BOOK COLUMN

How to make a book column

You need:

1 unsightly column

1 Polish guy

Lots of books with titles which make people interested

Glue

Nails

Saw

Start from the bottom. Saw the books in half to make them fit. Glue and nail them to the base and the column. Repeat with new layers until you reach the ceiling.

Voilà! The world is now a better place.

(The picture was taken by yours truly in a Volt shop in Karl Johans gate, Oslo.)

CHURCH IS GAY

I'm going away for a week, to the summercamp of the organisation Queer Youth in Norway. One of the topics of our discussions will be how the LGBT movement and the different religions can cooperate better and achieve more understanding, for the good of everyone.

This is St. Bridget's church in New Jersey. It turns out that churches can be a lot of things.

CHERRY TREE ALLÉ/WORKS EVERY TIME

Walking form the local train station to my parents' house, I pass through a part of this cherry tree allé. Works every time.

LEAVING/24

After two years at Bergen School of Architecture, I'm taking a break of sorts. I won't be returning until 1st September 2012, more than a year from now. I'm leaving the school grounds, leaving Bergen, and strangest of them all, leaving my class. (See picture above, taken by Ane Oline Finstad.)

The next year will be spent working with lgbt-issues in Norway and Africa, including four months in Kenya spring 2012. The work is very important, and it's going to be amazing. For those interested, I will be writing about that on another blog, but I will also be updating this one. I still consider myself an architecture student.

School is great, but it's also hard. Being away for a year will probably remind me how lucky I am to be doing what I love, and I'm already looking forward to coming back. Sadly, I'll not be joining the same class, Class 24. They're the greatest people you'll ever meet, extremely good at what they're doing, friendly, interested, always up for a good discussion. I've made so many friends along way, perhaps without realizing it until now, when I'm suddenly leaving. Hey people, in case you're reading this: If one thing could have held me back, it was you.

Thanks!

BEFORE/AFTER

Before:

After: 

(Click on the pictures!) Is this fair? And if so, why? I mean, the weather is different, the season is different... but still. It seems something went terribly wrong, and all I really have to say is this:

Thanks a lot, 20th century!

Pictures of Bergen by Marianne Skjulhaug, rector at BAS.

BIKE LANES

Bike lanes are important in the city. They provide a system of very healthy and effective transportation, and provide a non-polluting. space-saving alternative to cars. This what happens when they're not being taken care of:

DIGNITY PT. II

So, who's doing a better job at ageing with dignity?

This old concrete column?

Or Brigitte Bardot?

TREES IN SUBURBIA

'Suburbia is where the developer bulldozes out the trees, then names the streets after them' - William E. Vaughan

Picture from the project "Stordammen Park" in my hometown, Drammen.

MOEBIUS SHIP

The lovely Möbius ship by artist Tim Hawkinson, the figurative cousin of the one-sided surface called the Möbius strip. Pun intended, I presume. Image is the courtesy of the artist. 

NORWEGIAN PARTY

As some of you might know, writing texts in English may lead to people from other countries reading them. My blog gets visits from many parts of the world, and during the last week I've had hits from such countries as the US, UK, Canada, Germany, Australia, India, Egypt, South Korea, Argentina, Brazil and Ukraine. It seems most of these are visits to older posts, but in case any of my visitors should wonder what my native country of Norway is like, I'm posting this video:

GRAY DAY

I can't believe the month that just passed was May, and not October. Today is another gray, cold day in Bergen.

MELANCHOLIA

I went to see Lars von Trier's Melancholia at the cinema yesterday, and it is hereby strongly recommended. Engaging story, amazing actors, beautiful pictures, thorough elegance.