15 100090 Henrik List 2008-11-26T22:31:41+01:00 We've paid a high price for gentrification. false 176277 2008-11-28T16:08:43+01:00 2008-11-28T16:08:43+01:00 Copenhagen has changed dramatically over the 25 years I’ve lived here, the last 15 of those right in the heart of it’s traditional red light district Vesterbro, now a trendy bohemian hot-spot. Copenhagen used to be a city in black and white, seedy, crumbling, and provincial, but through the '90s and into the new millennium it has bounced back as a much more international micro-metropolis with a whole new variety in its color scheme. I don’t miss the provincial-ness of the '80s at all, but I do tend to miss the rough edges and the seediness from back when whole parts of the inner city looked like crumbling backdrops of a B&W punk documentary with a Sort Sol soundtrack... But we have paid a high price for that gentrification. Copenhagen has lost its cheap apartments, its working class-population, its blue collar bars/coffee shops, its backyard workshops, its good, ol’ boys drinking beer on the door-steps, its restaurants allowing smoking after your meal, and a lot of the old tolerance, as the city has been turned into Big Mother Wallpaper Visitation Zone. Henrik List has been keeping it real and writing books about it for almost three decades, staying close to a kind of dirty realism laced with punk, gonzo and Beat Generation antics, and fueled by sex, drugs and rock’n’roll, of course, both as an acknowledged writer of now 15 books and as a high-profile cultural critic for daily newspaper Berlingske Tidende between 1991 and 2004. List was one of the first serious rave and club promoters in Denmark in the early '90s, hiring household name DJs like Little Louie Vega, party-crews like Jackie 60 and bands like Underground Resistance to come to the country for their first time. He co-founded the electronica scene at the Roskilde Festival in 1990 and was part owner of the bar Imbiss (now Riesen) in Vesterbro later in that decade. For more on Mr. List and his books, visit www.henriklist.dk and www.shoo.dk. 174944 303348 Location Traditional Danish "smørrebrød" (open-faced sandwiches) at its best in an old, masculine lunch restaurant dating 120 years back, steeped in memories, tobacco smoke and aquavit-fueled conversations. /system/photos/0032/0276/husmanns_thumb.jpg 2008-11-26T22:27:09+01:00 Husmann's Vinstue /twenty_five_hours/100090-Henrik-List/locations/303348-Husmann-s-Vinstue 176277 303451 Location This wonderfully sleazy basement sex cinema and topless bar is a sperm smelling time-machine. If you want to experience the good, old "bad days" of the late-'60s and '70s, when Denmark created world history by liberating pornography, fast becoming a tourist magnet for horn-dogs from around the world with its peep and live shows, porn theaters, strip joints and topless girls on the beach. All that is practically gone and this place ought to be a historical landmark! /system/photos/0032/6132/nonstop_thumb.jpg 2008-11-28T13:18:50+01:00 Nonstop Cinerotic /twenty_five_hours/100090-Henrik-List/locations/303451-Nonstop-Cinerotic 174582 301935 Location Really cool queer and trans-gender gallery, space and club in "Kødbyen" (the meat packing district), which has retained some of the edgy seediness of this former center of wholesale butchers and street prostitution in the city. /system/photos/0031/8979/warehouse1_thumb.jpg 2008-11-28T16:09:49+01:00 Warehouse 9 /twenty_five_hours/100090-Henrik-List/locations/301935-Warehouse-9 176122 303350 Location One of the few remaining specialist CD and record shops in the middle of the new, sanitized version of the once-edgy Copenhagen neighborhood, Pisserenden. A great selection of rock, punk, goth, emo and heavy metal. /system/photos/0032/4157/SEXBEAT1_thumb.jpg 2008-11-26T22:23:15+01:00 Sex Beat Records /twenty_five_hours/100090-Henrik-List/locations/303350-Sex-Beat-Records 176123 300876 Location This is one of the two coolest new art galleries in Vesterbro, strategically positioned off Istedgade and exhibiting street and low-brow art, painting and photography from mostly upcoming Danish and international artists. /system/photos/0032/1721/mohs_thumb.jpg 2008-11-26T22:29:32+01:00 Mohs Exhibit /twenty_five_hours/100090-Henrik-List/locations/300876-Mohs-Exhibit 176124 303322 Location If you want to get some ink done after knocking back a few too many, then this old-school basement tattoo parlor across the street from junkie nexus Maria Kirkeplads is the place to go. Don’t ever give lip to the guys or pet the dogs, trust me! /system/photos/0032/4047/tattoojohn_thumb.jpg 2008-11-28T13:23:51+01:00 Tattoo John /twenty_five_hours/100090-Henrik-List/locations/303322-Tattoo-John 176125 303347 Location The perfect combination of a cheap, good Thai restaurant upstairs and expensive, even better Thai bar downstairs, situated at the jagged edge of the remnants of the red light district. /system/photos/0032/0241/thaicornerr_thumb.jpg 2008-11-26T22:27:49+01:00 Thai Corner /twenty_five_hours/100090-Henrik-List/locations/303347-Thai-Corner 174943 303323 Location Another specialist CD and vinyl store pushing just about every kind of imported Jamaican reggae, dancehall and ska beats from a small storefront in Istedgade. /system/photos/0031/9106/hydeparks_thumb.jpg 2008-11-26T22:23:47+01:00 Hydeparks Corner /twenty_five_hours/100090-Henrik-List/locations/303323-Hydeparks-Corner 176120 303349 Location Hip and dusty at the same time, Book Trader has the best selection of used English language books in the city, specializing in Beat Generation titles, jazz, poetry and art. /system/photos/0032/0307/booktraderr_thumb.jpg 2008-11-26T22:22:15+01:00 The Booktrader /twenty_five_hours/100090-Henrik-List/locations/303349-The-Booktrader 176121 302945 Location Tiny, neoclassic punk bar with its heyday in the early, black-clad '80s, but still a perfect spot for drinking yourself into a stupor while renewing old connections that you would be better off forgetting! /system/photos/0032/4077/flossye_thumb.jpg 2008-11-26T22:22:41+01:00 Floss /twenty_five_hours/100090-Henrik-List/locations/302945-Floss 174586 301861 Location Hacienda is an outdoor café in beautiful surroundings in H.C.Ørstedsparken—by day, a relaxing family and tourist oasis; by night, a hunting ground for gay men looking for sex between the bushes. /system/photos/0024/0238/hcoersted_thumb.jpg 2008-11-26T22:26:43+01:00 Ørstedsparken /twenty_five_hours/100090-Henrik-List/locations/301861-rstedsparken 176126 303344 Location Very cool, small and laid-back café with great coffee close to Enghave Plads. One of my cutest ex-girlfriends works there and smoking is allowed...what more can you say?! /system/photos/0032/0085/riccos_thumb.jpg 2008-11-26T22:25:37+01:00 Ricco's /twenty_five_hours/100090-Henrik-List/locations/303344-Ricco-s 172683 302233 Location Totally authentic yet relatively inexpensive sushi experience in Vesterbro, just like a little, local, family-run sushi joint in Tokyo. /system/photos/0025/9203/bentoo_thumb.jpg 2008-11-26T22:26:11+01:00 Bento Sushi /twenty_five_hours/100090-Henrik-List/locations/302233-Bento-Sushi 174587 301798 Location And you guessed it: this is the other coolest art gallery in Vesterbro, strategically positioned off Istedgade and exhibiting street and low-brow art, painting and photography from mostly upcoming Danish and international artists. /system/photos/0025/0583/waswas_thumb.jpg 2008-11-26T22:30:13+01:00 WAS /twenty_five_hours/100090-Henrik-List/locations/301798-WAS 177527 303611 Location An old basement restaurant with new owners and a new, respectfully updated version of traditional Danish cuisine in a street full of medium-priced hotels-the patio outside is a hit in the summer, with junkies, hustlers and prostitutes providing the street entertainment right outside! /system/photos/0033/0922/barners1_thumb.jpg 2008-12-03T15:26:00+01:00 Frk. Barners Kælder /twenty_five_hours/100090-Henrik-List/locations/303611-Frk-Barners-K-lder 177528 303584 Location The only traditional working man’s ”Kaffebar” left in Vesterbro-with hearty, traditional Danish fare and a liberal attitude towards smoking, but no alcohol at all. /system/photos/0042/2358/3146874095_dee9205954_thumb.jpg 2008-12-03T15:26:23+01:00 Kaffebaren /twenty_five_hours/100090-Henrik-List/locations/303584-Kaffebaren 327206 Lars Bech /system/photos/0032/7206/henriklist.jpg