silent haitch

Most sites and historic buildings are exceedingly well-documented, but good, living stewardship and repair does not always guarantee that the curious can find out more. A few weeks ago, H and I happened on this impressive old church with a colourful wooden interior and crypt in Thüringer Rohr in County Schmalkalden-Meiningen.

The style reminded me of churches we have seen along the Baltic coast, with its craftsmanship and artwork. A small sign proclaimed that the community was proud of this place, one of the oldest churches in Thüringen but there was little else in the way of a guide or reference. I was perfectly happy, though, in the end, for having seen it and getting to climb into the rafters and appreciating the details without explaination, letting it remain a mystery to outsiders.

It was really neat and the locals ought to be proud. This wizened sentenial was also a puzzle, and apparently a more recent addition that greets visitors. Considering that the work of conservationists is also prone to the tastes and tools of the time, such a monument itself has more enduring presense than any gloss or promotion about it.

cloverfield 8

FACT: The nebulous and unseen primordial force of nature that destroys New York City (Cloverfield) in the film is actually a rampaging giant Liz Taylor.

Slate magazine has an absolutely brilliant and thorough literary analysis of John O’Hara’s classic novel, BUtterfield 8 (like the old telephone exchanges--PEnnsylvania 6-5000) which is set during the torrents of the Great Depression and Prohibition instead of the post World War II period of the screen-adaptation with a timeless Elizabeth Taylor, that uses the novel as a lens to gain an understanding of the current economic mood and reality. This state of unbalance, this limbo that policy-makers have suspended all hopes and fears over is an uneasy one. Ron Rosenbaum superbly explains how this novel explains the turning point and associated queasiness and questioning. A lot of academic energy has gone into trying to explain the causes of the last Great Depression and reasons why we are in the present Great Recession, rife with technicalities, parallels and the shifting of blame. History usually cannot be relied upon to repeat itself in a manner that presents simple and human solutions, but being able to access the environment and the struggles of select players, as well as the economic maneuvers, can be insightful.

at the mountain of madness

Der Spiegel reports on the jest and dreams of a reporter that may well be championed as a national cause, a shared-ambition in flat Netherlands. I guess the Dutch have a yearning for a bit of variety in landscape or maybe mountain-envy, as evinced by how they invade Germany and points beyond during every holiday season. This image is a just a mock-up but planning is underway to construct an artificial peak, some 2000 meters high in the Dutch countryside. The article has a terrifically day-dreamy tone and apparently such aspirations have really captured the imaginations of the Netherlands. It certainly seems that they could assay such a feat of engineering, since much of the territory of the country was reclaimed from the sea. A man-made mountain would certainly be a wonder, but maybe not so amenable to travel abroad and the Netherlands' own points of relative high stature.

sancta sedes

 Later in the month, H and I will have an audience with the Pope when Benedikt pays a visit to his native Germany--this time holding Mass in parts of the former East Germany, which he has not done before. I had RSVP’d quite some time ago when I first heard the news and was very excited to get the tickets in the mail. It was not, however, just a confirmation of our invitation but rather like a whole press package for the Pope Benedikt XVI Experience. 

I will have to do some studying on the saints and practice genuflexing so I'm not all off rhythm and get yelled at or remediated by the bishops.  We are not VIPs with a back-stage pass (at least I don't think so), but the lanyards, badges and electronic tickets are pretty neat and I am sure it will be quite a special and singular experience.

gold doubloons and pieces-of-eight

The other day the bank gave me a large denomination, virtually unspendable euro bill. I couldn't do much with this banknote, except carry it around like a mortgaged Monopoly property or a certificate of stock, since stores shun accepting it. It's strange that one of the most valuable pieces of currency is a bit reviled--gas stations and small shops with signs in their windows announcing their refusal before one even asks, and has garnered a bad reputation, along with the €500, as a facilitator of underworld, under-the-table and off-the-books transactions. Apparently, the largest concentration of these bills is in areas where the financial crisis has been perpetuated because, in part, inability to collect on tariffs and taxes and blackmarket trades.  I wonder what the career is like for money out of circulation: is it like that of the monolithic stone wheels of the Island of Yap?  I felt a little like a gangster myself, when in the end I had to take the Euro-Schein back to the bank in exchange for less ostentatious amounts.

statecraft or goodwill ambassador

A faction of the US congress is revisiting the idea of ransoming the UN and guide its outreach and peace-keeping initiatives through leveraging, withholding its contribution to the UN operating budget. Although not a very original idea and all parties have not gone without disputes and disagreements, the language of the threat is desperate and uncouth--and highly selective. The UN is not a world-government but rather a mechanism to ensure that no one's sovereignty infringes on the sovereignty of another, and by begrudging its dues and citing certain activities, paints the organization with some monstrous authority it is not laying claim to. Such a proposal, if it goes any further, could only court retribution and could not end well. It is humiliating enough when there is no spirit of cooperation and compromise and budgets are slashed for the arts, science, social services and stabilization in one's own backyard, and the US embassy should not be exporting that sort of ill-will and discouragement. America's balance of influence is waning, especially when exhausted over something as petty as a pre-election competency-hearing and slander, and may very well need some day the support of such institutions to protect it from itself and narrow-interests.

denkmale, denmäler

Wikipedia for the next month is hosting a photography competition and open call for submissions for pictures of monuments and memorials in Germany and across Europe. The project has garnered a lot of interest and I am sure will add more depth to the catalogue of wonders that Wikipedia has. We have collected a lot of snapshots over the years and I am going through albums to see what I can find to contribute. Oddly enough, there’s one glaring omission in who can take part, since Italy has recognizes no provisions for freedom of panorama (Panoramafreiheit) that allows for taking pictures of works of art on public display and publishing them with no risk of infringement.

I had heard of tourists being bullied for taking pictures in London--for reasons of national security, and of the veiling of Michaelangelo’s and da Vinci’s statues along the promenade of Florenz from casual photography. Such gaps in documentation, should they spread into copy-fight, I’m sure, encourage in a round-about way more people to see such sites in person and patch these holes.

ball and chain or pigs in space

Politicians, justice officials and security experts across several German Länder are meeting to explore the possibility of establishing a base of operations in Hessen that will be able to track newly released prisoners from satellites in space, using ankle bracelets (elektronische Fußfessel) and Global Positioning technology. Many places are already doing this, with varying success, and I suppose that many of us, jailbirds or upstanding citizens, are already doing this too--submitting to tracking--voluntarily with our mobile phones, updates and announcements.

These developments reminded me of a story I saw on the superb site Neat-o-Rama (originally via Gizmodo) about an individual in Britain who eluded the authorities by tricking the wardens to attach the tracking device to his prosthetic leg. The proposal does not aim to release dangerous criminals into the population or commute sentences to house-arrest but to monitor individuals that pose a risk as repeat-offenders, recidivists (Rückfälligkeit). This sort of probation does not replace half-way houses or true interaction, since whereabouts are not always telling of what's a-foot. Once they catch and try the culprit, I think the robber who recently held-up a casino in Bad Karma, our fair city, would make a good candidate for this pilot-programme. There has been such a flurry of casino (Spielhalle), depressing and chintzy with slot- and plinko-machines and not glamourous like Monte Carlo, building here lately, it's almost as if one could rob a gambling hall by accident without even realizing it.