bestill my beating bärheart

when you take a kid into the meat shop in Germany they usually offer the child a little slice of meat and if you are really lucky, they give them one with a bear face on it. and there is owen doing his best berlin bär. precious. it's pretty amazing how much he was able to mimic the smile of the bear. i think he has been getting those slices on the sly and practicing for my arrival. comments, owen? he got those slices of bear-bologna special for me and boy was i a dancing bear. when i lived in bremen, for a while they had batman shaped designs. cutting edge.

i've finally succumbed to being a tourist

so, i hate to say it, but i am going to pander a bit and for the next week or so, this blog is going to look more like vacation slides than my dorky everyday updates. this is a long one, so make yourself comfortable.

met up with Owen and it is so nice to hang out with a old friend. we had beers at the Prater Garden in my neighborhood and yes all your comments about the temperature are true. it is already summer in berlin.

i couldn't resist coercing Owen's buddy, John, into letting me have a photo-op with his wurst (we have left the land of the Pølse and now it's just WURST!) on the condition that he got to be in the photo. and i did have a few nibbles of this delicious german brat. it's a totally different beast than that the danish dogs. and if i had to choose to only eat one for the rest of my life, i think i would choose a german bratwurst. they are hard to beat.

yesterday we headed out to the Staatliche Museum für Kunst which is housed in the former Hauptbahnhof and has turned out to be an excellent, spacious exhibition space where extremely large works like Richard Long's "Berlin Circle" can be shown and in a proper way.

there were even works by Owen's former proferssor, Thomas Ruff

and an enormous exhibit showing what is probably only a fraction of Wolfgang Tillman's many works. i like this one for it's simplicity.

then we made our way to the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe which was pretty thrilling for me to see in person because I wrote my undergraduate thesis on this piece while it was still in the planning phase and have not yet experienced it myself. the space is incredible and effective despite the tawdry row of tourist shops that have cropped up on one side. there is very little specificity in it's form. the gray steles, though varying in height, spread out like a piece of dark cloth, disappearing into swells and fashioned in such precise order that if it weren't for the different heights creating unexpected plays of light and shadow on the quadratic surfaces, it would seem like they go on forever in perfect symmetry. the memorial doesn't tell you what to think, and it seemed, by wandering ourselves and watching others, that those who visited were having physical interactions with the site that made them curious and want to know more. i didn't go into the information center below ground because i am still a bit saturated with Holocaust information so i can't say anything about that part. to say the least, i was impressed.

then, Potsdamer Platz
where I was sorely disappointed. I have read, heard and seen so much hype about Atelier Dreiseitl's design for the site and it was really nothing special. the waterways were loaded with algae bloom, it was dark and dull and the context of Potsdamer Platz is pretty miserable. the details of the site that i had seen in photos looked so lack-lustre and tired in person and the ponds had a typical stench of water that is not taken care of. i took one picture and then wondered if i had come to the wrong place by accident. honestly, it left me feeling a bit duped about Dreiseitl and everyone who has been praising that project. Maybe when it was first built it was really lovely and worked well but it doesn't now, and i think i will be much less likely to use precedents that i haven't visited myself.

the disappointment of Potsdamer Platz passed quickly when we came upon just one of so many amazing public spaces in Berlin. this one is right on the River Spree and you can see the Parliament buildings in the background. lovely.

freedom dog

it's really a fransk hotdog. but if i had to rename it, i would name it a tysk (german) dog, because the efficient design of this food is undeniable. the bun is basically a pocket that the ham captain(skinke captjan) squirts condiments into, then she slides the dog into the neat and tidy portable pocket. this one deserves a FANTASTISK!, though the bun was chewy low quality. i guess that is what i get for buying a hot dog when the bakers are just getting to work. i should start logging their locations, but i am a little too lazy for that. i bought this one on Amagerbrogade, if you really want to know. oh, and coming soon, a series about the pølse vagen themselves. i have been highlighting the food but a friend brought to my attention that my reporting is a bit one-sided and you deserve to learn more about the wagons themselves. also, a magic moment. my guy, the one who owns the three wagons in my hood and who i almost always get my dogs from, gives me the sweetest insider deals on dogs now. normally they cost 20 Kr- and he gives me my regular for 10! woah. this is a real milestone. or is this just how they get you hooked?

another evening walk along the Lakes. the clouds were reflected so perfectly in the water. it is almost hard to tell which is sky and which water.
also ///
tomorrow i am going to Malmö to meet with the city ecologist about how to integrate hotdog wagons into the green infrastructure. ha! i wish. no, i am going to interview her about the Western Harbor, but the word on the street is that in Sweden you can get a hotdog with a huge pile of mashed potatoes on top. brilliant. that is fusion cooking, i tell you. i'll report back about what i find.

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.

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.

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!

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.