long live live theatre!

we saw an updated musical version of the three musketeers last evening at the utzon (he of sydney opera house fame)-designed music house in esbjerg. and the music was...wait for it...80s glam rock with a bit of madonna, cyndy lauper and eurythmics thrown in. and as weird and possibly awful as that sounds, it really wasn't. it was awesome. a cleverly-done update that made the three musketeers story relevant for today and totally struck the right notes of nostalgia for those of us who grew up in the 80s. to take a story that everyone knows so well and has seen a million times and to couple it with music that we've all sung along to a million times transformed both into something new and fresh. it was a bit of what the russian formalists called "making strange," and it just worked. it helped that the acting was great, the music was great and the lighting was very cool. and the way they played with mixing english and danish was brilliant as well. in this day and age with all of the amateur talent competitions in prime time and "reality" television featuring people of limited talent, it was refreshing to see performers who were just genuinely good at what they do. and theatre just lends an immediacy and an intimacy that watching netflix on the iPad just utterly lacks. long live the theatre!

those play-doh folks really did an awesome job with wallace & gromit

we all know how much i love lego, so it's not surprising that i wasn't all that keen on this cynical piece in the nytimes (while otherwise generally being a fan of both the nytimes and of cynicism). i also read this one, which chose to be charmed by the branding of the movie, and is thus a little more positive. it's actually interesting that it's taken nearly a month for some negativity about this film to surface.

but both of these pieces and many of the others, in my view, give a bit too much credit to lego for a movie made by warner brothers and cleverly written and directed by phil lord and christopher miller. yes, there was an executive producer from the lego company and lego did, of course, protect their strong brand name and interests, but (you knew there was a but), giving them all of the credit is a little bit like attributing the cleverness of wallace & gromit only to play-doh.

like polymer clay in the aardman animations, lego bricks were a medium in the film - a vehicle on which to attach both visually and to tell a story. a human, funny, positive, charming, but also slightly politically subversive and even ironic (in its anti-capitalist message) story. it is postmodernism at its best, engaging all of the references of pop culture and childhood memories (from benny the spaceman to batman), rolling them into a rolicking good time of a movie that's self-referential, visually enchanting and has a positive message of believing in your own talents. it's a feel good movie. lego is lucky is worked so well, and some credit for that goes to the strength and positivity of their brand, but they don't deserve all of the credit. warner brothers played a significant part.

pinterest for the win!

see my pinterest here.

i am a sucker for being part of a group. especially if they make it seem exclusive and cool and perhaps a little bit secret. oh, and if they flatter me when they send the invitation, hello, count me in! so when i got an email from pinterest this morning, complimenting my pinboards, and inviting me to apply to be a translator for the danish version of pinterest, i was like, sign me up, baby! so i dutifully clicked through and applied. a few hours later, i was approved and invited to my first secret facebook group. i think the difference with secret groups is that the rest of the folks in your timeline can't see what you're posting and commenting on. the whole thing makes me a little bit giddy.

but really, what it is is pinterest being very smart. they've flattered their users into doing the expensive translation job for them. for free! all by making it seem cool and exclusive. there is much to be learned from this (can you say co-creation?). they get a much better translation from native speakers (and folks like me who are picky about language and have lived here so long that i'm pretty good at it as well). they create loyalty among users. and they don't pay for it. i predict we'll be seeing a lot more of this from businesses in the not-so-distant future.

a little while later, someone in my facebook feed shared a status of someone from their feed who is pissed at pinterest. pinterest's terms forbid "pin to win" contests and they will go after users who are engaging in such things. and frankly, i think that's awesome. pins should be there because they are things people love, not things people are trying to win (tho' one might argue that you wouldn't be trying to win something if you didn't love it). and i like the purity of it. if those i followed suddenly started pinning shit from etsy (because etsy just opened their doors much wider to shit) instead of moodily-lit figs, just because they wanted to win it, i would be one unhappy camper. i do love me some moodily-lit figs, not to mention triangles, don't get me started on triangles (they're the new circle).

so, to recap. pinterest flattering their users (including me) into doing their enormous translation/localization task for them = score. and cracking down on "pin to win" greedy bastards = score. so it's pinterest for the win!

girl power in lego minifigure form

medusa (series 10)

librarian (look here to see how someone played around with this one) (series 10)

grandma and her cat (series 11)

girl scientist (series 11)

diner waitress (series 11) (love, love, love her skates)

girl skier (series 8)

bride (series 7)

warrior girl (series 10)

red cheerleader (series 8)

hollywood starlet (marilyn?) (series 9)

fairy (series 8) - awesome detail on this one!

olympic swimmer (series 7)

girl viking (series 7)

girl viking's braids are so cool, i had to show you another shot of her

i shared my little lego minifigure obsession with you awhile ago, but since then, a couple few more have come to the join the fold. these are just some of the girls. it's a rather fun obsession - you buy a packet and don't know which one you're getting. there are communities which report on the minifigures before they come out and which have all kinds of tips for feeling up the packages to try to get the one you want. it's so much fun. i think we're going to need to find another typecase drawer to display them all. tho' half the fun for me is photographing them and finding a certain one that i know someone else wants or will love. like the librarian, i'm taking her to my friends at the library today. i don't have to keep them all in my own collection (well, except for the viking girl and the forest maiden and a couple of others i haven't shown you yet). it's enough to have photographed them, actually.

what do you collect? and how do you keep it under control?

lego minifigures, like modern baseball cards, without all that stupid baseball

i was in the grocery store and spotted a display of lego minifigures. i've long been familiar with little lego people, as we have many of them around the house, mostly of the kind that came with sets of lego. and one of the ways you can properly judge a lego set is by how many mini figures come with it. but until friday, i wasn't really aware of the minifigure collecting phenomenon.

they come in a sealed package, like baseball cards, in a numbered series and you'll get a surprise one of 16 minifigures in your package for 20 kroner (or 17 if you buy them in fakta, where i did). i spotted a little chicken on the package and decided to grab a couple, thinking in light of my missing chickens, it would be fun to get a lego chicken.

the first one i opened was not a chicken, but this club-wielding troglodyte (which i later found out is actually a cyclops). and i felt a little bit like i can never escape those cavemen, tho' he's also kind cute. naturally, i still had to try for a chicken, but i had bought two, so i had one more to open.

inside the second package was this awesome little forest maiden, who i took to be a warrior goddess who was sworn to defend the forest. plus, how awesome is her hair? i was happy, but it still wasn't a little lego man in a chicken suit, so i picked up another handful when i had to go back to the store anyway for some things i forgot for the party.

next up was a judge. he's very cleverly made - his little red robe held in place by his white wig. no minifigures this cool come with the actual sets. and look at his wrinkles and that expression on his face. this is an awesome level of detailed cleverness.

before my chicken came, i got caesar, complete with little gold laurel wreath on his perfect little caesar haircut. that was cool, but still not a chicken. the chicken only came on my 6th try. but it's so cute it was worth it. i don't need all of series 9, but i would still like to have the hollywood starlet, who looks a bit like marilyn monroe and the mermaid, so i imagine a few more will find their way into my basket the next time i'm in the grocery store.

then we discovered that the local campground (i went there, trying to source ice in a fit of pre-party panic yesterday) had a display with some of the older series - 3-4-5 to be exact. those must be getting pretty rare, so we had to pick up a few five of them. we got this little zookeeper, complete with monkey and banana.

and my fave, a mad scientist, also with super cool hair. the hair on these is WAY better than on the normal ones that come with sets.

we also got kimono girl from series 4. we were trying for the viking that was part of that series, but no such luck.

and who can resist hazmat guy from series 5? look at the expression on his face? he looks really worried!

honestly, i do not need more bits of plastic in my life, but i am definitely a sucker for something that's cleverly done. i even arranged a trade with lost star (she's got warrior girl from series 10 and i had an extra cyclops that she needed). but i'll be able to stop as soon as i get viking girl, viking guy, the little soldier in a furry hat (after all, husband was once one of those himself) and the one in a bunny costume (ala the chicken man who started it all). and then i can quit. really. for sure. i promise.

nature is cool: green porno by isabella rossellini

i'm probably a little behind in discovering these, but i just saw them on anders lund madsen's program on DR2 about how stupid animals are and just had to share them. isabella rossellini rocks.

if, like me, you can't get enough, there's more here.

around the world in 60 seconds

 

i love this. 

thanks, sis, for sending it my way.

do the time not the crime: an interview from the minimum security lock-up

perhaps the most surprising response to my interview meme was the following gentleman from the common room in the north wing of a minimum security prison somewhere in washington...

1. so what are you in for?

Well, my first crime was I was born and I was framed. Two people, who I didn't know at the time, are the ones, you know, responsible for making me who I am. Then I did some kid stuff and I did too much fast talking and I had to wear a blue uniform and do time in a parochial school. As I remember it, I did 6 years. There was a lot of broken wood rulers and notes sent to those two people I previously mentioned. Later, after doing another 6 years of retraining I was released with some kind of certificate and a square hat and told to find a job. I had no money so I hung around some people my age, found a woman, fell in love and we got married. Now, I do dishes, rake leaves and I don't mix pink things with white things in the laundry ... I'm tellin' you, it's real harsh. Like a book, it’s one sentence after another.

2. any chance of parole?

Nah, she’s for real and we made a deal, it’s a life sentence and then some.

3. who gets to bunk with martha?

If I get the top bunk that’s OK. If not, and Martha wants the top bunk, I’ll be tough and tell her to go to the kitchen and whip up some chicken tacos or those little crackers with god-knows-what on them. And, to bring me back a Coke, not a Pepsi.

4. where i live, minimum security means you get to sleep in your own bed, is that true there?

No. I have to share it with the wife. And sometimes a real big dog puts his head on the bed and watches me sleep. Some guard dog, huh?

5. what do you miss most from the outside?

Trains and big windows. Orange juice not Tang. Clean white socks, private showers and potato chips that aren't tiny pieces. And maybe skipping on the bloodhounds and sleeping under the stars in the High Sierras.

6. if you had to order a last meal (which of course i hope you don't), what would it consist of?

Last meal? First, can I have some cocktail weenies with catsup? Maybe a New York style pretzel with plenty of mustard. Ooh, garlic fries also sound good. After that, I’d say something Italian, Mexican, Thai and Chinese and about 72 courses long. Each with a different micro brew.

7. have you atoned for your crime(s)?

That’s a good one. I’m still paying for those two kids we had.

8. were you on wall street by chance?

Where’s Wall Street? I once knew a Harvey Wallbanger and I've been to Wall Drug (which you also know).

9. or a member of the bush administration?

I kinda like bushes. There good to hide behind and some have smelly flowers (which confuse the bloodhounds).

10. any chance of conjugal visits?

I had think about that for a minute. The answer is, yes. Then again, who are we talking about that's visiting? If it’s Martha, then no. Now I think Crazy Ike and Raoul want to talk with you.

* * *

thank you bill for injecting some well-needed humor into this whole endeavor.