piran café

If you have more than 60 minutes to kill at Wien Südbahnhof between now and 14-Sept, stroll on over the Lower Belvedere to check out Fantastic Realism, a retrospective of a half dozen Austrians who made their mark on the genre.

Adam ‘n Eve, originally uploaded by pirano.

Here’s another pair gripped by Euro2008 fever. Or some sort of fever. Just outside Wien Südbahnhof. A Gadling photo of the day today.

Wien Südbahnhof , originally uploaded by pirano.

This is a detail of this piece by Austrian sculptor Theo Blaickner at the Schillerplatz in Linz, Austria, one of a handful of my personal favorites shots taken in January. I’m not a big fan of guns but like how they look when very rusty. 

The rest of my personal faves, shot in Koper and Ljubljana, Slovenia, Linz, Austria, and Stuttgart are here.

Kleinmunchen
Wienerstrasse 404-408
4030 Linz

Stayed three nights (Jan-2008)

I kept calling this place Le Petit Munchen for no reason besides the odd way that my limited French seems to effortlessly roll off my tongue in German-speaking countries. Weird.

Small room, small bed, small bathroom, basic breakfast. 45 EUR/night ain’t much, but I was expecting something more. Big minus is the distance from the center of Linz, roughly 15 minutes by tram; two lines run from the corner of the hotel, so it’s convenient in that sense. Big plus was free wi-fi in each room.

There’s a restaurant on the premises, basic Germanic fare.

I’m never one to say never, but I shall (probably) not return.

12 days of shooting for Bond 22 is scheduled for Bregenz, Austria, in mid-spring, reports Commanderbond.net, from April 28th to May 10th.

Bregenz, located near the borders with Switzerland and Lietchenstein, is about 550km from Ljubljana, a five hour drive, or about nine by train, via Innsbruck. Nice ride!

bond in Venice, originally uploaded by pirano.

This should please at least some in the on-going “Where are they REALLY from” debate: The AP reports that the 430-year-old school which features Slovenia’s renowned Lipizzaners, is on the verge of bankruptcy after showing a loss of EUR 1.9 million last year. A US tour was canceled, and at least part of a bailout plan includes increasing the number of local shows from 38 to 69 this year.

That’s a bad idea, according to some:

Several unidentified riders told the newspapers Oesterreich and Wiener Zeitung this week they are worried about the welfare of the prized and pampered horses, and that the animals would risk injury if put through too many performances. In the 1980s, some stallions became lame after the number of shows was increased to 70 a year.

A pair of origin debate links: [dr filomena] [carniola].

It hasn’t been a good month for animals in Vienna. A shelter where a chimp, who goes by the name Matthew Hiasl Pan, has lived for 25 years, is going bankrupt, which could leave the primate homeless. The Association Against Animal Factories, an animal rights group in Vienna, tried to have him declared a person so they could gain guardianship.

But in a ruling yesterday, Austria’s Supreme Court said that a chimpanzee cannot be declared a person. Donors have offered to lend support, the AP reports, but under Austrian law, only a person can receive personal gifts.

Next step? The European Court for Human Rights.

lj-2007-01-31, originally uploaded by pirano.

Ibis Linz
Kärntner Strasse 18-20
Linz, Austria

Stayed 1 night, 11-Sep-2007

Ibis standard fare, at 58 EUR/night a decent price, BUT breakfast is not included (9 EUR) and there is NO free wi-fi. The location is great, just a two minute walk from the main station.

I shall (probably/maybe) return.

[A variety of booking links]

Ibis Linz, originally uploaded by pirano.

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That’s how Gary Vaynerchuk, host of Wine Library TV, describes the popular Austrian grape, gruner veltliner. Check out this episode–fairly entertaining and quite informative– where a handful of gruners are tasted, spat and reviewed.

Note to SLO winemakers: This wine got quite a bit of hype last year due primarily to some well-publicised blind tastings, side-by-side with big name chardonnays. Maybe the same can be done with some lesser-known Slovenian varietals?

Spotted this joint while killing time this afternoon near Wien sudbahnhof, just across the street from the Belevedere Palace. Unfortunately, it looks as if it’s been closed a long time. 

VIENNA — Whose horses?

It’s a ongoing point of contention between Slovenia and Austria: “They’re ours,” says Slovenia of the well-known Lipizzaners. “Be gone, knave, they’re ours,” says Austria. (See imperious attitude in poster).

Whichever side of the battle you’re on, the facts are such: the original stud farm is in Lipica (sounds familiar?), a village in eastern western Slovenia’s karst just a few kilometers from the Italian border, but was founded in 1580 by Archduke Karl, son of the Austro-Hungarian Emperor, Ferdinand I, to breed horses for Austrian nobility. Further confusing its ethnic origin — a local Karst horse was bred with Spanish, Arabian and Berber stock back then, creating and eventually unleashing a four-legged mini United Nations on the world.

Here’ the link to the museum in Vienna (no I didn’t go), and here’s the link to the stud farm in Lipica.

VIENNA — Spent much of this afternoon looking at heads in the Austrian capital. Here’s a couple, and a few more on my fledgling flick page.

One of the first steady jobs an old college buddy got straight out of school back in the late 80s was with the Maury Povich Show, somewhat of a precurser to Jerry Springer. (He’s since gone on to much bigger and better things and I doubt he even lists the Povich gig on his resume these days, so, no I’m certainly not going to out him here.)

Anyway, he told me then that most of the correspondence the show received, by far, originated from addresses in Ohio and Florida, the latter presumably by transplanted Ohioans. I’m going to Vienna this week for a few days and was reminded of that little tidbit this morning when googling the Austrian capital, and this popped up, a news story about a New Vienna, Ohio, man who pleaded guilty to aggravated murder after shooting his stepfather who had the nerve to ask for the TV remote control:

Jason Dodds, 24, of New Vienna in southwest Ohio, fired at Kenneth Rosselott six times, hitting him with five of the bullets, said Clinton County assistant prosecutor Rick Moyer during a Friday court hearing.

Moyer said Dodds called 911 at about 1 a.m. Oct. 4 and told a dispatcher that he snapped when his stepfather asked him for the TV remote.

Meanwhile in old Vienna, I’ll fortunately be around to catch “Americans: Masterpieces of American Photography from 1940 until now” at the Kunsthalle Wien before it skips town on 4-Feb. It includes pieces from giants of American photography, including Diane Arbus, Richard Avedon and Robert Frank. From the exhibit description:

“Americans”, named after the legendary publication by Robert Frank, shows, in 13 series of photographic images, the crises and changes in US society since the 1940’s. The photographies have nothing familiar with the ideology of the “Family of Man”, their diagnostic character far more lays open the wounds of this society and inscribes a history of mental revolution. At exactly the point in time when USA’s hegemonic endeavours are coming under critical cross-fire this exhibition is an important contribution to an anti-ideological discourse.

I liked that “anti-ideological discourse” part, particularly since many Americans are under the impression that they shouldn’t be traveling outside their borders while there’s so much anti-American sentiment around the world. It appears though, that that perception is generally an overblown one, at least according to the book, Anti-Americanisms in World Politics. So much so that Dialog International notes that Americans can perhaps stop pretending to be Canadian when traveling abroad.

Good news, no? Nonetheless, I’m happy that I’ll be there and back before Paris Hilton arrives for the 14-Feb. Vienna Opera Ball.

pic is a sculpture in Gothenburg (Goteborg), Sweden taken last August

Yup, as many people already know, it’s a real place, as we were reminded in this boing boing post yesterday, one that spawned a slew of responses listing other towns with such titilating names. According to Snopes, it’s named after Focko Fucking (pron. ‘fooking’) a town resident from the 6th century.

Getting there: If overwhelmed by the desire to get your photo taken next to a Fucking sign, its just to the north of Salzburg, or 308 km from Ljubljana. If you’d rather not rush and take your time on the way to Fucking, try starting in Petting, Germany, about an hour away.

Here’s the Fucking Travel Guide from VirtualTourist, with plenty of Fucking Photos and Fucking Tips from members.

Photo from German Wikipedia.