31 October 2008

Wetzbeck Pumpkinology


Happy Halloween. I've had plenty to post and plan to catch up over the next few days. I wish I would have been able to do more but I had a couple of paying gigs this week that took precedence. Extra-special All Hallow's shout-outs to Berlin, Providence and L.A.

Peace and spookiness.

LW

p.s. I'll give you some of my leftover candy if you can guess which one is mine

26 October 2008

25 October 2008

We All Fall Down


This is one of my favorite fall pictures ever. It's a shot I took a few years ago of Adam jumping into a pile of leaves near the Uni-Bonn Hauptgebaude. It's a bit grainy, but who cares.

It's a sunny and windy October day here in Kansas City, so I think I'll go take a walk and enjoy it even though my bones ache and I don't have any energy for some reason. It might have to do with having read two books back-to-back that ruthlessly expose the ridiculousness of human history and identity vs. capitalism. They are Europeana by Patrik Ourednik and Coming of Age at the End of History by Camille Toledo. If any body else has read these or would like to, let me know when you've finished and we can get together and discuss over a strong drink or three.

But back to lighter matters: I went to the Louisburg cider mill a couple of weeks ago where I watched crying kids ride ponies, listened to some Civil War-era music performed by a bluegrass band, and -- of course -- bought some donuts and cider. It was a great time, and when I got home I was reminded of one of all-time favorite cold weather drinks, which I first sampled years ago at the Bourgeois Pig. Hot cider (with cinnamon and cloves mixed in) mixed with Tuaca and topped with whipped cream. Great stuff.

That's all for this weekend. Moritz and his friend are visiting as part of their "Crossroads08" travels -- a coast-to-coast journey through America in the months leading up to the election. If you can read German, you'll find some great entries about places in this country that many Americans aren't familiar with.

Hope you are having a nice weekend, and until next time.

LW

24 October 2008

Powell to the People


You've probably read excerpts from recent interviews with Colin Powell, but if you haven't seen it, the actual footage is pretty compelling.

Finally someone is actually talking about this election in a way that makes sense. Not spinning, spoofing or sneering at it, just flat out saying what disturbs him about this campaign.

Though McCain supporters may downplay it, Powell's endorsement bears great significance for voters hesitant to vote outside party lines. Over the last eight years, Powell has been the only central member of the (first) Bush administration my grandparents and I both admire. So in the Midwest at least, his words resonate.

It's also about time someone stepped in and said how ridiculous the rumors of Obama's purported Muslim heritage are -- both the accusations AND the refutation. Before mentioning the example of a young Islamic American man who died serving in the Iraq war, Powell asks why a 7-year-old Muslim kid in America shouldn't also hope to be president someday.

In a media age where we're almost literally at each other's throats (case in point: watch this Bill O'Reilly clip and its Lil O'Reilly parody and tell me which is more infantile), Powell's civility is as impressive as his candor. Though his endorsement of Obama might be a bitter pill for the McCain campaign to swallow, Republicans should see beyond the present-day political implications and recognize that Powell's words are also aimed at helping them play a respectable role in the electoral process. Republicans should also note that as much as Powell has criticized his party this week, he never once disowns it.



In the interview above, you'll notice Powell's mention of the footage going out by Al-Jazeera. In case you haven't seen it, what he's referencing is not the Middle East-based news network's coverage of carnage in Iraq, but this frightful clip of Palin supporters at a rally in Ohio.

The images he refers to are disgusting, but what's worse is how distracting they are. With this kind of bigotry and misconceptions taking root, it's hard for anyone to pay attention to the finer aspects of policy that really deserve our honest attention.

Like Powell, I'll be voting for Obama, having received my Missouri registration card in the mail this week. I can't say that everyone in my family will. But I'll do my best to respect their viewpoints and will think twice before I forward links or information that are more about tearing down someone's character than addressing their political views.

22 October 2008

pictures


Since Jennifer and I got married exactly two months ago today, I thought it was about time to share a photo of the event. These were taken by Seattle-based Shutterbug Big Baby T, who takes great wedding and engagement shots when she's not in the front row of a rock concert, hosting a house party in which guests are inexplicably draped in American flags and wearing gas masks, or traipsing along the forested coastline of the Pacific Northwest on all-night birthday drinking binges.

Speaking of photographers, KC Star's magazine for young professionals, Ink, did a nice little write-up on Jennifer today. You can read that here.

Rather than stop at that, I thought I'd go ahead and post a few of my favorite shots taken during our recent trip, along with a bit of commentary.

Let's start with a sequence of Berlin statues from Kreuzberg, Treptow, The Tiergarten and Friedrichshain before moving south.


Adam led us to this wreath of dancing gnomes statue in Treptow park. Till and I had a competition to see who could throw a frisbee through the middle from about 20 feet back. My first and only toss sailed right through. Till's smacked the left gnome right on the face.


This guy guards over bicycles along the side of Volkspark Friedrichshain's "Marchenbrunnen," a fairy-tale fountain that fell into disrepair during the cold war and has recently been restored.


This pair of lions prowl somewhere along the Tiergarten, I think


Visitors to Kreuzberg's Victoria Park will surely recognize the odd copulation shown in this statue, which Wade told me to be sure and not miss. The players are Poseidon and what I can only assume is one of his many sea nymph friends.


Also in the park is this fellow, whose contemplativeness is somewhat undermined by his purple, purple face.


Moving on from the statue category, this is an overlook of Kurort Rathen, a town opposite the Elbe Valley Sandstone mountains, from which this photo was taken.


This shot overlooks the Danube at Walhalla Temple, which Bavaria's Ludwig I built near Regensburg to honor the heroes of Germany. It's impressive, but to the point of absurdity, especially the statue he commissioned of himself wearing robes and a laurel wreath -- not the likeliest choice of clothing in 1842.


In a storm drain leading into the vast English Gardens of Munich, the water gushes out so fast that it forms a permanent wave -- a popular spot for city surfing.


Also in the English Gardens is the Chinesiches Turm, a pagoda tower which you can sit under and drink large mugs of refreshing beer.


It's easy to make new friends in Munich.


The Monopteros is another one of the English Garden's best-known landmarks, built in the 1830s to replace a nearby wooden Apollo temple that had fallen into disrepair. In the Edgar Reitz film series, Zweite Heimat, there's a scene where a group of younger people are laying around the floor of the temple all strung out on narcotics and suffering from drug-induced delusions. I didn't see any of that when I visited, but you could hear the sounds of a nearby drum-circle, which someone documented in this video. The park, it should be noted, is also a nude sunbather's (and voyeur's) paradise on hot summer days.


This is a shot of one of the Frauenkirche cupolas taken from its sister tower. If you look just to the left of it you'll see the hill and Olympic Tower where the next photo was taken.


I'll close today's photo sequence with this image of a group of kids just seconds before they cruised down the hill at Olympic Park in Munich. We saw them ride down and hike back up several times, and I got the feeling they did this all day long. Unfortunately I never saw them do a successful wheelie over the white cross on the slope below, but if they keep practicing I'm sure they'll pull it off one day. If you look at the enlarged version you can see the two towers of the church in the previous photo.

I'll probably be back later this week with some more music or links to more ridiculous election-related videos, but in the meantime I hope you enjoyed this photo essay. Again, Jennifer took all of these, and if you're ever interested in ordering a print, you can do so at her site for a reasonable price.

Thanks for reading and have a nice afternoon.

21 October 2008

Music

Today marks the 5 year anniversary of Elliot Smith's death. If you've got all the studio albums and would like to hear something unfamiliar, I'd recommend the 2-disc "New Moon" album, or this collection of unreleased tracks available here.

I was on the air at KJ spinning the jazz show the morning I read that Smith had died, and for a few songs I switched it from jazz to play some songs from his self-titled album, even letting the word "fuck" on the air by accident, which for any college DJ is a big no-no, even if it does happen all the time. The Jazz Guru -- an older black gentleman who called each week to either criticize or complement the show -- phoned in to express his dismay that I'd deviated from the format, but seemed to understand when I told him the circumstances. After the show I went straight to KCI to fly to New York for the College Music Journal Festival, excited for the trip but with my enthusiasm for an indie rock convention naturally a bit deflated by the tragedy.

Fortunately his music still sounds great, with "Speed Trials" still probably holding steady as my favorite Elliot Smith track.

On an unrelated musical note, there's great new music to be heard tomorrow (Wednesday) night at the Taproom that will feature the debut of mysterious artist "Sea Boredom." The flier is below. Hope to see you there.

15 October 2008

Thursday Tracks: A variety of videos

Tomorrow I'm heading to Chicago on a Choo Choo Train, so I wanted to make sure and leave you with some quality music videos to enjoy over the weekend. Let's start with the following from Ariel Pink. Set in an amusement park, it's a fun, psychedelic and surreal video that I expect only a few of you will actually get through. As calamitous as his music might sound at first, it's pretty phenomenal if you give it a good listen and are in the right light-headed state of mind.



Next up is some old footage of Arthur Lee and Love, with their 1966 song "Message to Pretty." This is the album version of the song, but it matches up pretty well and gives you a decent idea what seeing Love might have been like back then, at least on their quieter numbers filmed on a TV set. Just look at how hip that audience is at the end.



Continuing in the black and white vein is this new classic from The King Khan and BBQ Show, "Why Don't You Lie?" Filmed in Khan's adopted hometown of Berlin, it offers a great chase sequence in the Holocaust memorial.



The following tune by Lee Dorsey (not really a video here -- just music and a photo of the album) is called "Yes We Can," and it's 10 times funkier than any of the other theme songs the presidential candidates have come up with so far. I don't understand why Obama's campaign doesn't hop on this one. I doubt Lee Dorsey would disapprove.



This last one is something by San Francisco Band The Oh Sees. I'm not sure if it's in any way endorsed by the band, but all the weird faces and figures make it a good choice for the Halloween season.



See you soon.

LW

Young Turks: Batman vs. Penguin Debate


Something to whet your appetite for tonight's debate. Peter showed me this brilliant find by the Young Turks. I promise to post some tunes and other pleasant subject matter tomorrow, but for now this is too good to pass up.

14 October 2008

two pictures of pumpkins


I don't really don't have anything to accompany these photos, aside from a quick note about where they were taken. One was at the abandoned castle type structure down near 18th and Vine, which is full of garbage and probably lots of other things I don't want to know about. Upon viewing this photo again, I was impressed and a bit spooked to notice how the plastic Jackolantern was just hanging in the tree. Then I remembered that I put it there myself. The photo below was taken in a village in Saxony. It kind of looks like a pig.

10 October 2008

Bischofsreut


Should I go through Guttenhofen, or press on to Niederpretz?

The question had me in a tizzy as we sped in our rental car past places like Waldkirchen, Freyung and Schwarzental to get to the tiny village of Bischofsreut, the hometown of my great-grandmother Antonia Madl and our relatives that live their still, Leo and Heddi Kornegger.

Though Antonia left with her family for America over a century ago, my Grandpa Bichelmeyer stayed in good contact with his cousins in Bischofsreut through letters and periodic visits, and in 2000 he we traveled there with my dad and uncles. I'd exchanged letters with our Bavarian cousins before, but never had the chance to visit until last month. Not surprisingly, the visit proved to be one of the most fun parts of our trip.

We arrived in the early afternoon and were immediately greeted by plates of homemade schnitzel, bratkartoffeln and fizzy glasses of limonade. After lunch, we spent an hour or so looking through Heddi's meticulously kept folder of letters, photos and cards her American family members have sent over the years. I pointed out family members in the photos, one of them a group wedding portrait in which I was just a baby. "Klein aber oho," Leo said with a laugh. Small but great.


After that we took a tour through the town of several hundred, stopping at the old schoolhouse, the Catholic church and the small cemetery behind it that overlooks the valley.

Bischofsreut, which celebrated its 300th anniversary in 2005, is not a place you'd likely stumble upon. Part of the "Dreilaendereck" (three nations corner), the town lies deep in the Bavarian Forest along the German-Czech border, with Austria only a few dozen kilometers away. The area is part of the "Goldener Steig" (golden climb), a trade route that facilitated the transport of salt from the Danube towns of Linz and Passau on into Bohemia.


One thing I found fascinating about the town is that until 1989, no travel between Czech and Bavarian towns was permitted, even though most of the land you can see from the hills of Bischofsreut belongs to what was then Czechoslovakia. I asked Leo what was to stop someone from just sneaking through the densely forested hills and into the other side. Not much, he said, if you could get past a 4-meter-tall, 20,000 volt electrical fence and guards with machine guns who would shoot you on sight.


Leo and Heddi's place overlooks the Bohemian side of the forest, and they told us that during the cold war years American troops would park their jeep beside the house and use the vantage point to spy on their Eastern neighbors. On especially cold nights, the Korneggers would offer the soldiers hot drinks and a place to warm up next to the fire.

The snow gets so high in winter, Heddi said, that you can't imagine it unless you see it for yourself. Houses get buried in snow up to the second floor, and the abundant stockpiles of wood are drawn on heavily during those months. Even though most of the houses have gas heating, it's more economical to keep a fire going.


Regardless of the season, the town has a decidedly cozy feel, thanks to the pleasant, sturdy homes (many of which have livestock stalls in the lower level), windows full of flowers, occasional garden gnomes, and most of all, the friendliness of the villagers. "It's simple here in the Bavarian Forest, but it suits us," Heddi told me in the musical German dialect spoken in the region. Everyone knows each other, and even generations after a family leaves to start a new life somewhere else, they're welcomed back during seasonal celebrations and area anniversaries.

Among the most welcoming spots was our last stop for the night, an old tavern just a quick jog down the hill. Over a hearty meal, schnapps and a few beers, we visited with some of the locals, among them a particularly soused but exceptionally friendly guy named Werner. Werner, Heddi said, used to embark on drinking spells with her brother until the pair passed out in the garden, awakening the next day to the sound of the Bundeswehr (German army) vehicles driving by, which they would invariably stand up and salute. Even though we couldn't follow the much of the conversation, Werner's good-natured rants had us all in stitches, and by the evening's close he was encouraging us to move to Bischofsreut.

I don't think that's likely to happen anytime soon, but all the same, it's nice to know the offer is on the table.


(If you'd like to see more of these pictures, Jenn has a folder viewable here)

"In which Nations shoot the breeze..."


Another example of why David Malki's Wondermark is my favorite Web comic

09 October 2008

Thursday Tracks: Suzie's EP and Daytrotter sessions


Speaking of musically talented friends, I highly recommend the songs of Suzannah Johannes, whose 4-song EP is out on vinyl now at the Love Garden or on iTunes. You can also hear some of her songs for free at Daytrotter.com, where they were posted a few weeks ago. Suzie writes her own songs with some lyrical contributions from her friend Hans. They're all great and I can't wait to hear more.

Thursday Tracks: Andrew Morgan


Not that there's ever a bad time, but fall is is the perfect time to listen to music by Andrew Morgan, a good friend and very talented and dedicated musician. I listened to his self-titled album a couple of weeks ago while driving across Kansas early in the morning and the sounds matched up perfectly with the misty trees, rivers and humble little hills covered in hazy morning sunlight. You can give a few tracks a listen on his site and download his albums or EPs for a very reasonable fee.

08 October 2008

Back

Crime in Kansas City has upset me a lot lately, but I decided against using this blog to pour out my anxieties and frustrations about the violent events in this city, the segregation and social unrest that brings them about, and the cynicism with which we respond to and make fun of these events.

Instead I decided to bring a bit of levity to my corner of the blogosphere, so what you'll be seeing here on through election time is a bunch of short seasonal quips, links, songs and other digital larks more designed to take your mind off the ugliness of reality rather than rub your face in it.

Then again, that's all subject to change, especially if I come across any interesting and provocative copy about presidential candidates or PTSD.

October Tributes #2


"October Song" by The Incredible String Band, 1966

October Tributes #1


A guy in my neighborhood was wearing a sweatshirt version of this t-shirt the other day. At first I thought he probably didn't realize the awesomeness of what he was wearing, and then I reconsidered. He knew full-well.

The guy I saw is of a similar age and hair color to the guy in this photo, although the guy I saw wears glasses with frames many times too large for his face generally looks confused.

07 October 2008

"That One"


Can't believe this is already online. Draw what conclusions you will. Whether he meant to telegraph it or not, I think McCain gave us a glimpse of how much condescension he really feels toward his running mate. Just look at his face when he says it and points. The "other" language combined with the derisive body language is pretty damning if you ask me.