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| Treetop Walkway Through Kew Gardens |
Wikipedia article "Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew".
Map 2008年6月30日 星期一
Kew Gardens
Wikipedia article "Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew".
2008年6月29日 星期日
Waikiki
Wikipedia article "Waikiki".
剛從東京到檀香山做博士後研究的張喬森說，這兒物價的 確很高，但公共設施齊全，生活品質非常好，Waikiki 公共海灘也很乾淨，且完全免費開放，假日時他經常帶著 全家人到海灘去玩水，享受一個悠閒的午後。 觀光是最講求品質的產業，夏威夷州政府旅遊部門每 年定期發表旅客 ...
Waikiki
(wī'kĭ-kē')剛從東京到檀香山做博士後研究的張喬森說，這兒物價的 確很高，但公共設施齊全，生活品質非常好，Waikiki 公共海灘也很乾淨，且完全免費開放，假日時他經常帶著 全家人到海灘去玩水，享受一個悠閒的午後。 觀光是最講求品質的產業，夏威夷州政府旅遊部門每 年定期發表旅客 ...
Columbia Encyclopedia: Waikiki
(wīkēkē') , famous beach and resort center SE of Honolulu on SE Oahu island, Hawaii. Tourism is the economic mainstay; Waikiki is known the world over for its beach and recreational facilities, especially surfing. Luxury hotels are abundant. Waikiki has a zoo, an aquarium, exotic flora, and excellent shopping. Fort DeRussy is located there. Diamond Head crater is nearby.
2008年6月27日 星期五
Pergamon Museum
Wikipedia article "Pergamon Museum".
Expo of Greatest Babylon Treasures Opens in Berlin
A touring exhibition of the greatest surviving treasures of ancient Babylon
opens Thursday in the German capital Berlin at the Pergamon Museum, which
already has one of the world's richest Babylonian collections.
The DW-WORLD Article
http://newsletter.dw-world.de/re?l=evyr3cI44va89pI4
Expo of Greatest Babylon Treasures Opens in Berlin
A touring exhibition of the greatest surviving treasures of ancient Babylon
opens Thursday in the German capital Berlin at the Pergamon Museum, which
already has one of the world's richest Babylonian collections.
The DW-WORLD Article
http://newsletter.dw-world.de
2008年6月20日 星期五
Berlin, the Big Canvas
十幾年沒重回柏林
春節訪謝立沛老師時 他對於那次共同德國之旅如數家珍
當年沒有這種導引
--它說得沒錯 窮一周功夫無法竟訪博物館
還是許多第一手 無可取代的體驗
Saint Agatha, Virgin and Martyr - Died 251
St. Agatha's legend has her imprisoned and tortured in Catania, Sicily, by the provost Quintianus. On the second day of her passion Quintianus orders her breasts removed, but later St. Peter visits her cell to heal her. Four days later she is rolled onto burning brands, but this torment is ended by a sudden earthquake. Back in her cell, she prays that Jesus will take her and then dies.
春節訪謝立沛老師時 他對於那次共同德國之旅如數家珍
當年沒有這種導引
--它說得沒錯 窮一周功夫無法竟訪博物館
還是許多第一手 無可取代的體驗
Berlin, the Big Canvas
Oliver Hartung for The New York Times
The Gendarmenmarkt in the former East Berlin.
DEBATE before dinner: Berlin is the most cultured city in Europe. You could make the argument, certainly, after walking silent and alone through the majesty of the Gemäldegalerie, pausing for a while before Tiepolo’s “Martyrdom of St. Agatha” to consider the agonies of faith.
| The Martyrdom of St Agatha | c. 1756 | Staatliche Museen, Berlin |
St. Agatha's legend has her imprisoned and tortured in Catania, Sicily, by the provost Quintianus. On the second day of her passion Quintianus orders her breasts removed, but later St. Peter visits her cell to heal her. Four days later she is rolled onto burning brands, but this torment is ended by a sudden earthquake. Back in her cell, she prays that Jesus will take her and then dies.
You could make it alongside the tourists marveling at the Grecian splendor of the Pergamon Altar in the museum that bears its name, or beneath the roar of applause at the end of “Tannhäuser” at the Staatsoper, or while reading Brecht in the Tiergarten, the city’s verdant central park.
Facts: You could go to art galleries in Berlin for a solid week and find yourself not halfway through a master list. You could spend two weeks wandering Museum Island and still miss a few Romantics; you could spend a career within the Bode Museum.
Less ambitiously, you could take a canal boat along the winding Spree and marvel at the street art from some of the celebrated graffitimen — Banksy, CBS, Kripoe — who have come to leave their marks. It’s a beautiful trip. You could argue the merits of the city’s Holocaust Memorial, designed by Peter Eisenman, a grid of nearly five acres of tall concrete slabs that appears to roll east out of the Tiergarten in the manner of a cemetery, a Greek hill town, or a failure.
But then you should make your way into the glamorous heart of a city that has borne witness to horror and majesty alike, to eat.
Because, really, where there is culture there ought to be food. It needn’t be caparisoned with foam or gold leaf, nor lauded by Michelin. It should be simply good, and it should be served well, and it should allow for the free and wide-ranging discussion of art for as long as you like.
It was that desire that occasioned a trip to Berlin this spring: a desire to wander through the city’s arty demimonde and to eat beside its residents, to talk smack about video installations and works of string, critics, government grants, gallery dreams, gallery crimes — and then to eat heartily.
It was that desire that led directly to the Johann König gallery, a few blocks off the Potsdamer Platz, where two art critics were discussing shadow and perspective. This was a lucky business.
The critics, one American, the other German, had arrived unannounced, and were now talking with the Norwegian artist Matias Faldbakken. Mr. Faldbakken was putting long pieces of black tape onto a Belgian linen canvas on one of the gallery’s walls, layering them one atop another to create abstract shapes that might have been letters. The work was part of a group show at the gallery that was to open the following day. The conversation was, apparently, one that had been going on for some time.
“What does it say?” asked one of the critics, Michael Kimmelman of The New York Times, gesturing at the canvas. The question was the sort that raises art critics above the status of the average human being, who might simply have looked at the shapes and smiled tightly.
The other critic, Andreas Schlaegel, has a sideline as an Elvis impersonator in addition to his written work; he also plays drums in a band called Art Critics Orchestra. He chuckled. Americans have far fewer long words than Germans. But straightforwardness is one of them.
Mr. Faldbakken, tall and blond and skateboarderish, cocked his head to the side and offered a small smile.
“I’m not going to tell you this time,” he said, placid as Oslo. “It remains an enigma.”
They all laughed. Mr. Faldbakken put on his backpack and headed out the door into the afternoon sun.
It was almost time to eat.
THE Berlin Biennale, the city’s vast contemporary art fair, would open the following day, and the city was filling with the art-world mob: curators from New York, buyers from Kyoto, Italians in Prada and duty-free cologne. Some would repair to bistros in the city’s prosperous west, others to grittier precincts in Kreuzberg, or leafier ones in Prenzlauer Berg.
Mr. Kimmelman was bound for the Grill Royal, in Mitte, the city’s most central — literally, middle — neighborhood, formerly in East Berlin. And by early evening he was settling in there, a steak house right off Friedrichstrasse, tucking into oysters and gin.
The room provides a view of the kind of restaurant scene only a city that has both money and space can provide: a large, airy dining room set under low ceilings, with wide tables and gentle lighting, packed close with artists, curators, dealers, gallery guys, smart-eyeglassed business tyros in three-piece suits, fat burghers eating Irish steak, French entrecôte, Argentine beef.
There isn’t much in the way of celebrity culture in Berlin, but Grill Royal serves those who make the grade on its wide boulevards and cobbled side streets: American film stars; Scandinavian novelists; Germany’s political elite. Waiters swing past them on the double-quick, polyglot and efficient, bearing plates of enormous salads, briny oysters, steaks and steaks and yet more steaks, the occasional grilled dorade.
Glass-backed, fluorescent-lighted refrigerators flank the open kitchen, offering diners a view of real-life Damien Hirst: large fish piled high beside giant crab legs; fillets of beef hanging in the cold, still air, beside the tools used to break them down. A wax-encrusted Vespa scooter sits in one corner acting as a kind of massive, hipster-European candelabrum; a stuffed peacock makes its strutting point in the room’s center; neon-tubed sculptures on the wall by the bathroom may wink broadly toward the flowers of Georgia O’Keeffe. “Those are vaginas,” Mr. Kimmelman said.
The food is excellent. Start with Fine de Claire oysters from the murky, green pools of Marennes-Oléron in western France, along the Bay of Biscay — medium-size, sweet, a little nutty, cold. Try a bibb salad the size of an upside-down hat, bathed in soft and creamy vinaigrette. Behold those plates of grassy, tender meat, crust-grilled and served beside a piquant steak sauce, with toothsome roasted baby potatoes with rosemary on the side, a dish of plain steamed spinach, another of sweetly turned coins of carrot.
To drink? A waiter brought a 2000 Château du Beau Vallon from St.-Émilion — a fat Bordeaux happy to be in Germany entertaining Americans. It did more than nicely.
There are plenty of other places to eat in Berlin while on the art-scene prowl. For breakfast, you might head west to Charlottenburg, to have coffee and pastry at the Café Wintergarten in the Literaturhaus on Fasanenstrasse (say that three times fast!), before ducking into the Springer & Winckler Galerie to see what’s up (some ghostly Sigmar Polkes).
You could head east to Unter den Linden, perhaps the city’s most splendid boulevard, to have a rich farmer’s omelet with sweet baby potatoes and thick bacon hunks at the warm and crowded Café Einstein there, then venture out on an institutional stroll. Unter den Linden hosts, among others, the pink, fascinating, vaguely scary and old Deutsches Historisches Museum, where construction finished in 1706, with its airy addition by I. M. Pei (who wrapped up work in 2003). There is also the Staatsoper and Berlin’s outpost of the Guggenheim, on the ground floor of the headquarters of Deutsche Bank, where there were some fine Olafur Eliasson glacier photographs on display.
After an Einstein omelet, though, a walk through the Brandenburg Gate and up to the Reichstag would not be an error, if only to get the blood moving past your stomach. In addition, of course, there is the sheer magnificence of the building’s facade, still pockmarked with war-era bullet holes, rising off its wide base toward the new Norman Foster-designed glass dome on its top. Standing beneath that on a clear Berlin morning, well apart from the long lines waiting to get in, it is easy to imagine the strange beauty of the building wrapped in foil, a project the artist Christo completed in 1995.
But this is so mainstream and obvious, no? Next you’ll be asking for lunch at the Kempinski Hotel, eaten outside on the Kurfürstendamm with a soft fleece blanket wrapped around your knees, followed by some shopping (Chanel! Jil Sander!).
Better to put on some black and head east, fortified with coffee bought in an S-bahn station (a subway by New York lights, taken from “Stadtschnellbahn,” or fast city train), toward Checkpoint Charlie, the Kreuzberg gallery scene, and lunch.
The aristocrats of art walk through the former East Berlin as royalty might through a distant part of their dominion, stepping carefully over puddles in suede loafers and wicked heels, past empty lots filled with cold-war emptiness, ancient graffiti, the gloom of communism, toward the light-filled spaces of men on the make. Many are bound for Sale e Tabacchi, a perfect Italian restaurant in the Rudi-Dutschke-Haus, so named for the leader of Berlin’s left-wing student movement in the 1960s, who died in 1979, after being shot by an assassin more than a decade earlier.
You are bound there as well. But first, take in some art. First stop: Max Hetzler, a gallery hard by one of those lots on Zimmerstrasse; it’s a bit as if Larry Gagosian had an outpost in Newark, or on the southern end of the south side of Chicago. A stone’s throw from where the wall once divided the city, Mr. Hetzler had mounted “Always There,” a show of work devoted to the color gray — by Richard Phillips, Albert Oehlen and André Butzer — set in rooms as high-ceilinged and beautiful as a palace, or a church.
Mr. Hetzler, rumpled and friendly, with the handshake of a polar bear, chuckled at the idea of Sale e Tabacchi. He would be there soon, he said. Everyone would.
Galleries are thick on the ground in this neighborhood, which approximates Chelsea in both art density and market strength. In addition to Mr. Hetzler’s space — a Berlin home to Kara Walker, Thomas Struth and Bridget Riley, to name a few — there are the Swedish dealer Claes Nordenhake’s gallery, on Lindenstrasse, where a drawing and collage show by the Swedish artist Ann Bottcher was rising, and the Jablonka Galerie on nearby Kochstrasse, where Alex Katz’s “Marine” paintings were hanging wide and beautiful. Also on Kochstrasse, Julius Werner has a ground-floor space, where A. R. Penck’s graffiti-ish paintings and odd, figurative sculptures were showing, an evocation of both New York and the 1980s in one fell swoop. It was the sort of show that makes one want to smoke.
Instead, though: basta. Pasta! Sale e Tabacchi sits behind huge glass windows and an elegant bar, stretching out beneath immense ceilings toward a courtyard garden in back; it’s the Kreuzberg version of the famous Borchardt restaurant on the Gendarmenmarkt, where the city’s elite gather at lunch, and schnitzel is the very large coin of the realm. Here, though, waiters in long, flowing aprons speak comic-opera Italian and serve a bustling crowd of underemployed artistes who’ve locked their sleek Dutch bicycles out front; business fellows with BlackBerrys and iPhones; Mr. Hetzler and his wife, Samia Saouma, reading newspapers in the back.
You might decry this scene in favor of more street-friendly food, what Berliners call imbiss food, for the small shops that serve it: Turkish doner kebabs in the gyro tradition; pretzels; the odious hotdogs in ketchup, dusted liberally with spice that are known in Berlin as currywurst. There is even a marvelous Neapolitan pizza place on Oranienstrasse, also in Kreuzberg, called Pizza a Pezzi-Napulé, which for anyone interested in global pizza-slice ethnography is worth a detour.
But have a perfect veal tonnato at Sale e Tabacchi, a plate of ravioli in sage butter, some soft bread, a small taste of espresso to finish. Those Pencks were kind of droll, no? Do they sell at all now? Save for a reporter or two, there’s not a rube in sight.
BERLIN is a lively city, and a walk along the Kurfürstendamm or a visit to the food court at KaDeWe — Europe’s largest department store, on Taventzienstrasse, near the ruins of the Kaiser Wilhelm Church — shows it to be an occasionally crowded one as well. But the population has never recovered from the war and the division that plagued it for a half century, and with 3.5 million people in a metropolitan region that supported a million more in 1939, it rarely achieves anything approaching critical mass.
That statement is challenged nightly at Paris Bar, however. Set down the street from the Theater des Westens, and around the corner from the Savoy Hotel (where, if you’ve had enough of artists, there is a lovely little cigar bar to while away some time with a copy of the Financial Times and a Cuban panatela), Paris Bar was near the center of West Berlin’s gallery scene in late cold-war days; it was dealt a grievous blow by the fall of the Wall, when the art world fled east to Mitte and once bustling Charlottenburg became sleepy, a place for the old.
That cycle is turning now, back toward the west, with Paris Bar an important beneficiary. The restaurant is a gathering place for artists and dealers alike, perhaps the city’s most important art-world canteen, serving both the chic and the beautiful, the jet-lagged and the underwashed who follow them — the people, Mr. Kimmelman said, “with interesting facial hair.” In Manhattan terms, it’s as if Elaine’s, the celebrity bar, bred with Raoul’s, the SoHo bistro, and hired Anne Isaak, a charismatic and unflappable owner of Elio’s, the east side trattoria, to run the place. A sign set into the floor of the entranceway reads, “Passant Sois Moderne,” a kind of plea: “Passersby, be modern.”
This refers to the art on the walls, really: crowded tight with portraits of Karl Lagerfeld, Tracy Emin, salon-hung thises and thats; if you can paint convincingly well, you could probably trade work for food here and want to. The menu is old and perfect.
And so there is French onion soup, deep with flavor, and more of those briny, perfect Fine de Claires, and a salad of baby spinach and bacon, with a soft poached egg in buttermilky dressing. There are glasses and glasses of rosé, and entrecôte with béarnaise and crunchy fries, duck à l’orange with turned carrots, a perfect soft omelet of tomatoes and bacon. Familiar? Yes, it’s bistro and bohemian and correct down to the sautéed rabbit livers set atop a bright salad cut sour with endive and bright with vinaigrette. One will probably suffice for the table: rabbits in Germany, it would appear, have enormous livers.
Germans, too. The wine flows freely into the night, as an Icelandic film director high-fives everyone in sight, as French waiters serve American museum staff members and tattooed fellows who might be Polish, Belgian, or both. Smoke curls north to the ceiling like mist. (Berlin banned smoking in restaurants in January; that message has yet to make it to Kantstrasse 152.) Conversations rattle along in German, French, English, Italian, in some multinational Esperanto of shared cultural literacy: some love the artist Pushwagner’s “Soft City” graphic novel art at the Kunst-Werke, part of the Biennale; many decry all the silly video installations; definitely everyone will have something more to drink.
And so to bed. Walking out of the place on a cool Berlin night, shrugging into jackets after the heat and bustle within, two young men passed by the restaurant. One paused; something had caught his eye. He pointed to a poster hung in the window, advertising the show at Jablonka, across town.
“Ja, ja, Alex Katz,” he said, excitedly. Art city!
A CITY WITH ART IN THE AIR AND A LOT ON ITS PLATES
WHERE TO STAY
Savoy Hotel (Fasanenstrasse 9-10; 49-30-311-03-0; www.hotel-savoy.com) is an elegant dowager with 125 rooms, a block from the Kurfürstendamm in Charlottenburg, near the Berlin Zoo. It’s comfortable and quiet, with a lobby that smells faintly of the cigar bar next door and a sumptuous dining room that does not. Double rooms from 75 euros, about $120 at $1.61 to the euro.
Hotel de Rome (Behrenstrasse 37; 49-30-460-60-90; www.hotelderome.com) offers fancier accommodations in its 146 spacious rooms in the former Central Bank of East Berlin. The building’s edifice dates to 1889, when it was the head office of the Dresdner Bank, and has been lavishly remodeled — the underground vault, for example, is now a swimming pool. Double rooms from 395 euros.
Eastern Comfort (Mühlenstrasse 73-77; 49-30-667-63-806; www.eastern-comfort.com) is a houseboat in the Spree River, popular in the backpacker and hippie-cat sets, on the border between Kreuzberg and Friedrichshain, near the longest surviving stretch of the Berlin Wall. Double rooms from 54 euros.
WHERE TO EAT
Café Einstein (Unter den Linden 42; 49-30-2043-632;) is a clubby and welcoming coffee house near the Brandenburg Gate, with excellent eggs and bacon to match the strong coffee. Old-timers will tell you the original location on Kurfürstenstrasse is better. So be it: Breakfast runs around 36 euros for two.
Grill Royal (Friedrichstrasse 105B; 49-30-2887-9288; www.grillroyal.com) is a chic steak house in Mitte, set on the bank of the Spree, perfect for introducing oneself to the pleasures of Fine de Claire oysters. Follow with a grilled steak and excellent potatoes, a few glasses of wine, and you’re out the door for at least 65 euros.
Sale e Tabacchi (Kochstrasse 18; 49-30-2521-155, www.sale-e-tabacchi.de) serves as a kind of elegant cafeteria for Kreuzberg gallery owners and the art-world crowd that provides them their business. Excellent pastas and salads, accompanied by gallons of sparkling water, will cost around 20 euros a person at lunch.
Pizza a Pezzi-Napulè (Oranienstrasse 176; no phone) is a modest pizza parlor in Kreuzberg with pizza made in the Neapolitan style. You’ll be in and out for around 3 euros a person, particularly if you think of the meal as a snack, best taken before or after a meal at Sale e Tabacchi.
Paris Bar (Kantstrasse 152; 49-30-313-80-52; www.parisbar.net) is a bustling art canteen in Charlottenburg that serves bistro grub of the first order: excellent steak frites, glistening salads. The reservation policy is quirky. If you call from a hotel, the host may declare the restaurant fully booked. Show up at the door unannounced, however, and chances are you’ll be whisked to a table immediately. Dinner for two, with copious wine, will cost around 125 euros.
WHAT TO SEE
In addition to Museum Island, Unter den Linden and the Kulturforum museums, Berlin’s vibrant gallery scene provides days of possibility. Highlights include:
At the Max Hetzler Galerie (Zimmerstrasse 90-91; 49-30-229-24-37; www.maxhetzler.com), an elegant gallery near Checkpoint Charlie, there is an exhibition by the installation artist Mona Hatoum.
The Johann König, Berlin (Dessauer Strasse 6-7; 49-30-26-10-30-80; www.johannkoenig.de), a large, spare and light-soaked gallery near the Potsdamer Platz, is the summer home of a solo exhibition by Andreas Zybach.
The Springer & Winckler Galerie (Fasanenstrasse 13; 49-30-315-7220; www.springer-winckler.de) is an airy space nestled into a quiet block off the Kurfürstendamm; a show of Andy Goldsworthy’s drawings and objects is up through the end of June.
Finally, the Staatsoper (www.staatsoper-berlin.org) on Unter den Linden offers tours of the house and the stage all summer. The Martha Graham Dance Company begins a stand there the evening of July 4.
Berlin to Exchange Exclusive Real Estate for New Art Museum
Art | 19.06.2008
Berlin to Exchange Exclusive Real Estate for New Art Museum
The city of Berlin wants a new modern art museum based on Guggenheim's recipe for success in Bilbao, Spain. To get it, the German capital is willing to part with a prime piece of real estate.
Developers and investors would pay millions to build on Berlin's centrally located Humboldt Harbor, just next to the city's new Central Station. But now the city is making the four-part, 16,000 square-meter (170,000 square-foot) plot available for free.
There's just one catch: The taker has to include a 10,000 square-meter modern art museum in the shopping and office complex that's foreseen for the site.
According to the call for bids, which are to be advertised throughout Europe at the end of the month, the new museum should resemble the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain. Completed in 1997, the masterpiece by Canadian-American architect Frank Gehry is one of five modern art museums funded by the Guggenheim Foundation.
A stylish building and massive modern art collection did just the trick to rejuvenate the small town of Bilbao. The one million tourists who visit the Spanish Guggenheim each year are a financial windfall for Bilbao.
Prospective buyer
Multi-billionaire developer Nicolas Berggruen is considered a favorite for the Berlin project. Both art and money run in the family. His father Heinz Berggruen, who died last year at the age of 93, offered his 750-million-euro art collection to the state-run Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation in 2000 in a gesture of reconciliation.
Berggruen, the elder, fled Germany during the Holocaust and immigrated to the US. He didn't return to Germany until 1996. The Berggruen Museum across from the Charlottenburg Palace was built to house the family's Classical Modern collection, which boasts works by Picasso, Klee, Giacometti and Matisse.
According to a report in the Berliner Zeitung, 46-year-old Nicolas Berggruen is also considering several other locations in Berlin for his own substantial modern art collection.
Land-for-museum deal questioned
The terms of the unusual agreement have stirred up some political controversy in a country where privately sponsored cultural institutions are a rarity and where complaints about under-funded museums are commonplace.
Greens fiscal spokesperson Jochen Esser, for example, warned against "giving away plots of land for free that are worth millions."
Dubbed "poor but sexy" by its own Mayor Klaus Wowereit, the German capital could do with a tourism-driven financial boost a la Bilbao -- regardless of who owns the museum.
However, a little competition wouldn't hurt the Hamburg Bahnhof, Berlin's only other modern art museum, opined the German daily Die Welt on Thursday, June 19. Critics have complained about the lack of innovative new exhibitions in the museum. The state-sponsored museum was built in 1996 to house several private collections, including that of Erich Marx. Notably, in 2004, it also obtained a seven-year loan of the Friedrich Christian Flick Collection.
Also coming soon: exhibition hall
According to reports, the museum at Berlin's Humboldt Harbor is not intended to replace plans for a new national exhibition hall in the city, which have had Wowereit's support. The hall would provide exhibition space for international artists who live or work in Berlin, but a location has not yet been determined.
In the meantime, ground was recently broken for a temporary exhibition space on the Schlossplatz, which is scheduled to open in October and remain there for two years.
2008年6月15日 星期日
華盛頓地區
黑色星期五 華府大停電
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華府13日發生停電，使美國首都廣大地區各種活動停頓了三個半小時，連白宮都得動用備用發電機，地鐵通勤乘客必須爬樓梯離開車站，聯邦員工也只能無所事事的聚集在漆黑的辦公大樓外面。 政府官員無奈的嘀咕偏偏在「13號星期五」停電，並乾脆讓一些員工放假。Pepco電力公司表示，停電在上午7時25分開始，上午11點前所有供電都已恢復正常。 Pepco發言人說，問題出在華埠地區變電所的一些裝備故障。Pepco在華府市區的總部也一片漆黑，只靠一具發電機提供一些照明和電話用電。 停電一發生，白宮的備用電力立刻啟動，沒有造成任何問題。 副新聞祕書法拉托說：「白宮靠發電機提供的電力正常運作，所有基本功能照常進行。」 地鐵中央車站因軌道絕緣系統過熱發生兩場小火警，工作人員迅速用滅火器撲熄，可是列車只能共用一條軌道，使上午的地鐵通勤作業大亂，嚴重誤點。 地鐵站的電動扶梯全部停擺，杜邦圓環(Dupont Circle)車站因此關閉。這裡的電扶梯長達188呎，在車站關閉前，許多乘客氣喘噓噓的走上樓梯後抱怨呼吸困難，有九個人必須接受治療，其中一名男子體內植入的心臟去纖顫器因此故障必須送醫。 電力問題以前也曾造成軌道火警，不過這次是否舊事重演還不確定。 Pepco說，停電一度波及超過1萬8000個用戶。一棟辦公大樓算一個用戶，有多少住宅和商業用戶停電還不知道。 停電使交通號誌全部停擺，一些主要路口車輛搶道，險象環生，並導致一些車禍，有三名行人不幸受傷。華府特區消防和急救單位發言人說：「13號星期五果然不吉利。」 |
2008年6月14日 星期六
台北紐約關店
誠品書店-台北民生店租約到期-撤店退貨通知
B022台北民生店因租約到期將營業至 97/6/30 (一)
找水準書店?這裡折扣免運費 - www.Cite.com.tw - 城邦書虫VIP買書全館75折&全年免運費 贈品A好康機會僅有一次,你還再等什麼?
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經營迄今滿十三年有餘的大紐約地區美東「自由時報」，決定今天最後一天出報後，正式畫下休止符。凸顯紐約華文媒體經營環境不佳，讀者群無法拓展，加上台灣的政黨再次輪替都是因素。 紐約美東自由時報與台灣的自由時報是代理關係，從一九九五年四月創辦迄今，在無人有意接手下，十多天前作出關門的決定。 美東自由時報創辦人江蕙美難掩內心的無奈與不捨。她說，「現實因素使然，做不下去，自然要關起來」，媒體不好經營，加上讀者群少，廣告主自然少。 她表示，自由時報主要報導台灣的新聞，但在大紐約地區的讀者群侷限性很大，經營很辛苦。 江蕙美指出，當初創辦時，憑著為台灣民主盡點心力，希望發揮一些功用，有人提醒她可能做不滿三個月就會倒，但苦撐至今，也十三年多了。 談到經營報紙 歷程，江蕙美回憶說，「從未賺過，而且不是小賠，是大賠」。一直貼錢下去，從房地產抵押、向銀行週轉、標會等都有，體力、心力、財力都已無法負荷。 由於自由時報讀者群以台灣的親綠讀者為主，江蕙美也不否認，決定收掉與台灣三月再次的政黨輪替，「當然有所關聯」。 大紐約地區目前主要華文報紙包括世界日報、星島日報、美東自由時報、僑報、明報、大紀元報等，另外還有紐約社區報、三洲新聞報等。 其中，世界日報與 自由時報以台灣讀者為主，星島日報與明報則以香港及廣東移民為主，僑報以來自中國大陸新移民為主，至於大紀元報則具有法輪功色彩。 近來由於大紐約台灣新移民逐漸外移或減少，大陸新移民湧入，尤其又以福州、溫州人以及大陸東北人居多，整個社區人口生態丕變，也重組了華文媒體走勢。 美東自由時報並非此時經營困難，早在幾年前即傳出可能關門消息。二零零七年一月，社區僑胞曾發動一波搶救行動，共有民進黨人士及親綠僑領五十多人伸出援手，籌措捐助十二萬美元，希望渡過難關。 不過，媒體畢竟是燒錢的事業，一年半下來，終究杯水車薪，依舊無法脫困，最後還是走上結束營業之路。970614 |
2008年6月13日 星期五
New Jersey Turnpike
Wikipedia article "New Jersey Turnpike".
"I'm empty and aching and I don't know
why"／Counting the cars on the New Jersey
Turnpike／And they've all come to look for America……
關鍵字，〈America〉，賽門與葛芬柯的、我們的。
"No" side appears to win Irish EU poll
"No" side appears to win Irish EU poll
Irish voters have rejected the European Union's reform treaty in a
referendum. Justice Minister Dermot Ahern told Irish public broadcaster
RTE that the "no" side had won in an overwhelming number of
constituencies. Observers say that if confirmed, the "no" vote could be
a major setback for the EU, as the treaty can only come into force if
it is ratified by all members. Ireland is the only member of the 27-
nation bloc to put the Lisbon Treaty to a referendum. The document is
meant to streamline decision-making in the bloc. It would replace the
EU constitution, which was rejected in referenda in France and the
Netherlands three years ago.
Irish voters have rejected the European Union's reform treaty in a
referendum. Justice Minister Dermot Ahern told Irish public broadcaster
RTE that the "no" side had won in an overwhelming number of
constituencies. Observers say that if confirmed, the "no" vote could be
a major setback for the EU, as the treaty can only come into force if
it is ratified by all members. Ireland is the only member of the 27-
nation bloc to put the Lisbon Treaty to a referendum. The document is
meant to streamline decision-making in the bloc. It would replace the
EU constitution, which was rejected in referenda in France and the
Netherlands three years ago.
愛爾蘭向歐盟改革條約說“不”
 反對條約陣營由廣泛的政黨團體組成 |
愛爾蘭就旨在改革歐盟的里斯本條約所進行的全民公投結果出爐：反對陣營比支持者多出十萬票，否決了該條約。
歐盟27個成員國已經有18個批准了里斯本條約，但愛爾蘭是唯一就是否接受展開公投的國家。
愛爾蘭否決里斯本條約，意味著歐盟無法按原定計劃在2009年元旦開始實行該條約。
歐盟所有成員國必須一致批准該條約才能使其生效。
不過，歐洲委員會主席巴羅佐說，里斯本條約還沒有夭折，但是要繼續找到條約的未來出路需要歐盟集體面對挑戰。
各國反應
其他歐盟成員國政府對愛爾蘭公投結果表示失望。
德國和法國說，這是一大沉重打擊。
現任歐盟輪值主席國斯洛文尼亞表示，里斯本條約已經獲得歐盟三分之二成員國的批准。要使歐盟集團更有效率就需要這樣一個條約。
英國說，儘管愛爾蘭否決了條約，但是英國政府還將尋求該條約在議會獲得批准。
不過，捷克總統克勞斯說，里斯本條約已經作廢，因為愛爾蘭的公投結果意謂著該條約不可能繼續獲得批准。
2008年6月10日 星期二
哥本哈根 生活品質世界第一
The Monocle Global Quality of Life Survey
哥本哈根 生活品質世界第一
哥本哈根 生活品質世界第一
 |
| 慕尼黑市中心與地標聖母堂。慕尼黑是排名第二的生活品質最佳城市。 （資料照，法新社） |
 |
| 榮膺全球生活品質最佳城市的哥本哈根。（取自網路） |
〔編譯魏國金／綜合報導〕地球上生活品質最佳的城市是哪一個？英國雜誌「單片眼鏡」（Monocle）的研究人員在評鑑凌晨1點買到美酒的便利性、建築品味與劇院數等各因素後，將冠冕頒給丹麥首都哥本哈根。
環境關懷 是奪魁關鍵
該雜誌盛讚哥本哈根簡潔的都市計畫、「無可挑剔」的交通系統與基礎建設、現代感的建築、一流的餐廳以及推陳出新的環境關懷，而最後一項特質則是該城市得以從去年亞軍榮登今年榜首的關鍵。
該雜誌進一步讚揚哥本哈根是全球設計之都，指其展現的蓬勃創意為該城市自1950與60年代全盛期以來所僅見。
前20名 亞洲僅日本有份
值得注意的是，被認為是全球大都會的紐約與倫敦都沒有進入前20名榜單內，哲學家兼作家狄波頓抨擊兩城發展乏善可陳。
慕尼黑東京 名列2、3
德國的慕尼黑、日本的東京分佔全球生活品質最佳城市第2、3名，第4名是瑞士的蘇黎世，第5名是芬蘭的赫爾辛基。排名最好的美國城市是夏威夷的檀香山，位居第12。亞洲只有日本打入排行榜，除了東京，福岡排名第17，京都位於第20；福岡也榮膺全球最佳零售城市。
深具品味與創新的巴黎市長德拉諾耶因推出公共單車免費使用專案等措施，而使巴黎被評定為最佳全球化城市，該雜誌也讚揚法國總統薩科茲，恢復巴黎作為國際政治中心的名聲。
在洗刷官僚作風的惡名後，馬德里獲得全球最佳商業之都。調查人員建議熱愛藝術的旅人前往柏林一遊，因為多元的美術館、博物館使柏林成為「無與倫比」的最佳文化之都。
2008年6月3日 星期二
"Bahia
Wikipedia article "Bahia"
 Living in Bahia Angelika Taschen (ED) Hardcover, 26 x 30.2 cm, 200 pages, £ 16.99 ISBN 978-3-8365-0478-2 Click here & order now | Tudo bem in Bahia Seen from the sea, Bahia's coast still resembles what the Portuguese found 500 years ago when they first arrived. The tree-lined, white sand desert beaches and warm, clear waters continue to attract more tourists every year. Bahia's regional architecture makes use of native materials, conveying a natural harmony with the local climate and nature, and is distinguished by the clear influence of the three cultures in the region (indigenous, Portuguese, and African). Bahia is one of the most interesting states in Brazil, notable for its cultural history, music, art, cuisine, and most famously, its laid-back lifestyle and architecture that have turned Bahia into a favorite destination for travellers from around the world. We have searched high and low for Bahia's loveliest homes and spots, from typical fisherman's huts to sophisticated modern homes. Highlights include the house of Brazilian's most brilliant and prodigious singer and composer Caetano Veloso in Salvador, a treehouse by sculptor and environmentalist Frans Krajcberg an experimental house with a bamboo roof, and a house perched on a cliff built by artist João Calazans. |
歡迎來到不见经传的中國太倉
歡迎來到中國太倉
2008年太倉市級重大事故隱患掛牌.. (04-18 13:38) .... 主辦單位：太倉市人民政府製作： 太倉市信息化辦公室太倉市信息中心建議使用IE5.0以上瀏覽器分辨率800×600 ... www.taicang.gov.cn/ - 79k - |
太倉人才網(太倉市人事局、太倉市人才服務中心創辦網站)
中國太倉人才網政府官方網站. ... 太倉人才網招聘信息將逐步禁止使用“月薪面議”字樣， www.tcrc.com.cn/ - 127k - |
太倉視窗歡迎您
包括便民服務、鄉鎮風采以及太倉概況、領導致辭、政府機構、發展規劃、招商引資、投資指南等。 |
斯图加特“太仓日“
位于上海附近的太仓在中国是个名不见经传的小城市。很多中国人大概都没听说过它的名字。但是在德国，特别是巴登符腾堡州，知道太仓的人却逐渐多了起来。目 前在太仓投资建厂的德国企业已经超过了100家，这里被称为中国的德企之乡。为了进一步促进交流，斯图加特市上周（5月28日）举办了“太仓走进德国-斯 图加特太仓日”活动。
太仓市市长谢鸣在斯图加特-太仓日活动上雄心勃勃地介绍说："我们要将太仓德 企工业园建设成为华东地区的德国企业中心。" 该市的目标是在今后3年再吸引100家德企公司前往当地投资。他们希望把太仓变成德国中小企业的集聚中心。在谈到之所以聚焦中小企业的原因时，谢鸣表示： "因为德国的大企业比较少，它主要是中小型企业，而我们也比较适合中小型企业。从实际上来讲，来太仓投资的德国企业大多是家族企业，具有很高的科技含量。 我们觉得这样的企业比较适合在我们这里投资。当然，大企业我们也喜欢，也要引进。"
与上海相比，太仓的低成本投入更容易吸引来自德国的中小企业。目前已有100多家德国 公司在太仓投资，其中来自巴登符腾堡州的德国企业占了将近一半。曾任巴符州议员的汉斯-约罕·施泰姆是第一个落户太仓的德国企业家。这位克恩-里伯斯有限 公司的总裁90年代中期首先在太仓建起了一座只有8名中国工人的小厂。在谈到选择太仓的原因时施泰姆说："太仓接近上海，江苏又是巴登符滕堡州的伙伴地 区。另外我们也认识一些太仓发展办公室的人，这也起到了决定性的作用。一开始，他们就和我们一样具有坦率、开诚布公的办事特点。"
克恩-里伯斯公司的效益直线上升，在太仓的厂房和员工数量也不断扩大。该公司的成功给 太仓作了免费广告，吸引了更多的德国企业前往当地。宝适汽车部件有限公司亚太地区总裁艾伯勒对该公司在太仓的发展也非常满意。不过他同时也表示，企业前往 中国投资需要慎重，不能盲目行事。他说："我认为非常重要的是，企业在去中国投资前必须非常仔细地对其面临的机会和风险进行评估，不能盲从，不能盲目地梦 想着前往中国就能盈利。"
艾伯勒表示，在太仓，德国企业之间会非常开放地相互交流经验和信息，相互提供帮助。不 过企业多了也存在劳动力市场资源有限的问题。为此，除了到周边地区招人，培养当地的技术工人也非常重要。2007年，太仓与德国商会上海代表处合作，成立 了一所职业技术工人培训中心，该中心采取德国的培训模式，学生毕业后还可以获得德国承认的资格证明。
另外，为了满足企业对人才的需求，太仓也努力吸引留学生前往当地工作。"太仓海外人才 招聘说明会"就是此次斯图加特-太仓日活动的一个组成部分。太仓市长谢鸣表示，由于德资企业集中，具有良好的企业氛围，他相信会有越来越多的德国留学生愿 意去太仓发展。另外，谢鸣还将太仓与上海对人才的需求进行了比较，他说 ："上海是人才的高地。但我们对人才结构的需求不同。上海里是金融中心，经济中心，服务业发展迅速。而我们在制造业方面具有优势。我们与上海存在一定竞 争，但主要是互补关系。"
舍弗勒集团也是在太仓投资的德国企业之一。该集团中国有限公司人力资源总监包腊梅已经是第三次到德国参加招聘活动。她对德国留学生的看法是："德国的留学生非常有潜力，这是投资于未来，另外，他们工作的独立性很强。第三个，也是特别重要的一点是，他们了解双方的文化。"
不过包腊梅也强调，留学生必须清楚自己的定位，需要脚踏实地的勤奋工作，而不能只盲目 追求高工资以及迅速提升的机会。对于此次招聘活动，包腊梅感到满意，她说："这次参加招聘会的人可能没有以往那么多，大概只来了几百人。但他们似乎比以往 的人更加了解国内的情况，期望、定位更清楚了。"
2008年6月2日 星期一
La Défense勒地方士 (巴黎 新地标)
社会 | 2008.06.01
巴黎将有新地标
巴黎的埃菲尔铁塔将不再独占鳌头：到2014年，巴黎西郊的拉德芳斯(La Defense)新区将建成一座新的摩天大厦，其高301米，仅略低于埃菲尔铁塔。
本 周，法国由政府部门代表和建筑设计师组成的一个评选委员会决定选用法国建筑设计大师让.努韦尔(Jean Nouvel)的四方形设计方案，在拉德芳斯区兴建预计造价6亿欧元的“信号塔”。参加此项招标的还有其他国际大牌建筑设计师，其中包括英国的诺曼.福斯 特(Norman Foster，设计了北京首都国际机场3号航站楼)、美国的丹尼尔.利贝斯金德(Daniel Libeskind)。
62 岁的努韦尔已为巴黎创造了几座建筑杰作，其中包括阿拉伯世界学院、展示欧洲以外地区文化的凯布朗利博物馆等。评选委员会主席德韦迪安(Patrick Devedjian)说：“‘信号塔’是继埃菲尔铁塔以来最重要的建筑大事。”他表示，无论在技术上还是在环境友好程度上，努韦尔的设计方案都登峰造极， 该建筑将会成为大巴黎地区的象征性建筑。
德韦迪安也是法国执政党——人民运动联盟的秘书长。他称，法国政界所有人士今天都希望巴黎成为“可与伦敦、巴塞罗纳、上海、纽约相争的大都市”。
这 一项目同时也是巴黎城建部门恢复拉德芳斯商业区生活气息的尝试之一。拉德芳斯区每天吸引40万人，但却只有2万人居住在这里。每到夜晚，一片死气沉沉。因 此，除写字间、商场、一家酒店外，“信号塔”内还将有许多公寓。拉德芳斯区是巴黎市政府上世纪60年代开始开发的建筑风格标新立异的高楼区，为了给更新的 高楼大厦腾出地方，今后10年，不少较老的建筑将被拆除。到2012年，另外两座300米的摩天大厦也将在此落成。
这样，除180米高的蒙巴纳斯大厦位居市中心以外，巴黎的所有摩天大厦都暂时被拒在城门之外。巴黎市长德拉诺埃(社会党)不久前曾因提议是否应在巴黎市中心地带建造几栋摩天大楼以和国际上的其它首都相抗衡而掀起一场剧烈争论。
la De·fense [͵lä dāʹfäss]
Business complex just W of Paris, France. Ultramodern, sleek buildings and sculptures characterize the area.
勒地方士是巴黎的大眾商業區，邻近塞納河畔納伊，巴黎的城西。the Wikipedia article "La Défense"
2008年6月1日 星期日
‘Sex and the City’
‘Sex ,
and the City’
‘Sex and the City’ Leads Weekend Box Office
LOS ANGELES — “Sex and the City” and its legion of female fans over the weekend gave Hollywood exactly what it needs to survive an uncertain summer movie season: an unconventional hit.
Skip to next paragraph 
Annie Tritt for The New York Times
"Sex and the City" fans on Sunday at a cinema in Manhattan.
Multimedia
The romantic comedy, based on HBO’s long-running television series of the same name, unexpectedly overtook the latest “Indiana Jones” movie at the domestic box office, bringing in an estimated $55.7 million since opening with midnight shows on Thursday, according to Warner Brothers., which released the film.
The performance fell short of the $70 million-plus opening some foresaw after sellout crowds — 85 percent of the ticket buyers women, many viewing in groups — brought the film about $26 million in sales on Friday. Still, the weekend opening far exceeded industry expectations, which only a week ago were looking something closer to the $27.5 million taken in by “The Devil Wears Prada,” a similarly female-driven hit released by 20th Century Fox in June of 2006.
“It is kind of mind-boggling,” Sarah Jessica Parker, the “Sex and the City” star, said in a telephone interview from her Manhattan home on Saturday. “We are thrilled and humbled that the audience came out.”
“Sex and the City,” of course, benefited from the enormous audience awareness that came with the television series’s six seasons, strong DVD sales and continuing appearances in syndication on TBS. There was also no shortage of media attention showered on the return after four years of Carrie, Miranda, Samantha and Charlotte, whether features about their clothes, their men or the show’s enduring influence (for good or ill) on the culture.
And yet surprise at the weekend performance was palpable, even among those who made the $65 million film. Ms. Parker, for instance, said she did not intend to sit home this weekend monitoring the box office results. But by late Friday, fans were sending messages and even photographs to her cellphone of women in line outside movie theaters across the country. (As the weekend went on, more men showed up, according to Warner Brothers.) A clutch of negative reviews did nothing to dampen the thirst for making a night or day of it at the theater.
“It’s a cultural phenomenon; it’s an absolutely incredible opening,” said Dan Fellman, Warner’s president for theatrical distribution, speaking by phone on Sunday. First-weekend ticket sales, he noted, were far beyond those of other R-rated comedies, including “American Pie 2” from Universal Pictures in 2001 and “The Wedding Crashers” from New Line Cinema in 2005.
The weekend opening also ranked as the strongest ever for a movie carried by a female lead (at least if ticket-price inflation is not taken into account). Paramount’s “Lara Croft: Tomb Raider” was the previous record-holder, with $47.7 million in ticket sales for Paramount during its opener in 2001.
“I am so excited about the possibilities for movies about women,” Ms. Parker said.
Ms. Parker credited Michael Patrick King, the movie’s writer and director, with creating an update of the hit HBO television show that brought the characters forward. “It’s a movie about being a grown-up,” she said.
Grown-up women have never exactly been absent from the big screen. Women’s roles have been as complex and varied as Helen Mirren’s turn as Queen Elizabeth II, which won her an Oscar in 2007, and Meryl Streep’s performance as the semi-monstrous fashion magazine editor in “Prada,” which turned into a box office smash.
But the female audience has seldom showed its potential in the way it did this weekend.
As “Sex and the City” placed No. 1 for the weekend, Paramount’s “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” dropped to second. The film, directed by Steven Spielberg, had a strong $46 million in ticket sales, bringing its total to $216 million since opening on May 22.
But the weekend’s second major surprise came from Universal, which had some good news, even as its backlot suffered a major fire over the weekend. “The Strangers,” a horror film made for about $9 million, took in $20.7 million for the company’s Rogue Pictures specialty unit.
Like “Sex and the City,” the horror film was rated R — usually a limiting factor at the spring-summer box office, which has traded in recent years on sequels and fantasy films with softer ratings. Yet the movie became Universal’s biggest of the year, beating its “Forgetting Sarah Marshall.” And it raised hopes that audiences will respond in large numbers to a number of studio films like “Pineapple Express” from Sony Pictures Entertainment and “Tropic Thunder” from DreamWorks and Paramount, which, in the coming weeks, will test viewer willingness to turn out in large numbers for something other than repeat performances.
Hollywood could use the help. Even with the strong performances of the Top 3 movies this weekend, year-to-date results still lag last year’s total. According to Media by Numbers, a box-office tracking firm, tickets sales are off about 2.8 percent and attendance is down 5.5 percent compared with the corresponding time last year.
Whether the rest of the summer’s entrants will excite moviegoers as much as last year remains to be seen, but one thing is certain: The striking success of “Sex and the City” will spark immediate talk of another movie with Ms. Parker and her sidekicks — Cynthia Nixon, Kim Cattrall and Kristin Davis.
“They might be talking about a sequel,” she said. “But it still feels like we’re opening this movie.”
She added: “Michael and I still have never discussed it. It would have been greedy.”