Warning: schizophrenic weblog post on the way.
Kaffeesiederball 2010 Nokia N97 Mini high ISO 01
The Kaffeesiederball together with the Opernball are Vienna's two best balls. It's a very close call which is better. I'd say the Kaffeesiederball with its 15 live orchestras is more fun, while the Opernball is more glamourous. But the Opernball is fun too, and Kaffeesiederball has glam aplenty. The contrast between both and banal balls like the Artztball (Physicians' Ball) are striking.
Kaffeesiederball 2010 Nokia N97 Mini high ISO 02
Usually I have some great shots of the Kaffeesiederball but due to an arm strain back at the Austrian Fashion Week which turned into RSI, I'm off the main camera with full lens setup except for special occasions. Quite nice as it means that I can enjoy evenings without trying to capture fleeing time through a lens. Just for fun for a few minutes in the middle of the evening I pulled out the Nokia N97 mini and tried some snaps with it. Definitely not a low-light camera, but I can see that if one caps ISO at 400, the pictures are not at all bad.
Kaffeesiederball 2010 | Nokia N97 Mini High ISO Photos Continues »
Over the years, I've been blessed with not often being ill. My endurance levels have been high.
Lately, a dear friend of mine has been trying to persuade me that too much tea is unhealthy, especially overly steeped tea. During nearly a decade in Moscow, I became accustomed to good Indian tea Russian style: that is to say, you create a tea concentrate which you drink all day long. Each cup you dilute to taste.
In short, over my life, I've drunk a lot of tea, much of it strong and filled with tannins. I've also always liked red wine especially cabernets (full of tannins) and natural apple juice (filled with tannin). I think it was my way of my body protecting itself.
My friend has gone so far as to say that tea drunk does not count as liquid, as it is a diuretic and actually dehydrates. To my relief, the British Nutritional Foundation insists tea is not:
"In terms of fluid intake, we recommend 1.5-2 litres per day and that can include tea. Tea is not dehydrating. It is a healthy drink."
Indeed, tea might have played a principal role in keeping me healthy and wealthy. Well at least healthy.
One shouldn't cite Wikipedia too often in regards to health, but here we go this once on the subject of tannins:
Tannins may be employed medicinally in antidiarrheal, hemostatic, and antihemorrhoidal compounds
The anti-inflammatory effect of tannins help control all indications of gastritis, esophagitis, enteritis, and irritating bowel disorders. Diarrhea is also treated with an effective astringent medicine that does not stop the flow of the disturbing substance in the stomach; rather, it controls the irritation in the small intestine.
Tannins not only heal burns and stop bleeding, but they also stop infection while they continue to heal the wound internally. The ability of tannins to form a protective layer over the exposed tissue keeps the wound from being infected even more....
Tannins can also be effective in protecting the kidneys. Tannins have been used for immediate relief of sore throats, diarrhea, dysentery, hemorrhaging, fatigue, skin ulcers and as a cicatrizant on gangrenous wounds. Tannins can cause regression of tumors that are already present in tissue, but if used exessively over time, they can cause tumors in healthy tissue.
They have also been reported to have anti-viral effects. When incubated with red grape juice and red wines with a high content of condensed tannins, the poliovirus, herpes simplex virus, and various enteric viruses are inactivated.[36]
Tannins can also be used to pull out poisons from poison oak or from bee stings, causing instant relief. The tannins help draw out all irritants from the skin because tannin is an astringent that tightens pores and pulls out liquids.
Tea gets even more credit, with lowering stress levels, reducing cognitive impairment, inflammatory bowel disease, bactrial and fungal infections, anongenital warts, stroke, depression and even bad breath. I want some of that.
Apparently green and white tea have a lot more of the good effects of tea with fewer of the side effects. So I will try to stick to a cup or two of black per day but as many cups of white and green as I please.
What is true is that as tasty as coffee is, it's more or less an amphetamine, with very few long term beneficial side effects. I will start to avoid coffee again (I've only given in to coffee in the last few years as the coffee is so good here in Vienna, but it will be considered an unnecessary and occasional luxury again, while tea will take the place of beverage of honour.)
So I'm going to enjoy not having a heart attack, reduced stress levels and lots of good cups of tea and great glasses of wine. It's wonderful when it turns out the things you enjoy are things which keep you well.
On a balmy August Saturday night I was making my way home when I found two groups of people dining in the street. One group had a table under Karlskirche on Karlsplatz. The other were taking bowls of soup from the back of a van by the Vienna Technical University.
These two locations are just a few hundred meters apart.
Cities and differences.
Dinner in Vienna Soup Kitchen Technical University
Dinner in Vienna Karlsplatz Church
This was supposed to be a post not associated with ImPulstTanz. Ironically, the group dining under Karlskirche turned out to be associated with ImPulsTanz. It's the theatre usher team. I only realised when preparing the photo for publication at 100% magnification. Great idea to take a table out and eat on Karlsplatz.
Vienna is a beautiful city. When you spend time in the central districts or in the north of the city, you might think it is the greenest place on earth, hardly a city at all.
The city's most prestigious districts are all to the north: Döbling, the 19th district.
But if you go south it's another story. Here are some photographs from the south of Vienna. Wien Sud is all railway tracks, ports, canals and airports. Even electrical plants and oil tanks (no pictures of the oil tanks this time).
wien energie
wien docks crane
The two photos above are not strange crops but enormous panoramas. More info, including large files.
There is a sort of strange beauty in industrial landscape so this post should not be seen as a condemnation but an investigation into the Vienna's industrial look.
Wien Sud - Vienna's Industrial South End Continues »
It had been a long time since my good friend Kathi (now Dr. Kathi Kastner - congratulations!) and I sat down for a Viennese coffee and chat. Back at home in Prückel, one of the first Viennese cafés I visited and perhaps my favorite is Café Prückel, next to Statdtpark on the edge of the first district.
Winter in Cafe Pruckel Vienna 3
Winter in Cafe Pruckel Vienna 4
Portrait of Kathi
For a time I even tried to work in Café Prückel as it is wonderfully bright during the day. But it is just too smoky for more than an hour or two.
The goulash soup is classic.
Sunday night in Vienna, fluffy snow floated throughout the city. Gorgeous.
Some of my friends (including the Viennese occasionally) wonder what it is about Vienna that I love so much. I wouldn't trade life in Vienna for any city on earth. So there will be a few photos to show you the magic of the city.
Here are the bikes outside my place.
Bikes in the snow
On the way across Stadtpark there was a lady in the park with a camera and an umbrella. I like how the traffic lights turned Stadtpark into a late February Christmas tree.
Traffic light
Crossing Statpark one passes by the old canal which flows into the main Donaukanal down by the Urania Kino, home of the Viennale. I have tried to photograph these lamps before but the snow really takes the whole scene back to the eighteen hundreds, one sees gas lamps and expects the sounds of carriages.
Licht Stadtpark
At Porgy and Bess it was the opening of the Austrian Accordeon Festival (next time you might want to order a website from Foliovision - we'll give you a special offer - and some photos from Max or I). I had come along to see child wonder Paul Schuberth play his orginal compositions but the fourteen year old was long gone replaced by some crazy raucous Polish accordionists, The Motion Trio.
Snow in Vienna | Motion Trio Accordeons | Oscar Night Continues »
