May 15, 2008

Jet-lag strikes

Jetlag_1Wednesday, my first full day back in the USA, I felt pretty normal.  A little more tired than normal in the early evening, but otherwise no real complaints.

Yesterday was my first day back at work, and moments after arriving at my desk, I felt jet-lag strike with a vengeance.  I had trouble remembering how to do the most basic parts of my job, and felt like I was in a fog all day.  It kind of sucked. 

Thank god my boss is super cool, has lived in Europe, and knows how hard these first few re-entry days can be. Few demands were made of me.  Apart from wading through 150 emails, I had a pretty quiet day.

Over lunch, I got better acquainted with my cool new coworker, and around 5:30 I managed to make it to a combined happy hour for some the the Twin Cities' largest companies' gay employee groups.  Many cute men, but I didn't feel at my conversational best.

Moreover, the beer tasted lousy after the great stuff I've been drinking in Germany the past few weeks.  The food was good, though, and free.

I came home and was in bed by 10:00.

Shameless plug alert: This Sunday Darren and I are participating in the 2008 MN AIDS Walk.  If you feel like donating some money to a good cause, I would appreciate your support.  Many thanks to any of you who chip in!

Groggily yours,

~WG

WG's been ridin' on the railroad...

As I mentioned some time ago, I really love taking the train (in Europe).  Here are a couple video clips I took this past Monday, as Darren and I zipped along on an ICE train at 250 kph (or 155 mph) between Cologne and Berlin.

Clip One features wind turbines, which we saw all along the trip.  (Sorry, the video compression makes them kind of hard to see.)

   

I do so love to go fast,

~WG

May 14, 2008

Home safe and sound

It's a lovely sunny Wednesday morning here in Minnesota, and I'm sitting on my couch, drinking my second big cup of coffee. We got back from Germany last night. I'm quite sad that our really wonderful trip is over, but it also feels great to relax in my own home after nearly two weeks away.

The flights yesterday from Cologne to Newark and Newark to Minneapolis went really smoothly. No delays, no lost luggage, and on the transatlantic flight we were lucky enough to have three seats to ourselves.  That made things much more comfortable for us both.

We arrived to find that spring is still just in its early stages in Minnesota. It was rainy and just 52 degrees when we landed.  The leaves on the trees are still only half grown.  Quite nice really--we'll get to enjoy two springs this year. 

It's incredible to me that we were in Germany for 12 days and never saw a single drop of rain.  We had bright sun and temperatures in the mid-70's for our entire trip. I told Darren, "Trust me, this is NOT what Germany is like for most of the year."

I'm in a lazy mood today.  I'm a bit jet-lagged, but mostly I feel worn from all the travel the past few days.  I'll be posting pictures and video for a few more days, while my brain continues to recover.  Eventually I plan to set up a couple photo albums here on the blog, but that's too "organize-y" for me today.

And now, another batch of pictures from our last few days in Germany:

On our last full day in Berlin, we took a two-hour boat cruise along the Wannsee (in the far west of the city) and six other lakes connected to it.  We didn't manage to get a seat up on the deck, but we had a great view anyway, and we avoided sunburn.


Darren smiles pretty for the camera

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Our constant companion in Germany.  (I'm rather curious about the Star of David on the glass. Help me out, anyone who knows about the brewing industry in Bayreuth...)

Wannsee_beer


One of many remarkable castles and mansions along the shore of the Wannsee

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Not a bad little place to live along the lake...

Wannsee6


The mansion that hosted the infamous Wannsee Conference, during which the senior Nazi leadership decided exactly how they would annihilate the Jews of Europe

Wannseee_conferenz


Another grim sight, though not technically criminal.  (Trust me, you did NOT want to see this guy's thong from the other side...)

Icky_icky



The lake cruiser Moby Dick.  Kind of funky.


Moby_dick


On our last night in Berlin, we found very hip little restaurant at Savigny Platz, just around the corner from our hotel, and we spent nearly four hours there.  We ate a great dinner and had many a cocktail. The restaurant boasted an all-day Happy Hour, and all cocktails were 5 Euros.  Not cheap exactly, but still appealing.


Darren looking handsome, unable to conceal the adoration in his eyes...

Savigny_dinner


A shot of the restaurant's interior.  The bistro was built directly beneath the S-Bahn train tracks. (Yes, there was often rumbling and screeching as we ate, but it just added to the atmosphere.)


Savigny_dinner2


Okay, enough for now.  I think I'll go shower in my own shower and dry off using (comparatively) huge, luxuriously soft American bath towels.

More tomorrow,

~WG

May 13, 2008

Heading home

Today as you enjoy luxurious days at work, Darren and I are crammed into uncomfortable airplane seats, fighting deep-vein thrombosis as we wing our way home.

Here a more few pictures to tide you over until I'm back in the USA.

Darren and I meet a giant LEGP giraffe at Potsdamer Platz

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The obligatory "Hey, we're in Berlin at the Brandenburg Gate!" picture

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WG and his pal Nils chat in a beer garden

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It's WG at the Reichstag, sweating like hell. What made him think he could stand to wear a cap all day??


Seanrt


Looking forward to hugging Hudson and sleeping in my own bed,

~WG

May 12, 2008

Wg_betterthancoffee

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He seems to be admiring something...

~WG

May 11, 2008

Kneeling_banner_5

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Seems like a nice way to spend a Sunday morning.

~WG

May 10, 2008

WG: Guest Blogger for Hire

Scott_3 Our blogger pal Scott, from Going 40 in a 20 Zone is stressing right now as he prepares for the end of his semester at Hamline University.

Being the kind and supportive friend that I am, I generously volunteered my services as guest blogger, and I encourage you to pop over to Scott's blog and read my modest little essay. 

While you're over there, spend some time exploring.  Not a bad little operation he's running...

Meanwhile, as poor Scott studies, I'm frolicking in Berlin today.

Yours in Hefeweizen-soaked absentia,

~WG

More from Germany...

More pictures from sunny Berlin!

WG, happy because he's about to visit the very cool Pergamonmuseum, which he last saw in 1993

Seany


The Pergamon temple, moved from Asia Minor and housed inside the entry of the museum

Temple


The reassembled smaller gate that once lead into Byzantium, where Alexander the Great set up his great court

Byzatine_gate


Detail of the lions along the walls that lead through the gates

Byzantine_lions


Post-museum, Darren enjoys a Berliner Weiße mit Schuß, a bland bitter-ish wheat beer to which a shot of raspberry syrup is added for flavor.  (Really, it's much much better than it sounds!)

Darren_mit_schuss


The giant TV tower at Potsdamer Platz. We had planned to ride up to the top and have a coffee, but there was at least an hour's wait for the elevator, and two tickets cost nearly $30. No thanks. We hopped back on the train...

Fernsehturm


... and ended up here instead, at the hip Heckischer Markt district, where we had coffee at a great outdoor cafe


Heckischer_markt


Not a bad day at all.

~WG

May 09, 2008

Sunny and 75 degrees? This is Germany?

Berlin continues to delight us, and the weather remains perfect.  Not a drop of rain since we arrived in Germany.  Amazing.  I'm even getting a tan! (Despite what I look like below, I do still have eyebrows.  They're just too blond to see now.) 

Here are some more pictures for you, taken Wednesday and Thursday.

The Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, one of Berlin's best known landmarks

Gedchtnis_kirche1


A promo poster for the incredible Ute Lemper, whom we saw perform last night...

Ute


... here at the Amdiralspalast

Admiralspalast


WG embraces bear culture

Sean_bear


Beer and sausage for lunch again...  (Not drunk, just silly.)

Lunch


The Brandenburg Gate

Brandenburg_gate


In a park on the Museum Island, one boy helpfully assists another by slathering sunscreen on his back...

Sun_tan_lotion

Lotion_2

Really loving it here,

~WG

May 08, 2008

Car goes fast...

A snippet of video from the Autobahn, shot on our way to Beligum on Sunday. (No, the car didn't slowly rotate mid-road. I was just trying something artsy. And nauseating.)

We were going just over 120 mph, listening to bad French pop on a Belgian radio station. (The chat between songs was in Flemish.)

   

~WG

May 07, 2008

Literary Crack, Part 2

(WG's gobbling sausage in Berlin today, so yarn boy continues to pick up the slack.)

...Continued from yesterday

Literary Crack

Bleakhouse_2 Okay, I know what you’re thinking: no author you were forced to read in high school could possibly qualify as Literary Crack.  It’s true that one doesn’t exactly breeze through Dickens.  But when you consider that his novels were originally serialized in newspapers, that people were dying for the next installment, that his books are the best evidence we have that the first soap opera actually precedes the existence of soap, you see that Charles Dickens was among the first LC dealers.  Sure, sure . . . Bleak House is almost one thousand pages long.  But what mysteries those pages contain!  Who is Esther’s mother?  What is Tulkinghorn’s angle?  Why is Lady Dedlock always acting like she’s hiding something?  Why is Mr. Guppy such a freak?  Do people really spontaneously combust?  These questions will cause you to lug this veritable tome around with you—and ignore your children and your pets—until you’ve turned the last page!

TheroadIn this novel, the words “literary” and “crack” come together in holy matrimony.  Cormac McCarthy’s getting a lot of play lately, but he’s been writing languid, gorgeous, horrifying novels for a very long time.  Most of them require an uphill kind of attention, but The Road is practically effortless.  The world all but disappeared when I cracked the spine of this one, and its account of a father and son’s journey across post-apocalyptic America left me wondering whether the world would still exist when I was finished.  It does—for now—but for the two days and one night that I was trapped in the pages of The Road, that was a debatable proposition.  McCarthy crackifies his writing with traditional horror tactics (What’s on the other side of that door?  What’s making that noise in the dark?) but he’s aiming for a much larger goal than just scaring the crap out of his reader.  In fact, McCarthy didn’t really “write” this book; he really opened a secret door to a cold, dark, howling future.


Now, I shared this little list of LC books with my wife, and she pointed out that all of these books are about things going to hell in a hand basket. This is a good point.  What is it about the hell-bound hand basket we find so compelling?  Why are stories about things falling apart so hard to put down?  It’s an interesting question, but I can’t talk about it right now.  I have to go finish this book:

Libra_first_ed_6

    ~Title_2

May 06, 2008

A few pics from the road...

We arrived in Berlin today, had a great day, and didn't lose our luggage.

Here are a few pictures from the first couple days of our trip.

WG hangs out with some goats sheep in Belgium

Wg_feeds_goats


Darren, Peter, and Nils, in Liege, Belgium, just across the German border

Darren_peter_nils_liege


Sean and Nils in Monschau, Germany

Sean_nils_monschau


The insanely picturesque Monschau town square

Town_square_monschau


Shirtless boys sketching the Cologne Cathedral

Cute_boys_sketch_cathedral


The Cathedral itself

Klner_dom1


Nils' and Peter's rooftop terrace, where we ate our breakfast each morning and drank champagne at night


Cologne_terrace


Darren bringing Sean much needed beer in a Berlin beer garden

Darren_berlin_beergarden


Me with one of two beers I drank

Sean_berlin_beergarden


More soon.  I have a bit of a cold, but otherwise, all is well!

~WG

Literary Crack

By Guest Blogger yarn boy

If you’ve been a regular visitor to yarn boy, then you know that I haven’t been blogging much lately.  Some of this is because I don’t have all that much to say about knitting at the moment, but now our dear friend WG has given me the opportunity to blog about one of my favorite non-knitting subjects: books!  Today I’d like to tell you about my favorite unsung genre, Literary Crack. 

You won’t find a Literary Crack (LC) section at your local Barnes & Noble.  If they did have an LC section, no one would ever browse any of the other sections.  LC books are safely distributed throughout the entire bookstore, so regular users can safely masquerade as fans of fiction, horror, or whatever genre we tell ourselves we’re really reading.

What distinguishes a work of LC from other books is that it doesn’t have a plot.  What it has instead is a vacuum cleaner that turns on the moment you open the cover and sucks you—and anything else you were planning on doing with your day—right through every page, all the way to the back cover.  If you’ve ever opened up a book with the intention of reading, you know, just a paragraph or two before going to sleep, only to realize that the sun has somehow been up for hours, everyone in the house has left for work, and you’ve forgone basic life functions like, say, using the bathroom . . . well, you, my friend, have been the victim of Literary Crack.

But don’t worry!  Admitting that you’re an LC addict is the first step!  The second step is to find out what other LC addicts are reading.  I am going to help you along with a few favorites from my LC stash.

Worldwarz_2WG has already fallen prey to blogged about this book, and I second everything he says.  What makes this book “literary” and not just plain old “crack” is that Max Bloom has expended  some energy figuring out what his characters sound like, what they look like, how they talk, what their daily lives contain.  At the same time Mr. Bloom clearly thinks about zombies in the same manner that your average person thinks about sex.  Where you or I would say, “Hmmm . . . I wonder what it would be like to get it on in every room in my house,” Bloom says, “Hmmm . . . I wonder what it would be like if there were zombies in every room in my house.”  If the DSM-IV doesn’t have a category for zombie obsession, it should.  But thank goodness for the obsession, because it produced World War Z, which is one hell of an LC hit.

41aeuzldkvl_ss500__3 I suppose it’s debatable whether the word “literary” belongs anywhere near this book.  It’s got a few problems, not the least of which is that it doesn’t have any ruins in it.  (The movie, on the other hand, does.  It’s a bad sign when Hollywood outthinks you.)  What it does have, though, is one of the creepiest, most unusual “monsters” to hit the horror shelves in a long time.  This book actually made me stay bed on a sunny Saturday morning just so I could finish it before lunch.  I am not an especially fast reader, but I was done with The Ruins in a 48-hour period that also included required activities as going to work, breathing, and eating.  It did not include sleeping.

(to be continued...)

Title

 

 

May 05, 2008

Wg_betterthancoffee

Ginepriusopen1

Robby Ginepri has had quite a resurgence in the last few months but his game is never as intriguing to me as his practice sessions...

~WG

Safe and sound in Germany...

Hi kids. Just a quick update from the road.  We're doing well in Germany after a near disaster at the outset of the vacation.  The first leg of our trip was canceled and Continental wouldn't help us at all with any other connections to Europe. Their advice was to try again in five days or just scrap the whole trip. "You have no options."  Bastards.

Amazingly, Northwest (who were only supposed to get us as far as Newark) flew us to Amsterdam and then to Cologne.  We got here 8 hours later than the orginal plan, but we got here. After nearly two days, our luggage found us, too.  (When will I learn to always keep a toothbrush, toothpaste, and my styling paste in my carry-on?)

We spent yesterday drinking beer at a sunny outdoor cafe in Belgium before coming back for coffee and cake in a ridiculously quaint little German town along the border.  Today we plan to explore the inner part of Cologne on foot while our friends work.

Tomorrow morning we head to Berlin. All is well.

More soon (and pictures, too).

-WG

May 04, 2008

Kneeling_banner_5

1474564498_99db123e5d_o

How about a nice, scruffy Minnesota boy this Sunday?

~WG

May 02, 2008

And we're off!

Well, after months of waiting and planning, we're Germany-bound today!  This afternoon we fly from Minneapolis to Newark (ah, to be in New Jersey again, if only briefly), and on Saturday morning we land in Cologne.

Cologne_postcard_061008

We'll spend three days there with our friends Nils and Peter, see the sights, drink lots of Kölsch, and attend a performance of the Cologne Philharmonic. Sunday we're having lunch in Belgium!  Too cool.

On Tuesday morning we'll hop on an ICE train to Berlin where we'll spend six days.  Wednesday night we'll see Ute Lemper in concert, and beyond that, it's anyone's guess. 
I haven't been to Berlin since 1993, and I know it will barely be recognizable.  I can't wait to start exploring the sites with Darren.

Reichstag_01_gross

I'll have my laptop along, and our Berlin hotel has wi-fi, so expect some travel reports and pictures from me while I'm over there.  I may not be able to post every day, but I'll see that you're not neglected...

More from the other side of the pond,

~WG

PS. Watch for yarn boy's two-part blog post next week. He's so good you won't even miss me! And there will be one more guest blogger, another fellow of enormous style, wit, and substance...

May 01, 2008

Making our lists and checking them twice

NoteWell, we're entering the home stretch before the big trip to Germany. Last night we started the actual packing.

No matter how carefully I choose what clothes to bring, I can guarantee that I'll end up with at least three shirts that I'll never wear.  I can live with that, though. A boy likes to have choices, even on the road.

I suppose there's some slim chance that I might buy come clothes in Berlin, but given the state of the dollar, I doubt we'll come home with bags from Prada or Joop.

Ugh, the dollar.  Yesterday I bought a mere €200 at the bank, and I nearly cried when I saw the bite even that meager amount of starter-cash took out of our bank account.  Yowza.

I vowed as I left the bank that I won't think about the exchange rate again for the duration of the trip. No point in worrying about it--we're going to eat, drink and be merry, and it's going to cost us a small fortune. 

There will be plenty of time to tally up our expenses when we're back in the USA, selling plasma to pay our May electricity bill.

~WG

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