Back in Denmark, few things is as enjoyable as Rørvig, even though it seems like half of all Charlottenlund’s families (a wealthy surburb to Copenhagen) are buying a house up there these days. Hopefully Rørvig won’t become the new Hornbœk, and my plan is to restrict Rørvig house-buyers to hillbillies or family relatives. Or at least to people from Charlottenlund, of whom I like. Period.
In my pessimistic and relatively aggressive mode, I am currently finding comfort in reading Carlos Ruiz Zafon’s novel called The Shadow of The Wind. A very interesting, and well written book about a young boy from Barcelona who gets his fingers in a very special book. Many of the scenarios from the book, reminds me of Malaga which I visited for half a day last week (see last post - underneath). I’ve never been to Barcelona, but it seems like many of the old areas of the two cities are very much alike. The size is of course a bit different from each other, but they share beautiful cathedrals and many beige coloured houses and buildings. Also the many small streets and squares made of bricks, seems to pride each city.
Both cities are well-known seaports, and famous for having especially one famed artist each: Pablo Picasso in Malaga, and Salvador Dali in Barcelona. Malaga also has Antonio Banderas to brag with, while Barcelona’s football team is an inch better than their southern counterparts.
Anyhow, I have uploaded some pictures from Malaga. They all seem to capture some of the atmosphere around the andalusian coast, and especially this famous southern seaport.
All pictures and illustrations above are taken or made and copyrighted by Christian Halsted ®
Eric Cartman of South Park can finally agree upon something with God; Hippies. “Hippies. They’re everywhere, They wanna save the world, but all they do is smoke pot and smell bad”. And go to festivals, I might add to Cartman’s classic itch. Anyhow, it seems like the same interpretation God has of them, as he every year decides to let it rain during both Roskilde and Glastonbury Music Festival.
I went to Roskilde in 2004 - one of the many years where it rained cats and dogs nearly 6 out of 6 days. I mean, not that watching Iggy Pop while water from the heavy rain was diluting my beer wasn’t cool enough in itself, but still, the mud is generally pretty annoying in the long run. Last year was even worse as far as I’ve heard. Hippies almost drowned in rain and mud, and a lot of people headed early home because of the terrible weather. This year seems to run into the same problem. But, what is really dense in my opinion, is to keep running the festivals in these specific last week of June/ first week of July. For as long as I’ve lived the two weeks of Wimbledon, which is pretty much the same, have been a combination of washouts and extreme heat-waves, so why is it that late July or early August isn’t the festival weeks? I really can’t figure it out…
But maybe I’m being this negative only because I’m not going. Neil Young is there, Radiohead will be playing and then of course Mike Skinner as The Streets. Even Slayer, Cat Power and Jay-Z will be rocking up the crowd… So why am I not a proud Roskilde festivalgoer this year? Well first of all, I haven’t got a ticket and don’t really want to pay 1800 DKK for one (call me niggardly). It might also be Platon and Aristotle’s idea of the human nature as reacting on background of prudence.
But then again; prudence my ass… - I fear that I’ve turned boring and old before time…
All pictures and illustrations above are taken or made and copyrighted by Christian Halsted ®
I am not the biggest political activist, nor do I follow the US election that intense as I feel I should. Nonetheless, I can’t bear the look of John McCain. It seems many Americans think of him as a lovable patriot with a maverick streak: The war hero of Vietnam, who will fight and stand up for the war in Iraq until the Muslim terrorists are sure they can’t mess with the Americans.
But! The inescapable ‘but’! Away from the political speeches and Republican newspaper’s headlines he’s an anti-abortion Creationist who surrounds himself with religious extremists. No matter how hard he tries to disguise it, the fact that McCain believe Islam is evil and gays are immoral is difficult to oversee. Sure, gays probably aren’t the ones helping to rid of Aids and Hiv, but I mean, isn’t it natural now-a-days that people have the possibility to be respected no matter what sex they prefer? Maybe not, but the sad thing is, that the dark sides of McCain’s primeval ideas doesn’t stop here. My beloved friend, John McCain, wants to appoint extreme conservatives to the Supreme Court and see abortion banned, just like his late ancestors would have it. Anachronism if you like - either way disastrous. But then again, could we expect something else from a man who was born on a military base, in Panama?
As young Americans return in bodybags from Iraq - and probably Iran too before long - an old soldier like McCain, who is from a family of warriors, seems a natural choice as the superpower-leader in this dangerous world. In my world John McCain seems to be a little bit like the new disability dolls: either he is a sick joke or a blessing - of course this depends on what mask you see him wearing. But, as Oscar Wilde pointed out in his ‘Truth of Masks’ : the usage of masks are very important in all games. Masks, he argued, has a double function as they are both picturesque and dramatic - just like McCain (patriot vs. creationist) can be argued to be.
All pictures and illustrations above are taken or made and copyrighted by Christian Halsted ®
I have a little fling for human and social sciences these days. Let it be sociology, philosophy, anthropology or linguistics - you name it… I am not sure why I like it or why it fascinates me, but sometimes I think it is because it doesn’t give me any real answers. I am not good at being told things, so I might as well read books that only suggest instead of state. Other times I believe it is of my curiosity; I have grown a strong desire to learn or know about reasons, causes, logic, judgments and diversity of these. (And then I am really fed up with gullible people, sorry to say).
When I saw the British classic Blow Up some years ago I forgot about quite quickly. Seeing it again some months ago made my mind curious to discover the places, the lines and the true meaning of the almost quintessential message of curiosity and meta-interest (as it is called in the academic milieux, I’ve been told). What seems to happen is apparently that human curiosity about curiosity itself combined with abstract thinking sometimes lead to mimesis and imagination. Probably a bit like the situation I often take myself in, where I think somebody walk in the hall outside the bathroom while I am showering. After 10 minutes of nervous searching around the flat I realize it was my own mirror-image that reflected a shadow. Really annoying, actually.
Another weird kind of curiosity is the interest of morbidity. This cathartic form of behaviour when seeing something disastrous is pretty bizarre, but I reckon everybody knows the feeling of curiosity when one sees a damaged car, a wrecked train or whatever Aristotle meant when saying ‘people enjoy contemplating the most precise images of things whose sight is painful to us’. It’s weird that such an unpleasant sight gives a kind of natural feeling of disgust that might even pleases you in other aspects of innate human emotions - and animalistic for that matter.
But to be honest; the reason why I’m writing this is because of some weird notions I’ve taken the last couple of months. First of all, why is it people always touch were a sign says ‘newly painted’? And why is people sniff when they are told that the person sitting next to them just farted? I mean, it’s just weird that this disgust needs to be verified isn’t it? It might just be that ‘People are Strange’ as Jim Morrison titled one of his songs. Maybe its because of the extreme curiosity that people suffer from (or benefit from, of course). Sometimes I think it is because people don’t trust each other, and want to confirm the warnings themselves! Either way, it is uncanny and even eerie, especially as I am curious to know why we are curious…
All pictures above are taken and copyrighted by Christian Halsted ®
It’s a scary time we’re living in. First some crazy geezer blows himself and his non-democratic corpus up in front of the Danish Embassy in Pakistan. Then a Japanese guy makes a real life ‘Falling Down’ scene, as was he Michael Douglas, when he launched into a stabbing frenzy on a busy shopping street in Tokyo because he was ‘tired of life’. Two jerks equals 14 dead civilians. Great job guys, you really nailed it this time, didn’t you?
After all, when it’s summer and you are in safe and quite little Denmark you can’t complain that much. I read the other day in Monocle that Copenhagen was named the best city to live, and especially praised for its ‘cutting edge design, great transport system, restaurants and environmental credentials’. Although, taken into account that the population of Denmark is half the size London, and the population of Copenhagen is about the same as Borough of Chelsea (only far more Jean Marie Le Pen’ish), the whole transport system and environmental applauds needs to be taken into perspective. But still pretty wicked stuff!
Copenhagen has been called a rife full of liberal lefties - nonetheless, Copenhagen is as every other city a somewhat Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, I reckon. Some parts are great, others aren’t. And while talking of Copenhagen and Denmark, I will lay it on thick by asking you to consider this BBC link (poor Burundi)!
Personally, my favourite place in Denmark is a small place called Rørvig. During winter a lot of the regular residents are a bit chowderheaded, drink Wiibroe beer and eat pork cracklings, although during the summer, the village is quite different. I went there during the weekend with Charlotte, and I might as well go there for the rest of the summer as it is really ‘wunderbar’.
All the pictures above are taken and copyrighted by Christian Halsted ®
I am now back in Copenhagen for a little summer vacation, where I am currently enjoying the 25 degrees and blue sky. Quite opposite from what I came from in London where it was raining and windy most of the last days I enjoyed in The Old Smoke.
Enough about the weather though. Copenhagen is red hot these days as the city has its annual Distortion Festival where the trendy youth of Copenhagen gets very drunk 5 days in a row and listen to electronic music (not that there’s anything special in that, really). The distortion festival is the Danish proud answer to Sonar Festival in Barcelona, only a bit smaller and less respected (pathetic might be the right word, but I’m not gonna use it, as it actually is great fun). No matter what, it is a good excuse to go out and enjoy the summer nights, meet a lot of old friends as well as stand next to some bald, big and asinine Hell Angels rockers (and other Yobs). For some it is also a perfect way to check out the sultry unclad Scandinavian birds that makes your saliva run wild.
All pictures above are taken and copyrighted by Christian Halsted ®
I have decided this week’s posts to be me commenting on things I find elsewhere. Today’s story is one that is featured on most newspaper’s website and commented on by a lot of people. My commentary will be in here though (see reason in previous post). Anyways, I am of course talking about the newest ‘Global Peace Index‘ that rates UK as the 49th most violent place in the world, measuring external and internal turmoil. UK is placed just below Panama (48) and one place above Mozambique (50) which probably makes it a bit more atrocious (literally speaking this is). The top countries are Iceland, Denmark and Norway, respectively. Iraq, Somalia and Sudan unsurprisingly take the bottom three places in the index.
For me being a Dane, this isn’t that surprising - I’ve always known Marcellus from Hamlet was wrong when saying ‘Something is rotten in the state of Denmark’. Now, I’m just grumbling about why I chose to live in England (London which is the worst place of them all, I guess) when I could have stayed put in little Copenhagen? I should maybe grumble about why I didn’t move to Iceland instead. But then again, their foreign minister’s name is ‘Ingibjorg Solrun Gisladottiir’ - which would probably give me some language barriers to struggle with on second thoughts.
But I don’t want to complain or sound lugubrious - I’m happy where I am. At least most of the time.
And while sitting here in my flat in East End London (Jack The Ripper’s old area actually) thinking about crime and violence, I haven’t really got anything important (or stupid) thing to say about it. Firstly because the word ‘crime’ alone just nauseates me. Secondly, crime, I believe, is one of the subjects that one either discuss in length or neglect by the rule of reason. So by taking the second, and easy option, I have decided to upload some pictures I took earlier today as well as quote The Kinks’s song called Apeman (I know it’s a bit corny) as it seems a bit more deep than what I could come up with:
I think I’m so educated and I’m so civilized
cos I’m a strict vegetarian
But with the over-population and inflation and starvation
And the crazy politicians
I don’t feel safe in this world no more
I don’t want to die in a nuclear war
I want to sail away to a distant shore and make like an ape man
All pictures above are taken and copyrighted by Christian Halsted ®
Tuesday and Wednesday was quite unique to me. I went with Mark to the Western part of Greater London (typical Aryan England (in a nice way, don’t get me wrong)) to do a photo-shoot of two English National rugby players and one of the English rowers of the Olympic four. The photo-shoot is a campaign for IC Companies as they are trying to build up some brand-awareness for their Matinique and Cottonfield brands through sponsoring some of the brave national ‘hero’s’ (good lads, eh).
And not only was is fun, as always, to be part of a thing like this, but what also struck me was the size of these guys. I mean, they were literally double the size of me and their arms reminded me of a footballers legs. Creepy and yet a bit amazing without sounding too gay.
The place we were shooting was really really nice, typical English society seen in telly, and we actually ended the shoot Wednesday in the most British manner by drinking tea at a balcony facing the Thames while the next-door cricket players began to warm up for their weekly practice. But it was simply one amazing place, actually so much it made me realize I am living in the wrong part of town, spending too much time doing anything and nothing. At least I am going to Denmark during the summer, where I can get some D-Vitamins in the sun, and get a bit away from the tandoori smell, smog and pollution and the many pub temptations that East London offers.
All pictures above are taken and copyrighted by Christian Halsted ®