Annie Leibovitz in Vienna

It’s almost two weeks that we visited the Annie Leibovitz exhibit: A Photographer's Life 1990 – 2005 at the Kunsthaus in Vienna, but work and illness kept me from blogging earlier.

There are lots of portraits of famous people like Robert de Niro, William S. Burroughs, Demi Moore, Mick Jagger and others and a huge bunch of family photos, including some rather touching ones of the mortally ill Susan Sontag, Leibovitz’ companion in life.

My favorite is the photo of Leonardo DiCaprio with a white swan snuggling affectionately around his neck. Very impressing the last photo of John Lennon (taken a few hours before his death), the Sarajewo Cycle, photos of the Bush administration (caused some giggles among visitors), the photo of Queen Elizabeth, and the Obama Family.

And many more,of course.

Berlin Wall on Twitter

Berlin Wall

Happy Halloween...

...to all of you! Hanging around with a "frozen shoulder" is not what I had planned tonight. Or, as John Lennon put it: Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans.

Peace Prize for Claudio Magris

Italian writer Claudio Magris received the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade, one of the most prestigious prizes for literature worldwide.

I’ve mentioned his fantastic book „Danube – A sentimental journey from the source to the Black Sea a few months ago.

In his acceptance speech Magris cautioned against a new populism and new boundaries in Europe which would create „democraties without democracy“. He also observed the sometimes invisible borders between natives and immigrants in the big European cities. „Europe awaits the big and difficult task to keep open towards the new cultures of the new Europeans from all over the world, which could enrich the continent’s diversity“.

He lamened the present weakness and disruption of Europe in addition to complacency and ignorance. “We cradle ourselves in the illusion that we live without war" because Europe's borders are now peaceful and largely open.

The Third War has already happened: about 20 million people dead. after 1945. „War is not only the the massacre in Biafra or 9/11 in New York. War is also murder by the Mafia or the trading with children’s organs.

Cladio Magris also critized the „curtailing of justice“ in his own country.

Here’s more.

Here you can read his essay "The Fair of Tolerance" for which he received the Erasmus Prize in 2001.

Ireland Vote

And now the results:

Yes to Lisbon Treaty: 1214,268 (67,1 %)
No to Lisbon Treaty: 594,606 (32,9 %).

More on RTE.IE.

Looking to Ireland

EuropeWorkers
Originally uploaded by ciarancuffe

Lots of Europeans are awaiting the results of the (second) Irish referendum on the EU’s Lisbon Treaty which took place yesterday.
The treaty can only take effect if all of the 27 EU member states ratify it - and so far, 24 member states have done so. Apart from Ireland only Poland and the Czech Republic could stop the treaty.
An Irish „No“ would damage the EU’s credibility internationally and within the EU, would impede decision-making processes and delay long due institutional reforms.

The „Yes“ Camp in Ireland consists of all the main political parties (apart from Sinn Fein), the governing Fianna Fail and their allies the Greens, Fine Gael (the main opposition party) and the Labour Party. Most of the industry and business associations and trade unions also support the treaty.

The „No“ Camp consists of Sinn Fein, one of the largest unions, Unite, and various citizens’ groups, a lobby group „Farmers for No“, and more.

The official figures for the result of the referendum are expected at approximately 5.30 pm this evening.

The Irish Times has more.

A less Western World

There are two reports made by the European Union's Foresight Expert Group "The World in 2025", and "Rising Asia and Socio-ecological Transition". The experts assessed and measured global trends over recent decades and then developed forward projections and alternative scenarios.

I cannot relate to the research methods of futurology. But I'm sure the findings and opinions of the experts deserve attention, especially as most of their predictions are based on the here and now and could well be influenced by today's policies.

I'm in the middle of the report now.

Some findings:

The center of global activity will be in Asia, especially China. The population of India will approach China's, which will have started to decrease. Europe will place third, the United States fourth. Russia will be knocked out of the top ten because of growing population in Africa and South America. The European population will be older than that of any other country.

If everybody in the world follows the habits of the US population, which has the highest per capita energy, food and water consumption, a dearth of commodities could create a severe world crisis.

The poorest nations would be the main victims. Extending cheap energy, food and clean water supply therefore is a number one priority.

Ageing will challenge intergenerational solidarity due to changes in family patterns (more unmarried cohabitation, later marriage, more divorce, more repartnering, smaller family sizes, later childbearing).

There will be massive migration to the cities (most of the migrants will be "climate refugees") 60 % of the population will live there. This may lead to tensions with the existing population.

Further chapters are on economy, trade, employment (very interesting the chapter on "communicative sharing" - that's what do we here on the blogs, don't we?)

Then there's a chapter on environment and health, climate change and energy. I didn't find anything substantial on renewable energy, especially solar energy!

There are chapters on technology, innovation, research, education, information, entrepreneurship, international financial systems.

Very drastic are the parts on "the transversal threats and challenges".
"All the areas producing energy goods vital for defence and security (including uranium) are becoming major crisis areas: Russia, Middle East, Africa. The challenge for Europe is rather clear: except a genuine energy or technological revolution, Europe will be indeed increasingly dependent on more and more unstable areas (Africa, Middle East, Russia)".

The experts also name "main drivers that could impact the future", those being people and their cognitive abilities, and wildcards that may change the situation radically, such as wars, the first collapse of a third-world big city, and more.

Seal the Deal

It's Global Climate Week. Today is "Green Day" (yes, I wore something green ;-)), tomorrow will be "Go Climate Neutral Day".



Here are some key quotes from the UN Climate Summit.

More information:

The New Scientist on climate change

Galactic

Two French photographers, Serge Brunier and Frédéric Tapissier spent months in the Chilean desert to create this beautiful panorama of the Milky Way.



There's more in WiredScience.

The Father of Bloggers: Michel de Montaigne

I write to keep from going mad from the contradictions I find among mankind - and to work some of those contradictions out for myself.

That's a quote by the French nobleman and writer Michel de Montaigne who died on September 13, 1592.

On February 28, 1571, his 38th birthday, he retired from all public duties, retreated into the tower of his family's castle und began to write. His intention was to spend the second half of his life looking at himself.

The greatest thing in the world is to know how to belong to oneself.

Within the next twenty years he produced his famous "essais", and thus inventend a new literary form. The essays cover a wide range of topics, from theological and philosophical questions to very trivial ones. Titles are "of Age, of Custom, of Vanity, of Glory, of Thumbs, of Repentence", and more.

He left his tower only for a year of traveling to Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Italy, mainly to seek a cure for his kidney disease. He kept a detailed journal recording various episodes and regional differences, which was interesting to read, as I know a lot of the areas he writes about.

Michel de Montaigne died at the age of 59.

I've always found great pleasure in reading Montaignes essays. After more than 400 years, so many of his observations still sound true and timeless.


Montaigne links:

link1.

Youtube-Video on Montaigne.



You can read more than 50 of his essays at the Quotidiana and at the Project Gutenberg.

Montaigne seems to have been well acquainted with cats, too:

When I play with my cat, who knows whether she isn't amusing herself with me more than I am with her?

The Internet Manifesto

15 German journalists and bloggers wrote an Internet Manifesto" on how journalism works today. The reaction was overwhelming: the 17 declarations were discussed worldwide.

Source and more here.

Happy Birthday, Maria Lassnig!

Maria_Lassnig’s_“Iron_Virgin_and_Fleshy_Virgin”
Originally uploaded by KevinB0309

In May I wrote a post about the famous Austrian painter Maria Lassnig.

Today, Maria Lassnig celebrates her 90th birthday.

In an interview with the Austrian daily, derStandard, she said: "The age! In Austria you're labelled by the age as a woman and as an artist. But I've never counted the years. I was never young, and I'm not old now."

Here's an interview by Frieze Magazine from 2006.

Impressions from an Island

We spent 1 day and 1 night on the island of Norderney in Germany, one of the seven East Frisian islands off the North Sea coast of Germany.

It was cold, windy, rainy and sunny all in one and the entire trip was only made to just see and smell the sea.

Smiling or grinning?

Keihin Electric Railway in Japan has introduced a "Smile Scan" system at 14 of its railway stations. The machine takes a picture of their employee's smiles and analyzes it for lip movements, lip curves, wrinkles, and so on, rating it on a 0 to 100 scale. The machine also gives feedbacks, such as "Your smile is getting better" or "Smile like you're happy!"

The system is designed to improve staff's customer response by giving them a more natural smile.

Read the full article here.

I have friends who visited Japan this summer, and they told me the most incredible things about this country. What they found especially remarkable was the politeness and friendliness of employees in public places, such as sales assistants or railway employees. It is, for example, standard for them to greet and take a bow when a entering or leaving a train.

And all this respectful behavior doesn't do? The smiles are not natural enough?

My students who train for sales assistants will laugh about this, when I tell them. Very heartily and naturally. No smiles to the customers if they don't feel like it. Natural smiles very seldom. One of them told me once: I wouldn't insult a customer by smiling artificially.

That's the other extreme.

No chance of implementing those scans in Austria, I'm sure.

God Help The Girl

As is probably known to readers of this blog, I'm a fan of the Scottish indie band Belle & Sebastian. Band founder and leader, lead singer and song-writer Stuart Lee Murdoch of Belle & Sebastian has worked for several years on the soundtrack of a rock musical/movie which might be produced next year.

However, the soundtrack for the musical is ready and the album titled God help the Girl is available.

It consists of 14 pieces, a collection of new songs and old ones of Belle & Sebastian. There are lots of string and brass arrangements (actually a 45-piece orchestra).

Murdoch wanted to craft a set of songs sung by women framed in an orchestral context, and he found real good ones, Catherine Ireton of the Go Away Birds, Brittany Stallings, Anna Miles, and Asya of Smoosh. There's also Neil Hannon of the Divine Comedy.

The arrangements are all rather charming, and very Belle & Sebastian-ish, but a little modified and alienated (not in a bad sense) by those new voices, especially Catherine Ireton's very strong and warm one.

There's an interview with Stuart Lee Murdoch.

Rob Spence of Topsyturvydom alerted me to an interview Stuart had given on BBC, but unfortunately, that's no longer available online.

I only wonder what people, especially those who are not familiar with Belle & Sebastian will make of a soundtrack to a musical without the musical.

My favorites: a) Come Monday Night







and b) Pretty Eve in The Tub, as it's sung by Stuart Murdoch and I like his voice a lot. It has been said it sounds like Chamber Music and I think, that's true. But listen for yourself.

There's a review by Liam McIllvanney in the Guardian "A Story Set to Music".

More links1 (God help the girl - site)
More links2.

The Danube

I strolled along the Danube, the longest river in the European Union (2850 km) today. Well, not all of those kilometres ... It was very hot, the heat softened by a light breeze. Pleasant.

The river originates in Germany's Black Forest, passes through ten countries (Germany, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia, Serbia, Romania, Bulgaria, Moldova and Ukraine).

The Danube basin was the site of some of the earliest human cultures such as the Linear Pottery Culture (5500–4500 BC). The river was part of the Roman empire's Limes Germanicus. The Romans often used the river Danube as a border for their empire.

Here's more on the river.

My favorite Danube books are Claudio Magris'" Danube - A sentimental journey from the source to the Black Sea, a fascinating mixture of history, literature, philosophy and travelogue, and Inge Morath's photo book Danube.



Everybody knows the Waltz The Blue Danube by Johann Strauss II. The Danube is seldom blue, more often greyish or even brownish, by the way.

Here's an interpretation by Faryl Smith, called "The River of Light".



The German poet Friedrich Hoelderlin called the Danube "a refreshing, melodious river, sometimes foaming with high spirits, at other times dreaming serenely.”