Camp X seems to have an interesting programme lined up for the fall. What especially has caught my eye are the posters, with a cool underground/street feel to them, that they have put up around the city. I saw these two behind the church of Saint Nicholas in central Copenhagen.

I like the reference to Dynasty and the satirical tone in the posters. There are more than just these two; check both Camp X’s website and this photo grabbed in the wild.

Camp X has two Maersk plays this Fall; the first one starting early October. The brother to a friend of mine has a major role in one of the plays. I can’t wait to see the plays in the Fall.

Towards the end of the trip, I found out through a comment deeply buried on a website somewhere, that the album was not due out until some time in July. I downloaded it off the iTunes store the minute it was released. (Still not in the Danish store — got it through the US store.)

Little Jackie’s debut album, The Stoop, was worth the wait and a great album. It is very up-beat; think a mix of R&B, pop, and hip-hop — maybe indie rock/pop or indie R&B is a better description. The sound of the band is street/NYC and refreshing with many nuances and peculiarities, such as the use of wood wind instruments. Even though it is probably programmed, it gives it a small jazzy touch. I like it.

My favourite songs are The Stoop, The Whole World Should Revolve Around Me, Liked You Better Before, LOL, and One Love. Two of these are available for listening on the Little Jackie MySpace page along with an additional two songs from the album. If you like this style of music and the previews, I am guessing you will like the album as much as I.

The driving forces behind it are Imani Coppola, who sings and writes the songs as far as I have understood, and Adam Pallin (DJ’ing/programming the music). Imani has a long list of releases behind her, a lot of which she has done herself. Unfortunately I haven’t had the opportunity to give it a good listen through, but I would be glad to hear if you have had.

In other music from the strange and weird fact file, I am looking forward to the latest album of the Verve which will hit the ground in August. Listen to their single Love is Noise here.

Now, just over a year after we originally had the idea, we have been through one round of applications — and — also handed out the Scholarship for this year to an impressive girl, Rikke Krause. Read much more about her and her application essay over at the Scholarship website.

I was amazed by the applicants for the Scholarship. As part of their application they had to write a 700-800 word essay on something they were passionate about, and I enjoyed reading every word. Rikke’s essay, which is the one you can read on the Scholarship website, is a great example, which is a fun and serious tour de force on Heinz Tomato Ketchup.

Somehow it makes me feel very reassured that we have such a group of people, with desires they fight for and an impressive “pay it forward”-mentality. I wish all the applicants the best — but I am sure they will not need it. Their positive spirit and helping mentality will serve them well, without a doubt.

I am also very happy with the positive response this project has received from friends, family, and strangers alike. Christoffer and I will, as intended from the very beginning, carry on next year. In the mean time, pay it forward is much more than just this. It is every day from the very small things to the very big things and all in between. If you have feedback or great ideas that I should know of, I would love to know.

It’s a mixed bunch of novels, poetry, and business/factual books — and some of them are re-reads. Re-reads go for Atlas Shrugged, The Great Gatsby, The Pyramid Principle, and the Fifth Discipline.

Some of you may notice that there are some key classics in the reading pile as well. Embarrassing, but at least I will get around to them this summer. If anyone thinks I’m making a huge mistake in reading any of the books in the picture — or — have recommendations for great reading in the summer, do let me know.

Soundtrack for this summer is, beyond the jazz age we are now in (Copenhagen and Montreux!), Alphabeat, the Broken Beats, Gnarls Barkley, Hot Chip, John Legend, John Mayer, Neil Young, Portishead, Rasmus Nøhr, and the Stones. I love vacation.

See you on the other side — take it to the max (P.Y.T).

Paolo had invited me to the Buffett press conference to ask a question. See the full press conference on here: Part 1, part 2, part 3, and part 4. I asked Buffet what he thought of the significance of true equal opportunities for men and women in the workplace, and a couple of innovative ideas for how to achieve it. The part with my question is part 2 — you have to scroll about 10 minutes 15 seconds in.

After the press conference, Paolo had also arranged a small get-together in a hotel suite, where Paolo, me and 10 other people got to speak to Buffet for about three quarters of an hour. He is completely down to earth and extremely fun.

When we asked him what his metric of success is, he responded with a beautiful metaphor: “How many people will hide you”, which is a reference to who would hide the Jews during WWII. If you have people who will hide you, you have achieved something — true friends. He is a great guy, enormous aura and has great empathy. It was a magnificent experience.

Of course, the weekend after the event was as much fun. Paolo, Stefan (my good friend, who joined for the Buffet event), Simon (my cocktail buddy and entrepreneurship thought partner), and I hit the town in Milan. We ended Sunday morning for a Mozzarella bar brunch. Below, all of us in a slightly misty Milan right after Sunday brunch on the way to the airport.

Writing up and down about New York doesn’t make so much sense anymore. Instead, let me highlight four peculiarities beyond the usual dining, clubbing and shopping:

• The best Cuban restaurant ever
  On the corner of Prince and Elizabeth is Cafe Habana — one of the top restaurants in the “everyday” range, that I have ever been to — a very low key, Cuban restaurant with a nice and busy Latin feel to it. It is impossible to book a table, so people wait in line on the street for more than an hour to get to eat there. While waiting for our table, we stood in the bar drinking Mojitos (great Mojitos). The bartender, a great, relaxed guy, with a lot of humour, mixed the one Mojito after another as if he were a machine. After having seen some thirty Mojitos fly by, we started wondering what the few drops of black liquid he put into the Mojitos, when starting mixing. After speculating in East and West, we finally asked: “Cuban nature medicine,” he answered, “it’s makes it taste better — and then you can also say that you’re drinking a healthy Mojito.”
• Roosevelt Island — what a bore
  When I was in New York the last time with Christoffer (last summer), we were eager to try the tram from Manhattan to Roosevelt Island, but never got around to it. This was of course on the to-do list for this trip, and the short ride with the tram was exciting as any picturesque vue of the Manhattan is. But the Island itself was incredibly boring. The Queensboro bridge crosses over the south end, which is rather noisy. There was simply nothing to do, but to grab a Starbucks coffee (yes, Starbucks had found their way to this otherwise godforsaken island) and take a walk around the north tip of it. The tram ride was nice, but don’t waste time on the island itself. Below a picture from Roosevelt Island towards Manhattan, and a glimpse of the tram that takes you back and forth.

  

• Williamsburg and Flushing Avenue
  We took out a day for the allegedly hip Williamsburg neighbourhood, and decided to take the Brooklyn Bridge stroll, and then head north. Let me just be the first to say: Don’t do that. To get to Williamsburg by foot from Soho via Brooklyn bridge involves 10 km and a completely dead walk on Flushing avenue in Brooklyn (I mean completely dead — no places to stop for Coke, ice cream, anything). Arriving at Williamsburg, finally, we find out that it is actually an orthodox Jewish neighbourhood, which by itself is very fascinating. That was one cultural side to New York I had never seen before. Continuing the walk through Williamsburg, we finally ended up in the allegedly hip part, but we were so tired that we didn’t manage to go to any of the cool galleries there. We stopped at the first, cool cafe we could find (there are numerous cool places to eat there — highly recommendable) and walked around a little afterwards to feel the atmosphere. All in all, a cool neighbourhood, that I have to go back to, but next time using the subway which goes directly out of Manhattan and smack down in the middle of the bohème part of Williamsburg.
• The Shampoo store on BWAY
  I had been thoroughly instructed by my big sister to bring back Redken shampoo. Fortunately, Jesper and Mia knew a dedicated shampoo store on Broadway, east side, south of Houston, with all you could ever dream of in shampoo, skin care, and the like products — in normal sizes and super sizes — and at a price that made my sister faint. (I think a quarter to a third of the price in Denmark.) I’ll have to go there again.

Finally, the weather was great and it was great to see Mia and Jesper again — with beer on the balcony, wonderful cup cakes that Mia had found from the Magnolia baker in the Village, and much more. One morning, I even ditched my usual personal shopper (Christoffer), and went out with Mia. She is a great shopping companion, and can’t wait to go out with her again.

Below, Christoffer, Jesper, and I are on the rooftop terrace of Jesper’s apartment building.

Founded by Tyler Brûlé, who also started Wallpaper magazine, Monocle is a global affairs magazine comprising niche stories, anecdotes essays, photo montages, and more in affairs, business, culture, and design. It is a cosmopolitan mix-and-match, and its sweet layout and structuring makes it great for reading on the flight, in the bathtub or on the couch.

What continues to amaze me about Monocle is that, although highly globally oriented, Denmark somehow finds its way into each and every issue (at least how I recall it) — the peak was, as some of you may remember (correctly), when Monocle placed Copenhagen as the second most livable city in the world last summer. If nothing else, Denmark at least has a place in the Kita Koga manga series at the back of each issue where Niels Watanabe goes through life as a new James Bond.

If this sounds anything like something you like, pick it up. You won’t look back.

Yesterday was a beautifully sunny day, and I sat on the balcony of my friends Jesper and Mia’s apartment, reading The Adventures of Johnny Bunko by Daniel Pink. What a great read.

Written, or rather drawn in manga, Japanese-style print cartoons (very much like the Kita Koga series in the back of my favourite magazine Monocle), Pink conveys six career/life lessons. It is short and sweet, and the book is fun and enlightening.

While I do not agree fully with all of the points made in the book, I think that they make for a very good perspective. Here is a short bite of what I took note of:
Lesson number one that Johnny Bunko is taught is that there is no plan. I could not agree more. I have a strong preference for not planning (so I keep telling myself), both concerning small things (not packing in due time for vacation), but also in the grander scheme of life (not knowing where I want to end up). “Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans” (John Lennon).

What I also feel important about not planning too much for life, is that it is difficult to actually know what will be useful for you later in life. How can you possibly? And we need not go further than to our own house-philosopher here in Denmark, Søren Kierkegaard: “Life is understood backwards, but must be lived forwards (Livet forstås baglæns - men må leves forlæns).”

Building on that, Johnny learns that you can make choices for basically two reasons — instrumental and fundamental. Doing something for instrumental reasons is to do something for another desired and expected outcome, whereas doing something for fundamental reasons is to do it because you are inherently interested in it and not necessarily know what it will lead to.

There are many more goodies to go for in the book. Regardless of how you feel with what you are currently up to (doing your dream job — or — thinking seriously about doing something else) this is a fun and insightful read.

New interpretation of the classic M1. BMW — please serial produce this. More here.

I need a good book and a good record. Right now I’m holding Naja Marie Aidt’s Poetry Book (Poesibog) and I’m listening to Azure Ray’s Sleep. This is my opium right now. What is yours?