Messages

• 

  Christian Bräuer says • 20/Aug 2011 at 17:56

  How was your first week at university? What courses do you have? Do you like the profs and the other students?
  Have to work a lot but I'm looking forward to our holidays in Tel Aviv and Venice (well, Venice is first of all work, but in this case it means that i have just to give a lecture and some interesting business lunch/dinner. So i'll have time to watch movies and to visit the biennale).
  In Berlin we have almost every weekend family who comes to visit us. It's really nice but also exhausting.
  BTW: Can recommend the new movie of Woody Allen ('Midnight in Paris'). Had really very much fun. Like most of his movies, the new is a really good one.

  Reply from Thomas:

  It's been great, though we've mostly been doing social stuff like parties, a photo trip, and so on. It's been some very busy weeks, I haven't spend that much time at home and haven't really had time to take photos.
  I have two courses, one is called "Text and pictures" and the other is called "Sound and video", not the most creative titles, haha, but it's easy to figure out what they are about. It's been very basic for the first few lectures, so I hope we will step up a little very soon.
  Everybody seems nice, but I will just have to wait and see what this term will bring. Luckily most of the students understand Danish so that I won't have to use my bad Norwegian, I just have to talk a little slow.
  
  I wish it was me going to Tel Aviv and Venice. When is it that you are leaving?
  
  I saw the Woody Allen movie some time ago, it was okay, but I was a little disappointed, I think he can do better than that. Maybe I was just expecting too much.
  I'm looking forward to seeing the new Aki Kaurismäki film, "Le Havre", it will be here in the cinema in a few weeks time.
• 

  Lars-Jakob K says • 16/Aug 2011 at 00:15

  Hej Thomas! Velkommen hjem! Har I haft en god tur?
  
  Ama’r halshug! Jeg holder mig fra din Rema :)
  
  Haha! Det kender jeg godt! Her bliver der ikke gjort specielt meget rent hvis min mor eller far kommer på besøg, men er det svigerfamilien, der skal komme, så står lejligheden på den anden ende i et par dage!
  
  Nej, for pokker da! Vi skulle nødigt sende noget vovet! Vi ender sikkert med at sende en eller anden falleret X-factor-deltager af sted – lidt a la de gamle ’stjerne for en aften’-tider! Nej, forhåbentligt bliver det ikke så slemt, men det kunne klæde DR rigtig meget, hvis de turde satse på noget lidt mere specielt en sædvanligt!
  
  Hvornår er det, du skal starte på studiet?

  Reply from Thomas:

  Hej, ja det var en super tur, godt at komme lidt væk.
  
  
  Jeg synes helt klart at DR burde gøre mere ud af deres wildcard. Det er efterhånden ikke til at se forskel på hvem der er wildcard og hvem der ikke er. Jeg ved ikke om det er DR's egen skyld eller om det er det danske musikermiljø der bare har "finere" ting at tage sig til, men noget burde i hvert fald ændres. Jeg håber virkelig at de dage er ovre, hvor man bare skulle have været med i et talentshow for at vinde det danske grand prix.
  
  Jeg startede på studiet i sidste uge, så jeg har været travlt optaget af studiestartsfestival, fester, fototur og alle mulige andre sociale arrangementer det seneste stykke tid. Det virker som en fin klasse og det hele, så nu må vi bare se hvordan studiet er når nu det rigtigt kommer i gang.
  
  Hvordan går det ellers?
• 

  Christian Bräuer says • 14/Aug 2011 at 12:53

  Wow! Glad to read that it was a impressive journey. Love Paris very much (been there more about 20 times) but I've never been to Mussee Nissim-de-Cammondo. Harry's bar sounds really more touristic. Should have a look there next time too. Dining and shopping is always good and easy in Paris. Understand your enthusiasm for stuffed animals. Next time when you are in Berlin you should visit the Natural History Museum too. I'm sure you would love it.
  Can imagine what travel gift cards are but I don't know if they sell them here too. The hotel sounds amazing. Was it the Rocco Forte Hotel Amigo? My bf was there and loved it. Love such hotels very much (but who wouldn't)! Glad that Germany isn't so expensive. In general Berlin is cheaper than Hamburg. That makes it so livable.
  
  Thank you for the link. Like the video very much. The Young Professionals would be really an enrichment for ESC. We travel in september to Tel Aviv. Probably I can recommend you other artists afterwards. Liked Dana both times. ln 1998 it was the beginning of a new era in ESC. Like her song from 2011 very much but her performance was pretty lousy. After watching this video you'll like the song too.
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7bj8W0KMqo
  Like also Dana's song 'Love Boy'.
  
  Impressive German photo artists are also Andreas Gursky and Thomas Struth and especially Wolfgang Tillmanns! I've no doubt that you like Tillmanns (or probably you know his works). Like your newly posted photos too. Did you make them before or after your journey?
  
  What are you doing now? Still holidays? Heard the beach volleyball championship is in Kristiansand now. But think that's not your sports.

  Reply from Thomas:

  I will put that on my list on what to see in Berlin.
  I think you can get them in Germany too, you can get them for all kinds of stuff: traveling, dining, golf and so on. The most common ones in Scandinavia are called Smartbox. I just saw that the box we used costs 300 Euros, and if we had walked into the hotel from the street we should have paid nearly 1000 Euros with all. So you can definitely save some money.
  We stayed at a Sofitel Hotel.
  
  I would very much like to know some more Israeli music, so please do some research while you are there.
  In my ears ”Ding Dong” still needs some more production work, though the video makes it a little better, hehe.
  
  I don't know any of them, but you are right Tillmans(it's hard not to write ”Toasty” after that name)
  is more my taste.
  The new photos are all taken this week. There is only one way to get better, and that is by practice. So I must try to take pictures as often as I can. I hope I still have time for it now that university starts.
  
  University starts tomorrow, so no more holiday. I'm a little excited, I hope it's a good place to study.
  Yeah there is beach volley all over the center of the city, I haven't really been following, though it can be fun to see.
  
  What about you? Have you been doing anything special lately?
• 

  Nick Vanhaverbeke says • 11/Aug 2011 at 18:49

  Hey,
  
  do you have already voted for the final of ESC 2002-2011
  http://www.nick-vanhaverbeke.be/Eurovision.html
• 

  Christian Bräuer says • 8/Aug 2011 at 22:22

  It's definitely worth to see things not just through the camera. Hope you had much fun? What did you in Paris and Bruxelles?Experienced something new? I'm sometimes in Paris maybe you've a good insider tip for me.
  Your photos are really good. Motif choice, focusing, illumination. Really good. Visited a really amazing exposition of Gregory Crewdson in C/O gallery in Berlin. It's a co-production with museums in Copenhagen and Stockholm. Maybe you could see it there. Love photo art very much. Besides Bernd and Hilla Becher (of course) Thomas Ruff and Candida Höfer are my favourites of German photo artists. Do you know/like them?
  Read that Israel will take part in 2012. Would be really great! DId you like Dana in 1998 and 2011? Who would be your favourite Israeli artist for 2012?

  Reply from Thomas:

  I had a great time in Paris, Brussels and Compiègne in between. We started of with the most recommendable thing in Paris, Mussee Nissam-de-Cammondo. It's at mansion from the beginning of the 20th century, complete with furniture, kitchen and bathrooms. We spend the rest of the day having tea at Hediard, shopping a little and having drinks at Harry's Bar(a place I thought would be overcrowded by American tourists, but to my surprise there were mostly young Frenchmen).
  The second day we started at Eugène Delacroix's home, it was a quite nice museum, but all text was only written in French, and I never had French in school. We then went on to La Conciergerie, where Marie Antoinette spend her last days. It was okay, but not a must-see.
  The third and last day in Paris we began at the Natural History Museum. For some reason I love seeing stuffed animals and this was definitely one of the biggest collections I've seen. Nearly everything was in French again, but there was so many animals and so beautiful architecture to see that it didn't matter.
  Then it was time for Institut du monde arabe. The design of the building was cool, but the museum itself was kind of boring. We saw the permanent exhibition, and once again everything was in French and further more the exhibited objects seemed kind of random. We walked to the Jewish area. It was the last school day for the Jewish kids, so they were singing in the streets, kind of funny to experience. We ended at the Carnavalet Museum, a museum about Paris, it was very big and we only saw half of it, by far one of the better museums.
  So my recommendation for Paris is Mussee Nissam-de-Cammondo.
  We then took the train to Compiègne in Picardy, where we rented a car. The Château in Compiègne is amazing with a beautiful park.
  My husband is extremely fascinated by WW1, so we spend one day seeing cemeteries, war museums and the rail carriage where the armistice after WW1 was signed. I'm kind of stuffed with both world wars, I've seen far too many exhibitions and documentaries, but the museum we saw in a city called Peronne was definitely one of the better.
  One evening in Compiègne we ordered the menu of the day without knowing what it was. It turned out to a sausage made cow stomach. I had no problem eating it, but my husband only ate the vegetables.
  In Brussels we had used one of our travel gift cards for the hotel. We knew it was one of the better hotels, but we didn't expect it to be this luxurious. I found out that you normally pay 430 euro per night to stay there, and that's without breakfast. I think it's one of the best hotels I've ever been to.
  As we only had one and a half day in the city we didn't do much but shopping and walking around. But we had time to visit an art gallery in a villa from the 30s called Villa Empain. Really stunning architecture and the art was okay too.
  We ended the trip with a night in Hamburg. I'm always surprised by the cheap prices in Germany, and as we live in Norway now everything seems even cheaper. And it's nice to get to speak some German.
  
  I actually don't know the names of that many big photographers, but Gregory Crewdson I know. I love his photos, I hope to see one of his exhibitions some day. I don't know the German photographers you mention, but I will look them up.
  
  It's really good that Israel will participate next year after all. I hope they will send The Young Professionals with something like this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VcZnRz7WujA.
  I was only nine when Dana won, but as far as I remember I liked the song a lot. These days I'm more in love with her personality than her singing. Do you have any ideas for Israel?