Bucharest to Budapest and Vienna Observations, slightly updated, plus more miscellaniii and maybe a book review or two and a movie review

 

WHAT THE HELL IS THB DOING IN PATRIOTIC GARB???

           THB ain't no senator's son

For sure THB is no patriot, he don't believe in nation states!

  THB has caught World Cup fever...it goes away quickly

   once the US team plays a real soccer team: the Belgian Waffles

   easily sending the US to the back of the line

WHAT IS THIS: A NEW SANDY TRICK, HIDING IN PLAIN SIGHT?

In less than 2 days from now, THB and DB will be taking a Tauck land tour in Ireland. THB and DB have never been to Ireland nor taken a Tauck land tour. 

What in the hell is Schengen? See wikipedia explanation at end of this post. 

Per THB: Schengen is a way to make the traveler go crazy if they think the EU has no border control for people moving around that part of the world. 

THB and DB and the Martin 4 are going to Ireland in a few days, DB and KM are going to Norway in February next year, THB and LB are going to Texas and Pennsylvania in September, DB is going to Washington  in September, THB and DB are going to Venice and London in October and THB and DB may be going to LA in the next month or two. 

Can you please repeat any border controls for these travelers. Will paying $250 for a DJT passport put DJT take over $4B (B as in billions) before the mid-terms?

In this post, if you haven't figured it out by now, THB is mixing and matching again, more mixing than matching. 

From the Eastern Europe river cruise: On the other side of the river, maybe daylight savings time might be just something that was made up by Serbia, sort of like the way climate change is a myth that science imagined to help make sense  of the really strange way the weather has been behaving nowadays. 

Said a different way, there seems to be a race occurring for THB: somehow as he gets older he is getting both stupider and wiser. 

Would THB's Observations after that upcoming trip be more astute, insightful, and helpful to followers of Travels With THB, or would most of the followers (and THB) have forgotten what THB had to say about this trip?

Let's test the waters.

• Nobody would write about how beautiful this par to the Danube was because it wasn't pretty at all. 

Hmmmmm, that seems pretty safe, especially since when you are floating just above the water level and looking around, you can't see much of what lies just beyond the banks of the river. 

• Being able to unpack everything you brought on the trip (which in general was too much stuff) and not think about repacking for another week left THB and DB with much less anxiety about forgetting things when departing lodgings. 

Also a pretty safe Observation...until you remember THB manage to leave his wallet in the cabin's safe, mostly because after a week without carrying his wallet he totally forgot it was missing. 

• Let's try another one: THB lost weight on this trip. Given the number of pastries eaten in 2+ weeks, is that possible? Yes, mostly because THB and DB decided to skip a lot dinners. And not only did we feel better, we also realized later that the food at most dinners wasn't all the good or enjoyable. 
• And this one: AMEX doesn't work Eastern Europe. On the other hand, pretty much every place you spend money accepts VISA and the tap function of the I-phone works beautifully
• Contemporary art was everywhere, and excellent

AHA! Back to our days before leaving for Ireland...

the new two-burner bbq is smaller, better engineering than the old rusted out one

LB and Dug-Digger take the new chair for a test-nap

Nick from Tutka Bay Lodge in Homer, Alaska, is now the chef at the Inn at Newport Ranch.  Newport Ranch is 4 hours from the loft, and about 10 minutes north of Ft. Bragg, on Highway 1. 

We follow Nick around including hosting a small dinner party that Nick catered at the Loft and now two nights of  tasting menus. The first night: exceptional...and on the second night the meal was better than the first! Seven courses each, both creative, and we shared a bottle of sauvignon blanc over the two meals, plus a glass of cabernet sauvignon on night two; $200pp for each meal and the wine was comp'd. Worth a detour. 

a brief stop before and after Inn at Newport Ranch. A great bakery just off 101 in Healdsburg. They moved to this new location 6 months ago

we're going light, we know what's  for dinner tonight. Canale, very good

Mendocino, we're getting closer to the Inn

our room at the Inn, very expansive, very expensive and a hot tub outside; THB has no clue how he got this grey bar at bottom

main building: reception, two large rooms for dining and several bedrooms upstairs

The spa and more bedrooms, some with kitcheoneettes 

our room is in a duplex behind these huge water tanks

2200 acres, the area around the main building is full of wildflowers 

another building next door

these weeds belong in a Kiefer painting

OMG: another grey bar???

while on stroll in the afternoon the marine layers starts coming ashore

most of the benches have rusting sub-structures from old farm equipment

an enlarged map of the Ranch property

THB and DB share fish and chips and local brewski, and check out the catch of the day

harbor seals waiting at the back of the boat

Glass Beacjh

Negra Banderas sez these big boys would look good at Monterey Dunes

BOOK REVIEWS: pre-trip to Ireland reading

Land,  Maggoe O’Farrell (novel, read by Dane Whyte O’Hara): An Irish family of 6 in the 1850s in rural Ireland struggles to escape their past and present full of poverty . A bit of Irish demons, fortunately the myths do not overwhelm the prose in this novel.

Fatherland, a Memoir of War, Conscience, and Family Secrets, Burkhard Bilger (read by the author, pub’d 2022): Bilger wrote a piece in the NY'er on the growing menace of a new-to-the USA, tick. After listening to the article, THB went back looking for more work by Bilger and found this well crafted search for the “truth” about his German grandfather’s tilt toward Fascism. It turned out that his grand-dad was really on the fence, working for the Nazis while protecting his assigned French workers and students.

DOCUMENTARY REVIEW: Andre Is An Idiot (streaming on Netflix) about an unstoppable quipster who made a bad mistake. After watching this one, you won't (or shouldn't) ever procrastinate taking a test that in retrospect you really want to pass.

Schengen Area (Per Wikipeddia):

The Schengen Area (English: /ˈʃɛŋən/ SHENG-ən, Luxembourgish: [ˈʃæŋən] ^ⓘ) is a system of open borders that encompass 29 European countries that have officially abolished border controls at their common borders. As an element within the wider area of freedom, security and justice (AFSJ) policy of the European Union (EU), it mostly functions as a single jurisdiction under a common visa policy for international travel purposes. The area is named after the 1985 Schengen Agreement and the 1990 Schengen Convention, both signed in Schengen, Luxembourg.

Of the 27 EU member states, only two, Cyprus and Ireland, are not members of the Schengen Area. Cyprus is committed by treaty to join the system and aims to do so in 2026, although its participation has been complicated by the occupation of Northern Cyprus by Turkey since 1974.^[3][4][5] Ireland maintains an opt-out in order to maintain the Common Travel Area with non-EU member United Kingdom and operates its own visa policy.

In addition to the member states of the European Union, all member states of the European Free Trade Association, namely Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, and Switzerland, have signed association agreements with the EU to be part of the Schengen Area. The microstate of Monaco is de facto part of the Schengen Area as border controls are administered as part of France. Three other microstates – Andorra, San Marino, and Vatican City – have open borders with the Schengen Area due to their small size and difficulty of maintaining active border controls

more miscellania from around the Bay

 

Aroumd Monterey Dunes

Negra Banderas ("They"), Black Flag, by Aaron Rosa

Negra Banderas  by Aaron Rosa  makes it to the Dunes; strapped now to dollies for a ride up to 206 courtyard 

a week or two later Negra Banderas moves to the courtyard (one dolly does not survive the transit)

only 20 feet from stardom - THB did not do a video of the installation, a good thing given it took two hours

many screws held the crate together, the head was encased in a separate space in the crate

maybe 875 pounds, the head is also very heavy!

15 minutes of discussion on best way to move the last 3 feet

chocolate biscotti for the crew: "They" is safe and sound 

the gourd is resting in place, THB will permanently attach it in a few weeks

Sandy gives new chairs and side tables a test drive, er, a test nap

the old bbq has rusted out, common at the Beach. New bbq (no pic, yet) arrives already assembled except  it doesn't work, it is a floor model....hmmmm

LB takes THB for an early Father's Day outing. Alta has a new breakfast treat: 9 grain pancakes. Yum-meeeee

giant spider or crab skeleton

snow at the shoreline?

the Dunes are a'bloom

Around town

NO ICE sign

Around E-ville

the first hint of the proposed Sutter Health Hospital construction, looks like they are drilling for oil!  Another hint: down a block  and a half on the right hand side is the giant 10 story parking garage

where to safely dispose of your meds (blue) and the injection devices (red)

how safe is it? Second floor of the E-ville PD

Looks like another new Seyed Alevi imprint on a Emeryville utility box (not in the 2010 post) at Park and Hollis. Maybe time for THB to update the 2010 post!!

Around SF

Hunan Restaurant on Natomas drastically slimmed down their menu in March; all of THB's faves are gone...oh, the times they are a'changin 

Asian Art Museum has two large shows

THB and DB saw Shigota's work in Istanbul; MM joins us at the Asian (she didn't fit in an extra day in Istanbul)

the big piece is a woven thread tunnel with diaries from soldiers mixed in

THB's fave, small print with thread, reminiscent of Kentridge 

the second show: pottery from the Asian's collection, approx 25 pieces in the show

DB's fave

POP QUIZ 

DB and THB have 5 pieces by 4 artists in the show...see if you can match the 5 with the  artists (one artist has 2 pieces in the DB and THB collection)

first, the artists (these are all photos of the artists when they were much younger)

second, their pieces in the show

Mihara Ken

Suzuki Goro

Michikawa Shozo

Nakamura Takuo

Third, the work in DB and THB's collection

(remember, 5 in the Loft, 4 in the show)

piece 1....artist?

piece 2....artist?

piece 3....artist?

piece 4....artist?

piece 5....artist?

Answers at the bottom of this post...if THB remembers to put them in. 

Around Berkeley

There is a show from the collection of two women we know through SC: all female artists, and very good!

poster highlighting Penny (lawyer) and Rena (poet)

Jennifer Barlett

Elizabeth Murray

Deloy Morelos (we saw a  huge installation by her in a Venice Biennale and almost made it to her studio when in Columbia)

Julie Mehretu

unknown

Agnes Martin

unknown

Marlene Dumas

Catherine Opie

Around San Ramon

the twins at the County Fair 

C moves across the hall, J redecorates 

C moves across the hall,  she hasn't finished redecorating

Around Italy

 THB is a big Grand Tour cycling fan, and the Giro is wrapping up

The Dolomites are featured in the last week

Jonas Vingegard (in pink) wins the Giro and now joins 7 other riders to ever win all three Grand (France and Spain the other 2) in his career

Around the Stanford Campus

THB and DB join EW and JW for an afternoon of touring around the large Stanford campus, looking for art and attending a presentation and discussion with Hamza Walker, the lead curator of the great Monuments show the four of us saw when it was it was up at the Geffen in LA. 

the Anderson Collection is closed (hmmm, who scheduled an evening with Hamza when the art center was closed?)

early dinner

Bing Concert Hall...what it looks like when the symphony is playing 

what it looked like before Hamza gave an overview of Monuments

Hamza Walker was the lead curator for the Monuments show at the Geffen in LA. Here is his lecture, it is long and very interesting if you want to learn (and see) more of the show.

Richard Serra must have influenced the architets

only sign missing: NOT FOR MEN

bringing the outside in

Around Alameda

soon to be re-commissioned and flown to Middle East

sunbathers

live crows and dead pinecones, well camouflaged 

It is Halloween all year round here

sad but true, our national government is not even good for fertilizer

Book Reviews: all highly recommended

Goodbye To All That, Robert Graves (read by Ben Allen, pub'd in 1929): Graves wrote his autobiography at age 33, and THB had read it a long time ago. The narrator gave trench warfare a bit more of neutral tone, it must have been horrific. Graves was one of those fortunate few to survive multiple years in the trenches of France. Vera Brittain wrote a terrific book, A Testament of Youth, about the missing generation - the million British men that died in a perfectly non-essential stalemate of a war. 

Niccolo Rising (book 1 of the House of Niccolo Chronicles, Dorothy Dunnett (read brilliantly by John Banks, pub’d 1986, audio version in2023). Eight books in all, (listened over the last 6 oonths)a charming coming-of-age story starting in Bruges and roaming eastward, then ending in Scotland. Accurate portrayal of the politics from the 1440s to 1490s. The other books: 

• Spring of the Ram 1987

• Race of Scorpions 1987

• Scales of Gold 1989

• The Unicorn Hunt 1993

• To Lie With Lions 1995

• Caprice and Rondo 1997

• Gemini 2000

Fly, Wild Swans, My Mother, Myself and China**, Jung Chang (read by Adjoa Andoh): A follow-up to Wild Swans (not read/listened to by THB), Chang relates her life journey from 1952 to 2025. She ends up attending college in the U.K., then staying and becoming a best selling author. Most of this biography covers her deep relationship with her mother and the documenting the life of Mao as she makes frequent trips back to China, many with her husband, Jon Halliday (author and historian), to find source material and interview those that knew Mao and were still alive. Per Chang's estimate, Mao killed 70 million Chinese during peacetime.

Dangerous, Dirty, Violent, And Young, a Fugitive Family in the Revolutionary Underground, Zayed Ayers Dohrn (read by the author): Dohrn, the eldest son of two members of the Weather Underground, tells his parents’ story, then mingles his upbringing into their story. His parents were born in the early 1940s and the big events in their lives occurred in the late 60s and 70ss and the book triggered THB’s memories of the American War in Viet Nam and the big movements of those radical uprisings: civil rights, women’s rights, gay rights (all now under attack again). A great companion to Harriet Clark’s novel, The Hill;  Clark’s mother also was part of the Weather Underground.

  

The Polish Officer and Dark Voyage and, Alan  Furst (both read by by George Guidall, pub’d 1995 and 2004): set in Europe in the early days of WWII, these suspense thrillers affecting isolated and earnest individuals caught in the chaos of the beginning of a war way beyond their abilities to make sense of or control their destinies, are great reads and audiobooks.

The Pop quiz answers!! 

piece 1....artist is Suzuki Goro

piece 2....artist is Mihara Ken 

piece 3....artist is Goro (again)

piece 4....artist is Michikawa Shozo

 Piece 5: artist is Nakamura Takuo