We had a lovely day. Mark sold fertilizer to raise money for a scout trip, while Bill and Walter went shopping and I took a nap. (We had stayed up late last night working on Bill's Civil Liberties proposal for the U of WI press).
This is the first day I haven't needed a coat, and as Mark and I wandered the trails in Jegersberg, I kept my eyes on the tree tops looking for the elusive red tree squirrel.
Only two more weeks of class. I am ending with Jazz (1992), a novel by Toni Morrison, the last American writer to be awarded a Nobel Prize in 1993.
On Thursday Mark and I (Walter has soccer) are going to hear Fauré's Requiem with the Kristiansand Symphony Orchestra in Kristiansand Cathedral.
On a very different and tragic note, Bill and I found the following website/audio slideshow on the Chernobyl disaster to be heartrending. The legacy of this disaster seems unending.
http://inmotion.magnumphotos.com/essay/chernobyl
Saturday, April 9, 2011
Sunday, April 3, 2011
IK Start Kristiansand vs Stromsgodset--fotball
Hi All,
Jan Erik, one of my colleagues, took the boys to their first professional soccer game, the first game of the season. IK START, our local team, won 5-1. Walter and Mark said that the reason IK Start won was that "the opposing goalkeeper in the beginning slide tackled a player and got sent off the field along with another player. IK Start then got a free kick and their lead player, Espen Hoff, scored. IK START is now leading the Fotball Tippeligaen." The boys had a great time. Thanks Jan Erik!!
The flag of the opposing team.
IK Start makes a goal.
Jan Erik, one of my colleagues, took the boys to their first professional soccer game, the first game of the season. IK START, our local team, won 5-1. Walter and Mark said that the reason IK Start won was that "the opposing goalkeeper in the beginning slide tackled a player and got sent off the field along with another player. IK Start then got a free kick and their lead player, Espen Hoff, scored. IK START is now leading the Fotball Tippeligaen." The boys had a great time. Thanks Jan Erik!!
The flag of the opposing team.
IK Start makes a goal.
Friday, March 25, 2011
Our trip to Berlin
Last evening Mark and I returned from Berlin, where the German/American Fulbright Foundation was hosting a seminar. We visited nine museums, attended three lectures (where we listened to both the current and former American Ambassador to Germany inveigh against unilateralism and hail international cooperation as evidenced by the UN sanctioned no-fly zone in Libya), and visited John and Colleen's friends, Jonathan and Molly and their two children.
I was particularly interested in the history of fascism because of my current research, so we spent a lot of time in Berlin's Topography of Terror and German History museum. What struck me as I read the exhibits at the Topography of Terror Museum is how Hitler built popular support by creating a powerful sense of the Volk, work and charity programs combined with shaming public rituals for those who challenged his regime. What particularly moved me was the film footage of Jewish women carefully and lovingly preparing their children for the deportation to concentration camps where they would soon be killed. A little girl with long braids, looking up at her mother; her mother helping her affix the Jewish star to her coat.
Museumsinsel in Berlin, a UNESCO world heritage site.
Neues Museum, part of the Museumsinsel in Berlin, Mark and Collosal statue of Helios
Mark with a copy of the first computer designed by Konrad Zuse, Deutsches Technikmuseum Berlin. The original was destroyed during the Allied bombing.
House Altar, Akhenaten, Nefertiti and three of their daughters, Neues Museum
.
The bust of Nefertiti, Neues Museum (image from Wiki. No photos allowed of this, the museum's most famous artifact). I was tempted to buy a poster of this lovely artwork, but the caption annoyed me. Something to the effect of "Even though this woman is old she is still beautiful..." Ugh!
Photo taken from the Topographie des Terrors Museum. Berlin Wall and remnants of Gestapo Headquarters are in the foreground.
Statue of Bach, in front of Thomaskirche (St. Thomas Church) where all of Bach's children were baptized, where Bach is buried and where he served as a cantor. Leipzig
From Mendelssohn home, Leipzig. Wagner, another Leipzig resident, had disparaged Mendelssohn as Jewish composer, and Mendelssohn's reputation suffered for it.
"In a tractate, Das Judenthum in der Musik, first published in 1850 under a pseudonym in the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik, Wagner wrote that Jewish music is bereft of all expression, characterized by coldness and indifference, triviality and nonsense. The Jew, he claimed, has no true passion to impel him to artistic creation. The Jewish composer, according to Wagner, makes a confused heap of the forms and styles of all ages and masters. To admit a Jew into the world of art results in pernicious consequences. In Deutsche Kunst und Deutsche Politik, Wagner spoke of the "harmful influence of Jewry on the morality of the nation," adding that the subversive power of Jewry stands in contrast to the German psyche." Lili Eylon http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/anti-semitism/Wagner.html
Oldest hammer-action piano, Bartolomeo Cristofori, Florenz, 1726, Museum of Musical Instruments in the University of Leipzig. Bach played on this piano, which, he found both intriguing and lacking.
Deutsches Historisches Museum, photo album of the Nazi invasion of Narvik, Norway
Poster celebrating the Norwegian fascist party, the Nasjonal Samling (or NS), Vidkun Quisling its party head. As I recall the display noted that 50,000 Norwegians were members of this party during the Nazi era.
Gate of Ishtar, Pergamon Museum, Berlin
from Gate of Ishtar, Pergamon Museum, Berlin
Pergamon temple, Pergamon Museum, Berlin
Pair of hands from an Akhenaten, Nefertiti statue
We had a wonderful visit in Berlin, although it was punctuated by an "I've lost my wallet scare" at the airport on the way home. Fortunately, the employees of Norwegian Air found it and returned it to Lost and Found where I retrieved it.
I was particularly interested in the history of fascism because of my current research, so we spent a lot of time in Berlin's Topography of Terror and German History museum. What struck me as I read the exhibits at the Topography of Terror Museum is how Hitler built popular support by creating a powerful sense of the Volk, work and charity programs combined with shaming public rituals for those who challenged his regime. What particularly moved me was the film footage of Jewish women carefully and lovingly preparing their children for the deportation to concentration camps where they would soon be killed. A little girl with long braids, looking up at her mother; her mother helping her affix the Jewish star to her coat.
Museumsinsel in Berlin, a UNESCO world heritage site.
Neues Museum, part of the Museumsinsel in Berlin, Mark and Collosal statue of Helios
Mark with a copy of the first computer designed by Konrad Zuse, Deutsches Technikmuseum Berlin. The original was destroyed during the Allied bombing.
House Altar, Akhenaten, Nefertiti and three of their daughters, Neues Museum
.
The bust of Nefertiti, Neues Museum (image from Wiki. No photos allowed of this, the museum's most famous artifact). I was tempted to buy a poster of this lovely artwork, but the caption annoyed me. Something to the effect of "Even though this woman is old she is still beautiful..." Ugh!
Photo taken from the Topographie des Terrors Museum. Berlin Wall and remnants of Gestapo Headquarters are in the foreground.
Statue of Bach, in front of Thomaskirche (St. Thomas Church) where all of Bach's children were baptized, where Bach is buried and where he served as a cantor. Leipzig
From Mendelssohn home, Leipzig. Wagner, another Leipzig resident, had disparaged Mendelssohn as Jewish composer, and Mendelssohn's reputation suffered for it.
"In a tractate, Das Judenthum in der Musik, first published in 1850 under a pseudonym in the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik, Wagner wrote that Jewish music is bereft of all expression, characterized by coldness and indifference, triviality and nonsense. The Jew, he claimed, has no true passion to impel him to artistic creation. The Jewish composer, according to Wagner, makes a confused heap of the forms and styles of all ages and masters. To admit a Jew into the world of art results in pernicious consequences. In Deutsche Kunst und Deutsche Politik, Wagner spoke of the "harmful influence of Jewry on the morality of the nation," adding that the subversive power of Jewry stands in contrast to the German psyche." Lili Eylon http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/anti-semitism/Wagner.html
Oldest hammer-action piano, Bartolomeo Cristofori, Florenz, 1726, Museum of Musical Instruments in the University of Leipzig. Bach played on this piano, which, he found both intriguing and lacking.
Deutsches Historisches Museum, photo album of the Nazi invasion of Narvik, Norway
Poster celebrating the Norwegian fascist party, the Nasjonal Samling (or NS), Vidkun Quisling its party head. As I recall the display noted that 50,000 Norwegians were members of this party during the Nazi era.
Gate of Ishtar, Pergamon Museum, Berlin
from Gate of Ishtar, Pergamon Museum, Berlin
Pergamon temple, Pergamon Museum, Berlin
Pair of hands from an Akhenaten, Nefertiti statue
We had a wonderful visit in Berlin, although it was punctuated by an "I've lost my wallet scare" at the airport on the way home. Fortunately, the employees of Norwegian Air found it and returned it to Lost and Found where I retrieved it.
Saturday, March 5, 2011
Another day at the zoo
Bill took the kids to the zoo today, and they had a terrific time. Here are some pics from their visit.
Why must I wait for children to throw me my fiske. This is undignified.
Hey, wait a minute, who got here first.
Why must I wait for children to throw me my fiske. This is undignified.
Hey, wait a minute, who got here first.
Saturday, February 26, 2011
Saturday's Madison protest
Hi All, This was our favorite of the protest signs in Madison. Bill's dad joined the protesters today. This pic comes from the Daily Kos.
Friday, February 25, 2011
Jens Bjørnebøe
According to Michael Prince, my host, Jens Bjørnebøe is the best Norwegian writer. Now I need to see if I can find his work in translation.
Janteloven
Hi All,
I have been puzzled as to why most of my Norwegian students are so quiet in class, and my seminar leader suggested it was in part due to the culture of janteloven, or unwritten rules young people learn telling them how to fit into Norwegian and Danish society. Here is the wiki translation of the janteloven rules.
Don't think you're anything special.
Don't think you're as much as us.
Don't think you're wiser than us.
Don't convince yourself that you're better than us.
Don't think you know more than us.
Don't think you are more than us.
Don't think you are good at anything.
Don't laugh at us.
Don't think anyone cares about you.
Don't think you can teach us anything.
I have been puzzled as to why most of my Norwegian students are so quiet in class, and my seminar leader suggested it was in part due to the culture of janteloven, or unwritten rules young people learn telling them how to fit into Norwegian and Danish society. Here is the wiki translation of the janteloven rules.
Don't think you're anything special.
Don't think you're as much as us.
Don't think you're wiser than us.
Don't convince yourself that you're better than us.
Don't think you know more than us.
Don't think you are more than us.
Don't think you are good at anything.
Don't laugh at us.
Don't think anyone cares about you.
Don't think you can teach us anything.
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