franz ferdinand, poetry, and no poetry

another concert then, franz ferdinand last thursday. i knew before even buying a ticket, that the stadthalle is not the best place for a band like franz ferdinand. they would be better off at a small venue - and so would we, the audience.

i met my friend tom for a chat before the concert at the beautifully named "by charles", clearly not an establishment of native english speakers but someone who has not twigged yet that the german "bei" and the english "by" can be false friends ... anyway, we were rather late then, missed the support band the rakes completely. my mood was seriously in danger when we were confronted with the cloakroom situation, or should i say, catastrophe? we tried four cloakrooms in vain ("oh but everything's full!), hoped the fifth would have room for our thick winter jackets and my heavy bag, but were sorely disappointed and moved on to cloakroom six where we just made it. quite a few people were less fortunate. i cannot how unprofessional all that was, and it was even worse after the concert. this was, after all, not the first sold-out concert there. hm.

anyway, the concert was good, a solid rock concert that got better after the initial few songs. acoustics are never really good at stadthalle, and that evening was no exception. i enjoyed the concert, it was a series of really good, even great songs, and of course i knew every single one them: from "dark of the matinee" to "this fire", from "auf achse" to "do you want to". they even played "eleanor put your boots on" and the equally charming "walk away". but - there is a but here - i would have loved to see them at a smaller, more intimate venue. and i think i was not the only one who tought so. maybe next time. until then, i will keep listening to their terrific second album. "you could have it so much better" - perhaps there is something to that, guys!


my poetry has recently appeared in or will shortly appear in:
* in the arms of words - poems for disaster relief, edited by amy ouzoonian, a print publication that is raising funds for the tsunami and katrina victims. you can read more about it on this site; buy it, it makes a lovely present.
* loch raven review - an excellent online magazine. four of the five poems i sent them were accepted, among them two rules poems, my poem dedicated to wladyslaw szpilman (remember "the pianist"?) and a poem about my neighbour, frau rausch. all poems were written during the 90 days at inside the writer's studio.

i received a rejection note from half drunk muse today:

I regret we will not be able to include your poems in the upcoming issue. Submissions this issue were especially strong and final decisions were difficult to make.

better luck next time. it is still a really cool zine! :)

still quite a few poems pending, i have been waiting well over three months for a reply from several magazines now, which i think is pretty long. i will have to inquire over the holidays. and submit to more zines!

i have not written more than one poem lately, since i stopped writing daily for the 30/30, but i hope to get back into the habit again after the madness of december has subsided. thank goodness i don't have to rush around buying christmas presents.

company christmas party last friday. here's a pic - (c) whoever it was who took the pics at the venue, mozart & meisl. it's me and andi, one of the technicians. it was rather nice, although i hardly knew anybody outside our floridsdorf team; stayed until 2.


saw the latest harry potter movie with sepp and birgit on saturday, not bad. we were at reinhard's on sunday, about 10 of us, to chat, eat, and watch "the blues brothers":

it's 106 miles to chicago, we've got a full tank of gas, a packet of cigarettes, it's dark and we're wearing sunglasses. -- let's hit it.

yes!!

finally saw gudrun and simon yesterday afternoon/evening. it was about time too! slept really badly last night, and i woke up at 20 to 6 this morning, unable to go back to sleep. 5.40! i ask you.

other news: bo, that former friend of mine (who will now most likely only hang out with other lucky bastards), won no less than a car at his company's christmas party, on his birthday! i am still waiting for a punchline to what MUST be a joke, but he is not delivering it. so - congrats bo! you should be relieved the winning ticket was 333, not 666. ;-p

i bought (yes, B-O-U-G-H-T, not won!) an mp3 player with some of my birthday money, but have not had time to play with it yet.

got me the book the meaning of tingo. check it out!

song of the day: walk away, by franz ferdinand (mascara bleeds a blackened tear indeed! ah!). or fade together, also by ff. so long!