One of the most legendary pronunciations of this word – of all time – is by Lieutenant Aldo Raine of the US Army, introducing himself as a native Italian to Colonel Hans Landa, a terrifying German SS officer. Imagine the most confident American, pronouncing buongiorno with a thick, dragged, American accent – acting as if he was, indeed, a native Italian. I love this scene.

Now, this is not a recount of the events in Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds (which is a great movie; if you haven’t seen it, go see it – now!), but a few thoughts based on a recent trip to Milan to visit my friend Paolo. Paolo (he’s in the photo below with me) is an old friend from way back, when we were both room mates while studying at NYU.

The movie became quite a theme for our trip (if you can call it that — a pro-longed weekend, rather, with the guys – Christoffer and Simon), and I think our trip and the movie had some common characteristics (and many, which were not in common). Below are some of the small lessons from the movie, which, I think, applied equally well to our trip in Milan (for both business meetings and the nights out).

• Can-do-attitude and mentality. Leave realism and door-closing to someone else. You should be the one who sees the opportunities; no brick walls are thick enough to stop you. Aldo Raine saw absolutely no problem in speaking Italian. And, as you know, this is the way Obama won the Presidency. Yes we can.
• Self-confidence. When you have finally decided to act, do so with confidence. No need to be fuzzy about your course – better to show real resolve and stick yourself out there. Yes, it may be wrong from time to time, but that’s how we learn. I’d rather like to know where I have you this way, than not. And you can, self-confidently, re-make a decision, if needed.
• When you fall, pick yourself up. It’s too easy to stay in the slow lane, once you’ve crashed. But it’s also boring, and it takes you close to nowhere. Pick yourself up, and realize that falling is a fact of life. I’m amazed by how Aldo Raine keeps going and going in the movie – especially towards the end, against heavy odds – but it helps him succeed.
• Escapism – being on a roll. We all now what it feels like to be in a flow – you’re immensely productive and swallowed into what you’re doing. This is a great feeling, but not quite what I mean here. The step after being in a flow is really escaping reality – you almost feel like Superman. It can also be dangerous; sometimes you lead yourself to think that you can do much more, than you really can. So while it can be productive, it can also be dangerous. Think rock stars; the best ones balance this immensely great.
• Loyalty and friends. The importance of this theme needs no introduction. It’s also clear in the movie – and on our trip. Thanks Christoffer and Simon for a great trip.

All of these lessons apply equally well in business (and on nights out in the city) – I’m trying to get better at all of them. And I’m sure there are many more, but I had to fit our trip with the movie :-).

Finally, the real reason you want to learn how to pronounce buongiorno the Aldo Raine way, is that it’s seriously fun to use it for real, in Italy.

A couple of weeks ago I returned from my New Year’s vacation. After a hectic December, I flew to Manhattan on December 31 to celebrate New Year’s eve with Jesper and Mia and for a full two weeks off the grid.

It was also my very first time skiing. I had had a few moments of cross-country skiing before, but very little — and never downhill. But after New Year’s, we drove to Killington in Vermont for a prolonged weekend of downhill skiing. I believe in challenging the boundaries, which meant a lot of falling in the beginning, but nothing serious.

I think it went well, and on day three I was running the black slopes. Admittedly, they are not the same as the Austrian black slopes, but still. I’m as hooked on this, as I am on water skiing, and have already booked a trip to go to Davos with some friends later this year.

The rest of my vacation was spent on Manhattan, with a couple of detours to Long Island and New Jersey to test drive cars (and my first ever visit to Wal-Mart). As I’ve said before, writing page up and down about New York doesn’t make too much sense to me. Instead, here is a couple of the take-aways:

• Breakfast keeps getting better and better. Delicatessen on Prince st makes my favourite french toast, and the Moroccan on Mott st is great for low key, with a twist (can’t find it online, but it’s on Mott between Houston and Prince)
• Shopping went overboard. Odin is one of my top new fashion stores, but for some very strange reason I didn’t buy anything there. Big mistake. Marc Jacobs keeps ruling the Village and continues to open new stores (now an extra men’s store on W 4 st and Bank). And, Jack Spade now has an extra store on Bleecker. It’s bigger than their other store, well worth a visit.
• Freemans was one of the best dining experiences I have had in New York. It is a hidden treasure — and it really is hidden. You walk up a relatively narrow alley, pass a barber shop in order to get to it. They make great food — and also great Manhattans.

It was cold, but it was great to spend time with Jesper and Mia, who again seized the opportunity to play personal shopper for a day.

Back in Copenhagen, I’m now listening to the new A Camp (Nina Persson’s side kick next to the Cardigans) album, Colonia, which was released yesterday (in Scandinavia, other countries to follow). I loved their first album, and am also very keen on this one.

So far my favourite tracks are Bear on the Beach, Love Has Left the Room, Golden Teeth and Silver Medals, It’s Not Easy to be Human, The Weed Had Got There First. Go listen on MySpace.

And they play in Vega on March 31. Spring is looking great already.

More photos here.

A couple of weekends ago, I had an out of body experience. I went to Berlin with my friend, Christoffer, for an extended weekend and what you might call an extended run: The Berlin Marathon.

We headed down Friday and arrived late at night at our hotel in Berlin Mitte. We chilled the entire Saturday — picked up our start number and running accessories at various locations and, of course, tried to eat as much as possible.

On Sunday morning, the sky was clear from the very beginning. After breakfast and getting ready, we headed for the start zones.

Everywhere you looked, there were people and a lot of them. About 40,000 runners and a million people as spectators in the street. Unfortunately, Christoffer and I had to part ways from the start, as we were to take off from different start zones.

It was a strange feeling to stand among all these people before the start. You could feel so much energy below the surface — waiting to burst and to be released. It only grew more intense as the first start of three went off. (I was in start three of three). And as the second start went, it almost felt like the ground was shaking. People were excited and full of adrenalin. Finally my start went off, and the entire group of people started moving slowly forward. The closer we got to the start, the faster we were able to go. The group was a jumbo jet taking off with a slow and tense acceleration.

I was headed out for the longest run of my life — and about twice the length of my longest one so far.

My first 10-15 kilometers went great — on track to a four hour target time. After that, I had severe problems with my stomach after having eaten some very energy-dense gel. I had never tried it before, and clearly a lesson learned: Never experiment on race day.

The mood on the route was out of this world. Almost all over the place were spectators, cheering your name, cheering “Denmark, Denmark”, bands playing jazz, cheer leaders, random people high-fiving with you — and I could go on. You flew through city on endorphins, high on people. Wow.

At kilometer 20 I was in good shape again, and I ran at a decent pace until kilometer 32 or so, where my muscles started aching as I had never been able to imagine before. I didn’t hit the wall at all, my energy level and form was fine throughout, but my muscles ached and forced me to stretch once per kilometer.

At kilometer 38 or 39 I was able to run without stretching again. The crowd in the inner city carried me. About a kilometer before the finish line was a gate, which I thought was the finish-gate. I felt like I had a little surplus energy, so I started sprinting all the way up to the gate.

Imagine the feeling, when I found out that it wasn’t the finish line, but the 1 km-left-marker.

But there were tonnes of spectators. They cheered and they cheered. If I didn’t know better, I could have thought that I were a formula 1 driver getting out of my car in the pit lane.

The entire last kilometer I was almost bursting into tears. I felt like I was part of bigger thing, a cohesive whole of positive emotions, with people carrying each other through — and not the least, an enormous physical challenge. Finally, I crossed the finish line, and in front of me was an old, grand father-like man, awarding the official medals. I went up to him and he put my medal over my neck, put his hands on my shoulders and said Herzlichen Glückwunsch with such great empathy, that I then burst into tears. And I cried on and off until I picked up my clothes.

It took me 5 hours and 21 minutes.

To all I met on the route, and to all of you who helped and supported both me before and after — thank you so much. Pictures from the weekend are on Facebook.

Just short of a month ago, I was invited to Milan by my good friend Paolo. Paolo was my roommate back when I lived in New York (almost four years ago now). Paolo now works as the personal assistant to Angelo Moratti, who is a friend of Warren Buffet. Moratti had followed Buffett around his recent European tour to introduce him to new people, and the trip ended in Milan.

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.

My spring vacation this year went to New York with my friend Christoffer. One of my very good friends Jesper live there, and of course I have to come visit once in a while. Below is the view down Mott St, where his apartment is.

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.

I did a small photo walk in Paris earlier today — it was a beautiful day, where the sun popped out and shed light on the recently renovated Notre Dame (behind the saxophone player in the photo). It has been way too long since my last visit to Paris (I think four years (!)). That will not happen again.

I know I have kept you out of the loop for some time now. The good thing about that is that it is because I have had a wonderful fall so far, too busy doing all kinds of things. So here is what has happened:

Uncle Bear x 2! On October 3, my big sister gave birth to a tiny little girl (7 weeks ahead of time) called Caroline. I have been to see her at the hospital, where she needs to stay there until she can take all of the day’s meals with my sister.

I also went to visit my little sister in London (she has moved there, in case you forgot). Along with seeing her, partying, playing tourists, I also visited the TownhouseDK, a small part of the London Design Festival. TownhouseDK is a Townhouse entirely decorated with Danish design. Pretty cool. Below a picture of my sister in front of where she works (view more photos from London trip).

I also visited my friend Morten in Lausanne, which is starting to become some kind of semi-annual tradition. I really like the area around Lake Geneva, I must say. I was lucky to be there at the same time as Lausanne-Ouchy had a “city-party” with all kinds of events, which filled the streets with people. Below a picture from somewhere between Lutry and Lausanne (maybe Pully, I can’t remember), with Lake Geneva and the Alps faintly visible in the background.

That was some of what I experienced so far this Fall. I’ll return as soon as I can with some points on a couple of interesting books I’ve read and some great new music I’ve discovered. Meanwhile, I find myself spending more and more time on Facebook — if you are not already signed up, I can highly recommend it as a great way of staying in touch with people you know, care about and love :-)

Charlotte, my wonderful little sister, has moved to London. While I miss her incredibly, I know she is having the time of her life, of which she will, from time to time, update us on with her blog.

On the upside is of course the excuse I now have to visit London more frequently. If you are also planning on going there, remember the London Design Festival (September 15-25), which my sister says is going to be a super cool event.

Tonight is the last night we have on Manhattan. Yesterday late afternoon there were thunderstorms over the city, which cleared the sky and made it look bright and blue this morning, which made the city even more beautiful than it normally is. It also lowered the temperature a couple of degrees, which made it a lot easier to walk outside.

We’re just about to head out to dinner, but I just wanted to post a quick picture before that. The star photographer behind the camera is Christoffer.

The photo taken from inside the atrium of a shopping centre at Columbus Circle, which is at the Southwest corner of Central Park (map), overlooking the circle itself, a statue of Christopher Columbus, and Central Park South (the street in the picture).

Christoffer and I are now back in New York City after our small road trip to upstate New York, Bear Mountain, West Point, Hartford, Providence, Boston and the Hamptons. We drove a nice Ford Mustang convertible, which Christoffer makes look good in the photograph below.

It is so incredibly warm here, it is hard to believe, but I guess that’s what you get from visiting the city in July.

I have made a Google album with some of the photos from the trip, that we’ve shot so far; you can find it here. I have also bought a camcorder, so once I return to Denmark and upload the movies to my Mac you’ll get some of those also.