Richard Barrett – Darmstadtium – Acoustic Guitar (2012)

Hoping to warm up a frigid Friday morning with some virtuoso acoustic jazz guitar. Enjoy, and stay warm.

Last night was rough. Around 4:00 PM yesterday, one, maybe two, dogs got into our pasture and attacked the emus and one of the emus (Sidney) jumped the fence and ran away. Then the dog chewed his way through the wire fence of our neighbor’s chicken coop and killed 10 of their 14 birds.

We searched all evening for the emu – at times with the help of several sheriff’s deputies. And then we stayed up until late dressing our neighbor’s dead birds, so they would not go to waste. The next morning we did find the emu in a neighborhood off of Umstead Road, quite a bit closer to home.

Many people saw the emu and even posted photos on Facebook, and today even the local news picked up the emu story and came out to take some pictures:

Read on for the whole story …

Read the rest of this entry »

I’d like you to meet Henry …

Henry is from Arizona and he moved in with us on Dec. 29. So he has lived with us for three weeks now. He is starting to settle in very nicely and he and our Russian Blue Koklo are getting more and more comfortable with each other. Henry is an Abyssinian cat and we got him from Laura’s brother Peter, who is moving to Costa Rica. More photos below …

Henry ist bei uns Ende Dezember eingezogen. Laura’s Bruder hat ihn uns aus Arizona geschickt, da er und seine Frau nach Costa Rica auswandern. Henry ist eine reinrassige Abessinerkatze, und langsam aber sicher lebt er sich be uns gut ein. Noch mehr Bilder hier …

Read the rest of this entry »

This morning we had the coldest temperatures in over a decade: 8°F (-13°C) and that only 26 hours after a high of 59°F (+15°C). The data below are from our weather stations at the house. At RDU, the low was 9, which breaks the record cold temperatures from 1988 for the day.

Of course our temperatures must still seem balmy to folks in Canada and much of the Mid-West, which saw temperatures well below Zero Fahrenheit this morning.

DEUTSCH
Kälterekord heute Morgen: minus 13°C bei uns am Haus, und das nur 26 Stunden nachdem wir plus 15°C gemessen haben. Die Tafel oben zeigt die extremen Temperaturschwankungen in den letzten 3 Tagen -7.5 in der Nacht vom Samstag zu Sonntag, Montag Morgen +15, dann -13 heute Morgen – alles von unserer Wetterstation am Haus aufgezeichnet. Unsere Kälte ist natürlich immer noch mild im Vergleich zu der Kältewelle die den Mittleren Westen im eisigen Griff hat, mit gefühlen Temperaturen weit unter minus 40 Grad!

2013 was quite the roller-coaster. We experienced loss and sadness as well as some real highlights. We saw our children grow a lot last year, physically (!) and mentally, but we also lost a family member. We traveled quite a lot, but not all of it was for fun. We also lost two of our beloved cats, and got a new one. 2013 brought quite a lot of change.

The most significant change that directly affected us was Laura’s new job as Executive Director of Dryad (and project manager for Dyad at Duke). Exactly a year ago, she left One World Market and plunged into this new adventure. It has been a roller coaster ride, to say the least, but it is also a welcome change from the world of retail. We definitely enjoy the greater flexibility of her schedule; she can pick up the kids from school sometimes and we can have lunch together and not much weekend work (and if so, from home). One nice perk of her new job is the travel associated with it. She went to Europe twice last year (England and Belgium in the spring and France in the fall) and I met her in Paris in November and we celebrated our 20th wedding anniversary in the city where I proposed to her 20 yeas ago. That trip was a lot of fun!

My job has changed a lot, too, since we had to lay off my team-mate, due to lack of funding for his position. Even though it was not a total surprise, it was still a shock when we were informed that he was going to get laid off. He has since found a new job. So since April, I am running our lab’s IT stuff by myself. I’ve been simplifying our infrastructure as much as I could, for example doing away with our local email server and consolidating our file servers. But the last months have been busy, and it’s promising to be a busy year, as we have now new studies coming online. even last week, even though I was at home, trying to take some time off, I ended up working almost every day for several hours. Oh well, I am just glad I still have a job.

Loss was a big theme in 2013, too. In March, my sister lost her husband completely surprisingly due to a pulmonary embolism. Karsten was only 48 years old, and the two of them ran a successful driving school. But since she is not a certified instructor, she was not allowed to continue the school and had to sell it. In April, I flew to Germany to attend the funeral and to visit my mom and my sister. As sad as the occasion was, it was good to spend some time with them to reconnect after all these years. Also, my mom’s sister and her sons came to the funeral and it was good to see them, too. The most important thing for me to do, and really the only thing I  could do, was to be there and be supportive of my sister and my mom. The funeral was very somber and emotional, but also very personal and positive. Many friends and some former students came to the funeral and offered support and help to my sister. I was glad to see that. My sister and I have kept in touch since, and she is hanging in there.

We also lost our two old cats, Deha and Sodabe. Deha was almost 20 years old and Sodabe was 18 years old. They had both lived with us almost their entire lives, and so we felt a little bit like we lost family members when they passed away. In addition, after I came home from Karsten’s funeral, our poodle Meme met with an untimely, tragic end. AND … in February, one of our emus died, too.

The good news is that the other two emus are doing great. They are fully mature lady emus now, and they run around like crazy fools, fluffing their feathers and drumming their hearts out. So now that we know they are both girls, we’re in the market for a male emu.

Our remaining cat Koklo was feeling pretty lonely after Sodabe died. She often sat in the driveway for hours, and it looked like she was waiting for him. But now, as of last week, we have a new cat – Henry. He is a very handsome Abyssinian cat (with papers) and we got him from Laura’s brother Peter, who is moving to Costa Rica. Henry seems like a very nice cat and it looks like he and Koklo are going to get along fine.

A real highlight of 2013 was our summer family-plus-horses vacation in the mountains. We loaded the horses, the bikes, the kayak and all our other stuff on the hose rig and hauled it up the mountain to a cabin on the New River in Virginia. We spent a week there riding, kayaking, biking, hiking and relaxing. Good times!

Another highlight – also horse-related – was our first hunter pace with the Red Mountain Hounds fox hunting club. Laura and Julia rode Wally and Cleo and they came in 7th in their class. Not bad for the first time! I was there, too, as “support staff” and ended up helping the organizers a bit here and there, which was quite fun, actually. They are great people!

In the fall, we enjoyed several great concerts and we already have more tickets for concerts in 2014. This area has a really vibrant music scene. So with both kids playing music and now old enough to go to interesting concerts, we have almost an obligation to take them out and experience some of these great performances in and around Durham. Also, Duke finished the renovation of Baldwin auditorium on campus, and that is now a top-notch music venue, just a 15-Min drive from our home. And I get an employee discount. So we saw Kiril Gerstein and the Ciompi Quartett with the Kruger Brothers at Baldwin and the Mallarme Chamber Players with the fantastic violinist Jennifer Curtis and guitarist Dex Romweber at the Casbah. All three concerts were just plain amazing. And it was especially fun to experience them as a family.

Last summer was not too terribly hot, so I was able to go on longer runs fairly early at the end of the summer. I really enjoyed 8-10 mile runs on a quiet Sunday morning. So when I found out about the Bull City Race Fest here in Durham, I signed up for their half-marathon and started pushing my distance even further and did several 13-mile runs. It was very satisfying and fun, but during the last training run before the race, I noticed pain in my right knee. The race was a week later, and halfway through the race the pain became pretty bad and so I pretty much just limped the last five miles to the finish. But I made it.

About the weather – this was by far the wettest, rainiest summer and fall we’ve had here in years. The good news is that we were out of the drought conditions for most of the year. The problem was the mold, though. Laura is clearly allergic to mold, and she had quite a bit of trouble with that. Also, the soggy, muddy pasture causes hoof problems for he horses.

But we were lucky with the weather for our Black Friday party – it was a nice, chilly night. And since we were out out the drought we made several big fires to keep us warm while we were enjoying our delicious beer. And last night I made a huge bonfire for New Year’s, and our neighbors and their friends came over and we had a great time sitting around this massive fire, eating and drinking and having a great time.

So that’s it for 2013. I hope you all had a great start for 2014 and I wish you all success and happiness for the New Year. Let’s make it a good one!

Jürgen

Today is the last day to support your favorite causes and get the tax credit in April (if you pay taxes in the U.S.) – so do it! Support the people and charities that “fight the good fight!” Her are the charities I supported this year:

Doctors Without Borders/Medecins Sans Frontiers (MSF)
MSF is an international independent medical humanitarian organization that delivers emergency aid to people affected by armed conflict, epidemics, natural and man-made disasters, and exclusion from health care. In 1999, MSF received the Nobel Peace Prize.

Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF)
EFF fights for privacy and freedom of speech on the Internet.

American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)
The ACLU fights to preserve the constitutionally guaranteed civil liberties in the United States. I especially appreciate their stand against capital punishment and for prisoner’s rights. (Important info about donating to the ACLU here)

Planned Parenthood
provides free healthcare and sex education; advocates for reproductive rights in the U.S.

Environmental Defense Fund (EDF)
Science-based environmental protection organization

One World Market
Durham’s only non-profit fair trade store

SEEDS
teaches Durham’s youth respect for life, for the earth and for each other through gardening and growing food

These are the causes I actively support, and I would invite you to join me and make a contribution to one or more of them, too.

I know there are many more worthy causes out there. If you know of one, please comment.

Happy New Year!

Yesterday we set a temperature record of 78°F (26°C) and I decided to work on my composting project. I had two nice piles of compost from last year that I had turned in early summer. One of the piles I had inoculated with mycorrhizal fungus to see if that has any benefit for the compost. And boy, did it ever! You can see in the photo below (click to enlarge), I got perfect chocolate cake from that pile. Awesome!

Read the rest of this entry »

Rest in Peace, Madiba.

Nelson Mandela visits his old cell on Robben Island in 1994
Image by © Louise Gubb/CORBIS SABA

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

“Invictus” by William Ernest Henley (1849–1903)

Last Friday we invited some friends over for our Black Friday Party, and, as usual, good times were had by all. When the whole world goes mad and shoppers storm the malls and discount stores, I like to gather some good friends down by the pond, where we light some fires to keep us warm and cook some food. And at sunset we tap a keg of the finest beer know to man.

Friday night was pretty chilly and after sunset temperatures soon dropped to below freezing. We had two burn barrels and a campfire blazing We cooked sweet potatoes Manfred and Nancy had grown and grilled hot dogs  and made s’mores. People brought various snacks and someone brought a tasty stew. We had to keep the keg near the fire to keep the beer from getting too cold. Everyone agreed that this was a much better way to spend Black Friday than shopping at the mall.
(Photos by Zack)

Read the rest of this entry »

Last week, Laura and I returned to Paris for the first time in 20 years. Laura flew out during the previous week for work and I followed her on Saturday for a few days of fun in the City of Light. After exploring the city over the weekend (see here), Monday’s primary focus was the Musée du Louvre – one of the world’s largest museums in one of the world’s most famous buildings.

Among the 35,000 pieces of art and historical objects in the Louvre are some of the world’s most iconic paintings, like Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa, Dürer’s self portrait and Vermeer’s The Lacemaker, sculptures like the Aphrodite (aka Venus de Milo) and Michelangelo’s Captive, as well as historical artifacts like the famous statue of Rameses II, the Seated Scribe and the Code of Hammurabi (the oldest written legal code known to man).

With just an afternoon to explore this massive treasure trove, we focused on the Dutch Masters and spent quite a bit of time on the Rubens exhibit. Later we explored  the Mesopotamian collection, including the Code of Hammurabi, the giant friezes from the Palace of Sargon II, as well as some of the oldest writing samples known to man.

The history of the Louvre Palace itself is also quite interesting: it dates back to the a 12th century fortress of King Philip Augustus, also called the Louvre, which was razed in 1546 by King Francis I in favor of a larger royal residence. The Louvre was the residence of the French Kings until King Louis XIV moved his residence to Versailles in 1678.

After the Louvre, we went to Cafe RUC on Rue Saint-Honoré, just a block from the Louvre, and had a very nice dinner. I had the best liver I ever had! After dinner, we strolled up Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré, past the Elysée Palace – the residence of the French President – and all the fancy boutiques.

On our way back, we picked up a nice bottle of champagne and then we climbed up the Arc de Triomphe to enjoy a fantastic night-time view of Paris. After that, we retreated to our hotel to rest our tired feet.

The next day – Tuesday – we did some more shopping, then we headed to Montmartre. We had a nice pizza lunch at Restaurant Le Saint-Regis on the Rue D’Orsel. We also visited Sacré-Cœur, in front of which Laura and I got engaged 20 years ago. Then we walked around the Northern part of Montmartre, around Rue Caulaincourt and Rue Coustine.  That neighborhood is much less touristy and has lots of little shops and cafes.

We slowly made our way down to the Boulevard Barbès and got on the Metro at Mercadet-Poissoniers to head over to the Champs de Mars to check out the Eiffel Tower again and for another river cruise on the Seine. This time the cruise took us past Pont Alexandre III and 16 other bridges on the Seine, past the Île de la Cité, around Île Saint Louis and back to the Eiffel Tower. Due to high water levels, they had to deviate from the usual route a bit.

At 324 metres (1,063 ft), the  Eiffel Tower is still the tallest structure in Paris and the second-tallest in France. When it was completed for the 1889 World’s Fair, it was the tallest man-made structure in the world, only to be surpassed in 1930 by the Chrysler Building in New York. Still, today it dominates the center of Paris, especially at night when it is lit up.

Obviously, the view from the tower is just breathtaking, especially on a clear night. We had a pretty good view (photos below) but we were pretty tired and did not stay for a long time.

Afterwards, we walked back to Avenue Wagram and had a very nice, late dinner at L’Etoile 1903. We both had salads (mine had duck gizzards, foie gras and bacon) and a bottle of Chapelle de Venenge Brouilly 2012. Around midnight , we strolled back to the Hotel Ceramic.

Wednesday morning, we took the Air France coach to CDG (through terrible rush hour traffic) and flew Air France to ATL and Delta back to RDU.

More photos below … Read the rest of this entry »

Last week, Laura and I returned to Paris for the first time in 20 years. Laura flew out during the previous week for work and I followed her on Saturday for a few days of fun in the City of Light. Saturday evening, we met with several folks from her work for a dinner cruise on the Seine. the Bateaux Parisiens cruises start right below the Eiffel Tower and someone was flying these cool, illuminated balloons that night.

The cruise was fun and the food and drinks were very good. The ambiance of enjoying a nice, three-course meal while the vistas of Paris at night are slowly gliding by the windows is really remarkable. Highly recommended.

Sunday morning, we started out at our little Hotel on the Avenue de Wagram (just 3 blocks from the Arc de Triomphe) and took the metro to Les Halles and walked to the Île de la Cité to visit Notre Dame during the Gregorian Mass at 10 AM. After witnessing the “miracle of the transubstantiation,” we climbed the 387 steps up to top the the Cathedral to enjoy a fantastic view across downtown Paris from the highest point of the oldest part of town.

I also took a bunch of up-close photos of the famous gargoyles that decorate this almost 780 year-old building.

After that climb, we took a break and warmed ourselves at Aux Tours de Notre Dame – a touristy cafe across the street, over some French onion soup, coffee and a glass of Poire Williams.

Refreshed, we continued our exploration of Île de la Cité by visiting the Marché aux Fleurs, Sainte Chapelle and the Conciergerie.

Later that evening, we crossed Pont Neuf again, and made our way to the Centre Pompidou to take a look at the world’s second largest collection of modern and contemporary art at the Musée National d’Art Moderne. We just spent a couple of hours there, before they closed, and we did not even scratch the surface of that collection. Very cool place, but it really requires some time.

After that, we slowly made our way back along Rue de Rivoli, past the Louvre, Place de la Concorde to the Champs-Élysées, where a Christmas market was set up. We had a glass of hot wine and marveled at the super-tacky spectacle along the bustling Avenue.

After that, we headed back to Place Etoile and Avenue Wagram, where we had a nice dinner at a Moroccan restaurant.

More photos below …

Read the rest of this entry »

On this Day Of The Lord 11/12/13, I present to you, dear reader Bohemian Gravity – an a Capella explanation of string theory to the tune of Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody by Tim Blais:

Notice the Einstein sock puppet at 2:39

And yes, I know that to most of the world it is in fact 12.11.13

Sunday morning at 7:30 we loaded the horses and headed out to Quail Roost Farm for Laura’s and Julia’s first hunter pace event, organized by a local fox hunt club, the Red Mountain Hounds. Since the farm is only a 15 Minute drive away, we were there quite early and had plenty of time to get ready. At around 9:00, they headed out with the first few riders.

Wally and Cleo (and Julia) at the Red Mountain Hounds hunter pace

A hunter pace is a riding event where the riders follow a flagged course of 8 – 14 miles (13 – 22 KM) and attempt to complete the course as closely to the “optimal” time as possible. Laura and Julia rode in the Hill Toppers division, and they were supposed to ride at 6MpH (9.6 KMH) with optional jumps. It was gorgeous, sunny fall day and they had a great time and got a nice workout in the process.

While the girls were out on the trails, I hung out with the organizers and helped out a little bit here and there. At one point, one of the riders came galloping back because another rider had fallen pretty badly and needed help. They called an ambulance and headed out on the trail in a truck and I took care of the horse. The ambulance arrived a few minutes later and took the injured rider to the hospital.

Laura and Julia completed their ride safely by 10:30 and looked like hey had had a great time. We let the horses cool down and gave them some water and by 11:30 we headed home. No we’re just curious about the results, which should be posted soon.

More photos of Wally and Cleo below.

Read the rest of this entry »

I have always loved the classical piano, perhaps because Beethoven’s Piano Concertos and Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition were my introduction to classical music. Now that both my kids play strings instruments, chamber music has become more of a focus for our classical music enjoyment. However when I saw a few weeks ago, that Kirill Gerstein was  going to be performing Pictures at an Exhibition right here in Durham, I jumped on the opportunity. Not only to finally have an opportunity to experience one of my favorite musical pieces performed live, but by one of the best pianists alive, who also Russian … right here at Baldwin Auditorium!

So last night, Jacob and I headed into town to experience what turned out to be another amazing musical event on Duke’s East Campus. This was the program for that evening:

Haydn: Variations in F Minor
Schumann: Carnaval
Timo Andres: Old Friend
Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition

He also played a short Rachmaninov piece as an encore, after he got a rather enthusiastic ovation at the end of the concert.

After the concert, we stayed for a bit to wait for Gerstein to come out into the lobby where he signed CDs. I got one, too, and had him sign it. When he heard my German accent, he asked me where I am from and I told him that I am from Freiburg. Turns out he lives in Freiburg! And he teaches at the Musikhochschule in Stuttgart. We had a brief chat and he seems like a really nice guy.

Another cool thing that happened was this well dressed, older gentleman who walked up with his cane to Gerstein and told him, with his voice even a bit choked up, that “This was the most amazing concert of my life! Thank you!” People around the table all nodded in agreement – yes, this was indeed a great, impressive performance.

Happy Friday :)

CARAVAN PALACE at the Karlstor Bahnhof Heidelberg

Would love to see these guys live one day …

Today I left the house at 6:30 and headed to downtown Durham to for a run, together with 5800 other runners. It was the Bull City Race Fest and I had signed up for the half-marathon – 13.1 miles/21 KM. I knew it was going to be a difficult run for me because last weekend my right knee had started to hurt during a training run. Friday I ran a 3-miler and at the end my knee did hurt a little bit. so was really not sure whether I was going to be able to finish this run. Another problem was the cold temperatures – it was 46 deg. F (7.7 Deg, C) – which is a bit chilly for my bare feet. But I was going to try anyway.

The race was fun and it was an interesting experience to run in a huge crowd like this. The faster runners started in the front and the slower runners in the back. We wound our way through downtown, past Brightleaf, though Trinity Park and Old West Durham to Duke’s East Campus, where the five-miler ended. Then the half marathon continued across East and West Campus and various neighborhoods back to the American Tobacco Complex in downtown. I ran at a really slow pace and so the pain only started about halfway, but then it got bad pretty quickly and I was really considering ending the run. But by mile 10 I had gotten used to the pain and I started to relax a bit, which helped. And so on the last couple of miles I even picked up my pace a bit. Of course my time was terrible, but at least I managed to finish the run. And of course my bare feet got quite a few comments during the run and even by the announcers at the finish line.

I rested a bit, got a snack, and then I drove home and iced my knee thoroughly. I really hope that my knee will heal soon if I give it some rest. All in all I had fun, though. The Bull City Race Fest was a bit of circus, but very well organized, the course was pretty and there was lots of cheering from staff and from spectators.

Last night, we went out to a strings concert by the Mallarme Chamber Players with the fantastic violinist Jennifer Curtis and … Dex Romweber (lead guitarist of the Flat Duo Jets). A bit like the Ciompi Quartett, this was another concert that broke down musical barriers and tied a variety of musical traditions together. Complex classical music with amazing, almost acrobatic virtuoso performances contrasted with gorgeous, down-to-earth folk music and a mind-blowing rockabilly jam session with Dex on his Silvertone 1448 electric guitar and Jennifer with her 1777 Vincenzo Panormo violin.

The venue was the Casbah, a small private club on Main St. that has become a very popular music venue in Durham. We enjoyed this performance in the front row and it was just amazing to experience such a caliber of musical talent so close-up and in such an intimate setting. I mean, I love the Mallarme Players – they are wonderful musicians, and I knew Jennifer Curtis is famous, and I had not even spotted Dex’ name on the program at first! So when Suzanne Rousso and Jennifer started out with a pretty, quite modern and very, very technical piece, I thought “wow – they are starting out with a bang!” Next up was another complex contemporary piece for cello and guitar by Radamés Gnattali. But it wasn’t until Jennifer just  – I don’t know – smoked that Paganini Guitar Quartett, when I started to realize that they we were being treated to something truly special that evening.

In the second half, Jennifer changed the mood from Carnegie Hall to Merle Fest, performing a very folksy composition by Mark O’Connor, together with Matthew Slotkin. After that, Dex came on stage, plugged in his famous Silvertone 1448 and started strumming out his earthy rockabilly chords, while Jennifer accompanied him with her near-weightless, soaring violin. As they say around these parts: That was som’thin else. I had never heard a sound quite like that – a single electric guitar, a violin and Dex’ gravelly blues-rock voice. A-ma-zing!

So these guys took us from Gnattali and Paganini to a rockabilly cover of Brazil in a matter of an hour and a half. And Jennifer Curtis did not even seem to break a sweat. And after the show, on our way to the car, we walked past Dex, who was smoking a cigarette outside the club. He looked like he’d had fun that evening as well.

[Update – embedded video below]

Read the rest of this entry »

First installment of “trivia that blows my mind” … yeah, Groucho Marx and Alice Cooper were buddies. Look at them having breakfast …

Here is what Alice said recently about his friendship with Groucho:

Well Groucho Marx – I grew up on Groucho Marx. The Marx Brothers, every time they were on, I would sit and watch them and laugh like crazy because they were so funny. I never thought I would get a chance to meet Groucho. And so the deal was, he came to one of the shows. And when he came to the show, they asked him “what did you think of Alice Cooper?” and he said “Alice is the last chance for Vaudeville.” And I took that as a real compliment, because what we do is a dark humor, rock n’ roll style of Vaudeville, and he had seen the guillotine and the snake before in Vaudeville. There had been acts that were like that. And then we got to be very good friends. He was sharp as a tack, even when he was 86 years old his mind was as sharp as it ever was. And it was so much fun to hang out with Groucho Marx.

Blows my little mind …

Einigkeit und Recht und Freiheit!

A month ago, I signed up for a half marathon run at the Durham Race Fest. I started training, mostly by going on long runs Sunday mornings, to see if I can actually cover that distance (21.1 KM). Sunday morning, I ran 21.5 KM (13m) along Guess Road and I really feel like I am getting into the groove of longer-distance running – and barefoot, of course.