Jacob Christensen

Courtesy of fellow tweep Søren Sommerglæde (a suitable name in the dead of winter), I joined an “Artist Walk and Talk” at the local exhibition building Filosoffen – it is located at Filosofgangen, hence the name – where Søren discussed the some of the works with Carsten Rudolfsen and Poul Weile, two members of the association Grünhorse whose works are on display until next weekend. It was a refreshing approach with an interested member of the public rather than an art expert – hope you are not bothered by the description, Søren – as discussant.

The photograph shows the exhibition of no less than 120 small paintings by German artist Runhild Wirth who followed the demolition of the Palast der Republik on site between 2006 and 2008. Just for fun, here are two photographs I took at the same site in November 2004 and November 2011:

First 2004

And then 2011

PS: Look closely, and you will find me on one of the photos from the event here.

Just a thought which hit me watching the Danish/Swedish TV crime series “The Bridge”/”Broen“/”Bron“:

Many would probably see the main characters Saga Norén and Martin Rohde as national stereotypes with Norén as the formalistic, rule-oriented Swede and Rohde as the laid-back Dane, but if you have worked in both countries things are a bit more complicated. In fact, Norén (minus the sex bit) looks very much as the embodiment of the traditional Danish public bureaucracy which was excessively rule-oriented while Swedish public administration (just like Rohde) has a tradition of being oriented towards negotiations, consensus and the logic of appropriateness.

Of course, one shouldn’t make too much of a dramaturgical tool but the contrast between stereotypes and reality is fascinating.

Torben Steno is one of the great warped minds of Danish television. Older readers might remember his take on the former GDR and the Danish left in the series DDR2 (prominently featuring ill-fitted brown suits), followed by “Den røde trÃ¥d”, an epic journey through the former Eastern Bloc (suitably made in a Tatra Limousine).

This December Steno has joined forces with sculptor and artist Kenn André Stilling to visit 24 more or less well-known monuments in Denmark (this time, dark suits and umbrellas included in the performance). As in the earlier programmes, the seemingly light approach reveals deep thoughts about the subject.

After watching the first five episodes I declare this must-see TV if you are just marginally interested in Danish history or society and understand some spoken Danish. The series homepage is here. Curiously, the individual 10-minute programmes are not available as podcasts.

I missed Roman Polanski’s latest offering “The Ghost Writer” (or simply “The Ghost”) when it was screened in Danish cinemas but caught up thanks to the DVD release. “The Ghost Writer” earned a certain notoriety due to the similarities of one of the main characters (Adam Lang, played by Marge Simpson’s wettest dream, Pierce Brosnan) with former UK prime minister Tony Blair, just as critics have pointed out the parallels between Lang’s and Polanski’s problems with the courts.

That said, “The Ghost Writer” is more an effective classical thriller than a new “Chinatown” or The Political Movie of 2010. If you basically don’t subscribe to the conspiracy theory view of politics, the movie doesn’t tell you anything new about UK politics in general and Tony Blair’s decision to support the foreign policy of the George W. Bush administration. And if you are already convinced that Blair has sinister motives and that the Little Guy always gets caught in the dealings of the big and powerful – well, then there’s nothing new here as well.

So, the movie is extremely competent, has good actors and there are definitively worse ways to spend a couple of hours (you could be reading a run-of-the-mill Swedish crime novel, for instance), but after viewing it, I wondered if Polanski hadn’t spoiled the chance to make an even more interesting movie with Ruth Lang (played by Olivia Williams) as the central character. By now I’m probably not revealing a major secret by writing the Ms. Lang isn’t exactly what she originally appears to be: the bitter, neglected wife of a Very Important Man. Rather, she is the force driving the entire plot and I could imagine a very exciting piece of drama where Ms. Lang is actively trying to control the fall-out from her past and present activities.

The Danish People’s Party wants to bring back border controls. This is how the party imagines the Øresund Bridge will look like.

Alternatively, the strutting and posing can be seen as illustrations of the style of comments by Danish and Swedish politicians during the Swedish election campaign.

It’s not that my intention is to turn this into a football blog (even though I know that frequent reader with the nickname Nick would love to see that happening), but I couldn’t resist Slate’s call for guesses about the final outcome of the 2010 World Cup.

After considering the alternatives thoroughly – for about 23 seconds – I made this guess:

Okay – even if Germany looks sharp, no European team has ever won a World Cup outside of Europe. Brazil, on the other hand, won in the 1994 US tournament and the 2002 Japan/Korea tournament. Then, Brazil or Argentina – a tricky guess but without having any good arguments I went for the Argentinian side. If only to have a manager who dresses like a used car salesman from some nowhere town holding the trophy. Among those taking the poll, 24% go for Argentina and 27% for Brazil.

Update 10-07-03: My abilities to predict anything are pathetic. Not that I mind, though.

Peter Singer says it:

[German goalkeeper Manuel] Neuer missed a rare opportunity to do something noble in front of millions of people. He could have set a positive ethical example to people watching all over the world, including the many millions who are young and impressionable. Who knows what difference that example might have made to the lives of many of those watching. Neuer could have been a hero, standing up for what is right. Instead he is just another very skillful, cheating footballer.

I don’t have a problem as such with Germany winning, as I think it was the better team, but the way Germany won the match definitively put a sour taste to it. Just like “the hand of God” made Argentina questionable world champions in 1986.

Update: The goalkeeper’s name corrected.

In case any of you should meet the Danish defence, please inform it that its presence is urgently needed.

It should report at the Royal Bafoking Stadium, Rustenburg, RSA on 24 June, no later than 20:30.

In case a map is needed: Google Maps.

Ernst-Hugo Järegård comments the France-Mexico match. Or something.

Oh, and while we’re at the Carl-Henric Svanberg story, note that Ernst-Hugo mentions “de smÃ¥ människorna”.

To me, the evolving Bavaria Babes story raises some interesting questions about the role of the spectators at major sports events. Just to recap: During the break of the Netherlands-Denmark game, attendants seized a number of Dutch (and, if my Dutch is worth anything) South African women dressed in tight orange dresses and handed them over to the police. It seems that some of the women are now even facing some kind of criminal process in South Africa.

Their crime? Being part of a stealth marketing stunt arranged by the Dutch brewery Bavaria – while the dresses didn’t carry a visible Bavaria brand, they had been sold or distributed by the brewery and used in different publicity events. The problem was that the beer advertising slot at the 2010 Fifa World Cupâ„¢ had already been sold to Anheuser-Busch, the US company which produces the (US) Budweiser brand. And as we all know, a world cup is not big enough for two beers.

So, presumably, wearing a Budweiser-branded (orange) dress would have been acceptable to the arrangers – in fact, they would have enhanced the value of the Budweiser sponsorship as TV viewers would have seen attractive Budweiser-dressed women having a good time.

And this brings us to my central point: Leave aside all talk of a party of nations, people coming together and what not – to FIFA and the partners/sponsors/advertisers, the spectators are just props designed to enhance the experience for TV viewers (like me) around the globe.¹ In fact, the people who go to major sports events are what dear old Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov called useful idiots because they pay for the trip and entry to the stadiums themselves in order to act as cheerleaders for the sponsors.²

It would be much more honest if the sponsors – whose arrangement this really is – hired the spectators and provided them with relevant outfits. In that way, the full costs of advertising would be carried by the sponsors. And there would be less risk of third parties getting a piece of the cake as the seats had already been distributed among paying sponsors.

1. You are free to insert a comment on the relationship between programming and advertising [↩]
2. Actually, the term seems to be post WW2 but never mind: The myth is too good. [↩]