Norwegian Christmas Drink

On Halloween, while busking at the Times Square subway station dressed as a witch, I was approached by an unusual man. For more details of what happened back then: see the Halloween post.
Out of the blue, a Norwegian angel by the name of Tore e-mail to let me know there is a video of that occurrence.
As you’re watching the video, please notice how one of the Andean musicians is watching the goings on (leaning against the pillar on my right) and Frank, the guitar player/singer/whistler, is watching from my left hand side: (please turn off the music on the right hand bar before viewing the video)

Tore also told me that the soda is only sold in Norway during the Christmas season and there are many different brands and flavors of this drink.
Wikipedia says:
Julebrus is a Norwegian soft drink, usually with a festive label on the bottle. It is brewed by most Norwegian breweries, as a Christmas drink for the minors, who aren’t eligible (by law) to enjoy the traditional juleøl (English: Christmas Ale). Although the soft drink is supposed to be for sale through December only, it is often found in stores as early as late October, along with the various sorts of Christmas candy.”

Tore told me that the guy I met buys several crates of this drink every year and fills his entire basement with it, so he can drink it throughout the year.
The people filming us are from a Norwegian newspaper (vg.no) which was doing a fun feature about this drink this December.
The crew followed the guy all around New York where he tries to give away a soda bottle during each episode (though he’d rather just drink it himself really 🙂 )

Norwegian Christmas drink commercial

I am amazed that Tore saw this video all the way in Norway and was able to track me down and contact me. The wonders of the 21st century 🙂

By the way – the drink I was given is all gone now, but I am keeping the bottle as a souvenir from a peculiar day in the subway. Also – the label on the bottle is really pretty.

Tore wanted to know what the song I was playing in the video is. It’s called “3 Little Notes” – a French song made famous by singer Ives Montand.

Norwegian drink commercial

Tore ended his e-mail with:
“I thought the witch costume was extra cute, but your happy spirit was the best part 🙂
I’ll be sure to say hi if I get a chance to visit NYC 🙂
Take care
Tore”

4 Comments

  1. edward weiskopf on December 28, 2008 at 10:57 pm

    hi! you along with all the other wonderful buskers of nyc always make my day
    a little brighter! you def rank up there as one of my fav’s! anywho, i know
    you get this question alot,but i just recently moved to nyc from the gulf coast
    and play a pretty mean banjo. I have searched and searched and i cannot for the
    life of me find a definitive answer to the permit question.Is a permit needed to
    perform(and ask for donations) on the streets,subways,etc.? any info would be
    muchos apreciated! thanks sawlady. look fwd to seeing you perform again soon!
    ed



  2. Carmen on December 29, 2008 at 3:28 am

    Merry Christmas. Your CD delighted my father beyond belief. I talked to him twice today and it was all he could talk about. He played along with you and was tickled. He doesn’t have email but would love to have contact with you.

    Do you tour? I know he would love to see you in concert. Might be a great gift I could give him sometime if you were in his area, or a reason to get him out to WA to see us.

    Hope you had a wonderful Christmas.



  3. Kev Brown on December 31, 2008 at 11:13 am

    That was great! You were clearly wondering what the hell was going on…very funny, but nice lol.



  4. Ursula on December 31, 2008 at 9:16 pm

    Hi Natalia,
    This is Ursula; we’ve emailed before and I hope to one day meet you!
    I was wondering if you could give me some advice. Now that Im starting to do some solo saw work for people, I want a saw that can have a much higher range-a soprano saw. Do you know of any that are out there?
    Thanks!
    Ursula