commuter views

Every day on my commute I am amazed at how great the bike-riders look here. There is such a great diversity of types of bikes, types of riders, bags, helmets, hairstyles, you name it. Sometimes I take sneaky shots of people who are extra cute and this is my collection of spy-rider-portraits. I especially like the older lady with the striped shorts. Her outfit is stylish and screams vacation! And the guy with the cleaning supplies. Love to see a man with a scrub brush on his bike. Oh, and notice the yellow box on the bottom indicating this gal's sleek, biker-business-briefcase. It gingerly rests upon her rack with nothing to secure it. The Danish commute is so civilized, you don't have to fasten anything down and prepare for treacherous urban conditions.

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.

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.

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.

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.