I'm not a person who normally seeks out the easiest road. In fact, if I follow my own impulses, I often make every day things harder for myself than they would have to be. Occasionally this can even boarder on absurdity. Take this story as an example: A few weeks ago I went to visit a friend in the neighborhood Friedrichhain. In Berlin, hardly any of the U-Bahn stations have an elevator or escalator, meaning if you want to take a small child with you, you are dependant on the kindness of strangers. The trouble is, strangers in Berlin are usually the very opposite. My baby buggy weighs well over 30 pounds, but often enough no one even offers to help me with it (I can just barely schlepp it by myself...) When they do help, they usually give me a look at the end like I just ruined their day. Needless to say, I most often stick to the neighborhoods and areas within walking distance (no car, by choice, but the upkeep here is also really expensive.) Anyway, when I got to the Warschauer Strasse station, I saw that I could either carry the buggy down around five steps, or take an elevator that went back behind the station (I didn't notice that there was also a ramp. D'oh!) Of course, I took the elevator, but soon discovered that there was no way out back onto the street except by going up lots of stairs. Cursing, I schlepped my buggy up them, hoping I wouldn't kill my back in the process. Later, when I was telling my friend the story and complaining about how unhelpful Berliners are she just said "Why didn't you just take the elevator back upstairs and go down the ramp?" The sad truth is, this never even occurred to me as a possibility..... But sometimes going the hard way can be a creative thing. Like in the pursuit of beauty. Anyone can find a sunset or an Italian village on the riveria beautiful. But to find beauty in unexpected places; gritty, dirty and drab places; is much more of a challenge. With my new Olympus I have been trying to do just that. Here, in the urban jungle, I have found interesting details that are aesthetic and yes, sometimes even beautiful.
Maybe it is just because I've lived abroad for ten years, but I think many of the greatest divas are not American.
Sophia Loren, Italy
Anita Ekberg, Sweden
Hildegard Knef, Germany (also an amazing singer. Check out the video.)
Isabelle Huppert, France (My daughter has Isabelle as a middle name in her honor.)
Helen Mirren, England
In compiling this list, I've realized I like my divas sexy and a bit naughty (except maybe Knef, but her voice is amazing, and Mirren, who is one of the best actresses alive. And in that picture she is definitely being of a sex-pot bad girl.) I guess that's what I hope myself to be, or it is at least my alter ego. To prove this, here is yet another self-portrait, taken from my now defective camera. May she rest in peace....
A few days ago, when we were strolling down Bergmannstrasse, my husband said to me, "You know, as far as flowers go, pansies are pretty spiessig." Spiessig is a German word that is pretty much untranslatable. In English, I would say it would be something like bourgeois, nerdy, small-minded and uptight all mixed together. The German word for pansy is Stiefmutterchen (little step-mother)which goes to show that the German language also agrees that they are not the funkiest of blossoms. About 20 minutes later my husband said, "Wait. That's ridiculous. Flowers can't be spiessig. It must just be my perception of them." We agreed that maybe it had to do with all the plastic window planters and old lady balconies that are full of them. "Maybe pansies are actually beautiful and we just can't see it anymore."
Funny that the two languages agree with the mood of many different flowers. Daisies are Gänseblumchen (little goose flowers)which suggests the same cheerfulness and all around good humor. A rose is Rose (said Rosa), a name that is feminine and yet also prim. Tulip and Tulpen both sound colorfully plastic-fantastic. Though a common weed, both dandelion and Löwenzahn (lion's tooth)suggest that we like the yellow rascal's wildness. Then again, the mod, geometric seed casing probably does help and is amazingly in the spirit of Buckminster Fuller.
Today, while walking to an apartment a friend just bought in Graefe Kiez, I came upon a concrete planter filled with pansies. I looked at them closer. Though they are a bit stunted, their face is lovely, the center (like many flowers)startilingly clitoral. Little step-mothers, strut your sexy stuff!
