Pick-A-Day

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Whatchamacallit 30: Hong Kong at Night

As I noted Friday, I do not have much art representing East Asia – essentially this is the only piece on display: Hong Kong at Night by W. Chan.

I acquired this in April 2014, when I visited Hong Kong with a German travel companion. I came away from Hong Kong with the feeling […]

Whatchamacallit 29: Berlin Flamingos Baseball Cap

I realized that, theoretically, today I am flying back from a weekend in London. In an alternative universe, had I not travelled to London, I would have headed to the north side of Berlin for a Berlin Flamingos Baseball Game against the Hamburg Stealers.

For reasons that I’d rather not explain too clearly, I […]

Whatchmacallit 28: Cannoli

For the first time, I present something ephemeral: cannoli made by Küchen von Gaia.

Generally speaking, I try to be back from my constitutional and at home for the day by 0830 every morning – this is my way of avoiding people (the streets are relatively quiet at 0600), thus allowing others to be […]

Whatchamacallit 27: Carp Towel

Looking at my Covid-19 postings, I realized that I have not yet shown any of my Japanese (or other East Asian) belongings.

Much of this boils down to aesthetics: I love visiting Japan, South Korea, and Thailand – but the typical art that they hang on their walls is not art that I want […]

Whatchamacallit 26: London Bridge and the Gherkin

This is my second “annoyed” Whatchamacallit of the Covid-19 crisis.

Today – Thursday – after work I should be heading to Tegel Airport and boarding a flight to London City Airport. It was to be a long weekend in London, in celebration of a friend’s birthday. It was going to feature two theatre shows […]

Whatchamacallit 25: оберег (obereg)

When I moved into my apartment, back in August 2010, my first guest was a Ukrainian friend – who presented me this pair of shoes that were to be hung by my front door.

And so it was, directly inside the front door, one of the first things you see upon opening the door.

[…]

Whatchamacallit 24: vijftig gulden

There’s a lot to be said for the Euro: no more losing value when crossing borders within the euro-zone: day trips from Berlin to Paris don’t incur an inherent exchange penalty.

On the downside, euro banknotes are designed to be non-specific and boring (although the bridges were subsequently constructed, see Spijkenisse).

My favorite pre-euro […]

Whatchamacallit 23: Mut #mutteilen

Easter Sunday morning, I went for my usual constitutional, slipping out my front door just before 06:00, into the quiet of nearly empty streets.

According to my phone, I walked about 10,600 steps in about 82 minutes, with 4% of this counting as “running” – whatever that means.

Translations of Mut […]

Whatchamacallit 22: A tapestry from Ecuador

I spent Saturday morning, after my constitutional, in my bedroom: a few hours reading crap on my new tablet, a short video on my phone, a nap, reading on my Kindle, and some staring at the wall.

Some of this time was spent staring at this tapestry, which resides at the foot of my […]

Whatchamacallit 21: Grindr

This piece of art could sit in two places – my bedroom or my kitchen.

I chose my kitchen.

This was a wonderful present from a dear friend, an amazing piece of fabric art capturing both my love of coffee (well in the past; I quit drinking coffee in November 2018 – save for […]