A2- Wednesday, May 11, 1983 - North Shore News b y Bob Hunter Past lives in Munich JET-LAG is a state of mind as much as a state of biological confusion. In theory, by taking a sleeping pill, ['d spend the night over the Atlantic in dreamland instead of being wide awake, caught up in a continuum of mild. instinct- ual alarm at being 40,000 feet up in the air. in the morning [d be ready to begin darting through the Federal Republic of Germany in search of both the meaning of the annual Fasching Festival and the secret hiding place of the German soul. Like all great theories, the one about the pill worked and didn't work. Everything was real, but somehow more real than usual, if you know what I mean. In the cold yellow light of dawn, our gargantuan titanium, aluminum = and steel bird is down on Frankfurt’s glassy-looking runway. Air Canada Plight 848 comes to an end. Time to finish off my Spanish omelette and champagne. Then I am drifting, slightly euphoric, along a corridor. | am reminded of Alice tumbling slow motion through the rabbit hole. The customs men are dressed, it seems, like game wardens. Mine glances at my passport and hands it back without stamping it. What? Haven't I just crossed a border that has been fought over about as much as any border in the universe? Perhaps it’s the after- effect of the pill (or the champagne) or maybe it's jet-lag after all, but Frankfurt doesn’t make a strong impression. The train ride to Munich takes four hours. Smooth, these German trains. That night we hit the Hofbrauhaus and begin our search in earnest for the legendary Teutonic spirit. A very adroit first step, considering we are in the capital of Bavaria, a civilization that was virtually founded on beer and whose history is awash with tales of the brew, is to order ein Krug. Not em Kleines, which is a small glass. or even ein Grosses, but the one that ts so big you have to snake your wnist through the handle of the mug in order to get a proper grip. The suds are imbibed along with slices of piant white radishes. An oom-pah- pah band blasts away in the centre of the huge stone chamber where Hitler once gave his speeches. There is one weird moment when the band ‘suddenly switches to wie einst Lili Marlene, wie einst Lili Marlene . Haunting. A tour of Munich in a soft February snowfall is a calming epxericnce. All the ie THE 201 LONSDALE NORTH VANCOUVER, 980. 331 3 ee REAT BAC Ps E $20-Bince $129.00 RS ON THE NORTH SHORE harsh edges of reality have been erased. Grey light . the twin phalluses of the Frauenkirche, the city’s main church with its distinctive onion-shaped towers ... the Schwabling District, where Rubens, El! Greco, Van Dyck and even Rembrandt worked ... a beer hall where Paul Klee hung out. . . Entering the Nym- phenburg palace with its Roccoco scenes of angels and cherubs and fawns on the ceilings, it does all seem rather hallucinatory. You step back through the centuries into the fading days of Baroque influence, a Ome of sensuous artistic magic. This sense of fading pervades the air of Munich. Culture is alive and well. Art ts alive and well. Yet the past was like a Big Bang, an act of creation that lit up the whole world. There was a time m human affairs when Munich was the city on Planet Earth. And that aura lingers. Everything basks in the afterglow. On this ornate, florid old Stage, almost everybody has transformed themselves into jesters and harlequms and feudal foot soldiers. Until now merely sensed, the past comes alive. I get my first inkling of the meaning of Fasching. Stay tuned. GIANT AUCTION see the Classified Section = MM __FROM PAGE Al __ Mayor Marilyn Baker. “This has been possible by tight fiscal policies in all areas.” She explained the “no nonsense” budget resulting from the various cutbacks imitiated by District earlier this year. Among those cutbacks was the $300,000 savings to taxpayers when District canned the fire department's mini-pumper program. Also there are no provisions for wage in- creases among District staff for 1983. Although most council members supported the “restraint” measures in- dicated in the budget, alderman Ernie Crist remained critical and sceptical of the merits and fairness of the fiscal paper. WV budget reflects FROM PAGE A1 economy, lower investment earnings, additional UIC payments now required, and an increased water deficit from general revenue. Humphreys also _ noted that the variable tax rate system — now confirmed for the current year by the re- elected Social Credit government — will allow the municipality to use its discretion in apportioning taxes between residential, commercial and_ other “He argued that Distnct industries have too long failed to pay their share of municipal taxes. “There is no way I can agree or be in favor of this budget,” said Crist. “District has been heavily subsidizing its corporate citizens ...big business has its responsibility to pay its share of taxes. “I find this budget unjust and believe it is foolish and unbusiness-like.” Baker explained the anomaly of tax increases from a lower, budget as arising from in decrease in provincial revenue sharing. “While expenditures are below 1982 levels, the required tax levy to meet (1983) expenditures has increased by $1.45 million. “This sum is the ap proximate amount put im the 1982 revenue from the prior property categories. In the 1983 budget, he said, the commercial ratio m relation to residential is reduced from 1.85 to 1.56 times the residential tax — a ratio that comes within the lowest 20 per cent in the province. “Property taxes in West Vancouver as a percentage of the property values,” Humphreys concluded, “are one of the lowest in British Columbia for a community with the facilities and ser- vices we enjoy.” His remarks were en- “SLIMNASTICS’ Super Beginners Shape-up Classes For 2% months. 65. RON ZALKO CO-ED WORKOUTS A Gass Above The Rest Oey Tr Tr rT br eee | strictly personal No pay hikes projected year’s surplus.” District also gave third reading to the 1983 tax rate bylaw under which rate- payers will be assessed just what portion they will pay to the municipality. Taxes on residential property will be about $5.31 for each $1,000 of taxable property. This is about a five per cent increase from 1982 rates. Heaviest hit are District industries wha face a hefty 35 per cent tax increase, while the municipality's businesses can expect a [5 per cent hike above last year. “This is a budget that can be supported by the majority of council,” Baker said. “This municipality has always run a tight ship ... and this budget is one that maintains the status quo.” times dorsed by Alderman Diana Hutchinson. “I feel the budget does reflect our times,” she said. “It is a good restraint budget. I feel that we have worked very hard to make it the best one for the citizens of West Vancouver.” The budget does not cover school taxation which is set separately under a provincial government formula over which council has no control. The municipality merely collects the school taxes on behalf of the school district. Ron Zalko Fitness Affair And Bodywear Boutique 730 Marine Dr. N.V. 986-3487 alive: 2625 West ath Ave. Van. 736-034)