The funniest show I’ve seen in ages, now sadly at an end.
MSN Video have quite a few episodes available in a really high-quality stream and they will add more over the year until all 53 are available.
Archive for January, 2007
I went on a roadtrip today. Way, way south of the city to the middle of nowhere.
Once you get about 20 minutes outside Copenhagen, you’re more or less on your own.
You see fewer and fewer cars. The classic 7-storey Copenhagen buildings give way to farmhouses, occasional industrial estates and hamlets which don’t appear to be populated.
It reminded me of the first time I came to Denmark. I arrived at Århus airport and my girlfriend picked me up.
We drove the half an hour or so back to her parents’ house and I don’t think we saw more than five or six cars.
As today’s trip dragged on, I became gradually more introspective. The countryside passed by in a featureless blur. Memories of childhood trips to my grandparents’ holiday home in Norfolk swum to the surface. I saw myself, back pressed against a fir tree, desperately trying to shield myself from the torchbeams in a midnight game of Spotlight.
I looked back at the major events in my life, trying to plot a course to my present.
I could find no pattern; nothing but sequential randomness, cross-veined with conflicting urges, desires, needs and, above all, hopes.
This is how it is, I guess. We grope. Stumble forwards. Try.
I went to Stengade with some friends last night. We got inside and my friends went upstairs and I stayed downstairs and listened to the band, Littl’ans.
I danced alone and lost myself for a little while. Then I went backstage and found myself in the middle of a foodfight with Swedes and Danes pitched against the English.
Afterwards I went to look for my friends but I couldn’t find them. I danced a bit more on my own and then left.
Outside, a heavy blanket of snow had settled on Copenhagen. Cars were abandoned mid-street, pretty couples in heels and pumps struggled home.
Taxis ambled along Nørrebrogade, gathering up the stragglers.
In Jagtvej, two bare-chested teenage boys were chucking snowballs up at their mates atop Ungdomshuset.
The sounds of their glee rang hollow and clear down the empty street, following me as far as Jægersborggade.
I got into bed and slept.
Leave it to the professionals
Published January 25, 2007 Art, design and photography , Copenhagen 2 CommentsI love Flickr and I love wandering around Copenhagen aimlessly with my five-year-old digital camera slung round my neck trying to look like I know what I’m doing.
The truth is I don’t.
But thankfully there’s plenty of people out there who do.
People like Mark Knudsen for instance.
She wheeled her bike along the last stretch of the pavement. Behind her, the trail of her tyres was slowly erased, the flattened flakes replaced by fresh snowfall.
I need a room, preferably in Nørrebro, so if any of my readers can help me out or know someone that has a room going, please drop me a mail at azbateman(@)gmail(dot)com.
Thanks again to my favourite Copenhagen photographer Mikael Colville-Andersen for the snow scene I’m using above.
If there’s another photographer out there who’s better at capturing the essence of Copenhagen life, I’m yet to see their work.
Thanks to my new friend Salling for the marvellous new header you see above.
For more of Salling’s work, click here.
Something rotten has a new favourite men’s clothes shop . . . Swell, right here in Jaegersborggade.
Run by 29-year-old Kasper Kristiansen, it offers up-and-coming Danish labels Suit and Kottpoulsen, uber-cool Swedish jeans label Svensson and US skate label Hurley.
He also stocks a few pieces from classic and classy Swedish brand Resterods, and tells me that there is plenty more to come.
Kasper is about as laid-back a guy you’re ever likely to meet and he doesn’t give it the hard sell. His taste is pretty impeccable too, it has to be said.
I really like the way he mixes the understated, classic look with more edgy street stuff. Plus nothing is extortionately priced which always helps.
Anyway, don’t take my word for it, go and check it out yourself.
Address: Jaegersborggade 6, København 2200 N
Tel: 36 96 64 31
I just contributed to a little debate over at pinds.com about why there are so few smoke-free bars in Copenhagen.
I feel pretty strongly about this. Smoking is the most pathetically futile, anti-social activity ever invented and it should be outlawed, never mind banned.
Clearly that will never happen but the ban which is coming into force over here in April is long overdue.
Copenhagen has some great restaurants and cafes but all too often you emerge smelling like an ashtray. I fucking hate it.
Danes smoke in between courses as well, which makes me feel sick. Christ they still have smoking carriages on trains here.
It’s one of the most forward-thinking countries in many ways but it’s totally backward when it comes to the death-sticks.
