8 October

For a full list of all trip photos, click here. For more on the technical specs behind these photos, click here. For the text entry that accompanies these photos, click here.

Panoramic shot! The morning of the 8th found me visiting the new campus of Frankfurt University, housed in a gigantic single building that has its own interesting history: originally designed in the Bauhaus era, it became a favorite of Hitler's and a main Nazi headquarters for western Germany; then Eisenhower liked it so much that he ordered it not to be bombed, so that he could use it for the Occupying Army headquarters. Spend five seconds in the lobby and you suddenly understand why Hitler liked it so much; jeez, you can practically hear the Wagner opera when you're standing there. This photo gives you a little idea, but it's hard to express the cold grandeur you experience in the building through words and images alone. (Click on the photo or here for the full-sized [800-pixel] version; or here for a special page displaying just the panoramic shots I took during my trip.)

Next three photos: the last working antique automated elevator in Germany, or so the rumor goes. The thing is crazy, man! It's like a waterwheel at a mill, except designed for humans; little empty box after little empty box, continually churning in a circle behind the wall, and you simply jump in one when you need to go up or down the building. Perhaps the scariest working modern contraption with which I have ever interacted.

The student cafe, overlooking the back campus.

Here and below: from the outside, looking first at the back building (which was a high-class casino when the Occupying Army was headquartered here), then below a little wider shot of the main building. Imagine moving the entire University of Illinois (or any other large state university) into one single enclosed building; that starts to give you an idea of how big this complex is.

The outside of Cafe Albatros, in the delightful Bockenheim district, where Sonja and I had coffee and shot the shit all afternoon.

A display for Clinton's new autobiography that made me chuckle.

By the way, you don't have to go all the way to Amsterdam to find trouble; prostitution is legal in Germany, too, although usually confined to one physical location in the city, almost always found next to the Hauptbahnhof (main train station). This being Frankfurt, of course, they couldn't have a red-light district without it too looking corporate and very much like a bank. There is a big push in Frankfurt right now for everything to be BIG! and MODERN! and VERY IMPORTANT!, because so much of the country's entire banking system is located in this one town, and there is so much money and so many good ideas flowing back and forth here. Actual Frankfurters have a weird set of emotions concerning this reputation, a sort of mixture of sadness and pride; it is, of course, ridiculed by other German cities, which is what's made the town earn the nicknames "Bankfurt" and "Krankfurt."

Next two photos: me and my 'dark kid' (Goth) friend, Alamar, von Giessen, who saved my ass last year after my little disaster in Berlin. (Read Das Ist Kool for more.) Alamar's classes were let out early that day, and he's only an hour from Frankfurt by train, so he decided to come in and check out my performance again at the Frankfurt poetry slam, which he did last year as well. And since my performances are always so crazy, I suggested we get together a couple of hours beforehand and get caught up. So this is us, doing that (and a little more drinking than I think either of us were expecting, too).

Warning! Crazy German toilet ahead! This bar must've been an old truckstop or something, man, because they had the most insane bathroom, including a working shower in the toilet stall, and this thing you see in the picture: when you flush, the toilet rim actually raises a few inches and mechanically makes a full 360-degree turn. Meanwhile a little automatic faucet comes out and sprays a hard stream of water over the rim as it spins in a circle underneath it. Jesus! Alamar and I became obsessed with the toilet the more we drank, by the end we were popping in every ten minutes just to watch it flush again.

Here and below: German graffiti! Who knows what it says? It just looks so damn cool.

BCN Cafe, home of the Frankfurt poetry slam. This is a student cafe, owned by a local "trade school," whose classes are in a low-rise office building. The students have taken one of these offices and through a series of inexpensive additions (like scarves, Christmas lights and used furniture) have turned it into a legitimately cool, urban, laid-back and comfortable cafe/bar/performance space. Jeez, you should see how many people they pack in there for the slam - 150, 200 easily (but don't forget they only hold them once a month there, versus once a week in America). Unfortunately it was too dark for my little cellphone/mobile/Handy camera to get decent pictures; I thiink Dirk took some, though, with his real camera, so maybe I'll be able to get him to send some scans to me in the future.

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