Cutting edge technology …
… of bygone decades. In the winter of 1989 one of the monthly computer magazines — I forget if it was a German or an American one — came out with an article called The Ten Worst Computers of the 1980s. As the absolutely worst computer of the decade they Read More ...
Paris from 210 meters
Here’s a view of Paris from the top of the Montparnasse Tower (Tour Montparnasse), looking northwest towards the competition. At 210 meters, the Montparnasse Tower is the tallest building in Paris — not the tallest structure, just the tallest building. (The tallest structure is the Eiffel Tower with 300 meters.) Read More ...
Phuoc Vinh 1964
Phước Vĩnh in 1964 was the capital of Phước Thành (“Happiness”) province and the headquarters of something called the PBT Special Zone, which started a few miles north of Saigon and extended all the way to the Cambodian border, a distance of eighty to a hundred miles depending on which Read More ...
Look ma, no electrons!
We 21st century folks are so accustomed to doing everything electronically that we tend to forget about (or not even know about) the amazing mechanical devices our grandparents, great-grandparents, great-great-grandparents and great-great-great-grandparents used to use. From music boxes to player pianos, musical clocks to orchestrions, barrel organs to self-playing violins, Read More ...
Seventy-one opera houses in Germany
Up to now I have seen performances in seventy-one German opera houses, and I hope to get around to the other twelve in the next few years, before their funding dries up. (My photos at the top of this page show the theaters in Aachen, Altenburg, Annaberg and Augsburg.) By Read More ...
Dionysian frenzy
In addition to the permanent exhibition of coins, medallions and antiques, the French National Library (Site Richelieu-Louvois) often hosts prestigious temporary exhibitions. When I was there in the summer of 2014 they had an impressive display of ancient Greek vases from the personal collection of the Duke of Luynes (1802-1867), Read More ...
Vélib‘ 2007
The first-generation Vélib’ bike sharing system in Paris began operations on the afternoon of Sunday, July 15, 2007. Unfortunately I wasn’t in Paris on that day, so I can’t give a first-hand report, but from clicking on French media outlets I learned that the new bikes were used more than Read More ...
Operas by Giuseppe Verdi
During his long career, Giuseppe Verdi composed twenty-six operas — or twenty-eight, depending what you count as what. The following list is the 28-opera version, with the year of the world premiere in parentheses after each title. I have listed the opera titles in different colors: Red means I have Read More ...
The Bielefeld Conspiracy
Anyone who used to click around a bit on German-language websites in the early years of the 21st century has probably come across a phenomenon known as The Bielefeld Conspiracy. This is essentially a spoof on conspiracy theories, much like The Idaho Conspiracy in the United States. The main (tongue-in-cheek) Read More ...
About me
Hello, my name’s Don. I’m an American living in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, where I teach, ride a bicycle and go to the opera. I became an opera fan at the tender age of fifty-one. That was the year the Frankfurt opera house re-opened, after a long closure due to Read More ...
Frankfurt OperaTalk
Because of the continuing risk of infection from the coronavirus, I have reluctantly decided not to hold my VHS courses Opern-Gespräche and Frankfurt OperaTalk in the autumn semester 2020. At my request, the VHS has already deleted both courses from the autumn program. In the event that the Corona situation Read More ...
Opern-Gespräche
Wegen der anhaltenden Infektionsgefahr durch das Coronavirus habe ich schweren Herzens beschlossen, meine VHS-Kurse Opern-Gespräche und Frankfurt OperaTalk im Herbstsemester 2020 nicht durchzuführen. Auf meine Bitte hin hat die VHS die beiden Kurse bereits aus dem Herbstprogramm gestrichen. Für den Fall, dass sich die Corona-Situation in den nächsten Monaten verbessert Read More ...
