decisions....

...  are really that easy to make (?)

one of those days

couldn't find another video, but what a good song! 


The weather here in Italy is fantastic, so I've been going on long walks along the beach with Coco. 

Procrastination has also been something at the top of my list of priorities - I have to finish my essay, instead I have started baking. 
I could never understand people who enjoy cooking/baking - the kitchen being an area which is off-limits as whenever I attempt to do anything in there, everything goes wrong. 
I have added salt to food when it should have been sugar and vice versa, the pots and pans fall onto my feet and I grate my fingers instead of carrots.
However, some things change: I have baked 3 cakes in the last 2 days, and they've all gone down a treat. I've even invited people I barely know over, just so that I can for once in my life feel like there are some feminine attributes in me. Tea and cake accompanied by pointless chit-chat. Perfect for those hazy afternoons. 

I have baked a flourless chocolate cake and two gluten-free lemon cakes. 

Va.can.ze

Soon I'm going to be lazing around the Amalfi Coast. I am so excited. It's going to be short trip (3 nights, 4 days) and I have many things planned:

• A day exploring caves on the island of Capri, which has been a resort since the time of the Roman Republic. 

• A day driving along the Amalfi Coast, stopping off at the Villa Cimbrone in Ravello and Positano etc.

• A day looking around Pompei and Herculaneum

And... a day in Napoli (where love is king)... 

J'ai hâte d'y aller!

Ham on Rye

I

I am currently reading "Ham on Rye" by Bukowski. I had never read anything by him before, but had heard various people discussing his works before. While the quality of his works may be debated, his influence as the "laureate of American lowlife" (Time Magazine) never been disputed. The novel focuses on the life of Henry Chinaski, Bukowski's alter ego - a boy from a poor background growing up during the Depression, suffering from loneliness and a particularly bad case of acne.

The book is written in an extremely forward style, which helps depict vivid images of the era and Henry's suffering. The book seems to have many parallels with Georg Samsa ('Metamorphosis' - Kafka) and to some extent Meursault ('L'Etranger - Camus): 

• the absurdity of the human race and perhaps, 

• the need to fit into society (and whatever that may mean...)

• the alienation and resulting from a "monstrous" appearance

 

Sheer Talent

impressive!

Melange

oh Österreich...

Just Added

These albums have just been added to my iTunes - so far, excellent:

 1. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - The Best Of

2. The Brian Setzer Orchestra - Songs From Lonenly Avenue

3. Caravan Palace - Caravan Palace

  4. Marillion - Misplaced Childhood

 5. Manu Chao - Esperanza

 6. Gogol Bordello - Trans-Continental Hustler

Fashion Fruitography

"Taste" - a collection of light-hearted photographs by Fulvio Bonavia:

I sometimes get the feeling that photography, and especially "art" photography are taken too seriously. Black and white portraits, expression, tragedy - there always seems to be some deep meaning behind every shot, and to be honest, sometimes it just all gets a bit "heavy". Although I thoroughly enjoy seeing photography exhibitions, sometimes it's OK to have fun and lighten up. I came across this photographer when my dad bought my mum a Lancia - the pictures of the car were stunning, so I looked up the artist. 

 More examples of his work can be found on his website:

www.fulviobonavia.com

/viːˈɛnə/

The MUMOK (Museum Moderner Kunst) is part of the MQ (Museumsquartier). It is free for all students under 26 and also offers air-conditioning, which is extremely inviting given the current temperatures in Vienna. 
The exhibition at the MUMOK was called "Pictures on Pictures" and it focused on the abstract avant-gardes and reductive, conceptual movements from Bauhaus to contemporary art today. 

I have always been a fan of abstract art and it's concept :
Paintings do not need objects - nature, people, things - to make pictures 'speak'. 
Abstract artists worked on pictures that did not try to represent any specific object and explored the idea of a 'pure' work of art:
The work of art stands for nothing other than itself. 

  
I learnt about new movements such as "Geometrical Abstraction", "Hard Edge" (which I like) and "Post-Painterly Abstraction" - which surely must be a piss-take... but who knows? 

Anyhow, I enjoyed myself, and think that I will definitely be heading there again, or perhaps the Leopold Museum (largest Egon Schiele collection!). 

The MQ is a great place - culture and leisure combined. I do seem to spend my weekends there on a regular basis, but I just can't get enough of it.

Broken Embraces

 

 

I watched Pedro Almodovar's lastest film "Los Abrazos Rotos" the other day. I have always been a huge Almodovar fan and this film did not disappoint. If a film can keep me focused for more than 20 minutes, it serves as an indication that I am going to like it - when it comes to films, books and music; if I am not captured by it instantly, I tend to get bored. Boredom leads to me wanting to do anything but sit infront of a TV/computer and relax. 

Penelope Cruz's performance was fantastic, and she manages to look more and more Hepburn-esque with each film. If there is ever going to be a biopic of Audrey, Cruz will have to play her. 
The film revolves around the themes of seeing (watching) and feeling. Colours, especially red, feature a lot of the time: perhaps it is an "Almodovarian" theme too. 

Roger Ebert gave the film 100/100 (in my humble opinion, I would agree). 

Other Almodovar must-see films:

Entre Tinieblas (Dark Habits): The narrative centers upon a cabaret singer, who, running away from justice, finds refuge in a convent of destitute nuns, each of whom explores a different sin. The mother superior, a lesbian drug addict falls, in love with the singer. 

Todo Sobre Mi Madre (All About My Mother): the story of a mourning mother who, after reading the last entry in her dead son's journal about how he wishes to meet his father for the first time, decides to travel to Barcelona in search of the boy's father. She must tell the father that she had their son after she left him many years ago, and that he has now died. Once there, she encounters a number of odd characters - a transvestite prostitute, a pregnant nun, and a lesbian actress - all of whom help her cope with her grief.

Hable con ella (Talk to her): The film revolves around two men who become friends while taking care of the comatose women they love. Their lives flow in all directions, past, present and future, pulling them towards an unsuspected destiny. Unexpected conclusion. 

La mala education (Bad Education): A richly baroque tale of child sexual abuse and mixed identities. Two children, Ignacio and Enrique, discover love, cinema and fear in a religious school at the start of the 1960s. Father Manolo, the school principal and their literature teacher, is witness to and part of these discoveries. The three characters meet twice again, at the end of the 1970s and in the 1980s, or so it seems.

vrai ou faux?

about to go and have a 'Kleines Eis' at Tuchlauben:
Raffaelo, Pistache and Schokolade will be accompanied by the above statement. 

sadness/anger

Monday bloody Monday. Two emotions are most prevalent today - anger and sadness. Everything was going well. Passengers on the '10' tram to Hietzing this morning experienced a scene which will surely remain engrained in their minds for a while to come. 

Traffic lights. Motorcycle. Truck. Screaming. 

I cannot describe the sound of metal being crushed under a truck. The eerie stillness that follows whilst people try to compute what they have just seen, followed by a sudden flurry of movements. 

A woman had just been run over by a truck, right in front of my very eyes. The piercing screams meant that she was still alive. Rushing out of the tram, a man stopped me. "Ohne dich gehts auch". Why wasn't I allowed to help? Surely I'd be of more help than those horrid boys photographing the scene on their i-Phones and exchanging inappropriate glances

Tram continues. 

People continue about their business as before. The lady next me fails to answer my question - perhaps she hasn't heard me. She grunts at me for not getting up the second the tram has reached our destination. 

I am angry and sad. Yet who am I to judge what the woman on the tram has been through/is going through? Her indifference to these events made me feel angry. The boys taking pap shots made me angry. 

Yet: 

This episode has led my mind to go into overdrive today. 

Thinking, thinking, thinking. 

what a mug

wish my mugshot was as cool as this.

Prog Rock

..."mostly British attempt to elevate rock music to new levels of artistic credibility." 

 Characteristics: 

• Form:  break from tradition verse-chorus-verse/exaggerated dynamics/extended instrumental passages/improvisation
• Timbre: variation of instruments, usually associated with folk or jazz/Moog synthesizer/Mellotron/Hammond organ
• Rhythm: variety of time signatures (straying from the more traditional 4/4)
• Melody & Harmony: tend to be modal rather than based on a pentatonic scale/ I-IV-V less common 

Must hear songs (10 tracks)

Solsbury - Peter Gabriel (in 7/4)
Dark Matter - Porcupine Tree 
Firth of Frith - Genesis
Turn It On - Genesis (parts in 13/8, 8/8 and 5/8)
21st Century Schizoid Man - King Crimson
Roundabout- Yes 
Killer - Van der Graaf Generator 
Tom Sawyer - Rush
Misplaced Chilhood (concept album) - Marillion 
Catherine of Aragon - Rick Wakeman

'Yes' line-up : songs to hear: 'Close to the Edge', 'Owner of A Lonely Heart'

'Genesis' line up: must hear album: 'Selling England by the Pound'


p.s. geek fact of the day: it took me forever to figure out all those time signatures, only to find that there is a whole wikipedia entry devoted to odd time signatures. The entry even includes the songs I slaved over... 

Agreed: In defence of the vuvuzela

Cheering and painting your face are standard practice for any self-respecting football fan.

In Europe, fans can turn a stadium into a cauldron of noise by singing, chanting and setting off flares.

In Africa, they tend to bang the drum and dance while others have little trouble whistling for 90 minutes.

In South Africa, not many people will take your football credentials seriously if you turn up at the stadium without a vuvuzela.

So why all the fuss about this plastic trumpet?

Unique to South Africa, the vuvuzela appears to have put the wind up many people - especially in Europe.

The electrifying atmosphere generated by the ubiquitous instrument at the ongoing Confederations Cup has left many of the onlookers spell bound.

But many in Europe say the incessant blowing in the terraces is irritating and have complained that it is drowning out their TV commentators.

Fifa president Sepp Blatter revealed this week that broadcasters want the instrument banned at next year's World Cup.

But to his eternal credit, the Fifa chief also sprang to the defence of the humble trumpet, saying people must accept that it is part and parcel of football in South Africa.

"That is what African and South Africa football is all about - noise, excitement, dancing, shouting and enjoyment," said the most powerful man in world football.

I could not have put it better myself. Banning the vuvuzela would take away the distinctiveness of a South African World Cup.

It is a recognised sound of football in South Africa and is absolutely essential for an authentic South African footballing experience.

After all, what would be the point of taking the World Cup to Africa, and then trying to give it a European feel?

Let us all embrace the vuvuzela and whatever else a South African World Cup throws at us.

The fact that some in Europe find it irritating is no reason to get rid of it. 

By Farayi Mungazi (BBC Sport)

agreed. 

Reading

I'm (finally) getting back into reading. Ever since reading "A Picture of Dorian Gray" by Oscar Wilde, I haven't really been tempted to read anything. I attempted "Frost" by Thomas Bernhard, but the grim Austrian landscapes described in that book made me feel rather weary, therefore my enthusiasm was soon shot down. 

Seeing as I have a real lack of hobbies and possibly ADD, I decided that reading is something that I should try to pursue. Reading is also extremely versatile, it can be done anywhere and can be a real lifesaver. Awkward conversations, blank moments, waiting times and boredom can be reduced by a vast rate (on a daily basis), while learning something.

My first two years of uni saw me ignoring the reading lists, preferring to focus on last minute revision via sparknotes. I am still surprised by the marks my professors thought that I deserved (without reading the text), but will not count on a fluke this time round. I am making an effort to read all the texts before seminars and lectures - 'effort' is an ill-fitting choice as I have discovered that I quite enjoy reading. I have been busy reading books for my "Gender, Race and Sexuality" course:


'L'Etranger' and 'La Femme Adultére' (short story) by Albert Camus
'L'Immoraliste' by André Gide

Unfortunately, it seems that getting hold of two books by Assia Djebar is proving rather tricky - but I can enjoy 'Les Femmes d'Algiers dans leurs appartments' on googlebooks instead.
Painting of the same name by Eugene Delacroix:

I thoroughly enjoyed "Lettres Persanes" by Montesquieu which was all about the repression of women in Oriental harems and problems which arise from repression of sexuality in general, therefore this book about the compartmentalisation of women in Algeria between 1958 to 1978 will prove to be fascinating. I managed to read 'Mademoiselle de Maupin' by Théophile Gautier on googlebooks last year under high exam-time pressure, so this should prove to be a stroll in the park. 

Female emancipation: what a topic! and indeed: 

I know it's a poster for cigarettes, but the message still stands for me: women in the West have come a long way. This is a rather large topic and after reading about the repression of women in Algeria, I may well be better informed and therefore able to create some sort of coherent argument. 
But for now, dinner has been placed infront of me.

diese lieder machen mich glücklich...

"Home" - Edward Sharp and the Magnetic Zeros




"Fake Palindromes" - Andrew Bird

songs that make me happy at the moment. Am going to create a 'happy' playlist in preparation for long and tedious trips to the library... it's the little pleasures in life...

Belvedere + Schönbrunn

My mother has come to visit - the weather's nice and it's Sunday. What better place to visit than the Belvedere. Just off Karlsplatz lies the Belvedere, which was built between 1721 and 1722. It was once inhabited by Prinz Eugen, but since 1919 it has housed a rather impressive art collection ranging from Medieval Art to Fin de Siécle. The main reason (I presume) that people visit the Belvedere is to catch a glimpse of "Der Kuss" by Gustav Klimt. 

I have always admired Klimt's work - it manages to portray the Secession sentiment perfectly. "Der Kuss" is something that should indeed be seen with one's own eyes - no replica can ever do it justice. When I saw "La Jioconda" by da Vinci at the Louvre, I must say that I was rather disappointed - I had always imagined it to be a rather large painting, but infact it was the size of a postage stamp (from where I was standing). I believe the heaving masses surrounding the painting may have caused my displeasure, but in my mind, that particular painting will always be a disappointment. On the contrary, one could go up to "Der Kuss" and admire all its offerings. Indeed, I was impressed by the painting, but here are some others that caught my eye: 

"Adam und Eva" - Gustav Klimt 

"Der Tod und das Mädchen" - Egon Schiele 

"Mutter und zwei Kinder" - Egon Schiele

"Eva" - Auguste Rodin

"Mutter und Kind" - Oskar Kokoschka

"Die arme Offizierswitwe" - Peter Fendi

The afternoon was spent at Schloss Schönbrunn, the former imperial summer residence. Situated close to where we live, the gardens are a great place to spend lazy Sundays. Mother and I picked up our Korean audio guides and for an hour or so were overwhelmed by the splendour of the place (however, it is no match to Versailles...).

We learnt all about the Habsburg Dynasty, and even visited the room where Karl I signed his "Verzichtserklärung" on 11.11.1918. 

 Sissi (Elisabeth of Bavaria) spent very little time at the palace, or with her husband Franz Joseph it seems. While many tourists know of Sissi either because she was a fashion icon at the time or through the film starring Romy Schneider, her life was rather tragic. She was married off at the age of 16 - something she came to regret in later life and heavily critised by her mother-in-law. 

Now back at home, I am off to enjoy strawberries, the Formula 1 AND the World Cup! What a treat!