Our apartment is near a church (in Europe????  Weird, right??) and the church bells sound every 1/2 hour…except at 7a M-Sa and 9a Su when they ring-the-phuq-forever!!!  I count things…it’s an OCD thing…up stairs – must count…down stairs – must count even if they are the same stairs I use 20 times a day.  Apparently, I do this in my sleep as well b/c at 7a every morning I wake up at about 38-42…rings…and IT KEEPS RINGING!!!  There is no melody to the bells, they just ring.  I call it 100-o-clock…

Rewind a bit…we didn’t go to FAUST on Sunday night as planned.  Robert read the reviews and they were HORRIBLE!!!  We went to see EUGENE ONEGIN instead.  I enjoyed it.  The stage was a shallow 4′-ish deep and crammed with furniture!  There were 5 distinct rooms that morphed into each other.  The performers entered in street clothes and the story was performed in a narrator style.  I’m not familiar with the original text/story so I’m not sure of the style of the piece but the performers didn’t say “lines,” instead it was monologues to the audience.  It was in German so I have no idea what they were really talking about but the story in my head was great!  About 40 minutes into it, Eugene began putting on make up…and then the most amazing period costume(!!!!!!!) period fasteners!!!  A dresser had to come onstage to help him.  It was magnificent.  Each performer put on a period costume, one of the characters was Alexander Pushkin, the author.  There wasn’t a lot of movement so it made sense to have the shallow stage.  There were sooooo many old books!!!  And they threw them on the floor.  Aaaaagh!

Monday we tried to go to 3 different museums…but they were closed.  We ended up at the Bauhaus museum.  Soooo wonderful!  There was only 1 Kandinsky but it was very interesting to listen to the audio tour.  …no photos… Monday night was Robert Wilson’s show.  I guess it was only performed the 1 time and put together for THAT space.  After having my ears raped for what seemed like 3 days (screechy white noise-y thing…) RW started reading the Lecture on Nothing text by John Cage.  It was…about nothing and kinda awesome!  I don’t remember the lines specifically…even though they were repeated pretty much for an hour but it was basically (or what *I* took from it) enjoy the moment and be IN it.

Yesterday we went to the Museum of Photography.  The exhibit was Vogue covers…and most things Conde Naste’.  FABULOUS!!!  …no photos again…and the catalog was 60Euros and about 80lbs!  Bummer because there were some amazing photos I will now have to prowl for.  We saw Minna Von Barnhelm last night.  It was a comedy at a children’t theater.  It was silly and fun with a song about pickled eggs…which were offered to the audience.

Today it is raining.  My computer works (YEAH!!!!) and just because it is 9/5 here…it’s not the right 9/5 in NY for NYU to post their 2013 application.  Yes, I have no patience.  Pictures will come soon…need to TCB first!