the view from a safe distance

i am really at a loss for words about the events in connecticut. i feel a little bit about it like i did about 9/11 - i didn't know anyone involved, so it didn't really affect me directly, but yet, i feel somehow personally wounded by it anyway. so senseless. so violent. so incomprehensible. and i suppose we'll never know what possessed that young man to do it. and writing it off to madness somehow negates it, so i hesitate to even think that.

but i think the most disappointing thing has been the idiocy of the gun-happy people - some of whom are sadly, close to my own family. an inflammatory conversation on facebook has me fuming. how on earth can someone who is a teacher herself defend guns and make the most absurd arguments (aren't teachers taught basic rhetoric) in the hours immediately following the events? the timing of the ridiculous arguments, while the details were still fuzzy, chilled me to the bone. interesting that the person in question never dares in person to broach such subjects, but chooses the passive aggressive forum that is facebook to do so. but that's no doubt the stuff of a different post.

the fact is that this introverted, socially-awkward kid did what he did because legally-obtained guns were at hand in his home (why on earth an elementary school teacher had need for multiple semi-automatic weapons is another mystery). if he'd had to go out and try to obtain them illegally, he wouldn't have known where to begin. this happened because he had access to guns.

i feel for all those families, devastated right before christmas. but if anything good can come of it (and it seems an awful lot like there's nothing good in it at all), we can hope that something will be done with the gun laws in the US. there are entirely too many stories like this one, whether on a campus, in a school or in a movie theatre. apparently americans are not to be trusted with guns. and this is surely not what they meant with the second amendment.

on expatriation and culture and landing in the mid-atlantic

some of the projects we have in the pipeline have me thinking about how shaped by culture, one's own and the one in which one finds oneself, we are. defined. how it locks us in boxes and leaves us feeling superior (or inferior) because of it. and how mind-numbingly LIMITING that all is...on both sides.

i stumbled across a blog written by an american who made the move to sweden. it's on sweden.se, a cool site that the swedish institute runs in english - all about living in sweden (wish denmark would have had such a thing back when the internet was in its infancy and i moved here). it got me thinking about all those things that i thought were so alien when i first moved to denmark. some of them still puzzle me, but i've actually gotten used to a lot in the 14-ish years i've been here.

~ i remember my first time in a grocery store, scrambling as i realized there was no one there to pack my groceries and not only did i have to do it myself, i had to PAY for the bag to put it in!

~ when i arrived in denmark in the late 90s, mobile phones were still rather a luxury item in the us - mostly doctors and other important people had them, people with their own cars. i remember being shocked to see people on the bus talking on their mobile phone. if you could afford a phone, what on earth were you doing on public transportation? (i had a lot to learn, both about public transportation and about mobile phones.)

~ the sight of a man in a suit, riding a bicycle and smoking a cigarette. in my mind, a bicycle was for exercise, not necessary transport, and who would smoke or wear a suit while exercising?

~ people treating cemeteries as parks, laying out in their bra and underwear in the first rays of spring sunshine on a towel with their bike leaned up against h.c. andersen's grave, catching some rays and drinking a beer.

~ public nudity. this one was technically in sweden, but as the ferry pulled into landskrona, there was a row of colorful little houses along the waterfront and a bunch of naked swedes were jumping in and out of the water from the doorways of the little bathing houses.

~ no one ever holding a door open for you if you were coming along behind them. it got so bad, i thought that they were actually waiting to strategically drop it in my face for the most profound rudeness effect. later, i realized that many danes, if they didn't meet you when they went to kindergarten with you, actually lack the ability to see you at all. it's kind of a like you're wearing an invisibility cloak.  this is one of those things i never get used to, it still surprises me and sometimes even hurts my feelings - i just can't help it.

~ signs with the word "fart" on them. in an elevator: i fart. along the roadside: fart kontrol. i thought the danes were obsessed with flatulence and i thought they were pretty darn organized to think they could control it. but it turned out to mean motion or speed - so the elevator was in motion when the i fart sign was lit. and the fart kontrol was a friendly warning that a cop (or just an unmanned van or camera) with radar was just ahead, so you'd better stop driving like a maniac.

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speaking of expats in denmark, i made a new blog friend!

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and speaking of denmark.
film is a powerful medium.

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you have to see what kit lane made of the lila hairball we gave her.
utterly fabulous.

assorted arbness and some links to good stuff

i bought a 2013 calendar today. i haven't actually had a paper, real calendar in several years, but i found i wanted one. the electronic version i carry in my phone just isn't the same. maybe i was just feeling old school, but whatever it is, it feels right to start penciling (and i am using pencil) onto the smooth paper. what about you - do you have a real, paper calendar or just an electronic one?

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normally i think mindfulness is a load of fluffy crap, but some of the advice in this post spoke to me.

and i always make my bed.

in fact, i start making it even before i get out of it.

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literature makes you weird. and amen to that.
anything that makes us think outside of our accustomed modes of thought is most welcome.

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interesting piece on etsy on npr (and also on wired). i have my doubts as to how well they actually "investigate" those sellers selling chinese crap. and we know they don't do anything about copycats. and don't even get me started on what they allow as "vintage." and the former CEO's quote about "curating his entire life with handmade" made me throw up a little bit in my mouth. i basically have trouble reconciling the hipster idealism with the actual practice on the site - empty plastic child's paint sets sold as "vintage" and rustic furniture churned out in a factory in indonesia. i'm not convinced that etsy is the answer.

12.12.12

yet again, the interwebs are abuzz with what is seen as an auspicious date - 12.12.12. we won't actually see another of these in my lifetime, as there won't be a 13.13.13 or a 14.14.14 - that makes me wonder whether i've used them wisely. if a line of numbers can mean something, did i make the right wishes or do the right actions on those significant dates? or does it matter more to take the right steps every day? (one could hope so.)

but, on the off chance that it might mean something to think about and write down the things i'd like to manifest in my life here and now while the numbers are aligned, i'm going to do so today. some of it in my art journal and a little bit here. because sometimes you're just not ready to speak all of your wishes out loud. but a couple of them won't hurt, if writing is indeed the new praying.

i'm very hopeful about my business in the year ahead. it's been slow and a bit up and down this year, but we've learned a lot and have many projects buzzing on the horizon. i want to see those to fruition and be open to where they take me.

my dad will turn 80 next year and we (husband and sabin and me) want to be there for his 80th birthday. i want us to go for his birthday and stay until new year's (that's pretty much most of december). we want to travel a bit in the US while we're there - go skiing and visit friends (and sights) in the desert southwest. i'm going to work hard to be able to afford that trip - both financially and the time off it will take.

maybe these things are really just a question of setting a goal and working towards it. what do you think? will you make any wishes today?

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a bit of bitterness on the rise of eBooks. frankly, i think we need to just get over it with this, see it as the democratization of the writing profession (what gets published is no longer determined by a closed group of elite publishers), and get writing.

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it seems russians (and probably a lot of others) are still struggling to understand americans.

ideas can make you sleepy

have you ever had a really good day? one intensely filled with good energy and ideas starting to take shape? and did that day leave you feeling really, really tired? well, that's what happened to me today. i think my brain is telling me to shut down so it can process. more tomorrow, when it's 12/12/12 - one of those days that must be magical.

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did you know columbus didn't think the world was flat?
i wonder what else the history books lied to us about.

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ideas for developing ideas. what would be more awesome than that?

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danish design? yes, please.

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fashion as craft? it's about time.

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the y board: yarn porn (of course).

w is for winter wonderland

winter came this weekend in earnest and we loved every minute of it. we baked cookies and husband helped decorate them. we made snow forts and had a snowball fight. we went for a walk in the winter sunshine. life was good. life is good.

this winter doesn't seem as desperately dark and depressing as other winters have. maybe we've had more days of sunshine or perhaps i'm just finally used to it. whatever it is, i'm holding onto it tightly. life is good.

the w boards on pinterest: want. web design. wire & sticks (this is a good one). wise words. wooden bits. words (this is word-related art, not books). work-related. workspaces. woven.

happy birthday, dad!

a big happy birthday to my dad!
he's a bit older today than he was in this photo (circa 1977).

this was back in the era when he proposed that the fence post should be the state tree of south dakota.
sadly, it didn't pass.

i also recall a bet paid in pennies on that very desk on the floor of the house.
it was some mound of pennies.

happy birthday, dad.

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is food a narrative medium?
here's another opinion on the subject.

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wine talk - it's so pretentious, but there's also something to it - thinking deeply about pleasure.

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i have long wished that i was alive and in my prime in 1913.

(who knows, maybe i was?)

here's just another confirmation that it was The Year.

at least where art and culture were concerned.

i wonder if 2013 has the same potential?

somehow i doubt it.

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so many people in the world with such amazing stories.

like bryan saunders, who has drawn 8700 self-portraits - some while on various drugs.

i wasn't sure whether to be in awe or horrified.

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the v board on pinterest: of course it's vikings.