The Decline of Western Civilization

Ha! Always wanted to have a blog entry with that title :-) the motive for blogging it now is that last Wednesday i finally got to see the documentary of the same name. It's a bit hard to track down. Segments of it can be easily found on youtube, but unfortunately not the whole thing. Luckily now it was part of a retrospective at the Viennale. The Viennale, that is the annual international film festival of Vienna. Just started, so in case you are close, i can highly recommend it. But you might have trouble getting tickets, most of it is usually sold out pretty fast.

Anyways, enjoy!
Hooray, the sun is shining. Life is good.

Wake me up when September ends

Maybe you know this melancholic song from Green Day's 2004 album. It was quite in my head in the last two years:

• In 2006 i was sitting at home all summer with a splinted leg after my knee accident in that year. The end of September was when i started regaining my physical abilities and was able to travel again. So the song was in my head all summer.
• In 2007 i went back into the KSA in the end of June, knowing that i wouldn't get out of there for at least three months of continously working - so i was really looking forward to the moment when September ends. And in the end i even could leave the KSA for good.

Back to right here, right now. September 2008 is ending. But nothing special - i am back to having a life and good fun. Oh yeah. Had a good summer, working in my new job including weekends.

Life is good, keep enjoying.
Cheers.

They've gone mad with power

So i'm sitting here in my office and trying to work. And suddenly i hear music - really loud "Blasmusik", you know, brass instruments and all. Strange. As if they were playing right in front of my window. Well, they did:


Quite noisy. But strangely interesting. On that ugly building behind all those people there is a small commemorative plaque because the first Slovak National Council was founded there on the 15th and 16th of September 1848. So that was the reason for all the Slovak flag-waving of all the youngsters that are in the bottom right corner of the photo.
And then, about five or ten minutes later, they all disappeared almost as fast as they got there. Guess they would've stayed longer if the weather was nicer these days.

Speaking of unexpected noise at work: in the end of the last week the church around the corner here suddenly started to ring all its bells and did not want to stop. For quite a while. Dunno why. I'm not into religion. If you are still looking for one, try this or that.

Not much news otherwise. It got annoyingly cold last sunday and it's been raining permanently since monday. Quiero irme a Lesbos inmediamente...

Alternative title for this blog entry: Brassed off =)

My little green friend

Darth Sidious: I have waited a long time for this moment, my little green friend.

Indeed, i have waited a long time for this: to have my own flat with my own balcony. And so it happened that i had this little green visitor. Seemed kind of confused, it took him a while to get off the balcony again. But he managed. No idea if he then fell down four floors. But it seemed he could fly so i guess he's doing fine. If he actually is a he.
Other than that i enjoyed some culture last weekend. Like this:
If you are a German speaker and have some people around you, please do me the favour and read this text out aloud right now :-)
It's one of the paintings in MuMoK's current exhibition "Bad painting, good art". There were far better and more impressive ones. But not for reading them out aloud. I also saw some other stuff like this or that and might blog about it later.

So long,

Cheers
CGA

Livin' here

If you have read this blog for a while, you know that i really like going to the cinema and i don't take it for granted that i can simply go to the movies. So anyways, since this is kind of a diary blog, a couple of words of living in my old home city again. I really liked the first part when it was released in 2005 so i eagerly awaited its sequel. It has become common practice to release blockbusters on the same day worldwide since Episode II and the LotR trilogy. But for some unknown reason the 'clever guys' somewhere up there in the movie industry decided to not do that and delayed The Dark Knight for a month in German-speaking countries. Well, they never acted logically or anything. Was quite hard to not read anything about the movie that whole month and i was really tempted to go watch it when i was in Belgium in the first week of August - but in the end i didn't (lots of other things to do there, plus i don't really like subtitles in two different languages...). Blablabla long story short: i finally got to see it here in Vienna and quite liked it. Here's a shot from inside the cinema:

I saw that 'classic look'-Joker PEZ dispenser and just had to buy it =)

Other than that, about living here: last weekend i did a nice trip to the Alps, to be more precise to the Schneeberg which is a mountain quite close to Vienna. I stayed overnight at this hut which has a big rock next to it. One can climb up that rock and see the beautiful landscape all around. I sat up there watching a gorgeous sunset. If it wasn't for some airplanes above your head you could sit there and think you're the only person in the world, nobody else in your view. Great. Take a look at this picture i took:

Marvellous, innit?

Cheers
CGA

Villacher Kirchtag

Hello there,

so, what have i been up to? In the beginning of August i took my first week of vacations - in my new job. To start i went to the south of Austria. Since i'm now back to living in my old home country i thought i might as well enjoy some of the local culture here. So i did what i had in mind since a couple of years ago: i went to the Villacher Kirchtag. Austria's biggest "traditional festival". So, lots of drunk people in traditional clothes running around an area full of fun fair stuff. Blablabla i'll show you some pictures.

Mmmh, beer.
Since i started to talk about food: out of the belly of this giant corn man you could get exactly that - sweet corn. With different sauces. Quite allright.
Biiig frying pan. Conker would've loved it.
Revolving chicken and Spanferkel. Yummy!
Carinthian Reinling. A traditional cake, here in its cute little form, so one cake per person. On Kirchtag, this goes with the following:
This traditional "Kirchtagssuppe" is a little sour. And made with five different types of meat. Tasty as well. So much for the food, now on to entertainment.
I was told that this is the "most famoust cover band" of Carinthia. How impressive. People there liked it, nice atmosphere. One of their own songs consists only of the following line: "Allee, Allee, eine Straße, viele Bäume, ja das ist eine Allee". Crowds went wild, i preferred it when they played songs from other bands. Whatever.
The Hoff was there! Looked a bit sick, though, with that green-yellowy face.
More 80ies: those ones actually made funny movies.
I don't have any pics of the small roller coasters, but here's one of those stands where you could 'win' - you had to buy a big amounts of 'lottery tickets' and assemble some words with the letters on it or something similar. Guess it's way cheaper to get a plush animal by buying it in a toy story but 'less of an experience'...
And here's two little guys who won a big blue playboy bunny logo. Whatever they shall do with that.
On sunday there was a parade with lots of people dressed up funny. The dancing groups were more fun, though, than these fake army people.
Here in the back you can see the biggest "Villacher Kirchtag"-poster i could find this year.
Not really related to the Kirchtag, except for the fact that i ate this in Villach at the end of the Kirchtag. Mmmmh. Nice ice-cream spaghetti. Always fascinates me. Plus, they taste yummy!

So that's that then. Now i'm a little hungry, guess i'll go for lunch.

Cheers.

Summer update

Hello there,

just in case you were wondering what i was up to these days: not too much. Basically working here in Vienna. Oh, and now i try to go to work and generally move around on bicycle. Good fun. I started it out of curiousity - and to do something like sports again on a more regular basis. Was funny when i read about another good reason: i help the environment. Nice.
A road sign i discovered while going home by bike. Honestly, i have never noticed it before. Zebra crossing for bicycles.

Other than that: In case you want more pics, i uploaded some more in the usual place, link on the right. More with comments will follow here on the blog. And something interesting i saw on my way back home from work:
Yeah, i know, just a regular building here in Vienna you might say. But i am talking about the penguin. Can't see it? A little zooming:
Looks like one of those two penguins that one Austrian photographer took on a trip around the world a couple of years ago. Sometime in the 90ies, i think. Funny pictures, two penguins, one with a camera, all over the world, in front of famous or just gorgeous sights. Later on he could even sell that to the Austrian tourism agency - he made a campaign for them with the penguins in all kind of nice places in Austria.
Anyways, funny little detail in the city. Keep your eyes open.

Cheers
CGA

Metropolis, the real thing!

Hello there,

just in case you haven't heard yet: they found a copy of the original Metropolis. Finally. In Buenos Aires. Can't wait to see it. Digitally restored and all. Yummy. Even without the missing quarter of the movie it was just impressive. And now, even if it might not be in such a good quality, it'll be back. Some minutes might still be missing, but almost all of it is finally here and will be made available for us. Good news.

Here's the original article in Zeit Online (English version here). Or Y! if you prefer.

Cheers from summertime-Vienna
CGA
-movie aficionado

Clear colours

So the football madness has started in Austria. I'm not really interested, like always with football, but anyways. I got some good friends to visit me in here in Vienna, and that's a good thing. And i understand that this is a big event so people want to go there (public viewing at least) and enjoy fun in the masses. After all, i've been in Germany two times during the worldchampionship in 2006. Great atmosphere, excited people. Though, admittedly, Austria won't make it that far. We are the underdogs, hell, we just organize the whole thing so we can finally participate in a European football championship. Whatever.

Funny for me: today i walked through the inner city. Lots of Polish people, most of them wearing the Polish flag. I didn't have the heart to ask them why they are running around wearing the Viennese flag. They wouldn't have understood it anyways. But nice of them to show their affection for the city they're in =)
(in case you didn't know: the Polish national flag is identical to the flag of the city of Vienna - half white, half red. Compare this and this)

Plus, a nice summary of Austria by a British journalist: read the Austria part of this article. A quote:

Let's face it - Austria's a hard country to love. It's not like Australia, or Ireland, or crazy old Iceland - those razzy, feel-good nations anyone would invite round for gin and Pictionary. Austria's image is a bit, well - “slightly off-putting” would be wildly understating it. This is the country that started the First World War, invented a fascism so regionally specific they called it Austrofascism and gave us Hitler. And since the war Hitler started - in which, sadly, 70 million people died - the only time Austria's been in the news has been whenever one its citizens is discovered to have fashioned some novel underground prison and hidden an unfortunate child there.

On top of all this, Austria has wine that tastes like fox urine, a selection of wholly irredeemable cheeses and manufactures the world's most disgusting, unenvironmentally friendly sweet, PEZ; a Tic-Tac that comes in a miniature animal-headed tank made of pure asbestos.

Hilarious, innit?
:-)

Cheers
CGA
-going to watch football, ayayay que aburrido, now with his Croatian and Greek friends.

Die Woche der Freien Bildung

#German, sorry

Hallo allezusammen!

Wie üblich: Habe noch immer sehr viel zu bloggen, Carnavales, China, und so weiter, aber dazu später. Wollte einmal spontan was bloggen wie das so die meisten tun. Also.

Mir gehts super und ich bin dabei, mich in Wien niederzulassen. Wie anno 1980. Ich hab einen Job, den Traumjob in dem Sinne, das das meine erste Wahl war, und auch schon eine eigene Wohnung (wieder) gefunden. Und bei meiner Arbeit werd ich garantiert mein Hirn wieder einmal benutzen, voll und ganz.
Na jedenfalls: ich bin ja ein Sommermensch, soll heißen, der Sommer ist mir viel lieber als der Winter. Bin dem Winter durch Um-die-Welt-Reisen ja jetzt mehr oder minder zweimal entkommen, aber das sonstige Umfeld war ned so deshalb wieder Europa. Und jetzt in Wien hatten wir schon wieder, wie auch vor zwei Wochen, geniales Wetter. Sprich, es fühlt sich so an, also ob der Sommer da ist. Man kann in kurzen Hosen herumlaufen, auch nachts, ohne, daß einem kalt wird.
Doch zurück zur titelgebenden Woche der freien Bildung. Wurde wieder einmal veranstaltet. Sprich, gratis Vorlesungen im freien, gleich vor meinem Arbeitsplatz. Im sonnigen Park. Schon das alleine sehr interessant. Aber diesmal hat die Hochschülerschaft auch noch gegrillt, sprich, es gab Würschtln und Koteletts dazu. Gut und günstig, und vor allem genial bei dem Wetter. Habe so jetzt drei Tage in Folge meine Mittagspause verbracht: mit Würstl in der Sonne sitzen und eventuell noch ein bisserl bei den Vorlesungen mithören. Sehr fein. Eine davon hieß glaub ich "Klavierspielen" oder so. Jedenfalls hab ich schon beim Würstlkauf Musik zum Mitschwingen gehört. Bin dann nach Speisenverzehr in der Sonne hingegangen - da war ein Prof, fragts mich ned wer, der hat Musik gemacht. Mit allen zusammen. Hat mir auch gleich so ein blaues Plastikei zugeworfen, mit Zeugs drin, das scheppert. Sprich, jeder, der dabei war, hatte irgendein Trum in der Hand und zumindest im Rhythmus mitgeschüttelt. War fein, mitreißend. Und danach hab ich noch ein paar frustrierte Harmonikaschnorrer gesehen, also die nervigen Pseudomusiker, die einem sonst hinterherlaufen auf dem Platz. Die hatten aufgegeben für die Dauer der Vorlesung, weil, so gut wie jemand der wirklich Musik machen kann - eben dieser Prof - waren sie halt lange nicht, insofern Zwangspause. Haha.

Sommer, Sonne, Sonnenschein. Und einen neuen Bernhard hab ich auch grad angefangen. Welch ein Spaß!

Cheers
CGA

Mirrors

So i have found a place here in Vienna where they have security checks that are more or less the same like in the living compounds in the KSA. I incidentally came across that place - the one here in Vienna, not the KSA... i was going to an electronics store picking something up. One of those small shops that give you almost 25% off just because you purchased online before coming there. Anyways. Got out of the shop. Saw a nice inscription on the building next to it. Was in Hungarian, that is why it surprised me. Old building - by which i mean 100 to 150 years old. Something about some Hungarian person that had been living in there. And next to it was another old building. I had been slightly aware of the security around it - a big fence and when you go into the first one by car you are stopped by these things that would even stop your regular tank. And then they have these mirrors to look under the car and check if someone forgot a bomb there. And of course lots of policemen standing around the whole area in general (in the KSA those were way-more-lazy-looking army men, waving all cars through most of the time...). But anyways, i am in Vienna, in what i like to call a free country so i basically ignored these guys and looked at the building. It had some interesting ornaments, well, not directly ornaments, but little statues and stuff. One particular head caught my interest. Funny face. So what i do, obviously, is the following: i take out my camera to take a picture of it. Of that head. Even though the zoom on my compact camera is not that strong, but good enough to get it. Lighting was also good, about five o'clock in the afternoon, beautiful sunset light. Just when i'm about to shoot, i mean, take my picture, i hear "sorry sir, no pictures here" in plain English. Caught me by surprise. I was so stunned that i actually put my camera back into my pocket instead of taking that picture. The voice was of a woman standing there, apparently she had come outside to smoke a cigarette. I took a closer look at the whole setting and saw the reason for all the fuzz: that building hosts the US embassy.
Really pissed me off, someone in Vienna telling me that i cannot take a picture in public. Fuckin' hell, i'm not in Lomography since '98 and back out of all those stupid places where public photography is forbidden in whole countries or people are scared of cameras so that someone in the middle of Vienna tells me that taking pictures is forbidden. So there you have it, one more thing that is bad about terrorism (besides all the obvious ones, like, people who think they have the right to torture and/or kill others because of some higher spirits or whatever madness). It created a ban on photography in my home city. Bollocks to that.

And since i did not make a photo of that funny head i will now leave you with some nice and harmless tourist pictures, taken here in Vienna, at the Strudelhofstiege, Schönbrunn and Steinhof.











Oh, and just in case you were wondering where you will find me during the next two years: i'll be working here in Vienna. And finally using my brains again, lots of it.

1.April 2000

Today marks the last day of my "extranjeros" card validity. Which means that until today i am/was officially registered in my beloved city, Madrid. People following this blog might know that i was not living in Madrid since July 2003. And that i got this card three weeks before i left the city for good. It was necessary for staying in Madrid, legally, but they never asked me how long i was planning to stay and just gave me a five-years-valid card. So long, Spain. We'll see if i get back to living there. I would certainly like to.
Getting this card also meant that they scanned my fingerprint. Bastards. Well, at least it won't be oh-so-shocking when i travel to the states the next time. Mind you, that was in 2003, and they scanned my fingerprint for legally living in another EU country. Back then there were some discussions in Austrian media complaining that a right-wing party here wanted to get fingerprints from all immigrants. The Spanish did not discuss, just took my fingerprints. Well, well.

And no, this is not an April's fool joke. About the titel of this blog: i'm referring to this 'classic' Austrian movie. Science fiction, made in Austria in 1952. Supposed to be political satire about the still occupied Austria. With UFOs landing in Schönbrunn. Hilarious. Just bought the DVD.
"Die Sonne scheint auf alle gleich, warum nicht auch auf Österreich?"

New videos

Hello there,

it is about time that i will present you with some photos from my month in South America. But not yet. Just uploaded some videos. Like that one:



That is from Oruro carnaval. Wow, that was great. Will blog more later. For now, just enjoy the videos if you like. Here.

Cheers.

Happy Pi Day!

March 14th, so, happy Pi Day to everyone! And to make this entry a bit more interesting, i present you my 'travel map'. Been updating that in countless boring hours during the last year. Now i've been to five continents so i thought i might put it here. Of course it does not include all places that i have been to - some of them are simply not recognized by the application even though they are written on the map when you zoom in. Pity.
Five continents: back in the old days that would have been all, right? Too bad that we got seven continents right now. At least last time i checked.

Happy celebrations everyone! And if you want to take a look at art+math, take a look at this exhibition that i visited last night.

• Create your own travel map or travel blog


• Visit TripAdvisor.com

Flash

Hi there,

just experienced something that i felt i had to blog about: yesterday
was the first time that i saw a thunderstorm here in La Paz. First
from inside a building, and then driving through the city by taxi. The
center of the storm was quite close, counting the seconds from flash
to thunder. And the lightnings felt quite close. I don't know, i guess
that is because i am at almost 4000m altitude, closer to the clouds.
But now to the most impressive part: When we stopped because two of us
had to leave the car, lightning stroke. To be more precise, it stroke
ten meters in front of me, into a tree. All the lights went out in the
neighbourhood and i saw a glowing part of a tree falling down. The
thunder was there immediately and REALLY loud.
Well, that's that. First time i experienced a flash that close. At the
time i was sitting inside the cab, so according to all physics
teachers i know i was perfectly safe (except for falling trees and the
likes). My two friends were standing outside of the cab and told me it
was quite scary for them. I guess so.

--
Cheers
CGA

Die Grillsaison ist eröffnet

Hallo allemiteinander!

Nachdem hier in Suedamerika ja Sommer ist, wird natuerlich auch
gegrillt. War seit meiner Ankunft in Bolivien viermal Grillen
bei Freunden hier =)
Sehr gemuetlich, leckeres Fleisch und so. Natuerlich nicht die
gesuendeste Ernaehrung, hat aber saugut geschmeckt. Hehe. Und eifrig
getrunken wird natuerlich auch, ist teil der Lebensfreude.

Mahlzeit!

--
Cheers
CGA

Bogota

¡Hola!

Just a short blog entry: yesterday i arrived in Bogota. I am being hosted by a nice friend of a friend and so far really like Bogota. I had a great view over the whole city, day and night view. About eight million people live here, more or less as much as the whole Austrian population. So it is a big city for me =) Also went to the Botero museum, a nice park and a huge university campus, through the old city, etc etc i have seen more or less all the places show on the pics of the wikipedia page, just on my first day here. Except for the hailstorm ;) but i heard about it...

In short, i am enjoying the life that i have again! Oh yes, and the first two weeks in Bolivia were grrreat tambien, Oruro carnaval was incredible, pics will follow when i get to it...

Hasta la proxima
CGA

La Paz

Hi again,

Now i am in an internet cafe in La Paz. Arrived safe and sound. And having a really relaxed time here, starting to get comfortable in South America. More will follow later, just to make you a little jealous: Next weekend, from friday to monday, i will enjoy this carnaval.

¡Hasta la proxima!
Ç¿?ñ
CGA

Lima

Hello there,

Not much to write, just a short update: I took a flight to Amsterdam and from there continued with a 13h flight to Lima, Peru. Now i am here at the airport, waiting six or eight hours for my connecting flight to La Paz, Bolivia. Lima looked impressive from above, i mean, it is big, as far as one can see.
I also saw a beautiful sunset, sun going down into some hills on an island on the horizon. Other than that i am tired but excited, waiting for my flight. Looking forward to three weeks of meeting friends, speaking Spanish, and generally enjoying life in South America.

Right now sitting in an internet cafe at the airport, sipping Inca Kola =)

Cheers.

Zombie

28 Days Later.
30 Days of Night.

Both titles of horror movies. Zombies, vampires. I had more of that. I
mean, i had 35 days on the rig. 35 days of doing night shifts. With at
least once a week having to stay up for 24 hours or more. I haven't
literally turned into a Zombie or Vampire - those fairy-tale creatures
don't really exist, remember - but i guess i got close.

First it took more than a week before i saw the sun again. Not because
it wasn't there, but when i got up it was already dark and at the end
of my night shift it was always way too misty to see the sun. I was
told that it eventually came out during the day, clouds opening up
etc. but i had been asleep at those times. I only got to see the sun
when i had to stay up way past my shift time. Which happened, as
written earlier, about once a week or a bit more often. Still, i
didn't see beautiful sunshine during those 35 days at all. So i felt
all the more relieved when we finally got word that we could take the
chopper to leave the rig. Was in the late afternoon, so with all the
preparations to be done to finish my job there i was staying up all
day - my usual sleeping time. Also, to be able to get into a normal
sleeping rhythm after coming back to town i wanted to stay awake. When
the chopper finally came at about five PM there was beautiful sunshine
all over the water. Check the pics. I realized that i hadn't seen such
sunshine in more than a month. What a waste of lifetime. Well, but
that was the last time.
Chopper ride back was uneventful, i managed to get a seat with enough
legspace for my feet so no pain and other than that was reading a
book. Earplugs in, protective headphones above them, noisy still. Good
to concentrate on something else like the content of a book.

Oh yes, and about the picture with me and the local guy: What a funny
little fellow. He was the geologist on site and showed up as soon as
we were using more tools and hence took more complicated measurements.
I had to print him logs and send data once during my shift. Funny
thing is that he didn't speak a word English. Just Chinese. So i
printed the logs, brought them over (15m walk across the deck) and
emailed him the data. Then he came over to our unit. Started talking
and gesturing with his hands. I smile at him and say "well, that is
very good to hear but i do not understand a word of what you are
saying". And then i guessed what he might want from me and tried to
help him. Funny little fellow. I asked him if i could take that
picture. Made him smile, and of course he wanted me to email him a
copy - or at least that's what i was guessing from his gesturing. He
was also the only guy on the whole rig that i explicitly went to for
saying good-bye when i left. I wish i would've been able to understand
what he told me after i waved good-bye :-)

And for all the German speakers: Yes i really thought it was quite
funny that there were so many people on that rig running around with
hard hats that had "Team CACT" written on them...hehehe.

Cheers
CGA
-in travelling mood, time to get out and around the world.