yeah. well.

song of the day: breathe by anna nalick.

smiles ...

... to exorcise the bloody bug:

"groped" - photo by ronnie


"smooched" - photo by ronnie


"blurry michi" - photo by valerio landa


"post-kaizers-euphoria: sabine, michi, valerio" -
photo by valerio landa


song of the day: mann mot mann by kaizers orchestra.

up. down.

waaaaahhhhh!!! so i am just getting over that nasty cold, right, and what do you think happens? i catch a stomach bug. great. just about perfect. it is not as bad as it could be, but that doesn't make vomiting any more fun. thing is, no matter how blah i feel, i still have to get lots of things done this weekend, and i am very proud to have finished my prep work already.

this clip here cheered me up yesterday, and cheered me up again today. check out demetri martin's website.



song of the day: song of the ghetto by stéphanie valentin.

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.

sandalous girl

i am getting stranger and stranger by the minute. today i tried on a skirt (no, this is not the strange part), and the shop assistant brought me a pair of strappy sandals with 6 cm (2.4 in) heels just to see what it looked like with "proper" shoes.

me: "nice, but exactly the kind of shoes i absolutely don't wear. can't wear."

her: "why?"

me: "because i can't walk in such shoes. i'd break every possible bone in my feet and legs within five minutes!"

her: "then it's about time you started practising!"

me: "no way!"

fast forward, an hour (and approx. 12 trousers, 2 dresses (!), 3 t-shirts, and 3 skirts) later: michi leaves the shop with a pair of jeans, a skirt, a t-shirt - and the sandals which she has grown rather fond of over the past hour. something odd is going on here. hmmm.

* * * * *
in the mailbox today: patrick carrington's Hard Blessings and suzanne frischkorn's American Flamingo, both in exchange for my secret meanings.

* * * * *
i still have not made the final decisions re what to read at the lit fest - which is in 8 days!! slowly getting a little panicky here. i heard yesterday that there will be a reception for authors reading at the festival, next friday at 1pm. now if only i can get rid of this horrible cold before next thursday ...

the vienna lit fest programme (click to enlarge):



* * * * *
kaizers orchestra concert with sabine and valerio tomorrow! yay!!

song of the day: we had it right by nellie mckay & k d lang.

café kafka

as promised - pics of the latest open mic at café kafka (friday, 04 april). my new - and very brave - friend valerio decided to come along, and what's even better: he did not regret it afterwards!

i read what is the sound of one hand clapping?, and one of the letters from small confessions & pebbles of regret. cristina, the special guest from mexico, asked me to read the german translations of two poems for her, so there was a first for me - reading in german! we took tons of photos, i loved hillary keel's poem about istanbul, and martin aka homemade gordon banks is just the bestest mc ever. especially in spanish. :)

the reading part was over around 11.45, and then we stayed to chat with some of the regulars, and the newly-weds ruth & bruno dropped in ... and i did not get home until 2 am!


martin, bestest mc in the whole wide ... erm, wien?


blurry but having fun: valerio & i


hillary & harold


happiness has a name: ruth & bruno, the newlyweds


valerio has a laugh


two lovely ladies - ruth & i


more pictures on my flickr page .

song of the day: madagascar by gogol bordello.

what i've been meaning to blog about but never got around to ...

so much for my time off work: of course, me being me, i had to come down with a bad cold and a fever for a few days. i am sure it had nothing to do with me standing around in the chilly morning air last sunday ... duh. :)

monday: farewell to the loveliest bunch of students ever. i was almost embarrassed by all the wonderful feedback. and one student told me that she was particuarly impressed with me as a person, even more than me as a teacher. does feedback get any better than this? we went for lunch and ice-cream after class. unfortunately, not everyone could come, but ... i am sure they were there in spirit.


apples make a girl happy - nadine



andy and "his" martha



werner, doro, marianne



the wild teacher and the crazy bunch

* * * * *
tuesday, i went to one of my favourite haunts again, the central cemetery. i spent several hours in the new jewish section, where i had never been before, and took lots of photos. later that afternoon, ronnie joined me, and we walked around some other parts of that beautiful place for a while longer. here are some pictures - for more, please visit my flickr page.











* * * * *
wednesday, there were people to see, but i was feeling blah - and when i got home around eight, i knew why: 38C, my thermometer said. so, off to bed, and i guess i sweated most of it out. i was supposed to be working thursday afternoon and evening, but that had to be cancelled. :(

the good thing about thursday was that i received the ten author's copies of small confessions & pebbles of regret, as well as loch raven review 2007, and carolyn guinzio's west pullman.

friday, i felt up to going to the open mic at night, but i will blog more about that later, when i have edited the tons of photos!

another week i did not make it to the movies - but i got to watch into the wild with my students last week, it is fantastic. very beautiful, and my students found it as moving as i did.

song of the day: ask the mountains (extended version) by vangelis & stina nordenstam.