This museum, although included in my Jahreskart, has never been high on my list of "must sees". When I read the description of the collection, it just didn't grip me.
I had friends in last month, though, and they were interested in visiting this, so I went along. The archtecture of the museum is interesting enough, but the name, to those used to the National Gallery in either London or Washington, DC, is misleading: rather than being a wonderful collection of portraits, the Alte Nationalgalerie is an eclectic collection with the majority formed from the personal collection of J.H. Wagener, who donated 262 paintings with the proviso that they be retained as a single collection and housed in the Nationalgalerie. The collection is primarily Romantic and Classicist and for me, a little goes a long way. More interesting is the extensive collection of 19th century statuary, as I have a fondness for Canova.
This museum does not touch the Neue Nationalgalerie (an amazing museum), and I think that what my friends were looking for in terms of collection would have been better served by the Gemäldegalerie, which I will visit in their honor next month.
The most interesting take-away from this museum is how the Romantic period looks so incredibly modern: very many of the paintings could be used as covers for contemporary fantasy, paranormal, or "literature" novels.
The Great Wave off the Coast of Kanagawa From the series Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji Date of Origin: c. 1831/ Period Iitsu credit: Sumida City
It's been a chaotic bi-month so far. Sometimes I feel like I am running with spinning wheels where my feet are but I am going backwards instead of forwards. Something like Wil E Coyote on a bad day. But today, after dropping the kids off and having some blood drawn, I met a friend and we went to the Martin-Gropius-Bau for the current exhibition, a retrospective on Hokusai.
This time, when I asked, they said "no photographs", so the above is courtesy of the exhibit, not my camera (though I saw some folks taking pictures...). It was crowded, especially in the first room, where there were many small prints and "manga" book prints that took a lot of time to study and read. The crowd spaced itself out better after the first room and there were some classic prints, many from rarely seen private collections and many illustrations and prints that have never been seen outside Japan (and that will return after this exhibition).
The final display is a video showing how wood-block are created, in the traditional manner, and how prints are hand-created. I found the discussion, display and information on the foundation devoted to preserving this craft and art as well as fostering the training of new artists, to be fascinating.The creation of the print is a work of individual artistry and high skill (as well as authentic technique) in itself.
Although the Martin-Gropius-Bau is not a State Museum, and is therefore not accessible through the Jahres (annual) card, the exhibit (free to 16 and under) is worth the price of the admission. The audio guide, at an addition 4€, was not. Shockingly thin, with a lack of in-depth knowledge, interesting societal facts or contemporary music, the guide was a huge disappointment, my first bad audio guide in 10 years and not worth almost half the admission cost!
And more that we did this month, with a few photos to relieve the eye...
T2 entered as a vorschulkind into her last year before Grundschule, complete with Winnie-the-Pooh small schultuete. It hurts my feelings a bit when she tells me, "Mama, go!" But atleast she hugs and kisses me before she sends me on my way. I'm glad that we didn't push for her to go to first grade this year, as she is enjoying it so. Erste Klasse won't be a bed of roses and I think she will have a grand time this year in kita.
We went for a weekend religious retreat and really enjoyed the warm feeling, although it was a bit hectic because the following Monday—
School started again, with T1 switching teachers (which makes us sad because we loved her old one). And wow- is 3rd Klasse incredibly harder than 1st or 2nd! (Kita resumes far earlier than school starts, at least here in Berlin.)
We went to Amsterdam for the concert at the Hotel Pulitzer and found that suite 273 was charming, bright and airy. We met a lovely expat couple (Mexican and Portugese, respectively) and I need to send them some photos. We had "won" a package and we had :the weekend in a gorgeous suite (more bathrooms than we have at home!), a walking tour with visits to a historic distillery and a cheese cave, a wonderful meal with accompanying wines and a sommelier to guide us (and including what I think is the best piece of beef we have yet had in Europe), a boat tour through the canals, pontoon side seats during the Prinsengracht/Pulitzer concert (the director sat next to us, when he sat) and an invitation to the after party: we sat on a garden bench and "people watched", wondering who the people were that all the others were fawning over (our best guess:Dutch nobility).
While we were in Amsterdam, the children were enjoying the Soester Fehdeand I was a bit jealous: if I had known this existed, I might not have tried for our Amsterdam package butinstead enjoyed this! They also did some boating and swimming with their cousins.
T1's Zahnspange lost a piece while being brushed (with a soft toothbrush!). She needed to go for another impression and will get a new upper plate next week.
The German shifted his Munich workweek a bit and came home to go to the "Faces of the Renaissance" exhibit at the Bode Museum (in partnership with the Met): it was gorgeous. The Bode itself was a lovely , extremely and ornate, gilded piece, but the exhibit was fabulous. We took a guided tour with my women's club and I'm sorry that we did: once again, I find the audio guides to be infinitely superior to a single human as guide. No matter how much that person knows, it won't be as much as the many erudite and recondite sources who put together the audio guide, nor will she have her own period soundtrack or the ability to be put on pause while one gazes and ponders. I'll probably make a repeat visit, with audio guide. During the tour, I took lots of photographs (I asked, as always, at the door and was told it would be fine with no flash): at the end of the tour, the guide told me that in this special exhibit, photos were not allowed (due to the many private owners of individual paintings collected) so I was lucky. Strange that no guard stopped me if it was actually forbidden, though.
I took a bread course, an African cooking course, a Persian cooking course and a vegetarian Persian cooking course. I enjoyed them all, even though a woman in the bread class informed me, as I was discussing sourdough starters with the teacher (a Master Baker), that the US has only "squishy" bread. I asked if she had ever been in the US and she told me no, although her friend had told her all about it. The folks in the African and Persian courses were much more friendly and open. I wonder if there is some correlation between taking a cooking course in a foreign cuisine and not having negative stereotypes about foreign cuisine? (Perhaps that's a bit obvious:-)).
Now I have posted these, perhaps I can get going on some more current posts! I can say that I may expand on some of these and re-post as individual pieces, but I seem to never get around to doing it.
The last month has just been so busy, lots of travel and exhaustion. Lots of fun and some strangely childish adult interactions— do bullies actually still get away with it over 40?
I'm not certain if I will append actual posts to these, but at least it shows where I have been for the last month plus so I can think about posting again.
Schwerin
What I was doing while I wasn't here—I was:
Visiting my family in upstate NY
Meeting friends at Book Expo and spending some time in my favorite city (I were rich I'd be living there), seeing the McQueen Exhibit and the Guggenheim
Spending a long weekend at Limmud and being in a Jewish environment
Biking in Schwerin and seeing Mecklenberg-Verpommern
Knowing that some friends will be visiting in September and starting to make plans
Having Thing1 earn her Bronze (and should have been Silver, but couldn't do both at the same event)
Seeing T1 prepare for her first concert: she will play two pieces on recorder tomorrow
Winning, with my team, a Scavenger Hunt and getting to explore a part of Mitte I haven't seen before
Going Strawberry picking and trying out a new synagogue that the kids and the German all seem to like
Having my state legalize gay marriage and watching Queen on Fire, found for 5€ at a flea market on the same day:)
We visited the Deutsche Guggenheim again for a Kinderwerkstatt. The theme was the latest exhibition, Agathe Snow: All Access World. This was again, a type of performance Modern Art. Here is a portion of the description from the exhibition:
Agathe Snow: All Access World takes as its subject the world's monuments, landmarks, and historical sites, focusing on the ways they shape collective memory and serve as potent touchstones of national identity. Snow sets out to explore how these iconic structures could jettison their didactic aspects in favor of a new flexibility that would increase their relevance to contemporary life and make them vessels of cultural exchange. This utopian ambition is articulated through her establishment of All Access World, a fictional corporation with the stated aim of promoting "a more democratic approach to monument ownership and distribution." Within this conceptual realm, monuments are subjected to an irreverent process of reinvention whereby they are transformed into consumer products that have the potential to reflect individual tastes, interests, and experiences.
It was indeed interesting, with the artworks ranging from a tactile fur Stonehenge to large papier-mache monuments, and it was fun to move the artworks around, to climb into the Hollywood piece and look out and to see the video installations. But I think that my next museum visit will be a bit more old-fashioned. I need a bit more serenity to recover.
The children had fun at the werkstatt, which had the concept that one should "make a bag" to take with one on one's journey. That was a bit above the girls' understanding, I think, but T1 drew an interesting picture of a destination and T2 made an object of various items and I think that was enough fun to go on.
Life's been so crazy that I even forgot to post my reading list at the end of the month. I have been working on posts for a while, but they aren't done. I'll link them here when they are done.
Found a massage place, finally, and my back is still feeling the pain.
Had a bad experience with T2's swim instructor and had to switch classes.
Discovered that my blog had been scraped and my posts were sitting on someone else's web site.
In the regular and scheduled craziness, I'm taking:
yoga Tuesdays and Thursday,
my German class has restarted Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday,
my German writing course is still running Wednesdays,
the kids have speech therapy on Monday,
T1 has swimming on Wednesday while
T2 has it Friday (due to the above mentioned instructor issue),
they both have recorder instruction on Thursday and
T1 has art/ceramics on Friday.
Ice skating Saturday ended two weeks ago, so last week they went bike riding on Saturday while waiting for rollerblading to start.
This week, I also had Elternabends on Wednesday and on Thursday, as well as the massage and lunch with a friend on Wednesday.
I am also trying to declutter at least 15 minutes a day, I run about 7 loads of laundry a week (with three on Wednesdays when I change the linens), and I am "looking forward" to the seasonal change-over of clothing that I anticipate in three weeks.
The calendar is receiving a work out and the German needs to start referring to it— he actually scheduled a babysitter for one of the Elternabends for me, but he told her the wrong day! Luckily, she lives two streets over so it wasn't terribly inconvenient for her, but it was awfully embarrassing!
The Daimler Contemporary is a very interesting, very pointed gallery of modern art. It's quite small, at 600 qm meters, and is within Haus Huth, itself a very interesting space which has survived from the Imperial period and is still held in Huth hands. The contrast between the almost unbearably modern display and the gorgeous early 20th century accessories was startling.
The current exhibit is Minimalism and Applied II: Dialogues of contemporary art with aspects of 20th century design and architecture and it is exactly that— Contemporary artists looking back at architecture and design from the last century and interacting with it in some manner.
To my eye and to my thought, much of what I saw would better be classed as a type of performance art, rather than "real art". More design and graphics than what appeals to my heart. The docent, interesting and literate as all I have heard in Germany, discussed the concept that this form of art is about thought and interaction, that its success is in making one think and struggle rather than in necessarily liking the art or even in believing that it is art. For instance, the first photo you see here was (to me) an interesting display of design and graphics that made a piece of art: the shadows that you see on the "steel" girders, as the curves and shadows that you see on the fabric, are both false, created with artifice.(Rupert Norfolk) However, the next installation I have pictured was, to me, the peak of "performance art" rather than real art. What you see is a large selection of transformers and adapters powering two nightlights. This was displayed in the home of a woman who had never left her home state in Germany and the "wit" or "art" was in the juxtaposition of the two. I feel that if I need to read about why what I am looking at is art, than perhaps it actually isn't.
Before the guided tour, I had met up with a group from my verein and we had a set lunch at Lutter & Wegner.
When I arrived, I saw that the meal had been set and that both of the options offered included swine. That's an issue, as I don't eat swine and when I spoke to the maitre'd, he said that I should speak to our group leader, who had chosen the options.
So I did. A was a bit surprised, because she doesn't eat pork either. At that point, the manager offered to change up my meal to veal, rather than pork, increasing the cost by 50%. Rather than going into my philosophical issues with eating abused animals (as pate, veal is something I won't eat on moral grounds, rather than religious or taste), I simply said that I would rather not pay that much more and asking if the restaurant did not offer a vegetarian option. At which point I was indeed offered two of the standard vegetarian options and was more than happy to choose one. The maitre'd also told me that he himself did not eat pork, leading me to wonder why, in a city with a population of which more than 10% cannot eat pork, when offering a set meal with two options, one would offer only pork?
When my meal arrived, in a timely fashion, it was absolutely delicious and it was served with a smile.
The Pergamon Museum is another of the Berlin State Museums. This collection of museums isjust inspiring. Continuing on my quest to explore more of Berlin, we chose to visit the Pergamon
Museum (this Wikipedia link is out dated,it looks to be from 2006— sorry). I took the quick tour with the audio guide (a bit over 30 minutes), which hit most of the major highlights: the Pergamon Altar, the Miletus Market Gate, and the Ishtar Gate and Processional Way (entering Babylon). The photos you see here are my own if not otherwise credited but they aren't as good as the ones you can see at some of these links. The huge architectural elements were overwhelmingly impressive. In particular, as I walked the processional way, which was actually only a fraction of the size that the real entryway to Babylon was (the real layout would not have fit within the Museum). As I waked along the Processional way, realizing that the larger second gate was still in storage and that the majority of the artifacts were actually either in storage or dispersed in other museums, I was still in absolute awe. No wonder that Psalm 137:1 "By the waters of Babylon, there we sat down and wept, when we remembered Zion." Being brought, enslaved , into Babylon must have been the beginning of the process of mental destruction as agrarian herders were enslaved and brought into what was an immeasurably more advanced (Bible Map) civilization.
After spending time wandering in awe through these monuments, and hearing (through my audio guide) about the damage inflicted due to structural damage to the museum in the war- (particularly to the Market Gate, whose glass roof was destroyed, leaving the gate, which had been hollowed out for display, open to the elements), we were ready to proceed to the main exhibit: the Tell Halaf Adventure.
Tell Halaf was "discovered" by Baron Max von Oppenheim, the scion of a banking family who had no desire to enter the family business. Instead, he entered the German Foreign Service and was enamored of all things Middle Eastern. In 1899, he discovered Tell Half, adrift in the sands,
and reserved a digging permit with the authorities. Interesingly, the exhibit makes it clear that he eventually reached an end point in his career because of his Jewish background and turned instead to his true love: a search for knowledge and understanding. The on-line link says instead:
Ten years after the discovery of the tell the Ottoman authorities urged von Oppenheim to start exploring the site as French and British parties were now signaling their interest as well. Consequently in November of 1910 Max von Oppenheim handed in his letter of resignation to the Foreign Office in
order to prepare the task that was ahead of him.
Not quite the same connotation.
In any case, the project is wonderfully detailed in German, English and French here
and well worth reading about. Baron von Oppenheim could have been Indiana Jones, except that he was an ethical and extremely methodical archeologist, not a hit and run exploiter looking for a profit. In fact, his doting parents and the Oppenheim bank funded his work, while he painstakingly recorded the flora and fauna and native songs of the area, as well as worked with professionals at the highest level of science at that time. Oppenheim worked with the government and his share of the excavations were brought back to Berlin, where he exhibited them at an iron foundry. There are wonderful photos and video of the actual exhibits. However, in 1943, the foundry was bombed. The combination of extremely high temperatures and the water from the fire trucks made the basalt statues explode into thousands of pieces and the pieces were tossed in the basement of the Pergamon and other storage areas until after the fall of the Wall, when they were once again accessible and thought was turned to the possibility of reconstruction. It's just sad how things that remained unbroken for 4500 years were destroyed and amazing how they have been reconstructed (where possible). It's not just the exhibited statues that are so interesting, but also the story, as we know it, that is so fascinating. Do check the project itself out.
(In a fascinating side note, the goddess statue that you see above is on loan, for the first time, from Syria. Because as they were assembling the fragments in Berlin, 60 years after the destruction, they discovered that some of the fragments which had originally been brought to Germany by van Oppenheim in the original separation of the findings, as per agreement,were part of statues that were partially assembled in Syria! After being re-shipped to Syria, this statue was able to be completely reassembled for the first time.)
I'm glad that I arranged to meet a friend after my yoga class to see the New National Gallery, because today (Friday), I'm already stiffening up. Interesting that the serious pain is now in my arms rather than my legs.
In any case, continuing on my goal of really exploring Berlin, my friend chose the Neue Nationalgalerie for our visit this week. A very interesting look to the museum, which was designed by Mies Van der Rohe and opened in 1968, his last work.
After seeing the New Museum, which opened last year, it was fascinating to see the difference in architecture and to see how different the New National Gallery, considered a symbol of "modern architecture" when it was built, differs from the former. The latter is built to display Van der Rohe's genius and the former was built to display, as functionally and beautifully as possible, the contents of the museum.
There were some lovely painting there and, as usual, the audioguide was enlightening and informative.
The work to the left, George Grosz' "Pillars of Society" or "Stützen der Gesellschaft" was just amazing. 1926. Wow. I think I have seen some of his work in NY and from reading about him I see that he was a member of the Dada movement. In a different vein, this painting "Baku- Agitationstafel" 1927 (and others by Heinrich Vogeler). Interestingly, the Wikipedia entry appears to be incorrect. Rather than being deported in 1942 by Soviet Authorities, he was fleeing the Nazis when he died (or at least, that is the truth according to the German government, which one would think would choose a less damaging story, if it were true). Here I find a style that in the US I knew as Depression era artwork (Federal Art Project work and New Deal artwork), of whom the most iconic would be Thomas Hart Benton. I am very fond of this style of artwork, perhaps influenced because the style was used on so many children's books which I loved when I was small.
Continuing with this year's resolution to see more of Berlin (and by that I don't just mean walking by the architecture), I grabbed my Museum Pass on Monday and off we went. I would have preferred to see one of the National Galleries, but, having learned my lesson as to checking open days, I knew that Monday was closed for the majority of museums that I was interested in. However the Pergamon and the Neues Museum were available. The Neues has only recently (2009) reopened after being closed for 70 years, since the beginning of World War II in 1939. It is an absolutely fascinating museum architecturally and one of the finest that I think I have ever seen. Please do read the above link which describes some of the controversy over David Chipperfield's design (some protesters attempted to have UNESCO place the Museum on its list of endangered World Heritage sites due to the redesign). To the right you see the view down the long hall to the famous bust of Nefertiti (shown below), which was discovered by Ludwig Borchardt in 1912. Believed to have been crafted in 1345 BC by the sculptor Thutmose, the paint you see is original. It is amazing to see this in person and no photos are allowed (therefore my shot from where photos are allowed) but the bust is even more incredible than the official picture I have included. As we entered through the center staircase, I turned to the German and said how amazing I found the design, with the integration of recycled bricks and classic elements with stark modernity. That's when he told me how controversial the redesign had been. I wandered the halls in amazement at how perfectly the architect had incorporated the elements that were salvageable. I was so fascinated that I actually went to the gift shop and bought a "coffee table" style book on the design and rebuilding of the museum with essays by architects and I expect that I will read it slowly, chapter by chapter, over the next year. There's also a very good architectural visual tour on the web site of the museum. On the right you see the south cupola in 1984, on the left you see it as it is today.
We spent a few hours wandering around, looking at the architecture and some of the exhibition highlights (like the Schliemann exhibit discussing the excavation and display of items from Troy–those that were not stolen by the Soviet Union during the occupation of Berlin). But we didn't see (or hear, using the once again wonderful and included audio guide) the quarter of it and I will visit again this year.
When deciding to see the Neues Museum, the most important thing to remember is that one needs to buy a timed admission ticket in addition to the regular ticket (or use of the museum pass). The ticket is free and can be purchase on-line or on-site, but it defines the time one will be allowed to enter (one can stay as long as one wishes) within a 30 minute period. Don't show up without one during busy periods or special exhibits, or one may wind up disappointed.
Following up on my "resolution" to see more of what Berlin has to offer, I met a friend on Friday and we went to the Berggruen Museum. I have been looking at this museum almost every day for the last three years (I passed it on the way to dropping the children at kita and on the way to one of my classes) and the only time I attempted to visit, it was closed (memo to self- many museums are closed on Monday in Berlin).
This time, I did some research and my friend and I chose an open day. We chose this museum because it was close to both of us and we had been thinking about it for a while and I really enjoyed the visit: I normally look at earlier periods but I have been trying to expand my understanding of art since visiting the Peggy Guggenheim in Venice last year.
This museum and collection were left to Berlin by Heinz Berggruen, a German Jew who fled the Nazis to the US and, while in Paris after WWII became an extremely influential gallery owner and friend of many artists, especially Picasso.
Berggruen left the art collection in a generous gesture of a low price to the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation. For this he was awarded the honorary citizenship of Berlin and the Federal Cross of Merit (Grand Cross 2nd Class) of Germany (Bundesverdienstkreuz, Großes Verdienstkreuz mit Stern und Schulterband). (cf Wiki above)
The museum has a collection of 85 works from Picasso, across his lifetime, as well as other artists that Berggruen collected personally) and I found it exciting and enlightening to look at Picasso's work across 80 years: I have never really liked the works that I saw, but now I see that there are many periods of Picasso that I do like. One of the most confusing points of the work that I have seen is that although Picasso painted in many periods, he did so whenever he wanted to, so one doesn't necessarily look at hos work and see a progression: in fact, his more classic works can be seen throughout his oeuvre and his technical virtuosity is seen from a very early age: when he chose to paint in less technical styles, it was a choice, not a lack of skill.
Salvador Dali said of Picasso that he was a great painter with no originality, that he was a master of copying styles, and I think it might be true as I looked through this collection which has masters of the different styles next to his paintings (which were not copies in the classical sense, but simply used the style of the period, such as Cubism or Fauvism– did he help create these styles or did he run with the thoughts of other artists?). This looks amazingly like a Botero, or does a Botero look amazingly like it? He outlasted the originators and he had amazing technical skill, though.
While this is an amazing homage to Cranach the Younger
There is an entire section of Klee which I also found fascinating.Klee lost his post at the university of Düsseldorf because he was Jewish and fled to Switzerland, where he died while awaiting naturalization (although his mother was Swiss, at that time, as in Germany, nationality passed through the male bloodline).
(Although nothing at all is mentioned in the exhibition about Klee's religion or its effect on his painting and life.)
Well worth visiting and the audio guide (which is included with admission) is extremely well done and includes some introductions by Heinz Berggruen to his collection and some specific paintings,a s well as some interesting interviews with contemporaries of Picasso.
This is a Berlin State Museum, and if one purchases the annual pass for 40€ one can go to them all (lots of them!) on the pass (80€ includes special exhibits): so far, all the museums have included a free audio guide with entry and I am very glad: they lend quite a bit to an understanding of the material.
On Sunday morning we moved from the Holiday Inn to the Sheraton Park Lane (another freebie with points). What a difference. Right on the park, only a few blocks down from the tube station, gorgeous view. ( We could see both the London Eye and Buckingham Palace from our windows.)
It was also warm and had a real King size bed (rather than a pretend one, which is when hotel staff says the bed is king size but one knows it is not and wonders why they are lying.)
They let us check in super early (9:30 am) which was great as I hate leaving my bags at the desk and we needed to run off and meet a friend at the National Gallery.
I particularly liked this piece of art that was outside the Gallery- I hadn't noticed that it changes but since this ship in a bottle wasn't here a few months ago, it must be a rotating gallery.
When we had made plans for the visit to London, the only thing that I really wanted to do (besides my usual wandering around and looking at things and having food without pig in it) was to visit the National Gallery. It seems that every time I go to London I go to the British Museum and although I could continue to do so for the rest of my life and not see everything (and although the design is fabulous) I wanted to see something more intimate and more focused. Because i fell in love with Venice last year when we visited (it really feels as if one is walking through a painting), this exhibit seemed particularly appropriate.
And did I really not talk about that either? Our anniversary trip last year in October, from Venice (as the acqua alta began) to Naples to Pompeii and then back to Rome, with the entire day lost wandering through the Vatican Museum and the final achievement (so many years after my four years of Latin) of spending the entire foot weary day wandering through Pompeii. I love Italy.
Since C works with museums, she put up with the amount of time it took me to wend through the exhibit: ever since we used the audioguides at the Vatican Museum and then at the Alte Pinakotkek in München, I have decided that they are really great and worth the time and expense (as opposed to many years ago when I first tried them and they were no more than the same words I would read on the displays) and this "guided tour" was very interesting.
Afterward we ate lunch at a pub and the cider that I had (in bottle) was over 20 oz- or 2.5 servings for a woman when looking at the guide printed on it. I had to give half to the German and I can see why Britain has an issue with over consumption of alcohol— the cider was cheaper (and larger) than the soda water he was drinking. Then we said good bye at the station and wended our ways in the falling snow: a very pleasant visit. In the evening we went to see the new Harry Potter and were amazed at how expensive movies are, but enjoyed the evening out then had a quick meal at the cafe in our hotel. Monday we walked around the city a bit and in the evening we were off to the O2, again by public transport and again, although warned of problems, we had none. The O2 in London is amazing: a mall, a movie theater, an ice rink, a huge arena and much more. Also very pretty. We had a bit of an issue at the pick up window (the clerk couldn't find our tickets), which was stressful, but at least this time we had a contact number which someone actually answered and they dispatched someone to clear up the issue, so the discomfort was the attitude that perhaps we were fibbing? A woman rushed up and asked the folks behind us if she could drop some tickets- she said she "played the violin" and the man asked, in his adorable British accent, if he would see her in the show. She said yes, which was an understatement: she had some amazing solos and was wonderful but my goodness- what a difference costume and make up made! I think the tour bus must have been very late, which also explained why the concert started after 9:20. I had gotten the tickets to Shakira simply because they were free and we would be in London when she was playing, but I liked her act very much. What a difference between her and Lady Gaga! Her voice and range were amazing, her dancing was fantastic, and her dress was modest and her moves athletic and exciting. Gaga had a good voice and fun songs, but Shakira both surpassed her and was not profane or hypersexual: we enjoyed the concert very much. This was, I think, her last gig of the tour and we were surprised that the sold out venue started emptying out before her encores, perhaps because she started late. We stayed and enjoyed two wonderful songs and had no problems getting back on the Tube.
This isn't the best quality sound, but gives a really good view of her dancing.
A few people still sleeping in the Heathrow terminal- we ourselves had no issues going out (an hour late), but they were triaging folks, not allowing them into the terminals without a ticket which was showing for an uncanceled flight, so it was a bit SFnal seeing the hordes standing outside the doors being kept back by security.Then security moved us to the head of the amazingly long luggage drop line because we were in two hours of departure. After that, everything went very smoothly and we got back to Berlin to discover lots of snow but no issues with transportation. It was good to be home.
It was a hectic day today as I had an Orienteeringskurs Ausflug (field trip) today, to the Deutsches Historisches Museum, while at the same time the German had a minor operation and then later in the evening we had tickets to a musical: that's what happens when one tries to get everything done in December and mandatory items pile up. After making the kids breakfast, I said good-bye (we had a babysitter booked for 11, giving the German 40 minutes to get to the doctor). My class met up at the U-Bahn station at 9:30, walked over to the museum (we were 15 minutes too early) and then were able to leave our coats and bags in a group lock up, which was nice. We had a guided tour through a bit of the early history into the current period (I am again impressed at the wonderful quality of all museum guides that I have been in contact with in Germany- they are amazingly good at their jobs). The detail you see at the left (it's a tiny detail) shows what in English would be called a "scold's bridle", showing how inhumanely women in the west were once treated. We were then were given workbooks and sent forth to do research on the N*DP (N*zis and the period from 1933-1948). It's good to know that individuals who are seeking to either become permanent residents of Germany or to become citizens will be required to have at least a cursory understanding of the role of Germany in WWII: this course is generally a stop on the way to both (although I have my permanent residency already and am simply taking the course to expand my knowledge of Germany). I don't think it's enough (the government is discussing increasing the course to 60 hours), but I still have more than 30 hours left of the 45 hour curriculum, so I will be interested to see what the remaining portion teaches us. The museum is beautifully laid out and I expect that we will return to it as a family to take a tour of the medieval portion (they have one for children concentrating on knights and castles). The section on the Holocaust is well-done and tastefully done, although, really, I don't enjoy this and if I had known what the concentration would be I probably would have excused myself— I don't feel that I need further education on the subject. The most interesting interaction of the experience was when we stopped in front of a painting from the late 30's. It showed a triumphal Arc in Munich (based on the Arc d'Triumph, apparently). On the left were N*zi youth collecting money from passers by. In the center, walking in the direction of the Arch was a tall, erect man, on crutches and missing his right leg from the knee down. He is striding and wearing a military overcoat. His head is proudly held high. On the right, by the arch, is a woman in widow's weeds, pushing a white pram. The guide asked the group whether we felt that this painting was in favor of the war or against it. I immediately replied, in favor. Every other person replied, against. The guide asked me whether I wanted to change my reply and I said no: I thought it was clear that every person in that picture was proud of themselves and their country. When he asked the other students, they said how sad the picture was. I pointed out that they probably would not have felt the picture was sad if N*zi Germany had won the war. Then the guide explained that I was correct- that the picture had been used as propaganda in the "Total War" drive and the direction ran, from left to right, of how one should give to the Fatherland: least is money, next would be limbs and the final and highest sacrifice, one's life (or one's husband's, since this was aimed at the domestic market). I find it a little bit frightening that a group of 15 people could read something so obviously incorrectly.
When I visited the Deutsche Guggenheim in October, I saw that they had a wonderful number of community activities. In particular, they do a lot of work with children and youth. Because T1 is a budding artist (she gets that from my mom, as the German and I have no artistic ability), we thought she would enjoy the opportunity to both learn about art in an age appropriate way and to have the opportunity to create some art.
T2 was a bit shy, but T1 always gives her confidence. T1 was a veritable Andy Warhol, making 4 paintings to T2's two.
