Dear All,

While we are in the middle of reviewing the submissions, Carnival is slowly but inevitably taking over the city: Increasingly festively and fancily dressed people appear in the streets, or hasty guardsmen from one of the numerous Carnival guards, carrying a large drum or somethings else, cross one’s way. These are unmistakable signs that the heyday of Carnival is approaching. If you want to learn more about another slightly odd yet daily example, please see Mathilde Frank’s reflection on Carnivalesque garbage cans below.
But let us return to conference matters for a second: We hope to be able to send out the letters of acceptance by the end of next week. In these letters we also encourage you to get in touch with us if you require a more detailed invitation for your visa application. We are aware that this is a lengthy and thorny procedure, but we will do our best to assist you. Thus, please get back to us as soon as possible, so that we can provide these letters quickly.
Last, but not least – Our students have started a podcast as a guide to and through the conference. Please find the first episode on Spotify, Soundcloud or Amazon Music.

FOW: Peter Möbius designed these figure sheets, ›Hampelmann‹ (jumping jack) and ›Hampelfrau‹ (jumping jackie), as cut-out puppet bodies. He was the director of a street and puppet theater in the Ruhr area in the 1970s, subversively active like the comedian types of the early 18th century: the famous »Viennese Hanswurst« Joseph Anton Stranitzky and his wife, who set the coarse-plebeian against a gallant establishment. (Gerald Köhler)

CC: A peculiarity that confuses many guests: in German houses, there is no single bin for everything, but rather a very neat separation of glass, paper, plastic and organic waste. In the city, however, there is no such sorting. Instead, the rubbish bins here bear witness to the city's carnival enthusiasm throughout the year, and the German »potatoes« also learn an important vocabulary in other languages…

Alaaf – meaning as much as au fou de partout, to fools everywhere, we greet you!
Peter W. Marx
for the Cologne Team