Ephemerality

<<Image002.jpg>> From Staromestska . . .

Museum Island - Berlin - Celtic Jewelry

I like the gold, especially . . .

Museum Island - Berlin - Two eras of Earth Mothers

Berlin - Lace Shift

Oooh. How very European . . .

Roman Gold

I wonder what the premium on 2000 year old coinage is?

Museum Island - Berlin - Livia

Wish I could find a version of I, Claudius, BTW . . .

Cleopatra

Unh-unh-unh-unh-uuuuuuuunnnnnnnnhhhhhhhhhh.

Satyr & Hermaphroditus

What a truly scandalous representation.
I love it.

Museum Island - Berlin - Statuary & Toes

1) the Goddess of Berlin ... Kore, 6BC Attica, granted her Ephemeral status in Berlin by post-hoc museum goers . .. Her gown used to be bright red, and the other colors as vivid, one supposes...

2) the toes of Kore

3) Aphrodite, steppin' out

4) the toes of Aphrodite

5) Athena, en deshabille

6) the toes of Athena

So what's the deal, you ask, with the toes?

Well, aside from the exigencies of sculpture, which understandably may tend to exaggerate the size of the feet, I was fascinated by the attention paid to toes in these full-sized sculptures, may I say, the loving attention paid . . . I am aware of a sort of creepy victorian-like fascination, as with ankles, but hmpf, there it is. . . What can you do?

I have pointed out before, on IJustThinkItsFunny, that this picture of Marilyn Monroe reveals preternaturally prehensile toes, an attribute, one intuits, of va-va-voominess, if you see what I mean . . . and so, even in these ancien form studies, I have perceived the same  . . .

Museum Island - Berlin - Ancient Busts

1 missed
2 Sophokles
3 Sokrates
4 Seneca
5 missed

I enjoy the contemporaneous portraits of the ancient wise ones,
Especially the ones undamaged by the hammer-wielding blue-noses.
I hate that sometimes my celphone camera misfires and I can't document
Who the bust is.

Pho- Prague na Jirio z Podebrad

In the shadow of the church, we have found the ultimate hole-in-the-wall vietnamese bistro.

Nem Saigon (the unfried spring rolls) are very good.
Bun bo nam bo (beef noodles) is very good, too, especially with that orange chili bottle sauce I love so much, but some hoi sin wouldn't be out of order, and for the life of me, I don't understand why they don't have any bbq pork bun, instead or inaddition too . . . And it is huge . . . I would love for it to be half the size, with pork instead of beef, with half-sized nem ran (fried meat spring rolls) and grilled shrimp chopped up on it, too . . .like Mai's in Houston, or Phuong Dong in SCX.

Mrs loves the pho ga here, once she dopes it up with some lemon squeezings and some chili relish . . .

Aromi Again

I should really merge this listing with the main Aromi page, but conditions conspire against me . . .
I'm too lazy . . .

A really excellent dinner with relatives by marriage . . . We graciously allowed the staff to offer us what we wanted, somewhat unknown until they offered . . . If you see how I mean . . .

We started with a sort of caprese salad. . . With genuine buffalo mozzarela . . . Then this huge awesome nibbles plate: tiny fried fish with aioli, crayfish, calamari salad, some other little sorts of amuse bouche . . . Then the main course: each couple split a sea-bass cooked in salt . . . I shudda gotten a picture the way it comes out of the kitchen instead of after they'd pried away most of the salt -- the fish isn't salty at all from the treatment . . . Most of the vegetables were grilled, but the fried zuccini was nice, too.

It seemed wrong not to have dessert.

HI Crowne Plaza Breakfast Buffet

<<IMG_0459.JPG>> A <<IMG_0458.JPG>> small thing, perhaps one thinks,
but then one enjoys it so much . . .
The round pastry is a Berliner, in the same way of Wiener, Frankfurter,
& Hamburger . . .

Berlin Walkabout - Street Art

One thing I think, is that the former Eastern Germany is more interesting than the former West Germany . . . That is, there is more creative destruction going on, visibly in the East than in the West, which is not-to-say, stultified, but yet, not as vibrant, a little more messy, hard-scrabble, interesting . . . Dresden, Leipzig, East Berlin, than Bonn & West Berlin . . . But NOW . . . Not 40 years ago, let me be clear . . . 8^)

Prater Garden

Another place we went to, re-inforced by the recommendations of Eat-Tori http://www.eat-tori.com/, was the Prater Garden . . . We intended to dine on a, if not THE definitive Berlin Schnitzel, but alas, it turns out, schnitzels are only inside, at Dinner, and we were there at lunch, which is outside . . . It was good enough, but typical of our Berlin visit, meticulously researched and planned to no avail, off-center . . .

The beer, was, of course, Excellent. The sausage, potato salad, olives were all very good . . . If we had not been disappointed about the schnitzel we might be more enthusiastic. The tomato soup was without flaw: perfekt.

I took the picture of the amorous sculpture there in the beir garden, I am amused by the resemblance to the hair style advert I saw in the Karstadt in Dresden a couple weeks earlier . . . Maybe there is something about the Deutsche Frisseur process of which I am unaware . . . 8^D

Bonanza Coffee - Berlin

One of the recommendations I got from Eat-Tori blog http://www.eat-tori.com/ . . . She's an awfully entertaining writer (and I infer, personality) -- like most Ockers . . . 8^) . . . But if we hadn't been going to see the berlin wall section near here anyway, it wouldn't have been a special treat for us . . . The coffee and croissants were good, but they are good everywhere, nicht wahr? We felt out of place among so many hipsters - a lot of english speakers planning recording sessions and late night debaucheries I can only imagine, I imagine . . . That is we sat outside on communal tables -- we're old, we like comforts of even the most rudimentary sort . . . This place is off the beaten tourist track, I think . . . One can judge for oneself whether that is a compliment or a detriment . . .8^D . . .

As we were leaving the wall, a beautiful young woman asked us if we knew where the flea market was, I started to demur, but Mrs piped in, flush with her assiduous research for our trip . . . That's only on Sunday" she said authoritatively, "but it will be down there at the base of the hill." The young woman thanked us, and we turned to go . . . But I had to ask, "where are you from?" "From Israel," she said, and we turned to leave again . . .but I said, over my shoulder, somewhat impishly, "Your English is very good!" Mrs. Laughed, and the young woman rewarded us with a generous smile.