Before I begin this post, I would like to give a bit of a "shout out" as you young people call it to my cousin Harrison, who is having his Bar Mitzvah this weekend in Santa Monica, California. Because of the fact that I am "taking Denmark" as the title of my blog suggests, I will not be attending in physical form, but thanks to technology (and an incredibly hip rabbi), I will be skyped into the event at approximately 5 PM PST (which for those of you who find yourself baffled by time differences, is around 2 AM in Copenhagen) on Saturday (Sunday). Check in next week for the details of this groundbreaking event.
Not many noteworthy events occurred in my life early in the week (unless I suppose you consider my second attempt at Danish kickboxing, making a delicious poached halibut, or purchasing $50 worth of hangars as monumental happenings). However, Thursday was quite a day. In my fourth and final class of the day, Creative Industries, we discussed just what makes a 'hit' with respect to music and film as well as the role of the government and politics in bolstering the success of such industries. In Denmark, the government does much more in the way of supporting cultural activities and artistic endeavors than in the United States. One would probably assume this fact can be solely attributed to the more left-leaning nature of the Danish political system, but in actuality, our teacher explained to us it really boils down to an issue of market size. The price of producing a film, for example, is fairly standard, whether it is being shot in Hollywood or Copenhagen. However, the U.S. makes up for production cost in sales (in most cases) quite easily, seeing as the size of the potential market for the film is quite large (NOTE: According to the U.S. Population Clock, we have a population of 312,224,705 as of 3:24 PM EST on September 16, 2011). The Danish population is only about 5.5 million (NOTE: there is no such animal as a Danish population clock, so this is an estimate based on 2009 data), so inevitably, film producers will experience more difficulty making up the cost of production through sales revenue.
Because of a similar market issue in many European nations, EU's MEDIA Programme was established in 1991 as a way of bolstering European film and fostering cultural. According to the programme's website, this is done "through its funding for distribution, training, promotion and markets and via the development of new films and support to producers." The programme created a series of short, themed video montages on euTube in support of European films and I have inserted a couple of them below in an effort to increase my appeal to movie trailer enthusiasts.
"What a Joy!"
"Romanticism still alive in European film"
Seeing as yesterday was a day full of Creative Industries fun, after class (and a large scoop of hummus from my new favorite eatery, Chilimili) our class went on a field study to Lille VEGA in Vesterbro, one of the best known concert venues in Europe. We went on a private tour where we learned all about just what makes VEGA so unique. As it turns out, the club's uniqueness goes beyond the acoustics and the swanky bar (which is, in fact, quite swanky. See image below). VEGA makes an effort, even in times of economic downturn, to make sure that they book artists of all genres whether it be country, hip hop, indie rock, polka, epic-doom metal, spacesynth, etc. etc. (NOTE: I do not think that VEGA actually actually books any of the latter three sort of artists. However, if you are interested in learning more about these obscure musical stylings, feel free to explore the following website: 5 Most Hilarious Obscure Music Genres). Also, despite the fact that this building was erected in 1955, the atmospheric lighting, mahogany floors and trendy Danish patrons keep the building feeling quite new ... definitely an architectural gem by which Mike Brady would be very intruiged (NOTE: for those of you who have not watched TV Land in the recent past, Mike Brady, the father on the "Brady Bunch," was an architect and the Brady home is assumed to have been built in the late 1950s). 
In other news, in case you were not aware, Denmark has been in the midst of an election in recent weeks and last night the results were announced ... [insert drum role here] ... Helle Thorning-Schmidt the leader of the Social Democrats (Socialdemokraterne is the proper Danish name for the party), won, making her the first female Prime Minister in Danish history (I am woman, hear me roar! You go girl! Girl power!, etc., etc.). For more information on Thorning-Schmidt and the Social Democrat's victory, please check out this BBC article.
Today Amanda and I went to Malmö, the third largest city in Sweden where we tackled yet another Scandinavian language barrier and partook in some more currency conversions. Getting to Malmö took only 45 minutes by train, but despite this short distance, the city still seemed quite different from Copenhagen. For one, they had several shopping malls with very large grocery stores in them (NOTE: by "large," I merely mean that they carried bagged lettuce, a wide variety of granola, and baby carrots). Also in Malmö, I was able to successfully complete my month-long mission to find an olive green Fjällräven backpack (NOTE: Fjällräven is a Swedish brand of outdoors apparel for a girl on the go such as myself). An image of myself and said backpack is included below. Fortunately, we were able to take a break from all of our shopping to visit a very cultural Swedish site, a historic locale called "H&M" (NOTE: I am aware that technically speaking, going to H&M probably does constitute "shopping" by very strict definition. However, seeing as the company began in Sweden, I feel as though visiting this site most certainly increased our cultural capital).
I hate to end so abruptly, but that just about sums up my day. Still, please stay tuned for further details of my exciting Danish life.
Ord af dagen: "rygsæk" = "backpack" (As in, "I just became exponentially more trendy because I purchased a Swedish rygsæk.")
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