More about Berlin

Last time, I left off at Wednesday of the Berlin trip.

Thursday: This was actually rather interesting. Despite the fact that the day started out choppy for me because I wanted to get there early/ on time and was a little annoying about it to the other groupies, we managed to make it to Potsdamer Platz for a bit of an architectural tour of modern Berlin. Our guide was an actual architect who happened to know Prof. from a very early age.

The focus of the tour was the hypothetical architecture for Berlin as the Welthauptstadt Germania (World Capital Germania), a vast and sprawling redesign of the city on immense neoclassical lines as envisioned by Adolph Hitler's chief architect, Abert Speer. His design entailed the creation of a giant axis with Victory pillar at the center, and a massive Volkshalle/ Große Halle (People's Hall, Great Hall) that would dwarf all other domed buildings then constructed. The dome, for a sense of scale, would have been a version of the Pantheon 290 meters tall- stand the Washington Monument on top of the Capital Building, and it's still shorter.

Something of that axis still remains in the outline of the streets of Berlin, but certain architects have made a point of destroying it- the State Library of Berlin lies diagonally across the east-west axis and forces the street around it. The new Kanzleramt allows lies directly across the same axis. Berlin is not what it was planned to be, and it's being rebuilt to something that honestly feels rather American in places. I felt very comfortable there, actually.

Thursday evening brought the wonderous powers of the Sissie Musical, which I cannot begin to describe in full here. It shall have to wait for another day or so, just because my brain is not going to let it happen.

(no subject)

Last we left off: Thursday Night. Cissie, the Musical.

Okay, so it's called 'Elisabeth: The Musical'- a fictional musical version of the life of the Austrian Empress Sissie. It was just.... crazy bad. Just amazingly kitschy and goofy and silly. There are really just no words to describe it- it's more goofy and kitschy than Phantom of the Opera, the dancing was just a little bit sloppy, and the stage had essentially two revolving circles on the stage (one inside the other) that were overused immensely to get people on and off stage. The backdrop was also some strange projected version of the Hofburg being displayed from a very low angle.

One of the main singers was actually the Italian assassin who killed Sissie- the framework of the musical was him defending himself in Hell to a personification of Death, played by a painfully blond man who seemed to have the unholy power to look good in either black OR white, but not to actually act or sing. Apparently, Death and Sissie hooked up when she was about 16 and had fallen from a tree- he never got over her, and became a creepy stalker her whole life, including taking her children, assisting her son's suicide, and giving her syphilis to make it clear that her husband is sleeping with prostitutes.

There was also a random scene where the courtiers STRAP ON PLASTIC HORSES to intrigue with Sissie's stepmom to get the Kaiser to sleep with prostitutes.

This is the kind of musical which inspires people to create drinking games. However, for some reason, this saccharine slop created the need in the German audience for a standing ovation. It was, according to C, the last strike- she has lost faith in Germans. (For comparison, 'Arturo Ui' was incredible, and did not get a standing ovation.'

So, in order to help you with your Sissie experience, I submit the following:

( Elisabeth, the Musical: the Drinking Game )

This is getting to be a habit

I've cut my own hair again in the bathroom. It's now about chin length, and I apparently did well enough to convince my roomie that I'd been to an actual hairdressers. Yay!

Also, random guy stopped me on the street to give me his number and say that he thought I was beautiful. Sadly, he was not Austrian. However, this insulated me from being embarrassed later when I did not understand a question at Starbucks- apparently (though I have never seen this before), Becher is a paper cup, and Tasse is an actual stay-there mug. This is the kind of fine distinction that it's sometimes honestly impossible to get from context until something like this comes up.

So, life is good, I've a paper to write, and it seems that everyone else is getting on with their summers already. Hateful beasts, all.

(Typing in qwertz is like falling in love with razor wire).