Category Archives: Uncategorized

Koharu Sugawara Dance Cover (“Elastic Heart”)

So, this is why I haven’t been posting a lot over the last couple of weeks: I’ve been working like a crazy person on this project–actually I’ve been at it for months, but really intensively for the last 4 weeks. And I think it’s a fitting note to end my Berlin sabbatical on. I actuallyContinue reading “Koharu Sugawara Dance Cover (“Elastic Heart”)”

Berlin is Awesome, Exhibit G: Street Art

When I was enrolled in my Goethe Institut German course, I had the opportunity to go on two great walking tours through Kreuzberg, a fascinating district next to mine with a really absorbing and dramatic history of settlement, neglect, squatting, redevelopment, civic rebellion, immigration, and revitalization. The second tour focused on street art, which IContinue reading “Berlin is Awesome, Exhibit G: Street Art”

Berlin is Awesome, Exhibit E: Schöneberg and Friedenau

I did one of my long errand-running bike rides this week, and though I didn’t find most of what I was looking for, as usual I gained some serendipities I wasn’t expecting–mostly, a tour of the lovely 19th-century West Berlin neighborhood of Schöneberg (and a bit of Friedenau). Schöneberg immediately struck me as quite differentContinue reading “Berlin is Awesome, Exhibit E: Schöneberg and Friedenau”

Scrambling: A Normandy Bike Tour, Part 1

Well, truth be told, this was a Brittany–Channel Islands–Normandy tour, the planning of which ended up being just as epic as it sounds. The biggest reason for this was the tour involved ferries, and one of those ferries (I’m looking at you here, Manche-Îles) abruptly changed their stated policy on transporting bikes *after* I hadContinue reading “Scrambling: A Normandy Bike Tour, Part 1”

Aikido and Rhetoric: Polishing

The only cure for materialism is the cleansing of the six senses (eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, and mind). If the senses are clogged, one’s perception is stifled. The more it is stifled, the more contaminated the senses become. This creates disorder in the world, and that is the greatest evil of all. Polish theContinue reading “Aikido and Rhetoric: Polishing”

Unauthorized Uses: Wine Corks

After I hosted 11 people for Thanksgiving, several of them serious wine enthusiasts, I ended up with a lot of corks. I rubbed my hands together in glee. There’s nothing I like better than a wine cork for multi-purpose Rigging of Things. I already mentioned corks in a previous post, but wine corks’ size makesContinue reading “Unauthorized Uses: Wine Corks”