A week or two ago the first big project I worked on launched so I thought I'd put up a link. You probably won't get much out of it unless you are Danish and pregnant, but maybe you are.
http://www.vilkenvom.com
Sunday, October 21, 2007
Quick Note
A week or two ago the first big project I worked on launched so I thought I'd put up a link. You probably won't get much out of it unless you are Danish and pregnant, but maybe you are.
http://www.vilkenvom.com
Helloween
Halloween is one of if not my favorite holidays. However, in Denmark they don't really celebrate it. Some people will perhaps dress their kids in costume for a cupcake party in school or something, but there is no going around to houses for candy. Even if they did, Danish candy is absolutely terrible. One in particular called a 'Super Fly' is one of the worst tasting things I've put in my mouth, and keep in mind, this is candy. It is basically a stick of salty, bitter, black licorice and when you bite into it, surprise! It's actually hollow and filled with salt! But I digress.
The guys at work felt bad for me and I arrived on Wednesday to a pumpkin on everyone's desk. I think almost no one had carved a pumpkin before so it was a good time and the results were pretty great!
Jeppe is throwing some pumpkin guts into the bucket while Anders says something to him. I don't remember what it was, but he was probably making fun of him as he is fond of doing.
More guts! You'll notice everything is blurry because I forgot to change my camera settings in my pumpkin carving jubilation. Also, I'm lazy and don't feel like editing.
Jo had an idea and immediately went to work finishing before anyone else. Hers looked fantastic as well. Mads and Anders still scooping.
The results! From left to right, Anders, Mads, Me, Jeppe, Jo. Note that I come out looking like the amateur with all the pumpkin space left over. I had planned to put a lot more stuff above but time and technical (my knife was too big!) issues left me with some 'whitespace'. I'm still pretty happy though and it was a blast. Afterwards we went out to eat at the traditional Danish Chinese buffet where I ate kangaroo (delicious). It was the best 150kr buffet I've ever had. Though there isn't much in the way of Halloween here we are still throwing a costume party for which I just started planning my outfit.
Can you guess what I'm going to be? If you can't I don't know why we are friends.
The guys at work felt bad for me and I arrived on Wednesday to a pumpkin on everyone's desk. I think almost no one had carved a pumpkin before so it was a good time and the results were pretty great!
Jeppe is throwing some pumpkin guts into the bucket while Anders says something to him. I don't remember what it was, but he was probably making fun of him as he is fond of doing.
More guts! You'll notice everything is blurry because I forgot to change my camera settings in my pumpkin carving jubilation. Also, I'm lazy and don't feel like editing.
Jo had an idea and immediately went to work finishing before anyone else. Hers looked fantastic as well. Mads and Anders still scooping.
The results! From left to right, Anders, Mads, Me, Jeppe, Jo. Note that I come out looking like the amateur with all the pumpkin space left over. I had planned to put a lot more stuff above but time and technical (my knife was too big!) issues left me with some 'whitespace'. I'm still pretty happy though and it was a blast. Afterwards we went out to eat at the traditional Danish Chinese buffet where I ate kangaroo (delicious). It was the best 150kr buffet I've ever had. Though there isn't much in the way of Halloween here we are still throwing a costume party for which I just started planning my outfit.
Can you guess what I'm going to be? If you can't I don't know why we are friends.
Monday, October 15, 2007
Botanical Garden
This weekend I walked to the botanical gardens near the university. Though I think it's called a botanical garden it is a far cry from the gardens near my old apartment in Brooklyn. This one was much more open, the space was very noticeable.
Where I entered you first come across a large bed of ordinary, but immaculately cared for flowers.
This space is very large and incredibly relaxing but the whole place was pretty vacant. Since it is in such close proximity I expected it to be teeming with people playing soccer or frisbee or anything. The only people there besides me were really couples pushing babies in gigantic strollers as seems to be the fashion here. By a small pond there was a family feeding the ducks. The bread is much heavier here, I bet the ducks fill up a lot quicker. And yes, I'm the creepy guy taking pictures of small girls in park.
I think this is part of the old Danish village that borders the gardens. It consists of houses that were disassembled, brought to this location, and then reassembled. I think of Boston being an old place, and for America, it is. However the houses here are over a thousand years old. Take that America. From what I can tell it's similar to a Sturbridge Village or Plymouth Plantation type of attraction if anyone gets that reference. This is not what windmills look like these days for sure. Wrong shape and certainly scale.
I never really realized how huge modern windmills were until I saw some pieces up close. This is a single blade, easily longer than an 18 wheeler.
I've got a lot of photos I need to catch up on, hopefully more shortly!
Where I entered you first come across a large bed of ordinary, but immaculately cared for flowers.
This space is very large and incredibly relaxing but the whole place was pretty vacant. Since it is in such close proximity I expected it to be teeming with people playing soccer or frisbee or anything. The only people there besides me were really couples pushing babies in gigantic strollers as seems to be the fashion here. By a small pond there was a family feeding the ducks. The bread is much heavier here, I bet the ducks fill up a lot quicker. And yes, I'm the creepy guy taking pictures of small girls in park.
I think this is part of the old Danish village that borders the gardens. It consists of houses that were disassembled, brought to this location, and then reassembled. I think of Boston being an old place, and for America, it is. However the houses here are over a thousand years old. Take that America. From what I can tell it's similar to a Sturbridge Village or Plymouth Plantation type of attraction if anyone gets that reference. This is not what windmills look like these days for sure. Wrong shape and certainly scale.
I never really realized how huge modern windmills were until I saw some pieces up close. This is a single blade, easily longer than an 18 wheeler.
I've got a lot of photos I need to catch up on, hopefully more shortly!
Saturday, October 6, 2007
Punk Rock
Where I went to school in upstate New York there were a lot of kids into metal in the surrounding town and it was really kind of weird. It was like that town in Lost Boys that was filled with metal kids except Bill from Bill and Ted wasn't there. Århus in this same way seems to have a disproportionate amount of punk kids. I think I see more here on a daily basis than I ever did in New York (though New York has very much made the move to hipsters from punks).
I don't particularly think of this as a punk city. I don't see many posters for shows or anything and I guess I just assumed it was a fashion issue. However, I was looking through scans of old punk zines today and it seemed that 'scene reports' were often coming in from New York, London, and Denmark one of which is posted below.
There was also a zine called "No Arhus" which was produced in Mundelstrup which is a town maybe 20 minutes from the center of Århus as best I can guess. It was put out by a guy called Johnny Concrete which is a pretty awesome name, Danish or not. Here is a link to another page in a Danish zine presumably put out by the same person since the Denmark graphic is the same. What is interesting about this one is first that it is in English. This came out in 1985 and I guess I'm surprised English was as prevalent back then (though it was only 22 years ago). 1985 is also when punk as a whole kind of started to deteriorate and I wonder just how much of a scene there could still really be here so many years later, but what do I know. Second is one of the last sentences on the first page, "We have a pretty serious problem with skinheads here, especially in our town of Aarhus. And there are some problems with some German punx." I suppose I always thought of the skinhead thing having German origins but it never occurred to me (despite how obvious it may seem) that it would be prevalent in Denmark. I'm rather jaded by how quiet and clean the city is I'm afraid, and I bet I have a lot more to learn about it. Lesson learned!
This is unrelated but funny I thought. Check out this other scan of "The Hollywood Individual" and compare to modern day hipsters. Also: it looks a whole lot like me. Same earrings and everything. If I had Final Fantasy VII hair, this would be a pretty good portrait.
I don't particularly think of this as a punk city. I don't see many posters for shows or anything and I guess I just assumed it was a fashion issue. However, I was looking through scans of old punk zines today and it seemed that 'scene reports' were often coming in from New York, London, and Denmark one of which is posted below.
There was also a zine called "No Arhus" which was produced in Mundelstrup which is a town maybe 20 minutes from the center of Århus as best I can guess. It was put out by a guy called Johnny Concrete which is a pretty awesome name, Danish or not. Here is a link to another page in a Danish zine presumably put out by the same person since the Denmark graphic is the same. What is interesting about this one is first that it is in English. This came out in 1985 and I guess I'm surprised English was as prevalent back then (though it was only 22 years ago). 1985 is also when punk as a whole kind of started to deteriorate and I wonder just how much of a scene there could still really be here so many years later, but what do I know. Second is one of the last sentences on the first page, "We have a pretty serious problem with skinheads here, especially in our town of Aarhus. And there are some problems with some German punx." I suppose I always thought of the skinhead thing having German origins but it never occurred to me (despite how obvious it may seem) that it would be prevalent in Denmark. I'm rather jaded by how quiet and clean the city is I'm afraid, and I bet I have a lot more to learn about it. Lesson learned!
This is unrelated but funny I thought. Check out this other scan of "The Hollywood Individual" and compare to modern day hipsters. Also: it looks a whole lot like me. Same earrings and everything. If I had Final Fantasy VII hair, this would be a pretty good portrait.
Thursday, October 4, 2007
An Unexpected Visit
Last week I got an email from my friend MR saying that she was in Berlin (Denmark borders Germany to the north) and could she swing by. Of course I was thrilled, and that is how I had a small college reunion almost 4000 miles away.
On Sunday MR and I went to the large art museum in Århus which only opened a handful of years ago (four?) called Aros. Aros is sort of a funny museum. The collections are very eclectic and spaced out; each has it's own floor and you take a large spiral staircase up to travel between them. However, on the lower level there is something called the 9 spaces which are nine small rooms that branch off a single narrow hallway which is painted black and dimly lit. Each contain bizarre video installations (are there any other kind) and really use the space perfectly. It's almost a little claustrophobic down there, and to add to the feeling, there are what I am guessing are support columns that cause giant bulges in the wall that create these false corners. The bulges I speak of are maybe 10 feet or more in diameter and just part of them push into the hall but it is in a way where you can follow the surface of the wall thinking it leads somewhere only to find yourself in a tight corner where the curved surface meets a flat one. I know, confusing. I apologize.
The museum acquired this piece which is plastered all over every promotional piece they have and I would say with good reason. It's by sculptor Ron Mueck whose work I was lucky enough to see when he had a solo show in Brooklyn last year. He has a background in special effects and his sculptures are incredibly realistic and this one, titled 'Boy' is easily the largest. While seeing it in person is absolutely an experience, I also think it's size works against it. The feet are immaculately rendered and represent what I think Ron Mueck does very well. Veins and toenails, really convincing details. However, having seen the rest of his work and what he is capable of I think the rest of the sculpture is a bit underdeveloped. It photographs fantastically and really looks convincing, but in real life it somehow misses the mark for me. Additionally, the scale put it out of the creepy large human range and into the definitely sculpture range. Some of his other pieces are maybe 7-15 feet high and just exude this eerie feeling that somehow these are just people on crazy growth hormones or something. One last nit-picky thing that I feel I have to mention or I will lose sleep are his pants. They are just some thin material and don't look very real at all. I understand the challenge of making pants for someone who might be 3 stories tall, but your average youth would rip right through those things.
The museum is quite beautiful and has these great glass windows the look out on the city as well as a roof deck from where this was taken. Århus is quite a flat place and I suppose I never really thought about it until I got up high. The visibility is stunning as the atmosphere is quite clear, surely a change from New York City. There also really aren't any significant landmarks to point out but it's really quite beautiful which at this point really doesn't come as a surprise.
On Sunday MR and I went to the large art museum in Århus which only opened a handful of years ago (four?) called Aros. Aros is sort of a funny museum. The collections are very eclectic and spaced out; each has it's own floor and you take a large spiral staircase up to travel between them. However, on the lower level there is something called the 9 spaces which are nine small rooms that branch off a single narrow hallway which is painted black and dimly lit. Each contain bizarre video installations (are there any other kind) and really use the space perfectly. It's almost a little claustrophobic down there, and to add to the feeling, there are what I am guessing are support columns that cause giant bulges in the wall that create these false corners. The bulges I speak of are maybe 10 feet or more in diameter and just part of them push into the hall but it is in a way where you can follow the surface of the wall thinking it leads somewhere only to find yourself in a tight corner where the curved surface meets a flat one. I know, confusing. I apologize.
The museum acquired this piece which is plastered all over every promotional piece they have and I would say with good reason. It's by sculptor Ron Mueck whose work I was lucky enough to see when he had a solo show in Brooklyn last year. He has a background in special effects and his sculptures are incredibly realistic and this one, titled 'Boy' is easily the largest. While seeing it in person is absolutely an experience, I also think it's size works against it. The feet are immaculately rendered and represent what I think Ron Mueck does very well. Veins and toenails, really convincing details. However, having seen the rest of his work and what he is capable of I think the rest of the sculpture is a bit underdeveloped. It photographs fantastically and really looks convincing, but in real life it somehow misses the mark for me. Additionally, the scale put it out of the creepy large human range and into the definitely sculpture range. Some of his other pieces are maybe 7-15 feet high and just exude this eerie feeling that somehow these are just people on crazy growth hormones or something. One last nit-picky thing that I feel I have to mention or I will lose sleep are his pants. They are just some thin material and don't look very real at all. I understand the challenge of making pants for someone who might be 3 stories tall, but your average youth would rip right through those things.
The museum is quite beautiful and has these great glass windows the look out on the city as well as a roof deck from where this was taken. Århus is quite a flat place and I suppose I never really thought about it until I got up high. The visibility is stunning as the atmosphere is quite clear, surely a change from New York City. There also really aren't any significant landmarks to point out but it's really quite beautiful which at this point really doesn't come as a surprise.
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