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When I arrived in the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh on Friday, I was exactly one day late for one of the city’s greatest festivities.
The Water Festival 2008 – or Bon Om Tuk, as it’s called in Khmer – concluded on Thursday night with boat races and spectacular fireworks.
According to the Lonely Planet travel guide, “up [...]
Filed under: music, observations, travel | Tagged: boat race, cambodia, cambodia daily, carnival, Cologne, phom penh, song, water festival | 2 Comments »
You won’t find me at a lot of political rallies.
So when I got my ass up this weekend to go out and demonstrate, you know that it must have been a cause that was very important to me.
This weekend, racists and neo-Nazis from all over Europe had planned to gather in my home town Cologne [...]
Filed under: observations | Tagged: anti-islam, anti-islam-conference, bellydance, civil rights, Cologne, demonstration, fpö, front national, germany, heumarkt, integration, islam, lega nord, mosque, muslim, nazi, racism, rally, right-wing, tolerance, xenophobia | 9 Comments »
The people of Cologne have a nice sense of humor. They’ll even turn political protest against Neo-Nazis into a carnival.
Liberal groups in Cologne are calling on the people of the city to stage a mass bellydance on September 20th. They’re hoping that 11 000 dancers will swing their hips to oriental music in protest against [...]
Filed under: observations | Tagged: anti-islam, bellydance, Cologne, demonstration, extremism, fpö, front national, germany, islam, le pen, nazi, neo-nazi, rally, right-wing, tolerance, vlaams-belang | 2 Comments »
My cultural highlight this week was a visit to Kolumba in Cologne. This museum has been around for almost a year now, but you know how it is: when you’re not a tourist, when you live in a city, you never really get around to seeing the sights…
A couple of friends had already been [...]
Filed under: art, zeitgeist | Tagged: böhm, Cologne, germany, jawlensky, köln, kolumba, minimalist, museum, warhol, zumthor | 1 Comment »
Cologne witnessed Europe’s biggest gay pride parade this weekend.
20 000 marchers and more than 70 floats snaked their way throught the tightly packed city streets on Sunday.
An estimated half a million people watched the parade. One million people joined the gigantic street party downtown, which lasted the whole weekend.
With sunshine and temperatures in the upper [...]
Filed under: observations, zeitgeist | Tagged: celebration, christopher street day, Cologne, csd, fliegende pillen, gay, gay pride, germany, köln, lesbian, online pharmacy, parade, pride, transgender | Leave a Comment »
I got my hair cut today, and just as I stepped out the door of the store, a little old lady walked by on the sidewalk with her lapdog.
My opening the door and stepping out of the barbershop rather quickly must have startled the dog.
Maybe it was just surprised to see that humans can move [...]
Filed under: observations | Tagged: Cologne, dog, lady, lapdog, old | 2 Comments »
I saw a beautiful production of Richard Wagner’s opera Tannhäuser at the Cologne Opera last night. The music and the singers were wonderful. But what was truly amazing was the stage design, the lighting and the costumes.
The Cologne Opera chose not to produce a “traditional” Wagner – with medieval costumes and romanticising sets. Instead, the [...]
Filed under: art, music | Tagged: Beethoven, Cologne, Fidelio, germany, opera, production, Tannhäuser, Wagner | Leave a Comment »
