Heritagisation: A community will be as a community does.

From Cyril Isnart; Investigador Auxiliar Convidado; Universidade de Évora; Centro Interdisciplinar de História, Culturas e Sociedades; Évora, Portugal; to my friend and mentor Rory Turner to NAC:

The notion of heritage is surely one of the best tools social scientists have at their disposal to analyse how societies deal with their past, especially regarding their complex and ambiguous relationship with history and memory. However, heritage is also a way of constructing our present and locality, in transnational contexts as much as in local communities.

The recent concepts of Biodiversity, Cultural Diversity or Intangible Cultural Heritage proposed by Unesco to defend non-architectural heritage have met with considerable success, reinforce the centrality of such principles as loss, safeguard, and development that have already changed the social and economic landscapes of sites classified as World Heritage.

However, critical views on heritagisation are strikingly uncommon because heritage, either material, natural or immaterial, is often looked upon as authentic or irreducible civilisational testimony, as well as a real powerful tourism-related tool of economic development. Heritage is generally studied and used by specialists in charge of it (curators, politicians, economic agents or associations) as a «corpus» *per se*, to be considered and valorised as a mere ‘civilisational trace’ , cut off from the social, historical and cultural context that produced it. The constitution of museum collections or the publication of Unesco’s world heritage lists are nevertheless the result of an act of classification whose criteria are as much reliant on cultural and historical factors and the people involved in selecting and manipulating heritage, as it has been observed in other social phenomena, such as kinship, religion and economy.

In other words, the potential elevation of natural, material and immaterial items to a heritage status – and the effects this may have – must be taken and analysed as a social fact like any other. The recent development of heritage studies inside academia and the growing interest in heritage outside of it offer an ideal opportunity to think heritagisation as a social practice and a world view, inscribed in the bricolage dynamics that we find thriving between the global and the local, between history, memory and identity.

In other other words, "How does the idea of spending more than $500,000 on restoring the Cardinal Ritter house appear to the residents of the transitional neighborhood surrounding it?" It's not a harsh judgment. It's a question relevant to all of our futures.

Correspondingly, the Ritter House may be a convenient, recent example but the principles are readily transferable.

What do the neighbors think? How did they get to be neighbors? Who will be neighbors five years from now? Who will want to be a neighbor five years from now?

What are we doing to affect that wanting and is it specifically purposeful or disjoint and random?

3. Tale of one city and many breweries and basketball therein.

Lunch at noon at Spezial the day before Christmas Eve turns out to be something that leads elsewhere, namely Mahr's, Schlenkerla and Klosterbrau. Whoa.

And, ending at Fässla to jostle among the high schoolers for carry-out bottles as part of the process of laying in for the holidaze. Whoa again.

Last night's Brose Baskets win over Paderborn was lopsided. Bamberg's team is good, but I can't say that the quality of play was much beyond mid-major college in the States. Entertaining, but limited. I'll remember Casey Jacobsen and Elton Brown, but moreover, I'll remember the way the crowd reacted to the American named Eric Taylor, a European league lifer (born in 1976). Also, there's Predrag Supat, the Serb, who dominated the first half for Brose. Bamberg is a basketball city in German terms. Bob Knight would approve.

I'm fairly blitzed at this point, and will say Tchuss.

The fez sez.

While our senior editor is making clothing decisions in a foreign country, I'm making local decisions based on foreign clothing. This old Shriners fez was recently sold on eBay but unfortunately not to me. Otherwise, I'd be announcing my new title.

It's the third word - Tuckyanna - that intrigues me anyway. It's what we used to be called. As a regional moniker, it strikes a better balance than Kentuckiana and, let's face it, Indyucky is just plain dumb. By comparison, Tuckyanna sounds downright beguiling.

Besides, it's slightly reminiscent of Christiania and our single-street bike lane is beginning to look a little like Copenhagen. When one compares the images conjured by "Denmark" to those by "Kentucky", kin or no kin, I'm with the Danes.

In a nod to those forefathers and mothers who built strong public spaces on both sides of the river and public transit in between, I'm using the name they gave us, hereafter referring to the falls cities in sum total as Tuckyanna. Join me if you like.

2. To buy or not to buy.

Through the ever helpful offices of Bliss Travel, we now have the scoop.

We're in Bamberg, and our bags are still in Paris. They had been rerouted onto a flight Sunday night, which was cancelled. Then, with the northern regions of Europe beset with snow and ice, with resulting snafus, our luggage was placed back in the queue to await storage space on one of Air France's four dailies to Nürnberg, all of which were sold out on Monday and Tuesday.

But it's better knowing than not knowing, and with temperatures now up in the forties and the snow all melted in Bamberg, we spent the morning shopping for a set each of replacement wear and light toiletries. There as yet has not been the first communication from Delta or Air France as to when we might expect to receive our things, and in this uncertain atmosphere, it seems senseless to spend too much until necessary.

Then, when necessary, comes the complete Lederhosen outfit.

Here in an hour or so we'll be heading out to the Jako Arena for a German Bundesliga basketball game between the Bamberg Brose Baskets and Paderborn. Gerhard at the Cafe Abseits, a good beer bar on the east side of town, is a basketball fan and was running a ticket promotion from the cafe. He graciously set aside two, and we visited him at lunch to redeem and chat. I had a fine Helles Bock from Mönchsahmbach and an equally good countryside Rauchbier from a brewery that slips my mind. Will there be beer at the game? We'll know soon enough.

Tomorrow I'm slated to meet beer importer Dan Shelton at Spezial for a summit that should include a visit to Mahr's. All this, and there has not been time to have an Eiche at Schlenkerla. Matthias understands. Spezial has been the attraction thus far, and there's nothing shoddy about that.

1. Apart from one tiny glitch ...

We are safely in Bamberg, but our luggage is not, and only Air France has the information, although CM Coffey still does not and probably never will. If we do not have our bags or a suitable lead by Tuesday, it will be time to buy clothes. Needless to say, this was not a primary reason for us to visit Germany, but so be it.

Know this: German keyboards are different.

üµäö ... although nothing compared to others I have used.

It snowed quite a lot here over the weekend, and temps today probably were in the low twenties. Fortunately, we are staying a stone's throw from both Fässla (the bottling line is just outside our window) and Spezial. Last evening's Ochsenbrust in horseradish sauce with dumpling took a bit of the sting out of wearing the same clothes for 24 hours, now 48, although perhaps it was the gently smoked amber Lagerbier that Spezial does so well.

My initial take on Franconian Christmas: It is festive, and there is much excitement, and even Christmas music in the Biomarkt down the street, but all of it seems to take place without the considerable surface glitz that we enjoy in the States. Decorations are subdued, and very naturalistic for the most part.

More as we go. Tchuss.

Neighborhood Stabilization Program: Stories from other cities.

Thanks to NeighborWorks America for sharing these video NSP stories from partner organizations around the country.


Elkhart & Goshen, IN



St. Louis, MO



Chelsea, MA

Upcoming presentation on blogging, Internet journalism and First Amendment issues.

I ran into Robyn Sekula yesterday and she told me about a forthcoming event that could be of interest to local bloggers, although it's doubtful we'll be seeing Professor Erik or Dan Coffey in attendance.

If this presentation is of interest to you, let me know and I'll provide you the contact information or forward your thoughts to Robyn.

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So you’ve posted a new item on your web site or blog. Comments began pouring in. But one commenter says that the main story subject beats his wife. Can you edit that? Can you delete it? What if you do nothing and the comment goes live – can you be sued? And does it make a difference if the person who posts the comment is anonymous?

Noted media and first amendment attorney Jon L. Fleischaker will guide you through these murky waters in a noon presentation for the Society of Professional Journalists. The event will be held Tuesday, January 26, at Louisville Public Media, 619 S. Fourth Street, in the performance studio. The program is $10 for SPJ members, $12 for non-members and includes a box lunch and drink from City Café.

Don’t miss your opportunity to learn how to handle this emerging media problem from the foremost expert on First Amendment issues in the region. SPACE IS LIMITED. Deadline for reservations is Thursday, January 21.

You lose some, and then you lose some.

"I tawt I taw a potty police!"

"I did! I did taw a potty police!"

Yvonne Kersey avoids jail time, by Chris Morris (News and Tribune)

Former New Albany mayoral candidate Yvonne Kersey avoided jail time Thursday after pleading guilty to maintaining a common nuisance, a class D felony, but had three other charges against her, possession of marijuana, dealing marijuana and possession of paraphernalia, dropped.

That's an improvement.

(photo credit ... MK)

Open Thread: City council meeting of Thursday, December 17.

The Tribune's Daniel Suddeath provides coverage of last evening's council meeting. It looks like our mercifully outgoing council president fought yet another losing battle with familiarity of his body's procedures ... not to mention the council's.

Council says no to flooding, police funding requests

Council President Dan Coffey — who along with Gahan and McLaughlin voted to allocate the $400,000 for flood victims — said the council has helped developers and businesses and should help residents that have suffered this year.

Messer called for Coffey to either relinquish his president’s chair or follow Robert’s Rules of Order, which frown on the president offering comments while the council is debating an issue.

Robert’s Rules of Order were accepted by the council in 1957 and amended to the form OK’d by the body in 1992.

My opinion: New Albany's city council should address the fundamental problems with drainage, and ditch the Kris Kringle garb.

Yesterday’s Tribune article previewing tonight’s 2009 city council finale cannot be found on-line at this time, so forgive me for not linking to reporter Daniel Suddeath’s article.

His coverage begins with a rhetorical question: A council that typically refuses to approve stormwater and sewer fees commensurate with the cost of their governing bodies being able to do their jobs correctly is being asked to spend $400,000 in the form of a bailout, with monies to be given to people who suffered damages from the year’s floods.

As such, is the money better spent as one-time compensation for damages, or as part of a properly funded effort to fix the problem so it (perhaps) doesn’t happen again?

We know the tale: It rained quite a lot at various times in 2009. On more than one occasion, the sheer volume of water pouring from the skies led to flooding in certain New Albanian neighborhoods. Some of the damage resulted from run-off, and some of it from overwhelmed storm water drainage and sewage systems.

Subsequently, in a process that is ongoing, those suffering damages from flooding have sought numerous forms of redress, ranging from claims against their own insurance policies to tort claims filed with the city’s carrier, and including applications to federal and state agencies for relief and assistance. Without assembling an actual scorecard, it would seem that these efforts have resulted in mixed success, if even that much.

Perhaps there is a reason for that, and perhaps not.

Particularly after storms in early August, the city council chamber became the chosen venue for citizen gatherings and petitions, and that’s fitting, proper and perfectly understandable. What is less understandable to me is the council’s apparent eagerness to accept the city’s responsibility for a state of affairs that is far more complex than pointing pudgy fingers at various elected and appointed officials.

Not that I don't feel badly for the waterlogged. As previously stated, I’ve been there and done that. When my ex-wife and I bought our house off Castlewood in 1997, there were foot-high water marks on the concrete walls in the unfinished basement. The message was fairly clear to us, and within weeks of moving in, these marks were exceeded in height. Rest assured that we had not laid carpet or put up drywall in the interim.

But: Does the act of distributing “one-time” (until the next time?) checks in the form of a transparently and politically expedient bailout really do anything at all to address root causes of the issue, especially the eternal preference of the grandstanders on the council to exclusively blame developers and zoning conspiracies for the drainage problems rather than realizing that each and every one of us has acquiesced in the way this city has been developed and redeveloped over the years?

Citywide involvement and input might be helpful in advancing responsible development, but it must occur during the boring times when anger isn't dominating the discussion.

More importantly, isn’t it true that the same politicians who have loudly decrying storm water damage have also habitually voted against equitable funding solutions for stormwater and sewers?

As such, are they prepared to blame themselves along with favored targets in City Hall?

That would be refreshing, and it’s as likely as Miller Lite somehow developing flavor.

In Suddeath’s article, John Gonder seems to be the councilman who is taking these points most rationally. Let’s hope his viewpoint resonates among the others, because the precedent of the bailout is not a very good one. If the money is to be spent at all, it should be spent on addressing and repairing the cause, and accompanied by a rate increase that’s enough to assist in the effort. Masquerading as Santa Claus is not the correct response, but if you walk into the meeting room tonight and see Jeff Gahan dressed in red …

Today's Tribune column: "Muh-muh-muh-my thesaurus."

He he he.

From the very beginning, I've referred to my weekly Tribune column as "Beer Money," followed by the title of the specific piece.

"Beer Money" was Bluegill's suggestion, one made after I griped about the pay scale, and he observed that it still was enough pocket change to buy beer. However, 49 straight times, the words "Beer Money" were omitted before the column was published on-line -- that is, until today. I doubt that the physical newspaper reflects this, but no matter. To me, it's always been beer money, and always will be.

In fact, I believe I'll throw caution to the wind and spend this week's paycheck on beer. I wonder if the Alabama state pension system might consider paying me in Euros?

BEER MONEY: Muh-muh-muh-my thesaurus

Much like your brand new puppy, these anonymous character assassins simply haven’t yet been trained, but unfortunately, cute little Fideaux has a statistically better chance of being taught to refrain from soiling the carpet than his “mad as hell” human owner.

Latest exhibitions at the on-line Gamborg Gallery.

Regular readers know that from time to time, I reintroduce my friend Allan Gamborg, Danish by birth and a longtime resident of Moscow, who has enjoyed much success in his "second" (third? fifth?) career as a purveyor and advocate of Soviet-era art and artists.

Use the handy search feature with "Gamborg," and see previous postings. The format's usually the same, and it's always worth a few minutes to peruse the art. You need not be a Commie to enjoy the links to Allan's on-line galleries.

As in the past, permit me to thank Allan for his boundless hospitality and to share his latest posting.

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Dear Friends,

We have a series of new exhibitions on the Gamborg Gallery on the web:

THEMES

Artists’ Double Lives in the Soviet Union
In the Soviet Union many artists led a double life. On the one hand, they earned their state commissions and a right for a decent studio to work, and on the other hand they painted according to their personal interests and passions. This exhibition confronts these two sides for a number of artists of the Soviet period. We show the artists Sergei Nikiforov (monumental socialist works vs church frescos), Roman Zhitkov (book illustrations vs landscapes), Boris Sholokhov (industrial themes vs. portraits), Mikhail Rojter, Nikolai Tereshenko (political posters vs landscapes), Boris Dyatlov (monumental communist murals vs landscapes), Vadim Volikov (political poster vs landscapes), Veniamin Briskin (political posters vs landscapes), Boris Uspensky (political posters vs ballet).

Russian Folk Tales
Soviet artists often depicted the classic Russian folk tales, for example “Brother Ivanushka and Sister Alyonushka”, “The Crane and the Heron”, “Vasilisa the Wise”, “The Little Hump-Backed Horse”, “The Fox and the Hare”, “The Tower Room”, “The Bean Seed”, “The Flying Ship”, “The Frog Prince”, “The Turnip”, “The Three Bears”. We show works by artists Evgenia Endrikson, Natalia Gippius, and Dmitrii Dmitriev.

ARTISTS

Dmitrii Minkov (1908-1998)
Well-known Moscow graphics artist and book illustrator. Worked with industrial themes, mainly with illustration and drawings from the coal industry, including the Donbass.

Konstantin Lekomtsev (1897-1977)
Konstantin Lekomtsev studied at the famous VKhuTeMas institute. Amongst his teachers were Geramisov, Kardovskii, Falk and Fyodorov. In the early 1930's he taught at the Perm Art College, where he met his future wife Natalia Gippius (1905-1995). They later worked together on various graphic arts and lithography projects at the famous VKhuTeMas Institute in Moscow. In the early 1930's he mainly painted genre landscapes, inspired by the Russian avant-garde. In the late 1930's he adopted a form of "soft" socialist realism, to be seen in a series of genre portraits. He is famous for his portraits of the 1950's in the classical Russian realism style. During this period he painted many children and young people.

Pyotr Ossovsky (Born 1925)
Pyotr Pavlovich Ossovsky studied at the Surikov institute under Gerasimov. Famous landscape and genre painter, as well as graphics artist. In 2005 he became a member of the Academy of the Fine Arts.

BOOK ILLUSTRATIONS

Go - I Don't Know Where, and Bring Back - I Don't Know What
Original watercolour illustrations from 1949 by Evgenia Endrikson to Russian folk tale in Aleksei Tolstoy's retold version: "Поди туда - не знаю куда, принеси то - не знаю что" (Go - I Don't Know Where, and Bring Back - I Don't Know What)

Fairytales by Hans Christian Andersen
Original watercolour illustrations from 1954 by Marina Uspenskaya to famous Danish storyteller. The book was issued in German.

Lace from Vyatsk
Original gouache illustrations from 1982 by Marina Uspenskaya to book by Stanislav Romanovskii "Вятское кружево", issued by Detskaya Literatura.

Enjoy the shows !

Sad, but there it is.

Today, our mad-as-Health blogger, who on widely scattered occasions manages to wipe the foam from his mouth and venture a blog post on esoteric topics like health, as opposed to the vicious monolithic ungodly left-wing campaign to dictate the color and flavor of therapeutic Jolly Ranchers, tackles the topic of anonymity.

Why Anonymity

Anonymity is sometimes criticized on this and other blogs. But there are legitimate reasons why anonymity is at times appropriate.

After this bland beginning, the formerly pseudonymous (when it suited hospital politics) Dr. Dan rapidly and paranoically devolves to regular form, presenting a lengthy, verbatim recitation of a Heritage Foundation missive on Proposition 8 in California, one depicting brave resistance fighters ducking down hinged plastic tree stumps leftover from the Hogan's Heroes set in order to evade nazi-like Obama-ist harassment and complete their holy mission of sticking it to the non-Biblical gays in the name of theocracy.

We constantly read these logic-as-twisting-mountain-goatpath polemics to anonymity as the very epitome of courage, but what floors me is how people otherwise disposed to exalt manly virtues never quite get around to explaining why standing tall behind one's name isn't indicative of similar ethical principles.

Maybe that's hypocrisy, or maybe it's cowardice, but either way, it's no place I want to be.

Then again, I'm not the one screaming bloody murder while tumbling through space somewhere on the fringe of a paranoid conspiracy theory.

Seborgan prince dead at 73.

There's a lesson here, because somewhere on Shelby, "King" Larry is thinking, hmm, wish I'd thought of establishing undiplomatic relations with him ...

Giorgio Carbone, Elected Prince of Seborga, Dies at 73, by Douglas Martin (New York Times)

After convincing his Seborgan neighbors of their true significance, Giorgio Carbone was elected prince in 1963. He gracefully accepted the informal title of His Tremendousness, and was elected prince for life in 1995 by a vote of 304 to 4. Voters then ratified Seborga’s independence, which, by the prince’s interpretation, it already had.

(Re)cycling idea(l)s.

Streetfilms again. Copenhagen again.

Open thread: Think of it as our local version of the hot stove league.

Where does New Albany Township Little League's hope for a new baseball complex fit, in the sense of many competing funding requests (and fund drives) locally?

If they don’t fund it, will it come?, by Daniel Suddeath (News and Tribune).

Mayor Doug England is supporting it, but the New Albany City Council could throw New Albany Township Little League a curveball as it pertains to building a new baseball and softball complex.

Not only that, Patricia, but I get paid for it, too.

The following letter to the editor appeared in last week’s Tribune, perhaps on Tuesday, although it was not archived on-line.

Note the header, and the complete absence of a connection between it and the muddled thinking of the writer. What if I titled this post, "Another satisfied reader of NA Health?"

Three cheers to Mr. Dave Matthews

I thought of writing several times, but couldn’t come up with enough 12- to 15-letter words that would meet Mr. Columnist’s standards. Yes, he has his rights via the First Amendment, but to me the garbage he writes is legal slander. I can’t believe the paper continues to let him use them. They should tell him to shape up or ship out.

If he finds New Albany and its people such a bad and corrupt place to live, he should pack his bags and be on the next plane to a place that acts and thinks as he does.

P.S. As I believe there is some good in everyone, his article on his trip to Germany was readable.

--Patricia Elliott, Sellersburg

Er, if it's slander as such, then it's illegal, as opposed to legal, right?

Moreover, isn’t it amazing how often we hear Americans thundering about the Constitution when it comes to saving a few bucks in taxes to buy more plastic Chinese trinkets at Wal-Mart, but when the notion of free speech comes into play, speedily tossing the holy founding document aside like so much used toilet paper?

Elinor Ostrom: Sustainable commons, suckers, and diverse institutions.

Elinor Ostrom of Indiana University recently won the Nobel Prize in Economics for good reason. City Council Member John Gonder wrote about her conceptual framework as well and, as always, we hope his good thoughts continue on from blog pages into council chambers.

Here, in a brief lecture presented by the Stockholm Resilience Centre as part of their Stockholm whiteboard seminars, Ostrom explains "how people can use natural resources in a sustainable way based on the diversity that exists in the world."

Her focus on local knowledge of complex systems and trust as central tenants of successful resource management - and I would add built resources to a long list of natural ones - begs for more universal application. Replace the word "meadow" with "riverfront" or "neighborhood" and she could be talking about metro Louisville as easily as alpine agriculture.

We surely suffer from our share of anti-social types who would make suckers of us in exchange for a quick, short-lived buck, but I've been encouraged as of late by the increasing number of people I've been meeting who see value not just in our physical commons but in the development of community around them. It's that strength in community that will ultimately save us, perhaps from ourselves at times with diversity of thought, but most certainly from petroleum-based replacement schemes and the pernicious, individual selfishness they represent.

As we move away from a model concerned with who's wrong to one of who's most right, Ostrom's explanation, beautiful in its simplicity, is even worthier of engagement in New Albany as well as Stockholm.

Today in beer.

There is much enrichment on today's beer calendar, none of which has anything to do with college basketball's core fraudulence:

Today's Anstich keg at the Public House: Hartmann Märzen ... plus, today's NABC events.

I've found that a glass full of good beer helps the NCAA's hypocrisy go down, so feel free to join NABC at various points throughout the day. Chef Josh's Cuisine a la Biere at Bank Street Brewhouse helps, too.

We might allow you to watch the games.