Category Archives: Life, the universe & everything

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Who the hell even knew how to pronounce this fn decade anyway?

Jetzt mal ehrlich: die 10er-Jahre. WTF? Die 20er! Das klingt doch gleich ganz anders.
What is left to say about this decade of doom, eine Totgeburt von Jahrzehnt … wir verabschieden uns ohne jegliche Nostalgie. Nun gut, wir blicken dennoch zurück, etwa so:

Ein Blick ins Archiv lässt uns entdecken, dass das Jahrzehnt mit einem Besuch in Rom begann, genauer gesagt mit einem Verwirrten auf der Engelsburg und einem hunky angel:

But before we read on, some upbeat 2019-discovered music to ease the pain of this slightly ad-hoc blog post:

So, now we have some wicked japanese disco music on. And honestly: who wants to see Mr.B age throughout 10 years of vacation photos. Instead, lets have a look at some of the more bizarre moments of this decade. In the end, making everyone’s day a bit more bizarre is all we can achieve in this life.

That’s a nice one! Apparently taken at some nameless classical music festival in fn Nuremburg back in August 2010:

He is hot, and she’s his mum (we asked!). But wtf – how did they end up getting rich with the Dixi toilet business, and why is SHE wearing the glove instead of him?! Questions, questions, questions.
Which brings us to the topic of 2019 literature. What did we read? Here’s a sample:

And if we read Ursula attentively, we will find wisdoms like this: “To learn which questions are unanswerable, and NOT TO ANSWER THEM: this skill is most needful in times of stress and darkness.” Hear, hear! Lets find those questions during the 20s, … and lets not answer them!

Then came 2011. Boredome ensued:

But: your mama’s rich, and your daddy’s good-looking (oder so…):

And as so often, out of the endless spaces which boredom provides, opening the necessary freedom for creativity and novelty:

BAM! Drag.

Comes the time in the life of every man, when he asks himself: does it buy happiness? It appears the answer this time was yes:

And yes: inner beauty IS for amateurs.
And Schnaps is Schnaps and Kitsch is Kitsch, I know, but it is a blog of the senses, and, I beg your pardon, this WAS the fn best hotel and the best sunset ever, so here goes Faro Spartivento:

Before we go back to more bizarre moments and music, mind you, what would life be without a beer with dad every now and then?

Breathing the sulfuric exhaust of an ancient but alive vulcano – that’s name is “Vulcano”! – was among the slightly more bizarre, yet uplifting experiences of the decade that dares not speak its name.

Said decade is coming to an end fast! And I’m only … not even half way through! PANIC! I promised bizarre music. I have no choice but to employ the ultimate weapon. Icelandic music. Dj. Flugvél Og Geimskip to the rescue!

We need to move on, we need to move on! What was the most traumatizing event of the decade? Probably when Unicorn faced THE FROG!

We all peed ourselves a litte that day. Horrifying! Then there was the UFO. But really, THAT story would take too long to tell.

What else? Greece was in trouble. We tried our best to fix it:

So many things are left unsaid, so many things left undone. Time never suffices, but about time you can read elsewhere on this blog!

What’s left to say. Nothing. “The mind commands the body and it obeys. The mind commands itself and meets resistance.”

In case of doubt: HIGHER ZOCCOLE!

But the last word of the decade belongs to Hansi’s Hammond Organ:

Zen Gardens

Lots of wabi-sabi-esque situations awaited during this recent, second visit to the land of the rising sun. Tokyo and above all Kyoto presented themselves in full fall foliage splendour, for example at the beautiful oasis which the garden of Nezu Museum in Tokyo is, the Murin-an garden or the “Moss Temple” Saihoji Kokedera in Kyoto. Difficult to choose between the many impressions of gingko, maple and camelia leaves among fluffy pine trees, but here are a few:

So. Many. Leaves!

Bashō would now come up with a 17-syllable poem (“Haiku”), but I’ll rather conclude with Ayumi, since she’s already reaching out for the maple leaves …

Keine Zeit

Eine heiße Leseempfehlung für alle, die sich Gedanken über die Zeit machen und sich nicht vor Physik fürchten: “The Order of Time” vom italienischen theoretischen Physiker Carlo Rovelli. Das Buch ist allerdings explizit auch für LeserInnen ohne großartige Physikkenntnisse geschrieben und enthält nur eine einzige Formel. Nämlich die einzige in der gesamten Physik bis dato, die der Zeit eine Richtung gibt. Dem Rest der Physik ist sozusagen Vergangenheit, Gegenwart und Zukunft wurscht! Auf sehr klare und verständliche Weise führt uns Carlo dann zu dem Schluss, dass womöglich “Zeit” gar keine fundamentale, also zur Minimalbeschreibung des Universums notwendige Größe ist, sondern vielmehr ein Resultat unseres Unvermögens die Gesamtheit der quantenmechanischen Vorgänge wahrzunehmen, welches uns dazu bewegt makroskopische Hilfsgrößen (z.B. die Entropie, um die’s in besagter Formel geht) zur Beschreibung der “Realität” heranzuziehen, welche dadurch aber im Endeffekt nur eine weichgezeichnete Realität ist. Boltzmann habe das bereits verstanden, so Rovelli. Mit anderen Worten: Zeit so wie wir sie beschreiben als alltägliche Erfahrung mag zwar für uns “real” sein, für’s Universum (das im Übrigen eine Scheißgegend ist!) ist Zeit aber vermutliche eher soetwas wie eine Katze, nämlich kein fundamentaler Baustein, sondern etwas das “emerged”, also hervorgehen kann aus dem Basisuniversum.

Man muss sich für die Lektüre etwas Zeit nehmen, aber sie ist gut investiert!

Taking us on a journey to deconstruct time: Carlo Rovelli.

Lithuanian midsummer

We recently had the privilege to be hosted by Lithuanian friends of ours for some fabulous days of baltic midsummer: collecting berries and wild thyme in the forest, swimming in the lake, wine, bbq and redbeet soup, Liliputas cheese, no sounds except for birds, dragonflies and the occasional fish jumping … and a bit of history lessons at Gruto Parkas.

Baltic midsummer at its best!

Thanks so much, Asta and Kestutis!

O-Hanami in Neukölln

Fukubana cherry gladly survived the move to Neukölln last year, despite attacks from evil rubble and tumbling wooden plates on the back then still a construction site “garden”. Nothing a little duct tape can’t fix! 😉 Now, among some old and many new friends, she thanked with a particularly splendid blossom (jap.: sakura). Björn and I sat a bit under it and looked at it (jap.: hanami, … or o-hanami if you wanna be polite – yes, we do! we’re in Japan!) for good fortune.
Now we’re experiencing a bit of a temperature drop again – no frost, but almost – and what might help better against the cold coming back in spring than Takeshi?! So lets watch a bit of “Show of HANDS” (categories, darlings, categories!)



Sakura. Best served with some hot plastic-bottled green tea from the vending machine 🙂 Or with sake.