Elephants of Carlsberg

England has Big Ben. America has Lady Liberty. France has Eiffel Tower. Denmark? She has four Carlsberg elephants. Carlsberg Breweries in Valby (Southwest of the city-center) won’t be in my travel list if Kirsten didn’t recommend it vehemently. They are so diminutive for a conglomerate of such size, and it’s easy to miss this gate. Even the bus to the visitors centre doesn’t go past the gate so we had to walk to admire the Carlsberg elephants. (Only taking the visitor’s bus is recommended since it is 45 minutes walk from the nearest train station.)

These four magnificent statues (in fact they are carvings) form the gate that leads to the main entrance to the Carlsberg brewery. Completed in 1901, they symbolize four sons of the Carlsberg founder Ottalia Jacobson, and bore the initials of those four sons. On the elephants are the Swastika symbols, wishing health and prosperity to these four surviving sons of the tycoon. The Carlsberg Breweries itself used the symbol until the Nazis corrupted the symbol in the late 30s.

The Carlsberg Visitors Centre has nice exhibitions about the brewing of beers and the history of the Carlsberg-Tuborg Brewery. The entrance fee is cheap at 50 DKK (about 7 Euros) and include two beer tastings. However, it’s not a guided tour, and we had to follow the signs through the exhibitions halls, the stables, mews, garages with old beer wagons. The tour takes about 2 hours and inevitably ends in a small gift shop. Next to the shop is the beer tasting bar; but, it seems strange to me that some of the Carlsberg beers can only be tasted here and not sold anywhere in the world. One note of caution is that Carlsberg’s signature the Elephant Beer has twice the alcohol content as regular beer.

In the Tivoli Gardens, a kiss…

After lunch we went to Tivoli Gardens. Though it is an amusement park, Kirsten and a lot of Danes call it a pleasure garden, which makes me flinch. It first opened in 1843 as “Tivoli & Vauxhall”, taking inspirations from the Jardin de Tivoli in Paris and the Vauxhall Gardens in London. The origin story, as recounted by Kirsten, was pretty funny. It was built to indulge the Danish people so that they would forget about the politics.

First built in those years when Europeans viewed the Near and the Far East as the depraved centre of exotica and erotica, Tivoli have various Oriental buildings, from theatres to fountains: the Nimb Building with its domes and minarets, Chinese-pagoda gardens, Moorish pavilions, the Hanging Gardens, and the Bubble Fountain. (The original park was burnt down in 1943—again a symbolic message by the Nazis to destroy the old regime—but it was rebuilt.)

We took many historical rides in the park: the world’s oldest wooden roller coaster, (Rutsjebanen or Bjerg Banen (Mountain Track), according to omniscient Wikipedia), the world’s tallest carousel, Himmelskibet, and a nice free-fall tower, which Wikipedia doesn’t name.

We missed the Tivoli Symphony, which displays its merits only in the morning and at noon, but we stayed in the gardens until midnight. Tiny lanterns and bulbs illuminate the park from gorgeous Hans Christian Anderson Castle to the Glass Hall, which shines like an alien spaceship. The park transforms itself from an amusement park to a fair ground—open-air theatres replaced souvenir shops and cafés; jugglers and magicians came out of nowhere to entertain. But I was treated to two surprises.

At Chinese Mime Theatre, I saw Italian Commedia dell’Arte, and its clichéd story of Cassander, Harlequin, Columbine and Pierrot. I saw that once in Venice, but the Danish version was not only more colorful but also more vivant. (As a side note, the Chinese Theatre has a marvelous mechanical peacock’s tail curtain) From a small boat on the Tivoli Lake, we admired the firework display (only put together on Saturdays). Under the sky blued and crimsoned with Catherine wheels, and Roman candles, we ended the day with a lovely kiss.

Post-Scriptum: the return was not so pleasant. We didn’t know that the trains back to Køge stop running at half-an-hour past midnight, so we had to take a taxi back.

Ny Carsberg Glytotek, Copenhagen

Today, I went to the downtown Copenhagen with Kirsten. We caught a train there since she told me that we don’t need strenuous cars to explore Copenhagen. We stopped at Central Station København (that is what they call their capital in Danish) and crossed the street to Ny Carsberg Glytotek.
Perhaps the only museum in the world built by a brewery, Glytotek was built by Carl Jacobsen of the Carlsberg Breweries (which is apparent in its name). The museum has only two things: old Greek, Roman and Etruscan statues, and French paintings.

You enter the museum and the first things you see are the sculptures by Rodin and other modern sculptors like Bissen and Jerichau. (There is even a room for religious icons around the corner.) The museum pamphlet says its Rodin collection is the most important collection outside France, but since Cantor Museum in Stanford, CA also claims thus, I was left confused. Rodin’s another replica of The Thinker stood outside the museum, but since I have seen at least four versions of it, I was more amused and intrigued by the bronze sculptures of Degas, which include his complete dancer series.

Ironically, the most famous room in the museum is its tropical Winter Garden at the centre of modern sculpture exhibits. In the middle stood nude The Water Mother (by Kai Nielsen) with babies which points upwards to the iron-dome of the museum. The Winter Garden leads to the Great Hall, which is usually used for public meetings and such gatherings. Around the Great Hall are exhibits of ancient cultures, from Egyptians to Greco-Roman. In fact, the museum is a stronghold of Etruscan and Roman art, housing various busts and heads of Roman Emperors.

The second floor and the new wing house various painters, the majority of whom were impressionists: Monet, Pissarro, Renoir, Degas and Cézanne. There were also David, Courbet, Manet, van Gogh, Gauguin, Toulouse-Lautrec and Bonnard. According to the brochure, the most famous paintings in the museum are Bissen’s Prince Paris with apple, and Manet’s The Absinth drinker. I also learnt something about Danish Golden Age of painting, housed in the new wing.

A Warm Welcome from a Bavarian Wedding Cake…

Invariably dubbed ‘Fairy-Tale Castle’, ‘Dream Castle’ and ‘Swan Castle’, Neuschwanstein (which literally means “new swan stone castle”) is built through a folly of a mad Bavarian king, and immortalized by through follies of many romantics of the years that followed, which included one Walt Disney, who copied the castle for his princely fairy-tales (including Sleeping Beauty).

Built in southwest Bavaria, not far from the Austrian border, the most photographed building in the world was an idea of Ludwig II of Bavaria (“Mad King Ludwig”) who thought it would be nice to dedicate not only a grotto and a room but also an entire castle to the Swan Knight, Lohengrin, of Wagner’s opera.

Despite wild assumptions that the castle was designed by the king, aided by his comrade-in-lunacy Wagner, it was actually designed by one Christian Jank. The king was deposed and died before the castle was finished, but many tapestries and paintings inside which depicts scenes from Wagner’s Operas reflects the king’s infatuation with Wagner’s work.

The guided tour starts at the servant-quarters on the first floor, and take us through a spiral staircase to the Lower Hall on the third floor (the second floor was not completed). The Throne Room is on the right; the king’s apartments are on the left. The main staircase and the Lower Hall, decorated with scenes from the Sigurd legend of the Ring Cycle. (The saga of Sigurd’s wife Gudrun is in the Hall on the next floor.)

Only fourteen rooms were finished; the Throne Room which resembles a Byzantine church was completed, but the throne (which is to resemble an altar!) was never built. Decorated with semi-precious stones and faux-mosaics (paintings), the throne room took its inspirations from Munich All Saints Church and Hagia Sophia in Istanbul. The wall paintings show law-makers from the ancient, heathen and Christian worlds, who accompany along with angels, Christ, Mary, St John and six canonized kings. On the opposite side of the room is the Archangel Michael and St George.

The balcony, which is accessible from the Throne Room, has a magnificent view of the surroundings. (However, for the good view of the castle, however, one has to climb the nearby Marienbrücke (Marie’s Bridge))

In the king’s chambers, an anteroom leads into the Dining Room. This is followed by the Bedroom and the Oratory. The Salon, which is entered from the Dressing Room, is in two parts and is the largest room in the apartment. The next rooms are a grotto and a conservatory. The king’s study and an adjutant’s room end the tour of the third floor. Most rooms in Ludwig II’s apartment are Romanesque but his bedroom is Gothic.

It took 14 woodcarvers four years to complete the elaborate oak carvings of this room, and the king’s bed, which resembles a Gothic church. The wall paintings are of the Tristan and Isolde epic. The king’s private oratory is also Gothic, and accessible from both the bedroom and the dressing room. Originally planned large castle chapel was not completed. The altar, wall paintings and stained glass windows of oratory show the life of St. Louis IX of France, Ludwig II’s patron saint.

The Reading Salon is a ‘Swan Corner’. Four columns separate the main room from the “Swan Corner”. In the Salon the king was surrounded by illustrations from the Lohengrin saga, painted on coarse linen to look like tapestries. In this room the swan leitmotif appears not only in the pictures on the walls but also on the textiles and the doors and as a life-size naturalistic china model.

The pictures on the walls of the Dressing Room show the minnesingers and poets. The ceiling is a special feature: instead of being panelled with wood, it is painted with an illusionistic scene. Through the open roof of a garden bower with a trellis of vines, the observer looks up into a blue sky with birds.
Between the Salon and the Study is the most unusual room in the castle: the Grotto. When the doors are shut it looks like a natural dripstone cave. In Ludwig II’s day a small waterfall and coloured lighting created a romantic atmosphere. A hidden opening in the ceiling enabled him to listen to the music in the Singers’ Hall above. The room is an allusion to the Venus Grotto, where Tannhäuser succumbed to the charms of Venus (a saga illustrated in the next room, the king’s study).

A glass door which opens by sliding down into the “rock” leads from the Grotto to the Conservatory. Through the large glass panes there is an uninterrupted view of the Alpine foothills. The fountain in this room was originally intended for the Moorish Hall on the second floor of the castle.

The tour continues up the spiral staircase to the fourth floor. A palm-tree shaped column ends the main staircase, under a ceiling resembling a starry sky. Next to it is a dragon made of limestone, the “guardian of the tower”. The wall paintings resume the fate of Gudrun, the widow of Sigurd.
A Hall and the so-called Tribune Passage lead to the largest and most important room in the castle, the Singers’ Hall, directly above the grotto. The Singer’s Hall—decorated with The story of the Grail King Parsival, the father of Lohengrin—is the largest room in the castle. Despite its name, it is to serve as a banqueting hall and singers’ hall. In direct contrast is Ludwig’s small personal dining room. The king preferred to dine alone and his meals were transported from the kitchen three floors below through a manually operated lift. The wall pictures in the Dining Room are of the German troubadours or minnesingers. The highlight of this room is the centrepiece of gilt bronze of Sigurd’s fight with the dragon Fafnir.

The tour ends on the ground floor of the kitchen, which has been preserved exactly as it was in Ludwig’s day. However, Ludwig himself enjoyed its services for only two years.

Owing to his eccentricities and his rumored use of state funds (unfounded, since Ludwig actually used his own money to build the castle), Ludwig was removed from power before the castle was completed. He drowned himself soon after (mysteriously) and the castle and its amazing interior were opened to the public.

It was said that at the end of the Second World War, a hoard of gold from the German Reichsbank was stored in the castle, only to be carried off to an unknown place in the last days of the war. Rumors said it was plunged into the nearby Alat lake. Many other stolen items, from gold and antique jewelry to furniture and famous paintings were also stored at the castle. They were destined for Adolf Hitler’s personal collection.

The Walk of Fame

If Hollywood is the place where the dreams are made, the Hollywood Walk of Fame is where they are enshrined. Once the name given to a portion of Hollywood Boulevard in front of the famous theatre-land, now the Walk of Fame, on which is embedded more than 2,000 names of the cinema, zigzags its way through the downtown Hollywood. The Walk is now terminated by the Silver Four Ladies of Hollywood Gazebo, which is topped a small silver statuette of Marilyn Monroe in her infamous pose.

Originally an idea of one Oliver Weismuller, who was hired by Hollywood to give it a “face lift”, the Walk of Fame once had 2,500 blank stars, of which over 1,500 stars were filled during its first sixteen months (in 1960-61). Joanne Woodward had the first star of the Walk. Since then, new stars have been awarded at the rate of approximately two per month.

Each five-pointed terrazzo star has different bronze symbols in its centre: a film camera, a TV, a record, a radio microphone, and comedy/tragedy masks for achievements in film, TV, music, radio and theatre. It is possible to get multiple stars; Bob Hope got three stars for his contributions to three areas of expertise. Gene Autry is the only one who received stars in all five categories.

According to Wikipedia, in order for a person to get a star, he must be nominated, agree to attend the presentation ceremony, and a $15,000 fee must be paid for the maintenance (fee is typically paid by sponsors).

While the new buildings are constructed, the stars are temporarily removed from the sidewalk. The stars of Jimmy Stewart, Kirk Douglas and Gene Autry were thus stolen during a construction project. The only other star to be stolen (of Gregory Peck) however was sawed it out of the sidewalk. To dissuade such crimes, cameras are now placed around the walk.

At the corner of Hollywood and Vine, a special “round star” on each of the four corners commemorates the Apollo 11 astronauts, Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins, and Edwin Aldrin. Disneyland, in honor of its 50th anniversary, was given an honorary star-plaque.

Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, who were seventeen years old at the time they were awarded their star, are the youngest recipients of a star. They are also the only twins on the Walk. Once a nonexistent person named Maurice Diller was given a star on the Walk of Fame. After this was exposed by the Los Angeles Times in the late 1980s, the star was removed. Hedy Lamerr, the Czech icon who was the first to go nude on the silver screen (in the 1920s) and who was notable in her later life for being an inventor, also has a star. Of course, cartoon characters like Mickey Mouse and Woody Woodpecker has stars as well.

This Towery City, This Citadel of Knowledge…

The lady novelists of the previous century will probably begin this piece with an emotional “Last night, I dreamt I went to Oxford again.” I can’t begin a la Daphne du Maurier because I don’t dream of Oxford, nor any other place in particular. It holds various memories for me, but I just don’t dream longingly of “Cuckoo-echoing, bell swarmed, lack-charmed, rock-racked, river-rounded” towery city.

Once the educational behemoth of our Empire, Oxford was founded by a group of discontented and expelled students from University of Paris, so it was supremely ironic when my mom snubbed Oxford to pursue her academic life at Sorbonne. Within its foundation and the 16th centuries, many of nearly-forty colleges that make up the university now were founded, though none admitted women until the beginning of the 20th century.

In Oxford, academic dress is mandatory: it is simple (a gown, a cap, and a neckwear) but it is required for enrollment even. The dress is worn to all the dinners served in the Formal Hall (which vary from every night in some colleges to once a term in others), to chapel, to collections (fancy name for tests) and to matriculation of course. Under these gowns, another set of clothes, called subfusc (dark) is usually worn to formal occasion. Subfusc consists of a dark suit, socks and shoes coupled with white shirt, collar and tie. It is white blouse and dark tie, skirt, stockings, shoes and overcoat for girls. Despite all these restraining dress-codes, the denizens of the university overwhelming voted for the maintaining subfusc in 2006.

Undergraduates of the university are divided into commoners (those without a scholarship) and exhibitioners (those with scholarship fancily called ‘exhibition’). These two parts differ in their dress codes as well, with the latter notably having bell sleeves instead of folded streamers. If a student were to lament this complicated sartorial taste, he must be reminded of more complex dress adherences the faculty and administration have to suffer.

Students may name preferred colleges in their applications, but it is not always that they are put into their first-choices. In graduate levels, the Fellows of a College personally choose the students whose research area appeals to them. Because of the high volume of applications and the direct involvement of the faculty in admissions, students are not permitted to apply to both Oxford and Cambridge in the same year. For admission, knowledge of Ancient Greek was required until 1920, and Latin until 1960.
Oxford was founded with three colleges (University, Balliol, Merton) and Exeter and Oriel followed next. Most Oxford colleges have their equivalent sister colleges in Cambridge. In addition to living in colleges, students can opt to live in private halls, two of which (Blackfriars, Greyfriars) accompanied the university since the founding. Christ Church College is the largest, and had so far produced 16 British Prime Ministers. According to recent lists, fifty heads of state or government studied at Oxford; this includes 25 British Prime Ministers. 47 Nobel prize winners have studied or taught at Oxford. It has produced at least 12 saints, 20 Archbishops of Canterbury, and nine Olympic medal winners.

Academic hierarchy is complex in Oxford. The most senior member of each college is the Head of House, but his title varies from college to college. For instance, Head of the House is a Principal in Brasenose and Jesus, a Warden in All Souls, New College, and Greyfriars, a Master in Balliol, Pembroke, and University, a President in Magdalen, Trinity, and Corpus Christi, a Provost in Oriel, a Dean in Christ Church, a Rector in Lincoln and Exeter, and a Regent in Blackfriars. The list is exhaustive of all titles but not of all colleges. A university tradition is a rivalry between neighboring colleges, most famous between Balliol and Trinity and Christ Church and Pembroke. All colleges are answerable to the Conference of Colleges.

Oxford doesn’t award B.Sc. but only B.A. and B.F.A. (Bachelor of Fine Arts). The degree holders proceed in time (usually 7 years) to a M.A. In post-nominals , the degree is followed by “Oxon.”, short for (Academia) Oxoniensis. In the 1990s, Master of Engineering was introduced for the four-year science programmes. Dubiously named ‘doctorate in divinity’ is the highest degree the university has to offer, closely followed by civil law, medicine, letters and science in that particular order.

Oxford’s structure is collegiate which means it is a federation of various colleges and halls. The university’s formal head is a Chancellor but the position is nominal (same throughout the British Isles). The de facto head is the Vice-Chancellor, aided by five Pro-Vice-Chancellors, which altogether froms The University Council. Two proctors, who are elected annually, supervise discipline.

The academic departments are not affiliated with any particular college and offer independent research, lectures, syllabi and guidelines. Tutorial teaching for which Oxford and Cambridge is known for is organized by individual colleges. Contrary to popular beliefs, most colleges will have a broad mix of academics and students from a diverse range of subjects. University facilities (such as libraries, gyms) are provided on university level, departmental level and college level.

It is the university, not the colleges, that is responsible for degrees. One must pass two sets of examinations: the end of the first year exams called Honour Moderations (Prelims) and the end of the course the Final Honour School (‘Finals’). The academic year is divided into three terms, Michaelmas (Oct-Dec), Hilary (Jan-March) and Trinity (April-June). Academic coaching is for only eight weeks—shorter than any British University. The start of coaching is counted 1st week, 2nd week and so on, until 8th week. Then, when the coaching ends, the numbering during breaks became negative anteceding the 1st week of the succeeding term: like “minus first week” and “noughth week”. Weeks begin on a Sunday. Students are expected to study independently in the three vacations (Christmas, Easter and Long).

Although colleges have endowments, the University itself thrives on research grants. The University approximate has an income of half a billion pounds and the colleges have a quarter of a billion pounds. It is a significantly small operating budget in comparison to rich American Universities, like Harvard and Yale, Oxford is trying to compete.

What to see in Oxford (somewhat plagiarized from my travelogue)

The Bodleian is the main University Library. It hoses Divinity School Room, which has a magnificent vaulted Gothic ceiling. The Radcliff Camera, the most famous of all Oxford structures (a reputation confirmed by the presence of Japanese tourists who take millions of photos of the Camera (pun intended)) was a Baroque attachment which houses English, History, and Theology books. The Bodleian, the second-largest library in the UK, (after the British Library), also spreads over the famous the Old Schools Quadrangle. Its most notable possessions include Shakespeare First Folio and a Gutenberg Bible.

The Sheldonian Theatre, built by Christopher Wren (his first building), hosts the University’s Graduation, Congregation, concerts and other degree ceremonies. The beautiful ceiling inside depicts the triumph of religion, arts and science over envy, hatred, and malice.

The Ashmolean Museum, founded in 1683, is the oldest university museum in the world (and the oldest museum in Britain). It has works by Michelangelo, Leonardo, Turner, Raphael, Bellini, Rembrandt and Picasso, as well as treasures such as the Parian Marble and the 1000-year old Alfred Jewel.
Two of Oxford’s most interesting museums adjoin each other in Parks Road, the University’s Science Area. The Museum of Natural History contains a Tyrannosaurus rex and a stuff dodo—the most complete specimen found anywhere in the world. The museum also houses the office of the Simonyi Professorship of the Public Understanding of Science, currently held by the noted atheist, Richard Dawkins. Adjoining it is the legacy of General Augustus Pitt Rivers to the University: the Pitt Rivers Museum, founded in 1884, which houses the archaeological and anthropological collections.

The Oxford Botanic Garden is the oldest botanic garden in the UK (the third-oldest in the world). Christ Church Picture Gallery holds a collection of over 200 old master paintings.

Note to the cautious

Oxford boasts a Magdalene Road, a Magdalene Street, a Magdalene college & a Magdalene bridge. They are all pronounced Maudlin, and even the word ‘maudlin’ is derived from Mary Magdalene.
Balliol College is pronounced “Bay-lee-ill”, the Bodelian Library is “Bod-lee-inn”, and of course, Worcester (like the sauce and the country) is forever pronounced Wooster (but Oxford pronunciation is usually more guttural.

The River Cherwell is pronounced ‘Charwell’. The River Thames is known as the Isis.
High Street, Broad Street and Turl Street but none others are affixed the definite article ‘The’ before their names: ‘The High’, ‘The Broad’ & ‘The Turl’. ‘Punting’ (rowing) is also a term specific to Oxford; the most famous Oxford regattas are Eights Week (Trinity term), Torpids (Hilary term) and Christ Church (Michaelmas regatta for novices).

Michael Clayton

Human beings are entirely visual creatures: ninety-five percent of information we intake from our environment comes through our eyes, or so it is said. I just finished watching Michael Clayton, and can’t help noticing voices, instead of visually-pleasing sceneries.

It is a George Clooney movie nominated for 7 Oscars including the Best Picture, Director, Actor and Supporting Actress. Tilda Swinton won a deserving Supporting Actress Oscar for her portrayal of a corrupt corporate lawyer Karen Crowder, whose cold veneer hides an insecure feeling about her place in highly-competitive cut-throat world of corporations.

However, the film is not anti-corporate; it is the story of people finding their voices and their true place, and their true values in the society. The inclusion of corrupt U-North, an agriculture corporation whose herbicide has unforeseen carcinogenic effects is merely secondary to three voices that guide the narrative.

There was the voice of Michael (Clooney), the fixer (one who takes care of unsavory conditions in law) who is in deep financial troubles for his gambling; the voice of his mentor Arthur, who switched sides to defend plaintiffs who he is supposed to be antagonizing, and the voice of Michael’s son, the innocent guileless voice absorbed in a fantasy world, which became a guiding light for the entire movie.

Yes, Arthur switches sides, without explanation. His nostalgic voice sometimes laments, sometimes proclaims, sometimes denounces his life, his ambitions and his goals. It is a voice disturbed by the life of a fixer he chose—the similar life like which is being lead by Clayton at the present. Using his limited time and sanity, Arthur tries to dissuade Michael from falling into the same pitfalls as he did.

The movie is neither a legal thriller nor a political thriller; it is not even a thriller at all. The stories from the fantasy world of Michael’s son’s book guide the characters to break free of their unwitting alliances to people with whom they identify; however, whether the people who do so are rewarded remains the other side of the coin. As the late lamented Sidney Pollack who plays Clooney’s superior notes in the movie, people like Arthur and Michael created unique niches for themselves—niches only them can create, and niches from which they can’t run away.

The film has no definite set of morals: it has a bad corporation at the bully pulpit, but the film in no Erin Brockovich. It is likewise named Michael Clayton, and centers on Michael’s world view, and his moral transformation (more like circular shift in morality in fact, since the film itself loops around the narrative) from a tool of his firm to a tool answerable to none but himself. In other words, at the end of the movie, from a mouth that spoke others’ words emerge his own thoughts and his own beliefs.

A good movie never coerces a viewer to agree with it. It neither blatantly puts its message on the table either. Michael Clayton is not only grand but also great because it informs the viewers that it is a movie with a message from the opening monologue, but does not reveal its full plot until well forty minutes into the movie. The movie fittingly ends with a long shot of Michael in a taxi, which ends with his knowing smirk towards the camera. It is as if he is mocking the audience who thinks it understands the message, but in fact not.