Ready, Set...

Students are coming in, syllabus is being finalized, excitement excitement.
And I made more travel plans! I'm going to Gothenburg in two weeks.

Odds and Ends

Grumble Grumble

I want to post up a few interesting photos and links and what not, but my first attempts of posting the Owl Tree are failing. So, I will just have to link to a few photos, and hopefully you will check them out. The photos are from a collective piece that was done last fall. The tree was put up on the side of a random building and local artists were notified. Anyone was free to contribute and over the next few months a beautiful tree community was created.
First, the scene.
A look at the tree.
In the process of an addition.
I could snuggle this guy.
But these two are my favs.


These are working though. Photos of the papercut-based work of Peter Callesen.

I am also finding it difficult to re-post images of Nigel Peake's work. It reminds me a bit of some things I saw in Vienna, and not just Hunderwasser although that influence is there. Anyway, check out his drawings.

I heard about him because the above book was just reviewed on this awesome online magazine I've been digging through. The magazine is called Mumble and this is its mission:

"Mumble Online Magazine focuses on the infinite nouns and verbs that influence contemporary art and street culture, directly and indirectly. We take you on a somewhat lighthearted journey from yesterday to tomorrow, with many a pitstop along the way.
"In plain english: we publish articles that have to do with influential artists, photographers, skateboarders, places, books, stuff you can buy, music and whatever as well as some totally random shit that somehow fits into the picture."

For more skateboarder related contemporary art check out The Art Dump. The Art Dump is, put simply, an arts collective wing of the Girl Skateboard Co. and its affiliates. They recently made a limited run of prints celebrating the 10 year anniversary of the Four Star clothing brand. Here are two of them that I liked:

Travel Bug

One of the good things about being here is the opportunity to travel around Europe. Its a very good thing, really. Being in such a northern part of Europe that is so expensive restricts some of my possibilities, but I have still been able to take advantage of my situation. In the nearly six (6!) months I've been here I've been to Stockholm twice and Copenhagen three times as well as going to Vienna and Prague. In April I'll be traveling with my class for two weeks in Poland, specifically to Krakow and Warsaw. In May my mom and sister are visiting, which will take me on weekend trips to Copenhagen and Bergen. I also have the goal to take weekends in Gothenburg (possibly in February) and Trondheim (perhaps May?). And today I just finished booking a trip over my spring break in March.

I had been going back and forth in my head about where I wanted to go for break. I had wanted to visit Rome and Istanbul while I was here, but the tickets were too much. A recent interest in Barcelona was too expensive to follow up on. It was tempting to go back to Copenhagen, I'll admit. I thought about Scotland, getting all up in some whiskeys. I considered getting to know Amsterdam better, as I'd only spent one day there two years ago. It was my last day in Europe and I was burnt out, sick, exhausted, and stoned. I didn't like it too much. Before going to the Netherlands I spent two whirlwind days in Berlin. I liked it quite a bit, surely aided by my traveling with Anne. But I wished I had spent more time there. It is a huge city and I didn't get the chance to really know it. 

After looking at all my options I found super cheap plane tickets and a cheap good hostel. I'll be gone not too long, only March 17 to 21st, but my transportation AND lodging is only costing a total of 1100 kr. Thats $200, a goddamn steal in these parts.

Oh yeah, my destination? BERLIN

I just found in my old blog this travelogue:
"so berlin i loved. its a true metropolis, reminded me of the other great cities that seem to have some undefinable thing, cities whose scope can't really be understood. for me thus far i think new york. london, montreal, and berlin have had that. something new is always bubbling up, there is constant redefinition.
"but berlin! we stayed in east berlin, which i'm very happy about. i loved the area, it was hip, cheap, non-corporate, there was something going on. and i loved all the street-art (grafitti) throughout the city! lots of fun that..."

I went on of course, but just listing places we visited with a reflection on my social issues in meeting groups of new folks. I'll spare you. 

This week's movies:

I saw this at the theatre! It just came out here, and everyone was right about it rocking.

And hey, I finished that Cheever book.

The Cold

Homeboy Andrew Dahl wrote this a couple days ago, and I liked it enough to bring it to these parts. I hope you're surviving out there. I can only complain about the darkness and the wetness. There have been three days of sun in the last month and most days it rains or snows.

"A lot of my friends who aren't so blessed as to live in Minnesota have asked me what it's like to be in such a cold place. Some of you have never seen snow. Some of you complain about the "damp cold" of the East Coast. I thought I'd briefly explain what it's like, since it's about the only thing that any of us can think about right now.

"So today, January 18, is pretty fucking cold. The low temperature is -10F, the high is 5F (though it doesn't look like we'll actually make that), current temperature is -1F at 11:00 am. But inevitably, temperature is actually somewhat irrelevant. Minneapolis is essentially on the edge of the prairie, and extremely flat. It's windier than fuck. So we have this thing called "wind chill," which is some formulaic measure of how cold it actually feels outside, taking wind speed into account. The wind chill right now is -23F.

"Now, when you live here, the cold doesn't seem so bad. Your body chemistry actually changes, starting around October, and if you spend enough time outside to adjust, it doesn't feel so bad by December. But, once it gets below 10F, your exposed skin starts to hurt. The air starts to feel like a constant slap across your face. If you wear glasses, the part where it touches your nose is excrutiatingly painful. Below 10, it really feels like you're having a drill bored into your temple.

"The whole sky changes. The air is so dry that there are rarely clouds. It's perfectly clear and sunny (that is, from about 8:00 am to 4:30 pm, when the sun starts to go down), but the sun doesn't warm you at all. There's no temperature difference between sun and shade. The steam from all the smokestacks crystalizes into thick plumes, creating vertical clouds throughout the city. Without any moisture in the air, sound carries for miles and every noise sounds crisp and hallow. Sometimes, if a tree has enough moisture in it, its tissues will freeze and expand, and the tree will explode in the middle of the night.

"As I was leaving for work, my girlfriend was taking her dog out for a walk. Within three feet of the door, he stopped walking and tried to go back inside. The cold air made him start choking and she had to pry open his mouth so he could breath.

"I had to walk across the Mississippi to get downtown. The wind was seering on the little bit of exposed skin on my face. You have to cover your mouth if you're outside for more than a few minutes because inhaling air that cold will give you bronchitis or pneumonia. If you inhale deeply without your mouth covered, you can feel your lungs painfully seize up and cramp. The steam from my breath collected on my eyelashes and I had to remove chunks of ice from my eyes once I got inside. What's really annoying is when the snot inside your nose freezes and you have to keep wiggling it so you can breathe.

"When it's this cold, the weather reports often include a warning of how long you can leave skin exposed to the air. When it's this cold, they warn that any skin exposed for much more than twenty minutes will be frost bitten, which means that the moisture in your skin cells has frozen and the cells have died. Frost bite is essentially like a burn, with third degree frostbite often leaving the skin black and dead. Really bad frost bite sometimes requires amputation.

"Hypothermia results from the body's temperature being too low to support normal functioning. Last year, a man was found in oustate Minnesota, with his face frozen to the road. He died from being too cold, and they had to srape his body off the pavement. When I was in elementary school, they often cancelled school because it was too cold. The diesel busses wouldn't start, and kids walking to school or waiting for the bus were seriously at risk.

"So that's what it's like. Tomorrow looks a little worse; high of 0, low of -14. I hope you're doing fine in whatever more comfortable part of the world you are... panzy."

I am reminded of this winter foray to Minnehaha Falls.

Birawer

I'm sure most of you know this guy, but I felt like posting about him anyway. I first noticed Michael Birawer's work a couple years ago when I was working at Wilson Library, we had a bunch of prints of a piece he did in Chicago around that were supposed to be trashed. Unfortunately, I kept putting off actually grabbing one so I never got a copy. Still, his style immediately stood out for me.


Around the same period I visited a couple of friends in their new home. My former roommate Mitch had bought a house in Highland and another former Terrace resident who I had become friends with, Cole, had moved in with him. Cole had a couple framed prints of Birawer's work. They depicted a vibrant and alive city that I was slowly becoming intimate with. Below is one of those prints Cole had, of a seemingly dancing Hennepin Ave bridge.


When Cate was in town a few weeks ago we were somehow inspired to check out his website, and we were pleasantly surprised by his numerous pieces of the Twin Cities, including some pieces of the Bryant Lake Bowl, Al's Breakfast, the Triple Rock, and that place where I last puked while celebrating my 21st birthday, aka Liquor Lyle's. Below is a small selection:

I would have liked to have posted more, but unfortunately many of the images on Birawer's site I was unable to repost here. I recommend his website: http://www.michaelbirawerart.com

There are certainly some connections to be made between my appreciation of Birawer and Turman and my (admitted) glorification of the Twin Cities while I am away. Still, I liked their stuff before they were in a position to renew a homesickness bug. God, and then there is my digging this fall on The Hold Steady. And when I first really got into The Replacements it was during my first stint here in '05. It all comes back to mpls, doesn't it?


UPDATE: Okay, comments bring to my attention things. These things are that both Minnesota artists I've posted about were personally known by Julia. Props for you know and are known.
Also, Cate mentioned Cole's tattoo which I had no knowledge of, but his facebook page shows this.

B.A.D.A.S.S.

Movie Time

The movie marathon has continued this week, as I've only worked 10-15 hours and the weather has been awful. I did make it out to Sognsvann yesterday for some sun and a stroll, but besides that I've been holed up in my flat or office being fairly passive.

I'm reading a book by John Cheever, The Wapshot Chronicle, which is proving amusing but not quite my taste. It is about small town New England life in the mid-20th century and is full of eccentric characters.

Movies I've watched since last posting:







The next few days I'm planning on watching The Sting, Blue Velvet, and Spiderman at home. Tonight I'm planning on seeing I'm Not There with Charloette and on sunday Amatoren is showing Mulholland Drive.

another havel quote, movies, books

"The question of whether one or several political parties are in power, and how these parties define and label themselves, is of far less importance than the question of whether or not it is possible to live like a human being. To shed the burden of traditional political categories and habits and open oneself up fully to the world of human existence and then to draw political conclusions only after having analysed it: this is not only politically more realistic but at the same time, from the point of view of an 'ideal state of affairs', politically more promising as well. A genuine, profound and lasting change for the better... can no longer result from the victory (were such a victory possible) of any particular traditional political conception. More than ever before, such a change will have to derive from human existence, from the fundamental reconstitution of the position of people in the world, their relationships to themselves and to each other, and to the universe. If a better economic or political model is to be created, than perhaps more than ever before it must derive from profound existential and moral changes in society."

- This time from "The Power of the Powerless."

Back to work today, though not much of a grind. Just a few things to prepare for DSE. Cate is gone. Amanda and Neal are gone. Oh lonely wolf.

It was a movie weekend. I finally started downloading movies, eh. Goodfellas, The Color of Money, and Casablanca were the first three. But now I've gone crazy with The Fly and Eraserhead.
I'm reaching a maximum point of grossed out insanity, and I need a dose of sugarcoated Hollywood. Spiderman here I come.

In the last few weeks I read Robertson Davies's Deptford Trilogy, the new book on the Mats by Jim Walsh, Mark Twain's Conneticut Yankee, Trinity by Leon Uris, and The Tender Bar by J.R. Moehringer. Hopefully I'll finish the Havel soon. I picked up a few things at the library today: The Great Gatsby, Capote's In Cold Blood, and The Wapshot Chronicle by John Cheever. I've also had Teaching Community by bell hooks sitting around for a bit so maybe I'll work on that.

What, you expected reviews or something?


UPDATE: The version of Spiderman I downloaded was in a weird language. So I watched Elephant Man. I do not recommend to David Lynch movies in one day. I feel crazeee!

Basketball

I am terrible at this sport, haven't watched a full game in probably two years, and can only watch 2 minute highlight reals on a three inch window on my laptop.

But I am loving following this season's NBA through Deadspin, Free Darko, Britt Robson, and the Fanhouse.

KG leaving for Beantown and a putrid T-Wolves squad with McHale still at the wheel created the spark for my liberated fandom. I recommend this posting up at Free Darko: The Cheers of the Gratefully Oppressed.

Back to the Winter Wonderland

Cate and I got back into Oslo yesterday, returning to Sogn to see my friends Neal and Amanda. We shared a round of excellent scotch they brought over, had dinner at Punjaab Tandoori, and had drinks at Olympen and Gloria Flames. They're off to Bergen over the next few days.

Stockholm was excellent. The weather held up better, and the yellow and orange buildings held off the winter gloom quite well. Maybe Cate will write more? She kept a small journal, hopefully it will be blogged.

There are photos! Check them out!

This is an incredible article.

That's all I got for ya now. Keep your head up...