Monday, 6 September 2010
freistoot boarn
H and I took out the Bulli Camper for maybe the last trip of the season and drove through the lush and scenic Bayerische Wald to the outer-most reaches of the Free State. Along the way, we stopped at Walhalla, the hall of national heroes and cultural treasures. King Ludwig who had this monument, a hall of busts of the greatest German contributers to the arts, science and state-craft, commissioned had a fondness for all things classically Greek and inserted the rather foreign Ypsilon into the German language--as in Bayern.
The city of Passau, where three rivers coverge and the Danube rolls onward was our denoument, and we had a great long weekend and were lucky once again with the fair weather. The natives were very friendly and distinctive--I was not quite able to name what it was that colored this region differently than our own part of Bavaria.
pigeon forge
From our balcony looking towards the little river, we have a regular display of wild birds. Sometimes when an unusual one passes by, I try to identify it in this old children's birdwatchers' guidebook, which does a pretty good job of illustrating Germany's fowl.
While trying to name our most recent siting, I was reading over the pigeon and dove (Tauben) section, and wondered at the caption accompanying the common, city pigeon, die Tรผrkentaube. At first, I wondered just at the name, and then at the text, "They have lived with us since 1946," going on to describe its environment and feeding habits. I thought, how did the pigeons know that the war was over--what a strange thing to insert in a children's book and what does that have to say about current immigration and integration reform. It turns out that this now ubiquitous breed of pigeon, whose native range is from Turkey to Japan, was not introduced into European stocks until this time, in efforts to restore roosts and an industry damaged by years of violence.
Thursday, 2 September 2010
taboo you tour
The provocative tracts and the media circus featuring German Federal Bank representative Thilo Sarrazin is rousing several uncomfortable debates that I do not believe are palatable material for a public forum. There is too much taboo in it. The vitriol and the extreme claims are not helpful and do not forward Sarrazin's arguments, nor really lend much credence to those who disagree with him.
Wednesday, 1 September 2010
skywalker ranch or blue harvest
Fantastic graphic designer and Etsy artisan Andy Helms is selling has sold new, reimagined prints of the Star Wars space opera odyssey. These posters are awesome and have a really keen, Jungian common-fate movement to them, similar to Mark Eco fashions.