christian svanes kolding
... lives in new york city and periodically retreats to copenhagen and los angeles.
... has also lived in san francisco. twice.
... believes that there is nothing wrong with mulligatawny soup on a rainy day (no complaint would be offered if sundubu was served instead).
... takes photographs. you can see his work on flickr.
... because of his uncommonly lopsided and vertical morning hair, some of his friends have taken to calling him monsieur poulet.
... looks something like this.
... is married to his favourite person in the world, the astonishing adriana estrada. they've been married for twelve years.
... they used to share three different apartments at the same time: one in venice aka dogtown (los angeles), one in dogpatch (san francisco) and one in dogville (copenhagen).
... kind of maintains a blog on media, culture, and urban living.
... likes to get paid on time.
... probably eats too much cheese (fresh mozzarella, smoked mozzarella, gruyere, garrotxa, parmigiano, danish havarti, triple creme brie, chèvre, norwegian geitost from gudbrandsdal, haloumi, manchego, queso fresco, comté).
... surfs. not very well. sort of. stands up. ankle-slappers to chest-high. lots of paddling.
... loves his bicycle.
... if he had $25 in his pocket, he might very well buy a copy of sight & sound magazine, a double-latté, a new pen, three postcards and a fresh mango for his wife.
... is anxious around bees, ledges and imminent lightning.
... prefers reading over television, and admittedly, rarely watches tv programs.
... loves this quote from lorin maazel, conductor of the new york philharmonic: "and then you say to yourself, what i do here is of no importance whatsoever. i am here as a servant. and if i'm nervous, it means that i think what i'm doing is important. that is an egocentricity which no interpreter can allow himself the luxury of. you're there to serve the music, and you have to be in the best position, psychological and physiological, to do so. which means no tension, no nerves. yes, exhilaration. yes, enthusiasm. yes, focused energy. but no nervousness. because that's counterproductive."
... once won a dance-off competition, clinching the victory with a dazzling lawn sprinkler move followed by a now legendary speedskater combo. true story. the year was 2010. yet he forgot to do the robot.
... is the founder of hygge & lort, which, at its own leisurely pace, is gradually transforming into an art concept store. he currently works on it during some of his spare time (this means very infrequent updates). it may not behoove you to know what hygge and lort translates to.
... has three brothers (he is number two out of four).
... also has two nieces and six nephews.
... was born in denmark, thus, his DNA is half-danish and half-norwegian but culturally he's more dansk.
... has spent roughly three-quarters of his childhood in the united states.
... loves the aesthetics of antonioni, malick, ramsay, glazer, romanek and wong kar wai; the humour and wit of winterbottom, scorcese, allen, kári, solondz, and gilliam; the passion of campion, almodovar, fellini, and tykwer; the genius of gondry, kaurismaki, robinson, jeunet & caro, and ashby; the precision of payne and haneke; the bravura of vinterberg, von trier, wertmüller, sjöman, moodysson, gaghan, and gonzález iñárritu; the spiritual curiousity of herzog, rainer, and wullenweber; the coolness of cassavettes, godard, kubrick, varda, egoyan, soderbergh, and jarmusch.
... speaks danish, norwegian, and english, and can mumble along in french and spanish.
... has been blogging since the late 1990s. sometimes he posts things that are written under duress and sometimes he expresses himself via the life and opinions of a certain gentleman. one is for media, the other is for film & mischief. yes, you can find him on twitter, as well as tumblr. la di da.
... has several scars; the most recent is probably the one on top of his right forearm, from a set construction accident several years ago. hardly a day goes by where he has not managed to accidently cut himself (or fall off his bike).
... established the independent production company farm fresh films. several of the short fiction films that he has directed have been seen in film festivals all over the world, which makes him happy.
... admires the work of michel gondry, lukas moodysson, christoffer boe, thomas vinterberg, lynne ramsay, as well as valerie dayton and jonathan ferris, phil morrison, and spike jonze, to single out just a few.
... loves the family summerhouse in norway.
... is a big fan of installation art, architecture, psychogeography, and well-crafted pop music, as well as a healthy dose of electronic music.
... occasionally bookmarks links.
... evidently fails to register irony. this is what some people say. others might interpret it as having a demeanor that borders on deadpan.
... has never seen grease, west side story, jaws, or saturday night fever.
... keeps an eye on new developments in the gaming industry.
... wonders if the world would be a better place for everyone if more people meditated on a daily basis.
... is a better football player (soccer) than surfer. plays defense but fancies scoring from time to time. who doesn't?
... loves to travel.
... counts ken adam, anna asp, dante ferretti, mark friedberg, k.k. barrett, and therese de prez among his favorite production designers.
... loves the production design in children of men, eternal sunshine of the spotless mind, safe, chinatown, the darjeeling limited, nordkraft, the shining, harold and maude, and there will be blood.
... wishes he had more time to read... until he realises that all it takes is a commitment to make more time to read.
... once interned at RE/search publications in san francisco. way way way back in the day, licking envelopes, waiting around for cultural luminaries to wander through, chitchatting with the likes of v. vale, andrea juno, and other hangers-ons.
... is inspired by the collaborative cacophony of life.
... still thinks madeleine kahn is extremely funny.
... fancies himself as an amateur dj (also here).
... enjoys a round of bowling every now and then, as long as it involves a pint of pale ale or a really refreshing glass of fresh watermelon juice... or atleast a plate of fries and mayonaisse.
... studied classical piano from when he was six years old and became a teenage piano competition burn-out at sixteen (which included performing in the basement studios at carnegie hall).
... has a double-jointed thumb.
... was in a short-lived school rock band called electric fish. they did covers of pink floyd, rolling stones, and... inxs. it was the eighties. he played keyboards and sang lead vocal on comfortably numb. crowds routintely rushed the exits after the first notes were played.
... has many, many favourite films, but, on any given day, the following films might be his all-time favourites: cul-de-sac, withnail and i, brazil, irma vep, the royal tennenbaums, 2001: a space odyssey, the conversation, and after hours.
... densely packed cities or very remote, unpopulated wilderness: nothing in between. that's what he prefers.
... once rode his bridgestone mountain bike with a few friends from quito, ecuador to patagonian chile and argentina (disclaimer: the entire journey was not done exclusively on bike. there were two cargo ships involved and, occasionally, those multicolored busses which often looked like school busses and were always exceptionally crowded with campesinos, tourists, chickens, and dancing dogs).
... also (very infrequently) writes film reviews.
... is inspired by designers such as charles and ray eames, peter saville, hannah höch, ji lee, nicholas felton, christoph niemann, noma bar, nicolas maitret, steve de brun, sara keir, to name but a few.
... once endured an uncomfortably close encounter with a moose, in the grand tetons national forest. has also had run-ins with an elk, four bulls, numerous cats and lots of dogs that relish chasing after bicycles.
... is one of those people who wears all black (if he wants some colour, he puts on brown pants or a scarf with a little bit of colour in it, or maybe shoes that have a thin stripe of white trim towards the bottom).
... once owned a beat-up volkswagen rabbit with a vibrant caricature of george h.w. bush on its hood. the ex-president's hair was painted to look like it was on fire (the burning bush). while in groton, connecticut, somebody put a small caliber bullet through the front window. one summer later, the car was sold for $1.00 to a shirtless RISD student.
... believes that it is more important to be kind than to keep score, while at the same time, life is too short to waste your time on assholes.
... if you'd like to see what the old version of this page looked like, christian suggests that you look here.