old news, new news

if only there were about 35 hours in a day, i might actually get around to blogging more regularly! or maybe my life is simply too exciting ... ;)

on 15 october, the poet arrived in vienna: john siddique, that is, wonderful british writer (if you still haven't done so, check him out. now.) and lovely friend. he stayed at casa gabriel this time, so we had time to catch up and talk about life in general and love in particular.


iron man: the poet when he's at home

on thursday, 16 october, we read at shakespeare & company, a great little bookshop in vienna's first district. we had hoped for a few more people, but i guess the heavy rain that set in about an hour before the reading kept some folks away, and even i alone knew of ten people who'd wanted to come but couldn't make it that night. it was nice to see both friends and new faces. i read for about half an hour - poems from all chapbooks and some that are not available in print (yet), and john was on after me. his new poem "the knife" really got to the people. great writing. feedback was definitely good, and i think we both did a great job. so funny that a mere two years ago i was completely new to this whole reading-in-public business! who'd have thought i'd be enjoying it so much?





being the darling that he is, john agreed to come to class with me on friday morning, even though we could not offer him any money for that. i had prepared my group for his visit and they'd written response poems to his "yes" the previous day. john worked and talked with the students for a couple of hours and both sides obviously had a good time.


poeting in class

after a mexican dinner saturday night and shopping for austrian chocolates (i am not sure there are still any left at the shops), john left around noon on sunday.


having gotten over one cold, i immediately caught another, and then had a fever as well, so i stayed home from work for three days. ugh. it was good to be looked after by someone nice, but on the whole i prefer not to be sick. ;)


on 25 october i participated in vienna's photo marathon for the first time. 12 hours, 24 themes, one photo per theme, all in the correct order too. it's about creativity rather than the perfect photo, and a declaration of love to the beautiful city we live in. shame that it was the only day far and wide that the sun didn't even peep out. here are a few of the themes: 100% vienna, st stephen's cathedral, up and away, taxi!, everything's spinning, viennese hospitality. i was out and about from 09.30 until about 7.30 - lots of fresh air! i was really tired that evening, and sick again the next day. :(


spinning

unfortunately i missed several films i wanted to see at the viennale film festival this year due to the colds and fever, but i did see a billy wilder film and a documentary about bob dylan.

it was heinz's birthday yesterday - he's the other scorpio in this relationship - and will now be three years older than me for exactly two weeks. ;) apart from that, it was also the first anniversary of my divorce. what a state i was in a year ago, and how different everything is now! i am actually very, very pleased at how far i have come.

work is going well, only one week left now with my advanced group - i'll miss them. i've had more job offers but since cloning still has not advanced that far and a girl cannot be in two places at the same time, i had to turn them down, at least for now.

the last few weeks have been lovely - perfect autumn weather, my favourite time of year. early november, and the temperatures still reach 15°C (60F)! it's raining today, but that is alright after days and days of sunshine.










i still have not been to have a haircut - it's been nearly six months! i can actually make pigtailettes (*s*) now for the first time in years!



still no poetry. sigh. i wonder when it's time to give up?

oh and yes, like so many others i am very relieved that obama will be the next president of the united states. however, i hope that people don't forget that he, too, is only human, it seems that some consider him a new messiah. but there will be no miracles. still, it is a very good sign indeed. and re: that palin woman - good riddance. she really gave me the creeps.

song of the day: hotel california by the eagles.

words, colours, feelings & other stuff

apart from that fantastic leonard cohen concert, life has not been tooooo bad either. *g*

i was rather spontaneously invited to read as special guest at the first café kafka open mic after the summer break - and of course i didn't decline. the atmosphere was great, i was quite relaxed, apart from the little bit of nerves that are part of it all. i read for about 25 minutes, poems from my chapbooks and others, and i was happy with my performance. i feel so at home there that it's almost like being in my own flat. and reading without the mic is so liberating and great that i am wondering why i never tried it before that technical breakdown a few months ago.


me at café kafka after my reading


october has been beautiful lately, blue skies and ahhhh the light! so, so amazing, and it's no wonder that this is my favourite time of the year. i was out taking pictures several times over the last couple of weeks, but i have had no time to edit anything.


busy bright bluish beetle



fragile: blossoms, leaf, snail @ donaupark


work is going well. my english class is great, they are so talkative, which makes speaking activities real fun. i can't believe that this is already week 4! i've had a few job offers, but i have to decline just about everything these days.

one other thing that is still fairly new is that i am now an ex-single, and have been for some weeks. the man in question is not a poet, he is not a native speaker of english, and he is not the dangerous heartbreaking kind that this girl has fallen for time and again. meet heinz:


h&m



mirror, mirror



three guys and barbapapa (on tv, not in the picture! *g*): jakob, simon, heinz


tomorrow, my poet friend john siddique arrives around lunchtime, and i am sooooo looking forward to seeing him, and to wour reading on thursday. now if only my temperature went down, and i could breathe through my nose, and my voice were back ... *s*

if you happen to be in vienna on thursday, 16 october, drop in at shakespeare & company bookshop, sterngasse 2, 1010 vienna, from 7.30 pm.


song of the day: los peces by lhasa .

tower of song

i know it has been ages, but life seems to get in the way sometimes ... still - even if it has been a while, i do want to say a few things about the leonard cohen concert on 24 september, and i do want to say more than just "wow".

like one of my friends said, it is quite impossible to count highlights at a leonard cohen concert - the whole event IS a highlight. and the whole event lasted about three hours. the concert began with dance me to the end of love, and right from the start it was one great song after another. it was almost as if he had seen my secret wish list and granted me more than just one of them. here's the set list:

First set
1. Dance me to the end of love
2. The Future
3. Ain't no cure for love
4. Bird on the wire
5. Everybody knows
6. In my secret life
7. Who by fire
8. Hey, that's no way to say good bye
9. Anthem

Second set
10. Tower of song
11. Suzanne
12. Gypsy wife
13. Boogie Street
14. Hallelujah
15. Democracy
16. I'm your man
17. Take this waltz

Encores
18. So long, Marianne
19. First we take Manhattan

20. Sisters of mercy
21. If it be your will
22. Closing time

23. I tried to leave you
24. Whither thou goest

of course, take this waltz is special for us here, because of the references to vienna. hallelujah is - and most likely will always be - one of my favourite songs of all time. i was particularly happy to hear who by fire and sisters of mercy as well as tower of song. one of *the* goosebump moments was when cohen quoted the first few lines of if it be your will before the webb sisters took over: wonderful, almost haunting version of a terrific song, and it really became clear that the song is indeed a prayer. (follow this link for a video of the song recorded at the toronto concert)

cohen's musicians and background singers were incredible - as if they had become musicians for these moments on stage with cohen. the three ladies supported cohen beautifully, their voices a perfect match for his. what really impressed me was cohen's obvious respect for his musicians and singers, and i don't think it was just show. i am sure a man like him understands the importance of a good band. and there was also respect for the audience. after all - without fans, where would artists be?

one thing i noticed was that some of his songs, while they were great when he wrote them years ago, seem somehow more meaningful now. it's as if a younger cohen had written them for the older cohen he is now, as if he'd grown into them. i also think that a little ironic smile on the side doesn't hurt them either, and that is something that comes with age, i assume. a bit of distance.

my favourite quote of the evening: cohen was saying that he had not been on stage in about 15 years and joked "back then, i was just a kid with a crazy dream". but of course, he also showed us the secret, the key to everything that life is about, and it can be found in his tower of song; it is not what he is saying, it is what the background voices repeat, time and time again. doo-dum-dum-dum de-doo-dum-dum.

i did take photos, but the light was not very good, and i was too far away from the stage. still - here are a couple:


my brother martin and me before the concert



the venue: wiener konzerthaus



leonard cohen & band



mr leonard cohen



mr cohen kneeling


song of the day: if it be your will by leonard cohen / the webb sisters.

lunch

a murder, motivated by hunger, witnessed today around lunchtime in vienna's 2nd district (click to enlarge):







misumena vatia

song of the day: little yellow spider by devendra banhart.

time-out

no, the carinthian mountain spirits have not whisked me away, nor have i emigrated to some lonely hut high up in the alps, but i did stay with my family longer than i had planned, from monday till sunday last week. the weather was wonderful, and i was actually able to relax and leave work behind me for most of the days, although i did sit down to translate a little every night.


on our balcony


on tuesday we did a rather short hike from weissensee's eastern end. that lake is just soooo beautiful, no matter how many times i have seen it, i am still in love with it. sad news: a 68 year old german fell down a 50m drop and hit a rock with his head. passengers on a passing boat saw the accident and came to the rescue together with a local fisherman. they reanimated the german and took him to the nearest pier where a helicopter picked him up a while later. he died in hospital two days later though. and here is the spooky thing - i am pretty sure i have a picture of the guy. the description fits, and the picture was taken before the steepest part about ten minutes before the accident ...




here grow cows


on wednesday, we drove to kölnbreinsperre (a dam) and from there hiked along the reservoir to osnabrücker hütte, another easy tour. it was gorgeous. the marmots were noisy, and we even saw a few, already fattened up pretty well for winter. it was rather hot, and on the way back my mom and i bathed our tired feet in icy water (and i mean icy, not just cold) - aaaah!






since my mom had to work on thursday, my dad and i went off alone, taking the chairlift to blutige alm (innerkrems). it was incredibly windy on the lift, but it got quite warm on our way to the little lakes called anderleseen, though it looked rather dark in the direction we took. once we were at the lakes, the wind really picked up and it got so cold that my hands were freezing.


baby donkey (1 month old) at blutige alm


not very nice conditions for a cosy picnic, so we did not stop for long and walked down to willihütte where it was calm and actually quite hot. ah, bliss! sitting in the sunshine, quiet all around, only bees buzzing and birds singing ...


lunch break for butterflies


my mom also works fridays, so it was a father & daughter tour again that day: from thomannbaueralm (innernöring) we reached our first peak of the day: rabenkofel.



it was lovely and warm, but the higher we got, the windier it was, and by the time we reached the second peak, stileck, the wind was almost as strong as the previous day and it was way too cold and windy to sit down and eat up there. we found a sheltered spot a little further down on the way to langnock and rested for a while. langnock was the third peak and from there it was all downhill - though only as far as our path was concerned; the sun was out again, and it wasn't as windy anymore. the cows eyed us suspiciously, the butterflies danced and the bees buzzed, the ants kept themselves busy and the birds chirped happily. dad and i took a lot of photos on the way to lamprechthütte, where we had some of their delicious reindling (a traditional carinthian cake)


healthy carinthian meal


and talked to the owners for a while before our last half hour walk back to the car.



hungry pig munching on my dad's apple & frothing at the mouth



rude austrian cow


saturday was my lazy day - chatting with my brother and my granny, enjoying the sunshine, and just a small dose of work.

for more pics, see my flickr album.


back in vienna, i went back to my job-coaching classes in the afternoons, things are very quiet there. i was relieved to hear that it was okay for me to teach the most advanced english class starting on the 22nd instead of the beginners class starting on the 15th, because it gives me more time for the translation. speaking of which - we still have not received the electronic file, but i am nearly done with the translation of the text (only 10 pages to go now, then the footnotes for which the electronic file would be very handy) anyway!

autumn has arrived: it was hot until thursday, a little cooler on friday, and yesterday it was obvious that while it might still be warm until well into october, there will be no more heat. the light is getting more beautiful by the day and i look forward to some picture-hunting whenever time permits.


song of the day: water to sky by thea gilmore.

in case anybody's been wondering ...

... yes, i *am* still alive. just. ;)

i've been "on holidays" (from the teaching jobs) since saturday, but in fact i have been working my a** off translating the armenian massacres in ottoman turkey. ka and i still have not received it as a word document, so we cannot use the computer aided translation tool, which makes it all a little more difficult. but i have done over 60 pages now, and i am pleased. i work best at night, so there have been a few late ones ...

i manage to still have a little bit of a life in between though: i saw gudrun and the kids, i met my new italian friend luca and his lovely bike aloisia twice, and i had a lovely evening at nathan & ka's with ronnie and erin and nathan's dad. there are of course pictures, but ... no time for editing and all that. and sometimes a girl needs to have fun, too. ;)

today i was at a heurigen just outside vienna for poetry and music, many of the usual suspects were there. i read four poems, two of them accompanied by martin schönlieb (flute, guitar).


green, with a touch of autumn



the secret meanings of wood



nathan, sort of.


while it's been hot again lately, there is more than just a hint of autumn in the air in the mornings and at night. i made myself a little sunny office in my livingroom so that i'd get some sunshine while slaving away:


my sunny workplace


monday morning i'm off to carinthia to see my parents for a few days. i hope the weather is okay, i really need fresh air and space and nature, though i doubt i'll be able to relax, what with work work work at the back of my mind ...


song of the day: sweet darling by she & him.

powderfinger & other things

and there i was thinking that august would be relatively quiet. well. turns out i was wrong. georg, our project co-ordinator, has been on holidas these three weeks, and i had to take on some of his responsibilities, which kept me particularly busy the last three days. lots of administration stuff. not really very exciting.

ka and i still haven't got the electronic version of the book we are translating, which is NOT good, because we want to use a CAT tool (computer aided translation). september will be crazy busy.

i also taught two english classes this week, one called "laughter is the best medicine", the other about new zealand. the students seemed to enjoy it, and that's good. :)


last thursday i was at a nice little gig by steve gander & the dangers of ...at shakti here in vienna. it was a fun night with good music and a lot of laughter. i took photos but have not edited them yet. too much other stuff to do.


on sunday i went to the lovely days festival in wiesen (burgenland) for the first time, thanks to a friend of mine. it was the perfect day for it - sunny and warm, but not unbearably hot, no rain. we missed most of hans theessink's performance, which was a shame, but we didn't think they would actually start that early. i was rather disappointed by adam green's performance. i'd seen him three times before, and the other concerts were most definitely better, the first one i saw the best of all. or maybe it just didn't work as well in that setting. wishbone ash and the waterboys were okay, but if i'd had any say in it, i would have put hans theessink on just before the main act, neil young.

and neil young was fantastic. it was the first time for me, and i was - and am - impressed. the man can play! and it is always a joy to watch musicians who are obviously having fun. he sang older and newer stuff, even heart of gold, my my hey hey, helpless and a favourite of mine, powderfinger. if you have a chance to see him, do.














song of the day: powderfinger by neil young.