“The Occident Remains Omnipresent”

Book-shopping during the Blitz.

No doubt these gentlemen were searching out Siegfried Kracauer titles.

On Boredom

People today who still have time for boredom and yet are not bored are certainly just as boring as those who never get around to being bored.

Siegfried Kracauer (1924)

And, No Doubt, The Crowds Roared . . .

Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler in the plaza outside Munich’s Central Train Station in September 1938.

All buildings in the photograph were destroyed during the war, and none rebuilt to pre-war designs.

Munich’s current Central Train Station is an unattractive, utilitarian building, of basic and cheap construction and materials. The building is not in keeping with the great beauty of central Munich, and needs to be replaced.

Columbus Day Weekend

Tomorrow, after my morning classes, Andrew and I will drive down to New York for a long Columbus Day Weekend.

If traffic is no worse than on a normal Friday afternoon, we should arrive in Manhattan around 4:00 p.m.

Assuming flights from Minneapolis are on schedule, Andrew’s parents should already be settled into our hotel when Andrew and I arrive. They are scheduled to arrive in Newark just past 1:45 p.m., and will take a cab from the airport into Manhattan.

We have Friday evening, Saturday afternoon and evening, and Sunday afternoon and evening already planned, but Saturday morning, Sunday morning and all day Monday remain open. We shall probably decide what to do during those periods while we settle in late Friday afternoon.

Tomorrow night: New York City Ballet and my second viewing of one of George Balanchine’s very greatest masterpieces, “Brahms-Schoenberg Quartet”.

I can’t wait.