The Summer List

The other day B and I were listening to the Youth Group song "Forever Young," and it got me thinking.  See, there's this line about "so many songs we forgot to play..."--well, I don't want to forget to play them.  That's a metaphor, of course.  The point is, there are certain things that are just quintessential summer, and if we forgot to do some of them, we'd regret it.  And so will you, if you don't do these things.  Here's the list.  (And the song, should you suddenly be seized by the desire to hear it).

Forever Young

1.  Go to the beach.

2.  Eat ice cream.  (In Aarhus, we recommend Misto.  In Berkeley, go to Naia).
3.  Wear an enormous sun hat.  Feel ultra-glamorous.

4.  Take an early morning walk.

  

 5.  Eat strawberries.
 6.  Swim in an outdoor pool.
 7.  Play Kubb.

8.  Grill something.
 9.  Watch a stupid summer movie. (We heartily recommend "Wet Hot American Summer" and "Eurotrip").
10.  Eat corn on the cob.
11.  Visit a rose garden.

12.  Go to an outdoor concert, preferably in the park.
13.  Sleep with your head at the foot end of the bed and the window open.

Tomorrow it's August, so don't delay!  Start working on your summer list right away.  You won't want to fall behind, because another list is coming in the fall.

Happy summer everyone!

Summer Music Festival!

Oh, we are the worst bloggers. 

Moving on--summer is music festival time in Denmark.  Think Woodstock, but smaller, less hippie, more chipper Danes, and about equal amounts of mud.  Possibly more beer; it's hard to say.

If you wanted to, you could just tour around Denmark all summer, camping and listening to bands of various degrees of famous-ness in different fields.  It would be expensive, and you'd have drunk a lot of Tuborg, and you'd probably pick up some nasty tummy bug, but you would gain a lot of Northern European youth cred.

(Of course, if you wanted to spend the summer in Denmark, you should just come visit us, your lonely American friends and their lovely baby, instead).

Northside Festival was more than a month ago already (see above) but it is actually so close to our apartment that we can hear the music and meet the cheerful concert-goers on our bike path.  This inspired us--yes, you now know about Emmilie de Forest, but what about other Scandinavian musicians?  Probably you don't know them!  Probably you should!  Here are our top picks, which should be enjoyed with beer and ice cream, preferably in the rain.

Agnes Obel.  (Danish). Impossible to miss if you ever eat sandwiches or ice cream; every Danish cafe owner loves her debut album "Riverside."

The Tallest Man on Earth.  (Swedish).  I know I'm always singing his praises, but he is just so good.  NPR agrees.  I think "Leading Me Now" has a nice summer evening feel.

Avicii.  (Swedish).  B is the one who first cottoned on to this guy, who is actually at several festivals this summer, but I picked this song, "Wake Me Up."

Tina Dickow.  (Danish).  She's from Aarhus!  But it was too cozy for her here (I'm serious, this is in print), so she ran off to the big city before making it big.  My current favorite is "In the Red."