the world has turned and left me here

Stuttgart

Went to Stuttgart today. It's industrial and isn't really a tourist attraction. Ugly and alive, a hog-butcher-of-the-world kind of place, but I still managed to extract a bit of the aesthetic. The Staatsgallerie had a big Manet exhibition--the largest ever to come to Germany--and this was worth it. Or even a single moment like the following can make a day worthwhile.

On the train there I was looking out the window, listening to Rachmaninoff, and saw the first bit of blue sky I had seen in a week. I do not know what Munich has done to deserve this day-in, day-out blanket grayness, but it distinctly belongs to Munich, since every time I leave Munich I seem to return to the world of blue skies. This last week I worked on redesigning my home page, and realized only after I was finished that my color scheme was all gray--no color--just like the world around me.

I have nothing to drink or eat around here. Just one egg. (You know you need to go buy groceries when...)