Recent photos and videos…
Hello again, everyone. Here I am posting some photos from the last week or so. To begin with, here is the impressive steeple atop St. Peter's church. The structure dates back to the early 1200s, though it has suffered a lot of damage throughout the centuries, mostly as the result of wars. Most recently the church was heavily damaged during WWII, and thus the current steeple you are seeing was (re)built in the late 1960s. And in case you are wondering, that is a golden rooster on top.
Some people probably think that there are not enough "people pictures" on our blog (I am not a fan of being in people pictures). So, in order to please that crowd, here is a picture of the two of us prior to our night at the concert hall.
Here is the Large Guild Hall, where we attended a performance of Beethoven's Third Symphony. I don't know too much about this particular building, other than that it dates back to the 1850s, and was originally used by a number of Latvian guilds (hence the name).
The view of the city square next to the guild hall. There are a number of these squares around Old Riga, but this is perhaps my favorite.
And speaking of favorites, here is one of my favorite buildings in Riga. Actually, I'm quite jealous of Brittney because she got the chance to go inside (she reports that it is very nice inside as well--she didn't have the camera) when she attended a monthly meeting of the NGO, Health Projects for Latvia.
Just take a look at the detail work on the building. All of the bodies and faces are incredible.
One more view...This region of Riga has so many breathtaking buildings that the entire area has been recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage site.
From the previous building, this one is about a 20 minute walk to the southeast. As the flag on the right suggests, the building currently houses the Italian embassy. There are a lot of things to like about this structure, but I particularly like the balcony and the statues underneath it.
But best of all is what's on top. I especially like looking at this building during the midday, when the sun shines through the globe.
Finally, here are some videos. I’ve been meaning to post them for some time, but simply never got around to signing up for a Youtube account. Thus, a few of them are from previous months, but I hope you will enjoy them nonetheless. The first video is from the Christmas Market. The next one was taken at the seaside in late February, when the Baltic Sea looked like the North Pole. The last video, then, is from just a couple of days ago, when Brittney and I went with Valters to a hockey game. Latvians are crazy about hockey, and since Latvia was playing Kazakhstan (Latvia won quite easily) in the under 18 world championship tournament, he invited us to join him. And just to let you know in advance, yes, that kid screaming in the video did so for most of the game. I guess he must be quite passionate about hockey. **Oh, one last thing, for those of you who have slower internet connections or older computers, you might want to hit play and then hit pause right away in order to let the video fully load before you watch it, otherwise the video might not play smoothly. Enjoy!
a bit more on culture…
Hello, everyone. Since Jony left a very thought-provoking response to my last post, I thought would answer her via a new blog post, so that everyone can read my more fully explained definition of culture. ~Thanks again, Jony, for your post. I look forward to discussing this again over a glass of wine. Here, now, is my response:
Hi, Jony. Thanks for your response. I enjoyed reading it. However, in doing so, I see that we have two slightly different definitions or concepts of “culture.” So allow me to clarify. My definition of culture is one premised upon the ideals of the Enlightenment, particularly that of die Auflklärer, or the thinkers of the German Enlightenment. Specifically, I have always thought that Immanuel Kant was right on in saying that the purpose and goal of becoming “enlightened” is to reach the point of Unabhängigkeit, a word that is not fully translatable, but which means something, collectively, like moving beyond the stage of self-suppressing immaturity to one of full consciousness. Perhaps here I should also explain that many of the German philosophers believed that the difference between man and animal is that the former has a soul which provides a sense of consciousness by causing man to ponder the question of existence. In other words, unlike an animal, which just is (or so they theorized), man asks the question: What does it mean “to be” (the German verb sein)? So, by full consciousness, then, Kant and others meant that once a person reaches Unabhängigkeit through education, or what the Germans termed Bildung, or self-cultivation, then he or she would finally truly understand the meaning existence, which, they believed, could never be understood on the individual level, but rather only through the full understanding of one’s place in Humanity (I capitalize humanity here because in many ways their notion of humanity takes on a quasi-religious tone, almost as if Humanity replaces God as the source of all power and understanding). Coming full circle, then, “culture” should be understood as the mediums through which man practices self-cultivation (education, the arts, connecting with nature, etc.), or through which his sense of consciousness, i.e., his place within humanity, is honed. Thus, it seems that you have touched on a key point by saying that American culture is not pretty or romantic, for according to this theory of culture, social practices cannot be considered true “culture” unless they are indeed somehow pretty and romantic in the sense that they touch the soul. Put another way, in this meaning, culture (e.g. Beethoven’s Ninth, Goethe’s Faust, Jugendstil architecture, etc.) is the combined social and societal manifestations of individuals’ recognition of their collective existence, and an optimistic statement that through this recognition mankind can perfect itself.
To relate all of this to your examples, then, I would say that they are different from the kind of culture I am talking about because they do not emphasize full human consciousness (e.g.: Perhaps some poor kid from rural Appalachia “volunteers” for the armed forces because he sees it as his best hope for individual financial improvement.), nor do they embrace the narrative of the Enlightenment’s optimistic tone (here I would say that the evangelical narrative of a flawed, sinful human nature predominates in America). To conclude then, I guess I would say that these other social practices, some of which I also enjoy (such as watching a basketball game) are premised upon an immature understanding of self, meaning that they lend pleasure to individuals but do little to nothing to cultivate a heightened sense of collective existence. So, to clarify once more, what I tried to say in my previous post was that for a number of reasons, Europeans (past and present) have tended to be more centered on a sense of collective existence (as evidenced by the Latvian folk music I discussed), while it seems to me that Americans are much more individualistic, which, as a corollary, has led to social practices that should not be considered “culture,” at least not according to the original meaning of the term in relation to the Enlightenment.
what is culture?
Hi, everyone. I’m really sorry that it has been so long since I posted anything. I guess I’ve just been really busy with my archival work; plus on the weekends we try to go exploring and do something fun. In other words, lately I just cannot seem to find the time to sit down and write. But we just finished eating supper – I made some delicious German schnitzel and farmer’s potatoes (diced and fried potatoes with ham and onion) – and I don’t have anything on the agenda for tonight, so I thought now seemed like a great time to write a new blog post. And I’ve been meaning to post something anyway, as over the last couple of weeks I have been doing some thinking about the meaning and significance of culture… Let me explain. You see, over the last two weeks, a few things have happened that provoked me to think about this topic. Despite the fact that I am going in the reverse chronological order, I think I should tell you about the second of the two experiences first.
Last week I was asked by the staff at the U.S. embassy here in Rīga to participate in the selection process for this year’s Latvian representative for the Benjamin Franklin Transatlantic Summer Institute, which brings together high-school students from all over Europe and the Western world in order to have them engage each other in discussions about topics such as leadership, media and democracy, etc. Naturally, I said yes to this invitation, as I was very interested to meet some of Latvia’s most gifted young students. And let me tell you, the kids I met were indeed gifted. Over the course of that day, I, along with two staff members from the embassy, interviewed the eight finalists who an earlier committee had narrowed it down to. The person we chose, just to give you an example of what I am talking about, was an eleventh-grade student who had an unbelievably rich list of volunteer work, had nearly perfect grades (and she attends a very challenging high school—in fact, you have to apply to get in much like what we do in America for university study), was fluent in four languages (and was also learning Spanish), and was incredibly mature and analytical. Anyway, it was really quite an enjoyable experience to meet all of them. And without a doubt, one of the things I enjoyed the most was hearing their answers to a question that we asked each candidate, which, to paraphrase, was: Given that most people you will meet at this program in the U.S. will probably not know very much about Latvia, what three things might you tell someone about your home country in order to give them a sense of where you come from?
Each student had an interesting and thoughtful response. And the range was anything from “Well, I would bring some great Latvian brown rye bread because I’ve heard that bread in America is not very good” to “a piece of our famous amber from our sea.” For sure, one of the main reasons why I enjoyed hearing their answers is because I was curious to see how they would handle such a tough task, i.e., to summarize in only three statements or points an entire country’s land and people. Later, then, as I was making my way back home along the quaint cobblestone streets of old Riga, I couldn’t help but think about how I would tackle that question in regard to my own home country. More on this later.
The second experience, then, was a collective one that involved numerous observations. You see, right away I discovered something that I think is really cool about the archive where I am working. The doors that are restricted to personnel only are locked, and rather than using a key to open them, the staff instead types in a code on the number pad, which then electronically unlocks the door (just to clarify, most front doors in Europe are like this, or at least where I have been anyway, and of course there is also a keyhole in case the power should go out or something). But that is not what I find cool. Instead, what I thought was interesting is that the buttons on the pad play a musical note, and when the door unlocks, the first six or seven notes of the folk song “Pūt vējiņi” are played. So, I can assure you that I hear this about fifty times a day or more, because of course the staff there are always going in and out of doors as they retrieve and reshelf the files that all of us patrons order. At first I assumed that perhaps these door chimes were specially ordered for a key government building, one which, in this case, is devoted to facilitating the study of Latvia’s history and culture. But then, over the last few weeks, I just happened to be passing by at exactly the right time and was able to discover that the front doors of these two random apartment buildings also play this exact tune. After uncovering this, I was even more impressed, as it says something very important about Latvian culture, and perhaps even about culture in general.
Perhaps to explain I should remind you about this song, which I introduced you to back in January or February (if you want to watch it again, just click on this link and watch the first video: https://crookedtimberofhumanity.wordpress.com/2011/01/19/babel-an-addendum/). As I said in my earlier post, this is an extraordinarily important and much-loved song, for it, in my opinion, beautifully incorporates Latvians’ love of nature, of their elders and ancestors, their appreciation of history, and of course their fondness for music and culture. So for me anyway, and I would be shocked if it did not do the same for Latvians, when I hear this door chime I think about all of those aforementioned things and more. And although I’m not technically “Latvian,” when I hear those notes something stirs in my soul and makes me feel connected to this place and the people around me.
This is exactly what culture should do: it should stir the soul and remind us that we are but individual buds on the branches of the tree of humanity. And to me this is exactly what much of European culture is about, it embraces the human story in an attempt to bring us together and enrich our short time here on Earth. But what is really sad to me is that for some reason I don’t get this same feeling from “American” culture, if in fact there is some sort of one American culture, and this has frequently puzzled me. Instead, when I consider American culture, more often than not I think about things associated with American competition and individualism, or perhaps even about American consumerism, such as blue jeans. Why is this? Is this a good or bad thing? On the one hand, perhaps America gained its place in the world as a result of constant competition in society and, of course, in the marketplace. But on the other hand, perhaps this single-minded focus on the concept of survival of the fittest has led us to become a country of crass consumers whose souls are repressed by work, materialism, and self-induced isolation and atomization. And why is America different than Europe? Perhaps it is because of America’s relatively isolated geographic position, or maybe it is because the great intellectual movements of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, such as the Enlightenment and Romanticism, did not alter America in the way that it did countries like Germany and France. Whatever the reason, all I know is that when I am in Europe, I feel different, more connected to the past, and perhaps even more alive as a human being, since my soul is frequently stirred by the omnipresent culture that makes Europe so alluring.
Finally, on a less philosophical note, here are some photos from the last few weeks. Enjoy.
This has recently become our favorite bakery, both because of the ambiance and the tasty cakes and pastries.
Here is an example of why we love this place. Pictured is their honey cake (which I think is the best in Riga) and an apple dumpling. We also like that they serve their products on very nice plates.
One of the platforms at the Riga train station.
We went to the seaside last Sunday and could not believe that all of the ice was gone (except for on the beach, which is where I was standing). It was only one month ago that I took the picture that looked like we were at the north pole. It's amazing how quickly the sea changes.
A photo showing the sand at the beach in Jurmala. The sand is so fine and soft that it makes the beaches in California seem rather rocky...Brittney cannot wait until it is warm enough to sunbathe on the beach.
One of the beautiful, old churches in Jurmala. In case you are wondering, it is an Evangelical Lutheran church.
crookedtimberofhumanity 