The ol' switcheroo

We've moved! And here's what it looked like.

Reverted back to the old "Alpentraum" from days of yore, just like the artist now known as Prince again. Also moved to Wordpress 'cause Blogspot just keeps changing formatting on its own and being a general pain in the ass. So! This is my 456th posting here on New Chap and my last. Join us at Alpentraum where we shall pick up the threads!

-d.

Hot dog days

Howdy!

So, I still haven't gotten my new home computer and my image storage facility is giving me a lot of shit. But i am dedicated to getting this thing back up and running. A Hell of a lot done happened in the last few weeks (months). I'll backtrack as best I can.

Today a bit of news from Schwester S:

Grilling meat unfit to eat

By William Green

Barbecue meat on sale in shops has been slammed by consumer watchdogs.

Tests by the Upper Austrian Labour Chamber (AK) have revealed that most of meat on sale for grilling meat at supermarkets is "of worse quality than ever before."

The AK said today (Tues) that meat in six of its 21 tests was dangerous to human health and that meat in almost half the tests had been unfit for human consumption.

The AK advised consumers to buy fresh, unseasoned meat and to grill it on the day of its purchase.

The body chemically and microbiologically analysed grilling meat, including seasoned pork, beef and chicken at nine branches of eight different supermarket chains.

Only one of six samples of chicken meat posed no health problems, and four were contaminated with salmonella.

Four of the eight pork samples were of good quality, one was of inferior quality, and three were deemed unfit for consumption. One of the two beef samples was edible, but the other was inedible.

The worst result was their finding that one meat sample exceeded allowable levels of entero-bacteria, an indicator of faecal contamination, by 380 times.

That's disgusting.

I suppose an upside to Austria's flooding at the moment is the lack of opportunities to grill.

-d.

Only smoke and ashes

Sorry for the lack of updates. My computer at home is on the fritz and so photos and all are getting scrambled (though not fried!). Also I'm moving homes. But I have ordered a new computer and will soon be back onlines at all times.

In the meantime, let me ruin every traditional Chinese ink scroll painting for you.



Thanks, J.

Badaling badaboom.

-d.

Most Precious Blood

It's Fronleichnam! Y'all might know it as Corpus Christi? Or not at all? It warrants mentioning if for NO OTHER REASON than the fact that the rest of the city has the day off and there's brass ringing in my ears from the procession by the church by my tower (ergo I am at work).

So while we're here let's edumacate ourselves.

From what I understand, this is a celebration of the "Eucharist" or the bread and wine of the Last Supper. It could also be in reference of the act of drinking said wine and eating said bread. The verdict is out. What is certain is that it is celebrated on the Thursday after Trinity Sunday, which is on the first Sunday after Pentecost, which occurs 49 days after Easter Sunday, which, in turn, is determined by a very difficult process involving discontinued calendars and moon charts.

Now you know and that is about all I have to say about this. I, unlike the other 1,799,999 Viennese, have work to do.

-d.

Keep pushing me

Flaming Lips and Stardeath do a rendition of Madonna's "Borderline". Video by George Salisbury.

2009 Borderline from George Salisbury on Vimeo.

Cue warm, fuzzy feeling.

-d.

Last night at the Albertina

Last night a gala dinner was on like Donkey Kong at the Albertina. I wore a tux and didn't get a picture of me in it. Here's what I got:

What I didn't get:

• The food, which was awesome
• Me sipping from a flask in front of a Mondrian and a Gauguin
• Carl Djerassi, whom I was told to kowtow before (and rightfully so)
• KHG and La Fiona, who were both nice and he was very tall and she maybe a little wrinkly and sort of diva-y
• M duct taping her boobs into her real purrdy dress and stealing bread to make a sammy for her man at home
• The wee medal on the chest of Graf S who, turns out, has the same job as me, amongst others, over which we roared mightily, bombed as we were
• The major gusts of wind coming into the ballroom and making the chandeliers tinkle and everyone else haw haw
• M and I sitting quietly at B'ère nursing port and requesting musical tunes from the pianist
  

Bit hung today.

-d.

Rat 'em out

Friend F sent this little tidbit along.

"Tribune de Genève and 24Heures, Geneva and Lausanne's "middle quality" newspapers (not as trashy as Le Matin or the free papers, more regional and not as sophisticated as Le Temps) have a fantastically interesting "debate" on their website today, following up the declaration of Valais's UDC Youth branch on homosexuality and it's deviance. "

The comments alone are really scary/sad. For example (loosely translated by moi):

25. May 2009 - 8:57. 

3/4 of voters think that homosexuality is deviant behavior! The man-woman couple remains the norm. And that is very well. The only category of people where a progression of HIV can be shown is amongst the homo group. What does that say? For me this means that this is unnatural behavior.

Here's another: 

25. May 2009 - 8:11. 

Three cheers for the young Valaisan UDC. It's terrible that this type of person can reproduce so quickly, even faster than rats. One gives them more and more room and a platform for them to express themselves instead of pursuing them and condemning them. Soon the world will be populated only by this race which sends its diseases to us, for example AIDS.

So... that's nice. As I told F, it's for this reason that I find it difficult to condemn anyone that doesn't or hasn't come out of the closet. Someone asked me once why I didn't just come out at, say, 16, and I actually got pretty mad. It's still a hostile world out, who could blame me or anyone for not wanting to expose themselves to it any more than necessary. People can STFU. Disgusting lack of empathy and understanding for closeted people.

Having said that, I sometimes still condemn closeted people. I'm only human/a rat.

Leave your own comments here. 

 -d.

Secret secrets are no fun

Whilst meandering down Seegasse on... last Wednesday? Thursday? I don't remember. Anyway, I saw a big-ass plaque stating that behind the old folks' home that I was standing in front of there was a Jewish cemetery. This, in turn, had belonged to a Jewish "hospice" that had stood where the old folks' home now stands until 1989 (I think).

I walked in and took a peek.

Next door to this wonderland of broken slabs was a tennis court of some sort. Alas I couldn't get a better look but the accompanying sound of balls popping back and forth and people having fun gave the whole thing a surprising air of joie de vivre. Also their club house looked mighty fine from what I could tell.


That article in the Independent stated one for and one against for Vienna when we got World's Most Livable City. The "For" was for a "clean, green, safe city, packed with music, theatre, art, history, coffee-bars and trams." The "Against" was that Vienna is "full of grumpy old fur-coated ladies and sad historical ghosts from its formerly heavily Jewish past."

Here, then, are some less sad ghosts, watched over by the old folk and showered with the occassional tennis ball. Not a bad way to be dead.

-d.

Jüdischer Friedhof Roßau, behind the Pensionistenheim, Seegasse 9-11, 1090.

Spotted

On Seegasse in the drizzle.

Have 'tude, Wiener dude.

-d.

"I can do no wrong for I do not know what it is."

Hey, me neither!

Not sure if I posted this before but it popped into my mind again recently while I was doing some... research.

The story by Mark Twain is equally scary and depressing.

And takes place in Austria, what a surprise.

-d.