The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

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Lens-Artist Challenge asks for things on display. I have often shown beautiful graffiti and murals on display on walls and houses. But simple tags are also on display almost everywhere. I can’t read these, I guess they are proper tags, i.e. names. But I like the overall composition and colours.

The wall originally just featured a quote by the all-round talent and master aphorism writer Georg Christoph Lichtenberg, a native of the area: “If you are in love with yourself you have at least the advantage that you will not have many rivals in your love.” The empty space below immediately attracted sprayers who wanted their messages on display, political (F** nazis; F** AFD, an extreme rightwing political party), local about bringing flowers to the suburb, and simple smileys and tags.

This almost looks like an Egyptian script: “Woman, I give you flowers then we move into a house and there will be peace.” Plus a few extra choice words.

This one is easier to read but who is Paul?!

This one is readable, comprehensible, and to some extent understandable: “Beat up fascists!!”

What’s your take on putting your opinions on display like this? Open mind – or …

… on the other side of the extreme?

Lens-Artists Challenge: On Display

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Linguistic Whereabouts

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I have never been very patriotic to Germany, nor Baden-Württemberg. But I do feel very close to the Kurpfalz.

Geographically, the Electoral of the Palatinate centres around the towns of Heidelberg and Mannheim. For me it is more a linguistic area than a geographical one. Dialects are on the wane and are less pronounced but they still exist. I hear myself surrounded by Kurpfälzisch.

This is the current coat of arms but the Electorate dates back to the to the Holy Roman Empire, long before it became the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation in 1512, and hence it has changed a lot over the years.

We name ships, restaurants, theatres, wines, beers, and many more things accordingly. Many town crests feature the Palatinate lion and the Bavarian white and blue fusils.

We even have our own excellencies. The wine queen and her two princesses, their titles proudly displayed on the domiciles of the sovereigns.

The old Electorate of the Palatinate sends its regards.

Weekly Prompts Weekend Challenge: Surroundings

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My Curry Wurst Lore Runneth Over

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You get the six word title but you can’t expect me to be quiet on this topic.

Even without the curry, us Germans have a very close relationship with sausages. The biggest wine fest in the world happens each year in September in Bad Dürkheim in the Palatinate and is called “Wurstmarkt“. The people of the town built a large, detailed fountain in the central square called the “Wurstmarktbrunnen”.

I rather prefer this rapproachment over a sausage than Brezhnev and Honecker.

Incidentally, Honecker was born and grew up pretty close to the Wurstmarkt, namely in the Saarland. Where my son and grandson had the best currywurst EVER when we were on holiday there. They still talk about it a year later – even though the Ruhrpott (the area around Duisburg, Essen, Dortmund et.al.) and Berlin vie for that honour.

Definitely serious business. Do not disturb!!

Incidentally, I saw a report on TV where they asked Asian people on holiday in Germany what they thought about currywurst. Their reaction to this very German dish was hilarious.

Six Word Saturday

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A Second Meeting

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There I was trying to photograph these blue flowers, a variety of plumbago, when an orangey brown thick something crossed my lens.

The thick moth was a hummingbird hawk-moth. I only ever saw one once before, at the time thinking I had spotted a hummingbird (which do not live in the wild in Europe). So this new chance encounter was very lucky. I had no time to adjust my shutter speed and just kept clicking.

Reviewing the photos on my bigger screen at home, I was very gratified to see that I had managed to capture at least a recognisable hawk-moth.

FOWC with Fandango: Gratify

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