Fourth of July American Style Wrap-Up

Last night we barbequed in true American style with our Scandinavian and British counterparts.



The night ended in true Ann Arbor Style weirdness.

Today we had a tour of the facilities at Midform (Bent wood/veneer manufacturer) and JM RøR (Metal/welding manufacturer).

Midform was a pretty impressive production - their molds are a hell of a lot better than mine. Haha.




Also their routers have (COUNT 'EM) 5-Axes

Everyone at JM RøR is out for a three-week vacation so the facilities were mostly empty. I realized pretty quick my complete lack of knowledge about anything metal related - Something to think about for the up coming year.





After the manufacturers we stopped over at The Trapholt Museum of Modern Art in Kolding. They literally had every single famous chair ever - It was awesome. They also have huge store rooms and it wasn't busy and we were a large enough group so we could request them to take out certain designs. Totally great and really helpful for our first iterations that are due Thursday. I think I have the majority of my ideas formulated, but the actual drawings are another story....






I love this acrylic Verner Panton so much, if I weren't in mandatory veneer I would consider something along the lines of these intersecting planes.



As you may be able to tell I also decided to start using my nice camera instead of the point and shoot which makes these much better quality photos.

Fourth of July and the Apocalypse

Its fourth of July! Just in time for us to realize that french style hotdogs are gross and budweiser is an import here and far too expensive for our mediocre student budget.

On the upside today we met Kasper Salto and Thomas Sigsgaard

Salto & Sigsgaard

This is particularly cool because Salto is basically the at the forefront of Modern Danish Design at the moment and he is one of the main designers for Fritz Hansen (in addition to being an incredibly attractive Non-Blonde Dane).



Additionally while I was getting my laptop checked out for INSANE Danish prices, the salesmen told me that this has been the worst rain that Copenhagen has had in 30+ years. The majority of the Metros were shut down yesterday and the day before due to flooding of some of the lines. As a result it took Erika and I nearly an hour to go about 2 stops and most of the basements are completely flooded. The upside was getting to see Erika wear a trash bag over her head and meeting some young Danes sitting around in the sub for hours.

Beer + Laptop

Out of commission for the moment until the tall blonde at the Eplehuset fixes my keyboard.

What to do?!

Strand + Hvass

Christina Strand (Danish Furniture Designer with her husband Niels Hvass) came to lecture on designing (more recently than Arne Jacobsen...)

Very cool stuff.

So Danish.

Strand + Hvass

Really large spider in our apartment.

Joel and Carlo showed us this video in hopes that Erika and I would learn some morals.

Story from North America

We named him Daniel.

Obsessed.

Black Milk Clothing

But seriously.

København and Việt Nam

Opera Houses

But in all seriousness, being here makes me miss Việt Nam a little. I'm not exactly sure why. It might be that Danish people are surprisingly nice like Vietnamese people, maybe the rest of Europe could learn some things. Maybe its the Danes and their bikes versus the Vietnamese and their Motorbikes.

Photo:Baisikeli

I don't understand why America is so far behind in alternative transportation. Danish people laugh at the New York art students when they talk about biking in Manhattan (apparently something you do if you have a serious death wish). Also I was discussing with Dad last night about bike rental and he wouldn't shut up about a helmet. The thing is - no one wears them here because its about as safe as it can possibly be for bikers. Yesterday Carlo and I got yelled at by a man on a bike for walking in the bike lane because they even have precedence over pedestrians I guess.

Copenhagen is seriously killing it for amazing infrastructure. I was planning on being impressed but its by far the best system I've ever seen. Some German women mistook me for a Dane a few days ago and asked directions the system is SO GOOD that I actually gave her directions...amazing. That says a lot seeing as I give direction in neither New York, Chicago, Detroit or any other major American city (and likely not Kalamazoo either). I guess the transportation system here pretty much developed before or during the building of the city because its amazing. Hanoi could learn some serious stuff. So could Detroit.... and everywhere else.

Either way its nice to see Fixies surpass their Hipster-trash roots in America. Kind of.

Also today I ate my first Danish. It was not cherry cheese - those still sound gross.