October 29

A few weeks ago, I told one of my co-workers I was looking for a physiotherapist that could work on my leg injury and help me get back in to shape. She suggested me to get in touch with a man named Kelle, a physical therapist with a deep understanding of the energies that work in the body. It sounded good so I send him a message and, after missing each other’s calls for a few days, we finally set an appointment for today at 10am.

Shortly after I arrived, Kelle came out to greet me and asked me to step into his working space: a relatively small office with a massage table and a few buddhist sculptures and posters. We had a chat for about five minutes, just to give him a general idea of why I had decided to see him. He listened carefully. Just by the sound of my voice and my body language, he said he could tell I was having trouble with my breathing, possibly because my diaphragm was blocked, which was forcing me to breath expanding my chest instead of my stomach. He said that was the first thing we needed to focus on.

I lay down on the massage table and he started pressing key points of my body, mostly in my arms and legs. Then he moved to the diaphragm, which he said was indeed blocked, so he started working on that, then my legs and my joints, and finally my back and neck, releasing the tension by twisting and cracking them. He explained the process in detail, making sure I knew exactly what he was going to do before he did it. He said I was going to hear and feel a crack sound when working on my back, and that it was going to be louder when working on neck (as it’s closer to my ears), but that neither manipulation was dangerous, that he had done it thousands of times before and that he was actually pretty good at it. “Everyone who comes here walking, leaves walking”, he said. Well, that’s certainly reassuring.

Upper back, crack. Lower back, crack. Neck, crack crack. After he was done with all the cracking, he said my body was so stressed it was having trouble letting all the tension go so he was going to poke certain pressure points throughout my body to help the process. He said it was going to be annoying and at times a bit painful but that all I had to do was to go with it and try to breath deeply. I did, but instead of annoying me, the whole thing just made me burst with laughter, which I guess is a good thing. I could feel the difference already. He kept pressing parts of my arms, legs and stomach and suddenly my body started shaking, the way it does when you feel terribly cold, only that I wasn’t. “You’re not cold, that’s your body letting go of all the tension, it’s going to go on for a few minutes”, Kelle said, and actually asked me to put my feet together and take my knees apart until I found a point in which the shaking became stronger. Once I found it, I swear to you I couldn’t control the shaking. It was liberating in a very strange way.

I thought the session was going to drain me but when it was all over, my body felt lighter and I was exhilarated. I thought to myself: “Fuck me, this shit works!” Anyway, Kelle said tomorrow I’m going to feel like I’ve been beaten up but that it should feel really good on Friday, once my body goes back to normal.

I scheduled a follow-up appointment for next month and if I really feel a difference, I’m definitely going to keep doing it; Kelle is a cool dude and seems to know what he’s doing, something I can’t really say about any of the therapists I have seen before.

October 28

Our Creative Director took us on a little outing today to check out the World Press Photo exhibition at Politiken Hus. It was less depressing than last year but still, it was quite disheartening to look at pictures of the Boston marathon bombings, the Syrian conflict, the public hangings in Iran, the devastation left behind by Haiyan… it’s just a bit overwhelming.

There was a picture of the costal city of Tacloban, in ruins after the typhoon, and you can’t help but wonder: how do these people go on with their lives? Just imagine standing there, what do you do next? How do you get the energy to get on your feet and continue? Where do you start? It must be a terrifying experience.

There were also more uplifting photographs, of course. I particularly liked some of the work Kunrong Chen, a self-taught photographer from China that has taken some great pictures with a drone. Fascinating use of technology. Very simple, I guess, but the images are beautiful.

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I recently discovered a fantastic website that I can only describe as a joyful orgy of keywords, animated GIFs and your favourite music tracks: see hear party.

Go on, click on the image. You’ll thank me for it.

October 27

The clocks have turned backwards one hour, winter is officially here. On Friday, Kat and I went to Cinemateket to see “PJ20”, the Pearl Jam documentary directed by Cameron Crowe. We both liked it but agreed that “Back and Forth”, the Foo Fighters film, did a better job at telling a more comprehensive story about the band; in “PJ20” there are lots of conflicts that are left unexplored and although it was great to see rare footage of the band’s early days, it would have been nice to see Crowe going a little bit deeper into certain subjects, like Eddie’s relationship with the band around the “No Code” era, the power-struggle between Eddie and Stone, the whole story about the drummers… you know, he could have push things a little bit.

However, “PJ20” is a very enjoyable film, one that had the same impact that most of these music documentaries have on me: they all make me a) wish I had more pictures and videos of my childhood and my teenage years and b) wish I’ve had a long-time friend. I know it sounds silly but that’s how I feel. I think that, because I moved from one city to another at very particular times in my life, I never got the chance to bond with someone the way some of these guys did; I see Dave and Taylor, E and The Chet, Eddie and Jeff, and I can’t help to feel a bit jealous about their relationship. I guess it’s the kind of compromise that usually comes with with the desire of living abroad and experiencing new things, you have to give up certain things in order to achieve new ones.

On Sunday, Kat and I went for coffee at KaffeKilden, then made a short visit to the National Museum to see “Fur – An Issue of Life and Death”, an exhibition about fur clothing which includes historical and contemporary fur garments from the northern hemisphere (chinchilla fur FTW), then headed to Fisketorvet for lunch and finally to Cinemateket again to see “Blood Ties”, a Danish documentary about a seriously fucked up family. At the beginning, I swear I thought it was some sort of mockumentary but it soon became obvious to me that it was actually the real deal. It was a sad and depressing film that made me feel so grateful for my family and fortunate to have what I have; fuck the longtime childhood friend and the pictures and videos from my teenage years, things could be much worse. No doubts about it.

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Went to the doctor today to get the results of my blood tests: both my vitamins and cholesterol levels are fine and I have been informed I’m HIV negative. Phew. I don’t know why but I get terribly anxious every time I get tested, despite knowing how careful and sexually responsible I have been over the years. In my head, it’s like the supermarket cart; you know no one will take anything out if you leave it unattended but you still keep an eye on it. Anyway, glad to know everything is good with my blood.

Just a couple of hours ago, Gavin showed me the new issue of Plethora, a beautiful independent magazine founded in Copenhagen that is packed with “poster-size visual indulgence and tales from the life less ordinary presented in a careful blend of quirky archive material, wondrous art prints and contemporary artist features.” The newest issue features an article about the Zambian Space Program led by grade school science teacher Edward Makuka Nkoloso, who dreamt of shooting Zambians into space back in the 1960’s. How come I had never heard about this before? Bloody brilliant. I googled it up and turns out there is a short documentary about it, which is now part of my to-do list, and a few documents online, including this fantastic clip:

Afronauts, they just made my day.

October 24

Last week, my left hand’s thumb started to hurt a bit and now the pain has taken over my wrist and forearm, too. I have no idea how this happened but I must have sprained my hand or have some sort of tendonitis; I can move my hand but I can’t hold things properly because the moment I put a bit of pressure on my thumb, I get a lightning-bolt like pain that goes from my finger, through my wrist, all the way to the elbow. It sucks balls.

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I have discovered a new coffeeshop on my neighborhood that I really like, it’s called KaffeKilden and it has the most amazing chocolate croissants I have had in a long time. The only downside to the place is the music, which is fucking awful. Every morning I have dropped by for breakfast, they had a terrible radio show on with some moronic hosts playing moronic pop. It reminded me of why I love Sort Kaffe og Vinyl so much.

Still, it’s good news that KaffeKilden exists; it means that I don’t have to go all the way to Vesterbro whenever I feel like having a good cup of coffee anymore, now I can jump on a bus and in 10 minutes I could be sipping freshly brewed coffee and munching chocolate croissants. I just need to remember to bring some headphones, I wouldn’t be able to stand that talk show for too long.

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Got to the office this morning to find out the agency has been performing so well that we’re getting a month’s pay as a bonus.

The announcement was made during full-house agency meeting and the good news came accompanied with a bottle of Gosset champagne, which they handed out at the end. Very nice. If only I could have been able to clap properly…

October 22

We watched the first episode of “Sonic Highways” last night, it was fantastic! Not only the idea behind the TV series is fascinating but it’s also nicely delivered; well directed, entertaining and interesting, not only for a Foo Fighters fan but for anyone who’s passionate about music. By the way, how cool is “Something from Nothing? That guitar solo and the keyboard parts are fucking great! Anyway, if you haven’t done it yet, go watch the damn thing, you will enjoy it.

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Yesterday I met up with a guy named Torben, a developer recommended by my friend Sofie, who has kindly agreed to help me put together a website that requires some fairly complex motion tracking.  We discuss the main idea behind the website and although he admitted there will be some technical challenges, he seems very keen on figure it out and make it happen. I messaged some of my tech-savvy friends to ask for advice and some of them have already come forward with a few useful suggestions so now we (he) just have to get on it and start doing some tests. Fingers crossed it works out.

October 21

I just bought “Life After Death”, the Damien Echols book about his time in prison. I’m not sure I will enjoy reading about all the abuse by prison wards and the horrifying living conditions in death row, but I’m interested in knowing more about how he managed to stay sane while incarcerated for almost twenty years. I suspect this will be more depressing than uplifting but I will give it a shot; worst case scenario, I will leave it unfinished and add it to my growing list of half-read books, which now include “The Thrill Of It All”, “The Illustrated Man”, and “Makers: The New Industrial Revolution”.

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A couple of pictures from Podio‘s “Lightning Talks”, which took place last week. Funny how of all the slides I presented, I got a picture taken in front of the girl doing cocaine. Oh well…

Yes, we look stoned. No, we were not.

October 20

Kat and I watched “West of Memphis” this weekend, the documentary directed by Amy Berg and produced by Peter Jackson and Damien Echols that further explores the failure of justice in the case of the West Memphis Three, which was first introduced to mainstream audiences in “Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills”, back in 1996. The film is brutal, captivating and masterfully put together by Berg, offering fascinating insight into the case and the remarkable efforts of Lorri Davis, Peter Jackson, Eddie Vedder, Henry Rollins, Johnny Depp, Natalie Maines and everyone who supported the West Memphis Three over the years, donating money, fundraising and working tirelessly to produce new DNA testings and physical evidence, which eventually led to a plea deal and finally their release in 2011.

The film is brutal, captivating and brilliantly put together by Berg, an impressive achievement considering the amount of attorneys, judges, suspects, witnesses, investigators and evidence surrounding the case. Apart from the the details of the investigation that was carried out on behalf of the West Memphis Three, I was surprised to find out how involved Eddie Vedder was on the case and how close he was with Damien, not only advocating for the cause and visiting him on a regular basis while he was on death row but also providing support after his release. Bonus human being points to Eddie for that.

(If you don’t feel like watching “West of Memphis”, watch the video below. I promise you that once you finish watching it, you’ll be compelled to find out more about it)

Kat loved the documentary but I have the impression she liked Eddie Vedder better; when we finished watching the film, she sat in front of the TV and spent about 20 minutes watching videos of Eddie on YouTube. She seemed a bit happier to have tickets to see “Pearl Jam: Twenty” this weekend, too. On Sunday, while Kat was with her dad watching football, I spent the evening watching interviews with Damien and reading about him and his life after prison, kind of inspiring and disturbing at the same time. I think I’ll buy his book this week and maybe try to get in touch with him and see if I can get him to guest on the GustaPOD. I know it’s very unlikely but I will give it a try.

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It’s been six months since Kat and I met… I think we were both a bit shocked when we realized it but decided to go ahead and celebrated it watching Game of Thrones and drinking white wine at home on Saturday, and looking at erotic postcards in the Police Museum, walking in the rain (less romantic than it sounds) and eating cake at Conditori La Glace on Sunday. Kat had a Karen Blixen cake, a coffee mousse, mocha truffle with roasted hazelnuts, and a chocolate bottom decorated with coffee beans covered in chocolate and I had a Det Gyldne Tårn, a rhubarb and white chocolate with lemon cream and almonds. Bloody amazing cakes, I tell you…

October 17

Despite going through my slides way faster than I should have, things went down well yesterday at Podio‘s Lightning Talks; there was a nice crowd of 40-50 people, 9 speakers, free beer, snacks and a cozy atmosphere that made for an enjoyable evening. I panicked a bit on stage, mostly because I was afraid of going over my allocated time, but the audience was very supportive and some people even came to say hi after my talk and told me how much they liked they idea, which was really nice.

I have yet to find someone to help me develop the website but at least the first step has been taken… that’s more than I can normally say about most of the ideas I come up with.

October 15

Back in May, I went to Primavera Sound and bought this limited-edition screen-printed Queens of the Stone Age poster, for no other reason than that it was pretty; I loved the colours, the typography and the simplicity of the image. At that time, Kat and I didn’t have any plans to move in together but yesterday, five months after buying that poster, we put it up on one of the walls of our living room. It felt nice.

We started buying our first stuff together soon after I moved in (so far, a juice maker and a sound system – up next, a new couch and a TV) and she’s really making sure our place feels like home, for both of us. This comes with small compromises on each side, of course, but there’s nothing to worry about… we’re pretty good at figuring shit out.

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Yesterday, we got an e-mail from the design studio that was supposed to help us developing that game app saying that due to a tremendous amount of work on their side, they were not going to be able to put the focus that is needed for the project to succeed. Fair enough. At the end of the day, money-making work needs to take a priority and although it’s a real shame to know they want out, their position is understandable. Now we need to start looking again for someone who might be up for helping us out with the development of the game, which is a pain in the arse, but hopefully something will come up soon.

In other news, I have registered the domain for another of the projects I have on my to-do list and tomorrow will be doing a really short presentation at Podio, where I will be pitching the idea to whoever shows up and see what happens. I only have 3-5 minutes and my powerpoint deck has 17 slides, which means I will have to be quick and precise, something I’m not particularly good at. You see, I tend to over-elaborate my points and get easily sidetracked, even when I rehearse, but maybe knowing there will be free cold beers waiting for me when I finish will be a good incentive to get to the point and wrap it up in due time. We’ll see about that…

October 13

On the bus to work today, I noticed the trees have started to change colours and it struck me then how much I like seasons, they put things in perspective and make me more aware of the passing of time, which I guess is a healthy reminder that comes in handy every now and then.

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Friday was Culture Night in Copenhagen, a fantastic evening in which “museums, libraries, educational establishments, theatres, musical venues, churches and many other institutions representing art and culture will open their doors to the public” in a cheerful celebration that is packed with concerts, exhibitions, free drinks and more than 600 events around the city. It’s wonderful. I remember that last year, my friend Teemu from Finland was visiting, and we joined some of my mates and went to the Calrsberg Brewery, just because they were giving away free beer. I had fun but in hindsight, it was somewhat dull.

This year, however, Kat was at the helm and she managed to put together a really nice tour around the city centre: we started at Cinemateket, where Carlos and Marisa joined us and we all had some pictures taken and photoshopped into a movie posters; then headed to the Spanish Tourist Office to have a look at a series of travel posters and free tapas and wine, followed by a quick stop at Nikolaj Kunsthal, an old church converted into an art gallery, which was hosting “Pixelade”, an exhibition by visual artists Malene Bang and Katja Løgstrup-Hansen and game developers from Copenhagen Game Collective. Nothing spectacular but still, worth seeing, especially the green lasers room, which was cool to have pictures taken. I think that if it hasn’t been packed with screaming kids, we would have enjoyed the exhibition a bit more.

After Nikolaj, we visited Frederik’s Church (or Marmorkirken, as it it’s known), a stunning church boasting the largest dome in Scandinavia: a beautiful 31-meter roof resting on twelve columns, which was probably inspired by St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. Stunning building. We then walked to the War Museum to see a humurous historical reenactment of the Battle of Als (1864) and then headed to The Living Room for coffee and cake, to wrap up a very fun evening, which wouldn’t have been that fun if it wasn’t for Kat, who not only provided perfect planning but real-time translation when needed. She’s ace.

Saturday and Sunday were pretty quiet, I picked up our Queens of the Stone Age poster from the framing shop and finally got our home cinema working properly. Now we just need to do a bit of drilling to the poster up and the speakers fixed to the walls, that should be happening sometime this week…