That Week was Crazy, so Now I am Lazy

Our friend, Jimmy, used to live in Santa Barbara.  When he wasn't crashing on the floor in our 1-room studio apartment, he would sometimes rent a place of his own.  One particular room he rented was in a shared house with a 40 or-so-year old single businessman named Mark.  When Mark was away on business we would sometimes go over Jimmy's house to hang out and do our laundry.  One particularly warm day we were in the middle of folding 4-5 loads of laundry at Mark's house while Jimmy was sitting shirtless on the couch watching shark week.  Mark unexpectedly walks in, home early from business.... Jimmy without a flinch welcomes him, "Oh hey Mark, ....we're uhh just having a lazy Sunday!"

There's little I love more than a lazy Sundays...except maybe lazy Saturdays....

I rolled over in bed this Saturday "morning" feeling fantastic, well-rested.  Now that was a good sleep-in.  I turned over to check my iphone.  3:30pm.  Damnit my phone must be broken.  I open my laptop.  6:30am.  Now that can't be right, I feel way more refreshed than that....ahhh laptop is on California time.... California time + 9 hours = Denmark time.  Sh*t.  Is it really 3:30pm?!  Stumble out of bed to find my watch...3:30pm....Is this a joke?  Stagger into the living room to check the clock on the wall.... 3:30pm.  Look outside at the sun.... Yup, it is the afternoon.

Wow.  Impressive.  I am quite proud of myself.  I cannot remember the last time I woke up at 3:30pm.  This might be a first actually.  I guess I needed that.... lazy Saturday, indeed.

Why might you ask, was I in such a terrible need of a nap?  Well the week before had been quite busy.  Depsite putting in 9-10 hour days at work, I somehow found the energy to go out past midnight nearly every night of the week.

Monday night I laid on the grass at the waterfront with a good book and a bottle of wine until the sun went down.

Tuesday I met my cousins in the Faelledparken park for a BBQ and some beers and to soak up the ever hidden sun.   Then went to a wine bar afterwards...

The park 

Esben

Emilie

Wednesday night I went Charlottelund for another dinner in the park with Vibe and Thomas and we watched a Danish movie...part of the Zulu Sommer Bio series where they have free movies in a park 3 days a week, each week at a different park.  

dinner!

Thomas the chef

lounging

dessert, sweet ready-made pancakes with sukker

delicious

This particular move called Klovn is based off of the TV show called Klovn

Klovn, I was warned, might make me think differently about Danish culture...  Here is a little translated summary I borrowed from the interwebs:

"If you like the TV series "Clown", you may also like the movie, which strictly speaking is a TV section pulled out into feature length.

There is no apparent artistic reason to make it famous and infamous TV concept into movies, so one must assume that it is cash cow that has needed to be milked.

This may in turn be indifferent to the audience, if you just so willing and able (!) To be entertained by Frank Hvam and Casper Kristensen taboo pillende, border safety embarrassing comedy.

Tour de Fis

The two gang, Casper more than Frank, be on vacation together, and to escape to the ladies, Iben and Mia, taking with have Casper arranged a canoe trip on the River Guden. A "Tour de Fis" as he calls it.

For now there bangs horny teen girls, but like everything else that is happening in and around the water's edge.

Enraged high school students

One of the film's many funny scenes is where Casper in bar ass and dagger early one morning desperation come paddling in a canoe back to their camp and yells at Frank that they must flee. Casper has an army of angry high school after him.

He has put himself naked into a tent to a young girl, apparently without her consent or, for that matter her knowledge.

The two comedians enter always a small step above the limit of what you actually can make fun of - in this case actually an attempted rape. Throughout the film there is also a latent pedophilia themes.

Self Disclosure

But the crucial element sweeten the self disclosure by the two protagonists insist, and therefore it is humor with responsibility. Here one does not excuse the fact that it all just for fun.

There is a boundary pushing madness and satire. It's something in this very newspaper must applaud. Casper and Frank are a few wanker, narcissistic butter tenors and puny garden gnomes, each in their own way trying to come to terms with the fact that they long ago should have been adults.

Especially Frank tries to convince a masculine maturity to Mia, who find it difficult to see that he has the potential father.

Touching scene

But he has, we can see in a touching scene where he teaches his nephew Bo (an enduring and sweet Marcuz Jess Petersen) to swim.

Worse is the state of Casper, who guided by a slavering lust and his megalomaniac self-understanding. It's this exploration of the modern male roles whose feminine counterpart is "Bridget Jones" or "Nynnes Diary" that has awakened a chord with so many Danes and made television series so popular.

Parody of themselves

It is the corrosive irony of the protagonists, but not least, the myriad of celebrities who play in the supporting cast as himself , raising the franchise to great comedy.

See, for example in the movie Jorgen Leth, who probably can be experienced as self-righteous talk about the man's semen on the woman's skin in a wonderful parody of itself (here the word gets pearl necklace also suddenly a whole new meaning).

In the more outré end is Bent Fabricius-Bjerre as the owner of the brothel Ally Cat. Everything is tåkrummende embarrassingly exaggerated and even tasting, and thus gives the two clowns Casper and Frank both celebrity culture and Jante a decent battle in muffin batter.

It hurts on the nice way."

It was ridiculous to say the least....

Thursday night I dropped off the bike that Trevor had borrowed back to it's rightful owner, my friend Nina's husband, Kristian.  I had dinner in their garden with their family.  Then Nina and I went to see her new apartment that is currently under renovation.  While checking out the neighborhood an old man was coming into the parking lot.  He says something in Danish to Nina.  Nina says OK.  Looks at me and says the old man really wants to show us his apartment if that's OK?  She seems OK with it.  The daughter-of-a-former-FBI-agent in me instantly thinks this is a bad idea.  Strange old man invited two young girls into his apartment for a tour?   Anyone else think this is a bad idea?  Well of course I'll go along.  We go inside and he shows us his artwork that his friend made for him, and his living room that he has et up for theter rehearsal.  Shows us his library where him and his wife used to pad the floors with mattresses and let their kids and the neighbor's kids play soccer with balloons way back in the day before there were things such as daycare centers and the like.  He was harmless.  Just a friendly old lonely man who really liked art and theater  and telling stories.

Later that night Nina and I stopped at a bar for a slow beer. What is slow beer you may ask?  It's beer. That takes a long time to pour.... It is hand pumped, a method originating in England and Germany, and does not use carbonic acid.  They completely fill the glass with foam and then it's allowed to sit, re-fill, sit, re-fill, sit, until you get a full beer.  So you have to wait for it.  Order two at a time if you're looking to keep your buzz going.  This is the place we went to:  http://www.vinstue90.dk/

And this guy was the guy who actually served us our beer:

Apparently "slow food" places are also becoming popular in Denmark.  Slow food, as you might guess, is the opposite of fast food both in the time it takes to prepare, it's nutritional value, and it's respect for nature and concern for future generations 

Friday night, I met up with my cousins and my cousin Esben's mom Helene for dinner.  We had delicious food and good conversation.  And we jotted down how we are all related....

no I'm not wearing purple lipstick, I just had a little too much wine.

 My dad Paul's father , John's mom, Inga's mom, Ingeborg's brother Petter was Esben's mom, Helene's mom, Kersti's mother, Signe's father...which makes me and Esben cousins who share the same great great great grandparents from the Mandlfoen farm in Trysil, Norway....small world

Back to my lazy Saturday morning.......

Starving, I take a quick shower and head to the Kulturhuset down the street.  The Kulturhuset is a comunity center with a cafe and outdoor seating area right on the water.  There is always something going on here and today was no exception.  I ordered a delicious kylling sandwich with karry sauce (chicken with curry sauce, mmm my favorite) and and a caramel ice latte and cozy up at a table with a good book and enjoy my breakfast/lunch/dinner.

After my meal, I walked around to see what was happening today at the community center:
-Belly dancing for kids
-A kids dance performance of the little mermaid
-Hippie pirates on a house boat decorated with old bikes
-Cheerleading exhibition on the grass
-Greek circle dancing in a tent
-And the typical Dane laying out soaking in the sun

I had been to the Kulturhuset during a previous weekend with my co-worker and her 5 year old son when some children's comedians were putting on a show.  Here is a clip: