Today we’ve seen the abovementioned work perfomed by Bernd Gnann and Hans Rüdiger Kucich. Frankly, it was a great joy and pleasure. After the show, the performers asked to advertize it as there are still places available. My recommendation: do not miss this show. Grab a ticket for one of the remaining shows till sunday.
Diese Hochrippe wird es, nachdem beide Seiten die Pfanne kurz gesehen haben, eine Stunde lang im Ofen bei 50°C schön kuschelig warm haben, bevor abschließend nochmal fünf Minuten lang bei 100°C nachgeholfen wird.
Ich bin gespannt, wie das schmeckt. Bei Schwein und Lamm bin ich ein großer Freund des Niedrigtemperaturgarens, beim Rind bisher nicht. Vielleicht ändert sich das heute – schleck :) .
Though I do not want to complain about the weather this year, it often is accompanied by some light wind of about 15 kilometers per hour. Today it got even worse. Some heavy weather was brewing near Wissembourg. Heck, cyclists who rode the opposit direction had better luck :) .
»Return to Forever« probably is the most famous fusion band this planet has ever seen. I remember the days of my youth when I programmed my Waldorf Microwave synthesizer to get some Corea-like sounds and playing along their recordings.
Just as yesterday, I grabbed the occasion for a black forest trip. Again I wanted to test the via points for routes I recently hacked for MoNav. I was creating the route while using the public transport to Baiersbronn, giving MoNav a couple of points I wanted to pass. With this new feature, MoNav more and more becomes the perfect companion for osm-addicted cyclists.
The biking season finally started. April 2nd and 3rd 2011 were warm and sunny days, providing temperatures far above 20°C. Thus I used the bike to get to a birthday party 30km away. I used MoNav for bike routing, which served my very well thanks to our collaboratively collected openstreetmap data.
The party itself was held outdoors, thanks to the excellent weather conditions.
BTW: If you ever get a chance to play with GeoMag, then grab it. Even if you’re not a chemist:
GeoMag
Today I visited my favourite weekend destination, Wissembourg, France, using the great cross-border map I just created a couple of days before. A great day to enjoy alsacien food as a reward:
Like last year, Lyambiko once again was on stage at the Tollhaus. The musicians were the same as last year, as was the acoustical sound. Frankly, I’d enjoy some electric bass, guitar or keyboard sound every now and then, so it’s not exactly the music I’d listen to at home. But the live experience was just marvellous.
Thanks guys and girl :) .
Aeolus did all friends of white Xmas a favour and brought fresh snow right at christmas eve. Many streets (except for motorways) have not been salted by the winter service and are still covered by snow and ice, so the trips to visit family members and friends have been demanding.
Thanks to the early snow, the black forest had open during the holidays and allowed for all kinds of winter sport activities.
According to the forecast, the snow will probably melt the upcoming weekend, at least in the lower regions. I’m curious what weather conditions the rest of this winter will bring.
That’s two stère of firewood in the cellar, ready to aliment the tile stove:
Should be sufficient for the rest of the cold and dark winter months :) .
After Lee Ritenour the next master did me a favour and came close enough to make me spend some money. His works do not exactly fit my taste, so I mainly know his most popular works. He has always been a very progressive musician (remember »Future Shock«?) and he played with some of my favorite artists like Joe Zawinul and Chick Corea. Baden-Baden is just about 40km south, and as the synth addict and fusion enthusiast I am, attending the concert was a must.
The lineup consisted of Herbie Hancock (grand piano, Korg Oasys), Kristina Train (vocals, violin), James Genus (bass), Trevor Lawrence (drums), Lionel Loueke (guitar) and Greg Phillinganes (Korg Oasys, Korg Triton, vocals). His current project is called »The Imagine Project«, but of course he could not resist to play some of the hits (like Cantaloupe Island) that made him popular. The way he puts different influences and styles together is pretty interesting. Plus it is a great joy to see how he treats the piano and his synthesizers. He also used a Roland AX-Synth twice, really excessively during the last tune.
A great concert indeed. There are some further tour dates nearby during the next couple of days, so don’t miss your chance.
Lee Ritenour @ Tollhaus
This was a concert I visited on spec. I never heard a lot of music of Lee. I only knew he’s a well known guitarist. But a price tag of 22€ left no room for any excuse. Visiting the concert really was a good idea.
The lineup consisted of Lee Ritenour (guitar), Patrice Rushen (Bechstein grand piano, Yamaha Motif ES6, Yamaha S90), Melvin Davis (seven (sic!) strring Bass and vocals) and Will Kennedy (drums). Patrice mainly used sampled standard sounds (like Rhodes, Organ, and Clavinet) and there was no synth solo. A prejudice of mine seems to materialize. Men use the upper dynamic range of an instrument, while women are more familiar with the lower range.
The whole combo did an excellent job. I was surprised that I actually enjoyed the music, though it was a bit too straightforward for my taste. Great to see real pros at work, where everyone knows his job. I’m tempted to buy a semi acoustic guitar, as I really liked Lee’s sound.
A very nice concert, well worth the bucks. Herbie Hancock, next week in Heidelberg, won’t be that »cheap« :) .
Klingenmünster as seen from the Landeck castle
The golden october continued. It allowed for an after work biking trip to the river Rhine last week and yesterday. Today I went to the Landeck castle near Klingenmünster by car. This was not the best idea. There was some wind, but there were no clouds at all. The streets were completely overcrowded, and additionally all the villages growing wine in Rhineland-Palatinate sold their goods along the way.
Seebach, Black Forest
After a rainy week, this sunday was warm and sunny. Though there was a little wind at the Ruhestein, it was a great trip from Baiersbronn to Achern via the Ruhestein.
The River Rhine as seen from the port of Lauterbourg
During the last weeks, I collected some extra office hours. Well, the annual release is approaching, and my job requires that I get some stuff managed. Otherwise we’d ship a product our customers would not appreciate.
The weekend will be rainy, and so I wanted to grab some of the last summer sunrails before they are gone. So I just did it and left the office at half past three PM, grabbed the bike and did a nice trip from Karlsruhe to Lauterbourg, Seltz, Plittersdorf and back home. Unfortunately I left the office too late, so the sun was unavailable on the way back. But the rest of the trip was marvellous. There was almost no wind, the air was cool but not cold and the sunrails mirrored by the river Rhine did the rest. The cycleways of the left hand side of the Rhine are great, thanks to the Pamina initiative.
The above image shows the river Rhine near the port of Lauterbourg. The shelter on the other side is a lovely place to enjoy the sunrails. From the shelter to the left, there’s a grit bench. On the right hand side of the Shelter, the Illinger Altrhein is entering the river.
In Munchhausen I crossed the picturesque Delta de la Sauer:
Delta de la Sauer
Delta de la Sauer
Delta de la Sauer
In Seltz I had the chance to test the new ferry. It’s amazing how it crosses the river almost noiseless while you’re not recognizing the motion thanks to the trimaran construction. Even better, its usage is granted free of charge. The more I was surprised that two people are needed to operate it, mainly due to the berthing, which is a rather time consuming process. It’s done by lashing it manually, thus the second employee.
BTW: From today’s point of view, one can barely imagine that and why Germany and France waged so many wars during the last couple of centuries. It’s really good luck to live in times of the European Union.
A nice after work trip. I’ll try to do another one tomorrow if my workload permits, before rain will conquer germany. Here’s the trip:
Incline below Rote Lache
Aeolus did us a favour and brought excellent autumn weather after a rainy week. I decided to climb the Rote Lache pass again, this time from the other side, crossing the hill from the Murg valley to the Oos valley.
Lauter Valley
Today’s mapping trip was a lazy one. First I tried to get to a nice restaurant as fast as possible, as its kitchen closes at 2PM. I needed 90 minutes for about 30 kilometers, including the Rhine ferry in Neuburg. Obviously I was hungry:
First the salad...
...then the meat.
That’s a porc steak, covered by chanterelles. The stuff on the left hand side is Spätzle, a typical food often found in the south-west of germany. Simplified, it consists of the dough of noodles (flour and eggs). Instead of forming and drying the noodles, the dough gets pressed into hot water through a sieve immediately, though. I’m not the biggest fan of wine, but I really like the Gewürztraminer.
I started mapping in Schleithal, where I first added several residential roads. Then I cycled some tracks through the fields. Nearby, a confluence can be found (see the marker). After that I was heading towards Wissembourg, where I also added some residentials. Heck, I thought Wissembourg was completed concerning the residentials, but it wasn’t. Here’s the area:
I enjoyed every single minute of the trip, as it was a cloudy but warm and sunny late summer day. I took the train back home, as I needed some time to get several stuff done – like writing this posting :) .
¹ According to echo $RANDOM
The valley of the Murg above Weisenbach
After a rainy week we got some marvellous sunny weekend days. Yesterday I did some after work mapping in the woods near Neuburg and Hagenbach. Today, I could not resist to abuse the recently purchased bike as a “mountain bike” anew. I chose the Rote Lache pass again as a destination, as I found an alternative route, much better than the one I chose the last time.
Alsacien Villages
After this post I have to prepare tomorrow’s working day, so my holidays are finally over. As anticipated I got some nice late summer days, though the biking season is slowly but steadily fading away. After several trips to the black forest I revived an old hobby of mine which I started three years ago: during the last summer and early autumn days I’m usually mapping the fields and villages of northern Alsace.
Ottenhöfen, Black Forest
Fortunately I had a couple of days off, the gods of weather did a good job and there are still plenty of tracks to be mapped across the Black Forest area. Obviously I try to torture the recently purchased Rohloff Speedhub as much as I can. Today I took the train to Achern (145m), headed towards Ottenhöfen (327m), Ruhestein (915m), Obertal (about 600m) and Baiersbronn (about 500m).
