I've been visiting London in April this year to meet a long time friend from Los Angeles who was taking vacations on this side of the pond. I've put a few pictures online. Enjoy!
London is a city you should have seen, like Paris (where I haven't been yet). Depending on who gets elected President of France I might go sooner or later.
July 7th, 2007
Today is Live Earth Day. Don't forget that global warming is an issue and that every one of us can help and must help to limit the consequences. Earth will survive climatic changes - the question is whether mankind as we know it will.
Maybe we should concentrate on war against global warming instead of putting all energy into war against terrorism.
July 23rd, 2007
State of emergency in Langnau downtown: it's Jazz-Nights. The Jazz-Nights are receiving the culture price of the canton Bern.
As usual, it's Junior Jazz Meetings and catering on the Viehmarktplatz and concerts in the Kupferschmiede afterwards.
Let's hope we don't get all too wet this time.
December 20th, 2007
Dear all. I haven't put anything new on here for a while. I hereby officially request Christmas to be put back for at least a week. It's the same crisis every year. Every year you swear to be better prepared for the upcoming Christmas, but there is no way around chaos - no matter what you do. Each and every year it's the same. That's why I find the following poem so appropriate. Merry Christmas to everyone!
When the snow falls wunderbar
And die children happy are,
When the Glatteis on the street,
And we all a Glühwein need,
Then you know, es ist soweit:
She is here, the Weihnachtszeit
Every Parkhaus ist besetzt,
Weil die people fahren jetzt
All to Manor, Mediamarkt,
Kriegen nearly Herzinfarkt.
Shopping hirnverbrannte things
And die Christmasglocke rings.
Merry Christmas, merry Christmas,
Hear the music, see the lights,
Frohe Weihnacht, Frohe Weihnacht,
Merry Christmas allerseits...
Mother in the kitchen bakes
Schoko-, Nuss- and Mandelkeks
Daddy in the Nebenraum
Schmückt a Riesen-Weihnachtsbaum
He is hanging auf the balls,
Then he from the Leiter falls...
Finally the Kinderlein
To the Zimmer kommen rein
And es sings the family
Schauerlich: ?Oh, Chistmastree!?
And then jeder in the house
Is packing die Geschenke aus.
Merry Christmast merry Christmas,
Hear the music, see the lights,
Mama finds unter the Tanne
Eine brandnew Teflon-Pfanne
Papa gets a Schlips and Socken,
Everybody does frohlocken.
President speaks in TV,
All around is Harmonie, Bis mother in the kitchen runs:
Im Ofen burns the Weihnachtsgans.
And so comes die Feuerwehr,
With Tatü, tata daher, And they bring a long, long Schlauch,
and a long, long Leiter auch.
And they crying - ?Wasser marsch!?,
Christmas is now bös im - Eimer..!
Merry Christmas, merry Christmas,
Hear the music, see the lights, Frohe Weihnacht, Frohe Weihnacht,
Merry Christmas allerseits...
Well, anyway, I was reading this James Bond book, and right away I realized
that like most books, it had too many words. The plot was the same one that
all James Bond books have: An evil person tries to blow up the world, but
James Bond kills him and his henchmen and makes love to several attractive
women. There, that's it: 24 words. But the guy who wrote the book took
*thousands* of words to say it.
Or consider "The Brothers Karamazov", by the famous Russian alcoholic
Fyodor Dostoyevsky. It's about these two brothers who kill their father.
Or maybe only one of them kills the father. It's impossible to tell because
what they mostly do is talk for nearly a thousand pages. If all Russians talk
as much as the Karamazovs did, I don't see how they found time to become a
major world power.
I'm told that Dostoyevsky wrote "The Brothers Karamazov" to raise
the question of whether there is a God. So why didn't he just come right
out and say: "Is there a God? It sure beats the heck out of me."
Other famous works could easily have been summarized in a few words:
* "Moby Dick" -- Don't mess around with large whales because they symbolize nature and will kill you.
* "A Tale of Two Cities" -- French people are crazy. Dave Barry