Day 241: Pulling a Johann Strauss at the Beautiful Blue Danube

Hello readers! I'm back with many photos and not so much news. Clearly the boom-bust cycle of the Deborah Krieger News is a weekly one.

The main event of the past week was the USTA going-away party, which was held at a pub-restaurant in the 16th district called a Heuriger (hoy-ree-gurr). As a Fulbrighter, I have a little over a month left in the country, but the people who are only teaching assistants leave at the end of May. Still, though, many of the Fulbright combined grantees went if only to spend a little time with the American teaching assistants before they left and to get our very official certificates of completion from the Austrian Educational Ministry. I had not gotten the memo that people would be wearing dirndls (deern-dull), or those traditional Austrian dresses that people wear when singing about lonely goatherds and the like, so I came in a normal dress. I also haven't bought a dirndl and I'm not sure if I will--they seem a little expensive, and I'm fairly certain my Austrian ancestors wouldn't have been permitted to wear them back in the day, so buying one feels a little weird to me. Still, some of them have very pretty patterns, and I figure I can always wear my dirndl back in States...to go grocery shopping, or something? Where does one wear a dirndl in Los Angeles, California?

Very cute restaurant and the grape juice (and wine) was free! 

Here I am, all certified and honored for my incredible teaching.

Last week, my teaching was pretty unremarkable aside from the baseball lesson I prepared and taught several times. Yep, you read that right: I prepared a primer on American baseball for my first-year students (14-15 years old), where I provided them with a basic written and verbal summary of the rules, talked about such classic baseball movies as Moneyball and A League of Their Own, told them about Jackie Robinson, and then showed them a clip of funny baseball bloopers. Anyone who knows me knows that I'm not really the sportiest of people, but I realized at Swarthmore that I probably have fairly decent average knowledge through osmosis, since my family loves sports with enthusiasm bordering on mania. I cannot count the number of times my mother screaming at her football team has given me mini heart palpitations, because I thought she was screaming because something was actually wrong, like she'd dropped glass or something. Baseball I am actually pretty familiar with, since I have seen a bunch of games and baseball movies, so I was able to explain the basic rules without having to do a lot of preparation. Below, a photo of the diagrams I drew on the chalkboard for my students, where I explain basic "moneyball," the layout of a baseball diamond, the significance of Jackie's number 42, and why it's called the "pitcher's mound."

I'd like to see my brother teach a lesson on ballet or the Renaissance now. THE GAUNTLET HAS BEEN THROWN, KRIEGER!

On Saturday, I ducked into an arts and crafts fair on Neubaugasse (noy-bow-gah-suh), then headed over to the Burgtheater (bourg-tay-ah-tur) for a lecture by the artist William Kentridge. I was actually really excited for the lecture, because my favorite piece at the new Broad Museum in Los Angeles was actually an animation video by Kentridge, which I've embedded below. I just really liked how he used the sketchy quality of drawing in the transitions, and so more than the Hirst or Koons, this work at the Broad really has stuck with me since I saw it in March 2016. The lecture was pretty entertaining, and was about his process of creating and coming up with concepts, featuring several recent videos he's done.

The Burgtheater is very fancy and ornate and classically Austrian.

A brief shot of the crafts fair, where I did not buy anything (but I did consider getting one of those dirndls).

During the week I also went to visit the Donauinsel (doh-now-in-zul) for the first time. The Donauinsel is basically a little island in the Danube river where people can frolic and play (or jog, or bike, or swim), and it's easily accessible by the U1. A bunch of Fulbrighters and British teaching assistants went to have a picnic, since one of my roommates is actually going home this month to start an internship program back in the states. Being at the Donauinsel on a beautiful sunny day was one of those moments where Vienna didn't feel quite real, and where I almost felt an irrational anger at having to leave it so soon. It's a city that's clean, easy to navigate, well-maintained, and cared-for in terms of infrastructure, and so thinking about the myriad problems of livability when it comes to cities I love in the US makes me wonder why we can't care for our cities on an institutional like the Austrians do for Vienna.

The train lets you off on this bridge, and I went the wrong way the first time to get to the island proper.

On a nerdy note: the Donauinsel is right by the UN building, so I went to check it out because it was used in Captain America: Civil War (for the record, Team Tony even though I love Cap and Falcon).

Lastly, this past weekend I went back to the Brotfabrik to review a photography show for the Humble Arts Foundation's blog, so that should be published fairly soon. I always love going to the Brotfabrik, and having a mission in mind made walking the several miles there all the easier, though I did cheat and take the train back home. 

It was a really great show--about cults and esoteric groups and pseudoscientific rituals!

On the writing front, I've had a lot of pieces in the pipeline for a few days now, so keep an eye on the published section of my main site: I wrote about Sense8's second season premiere and Riverdale's finale for PopMatters and the movie Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging for BitchFlicks (which have been published already), and I have an artist profile, a writeup on gaucho pants (not kidding), and several book reviews also waiting to be published for various outlets. Exciting times!

Miscellany of the week:

• I always love it when the Vienna public housing buildings have mosaics and murals on them--I wish I could document each one!

Spotted in the 16th.

Spotted in the 16th again!

Love me some bas-reliefs...also in the 16th.

I think this one's in the 10th. I took it on the way to the Brotfabrik...

• This one very modern clothes shop near Treu Bleiben, my weekend brunch spot, had this on the floor. I'm not quite sure what it means, but it's probably art.

The people in the store were just going about business as usual...

Day 214: Back to the States for long enough to mess up my body clock!

Hello dear and loyal readers!

So sorry for the extensive delay in this post--I was doing my usual jet-setting type of thing, naturally, and between the flights, conference-ing, and everything else going on during my trip back to Los Angeles, I didn't have much time to sit at the computer and blog. When I did end up sitting at my computer (or lying on my stomach, as the case usually is), I was furious at work for my next couple of pieces. But I'm getting ahead of myself! Let's begin.

Me at the Melrose Trading Post, sinking into a partially-inflated America. I don't know how to unpack that unintentional metaphor...

So my application to the Popular Culture Associate/American Culture Association National Conference was successful, which meant that I needed to get myself over to San Diego to present my paper on Yu-Gi-Oh! The Abridged Series (nope, not even joking a little. I contain multitudes). My paper, which I wrote for my fan studies class last spring, examines the self-referential nature of the series with regards to its fandom, and how fan interactions become incorporated into the text of the series itself as it continues. (I did it. I managed to write about Yu-Gi-Oh! for academic purposes; I have officially gamed the system and I love media studies, because media studies says these kinds of explorations are worthy of attention and interest.) I was scheduled to present my paper on Friday April 14th, and thanks to a travel grant from the PCA/ACA (for which I applied separately), my plane rides were partially covered.

The first flight was a short one-hour jaunt to Zürich, during which I somehow managed to sleep. The next flight was fifteen hours from Zürich to Los Angeles, during which I slept intermittently and watched some of Westworld, which I'd never gotten into when it aired, but found very fascinating once I got through the first two or so episodes. As you can see in the photo below, I noticed that they used part of the Skirball Center patio as a set in the show, which cracked me up as I used to volunteer there in high school, and I am pretty sure there is no cabana there, as the show portrays it in another appearance.

I've probably stood exactly where these actors are standing and being all cryptic and pseudo-philosophical.

I love the view I get when the plane starts to land over Los Angeles. I always try and spot my house but we don't live close enough to the airport for that to happen.

(Nota bene: don't ever buy Swiss Airlines wifi because even the most expensive package lasts for about twenty minutes of standard email and social media-checking. It's by the megabyte and not by the hour, so it really drains quickly!)

The next two days were a whirl of trying to get on the Los Angeles time zone, as well as eating delicious food and celebrating two Passover seders. My mom and I also went to our favorite Los Angeles flea market, the Melrose Trading Post, and bought a dress, some jewelry, and took the classic sunglasses photos (albeit at the different stand, since the usual stand's owner yelled at us).

I do basically have glasses in this shape, but we didn't want to dawdle at this stand picking other shaped frames.

Rainbow rolls from Ugly Roll Sushi, aka the best sushi I've ever had. It's a little hole in the wall joint, cash only, by my high school, and I swear by it when it's got an A rating (although I don't eat raw fish from places with less than As).

I also made it over to the Third Street Promenade, where I basked in the glow of stores that were open at 8:30 pm on a Sunday evening. (Imagine that, Austria!)

The Santa Monica version of Mariahilferstraße!

I can't wait to show this photo to my students. These are the standard opening hours for the grocery store near me. 

By the time Wednesday rolled around, I was ready to head on down to San Diego for the conference! Unfortunately, Amtrak canceled my train, setting me behind over an hour (and giving me several more gray hairs in the process, no doubt). After waking up before seven in the morning and taking two trains to get to the Amtrak, I was more than a little peeved that they didn't seem to have a contingency plan. They didn't even give us any freebies as an apology! As an American, I demand freebies as an apology! 

I always forget how beautiful Union Station is... and how much I'd like to go back to Olvera Street sometime.

I think I took this as we were pulling into San Diego. New glasses ahoy, because I needed to fix the sat-upon ones back in Los Angeles.

The conference itself was pretty overwhelming at first. Apparently there were something like 3,000 attendees, which certainly is bigger than the other conference I've participated in (the German Conference at Lafayette about a year ago). Still, though, people were really, really friendly, even okay with me slipping into a panel late (quietly, of course), and when it was time on Friday to read my paper and show my slideshow, the attendees were really thoughtful and welcoming to me even as a newbie. Despite my resolve and planning to attend as many panels as I could, I actually spent more time ~networking~ in the Exhibition Hall, where different academic publishers peddled their wares (and in the case of Penguin, offered them for free in exchange for signing up for their email list!). I shouldn't have been surprised that I felt more at home standing around chatting in a room full of books than in a conference hall, even though many of the halls were pretty small, as far as those sorts of things go. I also got to make some great connections with scholars over lunches and dinners, talking about subjects as variable art, what "quality" means, media, superhero media, why Ben Affleck is the best Batman, Judaism, and all that good stuff.

I got one book for free, and managed to restrain myself enough to only buy one book. I'm so proud of myself! Usually I always buy more books than I have time to read...

I also enjoyed walking around San Diego's Gaslamp Quarter. San Diego as a whole actually reminds me a bit of Tel Aviv--at least in terms of the beaches and hotels on the water.

I'm a sucker for this kind of thing, okay? Don't judge me, don't shake your head at me, you know you would park it on Market if you had a car...

Because I am me (what a weird statement. Anyway!), I managed to find a museum to visit even in downtown San Diego (most of the museums are in Balboa Park, away from the downtown area). One of the buildings of the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego is actually located in the San Diego train station complex, literally a few doors down from the station's waiting room. And it was free!!!! It wasn't a super large space (I think the main location down the block is undergoing renovations) but it had both a great exhibition (Dimensions of Black: A Collaboration with the San Diego African American Museum of Fine Art) and a sublime installation (Jennifer Steinkamp: Madame Curie). The third show didn't make much of an impression on me, but overall it was a great way to kill an hour before the museum closed and I went to wait for my train.

Part of the Dimensions of Black show. Really, really ethereal. I also really liked the Carrie Mae Weems photo they had on display (which didn't photograph well).

Inside the installation. I wish I could have just lain down and watched the animations move...

Overall, it was a good visit back home. Of course, now I'm back in Vienna and I'm super jet-lagged...

Miscellany of the week:

• I got to review The Handmaid's Tale for PopMatters. Watch it. That's all I'm gonna say here.
• I took a bunch of photos from the first Seder for my student, who don't really know many (or any) Jews beside me. I hope I get to talk about the holiday and its rituals to at least one of my classes this week!
• Photos of the week:

Here is the cover of a book I wrote about my fish Oberon for a sixth grade Spanish class project.

Even though these drawings are so bad and should never see the light of day, here I am, posting them on this blog. You're welcome, world!

Seder dessert of Passover-kosher shortcake, fresh whipped cream, and strawberries!

This coffee shop near LACMA transformed itself into what is basically Bernieland. I'm not sure if it's even a coffee shop anymore...

Despite my fiercest wishes and strongest efforts, grad school is not happening this fall. So... please hope for me that I get a good job! I've been getting a few emails asking me to come in and interview, only for them to tell me they would want someone to start before I get home. So I guess that's a good sign?

Day 121: Let's have a ball at Blumenball!

Hello readers! A few days late, but here's the newest edition of I On the Arts: European Edition! 

With this week, playtime's officially over! Back to the usual: school, research, writing, and teaching--but this week had a little formal fun thrown in on Friday evening. Getting back into routine is definitely a good thing for me, but I'm still not a fan of waking up before sunrise to get to school, or a fan of the way the sun is just gone again by four in the afternoon. Though, since it's January, the days are apparently going to start getting longer soon, which means that hopefully my sleep cycle won't feel so bizarre.

Teaching this week was pretty normal--I covered a mix of topics depending on which teacher I worked with for any given class period. I talked a little about my own holiday in Berlin, I presented the art scene in Los Angeles and had the students research works in the major L.A. museums, and I also had the kids debate one another about the benefits of vegetarianism versus being an omnivore. (I was assigned to have the kids talk about an environmental topic by the teacher.) Despite the students' reluctance to get up in front of the class to make their points, I think it was good for them to have to argue for a side they didn't necessarily agree with--I didn't ask who was vegetarian among the students until after the debate had concluded. My own debate experience in a formal setting began and ended in seventh grade, where, flustered and unprepared, I stammered out a defense of capital punishment (which I've never been a fan of), much to the consternation of my history teacher (shout out to Bud Pell). But just for the experience of talking in a second or third language in front of the class and having to think quickly to write responses and rebuttals, I think, is good practice for anyone.

Only at art school would the kids be able to build an awesome bench and cushion fort like this in the hallway without it being taken down. It certainly wouldn't have flown at Windward High School, where I recall being scolded for not wearing shoes outside on a nice day and for walking on the "landscape."

On Wednesday night, I surprised exactly no one by going to see Arrival for the third time in theaters. It was just as excellent as the first two times, and it makes me sad that it's not getting much Oscar buzz compared to Gravity or The Martian, because it's definitely better than La La Land (and I love musicals!), which is getting all the love.

On Friday night, the night I had awaited for several weeks arrived: Blumenball (or "flower ball")! A bunch of other Fulbrighters and teaching assistants got all dressed up and made our way over to the Rathaus (raht-howz), or government building, our legs and arms freezing in the cold. As anyone who's known me since infancy can attest, I literally cannot resist an opportunity to put on fancy dresses, so having balls to go to is the perfect enabling mechanism for this wayward behavior. 

Something seems strangely familiar here....

With my three-inch heels I was the tallest by far, even more than I normally am.

This lighting makes the dress look velvety, but it's actually lace over silk. I love this dress because it makes me feel like the princess I already knew I was when I was four.

This is almost too fancy.

Unfortunately, my low tolerance for high heels meant that by the time people were getting out on the dance floor, my feet were going on strike. But it was actually also a lot of fun to just walk around through the ostentatious halls all covered with fresh flowers and see the other ballrooms--there were rooms for waltzing, for salsa, and for other kinds of dance, which was pretty cool. It was another one of those moments where Vienna felt unreal, like a perfectly arranged simulation or dream or Disney locale--because where else would I go to an honest-to-goodness ball? Luckily I get to wear my dress one more time to the TU Ball, which is a formal Fulbright event. And then it shall go in the back of my closet until someone invites me to an awards show or my friends start getting married at black-tie weddings...

Miscellany of the week:

• Spotted on Viennese sidewalks: tiny rocks and lots of dog poop. The rocks are for traction against snow (but they just get inside my shoes), and the poop is... because the Viennese apparently don't think they need to clean it up. Gotta always look down at the ground to make sure you don't step in it! I've been lucky so far, but who knows?
• The dermatologist's office I visited on Wednesday was only accessible by walking through the elevator, which was just weird as heck and felt unnecessarily secretive.
• Of course I binge-watched A Series of Unfortunate Events in less than two days. Reviews are coming out soon, and I already need season 2 yesterday.
• Much to my surprise and what will undoubtedly shock my family, I actually find cleaning up my side of the room to be soothing and satisfying, especially because there is always so much dust to get rid of. I think choosing to clean up rather than being told to is what makes the difference.

I'm forever holding out for a gyro till the morning light...

I have undertaken a quest to find the best bowl of ramen in Vienna. This one was pretty good, but a little too light on the non-broth elements.

Even in the fancy part of town, there's a vape shop whose mascot appears to be a Bitmoji.

I have to wonder if there's a much better Viennese pizza trattoria around the corner to make this one incredibly jealous!

Sadly, there was no Ewan McGregor here to sweep me off my feet.

(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!)