Update: Why I think this has real promise.

So, after some minor negative feedback about this post, I've realized that I need to provide a little more background when I'm sharing outside internet links that interest me. "Luther at the Movies" is a parody/humor blog involving critiques of contemporary film by someone who's assumed the personality of Martin Luther, the German theologian whose works/teachings were the catalyst for the Protestant Reformation. I think it's great, clever, different, hilarious. I don't find anything particularly unsavory about it. It should probably be said that my tastes occasionally gravitate toward things which are genuinely offensive, but I doubt I'll post anything particularly incendiary here.
Anyway, take a look at Luther; the writing is great. Recently the old goat has been arguing with Japus Gassalascus, a personality associated with another blog I really enjoy (which happens to be fairly conservative, and run by Jesuits.) It's called The New Pantagruel and might not appeal to any of you either, but my interests, as I said, tend to be a little outré. I apologize for any discomfort, but make no retractions.

On another note, Germany is kind of boring right now. I'm going to try to get out a bit this week to another museum or something. I hope to come back with pictures, or at least an amusing anecdote about the elderly.
I've also updated the archived entry on Found magazine.

Frühling (Spring)

It's become very beautiful in Bonn and I took the opportunity today to go out and enjoy the weather. I made a trip to the Botanical Gardens to see the flowers, while they last, and take some photographs. I was starving by the end, so I bought a small mandarin orange and coconut cake on the way back. It was fantastic. The ladies selling it apologized to me that it had been baked before noon and therefore wasn't AS fresh as possible. If they only knew I come from America and would probably have just bought week-old grocery store Entenmann's donuts if I were home.
Anyhow, here are the pictures. Also included are a few from my neighborhood. It's really pretty perfect here -- though I do miss springtime in New York and Connecticut.

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Tree just outside my window


Flower boxes on the first floor of my building


Someone's little Easter shrub


Another flowering tree in my neighborhood


Clemensruhe(building) and some of the gardens


An odd statue on the grounds


Tulips and other flowers

Holy Thursday was lovely for me. As I mentioned, I went to hear the Johannes-Passion performed at the Beethoven Halle, conducted by the world-famous Raymond Leppard. Anyone who ever has the chance to hear Bach, played live, should take up on it. As wonderful as it is to listen to recorded music at home, there isn't anything that really compares with the energy of a live performance. There is a hypnotic sort of communion that can take place between the singers, orchestra and the audience. If you're lucky, for a short while, you can forget everything in the world but the sound.
Here are two pictures from the end of the concert, during applause and curtain calls, where the lead singers receive their flowers. (Also, a cultural tidbit: Germans clap for at least twenty minutes straight after the performance, through several curtain calls. Applauding your performers becomes a performance in itself. You can sneak out early, but somehow it just feels wrong.)








And as a bonus, Claudia. This is Claudia hard at work correcting an essay of mine. To chop through so thick a forest of errors requires nothing less than Zen-like concentration.

Mondaufgang am Meer (Moonrise Over the Sea)

By Caspar David Friedrich, 1882.

More people, fewer places, a couple of signs.

Not much new happening except I finally sucked it up and decided to go to Berlin with the rest of the junior-year crowd (from June 7 to June 12.) Let's face facts; I'm so lazy I probably wouldn't have seen it otherwise. If someone's willing to haul me across Germany at little to no expense, I might as well submit. I'm anticipating the trip to be 70% irritating/stressful, but I'm hoping this crochety attitude is only due to lingering pessimism from the Marksburg excursion.
On another note, below are some older and newer photos. En-joy.

Hunger-induced dementia obviously responsible for this ill-considered foray into self-documentary. (And yes, I did take this in my bathroom. I'm also aware that I look like an extra from someone's high school production of 'Oklahoma!'.)


Some friends of mine, He-Young and Ya-Ling, at café Pathos on our last day of orientation. Just look at 'em. And you thought kittens were cute.


Same café. Yu (the boy) and Ying-Chu. Yu and I still have class together. Ying-Chu has gone elsewhere; she is missed.


This is one of two anti-Bush/Cheney signs I came across in the Münsterplatz (Bonn's main square.) "Bush in die Gummizelle" means "Bush in a padded room" and "Cheney ins Gefängnis" means "Cheney in prison" (the bars probably gave that away.) It's interesting to see that people in a small city in western Germany are so engaged with American politics.


The second sign. "Stürzt Cheney bevor erden Iran nuklear bombardiert" means, essentially, "Overthrow Cheney before he nukes Iran."

FOUND magazine

"Dear God, help my brother from monsters."

This is an item from Found Magazine, a magazine devoted to displaying little notes and pictures that people have lost and which other people have found. The finds tend to be strange, primitive, poignant, and funny. It's a unique idea. The creator of Found also has an entire book devoted to a cache of photographs of people from an obscure Indiana town.
"La Porte, Indiana" can be bought here.

I haven't updated in a while because there hasn't been much worth reporting. I started my new class, called Intensivkurs C (Intensive Course C), and I'm really enjoying it. My teacher, Claudia, is as sweet as Jutta could be off-putting; which is to say, she's incredibly sweet. Claudia reminds me of some sort of benevolent forest creature from some unnamed children's book. Maybe with a hint of Mary Poppins. I'll get a picture of her sometime next week. You'll see what I mean.
Anyway, I'm mostly writing today because I bought a ticket to hear Bach's Johannes Passion performed live, here in Bonn, next Thursday (the reason, also, why Johann's dear image is included in this posting.) I'm attending this performance in the hall where I recently listened to a concert of Sibelius and Shostakovich. This will be my first time ever hearing Bach performed by a live orchestra and live singers; to this point I've just collected the music on CDs. Next Thursday night should be nothing short of miraculous.