pick it yourself

In a short while I will leaving for the "Strawberry Fields" but not forever as the season ends somewhere in July. Near the village of Koeditz is a pick it yourself field with rows of the red berries just waiting to be harvested. I am sure that the price of the final baskets or whatever one has to carry the red rubies is measured against the fact that everybody picks a couple then eats four of five before tossing a few more in the basket. Families bring their children and while mother and father or working away there is a toddler or two happily sitting among the rows testing their talents in stuffing themselves full. I bought a special cardboard carrier/box a couple of years ago and will resurrect it out of my cellar as it looks quite professional when you arrive at the site. Here is a picture of a local berry plantation. click on the picture to see it as printed in local paper

Grill Sunday

A prost (Toast) for the completed work of art..see below..Christa, Alex (professional mason) Gudrun and me. The fireplace is not crooked like the tower of Pisa but the photo makes it look lopsided.



Maya, the main force in the Garden enjoying a steak. Yes that is a propane tank with a burner attached which means a roaring fire in about 30 seconds or less. Beats boyscout firewater...

world cup fever

This won´t have too much to do with World Cup, but yesterday it was wild with practically everybody glued to some sort of television or big outdoor screen. The two goals Germany scored were greeted with loud roars of approval that could be heard overall. Thursday I was in Prague as earlier reported and here are a few pictures to accompany this blog. The concert was in a cloister called St. Agnes and the orchestra played to open a collegium or assembly of students and their professors/teachers of the 100 year old arts academy of Prague.
Rehearsal before the performance in the church/hall



St Agnes Cloister


me at the gates of St. Agnes

off to Prague again.

I will shortly leave for Prague this afternoon and sing a concert with Agon Orchestra tomorrow in the St. Agnes Convent church/art museum part of the National Galleries of Prague. Here is a bit more about St. Agnes
Germany is in heaven with the win over Ecuador and they declared the pedestrian zone in the middle of Hof to be Bus free so the people can better celebrate.

Just for fun I took a look at what is being reported in the SZ Newspaper out of Munich and here is something you probably won´t find in the NYT´s

Then till Friday when I am back

Tschüß

Jim

teaching

One of the things that I do to keep body and soul together is teach. I have two steady jobs and one is with the local symphony music school and the other is with a Gymnasium. This is not like a gym in English but similar to a college prep high school in the States. Germany has principally three types of schools and the children are selected around the fifth grade to go to either a Hauptschule, Real Schule, or a Gymnasium. The Gynmasium is quite difficult and is from 12 to 13 years of schooling with the Real school being 10 years and the Haupt school being 9 years. To be able to enter a university you must have graduated from a Gymnasium with a degree that is called an "Abitur".


I have a degree and am certified as an instrumental teacher with my bachelor´s degree. I have a beginning band group with the Hofer Symphony and I feel as though I am back in the States where I began as an instrumental teacher at Glen Ridge Highschool in New Jersey.

My masters is in voice and opera which qualifies me to teach voice. I teach vocal training in the Gymnasium.
I had to raise my right hand in the principal`s office swearing to uphold the laws of Bavaria and above all aver that I was not a Scientologist. That is the truth so help me Hannah and apologies to John Travolta, Tom Cruise, etc. The Germans are very suspicious of Scientologists putting them into the category of a sect along with the Jehovah`s Witnesses. I guess it helped that I am a Methodist.

The Methodists here in Germany have no problem with a beer or glass of wine after church services but they do not use wine in the communion service similar to the American Methodists.

Where was I? Yes, I promised my students that I would post their pictures on my blog and here they are.







Monika plays tuba in my beginner band and is no beginner being the rock of Gibraltar having been at least over 5 years in the group. She is the second in command and often advises me to try to make things prettier...that in Hofer dialect... Without her I would have never stayed as long as I did. When I am tongue tied with the German language she proffers a word or two to help me along.





Eva and Christine my Monday students..to the left and Tamara and Katerina on the right.







On Wednesday there is the quartet

Luisa, Julia, Sophie, and Lismarie














I told them they would be on the internet and they probably will scream when they see their photos...

A few things happening here lately.

It is World Cup time here in Germany and everywhere are signs of this madness for lack of a better word. America had a great game yesterday with only nine members playing in the latter part of the game. Some German friends called me up to congratulate me although I had nothing to do with the play. One sees the German flag all around, on cars, in windows,being carried etc. and this is not so unusual except it is in Germany where national pride is seldom displayed as in other countries.


The bear that has been loose for the last month or so is still a worthy news item. The first bear in Germany in 170 years and a problem. click here for a translation of the latest reportage in the Süddeutsche Zeitung. If the English is a bit strange at times it is because of the translation site that I use but you can get the gist of the whole thing at any rate.

We are having high summer weather for a change since about a week and a half ago. I notice that I have a lot more energy with the extra dosage of sun and my bike has been calling me from the cellar wanting to get out and do some kilometers. I did get out last evening getting about 20 kilometers in with subsequent tiredness as I am plainly out of shape. Below is a typical plan for a bike tour in the Fichtelgibirge area where I live. Bischofsgrün, literally Bishops Green, is a ski area as well that has snow well into the springtime and is about a 45 minute ride from Hof. Fichtelgebirge translates into fir forest mountains and they surround the Hof area. Great for hiking as well. Three rivers have their beginnings here within one hours drive from hof.

already it is Thursday June 15th

I have been busy recovering from a performance and other related events (Gudrun´s birthday party etc. Maria stopped by for a visit before returning to rehearsals in Annaberg). At any rate I will attempt to catch up. Here are a couple of photos made during a rehearsal before the show on Saturday evening as well as during and shortly thereafter..


Sylva (Nicola Becht) and Edwin. I don´t know why I look like I am sad when after all this is one of the perks of stage....






Uwe Zitterbart (Boni) and I taking a break during a rehearsal





This is a picture of Sylva, and Boni and myself as Edwin in Csardas Fuerstin taken in the under the orchestra pit dressing room.



Of course my mother and father in this piece. I am old enough to be their father but, what the heck, that is theater.

outdoor theater at bad berneck

I am singing a performance of the "Csardas Fürstin" or "Gypsy Princess" here on this evening. These pictures were made at a rehearsal on Thursday. It is an open air theater that functions from June through August. Humperdinck composed Hansel and Gretel in this town as he studied with Wagner one summer many years ago











Here I am studying text for the operetta at stage left




















Barbara Baier who plays my cousin Stasi also getting a look at text before the rehearsal





the stage






















The back of stage right









stage rear







Uwe Zitterbart ( He plays the role of Boni) having a pause to refresh

A recent visit to Schlegel

This is a shot of me taken at my friend Ferenc`s house on Saturday. He and his wife recently bought a lovely house in an outlying village from Hof. In the background you can see on the left side a camin oven which is used to heat the living room

the "Ossecker Stube"

My friend John from the States said that I should profile more about where I live and that I began yesterday with a few pictures and descriptions of the town of Hof. He also said that I should mention my favorite "watering holes" etc. and yesterday I was at the Ossecker Stube. I often walk here on a late Sunday afternoon for a bit of "Imbiss" which is Germany for a light meal and a "Zeugl" beer. This beer is a tasty unfiltered, lightly heated in the making process beer that has the same yeast content, seasonings and alcohol content as normal beer but less carbonation. It has a golden brown color and not clear because it is unfiltered. I generally order a "Brotzeit" or bread and cold cuts platter literally on a wooden plate and wash it all down with a couple of pints of this great beer. Horst Hager is the proprietor his son is the cook, his wife is the baker of excellent desserts, and the other son who is in trade school is there on weekends to help out.  My son Nate and his wife Kellie visited this place with me a few years back and were quite impressed. One other thing that is interesting is that although it is a 15 minute walk from my place, the little town is surrounded by fields and farm houses with barns are in the town complete with cows, pigs etc. You have a feeling of being entirely in the country.  The owner Horst talks in Hofer dialect which takes a while to learn when you first come here. That means you learn to understand it but it would be difficult to  speak it.

Ossecker Stuben, Am Kulm 17, 95030 Hof, Family Brunhuber, Telefon 09281/6148, open Wednesday to Friday at 5 PM , Saturdays from 2 PM, and Sondays from 11 AM

The city of Hof, Germany

A friend of mine suggested that I show a little bit about where I live in Hof, Germany. The picture below is the airport at Pirk where I often catch a flight to Frankfurt and then fly to the States. The Airport is not far from where I live and I often walk out to the airport or ride my bike past it. In winter there is a cross country trail which borders along the landing strip. There is also a restaurant nearby with a beer garden naturally which makes the walk there a double pleasure.



This is our Rathaus or City Hall which is located in the center of town.



The next picture is the theater where I have worked and it is one of the newest in Germany with a great Canteen in an atrium like setting with tropical plants among others. When they finally get to the point of not smoking in doors it will be the best canteen in all of Germany. Many an evening has been spent there after a long rehearsal...


This is a picture of Fernweh park with its sign post forest. As mentioned in a previous letter, I do the translations in English for the website. Send me a sign if you are interested in being presented to the world on a sign



This is the City "Waffen" or shield


This is where Hof is located on the map in Germany. It is about 20 kilometers west from the Czech border and is in the corner of northeast Bavaria, almost touching Thuringia and Saxony to the north
.

The oldest church is the Lorenz church built in 1230 AD


this is the main railstation where I first came in to Hof for an audition at the theater.



In the winter at Christmas time there is a Market in front of the St. Michael`s Church and directly across from the Rathaus










The most important day of the Year for beer drinkers is "Schlappentag" or Slippers Day to commemorate the day 500 years ago when all able bodied men had to practice shooting once a year to keep in practice in order to protect the city from outside enemies. The beer is brewed only for this day (you can buy it for about a month in bottle form) and is unusually potent. There are ambulances on hand at the beer gardens to take guests that have imbibed a bit too much to the local clinic for detox.

motorist`s nightmare

I had to show this as it reminds me of two summers ago, traveling with my son and daughter-in-law to Ohio on the Pennsylvania Turnpike and hitting a rock that had fallen onto the roadway. It was not like this although we were a bit shaken at the time and the front tire was kaputt. A couple from Pforzheim, Germany were killed in this accident in Switzerland.

Autofahrers Alptraum




Gewaltige Felsbrocken sind am Mittwoch auf ein deutsches Urlauberauto auf der Gotthard-Autobahn gestürzt und haben ein Ehepaar aus dem Raum Pforzheim getötet. Der Felssturz ging um 6.45 Uhr nahe der Güetligalerie in der Nähe des Gotthard-Tunnels im Kanton Uri nieder. Mehrere zimmergroße Felsblöcke und ungezählte kleinere Steinbrocken stürzten aus großer Höhe auf die Autobahn und eine Kantonsstraße. Dabei wurde der Wagen getroffen, ein schwerer Sattelschlepper wurde auf einem nahe gelegenen Parkplatz von einem Felsbrocken umgekippt, sein Fahrer kam mit dem Schrecken davon. Wegen der Autobahnsperrung gab es starke Verkehrsbehinderungen beim Alpentransit in der Schweiz. FOTO: dpa

New CD coming out on An Hoa Vietnam

I just got an email from my friend Alan Waugh, a writer and historian living in England about a new CD that he will be sending to Marines who have helped him gather information about the Marines during years in An Hoa during the war in Vietnam. I was CO of India Company Third Battalion, Ninth Marines from the fall of 1966 to February of 1967 and am particularly honored to have been associated with the finest Company in the Marine Corps. This CD will be available for purchase I believe and people can contact Alan through his website. This is a picture of me before Operation Missippi and one of our attached dogs. The hardback in the background called a "Hooch" was the company headquarters..

Letter from Prague

I am calling this a "letter from Prague" as when I wrote this blog, I was in rehearsal in Prague for a Philip Glass opera called " In the Penal Colony". Today`s rehearsal was in a shell of a factory and aptly named the "Fabrika". Everyone was late to the rehearsal so I realize that the Czechs ideas about punctuality are not as structured as the Germans. Peter the conductor asked me if I would like a coffee and I replied yes not realizing that it would be "Turkish" type in a glass and you had better wait a few minutes for the grounds to settle otherwise you will have a mouth full of what feels like sand. You had to be careful where you walked as there were puddles of water and other more dangerous debris. The three pictures show from top to bottom, the stage, public, and a break outside during the rehearsal.

I purposely did not bring my computer as I wanted to be free to study and work on the opera as well as intensively study Czech. The computer is like the TV...It sucks the interest out of the day and you simply waste time passively speaking. I was able to get slake my thirst for news by picking up newspapers in Czech as well as the Herald international Tribune...In the paper "Dnes" on Saturday the 27th of May was an article about Czechs being required to have visas to visit the States but the Poles are not. The writer of the article had a question and that was to do with "What do we need to do to get the preferred status of Poland"? One of the so called requirements is to be a member of the "Coalition of the Willing", in other words have more than 300 soldiers in Iraq. The Czechs have 100 soldiers in Iraq as well as soldiers in Afghanistan but this is not enough to grant a "no vias status". I also think that the amount of Polish relatives in the States compared with the little country of the Czech Republic and corresponding amount of relatives has as much to do with getting preferred status. Here is an article in the English language Prague Monitor about the situation. I cannot believe the Poles also are not guilty of overstaying their visit to America.

back again from Prague

I got back from Prague last night or should I say early this morning around 3 AM. The performance finished at about 9:30 at the "Fabrika" and I wanted to go back to where I was staying at the Student dormitory Kolej Kajetanka of the Charles University (one of the oldest in Europe, the university not the student dorm) but Ivan the manager had not counted the money from the ticket sales. He asked me to come back around eleven PM so I had to schlepp with subway, streetcar and bus to where my car was parked at the Pyramid Hotel .The reason I was not parked at the dorm had to do with the fact that my car was stolen last November out of the parking lot, so the Pyramid being a couple of blocks east has a guarded parking place costing about 11 dollars a day and worth the security. I can always take the train from Hof where I live to Prague and spare the parking cost. If I want to get back fast as possible, as in this case to my teaching at a local High School today, it had to be the car. I picked up the car, went to the dorm as quickly as possible to get my suitcase, cooking utensils etc. and sped off in the direction I hoped would lead me back to La Fabrica, the place where the opera took place but Prague is not so easy. I followed along the Vltava river but suddenly I could no longer go straight but had to cross over the river. Then I was completely turned around. I finally had to ask a taxi cab driver to let me follow him to my destination. If you look at the link and can find the word Hradcany which is the famous castle, then up to the word Holesovice in the northeastern corner before the river, you can see approximately where I had to drive. I had to simply get to holesovice to the north and on the map it looks simple but in reality.....


The 28th of May, having a bit of time after a morning rehearsal, I decided to check out a vegetarian restaurant in the old city part of Prague. It is called the Lehka Hlavna which means the "Light Head" in Czech. I chose the "Pesto ze susenych rajcat s olivym ocejem a pecivem" which is sun dried tomatoes pesto with olive oil and bread for the Antipasto and then not being very adventurous had the recommended ( I found the restaurant on a website) stir fry eggplant etc. with cous cous which was excellent with a good house red wine to accompany the meal. The entire bill came to about 12 dollars including a fresh fruit bowl with chocolate mousse "ovoce fondue s cocola dovou" to dip the fruit in. I walked the 2 miles or so back to my room to work off the dinner. The best thing was that I had no idea where the address of the place was having naturally left all my maps back in Germany so when I got to the old city part of Prague, I dropped into an internet cafe and viola! there I found it.

The environment

An interesting thought about ecology:

The naturalist Aldo Leopold wrote more than 30 years ago: "One of the penalties of an ecological education is that one lives alone in a world of wounds," Leopold wrote. "Much of the damage inflicted on land is quite invisible to laymen. An ecologist must either harden his shell and make believe that the consequences of science are none of his business, or he must be the doctor who sees the marks of death in a community that believes itself well — and does not want to be told otherwise."

Dr. Gibeau, ecologist, in reference to the proposed corridor for animals from Northwest Canada to the Northwest of the USA

"People who come here are just so awestruck by the scenery that they cannot understand its ecological problems" he said. "They say, 'How can there be trouble here?' But once you peel back the veneer, this place is like most other places, a human-dominated system."

We have a problem here now in Germany with a lack of bees due to the mono-culture of farms etc. I have not seen a single bee in my garden this spring which means that my apple trees may not produce any apples although they are blooming furiously....

recent review in German of a student of mine Steffen Schmidt

KONZERT IM GYMNASIUM Pianistin Elisa Prechtel und Sänger Steffen Schmidt begeistern Publikum

Festtagsfreude und Italien pur

Die MünchBürger veranstalteten jetzt in der Aula des Gymnasiums Münchberg einen Lieder- und Klavierabend, bei dem sich zwei junge Künstler aus der Region vorstellten: Elisa Prechtel, Klavier, und Steffen Schmidt, Bariton. MÜNCHBERG – Die Pianistin spielte sehr sicher und konzentriert, mit weichem Anschlag und, je nachdem es die Musik erforderte, sensibel, aber auch energisch zupackend. Gefühlvoll, jedoch ohne Sentimentalität trug sie Chopins Regentropfen-Prélude und sein Nocturne op. 9 Nr. 2 vor, bei diesem Aufhellungen und Verschattungen deutlich gegeneinander absetzend. Wechselnd zwischen zartem Träumen und leidenschaftlichem Aufwogen der Gefühle, die in der Musik liegenden Empfindungen als eigene verströmend, interpretierte sie Beethovens Mondscheinsonate. Die unterschiedlichen Stimmungen, die Joaquin Turina in seinen Miniaturas op. 52 schildert, die Ruhe eines schlafenden Dorfes, aber auch das Unheimliche nächtlicher Dunkelheit, dessen Schwinden bei Tagesanbruch, erste vorsichtige Schritte, dann sicheres, zügiges Ausschreiten beim Spaziergang und schließlich überschäumende Festtagsfreude ließ Elisa Prechtel ihr Publikum lebhaft mitempfinden. Über welche Vielfalt an Ausdrucks- und Gestaltungsmöglichkeiten sie verfügt, zeigte sie bei dem packenden, bewegten Vortrag der Stücke „Edgewater“ von Jim Brickman und „Manhattan Skyline“ von Jürgen Moser. Steffen Schmidt war sie eine einfühlsame, gut auf ihn abgestimmte Begleiterin. Der junge Sänger trug vor allem italienische Liebeslieder aus verschiedenen Epochen vor. Dabei zeigte er sich in der Tongebung sicher. Seine Stimme zeichnete sich durch Kraft, Volumen, Beweglichkeit und Modulationsfähigkeit aus. Letztere stellte er vor allem in der Arie „Ombra mai fu“ von Händel unter Beweis. Leicht, aber ohne die Töne zu verwischen, glitt sein Gesang in „Sally Gardens“ von Benjamin Britten die Tonskala hinauf und hinab. Die Ohrwürmer ,,Funiculi, funicula“ von Luigi Denza und „Santa Lucia“ von Teodoro Cottrau schmetterte er nicht einfach heraus, sondern differenzierte den jeweiligen Textstellen entsprechend in Lautstärke und Ausdruck. Diesen verstand er in jedes Lied zu legen, und zwar oft so, als gäbe er nicht die Empfindungen anderer, sondern eigene wieder. Dabei vermochte er sich im Laufe des Abends zu steigern. Die ganze Breite seiner Ausdrucksfähigkeit von verhaltener Melancholie und tiefer Sehnsucht bis zu starker Leidenschaft zeigte er in „Amarilli“ von Giulio Caccini. Am stärksten kam seinem Naturell die „Moritat vom Mackie Messer“ aus Brechts „Dreigroschenoper“ entgegen, deren Vortrag er durch Mimik und Gestik unterstützte. Das begeisterte Publikum applaudierte heftig, wofür sich der Sänger damit bedankte, dass er zwei Lieder als Zugabe wiederholte. Viel Beifall gab es für Elisa Prechtel und Steffen Schmidt.

multitasking and quiet

This is an interesting article in the NYT and it corresponds to what I have been thinking about lately. I need to get to a quiet place to really learn or read something. Get the computer off as well.

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May 21, 2006

Editorial Notebook

Let's I.M. as You Read This

By CAROLYN CURIEL

I have the television tuned to a news channel as I write this, my voice mail box is spilling its contents over the speakerphone, and I pause occasionally to flip screens on my computer to check e-mail messages. Still, something feels missing. I think of the executive who positioned his office computer above a treadmill, so he could walk constantly, keeping fit as he ran a business.

The pursuit of maximum moments drives many a multitasking life and an often-distracted mind. Cabbies chat away on the cellphone, even though laws in many places forbid it. Pedestrians text-message, leaving it to others to navigate around them.

Studies show that people may pack the equivalent of 31 hours of activities into a 24-hour day by doing several things at once. That's impressive, although I wonder if any study has figured out how to count the tasks still being tackled during sleep, as the strands of things done too hastily or inattentively deprive us of real rest.

We think of America as a sleep-deprived nation, but we are becoming deep-thought deprived, too. A closed door does not stop interruptions, because we are packing the weapons that can shatter concentration or quiet contemplation. Our fingers are always on a button.

Multitasking did not begin with computers, cellphones or other wireless technology, of course, although they have kicked it up to progressively new levels of complexity. Before those gadgets came along, the TV tray encouraged people to choose entertainment or the evening news over the dinner table and conversation. Radios were put in homes and then cars, helping to fill the dead air that can accompany housework and long rides. We seem afraid to be alone with our thoughts.

I have been a determined multitasker for as long as I can remember, insisting on doing my homework before the television. It did not seem to hurt my grades, but I will never know. Now I am loath to completely shut off connectors to those outside my immediate purview. I might miss something, or someone might miss me. And that would be disastrous. Wouldn't it?

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