Monday, April 23, 2007

142 m2 in the center of Copenhagen!

Isn't it beautiful?

Guess I can say it officially now, since everything suddenly seems to be come together somehow, and really fast.

Granny will move to a home this weekend already (I'll spare you another shot of venom at the Danish system...) and it actually coincides with the fact that the flat will be in my name as of the 1st of May (total coincidence, funny enough!).

You can imagine I am quite happy about both things. Finally my dear old granny will be taken care of properly and I will be the proud inhabitant of a flat in the center of Copenhagen: 5 rooms, 142 m2 and about 50 meters from the lovely lakes here.

It's probably for the better anyway she is moving straight from hospital to a home, as she cannot stay at home anymore anyway, plus: she wouldn't recognise it because of the total state of chaos.

The last week I have started to seriously clean out the flat, which also means that chaos needs to be created first... Man, there is a lot of crap to be thrown out!
First I need to have all the stuff gathered and packed that we will bring to the flat in the elderly home (in a crap area of CPH btw...) and then: step by step make it into MY place :)

Soooooo, if you feel like visiting: after 2 years I finally have the possibility to receive many again!

I'll always have a bed, matress, sofa, or a bathtub with a pillow for you! (and I know some of you have tried all these options already...)

The next weeks are booked already though, so make sure you give me good notice, heheh...

This coming weekend my parents, to help with the moving, then the weekend Scott from London, then the weekend after our favorite crazy Indian (the w...ehhh, banker from Bahrein) will be here again, after that Japie will drop by, one week of break, but then the weekend after that I will be in Jutland for a family birthday (another excuse for too much food and wine) and the followin weekend: visiting Guillaume in Antibes for his birthday (if it works out) and then we have started June already... and as I return from France Scotty Scott will have arrived from Los Angeles...

Life is good!

Buuuut, hmmmm, when on earth am I going to fix up this place?

Anyone know a good painter btw? I need to have a whole flat done! (yes, I am lazy...)

So, see you soon then?

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Wednesday, March 14, 2007

Mr Garrison exists!!

Everyone who has ever watched South Park, that brilliant cartoon (I have to admit!), knows who Mr Garrison is...

That male teacher turned half-woman, half something...

Someone bald, running around in a dress, and pretending to be a women after some odd operation...

Too weird for real life, or so I thought!

So, today I was outside for the first time in several days: still recovering from a flu I wouldn't recommend my worst enemy (I'll spare you the gory details...)..

As I walked down to the supermarket this 1.90 m tall man passed me, and... I was simply dumbfounded.

Bald, just some hair on the sides, a pink jacket, with a low-cut top underneath, weird 70s earrings, a tweed skirt, and pink pumps: what the f...??? Is this true??

Mr Garrison!! You are alive! You are real!!

Unbelievable, there is actually someone so nutty that he actually looks like a cartoon character...

I doubt he is doing it intentionally, but... I really thought for a second I still had a fever. I've been delirious the last days, but this goes beyond even my weirdest fantasies!

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Friday, March 09, 2007

What happened...?

The last few weeks have been full of different events for me personally, but the last week I could only be sad...

What the hell happened to my city? I feel like I am in a friggin' warzone or at least in a bad B-movie...

Tuesday I came out of the train station at Nørreport and entered straight into the remnants of another demonstration, with several helicopters hovering above me and a weird sort of atmosphere in the air... I didn't know how fast I had to get home. And yet, the whole evening I could hardly hear myself think, for all the helicopters flying around and police cars with full siren on...

Don't get me wrong...

Demonstrate all you want. Be passionate about the things you believe in. Go for it. Try to have an influence on your little corner of the world. Everyone should try to improve things around them, we can all profit and get better from each others' efforts.

But... why all this violence? To me all it looks like is organised mob mentality. Based on the same principles the activists blames the mentality of 'society' at large for...

Simple, talk, discuss, go for it, but just keep your damn fingers of my city! Why is it necessary to walk around cloaked, hooded and masked if you feel you are doing something for a good cause? Why not face your 'opponents' open and above board? Looks like you are aware after all that you are just after some crap anyway, right?


Outside my place a poster had been set up on a scaffolding:


The text reads:
Youth House now!

"We have to get Copenhagen going more. Better possibilities to arrange concerts and cultural arrangements should enhance and strenghten life in Copenhagen". quote from the 'socialist' Mayor of CPH.

So, where is the connection between reminding politicians of their words (which I only can agree fully on) and through that point at their responsibilities, if you don't accept the same authorities anyway and go out and destroy half a city?

- What 'use' is destroying the inventory of a high school? Their library? Just because it is next door to Christiania? How fucking dumb can you be?

- What 'use' is it to burn the trucks of the transport agency, just because they had been hired to move some things from that house?

- What is the 'use' of destroying shops with molotov cocktails, just because they happen to be in the way? What about the owners? Ever gave 1 thought to the fact that their lives maybe be destroyed, as you take their livelyhood away?

- What 'use' is violence and destruction when (you say) all you want is a place to have concerts and other cultural manifestations?

I can only agree on creating a full and thriving cultural life in this city and not let in turn into a "Cafe-latte-city", as one report recently called it.

Already now I am missing too many concerts, expositions etc, but a greater choice and diversity is always welcome. Fortunately we don't all have the same likes and tastes, right?

Eva, Jochem's girl, had a good remark: "let's test 'their' solidarity principles, send them the bill that so far has reached 2 million euros and have them 'share' it".

Let's see if all these people that came so eagerly to fight from all over Europe will also take their responsibility and cough up for the shopkeepers in the area who had their livelyhood destroyed, because a bunch of spoiled brats can't control their hormones and get caught up in some mob mentality...

I have seen many of these kids... god, how perfectly groomed and dressed they look, and not one original thought in sight.
They have their clothes and dress down perfectly to the last detail... I feel like I am looking at some "tribute to the late 70s/early 80s alternative scene" fashion show.
Because, for all their so-called 'radical' mindsets, they are still kids that are trying to fit in with their peers and in Denmark, as everywhere else, that means dressing in the 'right' clothes. Other 'groups' only wear Gucci or Tommy Hilfiger, these kids wear their 'street wear'...
Pff... They honestly have no clue what they are on about and none have ever had to take any responsibility for anything ever... it's just too obvious...

Do I sound like an old cynical guy now? Maybe, perhaps... but I wonder how they would react if their parents would tell them to go find a job themselves, because of damages the parents are paying for what their spoiled brats have caused...

Basically we are seeing (minority) groups who demand 'rights' based on past grievances (if at all), rather than on present responsibilities...


You know, the worst thing of all this, is that I am afraid it will be the end of Christiania as well... whenever there is something with one of the 2, the other 'group' demonstrates for the other.

The problem however is that I am afraid 'people' can't distinguish and blame Christiania, just as a proper and constructive solution is on the table, to ensure it's survival and development.

I really love that place, in summer there are few better places to be in Copenhagen than in Christiania. For a stroll along the lake there, sitting in the sunset on the roof of Nemoland with a beer and friends, listening to some good jamsessions etc etc etc...

The diversity of the people there is heartening and it can truly be the cultural heart of Copenhagen, with the broad range of things it can offer: music, art in every form, theatre, architecture, discussion forums, and involvement in the political 'well-being' of the country in general.
Basically a cultural breathing space in lovely city....

I hope it is still possible... but the last weeks' events has done more damage than good to 'cultural development'... bwwweeehhhh... let life please return to normal soon, I feel miserable every time I look over and see police cars blocking off a whole area of a city :(

Guess how my mother is feeling right now? She grew up barely 100 m from where the center of all that crap happened? How do you think it feels to see your childhood go up in flames? (dammit, am I talking about Bagdad or sweet Copenhagen???)


UPDATE 17.50 hrs 9/3:

For f....s sake... I'd love to see some rational analysis of this... Activists taking over Magasin Du Nord, for 'fun'... waving their credit cards, shouting 'we have purchase power'... just how exactly does that last bit connect to the notion of rejecting the existing fabric of society? And who pays for the credit cards btw? They actually have their own purchase power or do mommy & daddy still cover their spolit little brats-in-black...? (and notice the difference, if you read Danish, between the way of reporting of different newspapers, quite interesting... but how laughable and pathetic this whole thing is becoming...!)

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