friday night football

so. what does a girl do on a friday after work? she wanders into the city to see if she can get some nice shots of croatian and turkish fans before the football match. she sits by the fountain on graben, clicking away, dangling her legs, smiling, enjoying the sunshine.

young fan


camouflaged croatian fans?


one of the croatian fans sitting nearby starts talking to her. his friend joins them and the three of them share health food - chocolate and chips.

ivan & jure posing


the girl, not a football fan, is persuaded to accompany the two guys, ivan and jure, to the fanzone. she plans to stay a little while in order to get some good pictures. but - she finds it's actually quite fun, and therefore she stays the 90 minutes. only - it is 0:0 then, so she stays the extra 30 minutes as well. croatia score just about two minutes before the game ends, but the general happiness is cut short only a minute later: 1:1. so, the girl stays to support her newly-found friends to the end, which turns out to be rather sad and disappointing for the croatian fans as turkey makes it to the next round after the penalty shoot-out.

beauty or beast?


ivan almost can't bear to look


is there life in there?

the two guys insist on driving the girl home. she invites them to crash at her place. they have pizza and the girl turns down a rather spontaneous marriage proposal - twice. so ivan is all the more heartbroken. after getting very philosophical, the three people are tired, the guys are asleep within about 7 seconds, while the girl is kept awake by a gigantic turkish party near her house.

in the morning, the guys neatly fold the covers, give the girl a hug and a kiss on the cheek and are off on their way back to croatia.

life is fun. life is weird. going with the flow is really, really worth it sometimes.


prep work, translating and housework on saturday and sunday, also helping a friend with his website. a little sleep, a little time to read and play scrabble and chat with friends. and it's almost monday again.


more pictures of croatia vs turkey, vienna


song of the day: this is the life by amy macdonald.

vienna & persepolis

i. am. back. in. the. game. yay! ;))

lovely evening yesterday. i am keeping mum about my guest (a girl needs her secrets), but this was me (yeah i know, who would have guessed!):



i also made it to the cinema for the first time in ages, thanks to my colleague and friend daniela. she suggested the matinee at votiv kino and i am so glad i came along. if you have not seen persepolis and you have a chance to, don't miss it. it's an animated film based on the graphic novels by marjane satrapi, about a girl growing up in tehran. through her eyes we witness the transformations as the fundamentalists gain power, we mourn her executed family / friends, and with marjane we experience joy, sadness, confusion, loneliness, the feeling of not fitting in. the filmy is lovingly, beautifully made, with funny and heartbreaking details throughout. i loved the parts set in vienna - they really brought some of the locals to life ... especially the weird woman with her dog! :)

lunch, a walk, and lots of girl talk - very nice afternoon.

and this is me right now:


henna girl

song of the day: dance me to the end of love by leonard cohen.

sex. music. dance.

sex - the erotic reading II @ labfactory on friday: i spent half of my afternoon shopping & wondering what clothes to wear, but i did find something. i got nervous, of course, but that is all part of the fun, gives you that extra edge. it was lovely to see quite a few familiar faces: my colleague & friend daniela, nathan, jean, harold, alina, ronnie, one of my students and her friend, oxana (from the lit fest), kirsten (a new addition to the kafka crowd), lilly (from the book presentation 2 weeks ago), and it was cool to finally meet gerald ganglbauer of gangway.net - my first online publisher, over ten years ago. all in all there were about 40 people, not bad.

we kicked off the evening with a poem by felix mendelssohn, threnody - and each of us poets plus musician steve gander read a stanza. and then it was already my turn: i read Meet My Breasts and then Meet Mr Johnson. straight after that, i read a text together with horst prillinger (author) and pete waugh.

the other poets were evelyn holloway, sylvia petter, victoria slavuski, janus zeitstein, hillary keel, homemade gordon banks. i particularly enjoyed hillary's poems and sylvia's very hot vichyssoise short story, and i loved what the musicians - martin schönlieb on guitar and sandro miori on sax/flute/harmonica - did.

the other poems i read were between two sips of soda, after dessert in the bathroom, cabin fever (with music by martin and sandro), another entry in the bedroom book of lies (with martin on guitar), four two-liners (reports), ain't misbehavin' (with martin on guitar).

steve gander played a few songs before and after the interval, and at the end of the programme - a nice little tune called copulate and populate, and he made us poets sing along. :)

i enjoyed it - and i think i did a good job. funny how i have come to really love reading over the past one and a half years!

ronnie took lots of photos with my camera during the reading, and i kept snapping away afterwards. here are a few of those pics, but if you want more - follow the link to flickr.


that's me reading



daniela and michaela, vienna's most wonderful english teachers



mms: martin, michi, sandro



change of perspective: michi, martin, sandro


girlpower! michi, hillary, alina

* * * * *
i had a very slow day yesterday - got a bit of work done, cleaned up a little, and then went out again at night. steve gander & his band played a gig called the end of time, at time, which is closing down very soon. ronnie, peter, harold, evelyn, oxana, bruno and bob were there, and i really enjoyed the music.

funny: when i went to the restroom, a woman was waiting there and she turned around and said "oh, hey! you are the poet!" now you see, this does not happen every day. (not yet. haha.) so i asked her how she knew that. and she replied that she had seen me the previous night. turned out that kat is a friend of oxana's, which of course explained things. :)

bruno persuaded me to go dancing with him and ruth, so off we went to ostklub - where i had never been, but wanted to go. they had live music, and wow, was i glad i decided to join r&b! a spanish band called nomhadas played, and they were fantastic. strange combination of instruments: didjeridu, bass, percussion and sitar (played by their singer, a lovely young woman). very interesting music, so do check it out. very danceable, too. but of course we did not go home when the band stopped playing, we continued to dance until 4.30-ish.

i walked towards südbahnhof (railway station) and took photographs of sleepy vienna along the way (along the belvedere) and at the station. i bought freshly baked white bread with melted cheese and a chocolate croissant ... aaaahhhhh! i got home at 5.45 ... these late nights are becoming a habit! :)

photos of last night and this morning will follow soon.


song of the day: yo las alas by nomhadas.

vienna lit fest 2008 - day 3 & after

so here's day 3: after the late nights, i had a bit of a sleep-in on saturday and so the day kind of started with rommi smith's poetry in performance workshop. it was fantastic. we did some great warming-up exercises: breathing, voice, relaxing our muscles. the tasks that rommi set us were really good. i had been a bit scared that i would not be able to come up with anything, because i have been blocked so long, but i did come up with quite a lot of lines, and i have continued to work on one poem begun at the workshop. at the end, rommi performed one of her poems (the theme was slave trade and abolition thereof) - it actually gave me goosebumps.


rommi smith showing us how to perform poetry


at night, i met up with valerio, and we went to ratpack once more. we missed the discussion lifting the veil, about the relationship of western culture with the islamic world, which i was interested in, but i simply could not make it. we were, however, perfectly on time for charles ofoedu's performance. charles is nigerian but has lived here for a long time now. he did not only read poetry, he also talked a little about his experiences in jail and the deaths of black friends of his who were mistreated by the austrian police.

next up was jackie kay. my poet friend john siddique had told me she was a must-see. and he was right, of course. it felt as if jackie were at home in her lounge room entertaining a bunch of friends. what bonding with the audience! she's so funny as well - and her poetry and prose are wonderful, too. i managed to grab one of the last books available and have it signed. :)


the lovely jackie kay


after this highlight, another one: rommi smith performing poems from her collection mornings and midnights. and i mean performing, not reading. she was supported by kenny higgins on bass, and some of her lines were whispered, others sung ... amazing what she does with her voice. the poems explore the life of a fictitious jazz diva who used to tour with several jazz legends and who has just read about her own death in some paper. rommi really had everyone's attention. wow.


rommi smith, mid-performance


of course we did not go home after the performances, but we talked to jackie and clare and rommi; clare told us some more stories as we were sitting around a table with bruno, ruth, harold, valerio and a few others, sipping beers or cocktails ... it was great, and i was pretty high on all the buzz and fun and lit vibes.


ladies swapping secrets: jackie and clare



bruno and valerio trying to squeeze my brain to a pulp



clare, nicely decorated, with johnny unger, not so nicely decorated, in the background


and it would not have been v & me if we had not walked all the way to karlsplatz afterwards. it was *really* late when i got home!


on sunday, i met up with clare and rommi in the afternoon and we spent a good hour chatting and sitting/walking in the sun. they are two exceptionally lovely women, and a lot of fun.


clare was off on monday morning, but rommi was still in town, and valerio and i went out to a cocktail bar with her, monday night. interesting conversation, laughter, and some poetry talk. very nice. very.

that was the 2008 lit fest. many, many thanks to julia novak and her team once again, for making all that happen. i hope there will be another one soon.


i still have not had time to edit many of the pics, but once i have them on flickr, i will post a link here.


song of the day: linger by the cranberries.

more fun! more noise! more kaizers! [edited]

the title of this blog post refers to a blog entry of september 2005 and my first encounter with the marvellous kaizers orchestra - arguably the best live band on the planet. having missed their last concert in vienna, because it was sold out before i realised they'd be playing here, i'd been looking forward to yesterday's concert since i reserved the ticket way back in december. having preached the greatness of the six norwegians, i did not have to go alone: sabine and valerio, both kaizers newbies, came along to arena. just like on the 28 september 2005, i was feeling under the weather - i have had a nasty cold for the past few days. but. miss a kaizers concert? nah. no way. so what if my voice was all but gone around 4 this afternoon. (as long as it's back by thursday, everything's fine. *g*) so what if i went to bed at 01.30, because i was too hyper to sleep. kaizers rock. quite literally, too.

janove aka "the jackal", charismatic frontman and responsible for most of the band's songs, has grown his hair and certainly hasn't lost any of his scandinavian sex-god-liness (see blog post of 09/2005). helge "the omen" kaizer deserves his own fan club for his unique, almost bizarre appearance (tailored suit, moustache, and gas mask) and inimitable way of playing the pump organ (sometimes he reminds me of a half-asleep, moody rowlf - yes, the one from the muppets show). drummer rune "mink" kaizer is a beast; in the best possible sense. øyvind "thunder" kaizer loves his bass, and it loves him back. and the guitarists geir "hellraizer" kaizer and terje "killmaster" kaizer, well, let's just say their nicknames aren't a coincidence. and those guys know how to rock. oh yes. in addition to more traditional instruments, oil barrels and hubcaps cannot be missing on a KO stage - it does get noisy. and that is a good thing. the guys give everything they have - but they get a lot back from their fans.

it's quite fascinating, really: a band sings in norwegian, and maybe a handful of the 1100 people in the audience understand more than a few bits and pieces of the lyrics, but from the moment they appear on stage, janove has everyone wrapped around his little finger. for the band it must be quite amazing to have an austrian audience take over and sing a chorus in norwegian at the top of their lungs (sving din hammer / til din papa drar deg inn / trekk et rom nummer / men ikkje bland din med min - maestro)!

kaizers played songs off their new album as well as many of their classics - maestro, blitzregn baby, kontroll på kontinentet, mann mot mann, delikatessen, ompa til du dør, dieter meyers inst., bøn fra helvete ... but of course KO is not a band to just play their songs, they celebrate their music - and so do their fans. and janove is not one to keep quiet between songs: he talks and asks questions and jokes and fools around. it's pure joy to watch a band have so much fun at work. this is what their fans love them for. and i cannot for the life of me imagine any fan actually going off them again.

the great news is that they announced another appearance in vienna in october or november. and guess who's going?

valerio and sabine totally loved it, too. :)
v was the man with the camera, i hope to have a couple of photos to share some time soon.

i just had to watch the kaizers live dvd today, plus all the bonus material. they're a lovely bunch of guys. may they be around for a long, long time.

and here's some kaizers for you. enjoy.



editing in for a p.s.: geoff berner was the support act - worth checking out. gypsy folksy klezmer punk sort of music from vancouver, canada. ;)

editing in once more: i've sneaked into valerio's facebook photo album and nicked a couple of pictures (which i am sure is perfectly okay if i tell you that they are NOT MINE, they are VALERIO's, and he is not only nice and talented, he also has the most beautiful hair!):









song of the day: maestro by kaizers orchestra.

teaching girl & party girl

i am not looking forward to tomorrow - time to say goodbye to my current students. they gave me some health food (ie chocolates) and lovely flowers on friday, and in return i took photos of them working hard.

andy's notoriously strange dress sense
("i want to be a bunny!")

hard-working students:
andi, nadine, irene (front left) - claudia, werner (front right) - martha, doro (back left) - margaret, robert, mahmoud (back right)

team-working: margaret, mahmoud, robert (aka rüdiger)

of course, on weekends respectable teachers turn into party girls ...

i had sort of accepted the fact that nothing was happening on the weekend, but then my delightfully weird friend ronnie emailed me around six on saturday to ask whether i was "going to ruth & bruno's party at andino" as he and alina (an open mic friend) were going. the obvious question was: "who are ruth and bruno?" turns out they are open mic people, and i never knew their names. to cut a long story - involving several highly philosophical digressions, discovery of ronnie's make-up problems and musings about female suicide bombers' sweet hereafter - short: we got to the party around nine, were surprised it was a wedding party (r&b had gotten married on friday) but were obviously very welcome. everyone was lovely.

we met three very dangerous italians - daniele, paolo and fabrizio, bumped into harold who is also an open-mic-er, were happy to see alina around 10.30, laughed a lot and enjoyed music by goran bregovic and such. ronnie left around midnight, and at about half past midnight, the dancing began. and boy, did we dance! it was absolutely great, and such fun! we were asked to call it a day around five or whatever time it was ... but upstairs they were still playing music, so we hung out there until after six. not that we went home at that point. instead we spent over an hour standing in the chilly morning air under a perfect blue sky, passing a bottle of red wine, eating leftover cake, taking silly photos, listening to music and almost-dancing. the police stopped to tell us not to be too noisy, and we did our best.

isn't it funny how those nights when you don't have any expectations turn out to be the best? i cannot remember the last time i came home from a party at eight in the morning! and i was not even tired until about 40 minutes later as i found myself sitting down for more than ten minutes for the first time in ages.

here are some pics - not great quality, because they were taken with my mobile, but i guess you can see we were enjoying ourselves.

crazy party people: bruno-the-groom, nicolas, paolo, daniele, and me

two very dangerous italian brothers: fabrizio and daniele

bruno & paolo

breakfast!

paolo - a penny for his thoughts ...

song of the day: bella ciao by goran bregovic.

milestone and dateline and lots of laughter

so. this girl slept in her bed for the first time in a few months last night! i had actually been thinking about it for a couple of days now, and yesterday it just felt right. i slept very well, too, thank you. so - the sofa is now a sofa again, and not michi's bed.

okay, now, is the correct definition of dateline a series of dates? *g* i seem to have thrown myself on the market, and i am beginning to enjoy myself. i had a date yesterday evening, with yet another facebook friend, howard, who's originally from canada. of course, me being austrian, and him canadian, we had to go to an aussie pub! it was fun. lots of music talk, and i guess most of you know that i am a sucker for that. music, er, rocks! :)

amazing, but true - four days after the weekend, my flat is still clean and tidy and i have even managed to hang up most clothes after taking them off. do i need to start worrying?

i had my first chocolate ice cream of the season at tichy's across the street last night. of course, like every year, winter made a comeback as soon as the ice cream parlour opened. today, it snowed about 27 times, in between we had sunshine, rain, a thunderstorm, and all of the above at once. not nice. this girl is all for spring!

most of my green muffins and cookies did not survive st patrick's day. my students did. ;) it's been a good week; more fun in class today. here are my two "old guys from the muppets show", aka werner and mahmoud, laughing their, um, butts off (excuse the poor quality - mobile phone, and not exactly close-ups). and just because nadine said "i am cooking him tonight". ;)







song of the day: constant craving by k d lang.

bouncy girl

this girl spent most of yesterday smiling, giggling, chuckling, laughing: first at work, with my lovely students, and then with valerio - one of my new facebook friends. yep, this girl went on a date. :) a drink, a walk, music, and lots and lots of laughter. oh, and of course, zombie talk and ice cream. pretty close to perfection. ;)

more laughter with my morning class today ... it is lovely to get paid for something that is so much fun. the afternoon class - well, they were not interested, so i gave them a chance to improve their computer skills and had some time for prep work and chatting.

song of the day: run by amy macdonald.

party girl!

as i was not feeling too great yesterday, i slept all afternoon and then did what all sensible people would have done: i went to a party. :) hillary, one of my vienna-based poet friends, was having a flat-warming party, and i really did not want to miss it. i very nearly did not go, but then decided to drop in for a while - and ended up staying until 10 past 2!

to begin with, nathan and alina and later on ronnie, too, had a priceless conversation about pink rubber garments. all because alina was in istanbul and ... ah, never mind. *g*

then hillary and her belly-dancing group entertained us for a while, which made me want to join their classes. i guess there is nothing sexier in this world than a woman who is comfortable with her body, no matter what it looks like - and these ladies seem to be. ronnie joined the dance eventually, although he looked more like a rambo-esque suicide bomber than a dancer of the seven veils ... :) and nathan promised to dance for me after class, so this lucky girl has something to look forward to - right? right. :D

in the kitchen, there was some teacher talk, we dissed birmingham (that included the brummie colin who managed to get away to lovely vienna), and not many of us said "no, thanks" to some pot.

ronnie read us greek fragments, from sappho et al, very entertaining. and of course - being ronnie and delightfully silly - he cut out the lines with juicy bits - no sugar added from an orange juice carton and stuck them on me - good thing i was wearing a low-cut top, not! *g*



much later, when the number of guests had dwindled down to about ten, there was some dancing, but i really did not feel like that last night. ronnie and i planned a new career for yusuf islam, formerly known as cat stevens - as cat islam. we pretty much have the cd covers ready for in print in our heads, and we have renamed some of his greatest hits: matthew and cat, tomcat and kitten, wild cat, if you want to meow - meow, the first scratch is the deepest, kitty d'arbanville ...

a very drunk steve gander and i recited leonard cohen's famous blue raincoat, but then it was time to go home.

i was so glad i went - i laughed so much, had a great time, and flirted with at least three men. possibly three and a half. :)



i slept in today, then watched yesterday's episodes of grey's anatomy, gilmore girls, and men in trees, and met andreas, one of my facebook acquaintances in chat. i am running a temperature, and will return to bed after i've made me something to eat. outside - storm and rain; we've had storm warning, up to 120 km/h expected.

song of the day: girls just wanna have fun by cyndi lauper.

foursquare

i finally heard from jessica today - my poem symmetros is part of foursquare 2.6, and i cannot wait to get my hands on my copy!

for a monday, this day was not too bad, and this evening has been positively ... stimulating. *grin*


song of the day: almost lover by a fine frenzy.