I picked up a copy of Bild at lunch today (and made a picture of it, see above) because I was taken by the coverage of this event and the layout/content of this paper.

Germans are reacting to this tragedy with a kind of "I told you so" attitude. You don't have access to weapons here in Germany like that guy did (or so it appears). I'm not sure if that's good or bad, I'm conflicted. When things like this happen, I tend to be "German" on the gun control laws.

Moreover, I thought the "naked lady picture" (which is on every cover of Bild everyday) made a strange bottomfold image in relation to this event on the top; look at her "looking up" and "laughing". Weird and disorienting!

I needed to take break from writing my thesis/portfolio this weekend. Jean, Summer, Denise (a friend), Lucky and I took a trip to Köln, Germany and then went into The Netherlands to Maastricht.

The weather here has been in the 80s and very beautiful so the drive was gorgeous. It was a 1.5 hours to Köln and another 45 minutes or so to Maastricht. It’s amazing to cross (country) borders without even stopping!! In that way the EU is very cool.

We left Viernheim at about 8AM and got to Köln at 9:30AM so we decided to people watch and have a cup of coffee. Köln is a wonderful city. The people are friendly and the city is extremely “art friendly”. The waitress asked where we were from and I made some crack comment about Denise being a hillbilly from "West Virginny, USA" (she's not, she's from Washington D.C.) and the waitress said something like, “It doesn’t matter to people in Köln, we accept everyone” – Whoaaa! That blew me away, that’s not the Germany I know! I knew Köln was very different the minute I drove in.

August Sander (1876-1964), a well-known photographer of the 20th Century was born in Köln and did a lot of work here, that’s one of the reasons I wanted to see the city. He created a body of work called, “People of the 20th Century” – I have it. It’s a seven volume set of books, some 1400 pages. He classified the German people into groups. For example, “Artists”, “Farmers”, “Scientist” etc. and then made portraits of them. His seventh and last volume is called “Die Letzten Menchen” or “The Last People”. This is what I am most interested in. I wanted to know what it was like to see Die letzten Menchen on the streets of Köln like Sander did. And I did. Unfortunately, his portrait work is on tour. We only got to see a small collection of his landscape work. It was nice, but not in the league of Die letzten Menchen!

I haven’t been to a city or village in Europe I didn’t like yet. Köln is a place I will return to for sure. Simply for the fact of its connection to photography/art and it’s friendly vibe. The beer is good (Kölsch) and is exclusive to Köln, we had a nice lunch at an open air café called Casablanca and we saw a few of the more popular sites of the city (Köln’s Gothic Catherderal, Köln Turm, etc.) too.

Then it was onto The Netherlands. The border was about 20 minutes from Köln and you could tell you were in The Netherlands immediately. All of the signs were in Dutch (of course), it is a strange and difficult language to hear, read or speak (I tried years ago). In other words, you can’t even begin to guess what the road signs are saying. On top of that, the landscape changed, the look of the houses, the colors, everything – it was wild! The Netherlands are beautiful and the people are very, very friendly. They are an open and progressive people. We had a family (husband, wife and daughter) sitting next to us at a café telling us about how the Dutch feel about Americans. They said the Dutch people will never forget what America did for The Netherlands in WWII and believe that most Americans are good people. However, they don’t care for the current administration and have serious concerns about Iraq etc. but I think even most Americans are waking up to that fact now. We had a nice conversation with them about current world events and national identity. Very enlightening!

Onto the photos....



Yes, you can legally smoke hash, and marijuana in The Netherlands. The places are called "Coffeeshops". They are all over The Netherlands.

I really liked this cup. One side DREAMS, the other side CONFLICTS - this embodies the feeling of the cities in The Netherlands - very creative and art friendly.

Are we in Holland yet? Where are the bicycles???

Dutch signs... an easy read!

I couldn't resist this "Winnogrand" moment in Maastritch! I love this image!

A license plate.. hmmmm, why did I put this here?? It's different from ours in DE.

"Die letzten Menchen" - Heribert, on the streets of Koeln. I could only make out a few words... he was listenign to music and shared some with me. He handed me an earbud covered in blood.

I'm not sure what he was drinking... whatever it was, it was strong.

This seems out of palce, but this is the only thing we drank. Great beer! Made in Koeln.

The "new" RCA Dog in Media Park in Koeln. Lucky loved it and Jean and Summer thought it was kool too!

The August Sander Museum is in this building. They had a Lee Friedlander show and a Wessel show going.. no photographs allowed. This is where we saw Sander's landscapes.

This is another image I really like... the refelctions of two women in the glass, the red hair of the woman next to Denise and Denise's expression.

Starting our day in Koeln with coffee, chocolate muffins, brownies and people watching.

Here are a couple of people pictures from the streets of Prague. I should be writing my portfolio and I'm messing around organizing my travel photos... no worries.. keine angst!

"Ringing like the change in the legless man's Dixie cup..." From a Mike Doughty song. That's the first thing that came to my mind when I saw this guy (yes, he was legless). He spoke no English, I don't speak Czech, so I just dropped 20 Krone in his cup to hear it "ring" and asked how he was.

There's a lot of color in Prague. I really like it when it's the people - the contrast of it all.

Trier, Germany: The Imperial Roman Baths, Porta Nigra and More

What an amazing city. I thought I'd seen ancient in my life until I spent the day in Trier. It was gorgeous today; the weather, the sites, the food, everything was perfect.

We will return to Trier in the near future!

Porta Nigra (black gate)

The Imperial Roman Baths

The Jacobsons at the Imperial Roman Baths

Inside the Roman Baths (the tunnels underground) they were wild!!

More Roman baths...

Street musicians.. Don and Bunny we got you a CD of their music...

You know what they say about big feet!

St. Peter's Square Fountain

Inside the Constantine Basilica Church

We're In Luxembourg City, Luxemborg (Yes, the country)

We drove 2 hours this morning to Luxembourg City. We have a hotel here for the night (60 Euros) and will make a trip into Trier Germany (the oldest city in Germany 2000 years old +) tomorrow to see the Roman baths and look for Jean's long long relatives, the Wellers.

Today, we will bum around the city and look for books and art. We are sitting in the Cafe Francais right now as I blog and shoot the photos.

We'll send an update tomorrow from Trier.

The Jacobsons in Prague (Praha), Czech Republic (Bohemia) February 2007

Jean, Summer and Quinn at the 13th Century Charles Bridge in Prague.

Summer and Quinn in the Metro in the heart of Prague. You go down many layers in the earth to get to the Green line. It reminded me of the "Journey to the Middle of the Earth" - we kept going down and down. Very steep and fast escalators too. Unlike any Metro we've been on, including Paris, London and New York City.

Jean and Quinn enjoying a 1L Czech Beer called Pilsner Urquell made in Plzen, Czech Republic (we drove through it). These were $3 USD each! All you need is one!

The famous Charles Bridge (and Prague Castle in the background). Built in the 13th Century (Gothic) by the Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV. Gorgeous and looong! Kitsch booths setup all along it with people trying to peddle their fake tourist-art. And it was packed with people! I can't imagine this place in July! It serves a function, it connects Old Town with Mala Strana.


A Quick Overview of the Week

We spent the last week in Prague (Praha), Czech Republic. It was gorgeous! It's old, beautiful and full of art and history. It blew my mind. As an artist, and a human being, Prague is one of my favorite places so far.

We spent a lot of time in the Jewish Quarter (the ghetto) and went into the old synagogues - the Spanish Synogogue and the Maisel Synagogue. Again, beautiful and full of both incredible and disturbing history. Kafka, The Golem, Charles Bridge, Old Town Square on and on.

The weather was nice too. We went on the Metro, the bus, walked until our legs hurt everyday and then walked some more. It was great fun and we even learned a lot!

Some More Photos

Jean on the Charles Bridge in front of one of the many statues that adorn the bridge. Very beautiful (and large) pieces of art.

A musician in Old Town Square.

Final Semester of Graduate School!

-4F, Plainfield, Vermont. I am completing my final semester of graduate school (MFA-IA) at Goddard College.

I attended (my fourth time) graduation ceremony yesterday. I have a good friend that graduated - it was a beautiful and intimate ceremony. That's what I really like about Goddard, it's not an "ivory tower" university where you are simply a "number" or "blade of grass" - you are truly recognized and valued as a human being and artist. - Ich mag das!!!

Seat 2A

Headed to New York City (and then Burlington, Vermont) from Frankfurt, Germany. My final (G5) semester of graduate school. I will have my MFA in July!!

2006 Volkswagon Passat

It's been a while since I've made an entry here. We've been busy. My fourth semester of graduate school is over (it went wonderfully) and we are settling into our lives here.

Here's the view from my window at work (minus the bars on the window). That's our car, VW Passat. Yes, I'm parking on the grass. The road to our building is being completed and we can't get to the parking lot. Anyway, It's fun to fly down the autobahn in that baby!

The Old Jewish Cemetery in Worms, Germany



We went to see the oldest and largest Jewish cemetery in all of Europe. It was incredible. The oldest headstone dates to the year 1076. Jews were buried there from 1076 to 1911. We walked through and saw a variety of headstones and different areas dedicated to different people. You have to remember, Jews were thriving in this part of Germany when this cemetery was set up. Worms was a "Jewish Center" for Europe.



Typically, even when visiting Jewish graves of someone that the visitor never knew, he or she would leave a small stone at the graveside. This shows that someone had visited, and represents permanence. This contrasts with the common custom of leaving flowers, which do not live long. Another reason for leaving stones is tending the grave. In Biblical times, graves were marked with mounds of stones, so by placing (or replacing) them, one perpetuated the existence of the site.

Time Waits For No Man

Here I sit in disbelief that it's the 7th of October! Where is the time going? It's a little bit scary, especially being aware that we are here for a very limited time.

We had plannned a trip to Trier, Germany this weekend but we cancelled because of the tremendous amount of work we have to do here in the house (still). Although Trier is less than 2 hours away, we are surrounded by boxes and "stuff" that need to be put away and we can't avoid that. Saturday is the day you have to go shopping (food) because everything here is shut down on Sunday. The point is, we have to get settled before we start running off to France and Italy (all of the countries) - but WE WILL (eventually).

The "reality" of Europe is starting to hit us too. It is very expensive here and there are a lot of cultural "issues/barriers" here too. Lately,

I've become preoccupied with the German people (and attitude) pre-Holocaust. I've been reading about the anti-Semetic attitude in the 19th and 20th Century of the people here and some history of the village we live in. There are 31 death camps within an 8 hour drive of our village, I'll try to visit all of them in the next three years.

I'm interested in what makes the German people the way they are today. If you've lived in Germany you know what I'm talking about.

More to come...

German Class (Welche Sprache sprechen Sie?)

We've been going to our German class this week. It's great. This is a tough language for me, but I'll get it. Summer and Jean are really doing well with it. At one point in my life I was fluent in Spanish so I thought another language would be easier, it's not. Maybe I'm just getting too old ;-) Give me a few months and I'll be speaking like the Chancellor!

(click here to see a short video from tonight's class)



Also, I found this to be very interesting. I am starting to do research on the death camps in Poland and Germany. It's a sad and sick history.

First rabbis to be ordained in Germany since Holocaust
Sep 14 12:35 AM US/Eastern

Three rabbis are to be ordained in the eastern German city of Dresden in the first such ceremony in the country since World War II.
They studied at the Abraham Geiger College in Potsdam outside Berlin which was founded in 1999 with the aim of strengthening the Jewish religion in Germany after the ravages of the Holocaust.

The college is the only institution in Germany that trains rabbis.

The three rabbis are planning to take up positions at synagogues in Munich in southern Germany, in Oldenburg in the northwest of the country and in Cape Town in South Africa, the college said on Wednesday.

The historical moment has been welcomed by the Central Council of Jews in Germany as a "return to normality".

"We need many more rabbis, 30, 40 times as many as we have," the deputy president of the council, Dieter Graumann, said on Wednesday.

Some 600,000 Jews lived in Germany before the Holocaust.

Today the country's Jewish community counts about 110,000 members, the vast majority of whom emigrated from the former Soviet bloc after its collapse and the reunification of Germany.

I always feel compelled to post an image with every blog. I suppose I'm use to seeing words and images together - a storytelling thing..

Anyway, we're slowly but surely settling in and getting our bearing. We're painting the house, taking German classes and assimilating as much as possible. It's a process.

I work on a remote Kaserne near Sandhofen, right off of the Autobahn. It's called Coleman Barracks. It's really an air field (Called Coleman Army Airfield). It's small and very empty (for all intents and purposes). You can tell that it was a bustling place in its time but now the "cold war" is over, these places are going away. It's scheduled to close in 2010 or 2011. I hope to stay to the end (unless something better comes along).


Driving on Coleman at sunrise this morning.

Here's a small, abstract video of a train into Mannheim, Germany. Initially titled, "Sushi & Sex Toys" now called "Night Train"



(5.5 MB WMV Movie)

Saturday night we went to the "innerstadt fest" in our village. It's literally a five minute walk to the village center (the big church) from our house.
It was very fun. A lot of eye-candy and interesting food and drink.

Here's a small video describing and showing interaction with the locals.



(7.2 MB WMV Movie)

Summer starts high school tomorrow. I am opening the photo studio to shoot DA photos starting tomorrow too. We will be in our house Friday! We can't wait! Our lives are beginning here, I can feel it.
The questions that I'm writing about now are, "When do you feel like you are no longer a 'tourist' and become a member of the community?" "Is it over time? How do you measure that? Can you?" I feel small changes taking place. Work and life begins, I am becoming familiar with the area. I see less and less of the Tom-Tom. I know where things are, what food is good, where to buy my favorite pastry, things like that. Things are changing.

We've been very busy lately. Summer starts school Monday, Jean and I have been in a "cultural immersion" class in Heidelberg all week and we moved to a different hotel. Internet connections aren't as easy to get here as in the states, hence the delay in posts, emails and general communication. We'll get better when we get in our house and get settled!

We are now staying at the Alexandros Hotel & Restuarant in Kafetal. It's MUCH BIGGER than our previous places. We have our own rooms and the shower is huge! The best part is that there is authentic Greek food a few steps from our door!

Here is an abstract Autobahn and Beer Bottles video. FYI: 170 kmph equals 106 mph:



(6.6 MB WMV Movie)

I am playing with the idea of doing some video this semester (along with still and writing). I've complied a small 1:30 video about the media and some of the sounds, scenes and things I deal with on a daily basis... (click to see video)




(7.8 MB WMV Movie)

This is the longest German word (37 letters) I have ever seen. It was one a truck at a market. It also has one of the MANY great street names in Viernheim (our adopted village), Beethoven Straße.



"Food Retail Trade Company, Viernheim, Germany"
August 20, 2006

"Rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz" won a special award as the longest German word of the year. The monster word consisted of 63 letters, 20 syllables, and ten individual words—all to express a law having to do with British beef (Rindfleisch) and the so-called "mad cow disease."