Bavarian Fingerfood And October Wallpapers

Saturday, October 1st, 2011

Octoberfest, Munich

Octoberfest of course is an attraction from people from all over the world. With these international visitors of course public announcements and advertisement become more and more – at least – English, too. What once was a “Schmankerl” (delicacy) and in this word communicating only to the indigenious people, caricaturized on the maypoles in the background, now is Bavarian Fingerfood, trying to treat to all the biggest-party attracted from around the globe. That at the same time classical Coca Cola gets advertised is just one more sign how much the “Wiesn” adapts to the time being.

Update: The wallpapers are here.

Tags:maypole
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Octoberfest Bomb Blast’s 30th Anniversary

Sunday, September 26th, 2010

~~October~~ September 26h, 1980: Thousands of visitors are entering the Octoberfest in Munich through the main entrance. Suddenly a detonation shreds the constant flow of people: A right-wing extremist had detonated a bomb inmidst the crowd, killing 13 and wounding hundreds. The attacker, too, got killed in the explosion.

At that time Germany was still in a state of fear of terrorist attacks – from the left side. And in that climate a right wing bomber did not fit in. The ruling conservative party in the state of Bavaria very fast came to the conclusion that this had to be a single perpetrator, and the state attorneys after a while agreed. As the culprit was dead, this of course was the most convenient solution. Already in 1982 all court exhibits were destroyed, long before DNA analyis for example could have helped to identify the contacts of the attacker.

Today, as every year, the Lord Mayor of Munich laid down flowers in a small commemorative event. There are multiple wishes, supported from his side, to take up the investigations again, yet the Bavarian State Government (still the same conservative party does rule) up to now does block.

The image shows the memorial for the victims of this crime, with an innocent, typically masqueraded Octoberfest visitor, probably using the memorial as a meeting point.

Update: Steve notified me that I had given the wrong date of the bomb blast in the original post. Thanks!

Tags:attack, bomb, memorial, munich, octoberfest
Posted in octoberfest | 6 Comments »

Electric laughing puppet

Friday, October 2nd, 2009

Well, the laughter may be electric (so were the movements) but obviously it was not really electrifying. By now, you know for sure that I am not one of the great fans of the octoberfest, an attitude that certainly puts me into quite some distance of the fanatic pro-octoberfest statements like those on the Boston Globe (thanks to Martina for pointing this out).

I am, however, a bit concerned about the impression this event gives the world about Munich: beer abundant, drunk people in somewhat traditional clothing, and, on the back side of the medal, average 10 rapes/octoberfest (official, the dark figure is about 200) and probably 2000 police operations in those mad 16 days. Well, there is not only fun and hight times.

Usually the locals prefer the quieter hours, and in the afternoon you see families with young kids enjoying all the roundabouts, horse riding places and even a genuine flea circus. I have updated my gallery section with an Octoberfest section (Wies’n is the bavarian word for this event, originally meaning simply meadow).

Tags:bavaria, wies'n
Posted in octoberfest | 4 Comments »

Statements

Wednesday, September 30th, 2009

Octoberfest generally is an easy place for candids, but in terms of speed, especially focusing speed with longer focal lengths, it can be demanding. But the people usually don’t object being photographed. Only inside the beer halls the breweries now imposed quite strict regulations to stop the publication of images showing drunk or half-naked customers.

I am more interested in small details like those gingerbread hearts. Last year I photographed them in the food stalls where the color is really overwhelming, especially at night when the lack of light makes it easy to direct the views. The small collection of Octoberfest posts you can find here.

Tags:costume, gingerbread, heart
Posted in octoberfest | 5 Comments »

Determination

Wednesday, September 30th, 2009

Rarely I have seen such determination as in the posture of this man, wandering to the beer halls of the Octoberfest here in Munich. Prost!

Posted in octoberfest, urban | 7 Comments »

Coming from the Octoberfest

Tuesday, September 22nd, 2009

Since the weekend, parts of Munich are in a state of emergency, as the Octoberfest has started. For reasons almost completely opaque to me, within 16 days up to 7 millions of national and international visitors drink approx. 5 million litres of beer in temporary beer halls while listening to to dem-idiotic music that is so loud that municipal engineers have to check that it is at least not immediately damaging the sense of hearing.

But even for the locals here the Octoberfest is still attractive and a reason to wear traditional bavarian clothing (or what designers decide to deviate from it). The lady in the image above I met in one of the attractive, now completely gentrified quarters of Munich in front of an old house, probably dating back to the 2nd half of the 19th century. The colors and cut of her dress, ‘Dirndl’, are quite traditional, without visible ingratiation on fake cottage style.

Tags:costume, dirndl, tracht
Posted in octoberfest, urban | 3 Comments »

octoberfest gingerbread heart attack

Thursday, October 2nd, 2008

octoberfest with the camera was fun, and i was lucky to have company in person of a colleague who protected me from drunkards pivoting one liter glasses of beer (the famous “Maßkrug”) in front of my lens. The beer halls were too noisy for me – you have to drink in there, talking slows down drinking so the band pushes the volume of the music to the limits in order to increase the beer consume – but outside the sellers of the gingerbread hearts grabbed my attention.

you can find quite a number of them, and the hearts are a real relict of the early times of octoberfest. of course now you find international inscriptions on the hearts, too, but the basic form still is the “i love you”.

and when processing these shots, i found a way to make use of lightzone’s regions to simulate a bit of vignetting, both in brightness, but also in selective sharpening.

Tags:gingerbread, heart, lebkuchen
Posted in octoberfest | 3 Comments »

minus 17% – do legst di nida*

Tuesday, September 30th, 2008

octoberfest alone is a reason for quite a “Rausch” (inebriation). but bavaria’s all time governing party has just lost landslide-like 17%, and their strongest supporters have been and still are the “Trachtler”, men and women wearing traditional clothes and quite often of a conservative mindset.

so probably this disaster was one more reason for those guys to drink.

^*do legst di nida: local speak for: this is so strong, you have to lay down…

Tags:Alcohol, elections, inebriation, munich, octoberfest, rausch, sony a700
Posted in octoberfest, urban | 1 Comment »

octoberfest: starfly

Wednesday, September 24th, 2008

high tech flowers at the octoberfest: the successor of the chairoplane lifts the visitors 50m above the ground. at dusk, it looks like a giant flower in front of the sky.

the haunted house could be a synonym for the whole thing: shrieking noise to no end, flashy colors, the whole bandwidth of agreeable and disagreeable smells and a similar bandwidth of visitors and their degree of drunkenness. as a local, i will probably go there round noon on a warm day and stay only for a beer if i can find a place without 105 dbA of the most incredibly stupid music which is not folksy any more

Tags:chairoplane, haunted house, sony a700, wies'n
Posted in octoberfest | 3 Comments »

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