Street art in Vienna – Part II.

Second part of our little urban adventure.

→ First part  ← 

“Puber came into the city „

Who is Puber? No one knows! What Vienna knows is, that he wrote his name everywhere within two weeks, and that he has made many enemies. He not only wrote his name on empty walls, but also on the wall of a Kindergarten where kids had made a mural (this caused a little war between him and Thomas Blimlinger, see here) and on a beautiful piece of street artist ROA. His aim is, and now I’m quoting him, to ‘see mine name everywhere’.  (He gave an interview to a Swiss magazine, which you can read here)
He could be compared to Taki 182 or Darryl McCray aka Cornbread – both were known for spraying their nicknames all around the streets and were mimicked by hundreds. Though nobody is really impressed by Puber’s work and we’re all happy, that he left the city.

Street art in Vienna – Part I.

Vienna is believed to be a very ‘classy’ city. Vienna means Mozart, Haydn and Beethoven, the Opera ball, Wiener Symphonikern, Klimt’s ‘ The Kiss’ and Princess Sissi. But the city also has a ‘wild side’. 

This week we decided to find out more about the Viennese street art.

First, we went out to the streets and looked for some famous works and took pictures, which you can find below, and then researched about them a bit more. Though I’m a laic and I don’t know a lot about this kind of art, I find it interesting – and hope that so will you.

The BLK river festival

The BLK river festival is in a different place every year. 2011/12 it took place in Vienna. The BLK festival invites artists from all continents and then the artists make different street art and projects.

They create street art across the city on the highest international level. The result: beautiful art, such as in Vienna.

You can still see some of the pieces for instance

Blogging workshop

We had a visit from students from a bilingual secondary school that maybe will attend our school next year as freshmen. We decided to tell them about our blog and explain how we work. Then they had to write a short (4 sentences) blog article to experience blogging.
The topic was 'Czech and Slovak TV series we miss (or don't miss) in Austria'. "Particka" (meaning team), a talkshow similar to the American "Whose Line Is It Anyway"?, seems to have the biggest fanbase and is followed by "Panelak", another funny Slovak show. Few of our visitors also decided to write about some foreing shows they watched back in SK/CZ.

Talkshows

‘When I’m in the Czech Republic I only watch Particka, because the others are all boring or the same as in Austria. I like Particka, because it’s funny and not as boring as the other shows.  I only watch it when I’m in Czech Republic. I don’t know how you can watch it; Probably via Satellite.’
Bára

‘When I lived in Slovakia, I usually only watched Particka because all the other TV shows were boring for me. It was actually one of my most favourite shows. I like it because it´s funny, and quite interesting. You can probably watch it over the internet website or via satellite.’ '
Jakub

‘I've been living in Austria for less than four months and I need to say that I really miss this TV show. It is based on the improvisation of four actors. It´s so much fun to watch it! They got to act like some film star and others guess his name or they just play a scene, for example interviewing some biologist while one of them shows everything for the deaf-mute people in sign language.’
Sandro

Some sites that really capture that Vienna vibe

I love animated gifs, specially when they are spot on like the ones on:

When you really live in Wien on tumblr

It´s kinda like "How to act if you don´t wanna be spotted as a tourist".


The opposite of the previous link is a franchise of the ever so popular 1000 things Not to do in.. pages.
SO true! You are invited to add to the list and the makers of the group will turn your thoughts into animated GIFs -n.i.c.e.!

1000things NOT to do in vienna

Time travel works! Check out:
Vintage Vienna

It´s amazing to see how this city has changed. (and how grey it used to be back in the days). I love finding
those spots in the present time. Back then you have to imagine them with cars all over and the air smelling of coal and exhaust fumes. I also love the little details like that you obviously could smoke everywhere or how they always dressed up kids like little grown-ups.


Excellent street photographers in Vienna are all in..

The Vienna Pool on flickr




We'll soon have more on cycling in the city but for now: here is one group of gentlemen and ladies that rides in style, très chic!

TweedRideVienna

The pre- Xmas hysteria

source:
theenglishcornersevilla.blogspot.co.at/

We didn’t even have time to pack away our swimwear, summer dresses and flip-flops, and winter has already arrived. Or at least the Media and shopkeepers think so. 
The Christmas craziness starts in November every year. It always starts very slowly. - A chocolate Santa here and a cinnamon scented candle there - and then suddenly Christmas is all over the place. 

Consumerism

In Vienna, Christmas is very commercialized.
Right now, media and industry are starting to annoy us with commercials which say that the Christmas season has started and even food shops have started selling lametta and baubles!

Is it me or is it really a little bit too much? Sometimes I get the feeling that the famous ‘Christmas spirit’ is more about us buying and spending money than about love, family and friends.

All the shopping malls have already rolled out the Christmas decoration.
They want people to be stressed, want them to start shopping already and look for presents.
It makes people spend more money, and spending money makes the mall earn more money. This is manipulation of people!

For example, in July I was in the „Interspar“ (a big grocery store in Austria). I just wanted to buy some food when I came to the candy section. I was shocked to see that they already sold gingerbread with Christmas motives. I just tried to ignore it but I had summer holidays and really couldn’t understand why it is necessary to sell them in July!
Whatever, two or three months later I was in a furniture store named „XXXLutz“, we just wanted to look around. As we entered, I suddenly saw a huge Christmas tree and Christmas decoration all around it… I just thought “What the F…??“
I could not believe my eyes! Do oversized Christmas trees need to be part of the decoration in mid-October?
I can’t imagine someone who already buys porcelain snowmen on silver plates in early October…  Are you being serious?? It is October! Who needs this?

Now Christmas is not the same as it once was. It´s not only about spending time with family and friends. It’s more about stress. And starting the Christmas stress at the begging of November? Seriously? Do they want to screw the holidays?

Where is all the magic of Christmas? It’s gone. Why? Because all people want is to earn as much money as possible. That’s sick!

As you can see, we all agreed on Christmas being annoying. But hey, don’t let us ruin your good mood. :)
After all, Christmas is about love, even if it sometimes gets cheesy and corny.

What do you think about this hectic Christmas madness?

Vienna´s cemeteries in autumn

Autumn feeling            
(Adele Kellner, 2013) When the sky is clear, the crows croak like they would be glad that it’s finally autumn,
it is as if they express exactly what you think. It’s warm and you smell the aroma of the dewy leaves which slide down from the tree. You close your eyes, the wind roughs up your hair and you have the feeling like you have no worries anymore, you are free and your mind is clear. It is a feeling for a few seconds, but you will always remember.

It is autumn and we were thinking about things to write, so we went out to take pictures of the nature and the most beautiful cemeteries of Vienna. 

This reminds me of a poem I read ages ago of about autumn being nature´s great painter. The warm colours nicely frame the cold blue of the city.

This view over the citie´s vineyards is simply fascinating!:

Autumn in Vienna- The fashion, Sturm and Maroni!

Today we want to show you some things which are typical for the viennese autumn!

In autumn the Viennese take to the hills (where the wine grows) to taste the freshly fermented grape juice called Sturm “storm” - we know it as Burčák. And the effects are quite stormy – it gives you wind on top of a killer headache the next day.

"Sturm white+ red have arrived!"

Another phenomenon you will see very often are the Maroni.- As soon as the ice cream parlors close and their owners go back to Italy, the Maroni booths appear!

The Maroni stands are on the sidewalks, where not only Maroni (eatable chestnuts) are sold, but also roast potatoes and wedges. The “Maronis” are very tasty and almost everybody likes, eats and buys them.

We also went out to the streets of Vienna to find out what the city wears this year. 

I think it looks quite simple and not overdone...

Scarfs, sweaters, cardigans, jumpers, hats, tights, gloves, and boots – the fall fashion is so colourful! 

Mission Kofola

Kofola for dummies

Coca cola and Pepsi are well known throughout the world. We drink them with our French fries at McDonalds, at the cinema while eating popcorn, at our way to school in the morning when we are in need of some energy or just for the taste. And I’m not even mentioning the rivalry between team Pepsi and team Coca Cola. But what about team Kofola?

Kofola looks and tastes a lot like Coca Cola and Pepsi, so, what’s so special about it?

I would describe the taste as a bit more sweet and honey-like, maybe even spicy and less sparkling. Surprisingly – at least for me – it contains less sugar and a little more caffeine than coca cola. I personally see it (please don’t kill me for saying this) as a cheaper version of the other two and I don’t think it’s as refreshing as they are. On the other hand there are lots of serious Kofola addicts as you will later see in the post.   

Words from the young

I did an interview with two diverse people. The first one was a girl, who was born here and can vote and the second one was a boy, who is from Slovakia but lives in Vienna for 2 years. Both of them have their own political opinion, which is, surprisingly, very similar.

Both of the interviewed are unambiguously for "die Grünen" (the green party), who are for equal opportunities for women, more nature in the cities and for human rights. Interestingly both are unequivocally against the FPÖ (Freedom party). The FPÖ is a party, which (in a nutshell) prefers Austrians; it means this party wants to get rid of all foreigners, especially people, who are not from EU member states.

Post Election Introspection

Recently we had elections in Austria, weeks before the elections, every party tried to convince as many people as possible of their political ideas. As a result there where many billboards, posters and the followers which had to hand out advertising lighters, condoms, magazines, pens, USB-sticks and much more.
So we are once again supplied and just hope that they will be so generous again next year.
However, there are four main parties, the candidates were Eva Glawischnig, who’s my favorite, she belongs to “The green party”, then there is Mr. H.C Strach who’s really the disputed one, he is a rightist, it’s like either you “love” him or you “hate” him. I´d rather not say what’s my opinion to that politician, I don’t really like him. I just don’t understand why the FPÖ- voters just adore him as much as they do, they wear sweatshirts with his name on it… is that normal? Do people in your country do that too?

“Foringers take away our education
               Thaths suckle “

More of that you can find on: http://www.raketa.at/?fp_type=news

Why young people didn’t vote/ Why they are not interested in politics

Mostly young people don’t care about politics. They don’t care about elections or which political party is in charge. Why is it like that?

I also fit into this group, young and not interested. I think it is because while we grow up, we can’t vote, so we aren’t interested in it. It doesn’t affect our life, or not in a way we realize, so why should we be interested?

When we grow older, when we can vote, we have no idea what is going on in politics, and we are probably too lazy to study it. Mostly we are still studying in school or we find a workplace where the boss pays enough for us, but we don’t use the money for saving or so. We usually don’t own a house, we are not married and we don’t have kids, so it still doesn’t affect our lives. Our lives are forming; we have ourselves to deal with. We have to focus on our own lives and understand ourselves. It is too much for us to also think about politics. I think the interest in politics comes with age: the older we are, the more we care.

Elections in Austria:

People who can vote: 6,384.331
People who voted: 4,782.563                                   Percentage: 74,9%
People who didn’t vote: 1,601.768                Percentage: 25,1% 

Pass Egal Wahl

The ‘‘Pass Egal Wahl“ is an opportunity to elect for people living in Austria without a citizenship.

·         Organized by the NGO SOS-Mitmensch

·         Over 600 voters participated

·         In front of the 
Department of the Interior

·         64 % for “die Grünen” (Green Party)

0% for the party „FPÖ“ (Freedom Party)

Source:

http://neuwal.com/index.php/2013/09/24/pass-egal-wahl-passegal/