Today is the Day

Let's give it up for Deutschland, celebrating 20 years of unity today.   What an amazing country. And how fitting that tonight the first domino of the replica wall created by German youth and built in the wall's original path was knocked down by Lech Walesa, leader of the Polish solidarity movement.  

And now: off to Poland.  We dance on Friday in Lublin.  

It works....

...the new iPod makes videos!  

Tested it out on the road and back home in Kassel.  Treasure hunting included: spotting the new Very Best album at a Hamburg record store (art direction by KR).... a glimpse of my favorite bunker (Berghain flashbacks)...a sneak preview of the set for the new piece.... Sho tickling the ivories... and a moment out of my lunchtime stroll.  Schatz all over the place.

Hamburg in twenty-five hours or less...

Lily and I spent our 11th wedding anniversary apart, with me in Hartford, CT and Lily around Kassel. Now that I'm back, and we had a little window without work, we took a quick jaunt up to Hamburg. 

We landed around noon, dropped our bags and headed out to their most blazing flea market...

I didn't come up on anything, but lily scored BIG-TIME. A couple vintage dresses, a floppy hat, and this...

Halloween? more like... 

The hunt for Red October... Cold War-era James Bond girl status like crazy...

Definitely communists...

After a nap, we took a twilight stroll above the Elbe... 

startling to the sight of a few ghosts out trick-or-treating...

Eventually making our way to Das Weiße Haus to get our food game on... (chef pron to follow).

 

There were like nine things going on at once here...

Lily tried to muscle me out of my second course... She kept telling me that I didn't like beets... I almost had to growl...

I had no trouble with the foamy herb-stuffed halibut...

 

Lily went for the Osso Bucco... wow. it was like a meat spaceship landing on Planet Whitebean.

Back at the hotel, I read their restaurant's menu and chuckled quietly to myself...

Sunday morning, we woke late, thought about going for a run around the lake, decided instead to walk, and to make a stop at Literaturhaus for a little coffee (or, if you're lily, a post-breakfast glass of Rosé) and a view of their gorgeous staircase. 

Good to get away for a minute and spoil ourselves... 

use your _____, hamburg edition

Premiere: S. Pacific

...for more pix of the production, click the theater link on the right.

...and for more pix like these....well, you'll have to pay the "Damen Ballet" a visit.

In the meantime, why not check out these dancing soldiers?

Sneak Preview

Premiere tonight...

where WW2 soldiers meet nurses...

and dancing girls...

on an island...

far far away. 

Seven for Eleven

I've been on the road for seven of the last eleven weeks. In that time, I've seen nine U.S. states, slept in at least a dozen places (not including upright in planes, trains and automobiles), visited friends and family, DJ'd a wedding, run a marathon, drunk a bottle of saki with Onikaaru, lost (and found) my passport, seen sunrise through the St. Louis Arch, spent my 11th wedding anniversary in Connecticut (?), witnessed the ritual of a father giving his son a haircut (video forthcoming), come out of the subway and experienced the disorientation of New York City (finally!), longed for home, called home, acknowledged where home is, had that slip through my fingers, and reset my sights for the coming winter.

It's good to be back. I plan to keep my feet on the ground for a little bit, save a few weekend jaunts to Düsseldorf, Berlin, and the weekly Wednesday teaching trip to Göttingen. Cold rolling in. Time to unpack all of it. See how it looks in Kassel's low-wattage winter light.