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Window Mural at the new Catholic Cathedral
and the Freeway Intersection in Downtown LA
2004
Winter
Visitors
Barbara in Hamburg
Southwest Tour with Margit
Rolf
and Barbara in Greece
Christmas with Cornelius Anne-Cecile Ulysse
and Jenny
Entries
from our Desk Calendar
Visitors to the City of Angels
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We now have two new attractions to take our visitors to: Gehry's Walt Disney Philharmomic Hall and the new Catholic Cathral by the Spanish architect Jose Rafael Moneo. Gehry's building is fabulous. The cathedral - simultaneously the mausoleum and show piece for embattled Cardinal Michael Mahoney - is not. But it has a glass wall overlooking Santa Anna Freeway and its downtown intersection with the Hollywood Freeway - which is wonderful.
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For some years Julia Kempe, the daughter of Noemi in Graz has intrigued us by her intelligence and femininity. This moody photo was taken when she stayed a few days with us shortly after getting her second PhD in Astrophysics from Berkely. Six months earlier she had passed a doctorate in Mathematics at the Sorbonne in Paris! She is very modest about this feat and all but a bluestocking.
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Carolyn Forrest, Illa's daughter and Barbara's beloved godchild has had a more difficult time. During the year she finally found herself a position as co-pilot of a private Lear Jet and is zooming around the country at 45 000 ft with her real-estate boss She lives near Oceanside and visits us, her second parents often. We love her dearly.
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And then there is our old friend Fritz Keilmann from München who every year spends a few days with us before one of his physics conferences. This time he lured his wife Sigrun along, who seldom travels as far as California because of a serious problem with the veins in her legs.
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Fritz, the son of a composer, is, besides being a highly imaginative physicst, a great music afficionado. We took them to see Ghery's building and Sigrun managed to sneak into the concert hall, while Fritz garnered 2 rare tickets for a Salonen concert. He and I went there in the evening - and sceptical Fritz - “LA symphony? and who is Salonen ?” - returned impressed by the orchester and the acoustics. - It was also my first concert in this wonderful hall, which we have now been to for numerous memorable concerts.
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Barbara
in Hamburg (Lilo's 80th Birthday), Tübingen and Ivrea
20
April 20 – 15 May 15, 2004
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The Lattmanns love big family gatherings. This time it was Lilo's 80th birthday, and Barbara flew to Hamburg full of happy expectations. The celebration took place in a guesthouse in der Heide south of Hamburg. The following rare photos show some of the elegantly dressed family - Lilo appears only on one aside. Sorry, I was not there.
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Barbara
in Tübingen
8 -10 May, 2004
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Subsequently
Barbara spent a few days with Marga, who is 91 and shy of being
phtographed. This rare picture was taken by her masseuse who wanted
it as an adverisement for herself!
...
and
Ivrea
11-15
May, 2004
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Cornelius had arranged for her to fly via Milano to Ivrea where AC lived with Ulysse. He also flew in for the weekend and I had found a flight from Turin home to Los Angeles.
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In June The Romans visited Marga in Tübingen, where Cornelius took this charming photo.
Barbara
and Margit May traveling in the Southwest
3
June - 22 June
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They had done a trip together through the Southwest by car before, from which Margit had brought back 10 or 12 large canvasses. Barbara loved travelling with Margit, and she devised an other such excursion with he to New Mexico and Arizona. On the way they visited Ben Wade, the wood sculptor and painter; an old friend from the Palisades. Sice his wife's death he lived alone in a ramshackle house in the wilds near Taos.
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When they returned she spread her canvasses on the livingroom floor and we discussed them. Later Uli also came to Pacific Palisades and took his wife in a rental car to San Francisco.
Rolf
and Barbara in Greece
6
September – 11 October 2004
More Pictures in 2004 Greek Travel Diary
In September-October our longing for Greece became urgent. We flew to Athens and next day took he first boat to Naxos where we were met by Jürgen and Irene from Munich, who had already lazed on the beach for 10 days.
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Júirgen and Irene had reserved a “studio room” for us at Dina's in Ag. Prokopios a few minutes from a great sand beach and 20 min by bus south of Naxos Town. Studio means that we had a niche with a refrigerator and a stove where we prepared breakfast and occasionally lunch.
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Dina and her husband Kosta had lived many years in Germany and spoke fluent German and a little English. She had, as it is the age-old custom in the Islands, inherited the property from her mother. Kosta was from Northern Greece. They have 2 children, Vasilissa and Neophytos who were still in highschool and spoke excellent English. We became great friends and Dina has become our most beloved Greek hostess. We stayed at her house again in 2005 and will stay with her in 2009.
After exploring all our favorite haunts in Naxos we dragged Jürgen and Irene for a few more days to Paroikia on Paros. When they had to leave, we took the slow boat to Amorgos and spent the rest of four weeks at Titika's in Katapola on Amorgos. It became one of our happiest Greece trips. You find a long description and many more photos in my Travel Diaries.
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On the roof of Titika's house stood a bench from which one could watch the sun set over the Bay. I did not see anything except the sea and the sky, but Barbara had a meditation vision of dozens of Buddhas in their five cardinal colors floating on the water.
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From Amorgos come some of the most beautiful “Cycladic Idols”, The locals call them kouklae, dolls, marble sculptures that were found in prehistoric cemeteries (3500-2000 BC). Their vast majority are female, the Goddess in rigor mortis, The goddess under our glass table comes from a place 2 km from where I sit. A very few are male. Among them five elaborate harp players. This one is in the Archeological Museum in Athens. They pursued me this time on our hikes on the island.
Susanne
and Cornelius in Pacific Palisades
October
2004
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Once every second year the Neuro Sciences Meeting takes place in San Diego and Cornelius comes to see us for a weekend. This time his visit coincided with an irregular visit of Susanne. Se was as happy as we were by this rare coincidence.
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Patrick's rare photos of his parents
The Gross clan, my brother Dieter in Berlin and Christine Hogan in Perth, West Australia, is a an incommunicative bunch. A few years ago I wrote an e-mail to Patrick, Derek and Christine's son. From this developed a correspondence, which this year produced two photographs of his parents.
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Part
of the reason for Dieter's and Tine's silences is that both are
plagued by serieous illnesses. Dieter is a Bechterew victim and
Christine has suffered from asthmatic lung problems for decades. Now
Derek developed a throat cancer and had to be operated on at least
twice. These are the only photographs I have of them.
Eva
and Alan Leveton
3
– 6 November
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Alan and Eva are psychotherapists in San Francisco. She treats her patients using acting and dancing. Eva was born in Berlin to a Jewish father and a German mother. When they tried in 1937 to emigrate to the US, the Amercan authorities admitted only her father. Her mother and she survied the end of the war in semi-hiding in Berlin until 1946. We met her on a German-Jewish movie presentation at the Villa Aurora in the Palisades, at which she acted as moderator. A correspondence developed between her and me which has drifted more and more into Barbara's domain. This was the first meeting with her and Alan at our house. During the last years Eva has become a very close friend of Barbara.
Christmas
2004
with
Cornelius,
Ann-Cecile and Ulysse
20 -30
December
and
Jenny
25
December - 5 January
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Our first Christmas with Ulysse and both of his parents. It became a joyous affair in three languages. Ulysse was 2 and managed to understand us in English and Nonna Barbara in French. Otherwise he prefers Italian.
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After Christmas Jenny flew in too, and Ulysse and she became great friends.
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Every morning Ulysse sat on the kitchen table and helped Barbara squeeze orange juice for breakfast,
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He made friends with John Specchierla who speaks Italian and helped Barbara watering the garden and the Christmas tree. Jenny, who had been so afraid of her grandfather at Ulysse's age, became my very special love.
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