Keeping up with German

So you may have noticed the blog redesign... we're not 'on the road' anymore, so a few minor adjustments were needed. Hope you still like it (and want to read it!)

It was really helpful to spend a week speaking German. I felt that my skills improved just from that short but intense contact with the language. But now the trick is to keep it up! So...

A few months ago (actually, it may have been a Christmas gift), Jim ordered a book for me from Germany at my request. It's called "Mitternacht" (Midnight), written by Andreas Nohr:

My interest in this novel originated with its protagonist: a composer by the name of Nicolaus Bruhns. (If you followed the blog during our trip to Germany, you may remember the name.)

I fell in love with his music on first hearing. The bummer is, only a handful of his works have survived (or have come to light- let's remain hopeful that some more may be uncovered!)

Bruhns was a member of a  Lübeck musical dynasty, and studied with Dieterich Buxtehude. (Just as an aside, I've always wondered whether Thomas Mann may have been related to Nicolaus Bruhns, as his mother's maiden name was Bruhns.) 

Nicolaus was an incredibly gifted musician. An account of him tells how he would play the violin, and at the same time accompany himself at the organ on the pedals! I love to think of him as a teenager studying with Buxtehude, showing off in teenage fashion in exactly that way! 

So I came to learn of this book in one way or another, and thought that reading it might be a good way for me to improve my German. I should say "reading", since looking every third word up in the dictionary can hardly be called reading. Ah well- baby steps! 

Jim and I are also hoping to get some more conversation experience by hiring a native speaker of German to come over and talk with us a couple of times a month. Jim found someone advertising that service on our neighborhood email list, and as soon as he digs that out of the archives, we'll make contact. 

Gracie Awards 2011

[This post is several days late because I couldn't upload pics for some reason! So, just pretend it's Wednesday afternoon...]

Hello from Hollywood! This is Slim (sans Stretch! Boo hoo!)

I got up at 2:50 AM Austin time today. This was partially nerves and partially just needing to get out of the house to catch my flight at 6:30!

All went swimmingly. The flight lasted just under 3 hours (which feels really short after sitting through a trans-Atlantic flight the same week!)

Arrived just after 8 AM, took a long and expensive taxi ride to Beverly Hills and found the Beverly Wilshire Hotel where the Gracie Awards luncheon would be held!

Remember this place from "Pretty Woman"?

Once I had oriented myself, I took a walk around the environs, including Rodeo Drive! I ended up having a nice cup of tea at a place on Santa Monica Blvd called 'Panini' something. It was very pleasant in the sunshine! The weather is great: low 70's and breezy.

The area where the hotel is located can best be described as the world's largest and most expensive open-air shopping mall. So I enjoyed window shopping at places like Ralph Lauren, Coach, Fendi, Michael Kors, and dozens of other places where I can't even afford to breathe the air inside the store.

It was amusing to me to reflect on how different LA is from the places I inhabited for the past 2 weeks. Lübeck and LA- could two places be more different! Underlining this odd juxtaposition was the fact that I read 2 more short stories by Thomas Mann on my Kindle while I was there, one of which took place entirely in Lübeck, though he never names the place outright.

But I digress.

After my tea I walked back to the hotel to change into my glad rags for the ceremony! The dress managed not to be too wrinkled, despite having been wrested into a garment bag and smushed into an overhead bin on a small airplane this morning!

They opened the doors at around 11:45. The ceremony was held in the ballroom. The first person I met was the very talented and glamorous Bridgette Lateice, who won her 5th Gracie for a documentary about students studying abroad in Africa.

Soon after that, the other half of the Austin contingent arrived: Khotan Shahbazi-Harmon, who won her 2nd Gracie for her show on KOOP called 'Idea Lounge'. She does long-form interviews on her program. She used to be a relief announcer on KMFA, and frequently uses our studio to conduct her interviews. She is a lovely person, and I really enjoyed getting to know her at the luncheon!

They soon let us into the ballroom for the luncheon portion of the festivities:

We had a nice salad, followed by roast chicken (for the majority of the folks!) Luckily, there was a vegetarian option: roasted veggies Wellington accompanied by haricots verts and pesto sauce. Quite tasty! For dessert, chocolate layer cake with fresh berries.

After lunch, the ceremony began: the keynote speaker was the CEO of PBS, Paula Kerger. She gave a very inspiring talk on the role of women in the media landscape.

She spoke of growing up watching PBS, and specifically mentioned one of my favorite shows from Masterpiece Theater: Elizabeth R, starring Glenda Jackson! She also referred to an initiative by actress Geena Davis, which you can read about here.

I actually read about this just a few weeks ago. Geena was watching children's TV with her young daughter, and it occurred to her how few female characters there were, how little they had to say and do (compared to the male characters) and how sexualized they were in their dress and conduct. This caused her to found the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media to study this phenomenon, and to hopefully enact change.

I was very impressed with what I read about her work. Little kids internalize the messages they receive from watching TV, even the unspoken ones, and I believe that it is vital to show kids of both genders taking part in the action equally, solving problems equally, and not reduce the female characters to wall-flower status.

Anyway, here I am digressing again... :-)

After Ms. Kerger finished her talk, we met the host of the award ceremony: Nancy Giles.

She is an actress, and TV journalist (CBS News Sunday Morning). She was a very smart, witty and amusing host! And I got to shake her hand after I accepted my Gracie!

None of the 'action shots' of me accepting the award turned out, but they had a professional photographer on the scene, and they say those pictures should be available in mid-June.

My program was the sixth one they announced (it was in alphabetical order) and of course it was all a blur. I was concentrating on not toppling over, unused as I am to wearing heels! Sadly, they did not permit us to make any remarks. Personally, I would have been glad to sit there for another hour so that everyone could say a few words. I wanted to thank Michael Nyman, after all!

The four award-winners at our table: me, Khotan, Michael Martinez from WAMU in Washington, DC, and Cheryl Jennings from KGO-TV in San Francisco!

Austin's got talent!

After the ceremony, I took a cab to my hotel, which, though fine in itself, looked a little shabby after the Beverly Wilshire! HA! There I took some pictures of Gracie:

After that it was time to think about dinner. I figured LA would offer a rich assortment of vegetarian restaurants, so I did a google search (say what you will about my shabby motel- it had free Wi-Fi!) and found Real Food Daily. It was on a bus line, so I decided to give my pocketbook a break and take the bus rather than a cab.  That turned out to be not one of my wiser decisions, as I waited for over a half hour for a northbound bus (watching 3 southbound buses of that number go sailing by while I waited...)

Anyway, it all worked out and I eventually made it to the restaurant. What an amazing array of choices on the menu! Omnivores may not realize what a special feeling that is, when one is used to having 2-3 things to choose from on an ordinary restaurant menu (maybe more if you eat fish, like I do). I eventually selected a very tasty BLT wrap. The "B" in this case being made of tempeh. It was sliced very thin, so it was crispy like bacon, and it also had a smoky flavor. They did very well, in my opinion! I also had a glass of organic California Cabernet, and a cup of chai tea for 'dessert'.

By then I was totally beat, and took a cab back to the motel, and was out like a light by 9 PM (LA time- 2 hours earlier than Austin.) So there was no heavy sightseeing or boisterous partying for me that day!

Oh, I wanted to mention these gorgeous trees I kept seeing:

Had no idea what I was seeing, so when I got back I asked a friend who grew up in that part of LA, and she knew. They are called jacaranda, and they are just gorgeous!

So to finish this saga, the next morning I got up, had a jog on the treadmill, ate breakfast at the motel, and was on the road to the airport by 8 AM. My flight left at 11:20, but I was living in fear of LA traffic. Turned out, there was none! So, I spent 2 hours at the gate.

I was also worried about getting Gracie through security (wasn't about to put her in my checked baggage!). That also was no problem at all. Had a smooth flight back to Austin, and was met very punctually at baggage claim by my wonderful husband, who I was very glad to see! Then we went home and I cooked my first meal in about 3 weeks. Welcome back to reality! :-) Honestly, I'm glad to be home and to be staying put for awhile!

Fun with time zones

We're back home in Austin after a superb trip! The flight from Amsterdam to Houston went off without a hitch (long trip, though- more than 10 hours!). But then reality set in: when we landed in Houston, we stood in the immigration line for more than an hour, because only 4 officers were on duty, and hundreds of people were waiting!
That caused us to miss our connection to Austin. The next flight was scheduled to depart about 3 hours later, and we were able to get seats on that plane. But, it ended up being delayed for an hour... and Jim's bag went on its own little vacation to points unknown... you get the picture. (The bag was delivered this morning in good condition. I was relieved to find the bottle of Luebecker Rotspon intact!)
So, we got back to the hacienda at about 9 PM last night. The house looked bizarrely huge compared to the cozy Dutch and German quarters we've been used to for the past two weeks. But, I guess that will pass after awhile. :-) Our cat, Calli, was suitably unimpressed to have us back again. You can almost see her thought bubble: "Oh right- you again." I regaled her with stories about the friendly cats we met in Europe, hoping she would take the hint. No dice. :-)
Calli was taken care of by my Mom and brother, who loved their two-week vacation in Austin!
It's definitely easier flying west, but it does make for a long day (you get those 7 hours  back that you 'lost' on the way over). Right now I feel vaguely hung over, without having had the fun of consuming those beverages which cause one to get that way.
Poor Jim is at work- I took the day off to recover (i.e. do laundry and get some food in the house!) Tomorrow I go back to work... for one whole day, then I'm off on another adventure. Tune in on Wednesday for more fun with time zones! :-)

Edam: More than Cheese!

Today we got up in good time to start packing up for the return journey tomorrow. Then we took the train to Amsterdam at 11:46, and thence the bus to Edam, about a half hour north of Amsterdam. The purpose of this trip was to visit with my old organ teacher, Harm, and his wife Trinette. We arrived a little after 1 PM, after being held up for a few minutes by a traffic jam going to the uber-touristy Volendam.
We had a lovely visit with H & T in their home. Actually, the weather was so lovely that we sat in the back garden, first enjoying tea and cake, then later a nice glass of wine (Luebecker Rotspon that we brought them!) and snacks. We had a great time catching up on all the goings-on since the last time we saw them (2 years ago in Brugge), and reminiscing.
Harm also took us on a nice walk into the old town of Edam. Here are a few pictures to show exactly how picturesque this old city is. It was once a major shipbuilding town.

The Lutheran church in Edam, where I played the organ once!

Then we headed a back to Haarlem for a final dinner at Cafe Brinkmann on the Grote Markt.

That famous light...

Isn't that just amazing?! It is of course no accident that people like Vermeer and Rembrandt played with light in the way that they did in their paintings. The light in Nederland is really special... when it's available, that is!! :-P

Happy Schneiders!

"Our" church, bathed in evening light

And so tomorrow will see us back in Austin again...as hard as that is to believe. Two weeks have gone by in the blink of an eye! Thanks for sharing our adventures with us!

Here and there in Haarlem

Dutch door in our kitchen, seen from outside

Side view of house, taken from the street

"Still life with breakfast"

Today we were tourists in Haarlem. We visited quite a few 'hofjes'- inner gardens with small houses around them that were founded as charitable institutions by wealthy Haarlemmers in the 17th & 18th centuries.

We also visited St. Bavo's on the Grote Markt. It's a magnificent structure, as you have already seen in the painting by Berckheyde from a few days ago. 

The lovely and ornate rood screen. I took some pictures of the interesting creatures depicted on the screen:

You may remember reading about my interest in Saenredam's paintings of church interiors? He did one in St. Bavo. I was delighted to come across a poster of his painting propped against a pillar, marking the very spot where he stood to capture his view!

Saenredam's view

Very nice detail!

WOW! It really is one of the most impressive organ fronts in the world. Even for a person who has seen a few- it took my breath away seeing it again!


We were a bit foot-sore by then, so we decided to take a canal boat tour. Here are some choice pictures from that:

 

 The Cathedral-Basilica St. Bavo, aka the New Bavo. I used to go to organ concerts here nearly every week during the summer organ season.

Beautiful step-gables across from the Frans Hals Museum.

The other Bavo, officially called Grote- of St. Bavokerk.

Guest blog by Stretch

Thursday, May 19,  Guest blog by Jim (Stretch).

Starting with what I came home to this evening, above is a shot of the church tower taken from the terrace of the apartment we are renting in Haarlem.  People live and work here surrounded by beauty like this.  This is probably what I enjoy most about what we experience in Europe.  The beauty that is part of almost every minute you spend here.

Here is Sara relaxing on the terrace after an interesting day that included a successful interview and social visit with Sir Harry Van der Kamp, star bass baritone singer of early music.

But enough about Sara. ;-) This morning  I started out walking about 20 minutes to the main train station in Haarlem and taking a 10 minute train ride to Sandpoort, a small village on the North Sea.  Sara’s friends Jackie and Ton live there with their children.  Ton, whom I had not met, had kindly offered to show me things that would be of interest to someone of a technical bent, mainly focused on shipping.

First Ton and I walked from their home to a functioning flour mill driven by wind power; that is, by the kind of windmill that you associate with The Netherlands, and imagine is just a relic.  In this case, the windmill, built around 1780, grinds wheat into flour that is a commercial product.  A non-profit organization owns the facility and leases it to a miller who operates it with paid and volunteer labor. It is there to provide an opportunity for visitors to understand the role of windmills in the history of their nation.  Ton had been there dozens of times before with visitors from foreign countries, but somehow with our combined hunger of knowledge, the docent there was inspired to allow us access to areas of the mill that are usually off limits to visitors, and to recount a lot of new information to Ton.  It was fascinating for me to see how wood, iron, and stone could be fashioned, using hand tools, into this functioning machine, built on 18^th century technology.

After the mill visit, Ton, his son Stefan, and I drove to the port of Ijmuiden.  Above is a shot of a platform that is used to erect modern windmills in the sea, and a ship that carries the parts to the construction site.  Below is a huge steel making facility, with a tug boat in the foreground, or forewater, in this case. ;‑)

I guess that in addition to just blogging, whatever that is, I am pointing out that the people who live in  beautiful  cities like Haarlem and Amsterdam are not just making trinkets for the tourists.  It is possible to have a beautiful country that does serious business.

We visited a lock and watched a ship use the lock, which was very interesting.  The lock connects a major shipping canal from Amsterdam to the North Sea.  Locks do not make for very interesting photos.  After the lock we drove to a ferry crossing.  Here is a shot of Ton and Stefan on the ferry.  There were our car, a truck, about 30 bicycles, and a few motorbikes making the crossing.

After having a cup of tea back at his home, Ton kindly drove me back to Haarlem, where Sara and I had an adult beverage on the terrace (see above), enjoying the first warm, dry evening we have seen in The Netherlands this trip.  Then we went out for fabulous Indonesian food (rijstafel and gado gado).

More than one kind of old friend

Lunch yesterday with my friends Ninja and Charlie from the univ. of Amsterdam musicology program was super fun! We all agreed that we were totally unchanged! :-)

Charlie, Sara, Ninja

 There was plenty of reminiscing about the old days, and filling in the goings-on of the last 12 years!

We sat at a cafe called 'Villa Zeezicht' which is located right next to the building where the musicology department used to be housed. I do not include a photo, because no-one wants to look at the P.C. Hoofthuis! It's rather an eyesore...

After we said good-bye I walked towards the Oude Kerk to pay my respects to Sweelinck. I didn't end up going in (I would have had to pay an entry fee for a photo exhibit I didn't want to see), but I did hear some organ music coming from the canal...

De Muziekboot

Yes, it's a man with a trumpet in a boat outfitted with a 'player organ' (instead of a player piano). He turned the wheel with one hand, causing the organ to play, and played the trumpet with the other. I guess the rudder of the boat was linked to the wheel of the organ. He did just keep going around in circles! It  had a rather nice organ sound!

Then it was back to Haarlem! Jim and I played on our computers in our charming little house:

Vermeer would have totally dug the lighting of that picture!

Then we ate an early dinner at Novecento, a very fun Italian place! Jim had a mozzarella and tomato salad with basil leaves and then a delicious vegetarian lasagna, and I had a mixed salad with a wonderful seafood stew in an incredibly creamy sauce. Heerlijk!

Then it was off to an organ concert! I had totally misread the website, and so I thought we'd be hearing the famous Christian Müller organ in St. Bavo's. But, we ended up at the Philharmonie, listening to a... (wait for it)... Cavaillé-Coll! 

Let me give you what I hope is a suitable analogy. Imagine that you have primed yourself to enjoy a delicious German meal. You're sitting there at the table, rubbing your hands together in anticipation of eating schnitzel, potatoes, sauerkraut, some of that delectable German bread, and of course the finest beer you can imagine. 


Then the waiter comes and sets the following before you: fish daintily poached in white wine sauce, accompanied by lightly steamed asparagus and baguette, with a bottle of Viognier. Absolutely delicious, but not what one was expecting!


And so it was with last night's organ concert. A program of French Romantic organ music, played on an instrument of the type that launched the whole French Symphonic organ tradition. We heard Guilmant, Alain, Vierne, Lefebure-Wely, Franck and Lemmens, all performed by Jos van der Kooy. 


In a way it was absolutely the right music to hear after my nostalgic lunch with my old friends, because the French Romantic organ school was the be-all, end-all musically for me before I discovered Buxtehude. A day without Vierne, Widor, Langlais or Messiaen was a day wasted in those days! So hearing that concert, on that day, in Nederland was quite an amazing bit of synchronicity. 


My two favorite pieces from the concert were both by Jehan Alain: the Deuxieme Fantasie was just so fun to hear again. It sounded like an audible version of a hanging garden in some ancient city in the Far East. And then of course his most famous piece, Litanies, with its obsessive rhythmic drive. I foresee my Alain CD getting a dust-off when we get home! 


Today I had coffee (and appletaart!) with Jackie Broek, another friend from the old days:

We sat outside (!) at Brinkmann's Cafe on the Grote Markt. The appeltaart was excellent, and we enjoyed a great conversation about life in the NL. Jim joined us after a time, and we all went to the Frans Hals museum together. More delights from the Dutch Golden Age! My favorite was a view of St. Bavo's and the Grote Markt by Berckheyde. (I bought a poster to take home for the exorbitant price of one euro!)

View of St. Bavo's by Berckheyde

What I love about this painting is that it really doesn't look all that different now, all these hundreds of years later!

Famous things (and people) in The Hague

Yesterday we spent a very fun day in The Hague with our friends Baher and Carla. Jim and Baher worked together on a special engineering project in the late 80's, and have kept in touch ever since. We met them at their comfortable home in The Hague, and had coffee and then lunch while we all caught up.
Then we took the bus to the center of The Hague to visit the famous Mauritshuis museum. I haven't been there since probably 1995 or so, and I was delighted to see it again. There was a great special exhibit going on called 'Leven in de Brouwerij' (Life in the Brewery) with paintings by Jan Steen.
The Mauritshuis' own collection is also full of treasures: self-portraits and other works by Rembrandt, a painting of Jane Seymour (Henry VIII's wife No. 3) by Hans Holbein, church interiors by Saenredam, the famous view of Delft by Vermeer, paintings by Frans Hals, and more. We had a really enjoyable time!
The museum closed at 5 PM, and we stepped out a few minutes before 5. As we did so, we saw 3 official-looking vehicles drive by and stop a few doors down. Carla said 'There's the Queen!' and we took of at a run to get a good look!
I lived in this country for 7 years, and never saw Queen Beatrix in person. I visit The Hague for 8 hours on a random day while on vacation, and there she is. Too funny! She is famous for her very elegant hats.
It's actually not so odd to run into the Queen in The Hague. The royal family lives there, after all, and it is the seat of the Dutch government. The Queen is the official head of the government, but her role is largely symbolic.
After that exciting interlude, we walked around some very charming neighborhoods, then Baher and Carla took us to Chinatown for a delicious dinner! For a Monday night, that place was hopping! We had marvelous jasmine tea, soup with shrimp dumplings, and a very yummy vegetable stir fry with tofu. (I've been eating a lot of fish on this trip, and I was happy to see tofu again!) :-)
Then we walked back to the train station, and they saw us off. It was very fun to spend the day visiting friends!
And I'm about to do more of that- in a few minutes I will set off for Amsterdam, where I am having lunch with two good friends that I studied musicology with at the Univ. of Amsterdam, who I haven't seen since 1999!

Hello from Haarlem!

We made it to Haarlem yesterday after a long train trip. It was made even longer by a mysterious "logistical problem" that caused our train to be cancelled just as we crossed the border into Holland. So, that caused us to be about 45 minutes late.
Then, we had the great misfortune to be making our way to Amsterdam just as Ajax soccer team won some sort of championship. The fans' idea of celebrating involves setting off the emergency brake of the train, meaning no one can go anywhere (you're getting an idea of how strange Dutch people can be...I've been saying it for years.) ;-)
So, that happened THREE times. By the time we got to our rental in Haarlem it was around 8 PM! (We left Luebeck at 10:12 AM)
But this place is quite lovely- it's in a quiet, historic neighborhood in the center of Haarlem, about 10 minutes from the central marketplace on foot. The house itself is beautifully renovated and furnished in a very cool style- the owner's boyfriend, Barend, met us here and showed us around. He's a very friendly guy!
To my relief, so far no one has responded to me in English when I speak Dutch- that's a good sign! That means my accent hasn't gone down the tubes entirely!
By the time we had dinner it was 9 PM- we went to a small cafe right near the house, and were delighted to find a vegetarian option on the menu- we both had a delicious vegetable curry with chick peas. And this being Holland, it was served with fries! :-)  Boy do they do a good french fry here!
We just had breakfast, and now we're off to The Hague to spend the day with Jim's friends Baher and Carla.

Last day in Lübeck

This morning we got up in good time and visited the St. Annen Museum, a former abbey. We saw lots of medieval statues and altarpieces, plus a wonderful painting by Hans Memling: a passion triptych from 1491, a pre-reformation Bible in Low German, printed in Lübeck in 1494, and rooms decorated in historic style. 
The most interesting thing (to me) was a planetarium and astronomical clock that was originally housed in St. Mary's. We know that Buxtehude composed a cycle of 7 keyboard works inspired by this astronomical clock- one for each planet that was known at that time. Sadly the work itself is no longer extant. But it was really cool to see that clock and imagine Buxtehude standing in front of it, dreaming up the notes to go along with each planet!  
On the way out we perused the offerings in the small bookshop, and I discovered 2 treasures: a companion guide to the Buxtehude exhibit we saw there in 2007, and a history of the Abendmusiken called 'Theater Music in the Church'. So I had a good time looking those over this afternoon! 
After lunch I wanted to look around St. Mary's one more time, so I headed there by myself. As I mentioned before, this is not really the church Buxtehude would have known, because of the bombing that took place on the eve on Palm Sunday in 1942. Many treasures were destroyed that night, including the organ Buxtehude played. The church bells fell and were embedded in the floor, and have been left there as a reminder:

A plaque marking Buxtehude's final resting place, placed there 54 years ago. 

Another charming view of Lübeck, captured for posterity!

 
St. Peter's and St. Mary's. 

Tonight we're having our final Lübeck dinner at Alte Mühle, an old mill very near our Ganghaus.

Tomorrow we're taking the train to Haarlem, NL; a trip of about 7.5 hours. While I will be sad to leave Lübeck, I'm looking forward to revisiting the country where I lived for 7 years (between 1992 and 1999) and seeing old friends! En Nederlands spreken, natuurlijk! 
PS- I nearly forgot: Jim and I are celebrating our 6th wedding anniversary today! Can't ask for a better celebration- being with my favorite guy in my favorite place!