Bakker Bugle Blog » culture

SOPA/PIPA blackout today

Will — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 10:42:38 +0000

We shy away from politics here at the Bugle Blog, although our editors are quite politically active. Today, we must speak out here, because too many members of the US Congress want to give control of the internet to copyright lawyers and those who stand against free speech.

This boring, little, family-friendly blog has been harassed, repeatedly, under the provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) of 1998. Big copyright-holders like Viacom and FOX have issued unilateral takedown notices against our homespun videos. For example, the Bugle is forever considered suspect by YouTube due to our legally legitimate use of a snippet of TV coverage of the 2008 Olympics, simply because the IOC issued an indiscriminate legal action against tens of thousands of ordinary people.

We have also had our content — photos and text — stolen by businesses that made money from our work. (Yes, we have a hard time believing it, too.) Illegitimate use of copyrighted material is a problem for some people who earn their daily bread by creating things that are easily duplicated. Those people make some wonderful things, and we should do what we can to protect their hard work.

But there are two bills in the US Congress (SOPA and PIPA, in the House and Senate respectively) that are, as The Oatmeal puts it, “like dealing with a lion that escaped from the zoo by blasting some kittens with a flamethrower.” These bills take the most abused aspects of the DMCA and enlarge them a thousand-fold. The impact of these bills are astonishingly broad. For more information, we recommend:

A great summary of the issues from the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
Another summary, in video form, from Fight for the Future.
A more academic account from Marvin Ammori
A much less academic take, in animated form, from The Oatmeal.

So today we join the Strike against SOPA. We will resume our usual tripe tomorrow.

Wrapping up the holiday season

Will — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 21:32:04 +0000

First, we need to finish the previous post and give you the link to our movie of Kleeschen.

In the US, chocolate eggs were for springtime, specifically Easter. In Europe, eggs are for nearly every holiday, including Christmas. Furthermore, the most super-cool eggs of all, Kinder Surprises, cannot be brought to the United States! We made this video to give Americans an idea of what you’re missing.

Finally, yesterday was the last day of the Christmas Market in Luxembourg-Ville. We offer you this retrospective of Luxembourg’s 2011 Marché de Noël. Let’s begin with the market at night, when the decorations really shine.

The central attraction is the heated tent in the front of the stage.

And what does one drink under the tent? Glühwein! (It’s warm red wine.)

And of course, there are a variety of fried goods to go with it.

There’s plenty to see (and to shop for).

Something for everyone!

After years behind scaffolding, the Cercle finally got to dress up for the season.

There’s even a place for inflated Santa.

Anita and I like to meet for lunch at the Christmas Market. Bad for the waistline, but good for holiday spirit!

It’s a great place to shop for gifts.

Apparently, we’re supposed to have a sexy holiday this year. Mrs Claus has dinner for you!

There’s entertainment for the children, day or night.

What says Christmas more than egg rolls and calamari?

With warm wine — workday or not!

Anita’s favorite Christmas Market dessert: chi-chis from Jean Le Gaufre.

Some more decorations…

Oh, there was a bit of “the reason for the season” too.

And, to wrap it up, another video.

Happy New Year everybody! (P.S. It’s called the celebration of Saint Sylvestre here.)

Léiwe Kleeschen, gudde Kleeschen

Will — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 20:13:09 +0000

Kind Saint Nicolas, Good Saint Nicolas,
brings us all kinds of good things… — Traditional Luxembourgish Carol

Schéi Kleeserchersdag! Happy Saint Nicholas Day! Or, as the partially-Dutch Bakker household says, “Happy Sinterklaas Day!”

Your best source of information on the holiday of December 6th is David Sedaris‘s “Six to Eight Black Men,” especially in audio form.

After listening to that story dozens of times over the past several years, Anita was determined to welcome Saint Nicolas (Kleeschen in Luxembourgish) to Luxembourg. He was scheduled to arrive by train on Sunday the 4th — presumably to allow enough time to find all of the naughty Luxembourgish children and give them their due.

At first, Anita regretted going out in the rain. There wasn’t a whole lot of holiday spirit on the wet streets.

But then Saint Nick turned out of the parking lot and she got a nice photo of his ride.

Long live Kleeschen!

The city government made sure to provide a nice backdrop for the official photos.

“Schwaarze Péiter” according to the Luxembourgish Wikipedia, “Housécker” according to the local newspaper, the dark side of December 6th is otherwise known as “Black Peter.” He wasn’t easy to capture on film. As the wikipedia says, “Foreign tourists, particularly Americans, often experience culture shock upon encountering the character (to dress in blackface is a gross taboo in America).” (The shock must have made Anita’s hands shake.) It seems that this part of the tradition didn’t make it to Wisconsin. (Thanks to Corry for the link!)

Saint Nicolas is a far less controversial figure. If I had to describe him to an American without photos, I’d call him a more dignified and less jolly version of Santa Claus. It wouldn’t be far from the actual story to say that he’s Santa before the marketers got hold of him.

The tourist train was bedecked for its saint-pulling duties.

St Nick had two visits in this part of the city: the Christmas Market, and the Children’s Hospital.

Housécker was just a few steps behind. (Somehow, writing his name in Luxembourgish makes it seem more acceptable to me.)

The name is troubling enough. But the real scandal is what Housécker had come to Luxembourg to do. Once again, I implore you to listen to David Sedaris’s masterpiece.

To see the truth, we must ENHANCE!

That’s a child’s leg, ladies and gentlemen. The naughty children of Luxembourg will be taken by Saint Nicolas and Housécker to Spain — where property values are depressed, government debt holds back the economy, and a right-wing government just came to power. The horror!

As the two walking contradictions gave out treats (and possibly added to their haversack of naughty children), local helpers adjusted the heat on their surrey.

There are more photos from the local newspaper, the Wort. As far as we know, the Bugle is your only source for 2011 Kleeschen VIDEO!

Errr… it seems that YouTube might wind up in Housécker’s sack before long. You’ll have to check back later to see that exclusive video.

Something for the kids

Will — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 19:30:15 +0000

One thing that holds true across the Western world as we know it: Christmas is devoted to the children. And here in Luxembourg, there’s no Thanksgiving to hold up the beginning of the festivities. Shortly after All Saints’ Day (Nov 1st), the holiday decorations went up. All the leaves are down, and the sky is gray — so why not get started?

The first trimmings I noticed were in a Luxembourg shopping mall, just outside the city. The sights began on the way down the escalator from the car park, and the theme was clear from the outset.

The Enchanted Circus included about a dozen scenes of mechanical animals and performers, mostly in the central courtyard of the mall.

Hopefully this video will help you appreciate the magic of the holidays in suburban Luxembourg.

After a trip around the circus, one is in the proper frame of mind to visit the hypermarket, Europe’s equivalent of Wal-Mart and Target.

Yes, there are some unusual options to dress up your home — including your bathroom (or “toilet” as we say here). Don’t you want to see Santa doing his business, as you do yours?

At about the same time, the good folks of Trier started building their Christmas Market. We’ve been going to Trier’s Christmas Market for years. Somehow, we missed the fact that Trier has a Mulled Wine Queen!

Just beyond the market, we found a delightful storefront of LEGO goodness!

We can’t wait to visit Luxembourg‘s Christmas Market, so keep watch for some more holiday spirit from the Bugle!

Schueberfouer does not mean “Sheep Fair”

Will — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 20:00:04 +0000

So “fouer” pretty clearly means “fair” in Luxembourgish. I was under the impression that “Schueber” was related to the word “sheep” for a while, because the opening ceremonies feature sheep. Please don’t tell my Luxembourgish instructor that I was so far off the mark — sheep is “Schof” in Luxembourgish.

After two years of regular attendance of the fair, I was ready to see the opening ceremony for myself.

Nine minutes before the scheduled start, the entrance to the fair was quiet, but it didn’t take long for a surprisingly large crowd to assemble. They filled the space around the entrance to the fair, except for a small area, cordoned off.

Many people recognized one another and began animated conversations, which is typical of the Schueberfouer.

There was a growing anxiety in the crowd as the cameramen and journalists pressed forward.

A group of politicians began assembling inside the cordon, joking among themselves and scanning the crowd. Some time passed, and a woman offered a shot of some golden scissors to the press. They did not seem especially impressed.

The crowd pressed in further. Quite a few people stopped by and shortly moved on, but more surprising were the number that stayed — given that most of them really couldn’t see anything beyond the backs of the cameramen.

Just a minute or two after five o’clock, a tall man in a resplendent jacket moved through the crowd to the center of things. He was Paul Helminger, Mayor of Luxembourg-Ville. He bantered with the multitude, smiled a lot, and posed for lots of photos. He cut the ribbon into about a dozen pieces, handing out the slices to his fellow luminaries.

Once the scissors were sheathed, the media descended and the interviews began. But where were the sheep?

I moved outside the crowd, scanning for ungulates. About half the crowd moved to the nearby beer stand.

The other half seemed to have turned 180 degrees, facing down the midway. Still no sheep in evidence, but this was a clue!

Now that the politicians were dispersed, perhaps the crowd turned to the sheep for amusement. Driven by my goal — to see some of the famous Schueberfouer sheep — I surveyed the possible routes to head off the parade.

On a path parallel to the midway, I weaved through the oncoming pack of thrill-seekers. Screams from the fair’s machines echoed off the restaurant’s glass walls as I scanned for a way to cut back in front of the procession.

I deliberately overshot my target and headed back down the midway. There were a few people milling around, but nothing like what I expected — a wave of Luxembourgers driven ahead of a herd of sheep.

I rounded a small bend to find my wool-bearing quarry.

I was not impressed. Neither were the band members who appeared to have lost interest in the proceedings.

Seriously, friends — I could have walked off with those five sheep.

Oh, there was still a crowd walking along the midway, about 50 feet behind the sheep. Politicians gave peripatetic interviews, and random fair-goers seemed content to walk along with them.

Sometimes, events in Luxembourg exceed my expectations. This one remains a mystery to me, not quite living up to the glowing descriptions I read in the local papers.

Nevertheless, the fair itself needs no hype. Do you like to be flipped upside down and flung around at a purported 5 G’s? As you like.

Would you like a dose of the best of American culture while you are tossed hither and thither? First, answer me this: Do you think those posters are product placement, or is the Fun Fair paying licensing fees to the UFC?

Who cares, when you can stop by the Kir Royal stand anytime, day or night?

My favorite Schueberfouer pastime is finding a seat in a beer garden that faces the fun and games, and then having a procession of tasty little glasses of beer brought to me.

Assumption Weekend

Will — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 12:37:39 +0000

This Monday was the Feast of Assumption and we used our time to challenge assumptions about Luxembourg…

Nope. Can’t do it.

The Bugle Style Guide expressly forbids earnest and cheesy opening statements like that one. Let’s start over. To the right, a preview of the most exciting part of last weekend. But first…

A three-day-weekend means three mornings of sleeping in. We planned our time accordingly, although we passed up the opportunity to visit the Cat Club.

Friday evening: The Grand Duke’s Palace. We don’t have pictures from this guided tour, because photos aren’t allowed. (Will is still smarting from getting caught by security while taking sneaky-shots in the Ville’s Museum.) We’ll leave the guile up to other photographers. Remember the finish for the Prologue of the Tour of Luxembourg? That’s the palace in the center. The Grand Ducal family will stand out on the balcony for special events.

It was a good tour and a lovely palace. Lots of German ancestors on the walls, and several charming contemporary portraits of the Grand Duke Henri’s family. Old furniture, fine tapestries, you get the idea. Our tour guide was informative and good humored. Plus, the proceeds go to charity!

Nota bene: The window for visiting the Palace is open for about six weeks each year, and you have until August 30th if you’d like to see it this year.

Saturday: Crappy weather, went to the Farmer’s Market, watched Wonder Boys. Briefly considered going to Picadilly, but we resisted the temptation to sample what is, effectively, a European wine cooler. (Teresa says, “It’s classy because it’s European!”)

Sunday: Crappy weather, watched The Princess Bride, ordered Chinese for dinner. Mission accomplished!

Monday: Lovely weather! Anita hustled us out to a hike around the Müllerthal (Little Switzerland) that we’d been planning for weeks. It was a short drive that led us to the little town with the address Müllerthal, Müllerthal, Luxembourg (Région Müllerthal).

The Müllerthal Trail is probably the most popular hiking destination in Luxembourg. It is certainly the most widely recommended by tourism guides in English!

Our crack staff of Bugle Guides know the core sights of the area pretty well, because we take just about every visitor to see the beautiful Luxembourgish woods. The geology makes for stunning rock formations and delightfully rough trails.

We followed the official Müllerthal Trail Two, for the most part. Sometimes, the trail runs along the top of some ridges, and sometimes through the valley. It’s a great way to see the sights from diverse points of view.

In the midst of all the standard-issue beauty, we saw the biggest slug EVAR.

For the first half of the hike, we made our way to the Schiessentümpel, the most popular waterfall in Luxembourg. We walked the ridge above the waterfall and then dropped down to the valley of the Black Ernz.

Most of the visitors drive to a parking lot less than a kilometer away, and walk along the road. We approached the bridge along the rock-faced cliffs on the other side of the river.

It is an irresistible subject for photography.

Most of the photos in this post were taken by our visitor, Teresa. She experimented with Will’s “big” camera, and she’s quite talented. Her best shots aren’t of the descriptive, “postcard” variety that we feature here. So we may need to do an online exhibition of her work later this year.

There were more people hiking and walking and driving around the Schiessentümpel than we’ve ever seen before. That’s no surprise, given that it was August and a three-day weekend in most parts of the region. Will said “Moien” to just about everyone, and very few responded in Luxembourgish. Again, no surprise.

The second part of the hike took us away from the crowds and onto a path that was new for everyone. We were delighted to discover that the well-tended trail weaved through the rock formations, with natural courtyards and delicate tunnels among the trees. Some of the formations have names (like “Eulenburg” below) and are associated with centuries-old legends and ghost stories.

We turned around before we reached Consdorf, bushwhacking and looking for another trail, before we settled for a logging road.

It didn’t take long before we were back at the Heringer Millen, a tourist center with a café and lots of useful information. In many tourist areas, there’s a compass-orientation installation — usually pointing the directions to well-known cities. Here, a novel version points to nearby sites of interest. (The project’s website seems broken. Here’s a link to a German-language, Flash-heavy webpage, if you’re desperate.) This cool, er… “thing” would be a good place to start a hike! (N 49.789553, E 6.305889)

Look at that sky! We hadn’t seen a day like this for weeks…

Naturally, Anita and Teresa absorbed the rest of the sun from our apartment’s balcony. Will went to see Captain America 3D, courtesy MyMosaik.lu — but that’s another story.

National Day!

Will — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 21:22:46 +0000

It’s National Day in Luxembourg! (We posted three times about National Day 2009 — one, two, three — and once in 2010.)

Perhaps this is a good time to note that, for the first time since the 18th Century, the rules of succession for the throne of Luxembourg have changed.

Other than that, we suspect that this National Day will be much like the previous two. The champagne (excuse me, crémant) bottle in the bin at the bus stop is a sign that the Eve of National Day transpired as expected.

Almost every business is closed, in observance of the holiday. A local bank honored the Grand Ducal family in its revolving door.

Fun Fact: By coincidence, today is also a holiday in most of Germany! The rest of Europe had to carry on by itself…

Oh, American Press, bless your heart

Anita — Wed, 06 Oct 2010 12:57:47 +0000

The US State Department released a broad travel advisory for Europe on Sunday. It cautioned Americans who are traveling to Europe to be extra vigilant. As one would expect, some of our loved ones in the US expressed concern over our safety. Suffice it to say, I have felt safe and continue to feel safe in Luxembourg. In fact, I cannot imagine a safer place to be.

But feeling safe and actually being safe are two different things. So, in the interest of learning as much as possible, I checked my usual online newspapers on Monday. The most prominent piece was in the Wall Street Journal. The article was reasonable in its tone, but the photo and video captions made be laugh. Not a “ha-ha” laugh: I was laughing at you, American newsmedia. You amuse me.

A screen grab of the article:

The first video caption reads “With armed soldiers patrolling under the Eiffel Tower in Paris, tourists seemed undeterred by the warning…..” Of course the tourists are undeterred — those soldiers are there EVERY DAY, all the time! I think their primary job is running off guys that are peddling the cheap Eiffel Tower statues. In fairness, the Journal did capture that aspect of the situation.

Still, to me, the picture with the Eiffel Tower statues is entirely unrealistic. First, the guy pushing the vacation ~~tchotchkes~~ memories would have scooped them up and gone running before the soldiers arrived. That shot was totally set up by the photographer.

For a more realistic view, here are our photos around the Eiffel Tower from September 2009. (Please keep in mind that we weren’t trying to capture soldiers in the original photos. They were so common that they were just included in the frame of some of the photos we took last year.) Click on the photos for full-size versions.

Soldier on patrol underneath the Eiffel Tower; Champs de Mars in the background

Peddlers underneath the Eiffel Tower

Why are they running?

I mean “soldier” in the broadest sense. There are many different police forces in France, almost all with militarized components.

Peddlers relax at “home base” just across the street from the Tower — on this day, it really looked like a half-hearted game of tag.

But wait! There’s more! The Eiffel Tower isn’t the only Paris landmark that the Journal dug up.

To anyone that spends time in Paris, the caption is totally misleading: “French soldiers patrol around the Louvre museum in Paris, Sunday.” Guess what, WSJ? The soldiers patrol around the Louvre EVERY DAY. We were just in Paris in September and we were at the Louvre a bunch. And we saw those guys all the time. Those soldiers may be patrolling on Sunday, but not due to any new alert from the US.

Voilà: our photos from early September of this year. Pretty much the same patrol.

But the part about the whole thing that I really appreciate is the fact that the State Department is warning travelers. Tuesday’s WSJ:

The knowledge that, on average, some 100,000 Americans are traveling in Europe at any one time also factored into U.S. decision-making, said the counterterrorism official.

What about those of us living here? Are we not a concern? At least the Canadians care about us:

I mean, there are only 1.2 million of us over here. Perhaps we should focus on that, along with the 100,000 that are traveling? However, not one article that I have read in our beloved American press has thought to point that little nugget.

I suppose the American press is focusing on those who are reading their newspapers and watching their television shows. That would make perfect sense — except I pulled all the WSJ information above from the European edition. Thanks for caring, my English-language “local” press.

A little late to the big protest

Will — Fri, 17 Sep 2010 14:45:23 +0000

I tell you what, let’s forget the fact that you’re coming a little late to the party and embrace the fact that you showed up at all. *

I like a good protest as much as your average expat — much more, probably. Yesterday’s demonstration in Luxembourg’s center promised to be a big one. At the end of July, after Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker announced his intention to go ahead with budget reforms over the protests of unions and other groups, those disregarded organizations announced the September protest. So I noted 16 September, 5:30pm, on my calendar and started reading the politics section of the newspaper more carefully.

Protests in Dublin, while I was there, could be large or small, but they were always long. As in the US, they usually took about an hour to get warmed up. So, at about 6:15 yesterday, I walked to Place Clairefontaine to snap a few photos and to learn how to dissent publicly in the Luxembourgish style. I wanted to met Anita for the walk back home, so I thought, “Boy, this timing worked out perfectly!”

Here’s what I found on Place Clairefontaine.

There were enough barricades for a big protest — but no people at all. A mobile stage was already pulling away from the square near the government buildings. Had I really missed the most anticipated manifestation of the year? I checked the time: alright, the event was to start at 5:00pm, not 5:30. Still, thousands of people were expected to come — was it even possible, in ninety minutes, to move that many people into the small space and out again?

In a word, yes. At the nearest major road, I found buses pulling away from the curb, filled with people wear green and red ponchos and hats.

Here’s what I missed, from a photo courtesy the competent photographers of L’essentiel:

Luxembourgers clearly prefer their demonstrations “short and far between.”** From the newspapers this morning, it looks like I missed a large, colorful, and incredibly well-organized protest. Four to five thousand people, several speeches, a radical fringe, and vuvuzelas. But I saw the most remarkable feature of the event: there were hardly any stray fliers or trash. At worst, the nearest refuse bins were full.

Maybe they didn’t stick around because of the rain. It was sunny at 5:00pm (the scheduled start of the protest), but it started to rain by 7:00.

But wait, the BUSES! They planned to be out of the city center by 6:30. They could be home in time for dinner and a quiet evening, apparently the true passions of those who live and work in Luxembourg.

Clearly, I have a lot to learn here. For now, I’ll wait to see whether this mass of efficient and tidy dissidents will have any short-term impact.

What do they want? I’ll tell you in my next post, tomorrow. To the impatiently curious, have a look at the English-language news this morning.

Notes:
1. “coming a little late to the party”: The West Wing, Episode 6. Sam to C.J., explaining the census.

2. from The Grave by Robert Blair:

The good he scorn’d
Stalk’d off reluctant, like an ill-used ghost,
Not to return; or if it did, in visits
Like those of angels, short and far between.

Your great-great-great-great-great-grandfather’s Labor Day sale

Will — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 15:32:44 +0000

“The Big One-Day Retail Sale is dead.” If someone told me that, I’d find it quite plausible. Between “Low Prices All the Time” and Amazon.com, I wouldn’t expect a frugal (American) consumer to wait for a sale to purchase something. You might wait for the next generation of a gadget, or check prices all over, but to wait for a big sale with a specific date in the future?

When I see an ad for a one-day sale, I assume it’s little more than a scam to create false urgency.

Oh, there’s Black Friday, of course. (And Woot, I guess.) But even the post-holiday sales have been lackluster for years. The upcoming Labor Day sales seem more like an excuse for lazy advertising than a real chance to score a bargain.

“Not so, in Luxembourg,” I was told, by several Luxembourgers. “You must go to the Braderie on Monday. Stuff is really cheap. All the stores will have bargains.” All the stores? You mean that they cooperate and all have sales on the same day? “Yes,” they said, “It’s always the same. Go to the Ville-Haute.”

The Braderie isn’t such a bizarre idea. Say you’re a shopkeeper in the city center, selling nice women’s clothes and competing with the big box stores on the periphery. “I’ll have a sale,” you think. “I’ll put a bunch of my stock out on the sidewalk, at really good prices.”

But how to bring in the shoppers? In any given week, only a small proportion of Luxembourgers will walk past your shop. Advertising helps a little, but will people make a special trip just to see your overstock? Plus, this is Luxembourg — it will probably rain. Who would come then?

The answer: Everyone will come, if they know that every store in a walkable area will have a sale. Especially if the food shops serve inexpensive beer, champagne and sausages on the street. And if, on that day, you’re bound to encounter friends and family from all over the country, because they want high fashion and cheap food, too.

It’s just a matter of picking that day. And one day for that, in Luxembourg, is the second Monday of Schueberfouer. (It’s not the only one. There’s also New Coat Sunday.)

Fortunately, it wasn’t raining when I visited the shops of the city center this Monday. (If you’d like a multimedia experience, LesFrontaliers.lu has a video report in French.) There were thousands of people strolling among the tents on the streets. There were banks and charitable foundations and radio stations and newspaper publishers, giving away gewgaws and handing out brochures. There were lots of signs announcing markdowns of 60% and 80%. The big shops, like M&S, didn’t seem as committed to the idea, but hardly any stores appeared to be doing business as usual.

It’s a good thing, this Braderie. Sure, it’s materialistic and all that, but it’s the most civic-minded One-Day Sale I’ve ever seen.

I didn’t buy anything. I didn’t really need anything that was on sale, which was mostly women’s clothing and shoes anyway. I don’t think one goes to Braderie expecting to find something in particular, and I wasn’t in a browsing mood. But I don’t think the shopkeepers of the city center were depending on me, this Monday.

By the way, this tradition — which strongest in Lille, but also exists in Belgium and the Netherlands — is thought to originate centuries ago in the Middle Ages, naturellement.

Get ready for Schueberfouer!

Will — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 17:37:26 +0000

In just two days, Luxembourg will hold the 670th annual Schueberfouer.

Try to wrap your mind around a tradition that old. More than 30 generations.

As an ex-pat, I’m interested in looking at it from the perspective of cultural integration — or how long it takes to be considered a native. Consider the Daughters of the American Revolution, who have surely been in North America long enough to be considered well-integrated. Yet each of the white DAR members today can only trace her family’s presence in North America back through about 10 generations. So let’s say that a family that stays in the same area for 10 generations is not exactly a far-flung gypsy clan. More like local nobility — or land-bound serfs — but surely local.

Consider what that means for the Schueberfouer. A merchant at the first Schueberfouer could have migrated to Eastern Europe, founded a village there, and his family could have stayed in that village for as long as the USA has existed. Then, one of his descendants could have married a traveler and moved to Ireland. Her family could have lived in a town in Ireland for 10 generations before the upheavals of the 18th Century drove one of her descendants to the American colonies. And then one of her descendants could be a DAR member today, visiting Luxembourg during a summer trip on the family money.

The entire time, the Schueberfouer has been an annual event in roughly the same spot. (But no roller-coasters until the 20th Century, or for about one-tenth of its history.)

Anticipation is growing among the residents of Luxembourg that we know, life-long and short-term alike. Some people are looking forward to the hubbub of the outdoor beer gardens. Others, the giant Ferris wheel that takes you high above the city.

To get you ready for the Schueberfouer, we’ve posted photos from our visit to the fair last year. Enjoy the photoset, but be warned that some photos may not be safe for work (i.e. NSFW). The phrase “family fun event” means something slightly different in Luxembourg than in the US.

You know you’ve settled into Europe when…

Anita — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 08:39:34 +0000

…you are stunned each time that somebody thinks your Visa has expired because it is dated 04/09/2010.

Culture consists, in part, of the customs that you take for granted. So we know that we’re adapting to European culture (or Western European or French-inflected or whatever) when we’re surprised by how things are done in the good ole USA. Some more examples: You know you’ve settled into a European state of mind when…

You find it unspeakably rude when, at a restaurant, your server brings you the check before you ask for it.
“Of course it’s a topless beach. Why not?”
You are uncomfortable when someone takes your credit card out of your sight.
You get frustrated at having to sign a bill for small purchases with your credit card.
You are excited to find a parking space within a quarter-mile of your destination.

We think of these little differences several times a week, and we’ll post more in the future. Guests of the B&B, what seemed alien to you about daily life in Ireland and Luxembourg?

Mysteries of Europe #42: Why oh why?

Will — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 20:23:48 +0000

Anita enjoys visiting Holland, in part because many television programs are subtitled in Dutch but keep their original English audio tracks. Tonight, RTL 7‘s prime-time movie is Monster Ark, written and directed by Declan O’Brien. Here is an excerpt from a review by Gorepress that both of us enthusiastically endorse:

Monster Ark is ridiculous, but not in a good way. It is shoddily made, terribly scripted, blindly dumb and tragically dull. Even for a straight-to-TV movie it lacks depth, intelligence and charm. … It basically becomes a vomiting cliché-ticking mixture of Tomb Raider and Indiana Jones, which it shamelessly and liberally plagiarizes from. The film manages to insult anyone religious, the entire U.S. Army, all archaeologists, every pioneer of CGI and its audience’s intelligence.

(By the way, the review is worth reading on its own. Take a look when you have a moment and keep it mind that it does not exaggerate, in any way, the awfulness of this program.)

As children of the USA, both of us understand how such a movie could be made and distributed on the Scyfy channel. The mystery is how it winds up in Europe. Who paid money for this? Mind you, they are showing it after they had an opportunity to see it.

Okay, maybe it’s a freebie that was thrown in with the syndication of Firefly or the very popular Battlestar Galactica. But then why run it as a feature movie on one of the few nights this month without World Cup matches?

What makes this a Mystery of Life in Europe is that the high-profile broadcast of Monster Ark is the rule rather than the exception. Stuff like this is easy to miss in the American entertainment landscape, but here it is as unavoidable as summertime roadwork. Furthermore, many other broadcasters go through the trouble and expense of overdubbing the dialogue, which was tedious and stupid to begin with. Why oh why?

By the way, watch for Sharktopus, also directed by Declan O’Brien, in production now. I’m not kidding. Who is this guy?

Sharktopus. It will undoubtedly be a feature presentation across Western Europe by 2011.

A little history of National Day

Will — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 10:30:11 +0000

Tomorrow, June 23, is Luxembourg’s national holiday. The big party is tonight, in anticipation of the torch-parade and the fireworks display just before midnight. We had a great time last year, as we shared on this blog: Post 1, Post 2, Post 3. In preparation for National Day 2010, we offer you a bit of history, cribbed from the City of Luxembourg’s website.

Luxembourg’s national holiday began, in the 19th Century, as a celebration of the Grand Duke of Luxembourg’s birthday. From the start, however, it was rarely celebrated on the reigning monarch’s actual birthday. The current date, June 23, was fixed in a national act of pragmatism. In 1961, both Grand Duchess Charlotte and Heir Apparent Jean had January birthdays. The weather in January was sure to put a damper on any celebrations. So it was decreed that June 23 (Grand Duchess Charlotte’s half-birthday) would be the National Holiday. And so it remained, although Grand Duke Henri’s birthday is in the relatively pleasant month of April.

The day of June 23 is reserved for formal, somber ceremonies. The Grand Ducal family, government ministers, and ambassadors celebrate a Te Deum at the national cathedral, followed by a military parade.

Tonight, the Grand Duke makes his way to Luxembourg City to attend the torchlit procession (and to ignore, benevolently, the antics of his subjects).

Sneak Peek: Comparative Timeline

Will — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 19:26:50 +0000

The Bugle staff have been working on an exciting new project that will give you a new way of looking at the world.

Our guests in Ireland would sometimes visit, in the same day or two, three important Irish sites: Kilmainham Gaol (1796-1923 CE), Newgrange at Brú na Bóinne (3500-3200 BCE), and the Guinness Storehouse (2000-present).

Even the most historically aware tourists had trouble grasping the time periods involved: what was going on other places, how long monuments were originally used, and how long it took civilizations to change.

To help visualize the things we talk about on this blog (and in person at the B&B), we are proud to announce the beta version of our timeline.

It has some unusual technical requirements, so it lives on its own page. You can find it at http://bakkerbugle.com/timeline/timelineParallels.html.

Comments are warmly welcomed, and we’ll be tweaking it over the next few weeks. Also, we’d really appreciate a snappy name for the thing.

Luxembourg by the numbers: From news352.lu

Will — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 12:45:15 +0000

Anita and I stress the number of non-residents commuting into Luxembourg just about every time we talk about life in Luxembourg. To us, it seems to touch nearly every part of life here. Add to that the number of non-native residents, and you have part of what makes Luxembourg City a special place.

We’re often unclear on the numbers, particularly with respect to non-native residents. You can imagine my delight, then, when I found the following article, “Luxembourg: A City of 156 nationalities,” in 352 Luxembourg Magazine, the leading English-language weekly in Luxembourg.

The article’s origin is the multilingual news site, news352.lu. Due to their gracious permission, I will quote the entire article, which was written by Adam Walder:

There is no doubt, the capital of Luxembourg is an extremely cosmopolitan city. According to the mayor of Luxembourg the City has no fewer than 156 different nationalities. In total, foreign residents are even more than native Luxembourgers.

91,857. This is the figure released this morning, that has been doing the rounds, and a figure that Luxembourg’s mayor Paul Helminger, is particularly proud of.

This is the figure for the number of inhabitants in the capital in late 2009. A great leap forward, since the population was 89,907 in late 2008. “12,000 arrivals a year, it’s huge!” Exclaimed the delighted mayor. To this figure the internal migration must also be added to the City. 7,000 people have simply changed neighbourhoods.

“Luxembourg is a highly mobile city” continues to brag Paul Helminger which highlights the fact that in 2009 there were more births than deaths (1,099 against 635).

Many Portuguese and French

The most striking information released is the percentage of foreign residents: over 64% of the total population is of foreign nationality. Among the most represented countries are the obvious ones with 13,990 Portuguese and 12,536 French. They are mainly located in Bonnevoie or Kirchberg.

The residents of Luxembourg nationality however are much less likely to live in the capital: they represent only 35% of the total population. “We have noticed, even since 2007, that the population figure of Luxembourg nationality has increased slightly” stated Paul Helminger.

The voting problem

A big dilemma is noticed when you look at the number of residents of Luxembourg City registered to vote. There are 223 non-Luxembourgish voters less than in 2008. “This is probably due to migration movements” the mayor said adding “but an effort must be made. I can not imagine running a city with more than 60% foreigners, and they can not vote! ”

I think this is a great presentation of the numbers, and a bit of local perspective on their implications. Thanks again to Mr Walder and news352.lu for their good work.

Reference: Walder, Adam. (24 Feb 2010). Luxembourg: A City of 156 nationalities. Retrieved from http://hello.news352.lu/index.php?p=edito&id=24320

Remain calm and exit the building

Anita — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 11:00:37 +0000

I had to run an errand today at the Notary. As I was leaving the building, I found myself behaving like a student at the Midvale School for the Gifted. As I walked back to the office, it occurred to me the reason that I might have failed so spectacularly at opening a door was that the fire code in the US has building exits opening to the outside, never to the inside.

So I challenge you, Bugle Nation, to pay attention to building exits over the next few days. See if my defense of self holds true: It’s not that I’m slow, it is that I have been culturally trained to push a door open when exiting.

Happy Carnival!

Will — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 20:17:05 +0000

For the season before Lent, Luxembourg doesn’t have some of the charming and/or citrusy traditions of its neighbors. It does have a carnival procession and party in a small city, Diekirch, known as the Cavalcade.

We’d like to share some of our photos and a few observations. Hopefully, we’ll be able to give it the full Bugle treatment before long!

The first sign that we’d arrived in Diekirch were pedestrians in coordinated costumes. But the parade’s been underway for an hour… hey, guys, hurry up!

We found the parade route with no problem. Our first sight was a marching band. Okay, looks good.

The first float featured a homemade confetti shooter. Nicely done, gentlemen. We would learn that confetti is one of the pillars of the Diekirch Cavalcade.

I shouted, “Anita, look! It’s Obelix and Asterix!” She broke my heart this Valentine’s Day by responding, “Who?”

I can’t read it, but I’m pretty sure this group had something to say about the plans to close the Diekirch brewery.

Now you’re seeing more of the spirit of the Cavalcade.

Most floats focused on one clear joke or commentary on recent events. Voici, the swine-flu pandemic.

From what we could tell, every float must be (1) pulled by a large farm tractor, and (2) equipped with a keg.

The evidence points to this: each and every DJ residing within 20km of Diekirch is compelled to lend sound equipment to a float, and serve as keg-master during the Cavalcade.

One great feature of the Cavalcade is that about half the spectators are dressed in crazy costumes.

Maybe the culture gap is much wider than I thought, but it looked to me like the dominant theme of the spectators’ costumes was, “Well, this looks bizarre and make no sense at all. I am fabulous!”

The donkey is the mascot of the city of Diekirch, so gussied-up donkeys figured prominently in many floats.

Really, there’s not much more to say, but plenty to see. We’ll work on a more thorough report when the sun stops shining here.

How French is like golf, to me

Will — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 14:24:13 +0000

I pray your indulgence as I attempt to articulate my present stage in learning French.

I came to Luxembourg with a dim memory of taking advanced French in high-school, and a few hours of practice during trips to Paris and Nice. It wasn’t long before I was reading signs and speaking easily with shopkeepers. (Lest I forget: There were a few incidents where I asked Anita to ask a question in English due to my fear of stumbling through a conversation in French.)

Now, when I want to express myself in French, I can find most of the words I need without effort. I don’t compose a sentence in English in my mind and then translate it into French. Occasionally, I struggle to find the word I want, especially for abstract ideas. According to most metrics, I’m an independent speaker (with working proficiency, i.e. probably B1 per CEFR).

And I’m not counting unusual or technical terms, even ones that French children would know. For example, I recently went looking to buy a coat-stand. So, I looked up the word before I set out. As it turned out, the stores don’t use the term I learned: they were labeled portemanteau rather than cintre. (Fans of English etymology should find that pretty funny.)

I don’t know the precise words for animals, types of trucks, or other things that a young child would probably learn from picture-books.

Here’s the challenge at hand: I make grammatical errors frequently. When I want to speak French well, it feels like there are dozens of rules to keep straight. Those rules seem like obstacles to expressing myself.

Here’s where golf comes in. In terms of how it feels, it is very close to the way that I feel when I stand before a golf ball when playing with in a foursome much better than myself. I need to do so many things right — and remind myself to do them right — in order to hit the ball well.

keep your wrists straight
swing smoothly
don’t reach with your hands
don’t lift your head
and so on

And when I swing, I fail to do one or two of those things. That’s the nature of the game.

Right now, speaking French feels like swinging a golf club. In each sentence (of some complexity), there are so many little rules (and exceptions) that may or may not apply. I know those rules and exceptions pretty well. When writing French (slowly), I can apply them with few errors.

But when I’m just trying to tell a story, those rules are like good advice for my golf swing: they don’t come all together and I make a mistake. A mistake that, strictly speaking, I “know better” than to make.

There are several techniques for getting over this hump in learning French. It won’t be easy.

What’s tempting is to adopt my attitude to golf. Years ago, I decided that I didn’t want to spend the time and money to become a golf enthusiast. I could see the pleasure in swinging the club well more frequently, but I could also see how much effort it would take to get to that point.

So I stopped at a different level: the point at which I could strike the ball — with irons but not woods — well enough to keep from being an annoying companion to better golfers.

In general, I hit the ball straight, so there’s rarely a need to search for my ball in the rough. In general, I hit the ball a distance which is unimpressive but not pitiful. (Well, nearly pitiful, given my frame.) As long as I don’t touch my woods, I don’t get too frustrated. (With the usual exception of one or two nightmarish holes per eighteen — I am human, after all.)

I feel like I am at the analogous point in my knowledge of French at this point. I can tell a story in French, and get the point across. I commit many grammatical errors that make me sound a bit stupid. Occasionally, I make errors that render a sentence unclear to the listener. My interlocutor needs to speak slowly for me. I ask for clarification from time to time, when a fluent person would not need to.

It’s tempting to declare victory and quit the field. I don’t think I will, because this is a great opportunity since, unlike golf, I have the time and resources to do it right. But it is tempting to move on to something new — something fascinating and probably easier.

European History 101, painlessly

Will — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 15:17:44 +0000

Was your New Year’s Resolution to become familiar with European history? If so, you’re going to love our recommendation for an entertaining way to survey European history from the French Revolution to the present day. If you have a long commute, you’ll especially like the medium: hour-long audio tracks, produced by a history professor. But it is certainly not a dry lecture series.

At Bethel University, history professor Chris Gehrz produced a podcast called Radio Modern Europe for his course, HIS354 Modern Europe. The format is clever, using multiple means of presenting the material: short lectures, of course, but also breaking news bits, simulated interviews with historical figures, and even recipes.

The easiest way to access Gehrz’s podcasts is through iTunes, by looking up “Modern Europe History” in the iTunes U section of the iTunes Store and finding the Bethel University option. (Or simply clicking here, which hopefully will launch iTunes and send it directly to the correct place.) Don’t worry, the series doesn’t cost anything: Just click on “Subscribe” or “Get Tracks”.

If you don’t want to use iTunes, you may be able to get the tracks from a sort of RSS feed, linked here. But using that link may take some hacking around.

I just finished the third of 11 tracks, “Liberalism and Socialism”, so I can’t write a proper review of the entire series. But it’s good enough to recommend that you follow along with me. Gehrz presents what I would consider the mainstream version of European history. That’s no defect in the podcast, given its assumption that the listener knows little about Europe. (And I should mention that the audio tracks are not the only source of information for the intended audience: students who spend much more time on a full college course.) A novice like myself should start with the orthodox view, after all.

In some sections, Gehrz refers to slideshow presentations available through Blackboard, which is a kind of private Lotus Notes (or bulletin board) for colleges. It’s too bad we can’t follow along with his students, but the podcast lessons work pretty well by themselves, if you’d just like an idea of how Europe became the place we know today.