Pause

Well, my computer is at the shop, and hopefully will be back in working conditions within 2 weeks. Til then, the Practice Room is forced to go on hiatus. Sorry!

Weekend Rooftop Blogging: Garden Edition

This Tradescantia (Purple Heart) loves the sunshine and turns a dark, velvety purple in the summer. Confined to a window seat through the cold months, its stems get long and spindly, its leaves a paler green. But it's a hardy plant and survives whatever comes its way.
The little green plant in the fore is, so I'm told, Apple Mint. It was an opening night present.

And speaking of mint, this Lemon Mint appeared my first summer here and continually threatens to take over every pot. I like having some of it around though, and have experimented with brewing tea from it. The leaves have a pleasant, lemony smell.

Kochel am See / Walchensee

The beau and I joined a few fellow divers for an afternoon in Walchensee, in Bavaria near the Austrian border. Michael, who organized the trip, knew of a quiet and seldom-visited cove where we could park right at the water's edge. The diving spot was delightful — shallow, and full of young perch playing among the seagrass, and a few larger pike checking us out. We also had the benefit of some "landmarks" — a bicycle in pieces, a dinner plate, some enormous tree trunks, a large rowboat — which had found their way to the lake bottom at some point.
On the ride back to Munich, a very quick stop in the town of Kochel am See, to get a picture of the area's local legendary hero, the Blacksmith of Kochel. (Think Paul Bunyan as a fallen war hero.)

Weekend Rooftop Blogging: Snow

The first dusting of the season, after a cold, rainy weekend. Innsbruck has has gorgeous weather in the past several autumns, however, and I'm counting on a sunny, warm Altweibsommer (Indian Summer) to keep our moods up until the winter kicks in. I say "our" but really, we're in the minority, as so many people here ski and look forward to snowy winter all year long (I think they're nuts.)
The high-rise buildings in the distance are part of the Olympic Village from the 70s, now low-to-middle-income housing.

Did I Ever Tell You About The Time I Jumped Out Of A Cake?

I had just sung closing night of "Le nozze di Figaro" (playing who else?), on Mozart's 250th birthday. There was a special party in the theater's foyer after the performance, with actors, singers and dancers taking part. My special assignment was to be rolled out into the center of the room in a special wooden cake-shaped box, jump out of the top and sing "Happy Birthday, Mister Mozart", à la Marilyn Monroe. Which I did, before I was wheeled back into a corner and the real cake (a humongous chocolate-marzipan thing decorated to resemble a giant Mozartkugel) was brought out and cut.

That evening, I joked at the time, was both the high and low points of my career, one right after the other! But sometimes you just have to say "What the hell, sure" and do whatever will entertain.

SOWI's "Iron Cage"

Behind my workplace is a complex of buildings referred to as SOWI ("so-vee"), a contraction for the University of Social Sciences. On one of its lawns stands a large, apartment-sized iron cage, containing a small, dense forest and doing double-duty as a bicycle stand, and bearing the unglamourous name "Garden for the New SOWI Building."

As usual in Austria, in public buildings a certain amount of public money is spent on Kunst am Bau (art on public buildings). Selected artists are invited to present and incorporate their work into the context of the building.... The work is an impressive iron cuboid: 37m in length, 4m breadth, 3.7m high, made of steel (33mm) and a weight of 22 tons.
(Richard Weiskopf, Institute of Organization and Learning, University of Innsbruck.)

This "iron cuboid" was described by its artist in an interview as a “sign for deliberate renunciation of Gelassenheit (serenity) and non-intervention”:
“Within the boundaries I let things just occur: the planting, the becoming, the perishing, the permeability for the wind, the birds, the water.. . everyday rubbish does not have to be removed immediately.. .because out of the beautiful, pure, true, clean nothing emerges anyway...”

Events were organized which attempted to transform the “iron cage” into a “house of fantasy and desire” (some guy was actually living in it for a short while) the media commented on the event, others used the work as an occasion to protest against the “waste of public money” and the “death of social policy”, etc. (Which always happens when controversial art appears at taxpayers' expense.)
At one point, some protesters took their cue from the artist's own words and began stuffing trash into the cage, leading to fears of the thing attracting rats, leading to a clean-up effort. Nine years later, there are trees growing out of it, as you can see from the photo. To me it's a reminder of what happens when man ceases to "manage" the land around him. Forest appears. Which is interesting since it's across the way from the "Management Center Innsbruck".

Autumn Garden Birthday Blogging

It's The Practice Room's 1st Birthday! Just a few shots of some of the late-summer/early autumn blooms. The black-eyed susans are in their last weeks, but it was nice to come back and find flowers, after being away all summer.
I have to admit I don't know what these volunteers are, but they have delicate lilac blooms and hard seed pods. The cactus plants have done very well out on the terrace, where they get lots of sun and a good breeze (which keeps them from getting too spindly and weak.)

They've got another month, more or less, until they all get brought back into the apartment, before the first frost.

Chaos Theories

I don't know why I haven't thought to do this before, but I have been reading Stephen Banks' online crime novel "Chaos Theories" as it appears in installments, and this book is certainly worth recommending. Mr. Banks writes very well, the characters are appealing, the dialog flows naturally and the chapters are constructed in such a way as to keep you coming back for more.
I mean, as if I know anything about writing books, but I know what I like, and I'd buy this book (if it were possible!)
If you have a little time, go on over and give it a try. He's got Chapters 1-31 in one downloadable file (look under Chapter 31.) Enjoy!

Surprising...

...to walk by the outside of your workplace and see a giant (12 foot) poster with your image. Holding pom poms (I'm the one on the ground.)

Typically Austrian Things

Through the wonders of Sitemeter, I have found that people have been coming by here looking for things "typically Austrian" (I had used those words in a quote connected with the Josef Fritzl case earlier this year.)
I don't know if they are finding what they are looking for but, considering myself eminently qualified to deem what is considered "typically Austrian", I might as well put up a list.

I shall stay away from "typical" tendencies in behaviour, and list things. These are typical in the way that "typical American" might mean hamburgers and apple pie — they are not representative of the way everyone lives, but everyone knows of them, they are part of the culture.

Food: Wienerschnitzel, of course. Dumplings, Kaiserschmarrn, Moor-in-Hemd, Apfelstrudel. Hungarian and Czech influences: Goulasch, Debreziner,etc. And Turkish Dönerkebap!
Austria has excellent wines (Zweigelt, Grüner Veltlinger) and beers. It's a coffee culture with 100-year-old coffeehouses, where you can sit and sip a Melange and read the paper under crystal chandeliers.
The typical (or stereotypical) Austrian dress is the Dirndl and Lederhosen, much like America's cowboy costumes; people do wear them, but not so often and hardly ever in the cities. There are fashionable dressy dirndls and loden jackets for going to the opera.
Speaking of which, Austria has contributed a great deal to classical music, the most well-known native son being Mozart. Also: Bruckner, Haydn, Schubert, Schoenberg, Berg... and then there is the old-fashioned folk music (not to be confused with the crap you see on tv sometimes). A typical example is three women (in dirndls, of course!) singing old traditional songs in clear, straight harmony. And yes, yodeling, zither music and the Trachtenkapelle (wind band, available for all parties, parades and funerals.)
Austrians love their mountains and love to spend time in them. The kids have ski camp as part of the winter semester in elementary school, it's that important. In the summer the trails are filled with hikers making their way up to a table in the sun at one of the Alpine guesthouses. The men and women of the national ski team are heroes, the soccer team not so much (they're not very good in comparison to their neighbors, Germany and Italy.)
Anything I've left out?

Münchner Synagoge

We were in the area of the new (2006) Munich Synagogue recently, on Jakobsplatz. There are three separate buildings, actually — the temple (the massive block seen below), the Jewish Museum (opened in 2007) and the Community Center. We did not go into the museum, having just emerged from one (I can only soak in so much cultural information in one afternoon) but we noted that its glass walls are covered in written conversations between Jews and non-Jews and their feelings toward each other, and about what happened right here in Munich. Most of it is in English, and it's very interesting to read.

Lunch nearby; sometimes one finds English in unexpected places.

Bernried

Last week we took a little excursion through the Bavarian lake region. First stop was lunch, in the Biergarten of a very nice cloister, where the specialty is Schweinhaxe (pork knuckle) and Knödel. We had a great view of the countryside.

Next stop was Bernried, a village on Lake Starnberg and home to the museum housing the art collection of Lothar-Günter Buchheim, whom Americans may recognize as the author of "Das Boot." Apparently he was a colorful figure, and quite the collector of German expressionist paintings, primitive folk art, and carousel horses, among other things.


This artwork was parked in front of the museum. The seaweed draped over it is made from bicycle chains. The creature on the roof has already got his tentacles into some of the windows.The artist is local.