Vintage postcard: Hotel Europa in Salzburg, Austria

This postcard of Hotel Europa in Salzburg, Austria, has this publisher information printed vertically on the back: "Cosy-Verlag, Alfred Gründler, Salzburg, Getreidegasse Nr, 22".

Getreidegasse is, per Wikipedia, "a busy shopping street in the historic Altstadt (Old Town) of Salzburg, Austria, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1996. It is known for the birthplace of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart at No. 9, where he lived until the age of 17. The narrow street is characterised by numerous high townhouses side by side with its wrought iron guild signs."

"Echte Photographie" is also printed on the back. As I discovered from a 2003 message board post, "'Echte Photographie' is not a company but sort of a quality standard. As you may know it translates as 'real photographic picture'. It just means it was done on photographic paper, not printed by a printing machine."

In other words, this is a real photo postcard (RPPC), of which we've had many on Papergreat.

This postcard was never mailed. Among the words printed in the stamp box are Portoverbilligt, a German word that translates to "reduced postage" or "cheap postage."

Finally, the following was written in cursive on the back by either my great-grandmother or my grandmother (if I had to guess, I'd tentatively say my great-grandmother):

July 30, 1963

Stayed at this hotel in Salzburg

So that's what one of my ancestors was doing 58 years ago this month, whilst I dodge 115° F temperatures, haboobs and wildfires here in Arizona in 2021.

As for Hotel Europa: It was built in 1957 to replace the Grand Hotel de l'Europe, which had been irreparably damaged in World War II. It was the first high-rise building in Salzburg and, over the decades, went from being a sign of modernity to being considered a "blotch" on the skyline of the historic city. It was refurbished and received a new facade in 1999. Today, it's still a highly-rated hotel. Its website states:

"In the Panorama Restaurant on the 15th floor, a feast for the eyes awaits you – take in unbeatable views of the old town while treating yourself to our culinary highlights. You’ll soon see that life at the Hotel Europa Salzburg is a dream come true."

Book cover: "The Unofficial Countryside"

• Title: The Unofficial Countryside
• Author: Richard Mabey (1941-present)
• Jacket design: Denys Ovenden (1922-2019)
• Publisher: Collins
• Year: 1974 reprint (first published 1973)
• Pages: 157
• Format: Hardcover 
• Price: There's an oval golden sticker affixed to the bottom of the inside front flap of the dust jacket. It states "$7.95" and "CHAS. SCRIBNER'S SONS"
• Provenance: Purchased from BetweenTheCovers.com. (I think I first read about Mabey's writing in an issue of Weird Walk or a similar contemporary zine, but now I can't find the reference.)
• Excerpt from dust jacket: "Like his very successful Food for Free, Richard Mabey's new book is one that teaches us to look and to enjoy. His subject here is the natural history of city and suburbia, of all places where town meets country, where nature adapts itself to man's interference. It is the world of docks, reservoirs and canals; of roads and railways, bomb-sites and building sites and waste ground; allotments and gardens, rubbish tips, factory walls and all the odd corners of industrial Britain."
• Dedication: "In memory of Kenneth Allsop, passionate defender of all our green places, without whose inspiration and encouragement this book would not have been written."
• First sentence: Experiences have a way of staying naggingly out of focus until after you have been through them.
• Last sentence: This most delicate of flowers, hounded by new roads and car-borne trippers, had found refuge amongst the clutter, and was having its revenge.
• Random sentence from middle #1: It is amazing how romantic these pockets of ragamuffin greenery can begin to seem, nestling, like Frances Burnett's Secret Garden, behind the factory walls.
• Random sentence from middle #2: I would wager that half our popular names for plants originated out of the imaginations of children.
• Rating on Goodreads: 4.08 stars (out of 5)
• Goodreads review excerpt #1: In 2017, Tim Pendry wrote: "Nearly half a century old, this fairly short but readable book captures the natural condition of the urban environment at that moment in the 1970s when a decaying industrial modernity was about to give way to environmentalism and a service economy.
• Goodreads review excerpt #2: In 2018, Tom Jonesman wrote: "Undoubtedly one of those books that makes you look at the world differently."
• Rating on Amazon: 4.8 stars (out of 5)
• Amazon review excerpt: In 2014, "Dormouse of the north" wrote: "The author has just the easiest, most effortless writing style, and I shall be seeking out more of his work. I love this book so much I want EVERYONE to know about it. And that is the highest praise I can offer."

Listen to the children and the science: Get vaccinated

 Just feeling like sharing these today.

Frédérique Boeck

Le Prélude, Ottawa

Immunize Canada's National Immunization Poster Contest (2018)

Siarra Anderson

Blessed Sacrament School, Wainwright

Immunize Canada's National Immunization Poster Contest (2018)

Jersey Chan

Holy Ghost School, Winnipeg

Immunize Canada's National Immunization Poster Contest (2018)

"Whispers of Transylvania" photo postcards

A few years ago I acquired some postcards from a set titled "Whispers of Transylvania" (Romanian: Șoapte din Transilvania). Many of the cards were not in great shape; they had worn corners, moderate scuffing and, in the worst cases, water damage. 

But they're still fascinating postcards and unlike much else that I've come across. On the fronts are sepia photos affixed to black card stock. Also on the fronts are Romanian verses in shiny, hard-to-read lettering and a logo (Suflet Romănesc). There was an attempt to create high-end postcards; these must have been expensive to produce. 

The beautiful photographs show farm and folk life in Transylvania. There are old buildings, misty fields, laborers, haystacks, a cemetery and children in traditional costumes. The idea that we're glimpsing a centuries-old culture that hasn't been touched much by the modern world is well-conveyed.

All of the photographs are credited to Andrei Posmoșanu, whose work I've also found online at BeyondDracula.com and on the Bradshaw Foundation website.

On the reverse side of the postcards, there are short, English-language poems. These are translations of the Romanian verses that appears on the front of the postcard. For example, the poem for the card at the top of this post reads:

When I lose myself in sunny dreams

When I slide into oblivion's streams

The world is large, the world is near

I linger and hide and never fear

And silently lurk at the forest's deer.

And the poem for the haystack postcard below reads:

But there comes a day to reach the sky

Through sun, and rain, and cold so dry

To see horizons and days long gone

To see what's done and still undone.

I didn't say they were good poems. One wonders which came first: The rhyming English versions, or the Romanian versions, which were perhaps translated liberally, with an eye toward simple, appealing language? One also worries for the deer in the forest.

The reverse side of the postcards also features a circular logo for Traditie Vie (Living Tradition) and a "Born in Transylvania" logo. And then there are two URLs: www.traditievie.ro and www.bornintransylvania.ro. As of this post's publication date, the first URL is a dead link and the second URL takes you to a page that states only: :) Coming Soon  

This further supports my suspicion that this was a fledgling project in which the costs got out of hand, production was halted and the business went under. That's a shame, because there are some really nice intentions here, and wonderful photography.

Here are some of the other cards from the series. (And, again, they're not in mint condition.)

Imaginative, but not what I mean by "walkable city"

This magazine illustration by Ohio-born artist and political cartoonist Grant E. Hamilton (1862-1926) is titled "What we are coming to." It was published in the February 16, 1895, issue of Judge magazine.

If you are more enamored than I am with the idea of vertical cities, check out VerticalCity.org, this article on WRNS Studio, this 2017 blog post on misfits' architecture, and a 2018 UnHerd article by Peter Franklin titled "The false promise of the vertical city." 

(And, to be clear, I'm all for future cities that are sustainable and eco-friendly, in addition to be walkable. And I understand that some aspects of such cities might necessarily involve some level of verticality. I'm just a big fan of having my feet on the ground.)

Monsieur Cinéma card for "Godspell"

We recently watched a gorgeous Blu-ray version of 1973's Godspell, so now seems like a good time to post this Monsieur Cinéma collector's card for the film.¹

The card measures about 5 inches by 8 inches. The French text on the back lists the main credits, actors, summary and a short history of the film. The Des Fiches de Monsieur Cinéma cards have been published since 1976 and new ones are still being produced, at a rate of three dozen a month. According to a translated version of its website, more than 17,000 cards have been produced since 1976. Not all cards are for films; some are for actors and directors. (The only other card I have is the one for Punch-Drunk Love.) The translation also notes that the series was created by Pierre Tchernia ("Monsieur Cinéma") and is written by 28 specialists.

My history with Godspell dates to the late 1970s, when I remember watching it on TV in Clayton, New Jersey, and not fully understanding it. I have a recollection of singing "Day by Day" in middle school chorus, but now I'm wondering if that's a false memory, or if I've conflated it with something else (Barry Manilow's "Daybreak," which we definitely sang?) I mean, "Day by Day" is pretty short for a musical selection and, furthermore, it doesn't seem to adhere to the desired separation of church and state we'd prefer to see in public schools (though in my case we're talking rural Pennsylvania in the early 1980s).

Other than being a quality musical, Godspell also now serves as an amazing time capsule of what New York City looked like in the early 1970s (and without people other than the cast members in most shots!). That includes scenes showing — and shots taken atop — the World Trade Center.

In a 2006 article for The Washington Post, Jonathan Padget writes: "[In] the especially breathtaking moment ... the performers give up the streets for rooftops, ultimately singing and dancing their hearts out atop the unfinished World Trade Center. It's a scene punctuated with dramatic aerial camerawork that pulls away from the cast until the twin towers stand in full view, proudly staking their brash, fresh claim on the Manhattan skyline."

My favorite bit of Godspell movie trivia is that Victor Garber, who plays Jesus, started his association with Godspell in the 1972 Toronto production alongside a group of unknown young actors who were just starting their own careers: Gilda Radner, Eugene Levy, Martin Short, Andrea Martin and (joining the cast later) Dave Thomas. And the show's musical director was Paul Shaffer!

Footnote 

1. Last three films watched: Godspell, Phantom Thread, Kagemusha.

Lost Corners: "SPACE WANTS TO KILL YOU"

Author Sim Kern is far more notable than I or this blog will ever be, and doesn't need my amplification, but I still wish to save a recent brilliant Twitter thread (rated PG-13) they wrote for posterity.¹ The author of 2020's Depart, Depart! wrote about the billionaires jostling to get themselves into space, and why that aspect of the "space race," particularly in this precarious moment for Earth, is so very wrong:

"If any of you are under the impression that our billionaires might succeed in 'escaping' to space, while the world burns, let me put those fears to rest with what I know from being the spouse of a NASA flight controller. For a half-dozen people to exist up on the ISS, it takes a ground team of thousands of people, constantly problem-solving how to keep them alive. Their quality of life is bouncing around in a narrow tube with the same 5 people who can't really bathe for months. Every minute of their day is micromanaged so they can survive. They follow strict exercise regimens to keep their bones from turning to goo. They spend a ton of time studying systems and conducting repairs on equipment that's continually breaking because SPACE WANTS TO KILL YOU

"Their sleeping situation is akin to a floating coffin. Their pooping situation is a 20-something-step process in a port-o-potty where everything FLOATS and the door is a plastic curtain. The wifi cuts out at regular intervals. The food is NOT michelin starred, to say the least. The only reason they're alive up there at all is because multiple countries have thousands of brilliant, highly-trained engineers and doctors and astrophysicists and computer experts whose full-time job is keeping the astronauts alive and the ISS functioning. When something breaks, as it continually does, these teams SCRAMBLE to devise fixes and solutions. And these fixes, lemme tell ya, they are tedious. This year, working from home, I have seen the schematics and overheard bits of meetings, and oh my GOD is it tedious. And the spacewalks where they go out to repair these broken things? It takes dozens of hours of study to do each one. And then it's maybe four, six hours in a suit, with stiff, bulky gloves, all 'Drive bolt 7A into dock 31X' until their fingers are shaking with exhaustion. 

"So there's no future where Bezos and Branson are sipping champagne next to their space-pool on Low-Earth Maralago, ok? There's no way life in space could be remotely comfortable or preferable to life on earth in their lifetimes, or for many generations to come, or probably ever. The longest anyone's lived in space was Scott Kelly, who spent a year in space, got home, and immediately retired.² He'd spent all his life preparing and training to be in space, and found it extremely physically and psychologically grueling to up there for just one year. So this billionaire 'space race' is nothing more than a dick-measuring contest between Musk, Bezos, and Branson. They are not investing billions to forward science or the bounds of human possibility. They are doing it to be the first rich guy to bounce around uselessly up there.

"And it's utterly despicable when you understand that they're funding it with the hoarded wealth of workers who are struggling just to exist. With ill-gotten money made from supply chains that enslave people and are destroying the future possibility of life on earth. But if it troubles you that they might SUCCEED, that those three assholes might ever spend more than a week in space and ENJOY it, let me put your mind at ease. Not in this lifetime. With all their billions, they have no power to make space a better place to be than earth. I don't know if they realize the futility, if they're AWARE that this whole space race is just a pissing contest to see who can get to zero-G fastest? Or if being a billionaire makes you so delusional that they really think they can buy a Mars colony in their lifetimes. IDK

"Join me in enjoying the fact that they won't find anything up there but a lot of time to sit with the gaping void inside them, which space certainly won't fill, while forcibly holding their asscheeks to a suctioning toilet seat, bc they're constipated as hell from astronaut food. The world is burning³, and our billionaires are the people MOST responsible, but at least there's no escape for them. They will live and die (alone, like all of us) on this beautiful, precious, one-in-a-gazillion planet. We should take our wealth back from them and use it better."

Footnotes

1. Kern's Twitter profile (on 7/6/2021): "Climate fiction writer, enviro journalist w/ @onebreathHOU lefty, Jewish, #FreePalestine, trans, they/them. Rep’d @litagentmariah Links: http://linktr.ee/SimKern"

2. For clarity, it should be noted that Scott Kelly has only lived in space the longest of any American on a single spaceflight (340.4 days). That ties him with Russia's Mikhail Kornienko for fourth on the list of the longest human spaceflights, as of this year. Three Russian or Soviet Union astronauts are ahead of Kelly and Kornienko on the list. Furthermore, Kelly is only 22nd on the list of the most cumulative time spent in space; Americans Peggy Whitson and Jeffrey Williams are ahead of him on that list.

3. I can confirm this. I live within sight of the smoke from the Telegraph Fire. And yesterday we drove past the harrowing Tiger Fire.

Postcrossing arrivals featuring cats and books

A pair of cheery Postcrossing arrivals in recent days have featured the always-winning combination of cats and books. First up (above) is this wonderful Rudi Hurzlmeier illustration of two cats reading. It was sent by Birgit in the Netherlands, who writes: "When I have a book & a cat I'm quite good at staying in a room for quite a while — but I must confess that eventually I do feel the need to go out a bit, & I'm happy out lockdown is over now." I agree, though the temperature is 107° F here in Arizona today, so I don't have a tremendous longing to spend much time outside.

The second postcard is from Alexandra, who live in Chartres, France. The postcard showcases a bookstore in Toronto, Canada, called Acadia Art and Rare Books. The black cat on the postcard is Frodo, Acadia's bookstore cat. I think Frodo looks a lot like our Mr. Bill (below), who is doing better this evening after a harrowing trip to the veterinarian this morning.