Apart from Christophe Rhodes now also Robert Strandth used my version of Daniel Barlow's Acclaim. I'm happy. :)
By the way, the European Common Lisp Meeting in Amsterdam was a great thing. Thank you, Arthur and Edi! Have a look at the conference's web page. There are also some more detailed reports of the meeting linked from that page.
Ich hab vor einiger Zeit das Gerücht gehört, daß das äußerst stilvolle Tullabads angeblich in absehbarer Zukunft geschlossen werden soll! Es solle ersetzt werden durch eines jener gräßlichen "Spaßbäder", das irgendwo in Grünwinkel oder in der Nähe der Günter-Klotz-Anlage entstehen solle. Argh! Ich muß demnächst mal forschen, ob das alles wahr ist..
Im Gespräch hat jemand gefragt, warum der 10m-Sprungturm eingentlich nicht abgerissen werde, wenn er doch seit Jahren stillgelegt sei. Ein andere hat daraufhin erwähnt, daß das ganze Bad eh demnächst bald abgerissen werde.. schluck
Lustige Story: Vor ein paar Wochen hat einer der Fachangestellten der städtischen Badebetriebe unseren kleinen Schwimmclan noch auf den Sprungturm gelassen; er würde meistens gesperrt sein, weil das Bad zu voll ist, auf anfrage werde er aber ggf. doch gelegentlich geöffnet werden. Als ich ein paar Wochen später einen anderen Schwimmeister gefragt habe, als ich eines morgens wirklich mal der einzige im Becken war, erwiderte dieser: "Der ist schon seit Jahren vom TÜV gesperrt.." Ähm... :}
Na, ich esse mal weiter, bevor dieser köstliche Mensagenuß völlig erkaltet.
Last evening after The Big Lebowski hanging in the crowded students' bar Z10 I read the last few pages of the epilogue of Gaston Leroux' The Phantom of the Opera. What an incredibly marvellous book!
Years ago I bought a quite impressive collection of 1-Pound-Books on a field excursion to London during my 12th or last year at school. I have to admit that I only read some of them.. A week ago when I could not sleep I went to my bookcase and thought: "Mmmm, lets try one of them", and The Phantom of the Opera was the lucky story.
I was lucky to chose it as well! Leroux begins his story with an introduction in which he claims that the Opera ghost really existed. The subsequent narrative bases on this assumption; the narrator presents his researches in a authentic manner in order to convince the reader of his assumption of which he claims that it is a steadfast fact that no-one could question after reading his "report".
Usually I do not like this kind of writing, investigative or even detective stories, but this one is really great. The atmosphere is dense and intense, the story is tragical, wonderful and intriguing. I am not a person who can recreate a book's atmosphere in his own writing and I also do not want to spoil this wonderful story for you. Just grab a copy and read it!
And be not afraid that it starts as an investigative report. Large parts of the story consist of extensive talking of the characters, whole sections -- over several chapters! -- are said to be taken from a manuscript which the Persian left behind and other parts are copied from M Armand Moncharmin's Momoirs of a Manager. These parts "from burrowed plumes" have a completely different style -- and even the "actual reports' parts" are far from representing a neutral and unenthusiastic position --, making the whole novel diverse under this aspect as well.
One last word about the language of my English copy: It is marvellous! An older one, not the English of Shakespeare's time, but not quite the one of to-day either. A refined English on a sophisticated level; truly a pleasure. It is a pity that in the whole book, which is a "Wordsworth Classic" of 1995 by the way, the translator's name is not mentioned. I'm sure that the original text was written in French by Leroux, having read the foreword of this edition that includes a paragraph on Leroux' life.
Originally I wanted to include a sentence or a short paragraph to illustrate the novel's language, but now, at the time I finally complete this article, it is nearly two months after the day I started it and I do not know which part I wanted to include and I'm not able to find one in a reasonable amount of time anymore either. Pardon me, but if you follow my enthusiastic recommendation you'll find one, and by doing it you will enjoy two-hundred-and-five further exciting pages of a brilliant story.
I'm on a longer train trip and skimmed through the novel.. What about this section:
Hopefully it doesn't reveal too much. Actually I have found a nicer section I could have quoted instead but that one really reveals too much in my opinion. Ergo you have to be content with this little quote of Erik's speech, although his words are often a tad obscene (at least likened to the rest of the novel).
Tonight The Big Lebowski was shown at our university's cinema. A marvellous Movie! It's exceedingly funny and, above all, a glorious lesson in relaxation. But better than I could ever do it, the following article is able to mimic the feeling of the motion picture (indeed I've just unashamedly copied a phrase from it): In `The Big Lebowski,' the Dude abides.
My favourite scene:
Or this one, even in the same scene some moments later:
The blond man stoops to unzip the Dude's satchel. He pulls out a bowling ball and examines it in the manner of a superstitious native.
The Dude gropes back in the toilet with one hand. The Dude's hand comes out of the toilet bowl with his Sunglasses and puts on his dripping sunglasses.
Blond Man: "What the fuck is this?"
Dude: "Obviously you're not a golfer."
Now I have finally the aptly term that grasps the reason why I like the AKK so much: The people that run it have just understood the Dude's lesson in relaxation!
(I can't remember citations correctly therefore they are copied from a transcription.)
Perhaps you wonder about the photos of which parts are taken for the header pictures of my weblog. They have been taken on two trips I did in the last years, one to Paris in France, the other one to Alicante in Spain.
The basilika with that wonderful gargoyle is the Basilique du Sacré-Cœur de Montmartre in Paris (France).
The picture of the flower was taken in the beautiful Parc Floral de Paris. If you go to Paris be sure to visit it! The entrance fee is only 0.75 Euro, and it is really more pleasant than the quite disappointing park of the Château de Versailles (for which you have to pay 3 Euro. The park only, of course; admission for everything will cost you at least 20 Euro, and you still have to get there (usually by train). I recomment to spend the time and money on another day in the Louvre instead, or rather even three days for that amount of money).
The fortress on the hill is the Castillo de Santa Barbara in Alicante (Spain).
I want to thank Manuel and Daniel who have lent me their cameras! That was very kind of you.
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