thanks and cut off my second hand

thanks for all your notes!! you are great. i am beating that lil' bout of homesickness and feeling much better--but don't let that stop you from commenting and mailing. i need regular, preventive care, too. i have been thinking that, at least for me, when i travel it is bitter sweet. i am enjoying what i am seeing and doing, but i sometimes have a hard time living in the moment because a little part of me wants to fastforward to arriving at Sea-Tac to the Seattle skyline, the big red R, turned green T, highway 99 and all of your smiling faces. and one way that shows is that i start making plans for when i get back. and, well, one thing i am gonna do is get a ribbon for the typewriter my sister gave to me and start writing notes with the old machine. i can't wait.

PART 2 cut off my second hand



on a walk the other night, i found myself in a Nørrebro, a trendy, but only sort of shi-shi neighborhood that must have as many second hand stores as capital hill has coffee shops. it was heaven and hell neatly platted in several blocks because i really don't NEED to buy any darling Danish dishes or a sweet, 1960's tea set, or some enormous impractical wooden chair, or as these pictures show, an orange glass lamp. oh, the orange burnsfor me. but, boy is it fun to look(i say that with a tiny sigh of resignation). luckily, i was there long past closing time, so it was impossible to pick up all the paper-thin, white porcelain cups in my hand and pretend i was sipping hot tea and chatting. that might have unraveled and strained, even snapped, thin thread of resistance i have to all that is Danish, well-designed, and too breakable or heavy to bring home.

oh frankie and deer haven

this weekend i rode my bike up the coast to Klampenborg, basically did the Arne Jacobsen tour (gas station, theatre, restaurant and beach/waterfront). it was beautifully overcast and the clouds kept in the warmth from the previous days. the pic is of Dyrhave (Deer HAven?) which is this incredible nature park with herds of deer. mostly deciduous trees, to it was kind of like walking in a forest of skeletons. didn't take enough pics on the digital, but when i start developing real film, i will be flooding the blog with eery black and whites of Deer Haven.

And, this is what a Frankfurter looks like in København. still the tiny bun and not dressed in it's coat, but laying next to it. this time i opted for a pile of cripsy onions. crunch!

interlace

started a new little postcard series called, "interlace". I weave paper together to create words. i have made two as gifts this year and thought they were really beautiful so i am going to make some more. these are a bit sloppy, but they are just for messing around. i have been finding really beautiful advertisements for events in bold colors on cardstock and immediately wanted to make interlaces out of them, but the card stock is really difficult to weave with on a small scale. JA is the size of a standard postcard and I LIKE TO WATCH SHIPS PASSING BY is 7 3/4" x 5 3/4". I was really excited about Ships Passing but since the cardstock was so stiff it was really challenging and i got frustrated and stopped. but, now that i have taken a picture of it, it actually looks pretty cool. maybe i will salvage it. i think i might do a Copenhagen Alphabet. we'll see.

Oh, and have any of you heard of Viktor IV? I just discovered him at the Royal Library bookstore in the Black Diamond. Artist wanderer who made daily logs in his boat logbook out of letters, envelopes and other found objects. there is a show about him at Galleri Tavi at the northernmost tip of Denmark, SKAGEN, and i might try and make it up there, visit Mark's parents in Aalborg and reach the tippy top.

need your help!

starting to get some berlin plans lined up. i wanted to ask all of you if you have ideas about buildings, sustainbility driven projects that might be good. also, do you have friends in berlin that might want to go to art events at night. it just so happens that the Berlin Biennial is happening while I am in town and I can make it to several cool art events in the evenings. I am tickled.
Also, I have just emailed Olafur Eliason to see if I may come on a studio visit since his workshop is right in town. Cross your fingers. I have an appointment at the City Planning Agency, but haven't been able to get any designers to meet. At present, that is the major hole in my visit.

So, here is a concise list of requests for you:
1. Does anyone know of landscape//architects in Berlin that would be good to meet/interview or have studios worth visiting?
2. Ideas about buildings, landscapes, parks, boulevards, tiny and big interventions in the city that I can learn from or enjoy
3. Friends of yours who might want to go to art events in the evenings

all your help is welcome. you can add comments directly to this posting without logging in or having a blogger account. just click on the "COMMENTS" link below the post.

good + basic

the Danes have got high quality basics dialed in. rugbrød is a special delight, dark and moist, full of toasted rye berries and other grains. it tastes great fresh with a thin smear of salty butter or cheese, toasted or dipped in soup. this half-loaf came from the gold standard of bakeries, Emmerys, and required 18.5 Kr-. that is $3.89 and worth every penny.

a ham nail in a straitjacket

Mark just filled me on some slang for hotdogs and the stands. I will slowly be divulging these gems of Danish lexicogpraphic wonder as I eat what's named in the nicknames.
Last night I braved the hotdog wrapped in bacon and it was a real wiener. Next time I will drink fewer beers before the food act because to be quite honest, I don't think I was able to fully experience the flavors the "ham nail in a straightjacket." Next time, I will give it's fair due and eat one midday with a bike-riders hunger.

a sausage wrapped in bacon: "et skinkesøm i spaendetrøje" (a ham nail in a straitjacket)

book selections

ABCHCE by HC Ericson
This one is incredible. Short poems like this one on p. 54:

Dear
Telephone Company

I seldom receive any personal calls.

No one ever calls to say
that they miss me,
that I mean everything to them,
that there's no one quite like me

There must be something wrong
with my phone


Then the poems are accompanied by letters extruded into 3-D line drawings like the ones on the cover. Beautiful book. Translated from Swedish.




And then these two gems. Found The Graduate at a little basement thrift store in my neighborhood and Black Boy at the Laundromat Cafe (strangely Seattle-esque breakfast joint that sells used books and organizes them by color. I'm knee deep in Black Boy right now, then I'll move on to The Graduate.

walks week 3

weekend of new things

starting from top left and reading like a book:

Sara, Nana and Læsse at the 100 year anniversary of women's suffrage street party / Kastrup Søbad by White Architects/ I got a tiny sunburn because it has been so gorgeous. / The Amager neighborhood Center by Dorte Mandrup / two darling ladies at the 100 year anniversary. Love the colors / Amagerstrand beach promenade/park by Hasløv & Kjærsgaard / this is how i am wearing my scarves right now / Ja! Confetti / even grandmas wear snazzy sneakers, here. you can't see these, but she has got new old school adidas kicks. yea!

danish delights

on thursday, Jonna, the director of the Center for Public Space Research, brought a torte from the Lagkagehuset to share because she was going on vacation and wanted to celebrate. Shortbread crust, marzipan filling, lemony-tart heavy whipped cream and then a layer of fresh berries. incredible. a little tea to cut the sweet. it was amazing. i ride by the Lagkagehuset everyday on my way to school. it is delicious torture.

hot dogs go home at night

wow. i had a big night of learning.
on my way home from Danish Films with English Subtitles night at the DFI , I saw this:


then i realized:



but i also wondered:



and lucky me, my guy was there. but he told me he is going to vacation to Juttland, or moving there. i couldn't really tell. i hope he comes back. he said he owns three carts and works everyday. his wife died 4 years ago and the dog stands are kind of his life. the one i saw heading home is part of his fleet. and he will actually speak a little bit of danish with me, which is really cool. i had a medister.

found book

pieces of this will certainly be appearing in postcards and collages. it was really wet when i found it, so i had to dry it out on the heater for several days. as a result the pages are very warped. i found out on a walk and it's funny how mundane things like this will strike you. i just wanted to take it home. oh and the poems are in Swedish.

For Mom (WMW)

Mom, as promised, here are some pictures of where I live. And as alway, I can't resist an opportunity for a little bit of narration. And, to everyone else: I know I said this blog would also be about research and stuff, but that is just not working out. I write about green factor all day and read and slave and so forth and honestly, I am not going to report a whole lot about it in the blog. For my scholarship, I will be submitting research progress reports on an internal blog. If, for some reason, you would like to read those, too, I would be happy to share them. Otherwise, you can read my thesis when it is done in June/July upon my return. I will probably also post a copy on the web somewhere.

doubletich

the laundry room in my building is an inspiration. bold colors and rolling baskets, and on top of the machines there are signs that say FRI (free) and occupied (don't remember the word) and that is how above post card was born. and below are more from the same laundry session.

dog attack!

it's wild and undeniable. hot dogs are everywhere! this one got me on Østerbrogade, not far from my house. as you can see, i was a little doubtful. but i was won over, AGAIN. i like them GRILLED! ja! fantastisk!

cykelbro

beautiful cycle bridge (peds are welcome, too) from Islands Brygge and leading to mall with bike lanes and McDonalds. i just don't know what to believe anymore. not open sundays.
and then in picture two, if you look right in the center, across the water, there is an enormous pile of debris. i think they must have demo-d a building and that is the rubble waiting to be taken away. i don't know, but when i am out my bike around town, it's piles of trash like that, that really suck me in. i must be a crow.

walks week 2

one more thing about malmö!

so, the swedes have taken two things that are often viewed as unpleasant in american cities and made them nice.

1. one is this skatepark, Stappelbädsparken, where there are tons of pools, and bowls and other types of terrain to skate. then there is a huge concrete area with moveable ramps, bumps and all kinds of other skate-able things(shown here). all set next to an old warehouse with tons of old-world, old-skool character. that ramp in the distance seems like it used to have huge ships being constructed on it or something. it's killin me! it's rad. i wish i knew how to skateboard because i would really tear it up at Stappelädsparken.

2. and then the dumpster. darling. suddenly, a trash receptacle you want to hug.

get in

In Malmö, I am really convinced they want you to get in the water. It's the same in Copenhagen where everyone says the water is clean enough for swimming (which would explain all the stairs leading into the harbor). Here is a tryptich of three places where you can GET IN! I can't wait till the sun comes out.

mind in the gutter / first visit to malmö

My first impression is that the Western Harbor(link in sidebar) is all about water. It is collected, cleaned, used, made visible and certainly not treated as a waste/byproduct of living.

COLLECT

reveal

convey

CONVEY

instant urbanism

Thanks to Nancy Rottle for the tip on The Danish Architecture Center. It is an exhbition, lecture and gathering space all about design with an incredible book shop for a welcome mat. Wednesday nights are free admission so I hung late after work/school, grabbed a pastry at Lagekagehuset to get me through an evening of perusing the multi-media exhibition centered around temporary, largely installation-esque interventions in urban settings that show spontaneity, innovate and unconventional use of spaces and ultimately, promote interaction. The inspiration for the exhbition came from the texts of the The Situationist International movement. Here are few highlights:

Beukelsblauw
Permanent Breakfast
Parkour
Observatorium

week 1 walks completed + my mailing address

Now that I have unveiled this project, I am just going to post one update each week to show the changes in the tapestry of my footsteps.

My mailing address will remain permanently on the sidebar. Please, please send me snail mail! I love getting messages, clippings from the paper, mags, notes you find in the street, updates on your lives. I also like pictures and poems and drawings.

all tucked in!

Click To Play

NEW! Hot Dog Counter below "LINKS" ha! ha!

Another dog attack! This time it was more like a polish, but it was dark, and who's counting? ha again! And, this just in. IKEA has now gotten wind of the awesome word I chose as part of the name of this blog: FANTASTISK! And they have named their FANTASTISK red party napkins by the same name. They are so inventive over there. And sort of copy-cats. Ah, IKEA, guilty pleasure. I want to say that it feels like home, but it's not. It's a big box store where people argue about whether they NEED more wine glasses and just because they are CHEAP, doesn't mean we should buy them.

library

This one goes out to the Danes for making a beautiful, adaptively reused military building into a library full of light and comfortable spaces. And now for the creamy center – a book and magazine collection the likes of I am seeing for the first time. If it weren't designed so perfectly for working, I just might might spend the day drooling over the multicolored spines. Sometimes I walk through the isles and I run my finger along the spines without looking. Then I stop, look at what my finger has run upon, pull it out, and give it a glance. Other times, I scan the shelves for I don't know what and pull down whatever catches my eye. I did that today and I found the section where Sauerbruch and Hutton books are stored. I'll never be the same.

louisiana art museum

today i went to the louisiana museum for modern art in a suburb of copenhagen.
you can't take pics inside, but here is a little quad of the day.

walks week 1

Of course I am doing some postcards(see below), but not everyday like Mexico. For this trip I have decided to do a needlework project. Every time I take a walk, I embroider, from memory, my route. I look at a map while I embroider but I am not being too strict about accuracy. It is more about my own memory of the route. Week one is in pink, and though I still have a few days left until week two starts, I wanted to show it. It is a way for me to mark the time and also get me off my bike and on foot.

get busy on your bike

green streets

i have been seeing quite a few of these around. there is very small hardware of loop-screws that are screwed into the wall and then wires strung up the wall--a tiny trellis. they are simple, nice and some of them even have grading to make the sidewalk run-off flow into their planter bed.
ps--i know there is nothing growing on this yet, but it is definitely still winter here, so maybe i can get a then and now show when this little gem buds! stay tuned.

rally raleigh!

yea! a bike. i have never thought of bike riding as an act of assimilation. copenhagen has helped me change my tune. it's fast and loose and everyone respects the bikers--no honkin' horns or birdies, it's all waving and waiting for the guy on the bike. it's great. so, i've joined the ranks and i am a virtual wind of change. truth be told, i am bit timid compared to some of these folks. the real wind of change is the breeze that each biker makes as they pass me on cph's generous lanes that can fit 3 abreast in most places!

still looking for lodging

finding a place to live is frustrating at home where i have a regular cel phone and speak the language. to offset that empty yucky feeling of not finding what i want, i decided to make a video narrative out of my apartment search. now it is like a little game--i record what happens, well, my impressions of what happens and make a tiny show. it is sort of like a home improvement show and at the end, i will have several episodes--i hope not too many--documenting my search. cross your fingers for a happy ending.