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[03 Jul 2005|12:05pm] |
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John Frusciante-A Name |
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Well! Been a while since the last update, i will grant everybody that. This second session has been very chaotic, however. Last session we had thirteen students and about 6 or seven adults sharing this incredibly small center. This time it's 23 students and about 10 adults. At first, I thought for sure that it was going to be somthing I had a bit of trouble dealing with, but at this point I am loving life with these people. Although the vast majority are a little weird and not really my type of people, I have been able to carve out a nice little niche for myself and Brent, and luckily my friend Justus is here as well, so we have more than enough to keep ourselves busy. My classes look a lot better as well. The first is Holocaust Theology, taught by Dr. Cameron, and since I am already a bit of an expert on the subject, it should be something I enjoy...I hope, anyway. The second of my classes is taught by Dr. Moore, the dean of CAS at UP, so even though it's just a genetics course, something I know nothing about, it should at the very least be a great opportunity to suck up to the dean, something that I will NEVER miss an opportunity to do.
So we did take a few excursions over the last couple of days. On friday, we went back to the Obersalzburg documentation center in Berchesgaden, somewhere that I have already gone (second historical entry is from that trip,) and while not much new presented itself, I was able to review the areas that I did not exhaust myself with the last time I was there. So after that, we went to...you'll never guess...ANOTHER SALT MINE! YES!!!!!! This time it was the Hallstatt salt mine, which was affilliated with the "celtic" museum that we saw last session. This mine tour was very similar to the last one, but with a few notable differences. for example, there was no laser light show, but rather a series of extremely cheesy movies showing the relationship between this old prince/archbishop of Salzburg (who was a real asshole) and his monk companion, Jakob. What these had to do with salt mining was a little unclear, but I'm sure there was some sort of connection somewhere. More than anything else, it seemed like an attempt to introduce a bit of local history. Also, there was a boat ride in an underground lake on this tour, which was pretty cool, I have to say. However, it was just a salt mine in every sense of that statement.
However, yesterday we saw something that was damn interesting and had nothing to do with salt, which on this trip is always a plus. We drove out to the Chiemsee, one of the bigger lakes in Germany, and took a ferry out to King Ludwig II ("King Ludwig the Mad")'s last castle, Herrenchiemsee. This castle is an exact copy of Versailles, except incomplete. See, king Ludwig was very obsessed with the idea of an absolute monarch (unfortunately, he lived about 200 years too late for that) and he saw King Louis XIV of France as about the ideal for an absolute monarch, so he dedicated this entire palace to him. There is not a single picture of Ludwig (which, by the way, means "Louis" in German) in the castle, but the are about 100 of Louis XIV, and about half as many of Louis XV. In fact, there is even a cuckoo clock in which not a bird, but a tiny Louis XIV pops out on the hour. My theory is very simple: since it is well documented that Ludwig was a self-loathing gay man, it seems logical to think that the obsession with Louis (who was also gay) may have had more to do with self-identification and love than with politics. I would imagine that surrounded by images of this man whom he so admired, and whom he saw as the ultimate realization of himself as a monarch and as a person, Ludwig could be at peace. Unfortunately, Ludwig's penchant for building extravagant castles bankrupted the national treasury of Bavaria, and he was drowned by his advisors before it was completed. But what an amazingly beautiful place, and what an interesting ruler. Very, very interesting, to say the least. Well, a new week is beginning, complete with lots of homework, but I will keep everyone up to date on what is happening here as much as I can. Hope this finds you well!
Kevin
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[28 Jun 2005|05:06pm] |
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Elliott Smith- LA |
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well. my friends, my friends, I have returned from an amazing place, and that place is amsterdam, holland.
i cannot even begin to reallyu describe amsterdam, so let's start with the actual physical appearance of the city. so imagine if you will, a thousand little canals, on which all the main streets are built; much like in venice, this is a water-based city, so rather than taking taxis, one takes gondolas. at the same time, there is a large section of the city which is completely landlocked, as the canals stop about halfway from downtown to the edges of the city. downtown is capped off by an enormous dam (the amster-dam. seriously) which prevents the city from flooding itself, as like most of the NETHERlands it is built below sea level. the buildings are something truly interesting, as well as extremely european. there are no actual, physical seperations between invididual properties: that is to say, each block contains only one giant building, three stories tall, which is broken up into a number of very skinny little properties. like many places in europe, when amsterdam started to blow up they decided to build vertically rather than horizontally. the houses are painted all sorts of bright colors, much like their inhabitants.
which brings me to the people and culture of the place. i was shocked by how diverse amsterdam is. i'm not sure of the statistics, but I can say with great confidence that at the very most, half of the people I saw were white. there are a million turks, arabs, and blacks in this city, and everyone just getting along swimmingly! how unlike america! naturally, there are OTHER parts of amsterdam that are not like america, and i have to say that the legalized prostitution (although nothing I saw firsthand) has led to a dramatic decrease in homelessness, assualt, rape, and occurance of STDs. In fact, Holland has one of the lowest rates of HIV prevelence in the world. i also have to say that the coffeehouse system for legalized marijuana was also extremely clean, safe and effective. (did I find this out firsthand? well, when in Rome...) i noticed that the police in amsterdam seemed to be the only people who were bored. another thing that I found to be just amazing was the very few people drove cars, and yet everybody, young, old, man, woman, pregnant, etc...rode bicycles. awesome. i just cant say enough how amazingly great this city is, and what an amazing contradiction it serves as to american values. i would also say that it is a great example for any nation wnating to liberalize itself. holland has proven that it can work.
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[23 Jun 2005|06:26pm] |
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Beck-Summer Girl |
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Well, everybody, I'm off to Amsterdam for five days or so. It should be quite an experience, and I will be sure to tell you all about it. When I get back, the second session of my summer abroad begins, and I will surely have many more adventures (and other more boring experiences) to relate. Until the 28th, know that I will be thinking of you all and that I love you tons!
Kevin
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[20 Jun 2005|02:17pm] |
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"Southern Belle" by Elliott Smith |
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hey all-
So this is a note which has not much to do with Austria and really only applies to regular readers of "enfeugokg," if there are any. Enfuegokg is dead, tot, muerto, mortis, d-u-n done. So, basically, this will become my permanent journal as soon as I get back from Austria. I hope everyone can deal with that, as I have already made the adjustments and switched my friends around and all that nonsense. So yeah, that's about it, just want to make sure people know what the hell is going on!
Peace!
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[16 Jun 2005|02:14pm] |
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Gipsy Kings- Aven Aven |
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Hello again from Austria.
So. Yesterday was something else, I have to say. As I may have mentioned, we went to Mathausen concentration camp, site of the deaths of 87000 Jews and 3 million people total over four years, most of whom were Russian prisoners of war. I am not even sure how one goes about describing a place like this without using the word minimalistic many, many times. Imagine, I suppose, a half-mile stretch of gravel, lined on both sides with one-story sea-foam green barracks, with the four corner buildings being large stone structures, two of which were crematoriums, one a wash-house and another the officers' headquarters. There are no trees, no grass, no natural beauty of any kind, only gravel and bleak-looking buildings. The barracks, inside, were again very minimalistic. Each of them contained two rooms, each with about twenty double-bunkbeds lining the side walls, one bathroom in the middle, and no windows. The beds were extremely small, and we found out that each of them was to be occupied by two people. The Russians had it even worse. They were foced to sleep three to a bed, and were without blankets, something even the Jews were given. The word, I believe, is bleak. This place was designed to be as bare and bleak as possible, so as to crush the hope of the prisoners. I myself, as I walked through the camp, began to realize that I would probably go insane living there even if I had every amenity i asked for. And these people had nothing. They only ate every three days! If they died, they would usually sit there for a number of days as well, until the guards finally noticed and took them to the crematorium. Of course, being taken there dead would probably be considered a priviledge, as most of those cremated were gassed in the showers first. The wash-house was absolutely horrifying. The showers, if one can even call them that, were essentially the same as emergency sprinklers in office buildings, very strong spigots that shot ice-cold water on people in bursts and then left them shivering in the unheated building. However, one could see that running alongside the water lines were another set of pipes, through which cyanide gas would emit. Most prisoners died in this way, only getting the briefest smell of bitter almonds before they suffocated and were then brought to the crematoriums. These buildings were by far the largest, probably about three stories of stone, with enormous chimneys emitting from the top. Inside, they contained massive stoves, in which people were shoved like so much cordwood and burned, the energy produced being used to heat and power the officers' quarters. I remember thinking how amazingly awful that was, that they would work these people until they collapsed and died, and then burn their corpses to heat their home. It was as if they desired to get every single ounce of use and energy from them before they destroyed them. There was a room in both of the crematoriums called the "lonely room," in which prisoners would have to kneel in a sitting-standing position for days at a time, as it was much too narrow to sit but the ceiling was also too low to stand. Eventually, the guards would come in, and instead of letting the prisoners out, simply shoot them. There were still bloodstains on the walls and floors of these rooms.
There was also something very unique to this camp which rather disgusted me. When one leaves the camp to the southwest, one comes to the Todesteige (the "Stairs of Death") which is a mile-long uphill stone stairway leading down into the rock quarry which was the site of much of the pysical labor at the camp. The quarry was amazingly beautiful, as in the last sixty years plants have begun to regrow down there, and a pond had formed in the very middle of the quarry. By far one of the most picturesque areas that I have seen since I have been here, but just terrible when one considers the history. The prisoners were forced to carry heavy stoned up the stairs to the camp, and many times people would fall (as these people were utterly starving, nearly skeletal, and without shoes, trying to carry heavy stones up this treacherous and steep stairway) and take out many prisoners with them. Sometimes a hundred people would die in this way at a time. I tell you, walking up these stairs I was extremely winded and my feet hurt like hell, and I was in good shape, well fed, and with shoes. I simply cannot imagine what it must have been like for these people. i simply cannot imagine anything that must have gone on at this horrible place. I cannot imagine how the guards in all the pictures I saw could be wearing huge grins while there were people starving and working themselves to death all around the,. I just cannot imagine.
Outside the camp today there are two huge graveyards; one Jewish and one Christian. At this camp, the Christian graveyard was overflowing because of all the Russians, and it gave me pause. Everyone speaks of the Holocaust being a Jewish experience, but there were many times as many Christians killed at this camp as there were Jews. Also outside the camp there were erected a number of monuments, one paid for by each of the countries in Europe who lost people to the Holocaust...England, France, Italy, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Luxembourg, Hungary, Slovenia, Moldova, Russia, and many, many more countries who I cannot at the moment remember.
Just a horrible place. Horrible, horrible, horrible. I spent the two-hour bus ride back to the center just staring out the window, thinking of everything and nothing all at once, but overall just shocked that human beings could do such things to other human beings. It is something utterly beyond my comprehension. And what really pissed me off were the many groups of high school kids there to visit it, all of whom were being extremely disrespectful, laughing, and talking loudly to each other, totally unaware of the gravity fo what they were seeing. To them, their own stupid little social circle was way too important to take a two-hour break from and pay respect to the millions who died. Especially the German and Austrian groups. I wanted to grab their teachers and scream, "My culture did not do this! Yours did! You should tell these kids to have some goddamn respect!"
Anyway. Pissed me off.
Well, I hope everyone is well.
Auf Wiedersehen for now!
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[14 Jun 2005|11:15pm] |
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Elliott Smith-Drive All Over Town |
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Today, though. Today was absolutely ludicrous. I woke up pretty damn excited, because we were going to take the bus to Hallein to go see this famous Celtic museum, and so of course I wanted to see all this cool stuff about my ancestors and whatnot. But surprise, surprise, they tricked us. They got us pretty good. There was almost nothing to speak of in this museum that pertained to the Celts, but it was actually a huge tribute to...............Salt mining! That's right, if we hand't had enough salt mining when we went to wherever the hell it was and went on the tour with Gert and the Keller Ratten, we were straight hit over the head and bludgeoned with it this time. We went in and met our tour guide, who spoke almost no english (not a problem for me, but I felt sorry for people) and whose hair rather reminded me of Bart Simpson, and who by the way is a woman....and we went in. It started out pretty promising, as we saw a number of Celtic graves and a really bitching chariot, which had these two fake Celtic guys perched on top, one driving and the other standing on the backs of the two lead horses, making his war face and brandishing a spear. It was interesting because this guy's hair was stcuk straight up in the air about 2 feet and was bright white. I guess what they did is they would take this chalk shit and stick their hair up to look fearsome, and I guess it worked because the Romans were just freaked out by these guys. Other than that stuff, though, no Celts. All salt mining, from a 3-d diagram of the caves to three entire rooms of paintings detaling the way in which the salt was mined, etc, all stuff which Gert, in much better english, had already told us. And this place didn't even have any slides. LAME. So yeah, not that great. And not at all Celtic! I was very dissapointed, but I assume this concentration camp will be something very authentic and will (hopefully) have nothing to do with stupid salt mining!
Until then, auf weidersehen!
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[10 Jun 2005|08:06pm] |
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Beck-Guero |
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Hey everyone. I hope this entry finds you all well and that everything is fine back home, whether that ber Portland, Seattle or wherever the hell ever. I am in a state of utter mental and physical exhaustion. Without exaggeration, I may have walked seven miles today, but it was absolutely, completely worth it, one hundred percent. I was supposed to go visit Rothenburg ob der Tauber, a very small, very quaint medieval town with a very twisted crime and torture museum, and with very red walls everywhere you go (as "rot" means red in German.) However, Brent, Dr. McRee and I decided that driving for four hours was simply not worth it, so we decided to visit the small Austrian town of Hallein instead. This town is the home to two particularly interesting sights: first, there is a very large baroque-style castle on the outskirts of town which used to serve as the official boundary between Austria and the state of Salzburg, which was naturalized into Austria in 1816. This castle was at the very top of a hill about two miles high, so it took us a good 30 minutes to get to the top, where we were rewarded with a view that was by far the best view I have seen since I have come to Salzburg (well, until in the day...more on that later.) The mountains here are absolutely enormous, to the point where they dwarf anything out in North Bend and even everything I saw when I was in Switzerland. We are truly in Alpine country, to the point that our drive involved driving under about six huge mountains, tunnels which took a full 10 minutes to traverse. Very unique terrain in a very unique place. What was really unique about this particular castle is that it is now the center of the national ministry of Falconry (seriously, what the hell?) and that every two hours there is a birds of prey show, which was highly entertaining. On top of the various kinds of falcons, these people had a giant American blad eagle, which they had trianed to swoop down right on top of people without actually hitting them, although it came really, really close to the ubiquitous group of Japanese people, who were wandering around laughing, completely oblivious to the fact that a giant, deadly bird was right next to them screeching like a siren. Also, the castle contained many torture implements, so we got our torture fix for the day, so we really couldn't complain (the highlight was a chastity belt...my god, how those ever caught on I will never know.) Very fun castle, and a very beautiful view.
But absolutely nothing compared to what we saw next. This time, we were hiking up a long, long path (at least 4 miles) to a waterfall which reminded me very strongly of Snoqualmie Falls, except much bigger, and through a very narrow canyon that was easily the most beautiful thing I have seen in years. Unfortunately, I ran out of film after getting only about 10 pictures on the hike, so I may just ahve to do it again. God, it was worth it, though. This thing was easilt 300 feet tall, at least (I have no idea, really,) but the highlight was not the falls, but the journey to get there. Not onyl was it just amazing, the pathway we walked on was an old wooden walkway built in the late 1700s, which was rickety, scary, and utterly AWESOME. So much fun. Finally, finally, after walking all the way back down the slippery, rickety, long and mostly downhill walkways, we came back to Salzburg, where it is now 8:26 pm, and I am going to SLEEP. I hope everyone is well.
Auf Wiedersehen!
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[02 Jun 2005|12:01pm] |
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Elliott Smith- Coming Up Roses |
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Hello again from Austria!
So yesterday was fairly interesting. I went with my group to Munich at about 8:30 am, and we had to travel on the big, famous Autobahn, of course. I have to say, although we were really not going too fast, there were some cars in the left lane that were absolutely flying! I'm not sure about km/h to mph conversion, but my guess would be that these people were going at least 110 or so in their nice Mercedes and Porsches and whatnot. Apparently it is much cheaper to buy a Porsche here than a Honda (one more reason to live in Germany, I guess.) So we finally got to Munich at about 11, and the first place we went was the Deutsches Museum, sort of the German equivalent of the Smithsonian. Unfortunately, it was pretty lame. The exhibits were cool enough, especially the stuff on astronomy and the ships and planes they had, but most of the other stuff was like very basic science, engineering and electronics, so not really that interesting. The astronomy stuff was cool, though. If you think about it, the makeup of a galaxy is almost identical to the makeup of a cell in the human body, with the nucleus serving as the primary star and the electrons serving as planets orbiting the star. In fact, other than scale, there is NO DIFFERENCE in the makeup of these things. So. Theoretically, we could be living on an electron, in a cell, of some huge creature of some kind. OR (maybe AND.) We could contain in our bodies veritable universes. Really, it seems like BOTH could be true, and that the material world keeps simply mulitplying itself, getting larger and larger but keeping the same makeup. Crazy stuff. Makes me realize how very unimportant all the bullshit we worry about truly is. So we left there (thankfully) and went up into the older part of Munich to visit the Hofbrauhaus. Now, if you don't know about this, it is a huge beer hall, hundreds of years old, which serves beers (the smallest of which is a liter) and sausages and stuff like that. It's funny because there is an oompah band and the typical Beer-Madel type of women who carry around a dozen of these liters at a time, just dropping them off in front of people. Also interesting is that there is a table in the back, right by the stage, at which it is forbidden to sit, because that was the table that Hitler and his friends would occupy when they came there (which was quite often.) In fact, many of Hitler's earliest speeches, in which he portrayed himself as a man of the people, were delivered standing on top of that table, shouting at the full Hofbrauhaus. So this place certainly had its hand in the dawn of the Nazi era. The table is covered with grafitti, with "Fuck Hitler" being by far the most common thing written thereon. Very interesting to see this up close, and rather sobering. It seems weird that a country has to deal with these very tangible reminders of their past on a daily basis (something Americans better get used to in about 40 years.) So that was fun. I myself only had a liter of beer, but there were a good 6 or 7 people, including Drs. McRee and Krause, who had at least two, and sometimes three. My friend Dave Balthasar was about the drunkest person in the history of the world on the bus ride home, and we had to keep stopping every half-hour or so so everybody could go sprinting towards the restrooms (or bushes) and pee! And then, somehow, when we got back we went out to the Shakespeare, our little local bar, and these kids managed to rally hard. Crazy, crazy people. I just don't know how they get that kind of endurance. Actually, my nickname among the group has become "Grandpa Kevin" because, for some reason, I can't go out and get trashed EVERY NIGHT. And people wonder why I say the things I do about UP kids.
So other than that, not much going on. I won't actually be going to Lucerne this weekend, as I need to save money for the big trip Brent and I are taking to Belgium and the Netherlands in between the two sessions. I will update again just as soon as anything interesting happens.
Until then, Auf Wiedersehen!
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[29 May 2005|09:59pm] |
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Elliott Smith-The White Lady Loves You More |
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Hello again from Austria!
This weekend was not terribly exciting, as I had a rather large speech to write and quite a bit of homework to do, but a few friends of mine traveled to Vienna, and they told a me a few stories which I feel are worth realting. First of all, their hostel was very small. This is something that we should remember for later in the story. They arrived in town Friday afternoon, and were promised two rooms: one for four people and one for two. After attending a symphonny and a museum on Saturday, they went out in search (this truly is the typical quest in Europe) of a bar. First of all, I found it very funny that the lady in charge of the hostel was so nice that she had her kids run around on razor scooters (which, for some inexplicable reason, are HUGE over here,) looking for a good bar. When they finally found "a good one," my friends went on over, only to find the bar populated by only seven people, all of whom gave them the death look when they walked in. Now then, they were rather tired, so they attempted to order Red Bull and vodkas, which was quite a task, despite the fact that one of them was a German speaker. These people were either just screwing with them, or they had absolutely no idea that Red Bull (which was invented in Austria!) and vodka could go together. After a full 30 minutes of eloquent deliberation (my friends: RED BULL! VODKA! HALF AND HALF! ONE GLASS!" barmaid: "what?",) the barmaid sent over the "English barkeeper," who knew barely any English, but more than enough to get in a major shit-talking battle with the men of the group. First, he started saying really sarcastically that when they wanted something, they should order it from him, and that he would get them their drinks *sarcastically* how THEY wanted them. So my friends, trying to be agreeable, said, "No, no big deal, we can have any drink, what do you recommend?" to which he replied, "No, NO, how YOU want it." Then he asked them if perhaps the music playing was unsatisfactory, and should he change it to something THEY wanted. Now, at this point my friend Conor, being of Irish descent, was about to start fighting, but they continued to be agreeable and said that it was fine, at which point this guy replied "I wasn't talking to you; I was talking to the GIRLS."
So now they are getting kind of mad, but they keep being agreeable and try to buy this guy a drink, which he never seems to go for, and as they are leaving, Conor says, "So you didn't want that drink, huh?" to which this guy replies, quite angrily, "Where is my beer? Hm? Where is my beer?"
So they left, and good thing, because they found a bar that scores a good 17 out of 10 on the ridiculousness scale. This place was enormous, with picnic tables stretching a good quarter-mile down the river and bars stationed every eighth-mile or so. There were about 2000-3000 people at this place, all of them between the ages of 15-25 and most of whom were decked out in Gothic attire. Now then, at this place they really got close to an altercation. First of all, my roommate Brent had a bit too much to drink, and as he attempted to stand up and make his way towards the river to deposit the contents of his stomach, he barfed all over a stairway. As if that wasn't bad enough, right as he sits down (saying: "I feel soooo much better.") somebody spills a beer from the upper level, right onto Brent's head. Now then, at this point, I would be about ready to kill somebody, but Brent was agreeable, as always, and they all decided to go back, as the place was creeping them out. So then, when they get back to the hostel at about 3 am, they find out that one of their rooms were given away, and Brent (by far the drunkest, most miserable person there) was forced to sleep in a small 3x4 cubby located above the kitchen, which because of the stove was very hot and also very loud, as there were tons of drunk people moving around below him. Also, Dave was sick and Laura was crying. So I have to say that I am glad I missed that trip, although it sounded interesting.
This Wednesday we go to Munich, and next weekend I will be traveling to Lucern, Switzerland, which I love, so I will be sure to let everyone know all about it.
Until then, auf wiedersehen!
Kevin
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[28 May 2005|02:50pm] |
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Elliott Smith-Condor Ave. |
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So this is my review of Star Wars III, which I have seen twice this week and has been about the most active activity in which I have engaged lately. Let me begin by saying that Haydn Christiansen, the actor who played Anakin in II and III, and who before II was described as the type of actor "who would have trouble getting the lead in his high school play," did a hell of a job...sort of. He pulled off the mopey, dark, evil, hopeless Anakin much better than the whiny, weenerish, baby little in love teenage angsty Anakin of the second movie. Of course, it could be that his performance in the second movie was so tremendously, monumentally bad that I was blinded to any sort of strong sucking in III. It was pretty good, though. The two major gripes I have about the movie are very minor ones: first of all, I should say that I have read all 9 original Star Wars BOOKS (and I don't mean the stupid marketing tie-off books that have come out recently. In fact, any Star Wars book published after 1969 and written by anyone OTHER than George Lucas does not count and is just money-making BS.) Now then, the thing that bothered me the most about the first two movies is that they did not stay very true to the books, because that would have involved making two extremely long (at LEAST 4 hours) movies with all sorts of background information about the formation of the Jedi order and the discovery in the first place of the Force, which would have been EXTREMELY COOL, but most simple-minded people would not have been interested. Trust me, I know as well as anyone that books intended as philosophy often end up as action movies (e.g. Fight Club, Braveheart, Starship Troopers [which is the ULTIMATE EXAMPLE of this], etc.) and are still reasonably entertaining. However, part II of Star Wars in particular is a very long (750 pages) and involved work of philosophy which investigates the meanings of the Force and the historical stories behind many of the Jedi, including Mace Windu (who is a WAAAAY bigger badass than anyone would ever know from the films,) Master Voss (hardly ever mentioned) and Yoda, as well as Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon, who is one of the most important figures in the Star Wars universe in all 9 books (something else one would never know from the films.) There are a few questionable casting choices, in this vein, especially Samuel L. Jackson as Mace. He gives the impression throughout the films that he simply wanted to be involved and needed to make another payment on his private jet or something. The second movie I consider a total waste of electricity, which is a serious shame, because it is easily one of the three best of the nine books (the others being IX and VI.) Now then, on that note, III stayed amazingly true to the book, with only two minor details changed. See, in the book Obi-Wan does not immediately kill General Grevious, but only captures him and brings him back to Coruscant, at which point he escapes and goes on a fair-sized rampage, killing many, many people (including slicing Jar-Jar Binks into four pieces, something that was DEFINITELY missing) before he is put down by Obi-Wan in the manner shown by the film. However, this is a minor detail, and I think Lucas just wanted to cut to the chase. So other than Grevious and the omission of the wonderfully satisfying detah of Jar-Jar, the movie was pretty accurate (I never could figure out Lucas' choice of taking a fairly dignified character like Jar-Jar and turning him into a pseudo-Jamaican comic relief.) On that note, it seems, thank God, that Lucas was able to let go of this "appealing to kids" marketing decision that he made for the first two films. WHAT A BAD IDEA THAT WAS. These books were intended for adults, not kids. I always considered it a shame that little kids were able, through their mere profitability potential, to ruin two great books and make abortions of movies out of them. Also, the little boy thast played Anakin in the first film was so cute you just wanted him to die, and it was very hard knowing that he would not. Same thing with Haydn in the second film. As far as casting went, the choices of Haydn and Natalie Portman, neither of whom are amazing actors, made much more sense in the third film, when one realizes how alike Haydn and Mark Hamill look, and how much Natalie looks like Carrie Fisher. That made sense. Other than that, I though Liam Neeson and Ewan McGragor totally nailed their parts and were perfect casting choices, as was Christopher Lee for Count Dooku, who was written as an old, crusty, stiff weiner who was never quite good enough to become a Sith Lord ("Darth Tyrannus" nonsense aside.) Again, though, the choice of Samuel L. as Mace Windu is easily the worst choice in all six Star Wars movies, as first of all Mace is not black (small thing, but still) and second of all, he just looked like he wanted to pull out a .45 the whole time and "bust a cap in the ass" of the Emperor. Also, the purple lightsaber thing, and the colors of the lightsabers in general, drove me crazy. See, in the books, there are two colors: blue and red. Blue for light side, red for dark side. The one notable exception is Yoda, who has a custom-made green lightsaber due to his training waaaay long before anyone else and his being the greatest Jedi alive. The reason Luke has a green saber in "Jedi" is that it is one of Yoda's. However, recently, due to video games and other marketing bastardizations of Star Wars, there have been purple, orange and yellow sabers appearing in various places, although thankfully only Mace's purple atrocity in these films, which had no place and really bothered me. What, two colors aren't enough? Jedis, who care nothing for individuality, feel compelled to express themselves now? Again, a small thing, but that's my point. It's a small thing. Why not do it right?
Again, though, all the scenes I was looking forward to were done extremely well (Yoda fighting the Emperor in the Senate, Anakin vs. Obi-Wan, General Grevious, the death fo Mace, and the rebuilding of Vader.) This was by far the best of the three new movies, and I still hold out hope for the last three (VII, VIII, and IX) being awesome, because the books were awesome. Anyone who thinks Luke is a wuss will be proven wrong if those films come out as Luke is seriously and quite literally the biggest badass in the universe at that point (at least until the twins roll around.) I won't ruin it, but suffice to say if they do it right the final battle scene will be unlike anything in any movie ever, and I seriously wonder if we even have the technology to pull it off now. So, in conclusion, it was very entertaining, and I went in ready to hate it, and didn't, which for me is a big deal. However, I strongly recommend the books (although they are EXTREMELY RARE and EXTREMELY VALUABLE [expensive]) to anyone who wants a complete understanding of the Star Wars universe. They have the same titles as the movies, and are written by Lucas. I was only able to read them because I know someone who has them, but I have seen A New Hope and Revenge of the Sith (although none of the others) at Powell's before. They rock, though. It's much easier to respect many of the characters (esp. Mace, Jar-Jar, and Anakin,) and these books are decidedly NOT FOR KIDS, which was the biggest problem with I and II.
So yeah. My next update will come after I go the Deutsches Museum in Munich on Wednesday, or maybe before if I'm bored.
Auf Wiedersehen and may the Force be with you.
Kevin
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[25 May 2005|09:18pm] |
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John Frusciante- Leap Your Bar |
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Hello again from Austria! This is my second attempt at a running account of my adventures here in Austria, and I believe this one will be much more successful without my past life confusing it. Even I am afraid to read what was running through my head one, two and even three years ago. So this is the new one. The title makes sense. "Der Fehler" literally means "The Mistake," so there we go. And speaking of going, I should get on with this next update.
Today, my friends and family, was a fairly large-sized day, and a good one as well. I woke up bright and early at 7 am (that's 10 pm your time) and got on a bus to a tour of two cities in Austria, St. Wolfgang and Halstatt. St. Wolfgang is famous for a cathedral in which St. Wolfgang himself, story goes, fought a legion of demons from the town and was killed by them, but he later rose from the dead (at least according to this cathedral.) The church itself was very stone and very old, dating back at least to the medieval period and perhaps even a bit further, as this is one of the oldest bastions of Christianity on Earth. The tour of the chirch was quite enjoyable, and I got a great number of amazing pictures of the Alps, which we were directly in the shadow of and which seemed to stretch all the way to the heavens (we couldn't even see the top of these mountains.) Also, the city lay directly on an enormous and very clear lake, der Wolfgangsee, which reflected the Alps in a very interesting manner. We stayed there for a few hours, and then departed to Halstatt for a tour of the famous salt mines there (salt is a major product of Austria, and the reason for Salzburg's name [salt-burg].) This was by far the most interesting and entertaining part of the day. Halstatt, like St. Wolfgang is a very old city directly under some enormous Alpine mountains and directly on the Wolfgangsee, only on the other side, directly across from St. Wolfgang. This tour was something else, let me tell you. It possessed the same sort of feel as a cheesy ride at Disneyland while still remaining (somewhat) informative. Our tour guid was a guy about my age named Gert, who seemed really sick of repeating every phrase in three different languages. He gave the impression that he had given this tour an innumerable number of times, and that he was just plain sick of it. However, the tour itself was very entertaining, although it was somewhat bizarre. First of all, our fellow tour members were the ubiquitous group of Japanese people and an Austrian biker gang of six called "die Keller Ratten" (the cellar rats) who all had matching leather vest-jackets and very really very funny big fat guys. I wondered if that is what biker gangs do, drive around on their Harleys and go to salt mine tours. I swear that after the tour I saw them sitting at a picnic tabel eating ice cream cones. Of course, I'm sure to make up for it they were going to raise some serious hell later that night (I sure hope so, anyway, or I am very disillusioned.) The first thing we had to do was take a tram up to the very top of a mountain, and it was REALLY high up there, to the point that the air was very much thinner than at the mere 3,000 meters of elevation the town possessed. After that, we were all made to don funny-looking maroon, green or blue jumpsuits, because it was about 30 degrees in the salt mine, and these suits were well insulated. However, like everything else, the jacket was much too small for me, and my arms stuck out comically, while my pants were too short. Suffice to say, most of the pictures taken of people in the group were of me, because everyone just thought is was HILARIOUS. When we finally went into the mine, we walked down a very claustrophobic shaft before we came to the first of two "slides" used traditionally by the miners. What these things were, basically, was a large wooden banister, wide enough for a human ass, that we would lean back and slide down on. It really was quite fun, by far the highlights of the tour. After the first slide, we watched a series of extremely corny films about the process of salt depositing, in which, basically, the ocean rises and then drops again, but leaves the salt. All very common sense, but the Japanese group appeared enthralled by this, while the Kellar Ratten constantly threw out smart-ass comments in German which I thanked God I could understand, and which caused Gert to laugh uncontrollably on two occassions and stop the tour, and then be forced to tell everyone that it would not be appropriate to explain the joke to the English-speakers. After the set of silly films (which had about the least accurate English subtitles I have ever seen, total paraphrases full of typos and grammatical errors,) we went down another slide, this one about three times the length of the first. This one was interesting because it had a camera and radar gun mounted, so you could see how fast you flew down the thing. I felt like I was going about a million miles per hour, but it turned out I was crawling at 22.3 kilos per hour, which was the second-slowest in the entire group. A few of our guys kamikazed down the thing, some reaching speeds of around 35 kph, but Gert blew everyone away when he straight flew down that thing at a scorchin 41.3 kph. He then told us that his record, and as far as he knew, THE record, was 44.4, set by him and a buddy going down together, but he then said that it left them laid out on a wall and that his left foot still hurt to this day. I have to say, if he went twice as fast as me, that is REALLY FAST, becuase I was scared as hell halfway down the thing. Boy, it was fun, though. After that, the tour degenerated into a weird Disney ride. First, there was a very bizarre laser show detailing the theory of prehistoric and bronze age mining, but which made no damn sense at all. There were some cubes, and a caveman guy, who turned sideways and then got covered by cubes, then everything went red (Satan? Fire? I have no idea) and it was over, leaving a sea of dumbfounded faces. After that, this theory continued to assert itself, in the form of an animatronic miner named Zep, mysterious, Atlantean-sounding music and a spooky voice that whispered things like "Salt from the rocks," "Salt-salt-salt-salt-salt...." and, strangely "Man to man." At the very end of the tour, we boarded a small train (I know how weird that sounds) and rode it back to the lobby, where we gave back our ridiculous outfits and rode the tram back down the mountain in silence, everybody (including the Japanese and the Kellar Ratten) attempting to figure out exactly what the hell had just happened. It was totally worth it, though. The last thing we did in Halstatt was visit the summer cottage of the former Emperor of the Hapsburg dynasty, Franz Josef. This place was a little creepy, as old Franz Josef was a big hunter, and the house contained a good 3,000 animal trophies, mostly antlers and goat horns but a few oddities, such as a bear head from Russia, an absolutely enormous boar from Hungary, a few eagles from Pakistan and a wolverine from (get this!) Minnesota. Also, for some reason, Franz Josef had killed and stuffed three squirrels; one grey, one red and one black, as well as a number of ducks. Very bizarre. Now, one might think that he was a great hunte, but we found out that his servants would flush out the animals for him, and he would simply shoot them while they ran around confused as heck. Not exactly sporting, I must say. We also learned about his psychotic wife Elizabeth, who disowned all her children (leading three of the six of them [the three boys, big surprise] to suicide) and refused to have any pictures of her taken or portaits painted after her twenty-third birthday because she felt she looked old. Very bizarre lady. Also, she lived to sixty-one (when her grandson, who is still alive, assassinated her) and never once cut her hair. Very interesting couple, no? I thought, though, that the higlight piece of information recieved on the trip was that the only president ever to visit the Hapsburgs was Grant, and that he and Franz Josef spent a full week in a drunken haze. Very nice. A good way to do diplomacy, it would seem, as these countries got along great until WW1. All in all, a very interesting experience, and a real window into the Austrian worldview, which i am now convinced is one of complete insanity. Anyway, that's all for now, but I will certainly keep everyone updated on the rest of my adventures. Please feel free to comment in THIS journal, as it is built specifically for this purpose.
Auf Wiedersehen!
Kevin
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[25 May 2005|09:08pm] |
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Elliott Smith- Christian Brothers |
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Hello again from Austria! I have been very involved lately in my schoolwork, but my goal is to update frequently, and I will attempt to stand by that. My classes are, so far, rather interesting, in particular my Anthropology class. I have never before taken Anthropology, and it seems as if it is one of the more debated areas of study that exist. There exists great controversy over the nature of evolution and the origins of humanity, it seems. Many think that we came out of Africa and evolved slowly, over time acquiring beneficial characteristics and later maintaining them, much in the classic model. However, some people (such as the late Stephen Jay Gould) believed that our evolution is due to the pressures exerted on humanity by sudden and drastic changes in the environment around us. I personally have no idea AT ALL. Interesting, though.
So. The other day I went to Berchesgaden, a small town in southeast Bavaria, and the site of Hitler's summer cottage and headquarters (The Eagle's Nest,) which unfortunately was closed for renovations at the time we were there. I will be sure to return to this location at a future time to check it out. What we did get to see, however, was the most detailied Hitler museum in Germany, which detailed the rise and fall of Hitler as well as the Holocaust. What is interesting is that the building is built right on top of an authentic WW2 bunker, which we also had access to. Amazingly, some of these bunkers were hundreds of miles long and stretched in between various strategic points in Germany, and one can see the motorcycle tracks still from these travels. I simply cannot imagine riding a motorcycle underground for hours and hours. It sounds horrible. But I guess war Is horrible, right?
Now then. Speaking of war, I left this museum very depressed, but not because of the horrors I saw within, which I have long seen before. No the horrifying thing was the large number of rather frightening similarities between pre-WW2 Germany and modern America. Hitler was elected freely because he was able to manipulate the emotions and sense of morality of the German people. Germany was in the worst shape economically that it had ever been in, and by far the wealithiest people in Germany were the Catholic and Jewish communities. It is impossible to deny that the Jews and Catholics engaged in extremely shady business dealings which led, in no small part to this economic disaster. However, their dealings were certainly not the ONLY reason, of which Hitler was able to convince the German people. The real telling fact is that only about twenty people (excluding camp personnel) in Germany knew about the Holocaust. In fact, many of Hitler's top generals even had no idea such a thing was occurring, and killed themselves from guilt, even after being absolved in the Nuremberg trials. The thing that reminds me of America is the way Hitler spoke to the people of Germany, and the hoghly moralistic route he took to gain their support. When Germany initiated WW2, Hitler often spoke of the "liberation" of the invaded countries, much in the way that Bush speaks of "liberating" Iraq. The people of Germany, or at least a slight majority (for that is all it was--a very slight majority,) believed very strongly in this sense of righteousness that their war possessed. They honestly believed that Hitler was an enlightened leader, and that the leaders of countries such as Poland, the Netherlands, Russia and Belgium were tyrants. The really scary thing is that many of these leaders WERE tyrants, many times worse than Saddam Hussein, absolute monsters of men with little regard for anything outside their own luxurious lifestyles and the continuance of their own rule. Of course the moral-minded people of Germany NEEDED the evil men removed, just like Saddam.
The propaganda used by Hitler was a very shallow (and yet like "Mein Kampf," very compelling to the simple-minded,) mix of half-truths, outright lies that nobody would ever bother to check, emotional appeals, and appeals to morality. The people believed that the war was an attempt to rescue these countries from their own immorality (which was rampant!) and that Hitler was a moral man and should therefore be the Fuehrer. That was enough of a reason for these people, much like it was enough for many people last November. The similarities are eerie, I must say. Germany used a front of being "European Police" in order to fulfill its own needs for natural resources and desire for conquest. The scariest thing of all, besides maybe the fact that Hitler was freely elected and yet loathed by just under half the German population as a psychopath, is that this half of the country tended to be the more intellectual half: doctors, lawyers, college professors, many of whom were ALSO rounded up for the Shoah. Now then, I am not saying that I expect Bush to throw people in concentration camps. But. Bush used the same mix of bullshit and morality appeals to get himself re-elected when it looked like he may have been in danger of losing. In America, it is an even smaller portion of the population that sees Bush for the psychopath he really is, and if it wasn't enough in Germany, which, remember, was one of the early examples of Democracy, pre-Hitler, then I could hardly expect it to be enough here. It was only a matter of time in Germany before things got out of control, and all it took was Hitler manipulating the government in ways that granted him near-absolute power, without actually altering the system, much in the way that the Democrats now have little or no influence in the Senate and House. By the time anyone realized what was going on with Hitler, it was early 1945 and far too late. By then the war was practically lost and 8 million Jews (about 11 million people total, including 2 million catholics) were dead, including many intellectuals who simply had the gall to point out the illogic and idiocy of Hitler and the average German.
If we are smart, Germany will serve as a reminder of what our country could become if we don't watch it. Fascism is a kind of bad word, but all it means is a democratic form of government in which a freely elected leader is given absolute power for the duration of his term. In this way, there have been many successful Fascist governments throughout history, including the Franklin Rooselevelt administration, the one isolated example in American history. It was later, becuase of Hitler, that Fascism took on its other, innaccurate meaning of intolerance and racism.
All I'm saying is: Germany started WW2. Who but America has the power or deisre to start WW3? Or have we planted the seeds already through our abusive treatment of other countries which may be a bit more dangerous that we believed?
Just some stuff to think about. God, 1930's Germany is about as interesting as it gets from a political and historical perspective.
So Wednesday I will take another field trip. to the summer mansion of Emporer Franz Josef of the Hapsburg Empire. Should be cool, and I'll be sure to tell all about it. Until then, really think about the many undeniable similarities that exist between these two places, and also about the many misconceptions people have about Germany. Germans were not evil people, in the same way that Americans are not. They were simply ignorant, just like Americans, and were therefore fooled, just like Americans.
Bis Donnerstag.
Kevin
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[25 May 2005|09:07pm] |
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John Frusciante-Time Tonight |
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Hello everyone and welcome to the new format for my adventures in salzburg! i have to say, i find this a tremendous bit easier than the actualy sending of massive, group-oriented emails, which stresses out my email server quite a bit. so this is much easier.
so i am here in salzburg, austria, just southeast of bavaria and munich in germany, almost directly on the german-austrian border, and this place is amazing. anybody who has never been here, i do encourage them to visit, as the natural beauty of this city is impressive. This city is absolutely incredible. It was built a hell of a long time ago, of course, and as a result there are three enormous, uninhabited mountains smack in the middle of the city (all of which I have found to be useful landmarks.) The actual city itself is extremely Baroque, with tons of neo-Grecian columns and architecture like that everywhere. It seems that Salzburg reached its pinnacle as a major Eurpoean city around the time of Mozart and Bach (like the early 1600s or something.) Actually, Mozart was born here, which I guess is somewhat interesting. Because of this, pretty much every little square, highway and neighborhood seems to have something in its name pertaining to Mozart. Then again, I suppose this isn't that unusual, considering the worship of Jimi Hendrix around Seattle. But then again, Mozart was no Hendrix (just kidding)(I think.) Mostly, though, it's really easy to tell in downtown Salzburg how old the city really is. The streets are extremely narrow and lined with a ton of really expensive stores (although I swear to God I saw a Claire's on one of these streets, which I thought was hilarious.) The only piece of shopping I had to do today was to attempt to rent a guitar. I went into the only music store around prepared to spend about 150-250 Euros in order to keep a guitar rented all summer, but I was shocked at the deal I got. The lady in the store was this really cute old German lady whose name was probably Helga or something like that, and it was easy to see that she got a big kick out of my silly American attempts at speaking German to her. She said they didn't rent guitars but that since I was such a nice boy she would make me a deal and "sell" me one for 99 Euros, so of course I took her up on that. I mean, it's just a cheap piece of shit, but it only has to last the summer. The main thing I noticed about Salzburg was the natural beauty, though. It seems like around every corner there's a river, or a mountain, a cathedral, or a French garden or something....just amazing. I took an entire roll of pictures today. In one part of the Red Light District, there's a deep gash in one of the walls. The story behind it is that in WW2, the streets in the RLD were way too narrow for tanks or even cars to pass through, and one overzealous tank commander was at one point so excited to get his men to the safety and "fun" of the RLD that he attempted to drive his tank into the District, where it promptly became stuck. Supposedly they had to wait until the end of the war to remove it, but they never fixed the giant gaping hole in this wall. Interesting stuff. This is just a way cool place, I can't BELIEVE that I get to be here for so long, even though there are certainly things (and people) that I do miss strongly.So tomorrow we're taking a train to this place (the name of which I forget, B----garten, something that starts with B,) where Hitler's winter headquarters ("The Eagle's Nest") is located, which should be interesting, as it is one of the few existing examples of a modern palace. Actually, the relationship of this country to the Nazis and Hitler is absolutely fascinating. It seems that recently there has been sort of dialogue with themselves and with Germany about the meaning of the war and the history that both countries are forced to live with. If you get a chance, see the movie "Downfall," which is a German movie about the end of the war from the German perspective. The actor who played Hitler was good to the point where I totally forgot he was an actor and not old Hitler himself. I will let everyone know all about that in my next entry, naturally. Keep reading, faithful readers, and you may all just learn a thing or two.
Hope all is well wherever you are!
Kevin
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derfehler's journal