And Gutenberg Lived Here: Culture On Demand

Gutenberg City is known for Roman centurions,

and Legions,

and monuments,

and the Roman,

Drusus,

who supposedly introduced wine to Germany.

Culture?

Since I spend a lot of my life here in Gutenberg City stumbling over

dinosaurs bone excavation spots,

trying to get across an impenetrable street to get to a bus stop,

or circling to find a parking spot

where what used to be my parking lot is now home to local archeologists,

trying to save:

the bones of the local Robin Hood,

several large Roman ships and their cargos,

the oldest  amphitheater north of the Alps,

a sixth century Merovingian church,

under the already oldest chapel in GC…

And that is just the beginning.

There are:

Roman aqueduct

that carried hot water from the sulphur springs in Finthen,

downhill to the Roman Officers’ baths in Gutenberg City.

And caused a huge amount of grief and problems to the locals

until they could be carefully blocked out and preserved

in what is now called the Roman Stones Park,

and is now causing grief to the city planners trying to run a narrow-gauge

train between their pillars.

And then we have the  blocked the work of the local construction crews,

trying to put up:

extensions to the Hilton,

including a casino,

a parking lot for the local Woolworth’s,

which ended up delivering a huge Isis and Magna Mater temple,

now called the Isis Passage.

Although perhaps,

despite the fact that the political organization Isis

is called IS over here,

still not such a great choice in modern times,

and probably the reason the locals still say Woolworth’s Passage.

Then there are all the fascinating trends that come out of the research.

A local historical reconstruction group of interesteds,

plus professors and students from different departments of the U,

spend their weekends trying out ancient weaponry

and armour,

fighting techniques,

ancient food recipes,

some of it not so bad.

(But somehow fermented fishhead sauce on grain and vinegar in water

isn’t really my thing.)

Not that the soldiers weren’t fit,

but somehow, I think the smell of all of that,

plus cabbage and garlic…

Maybe that’s why they bathed in sulphur water.

Still, we have museums and more museums here-

of

all things Roman,

bizarre and fascinating science specimens,

like exponents of all kinds of beetles,

including a miniature model of a VW beetle no one noticed until about a year ago

and now one of the most popular exhibits,

a museum of the local way of life,

maps,

beautiful historic paintings…

Culture ?

And, of course, the number of historic churches is massive.

As are the huge stone buildings themselves.

Religious and classical music?

Absolutely abound here.

with concerts somewhere in one of the churches every weekend,

and often even during the week.

Germany claims to have over a million singers,

gospel singers claim there are nearly that many gospel singers.

I feel, from the work load as a singer and conductor,

there are probably nearly that many

right here in Gutenberg land.

So you add all of this together,

and you get culture, right?

Uhm, right?

So why, then, are there ads in the local internet pages

asking for you to sign up for “culture on demand,”

a local underground movement to:

since live music, especially pop music on a big scale,

has gotten expensive,

and pop-jazz fans,

as opposed to classic fans,

have gotten a bit lazy,

and prefer to download,

unless a concert is directly in their area,

bring the big live groups directly to Gutenberg City

with internet petitions

and chat rooms

and working together behind the scenes.

Groups like:

are you ready?

Justin Bieber.

Or Kiss.

Or even the Kiss cover band.

Culture?

Now if it were Herman’s Hermits…..

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