Soundsuit up!

Soundsuit up!

When I saw pictures of the new exhibit at the Anderson Collection at Stanford I was confused. Nick Cave an artist, okay. But these colorful costumes from the man I knew who ‘really didn’t want you to know about a girl’. (Watch Wim Wenders movie Wings of Desire, if you are not sure what I’m talking about or this clip on YouTube)

Of course there are two famous Nick Cave! They even met, at least once, in New York.

SoundsuitWell this Nick Cave is a dancer, a collector and an artist. The suits are whimsical, they contain a lot of things he found in flea markets. But they also hide the person, they are true color-blind.

Nick Cave created his first soundsuit after the Rodney King beating. From twigs he collected in a park, where he tried to reflect on the beating and the riots that followed the police officers acquittal, he  made a sculpture that would strike him as a “second skin”. “I started thinking about the role of identity, being racially profiled, feeling devalued, less than, dismissed.”Cave said.  While the first one is not wearable, it striked the creator as a form of armor. He liked the sound the twigs made, so he named it Soundsuit.Two Soundsuits

There are eight Soundsuits and a video installation where people actually dance in the suits, that you can scrutinize at the Anderson until August 2017.

Just to see them is impressive.

What is your costume?

Bamboo

Be bamboozled

No, it doesn’t have to do with alcohol. I just thought it would be a fun new word for this cool hidden garden.

Sign for Area 6 of the Foothill College campusThe Foothill College bamboo garden is with over 70 species one of the largest gardens for bamboos in the United States. You can find it below the Japanese Cultural Center on the Los Altos Hills campus. It is only 2 acre, but because of the layout with hidden pathways, it appears much larger.

This is an amazing place to escape and find some quiet time.  

Thanks to Gerhard Bock’s blog you can look up the diffferent varieties on his site: http://www.succulentsandmore.com/2012/05/foothill-college-bamboo-garden-part-1.html

http://www.succulentsandmore.com/2012/05/foothill-college-bamboo-garden-part-2.html

 

Fenced off Azumaya, a Japanese pavilionThe Azumaya, a Japanese garden pavilion was fenced off when I was there. But hopefully they will open it up again, since it seems a great gathering place for the students and visitors.

Have you been bamboozled lately?

Part of the Berlin Wall

Celebrate one less wall

The Berlin Wall was almost 28 years a divider between East German Berlin and West Berlin. An 87 mile separation between a city and it’s people.

The fall of the wall on November 9th, 1989, was one of the most amazing and greatest historical incidences of my lifetime. After the peaceful revolution, an inner movement for freedom, the border to the West was opened and  almost a year later the German Reunification was concluded.

 

Today, probably the best use of it, makes up the East Side Gallery, in Berlin, the longest open air gallery in the world.

 

Signpost at the Berlin Wall in Mountain View, CABut if you don’t have time and/or means to go to Germany, you can view part of the Berlin Wall in Mountain View in front of the public library. Generously donated by the Golzen Family.

 

Can you remember where you were when the wall came down?

Food shopping is like taking a vacation

Food shopping is like taking a vacation

I love food shopping, especially a store I’ve never been to. Here in Silicon Valley, there are Indian, Japanese, Middle Eastern, and a ton of other fascinating grocery stores.

 

shopping cartsSometimes you step into a place and knowing the smells you can easily be transported to their homelands for a while.

 

Being German, if I ever felt like Rollmops, a German hang-over treatment (herring rolled up with pickle and onions), I’d know exactly where to go! (JL Produce, Mountain View). The German butcher Dittmer’s also has, besides meat, a lot of other German specialty items. The Milk Pail, while not an international market, has a great selection of cheeses.

 

mollystoneThe other day I discovered Mollie Stone’s Market. This is more your traditional/organic market with a great Jewish product selection. I came in and thought jeez, they have their own song? Yes, and turning the corner I saw the puppets that sang it. Entertainment for your little ones while you shop.

 

What is your favorite international grocery store in the Bay Area?

What foods are you missing from your home country?

 
*Like always, no affiliations with anyone, unless otherwise noted.