A couple of videos to put a smile on your face and make your day. If the screen of the Japanese song doesn’ t show and play in this page, just click on the Japanese characters below.
SOUR / 日々の音色 (Hibi no Neiro) MV from Magico Nakamura on Vimeo.
…and this one also gets a thumbs up! I got both videos from Gizmodo, where it’s alleged that the Olympus video was ripped off from a Japanese artist (no relation to the video above)
It’s a slow Sunday today. I try to keep my weekends free before I plunge into the coming week. I put-together some backlog videos. The built-in mic of my laptop worked better than I expected. I whipped up two videos. One was the baptism of a friend’s child, and another was one of the highlights of my recent trip back to the Philippines. Hit the play button to find out… Comments will be very much appreciated.
This is partially inspired by New York Times One in 8 Million. I’m still waiting for the right time and equipment so I can do interviews and use the voice of my subject instead of mine.
Here’s a clip compilation I made of the Theatertage in Freiburg. I went there almost two weeks ago, still woozy from jetlag and all. I encountered some technical difficulties in putting together therefore I’m posting it just now. I think I’ve figured out how things (not) work so I hope to post more videos in the coming days. Enjoy the clip!
I was looking for something German online to improve what’s left of my German proficiency. I found this animated recreation of the Berlin Wall, and the wall that divided East and West Germany. Everything is in German. If you don’t understand a thing, just enjoy the animation which is by itself worth watching!
I usually stay apolitical with sensitive international affairs. This movement has reached Freiburg and has solicited prominent attention in the past weeks. I have a handful of friends from Iran, who most probably share the sentiment of these people. These people held a peaceful and somber protest in the city center early evening yesterday.
I am now in the Philippines at the moment. Regular programming will resume once I am close to finishing/done with the purpose of my trip here. No, I am not on a holiday. I am conducting interviews for the data-gathering phase of my research.
Once every semester we hold a Fluressen, literally a “hall meal,” in my dormitory. It’s probably the only meal, a dinner, that we altogether share in our floor every six months. We agree on a theme for the meal. In the past we’ve had taste of Arabic and pizza and tarte flambee. With the many meals I’ve cooked for myself in the kitchen that stimulated their olfactory nerves and after some ribbing, I knew my turn soon would come, which was last Wednesday.
We set the date ’spontaneously.’ In German terms, an appointment made within one week is a short notice. We posted a note on our bulletin board asking who would like to partake. Within two days the list was almost full with 15 out of the 16 in my floor signing up. This is probably the most number of people for which I would cook.
As with any gathering with many mouths to feed, the difficulty lies in estimating the amount of ingredients to buy, and the cooking process itself. I have no qualms for cooking myself, which most of the time is good for three persons. Although I end up either eating a lot or storing left overs for my subsequent meals. Four of us went to pick up the groceries at a nearby discount store. I spent quite a few moments pondering if we should buy two aubergines instead of three, or three bottles of wine or just more beer. We stared at the trolley filled with ingredients for what will become our dinner later, and deliberated one last time before paying for them. The day before I’ve made a trip to the Asian shop to buy a few of the ingredients not available in most German supermarkets like tofu, soy sauce, snow peas, and young corn.
When 6.30 p.m. came we had to start the slicing and cutting. I had to orchestrate who will cut what and when, depending on which menu. The preparation and cooking went a bit beyond the 8.00 p.m. dinner time we set. Other than botching the first batch of ‘grilled Aubergine that was remedied later, and forgetting to throw in the cabbage for the chop suey, all other cooking phases went smoothly. I didn’t single-handedly take charge of the kitchen I had an army of three neighbors who signed up to cook. 
Soon my other dorm-mates started to trickle in, and the table was set. I wondered what they were waiting for when the feast of ensalada (a salad consisting of aubergine, tomatoes, onions with a Pinoy dressing made from a mixture of sugarcane vinegar, soy sauce, a dash of sugar and salt), chicken-pork-potato adobo (a type of stew where meat is slowly cooked in a mixture of soy sauce, vinegar, spiced up with pepper corn, laurel leaves, and a lot- and I mean a lot- of crushed garlic), steamed rice and chop suey has been all laid out. Beers and wine have been poured on glasses. What are you waiting for ?, I thought. My friends and I simply attack right into eating once the food is served back in the Philippines. My dorm-mates waited for me to have the first dig into the food, like a ceremonial ribbon-cutting of sorts (or to test if it was laced with some peculiar ingredients). Once I’ve filled my plate, a skirmish of plates went by which were passed on from one person to another to reach those at the far end of the long table. Their Mmmms! after their first and succeeding mouthful of the Filipino food we cooked were enough signs of appreciation
We were stuffed by the end of the meal. But of course, there was still some room for dessert. My next-door neighbor Olga whipped up a batter made of flour, cinnamon, eggs and some water. We dipped quartered bananas on the batter and fried them. We served them in twos topped with Vanilla-Bourbon ice cream. It might not be a Filipino dessert, or maybe it is a European version of the banana split. But it could probably pass for a Filipino food, that is heavily influenced by different cultures, just like ensalada, chop suey, and adobo- just by the way they sound. Philippine cuisine stems from a fusion of flavors brought by trade from its neighboring countries and Western colonizers. With its mixture of tastes, it’s guaranteed every bite is full of surprises. And now it has arrived in this part of the world.
To stimulate creativity (or prolong procrastination), I check out TED videos. It’s a collection of videos of the best presentations in the world. Some of them are entertaining, funny, and even touching. Here’s one of my personal favorites from Hans Rosling. His group has organized gapminder.org to further develop and advocate a new way of presenting and looking at the world.
Elisabeth Rosenthal wrote a story about Vauban, a district in Freiburg, that made it to the front page of the New York Times yesterday. The online version of the article has an accompanying photo slideshow. Wheels and Green, Inc., both blogs of the same paper, have picked up the article- the former deals with cars and transportation while the latter on business and the environment.
My notion of an American suburb is a sprawl or spillover from a highly dense area. It might be worth considering to note the distance between the suburb and core, and their relative density when making urban and geographical comparisons. Take note that Vauban, as a suburban district of Freiburg, is a mere four kilometers from the city center, or roughly 20 minutes by tram of bus. I made a related comment in the Green Inc. blog regarding the same points.
Update: Another blog of the NYT, aptly called Room for Debate, has joined in the discussion.
Thanks to Pedro Rodriguez Vega for the heads up on the article via Facebook.
It’s that time of the year when kegs are rolled out and double as makeshift tables, while uniform orange benches and tables are set out on the street. No, it’s not the May version of Oktoberfest. In fact, it is not about beers. It has something to do with its finer relative. Wines, like beers in Bavaria, deserve a celebration. It blocks off a few days of the calendar and is a source of merriment in some parts of southwest Germany. Kaiserstuhl and the many small towns nestled on hills near the Rhine river are famous for its vineyards. These are the warmer regions of the country where grapes could be grown. One can’t miss the rows of manicured vineyards running down the slopes if you take a drive or a train ride in this part of the region.
Since Freiburg belongs to this region, I didn’t have to go far to attend this annual wine celebration. A tram and a bus ride sent me to the wine suburbia of Sankt Georgen. I just finished my course work and haven’t had any form of celebration yet, although it came two days later. I am not a first-timer to the St. Georgen Weinfest though. I attended and enjoyed last year’s wine fest so I thought it’s worth visiting again. Who wouldn’t have a good time when there’s a hundred and one kinds of wine to choose from. This time around I went with two of my classmates in my class and a handful of the new ones in my master programme.
Winemaking usually vary from one region to another, and from one family to another. Wine fests make one feel privileged to take the first swig of their product. I am no wine connoisseur and my level of expertise could only go as far as distinguishing between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ wine using the same adjectives. If it is good enough, it is an ‘ok’ wine. A wine list could get intimidating but remember wine has two basic types: red and white. When I start to get lost with its many variants, I simply locate what I could call a favorite, the Spaetburgunder red wine.
Wines in these types of festivities are usually poured in 100 milliliter shot glasses that are decorated with the name of the town and the occasion. They usually cost 1.00 to 1.70 Euros. On top of the cost of the wine, you need to pay a Euro for the glass and get your refund once you’re still sober enough and done with your rounds, or simply take it home as a souvenir. If you have extra cash, take home a bottle of your favorite wine which could cost 10 to 12 Euros on the average. There is a general rule that the price of the wine is indicative of its quality. But as with any rule there are exceptions. I got a ‘good’ one for 0.60 Euros. Or maybe it was because it was my third glass, and alcohol started to take its toll, making my taste buds less sensitive to the drink’s nuances.
Intuition would dictate that this is an occasion for grown ups because of the tradition’s alcoholic leanings. The legal drinking age here in Germany is 16. Maybe it is more appropriate to say it is a family occasion. It was surprising to see young couples with a tot in tow. There is no playground or circus around for them to while away the time in the middle of the merry-making crowd. And if I had a kid with me, the only food he or she could probably eat are the waffles or a bite of the Flammkuchen.
The stalls were located pretty much in the same location where I found them last year. They must have been using the same layout even the many years before: the booth selling Haexle was in the same corner turning left to a street that leads to the main drinking area, and the hut that serves as the stage of the orchestra playing pop music (Angel by Robbie Williams, Celebrate by Earth, Wind and Fire just to name a couple) and Volksmusik alike is in the same spot. And of course, there’s the same good ol’ new wine.
This festivity has probably evolved through the years. Signs of the past are meeting the present. When Romans settled here hundreds of years ago, and probably the first vineyards were cultivated around the same time. And when the first batch of wine were aged, they thought of holding communal parties as part of their marketing strategy. And so the first Weinfest was born. I wonder when the now ageing barrels were first filled with wine, and how it now gives a distinct aroma and flavor. These are some of the slight differences that wine connoisseurs are probably pining for. There is only one thing I can be sure of: the tradition has served and satisfied discerning thirsty palates over the years.
