bye bye 2012!

so. perhaps this means i will post somewhat more regularly in 2013? i had been hoping and meaning to do so this year, but ... not until after my september holidays did i actually get around to posting anything!

among other things, 2012 brought some excellent concerts, a few of them firsts: the walkabouts - one of my favourite bands of all times - played at a small venue, and i loved every moment of it. i got them to sign my bag afterwards, which they found amusing and puzzling, but they were actually not the first to do so, i have an old bag signed by feist. i got to see the amazing loreena mckennitt in spring, at a venue that actually has great acoustics, which is not the case with all concert venues in vienna. regina spektor, a second time, this time at konzerthaus - good show, but it was a bad day for me, so even this favourite of mine was secondary to other stuff, bad timing. then there was another springsteen "party" in the summer, a marathon concert, one of the longest the boss has ever played. good workout not only for the band, but also for me! to say i was thrilled when i found out richard hawley would finally, finally honour vienna with a visit, might be an understatement of extraordinary proportions. a small venue, good sound, and a great performance by this outstanding songwriter and musician. one of the highlights of the year. sophie hunger, the swiss singer songwriter, at konzerthaus was fabulous. i was sure i'd enjoy the concert, but i loved the whole show. that girl can sing! finally, in december, my first tiger lillies concert, a great performance, at the perfect venue for it. great musicians, these guys.

poetry-wise: a poetry-filled spring, especially april and may, and the rest of the year, well ... not too much. but i got into some good magazines, among them arsenic lobster, thrush, robot melon, yew, escape into life. i got two best of the net nominations - from arsenic lobster and escape into life - and my first ever pushcart nomination from arsenic lobster (see previous post). so, good news! i am still working on (or: should be working on) my full-length collection, elemental, and i have almost got a chapbook together, too.

i spent most of my summer afternoons outdoors, also many weekends, cycling, swimming, relaxing, reading, walking. i love that the prater and donauinsel are so close to our flat. our little garden did well, and we harvested our first ever water melon. a very sweet ca. 3 kg!

more sports was only part of the changes i made to my life - the bigger part is healthier eating. i am basically (and sometimes a bit loosely) following the weight watchers guidelines, using mainly recipes from their wonderful recipe books. we have tried out so many new recipes and come across incredibly delicious food that doesn't take long to prepare. i've lost about 16 kilos and enjoy what i eat way more now. steps in the right direction.

i took way more photos in the second half of the year than in the first, for a while i wasn't even using my canon much, only took some snapshots with the pocket camera. i missed being creative in that way, though, after a while. so back on track here, too, even if not as much as i should be. but ... there are only so many hours in a day, ad editing does take ages if done properly!

i read a lot, and after a year of using it, i must say, the kindle was one of the best things i have ever bought for myself. one of THE discoveries, for me, was gail carriger - i devoured her miss tarabotti books! i could have read a lot more poetry, though ... this ought to change in 2013.

of course i spent some time in cinemas during the viennale film festival, and got to see some very good films. one of the highlights was "electrick children", another "margaret". and i actually made it to the cinema twice since, "argo" and "anna karenina".

we spent some time in carinthia and had a fantastic holiday in croatia and montenegro, with a trip to albania. but all those details can be read in previous and very detailled posts. the weekend trip to krumlov two weeks ago was also beautiful, but again ... see previous post. in the summer we had a few days off in burgenland, it was hot and quiet and very, very relaxing. i did not write as much as last year when i went alone, but i did more walking, and we saw plenty of shooting stars!

i guess i should say a few words about work, but this is the one topic i really want to avoid at the moment. it was a good year, with many lovely students, and continued great feedback. but ... the project has ended, and apparently a sheet of paper counts more than great work over many, many years, and i will be part of another project as of january, one that does not sound very tempting at all. other things that have happened are pretty much top secret, so all i can say is that i am most definitely not amused. so perhaps the new year will see me working elsewhere. wish me luck.

i didn't write as many letters and mails as i'd intended to, and there are friends i didn't see enough of. i didn't write as much as i'd hoped to, and there is some stuff left undone. but then again ... i was outdoors way more than i'd thought, i lost more weight than i could have imagined. i continue to enjoy cooking. i managed to clear out some closets, cupboards and many folders. i had some of those moments at work when i just know why i put in so much work and when i just knew i was in the right place at the right time. heinz and i started boogie classes. i've had moments when i was really and truly happy. i continue to work on myself. i may not always be happy about my reactions or behaviour, but isn't that just human? and isn't that also a sign of me watching myself and learning and developing? i am still learning to be more forgiving towards myself, but i feel i am on the right track.


all the best to you and yours for the coming year. one hope beyond my own little life is that people wake up and realise that so much of what we are doing is not the best, or in fact, not even particularly smart. we can do better.


song of the day: z'lied vor freiheitsstatue by sophie hunger.

life, poetry, and movies

i know it's been a while since i last blogged, but i've been busy. the week before last was, to put it mildly, not one of my best, and i felt like troubles were hitting me left, right, and centre. if it weren't for some wonderful friends, i would have gone mad. on the plus side: i had a job interview on wednesday, and something may come of that in the future, who knows. on friday, however, i got a phone call from another place where i'd recently sent my CV, and they asked me if i was available, like, *now*. so, some good news at last.

i started teaching at that place, venetia, on tuesday - one ECDL class from 8-12 and one, for beginners, from 1-5. it's quite a lot, teaching 8 hours every day, especially since many of my students are either real beginners or haven't used computers much and there are 15 of them in each group, but most of the people are nice, and i have already had lovely feedback. :) and i really did miss teaching. this is for four weeks, then we'll see. there is a slight chance i might be able to go back to where i worked before, but i have also been offered another 4-week class by venetia.

my old computer had been giving me a hard time for a while, and i had to go and buy a new computer, even though i soooo can't afford it. it's got windows vista - and if you can, stay away from it. i already dread teaching it some day. poor beginners - it's going to be really, really tough for them. but it's still good to be working on a computer that doesn't crash every 20 minutes.

congratulations are in order for my "little" brother martin, who passed his final exams (masters degree in history) with distinction - which was to be expected, but it's still very cool news! he's going for his ph.d. now ...

yesterday was the first day in nearly half a year that i did not write a poem. i reached day 180 of a-poem-a-day on thursday - unbelievable. i never ever thought i could keep going so long. here are poem titles 170 - 180:

day 170 - Unrequited (Sonnenizio on a Line from Barber)
day 171 - bride, unveiled
day 172 - proposal on the phone (fib)
day 173 - Night Blindness
day 174 - Matte
day 175 - now part III of the poem "rosary"
day 176 - now part II of the poem "rosary"
day 177 - now part I of the poem "rosary"
day 178 - report with weight loss
day 179 - between the lines (fib)
day 180 - report with a little selfishness

i am very grateful for steve's assignment #3 at his workshop - browsing poetry collections for words and using them to write a new poem. apart from the poem i wrote for that assignment (bride, unveiled), that list also inspired Night Blindness, Matte, and rosary.

two of my poems were accepted by bent pin quarterly for their inaugural issue: the art of letting go and Xenon (Xe) - The day I fell in love with a Geissler tube - one of my recent prose poems.

i had a couple of rejections, sent out some more submissions, and am still waiting to hear back from quite a few places.

my fib to forget him, which won second place in the flashquake contest, can now be read in flashquake's latest issue.


spring seems to have arrived early this year, after an unusually mild winter - it's lovely outside, trees are beginning to blossom, flowers are coming out, and the sun is shining.

i've been tagged quite a while ago, to list my ten favourite films - which is impossible for me to do. i love so many movies, i cannot pick only ten. so i made this list and tried to consider different genres, but it is by no means a complete list, and it is in no particular order:

The Piano
Amélie
The Apartment
Dancer in the Dark
Trois Couleurs: Bleu (Three Colours: Blue)
Down By Law
La Vita E Bella (Life Is Beautiful)
The Shawshank Redemption
Notting Hill
Pulp Fiction

some that should be on the list, too: Four Weddings and A Funeral, Love ... Actually, Dogville, Breaking the Waves, The Postman, Lost in Translation, Moulin Rouge, Shrek, Ice Age, Muriel's Wedding, Casablanca, Boys Don't Cry, C'era Una Volta Il West (Once Upon A Time in the West), Life of Brian, ...

i tag whoever has not made a list yet, and wants to play.

song of the day: theme from Once Upon A Time in the West by ennio morricone.