Farm Box

This week's farm box was the prettiest one yet (and arguably the most phallic) (not that I equate phallic with pretty) (oh, dear.) (forget it! Even Freud said that sometimes a carrot is just a carrot)(and who cares about Freud now anyway--- brain scientists have totally discredited him).

Cooking projects for this weekend include making my own ricotta cheese (it seems like you just put some milk and lemon juice together) and then using it to make ricotta gnocchi, as well as finding out what those crazy red carroty radishy turnipy things taste like.

The Berry Patch!

European weirdness

I just received this text on my phone:

"Dis-moi si tu as du lait et si oui, amène le. bisous."

Translated by babelfish: "Tell me if you have milk, and if so, bring it. kisses."

Another sign that I need to learn French?

A social life-- amazing!

The weather here is unbelievable-- hot and sunny, and now that we are more or less certified Kölner and Kölnerin, we know that this may indeed be the summer. July could be rainy, August could be cold (but it doesn't really matter to me, I won't be here anyway. ha!)

And since we have been here for so long (almost 3 years!!), we have made a few friends, and everyone had something going this weekend (poor Jeremy is kind of chained to The Science, so he could only go to one picnic). The Greek/French girl who did the video for my show had a party on Saturday, and Beate and I ended up talking for most of the time with a filmmaker. He had a newly discovered love for classical music, and it was enchanting to hear Beate explain the difference between classical music and baroque.

Then, on Sunday, I went to a Köln Tanzt picnic at an amazing park on the other side of the Rhein. I saw a herd of sheep grazing there! I wanted to go pet them and see if I could just make a little woolly snip, but they were kind of far away, the day was hot, and I got lazy. After that, I booked it over to another park, in order to serve the scientists my strawberry tarts and eat Orhan's sardines (Orhan's family owns a fish store... I complimented the sardines so much that we can now be assured of delicious grilled fish at every barbeque).

Now I am getting ready for my next show-- a little "Divertissement Royale" in Switzerland with Bernhard (the guy I worked for for the Lambrazi show). I'll be there June 3-7.

Grocery Day!

Part 2 of the ongoing Everyday in Cologne series. Plus, the strawberries are so pretty.

Random, part 5

I don't know if I should wait until something exciting happens here to write a blog entry, or if I should just bombard you all with the everyday happenings, hoping that something will be of general interest.

So, in the interest of experimentation, here are the random happenings from this week:

I drank a big glass full of buttermilk flavored with black current syrup. This was an insanely German act (the dairy cases are filled with varieties of buttermilk in various flavors), especially since it tasted delicious.

The veggies and fruits from the farm keep on a-coming, and each week I am trolling epicurious for more and more recipes for apples and carrots. I found a yummy carrot soup with ginger and lemon, and made some tasty roast chicken thighs with roasted apples wrapped in bacon. I like the way that always having a pile of apples and carrots has forced me to get creative-- at least I tell myself that as I stare at yet another kilo of apples (oh, sure, you can say that I could just EAT the apples, but darling, that is too easy).

Our raspberry plants are going wild! Maybe in a few weeks we will have our very first crop.

Today is Christi Himmelfahrt, the second official holiday in May. It's also Fathers Day, something about men filling up wagons with beer and presumeably drinking them somewhere. I can't keep up with all the beer-related holidays.

more German bio sightings

If you would like to see my bio in German again (it's always a hoot to me...), check out: the website for the Schwetzinger Tanztage, the week-long workshop where I will be teaching baroque alongside others teaching modern, ballet, and musical dancing.

And The Punks Delight website has been updated by my hard-working brother! New pictures and the review of A Profound Bagatelle!

sorry for the delay...

I realized I hadn't posted anything in a while-- somehow this Köln Tanzt show sapped all of my energy, even though I was on stage for a scant 15 minutes. I did spend some time volunteering last week-- wrapping packets of newspaper in cellophane (btw, German cellophane is vastly inferior to American) and ironing tablecloths. All this grunt work (plus my sunny attitude) did get me an invite to Berlin from the set designer. Now if only I can find another reason to go...
I also made friends with a few modern dancers and the hip-hop/breakdance kids. There are some very friendly folks in the German dance scene, especially the other dance 'outsiders'. Adorably, the oldschool hip-hop girl asked me how she could get more theater work-- she said she was tired of doing commercial shows. If only I knew!

The cherries are in the stores! I broke my 'only Köln' veggie and fruit rule, in order to make my famous spring cherry clafouti, and I couldn't resist picking up some big fat white asparagus, too. I mean, one can only do so much with the apples, carrots, and kohlrabi that came this week in my veggie box from the farm. No more giant bunches of rübstiel. Boo-hoo.

Wiederholen Sie, bitte?

I'm going to be on German TV!

This crazy Köln Tanzt show that I joined last month is getting crazier and crazier. The actual performance is May 14th from 6pm until, apparently, sometime the next morning. There may be anywhere from 500-1000 people (with 100 people on stage, that's a safe bet). The stage performances will last approximately 4 hours with lots of side performances happening in the foyer for people who can't get into the stage area. I'm finding it hard to describe, so we will just have to buy a camera...

Anyway, because this show is such an interesting project for Cologne, some of the local TV stations are running pieces on it. I'll be on Center TV (the VERY local station-- sometimes between shows they run footage of the tram going through the city)-- LIVE-- on Friday at 5:45pm my time, or for East Coasters 11:45am.

Here's the link where you can watch it streaming (I hope it works in America...): Center TV

I'll be dancing a few variations from the follia d'espagna, but they may also ask us questions. Yikes!

And then, on Monday, WDR comes to the Spichern Höfe (where we will do the performance) for their show Lokalzeit (Local Time). This time Beate and hopefully my viola da gambist, Myriam, will be with me, so we may do a bit from Venus.

Maifeiertag

It was an enlightening weekend-- a couple of the chronically puzzling things about Germany were satisfactorily explained. Beate took me out to the village where she grew up, and we spent the day with her family, walking around town and speaking LOTS and LOTS of German.

Puzzle #1:
All over Germany you can see on peoples' doorjambs a confusing array of numbers and symbols written in chalk. I have to admit that I thought it was some kind of cult, but it turns out to be a charming/creepy facet of Christmas here. Between Christmas and the Epiphany, children dress up as the Three Kings (Beate tells me she used to wear blackface and a turban-- what is up with all the blackface?) and collect money for charity. When a house has given money, they chalk up the weird numbers and symbols on the doorjamb, so that the other kids know that this house has already given money.

Puzzle #2:
The other confusing thing is the leafy branches of trees tied with ribbons that appear all over the place around May 1st. I had thought May 1st was just like Labor Day in the US, but it seems to have a tie-in to Valentine's Day, too. Boys decorate the tree branches and stick them on the house (on the flag-holder, crammed into the window, taped onto the drain-pipe) of girls they like. HOWEVER, no one here dances around the Maypole ("Oh, Sarah, they only do that in Southern Germany."), much to my disappointment.
Here's one from Cologne-- maybe Jeremy tied it to that telephone pole just for me?

I guess not.


A street in Beate's hometown, Kempen, with very organized and color-coordinated May branches.

Other scenes from Kempen:



The Catherdral that they recently and controversally painted with an approximation of the orginal ox-blood stain. Eeew.


Maikäfer! Good-luck springtime candy--


And, of course, the statue of Thomas von Kempen, aka Thomas à Kempis, medieval Christian monk and author of The Imitation of Christ.

Maybe you agree with Jeremy...

I thought that with the leggings and the bug-eyes-Swedish-thrift-store sunglasses (which are actually very useful for keeping the bugs OUT of my eyes when I am riding my bike-- but I think I did see a girl point and laugh at me), I looked perhaps a little bit fashion victimy, but Jeremy assured me I was a fashion assailant instead. I like that better.

Much more later! (about Mayday and the show next week, not about my bizarre fashion choices)