UCSC Video

Ganz eindeutig ein Werbefilmchen, aber das Video hat ein paar sehenswert schöne Aufnahmen vom Unigelände.

Ein höchst lesenswertes Web-Journal wäre...

... aber dazu kommen wir noch. Erst einmal muss ich ganz entsetzt feststellen: Ach du Schande, es ist schon... Juni! Ich habe meinen Blog sträflichst vernachlässigt. Ich gebe es zu. Facebook richtet hier wirklich merkbar Schaden an. Es ist aber auch zu verlockend, dass man dort sofort & direkt Antworten erwarten kann, während beim Blog doch der Schwerpunkt ganz einseitig beim Verfasser liegt.
Gott-sei-Dank kann ich die Lieben in Deutschland zumindest an ein ganz witzig und flott geschriebenes Online-Journal verweisen, das sich vor allem damit auseinandersetzt, was einem so als nach Kalifornien gewehtem Deutschen Lustiges, Sonderliches, oder schlicht alltäglich Wahnsinniges widerfährt. Also, wer Lesestoff möchte, dem sei wärmstens das California Journal empfohlen! Viel Spass, auch beim Stöbern im Archiv!

Winter Haiku #4 & 5

#5
Eiszehen. Glühwein
macht Nase und Ohren rot.
Schwankst strahlend nach Hause.

Icy toes. Mulled wine
turns your nose and cold ears red
you wobble home beaming.

#4
Winters Hoheit schmilzt,
schwer tropft es von den Bäumen.
Amseln fliegen wieder

Winter's spell broken
big drops from bareskinned trees
blackbirds fly again

Winter Haiku #2 & 3

#2
Mondaufgang pastell
über gleitendem Schiff - der Fluss
spiegelt Weinbergschnee

Moonrise through pastels
over the barge - the river
reflects vineyard snow

#3
Schirme gleiten schwarz
durch rasches Schneegestöber
Lichterzielen zu.

Through brisk snow flurries
black umbrellas home in on
windows' guiding lights.

Winter Haiku #1

Schnee auf der Schere

Nasenschild im Himmelblau

winkt dem Winterhaar

snow on gold scissors

a hanging sign in blue sky

beckons winter hair

Crepe Place & Absinthe?

I'm not sure that I'm braking a record, but come Wednesday I will have been at the Crepe Place 3 times in 5 days. First I went to a concert on Saturday that Josh of The Art Museums curated. Curated? I thought the word only applied to the visual arts, but I've since learned that you can curate a concert when you get three bands together for one night/one show, namely: THE GROGGS • THE MANTLES • STIFF LOVE. Josh  recommended The Mantles, but I actually thought that louder, faster, sophomoric bands Stiff Love and The Groggs were more fun live. Had a blast. (More on The Art Museums)
Yesterday at Joe Stroud's get-together I found out that Joan has turned into a absinthe connoisseur. Today I find out that Crepe Place has been offering/promoting absinthe cocktails for years now, literally. How could I have missed it? Well, maybe because I don't exactly have a weakness for anise and licorice flavors, so the whole absinthe renaissance & euphoria over said spirit having become legal again in the US (long story) have largely passed me by. Until Joan announced today that "TUESDAY is ABSINTHE NIGHT AT THE CREPE PLACE." In capital letters. Yes. Now my curiosity is tickled, at last. Since The Crepe Place offers the New York Times' favorite absinthe, the Swiss Kübler Absinthe Superieure, the weather is simply gorgeous right now (80F=27C), very much entices me to go out, and the Crepe Place is  a 5 minute bike ride down the street, I think I will make tomorrow night an absinthe night!
And the next day, being the third Wednesday of the month, the Crepe Place will see us for our traditional Mittwoch Stammtisch, of course. Cheers und Prosit!

15th Anniversary Berlin & Beyond Film Festival

The fact that the festivals is sponsored by the Goethe-Institut San Francisco, and that the website is exclusively in English does give a clear indication of who the target audience for Berlin & Beyond is. Germans might already be familiar with at least some of the scheduled movies, but Left Coast dwellers are offered a rare chance to thoroughly catch up on German cinema here. I've had to grudgingly admit that due to lingering flu symptoms I better keep a low profile for yet another weekend. No Roller Derby bout for me, no Berlin & Beyond in San Francisco. So I'm very happy that for the first time in its history the festival moves to San Jose for an Encore Day on October 30th (Camera 12 Cinemas). Not only do we get a second chance to see Endstation der Sehnsüchte, und Giulia's Verschwinden, San Jose's Encore Day offers the only festival screening of Fatih Akin's Soul Kitchen. I really liked his previous film Auf der anderen Seite. I did not catch Soul Kitchen when it played in the theater, so I look forward to watching it on the big screen now.

Pacific Rim Film Festival

I almost missed this year's Pacific Rim Film Festival. I've been dealing with the flu for almost a week, but I came across the announcement just in time to still catch this year's highlights. Today I get a second chance to see Departures, which won the Foreign Language Oscar in 2008. For tomorrow I have my eyes on Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress. In previous years, a big part of the fun was checking out the super low budget productions, and the often very personal documentaries. Since I'm not exactly in top form the bigger films have to do this year, but it will still be a lot of fun. The atmosphere is always good at the Del Mar, the prettiest movie theater in town.

Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival

Obwohl ich auf Facebook schon über das Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park berichtet habe, möchte ich doch noch einen etwas ausführicheren Absatz hier in mein Web-Tagebuch setzen als auf FB möglich. Das Fazit gleich zu Anfang: Es war phänomenal. Ich wusste, dass das dreitägige Festival extrem beliebt ist. Das Programm bietet grosse Namen wie Neuentdeckungen, und verteilt dabei insgesammt 6o Künstler/Bands auf 6 Bühnen und 3 Tage. Als ob das nicht schon Anreiz genug wäre, wird das ganze Tschinderassabumm auch noch komplett umsonst angeboten. Richtig gehört, Philantropist Warren Hellman zahlt die laut San Francisco Chronicle in die Millionen gehende Rechnung aus eigener Tasche, und zwar unglaublicherweise schon seit 10 Jahren. Der Mann ist offensichtlich stinkreich, und entweder ein Menschenfreund, oder jemand, der sich gerne eine Geburtstagsfeier mit 600 000 Gästen (in 2010) schmeisst, ....oder beides. Ich konnte mir Indigo Girls, Elvis Costello, und Patti Smith an einem Tag anhören, während ich nebenbei noch ein paar richtige Bluegrass Bands, sowie Dave Alvin & The Guilty Women, Nick Lowe, Marchforth Marching Band (superlustig live!), und zum Abschluss Emmylou Harris mitnehmen konnte. Letztere lebende Legende ehrlich gesagt unfreiwillig. Ich hätte mir lieber Mondo Cane auf einer anderen Bühne angesehen, musste mich aber mit meinen befreundeten Santa Cruzianern am vereinbahrten Treffpunkt zusammenfinden um den Rest des Abends & Rückfahrt zu planen. Nächstes Jahr möchte ich auf jeden Fall wieder hin, vielleicht mit Schwerpunkt Indie Bands, zur Abwechslung. (Photo: Dan Roman)

Heat Wave? Côtes du Rhône!

We had an unbelievable 105.6 °F downtown Santa Cruz today. A hot day calls for a nice, light, chilled white, so I had to open this recent find. Have I ever mentioned that I love Shopper's Corner? Reason number.... oh, who's counting!... would be the wine selection.  In Germany I had tasted a Côtes du Rhône that I quite liked for it's pear flavor, a 2009 Château Saint-Cosme Côtes du Rhône blanc. I wrote a little paragraph about it, and never thought that I could get it in a local store. I did see it online, but the closest vendor is in LA, and asked $14 s&h for a $18 bottle of wine. Uhhh... I don't think so. The next time I found myself at Shopper's it occurred to me I should check the shelves. Turns out Shopper's carries a couple of Château Saint Cosme! Excellent! Except, Shopper's only had the red, not the white Saint Cosme Côtes du Rhône. I came so close! Almost! They did have this 2007 Ogier though. More peach than pear, but I do detect a hint of Williams-Christ-Birne in it, the pear schnapps Germans lovingly call "Willi." Delicious. After I keep discovering really nice imports that are shockingly affordable I am more determined than ever not buy regional wines at prices that seem to be based on factors other than their quality. I'd love to buy local, but if they don't compare, they don't compare. Basta!