Rachel goes to Germany
Rachel, an intern at Bertelsmann HR Services North America in New York City will travel to Germany to film different aspects of Bertelsmann life.
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During the months of January, February, and March, Rachel will travel to cities like Hamburg, Berlin, and Gütersloh and meet with several profressionals from the Bertelsmann family. We wish Rachel safe travels and can't wait for her return with priceless film footage.
Rodin and Notre Damn
15. March 2009 @ 01:11 · Assigned to Culture, On The Road Again
The two best Parisian experiences were visiting the Cathedral of Notre Damn and the Rodin Museum.Notre Damn is in enormous and intricate cathedral built over almost 200 years and completed in about 1345. The impressive stained glass was added later during the 1600s. The Cathedral is very well maintained - no blemishes or cracks in the painting. After having seen many large cathedrals and churches in the past two months and previously having lived near St. John the Divine in New York, each individual construction becomes less exciting and new. However, I entered the cathedral mid-mass. The voices of the choir wearing royal blue robes resonated through every chamber of the cathedral. Others performing the mass wore white robes and deep Cerise robes. The constrast of this vivid tones with the grey stone of the Cathedral and the evening light through the dark stained glass was moving.
My last stop in Paris was the Rodin museum: http://www.musee-rodin.fr/welcome.htm
Rodin is my kind of sculptor: thoughtful, dark, and humane.
I am drawn to Rodin because of how honestly and fallibly he portays humanity and even his own craft. I was really moved by his peice "Three Shades" were pictures three of the same scultped man group at different angles. The three figures stetch their right hands into the center of the arrangement, their torsos, knees, and heads tilting towards this central point. In Rodin's writings about the peices, he states that in this peices he veers from the focus in antiquity on how light illuminates humanity and instead expresses how the shades and shadows shapes humanity. I visited this peice, placed in the museum garden, just as the days rain paused. The droplets of water exagereted the light/dark/bronze constrast of the three figures.
Probably Rodin's best known peice, The Thinker:
Victor Hugo
Monument to the Burghers of Calais.
The Thinker from a distance with Les Invalides in the background.
The museum also house a collection of Camille Claudel's work, both the student and lover of Rodin. During my visit, the museum had a special exhibition of her work including a piece depicting Rodin leaving her for his long time wife. Interesting to see for the vulnerable emotion and also for the inherent critique of Rodin as an individual even in a museum dedicated to his work and success.
Post keywords: sculpture , art , paris , rodin , cathedral , Notre Damn , stained glass
Saint Sulpice fountain
15. March 2009 @ 00:01 · Assigned to Culture, On The Road Again
Only having two days in Paris and having hit up the major tourist attractions (Eiffel Tower, Louvre, Notre Damn) already, I wanted to spend my time as fully as possible. I'd heard fanastic things about the ,Paris Catacombs. The Catacombs were developed at the end of the 1700s run below the streets of Paris and contain the remains of millions of bodies. Some personal background, I have many 'fears': heights, depths, sharks... you know, the usual. At the beginning of my European adventure, I faced my fear of heights, despite a shaky metal staircase, strong winds, and snow, at the Dom in Cologne. The feeling of reaching the top of the tower and seeing the Rhine and all of Cologne was euphoric. Seeing as how my travels have taken me to new places and new discoveries, I thought my next challenge would be to visit the Catacombs as I'm also very interested in underground structures (like the subway tunnels under Manhattan, which stretch for over 90 stories underground much of which is not actually used for transportation). Plus, the scientist Antoine Lavoisier, the father of modern chemistry the man who was able to show the role of oxygen is respiration for plants and animals and clearly detail the composition of water, is buried in the Catacombs.
I descended the stairs to a small white underground room. Immediately, one notices the humidity increase. The first chamber is very well lit and contains a museum plaques with information. After the first room, I entered a small passageway probably no more than 6.5 feet high and the width of 2-3 people. Small lights were placed along the walls every 10-15 feet. I immediately became a little nervous. The passageways of the Catacombs run for a significant distance, taking almost 1 hour to walk. However, there are many twists and turns, so, at any given point only one or two groups are in a passageway together. I tried to stick close to the French couple in front of me. Intermitently, the passageways change to narrow openings with rock carving. After 20 minutes or so of walking the stone walls are replaced with the collection of human bones, arranged and stacked. Here, the visitors were more congested and a few guides for the attraction pitched in some facts. This is also where the dampness of the Catacombs significantly increases and water begins to drip from the ceilings. Throughout the arrangement of bones are monuments to specific remains and large carvings with French inscriptions on the topic of death.
The catacombs were very different than anything I'd seen before. I think mostly because they were specifically designed by humans and took such a curatorial yet haphazard approach to human remains. There is a simultaneous precision in how the bones are stacked yet at the same time unmarked without regard to specific individual identity.
After my underground experience, I walked through the streets of Paris, stopping for coffee at the fountains outside of Saint Sulpice.
Here many young people come to play soccer, couples to talk, and travelers like me to take in the atmosphere.
Catching a pigeon in flight:
Enjoying the gloomy clouds by the Saint Sulpice fountains.
Post keywords: Paris , public art , lions , catacombs , underground
DU LOUVRE
13. March 2009 @ 23:40 · Assigned to Culture
In Paris, taking on high art with my digital camera...
You enter the museum through the pyramid and find yourself in a high-ceilinged enormous museum. I was moved by the architecture more than the art, especially the sculpture hall whose ceilings rose almost 3 stories with multiple landings for display. What it must take to sit down and envision a building like this before laying a single stone...
My favorite peices in the museum:
for the figure in the shadow: La Jeune Martyre by Paul DELAROCHE: http://cartelfr.louvre.fr/cartelfr/visite?srv=car_not_frame&idNotice=22730
and for the light and movement: Victoire de Samothrace: http://www.louvre.fr/llv/oeuvres/detail_notice.jsp?CONTENT%3C%3Ecnt_id=10134198673225805&CURRENT_LLV_NOTICE%3C%3Ecnt_id=10134198673225805&FOLDER%3C%3Efolder_id=9852723696500817&baseIndex=11&bmLocale=fr_FR
In the gardens basking in the sunset
Post keywords: Paris , Art , Architecture ,
Painting Paris Red
13. March 2009 @ 23:40 · Assigned to Culture
More sites and facets of republicanismregal
lions, lions, lions
capturing as much of paris as possible before the rain
Interview Tour Map
My newest travel adventure! Check back to hear about my travels in details:Gütersloh to Paris (4 days) to London (1 day) to Munich (2 days) to Leipzig (1 afternoon) to Berlin (1 day) and back to Gütersloh!
see my travel map http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=101531745695106874032.000465067deff7fe7bf5f&t=h&z=4
Post keywords: tour , europe , travel , culture , location , map
in the Spotlight
Some photos from the HR Summit in Berlin in January taken by the fantastic Bertelsmann photographer.Judith and I interviewing a colleague from Random House in Spain. She was amazing. Big tip on Madrid: walk the city so you can take it all in.
Akademie Der Künste complete with two of my colleagues from HR Strategy
Judith in action at the HR Summit
sweet view
Karlsruhe
This weekend, I traveled to Karlruhe to see family. The train trip was long: 5 hours. But the train tracks ran next to wide rivers for 80% of the journey. It was well worth the trip, despite the rainy weather in Karlsuhe.It was great to see family and have a good home cooked meal:
preparing for dinner...
Had quark at breakfast, a lot like cream cheese but lighter and better. Lecker!
Managed to fit in some site-seeing:
The Karlsruhe pyramid:
and ZKM: http://www.zkm.de/ Museum of Art and Media Technology.
ZKM is housed in an old industrial warehouse. Well-suited for expansive and somewhat industrial technological installations. I visited the exhibit: YOU_ser: Das Jahrhundert des Konsumenten (http://www02.zkm.de/youser/). It was not my favorite exhibit, I was not fundamentally surprised or impressed by anything. However, the process of cataloguing and placing relatively recent media products (many produced for consumption/play or developed in conjunction with those goals) into the sphere of curated art was very interesting.
Saw the curious case of Benjamin Button (in german) at the oldest movie theatre in Karlruhe. The theatre had glass chandeliers and red carpets. It felt like a premier. I was stunned by Benjamin Button. LOVED IT. and did ot expect to love it... Oh David Fincher, how do you do it?!
Post keywords: Karlsruhe
Hype
23. February 2009 @ 22:37 · Assigned to Film
On Friday, Alexandra Horst (xing profile: https://www.xing.com/profile/Alexandra_Horst2) one of my colleagues from Bertelsmann Recruiting Services was a LEGEND. We did a multi-camera shoot for a new FAQ video starring Alex. I'll say it again: LEGEND.Alex being a champ
in action
exhausted
me trying to take a picture of myself... mostly successful
Editing is already well underway... hope to have it up soon. check back.
plugged-in
23. February 2009 @ 22:25 · Assigned to Culture
its official. i'm plugged into twitter. check out my profile: http://twitter.com/R_JulkowskiI've had mixed feelings about the personal and professional applications of twitter. In part I think twitter (and other networks) make possible a celebrity society, where each individual is his or her own press representative. However, as we become hyper-connected, I think we also become hyper-aware (of certain things). This is not an argument that the web 2.0-ized are more informed, better read, or even more emotionally healthy. But we are more aware. The challenge of the status update and how it is updated is the challenge of how to create an identity or as this article suggests, the crisis of not having a strong independent identity: http://gawker.com/5158699/i-tweet-therefore-i-am (a
-- for now, I will overlook the issue of twitter terminology: does anyone else feel uncomfortable with the term Following?
Twitter is half narcissistic press release half a sharing is caring circle.
About a week into my digital profile these are my top 4 highlights:
1. Following NPR on Twitter - hourly updates with commentary and links
2. Reading Rainn Wilson's (dwight from the office (US)) twitter page. He updates regularly and it is out of control
3. Urban Dictionary, today's word: Spicey Edit: When telling a story to friends, you realize that the story you are telling isn't as cool as you thought it was when you first started, and decide to edit it with exaggerations or lies to make it sound more interesting.
4. Judith asking if her twitter page was too purple
Here is Judith showing off her v. purple home page:
is it too purple people?
My page is, of course, black/grey with high contrast orange lettering.
you can also read some of my Bertelsmann colleagues:
- Gero Hesse: http://twitter.com/gerohesse
- Miodrag Perin: http://twitter.com/miodragsperin
- Christian Vasquez: http://twitter.com/cvasqu1
- Freddie Helrich: http://twitter.com/fhelrich
- Judith Charles: http://twitter.com/Judith_CYOC
- Create Your Own Career: http://twitter.com/BertelsmannCYOC
These are great sites to hear updates about Bertelsmann, job openings, and to learn about what makes these employees tick.
Wine Country
18. February 2009 @ 20:39 · Assigned to On The Road Again
Back in Gütersloh from the overnight at Oestrich-Winkel in the wine region and near to Frankfurt. Here is Judith looking up the code for our roomkeys on her blackberry.
And then shoked by the keys dropping... keep in mind it was actually really dark and surprising.
The sun just about to rise out of the hotel window
Then, many pictures from the road:
Yes, I am still obsessed with the windmills. Also, curious about why they aren't as prolific across the US landscape.
Post keywords: -
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