Wonderfully Weird Art

Yup, I think I've fulfilled my quota of wonderfully weird, absolutely absurd, superbly strange art for the week.

There's an exhibit called "Soma" on at the Hamburger Bahnhof (a contemporary art museum; nothing to do with hamburgers). It's set up in the museum's huge main hall and consists of... reindeer. Twelve reindeer. Live ones.

There are also twenty-four canaries, eight mice, two houseflies... all arranged around the space in symmetrical halves. It's supposedly an attempt to recreate soma, a psychedelic drink mentioned in ancient Hindu texts, by feeding psychoactive toadstools to the reindeer and collecting their urine. Yes. And truly adventurous (and wealthy) art lovers can even spend the night in the museum, on a raised bed between the two reindeer pens, for 1,000 euros a night.

I went to the exhibit with an American friend who used to live in Berlin and was back visiting; we had fun puzzling over the strangeness of modern art and boggling at the idea that someone actually funded this (though at 1,000 euros a night to sleep in the exhibit and with the entire run already booked up, maybe the whole thing kind of pays for itself?) but at the end of the day, we had to admit we were happy to be in a country that's big on funding the arts.

(Incidentally, there are of course doubts about whether the reindeer are actually being fed poisonous mushrooms - the website does describe it as a "hypothetical experiment.")

India Photos Part III

Third and final album from India!

Kochi with its spice-trading streets, many separate islands, and traditional dance performances; the calm, lovely backwaters seen from houseboat and canoe; lots of new friends; Kodaikanal and a trek through the misty mountains and waterfalls; bison, monkeys and cows; plus, of course, lighting Chanukah candles with an Orthodox rabbi's family. Of course.

INDIA, part the third

India Photos Part II

Decided to split the trip into three albums, not two... so here are the ones from Hampi:


Hampi

At Last the India Albums!

The India photos, part one of two! Street scenes, trains and temples, adventures with friends both German and Swedish, both old and new; beautiful beaches, gorgeous food, a Hindu festival, Portuguese churches, 15th century stone ruins, monkeys, kittens, elephants...and lots of cows.

Click on the picture to go to the album!

INDIA, part the first

Lithuanian Poles and the Letter "W"

A friend in California sent me an e-mail that started like this:

"Hey Ella! There was an article in the New York Times yesterday that made me think of you. It's about Lithuanian Poles and the letter 'w'."

I admit it - I kind of love having a reputation as that person who's obsessed with words. The person you'd write to if you read a cool article about the letter "w."

Soap Bubbles and Tequila

I was cat-sitting last week for a friend who lives nearby; one night I left her apartment pretty late, went down to the street and saw... soap bubbles, drifting down in the light from a streetlamp. The kind kids blow from little plastic wands, except that they were coming down from the sky.

Everything else was dark and the bubbles were only visible in the cone of light below the street light, but I looked and looked and finally traced them to the most likely source, a person framed in an upstairs window, who waved merrily in my direction.

Then there was the weekend, where an acquaintance I actually hardly know insisted I come along to a Mexican restaurant that was celebrating its one year anniversary, and I met various other cool people I hadn't known before and the restaurant owner came around and poured everybody shots of tequila on the house.

Next day, a trek down to the Neukölln district of Berlin, where an American woman runs an unofficial, word-of-mouth-advertised restaurant (the "speakeasy restaurant," as some like to call it). Delicious food and this time also a children's movie about an old witch who discovers her new calling, brewing up magical pancakes that make people happy. ("The final solution to the unhappiness problem.") This was accompanied by real life blueberry pancakes.

I'm starting to like Berlin again. There were a few months there were I really, really didn't, though admittedly those reasons were more inside my own head than out in the world. But sometimes I really hate the gray, the anonymity, the long faces on the subway. The way people push past each other as if every other person in the entire city were simply an obstacle.

I wasn't made to be a big city person. But living in a city this quirky does help.

Quintilingual?

Was at a party. Talking to a guy from France, a guy from Syria and a couple of Americans. The French guy was speaking great English with us, also tossing off a few Arabic phrases he knew to his Syrian friend.

A Spanish guy wandered over, looking for someone to go outside and share a cigarette with him; the French guy tried a bit of Spanish with him, but clearly was limited. Then asked if the Spanish guy spoke English or German better - German. That went a bit bumpily too. Then: "Parlez-vous français?" Bingo! The two of them ambled off together speaking French, happy as clams.

And I turned to the others with my mouth open and said, "He just spoke five languages in the space of the last few minutes."

Belgium in Pictures

Here's an album from my trip to Bruges and Antwerp - click on the picture to go to the album.

Belgium, why not?

Berlin Is Still Insane

It's January 4. There are still fireworks going off down the street.

Berlin Is Insane

Happy new year!