Kashmir Abend mit Fragen

One night, hanging out in my Norrebro flat in Copenhagen smoking some nice Kashmir with Maria's polish friend who was philosophically & literally crashing, we talked about the why's. How sometimes, when you stop and think about the general pool of knowledge in the world, you get really hung up. I've explored a lot of academia; wandered everywhere from the hard-core sciences (math, physics etc.) to visual arts, anthropology, native studies, and now things like urban ecosystems and Danish culture. Basically I know academia quite well, and can navigate through the ebbs and flows of it's literature. It's opened my eyes to all these massive pools of knowledge - like a hypertext of scales, you can keep clicking deeper into a knowledge pool to all degrees of specificity. And you can get lost in these things because they're fucking deep!

What it boils down to is, we the human race have amassed an unbelievable quantity of quality know-how. We have specialists in every imaginable field, and enough human potential energy on this planet to give everyone on earth a great quality of life. We have modern medicine (when resources and manpower aren't wasted on obese, diabetic, heart-diseased North Americans who just need to eat less and walk more...), spacecraft communications, the internet, art, literature, music, crafts, cultures, societies, biodiversity, philosophy, sociology new political thought...all these fantastic things through our history that we've come to invent, learn and develop. We've come a long goddamn way but somehow those of us who have the power have never managed to put this all together. Our enlightened leaders have never seemed much concerned with connecting the good creative force available for the betterment of all, so much as fulfilling their own agendas.

This seems pretty evident today when sad statistics like the number of people dying of over-eating equaling those dying of under-eating are stacking perilously high (not to mention bullshit wars, economic imperialism, democratic death in the States, environmental rape, list goes on...). It's like the problems are getting more complex, and the majority of us are just getting stupider and more ill-equipped to deal with them. Extreme weather is increasing, big fish are disappearing from the oceans, rivers are polluted (everything is polluted), the average human has two pounds of plastic molecules in their body says David Suzuki. Things are bad, and people not looking, or wanting to look, doesn't really change the situation. This is a time for some pretty mass (badass) global co-operation. We have global communications, transportation, media, food production, trade, GPS etc. In short all the systems and technology needed to solve the problems we have. Pause, seriously pause and think about that...we have all the tools necessary right now.

And what the fuck is stopping us? Ourselves. The fifteen massively rich and powerful financiers and business people (watch some Alex Jones) who run the institutions and governments that create the urban worlds we live in. Cities are designed, and the way we interact with them, move through them, the public space available, are all contributing factors to our lifestyles. We should care about them because they make up the day-to-day quality of our life. Which could be so much better.

Maybe I'm just a stoned joker of an idiot for pausing to laugh and ask why, but sometimes today just doesn't make any sense to me. Typing this is making me sentimental, because it reminds me of of all the talks I had with Jinx in the car only now it's such a solo discourse...not even a bottle of wine! No cheap (even crappie) wine in Denmark – not even Macedonian import.
Jinx (who'll have wine and thus be true to the spirit of this blog, I compensate in my way) over to you m'dear.



Part II – The Christiania Continuation
Hanging out in Christiania at Nemoland (bar and smoking pit), which always sounds somehow badass. But people, this place has the most unique atmosphere that makes relaxing here pure pleasure. Picture a hill, a ramshackle rooftop with a guitarist and high rocker singing about freedom, the sun shining, and walking by every mix of grannies, babies, punks, pushers, suits, students and hippies. People who would freak you out in any other place, but here everyone just chills & mingles. Feel the love, feel the cool shit that happens when you 'exit the EU' establishment – says the sign above Christiana's main totem-framed entrance.

I wanted to live here, still do, and if it wasn't for the slightly more advanced standards of hygiene expected at U Copenhagen I think I'd be spending the rest of the summer smoking under the stars in a happy shower-free outdoor existence. Though mind you, the ten minute hail downpour (hail, the size of pebbles, in Copenhagen, in fucking August...maybe the weather's on crack) makes me mighty glad of the flat, mainly its roof. Read an article today about Norrebro residents (my neighborhood) moving out cause of the gang stuff and shootings. Okay, so night-time can be loud and there's some dicey areas on the roll but it's a pretty cool place nonetheless. We have a deal with a little Pakistani fruit & veggie place down the road (Norrebrogade, across the street from Kierkegards grave) to get the stuff that's near expiration – we more or less raid their trash. Though after I made them some jam (many jams and stews at our place) for Rhamadan we started getting some freshies tossed in. Which rocks as food, like everything, is expensive in Denmark. People dealing with people, no middle man or institutions to translate their transaction.

I started off my posting the way I started off my life in this city (though less homeless) – sleep deprived, crazy, and flying high all over the place. Coherence, or editing, will follow at some point but in the meantime just enjoy the chaos.