My Life and Thoughts

Well, I finally got sick of feeling guilty for not knowing German. So, for the past month, I have been studying this interesting language over the internet. I’m using the Rosetta Stone program, which is ironically named because it uses no translations at all, just a large collection of stock photos, which you have to match up with German phrases.

Here is why Rosetta Stone is so great: not only am I learning the language of such worthy cultural institutions as Suhrkamp Verlag, the Berlin Biennale, and Krautgarden; I’m also exploring my own cultural biases.

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Truly New York is the city of constant drama.   I had been in this magical city for scarcely 12 hours (8 of which I had spent asleep), when my mother’s iPhone was stolen while she was on the elliptical trainer; then we somehow both ended up getting haircuts. 

So, this will not be a long post—but I did want to share with you a piece of wonderful news for Bach impersonators (brought to my attention by the promising young Germanist, Na’ama Rokem).  Finally, twenty-first-century computer modeling techniques have been put to the task of producing a historically accurate three-dimensional reconstruction of the head of Johann Sebastian Bach.  Not a moment too soon, gentlemen!

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