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When You Need More Water…Have St. George Slay a Three-Headed Dragon!

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St. George Slays the Dragon

Last evening in Bratislava, i went with friends and colleagues from the International National Trusts Organisation (INTO) to a lecture and reception hosted by the Slovakian Ministry of Culture and the National Trust of Slovakia.  The evening was at a former palace for the Roman Catholic Cardinal in Bratislava, and so was very opulent and grand.

We entered through a courtyard and came across the statue of St. George slaying the dragon that you see at the left.  We were admiring it when someone said, “I didn’t know St. George had to kill THREE dragons.”  Well, we looked closer and there was only one dragon, but this variety had three heads.  One bit of speculation was that the Cardinal simply wanted more water in the fountain and a three-headed dragon was the answer.

Whatever the reasoning, it was another good day for our meetings, which were held at the University Library in Old Town.  The library was part of a complex of three historic buildings, which have been adaptively reused.  The courtyard (see photo) made for a beautiful entryway into the library.  And since there were multiple buildings (although they were all connected on the inside), it was fun to sit in our board room and  hear the occasional street singer’s tunes rising up from the alleyway below that separated the buildings.

University Library

Between the meetings, lectures, and receptions, it was great to reconnect with friends and colleagues.  One of the unexpected pleasures of getting to represent the National Trust on the INTO Executive Committee is that I’ve come to know – and become friends with – people from all across the world.  I so admire many of these people and it is a treat to spend time with them.  Mr. S.K. Misra is the head of the Indian National Trust (known as INTACH), and he and his wife have made such a difference in the lives of so many people by using heritage as a way to create jobs and provide livelihoods.  He gave a great lecture today in our closing seminar.  I also had the chance to reconnect with his niece, who is studying historic preservation in the United States.   S.K. is just one example of the good friends I’ve come to know, and on this trip we all reconnected.  I also met new colleagues from places such as The Netherlands.  It is quite a privilege to work with these individuals, plus they are just a great deal of fun.

After our closing seminar today, I bid the group good-bye, gathered my belongings, and hopped in a taxi to go to the train station to catch a train to Vienna.  Well, my taxi driver was English-challenged, and I’m certainly Slovakian-challenged, but he finally figured out where I wanted to go when he said, “Choo-choo?” and I nodded while saying, “Yes, yes.”  So we got to the Choo-Choo station ten minutes before the train was scheduled to leave.  After navigating the ticket buying process and finally finding the right track, I ran the last bit to jump on board with one minute to spare.  It felt good to sit and just be for an hour.

My taxi driver in Vienna had a better grasp of English, and he quickly got me to my hotel in the heart of the central city.  Vienna at NightAfter dropping off my bags, I went out for a breath of fresh air and to catch a bite to eat.  I took one picture of Vienna at night, and plan to fill up the memory card tomorrow on my day of sight-seeing before I return home.  I’m now sitting in the lobby of my historic hotel, working on my glass of wine, and finishing up this post before heading off to bed.

But a conversation in the bar next to me has reminded me of another part of this trip I’ll always remember.  It has been amazing to be in Europe on the days following Obama’s election as President.  In Bratislava it was all anyone wanted to talk about, and everyone – including strangers who just found out I was from the US – wanted to talk about the election.  Everyone was very excited about Obama and what it meant for America and the world.

Which is what makes the conversation in the bar so jarring.  There’s an American in the bar who is pontificating about America going to hell in a hand basket (my characterization) because we elected Obama.  Someone told me that Vienna was a conservative city.  But I didn’t expect to come here and immediately run into a disgruntled conservative American. 

Oh well.  I’m going to put that aside and remember the genuine excitement about our country from so many of the people I’ve met over the past three days. 

Look tomorrow evening for more photos from this wonderful city.

More to come…

DJB

Dinner along the Danube

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A Courtyard in Bratislava

Bratislava, Slovakia is the only world capital that borders two other countries.  (Isn’t Wikipedia a wonderful thing!)  And last evening I had the chance to enjoy some of the best of this city with my friends and colleagues from the International National Trusts Organisation (or INTO).

After my all-night flight on election night, I arrived in Vienna around 9 a.m. local time and caught a bus from the airport that took me the 45 minutes to Bratislavia.  The countryside between the airport and the city was very rural, broken only by the occasional wind farm and two delightful small historic towns (one of which still maintained its historic city wall surrounding the town).  Since the hotel where I’m staying didn’t take guests until 2 p.m. and I needed to do something to stay awake, I ate a bit of breakfast and then strolled the streets of Old Town Bratislava.

And I’m here to say that the historic core was hopping.  I was on the streets at lunch time and those streets were swarming with people eating lunch, tourists snapping photographs, and many more people simply out doing their jobs.  I learned at dinner last evening that the return of private property to individuals following the fall of the Soviet Empire has meant that most of the restoration in this district has taken place through private investment.  There are some beautiful state-owned buildings and a number of historic churches (see photo), but the vast majority are homes or shops.

A Church in Bratislava

I was able to check in and caught a couple of hours of sleep – just enough to get refreshed without missing dinner!  And I’m glad I made it.  Meeting up with about 15 colleagues from around the world, we were led by our hostess, Michaela, back through Old Town – which was beautifully lighted for the evening – eventually ending up with a walk along the Danube.  The restaurant where we had our opening dinner was the first project of the National Trust for Slovakia some 14 years ago, where they rescued a historic toll keepers house from demolition.  The walls of the restaurant were covered with old photographs of the bridges across the Danube.  We enjoyed our shot of brandy, some good Slovakian wine, and a tasty dinner topped by a sesame seed pastry for dessert.  I sat with the head of the Slovakian cultural agency for heritage, the head of the Gilderland Trust (Holland), our INTO Secretariat staff member Catherine Leonard, and several other colleagues for a delightful evening’s conversation.

And I’m still adjusting to the time change.  I think it is about 5 a.m. now in Slovkia.  I’m not 100% sure because I stopped wearing a watch about a year ago and my blackberry (which is now my version of a pocket watch) doesn’t automatically update itself to the local time.  I’m always calculating what 6 hours ahead actually means.  I’m sure I’ll do great until about 2 p.m. this afternoon…when I’ll be ready for that nap again.  So expect More to Come… posts at the weirdest hours over the next few days.

More to come…

DJB

What a strange, wonderful Election Day it has been

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Greetings from Bratislava, Slovakia!  Not your normal post-election day dateline for the More to Come…blog.  Let me tell you how I ended up hearing about the presidential election results while flying over the Atlantic.

I woke up at home on November 4th and after the normal morning chores, I headed down to the library to vote.  Well, I wasn’t really surprised to find  that the line ran around the edges of BOTH parking lots and extended almost to the street.  Historic election indeed!  It was great, even if I did stand in line for 2 hours and 10 minutes before casting my vote.  But it felt good to be part of something so special and it felt REALLY good to vote with a positive feeling about a candidate (instead of the usual voting to play defense).  The local high school had some kids out selling coffee and pastries to help with relief efforts in Africa.  They did well, but they could have done gangbusters if they’d had chairs to rent or would have been able to give a back massage on one of those special chairs.  My back was hurting and my dogs were barking after 2 hours – but it was worth it.

So off to work for the rest of the morning.  My colleague Dolores and I had lunch on the 4th at Kramerbooks – the highly independent (and highly liberal) bookstore and restaurant at Dupont Circle.   We both started laughing when we saw the specials of the day.  Here’s how they read:

Halloween & Election Year Specials – Be Afraid, Be Very Afraid

Obama Family Chili – $12 – no charge if you make under $5/year – Perfect for a Socialist Underground Gathering

The Biden Pot Pie – $14 – Homey, Comfortable, Predictable – Worth a Two Hour Train Ride

McCain’s Ribs – $160 – $16 after tax rebate – “Squeezed with Lemons, because that makes it taste better.”  Maybe that’s why he kept grimacing at those debates.

Palin’s Alaskan Fisherwoman’s Saucy Salmon – Fresh Atlantic Salmon filet – just to piss her off.  A sort of culinary experience of unrelated events.

I decided on this historic day that I had to try the Obama Family Chili, and it didn’t disappoint.  Just the right amount of spices and lots of good toppings!

 

So by mid-afternoon I wrapped up things at the office and headed for the airport.  I was off for Slovakia for the meeting of the executive committee of the International National Trusts Organisation (or INTO).  Unfortunately, it was timed so that I would be in the air during the election coverage.  I saw 7 p.m. pass and knew the Virginia polls had closed.  Then 7:30 and 8:00 and then 9:00…and I knew that more and more polls were closing and that the race was being called – and I didn’t have a clue.  But thankfully, somewhere over the dark Atlantic, a flight attendant came through and told those of us who kept asking that Obama had won.  A quiet cheer arose around me.

 

I sat there in the dark and thought about what this means for America.  There’s so much to contemplate, so much to imagine.  But I kept thinking about how my mom was the PTA President during the time our local elementary school in Tennessee was integrated.  It was one of the most frustrating years of her life, and we heard about it at home.  She said the children weren’t the problem…it was the parents who fought integration.   Well, 40 years later, those children have grown up and guess what?  While we may not have imagined it possible at the time, those children – along with our children AND our parents – have just elected our first African American President. 

 

So, I’ll end where I began.  Here I sit in a restaurant in Bratislava, waiting to get my hotel room to catch a nap before dinner, and thinking about what a strange, wonderful election day this has been.

 

More to come…

DJB

In Praise of Sligo Creek

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On a beautiful fall day at the height of the fall color season, Candice and I walked through Maryland’s Sligo Creek Park today and soaked up the wonders of nature.

The Washington area is blessed with parks and Rock Creek is the best known.  But where Rock Creek Park can be busy on a gorgeous day, nearby Sligo Creek Parkway – located five minutes from our front door – is a great alternative with less crowding. 

So we walked for an hour, breathed the fresh air, took a few pictures of the creek and the fall foliage, and tried to just “be.”  We hope you’ll enjoy.

More to come…

DJB

 

Wondrous Love

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The old Southern Harmony tune Wondrous Love is right at the top of the list of my favorite songs no matter the genre.  I love the tune and it works in straight Sacred Harp style as well as in a more contemporary folk song.  As one person commented on a popular YouTube version of the song,

Speaking here as an unashamed agnostic… This is a lovely, dignified, decorous and beautifully restrained music.

To which I add, Amen.

So it was a treat at our parish this morning when Andrew & Claire joined a reunion of the children’s choir and nailed a beautiful version of Wondrous Love arranged by Steve Pilkington.  These 9 teenagers were supported by a beautiful piano setting and the tasteful and restrained addition of a few hand bells.  Andrew and Claire sounded lovely, and a good friend of Andrew’s sang a beautiful descant on the last verse. 

That last verse is the one that always gets me.  I think of it often and I always think of my mother, who gave me my love of music but died much too young:

And when from death I’m free I’ll sing on I’ll sing on
And when from death I’m free I’ll sing on
And when from death I’m free I’ll sing and joyful be
And through eternity I’ll sing on, I’ll sing on
And through eternity I’ll sing on

There are great versions by Anonymous 4, there’s a lovely YouTube clip by a beautiful singer named Deborah Liv Johnson, but my favorite version of the song (and the one that generated that comment above) is by the Bluegrass Band Blue Highway. I still remember hearing the band sing Wondrous Love at Merlefest in 2007.

Enjoy.

More to come…

DJB

Image by franz roos from Pixabay

Bearden-Brown House

Franklin’s heritage is my heritage

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Franklin, Tennessee is a gem of a little town.  I should know.  Both my parents grew up in Franklin and I spent many a summer hour visiting my grandmother’s house as I mowed her yard, played catch in the back yard, helped in the large vegetable garden that was on a lot behind the house, or ran down the street to Alfred’s (a small store in a converted church) for ice cream and candy.  Murfreesboro, where we lived, was a big city compared to Franklin, but that meant that Franklin had an intimacy that was familiar, welcoming, and walkable to a 12 year old boy.

Franklin has changed through the years.  After my grandfather died, my grandmother moved to Murfreesboro to live with us and she sold the family house to the city, which let it fall into disrepair.  We would drive by on occasional trips back with her to visit friends and lament the shape of the old Bearden-Brown home place.

But a wonderful thing happened.  The local preservation group – the Heritage Foundation of Franklin and Williamson County– bought my grandmother’s house as one of their first preservation projects.  They restored the small frame house and sold it to buyers who wanted to protect the property.  Now when you look at that picture at the top (from 1981) or from Google street view above (a more recent view), you’ll see the trim little house I remember, preserved for future generations to enjoy.

That was just one of the many great things the Heritage Foundation has done for Franklin.  They set up an award-winning Main Street program.  They saved the old downtown post office.  They restored more buildings and fought to save the Civil War battlefield that was so integral to the city and county.  Late last month in Tulsa, this good work was recognized once again when the National Trust for Historic Preservation awarded the Heritage Foundation of Franklin and Williamson County with a National Preservation Honor Award.  This was a “slam dunk” of an award, when you look at everything this group has done for this wonderful place.  You can visit the PreservationNation You Tube channel to see videos on all the award winners, but just click below to see why I love Franklin.  It is a place that shaped me and my family in countless ways, and it continues to do so even today.

More to come…

DJB

Do I love baseball quotes? You betcha!

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The Philadelphia Phillies win the 2008 World Series in one of the strangest ways imaginable – closing out a game that began in the bottom of the 6th after a 46 hour rain-delay – and the morning papers are full of the great quotes and writing that make baseball such a delight.  Can you imagine getting an intelligible quote out of a football coach after the Super Bowl?  Of course not.  But even the lowliest man on the World Series roster can provide some wonderful, thought-provoking line that brings a smile.

Here are a few gems I picked up from today’s Washington Post and New York Times.

The Phillies and Rays turned a mess into a mini-masterpiece, transforming a suspended game into a tense, 79-minute suspension of disbelief.

Tom Boswell, Washington Post

A game that began with a deluge has washed away an epic drought. The Philadelphia Phillies have won the World Series. 

Tyler Kepner, New York Times

Rays Manager Joe Maddon said he considered using phenom lefty David Price from the start Wednesday night, but decided to use a matchup-focused bullpen strategy instead.  “Retrospectively, maybe you could have done that [with Price] but I really had it mapped out the exact way it occurred…[The Phillies] just did not cooperate with their offense.”

Maddon as quoted in the Washington Post by Dave Sheinin

“It’s kind of weird, kind of odd, that the game is going to start with the seventh inning stretch,” said the Phillies’ Brett Myers, who exaggerated by an inning, but made his point nonetheless…

Quoted by Tyler Kepner in the New York Times.

“‘The mind, once stretched, can never return to its original form.’  I like that expression.  Our minds have been stretched.  Our players will never be satisfied again with less than winning.”

Tampa Bay Rays manager Joe Maddon on his teams “worst-to-first” rise in the American League, as quoted by Tom Boswell

The Fog Bowl and Jeff Ruland, Scott Stevens and Joe Carter – all of the symbols of local futility – can be put to rest.  The Philadelphia fan does not need them anymore as proof of a hardened soul.  Hearts are light now, joy has come to Mudville.  The Phillies are champions.

Tyler Kepner on the long drought between Philadelphia championships, in the New York Times

More to come…

DJB

Image: Citizens Bank Ballpark in September 2008 by DJB

Beauty in the Mountains

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I spent the last two days in the mountains of North Carolina.  A colleague and I had a meeting in the region and our timing could not have been better.

Few things are as beautiful as the mountains of western Virginia and North Carolina during the fall.  This was my favorite season during the 15 years we lived in Staunton, in the middle of Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley. 

So Tom and I were thrilled to find ourselves on a lake with a jaw-dropping historic dam and a shoreline filled with trees in all their fall glory.  We viewed a great historic property with the owner on Tuesday afternoon, but knew we had to get up this morning to see more of this wonderful place.

After a restful night’s sleep (boy it is dark in the country), Tom and I hit the hiking trail this morning to walk around the lake, enjoy the wonderful light, and examine the dam up close.   As you can see from these pictures, the trees were spectacular and the dam was awesome in all its 700′ wide X 90′ high glory. 

One of the great things about my job is the chance to be with some of the smartest and most passionate people in the world in some of the nation’s great historic places.  The past two days were just more evidence of my good fortune.  I’ve been viewing dams since my father (the TVA engineer) took us to Fontana Dam when I was about 10, but this is one special engineering feat.  You only get a slight sense of the beauty of this place in the pictures, so you’ll just have to take my word for it.  All in all a wonderful two days.

More to come…

DJB

 

Take Me Home Down Route 66

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Just arrived home after a week in Tulsa for the National Preservation Conference.  National Trust staff posted some great updates throughout the week on the PreservationNation.org blog which I recommend.  I did see some great art deco architecture and thought the Gilcrease Museum was a real treasure (check out the amazing Ansel Adams exhibit).  But since I spent the better part of the week in partner and board meetings, I’m not the best judge of all the city had to offer. 

So I’ll just post this picture from last evening’s terrific closing party with Asleep at the Wheel and say thanks to Marty, Marcia, Cliff and all our hosts from Oklahoma for a great week.

We’ll let Ray Benson and Asleep at the Wheel take us home with a great version of Route 66!

More to come…

DJB