my friend said: the people demand your observations and progress reports. It's a little egotistical but less so because you're in the middle of a Unique Experience and I know you won't be a tool and write dull tripe.
Let's hope she's right. I'd like to say before anything gets started that this isn't for me, it's for you, even though we all know that isn't true. Anyhow, write me a real letter, and I'll write you back. I'll save some time for the little people. Ha.
For now, it'll be fake mail.
FIRST POST.
This first bit was a response to something posted by a friend of mine regarding Motiveless Walking, written by Iain Sinclair:
In London, from the first, I walked.
He describes the walk as a narrative, as a moving film made from static images.
The walking hasn't exactly been Motiveless thus far. I've gone out with a purpose, rather than to explore, and in fact have not even been onto the balcony at my apartment yet. (Heavens.) So, Motivated as the following walks were, they were still interesting to me, or at least informative. Here, in order.
1. the grocery store. not a long walk. Almost as close as 7 Monte Vista is to Piedmont grocery, add a 100 feet or so. This was on my first full day here, and I was pretty jet-lagged; I stood in front of weird crackers and couldn't wrap my mind around them, seeing as how it felt like the middle of the night.
2. a different grocery store. Actually the same company ("Migros") but this one had 5 floors, including a basement (vegetables and fresh meat). The other floors had things like stationery supplies (3), clothing that all appeared to be some shade of purple (2), a bakery (2), electronics and sports equipment (4), umbrellas (1). My roommate took me there to buy a mobile phone, as they are called here. As you know. (As I'll be calling them when I return to America and speak like some wannabe from The Continent.)
3. the Schola Cantorum, the school I'll be attending, to meet a bass player. Federico, from Argentina. We went for a beer, he was nice. Next week we are going to travel together to Germany to attend a music festival at which our teacher David will be playing, and where we'll take lessons with this bassist named Dane Roberts. He's from San Deigo but has been living in Europe for 30 years. Anyway, the school seems very nice, I only saw the cafeteria area, and some pretty girls standing around, mostly holding cellos or gambas. We went to some student-y bar for a beer, which was light, and fine. The beer, I mean. Both times I've been in a bar here someone has come up to the table trying to sell things, the first time (this time) it was touristy nick-knacks, the next time (#6) it was a teddy bear on a key chain.
For now, it'll be fake mail.
FIRST POST.
This first bit was a response to something posted by a friend of mine regarding Motiveless Walking, written by Iain Sinclair:
In London, from the first, I walked.
He describes the walk as a narrative, as a moving film made from static images.
The walking hasn't exactly been Motiveless thus far. I've gone out with a purpose, rather than to explore, and in fact have not even been onto the balcony at my apartment yet. (Heavens.) So, Motivated as the following walks were, they were still interesting to me, or at least informative. Here, in order.
1. the grocery store. not a long walk. Almost as close as 7 Monte Vista is to Piedmont grocery, add a 100 feet or so. This was on my first full day here, and I was pretty jet-lagged; I stood in front of weird crackers and couldn't wrap my mind around them, seeing as how it felt like the middle of the night.
2. a different grocery store. Actually the same company ("Migros") but this one had 5 floors, including a basement (vegetables and fresh meat). The other floors had things like stationery supplies (3), clothing that all appeared to be some shade of purple (2), a bakery (2), electronics and sports equipment (4), umbrellas (1). My roommate took me there to buy a mobile phone, as they are called here. As you know. (As I'll be calling them when I return to America and speak like some wannabe from The Continent.)
3. the Schola Cantorum, the school I'll be attending, to meet a bass player. Federico, from Argentina. We went for a beer, he was nice. Next week we are going to travel together to Germany to attend a music festival at which our teacher David will be playing, and where we'll take lessons with this bassist named Dane Roberts. He's from San Deigo but has been living in Europe for 30 years. Anyway, the school seems very nice, I only saw the cafeteria area, and some pretty girls standing around, mostly holding cellos or gambas. We went to some student-y bar for a beer, which was light, and fine. The beer, I mean. Both times I've been in a bar here someone has come up to the table trying to sell things, the first time (this time) it was touristy nick-knacks, the next time (#6) it was a teddy bear on a key chain.
4. flea market at St Peterplatz. There are many, many churches around here, and roads are often named for them. This is an old town; on my way to school (#3) I passed by houses with dates written on them from the 1300s.
The bridge I passed over that night to go home had a 1200 date on it. Indeed. Back to the flea market. I didn't sleep well the night before, woke up at 3 and spent 4 hours trying to get back to sleep, so got (to a certain extent) to see dawn. I guess I fell asleep just before it. When my alarm woke me up at 8, the sun was shining, and I thought that meant that it would be warmer outside. Therefore I didn't wear a hat. Ha! My mistake. I thought my head was going to freeze off. I finally took my scarf and wrapped it around my head, old lady style. The flea market was all around the perimeter of an open area next to St Peters church. The area, criss-crossed by sidewalks and lightly populated by tall spindly trees, has a sidewalk that squares in the park. People had set up all along this sidewalk, and though the things they had were a mixed bag, there were a few things that I might have gotten (art, mostly) if I were still earning money. Nice little paintings and prints. Also a lot of old electronics, crappy figurines, random things... I bought a toaster, and a bike, which was the real reason I went. In a typically Megan move, I found a bike with great style (it's so adorable) that needs some work. Not a ton of work, a new chain, some cleaning and greasing, but still, I couldn't ride it right away, which would have been ideal. In fact, I took the bus home. I could have walked but did I mention how incredibly cold I was?5. bike repair shop. Not far away (nothing is far away here, the whole town is 190,000) but I had to walk the bike. Got a little lost, and arrived just as they were closing. The guy who helped me was a little rude but pumped up my tires, greased the gears, and told me to come back next week so he could fix the chain. The problem is that Basel has this carnival that happens every year called Fasnacht, and everything around town closes for most of the week. So I can't go back until next Friday. Which is fine, really, since I'll be gone three days next week, but I'd really like to use the bike right away. I did ride it home, but the chain is a little long (and rusty) and it had to click into adjustment once or twice per revolution. It's a little sketchy, in other words.
6. bar: zum roten engel (the red angel) with Céline (roommate) and her friends from school. Yes, I went out three times in one day. The town is small enough to be manageable, so it wasn't a big deal. Today I'm going to try to do everything, out and about, in one trip. We'll see how that goes. Céline's school chums were nice, the evening was mostly in German, broken up for me by one or another of the friends feeling sorry for me and asking me questions in English, or telling me what they were talking about. Swiss German is incredibly difficult to understand. Among the group was a girl from Austria, and it was a relief when she spoke; I could tell where words ended, and the next began. The Swiss, however, flow everything together. It's incredibly confusing. I felt bad for Céline so went home early (around 10) so she could just enjoy herself.
7. the closest to a Motiveless walk I've had so far. In reality I was just waiting for a museum to open, but I took the long way round. Wandered out of my neighborhood, over the old bridge,
across to the oldest part of town, up an alleyway and behind the Rathaus, over to the landmark church in town (Münsterkirche - I guess Erasmus is buried there, whom I mostly know about through that *incredibly* trashy show The Tudors which I watched in full last summer, shamefully. Sir Thomas More, whom thankfully I knew about from photographing his book Utopia at Stanford [which, incidentally, was printed in Basel in 1518], was a friend to Erasmus. What a useless aside), and finally onto a little street by the Rhein that led to the Papiermuhle, or Paper Mill, a museum of papermaking, printmaking, and binding. It's pretty awesome. I saw a certificate inside showing that it won best museum in Europe a few years back. You get to see type being cast by hand, they have all the old machines, and a beater for making paper pulp out of rags, connected to a water wheel outside.
I was fortunate to find a Vandercook inside, hopefully soon I'll be able to persuade them to let me use it.There are many more pictures from this day on my flickr page. I'm using so many different parts of the internet it makes me a little woozy.
In general, Sunday is very quiet. Nothing is open, except for churches and museums. Not even the grocery stores are open. Crazy, I know. What if you run out of bread?
Speaking of groceries, food is expensive here, and the Migros by my house (even the 5-story location) is limited. I got a tip last night to go into Germany or France, both of which are about 10 or 15 minutes away by bike, to do my shopping; apparently the shopping center in France has a huge farmer's market with nice vegetables, tons of cheeses, and most importantly, Belgian beer, all for much less money than the markets in CH, even using the Euro instead of the Swiss Franc (CHF). The beer selection in Switzerland is limited to the lightest of the light, from what I've seen so far.
AFTER writing the first part of this post, I made the trip up to Germany and back via train, with bass, which was quite a lot of schlepping, as you can probably imagine. And whining. (The Volvo, I miss the Volvo.) Federico made a good traveling companion and helped me in the purchasing of tickets and the navigation of foreign cities. With basses, of course. The course ended up being three days of masterclasses with Dane Roberts, although David taught for few hours as well in the middle. There were opportunities to play many different instruments and bows, I was given the assignment of learning one of the Haydn bass solos (Horn Signal) on the Viennese bass (5 strings, tuned, top to bottom, A - F# - D - A - f, and with gut frets)
which was quite an experience, but rewarding. I may never get the solo out of my head, having played it exclusively for three days. Saw many lessons, and also through David got to see two concerts: one, chamber music, played Tafelmusik-style with the patrons eating dinner on the floor of the small theatre; the other, a Handel opera done in the traditional Baroque style, with the stage lit entirely with candles and the performers using complicated hand gestures to emphasize their words. I don't actually know what the opera was about, as we only saw the last act (the whole thing was 4 hours long) and the supertitles were in German, of course. (How's my German, you may ask? Coming along, but sloooooowly. Sehr langsamer.)Today (Feb 27) I got my bike fixed, I didn't go back to the other shop (too far, too much attitude) but instead went to one about a block and a half from my apartment, the owner of which was incredibly friendly. He is from Iraq, emigrated 15 years ago after leaving a compulsory stint working as an engineer in the army. Said he left because there's been too much war there. No kidding. Following the bike I went to the farmer's market near my house (with much success) then a resale shop (with even more success -- got some shelves for my room, books in English, and a souffle dish). The weather was good, it made for high spirits. The weather is changeable, but predictable, to some extent; you can expect sun in the morning, a couple days in a row. Clouds roll in around 2, then there will be patchy rain in the afternoon and evening. The third day, it is grey, and lightly rains all day. More than a drizzle, but not enough water to be rain-proper. Today was a mix, there was sun coming in my window but I could see small vertical drops falling on the balcony. So, I went out there, for the first time, to see which cloud the rain could be coming from. I'll just say, it was unclear. There's still a chill in the air but less even than when I arrived. (Thank goodness.)
I say the rain is predictable but I didn't plan for it last night when I went to meet an oboe player from the Schola who is originally from San Rafael. When I left her house, around 9:30, I found my bike seat wet (yes, I had taken my first ride!) and there was a very light rain falling. What followed was something of a comedy of errors. First my satchel slipped off my back, and dangled over the bar. I tried twice to put it onto my back, and meanwhile got myself into the middle of the street. There was no one out, so I wasn't at risk, but I ended up in the middle of the tram tracks. I wanted to get back to the side of the road - these trams stop for no one - and in the process the front tire slipped into one of the grooves and I went down on the right side. Not all that bad, to be sure. The chain came off but since it's brand new I barely got grease on my hands. It did shake me up a little, though. I got home fine, except that the topple must have jarred the front headlight, which, when I went over a bump, flew off and exploded on the street. The back lamp I dropped when I was trying to remount the bike and it stopped working, too; 15CHF, and it only lasted a few hours. Oh well. You can imagine that not a few curse words were said. Comedy of errors indeed.
It's weird how I'm asleep during most of my friends' day, and they're asleep during mine.
Today (Feb 28), I did not leave the house. Instead, I read a book. From start to finish, I mean. The book was OK. (I had got it at the thrift store.) I think after reading W. G. Sebald (The Rings of Saturn was the book I had chosen for my trip out here, which was an interesting choice since every narrative follows a subject to its destruction. Kind of bleak. But so great!) anything is a little disappointing. Shall I conclude here, with this boring bit, my first post? Heck. Why not. It's past dinner time, anyway, and I'm sure you all finished your breakfast long ago.
