Sunday, March 30, 2014

Getting Around.....Sort of


Ok - I knew that IAAF would hold their half marathon World Championships in Copenhagen yesterday with 30.000+ participants, and above map had been published in a lot of places in advance so us locals knew how to come about (or not) in the city.

My area was surrounded by the route, so had mad an alternative plan including the use of the metro when going home during the race.... but the police closed the station where I had to change to the metro including a nearby temporary walking bridge due to too many people - hence me having to wait 1½ hour to get to my building even though I could see it at the route - I was just on the wrong side of the route. Good thing that sun was out all day long.


Along the Nyboder area - the runners had a scenic route in our city.


After 1½ hour and a little walk I was finally on the "right side" of the route.


Runner no. 5395 is photographer Jacob Holt who wrote American Pictures - one of the local runners who participates in a lot of runs if not out doing his lectures or on a photo assignment.


A kind of wish-it-was-me thing to watch, but sadly despite several attempts, the MS will not allow me to run longer than 5km anymore on good days, and yet happy for all the smiling runners that they could be part of that race.

Friday, March 28, 2014

Last Chance: Knit and Stitch


Molly Canaday has a dream of opening her own body shop (she is very good at fixing cars) when her mother suddenly put a stop to those dreams - she wants to realize herself so she abandon Molly and the family and leaves the Knit and Stitch shop in Molly's hands.

At the same time, Simon Wolfe returns to Last Chance to attend his father's funeral, attend to the estate and bring his estranged mother (she needs a lot of care as she has dementia) back with him to California. His father's estate however is somewhat hit but financial problems which leads to a closure of the Ford dealer ship costing Molly her job and a place to fix up a 1966 Shelby Mustang.

Despite hoping to settle matters in Last Chance quickly, Simon realizes that he has to rent some space in the city to work on some commissioned paintings, he rents the abandoned Coca Cola building - the same building that Molly has secretly dreamed of getting some day - and let Molly have some space to work on the Mustang.

But how will Molly handle the Knit & Stitch shop? And will Simon fall in love with Molly despite she is coach's daughter?

Thursday, March 27, 2014

Saving Mr. Banks


In the 1960's Walt Disney finally got P.L. Travers to travel to Hollywood as it had been a dream for him to make a movie based on her book Mary Poppins since it was his girl's favorite book and it intrigued him. It was clear that P.L. Travers had to be included in the creative progress of creating the movie's manuscript.

Mary Poppins is personal for her and the Americans are set for some huge challenges as she is very set in her ways and is not fond of the American way of life at all: too many sweets and a dismay towards the beloved Disney characters. Disney however is persistent and try to give in to her quirks as she is not fond of musical, dancing and cartoons at all.

Mary Poppins did become a blockbuster movie - a classic - and you get a insight in how that movie became an reality despite the differences between P.L. Travers and Walt Disney.

It is a movie that makes you laugh and also a little sad when learning the real story that led to the book about Mary Poppins. Emma Thompson and Tom Hanks - great cast for P.L Travers and Walt Disney as they are their roles.

Wednesday, March 26, 2014

Wolves

A couple of weekends ago, a amateur art group/class called Matisserne held their annual exhibit to show off their work. A friend of mine is part of that group so I always try to go there as there is usually some good pieces in their exhibit - her drawings are delicate, but the reflections from the glass frames on her work had too many reflections when trying to take decent photos that I have given up sharing them with you :o)

These caught my eye:


Good thing I had remembered my phone when I for some reasons had forgotten to bring my camera.


Close-ups needed


Just look at those details on this one - it makes it so real to look at, almost photo like.... GOSH!!


I got a chance to speak to the artist, Kirsten Søeballe, as I was especially intrigued by the second wolf - she revealed that she got the idea from the internet and that she has shared a how-to (in Danish - but just use goggle translate) on her blog Kissers Galleri. We also talked about ideas from the internet in general, crafty tools/material, ideas and internet stores which made me wish they I would have had time to be creative when I got home from the exhibit. Sadly I did not - but I had some cool photos to look at instead and be wow'ed again.

A few days later I received the latest edition of WWF's (World Wildlife Foundation) magazine and could help thinking about the wolf paintings when I saw this article/photo:

Tuesday, March 25, 2014

August: Osage County


A while ago I went into see "August: Osage County" - love Meryl Streep and Julia Roberts, so wanted to see how a movie with both of them turned out.... adding a little spice with the appearance of Benedict Cumberbatch as Little Charlie... 

But the line-up of famous actors in that movie.... mind blowing ... and guess it will be hard to go wrong if you have so many good actors to make a movie... then again all the characters call for good actors as the personalities they have to portray are so complex. 

The family is far from being an ordinary family, when secrets are revealed - abuse of alcohol and pills seems to be what has kept Violet and Beverly Western together as a married couple and at the same time estranged them, as the abuse is revealed to hide unspoken/hidden truths about their marriage. Their 3 daughters and family/boyfriend + Violet's sister+family arrives for the funeral and start "talking" and unravel the hidden relations in the family so the tense behavior between the family members surfaces and forces them to open their eyes.

When leaving the cinema one can not help wondering, if a normal/perfect family exists? One without secrets or skeletons in the closet? In some of the elderly generations, they were brought up to endure a lot thus making them to stay together as a married couple despite quarrels - nowadays more are getting a divorce when opinions between them becomes too different.


Monday, March 24, 2014

Bookfriend and The Seventh Child

Original title: Det syvende barn

A while back, I mentioned that I might be doing some volunteer work for the Red Cross - I am actually already doing it: I have become a book friend for lonely elderly woman. Picking up and dropping off library books for her and 1-2 visit every month where we discuss a book, that we have chosen to read. Amazing that you can do volunteer work and read books in order to do it. We are challenging each other a bit regarding the books, as we do have different book taste, but it is nice to get out of the reading comfort zone and encounter new authors etc.

The first book was The Seventh Child by Erik Valeur, which have locally won a lot of prizes albeit some readers find several passages to be a little too long. Interestingly enough so did my book friend only to realize that when she read some of those passages a little too fast she missed small details that combined changed the story and made more meaning. I could not help challenge a colleague who has also read the book - she had fast-read some passages too and she had actually missed out on the same details as my book friend. This underlines this statement, that I recently found on Pinterest.

7 children have more in common that meets the eye - they are all born at the same maternity ward in Copenhagen and all of them are put up for adoption via the same orphanage Kongslund - but one of them has a dark story unbeknownst to the child. Abortion was illegal in the 60s in Denmark so this tells the story of a lot unwanted children focusing on the seven children to find out one of the big secret.

Years after an elderly woman is found at the beach with no ID but among items placed at the body is an old photo of Kongslund - the hidden story slowly emerges after anonymous letter being sent to some of the now grown up children in hope of revealing the true story. Who knows the truth about what happened? Who is that 7th child as the name does not exist anywhere?



Saturday, March 1, 2014

Getting De-Stressed








My favourite way: photo walks, where I can enjoy the local scenery and nice weather :o)