Not nothing

I have made a deal with myself to try and never be too busy to make an emergency stop for a surprise. It works if I calculate extra time, so instead of (a lifetime of-) cutting it razor close, I now make room for "nothing". Which it never is, of course. My latest unscheduled stop was this guy, working his drums on the corner of the bridge. Watch him closely, he has a few surprises for you...

-like playing with antlers..

-adding balloon sounds..

-and using a modified power drill, hahaha.

I don't even need to know the what/who/why? It made absolutely no sense in the most perfect way.

(UPDATE: a well informed reader tells us this is Kalles World Tour, offering a link to youtube)

And further up the road someone built a vinyl record birdhouse.

From a record of bird sounds!

UPDATE #2: Another reader informs me that the birdhouse is a piece of guerrilla advertising made by the previously celebrated birdhouse man Thomas Dambo Winther, for the band Dans & Lær (Dance & Learn) striving to teach us to recognize the sounds of the different birds. I have the best readers, period!

That is so not "nothing". You know?

♥

Street art of Paris

When you find yourself in Paris, crouching in a narrow urine stenched, pigeon ridden alley, breathing through your mouth, trying to get the perfect shot of a painted creature, you know you are hooked:

Klone 2012

Look at that technique, it is almost like it is floating.

Paris is a mecca for street art (that and the use of bicycles have exploded since my last visit), it was everywhere I looked. More in some neighborhoods than others, but not confined to any one. Still you don't see anyone vandalizing historical monuments, mailboxes or statues. They know how to pick their canvas.

Classic Nemo detail.

Janaundjs (Jana and JS), they were everywhere. 

I am finding it harder to get exited about the classic stencil work, but when they mix it up, it works. I love how it looks like the piece is developed on the wall, analog style. Mmm.

Paste up by Fred le Chevalier. I saw a lot of his work too, all different pieces. Crazy good!

The Space Invader. This really cracked me up: a hard hat version for the scaffolding work. Hahaha.

And then in a window: a tribute to the Space Invader, made from post it's.

Jef Aerosol by Les Halles.

And that concludes the Paris tales, next stop: Copenhagen.

♥

Link fest:

Fred le Chevalier

Klone and a nice Klone interview on Fatcap

Jef Aerosol

Janaundjs

Le yum

Before the big Parisian street art bonanza, I am going to do a quick one with everything else. Random yum that inspires me or just makes me happy. Why is sharing such a rush? I hope you are not suffocating at the receiving end of this. Here we go:

Check the direction of the rain...

It is a vertical garden, wild and diverse, on the BHV department store. So cool. We should have those in Copenhagen, cleaning the air and pleasing the eye. Who says it should just be blank walls?

Later in the day I walked by a church, L'Eglise Saint Merry. It would have to take something like this to lure a religiofobic in: an explosion of colors, with paintings floating in the air and giant folded paper birds suspended from the ceiling. 

(My camera is flipping out again, it is either about humidity or dim lights, uuuugh!)

It works just like a regular church, only here young artists are invited to decorate the space, and there are small concerts and performances. And female preachers are allowed, which is apparently not an everyday occurrence in the catholic church. I really like the ambiance of this place, warm and welcoming. If more churches opened op like this, I think people would relate to them again. Checking... nope, still petrified of religion.

When it comes to stores, I really like it when the owners personality shows. Come to think of it, that pretty much goes for anything.

The colors. I want to scream.

End of random yum.

Good stuff, don't you think?

♥

Minding manners

Copenhagen is seeing an unfortunate increase in what I can only describe as piggish behavior. Like men spitting on the sidewalks. Accompanied by the loud and unmistakable sound that comes from deep down, the forming stage, and followed by the delivery, the swoosh as they project it at the ground. Sometimes even maintaining eye contact! Or when they empty their nose cavities on bike (!), rarely bothering to look back, just one finger on the nostril and blow. The key appears to be doing so with great force.

This is a clear case of an unwritten rule that stopped being enforced. It was not always like this, but since no one ever brings it up, or suggests it is uncool, it has literally exploded. Snot everywhere, and the sounds... almost worse. I think it comes from (watching) soccer. You certainly don't see women behaving this way (yet... I shudder). When I hear that sound building, I know what is to follow, and I always make an involuntary face of disgust.

Where am I going with this? Haha. Well, on one of the flea markets in Paris, I heard that all to familiar sound again, and my face did its thing. A woman standing next to me agreed: gross. What is it, another woman inquired, approaching. Oh, it is a nightmare, the way they spit right at your feet. Yes, I know, it is disgusting! Bad upbringing, is what it is. We all shook our heads in disapproval.

I was so happy! Here is a people who have not yet grown accustomed to this unseemly behavior, it is still a subject. And I am sure that if we stopped behaving like it was normal or acceptable to dispense of ones snot in public, it would not happen so frequently. Is a little snot-control too much to ask, gentlemen? Ah, I really needed to get that out of my system, thank you. On to the fantastic fleas:

You know how I say that I am over wanting and owning stuff? And from now on flea markets are all about taking pictures? Less is more? And yada yada...

...HANGERS!

I want all of them!

♥

Paris

You know I love my country. I do. But sometimes I really need to see it from this angle:

Welcome to Paris.

(These boots are made for walkin')

I have discovered there is such a thing as metro porn. Everything about the Parisian metro system is cool: the chunky, glossy tiles, the cleanliness, the reasonable fares, the efficiency and frequency of the trains, the different color themes of the stations. Even the advertising is done in taste.

With all my visits over the years, I have had a tendency to revisit the places already familiar to me. But this time I had a couple of really cool inside tips to areas I had never visited before. Mmm, street art. You know you have it coming.

This giant ad is good enough to go on my wall. I think I am in love. C'est fou!

An all red store front. Simple. Crazy. Cool.

If Paris is not your thing, you might want to look the other way for the next couple of days because I am gonna hit you hard. With the metro porn out of the way, we can move on to stuff like flea markets and street art, and whatever may fall in between. Don't say I didn't warn you.

♥

The unwritten rules

The beauty of unwritten rules is that they are shaped by nothing more than common sense and the society which upholds them. I respect and even like these rules so much more than anything the legislators come up with. Sometimes it seems like they pass laws simply because they can, and only rarely do they admit they are in the wrong (thankfully they did in the case of the stinky knife law, at least now we no longer risk jail time if we for some reason happen to carry a box cutter around).

Stripping us of the option to administer common sense does nothing but belittle us and turn us lazy, or even defiant. And the funny thing is that rules that don't make sense never make it to the sanctity of the unwritten ones. One of my favorite unwritten rules are how no matter what, you never use the horn on funeral processions or horse drawn carriages. And. No matter how much he slows you down, you never ever use the horn on the hot dog vendor.

Grandpa's wieners.

♥
 

Shooting in the rain

It is gloomy here, cloudy, rainy and grey. I hesitate to bring my camera out because even a single drop of water sucked in could mess it up. So when I finally do bring it out, hovering over it like the hunchback of Notre Dame to keep it dry, it has got to be for something that will not be ignored. Something that makes me happy when I need it the most. And I really, really needed this little guy:

Cutout can-bird, strapped to a traffic sign. Crazy coolness!

(Insert really happy Sandra here) (Maybe even doing the umbrella dance)

This is pretty much all it takes.

Oh, and this:

A lost heart. Found.

All I need now is a glimpse of sun. I'll seriously die if it doesn't happen soon.
 
(End whining)

Minihagen

Ousting Blixen

Copenhagen is at half steam at the moment, with all the Jutlanders going back to the roots, or far, far away to celebrate (or ignore) the Easter holidays. The only fun to be had is the one you can provide for yourself. My go-to ingredients are good food and my camera. So I eat: oysters, raspberry tart with truckloads of sour cream, toasted stone baked bread with salt infused butter, the extra yummy olive oil on everything, rib eye steaks, more raspberry tart with more truckloads of sour cream... you get the picture. And you get the pictures too:

Backlit guys on top of Østerbro Stadion.

And then comes the fun part...

...hahaha sliiiiding. Crazy funny.

And looking at the lakes never gets old..

...especially when they look back at you. Is that not reading glasses? It totally is!

Karen Blixen ousted as the mayor of a brown bar? See, people without smartphones don't get it (as in me).

And if you are not maxed out on Classic Copenhagen already: I was interviewed by German journal Et Voilà, my very first interview as a blogger (drum roll, or something.. maybe more raspberry tart with truckloads of sour cream?), and it aired today. If you go and say hi to me over there, it is almost like we are on a group trip to Germany. :D

link:

Sandra on Et Voilà

♥