Six out of nine for laboratory work is a very good score. One masterpiece, Dan Datcu’s Everlasting Pictures.
2 CommentsYear: 2009
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.
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If one takes Toulon’s word for it, Schwannsee Trilogie is about mortality and human striving for spiritual transcendency.
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Tomasz Stanko is a legend of Jazz trumpet. He’s won more prizes than you or I could forget. So what has he done with his later years?
Instead of getting toasty around the couch playing old standbys (often what happens to older jazz musicians and even more so with rockers), boring himself and us, Stanko puts together a new collective every two or three years with hand-picked younger recruits.
With fresh blood in his veins (Stanko refers to himself as a vampire), he infects his young with his talent and musical ingenuity. The result tonight is called the Tomasz Stanko Nordic Quintet.
The music was langorous and melodic. An easy to degust, but complex pleasure.
Alexi Tuomarila’s work on the piano was understated but overwhelming. Olavi Louhivuori showed more flash on drums but equal power. While less scintillating themselves, Jakob Bro and Anders Christensen on electric guitar and electric bass solidly held up the foundation under Stanko, Tuomarila and Louhivuori.
Not to be missed if you get the chance.
Here are some pictures of Tomasz Stanko Nordic Quintet in action at Porgy & Bess – I recommend clicking an image for the slideshow as that houndstooth jacket wreaks havoc with the ImageMagick thumbnail algorithms.
Alexi Tuomarila Tomasz Stanko (Leica 90mm 2.8)
Alexi Tuomarila Tomasz Stanko Jakob Bro (Leica 90mm 2.8)
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On Monday, I thought I was dropping in on a young composers concert at Porgy and Bess. Something about the Konservatorium Wien. To my surprise, there turned out to be as much dance and performance as music.
MIR geht es gut – Petra Straussová
The best dance piece which I saw was called MIR geht es gut. It’s about two girlfriends who meet repeatedly in the underground or at a joga class or via a quick handy call. If you’ve lived in Vienna any period of time, you are familiar with the persistenty shallow "Mir geht’s gut und dir?" At first you think they really want to know. But not at all. It’s equivalent of the empty North American. "How are you?" for which there is only one acceptable answer. "I’m great and how are you?"
MIR geht es gut – Petra Straussová
It’s an absurd situation. Why do people speak at all if they have nothing to say. Both Petra Staussová and Simone Kühle managed to catch the inflection and frantic feel-good vibe of the modern urban woman perfectly.
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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.
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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.
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Rigmor Gustafsson Quartet at Porgy and Bess Vienna February 24 2009.
The club was quite full. The audience really enjoyed Rigmor Gustafsson’s sets. The musicians were very professional. A good chill atmosphere. Nothing electric though. An agreeable evening of pop-jazz.
Something of a time-warp back to the days of James Taylor and Carly Simon. Amusingly enough those two are now bourgeois.
