At the end of a trip, people tend to say "it's hard to sum it up in a few words." Not us. Here is our entire experience of Berlin in a few words:
- 'Graffiti'
- 'Punk-dogs'
- 'Turkish'
- 'Beer cocktails'
- 'Bitte?'
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Home, home in Brooklyn.
A few days late, but we wanted to let everyone know that we got home safe and sound - in case they haven't heard through some other means.
At the end of a trip, people tend to say "it's hard to sum it up in a few words." Not us. Here is our entire experience of Berlin in a few words:
At the end of a trip, people tend to say "it's hard to sum it up in a few words." Not us. Here is our entire experience of Berlin in a few words:
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Getting ready to leave...
For the past few days, we've been wrapping things up here. Closing the bank account, mailing off some forms, mailing a box, getting some souvenirs, etc. We're feeling kind of sick (just a small head cold) and sleepy. And sort of done with Berlin for now. Not forever - it'll be good to come back some day... but for now, all we can think about is our friends and various kinds of foodstuffs we've been missing (pizza, bagels, pickles, Chinese food - all of which you can sort of get here, but only sort of).
Tonight we start cleaning the apartment/packing. Wish us luck, or write us encouragement, if silent wishing isn't your thing. It'll be great to see you all again... whenever exactly that is.
We'll probably have one or two more 'reflections on Berlin' posts at some point, and then that will wrap up this blog. For the time being.
Tonight we start cleaning the apartment/packing. Wish us luck, or write us encouragement, if silent wishing isn't your thing. It'll be great to see you all again... whenever exactly that is.
We'll probably have one or two more 'reflections on Berlin' posts at some point, and then that will wrap up this blog. For the time being.
Saturday, July 18, 2009
Campaign finance reform
I don't know why I was thinking about this. It has nothing to do with Germany.
Here's a simple policy change that would radically change the political scene in the US: any candidate who has proved her viability (either by being backed by a major party, or else through petition or something) can do as much fund-raising as she can, from any sources she wants. No limits at all.
The catch, though, is this: all the money raised by all the candidates goes into one pot, which is then divided evenly among the candidates. So it's worth trying to get campaign donations, since a candidate has to do so in order to get her message out, but she will also know that all the other candidates will be just as able to get their messages out. Which means that the focus will have to be on the content of the message.
Of course, this wouldn't stop candidates from doing ugly smear campaigns - but there might be more disincentive. For one, an opponent will always have equally good opportunity to respond. For another, this system would have more candidates in play in most races, and it would be much harder to win with a negative campaign when you have to separately attack multiple opponents. If a Democrat and a Republican were just attacking each other while a Green or Libertarian candidate was getting just as much face time, the third (or fourth) candidate could easily come out looking much better. And... this means that we'd break away from some of the worst features of the current system without trying to instate a massive public-financing system.
Ta da.
Now I should stop rambling about things I know absolutely nothing about and go to sleep. Naomi returns tomorrow for our last week here.
Here's a moderately cute picture of us from our trip out to Postdam a few weeks ago:
Here's a simple policy change that would radically change the political scene in the US: any candidate who has proved her viability (either by being backed by a major party, or else through petition or something) can do as much fund-raising as she can, from any sources she wants. No limits at all.
The catch, though, is this: all the money raised by all the candidates goes into one pot, which is then divided evenly among the candidates. So it's worth trying to get campaign donations, since a candidate has to do so in order to get her message out, but she will also know that all the other candidates will be just as able to get their messages out. Which means that the focus will have to be on the content of the message.
Of course, this wouldn't stop candidates from doing ugly smear campaigns - but there might be more disincentive. For one, an opponent will always have equally good opportunity to respond. For another, this system would have more candidates in play in most races, and it would be much harder to win with a negative campaign when you have to separately attack multiple opponents. If a Democrat and a Republican were just attacking each other while a Green or Libertarian candidate was getting just as much face time, the third (or fourth) candidate could easily come out looking much better. And... this means that we'd break away from some of the worst features of the current system without trying to instate a massive public-financing system.
Ta da.
Now I should stop rambling about things I know absolutely nothing about and go to sleep. Naomi returns tomorrow for our last week here.
Here's a moderately cute picture of us from our trip out to Postdam a few weeks ago:
Friday, July 17, 2009
Some more Prague pictures...
While Naomi's in Scotland, I've been working on revising my planned job-talk paper (the one that went through the Nick and Karl centrifuge). It's going okay, I think. Partly as procrastination, I've been paying attention to my procrastination patterns. When I'm at my office at NYU, I can work with my email open, but not here. In fact, I've found that the only way I can get back to work after doing something on the internet is to close Firefox, go splash my face with water, and do some pushups. Anything less and my brain won't budge. Weird.
Here's more sights from Prague: one of the synagogues involved in the museum, another statue from the Charles Bridge, a decoration on one of the houses, and one of the buildings on the castle grounds.
Here's more sights from Prague: one of the synagogues involved in the museum, another statue from the Charles Bridge, a decoration on one of the houses, and one of the buildings on the castle grounds.
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Follow-up to earlier Vienna post: Strauss and Brahms
Here are the graves of Johann Strauss and Brahms, from the Vienna graveyard. This was by request from an anonymous reader, but I should have done it earlier - I'm much more likely to be listening to either Strauss or Brahams than to Mozart.
Prague
...I'm not sure how many blog posts about traveling it takes to get a tenure-track job, but I intend to find out. (I'm not procrastinating, I'm just resting my brain.)
We had almost exactly 24 hours in Prague. It's very, very touristy, but for a reason. One thing I was surprised by was that very few Czechs speak any German. In fact, we saw a couple grounds of German and Austrian tourists in a restaurant, and they all spoke English to the waiter. I guess it's partly a political thing.
Here are a few more choice pictures:
This is a view towards the castle and cathedral taken from the Charles bridge, an old bridge lined with statues.
In the center of the city. Nice lighting. Lots of Americans. The tower on the left has astronomical clock built into it, from the 1400's.
There was a surprising amount of Art Nouveau architecture in the center of the city.
We spent the morning at the Jewish museum, which actually spans a number of historic buildings. The Jewish community in Prague was (something in the museum said) at one point the largest Jewish community in Europe, having at least 11 synagogues. A graveyard is still there, where graves had to be layered on top of one another (with added layers of earth in between) because of the city's restrictions. When a new layer was added, the old grave stones were moved up. We couldn't take photos, but if you Google "prague jewish cemetery", you'll find enough to get an idea. The picture here is of the 'Old-New Synagogue,' which dates back to at least 1270. I know this is kind of cliché to say, but being inside felt like stepping back in time.
We had almost exactly 24 hours in Prague. It's very, very touristy, but for a reason. One thing I was surprised by was that very few Czechs speak any German. In fact, we saw a couple grounds of German and Austrian tourists in a restaurant, and they all spoke English to the waiter. I guess it's partly a political thing.
Here are a few more choice pictures:
This is a view towards the castle and cathedral taken from the Charles bridge, an old bridge lined with statues.
In the center of the city. Nice lighting. Lots of Americans. The tower on the left has astronomical clock built into it, from the 1400's.
There was a surprising amount of Art Nouveau architecture in the center of the city.
We spent the morning at the Jewish museum, which actually spans a number of historic buildings. The Jewish community in Prague was (something in the museum said) at one point the largest Jewish community in Europe, having at least 11 synagogues. A graveyard is still there, where graves had to be layered on top of one another (with added layers of earth in between) because of the city's restrictions. When a new layer was added, the old grave stones were moved up. We couldn't take photos, but if you Google "prague jewish cemetery", you'll find enough to get an idea. The picture here is of the 'Old-New Synagogue,' which dates back to at least 1270. I know this is kind of cliché to say, but being inside felt like stepping back in time.
Vienna
Naomi's off in Scotland for a few days catching up with another college friend, so I'm briefly doing some solo blogging again. Only 12 days left until we return to the US. Berlin has been very good to me.... but it feels like time to go home.
Anyway, some pictures from Vienna. We saw a huge amount - far too much to put up here.
This is the cathedral in the center of the city, the Stephansdom. The big tower was supposed to be one of two, but then it ended up being one of one. Right next to it but underground (not shown) they discovered an old buried church, the original purpose of which is sort of unclear.
A little bit outside of the main city is a huge graveyard. It wasn't especially old (started in the 1700s, if I'm remembering right), but it had some highlights. Like Mozart's, Beethoven's and Schubert's graves, all together - shown above. The internet actually tells me that they're not quite sure where Mozart's body was, and that this was sort of a guess. Brahms was also just off to the side. Wow.
Later that same day, we went out to Schönbrunner Schlosspark, where the Hapsburg summer palace is. We walked around the grounds, but didn't go inside. It's a big palace:
They also had their very own fake Roman ruins:
Our last night, we decided to be young and hip and so went out. There was a movie of an opera being shown by the Rathaus (town hall), and lots of food stands set up near it. It was... sort of weird. But Naomi got a great picture of the Rathaus, and we had some very tasty dessert from a stand.
Vienna was really beautiful, and for me it was fantastic to see Naomi's old childhood haunts. Plus, there are some very sensible parts of the city's lifestyle. For instance, they have something like British tea-time - except that cake is almost mandatory, and it's coffee instead of tea.
We intend to go back.
Anyway, some pictures from Vienna. We saw a huge amount - far too much to put up here.
This is the cathedral in the center of the city, the Stephansdom. The big tower was supposed to be one of two, but then it ended up being one of one. Right next to it but underground (not shown) they discovered an old buried church, the original purpose of which is sort of unclear.
A little bit outside of the main city is a huge graveyard. It wasn't especially old (started in the 1700s, if I'm remembering right), but it had some highlights. Like Mozart's, Beethoven's and Schubert's graves, all together - shown above. The internet actually tells me that they're not quite sure where Mozart's body was, and that this was sort of a guess. Brahms was also just off to the side. Wow.
Later that same day, we went out to Schönbrunner Schlosspark, where the Hapsburg summer palace is. We walked around the grounds, but didn't go inside. It's a big palace:
They also had their very own fake Roman ruins:
Our last night, we decided to be young and hip and so went out. There was a movie of an opera being shown by the Rathaus (town hall), and lots of food stands set up near it. It was... sort of weird. But Naomi got a great picture of the Rathaus, and we had some very tasty dessert from a stand.
Vienna was really beautiful, and for me it was fantastic to see Naomi's old childhood haunts. Plus, there are some very sensible parts of the city's lifestyle. For instance, they have something like British tea-time - except that cake is almost mandatory, and it's coffee instead of tea.
We intend to go back.
Monday, July 13, 2009
Vienna and Prague - 3 pictures
Yesterday we came back to Berlin after a few days in Vienna and Prague. Both were wonderful - Vienna especially, since Naomi still knew some people there from her childhood. We'll say more later, but here are some highlights:
Hühnerschnitzel in Vienna. We had it twice - once in a Heuriger near where Naomi used to live, and once at a famous/extra-touristy restaurant in the inner city called 'Figlmüller' (this picture is from the latter). Both were good. The former was better.
We had a day of Art Nouveau, involving a lot of Klimt and Schiele. This building had a leafy dome, and a mural by Klimt inside. Really sweet.
Prague was very different - it took us a little while to understand why people get so excited about it, but we came around (a cheap, delicious meal helped). The castle/palace on the hill overlooking the town had about 5 different architectural styles. This is the cathedral that the castle surrounds. Notice the big tower, which starts gothic, but doesn't stay that way as it goes up. The mural next to it is of the dead rising from their graves to be judged.
Hühnerschnitzel in Vienna. We had it twice - once in a Heuriger near where Naomi used to live, and once at a famous/extra-touristy restaurant in the inner city called 'Figlmüller' (this picture is from the latter). Both were good. The former was better.
We had a day of Art Nouveau, involving a lot of Klimt and Schiele. This building had a leafy dome, and a mural by Klimt inside. Really sweet.
Prague was very different - it took us a little while to understand why people get so excited about it, but we came around (a cheap, delicious meal helped). The castle/palace on the hill overlooking the town had about 5 different architectural styles. This is the cathedral that the castle surrounds. Notice the big tower, which starts gothic, but doesn't stay that way as it goes up. The mural next to it is of the dead rising from their graves to be judged.
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
Quick Vienna update from Colin
Yesterday, I took a train from Berlin to Vienna, where I'm going to meet Naomi (who's been in Italy). It was about 10 hours, but first-class was only about ten Euros extra, so I ended up without neighbors (my seat was alone on its side of the aisle) and a huge picture window. The views were beautiful, especially the stretch between Dresden and Prague - the train followed the Elbe river ('Labe' in Czech) through a fairly steep valley.
I got to Vienna around 10:30pm, and walked to my hostel. I got a bed in a 6-person room. It was 'fine,' as my brother would say. A little too hot, but pretty quiet. I had an over-priced hostel breakfast in the morning. Actually, it wouldn't have been overpriced if I had taken it up on its offer of "all you can eat," but I learned in Frankfurt that starting off the day by eating all the hostel Musli you can eat makes the rest of the day feel like you're a clump of soggy oats.
I walked then over to the hostel with I'm supposed to meet Naomi - about an hour walking. Some first impressions: people seem to eat schnitzel here the way the Germans eat dönner kebab (though they also eat dönner here). The city looks more like Paris than Berlin, at least, from what I remember of my 3 hours in Paris last year. It's older, both in population and in buildings, and so there's a lot more of "so-and-so lived here" stuff.
My main plan for our time here is to eat cake and ice-cream. Naomi can make the call on the rest.
I got to Vienna around 10:30pm, and walked to my hostel. I got a bed in a 6-person room. It was 'fine,' as my brother would say. A little too hot, but pretty quiet. I had an over-priced hostel breakfast in the morning. Actually, it wouldn't have been overpriced if I had taken it up on its offer of "all you can eat," but I learned in Frankfurt that starting off the day by eating all the hostel Musli you can eat makes the rest of the day feel like you're a clump of soggy oats.
I walked then over to the hostel with I'm supposed to meet Naomi - about an hour walking. Some first impressions: people seem to eat schnitzel here the way the Germans eat dönner kebab (though they also eat dönner here). The city looks more like Paris than Berlin, at least, from what I remember of my 3 hours in Paris last year. It's older, both in population and in buildings, and so there's a lot more of "so-and-so lived here" stuff.
My main plan for our time here is to eat cake and ice-cream. Naomi can make the call on the rest.
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Huh.
I wasn't thinking about this, but the last post ended up working as some sort of "in which countries are people looking at my blog?" thing. On my personal website, I have Google Analytics set up, which tells me which general areas people who look at the site come from (unless they live in a one-person city, there's no way to identify them, so this is only moderately creepy - if it's any consolation, most websites have something like this now).
Anyway, after I linked to my site from this blog, I unexpectedly got a huge rise in the number of people according to Analytics. For instance, it's had more than 20 hits the past two days, and 10 hits from Brazil yesterday (on a normal day, the site gets between 1 and 4 visits). I don't mind popularity, and I've heard great things about Brazil, but... what??? Are these real people? Spam bots? Does anyone know?
(And... we're back in the US in only 20 days!)
Anyway, after I linked to my site from this blog, I unexpectedly got a huge rise in the number of people according to Analytics. For instance, it's had more than 20 hits the past two days, and 10 hits from Brazil yesterday (on a normal day, the site gets between 1 and 4 visits). I don't mind popularity, and I've heard great things about Brazil, but... what??? Are these real people? Spam bots? Does anyone know?
(And... we're back in the US in only 20 days!)
Saturday, July 4, 2009
More temporary bachelorhood
First a question and a picture. The question is this: what do you think of the photos on my NYU page, and personal webpage? More specifically, do they make you feel like you'd want to hire me to be in a philosophy department? Any feedback is welcome.
And here's the picture (from the side of the memorial church from two posts ago):
In other (fascinating) news, I got the paper down to 29 pages. It got less painful as I went along - partly because I realized that I should write a quick paper addressing this one view that has become 'hip' recently (interpreting Kant as holding that the self is an activity). That's actually the view I originally thought I was going to defend... and it's good that I didn't, because last September a new book came out arguing for that at length.
Speaking of work - last Wednesday night Nick and Karl (Stang and Schafer) let me pitch one of my possible job talks to them. It was super, super helpful. I've never had that amount of relentless, punchy feedback in one sitting before. The two of them together, with enough added coffee, are like a Kant centrifuge - kind of violent, but just so that all the junk floats to the top and can be skimmed off. Of course, now I realize that the paper needs to be completely rewritten. But that's okay.
And here's the picture (from the side of the memorial church from two posts ago):
In other (fascinating) news, I got the paper down to 29 pages. It got less painful as I went along - partly because I realized that I should write a quick paper addressing this one view that has become 'hip' recently (interpreting Kant as holding that the self is an activity). That's actually the view I originally thought I was going to defend... and it's good that I didn't, because last September a new book came out arguing for that at length.
Speaking of work - last Wednesday night Nick and Karl (Stang and Schafer) let me pitch one of my possible job talks to them. It was super, super helpful. I've never had that amount of relentless, punchy feedback in one sitting before. The two of them together, with enough added coffee, are like a Kant centrifuge - kind of violent, but just so that all the junk floats to the top and can be skimmed off. Of course, now I realize that the paper needs to be completely rewritten. But that's okay.
Friday, July 3, 2009
Temporary bachelor life
For the past few days I've been on my own in the apartment, and I have a few more days before I go meet Naomi in Vienna. My main goal for this lonesome stretch was to get a new version of my writing sample together, both shortening it down and incorporating the various comments I got when I presented it last month. The revision's going slowly, but it's getting done. The thing's 34 pages now (leaving out the 'works cited' section'), down from 39, and I'll see if I can trim off another 4.
One thing that's funny about doing revisions like this is that, after going through about a dozen versions, there is some reason for every aspect of the paper - everything in there has some sort of justification. So cutting it down is an internal struggle at every step. I think that's why it's taking me so long. I remember the same thing happening to a number of other NYU people who were getting ready to go on the market; they were getting lots of feedback, and spending lots of times working on drafts, but ended up making almost no real changes in the last few months.
On a different note: I was so excited to find peanut butter at one of the nearby supermarkets that I forgot to get olive oil, which was my main reason for going.
One thing that's funny about doing revisions like this is that, after going through about a dozen versions, there is some reason for every aspect of the paper - everything in there has some sort of justification. So cutting it down is an internal struggle at every step. I think that's why it's taking me so long. I remember the same thing happening to a number of other NYU people who were getting ready to go on the market; they were getting lots of feedback, and spending lots of times working on drafts, but ended up making almost no real changes in the last few months.
On a different note: I was so excited to find peanut butter at one of the nearby supermarkets that I forgot to get olive oil, which was my main reason for going.
Thursday, July 2, 2009
Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedächtniskirche (more old photos)
(Naomi's still away for the next few days, so this is just Colin.)
One place we've visited a few times is this church. I thought I'd post a couple more photos associated with it. It's a really striking site - the bombed-out old church and a new church built right along side (the new church has the cross-less statue of Jesus against the blue glass wall). World War-era destruction just isn't preserved like this in most of Berlin, understandably enough.
Here's another outside view of the church, and of a part of the ceiling inside:
Inside the newer part of the church is this charcoal drawing:
Maybe other people had heard of it, but I hadn't. It's called the 'Stalingrad Madonna,' done by a German pastor during the battle of Stalingrad in 1942 who was captured in the battle and died in a POW camp two years later. There are supposedly copies of the drawing in the UK and in Russia. The words on the right mean 'Light, Life and Love.' It is a Christian image (and the words are from the Christian Bible), but none of that is essential to the effectiveness of the image itself. The Pastor (Kurt Rueber) wrote that his aim was to represent the feeling of safety.
One place we've visited a few times is this church. I thought I'd post a couple more photos associated with it. It's a really striking site - the bombed-out old church and a new church built right along side (the new church has the cross-less statue of Jesus against the blue glass wall). World War-era destruction just isn't preserved like this in most of Berlin, understandably enough.
Here's another outside view of the church, and of a part of the ceiling inside:
Inside the newer part of the church is this charcoal drawing:
Maybe other people had heard of it, but I hadn't. It's called the 'Stalingrad Madonna,' done by a German pastor during the battle of Stalingrad in 1942 who was captured in the battle and died in a POW camp two years later. There are supposedly copies of the drawing in the UK and in Russia. The words on the right mean 'Light, Life and Love.' It is a Christian image (and the words are from the Christian Bible), but none of that is essential to the effectiveness of the image itself. The Pastor (Kurt Rueber) wrote that his aim was to represent the feeling of safety.
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