Last laugh?

For centuries, the development of Vienna was limited by the possibility of Turkish invasions. Now, they just had a major ball in front of the Rathaus on a sultan theme. Yes, having fun! But in fact the Viennese Turkish population is getting bigger and bigger.

10,000 (ten thousand) apologies

Ten thousand visitors. Not many, but considering none of my friends is aware and visits....these are 10,000 people lost in ethernet, in a maze of words, dropped names. If you did not find what you were searching...apologies.

Freud's couch

Tourism is a walk on an unfamiliar street, where names are dropped on your head. Buttons are pushed. To help you relate and catch your interest. So what do I have in common with Freud?
Read recently Civilization and it's discontent. Not much else. That's what I thought till I found out the couch was gifted to Freud by Madame Benvenisti. A relative of mine. Most likely, if one believes genealogical trees.
As to the couch itself, it is in England. In Vienna only the waiting room....

Digging digs in Prague

As I walked out of my hotel in Prague I noticed a police station across the street. I discovered that there was another police station next to my hotel. Later, coming back, realized that the entire block across the street was composed of various police buildings. Well, at least I deemed myself in a safe neighborhood. Ther is also a bar called Konvikt on the street. Of course a remnant of the previous regime, where there was only one way from a police inquiry. Digging deeper I found on the Internet that my own hotel was a detention house (Havel might have slept here). and the church on the street had been used as a shooting range by the communists. Yes, Sir, I was in Prague, with history all over.

Prague single ride

Czech obsession- The show title is How I Met People

Am I too late or too early. As usually both.  Here they sell subway tickets valid for half hour. Or maybe they need to revive the Firemen's Ball

RM Rilke

Of course, my first stop in Prague. Rilke. Sat at a table with pictures of Schiller, Goethe andr Heine. The great three. a Dichter Quartet with RM.  On the menu kelbasa.  Truly Mittel Europe.
Strangely  the beer was called Krusovice.  Sounded like Khruschev.

Cafe Central troika

Had Sacher Torte at Cafe Central.  What else? Of course some calf liver. Only later found out that Trotsky, Stalin and Hitler used to come here. Drank the same Milch around 1913. Probably with lots os sugar.
The owners do not advertise this. Why? Maybe it would become a peregrination site.

Kokoshka

They still sell on Vienna's streets Alma Mahler dolls. To have sex with the most intellectual lover of past century. This is not pornography, it is erotik something.

Timepieces

Amazed by the number of stores selling ultra fine watches - Schaffhausen, Patek,
Wagner, Brequet, Omega, Longines, etc. Who buys these anymore?  The entire city is selling the time past.

Travel season begins

Half hour on line to check language. One hour and almost a half to pass security line. Half hour  to get on the plane. One hour departure delay. It is the start of the season.
To Vienna the most livable city. Mittel Europa. In this plane I understood the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Infinite number of faces and languages. Infinite? Well, close to five hundred.
Most livable city? The cabbie in New York charged  for tolls we did not pass. The gypsy cabbie that took us from the Vienna airport almost refused the tip. Another cabbie in Vienna ave us a discount on the meter.
(complaining about wait times? Two hours for the Everest!)

Coming of punk age

At the Met, hear one young woman - Was your father going to CBGB?
I clearly remember that  lunch time with the construction workers at Johnson and Johnson's headquarters. They were inviting to lunch someplace. Was not sure where. A bar? A gogo bar? a strip joint? In any case, too shy to ask for explanations and not sure I wanted to go with them, I ordered my beef on rye in the trailer and spent the following hour with a young engineer who spoke only of CBGB.  Also, that day it was the first time I used a fax. Had to get permission from my boss and schedule the hour for faxing.
I never went to CBGB. First time I saw their urinal was today at the Met.
Never got to go to the New Brunswick  gogo bar or to  CBGB.

Extreme ....

What can be more fabulous  than the Syrian army  hacking the Onion twitter. In the middle of a bloody civil war, when accusations of chemical gas are flying, the army on the losing side spends its time by hacking the twitter feed of a fake news organization.  Maybe they are into something:  “The Onion is a satire news organization and quite often is more trusted to reflect the news than the corporate media is known to,”  they think. Respect and admiration. Quite possible. The Onion is the only tweet I follow.

creeping to Sibeira

Back to work, back to the old tricks. Reuse the slogans. In two or three years we will see everybody growing mustaches. And don't you worry everybody will have his or her own files (dossiers?)....to complement the ones in Facebook or Google ...

May 1st - Marching

Seems the aging international workers  are now finally facing the truly international capitalism. As Zizek says -there are numerous end of the world theories and scares, but nobody talks anymore about the collapse of capitalism. All these marches are just out of inertia.
See the building collapse in Dhaka, at least here the international labels can be recognized.