{"id":612,"date":"2004-08-21T10:38:16","date_gmt":"2004-08-21T10:38:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.john-howe.com\/blog\/?p=612"},"modified":"2020-09-25T08:39:56","modified_gmt":"2020-09-25T07:39:56","slug":"urban-legend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.john-howe.com\/blog\/urban-legend\/","title":{"rendered":"Urban Legend"},"content":{"rendered":"

Or How Do You Say \u201cDragon\u201d in Danish?<\/h4>\n

Afternoon off from film editing in the Danish capital (which incidentally was quite a pleasant surprise, I thought I had been booked on a flight to Stockholm until the lady at check-in said \u201cStraight through to Copenhagen, sir?\u201d, which shows how well I pay attention to things in general). Thus, armed with borrowed camera and a very vague mental map of the city, one can wander quite a distance in search of serendipity.<\/p>\n

It turns out that Danish architects and sculptors seem to have a centuries-old love affair with the genus draconis – they are everywhere – on drainpipes, fountains, facades and especially on the wondrous spire on the old stock exchange, which you wouldn\u2019t even dare to try to invent, it is so purely fantastical.<\/p>\n

Wouldn\u2019t it be wondrous indeed, thought I, if someone published a guide book of dragons. No, hold on, cancel that notion; what generous and magnanimous editor wants to finance a luxury tour of Europe for me to do it? A Dragon-Lover\u2019s Guide to Europe. I would happily track down dragons from Palermo to Gotteborg and all points east, west and between. A modern-day Saint George armed not with lance and shining shield, but a knapsack of history books and a telephoto lens, intent not on skewering the unfortunate reptiles, but on snapping their portraits. Dragons majestic and miniscule, mineral and metal.\u00a0 Dragons in low relief and full round, heraldic and humble, sacred and profane\u2026\u00a0 not only a guide to take your steps there, but a stroll through the history that shaped them.
\nWe\u2019d sell millions of copies (and I\u2019d have a fabulous time to boot).
\nHere\u2019s a small sample\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/center><\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n

\n\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/center><\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n\n\n
\n
\"\"<\/a><\/center><\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Couldn\u2019t resist taking a picture of the statue of the famed Hans Christian Anderson. He has lots of reading material, but certainly not what he was accustomed to\u2026
\nSign of our times, we\u2019ve swapped heraldry for brand name endorsement. Poor little mermaid, she\u2019d be sponsored by a cigarette or surfboard company these days\u2026<\/p>\n

Oh yes, by the way, while not moseying through Malm\u00f6 and wandering in Copehagen (I think Solid Entertainment took pity on me for being such a hopeless homeboy and gave me extra time off), I did see the rough cut of the documentary. It looks great.
\nWorld premiere in Lund<\/a> on September 19th. (Okay, okay, it\u2019s just the first time it\u2019ll be aired at a festival, but \u201cworld premiere\u201d sounds so much more dignified). More later.<\/p>\n

WORKING VACATION<\/p>\n

You know the old definitions of heaven and hell\u2026 The former is a place where people sit about and talk about their lives forever and ever, the latter is the same, except they have all brought their slides and home movies\u2026.
\nBut, I thought I\u2019d post these two anyway\u2026
\nYou know the other adage, you can never go back, but you can see if the sign is still there\u2026<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n
\u00a0 \u00a0 <\/a>
\n<\/center><\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

THE PRINTED WORD<\/p>\n

In the Herald Tribune, read a long article on nations eager to get back out on the high seas and slay every last whale for \u201cscientific research\u201d and above all, domestic comsumption. There was a quote from a prominent Japanese minister in defense of prompt resumption of whaling who said: \u201cThe Japanese keep dogs as pets. The Koreans eat dogs. We don\u2019t tell them not to eat dogs.\u201d
\nSo if this logic is followed through\u2026
\n1. Whales are pets.
\n2. In Korea.
\n3. But they don\u2019t eat them.
\nIn this day and age, it pays to be able to interpret the newspapers with an experienced and critical eye\u2026
\nLOST IN TRANSLATION<\/p>\n

Realized the Danish word for King is \u201cKong\u201d. (\u201cKong Arthur\u201d was playing at the local cinema maxx, but I missed it. Darn.) So how will they translate \u201cKing Kong\u201d? \u201cKong Kong\u201d? Or perhaps leave it in English – \u201cKing King\u201d…<\/p>\n

How could I have ignored Isabel Allende for so long? Because of he surname, of course, I imagined her work to be more political. Couldn\u2019t have been more wrong. Reading one of her lastest books, \u201cMy Invented Country\u201d. Wonderful.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Or How Do You Say \u201cDragon\u201d in Danish? Afternoon off from film editing in the Danish capital (which incidentally was quite a pleasant surprise, I thought I had been booked on a flight to Stockholm until the lady at check-in said \u201cStraight through to Copenhagen, sir?\u201d, which shows how well I pay attention to things […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1,10],"tags":[108,110,87,109,107,111],"class_list":["post-612","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chronicles","category-out_and_about","tag-copehagen","tag-danish","tag-documentary","tag-dragon","tag-hans-christian-anderson","tag-saint-george"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1PY8Y-9S","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.john-howe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/612","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.john-howe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.john-howe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.john-howe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.john-howe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=612"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.john-howe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/612\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.john-howe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=612"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.john-howe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=612"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.john-howe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=612"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}