this is now part of me: 
my first tattoo. an archimedean spiral. after about 18 years of "i would like a tattoo, but ...", i decided on this design on wednesday and had it done today (at mona lisa studio). and i am very, very happy with it! 
song of the day: la frontera by lhasa.
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.
walking home along prinz-eugen-strasse, photo-hunting at suedbahnhof (southern train station) and the nearby building site early on sunday morning
very quiet prinz-eugen-strasse
too early for trams
against everything!
05:07:29 a.m.
waiting to be taken away
platform 19
more sleepy vienna pictures
second song of the day: cigány himnusz by i-have-no-idea-who-does-this-version.
steve gander's gig "the end of time" @ TIME, 17 may 2008
steve, pre-gig
we are the band!
wherever i [hang] my hat ...
l'accordeoniste
more photos of the end of time
song of the day: get to leave by howe gelb.
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'm really sad that my favourite female tennis player, justine henin, has announced her retirement. this really came as a surprise - henin had been ranked number 1 for over a year now, and she's only 25. i will miss her stunning backhand.
oh and just in case you are wondering about what is going on in austria: we do not all keep people locked up in our basements, nor do we normally (plan to) kill our entire families with an axe.
dress rehearsal for erotic reading tonight - we had one on tuesday, which was sooo much fun! i decided to have martin and/or sandro accompany three of my poems on guitar/sax. i really am looking forward to the reading, and i am also getting a bit nervous now ...
song of the day: smokers outside the hospital doors by the editors.
i'm really getting good at this ... staying out way later than i intend to, that is. :)
on friday i received an invitation to some sort of "spontaneous open mic" sat evening at a placed called "time". (i like that. "a place called time".) when i got there at 9, peter waugh was there setting things up, and the musicians for the night were there, too: martin schönlieb (guitar), sandro miori (sax, flute), and steve gander (guitar, vocals). the only one i did not know was poet/singer leila thigpen. ronnie showed up, also oxana from the lit fest, harold, a few friends of martin's, and a handful of other kafka people. so, not a big crowd. but it was a lovely evening. i only regretted not bringing more of my poetry, because i was asked to read twice - 3 poems each time, half of them from my first chapbook, and a few erotic poems for practice. peter also asked me to read two sound poems with him and leila. i had never done anything like that before, but it went really well, i think.
i enjoyed the performances, the musicians were excellent. martin and sandro played a few things together, also something with steve, and they accompanied some of the poems, even one of mine! i could not believe that it was 1.15 by the time we finished, time went so quickly!
the oddest thing that happened was when this (drunk) guy at the bar stopped me on my way back from the bathroom to ask about the event, and eventually asked me whether i was a member of "that group, that club or whatever it is". and i explained that we were not a club, but that we met at literary events and read together and such. and then he asked me whether i was their groupie, and which of the guys i sleep with. i was speechless, otherwise i would have said "all of them".
we hung around a while, peter, steve, martin, sandro, christian and i, and then decided to go and eat. good thing there are places like salz & pfeffer where you get really nice food from midnight until 8 am. peter and steve were supposed to join the rest of us but never showed up. anyway, we had a good time, and i did not get home until about 4 am! :)
i look forward to working with martin and sandro at the reading on friday, and listening to more of their music. we are having rehearsals on tuesday and thursday, one with the musicians. it should all be good fun!
