Blog {Gustav Friis}

Yet today I received a few pictures from the final days in Sheffield. They are not pretty I know - taken with a disposable camera! I have added one picture to the Horrorshow post (below) and here are some pictures from Dan's party, Friday 16th of December.

The pictures are quite grainy, but their are also expressing spontaneity. It is not a question about taking wonderful pictures. It is about being somewhere with someone. That brings me to the next topic of this blog. Some of you might remember the D-Day project by the Dogme Brothers, New Years Eve 1999. Others might not. However, I will this year, as I have mentioned before, make a new project with the title: Networking Art - bringing thoughts together. You are very welcome to join the project. Please send me an email if you are interested in participating. To be part of the project you have to 1) celebrate New Year somewhere in the world. A lot of people do that, and I guess you are doing that too. 2) Take a picture, make a short video with your phone, write a short story, poetry or something different, draw a sketch etc. Every contribution is very welcome. Send it to the mail address above before January the 6th. 3) I will from the contributions make a Multimedia Collage and publish it on this blog. It is my assumption that people all over the world can work together creating a complex picture of the celebration of the new year. And that picture can be art. If you are on my mailing list you are very soon receiving an email about this project.

I'm sorry that nobody patrticipated in the treasure hunt, which means that the writers are sharing the red wine a day in 2006.

I wish all of my readers a merry Christmas and apologize for not having updated my blog recently. Since Copenhagen I have visited the University in Aalborg and had a fun Christmas Dinner with Rams, Bay and Jack, Wednesday. All according to my plans.

Reminder: Remember that tomorrow is the last day to send in your answers for the quiz!

Merry Christmas, everyone!

I arrived at Kastrup Airport a quarter to seven - more than three hours before I was supposed to. Grabbed a earlier plane in Manchester - a plane which started boarding five minutes after I checked in. I was quite in a hurry through the security but luckily made it.

Please remember the Treasure Hunt on this blog. See the rules in the post from the fifteenth of December.

Denmark ended fourth in the World Cup. I am glad they did not do better than the team of 2001. Read the post from yesterday for the explanation.

I woke up with a headache about noon today. I think there might be a connection with this and Dan’s party yesterday. It was a good last party I should say. Got home at about four this morning. The headache is still not gone – so give me novocaine. This is also the day where the Danish handball girls are playing the semi-final versus Russia at the World Cup. I believe it can be a draw, but the Danes have to play to their best. If it ends equal everything can happen in the extra time. Denmark may even qualify to the final, where I think we will play against Romania. I have not seen any of the matches this year, and I must say that my interest for handball is decreasing. When you have a team which depends on players as Rikke Hørlykke and Mette Vestergaard, something is wrong. Something is very wrong indeed. The team now is secured a result as good as, and maybe even better than the 4th place from 2001 in Italy although the two teams are worlds apart. The team in 2001 included, as you might remember, class players as Lotte Kiærskou, Line Daugaard and Kris. That is what is irritating me the most about this year. On the other hand we are seeing a team with potential, and I think we have the basis for doing good results in the future, with a pool of talent I have not witnessed in maybe ten years. Players as Sjøb, Lene Thomsen and Bille are all in the squad this year and players as Anette Bonde and Lo Svalastog (KIF), Trine Troelsen (VHK), Loft (SDT) and Bettina Nielsen (ADH) are waiting to participate. The fact that young talented players are in the squad differ this team from the one participating in the World Cup in Croatia, 2003. We have to look around for the future team right now, those who are going to play at the Olympics in Beijing, 2008. We have not at the moment any playmaker (well, maybe Rikke Nielsen) in the team who can play at Beijing. That is dangerous. I suggest that after this World Cup, Hørlykke and Vestergaard are dismissed from the national team. Playmakers on the team afterwards have to be TT and Sandra Folden. (I would have mentioned Berit Kristensen as well, but isn’t she just too weak?) So this is a yell for the new coach. Please use some of the talented players we have, and dismiss those who are not going to play in Beijing anyway.

It is only Christmas once a year, and therefore we are having a treasure hunt on the blog. And you can win a bottle of red wine, if you are the winner of the hunt. Let me explain the very simple rules. To win you have to be the person who has discovered most song titles or references to songs, on this blog and the blog of M-Jay (http://thejayblog.blogspot.com). By the 24th of December you must have sent me an email with the result.

I want you to write 1) in which posts you have discovered the songs, 2) the titles of the songs, 3) the artists and 4) which year the songs were published. I wish you a very good hunting.

Yesterday, after the lecture in Perspectives on Spatial Planning and Development, I realized that it is soon over. I might not see some of my fellow students again. It was the last lecture, and only a seminar is remaining tomorrow. But not everybody will be present there. Even though there is a big party at Dan’s Friday, I cannot expect everybody to be there either. So I had to say goodbye to a few yesterday. A weird feeling I must say. I will return in January, but I don’t think that I will meet a lot of fellow students at that time, since they are writing their essays at home.

And suddenly it was over.

How can I describe it? Today we had our public inquiry at the University – the simulation exercise you might remember. I was okay prepared. I had to read up a little then Kevin Thurlow as my advocate would ask me some questions on which I was prepared. And after that Emmanuel Kiven and later on Scott Jackson as opponents would cross-examine me. Horrible stuff! The reading went well, and Kevin and I interacted pretty well in the prepared questions. After that I started to act more vaguely. The questions from Emmanuel were, I think, only peripheral to my subject, and when Scott examined me, I could have said anything. However I kept quite cool, not saying too much. Ken Burley (The whistleblower of Donnygate?) was the inspector of the inquiry and had a few questions for me at the end. I could not answer them at all. It is just a game I kept saying to myself. And that it was.

I represented the Land Holdings Ltd. The company which very unfairly had their proposal for a massive warehouse in the countryside south of here refused. We had all the good arguments however, and had the best advocate in Kevin Thurlow you could ever imagine. He really slaughtered the witnesses from the council, the community group and the other development company, which didn’t like us to run away with that nice piece of land. Having learned what seemed to be any fact of the case he asked the witnesses to prove their statements and asking them if they were aware of the proof of evidence we had submitted. Interrupting the witnesses at the right moments, and even showed what I would describe as a sarcastic attitude, to some of the answers. I wrote on a piece of paper: Brilliant. The most difficult of the witnesses to bend was the last witness, miss Hayley Chandler, who did a great job at the witness box, however not for a very long time – time was up.

And so it ended. We don’t know whether our company can build a warehouse at the site or not. I thought the inspector was to decide that, but he did not. It was a very giving experience to be part of the public inquiry, and people were really up to it. Relating to studying in Sheffield, I would say that this session was the best experience.

I just one week I will return to Denmark. I know people are longing to seeing me again, and I some weird way I am looking forward in the same way. I will arrive in Copenhagen at 10 pm next Sunday (if not anything explodes – again), and everybody is of course welcome in the Airport. After picking up my luggage I will go on the bus to Frederiksberg. After spending two days in jolly Copenhagen buying some presents to put under the tree I will, by train, visit my parents, dropping off some clothes for the laundry. Wednesday is Aalborg day. I will visit the University, get my Christmas present, a book – say hello to everybody I know, and in the evening having a Christmas party with some good friends. Yes, it sounds nice – and so it will be. Thursday visit some Aalborgian family, and then back home to my parents for a nice Christmas meal. Christmas evening is spent with my sister in Århus, her husband and children and my parents. (Maybe even more people – I’m not too confident). After Christmas work is knocking on my door along with some nice Christmas parties I guess. Tomorrow I will hopefully introduce you to the multimedia collage of New Years Eve, in which you are more than welcome to participate.

Jeg er begyndt at frygte at komme hjem igen, for jeg er jo efterhånden slet ikke med på noderne mere. Jeg tror jo stadig det er sjovt at sige: "Ja, nemlig ja", og er slet klar over, at hvis man skal være sjov nu, så skal man kunne råbe "Aaaargh... Dolph leger død ved kølle", mens man samtidig ligner en stor blå flodhest, hvis øjne sidder unaturligt højt på hovedet. Tror også stadig at "Det ER jul", er hipt. Forstår ikke, hvordan Omar kan have en julekalender, men synes at det er genialt, at Valhal blandes ind i julen. Har ingen anelse om Stormslag er virkeligt, og er bange for at blive til grin, hvis jeg tror det. Jeg må indrømme at jeg ikke bryder mig om blandingen af virkelighed og fiktion. Det forvirrer mig.

Det bliver svært at vende hjem til et forandret Danmark

It has been a while since I updated the blog the last time. I’ve worked myself through another week of lectures, and worked on my assessments. It has been quite difficult to concentrate on writing, but luckily yesterday I was in the mood and wrote 800 words in two hours. If I can do that every day the assessments I still need to write will not be a problem. However, I have to concentrate far more. Tuesday I was elected as a witness in the simulation exercise in spatial planning systems. I have to present our group’s proof of evidence on traffic issues orally and after that I will be cross-examined by other students from different groups as well as the inspector, who in this case will be my year tutor Malcolm Tait. I’m not thrilled about the situation, but have decided that nothing can harm me at this point of my stay in Sheffield. After all I’m leaving only five days later. Maybe I’m a bit thrilled anyway. You see, I don’t mind talking. I know the people in the course, and if I say something rubbish, it is just because I’m a foreigner. Some of the native British people didn’t dare do the task – but that was not a question for me. I might fail gruesomely, but in the end it doesn’t matter. It is only a game!

Yesterday I had a headache and couldn’t concentrate on studying, so I went to our kitchen. Here everybody was gathered and we decided to take a few pictures of the flat. Those are the ones I want to present in this post. After the pictures we went to a pub nearby. We stayed there till half past eleven – and for the first time all the inhabitants of the flat were gathered (along with a couple of our flat-friends). The party continued in the kitchen – however without my participation. Beer doesn’t cure a headache, as you might be aware of.

Jeg er netop blevet kontaktet af Løsgængerpartiet, der også vil gøre brug af min hjemmeside som reklamesøjle. Det har egentlig aldrig været hensigten med at reklamere for Anakronistisk Ungdom, jeg syntes bare det var sjovt. Jeg har heller ikke planer om, at nævne alle de partier, der henvender sig til mig, her på siden. Grunden til at jeg nævner netop Løsgængerpartiet er at nye meningsmålinger anslår at partiet i øjeblikket er det største parti i København, og politiske eksperter spår partiet yderligere stor fremgang de kommende uger. "Vi er både stolte og glade for vores succes - eller det er jeg i hvert fald" skriver Løsgængerpartiets formand Maximilian Solano i før omtalte mail.

Three years ago I sat on a boat with three good friends discussing if there is such a thing as Swedish humour. The best example we could come up with was Fleksnes, but he is not funny, nor Swedish. So that was not a good example at all. However recently I have found something which could be an example of Swedish humour. A program on the Swedish Radio, P3, called Pippirull. A couple of days ago they were accused for breaking the law, when they mixed the narrator’s voice from the children series Alfons Åberg with lines from the Danish movie Pusher. I have not heard a lot of their work, but from what I have heard I will recommend Skåne-Paul asking the question: What is art? You need RealPlayer to listen to this. I think that Pippirull can be compared to Tjenesten on the Danish Radio, P3.

Something weird is just happening. None of my messenger contacts are online at the moment (I don't think that has ever happened to me before - maybe WebMessenger is playing with me). I can hear music of bagpipes, but I don’t know from where. Today there is a fortnight till I’m going home for Christmas.

I’m currently working on my reflective diary for Research Methods. A strange job; I trying to fill out fifteen pages, but it always seems like their a lot free space left. So I have to go on writing in spite of the fact that I have already written more than 5.000 words. I think it’s a lot since this diary only gives 50% of the mark in Research Methods. The other 50% I am going to obtain through a 2.500 words essay. Since the last time I wrote about essays (in Danish) I have decided that the essay-way of writing is good for me. I hope I’m right.

I have posted two things since my last English post and for those of you not familiar with the Danish language I can tell, that the capital of Denmark, Copenhagen in eleven years will get a new metro, connecting a lot of central places in the city. Also I can tell that the post from yesterday contains a letter of complaint from the chairman of the organisation Anachronistic Youth. A longer story started earlier this autumn, which is not easy for me to translate. Maybe I will some day - - let’s see.

Jeg bliver nødt til at beklage et uheldigt indlæg her på siden, og det drejer sig om indlægget om organisationen Anakronistisk Ungdom, som jeg bragte her på siden den 31. oktober i år. Dengang skrev jeg: "Lige for tiden er jeg begyndt at arbejde på at formulere den fiktive politiske forening Anakronistisk Ungdom, som jeg håber at kunne præsentere mere om en af de følgende dage." Det skulle jeg imidlertid ikke have gjort, for det viser sig at foreningen er alt andet end fiktiv. Jeg må, for at redde mig selv ud af denne pinlige situation komme med en tilståelse. Anakronistisk Ungdom er ikke min opfindelse - der har nemlig været en forening med netop dette navn, men jeg troede ærlig talt ikke, at den fandtes længere. Lidt historie: I slutningen af 1960'erne så en masse nye partier dagens lys i et opbrud mod de gamle hæderkronede partier, som folk efterhånden havde set sig godt gale på. Sådan var det også med Anakronistisk Ungdom, der blev stiftet en kold augustdag i 1969 på hotel Bravo på Mors. Foreningens stifter var den dengang 80 årige Frederik Jacobi. Han var formand frem til sin død i 1972. Herefter overtog næstformanden den 61 årige, folkekære historiker Bartholomæus Hansen, og han bringer mig frem til min idé om, at AU ikke længere eksisterede; for i 1994 forlod Hansen partiet for at stifte Misantrop Partiet (fra 1995: Misantropisk Folkeparti). Han var blevet godt træt af de andre i partiet på dette tidspunkt. Men organisationen døde ikke - den blev bare kraftigt sat tilbage, og kun det tidligere strong hold i byen Huster på Mors forblev. Ny formand i 1994 blev Hartmeyer Intell, og fra ham modtog jeg følgende brev, der satte min efterforskning i gang:

Brevet indeholder en kritik jeg ikke kan sætte til side, og derfor dette dementi. Jeg kan da lige nå at nævne at Hartmeyers adresse er Jordbærvej 13, Huster, 7919 Mors. (Email: anakron@huster-net.mors). Jeg opfordrer ingen til offentlig cikane af denne person, og der bliver heller ikke afholdt nogle fakkeltog ved vedkommendes bopæl. Og jeg ved ikke hvad det gustne snask i nederste højre hjørne er. Gætter på kaffe.

Netop i disse minutter sidder fem magtfulde herrer og skriver under på en aftale, der sikrer København sin Metroring. De fem, der har magt til at skrive under på et projekt til 15 milliarder kroner er Lars Engberg, Mads Lebech, Flemming Hansen, Bendt Bendtsen og Thor Pedersen. Jeg glæder mig til at se den endelige aftale, og til at følge byggeriet. Efter hvad jeg har hørt, vil der gå elleve år inden metroringen åbner - det er lang tid, og det er det der gør planlægningen spændende. Har vi overhovedet noget at bruge en metro til om elleve år? Forbinder Metroen de rigtige steder, eller er udviklingen flyttet væk fra Ørestaden og Centrum og koncentreret langs motorvejene? Man forventer 280.000 passagerer dagligt vil køre rundt i metroringen, et tal der efter min mening i bedste fald er gætværk. Det er svært nok at forudsige ting elleve år ude i fremtiden, og når man samtidig tænker på, at driftsforstyrrelser har en voldsom indflydelse på brugen af offentlig transport bliver det ikke nemmere. Derfor kommer hele det øknomiske aspekt også ind her. Kan metroen virkelig financieres over den årrække man har forestillet sig, og hvad hvis den ikke kan? Det er jo det man har set med den allerede byggede det. Bliver togene leveret til tiden, og er det overhovedet realistisk at blive færdig med byggeriet i en periode fra 2009 til 2017? Er det en god ide at bruge 15 milliarder kroner på et projekt i København, der står klart i 2017, når skinnerne i resten af Danmark skriger på vedligeholdelse? Til det sidste spørgsmål er mit svar: Ja. Vi skal have metroringen i København, og skulle man komme til at overskride budgettet en smule, eller bruge lidt ekstra tid, kan jeg også godt leve med det. Jeg er nemlig pjattet med metroen. Vi skal bare huske at der også skal skydes penge i den kollektive trafik i resten af landet. Skinnerne skal laves, vi skal have nye og bedre tog - som vi vel også snart får - vi skal arbejde med billigere takster, der tilgodeser de rigtige mennesker, vi skal i det hele taget have flyttet folk over i den kollektive trafik. Jeg tror at projekter som Metroen kan være med til at gøre dette. Kvaliteten skal bare være i orden. Der skal bruges penge både på opførelse og vedligeholdelse. Mange penge, og dem har vi. Kig i øvrigt på www.m.dk, hvis du vil vide mere om Metroen i København.