Schreiber

Two members of the Uni-Chor meet outside the Course Reserve room in the library.

J: Hi! I thought you were in Kiev.
L: That´s what I thought too. But I also thought we were leaving on Thursday.
J: Oh no!
L:...The schedule go changed around so many times, and at one point the plan was that we were leaving on Thursday. So that´s what was in my Calendar.
J: That´s awful.
L: It´s my own stupid fault. And anyway, it´s not so bad--I´ve got a lot of work to do.
J: THAT I can understand.
L: So what are you doing?
J: (wishing to avoid the fact that the sheet of paper he´s just photocopied is NOT, in fact, an assignment, but just a specimen of a really pretty 12th century hand) I decided to stay here because I had so much work to do, but ironically I haven´t gotten much done...
L: (makes sympathetic noises)
J: ...everything was closed yesterday.

Explanation and Commentary:
The Choir, including Grace, headed off Wednesday morning on a 36-hr train ride to Kiev, where they´re going to be visiting and performing with the group that visited us. Apparently, they had to bring all their own food for the train ride with them, so Grace spent a lot of Tuesday making devilled eggs and chicken salad.
I stayed home because, well, I only have five more weeks before I have to start packing. Unfortunately, what with the concert I´d been too preoccupied to figure out WHAT, exactly, I would be researching while Grace was gone. Had I been more organized, I reflected gloomily on Wednesday, I would have been boarding a train myself, so as to spend a couple days in Karlsruhe working in the Staatsarchiv and crashing on someone´s floor. But as it turned out, it wouldn´t have mattered. Thursday was Christi Himmelfahrt, so while the pious celebrated the Ascension, the employees of all the archives went on vacation. Hence the Kantonsarchiv in Frauenfeld (plan B) was already closed when I tried to contact them on Wednesday; the i>Stadtarchiv in Überlingen (plan C) was still open when I phoned them, but they didn´t think they had the manuscript I wanted. This, they opined, was probably in the Herzogin Sophie Bibliothek (gets updated to Plan C2) in the town...whose custodian is apparently off sick. And today was right out: Latin class this morning preempts any plans for trips to random libraries, and I´ve looked at MOST of the relevant material in the Stadtarchiv here...which, in any case, is open for only two hours this afternoon!
So I´ve been at a bit of a loose end. I decided to go to church on Thursday, and since I didn´t feel like facing a second First Communion service, opted for the Lutherans, who had it outside in unsettled weather. (It was, nonetheless, packed out--possibly because they brought along a brass ensemble) For the rest of the time, I´ve been working though the Regesta, and finishing up one or two books.
And yes, trying to figure out how to make the Greeks the dominant civilization in a computer-generated world.
Oh well. It´s just as well, since my Dad´s coming to visit on Sunday, and it would not be so fun for him if we were both in Kiiyev!

OK, I should really be working on the introduction to my dissertation, but this is just too good to pass up...

Go to Wikipedia. Type in your birth date (but not year). List three events that happened on your birthday. List two important birthdays and one interesting death. Post this in your journal.
( Read more... )

Meantime: we had our wonderful landlady (and her husband) over for dinner last night: initially planned to do Chicken Chasseur, but they don´t usually eat heavily in the evening. So I was going to do Mulligatawny Soup and popovers, until Grace (somewhat braindead after a week on a farm, but apparently more alert than I) reminded me that we don´t actually have any muffin tins. So we went the Traditional American route, with fried chicken and biscuits. And actually managed to keep conversation going through dinner. Go us!
Oh, and we fly to Istanbul on Wednesday...

...So the night before last we were attempting to watch Russian Ark (A rather bizarre film--it´s a tour of the Hermitage Palace in St. Petersburg´s history and art collections, all in one shot). I say attempting, because a) the various video programs on our computers have issues, and b) on Grace´s computer, it kept stalling at chapter 12. Hence, I tried it out on MY computer. And, after some trial and error, manage to get it to actually work. So I invited Grace over to our makeshift couch/daybed, and plugged it in.
A word about plugs. My computer has the standard power converter etc., but German plugs have a different shape than US ones; so while the computer is perfectly happy to run on European current, it needs a plug adaptor. For this purpose, I use an old thing that I think was actually designed for electric rasers.
So you can probably imagine what happened when I tried plugging this arrangement into the (rather old) multiple-plug extension cord under the day bed.
Yep. The lights went out. We managed to remain calm. Grace discovered that the lights over the kitchen sink and in the bathroom still worked; I went out into the front hall and located the fuse box for the building. Unfortunately, it WAS a fuse box...and I have never been initiated into the anceient art of Fuse Replacement. Nor were there any spare fuses, either there or (after some hurried searching) in the apartment.
I called the Hausverwaltung. No response. I looked up the word for "blew a fuse" (man sagt tatsächlich, "Die Sicherung ist durchgebrannt"), and called our landlord´s secretary.
"Herr Burson! How nice to hear from you! It´s been a long time! How are you?"
"Im moment nicht so gut...Die Sicherung ist durchgebrannt..."
We discussed this for a few minutes, discovering in the process that NEITHER of us actually knew the word for fuse. She said she would call her husband, who hopefully would.
Half an hour and a phone call to my landlord later, she was there, with husband, who examined the fuse box and revealed that there were in fact no fuses in the plugs for our apartment. We knocked on the door of our neighbor (whom we'd never met), in the hope of advice and/or spare fuses.
"Do you think it's too late?" flustered Frau Rabe. "I can hear him watching television..." I replied. He proved to be a somewhat irascible old man, but he gave us the vital information that HIS electricity was controlled by a separate panel. Armed with this information, we opened the closet by the front door, and discovered a row of Stromunterbrecher (Argh, what's that in English again?) Mission accomplished.
But I still don't know how to change a fuse.

Meantime, it's Saint Patrick's day. I feel like I ought to be out at an Irish pub drinking green beer, but I'm really not in the mood. Top o' the evening to ye, though!

Being some reflections (architectural, liturgical, sociological) on Narrengottesdienst (the Fools´ Service) at St. Stefanskirche in Konstanz.
We´ll start with the building. I´d never been in for a service before, since I usually go to the Münster when the Old Catholics aren´t having a service and I want to go to church but am not in a lutheran mood. St. Stefan´s claims to be the city´s oldest parish church, which is at least arguably true. The tower´s a familiar landmark, and Margaret and Catherine may recall the statues of the church´s patron and (randomly) of John of Nepomuk outside. Inside, the Nave, with its medieval architecture, neo-gothic glass, and 16th and 19th century murals more or less works, and manages to include some renaissance monuments, modernist stations of the cross, and a rococo organ without too much difficulty. The Chancel, however, got Rococo´d at some point in its past, and while that´s unfortunate in itself, it´s pretty restrained and would be relatively attractive...if someone in the 19th century hadn´t partly re-gothicked it. As it is, the line of the original east window protrudes rather crudely through an 18th century cornice, and the bright colors of gothic revival windows clash horribly with the pastels of the celing painting. Moral of the story: if you´re going to redo a building, at least for the love of God make a thorough job of it.

Anyhoo, back to people wearing silly clothes. (And this time, it´s not just the clergy!)

Narrengottesdiest appears to be a well-established tradition (the Lutherans wera having one too), whereby people bring their costumes--and some of the atmosphere--of carnival to church, both literally and metaphorically. So the church was full of Blätzle and people in wizard costumes and camel outfits and carnival masks, we were played in with a brass band (also in wizard costumes...is this a tradition, or just Potter-mania?), and the first reading was the Emperor´s New Clothes. (No, before the liturgists ask, there was no mocking of church services in general--no black puddings, or burning shoes in thurifers...) The Gospel, appropriately enough, was Mark 2:18-22: which of course has to do with fasting vs rejoicing, clothing, and wine, the themes of the week. And the sermon took this up, calling on the church to be willing to embrace the new and the strange without rejecting the old. Admittedly, some of the new things which the priest was praising were the arrival of some certain conservative politicians on the German and Catholic scene...but I´m willing to forgive him. He did the whole thing in verse.

Although the decorations have been up practically since Christmas, and Blätzle (people in the traditional Fas(t)nacht costume which looks kind of like an early medieval rendering of a chicken) have been wandering about the place for several weeks, often carrying musical instruments, yesterday night was the official beginning of Fasnacht. We went out to watch the opening parade, which had about a zillion different groups. Unfortunately, I´d forgotten to clear the photos off the camera before we headed out so we didn´t have a lot of space for more. Grace has no doubt already posted what we did get: the official Night watch, complete with real lanterns and replica halbards, which should amuse Catherine, people and their kids in random costumes, slightly scary guys in knee pants and hoods (I was wishing for my garb...), and some of the gajillions of groups in the parade. But no camera could really get the flavor of the occasion. The impressiveness of people throwing flags of Konstanz and various Narrenzünfte (fools´guilds) into the air and catching them doesn´t translate well, even onto video. There´s no way to photograph the sound of two dozen Blätzle, in rainbow and black feathers and covered with bells, going by. And a camera can´t really capture the mood of the drunk ravers in skin-tight clothing skipping against the direction of the parade while shouting the traditional cry of "Ho Narro!" (as the crowd shouted it back at them, while trying to get them out of the way). Or the way the sound of a dozen guys in what look like gorilla suits all twirling wooden noisemakers...or the tiny bit of primeval panic when they charge you (and possibly throw glitter at you). I guess you could get a photo of the guy who looked like Jesus selling sausages and beer in the trailor pulled by a tractor...but that wouldn´t include the techno beat. And I tried this morning to get photos of the people cracking whips, but that doesn´t get the explosive noise, or the excitement. And of course, cameras aren´t good at getting the THUMP in your very bowels as a band all wearing goblin heads goes by.
Oh yes. There were bands. The WCMB (or the YPMB, for that matter) would have been having WAY too much fun. And hey, they´ve already GOT the basic requirement of silly hats.
Really cool. And ruling. Lots of beer, but people of all ages from retirees to babies marching while wearing silly--and yet somehow numinous--costumes. Later on, when we went out again, the bratwurst stands were in full operation, the X-treme Guggenmusik (minus most of their goblin heads, but still with the banner of Imperia with one) were holding an impromptu concert on the Münsterplatz, while the Überlinger Löwen (more like the medieval idea of a lion--all in red, and with crowns) had taken over the Leckere Waffeln place near our apartment. Later still (when I went out to see if anything was going to be open today), they´d teamed up with a band in silly peasant hats to sing and dance on the Münsterplatz. I joined in, despite not knowing any of the words (note: they should really have taught us some drinking songs in Landeskunde). And the "Jacobiner" had taken over the square by the Tiergarten (with the statue of a renowned Fasnacht standup comic in the middle), continuing 200 years of the Konstanzer making fun of the French revolutionary army that took over the city in the 1790s.
Professor Patschovsky warned us that this was the one time of year when we´d probably want the shutters on the apartment. We didn´t realize that we´d want them (and earplugs) not at midnight, but at 6:30 AM, when what must have been a "Coalition of the awake" paraded down Konradigasse. With a band. Twice.
I can understand now why there´s a "No Narro" party for people fed up with the whole business. But I still think it´s pretty damn cool.
It´s now Schmötzige Donrstag (dirty Thursday). Everything is closed except the bars and restaurants, a number of additional examples of which have sprung into existance, seemingly ex nihilo. And I´m up at the Uni for IT´s Fasnacht party. Which reminds me...I need to get into costume. By this evening, I´ll probably be speaking with a swiss accent (kinda like Margaret...). So more later.

Yes indeed: yesterday there was a knock on the door, and I opened it to admit a large electrician in coveralls, here to have a look at the Waschmaschine situation. I took him down to the basement, and showed him the washing mashine, the taped together plumbing and the non-functioning pump. Then had to do this a couple more times as we were joined by
Another guy in coveralls (Installateur, which more or less=plumber), who opened up the pump (strong smell of sulpher) and the piping (further gush of water and smell of something growing...). In THEORY he´ll be back tomorrow to fix the pump.
Landlord´s wonderful scretary
Representative of the building management, who informed us that they now want to have the possibility of MULTIPLE washing mashines in this part of the basement, with SEPARATE plugs.
By this point, with five people all examining the situation, it really was starting to resemble the New Cooker Sketch...