Turning Torso

Turning Torso, originally uploaded by efroymson.

I was reading an article in the New Yorker a few weeks ago. It was about this really cool new building that had just gone up in Malmo, Sweden. I remember being a bit annoyed, thinking "when am I ever going to be in Malmo?" A bit silly to be annoyed that someone was putting up a building in a city that I had never really heard of, as if the purpose of architecture is to make the interesting buildings easy for me to get to.

Forgot all about it apparently, as when this weird twisting tower suddenly appeared on the horizon as I was walking back to the Central Train Station, it was a real surprise. Gave me a new mission in life, which was just to get closer and take some pictures of it. This is a really wild building. Was fun just walking around it, looking at it from different angles. Here you can see just a bit of the spine, in the upper portion.

Tried to go inside, but the door did not open for me. Some folks had passcards to get in, don't know if they were working on the building, or in it. One imagines that the elevators twist as they rise, though I expect that really does not happen.

Why was I in Malmo? It is rather close to Copenhagen, especially now that there is a bridge linking the two cities. There are fast trains every twenty minutes. It sounded like a good idea for a day trip, and I had not been to Sweden before. BTW, "Turning Torso" is the name of the building.

Went to the ballet this evening. Manon. From the 70s, but set in the 1700s (?). The lead dancer was very good. Got that ethereal thing down. The one who played her brother was also good, there is a "drunk dancing" sequence that looked really hard to pull off, funny without being corny. The other guy was a bit clunky, at least I thought so.

I tried to go in the side door of the theater just before the Queen of Denmark pulled up in her car. That was a bit embarrassing.