Since Richard Wagner’s death, the music story in Germany has been one of a long, slow, seemingly unending and inexorable decline, with The Scorpions, Kraftwerk, and Rammstein the few exceptions. Perhaps there is no brighter, glaringer example of this than at Oktoberfest. The songs heard at Oktoberfest with German lyrics are often also sung at… Read More Oktoberfest: Top-10 American Songs
THE LONDON TIMES Filed on October 13th, 1810 Munich — Yesterday, on a cold, damp, drizzly Friday afternoon, October 12th, 1810, Bavaria’s Crown Prince Ludwig married Princess Therese Charlotte Luise Frederica Emilie of Saxony-Hildburghausen, at the Hofkapelle inside Munich’s Residence, in front of about 200 witnesses. Bavaria’s favorite son, and Saxony’s most eligible lady-in-waiting tied the knot just after 2 pm. During a… Read More Oktoberfest’s Backstory: Ludwig Meets His Match
We are in the middle of one of the truly great times of the year in Bavaria. Alexander Pope wrote in his poem titled “An Essay on Man”, “Hope springs eternal in the human breast”, and the same can be said for spring in Bavaria and Germany, the land often shrouded in grey. The reason… Read More Spargel (Asparagus) Means Spring in Bavaria, and so much more (NF)
The Germans are fond of saying “April, April, der macht was er will.” April, April, he does what he wants. In Germany, April gets a bad rap for its weather. That is saying a lot in a country where cold drizzle falling from skies imbued with more than fifty shades of grey is as ubiquitous… Read More A Bit About April
This is not a normal post for this blog, but it seemed appropriate for the day. A true story. Many years ago, when I was first cutting my teeth in the restaurant business as a server, I was scheduled to work a dreaded Valentine’s Day evening. All the ‘newbies’ got these shifts because all of… Read More A Valentine’s Day Ghost
Late in the 19th century, to combat Bismarck’s protectionist “Rye and Iron” tariffs, Great Britain forced all products sold in the UK to be labelled with their country of origin. The words “Made in Germany” were born. It was intended in the late 1800s and early 1900s to dissuade Brits from buying inferior products and… Read More German Mega-projects Play Like Greek Theater (NF/F)
Laptops And Lederhosen 