Is this the new normal? Attacking people out for an afternoon of fun?
I first saw something about this on the Wiener Alltagspoeten site and then looked for the ORF report (link above). I’ll try to write more about this later, but it is a Tuesday and I do have an appointment with a client shortly.
I did want to put in what the Viennese everyday poet said (photo below), sadly in a very dull translation that doesn’t catch the Viennese tone: When you go to a football match to shoot fireworks at children and to run onto the pitch to pound other people bloody, you’re neither a Rapid fan nor an Austria fan, you’re really just a total idiot.” (Which is putting it mildly if you ask me.)
Mastery. Part of flourishing, according to the positive psychology field. (PERMA for Positive Emotions, Engagement, Positive Relationships, Meaning, and Achievement or mastery)
I love the fact that there is a worldwide competition for the trades. Austria’s gold medalists this year won for flower arranging, tile laying, and work with concrete. The silver medal for painting (e.g., doors) went to a young Austrian woman.
Why am I drawn to writing about this every year? Because I think athletes get too big a share of the glory. Being uniquely good at flower arranging – or building with concrete – is also a wonderful thing and needs to be celebrated more. (I love the Scripps National Spelling Bee, too, for providing celebration of another non-athletic achievement, not to mention often offering an alternative route to a better life for children from disadvantaged backgrounds.)
Additionally, I love seeing young people getting satisfaction out of working with their hands. I may teach at a university (and love academic work myself), but I think far too many students are pushed into it for the prestige. I feel we would all be better off if everyone were encouraged to find what they’re really interested in and were then supported in achieving mastery of it.
Anyway, congratulations to all the competitors at the WorldSkills competition! As the mother of one them said, “In our eyes, they have all already won. To make it to the world championships is such an unbelievable success.”
The Wienfluss (Vienna River) is usually a trickle. It is extraordinary to see it looking like this. Even the extensive construction work done a few years ago to ensure that the underground tracks don’t flood has not been enough. The U4 line is only running from Heiligenstadt to Friedensbrücke at the moment, about a quarter of its usual route. And we are the lucky ones (so far)!
One of my kindest and most faithful readers asked if I had survived the invasion of Swifties. This made me think I should share these posts from the Wiener Alltagspoeten (Vienna’s Everyday Poets).
Wiener Alltagspoeten is a movement, one could almost say, started and run by Andreas Rainer. It comprises a website, Facebook page, and a couple of books. It’s a collection of “seen and heards” from the streets of Vienna.
The two excerpts below come from the Facebook page. In the first one, an older gentleman is saying he doesn’t know who this “Tannor Swift” is, but he finds it utterly ridiculous that some total idiot wants to ruin the day for 200,000 peaceful people. The only thing is that it’s pretty much completely in Viennese dialect (e.g. Vollwappler, versaut, and depatt), which makes it especially memorable.
The second one tells the tale of, again, an older gentleman, this one in the upmarket district, Döbling. He is usually observed driving through his neighborhood playing classical music full volume on his car stereo. After the concert was canceled, he was heard playing Taylor Swift. 😊
I just heard from a colleague who is currently in Vienna with a group of U.S. American students that two of his group were walking around yesterday and ended up chatting with the Austrian president, Alexander van der Bellen. They even got a selfie with him! (With or without his shelter dog I don’t know. )
The last two mornings I got the faintest whiff and thought I was imagining it because it is very early. This morning, it was clear — the linden trees are flowering again and the air is full of the sweet tantalizing scent.
Since I like to check my perceptions, I decided to go back and see if it really is so early or whether I was making that up. Here are the dates of my previous posts about the linden trees:
So, 2014 must have been the last time I watched the Eurovision song contest. I remember Conchita’s win and how fascinating it was. And now Tom Neuwirth is being written up in the NYT.
The Vienna City Marathon (VCM) 2024 has come and gone this sunny and cool day, good for running although perhaps a tad too windy. It seemed a bit uneventful this year.
No course records were broken as two were in 2023, when Samwel Mailu of Kenya very clearly broke the men’s course record and Julia Mayer, in a stunning display of tenacity and speed in the homestretch, broke the Austrian women’s course record by one second.
No pacemakers finished the race without their racers as Timon Theuer’s did in 2022, when Theuer fell at the 32-km mark and bowed out of the race. This year, Theuer was entered for the half marathon.
There were no neck-and-neck finishes, as there were in 2022 when Joyce Chepkirui, defending her title from the year before, just managed to maintain her lead and cross the finish line before Ruth Chebitok.
No one collapsed near the finish line and therefore none of the other runners had to dodge an ambulance on their way to the end of the race as Chepkirui had to when she won on 2021.
None of the winners was disqualified for wearing the wrong shoes, as happened to Derera Hurisa of Ethiopia, heartbreakingly, also in 2021.
So, beautiful weather and clear wins by the leaders: Chala Regasa (ETH), Bernard Muia (KEN), Albert Kangogo (KEN), Mario Bauernfeind (AUT), Nazret Weldu (ERI), Faith Chepkoech (KEN), Rebbeca Tanui (KEN), and Julia Mayer (AUT).
In fact, coming into the homestretch Chala Regusa was so far ahead of the other men the VCM Twitter feed (I refuse to call it “X” and, in fact, only look at it to stay on top of what is happening in the marathon) had a post: Umdrehen muss er sich nicht, der erste Verfolger ist mehr als zwei Minuten hinter ihm. (He doesn’t have look over his shoulder – the nearest competitor is over two minutes behind him.)
In terms of diversity, just two interesting points from the interviews after the race. When Mario Bauernfeind, first Austrian man and on the police force in Vienna, was asked where he would go from here, he said he would have to go home, talk to the people close to him, and figure it out, that his children were getting older and needed more of his time. And Julia Mayer, first Austrian woman, mentioned that she had her period and so was really proud of her body for doing such a good job. To his credit, the ORF interviewer didn’t blink and later said something about how good that she felt free to mention that openly.
Once again, the Kenyan fans were out in force and showed great joy even though the first places were occupied by an Ethiopian (first time for the men since 2015) and an Eritrean (first time for the women ever, if I understood correctly).
After a few days in Baden with a friend, I got back to Vienna Friday evening. A good bit of Saturday was taken up with the usual household tasks, but yesterday evening I went to hear a bluegrass group I’ve known (about) for a long time at a wine bar in Grinzing. Yes, you read that correctly — bluegrass in Grinzing. A friend of mine from West Virginia and I go whenever we can and always leave feeling restored. The band itself has four regular members: one Austrian, one Slovak, one Czech, and, now, one Dutch. Constructive globalization in action. 🙂
As for today, this is the last day the ice-skating rink in front of the Rathaus is open. (Actually it offers two levels — so probably one of the few places you can skate uphill and then down again — and paths through the park so “rinks,” plural, seems more appropriate.) Given that not only the forsythia is out but also the flowering trees, it is probably a good thing that today is that last day.
I hadn’t been yet this season so I went down at 10 a.m. just as they were opening and stayed for about an hour. After that, it got so full(!) it wasn’t as much fun anymore. The photos I took show the general flowering of everything as well as the statues that have been accommodated. Now I feel I need to go down once the rinks have been removed and see who those gentlemen are.
Now I slowly have to get back into a work state of mind. Luckily, I have most of the afternoon to do that. And I’ve had a lovely time so — as the old tenant says in the Gwyneth Paltrow “Emma” — mustn’t grumble.
There is an impromptu memorial to Alexei Navalny right across the street from the Russian embassy.
It is good to have somewhere to go to commemorate him. He was very brave and, apparently, had a sense of humor and seemed to truly want nothing more than a better life for average Russians.
It was a bit scary to go and place a flower there. There were guards prowling about. (Mind you, I get quite unnerved by the Marines guarding the U.S. American embassy, too.) There was no interference, though. I was able to leave my flower (a white rose, for those familiar with the student resistance in Nazi Germany) and look at and read what others had written.
It was a bit scary, yes, but also moving, and I’m glad I went.
ecbinvienna 