European Vacation, Stop 1: Munich

Several weeks ago, Bill and I went on a European adventure: first to visit my good friend Milena in Munich. Munich is a lovely city and in the couple of days we were there, we certainly didn't have enough time to enjoy all of it. After a sleepless flight due to a group of German teenagers who were talking for 8 hours straight, we had to wait in Frankfurt for our connecting flight to Munich. By the time we met Milena, we were understandably tired and disoriented. Milena welcomed us with open arms and took us back to her apartment. She let us sleep there while she went to the store and then out to the Cabaret with her friend Susie. 

So the first night, we were on our own to explore the city. Just a quick tram ride away was the city center. It was Museum night so we bought a ticket which allowed us access to numerous museums and events. First, we went to the Stadtmuseum, where the exhibits pertained to the city's, as well as Germany's, history. Everything was in German so we didn't actually learn the history of anything, but we did enjoy looking at everything. We wondered around some and eventually met up with Milena and Susie who took us to a bar to meet up with their friends. It was the most crowded bar I've ever been in. People had to push each other just to move around, plus everyone was dancing on each other. Bill ordered a coffee which arrived in a tiny tea cup with a saucer which he did his best to hold above everyone's heads and it actually didn't spill. My favorite part of the night was when the bartender, extremely intoxicated, accidentally paid me 2 euros for my second mojito. Here are some photos from that night. Unfortunately, there are none from the bar.

Sunday was a new day and we had Milena as our tour guide. First went went to a market/carnival where some of the rides are 75 years old and in perfect condition. 

Then we headed back into the center to go to the Residenz, the former royal palace of the Bavarian monarchs, one of which had Milena's last name.

After that, we ran over to the Pinakothek, or the Museum of Modern Art, not long before closing. There we saw:

After a long day of walking around Munich, we were tired so Milena took us to her favorite Italian cafe for a coffee.

Then, we saw the Hofbrauhaus but went to a more authentic German pub across the street for dinner. Bill ate a traditional German meal which Milena said is eaten during the fall to celebrate the end of the harvest season. And we had large drinks.

Trip to Burlington

Vermont is a beautiful state with a glimmering lake surrounded by
mountains. Liz and I spent a long weekend at a b&b in Burlington. We
stayed just a few blocks away from Lake Champlain. We went on a long
(possibly 15 mile) bike ride along the lake. It was so long in fact
that we eventually found ourselves in a suburb. We had to make a pit
stop at Charlie's, where candy and soda was available, but we only
used his porta-potty. We made a couple of stops to take in the beauty
of the lake and mountains from the beach which was empty and quiet and
the water actually sparkling. We took a tour of Shelburne Farm which
was owned and operated by the Vanderbilt-Webb's until the early 20th
Century. Their house is still there overlooking the lake. It basically
a museum decorated as it would have been at the turn of the century
but it also doubles as accommodations. Afterward, we went to the Ben &
Jerry factory where we had delicious ice cream and I found the
headstone for Tuskeegee Chunk, my favorite flavor as a kid. I was
surprised that it was only around for 1 year from 1989 - 1990 because
I remember eating it a lot. The next day, we visited Shelburne Museum,
which was really a whole bunch of little museums. It included a train
car that had belonged to the Vanderbilt-Webbs, the Ticonderoga, a
lighthouse, and Vanderbilt-Webb's daughter Electra's creepy antique
doll and doll house collection. Afterward, we hit up the Magic Hat
Brewery which is free but with good reason. It's extremely small and
uninformative if you don't take the tour. However, they give you free
beer afterward. That night we walked around town and heard ghost
stories on the ghost tour. The third and final day was the day for the
bike ride. Afterward we had lunch at Penny Cluse's, which is a
dinner-type restaurant with very tasty food. On the last night, we
went to my first drive in movie. We saw Gamer which was terrible but
it was still a magical experience. Liz drew a picture of it which you
view on her illustration blog here:
http://lizurso.blogspot.com/2009/09/if-infinite.html

The whole trip can only be described as relaxing and fun. I miss it.
And so does Liz. Where will we go next? Here are some pictures.

Central Park

I wanted to find the lake in Central Park before the summer was over. I never go up that far in the park but it's very nice up there.

Book Review - Emma by Jane Austen

Emma by Jane Austen

My rating: 2 of 5 starsI know that Jane Austen’s books are important snapshots of a particular time and place but this really just read like a long soap opera to me- and didn’t pick up until the end. I didn’t find Emma very likeable but something I did like about it was the importance it put on social interactions. It made me feel as though the times when I think an interaction is awkward or strained; I’m not just making it up in my head. People have really been condescending and slighting each other or waiting for something to blow over for more than a hundred years. I was particularly unhappy with Emma when she sent her friend away for two weeks so that it wouldn’t be uncomfortable when she started dating the man her friend expressed interest in. Selfish! But the point is that people still behave this way. Of course, I was also thinking about Clueless the whole time I read it to make it more bearable. Not my cup of tea.
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Jarvis Cocker Music Hall of Williamsburg 7-30-09

Sleek and chic, even while bearded and fully clad in tan and brown, Jarvis Cocker's still got the moves. He played The Music Hall of Williamsburg, which he endearingly remembered was once The North Six, on Thursday night to a packed room. As would be expected of the former Pulp frontman, Jarvis was sassy, overconfident, and full of choreography that he was more than happy to teach the audience. 

I don't think I've seen a performer more interactive with his audience. After waltzing out onto the stage, he lifted his palms to expose the eyeballs that had been drawn on for the purpose of telling him specific audience member's names. He called out Peter, Natasha, Stacy, etc. before belting out his newest single 'Angela.' Other songs included 'Fat Children,' 'Big Julie' and 'Don't Let Him Waste Your Time' and all in between song banter cleverly led into the next song. At one point someone tried to imitate this, in what was a possible request by calling out "What about the common people?" to which Jarvis replied, "It's available on CD." and "Of course I think it's a good song. I wouldn't have written it otherwise."

In other random acts of kindness toward the audience, Jarvis pulled a bunch of grapes out of his pocket and began throwing them into open, awaiting mouths as well as handing his water and beer down into the crowd with instructions that they be shared.

Opener Little Joy was also fantastic in a style contrasting to and much more laid back than Jarvis'. Their nomad European feel, French lyrics, and scruffy faced members momentarily made me want to run as far away from New York as possible. I enjoyed most the songs sung by the soulful Binki Shaprio. If you gave her a haircut and a mini-skirt, she'd fit comfortably into a brit pop band.

It was a great night, but I must say that before the show it was terrible being sent upstairs from the bar only to be met by large closed doors. Everyone had to crowd into a small room for what was likely 30 minutes before the doors opened and we were allowed to stampede toward the stage.

My review of Snoop

Snoop: What Your Stuff Says About You by Sam Gosling


My rating: 2 of 5 stars
Not great. The author definitely makes some interesting points about human behavior. He talks about the ways in which we manufacture an image for ourselves but also the ways in which we cannot hide who we really are underneath. He never came to any real conclusions though about snooping but rather made the point (over and over again) that there is no guidebook to follow and you really have to look at all the possibilities of through a person's stuff, as well as their behavior which I think is impossible to do when just looking through a stranger's room, which seemed to be his method. Even when he talked about specific snooping jobs that he'd had, he didn't seem to find anything conclusive out about the individuals.

This would have be better as an article. I felt like he was repeating himself in order to fill the pages and it was a bit sluggish getting to the end. Not recommended.

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Parts 1 and 2 of 2666

2666: A Novel by Roberto Bolaño


My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Some briefs thoughts on Parts 1 and 2 of 2666 by Roberto Bolano

Recently, I was invited into a book club by some friends from work. The last book we read was the intimidatingly long 2666 by the late Roberto Bolano. What I know about Bolano is limited to these facts: He was Chilean. He really preferred writing poetry but began writing novels in order to support his family. He died in 2003 at the age of 50 and intended for each part to be published separately because he thought that it would support his children longer.

His final masterpiece (which I say because I think that is what he meant for it to be) is quite lengthy but separated into 3 books and 5 parts makes the read less of a daunting task. The parts are written with different voices and I like to think that the translation precisely captures that of Bolano since it read like the storytelling of a cold and distant yet ominous European man for four out of five parts. Part 5: The Part About Archimboldi had a lighter, more rhythmic tone. Part 4 was the longest and darkest but also the most clinical in its descriptions of the murder cases. It engaged me fully nonetheless.

Parts 1 and 2 are about people who obsess over specific writers. What Archimboldi wrote is inconsequential to us, the readers, but obviously it was life changing for the critics; life changing enough to lead them to search to search out the seventy year old German who went into hiding many years prior. In Part 1, the characters of the four critics appeared to be empty and emotionless. Although the Italian and Frenchman made themselves vulnerable by sleeping with the British woman, any feelings of love that they had for her felt insincere and were not revealed until the end of their part. The pair seemed to be okay with the situation (sharing a lover) until the end when they finally ask her to choose between them.

Books; writing, reading and publishing them; are a major, major theme of 2666. The stories do not actually take place within the publishing and academic worlds but dance more around them, exposing the habits, loves, and mental illnesses of those who live and work in these fields. A freethinking and lackadaisical approach to the European, academic life is apparent in the first part. The critics travel around the world for conferences mostly and then to Santa Teresa in search of Archimbaldi. Although their travel is often purposeful, they do it as though they are aimless-nomads and intercontinental wanderers. What struck me was that once in Santa Teresa they did not seem to be all too concerned with actually finding Archimboldi. The Frenchman just existed in the town. After some brief detective work he stopped searching, although he was still following the words of the writer and continued to reread his works in the hot sun of desert.

He and the other three critics were not trying to be successful writers in their own right. They were critics. They read and wrote about another people’s work. They should not have dedicated their energy to figuring out what another believed and stopped there. Rather, it would have served them better to find their own meaning by taking several sources, seeing which fit them best and then integrating that into their own personal belief systems. But they were followers – not living as creative, fluid beings. This stagnation lead to them become angry, making them dangerous, physical threats to a society that they were not trying to understand and live in peaceably. They lack meaning because Archimboldi cannot truly give it to themThey are worshiping someone else, someone else’s work like it is their religion. They are empty; searching outside of themselves and not coming up with any answers.

In Part 2, Amalfitano has his heart broken by his crazy wife who is trying to run away with a poet who has been committed to a mental institution. She visits him and insists that they once met at a party and had sex while other people watched. She is unsuccessful in running away with him and so wanders, sleeping around, and living off the charity of strangers. (This is similar to the critics trail of searching, giving up, and then aimless wandering.) Back home, Amalfitano goes a bit crazy himself. He performs an experiment by hanging a geometry book on a string outside of his apartment to see if it is changed or affected by the natural forces. In addition, he begins hearing (and talking to) a voice, which says it belongs to his grandfather or father. Even though he knows these experiences to be wildly absurd, he pursues them in his quest for his own personal truth. He does not listen to convention or blindly follow someone else and that is why Part 2 was my favorite.

The critics became obsessed with Archimboldi just as Amalfitano’s wife was obsessed with the mentally ill poet because of what they represented. They want to connect their identity and beliefs to the words written by others. They wanted to live the ideas in the books; the conclusions that that the writers came to after years of their own searching and writing. Instead of searching for the meaning, they searched for the writer, the artist, the creator. (Is Bolano saying that we should not search for our creator, but rather for our own meaning; the creation that we are capable of?)

Another theme in the first two parts is art. My favorite part of Part 1 is when the dead publisher’s wife talks at a dinner party about an artist. She said that his work made her laugh while it made her friend cry. The point being that people have different perspectives about a single piece of art and often opposing opinions of the meaning. Who is right? Who is wrong? Well, obviously no one is wrong. It is a lesson learned in grade school but often lost as we grow up. As adults seek their truth, they quickly close themselves off from other possible realities in order to have something to believe in; a belief to guide them when their sense of self, chosen occupation or religion fails to do so. Artwork is not created to teach a specific idea or to educate but is meant rather to express something or to bring a topic to light to get people form an opinion about something they may never have though about otherwise. Maybe this is what Bolano intended for his novels. Maybe he didn’t want to state his opinion on our culture’s obsession with fame or on the murders of Mexico but just to bring them up as they are to make us aware. This is certainly what he meant for the writings of the mentally ill poet and for Archimboldi’s stories but the critics and Amalfitano’s wife failed to form their own opinions and took the words as final truth.

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