bottle of wine, fruit of the vine

If one looks at this label a-scant (especially after a glass or two from the bottle), it seems to read vinetards, instead of the word for a plantation for the cultivation of grapes (Weinberg). That really sounds like an insult, and I think that one would no longer fancy himself a connoisseur of fine wine after being called that, nor does it seem a particularly favourable endorsement for having bought said bottle of wine, which was actually quite good.

happy mothers' day

To all Mothers, everywhere--and especially ours.

idle hands and the devil's workshop

While clearing out some neglected filing cabinets at work, I came across a packet of educational materials, first noticing the awesome hand drawn mimeotype symbols, but then I read the short essay and realized that hysteria, fear-mongering and urban legends about Satanic Cults in the 1980s is no different from the phenomena of terrorism and security—except that fretful parents did not need the constant drone of government to reinforce fears and were able to sustain worry over whether their children were in a cult or were going to be abducted or sacrificed. It was also a scary and weird time, and enough horrible things go on without being fixated on nebulous threats that never surfaced—just like now.

Cults (the essay's title), which takes a very scientific and exhaustive approach to the topic begins: “This is a sensitive subject. One of the ideals this country is founded on is freedom of religion. Satanism is a recognized religion.” What other recognized religions could be substituted nowadays? This anonymous study is worth reading in the grainy typewritten original with the tone of an after-school special, and the lists of suspicious activities and warning signs become a modern allegory for the recommended reactions and misgivings of terrorists-hunters and holy-rollers.

portal or long night of the museum

Over the weekend, we took advantage of the extended operating hours of Saxony’s cultural attractions and visited a few neat exhibits. One monu- mentally huge gallery housed in a gasometer, a gas bell, formerly used for the urban storage of natural case, was dizzying in scale and gawking up at the lattice ceiling high overhead reminded me of that V’Ger machine entity from Star Trek: The Motion Picture—who kept a holographic menagerie of the sights it encountered, projecting down a whole virtual reality cascade.

The immersive experience of the visual panorama was of course the chief draw, but being inside industrially giant and industrially unfamiliar, unreachable architecture was extra-ordinary as well. Sometimes the installation, the frame can be nearly as dazzling as the contents.

a town called bad karma or unicorn chaser

Reflecting on Victory in Europe Day, the instruments of surrender signed and witnessed late in the night of the 8th of May and hence Victory Day in Russia and Eastern Europe due to the time difference, and the commemoration of the formation of the predecessor to the European Union that followed barely a scant decade later, is a bit diminished for being subjected to the current filters of disloyalty and disunion.

Forging a united Europe should not be without flexibility and forgiveness, nor at the expense of individual dignities. The conception was not perfect and neither are the realities and incom-patibilities of day-to-day operations, but I thought that we were moving beyond that frame of mind, no more entrapment and petty skirmishes and no more convenient amnesia. To compare the manufactured crises of economics to the untold tragedies of war is petty and cause for offence, but—though politics and popular sentiment can be moved greatly by either upheaval—despite anger and irreversible damage done in the war, the victors did not retaliate. Though defeated Germany could have been broken utterly and completely by demands for reparations (like after the First War—which albeit, did not turn out so well; I sometimes call our fair village by that name, not because its not a nice place but since it has an exceedingly common name and earned the stand-out designation of Bad [Spa, stand-out among its similarly named peers, that is] only just after it was one of the first towns to acknowledge and congratulate Adolf Hitler on his coup d’etat, Machtergreifung), its people were allowed to rebuild and recover.

Germany certainly has done many great things to recuperate and to contribute to peaceable formation of the European Union but has not done so without outside support and a stable substrate. This contrary and exclusive thinking that sees no growing imbalance in Europe’s social priorities is not a very appropriate way to regard the day, and it reminds me of the forgetfulness of some of the better-off of America’s campaigners (followed by a loyal base of supporters) who’d now begrudge a nation and a system that created the environment that fostered and protected their success its dues. A little gratitude can urge anyone towards improvement.  Please now allow the Eurocorn to chase away the negativity in this dark post.