…my birthday is coming up!

Click to order:

To be continued!

Bart 12/April St. John's Canada

So here they are: the first entries for the Birthday Calendar Project. YAY!

They landed in my mail box from exotic places like St. John’s (Canada), Zürich (Switzerland) and Frederiksberg and Søborg (Denmark).

And I must say the Danes ought to rally for some nice booths because as you can see they didn’t allow for more than one or two “faces”. Anyway, if you are in Denmark and know where to find a cool booth let us know.

Looking great so far, I think (looks like it is gonna take a couple of years before I get all 365 days together though!

I especially like Bart’s little “oh no, here comes the photobooth monster” series on the right. You can tell he is in the film business. Hope you survided the attack, Bart!

Want to contribute? Don’t mind if your Birthday has already been “taken”, there is room for everyone!

You’ll find the rules here: The Birthday Project
And the newest submission to the Calendar here: Flickr Birthday Set

Until then I hope you will join me in wishing everyone a happy birthday!

And to everyone who send in Birthday photos: you are truly amazing, thank you so much for taking part!

Russell 31/March Zürich Switzerland

Lucy 16/March Zürich Switzerland

Karen 5/March Frederiksberg Denmark

Lise 27/February Søborg Denmark

Nørrebro Parken, København

Nørrebro Parken, København

Assistents Kirkegården, Nørrebro

Kongens Have, København

Kongens Have, København

]]> http://lauramaki.wordpress.com/2009/04/03/strangers/feed/ 1 lauramaki Nørrebro Parken, København Nørrebro Parken, København Assistents Kirkegården, Nørrebro Kongens Have, København Kongens Have, København http://lauramaki.wordpress.com/2009/03/24/werner-herzog-eats-his-shoe/ http://lauramaki.wordpress.com/2009/03/24/werner-herzog-eats-his-shoe/#comments Tue, 24 Mar 2009 15:13:42 +0000 lauramaki http://lauramaki.wordpress.com/?p=453 ]]>

Over thirty years ago, Werner Herzog challenged Errol Morris to shoot his first documentary. Morris had been plagued by non-starts in other creative areas like music and writing, and doubted he had the resources to accomplish the task.

Herzog declared that we would eat his shoes if Errol just made the damn movie. The result was Morris’ Gates of Heaven, a prolific award-winning career for Morris and this documentary short by Les Blank. Part 1 shown above, Part 2 here.
via Jack Cheng on tumblr

Lately I find myself talking about Nørrebro as if it’s a dangerous place to live…

I don’t think it is, unless you’re are in a gang and think shooting your enemies is a smart idea (or just very very unlucky)! And even though Nørrebro has been in the news many times over the last few years with less than attractive stories about street riots, burning cars, gangs, drug dealers and drive by shootings, I actually feel very safe living here.

Nørrebro by Aaron Bateman on Flickr

I love Nørrebro with it’s crazy mix of people from all over the world, vegetable and grocery stores that are open every day at late hours, young people hanging out on street corners in sofas listening to music from their pimped up street-party-bikes and bums telling you weird stories while you’re trying to buy milk at ALDI’s!

Granted, I live in the middle of a pretty nice and qiuet part of the neighborhood, surrounden by two parks and mostly danish families with children (at least in my street), but I’m sure other people feel the same way as I do. Once you go Nørrebro, you can’t imagine living anywhere else in Copenhagen!

So, what I want to know is: what do you love about Nørrebro?

…repeat the title above… fast! hehe

After coming up with the Birthday Project, I surfed around a bit and came across this little project: http://www.glamour.com/sex-love-life/blogs/smitten/2009/02/we-left-two-cameras-on-new-yor.html

And here’s the original Atlanta project: http://theplug.net/28/strangerphotos.htm

And I decided to do one myself… nothing to see yet, apart from this very colorful patched up single use camera:

Yesterday I left this single use camera on a bench in Kongens Have (just next to Rosenborg) for just 2 hours or so, with a message asking people to have fun with it and take some pictures. 3-4 people did (it’s hard to tell from the counter). Then this afternoon I left it on a bench in Nørrebro Parken… Six exposures left. Guess I will have to find a third location tomorrow. Any suggestions?

]]> http://lauramaki.wordpress.com/2009/03/18/photo-projects-progress/feed/ 2 lauramaki Collecting Strangers http://lauramaki.wordpress.com/2009/03/08/karma-points/ http://lauramaki.wordpress.com/2009/03/08/karma-points/#comments Sun, 08 Mar 2009 15:39:43 +0000 lauramaki http://lauramaki.wordpress.com/?p=437 ]]>

First of all, I do know this is not what Karma is supposed to do, but I have been thinking lately. Especially since I’m totally broke and unemployed at the moment, even though I’m busy as ever.

I know so many people, who work very hard and with passion, dedication and competence without ever receiving any monetary credit for the hours they put into something that has tremendous value to the people around them.

This is also the case in the business that I usually find myself in. Film and Media. Here people are happy to work full time in companies and organizations that might pay less than 30% of their staff ANY money, because the line of volunteers waiting to get a chance to work on some lousy little project for month is just endless or because they depend on public funding and sponsorships to make it happen.
I actually know proper “grown ups” (as in people with education, kids and mortgages) who work for free or hardly any money, because they love what they do.

Most festivals I worked with can’t afford to pay more than a hand full of employees and still they get the work done thanks to those fantastic hard working volunteers and interns. Most of them do it for the sake of experience, networking or just plain passion.
I’ve been fortunate so far to work with people/things that I love and actually get payed (most of the time that is)!

I haven’t even started about all those GREAT and INCREDIBLE people who do social volunteer work in their communities  and all around the world… Give them some Karma credit, please!

So I’m thinking, wouldn’t it be great if those people could get payed back by simply exchanging Karma points for a meal, a trip to the movies or theatre, a cup of coffee, new boots (yes, why not?), train and flight tickets or a nice foot massage?

Oh yes, and I confess! I’ve put my Karma Points Exchange Wishlist below for the Universe to notice and just in case anyone else was wondering! Sometimes you just feel like you are running out of free stuff to do…

1. Always up for a free dinner, brunch, breakfast or snack, seriously. This will always remain number 1 on my list!

2. Need company to go watch a film or maybe a concert? No problemo!
Movies you might want to see (with me):
Milk
Slumdog Millionaire
Waltz with Bashir
Mænd der hader Kvinder
Revolutionary Road
Frost/Nixon

Concerts you might want to take me to:
Fever Ray @ Vega
Chicks on Speed @ Loppen
Surfact @ Loppen
Whitest Boy Alive @ Vega
Grace Jones @ Falkonér
Kraftwerk
Roskilde Festival… so many… too many
Fortunately I bought a ticket for PJ Harvey @ Vega long time ago… yay, not totally lost!

3. Going to Germany or Århus by car? Want company?

4. Bought a train ticket you can’t return? Don’t want to let it go to waste?

5. You rrrrreally hate flying and would like someone to hold your hand the entire trip? I’m so in! (Or maybe you just feel like buying me a trip to Helsinki, the Bahamas or Burg Feuerstein? (yes, they have an air port!))

6. You should always remember to drink plenty of fluids… especially the de-hydrating sort! Wanna buy me a beer or cappuccino? I’m great company!

So, do you know anyone who deserves to “cash in” some of her/his Karma Points? Why not invite them over for dinner, just because! They’ll appreciate it!

Wuuuhuuu… needless to say, I’m sooo gonna download it for my iPod touch…

Since I moved “house” recently, I thought I’ld revise my “about” page.

“Aloha
Welcome to my “new” home in cyberspace (Oh, why did that word ever go out of fashion?).

I recently realized I’ve been blogging about stuff since September 2005. My first blog posts were a deliberate mash of German, Danish and English ramblings about all kinds of stuff.. my life, work, friends and family, stuff…
Not much has changed since then. The German blog posts have become rare, I must admit. I still blog in both Danish and English, depending on my mood and the language an idea speaks.

I’m fascinated by beautiful design, art, ideas and people.

I’m not a big complainer, I hate negativeness (is that a word?) and the only things that really make me furious have to do with people destroying other peoples lives. People in too much power, people with too much testosterone (sorry guys), people with guns, people with no heart, people with no brain, people with no compassion for other people… argh!

Positive thoughts (or vibes if you will) usually make my day and I practice them as often as I can. You should try them too… strangely enough they usually make you happy!

In short: this blog is 99% pleasant, happy, beautiful, positive or just simply content with what life has to offer. I hope you can handle that.

Want to find me somewhere else on the internet?

Look for lauramaki on gmail, flickr, skype, twitter etc.

Have a nice day”

Btw, If you want to give me a “housewarming” gift, please share something in the comments… preferably something beautiful!

Last week I mentioned DavidLynch.com, which is quite an interesting site, full of weird navigation, videos, projects and lots of other things you wouldn’t expect to find (like a webshop for the David Lynch Coffee Brand.

Yesterday Sami pointed me towards the Kraftwerk website… wow, total navigation hell and definitively another piece of interesting “website art”. Check it out and while you’re at it you could start looking forward to seeing them live in a town near you: