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Another reason to love Copenhagen — green rooftops
How cool are we?
As part of its overall strategy to become a carbon neutral city by 2025, Copenhagen has become the first Scandanavian city to adopt a policy that requires green roofs for all new buildings with roof slopes of less than 30 degrees.
— Copenhagen Adopts a Mandatory Green Roof Policy | Inhabitat – Green Design Will Save the World.
Closing the accounts for Copenhagen Twestival
On March 25, 2010, we were able to have more than 250 people come together for a single cause: Supporting Concern Worldwide. All of these people have one thing in common: They are Danish Twitter users.
Getting Marie Fisker and Rune Kjeldsen to play on stage, and Thomas Madsen-Mygdal to interview Morten Lund about his entrepreneurial endeavors, created a unique experience for those involved. Tom Collins even played for us after being called early in the evening on a cancellation, and it just goes to show the efforts everybody are willing to put into this crazy project.
Lots and lots and lots of sponsors provided us with gifts for the lottery and money for the cause. All the money from the ticket sales, lottery tickets, sponsorships and donations have finally been tallied and we can give the final score:
94,000.- kroner.
It has taken a long time to end at this amount because of some problems here and there, but this is what we’ve sent off to Concern Worldwide on behalf of Copenhagen Twestival.
The videos are still (!) on their way, but hopefully we can show you what happened in glorious technicolor sometime in 2010.
Kristoffer and I started this project with the intent of meeting a couple of interesting people, and the fact that 250 people agreed with that on a cold March night is still beyond my wildest imagination.
We started out with the goal of reaching more than last time in every way. That meant more than 30,000 DKK in profits from more than 150 people. We met that target and exceeded it significantly.
However, what amazes me the most is the level of support we get from sponsors, participants, performers and partners. Especially those who helped plan and execute the whole thing: Morten, Benjamin, Jacob, Ronni and Laura. They deserve all the love they can get for agreeing to help with this.
We have a lot of things to improve for next time, but we’re doing our best and hope you have a great experience the next time as well.
If you have any questions or comments, do get in touch.
(Cross-posted on the Copenhagen Twestival blog).
New music video from Trentemøller
This is the music video to “Sycamore Feeling” (iTunes), taken from Trentemøller’s upcoming album, “Into The Great Wide Yonder” which will be out in May this year. Marie Fisker – who also performed at both TEDxCopenhagen and Copenhagen Twestival – is featured on vocals.
She wrote a bit about the video on Facebook:
The new video from Trentemøller is written and directed by the Danish video artist Jesper Just, and it shows a woman who moves through an abandoned house in an isolated and smoke-filled town. The video is shot in the ghost town Centralia, PA, which is known for the mine fire that has burned underneath the city since 1962 [Centralia on Wikipedia]
The female role is played by the actress Diana Wagner, as well as the well-known New York drag performer, Princess Diandra, and the fragmented construction makes it terrifyingly difficult to tell the two actors apart.
Given Trentemøller’s recent remixes of both Bruce Springsteen, Lars and The Hands of Light and Franz Ferdinand as well as his “Harbour Boat Trips” remix album (iTunes), it’s not that surprising he’s exploring the indie sound a bit more. It’s difficult to evaluate the whole album based on one song, but I truly hope he doesn’t deviate too much from the sound on “The Last Resort” (iTunes) – one of the best electronica albums ever made.
Also, I’m sorry for Soundvenue’s sorry excuse of a flash player, but it’s the best I could find for now.
Update, March 6: As Dennis rightfully point out in the comments, the video is now up on YouTube, so I’ve changed Soundvenue’s ridiculous player and replaced it with YouTube’s.
A personal note on 2009 and what 2010 will – hopefully – be like
Ever since the Christmas holiday I’ve wanted to make a post on what a crazy year 2009 was, as well as what I expect of 2010. Now I finally have the time to do so, and it’s personal so feel free to skip it.
2009:
On New Years Eve 2008/2009, I had just arrived back in Copenhagen from a semester abroad in Boston that was far from perfect. I had a nice time now and then, but I felt that the daily life on a campus 12 miles from Boston is too unlike my way of living that it became unbearable as the months went by.
I missed Copenhagen, I missed my girlfriend, friends and family and I just wanted it to be over.
I came back, and I got a new job at zyb/Vodafone that I was very happy about. I enjoyed working there until this fall when budget-related issues popped up, and I was relieved from my consultancy contract. Now I work at 23 which is something completely different, yet somehow very related. I don’t get these jobs because I apply for them, but because I spend crazy amounts of time on Twitter and at events around Copenhagen, talking to people that share my interests. This is something I want to continue doing, and especially Copenhagen Twestival has established some relationships that I value a lot, and hope to nurture more in the future.
It seems that 2009 was all about breaking down and establishing. In the summer I became a bachelor in more than one way, and I like the diploma I got from CBS, but not the feeling of being all alone that the breakup created. It’s over now and I learned a lot from it. “Taking less for granted” is sure as hell one of the lessons I took with me on that account.
2010:
I normally don’t do New Year’s resolutions, and I don’t plan on starting now, but there are still some things I’d like to focus more on in the coming year.
Listen:
Listening isn’t always my best skill, but I need to listen a lot more than I speak. I want to read more, and have removed a bunch of the shitty feeds clogging up my feed reader (Mashable, TechCrunch, TUAW etc. are all gone – it’s too much fast noise). I’m looking for good writers (hopefully making me a better one as well) that don’t publish often, but publish something worthwhile. I’ll share what I’ve found soon.
Act slow:
Again, this relates to the fast news being thrown out from Google Reader. More slow, less fast. Hopefully that affects how I work and think as well – it’s been too much fast stuff blazing past and too little of the meaty blogging/article-writing that really matters, and gives a worthwhile perspective on things.
Build more and learn new stuff:
I really really want to learn how to write better html(5) and css(3), as well as starting from scratch on how to do jQuery. I don’t know shit about programming in Python, Ruby on Rails, Javascript and what else is there, but jQuery seems like a nice place to start doing a bit of web app-stuff. This will in turn, hopefully, do wonders to what I can share and ship, and I already have a couple of ideas laid out that I would love to work on (a local version of Internet Garage Sale is one of them).
Be happier:
I’ll stop bitching about shit on Twitter. No more tweeting from the queue in the supermarket, no more whining about this and that, and hopefully I’ll start noticing the good stuff more.
For instance, I bought two lovely sweaters today. It’s really cold in Copenhagen these days and I’m cold all the time. What to do? Buy nice sweaters. So I did. And now I’m warm. I like that.
Consume less but better:
I already have too much shit, and I really don’t need anymore. Everything I buy in 2010 will be thought through, and either replace something of lesser value, or fill a gap that is justified in making me do my work, or everyday chores, better. This means getting rid of my CD and DVD-collection (I don’t listen to music or watch movies one physical media anymore), and a bunch of electronics that lie around but are never used (thus making the Internet Garage Sale-clone).
This a bunch of introvert self-praising, but it helps me write what I want to do in the coming year, if I want to complete it. Last year I wrote I wanted to take a photo and blog every day. That didn’t happen. Hopefully I can write one blog post every week; if I stop bitching about shit on Twitter, I should save right about the same amount of time every week it takes for me to write a blog post.
Distortion Festival Copenhagen 2009
As a service to a couple of the nice people who asked on Twitter, here’s a list of things to see and do during Distortion next week:
Wednesday:
Block Party: “Pisserenden” is always fun. If the sun is shining, expect lots of people dancing in the streets! Ezi Cut and Phase 5 will play hip hop beats.
The über-hipsters will probably be in Krystalgade at Wood Wood’s party (Vibskov is playing).
Silkegade seems to have the best line-up: Atle, Tolstrup, von Baden, Lulu Rouge and Daniel San are all playing.
Club Clash: Don’t know any of the bands playing at the Club Clash at Charlottenborg Kunsthal, so attend at your own risk, or find a private party to crash.
Thursday:
Block Party: Kasper Bjørke is playing in Skt. Hans Gade, and there will be lots of happenings around Skt. Hans Torv that day. Don’t forget to run by Track Bike Shop in Ryesgade to watch some fixie polo. If you’re in for the weird, Je M’Apelle Mads is playing at Blågårdsgade.
Club Clash: One of the best Ibiza-DJs – Carl Craig – is playing at Korsgadehallen. Expect hard chicago techno at its best! M.A.N.D.Y plays as well – nice German house of the popular kind. Denmark is represented by Martinez & Fredski, Tomboy, Djuna Barnes, Tolstrup and Trentemøller. Proably the best Club Clash this year!
Friday:
Block Party: Reggae at Sdr. Boulevard from 1 o’clock or rock at Sort Kaffe & Vinyl in Skydebanegade – your choice. From 7PM a Eco-parade is taking place with lots of Ellerter (!) going from Axeltorv through Skydebanegade and Sdr. Boulevard until Enghave Plads is reached where Ladybox plays.
Club Clash:
Enghavevej 80 will host Ellen Allien from already legendary German label, Bpitch. Don’t miss it! There will be lots of other stages as well with DJs of every kind and genre.
Saturday:
No block party, but dinner from 17-22 (don’t know where, but close to water as there will be a submarine and a boat).
Club Clash:
German Super DJs Supermayer (Kompakt-label owner Michael Mayer and Superpitcher), Tim Sweeney (US techno), Troels Abrahamsen (electrorock), When Saints Go Machine (rock), Rune RK (lots of calabria-house), Jean von Baden (NASA-house), Filur (hipster-house), Waqar, Kim Kemi, Copyfokking (Knippelsuppe-electro!), DØD and DJ Er Du Dum Eller Hvad? (don’t know them, but the name “Are You Stupid Or What?” sounds terrific).
Huge party, but entrance fee of 160 kr. and a million people might prove hard to overcome…
Sunday:
Lying in the grass on Islands Brygge from 2pm – 10pm. A bus with leftovers from the parties will come and serve drinks.
Copenhagen Twestival
My great friend Kristoffer came by last night for a cup of coffee, as we have signed up to be arrangers of the Copenhagen part of Twitter Festival aka. Twestival and decided to start doing something (hey – it’s only three weeks away!).
If you have any ideas to what we can do on the evening of February 12, or have a company that will sponsor auction items, please get in touch so we can figure something out.
Should you want to blog about Twestival (yay – do that!), please use the tag “#cphtwestival” so we can track the blogosphere/Twitter/etc.
We hope that we can start registration as soon as possible and should have a venue settled early next week, so keep an eye on the @cphtwestival Twitter-profile and our blog on copenhagen.twestival.com where we will announce decisions as soon as we have made agreements with stakeholders.
And hopefully we’ll have a great night and help charity:water raise a lot of money for a good cause.
Foggedifog
I haven’t had the time to buy some lights for my bike, so I’ve walked home from work most days of this week and on Wednesday it was incredibly foggy.
There were still a lot of bikes on the lanes, though – very Copenhagenish.
Welcome back to reality
I’ve been wanting to write the great big blog post about my impressions of the past four months, which some of you might know have been spent at Bentley University some 12 miles outside of Boston, MA. It’s written in one sitting, so expect rambling thoughts and weirdness throughout.
It’s only after you leave the familiar that you can truly become critical of what the place you might call home, really is like. I love Copenhagen, and I like Denmark (there is a huge difference between the two). I had an impression of Copenhagen as a part of the rather earth-bound Denmark, but still something greater and better than that. A metropol, of some sort.. A small New York, 6000 km away from the Big Apple.
That has not changed much. I still think Copenhagen is an international city with an amazing night life that are found better few places in the world, and a superb atmosphere that really makes me feel at home. At the same time, I’ve found that Danes you have not become friends with yet (a stranger is a friend you don’t know yet, as Kim Bach likes to state) are rude, ego-centric and thinks of nobody but themselves. They bash into you without apologizing, they HAVE to get that parking spot you set your sights on and they rarely speak to each other on the bus.
The Danish friends you might have, however, are completely different. I was greeted in Copenhagen Airport by my mom and stepdad, dad and his wife, my girlfriend and one of my best friends. It is amazing that he set his whole day aside to wait for my return to be able to greet me when I arrive, and the friends I’ve met up with since my return have all seemed full of joy over my arrival. It’s lovely to have such great friends and feel such warmth when Danes on the outside seem aggressive and selfish.
This is a stark contrast to the Americans who seem overly welcoming to the point of nausea. It’s always “How are you?”. “I’m pretty fucking far from okay today, but thanks for reminding me, jerk” could be what you want to answer, but you answer “Fine, thanks” and it really does make you feel better. I’ve become accustomed to this greeting, and now it annoys me that employees in supermarkets in Copenhagen largely ignore me, instead of just acknowleding my presence and share some positivity.
Another thing I’ve spent a lot of time contemplating about is the difference between the Danish and the American education system.
Firstly, it’s “free” to go to school in Denmark (you still pay 50% in taxes). It’s not in the US. A semester at Bentley costs approx. 16,500. No, that’s not Danish Kroner, but real American Dollars. And that’s only tuition.
Americans live on campus while the vast majority of Danish students live in their own apartments or in some sort of dorm building with students from all kinds of studies.
You are typically  17/18 when you enter an American college and you do it straight after High School (it’s also the first time people live away from their parents). In Denmark, you tend to graduate from High School at age 19 and then take one or more years off to see parts of the world, work or figure out what you want to do with your life. Also, a lot of Danes move out from their parents’ house/apartment and into their own place at around age 18.
In an American college, you have to attend classes, you get tested in your homework to make sure you’ve read and in general it tends to focus on how much of the stuff you read you can remember for your midterms and finals. In a Danish university, you don’t have to come to classes, you don’t have tests all the time and your exams focus on how well you can put the theories you’ve learnt into a greater context. It’s about the big perspective and how the theories contradict and when they should be used in various situations. Both ways have their use, but I really dislike the American way of nursing me as if I was still a kid, which I haven’t seen myself as since I turned 18 (it’s called “college kids” for a reason). At a Danish university, however, you can talk everything to death by adding a new perspective on things continuously and not really have your own opinion, but it seems to me that this difference in teaching is the key to understanding the American lifestyle.
Danes like to question authorities and in general we are very confident and able to handle things on our own, while Americans are completely different, and it shows in their way of thinking about religion (they don’t question their beliefs, because, as I see it, they must think it’s disrespectful or something), politics (is a two-party, one-man-President society really the way to do it?) and work life (college seems like the place they shape “junior”-everything – junior accountants, junior sales man etc. etc. and then you fight your way up through the system from the 23rd floor, 16th row, 5th same-looking grey cubicle).
All in all, it would be completely inappropriate to say which one is the better. I like the Danish education model, but can see its shortcomings. I love the American people’s generosity (three exchange students and me were invited to a family’s Thanksgiving in Chicago, for instance – not that likely to happen in Denmark) and the fact that you have every possibility to become what you want (the sky’s the limit). It’s been great to be in the US the past four months – I’ve met some amazing people and learnt a lot about the USA, Denmark and myself, but I also found out that Copenhagen is where home is.
Secret party in the Copenhagen Metro
See, this is why I love Copenhagen; although this particular type of party has been carried out in Paris for years, they still manage to pull it off in good manner in the Copenhagen Metro:
People were encouraged to show up prepared for a crazy party.
Baloons and beer – what more to ask for?
This is not what Nørreport Station looks like everday – in fact I don’t recall Nørreport being this busy ever before.
Look at how happy the old man is – finally something funny happens in the Metro!
When the Metro stewards arrived and asked the party people to put out their cigarettes, empty their beers and leave quietly, everybody did so. No riots, no beatings, no anything. Just a memory of a great evening.
Now I feel sad for being so far from home…
(I read about the story on Politiken.dk and all photo credits go to Peter Hove Olesen – great pics!)