critical times

awkward. i was just discussing a few days ago with people from london the fact that i feel like living in the outskirts of the empire. they were telling all kind of stories, e.g. about how they notice during everyday life the effect of the finance crisis, whereas to me, being in good old heidelberg and still embedded in the soft cage of academia, the crisis hasn't been much more than big titles in the news. ok, london-heidelberg is not much of a comparison, but still, kind of makes pretty clear the idea of detachment from society that we experience here. and then, after complaining about not seeing the effects of the crisis around me (what a selfish thought, but still) i ended up in front of one of my favourite stores here in town, which is also an art gallery and, incidentally, a link in the right column of this blog: the bourgeois pig, and they were dismantling it. i thought damn, here's the effect of the crisis. art clearly doesn't sell during such times, i thought. i went on their website and found the title of their last exhibit, which is in german but would sound like "art is dead, long live to art"... pretty clear message, isn't it? apparently they're just moving, though the lack of clear information makes it look more serious. the crisis has reached good old heidelberg. or maybe their rent deal was just over. whatever. good luck guys :)