“When you think of rock n’ roll, Franz Liszt might not be the first name that comes to mind. But the classical pianist, born 200 years ago today, was in many ways the first rock star of all time.” Article (c) NPR, 2011
Archive for the Uncategorized Category
Popstar or Classic?
Posted in Uncategorized with tags Austria, Franz Liszt, Hungary, Music on 22 October 2011 by delclem“River water music for diehards”
Posted in Uncategorized with tags Austria, Dragoljub Milanović, Literature, Peter Handke, review, Serbia, yugoslavia on 20 October 2011 by delclemThe Story of Dragoljub Milanović: a true Handke indeed.
“This is not a sermon, but (…) a story. A story to tell, if necessary, to a woodpile or an empty snail shell or even to myself alone, by the way not for the first time –”*
Peter Handke’s narrator, the self-appointed chronicler of Dragoljub Milanović’ Story, suffers from a strangely missionary pessimism that leads him to formulate unbearably beautiful sentences like the one quoted. And if no one listens to him, he is just going to talk to his “shoelace”, the “nutcracker”, or even a “worn-out doormat.”
‘Talk to the hand,” evil tongues of Americanized origin probably would tell him, but in Continue reading
Milena Mrazović(-Preindlsberger), 1863-1927
Posted in Uncategorized with tags biography, bosnia-hercegovina, Bosnische Post, Habsburg Monarchy, Milena Preindslberger-Mrazovic, newspaper, Sarajevo on 18 October 2011 by delclemThe First Female Newspaper Editor & Publisher of Sarajevo
This paper is a biographical sketch on the first woman in Bosnia and Herzegovina ever to take the position of the chief editor, publisher and owner of a newspaper. This Croatian-born writer, and journalist was in charge of the newspaper Bosnische Post (published in the German language, 1884-1918) between 1889 to 1896.”
Reblogged from Tinnitus of Books 2010
Meta-Maus
Posted in Uncategorized with tags America, Art Spiegelman, comic book, graphic novel, Holocaust, interview on 10 October 2011 by delclem
“When cartoonist Art Spiegelman published his epic Holocaust graphic novel, Maus, 25 years ago, a lot changed. He received a special Pulitzer Prize and became a contributor and cover artist for the New Yorker.
Maus blends the stories of Spiegelman’s trying relationship with his father and a horrifying tale of Auschwitz, as seen through his father’s eyes. Spiegelman drew the Jews as mice and the Germans as cats. But Maus has continued to haunt him.
MetaMaus: A Look Inside a Modern Classic, Maus is the story behind Spiegelman’s signature work, complete with interviews, answers to many persistent questions and examples of his early drawings.”
>> SOUND FILE & ARTICLE (c) npr, 2011
Oktoberfest “results”
Posted in Uncategorized with tags binge drinking, Germany, Munich, Oktoberfest, party culture on 7 October 2011 by delclem
“In the past 17 days, people visiting Munich’s Oktoberfest drank a record 7.5 million liters of beer — around 1.98 million U.S. gallons. That figure is made more striking if one notes that the festival, which ended Monday, hosted some 6.9 million visitors this year — or 200,000 people short of a record turnout.” > READ FULL ARTICLE
(c) npr, 2011
> official Oktoberfest website
> unofficial Oktoberfest website (parental warning: gross!)
Brian Ó Nualláin aka. Flann O’Brien
Posted in Uncategorized with tags Flann O'Brien, Ireland, Literature on 5 October 2011 by delclem
Quite a lot of good articles on the playful writer & columnist
who was born 100 years ago – he’s probably one of the
most “Central European” Irish authors after Joyce…
(c) THE IRISH TIMES, 2011
Paris, 1940-44: “one big romp”?
Posted in Uncategorized with tags France, Germany, National Socialism, occupation, Paris, sexual liberation, World War Two on 4 October 2011 by delclem
“A new book which suggests that the German occupation of France encouraged the sexual liberation of women has shocked a country still struggling to come to terms with its troubled history of collaboration with the Nazis.” >> READ MORE
(c) Patrick Buisson & The Sunday Times, 2008/2011
The radiant heroes of Jáchymov
Posted in Uncategorized with tags Austria, Bohemia, Bohumil Modrý, Czech Republic, ice hockey, Jáchymov, Literature, prison camp, review, Sankt Joachimsthal, Uranium on 2 October 2011 by delclem
A new novel by Austrian author Josef Haslinger recalls the gloomy gulag past of a Bohemian health spa. Continue reading
“Love thy kosher vampire”
Posted in Uncategorized with tags Anthropology, blood libel, Estrie, Germany, Judaism, Vampirism, Venice on 29 September 2011 by delclem
A pretty interesting article (c) HAARETZ, 2011.
Not every bloodsucker in Western and non-Western folklore is necessarily a “vampire” though. And btw., the demagogic term “bloodsucker”, along with the idiotic “ritual murder” (blood libel) phantasma, has also been used by Christians to villainize Jews in general throughout history.
Photos (c) The so-called Estrie from Jewish mythology (above)
and a medieval vampire (?) skull from Venice (below) Continue reading
“White (wo)man´s burden”?
Posted in Uncategorized with tags Racism, squirrels on 27 September 2011 by delclem
There seems to be othering, bullying and even racism in the animal realm, particularly among nice squirrels. At least this is the (problematic) sub-text
the Metro Herald is trying to tell…
delirium clemens 