Dispatches from Vilnius

2021 has been an odd year to say the least.  My wife and I were looking for a small flat, thinking the prices had been deflated due to the pandemic, only to find that real estate is more expensive than ever.  All the EU money pumped into the economy to help offset the shutdowns of 2020 resulted in a speculative boom, not just for real estate but the building industry as a whole.  We had also hoped to rebuild the garden house for our son and his girlfriend on a budget of 25,000 euros, only to find that wouldn't even cover a new roof.   Yet, we didn't benefit from this economic boom ourselves.  We had a hard time securing clients, finally able to get a couple of residential designs and a small school rehab project in the Fall.  While materials and construction costs soar, architects are apparently a dime a dozen. We were able to get a little bit of a windfall from side projects, so we didn't suffer too badly. It is hard to say which way the economic baro...

I was almost ready to buy an NFL game>pass for the rest of the season before the Seahawks lost to the Rams.  It seems like the NFL is really struggling for European viewers, offering a weekly rate of 99 cents, but it still wasn't worth it with Seattle now out of the playoff hunt.  It's the only reason I still follow American football. As it is, my wife doesn't like me following the gamecasts on ESPN.  She wants my undivided attention in the evening.  Both hands, not one scrolling my cellphone, as we stretch out on the couch with me rubbing her feet as we watch some program on television.  No worries anymore.  What was left of the season was blown to hell when Seattle gave up a 10-point lead to the Bears, assuring their worst season of the Pete Carroll era. I don't know why I let this get to me, but it does.  I spent the next morning on facebook responding to all the news feeds on the game, getting into useless arguments as to what Seattle should do ...

Sometimes when you wait for something so long, it is a bit of a disappointment when you finally see it.  Such is the case with The French Dispatch .    The droll stories are very much in keeping with the spirit of The New Yorker of the 1960s, although told from a Midwestern point of view.  The opening story sets the stage, so to speak, with a beret-clad Owen Wilson riding around the imaginary French city of Ennui on his bicycle, giving us a rather morbid view of the dreary streets and fetid canals.  This was fine by way of intro, but Wes chooses to make all his stories entirely reliant on the eccentric narrators.   You need action to propel the stories, and sadly none comes, even when confronted by a fierce prison artist, as played by the incomparable Bencio del Toro.  There's nothing more than a growl from Moses Rosenthaler, intimating the beast within, before we see a still-life of a fight scene in which he protects his Concrete Masterpiece , m...

We were watching A Beautiful Mind the other night, and it was interesting to read afterward that the only way John Nash was able to overcome his schizophrenia, at least in part, was by consciously choosing not to follow politics anymore, and focus on more rational intellectual pursuits.  It was the height of the Cold War era and it seems he needed something to occupy his highly active mind, inventing all sorts of characters in which to battle his Cold War demons.  That's not so easy to do in this day and age, with all the irrational chatter on the airwaves.  You would have to eliminate television and social media all together.  It is virtually impossible to escape otherwise. The worst part is watching rational persons trying to answer irrational questions.  This was true of Kamala Harris submitting herself to Charlmagne tha God , only to be accused afterward of trying to shut down Charlamagne .  The Biden-Harris administration has found itself coming under...

Milan really is a special place.  As I said we didn't know what to expect and were stunned at every turn, and we took many wrong turns much to my wife's chagrin.  I hadn't realized how extensive the tram system is, so following the tracks doesn't necessarily lead you don't the right road.  It is a virtual spider web with the Duomo at the center. The plan of the historic center hasn't changed much since Medieval times, and you can find remnants of the historic wall throughout the city.  We came across one section on our way to catch the tram to the Fondazione Prada .  Not sure how far back the walls date back to, as there were at least three rings of defense, but they were impressive to see.  It was like walking through portals to the past. Crossing the train tracks to the south, you enter into the old manufacturing district.  Prada took over a former Olivetti factory and made it into their creative design center with a wonderful museum, cinema, theater...

I have many happy memories of the Milano cookies my mother would occasionally bring home from the grocery store.  She knew I would go through them at one sitting, so it was a rare treat.   It was nice to finally see the real place and delight in all its pastries and confections.   You never know what to expect from a city but I have to say that in Milan all expectations were exceeded.  Such a lovely city, much bigger than I thought, so we only caught a small glimpse.  If we had made more of an effort to figure out the tram and metro lines, we could have taken in more over the four days, but are quite satisfied with what we saw. It always helps to have a generous amount of coffee available at the little apartment we rented on Via del Torchio. The owners provided a DeLonghi capsule coffee machine that was just right for two small cups of coffee when we got back from our excursions, along with little pastries we picked up along the way.  One learns ...