Words & Images

January 14th/15th, 2010

2010-01-17T03:33:00.000-08:00

As you may, Thursdays and Fridays are my weekend, and naturally these are the days I sleep in late getting back all that rest I miss out out on my working days, when I usually don't sleep more than 4-5 hours per night.

I finally managed to listen to some more of Ulli's cds. I found Phil Shoenfelt and Southern Cross very good. Phil sounds a lot like Nick Cave, but he's been around a bit longer than Nick, I remember hearing about his punk band Khmer Rouge, but never did buy an album. I'll need to check them out, though.

Lay Low is a more country-oriented band with a good songs and a great female singer, but not too spectacular.

As usual on my weekends I did our weekly shopping, and since Ursula is quite ill with a cold, I did some errands for her as well. During these duties I had 2 blasts from the past. At one shopping store I bumped into a heavy-set middle-aged guy, who greeted me from afar. I recognized his face, but couldn't quite recollect who he was, there was just an instinctive feeling that I wanted to avoid talking to him, which I did manage to do. Then he came to me: he's a manic collector of cinema collectibles who every so often visited my cinema, wanted to see all our movie posters and photos (thousands of them!) and then wanted the rarest stuff for a ridiculous price. I can't remember his name, but he was one who took up a lot of your time.

On another errand in the evening, when it was already dark I passed by a pub. Although its windows were of colored translucent glass I was able to see into their guests rooms and noticed one big table with 8-10 people seated which looked very much like a meeting. Instantly I was reminded of the meetings my old film club used to have every month, and while thinking this I noticed a familiar face. It actually was a meeting of my film club! For more than 10 years the club had been the center of my life, and I have many recollections of the ups and downs of that time which I was so much part of. I gradually departed from it, when I founded my own private cinema. Nevertheless it was a strange feeling to see that meeting as if the times had never really changed. To be honest I fear the club itself hasn't changed all that much and hasn't really adjusted to modern times. But that has always been the problem with the club, or more more precise: with most of its members.

January 13th, 2009

2010-01-16T02:14:00.000-08:00

It must be a sign that your leading a monotonous life, when your days repeat themselves even with the same coincidental circumstances. This day it was, as the day before: overslept, left for work without any breakfast/coffee, and a workday where the overhours were mercifully called off again. I'm not complaining, though, I just find it amazing. After all, Wednesday is my last day of work before my weekends, so it's accompanied with a feeling of relief.

And every Wednesday night I meet my pal Gerhard at the pub, a tradition that's almost 20 years old by now, so it's a grand way to end a working week. This time our friend Ralf joined us, and we had several hours talking about cinema and music.

The topics this time were John Coltrane and Ornette Coleman, Merzbow's early works, a new Pere Ubu album, which is a live album of old concerts, but in a rarely documented lime-up, and the death of Rowland S. Howard, best known as the guitarist of Nick Cave's Bad Seeds.

We also talked about Inglourious Basterds, made our jokes about the new Joseph Vilsmaier's new movie Nanga Parbat and the death of Eric Rohmer. All in all a great evening as usual.

Mannequins

2010-01-14T15:00:00.000-08:00

Regensburg, September 2009

Window faces

2010-01-14T14:56:00.000-08:00

September 2009

January 12th, 2010

2010-01-13T01:34:00.000-08:00

Of course I overslept the morning after my round table and had to rush off to work without having had any coffee, well it was a sip of cold old coffee, but wasn't worth the try...

The overhours, however, were canceled for this day, so I got home early and had a good rest. The DVD Antichrist arrived, and I was eager to watch it right away, but alas, I was too tired.

January 11th, 2010

2010-01-12T01:13:00.000-08:00

Lydia Davis' novel is written in a style reminiscent to that of Marguerite Duras': simple, hypnotic, mesmerizing. I'm enjoying the read very much.

After another long day at work I went to my round table at the pub as I do every Monday. This evening it was just Sabine and me, but the 2 of us had a good chat and quite a few rounds of beer and schnaps.

January 10th, 2010

2010-01-11T02:49:00.000-08:00

This was another long day at work, as it was Sunday naturally more quiet than on ther days, but that makes it seem so much longer. The blizzard stayed away from our area again, so now it's all over.

I finally started reading Lydia Davis' The End of the Story. So far I've been very fascinated by her short stories, which very often are simple miniatures, and I'm curious how she deals with a longer piece of prose. I usually do most of my reading on the bus on my way to and then back home from work. It's only about 30 minutes a day, but over time I do manage a lot. At home I read other books, when time allows.

I also managed to listen into one of Ulli's cds, Fever Ray, dark and melodic electonica with a touch of African feeling to it, not bad.

January 9th, 2010

2010-01-10T01:04:00.000-08:00

Saturday is always my back-to-work day, since I have my weekends on Thursday and Friday. Currently we've been ordered to do over-hours, so it's 10-hour work days all through January. My problem with over-hours is not just the extra time at work. The whole arrangement affects my free time as well, since I arrive home tired and fall asleep much earlier than I usually would do.

This was also the day that the blizzard was predicted, but it never arrived here in Regensburg. There was hardly any wind (like the day before), and there was some snow in the evening, but nothing spectacular. As so often we have different weather than the rest of the country...

I finally got my DVD copy of Inglourious Basterds and watched it in the evening, I'll report on that on my other blog. However, it was nice to see that Tarantino built in a homage to cinema owners and projectionists and even took time to demonstrate some of the work that is done in the projection room. It gave me a sense of nostalgia watching this and remembering my times doing the exact same things as in this movie.

January 8th, 2010

2010-01-08T16:34:00.000-08:00

(Horst Janssen: Klee und Ensor um einen Bückling streitend)

Woke up this morning thinking about former friends who I have lost over time. By the time you reach my age there are a lot of bygones, often our ways just separated and over time you lose contact. But sometimes there were deliberate good-byes.

Coincidentally, I got a message from a MySpace who I hadn't heard from in a while, and he told me that he was 'weeving out people' in his life who have been causing him trouble. I've done so myself over the years, but I feel like I've reached a stage in life that I have a wonderful group of honest and loyal friends.

This afternoon we got a visit from our MySpace friend Ulli. She lives in Nuremberg with her husband and dropped by for a few hours to meet us and see the exbitions of Horst Janssen's art and Andreas Feininger's New York photography. Ursula and I had already seen them both, but gladly joined for a second look.

Horst Janssen is an important German artist, mainly of drawings and art prints. I rarely took notice of his work, since he was something of a mainstream great, you constantly heard about him. I remember the story that he was famous for signing most of his prints, so the non-signed works have become more valuable than those with signatures...

The Regensburg exhibition is great overview over his complete oeuvre and good proof of his virtuosity as a drawer with a broad spectrum of topics.

The Andreas Feininger exhibition is, of course, just my thing: New York! Most of the exhibits were from the 1940s, so this added a sense of nostalghia to the usual sensation you get of seeing the skylines and the everday street scenes. I also bought the catalogue which is a fine addition to our library.

Since Ulli had only short time before the next train we spent an hour at the musuem's restaurant. She copied a lot of music for me, mostly bands and artists new to me, I'll need to take time to listen to them all.

Today was almost unbearably freezing cold due to a sharp wind, obviously the preluide to the predicted blizzard which is expected to come over Germany this weekend, a rare thing in this country. Good to have a warm home with 2 cuddling cats:-)

Regensburg by night

2009-10-11T05:37:00.000-07:00

Regensburg, 2009

Window faces

2009-10-11T05:36:00.000-07:00

Regensburg, 2009

At work

2009-08-06T07:54:00.000-07:00

I finally got a new camera, an updated Sony Cyber-shot like the one I had before. This one does even better with night-time pics!

Regensburg by night

2009-07-15T10:57:00.000-07:00

Regensburg, January 2009

Mannequins

2009-07-13T05:10:00.001-07:00

Regensburg by night

2009-07-10T02:04:00.000-07:00

Mannequins

2009-07-09T09:40:00.000-07:00

Regensburg, December 2008

Window shopping

2009-07-08T01:19:00.000-07:00

Regensburg, December 2008

Regensburg by night

2009-07-07T01:36:00.000-07:00

Regensburg, December 2008

Window faces

2009-07-06T01:20:00.000-07:00

Regensburg, December 2008

Regensburg by night

2009-07-05T15:34:00.000-07:00

Regensburg, December 2008

Tuesday, February 17th, 2009

2009-02-17T03:41:00.000-08:00

It s another hangover Tuesday with the weather to match: gray, dreary and very snowy. This morning everything was covered under a white carpet, and the snowing was still going on strong, winter having a comeback.

What I enjoy very much is reading on my bus rides to work and back. My bus line is usually not that frequented - at least not at the times I take it - so I always get the same seat. I manage 5-8 pages per ride depending on traffic. Sometimes I forget everything around me, and it's like waking up all over again, when it's time to get off the bus.

Monday, February 16th, 2009

2009-02-16T01:31:00.000-08:00

Looks like I won't manage very well posting a diary on a daily basis. Nowadays I sometimes just fall asleep in the evening way before my usual time.

In the last week there was quite a lot going on for me: went to Munich to see Emiliana Torrini in concert. On Thursday my Dad celebrated his 70th birthday. This Saturday there will a short Tv documentary about him on Bavarian TV. Yeah, that picture up there is him, and no, he isn't an Indian, but he sure wishes he were. He has been accepted as participant at official pow-wows, and he does all his clothes and all the ornamentation himself. Yeah, my Dad is a bit eccentric.

I am also working on my other blog more and trying to get my posts more varied, so you'll see a lot more going on over there. I'm including posts on nearly every movie I have recently watched (which usually is a lot), and inspired by the short prosa texts of John Cage's Indeterminacy series I thought I'll try a shot at that. So keep an eye on my posts there called Vignettes with which I'll be telling small anecdotes.

Friday, February 6th, 2009

2009-02-06T07:37:00.000-08:00

These days I'm a bit busy and won't be able to post any entries till Sunday again. Wednesday night I was out as usual at the pub and met an old acquaintance. There's a nice funny story to tell.

Tonight I'm invited to a dinner party, so it'll be fairly late again.

And tomorrow we're going to Munich to spend the day there, and in the evening we'll see the Emiliana Torrini concert. We'll also will be meeting a MySpace friend there, so it will be an exciting day!

Wednesday, February 4th, 2009

2009-02-04T01:26:00.000-08:00

Today's another especially foggy and dreary day, we have that quite often.

Sometimes I imagine that the weather stays like this forever, and we'd live without sunshine for the rest of our lives, a kind of post-apocalyptic Regensburg. At night it would hardly matter, the fog has a certain romantic flair to it in the dark. And since I'm much more a nighttime person than daytime it'd suit me fine.

By the way, the house we live in is situated right between the cathedral and the old stone bridge.

Tuesday, February 3rd, 2009

2009-02-03T06:47:00.000-08:00

Tuesday is always the day after my round table at the pub, so I'm always a bit hungover.

I hope yesterday's post didn't sound too much about complaining. I only wanted to describe the differences between living here and in New York.

Maybe I can explain this visually. Life in Bavaria is like:

In New York it's:

In the States it'd be New York and nowhere else for me. Here are some of the appealing factors:

- NYC is something like the 'center' of the world; there's always substantial going on there, and you feel as if you were a part of that.

- It's a true melting pot where your origin is much less important than anywhere else. You're instantly a local.

- NYC is not as anonymous as it is often said. I'd have a lot of friends and contacts in no time.

- The city never sleeps. You can shop, go out to eat or have a drink anytime you want.

- You don't need car.

- The ocean is always near.

- You step out the door and you're instantly 'in it' (have that in Regensburg, too, though).

And I especially like the people in New York, there are so many peoples mixed there, which is not at all so in Europe. And you have Jewish culture which is as good as extinct in Europe and especially in Germany. Visiting New York I can sense the tragedy the Third Reich has pressed upon Europe for all times. In a way, in New York the world is still alright, a bit like Europe should have been. John Updike calles the way of life there “New Yorkerese,” a style that he described as “sort of big-town folksy.” That pretty muchs puts it correctly, it's not really as cosmopolitan as you might imagine, it's somehow 'folksy'.

Updike himself couldn't stand New York, in the end he moved away very early.

“Once I got here,” he said of New York in the 2005 interview, “I realized that immense as the city is, your path in it tends to be very narrow. I only knew people I went to college with and other writers, and felt I wasn’t really getting a fair picture of America here. And there were too many other writers and editors and agents and people who were willing to give me ideas of what I should do with my life.”

I guess his dreams were a bit more idealistic than the city was able to fulfill. All our paths are narrow, but in New York they cross ways more often than anywhere else.

Monday, February 2nd, 2009

2009-02-02T06:06:00.000-08:00

I'm not quite sure how I'm going to do this. It's not that I have nothing to tell, it's more like I could write about a lot of things. And these days there's been a lot going on in my life: trouble at work and the prospect of massive layoffs this year, not winning the giant jackpot in the German lottery, or some great movies I've seen these last few day (Benjamin Button, Cashback) and the books I'm currently reading (I'm always reading several at a time).

But what has been going on in my mind lately is: New York! After having visited the city (and the States!) for the first time in 16 years I have grown kind of homesick to living there.

And this weekend I came across an article in the New York Times on John Updike and New York called:

Thoughts on the City by a New Yorker Writer Who Avoided New York

Reading this got me all started over again about living in New York. “I loved the idea of being in New York, and having an office that looked out on skyscrapers, and living in the West Village, and riding the subway every day and always going in the right direction,” he said. “All this meant a lot to me.”

And to me, too! I've been spending my here in Bavaria since 1971, and after a long phase of homesickness for the States in my teens I though I had overcome that feeling. Several trips to the USA, 2 of them long journeys through the whole country, didn't really revive that feeling either.

But last October Ursula and I spent 7 days in New York, our hotel was the Chelsea, and 3 days in Philly, and this time it was like a true homecoming. It was not only by the fact that we were meeting close friends. Right from the beginning stepping out of the taxi and into the Chelsea's lobby it and getting a overwhelming greetings it was like the city had been waiting for us.

I don't think this is an irrational notion either. All through my life here in Bavaria I never did feel like I was fully accepted as a 'citizen'. It may have to do with me and my status as an immigrant, but also with the general German mentality of keeping a certain distance to your neighbors. Of course, I have lots of friends and they are great and I could never complain about that. It's more than you are in a way a foreigner in your own land and being governed by a state whose representatives you never were able to vote for. All you have to do is to return to here from a trip outside the country and the customs officer will be sure to ask you what you're intentions are to being in Germany...Most often I've been living in this country longer than the officer himself!

Although the Big Apple will always be described as the archetype of the big anonymous city, the metropolis, it really isn't that way at all. Of course, it is busy and people are rushing on their ways as in any other larger city (and no different than in Regensburg), but anywhere you go you can sense the possibility of communication, it can always happen that you will be confronted with some kind of friendly conversation, with some unexpected courtesy or just the complicit feeling that you are one among all the other 'real' New Yorkers.

Of course, that's an American characteristic. Believe me, though, here where I am it is quite uncommon to be cordial with strangers. In fact, you very much need to prove yourself to others in order to be considered 'acceptable'. This probably results from the fact that in Europe, and very especially in Bavaria, life is very much steeped into an ancient cultural heritage into which you must have grown to be really a full part of. If not, you are considered as alien and treated so, too. On the other hand, those locals who act more upfront will be smiled upon as 'eccentric'. I'm not really complaining, it's just a different way of life. For example, visiting a remote Sicilian village, you can't expect to be treated as 'one of them', but yes you can expect some helpfulness.

Once, still a shy young teenager, I was at the big local bookstore browsing around. 2 American tourists appeared at the cash register and enquired in English about purchasing a map of the town. They encountered gruff rejection and were more or less thrown out of the place by the female supervisor. Afterwards an employee asked her if that hadn't been a bit too snippy, the supervisor replied. "No, not at all, if they want something from us they'll need to learn German first". You might call that a singular incident involving one mean old lady (which she was) and you might possibly experience that anywhere else in the world, but to me that always exemplified the way it is in this part of the world. Local or alien, the German procedure is to check you from top to bottom when they encounter you, and you're always being evaluated. Step into a pub or a restaurant and everybody already present will register your entry. You can nearly feel such an inspection physically.

(to be continued)

Concept

2009-02-01T04:26:00.000-08:00

Since my initial blog has turned out be more image-laden than wordy I decided to create a second blog which will deal more with my thoughts than with pictures.

Primarily this will be a diary, but, I admit, one with quite irregular entries, since much too often my time is limited, and then I might not always have anything interesting to say. Nonetheless I'll try and make short notes as often as I can.

My main intention for this blog you can find in Montaigne's preface at the top of this page, I could sign every one of those wonderful words. I do have a second intention though, too: living in a foreign country and speaking a heavy local Bavarian dialect I want to keep up with my mother tongue, which is English, and keep my writing skills in practice.

So just writing a simple diary won't do, I'll need to force myself to put down my thoughts in coherent words. I therefore have decided to irregularly write a short essay based on each chapter of Montaigne's essay book, one by one, all through the book.

I'm not putting a time limit on this project, I'm just going to read this book one essay at a time, and I won't continue reading before I haven't published my thoughts on every specific topic here.

A side effect will be that in the end I not only will have read a complete book, but will have written one as well.

It'll be less profound, of course, but who knows?