Day 81: "I Published This Post Before I Realized I Had Forgotten to Title It," a song by Fall Out Boy

Hi readers! Unfortunately this week did not bring much excitement, but I will include photos of the quotidian things I did do--eating and window shopping, for the most part. I am in the process of scheduling another two interviews with artists for my project: a Roma filmmaker named Saša Barbul, and a Jewish filmmaker named Ruth Beckermann, but those aren't completely set in stone time-wise yet. At least they've both agreed to speak with me, so I'm not too worried about being able to meet with them. It might just not be as soon as I'd like, but patience isn't my strong suit!

IT SNOWED!!!

...for like two hours. STILL!!

I also saw two movies during this past week: Divines on Netflix, and Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. Divines I am reviewing for BUST Magazine online, so you'll be able to see it on my main site in a few weeks. I'm not reviewing Fantastic Beasts because most of the issues I have with the plot are pretty spoiler-heavy, and I don't like doing puff pieces or giving spoilers to my readers, especially because the film only came out a few weeks ago. I will say that Fantastic Beasts felt more like a bunch of cool scenes strung together rather than a tightly-written story, and the performances were decent for the most part (Dan Fogler's Jacob Kowalski was a treasure). I don't know if I can take four more of these movies, though...

Speaking of fantastic beasts.... "What are you doing here at my cafe table?!"

Me too, Lia/Leah/Lea (I can't tell with phonetics). Me too.

Lastly, I went to the MUSA gallery, which displays contemporary Austrian art. The current show is a photojournalism exhibition about the relationship between photography and crises, emphasizing the importance of how tragedies on the world scale are documented. I have to say, walking into the gallery space and seeing a massive installation of newspaper front pages from around the world on 9/11 was really startling and horrifying. I was only 6 when it happened, so I don't remember seeing anything on TV. I hadn't ever actually seen footage from that day until my junior year in my "Television and New Media" course, when we had to watch a few clips on YouTube. By far the most affecting clip was one filmed after the first plane but before the second, where you can see the second crash happening in the background in real-time. It honestly looks like the world is ending, and the newspapers all had headlines to this effect, whether they came from Europe or Asia or South America. I don't think the Austrians in the gallery space at the same time naturally have the same relationship to 9/11 that I do, so it was surreal holding back tears of shock while other viewers took in this installation in a more neutral and objective way.

Sunset near my house. Great view, but it's getting cold at this time of day. "Hashbrown, no filter."

Fritz Lang lived here! As a film studies student, this is obviously very important information for me. Even though I've seen only one Lang film (Metropolis, which is admittedly very important in cinema history and also pretty cool in terms of old-school special effects...)

"WHAT DOES THE FOX SAY?"... I'm seriously considering buying this watch for me, and one for my little brother. He won't be reading this here blog, so it's basically a secret as long as none of y'all tell him!

Observations of the week:

• Even though a lot of museums and attractions are free, you still need a Euro coin to lock up your bag in a locker, which is kind of annoying if you end up spending those coins elsewhere. You do get it back at the end, but it's not really "free"...
• I finally caved and got a winter hat. It's a forest green beanie with a fake fur pouf at the top. I chose it not for its style but for its price and convenience. Of course, I hesitated because wearing beanies ruins my bangs and makes me look disheveled, so I'll just carry a comb everywhere, I guess.
• One of my roommates and I went to a feminist bookstore in the first district called "Chick Lit," which was really cool and sold book and other tchotchkes in English as well as in German.

(As always, if you want to express your love for me with material goods, my Amazon wishlist is here, my main site is here, and if you want to see many, many photographs of me and of Vienna, my Instagram is here. Also please send me good vibes so I get into graduate school with a good stipend!)