Day 221: They can't all be peaks

Hello readers!

In contrast to last week's mega-post, not a lot happened this week. Next week will be more exciting to read about because I'll be presenting my research as it stands thus far to my Fulbright compatriots, and I'll get to see what they've been working on as well. I did sit down with Oz Almog for a second meeting--he's always a pleasure to talk to! I'll be following up with the other artists involved in my project before I go, just to get an update on their work--for some of them, it's been six months since we last met in person! (Which seems ridiculous, because how have I been here that long??)

I have a few pieces that are being published or already have been published this week, so keep an eye on that section of my main site. I've got a few books to read for PopMatters, including the newest David Sedaris, an artist profile to write for Whitehot Magazine, and a movie review to finish for Bust. I still get a little thrill every time I see my name in a byline, even though I've been freelancing for years.

Sometimes it's a little difficult to keep consuming media that ends up disappointing me--I start to wonder if watching or reading things I don't like makes me expect to not like the next thing, and so on and so forth. But I can honestly say I haven't read so much for pleasure since high school, even if that pleasure ends with me giving a book a number grade, and it's certainly nice to be able to watch movies and television and justify spending time doing that because it's technically work! And the more television I watch, the better I get at watching television--take that, everyone who says television will kill your brain! It has only made mine stronger.

However, I've also noticed that more and more, I've been delving into these works and trying to disappear into their worlds, like I did when I was a kid. It's becoming increasingly hard to keep up with the new cycle and not feel scared or angry about the country that is my home becoming a place that I don't recognize--a place that doesn't want me to be there and doesn't find me valuable, whether it's because of who I am or the kind of work I want to do. Especially when it comes to reading the David Sedaris--I've been reading his essays for almost ten years, and it's hard not to think about what felt different in 2007-8 when I read him for the first time, and how reading the same writing now makes me feel. I remember laughing, I remember being shocked, I remember where I was when I read a certain story--it's like a time machine, but I don't know if the me that first read David Sedaris could envision the unease and anxiety current me feels.

Photos of the week:

Spotted near my apartment!

"All you should eat"... sounds like both a challenge and a judgment! I'll eat as much as I like!

This giant cup was in an Illy coffee products store (not a cafe), which was far too fancy for me. It was actually a sculpture and not a proper cup.

This was also in the coffee store and was almost a little disturbing. If I want to buy mugs, I don't want them to look like specimens in a lab...

Day 190: Hopefully y'all will still like me when I'm 23...

Hello dear readers! I'm so sorry for the delay in this post--my family was in town, as promised in my last post, and so when I wasn't at work, I was showing them around Vienna, eating lots of delicious food (not on my dime), and celebrating my birthday! (Hence the Blink-182 lyrical reference in the title of this post--not a whole lot of songs about being 23 out there, are there?) 

My brother was here! I missed him for sixth months and then he got annoying after five minutes. So... basically normal!

Mom snuck a paparazzi photo of me and my brother walking along the street. I'm pretty sure we were doing Batman voices when she took this.

Parents got me a great gift from Prague: a golem! My parents were sure I wouldn't know what it was when I fished it out of the bag, but since I'd previously been to a show on the golem mythos in Berlin, I did know what they vaguely looked like. It's such a cute little golem! He lives in my coin purse and protects me.

Once I knew my family was going to be here for my birthday, I immediately took a look at my schedule and made to plan a spectacular, action-filled day--basically, how many museums could I drag my brother to using my birthday as an excuse, and how much food could I shove in my face because birthday calories obviously don't count? Turns out the answer in plenty, though I was a bit disappointed when I began to make the plans because my birthday fell on a Monday this year, when a lot of arts venues in Vienna seem to be closed. So I had to get a little creative in my planning, but I think everyone enjoyed themselves! 

First, we met for brunch at Pure Living Bakery in the seventh district, which I previously been to with my roommates. After everyone's eyes almost fell out with shock at the pure amount of sugar on the menu, we enjoyed our breakfasts of pancakes and yogurt parfaits and bagels and coffees. I'm pretty sure we were the only ones in the restaurant, so we got the VIP treatment. Next we went to the Belvedere Winterpalais in the first district, where we saw "The Vulgar: Fashion Redefined," a pretty wacky and out-there display of fashion inspired by older royal models. My favorite piece was by far the ornate coat from the Viktor and Rolf Autumn/Winter 2016 collection.

My cappuccino (American-style, which means large, naturally) had a cute little face!!!!!

They didn't let us take photos, so I had to write down the info and then do some googling to find the best coat ever.
http://www.vogue.co.uk/shows/autumn-winter-2016-couture/viktor-rolf/

Next we went across the Danube for some Italian food courtesy of Al Pacino Pizzeria, which I really only picked for its location and because it was called Al Pacino. My family loves The Godfather, so I figured they would get a kick out of eating at Al Pacino's. I had some delicious gnocchi with meat sauce, and the rest got pizzas, if I remember correctly. Next it was just back across the river to the Kunst Haus Wien (koonst-howss Veen), which is a museum designed by Friedensreich Hundertwasser (free-denz-ryekh hoon-durt-vah-sur) an artist and architecture with a very unique and idiosyncratic style--the floors were deliberately uneven, and the walls were covered with his paintings and drawings, which made use of a colorful folk-art style. I would include photos, but we weren't allowed to take any (even without flash!), but there are some good photos in the link above.

Waiting for that yummy food... Dad rocking the Northwestern gear for my bro!

Ben was really inspired by the documentary we watched in the museum about how much Friedensreich Hundertwasser really loved water and liked to lie on ice and watch water flow. It was a pretty bizarre documentary and felt like it was hours long, even though it was under thirty minutes. There was also more nudity than I anticipated.

Selfie with the momay with part of the façade of the Kunst Haus.

Then after a good bit of walking, we went back to the seventh district for dinner at 7Stern Bräu (pronounced zee-ben shtairn broy), a nice, typically Austrian-style place. We almost missed our reservation because I accidentally took us inside the wrong restaurant (which had a similar name, I swear!!) and we waited there for a good twenty minutes before I realized my mistake. After dinner we meandered along Mariahilferstraße, where my brother promptly found some gelato, until it was time to go home--I had teaching at nine in the morning the following day.

I had to return some videotapes. Actually, they were DVDs. But still. This is a view from the outside steps of the library near my place!

This random building in the third district had these amazing mosaics. I wish I'd written down the address...

Next to the gelato place was a very fancy water party. That's what this place sells--fancy water. And there was a party. With a bouncer. To stop people from getting into the water party. I just lack the words.

On Wednesday, I dragged my family to the MAK (which I visited in the fall). I wasn't sure how into it my brother and dad would be, but there was enough weird arts and crafts to prevent them from being bored. The design lab hadn't really changed at all since my last visit, but because it has so much material, it definitely didn't feel like I was revisiting the same pieces I'd seen previously. My dad particularly liked one video (by artists called Honey and Bunny) that used all sorts of combinations of location and perspective to play with the idea of how we eat in a very surrealistic way.

This was a pretty cool piece of furniture. It opened like an accordion and was designed to be manipulated into differently-shaped couches!

I think Dad was watching slo-mo video art when I took this.

Here is Mom, helping Ben use a typewriter for the first (and likely only) time in his life...

While saying goodbye was of course not easy, I will be coming back to the States in a few weeks to attend a conference in San Diego, where I'm presenting a paper on (I kid you not) Yu-Gi-Oh! The Abridged Series, where I examine how its medium as a YouTube series allows the creator to engage with fans and remediate these interactions into the ongoing text of the show itself. I'm such a nerd.

Slightly blurry selfie taken last night after dinner!

We are so sad about being separated for another two whole weeks. Look at all those tears. (I will miss him though--I always miss my bro.)

In other news, the last notice came in--looks like I will not be going to graduate school for my PhD this fall. I'm pretty disappointed, but not exactly surprised at this point--it seems as if PhD programs are shifting their gears to admit more students who already have Masters' degrees. I am currently exploring my other options for next year, and trying to keep my head up. I can't help but feel as if I've been dealt a pretty big setback in terms of my career. I don't want the PhD to teach--I want it because it really seems like you need one to be hired as a curator these days. But I just have to keep doing what I always do--keep writing, keep working, keep hustling until something shakes out.

Miscellany of the week(s):

• Got to see both Moonlight, which was amazing and gorgeous, and Beauty and the Beast, which was good in some ways and bad in others. The latter movie had to deal with living up to the cartoon, which was my favorite as a kid. Belle is also my favorite princess, so of course I was going to be picky.

Photo of my Marx Brothers boys at the Burgkino!

... you okay there, chair? You drunk?

• I also squeezed in two interviews for my project: one with the director of a Roma cultural center in Vienna, and another (via Skype) with a Roma director and performance artist based in Vienna (but currently in Berlin). I can't wait for this all to come together!
• My brother just looked like Dopey from Snow White in this picture:

Gee, I wonder where he goes to school?!

• I spotted this dress at Zara today, prompting me to laugh out loud in public.

Austria: "no, we've never watched The Sound of Music--it's such a silly American movie! Why do you ask?"

Me, looking at the above dresses: "... no reason!"

• Jack Wolfskin. He solves tundra crimes. (A new pilot by Deborah Krieger, because the store name "Jack Wolfskin" is definitely also the name of a rugged dude living in Alaska who is also a detective or something. Like a Robert B. Parker novel (RIP). (Coming soon to NBC. Produced by Dick Wolf.)

Day 160: Gotta keep my head up.

Hi readers,

Not a very eventful week-ish since my last missive. I received rejection notices from two more schools, which was not exactly easy to deal with. I still have two programs left to hear from at the time of this writing, but it's very dismaying to not even get interview requests or waitlist offers. But I can't let it get me down--I still conducted an interview this week for my research and have a few pieces in the publishing pipeline, so I am keeping busy outside from my normal teaching work.

On the other hand, someone in my program linked me to this amazing website, which has the power to summon my middle-school self back from the past where she belongs in order to listen to Evanescence mashed up with Kanye West, just because I can!

One of the eight million tee shirts (conservative estimate) I've ordered in the last month arrived! Pretty comfy, great reminder of the event and of the fight ahead, and I love the design. Win-win-win.

This past weekend, I actually made a new friend! (Kind of?) One of the students in my program hosted a little taco-making party at her apartment, and so we all bundled over to her place. One of the other attendees brought a visiting friend from her alma mater who had also studied art history, so after monopolizing his time for a solid hour talking about people we knew in common from his school/my internships, and then I invited myself to his Kunsthistorisches Museum visit the following morning. It's always so great to be able to talk to someone about art who isn't evaluating me for a grade or even competing with me (even though my cohort at Swarthmore didn't have that atmosphere at all). So the next morning, we met at the museum and made lots of educated jokes and intelligent conversation about the Old Masters, which was just a fun way to pass the time. I don't know if I will end up running into him again, but, again, it was just great to be able to talk about art with a colleague with a similar level of knowledge.

Usually museums don't put exclamation points in these notices. They're so contrite! I forgive you!!

This drapery-carving skill is unfair! I almost drooled!! 

Okay, when I saw this Titian from across the room, I did literally feel myself salivate because of how gorgeous the color and texture is. It's like Stendhal Syndrome but... in my mouth...
(https://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8668/16195670507_aac175a653_b.jpg)

I just liked his facial expression. And the fact that his head is all stretched-out like a cartoon. I think if Squidward Tentacles was a man from Ancient Rome, he'd have looked like this.

I also went to see the Lego Batman movie, which I found very cute, if very unnecessary. The original Lego Movie was so good because it used the functionality of Lego toys directly as thematic material: the problems in the movie were solved by manifesting the creativity necessary in building with Lego blocks, whereas Lego Batman is fun, but also just Lego Batman. I did almost cry towards the end, but only because Lego Robin is really, really adorable, and of course the movie provided plenty of laughs at Batman's expense, which is always a smart choice.

Miscellany of the week:

This photo inclusion is not an endorsement of this candidate. I just love that this is a site (and a platform) that exist.

I need to do a special post with all of the funny signs I see around Vienna's shops, because this one was pretty great.

Photo of a photo from the TU Ball. Now I just need to figure out where to wear my dress when I'm back home...

If you've made it far down the post: if you want to express your love for me, skip the books from Amazon and just please send me good vibes so I get into graduate school. I would really appreciate it, because the rejections are not pleasant to receive.

Day 112: Calm before the storm? Calm before the... more calm? Who knows?

Hello readers!

Wow, has it really been a week since I last posted? It feels like it was just yesterday. As a result, I don't really have very much to report compared to my photo- and anecdote-palooza.

On New Years' Eve, I met up with some fellow Fulbrighters and we ate some delicious falafel, then went to go drink some hot punch in the freezing cold. There were lots of little stages set up all over town by drink stands, so we enjoyed some fruity deliciousness in cute little toadstool mugs (that we got to keep because when you buy the drink you give the proprietor a deposit for the mug as well). Unfortunately, I wasn't feeling too good, so I spent the countdown tucked into my nice warm bed rather than with other people. Maybe next year...

I love this mug and I will take care to ship it home in many layers of bubble wrap.

I did not know any of the songs.

On Tuesday, another Fulbrighter and I took the local train to Baden, home of the famous Römertherme baths! For around thirty euro we got to spend the day swimming in the various pools, some of which were outside and had some truly mineral-y sulfur water, and lounging in any of over five different kinds of sauna and steam baths. My favorite pool was the hottest pool, which is actually outside, so it provided a very luxurious contrast between the water and the 20-something degrees Fahrenheit of the air. My favorite sauna was the coolest sauna, which wasn't that cool, but which allowed me to sweat and still breathe comfortably. (I lasted about thirty seconds in the eucalyptus steam room because I thought I wouldn't be able to take in that sweet, sweet oxygen.) They also had a beautiful wood-paneled outdoor sauna, but I didn't stay long because there was a rather inquisitive child in the sauna, which was not really conducive to relaxing.

Yes, that is snow-ish on the ground. It was really cold!

Perhaps the most challenging aspect of the bath day for me on a cultural level was the mandatory sauna nudity. I've been in a sauna once or twice, but it was still a little uncomfortable for me to be naked. It felt like the beginning of those nightmares where you realize that you're naked when you're not supposed to be--I kept grabbing my towel, worrying that someone would see me and inform me that I had wandered into a clothing-mandatory section. Luckily, the spa marked the naked versus the clothed sections of the facility very clearly, so this scenario was confined to my brain.

Look at me, relaxing with my extremely sneezy red nose. All the benefits of lying out by the pool with no chance of sunburn!

If you squint, you can see my reflection as I take this photo!

On Wednesday, I woke up and hiked over to a cafe in the first district, where I conducted my last scheduled interview for the initial stage of my research--I talked with the filmmaker Ruth Beckermann over tea, and we talked about the aesthetics and politics of her films, which I hope to see more of if I can continue to borrow my roommate's laptop (I don't have a dvd player in my computer, and her films are only available to me on dvd from the nearby library). But I'm excited to become an expert in her style and form, as well as her approach to the material, which ranges from her own family, to strike workers, to famous poets of times past.

The last highlight of this gentle week was Friday night, when I waited in the cold (sensing a theme here?) at the Gartenbaukino, where I caught Arrival and Certain Women during the Vienna Film Festival, to see La La Land. Unfortunately, La La Land was not my favorite film of 2016--I had already called that for Arrival, but Damien Chazelle's latest didn't change my mind. It was very beautifully done, and some of the dance sequences were marvelous, but I'm still turning it over in my mind, and I think some aspects of the story and plotting were not as strong as they could be. The performances were great, naturally, except for the singing, which was... adequate. 

People kept talking during the movie, especially the girls next to me who looked to be around my age. I was really annoyed at them.

Random observations of the week:

• I also am finally getting back into yoga, after not doing any since I left LA. I took one class on Friday, which was pretty good, but it's very tough to do yoga in German because your brain is working overtime to listen to the instructor. Although I guess I could just copy the person in front of me, but my ballet training frowns upon that.
• Walking around is still an adventure, because you never know what you'll see on the streets. 



Exhibit A: Time travel!

Exhibit B: I want this scooter!

• I love me some good graphic design. The MuseumsQuartier area near-ish where I live has some great posters--I'm not sure if they're picking a new logo, or just playing with the Q....

(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!)

Day 92: Fulbright! Das Musical

Hello lovely readers! This week was pretty laid-back, but with lots of art thrown in! (Contain your shock.) The weather is turning colder, but not anything Swarthmore winters didn't prepare me for. 

Were you, dear reader, prepared for my sweet bowling attire? I think not.

On Monday, I pulled double art duty: in the afternoon, I interviewed an artist from the anonymous Jewish street art group, the "Yiddish Resistance 3.0," and then made my way to the Austrian Film Museum to catch the first night of its Ruth Beckermann retrospective. The interview was very interesting, but, sadly, I failed to record the conversation properly. It happens to the best of us, apparently, but the artist was very nice about it and is happy to continue to work with me. Ruth Beckermann, a Jewish documentarian based in Vienna, is another artist with whom I'm working on scheduling an interview. The opening film screening was of The Paper Bridge, which was extremely beautiful to watch but lacked subtitles in English or German, so some of the interviews with people speaking in dialects were a bit hard to follow. 

Taken on my way to the Film Museum: this is the opera house, which is very old and fancy (naturally).

On Tuesday, I made my way to the Künstlerhaus at its temporary location in the fifth district, since the main one in the first is undergoing renovations. The Künstlerhaus is a private artists' organization (which reminded me of a lot of the collectives in the 319 building in Philly again). The show I went to see, which I reviewed and should be linked to on my main site within the month, was called romANTIsch? and combined aspects of Romanticism with more contemporary aesthetics and techniques, which was, overall, pretty ingeniously done.

Lots of different artists and choices of medium!

The lighting in the gallery made it a little tricky to take pictures for my review, though...

It is a really great space, and I wish I'd had another hour or so to take it all in.

Wednesday was not quite as exciting as the previous two days. On Thursday, however, I decided to catch an opening night screening of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story at the local English-language movie theater, and I'm very glad I did! The movie was messy, rough, and at the opposite end of the spectrum from the much safer The Force Awakens, and it made some really bold choices (which I will not spoil, of course) that ultimately made me enjoy it more than The Force Awakens. I think Rogue One's being a stand-alone story (and ultimately, kind of working in the vein of fanfiction in how it fills in the narrative gaps between episodes III and IV) gave the filmmakers the opportunity to "take chances, get messy, make mistakes!" (in the immortal words of Ms. Frizzle from the Magic School Bus). 

The excitement was palpable... as was my annoyance when the guy in front of my took a photo of the opening credits on his phone.

This is the second opening-night screening I attended in 2016, the first being Captain America: Civil War. The key, in my mind, is to not have these premieres take place at midnight, but rather at a more reasonable hour, like 9:30 pm.

On Friday I had the opportunity to show off my (nonexistent) filmmaking skills during my workday at the Graphische: in a double period, the kids were split into two groups and they took turns working with me to write and film a commercial. The first group advertised chocolate, while the second advertised a potato. I am still not sure why anyone in the second group was just carrying around a raw potato, but that's art school for ya! It was pretty fun, and kind of surreal being able to film and edit everything on my phone, because technology is weird and amazing. Later, on Friday afternoon, I conducted an interview with the Roma filmmaker Saša Barbul. Lastly, on Friday night, some Fulbrighters and British Council teaching assistants went bowling, which I had not done since probably eighth or ninth grade. I am not very good at bowling, and I am especially not good at bowling with no guardrails. 

This was probably the most "American" thing I've done while here.

Having classics like "Summer of '69" and "Born to be Wild" playing as I attempted to bowl also added to the Americanity of it all.

Stray thoughts of the week:

• Check out my main site for my favorite things of 2016, because when in Austria, why not compile a list of one's favorite things? (Insert groans here.)
• The dentist? Totally not scary, but scarily expensive because apparently dental insurance is not super common here.
• Vienna apparently loves the jukebox musical. Like, more than I anticipated anyone having the ability to love jukebox musicals. I mean, Movin' Out was great (if not totally within the musical genre) but I didn't know people were clamoring for a musical about Falco or Elvis. While walking along one major street on two separate occasions, I spotted at least four advertisements for musicals about famous musical acts, which I have included below for your viewing pleasure.

O, o, o AMADEUS (the only Falco song I know)

Apparently Mamma Mia was not enough for the ABBA fans...

Ditto with Across the Universe...

Is there already an Elvis musical? Or is this the first?

(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!)