a man of many faces

although this guy (Alex Tan - yeah, he's got a blog on here too! hello, mr. Tan!) does it as a show act, this art of bian lian ("changing the face") is actually used in traditional chinese theater - for mythological scenes, when one character turns into another by magic or miracle. particularly, the Mask Changer is a standard character in Sichuan opera. wish i could do it too :-)

by the way, there is also a chinese movie about this art (rather melodramatic plot, or else it wouldn't be a chinese movie...)

many things begin with m

many things begin with m. unless you are illiterate,
you really can't deny that many things begins with an m.

such as mouth, and mouse, mammoth and mastodon,
mammals, motherhood and the mucous membranes.

mass begins with m, and so does mask, mystification,
myrtle, magic, marihuana and missionary.

murder mysteries always begin with an m, so do menuets,
musicals, melons, mint drops and marmalade tarts.

mozart began with an m, and still does; mendelssohn
never dropped his, neither will mahler - or madonna.

there's an m at the head of malawi and mosambique,
mexico and moldavia, milano, marburg and madrid.

m is moderate, m is mollifying. m is mellifluous,
m is magnificent, m is massive. i say, m is a mouthful.

m might be mariological, might be muslim; m might be mean
or marvellous, made of marble or marzipan - my o my:

m is mousse au chocolat, m is mango juice, m is mead,
m is mixed fruit salad, m is mocca, m is mustard,

m is many things more: m is masala, marsala, maki,
moussaka, muesli, maple syrup, malt sugar,

m is messily munchable. m is the malabar coast,
m is madras, m is malayalam; m makes me majnoon.

m is masterful, m is monarch of my marrow; m makes
my mind manic or melancholy. m's mark is on me,

i am all m's, m is all i am; may m be merciful on me.

tsssrreeeeep, tsssrreeep, tssrrreeeeeep

yesterday, on a stifling hot day's pleasantly warm night, i took a long long walk through the wilder parts of this town. once i got to areas where there are fewer cars and people, and more trees, i realised once more what an incredible number of crickets there is in vienna. walk between gardens, or alongside a large park (sadly, it was closed after 22h) - all you hear is their tsreeeep, tsreeeeeeeep, tsssssssreeep. every bush, a choir. every tree, an orchestra. from the time when human noises cease in the evening, to the hours of dawn, when birds start singing, crickets acustically own the place. how many of them may there be? i'm sure there are several billions. every human could have his own private little music group, provided he could adapt his taste to their abilities. but i'm sure the crickets wouldn't care to be hired as musicians. like i said, they own the place. as a nameless poet from ancient greece has it: "we praise you as blessed, o cricket, when upon the tree tops, having drunk a little dew, you sing like a king; for to you belongs all that you can see in the fields, all things that the forests bear... old age does not bother you, wise earth-born song-lover; unsuffering, with no blood in your flesh, you are really like the gods."

what goes on in the reed

today, when i went swimming, i observed a couple of dragonflys making little baby dragonflys. they were at it for hours.

weird position, isn't it? scientists call it "copulation wheel" ;-)

(no, that's not my own photo. i wish it was.)

Another bathing place

What you see in this picture is part of the Museumsquartier - a large complex of halls and suchlike in the middle of Vienna, formerly used for more business oriented things, like large fairs and commercial exhibitions, but nowadays it's a bunch of museums and art gallerys. With some large courtyards in between, just for fun. And in the biggest of them, there's a water pool (lower left).
It's nearly always in the shadow, except maybe at high noon in the middle of summer, so it's nice and cool. The edge is just high enough to sit on comfortably, and the water is only 40 cm deep. Also, there is a sign on the edge that reads NO BATHING - PARENTS RESPONSIBLE FOR THEIR CHILDREN. You really have to look for that sign, or you'll never find it.
When I sat down there this afternoon to cool my feet (at 30°C), I counted no less than eight little boys and girls playing in the water and having a great time. With the appropriate number of responsible mummies either sitting on the edge, cooling their feet - or playing in the water, having a great time too.

à propos beaver...

Aasa's recent mention of beavers reminded me of a local mystery that maybe deserves to be recorded...
The small lake you see on the first pic is called Dechantlacke - the nicest bathing place in and around Vienna. 70 years ago it was a gravel pit, they dug gravel there for building roads. In the 1950s, it was just a big hole in the ground - somehow water seeped in, and towards the end of the 60s it was a real lake; since the grounds around it weren't used for anything, a regular jungle had developed around it - it became the natural dwellingplace for Vienna's hippies, and in a way it still is. Where else can you swim, laze in the sun, smoke green stuff, listen to people playing drum, didge, flute or violin, be naked all day - all for free, and with nobody minding it?
Of course, lots of fish live in there, most notably one HUGE pike. And there are water snakes, and all kinds of birds, and dragonflys, and frogs... Yeah, and in recent years some of the small trees on the edge of the lake have - not fallen down, but GONE - leaving only stumps behind, stumps that clearly show teeth-marks ;-) I haven't yet met anyone who saw the little guys responsible for it, nor have I discovered where they live, despite of swimming all around the lake... but it's obvious who they are.
Wanted: Mr. and Mrs. Beaver. Warning: they must be damn clever to keep themselves so well hidden.

mammoths

as noted genetic scientists have discovered, not all mammoths had dark brown hair.

there may, in fact, have been blonde mammoths. what cuties! (don't overlook the mice.)

should m. chance to be online:

darling, you've got the most beautiful toes on earth.

always live in warm climates, and never wear shoes. it's such a shame to hide them.

German for Weirdos 1: Das Kastenwesen

If you take a look at the dictionary, you'll be told that Kastenwesen is the usual German word for the Indian caste system - "Kaste" (feminine, "die Kaste") meaning caste, and "Wesen" being so nebulous a substantive that it may mean everything, even system.
But then, there is the masculine noun Kasten - it's used in Germany to mean a box (as in "Bierkasten" - the kind of box you buy bottles of beer in), but in Austria it is the usual name for a cupboard.
Thus, a Kastenwesen is quite likely to be a being (basic meaning of "Wesen") that lives in a cupboard.
No sooner had we discovered this fact than we found that the little guy had bodily manifested himself - appropriately in a cupboard belonging to the Institute of South Asian Studies, where everybody knows enough about the Kastenwesen to appreciate the joke ;-)
He's been residing there for quite some time, and we are quite sure by now that he is the true Kastenwesen, and what goes on in India under that name is a mistake.

Now, all of you who know German! There are a lot more Wesen still waiting to be manifested. Such as the Staatswesen, or even the Unwesen. Or try the Brauereiwesen ("brewery being" - meaning, to the uninitiated, "beer industry").