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May 28, 2006

Bayernhof Music Museum

Last week, we visited an odd little museum. Here's our trip from Tim's perspective!

The Bayernhof Music Museum. Now here is a small museum that has as many surprises as most large museums. An eccentric chap named Charles Brown III, who had a lot of money and time on his hands, built a mansion and housed it with himself, over 150 mechanical instruments, and an odd assortment of collectable items. From the website:

“His collection is displayed in almost every room in the house. There are many antique music boxes, “monkey” organs, a Wurlitzer carousel organ, a Reproduco Piano-Pipe organ used in funeral homes and theaters, an Encore Automatic Banjo. There is also a Mills Deluxe Violano Virtuoso player violin and piano combination, a Knabe Ampico reproducing grand piano that faithfully “reproduces” the playing of the artist who originally recorded the roll and a huge Seeburg Pipe Organ Orchestra that was once used to accompany silent films to name just a few. In his will, Charles Brown III directed that his instruments be restored and his house opened to the public as a museum. Charles was the founder and chief executive officer of Gas-Lite Manufacturing, he died in 1999.”

Joanna thought our tour guide looked like Charles Laughton. Here he is with a player organ, and a funeral hall player piano.

Here are a couple carousel organs. They were bombastically loud! I loved it. Joanna cringed.

There were over 15 little bars (almost one in every major room) stocked to the gills with expensive liquor. There were secret passageways, doors in odd places, spiral staircases, etc... The bathroom off the master bedroom had a big Jacuzzi and a shower with 14 shower heads shooting water from every possible angle except from the floor up! Another little oddity was this bird cage, featuring a taxidermied bird that chirped and moved its head. Somebody's hobby was stuffing things (a la Norman Bates). Cute and creepy (just liked Norman Bates).

The strangest thing in the house was a passageway that was like an underground cave. It took you from the lower level to the main floor and was accessed by turning a little sword on a wall. Also in the cave were stalactites, stalagmites, a small waterfall, a bat, a scary troll, and a wooden door leading to a wine cellar.

The cellar had an authentic moonshine still (coming from Joanna's neck of the woods)! Eek! The devil's brew!

The pathway through the cave finally opened into the swimming pool room with a 10 foot waterfall. An expansive wall mural surrounded you. It depicted popular scenes from Germany (Sound of Music, Neuschwanstein Castle, etc...) There were surprises waiting around every corner. What a cool place!

Posted by Tim and Jo at 10:05 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

May 26, 2006

Getting Back on Track

I had a funky insight today as I was driving home from library work and dinner with Tim before his night class. I can write my dissertation like a blog! Not meaning that I can be as informal in the dissertation as I can be in the blog, but that when I write on the blog (or in our not-high-tech chronicles), I feel like I have a story I'm trying to communicate. Now despite the fact that I use more formal/academic language in my dissertation, the main point is that there is a story that needs to be told, and I want to tell it.

I'm hoping my new insight will help keep my dissertation from being too dry! Someday, I would love to be one of those scholarly writers who's beauty of prose keeps readers fascinated and engaged with the material at hand. Maybe this will help my find My Voice!

When I got home, I wrote out two pages (still rough) introducing my current chapter. I've been trying to find some direction (a story to tell!) and I think I've finally found it. Actually, there are several stories to tell, but I think that I have found a way to weave together the narrative threads.

I've also been interviewing--through e-mail a couple of real composers. One of the composers has shared his life experience as it relates to shape-note hymns. I've been in a happy sort of glow most of the day. It's a nice not-an-ivory-tower feeling to engage with an interesting person, who's kindly shared his life with me. And now I have the opportunity to help tell his story through my dissertation.

Meanwhile, I'm going to do a bit of searching and try to find out how other scholars have successfully incorporated interviews into their dissertation or other research.

And a last little dissertating bit New Kid on the Hallway blogged about a fun writing resource--you can make word count goals, analyze your writing style, or even just generate a random word for inspiration.

Posted by Tim and Jo at 1:00 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

May 23, 2006

Experiments with New Food, Week 1

I've decided to try cooking one new food a week. I'm getting rather busy with work and dissertation, but I still want to find time to do creative things. Plus, it will be a good incentive not to eat out, stretching our budget a bit further.

Food of the week: Bourride with Rouille

Continue reading "Experiments with New Food, Week 1"

Posted by Tim and Jo at 2:37 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

May 20, 2006

Band of Brothers Part II: I Survived

I made it through Band of Brothers! I feel like I deserve some kind of medal for it. Ten hours. Ten sometimes beautiful, sometimes poignant, unrelenting hours. I feel like I should be part of a special "made it all the way through Band of Brothers club." I don't usually cry much during movies, but this was an exception. Here's an approximate time-line of my emotional state:

Continue reading "Band of Brothers Part II: I Survived"

Posted by Tim and Jo at 11:19 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

May 19, 2006

Vegetable Powerhouse Puree

Here's a recipe I adapted from several other recipes awhile ago. I jotted it down on a sticky pad, and I'm afraid I'm going to lose it, so here it goes. I was trying to make something that was nutritionally loaded (lots of beta carotene and other good stuff).

Vegetable Powerhouse Puree

Continue reading "Vegetable Powerhouse Puree"

Posted by Tim and Jo at 3:01 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

May 12, 2006

Today's discovery

Watching a happy almost-two year old is a lot like watching Amelie (minus the overly "European" bits):

-Pinecones are magical treasures, made to be gathered in both hands even if it means you drop your little Lamby in the process.

-Watching leaf "helicopters" fly down can provide minutes of entertainment.

-Walking over gravelly sections of sidewalk is an adventure, made even more exciting by stopping to take a little of the gravel with you.

-A stopped bus by the side of the road deserves at least a little time in gaping astonishment.

-Pine-straw dancing towards you in the wind is enthralling--though slightly alarming--when you're between two and three feet tall.

Posted by Tim and Jo at 3:09 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

May 10, 2006

Gorgeous Blog!

I just stumbled on the funnest blog, in which a Parisian takes a picture of Paris each day and puts it up.

Mmmm....Paris....want to go back....

http://parisdailyphoto.blogspot.com/

Posted by Tim and Jo at 11:03 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

New Title!

We have a new title for our blog! I was thinking about the process of writing blogs and chronicles, and in a way, it's trying to capture lost time, to photograph a moment that's gone.

Part of the long mushy story of how Tim and I fell in love has to do with our realization that we were both reading Marcel Proust's 3,000+ page stream-of-consciousness epic (the longest novel in existence, as far as I know) À la recherche du temps perdu I can count on one hand the people I know who have read it. Actually, one finger as far as people I know who've read all the way through it.

Neither one of us has finished it yet. It's one of the most difficult books I've ever tried to read. It sometimes takes pages to complete one sentence (aaaaah! I can't find the subject! I can't find the verb! What in the world is he trying to say?!?).

It's somewhat disturbing at parts, I get bogged down in the selfishness and empty dreariness of the lifestyle of fin-de-siecle society.

But it's beautiful. It's an incredibly poignant look at the way memories shape our entire being. At one point (probably the most famous scene in the book), the memory of an entire childhood springs out of a bite of Madeleine dipped into tea (er, lime tisane to be technical).

And that's the story of our new title...

Posted by Tim and Jo at 1:38 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack

May 9, 2006

Tulips

Our yard is a battleground, in which I (usually unsuccessfully) pit my wits, brawn, the flimsy weed-whacker, and sometimes my husband against the legions of weeds that threaten to overtake it come spring time. The house was unoccupied before we moved in, and previous to that, a tenant lived here who didn't really care about the house (or the yard). And before that, the invalid owners of the house (our landlady's parents) lived here. So I battle the unkempt yard, trying to bring order out of the chaos that has run rampant for years.

But in the midst of the chaos, a few lonely tulips have sprouted. No one has cared for them for many, many years, yet they still thrive. I'm fascinated by them each time I walk outside. They're gorgeous--frilly red ones, dappled yellow ones, and opalesque, nearly-black purple ones.

They haunt me--fleeting reminders of people dead and gone who used to love this house and yard, like fading photographs or brittle yellowed letters, ephemeral reminders of the past.

I sometimes feel the same way when I look at my wedding ring (from the 1930s), wondering who lived in it before I put it on.

Posted by Tim and Jo at 12:56 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

May 5, 2006

Dylan and dentistry

Yesterday, me and Bob Dylan took a trip to the dentist. Don't know if I would have made it through that appointment without him. There was something painfully appropriate about listening to "Master's of War" as novicaine was shot into my gums. Ah...people with masks...pain...fear... It's hard to resist making cheesy analogies between the numb consciences in that song and my numb gums. Ahh...here comes "A Hard Rain is Gonna Fall," ballad-like, piled-up with metaphors and imagery I can sink into, as I drift into music to escape my surroundings. It's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard, 'n it's a hard...drill is gonna drill??? Wait!!! They're not numb after all. Eek!! Stop that drill!!! My mind moves to that awful country song (I cringe every time I hear those lyrics):

Well he stuck that needle down deep in my gum
And he started drilling before I was numb

It took her two more tries before she actually got my tooth numb. Ouch! I think the place that my insurance covers uses dental students, and this woman and her assistant weren't quite with it. They were very interested in talking about the latest gossip in the office. My inner musicologist comes to the forefront, pondering the non-imitative polyphony created by the soothing sounds of Dylan, the whiny overtones of the drill, and the bits and pieces of what sounded like quite a lurid story passing between the two women above my head.

They kept on dropping things in my mouth, and I couldn't quite figure out the sign language for "I'm going to gag if you don't get that piece of equipment out that I'm about to swallow."

Wait, I'm still here, and "Freewheelin' Bob Dylan" is over. No dentist appointment should last longer than a Dylan album. Ah, well, time to start over....How many roads must a man walk down...

Posted by Tim and Jo at 10:28 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

May 2, 2006

Tunisian couscous

I've been dying to make couscous ever since I came back from my trip to an Exotic Place. So, last night, armed with coucous from our Paris trip last summer, fresh cilantro and parsley from the Strip District, and an unusual spice mix from said Exotic Locale, I adapted a recipe I found on the internet, roasting zucchini, new potatoes, and sweet potatoes to go with it.

Tunisian Couscous Salad with Grilled Sausage

I love the way couscous looks--all heaped up, overflowing with vegetables, decadent and rustic all at once.

And I *love* my asymmetrical platter, a wedding present from Pier One.

Posted by Tim and Jo at 2:40 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack