vorsicht torte or bulli for you

I like the warning "vorsicht Torte!"--caution cake, since it sounds especially alertist in German, like danger, falling rocks.  Some of H's co-workers made him this darling cake in the likeness of our little VW bus for his birthday.  It was a nice way of commemorating the trips H has already taken and send well-wishes for future voyages.  Happy birthday--bully to you!

time-lock

The other day, H and I watched a bitter-sweet documentary "The Vault and the Electronic Frontier" about the singular Berlin discothek whose celebration paralleled the razing of the Wall and German reunification. It was particularly interesting how the MoTown influence in techno was fostered in Germany and then re-exported to the States. The reporting and interviews covered the final months of Tresor through its financial problems and eventual wrecking, which was pretty sad and indignant to see, in 2005 at the hands of a dastardly developer. I remember years ago when I visited Berlin for the Love Parade seeing the low-clearance and sleek letters of Tresor's entryway and regretted not having seen it back then--though, apparently, it was reincarnated in 2007 in an East Berlin electric company. In a related torch-song, the Wall Street Journal had a quirky, brief on the discography of one of Disco's unremembered heroes, Walter Gibbons. I really want to check our this jungle-music album, pioneered at a time before Disco had really gelled as a genre and co-opted by bigger labels.  Though these styles have been formalized into very different, divergent things, techno and Disco, I really appreciate them both--anything with a beat that you can dance to, like the characters from Peanuts breaking into their peculiar routines on the floor when the music plays.

gaudeamus igitur

Look to this day, graduate... I understand that this year's graduating class is pursuing having itself cryogenically frozen until the job market improves.  I feel hopeful about continuing my education--though I have no designs as to what ends.  Perhaps the next spunky flock of MBAs can save the economy from certain doom--or get their come-uppance as they snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.  We shall see.  I was satisfied with the educational challenge and the material covered, despite a bit of kow-towing to questions of ethicsand corporate responsibility that was approached in superficial kind of way, general lack of engagement and cohension--that I suppose is part and parcel of an online degree, and talk of robust, unsinkable markets that seemed painfully naive and dated.  I really enjoyed the course work, and delving more than a headline's smattering into market analysis, trade and regulatory environments and economic theory.  Good old diploma mill university--a part of the whole experience, however, makes me think of those old Sally Stuthers commercials for career-development in hotel/restaurant management.  Do you want to make more money?  Or just advance in your present job?  Do you like to paint, or just sketch or doodle?  Can you draw Petey the Pirate--or how about Tommy the Turtle?  But maybe such hiberation is not completely out of order.

spacely sprockets

Since visiting the first test facilities at Peenemuende, notwithstanding the occasional pleasant afternoon at the local airshow, I have a renewed fascination with rocketry.  The excellent museum there tempered science with war-waging and was thoughtful but not in an overly preachy way.  German engineers at the National Aerospace Center have successfully developed a new sharp rocket that is poised to revolutionize space travel--all for a paltry 12 million euro.  The new, reusable space glider is much more manueverable, and manages to guide itself safely back to Earth.  Its faceted nose-cone makes it especially resilient and resistant to the heat of reentry.

In related news, the Russian space agency, with no shortage of ambitious missions waiting in the wings, will slowly vacate its cosmodrome at Baikonur, since while the whole region benefited from Soviet investment in space infrastructure, the cosmodrome is fully in Kazahk territory which Russia leases at a high price.  A bigger and better space port will be built in the Russian far east at Vostochny near the Chinese border and the city of Harbin.

capitol intelligencer or no such agency

The Washington Post released its compendious study of the parallel topography and the sprawling landscape of Top Secret America.  It's a very clever read.  The two-year project concludes that the forces to combat terrorism have grown so large as to be unwieldy, information is not promulgated nor shared for coordination and triangulation, and petty tyrranies and turf-battles not only are squandering the whole enterprise with redundancy but also inviting warring shadow-factions to rise up. 

No creature is better at job-preservation by sustaining need than government bureaucrats and job-security could turn vicious.  Maybe this is not as sensational or surprising as the revelations of Deepthroat but maybe it can cue public attention and bring about reform to a problem that is endemic to the US government and cull some unneeded duplication and coveted red-tape.

insektenvernichter

I thought that the name of the friendly guesthouse by our campsite on the Prorer Wiek was a bit ominous and foreboding, Zur Muecke, the Mosquito, and we sustained a few nasty bites and an inconstant nuisance in the evenings but it was not intolerable.  I have a cruel and untested in field conditions bug-zapper that I forgot to bring along, which was probably a good thing.  I also tried to guard myself from the perils of the sun, and considering the defensive freckles that surface on my whiter shade of pale skin, I think I managed pretty well with two weeks of fine weather on the beach with sun protection factor 50.  I emerged a bit tanned and unscathed, except for a patch on my knee that I guess I missed.  I felt like Achilles dipped in the River Styx, with my vunerabilities that I am sure that the mosquitoes took advantage of as well through the cloud of Autan/Off, or more appropriately like when Nibelung Siegfried bathed and that one leaf fell on him.

baltic avenue or gravity's rainbow

H and I have just returned from a camping--though not actually roughing it, holiday, spanning as H points out the entire length of the former German Democratic Republic, from Thuringia to the lighthouse at Kap Arkona at the northern tip of the Island of Rügen. 

Lazily making the transition from one, beautiful, clean and uncrowded beach to the next, we saw many remarkable things and took in a lot of history, including Werner von Braun's rocket facility at Peenemunde, which saw the first launch into outer space, ancient fishing villages, buildings bleached white and authentic and justified martitime decor, outstanding natural beauty, the chalky cliff face at the Jasmunder Bodden,

to the endless coastlines of Usedom, to our final campsite and headquarters at the Kraft durch Freude (KdF) seafront resort ruin of Prora, built to accomodate some twenty-thousand holiday-makers and some 4.5 kilometers long but never used used for that purpose.

It was absolutely outstanding to be nomadic and take away so many impressions, even more than I can list here, while sustaining the relaxation that should come with the standard--or non-standard two-weeks' vacation, and cannot wait for the next adventure.

 

im urlaub

H and I are touring the exquisite Baltic coast, and PfRC is on sabbatical too.  Please check out Our Little Travel blog for further adventures.