Monatsarchive: Mai 2018

What did it mean to be halfway between serfdom and a middle-class way of life? Were peasants, agricultural and industrial workers happy? Was this what caused them to emigrate? Were did the new phenomena of the workers‘ movement come from? … Weiterlesen →

I liked the physical design of the museum, with slanting walls, a lack of right angles, the entrance through a dark basement, long sloping ramps all emphasizing the disorientation of deported Hungarian Jews and Roma. There was a noticeable and … Weiterlesen →

Citadella Budapest from the Citadel

Karlskirche. The thing about this view for me is that I remember taking this picture in 1997. It’s very strange to be here again 21 years later. Petra and her urban garden. With Rainer and Christian.

This is now a residential neighborhood. I was standing directly in front of someone’s home taking this picture.

When I was a kid my parents had the American Heritage photographic history of WW II on a bookshelf in our living room. I remember poring over the thick blue volume with my dad, asking questions. Where is Ploesti? Who … Weiterlesen →

Prague Castle from the Charles Bridge Karel Boromějský Orthodox Church At 30 Gabčík was the oldest of the parachutists.

This [US] is a unique, exceptional country. Russia is unique, but not exceptional. —Mike Pompeo, Senate confirmation hearing A few minutes ago I was in the Markgräfliches Opernhaus in Bayreuth, one of the last all-wood 18th Century opera houses in … Weiterlesen →

I find myself wondering how much of my attitude towards high culture was shaped by Bugs Bunny cartoons. Surely the American culture I was exposed to disdained opera as foreign, effeminate, pretentious, suspect.

Goethe’s house is quite large and very sensual. Wooden floors creak in every room, which are filled with paintings, drawings, busts, decorative plates. Outside the garden is filled with herbs and flowers. Birds chirp, an owl hoo-hoos. Visitors are offered … Weiterlesen →

I loaded a washer and took a stroll this morning. This house is directly across the street from the Fürstengruft, with Goethe and Schiller’s sarcophagi. The other graffiti was all tagging, „fickt euch“ and such. News sites report the Obamas … Weiterlesen →

Jedem das seine. Arbeit macht frei. Coercion of the imprisoned into self-torture causes its own unique agony, as Mitchell and Jessen made millions proselytizing. I reflect on agency at places such as this. „But what can I do about Guantánamo? … Weiterlesen →