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.