P R A H A

We had to cancel our planned trip to Barcelona and decide on a different, more cost effective destination. What came to mind was a four day trip to the Golden City Prague which is apparently not the New Paris, but the New Prague. I have been there once before as a teenager with my high school, but that's all just a blur.
We booked the "Prag Spezial" train ticket, with a direct connection from Nürnberg to Prague (5 hour trip) and stayed at the lovely Hotel Ostruvek.
Prague is a city with a great synergy of historical architecture and a slight hint of a long gone communist era. You can discover oddly placed and exciting street art everywhere.The Prazaks appear to be avid readers and dedicated to their pivo (until now I have only witnessed this dedication to beer in my own Heimat).
Our two favorite places in Prague were Veletržní Palace in Holesovice and the Vinohrady/Zizkov neighborhoods.

The Veletržní Palace has unbelievable, versatile exhibitions which demand a whole day visit. One of the most exciting museums I have seen so far.
We'll be back........

This is the new Yankee Stadium?

More than just a little, I miss following the New York Yankees. Sports news in New York is often a trying attempt to discern the signal from the noise but now, after a year, a guy could even learn to miss Mike Francessa's gurgle and belch! The web is fine and all but the all-encompassing sport media onslaught acts as a low-level background hum where springtime's flowers and Yankee injury reports meld into a combined sense memory that a guy might pine to be caught in traffic on the Hutch, not the A6 outside of Nuremburg.

Then there was this photo from the March 23rd issue of The New Yorker:












Caro noticed the Albert Speer influenced architecture and I've never noticed that you could turn the inter-locking NY a quarter turn... evil empire, indeed! I think I've been living in Germany too long.

Notwist

Caro and I took the train last week to go see Notwist play at the Volkstheater in Munich. The show was seated, nice after spending the afternoon walking, and with an orchestra. This made me a little nervous, I'd thought that this might encourage an overly earnest, polite night of "Hooked on Notwist". It was pretty amazing and although the band didn't need the orchestra, it was a real nice acoustic compliment to the electronic gurgles and deep sub-bass rumbles.

HAND ME THE BAUCHLADEN

I always felt bad for the brides-to-be who had to go through stuffy nightclubs during their bachelorette party. With a Bauchladen (belly store) hanging from their neck they have to sell shots and condoms. With the hard earned money the bride-to-be sponsors her lady friends in tow. I never wanted to be like them.

But.....I made these plans without my friend Katharina. She crafted a belly store filled with shots, candy and beer. After a few encouraging glasses of Prosecco we made our way to the local festival Annentag in Brakel. Oh, and boy it was worth it!!
After just a few hours I made a good amount of money and I was able to keep my group happy all night. Thanks to the yellow outfits I was always able to locate them.

This all happened in August, but Katharina just gave me a large print of the "Before Picture". Thankfully nobody has the "After Picture".

Thanks ladies, it was a great great night!

SAVE ME A SEAT

For several years before this last, my friend Jeremy has invited me annually to New Jersey for a New York Giants American football game. Beer drinking, reduced-size football tossing, and chili before the game meant the day is, obviously, very nearly the height of cold weather outdoor entertainment. In a parking lot? The Meadowlands? It's great and I missed it this year very much. But thanks to my friend Dan, I was there. Save me a seat, I'll be back.

LAMBCHOP VS. SCHNITZEL

Although Caro and I have found Ansbach to be incredibly cute, well I have anyway, it really is lacking for entertaining nights out. Dinner and ice-cream out on these too-narrow-for-an-SUV-cobblestoned streets might enchant this American but Caro is missing that every night rush of knowing that western culture was ready to entertain us, a train ride away in New York. Sadly, we know now that our finances prohibited much of it but mostly we were just lazy and now we wished we made more of an effort. We've been scanning the Nürnberg news for some Euro-culture but it seems that Nürnberg is not New York. Although I could easily argue that a Sunday morning Weisswurst, Brez'n and Paulaner currently ranks higher than a reformed My Bloody Valentine, it is true that living in Ansbach is the cultural equivalent of living in a backwoods college town. So with that in mind we promptly booked tickets to see The Lemonheads!


Caro thought he needed to be taken home for some tea and sympathy, I was just glad he played some of my favorite songs: "$1,000 Wedding", "Hickory Wind" and "Different Drum". I also thought he could use a haircut and a trip to H&M for a sweater without holes.

Next up, a rejuvenated Built to Spill. I thought it might be wailing, I had read a positive notice in the NY Times of a recent Terminal 5 appearance and was excited. About 30 people showed and the guitar was Neil Youngish enough to make me happy during the solos. The beer was cheap.


Finally, Lambchop, last Thursday and the highlight of our fall cultural calendar. I was working late and getting to the concert on time in Nürnberg was going to be tight. I left work early, picked up Caro and set off for the Autobahn. UMLEITUNG! This is the first word many Americans learn, because the Germans love detours on their roads, and the reason Caro and I missed the Lambchop. Twenty minutes of Umleitung sign following later, we understood that this detour was leading us way too far west (Nürnberg is east of Ansbach) for us to justify taking the A6 to the concert, we had to double back and take the local roads. After doubling back, it was approaching showtime, we were still over an hour away. If we were going to a show in New York, I'd say we'd still have time for a döner before the concert but in Germany...the shows start on time. I mean like going to a movie on time. 20:00 uhr means 20:00 uhr, no joke. So we decided seeing the encore of Lambchop wasn't entirely worth it and we went our for Schnitzel mit Pommes. Did I mention how much I enjoy Schnitzel?

HÄ(?)KELN VINTAGE

The good thing about living here in the country are the great thrift stores. You never know what to expect when coming across one and it's exciting to dig through the huge piles of stuff.
Jen took me last week to a great thrift store in ............. (I forgot the name of the town, but it's close to Neustadt a. d. Aisch). When driving through the little town you all of a sudden see an old car door leaning against a fence with "open" spray painted on it. After Jen squeezed the car through a minuscule opening to a courtyard we parked in front of an old barn. The place was filled with stuff from floor to ceiling (literally), including the attic.



I wasn't quite sure what I was looking for, but when I saw this leaning in the corner my heart jumped because of excitement:



This poster (front and back) was used in a German school for crocheting instruction. Just last week I decided to learn how to crochet since I saw Moonstitches rhubarb scarf on her blog. At least this poster will teach me the basic crocheting stitches and that in large scale. I can sit back on my couch and look from afar.