walking among the nameless dead

i finally made it to the cemetery of the nameless yesterday afternoon. it's situated near an industrial port, it's tiny, and definitely worth a visit. i thought i'd get caught in a thunderstorm, or at least in the rain, because it started to drizzle when i walked down the road from the bus stop to the cemetery, and there was thunder, and lightning on the horizon, but i was lucky.

most of the graves don't bear a name, some simply say "nameless". the people buried there were found dead on the shores of the danube near the port; people who'd committed suicide, drowned, been killed - many of them were never identified. one of the saddest graves is that of an 11 year old boy who was murdered in 1904.

i took tons of photos on the cemetery ...







... and also of the old buildings (mills, warehouses, etc) of the alberner hafen (the port).





on my way home, i walked around a market in simmering (vienna's 11th district), or the remains of it: deserted shops, smashed windows, graffiti on the walls, pigeons nesting everywhere.





more pictures, though not all 165 i took ... ;)

i seem to have overdosed on poetry. i don't feel like writing, and i have noticed that when i am out and about, i seem to see things through the photographer's eye, not the poet's. and i have not touched a book of poetry in about a week now - after months and months of reading nothing but poetry (not typical of me, really, because i normally need to read novels as well). perhaps i simply need a break. i received an acceptance note from eclectica, two of my poems will be published in their july issue.

song of the day: bastardo by charlotte hatherley.

32872 days - happy birthday, liebe oma!

my "oma" (granny) turns 90 today (12 june), so the family and some friends got together on sunday to say happy birthday. my uncle erich, his partner eva, my cousin anna-maria came from vienna (her sister was away on business); my brothers markus and martin were there; oma's caretaker henriette and my grandmother's old friends helly and rita joined us, as well as herr and frau rabitsch, friends of the family.

my dad wrote a loooooong poem for my granny, in our carinthian dialect, which was all about her life, from her childhood years as a real tomboy up until now. it was great fun, and it was lovely to see the elderly ladies giggling and laughing. :)

shame that oma's sister was not there - she is 98 this year. her son thought it might be a bit much for her to join the dinner party, although she's doing really very well for her age, a model of positive thinking.

it was nice to see my cousin again, we never ever see each other even though we live in the same city. she's fun.

here are a few photos:


my dad reading his poem for oma ...


... and me, finding it funny :)


oma and her friend helly being very amused


oma with her friends helly (left) and rita (right), and my mom


family & friends:
back: oma's friend rita, frau and herr rabitsch, me, mom, helly, anna-maria, eva, erich, martin
front: henriette, oma, markus

more pictures

song of the day: happy birthday to you! by the whole family and friends :).

a piano's homecoming

tori amos has once again found her way to vienna, and brought "her" home - her piano, that is. no matter how many times i see her with that bösendorfer of hers, i am fascinated by the relatioinship the two of them seem to have. tori does not just play piano with her hands, she plays piano with her entire body. and it is pretty obvious she does not think of the instrument as an inanimate object.

it was my first concert in the new concert hall added to vienna's stadthalle, a venue i don't like all that much for concerts; but this new part is much better. it's got a nicer atmosphere, and the sound is definitely better.

before tori came on stage, seth lakeman played a few songs - my friend babs and i both enjoyed those, and were quite impressed with his playing the violin AND singing. check seth out on myspace.

here's tori's setlist, courtesy of undented.com:

Act I – Santa

* Body & Soul
* My Posse Can Do
* Programmable Soda
* Secret Spell
* Dragon
* You Can Bring Your Dog

Interlude

* Professional Widow

Act II – Tori

* Big Wheel
* Caught A Lite Sneeze
* Liquid Diamonds
* Cornflake Girl
* Doughnut Song
* Glory Of The 80s

Solo

* Improv
* Upside Down
* Mother

Band Returns

* Father’s Son
* God
* Code Red

First Encore

* Precious Things
* Pancake

Second Encore

* Bouncing Off Clouds
* Hey Jupiter

i did expect there to be some of her "noisier" songs, after listening to her new album, american doll posse, quite a few times, although i was not at all sure which she would choose. it was a pleasant surprise to have her play something off her older albums as well, and perhaps not the obvious choices; it was quite a good mix. she gets an extra point for playing god, which is such a fantastic song

God sometimes you just don't come through
God sometimes you just don't come through
Do you need a woman to look after you
God sometimes you just don't come through

and hey jupiter, one of her songs i could never get tired of hearing.

thought I knew myself so well
all the dolls I had
took my leather off the shelf
your apocalypse was fab
for a girl who couldn't choose between
the shower or the bath

i loved big wheel, it is quite a sexy, sassy, powerful song, i find, especially the way she plays it (see above re entire body).

So baby maybe I'll let your
Big wheel turn my fantasy
Don't you throw your shade on me
I've been drinking down your pain
I'm gonna turn that whiskey into rain
Wash it away
Wash it away
Wash you away boy

it was also lovely to hear programmable soda, caught a lite sneeze, cornflake girl (which, of course, was the song that made me fall in love with her music many years ago), and upside down.

she was not very chatty yesterday, only said it was lovely to be back in vienna, and that it had been a while (too true), and it was like coming home. i've seen her very talkative and rather quiet before, you never know what you'll get. *s*

of course, while the musicians she works with are great, and the music is wonderful, i still love her best when it's just her and the "böse".


i did take some pics / videos with my new phone, but am not sure how they turned out. i tried to buy a pc cable yesterday, but gave up after four places told me that no, they did not have that at the moment, but to try next week. sigh. i'll try and find some pics online though.

meanwhile, here is a video, enjoy. (love tarantino's intro! *g*)

song of the day - pretty obvious now, is it not: big wheel by tori amos.

an afternoon in the donauauen national park

i went to see nadine, one of the students in my last computer class, yesterday afternoon. she lives in hainburg, about an hour by train from my part of vienna, and i'd long wanted to go out there, to take a walk in the danube flood plain national park that - according to the national park website - protects the largest natural riparian wetlands in central europe and stretches from the outskirts of vienna to those of bratislava in slovakia. i didn't know you can actually see bratislava from hainburg!

nadine and i were out and about in the meadows and woods along the banks of the river for about three and a half hours - and all that in about 32C (90F). it was fun, quite beautiful, and good exercise. we really deserved some cake and wine afterwards, at nadine's. :)

shame that nadine's moving to doha next month - i don't think we'd ever run out of things to talk about!

here are some pics, more on my flickr pages:











tori amos concert tonight! yay!

song of the day: the power of orange knickers by tori amos & damien rice.

an afternoon in the city

took a walk in the city today - museumsquartier, hofburg, volksgarten, parliament. here are a few pictures:











more?

song of the day: military of the heart by naked lunch.

in the neighbourhood

i went for a walk around the neighbourhood yesterday afternoon, took the camera with me. here are some impressions:









i am flickr-ing now, so if you want to see more of my neighbourhood, follow this link.

song of the day: neighborhood #1 (tunnels) by the arcade fire.

catching up

i have been off work since thursday: finally met gudrun for a chat, a walk, and some frozen yogurt. of course baby jakob was there, too:



here's a picture i have been meaning to take for a while now, but my older cameras just weren't good enough - with the new zoom it's no problem:



after my english class, i met gini who was one of my colleagues way back when i was still a web designer working for lion.cc. since we had not seen each other for a long time, we had lots to catch up on over our mexican dinner. afterwards - the moon behind tree branches, looking as if some night creature had bitten into it repeatedly:



yesterday i was feeling sick and i had an upset tummy all day. i still went to have my picture taken for my passport application. i bought a couple of shelves and assembled those in true DIY queen style, moved books and other stuff around, watched some french open, and slept a while, still not feeling well. and so i missed out on the last open mic before the summer. :(

today i am finally saying goodbye to my old mobile phone: it was the first one i ever got, well over 5 years ago. now i have one of those fancy ones with which i can take photos and send them, shoot videos, surf the web, receive email, listen to mp3s and the radio, and - i suspect - still make phone calls as well:



song of the day: past in present by feist.