too much music!

so we have been in Leipzig for a whole month now. we can verify the rumours: it is a high-culture city!

the church where j.s. bach was kapellmeister is one of the most important venues: we have heard the boys' choir associated with thomaskirche several times, and even a professional quintet of young men who used to sing in the thomanerchor. this little group is called ensemble nobiles, and thy are tight. we heard them twice: in a local little church (where their voices filled the place mightily) and once in thomaskirche (where a quintet sounds small but holy).

this past weekend was the opening event for the world-renowned gewandhaus orchester: it was an outdoor concert which showcased their energy and the conductor's warm enthusiasm. earlier in the afternoon we heard a few little concerts by members of the orchestra: a brass band doing jazz; a pair of clarinettists playing mozart; a string ensemble playing viennese waltzes....

and the night before was the "passagenfest" in which many passageways (which are filled with shops) offered entertainment and stayed open until midnight. i saw a guy dressed in a Pan-costume which was the best i had ever seen-- stilts which became hooves and gave a bouncy spring to his step.

the official weighing station claims that i am not a witch

since witches are infamously light-weight, those accused of witchery/wizardry would be taken to Oudewater to be officially weighed. this was easier on the witches than just being tossed into the water to see whether they floated.

anyway, i am not a feather-weight. and i am officially not a witch. chuckle.

es tut mir leiden

back in 2003, tom & i cycled the rhine from holland up through germany and france. tom made it to switzerland, but i turned around a day early and went to a folkfest in france... but that's another story.

yesterday i completed a pilgrimage which we did not manage to do (whether in ignorance or lack of time i canna recall): i cycled up to leiden where rene desCartes (who is called "cartesius" in dutch) sat by a fire and thought a thought which led european philosophy astray for centuries. i found the address where he was lodging: there is a placquard to the blackguard there which says simply: rene descartes 1640. i spat at the name and felt better for it. i felt like a haji throwing a stone at the devil!




today i might return to leiden to hear an organ concert and mayhaps to photograph the blackguard's placquard just for inclusion is a few other forthcoming photos "homages hollandaises aux philosophes". most will be kinder. (more kind? more of the kind kind?) not kindertotenlieder, fer shure.

here in the swamps of holland i am cycling hours daily, longing for a hill, any hill! and i think of my dear friend nancy perched high atop a tuscan promontory littered with renaissance castles and fabulous gardens.... sigh....

bright blessings

miko

oh, OH! i also found a brand-new windmill in the neighboring town of schiedam: it was built to grind grain for "ketel one" products. schiedam's wealth was once based in the alcohol trade: dutch folks drink a curious liquor called jenever, which is neither gin nor vodka nor raw whisky, but it is what it is, dammit. they have decided to save money by using an old-fashioned windmill to directly harness the wind power rather than using a diesel engine like most distilleries do. there are two modern windmills in schiedam: one just opened up three months ago! and of course there are old windmills all over for tourists to gawk at and for mad knights-errant to serve as enemies at which to tilt... but there are few knights-errant roaming about... i suppose they are in spain or italy... and they all seem more like friends than enemies....

it's official now: i live in the DESERT

this morning i was out on a bike ride and a real live ROAD-RUNNER crossed my path.
i am sure glad it wasn't a black cat!
i think it means good luck when a road runner crosses your path... right?

it didn't make a "beep-beep" noise, and it wasn't carrying an Acme brand anvil, so i can't be CERTAIN of the bird's identification, but i am confident anyway.

life in scottsdale: a rainbow greeted my arrival!

this was the view from my apartment a day or two after i arrived. the local monsoon season was weak this year (it usually rains a LOT in late summer) but i saw a few nice thunderstorms.

i am close enough to these mountains that i can SEE that the air is clearer here than in phoenix proper, where one cannot see an object a mile away without noticing the haze.

it is still WAY too hot to hike in these hills, but a month or so from now the temps will settle down to allow my hiking and biking. until then, i am glad as heck that i chose an apartment complex with a nice pool...

interdependence day

alright then. i have a new goal, focus, plan, topic for discussion.

it seems to me that our current situation regarding cannabis is quite stupid and even counter-productive. we should legalize cannabis, which will reduce the strain on our legal systems (police, courts and jails) and even bring in some much-needed tax revenues. i think it will also reduce the violence in the streets because gangs battle for turf in regard to the lucrative market of now-illegal drugs. this is true on both sides of the border: mexicans are killing each other to get the profits of this trade.

st stupid's day parade

the high point of the parade is the sock exchange, performed in front of the pacific stock exchange building.
why don't they do this in new york in front of the "real" stock exchange?

and maybe somebody should bring along a portable stock (a.k.a. pillory) with volunteers for bondage. "stocks and bonds", no?



no collection of fans of saint stupid would be complete without the mad hatter...

the first church of the last laugh is the world's largest church: six and a half billion members, most of whom do not even know that they are members of this ancient religion.