Berlin in Winter

 Winter has officially ended in Berlin according to the German Weather Service, and the sun is shining on the river Spree.

Spree on a spring morning

The winter was in fact unusually mild -- just cold enough to form ice on the Spree for a day or so. The local coots took the opportunity to walk on water.

Coots on the ice

 The outdoor markets continue in Berlin even in the winter, and people come out to shop.

Winter market at Nassauische Str.

 The street at our building looked particularly bleak.

Bartningallee in winter

But the Arminius Halle in nearby Moabit offered a sheltered place for people to have a drink of something warm and even a few pastries.

Arminius Halle in January

On a winter walk in Kreuzberg, I saw this marvelous graffiti on a student hostel. The face of the Cardinal comes from the Gemäldegallerie.

Kreuzberg (a Cardinal looks on)

Müggelsee and Landwehrkanal

During the holidays my wife and I have been exploring Berlin and its waterways. Berlin is physically a very large city and only with intentional exploration can one get to know its diverse parts. I took the photo below when visiting  relatives in Friedrichshagen, which, like many parts of Berlin, was once an independent town. Friedrichshagen borders on the Müggelsee, the largest inland waterway in Berlin and popular for sailing. The following black and white photo shows some of the dock area.

Müggelsee

I have been experimenting with black and white (actually grayscale) photos, which sometimes seem to have more character than their color cousins. The day itself was gray, so the black and white fit the mood well.

It was sunny and almost warm when we walked along the Landwehrkanal that cuts through the core of Berlin. We walked the part that goes through Kreuzberg, a neighborhood that was once heavily immigrant and scruffy, but has become increasingly popular and expensive -- to the distress of many long term residents.

Feeding the swans is forbidden, but many swans apparently cannot read the German signs and the residents are, well, indulgent (some may not be able to read the signs either). This swan has fluffed its feathers to impress potential bread-givers. 

A swan in the sun

And this swan was more agressive.

Begging swan

It is not clear to me whether the object in the following photo shows a work of public art or represents the remains of some part of Kreuzberg's industrial past. I think it is art, but I could be wrong.

Kreuzberg art?

A certain scruffiness remains as part of the character of Kreuzberg, as can be seen in this photo of a rather good graffiti portrait in front of a set of pipes that span the canal.

Graffiti and pipes over the Landwehrkanal

The architecture in Kreuzberg is often interesting, like the blue tile frame to this door.

Blue framed door

Some structures also have a very temporary and unGerman look.

Kreuzberg cabin

A few building owners deliberately offer wall-art (pseudo-graffiti), including the youth hostel in this picture.

Public wall art

It is worth noting that people have added graffiti to the sides, but have respected the art itself. This is a phenomenon I have seen elsewhere, particularly in Chicago in the 1970s, when the neighborhood of Hyde Park countered the wave of graffiti with higher quality art.

India

In late November I attended the International Conference on Digital Libraries in New Delhi, India, and I am now among the few people who has every ICDL conference since they begin a decade ago. On the last visit I went on an excursion to the Taj Mahal. This time I spent more time walking around the neighborhood where I was staying near Lodhi Road.

My walk began at the Teri Centre, which is a handsome complex that does a particularly good job of managing light and shade in that tropical climate.

Teri Centre, Lodhi Road

I began my walk on Lodhi road and saw this typical version of Indian taxi, called a tuk-tuk, which is a three-wheel motorcycle type vehicle.

Tuk-tuk on Lodhi Road

Khan Market is only about a 20 minute walk. A beggar woman followed me for part of the way, but eventually went back to where she had left her children. It is hard just to walk away from a person begging for money to feed her children, but she was clearly a professional, which hardened my conscience a bit. Khan market itself presents a modern and almost western appearance.

The front face of Khan market

The back of Khan market is a bit less orderly, mainly because of the exposed air conditioning units and pipes.

Back of Khan market

And some areas are in need to work. This window, for example, seems to belong to an abandoned shop. Wires are everywhere, but it is not clear where they go or what their purpose is -- perhaps they have long since been abandoned.

Window at Khan market

Some parts of the market are undergoing much needed repairs.

Khan market rebuilding

This picture shows a man working on the building from the other side.

Worker at Khan market

One of the most interesting shops (for me) was a second-hand bookstore. This photo shows the entrance. There is a second entrance (exit) that can be seen at the far end.

Bookstore at Khan market

The jumble inside reminded me of some favorite bookstores from my student years. Space clearly is at a premium. Nonetheless there is an implicit order.

Inside the bookstore

On my way back to Teri I saw this distinguished looking vendor in a stand on the opposite side of the street.

Street Vendor

Food played an important role at the conference, and included lunch, tea, and dinner. Some of the preparations can be seen here.

Food preparation at ICDL

And people ate eagerly. Vegetarian and non-vegetarian options were clearly marked. The fish was particularly excellent, as was the freshly prepared nan bread.

Eating at ICDL

As always, the conference ended with a cultural event, generally music and dance. This year it was mainly men in choreographed dance/battle scenes.

Dance at the cultural event

Some day I must see other parts of India, but more important than seeing tourist sights is the contact with colleagues from India and the west. I chaired the best paper award and served on the recommendations committee, as I have in the past. ICDL takes place roughly every two years and I look forward to the next one.

Cuba

I visited Cuba in September. This is now easier for US passport holders who have an academic reason to visit, and I was holding a workshop on digital preservation as part of the regular summer schools that Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin holds in Havana -- one of the standard exemptions. Here I am with my students.

 Photo credit: Universidad de Habana, 2013

The university library is itself a handsome building, but in poor repair despite the best efforts of the staff. Below are two murals from the reading room:

Murals from the Universidad de Habana Reading Room.

Many of the works in their collection in bad condition. Insect damage is especially a problem, despite fumigation efforts. The picture below is typical.

Papel Periodico  de la Havana 1791

Thanks to a friend at the German Embassy, I saw some of tourist Havana. Here is a view of the town and harbor.

View of Havana from the fort.

Some parts are very nice, such as this hotel.

Hotel where Hemingway stayed in Havana

Other areas look derelict and need a protecting angel.

House with the archangel Gabriel paying a visit.

Train service is limited. This is one of the few trains that runs regularly, but goes painfully slowly because of the condition of the track. Replacement parts are hard to get for everything.

Cuban train

The public art is strikingly interesting, such as this pair talking.

Public art in Havana: couple talking.

Or this rooster rider.

Public art in Havana: Rooster Rider

I have a report about the needs of the university library, which I can share with any who are interested.

Singapore

I visited Singapore recently for the IFLA (International Federation of Library Associations) conference. The photos I took there follow a pet "lion-dog" as it visits parts of Singapore. A lion-dog is the symbolic guardian of the homes of the "Peranakan" -- people who were the children of mixed ethnic background in southeast Asia. The lion-dog knows the city well. This photo comes from the Peranakan Museum.

The Singapore MRT (Mass Rapid Transit) makes commuting in Singapore easy, though the city it much too full of cars for my taste. And the stoplights are too long to make walking easy whenever it is necessary to cross a large street.

The roof gardens in Singapore are a calm refuge from the crowds in the shopping malls and on the streets. This roof garden was near the conference center.

Singapore has religious diversity and tolerance. There are Buddhist and Hindu temples, Islamic mosques, and Christian churches. The lion-dog visited this Hindu temple in a walking street near my hotel.

One of the Singapore's attractions is its Botanical Garden, especially the Orchid garden. The variety is enormous, but the lion-dog had favorites.

While much of Singapore is relentlessly modern, a few neighbors like Little India still exist and have an identity of their own.

As is typical near the equator, the sun goes down suddenly. It seems not to affect the night life, though.

I always try to visit art museums. Singapore has no collection of old masters European style, but it has excellent contemporary art exhibits.

Viewers may notice a few familiar works on the wall, which were there only for the lion-dog's visit.

Leipzig

We spent four days in Leizpig after our holiday in Dresden. These are Saxony's two major cities, but nonetheless quite different in history and temperament. Dresden was the court city and is still the capital city, while Leipzig was and remains commercial city with an historically strong publishing sector. Leipzig also has Germany's second oldest university.

Leipzig  has an impressive collection of old masters , though not quite enough to attract the hordes of tour buses that choke Dresden's Zwinger. Leipzig's Museum der Bildnenen Künsten does something very innovative, though: it integrates very contemporary art, often photographs, in the rooms of the old masters. Sometimes these are photos of the museum itself. The effect is itself artistic and gives the viewer a sense of the continuity of artistic thought. On principle I take no photos of copyright-protected works, as the photos certainly are, so I can show none here. But I can show an example based on what I saw.

Museum der Bildenen Künste

On the suggestion of a friend (I will use no names here, since this is public), I began taking photos of clocks with the idea of putting them together in a single work much like a painting of doors from Guatemala. This turned out to be much harder than I thought, since the individual photos had clocks of different sizes with different amounts of background and different angles.

Saxon Clocks

There were also choices to make with the background color. I tried white originally. Then dark blue, and finally settled on a gold that matched the gold in the clock faces. The leftmost clock comes from the Leipzig Rathaus tower and needed some editing to remove a flag mast that obscured the lower part of the image. One ordering principle is that time progresses from left to right.

The painting below struck me not so much for its merit as for the topic. This examination  reminds me strongly of a Habilitation defense defense.

Hasenclever-Hieronymous Jobs im Examen

Leipzig is rich, but not every building has been renovated. The following photo comes from an alleyway with a ghostly 16th century wooden head from the museum in the window.

Window - Leipzig

Dresden

We are on a holiday trip to Dresden and Leipzig. This blog entry includes only Dresden pictures. Leipzig will follow next week.

Reflections

Dresden was a beautiful city before WWII bombing, and much of its beauty has been restored since the wall came down and east and west Germany reunited. As will be obvious from the photographs, I am interested in the artistic effect of reflections. Only one of the photographs below contains no reflections, and two are only reflections. Reflection both distorts images and gives them context because of the surface on which the reflection takes place. The effect can be at once impressionist and ethnographically informative.

Dresden Sights

The Altmarkt (old market) reflected in the Kulturpalast, was the first photo I took in Dresden. The orange-glass Kulturpalast is architecturally reminiscent of the now vanished Palast der Republik, the parliament building of the old east German regime. In the right light, he building functions marvelously as a mirror.

Kulturpalast-Reflections

The Grosser Garten in Dresden is the city's equivalent of the Tiergarten in Berlin or Hyde Park in London or Central Park in New York City. It is large and diverse. The Palace below stands roughly at the center of the Garden and reflects in its own large pool.

Grosser Garten - Dresden - Palace

Dresden Neustadt is the area across the Elbe where my great grandfather (among others) lived before the bombing. It has a mix of architecturally boring state offices, decrepit buildings awaiting repair,  lively shopping, and a bohemian district that resembles the atmosphere of Prenzlauerberg in Berlin. This photo shows a reflection from a window in the shopping district.

Dresden Neustadt - Reflected

The river Elbe is a major feature of Dresden, and an annoying one when it floods, as happened recently. This tourist photo shows the bridge known as der Blaue Wunder (the blue wonder). The restaurants along the Elbe suffered badly during the flooding, but most are back in business.

Blaue Wunder - Elbe Bridge

Wildflowers

In the middle of a very well-to-do district on the Elbhang, I saw a garden filled with wildflowers and with bees feeding on them. Bees are not easy to capture on camera, but this one cooperated.

Wildflowers with Bee - Elbhang