Documentary on the Great Cinematic Epic That Never Came to Be: Jodorowsky's Dune

Being released in France right now is Frank Pavich's celebrated documentary on the filming of Jodorowsky's Dune, the genesis of one of cinema's greatest epics that never was.

The Chilean writer, whom I had the pleasure of interviewing 15 years ago (besides my many interviews with his frequent co-worker Jean Giraud (Moebius)) drips with passion as he talks of all the artists he will bring together to make a film of Frank Herbert's science fiction bestseller.

Wikipedia:

director Alejandro Jodorowsky … proceeded to approach … Pink Floyd and Magma for some of the music; artists H. R. Giger, Chris Foss, and Jean Giraud for set and character design; Dan O'Bannon for special effects; and Salvador Dalí, Orson Welles, Gloria Swanson, David Carradine, Mick Jagger, Amanda Lear, and others for the cast.

Various trailers exist for Jodorowsky's Dune, which did not come to pass, when the producers lost faith in the Paris-based film director, theater director, screenwriter, playwright, actor, author, poet, producer, composer, musician, and, last but not least, comic book writer, not to mention spiritual guru.

(Jodo's attitude probably did little to help, when the man came back with the screenplay for a 14-hour movie and when he was quoted as saying, “I don’t want to make industrial films to earn money, to make a living. I want to make films to lose money, films that oblige me to search employment in other creations.”)

Wikipedia, again:

The film notes that Jodorowsky's script, extensive storyboards, and concept art were sent to all major film studios, and argues that these were inspirational to later film productions, including the Alien, Star Wars, and Terminator series. In particular, the Jodorowsky-assembled team of O'Bannon, Foss, Giger and Giraud went on to collaborate on the 1979 film Alien.
 
"It was a great undertaking to do the script," Jodowrosky says in the film. Speaking of Herbert's novel, he says: "It's very, it's like Proust, I compare it to great literature."

Scandinavia’s quality of life didn’t SPRING FROM leftist policies; It SURVIVED them

When Bernie Sanders was asked during CNN’s Democratic presidential debate how a self-proclaimed socialist could hope to be elected to the White House, he gave the answer he usually gives

notes Jeff Jacoby in the Boston Globe:

Socialism has been wonderful for the countries of Scandinavia, and America should emulate their example.“We should look to countries like Denmark, like Sweden and Norway, and learn from what they have accomplished for their working people,” Sanders said.

Liberals have had a crush on Scandinavia for decades. “It is a country whose very name has become a synonym for a materialist paradise,” observed Time magazine in a 1976 story on Sweden. “Its citizens enjoy one of the world’s highest living standards. . . . Neither ill health, unemployment nor old age pose the terror of financial hardship. [Sweden’s] cradle-to-grave benefits are unmatched in any other free society outside Scandinavia.” In 2010, a National Public Radio story marveled at the way “Denmark Thrives Despite High Taxes.” The small Nordic nation, said NPR, “seems to violate the laws of the economic universe,” improbably balancing low poverty and unemployment rates with stratospheric taxes that were among the world’s highest.

Such paeans may inspire Clinton’s love and Sanders’ faith in America’s socialist future. As with most urban legends, however, the reality of Scandinavia’s welfare-state utopia doesn’t match the hype.

 … It was in the late 1960s and early 1970s that taxes soared, welfare payments expanded, and entrepreneurship was discouraged.

But what emerged wasn’t heaven on earth.

That 1976 story in Time, for example, went on to report that Sweden found itself struggling with crime, drug addiction, welfare dependency, and a plague of red tape. Successful Swedes — most famously, Ingmar Bergman — were fleeing the country to avoid its killing taxes. “Growing numbers are plagued by a persistent, gnawing question: Is their Utopia going sour?”

Sweden’s world-beating growth rate dried up. In 1975, it had been the fourth-wealthiest nation on earth (as measured by GDP per capita); by 1993, it had dropped to 14th. By then, Swedes had begun to regard their experiment with socialism as, in Sanandaji’s phrase, “a colossal failure.”

Denmark has come to a similar conclusion. Its lavish subsidies are being rolled back amid sharp concerns about welfare abuse and an eroding work ethic. In the last general election, Danes replaced a left-leaning government with one tilted to the right. Loving Denmark doesn’t mean loving big-government welfarism.

The real key to Scandinavia’s unique successes isn’t socialism, it’s culture. Social trust and cohesion, a broad egalitarian ethic, a strong emphasis on work and responsibility, commitment to the rule of law — these are healthy attributes of a Nordic culture that was ingrained over centuries. In the region’s small and homogeneous countries (overwhelmingly white, Protestant, and native-born), those norms took deep root. The good outcomes and high living standards they produced antedated the socialist nostrums of the 1970s. Scandinavia’s quality of life didn’t spring from leftist policies. It survived them.

 … No, Scandinavia doesn’t “violate the laws of the economic universe.” It confirms them. With free markets and healthy values, almost any society will thrive. Socialism only makes things worse.

I 2015 er det svært at finde et mere rendyrket og blodigt eksempel på imperialisme end det, som IS udøver i Irak og Syrien

På de sociale medier er der forbavsende mange vestlige europæere, der synes at tage IS’ forklaring for gode varer

skriver Jacob McHangama i Politiken efter det blodige terrorangreb i Paris,

med opdateringer à la ’det er forfærdeligt, men sådan går det, når man blander sig i konflikter og er en gammel kolonimagt’.

Det er en absurd logik, der tilkender hvide vesterlændinge skylden for stort set alt, hvad der er galt i verden, og frakender mennesker med en anden hudfarve og religion evnen til at tænke og tage et selvstændigt ansvar for deres handlinger.

Lad os lige få fakta på bordet: Langt størstedelen af de franske statsborgere, der kæmper i Syrien, står på Islamisk Stats side. IS’ tropper består desuden af tusinder af statsborgere fra bl.a. Danmark, Belgien og Sverige, som ingen relation har til Syrien, og som har myrdet titusindvis af civile og – mod det syriske folks vilje – udråbt deres egen stat på syrisk territorium.

I 2015 er det svært at finde et mere rendyrket og blodigt eksempel på imperialisme end det, som IS udøver i Irak og Syrien.

De IS-tropper, som franske bombefly har dræbt i Syrien, var involveret i folkemordslignende handlinger og dræbte med pervers glæde uskyldige civile og gjorde kvinder og børn til slaver.

De franskmænd, som IS i fredags myrdede i Paris, var civile, som på tværs af køn, etnicitet og religion nød hinandens selskab og den frihed og tolerance, som aldrig kan skabes af mennesker, der ønsker et samfund baseret på en bog skrevet i det 7. århundrede.

I IS’ pressemeddelelse blev koncerten med Eagles of Death Metal på spillestedet Le Bataclan, som endte i et blodbad, beskrevet som en »skamløst prostitutionsfest«. Valget af Le Bataclan og det 11. arrondissement, der er ungt og trendy med natteliv og fest, viser med al tydelighed, at det netop er vores livsstil og værdier, IS og dets ideologiske fæller vil udrydde. For hvad skulle fulde, glade unge have med Frankrigs udenrigspolitik at gøre?

Hvis man endnu ikke føler sig overbevist, bør man se på, hvad der sker uden for Vesten. Dagen før angrebet mod Paris stod IS bag et større terrorangreb i Beirut, og forskellige jihadistiske grupper har siden 2001 udført brutale og blodige terrorangreb på stort set alle kontinenter fra New York til Nigeria, fra Paris til Mumbai, fra Amman til Bali.

Jihadisternes kamp er altså ikke en kamp imod vestlig undertrykkelse eller ’neoimperialisme’, men derimod for en totalitær ideologi, der har som mål at udrydde alle forhindringer for dets egen globale magtovertagelse.

Det er uforståeligt, at der i vores midte bor mennesker, der er villige til at dræbe og dø for at knuse den livsstil og de værdier, vi tager for givet, og erstatte dem med en religiøs ideologi, der er frihedens diametrale modsætning.

Men det nytter ikke noget at begynde at ryste på hånden. Vi må stå fast på, at vores værdier er alternativerne overlegne. Vi skal ikke gå på kompromis med ytrings- og religionsfrihed, og vi må aldrig indføre kollektivt ansvar for nogle fås ugerninger. De muslimske ofre for IS overstiger langt de vestlige.

Vi skal have modet til klart og utvetydigt at sige, at folk, der ønsker at udskifte frihed og tolerance med bogstavtro religion, ikke er ofre, men fjender, og at de ikke har krav på respekt eller anerkendelse.

De søvndyssende hastighedsgrænser

En forkortet version af nedstående blev trykt i Villabyerne:

    I marts skrev Ekstra Bladet at på fem timer havde en af politiets nye fotovogne tjent mindst to millioner kroner fra bøder på en kort strækning på Køge Bugt Motorvejen.  Lige så vigtigt var det der ikke stod i Jan Søgaards artikel.  Der var ikke tale om en eneste dødstilfælde; ja, der havde ikke engang været et eneste uheld.  Det kan kun betyde en ting:  ikke at danskerne (eller at nogle danskere) er fartsyndere og motorbøller der kører "for stærkt", men at på motorvejen ihvertfald er regeringens fartgrænse (alt) for lav.

    Hvis det ikke er afpresning, hvilken betydning har ordet afpresning så?  Ikke blot kan man tale om bestikkelse, men man kan sige at regeringen går imod dens udpejede rolle (beskyttelsen af befolkningen) og gør vejene farligere for alle.

    På de fleste motorveje over hele Europa samt i Nordamerika — de veje der er de sikreste i hver sit land (ingen fodgængere, ingen trafiklys, osv) — er den første dødsårsag nemlig ikke hastigheden (farten skulle dræbe, ikke sandt?) men dyssighed.  Og hvorfor falder folk i søvn ved rattet hvis det ikke er på grund af en søvndyssende hastighed (eller skulle man sige den "søvndyssende langsomhed")?

    Denne fartgrænse på 110 km i timen, hvornår blev den indført?  Så langt tilbage som… 1970erne.  Skulle bilen ikke have udviklet sig teknologisk i de sidste 40 (!) år?!  (Prøv at sammenligne en telefon fra 1974 — drej den nummerskive! — med din nuværende mobil, for slet ikke at tale om en smartphone…)  Og hvorfor blev disse fartgrænser indført over hele vesten?  For borgernes sikkerhed?  Slet ikke.  Kun af økonomiske grunde (OPECs oliekrise).

    Et ord til dem som altid, mekanisk, forsvarer myndighederne.  Jeg spørger altid disse folk — som jeg kalder Manskabare folkene (man skal bare overholde en ældgammel lov, man skal bare ikke falde i søvn ved rattet, man skal bare aldrig være forsinket, man skal bare betale sine bøder med glæde, osv osv osv) — hvorfor de vil have at Danmark trækker sig ud af EU.  Det vil de slet ikke, svarer de fleste, hvorfor i alverden tror jeg det?!  Jo, fordi over det meste af Europa kører folk "for stærkt" og de fleste europæere må derfor være farlige "motorbøller".  Hvis svaret er at det ikke passer fordi i de fleste lande er fartgrænsen 130 km i timen, hvad betyder "fartbølle" så andet end at blive forhånet af ens medborgere for at overtræde en forældet (og allerede dengang ret tilfældig) administrativ regel uden nogen som helst hensyn til sikkerhed?

    Hvad Manskabare folkene ønsker i realiteten — hvadenten de findes i regeringen eller blandt befolkningen — det er at borgerne er, eller at borgerne skal blive til, robotter:  Man skal bare adlyde og man har bare at tie stille.

    Med airbags, ABS bremser, og andre moderniteter, burde en rimelig begrænsning på motorvejen blive øget op til omkring 150-160 km/t, har man læst i Frankrigs avis Le Monde (stadig 50 km/t i byen, naturligvis, pga fodgængere og cyklister), eller endda være uden restriktioner som hos vores tyske naboer, der ikke har en markant højere mortalitet end i andre EU lande.

    Ansvarsfuld bilkørsel (og dermed sikkerhed) for alle, som bruger
deres hjerne og sund fornuft (og som ikke opfører sig som en robot) er:
1) først og fremmest bruge øjnene på vejen og
2) være opmærksom på bevægelser på den vej
(andre køretøjer, fodgængere, dyr…) — noget
der pejer på mennesker og/eller andre levende væsener…

    Det der kræves af Manskabare folkene er:
1) først og fremmest bruge øjnene inde i køretøjet
(instrumentbrættet og omdrejningstællerne) og
2) være opmærksom på faste genstande (vejskilte og…
fotovogne) — der viser objekter uden sjæl og uden liv…

    Hvilken af ​​de to måder at køre på er den smarteste?
Hvilken af ​​de to bilister er den mest respektfulde over for andre?

70 Years Ago, the German Army in Denmark Surrendered, and Joyful Danes Filled the Streets of Copenhagen

For the past couple of weeks, Denmark has been celebrating the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II, as can be seen in a Berlingske Tidende photo display.

A message on a resistance fighter's car seems to say that his group has killed seven snitches.

Graphic Novel Anthology on the German Occupation of Denmark

One week from now, coinciding both with the 75th anniversary of Adolf Hitler's invasion of Denmark and with the 70th anniversary of the liberation, appears a 250-page graphic novel anthology, announces Serieland, the subject of which is the German occupation of Denmark during World War II.

Among the stories in Knivsæg by almost 50 mainly Danish authors and cartoonists (the Fahrenheit book can be ordered at Arnold Busck) is an 11-page contribution by Erik Svane and Dan Greenberg (as can be seen in Miwer's video trailer at 0:51), the duo which is hard at work to bring you The Life and Times of Abraham Lincoln.

From Fahrenheit:

Det er 70 år siden, Anden Verdenskrig sluttede i Danmark, og vi har allesammen hørt fortællinger om besættelsen. Nogle historier har vi fået fortalt af forældre, bedsteforældre, onkler og tanker, andre har vi hørt fra venner og kolleger. Langt de fleste historier handler om sabotage, en mangelsituation eller rationering, eller de er en personlig fortælling, der giver indblik i familiens historie. 
 
Men KNIVSÆG har vi, der ikke oplevede kringen, sat os for at genfortælle nogle af dens historier i tegneserieform. Vi håber, at antologien – hvis bidragsydere tæller både nye kræfter og garvede navne – udover at formidle et syn på besættelsen også kan give et spraglet og vidtfavnende signalement af talentmassen inden for den danske tegneserie lige nu.

Germany's occupation of Denmark — Timeline
Tidslinje over Danmarks besættelse 1940-1945

It’s a scientific fact: Danes are the most shameless people in the world

I’d long suspected it, and during my time living Danishly, I’d become convinced of it

admits Helen Russell, the author of The Year of Living Danishly (available from the Telegraph Bookshop).

But now it’s a scientific fact: a survey conducted by the University of Zürich has shown that Danes are the most shameless people in the world. A mere 1.62 per cent of Danes suffer from gelotophobia - fear of ridicule - the lowest proportion of the population in any country surveyed. In the UK, we have the highest number of people with the phobia. As a Brit who was also raised a Catholic and went to an all-girls school, I’m practically a lost, hyper-repressed cause. So moving to Denmark proved quite the eye opener. From the encouragement of office-based sing-alongs to a large emphasis on public nudity and a big appreciation for alcohol, Danes seem to be raised utterly uninhibited.

Take school, for example. From the age of six, Danish children participate in a national curriculum sex week to learn how babies are made and by the age of 13, they’ve covered everything from masturbation to transgender rights in frank and open discussions. Having learned about sex from Judy Blume’s Forever and Lady Chatterley’s Lover in my own formative years because our biology teacher blushed beetroot at the mere mention of stamen, this was a revelation. Danish children are also taught to question authority and speak their minds – without worrying about what other people think.

During my adolescence in 1990s British suburbia, swimming was something to be avoided whenever possible. The crushing embarrassment of displaying sprouting pubescent bodies drove many a teen to fake notes from their parents to get out of class and I spent a good 50 per cent of my time on the claggy poolside bench on ‘float-duty’. But not in Denmark. Here, exercise is mandatory, showers are communal and a supervised naked scrub-down is expected of all swimmers before entering the pool. Family nudist nights are not uncommon and many of the beaches along Denmark’s 7,000 km of coastline are clothing-optional.

 … Family nudist nights are not uncommon and many of the beaches along Denmark’s 7,000 km of coastline are clothing-optional.

Once they hit 16, Danes can drink, consuming 11 litres of pure alcohol per person per year, according to the World Health Organisation - something that’s bound to stave off shame. At least until morning. And because Denmark still has student grants (remember them?), anyone over the age of 18 is paid to study - for as long as they like. Lubricated, uninhibited and happy to live like a student until their 30s, in some cases, it’s no wonder Danes are so relaxed.

When Danes do make it to the workplace, the fun continues. Birthdays are marked with lots of singing and special man-shaped cakes - everyone screams when you behead the cakeman. Danish celebrations are not for shrinking violets. Many workplaces have leisure clubs or associations attached and several in my area also boast their own office band. Guitars are whipped out at every opportunity and communal music making with Lars from accounts is considered a perfectly normal hygge (‘relaxed’, ‘friendly’ or ‘cosy’) time. 

The land of humblebrag and its drunk, depressed, lazy, tumor-ridden, pig-bonking bureaucrats

In the American liberal compass, the needle is always pointing to places like Denmark

writes The New York Post's Kyle Smith (tack till Instapundit).

Everything they most fervently hope for here has already happened there.

So: Why does no one seem particularly interested in visiting Denmark? (“Honey, on our European trip, I want to see Tuscany, Paris, Berlin and . . . Jutland!”) Visitors say Danes are joyless to be around. Denmark suffers from high rates of alcoholism. In its use of antidepressants it ranks fourth in the world. (Its fellow Nordics the Icelanders are in front by a wide margin.) Some 5% of Danish men have had sex with an animal. Denmark’s productivity is in decline, its workers put in only 28 hours a week, and everybody you meet seems to have a government job. Oh, and as The Telegraph put it, it’s “the cancer capital of the world.”

So how happy can these drunk, depressed, lazy, tumor-ridden, pig-bonking bureaucrats really be?

Let’s look a little closer, asks Michael Booth, a Brit who has lived in Denmark for many years, in his new book, “The Almost Nearly Perfect People: Behind the Myth of the Scandinavian Utopia” (Picador).

Those sky-high happiness surveys, it turns out, are mostly bunk. Asking people “Are you happy?” means different things in different cultures. In Japan, for instance, answering “yes” seems like boasting, Booth points out. Whereas in Denmark, it’s considered “shameful to be unhappy,” newspaper editor Anne Knudsen says in the book.

Moreover, there is a group of people that believes the Danes are lying when they say they’re the happiest people on the planet. This group is known as “Danes.”
 
“Over the years I have asked many Danes about these happiness surveys — whether they really believe that they are the global happiness champions — and I have yet to meet a single one of them who seriously believes it’s true,” Booth writes. “They tend to approach the subject of their much-vaunted happiness like the victims of a practical joke waiting to discover who the perpetrator is.”

 … Denmark is a land of 5.3 million homogenous people. Everyone talks the same, everyone looks the same, everyone thinks the same.

This is universally considered a feature — a glorious source of national pride in the land of humblebrag. Any rebels will be made to conform; tall poppies will be chopped down to average.

 … One of the most country’s most widely known quirks is a satirist’s crafting of what’s still known as the Jante Law — the Ten Commandments of Buzzkill. “You shall not believe that you are someone,” goes one. “You shall not believe that you are as good as we are,” is another. Others included “You shall not believe that you are going to amount to anything,” “You shall not believe that you are more important than we are” and “You shall not laugh at us.”

 … Macho isn’t a problem in Sweden. Dubbed the least masculine country on Earth by anthropologist Geert Hofstede, it’s the place where male soldiers are issued hairnets instead of being made to cut their hair.

 … As for its supposedly sweet-natured national persona, in a poll in which Swedes were asked to describe themselves, the adjectives that led the pack were “envious, stiff, industrious, nature-loving, quiet, honest, dishonest and xenophobic.” In last place were these words: “masculine,” “sexy” and “artistic.”

Scandinavia, as a wag in The Economist once put it, is a great place to be born — but only if you are average. The dead-on satire of Scandinavian mores “Together” is a 2000 movie by Sweden’s Lukas Moodysson set in a multi-family commune in 1975, when the groovy Social Democratic ideal was utterly unquestioned in Sweden.

In the film’s signature scene, a sensitive-apron wearing man tells his niece and nephew as he is making breakfast, “You could say that we are like porridge. First we’re like small oat flakes — small, dry, fragile, alone. But then we’re cooked with the other oat flakes and become soft. We join so that one flake can’t be told apart from another. We’re almost dissolved. Together we become a big porridge that’s warm, tasty, and nutritious and yes, quite beautiful, too. So we are no longer small and isolated but we have become warm, soft and joined together. Part of something bigger than ourselves. Sometimes life feels like an enormous porridge, don’t you think?”

Then he spoons a great glutinous glob of tasteless starch unto the poor kids’ plates. That’s Scandinavia for you, folks: Bland, wholesome, individual-erasing mush. But, hey, at least we’re all united in being slowly digested by the system.

A Business Deal That Threatened To Break Up a Government

There are groundbreaking business deals. And then there are ones that threaten to break up governments.

Thus spake Danny Hakim in the New York Times a few months ago.

When Denmark gave the global financial giant Goldman Sachs the go-ahead on Thursday to buy a stake in its state utility, the move was not exactly followed by a celebratory signing ceremony.

So divided was the Socialist People’s Party that it withdrew its ministers from the country’s governing coalition. Some party members said the deal ceded too much power to Goldman. Annette Vilhelmsen, the party’s leader [pictured below], who supported the deal, stepped down from her leadership role since she could not reach agreement within her party.

The party’s withdrawal from the coalition left the government of Helle Thorning-Schmidt [she of the Cameron/Obama selfie at the Nelson Mandela funeral, pictured above], the prime minister, with a tenuous grip on power.

That so many Danes have been aghast at the idea of giving Goldman Sachs a prominent role in the country’s energy future reflects how far the damage to the investment bank’s reputation has spread since the financial crisis.

However much the financial world might envy Goldman’s trading prowess, many Danes see Goldman as an emblem of an industry that helped cause the crisis and then profited handsomely even as much of the Continent still struggles to recover.

… The deal was approved … by a parliamentary committee. The departure of the Socialists left the two remaining parties in a precarious position.

 … But Prime Minister Thorning-Schmidt, who is best known internationally for her recent “selfie” with President Obama at the funeral of Nelson Mandela, said she would form a new government. 

 … Under the terms of the deal, Goldman would invest about $1.45 billion for an 18 percent stake in Dong Energy, the state utility, which has become a green energy exemplar in its push for electricity from wind turbines. Though the deal buys far from a controlling share, the minority stake would come with special privileges.

Ask Not What Your Country Can Do for You, Ask What You Can Do for Your Country (Danish Version)

Do It for Denmark! The new patriotism in Denmark hardly sounds like a sacrifice (tak til Instapundit).

36-Year-Old Dane on Welfare Since She Was 16: the "Danish model of government is close to a religion"

It began as a stunt intended to prove that hardship and poverty still existed in this small, wealthy country, but it backfired badly

writes Suzanne Daley in a New York Times article which states outright that the "Danish model of government is close to a religion here".

Visit a single mother of two on welfare, a liberal member of Parliament goaded a skeptical political opponent, see for yourself how hard it is.  

It turned out, however, that life on welfare was not so hard. The 36-year-old single mother, given the pseudonym “Carina” in the news media, had more money to spend than many of the country’s full-time workers. All told, she was getting about $2,700 a month, and she had been on welfare since she was 16.

 … Denmark has among the highest marginal income-tax rates in the world, with the top bracket of 56.5 percent kicking in on incomes of more than about $80,000. But in exchange, the Danes get a cradle-to-grave safety net that includes free health care, a free university education and hefty payouts to even the richest citizens. 

Parents in all income brackets, for instance, get quarterly checks from the government to help defray child-care costs. The elderly get free maid service if they need it, even if they are wealthy.

 … “In the past, people never asked for help unless they needed it,” said Karen Haekkerup, the minister of social affairs and integration, who has been outspoken on the subject. “My grandmother was offered a pension and she was offended. She did not need it.

“But now people do not have that mentality. They think of these benefits as their rights. The rights have just expanded and expanded. And it has brought us a good quality of life. But now we need to go back to the rights and the duties. We all have to contribute.” 

 … Joachim B. Olsen, the skeptical politician from the Liberal Alliance party who visited Carina 16 months ago in her pleasant Copenhagen apartment, is particularly alarmed. He says Sweden, which is already considered generous, has far fewer citizens living on government benefits. If Denmark followed Sweden’s example, it would have about 250,000 fewer people living on benefits of various sorts. 

“The welfare state here has spiraled out of control,” Mr. Olsen said. “It has done a lot of good, but we have been unwilling to talk about the negative side. For a very long time it has been taboo to talk about the Carinas.” 

 … It remains possible that the cost-cutting push will hurt the left-wing coalition that leads the government. By and large, though, the changes have passed easily in Parliament and been happily endorsed by conservatives like Mr. Olsen, who does his best to keep his meeting with Carina in the headlines. 

Carina was not the only welfare recipient to fuel the sense that Denmark’s system has somehow gotten out of kilter. Robert Nielsen, 45, made headlines last September when he was interviewed on television, admitting that he had basically been on welfare since 2001. 

Mr. Nielsen said he was able-bodied but had no intention of taking a demeaning job, like working at a fast-food restaurant. He made do quite well on welfare, he said. He even owns his own co-op apartment. 

Unlike Carina, who will no longer give interviews, Mr. Nielsen, called “Lazy Robert” by the news media, seems to be enjoying the attention. He says that he is greeted warmly on the street all the time. “Luckily, I am born and live in Denmark, where the government is willing to support my life,” he said.

The Life & Times of Queen Margrethe II in Graphic Novel Format

Kristian Lindberg has an article in the Danish daily Berlingske Tidende about a new biography of Queen Margrethe II of Denmark in graphic novel format:

Dronning Margrethes liv bliver til en tegneserie

Af Kristian Lindberg
6. juni 2013, 17:00

7.000 fotografier er en del af researchen på Thierry Capezzones og Erik Svanes tegneserie om Dronningens vej til tronen – og tiden derefter.

I 2015 fejrer Danmark dronning Margrethes 75 års-fødselsdag, men allerede til næste år vil regenten blive hyldet med en tegneserie i to bind, der skildrer hendes liv fra fødsel til i dag.

Bag serien står to meget erfarne tegneserieskabere, nemlig den 49-årige herboende franske tegner Thierry Capezzone, der blandt andet står bag tegneserien om »H.C. Andersen Junior«, og den 45-årige danske manuskriptforfatter Erik Svane.

Tegneserien om dronning Margrethe bliver i to dele, hvor første del, med arbejdstitlen »Daisy«, blandt andet handler om hendes fødsel, kort efter at Tyskland besatte Danmark, uddannelsesårene i Cambridge, hendes deltagelse i arkæologiske ekspeditioner og hendes ægteskab med prins Henrik. Anden del handler om tiden efter hendes indsættelse som regent i 1972.

»Dronningens liv er som et eventyr, men vi vil gøre alt for at få alle de historiske detaljer gjort så korrekte som muligt,« siger Thierry Capezzone.

For tegneren er serien om dronning Margrethe et skridt væk fra den eventyrprægede stil, som han hidtil har været kendt for. Han har foreløbig tegnet fem album om »H.C. Andersen Junior«, hvori den unge digter oplever sine egne mystiske eventyr i datidens Odense og København. Disse album har solgt i flere oplag i Danmark, Norge og Frankrig.

Alt skal være korrekt

Manuskriptforfatter Erik Svane har i mange år været bosiddende i Paris og leveret manuskripter til den store franske og belgiske tegneseriebranche. Blandt hans tidligere projekter har været en såkaldt kontrafaktisk biografi om Leonardo da Vinci, hvor man forestiller sig, hvad der kunne være sket, hvis de historiske rammer havde været anderledes. Hvad angår dronning Margrethe er forbilledet dog klassiske biografiske film som »Gandhi«, hvor der ikke gås på kompromis med det faktuelle.

»Alt skal være korrekt, men vi laver ikke bare en opremsning af facts. Vi vil koncentrere os om de dramatiske afsnit af Dronningens liv,« siger Erik Svane.

En rød tråd i fortællingen vil være at beskrive, hvordan Dronningen gradvist finder sig til rette med de pligter, der følger med positionen som statsoverhoved.

»Det har ikke altid været lige sjovt, og jeg tror faktisk, at det er en af årsagerne til, at Dronningen og prins Henrik faldt for hinanden - de har begge kæmpet for at finde deres plads i systemet,« siger Erik Svane.

Som et led i sin research har forfatteren rejst rundt i Danmark og taget omkring 7.000 billeder af blandt andet rigets slotte, fotos som Thierry Capezzone skal holde sig til under udarbejdelsen af sine baggrundstegninger.

Ideen

Ideen til en tegneserie om dronning Margrethe begyndte, da Thierry bemærkede, at hans tegnestil var begyndt at udvikle sig i en mere realistisk retning end den tegnefilmsagtige stil, som hans serie »H.C. Andersen Junior« er holdt i.

»Noget, jeg godt kan lide at tegne, er 1940ernes bilmodeller, og derfor fyldte jeg gadescenerne fra besættelsestiden med biler. Erik påpegede dog, at der på grund af benzinrationeringen kun var få privatbiler i gaderne. Folk cyklede mest,« siger Thierry Capezzone.

På trods af sin franske baggrund er tegneren i øvrigt overbevist royalist.

»Hvis man sammenligner kongedømmerne Danmark, Holland og Storbritannien med det republikanske Frankrig, så føler jeg selv, at kongedømmerne er at foretrække som statsform. Jeg elsker kongehuset og vil gøre mit bedste for at behandle det med den respekt, det fortjener,« siger Thierry Capezzone.

Tegneren og forfatteren har indgået aftale om udgivelsen med tegneserieforlaget Cobolt, der udgiver klassikere som Tintin, Linda og Valentin og Smølferne. Og snart også albummerne om dronning Margrethe. Redaktør på Cobolt Carsten Søndergaard ser de kommende album som et vigtigt skridt for danske tegneserier.

»I Danmark bør vi tilstræbe at fortælle danske historier i stedet for at lave efterligninger af amerikanske eller franske tegneserier, og de tegnere, der har gjort det, har også haft succes med det, som for eksempel Claus Deleuran og Orla Clausen,« siger Carsten Søndergaard.

På hjemmesiden hc-junior.dk/wordpress vil man kunne følge Thierry Capezzones og Erik Svanes arbejde med tegneserien.

Der er et yndigt land — The Parody

ThDubya has posted a parody of Denmark's Der Er et Yndigt Land (tak til Eiler).



Der er et yndigt land ("There is a lovely land") is the (civil) national anthem of Denmark. The lyrics were written in 1819 by Adam Oehlenschläger. When first published, the anthem had 12 verses, but this was shortened to the first, third, fifth, and last verse in later editions. The music was composed in 1835 by Hans Ernst Krøyer. Later, Thomas Laub and Carl Nielsen each composed alternative melodies, but neither of them has gained widespread adoption, and today they are mostly unknown to the general population.

François Hollande Channeling Kierkegaard

As François Hollande announces massive taxation, Le Monde's Plantu has the French president channeling Søren Kierkegaard…
• Hollande: "It is not the path which is difficult, it is the difficult which is the path" (Kierkegaard)
• Cynical French Worker: Alright already, I get the message!

 

Copenhagen: "a photogenic gem", filled with "old and new buildings that compliment each other perfectly"

Robert Thomason moved to Copenhagen to live with his Danish girlfriend nearly 10 years ago

writes The Telegraph.

He describes the city, which he has captured in thousands of pictures, as "a photogenic gem", full of "old and new buildings that compliment each other perfectly".

Happy Birthday to Elvis, from… Denmark?!

A replica of Elvis Presley's Graceland estate is opening in Denmark

reports the BBC.

The Danish tribute to 'The King' has been built in the town of Randers, and will be known as Graceland Randers.

The building is almost identical to the original, although it is twice the size to house a shop, restaurant and museum.

The BBC adds that

The building is the brainchild of Henrick Knudsen, an Elvis fan who … said the project has the backing of Elvis's widow Priscilla.

Dziękujemy Prezydencie Ronald Reagan

"Ronald Reagan is a Polish hero" exults Janina, as she sends us the website that underlines the importance of celebrations which are to be organized in many Polish towns on June 27. You can also like the event's Facebook page.

The initiative in Poland commemorating the 100th anniversary of the birthday of Ronald Reagan … has been a civic action directed to all those who are close to the values​​ adhered to by President Reagan and who appreciate his undeniable contribution to the overthrow of communism and the recovery of freedom. Our goal is to pay homage and express gratitude to President Ronald Reagan, using the 100th birthday anniversary to remind public opinion in Poland of his character, his achievements, and his ideals, to which he was faithful.

We invite everyone to testify in the Memorial Book, which after closing will be printed and sent to the Ronald Reagan Library in the United States.

We invite institutions, associations, governments, businesses, media, etc. to take in their fields of activity of initiatives to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Ronald Reagan's birth. Remember that it is to a large extent thanks to Ronald Reagan that today we can enjoy freedom of association and civic activities, social and economic. All who choose to take any initiative, please let us know. We will inform, encourage and inform the media.

The West is acting out of fear, lest our conduct become grounds for fresh violence

…the President announced that he had decided not to release the dead jihadist's photo

notes Frank Gaffney, Jr.

As with the handling of bin Laden's burial, the justification given was concern that the picture's dissemination would only inspire more violence against us and our forces overseas. The truth of the matter is that the more we signal our fear of the violence of shariah-adherent Muslims, the more certain it is to be visited upon us.

Meanwhile, on Tuesday an appeals court in Denmark convicted one of Western civilization's most courageous defenders — Lars Hedegaard, president of the International Free Press Society. His crime? He gave offense to Muslims. Yes, that's right, a Danish judicial panel effectively enforced shariah blasphemy law. In the process, the court violated one of the most cardinal pillars of freedom: the right to free speech.

If allowed to stand, the ruling in the Hedegaard case will be used to abridge fundamental civil rights throughout Europe, and possibly far beyond. Yet, there has been remarkably little outcry about the defendant's plight - most especially from journalists who have as much to lose as anybody.

In this instance, as in the foregoing ones, the West is acting out of fear, lest our conduct become grounds for fresh violence. This is an enduring legacy of, among other things, the manufactured outrage and mayhem over the Danish cartoons a few years back. It gives ominous new meaning to the expression "Something is rotten in Denmark."

Unfortunately, our own judicial processes seem increasingly susceptible to Islamist intimidation, as well. …

… We need to stand up against shariah, not submit to it — at home or abroad. We must demonstrate that we are, to use bin Laden's term, the "stronger horse," by touting our victories and power, and not convey the opposite impression by obscuring or apologizing for them. And we must see the paperwork that precipitated the declination to prosecute CAIR and its Muslim Brotherhood friends — and then get on with putting them out of business.

The Afghanistan Armadillo

Highly recommended:

An intimate portrait of young, adrenaline fueled Danish soldiers stationed at Camp Armadillo, a base located in Helmand province in Afghanistan.

Pipe Down an' Cool It

Climate catastrophe? The end of civilization as we know it? Cool It is based upon the book of the same name and lectures by Bjørn Lomborg, the controversial author of The Skeptical Environmentalist. Award-winning filmmaker Ondi Timoner travels the world with Lomborg exploring the real facts and true science of global warming and its impact.