David Bowie on my mind

I've been thinking a bit about Bowie these last several days. His recent album reflects at least in part on his life in Berlin (with bad boy Iggy Pop) at a much earlier time. Having visited the location of that apartment on Berlin, and walking around the area has led to clusters of thoughts. The house was basically at the wall, it sits in Schöneberg near Kreuzberg, and is now an area populated by immigrants and home to wild nightclubs and locales for Berlin's younger and gayer populations. This part of Berlin is hardly what you would call beautiful.

During the afternoon, I've been listening to old and new Bowie on YouTube, listening to the wonderful interview of Jimmy and David by Dinah Shore from the 70's (with Rosemary Clooney at her side), in which both men appear as vulnerable and quite adorable, or perhaps in awe of Dinah's beautiful southern accent. The rain outside adds to the feel of the afternoon. Bowie is looking back at his life, his voice is older, his face older and somewhat bloated, and it's just a bit melancholy. The video in grainy black and white adds to this feel, especially since the Berlin Bowie remembers still had a wall.

Now the building houses a 70's music cafe, the only hint that Bowie lived there.




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Edinburgh

Edinburgh is very far north, and the longer days prove it. The skies lighten around 4 am and daylight remains until late in the evening, around 9:30 in these May days. I travelled here with a group of four hardy students, Ruth, and Bruce, our mentee, for our first free weekend. We were able to enjoy an authentic Scottish experience: grey skies and light drizzle alternating with downpour as we walked up the royal mile to the castle. Our students were the best! Not one word of complaint, they carried on and investigated enthusiastically all we were able to see. We did need to insist that they stop and get umbrellas along the route as the rain became more insistent. I thought it odd that there we so many cashmere sweaters, hats and gloves in the windows, but my cold fingers after the castle visit made me reevaluate my initial perceptions.




We stopped to visit St. Giles church along the way, allowing us to get out of the rain. There we examined the stone structure, and I noticed the descriptions of the two of those memorialized, both of which captured the person behind the plaque.

Brigadier General Francis Aylmer Maxwell
Killed in Action at Ypres
21 September 1917
A gallant soldier and
very perfect gentleman
beloved by all his men.

Captain The Right Honorable
Neil James Archibald Primrose
Who was born December 14 1882
Was killed in action
November 15 1917
At the Hill of Gezer
In Palestine and lies buried
At Ramleh
His life was lovely and pleasant
And he died in glory.
~This tablet was erected by his proud and afflicted father~

The Scots have a history of war (maybe I can watch Braveheart after visiting here) and conflict, similar to so many nations. Most of the memorials we saw had to do with the First World War,. Books always comment on the horror of this war, but when viewing the memorials, it becomes a reality in the sheer numbers of men, horses and dogs who perished.

Edinburgh is a city of stone. The castle is stone upon a former volcano, and its craggy stone base sits high above, but still in the center of the city. The castle guide tells of multiple captures and recaptures, and it's hard to realize the effort each group needed to take to do just that. What was the draw of owning the space? Any people who lived here certainly had to be hardy. Yesterday's cold, grey, rainy day in this city of stone, the possible inspiration of Gondor in LOTR, more than proved that.



As we approached the crown jewel exhibit, the young woman outside warned us that the exhibit was quite busy, and that it might be very warm inside. We noted that she was standing out in the cold, breezy, rainy weather in a short sleeve shirt. We were actually looking forward to the warmth. It was busy, and indeed a bit warmer, but it was not "warm" to my perception. Note also that this exhibit had the real crown, scepter and coronation stone, which is still used, but stored in Edinburgh (as opposed to the Prague replicas, where the real jewels were all removed to Vienna).

Another interesting point was the story of how the people came to have the sword. Pope Julius II travelled to Edinburgh to present it to James in the 15th century. Today we fly and travel by train for a good part of the day to get here. How long must Julius and his entourage have travelled from sunny Rome to this location, and hat must he have thought. What was so important? After some investigation (no Google available here), we surmised that it had to be that the pope wanted to hold on to at least part of the British isles, given that Henry VIII had abandoned Roman Catholicism and created the Church of England to allow his multiple marriages. It wouldn't be till later that John Knox pushed for the founding of Presbyterianism. His statue is of black marble, and stands in contrast to all the white marble (French) memorials in St. Giles church.

B the time we stopped for lunch mid-afternoon, we were cold, wet with squishy socks and shoes, and hungry. A neat whiskey was called for, followed by hot tea and a hearty meal of fish and chips, macaroni and cheese, or steak pie. By then it had mostly stopped raining, and we investigated the city in a slight drizzle.



Tomorrow it's off to the whiskey museum!


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Buildings and Landscape in Vienna

Vienna is a known as a baroque city, even though the city has a history dating back before the common era, and a gothic cathedral that serves as the symbol of the city. Eighteenth-Century Hapsburg wealth and power transformed the city into a cultural center, from the ring streets to the Hofburg consolidation to Schönbrunn to the many monuments and other churches. There is today an odd juxtaposition of modern glass and steel and older buildings that give the city it's unique flavor.

Within the many inner city buildings, the first items that come to mind are the many coffee and ice cream shops. The Viennese are famous for their coffee, but it was thanks to the Turks (Ottoman soldiers) who, when General Sobieski attacked their encampment, left their coffee reserves as they retreated from their siege attempt. Coffee was known as the "Turkish drink," and the Viennese embraced it, then turned the appreciation of it into a sublime art. From small and large "brauner" to espresso and cappuccino, along with the presence of multiple cafés on every block (including the recent American import, Starbucks), coffee is everywhere. Knowing this history, I am still always surprised at how many coffee shops there are.

The ubiquitous ice cream shops nearly match the number of coffee houses, especially in warmer weather. From the small kiosks, café settings, and even the grand Zanoni and Zanoni location, it is apparent that the Viennese, and their guests, like ice cream. There is always a crowd if people at these locations when they are open. The selection ranges from simple sugar cones with a large scoop to elaborate ice cream, fruit, nut, and syrup concoctions that can leave you jittery from an excess of sugar in your system, especially if you dare to pair one with a coffee.

As we study the manifestations of the Hapsburg Empire in Vienna, I realized that these two luxuries (coffee and ice cream) are vestiges of the royal lifestyle and stand as metaphors for the the riches and decadent lives of the royal families. When in Vienna, I can treat myself to delicious coffee concoctions served in tiny cups, but which fulfill even though they are quite small. I am able to select ice cream from a menu with pictures of the more elaborate creations. Did the royals drink coffee and eat ice cream? The Silver Collection museum at the Hofburg presented the preferred simple white china sets with coffee service (among other porcelain items for dining room, kitchen, bath and bedroom) as well as the most beautiful tin forms in fruit and small animal shapes used to freeze custards and creams. Products from these forms could have rivaled the Zanoni creations.

As i generalized these thoughts, I also realized that Vienna is a city with a highly developed aesthetic, and that it was a result of their history if being influenced by the gentle mannerisms and refined behavior of the former Hapsburg court. This realization helped me better understand why Sisi had to learn to always be impeccably dressed, why elaborate china, glass and silver settings were needed even at the most intimate of family meals, why Austrians move in a restrained physical manner and have conversations in public only in the most quiet and reserved manner, and even why Austrians are still known to greet women sometimes with a "Küss die Hand."





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Water to go

No one can take a bottle of water past security, since it exceeds the 3 ounce "3-1-1" rule. That usually leaves a thirsty traveler at the mercy of airport-priced bottles of water. Look what we found in Atlanta after the security check in. It's a water bottle filler, which many of the group promptly used to fill their empty eater bottles. Here, Ruth demonstrates how to use it.  The readout tells you how many plastic bottles you have avoided using by refilling your own bottle.



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Sabbatical finished, leaving tomorrow

This sabbatical flew by! Although I spent a lot of "butt time" reading, thinking and writing, it seemed such a short time. The semester version of a leave is really too short. Next time, I will need to schedule it for a time when I do not have to get right back to work in the summer in order to gain the summer as well.

This is the last day before we leave for the SBSA program in Vienna, Prague and Harlaxton/London. I need to complete several last minute tasks at work and at home, then rest this evening to prepare for the sure-to-be-exhausting trek from home to Dayton to Atlanta to London to Vienna, then through Vienna to our hostel/hotel. I figure it's about 40 solid hours of travel and waiting to travel, and a real reason to try to sleep on the airplane. Here's a picture of me in transatlantic flight mode.

I read that wearing sunglasses for the entire flight and into the next day upon arrival tricks the internal processes responsible for detaining just how much jet lag a person might experience. I tried it last September for Verena and Moritz's wedding, a long weekend trip, and it seemed to work well. No jet lag upon arrival! On the journey home, I did it again, with a slightly lower success, but I attribute that to exhaustion from the fast trip, and heading back to work the next day. I still smile when I remember that Kristen substituted for me. And she did a great job :))


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21 days and counting

We had our second group meeting this morning--the last one before we leave.  We practiced moving about Muntz Hall with our packed luggage, took the Intercultural Development Inventory, and developed the group policies and procedures.

The small group of three going to Berlin on the second free weekend made its travel plans.  Flight out of London, and a return visit to the A&O in Mitte on Köpenickerstrasse.  I hope the Currywurst stand is still around the corner.

I moved back to blogger.  Wordpress is just not worth the effort, in my opinion.  It is not intuitive at all, and I found myself creating long work-arounds to just get basic information up, and struggling with trying to add and delete other widgets and move pictures around.  Wordpress is said to be a better format for blogging, but I don't see it.  If I had to compare them, I'd say Wordpress is to Blogger as PCs are to Macs, and anyone who knows me knows where I stand on that issue :).

Lightning bugs

I just saw the first lightning bug of the season! It is quite a bit sooner than I remember seeing them, but it is so hot that the sleeping critters must have been awakened earlier than normal.

Lightning bugs always remind me of summer evenings when I was younger. I loved to catch them, put them in a glass mayonnaise jar, punch holes in the metal lid, put a bit of grass in the bottom, and keep them next to the bed while I slept. I don't remember them glowing much during the night, and they had a unique and somewhat disgusting smell in the morning. the magic was over once the sun rose.

So what my fellow lightning bug catchers do with them? My brother used to smear them just as they lit, creating a long glowing line on the driveway or sidewalk. While fascinating to see the line, it was a bit too cruel to me. Kristen had a series of bug houses, sometimes even several at one time, and would fill them with not only lightning bugs, but just about every kind of small critter that inhabited the yard. Her bugs survived, and were often let go the next morning to be caught again.

It wasn't until I read children's books with my own children that I realized that lightning bugs lived in the grass and that the males flew about to look for the females, who were often higher in the trees. I remember one story where the slow dance from the grass to the trees was described in reverential tones.

Lightning bugs are one of the very few bugs that do not scare or bother me (the other are the cicadas). They seems very peaceful hovering, lighting. They are easy to catch. They do not bite or sting. What's not to like?


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Sabbatical approved!

I was just catching on the blogs I follow, and noticed that Sue was reminiscing on what she was doing one year ago during her sabbatical.  That started connections to form to my life, since one year from now I will be on sabbatical.

I've laid out a fairly ambitious plan for the 4 month break (alas, no longer, since only one semester is allowed, and as chair I have to be back in May and will also be leading a study program abroad in May).  First, and most importantly, I need to finish the dissertation.  At a minimum, a full draft must be completed.  I look forward to the editing, but getting that draft out is troublesome, and common, as I have heard from just about everyone I know.

In March next year, I hope to report that my plan was successful.

Bis dann.

Coffee pots

 June 2013 update:  Just found this as part of synching with new iPhone and just posting now.  Coffee pot is working well and consistently, and I have learned that I do not need to drink one full liter of coffee every day :)

When my Braun Aroma Master coffee pot died a few weeks ago, I needed to find my back-up four cup Mr Coffee brewer until able to find a replacement.  While it is usually functional, I have to be very vigilant in placing the filter, minding the grind (not too fine) and measuring the coffee or it overflows coffee and grounds onto the counter and in the coffee grounds, necessitating a refiltering before drinking.  This is the reason the still functional pot sits in the back of the storage cupboard, reserved for emergencies.

Which brewer shall be the replacement?  I like the Braun, it has served me well, and first look at a updated Braun model.  There is one that looks great, with many of the same features that attracted me to my recently defunct one some 15 or 20 years ago.  Alas, none of this brand are currently available in the US.  Then I remembered the great coffee I had visiting Ele (Rosenheim) and search for the Krups 458, which forces the water, placed below the pot up and over the grounds.  It seems to be perpetually out of stock in the US, so I wrote to the company in Germany for guidance, and in what I am coming to see as a pattern in German service, was given a website to go to, along with the assurance that of course it was available.  The website does not sell to the public, all links there did not sell the item, and the coup de grace was that a couple days later, the item disappeared from all Krups sites.  Olcotts, a California company listed it for sale, so I ordered it, only to receive an email three days later that the item was non longer available. Screw you Krups.  This model is your highest rated one, consistently getting rave reviews, and this is the one you aren't producing to meet demand?!

I did not want to get something made in China, so the search continued.  I finally settled on a model made in Holland, the Technivorm, which comes with a 5 year warranty.  It has different features than my former machine, the neatest of which include guaranteed precise temperature of the water and a thermal carafe with NO heating element.  That may sound odd, but I will not have to worry about leaving the coffee pot on all day (it's happened more than a couple times).  A coffee bean company in Connecticut serves as the importer, and offered a nice deal a, including two pounds of coffee, a packet of filters, coffee maker cleaner and no shipping.  Ordered, and now on the way, the tracking information states I will have my Christmas present to myself on Tuesday.  I'm really looking forward to forming a relationship with my new machine.

Update:  the machine as arrived!  First pot--WAY too strong for me.  Second pot--better, but still too strong.  Today's pot--discovered that the measure scoop that came with the machine is equal to two of my former scoops (a tablespoon).  I used my tablespoon sand tried to guess what I'd need, since I was used to either 6 or 8 oz cups and this model is based on 4 oz cups, and the water measure is based on 1 liter. I cannot do math before coffee, and the result is as bit weak, but really full flavored.  Definitely on the right path, I'll add a bit more tomorrow.

Crazy men: The relationship between giftedness and inability to form relationships.

Ruth and I have looked at a couple of crazy people in Vienna. Freud, father modern psychoanalysis, seems to have been quite the grand poo bah. The home movies edited and narrated by his daughter Anna show Freud as the center of the entire family, with everyone catering to him while he lay in a bed/chaise covered due to his illness. Other videos show him with his grandsons practically hopping through the countryside in what appears to be in good, if not perfect, health. He did die about one year after (finally) fleeing Austria in 1938 for London, so reports of his I'll health most probably were correct. Still, his role in the family was undeniable as the wise father figure whom everyone deferred to. In one essay on women, he stated that he had a good marriage as his wife was neither very abnormal nor was she often ill. AARGH, nothing worse than a sick wife. He was able to live his life because his wife bore children, took care of them, catered to him so that he would be free to read, think and write. Oh, and meet and counsel female neurotic patients...

Our next stop was the Friedensreich Hundertwasser exhibit at the Kunsthaus Wien, a building designed by Hundertwasser (Stowasser) along with the apartment/office complex of the Hundertwasserhaus. His art work has always fascinated me, and the museum had a large collection of paintings, graphic silkscreens, and architectural models. The most fascinating part of the museum was the film about his life and art with him as the focus of the film and which he narrated. This guy was completely unable to relate to others, since he had dedicated his life, and all his energy, to exploring how nature and architecture needed to live in harmony. He stated that he did not want to enter into a relationship with a woman since could afford no distractions, and would not want to lose time from his work. Interestingly, he sailed around to various points in the world, constantly painting, with a (possible companion) who organized the functioning of the boat, and presumably his meals. There was a poignant scene with his mother where she poured his coffee, added the milk, and sliced a piece of cake for him. This man had caretakers so that he could completely give his life to his life as an artist. Other scenes documented his work, e.g., lying on a slab of ice in a small brook, watching the patterns in the melting ice or sitting nude on a beach, painting. He apparently like to be nude, the first layer of all humans.