| German History Museum |
[07 Sep 2006|02:53pm] |
I've spent the last couple of days in the newly renovated "German History Museum", which is the coolest, most comprehensive, and certainly, in its way, the most depressing museum I've ever visited.
It consists of two floors in the enormous Prussian-era armory absolutely crammed with artifacts collected and assembled to tell the story of Germany from the Roman's first contact up to today. The number and quality of original artifacts, paintings (Napoleon the Emperor!), documents (posters from the election of '33!), suits of armor (right out of "the Holy Grail"!), books (annotated Mein Kampf!, cars (Trabant!) and so on and so on and so on is just amazing.
And overwhelming. I think I may not have time this trip to actually see the whole thing through, and truth be told, I was so depressed after swimming through the intellectual sewer of the '30s and the rubble of the '40s, I don't know if I have the emotional energy to try.
Don't know if I can take the Stasi years this trip.
visit the website
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| who'da thunk it? |
[27 Aug 2006|11:32am] |
So... there I was with my lady friend near the Berlin Hauptbahnhof last night, that enormous new train station north of the Tiergarten. A profusion of colourful tents has sprung up all around it this week, apparently some kind of music festival going on.
We were walking, in professional capacity, towards a yoga festival in the next park over. The sun was setting as I suddenly heard the swelling sounds of a string orchestra, and then a semi-operatic male voice drifted out into the cool evening air... and I recognized it.
It was none other than... Klaus Meine.
Klaus Meine of the Scorpions! Yes indeed, it was the Scorpions in the flesh - performing easy listening hits with the backup of a classical symphony orchestra in a circus tent in Berlin.
If anyone had told me a couple of decades ago - rocking out to "Blackout" under clouds of suspiciously fragrant smoke - under what strange circumstances I'd be hearing that voice in 2006, I don't know if I could have believed it.
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[03 Aug 2006|11:54am] |
so it's basically the same routine here as it was in san francisco... ie, work work work, eat and sleep. doesn't seem right, does it? in this of all cities...
still, a little culture absorption is going on. my german has improved a great deal just be swimming in the atmosphere... or if not improved, then my level of self-criticism has certainly dropped. not to the point that i was moved to strike up a conversation with the 10:00am, beer-popping, stuffed aardvark-clutching tattooed neerdowell slouching across from me on the S-bahn this morning, but hell, i speak the language better than the bazillion turks here, second largest turkish city on the planet - or so i've been told.
could be... i eat "turkish" food several times a week, but by that i mean "döner", which is as turkish as a mission burrito is mexican, just as delicious, and just as food-coma inducing. sat on the edge of the spree rived today, watching the sun set over the train tracks and munching away, sipping my beer and contemplating the civility of a country that doesn't mind if you have a beer or two walking around it's streets, riding it's trains, or sitting in a park. on the other hand, full of nazis! well, not really. not really "full", i mean, and truth be told, the nazis in question are just another gang... in the northern and eastern parts of the city it's punks vs. nazis much like sureno vs. norteno or sharks vs. jets... violent social clubs which mark a certain phase of life, and then fade away... mostly. still a scary right-wing presence here, but very small, and truth be told, widely despised. as it oughtta be.
anyway, i've been here often enough that i've pretty much seen the sights worth seeing, and am sort of itching to do something other than work... snuck away yesterday to my favourite museum, the "alte national galerie", full of 19th century romantic paintings, including a whole floor devoted to my old misanthropic friend caspar david friedrich. the occasional coffee with friends, a dinner or two... i did get to go to a shabbat service at the neue synagoge in oranienburgerstrasse... a gorgeously enormous golden onion-domed building in mitte. google it - it's a knockout, and you can see the domes from all over berlin. not many berliners actually know what it is, as it turns out. havi tells me that this synagogue attracts the sort of misfits of berlin... lots of converts, people who can't stand the orthodox crowd, general oddballs... the hard part was just getting into the place, heavily guarded at all times, and the interrogator whom we had to make it past was a russian guy whose hebrew was so bad he couldn't even tell that h. was israeli, to her extreme irritation! the place is a shell, as it turns out, with the interior completely burned away... kristallnacht or the allies, i'm not quite sure... anyway, interesting to have been inside, if nothing else.
what i'm really wondering, though, is what the hell is wrong with the beer in berlin? in a well-regarded beer guide, there's a chapter on berlin (by their own admission) which is only there because it's the capital city... there's not much here worth drinking! which is to say, i'm drinking a "berliner" lager right now. :) it isn't bad, but if you've been to almost any other city, not to say village, the local brew is enough to make one weep! what they have here is "berliner", "schultheiss", and "kindl", each lamer than the last... cool, golden, and dull as dishwater. what happened to berlin? perhaps it's the proximity to poland. i mean, didn't prussians drink beer like proverbial fish? please explain.
and that's probaby enough of a ramble for this infrequently updated blog... off i go.
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| schon wieder ein zufall in berlin |
[25 Jul 2006|08:03am] |
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so I hadn't been in berlin for more than a couple of days before being struck by the kind of coincidence that *always* happens to me here. sat down at a cafe in prenzlauerberg for a quick... okay, for a slow beer on a muggy afternoon, and grabbed a copy of the morgenpost for browsing purposes. flipped open the paper, looked at the photo off the girl at the top of page 7, and... i knew her. the only person i *know* in prenzlauerberg, and there she is in the sort of "celebrity kids who live in this neighborhood" section... you know the kind. minh-kai is a local celebrity, a vj on germany's version of mtv for years, a tv star (first vietnamese detective on german television!) and film-maker... she's a friend of a friend, and stayed at my apartment in sf a few years back.. okay, fine. i had been feeling sort of guilty that i hadn't called her since blowing into town, and took this appearance as a sign. we're having coffee this weekend.
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| List Of Actual Subtitles Used In Films Made In Hongkong |
[23 Sep 2004|09:53am] |
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Ein Wort in Sekunden - Donner |
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I am damn unsatisfied to be killed in this way.
Fatty, you with your thick face have hurt my instep.
Take my advice, or I'll spank you without pants.
Same old rules: no eyes, no groin.
Greetings, large black person. Let us not forget to form a team up together and go into the country to inflict the pain of our karate feets on some ass of the giant lizard person.
...and so many, many more!
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| germans in space |
[14 Sep 2004|10:12am] |
german radio broadcasts now in klingon, as duly noted in international news reports.
somewhere (somewhere probably warmish) otto von bismarck is smirking under his moustache. :)
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| sewer |
[26 Apr 2004|11:33am] |
i was browsing in the kids section of a giant german bookstore, looking for a souvenir of sorts...and i stumbled across a copy of christiane f. - the story of the 13 year old german junkie-prostitute who worked the bahnhof-zoo train station in berlin in the 70's.
two days later i was actually in the bahnhof-zoo, and left a souvenir of my own - i deposited a kidney stone directly into berlin's sewer system.
connection? you decide.
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| ich bin von Deutschland endlich zurückgekommen |
[25 Apr 2004|09:10am] |
so...i'm back from three weeks traveling through germany, where i (among other things) ignored the fact that such a thing as the *internet* existed. yay!
i am now:
battling jetlag with grim intensity;
still thinking occasionally in fractured german;
waking up startled in my own bed;
eating too many corned beef hash breakfasts at herb's diner on 24th street;
pining for cities that have a sense of history that extends past last weekend, and beyond the borders,
- that remain conscious following the 2:00am hour,
- that have direct access to their own cultural and artistic history,
- that are efficiently connected by rail,
- that are clean (even the dirty parts), welcoming, and full of energy,
- that are full of girls named silke, viktoria, miri, natalie, sophie and minh-khai,
- and that each make their own special sausage, not to mention beer...
but still, on the whole, even though, and at least, glad to be back.
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| eyes |
[30 Mar 2004|04:11pm] |
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music |
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Love Needs No Disguise-Gary Numan And Tubeway Army-Premier Hits |
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just trying to put myself in the proper state of mind to spend three weeks in another country. it's no big deal, right? i need only to lower my internal reserve and open myself up to whatever happens. the moment. anything but what i *imagine* will happen...
i just had lunch with the happiest person i think i've ever had the pleasure of sitting across a table from. she'd just had the kind of mental breakthrough that everyone who's ever wondered if they were getting things out of life dreams of having...she'd gone through some sort of workshop of the kind that i instinctively scoff at, but the evidence was right there in front of me - the girl was absolutely glowing! i mean, she looked like someone who had just fallen in love. i've never seen anything like it...just beautiful.
and inspiring. her mind and eyes are open, and she was so so positive about life and the future that it was impossible to not be infected...and she also recommended that i visit Köln next week...it wasn't on my agenda, but what the hell?
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| liberal pride |
[27 Mar 2004|12:49am] |
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walter cronkite is the man.
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[15 Mar 2004|03:47pm] |
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tired, hot and bitter. völlig niedergeschlagen.
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| bridge repair |
[03 Mar 2004|01:07am] |
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hitchhikers guide |
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 a couple of photos of the as yet and amazingly still attached bridge - repaired several days ago. you can see other evidence of the guitar's previous life, scratches, dings and other weird little scars, but it's a much much happier creature in it's post-operative state. still haven't routed a slot for the saddle - that's a length of brass rod that you see cleverly substituting in the photo.
even with the temp saddle in place, the sound and sustain are dramatically improved. woohoo!
for the record: guild f30, built in 1977, solid spruce top, solid mahogany back and sides, brazilian rosewood fretboard and brand new bridge.
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| strung up |
[27 Feb 2004|12:01am] |
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Metal - Gary Numan |
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in the final phases of correcting a mistake i made over a year ago. red wine and ebay don't mix!
i saw an old guitar that looked a little beat up in the photos, with a description mentioning several structural "issues"...but it didn't look too bad to my blurry eyes. it was a cool little early 70's guild acoustic of a sort that i love, and it was cheap, and the auction was minutes away from ending, no time for email questions...so i bought it.
well. it had cracks in the top. it had cracks in the sides. it had a crack in the back. i repaired all of these flaws immediately, and carved it a nice new bone nut.
it sounded like crap.
( Read more... )
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| re: shrubbery experiment |
[26 Feb 2004|09:05am] |
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The End Of Medicine - The New Pornographers |
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[ Error: Irreparable invalid markup ('<img [...] ,>') in entry. Owner must fix manually. Raw contents below.] <img src="http://www.calyxdesign.com/livejournal/sadgate1.jpg" align="Right" hspace="10", vspace="10"> <img src="http://www.calyxdesign.com/livejournal/sadgate1_close.jpg" align="Right" hspace="10", vspace="10">pursuant to the entry about the rotating shrubbery exhibit on valencia street, i offer exhibit (a). it really ought to be exhibit (d), but i didn't think to photograph it until too late for the first three rounds. <a href="http://www.livejournal.com/users/roterkater/2004/02/22/">shrubbery entry</a> |
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| urban injury no. 247 |
[24 Feb 2004|12:44am] |
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Nuit D'Alger - Josephine Baker |
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injury:
small white blister in center of left thumbpad.
situation:
the train/bus/cablecar rumbles down the street just as you exit a cafe, steaming paper cup in hand. you must sprint to catch it, thereby putting your coffee at grave risk - but you have no choice; you run. to avoid the involuntarily distribution of your beverage to the clothing of passersby, you press your thumb firmly over the white plastic lid nipple. the pain is tremendous, but you grimly continue your pursuit. this is A City after all, and one Must not Be Late!
you board the train/miss the train completely, and solemnly examine your throbbing digit, marveling at the dangers of Modern Life. you wonder how many other urbanites have suffered the same fate, and try not to think about how your country cousins would be laughing themselves into fits right about now.
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| melting brain of moses |
[23 Feb 2004|05:06pm] |
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deutsche welle radio |
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i've just learned that the nra has drawn up an "enemies list".
that in itself is not strange, and in fact is fairly entertaining. it includes bruce springsteen, oprah, the ama and the naacp among others., but the name that jumped out at me was this one:
the st. louis cardinals.
huh? ain't that a baseball team? what th-???
ummm...possibly mr. heston is a cubs fan? either that or his brain really has started to leak out of his ears...
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| public shrubbery |
[22 Feb 2004|03:01pm] |
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Today Is The Day - Yo La Tengo |
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i've been watching the "formal front entrance shrubbery" troubles of a certain apartment building on valencia street, first casually and then less so, for about a year and a half now...
they started out auspiciously enough with a pair of pink trumpet vines in nice clay pots, flanking the ugly apartment doorway but sitting right on the sidewalk. needless to say, they were both stolen within two weeks.
( Read more... )
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| double standard |
[20 Feb 2004|07:26pm] |
our friends in pakistan are now refusing to allow international inspections of their nuclear facilities on the grounds that they've got nothing to hide! (other than evidence of having sold nuclear secrets to every "rogue state" that could pony up couch-cushion change.)
president-general musharraf's interview in the london financial times is a doozy - he claims that no nation would allow such a thing (other than aforementioned "rogue states" libya and iran, i suppose) and that he's insulted by the distrust: "do you think that we don't know what we're doing?"
ouch. isn't that what a certain deposed (and deloused) dictator said recently? ooh, but they are our dearest and most trustworthy friends, so i suppose he's right. needn't even mention israel in this context...
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| bike painting mini-saga, part V (the end!) |
[17 Feb 2004|12:38pm] |
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Paper Tiger - Spoon |
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 alright, here we go.
i went to visit real ralph up in the santa cruz mountains. he turned out to be a friendly, happy biker kind of character working out of a shop he had just added to his house, under huge trees and surrounded by kids, cats, dogs, and half-finished auto/bike restoration projects. he's striped roughly a gazillion bike sets in his life...his pile of scrapbooks showcasing his work is just astounding. it also turns out that he's recently been doing more bmw sets than harleys, so i had definitely come to the right man. i have the strongest respect for craftsmen of all stripes, so it was kind of an honor to have him work on my stuff. he ended up doing the whole job in under 2 hours, and charged me $225...to my mind, a very fair price.
he was also very complimentary to the paint job that tim had done, and was astounded by the price...as i suspected, a damned good deal...i got lucky by meeting tim before he'd had a chance to establish the reputation that he undoubtedly will. (y'all let me know if you want his contact info...he's ready to paint!)
( Read more... )
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| war hero - revised |
[16 Feb 2004|03:42pm] |
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music |
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Equal Ways - Clan of Xymox |
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yet more underreported news: the purging of dubya's national guard files in 1997.
guess it's just so obvious to the national media outlets that such a thing couldn't be true that it isn't worth pursuing.
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