The button also gets you onto all the public transportation for free, which is a pretty big deal considering how expensive the Metro, bus and train are. A single ride between any two zones (metro, bus, or train) is 24 DKK, or roughly $4.50 at the current exchange rate. A single ride across 3 zones is 36 DKK, or close to $6. A ride from my apartment to the airport, approximately 25 minutes, will cross 5 zones and would cost over $15 one-way. Its still cheaper than a taxi, which will run $50. A ten-ride ticket between two zones is 145 DKK, bringing the price down to $2.75 each. Reason # 42 why everyone here rides a bike.
Our first stop was the Statens Museum for Kunst. We wandered through the botanical gardens to get to our stop and along the way picked up a gentleman who asked if my accent was American or Canadian. He had just flown in from Australia and hadn't heard an American accent in forever. He'd gone to Williams college for undergrad and remembered western MA fondly. He asked if he could tag along since he didn't have an agenda, so we chatted on our way to the museum.
The event descriptions on the KulturNatten website were pretty brief, so I wasn't sure what to expect from "National Gallery staff uses UV and other technology to show the layered stories behind the final image of a work of art." We found the starting point of the tour and I belatedly wondered if the talk was in Danish or English. The downside to studying in an all-English program is you assume everything outside the program will be in English, too. Oops. There were two portions of the talk and it turned out that one of them would be in English, since the restorer was Irish and not all that comfortable with Danish yet. We also sat through the Danish portion and asked the guide afterward if he would be kind enough to summarize in English what he had just said. He was very generous with his time and took my friends and I through the highlights. You can read more about the exhibit we saw here: http://www.smk.dk/en/explore-the-art/exhibitions/illuminated/ Don't worry, its in English.
Some interior shots of the National Gallery:
This one shows where the old building ended and the new addition began, bridged by a glass ceiling several stories up. We're still inside the building.
After the talk we wandered around a little and found a performance space where people were getting settled. I remembered reading something about a musical performance, but couldn't remember the description. So we settled in for a listen. On stage were a gentleman with an electric guitar, a woman playing an electric bass and an impressive array of foot pedals, and a gentleman standing in front of the piano playing an iBook and an electric turntable (not the piano). On the screen behind them was a very strange music video that ended just as their performance began. Once they began playing, the screen came alive with amorphous shapes and vivid colors, just melding into each other in what we assumed was supposed to be in time with the music. Except there was no beat.
Only the morning after was I able to figure out who we had seen. The guy at the iBook was Martin Hall. THE Martin Hall. Who? "Martin Hall began studying music at the tender age of 10. He released his first album at the age of 17, and in 1995 he received a three-year grant from The Danish Arts Foundation for his work as a composer. In 1996 Hall released the album Random Hold, which is featured in the Politikens Rockleksikon list of the 50 most influential records in Danish rock." Down at the end I'll post some videos of his work. If you can listen to more than 5 minutes of it, I'll totally be impressed.
Anyway...
We snuck out of the performance after 10 very confusing minutes and headed to our next stop, the Center for International Study. They were hosting an American haunted house and offered free smores. I couldn't resist dragging my friends along since I've been feeling a little homesick for a New England fall.
Above is Gomathi roasting a marshmallow. Both she and Clara enjoyed their first smore, but ended up with more marshmallow on their hands then they would have liked. Never made it through the haunted house, as the line was far too long. But I snagged a spiced hot cider for the road.
It was approaching midnight, so we wandered back in the direction of the metro and encountered a street artist. He was a very talented drummer banging away on plastic buckets set up around a dolly. He also played a plastic pig that made squeeling sounds, we think it might have been a dog toy. He was sprinkling his act with political commentary (we think) and was a big hit with the growing crowd. Since we know about a dozen words in Danish, we moved on. We found a crepe truck still open and opted for some cinnamon & sugar crepes for the ride home.
Some more on Martin Hall:
This is the video that played before the live performance began, its called Dead Horses on a Beach. I believe he composed, but didn't play or sing on this track. You can also find it on his latest album.
I cannot find a good representation of the live performance we saw, as all the Martin Hall YouTube videos are, well, normal. The songs are 3-6 minutes, have a beat, and he sings some lyrics. There was none of that in the show we saw. It was continuous...I hate to say it....noise. It was very odd and seems like a very big departure from Hall's previous work.
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