Mainz Daily Photo

Lift off.... - #1400

2011-07-25T01:00:00.001+02:00

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1.... #1399

2011-07-24T01:00:00.008+02:00

...very nice lady (Heike Heiseler) from Ono Koon in the Augustinerstrasse.

Not that I bought anything....

2.... #1398

2011-07-23T01:00:00.000+02:00

...chairs outside Ono Koon in the Augustinerstrasse

"I'm 3.... - #1397

2011-07-22T12:52:00.001+02:00

..." said Grace Niklas, my little Irish friend "but I'm almost 4. And then I go to the BIG school"

Growing up in Dublin with an Irish mum and a German (Christoph and Uschi's boy Stephan) dad and perfectly bilingual.

When she leaves Grandma and Granddad's apartment, she says to Áine "We can speak English now, Mummy"

Cute as.

4.... - #1396

2011-07-21T13:00:00.021+02:00

Madonna on high with cherubims, seraphims and twiddly bits at Jakobsbergstrasse 4.

Gimme a "G" - #1395

2011-07-20T01:00:00.015+02:00

Aqueductoral detail on one of the 9 carved stone cubes spelling out Johannes' name on the horizontal surface in front of the Gutenberg Museum.

Why do they always remind me of Country Joe and the Fish at Woodstock....?

(The song's as topical today as it was in 1969 - "Iraq" and "Afghanistan" don't rhyme nor fit the meter quite as well as "Vietnam", though....)

Under the spreading chestnut tree - # 1394

2011-07-19T13:00:00.035+02:00

~~...a boy was playing cricket....~~

"Zum Goldstein" was first documented in 1568 and registered as an operating brewery in 1747.

Mainz had over 20 breweries at the time - "Zum Goldstein" being the 2nd largest - for the simple reason that well water was more than dodgy and the risk of contracting the Dreaded Lurgi from beer and wine was significantly lower.

Folk still say "Was soll ich Wasser trinke un kronk wern, ich trink liewer Bier odder Woi un bleib gesund!" - Why on earth would I want to drink water and get sick, I'll stick to beer or wine and stay healthy.."

A wise strategy and one that I can thoroughly recommend...

"Zum Goldstein" was swallowed by the larger Mainzer Actienbrauerei in 1860, closed down and reduced to selling their product until 1878 when a fire and significant roadworks emasculated the original structure.

These days, it's one of the best places in Mainz to chill out, eat well and enjoy the (Bavarian) beer.

Just stay off the water - you never know where it's been...

The suspense..........- # 1393

2011-07-18T13:00:00.014+02:00

The foyer of the VIP lounge at Colosseum Cofacies decorated with Calderesque figures of "the beautiful game", separated from the photographer by a thick pane of glass ~~and hefty bouncers~~.

Probably the closest I'll ever get to them, if I'm honest

All the print that fits..... - #1392

2011-07-17T13:00:00.010+02:00

Historical stuff, this....

"Typesetting and Design"

Typesetting machine knowledge"

"The serigraph manual"

In 30 years, we (you, actually, I'll have fallen off the perch by then...) will stumble over relics like

"Adobe Pagemaker for beginners".

"Quark XPress in the newsroom"

"Adobe InDesign explained"

and smirk at the outdated stuff they used to work with back in the day.

Except we won't find them on the Johannisnacht bookstalls - they'll be flying around in The Cloud as pdfs or xmls....

Climbing wall.....#1391

2011-07-16T01:00:00.001+02:00

Beginner level stuff.

Urban recycling on the Kästrich.

(Just make sure you don't fall in through the windows....)

You would be jesting - #1390

2011-07-15T13:00:00.002+02:00

The real McCoy, as it were, decorating the collar of the Heunensäule on the market

The Buy Courtyard...-1389

2011-07-14T13:00:00.002+02:00

..is having a Reduziert.

If you have to translate [übersetzen]your advertising [Werbung] into your customers' own language [Sprache], you've got the wrong advertising agency [Werbeagentur].

Linguistic fail.

Seasonal - #1388

2011-07-13T13:00:00.007+02:00

It's always a surprise to find what you associate with cooler days and longer nights on the market in mid-summer.

Savoy cabbage, for example.

It's only when you listen to country people that you begin to understand the seasons.

Program on Bayern 2 last week was excellent.

Spring starts - irrespective of the vernal equinox - when the forsythia starts blossoming.

Autumn starts when elderberries are ripe and winter kicks in when the oaks lose their leaves.

There are markers for early, mid and late spring as there are for the other seasons and by observing the offsets, country folk can tell you how the climate is changing.

Spring - by this definition - is a month earlier than it was 50 years ago.

Sounds a lot like fashion, when winter kit turns up while you're sweltering under 30ºC and people drag diaphanous spring thingies home through the snow.

It's only a matter of time until fashion and climatic seasons align themselves and you can actually buy a sweater when you feel cold....

Alternatives - #1387

2011-07-12T13:00:00.010+02:00

The Lavazza café in the Augustiner Strasse has a lot going for it.

Cosy in winter, seating out in the (pedestrian precinct) road, 2 golden retrievers to step over, nice people.

It's clear that the TSOW remains the barista of choice, but as an alternative......?

The espresso in the Augustiner Strasse's good, too.

If not better......

Easy as - #1386

2011-07-11T13:00:00.000+02:00

Just go from one end of a SINGLE MARKET STAND in Mainz and take one image each of what they're selling at the moment.

This was last Friday.....

Half.... - #1385

2011-07-10T13:00:00.019+02:00

...mast.

Germany's women soccer team loses against Japan in the FIFA World Cup quarterfinals.

Oh dear.

Don't be a square, Johannes - #1384

2011-07-09T13:00:00.000+02:00

Rampant cubism on display in one of the City of Science installations.

Spring is..... - #1383

2011-07-08T13:00:00.004+02:00

...busting out all over.....

Seen at ~~Yokojeff~~ Ono Koon in the Augustinerstrasse

Choose your poison - #1382

2011-07-07T13:00:00.000+02:00

One good reason to visit Bad-Kreuznach is to learn how to walk again after the nice people in the Vincenz Hospital in Mainz give you a Bionic Leg..

Another - even better reason - is to rip into the products of the Brauwerk, a newly opened brewery on the banks of the river.

But it's worth a visit even if you're a wowser and only interested in the architectural aspects of the place.

Bad-Kreuznach's renowned for the wellness properties of its historical salt production.

The way to harvest salt from a saline solution is to evaporate the water.
You can either do that by applying heat, using solar energy or - if you live in a climatically challenged region - drizzling the saline solution over a high wall of tightly packed thorns. (I'm not making this up. Honest. That's one of them in the background.)

The spin-off of this, of course, is that when you take a deep breath of the surrounding air, you immediately hear seagulls and the crashing of waves on the shore and think you're at the seaside.

This has attracted people by the THOUSANDS over the years ~~and they drift around with buckets and spades looking for the beach.~~

Nothing compared with the hordes who will descend on THIS place to admire how the architect has continued the line and materials of the graduation tower into his piloti-supported structure.

They might just be here for the beer, of course.....

The Pilgrimage - #1381

2011-07-06T13:00:00.003+02:00

The entertaining Christians vs Lions game did finish at the Colosseum Via Fractus at 17:15.

And thus did the 20,300 disciples of the Tribe of Mainz 05 follow Presidentus Strutzus the onerous 3.4km to the new Colosseum Cofacies.

And Presidentus Strutzus stretched out his hand over the Via Saarus (having had a word with the Excolo Moguntia); and the EXCOLO MOGUNTIA caused the vehicles to go back by a strong east wind all that afternoon, and made the normally gridlocked Via Saarus empty road, and the Saarstrasse was pedestrianised.

And the disciples thus passed safely through the Via Saarus and were welcomed by their brethren at the Colosseum Cofacies and were refreshed with cervisia and farcimen inferos and entertained by nubile slave girls in native costumes.

And they gave thanks to Presidentus Strutzus for a fine day out.

Not to mention a brand new Colosseum

Honesty box - #1380

2011-07-05T15:01:00.001+02:00

The things you stumble across in the country.

Honesty box stand on the cycle track between Mommenheim and Harxheim with all sorts of interesting stuff.

Bog standard fruit jellies, of course, but the odd (in its true sense...) daisy jelly and beer jelly threw me.

Beer jelly.

At that point of the tour (40km behind me and another 10 to go), I could have verily used the real stuff...

If Mainz ever needs....#1379

2011-07-04T13:00:00.023+02:00

....its own ~~National~~ ~~State~~ City Flower, I think I've found it!

It's Paeonia suffruticosa or the tree peony aka Narrenkappius officinalis.

The blossom's a treat, but if you wait a bit, you're rewarded by a dead ringer of the thing that hard-core Karnevalista transport around on their heads.

X marks the spot - #1378

2011-07-03T13:00:00.004+02:00

Either that, or a near-miss....

Greenfield site - #1377

2011-07-02T13:00:00.020+02:00

Tomorrow's the Big Day!

Mainz 05, the local football [soccer] team moves from its current home of 20,300 seats to a flash new stadium of 34,000.

Last game at the old stadium in the afternoon followed by a mass pilgrimage to the new one, press-ganging 13,700 bystanders and sundry unaware folks to make up the numbers as they go...

Monthly Theme Day - Green - #1376

2011-07-01T09:00:00.000+02:00

"Hey farmer, farmer, put away your DDT

I don't care about spots on my ~~apples~~ lemons,

Leave me the birds and the bees - please"

(Big yellow taxi, Joni Mitchell)

Germany's as Green as all get-out.

We recycle stuff as if the world's coming to an end (well, it IS, but don't tell anyone...), the Green party is the senior coalition partner in one of the largest (and most conservative) states and you get organic stuff on every street corner

Even in the discount supermarkets.

But I'm sure you'll agree with me that this is going a bit too far.

A bit of DDT never hurt anyone....

Seen on the market in Mainz.

Click here to see what the rest of the gangs got up to

Punching above its weight - #1375

2011-06-30T13:00:00.007+02:00

Deadly looking stuff at the Johannisnacht in Mainz.

I'll stick to beer, thanks very much...

10 green bottles....#1374

2011-06-29T13:00:00.000+02:00

Er... 8 bottles?

White and rosé?

Seen at Matthias Wolf's wine bar in Lörzweiler

His Bobness - #1373

2011-06-28T09:00:00.001+02:00

Easy to pick out in the Johannisnacht crowds.

Dressed against the weather. Barbour, Timberland, Jack Wolfskin et al.

All streaming in the same direction down the Augustinerstrasse as we grabbed an espresso before joining them.

Off to see His Bobness at his open air concert in Mainz last Saturday.

Taciturn as ever - the last documented greeting supposedly dates back to Seattle in 1974 when he acclaimed the late Jimi - but his music speaks for itself.

Superb.

Rainy Day Women #12 & 35
Don't Think Twice, It's All Right
Things Have Changed
Girl Of The North Country
Beyond Here Lies Nothin'
The Lonesome Death Of Hattie Carroll
Summer Days
Tangled Up In Blue
The Levee's Gonna Break
Ballad Of Hollis Brown
Highway 61 Revisited
Desolation Row
Thunder On The Mountain
Ballad Of A Thin Man
Like A Rolling Stone
All Along The Watchtower
Blowin' In The Wind

And for your Edification and Listening Pleasure - The Mainz Mix [Listen] 1:23:51, 120MB, takes ages and a day to load..

Rainy Day Women #12 & 35 - Bob Dylan
Don't Think Twice, It's All Right - Elvis Presley
Things Have Changed - Barb Jungr
Girl From the North Country - Rosanne Cash
Beyond Here Lies Nothin' - Bob Dylan
The Lonesome Death Of Hattie Carroll - Mason Jennings
Summer Days - Bob Dylan
Tangled Up in Blue [Live] - Bob Dylan & the Rolling Thunder Review
The Levee's Gonna Break - Bob Dylan
Ballad of Hollis Brown - Bob Dylan
Highway 61 Revisited - Karen O & The Million Dollar Bashers
Desolation Row - Bob Dylan
Thunder On The Mountain - Bob Dylan
Ballad of a Thin Man - Grand Panda feat. Dawn
Allan Wia a Stan - Wolfgang Ambros
All Along the Watchtower - Bryan Ferry
Blowin' in the Wind - Joan Baez

Some of it doesn't sound like the original, you say?

Well, I'll let you into a secret.

Neither do Bob's versions these days, either...

The Gates of the Gutenberg Museum - Mystery solved? - #1372

2011-06-27T09:00:00.041+02:00

The Gates of the Gutenberg Museum - a 12 part series attempting to unravel the mystery of the bronze gates of the Gutenberg Museum.

4 massive sculptures by one of the most significant German figurative sculptors of the mid to late 20th century.

And no-one in Mainz can tell you anything about them.

Until now.

In this series:
Part 1 - The Story so far
Part 2 - Johannes Gutenberg and his museum
Part 3 - A new museum
Part 4 - The Commission
Part 5 - The Artist
Part 6 - The Decision
Part 7 - The Gates
One of the chosen few
Part 8 - The Process
Part 9 - Talkin' 'bout a Revolution
Part 10 - Lost and Unlost
Part 11 - But where are the originals?
Part 12 - Mystery solved?

Related posts:
Making a mark

The other side of the coin

Just like a bad dream
Elementary, my dear Watson
An invitation

Petrea Burchard of Pasadena Daily Photo recently wrote a kind comment on one of the posts in this series:

"I understand that Mainz Daily Photo is now the main repository on the internet of information about these gates. This is how one becomes an authority--one simply decides to be one, and becomes one."

Unfortunately, this really does seem to be the case.

I still find it absurd to the point of parody that neither the museum nor the city knows ANYTHING about a major work by a major artist sitting right in front of their noses.

And both showing little apparent interest in changing that status.

On reflection, it's fairly obvious that Rainer Schell wasn't flavour of the month with the city fathers at the time and their cordial dislike of him might have been unfairly transferred to Karl-Heinz Krause.

I have no idea how that could happen - he's a lovely man, his wife Ursula (an artist in her own right) is a sweetie (and makes great coffee to boot) and the ructions all happened decades ago.

Water under the bridge.

For the conspiracy theorists: Perhaps there IS a plot to rewrite history. How else would you explain away this image of the museum's courtyard sans gates in the June issue of the house publication of the Mainzer Volksbank?

It must date back to the first 2 years of the millennium when the panels were languishing in a building material depot.

Either that or someone's a dab hand with Adobe's PhotoShop

There are a few things that the Gutenberg Museum and the City of Mainz could do to ensure that the knowledge isn't subject to Blogger's capriciousness.

Things have been known to disappear....

The city needs to update its Wikipedia content ( the list of statues and monuments is one example.) Including the gates in their tourist information wouldn't be a bad idea, either.

The museum needs to provide at least SOME information for the public about a significant sculpture in its courtyard.

Signage? Website?

(Informing their own employees would be a good starting point, too. Just how embarrassing IS it to know NOTHING about sculptures that you walk past every day?)

And given that next year is the 50th anniversary of the opening of the new museum, perhaps they'd care to honour the work and the artist.

Just saying...

The Gates of the Gutenberg Museum - But where are the originals...? - #1371

2011-06-26T09:00:00.054+02:00

The Gates of the Gutenberg Museum - a 12 part series attempting to unravel the mystery of the bronze gates of the Gutenberg Museum.

4 massive sculptures by one of the most significant German figurative sculptors of the mid to late 20th century.

And no-one in Mainz can tell you anything about them.

Until now.

In this series:
Part 1 - The Story so far
Part 2 - Johannes Gutenberg and his museum
Part 3 - A new museum
Part 4 - The Commission
Part 5 - The Artist
Part 6 - The Decision
Part 7 - The Gates
One of the chosen few
Part 8 - The Process
Part 9 - Talkin' 'bout a Revolution
Part 10 - Lost and Unlost
Part 11 - But where are the originals?

Part 12 - Mystery solved?

Related posts:
Making a mark

The other side of the coin

Just like a bad dream
Elementary, my dear Watson
An invitation

I wanted to close the circle.

I wanted to find one of the original plates that Karl-Heinz Krause used to model his panels and then juxtapose it with the imprint.

We know that he returned them (if there was ever any doubt...) because the galleon under full sail that you'll see on one of the gates turned up on a poster printed by the museum's print shop.

But where are they?

I drifted into the Print Shop and told a lady there what I was doing and what I was looking for.

"You actually KNOW something about the gates? REALLY? I can't BELIEVE it! People ask us ALL the time and we can't tell them ANYTHING about them"

So I relate the story and she's saying " Oh, this is GREAT! We help people do rubbings of the plates and we even do impressions in clay with littlies for them to take home"

She didn't have the plates but she knew who might be able to help me further.

The museum's printer, Herr Hoffman.

No, HE didn't have the plates, but there's a cupboard he inherited from his predecessor and he's not quite sure what's in it.

Perhaps the plates.

Except that they're doing some work in the basement and the cupboard would appear to be currently inaccessible, hemmed in by pallets of papaer.

He's promised to get back to me sometime next month.

Let's keep our collective fingers crossed...

The Gates of the Gutenberg Museum - Lost and Unlost - #1370

2011-06-25T09:00:00.174+02:00

The Gates of the Gutenberg Museum - a 12 part series attempting to unravel the mystery of the bronze gates of the Gutenberg Museum.

4 massive sculptures by one of the most significant German figurative sculptors of the mid to late 20th century.

And no-one in Mainz can tell you anything about them.

Until now.

In this series:
Part 1 - The Story so far
Part 2 - Johannes Gutenberg and his museum
Part 3 - A new museum
Part 4 - The Commission
Part 5 - The Artist
Part 6 - The Decision
Part 7 - The Gates
One of the chosen few
Part 8 - The Process
Part 9 - Talkin' 'bout a Revolution
Part 10 - Lost and Unlost
Part 11 - But where are the originals?

Part 12 - Mystery solved?

Related posts:
Making a mark

The other side of the coin

Just like a bad dream
Elementary, my dear Watson
An invitation

"With all the charm of a roller-skating rink" was the way Hans Halbey, a retired Director of the Gutenberg Museum, described the courtyard of the Gutenberg Museum in April 2001.

Flashback.

1989: Architectural competition to extend the museum
1990: No money (as usual)
1991: As above
1992: As above
1993: As above
1994: As above
1995: Have another look at the plans. Do it cheaper.
1996: Planning phase starts
1998: Work starts
2000: Grand opening

Rainer Schell doesn't appear to have hit it off with the Grandees of Mainz - in an unprecedented breach of protocol, he wasn't invited to speak at the opening of his museum in 1962 and is supposed to have then said "Fine with me, YOU try and open the door without the key...".

He spoke.....

The architects for the extension, Rossmann + Partner, don't appear to have been too keen on Rainer Schell's concept of the traditional courtyard, either.

They wanted to open it up to the public and the fact that the patrons in the newly opened café would coincidentally have a clear view of the cathedral had NOTHING to do with it, of course.

The gates obviously needed to be removed temporarily to allow building site access, but the strange thing is that if you look at the documentation (pdf, 2.2MB, German language) of the extension, you'll find nary a MENTION of the gates and no indication on the plans that the architect had the SLIGHTEST intent of integrating them in his design.

A year after the grand opening, along comes Hans Halbey and talks to Werner Wenzel from the Mainzer Allgemeine Zeitung, questioning the whereabouts of the gates and a stone sculpture of an open book by the renowned stonemasons Wilmsen-Kubach.

The head of Mainz's cultural office, Peter Krawietz, is quotes as saying that "of COURSE the book will be returned to its rightful place, but I'm not sure if we'll be able to meet the ex-Director's expectations as far as the other objects are concerned..."

After all, they only cost DM180,000 back in 1962. Plus the artist's fee..

Then it occurred to the city that no-one had the VAGUEST idea where the gates were.

A retired mayor and cultural head honcho, Anton-Maria Keim is supposed to have said to Karl-Heinz Krause "You'll have to lodge a complaint with the police" to which he replied "Well, they're not actually MINE. I believe they're now the property of the city..."

Frantic activity and in no time at all, they're tracked down to a building material depot in the appropriately named Henkackerweg (Chickensh*t Lane. Or as Paul probably correctly points out Henk Acker Weg)

Karl-Heinz Krause receives a handwritten note from the mayor notifying him of the "existence and appropriate storage" of the "objects" and that they've had a concept for "their future use for some time".

Yeah right....

Appropriate storage? Just look at the deformation of the panels, for goodness' sake.

And the concept for future use?

Line the narrow dark passage that used to be the Seilergasse before it was enclosed by the linkage between Schell's museum and the new extension.

The late night reveller's favourite micturatorium.....

The artist is supposed to have said "Well, in THAT case, why don't we just arrange them in a hollow square somewhere and designate them as a public pissoir..?"

Back to the drawing board.

It's difficult to find someone who can shed light on the background to the current placement of the panels.

Purged from collective memories most likely (and Freud would probably have something to say about that), but someone had the bright idea of relocating them in their original position, but swivelled 90º.

So that the café patrons can have an unobstructed view of the cathedral...

The Gates of the Gutenberg Museum - Talkin' 'bout a revolution - - #1369

2011-06-24T09:00:00.021+02:00

The Gates of the Gutenberg Museum - a 12 part series attempting to unravel the mystery of the bronze gates of the Gutenberg Museum.

4 massive sculptures by one of the most significant German figurative sculptors of the mid to late 20th century.

And no-one in Mainz can tell you anything about them.

Until now.

In this series:
Part 1 - The Story so far
Part 2 - Johannes Gutenberg and his museum
Part 3 - A new museum
Part 4 - The Commission
Part 5 - The Artist
Part 6 - The Decision
Part 7 - The Gates
One of the chosen few
Part 8 - The Process
Part 9 - Talkin' 'bout a Revolution
Part 10 - Lost and Unlost
Part 11 - But where are the originals?

Part 12 - Mystery solved?

Related posts:
Making a mark

The other side of the coin

Just like a bad dream
Elementary, my dear Watson
An invitation

To say that the city of Mainz is profligate is almost like saying that Paris Hilton isn't averse to be a bit of media attention.

It takes a certain talent to build up a backbreaking debt of close to €1bn in a city with a population of barely 200,000.

They do it without even trying - run the idea for converting a city building into a prison facility up the flagpole, spend multiple €100k on studies and expert assessments and then say "Oh, no, we'll convert it to apartments instead".

This sort of stuff hardly causes a ripple in the local media.

And it seems to have always been like that.

Even back in the 1970s.

Someone in the town hall appears to have been overcome by an urge for retail therapy and said "The city needs some sculptures" and promptly went on a shopping spree, bought three and had them installed in what later became the Sculpture Park on the banks of the Rhine.

Phillip Harth's "Tiger"

Emy Roeder's "Tripolitanerin"

And Karl-Heinz Krause's "Feuervogel" (Firebird) - here a smaller model in his studio.

This was the time of student revolution - Paris's Left Bank in an uproar, Berkeley the focal point of Vietnam War protests, Bader-Meinhof just getting traction in Berlin - and protests against anything and everything bourgeois were on every university's curriculum at the time.

And this art was nothing if not bourgeois from the student's perspective.

"The city's wasting money on art for the RULING CLASSES and the university doesn't even have decent TOILETS" was one of the cries and things got more and more fervent - supposedly helped along by some fairly radical academics on the staff - until someone decided to DO SOMETHING to show THEM.

No idea why they chose "Feuervogel" - perhaps out of respect for the dead, Harth and Roeder having dropped off the perch - but one morning, the pedestal was empty.

The newspapers at the time were full of pictures of Dieter Plod from the local constabulary and other similarly bewildered luminaries standing around and scratching their heads.

It wasn't until the perpetrators skiting to their mates about the previous evening's activities and what they'd done with that bourgeoisie rubbish [sic] that the police frogmen were called in to prod around in the murky depths of the Rhine, looking for something that didn't resemble a pram or a bicycle.

With success

And "Feuervogel" wasn't the only thing to go missing....

Tomorrow: Lost and Unlost

The Gates of the Gutenberg Museum - The Process - #1368

2011-06-23T09:00:00.003+02:00

The Gates of the Gutenberg Museum - a 12 part series attempting to unravel the mystery of the bronze gates of the Gutenberg Museum.

4 massive sculptures by one of the most significant German figurative sculptors of the mid to late 20th century.

And no-one in Mainz can tell you anything about them.

Until now.

In this series:
Part 1 - The Story so far
Part 2 - Johannes Gutenberg and his museum
Part 3 - A new museum
Part 4 - The Commission
Part 5 - The Artist
Part 6 - The Decision
Part 7 - The Gates
One of the chosen few
Part 8 - The Process
Part 9 - Talkin' 'bout a Revolution
Part 10 - Lost and Unlost
Part 11 - But where are the originals?

Part 12 - Mystery solved?

Related posts:
Making a mark

The other side of the coin

Just like a bad dream
Elementary, my dear Watson
An invitation

I had difficulty getting my head around the casting process.

I knew that Karl-Heinz Krause had used antique printing blocks from the Gutenberg Museum's inventory to create the imprints for the bronze panels, but I couldn't for the life of me understand the complete process.

Bernd Hettinger (pictured) of the KunstgussKastel art foundry in Mainz-Kastel was kind enough to spend an hour or so showing me (as in ”recreating-the-entire-process-apart-from-pouring-the-bronze” showing me) how the panels for the gates would have been made back in 1961.

And a HT to Dorothee Wenz for pointing me in his direction.

Karl-Heinz Krause started off with a box full of printing blocks that he’d chosen primarily for their shape and size.

"I was looking for balance and rhythm" he told me "And some of the blocks were so pleasing that I used them more than once."

And in an aside " And I had to duplicate some, because we didn't actually have enough..."

These he set in a 1.6 metre by 1 metre plaster of paris base in a high-sided frame (called the “drag”) and filled with moulding sand with the profile that he wanted extending above the sides of the box. (Think of an iceberg with only part of the ice above water and you’ve pretty much got it.) The sand is tamped down hard so that it forms a solid mass.

Don’t think “sandcastle-solid" mass. Think “drying-concrete-solid-break-it-up-with-a-sharp-object" mass.

The sand in the drag is smoothed off to an almost polished finish and the sand and printing blocks are sprinkled with a fine talcum-like powder to make for easy separation.

Now a second frame (the “cope”) is set on top of the drag, the printing blocks and the surrounding sand in the drag are covered with a fine sand followed by moulding sand, tamped down hard.

Now you hold you breath and separate the cope from the drag, revealing a perfect female indentation - a legible mirror image - in the cope.

Now comes the tricky bit.

You take the female mirror image you've just made as the drag, place the cope on top, spread the talc powder over it, cover it with fine sand and then tamp down the moulding sand,

Hold your breath again, separate the two frames and - eureka! - you got perfect male and female images.

Which aren’t really much use, come to think of it, because they fit so perfectly that there’s no cavity for the bronze to flow into.

So you take the male image and remove just enough sand from the surface to correspond to the thickness of the panel that you want.

Then you make the pouring hole (“sprue”), the gating system that takes the molten bronze from the sprue to where it needs to go and the riser (which shows you when the mould cavity's full)

Put the cope and the drag together again - you’ve now got a gap between them for the molten bronze to flow into - heat up the bronze to around 950ºC (depending on the alloys) and pour.

It looks like a biblical image of Hades

Let it cool, split the cope and the drag and you’ve got your panel.

Tidy up the excess flashings and pouring remnants and you’re finished.

More over here at Wikipedia

Well, actually, you're not, because the bronze didn't flow evenly throughout the mould, so you have to cut out the faulty bits, recast them and weld them in to the panels using a new and - for the time - highly experimental electric welding technique.

And THEN you have to weld the 18 castings together to form 6 panels measuring 1.6m wide by 3m high.

And then you have to get them to Mainz in time for the Grand Opening of the museum.....

Tomorrow: Talkin' 'bout a revolution

...Not to mention Gill - #1367

2011-06-22T13:00:00.002+02:00

Mapua Wharf has few permanent residents.

Seagulls, mostly.

Rowdy lot.

So it was good to see some talent in the form of Gill Knox the other day, quietly painting a scene that I come back to look at time after time.

Check out her website - it's worth a visit

...and Mary ...er...Isabel - #1366

2011-06-21T13:00:00.026+02:00

"I knew you were here, darling" she said when I called

"Robby told me"

"Robby" is the daughter of our best friends and my babysittee from waaaay back.

She also has a gardening service called "Garden Grubs" and keeps Isabel's garden in shape.

And Isabel up to date.

Isabel is my coffee date when I'm in Auckland. She's known me since I was in my early teens and has a memory that recalls every embarrassing detail of my youth and beyond.

93 last Saturday.

Still drives.

Still sews.

Still knows more about politics than 95% of the population.

Still amazing

Paul - #1365

2011-06-20T13:00:00.029+02:00

"I hope you'll have time to meet up if you're in Auckland" wrote bro Paul of Auckland West fame when he heard I was zipping through.

I told him that Isabel's the big #1 on my list, but that he's not far behind.

So we met outside the Hardware café in Titirangi, found a table at the café next to Lopdell House and hunkered down for a couple of flat whites and a couple of hours of chatting until we realised that my parking time had expired and that I had to head off for dinner.

Not often that you meet people you feel like you've known for years.

Not at our age, anyway...

Yesterday: Peter
Today: Paul
Tomorrow: Mary....er...Isabel

Peter - #1364

2011-06-19T13:00:00.009+02:00

~~I'm not sure if this will~~ I KNOW that this doesn't slot neatly into the DP concept, but a) I grew up just down the road b) I'm staying at a motel just around the corner and c) my mate Bruce Hales used to live (and still works) there.

And more people (all 7 of them...) read MDP than YMBFA (a navigationally-challenged person last stumbled across the blog 2 years ago), so it's going to be told here.

I need a new fleece jacket and Kathmandu, an outdoor outfitter in Albany, NZ seems to fit the bill.

Find something I want - a stylish black number - and say "And I bet you've got a sale on and I get 50% off".

"Not exactly" says Peter "but we've got one starting on Wednesday"

Which is when I'm back in Nelson.

"No worries" he says 'we'll call Nelson, see if they've got one and get them to hold it for you until Wednesday"

Duly calls Nelson, they have an XXL and then say "But he'll have to come in personally and have it put to one side"

Which sort of defeats the purpose.

We look at each other, mentally shaking our heads.

"No problem" says Peter "We can sign you up in our Summit Club, it won't cost you anything (after delicately inquiring as to whether I was born before whenever...) and you automatically get a discount. So you can buy it here"

Gobsmacked.

This is the way it's supposed to work.

So meet Peter, originally from Kigali, Rwanda by way of Burundi to Albany, New Zealand.

Employee of the Month.

If not year...

Tomorrow: Paul

Quiz Night - #1363

2011-06-18T13:00:00.011+02:00

The Moutere Inn has valid claims to fame.

The oldest pub in New Zealand. Tick.

12 local beers on tap. Tick.

Good food. Tick.

Cool owners. Tick.

Folk night Tick.

And then there's quiz night.

The entire population appears to assemble, is then sliced and diced to avoid couples being in the same team and then distributed equitably on tables around the pub.

Me? Interested observer.

Got most of the questions right and the table pictured here asked me to help out with the list of Northern Hemisphere teams participating in the Rugby World Cup this year in NZ.

I had them all except Georgia.

They had them all except Georgia and Romania.

They didn't want to believe me, the sceptical bloke in the picture being particularly dismissive.

Their bad luck....

Rapid proteatyping - #1362

2011-06-17T13:00:00.004+02:00

Maintaining the "clean green" image is important in New Zealand and you'll find recycling efforts wherever you look.

This is a good example of the creative use of a milk container at the Smokehouse fish and chip store on Mapua Wharf.

They'll doubtless develop it further before it goes into full production, so this is probably just a proteatype......

The Pop-Up Art Gallery - #1361

2011-06-16T13:00:00.034+02:00

Retailers pretty much everywhere are having a tough time and the Richmond Mall is no exception.

The ONLY record store in town is gone to be replaced by YET ANOTHER pharmacy and the kiddies' clothing place went down the gurgler sometime within the last couple of months.

Richmond Mall management is clued up, though.

Instead of leaving a shop empty and looking like a missing tooth in an otherwise perfect smile, they've asked the Art Group Nelson to fill the space with their paintings (all for sale) and have a working artist (this is Tony Milner) on duty.

Draws in people like candles to a flame.

Too cool.

It's nightime in the.....- #1360

2011-06-15T13:00:00.004+02:00

.... ~~Big City~~ village.

A dimly-lit Mapua Wharf.

The "Rak" appears to have departed for ports unknown....

Visitors from Hawkes Bay - #1359

2011-06-14T13:00:00.001+02:00

The Golden Bear brewery on Mapua wharf fills an ideal role as a social hub of the community.

Given that New Zealand's a village and Mapua is thus the equivalent of your own house, you're not surprised to bump into people you know in the same way that it's no surprise to bump into the wahine when you head to the kitchen to make a cup of tea.

The other night, it was neighbour Don Wylie, Arthur, a retired farmer and acetylene addict whose massive Clydesdale sculpted from horseshoes graces Nelson airport's terminal building, potter Darryl Frost and landlady Elspeth Collier and her partner Kim.

And you meet nice new people too.

"Metro", an Auckland monthly that balances occasional good journalism with fluffy society stuff has a running gag in identifying paparazzi victims at media events as "Vistors from Hawkes Bay".

In other works: country bumpkins

By chance, I parked myself next to Andy and Ness and after both laughing at an outrageously gross joke in the Gig Guide that we were reading separately, they asked me whether it was my local.

Because it wasn't theirs.

Andy and Ness were Visitors from Nelson - about 30 minutes by car - vacationing for the weekend in Mapua and anything but country bumpkins

What a pleasant evening!

Both geologists - which allowed me to impress them (probably not, actually) - with my knowledge of the subject (comprising the 2 expressions Prof Heliospheric taught me - metamorphic and katabatic) - but neither working in their field.

Andy ( a Brit) is MD of Southern Wilderness, which operates gourmet walking tours through the numerous national parks in the area and Ness is an incipient midwife.

And she really IS from Hawke's Bay......

Wet feet - #1358

2011-06-13T13:00:00.005+02:00

Been a bit damp around there for the last few days and these animals being paraded through the streets 2 by 2 have me a bit worried.

And especially the big boat they've got moored down at Mapua wharf.

Forget the name of it - 3 letters.

"Rak", I think

Captain's an old bloke with a long white beard and a strange look in his eyes.

As if he knows something that we don't....

Like herding cats.... - #1357

2011-06-12T13:00:00.041+02:00

Trying to get these three to stand still and pose sensibly for a photo is like herding cats.

And when you think you've got it, there's the "Oh, I look terrible! You can't publish that. Come on - take another one"

Times 3.

In pre-digital days, it would have been close to 3 rolls of Ektachrome 64.

Meet (from right to left) Michelle Torrens and Tersha Coppell, the co-owners of Lydia's Café in Richmond and Cornelia Ruff, baristess extraordinaire and hailing from our very own Keschm (Kirschheimbolanden), a mere HSAAJ from Mainz.

This place is so good that you subconsciously plan any appointments in Richmond or Nelson to make sure you can call in.

I do, anyway.

And if you somehow miss a day, it's "Where were YOU yesterday - we were going to send out a SEARCH party...!"

Cool as.

And talking of lachrymation... - #1356

2011-06-11T13:00:00.023+02:00

This is so direly sad that even the sale notice is tearful.

Jay Farnsworth's exquisitely elegant and stylish "REDGallery" on Bridge St is closing at the end of the month and whatever replaces it won't be as good.

Nowhere near.

Nelson has a few oases of culture - RED, Suter, Hopgoods, Page and Blackmore - and Red (and especially Jay) was the best place to park the camels and gulp down some cerebral refreshment.

And now it's gone.

Sod it

Gutted - #1355

2011-06-10T13:00:00.069+02:00

I don't believe that this chappy died of choking, despite an emergency tracheotomy....

Nelson's agricultural.

Gumboots are standard footwear, Toyota HiLux is common transportation and blokes are rugged and taciturn.

So when the Appleby Highway as it passes the Travellers Rest pub is lined with pick-ups, utes, 4WDs and similar on Queen's Birthday weekend Monday, you know that it's unlikely that the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra is giving a Mozart concert.

From the carnage on display after a day's shooting, it's probably wise to have stayed at home on the day.

Wild pig, deer, rabbits, hares, pukeko, ~~small children.~~

Pretty much anything that moved.

Wearing a fur coat and going for a walk in the bush would not have been a good strategy....

Reporter for the Waimea Weekly appropriately dressed for the occasion, the occasion being the aforementioned Mozart concert.

Ballerinas, mud and blood are imiscible.

Shoot some pigs, gut them, string them up, drink some ~~piss~~ Tui. Good way to spend a day, eh.

Monochromatically speaking - #1354

2011-06-09T13:00:00.011+02:00

This is how iPhone 4 sees the entrance to the Waimea Estuary under a threatening sky.

No post-production.

This is it.

The wreck of the Janie Seddon - #1353

2011-06-08T13:00:00.058+02:00

Built in 1901 in Paisley, Scotland for the Government as a submarine mining vessel, the Janie Seddon spent most of her career on Wellington Harbour and is credited with firing the first shots of the 2nd world war.

Several days before war was actually declared the RNZA manned the coastal defences. The Examination Vessels at the four main ports, previously manned by the General Duties Branch, NZ Permanent Force, were taken over by the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve. When at 0945 hrs 3 September 1939 (2145 hrs 2 Sep GMT), the liner City of Delhi did not stop when ordered by the Port Examination Vessel Janie Seddon, the Fort Dorset Examination Battery fired a warning shot across her bows. It had the desired effect; spectators were astounded that so large a ship could 'heave to' so quickly. This shot was claimed by the RNZA to be the first of the war fired by British forces. The Captain of the City of Delhi subsequently paid for his lapse. In addition to being heavily fined he was ordered to pay for the complete 4-in round expended which in 1939 cost £40 ($80)
Source: George Klee genealogy

In 1947, the Janie Seddon was sold for use as a trawler to Talley's Fisheries Ltd which started operations at Motueka.

Not a complete success.

Vessels of this size weren't permitted to operate in the fish-rich coastal waters of Tasman Bay. Her operating radius was limited by a 5 day coal bunker, frequently resulting in the ship returning with empty coal bunkers and half empty holds.

She was laid up at Motueka Wharf in 1950, beached in 1955, stripped of everything useful and hulked on the beach at Motueka.

Pasadena Intelligentsia - #1352

2011-06-07T09:00:00.011+02:00

This is Petrea Burchard of Pasadena Daily Photo fame.

Also author.

Also actor.

I believe Virginia at Birmingham Daily Photo nudged us in each other's direction and Petrea's blog's mixture of culture, local politics, ecology, wit and plain good writing somehow struck a chord.

And we like Pasadena anyway.

We tried to arrange to meet up in March together with Ms jb on the way back from NZ, but the only timeslot that WE had didn't match HERS so....

Fast forward to last Wednesday.

I flew into LAX on the way to New Zealand with 11 hours to kill, so we arranged to meet at Intelligentsia Coffee on W. Colorado.

From her profile photo, I was expecting someone very reserved, every utterance mentally inspected 5 times before it passed her lips, every movement considered at length before a muscle fibre even twitched.

'Aloof' is what I thought.

What I didn't expect was such vibrancy and fun.

Mind you, you never really know where you are with these actor types.

Especially ones with their own Wikipedia entry

The nonchalant slipping in of "And who's going to hire someone over 50 anyway?" when it's PATENTLY obvious that she's barely 40. Despite what Wikipedia says,

Feigning interest in my geriatric ramblings.

She's a real flatterer, for sure.

There's probably actually a deduction on IRS form 247a for 2 hours spent humouring strangers.

The only thing she DIDN'T do was to surreptitiously smear some Tiger Balm near a tear duct to induce lachrymation.

But I played along as if I was I was REALLY ENJOYING myself (which I was, actually), knowing full well that her acting coach was at the next table observing the performance and recommending her for a leading role in the next George Lucas film.

And OF COURSE we're going to meet again when I'm next in Pasadena and I just HAVE to bring along Ms jb.

And the brush of a kiss on the cheek as we part.

I have to give it to her - she's really good.

Er........

What's this?

An email saying that she couldn't have enjoyed the afternoon more?

And a corroboration from Virginia, too?

Maybe she really DID enjoy meeting half as much as I did.

But you never can tell with these Hollywood types....

PS I liked her untold. Does it show?

PPS Maybe we can do lunch sometime. So Hollywood....!

Country life - #1351

2011-06-06T13:00:00.004+02:00

Pinboard at the Upper Moutere Store.

Saturday morning @ Zumo - #1350

2011-06-05T13:00:00.012+02:00

The Zumo Café gets better all the time.

Not only do they now serve my double espresso in a REAL espresso cup, they also have the "New Yorker".

People look happier, too....

Night life - #1349

2011-06-04T13:00:00.005+02:00

I like the idea of the free pool at RT's Party Bar.

Hope it's heated....

Lydia's Café - #1348

2011-06-03T13:00:00.001+02:00

When Mum & Dad visited me in the UK, the first thing that Dad wanted was a cup of tea.

"Thank GOODNESS for REAL TEA" he said "Pan American (that dates the story...) uses TEABAGS!"

Hardly had the heart to tell him, but I said "Er, so's this"

"All this flying damages your taste buds" he said.

If that's the case, I'm looking forward to tomorrow.

The double espresso at Lydia's Café in Richmond is going to taste even phenomenalerer....

(And it's nice when you go to order and the owner says "Cornelia'll know what you want". Am I that predictable? Do I always have a double espresso and a galette?"

Nighttime in the big city - #1347

2011-06-02T13:00:00.001+02:00

Friday night @ Mapua Wharf

Empty restaurant included.

The Golden Bear Brewery was well visited, though....

Monthly theme Day - Under construction - #1346

2011-06-01T09:00:00.002+02:00

The 2010 vintage.

Roll on next year....

Click here to view thumbnails for all participants

Delineation - #1345

2011-05-31T13:00:00.003+02:00

This is the good stuff.

If you get a stretch assignment at work, it's going to push you to your limits and you'll draw on energy and resources that you never knew you had.

The British SAS say "Train hard, fight easy. Train easy, fight hard"

It's the same thing with wine.

If the vines grow in gravelly/slatey/dry soils, they have to work to grow roots waaaay down to let them survive.

And then they produce grapes that have all the mineral extracts that they find down there.

Black and white.

Simple as.

Nous avons bien de la chance - #1344

2011-05-30T09:00:00.004+02:00

John Whatley, a friend in England, has a saying.

When we're thoroughly enjoying ourselves - sitting on a stone wall in the countryside as the sun sets or having a cup of tea in the garden - he'll suddenly say: "Aren't we LUCKY PEOPLE?! There are so many people who don't know just how enjoyable this is".

That's what it was like on our day out in Villeneuve-lès-Avignon the other week with no other than Nathalie of Avignon in Photos fame.

This was another of those lucky accidents of stumbling across someone's blog, finding out that you laughed at the same things and vowing to meet up when the opportunity arose.

Which was a couple of Sundays ago together with her friend Marcel at the market in Coustellet on the day after we (and the Mistral) arrived in he Provence.

She didn't run off screaming (probably more to do with Mrs jb's presence than anything else, both of them appearing to get on like un maison sur feu, as they say) and somehow I got roped into meeting up the following Saturday to watch weddings in aforementioned Villeneuve-lès-Avignon.

Enough to drive a bloke to drink.....

(I was FORCED to POSE for my picture and I hasten to add that the unusual shape of my proboscis in profile is caused by the diffraction differentials of glass, air and beer. Ask Bro Paul - he knows about this stuff)

Things I learned:

French wimmin don't always speak with a French accent. Some of them sound Brit. Or Oz. They also talk Italian with their hands. All very confusing.

Some French wimmin have great blokes who give you the password to their corporate WiFi. Merci Marcel.

I am now "infamous" This appears to be French for "a mess"

Wimmin in general like watching weddings.

2 non-participating wimmin in particular were the best dressed of the whole bunch, with the possible exception of the lady in the dress made out of fly-screens and the classy bird ~~with the great legs~~ whose zipper was so heavy as to give her back ache.

(The guy in the striped muscle shirt - I kid you not... - at the THIRD (THIRD!) wedding gave them a run for their money, though.)

It is a requirement at French weddings to hire a municipal street cleaner who lurks on the peripherie, ready to pounce on any stray rose petal and scoop it up with a swift flick of his shovel. (The wedding's officially over when he leaves....)

French wimmin paparazzi knock over their Perrier in the rush to get the best possie and blame it on the closest bloke. (Nothing new there...)

Avignon's worth a major detour just to spend an afternoon with Nathalie.

One of the chosen few - #1343

2011-05-20T09:00:00.035+02:00

Google has kindly misplaced posts for a mere 0.16% of its Blogger users.

Appears that I'm one of the winners, with the posts I'd set up to cover the rest of the Gutenberg Gates story having been kindly reset to draft status and all content deleted.

So see you in June when I'm back with a functioning interwebs and access to my notes and photographs to rewrite the stuff

Ho hum

Part 1 - The Story so far
Part 2 - Johannes Gutenberg and his museum
Part 3 - A new museum
Part 4 - The Commission
Part 5 - The Artist
Part 6 - The Decision
Part 7 - The Gates
One of the chosen few
Part 8 - The Process
Part 9 - Talkin' 'bout a Revolution
Part 10 - Lost and Unlost
Part 11 - But where are the originals?
Part 12 - Mystery solved?

Related posts:
Making a mark

The other side of the coin

Just like a bad dream
Elementary, my dear Watson
An invitation

The Gates of the Gutenberg Museum - The Gates - #1342

2011-05-18T09:00:00.008+02:00

The Gates of the Gutenberg Museum - a 12 part series attempting to unravel the mystery of the bronze gates of the Gutenberg Museum.

4 massive sculptures by one of the most significant German figurative sculptors of the mid to late 20th century.

And no-one in Mainz can tell you anything about them.

Until now.

In this series:
Part 1 - The Story so far
Part 2 - Johannes Gutenberg and his museum
Part 3 - A new museum
Part 4 - The Commission
Part 5 - The Artist
Part 6 - The Decision
Part 7 - The Gates
One of the chosen few
Part 8 - The Process
Part 9 - Talkin' 'bout a Revolution
Part 10 - Lost and Unlost
Part 11 - But where are the originals?

Part 12 - Mystery solved?

Related posts:
Making a mark

The other side of the coin

Just like a bad dream
Elementary, my dear Watson
An invitation

Source: K-H Krause

Mainz's more wealthy citizens in past centuries built their own palatial residences, richly decorated and with enclosed courtyards to keep ~~the paparazzi and~~ the general riff-raff at a safe distance.

Zum Marienberg was no exception.

After the bombing raid of 27 February 1945, only the shell of Zum Römischen Kaiser, part of the Zum Marienberg complex, remained and Rainer Schell, the architect of the new museum, aimed to echo the historical courtyard with his new design offering a modern counterpoint to the recreated Renaissance structure.

The original design was to link high streamlined concrete pillars with Karl-Heinz Krause's bronze panels hinged as functional gates.

Someone ventured that the gates might be a tad HEAVY and that a finger caught between gate and jamb would rapidly become an EX-finger. Or ex-hand, for that matter.

Aaaah.

Back to the drawing board and what came out was what you see above - the panels anchored between the pillars, alternating with double glass gates with a portcullis pattern.

Right.

Karl-Heinz Krause flies back from Berlin (these were the days when only the 3 occupying powers were allowed to fly along the corridors over East German territory - he told me that he preferred Air France, because they had the Caravelle, possibly the prettiest jet aircraft ever built. And the food was better...) and is taken to a storeroom somewhere in Mainz where the treasures of the Gutenberg Museum are stored.

People had other things to do in the immediate post-war years than catalogue museum inventories and he could pretty much choose which printing blocks he wanted.

Has them packed into crates, shipped back to Berlin and sets about arranging them for the final design and casting at the Noack fine art foundry.

Oh, and his disappointment at the rejection of his "Jüngling" figure is short-lived.

His gallery owner partner, Otto Stangl, has a rich industrialist (with exquisite taste) as an in-law.......

Tomorrow: The Process

The Gates of the Gutenberg Museum - The Decision - #1341

2011-05-17T09:00:00.009+02:00

The Gates of the Gutenberg Museum - a 12 part series attempting to unravel the mystery of the bronze gates of the Gutenberg Museum.

4 massive sculptures by one of the most significant German figurative sculptors of the mid to late 20th century.

And no-one in Mainz can tell you anything about them.

Until now.

In this series:
Part 1 - The Story so far
Part 2 - Johannes Gutenberg and his museum
Part 3 - A new museum
Part 4 - The Commission
Part 5 - The Artist
Part 6 - The Decision
Part 7 - The Gates
One of the chosen few
Part 8 - The Process
Part 9 - Talkin' 'bout a Revolution
Part 10 - Lost and Unlost
Part 11 - But where are the originals?

Part 12 - Mystery solved?

Related posts:
Making a mark

The other side of the coin

Just like a bad dream
Elementary, my dear Watson
An invitation

Karl-Heinz Krause came to the attention of the Bundesbaudirektion early in his career.

Possibly through recommendations from his tutors at the University of Fine Arts.

Possibly through personal contacts (a girlfriend of a fellow student worked there).

But probably because he was simply very talented.

When Rainer Schell came looking for a sculpture for his Gutenberg Museum in Mainz, Karl-Heinz Krause had already completed a commission for a relief for the German Embassy in Dehli.

Schell saw it, said "That's my guy" and the 2 of them starting working together.

Karl-Heinz Krause sketched the draft concept that he presented to Rainer Schell for me the other day.

It was in two parts.

A powerful larger-than-life (2.20m head to toe) figure on a high plinth stretching to the sky with hands open for inspiration for his creativity in front of the museum. Karl-Heinz Krause talks of a "Jüngling" - a word that's gone out of fashion, but translates as "stripling".

High metal gates that Rainer Schell wanted as a metaphorical link to the enclosed courtyards of Renaissance Mainz and to the Zum Marienberg private palace that originally stood at this location.

And the gates WOULD be allegorical, presenting the visitor with an intimation of what lies behind them by using imprints of historical printing blocks.

Exactly what Rainer Schell wanted.

Design sketches were made, quotes calculated and a proposal was made to the City of Mainz.

The mayor of the time was Franz Stein, a traditionalist at heart. (People refer to his mayoralty - 1949 to 1965 - as the Steinzeit - "the Stone Age"...)

The gates were OK, but he wasn't too keen on the Jüngling.

Naked for a start and to top it all standing in FULL VIEW of the Cathedral and giving the bishop's residence a full FRONTAL.

A council meeting was called as a jury - Schell and Krause summoned from Wiesbaden and Berlin as the accused - with the contract for the works open on the desk in front of the mayor for signing.

The discussion went back and forth betwen proponents and opponents of the Jüngling until the mayor says "Enough of this - let's find out what the public thinks!" and sends out for his secretary and another (female) office worker.

"So what do YOU think of this?" booms the mayor

Vox populi I: "Ei, der iss mir viel zu dinn" ("Much too skinny")

Vox populi II: "Ei, wenn Se misch frage, moi Fall isser nett" ("Not my type one bit")

Decided.

Mayor closes his folder, unsigned.

Karl-Heinz Krause told me that Schell went white with rage, stood up and said "Mr Krause has a plane to catch. Thank you"

Exit right.

Postscript:

The City Fathers never actually rejected the Jüngling. The submission to council was regularly revisited and just as regularly filed away "For future review".

A knight in shining armour in the form of the Finnish Society finally saved the day (and face) with a gift of a bust of Gutenberg by Wäinö Aaltonen to sit on the plinth.

Not at all skinny.

Fully clothed, too.

And not at all allegorical.....

Tomorrow: The Gates

The Gates of the Gutenberg Museum - The Artist- #1340

2011-05-16T13:00:00.008+02:00

The Gates of the Gutenberg Museum - a 12 part series attempting to unravel the mystery of the bronze gates of the Gutenberg Museum.

4 massive sculptures by one of the most significant German figurative sculptors of the mid to late 20th century.

And no-one in Mainz can tell you anything about them.

Until now.

In this series:
Part 1 - The Story so far
Part 2 - Johannes Gutenberg and his museum
Part 3 - A new museum
Part 4 - The Commission
Part 5 - The Artist
Part 6 - The Decision
Part 7 - The Gates
One of the chosen few
Part 8 - The Process
Part 9 - Talkin' 'bout a Revolution
Part 10 - Lost and Unlost
Part 11 - But where are the originals?

Part 12 - Mystery solved?

Related posts:
Making a mark

The other side of the coin

Just like a bad dream
Elementary, my dear Watson
An invitation

Karl-Heinz Krause was born in 1924 in Angemünde, a small town close to what is now the German-Polish border.

He's the same age as my father-in-law and their formative years were probably quite similar - both 9 years old when the Nazis came to power, both conscripted into the army at the age of 17, both PoWs in France until 1946.

My father-in-law went back to the family farm, Karl-Heinz Krause attended the Academy of Applied Arts in East Berlin in 1947, switching to the Academy of Fine Arts in West Berlin in 1948 where Renée Sintenis and Richard Scheibe were his teachers.

In 1959, he was awarded the prestigious Georg Kolbe prize for young sculptors.

In the same year, he was discovered by Otto Stangl, a Munich art dealer and signed to an exclusive contract which secured his financial independence. (He told me "There are only 3 career paths for an artist - teaching, architecture or galleries. I was lucky enough to be presented with the latter path")

By 1960, he was exhibiting at the Grace Borgenicht Gallery on Madison Avenue in New York and the Frank Perls Gallery in Hollywood.

His solo exhibitions - Basel, Bern, New York, New Delhi, Antwerp, Stockholm und Helsinki among many others - number more than 90.

His sculptures are displayed in the German Culture Institute in Paris, in the National Gallery in Berlin and the State Museum in Mainz.

The state of Baden-Württemberg purchased his "Großen Denker" - originally commissioned for the Goethe Institute in Paris, but objections were raised: Rodin's "Thinker", Rodin"s French, don't want to offend the neighbours... - for the grounds of the University of Applied Sciences in Karlsruhe.

Karl Carstens, Germany's President at the time, presented Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands with one of his sculptures.

From the laudatio at the opening of an exhibition in Berlin in 2007:

Krause has stayed true to the tradition of figurative sculpture. He belongs to a minority - frequently attacked or ridiculed - shrugging off the trends of minimalism, junk sculpture, hypernaturalism or environment sculpture. Clinging to the body, to the beautiful form, he masters them both.

But back in 1961, Rainer Schell came looking for an artist for his museum in Mainz.....

Tomorrow: The Decision

The Gates of the Gutenberg Museum - The Commission - #1339

2011-05-15T13:00:00.012+02:00

The Gates of the Gutenberg Museum - a 12 part series attempting to unravel the mystery of the bronze gates of the Gutenberg Museum.

4 massive sculptures by one of the most significant German figurative sculptors of the mid to late 20th century.

And no-one in Mainz can tell you anything about them.

Until now.

In this series:
Part 1 - The Story so far
Part 2 - Johannes Gutenberg and his museum
Part 3 - A new museum
Part 4 - The Commission
Part 5 - The Artist
Part 6 - The Decision
Part 7 - The Gates
One of the chosen few
Part 8 - The Process
Part 9 - Talkin' 'bout a Revolution
Part 10 - Lost and Unlost
Part 11 - But where are the originals?

Part 12 - Mystery solved?

Related posts:
Making a mark

The other side of the coin

Just like a bad dream
Elementary, my dear Watson
An invitation

Rainer Schell's concept is stunning today and must have utterly gobsmacked the populace back then.

Hard-edged cubism, steel, glass and concrete

The Director of the Gutenberg Museum was catatonic.

He'd expected something mock Renaissance to match the Römischer Kaiser.....

It was almost as if Wiesbaden was rubbing salt into Mainz's wounds after having ~~nicked~~ been gifted the suburbs on the other side of the Rhine.

It wasn't as if they hadn't been WARNED, though - his Church of the Redeemer in Mainz-Kastel is what you could call traditional...

And it gets better.

Rainer Schell wanted to counterpoint his architecture with an sculptural feature.

"I don't want likenesses" he said to the 5 or so local and regional sculptors chosen for the competition "I want allegory. I want a sculpture that implies what the true meaning of the museum is"

And what did he get?

You guessed it.

Likenesses.

Something like these.

Rainer Schell went spare.

He refused to consider ANY of the proposals.

The Bundesbaudirektion - the Federal Building Administration - was founded in 1770 by Friedrich II to introduce what we'd these days call a Design Catalogue for state buildings and to establish an academy to train future civil servants to oversee planning and construction.

It was reëstablished in 1950 in Berlin by Konrad Adenauer (after being hijacked by Adolf and his evil crew between 1933 and 1945) with responsibility for creating a temporary capital in Bonn and overseeing federal building activities in Germany and embassies overseas.

Rainer Schell was well known in Berlin through his association with Egon Eiermann and was later to be commissioned with the building of the Goethe Institute in Paris

The Director of the Bundesbaudirektion was Karl Merz.

"Do YOU know a good sculptor who understands the word "allegory?"asked Schell.

"As a matter of fact, I do" said Merz "The guy you need is Karl-Heinz Krause...."

Tomorrow: The artist

The Gates of the Gutenberg Museum - A new museum - #1338

2011-05-14T13:00:00.010+02:00

The Gates of the Gutenberg Museum - a 12 part series attempting to unravel the mystery of the bronze gates of the Gutenberg Museum.

4 massive sculptures by one of the most significant German figurative sculptors of the mid to late 20th century.

And no-one in Mainz can tell you anything about them.

Until now.

The other side of the coin

Just like a bad dream
Elementary, my dear Watson
An invitation

When you look at photographs of post-war Mainz, it's difficult to imagine how anyone could have survived.

80% of its buildings and infrastructure were destroyed, its industrial and tax base arbitrarily amputated and assigned to Wiesbaden in the American sector on the other side of the Rhine.

The view from the Dom in 1945. HT swr.de

It didn't help that the French occupation force wanted to rebuild Mainz from scratch as a Model City, consistent with the principles of the Athens Charter, a dogmatic separation of cultural, commercial and administrative and residential zones.

All that the folks in Mainz really wanted was a residential zone with a roof over their heads and it took until 1958 and the adoption of the May Plan for rebuilding efforts to make significant headway.

(Rumour has it that Mainz was rebuilt in 4 years. Sometimes, it still looks like it...)

But 1962 marked the 2000 year anniversary of the founding of the city by Agrippa in 38 BC (it was actually a military camp and it wasn't 38 BC, but what a are few years among friends...) and it was decided to build a new Gutenberg Museum.

Monies were collected.

Tender documents issued, concepts evaluated, a winner determined.

Rainer Schell, a student of Egon Eiermann, the architect of the Gedächtniskirche (Church of Remembrance) in Berlin

From Wiesbaden.

Ouch.

Tomorrow: The Commission

The Gates of the Gutenberg Museum - Johannes Gutenberg and his museum - #1337

2011-05-13T09:00:00.008+02:00

The Gates of the Gutenberg Museum - a 12 part series attempting to unravel the mystery of the bronze gates of the Gutenberg Museum.

4 massive sculptures by one of the most significant German figurative sculptors of the mid to late 20th century.

And no-one in Mainz can tell you anything about them.

Until now.

The other side of the coin

Just like a bad dream
Elementary, my dear Watson
An invitation

"What the world is today, good and bad, it owes to Gutenberg. Everything can be traced to this source, but we are bound to bring him homage, ... for the bad that his colossal invention has brought about is overshadowed a thousand times by the good with which mankind has been favored." Mark Twain

Johannes Gensfleisch zur Laden zum Gutenberg?

Man of the Millennium?

The first European to use movable type and the inventor of the printing press?

The reason that you're able to be reading this?

Yes?

Local boy.

In 1900, a group of right-minded citizens built a museum to honour his 500th birthday (give or take a couple of years...) with a collection of books, apparatus and machines donated by publishers, manufacturers of printing machines and printing houses.

Initially a department of the City Library, it moved to the new library building on the Rheinallee in 1912 and then separated in 1927 to its (almost) final location in the Römischer Kaiser, a Renaissance building dating back to 1664 and originally part of Zum Marienberg, a private palace built by Edward Rokoch, a leading light in the business world at the time and the most significant private building of its time.

Fast forward to 27 February 1945

Royal Air Force Bomber Command - Campaign Diary - February 1945

458 aircraft - 311 Halifaxes, 131 Lancasters, 16 Mosquitos - of Nos 4, 6 and 8 Groups to Mainz. 1 Halifax and 1 Mosquito lost. The target area Mainz was covered by cloud and the bombing was aimed at skymarkers dropped on Oboe. No results were seen by the bomber crews but the bombing caused severe destruction in the central and eastern districts of Mainz; this was the city's worst raid of the war. 1,545 tons of bombs were dropped. 5,670 buildings were destroyed, including most of the historic buildings in the Altstadt, but the industrial district was also badly hit.

And that was the end of the Gutenberg Museum

Tomorrow: A new museum

The Gates of the Gutenberg Museum - The story so far - #1336

2011-05-12T09:00:00.005+02:00

A while back, I did a fairly flippant post about the 4 bronze panels in front of the Gutenberg Museum in Mainz.

Walked past them often enough on the way to and from the market, but never thought to find out anything about them.

Tasked with doing so by the Faithful (Virginia, Kate, Paul, Gucki et al), I quickly found out that there is NO easily accessible knowledge about the sculptures.

The museum shop knows nothing
The museum management knows nothing (well, ALMOST nothing and if they know more, they’re not telling…)
The city knows nothing
The cultural chroniclers know nothing
The guidebooks know nothing
Wikipedia knows nothing
Google knows ~~nothing~~ bugger all

This is about to change.

I’ve tracked down the artist
I know the history of the commission
I know the story of the gates and how they were made almost 50 years ago
I’ve learnt the casting process from a local fine art foundry
I’ve learnt that when you tell people the story, they’re spellbound

It’ll be an 12-part serialisation starting today.

Part 1 - The Story so far (this post)
Part 2 - Johannes Gutenberg and his museum
Part 3 - A new museum
Part 4 - The Commission
Part 5 - The Artist
Part 6 - The Decision
Part 7 - The Gates
One of the chosen few
Part 8 - The Process
Part 9 - Talkin' 'bout a Revolution
Part 10 - Lost and Unlost
Part 11 - But where are the originals?
Part 12 - Mystery solved?

Related posts:
Making a mark

The other side of the coin

Just like a bad dream
Elementary, my dear Watson
An invitation

By the end of it, we’ll have a repository of available knowledge about a work of art from a sculptor described as “one of the most important artists of figurative sculpture of the second half of the 20th century”

What I can’t get my head around, though, is why I’m the only person who’s ever bothered to try and find out.

It's not as if you can overlook them.

They're as big as barn-doors , for goodness' sake....

Tomorrow: Johannes Gutenberg and his museum

Not yer normal winery - reloaded - #1335

2011-05-11T13:00:00.006+02:00

This isn't the sort of quaint German winery that you'll see in the tourist ads.

No geraniums, no trailing vines canopying secluded courtyards, no buxom serving wenches, no candle-lit tables

Nothing romantic about it at all, in fact.

What you DO get though is seriously good wine, funky people and two seriously good hoolies a year.

This was the autumn do last year and the other day, we rocked on over with Prof and his missus to the spring do.

He doesn't get all twee and charge this much for this wine and that much for that wine.

Standard price for a glass, buy a bottle at the list price, food costs €9.50 a serving and €5 for a dessert.

Good band: Troll and the Freibeuter (Buccaneers)

On view:

Vegetarian pizza (roasted peppers, San Mazano tomato, aubergine, avocad0) on flat bread

Avocado and chocolate icecream on a frozen rock.

Pastry pocket with fresh cheese, rhubarb and strawberry compote and fresh curds

Yummy.....

It's all geek to me... - #1334

2011-05-10T13:00:00.002+02:00

Did a double-take when I saw this label.

Most of the geeky computer people I worked with lived off pizza, Big Macs, Coke (also non-capitalised....) and coffee.

Didn't really see them as a market for Extra Virgin olive oil.

Oh.

It's Greek olive oil.

That explains it then.....

Tools of the trade - #1333

2011-05-09T13:00:00.001+02:00

If you're of the (mistaken) opinion that potters create vessels with only their hands from a lump of clay, I'll have to disillusion you.

This is a selection of the Frank the Potter's instruments, ranging from brushes to garrottes.

Also squeezy thingies for administering enemas to the cat.

I think...

Frolics - #1332

2011-05-08T13:00:00.004+02:00

I'm SURE that there's CONSIDERABLY more frolicking and Bacchanalian activity going on at the top of the fountain at the moment.

Must be Spring...

"D is for.....-#1331

2011-05-07T13:00:00.006+02:00

......"Delicious"

Or "Ditsch".

Peter Ditsch's Pretzel/Bretzel/Bretzeln (one of the academics will correct me, I'm sure....) factory is just up the road in Mainz-Hechtsheim and it's a favourite destination for us impoverished pensioners.

60c instead of 70c at the kiosks in town.

Don't even ASK what they cost at football matches....

And now you can get them deep-frozz at your local supermarket.

I'll have to toddle over there and do some unit pricing....

Hallo, blossom - #1330

2011-05-06T13:00:00.003+02:00

Seasonal flirtations

How very tiresome....- #1329

2011-05-05T13:00:00.003+02:00

Merrily zipping into the Big Smoke on the velocipede the other day along the farm tracks and through the undergrowth when I feel the tail waggle that tells you that all's not well with the rear wheel tire.

Less resistance to the thumb that there should be.

Look for a culprit

Find this

Not that I'm complaining, but this is the 4th bloody flat tire in less than 2 weeks.

I wish someone would have a talk to these acacias and tell them to stop attacking me....

Yoof Club - #1328

2011-05-04T13:00:00.002+02:00

This is cool.

Local kids paint the bus shelter at the top of Hechtsheimer Berg, decorate it with shadowy figures and tell folks where the action's at.

Tuesdays and Thursdays 18:00 to 21:00

If you fit the demographic, that is....

The Golden Plough competition - #1327

2011-05-03T13:00:00.003+02:00

Wooden spoon in the "Straightness of row" category.

I thought these things are computerised these days - key in what you want to sow and GPS does the rest.

Maybe not in Klein-Winternheim.....

Watch the birdie.....#1326

2011-05-02T13:00:00.001+02:00

Makiko Hastings is a Japanese ceramicist living in Yorkshire.

She kicked off the 1000 Birds project, with all proceeds going to help earthquake victims in Japan.

This is ours.

Cool, eh?

Monthly Theme Day - Letterbox - #1325

2011-05-01T09:00:00.000+02:00

You say ~~"tomayto"~~ "mailbox", we say ~~"tomahto"~~ "letterbox"

OK, so technically it's a typecase, but if you can put letters in it and it's a box, then it's a letterbox.

At the Druckladen, the printing workshop at Gutenberg Museum

More over here.

Click here to view thumbnails for all participants

Taken for a ride - #1324

2011-04-30T13:00:00.001+02:00

Terminal giddiness at the Spring Fair on the banks of the Rhine.

Pollution - #1323

2011-04-29T13:00:00.006+02:00

I'd noticed the mobile cell transmitters (pumping out electro-smog and giving us all instant brain tumours) on the top of this chimney in the Martinsstrasse, but it took a look at the Historical Monument plaque to get the whole story.

The explosion of the powder magazine in 1857 in one of the forts in the defensive wall pretty much flattened everything within sight. (To give you an idea of the force of the explosion: a significant chunk of the parapet - weighing over 1000kg - ended up 500 metres away. Smaller bits ended up in the Rhine...)

No point in rebuilding (rebuilding WHAT exactly - most of it's halfway to Wiesbaden...) so the city fathers started from scratch including that Shiny New Invention (tada...) - drains.

Duly dug, but what to do with the pong?

Build chimneys, shove the odours up into the lower stratossphere and let them drift about a bit and dilute.

And if anyone complains, you could always say "Wasn't me, it was from that chimney over there...."

Or - as the Romans used to say - "Is ut nidor is paciscor is"

Siblings - #1322

2011-04-28T13:00:00.000+02:00

Now THIS is a good story...

When you drive down the mile-long hill into Pateley Bridge in Yorkshire in spring, you'll be stunned by the mass planting of daffodils - sponsored by a local quarry - on the road verge.

I thought that Klein-Winternheim could do with something similar on the 650m or so of the B40 that runs from the roundabout at the motorway exit down into the village.

So I wrote to Her Ladyship the Mayoress with the idea, suggesting that local businesses might care to sponsor 10 metres at a time, local people might want to get in on the act, Farmer Braun could zip up and down with a plough and hey!, wouldn't it be a great idea if the town had an event and let the littlies plant the bulbs - they'd be able to say proudly years later to their OWN kids "I planted those daffodils".

Heard nothing and weeks later - buried in the minutes of the council meeting - was something that went "The council proposes to beautify the verge of the B40 by planting bulbs. Donations from the community can be made by cheque"

Hohum.

So we donated DM200 - about $150 in today's money (and come to think of it, didn't even get a "thank you"...) -, daffodils were unceremoniously planted and they actually blossomed the following year.

Then along came the diggers, ripped up the verge to lay cable for DSL or something similarly modern and disappeared.

As did the daffodils.

I'm pleased to see that someone's doing some guerilla planting along the top road into our bit of the village, though.

Sure to attract the diggers, though.....

Red sky at night.... - #1321

2011-04-27T13:00:00.000+02:00

Stunning sunset at the University Clinic

What's good for the Wild Goose.... - #1320

2011-04-26T13:00:00.018+02:00

...is good enough for me.

The Wild Goose house (aka as the "Golden Goose") in Kirschgarten in the old part of town has saved me from considerable expense and personal effort over the years.

Every time Ms jb says "I think the house needs painting", I simply refer her to this place - built in 1450 and renovated at roughly 250 year intervals - and say "Come back and talk to me in a couple of centuries"

Working well so far....

Barock and Roll - #1319

2011-04-25T13:00:00.003+02:00

Tagged along with Mrs jb yesterday to the Augustinerkirche (St Augustine's) in the - yes - Augustinerstrasse.

Riotously decorated with angels, cherubims and seraphims perched on ledges all around the place.

Though we were in for a cracking sermon, too.

Started off well.

"180,000 people left the church last year. We as a church have to address the problem seriously and take a good look at ourselves"

Wow!

I thought he was going to rip into paedophile and otherwise abusive clergy and the church's decade-long practice of sweeping the stench under the rug, but he drifted off into areas in a meanderment that NEITHER of us completely followed.

But the MAIN problem appears to be that parents don't buy Easter eggs and hide them for the kiddies.

So that's OK, then......

The organic Easter Bunny..... - #1318

2011-04-24T13:00:00.054+02:00

..appears to have crept in and laid these without my noticing.

Not too sure about the kryptonite colour, though....

Elsewhere

Book... - #1317

2011-04-23T12:09:00.001+02:00

...your Gutenberg tour here.

World Book Day.

Appropriate then that the faithful should pay homage to the boy hisself.

Having a Senior Moment - #1316

2011-04-22T13:00:00.008+02:00

"Now this certainly looks familiar...I wonder where I've seen it...?"

Bronze model of Mainz Cathedral on the Liebfrauenplatz.

Running for the train - #1315

2011-04-21T13:00:00.001+02:00

Mainz Hauptbahnhof

(They missed it...)

Salad days... - #1314

2011-04-20T13:00:00.001+02:00

...or weeks.

This is the way you do it.

Buy plugs of salad plants when they're this big (cost €0.15 an each), put them in a planter with home-made compost (not "compohst". Compost), ~~light the fuse~~ give them some water and stand well clear.

You'll be harvesting leaves in about 3 weeks.

We've got a mixture of Romana, oakleaf and Lollo Rosso and Bianco. Throw in some sorrel leaves, some ruby chard and whatever else you've got that's leafy and edible and away you just do go.

Pagan rituals - #1313

2011-04-19T13:00:00.000+02:00

Rampant Easterisms on display at Caffee Moguntia. (The roastery in Bodenheim, not the TSOW that is..)

I couldn't resist and bought their entire stock.....

75c an each - #1312

2011-04-18T13:00:00.004+02:00

I like tulips, but not THAT much.....

Breakfast at......#1311

2011-04-17T13:00:00.014+02:00

...~~Tiffany's~~ Nelly's.

This place is a treat.

Good Turkish mocca, good café au lait (if you order a double shot...), excellent menemen (a first for me), nice mix of people and great wait-staff.

Plus a great sense of humour.

"Not up to breakfast? How about an espresso, a glass of orange juice and a cigarette. Served on the terrace"

Hey kid, ya wanna try the Big Top? - #1310

2011-04-16T13:00:00.003+02:00

Charles Knie's Big Top on the horizon in Hechtsheim.

Image signed in the foreground by an errant moped on a farm track

"Wild Billy's Circus Story" spring[steen]s to mind

These Germans have funny names - #1309

2011-04-15T13:00:00.001+02:00

There are the Wagnerian Brünnhilde and Sieglinde (now adopted as the name of a strain of spud) and Siegmund (Victory Mouth) and Siegfried (Victory Peace).

Urmgard is one you'll stumble across and there's always Friedwart (Defender of the peace) and Friedhelm (Peace helment. Eh?)

But I'd never come across Mangalitza.

What a name! Mangalitza Wollschwein!

Mangalitza Woolly Pig!

"Healthy meat and sausage from Mangalita Wollschwein of Weidehaltung"

Hang on a sec! That's dative. Or is it genitive?

Whatever...

What it REALLY says is " Healthy meat and sausage from free-range Mangalitza* woolly pigs."

Good thing I don't do any translations. I'd be really crap, I'm sure.....

* A breed of Hungarian pig, valued for its hardiness and ability to live on virtually nothing and instantly recognisable by virtue of its thick woolly hide

Asparagusing - #1308

2011-04-14T13:00:00.000+02:00

Now that all the ~~nucular~~ (oops, we don't have to say that any more now that the Idiot Bush is no longer President) nuclear power stations are being closed down over here, we should be happy that the place has been comprehensively verspargelt (=asparagussed, a pejorative phrase used to criticise the impact of windfarms on the landscape).

They'll give us electricity for about 10 minutes a day, if I've got my sums right.

And while we're on the subject of renewables - here's a classic example of the peaceful use of solar energy being used to supercharge the local asparagus crop under plastic foil.

Thinks: isn't plastic a by-product of the petrochemical industry?

Not that green after all, then...

Woman on the verge of a nervous breakdown - #1307

2011-04-13T13:00:00.000+02:00

"But I could buy a NEW one for that money" she stammered.

€198 for getting a bike that hadn't been ridden for 7 years up to scratch doesn't sound TOO over the top, given the list of parts that he chanted out.

Have my doubts, though.

Took mine in for a service the other week.

€35 later, the chain and rear cogset hadn't been cleaned and oiled, the brakes hadn't been adjusted, one of the cables was frayed and in fact the ONLY thing they appeared to have done was to tighten the rear axle to get the 24th (longest) gear working again.

And only when I was leaving the workshop did they notice that the rear wheel had a wobble which pointed to the rear axle. Again.

Fixed that and then the front dérailleur stopped shifting properly after I'd done 5km.

Nice people and all, but am I going back?

No

An invitation - #1306

2011-04-12T13:00:00.097+02:00

This is a good story.

Elements of revolution and conspiracies, provincialism and politics, neglect and vandalism, war and peace, fire and water.

And two lovely people.

Yesterday, I had coffee with Karl-Heinz Krause and his wife, Ursula to shed some light on the mystery of the gates at the Gutenberg museum.

I told them to let me know when they'd had enough - he's 87, she's 79 - but the topics of conversation never dried up and 3 hours later we were still talking.

This a story you couldn't make up if you tried.

It starts in Berlin at the end of the war with a young art student who's recently been released from PoW camp and ends in a sunlight-flooded atelier in a house in one of Mainz's leafy suburbs where one of the most important German sculptors of the post-war period lives, virtually unrecognised and where one of his major works sits anonymously between the cathedral and the most important printing museum in the world.

It's going to be in episodes, it'll start in a couple of weeks and by that time I'll have learnt how to cast bronze sculptures in sand, cleared up some details with the Krauses and photographed great chunks of the gates.

And we'll have done the Gutenberg museum's job for them.

Which is to preserve cultural knowledge for future generations....

And if Gucki would like to give me a call/txt on zerooneseveneightsixninezerofivesixtwothree, I think we should get this on Wikipedia. Or anywhere.

Elementary, my dear Watson.. - #1305

2011-04-11T11:00:00.044+02:00

If things work out, I'm meeting Karl-Heinz Krause and his wife Ursula at precisely....NOW... to learn the history, concept and technique of the 4 bronze gates of the Gutenberg Museum in Mainz.

Easy enough to track him down, too.

Called the owner of one of the galleries in Berlin which represent him and asked if he could point me towards a source of information.

"Best thing would be to call him" he said "You DO know that he lives in Mainz?"

Actually, no...

And it appears that I've thrashed past their house frequently on the way into and out of town on the trusty velocipede.

More soon.

This is getting to be fun...

Sunny afternoon - #1304

2011-04-10T13:00:00.014+02:00

...in the Römerwall park.

The Kinks have something definitive on that, too.

The tax man's taken all my dough
And left me in my stately home
Lazing on a sunny afternoon

And I can't sail my yacht
He's taken everythin' I've got
All I've got's this sunny afternoon

Save me, save me
Save me from this squeeze
I've got a big fat momma tryin' to break me

And I love to live so pleasantly
Live this life of luxury
Lazing on a sunny afternoon
In the summertime, in the summertime
In the summertime

My girlfriend's gone off with my car
And gone back to her ma and pa
Telling tales of drunkenness and cruelty

Now I'm sitting here
Sipping at my ice cold beer
Lazing on a sunny afternoon

Help me, help me, help me sail away
Well, give me two good reasons
Why I ought to stay

'Cause I love to live so pleasantly
Live this life of luxury
Lazing on a sunny afternoon
In Summertime, in summertime
In summertime

Save me, save me
Save me from this squeeze
I've got a big fat momma tyin' to break me

And I love to live so pleasantly
Live this life of luxury
Lazing on a sunny afternoon

In the summertime, in the summertime
In the summertime, in the summertime
In the summertime

Lyrics and music: Raymond Douglas Davies