> Review by Eric Kohn (c) indieWire, 2011
Archive for Austria
Markus Schleinzer’s film “Michael” puts a pedophile in uneasy focus
Posted in Uncategorized with tags Austria, Cannes, film, Markus Schleinzer, Michael, pedophilia, review on 5 September 2011 by delclemSilly Season in Austria?
Posted in Uncategorized with tags Austria, group rights, national anthem, Otto von Habsburg, Pastafari, religious hats, universalism? on 14 August 2011 by delclem
When your hair stands on end under the royal colander
In the summer, when nothing but the bad weather can really shake people, three memorable events occurred in the schnitzel-shaped heart of Europe. Their structure is basically the same: they are all about how groups should be represented in a democratic society where the desperate longing of some can be simply annoying to others. Culture, as we have learned from theorists like Stuart Hall, is always a “struggle for meaning.”
Material culture: Terezín
Posted in Uncategorized with tags Austria, Central Europe, Czech Republic, Germany, Habsburg history, Holocaust, Second World War, Terezín, Theresienstadt on 6 August 2011 by delclemPlaces like Theresienstadt (above) or Auschwitz show how connected the Habsburg heritage and the Nazi era are in Central Europe. In some cases, like in Western Ukraine (Galicia), the Austro-Hungarian past even seems to be the prehistory of genocide.
Photos (c) Ruthner, 2011
Freud’s Cocaine Years
Posted in Uncategorized with tags Austria, London, Lucian Freud, Sigmund Freud, Vienna on 24 July 2011 by delclem
> On April 21, 1884, a 28-year-old researcher in the field now called neuroscience sat down at the cluttered desk of his cramped room in Vienna General Hospital and composed a letter to his fiancée, Martha Bernays, telling her of his recent studies: “I have been reading about cocaine, the effective ingredient of coca leaves,” Sigmund Freud wrote, “which some Indian tribes chew in order to make themselves resistant to privation and fatigue.” < . READ MORE >
PS. On 20 July 2011, Freud´s grandson Lucian, a prominent British painter,
died at the age of 88 > OBITUARY > SLIDESHOW
“Un cadavre”: Otto Von is Dead
Posted in Uncategorized with tags Austria, obituary, Otto von Habsburg on 4 July 2011 by delclem
Obituary by Gavin Plumley and Entartete Musik, 2011
So Austria’s Posthabsburg Stress Disorder syndrome is over…?
Shadow of a Gunman: Gavril Princip´s afterlife
Posted in Uncategorized with tags Austria, bosnia-hercegovina, Gavril Princip, Sarajevo, World War One on 28 June 2011 by delclemThe frail-looking student who on 28 June 1914 shot the Austrian crown prince Franz Ferdinand and his Czech wife Sophie does not rest in peace: Gavril Princip is one of the many ghosts that rumble in the cultural memory of Central Europe like a nocturnal flatulence.
Sisi in Maynooth
Posted in Uncategorized with tags Austria, Empress Elizabeth, Ireland, Maynooth, Sisi on 9 May 2011 by delclem
Quoting Denis Feahy – “An Irishman’s Diary”
From: The Irish Times 20 April, 2010
“Monday, February 24th, 1879, began as a routine day for the 500 or so students at St Patrick’s College, Maynooth. They rose at 6.30am, went to the chapel for meditation and Mass, studied for an hour, ate breakfast at 8.30am and settled into a well established schedule of lectures, study, recreation and meal breaks. They could have no expectation that it would become one of the best-remembered days in the college’s history.
In Ashbourne, the members of the Ward Union Stag Hunting Club knew that the same Monday would be a special day. For the first time, they would be riding with Her Imperial Highness, Elizabeth, Empress of Austria, Sisi to her friends and the sporting empress to her admirers, a lady whose equestrian skills were known throughout Europe.
Vienna (quote)
Posted in Uncategorized with tags Austria, film, Literature, Vienna on 11 April 2011 by delclem
“Vienna. The city that will become your coffin. It is not a city of good taste. Not of peace either, nor of animated contentment, as it tries to simulate. Vienna is telling lies with its facades and its people, it is full of lively demons of the past…”
IGOR ŠTIKS, Die Archive der Nacht, Berlin 2009, p. 19 (transl. mine)
Special bonus track: “Vienna, only you…”?
Labskaus with dumplings & Dal
Posted in Uncategorized with tags Austria, Bollywood, Central Europe, film, Germany, Globalization, India, Multikulti, review, TV on 13 February 2011 by delclem
Do you know Labskaus? It’s the traditional sailor’s food north of Hamburg: a stodge of beef, beetroot, pickles, onions, herring, and potatoes, all cooked and then squeezed through a meat grinder. Haters of this dish – because of its gross appearance – compare it to vomit, half digested and then spat out. Those who have got used to the vague taste of it praise Labskaus to the skies as a delicacy.
A mishmash of fish and meat: that’s also how globalization is understood by its opponents. People in favor, however, love to compare it to the nifty evening buffet, where everyone takes what s/he wants (and needs?): sushi, dumplings – plus a bit of Dal, the traditional Indian lentil dish.
This brings us back to Central Europe, where recently an unprecedented German-Austrian film experiment was televised (with Indian spices): Bollywood lässt Alpen glühen (‘Bollywood makes the Alps glow’) is the latest stroke of genius in German commercial TV for which, as we know, Continue reading
Viennese Blood & Brood
Posted in Uncategorized with tags Austria, Bratislava, Central Europe, FPÖ, Muslims, Racism, Right populism, Slovakia, Vienna on 4 October 2010 by delclem
The Austrian Freedom Party (FPÖ) took the liberty of placing an overtly racist poster in Vienna for the City Council elections on 10 October, bearing the slogan: Mehr Mut für unser Wiener Blut (‘More courage for our Viennese Blood’). This is in many ways instructive for hopeless cultural analysts like me who are interested in vampirism as well.
delirium clemens 