Kaufhaus Mendel

Kaufhaus Mendel

Originally uploaded by kilgorebrian13

This is a large old house in the middle of town. It’s empty and I think it is or soon will be for sale. If I had the money, I would love to renovate it, and would live there, even though it is on the main street through town.

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Die Kuhzunge

Die Kuhzunge

Originally uploaded by kilgorebrian13

The “kuhzunge” is not well known outside of Baden-Württemberg. An ancient musical instrument made from a hollowed out and blackened cow’s tongue, it is played using a combination of squeezing and strumming.

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Compare

Here are the two versions of “GLORIA.” I straightened the original and then used the “faintlavender” filter from optikVerve Labs Virtual Photographer add in to Adobe Elements. Nothing else was needed (in my opinion) to make this photo a little more interesting.

Unedited original

Edited Version

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GLORIA

GLORIA

Originally uploaded by kilgorebrian13

This building is at the end of Koenigstrasse, as it comes out onto the Schlossplatz. The original photo was in color, but I like this version better.

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Marktplatz 1

No. 973

Originally uploaded by kilgorebrian13

A roof top display at the Stuttgarter Weihnachtsmarkt with the Rathaus in the background. This is a real Christmas display with a real building in the background. I played with the original some to get this unreal effect.

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Just Don’t Drink the Cola

Beta vulgaris L.

This is a pile of sugar beets. You see these piles in the corner of many fields this time of year. Second to carbonated water, sugar is the most important ingredient in soft drinks. There is a Coca-Cola factory here in Knetzgau. The factory is a major employer in the area. I suppose a lot of the beets grown around here are destined to end up in a bottle. Cans are not very environmentally friendly and unpopular in Germany for this reason.

Monsanto, one of the world’s leading evils, has genetically modified the lowly sugar beet to be resistant Roundup which, like Agent Orange, is a herbicide. Now growers can plant the beets, spray the s*** out of the fields with Roundup, and harvest the only thing that remains. Kind of a “last man standing” method of farming.

Sugar from the biotechnology-enhanced sugar beet has been approved for human and animal consumption in the European Union. On September 21, 2009, a federal court ruled that the USDA had violated federal law in deregulating Roundup Ready sugar beets without adequately evaluating the environmental and socio-economic impacts of allowing commercial production, and will be considering an appropriate injunction.

How could the EU approve use of this genetically modified sugar source when even the business friendly U.S. courts have found inadequate evaluation of the impact this product can have on the environment and the population? Beets me.

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Foggy Day

Baum u. Bank

Originally uploaded by kilgorebrian13

Fog gives a quality to the available light that can’t be duplicated. Today, the fog never lifted, though it threatened to several times. While set up with camera and tripod waiting for the fog to clear, a woman out walking her dog stopped to chat. She said if I was interested in landscapes, I should walk toward Zell a. E., a nearby town. I took her advise, and made this picture on the way.

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August II der Starke / Elector of Saxony

August II der Starke

Originally uploaded by kilgorebrian13

Also known as Augustus II, by the grace of God, King of Poland, Grand Duke of Lithuania, Ruthenia, Prussia, Masovia, Samogitia, Livonia, Kiev, Volhynia, Podolia, Smolensk, Severia and Chernihiv, and Hereditary Duke and Prince-Elector of Saxony, etc.

As Elector of Saxony, he is perhaps best remembered as a patron of the arts and architecture. He established the Saxon capital of Dresden as a major cultural centre, attracting artists and musicians from across Europe to his court. Augustus also amassed an impressive art collection and built fantastic baroque palaces at Dresden and Warsaw.

He was also King of Poland. Twice.

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Wicce

From Wikipidia

Belief in witchcraft, and by consequence witch-hunts, is found in many cultures worldwide, today mostly in Sub-Saharan Africa (e.g. in the witch smellers in Bantu culture), and historically notably in Early Modern Europe of the 14th to 18th century, where witchcraft came to be seen as a vast diabolical conspiracy against Christianity, and accusations of witchcraft led to large-scale witch-hunts, especially in Germanic Europe.

I don’t believe in witchcraft or any other such nonsense. But if I did believe and went out on a witch-hunt, I would probably tag this one.

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