Without Lifting A Finger

Tiergarten , a photo by Marcio Cabral de Moura on Flickr.

Tiergarten im Nebel , a photo by Photodendron on Flickr.

tiergarten , a photo by frado76 on Flickr. Tiergarten (literally "animal garden" and Tier is cognate to our "deer"): the largest urban park in Berlin. The large column (golden Victoria on top) is the Siegessaule ("Victory Column"), which commemorates a series of Prussian victories.   

None of these reasons, however, can hold out to the end: they are but pretexts, ghosts. Speak, F., let me get near these ghosts. What you said in the Tiergarten about your inadequate affection for me may have been true then, and may still be true; but other things were not true, as has now become apparent, at least your silence was not true. Now at last, F., do try to see what I am, and what I have become through my love for you. 

    

      [From A Franz Kafka Encyclopedia , edited by Richard T. Gray] 

I was Peeting in Seal Beach.     

Phrase coined by Arendt re Eichmann. * Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil In her reporting of the 1961 Adolf Eichmann trial for The New Yorker , which evolved into Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil (1963), she coined the phrase "the banality of evil " to describe Eichmann. She raised the question of whether evil is radical or simply a function of thoughtlessness, a tendency of ordinary people to obey orders and conform to mass opinion without a critical evaluation of the consequences of their actions and inaction. She was sharply critical of the way the trial was conducted in Israel . She also was critical of the way that some Jewish leaders, notably M. C. Rumkowski , acted during the Holocaust . This caused a considerable controversy and even animosity toward Arendt in the Jewish community. Her friend Gershom Scholem , a major scholar of Jewish mysticism , broke off relations with her. Arendt was criticized by many Jewish p...

Johanna [ 1 ] "Hannah" Arendt (14 October 1906 – 4 December 1975) was a German-American political theorist . Though often described as a philosopher, she rejected that label on the grounds that philosophy is concerned with "man in the singular" and instead described herself as a political theorist because her work centers on the fact that "men, not Man, live on the earth and inhabit the world." [ 2 ] Her works deal with the nature of power , and the subjects of politics, direct democracy , authority , and totalitarianism . The Hannah Arendt Prize is named in her honour. Life and career Arendt was born into a secular family of German Jews in Linden (present-day Hanover ), the daughter of Martha (née Cohn) and Paul Arendt. [ 3 ] She grew up in Königsberg (renamed Kaliningrad and annexed to the Soviet Union in 1946) and Berlin. At the University of Marburg , she studied philosophy with Martin Heidegger . According to Hans Jonas , her only Germa...

Barbara Sukowa (born 2 February 1950, Bremen , Germany ) is a German theatre and film actress . Work Sukowa's stage debut was in Berlin in 1971, in a production of Peter Handke 's Der Ritt über den Bodensee . Günter Beelitz invited her to join the ensemble of the Darmstädter National Theatre in the same year. She also worked in Frankfurt am Main and Hamburg, in collaboration with directors such as Luc Bondy and Ivan Nagel . Her roles included Marion in Büchner 's Danton's Death and Helena in A Midsummer Night's Dream . Other Shakespeare roles in Europe were Rosalind in As You Like It and Desdemona in Othello . Sukowa also performed in Ibsen 's The Master Builder . In English, she has worked in a production of The Cherry Orchard (Princeton, New Jersey , 2000). [1] In addition to her stage work, Sukowa is associated with the New German Cinema. She portrayed Mieze in Rainer Werner Fassbinder ’s Berlin Alexanderplatz (1980), which earned her the Germa...

Franz Grillparzer monument in Volksgarten, Wien , a photo by Avocadoface on Flickr. Started reading his "Poor Musician" this morning.

Don't know how many letters he wrote to Grete. She was apparently a friend of Felice's, sent to Prague to somehow act as a go-between. The introduction sheds very little light on her, and there isn't much on the Net. It's possible that Grete and Kafka "commingled" (Grete has a mysterious son--the "timing" makes it possible that he was Kafka's, but the intro seems to lean on the side of "he wasn't"--who later dies at age 7). Though there seems to be some uncertainty re her later fate, Grete apparently dies in the camps.  *** I was expecting to meet (after all, I knew nothing about you except that you were efficient) an elderly spinster with maternal feelings who, moreover -- I don't quite know why -- would be tall and strong. To this kind of girl, I thought, one might really be able to confess everything, which in itself would be a blessing, and perhaps one might get some good advice (the belief that an adult is capa...

Another Franz alludes to him quite often. I downloaded (to my Kindle) a free version of some "German classics," which include his "Poor Musician" and some of Beethoven's letters. * Franz Seraphicus Grillparzer (15 January 1791 – 21 January 1872) was an Austrian writer who is chiefly known for his dramas . He also wrote the oration for Ludwig van Beethoven 's funeral. [ 1 ]   Assessment Although Grillparzer was essentially a dramatist, his lyric poetry is in the intensity of its personal note hardly inferior to Lenau 's; and the bitterness of his later years found vent in biting and stinging epigrams that spared few of his greater contemporaries. As a prose writer, he has left one powerful short story , Der arme Spielmann (1848), and a volume of critical studies on the Spanish drama, which shows how completely he had succeeded in identifying himself with the Spanish point of view. Grillparzer's brooding, unbalanced temperament, his lack ...

Kafka was a devotee of Muller's  My System . 

 

Silly because lists aren't my thing. However, I do jot down the date when I first read a book (I usually write it just after the front cover, along with my name) and, subsequently, the date for any rereads. So: Below is a list (which will probably grow over the next few days) of books (or works) I've read more than once. I'll work only with Memory (which means there will be holes) and not go running after books to verify. *** Kafka: Diaries, Letters to Milena, most of his short stories. Thomas Mann: Death in Venice and some other short stories T. S. Eliot: All of his poems and many essays W.B. Yeats: Selected poems, especially his later works Paul Celan: Poems Zbigniew Herbert: Poems and most of his essays Szymborska: Most of her poems Rilke: Poems (especially the Duino Elegies) and Letters to a Young Poet Max Frisch: Man in the Holocene, Homo Faber, Bluebeard Durrenmatt: The Assignment Dostoevsky: The Brothers Karamazov and Notes from Unde...

     In my case it is the exact opposite. Talking is altogether against my nature. Whatever I may say is wrong, in my sense. For me, speech robs everything I say of its seriousness and importance. To me it seems impossible that it should be otherwise, since speech is continuously influenced by a thousand external factors and a thousand external constraints. Hence I am silent not only from necessity, but likewise from conviction. Writing is the only appropriate form of expression for me, and will continue to be so even when we are together.



Actually, I don't even ask for daily letters, if that's impossible; I've told you this often enough: all I want is to have regular letters, but even this is denied me. And you can bear to let Wednesday go by without sending me so much as a picture postcard, although you know that on Friday I tremble from one mail delivery to the next.

 

Now know this. Georg has the same number of letters as Franz, "Bendemann" is made up of Bende and Mann, Bende has the same number of letters as Kafka, and the two vowels are also in the same place; out of pity for poor "Bende," "Mann" is probably meant to fortify him for his struggles. "Frieda" has the same number of letters as Felice; it also starts with the same letter; "Frieda" and "Gluck" are also closely related; "Brandenfeld," owing to "feld," has some connection with "Bauer," and also starts with the same letter. And there are other similar things -- all of which, needless to say, I only discovered afterwards.

Reddish Egret (Egretta rufescens) , a photo by photographerp on Flickr. A much better view of the Reddish Egret at Bolsa Chica. Thank you Robert Gundy.

Not a very good picture (it was a bit skittish), but then I wasn't exactly sure what I was looking at so I didn't try very hard (and of course my camera isn't much help). Apparently, it's somewhat rare in Southern California. 

                                                                                        

I, dearest, become estranged? I who die of longing for you here at my desk? While washing my hands outside in the dark passage today, I was somehow so overcome by the thought of you that I had to step across to the window to seek some comfort, if only from the gray sky. This is how I live. 

What I caught instead of my little black phoebe: liquidambar leaves on ivy. About as close as we get to autumn colors.     

He's probably not one bird but several. Yet, appearing then reappearing elsewhere along the fence, he sometimes gives the impression of a single bird. He's so elusive (and allusive), even if I had my camera I'd probably never get a decent shot. *** The Black Phoebe ( Sayornis nigricans ) is a passerine bird in the tyrant-flycatcher family. It breeds from southwest Oregon and California south through Central and South America. It occurs year-round throughout most of its range and migrates less than the other birds in its genus, though its northern populations are partially migratory. Six subspecies are commonly recognized, although two are occasionally combined as separate species, the White-winged Phoebe. The Black Pheobe has predominately black plumage, with a white belly and undertail coverts . The sexes are identical in color, and juveniles have brown feather tips and brown wing-bars. Its song is a repeated tee-hee, tee ho . It lives in a variety of habitats ...



      

Hadn't realized this little piece went up: "Recipe (Sort of)."

Because I for my part would never leave you, not even if it were my lot -- worse things could happen to me -- to have with you an inner relationship that corresponded to an outer circumstance such as having nothing to do but wait forever outside the side entrance to your house, while you passed in and out through the front door.

  



            

Did we need another "super" market -- probably not. That corner already has three sizable grocery stores: Whole Foods, Trader Joe's, and Ralph's. And to top that off: another Lucille's and another CVS Pharmacy (coming soon!!!). * We didn't get there till Sunday afternoon (apparently the "grand opening" was Thursday). We "watched our step" with the crowd in the deli section, got a few bites for lunch, got some Peet's coffee at the bakery (lots of overpriced teases there), then climbed up to the balcony to jockey for a couch and eat. Beautiful day and all that. A bit of a view to the harbor and boats (squinting through afternoon sunlight). *