I promise I won't do this much, so I apologize in advance. I just love this video for whatever reason. It's a promotional video for a band called Liars. This video probably had a lot to do with me buying the new album which is not too bad. I saw them once in Baltimore at this small club and it I actually really enjoyed it. My was with my cousins and one of made us leave early because they hated it. It was a weird show, but bottom line, I like this video.

What disappointment looks like.

When I woke up this morning I had a great idea. It was the type of good idea I'll bet most people have at least once every couple of weeks: pizza. I like to make my own pizza, a habit I got into while living in Brooklyn with my most excellent friend Kevin. Kevin inherited a auxiliary pizza stone from his brother and we probably used it once a week. Initially we used store bought frozen dough but eventually graduated to making our own which I would say was overall successful. People always talk about New York pizza as this untouchable pinnacle of pizza perfection, and while it's pretty good, the difference between a slice of dollar pizza and say, Di Fara's, is pretty negligible to me. As some of you may know, I had surgery to remove my adenoids among other small surgeries a few years ago and it's left me without much of a sense of smell which naturally affects the way I taste things. Also, I really don't care. Pizza is hard to really mess up. However, is exactly what I did today. After spending a few hours collecting ingredients, making and waiting for my dough to rise and finally cooking my pizza it came out as bad as it can.


I am pretty sure I made all the correct conversions from cups to liters and Fahrenheit to Celsius, but something still went very wrong. Thus, after a lot of anticipation and building up a huge hunger snacking on pepperonis while preparing my pizza I'm left with a big black pile of disappointment. So instead I cooked up the only other thing I had in the fridge.


This is the very picture of dissatisfaction. I think tonight for dinner will be some feel-good, unhealthy-but-fulfilling, McDonald's to drown myself in.

The Office

The office is where I spend the majority of my time, because well, it's where I work. The office, like most Danish buildings in my experience, look very old on the outside and have insides that look practically brand new. I've got to imagine there are some strict remodeling regulations set in place in order to preserve this as many of the buildings are more than one hundred years old. The picture below is where I work, on the far right side you can see our door. The office space is actually up in the attic and snugly fits the five of us.

The co-workers!

I can't believe how nice everyone I work with is. Everyone I've met in Denmark thus far has been incredibly nice, but I think the people I work with are particularly nice and understanding with my lack of the Danish language. Aside from this they are all really talented. Each one of them is really exceptional which I think contributes to why the company is doing so well.


This is Jeppe, who likes this picture because it makes him look like David Copperfield. The white hand he is using to create this vivid illusion is a porcelain hand from an old glove factory. We got a few of these and were supposed to paint them for the Århus festival so they could be auctioned off to benefit the Red Cross. Needless to say, we didn't really get them done in time. Jeppe also took me out to dinner the one of the first nights I was here. We went to the most American place in Denmark called Mackie's. It was in teh style of T.G.I. Fridays with crap all over the walls. It was very American, but very good. I don't know if I ever thanked Jeppe properly for it, so thanks Jeppe.


This is Jo, like Jeppe, a partner in Hello Monday. Jo is super nice and they tell me she speaks Danish with a little bit of an accent though I really can't tell. I owe my survival of my first couple of weeks to Jo's kindness.


Anders is the third partner (there is one more in the US, but we'll deal with that when the time comes). Anders is the flash guru who I get to work with. He can produce at a crazy rate and works harder than most anyone I know. It's no surprise he's also quite good and I believe is responsible for the FWA winning Minus website. Also, if you didn't know, Anders is telling you: he's metal.


Finally we have Mads. Besides myself he's the only other 'employee.' Mads brings the urban flavor and is also working on motion graphics stuff which is pretty awesome. Mads also has an awesome dog which sometimes hangs out in the office. The dog always snores and is generally pretty hilarious.



These are the people I work with. All very talented and unbelievably nice. I feel like someone slipped Denmark $5 to be nice to me.

A slice of home

I just got back from what I believe is the biggest (the only?) mall in Århus, and I've got to say: they nailed it. Everything from the cheap chinese to the mall goths. Bravo Denmark, you've really covered all of your bases on this one. It conjured flashes of Crossgates in Albany, except I didn't feel like I was going to get shot afterwards. I didn't look around much because just like any other mall, it was suffocating and I couldn't wait to get the hell out. Again, well done.

Festival

This past week was an annual Festival here in Århus which is the city's activity peak of the year. Unfortunately, I haven't really done anything mostly owing to my inability to speak Danish and that I just don't know enough people to find and go out with yet. I have however just seen some things in passing which are interesting enough in themselves.

The theme this year is supposed to be "In Motion" though I get the feeling the theme is pretty arbitrary and does little to alter everyone's schedule of drinking a lot and maybe listening to some live music.


This was one of a couple of bizarre looking carnival rides set up in the big square in the center of the city. If you look close you'll notice the kids are sitting on toilets and wearing small chalkboards around their necks with what I assume are their names followed by a sequential number. It was odd and moved very mechanically, not what you'd expect from a ferris wheel type ride.


While I was preoccupied examining these weird rides I failed to hear what was going on just next door. It is times like these that I am glad I'm as tall as I am, because the circle of bodies was probably ten deep. What they were surrounding was a marching band composed of half adults, half children, and a few so young it was all they could do to connect stick to drum. Of the children (whom sounded pretty good) a handful were also in costumes. The boy above was wearing what looked like Santa from the shoulders up, and a ninja turtle from the front. Others were wearing masks and other assorted pieces of costume that looked like they had been picked out of a big prop bag someone brought. As I mentioned before though, they were pretty good. In a way the weirdness of being in a marching band with the quirkiness of the costumes reminded me a bit of a show I saw the Rude Mechanicals play in Brooklyn.

Later tonight I saw a bunch of kids jumping on a flipped over car that somehow got in the middle of the square (where cars aren't allowed). I'm sure the car was there to be destroyed for some reason, and this wasn't just a random act of vandalism by kids. However, I can't imagine what reason this would be. Unfortunately, I was without my camera, but in a city where people generally seem a bit conservative and guarded, this was probably the wildest thing I've seen so far.

Arrival

In the months building up to my arrival in Denmark, I had created an image of Denmark all my own (which I think it would be difficult not to) via daydreams and guidebooks. When you have something so specific in mind it is always a shock when things are completely different.

Coming from New York City, a mecca of happenings, I expected a city, albeit on a smaller scale, full of happenings and funny Danish art and music. The photo above is the first bit of Denmark I saw outside of airports and train stations. Not exactly NYC Jr.

Now a bit of honesty to the reader, I have now been in Denmark for somewhere around 3 weeks, so I won't pretend that I've been diligent and back-date entries. I guess I've been busy, but the more honest truth is 1. I have been lazy and 2. There really isn't much excitement. There is still plenty of things worthy of reporting on, so from now on I'll promise to carry my camera and make more of an effort here. So in a whirlwind, here is a synopsis of my past 3 weeks!




For the first two weeks I lived with a friend's parents. They were so incredibly kind, it was almost unreal. To add to my surreal experience they lived in perfectly picturesque home in a beautiful neighborhood. This is the back yard. This picture looks a bit hectic, but chalk that one up to my poor photography. On a nice day it was hard to walk outside without breathing one of those contented sighs.


Less than a minutes walk we reach the beach. Now I know I'm not showing much beach in these pictures but when I look back years from now I don't think I'll remember the beach as much as the feel of the beach, which I think these speak more to (for me anyway). I plopped down right here and read a bit of the book I had in my backpack, though I hadn't intended to. My intention was to go exploring a bit down the coast, but I really couldn't help myself. You should be getting the drill by now. Beautiful.



This is my parting memory of my two weeks spent in Risskov (ris-ko). While beautiful, it was a twenty minute bus ride to work and a bit far away from the city life. I have now moved bullseye in the center of the city and so far– it's terrific.