, at 7:30 pm we will be showing the film Chavez: The Revoltion Will Not Be Televised, presented by producer Rod Stoneman.  His new book by the same title delves into the issues of objectivity in media and film, and he will be here to discuss these topics before and after a screening of the film.  He stopped by the Library a while back and talked with Magnus, who is avidly interested in the events surrounding Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, and the two have kept up a correspondence about the film, the book, and the issues each deals with.  As a result of what I’m sure were a series of interesting and interested emails back and forth, Magnus has arranged for this event to take place on Wednesday.  It promises to be insightful, intimate, and has the potential to delve into this topic in depth.  It is, as most of our films are, free with donations appreciated.

Marianne Faithfull on October 9

And finally, on October 9, Marianne Faithfull will be here for the Henry Miller Library benefit of 2009.  Each year since 2004, Jesse Goodman has brought to Big Sur avant-garde artists who support the library to do a one night only special performance.  The series has included: Patti Smith, Laurie Anderson, Henry Rollins, Matmos and Zeena, DJ Spooky, and last year Philip Glass and Wendy Sutter.  Each performance is special, unique, and truly humbling to me.  That the likes of Laurie Anderson would dedicate even an evening of her life to the work that we do here at the Library is amazing to me.  Each year I feel touched, blessed, and grateful for all of the wonderful people that come together to make those, “I was there” kind of evenings happen at the library.  Don’t miss this one.

As a side note: I have discovered my favorite likeness of an American president.  Check out this picture of John Tyler, just look at his eyes.

John Tyler

I will check in with all of you as these events unfold!  Wish Eric, Magnus, and I good luck and good health – may none of us get H1N1 in the midst of our final end-of-summer-push! (knock on wood!)

A new leaf, a new begining

It’s been too long. I have turned over a new leaf in my thinking about our blog experience here together – I will absolutely update you more on what’s going on at the library, but I’ll also make a better attempt to go beyond what’s happening within the gates of the library – I will write more, I will write better things, and I will keep you all in the loop more

To begin the new beginning, I should tell you about my new intern, Katharine. She’s a gem, really. I first met Katharine at the Big Sur International Short Film Screening Series a while ago (I can’t remember if it was last year or the year before). I am fairly certain that my good friend Lorissa ran into her at a bar and told her to come down to the library and discuss with me my job and the internship program because of her background in library and information science. Prepare your congratulations, because Katharine just the day before flying to Big Sur from her home in Georgia, finished her coursework for her masters degree in library science! This is just a tiny sliver of the reason that Katharine is the ideal intern here at the library. For instance, you couple her experience with the Georgia Historical Society, her experience in publishing, and the years she spent as a barista with her winning smile, sunny disposition and apparent ability to join in and love any task given to her, and you come to see that she fit right in from the moment I picked her up at the airport; greeting me with a massive hug and a series of tales of her ill-fated journey west. Katharine has come into our lives here at the library at the perfect moment, after the departure of our other summer intern, Joey. At the beginning of the summer, when I was hunting for interns, I received an email from Katharine with a cover letter and resume that jumped off the computer screen and into my heart, and I immediately offered her the position. She had funding lined up, she was set to come out here and we were excited and ready. Sadly, I received a call a few days before I prepared to receive Katharine and she said that the economy had bitten back, the

Katharine!

funding had fallen through, and she would not make it. Saddened, we persevered, put Joey to good work, and buckled through the work anyway. When Joey left, I emailed Katharine wondering if it was at all possible she had found a way around her earlier summer road blocks, and almost immediately heard back from her that she was about to write to me and tell me her funding had finally come through properly. Shortly thereafter, we talked on the phone, she asked me questions I didn’t know how to answer, and I knew it was going to be a match made in heaven. She’s here now, plugging away in the back room and listening to the radio.

Since she has been here, she has mastered the art of coffee at the Henry Miller Library, cleaned more than I think she thought was going to be required of her, tended bar, charmed Black Francis backstage at his own show as she protected the gate from excited concert-goers, been all over the Big Sur valley on foot. She has awarded each Magnus, Eric, and I an astral name to accompany the live reading of a sci-fi comedy that played here last night. She seems to have hit her stride in the tent-life. She has come up with several impressive ways to streamline the coffee and tea situation at the library (see also: barista experience). She has fought with the raccoons, and in fact is still fighting with them, but coming up with brilliant solutions, which involve ammonia and hot sauce.

Life at the library has been made instantly more bright with Katharine in our lives, and we are already planning the extension of her stay with us (she does not know this yet. We are going to sneak up on her when she’s completely in love with us.) We are on a roll with events, which I would like for you to browse on our events page. We’re announcing our newest events, and more are being added every day.

In other news around Big Sur, we’re all more or less anticipating the winter, both because August is a long month filled with all work and no play and also because this year is an El Nino year, and we’re all more or less terrified of tropical storms hitting this fire-ravaged portion of the coast. The impending doom of landslides did not happen this winter, and redwood-willing won’t hit us this year. Think about us, those of you who don’t live here.

The summer always comes in a blast, leaves too quickly, and most importantly, sucks all of the time that I have to read right into the late nights that we spend here throwing concerts, movies nights, sci-fi comedy readings, and weddings. I wish I could tell you about this wonderful book that I just finished, and all the ways that it affected me, but unfortunately, I must just tell you that I am a small part of the way into Middlesex by Jefferey Eugenides. I did not know when I picked this book up that it was structured in one of my favorite fashions – an epic, multi-generational masterpiece. The narrator is an intersexed person, living his life as a man despite being raised as a girl. The book begins, however, by describing the emigration of the narrator’s grandparents from their home country of Greece. In my relationship with the novel, these grandparents have just arrived in Detroit, where they will be living.

Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides

The thing which is so compelling about this book, yet remains one of the questions I have the most about it is (though it is apparent that my questions will be resolved in the end), is the relationship between the narrator and I. I am being spoken to by the narrator; that is clear, and the narrator is also interjecting anecdotal information interspersed with comments with insights I’m sure are to come in the novel. I wonder, when I get to know the narrator more – when the plot catches up with the life of the narrator as opposed to his ancestors – if I will be grateful for these editorials, or if he will neglect to bring them back around.

I will let you know when I get another chance to read – in October…

Until then, and as I promised earlier in this post, I will keep you more posted on life in Big Sur, here at the library, and between the covers of the books we’re all reading.