Munich
I wrote the following on Saturday night and have just gotten around to posting it now. Enjoy...
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I have not been able to write in my blog for a few days because I don’t have an internet connection in the hotel in Munich. Specifically, I don’t want to pay 22 Euros a day to access their wireless LAN. So this will serve as what the Germans call a Zusammenfassung (compilation) of all of my observations during my weekend here.
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Munich Itself
Wow. No one ever told me how amazing Munich is.
Before I arrived here, my favorite German city was undoubtedly Cologne. I spent a lot of fun and interesting weekends there the last time I lived over here, and I drank enough Kolsch (beer brewed in Cologne served in tall skinny glasses) to have it be one of my favorite drinks. I loved arriving in Cologne by train and seeing the amazing Koelner Dom (Cologne cathedral, located directly next to the train station) grow larger and larger in the train window. The people there are great and I found it generally to be an oasis of friendliness and cheerfulness in the reserved north of Germany.
I’m not sure if it’s a Catholic thing, a beer thing, or what. (Cologne is one of the only primarily Catholic cities in north Germany, whereas Catholocism predominates over Protestantism in Munich and throughout Bavaria.) Munich and Cologne have similar atmospheres, but Munich is really a “Weltstadt” (city of the world, roughly translated). The center of Munich is comprised of a huge pedestrian zone, with tons of stores, a produce market, statutes, churches, and cafes where people sit outside at all hours of the day and drink beer. Everything is easily accessible either on foot or through the massive underground train system. People are dressed fashionably and well, the dogs are well-behaved, and everyone seems generally happy and relaxed.
I don’t think there is any other place in the world like it, and I have become completely and totally captivated during this weekend that I’ve been here. Of course, what I have mostly done is walk around with my friend JS (who met me in Munich on Saturday after catching a ride here with a friend from Stuttgart). We went to the Hofbraeuhaus and had beer. We walked around, then went to the Englischer Garten and drank more beer. It was a gorgeous spring day, basically the first of the year for these people after a very long winter, and they were so happy to be out and about.
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Bayerischer Rundfunk Orchester (Bavarian Radio Orchestra)
The reason I came to Munich this weekend was to see an all-Mozart program by the symphony orchestra here in town on Friday night. I enjoyed it very much even though (and SP, a huge Mozart fan, won’t like this) I would rather see a mixed program and not just Mozart music alone. Oh well.
The orchestra was directed for this concert by Riccardo Muti, who is a famous director in the classical music world. Wow, what a hottie (even though he struck me as quite the diva). He is Italian, and has long black hair and looks very young and fit, even though the program said he started directing in the late ‘60’s, which means he must be in his late 50’s or early 60’s. He was very refined and his directorial movements were obviously quite practiced and expressive…it was easy to tell he’s been in this game a long time. I did enjoy it quite a lot. I especially liked it in the symphonies when the bassoon and the flute played together and you could hear them above the strings. Those instruments make a nice combination of sounds.
The whole orchestra played well, although it was disappointing that it had so few women…I suppose it might still be hard for women to crack the top orchestras. I’m not sure. All the first violins were men except one, as was also the case with the cellos and the entire wind section (only the second oboe was a woman). It might also be a German or European thing, but I have a feeling it is similar in American orchestras.
Of course, what was really fun was that the concert was simulcast over the radio and internet, which means that while I was listening to it in the hall, SP was listening to it on the computer at work. That’s fun.
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Television
So by the time Saturday night rolled around JS had left, and I was tired from all the walking so I just hung out in my room. I really didn’t mind because Saturday night is a good night for television in Germany.
To me, one of the most fun shows on German television is Wetten, dass…? It is on ZDF (channel two) on Saturday nights at 8pm. It is a weird variety show hosted by one of the most famous German television personalities, Thomas Gottschalk, who is a tall, 50-ish man with a blond mullet and very strange fashion sense. Tonight he was in solid form – he had on a green velvet blazer with weird sparkly sequins on it, plaid slacks that were in fashion in the 70’s, and high-heeled patent leather black boots. Great.
Wetten, dass…? is a pretty fun concept. I’m surprised they haven’t done it in America yet. Basically, it is like Leno or Letterman, in that a series of famous people come out and talk about their latest project and answer other generally easy questions. Then, each famous person has to make a bet involving some stunt that a regular person claims he or she can do (maybe something like Letterman’s Stupid Human Tricks).
For example, the first “regular” person on tonight claimed that he could walk, in a bathing suite, across a clothesline like a tightrope and put on each item of clothing (shirt, pants, jacket, hat) that was hung there without falling off the line himself. The famous person was a German woman who is apparently well-known over here for something, but I had never heard of her or seen her before, and she didn’t interest me much because she had long stringy blond hair, ugly Pamela Anderson tattoos, and a shiny evening dress that most of her breasts were hanging out of. Tres obvious, no? I was embarrassed for her. Anyway, weird guy made it across the clothesline, which Blondina bet that he would do, so she won.
What was very fun about tonight’s show is that the guest of honor was none other than Tom Cruise. That’s right. They have American stars come on as well, and it’s very strange because there has to be simultanueous translations going on, and sometimes Gottschalk speaks English to the guest so then the translation has to go the other way. It can be very confusing and cause uncomfortable silent delays. What’s even more interesting about Tom Cruise is that the Germans have a very serious problem with Scientologists – from what I understand Scientology is not allowed to be practiced here. I thought he was boycotting Germany, but obviously I am mistaken.
(Actually, I looked it up when I got back online, and it is the other way around -- German, particularly the Christian Democrats, wanted to boycott Cruise's movies because he is a Scientologist ... but apparently they are no longer interested in doing so if he is able to promote his new movie on Channel Two over here in prime time. BTW, I have known many Scientologists over the years and I think they are totally whack.)
Scientology, thank God, did not come up during the interview, and Tom was relatively well-behaved – no jumping on couches, no arguing with the host. Instead he spent the whole time hyping his new movie, Mission Impossible 3.
(Are three Mission Impossible movies really necessary? Actually I don’t know because I didn’t see the other two.)
Anyway, his bet was really interesting. These two young girls came out, then the whole rest of their 8th grade class (about 20 kids in all). The bet was that if any of the classmates put on lipstick and kissed a piece of paper, the girls could tell who had kissed the paper from the lipstick mark alone. Tom got a load of that and said “No way.” But to be fair, they didn’t explain the bet very well. Tom understood (as had I) that the girls would have to identify the kiss marks from all 20 classmates, but as it turned out they only had to get 4 right. Believe it or not, they actually did it, and even though they only had to identify four of them that is still really hard and I was very impressed. Tom was also impressed. Since he lost the bet, he had to ride around the studio on a motorcycle while Gottschalk chased him on a kiddie tricycle, which was totally stupid and fell a bit flat.
The other fun part of Saturday night television in Germany is the live NHL hockey game that they show on the sports channel. I thought I’d never see another game this season, but instead I was treated to Flyers/Devils, live from Philadelphia. It is very strange to listen to a German announcer doing an NHL game.
I’ve changed back to Wetten Dass…? and now Roberto Begnini (sp?) is on. I missed all the Italian translating, thank God. His bet involved a weird German guy who could look at and feel any kind of 250 different varieties of sand and say exactly where in the world it had come from. Of course he got 4 out of 4.
Oh, yes, Wetten Dass…? also features musical acts. So far tonight they have been as varied as Columbian super-hottie Juanes, the 80’s band Toto, and some weird band from Magdeburg (Tokyo…something they’re called, I didn’t catch it) that I have never heard of but is one of the most popular bands in Germany. The band is comprised of boys, I think, although they are very feminine looking and the lead singer is a scary cross between Marilyn Manson and Bjork. The teenage girls in the audience are going crazy, like the Beatles on Ed Sullivan. I just don’t see the appeal.
Once I got back online, I found that there's some good reading about Saturday night's show on the ZDF Web site (all in German, unfortunately).
Wow. Television is fun. I told SP I was going to buy one when I got into my apartment and I felt his head shake through the phone.
***************************************************
I have not been able to write in my blog for a few days because I don’t have an internet connection in the hotel in Munich. Specifically, I don’t want to pay 22 Euros a day to access their wireless LAN. So this will serve as what the Germans call a Zusammenfassung (compilation) of all of my observations during my weekend here.
_________________________________________________
Munich Itself
Wow. No one ever told me how amazing Munich is.
Before I arrived here, my favorite German city was undoubtedly Cologne. I spent a lot of fun and interesting weekends there the last time I lived over here, and I drank enough Kolsch (beer brewed in Cologne served in tall skinny glasses) to have it be one of my favorite drinks. I loved arriving in Cologne by train and seeing the amazing Koelner Dom (Cologne cathedral, located directly next to the train station) grow larger and larger in the train window. The people there are great and I found it generally to be an oasis of friendliness and cheerfulness in the reserved north of Germany.
I’m not sure if it’s a Catholic thing, a beer thing, or what. (Cologne is one of the only primarily Catholic cities in north Germany, whereas Catholocism predominates over Protestantism in Munich and throughout Bavaria.) Munich and Cologne have similar atmospheres, but Munich is really a “Weltstadt” (city of the world, roughly translated). The center of Munich is comprised of a huge pedestrian zone, with tons of stores, a produce market, statutes, churches, and cafes where people sit outside at all hours of the day and drink beer. Everything is easily accessible either on foot or through the massive underground train system. People are dressed fashionably and well, the dogs are well-behaved, and everyone seems generally happy and relaxed.
I don’t think there is any other place in the world like it, and I have become completely and totally captivated during this weekend that I’ve been here. Of course, what I have mostly done is walk around with my friend JS (who met me in Munich on Saturday after catching a ride here with a friend from Stuttgart). We went to the Hofbraeuhaus and had beer. We walked around, then went to the Englischer Garten and drank more beer. It was a gorgeous spring day, basically the first of the year for these people after a very long winter, and they were so happy to be out and about.
_________________________________________________
Bayerischer Rundfunk Orchester (Bavarian Radio Orchestra)
The reason I came to Munich this weekend was to see an all-Mozart program by the symphony orchestra here in town on Friday night. I enjoyed it very much even though (and SP, a huge Mozart fan, won’t like this) I would rather see a mixed program and not just Mozart music alone. Oh well.
The orchestra was directed for this concert by Riccardo Muti, who is a famous director in the classical music world. Wow, what a hottie (even though he struck me as quite the diva). He is Italian, and has long black hair and looks very young and fit, even though the program said he started directing in the late ‘60’s, which means he must be in his late 50’s or early 60’s. He was very refined and his directorial movements were obviously quite practiced and expressive…it was easy to tell he’s been in this game a long time. I did enjoy it quite a lot. I especially liked it in the symphonies when the bassoon and the flute played together and you could hear them above the strings. Those instruments make a nice combination of sounds.
The whole orchestra played well, although it was disappointing that it had so few women…I suppose it might still be hard for women to crack the top orchestras. I’m not sure. All the first violins were men except one, as was also the case with the cellos and the entire wind section (only the second oboe was a woman). It might also be a German or European thing, but I have a feeling it is similar in American orchestras.
Of course, what was really fun was that the concert was simulcast over the radio and internet, which means that while I was listening to it in the hall, SP was listening to it on the computer at work. That’s fun.
_________________________________________________
Television
So by the time Saturday night rolled around JS had left, and I was tired from all the walking so I just hung out in my room. I really didn’t mind because Saturday night is a good night for television in Germany.
To me, one of the most fun shows on German television is Wetten, dass…? It is on ZDF (channel two) on Saturday nights at 8pm. It is a weird variety show hosted by one of the most famous German television personalities, Thomas Gottschalk, who is a tall, 50-ish man with a blond mullet and very strange fashion sense. Tonight he was in solid form – he had on a green velvet blazer with weird sparkly sequins on it, plaid slacks that were in fashion in the 70’s, and high-heeled patent leather black boots. Great.
Wetten, dass…? is a pretty fun concept. I’m surprised they haven’t done it in America yet. Basically, it is like Leno or Letterman, in that a series of famous people come out and talk about their latest project and answer other generally easy questions. Then, each famous person has to make a bet involving some stunt that a regular person claims he or she can do (maybe something like Letterman’s Stupid Human Tricks).
For example, the first “regular” person on tonight claimed that he could walk, in a bathing suite, across a clothesline like a tightrope and put on each item of clothing (shirt, pants, jacket, hat) that was hung there without falling off the line himself. The famous person was a German woman who is apparently well-known over here for something, but I had never heard of her or seen her before, and she didn’t interest me much because she had long stringy blond hair, ugly Pamela Anderson tattoos, and a shiny evening dress that most of her breasts were hanging out of. Tres obvious, no? I was embarrassed for her. Anyway, weird guy made it across the clothesline, which Blondina bet that he would do, so she won.
What was very fun about tonight’s show is that the guest of honor was none other than Tom Cruise. That’s right. They have American stars come on as well, and it’s very strange because there has to be simultanueous translations going on, and sometimes Gottschalk speaks English to the guest so then the translation has to go the other way. It can be very confusing and cause uncomfortable silent delays. What’s even more interesting about Tom Cruise is that the Germans have a very serious problem with Scientologists – from what I understand Scientology is not allowed to be practiced here. I thought he was boycotting Germany, but obviously I am mistaken.
(Actually, I looked it up when I got back online, and it is the other way around -- German, particularly the Christian Democrats, wanted to boycott Cruise's movies because he is a Scientologist ... but apparently they are no longer interested in doing so if he is able to promote his new movie on Channel Two over here in prime time. BTW, I have known many Scientologists over the years and I think they are totally whack.)
Scientology, thank God, did not come up during the interview, and Tom was relatively well-behaved – no jumping on couches, no arguing with the host. Instead he spent the whole time hyping his new movie, Mission Impossible 3.
(Are three Mission Impossible movies really necessary? Actually I don’t know because I didn’t see the other two.)
Anyway, his bet was really interesting. These two young girls came out, then the whole rest of their 8th grade class (about 20 kids in all). The bet was that if any of the classmates put on lipstick and kissed a piece of paper, the girls could tell who had kissed the paper from the lipstick mark alone. Tom got a load of that and said “No way.” But to be fair, they didn’t explain the bet very well. Tom understood (as had I) that the girls would have to identify the kiss marks from all 20 classmates, but as it turned out they only had to get 4 right. Believe it or not, they actually did it, and even though they only had to identify four of them that is still really hard and I was very impressed. Tom was also impressed. Since he lost the bet, he had to ride around the studio on a motorcycle while Gottschalk chased him on a kiddie tricycle, which was totally stupid and fell a bit flat.
The other fun part of Saturday night television in Germany is the live NHL hockey game that they show on the sports channel. I thought I’d never see another game this season, but instead I was treated to Flyers/Devils, live from Philadelphia. It is very strange to listen to a German announcer doing an NHL game.
I’ve changed back to Wetten Dass…? and now Roberto Begnini (sp?) is on. I missed all the Italian translating, thank God. His bet involved a weird German guy who could look at and feel any kind of 250 different varieties of sand and say exactly where in the world it had come from. Of course he got 4 out of 4.
Oh, yes, Wetten Dass…? also features musical acts. So far tonight they have been as varied as Columbian super-hottie Juanes, the 80’s band Toto, and some weird band from Magdeburg (Tokyo…something they’re called, I didn’t catch it) that I have never heard of but is one of the most popular bands in Germany. The band is comprised of boys, I think, although they are very feminine looking and the lead singer is a scary cross between Marilyn Manson and Bjork. The teenage girls in the audience are going crazy, like the Beatles on Ed Sullivan. I just don’t see the appeal.
Once I got back online, I found that there's some good reading about Saturday night's show on the ZDF Web site (all in German, unfortunately).
Wow. Television is fun. I told SP I was going to buy one when I got into my apartment and I felt his head shake through the phone.
posted by Jennifer at 12:45
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