EuroYankee

Can you believe those Packers losing in overtime? Man oh man. Didn’t watch the game, but did read about it on the news wires the next morning. To clarify, I am a Packers fan by birth only (born and raised in Titletown, USA). This exempts me from having to do any of the annoying things people normally have to do to prove fandom, such as learning the name of the coach and key players or watching games in subzero temperatures. Hey, this is my only birthright. I’ve gotta milk it.

The last Packers game I watched was Super Bowl XXXI in 1997. Let me reminisce. Hard Rock Cafe, Madrid, Spain. That’s about all I remember. I assume burgers were eaten and Wisconsin natives cheered themselves hoarse.

My hope for a Super Bowl showing this year really had more to do with an excuse to prefunk before Carnival. Because of the time difference, the Super Bowl always starts around midnight on Sunday and goes till the wee hours. This year, the next day is Rosenmontag, the pinnacle of carnival partying and a holiday. How perfect would that have been. I could’ve kept the cheesehead and face paint and gone directly to the carnival parade. Ah well.

(photo credits: akahodag)

Teruel is not one of Spain’s main tourist attractions. I’ve been to a lot of out-of-the-way minor destinations in Spain and still never made it there. Fortunately Amanida y los Faloides paid Teruel a visit. Their song, Teruel No Existe, makes fun of the "Teruel Existe" campaign launched in 1999 by the residents of Spain’s depopulated, impoverished Teruel region to try and get more recognition. Of course, now that the band made the video, Teruel has gotten recognition. Some Spokane band should do the same. Doug Clark?

Mark your calendars for summer of 2017. That’s the date of the next Skulptur Projekte Münster. It’s a once–in-a-decade chance to see what kinds of installations get labeled sculpture these days (a petting zoo, dolls on folding chairs, a gigantic piece of Styrofoam). While many of the exhibitions are temporary, each year the city keeps a few of the best pieces. Some are really fun. We rented full-suspension Mercedes Benz bicycles and had a great time cruising around Münster. The biggest disappointment was the only sculptor whose name I recognized: Richard Serra (a small block on the edge of town covered in graffiti). Actually, our favorite part of the day was a “sculpture” that was a path through a field.

By now my trip to Vienna is old news. So I’ll spare you the blow-by-blow and leave it at this: ditch plans to visit Germany and go to Vienna insead. While there, sit in dark cafes, eat cake and brood. And invite me to join you because I really, really, really want an excuse to go back. 

I’ve been amused by recent New Yorker advertisement for a drink called izze. Maybe this is a sign that Americans have finally jumped on the schorle bandwagon. The concept is very simple and doesn’t need to come in a fancy bottle: mix your favorite fruit juice with sparkling mineral water and drink away. Schorle is a lifesaver for non-beer drinkers in Germany as it’s available everwhere, even at the Brauhause. Even Coca-Cola sells a pre-mixed variety that is as ubiquitous as it’s other drinks.

But homemade or a freshly mixed schorle at a bar always beats the bottled varity. EuroYankee has become quite the schorle mixmaster. The trick is to put a bottle in each hand and pour simultaneously. This negates the need to mix the two liquids with a spoon afterwards and avoids the common lazy waitress practice of not mixing at all, which gives you all juice then all water or vice versa. My favorite, and the German classic, is apfelschorle (apple spritzer) but a close runners up are grapefruit and cherry.

The key to both a healthy and tasty schorle is to get good quality juice (no added sugar, not from concentrate) and to avoid carbonated water, which is complete shit. Come on Americans. If you’re going to be a sucker and pay money for what comes free from the tap, at least spring for naturally carbonated mineral water in reusable glass bottles. It tastes so much better.

It seems like regret is a good topic to start off the new year:

The common wisdom about regret — that what hurts the most is not what you did but what you didn’t do — also appears to be true, at least in the long run.

I personally hope 2008 will be a year to try new things…including ones that I might regret.

(The quote comes courtesy of the New York Times most emailed stories, which I’ve been keeping up with thanks to the handy Google Reader (more blogging about holiday adventures in new media to follow)).