June 30th, 2009
Jens Lekman Has Swine Flu
Much-adored Swedish indie-popster Jens Lekman hasn’t been ’round these parts lately — not since a (fantastic) show at First Unitarian Church at the tail-end of 2007 — and perhaps that’s an okay thing, as it turns out he’s contracted the contagious and hysteria-causing H1N1 virus, otherwise known as swine flu. According to Lekman’s blog, he contracted the illness while touring in South America earlier this month:
I picked home one last souvenir from South America, it’s called the H1N1 virus. Wrongfully known as the Swineflue.
I was crossing the Atlantic when things started getting really bad, the fever was hallucinogenic and shaking me like a leaf and I grabbed the sleeve of the Air France steward. “I’m not feeling well, I should see a doctor” I said and the reply came as a brilliant mix of death anxiety and french rudeness: “Uh, yes… Terminal D… go there maybe… when we land”. After that the stewards and stewardesses took long detours. A ring of empty seats formed around me. Peoples eyes were kind but determined, they read “Poor you, I really wish you all the best but if you come near me or my kid I will have to stab you with this plastic fork”. I got up and went to the bathroom where I fainted.
Now I’m in quarantine for ten days. I can see the summer through my window and it’s just perfect. Summer is always best through a window.
We certainly wish Lekman a speedy recovery, as we’d love to see him come back to Philly — sans communicable diseases (sorry, fella, nothing personal) — sometime soon.
