I am still looking for a replacement of my bike’s back rim. As you know, I am currently using a 26” Rigida Explorer rim, which replaced my Mavic Extreme 721. At the moment the new one seems to be ok, but every time I use my back V-brakes they make a real loud creaking noise. Loud enough to wake up the people down under. I tried adjusting the brakes but to no avail.

Well, in the mean time my bike shop inquired about a new ceramic rim from Mavic. And sadly, they only can get one with holes for 32 spokes from Mavic, and not with holes for 36 spokes anymore. I trust the 36 spoke version more for long loaded touring (heavy loaded duty = bike with lots of luggage and myself).

So I checked out the 2009 version of the Koga Miyata Worldtraveller, to see what kind of brakes and rims they now use. And voilà: obviously no ceramic rims anymore. But they don’t use Mavic ones, instead they look like a “homebrew”: Koga KM21-559 XStrong alloy - double wall and double eyeletted 36 holes rims, durable finished and in black colour. I will ask my bike shop to get a quote for a set and if my wallet allows, I might try that one as a replacement for my Mavic rims.

Today I have been to the art museum. Well, I have been there in the enjoyable company of a beautiful lady. I proposed the place for the date and she agreed to it. Some kind of neutral ground.

The exhibition is called “Orte der Sehsucht - Mit Künstlern auf Reisen” (Destinations of Desire - Travelling with artists). It displays over 250 works of prominent artists (according to their website, I didn’t count the paintings and photographs), classified in different categories: e.g. the Orient, Paris, New York etc. It was some kind of pictorial journey through the countries/regions as well through time.

I especially liked the paintings from Paul Klee and August Macke from their journey to Tunisia. I was a bit surprised to see the original size: they are small, compared to the reprint on posters etc. you can buy all over the world. Another interesting one was Carl Blechen, who I already knew from the Alte Nationalgalerie in Berlin. I especially like his painting of the Palm House near Potsdam. He was present with a lot of nice sepia aquarelles. The 18th/19th century illustrations from the expeditions in Egypt were also great.

At the reception they said you normally need more days to see everything. Well, I guess if you are a real art lover, you certainly invest thirty minutes before every painting. So we only ventured through the halls for two hours. And I guess we have seen most paintings. A lot were not to our tastes, but as you know, taste is different for everybody. And yes, it seems we are some kind of art low-brows (Kunstbanausen).

So, if you are in or near Münster until the 11th January 2009, it’s well worth to drop by our art museum and enjoy some nice art. Especially in nice company.

I stumbled upon a funny geeky site today:

http://www.kamikazecookery.com/

Enjoy!

Movie Poster

I saw the movie “Der Baader-Meinhof-Komplex” lately. It depicts the first years of the Rote Armee Fraktion (RAF) (the German Wikipedia-article on the RAF has a lot more detail). It concentrates mostly on the first generation of the RAF, the events which led to the foundation of the RAF and the culmination of the RAF histeria in the “German Autumn” (Deutscher Herbst) with the Schleyer-kidnapping and the hijacking of the Lufthansa airplane “Landshut”. The general timeline of the film is from 1967 til 1977, leading to the suicides of head figures of the first RAF-generation in Stammheim Prison.

It’s a film well worth to see, especially for us Germans who were born in the early seventies. The actors were top notch and the whole atmosphere of the film was intense, going under the skin. I was born early in 1972, so seeing a film detailing the events of the first years of my childhood was very interesting and of course a bit disturbing, because you were living under the safe blanket of childhood. The film is lacking some detail on how the different generations of RAF where recruited.

A wanted poster depicting members of the RAF

I still remember the posters of the wanted person searchs, showing bad b/w-photos of the RAF-members, which where all over the places, hanging prominently in post offices and other places. I am not sure when the last of those posters were seen. I quick search on the web brought up one from 1993.

The film still got me thinking. It hardened my belief that capitalism is evil and the world’s wealth should be redistributed among humanity. But I guess we will only see the world taking another, hopefully positive direction when the current financial system finally collapses.

While I certainly disagree with the use of violence to achieve political goals, but seeing states using it, I can quite understand the notion to take up arms against the perceived injustice in the world. Sadly, most people don’t understand that violence just leads to more violence.

We have been there right on time. A German habit, it seems, because four other German guests were already there. Obviously the guests normally arrive late.

Well, the stage was still in preparation, and the tables were not yet fully ready. And this at the official starting time. There were a lot of tables in the room, a rough count showed seats for more than 300 people.

Wow, the wedding party was overwhelming… and the bride and groom looked gorgeous. I was really astonished by the amount of people. They had to add more stairs and tables later on, because more and more Turkish guests arrived during the afternoon and evening. In overall I would say, there were more than 500 people attending the wedding party. That’s a lot.

There was a lot of music and dances (music partly played by a band and by a traditional drummer and a shawn player) and it was interesting to see the mélange of different ethnicities among the Turkish people.

I especially liked the traditional music which was performed. That’s nearly the basic rhythm every medieval music group builds it’s repertory on.

I am off to attend my first Turkish wedding. Çi?dem and Ali, my new neighbours, invited all neighbours to attend their wedding party.

I guess it will be exciting.

Kunsten å tenke negativt

I went to the cinema yesterday evening. Precisely to the Cinema, my favourite cinema in town. It’s small, has a cozy café called “Garbo” and always shows a nice selection of independent films. And it still has the kind of cinema feeling I miss when I am going to watch a movie at one of those big cineplexes.

So, yesterday I watched the Norwegian film “Kunsten å tenke negativt” (The art of negative thinking). A minor annoyance which I have with most films in Germany: it was synced. I would have loved to watch it in the Norwegian original with German subtitles.

A short summary from the Norwegian Film Institute:

The Art of Negative Thinking is a burlesque drama about Geirr (33), who has become severely handicapped in a traffic accident.Given his isolation, weapons fixation, self medication and limitless bitterness, his girlfriend Ingvild (30) doesn’t know how to handle him any longer. She therefore invites a municipal positivity group to their home. Consequently, the stage is set for 24 intense hours at Geirr and Ingvild’s place. Geirr is the only one who refuses to see anything in a positive light. Gradually, he is joined by all the positivity group members. Geirr forces everyone through a tunnel of desperation, anguish and hopelessness, before the day dawns and they once again catch sight of light, if only as a faint glimpse of hope.

The film is really worth to see and I can recommend seeing it.

I really like Scandinavian films: their obscure humour and characters,  and especially concerning crime movies, their reality and grittiness.

My bike is at the shop again and I getting repaired. The rim of the rear wheel cracked, obviously from braking. I was quite astonished to see the crack because the rim is a 26” Mavic Extreme (EX 721), one year old and had only 4000 km on it’s back. The third Mavic rim in a row, nearly one per year. The “old” Mavic ceramic rim on my front wheel is already doing its service for nearly ten years. It’s a shame it’s hard to get ceramic rim or other durable rims today.

I now decided to get a complete cheap wheel with a Rigida Explorer rim and a Shimano Deore hub for city and light cycling. And I told my bike shop to get quotes for a new ceramic rim or similar durable rims from DT Swiss.