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That was a hell of a lot of piccolo players

4 o'clock, March 7, 2006

For those of you wondering what Basel looks like: A lot of the time it looks like this.

Figure 1. The Rathaus, Marktplatz, Basel.

On the other hand, there’s the way it looked yesterday evening.

Figure 2. A selection of revelers.

Fasnacht started yesterday, at some God-awful hour, with giant lanterns and whatnot, which I missed on account of having gone to bed a couple of hours earlier, but by the time I dragged myself out, it was still . . . well . . . something.

Figure 3. A couple of Guggemusik bands. Much more entertaining to listen to than the piccolo players. Glowing eyes are apparently de rigeur.

Figure 4. ¡Cuidado! ¡Llamas! (With piccolos and, it would appear, tracheotomies.)

(More later.)

Comments

Awesome pictures. And I'm glad to see our Cabbage Leaf Overlords are finally coming forward to take responsibility.

And David, did you get my email?

—— Jon, 6:54 AM, Tuesday, March 7, 2006

It's like Disneyland there. I have to keep this a secret from the Japanese, or they'll be moving into Basel soon.

—— Chris Barzak, 6:58 AM, Tuesday, March 7, 2006

It’s only once a year, or they’d probably be over here already. :)

Jon, no -- you sent it to allstarstories.com or chrononaut.org, I'm guessing? I have hopes of restoring regular access to those accounts in the next couple of days, but I haven't been able to check them since what would be... Sunday morning, your time.

—— David Moles, 7:07 AM, Tuesday, March 7, 2006

Jon, no -- you sent it to allstarstories.com or chrononaut.org, I'm guessing?

You are correct. Basically, I lost the SASE for my proofs (because I'm an idiot, it seems) and need to get Susan's mailing address. I've emailed her at her sugarspun.net account, but to no avail. Any advice?

—— Jon, 7:13 AM, Tuesday, March 7, 2006

Dave - want me to forward chrononaut/allstar mail somewhere else? I can probably much around and do that.

—— aphrael, 9:21 AM, Tuesday, March 7, 2006

Dude, you missed Morgestraich? What kind of expatriate do you call yourself?!?

:-)

Okay, on the fourth Monday in November, though, you need to take the train to Bern for Zibelemarit, the onion festival. Trust me. You've never seen onions like these before. Also the "throw confetti into people's mouths as they try to eat onion pies" game. Not to be missed.

—— Benjamin Rosenbaum, 10:04 AM, Tuesday, March 7, 2006

But what about the "throw onions into people's mouths as they try to eat confetti pies" game? Is that a must-see, as well?

—— Ted, 1:34 PM, Tuesday, March 7, 2006

Got it! Writing back! Sorry, my email's been... not getting lost, but getting badly mis-filed due to a mishap with my spam filters. Am working on fixing the problem.

—— Susan, 3:03 PM, Tuesday, March 7, 2006

Ah yes, the piccolo-playing stoma-llamas of Basel. Time to retire that old cliche.

—— Barth, 5:56 AM, Wednesday, March 8, 2006

I'm struggling with the ritual magico-religious significance of the white plastic lawn chairs.

So far I got nothing.

—— Dave Schwartz, 9:05 AM, Wednesday, March 8, 2006

I'm sorry. I thought I was reading your blog, but apparently I'm hallucinating instead.

—— Hannah, 8:38 PM, Friday, March 10, 2006

The categories are not necessarily exclusive.

—— David Moles, 4:29 AM, Monday, March 13, 2006